Main Idea: Our discipleship depends on our essential relationship to the body of Christ, the church.

This morning we want to talk about how our discipleship depends on our essential relationship to the body of Christ, the church. On these summer Sunday mornings we’re examining what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. We said last week that a disciple is someone who is a complete and competent follower of Jesus Christ. We also said that there are some things that are absolutely essential to the process of becoming a complete and competent follower of Jesus Christ. Remember that when we use the word essential it means something that you just have to have to make everything else just right. When you have it it’s perfect. When you don’t, it’s not complete.

There are some relationships in life that we don’t want to live without. I recall the deep love my mother had for my father. My father and mother loved each other deeply through all the 47 years of their marriage. When my father died it was a sadness that my mother was challenged to endure. Life for her was not the same and the relationship with my father was one she just didn’t want to live without. In the same way, I am sure many of you have a similar love for your partner in life. You can’t imagine living life, doing life without them. You can’t imagine life without them because their relationship to you is essential.

For a disciple of Jesus Christ our relationship to the body of Christ, the church, is one we can’t live without. God has so engineered our spiritual makeup that we will never be a complete and competent follower of Jesus Christ without a healthy dependency on our relationship to His body—the church. When you accepted Jesus Christ as Savior you became God’s child in a unique way. Because you are God’s child you are a brother or sister to all the rest of his children. You are therefore part of God’s family. Your relationship to Jesus Christ is personal but God never meant it to be private. For all eternity you are connected to every other believer. Our text for today says, "And since we are all one body in Christ, we belong to each other, and each of us needs all the others" (Rom. 12:5b). Your relationship to the church is one you just can’t live without and be a disciple of Jesus Christ.

I will admit to you that when you read this text for today you don’t find the word "church" mentioned. What you do fin is a reference to "Christ’s body." The word "church" was a fairly unemotional word that meant a group of special people chosen for a special purpose. They are also termed, "the called out ones." Each of us is someone that God has chosen to be included in his family so we are the "called out ones." Yet Paul adds another dimension to this idea by saying that those who are believers are also those who make up Christ’s body—his physical presence in his physical absence. He would say in Ephesians 5:23, "Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior." Then he says that each of us "is a member of his body" (Eph. 5:30).

Rick Warren writes in The Purpose Driven Life, "Except for a few important exceptions referring to all believers throughout history, almost every time the word church is used in the Bible it refers to a local visible congregation. The New Testament assumes membership in a local congregation…a Christian without a church home is like an organ without a body, a sheep without a flock, or a child without a family. It’s an unnatural state…Many believe one can be a ‘good Christian’ without joining (or even attending) a local church, but God would strongly disagree" (The Purpose Driven Life, p. 132-133). Why? Because our relationship to the church is essential for our discipleship!

Why is it so essential? Well, that’s what we want to explore this morning in Romans 12:3-5.

The first reason our relationship to the church is essential to our discipleship is because we each have something to bring to the Body of Christ (Rom. 12:3). In the last part of verse 3 Paul says that each of us has been given "faith" by God. Other translations say, "the measure of faith" (NASV, NIV). What Paul is not talking about is the faith to believe in Jesus as Savior. It does not mean that some people are given just barely enough faith to believe in Jesus and others have much more. Instead, what he means is the spiritual power that God gives to each Christian in order for them to do their unique responsibility as part of his body, the church.

While Romans 12:3 has a negative tone to it, because there’s a warning he is giving, it has a deeper, more positive truth. That truth is that God has given to every Christian the ability to use their spiritual life in the local church. Each believer has something to bring to a local church that the believer needs to use and the church needs to become stronger. It is obvious that Paul is making a distinction by saying that not everyone has the same spiritual power as everyone else. Yet that doesn’t mean they are more or less significant to the church as Christ’s body. That’s why he warns these Christians to be careful how they see themselves, to not think that they are somehow more important to the body of Christ than someone else. He says, "Be honest in your estimate of yourselves…." (Rom. 12:3).

It’s interesting to think that one thing this says is that we’re not all going to have the same spiritual effectiveness by our terms. Foe example I may not like it but my body has limits that someone else doesn’t have. That doesn’t mean I am not to try to develop my body within its limits. I’ve started back some much needed strength training. I just simply can’t do and at my age will never do what a much younger or more developed person can. If I let my pride get in the way, I’ll injure my body. The body I bring to the gym doesn’t really matter to the effectiveness of Jonesboro. Yet the body, spiritually, you bring to the church affects all the rest of us. If we let pride in our spiritual effectiveness dominate our relationship to the church then we will injure the body of Christ. If we allow our low spiritual self-esteem to prevent us from giving to the church then we will injure the body of Christ.

