Church; Members of a Body ~ 20250216 ~ Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org
02/16 Church; Members of a Body (1 Corinthians 12); Audio available at: http://www.ephraimbible.org/Sermons/20250216_church-body-members.mp3
We are taking a few weeks to look at the church; what, or who is the church? We have seen that the church consists of those who call on the name of the Lord Jesus as sovereign rescuing King; the church is what Jesus promised to build, and it belongs to him. The church is a Holy Spirit created New Covenant community of born again baptized believers; the church universal includes all genuine believers everywhere, throughout history and around the world; local churches are visible local expressions of this broader reality.
The Bible uses metaphors to describe the church; as a family, those adopted by the Father, born into the family by the Holy Spirit, made co-heirs with Christ as brothers and sisters. The church is a flock, wayward wandering sheep now gathered under the Good Shepherd, entrusted to the care of under-shepherds, elders in the church, appointed to watch over the flock. The church is a building, made up of living stones joined together as a holy temple of the Lord, a dwelling place of God by the Spirit.
Membership Misunderstood
1 Corinthians 12:27 tells us
1 Corinthians 12:27 Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.
When we talk about members of the church, don’t think membership in a society or club; just pay your dues and you have exclusive access to all these services, perks and amenities; it’s not an optional voluntary association, like the American Automobile Association;
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How does membership benefit me? And if you pay more for a premium membership, you get access to more perks and privileges.
That’s not the biblical metaphor. Romans and 1 Corinthians and Ephesians and Colossians talk about the church as the body of Christ; that’s the metaphor – we are members, not membership in a social club, but members of a body; a foot, a hand, an eye, an ear. We are likened to body parts of the human anatomy, members of a human body.
Grace-Gifts (1 Corinthians 12)
Paul in 1 Corinthians 12 is addressing the issue of spiritual gifts or ‘grace-gifts’. In chapter 1 he said:
1 Corinthians 1:4 I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, 5 that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge— 6 even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you— 7 so that you are not lacking in any gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Paul is writing to correct a laundry list of issues in this church. In chapters 12-14 he addresses is their misuse of grace-gifts. The Corinthians were all about the gifts, who had the better, more impressive, more important gift. They wrongly assumed that whoever had the most sensational gift was most important, and they used it as grounds for pride.
First of all, Paul reminds them (12:3), the greatest grace-gift of all is the gift of salvation, the Spirit enabled faith to call on Jesus as Lord.
Then he reminds them (12:4-6) that gifts are gifts; they are not deserved. There is variety in the grace-gifts, but they are all given by the Holy Spirit, in service of the Lord Christ, empowered by God the Father .
And (12:7) every grace-gift is a manifestation of the Holy Spirit given for the common good. They are not for selfish use; they are for others. He lists (12:8-10) ‘the utterance of wisdom, ...the utterance of knowledge ...faith ...gifts of healing ...the working of miracles, ...prophecy, ...the ability to distinguish between spirits, ...various kinds of tongues, ...the interpretation of tongues.’ He emphasizes throughout that these are given by one and the same Spirit. And then he reminds them again:
1 Corinthians 12:11 All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.
These are grace gifts, not merit based rewards, given by the will of the Spirit, not because of any human skill or expertise.
One Body; Many Members
To teach the proper use of the gifts, Paul uses the analogy of human anatomy.
1 Corinthians 12:12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body— Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.
The human body is highly complex, made up of many diverse body parts. Any student of anatomy has some idea of the vast diversity and interconnectedness of the human body. The human hand alone consists of 27 bones, 27 joints, 34 muscles, and hundreds of ligaments, not to mention the tendons, nerves and blood vessels. There are 11 major systems of organs in the human body. But they all make up one body. And all the various parts and systems must work together for the body to function properly.
Paul compares the human body to Christ. He says that being immersed in the Spirit immerses us into one body. There is not a Jewish body and a Greek body; there is one body, the body of Christ. There is not a higher class body and a lower class body; there is one body, the body of Christ. Regeneration by the Holy Spirit makes us parts in this one body.
Essential Members
People ask why its important to be a member of a church rather than just attending. Here’s the reality; being a member is not optional, it is essential; it is in essence what you are if you belong to Jesus. To be a believer in Jesus is to be baptized by the Spirit into the one body of Christ. It’s somewhat like baptism, if you have been born anew, baptized by the Spirit, why would you not be baptized in water, the outward visible sign of the inward invisible reality? If you belong to Christ’s one body, how can you not belong to a local visible expression of that one invisible universal body?
Not Dismembered
I don’t know if any of you remember the old TV show ‘The Addams Family’? It was a sit-com about a family of misfits and monsters. There was this Thing – that was its name ‘Thing’; it was a hand that came out of a box. Just a hand walking around on its fingers. The whole point was that that’s absurd – a hand severed from the rest of the body is dead, useless, it can’t function. That’s Paul’s point:
1 Corinthians 12:14 For the body does not consist of one member but of many. 15 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 a part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body.
