“The Amazing Anatomy of Christ’s Church”

Mission Festival – October 17 th and 18th, 2009

1 Corinthians 12:27-31a

The human anatomy is truly amazing, consisting of 206 bones, 600 muscles, 10,000 nerve fibers, 2 million
optic nerve fibers, 100 billion nerve cells, 30 trillion blood cells, and 300 million feet of blood vessels and capillaries,
about 56,800 miles, all coordinated to work together, all arranged in just the right way by our Creator. You may
not realize it, but every time you take a step, more than 200 muscles in the body have to work together. When you
eat, teeth and tongue help to break up the food, the esophagus connects the mouth to the stomach, moves food to
the stomach within 7 seconds so that the stomach can digest it and make use of its nutrients to keep the whole body
healthy. I could go on and on about how the human anatomy is “Fearfully and wonderfully made,” beautifully
complex as a collective, but also amazingly diverse as all parts, great and small, are created to work together for the
good of the body.
It’s no wonder St. Paul uses the human body to describe the Holy Christian Church. He says in verse 27,
“Now, you (the collective) are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.” Just as the body is made up of
many individual parts which all work together in harmony, so it is with the invisible Christian Church, and visible
Christian congregations like our own. Today, it is my prayer that each one of you sees how amazing the anatomy of
Christ’s church is, and how important every individual member is to the collective body of Christ as it carries out its
primary function of gospel proclamation. Be amazed at the anatomy of Christ’s church – one complex body with
many diverse members.

I. One complex body

We are “one body.” How easy it is for any Christian group to forget that. The Corinthian body of believers,
like many modern congregational bodies today, was diseased with elitism and separatist cliques, which is truly sad
considering how blessed that congregation was with profound spiritual gifts. Instead being thankful to God for all
the different members of the body, and rejoicing in the way that every member fit wonderfully in the church, the
Corinthians used the evidence of spiritual gifts as a way to develop a hierarchy of “better” Christians and “lesser”
Christians, based upon the presence of magnificent outward gifts, such as speaking in tongues or gifts of healing. In
the end, those who were “lesser gifted,” who didn’t exhibit many of the outward gifts mentioned in our text, were
made to feel as if they didn’t belong in the body, even to the point that their faith in Jesus Christ was questioned
because they didn’t speak in other languages, or have the ability to heal diseases, or have a prominent role in the
congregation as an apostle, prophet or teacher.
Elitism is very destructive to the body, because it doesn’t consider how each member is richly and
individually gifted by God with a role in the body’s primary function of gospel proclamation. Using Paul’s own
analogy, is sight more important than sound, making the eye a more important member than the ear? And for that
matter is the eye more important than the eye-lid? We don’t think much about the eyelid, because its function is so
automatic. The eye-lid certainly isn’t prominent, but without it, we would go blind, because the eye itself would dry
out completely. We wouldn’t be able to sleep well, because we would constantly be exposed to light, and the entire
body would suffer because of it. Every member of the body, no matter how great or small, no matter how
prominent or inconspicuous, no matter how remarkable or ordinary, is essential to the overall health of the body as
a collective.
Earlier in chapter 12:12-13, Paul makes that very point: “The body is a unit though it is made up of many
parts, and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit
into one body – whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free – and we were all given one Spirit to drink.” In the variety and
multiplicity of its members, there is yet oneness and unity in the body of Christ. We have all been made one
through the manifest gift of faith, given by the Holy Spirit. Paul cites our baptism, where the Word of God in all
its power and authority and grace, connected with water, was poured over us, through which we were made
members of the body, and for those who came to faith in adulthood, when the Holy Spirit brought you the gift of
faith through the Word of God, you were made a member of Christ’s body. All who are members of the body of
Christ, even with their many and varied spiritual gifts, even in the diversity of their own personal lives and
situations, are one in Christ, equal beneficiaries of Christ’s forgiveness, which he accomplished through his suffering
and death on the cross, equal recipients of the assurance of eternal life and the final resurrection of the dead through
Jesus’ resurrection, and equal participants in the great commission to preach the gospel to the ends of the earth for
the salvation of souls everywhere.
“Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.” Never forget that, fellow members of
Christ’s church. As a member of Christ’s body, you are important. You are all connected to Christ’s body through
faith, and you share an equal prominence with every other member of Christ’s Holy Church, equally forgiven,
equally saved, and sanctified by the Spirit for service, no matter how young or old, no matter how rich or poor, no
matter what level of spiritual blessing from God, no matter what level of outward prominence in the visible church,
for as Paul says to the Galatians, “You are all one in Christ Jesus.”

