The Unity and Diversity of the Body

Transcript

This transcript was generated automatically from the audio and may contain small errors.

I am excited and nervous to be with you guys this morning, but my name is Daniel Oster, and I'm a deacon here at South Burleson Baptist Church. And if you have not seen me preached, it's because I've only done it one other time. So I am doubling my sermon production today by 100%. So we started last week a series in the body, and the body meaning church. Paul uses that description of the body in 1 Corinthians and that's what we're gonna be looking at today. Well last week we talked about this end of chapter 1 about being called. We talked about being called out by God as members of a body and we talked about being called into relationship of Christ and that really pointing to what identity of a church is. And so today we're gonna take a closer look at those people and being us and the people that Paul is writing But to give you some context about who Paul is writing.

So Paul is writing a letter to the Church of Corinth, and that's where we get 1 Corinthians. It's his first letter. So he's writing a letter to this church. And to give you an idea of who he's writing to, I'm gonna give you an illustration using our church, okay? So it would be like if Drew said, hey, I have taught you guys how to do church, well, I'm gonna go and teach some other people. You keep doing church, I'll check in a little bit, okay? Drew leaves and I stand up and I say, whew, I think one thing our church needs is some more potlucks, right? If you're with me and you believe fellowship is from the Lord and you're a good cook, your gifts should be elevated. We need more potlucks, right? Dan Hay says, wait a second, wait a second. We need to make a joyful noise to the Lord. If you know how to play an instrument, you know how to work laser lights or fog machines.

We need your abilities because that is important to our church and you obviously have gifts from the Lord. And David Upchurch says, look, I read about the importance of creation. Our landscape needs to be the best grass and flowers of all burlesons. If you have a green thumb, you obviously have the talents of the Lord and should be elevated, right? And then we start bickering about which is important, right? which talent, which is more important for the gospel, for the Lord, right? Well, that's what's happening with the Church of Corinth. We know from Acts 18 that Paul spent a year and a half ministering to this area of Corinth. And to give you an idea of what that city was like, it was a port city, so there's a lot of commerce going on, but it was really having influenced by Greek philosophy. So which really wanted you to elevate knowledge and self-fulfillment.

And so they had multiple gods. And one was like an example would be the God of Aphrodite who was a God of love. And they built a temporal to her and they had multiple prostitutes in this temple for religious reasons, right? For the God of love. And so I think what's important about that is to know that Paul spent a year and a half converted new believers, sets them up and then leaves, and they have all these cultural pressures just bearing down on them. And so then what happens is they have disagreements, there's division, and Paul is writing this letter to address that division. Let's look here in 1 Corinthians 1, 10, Paul begins his letter by saying, I appeal to you brothers and sisters in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought.

So we see kind of the goal of this letter that Paul is writing. And so today we're going to be in chapter 12. And if you don't have a Bible, there should be one in front of you. And you can grab that. And if you don't have one at home, write your name in it. You can take that home with you. That can be your Bible. We have Bibles. We can replace it. Don't you worry. No one's going to tackle you if you leave with one of our Bibles, I promise. So where we pick up is we have Paul writing a letter that's addressing young believers struggling with problems like immaturity, instability, division, jealousy, envy, immorality, marital difficulties, and misuse of spiritual gifts. doesn't sound like anything that happens in churches today, right? So, you know, this is, it's interesting that this issue is still as strong today as it was then. We see churches splitting all the time, right? This church, I

think, has been through one or two of those in its history. That there is an issue with unity in a church, which begs the question, because most Christians would agree that Jesus came for us, died on the cross for our sins, and rose from the grave, and that is a very strong biblical foundation. So what causes everybody to get mad and split and leave, right? You would think that we should be, this would be easy to do, but it's not. And Paul's writing to that. So let's, we're going to be in chapter 12, starting in verse four through seven. It says, now there are varieties of gifts, but the same spirit and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord and there are varieties of activities but it is the same God who empowers them all to everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good." So we see these contrasting words of varieties and same. So we look at what do we have a

variety of in the church. We have a variety of gifts. Paul was addressing spiritual gifts which they were elevating gifts like speaking in tongues and prophecy and really creating that as kind of this elitist. And if you couldn't do that, you were really insignificant to the church. So that was one reason that division was happened. Your services, this word service in the Bible comes from the same word we get deacon, which means to serve others, right? And then activities and effects. And this is the workings or results of gifts, all which vary. And then it points to the same spirit, the same Lord, the same God. So we have the identity of the Trinity here with all three of the Godheads as one. And then we look at verse seven and it says, to each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. So I think it's important to stop on to each because what it doesn't say is, hey, only

