1 Corinthians 12:14-20

How the Body of Christ Functions

Rev. Jerry Hoek

Introduction:

When I was in junior high, in addition to all the other trials that junior high kids have to deal with, my genes had determined that I would also have huge feet.  In 7th grade, I already needed size 13 shoes.  I was this rather tall, skinny kid, with long narrow feet.  I thought my profile looked like a upper case letter “L.”  If there was a part of my body that I would have gladly exchanged, it would have been my big feet because they were an embarrassment to me.

Now my feet aren’t an embarrassment to me, even though it still is a challenge to find shoes. at times. I have, moreover, learned that my feet are important to me.  I have learned that are useful anchors when trying to wedge your feet in a rubber raft while white-water rafting.  Moreover, my big feet have the added advantage of being able to measure things because my foot is almost exactly twelve inches.  I can just pace an area off rather using a tape measure.  The things that were a problem or source of embarrassment to me are really very important and useful.

We continue our study of 1 Corinthians 12 by looking at verses 14-20.  Some of the Corinthians felt that the spiritual gift they had was not very important and felt inferior.  Some of the Corinthians felt that the gifts they had were so important that others weren’t needed and felt superior.  Paul says both are wrong for when it comes to spiritual gifts, it doesn’t matter what gift you have or who you are, all gifts and all believers are all needed and necessary for the proper functioning of

the body of Christ.  Let’s read 1 Corinthians 12:12-20.

I.                    One Body, Many Parts

II.                  There Are No Inferior Members

III.                There Are Wonderful Differences

IV.               God’s Special Design

I. In verses 14-20, Paul addresses those who felt that they had Inferior Gifts.

Paul continues the analogy of the body that he used in verse 12.  In verse 14, he restates the principle:  “Now the body is not made up of one part but of many.”  Here the point is that if everything was identical, the body couldn’t function.  If we were just one big heart or brain, we wouldn’t be able to do anything that we could do.

The body needs to have all the parts to make the body work.  No one organ could establish a monopoly in the body by taking over the functions of the others.  As important as each organ or part is, in order to be a functioning body, all the parts need to be working in concert together.

That in itself is an important thing for us to remember as a picture of the church.  As I mentioned last week, there are some churches that have been grown based on the model of everyone being virtually identical to one another.  Some churches are all white, middle class, business people whose children all go to, if not the same school, at least the right schools.  Everyone thinks alike, everyone is virtually in lockstep with each other.

Paul’s point is that within a body of Christ, there should be variety of people, gifts and abilities.  These things should cause everyone to work together in concert.  A church as a body of Christ should have variety in the people within it, each doing their part.

One of Aesop’s fables relates the following.  One day it occurred to the members of the body that they were doing all the work and that the belly was having all the food.  So they held a meeting and after a long discussion decided to strike work until the belly consented to take its proper share of the work.  So for a day or two the hands refused to take the food, the mouth refused to receive it and the teeth had no work to do.  But after a day or two members began to find that they themselves were not in very active condition. The hands could hardly move, the mouth was all parched and dry, while the legs were unable to support the rest.  Thus they found that even the belly in its dull quiet way was doing necessary work for the body and that all must work together or the body would go to pieces.            The variety of the people and gifts is vital for the body of Christ to work and to function.

II. Next, Paul makes the point that There Are No Inferior Members within that body.

Paul uses the example of hands and feet to illustrate this in verse 15.  It would seem that hands are far more useful and important.  You can do far more exciting and intricate things with your hands than you can with your feet, like writing or using a computer.   Try writing a letter with your toes or playing music on a musical instrument.  It would seem that hands are obviously much more important.

However, since feet can’t do such things, it doesn’t mean they don’t belong.  Our hands are great, but you can’t walk or stand on your hands.  While not glamorous, our feet are important to our bodies.  Talk to someone who is on their feet for much of their work day and they will tell you how important a person’s feet are.  They may not be able to do intricate things but our feet enable us to move around and stand.

The point for the Corinthians is that those who felt that they didn’t have important gifts do belong in the body and are very important within the body.  This is evident in the area of spiritual gifts.  Just as bodies need both hands and feet, the church needs gifts of serving and encouragement as much as preaching.  The gift of administration may not be as flashy or public as that of teaching, but without it, the church would suffer.  No matter what their gift is, they belong to the body.

That is true of persons as well within the body of Christ.  Some of you may feel that you are not very important within this body.  You aren’t an elder or a deacon or maybe you don’t teach.  Maybe you feel like you are like a baby Christian who is just trying to learn.

On the other hand, some may feel like you are very important within the church.  You are an elder or used to be and you have a long, rich history in the church.  But that does not make you more important that the person who is just starting to find their way.  In the body of Christ, all are vitally important as we do the work of the kingdom together.

The point Paul is making is that no matter who you are, you are needed and important within the body.  There are no inferior or superior members of the body for each has an important role to play.

Dr. Halbeck, a missionary of the Church of England to South Africa, saw lepers at work in a leper colony.  He noticed two particularly, sowing peas in the field. One had no hands; the other had no feet: both hands and feet being wasted away by disease.  The one who lacked hands was carrying the other, who lacked feet, upon his back; and he again carried the bag of seed, and dropped a pea every now and then, which the other pressed into the ground with his feet: and so they managed the work of one man between the two.

That represents the true union of the members of Christ’s body, in which all the members should have the same care one for another.  In the body of Christ, all are vitally important as we do the work of the kingdom together.

III. The next picture Paul uses helps us to see that There Are Wonderful Differences.

Verse 16 says, “And if the ear should say, ‘Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,’ it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body.”  Now Paul shifts the discussion from an inferior and superior discussion to that of simply being different.

It reminds me of the discussions I’ve had before with others based on this question: If you had to lose one of your senses, which would you choose to lose?  In other words, would you choose to be blind or deaf or unable to speak or unable to smell or touch?  What makes that discussion so interesting and, I think, helpful, is that it helps us realize just how special each of these things are.

