Malachi Part I: “I Love You”

[audio]

Preached 8/11/2018

 

 

Malachi 1:1-5  ¹ The oracle of the word of the LORD to Israel by Malachi. ² "I have loved you," says the LORD. But you say, "How have you loved us?" "Is not Esau Jacob's brother?" declares the LORD. "Yet I have loved Jacob ³ but Esau I have hated. I have laid waste his hill country and left his heritage to jackals of the desert." ⁴ If Edom says, "We are shattered but we will rebuild the ruins," the LORD of hosts says, "They may build, but I will tear down, and they will be called 'the wicked country,' and 'the people with whom the LORD is angry forever.'" ⁵ Your own eyes shall see this, and you shall say, "Great is the LORD beyond the border of Israel!"

I. INTRODUCTION

Love!  It is the topic of the great majority of songs ever written.  We all want to be loved and we all love someone, (or something).  We read books about love, we watch movies about love, we write poems about love.  God is love.  The Beatles sang “Love is all you need”.  Other songs have said “love makes the world go round”, “what the world needs now, is love, sweet love”.

Love is a powerful emotion, and it comes naturally to us.  We were created to love and to be loved.  But that love is often broken, shallow, or misdirected, or betrayed, or insincere. 

The most “natural” love is love in response to love.  When someone loves on us it is the natural response to love back.  When we are hated, our natural response is to hate back.  In the Bible, though, we are directed by God to go beyond this natural kind of love.  Jesus put it very strongly:

Luke 6:27-36  ²⁷ "But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, ²⁸ bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. ²⁹ "Whoever hits you on the cheek, offer him the other also; and whoever takes away your coat, do not withhold your shirt from him either. ³⁰ "Give to everyone who asks of you, and whoever takes away what is yours, do not demand it back. ³¹ "Treat others the same way you want them to treat you. ³² "If you love those who love you, what credit is [that] to you? For even sinners love those who love them. ³³ "If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is [that] to you? For even sinners do the same. ³⁴ "If you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is [that] to you? Even sinners lend to sinners in order to receive back the same [amount.] ³⁵ "But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil [men.] ³⁶ "Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

This is not human love.  It is not natural love.  But it is exactly like God’s love to us.  Mercy is the quality of not giving someone bad treatment that they deserve.  Jesus is not saying that people who treat you badly have any right to good treatment from you.  Nonetheless, He commands us to love our enemies any way. 

I am often lacking in this department.  But this is a command from Jesus.  We are to manifest his merciful love to others.  I have got to say that my heart breaks every time I read posts by Christians on Facebook who declare how they will only give love to others who are not jerks to them.  I certainly understand those posts, and I have certainly had to let go of relationships with people that were not working, but that is the natural response, not the spiritual one.  Imagine if Jesus was on Facebook and posted “I don’t want losers and jerks getting into heaven, so don’t bother coming to me.  I don’t have time for haters!”  No, He is the one who, while hanging on a cross after having been beaten within an inch of his life, said “Father forgive them – they do not know what they are doing”!

So there are two responses to hate.  The natural one is to hate back, the Godly one is to return good for evil.

But there are also two responses to love.  The natural one is to love back, but is this true?  Certainly returning good for good seems to follow, but humanity has a poor record of that.  People cheat on or abuse their spouses.  Children curse at and reject the love of their parents.  And even God’s people often return evil for good.  That is the most terrible of all.  We are commanded to love God, sure, but even more than that we ought to return love for love.  But we don’t. 

That is the theme of the book of Malachi.  It is the last book of the Old Testament, and was likely the last book in the OT to be written.  In that book, it appears that the love of Israel for God from the priests and from the people had cooled.  Worship was an afterthought – done with a sigh and a shrug.  And God sent Malachi to challenge them to repent of this before it was too late.  This message is timeless and is important for us, especially if we are practicing what John Piper called “careless worship” in his preaching from this book.  Is your worship careless?  Is your church attendance done with a sigh and a shrug?  Is it something you do because you have to?  Is every other hobby and activity in your life (including sleeping in) higher on the priority list than participating in worship with others?  Is the prayer meeting “not your particular ministry”, and are group bible studies “boring” or “unneeded”?  Then Malachi is definitely the book for you.  I CERTAINLY NEED IT.

Before we get into the text, let’s talk about the book itself.  The name Malachi means “my messenger”. Malachi was bringing a much needed message from God to his people.