the most important Christians of the church I'm talking to you, right? This is about gifts and your part in the church. It is saying to each, every one, if you're a believer in Christ and you're in church, this message is for you. And it says, is given the manifestation of the spirit for the common good. Now manifestation is a word that means to indicate or identify or to make clear. And so one way to maybe think about this is when you come to a railroad crossing and you start seeing blinking lights and hearing the bells and the arms go down, that is signifying, that's identifying that a train that's coming, right? Well, it would be weird if those lights and those things happened and there was no train, right? There would be no use for them. And what Paul's saying here is that our gifts, our services, what our ministries of the church point to the Spirit, the power of the Spirit of the Lord, right? Without the power of the

Spirit, they're useless. And so, notice that that comes first before the common good. So Paul continues with this idea in verses 12 and 13 of this variety and same he says in verse 12 and 13 says, For just as the body is one and has many members and all the members of the body though many are one so it is with Christ for his one spirit with all baptized into one one body Jews or Greeks slaves or free and we all were made to drink of one spirit. So here we get our metaphor of the body and it refers to the people of the body as members. I think it's important to think that when we think about members, if I was to ask you, hey, where are you a member? A lot of times we would say like Costco, right, or Sam's, the gym, right, maybe of a car club or a country club. And all of those things, you usually have to give some sort of financial, you know, like a fee or some time, and you get these benefits back.

And that is not the type of member that Paul is talking here, even though you see this mentality in our churches, right? If you think about when we talk about members of a church, we now have two categories for members. We have members, and then we have active members, right? That's interesting to me, right? Why should we differentiate between members and active members? It's because of this similar mentality, but that's not what Paul's talking about. He's talking about member of a body. So a member of a body is all the working parts of your body. So unlike if you were to call Costco and say, I want to drop my membership, they probably wouldn't feel much hurt or pain, right? But if you are a member of a body and let's say you are maybe the lungs, and your lungs decide, you know what, I'm not going to participate anymore. Your body is going to feel that that is an important part. And so that's the importance that

Paul's putting on and using the description of a body and its members. And then lastly, in the last verse, he emphasizes the different people involved with Jews, Greeks, slaves, and free. So he's created this immense picture of all this diversity, right, in a church. We have people, we have many people with different abilities, with different personalities, who vote differently, who have different backgrounds, all trying to work as one unified body. So what possibly could go wrong? Well, Paul starts into that in verses 14 and 16. He says, for the body does not consist of one member but of many members. And if the foot should say, because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body that would not make it any less part of the body. If the ears should say, because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body, that would not make it any less part of the body.

This would be like your elbow saying, I am not going to participate today because I'm really not an important part of the body. You're going to recognize and feel that. Really what is happening is Paul is laying out some body pains. This is what this would sound like. This is how to identify those. It would be someone saying that I am not qualified. I do not have a gift to even contribute. My gift is so small and important, it really doesn't matter whether I do that in this church or not. This uncensored slide is a quarterback in the year 2000 who is trying to make it in NFL and what they do to prospects for the NFL, they put them through a thing of combine and put them through all these workouts and they assess them, right? So this guy, he ran the 40-yard dash in 5.28 seconds. It was the slowest time among all quarterbacks, okay? I'm gonna read you the scouting report on him.

Poor build, skinny, lacks great physical stature and strength, lacks a really strong arm, does not throw a really tight spiral. My favorite one, gets knocked down easily, right? So this guy was picked a hundred and ninety-ninth in the 2000 draft and his name is Tom Brady. If you don't know who Tom Brady is, he has been in ten Super Bowls. He's won six of them. We watched him win his sixth one in that fellowship hall this year. He is considered maybe the greatest quarterback of all time unless your name is Lindsey Breaux. So usually, usually what the story goes here is like, look, if you're not qualified, if you just try really hard, right, if you just put in the work. And that's not what Paul's saying. What Paul's saying is, look, if you have this, if you have these feelings, the remedy is you have the power of the Holy Spirit, right? It's not, thank God, it's not based on our own abilities, right, to perform, right? So he's,

we are given the same power that the resurrection power that lives inside of us is the same one that we must rely on. In verse 11 he says, all these are empowered by one in the same spirit, talking about all the gifts, who apportions to each one individually, who he apportions each one individually as he wills. So you're sitting here and you're doing a scouting report of yourself and assessing what your role is in this church. And it sounds like something like, I don't really know a lot about the Bible. I've not been a Christian very long, right? I don't, I was not raised in a Christian family. I've never taken a Bible class. I occasionally swear or maybe you get knocked down easily. All of those things are exactly the type of qualities of somebody who God loves to use. So I would caution you, be careful. The longer the list you tell me on why you should not be part of the part doing something in this church,

