You are surrounded by helpers - 11/17/19
The Big Idea
You are surrounded by helpers
What do we know?
Our value begins with what God gives us, which is that we are made in His image and the knowledge we are given by Him is priceless. Hearing this, does it sound like we should be proud of ourselves? I hope you don’t. Pride keeps us from growing with the help of others and can make us selfish.
We are meant to be in community. When God created all things, and then created Adam, He said it was not good for man to be alone. He created Eve specifically to be with Adam and then they were told to multiply and fill the earth. (You know this doesn’t mean to do math problems, right?)
From the beginning, God’s design was as a community where we would help and serve each other. Israel, though slaves in Egypt, was a community who shared in common struggles. Israel was also kept as a community when they wandered in the desert for 40 years. Then we saw God’s intent for us to grow together when Jesus brought together the disciples, then sent the disciples out to proclaim what He taught. When Jesus brings us to Him, He brings us into His family and puts us in His community.
Today we are going to talk about the idea that you (we) are surrounded by helpers. To start, let’s look at Romans 12:4-8: ‘For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.’
One body in Christ: Jesus leads
First and foremost, we must praise Jesus for the gospel which He fulfilled. His sacrifice on the cross is why we are here today and how we become a community. Look back at the Romans passage in verse 5 where Paul says “one body in Christ”. All of us who believe in Jesus and call him Lord, no matter our age, skin color, education, etc. are united in Christ. We are all connected through Jesus.
Paul, the writer of many of the New Testament epistles, uses the body as an example of the church multiple times in his letters. He tells us in Ephesians 1:22-23 again how we are the body and Jesus is head. It says, “And he put all things 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.” Jesus’ as the head means He is the one with all the authority and rules over all things. This includes us and how He works in us.
We are a community which has a leader who is our Lord and Savior. At home, your family is a community and your parents lead that community. Think about the role they play. I bet they tell you what to do and what not to don't they? I bet you don’t always like being told what to do also. Let me let you in on a secret, none of us like authority we don’t pick. Sin messed that up and makes us want to be the authority. We want to tell others what to do. If you have younger brothers or sisters, you know what I’m talking about. But what changes our idea of and feelings about authority is Jesus.
Jesus as our leader, as the Ephesians passage says, is over all. What He says goes. When we say yes to the grace and mercy He gives, we say yes to whatever Jesus says. He says we should love our neighbor. Are we? What about honoring our mothers and fathers? We don’t when we back talk them, or disobey them. We sing a song called ‘You Hold It All’. It’s not ‘You get some of what I have but I still want to make the rules’. It’s ALL. We don’t have a God who reigns over some of creation but ALL.
We are part of a community: The body of Christ
Let’s go back to the Romans passage in verse 5, where Paul says ‘individually members one of another’. What do you suppose this is about? I am pretty confident you are familiar with sports like football, basketball, baseball, and soccer. What do they have in common, besides using a ball? They are team sports. Teams are groups of individuals that require us to depend on other people in order to do well. They are made up of people from different backgrounds, who have different abilities, and have different responsibilities depending on their position. A team, like a family, is a community.
In 1 Corinthians 12:12-20 we hear something similar to the Romans passage. Paul talks about the multiple parts of Christ’s community, again using the body as an illustration. It says, '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. 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. For the body does not consist of one 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? 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.'
So what are we? We are the body of Christ, His community. We are made up of people from different backgrounds, who have different abilities, and have different responsibilities. Sounds like what I said a team looks like right? We are all brought together because of Jesus, not because we picked one another to hang out with.
Let’s think about the disciples for a minute. They got to spend their time and witness all Jesus did because Jesus picked them. They were regular people, nothing too special about them. Some were fishermen, one was a zealot, one was a tax collector. Do you remember what was said about tax collectors? They were compared to sinners and prostitutes, meaning to society in that time they were the lowest of the low (Matthew 9:10-11; Mark 2:16).
Now I said there wasn’t anything too special about them, but I was wrong. You know why? Jesus chose them. Those of you who have said I believe in Jesus and put your faith in Him are also chosen to be part of His team, His body. We are chosen because Jesus is great, not us.
Jesus gave me a role to play. When He said “You are Mine” I became part of His body. I can sit here and talk to you today because others Jesus chose used gifts He gave them to help me. He’ s given me gifts, and you have been given gifts as well. Like me, you play a role with the gifts you were given. Look once again at the Romans passage in verses 6-8, where Paul talks about the different gifts we are given. It says, ‘Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.’ These are only some of the gifts we are told about in scripture. The point is we are given gifts and we are called to share them.
The help we are given doesn’t stop with the people around us, but continues with the Spirit God puts within us.
We have a Helper who’s always there: The Holy Spirit
What do we know about the Holy Spirit? God the Father and Jesus we speak a lot about. We hear about the Holy Spirit, and we ask for God’s Spirit to lift us up, but the idea of the Holy Spirit seems kinda fuzzy unless we look at scripture.
The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity, being eternal with God the Father and Jesus. Our first, but not last, exposure to the Spirit is in Genesis 1:2. In the Old Testament, the work of the Holy Spirit to bring and remove blessings was prophesied in Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Joel. But what does the Spirit do for us now? In John 14, Jesus tells us this in two parts of the chapter:
John 14:15–17
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.”
John 14:25-26
“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you.”
The primary roles of the Holy Spirit for us is to regenerate us, meaning give us new life, when we proclaim Jesus as Lord and to make the work of Jesus active in believers. Simply put, when we accept Jesus, it’s the Holy Spirit that does it. The Holy Spirit is how God works in us.
What does this mean? I don’t fully know yet. As I did some reading and research preparing this, I discovered that I need to spend more time reading and praying to comprehend the Holy Spirit. What I can tell you is if this is how God chooses to work in us, and Jesus says God the Father is going to give us the Holy Spirit, I go with what Jesus says. If the Spirit lives within me, I need to let Him work on me.
Now what?
This lesson may seem deeper and wider than we’ve covered before, but it is important for us to continue to talk about things that can seem hard to understand. We will encounter more things that challenge us as we navigate God’s word. When we learn something new, we get to add to what we’ve already learned. And when we learn we get the chance to share.
So to finish we need to remember three things: We trust in Jesus as our Lord, we rely on one another and serve one another, and we depend on the Holy Spirit to work in us to become more like Christ. Each of these say more about who we are committing ourselves to than who we are. And committing yourself to God and to one another is how we are helped.
What does scripture tell us?
John 14:15–17, 25-26
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.”
“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. "These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you.”
Romans 12:4-8
For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.
1 Corinthians 12:12-20
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. 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. For the body does not consist of one 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? 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.
Ephesians 1:22-23
And he put all things 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.