God's Wisdom in Arranging the Body of Christ (1 Corinthians Sermon 45)

Andy Davis preaches an expository sermon on 1 Corinthians 12:14-26. The main subject of the sermon is how God wisely arranges members in Christ's body, the Church.

- SERMON TRANSCRIPT -

Well, as Ron said, we are returning now to 1 Corinthians, chapter 12, so if you have a copy of the Bible, wherever you are, open to it there. And it's exciting. What a study it's been for us. It's been about, I guess, four months since we were last in this marvelous book, and so much has happened in that time. We went through the Christmas and New Year seasons and had some messages connected with that. And then we began our split services, as a result of our building renovation through More Than a Building, and so, half of us were here in Fellowship Hall where I am now, and half of us upstairs in the upper room. And over the next 12 weeks, as Ron mentioned, we had a marvelous time walking through the Book of James. However, six weeks ago, as you all know, we suspended our live services, our morning assembly, because of COVID-19, and we've been in that mode as many churches have been across the country, and I began live streaming sermons. Hard to believe this is my sixth live stream sermon. And we finished up the book of James and then had a time in Acts 17, Paul preaching in Athens, talking about evangelism and our responsibility to share the gospel.

And then last week, we looked at John 20 and the marvelous testimony of Thomas, so frequently called Doubting Thomas, as he looked at the resurrected Christ and said, "My Lord and my God." And Christians around the world celebrated the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, and we can do that every day. We should do it, and we do it again this week, but that was a special Sunday last week. Now, we turn back again to 1 Corinthians 12, and we're right in the middle of Chapter 12, and we are studying Paul's teaching on spiritual gifts. His treatment of this important topic goes for three chapters, 1 Corinthians 12, 13 and 14, all of them are nestled in that rather thorough treatment of the issue of spiritual gifts. And this morning we're going to look at the verse that you just heard Ron read for us, verses 14-26, on God's wisdom in arranging the Body of Christ.

Now, the human body is a masterpiece of God's creative power and of God's wisdom. It's one of the greatest marvels that God has made. I think it is the greatest marvel of God's creative power in the physical realm, in the physical universe. The human body is so amazing that the psalmist David said to God, addressing God directly in Psalm 139:13-14, he said, "For you created my inmost being. You knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful. I know that full well." So the body is made up of a diverse number of systems or parts, depends on how you look at it. And those are made up of a staggering number of diverse cells. Now, each of the body's systems, for example, the skeletal system, the nervous system, the circulatory system, the respiratory system, digestive system, muscular system and others, each one of those systems has a unique role to play in the survival and the activity of the body in the world.

Now no one, I found out, really knows how many cells there are in the human body, but estimates put it as high as 10 to the 14th, that's one with 14 zeros after it. It's hard to even comprehend how big that number is. In the human brain alone we're told that there are as many neural interconnections as there are leaves in the Amazonian Rain Forest. That's in a single human brain, it's incredible. Now, unlike single-celled creatures like the paramecium, for example, the human body displays functional diversity with systems that are interdependent on each other. The cells in the respiratory system, for example, are dependent on the cells in the digestive system and the circulatory system to get them the nutrients they need to stay alive. So the marvels of the human body are on display whenever we see how people act or move in this world so skillfully. A number of years ago, Dr. Paul Brand wrote a book, "Fearfully and Wonderfully Made." I commend it to you. Great study on the diversity of the systems in the body and the analogy with the body of Christ. 

And he was talking in that book about a concert pianist named Arthur Rubinstein, and he went to watch him play Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata". And this is what Dr. Brand wrote, "A piano performance is a ballet of fingers, a glorious flourish of ligaments and joints, tendons, nerves, muscles. I must sit near the stage to watch their minute movements. From my own careful calculations, I know that some of the movements required, such as the powerful arpeggios in Moonlight's third movement, are simply too fast for the body to accomplish consciously. Nerve impulses do not travel with enough speed for the brain to sort out that the third finger has just lifted in time, in order for the fourth finger to strike the next key. I marvel, too, at the slow lilting passages. A good pianist controls his or her fingers independently, so that when striking a two-handed chord of eight notes, each of the fingers exerts slightly different pressure for emphasis, with the melody note ringing the loudest. The effects of just a few grams, more or less, of pressure in a crucial pianissimo passage is so minuscule, only a sophisticated scientific laboratory could measure it. But actually, the human ear contains just such a laboratory and musicians like Rubinstein gain acclaim because discriminating listeners can savor the subtle nuances of control." 

