What is the church? The Body of Christ.
Summer is upon us with many things to do, such as church summer camps. Two weeks ago our church took a lot of students to camp, and this past week my family went to another church camp where Keeva and I led worship and taught a couple of sessions. With a lot of us being gone we have gotten behind in writing Monday Devo’s and Sermon Summaries, so I wanted to do some catch up this week.
Two Sundays ago, 6/7, we had our third week on “What is the church? The Body of Christ.” and I think that week’s theme fits well with what many in our church are doing in the Urbandale Fourth of July Parade, where we will be picking up trash at the back of the parade, to both participate in a community event, while also serving our neighbors at the same time.
With that in mind, what does it mean to be the Body of Christ? The Bottom Line from that sermon was this: Everyone becomes more like Jesus when each member is an active, functioning part of the body. So what would it look like for a believer to be an active, functioning member of the church body? The most obvious place to start would be to look at where a person is gifted and uniquely designed to function and thrive well. That can be more easier said than done, but there are a lot of various “lists” within Scripture that give us a clear understanding of what that functioning and gifting will look like.
Romans 12:1–3 (NIV)
12 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
3 For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.
One passage Nick pointed to was Romans 12:1-8, where Paul calls us to transform ourselves as a living sacrifice by not conforming to the world but to the Lord’s will. This transformation will lead us not to lofty and self-righteous views of ourselves, but sober and humble attitudes towards others and of ourselves, enabling us to rightly lean into our gifts and abilities. Paul’s plain speech in regards to the gifts and abilities all believers have to offer is helpful, such as simply saying, “if your gift is teaching, then teach (Rom. 12:7).”
You can get into the weeds quickly if you start to look at all the possible combinations of giftings and stress out about it. Check out this list of 19 recognized (some will list more) spiritual gifts found in the NT: Administration, Being an apostle, Discernment, Evangelism, Exhortation, Faith, Giving, Healing, Helps, Hospitality, Knowledge, Leadership, Mercy, Prophecy, Serving, Speaking in tongues, Teaching, Shepherding, Wisdom.
In all the Scripture passages pointing to spiritual gifts, you’ll never see one that specifically or generally points to being a “consumer” in the church. As Christ-followers we are called to be servants as He is the greatest servant of all, not coming to be served but to serve (Matthew 20:28). Likewise our giftings as individual members of the body of Christ are meant to serve others. By definition they are gifts. We didn't gain them ourselves, it's not something we earned, therefore we don't get to use them how we want and for our own gain, but according to God's will and for the benefit of the Church body.
Back in the fall of 2020 we did a series on the spiritual gifts APEST, or Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Shepherd, and Teacher. This comes from Ephesians 4:1-16, verse 11 in particular for that list. That teaching series was based around the book 5Q: Reactivating the Original Intelligence and Capacity of the Body of Christ. The book goes fairly deep into exploring spiritual gifts and tries to categorize all the other gifts that can be sussed out in Scripture under these 5 as the main buckets they can all be boiled down to. If you want to learn more about your spiritual gifts, check out that book, and you can also take a gifting assessment. Here is a link to some resources to get you started with a survey and more info.
So to wrap up, if you’re a Christ-follower, and the Holy Spirit lives in you, you’ve been given spiritual gifts. A significant part of our calling as Christians is to be Christ-like, which is accomplished by using the gifts we’re given in service to the church body, and as Paul says in Rom. 12:4-5, we all have different functions just as the members of own physical bodies do. And just like our physical bodies, when one member doesn't function properly or is removed entirely, it affects the rest of the body and can be a hindrance and even painful. So let’s serve Christ and the church with all the gifts and abilities given to us through the Holy Spirit.