Members, body parts are parts of the body. The body is made up of the whole. Members belong to the body. A member attempting to detach itself from the body is unnatural and impossible. And there is a God-intended diversity in the members.
Diverse Members
1 Corinthians 12:17 If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? 18 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 19 If all were a single member, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.
The diverse members are meant to complement one another. They have different God-given functions. And they all go together to allow the body to function. Have you ever stopped to marvel at your ability to run up stairs? We have an old house with fairly steep steps. My daily exercise is running back upstairs to get something I forgot. I couldn’t tell you how many stairs there are, I can’t tell you how tall they are. All I can say is that when I need to run up the stairs, somehow all my different systems work in harmony to get me to the top of the stairs. I don’t consciously pause to think about placing a foot deliberately on each step and then forget what I was going up there to get; somehow my eyes are sending messages to my brain which is processing the information and communicating instantaneously to the different muscles in my legs and feet and I end up safely back at the bottom of the stairs, hopefully with whatever I set out to retrieve. Somehow my body can even naturally adjust to a different pitch of stairs. If I try to watch my feet and pay attention to what each part is doing, that’s when I stumble.
Necessary Members
But imagine how difficult it would be if my left foot decided to go on strike. Have you ever been sitting wrong, and your foot goes to sleep? How difficult is it then to try to make it up the stairs?
1 Corinthians 12:21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” 22 On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, 24 which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, 25 that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another.
Unity and Mutual Care
Have you ever got something in your eye? Your eyelids instinctively clamp shut in pain and self-protection. Nothing else matters; everything is on hold, you stumble half-blind to the bathroom mirror and try to get whatever doesn’t belong out of your eye.
1 Corinthians 12:26 If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. 27 Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.
What Kind of Member Are You?
You are the body of Christ. Every believer individually is a member of the body of Christ. The question is, how are you functioning? Do you know your role in the body, what you were made to do? Do you know your place in the interconnected systems that make up the body?
In what ways are you connected with and dependent on the other members of the body? What other members are depending on you? Are you a healthy member, or have you allowed infection or disease to fester and grow? Are you atrophied from inactivity?
Don’t be an appendix; often irritable and inflamed, causes great pain to the rest of the body, better off to just take it out, you don’t really need it anyway; it’s not doing anything beneficial for the body.
What is your attitude toward other members of the body? Is it frustration and irritation because they are not doing their part? Is it arrogance and pride that you are so much more useful a member? Do you tend to isolate, thinking you are better off just doing your own thing?
Maybe you wonder if you really have anything of value to offer. Remember, 1 Corinthians 12:7 says ‘To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good’; It doesn’t say ‘to some’, it says ‘to each’. It is supernatural, a manifestation of the Spirit. And it is for the common good. It is meant to be a gift to others, to build them up.
Here’s a simple test. Look around. What do you notice that isn’t being done that ought to? There’s cobwebs in the corner, that light bulb needs to be changed. Does no one else notice that person is hurting and struggling? Why doesn’t someone reach out and encourage her, pray for him, come alongside and care? What about this opportunity that is not being seized? What about that ministry that is not being done, or not being done well?
How do I respond? Who do I complain to? Who is in charge of getting that done so I can let them know they need to do it? Or maybe I should ask ‘Is that something I can do? Am I able to meet that need?
When I notice something, I need to realize I might be the only one who is noticing that particular need. And that may be God calling me to step up and help to meet that need.
I should always ask; What is my heart and attitude? Am frustrated, irritated, stepping up because no one else will? Because I think I’m the only one who can get the job done right? Am I looking for recognition? Am I willing to humbly serve in love, genuinely seeking to build others up?
Is it my place to do this? I was in a church for a time where I was frustrated because I saw something being done poorly in my opinion, and felt I could do it better. But it was not my place. God was revealing to me my own pride. I had to learn to put to death my flesh, to humble myself and come under, come alongside, to graciously encourage, to pray for, to submit to godly leadership. To wait, to learn, to grow in character, in humility.
The Still More Excellent Way
1 Corinthians 12:28 And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues. 29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? 30 Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? 31 But earnestly desire the higher gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way.
This still more excellent way, as chapter 13 unpacks, is the way of love in the body, love that is slow-to-anger, kind, not jealous or puffed-up, not arrogant or rude, not self-seeking, not irritable, not keeping record of wrongs.
Every follower of Jesus is a member of his body. What kind of a member are you?
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2025.02.16 Sermon Notes
The Church; Members of a Body (1 Corinthians 12)
The church is members in a body;
not membership in a club
1 Corinthians 12-14; Romans 12; Ephesians 4; Colossians 1
The greatest grace-gift is salvation; calling on Jesus as Lord
1 Corinthians 12:3
Every believer is a member of the body of Christ
1 Corinthians 12:11-27
-What kind of member are you?
-What were you made to do?
-In what ways are you connected to other members?
-Are you a healthy member?
-What is your attitude toward other members?
-What do you notice isn’t being done that ought to?
The still more excellent way of love in the body
1 Corinthians 13
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Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org