I would hate to be blind, but if I were deaf, I could never hear beautiful music.  I would hate to be deaf, but if I were blind, I could see the spectacular things in creation around me.  God has given us all the senses and abilities so that we can live and enjoy things around us in our world fully.

All parts belong because each part adds something very specific and helpful to our bodies.  Verse 17 says, “If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be?”  Paul says if the whole body were an eye, what a mess that would be.

The variety that exists in gifts is highly desirable and indeed necessary.  If all Christians prophesied, what would become of all other proper Christian activities, such as teaching or serving or hospitality?  What would happen if there were no differences?  If the whole body were only one part, it would be sad for certain functions couldn’t be performed and the richness in the church would be greatly diminished.

Moreover, any Christian who operates independently from others is reducing his own effectiveness and that of the body as a whole.  This means that we must recognize, train and release every individual for service.  As one person stated, “No one can whistle a symphony. It takes an orchestra to play it.”  God does not intend those who believe in Jesus to be independent workers or Lone Rangers.

IV. God’s Special Design

God intended from the very beginning to arrange His people to be together and to work together as a body.  In fact, verse 18 makes it clear: “ But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.”  God, in His wisdom, knew that the church would need a wide range of gifts and abilities in order to serve and survive.  God arranged the people and their gifts in such a way that all the work that the church does in fact get done.

God has always dealt with those who would follow Him as a community and not just in terms of individuals.  God called Abraham as a person, but for the purpose of creating a whole nation who would follow Him.  God called Moses to follow Him but for the purpose of bringing out His whole people from slavery in Egypt.  And so within a local body of believers as well, God is not just interested in you as an individual person, but interested in how you as an individual fits and works within the body as a whole.

God wants His people to be part of a body and to be healthy and thrive as part of that body.  C.K. Barrett, a New Testament scholar, puts it this way:  “God wills the variety in the church.”  God wants the variety of gifts and of people to be in His body.  We are not identical robots, but individual and unique persons but we fit together in this organic body of the church.  That means that while there may be debates and discussions over things in the church, there must be an overriding unity that no matter what happens, the body is one and functioning as one.

That is something that we should not lose sight of here in Faith Church as well.  We have to realize that everyone is indispensable in this church.  Perhaps you may feel that you have nothing or very little to contribute to the work of Faith Church.

From an experience of her childhood, Mrs. Floyd Crook recalls how a great truth was impressed upon her with special meaning.  Crook came home from school one day crying because she had been given only a small part in the children’s program, while her playmate got the leading role.  After drying her tears, Crook’s mother took off her watch and put it in Crook’s hand.  ‘What do you see?’ she asked.  ‘A gold case, a face, and two hands,’ Crook replied.  Opening the back, Crook’s mother repeated the question.  Crook told her she saw many tiny wheels.  ‘This watch would be useless,’ Crook’s mother said, ‘without every part __ even the ones you can hardly see.’

Crook wrote, “That object lesson has helped me all through life to see the importance of the small duties we’re asked to perform.”

I hope that you can see more and more that each and everyone of us has an important role to play and we all need to be working together and involved in the ongoing work here.  Each and everyone of you this morning is vital to the health and ministry of Faith Church.  Every one of you has a very important role to play.

If we were to view the church of God as a great army, some are clearly generals and officers, but many are privates in that army; yet both are needed.  I once read a book which contained the memoirs of a Civil War soldier named Sam Watkins.  He spoke of the important generals and captains in that army.  They were very important and he was only a private in this big military machine.  But when there was a battle, this private said that he tried to shoot not the captains or generals, but the other army’s privates.  The generals weren’t trying to shoot him, but the privates were.  They were important.

On the other hand, I’m now reading a book on the Revolutionary War and how the British officers wore brighter red uniforms and ornaments that made them stand out from all the others.  One such adornment was a crescent shaped brass piece of metal that hung just belong the neck of the officer.  It was a common strategy for the patriot soldier to spot the officer and aim for that crescent shaped article.  In an army, both officers and foot soldiers are important and necessary.  We shouldn’t be shooting each other, but the point is that everyone in the body is important.

You may view yourself as having insignificant gifts or being insignificant, but when it comes to the work of the kingdom of God, those gifts that aren’t that spectacular are the ones which are vitally important.  Gifts like serving, encouraging, showing hospitality, organizing, showing mercy, giving are the gifts through which a church’s work is carried out.  And it is the work of those who have gifts of preaching and teaching that also are vitally important.  Next week, we will see how important it is that we remain together as part of the body.

Each and everyone of you is very important and needed.  You and your gifts are needed as we develop disciples.  You and your gifts are needed as we grow our community.  Then God will use us all to reach the world around us.

1 Corinthians 12:12-13 

One Spirit-Filled, Gifted Body

Rev. Jerry Hoek

Introduction:

Claire and I enjoy watching a TV show that is no longer on the air. The show “West Wing” is a show about a president and his White House staff.  In this show, one of the things you learned about this fictional President was that after he decided something or when something was finished, he would say, “Ok, what’s next?”  That is taken care of, now let’s move on.  “What’s next?”

Before we came to the season of Advent, we were looking at the Spiritual Disciplines.  We were looking at how we can grow spiritually so that we can become more effective followers of Jesus Christ.  We were building disciples.  But now we ask ourselves, what’s next in this discipleship pilgrimage.  The next thing we look at is that we are not on this journey by ourselves.  In other words, Christ does not call us to go through this life walking on our own.  He calls us to be a part of a body, a group of believers organized to be something much larger than we can be as individuals.  Next we are going to look at building community.

We will be looking at the last part of 1 Corinthians 12 in the next few weeks trying to better understand what it is that God is forming us to be and what the implications of that body are for us as a church.  Let’s read 1 Corinthians 12:1-13.

