The Fully Functioning Body

thinking of a very special occasion
in the life of our church, Cornerstone had just hosted us
for 14 years. And in God’s providence, the
Lord closed down their church, and the last day, we just asked
if we could come in at the end of the service, and we lined
this sanctuary and saying the church is one foundation. And
so what a privilege we have to walk in Christ and what an amazing thing the church
is. If you would, please take your
Bibles and turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 12. I have observed a strange tendency
in our day. And I’ve seen it with increasing
regularity. It’s this, I’ve noticed that
most people expend a great deal of time and thought and energy
and conversation and money on their physical well-being. And this would include such things
as exercise, organic food, security, insurance, physical training,
medical procedures, vitamins, essential oils, yoga, and all
the rest. In itself, that is not my concern. There really is nothing wrong
with any of those things, but I’ve also noticed an unsettling
tendency. An unsettling tendency of how
little time and effort those same people invest in their spiritual
health. Whatever they may believe about
spiritual life, practically speaking, eternity does not seem much to
be in their view. Let me be clear. I’m not saying
that healthy eating is bad. We should all do more of that.
But we cannot prioritize our physical health over our eternal
soul. All those people who put so much
time and thought and energy into their physical well-being ought
also to invest time and effort into a consideration of their
spiritual well-being. Lamentably, this same tendency
can also be seen in the church. A church may sometimes enjoy
wonderful physical facilities. a modern, ornate, fantastic building. But in the end, they seem to
care more for their building than they do their people. Still
other churches may have extensive ministry programs, but give careless
attention to their doctrine. And so likewise in the church,
we cannot attend only to the physical needs of the building,
to its physical structure. It’s imperative that we also
attend constantly to the spiritual health of the church. As Christians,
we’re to care genuinely about the condition of the entire body
of Christ. Physical vitality does not just
happen. And so it is with the church.
Spiritual vitality does not just happen. Attention has to be given. Evaluation must take place. Effort must be expended. Adjustments
must be made. Changes must occur. Well, this
is Paul’s focus in 1 Corinthians 12. The spiritual health of the
church. Since we are away from this chapter
and subject last Lord’s Day, let’s have just a brief review. Here in chapter 12, Paul opens
by taking a question presented to him by the Corinthian church.
The church in Corinth, a church that Paul had established and
shepherded for 18 months, had an abundance of problems. And
Paul had received a thoroughly disturbing report about this
church, and with it a vexing list of questions. They had some
kind of question, we don’t know what, about the subject of spiritual
gifts. Paul begins to answer that in
chapter 12, verse 1. The Holy Spirit was being poured
out as never before on the church in direct fulfillment of Joel’s
prophecy. And this great outpouring included
the bestowal of spiritual gifts upon individual believers. And
like all believers, the Corinthians had been abundantly supplied
with these supernatural gifts. all manner of various means by
which and with which to serve Christ by serving his church.
But in this much divided church, even spiritual gifts, which were
intended to bless and build the church, had now become a source
of pride and envy and division. The Corinthians were turning
even the stupendous blessing of the Holy Spirit and his gifts
into just one more reason to argue. One of the most spectacular,
pardon me, only the most spectacular gifts were valued and those who
possessed them were highly esteemed. Those gifts that they deemed
lesser were despised, as were those who possessed them. There
was an uncomfortable atmosphere in the Church of Corinth. Believers
either proudly flaunting or jealously seeking the Spirit’s gifts. And so, Paul begins to answer
their question here, and he’ll take three full chapters, 12
through 14, to address this subject in full. In the second section, verses
four through 10, Paul’s focus is the Holy Spirit. Six times
in six verses, he mentions the Spirit specifically. One of the
first things that Paul informs this church is that the Holy
Spirit is the single source of whatever spiritual gifts they
had received. Paul reminds them that those
gifts had a common source, the Holy Spirit. And so Paul establishes
that with regard to spiritual gifts, there is sameness. There’s an orientation point.
The theme that Paul will sustain throughout this section the sameness
of the source, the Holy Spirit. But, though there was one source
for spiritual gifts, Paul outlines in verses eight through 10, there
was also a great deal of diversity. The gifts were not all the same.