That's a great quote, isn't it? And we see the marvels of the human body whenever we see someone exquisitely skilled at something. Take the staggering balance and coordination of gymnast Simone Biles, who is the most decorated gymnast in American history. When she does a back flip on the balance beam, and I come close to freaking out when I watch that, four inches wide, and she gets everything lined up and then does a back flip, but her brain is taking in constant information, spatial information, rotational information, balance information. There are 200 different categories of nerve cells that have been trained through really thousands of repetitions that enable her to stick that landing so perfectly.

I. The Unity and Diversity of the Body of Christ

Now, the human body that we're studying today, as an analogy, it's just one of several beautiful analogies of the body of Christ, of the Church. Others for example, are a temple rising in which God dwells by his Spirit. A bride, the Bride of Christ. A family, we are family with brothers and sisters. A nation, there are just different images. But the body analogy that's used here also in Romans 12, stresses unity and diversity. Unity and diversity. And that is the focus of this sermon. God's wisdom in arranging the parts of the body just as He wants them to be. So let's zero in now and look at the unity and the diversity of the body of Christ. There is one body, not many, and every born-again person, every person who hears the Gospel of Jesus Christ and trusts in Christ, believes it with repentance and faith becomes born again and instantly, a member of the body of Christ.

Look down at verse 12-13, at 1 Corinthians 12, it says the body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts, and though all its parts are many, they all form one body. One body. So it is with Christ. Verse 13, "For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free, and we were all given the one Spirit to drink." Isn't that beautiful? What a beautiful picture of the unity of the Body of Christ. So Paul stresses this oneness, this unity here, and he does it throughout the chapter. Look at verse 20, "As it is, there are many parts but one body." And again, verse 27, "Now you are the body of Christ, and each of you a part or a member of it." So big picture, God is not doing many different works in the world, He's doing one grand, glorious, unified work. The unification of all believers, genuine believers in Christ, into one body worldwide.

And he does this remarkably, through the power of the gospel and the power of the Holy Spirit. And Jesus spoke of this in John 10:16, the good shepherd passage, he says there shall be one flock and one shepherd worldwide. And so, He has to go out and gather people that are not of this group, the Jews, so that there'll be one flock, one shepherd. And then later in John 11:51-52, it says that Jesus died for the scattered children of God to bring them together and make them one. Isn't that beautiful? What a great image. Jesus dying on the cross to make all people one through faith in Christ. So given that we're coming from amazingly diverse backgrounds, this unity is even more vital for us to comprehend. As Paul wrote in Colossians 3:11, "Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, Barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all and is in all." So there's this one body. 

Now, this unity is mysteriously patterned after the Trinity. We Christians believe in one God who has eternally existed in three persons. Father, Son and Spirit, in perfect unity. Frankly, the unity of the Trinity is the mystery of it. We could imagine easily three gods, but one God and three persons, it boggles the mind. It's hard for us to understand. Just accept it by faith. But Jesus praying for the Church, praying for believers, patterns the unity of the Church after the Trinity. John 17:11, He says, "Holy Father, protect them, so that they may be one as we are one." And then later in that same prayer, John 17:22-23, Jesus said, "I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one. I in them, and you in me, may they be brought to complete or perfect unity, to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me." All right, so that happens instantly, a conversion, we are made one, and then as we progressively grow in unity with each other, the world observes and sees that marvelous unity, and that's powerful for the Gospel, that's His prayer there.

