Family Commitments: Gospel Community
Download MP3My name is Colin Hansen. I'm a member here at Redeemer. I've been a member here since about January, along with my wife, Lauren, right here. We are home group leaders, have been since about that time, and privileged to serve with and, alongside many who are here this morning. Many people who, were strangers to us, even some of you in January and certainly all of you, going back to last June, which is when I preached.
Caleb Chancey:That's one of the interesting things. Usually when I'm speaking in my capacity, working for a ministry called the gospel coalition or preaching or even writing, it's a complete it's a blank slate. You guys don't the audience does not know me. The crowd does not know me and I don't know anybody out there either. It is an entirely different experience now to go in the course of about 14 months when I last stood up here and to preach to a group of mostly strangers and now to preach to many of you who do know me and I know you quite well.
Caleb Chancey:And familiarity, I don't know how Joel and, and Jeff do this week in and week out. Familiarity makes preaching a lot more difficult, especially on the topic of gospel community that we're looking at this evening. But the thing is, you can know, especially on this topic, you can know this about me, whether I actually believe and live out what I preach. This is not a topic that we can evade. This is either something that you demonstrate with your lifestyle or something that you prove to be something that is confessed, but not truly believed and lived out.
Caleb Chancey:Struggle struggle with community was one of the main reasons why Lauren and I moved here to Birmingham. It was something that we were truly seeking out. Lauren's family is from here, and we wanted that opportunity to give more of ourselves than we had before to be known and to know others in a more intimate fashion. I've noticed that this topic of gospel community is one that's not very often explicitly taught from the pulpit upfront. It's not something that I hear a ton about, but it is something that I believe, even if it is not explicitly taught, is very obviously caught in this, in this body of Christ.
Caleb Chancey:It's caught person to person, home to home, and and, week to week here at Redeemer. I would actually say it's appropriate, in my mind at least, that we cap off this series of family distinctives by looking at gospel community. To me, it is the single distinctive mark and most distinctive mark of Redeemer Community Church. Thankful for this for this body for these last 5 years. The thing about, the passage that we're gonna be looking at this afternoon though is that this is a profound contrast to what I believe that we joyfully experience here.
Caleb Chancey:Paul's letter to the church in Corinth was written to a city that loved its strong, dominant, outgoing personalities. People who sought to build up crowds and fame for themselves. But it was to this very starstruck city that that demanded signs and wonders and words of wisdom that actually the apostle Paul offered us offered instead a stumbling block. He offered them something that they would trip over. Something that would catch them.
Caleb Chancey:He offered them instead, Christ crucified for sins and resurrected from the dead, according to scripture. As he told them in 1st Corinthians 125, for the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men. Paul was not one to flatter his audience either. Not many of them, he said, were wise. Not many of them were powerful or noble in the eyes of the world.
Caleb Chancey:But as he then explained in 1st Corinthians 127, God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. Our passage then picks up in 1st Corinthians 12, running from verses 12 to 31. You can turn there, in your, in your Bible if you brought 1, or you can turn there in your worship folder and follow along. Based on reports, to set this up further, this particular passage, based on reports, Paul understood he had, of course, he had been among these people in Corinth.
Caleb Chancey:He had received a letter from the church in Corinth, Their unity had been undercut in far more ways than we can personally recount this evening. We don't have enough time to go through that, but we can see that for one thing, I talked about those dominant personalities. The church gravitated toward those personalities and then factions set in. Some followed 1 leader, some followed another leader. We also saw that, this is one of the most disturbing reports.
Caleb Chancey:There were some who got drunk on the communion wine at the family meals. For these family meals, like we practice and will practice next week here at Redeemer, they actually would gather together at the same time when they would do communion. And some were getting drunk, the wealthier members. On the other hand, the poorer members were actually starving. This is how bad the community had gotten in Corinth.
