Concerning Spiritual Gifts: One Baptism - One Body — Warren Wiersbe

The Church as the Body of Christ

We open to 1 Corinthians chapter 12, I'm reading verses 12 through 31. 1 Corinthians 12, 12,. For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ.

For by one Spirit were we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Greeks, whether we be bond or free, and have all been made to drink into one spirit. For the body is not one member but many.

If the foot shall say, Because I am not the head, I am not of the body. Is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body. Is it therefore not of the body?

If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole body were hearing, where were the smelling? But now hath God set the members, every one of them, in the body as it hath pleased him.

And if they were all one member, where were the body? But now are they many members, yet one body. And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee, nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.

Nay, much more, those members of the body which seem to be more feeble are necessary, and those members of the body which we think to be less honorable, upon these we bestow more abundant honor. And our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness.

For our comely parts have no need. But God hath tempered the body together, having given the more abundant honor to that part which lacked. That there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care one for another.

And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it. Or one member be honored, all the members rejoice with it. Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular. And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, second prophets, third teachers.

After that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all workers of miracles? Have all the gifts of healing?

Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? But covet earnestly the best gifts, and yet I show unto you a more excellent way. One of our magazines had a cartoon some years ago showing a psychologist talking to a little man sitting in a big chair.

And the psychologist was saying to the little man in the big chair, Mr. Jones, you do not have an inferiority complex. You are inferior. Now it may be possible to say that in a doctor's office, but you cannot say that in the church.

When you're dealing with the body of Christ, you cannot look at any member and say you are inferior. We don't need you. We've been looking during these evenings at what Paul has to say about spiritual gifts.

And we've come now to this important teaching concerning the church, which is the body of Christ. And of course the whole thing ties together. Each one of us as a Christian has at least one gift. Some have more.

It's wonderful when we know what our gifts are. We discover them, we develop them, we discipline them, we dedicate them, and we use them. In order for you and me to be able to function the way God wants us to function, we have to understand what he's saying about the body, the church which is the body of Christ.

And I think that what we'll do with this passage is pay attention to three considerations that he wants us to make. He wants us to consider, first of all, the picture. The church is a body. Secondly, he wants us to consider the process.

The Holy Spirit baptizes members into the body. And thirdly, he wants us to consider the privileges. What relationships we have, what privileges we have as Christians, as members of the body. Now if you and I can lay hold of these three considerations, I think it will help us to be able to look into God's spiritual mirror and say, well, you don't have to have an inferiority complex.

You are not inferior. You have a place to fill. You have a ministry to fulfill in the body of Christ. First, let's consider the picture in verse 12 of the church as the body of Christ. This is an amazing verse.

For as the body, the human body, is one and hath many members, and all the members of that one body being many, are one body, you would expect him to say, so also is the church. But he doesn't say that.

He says, so also is Christ. That's an amazing statement. The picture here is of the church as a body, and Paul dares to say that the body of Christ is Christ on earth. Now Jesus Christ is the head of the body, and he's gone back to heaven.

The life of the body flows by the Holy Spirit from the head, who is Jesus Christ. But we're here on earth. Let me point out to you, before we go into the question, why does he compare the church to a body, let me point out that this is not the only picture of the church in the Bible.

We hear a great deal these days about body life, as though that's the only thing the Bible has to say about the church. It's true that for many, many centuries the church lost the concept of the body.

Now we've rediscovered it. Having rediscovered it, let's not run it into the ground. The church is also compared to a flock. Take heed to yourselves and to the flock over which God hath made you overseers.

The church is compared to a family, the family of God. The church is compared to an army. The church is compared to a temple. It's compared to a building. It's compared to a vine and branches. There are many different pictures of the church in the New Testament, and we shouldn't just go on one picture and build all of our theology on one picture, because there are many aspects of the truth.

But tonight, looking at 1st Corinthians 12, let's consider this picture. Why does Paul compare the church to a body? Well, obviously the body is a living organism. Now, we hear a great deal these days about the institutional church.