II. With many diverse members

What makes the Christian Church so amazing, is that in the context of the oneness and unity of the body of
Christ, each member is diverse and unique in personality and God-given spiritual gifts. Listen to Paul’s words in
verses 28-31: “28 And in the church God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of
miracles, also those having gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, and those speaking
in different kinds of tongues. 29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? 30 Do all have gifts
of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret?”
Take Paul’s earlier analogy to that of the anatomy of the human body. If you could pick any part of the
body to be, what would you pick? Most likely, you’d select the most prominent parts: the brain, the heart, the
stomach, the eyes, the ears, the nose, and so on. Who of you would want to be a single blood cell...to be just one of
30 trillion other cells? Who would choose to be just one of 10,000 nerve fibers? Wouldn’t everybody pick the
outwardly glorious members and forget about the less spectacular ones? But then just imagine what the body would
be like, if it had 1,000 eyes but no brain to process all that information coming in, or if it had every prominent
organ, but no blood cells. It wouldn’t work! It wouldn’t function (and it would be hideous to look at). The body
needs every single part, great and small to function properly, the brain, the eyes, the stomach, and every single one
of the 10,000 never fibers and 30 trillion blood cells!
 Our gracious God, who brings us into his body through the gospel of Jesus Christ, has provided for every
single need of the body so that it can serve souls in a wide variety of ways. If left to us, most assuredly in our sinful
flesh we would select for ourselves only those positions which would serve us advantageously or would give us
prominence and honor and inflate our pride. But it’s not left up to us – thankfully! How wise it is that God
himself has made the appointments, choosing in his infinite wisdom which spiritual gifts to distribute to which
members so that the body as a whole can be fully functional in gospel proclamation.
We hear that truth echoed in Ephesians 4:11, “11 It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets,
some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12 to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body
of Christ may be built up.” Not everyone will have the “greatest” gifts, at least to our sinful perception. There were
only 12 apostles, and the time of the prophets has come and gone. Not everyone can be pastors or teachers or
missionaries or professors of theology and Christian doctrine. At the same time, let’s never let ourselves become
convinced that we have nothing to offer...that we have absolutely no gifts, no talents, no role to play in the
membership of Christ’s church, because that’s just not true! Even the most inconspicuous part of the body is still
part of the body, and important for its functionality and health.
You don’t need to be standing behind a pulpit to be an important member of Christ’s body. You don’t
need to be leading a classroom of children in order to be a part of gospel ministry. God has poured out his Holy
Spirit abundantly and blessed each one of you with different gifts and abilities so that the body of Christ may offer a
variety of services to sin-sick souls. Yes, there are pastors and teachers, and for those gifts we are thankful. But there
are also helpers, people who assist ministers of the gospel in various ways. There are administrators, “ship-steerers”
who ensure that the business of the church is done in a “fitting and orderly way.” There are those who care for
property, those who care for the sick and suffering, those who attend to the needs of the poor and lonely, all so that
souls may be blessed in unique ways with the wonderful truth that God loves them dearly, and has reserved for them
a place in heaven by the merits and for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ.
What an amazing anatomy, united as one in the complex body of Christ through the gospel, but unique in
the diversity of all of its individual members. Remember today, every member has a function, great or small! We
cannot ever say that we have no purpose, no function. We cannot ever be satisfied to think, “I can do no more. I
am not capable!” We cannot look down upon ourselves or any other Christian brother or sister because their gifts
are different than ours. We are all members of Christ’s body. We all equally share in the blessings of Christ’s
forgiveness and salvation. We are all important to our Savior. And we are all important in the ministry of the
church, which uses uniquely and diversely gifted members to proclaim in a unified voice one Lord and one Faith.
Amen.