Good Morning My Beloved,
Thank you all for joining us, we're gathered today
as the Body Of Christ
Heavenly Father,
We are one, our unity is the unity of the church and the Spirit,
not the unity of any denomination, or any particular church
entity or organization, let there be true spiritual unity, as intended
let us humble ourselves, that when we look every other man in Your body
so that when we love, we love with a love that could care less
help us, Lord, so we begin to minister together, in harmony,
sharing our spiritual gifts, gifts from You, with one another
Oh, gracious and loving Lord, I pray this every day
that this will be the case here, and throughout the rest of the Body
so that when the world looks at us, they will say,
"Jesus must be real. We can tell He is, because of their love for each other."
Father, I thank You for these words I am about to teach,
thank You for these truths. Thank You for giving me Your Wisdom
so that I may teach others about the body, these wonderful and glorious truths
Thank you for Your Son Jesus, who is our Head,
help us, teach us to operate as one, teach us to function as one body in Christ
Help us to just go into the world and find someone, somewhere to minister to
to share our gifts with, that we might really begin to work for You,
that we might be truly united
In Jesus' name this I pray
Amen
"For as the body is one and has many parts, and all the parts of that body, though many, are one body—so also is Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. So the body is not one part but many. If the foot should say, “Because I’m not a hand, I don’t belong to the body,” in spite of this it still belongs to the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I’m not an eye, I don’t belong to the body,” in spite of this it still belongs to the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But now God has placed each one of the parts in one body just as He wanted. And if they were all the same part, where would the body be? Now there are many parts, yet one body.
So the eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” Or again, the head can’t say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” But even more, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are necessary. And those parts of the body that we think to be less honorable, we clothe these with greater honor, and our unpresentable parts have a better presentation. But our presentable parts have no need of clothing. Instead, God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the less honorable, so that there would be no division in the body, but that the members would have the same concern for each other. So if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and individual members of it."
1 Corinthians 12:12-27
Today's Message: The Body Of Christ - Part 2
Over the next several days, as we begin our study in 1 Corinthians 12, verses 12-27, I want you to know, we will be gradually working our way toward the a study on the book of Ephesians, which is the account reckoning, the doctrine of the body of Christ.
Now, before we can move on to Ephesians, as I said, we need to take a look at 1 Corinthians chapter 12. There are some things, I really want you to see, some imperative truths, some things about the body. The Body of Christ. There are three things. And I’ll explain to you what the Body of Christ means. Biblically, this is actually pretty strategic, so I really want you to put on your thinking caps and engage your brains, possibly in high gear. Get it out of neutral, where it’s just kind of spinning around, in place. This is going to require some effort on your part, to get this. But its important, pretty important.
All right, let's begin, there are three things I really want you to see. These three things that characterize the body, and they are completely detailed in the 12th chapter. They are: number one, unity; number two, diversity; number three, harmony. Unity, diversity, harmony. If you want an I-T-Y ending: mutuality. Entity, Unity, Diversity, and Harmony etc. These are the key things for you to understand. You must understand this.
Part of the reason the Church, well, really, the biggest reason the Church is so crippled is because people aren’t functioning as the body. Strategic words.
First, let’s look at unity. Unity. The first and incidentally, you may want to write this down – the dominant character of a body is its unity. Beginning in 1 Corinthians 12 and verse 12.
1 Corinthians 12:12, "For as the body is one" – and here he’s talking about a physical body – “and has many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.”
Now, here Paul takes the physical body and he says, "Folks, you must know that a physical body must be one." You cannot take a physical body and put an arm here, and a leg there, and a head there, and a heart there, and a couple of feet over there and say, "Now, body, go do something." You cannot say to those disconnected members, "Pull yourself together and function." A body is a unit or it does not exist. It must be one. Paul says, "The body is one and has many functioning members." The physical body.
