InPerspective

Harry Reeder: When the Bible talks about the church, it uses these marvelous word pictures, like the church as a field, the church as a temple. To trace all that out in the Bible is so rich. But the three main word pictures of the Bible are the church as an army. And then there's another marvelous picture of the church as a family. Well, the third major picture is the church as a body, the body of Christ. So what does it mean for the church to be the body of Christ?

Guest (Male): Putting life in biblical perspective with Dr. Harry L. Reeder. This is InPerspective, a radio and internet ministry of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. Jesus told his followers, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another."

Today we begin to explore the various biblical manifestations of love in the community of redemption in our new series, "Loving One Another." Stay with us now as Dr. Harry Reeder takes us to Romans chapter 12, looking at verses 1 through 8, as he brings today's teaching, his message entitled "In the Community of Redemption: Members of One Another."

Harry Reeder: Take your Bibles and turn with me to Romans chapter 12. That supreme call to the love of one another that Jesus gave to us in John chapter 13. As we love one another, what does that look like in the body of Christ? That building of community, relationships with each other. The word that's there in the Greek is the word *allelon*. *Allelon* is used in the New Testament 40 times. 40 times that it's used, and it's translated most of the time "one another" in your Bible. But every once in a while, it'll be translated "each for the other."

Now, 22 times it's used in a positive way. And that positive way that it's used 22 times is to depict the work of the fruit of the Spirit in community. By the way, there are a number of negatives where the one another is used. Don't slander one another. Don't do evil to one another. Don't gossip about one another. But what we're going to do is take the positives. The very first one I'd like for us to take a look at is members one of another.

What does it mean to be members one of another? Now, before we go any further, let me set this for you in the way the Bible uses "members one of another." When the Bible uses the phrase "members one of another," it's not directly looking at something we call membership in the body of Christ. There are certainly implications for this phenomena we call membership, but that's not what it's looking at.

When the Bible uses the phrase "members one of another," there are four key passages of scripture that we're going to take a look at. And they all revolve around a certain picture of the body of Christ. When the Bible talks about the church, it uses these marvelous word pictures, like the church is a field, the church is a body, the church is a temple. But the three main word pictures of the Bible are the church as an army.

We're on mission, and we're at war, and there are going to be casualties. And so I'm often asking myself, why do we rely so much on looking at corporate structures for leadership training when we don't have a product to sell? We're not servicing clients and customers. We've got servant hearts, but we're not clients and customers. I think combat leadership. We need pastors and elders and deacons and leaders who know what it means to achieve the mission, take care of your people, and reproduce yourself because there are casualties on the battlefield. Combat leadership.

And then there's another marvelous picture of the church as a family. And so another place we ought to start picking our models to train our leaders is our leaders as fathers, our leaders as mothers in the church. The female leadership showing what it means to be a mother in Israel. Male leadership that knows what it means to be not only a warrior, but a father. Remember what Paul said? He pictured these things to the Thessalonians when he said, "I took care of you as a mother nursing her babe, and I was like a father teaching his son." All in the book of Thessalonians. To train the people is leadership with the picture of the family dominating.

Well, the third major picture is the picture of the church as a body, the body of Christ. Jesus came into this world 2,000 years ago, took upon himself a human body, accomplished the purpose of the Father, went to a cross in that body, died in that body, rose in that body, ascended in that body, is at the right hand of the Father in that body, will come again with that body. And in between, he says, "Y'all are body number two." I don't know whether he said y'all or not, but all of you are body number two.

You are the body of Christ. And as the Father sent me, now I send you to carry out my purposes. So what does it mean for the church to be the body of Christ? That's what our first *allelon* takes us to. Members. I've got a finger, I've got a hand, I've got an arm, mouth, eyes. Members of the body of Christ. It's one body. It's not multiple bodies; it's just one body. But it's got all of this diversity of different members of the body. Yet they're all interconnected, and they're all working with each other. And nothing is superfluous. It's all necessary, but it all works in coordination.

When the Bible says we're members one of another that we're starting out, very clearly, this is a series in and of itself that I commend to your study. Take a look with me in Romans 12. There are four key passages to take a look at, and one of them, of course, is Romans chapter 12. After telling us of the power of the gospel and giving praise to God at the end of chapter 11, now comes the application of the gospel in the life of the Christian.

