- Now I've mentioned
before that I Corinthians is a letter that deals exclusively with church related
issues and problems. It could be subtitled
answers to common problems in the church, because
for 2,000 years we've used this particular letter
to deal with problems that arise in the church, it
doesn't matter where you are. Someone said to me
once, because I've worked at different churches:
well how is it different working here than working over there, or working in Canada,
working in the United States? And my answer is not much different. Because most churches are the
same, the type of problems that arise in the congregation tend to be similar from
congregation to congregation. The place changes, the
size changes, perhaps the culture changes but
the issues that arise among brethren tend to
be the same, that's why this letter is so
important and so valuable. Anyways in Chapter 12 Paul
uses a figure to describe what the church is like
and how it functions and the figure that he uses is that of the human body, Verse 12. Now in our lesson today
I'd like to review some of the reasons why the
body, the human body is the perfect figure
to represent the church. And in the Bible there are
more than 50 different figures used to refer to the
church, or to God's people. For example in Hebrews
Chapter 12, Verse 22, the church or God's people referred to as the city of the living,
the City of the Living God. In I Corinthians 3, another
passage in the same epistle we're studying, Paul refers to
the church as God's Building. And in Zechariah in the Old
Testament Chapter 8, Verse 3 the prophet says of the people of God, they're the Holy Mountain of God. So all these different
figures that we have throughout the Bible always
describing the same thing, which is the church or
the people of God. So in each instance, the
figure represents some aspect or some
feature of the church that God was trying to accentuate. So when the Holy Spirit uses
the human body as a figure, it's one of the 50, 50 plus,
so when the Holy Spirit uses the human body as a figure for the church, He's trying to convey something very specific
about the church. actually three particular
things about the church that are not possible to convey using any other figure in the Bible. And we're going to kind
of look at this here, this imagery of the body used as a figure for Christ and His church. The first thing that it
represents is the glory of the church, in other
words, using the human body is the perfect figure
to express the glory, the glory that the church has. In Ephesians Chapter 5,
Verse 27, Paul says that Jesus wishes to present to
God the glorious church. No other figure quite
captures the gloriousness of the church than the
figure of the human body. I mean in Genesis we read
that God creates time and He creates space,
He creates matter, He creates the elements,
and He builds on these to fashion the form of the
Earth and the heavenly bodies. Scientists are still being
amazed by the wonders yet discovered under the
seas and they estimate that there are literally
billions of stars, and they're amazed by that. We have programs on TV that
show us the latest discoveries, new animal types that are
being discovered, new stars, various features of stars
and planets, and yet as wonderful and
awe-inspiring as they are in Genesis we read that God
created living creatures at the end that surpassed
these in the fact that they could perceive themselves and actually interact
with the universe, with the environment, no star, no planet interacts
with its environment. And as overwhelming as
the number of stars are, the life experienced by
animate creatures such as animals and birds are
still more wondrous than a zillion inanimate stars. Do you see what I'm saying? You know the creation
level, the wonder level, the complexity level,
keeps going up and up, but then as a crowning
act God creates a being that is made in His own image. I mean animals could
perceive themselves and others but God created a creature that could perceive God and relate to him. And so for all these other
things, you know the stars, the Earth, the
vegetation, the animals, God merely spoke and
they came into existence. In Genesis 1:20 He says let
the waters teem with swarms of living creatures and what happened? Well they became present;
they were created. But when it came to the being
that was to exist in the image of God, the one who could see
the stars, the one who could rule over the animals,
God specifically formed, He didn't speak Man into
existence, He formed Man. It's a different verb
there, a different action. So the human body was a unique
and separate act of creation and for this reason only
after the human body was created did God
say, it is very good. Before that He'd look at what
He had done and said it's good but after man was created,
humans were created, He said it is very good, Genesis 1:31. So far as the book of Genesis
is concerned the human body sits at the apex of God's
creation, it's the peak. So when we look at things that
were created the human body is very best of what God
has done, so says the Bible. So good in fact that God
himself inhabited one, God didn't come in the
form of an animal, or even a blazing star,
or speak out of, He took the form of a human. You know this is a lot of
preamble here but my point is that in that in order
to signify how glorious and how marvelous is this
thing called the church, God uses the figure of the
human body to describe it. Now the human body is His
most glorious creation in the natural world,
a thing that we can see and appreciate, and so
God uses this image to describe His most glorious creation in the spiritual world, the church. So He uses the human body to explain the glory of the church,
He also uses the human body to explain the unity of the church. Now when I use the word
unity I don't mean the word conformity, there's a big difference between