I cannot say, "You know, my hand is so gifted, I’m going to cut it off and send it over..." Your hand will not be gifted. After you have cut it off, it will die. It has to be attached to the body. So, the essence of a body is unity. Unity. We are one. "So also is Christ." We are, beloved, a body. Christ is the Head; we are the body. All the members. We are one. If we detach, we are dead. We cannot be detached. We function as a unit, or we do not function. We are one. And Christ is the Head of the body from which all the instruction comes, all the brain power, all the energy, and all the resources to make every part of the body function.
Now, notice verse 13. Here’s how you get into the body. Here’s how the body begins, the unity of the body, verse 13, "For by one Spirit" – and I want you to notice how many times the word "one" is used. Back in verse 12, one body, one body – twice. Verse 13, "For by one Spirit were we all baptized into one body" – that’s three times – four times he’s already said "one body." Four times in a verse and a line. Do you think he means to emphasize unity here?
"For by one Spirit were we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Greeks, whether we be bond or free; we have been all made to drink into one Spirit." Listen, we are one. And salvation is the initial point of our unity. We all came by one Spirit into the body. We all came through the one way. Who’s that? Jesus Christ. One door. Jesus Christ. We are one in one body because we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body and now have the one same Spirit dwelling within us.
Notice it in verse 13. "By one Spirit were we all baptized into one body." People say, "What is he baptism of the Holy Spirit? The baptism of the Holy Spirit is right here in this verse – clearly this: it is God’s Holy Spirit placing a believer into the body of Christ. That’s exactly what it says there. "By one Spirit were we all baptized into one body." You came into the body of Christ at the moment of salvation by being placed there by the energy of the Spirit. From the moment you receive Jesus Christ, my beloved, you were a part of that one body, and you were put there by that one same Spirit. Not only were you put there, but verse 13 says, "You also have the same indwelling Spirit." See that? "We’ve all been made to drink" – that is, assimilate or appropriate – "the one Spirit."
Now, you notice how he’s emphasizing our unity? Sure. It’s the whole point. He is stressing our unity. We were born of the Spirit, right? We put faith in Jesus Christ; we were born of the Spirit. By the one Spirit, placed into the body of Christ. Right By being placed in the body of Christ, we were indwelt by the same one Spirit. Right? So, the Spirit redeemed us by faith in Christ. The Spirit actually does the work of regeneration. Doesn’t He? The Spirit regenerates us, places us in the body of Christ, comes to indwell us.
You say, "Does every Christian have the Holy Spirit indwelling?" You better believe it. Romans 8:9 says, "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His." There’s no such thing as a believer who doesn’t have the Holy Spirit. No such thing. "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His." Turn it around, "If you belong to Him, you have the Holy Spirit."
You receive the Holy Spirit. First of all, He regenerated you, placed you in the body, then you received Him. You drank of Him. He came within you. Now – now, you notice how our unity is all wrapped up in the Spirit? See it? That’s why Paul says in Ephesians 4:3 that we have – quote – are you ready for this? – "the unity of the Spirit." Because it is the same Spirit who regenerates us, baptizes us into the body, and indwells us. Our unity then is not based upon an artificial denominational basis; it is not based upon the fact that we’re just all believers in the Christ; it is based on the fact that we have all been identified in the work of one single Spirit.
That’s the point of our unity, well, isn’t it? We have one Spirit. He’s the same in me as He is in you. Same Spirit. I came to Jesus Christ, believed in Him. I was regenerated by the same Spirit in the same way, placed in the same body by the same Spirit in the same way, indwelt by the same Spirit in the same way as you were. And therefore, our unity is in the Spirit. That’s why when a believer operates in the flesh, he operates contrary to the functioning of the body. Because the body must operate in the unity of the Spirit.
Now, there’s no other way to get into the body of Christ except to be baptized into the body by the Spirit. And there’s only one way to be baptized into the body by the Spirit, and that’s to be redeemed by Jesus Christ. We all come one way, by one Savior, through one Spirit, by one salvation. And thus our unity begins. Doesn’t it? In the body of Christ, we all came through the blood of Jesus Christ by the Spirit of God.