I have a shelf of books at home about Yehlong filled with criticisms of the institutional church. Now, some of the writers by the institutional church mean anything that they don't run. Some of them mean by this, an organization that's gone to seed.

An institution is not a bad thing, provided it is fulfilling its function. The church becomes institutional when it exists only for itself and not for others. If all we do is have business meetings, take up offerings, and take care of our own little jobs, and we don't reach out and touch the lives of others, we become institutional.

Of course, we don't want to be that kind of a church. But Paul is telling us here that the church is a body because it is a living organism. Now, at this point someone says to me, but remember, the church is an organism, not an organization.

And I would remind you that if an organism is not organized, it dies. Moody Church is organized. If we did not have New Testament organization, elders, and deacons, and various people functioning in various places, we'd die.

Now, when the organization becomes an end in itself, that's no good. But when the organization ministers to the organism, that's the way it's supposed to be. Whenever my organism, my body, gets disorganized, I know about it.

And I pick up my phone and I call the doctor and say, there's something disorganized in this organism. The church is compared to a body because it's a living organism, a living being on earth. Now, this life, of course, comes from the Holy Spirit.

The Church Grows and Serves Through Its Members

Secondly, he compares the church to a body because it's growing. A body grows. When the church was born on earth, it was just a small group of people, then it grew and grew and grew. And the body of Jesus Christ, which is the church on earth, not necessarily the institutional church or even the organized church, all true believers who belong to the body of Christ, it is a growing organism.

I'd love to go on a dangerous detour at this point and talk about the fact that you, dear people, are not wearing the same clothes that you wore when you were five years old. As a body grows and develops, it changes its garments, it changes its diet.

Somehow churches have the idea nothing should ever be changed. Some churches are wearing the same organizational clothes that they wore when they were three years old. This is a good way to ruin the body.

My, wouldn't it be terrible if all of us were still walking around in the garments that we wore when we were three or four years old? We couldn't do it. Some of you girls couldn't even wear your wedding gown.

Some of you could, but we men couldn't wear our wedding suits, I'm sure of that. A body grows and as it grows there has to be a certain amount of change that takes place to accommodate the growth in the body.

Thirdly, the church is compared to a body because a body serves. What's the purpose of a body? To get things done. We are not here to be decorations, we are here to be servants. And God gave me fingers and God gave me feet and so I can do things.

Now this is true of the body of Christ. Why is the body of Christ here in this earth? To serve, to get things done. Whatever gifts we may have, they're here to serve others. We're not here to get, we're here to give and in giving we get.

Now the church is not on earth just for its own continuation, it's here to serve. And when a church stops serving a needy world, it stops growing and it stops really living. When all that Moody Church does is housed in these buildings, we're done for.

I'm glad that that's not true. I'm glad that hundreds of our people all week long, members of the body of Christ, are out ministering in various places. We don't hear about it, we don't publish a news sheet that tells everybody, but the Lord knows about it.

The Church's Dangers: Defilement, Decay, Disease, and Division

The church is compared to a body because a body faces certain dangers. Now over in Ephesians chapter 5, we're going to just turn over there for a moment. In Ephesians chapter 5, Paul's talking about husbands and wives and he compares the church to a bride and a bridegroom.

He's talking here about the body. I do trust that the bride you marry has a body. In Ephesians chapter 5, he talks about the ministry of Christ to the church. Verse 26, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word that he might present it to himself, a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish.

Now here we have spots, wrinkles, and blemishes. We have people here today whose bodies have spots on them, defilement, dirty. Junior comes to the table and you say, did you wash your hands? I washed them last week.

Well, you say you better wash them again, you know. Now the church can be defiled. James says pure religion, undefiled, is this, to keep yourself unspotted from the world. The church gets spotted, the body gets dirty, and the cleansing of the body is through the word, you see.

Now he talks about wrinkles. Some of us are getting wrinkles in our bodies. Now spots are caused by defilement on the outside, wrinkles are caused by decay on the inside. I'm sorry about that, but it's true.

As we get older, we start to develop wrinkles. He says now the body of Christ should not get wrinkled, it should not get old. You say, well how can it keep from getting old? The Holy Spirit is the life of the body, and the Holy Spirit has no birthdays.