unity and conformity. Conformity is for ball
bearings and widgets. Each one is designed and
forced to look, and feel, and weigh, exactly the
same, no deviation, no changes, no variations, you know? I have a friend, a
brother in Christ who is an aeronautic engineer
in Montreal, he works for Bombardier and I
asked him what's your job? He says I weigh things. I said, what do you
mean I weigh things? He says I weigh ever single
item that goes into that plane, every nut, every bolt,
every spring, every needle, every fabric, every single
thing that goes into the plane, my job is to weigh it,
measure it, so that we have on record, because there's
a weight limit obviously, and if that ball bearing,
let's take for example, if there are eight ball
bearings and the eighth one weighs more than the
others that one goes. As far as that part goes it
has to weigh exactly the same, it has to look the
same, so on and so forth as all the other ones,
that's conformity. That's a good thing,
conformity's a good thing in its place. But when I use the word
unity I'm referring to the quality that the
church possesses, the way that each of its parts
works together perfectly in order to make the entire
unit function and grow. So in his letter Paul points
out this wonderful quality of the church by comparing
it to the human body which is infinitely complex
but functions in such a way that each part, no matter how
small, now matter how great, no matter how different is
interconnected to all the other parts and has a very
specific
duty that contributes to the overall
well-being of that body. That's what unity is. So these ideas are brought
together or brought out in several epistles, this is not the only place that
Paul talks about unity, he talks about it in other places. Let's go to Romans
Chapter 12 shall we. He says for just as we have
many members in one body and all the members do not
have the function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually
members of one another. So in Romans contrasts
the interconnectedness and the diversity of the
body, we're all different but we're all connected in some way. Alright if we go to I
Corinthians Chapter 12, let's go back to I
Corinthians Chapter 12, which is what we were
looking at before and let's read from Verse 12,
shall we, pick up in Verse 12. It says the following: 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
one body, so also is Christ. For by one Sprit we were
all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks,
whether slaves or free, and we were all made
to drink of one Spirit. For the body is not one
member, buy many. I the foot should say, because
I am not a hand, I am not part of the body, it
is not for this reason any the less a part of the body. And if the ear should say,
because I am not an eye, I am not part of the body, it is not for this reason any the
less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye,
where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? But now God has placed
the members, each one of them, in the body,
just as He desired. And if they were all one
member, where would the body be? Kind of a long passage but
it's self-explanatory isn't it? He demonstrates that
cooperative nature of the body where every part is in harmony not in competition with every other part, and he says every single
part is necessary. And then in Ephesians Chapter 4, let's go to Ephesians Chapter
4 shall we, for a moment. In Ephesians Chapter 4,
Verse 16 he says: from whom the whole body, being fitted
and held together by that which every joint supplies,
according to the proper working of each individual part,
causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love. In Ephesians 4:16 Paul shows
that not only are the parts connected, not only are
the parts necessary, but each part makes a
very specific contribution to the growth of the body,
everybody contributes. So the church described in
the New Testament is united and by using the human body
as a figure to represent it, the Holy Spirit is able to
clearly demonstrate what unity means, he says it's united,
but what does that mean? Well the first feature
of biblical unity is interconnectedness,
each member is related through faith in Jesus
Christ and hope of salvation, and this is the connection that each one of us has to every other member. I mean here in our
congregation
it's rather homogenous. You know many of you
were born in Oklahoma, or were born in the
United States, Caucasian, have a similar history,
and so on and so forth, but go to other parts of the world, perhaps a very large
cosmopolitan city, well like Montreal for
example where we come from and in a very small
congregation of 100 people you have up to 18
different nationalities. Sundays was always
interesting,
are African brethren, the women would come in
their African dress, you know with the big head dress and
the very multi-colored dresses and so on and so forth, and
people from China would come, or on the days when we had
pot lucks, oh boy oh boy. The thing I regretted about
pot lucks in Montreal, no fried chicken, but
lots of rice dishes, and lots of exotic dishes
from different places. So it was hard to relate
many times culturally to someone, I mean I
knew a lady in Montreal, she came from a family
that was polygamous. In other words, her
father had five wives, she lived in Africa, and you
know eventually he became a Christian and what
he taught his children were not to be polygamous
and she would talk about my mother number one, and
my mother number three, and my mother number five, and that was her experience, well I couldn't even relate
to that experience. But the thing that related
myself to this black woman from Africa who had such a
different history than mine is that one day she
realized that Jesus Christ was the Son of God and
she gave her life to him. She talked about the day
she was baptized, I talked about the day I was