I'm going to say you better be careful because you look all throughout the Bible. You got Moses, who was slow to speak, probably had a stutter. God asks him to go to Pharaoh and tell him to let his people go, right? He didn't choose some eloquent, powerful, influential guy. He chose Moses. Take the person who's writing this letter, right? The guy Paul, who persecuted Christians, is now writing a letter to Christians about unifying. That does not make sense, right? That doesn't make sense. And so I would caution you if you don't think that you're qualified because that really means you really are qualified. So the prescription here is to give it a try. What does it look like serving in a church? We have a lot of opportunities to serve anywhere from watching small kids to greeting people that walk in, to landscape work. We got VBS coming up that we're going to need a lot of help with. And so one thing to know is we don't say, hey,

We won't ever say, thank you for your first time volunteering in the nursery. We push you in the room and close the door and say, good luck. That would not, that may happen occasionally, but not your first time at least. We're going to put you with somebody who you can watch, do it, and model it. We're going to train you. BBS, we have BBS training. We're going to teach you. You're going to be put with people who, if you're not confident, who's done this before so that you can watch and model and see it done. And I would just encourage you to just know that it's an opportunity to serve alongside other people with flaws. You may walk in here and look around and think that everybody else around you is perfect and reads their Bible four hours a day and prays three hours a day except you and that is not true. We're all very imperfect sinners. So then we look at Paul, how he now describes

a different body pain in verses 16 through 17 says, if the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? So we see this as an example of maybe something like your eye trying to do everything, trying to smell, trying to taste, trying to walk, it just would look really weird and odd, right? And so the body pain here would be someone who says, I must do it all. You're in church, I must do it all. Like no one else can do what I do. Or maybe you have ownership in it, no one is taking this away from me.

So this is Dan versus Dave. Sorry, obviously I grew up watching sports. You're only gonna get sports illustrations today. This is Dan versus Dave. This was an advertising campaign for the Olympics in 1992. 1992 so these guys were destined to go to the Olympics as decathletes decathletes They they perform attend events rights and are declared the greatest athlete in the world So kind of a unique thing that Reebok dumps like 30 million before they've gone to they haven't gone to the Olympics yet Right, they're gonna they followed them early They started this campaign and you would kind of choose they were putting them against each other in a fun way and you were kind of choosing team day in or day and And so when the Olympics came, when the trials came, there was, it filled up with a bunch of people wearing Dan and Dave's shirts and the trials were happening. Both Dan and Dave were

doing great and the last event was the pole vault. And Dan O'Brien here, he in warm ups, all he had to do to score points was clear bar of 15 feet, nine inches, and he was clearing in warm ups. Well, he decided that he was going to now try to break the world record. So his first jump, they put it up at the world record. He didn't make it. So now he has two two jumps left, he has to get points to go to the Olympics. Well, he misses his second jump. And his last jump, you can just tell all this pressure is mounted on him. He goes, he runs to start his third run, and he stops, and he goes back. And you can just see it. You can see it's wearing on him. And he goes, and he does this pole vault jump, and he misses it. Doesn't go to the Olympics. And so it was this really failure of all this weight on this guy to do all these events and to perform for America on this huge advertising campaign.

I think what's important about that is sometimes you can feel like you have to be a decathlete for our church and do everything. Really what that does is that mounts up all this pressure and expectation on you, that you're putting on yourself, that's really setting up for maybe some hard failure. One thing that I would encourage you to do if that's where you find yourself is to share ministry. It's one thing Drew mentioned earlier. Verse 19 says, Paul says, if all were a single member, where would the body be? And so it's important that you bring people alongside you to see and to walk along what you're doing. And it removes pride and ownership. So the prescription here is to show someone what you do. An example of this, a couple of this would be, one would be just in my family here at our church. For me, was Drew asking me to preach. Anytime Drew's asked me to do something,

my first answer is no. Or I could tell you somebody who's better. Like, have you asked someone so? I mean, have you? But Drew showed me how he prepares for sermons and things like that and just kind of just didn't say, hey, in three weeks, nor did I walk up to Drew and go, look, I am an amazing preacher, right? You need to learn to find, carve out some time, okay? This church is gonna be so blessed to hear what I have to say. I promise you that did not happen.