The Holy Spirit is eternal. The Holy Spirit never gets old, and when the Holy Spirit is working in a church, it's always young, and there just are no wrinkles. Then there's the problem of blemishes. This is from disease.

Germs get in, and infection gets in. This can happen to the spiritual body, but the biggest problem that Paul is concerned about in 1st Corinthians 12, he's talked about defilement, he's talked about decay, and he's talked about disease.

His biggest problem is division. I have visited people in the hospitals whose body was divided. Something went haywire someplace, and the body wasn't working together. You remember the silly story about the caterpillar that said to the centipede, how do you know which leg to move next?

The centipede had never thought about this, and the longer he thought about it, the more paralyzed he became. Now, let's suppose that the parts of our body went at war with each other. Suppose that the stomach said, I don't intend to cooperate with the esophagus, and the gallbladder said, I don't intend to cooperate with the liver.

I'm gonna have my own set up. That's the thing Paul's concerned about, that there be no division, no schism in the body, and the reason he uses a human body to illustrate the church is because in the human body we have diversity in unity.

Now, this is going to sound strange to some of you, but I believe it with my whole heart. Most of the problems in local churches are not caused by bad people doing bad things. They're caused by good people who want to do good things in a bad way.

You see, whenever my ministry creates problems for your ministry, either both of us are wrong, or I'm wrong, or you're wrong. If I am functioning as I'm supposed to function, instead of creating problems for you, I should be solving problems for you.

Is this not true? It's true in the body. If my liver and my gallbladder and all of the internal viscera that God's given me are functioning properly, the whole body knows about it. I don't wake up with a headache.

I don't wake up with a stomachache. Things are functioning. That's why Paul talks about a body. He says we are all members of the body. These members have different gifts, and there is unity in diversity.

The Holy Spirit Forms One Body

Now, having considered the picture, let's look now at the process. Verse 13. How was this body formed? Now, it's rather interesting to note that in Acts chapter 2, you have the birth of the spiritual body of Christ.

In Luke chapter 2, you have the birth of the physical body of Christ. Luke wrote both books. In the Gospel of Luke chapter 2, he tells us about the birth of the physical body of Christ when he was born in Bethlehem.

In Acts chapter 2, he tells us about the birth of the spiritual body of Christ in Jerusalem when the Holy Spirit came. For by one spirit were we all baptized into one body. Now, this baptism of the Holy Spirit has been so grossly perverted so as to rob it of its true beauty and blessing.

Nowhere in the Bible are we told to seek a baptism of the Holy Spirit. In fact, he says here all of us, all the Corinthian believers he was writing to, had been baptized into the body of Christ. The word baptism in the New Testament has two meanings to it.

A literal meaning and a figurative meaning. Now, many of our words are this way. We say, for example, we married John and Mary last Saturday. That's literal. They were actually married. Or somebody says, boy, he sure is married to his job.

That's figurative speaking, you see. Now, the literal meaning of the word baptizo means to immerse, to submerge, to dip. The figurative meaning means to be identified with. And in the Bible, when you read the word baptized, you've got to say to yourself, is this to be taken literally or figuratively?

Now, I don't believe that water ever put anybody into the body of Christ. I don't know of any place in the Bible where we're taught that water, any amount of it, sprinkled, poured, or immersed, can put anybody into the living body of Christ.

The Holy Spirit does this. And here he's talking about the baptism of the Holy Spirit. In all four Gospels, this baptism was prophesied. John the Baptist said, I baptize in water, one is coming who shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit.

In Acts, Jesus said, you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit, not many days hence. In Acts chapter 2, the Holy Spirit came, he filled, and he baptized. Now, it's important to make a distinction between these two experiences, the filling of the Spirit and the baptism of the Spirit.

The baptism of the Spirit has been experienced by all believers. All of us have once and for all been baptized into the body of Christ, says 1 Corinthians 12, 13. And once we are in the body of Christ, there are no distinctions.