• The first thing you may notice is the unique style of Malachi.  There is a very heavy dose of sarcasm in the way that God addresses the sad state of Israel’s worship.  God expresses himself in very relatable, human ways.
• The theme of messenger repeats throughout the book.  When priests are rebuked for their poor teaching it is because they are a “messenger of the Lord” (no pressure on me up here, right?)  But in chapter three there is a promise of a future messenger that is clearly speaking of John the Baptist, "Behold, I am going to send My messenger, and he will clear the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple”.  Jesus verifies this in Matthew 11:10.
• The book calls for repentance, promising judgment on the land if they do not repent and blessing if they do.
• The book is heavily Messianic, with clear prophesies about the coming Messiah and his ministry to Israel.
• The book is written in a format that features an accusation from God, an “interrogation” from Israel (basically a whiny questioning of God’s accusation) and then a refutation by God of their objection.  There are seven cycles like this in the book.
• There is an eighth cycle at the start of the book, but instead of an accusation it is a statement of God’s love for them. This sets the tone for the book and gives it its heart.  But even that gets a whiny response, as we will see.

Some here this morning will remember that I had the opportunity to preach through this five years ago during a brief time we had an evening service.  Don’t worry, instead of the nearly ten messages I went through back then this will be a four-part series that will explore more high level themes.  The outline will be something like this:

1.       God’s Love for Israel

2.       Despising God

3.       Despising God’s people

4.       God’s Love Triumps

Today we will talk about God’s love for Israel, and what it means to us. 

II-A. God’s Love is Central to Everything

The first statement in Malachi is from God, and He makes a declaration that sets the tone for the rest of the book:

Malachi 1:2a  "I have loved you," says the LORD”

The verb tense here describes something that originates in the past resulting in a current state.  While the translation in our bibles is “I have loved you” the truth it describes could be said as “I love you”.  It speaks of God’s “unaltered and continuous love”.  All of Israel’s sinful actions must be seen through this truth, so through Malachi God starts his appeal with this assurance.

To set up the interaction that follows, the attitude of the Israelites is shown in the response they give:

Malachi 1:2b  But you say, "How have you loved us?"

The response sounds grating and ungrateful, like saying “ha!  What have you ever done for me?”  Ungratefulness is the seed bed for all rebellion and sin.  The writer of the book of Hebrews admonishes us with these words:

Hebrews 12:28 Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe,

Acceptable worship is inseparable from gratefulness.  In fact, faith that pleases God must include a belief in the goodness of God toward us.  We see this one chapter earlier in Hebrews:

Hebrews 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

Remember in the parable of the talents, Jesus described the wicked servant as the one who refused to do business for his master because “Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.” Jesus said of this man’s reward... “cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

But rebellion sneaks into our hearts easily, and the first place it usually manifests is in a lack of gratitude for the goodness that God showers upon us.  We complain when things do not seem to go our way, when we can’t afford the things we think that we deserve, when someone else has more than us, when God tells us not to do something we want to do – even when the weather is too hot or too cold for longer than we like.  At first we complain with a smile, just for laughs and sympathy (this is about 1/3 of all Facebook posts I think).  It’s all innocent, right?  But God is not honored by constant complaining nor is He pleased.  More than that, it poisons our own souls, slowly, imperceptibly, and robs us of peace and joy.  This is why Paul wrote to the Thessalonians:

1 Thess 5:16-18 ¹⁶ Rejoice always, ¹⁷ pray without ceasing, ¹⁸ give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

And to the Philippians:

Phil 4:4-7  ⁴ Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. ⁵ Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; ⁶ do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. ⁷ And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

In the prophesy of Malachi, we will see that the best way to displease God is to be ungrateful, to malign his mercy and love and grace, to value it with a low valuation, to accuse Him of unfairness toward us, and to sniff at his gifts and wish for something else.  So what answer does God give?  How does He choose to describe his love toward Israel?

How do we express love to one another?  For some reason I am taken back to the interchange between Tevye and Golde, his wife, where Tevye, in an age where all marriages are arranged by the families, asks her “do you love me?”. What an unthinkable question!  But through the song she really asks herself the same question as in Malachi – “how have I loved him”.  After reciting a concrete list of actions, she says to herself “if that’s not love, what is?”  And the song ends: “Then you love me?”  “I suppose I do.”  He replies “And I suppose I love you, too.” And they finish together “it doesn’t change a thing, but even so, after twenty-five years, it’s nice to know.”  The song is touching, but it would be quite different if Golde had said “I love you” and Tevye had replied “ha! I don’t believe you.  Prove it!”  What a dagger it would have been in her heart, and how evil of a reply. And it is the same here.

So let’s look at God’s reply to the question “how have you loved us?”  Now we can look at the whole old Testament and see the whole story of God’s love toward Israel, but in the time of Malachi the great events of Exodus and the days of Israel’s great kings is long past.  Their temple is less glorious than Solomon’s, they are not a sovereign nation, they have no king, and it has even been a while since they returned to the land after the Babylonian captivity.  They are back in the nitty-gritty of everyday boring life and all of those Bible stories seem fuzzy and far away.  The daily worship of God seems to be an unnecessary burden on their lives, and they have been “running on fumes” spiritually for years.  And frankly, some of the rules they have to follow seem annoying and are seen as making their lives less free and easy.