baptized, see we were different but our point of
connection was Christ. Our point of connection was Christ. So everyone equally shares
a history of being saved and a future of eternal life with God, that's how we are connected,
even though we may not be able to relate each other culturally
for some reason or another, or even socially, or
financially, or educationally, maybe we have all
different backgrounds, we all meet at the point of Christ. And that's what real
unity is all about. It's the recognition
that each of us has a similar history when
it comes to Jesus Christ. That's the thing by the way
that makes you feel at home, you travel, you go to Wyoming,
or you go to California, oh it's so different
here, then you walk into the church on the
Lord's Day and all of a sudden, you're like yeah
it feels like home, exactly. Another feature of unity, figured by the term of the body is diversity. So within unity you
have interconnectedness and you have diversity,
although each is connected there is room for individuality. Not everybody thinks, not
everybody acts, not everybody understands in the same
way or at the same pace. And that's what Paul is
trying to explain here in I Corinthians, not
every organ and member of a human body looks
the same or grows at the same rate, but it's
still part of the body, in the same way not every
member of the church looks, or acts, or
grows, at the same pace but nevertheless they
belong to the church. You know so many times we
get this idea that there are like the first-class members,
and the second-class members, and the third-class members,
and we base it on things that we shouldn't base it on at all. That's how little cliques
form in the church, some feeling superior to others
for some reason or other, because they have a longer history, they have more responsibility, but in the church there is diversity, and sometimes the diversity
is between those who are very mature because they've
followed Christ for a long time and so on and so forth, and
others who are just coming in to Christ, and who
are just learning, equally valuable however diverse. And then the third
feature of biblical unity, we have interconnectedness,
we have diversity, and the third feature that
Paul talks about is function. There is a role for every
member of the church and each role is necessary
for the overall growth and well-being of the church,
each role is necessary. You know, those of us
who work in the building or maybe have reason to
come here often or at night, we see Gail Morgan for example, because she does a lot
of her work at night, and we don't see her, Hal
and I were here working on lighting for a project
we were working on and there was Gail, vacuuming,
getting the books ready, and so and so on, we never see Gail. We never see her doing
her work, her contribution but I guarantee if Gail
stopped doing what she did we'd start noticing: hey
where's the toilet paper? No toilet paper, where
are the hand towels? The soap thing is empty. How come all the books are
strewn all over the place? What's that food there
between the, it shouldn't be by the way, it
shouldn't be, but anyways, what's that food on
floor in the auditorium? And so on and so on. Have we ever seen anyone
change a light bulb here? Probably very few of us have
ever witnessed it happening but I guarantee you there's someone that goes around and
changes the light bulbs and if that person didn't
do their job, it'd be like broken teeth, half of these
lights wouldn't be working. So function, you don't produce
unity by forcing everybody to think, and act, and grow,
and do exactly the same thing. You know we're maybe 3 to 400
people here, if 350 people here said hey my job's
to change the lights, well we'd have a bright
auditorium but that's about it. We don't conformity;
conformity is manipulation. We want unity, that's
what Paul is arguing, he's arguing against conformity. There were some in the
church trying to force others to conform others to what they thought how things ought to be done. The only conformity that
we're shooting for is what? We're trying to conform to this. But no one member can force
another member to conform to what they think,
how things ought to be. So how do you produce this
unity? Very important. And my argument here is that you don't produce unity by
forcing conformity. You form unity first of all by celebrating our interconnectedness. Anybody know what we call celebrating our interconnectedness? Yeah, it's called worship. We celebrate our
interconnectedness, I Corinthians Chapter 10, Verse 16
and 17, Paul says: is not the cup of
blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ. Is not the bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ? You know worship has a
vertical purpose, we often say we're here for God, we're
here to worship God, that's the vertical purpose
and in the vertical purpose we conform to what God
has given us in the Bible, we sing, we take the
Communion, we preach His word. This is the vertical relationship, but worship also has a
horizontal feature to it and the horizontal feature
is where we are working on unity, we celebrate together are vertical relationship with God. Worship's horizontal
purpose is the celebration of our interconnectedness in Christ, that's what Paul is saying here. When we share the bread aren't
we all sharing the same loaf? Don't we break it off the
same loaf and figuratively he's talking about Christ,
aren't we sharing the Christ here and when we take the cup,
unfortunately some think that taking the cup,
they interpret this as we only have to have
one cup that goes around, but Paul is talking
about the same idea that he was talking
about with the bread. Isn't the same cup of
wine, the blood of Christ, isn't that what we're sharing? Isn't that what brings us together? The same blood that covers
my sins, covers your sins, and your sins, and your,
isn't that what we're sharing? There's the horizontal,
