Sermon Tone Analysis

#. *The amazing human body!*

I want you to think for a minute about the wonder of the human body?

Think for instance

about your bones – do you know that when you were born you had over 300 bones.

Now as an adult you only have 206.

But still 206 bones, it’s a lot isn’t it.

Ranging in size from the femur in your thigh, which is about ¼ of your height, to the stirrup bone in your ear, which is about 1~/10 inch long.

Or think about your muscles.

Your body has over 630 muscles.

Your face alone has over 30 muscles – making you smile, blink, open your mouth.

The busiest muscles are the eyes, which may move more than 100,000 times a day.

And all the muscles do is pull, they can never push – just contract and relax.

Amazing isn’t it.

Or what about your brain?

More incredible and complex than any supercomputer, yet weighs a mere 1.5 kilograms.

Over 10 billion nerve cells in there, together with another 50 billion other sorts of cells.

All work together to give us consciousness, thought, creativity.

And there is much more to your body besides bone, muscle and brain.

It is a remarkable creation.

And what happens if one bone is broken?

Or if one muscle snaps?

Or you injure even a small part of your brain?

What happens?

The whole body feels it, and is less capable than it was before, at least until that part is mended.

Why am I talking about bodies?

It is because the Apostle Paul says much about the body in his letters.

Not so much about physical bodies, but about a different body.

Did you hear it in that reading from 1 Corinthians 12? Listen again to v12 – READ.

*2.

Christ’s amazing body!*

What body is Paul talking about?

About Christ’s body.

And so you would think at the end of v12 he would go on to talk about Jesus.

But what is amazing are the next two words, which start v13 – for ‘we’.

What do ‘we’ have to do with Christ and his body?

Paul is talking not about Jesus’ physical body, but the spiritual body of Christ, which is Jesus and his people.

So listen to v13 again – READ.

It is about us – we, those people who are Christians, people who have received the Holy Spirit, regardless of what nationality they are, or what social circumstances they are in, they are all part of Christ’s body, fed and nourished by his Spirit.

And this is not just at a universal level – the body of Christ is all Christians throughout time, but it is also strangely at a local level – so look at v27 – ‘you’ are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

Paul has moved in the same chapter from talking about ‘we’ as all Christians, to ‘you’ as he addresses the Christians at Corinth.

This body of Christ is made up not of muscles and bones and so on, but of people, of individual Christians.

And that has significant implications for us.

Let me just draw out 3.

 

#.

*Implications - every Christian … *

#.

Is part of Christ’s body

#.

Has an important part to play in this body

#.

Has a different part to play in this body

 

/                                                              i.

//Every Christian is part of Christ’s body/

Are you a Christian?

Then you are a part of the body of Christ.

Every Christian is – regardless of age, sex, nationality.

What defines a Christian then?

After all there are some dangerous cults around these days, there are people who claim to be Christian but aren’t, there are Christian churches who say that to be a Christian you must do this or that.

What really defines a Christian?

Paul answers that in vv1-3.

The Corinthians seem to have thought that the only true Christians were those with some showy spiritual gifts, especially being able to speak in tongues.

And everyone else was a second-rate Christian.

I’m told some some churches still think the same thing.

But Paul says, no.

Only one thing identifies true Christians.

It is not being a human, it is not being Australian, it is not being well-off, it is not doing good things, it is not even coming to St Mark’s, even every week.

No, what marks people out as part of Christ’s body is that they have the Spirit of God in v3.

And who has the Spirit of God? V3 - they proclaim that Jesus is Lord.

Of course not just proclaiming it in terms of putting 3 words together, but actually living it.

At the end of the day there are only 2 groups of people – those who have the Holy Spirit, and those who do not.

Those who do acknowledge Jesus is *the* Lord and Jesus is *their* Lord.

The rest do not.

The body of Christ is only those people with the Holy Spirit, those who by that Holy Spirit confess that Jesus is Lord.

And it is those people only who will be with Christ forever, for after all they are his body.

If you know you are not yet part of that body, and want to be, please talk to me after the service.

Only God can give you His Spirit, and all you need to do is ask in repentance and faith.

The people of Jesus form one body - the body of Christ.

It is a body in which God is at work, Father, Son and Spirit as seen in vv4-6.

It is *one* body.

If you are here today and confess that Jesus is Lord then you are part of his body, and you have the Holy Spirit.

We *are* one body.

Here at St Mark’s God wants us to reflect that, to show unity, not encourage division.

APPL – I wonder if you sense that unity here at St Mark’s?

Are you part of it?

Do you have ideas for how we can maintain and reflect that unity?

Please let me know.

/                                                            ii.

//Every Christian has an important role to play in this body/

Every Christian is part of Christ’s body.

And secondly, every Christian has an important role to play in the body.

Think again about your own body - every part is important isn’t it.

Whether large or small, seen every day or hidden, every part is important.

Every part is essential to the functioning of the body.

So too in Christ’s body.

Every Christian is important and essential.

Our society loves the super-individual: the singles players in tennis like Leyton Hewitt or Andre Agassi; the person who climbs Everest, the superstar of the team.

And we can tend to judge people based on what they do.

We look down on some, and look up to others.

The body of Christ is to be different.

We are not to say ‘I’m unimportant and useless’.

So vv15-20.

And on the other hand, so to speak, we’re not to say ‘I don’t need you’.

So vv21-25. in this body of Christ, none of us has reason to be arrogant or embarrassed.

God designed each of us differently, and when we became Christians gave us different spiritual gifts, but we are on the same level, all equally important.

ILLN - If you think the only important people in this church are the ones you see up here then think again.