They had not all received the same gifts. There was variety,
diversity, uniqueness in each believer. It’s another theme
that Paul sustains in this section. With regard to spiritual gifts,
there was both sameness and variety. And as part of his discussion
here, Paul declares an absolutely amazing truth. Would you just
glance at verse seven? In verse seven, he speaks of
the manifestation of the spirit which is given to each one. I mean, brace yourselves for
that. You realize what he says? Every believer who places his
or her faith in Christ not only receives the indwelling of the
Holy Spirit, but is also gifted by the Spirit to manifest, that
is, reveal, exhibit the Spirit in the exercise of those gifts. That’s an amazing truth. And
the same God who provides these things is the same one who establishes
their purpose. And Paul tells us that purpose
there in verse seven. Glance at it. The gifts of the
Spirit are given for the common good. They’re given to the church.
They’re given to specific people, but they’re given for one purpose.
No matter how seemingly obscure a gift might be, It is given
for the glory of God and the building up of Christ’s body.
Then, in verses 11 through 17, Paul’s focus quickly changes
here. Away from the Holy Spirit and
his specific ministry, here he introduces this illustration
of the human body, and he uses it as a metaphor for Christ’s
body, the church. He employs it nine times here
in this paragraph and seven more times in the ensuing paragraph. And he moves to show by this
image of the body that these varied gifts were all granted
to one body, Christ’s body, the church. Paul’s aim here is to
show that the Spirit freely grants gifts to Christ’s body. And then
in the next paragraph, verses 18 through 26, Paul switches
focus again. This time the word in focus is
members, individuals. The idea of bodily members, various
parts of the human body is what he has in view. First introduced
in verse 12, but in 18 through 26, Paul exhausts this idea of
the member. 13 times it refers to members here.
Paul’s implication here is that the individual portions, the
members, if you will, of a human body, the eye, the hand, the
foot, and so on, they illustrate the individual portions, the
members of Christ’s church. It’s an amazing illustration. And Paul presents another insightful
truth about the spiritual gifts that they have received. Not
only does the Holy Spirit bestow a vast array of gifts, gifting
them for Christ’s body, but God himself is the one who takes
these diversely gifted members and places them into one body. God is seen here actively building
his church. And this placement into one body
by God himself is supposed to have a unifying effect in the
church. These individual members are
unified by their shared assignment. They all have one goal. They’re
unified by their mutual dependence. None of them can function as
a church alone. They all need each other, and
they’re unified by their common care. We love one another. And then finally, in the last
paragraph of chapter 12, verses 27 through 31, our passage this
morning, Paul brings it all together. These diversely gifted, individually
placed members together comprise Christ’s body. It’s a beautiful
thought. If you would, I want to read
a modified portion of chapter 12. And for that, I’ll just kind
of skip along. I’ll bring you along. I’m not
going to lose you in the process. And then we’ll pick up in verse
27 and read the rest in full. Let’s begin in verse four. just
by way of a reminder, where Paul says, now there are varieties
of gifts, but the same spirit, and there are varieties of ministry
in the same Lord. There are varieties of effects,
but the same God who works all things in all persons, but to
each one is given the manifestation of the spirit for the common
good. Would God’s people jump down
to verse 11? But one and the same spirit works
all these things, distributing to each one individually just
as he wills. For even as the body is one and
yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though
they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. And would
God’s people go over to verse 18, to that third, beginning
of the third major section. But now God has placed the members,
each one of them, in the body just as he desired. And with that, let’s glide right
in to verse 27. Now you are Christ’s body, and
individually members of it. And God has appointed in the
church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then
miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, various
kinds of tongues. All are not apostles, are they? All are not prophets, are they?
All are not teachers, are they? All are not workers of miracles,
are they? All do not have gifts of healings,
do they? All do not speak with tongues,
do they? All do not interpret, do they?
