Manifest: Jesus in His Body (1 Corinthians 12:12-31)

I. The Bride

The Series this Epiphany season is called Manifest. The idea of revealing. In my personal life this concept of Manifest became most real to me on my Wedding Day at a Sky Resort in Granby, CO. To get a little personal, here was my thoughts about that day and what I felt was being revealed or manifested to me...

A. Personal Entry- Married to Grace.

It was fitting to be here on a mountaintop for such a special occasion. I feel that I have journeyed through the valley most of my life. The highs and lows, the ebbs and flows. Most of my journey in valley was driven by my own sin, and some of the journey was due to the sin of others; but nevertheless, the valley looks the same, feels the same, and definitely isn’t as pleasant as this Mountaintop. Here before God and these people I make a covenant to my best friend, and the love of my life. This union is providential. Two different paths, two different life experiences, two different personalities, two different skill sets, come together as one in marriage. Though I have done this before, there is something different and special about this moment. This story of ours could not have been written by anyone else besides God. You see, the life I have lived, the story of my past, would never been satisfactory to anyone. No woman, in sharing with them my past would consider me a viable option for dating let alone marriage, unless God Himself prompted them. Many, although I imagine everyone, would not have written this kind of love story. Yet this type of story God tends to write most often. How the undeserving are given the most cherished and prized gifts. This is more than a story about love, it is a manifestation of grace. When I stand before Melissa, here on this mountaintop, I can only believe that she is the manifestation of God’s grace to me in my life. All the sleepless nights. The tear-filled prayers. The calling out for God to have mercy upon me and show me grace has been answered in a person. As if God has spoken, “Bruce this grace I give you, not that you have earned it, but I gift you- Melissa- out of My Lovingkindness for you. To show my love towards you, that you would follow me, the good and loving Father, all the days of your life.” And so on that mountaintop the manifestation of God’s Grace became my wife!

B. A Personal Letter- Body

This morning we find another personal letter- Paul’s Letter to the Church in Corinth. A group of people, from different walks of life, different life experiences, different skill sets; and how they come together to Manifest the presence of Jesus to the world and to each other. Paul speaks to the Church by painting this picture of how they are a Body. But not just any “Body”, but the very Body of Jesus. By painting this picture, Paul seeks to communicate the Church’s relationship to Jesus, the importance of each of its members, and the church’s significance in the life of the believer.

II. The Body

In order for us to fully understand this analogy of the Body we need to first understand how Jesus views His body...

A. Jesus is incomplete without His Body. [v.12]

1. Jesus is connected to the Body.

1 Corinthians 12:12 NASB95

12 For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ.

2. Jesus is incomplete without the Body.

Ephesians 1:22–23 NASB95

22 And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

3. Jesus’ relationship to His Body.

Ephesians 5:22–32 NASB95

22 Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body. 24 But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything. 25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, 26 so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless. 28 So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; 29 for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, 30 because we are members of His body. 31 For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. 32 This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church.

Paul gives a pretty good survey of the relationship between Jesus and His Body. How Jesus considers Himself incomplete, though He is not incomplete. That Jesus leads the Church like the head of a body. No “body” functions without a head. And How the mystery of two people becoming one is revealed in Christ and His Church.

Now That we understand this analogy and how Christ our King sees its. Paul turns our attention to how this analogy works in and for the Church.

B. The Body is incomplete with out you. [v.14]

1 Corinthians 12:14 NASB95

14 For the body is not one member, but many.

1. Each Member is included- All inclusive. [v.13]

1 Corinthians 12:13 NASB95

13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.

2. Each member has a role [v. 15-17]

1 Corinthians 12:15–17 NASB95

15 If the foot says, “Because I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body,” it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear says, “Because I am not an eye, I am not a part of the body,” it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the sense of smell be?

3. Each member has a purpose [v. 18]

1 Corinthians 12:18 NASB95

18 But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired.

Not only is Christ consider himself incomplete without His body, God has orchestrated it in such a way as the Body considers itself incomplete with you. But Paul doesn’t stop there. This analogy still has something for each member. Paul now turns to how each member should consider themselves incomplete without the Body.