Not that we ever get that way in our Christian lives, right?  (Right? What? We are the same?  I’m shocked! Shocked!!)

Now there are a lot of things we might think that God might give as an answer, but what he does say is very strange.  He could have recited the deliverance from Egypt, heroes like Moses, David, Solomon, Elijah, and Daniel, their amazing victories over more powerful enemies in the past, their days of riches and prominence, and many similar things.  But instead God answers with a strange question:

Malachi 1:2c  "Is not Esau Jacob's brother?" declares the LORD.

What?  What does this mean?  A human lover might say “I tell you that you are beautiful.  I buy you flowers.  I provide for you.  I take care of you when you are sick.”  But what kind of tender lover would tell his sweetheart “you have a twin sister, right?”  And what follows is a difficult passage to understand, but it describes the special nature of God’s covenantal love, and is the key for our own assurance and peace.  But how?  First, let’s read through the whole answer:

Malachi 1:2b-5  ²… But you say, "How have you loved us?" "Is not Esau Jacob's brother?" declares the LORD. "Yet I have loved Jacob ³ but Esau I have hated. I have laid waste his hill country and left his heritage to jackals of the desert." ⁴ If Edom says, "We are shattered but we will rebuild the ruins," the LORD of hosts says, "They may build, but I will tear down, and they will be called 'the wicked country,' and 'the people with whom the LORD is angry forever.'" ⁵ Your own eyes shall see this, and you shall say, "Great is the LORD beyond the border of Israel!"

Again, humanly speaking this is not exactly romantic prose.  In fact, God’s answer does not even tell them what He has done for them, at least not explicitly.  So how does this answer the question, and why is this so important to the rest of the book, and to us?  I would like to suggest that if we understand what God is saying through Malachi we will have a greater understanding of our own salvation and a more solid foundation for our own peace and joy.

IIb. The Multifaceted Nature of God’s love

First, remember that Edom was the country descended from Esau, the brother of Jacob.  Jacob and Esau were twins, but Esau was born first, so he had all the right of the firstborn.  But before they were born, God gave a revelation to their mother:

Genesis 25:21-23  ²¹ Isaac prayed to the LORD on behalf of his wife, because she was barren; and the LORD answered him and Rebekah his wife conceived. ²² But the children struggled together within her; and she said, "If it is so, why then am I [this way?]" So she went to inquire of the LORD. ²³ The LORD said to her, "Two nations are in your womb; And two peoples will be separated from your body; And one people shall be stronger than the other; And the older shall serve the younger."

According to the customs of the day, Esau had the birthright.  But Jacob was put into the line of blessing rather than his older brother by a sovereign choice of God before they were born.  This blessing continued through the chosen line, from Abraham to Isaac (bypassing Ishmael), to Jacob – renamed Israel (bypassing Esau). Now, in answer to this question from the nation of Israel in Malachi, God points to his treatment of the descendents of Esau hundreds of years later as his proof of love to Israel.  How can this be?  Let’s get back to that question at the end, but right now let’s look at the nature of God’s covenantal love as described by God in Malachi 2-5.  There is a LOT to see here, and we will have to go rather quickly.

First, see that God’s love is REAL.  “"I have loved you," says the LORD.”  If God speaks, it is true.  Paul writes to Titus that he is an “apostle of Jesus Christ, for the faith of those chosen of God and the knowledge of the truth which is according to godliness, in the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised long ages ago…” (Titus 1:1-2)  God spoke the universe into creation and his character is one of total honesty.  Psalm 119 boldly states (89, 105, 160) “Forever, O LORD, Your word is settled in heaven.” “Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path.” “The sum of Your word is truth, And every one of Your righteous ordinances is everlasting.”  Jesus prayed right before his arrest: (Jhn 17:17) 17 "Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.”  As the saying goes: “God says it, that settles it”.   But it is also real because it is historical.  I HAVE loved you – anyone in Malachi’s time could read about the great love that God has shown to Israel. It was not spoken in a vacuum.

