Markham Baptist Church Sermon

Preached in Markham Baptist Church, October 17, 2004

Wow! Did you hear that? Did you hear that amazing announcement at the end of that passage – verse 27? “You are the body of Christ and each of you is part of it.” Remarkable. And we say, “How did that happen? How did I become part of the body of Christ?”

We have learned that when we come in repentance and faith to Jesus Christ, He comes and lives in us so we can fulfill our purpose – to show what God is like in His moral image. Last week we discovered that Christ is not only in us but we are in Christ as we give our whole self to Him.

So the answer is, when you came to faith you then became part of Christ’s body. And that means that our purpose in life is to show what God is like not just as individuals but as the body of Christ, the church.

It’s quite remarkable, isn’t it? Scripture says you are not merely a body of believers – no, not at all; you are the body of Christ.

It blows the mind to think that we are the body of the one who has been given the name above every name, you are the body of God incarnate.

Now don’t get to thinking that you are God incarnate – it’s not that – but rather you are the BODY of Christ. Just as your body is a vessel which carries your soul, so we are vessels which carry Christ into the world.

We are the visible representation of Christ in this world. You are the living testimony of the reality of Christ, the working, moving, serving, giving body of Christ. You are the body of Christ. That’s remarkable. You are the body of Christ think of that for a moment.

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It speaks of a privileged partnership, doesn’t it? If the church is the body then Christ must be the Head – that’s what Scripture teaches us, Colossians 1:18: “He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church.” (See also Ephesians 4:15; 5:23)

And we Christians are called into a privileged partnership with Christ for the building of His kingdom, for the salvation of the world. We are His body, taking orders from the head, going where He wants us to go, proclaiming His news of salvation, doing acts of service and mercy on His behalf. We are His body.

Isn’t that an amazing privilege to work with Christ for the saving of this world? Do you have people you would love to work with or study with or pray with, thinking it would be a great privilege? I do. I would love to spend an hour with Charles Price, or Michael Quicke or Philip Yancey. That would be a great privilege – but we have an even greater privilege to work with Jesus Christ.

We think – yeah, but He could save the world on His own. True – but He won’t – that’s the privilege of it all. It’s not that He needs us it’s that He wants us. HE wants us to work with Him. HE chooses us, He likes us!

He invites us to be part of transforming lives; He depends on you and me to carry out His plans in the world – even as He did with the original disciples.

We are the body of Christ.

In the courtyard of a quaint little church in a French village there stood a beautiful marble statue of Jesus with His hands outstretched. One day during World War II a bomb struck near the statue and mutilated it. After the battle was over and the enemy had passed through, the citizens of the village decided to find the pieces of their beloved statue and reconstruct it. Though the statue was no work of art by Michelangelo or Bernine, it was a part of their lives and they loved it. Patiently they gathered the broken pieces and reassembled it. Even the scars on the body added to its beauty. But there was one problem. They were unable to find the hands of the statue. “A Christ without hands is not Christ at all,” someone expressed in sorrow. “Hands with scars, yes. But what’s a Lord without hands? We need a new statue.”

But then someone else came along with another idea, and it prevailed. A brass plaque was attached at the base of the statue, which read, “I have no hands but your hands.”

Some years later someone saw that inscription and wrote, the following lines,

I have no hands but your hands to do my work today.

I have no feet but your feet to lead folks [men] on the way.

I have no tongue but your tongue to tell people [men] how I died.

I have no help but your help to bring others [men] to God’s side.”¹

You are the body of Christ.

Now I feel I must stress this, even though it may be obvious to some of you, but you are Christ’s body. You see we must understand this in order to get our priorities right in order to understand the purpose for which God has made us.

If we are Christ’s BODY that means that the church is not a building. And that means that church is not something we come to but rather it is something that we are. “The church is not an organization, it is rather men and women, young people, children, from every background and colour of skin who, upon repentance of their sin and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ have become indwelt by His Spirit and incorporated into His body.”²

You are the BODY of Christ. We must understand this in order to get our priorities right in order to understand the purpose for which God has made us. If I don’t understand it then I am liable to think that this building (which we call the church but is not the church) is more important than the actual body of Christ, that IS the church which is you and fellow believers.

