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All born again believers are part of the body of Christ; their sins are forgiven, they are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and each member of the body has been given a gift by God. We must be diligent not to "body shame" other members because when we do that, we persecute the Lord. Rather, let us encourage one other to good works, rejoicing in their victories as our own, and weeping with one another when someone else is hurt. This is Christ's love on the earth ... welcome to, the church!
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Transcription available below
7.28.24 - No Bodyshaming Allowed
Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai
Outline
I. Introduction
II. Believers are forgiven, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and placed in the body of Christ
A. Baptism is identification with Christ
B. Baptism demonstrates our adoption into God’s family
III. Jesus Christ is the head of the body and bears any ridicule given to any parts of the body
IV. Every part of the Body is Important
A. The Body is Dependent On One Another
B. Deficient members of the body cause others to work harder
V. Public and private members of the body
VI. All Members Work Together so there is no Schism in the Church
A. Be Excited for the honor given to other members
B. The various members of the body take care of each other
C. The main reason why Christians are left on the earth
VII. Closing Prayer
I. Introduction
1 Corinthians Chapter 12.
You ever heard the term body shaming? You ever been body shamed before? Man, when I was a little kid, I had to ride the bus. I don't know if you ever noticed, but my ears stick out a little more than most people's. And I wasn't the first person on the bus.
I was like the fourth person. And the three kids that got on before me were a little older than me, and they were bullies. And they sat in the back seat, and I had to sit in front of them.
They flicked my ear. And I want to tell you, that wasn't so bad, unless it was wintertime. They made fun of it.
Or they'd make fun because, you know, you were big, or they can make fun of you because you're small. That's body shaming. And if we're not careful, because we're told that the church is the body of Christ, we'll do some spiritual body shaming. And that's what he's talking about here.
We need to be careful not to do that. Oh, wait a minute. They got the gift of preaching. Why don't I have that? Or I've only got the gift of helps. And somebody with the gift of preaching goes, “You just do your little work. You know, you're not as good as me.”
And we do that if we're not careful. But as we learn here, the Corinthians are taught, and we're taught, that we all have to rely on each other. Because the word describes the church as the body of Christ, and we're members of that body.
And we need to be careful that we look at everybody as important in the church. Amen? In order to do that, we need to change our outlook by changing our attitude. And as far as I know, in this local assembly, we don't have that problem right now.
And I hope we never do. But we'll look at this anyway, just to be an insurance policy that we follow the word of God. Let's go down through these a few verses at a time.
Look at verse 12. For the body is one, hath many members, and are all members of that one body. Being many are one body, so also is Christ. For by one spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we bond or free, and have been all made to drink into one spirit.
II. Believers are forgiven, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and placed in the body of Christ
Here, we learn that every believer, everyone who has trusted Jesus Christ as their Savior, believed he died, buried, and rose again the third day, had faith in him. By the grace of God, your sins are forgiven.
And at the moment we know that your sins are forgiven, other scripture teaches us that we are immediately indwelt by the Holy Spirit. That's part of what, when it says we're baptized with the Spirit, it doesn't mean water baptism here. This means baptized with the Spirit.
A. Baptism is identification with Christ
That word baptized literally means to be identified with. A few chapters before when he was talking about Moses, how all the people were baptized with Moses, that doesn't mean that they all got water baptism in the Red Sea as they came through. We know they went through on dry land.
What's it mean? They were identified with Moses. Moses had the faith, they trusted Moses, well, at least for a little while, as we found in our studies of Exodus, but they were identified. When we're baptized with the Spirit, the Holy Spirit comes to dwell within us, and we are identified as believers, we are identified as members of the body of Christ.
You know when that changes? Never. Never, because the Holy Spirit won't leave you. You won't lose your salvation.
B. Baptism demonstrates our adoption into God’s family
You've been adopted into the family of God. Now, some of us don't act very well as members of the family of the body, but that doesn't mean we get kicked out of the family. Here, as we're talking about the body, that would be like, you know, if you ever had your hand go to sleep, sometimes, you know, I'll be sitting there, and it'll go, and all of a sudden, I pick it up, and it's like, I can't move it.
What should I do? Oh, it fell asleep. I'll just cut it off. It's no good anymore.
