Good weekend to you my ‘Walking with Jesus’ friends,
Think back over your life journey. WHERE is the most ethnically diverse place you have ever lived? How many different languages were spoken in that place? Did you enjoy that or was it irritating to you?
You and I live in a big world filled with an amazing diversity of humanity, and while it can be frustrating, it can also be a wonderful adventure, as our differences provide us great opportunity to learn from each other and find remarkable synergy as we join together in common purpose, do you agree? No where is that more true than in the global Church which Jesus founded 2000 years ago! (Matt. 16:18)
In the mid first century, the big city of Corinth, Greece was a very diverse place and lately we’ve been considering what the apostle Paul wrote in his first letter to the Christians in that crazy city of Corinth. In 1 Corinthians 12:12,13 Paul wrote: “Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Jesus Christ. For we were all baptized by one Holy Spirit so as to form one body – whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free…”
Do you see Paul celebrating the great diversity in the Corinthian church? He compares the Church to a human body with many different parts, each doing something unique by God’s design, and all essential to good health. Do you see how your body is a picture of Jesus’ church?
While the Corinth church was probably ethnically diverse, Paul in this 12th chapter celebrates the individual, radical, life transforming work the Holy Spirit was doing IN each person who was part of this diverse group of Christians in Corinth.
In his second letter Paul wrote these words to summarize this miracle: “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation, the old is gone and the new has come and all this is from God who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ.” (2 Cor. 5:17,18) Do those words accurately reflect YOUR life and your CHURCH, my friends? Have you thanked the Holy Spirit lately?
Yesterday we looked at what Paul wrote in the preceding verses which describe the miracle work we, the redeemed people of God, experience when the Holy Spirit of God distributes to each Christian “different kinds of spiritual gifts” (1 Cor. 12:4-11) Today let’s notice Paul declaring in vs. 12 that “we were all baptized by one Holy Spirit so as to form one body…”
The word “baptize”, which Paul uses here, means that each Christian is immersed into an unbreakable union with the resurrected, ascended Jesus Christ, at the time of their Salvation miracle! Pause. Did you get that? Do you understand it? Have you experienced it?
This is an unbreakable connection with Jesus, accomplished by the Holy Spirit, as the shed blood of Jesus Christ is applied transformationally by God the Father to our sinful lives in response to our repentance of our sinfulness and our full trust in Jesus. (1 Peter 1:18-20) That’s why Jesus declared that His blood establishes a ‘new covenant relationship’ with Holy God for each of us who trust Jesus as our Savior. (Matt. 26:27,28) This is radical reconciliation my friends.
Watch this now: Paul explains that AS EACH of us is UNITED to Jesus Christ by the baptizing work of the Holy Spirit, ALL of us Christians are united WITH EACH OTHER and we become the global Church of Jesus. Did you know there are nearly 1 billion of us in this global church of Jesus today?
But God knows how important relationships are to all of us, so the Holy Spirit also draws EACH of us together with a few other Christians into smaller groups, local churches. There we love and serve each other and the communities we live in, under the Lordship of Jesus, who leads each church to a unique role in their city. Do you see that in your church?
Can you articulate with clarity and conviction what Jesus is leading you and your church to BE and DO in your city? How is that unique from all other churches in your town?
This is such an exciting concept that Paul continues writing: “In fact God has positioned the parts in the body, every one of them, just as He wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is there are many parts but one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I don’t need you!’. And the head cannot say to the feet, ‘I don’t need you! …God has put the body together…” (1 Cor. 12:15-24) Oh my!
Aren’t you so glad God doesn’t mass produce humanity, all clones of each other? I’m so glad no two people in our world are exactly alike and each of us is designed uniquely by God for His glory.
And when God first radically saves us from our sin and then transforms us by His Holy Spirit into a God honoring follower of Jesus, that’s when the Holy Spirit can lead each of us, using our Spirit given Gifts, to live and serve Jesus together in harmony like a healthy body!
Aren’t you glad there is NO ONE else just like you in your city and your church? So BE the unique person God designed and gifted you to be my friends, each and all of you! Our world needs you!!!
Oh, I can hear you whispering to yourself: “but I’m just a normal, insignificant, nobody. I’ve never accomplished anything great, I’m not famous or popular. I’m generally overlooked.” Hey my friends, Paul was led by the Spirit of God to write something just for you: “God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so there should be no division or jealousy in the body, but that all its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored every part rejoices with it. Now you are the body of Christ and each one of you is [an important] part of it.” (1 Cor. 12:24-27)
Oh, may I urge you to read all of 1 Corinthians 12 celebrating what it means for YOU in your unique relationship with Jesus and the Holy Spirit’s gifting of you?
The ‘lessons learned’ has some great questions to help you think through this at the link below; and a wonderful old Gospel song will draw you to celebrate God’s global, diverse Church of Jesus, and I ‘ll be here Monday, waiting for you!
Today’s Scripture: 1 Cor. 12:12-17
Choose below to read or listen.
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Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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