Secondly, we see that God’s love is INCOMPREHENSIBLE. The first statement shows us the problem.  As we said, it is natural to love something because it is lovely or lovable or pleasant.  But the statement "Is not Esau Jacob's brother?" takes us out of the area of human evaluation.  God is literally saying that Jacob had no more claim to God’s love than Esau.  None.  They were brothers – twins.  Conceived at the same time, taking their first breath within minutes of each other, raised in the same home by the same parents.  Therefore the choice was not based on anything about them that could be measured.  It is time to ask the question: Why would this be encouraging?  To us it seems random.  Isn’t it better to be told “I love you because you are a good person” or even “I love you because you are good looking”?  But that is not reassuring.  If we are loved because we are good, what if we mess up?  If because of looks, what happens if we get ugly?  Any performance-based love can be lost.  But the lesson we must take from this must NOT be that God’s love is random.  Just because we cannot understand why He made a particular choice does not mean it is unjust or random – just that we can’t understand it.  That’s where believing by faith that God is good (as in Hebrews 11:6) is so important to understanding Him.

Third, we see that God’s love is an ELECTING love. "Yet I have loved Jacob but Esau I have hated.”  The choice of God to love Jacob over Esau was made before they were born, not based on anything they did or would do. And yet God’s selection of Jacob meant that Jacob and his descendents would receive the blessings promised to Abraham.  We read of the future redemption of Israel in Romans and finally in the book of Revelation.  No other earthly nation for all time is promised an eternal home – only the nation of Israel.  They remain “the chosen people”,

Fourth, we see that God’s love is a MERCIFUL love. Both Jacob and Esau sinned.  If you read about the life of Jacob you see trickery, deceit, and manipulation of others for his own benefit.  He even cheated his brother out of blessings and God had to work hard on him to break him of his selfish ways.  Both nations descended from them deserved judgment many times over.  But God promised over and over to forgive and restore Israel, even after times when He judged them severely for their sin.  But in contrast, of the nation of Edom God says “I have laid waste his hill country and left his heritage to jackals of the desert." ⁴ If Edom says, "We are shattered but we will rebuild the ruins," the LORD of hosts says, "They may build, but I will tear down, and they will be called 'the wicked country,' and 'the people with whom the LORD is angry forever.'"  In the end the sins of Edom will stay with them and there will be no redemption for them as a nation.

Fifth, in the above passage we also see that God’s love is UNCHANGING.  Of Esau He says: “they will be called 'the … 'the people with whom the LORD is angry forever.’” Unlike human love, which sometimes changes like the direction of the wind in a storm, once God declares his love for you, you can rely on it.  God might judge Israel as a nation, but in the end He will always be concerned for their ultimate welfare. How much of a blessing is it to be able to rely on unchanging love!  Later in this prophesy, Malachi quotes God saying (Mal 3:6)  "For I, the LORD, do not change; therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed.”  Given the history of this rebellious people, I would say it is a great blessing indeed to have God’s unchanging love!

Sixth, we see that God’s love is CONSEQUENTIAL.  “Your own eyes shall see this, and you shall say, "Great is the LORD beyond the border of Israel!"”  This is not a pie-in-the-sky love.  It is not words only (like so much human so-called love).  You could also say that it is Not Impotent.  God is not unable to bless Israel.  Remember that in the days of wicked king Ahab God gave the northern nation of Israel several victories over the Arameans to show his power.  First they defeated an overwhelming army in the mountains, but the Arameans said (1 Ki 20:23) "Their gods are gods of the mountains, therefore they were stronger than we; but rather let us fight against them in the plain, [and] surely we will be stronger than they.”  For this reason, the Arameans raised another army to attack Israel in the valleys, and God again gave them victory against overwhelming odds.  When God decides to bless, nothing can stop Him.

Finally, we see that God’s love is PRAISEWORTHY. Malachi writes “and you shall say, "Great is the LORD…”!  The only worthy response to the love of God is to praise Him.  While Malachi is a rebuke for a lack of honor and gratefulness to God, we can take comfort in this final verse.  Because God’s love is electing, merciful, unchanging and consequential we see that God prophesies that in the end Israel would praise Him properly.  This is not because of their goodness, it is a result of his love.

III Conclusion

So where does that leave us?  This is the type of covenantal love that we have as Christians.  Look at the parallels:

God’s love is REAL.  We all know what Jesus said to Nicodemus in John 3:16.  The whole premise of Christianity is God acting to save us because of his love. 

God’s love is INCOMPREHENSIBLE.  In Romans 5 we read “⁶ For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷ For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. ⁸ But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”  It makes no sense.  Paul wrote to Titus (3:5) He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy”.  In Eph 2:8-9 “⁸ For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, [it is] the gift of God; ⁹ not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.”  All through scripture we see that our salvation is not based on what we have done.  I am not less of a sinner than someone else who does not believe.  In fact, Paul, when describing God’s sovereign choice of who He will bless with saving faith in his mercy, explicitly quotes these verses from Malachi and discusses the implications:

Romans 9:10-16  ¹⁰ And not only this, but there was Rebekah also, when she had conceived [twins] by one man, our father Isaac; ¹¹ for though [the twins] were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad, so that God's purpose according to [His] choice would stand, not because of works but because of Him who calls, ¹² it was said to her, "THE OLDER WILL SERVE THE YOUNGER." ¹³ Just as it is written, "JACOB I LOVED, BUT ESAU I HATED." ¹⁴ What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be! ¹⁵ For He says to Moses, "I WILL HAVE MERCY ON WHOM I HAVE MERCY, AND I WILL HAVE COMPASSION ON WHOM I HAVE COMPASSION." ¹⁶ So then it [does] not [depend] on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.