C. You are incomplete without the Body. [v.20]

1 Corinthians 12:20 NASB95

20 But now there are many members, but one body.

1. You need others [v. 21-22]

1 Corinthians 12:21–22 NASB95

21 And the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you”; or again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” 22 On the contrary, it is much truer that the members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary;

2. You need unity and care [v.25-26]

1 Corinthians 12:25–26 NASB95

25 so that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. 26 And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.

3. You need connection to Christ [v.27]

1 Corinthians 12:27 NASB95

27 Now you are Christ’s body, and individually members of it.

4. Others needs you [v. 29-30]

1 Corinthians 12:29–30 NASB95

29 All are not apostles, are they? All are not prophets, are they? All are not teachers, are they? All are not workers of miracles, are they? 30 All do not have gifts of healings, do they? All do not speak with tongues, do they? All do not interpret, do they?

Logical follows: If Christ considers himself incomplete without the Body, if the Body is not able to function without each of it members, then you who believe in Christ, should not consider a life without the Body. Moreover, if the Body of Christ is the manifestation of the presence of Christ for others, it would be true that your connection to Christ and His presence in your life is most felt through His Body.

Consider a car for another analogy: What Paul has told us is that the Church is a like a car. Open Its Hood! Look inside and everything part from windshield wiper fluid, to spark plug, to cylinders are all needed to make the car operational. Now Close the Hood! All the working parts, doing their job, using themselves as they were intended, make the machine a vehicle to carry the presence of Jesus from one place to another. From one person to another. You see Church, we couldn’t function without you, and you would go no where without the Church. That’s what Paul is telling you here.

But not just Paul but John speaks of this as well...

1 John 4:12 (NASB95)

12 No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us.

III. The Benefit

A. Life lived as the Body.

I am probably more wired to look at all the ways something is broken or isn’t doing what it should be. I have given you several examples in my own life and in my relationship with others of the countless diatribes I have preached on how things aren’t doing what they are suppose to. Although I do not think that is wrong or unnecessary there is another side to the story that in this instance may be more encouraging. That is, to paint a picture of what it might look like to live out your life as the Manifestation or Jesus to the world. To put it another way, to share the image of being the body of Jesus and what it might look like it you were committed to it. There are a few things I present to you to consider:

1. The Effect on others.

If you were the manifestation of Jesus in the life of others.

Jesus can use circumstances to work grace into the lives of those who are undeserving. But I believe Jesus would much rather use his own body to manifest grace to others.

The body of Christ can accomplish more than any act passed by congress, any organization seeking to make change, any mandated forced by the president. But the question is why aren’t we living into that power of influence and commitment to change? Are we only content with personal change or should we also believe in community and country change? Are we charged to usher in the Kingdom here on earth as it is in heaven?

2. The Effect on the Church.

If the Body consider itself incomplete without all its members living out their giftedness, what implications would that have?

It would probably result in not being satisfied until all its members are engaged and working together for our common purpose.

3. The Effect on you.

If you considered your own life incomplete without the Body what impact it could have in your life?

In this passage, it is as if God is speaking to us saying,

“This body I give you, not that you have earned it, but it is a gift from My Son to you- out of My Lovingkindness for you. That you would love me and love others as I have loved you, that you would bring my presence into the life of my family and into the lives of those I want to make family.”

Would you consider letting go of lesser things to gain greater things?

Paul gives us an amazing word of encouragement here about your place in this world being Christian. How it is that Christ sees us, how we ought to see each other, and how you should see yourself. All this should instruct our lives in how we live manifesting Jesus to all those we come in contact with. It shapes our understanding about who we are and it drives the actions in our lives. But wait He isn’t done. He has something even more amazing to say to the Church…

1 Corinthians 12:31 (NASB95)

31 … And I show you a still more excellent way.

And this we will look at next week!!!