Caleb Chancey:There was a scandal though inside the church that was so bad that it was, it surpassed anything that it was even outside of the church in Corinth. It even made people on the outside blush. There was actually Paul heard reports of a man who was sleeping with his father's wife. It's how bad things have gotten in the community in Corinth. So it is in 1st Corinthians 12 verses 12 to 31 that we see from Paul what genuine gospel community looks like.
Caleb Chancey:He told them what characterizes a church that actually appeals to the world, a community that outsiders see and say, I want to be a part of that. I want to know the God they know. That's what true gospel community does. So here's how I would summarize Paul's message that we're gonna look at today. A It's a basic argument here that Paul lays out in 1st Corinthians 12:12 to 31, that the church of Christ displays unity in the diversity of spiritual gifts from God.
Caleb Chancey:So I'll go ahead and read that passage and then we will pray and continue with the message. 1st Corinthians 12 12 to 31. For just as the body is 1 and has many members and all of the members of the body though many are 1 body. So it is with Christ. For in one spirit, we were all baptized into 1 body.
Caleb Chancey:Jews or Greeks, slaves are free, and all were made to drink of 1 spirit. For the body does not consist of 1 member, but of many. If the foot should say because I am not a hand I do not belong to the body that would not make it any less a part of the body And if the ear should say because I am not an eye I do not belong to the body that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell?
Caleb Chancey:But as it is, god arranged the members in the body, each one of them as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts yet one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable.
Caleb Chancey:And on those parts of the body that we think less honorable, we bestow the greater honor and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body giving greater honor to the part that lacked it that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together. If one member is honored, all rejoice together. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.
Caleb Chancey:And God is appointed in the church, 1st apostles, 2nd prophets, 3rd teachers, Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret?
Caleb Chancey:But earnestly desire the higher gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way. Let's pray. Heavenly father, we are so grateful that you have brought us together in this body, That it is by your spirit alone through Christ that we can enjoy such fellowship. We can enjoy such life together.
Caleb Chancey:Pray that you would illumine by your spirit your word to us today and empower us by that same very spirit to be able to live out this gospel community. We Pray in Jesus name. Amen. So let's start with asking of this text a very simple question that I think will have pretty profound ramifications if we truly understand what Paul's getting at here. Where does the church find gospel community?
Caleb Chancey:What is responsible for this different distinctive kind of community that's known in the body of Christ? You can see it there right there in verses 12 13, right off the bat. Paul says, we find unity in the spirit, in the body of Christ, in the spirit, in the body of Christ. But how, how do you enter into the spirit? How do you then belong together to Christ?
Caleb Chancey:You can see it there again in verse 13. Go ahead and look there. You can see there's this reference to baptism. This references can be kind of confusing. What exactly is he talking about?
Caleb Chancey:Is he talking about the action there of immersion? Early baptism here for Paul symbolizes the very act of salvation, the very, the very ushering into God's kingdom. You've been outside of God's kingdom. You've brought in, you've been brought into God's kingdom. So essentially when Paul's talking about salvation, whether it's in any of his other letters, he has a basic framework in mind.
Caleb Chancey:There's a certain solidarity to Paul's thinking. We are so individualistic as we come to the text as as American as Americans, as Westerners, that we miss often the the implications of solidarity. And we miss then the joy of community that comes from that. Paul's essential message is that all together under the law are in sin. All are guilty of sin under the law.
Caleb Chancey:That's everybody. That's in Adam. But then in Christ is a whole different solidarity. In Christ, all are forgiven of sin under grace. If we repent and believe in Jesus.
Caleb Chancey:That's the basic message of salvation. This, this this, sort of word where he says baptism here. This is what Paul's getting at. And the message this gospel message that he proclaims so so so regularly in his letters. So when we believe, the spirit unites us to Christ.
Caleb Chancey:When we believe we are, we are inextricably linked then to Jesus. We belong to him. We belong to his family. But as the spirit unites us to Christ, the spirit then also unites us to one another. That's how he knits us together.