No, it's still my hand. I got to do some things to get some circulation back, but here, we just need to understand that one of the great truths is that, as a believer, we are part of the body of Christ, but here's another great truth.
III. There is One head of the body - Jesus Christ
None of us are the head of the body. That's left to Christ. There are some believers that think suddenly they're the head of the body. No, they're not.
That's never given up to anybody but Jesus Christ. We're other parts, and Galatians 3:27, it says, for as many of you have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, neither bond nor free, there's neither male or female, for we are all one in Christ Jesus.
That's a great truth to get us through the day sometimes. We're one in Christ Jesus. As we look at these verses, we need to remember that because we're one in Christ Jesus, if we start making [fun of] … if I'm part of the body and you're part of the body, but I start making fun of you and what you're doing for Christ, I am making fun of Christ because you're part of his body.
That's why when Jesus came down to Paul on the road to Damascus, he didn't say, why are you doing this to my people? He said, why are you doing this to me? And so we need to be very conscious of what we think and how we judge and how we deal with other believers, because they're part of the body of Christ too. But notice verse 14, for the body is not one member but many. Then he goes on to give us an illustration, verse 15, 16, 17.
IV. Every part of the Body is Important
If the foot shall say, because I'm not the hand, I'm not of the body, is it therefore not of the body? If the ear shall say, because I'm not the eye, I am not of the body, is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? Now I think Paul's getting a little ridiculous in his illustration, but he's trying to make a point. If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? You know what I think of when I think of that? Some of you smell as part of the body. No, not really.
But you know, as we look at this, the point he's trying to make is this, the body is made up of many different members. Your body, think about it, not just the ones you see, but the ones you can't see. We've been praying for our brother [member of our church].
One of the things that's giving him trouble now is his lungs. They keep filling up with liquid. You can't see the lungs, but I want to tell you what, when something starts happening to them, it affects the whole body.
And so even though you may not see a believer, what they do, or you may not understand what they do, or may be smaller than what you're doing, it doesn't mean they're not important. Because just like our human body, every part has a function. Every part.
Sometimes it works, sometimes it don't. As I'm getting older, I find out sometimes parts don't work all the time, or they work a lot slower. But they're still there, and they still function.
A. The Body is Dependent On One Another
But what God wants us to understand is, just like a human body is complex with a lot of different parts, and every part relies on the other part, a spiritual body, the body of Christ, is many parts, and it's complex. And we may not understand it sometimes, but it's his way of saying, we all have to rely on each other. You know, he doesn't talk about the internal parts.
B. Deficient members of the body cause others to work harder
What if your heart suddenly said, I'm tired. I'm going to quit working. None of the other parts are going to be working very long.
So we need to understand that we're made up humanly of different parts, but spiritually, as a church, as the body of Christ, we're made up of different parts. So who gets to choose? Do you get to choose? Well, I want to be a hand. That way everybody sees me.
I want to be a face. No, you can't be that, because Christ is the head. I want to be the feet, always going somewhere for the Lord.
No, we don't get to choose. Look at verse 18, but now hath God set the members, every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him. You don't like where you are.
You need to talk to God about it, because God put you, God gave you the spiritual gift, God gave you the ministry that he's given to you, and you say, well, I'm not sure what that is. You better find out. Why? Because that's your part in the body, and if you're not doing your part, everybody else has to work a little harder.
You know, probably all of us have known somebody or been around somebody who is blind, and especially if they go blind later in life, what happens? Well, once they can't see, then the hearing gets a little better, the smelling gets a little better, the other senses have to work overtime to compensate for the loss of sight, or if you lose a leg, the other leg has to work harder to compensate for the loss of the one, and it's the same way in the spiritual body. If each of us is not doing your part, not doing your ministry, not using your spiritual gift that he talked about in the first part of the chapter, the rest of the body has to work to compensate for that lack, and sometimes it just can't do it. That's why all over the country, we see churches closing down right and left, people leaving, people not doing it.
Why? Because the members of the body are not doing their part, they're not doing what they're designed to do, what God has pleased. You're saying, well, he gave me the spiritual gift of helps, I don't like that. You need to talk to God about it, because he, in his sovereignty, he decided that of all the gifts he had to bestow on you, the best one he had for you was that one.