As before, we see that God’s love is an ELECTING love.  The choice of God to love Jacob over Esau was made before they were born, and Paul tells the Ephesians that (Eph 1:4)  “4 … He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love”.  Just like Jacob, we can only thank God for his choosing of us and the mercy he showed to us.  We will never be able to boast that we earned it somehow.  It is all his mercy.

God’s love to us is a MERCIFUL love.  Mercy is the other side of Grace, and we get both.  Mercy is not giving what we deserve (eternal punishment for our sins) and grace is giving us what we don’t deserve (forgiveness).

God’s love for us is UNCHANGING.  Hebrews 7:25 says “Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.”  And Jesus himself said (Jhn 10:28)  “and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand.”  Paul wrote to Titus he was “an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the faith of those chosen of God and the knowledge of the truth which is according to godliness, in the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised long ages ago…” (Titus 1:1b-2)  This is assurance!

God’s love is CONSEQUENTIAL.  In fact, the NT writers often spoke of our future salvation in concrete terms, even to the point of speaking of the future in a present tense as if it was already in our hands, it is so assured.  Jesus ‘ sacrifice was EFFECTIVE, as we read in

Hebrews 7:24-27  ²⁴ but Jesus, on the other hand, because He continues forever, holds His priesthood permanently. ²⁵ Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. ²⁶ For it was fitting for us to have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens; ²⁷ who does not need daily, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the [sins] of the people, because this He did once for all when He offered up Himself.

So we fittingly end on the last point.  God’s love for us is PRAISEWORTHY.  

Heb 13:12-16  12 So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. 13 Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. 14 For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. 15 Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. 16 Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.

2 Co 9:15  Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift!

(Next sermon)

Solving the Puzzle of the Church

1 Corinthians 12

INTRODUCTION: What makes you a Christian?  (V1-3)

One of the statements of Jesus that has been almost completely missed, except when it has been misappropriated, is in Matthew 16:18.  If you remember the story, Jesus had asked his disciples “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”.  After hearing their recounting of what had been said by the people, Jesus asked them a more pointed question: “But who do you say that I am?” Under the inspiration of God (as Jesus points out right away) Peter gives his declaration that Jesus is the Messiah and the Son of the Living God.”  Jesus then makes the statement recorded in verse 18:

Matthew 16:18 ESV  And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

The Roman Catholic church uses this verse to claim that the church was built upon Peter, but this does not fit the language, grammar, or context of this passage.  Jesus is only making a play on words, using Peter’s nickname (his given name was Simon) of Petros (a little rock) to compare with the truth (Petra, a huge, gigantic rock – also feminine gendered word) of Jesus’ divinity and messianic mission.  Upon the truth that God had revealed to Peter (who would be channeling Satan just a few verses later) Jesus says “I will build my church”.  This is a HUGE truth, and one that we need to keep in our minds more often.

Why is this so important?  When we think about setting up a church, we think about buying property, setting up bylaws, hiring a pastor, sitting in a pew, inviting friends, and advertizing.  But this truth tells us, first and foremost, that it is not “our” church!

• We did not make ourselves Christians, and we do not define what it means to be one.  He does.
• We are part of something started at Pentecost thousands of years ago, but which is still going on today.
• All growth comes from Him. (Acts 2:47b “And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.” 5:14 “And more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women”, and Act 11:24 “And a great many people were added to the Lord.”)  He will BUILD his church.
• We should study diligently what HE declares should be the form of his church (remember Nadab and Abihu!)
• And especially, we were literally saved to be part of something.

Jesus after his resurrection ascended to heaven, but the third member of the trinity was sent to accomplish this work.  The arrival of the Holy Spirit is recorded in Acts chapter 2, when new thing happened – the Holy Spirit of God came to permanently indwell his people and make them into a new collective whole.  Everyone who names Christ as Lord is now part of a new and unique thing in history – the universal church, or as it is also referred to in scripture, the Body of Christ.  This takes us to our passage:

I Corinthians 12:1-3 ESV   ¹ Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed. ² You know that when you were pagans you were led astray to mute idols, however you were led. ³ Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says "Jesus is accursed!" and no one can say "Jesus is Lord" except in the Holy Spirit.