So, that's the unity. We have a present functional diversity in spiritual gifts. Paul is here in this chapter talking about spiritual gifts. Look back at verse 1. He says there in verse 1, "Now about spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant." So we're coming back after four months to the topic of spiritual gifts. What are they? Good definition would be, spiritual gifts are special abilities given by the Holy Spirit, really by the triune God to each individual member of the body of Christ, unique to each one, a gift package, enabling each one to do ministries for the purpose of the final perfection of the body of Christ. Or put it simple, special abilities given for ministry. Each one of us has a spiritual gift package. Now, it's quite marvelous how unique those are. The Holy Spirit, when He converts someone, steps into a person's unique personality and history, transforms it, 'cause they were lost, now they're found, they were dead, now they're alive.

But He, in a marvelous way, uses the uniqueness of that person, as unique as our fingerprints, in combination with His own activity to make a unique spiritual gift package. It's not just one gift, but an array of abilities that comes together in a unique way in your life. I don't know that much at all about perfume. It's just dangerous, a dangerous illustration here. But they say that the perfume comes in a woman's... Mingles with her special body chemistry to give a unique aroma. All right, so I'll get corrected later by some sisters in Christ that tell me how that works. But I get that picture of the Holy Spirit coming and mingling with our unique personalities. So you look at Saul of Tarsus. He had a very clear personality and God transformed him at the core, but he had the same kind of driving, intense personality, only now for the building of the Body of Christ, so, it's marvelous. Now, he's already taught about spiritual gifts, various types of gifts and how they're given by the Trinity, as I said. Look back at verses 4-6, "There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all people."

So there's the Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit, working together. So the analogy of the human body is a powerful one. Unity in one body, but diversity in function. So we have different roles to play in the final perfection of the body of Christ, of the Church. Now, the purpose of spiritual gifts then is the maturity, the final perfection of the body of Christ. We get this more from Ephesians 4:13, where Paul there also talking about spiritual gifts, says, "Until we all reach unity in the faith, and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ." So maturity, really perfection, is complete conformity to Christ, that's final salvation for everybody. So the spiritual gifts are given to bring every elect person, chosen before the foundation of the world, to final perfection in Christ. That's what the gifts are for. Isn't that marvelous? Isn't that weighty? And we have a role to play.

"So we have different roles to play in the final perfection of the body of Christ, of the Church. Now, the purpose of spiritual gifts then is the maturity, the final perfection of the body of Christ. "

Now, the Corinthians were a significantly messed up church. I wouldn't say the most messed up church I've ever heard of, but heading in that direction. There was so much chaos in the Corinthian worship, and we're gonna find more about that in chapter 14. I think their pagan background led to this kind of chaotic worship life, but inside also there were pride problems. They had a lot of pride, and Paul has to address them again and again with their pride. And as we zero in on this morning's topic, it seems the more noteworthy gifted people were boasting about their gifts over the less notable gifted people. And this created a rift within the Body of Christ, kind of the spiritual gift haves versus the spiritual gift have-nots, so there's that kind of a rift. And Paul wants them to understand how much they really need each other. So he has to work both sides of the equation here in the passage we're looking at today. He has to address both of those, those who thought too lowly of their spiritual gifts and were therefore probably not using them enough or at all, versus those who thought too highly of their spiritual gift ministries, and were denigrating others, and they were being arrogant and boastful, and so, making God to some degree their enemy, 'cause God opposes the proud.

II. Don’t Think Too Lowly of Your Gifts 

And so, its feelings or a sense that you have of your spiritual gifts, feelings of worthlessness on the one hand, versus feelings of self-sufficiency on the other. Feelings of worthlessness says effectively, "You don't need me. You don't need me." Conversely, feelings of self-sufficiency is, "I don't need you." Both sides of those he's addressing in this text. So let's go with those that were feeling too lowly about their gifts. Look at verse 15-19. "If the foot should say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,’ it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. And if the ear should say, ‘Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,’ it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact, God has arranged the parts of the body, every one of them, just as He wanted them to be." That's a key verse in the whole sermon, that's a key verse.