I. The Analogy of the Body           

II. Baptized by One Spirit           

III. One Spirit-Filled Body

I. The Analogy of the Body

First, let’s remember briefly what the situation was at the Corinthian church that Paul is talking about.  In this section, Paul addresses the problem of divisions within the church based on spiritual gifts.  Some said they had the gift of speaking in tongues and that was the most important gift and everyone should speak in tongues.  Others said that prophecy was the most important gift.  There were many tensions and splits as a result.

And so Paul says in verse 12, “The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts.”  That is obvious, right?  Look at yourself in the mirror and you will see ears, eyes, a nose, hair, mouth, teeth and so on.  There are many more parts on the inside as well.  There are many parts in our bodies.

Paul continues, “And though all its parts are many, they form one body.”  Even though there are many parts, you have to realize that in a person, they are all together to form one body, one person.  When you see another person, you don’t think, “There goes a heart, brain, two eyes, two lungs” and the like.  You see a whole person who is made up of all those parts.

The purpose of all the parts is the common good of the whole body.  Paul may have gotten his imagery of the body from Greek life where the Stoic philosophers compared the city state to a human body.  Each person was a citizen in the city and each had a role to play.  And everyone was joined together to form this collective unity.

The image of the corporate body was also very strong in Hebrew thought and Paul may well have been building on that thought as well.  Whatever the source, Paul’s point is that in order to function, people must realize that they are not acting and living alone in isolation from each other; they form a body working together.

So Paul writes, “so it is with Christ.”  What is true for the human body is also true for the church as the body of Christ.  The problem within the church in Corinth was that the people wanted to separate these gifts and the people who had them from each other.  The thought they didn’t need the other people’s gifts and that they didn’t need each other.  The point that Paul is making is that this individualistic approach is complete nonsense!

The church of Christ needs all the different gifts and the people in whom those gifts are found in order to survive.  The church is made up of a beautiful and rich diversity.  But that diversity must be blended into one so that we can survive as a genuine unity in Christ.

I find Paul’s choice of the body to describe the church to be very intriguing.  Paul is not just saying that there is strength in numbers, although that is certainly true.  I have illustrated this before for the children by taking a single stick and showing them how easy it is to snap it in two.  However, when you hold a dozen or more small sticks together, you cannot break them nearly as easily.  There is strength in numbers, but Paul is saying much more than that.  Paul is saying that not only are we not alone in our spiritual walk and growth.  Not only are we to band together to be stronger

Paul is saying that we are organically formed into a working cohesive organism, a body!  We all have different gifts and different things we bring to the body.  But God is weaving them or growing them together to be a unique and functioning body that can make a huge difference for the kingdom of God.  We are individuals but we are bound together in unity as we walk together and serve together.

This unity in diversity is something that we need to strive for more and more.  There is much to thank God for in this area for so many reasons.  We thank God for the diversity of races and ethnic groups that we have within our body.   We are not an all white church.  However, we must realize that our body here can be a powerful witness to our world.

In his book, More Than Equals, the late Spencer Perkins tells of what it was like to grow up as a young black in Mississippi.  He writes:

“I compared what I saw in the Bible to the reality we blacks lived under in small-town Mississippi. And at a very early age I concluded that it was impossible to be a white Southerner and a Christian. Not because I understood all the different theologies and interpretations of Scripture, and not because we had some special kind of black theology, but because of what I read in the Bible.  Since I saw in the Scriptures that if you loved God, you would love your neighbor, and since I knew the white folks didn’t love us, it was easy to conclude that there were very few Christians south of the Mason-Dixon line especially in Mississippi.”  Separating loving God from loving your neighbor had cost white Christians a valuable witness to the power of God, at least to the black community.

Perkins continued: “A while back, I was talking to an old man who lived in a Christian community in New York. This group of Christians takes the gospel as seriously as any group of believers I know, He asked me how they could get black folks to join their community.”  Perkins asked, “Why is that so important to you?” The man responded, “lf we had whites and blacks living and worshiping together as brothers and sisters, we would make a much stronger witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ”  This old man understood how our lack of visible love for each other compromises our witness of the gospel to an unbelieving world.

Faith Church, which is very diverse yet unified in Christ, can be a very important statement to our world that in Christ, all divisions barriers — race, economic and cultural, can be broken down as we grow as a body.  But how can we do this?  The answer comes in verse 13.

II. Paul says that we were Baptized by One Spirit.

What does Paul mean when he says this?  Baptism points to the fact that a person who believes has died with Christ and is raised with Christ.  In other words, the death and resurrection of Christ, of which we read in the gospels, is not just that of Christ, but ours as well.  When Christ died to pay the penalty for our sins, it was as if we had died.  When Christ rose victoriously over death, it was as if we had been raised victoriously.

When a person comes to this faith in Christ, the Spirit fills him or her.  This filling not only empowers the person individually but also does something that affects all who believe.  The Spirit joins all who believe into one body, the body of Christ.

The result is that individual differences are no longer important.  Both Jews and Greeks, slave and free are now all united into one body.  Jews and Greeks were very far apart in their thinking, in their culture, as well as race.  Now, as a result of being baptized into one body, those differences don’t matter any longer.  There is now a unity even between slave and free.  Racial, social and economic classes are no longer important.

What now identifies a believer is that they are Christian.  Being Dutch or Scottish, black or white, rich or poor, northerner or southerner, are not the things that identifies us most of all.  That is not to say by any means that all such distinctions are now removed.  We don’t lose our heritage or our cultural or racial identity.  We are a united body, but we still are unique persons and individuals.  We should be a shining witness to our world that even though we are different, we can be united firmly as a body in Christ.

How does this happen?  By being given the same Spirit to drink.  The phrase “to drink” implies first of all an abundant pouring out.  It describes watering something so that it is overflowing.  Think of the pictures of water inundating areas where hurricanes have struck recently.  The water pours in and floods everything.  There is an overabundance of water.  The Spirit is given in overwhelming abundance, but its purpose is not to destroy but to give life.

