The Way of Care | The One Another Way - 1 Corinthians 12:12-26 | Travis Jones

All right, man.

Can you see me?

There you go.

Man, I love you guys.

Love you guys.

Good to see all of you.

Hope you're doing well.

At this time, I would like to invite you to get out your Bibles or get out a Bible app.

And I want you to go to the New Testament, the book of 1 Corinthians.

We're going to be in chapter 12, picking up in verse 12.

You can follow along in your worship guides.

You can take notes if you want to do that.

But we are continuing in a series, I believe we began like four weeks ago.

We entitled The One Another Way.

And what we're doing is we're studying eight of, well, there's over 50, one another commands found in the New Testament.

These are commands to Christians on how we are to relate to one another.

We've looked at love one another, we've looked at encourage one another.

I guess this is week number three.

Math is not, you know, my major, but um, we're going to be looking at today care for one another.

And um the apostle Paul is writing this letter, 1 Corinthians, to a church in Corinth, and he um comes to a portion in the letter where he does something a little unusual.

And what he's going to do is this he's going to make an illustration, but he's going to use the human body as an illustration for us to understand how we are to care for one another.

He's going to say, if you want to know how we are to care for one another, then what you need to do is just pay attention to your body, your physical body.

All right?

Sounds, and maybe you've read 1 Corinthians before, I don't know, but when you first read it, it sounds kind of unusual to use the human body as an example or an illustration for the body of Christ.

But it makes sense when you think about it, um, because when we know our bodies and and our bodies know how to take care of itself.

The body knows how to care for itself.

Uh, it does, it absolutely does.

I learned this um years ago really the hard way, and I can some of you already know this, I don't know, it doesn't really matter, but um I I like to ride a longboard.

A longboard is a big skateboard, and I like to ride it, and um you just basically you just go downhill and you go fast, okay?

I know it's it's I don't know, it's I enjoy it.

But about 12 years ago, uh a while back ago, I was riding my longboard, and um what happens, once again, I'll admit this, is sometimes you think you can do more than you can actually do.

I found myself in that situation, so I was going faster than I ought to be going.

There was a turn, I didn't make the turn, I crashed, and I broke my collarbone.

And I learned a lot in that.

The deal is this when you break your collarbone, it does not feel like just a private problem for the collarbone.

It really affects the whole body, right?

Um just just just getting dressed, getting dressed became kind of a spiritual discipline, man.

Putting on a shirt, putting on a shirt was like, I don't know, solving a Rubik's Cube.

Everything became difficult, right?

And what happened at that moment was the other, it was on this side, but what happens at that point is the rest of my body started making adjustments, right?

Like this side was on injured reserved, and so the other side started doing extra work.

The rest of my body never said that's a collarbone problem.

We doing okay.

The body is one and has one goal, and when one part was hurt, the whole part of my body started working together, right?

Now, Apostle Paul is going to use this that we already know that this body, when one part hurts, all of it should respond.

And he's going to be using the body as an illustrated illustration.

We in this room, we're not disconnected, right?

We're not random strangers just sitting in a room together.

This is this church, we are the body of Christ.

And each body part cannot be indifferent to what another part of the body might be going through.

A healthy body cares for every member, and so we are to care for one another, and he's going to walk us through this illustration so that we will better understand how we as the body of Christ are to relate and care for one another.

So we're just going to walk through this.

We're going to walk through this, and there's really, I don't know, four truths in this passage that I found that really shape the way that we should think about caring for one another.

So we're just going to walk through it verse by verse.

We'll begin.

1 Corinthians chapter 12, verse 12.

1 Corinthians 12:12

First thing we see is this we, church, belong to one body.

You got to understand that.

Look at verse 12.

Here's what he says to that church, Corinth, but to us today as well.

For just as the body is one and has many members, all the members of the body, though, though many are one body, so it so it is with Christ.

All right.

So he's beginning with this illustration, right?

He's comparing our physical body with the church.

Paul says, if you want to know what the church is like, you need to take a good look at your physical body.

Now, once again, I want to say this.

I understand that we may have read this before.

I understand that, but what I want us to see is this is really unusual, meaning that the first hearers of this, this would have been a revolutionary kind of concept, all right?

You want to know how we're supposed to respond to one another, care for one another.

What you need to do is look at your body.

Okay, we can do that.

We we can do that, all right?

If we were to look at our physical bodies, we can do that.

We clearly see we have many parts, many members, right?

Like, like we can listen.

I got hands, I got ears, I got eyes, I got feet, I got hair, I got a lot of different parts.

But we see in that, although I have these many different parts, it's still part of a whole.

There's one body.