Verse 19, "If they were all one part, where would the body be?" So fundamentally, the ultimate focus here should be on God, God's goodness, God's wisdom, His kindness. God didn't mess up in what He made you to be. God is wise. So we have to think rightly about our gifts. You have to think rightly about yourself. As Paul says in Romans 12:3, "Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought." So we'll come back to that verse later, but you need to think about yourself properly, how you consider. And really, ultimately, I think, it has to do with a holy contentment in your gift package and in the ministries that come, that you are delighted in it and then energetic with it. So if you see yourself too highly or too lowly, you will not function properly with your spiritual gift package.

Now, in these verses, I said, Paul's addressing the lowly, those that feel that they do not belong to the body. Those who think, "You don't need me," as who's addressing, "because I don't have one of those gifts, my gifts aren't important. I really have no contribution to make." So the attitude that you have toward your spiritual gift is vital. So just because the foot is not a hand, that doesn't mean it's not part of the body. Perhaps the foot is jealous of the hand, and why not? I mean, think about the foot, it's covered every day in our culture with socks and shoes. And it gets dusty as we go out and walk down the road, and it gets smelly. I won't say any more, but you know what I'm talking about. And it's just not as elegant and beautiful as the hand. The hand is visible, it's elegant, it's skillful. It has these dexterous minute movements. By the hands, a sculptor like Michelangelo can turn a block of marble into something living. You can see the tendons and the veins in the arm of the... He's just got these skillful fingers. We already talked about the skill of a pianist being able to play "Moonlight Sonata", the ability to play.

I doubt that any foot could attain that level of dexterity and play "Moonlight Sonata". Although there's probably somebody in the world that could at least try it. By the skills, the fingers of a surgeon, a skillful surgeon... We have number of skillful surgeons in our church that do amazingly dexterous skillful things with their fingers. By comparison to all that, what can the foot contribute? Well, we know very well how dependent we are on our feet. By our feet, we take our stand, we stand up, we face each other. By our feet, we make progress. By our feet, we walk. And so though the feet aren't as elegant and beautiful and graceful as the hand, they are indispensable to the body, they're necessary to the body, in its healthy function.

So if your spiritual gift is more obscure, speaking more directly, if your spiritual gift is more obscure and behind the scenes, you need to think of yourself as every bit as vital to the healthy functioning of the Church as those that are more out front, those that are more visible. So also he moves to the issue of the ear and the eye. Imagine the ear being jealous of the eye, and why not? I can see why. The eyes, the eyes are sparkling and beautiful and radiant with light, and they're entrusted with an incredibly important job to do. We know that we get more than 83% of our knowledge about the surrounding world through eyesight.

Whereas only 11% comes through hearing. The eyes are beautiful, they sparkle. You got different colors, blue eyes, brown eyes, green eyes. You think about a young couple getting to know each other, and it's very important for the man to know the color of his lady's eyes, not the shape of her ear. "How would you describe my ears?" That kind of thing. I guess that comes later in the relationship. But the eyes are so beautiful. Actually the ear, honestly, rather ugly. It's got a twisted curly kind of shape with this ear lobe hanging down. And I know numbers of people, women will decorate them with sparkling jewels and do the best they can for the ear, but it's still an ear. It doesn't even compare with an eye. 

But Paul says to the ear, "You are absolutely an important part of the body." The sense of hearing is entrusted to the strange-looking ear, and Paul gives us a rather grotesque image in verse 17. Look at it. He says, "If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be?" How gross would that be? Think about it. A bunch of big eyeballs rolling around. That's so strange. It's a weird image, but He puts that in our minds. It's unable to hear, unable to walk. It's just an eyeball. So the sense of hearing is vital to a full and rich healthy life. Think about the delights of music. Think about the hearing by a mother of her child for the first time saying, "I love you, Mommy," just what that means for the mother to hear those sounds. Best of all, best of all is the hearing of the gospel. The hearing of the gospel.

