Live Like a Champion – Week 34
The Promise of Membership!
Romans 12:4-5 (NAS95)
The promise of the week is “The Promise of Membership!” The promise of membership must be built upon God’s Word, not on the world’s view of membership. American Express taught us that membership has its privileges, meaning that if you paid your dues, then you received your benefits. God’s Word teaches us that membership is a privilege and that being a healthy and functional member of the Body of Christ is an essential part of experiencing holiness and wholeness!
You are an essential piece of a living organism, and we, as a church, are only as healthy as each of our individual parts. This is the imagery of God’s Word! We are intended by God to be a mutually dependent people, created in His image of community (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit).
Paul very intentionally gave us the imagery so that we can understand just how important the promise of membership is, not only to us, as the individuals, but to the whole living organism of the church. Remember that Paul was addressing both local congregations and the entire church. Therefore, Paul gave us an extended version of this memory verse in 1 Corinthians 12:12-27,
For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot says, “Because I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body,” it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body. And if the ear says, “Because I am not an eye, I am not a part of the body,” it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired. If they were all one member, where would the body be? But now there are many members, but one body. And the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you”; or again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, it is much truer that the members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary; and those members of the body which we deem less honorable, on these we bestow more abundant honor, and our less presentable members become much more presentable, whereas our more presentable members have no need of it. But God has so composed the body, giving more abundant honor to that member which lacked, so that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. Now you are Christ’s body, and individually members of it.
A third and final scripture that is essential to understanding this word picture from Paul is found in Ephesians 4:11-16, which includes last week’s memory verse, from which the Reverend Mark Thompson did an excellent job teaching us the promise of leadership and the vital importance of community and building up our community by speaking the truth in love to one another:
And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.
Where the promise of leadership and the promise of membership intersect is how the church will grow. It’s not an either-or, it’s the both-and of Jesus’ promise to Peter from Matthew 16:18, “I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.”
Jesus was very clear that He would build His church and how He does that is through His people—we are the members of the body “according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love” (Ephesians 4:16).
Leaders are members of the body and must take their call to leadership as seriously as you take your call to membership. We pray for leaders who are fully engaged in the work of the kingdom of God, both in the local congregations and throughout the larger church. Imagine what would happen if church leaders took their call to leadership as casually as many people take their call to membership to local congregations and their call to missions in the world. We all need the reviving fires that can only come through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
Listen to this ancient imagery of how God uses His people as a body to do His will in the world. This is Old Testament imagery from Ezekiel 37:1-10:
The hand of the Lord was upon me, and He brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley; and it was full of bones. He caused me to pass among them round about, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley; and lo, they were very dry. He said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord God, You know.” Again He said to me, “Prophesy over these bones and say to them, ‘O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.’ “Thus says the Lord God to these bones, ‘Behold, I will cause breath to enter you that you may come to life. ‘I will put sinews on you, make flesh grow back on you, cover you with skin and put breath in you that you may come alive; and you will know that I am the Lord.’ ” So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold, a rattling; and the bones came together, bone to its bone. And I looked, and behold, sinews were on them, and flesh grew and skin covered them; but there was no breath in them. Then He said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they come to life.” ’ ” So I prophesied as He commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they came to life and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.
Just as God was the only one who could make this happen, only God can do this work today! This is not a heavy pressure on us, but an invitation for surrender to God and revival through the work of the Holy Spirit. It is the work of the Spirit of God to fulfill the promise of membership, just like it is a work of the Spirit of God to provide spiritual leadership for the body of Christ. Let us submit ourselves now to the work of the Holy Spirit so that we will be healthy, functional members of the one body of Christ. As Paul said in Ephesians 4:1-6,
Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.
Membership is a privilege that comes with responsibilities! The health and growth of the body of Christ is intimately yoked with you and your experience of a life-giving faith where you are manifesting the fruit of the Spirit and the peace of God in your life, which I like to call your spiritual vitality. Let us walk together in the easy yoke of Jesus Christ and watch what God will do in and through His body, for Jesus Christ is the only head to which we all—leader and member alike—must submit.
Allow me now to pray for us according to Paul’s prayer for the early church in Ephesians 1:17-23:
[I pray] that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
Amen!