Moreover, the phrase also infers that the Spirit is not only poured over but poured into as well.  Thus, Paul is saying that we are now saturated with the Spirit.  We are like a sponge under water in that we have water all around us but completely filling us as well.  When the Spirit came, he was poured out in such abundance that it surrounds and fills each one who believes in Christ.

That is the source of power; that is how we can do the things that we otherwise couldn’t do.  We must realize this and use the Spirit’s power around us and within us.  It is the Holy Spirit’s power that transforms us from a collection of individual followers to a body of believers.

In an article entitled “A Tale of Two Kittens,” Margaret Clarkson draws a spiritual lesson from two cats she had as pets.  The first, Mehitable, was a plain calico cat born in a shed down by the river behind Clarkson’s home.  This cat never forgot her early upbringing.  She hunted, fished, and survived on her own.  When thirsty, she drank from the river.  Figaro, her handsome black successor, was different.  He too loved life by the river.  But he didn’t hunt except for occasional sport. And he refused to drink from the river.  If Clarkson forgot to fill his water bowl, he’d just be thirsty.  Clarkson commented, “To live at the edge of a great flowing river and to suffer thirst __ how sad!”  When we use such power from the Spirit, we are able to formed in a living body.

III. One Spirit-Filled Body

Filled abundantly with such power, we can be the kind of diverse, yet unified church God would have us be.  A church of mixed race can be a powerful tool in the hand of God to bring the message of reconciliation to this world.  If people can see black and white, rich and poor, young and old, all the different kinds of people unified in love and purpose, it is a beautiful testimony to the grace of God.  If God can do that with people who are so different, they may be drawn to the power of God as well.

How can we do this?  Be filled with the Spirit!  We must pray continually that the Spirit may work to help us understand and accept one another.  Let’s understand the differences we have, learn from each other and thank God for our differences.  And let’s focus on the things that unite us, rather than the things that divide us.  But this can be done only if we are relying on the Holy Spirit’s power, not our own.

With the Spirit’s power around and within us, we can also meet the needs of others around us and build Christ’s church.  If we try to do this without the Spirit, we may become organized, but we won’t be a body of Christ.

In his book Harvest of Humanity, John Seamands told this story:

A German soldier was wounded and was ordered to go to a military hospital for treatment.  When he arrived, he saw two doors, one marked, “For the slightly wounded,” and the other, “For the seriously wounded.”

He entered through the first door and found himself going down a long hall.  At the end of it were two more doors, one marked, “For officers” and the other, “For non-officers.”  He entered through the latter and found himself going down another long hall.  At the end of it were two more doors, one marked, “For party members” and the other, “For nonparty members.”  He took the second door, and opening it, found himself out on the street.  When the soldier returned home, his mother asked him, “How did you get along at the hospital?” “Well, Mother,” he replied, “to tell the truth, the people there didn’t do anything for me, but you ought to see the tremendous organization they have!”

The soldier’s comment describes a church which is really organized, but accomplishing little.  We can be very organized and efficient, but without the Spirit’s power we not be very effective.

However, with the Spirit’s power, we can meet needs that otherwise would be a struggle to meet.  As needs arise, the Spirit can equip people with certain gifts to meet that need.  And the church can grow both in knowledge and in numbers into a true body of Christ.

With the Spirit’s power we can become more and more the body of Christ, the community of followers that God intends for us to be.  We are building disciples and helping each other grow in our own lives.  But in doing so, we are building community so that we can all grow in the Lord and grow together.  And ultimately we are to be reaching the world, which is the command Christ gave to us.

We can be the kind of gifted church that God can powerfully use to reach others with the good news of Jesus Christ.  Will we  submit to the Spirit’s power among and within us so that we can be the kind of church God would have us be?

church God would have us be?

Matthew 4:18-25

Jesus Calls Disciples

Rev. Jerry Hoek

Introduction:

Imagine yourself at work for a moment.  You are doing what you would normally be doing during a typical day at your job.  Suddenly you notice a man walking up to you.  He is clearly looking right at you and no one else.  He looks you right in the eye and says, “I want you to leave your job here and come follow me.  If you do, you will be part of a group of people who will eventually make a huge impact on the world.”  Now at this point, you would be asking yourself, “Who is this guy and what kind of work does he want me to do?”  It would seem outrageous to us to have that happen.

In a certain sense that is what happened to these fishermen in the passage we read this morning.  Jesus comes to them and tells them to become members of the group that will indeed change the world if they would follow Him.  This morning, as we install these leaders of Faith Church, we look at what it means to listen to Jesus’ call and follow Him.   Let’s read Matthew 4:18-25.

I. The Call of Peter and Andrew           

II. The Call of James and John

III. The Ministry of Jesus                       

IV. Jesus’ Call to Kingdom Work

I. We read of The Call of Peter and Andrew in verses 19-20.

Verse 18 says that as Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew.  These brothers were fishermen who were actively doing their jobs as He called them.  These weren’t men who were just standing around looking for something to do.  They were active and evidently successful fishermen busy at work.  The brothers are identified as Andrew and Simon who would be called Peter.

Now there are a couple of important things to notice about Jesus’ call to these two men.  First, what Jesus does in issuing this call is completely out of the ordinary.  Ordinarily, the disciple chose the rabbi whom he would study under with the hope of becoming a rabbi himself someday when he mastered the law.  However here Jesus calls his disciples.

Jesus calls them in the present tense which implies a long term commitment.  This is not a call to a pleasant afternoon of discussion and fellowship.  They would have heard in these words a call to full discipleship with a very personal attachment.

Moreover, Jesus promises them that if they follow Him, He would make them “fishers of men.”  To these simple fishermen, it must have sounded far more worthwhile than fishing for fish.  Jesus’ disciples would not only learn from Him but would bring others into contact with God.

The call to discipleship clearly meant separation from the kind of life they had been living.  It did not mean that they had to sell everything and leave all behind and break every earthly tie.  Still this was a call to a completely different way of life than what they had been living before.

