If you desire to listen to the corresponding audio sermon feel free to click here:
 RealAudio Sermons Web Page

Who are we in the body?
1 Corinthians12:12-31, Ephesians 4:1-16
January 29, 2006
The Rev. Kong Namkung

I.                   We are only one body and everybody is important 

1 Cor 12: 12, “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.”

Last four weeks my wife, Kum, has been gone to Korea.  So I have been doing the tasks of a father, pastor, and mother.  I wake up little over 6 O’clock and begin to prepare for breakfast, wake my three teenagers up with persistence and endurance, take them to school, come to church, staying until about 3:30, I do not have lunch yet, go back to school and pick them up and feed them before I bring them to church, teach Tae Kwon Do on Tuesday and Thursday, teach bible classes on Wednesday, Tuesday, visit one family a day, when I go back home, clean dishes, put dirty clothes into laundry machine, and have a dinner around 10 PM, with a tired body preparing for sermon and bible classes, and so on.  I wish I had another body.  I really do.  But I know that I have only one body.  With this one body, I as a father, pastor, and mother, want to accomplish tasks as much as I can.   

Because we are one body, we have to seek together a goal that is found in our New Testament lesson.  Please, open the Bible.  The goal is in Eph 4:1 says, “I therefore the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called.” 

II.                We have many members

1 Cor 12:14, “Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many.”

The pastor has his role and responsibility; chair of the administrative council has her own role in the body.  Praise team leader plays his owns role with the grace and gifts that God has given to him.  Have you done your best to play your role that God has given to you to fulfill the mission and ministry of Jesus Christ?

Think about what role you have been playing?  I have seen the people who were willing to have positions of the body of Christ, but they did not do their best in fulfill the responsibilities that they have to do. If you are like that kind of people, then, there are damages to the body of Christ in many ways.

1. It damages to the glory of God.
2. It damages to the body of Christ
3. It damage to the growth of the church
4. It damage to the community where we are
5. Finally, it damages to you and your spiritual growth.

Ford announced a plan last Monday to cut up to 30,000 jobs and close 14 plants in North America by 2012.  The president said, “Change or die.”  Do you want to change what you have done in the past, or do you want to see the body of Christ getting weaker because you have not played your role and finally, you wait for death? 

Likewise all of us need to reconsider the motto of Mark Fields, “Change or die.” You can change yourself to do our best with God’s help, or you bury our gifts and talents under the ground like the servant, who buried his one talent under the ground and was rebuked by the Master in Matthew 25.

I want you to remember another important element that is related to the concept of the body of Christ.  That is any particular number of the body cannot play the entire roles of the body, especially the pastor cannot play the whole roles by himself. God gives each of us to play a role in the body. Some of us have been choosing to be leaders while others are choosing to be followers.

Think about when my wife comes back, in fact she will be back this coming Thursday.  If I continue to play her mother’s role, do you think my family is a healthy family? Do you think my marriage will be happy?  NO!  I am willing to give my role as mother to my wife.  That is her responsibility. 

1. Eph 4:7, “Each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ’s gift.”
    

2. Eph 4:12, “To equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.” 

·        We are cooperative.  1 Cor 12:21.  In other words, we work together according to grace and gifts that God has given to each of us. Once you are in the body of Christ, there is neither Baptist not Methodist, Pentecostal nor Charismatic, black nor White, male nor female.  There is no denominationalism, racism, or sexism, in the body of Christ.  All these isms are melted by the love of Christ like snow is melted by the Sun. 

Christians are like the tools that are used by the Master Carpenter.  In order to build a house the carpenter needs all different tools for different functions and abilities.  To use all different tools are necessary.  The carpenter shall use them according to His needs. He uses a hammer, electric saw, measuring tape, screw, and so on.  We are here today to be used by the Master Carpenter. All tools are needed.  So I’d like to ask you to turn to the next person and say to the person, “Jesus needs you and we need you!”  To be used by the Master Carpenter, we have to exclude the followings that is found in Eph 4: 14.  What are those? 

Red Flags 

1. Every wind of doctrine
2. People’s trickery
3. Deceitful scheming

·        There should be no dissension with in the body.   There are two lines in our throat.  When I breathe, the air goes through one line of my throat while the other line is shut.  However, when I drink water, the other line is connected to while the one line which is connected will be disconnected so that the water goes to my stomach, not to my lung.  If the connection does not function like it should be, then I cough the water out of my lung.  My point is all these things work together for good for the healthy body.  Likewise we Christians should not have dissension among ourselves.  