The International Mission Board has different affinity groups. They've organized themselves worldwide into different affinity groups, which are roughly ethnic and geographic. So there's a European Affinity, a Sub-Saharan African affinity, etcetera. But there is one entire affinity group in the International Mission Board dedicated to a human capacity: hearing. Hearing. And I remember hearing the affinity group leader talking about why this is and how right it was to have an affinity group worldwide, for the entire world, for the hearing-impaired or for the deaf. And he said that in every culture, the deaf basically have the same problems and address the same issues in life, whatever culture they're in.

Can you imagine being deaf from birth and not being able to speak the language, etcetera, and so you're in your own island of soundlessness. And so they have to be addressed a certain way. And fundamentally, God has, in a marvelous way, arranged the ear to be able to hear. Yet, yet, lest the ear get a big head. Is that even an expression? But lest the ear get too arrogant? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? So God has arranged the nose now with the function of smell, even though scientists tell us that we only get 3.5% of the information about the shining world through our smell, through the sense of smell. But is not aroma a big part of the pleasure of eating? I mean, just think about it. When the smells waft from the kitchen, before the big meal, before Thanksgiving or a big...

"Smells so good," and it even... It's right there when you're lifting the food to your mouth, and the aroma comes up off the fork, and it's just part of the pleasure of eating. And think about the delights of this time of year when it comes to smell. The aromas of spring. Think what it smells like with a spring shower on a freshly mown field, what that smells like. Just so you can picture that in your mind. Or some of these fragrant flowering trees or wild flowers, different flowers like the magnolia or the lilac, and the world is just full of that sweet smell. 

Now all of the body's diverse capabilities combined to make a full healthy human experience in this world. That's Paul's point. No, they are not all equal in their impact on our lives. I would say, and researchers have shown one of the greatest fears human beings have is of losing their eyesight. It's one of the top five fears people have, is that they would become blind. And so we understand that eyesight has a greater impact on the way we live our lives than anything else. We get that, but we must see God's wisdom, God's wisdom in arranging the whole body, God's wisdom. It says, in fact, God has arranged the parts of the body, every one of them, just as He wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? We need to just stop and celebrate the wisdom, the goodness of God in all of this.

That's fundamentally the issue, about you thinking properly about your spiritual gift, that you would not question the goodness of God or the wisdom of God or the power of God, when it comes to how He has arranged you as a part of the body. So let me just stop right here in the middle of the sermon and just give some practical applications. Let me speak to you as a member of this church, of First Baptist Church, and let me just address, I don't know each of your situations, but perhaps you have not up to this point invested yourself much in any kind of ministry at all. Maybe you feel exactly like what we're addressing here, that your gifts are not worth discussing, they're really of no great value. 

This is exactly the situation Paul is addressing. You are not, you say, an upfront person. You don't have speaking skills maybe. You don't have amazing talents that cause people to talk about you for days afterward. Paul says God has still gifted you and He's arranged you and positioned you just as He wants you to be, you're still part of the body. And for the body, this local church, to be fully functional and be able to do the mission that God's given us to do in the Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill area. We're given a specific mission. He set before us open doors. We will not fully walk through those open doors, if every member does not use their gifts to do ministry. And so delight in the wisdom of God and how He's made you, discover what your gifts are, develop them and deploy them. I'm gonna say this again at the end of the sermon, but I just wanted to stop in the middle. Just find a ministry and do it based on your spiritual gifts. 

III. Don’t Think Too Highly of Your Gifts 

Now, let's address the other side of the equation, and that is the prideful ones. Don't think too highly of your gifts, either. Look at verses 20-22, "As it is, there are many parts, but one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I don't need you!’ And the head cannot say to the feet, I don't need you. On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable..." That's powerful. So now I'm gonna bring in that verse that I alluded to briefly, but now talk a little bit more, Romans 12:3. Paul says, "Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you." 

