September 2, 2001

1 Corinthians 12:12-31

The Headless Body Strikes Again!

1. Introduction

1. Illustration – Twyla Brickman, in Touch magazine, writes, Recently, my daughter complained of a sore throat, swollen glands and general fatigue. As any concerned parent would do, I took her to our family doctor for a checkup. Our physician asked questions, poked and prodded and gave her a blood test. When the results came in, the doctor concluded that Sarah had mononucleosis. Desiring to know more, I researched this sickness with a handy computer encyclopedia. It provided definition while God threw in revelation. Mononucleosis is an acute infectious disease of humans in which the blood and tissues contain an increased number of white blood cells with only one nucleus. Just in case your memory from biology is failing, the white blood cells are the good guys who fight the bad germs in your body. When threatened by an army of disease, the white blood cells should increase rapidly in order to win the battle! The only way these cells can multiply is if their nuclei divide into two. Mononucleosis cripples the cells. Having a single nucleus, they are unable to multiply. [A spiritual cell with only one member] is like a white cell with only one nucleus. Neither can multiply, both will die and the body will suffer exhaustion while trying to do more than it was meant to do. What about your spiritual cell? Is it winning the war by multiplying faster than the enemy's invasion? Is your cell capable of continual reproduction because its nucleus reproduces? The nurse said that the only prescription was lots of rest and good nutrition to give Sarah's body a chance to recover. Fortunately, with your spiritual Body, there is something more you can do than rest. Develop each cell member to its potential with spiritual nutrition. Then, identify, cultivate, equip and release those ready to be interns!
2. Context – Brickman is right. The Body of Christ is meant to be much more than we have allowed it to be. Let’s spend a few minutes this morning talking about what exactly God wants Body of Christ to be.

1. Scripture Passage

1. 1 Corinthians 12:12-31, read from The Message, Eugene Peterson’s contemporary language translation – You can easily enough see how this kind of thing works by looking no further than your own body. Your body has many parts – limbs, organs, cells – but no matter how many parts you can name, you’re still one body. It’s exactly the same with Christ. By means of his one Spirit, we all said goodbye to our partial and piecemeal lives. We each used to independently call our own shots, but then we entered into a large and integrated life in which he has the final say in everything. (This is what we proclaimed in word and action when we were baptized.) Each of us is now a part of his resurrection body, refreshed and sustained at one fountain – his Spirit – where we all come to drink. The old labels we once used to identify ourselves – labels like Jew or Greek, slave or free – are no longer useful. We need something larger, more comprehensive. I want you to think about how all this makes you more significant, not less. A body isn’t just a single part blown up into something huge. It’s all the different-but-similar parts arranged and functioning together. If Foot said, "I’m not elegant like Hand, embellished with rings; I guess I don’t belong to this body," would that make it so? If Ear said, "I’m not beautiful like Eye, limpid and expressive; I don’t deserve a place on the head," would you want to remove it from the body? If the body was all eye, how could it hear? If all ear, how could it smell? As it is, we see that God has carefully placed each part of the body right where he wanted it. But I also want you to think about how this keeps your significance from getting blown up into self-importance. For no matter how significant you are, it is only because of what you are a part of. An enormous eye or a gigantic hand wouldn’t be a body, but a monster. What we have is one body with many parts, each its proper size and in its proper place. No part is important on its own. Can you imagine Eye telling Hand, "Get lost’ I don’t need you"? Or, Head telling Foot, "You’re fired; your job has been phased out"? As a matter of fact, in practice it works the other way – the "lower" the part the more basic, and therefore necessary. You can live without an eye, for instance, but not without a stomach. When it’s a part of your own body you’re concerned with, it makes no difference whether the part is visible or clothed, higher or lower. You give it dignity and honor just as it is, without comparisons. If anything, you have more concern for the lower parts than the higher. If you had to choose, wouldn’t you prefer good digestion to full-bodied hair? The way God designed our bodies is a model for understanding our lives together as a church: every part dependent on every other part, the parts we mention and the parts we don’t, the parts we see and the parts we don’t. If one part hurts, every other part is involved in the hurt, and in the healing. If one part flourishes, every other part enters into the exuberance. You are Christ’s body – that’s who you are! You must never forget this. Only as you accept your part of that body does your "part" mean anything. You’re familiar with some of the parts that God has formed in his church, which is his "body": apostles, prophets, teachers, miracle workers, healers, helpers, organizers, those who pray in tongues. But it’s obvious by now, isn’t it, that Christ’s church is a complete Body and not a gigantic, unidimensional Part? It’s not all Apostle, not all Prophet, not all Miracle Worker, not all Healer, not all Prayer in Tongues, not all Interpreter of Tongues. And yet some of you keep competing for so-called "important" parts. But now I want to lay out a far better way for you.
2. That is a long passage, but Peterson lays things out pretty clearly, doesn’t he? So rather than beating a dead horse let’s spend a few minutes talking about the implications of this passage for ourselves and our church.