To understand the context here, remember that Paul is dealing with a fractious, carnal, worldly and divisive church.  The Corinthian church’s problems were many, but Paul had saved one of the worst for last.  They had taken the powerful, unifying truth of the presence of the Holy Spirit and his empowering of believers, and they had used it to divide and hurt the church rather than for unifying it.  Paul in chapters 12-14 therefore teaches them the doctrine of who they are in the church that Jesus is building, and what the meaning was of the gifts given by the Spirit.  He starts with these verses.  Note three truths in v1-3:

1. They evidently thought of themselves as a healthy church because of flashy individual “spirit superstars”.  Paul says that they were “misinformed”, which means that their doctrine about spiritual gifts was wrong and causing problems.
2. Their ideas about spiritual gifts actually came from pagan sources and not from God.
3. It is the working of the Holy Spirit alone that makes a person a member of the body of Christ. “Jesus is Lord” is the statement only of believers – “because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.” Rom 10:9-10)  The opposite is also true: “You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. (Rom 8:9)

So it is the Holy Spirit who makes us Christians. But what does that mean?

I One Giver, One Body (V4-11)

Paul continues now with the doctrine of what the Holy Spirit does in the area of spiritual gifts in verses 4-11.  Most people read this passage with a view to making a list, and even in this church we have spent a lot of time cataloging and categorizing and consigning these gifts.  Taking a “spiritual gift survey” is a popular thing to do in churches, but this is complicated by the fact that there are several lists in scripture of spiritual gifts, and they are all different.  In this chapter there are some listed that are not in any list.  But the real theme of verses 4-11 is not to delineate a comprehensive list, but to emphasize the truth that THERE IS ONLY ONE GIVER AND ONE PURPOSE FOR ALL GIFTS GIVEN TO THE CHURCH.  Just reading through these eight  verses shows us a repeating theme.  (read the passage here)

I Corinthians 12:4-7 ESV  ⁴ Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; ⁵ and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; ⁶ and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. ⁷ To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

One Giver: First we see that though there are many types of gifts and ways to serve, they are all from the same Spirit, the same Lord, and the same God.  The one and only true God builds the church and all members of the Godhead are involved intimately in the work.  This has many corollaries:

• There may be many denominations, but there is only one “church” as far as God is concerned.  That universal church consists only of true believers through the ages.
• All purpose and power for the church come from God and God alone.
• The church is not a human invention.  As such it has a mandate and a destiny in history.
• Our part in this eternal organization is hand-picked by God.
• The purpose of the church is primarily for the glory of God – it exists by and for his purpose and pleasure.
• We have a purpose and a mission given to us by God, and is cannot be separated from the church.
• All success of the church is due to his empowerment.

Note that in the second four verses we see unity in diversity.  There are many gifts, but in the end, Paul once again emphasizes the single focus of all of the gifts.

I Corinthians 12:8-11 ESV  ⁸ For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, ⁹ to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, ¹⁰ to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. ¹¹ All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.

In this context, therefore, we see that the church is diverse in two ways:

1. God chooses different and unique people to be in the body of Christ.
2. God gives different and unique giftings to all members of the body of Christ.

The real question that comes up at this point is clear.  Why?  Why would the infinite and omnipotent God not give the whole package to each person that He saves?  Don’t we all have the Holy Spirit?  Does one person have more of the Spirit than another? Are some people super-important and some people just worker drones – replacable and unremarkable and ultimately replacable? This is the problem in Corinth that Paul is addressing.  They had elevated some people in the church over others based on worldly standards of measure.  Their Communion services had become a fight between the “haves” and the “have-nots”. Even the idea of spiritual gifts had become something that divided the church between the “haves” and “have-nots” as their meetings developed a carnival atmosphere where everyone was “one upping” each other with flashy so-called displays of spiritual power, even while the church was manifesting sin, worldliness, division and carnality.  People were sinning, fighting, and showing off.

One Body: To all of these problems, Paul brought a simple message:  “hey guys, there is only One source to all of this, and this is ALL for the purpose of building up the church that Jesus (not you) is building.  You are the building, not the builder.  You need to look at your place in this building not by looking at yourself, but by looking to the Lord.  You need to work for the body and not for yourself.  You need to give glory to God, not to yourself.

If we miss this, we are missing the boat.

To illustrate these points, Paul uses two arguments that deal with two big misconceptions people have about the church:

Both of Paul’s arguments use the same illustration.  Since he has been discussing the universal church as the body of Christ throughout this book us uses the picture of a human body.  Just like a body, the church has many “members”.  The word can apply to any body part including limbs, internal organs, even eyes and ears.  A body has many different parts, and we now know that each of these parts is made of billions of specialized cells, which each contain myriads of different internal organs of their own.  The success of a body depends on two things: specialized organs that do different things, and a full set of organs so that every function is covered.  With this image in mind, we see that Paul is going to combat two errors about the church:

1. “The church doesn’t need me”, and
2. “I don’t need the church”.