He's talking there directly about spiritual gifts. So Paul is attacking pride because pride is so offensive to God. In this case, the upfront people with the gifts of prophecy maybe, or the gifts of tongues, the gifts of teaching, are maybe even openly saying, or at least carrying themselves, as they're saying to the rest of the body, "I don't need you, I don't need you." So in this case, he has the eye speaking to the hand and the head speaking to the feet, saying that, "I don't need you." How foolish is that? The issue here is the beautiful interdependence of the body of Christ. And Paul says effectively, "Appearances can be deceiving. The parts of the body that seem to be weaker actually prove to be indispensable." Now, that word indispensable, translated indispensable, is it's urgent, it's necessary that those parts of the body are of vital necessity, he's arguing for. 

So here, I've gotta think about, what can you not live without? These would be the vital organs. So the heart, the intestines, the kidneys, all of those internal organs. I can just tell you as a squeamish individual, they are absolutely nothing to look at. I marvel at surgeons being able to look directly at it and not faint, so I'm grateful for that, but there's nothing to look at. You don't wanna see these indispensable parts of the body. They need to be covered with muscles and ribs and skin. But without them, we die. Without them, we die. So just because you're not an upfront, visible, presentable member, what Paul's saying is, "The church can't function without you." Every single member of the church is vital to the full fruitfulness, the healthy behavior and function of the body in its ministry.

IV. The Honor Given to Every Member of the Body

Now, he goes from that to verses 22-25, to talk about the honor, the honor given to every member of the body. Look at those verses, "On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor 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." So he’s addressing now this issue of honor, and it's very, very important. There was a higher community honor given to certain members rather than to others.

Now, honor is a precious thing. I think it's actually a lower form of worship. We give worship to God, but we do give honor horizontally to others and there're verses that say that we should. It's appropriate to give honor, words of praise, words of affirmation. So the community trappings of the highest honor are the best seats at the banquet, the words spoken, lavish words of praise, everyone's speaking of these honored people and esteeming them highly, while others are never mentioned at all. So we're dealing with this issue of honor. Now, remember at the beginning of this book, 1 Corinthians, the problem of factions and divisions in the body, remember how one of you says, "I follow Paul," another, "I follow Apollos", another, "I follow Cephas," etcetera. And remember the answer that Paul gives by asking the question, "Is Christ divided?" He's arguing even there for a unity of the Body and not a elevation of superstars up to this high level where they end up becoming faction leaders, though those individuals didn't wanna be faction leaders, but that's how they were esteemed and honored. The unity of the Body of Christ should put an end to this kind of disproportional honor-giving.

Now this continues, I must say, to be a temptation to this present day. The cult of personality can surround some super-gifted church leaders. I remember going to a conference in Chicago and I saw friends of mine and they didn't desire this, they didn't seek it, but there were huge pictures from the chest up of these guys all dressed in black, stretchy t-shirts, which I found really interesting. And they were hanging from this major venue. I'm like, "Hmm, larger than life." But I knew those individuals when they weren't superstars, and again, they don't seek that kind of thing, but there is this tendency to this cult of personality, and it's just not helpful. Years and centuries ago, John Calvin, who was acclaimed across Europe as one of the great leaders and wrote letters to kings and his books were just game-changing books for people, etcetera. As he neared the end of his life, he gave specific orders about his burial that he should be buried at night in an unmarked tomb, and so he was. And the reason for that is he did not want his grave to be a shrine where pilgrims would go from around the nation, around the continent to go and inappropriately honor him. He had a sense of his own lowliness and humility. 

So Paul speaks then of the unpresentable parts of the body being treated with special modesty. Perhaps, I think, he's referring to clothing here by which we cover our nakedness. I think that would make sense in this context. Adam and Eve were naked with no shame before the fall. But then as soon as they ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, their eyes were opened, they realized they're naked and they hurried for clothing. And God upheld that and supported it by the end of that chapter, killing an animal, first animal sacrifice, and covering them literally with animal skins. And from that time on, it's been necessary post-fall for us to cover the parts of our body that are unpresentable.