Caleb Chancey:How's god knits us together in his body of Christ, the church. So we find our unity in our common baptism. We find it in our common salvation from sin and death. That we we together in the body of Christ have the very most important thing together in common as the ultimate source of gospel community. So thankfully, many of us, we have made that confession.
Caleb Chancey:We believe this in our hearts. We proclaim this with our mouth. In fact, that's the very thing that happens in the act of baptism. We declare that salvation to others. But how do we know then how do we know then that we really live this out?
Caleb Chancey:That we understand the implications of this solidarity, that we belong together to one another, that we have the very most important thing in common, and that everything else we can work with because we have that shared faith than you do? Well, no, I mean, this salvation that we share in common, the salvation does not eliminate sin altogether. Still in the flesh, we continue to sin, we continue to fight. So do you associate with people who have different sins than you do? Who have different struggles than you do?
Caleb Chancey:I think let's, let's look at this a few different ways. Okay. So let's say that in the spirit, you have been given a great amount of discernment to know right from wrong and to know good doctrine from bad doctrine. Okay. Well, that's that's good.
Caleb Chancey:Here's the thing about these gifts that were given by God. Our gifts often have in the flesh, in the spirit, they're really strong. These are spiritual gifts from God. But in the flesh, they have a pretty severe downside. So say you're strong in discernment, in doctrine, right from wrong, good from bad.
Caleb Chancey:But then, do you hang out with people who are tempted by doubt? Who are tempted to question? Who wonder, who ask the deep questions that sometimes you don't have the answers to and you get kind of annoyed by that they keep bringing this up. Can you love them? Or let's say, you have a different kind of situation.
Caleb Chancey:You're the kind of person who gets things done. You are a fixer. You're a planner. You're really excited for this work night on Wednesday night. Finally, you have an opportunity to put your hands to work and to do something tangible scatterbrained sometimes?
Caleb Chancey:Can you be merciful and slow down for those people? Or on the other hand, can you can you honor the theologians among us who like to ask those hard questions, who like to pour over the scripture to understand what it really means. Do you have that patience to be able to stand in solidarity with those people? Or again, you you opened up. You saw that local missions guide there and you were excited because this is your opportunity to love the poor, to love the outcasts, to love the abused.
Caleb Chancey:That's great. We need many more of you in our midst. But can you then love the bankers? Can you love the doctors? Can you love the lawyers?
Caleb Chancey:Can you respect their vocations? Can you urge them to live out their distinct callings for Christ, where God has placed them and how God has uniquely gifted them? That's a sign of true gospel community when we're able to fellowship and to spur one one another on even when we sin differently or when we have different struggles, let alone different strengths. It's really easier, of course, we all know this from our own lives. It is much easier to associate with people who are just like us.
Caleb Chancey:That's the thing that's community. We're talking here about gospel community. We're talking about what difference does it make that we come together in this body of Christ. And this is ultimately what sets us apart. Remember verse 14, what Paul says here, For the body does not consist of 1 member, but of many.
Caleb Chancey:There is no church that has just one member. There is no body of Christ in just one member. He brings us together because of our distinctives, because of our different giftings. And there is no member. Part of the why we don't have that is there's no member with only one gift.
Caleb Chancey:None of us has been gifted in all of the same ways. We are a diverse body and God works that unity through that very diversity, which was his plan in the first place. So in verse 15, Paul starts naming different body parts to be able to prove his point. I'll try to paraphrase him. If I can paraphrase Paul here, he was prone to speak this way on occasion.
Caleb Chancey:He would say that a church that's full of just feet stinks. If it's just full of a bunch of feet, it just plain stinks. Or he would say a church that is full of people who only speak in tongues, but there's nobody to interpret what anybody else is saying is simply a babble of confusion. It is no good when there is only one gifting among us. It is not a true body of Christ because the foot needs the hand and the ears need the eyes.
Caleb Chancey:So let's say you have a discerning ear for truth. You need then the eyes of others to be able to see our neighbors who are in compassion or who need compassion, who are hurting, who need our help. You have the ear of discernment, but you need those, your friends who have the eyes of compassion. Or say you extend the hand of mercy. You need the feet that know when to flee temptation, to know how to get yourself out of a situation that you've jumped into because of your mercy.