II No Lone Rangers, No Orphans (V12-20)

The first argument is given in verses 12-10.  First, Paul gives the overall picture that he is going to use to illustrate his points

I Corinthians 12:12-14 ESV  ¹² For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. ¹³ For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body--Jews or Greeks, slaves or free--and all were made to drink of one Spirit. ¹⁴ For the body does not consist of one member but of many.

So again we see the repetition of the idea from previously.  There may be many members in this body, but it is only ONE body and behind it is ONE spirit.  You cannot leave the universal church – the body of Christ – and run to another one.  There is only one church.  You are either a member of it (through the leading and power of the Holy Spirit) or you are not.  Verse eleven is the premier verse in all of scripture about how the body is made.  Note that the ingredients can include any member of the entire human race, including any race or station (Jews or Greeks, slaves or free) – there is total diversity in the members.  On the other hand, being made a Christian is a momentous spiritual act done by the one true God through his Spirit.  Paul refers to it as being baptized by and drinking of that one Spirit.  That some people use this verse to describe something that they say happens after salvation to only some special Christians is a complete travesty and detrimental to the entire doctrine of the church as clearly taught here by Paul.  It completely rips this important verse out of its context and makes it say the complete opposite (!)

I Corinthians 12:15-20 ESV  ¹⁶ 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. ¹⁷ 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? ¹⁸ But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. ¹⁹ If all were a single member, where would the body be? ²⁰ As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.

Probably the greatest misconception all through history is that the work of the church is only vocational.  For years the human idea of religion is that there is a specially gifted and chosen (but tiny) group of special people that do the “religious stuff” and that everyone else just “does life” until they need something from God.  Then the specially chosen people are given permission to talk to God for us or to tell us about God until get what we want and then lose interest until the next crisis.  When approached about doing some sort of ministry we say “that’s the pastor’s job” or we angrily ask “what are we paying him for, anyway?”  If the pastor, priest, reverend, preacher, bishop, elder, shaman, etc., tells us that we should do something that we do not want to do, we can accuse him of “talking down to us” or “going beyond his place”.

Another frequent error is the idea that while that person over there seems to like studying the Bible or that person “feels a need” to be part of, say, a prayer group, that is an elective thing to do “if you feel led” to do it.  Someone with this kind of thinking may attend church somewhat regularly but they will probably arrive one minute before the service starts and skedaddle out the door to their car within the amount of time it takes to get all the kids together from the various rooms that they have dropped them off at earlier.  They are the ones who will angrily complain to the pastor if the service ends five minutes later than they had planned.

Another frequent error is the “low spiritual self esteem” idea where someone will tell themselves that they are one of those people who are not spiritually gifted.  They will point to others that seem to have more obvious spiritual giftings (like preaching and teaching) and say to themselves that “the church does not need me – it seems to get along just fine without me”.

To all of these misconceptions Paul lays out his first argument.  In the human body, there are some obvious parts without which (like the brain or heart) we would die instantly.  There are others, like the lungs or digestive organs, that if they shut down we would die in minutes or days.  There are some, like our eyes and ears and hands, whose loss would affect our quality of life greatly.  There are others that we prefer to not think about or show in public, but without which we would be in a real fix or unable to continue the species.  But all members of the body are important.  They are different from each other, and some are more flashy and beautiful, but all are important.

How does this relate to the church?  Well here is the amazing thing.  Just because you do not think you are good bible teacher or public speaker, that does not mean that you are unimportant.  In fact, looking back at verse eleven, note that Paul said that the Spirit “who apportions to each one individually as he wills.”  This means that the church does not have drivers and passengers. All of us are part of the workings.  Imagine if (images of waking up with parts missing and how we would cope).  That image probably represents every church in the world right now.  Think about it.  How many people, after hearing the gospel and making a decision for Christ, are actively attending a local church?  Of those, how many are “Sunday morning and run” Christians?  How many people stay around long enough to find out about opportunities to comfort or encourage others in their lives? How does attendance at a church’s prayer meeting or bible studies compare with that of the main morning service?  So how many churches out there are like a body with no legs, one eye, no ears, one lung, no nose and probably missing procreative organs as well? 

But if we understand Paul’s teaching here, what do we see?  I am needed!  I am important to the body of Christ! 