Now, many cultures do not follow this kind of thing, pagan culture, spirituous cultures wear perhaps even no clothing at all, but we understand the need for this post-fall. And so in our culture, we need to be sure that the parts of the body that men and women have always covered for modesty sake, continue to be covered. And that's really important in our day and age. I just see a movement, especially with young women's clothing, towards uncovering more and more parts of the body that should be covered with special modesty. So I think that this is not the main point of the text, but just the idea of dressing with modesty so as not to cause brothers in Christ or other people to stumble into sin. But that's a side point. What he's saying is that there are certain parts of the body that need to be covered and they need to be treated with special modesty, but then there are other parts of the body that need no such treatment.

So in any case, the analogy is that every single member of the body, no matter how it gets treated in this world, is precious and valuable and honored in its own way. Now, I want you to go ahead with me in your minds, and we're gonna do this, God willing, at the end of 1 Corinthians 13... I can't wait for those studies if the Lord wills and we get a chance to do it. To understand when we get to Heaven, how we are going to truly honor each other, not worship each other, but we are going to with free hearts, open hearts, we are going to honor some of the most obscure servants that we didn't even know about in this world. Jesus said, "If you wanna be great, you need to be a servant. If you wanna be first, you need to be everybody's slave."

So some of the lowest people that were not thought of at all in this life, nobody even knew what they did, will be greatly elevated and greatly honored in Heaven. As God said, "Have you considered my servant Job?" He's going to say, "Have you considered my servant so and so? You may not have known her, or you may not have known him, but let me tell you how they served." And we are not gonna be in any way jealous of that. We are going to celebrate that, we're gonna delight in that. I can't wait, and I'm gonna say more about that in a minute, but that's the honor we should be seeking, heavenly honor ultimately for God to say on judgment day and for all eternity and beyond, "Well done, my good and faithful servant. You've been faithful with very little. I will now entrust you with much. Enter into the joy of your Master."

V. The Unity of the Body in Both Suffering and Honor (v. 26)

Now, that's what we should be living for, that God would be pleased with us and share that joy for all eternity through our rewards. So Paul then wants everyone in the body of Christ to show honor to each other and concern for each other, and not let pride or shame divide the body of Christ. Verse 24-25, "God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts elected, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other." So here we see the unity of the body, in both suffering and honor. So there's tremendous union. Verse 26 again, "If one part suffers, every part suffers with it. If one part is honored, every part rejoices with it." This is definitely true of the physical body. Imagine if you had a bleeding ulcer, intense pain. The other systems of your body, the other parts of your body will be mobilized to get that ailing part healed.

Your eyes will be going online to find the best specialist. Your ears will be hearing the receptionist there as you talk to her and set up an appointment. And then your feet will walk into the hospital or wherever you go to get that part of the body addressed and healed. Now, we saw this at the beginning of the history of the Church, in Acts 4:34-35, it said, "There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time, those who own lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sale and put it at the Apostles feet and was distributed to anyone as he had need." So they didn't consider that their own possessions were their own, but they shared the things that they had, so that if one part suffered, every part would suffer with it. 

Whereas Paul said in Romans 12:15, "Rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn." And when we get to Heaven, as I've said, we are going to honor others perfectly. In Heaven, I really believe this, not all will be equally honored, and not honored equally. Some will have sacrificed and served and suffered more than others, and they will be honored more. And so I will perfectly delight, when I get to Heaven, in the appropriately higher honors given to the martyrs who died, whose blood spread the gospel more vigorously than ever happened in my life. I'm going to honor Polycarp and Perpetua and Felicitas and other Roman martyrs or the martyrs that died in the Communist reign or in Muslim countries, or you think about those that laid down their lives for missions like Jim Elliot and Borden of Yale.

We are going to celebrate those with a perfectly free open honor in Heaven. We'll feel no jealousy whatsoever. I'll feel no jealousy at what I perceive to be definitely the higher honor of Nancy Judson, who gave her life for missions in Burma and suffered greatly in ways that are hard to even imagine. We're gonna thrill with delight at Lottie Moon's sufferings for the gospel or Hudson Taylor's, both of them suffering for China and for the spread of the gospel there. Jonathan Edwards and his marvelous work, "Heaven is a World of Love". We're gonna be leaning heavily on Edwards as we get to 1 Corinthians 13, God willing, next week. What a journey that's gonna be. 