You can't say, well, he's a Jew in the body, or he's a Greek in the body, or this is male or female. In the body of Christ, we bring no handicaps and we bring no advantages. Every advantage we have comes from the Holy Spirit.

Nobody can say, well, I'm a man and therefore I have a better position in the body than a woman does. Oh, no. I'm a Jew, therefore I... Oh, no. I'm rich. No, sir. There are no advantages to anything in human birth in the body.

All the advantages come from the spiritual birth. Now, once and for all, we have been baptized, but constantly we should be filled. Nowhere are we commanded to be baptized. We are commanded, be filled with the Holy Spirit.

The baptism of the Holy Spirit means I belong to His body. The filling of the Holy Spirit means my body belongs to Him. There's the difference. The baptism of the Holy Spirit conferred gifts upon me. The filling of the Holy Spirit enables me to use these gifts to the glory of God.

A Christian cannot use a spiritual gift to build up the Church apart from the Holy Spirit. Now, this was the problem in Corinth. They had many spiritual gifts. Chapter 1, Paul says, you don't come behind in any gift.

If ever there was a gifted Church, it was the Corinthian Church. And if ever there was a carnal Church, it was the Corinthian Church. They were getting drunk at the Lord's table. They were fighting at the Lord's table.

They were suing each other. One man was living in an incestuous relationship with his stepmother. There were divisions in the Church. People were bragging about who baptized them. Paul, Peter, Apollos.

Paul said, now look, the only way to use spiritual gifts is in the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit puts you into the body to begin with. He's the only one who can help you to fulfill your purpose in the body.

This may sound strange to you, but it's possible to use spiritual gifts in a carnal way. It's possible to preach in the flesh. It's possible to have the gift of governments and run a committee meeting in the flesh.

It's possible to have the gift of helps and go out and help people in the flesh. And one reason why Paul is dealing with this is to tell the Corinthians, please, don't use spiritual gifts in your own energy.

You were baptized by the Holy Spirit and given the gifts. Now be filled with the Spirit and exercise the gifts. This explains why gifted people can sometimes cause trouble in a local church. Someone says, but they're so gifted.

Perhaps so, but are they using their gifts in the power of the Holy Spirit? That's the question. Having considered now the picture of the Church as a body and the process by which we got into this body, we come to the main thing he's talking about, and it's the easiest thing he's talking about, the privileges.

Belonging to One Another in the Body

Let's consider now the privileges, verses 14 through 27. There are three of them. I want you to remember them. If every Christian would remember these three privileges that we have as Christians, there wouldn't be division in the Church.

There wouldn't be jealousy in the Church. There wouldn't be vying for honors and position. I'm not saying these things exist here. I'm saying it exists in the Church. Privilege number one, we belong to each other.

If you were baptized into the body of Christ and I was baptized into the body of Christ by the Holy Spirit, you know what? Whether or not you like me is unimportant. We belong to each other. You see, the foot cannot say to the hand, I don't belong to you.

And the eye cannot say, well, I'm not an ear, or the ear can't say, well, I'm not an eye, or the foot can't say, well, I'm not a hand. Therefore, I'm not a part of the body. Beware of that Christian who is independent.

I don't need the Church. I can be on my own and be more spiritual. I don't think so. Now, did you ever stop? I'm sure you did. You've stopped to realize that no part of your body can function outside the body.

Now, you can do without certain parts. I'm sure people have lost their gallbladders and they've had other parts of the body taken out, but this finger cannot say, what an ugly hand bites his fingernails.

I'm leaving this thing. It wouldn't last very long, just wouldn't last long at all. Or an eye would say, I don't like what he looks like, or what he looks at. Wouldn't last very long. Paul says we belong to each other, and we belong to each other as members of the body and possessors of spiritual gifts.

Every Member Is Needed

Now, the beautiful thing about the body is, because we belong to each other, we don't have to envy each other. You see, the foot doesn't say, well, I'm not a hand. Now, the foot doesn't envy the eye. The foot envies the hand.

We always envy those who are most like us. Preachers envy other preachers. Musicians envy other musicians. Single people envy other single people. That's the way we do it. And Paul says, look, you belong to each other.