"I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." Now watch: "For by the grace given to me," Paul says, "God's grace has given me a gift. By God's grace, I have a *charismata*, a grace-given gift as a member of the body of Christ."

"For by the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned." God has sovereignly worked in the lives of every single believer, measuring out the gift, measuring out the faith that he has assigned to that person. Paul says, "I'm an example of it, you're an example of it."

Now, what do you do? "For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ and," here's your phrase, "individually members one of another." Having all of us have what? "Gifts that differ according to the grace given to us. Let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness."

That's not an exhaustive list of the gifts. He's just giving you a series of the list of the gifts that are there. Romans 12, where I just read, is an exposition of the church as the body of Christ, one body, yet with many members performing many different functions as God has sovereignly gifted and assigned each one in its place. And now, what's the next thing he's going to cover? How's this body going to be able to function? Love. Now we go to love. Now watch the same pattern that keeps coming up.

Go with me to 1 Peter chapter 4, a second key text on understanding the church as the body, and we are all individually members of it. And as you go to 1 Peter, look at what he says in verse 7: "The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers. Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God's varied grace."

"Whoever speaks," if you've got a speaking gift, "as one who speaks the oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies, in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and dominion forever and ever." Notice Peter says you've all got gifts and you're all supposed to serve them. Now what he does is he says, "Look, we've all got gifts," and he says, "Look, I'm just going to give you the two basic categories: there are speaking gifts and there are serving gifts."

Now listen, servants have to speak and speakers have to serve. So even those overlap. But there are speaking gifts, and you can just see it right in the offices of the church. What have you got? The office of oversight in the church, speaking the word of God, the elders of the church. The deacons of the church leading us forward in servanthood. So here is speaking, here is serving. Each one of us has some gift that falls into that category, and we've all been given this grace that we're to be a good steward of. He said, "Now why have you been given this gift? Use it, employ it in serving Christ. Make use of that which I have given to you."

Now go with me, if you would, to Ephesians chapter 4. This was maybe perhaps one of the most revolutionary passages in my life in trying to understand the ministry. Look down in Ephesians 4, down to verse 11. Jesus has descended, he's done the work of redemption, he's buried, he's risen. The text then says he has ascended. And as he has ascended, this triumphant warrior king, he now, it says, gives gifts to his people.

He has come into this world, he has accomplished his mission, he is victorious. And now he has arrived back into the heavenly Jerusalem with his chariots overflowing with gifts. And behind him, he leads captive a host of captives. That's me and you. He won us, he freed us from our sins, and now we are his and he is ours. He has gone back into heaven, and we are redeemed. We have been captured by his grace. Now he says, now what is he doing? He is giving gifts to his people.

If you were living in that era, particularly near some Roman town where some Roman great general had gone out, when he went out, the people would line the streets and cheer him. He would go down into the valley for the battle, and the city would be up on the hill. When he'd come back, he'd come back up the hill victorious. And all of the prisoners that he had would be tied to his chariot. And that white horse and that chariot's prancing up the street, and the prisoners are tied to it. And there's the booty from the victory, and he just starts throwing the gifts out to the people. That's the picture.

Our Redeemer has come, he has won the victory, he has captured us by redeeming us from our sins, now he's throwing the booty out, he's giving the gifts out to his people, the plunder of his victory is being given out. And he lists, not exhaustively, he lists four leadership word gifts in verse 11 that he gives out. "And he gave some as apostles, and he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherd-teachers (pastor-teachers), to equip the saints for the work of the ministry, for building up the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ."

"So that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes, but rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way unto him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds up itself in love."

So here is this passage where he says, "Now listen, I'm giving gifts to my church." Now, some of the primary—this isn't exhaustive—but some of the primary gifts are the word leadership gifts. Number one, I've given the gift of apostle. Number two, I've given the gift of prophet. Number three, the gift of evangelist. Number four, the gift of the pastor-teacher. I've often wondered when I'd look through that why the listing that way. It's clearly not a chronological list, is it? Look at that list in verse 11: apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastor.

It's not a chronological list, because if it was a chronological list, which one would come first? It'd be prophets first, right? But it's not prophets first; it's apostles first. Let me give you an idea about this. The first two give you the word of God: the apostles and prophets. Apostles give you the New Testament. It's listed first, because how do you understand the Old Testament from the better light shining back? Then you've got the prophets, who give you the Old Testament. So it's a theological list, not a chronological list.