But Edwards finishes 17 sermons on 1 Corinthians 13. And don't worry, I'm not gonna do 17 sermons, but many. But he ends with "Heaven is a World of Love", and he says this, "In Heaven, not the least remainder of any principle of envy shall exist to be exercised toward angels or toward other people who are superior than us in glory, nor shall there be anything like contempt or slighting of those who are inferiors. On the contrary, all the members of that heavenly society rejoice in each other's happiness, for love will be perfected in them all." Isn't that something to look forward to? And the more we can honor each other, try to find more obscure servants, things they're doing behind the scenes and just give honor to them, how encouraging that would be.

VI. Applications 

So let me finish now with some applications. The central application here, I must say, is to come to faith in Christ, if you're not a Christian. We are just so encouraged, we have reports of people watching these live streams who were not yet born again. Welcome, dear friend. And I wanna say to you, the marvels of the wisdom of God focus ultimately on the Gospel of Jesus Christ, how God, the loving heavenly Father, the Law-giver, the Judge who gave perfect moral laws by which we are to live our lives. But all of us have violated them, all of us have broken God's holy laws. And we stand condemned by his law. God, instead of sending us righteously, sending us to hell, sent His only begotten Son who lived a sinless life perfectly under the law of God, and then received the condemnation the law says we all deserve by His substitutionary death on the cross. 

And God, as we celebrated last week, and we actually celebrate every day, raised him from the dead and ascended him to Heaven, and he sits at the right hand of God, and from that place, some day he's gonna come to judge the living and the dead. Before Judgment Day comes, he is given this time of the Gospel. This is the message you're hearing right now, that if you repent of your sins and trust in Jesus Christ alone for the forgiveness of your sins, you'll receive full forgiveness of sins, you'll be born again, you'll receive the gift of the Holy Spirit and you'll be engrafted or made a part immediately of the body of Christ, and then you can begin using your spiritual gifts. 

Now, if you are a Christian, this whole section, as I said, is on spiritual gifts. We're continuing to learn more about that. So I'm gonna go back to those Ds. All right, first of all, discover your gift package. Is it a pattern of quiet service in life? Maybe that's what God has you doing. Is it a gift of hospitality? Is it a gift of financial giving? Is it mercy ministry to the poor and needy? Is it the teaching of children? Some people are remarkably gifted in family ministry and teaching children. Is it on the other end, care for the elderly, are you remarkably gifted at ministering to older people? Is it leadership or administration? Is it the ability to solve complex problems of finances so that large ministries like our church or mission agencies can flourish well financially? 

Maybe it's encouragement, just simply finding the ways God is at work in other people's lives and the way he's using them, and then just speaking words that say, "You know, when you do that, just so blesses me." That's the gift of encouragement. Look, whatever your gift is, discover it and delight in it, be content with it. Don't question the wisdom of God, but rejoice in God's wisdom and delight in your gift and develop it by using it. So it's a combination develop, deploy, develop, deploy. You're gonna deploy your gift and develop. And it works by, the more you do it, the better you get at it. So just do that. Think properly of yourself when you do it. Don't think too lowly of yourself saying, "They don't need me." And don't think too highly of yourself saying, "I don't need them." But be humble, be energetic and store up treasure in Heaven. When we get to Heaven, we are going to honor the servants of Christ for everything they did. Nothing is gonna be forgotten. As Jesus said, "If you give even a cup of cold water, you will never lose your reward."

"You're gonna deploy your gift and develop. And it works by, the more you do it, the better you get at it. So just do that. Think properly of yourself when you do it. "

 Close with me in prayer. Father, thank you for the time we've had in your Word. How beautiful is your Word. How marvelous, how wise, how timeless. Twenty centuries of Christians have been reading these words and growing by them and learning them and putting them into practice. So help us to do the same for your glory and for the health of our church, and for the spread of the Gospel here in the Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill area. In Jesus's Name. Amen.