So, we start out with basic unity. Don’t we? Isn’t it interesting how once we’ve all gotten that unity and gotten into the body we all scatter? See? We all came in the same way, experienced the same Spirit, had the same indwelling Spirit, and we’re gone. And then we spend all of our ministry trying to get the body back together again to realize their unity. We are one, friends. We are one. There are no such things as super saints. There aren’t. Really there aren’t.
You know, one minister said this. He said, "The Church is so cold, and the body is so dead, that when somebody arrives with a 98.6, we think the guy is sick. We think he’s got a fever. And he’s normal." See? Our temperatures are so cold that when a guy comes in with a 98.6, we think the guy’s a hothead. He’s got a fever. Cool him down; he’s running amok.
Listen, to be totally committed to Jesus Christ and totally absorbed in the Spirit’s ministry is not to be super; it’s to be normal. There are no great people in the body of Christ. Nobody can come in and say, "Well, how did you get here?" "Well, I did this, and 49 of those, and 74 of those, and I got here."
See it? No you didn’t. You came by one Spirit into one body just like everybody else did. That’s the point of our unity. There’s nobody that can stand up in the body of Christ and say, "I got here like this. You stay down there." No. We came the same way, and it was by grace, wasn’t it? It wasn’t works, was it? If it was works, we’d all be boasting, wouldn’t we? We are all trophies of grace, brought into the body by the same way. We have nothing to glory in, nothing to boast in, nothing to stand up and say, "I’m going to lord it over you." And the whole clergy/laity dichotomy is unbiblical. I am not any higher than you except that this platform is – I don’t know – 36 inches up. That’s the only elevation that I have over you. And if it bothers you, from now on I’ll preach from down there.
I am not somebody above you, and you are not somebody above somebody else, and you are not somebody below somebody else. We are one. Get that? There is no hierarchy in the New Testament. There are varying gifts, but no hierarchy. If you want an organizational chart of Christianity, it’s got Christ at the head, and from then on, it’s a big circle. That’s all. It’s not filtering down. We all came into the body the same way. We are all trophies of God’s grace. There is no hierarchy. We are all one.
And you recall this in your mind. Now, just a few minutes ago we presented to you metaphors. Didn’t we? Metaphors of the Church. Did you notice how that every single one of them, without exception, emphasizes unity? Did you notice that? Watch this review: We are one wife with one husband. Right? We are one flock with how many shepherds? One Shepherd. We are one set of branches on one Vine. We are one kingdom with one King. We are one family with one Father. We are one building with one Foundation. We are one body with one Head: Jesus Christ. We are one.
The Bible doesn’t say the fat branches and the skinny branches or the lamb sheep and the super sheep. The message of the body of Christ is the message of one. We are one. We are one in Christ. There is no room for hierarchy; there is no room for upper class/lower class. And I’ll tell you something else, there’s no such thing as an isolated believer. There’s no believer who’s not a part of the body, who’s just sitting over here by himself. You are in the body. You’re part of it just as much as I am or anybody else. There are no such things as upper class/lower class Christians. And there are none who are out of the body. You’re all in the body.
Just to emphasize your unity, let me read you the catalog of unity. We’ll study this in weeks to come. Ephesians 4:4. Pay attention to this, "There is one body, one Spirit, as you are called, and one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all." One, one, one, one, one, one. Do you see?
I really like this illustration, in 1 Corinthians, backing up from where we are to chapter 1 just to illustrate this. You know what happened in the body of Christ in Corinth? They got all fractioned up. And they were all going around and saying:
"Well, who are you with?"
"Well, I’m an Apollos man myself."
"Oh, Apollos is out. I’m a Paul man." "Well, you know you guys are both out; Cephas is in. I follow Peter myself."
"Well, listen, folks. I follow Christ."