·        We care for one another. 1 Cor 12:25b, “the member may have the same care for one another.”

·        We suffer and rejoice together 1 Cor 11:26, “If one member suffers, all suffer together with it, if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.’

·        We seek greater gifts 1 Cor 12:31, “But strive for the greater gifts, and I will show you a still more excellent way.’   It is great to be a teacher in the body of Christ.  It is also great to be a prophet, or encouragers, pastor, or apostles, and so on.  But Paul urges us to seek great gift.  Do you know what the greater gift is?  It is unconditional love God in Christ Jesus. You can a good teacher, but without God’s love in you, you convey the knowledge to others, which is many teachers do today.  The Bible says, “It is nothing.”  You can speak something for God’s sake, but if you do not have agape love, then you are nothing.  You can be a pastor, but if you do not have love of God in you, you can be a good game player.  

III.             We have one spirit

1 Cor 12:13, “For in the one Spirit we are all baptized into one body- Jews or Greeks, salves or free- and we are all made to drink of one Spirit.”  

IV.             God arranged the members in the body.

1 Corinthians 12:24 b, “God has so arranged the body.” 

Do not forget that we are the members of the body of Christ.  We do not choose to be, but God chose us to be through Jesus Christ.  We do not love God, but God loved us first. 

Sing: O how I love Jesus, O how I love Jesus, O how I love Jesus, because he first loved me.” 

It is God, who arranges all things in the body of Christ.  The longer I am in His business, the more I find that God is the One, who arranges all things around the church, in the church, through the church, and with the church.  Who is our boss?  God is our boss.  God asks us to do reach out to community, then we got to listen to God. 

When we truly believe that God has given us grace and gifts to build up the body of Christ, then we also believe that God has given us purpose why God has given us gifts and grace.  God gives us eyes to see, ears to hear, head to think, nose to smell, feet to stand, walk, or run and so on.  God does not eyes to smell, not ears to see, not nose to run.  God gives Neil for healing, Daniel for praise, Richard to understand scripture, and so on.  Therefore, you find out what God has given to you and why God has given it to you. 

Since my wife is in Korea, I want to use her one more time before she comes back. Please, do not tell my wife what I will say. Promise?  After I married her, her father came to visit us and gave me lots of money.  I thought he gave it to me because he liked me a lot and I was   good husband. Later I found out that he gave it to me for the sake of his daughter.  The totally misunderstood him.  The purpose was met.   

1. We must grow up in every way into him who is the head. Eph 4:15
2. To join and knit together

3. To work properly
4. To promotes the body’s growth.

One of old Korean stories:  There was a father, who had 7 un-united sons.  The father was getting old and did not see his sons to live in unity and harmony.  One day he asked all of his sons to come and sit before him.  He gave a long stick to each son and asked them to break.  All of them broke it easily.  The father gave each stick again and asked them to put it together and break them.  Every one of them tried to break, but they could not.  So the father told them their strength would be like the bundle stick, which was hard to break.  After this, the sons lived in unity and harmony.  We are one body and believe in the Lord, Jesus Christ.  There is strength and power and unity in Christ Jesus.  Then we glorify God in Jesus Christ.  Glory to be the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Back to Sermons