So he's given you apostles and prophets. And by the way, let me ask you a question. Could an apostle be a prophet? Yeah. Did any of the apostles ever prophesy anything? John, Book of Revelation, you ever seen that? So apostles could be prophets. Could an apostle be an evangelist? Yeah. Could an apostle be a pastor and a teacher? Yes. Could a prophet be an evangelist? Yeah. Remember Jonah? Pretty good, pretty good evangelistic crusade at Nineveh.

Could a prophet be a pastor-teacher? Could a prophet be an apostle? No. To be an apostle, you had to what? Be with Jesus from what? His baptism until his resurrection. And so the apostles and prophets give us the word, the evangelists spread the word, and then the pastor-teachers are supposed to do what? Equip the saints to do what? The work of the ministry. They're not the minister of the church; they're the minister to the ministers of the church.

We're all the ministers of the church. Each member of the body of Christ is a minister, and you have four ministries to do as a Christian. The ministry to God of worship, the ministry to the world of evangelism, the ministry to one another of loving, and the ministry to yourself of growing deep. The ministry of up-reach: worship. The ministry of outreach: evangelism. The ministry of in-reach: loving one another. The ministry of down-reach: discipleship, learning.

And of course, that would create a WELL church, W-E-L-L. A healthy church. A church that W worships, a church that E evangelizes, a church that L loves one another, a church that L learns and keeps growing deep in the word of God. Now, as the pastor-teacher does that equipping you for the work of the ministry, he then lists 14 blessings from having a pastor-teacher who focuses on equipping the saints for the work of the ministry.

Doctrinal stability, clarity, certainty, direction, growing, and people being able to minister to each other. I can do this. I've been equipped. I can E, I can evangelize. I can do the ministry of outreach. I can do the ministry of worship. But now, skipping way ahead, I can't go through all of those blessings that are listed there, but one blessing is this: that we're also all equipped, and we begin to focus in a ministry because of our gift.

Am I a leg to walk out into this world in the body of Christ? Am I a mouth to speak for the body of Christ? Am I eyes for discernment to see in the body of Christ? What is my spiritual gift that God's given me? And he's given one to each one of us. Well, brothers and sisters, the other key text is the text that really deserves the most treatment, and it's 1 Corinthians 12. And by the way, 1 Corinthians 12 is the body of Christ text.

In the body of Christ text, by the way, Romans 12—remember where we were just at in Romans 12? The first half of Romans 12 was what? Body of Christ. Second half of Romans 12 was what? Love. 1 Corinthians 12 is what? Body of Christ. Next chapter's what? Love. Get the idea that these things work together? Loving one another and the body of Christ being members one of another. May I just commend to you the reading of 1 Corinthians 12, but I want to give you the bottom line of it so I can get this all deposited to you just at least to start thinking about it.

He says this: he says we're not all eyes. He said, "What if the body was all an eye?" I mean, if you could read it in the Greek, Paul is really trying to—my goodness, what if the church was just an eye? Can you imagine a 30,000-pound eye? It's not just one member of the body; all of them are necessary. And then he gives this other one: he said, "Some of you are strutting around proud because you happen to be noticed in your gift in the body." He said, "I got news for you: you're probably not as necessary as the others."

Billy Graham, how did God bless your ministry? 1958, Life magazine quizzed him. They thought he was going to say Cliff Barrows, George Beverly Shea, crusade, Just As I Am, my sermons. He gave the name of a lady that found out where every crusade was going to be. She'd go there the week before and pray in her hotel room. She'd pray the week of the crusade; she'd pray the week after the crusade. He said, "I think she's the key." Nobody knew her.

What's more important in the body? The things that you see or the things that are inside? I stood in front of my mirror this morning, I combed my hair, I looked down, my hair is still falling out. Now, I took all kinds of time on my hair this morning. But what if my kidney had fell out this morning? My lung had fell out this morning? I never even took a thought of that when I stood in front of that mirror. I get absorbed with the external, but what's more important? It's the internal. It's not the visible; it's the invisible. That's crucial. Those invisible gifts that are there that are exercised in the body of Christ.

And that's where Paul at the church at Corinth is driving it home, because he had people that were strutting out because of their gifts. And then other people said, "Well, I'm just—hey, I'm not needed in the church. I'm just a nobody." And he said, "Oh no, there's no such thing as a nobody in the body of Christ." There are no small gifts; there are no small people; there are no little people; there are no little gifts. The hand can't say to the arm, "I don't need you." My hand can't say to my thumb, "I don't need you." They're all crucial and needed.

