Christ & Us

Introduction

Well, in all the stories I’ve shared and all the characters from my past and my childhood that I’ve told you about, I don’t know that I’ve ever told you about Andy. Little Andy Meredith was the preacher’s kid when I was a little kid. When I was a kid, the preacher had three children, Ginger, Barry, and Andy. Andy was the youngest. And the incident I’m telling you about, Andy was probably about two or three years old. Cutest little kid, little blonde-haired kids you ever want to see. And my mom would, every once in a while, she would keep Andy when the preacher or the preacher’s wife was busy and needed some help. And so mom would babysit those uh the preacher’s kids, and particularly the young little Andy.

And one thing you need to know about my mom, one of her hobbies was shopping. And so most of the time babysitting involved taking the kids to town. And so she took Andy to town this one day, took him to Kmart. And another thing you need to know about Alabama, and it may be in the same here in Florida, I’m not sure, but in a sign of respect, you never called somebody just by their first name. It was always Mr. or Mrs. But it kind of was the tradition, it was Mr. and Mrs. First Name. So rather than calling my mom Mrs. Chapman, she was known with by the for the little kids as Mrs. Marie. That was my mom’s name, Marie. Well, Mrs. Marie was kind of hard to say, particularly for a two or three-year-old little Andy.

And so this one day that mom was keeping little Andy, they were at Kmart, and Mom and Andy got separated from Kmart. And Andy looked up and he couldn’t see Mrs. Marie anywhere. And so he ran to the end of the clothes rack and he looked left and he looked right, and Mrs. Marie was nowhere to be seen. And so he went to the other end of the aisle and looked left and looked right, and there was no Mrs. Marie to be seen. And so in his broken English, as a two and three-year-old would, he stood there in the middle of Kmart and just yelled at the top of his lungs, Missouri.

And it sounded like he was selling yelling misery, which probably would have been appropriate if he’d have known what that word meant at two and three years old. We can kind of relate to that. Being lost and being separated. You know, the God who created us tells us the story of that creation. And one of the observations observations he makes about the creation of the human being was that it was not good that he was alone.

Now, obviously, that is speaking of the soon to be remedied through the creation of the institution of marriage. But we could transfer that principle to other areas of life, couldn’t we? It’s not good for man to be alone. The God who created us created us as social beings. Now, there are exceptions to that. There are those people who would prefer to live as hermits and to be isolated from every other human being on the planet, but those are the rare exceptions. God, as a rule, created us with the idea that it’s not good for us to be alone. He built within us, within our mechanism, within our psyche, this interdependence that we need other people. And I believe that Paul’s sermon in Mars Hill in Acts chapter 17 would tell us that a part of that need for others also draws us to him.

That we ultimately not only need one another, fellow human beings to fill that void because it’s not good for man to be alone. But it also draws us to him. And so this morning I’d like for us to talk about relationships, the relationships that God intended in the body of Christ, and how we should live in those relationships and what happens when those relationships go wrong. Just two simple points to our lesson this morning when we talk about this concept of Christ and us. These relationships, these togetherness, part of God’s plan to make sure that we’re not alone. There are others that are there. Turn with me, if you will, to the book of 1 Corinthians. You may remember, I’m going to 1 Corinthians chapter 12 in the offset here.

You’ll remember from your study of the New Testament, the church at Corinth, your study of the book of 1 Corinthians in particular, that this church at Corinth was a church that was rife with problems. You could probably argue as you flip through your Bible through 1 Corinthians that every page opening in 1 Corinthians, there’s a problem. And probably a new problem. And probably an increasingly worse problem. Problems after problems after problems at the church at Corinth. And so there’s so many lessons for us because that’s kind of the way it is with people and churches.

That it seems to me that 80, 90, I didn’t do the exact math, but 80, 90% of those solutions had to do with fixing these relationshians chapter 12. Notice how he says that because the God who created us as social beings said it was not good for us to be alone. And so he put us together in a marriage relationship.

