The Whole Body Working Together

Image: Unsplash

You can watch the video of this sermon here.

Introduction

For 7 or 8 weeks we focused in on various Spiritual gifts in the Bible, from tongues, to Apostles, to prophets, pastors, teachers and more. We have examined many of these gifts in great detail, and we have seen some important things.

We have seen that these gifts are given by God as he wills.

We have seen that these gifts have not ceased, but some things may have changed over the years. For example, we should not expect Apostles today to be like the 12, but this does not mean there are no longer apostles of a kind, we just call them missionaries today.

We have seen also the most important thing is that these gifts are given to us by the Spirit of God to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ. This is central to the purpose of these gifts, not to lift up people, but to lift up Jesus.

There are many other gifts we could look at, and we will cover some of them today. But what I really want to focus on today is the overarching message of 1 Corinthians 12. Our guiding passage for this series. There is so much in this passage that we have not yet covered, and there are important applications from what Paul says here for all of us.

So today we will touch on some of the gifts we have not gotten into here yet, and then we will work our way through this passage and wrestle with what Paul is seeking to say to the Church in Corinthians. Remember, Paul is addressing some issues in this Church, things he is not happy about, quite a few things. He is unhappy that they are causing divisions over which leader to follow, Paul, Apollos or Peter. He is unhappy with how they are handling their own spiritual authority. He is unhappy with how they are dealing with the man committing adultery with his own father’s wife. He is unhappy with the fact that they are suing each other in secular courts of law and not dealing with it in church. He is unhappy at how married couples are applying their vows. He is unhappy with how they are approaching the faith of weaker brothers. He is unhappy with how they are supporting gospel preachers and approaching meals with pagans and taking communion and more. He is challenging this church to address its shortcomings.  

So, this should frame how we approach this passage in 1 Corinthians 12. The Corinthian Church, one of the earliest Churches in the history of the world, is not an ideal church, or a perfect church. It is not getting the usage of its spiritual gifts right. It is a church in need of much correction, and that is why there is so much there for us today in the modern church. So, let’s see what Paul has to say about the functioning of the whole body.

The Other Gifts (vv.7-11) – From this list we have looked at already tongues and prophecy in some detail. Today, I want to start by addressing some of the other gifts that we have not covered yet. remember Paul tells us,

“7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8 For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10 to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.”

There are some remarkable gifts in this passage which we have not explored yet, but let’s briefly have a look at them. Paul’s emphasis here is not to write an exhaustive list of all the possible gifts, but to note that every single believer is gifted by the Spirit to serve the Lord in the Church and in society.

Knowledge and Wisdom – He first mentions Knowledge and Wisdom, “8 For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit,” At an initial glance you might be tempted to bring these two gifts together, but they are not the same. They overlap, but they are not the same.

Knowledge is knowing something. Wisdom is knowing how to apply what you know. This is very different.

So, if we take this into account, then Paul is saying sometimes people will supernaturally know something about a person, or about an event, through a manifestation of the Spirit. Others will have a manifestation of the Spirit which helps them apply knowledge in a Godly way.

We see an example of the supernatural gift of knowledge in Acts 5:1-5,

“But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, 2 and with his wife's knowledge he kept back for himself some of the proceeds and brought only a part of it and laid it at the apostles' feet. 3 But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? 4 While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to man but to God.” 5 When Ananias heard these words, he fell down and breathed his last. And great fear came upon all who heard of it.”

Through the divine power of the Holy Spirt, Peter was able see through the lies of Ananias and Sapphira. He knew something that only God, Ananias, and Sapphira could have known.

We see an example of the gift of wisdom in Corinthians where Paul says, 1 Corinthians 7:25-26, “25 Now concerning the betrothed, I have no command from the Lord, but I give my judgment as one who by the Lord's mercy is trustworthy. 26 I think that in view of the present distress it is good for a person to remain as he is.”

The Bible does not answer every question for every situation we find ourselves in, sometimes we need divine wisdom to make a decision. Sometimes we just need to decide for ourselves.  

Paul is being guided here by the Holy Spirit with divine wisdom. He does not have a word from the Lord about this specific situation, but he is using this gift to apply a supernatural wisdom.

In this context he is working out how to respond to a crisis they are going through, which appears from our history books to have been a famine. He advices them that it is probably best not to marry until the crisis is over. But he says later it is not wrong if they do.

These are powerful gifts with great application.

I sometimes wonder if I mum had this gift of supernatural knowledge. She was able to know things that I had no idea how she knew. I remember once I was taking my Walkman to school, and mum saw that and said, “Don’t do it, it’ll get confiscated”. I said, “I have been taking it for weeks and nothing happened.” So I took it. Guess what happened that very day?

