Shammah Temple Fellowship: Sermon of September 29, 2024
By Armel Gahungu
Theme: Why is the Church likened to a human body?
Reference scriptures: 1 Corinthians 12:12-27, Ephesians 1:22 & 4:11-12
The church is so important to God that there are multiple ways of explaining what it about from a bride, a house, a tree, a body… As bees in the hive are multiple, some are tasked to protect other bees, some are tasked to bring the honey from flowers, some manufacture the honey, and there is only one queen without whom nothing is done in the hive.
- What the head is to a body is what Christ is to the church
Christ was made the head by God to rule over the church for the good of that very family. No one else has the supreme responsibility over the church because He even sacrificed His own life for those He invited in His church. “And He put all things in subjection under Christ’s feet, and appointed Him as head over all things in the church, which in His body, the fullness of Him who fills and completes all things in all” (Ephesians 1:22-23).
Why does the church need to follow Jesus?
- He is the mastermind of it. The church loses its own prime meaning after walking away from God. The members are lost and can no longer find the way because they got rid of the true way, Jesus.
- Believers are its parts
The Ephesian church members had been privileged to get saved and be in the church. However, as they grew, some boasted their own individual Holy Spirit gifts. Everyone went their own way and expressed superiority of their gifts over those of others. Prophets would look down on teachers of apostles, which was greatly wrong in essence.
It’s unfortunate that the diversity was not taken as a richness because an ear cannot do the job of a leg or an arm for an eye.
What does Christ expect of us as His body?
- To serve each other
Every gift God gave His people is not for themselves, but most importantly for others. A leg needs an arm to wash it, the stomach needs a mouth, teeth and tongue to get the food in. “The parts of the body that seem to be weaker are necessary, and as for those parts of the body which we consider less honorable, these we treat with greater honor; and our less presentable parts are treated with greater modesty, while our more presentable parts do not require it…” (1 Corinthians 12:22-24).
- To live in harmony and respect
This unity the scriptures talk about is a unity and harmony. There’s no competition among the parts, each of them yearns for the peace and comfort of other body parts. The difference between us the members of the church is not meant to divide us further, but a source of inspiration to stick together no matter the differences.
To end, the success of the church is only achieved when people in it hold each other’s hand and stick together in difficult as in easy times. Without Jesus at the center, the church is already condemned to fail its mission as it doesn’t even stand against the devil when its owner and protector is pushed away. Serving one another can help us to be achieve and rally behind Jesus – the very initiator of the church.