III God Put You Here (V21-26)

So Paul has dealt pretty thoroughly with people who don’t think that they are important to the body of Christ – that their calling was just to fill in a form and come for the entertainment.  But there is another side to that coin.  Some people think that they are a church to themselves.  They say “I don’t need to go to church to be a Christian”.  As we have seen, this passage already puts the lie to that.  But “Christendom” does not just suffer from members with “low spiritual self-esteem”.  The opposite is also true.  Some suffer from too much “spiritual self-esteem”.  Like the lukewarm church of Laodicea in Revelation 3, they tell themselves “ am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing”.  But Jesus told that church “you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked” and “I will vomit you from my mouth”.  Let’s read how Paul applied his human body analogy to that condition:

I Corinthians 12:21-26 ESV  ²¹ 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." ²² On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, ²³ 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, ²⁴ which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, ²⁵ that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. ²⁶ If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.

There are two errors that can come from this that both manifested in Corinth.  First, this kind of spiritual self-sufficiency can cause those in ministry to look down on those in the church with the less flashy gifts as unimportant or even in the way.  Spiritual pride can tear the church apart, as it was in Corinth.  But this kind of attitude keeps people away from church ministries because “I don’t get anything out that” or “I don’t need that”.

To put it a different way, we often look at the ministries in the church like a menu in a restaurant.  “Ooooh, I like that!” we say of one item on the menu.  But we may only order appetizers and dessert, or just one course.  But the church is not a restaurant.  It is a body.  And you have been made an important organ in the body.  If someone stays away for no other reason than “I don’t get anything out of that”, they are ENTIRELY missing the point.  You were not given amazing and powerful and valuable spiritual gifts for your own edification. As we have read here: “God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose.”  If we understand this, it will completely revolutionize our lives,  Think of the sense of destiny that gives you.  You are a unique part of this thing called the church that Jesus is building.  Wow! 

But what is the outcome of this if you sit on your gifts at home? Then you are taking precious and unique gifts that God has specifically chosen to give to you for the others in your church – and basically stealing from God and your fellow believers.  Your gifts don’t belong to you, just as my gifts don’t belong to me.  My gifts belong first to God and then to you.  They are not for my edification – they are for YOU.  If I don’t use them, it will not hurt me, it will hurt you, and that would literally be a crime against you and against God himself.  Jesus tells the parable of the Talents in Matt 25:14-30.  (It is no wonder that he follows it with the story of the separation of the sheep and the goats.)  So our spiritual gifts are unique, divinely specially chosen just for you to use but for others.  Yours are different from mine and without all of us serving where God has placed us, the church will limp along like a body with broken or missing parts. Isn’t it a total irony that those who hoard their gifts and only sporadically attend a church are usually the ones who stop coming because they perceive the church to be faltering?

III Conclusion

Probably the most quoted verse about attendance is Hebrews 10:25.  Most people remember that it says that we should “not neglect the assembling of ourselves together, like some people do”, and certainly many people have been guilted into going to their church’s weekly services by the use of this verse.  But that is not a full quote.  Look at the context, and there is a lot more that it has to say:

Hebrews 10:23-25 ESV  ²³ Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. ²⁴ And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, ²⁵ not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

In context this verse is about holding fast our confession.  If we claim to be saved, we must not waver because God is faithful to us.  So in verse 24 we read that we need to actually give thought to how to stimulate (think “strongly provoking”) each other in the faith.  Have you actually given that thought this past week?  Who have you stirred up (family members at home do not count in this context – it is the body of believers that you have been placed in) this month to more love and good works?  And only then, at the end of these admonishments, does the writer of the book of Hebrews point out that it is impossible to do this if we are not getting together on a regular and predictable basis with other believers, where we can actually use our powerful and special spiritual gifts to build up the body of Christ.

As we come to the end, let me put forward one other thought to consider.  Paul ends this section repeating once again who we are in Christ. 

I Corinthians 12:27 ESV  ²⁷ Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.

The greatest danger of all is forgetting who we were created by God to be when we were baptized by his Spirit into one body.  There are multiple stages of deadness to the call to minister to the body.  At first when we are challenged to take part in a part of the church life that we may be neglecting, we will have to come up with a reason each time not to do it.  And there are always completely plausible and acceptable reasons to be found.  But this is tiring and each time we have to go through the motions.  At some point, however, we can make it part of our identity.  When we can say “oh, I don’t do the prayer meeting”, or “yeah, I don’t go to Sunday School” then the decision is moved beyond the point of conscience to our own self-identity.  Once you can say that, people will not be so likely to encourage you to reconsider – they would feel a cad to do so.

That’s the best reason to remember who we are in Christ and what we have been given by Him through the Holy Spirit.  If we remember that the rest will follow.

And the purpose and joy of being a part of the plans of the Almighty God will be full and free for us again!