Caleb Chancey:We have then true gospel community when we realize the common source of our diverse gifts. It wasn't that incredible courage that you have that earned your salvation. It was not what earned your salvation. It's not what qualifies you here to be a part of the body of Christ. Neither did your compassion or your dedication to the great commission, whatever those gifts are.
Caleb Chancey:Those are not what has qualified you. Ultimately, that is the outcome That is what unites us together in that common baptism where Paul says, we have we've been baptized together. We have drunk, as he says there, or you could say we've been doused by the same spirit, the only spirit. Bear with me for a second here, because I want to look at who this spirit is who brings us together. We talk about the spirit a lot, but do we know who the spirit is?
Caleb Chancey:The spirit is God. He is the spirit of life that sets us free in Christ Jesus from sin and death. That's Romans 8:2. Again, you see here Paul's in a long discourse talking about what the life of the spirit looks like. The best place to go to learn about who the spirit is and accomplished is Romans 8.
Caleb Chancey:So I'm gonna keep going through there. This spirit is the one that raised Jesus from the dead and now dwells in all of us who believe. Romans 8:11. The same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead now dwells among us. The spirit that testifies that we belong to the family of God as heirs with Christ.
Caleb Chancey:That's Romans 817. He is the one who brings us together as a family, as a body. And as we see a little bit earlier in the passage that we picked up here, you can see there in 1st Corinthians 12:11, the spirit gives us these diverse gifts according to his will. We here in the body of Christ are just the way God has arranged us to be. You, Redeemer Community Church, are the body God always wanted.
Caleb Chancey:You are perfect in his sight the way he has knit you together. If that was true of the church of Corinth and we looked at all of the problems that they have, it is, I think, then also absolutely true of us. So if the spirit has gifted me then or one of you with courage, then that same spirit has gifted you with compassion and you with a zeal to fulfill the great commission. I can't look down on you for being different nor can I envy you for having the gift that I wanted or for having a different kind of gift? God has a perfect plan for us to display this unity in diversity.
Caleb Chancey:The Corinthian church had a pretty I talked a little bit about the scenario there in Corinth. They had a severe problem with elitism. You can see there, this is in a longer discourse about the work of the spirit, particularly the gift of tongues. The gift of tongues in the church of Corinth was seen as a, seen as a sign of somebody who was more special than everyone else. It's actually quite similar to how some people practice the gift of tongues today.
Caleb Chancey:It's a swarm of elitism. You're a part of an elite club. Well, you can imagine just as it does with us today. So it was also in the church in Corinth. If you have a problem with elitism, you have then also a concurrent problem with feelings of inferiority.
Caleb Chancey:People feeling like they're not good enough as Christians. They don't belong. But Paul says by contrast, remember what I said about 1st Corinthians chapter 1. How God has used the weakness of the world to shame the strong. He not he doesn't use those who are strong in the world's eyes.
Caleb Chancey:He used those who are weak to accomplish his purposes. He says here in verse 22, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are actually indispensable. Again, that's what makes our community true gospel community. We do not give greater honor to the rich, to the outspoken, to the powerful, to the connected, all those things that qualify you in your fraternity or in your business or in your country club or whatever. That is not how we determine honor in the body of Christ.
Caleb Chancey:We honor the weak. We celebrate the weak, the lonely and the poor, in spirit especially. We display this unity when we honor this diversity to recognize again, it all all these gifts come from the same spirit. So we display this unity when we deflect honor. It's interesting.
Caleb Chancey:Joel, as somebody especially who's who's planted a church, he knows this full well that the person who's upfront seemingly is the person who gets the glory, but he knows it's the people who work behind the scenes, especially, which is why he spent so much time last week talking about volunteers and urging for children's ministry. He knows there is no church. There is no body of Christ without those people who serve with our children. Anybody who started a church especially knows that. And certainly there's no, this is what Paul talks.