I mentioned last week, as a teenager, I thought the Lord wanted me to teach, to teach the word of God, either as a pastor or whatever, but I was kind of shy, and I turned my back on it for a while. I can't do that, I don't want to do that, and the Lord put me in a lot of positions when I was in the service to make me do that, to make me realize I can stand in front of people, to make me realize I can talk for him, and it's the same way with you. You have a gift, at least one, that you're part of the body.
God has placed you there as it pleased him. Romans 9:20 says, nay, but oh man, why art thou that replies against God? Shall the thing form say to him that formed it? Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, and of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor? I was going to mention that verse to Peter, so he could pick the song, I am the potter, He is the potter, I am the clay. God decided what gift you have, because he knew that's where you could be the most useful in the body of Christ.
But notice in verse 22, it says, nay, much more those members of the body which seem to be more feeble are necessary, and those members of the body which we think to be less honorable, upon those we bestow more abundant honor, and our comely parts have more abundant comeliness. For our comely parts have no need, but God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honor to that part which lacked, that there should be no schism in the body.
In this section here, what Paul is talking about, he's going back to the fact that we discussed the Lord's Supper not long ago, where when they did the Lord's Supper, you know what they did? They all brought a meal, the rich people were given the best places to sit, they had all the food, the poor people could sit back here and watch the rich people eat.
V. Public and private members of the body
And he's saying, listen, the ones that already have a lot, they're the comely parts, the ones that have the best gifts, the ones that everybody sees. Everybody holds them up and says, oh they're so great, but what about the other parts of the body? He calls them the uncomely parts, the ones that aren't noticeable. Have you ever thought about your big toe? Anybody got a very pretty big toe? I've seen a lot of big toes, one person, I mean, yeah we need to talk about your pride too, you know, but the big toe I found out is, I mean, it's such that we cover it with a sock and cover it with a shoe because we don't want anybody to see it.
And it's there, but you know what happens if you cut off both of your big toes? You lose 90 percent of your balance. You can't hardly walk, you have to learn to walk again, you have to learn to balance again, just because you cut off those ugly big toes. So are they important? Yeah, those would be what we call an uncomely part.
They may not, I mean, we walk on them all the time. Sometimes I feel like I get walked on a lot. But we walk on them and yet they are so important to the rest of the body.
If you got rid of them all of a sudden, the rest of the body would notice. And so when he's talking about the uncomely parts that God's given him more honor, sometimes we discount that. The people who are doing things in the trenches, doing things, we look at them, we go, man, I could never do that.
Well, if they're serving God, God has placed them there. And we shouldn't look down on those kind of jobs, those kind of things. And we talked about a lot of spiritual gifts, but I was looking this week and sometimes some of the gifts are just like helping people out.
Who was it? Dorcas. Remember Dorcas? She was a seamstress. She would make clothes for all the other ladies in town.
And when she died, the apostle came to her and they said, oh, she was a great lady. She helped everybody out. Wait a minute, all she did was sew clothes.
That was a ministry for her. And so she was brought back to life. You don't know what your ministry is, but if it's serving God in the place he wants you to be, if it's doing what God wants you to do for the benefit of others in the church, that is making the body work together.
VI. All Members Work Together so there is no Schism in the Church
Are you doing anything for God? I hope so. And he says the reason we all have to work together is there'll be no schism in the body, divisions. Over and over, Paul just to the Corinthian church had talked several times about the divisions that were in the church.
That always aggravates me when I'm in a church and you start seeing groups of people. I'm happy to say we're not like that. I think we were at one time, but we're not like that now.
In fact, I tell people, you know, God tells us we're to love one another, but we actually like each other, you know, and there's a difference. We care about one another. And that goes on to verse 26, that whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it.
One be honored, all the members rejoice with it. There's no room for pride in the body of Christ. In other words, we always look out and care one for another.
A. Be Excited for the honor given to other members
If part of the body, something happens to them and they're honored, whatever it is, everybody else should be excited for them. And oftentimes what happens is somebody, something great will happen to them, and what we do is we get jealous. Oh no, I wish that happened to me.
Why did it happen to them? Why did it happen to me? Instead of rejoicing with them, God's blessed them with this. God's blessed them with some material goods, or God's blessed them with some health, or God's blessed them in what other way? If we're all part of the body, we should rejoice when others rejoice. It's what Romans 12:15 says, rejoice with them that do rejoice and weep with them that weep.