My body has a singular purpose, it has a singular cause.

We can see that.

Like this is not rocket science.

We can all see that.

Then Paul says, likewise, he uses the word so, so it is also the same with the body of Christ, the church.

This church, us, when we're appropriately functioning, should act like a physical body.

And we can look around here and see the church is made up of many members, right?

Like, like, like, like, we're there's there there's a lot of us here.

And every person in the body of Christ is to be working together for a singular purpose and a singular cause.

That is the illustration that he begins making.

And I think it's pretty simple.

It's pretty it's straightforward, okay?

I get that.

It's revolutionary, really, that my body, which I understand, works together for one cause.

We in this room, as the church, are to work together for one cause.

Paul, that's a beautiful illustration.

I got it.

He's going to keep building.

He's building on this whole illustration.

Look at verse 13.

And they're like, how do we get into this body?

Here's what he says.

For in one spirit, we, church, were all baptized into one body, the body of Christ.

Then he gives some examples.

Jews are Greeks, slaves are free, and all were made to drink of one spirit.

All right.

So he's reminding us here that we are brought into this body by God the Spirit.

He says, all Christians have been baptized into the body of Christ by God the Spirit.

Now he's not referring to water baptism here.

He's not talking about that.

That's not what we're talking about here.

We're talking about spirit baptism.

We're talking about salvation.

So at salvation, God saves you.

You're born again, right?

Indwelt by God the Spirit, adopted, brought into the family, the body of Christ.

You are brought into the church.

That's what he's saying.

And then notice this, and this is important, the diversity contained within the body of Christ.

He gives us a list.

This is a diverse body, whether Jew or Greek.

That's your ethnicity, right?

Social economic background.

Whether slave or free, meaning meaning, meaning, man, whether you're a millionaire or you ain't got a dime to your name, man.

You are brought into this body by the grace of God.

God the Spirit baptizes you, brings you into this body.

But we see here, and we got to listen to this.

The body is diverse.

The body is diverse.

And what we need to understand is that God is glorified in the diversity of the church.

He gets glory in the diversity of the church.

I say this, you might have heard me say this before.

I'll say it again.

It don't matter.

Some of the only things, some things, the only things that I have in common with some of you, the only thing I have in common with some of you, hey, you would think if I said that a lot, I'd say it better, wouldn't you?

But it's true.

Some of the only things that I have in common with some of you is that you love Jesus.

You've been saved.

That's what that's our commonality right there.

And that's it.

It's Jesus.

We love Jesus.

And when the Spirit baptizes, brings us in, it doesn't erase our differences.

It unites us in Jesus Christ.

We are not all up in here trying to look the same.

Guess what I'm talking about?

I got a story there too, man.

I went to church one time, walking there, and everybody looked the same.

And I was like, dude, we got problems here, man.

I don't know.

Because they none look like me, but it doesn't matter.

That's another story.

Well, anyway, our unity is not built on sameness.

Our unity is built on God the Spirit.

All right.

So we got we one body.

It got me to thinking, and I want to talk about this a minute.

I'll know, man.

One body, one body, one body.

As a pastor, I'm sorry, really just as a Christian, I have heard people say multiple times, I am a Christian, but I don't want to belong to any church.

Or I attend Silverdale, but I don't want to get involved anywhere.

Now I find that interesting.

In light of what we've just read, I find that interesting because it doesn't make sense to me.

It ain't never made sense to me.

It's like saying I'm a football player, but I don't want to be part of a team.

It's like saying I'm a finger, but I ain't want to be part of a hand.

It doesn't make sense.

And here's the deal.

Maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe I'm not a great example, okay?

But I'm the only example I got, so I just gotta share this with you.

I hope it's helpful.

When the Lord saved me, the first thing I did, I joined a church.

I became a member of a church, and I have been a member of a church every day since then.

I'm part of the body.

I love the church, I love the people of God.

One of the greatest blessings in my life has been the church.

The church has loved me when I have been unlovely.

Some of you say I'm unlovely now.

You should have seen me back in the day.

I was even more unlovely.

Church prayed for me, cared for me, carried me.

I love the church.

And I can give you, I just, this caused me to just kind of do a little walking down memory lane, man.

I got saved.

I got saved at First Baptist Church, Fourney, Texas, F-O-R-N-E-Y.

It's a real place.

Some of you visited it.

I know.

Look, I joined that church.

That was the first church I was a church member of.

Went to college.

I joined Beltway Park Baptist Church in Abilene, Texas.

Seminary, New Mexico.

It was in Forest Meadow Church.

We went to Africa for nine years.

You guys know that.

The first two years I were with the in Mwanza with the Secuma people.