Beloved, there always seems to be one of those in every crowd. So, they were going on with this kind of a deal, back in 1 Corinthians 1, verse 12,
"Now this I say, every one of you saith,
‘I’m of Paul;’ ‘Oh, I’m of Apollos;’
‘I’m of Cephas;’ ‘I’m of Christ."
See that?
Then we have in verse 13, "Is Christ divided?" See? What kind of idiocy is that? Why are you fractioning up the body? For what reason? We’re not a follower of this or a follower of that. "Is Christ divided?" Of course not! Now, let's look at chapter 3, verse 21, "Therefore let no man glory in men." You don’t go around saying, "Well, I follow him," or, "I follow him," or, "I follow him." You don’t glory in that. "For all things are yours, whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours." He throws it all in there. "And you are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s." Will you just get off this division and get back on the oneness? You see, that’s really a potent section in chapter 3 there. He just says everything you think of it’s all yours. You’re one. You’re one with Christ and Christ with God.
So, Paul emphasizes our oneness. The Church is a people, an assembly of redeemed people who owe their distinct existence, their life together, to the fact that they were by one Spirit put into one body and indwelt by the one same Spirit. We are not separated believers, my beloved, we are one.
Your life never ends. Did you know that? It just picks up where mine begins. And the whole body of Christ just keeps going like that. There’s no breaks; it’s an endless chain.
We have been called into the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ, our Lord. We’re all a part of His body. You say, "What got us into this thing?" Well, the call of God. We are God’s ecclesia from eklektos, to call out. We are God’s called out ones. Called apart from the world to exist as a separate entity, His body, with Him as the Head.
And we are to lead a life worthy of His calling. Aren’t we? So that we may become in character and conduct what we are in status: called apart, saints, separated unto him, his body. So, the Church then is God’s people, called out of the world and separated to exist for Him. One in holiness, one in mission. We all have the same mission. One in suffering and one in glory. We are one.
Now look at this, in Ephesians 2:12-20 says, "At that time you were without the Messiah, excluded from the citizenship of Israel, and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus, you who were far away have been brought near by the blood of the Messiah. For He is our peace, who made both groups one and tore down the dividing wall of hostility." - That is Jew and Gentile. - "In His flesh, He made of no effect the law consisting of commands and expressed in regulations, so that He might create in Himself one new man from the two, resulting in peace. He did this so that He might reconcile both to God in one body through the cross and put the hostility to death by it. When the Messiah came, He proclaimed the good news of peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with the saints, and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the cornerstone."
Did you see that, "so that He might create in Himself one new man from the two"
and look at this, "so that He might reconcile both to God in one body through the cross and put the hostility to death by it."
Now let's look at Galatians 3:28-29, and then we'll wrap this up for today. In Galatians 3:28-29,
"There is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, heirs according to the promise."
In Closing...
Allow me to just make one last point, not one, none of those distinctions exist any longer in the Church, in terms of our position, in the blessing of Christ. We are one, a new man, you see, that is exactly what we are. We are a new man, a new body, the Body of Christ. No more division! A brand new thing! It has never existed before, but now it does. The Body of Christ, as one entity. Christ has abolished all barriers in order to make us one.
He’s abolished the barriers of nationality, the barriers of race, the barriers of class, the barriers of sex, every single barrier that has been was abolished, to make one new man. And that’s a glorious thing. We’re one. It doesn’t matter who we are; if we love Jesus and we are in Christ, we are one, period!
Some people just can’t get this into their mind. They think we're the Christians up here, we're elevated, and those Christians, the rest of you, well, you are the low class ones. That's just bogus! It's biblically, scripturally incorrect! It is just not so.
So all you Holy Rollers, come on down off your High horses, you're no better than any other member of the body. I'll spell it out for you: One Body, in Christ. And just as with any body, we must be a healthy body! There you have it, and the Scripture to back it up, so read it, study it, so now start practicing it!
And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen
Brian Monzon Ministries