A Part of Something BIGGER          Sept. 9th

                          

Scripture:  1 Cor. 12: 12-14

 Introduction:    In essence this Scripture is telling believers (the Corinthians and modern day believers) that we are all part of one Body (the Church); even though there are many parts (represented by believers everywhere) this Body is a unit. Notice the sentence which says, “So it is with Christ.” As you study Scripture you learn the rest of the story which explains that the Body (the Church) has a head, and that head is Jesus Christ.  The fact that verse 13 talks about each of us (believers) being baptized by one Spirit into this body introduces to us the idea that we as believers are “in Christ.”

Two Results of Becoming a Christian

        What does it mean to be “in Christ;” what are the implications?  There are two things that happen when a person becomes a Christian.

A) Christ comes to live in us: notice the words of Rom. 8:9, “If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.” It is Christ living in you by His Spirit that makes you a Christian.  Notice the words of 1 Cor. 13:5 where we read, “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith, test yourselves.  Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you…?  Are you a real Christian? How do you know for sure?  Is there evidence that Jesus Christ lives in you?

        So that’s the first thing that happens when you become a Christian; Christ comes to live in you. 

B)  We come to be In Christ:  The second thing that happens when you become a Christian is that you come into Christ. Notice what is said in 1 Cor. 12:13, “We were all baptized by one Spirit into one Body;” the Body of Christ, consequently we were baptized into Christ.  But what is the true meaning, emphasis and purpose of these two complementary events (Christ coming to live in us and we coming into Christ)? The best way for us to understand these ideas is with an illustration taken from a story of a very unfortunate, yet fortunate farmer.

Miraculous Re-attachment

        A farmer was bailing hay on his farm one day when something got into the bailer and jammed it.  The farmer got off the tractor to see what was wrong but he did not disengage the bailer.  He reached his arm into the machine and pulled out the debris. Immediately the machine began to work again and before the farmer could get clear, the moving parts of the bailer caught his arm, pulled it in and chopped it off just below his shoulder. In shock the farmer shut off the bailer, picked up his severed right arm and walked about a third of a mile to the next farmhouse.  He knocked on the door and when it was answered he explained what had happened to his neighbour’s wife.  She quickly put his arm in the deep freeze and called 911.

  When the ambulance arrived the attendant packed the farmers severed arm in ice and rushed him off to the hospital.  Through a long and delicate operation the surgeons re-attached the farmers arm to his body.  The story showed a picture of the farmer 3 months later standing outside his house, bare-chested flexing the muscles of both arms—the scar still visible on his right arm but the article said he was regaining the use of his right arm and that within 18 months to 2 years the farmer would have almost full use of his arm again. 

         I told you this story because it is an excellent illustration of what it means for Christ to be in us and us to be in Christ. 

A) The Arm Received the Life of the Body

When it was severed from the body the arm died and became lifeless.  It was unable to respond to the body, because it was severed from the body.  When it was re-attached to the body the sign that the surgery was successful was that the life of the body re-inhabited the arm.  The arm became re-attached to the body and became part of something much bigger than itself by now being part of the body. 

        When you become a Christian, you receive life, God’s life, when Christ’s Spirit comes to live in you.  Prior to this experience Eph. 2:1 says, “You were dead in your sins…” Now at the same time that Christ comes into you and you receive life, you, like the farmers re-attached arm, become re-attached to Christ and His life flows through you.   

What does this mean?

Now that you are re-attached to Christ and His life flows through you, that life becomes your source of power.   Look at my hand and arm; they are attached to my body which is their source of ability and power.

        Not only is our attachment to the body our source of ability and power, but it is also our source of purpose. You see my arm is no longer just an arm doing what arms do.  It is an arm working in cooperation with the body to accomplish the purposes of the head.  (example- I am thirsty, my brain tells my arm and hand to reach down take this cup hold it in just the right place and I drink).

        The significance of my arm and hand is not just that they have my life in them but they now have purpose and function that is related to the fact that they are part of something much bigger—my body.  The emphasis of being in Christ is not just that we have life—Christ in us—but that we now have purpose, we now have function—that comes from the Head of the Body into which we have been incorporated, which is Christ. 

        So if Christ in me gives me power, then I in Christ gives me purpose.  Christ in me gives me salvation and I in Christ leads me into service; operating under Christ’s headship.  Christ in me gives me resources, and I in Christ gives me responsibilities.  Christ in me is personal, but I in Christ is corporate because in Christ I am now part of something bigger—the Church which is Christ’s Body. I am no longer the lone ranger Christian; it’s not just me and Jesus, me and my little kingdom.  I am part of something much bigger, the Church—of which Christ is the head and His Spirit is its life, into which I have been incorporated. 

        Jesus still has a Body here on earth—it’s His Church, which is made up of different men, women, and children just like the ones here in our fellowship. Each part of this Body is connected to the whole and we have to learn to function as a Body, with Christ as the head, if we are going to be affective for Christ in our community. Let’s pray that God will open the eyes of our hearts that we may know Him better and understand more clearly what it means to function as the Church, the Body of Christ and to be collectively committed to the purposes of the Head of this Body which is Jesus Christ our Lord.