Sometimes you just know something that you shouldn’t know. The Holy Spirit reveals this to you.

Faith, Healing and Miracles – He next mentions faith and healing, “9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10 to another the working of miracles,” Again, these gifts strongly overlap. To be able to lay hands on someone and say, “Be healed” or see another miracle happen takes faith. But there are differences.  

There are many examples of this in the book of Acts, like when Peter says to crippled man, walk (Acts 3:1-10). Or when it says in Acts 5:12 that the Apostles did many signs and wonders. Or in Acts 6:8 where it tells us that Stephen was doing great signs and wonders. A great example of supernatural faith is in Acts 27:30-32,

“30 And as the sailors were seeking to escape from the ship, and had lowered the ship's boat into the sea under pretense of laying out anchors from the bow, 31 Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, “Unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved.” 32 Then the soldiers cut away the ropes of the ship's boat and let it go.”

Paul knew that they would be ok, because an angel of the Lord told him that he must stand before Caesar (Acts 27:23-26). But he also knew that some things had to happen for him to survive. His rock-solid faith in the midst of the crisis won over the centurion, who came to trust him.

To have supernatural faith, is to have a sure hope and sure knowledge that God is going to come through, when others doubt. To have the ability to heal is to believe in that moment that God wants to heal someone through you.

We are all commanded to have faith, but have you ever just known that God was going to do something? Have you ever just had faith to persevere or ask God to work in a certain way when everyone else said it was hopeless? Have you ever had the faith to ask for something big, knowing somehow that God would come through?

The gift of healing or miracles is more controversial, because there are so many charlatan faith healers today. There is probably only a couple of other gifts more abused than this one, teaching and prophecy. But the idea that God can heal someone through one of his people is not controversial at all. It is just much rarer than other gifts.

There are genuine testimonies of people being healed. There are also examples of preachers stacking congregations to trick people into thinking a healing has happened. But healing is still offered in the Scriptures, James 5:14-15 –

“14 Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.”

Why doesn’t God heal always as we want? I think it can be for many reasons, it may not be his will, he may want us to pursue him more, it may be that we don’t really believe, or it may be sin in our lives, or a combination of these things. We don’t always know, we just know that if he says no, we should pursue him more, because this is ultimately what he wants and what is best for us.

Some people don’t like the idea that unbelief can stop miracles, but I get this idea from Jesus himself, Matthew 13:57-58, “57 And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and in his own household.” 58 And he did not do many mighty works there, because of their unbelief.” The important point is this is just one of many possible reasons.

Lastly here, discerning the spirits – “to another the ability to distinguish between spirits.” This is an incredibly important gift. Demonic spirits are a reality in this world. I have started reading a book recently about a Christian psychologist who decided to note what the voices were saying to his patients who were schizophrenic. He noted something interesting, the voices all appeared to be saying the same thing. Which is remarkable, considering our dreams are not the same, our internal thoughts are not the same, our experiences and imaginations are not the same. He started to realize that a lot of his patients were hearing from similar spirits which always had the same messages, to hurt themselves, or others and stuff like this. He realized there were Satanic spiritual forces at work.

Note that Paul warns us about this, he says, 1 Corinthians 12:3, “Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says “Jesus is accursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit.”

And the Apostle John likewise says, 1 John 4:1-3,

“1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.”

False spirits will oppress people, even believers, especially believers who are weak and given over to things like porn, alcoholism, drugs and other ensnaring sins. They will also possess non-believers, and harass believers through various means, including through possessed people. They will give false or true messages to witches, mediums and false prophets making them appear powerful. They will use displays of power and cunning to deceive people. They will also often pretend to be good people and go under the radar, working their wicked schemes subtly. Be watchful for such things.  

Paul encountered a person like this in Acts 16:16-18,

“16 As we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by fortune-telling. 17 She followed Paul and us, crying out, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation.” 18 And this she kept doing for many days. Paul, having become greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And it came out that very hour.”

They say never minister out of annoyance, but this passage shows it can’t always be true.

 John also tells us that antichrists will infiltrate the church,

“18 Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour. 19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us” (1 John 2:18-19).

So, this is a vital gift. We need the Holy Spirit to sharpen our senses to the spiritual forces of darkness around us, we are in a spiritual war, and spiritual forces are at work.

But we should not miss that more important that even what these gifts are exactly is how Paul brackets his discussion of these gifts, as he says, “7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good…11 All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.” In other words, the most important thing we should take from this passage is that to each believer a gift is going to be given.