And for two years, man, I was a part of Nakubungo Church.

For two years, a humble Sucuma pastor, a farmer, he was my pastor.

And I submitted to him.

I submitted to the people in that church and their leadership.

Those were my people, man.

That was the body I was a part of.

And after that, we were in um Dar Salaam for seven years.

I was a member of UDSM.

It was there at the uh university there, and I was a pastor.

I was the pastor there.

I thank God for those churches.

Let me tell you something.

None of those churches were perfect.

None of those pastors were perfect.

But they were all good.

They were good for me.

And I learned and I grew.

And I love the church.

I love the church.

I mean, take this for what it's worth.

It's confession time, man.

If you, let me tell you something.

I'm a laid-back individual, alright?

But if you want to rage bait me, if any of you want to rage bait me, well, he's laughing.

Don't do it.

Look.

All you have to do is talk bad about this church or any of the members of this church.

You know?

Here's something I'll let you know.

This maybe this will help you sleep better at night.

I doubt it.

But I want you to understand this.

You will never find me in a conversation where any of you are being talked bad about.

I won't be in it.

I won't.

I'll do one of two things.

I'll exit the conversation.

I'll exit the conversation, or I'll try to correct the conversation.

That seldom goes well.

I love the church.

I love the people of the church.

I thank God for the church.

When we get back to this verse right here, the point is we belong to one body.

As a Christian, do not stand at a distance from the body of Christ.

It is, man, a glorious thing.

And I thank God for you, our church, and this body, that we're the body of Christ.

He's going to keep building on this.

Here's the second thing I want you to see.

Some people don't.

Oh no, don't put too much weight on this.

We need one another.

We talked about this last week, but Paul is continuing in the same theme of the body.

Look at verse 14.

For the body, physical body, does not consist of one member but of many.

Alright, going back to the analogy, the analogy of the body, your body has lots of parts, right?

And every part has a part to play in the body.

Likewise, look at the church.

Our church has lots of parts, and each part has an important part to play.

And now he's going to keep pushing into this analogy, right?

He's going to do this.

He's going to say, imagine if your physical body could talk to the other parts of the body.

And imagine that they talk to the other parts of the body in the same way.

Some of us tend to talk to one another.

Look at verse 15.

If the foot should say, because I'm not a hand, I do not belong to the body, that would not make it any less a part of the body.

Man, I read that and I'm like, Word, that's great, man.

You tell us, Paul.

Tell us, Paul.

I need to hear that.

I need to hear that, man.

Verse 16.

And if the ear should say, because I'm not an eye, I do not belong to the body, that would not make it any less part of the body.

If the whole body were an eye, where would be this, where would be the sense of hearing?

If the whole body was an ear, where would be the sense of smell, right?

So once again, you this is just, he's just pushing into this analogy.

He's like, just imagine that.

It's crazy, right?

But is that not unlike some of the conversations you might hear among Christians?

Imagine if the hand, imagine if the hand said, I want to be a foot, because I'm not a foot, I'm out of here.

Well, where you where you going, man?

You're still part of the body, man.

And if we all, and and if and if every part of my body said, I want to be an eye, listen, the eye is cool.

We can all say the eye's cool.

I mean, it'd be cool if every part, if if my fingers were eyes, if my whole body was eyes, that'd be really cool.

I'd have Superman vision, okay?

I get it.

It would be really cool.

But I would look like a freak.

You know what I'm saying?

I mean, maybe I could see through wall.

I don't know, dude.

Where are you gonna go?

He's a big old eyeball rolling around, man.

You couldn't accomplish anything, man.

It's craziness.

But thank God, we are not the one arranging the parts of the body.

Look at this, verse 18.

But as it is, I love that.

He's like, basically, translation, fact.

All right, fact.

God arranged the members in the body, each one of them as he chose, he did it.

If if if all were a single member, where would the body be?

So we got who arranged the members of this church body?

God did.

God did.

Who distributes the gifting in this church body?

God does that.

There's a lot of implications here.

But one of the implications is that there is not a person here in this body of believers who has not been given a gift or gifts that this church needs.

You know?

Everyone here.

Like I'm not looking at a single individual that has not been entrusted with the gift by God that's needed in this body, and it was given to you to steward so that we can be built up together, right?

That means that means you're never going to meet a person, member of this congregation, that is not important and integral to the health of this church.

We need you, you need us.

I know, dude.

You look around, I know you can look around, and you so you're like, you're like, oh, so this is who God thinks I need.

You know what I'm saying?

I know I need you.

I know I need you, man.

Man, look at Miss Faye there.

I didn't even, no, I know.