1. God Has a Plan in the Body of Christ

And now he has ultimately and finally put us together in the body of Christ and has said this. First Corinthians chapter 12. Look at this familiar text beginning in verse 12. He’s going to start talking about the human body. For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body being many are one body, so also is Christ. Compare your physical body to the body of Christ. Verse 13, for by one spirit we’re all baptized into one body, whether Jews are Greeks, whether slaves are free, and have all been made to drink into one spirit, regardless of our differences, regardless of those things that might separate us and might even make us antagonistic toward one another, we are one body.

Back to the human body.

Part of the body. Is that true? Is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing? And if the whole were the hearing, where would be the smelling? But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as he pleased. And if they were all one member, where would the body be? But now indeed there are many members, yet one body. And the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you, nor the head to the feet, I’ve got no need of you. No, much rather those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary. And those member of the body which we think to be less honorable, on these we bestow greater honor, and our unpresentable parts have greater modesty.

But our presentable parts really have no need. But God composed the body, having given greater honor to that part which lacks it. That there should be no division in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all members suffer with it. If one member is honored, all members rejoice with it. Now you, you are the body of Christ and members individually. Again, famously comparing the human body and saying how it’s just one, but yet it’s made up of all these different parts, different parts that functioned and fulfilled different functions in the body, but are necessary to that one function that one needs, he says, that’s the church. That’s the body of Christ. Differences, different talents, different abilities bring different things to the table, different functions, but all necessary because we’re one.

And there’s unity. And so the first thing that we need to see about this body, about this oneness, is that God has a plan. Just like he did there in the garden when he said, It’s not good for you to be alone, Adam. God has a plan for spiritual growth and for spiritual encouragement in the body of Christ in the church. And we need to be a part of that plan. We need to be a part of that plan on the giving part of that plan and on the receiving part of that plan. Recognizing that you’re a part of this body. And recognizing that togetherness and feeling that sense of oneness and that sense of togetherness. And he says, now we we recognize that Paul makes a very similar illustration and similar points in Romans chapter 12.

But here in 1 Corinthians chapter 12, he states it as just a matter of fact of just the default, here’s how it’s going to happen. If one member suffers, all the members suffer with it. That there should be this joint blood flow between us. This connectivity that we are so close and we are so connected, we are so familial, tied together that we feel what the other feels. Illustrations are helpful sometimes to drive the point home. And just like I told you last week, an illustration acted out sometimes is better than an illustration told, and I don’t know how many of you did your homework. Did you empty that spice bottle and count out those spices and do the 10% tithing lesson that Jesus taught there in Matthew 23?

I’m seeing nobody shaking their head. Yes, nobody did that. Alright, you can make up for it. Today’s homework assignment is similar. I want you to not listen to an illustration, but live out an illustration. The human body, like the body of Christ, if one member suffers, all suffer with it. Here’s the illustration in your homework assignment. So you don’t forget, you don’t even have to leave church premises to do it. When you get out to the church parking lot, open your car door, stick your hand in the door, and slam the door shut. The hand is going to suffer, but the rest of the body is going to join in the chorus. Your feet will begin to move in sympathetic pain with that hand.

When one member suffers, all members suffer with it. It’s not just the hand out here throbbing in pain. Every part of your body is joining in with that because it’s so connected that it can’t help with it. And he’s saying that’s the way this body ought to be. We ought to be so interconnected that when someone else is suffering, I don’t have to be told. Now he’s going to tell us in Romans chapter 12 that we need to weep with those who weep. But here he doesn’t say do it. He just says it’s going to happen. If this relationship is like if the body’s functioning the way it ought to, the rest of the body is going to know that hand is suffering in some pain.

When one member suffers, everybody is suffering with it. Look, stay in 1 Corinthians 12. Go one chapter to chapter 13. Verse 1, though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, and I have become a sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned and have not love, it profits me nothing. Some there at Corinth seem to think that the church, the body of Christ, was a breeding ground for promotion of self.

That I can do these things, and I get to promote myself, and I get to show who I am and how great I am. And Paul is saying no, or really the Holy Spirit through Paul is saying, no. That’s not what this is all about. It’s about this the relationships that we have and the talents that you might have in this body need to be governed and channeled by love. Yes, you can use those things, but not as a means of self-promotion, but as a means of love. Encouragement, of edification, of building up one another. That’s how we help one another. To not be alone. He gets specific in chapter 14 of 1 Corinthians. Look at a few verses there. 1 Corinthians chapter 14. Look at verse 4.