1. Implications

1. The first implication we’re going to talk about is this: if we’re all part of the body, then all of us are necessary in order for this church to function the way God intended it to. Not only that, but all of us must use the spiritual gifts God has given us in order for the church to function properly. Remember the definitions of spiritual gifts we talked about last week? A spiritual gift is a manifestation, or a making clear, of the Holy Spirit enabling one to minister to the needs of Christ’s body, the church. A spiritual gift can be a natural talent or ability used by God for His glory for service to the church body. God is the source of spiritual gifts and they are to be used for His service. They are gifts given by the grace of God. They involve a supernatural empowering. If you have received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and you are actively seeking and following Him, then you have at least one spiritual gift. So if you aren’t using your God-given spiritual gifts for God’s glory in His church, then you are living outside the will of God in this area. I’m not trying to shame you or put a guilt trip on you – I’m just telling you what God’s word says. Everybody’s got to use their gifts if we’re going to see lives transformed by the power of the love of God in Christ Jesus. That’s one implication.
2. A second implication is that there is mutual accountability between the parts of the body. Everything any part does or doesn’t do impacts the whole body, either positively or negatively. Our culture tells us that we can do whatever we want – that what we do is our business because it affects nobody else. Our culture is wrong! Paul is telling us that, just as the human body can’t function the way God intended if one part decides not to do what God created it to do, the church body cannot function the way God intended if one person decides not to do what God created him or her to do. It’s that simple. What if one of our kidneys decided to start pumping blood like our heart? Not only wouldn’t it be able to pump blood effectively enough to sustain life, but its own function of filtering the blood of waste would not be done. The level of toxins in the blood would quickly rise enough to cause sickness and eventually death. So when we see someone in the body refusing to do their part, or doing something in such as way as to damage the body, we have the responsibility and duty to the whole body to gently and lovingly confront the person following the guidelines of Matthew 18:15-17. Most of us need a little loving correction from time to time, and Paul is giving us a biblical mandate to hold each other mutually accountable.
3. A third implication of this passage is that it leaves no room for judging or envying another person’s gift. Some giftings require more exposure to be used, like teaching, pastor, apostle, prophecy and music. Some are more in the background, like helps, discernment, service and prayer. Paul is saying that we need to be satisfied with what God has given us. He knows us better than we know ourselves, so He knows best what gifts will fit the way He created us. Wishing we had other gifts or being jealous of another person’s gifts is like telling God we’d like His job. And that is sin. Telling God he wanted God’s job was what got Satan in trouble, and our enemy will do whatever he can to try to foster within us a sense of dissatisfaction of our gifts and an envious attitude toward others. But we also get into trouble when we judge another person’s gifts. I’m not talking about holding someone accountable for using their gifts inappropriately or sinfully. I'm talking about those times when we look at someone and their God-given and appropriately used gifts and say, "We don’t need that gift in our church." Or "why God would ever give that person that gift is beyond me!" Those are sinful attitudes. I know – I’ve had all of the attitudes I’ve been talking about! God gives His gifts for His reasons to the people He chooses, and it’s up to us to help each other determine what our gifts are and how they can best be used in the ministry He’s called us to. If we want to fulfill God’s vision for this church, we all have to use our spiritual gifts responsibly and without judgmental or jealous attitudes in the life of the church for God’s glory, not for ours.