Sometimes we don't have trouble weeping with those that weep, mourning with those that are having trouble, but rejoicing when somebody else gets something good in their life, we have to be careful that one too, because otherwise jealousy can move in, schisms can move in, and you can imagine if your human body, what if it started, as he mentioned here in the illustration, what if it started reacting differently? Oh wow, you've been on your feet all day and your feet are just killing you, and your hands are like, I'm feeling great. Glad I'm not a foot, “sorry feet!” No, the whole body should be saying, hey, what can we do to help you out, feet? What can we do? Rejoice with those that rejoice and weep for those that weep.
B. The various members of the body take care of each other
We see that, you know, we get one of our members who is ill, and what happens? We all feel bad for him. We call, we're concerned, we ask how they doing. That's the way it should be.
We find out they may have a need, we try to meet that need. That's what a body does, it takes care of itself by taking care of each one individually, and that's what we're trying to learn here. We're the body of Christ, but we're individuals, but we're still part of that body.
We're still expected to look out for each other. From what I see of this group here, we do that, and it blesses my heart to know that we look out for one another. We care for one another, because we have to understand we're the body of Christ, so there shouldn't be any division instead also as the body caring for one another, but we also should be working together to carry out the purpose of God.
C. The main reason why Christians are left on the earth
What's one of the main, in fact not one, what is the main reason Christ left you on earth when you were saved? He shared the gospel. He said, well, wait a minute, it's to worship him. Oh, we'll be doing that for eternity in heaven.
Oh, it's to serve him. We'll be doing that in heaven. There's two things that you can do on earth that you won't do in heaven.
One of them is sin. We don't want you doing that, and the other is - witness to sinners. That's why we're here, but see it's not just my job.
It's not just a few people's job. As the body of Christ, we need to work together to share the good news of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Will we always see results? No, but we can plant a lot of seed, and some of us will water it, some of us will plant it. God will give the increase. I know I don't know about you, but as I look out here, I see a lot of empty seats.
We have plenty of room for people to get saved to come and start worshiping together and serving together. Let's just do it. Let's just be determined, and I know I'm just as guilty as everybody else, because sometimes we get so busy being busy, we forget why God left us here.
Take the opportunity. If you won't have time to talk to somebody, take one of the tracts back there or one of the books of John and Romans or something, and just give it to them. If you know you're going to see them again, say, here.
Here's this little tract, this pamphlet. People don't know what they're called, what they are when you call them tracts anymore. Here's this pamphlet.
I don't have time to talk to you. Why don't you read it? When I see you again, we'll talk about it. What that does is, one, it encourages them to read it, not just toss it in the trash, because they know you're going to ask them the next time you see them, did you read that? And they won't want to lie to you.
So they're going to at least read it once. But it also, next time you see them, you'll have a basis for talking to them about the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, if you have the opportunity to take the time to talk to them, that's even better.
So we look at things happening in our world. We can say the world's coming to a close, coming to an end, the rapture's at any moment. Any moment, yeah, even so, come quickly, Lord.
But we can't be sitting around waiting for the trumpet to sound. We want to try to make the body, I know you look at me and it's going to be kind of funny, we need to make the body as big as we can for when the Lord comes back, amen?
Let's bow our heads for just a moment, shut your eyes, and just think about, what is my function in the body of Christ? First of all, do I know Jesus Christ as my Savior? Am I even in the body of Christ? If you're not, you need to get that settled. You need to have your sins forgiven and know that by the grace of God, they've been forgiven through believing in him.
But for most of us, probably all of us, we know the Lord. We now know that we are in the body of Christ. It is not optional for us, but are you doing your part in the body? If not, now's a good time to go to the Lord in prayer.
You may not know what your part is, pray that he'll show you, and then pray for the wisdom, the guidance, the strength to do what he wants you to do. You can pray to the Lord, you know what you wanted to talk to him about, as I pray now.
VII. Closing Prayer
Heavenly Father. Lord, we thank you for your word.
We thank you, Lord, for teaching us and letting us understand that we're not islands under ourselves. We are part of the body of Christ, and it's pleased you to put us in a position to serve you that would best serve the church. That's what's best for the body.