He who speaks in a tongue, again, very specific about the age of spiritual gifts and how they specifically were being used or abused there at the church at Corinth. He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but he who prophesies edifies the church. The word edifies, in fact, your translation may actually translate it that way, means builds up. So you’re going there and you’re doing something to build yourself up, and someone else is going there to build up everybody else. And his point is there is contrast. One of you is doing it right and one of you doing it wrong. It’s not to build yourself up, it’s to build up the body. It’s to build up others. Not good for man to be alone. God put us together so that we can edify and build up one another.

Skip down to verse 12. Even so you, 1 Corinthians 14, verse 12, since you’re zealous for spiritual gifts, let it be for the edification, again, for the building up of the church that you seek to excel. Oh, you want these spiritual gifts. And Paul is saying, but why? Why do you want them? Just so you can have them. So you can be better than somebody else, so that you can look like somebody. If you want them, want them to build up everybody else. Help somebody else get to heaven. Help somebody else in their relationship to God. Verse 26, then. Same chapter. 1 Corinthians 14, verse 26. How is it then, brethren, when you come together, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a tongue, has a revelation, has an interpretation.

Let all things be done for edification. When you come together again, in your assemblies, even, he was saying, it’s just all about you individually. But let it be done for the building up of the body. That’s why God put us together. Because he said, it’s not good for you to be alone. And so let’s put you together for a purpose. God had a plan. Now, he would warn them, go back to 1 Corinthians chapter 3. Because of who they were and how they were behaving, they didn’t just need instruction. They needed a warning.

And so starting in chapter 12, he says, this is a body. In chapter 3, he’s going to say this is a temple. The temple of God. And notice what his warning there in 1 Corinthians 3, verse 17. If anyone defiles, again, your translation may say destroys, if anyone destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are. Now, real quickly here, the term temple in 1 Corinthians and really throughout the New Testament can be used in at least two different senses. Sometimes, as in 1 Corinthians 6, the temple can refer to the an individual human body. You’re the temple. You were bought with a price. And so individually we can be a temple. Here, he’s talking collectively as the group, as a church is the temple.

And so if anyone destroys the temple of God, this is God’s temple. We could mix our metaphors and say this is God’s body, this is Christ’s body. And if you destroy it, if you mess with it, God’s going to destroy you. You’re not just destroying your club, your plaything, you’re messing with God’s body. You’re destroying, defiling God’s temple, and you’ll have to answer to not man, but to God. And so God has a plan for spiritual growth and spiritual encouragement in the church. And so let’s be a part of that. Let’s be a part of the encouragement on the giving end, but also on the receiving end. Don’t miss out on the growth and the encouragement that God intended when he put us together like this.

2. Don’t Let Anybody Stand Between You and God

The same God who said centuries ago, it’s not good for you to be alone. Is the same God who said, assemble together. Gather together as a local church. Because that principle still applies. It’s not good for you to be alone. And so we can encourage one another. We can love one another. We can build each other up. That’s what God put us here together for. But what do we do when it goes wrong? What do I do when the foot misbehaves? When the ear is not listening the way it ought to listen, when the eye is not the type of eye that it ought to be.

Can you go away a little bit? We know that we need one another, and this is true in marriage, isn’t it? We know we need one another, but let’s be honest. Sometimes that spouse gets on your nerves. And so what do we do? How do we balance that? How do we balance that in this body? There may be multiple ways, and Paul addresses that here at the Church of Corinth, but here’s the main point I want us to get across this morning, because I see it happen too many times. That we get discouraged with fallible human beings. That God put us together as a plan to help each other, encourage and edify, build each other up. And we get discouraged with one another, we get put out with one another, and then we end up letting that destroy our relationship with God.

You’ve seen it. You could name names of people who used to be faithful members. Who just stormed away and said there’s there’s hypocrites in that church. Or they did this, I’m just not going to put up with that. I’m just gonna, I’m just quitting church because they did that. I’m just not going to church anymore because they won’t do that. And we let these relationships affect the ultimate relationship. And so, yes, God put these relationships in our lives on purpose, but don’t let this in any way. What God intended to enhance that relationship, don’t let this become an obstacle to that. Don’t let anybody stand between you and God. Don’t let anybody wreck your relationship to God. Let’s think about an example. I’m thinking of an example from the Old Testament of somebody who let others detrimentally affect his relationship to God and affect his reward.