How did they respond?  Verse 20 says simply, “At once they left their nets and followed him.”  The word “left” can mean “abandon” and so Matthew is clearly speaking of a decisive action.  Before they had been fishermen; now they are becoming disciples of Jesus.  They left their nets and all that those nets meant behind.  They became students of Jesus like students who walked behind a rabbi as he went from place to place.

II. Now let’s look next at The Call of James and John in verses 21-22.

Next Matthew says, “Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets.”  Again both of these brothers are fishermen and both are actively doing their regular jobs.  These were not two men who were bored with their jobs and looking for a new adventure.  They were busy in the family fishing business.

As they were busy doing this work, Jesus called them.  They were to leave all behind and follow Jesus as His disciples.  Their response?  They “immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.”  Leaving their nets symbolized leaving their whole way of life.  They not only left their nets but also their father, thus breaking the strongest family tie.  Now these two as well continued to do some fishing as is evident from Luke 5 where the disciples are seen fishing on the Sea of Galilee.  But eventually they will be fishing for men as their full time occupation.

What is crucial for us to see is the fact that God’s sovereign call takes precedence over all others.  It wasn’t that these fishermen decided to go to rabbinical school or discipleship school.  These were gainfully employed and when Jesus called them, they had no choice but to leave it all behind and follow Jesus.  When Jesus calls, disciples must respond.

The point for you leaders is this: God has called you to serve Him as leaders of this church.  Yes, there were nominations and there was a congregational election or affirmation of your call.  But make no mistake, God through this church has issued you a call to serve Him.  Never forget the impact of that call as you serve Him.

Moreover, Jesus took fishermen, common unschooled folk to be His disciples.  Perhaps those of you who will be serving in the Faith Church council this year may think you have little skills or gifts to bring to this.  What God is looking for is not your skills, but your readiness to follow Him and serve Him.  The disciples weren’t scholars or theologians, but they sensed Jesus’ call and they followed Him.  Jesus took their willingness to follow and turned them into the foundation of the church of Jesus Christ which we are a part of today some 2000 years later.

Now we leaders must be very careful as we lead however.  God holds leaders responsible because we who lead are in a position where we can either draw people toward Christ or drive them away from Him.

This is illustrated in the life of author Mark Twain.  Church leaders were largely to blame for his becoming hostile to the Christian faith.  As he grew up, he knew elders and deacons who owned and abused slaves.  He heard men using foul language and saw them practice dishonesty during the week after speaking piously in church on Sunday.  He listened to ministers use the Bible to justify slavery.  Although he saw genuine love for the Lord Jesus in some people, including his mother and his wife, he was so disturbed by the bad teaching and poor example of church leaders that he became bitter toward the things of God.

Indeed, it is a privilege to be an elder, a deacon, a Sunday school teacher, or any kind of leader, but it is also an awesome responsibility.  Let’s make sure we attract people to the Savior rather than turn them away.  Now what is this ministry, this enterprise that we are all on?

III. It’s summarized for us as Matthew describes The Ministry of Jesus in verses 23-25.

Verse 23 says,  “Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people.”  The first thing that Jesus did was to teach in the synagogues.  In many respects, the synagogue was the center of Jewish life.  Jesus taught the law to the people there which means that he systematically told people what God’s word said.

However, Jesus also preached.  Preaching is different from teaching in that preaching is a bold proclamation of the facts.  What are the facts that Jesus preached?  It is what He will describe shortly as the “Gospel.”  Jesus boldly proclaimed what God had done for his people by sending Jesus to be their Savior.  Jesus also preached the gospel of the kingdom which was drawing near.  The salvation that the people so desperately needed was now at hand through Jesus.

Finally, Matthew says that Jesus was also healing every kind of illness and disease.  Not only did Jesus meet the spiritual needs of the people, but also the physical needs.  Moreover, Scripture teaches that sickness is a result of sin in the world and so Jesus’ defeat of sickness is part of his overcoming evil.  The miracles were proof of the message of salvation over sin and death.

The result of this three-fold ministry of Jesus is given in verses 24-25.  The news about Jesus spread and Jesus healed even more people.  Matthew lists all the ailments and diseases and afflictions that Jesus healed.  He does this to emphasize the fact that now that the kingdom of God has come in Jesus, Jesus is going to war and defeating the works of the devil.

Moreover, the influence of Jesus spreads all over this area and large crowds began to follow Him.  This crowd has people from many different places and backgrounds.  They came from Galilee where Jesus was working, but also from the Decapolis, an area further away on the other side of the Jordan River and very much dominated by the Gentiles.  But His influence wasn’t just to the Gentiles for people from Jerusalem and Judea were also following Him and watching His miracles and listening to his teaching.  Jesus is obviously far more than just a small town faith healer.

The Savior is going to war and is destroying the works of the devil and bringing spiritual and physical healing to the whole world.  The gospel has been unleashed into this world now and things will never be the same again.  Today the term “gospel” seems to have lost some of its edge.

Walter Brueggemann writes, “The gospel is too readily heard and taken for granted, as though it contained no unsettling news and no unwelcome threat. … It is a truth that has been flattened, trivialized, and rendered inane.”

But what Jesus unleashes is the radical message that God Himself has come and we never need fear sin and death again.  That is the powerful stuff of the kingdom our Lord Jesus is teaching and preaching of.

IV. Jesus’ Call to Kingdom Work

This morning let’s realize that Jesus is calling us all to continue in that kingdom work.  Leaders, and everyone of Faith Church, God is calling you to work in His kingdom today.  That means He is calling you to serve Him effectively within this church.  It also means that he is calling you to serve Him effectively in every part of your lives as well.  This call is to complete and absolute discipleship.

What does that mean?  It doesn’t mean we quit our jobs or leave our families.  But it does mean that we put our Lord first in each of those areas in our life.  It means that when we work or when we are in our families, the kingdom of God is uppermost in what drives us in the decisions we make in those areas.