Caleb Chancey:There's, there's this reference in this passage to the higher gifts. And by higher gifts, you can see in 1st Corinthians 14, what Paul means by these higher gifts. He basically means anything. And this is to be contrasted with tongues. Because tongues, without interpretation, doesn't mean anything because it doesn't build anybody up.
Caleb Chancey:It just attracts attention to yourself. So the higher gifts are anything. Prophecy in particular, which is what he's talking about there. Anything that builds up the body that encourages, that brings comfort, that brings that solidarity, that loves the body. That's the higher gift.
Caleb Chancey:It's often associated with something like prophecy or teaching or writing. But here's the deal, you would much sooner live without somebody with the with the gifting of teaching than you would with somebody who picks up the garbage or somebody who cleans the bathrooms. You can much sooner live without the people upfront who seem to get that sort of human glory than you can with the people behind the scenes who actually make things happen. I don't do you any good without Corey having the sound there. This is how we we honor the parts that, again, that the world is not seeking to bestow honor on.
Caleb Chancey:I found out this week for all of my writing or research or reading or whatever, I am useless without the Wi Fi guy. I can't do and I was useless this entire week. He's coming Monday morning at 8 AM. I'm I'm we'll see. But I am useless without that person to be able to help me there.
Caleb Chancey:It's interesting that this understanding of how life works I mean, again, like, if the mayor, if the mayor stops giving speeches, nobody cares. If the mayor stops picking up the garbage or hiring the people to pick up the garbage, it is a revolt. All bets are off. That is I think the message that Paul's getting at here about celebrating all the gifts in the body. This helps to explain verses 23 and 24.
Caleb Chancey:They're very strange. We we think the eyes and the ears are the most important gifts. But we know this from life. You can live without your eyes. You can live without your ears.
Caleb Chancey:It's not that big a deal. As he explains verse 23 and 24, the parts of the body that we cover are actually the more essential. You cannot live without those things that you are covering up on your body. So again, the church of Christ displays our unity in the diversity of these spiritual gifts from God. Teachers are not much good without helpers.
Caleb Chancey:Administrators can only do so much without God working miracles among us. So if God has gifted all of us in diverse ways for our unity, that means he's gifted some of us as actually authorities. So then how do the rest of us respond to that who are not in authority over this body? We don't then begrudge our pastors or elders, like Thomas was preaching about last week. We don't begrudge them for exercising that authority because we recognize that they do so by the power of the holy spirit because he's gifted them in that way and and it's done for our collective good.
Caleb Chancey:For all of us in the body to build us up. That authority is necessary. It's necessary because division is inevitable so long as we remain in the flesh until Jesus returns and calls us home. You know that there's a reason why we we need to talk about this because in this diversity of spiritual gifts, the gifts themselves become actually a source of great division. It's exactly the situation like I just referenced to with tongues that Paul was addressing, that he was concerned about.
Caleb Chancey:This is how I see it playing out much more often in our churches today. So we don't have an issue with tongues. Well, here's how we do it. We complain to one another. Of course, we don't often go to the person in authority who can do something about it.
Caleb Chancey:We can tend to ourselves to complain to one another that the church just doesn't seem to be taking advantage we kind of find validation in and of ourselves. It's also how we sew division in the body. What it often amounts to is that we end up talking about our tastes and our preferences, and we wonder why everybody else doesn't share those same tastes and preferences that we have. I know I've been guilty of this division, not so much at Redeemer. It was something that especially marked me as a relatively new Christian who was trying to figure out what this church thing is all about and what it means to be a member and to belong in the body of Christ.
Caleb Chancey:So let's let's say, how do you how do you overcome that? How do we at Redeemer avoid that problem? Let's say that you see some legitimate problems in the church. I don't mean to say that the leaders are infallible. Well, here's the thing.