If I don’t understand this I may fall into the trap of spending more time cultivating the building which I think is the church instead of cultivating relationships, that IS the Church.

And there is also this, hear the words, ‘You ARE the BODY of Christ.” This also affects our view of the relevance of the church - if we think of church as merely a building, or a special kind of service, or a place where one man with a button-down collar talks a lot, then church becomes unimportant, irrelevant. It becomes as optional as the next ball game or concert series at Markham Theatre. It becomes a good place to have a wedding or send children to for Sunday School because we want them to have good morals and being sent will do them no harm.

But if we ARE the body of Christ, doesn’t that infuse the church with a whole new relevance? Doesn’t that lift us up out of this complacent mundane idea that the church is only a place for me to go to once a week, or fill some volunteer hours talking about internal policies, and budgets, the color of the carpet and attendance records. But if we ARE the body of Christ then that means we are part of a living, dynamic force who is out to change the world. And we continue with our petty small thinking of what the church can do and our pet peeves about what people wear to worship, and where people sit and who brings coffee into the worship experience – get out of the way. We are not here for that. O, that we would realize that we are the body of the risen Lord. The King of kings dwells in us and our purpose is so much greater than we sometimes realize. We are out to change the world; the purpose is that great and that tremendous, it is that urgent!

We are the body of Christ. Did you mother ever say to you, "I don’t think you have your head screwed on straight.” It means you are not thinking clearly. Sometimes I don’t think the body of Christ has its head screwed on straight. O, that we the body would have the same desire as our head, who is Christ. That we would seek to glorify God; this is what Christ came to do. (Jesus prays, as he wrestles with the reality of the cross, “Father glorify your name” John 12:28) God save us from pettiness. Paul had to warn the Colossian Christians about this very thing, they were caught up with all sorts of incidentals, judging people by what they eat or drink, and all sorts of idle notions, and Paul says, such a person has “lost connection with the head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow.” (Colossians 1:16-19)

O that we would see the world as our head sees the world. That we would see the world as lost, and our hearts would break for those without Christ. Doomed to an eternity of hell, floundering in this life playing with the mud of immorality and the stones of materialism doomed to an eternity of hell - for that the way our Head sees the world, that’s why He came (“For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.” Luke 19:10) O, that we would do anything in our power to seek the lost and present the gospel so that Jesus Christ can save them. O, that we would die to self and our petty demands about what the church should be and who can be a part of the church so that we can truly be the body of Christ.

You ARE the BODY of Christ – it is a privileged partnership.

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Think next of a second part of that sentence. “And everyone of you is part of it.”

This speaks of a united membership. It includes all of us. There isn’t one saved person who isn’t a part of the church. If you have received Christ as Lord and Saviour you are part of the church.

Listen, if we have made you feel that you are not part of the church, please forgive us. Give us a second chance. There were some in the Corinthian church who didn’t feel they belonged to the church because they weren’t what we call “up front” people. They didn’t have those gifts which people look up to, so they didn’t think they were needed because they didn’t see themselves as important. And Paul says, stop that thinking - every one of you is part of the body of Christ.

Not only does it include us all, but it involves us all. If we have given anyone here the impression that they are not needed, please forgive us. And if you haven’t received that impression and you are still not involved, then may God forgive you.

We have got to get over this idea that Christianity is merely attendance at a performance where we can hear a good pianist, listen to a speaker and go home. Rick Warren makes this point saying that God has not called us simply to believe but to belong.³ The church is not something to which we go it is something we are in. Do you see the difference? We go to the video store, or Pizza Pizza or the hockey game; but the church demands a different human relationship – a relationship of belonging.

So when we hear Jesus say, “Follow me” He is not advising us to go to church. He is calling for involvement, commitment.