Jesus is calling us.  What is our response?  First, it is to keep on working in whatever you are doing because God can and will use you in whatever you are doing right now.  Some of the disciples were fishermen and even after Jesus called them, they continued to fish.  Eventually they did work in God’s kingdom full time, but that need not be the goal of everyone.  The goal of every person is to continue to work faithfully in what you are doing and be willing and ready for God to use you where you are.

Whatever role God has called you to serve Him in, you must be willing to serve.  Perhaps it is as an elder or a deacon or a pastor.  Perhaps it is being the best doctor or nurse or engineer or business person you can be.  The point is for you to use your gifts in a way that serves our Lord Jesus Christ.

Joseph Stowell tells of a friend of his who is founder, chairman of the board, and CEO of one of the leading bond houses in Chicago.  For years he led a Friday morning Bible study in his office.   Dozens of people came to know Christ through that Bible study. Stowell and his friend went out to lunch several years ago, and since his friend was approaching 65, Stowell said, “I bet you’re ready to sell your business and retire,” thinking he’d say, “Yeah, I can’t wait.” The day he sells his business, no dream will elude him. He figured he’d want out.  He said, “Actually, Joe, I don’t have any plans to sell my business. Some day I’ll have to, but I know that the day I sell my business is the day I lose my ministry for Jesus Christ.”

This is someone who views his career in terms of followership.  Jesus sees us not only as we are, but as we can be; and he says: “Give your life to me, and I will make you into the follower I would have you to be.”  Today, as leaders and followers, are we ready to follow Jesus this year?

It’s a Pitiful, Dreadful Life

Mr. Tom Hoffman

We should always be wary of a sermon that begins with an apology.  And this one has two, so watch out.

I apologize first, that the idea for this message came not from my pious and regular study of the Scriptures, but from the world, from contemporary society, specifically, from an editorial I read in The New York Times a few weeks ago.  I believe that as Christians we should have an answer for the popular culture, for society, for the world that often stands opposed to the gospel.  But we should not let them set our agenda.   Still, I think this is a timely subject.

Secondly, I want to apologize that many of my answers to the issue I want to discuss are not my own, but comes from an article I read in a Christian magazine over a year ago.  Some may welcome this confession, since there are a good many thinkers and writers out there who have many more thoughtful and interesting things to say than I do.  But I don’t want to be guilty of sermonic “re-gifting” without confessing it up front.

So, with that said, let’s move on to today’s topic, which some of you may have guessed and are already rolling your eyes over.  I want to talk this morning about Cynicism.  The New York Times editorial I mentioned was not about Cynicism, per se, but about the 1946 Frank Capra film, It’s a Wonderful Life.  The article, which was written by Wendell Jamieson and appeared on the NYT website on December 18, is entitled, “Wonderful? Sorry, George, It’s a Pitiful, Dreadful Life.”  Again, I don’t think it appropriate to use the pulpit as a format for criticism or defense of popular art as such.  But there is a world view, a mindset behind the editiorial that I think bears discussion.

As those who’ve seen it know, “It’s a Wonderful Life” may be corny at times, but it’s still one of my favorites.  My third confession this morning, though it’s not integral to my sermon, is that I still tear up at certain points in the movie.  But what concerns me is not that someone does not like a film that I do.  Even if Mr. Capra’s solutions to life’s trials are trite and simplistic, the overall tone of the film is at least positive.  What concerns me is Mr. Jamieson’s view that life is instead a pitiful, dreadful thing.

The main character in the film, George Bailey, played by Jimmy Stewart, is an ambitious, but self-sacrificing soul, who always puts the needs of others before himself.  But his turn never comes and he continues to suffer trials and setbacks until he despairs and wishes he had never been born.  He is then shown, with the help of a bumbling angel, what life would be like if he had never been born.  And the point of the film is that he influenced many lives for the good.  His actions save his brother from death, his childhood employer from prison and his uncle from the insane asylumn.   And those he influenced went on to save the lives of others, but without his having been there, those people died instead.  Without him, his wife would be sad and alone.  He worked hard at his family’s business and and encouraged local industry and in so doing materially benefitted many.  Without him, those people instead ended up being oppressed by a heartless slum lord.

Mr. Jamieson’s take, though, is that only when George Bailey is miserable and despairing is the story really true.  He is frustrated sometimes at always being the one giving and never getting his turn.  And when he faces scandal and prison through another’s fault, he loses his temper.  Jamieson says that is the real George Bailey, and he is not lovable, but abusive.  His good deeds and even the short term benefits they bring others don’t count in this view.  And the town George’s influence helped keep wholesome and innocent is boring in comparison with the nightclubs and dance halls of the alternate reality, and not sustainable as a contemporary economy.  Never mind that violence, depravity and misery permeate this alternate world.  These are acceptable in Jamieson’s world because they are real.  Selflessness, goodness, hope and ideals are all, for him, phony, an idea he supports by showing that George is not always happy being selfless, he has to work at it, and he gets frustrated with the results.

Again, I apologize for spending so much time on one man’s review of a Hollywood film that is more than 60 years old.  But the fact that such an editorial could get published in the New York Times means that the film’s subject still has some relevance to the popular culture.  And Mr. Jamieson’s world view is as current as, well, December 18.

As I thought about these things, I remembered an article I had read about Cynicism by Jerram Barrs, of the Francis Shaeffer Insitute at Covenant Seminary, entitled “The Saturation of Cynicism.”  Jerram quotes the definition of Cynicism from Reader’s Digest:

a scornful or mocking attitude; bitterly mocking; scornful or skeptical of the motives or

virtue of others; believing that people are insincere and are motivated by selfishness; expecting the worst of human behavior.

He also refers to Webster’s dictionary, which defines cynicism as “morose, sarcastic, sneering; inclination to question the sincerity or motives of others; inclination to question the value of living.”

Which brings us finally to our Scripture text this morning.  Because the same preacher, Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, who said “there is nothing new under the sun,” saw Wendell Jamieson coming three thousand years ago.  Please read with me Ecclesiastes 2:17-23.