1 Corinthians 12:12-31

12 For just as the body is a unity and yet has many parts, and all the parts, though many, form [only] one body, so it is with Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed one).
13 For by [means of the personal agency of] one [Holy] Spirit we were all, whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, baptized [and by baptism united together] into one body, and all made to drink of one [Holy] Spirit.
14 For the body does not consist of one limb or organ but of many.
15 If the foot should say, Because I am not the hand, I do not belong to the body, would it be therefore not [a part] of the body?
16 If the ear should say, Because I am not the eye, I do not belong to the body, would it be therefore not [a part] of the body?
17 If the whole body were an eye, where [would be the sense of] hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where [would be the sense of] smell?
18 But as it is, God has placed and arranged the limbs and organs in the body, each [particular one] of them, just as He wished and saw fit and with the best adaptation.
19 But if [the whole] were all a single organ, where would the body be?
20 And now there are [certainly] many limbs and organs, but a single body.
21 And the eye is not able to say to the hand, I have no need of you, nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.
22 But instead, there is [absolute] necessity for the parts of the body that are considered the more weak.
23 And those [parts] of the body which we consider rather ignoble are [the very parts] which we invest with additional honor, and our unseemly parts and those unsuitable for exposure are treated with seemliness (modesty and decorum),
24 Which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so adjusted (mingled, harmonized, and subtly proportioned the parts of) the whole body, giving the greater honor and richer endowment to the inferior parts which lack [apparent importance],
25 So that there should be no division or discord or lack of adaptation [of the parts of the body to each other], but the members all alike should have a mutual interest in and care for one another.
26 And if one member suffers, all the parts [share] the suffering; if one member is honored, all the members [share in] the enjoyment of it.
27 Now you [collectively] are Christ's body and [individually] you are members of it, each part severally and distinct [each with his own place and function].
28 So God has appointed some in the church [for His own use]: first apostles (special messengers); second prophets (inspired preachers and expounders); third teachers; then wonder-workers; then those with ability to heal the sick; helpers; administrators; [speakers in] different (unknown) tongues.
29 Are all apostles (special messengers)? Are all prophets (inspired interpreters of the will and purposes of God)? Are all teachers? Do all have the power of performing miracles?
30 Do all possess extraordinary powers of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret?
31 But earnestly desire and zealously cultivate the greatest and best gifts and graces (the higher gifts and the choicest graces). And yet I will show you a still more excellent way [one that is better by far and the highest of them all--love].  AMP

Back To Top

Ephesians 4:1-16

4:1 I THEREFORE, the prisoner for the Lord, appeal to and beg you to walk (lead a life) worthy of the [divine] calling to which you have been called [with behavior that is a credit to the summons to God's service,
2 Living as becomes you] with complete lowliness of mind (humility) and meekness (unselfishness, gentleness, mildness), with patience, bearing with one another and making allowances because you love one another.
3 Be eager and strive earnestly to guard and keep the harmony and oneness of [and produced by] the Spirit in the binding power of peace.
4[There is] one body and one Spirit--just as there is also one hope [that belongs] to the calling you received--
5[There is] one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
6 one God and Father of [us] all, Who is above all [Sovereign over all], pervading all and [living] in [us] all.
7 Yet grace (God's unmerited favor) was given to each of us individually [not indiscriminately, but in different ways] in proportion to the measure of Christ's [rich and bounteous] gift.
8 Therefore it is said, When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive [He led a train of vanquished foes] and He bestowed gifts on men. [Psalms 68:18.]
9[But He ascended?] Now what can this, He ascended, mean but that He had previously descended from [the heights of] heaven into [the depths], the lower parts of the earth?
10 He Who descended is the [very] same as He Who also has ascended high above all the heavens, that He [His presence] might fill all things (the whole universe, from the lowest to the highest).
11 And His gifts were [varied; He Himself appointed and gave men to us] some to be apostles (special messengers), some prophets (inspired preachers and expounders), some evangelists (preachers of the Gospel, traveling missionaries), some pastors (shepherds of His flock) and teachers.
12 His intention was the perfecting and the full equipping of the saints (His consecrated people), [that they should do] the work of ministering toward building up Christ's body (the church),
13[That it might develop] until we all attain oneness in the faith and in the comprehension of the [full and accurate] knowledge of the Son of God, that [we might arrive] at really mature manhood (the completeness of personality which is nothing less than the standard height of Christ's own perfection), the measure of the stature of the fullness of the Christ and the completeness found in Him.
14 So then, we may no longer be children, tossed [like ships] to and fro between chance gusts of teaching and wavering with every changing wind of doctrine, [the prey of] the cunning and cleverness of unscrupulous men, [gamblers engaged] in every shifting form of trickery in inventing errors to mislead.
15 Rather, let our lives lovingly express truth [in all things, speaking truly, dealing truly, living truly]. Enfolded in love, let us grow up in every way and in all things into Him Who is the Head, [even] Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed one).
16 For because of Him the whole body (the church, in all its various parts), closely joined and firmly knit together by the joints and ligaments with which it is supplied, when each part [with power adapted to its need] is working properly [in all its functions], grows to full maturity, building itself up in love.  AMP

Back To Top

   Print This Page  | Bookmark This Site!  | Email a Friend!  |  E-Cards

Questions, suggestions and problems concerning the Cornerstone United Methodist Church Website should be directed toward the Cornerstone Webmaster at: webmaster@cornerstoneumconline.com

This Website Has Been Visited

Since Beginning Operation.
Thanks for Stopping By!