So help us, Lord. Help us Lord to know what parts you want us to play. Help us to know what you want us to do. Give us the strength, give us the direction, give us the encouragement, Lord, we need to be that part of the body of Christ which we are. To see your chuch grow. To see your body grow, Lord. To see us Lord come closer and closer to you, we ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai
Outline
I. Introduction
II. Believers are forgiven, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and placed in the body of Christ
A. Baptism is identification with Christ
B. Baptism demonstrates our adoption into God’s family
III. Jesus Christ is the head of the body and bears any ridicule given to any parts of the body
IV. Every part of the Body is Important
A. The Body is Dependent On One Another
B. Deficient members of the body cause others to work harder
V. Public and private members of the body
VI. All Members Work Together so there is no Schism in the Church
A. Be Excited for the honor given to other members
B. The various members of the body take care of each other
C. The main reason why Christians are left on the earth
VII. Closing Prayer
I. Introduction
1 Corinthians Chapter 12.
You ever heard the term body shaming? You ever been body shamed before? Man, when I was a little kid, I had to ride the bus. I don't know if you ever noticed, but my ears stick out a little more than most people's. And I wasn't the first person on the bus.
I was like the fourth person. And the three kids that got on before me were a little older than me, and they were bullies. And they sat in the back seat, and I had to sit in front of them.
They flicked my ear. And I want to tell you, that wasn't so bad, unless it was wintertime. They made fun of it.
Or they'd make fun because, you know, you were big, or they can make fun of you because you're small. That's body shaming. And if we're not careful, because we're told that the church is the body of Christ, we'll do some spiritual body shaming. And that's what he's talking about here.
We need to be careful not to do that. Oh, wait a minute. They got the gift of preaching. Why don't I have that? Or I've only got the gift of helps. And somebody with the gift of preaching goes, “You just do your little work. You know, you're not as good as me.”
And we do that if we're not careful. But as we learn here, the Corinthians are taught, and we're taught, that we all have to rely on each other. Because the word describes the church as the body of Christ, and we're members of that body.
And we need to be careful that we look at everybody as important in the church. Amen? In order to do that, we need to change our outlook by changing our attitude. And as far as I know, in this local assembly, we don't have that problem right now.
And I hope we never do. But we'll look at this anyway, just to be an insurance policy that we follow the word of God. Let's go down through these a few verses at a time.
Look at verse 12. For the body is one, hath many members, and are all members of that one body. Being many are one body, so also is Christ. For by one spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we bond or free, and have been all made to drink into one spirit.
II. Believers are forgiven, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and placed in the body of Christ
Here, we learn that every believer, everyone who has trusted Jesus Christ as their Savior, believed he died, buried, and rose again the third day, had faith in him. By the grace of God, your sins are forgiven.
And at the moment we know that your sins are forgiven, other scripture teaches us that we are immediately indwelt by the Holy Spirit. That's part of what, when it says we're baptized with the Spirit, it doesn't mean water baptism here. This means baptized with the Spirit.
A. Baptism is identification with Christ
That word baptized literally means to be identified with. A few chapters before when he was talking about Moses, how all the people were baptized with Moses, that doesn't mean that they all got water baptism in the Red Sea as they came through. We know they went through on dry land.
What's it mean? They were identified with Moses. Moses had the faith, they trusted Moses, well, at least for a little while, as we found in our studies of Exodus, but they were identified. When we're baptized with the Spirit, the Holy Spirit comes to dwell within us, and we are identified as believers, we are identified as members of the body of Christ.
You know when that changes? Never. Never, because the Holy Spirit won't leave you. You won't lose your salvation.
B. Baptism demonstrates our adoption into God’s family
You've been adopted into the family of God. Now, some of us don't act very well as members of the family of the body, but that doesn't mean we get kicked out of the family. Here, as we're talking about the body, that would be like, you know, if you ever had your hand go to sleep, sometimes, you know, I'll be sitting there, and it'll go, and all of a sudden, I pick it up, and it's like, I can't move it.
What should I do? Oh, it fell asleep. I'll just cut it off. It's no good anymore.
No, it's still my hand. I got to do some things to get some circulation back, but here, we just need to understand that one of the great truths is that, as a believer, we are part of the body of Christ, but here's another great truth.
III. There is One head of the body - Jesus Christ
None of us are the head of the body. That's left to Christ. There are some believers that think suddenly they're the head of the body. No, they're not.