I didn't even know I needed a Miss Faye in my life until I started coming to church and met Miss Faye.

And now I'm, you know, Jay, same thing.

All of you.

All of you.

I need you.

You need me.

God put us here.

God gifted us.

God says, come together.

You're the body, man.

And here's the deal.

I got some good news.

You do not have to look very hard at all to find some weaknesses, you know, or a need here.

It's not hard.

People, you know, I've had people come up to me at this service and say, hey, and they tell me about a need we have.

And I'm like, I know, you think that's bad.

I got something else to tell you about.

It's not, it's not hard.

We have holes.

We have holes in ministry, we have holes in things we need to do, things that God's calling us to do.

And one of the gifting that God has given us to fill those needs is you and the gifts that you have, man.

You can say, I don't know.

Let's say, let's say, let's say on your way out, you walk around, you see something around here, and it frustrates you.

Right?

And you say to yourself, you know, this part of the church isn't going well.

This part of the church is all messed up.

And I say, great.

Great.

Because evidently God has given you, I don't know, the the insight to diagnose it.

Two, by the grace of God, he's given you gifts that you can, I don't know, help fix it, right?

That's all ministry is.

That is all ministry is.

Ministry is I see a whole, I see a need, I nominate myself to be the remedier.

Is that a word?

I don't know.

I'm gonna do it.

That's all ministry is.

People say they want to get in the ministry.

Hey, come to church.

Church is a ministry.

You got a gift, we got a need, and together, God's gonna do good things.

You know what I'm saying?

Verse 20.

As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.

All right.

So once again, he's just saying this there is no such thing as a free floating part of your physical part.

I mean your physical body.

I got no free floating fingers.

You don't own either.

And if you do, we're gonna call 911.

You need some help.

Same thing with us, man.

There's no free floating members here.

We're part of a body.

You and I have to decide to connect, to love one another, to meet one another, spend time with one another, to see what's going on as God has called us here.

We're a body of believers, right?

We're here.

We got these gifts.

We got this calling.

God has set us here for a specific reason to glorify his name, but to also minister in a unique way at a unique time.

But you got to connect.

He's going to keep building.

He says this.

This, well, look at this.

We honor one another.

We can be kind of poor at that at times.

Look at verse 21.

The eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you.

Nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.

On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable.

Alright?

There's kind of another side of division that people don't talk a lot about, right?

Some people say, I do not want to belong.

Other people say, I don't need you.

Both are incorrect, right?

It's incorrect.

Like how silly would it be for one part of your body, I thought about this, to declare war on another part of your body?

Silliness, right?

But that's what happens sometimes up in the church, man.

One group declares war on another in the same church.

Who wins that?

Nobody.

Nobody.

Nobody.

Everybody loses.

Everybody loses.

Like, this is so lame, but I thought about this.

Like, like, like, what if my right hand decided to declare war on my head?

You know?

And my right hand, he's like just punching his head, you know?

And then, and then he goes, I won.

What'd you win, dude?

There's no reward or trophy for punching yourself in the face.

They don't hand that out.

And there's no trophy for best church war.

They don't hand that out.

Nobody wins.

Nobody wins at that.

Verse 23 and 24.

And on the parts of the body that we think less honorable, we bestow the greater honor.

And our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require.

But God has so composed, once again, God's the one composing the body, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it.

Okay, so what's going on here?

What's he talking about here?

Basically, Paul is telling us those in the body who have a gifting that may be seen in a visible way, meaning maybe up in front, should not be belittling or more marginalizing those who may have been entrusted with a gift that is less visible, right?

In fact, those who have been entrusted with visible gifts that many see are to show greater respect and honor to those who have been entrusted with gifts that are not necessarily seen in front of others, right?

That means we should notice people who are easy to overlook.

We should notice the quiet, quiet servant.

I mean, you know this, I won't say it, I'll just let you know.

The coffee we drink, it's nice.

But it was made, I didn't make that.

I didn't make it.

I'm glad somebody made it because it helps people stay attentive during the boring parts of the message, which they are far and few in between.

All right.

Someone comes early, a team of people come early.

You think about our children's ministry?

There's volunteers there right now.

We don't see them.

We honor them.

We honor them, right?

We're grateful for them.

We see here, we all, I don't know, are to be looking for the individuals who may be serving quietly.

We honor them.

We encourage them.

This goes back to caring for one another, right?

We honor.

We honor those which are less visible, right?

The world?

The world?

The world does it different.

We don't.

We don't.

We don't.

We're gonna get to verse 25 and see the fourth truth here.

We share pain together.

That there may be no division in the body.

I'm gonna say that again.