The beauty of this is that we never know fully what we have to give until we bring it as an offering for the body of Christ to use. Right now we have over 15 vacancies in our children’s GLOW program on Wednesday night for the fall. You may feel that there is no way you have the gifts needed for something like that but how will you know if you don’t try? You have been given spiritual power by God to serve his body! Each of us has something to bring to the Body of Christ!

Not only do we each have something to bring to the Body of Christ, we each nave a different relationship to the Body of Christ. (Rom 12:4). Paul says, "Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ’s body" (Rom. 17:4-5a). In the same way each of us has a variety of spiritual capacity each of us has a different relationship or function as part of Christ’s body. He will say later in verse 5 that "each of us has different work to do."

Romans 12:4 and 5 tells us two very important things about your relationship to the body of Christ: each of us is different and each of us is important. Now it’s not hard for us to tell by looking at our human body that my ear is not my hand nor is my foot my nose. Yet do you realize that our uniqueness is greater than even those most obvious distinctions? We have over 200 different kinds of cells in our bodies. The cells are designed to work in connection not competition with other cells. Right now I have nerve cells that receive my brain’s commands to open and close my mouth. At the same time there are red blood cells ferrying oxygen back and forth between muscle cells. If I cut my arm the white blood cells would respond like a fire truck or ambulance negotiating arteries and veins to get to the cut to repair the injury. The cells in my body, while different, work cooperatively in order for my body to function as God intended.

Each member of the body of Christ is different just like the members and cells of my body are different. Each member of the body of Christ is important just like each member and cells of my body are important. I wouldn’t want to try living without any of them. Do you realize that it is the beauty of your uniqueness that makes you so vital to this church family? If we lose your uniqueness or your individual significance then we lose as the body of Christ! Whenever we encounter persons who are not like us we want to assume we are superior or inferior and we want to retreat into our own world of self-acceptance and affirmation. Instead, when you look at the church, we see persons who outside of this place would never in their life be associated with each other because they are so different. Yet here it is our diversity that makes it all work.

What this says to us is that it is our diversity as individual Christians that’s the mark of God’s work not our uniformity. Our nature is to demand or believe that we all must be the same in order for us to work together—think alike, act alike, look alike. Yet that doesn’t work anywhere else. Teamwork doesn’t make us robots. It means we are only as successful as we use our individual uniqueness in Christ’s body. We each have a different relationship to the body!

We each have something to bring to the body and we each have a different relationship to the body. Yet even though we are each so different, we each belong to the same body (Rom. 12:5). Paul says in verse 5, "We are all parts of his one body…we are all one body in Christ." As unique and distinct as each one of us I, we are all part of the same body. What does he mean? Think back on the cell analogy for a moment. When cells work together in their special areas, they strengthen the body. There are nurturing cells, protecting cells, healing cells, cells that produce sight and cells that even allow me to stay balanced. Yet whatever specialty they have, they all work in harmony for one specific purpose: the health and strength of the body in which they are located. My arm is strengthened by cartilage cells that work with bone cells to make my arm strong. Those cells work together to form energy units called fibers that produce bursts of energy or endurance when I’m lifting something. Working together, they share their strength and sustain my life.

Stu Weber illustrated the principle of shared strength in Four Pillars of a Man’s Heart. He told of a county fair where the champion draft horse pulled a 4,500-pound sled. The second place horse pulled, 4000 pounds. When yoked together, the two pulled 12,000 pounds! Shared strength is always greater than individual strength." ("Meet Your Cellmates," Discipleship Journal, p. 58, Issue 140)

Here’s the downside though: a cell that refuses to work in cooperation with other cells, that rebels against the function of the body, is called "cancer." Whether benign or malignant, it is working independently, not cooperatively, and unless it is removed, the body will be destroyed. Don’t hear me say that if you don’t agree with me or with everything that is done in our church that you are a "cancer." What I am saying is that unless we understand deeply and clearly that we are all part of one body in spite of our differences then our church loses! Every one of us has to come to this place and say, "It’s not about me!" We each belong to the same body!