That's never given up to anybody but Jesus Christ. We're other parts, and Galatians 3:27, it says, for as many of you have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, neither bond nor free, there's neither male or female, for we are all one in Christ Jesus.
That's a great truth to get us through the day sometimes. We're one in Christ Jesus. As we look at these verses, we need to remember that because we're one in Christ Jesus, if we start making [fun of] … if I'm part of the body and you're part of the body, but I start making fun of you and what you're doing for Christ, I am making fun of Christ because you're part of his body.
That's why when Jesus came down to Paul on the road to Damascus, he didn't say, why are you doing this to my people? He said, why are you doing this to me? And so we need to be very conscious of what we think and how we judge and how we deal with other believers, because they're part of the body of Christ too. But notice verse 14, for the body is not one member but many. Then he goes on to give us an illustration, verse 15, 16, 17.
IV. Every part of the Body is Important
If the foot shall say, because I'm not the hand, I'm not of the body, is it therefore not of the body? If the ear shall say, because I'm not the eye, I am not of the body, is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? Now I think Paul's getting a little ridiculous in his illustration, but he's trying to make a point. If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? You know what I think of when I think of that? Some of you smell as part of the body. No, not really.
But you know, as we look at this, the point he's trying to make is this, the body is made up of many different members. Your body, think about it, not just the ones you see, but the ones you can't see. We've been praying for our brother [member of our church].
One of the things that's giving him trouble now is his lungs. They keep filling up with liquid. You can't see the lungs, but I want to tell you what, when something starts happening to them, it affects the whole body.
And so even though you may not see a believer, what they do, or you may not understand what they do, or may be smaller than what you're doing, it doesn't mean they're not important. Because just like our human body, every part has a function. Every part.
Sometimes it works, sometimes it don't. As I'm getting older, I find out sometimes parts don't work all the time, or they work a lot slower. But they're still there, and they still function.
A. The Body is Dependent On One Another
But what God wants us to understand is, just like a human body is complex with a lot of different parts, and every part relies on the other part, a spiritual body, the body of Christ, is many parts, and it's complex. And we may not understand it sometimes, but it's his way of saying, we all have to rely on each other. You know, he doesn't talk about the internal parts.
B. Deficient members of the body cause others to work harder
What if your heart suddenly said, I'm tired. I'm going to quit working. None of the other parts are going to be working very long.
So we need to understand that we're made up humanly of different parts, but spiritually, as a church, as the body of Christ, we're made up of different parts. So who gets to choose? Do you get to choose? Well, I want to be a hand. That way everybody sees me.
I want to be a face. No, you can't be that, because Christ is the head. I want to be the feet, always going somewhere for the Lord.
No, we don't get to choose. Look at verse 18, but now hath God set the members, every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him. You don't like where you are.
You need to talk to God about it, because God put you, God gave you the spiritual gift, God gave you the ministry that he's given to you, and you say, well, I'm not sure what that is. You better find out. Why? Because that's your part in the body, and if you're not doing your part, everybody else has to work a little harder.
You know, probably all of us have known somebody or been around somebody who is blind, and especially if they go blind later in life, what happens? Well, once they can't see, then the hearing gets a little better, the smelling gets a little better, the other senses have to work overtime to compensate for the loss of sight, or if you lose a leg, the other leg has to work harder to compensate for the loss of the one, and it's the same way in the spiritual body. If each of us is not doing your part, not doing your ministry, not using your spiritual gift that he talked about in the first part of the chapter, the rest of the body has to work to compensate for that lack, and sometimes it just can't do it. That's why all over the country, we see churches closing down right and left, people leaving, people not doing it.
Why? Because the members of the body are not doing their part, they're not doing what they're designed to do, what God has pleased. You're saying, well, he gave me the spiritual gift of helps, I don't like that. You need to talk to God about it, because he, in his sovereignty, he decided that of all the gifts he had to bestow on you, the best one he had for you was that one.
I mentioned last week, as a teenager, I thought the Lord wanted me to teach, to teach the word of God, either as a pastor or whatever, but I was kind of shy, and I turned my back on it for a while. I can't do that, I don't want to do that, and the Lord put me in a lot of positions when I was in the service to make me do that, to make me realize I can stand in front of people, to make me realize I can talk for him, and it's the same way with you. You have a gift, at least one, that you're part of the body.