so when I sing I hear you voice and my voice mingle
together to create unity. Unity to complete the
vertical relationship that I have to worship
God but at the same time the horizontal
relations that I have with my brothers and my
sisters through worship. Another way that we create
this unity, and I might add for the first point that's
one of the reasons why the elders encourage us to be
faithful in our attendance. You know it's the old
story, it's not a checklist, it's we celebrate together
and being together often promotes this unity that we have. Another way of creating
this unity is accepting each other's diversity
within the body. Let's go to Romans this
time, Chapter 14. Paul says: let not him who
eats regard with contempt him who does not eat, and
let not him who does not eat judge him who eats,
for God has accepted him. Who are you to judge
the servant of another? Denouncing the differences
between us destroys our unity. Now, should we denounce
sin? Absolutely. You know if my brother
or my sister is sinning and I mean truly sinning
then I have to exhort that brother or sister,
why, because out of love. I want to preserve their soul. I don't want them to go off
and either leave the church or sin in such a way that
they would put their soul in danger, but you know what,
in my experience I've found that most of the times we're
criticizing and denouncing each other for things that
have nothing to do with sin. Have more to do with
personal ego issues or the way we do things, he
sings too loud when he leaves. He sings too soft when leaves. He preaches too long;
he preaches too short. She didn't say hello,
that's two Sundays, she just walked right by
she didn't even greet me. And we denounce each other
for those type of things and what we're doing is we're putting a crack in the unity that we have. And then another way to
promote unity is to promote the value of each other's
contribution to the whole. The fastest way to build the body is by praising your brother's work, not denouncing it or criticizing it or speculating over it but
praising them for their work. It goes a lot further than criticism. When they review people who,
you know the out-counseling, when someone leaves a job
or something, they quit, and so on and so forth, they
go looking for another job and so exit-counseling
that's it, exit-interview. Thank you. So the exit-interview and one
of the things most mentioned about employees who are
disgruntled or discouraged and going somewhere else, was the fact that they received very
little encouragement. It didn't happen very
often that the boss, or the supervisor, or
the manager, whoever, you know whoever's over you,
comes and says I appreciate what you're doing, and
not an empty compliment, I think that thing or that
report that handed in, or that change that you
made I thought that was a very good thing and I
appreciate you as an employee, and so on and so forth, you know. People are starved for encouragement. Well you'd think in the
church, I mean this is the place where there ought to be encouragement. Many times, members leave,
you know, we don't have exit-interviews but a lot
of times elders, ministers, kind of will go to
someone's house and ask them how come you're not coming or
is there a problem, why you're going to this other
congregation and you've left ours? And a lot of times thing
is, it's exactly that. You know I was working, and
doing this, and doing that, and I taught Sunday
School for three years and I haven't had a
break, not one person said to me thank you for your work. Not one person came into my class and asked could you use some help? And eventually they just
burn out and the only way they can protect
themselves from burning out is just to go somewhere
else and unfortunately when they go somewhere else,
what do they do, they hide. They sit in the pew and if I
don't make a move then nobody will volunteer me for
something, that's terrible. So promoting the value of
each other's contribution to the whole is a way
of building up the unity in the church, Paul
says in I Thessalonians: therefore encourage one another
and build up one another. So the body is the
perfect symbol to represent the dynamic element of unity
represented in the church. Okay, so the body
demonstrates,
oh we got to move, the body demonstrates
perfectly the glory of the church, the unity of the church, and then thirdly the position of Christ. The church is related to,
united to, connected to the divine savior Jesus
Christ who is the Son of God. He is the living Lord and
so any symbol or figure used to represent an
intricate part of His nature must itself be alive,
and here's the key point, it must also be alive with
the same life that Jesus has. Now in other places the
church is referred to in various ways, as I said
in Hebrews, it's referred to as a city, in
Ezekiel 34, as a flock, in I Corinthians as a
temple or a building, in Deuteronomy 32,
Verse 9, as a portion. All of these and others
signify various aspects of the Lord's
relationship with His people but only in the use of
the body as a figure do we clearly see the
three main truths regarding God's
position in the church. First of all, He is the
Head of the church, Colossians Chapter 1:18, right
Jesus is the head of the body which is the head of the
church which is his body. So there's one leader of the
church and that's Jesus Christ. That each human body has one head is easily seen and understood. You know when I was a little
kid I went to a carnival and they have, come
see the bearded ladies, see the Alligator Man, see
the baby with two heads, and of course it was
probably twins in arrested development in the womb
so on and so forth. They had this very
grotesque thing in a jar and it was a baby that had two heads. And I remember we had to
pay like a quarter to get in to see all these
marvels, and we went in, the guy says and now, and
then he lifted the black drape over the jar and I mean