Remember Moses? Moses that was picked, and we say, just as a baby, to lead his people out of bondage in Egypt and lead them to the promised land. Moses who labored, prepared and labored decades. Decades to do just that. And he never got to enjoy that promised land. He never got to taste that milk and honey. Why? Go with me real quickly to the Old Testament and let’s see what the text says about that. Numbers chapter 20. You’re probably familiar with that story. They’re in the wilderness. Remember when they got thirsty, they would grumble and complain, and God would give them water from the rock. And there was that one incident where Moses had just had it with those people. God said, speak to the rock, and Moses got mad and struck the rock and didn’t give glory to God and kind of just spouted off.

Here you go. Numbers chapter 20, verse 12 says this. Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, because you did not believe me. Here’s why you’re not going. Because you did not believe me to hallow me in the eyes of the children of Israel. Therefore, you shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them. Moses, you can’t go. You can’t go into that promised land. Because you did not believe me. You did not hallow me. You didn’t reverence hold me up where I belong to be in the eyes of the children of Israel. So you just you miss out.

Why didn’t Moses believe? Why didn’t he hallow God on that occasion? By the way, I’ve got five, six verses written down in my notes that basically say the same thing. Numbers, Deuteronomy. God said, Moses, you’re not going because you didn’t respect me, you didn’t obey me in that one incident, you didn’t do it right, and so you can’t go. But let’s look at one other in the Psalm. Psalm 106. Adds another layer to the explanation as to why Moses missed out on his reward. Psalm 106 is one of those that we could categorize as a historical psalm. It kind of tells the story of the history of Israel. And as you probably are not surprised and maybe already know, many of these historical psalms don’t just tell a cold history less history story, they’re telling a lesson.

And usually that lesson is here’s your history, and it ain’t good, Israel. Here’s how you messed up.

And he’s talking about that incident where he struck the rock instead of speaking to it, did not did not believe God, did not hallow him, and it kept him out of the promised land. But notice the layer here that the psalmist adds to it. Psalm 106, verse 32, beginning.

They angered him also at the waters of strife, so that it went ill with Moses on account of them. Because they rebelled against his spirit, so that he spoke rashly with his lips. And so God speaking direct directly to Moses says, Moses, you didn’t believe me. You didn’t hallow me, and so you can’t go in. But the psalmist says, the children of Israel got to him. He did it because of them.

And we’re looking at that story, and we’re reading the psalm, and we’re going, yeah, I get it. I’d have been exasperated too. I’d have probably not just hit the rock, I’d have hit them with that staff. And how put out he was with them. But the point I’m trying to get from this is that Moses allowed those, the children of Israel, and their behavior, more properly, their misbehavior to affect his character negatively and his relationship to God. You didn’t hallow me, Moses. You let them get to you. And that caused you to weaken your faith. You didn’t believe me. You let them get to you, Moses. And so it affected the relationship with me. You didn’t hallow me, Moses. And the psalmist said, on account of them.

Conclusion

And so let’s not let this beautiful thing that God has planned for us. Because he knew it wasn’t good for us to be alone. Don’t ever let anybody do to you what Moses let these people do to him. Don’t let anybody diminish your faith. Don’t let anybody affect your relationship to God. It’s not good for you to be alone. You need other people. And so God put us together. But most importantly, you need God. And you need Christ. And don’t let anybody, any thing move you one inch away from God and from your relationship in Jesus Christ. Be the part of the body that God intended you to be. Help one another. Love, edify, encourage, support, but always make it about your relationship with God and about helping others enhance that relationship with God.

Can we help you in that journey this morning?

We want to be what God intended us to be. We’re human, we fail, but we’re trying to be what God wanted us to be. A body that suffers together, rejoices together, loves and supports and edifies together. Would you help us in that endeavor as we draw closer and closer to Christ and closer to closer to our promised land? Can we help you in any way this morning as together we stand and as we sing?