God has placed you there as it pleased him. Romans 9:20 says, nay, but oh man, why art thou that replies against God? Shall the thing form say to him that formed it? Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, and of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor? I was going to mention that verse to Peter, so he could pick the song, I am the potter, He is the potter, I am the clay. God decided what gift you have, because he knew that's where you could be the most useful in the body of Christ.
But notice in verse 22, it says, nay, much more those members of the body which seem to be more feeble are necessary, and those members of the body which we think to be less honorable, upon those we bestow more abundant honor, and our comely parts have more abundant comeliness. For our comely parts have no need, but God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honor to that part which lacked, that there should be no schism in the body.
In this section here, what Paul is talking about, he's going back to the fact that we discussed the Lord's Supper not long ago, where when they did the Lord's Supper, you know what they did? They all brought a meal, the rich people were given the best places to sit, they had all the food, the poor people could sit back here and watch the rich people eat.
V. Public and private members of the body
And he's saying, listen, the ones that already have a lot, they're the comely parts, the ones that have the best gifts, the ones that everybody sees. Everybody holds them up and says, oh they're so great, but what about the other parts of the body? He calls them the uncomely parts, the ones that aren't noticeable. Have you ever thought about your big toe? Anybody got a very pretty big toe? I've seen a lot of big toes, one person, I mean, yeah we need to talk about your pride too, you know, but the big toe I found out is, I mean, it's such that we cover it with a sock and cover it with a shoe because we don't want anybody to see it.
And it's there, but you know what happens if you cut off both of your big toes? You lose 90 percent of your balance. You can't hardly walk, you have to learn to walk again, you have to learn to balance again, just because you cut off those ugly big toes. So are they important? Yeah, those would be what we call an uncomely part.
They may not, I mean, we walk on them all the time. Sometimes I feel like I get walked on a lot. But we walk on them and yet they are so important to the rest of the body.
If you got rid of them all of a sudden, the rest of the body would notice. And so when he's talking about the uncomely parts that God's given him more honor, sometimes we discount that. The people who are doing things in the trenches, doing things, we look at them, we go, man, I could never do that.
Well, if they're serving God, God has placed them there. And we shouldn't look down on those kind of jobs, those kind of things. And we talked about a lot of spiritual gifts, but I was looking this week and sometimes some of the gifts are just like helping people out.
Who was it? Dorcas. Remember Dorcas? She was a seamstress. She would make clothes for all the other ladies in town.
And when she died, the apostle came to her and they said, oh, she was a great lady. She helped everybody out. Wait a minute, all she did was sew clothes.
That was a ministry for her. And so she was brought back to life. You don't know what your ministry is, but if it's serving God in the place he wants you to be, if it's doing what God wants you to do for the benefit of others in the church, that is making the body work together.
VI. All Members Work Together so there is no Schism in the Church
Are you doing anything for God? I hope so. And he says the reason we all have to work together is there'll be no schism in the body, divisions. Over and over, Paul just to the Corinthian church had talked several times about the divisions that were in the church.
That always aggravates me when I'm in a church and you start seeing groups of people. I'm happy to say we're not like that. I think we were at one time, but we're not like that now.
In fact, I tell people, you know, God tells us we're to love one another, but we actually like each other, you know, and there's a difference. We care about one another. And that goes on to verse 26, that whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it.
One be honored, all the members rejoice with it. There's no room for pride in the body of Christ. In other words, we always look out and care one for another.
A. Be Excited for the honor given to other members
If part of the body, something happens to them and they're honored, whatever it is, everybody else should be excited for them. And oftentimes what happens is somebody, something great will happen to them, and what we do is we get jealous. Oh no, I wish that happened to me.
Why did it happen to them? Why did it happen to me? Instead of rejoicing with them, God's blessed them with this. God's blessed them with some material goods, or God's blessed them with some health, or God's blessed them in what other way? If we're all part of the body, we should rejoice when others rejoice. It's what Romans 12:15 says, rejoice with them that do rejoice and weep with them that weep.