From this passage, and much of the rest of Ecclesiastes, it sounds a little bit like Solomon just might side with Jamieson on his take on life.  But not so fast.  Jerram Barrs, who agrees with everything Solomon says in Ecclesiastes and quotes the book repeatedly in his article, also goes on to say “for all of us, cynicism will destroy us.  For those of us who claim to be Christians, cynicism is forbidden.”  Because I was not as scandalized by Jamieson as I should have been, because I too have some serious cynical tendencies, and am inclined to chuckle at them rather than repenting, if such a world view is indeed forbidden, I need to know it.  And I suspect I am not alone.  And I hope to ultimately show that, according to a Biblical world and life view, instead of letting injustice make us cynical, we must praise God.  Instead of letting hardship and disappointments make us cynical, we must live life deliberately.  And instead of letting hurt and loneliness make us cynical, we must love as God loves us.

But before we get to the solution a bit more about the scope of the problem.  Barrs says that cynicism is forbidden because of what is lost when we become skeptical of everything.  There is the loss of belief in truth, because we suspect the motives of those who would tell us—or sell us—the truth; it’s really just a play for power for them personally or for some group they identify with and represent.  There is the loss of hope, both for the world as a whole and for our individual lives, because we doubt any story that claims to explain where the world came from, where it’s going or why any of it matters.  Or, as the quote of the day on my internet home page read yesterday in the words of Sidney J. Harris, “A cynic is not merely one who reads bitter lessons from the past, he is one who is prematurely disappointed in the future.”  There is also the loss of respect for authority, because all exercises of authority are assumed to be power plays by someone with their own agenda.  (No claims to legitimate authority can be made, because there is no legitimacy if there is no such thing as truth.)  There is also the loss of respect for anything sacred because religions are based on truth claims and no one group can make any claim to truth, they can only make power plays and appeals to emotions.  And there is finally a loss of moral certainty because

“no one individual, no group, no authority, no religion, no sacred book, no god has the right to tell anyone how they out to live.”

The terms cynic and cynical come from the Greek kynikos, the adjective form of kyon, the Greek word for “dog,” and was first applied to the philosopher Diogenes of Sinope.  Diogenes was a disciple of a disciple of Socrates, and was famous for roaming the streets of Athens in broad daylight carrying a lit lantern.  He claimed that he was searching for a human being, but that he never found one, only rascals and scoundrels.  It was because of his low view of human nature that he prefered to emulate dogs, who did not worry about what they eat or where they sleep, and in fact did not worry at all.  Dogs are not hypocritical or pretentious and instinctively bark at bad people and lick the hands of good ones.

Solomon can agree with Diogenes at some points, and in Ecclesiastes 3:18-21 he compares men to animals, but only as far as their mortality.  And in Ecclesiastes 7:28 he says, “searching but not finding—I found one upright man among a thousand . . . .”  But the real difference between Solomon and Diogenes is not their rate of success in finding good men.  In 7:29 Solomon says, “This only have I found: God man mankind upright, but men have gone in search of many schemes.”  The fundamental problem of mankind is not the corrupting influences of culture and society, as Diogenes claims, but that man is not living in accordance with how he was created.  This aspect of Solomon’s world view makes all of the difference.  Something tragic and profoundly significant happens between Genesis 1:31, which says, “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.” and Ecclesiastes 1:2, where Solomon says “Meaningless!  Meaningless! . . . Utterly meaningless!  Everything is meaningless!”  The pivotal event in human history was when Adam and Eve disobeyed God and ate the forbidden fruit in the garden.  This simple act of disobedience separated humanity from God, created a barrier in our hearts, and cut us off from the one source of truth, hope, authority, holiness and moral certainty.

Now a lot happens between the time God says, “It’s all good,” and Solomon says, “It’s all meaningless!”  God begins to restore the relationship with mankind, through Adam and his  son Seth, through Noah his son, Shem, through Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  He gives the Ten Commandments—and other laws—through Moses to the people of Israel at Mt. Sinai, to restore to them a sense of authority, holiness and moral certainty.  But in the thousands of years between the fall from grace in the garden and the high point of Jewish civilization, the Golden Age of David and Solomon, when Solomon had access to and power over everything he saw and yet found himself so thoroughly disillusioned with it all, perhaps the most defining statement comes during the time of the judges, in the three hundred years or so between the time of Moses and Saul, the man  that preceded Solomon’s father, David, as the first king of Israel.  In Judges 21:25 we read “In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit.”  And that, brothers and sisters, is where I believe we live.  Everyone doing their own thing, not because there is no king to tell them not to, but because there is nothing at all outside themselves against which they can evaluate any choice and call it right or wrong.  So George Bailey is a sap because his selfless acts don’t help him and he is the only one he has to answer to.

This is not just a problem of Diogenes and the ancients. There are modern philosophers, too, with whom we disagree, who argue that there is no god, but only matter, only stuff.  The result, then, is again a removal of absolutes, a removal of truth and reason to hope and the standard for evaluating right and wrong.  French Existentialist Albert Camus believed that the only serious philosophical question was whether or not to commit suicide.  If life really had not point or purpose, why not?  Of course, he did not, but his beliefs did led him to cynicism.  He also said, “There is no fate that cannot be surmounted by scorn.”  This is modern man.            But Solomon believes otherwise, and ends his book by saying,

¹³ Now all has been heard;
here is the conclusion of the matter:
Fear God and keep his commandments,
for this is the whole duty of man.

¹⁴ For God will bring every deed into judgment,
including every hidden thing,
whether it is good or evil.

Right and wrong do matter, and there is an absolute outside ourselves that gives us a standard of  truth, hope, authority, holiness and moral certainty.

If we heed Solomon’s advice to fear God and keep His commandments, if we put him at the center of everything, He becomes the universal that makes sense of all of the particulars.  We have truth and hope  and authority, holiness and moral certainty again.  As Jerram Barrs says, cynicism is forbidden.  But what is the opposite virtue that is commanded?  Instead of letting injustice make us cynical, we must praise God. Instead of letting hardship and disappointments make us cynical, we must live life deliberately.  And instead of letting hurt and loneliness make us cynical, we must love as God loves us.