You're one in the body of Christ. You have different functions to perform, but look, you are where you are in the body because God put you there. Twice he says so. Verse 18, God hath set the members as it hath pleased him.

Didn't say, now, pray for six months for God. No, he says, God's going to put you where he thinks you ought to be. And so the finger can't say, well, I'm not very important. Oh no, God put you there. We belong to each other.

Now the second privilege, we need each other. We need each other. Notice in verse 21, the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee. Ever try to pick up something with your eye? Get it with your lash?

Now, some of the lashes I have seen, you could pick things up. The head can't say to the feet, I have no need of you. Ever try to bounce down the street on your head? It's just, Paul wants us to laugh.

He's reducing this to its absurd conclusion. He's saying to the Corinthians, you who have the gift of tongues are looking down upon everybody, so we don't need them. Oh no, he says, we belong to each other and we need each other.

Now it's interesting the way he categorizes some of these things up in verses 22 and 23. He says about the human body, nay, much more, those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble are necessary.

He doesn't say they are feeble. He says they seem to be. My gallbladder seems to be feeble at times. When it's not functioning, I find out how strong it really is. If it's not functioning, I get sick.

I remember many years ago, when I was at seminary, having a terrible gallbladder attack. Never had another one since, but oh, was I sick. Up till then, I never paid much attention to my gallbladder. Just a feeble little, oh, it wasn't so feeble when it got sick.

Now Paul does not tell us here that some members of the body are feeble. He said they seem to be until you discover you need them. I never thought about my pancreas. Don't you love these organ recitals I give you?

I never thought, I never thought about my pancreas till I had an automobile accident. Drunken driver hit me going 90 miles an hour and I got the steering wheel right here. I had a bruise there for months.

Doctor said we're going to, I was in the hospital, he said now we're going to have to x-ray the inside fluoroscope. You've had this, I'm sure. You're lying there on this table, you know, and hoping nobody's looking.

And here's a screen up here. And they're taking, you can see it. The doctor said do you want to see your pancreas? I said I want to see the inside of my room, that's what I want to see. I never paid one bit of attention to my pancreas till I got a blister on it.

He said you've got a benign pancreatic cyst. I said good for me. I didn't think much about that feeble part of my body till it wasn't functioning right. Then I saw how strong it really was. You know, in a local church it's easy for us to say well she's important, she's not important, he's important, he's not important.

How do you know? We're going to discover at the judgment seat of Christ who was really important. And I dare say in every church there are multitudes of people who, whose names never show up in the bulletin, who never make any speeches, but if it were not for their praying and their living and their giving and their devotion, the church wouldn't be there.

Now he also goes on to say in verse 23, and those members of the body which we think to be least honorable, it doesn't say they are, it says we think it. He said on them we bestow the most honor. And our uncommonly parts have more abundant comeliness.

There are certain parts of our body we have to dress up, not because they aren't important, but because they just aren't as beautiful as other parts of the body. But it doesn't say they aren't important.

In fact we discover how important they are. So we belong to each other and we need each other and nobody can look at anybody else and say well I have better gifts than you do, I'm needed, you're not needed.

That's what they were doing at Corinth. Now the third privilege, we not only belong to each other and not only need each other, but we affect each other. He tells us in verse 25, there should be no division in the body, the members should care for one another.

When you are healthy, the parts of your body are caring for the other parts. And when you get sick, they move in and compensate for it. I get something in my system and I get a headache. I know when I get a headache that I've got something in my system I shouldn't have eaten.

And so at this point my stomach goes to work and says let's get rid of that. And so my headache is there and the headache is a warning, something's wrong. My whole body is cooperating to keep me healthy.

When I don't have a headache and I'm feeling good, it means that the whole body is functioning. They're caring for each other. The kidneys are caring for the liver and the gallbladders caring for the liver.

Isn't that beautiful the way God made us? And the body is this way, the body of Christ. We belong to each other, we need each other and we affect each other. You get a headache and your whole body feels terrible.