Bud Wilkinson was a football coach for Oklahoma University when he was asked by a reporter, “What contribution does professional sport make to the physical fitness of Americans?” His answer didn’t surprise anyone, he said, “Very little. A professional football game is a happening where 50,000 spectators, desperately needing exercise, sit in the stands watching 22 men on the field desperately needing rest.”⁴

That’s the typical 21^st century church. A host of spectators, a handful of participants. But it’s not the body of Christ. You are the body of Christ and every one of you is part of it.

And Paul outlines in this text that God has equipped us to participate fully in the life of the body by giving us each a gift. To some He has given more than one and He lists them here. This is not a complete list. Verse 7 through 11 of our chapter outlines a number of the gifts, Romans 12, Ephesians 4 also give lists of the spiritual gifts that are given out.

The point is that every one of us by virtue of God’s redemption has received a gift to exercise for the building of the kingdom, for the good of the body.

You see, God has equipped you to do a task, which no one else can do. Some of you are ears of the body, listening intently for a word from God for the direction of the body, some of you are voices of the body as you exercise your gift of encouragement and teaching. Some of you are hands of the body building the body up through the gifts of hospitality, generosity, and service some of you are eyes of the body, calling us to dream dreams and hold on to our vision for the glory of God.

It follows that if you have been given a gift and don’t exercise it, you are hindering the body, you are making the body weak. The body is made up of many parts and every part needs to function if the body is to work properly and the body is to be built up.

Paul underscores this thought in verses 21 through 23. Where he says, “Don’t belittle your gift or the gift of others, for God has given honor to those parts of the body which we think are less honorable. Every part of the body is vital for it's functioning."

Imagine if your left hand said to the body, “I’m going to take a year off." I imagine your right foot would have something to say about that.

"A year off??? Do you know how long it will take me to type out a sermon for this guy? I’m not going to do all the work for a year while you lounge about," says the right hand.

Well I’ve had enough of doing all the for the left side,” says the left hand. “And I’m going to take a year off.”

What happens in that year. The body gets weaker instead of stronger.

My friends you are the body of Christ and each one of you is part of it and if you aren’t offering your abilities and talents and gifts to the body, you are weakening the body.

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I must move on here – a privileged partnership, a united membership, this passage speaks of a caring fellowship. Verses 24-26: "But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honour to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it, if one part is honored every part rejoices with it."

Look at those words. Its parts should have equal concern for each other. There are no barriers here, there’s no shyness, there’s an open exchange of burdens and cares and an equal outpouring of compassion of encouragement. If my hand suffers a cut, my other hand comes over to help ease the pain, my feet take me as fast as possible to the doctor, or bandage, and my mouth vocalizes the sting. There’s no trying to hide the cut, or having the hand try to look after itself, it can’t.

You are part of the body of Christ, you don’t need to try to carry the burden alone. You don’t need to try to solve the problem on your own - you are part of a caring fellowship. If one part suffers, every part suffers; if one part is honoured, every part rejoices with it. And if we have not conveyed that as a church then God forgive us. And if you have not allowed that to happen then God forgive you.

You see if the body is going to have equal concern for each other it means that you need to allow people the privilege of suffering with you, of rejoicing with you. I know that takes trust and the onus is on us to be trustworthy people. But that’s what being part of the body means.

You are the body of Christ. It is a privileged partnership we are wanted by our Lord in the work of His kingdom. Each of you is part of it – a united membership where each part carries out its gift for the benefit of the body. And a caring fellowship each part helping the other through life’s joys and difficulties.

Remarkable! You are the body of Christ. We are part of the living, vibrant, God-glorifying, lost-seeking Body of Christ. We are the body of Christ and everyone of us is part of it. Are you?

ENDNOTES:

1. Larry Gilbert, How to Find Meaning and Fulfillment through Understanding the Spiritual Gift within You. (Lynchburg, VA: Church Growth Institute, 1987) p. 34.

2. Charles Price, Christ For Real. (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Kregel Publications, 1995) p. 126.

3. Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life. (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing, 2002) p. 130.

4. William McRae, Dynamics of Spiritual Gifts. (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing, 1976) p. 12.