there an audible uh, it was like wow, you know
a body only has one head. Well the perfect figure for Christ, the relationship between
Christ and His church. This natural phenomenon is an
absolutely perfect reflection of the natural position
of Jesus with His church. Now there are many diverse
members with many functions. There is clearly only one
head and that position is not shared or challenged
by any of the members; the hand doesn't want to be a head, the foot doesn't want to be a head, only the head is the head. Secondly, Jesus is the
nourisher of the church. Colossians, Chapter Two,
Verse 19: and not holding fast to the head, from whom the
entire body, being supplied and held together by the
joints and ligaments, grows with a growth which is from God. So science explains to us
that the central center for the body is the brain
contained in the head. Our body functions, our
feelings and thoughts, our reactions are all controlled
and initiated by the brain. We could lose almost every
organ and member of our body and continue to be alive
or to be conscious. They had a program the other
day about these soldiers who had been injured and it's terrible You know some of them,
it's just terrible. They've lost both arms
and both legs, you know they're just a torso, and a
head, and deaf, and yet ya know the person is still
talking, and still feeling, and still communicating,
and is still alive. Lost of all of his major members. So the body can do that
but if our brain is damaged the entire body goes to waste. I just finished reading
that book by Bill O'Reilly on the killing of
Lincoln and he describes the wound that he
suffered, it was a single shot to the back of the head,
a little small ball, it wasn't a bullet, it was a
ball, it came from a Derringer. And they described this
little, tiny ball, you know it just went into the
brain and it went into the brain perhaps
three or four inches but that was enough to
kill him, and yet we have a soldier stepping
on a mine, blowing off his arms, his legs, he
loses his hearing, and he's still alive,
he's still talking, and yet that little bullet
if it went into the brain and just a few inches,
so the brain is central. What a perfect analogy
for the position of Christ in his church, he
provides everything we need for the life of the body of the church and without him we couldn't function. We could lose members we could
damage different body parts but the body its self continues to be. Jesus himself alluded to
this when he said I am the vine you are the branches. He who abides in me and I am in him, he bears much fruit and apart from me you can do how much?
Nothing, you can't do a thing. Of course he's referring
to his headship here, John 15, Verse 5, then finally
he is united to the church, a figure of Jesus', the ways
he's united to the church in Ephesians 4:15 and
16, think about this now: Jesus has always existed,
John Chapter 1, Verse 1, in the beginning was the
word and the word was with God and the word was
God, he's always existed. The church has not always
existed because it is made of humans and humans came
into existence with Adam, Genesis Chapter 1, keep that in mind. Now the church is united
to Christ and has become part of his being, see
where I'm going here? John 17:22 and 23, Jesus
always was, the church came into existence at a
particular time but now over here Jesus and the church are one unit. Now I don't claim to
understand completely the dynamics of our
relationship with the Lord, but the head on a human
body is not detachable, it is part of the body,
it is one with the body. So the use of the body as
a figure for the church can also reveal to us
that God so loved us that he attached us into the
godhead through Jesus Christ. Think about that for a second. This concept could not have
been conveyed in any other way but by using the
human body as a mirror of the nature of the
godhead accomplished through the incarnation and
resurrection of Jesus Christ and then him becoming
eternally attached to the church by becoming His head, do
you see what I'm saying? There was a time when the
church was not attached to Him and then there came a
time when the church was attached to him and
now the church is and will always be attached to Him. Think about the change
that has taken place here. Not just for us, but for him. You know there's a
symmetry in the Bible, there are no wasted words or motion. Every idea and symbol
carefully plotted to reveal the marvelous plan of God
to save man through Jesus. So the creation of the
human body was God's greatest revealed
achievement and it is fitting that the human body
also be used as a figure for God's final revealed
creation, and God's final revealed creation is the
church of Christ. Through this symbol God
is able to reveal to human eyes and minds, the
glory of the church, the unity of the church,
and the relationship of his church to himself, not
only are we one with Christ but he has condescended
to become one with us. That's the marvel. One other idea conveyed
by the use of the body and that is less
obvious at first glance, let me finish with
this, only the body, the human body is alive
with human life. Animals no matter how
powerful, stars no matter how numerous, water no
matter how deep, do not share the consciousness of life that is evident in human life. Only human beings are
human, well in the same way only the body of Christ
is alive spiritually. Religion, no matter
how zealous or old, philosophy no matter how
complex do not have the life that only the church or
the body of Christ has. And my point here, my
final point is the figure of the body
demonstrates this perfectly. Okay, so there is some
ideas about how the figure of the human body is
used to demonstrate the relationship between
Christ and His church, and our relationship
between one and another. And that's it for today, thank you very much for your attention.