If we're members one of another, what are some points that we need to embrace and respect? Number one is this: that we must embrace the diversity in the body. Everybody is not going to have the same ministry passion that you do, and whatever you do, do not despise them. You know, if they were really spiritual, they'd be in my evangelism ministry. Now, certainly we ought to be all evangelizing, but that may not be that person's calling.

It may be worship. They may have a calling to facilitate and lead and undergird the worship of God's people. And so we don't despise the grace and calling of God and the gifts that are given. We appreciate the diversity. In fact, that's what's so glorious. What if we all were the same member of the body and we got a 7,000 arm just running around here? No, there's this beautiful diversity that we need to celebrate and appreciate and cultivate and encourage in the body of Christ.

Each one has a special gift. Are there categories that they fit in? Yes. I got two arms, but neither one of them are just alike. One's stronger than the other one. And there's two arms that are there, and one can get into places that the other arm can't. One can pick up what the other one can't. Even when they seemingly are in the same category, there's some diversity that's there.

Secondly, we celebrate our unity. We're one body. We are a body. Now, I don't think any one local church has all of the gifts of the body, so we're celebrating the church universal when we celebrate the body of Christ. And we're grateful for how God's laid certain burdens here and certain burdens there and certain passions there, certain ministry profiles that are there. And then when we look inside the manifestation of the body of Christ where we are, we are grateful for the unity that we can have here.

We've got one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father over all, one Lord Jesus Christ, one word, same Holy Spirit, the same Great Commission, the same Great Commandment, the same great compassion. God's given that to us, but he's gifted us that we can do it so much more effectively. Thirdly, we embrace humility. We don't think more highly of ourselves and our gifts than we ought to. You know, there's somebody out there that's got a gift, and let me tell you, you may not even know about it, I may not even know about it.

But if they didn't show up in the body of Christ, there's a good possibility my gift could not be used. Your gift could not be used. I mean, how many of you have consciously thought of that heart inside that's beating, that's allowing you to breathe, that allows you to speak? Oh, you think about the words you're saying, but you think about the breath you got from the heart that just kept beating? And there it was. We got some people breathing the breath of prayer before the throne of grace in ways that some of us never know.

And so we don't think more highly of our gift. First of all, if we got a gift, it was a gift of God, it's a gift of grace. Secondly, it's got its place. Thirdly, it can't function in that place without the others functioning there. So there's humility. And fourthly, we want dependability. Everybody needs to show up. Everybody needs to show up. What would happen then? Members one of another, making good use of that grace that's been given to us, fashioned into a gift.

Here's just a couple of takeaways. Number one is this: each believer has been equipped with a special spiritual gift. Every one of you, if I went out here and said to you, "Are you a Christian?" then I could tell you this: each one has received a special gift from the Lord. You each have a special gift, even when they're in the same categories. Even the preaching gifts are not just alike. Each one has a special gift, sovereignly given and designed by God for you. That's what the passage says in Corinthians, "As God has assigned to each one."

Spiritual gifts are dynamic. God gives them and he keeps developing them and he keeps re-routing them and he keeps using them and he can re-fashion them, but each one has a special gift. Secondly, each believer has a gift that's sovereignly been given. It's not static; it is dynamic. Secondly, all spiritual gifts are important. None are superfluous. Yours is important. Employ it. Use it.

Third thing is that every spiritual gift that we've been given, there is no room for pride in the body of Christ, nor is there room for envy. No, we gratefully receive the gift that God's given to us. There's no pride in the gift that's given and no envy of someone else's gift. If God's given you 10 drums for the body of Christ, beat all 10 of them. If he's given you five drums, beat five drums. If he's given you two drums, beat two drums. While you're beating the two drums, pray for the one beating the five drums. Don't look at envy with them. Rejoice what God's given there.

But whatever God's given us, let's give it unto him in ministry, being members one of another. Number four, there are spiritual gifts in the body of Christ. Think of your spiritual gift like a spiritual snowflake. Each snowflake kind of looks like a snowflake, but it's unique. Your spiritual gifts as you worship, evangelize, love, and learn, they are crafted and designed in a special way.