But earnestly desire the greater gifts, and I show you a still
more excellent way. In this section, Paul is discussing
spiritual service. I mean, it’s not explicitly stated
here, but that thought is clearly interpretive. After all, the
whole reason that believers are gifted at all is for spiritual
service, right? And so the wide array of gifts
bestowed by the Spirit into believing members are placed by God in the church,
the body of Christ, to be put to use in the service of that
body. And so I’ve entitled this passage,
The Fully Functioning Body, The Healthy, Thriving, Vigorous Body,
where Paul shows that a spiritually fit church serves Jesus Christ. A spiritually fit church serves
Jesus Christ. And what we have is four evidences
in this passage of that statement. A spiritually fit church serves
Jesus Christ, first of all, by this synopsis of principles that
Paul provides right there in verse 27. He brings it all together
here and it serves as a proof that a properly functioning church
is serving Christ. Now you are all Christ’s body,
pardon me, that you are Christ’s body and individually members
of it. So let’s look at the first point
here, what I’ve labeled a synopsis of principles. And I say synopsis
because effectively that’s what this verse is. It’s a summary.
It’s a summary of everything that Paul has already said in
this chapter. The principles expressed, both
unity and diversity, are here again. And he says, first of
all, you are Christ’s body. This is not a new thought. As
I pointed out a moment ago, Paul first seized on this graphic
description back in verse 12. And as we saw, he proceeds to
utilize that word body 16 times in a dozen verses. Look back
there at verse 12, if you would. The body, and there obviously
the human body, Paul says, is one. It is a unified whole, even
though it is made up of many members. feet, hands, eyes, ears,
and so on. The human body is a unified whole,
and so is Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is one
body. And Paul reiterates this point
as well. Look at verse 14. The body, whether
the human body or the church, he doesn’t specify, the body
is not one member, but many. It’s a collection of many different
members. He reiterates it again in verse
18. Now clearly here he’s speaking
of the church. God has placed the members, each
one of them, all the individual members, he has placed them in
the body just as he desired. So the spirit has done his work. in variously gifting individual
members, and the Father likewise has done His work in placing
those members, each one of them, into the body of Christ. And
so Paul simply summarizes here in the first statement of verse
27, you are Christ’s body. Paul’s summary here in verse
27 contains a second principle. and he’s already set this principle
forth. Not only are we Christ’s body,
but we are individually members of it. The first part of the
verse declares what we are collectively, but the second statement speaks
of what we are individually. And the focus here is, again,
diversity, and neither is this a new thought, Paul first introduces
the idea of diversity back in verse four. Just glance there
briefly. Varieties of gifts, but the same spirit. And he expands upon that idea
in verses eight through 10 with this wide diversity of spiritual
gifts. Paul also carries this idea of
diversity throughout the passage by his recurring focus on individuals. I just want you to observe this.
Look at verse seven. To each one, that’s individuality,
that’s diversity. To each one is given the manifestation
of the Spirit. We saw that a moment ago. All
believers are granted spiritual gifts. And for some, that should
be a frightening concept. I’ll tell you why in a moment.
Look at verse 11. One and the same spirit worked
all things, distributing to each one individually, just as he
wills. Look at verse 18. God has placed
the members, each one of them, in the body just as he desired.
Indeed, we are individually members of Christ’s body. It’s a fantastic
thought. And Paul’s overall point is clear.
Unity, a body, and diversity, individual members. And so Paul
summarizes here. And it’s extremely important
for me to point this out. The word you there, you are Christ’s
body, it’s plural. You, plural, you, collectively,
you, all of you, gathered together, you are Christ’s body. Christ’s body, the church, is
comprised of so many individual believers or members, each one
uniquely gifted by the Spirit in the service of Christ and
his body. What an amazing illustration
this becomes. And this is all the more reason
that whatever gift we possess, it must be employed for the benefit
of the entire church. And if it is not employed, the
church, to varying degrees, is being robbed. Like Christ’s parable
of the talents. Gifts are not to be selfishly
hoarded or shamefully hidden. Think of this glorious truth.