Instead of letting injustice make us cynical, we must praise God.  Injustice happens; we can’t deny it.  Sometimes good guys finish last.  Sometimes cheaters prosper.  Sometimes the bad guy doesn’t get caught.  George Bailey’s problem on Christmas Eve, 1945 was because his nemesis, Henry F. Potter found the $8,000 Uncle Billy lost and knew it belonged to George and didn’t give it back.  But with the Eternal God back in the picture, this life is not all there is.  We have to trust that God sees and knows these things and in the end will make it right.  As Solomon says in Ecclesiastes 12:14, “God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.”  Sometimes people are frightened at the thought of God’s judgment of the universe, but it really is reason to rejoice, because it is ultimately the only answer to the injustice we see daily.

Of course, it is only as we are in Christ that we do not fear this judgment ourselves.  We are all sinners as well as sinned against, and we, too, are legitimately subject to judgment.  But Christ suffered the punishment that was ours, “the righteous for the unrighteous,” so we can enjoy the reward that is His.  In His innaugural address at the synagogue in Nazareth, Christ read from the prophet Isaiah:

¹ The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,
because the Lord has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners,

² to proclaim the year of the Lord‘s favor

And that’s where the reading ends in Luke’s gospel.  But the context of Isaiah offers us great hope in the face of injustice and gives us reason to rejoice, rather than despairing or becoming cynical.  It continues, “the year of the Lord’s favor,”

and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn,

³ and provide for those who grieve in Zion—
to bestow on them a crown of beauty
instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness
instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
instead of a spirit of despair.

“A garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.”  Instead of letting injustice bring us to despair and make us cynical, we must praise God, as the One True God, the source of truth and all that is based upon it, the One who will judge all wickedness and injustice, and the One who saves us from that very judgment through faith in His Son, our Savior, Christ Jesus.

Of course, this reality doesn’t make our problems go away.  I think Frank Capra understood that, and that is why George Bailey’s life is not one Pollyanna success story after another.  More importantly, Solomon understood it, and that is why Ecclesiastes is all about how disappointing and frustrating, and just plain hard life can be, not sometimes, but most of the time.  But he doesn’t advocate despair, or cynicism.  He says, this is life, let us live it, because it is what God has given us and He has it in hand.  Instead of letting hardship and disappointments make us cynical, we must live life deliberately.  Despite the fact that wisdom, pleasure, accomplishments and work will all disappoint us and even if things go well for us we end up dead anyway, there is something left for us to do.  It is a persistent theme, appearing five times in Chapters 2, 3, 5, 8 and 9, that what is left for us to do is to eat, drink and find satisfaction in our work.  And in chapter nine Solomon adds that we should marry and enjoy our spouses.

Pretty basic, really.  Not hard or overly ambitious.  We all eat and drink each day anyway.  Most of us work.  Many of us marry.  Does Solomon need to tell us to do these things?  No.  But he does need to tell us to be content with them, to find real satisfaction in the simple, even unavoidable things.  Do so many of our ambitious undertakings disappoint us?  That does not make them bad.  But our disappointment should not make us cynical, as if nothing matters because we did not get what we had our hearts set on.  Notice especially here that Solomon does not say we work for the reward.  In fact, he specifically says that is pointless.  But we should find “satisfaction” in a job well done, because as Paul says in Colossians 3:23, we are “working for the Lord, not for men.”

Eat, drink, find satisfaciton in our work, and you can’t go wrong.  Except in extreme cases these are attainable, so much so that Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount not to worry about them at all because God knows we need them.  When God gave the people of Israel mannah in the desert, it was simple and some complained.  But it was also miraculous, and it sustained a vast multitude for 40 years.  Daniel and his friends lived on vegetables and water instead of the rich food of the king of Babylon and they were healthier than the other princes and God have them wisdom and favor.  Bread and wine as symbols of our Lord and Savior’s sacrificial death on our behalf are simple, the staples of an ordinary diet for many.  But they satisfy our greatest need and nourish our souls.  Instead of letting hardship and disappointments make us cynical, we must live life deliberately, eating, drinking, finding satisfaction in our work, and ultimately, in the God who sustains and saves us.

Finally, instead of letting hurt and loneliness make us cynical, we must love as God loves us.  Jerram Barrs says this is the most important antidote to cynicism because, as he says, “Cynicism is the opposite of love.”  Cynicism says nothing matters.  Love says something matters immensely.  Look at what Paul says about love in 1 Corinthians 13:

⁴Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  ⁷It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Most of this description of love is in the negative, describing what love is not: envious, boasting, proud, rude, self-seeking, angry, calculating, delighting in evil.  These are the things a cynic takes for granted, they are just assumed to always be the case, so relationships are pursued with suspicion.  And this is why the cynic cannot love.  But love is the greatest command.  We are to love God and love our neighbors.  And we have the ultimate example in Christ, who Barrs points out “was not naïve.  Rather, he was utterly realistic about the state of the human heart, and yet He loved in the way that Paul describes love . . . .”  He further says,

Love is clear-eyed, but love is also full of hope, for it sees the way that Christ’s love has already begun to change us.  Love is clear-eyed and full of hope even when it means we have to count the cost of disappointment and even betrayal.  Only love will arm us against cynicism in all its ugliness and destructive power.

Cynicism is powerful and pervasive in our society.  But for those of us who claim to be Christians, cynicism is forbidden.  How, then, do we respond to the apparent meaninglessness of so much of life?  Instead of letting injustice make us cynical, we must praise God.  We praise Him in faith that he will bring justice.  Instead of letting hardship and disappointments make us cynical, we must live life deliberately.  We live in hope.  And instead of letting hurt and loneliness make us cynical, we must love as God loves us and has shown that love in Christ.  And in the words again, of the Apostle Paul, “Now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love (1 Corinthians 13:13).”