That there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same, here we go, care for one another.

That's our command.

That's our command right there.

We see that God is the one, once again, that made this body up.

It's diverse for his glory, but it's not to be divided.

God is listen, make sure we understand this.

God is glorified in diversity.

Romans 15 says this, so that with one accord you may be one voice.

So with one accord the diverse have one voice, glorifying God.

That means once again, God receives more glory in the diversity of the congregation.

And when I'm talking about age, I'm talking about every aspect of it.

God gets glory through that.

God gets more glory from a unified, diverse congregation than he would supposedly get from any, I'll know, individual, holy roller.

The diversity, the gifting, the body brought together, caring for one another, right?

Worshiping his name, he gets the glory from it, man.

We relate to each other.

We minister to each other, we worship together, we're on mission together.

Final verse.

If one, okay, it is a final verse.

I was thinking maybe.

If one member suffers, all suffer together.

Guys, listen to this.

If one member is honored, all rejoice together, right?

I was thinking about that one.

We we once again getting back to the body.

Listen, I know all of you have, I don't know, used a hammer or something, and you've hit one of your digits, you know?

You go, let's say I hit my thumb, man.

And if I hit my thumb with the hammer, my whole body reacts, you know?

My hand is gonna grab it.

I'm gonna make a face that I don't want anyone to take a picture of.

Sometimes some of you might say a word that will need to be repented of afterwards, you know?

But the whole body is just just gets into it, man.

That the issue, once again, isn't a thumb issue, man.

It's a body issue.

We all get involved.

That's how we care for each other.

We all suffer together.

It doesn't mean we all feel the same pain or an amount of pain, but it does mean this.

We just we don't say, oh no, we okay, I've done this, but we don't need to do this.

I repent of it.

You know, someone hurting in the congregation, and you say something like, if you need anything, let me know.

But you're hoping they don't need anything, you know?

I've done that.

I'm sorry, but no, man, we're together, right?

We we we we want to help, we want to care.

But then he says, if one member is honored, all rejoice together.

Do you know rejoicing together may be more difficult than honoring?

I mean, um, um, um suffering together?

Because I was thinking about this, right?

Sometimes it's easy to weep with somebody when things are going bad, right?

But then it's hard to rejoice with them, right?

Because I don't know.

Sometimes you think you think if something's good happening to some individual over here that somehow, I don't know, we think that it's taking something from us.

Like there's a like there's only so much joy, and if this person gets the joy, then that's gonna be some joy.

But that's not the way it works, man.

If one of us gets a promotion, if one of us wins the lottery, I don't know.

We all going out to eat, but we don't play the lottery.

Not, you know, I'm just saying if we're just it's analogy, analogy, analogy.

We rejoice together.

We rejoice together, we celebrate together, we encourage together, we don't envy each other, we don't begrade each other, we don't put each other down.

Something good happens to you, it happens to me, and I can rejoice, and we'll rejoice together.

You suffering, we're gonna suffer together, right?

That is the illustration that Paul has given us when it comes to this caring for one another.

All right, so, all right, we'll wrap it up.

Look, so this is an illustration.

This is an analogy given by Paul, right?

It's a picture we can't miss, right?

The body.

It's not a perfect illustration, though.

Thought about this.

It's not a perfect illustration because I don't know, so I'm getting older.

My body doesn't work perfectly.

And there are times my natural body does seem to be in rebellion against me.

Alright?

So our physical bodies are imperfect.

But hear me out.

The head of the church is perfect and always will be because it's Jesus Christ.

And we can rest in that.

He's the head of the cross, he's the head of the church, and on the cross, Jesus showed his care for us on the cross in my place for my sin, so that I might be brought into the body of Christ.

And now that we belong to him, and I really hope you get a chance when you're leaving today to look around.

This is the body of Christ.

And since we have been brought into the body of Christ by the head of the church, Jesus Christ, let us care for one another.

Not just in words, but in actions.

Let us understand that one hurting over here does not mean because I'm not hurting that I am off.

No, like the thumb, we grab, right?

Someone rejoices, we rejoice us.

We rejoice.

This is not the way of the world.

This is the way of Jesus.

Church, I want us to be marked as a body that cares for one another.

I love you guys.

We'll pick up on the next command next week.

Let's pray.

Father God, we thank you for our church, this body of believers here, this body of believers here on Silverdale Saturday nights, that you have so brought together, given us gifts, given us talents and abilities.

I pray that we would steward well what you have entrusted to us.

That we would continue to go out of our ways to care for one another, and that we would be blessed by it, and that you would get the glory from it.

And we ask these things in the name of our Savior, Jesus the Christ.

Amen.