Caleb Chancey:The leaders are much more likely to hear you and to understand your concern If you yourself have honored them with the gifts of authority that they have. And their gifts of leadership and teaching. They're also much more likely to listen to you if they see you seizing whatever opportunities there are, even if limited, to be able to exercise your gifts in the body. So you take advantage. We we don't often have work nights where we have an opportunity to really put our hands to work, but you take advantage of times like that.
Caleb Chancey:Those divisions in our body here at Redeemer. So to wrap up, do we have true gospel community at Redeemer? I kind of started off saying that I think we do. I think we're blessed by it. But I don't say that on a purely evaluative perspective as somebody who's only been a part of this body for about a year.
Caleb Chancey:I say that because Paul, in this passage, notice if if you look back here at chapter 12, see Paul's not issuing a command here. He's not, he's not giving an aspiration, something to strive towards, something that possibly, maybe one day you will achieve. He actually says that to the church in Corinth and then to us as, as related, he says, you are the body of Christ as the spirit. He doesn't even say that you're part of the body of Christ universally, though that's true. He says to us here at Redeemer Community Church, just like he he said to the church in Corinth, that you are the body of Christ right now because the Spirit's work has been decisive.
Caleb Chancey:The Spirit has knit you to Christ and the spirit has knit you together. Verse 26, I think, is how you see this so beautifully worked out. I know in in our home group, that's what we see a lot. And I believe it's very true of others. We suffer with the suffering, and we rejoice with the rejoicing.
Caleb Chancey:I see that so beautifully here at Redeemer. That's what we expect from family. It's what we expect from friends and it's what we expect ultimately from church membership. That's why we come together every Sunday afternoon, why we show up every Wednesday or Thursday night to home group. We want to suffer with the suffering and we want to rejoice with the rejoicing to display that unity in the spirit.
Caleb Chancey:The goal then, ultimately, as we display that unity, helps to explain our last verse there. The ultimate point of any of these spiritual gifts is to practice what Paul describes as the more excellent way. Spiritual gifts is how God has given us an opportunity to love one another. Remember, of course, that 1st Corinthians 12 is followed by 1st Corinthians 13. 1st Corinthians 13 is the capstone of Paul's argument here.
Caleb Chancey:He didn't write it just as an excerpt for weddings. He wrote it as the capstone of all the problems in the church. Ultimately, if you're pursuing one another in love, you will understand that we find this unity in our diversity of gifts. So the questions to leave you with, are you blessing the rest of us with your gift? You have been gifted in different ways than any of the rest of us.
Caleb Chancey:Are you blessing us with those gifts? And are you then allowing us the opportunity to honor you for that gift? That's how we praise God by honoring you for that gift because it is the spirit's work in your life. Let's say maybe though you're doing a lot already. I think that's true of most people at Redeemer.
Caleb Chancey:You're doing a lot already. Thank you for doing that. Again, it was evident when we came into this body of Christ that so many have given so much of their time, of their money and of their talent to this body. But let's say though, you're tempted to actually look down on other people who aren't doing as much, who aren't fitting in, who don't fit the mold, who have different gifts maybe than the rest of us. I would say then that in light of 1st Corinthians 13, us as we show patience and kindness and generosity and greater honor to those with the weaker gifts.
Caleb Chancey:So no matter what our gift, again, we share the same spirit since Christ himself first loved us. Christ first loved us and called us into His church. Not on the merits of our strengths, of our different talents, not on those merits, but in fact, in spite of our weaknesses, in spite of those weaknesses. So God is the one who gets all the glory by bringing us together in unity from this diversity of spiritual gifts. And here's the key.
Caleb Chancey:When God gets the glory, when God gets the glory, we get the joy of true gospel community. Let's pray. Heavenly father, we praise you for that spirit for your spirit's work in our lives. Your spirit bringing us together and knitting us together in this body for this unshakable unity. God, we pray that we would recognize that unity and display display it in these diversity of gifts.
Caleb Chancey:God, help us to exercise them in love for one another that you get the glory and that we would enjoy that true fellowship together in gospel community. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