Well, Harry, how can I find out my gift? Well, can I just tell you the best way to find your gift? Just start serving. Just start serving and go with your passion. Move toward your passion. You say, "Pastor, what if I move in the wrong direction?" It's a whole lot easier to change direction when you move than if you sit still. Find out where your gifts are and then begin to move, but functioning as members one of another and beginning to find our ministry.

And guess what? That probably won't be your ministry the rest of your life. What'd I just say? Spiritual gifts are not static; they're dynamic. But God will begin to move and use you in that particular direction. As you discover your passions and your practices, get the input from other people. When you get called, you not only get called internally by the Holy Spirit, you get called externally by the church as they begin to confirm and affirm where your gifts and your abilities are.

I had this elder back at Christ Covenant, and he had a tumor on a leg. He went through many operations, eight of them, almost lost his life the last three. They ended up putting a steel rod. Let me tell you how magnificent God's made your body: three steel rods broke within two months. Such a young man, they're trying to save his leg for him; steel rods all broke. So then they went and got the bones of cadavers and began to put them in there.

Those began to splinter. So they even took one, turned it upside down, tried it backwards, see if that would work. They just told him, they said, "Look, even as young as you are, you can't take another one of these six, seven-hour operations. We got three choices: we can amputate and we'll get you a prosthesis, we can try this one more time but I'm not sure you can make it if it doesn't work, or there's a guy in Jacksonville and he's doing something really interesting."

So he went down there. When he got down there, the guy took his leg—everything out except the muscles and the... then he took this leg, turned it around backwards, and his knee became his hip. And then his foot, turned around backwards, was broken. And then they put on a much smaller prosthesis down at the bottom. And they put him through this unbelievable operation. Now, this guy was unbelievable. While he was in Jacksonville for 16 weeks, he started two Bible studies. He led a doctor to Christ, two nurses to Christ.

He had a sense of humor like you would not believe. This nurse's assistant, new one come in every morning at 4:00, put those electrodes on him, you know at 4:00 in the morning? And so he's laying there one morning and she puts them on him and she says, "You just keep resting, I'm going to take a little test." And then she went over and cut the machine, and he went, "Ah!" like that. And she screamed at 4:00 in the morning, and the security came out and everything else.

But every day he would get out with his wife on his crutches and he had an exercise. He had to go around the hospital hall. And as he went around, he's got this one leg, he's got this other leg where the bottom half is now up here turned backwards, and he's having to rethink how to move this. And so he's walking around the hall doing that. And this other couple comes down the hall looking at him, trying not to look at him.

And again, his humor took over. He just said when they passed him, he said, "Honey, I don't care what you say, I think they put this thing on backwards." Well, he finally had to sit down and explain to them what had happened. Now, folks, I remember the first time Mike came back and told me about all of that, and I was just—I went crazy. I mean, we would sit and talk about this all the time. But I couldn't help but thinking about the church.

We've got this beautiful body of believers. Jesus has not designed something grotesque. It's beautiful, it's got symmetry, every member connected, every member needed. And instead of us having to take feet and make them into knees and arms into legs, what if every member of the body said, "I want my place and I want to lift up Jesus together, individually members one of another." Let's pray.

Father, thank you for the time we could be together and to be in your word and just to open up this grand subject of the spiritual gifts and ministries and calling and all that you've done in such a beautiful way in the body of Christ. Father, work in our hearts so that our love for Jesus is so great we embrace the gift he's given, the calling he's given, the ministry he's given, and we rejoice to take our place in the body of Christ. And may this body move inexorably, unstoppably with the gospel to the end of the world, and then comes our Savior. In Jesus' name, amen.

Guest (Male): You're listening to InPerspective featuring the teaching of Dr. Harry L. Reeder. Our current sermon series, "Loving One Another." For additional teaching by Dr. Reeder, visit InPerspective.org. The Bible: fact or myth? Historic or fiction? How does the Bible stack up to true science? Good questions. Find out the answers by requesting this month's free gift offer: Dr. Reeder's series, "Is the Bible Reliable?" Call us at 1-800-488-1888 or visit InPerspective.org and request the series "Is the Bible Reliable?"

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And once again, if you would like to receive our free monthly gift offer, the series "Is the Bible Reliable?", call 1-800-488-1888. You may know people who try to outdo others out of a sense of superiority and pride. Join us again next time as Dr. Reeder explains how we can strive to outdo others in a way that pleases God. That's next time as we turn back to the scriptures to put life in biblical perspective.