You get a backache, I'll have you sick before the evening's over probably. You get a toothache, oh nothing feels good and you got a toothache. We know this, we know it, that we affect each other. The littlest part of my body can go haywire and affect my whole body.

A little gland somewhere in the back of my head could get sick and affect the whole body. Now he says we affect each other. Verse 25, we should care for each other. Verse 26, if one member suffers, the whole body suffers.

That's an interesting thing. We could spend a lot of time on that, how the body should help the members that are suffering. And he says if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. Suppose that somebody's going to be crowned king and so they come and say I crown you king and put a crown on the head.

The foot says well I feel bad about that, I didn't get a crown on my foot. But you see when you put the crown on the head of the king, the whole body is honored. It's a king's hand and a king's ears and a king's mouth.

So there's no need for rivalry, there's no need for fighting, there's no need for division. We all belong to each other and we need each other and we affect each other. We're members of the body. Now to make it very practical, how does all of this work?

Accepting and Using God-Given Gifts

I can tell you in just a few minutes. Number one, each member has to accept itself. When I was born, I was born with everything I would ever need to live. Mother didn't take me down to the clinic after two weeks and say would you please give me the ears.

You go back two weeks later, I'd like to have some eyes. When a baby is born into the family, it's born with everything it needs. When you were born and came into the body of Christ, God gave you everything you needed to continue to grow and to function the way God wants you to function and you've got to accept yourself.

Now God may not have made you to be a shoulder to carry heavy burdens in the body. Maybe he made you a hand to pick things up and put them where they belong. Maybe he made you an ear to listen to the cries and needs of others.

I don't know what he made you, but you've got to accept yourself. One of the biggest problems in the church today is for church members, Christians who want to be something that God never meant for them to be.

The preachers want to sing and the singers want to preach and it's just ridiculous what goes on sometimes. I have to accept myself. This is the gift that God has given to me. Secondly, I have to be myself.

Oh, the curse of the church today is imitation. You students, don't you imitate anybody. There are some great preachers abroad in the world today. Don't you imitate any of them. You be yourself. And church members, don't you imitate anybody.

Don't you idolize anybody. You just be yourself. You've got to accept yourself. Say, this is the gift God's given me. I'm a part of the body. I'm a finger. I'm an elbow. I'm a part of the body. I'm important.

You've got to be yourself. Thirdly, you have to give yourself. As a member of the body, we are here not to get, but to give. But as we give, we get. When my lungs function, they give and they get. And my heart functions, it gives and it gets.

Every part of my body, every cell in my body is a receiver and a transmitter. It could not receive if it didn't transmit. When a cell in my body starts getting selfish, you know what I get? A little thing called cancer.

Now, we're not sure what's caused it. And if I knew, I'd tell somebody. But we know this much. When cells start to get selfish, they become destructive. And when members of the body of Christ become selfish, you've got to have my gift.

I'm more spiritual than you are. It starts to be destructive. It was a great day in my life when I finally faced up to the fact that God had given me some gifts and he hadn't given me other gifts. It was a great day when I realized that there were some things I would never accomplish.

God just hadn't called me to do those things. I used to read the books of the great men who have done so much and say, oh, why can't I do that? I'm not saying be pessimistic or have low vision. All I'm saying is accept yourself.

Know yourself and accept yourself and be yourself and give yourself and just be a part of the body. Whatever God's called you to do, it is important. Whether anybody else thinks it is or not, God does.

And as the whole body functions, you know what happens? People get saved. The church grows. Oh, it's a beautiful thing. And you can always tell when the body's functioning because God gets the glory. Nobody's saying, well, it's pastor so-and-so or it's deacon so-and-so.

We're thankful for everybody God gives us, but God gets the glory, you see. And when the body is healthy, it just glorifies the Lord. May I say in parting, a word to any who may be here without Christ.

Entering and Functioning in the Body of Christ

We've been talking about the church, which is his body. He's the head. We're members of the body. One of these days, praise the Lord, the head and the body are going to be joined together. One of these days, Jesus Christ is going to call his body home when the last soul by the Holy Spirit has been baptized into that body.