You, if you’re a believer in Christ, you individually, as
well as that spiritual gift with which you’ve been entrusted,
are brought together by a mighty action of God to make up the
most glorious institution in all the universe, Christ’s church. And we can begin by being thankful
for the gift that we’ve received, but our gratitude must always
issue forth in service to our Savior by the gifts that we’ve
been given. There’s a second proof here,
a second piece of evidence that if a spiritually fit church serves
Jesus Christ, And we see it not only in the synopsis, but secondly,
in the diversity of the giftedness in our service to Christ. And
this is where we have in verse 28, God is appointed in the church,
first apostles, second prophets, and so on. Now here too, Paul
is somewhat repeating what he has already said. Look back again
at verse eight through 10. where Paul listed off some of
the spiritual gifts which are possible in the Spirit’s arsenal.
Word of wisdom, word of knowledge, faith, gifts of healing, and
so on. But here in verse 28, Paul presents a much more general
catalog of gifts. Back in verse 18, Paul specified
that God the Father is the active agent in placing these variously
gifted members into one body. God is sovereign. Look at verse 18. God has placed
the members. And likewise, here in verse 28,
God has appointed, which implies that he has done so for his own
purposes. God is very involved in the the
planting, the developing of his church. He’s not an inactive,
passive observer. Now, our English translations
sometimes obscure this. I hope yours didn’t, but I’m
more realistic. The word translated here in the
New American Standard as placed or appointed It’s the same Greek
word in both verses. The point is that God, God the
Father has done this. He has placed the individual
members in a body. He appoints the various ministries
in the greater church. This is God exercising his sovereign
prerogative. These gifts cannot be secured
through mere training. They certainly cannot be purchased.
They can’t be gained through political favor. They can’t be
traded. They are exclusively God-given. And so in the greater ministry
of the church, God has appointed a wide array of particularly
gifted and called individuals in service to Christ’s church.
And Paul begins at least by enumerating this list, first, second, third.
There is some degree of priority or rank here, but then he leaves
off the enumeration portion. Let me just say a sentence or
two about each of those. Look first at the apostles. He says, first apostles, this
is the office that Christ established during his earthly ministry,
the foundational ministry of the 12, as they were so often
referred to, literally the sent ones. These were the ones who
bore the initial responsibility after Christ’s death of proclaiming
the gospel and establishing the church. They were to bear witness
to Christ, his miracles, his teaching, his resurrection, by
their firsthand testimony. These were specifically called
by God to work authenticating signs as they preached the gospel,
shepherding not in one particular location, but really over the
general fledgling church. Second, prophets. These are those
who spoke on God’s behalf. It’s not always that they predicted
the future. That’s kind of a misunderstanding
of the role of the prophet. These were the occasional spokesmen
of God who were sent by him directly and bore his message to his people. They were divinely inspired.
They spoke by the influence and impulse of the Spirit of God.
and we can reasonably place such men as John the Baptist, Paul,
Peter, Stephen, others, who served God in this amazing capacity. Third, teachers. The church has
always needed the gift of teachers for its sustenance and progress,
and of these first three offices, this one would in time become
the prominent and enduring office in the church, conducted primarily
by elders, This is the nourishing function of shepherding carried
forth by study and reasoning and effective communication.
As you know, the ability to teach is one of the requirements of
the eldership, the only thing really that sets off an elder
from a deacon. That doesn’t mean that deacons
can’t or won’t or shouldn’t teach. Then he adds two that aren’t
enumerated. And we’ve seen both of these,
miracles and healings. The gifts of miracles and healings
were both mentioned back in verses nine and 10 in the reverse order
of how they are here. These were two of the spectacular
sign gifts that were in Korah so highly regarded. These were
those gifts that were specially bestowed upon the apostles, temporary
sign gifts given to validate the gospel message. Miracles
were those more general spiritual phenomena, and healings were
healings of physical sickness and even demon possession. And
then he adds, really too bland, Gifts. These are the ones, you know,
if you’re in Corinth, you’re praying that you don’t get this
one. Helps, administrations. These two gifts would also continue
on in the church down to our day. The one helps refers to
almost the ministry of the deacons. Servants of Christ and servants
of the church, bearing one another’s burdens, whether poor or strangers
or hurting. Administrations, on the other
hand, would take into account some of the more management-oriented
skills. The word originally referred
to one who steered the ship, right? And so budgeting, Accounting,
delegation, those kinds of things would fall under this. And then
he adds at the end various kinds of tongues. We’ve talked a lot
about tongues. We spoke about it a couple of
weeks ago when we came across it in verse 10. We’ll talk much
more about tongues in the weeks and months ahead. Now, I’m guessing
most of you are not apostles. If you believe that you are an
apostle, I’ll need to speak to you afterward. Several of these
offices appointed by God in the church had a temporary place
in God’s economy. They came, they were established,
and they faded away. Such were the apostles, John
himself likely being the last. Paul here is not laying out an
exhaustive list of all the gifts in the church He’s just presenting
a limited list to illustrate the diversity of the gifts that
have been given historically. There’s a third proof. Evidence. that a spiritually fit church
will serve Christ. Not only the synopsis in verse
27, the diversity of giftedness in verse 28, but look at verses
29 and 30, the collaboration of callings here in our service
to Christ. And this is a fascinating point,
the way Paul goes about it. All are not apostles, are they?