4. Which brings us to the fourth implication: the body exists for God’s glory. We can’t function independently of God, for then our gifts are not true spiritual ones. We aren’t more important than anybody else in the body, for then everyone would be clamoring to be a mouth or an eye or a hand. We don’t use our gifts for our own recognition, for then we steal glory away from God. God is the Head of the Church. We get into a lot of trouble when we forget that. God is the Head of the Church, and who are we to try to tell Him what He should and shouldn’t do with us or with the church? A body without a head is dead. And so is our church body if we don’t follow our Head, our God. God is the Head. We exercise our spiritual gifts for His glory. And when the body functions the way it is created to, then God is glorified. That is why every person on the planet was created – to glorify God. Doesn’t it then follow that our only appropriate act of worship as a body is to glorify God in all we say and do and are? The body exists to glorify God. There is no way around that fact.
5. Illustration – Pastor James Harnish, in his message Joy for the Journey, said, A woman was in my office this week. Together we reflected on what has been happening in the past two years since the day when, in her words, she dragged herself into this church .... She had rebelled against organized religion, and she said she knew she didn't fit in ... perhaps, she said, because of the sweat suit and tennis shoes she wore every Sunday. She was suffering from a debilitating neuromuscular disease. She kept coming back. Then one day she came in to see me. She said in her letter that she was ready for war. I didn't realize that; I thought we were just getting acquainted. She had read my book, Jesus Makes the Difference, and she didn't like some of what she read. She opened the conversation by saying that she didn't see why anybody would have to die to save her. I don't know what she expected. Some preachers would probably have kicked her out of the office or tried to set her straight on the theology of the Atonement. She was surprised when I said, You're in good company. There have been good Christian folks for 2,000 years who have had a hard time understanding what it means to say that Jesus died for us. Let's work on that. We worked on it that day, and at the end of the conversation, I told her we could keep working on it. She got into a Disciple Bible Study. She got involved in the life of the church. She had to remind me of her physical condition. I had almost forgotten it because within six or eight weeks, it was gone. She was healed. No circus-tent miracles; no falling on the floor or jumping up and down. Just real, genuine, wholeness and healing in her body. She said, I think I've figured out what happened. In this church, I received a transfusion of love. She compared it to a blood transfusion which goes into your body and affects every part of your body; she said she felt that the love which surrounded her here affected her whole being. I remembered how she had looked back then. As I looked into her face last week, I was overwhelmed with the beauty in her face, the joy which beamed from her eyes. I asked if I could share this with you, and she said, Yes. In fact, I've been reading Isaiah, and I know what's happened. This church got me onto the highway of God. That’s what the body is supposed to be all about – breathing the life-transforming power of the love of God into those who need it so desperately. When all the parts work together, something wonderful always happens.

1. Conclusion

1. We could spend weeks in this beautiful passage on the body and not completely grasp it. But today we’re dealing with four implications for us today that come out of this passage – that all of us are necessary if we’re going to function as a church the way God intends us to; that there is mutual accountability between the parts of our body; that there is no room for judging or envying another person’s gifts; and that our body exists to glorify God. If we want this church to fulfill her potential in seeing lives transformed by the love of Jesus Christ, we’ve all got to fill our roles as parts of this body. Let’s take a few minutes of quiet and let God the Holy Spirit speak to our hearts about what we’ve learned today.
3. Let’s pray.