There’s one last thing this passage teaches us and that is that while we each belong to the same body we also belong to each other (Rom 12:5b). Paul says, "And since we are all one body in Christ, we belong to each other, and each of us needs all the others." That says that as a result of my being unified in the body of Christ I belong and needs the other parts, the other members of the body of Christ. It means that I am to live life mutually with other members of the body of Christ. The faith that unites us to Christ, also unites us to the body of Christ, the church.

You may have never thought about how utterly crucial the local church is to your life in Christ. Paul says clearly that in belonging to the body, we belong to each other. Connection with Christ means connection with each other. If one arm is bleeding badly, every limb in the body will grow weaker, not just the arm. If one arm is working hard to feed the mouth, every limb will be strengthened.

"Mutuality is the art of giving and receiving. It’s depending on each other…Each of us is more consistent in our faith when others walk with us and encourage us." (PLD, p. 140). Rick Warren points out that the Bible commands mutual accountability, mutual encouragement, mutual serving and mutual honoring. There are over fifty references in the New Testament where we are commanded to do different things to "one another" and "each other." He says, "You are not responsible for everyone in the Body of Christ, but you are responsible to them." (PDL, p. 141).

But think about the importance of this for your relation to Christ. What would it mean if one limb of the body said to the other limbs, "I don't need you and I don't like you, so I choose not to be attached to you; I want no relationship with you"? What would that mean? Well, that limb would be saying: I choose not to be in Christ. You can't have it both ways. Paul says, "we belong to each other, and each of us needs all the others." That is a reality. We don't make it a reality. It is a reality. And if we reject the reality, we reject Christ. In other words, the reality of the church - the local body of believers - is crucial.

Can you imagine the difference that would occur if we all recognized that we all needs each other! It means that the person who feels ignored because no one speaks to them when they walk in a room is needed just as much as that person who thinks everybody loves them because everybody speaks to them when they walk in a room. It means the person who is extremely wealthy needs the person who bounced their last check. It means the person who isn’t so talented needs the person who is very talented. It just simply means that in the body of Christ, "We can’t do life without each other!"

The movie Drumline explores the maturation of a talented percussionist from Harlem who receives a full-ride scholarship to Atlanta A&T University to play in the marching band. Early on Devon Miles (played by Nick Cannon) discovers that making the transition from hip-hop street drumming to the drumline of a university’s celebrated marching band is more challenging than he expected.

Devon consistently deviates from the protocol outlined by Dr. Lee, the band director. He fails to read the band rulebook; he provokes a fight on the field at halftime, and he violates the philosophy of band unity by showing off. One morning, before sunrise, the incoming freshmen band members are lined up like Army recruits on the University’s football field. The returning band members observe from the sidelines. The freshmen are wearing white t-shirts except for Devon who is in a black one. Dr. Lee addresses them like a boot camp sergeant. When a few stragglers arrive tardy, the director asks one of them to identify his roommate. The embarrassed latecomer points to Devon.

Dr. Lee approaches Devon and asks him why his roommate was late. He responds that his roommate likely overslept. When the band director inquires why he didn’t wake him, Devon flippantly answers, "I’m not his mother."

Dr. Lee, put off by Devon’s smart mouth, repeats the dialogue he and Devon have just had loud enough for the entire band to hear. Then in military fashion he barks out, "Section leaders. What is our concept?" The section leaders answer loudly in unison, "One band, one sound!"

Dr. Lee repeats the slogan: "One band, one sound!" and then continues to address the newcomers. "When one of us late, we are all late. When one of us looks or sounds bad, we all look and sound bad." Staring at the freshmen, he asks, "So, what’s the concept?" The freshman musicians reply, "One band, one sound." Dr. Lee continues, "Now I want ten laps for all those who are ‘not their roommate’s mama.’" (Drumline, 20^th-Century Fox, 2002)

So what’s the concept? "One band, one sound." How do we get there? We get there by remembering we are our "roommate’s momma" We get there by remembering we each have something to bring to the body of Christ, that we don’t all bring the same thing, that we all belong to the same body and we all need each other in the body.

So how is your relationship to the body of Christ? In order for you to become a complete and competent follower of Jesus Christ you need the relationship of a local church. You have something to give—so give it! You are totally different than everyone else—so is everyone else! You are part of his body – regardless! You need me and I need you—admit it! Our discipleship depends on our essential relationship to the body of Christ!

Sunday, July 18, 2004

Dr. Bruce Tippit, Pastor

First Baptist Church

Jonesboro, Arkansas

btippit@fbcjonesboro.org