July 16, 2017 - Body of Christ

Tony & Michelle Pawlak

MEMORY VERSE

Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. 

I Corinthians 12:27

What is the most important part of your body?  Is it your brain? Your heart? Your hands?  What parts would you be willing to do without? Your feet?  Your ears?  What if your feet thought they weren't really a part of your body because they weren't the hand?  How about if your ear thought it wasn't really part of your body because it wasn't your eye?  Sounds pretty silly, doesn't it?  That's because it is.  But we, as a church, do this very thing all the time! Let me explain.

During his second missionary journey, the Apostle Paul came

to a town called Corinth.  Paul, as he always did, tried to preach to the local Jews in the Synagogue about Jesus Christ.  However, he and his message were soundly rejected.  Paul then decided to preach to the Gentiles (non-Jews) instead.  There, Paul met with success.  He, along with his friends Silas and

Timothy, were able to recruit and teach many new believers and set up a church in Corinth.  

After a year and a half, Paul saw that it was time for him to leave and he continued on his journey.  Unfortunately, things did not go exactly according to plan in Corinth. The people of the church began arguing among themselves over who was more important in the church.  They thought that certain

gifts, jobs, and positions were more important than others.  Word of this reached Paul and he decided to sit down and write them a letter.  We know this letter as 1st Corinthians. 

Paul began explaining to the people there that the church was the body of Christ and Jesus Himself was the head.  (He also wrote a similar letter to the Romans.)  Not only that, but each person was like a

different body part doing a different but equally important job.  He explained to them that the body needs all its parts to do the complete job it was meant to do.  

Today, we still make the same mistake.  We think to ourselves that only certain people are important to the Kingdom of Heaven and the rest aren't. People think, "Because I'm not a pastor, a preacher, a teacher, a missionary, etc..., I'm not very important." Others think things such as, "because I AM a pastor, a preacher, a teacher, a missionary, etc..., I am much more important to the Kingdom of Heaven than the others."  

We, as the body of Christ, need to pull together if we ever

want to win this world for Jesus Christ.  God has a unique and important job for each of you and He has given you a special ability and desire to do that job.  We need to seek God and discover what our job and our giftings are.  Then we need to work together with, strengthen, and encourage each other.  You would never get much done if all your body parts were working against each other now would you?