But the other important side of this, and so the other story would be Candace. I don't know if you know my wife, who we were just saying this morning was like lifting tables over her head. She's incredibly strong. She also helps with mowing and stuff here. When she came and helped, David Upchurch, who's the deacon of buildings and maintenance, he did not point to our real aggressive looking riding lawn mower and say, have fun, go mow the lawn. He showed her how to turn it on. He showed her how to drive it. He watched her do it. And now my wife knows how to work the ride, I don't know how to work the ride. She knows how to work the riding lawn mower here at our church. Why? Because someone brought her in, showed her how to do it. And so think about the ministries that you're in, and just think about, neither Candace and I probably, in those situations, are raising our hand going, look, we need to do what

you're doing. It really took somebody coming to us saying, hey, we think you would be really good at this, right? Those people need to hear that. Like, we think that you, we think you have been gifted in a way, I'd love for you to be a part of, like, what I'm doing. And that instills a lot of encouragement and motivation for people. We may be just on the sidelines waiting for that, waiting for someone to bring them in. So I'd encourage you to look for that among you. So verse 18 says, But as it is God arranged the members of the body, each one of them, as he chose, if all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts yet one body. So, you know, whether you feel, whether you're on the sidelines of serving in the church, questioning your ability, or feeling the burden of just everybody expecting you to do everything, I want to, because we're

talking a lot about actions here, I want to, I want to also encourage everyone to do a self-examination of your heart. Check your heart. And what this, what this, Why this is important, you think we've been going through Luke in our Bible studies at 9 o'clock each morning. We didn't do it. It wasn't there today, but time after time we see interaction with Jesus and the Pharisees. And what is the tension there? If you think about the Pharisees, they're going to church, they're reading their Bible, they're praying, they're tithing, they're doing everything you would say a church person needs to do. But what was his issue? Was there heart? Where was their heart in this? You know, they were doing some other things wrong, but their motivations were wrong. And just like Drew was emphasizing, we want joyful givers. Why? Because that is pointing to your heart.

And that's what the Lord's asking for. He doesn't need these services, these talents that he's given us. He wants to see us utilize them and glorify Him. And so, I just encourage us to evaluate what it is. why you come to church, right? Why do I bring my family here every week? What is my purpose? You know, what are we trying to do as a family together? And one thing that you have to be careful about is my son's favorite place to eat, which I do not like, is CC's, CC's pizza, right? And you walk into CC's pizza and you have a two or three pizzas that you have in mind that you hope that they set out, because they rotate, right? And if they do have that, you are loading up your plate, right? Because you just be paid for it. You're gonna get your money's worth, right? So you're just loading up, right? And you see people walking with pizza plates this high. They don't have your pizza, you're kind of disappointed,

right? You're kind of like, man, I'm gonna have to settle for bacon macaroni or whatever pizza they have. And sometimes that is our mentality is to churches. Like we come to church and we're like, man, I hope, I hope we sing all hymns. I hope we sing all worship. I hope this is happening today. I hope this, and when it's not, we get disappointed. But what would it look if you actually go to church and kind of picture yourself behind that buffet line? We're the ones serving others, right? Where you're trying to feed other people, right? With scripture, with interaction in Bible study, right? And so that's kind of the mentality that I think Paul is encouraging the Corinthians here. So some questions, well, Rick Warren wrote a book a long time ago called The Purpose Driven Life. The very first line in that book, the very first line, says it is not about you. You know, and so like this church isn't about you.

And so, and that is what was causing the vision. And so some questions we can ask ourselves to kind of draw these out because of some like barriers in our approach to when we come to church and what it means to be a member would be like, what are things that I've gotten mad or angry about at church? Like if you walked about that. Like what has made me angry, right? And why? And is that important, right?