Sometimes we don't have trouble weeping with those that weep, mourning with those that are having trouble, but rejoicing when somebody else gets something good in their life, we have to be careful that one too, because otherwise jealousy can move in, schisms can move in, and you can imagine if your human body, what if it started, as he mentioned here in the illustration, what if it started reacting differently? Oh wow, you've been on your feet all day and your feet are just killing you, and your hands are like, I'm feeling great. Glad I'm not a foot, “sorry feet!” No, the whole body should be saying, hey, what can we do to help you out, feet? What can we do? Rejoice with those that rejoice and weep for those that weep.
B. The various members of the body take care of each other
We see that, you know, we get one of our members who is ill, and what happens? We all feel bad for him. We call, we're concerned, we ask how they doing. That's the way it should be.
We find out they may have a need, we try to meet that need. That's what a body does, it takes care of itself by taking care of each one individually, and that's what we're trying to learn here. We're the body of Christ, but we're individuals, but we're still part of that body.
We're still expected to look out for each other. From what I see of this group here, we do that, and it blesses my heart to know that we look out for one another. We care for one another, because we have to understand we're the body of Christ, so there shouldn't be any division instead also as the body caring for one another, but we also should be working together to carry out the purpose of God.
C. The main reason why Christians are left on the earth
What's one of the main, in fact not one, what is the main reason Christ left you on earth when you were saved? He shared the gospel. He said, well, wait a minute, it's to worship him. Oh, we'll be doing that for eternity in heaven.
Oh, it's to serve him. We'll be doing that in heaven. There's two things that you can do on earth that you won't do in heaven.
One of them is sin. We don't want you doing that, and the other is - witness to sinners. That's why we're here, but see it's not just my job.
It's not just a few people's job. As the body of Christ, we need to work together to share the good news of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Will we always see results? No, but we can plant a lot of seed, and some of us will water it, some of us will plant it. God will give the increase. I know I don't know about you, but as I look out here, I see a lot of empty seats.
We have plenty of room for people to get saved to come and start worshiping together and serving together. Let's just do it. Let's just be determined, and I know I'm just as guilty as everybody else, because sometimes we get so busy being busy, we forget why God left us here.
Take the opportunity. If you won't have time to talk to somebody, take one of the tracts back there or one of the books of John and Romans or something, and just give it to them. If you know you're going to see them again, say, here.
Here's this little tract, this pamphlet. People don't know what they're called, what they are when you call them tracts anymore. Here's this pamphlet.
I don't have time to talk to you. Why don't you read it? When I see you again, we'll talk about it. What that does is, one, it encourages them to read it, not just toss it in the trash, because they know you're going to ask them the next time you see them, did you read that? And they won't want to lie to you.
So they're going to at least read it once. But it also, next time you see them, you'll have a basis for talking to them about the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, if you have the opportunity to take the time to talk to them, that's even better.
So we look at things happening in our world. We can say the world's coming to a close, coming to an end, the rapture's at any moment. Any moment, yeah, even so, come quickly, Lord.
But we can't be sitting around waiting for the trumpet to sound. We want to try to make the body, I know you look at me and it's going to be kind of funny, we need to make the body as big as we can for when the Lord comes back, amen?
Let's bow our heads for just a moment, shut your eyes, and just think about, what is my function in the body of Christ? First of all, do I know Jesus Christ as my Savior? Am I even in the body of Christ? If you're not, you need to get that settled. You need to have your sins forgiven and know that by the grace of God, they've been forgiven through believing in him.
But for most of us, probably all of us, we know the Lord. We now know that we are in the body of Christ. It is not optional for us, but are you doing your part in the body? If not, now's a good time to go to the Lord in prayer.
You may not know what your part is, pray that he'll show you, and then pray for the wisdom, the guidance, the strength to do what he wants you to do. You can pray to the Lord, you know what you wanted to talk to him about, as I pray now.
VII. Closing Prayer
Heavenly Father. Lord, we thank you for your word.
We thank you, Lord, for teaching us and letting us understand that we're not islands under ourselves. We are part of the body of Christ, and it's pleased you to put us in a position to serve you that would best serve the church. That's what's best for the body.
So help us, Lord. Help us Lord to know what parts you want us to play. Help us to know what you want us to do. Give us the strength, give us the direction, give us the encouragement, Lord, we need to be that part of the body of Christ which we are. To see your chuch grow. To see your body grow, Lord. To see us Lord come closer and closer to you, we ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