All are not prophets, are they? All are not teachers, are they? All are not workers of miracles,
are they? All do not have the gifts of
healings, do they? He completely skips helps and
administrations, which probably made the people in Corinth erupt
in cheers. All do not speak with tongues,
Do they, which is a particular sore spot in Corinth, all do
not interpret, do they? And it seems in Corinth that
there were very few interpreters. Well, verse 28 features the diversity
of the gifts that the Spirit provides. Verses 29 and 30 teach
of the necessity of each of those gifts. These two verses are practically
an application of Paul’s very lively illustrations that he
uses in 14 through 17, and then again in verse 21. Let’s back
up, if you would. Would you glance back at verse
14? You remember this. For the body
is not one member, but many. We get it. We’re all diversely
equipped. Paul is explaining there the
body’s diversity. And then suddenly, without warning,
he injects a series of very colorful illustrations. Verse 15, remember? A foot that wants to be a hand.
Verse 16, an ear that wants to be an eye. And then two more
illustrations in verse 17, presenting this strange image of an eye,
you know, ostensibly sitting on a table by itself attempting
to function like a body, or an ear trying to function on its
own as an entire entity. And then glance over to verse
21, Paul kind of reinvigorates this illustration for another
purpose. Paul presents another angle,
and there the member, some body part, an eye or a head, it arrogantly
seeks to separate from the rest of the inferior body. Of course,
this kind of self-righteousness this disconnection from the body
is not possible. No member can justly say of another
member, I have no need of you. The body of Christ needs every
member. The body of Christ needs every
gifted believer in order to properly function. The body, the church, could possibly function if a
member were detached from it, say a hand or even an eye. It could possibly function. But not the individual member.
If the individual member pulls aside, it dies. And it dies a
quick death. So all three of these images,
are just absurd. In the body of Christ, there
can be no pouting, because one does not possess a particular
gift, and no one portion, either of the human body or of Christ’s
body, can function alone, nor can we proudly detach ourselves
and think that we could function. In keeping with Paul’s illustrations
here, if you were to take any one portion of the human body
and somehow remove it and isolate it from the rest of the body,
what you have is not only an isolated part, but a massive
void. True. Depending on the part of
the body removed, we just talked about this, you would have a
void in the remaining body. say a stump instead of a hand, but much more so with the isolated
portion. What is a hand without the rest
of the body? Depending on the part of the
body removed, the body may be able to function for a time,
but the part separated and isolated from the body is useless. And
so these two verses, 29 and 30 are basically an application
of those illustrations directly to the church. When Paul challenges
here, all are not apostles or prophets or teachers or workers
of miracles, are they? He’s employing the same argument
that he’d already presented. We don’t all have the same gift,
whether apostles or teachers or miracle workers. The church
could not function. Indeed, it could not exist if
it were comprised exclusively of any one of these gifts on
the list. Can you even imagine? Talk about
your alpha male problem. Can you even imagine if the church
were exclusively comprised of apostles? We couldn’t have a unified body
of Christ’s. We’d have chaos, we’d have rivalry,
we’d have division, if such an organization could even exist
at all. Paul’s aim here is to deal decisively. Whether it’s
with arrogance about one’s gift, or the part of one member, or
shame about one’s particular gift and the part of another,
Every variously gifted member is placed into the body of Christ
for the good of the body. There’s another factor to consider
here. If we are discontented with our
gifts and callings, in reality, we are challenging our sovereign
God about his wisdom. God gives these gifts by means
of the Holy Spirit. Verse 11 says, just as he wills,