What aspirations, like if I could build the perfect church, right, what would that look like and why? Because what's gonna identify is there gonna be some things that come out of there. Like if I start to build the perfect church And I'm like, these lights got to go. That's my first thing. It's probably, I'm probably not looking in the right places, right? And then I think another good question is what is my role at church? What am I doing? How am I contributing to what God has called me to do in his scriptures? And those are some good questions that to work through and to pray for, to pray through and to really kind of just allow the Lord to speak through scripture, read through, just start reading through 1 Corinthians. We're gonna be in it for five or six more weeks. Read what Paul is writing to and the importance of a unified body. Because one thing we have made very clear

is it is diverse. There's a lot of people, there's people with different opinions in you that's going to be in church, right? But where do we find, where are we grounded? We're grounded in the gospel. And so we're working to do this together well. And in verse 26, he says, if one member suffers, all suffer together. If one member is honored, all rejoice together. So we've looked, so we've kind of addressed people who are a part of a church, but there may be people here who are not part of a church. And first know that we would love to have you a part of our church. And hopefully what you've heard today is that our church is made up of imperfect, sinful people trying to work under the gospel to glorify and reflect Christ. We're trying to do that. And we're not going to do it perfectly every time. And you're gonna have people who hurt your feelings, you're gonna have people who disappoint you,

and I'm very welcome to be one of those. But a church united under the love that Christ showed is a sacrificial, selfless love. And if we can be a church that can model that well, the only person that gets praise is God. And I think that is incredibly important. We're gonna have a time of invitation up here after we sing. And if you have questions about what it is to serve at our church, what it is to be a member at our church, Drew will be up here, you can talk to him about it. Paul wrote to the Ephesians as well, and I think he, I really like this because I think it's a really good encouraging word for us this morning. It says in chapter 4, verses 1 through 3, it says, I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace.

And so one of the most important characteristics of a diverse church is unity. And I pray that we are a church that unites to show the love of Christ to others and each other. So let's go ahead and close pray. God you are good and I just I thank you for this church that you've given given to us and what a blessing to spend our family. I pray that we be a church that looks for unity Lord looks for selfless love amongst each other and people even outside these walls. I pray that you show us how we can do that well. I would pray for opportunities to serve and to love on each other, God. I just thank you for just the opportunity to to come together and to have a place where we can do this freely, open up our Bible to sing worship to you, God. Just don't let us take that for granted. In your name I pray. Amen.

Every breath we give every We'll live for you if we Just a name above every other name Just the only one that could ever sing Yeah baby, we'll live for you If we Behold one Like a star in strong We'll sing, ever sing We'll live for you We'll live for you If all is done, we'll build my life in hope There is no decided, open up my eyes and wonder If you're only who you are and you live your heart in need In your love to those only If all is done beside you Open up my eyes in wonder and show me With your heart in the evening In your love to those of your love Mr. Burdie Like a ring of solid dawn, like a law that is testing Like a government of old, your love is enduring Through the winter rain and beyond the horizon With mercy fortunate, faithful you have been Faithful you will be, you pledge yourself to me And that's why I sing your praise will ever be on my lips

Ever be on my lips, your praise will ever be on my lips Ever be on my lips, your praise will ever be on my lips Ever be our violence, your praise, we're Ever be our matters, ever be our minds If you'd father be your thing Your kindness makes us whole You shoulder a weakness When your strength becomes our own You're making me like you You are loving me in wine, bringing beauty from ashes For you will have your bride, free of all her gifts And rid of all her shame, and all by her true name And it's why I sing your praises Ever be our mics, ever be our mics Your Savior, ever be our mics You'll be praised, You'll be praised With angels and saints who sing worthy Are You, Lord? You'll be praised, You'll be praised With angels and saints who sing worthy Are You, Lord? You'll be praised Do you be praised with angels and saints who sing loudly? Are you Lord? Do you be praised?

Do you be praised with angels and saints who sing loudly? Are you Lord? And that's why I sing your praise be on my lips ever be on my lips your praise will ever be on my lips ever be on my lips Ever be on my lips, your praise will ever be on my lips, ever be on my lips I stand the faith and the presence of Jesus the pastor And I wonder how you could love me A silly, silly, dirty thing I'm singing how marvelous, how wonderful And my song shall ever be My marvelous, wonderful is my Savior's love Who made me, took my sins and my sorrows He made them His very young He poured the burden to God I'm free and suffered and died alone I'm flaking high and I'm marvelous There'll never be high and I'm marvelous Water's blowing as I say you're not Only the sun and the flash shall see my joy through the ages To think of His love for me I'm feeling high, oh my, the golden golden sun and the moon

There'll never be a marvelous, marvelous, marvelous, my Savior's love for all of me. How marvelous, how shall ever be a marvelous, how marvelous, marvelous, my Savior's love for all of me. Savior's love for me is my Savior's love for me.