Some are going to be given insights of knowledge or wisdom, or the ability to have more faith, or to discern spirits, or to be teachers, and evangelists, Romans 12 mentions hospitality, service, leadership and more. And each of these gifts comes together to strengthen the church.

It is important to note that Paul does not spend much time expanding on what all of these gifts are in 1 Corinthians 12-14, he does expand on some, but not all. The reason for this is that this is not his emphasis. His emphasis is what he focuses on next.

One Body With Many Members (vv. 12-27) – His most important point is that all of us who believe are vital members of the body of Christ, with important functions to fulfil.

“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. 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. 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. 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. 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.”

The main point of Paul’s argument in 1 Corinthians 12 is very simple: You are all needed in the Church for it to function well. All of you, every single one of us. No body can work properly without all its parts doing their job. “For the body does not consist of one member but of many.”

We are not all the same, we do not fulfil the same roles. If I were to ask you, would you rather lose a leg, an arm or an eye, what would you choose to loose? How about none? They all fulfil vastly different roles, but they are all vitally important to us. 1 Corinthians 12:18 - “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?”

Diversity of roles and functions is built into the body of Christ, it has to be for a body to work. There needs to be very different parts fulfilling very different roles. We can’t all be teachers, or singers, or musicians, or Sunday School teachers, or whatever. Otherwise, nothing else would work.

But the flip side of this is that we all need to be involved, look what Paul says here, “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,”

Both the head and the eyes are more fragile than the hand and the feet, but they are even more indispensable. Headless just does not work. Losing eyes weakens everything. If parts reject the body the whole body weakens and so do those parts.   

But I see another application here as well – the quickness with which we Protestants leave the body. If I were to pick the greatest fault in Protestant Churches, I would say it is our sectarianism. Protestants are quick to either leave a church or leave to start another church, usually on a personal issue or fine point of doctrine that outsiders would not see the same chasm as we would.

Protestants almost specialize in magnifying differences and minoring on commonalities.

This has been happening since the day at the Marburg Colloquy that Luther and Zwingli could not agree what “This is my body” actually meant. They agreed on 14 out of 15 points, but could not agree on the last. This fractured the entire Protestant movement.

It is common for Protestants to say, we do not need this or that group. And some groups we do need to separate from, others not so much. This is relevant to myself and our church, because our union is doing things that some of us consider not properly Baptist. Some of my friends have left the union over it, with their churches even. My thinking is that staying as long as we can helps us to have a better influence. Some of my pastor friends see it differently, I understand why. But I can’t help but not that separating is the Protestant’s oldest tradition.

In fact, a lot of the book of 1 Corinthians tends to rebuke the faults in the Protestant church, even our penchant for denominationalism, or tying ourselves by name to a certain person or movement.

We are stronger all working together – Paul speaks into this by essentially saying that we are all stronger working collectively, than we are individually, “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.”

-        This is why the Spirit of God empowers everybody.

-        This is why the Spirit of God empowers everybody differently.

-        This is why the more of us who get involved in the various ministries of the church, the more healthy our church feels and the more we can see it come to life. Because this is how God intended things to be.

-        This is why when less people input the opposite happens. It is a very simple and practical principle.  

Application – So how do we apply this sermon today? I would recommend you ask yourself these questions:

-        How do you believe God has gifted you?

-        Where can you see need in the church, and know you could help out?

-        What do you like to do, and how can you use this to bless your church?

-        If you aren’t serving, why? Maybe you have a good reason, you are in a season of life where you need to build into your family, or you are recovering from burnout, or you are not well, or you are relatively new to the church and just getting your feet. But outside of these and a few others other reasons, you should challenge yourself with this question: if I am part of the body, shouldn’t I participate?

Conclusion – Paul’s message is very simple: the whole body working together. Let me finish by noting this, we don’t serve to be saved, we served because we are saved, Paul tells us this, 1 Corinthians 12:12-13 – “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.” What makes us part of the body of the Christ? When we turned from our sins and trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ who died for us our sins, we then receive the Holy Spirit who baptizes us. It is the Baptism of the Spirit that saves us, makes us Christians, and makes us part of the body. Therefore,

-        You are not saved by service. I would never want you to get confused about that. You are saved to live as Christ would have you be saved.

-        You are saved by trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ, not by your works. Therefore, your works should flow not out of guilt, but a free choice to contribute in this world as Christ would have you contribute.

-        If service becomes a burden for you, always let me know, I don’t want to see that happen. It is good to honour our duty, it is bad to burn ourselves out.

-        Remember this, the greatest will be the one who serves the many, and there is none greater that our Lord Jesus Christ, because none served more than he. Let’s pray.