and God the Father places these diversely gifted members into
the body of Christ. Verse 18 says, just as he desired. It’s God’s doing. Who are we
to complain? There’s a fourth proof, and we’ll
close with this. A spiritually fit church serves
Jesus Christ. You see it by the synopsis. You
see it by the diversity of the giftedness. You see it by the
collaboration of callings. And you see it, fourthly, in
the refining of our usefulness in our service to Christ. The
refining of our usefulness. Look at verse 31. But earnestly
desire the greater gifts. And I’ll show you still a more
excellent way. Here. In the last verse of this
chapter, Paul says something very surprising. Earnestly desire
the greater gifts. And I say that that’s surprising
because up until now, Paul has been attempting to tamp down
the yearning that some Corinthians had to trade in their gift for
something more spectacular. And now suddenly, Paul seems
to indicate that this was indeed to some degree a possibility.
The bottom line is that it is not bad to desire the greater
gifts. We’ll talk more about what those
are in a moment. It’s not bad, not a bad thing
to expand one’s ability to serve Christ in his church. The only
questions pertaining to what was going on in Corinth were
this. With what motives do you seek
other gifts? Do you just want to be the rock
star of the church with some spectacular gift? And by what
means do you seek to acquire them? Is this by humble prayer,
even fasting, pleading with the Lord, Lord, I desire to serve
you in some greater capacity. The Corinthians were desiring
and angling for gifts and they were going about it in all the
wrong ways. and for all the wrong reasons. Here, Paul even encourages this
longing, eagerly desire the greater gifts. Nothing wrong with that.
The Greek word there translated as eagerly is translated from
the word from which we get our word, zealous. And it’s used in both a good
and a bad sense in the New Testament. Here, in a good sense. fervently
long for the greater gifts, be zealous in pursuit of them. But
what constitutes a greater gift? The Corinthians were eagerly
desiring, but they had the wrong gifts in view. They thought if
they could only speak in tongues or practice healing, that all
their problems would be solved and their popularity would soar. In the upcoming chapters, 13
and 14, Paul will begin to answer this important question. Until
then, I would say to you, it is not wrong. It is not wrong
to eagerly desire the gift of teaching, for instance. But it’s
not something that can just be developed through natural means.
I remember there was an African American church that explained
this well. Some, were sent, others just
went. But with some gifts, the apostleship,
healing, tongues, one’s motives for seeking them becomes evident
very quickly. And in many cases, they longed
for good gifts, but for all the wrong reasons, pride and vanity. So let me ask you this morning, Are you tempted to stand aloof
from others in the body of Christ because you believe that your
gift is somehow superior to what others possess? The Holy Spirit will help you
answer that question. Let me ask you this. Could it truly
be said that you cooperate as a member of the body of Christ,
neither dominating nor squandering your ability to serve? Let me
ask you, do you rejoice to serve your Savior, His bride, the church,
even if nobody notices? Let me ask you this. Do you regularly acknowledge
God’s glorious gifts in others with affirmation and gratitude? Do you rejoice in the way that
God uses them, the degree that God uses them, even if he’s chosen
not to use you in the same manner? Let me ask you this. Are you tempted to recoil in
the shadows and do nothing at all? just because you do not
possess some spectacular gift? Let me ask you this, regardless
of your gift, do you carry yourself as a member of the local body
of Christ? Or is the member without which
the body could not function, do you realize that’s who you
are? Let me ask you this, Do you see
yourselves as being in a cooperative effort with other members of
the body, an essential part, along with all the other essential
parts? Let me ask you this. Verse 31,
is there some gift that maybe you’ve wondered might be lying
dormant within you? The Lord wants to have a word
with you. Let’s go before him. Our merciful God.