John 1:14; 1 Corinthians 12:27; Luke 22:19 – The Body of Christ
Have you ever broken anything? A dish, a plate? My friend Greg, who is now the assistant pastor at the Wesleyan church in Marysville, had our share of breaking things. I got new boxing gloves one year, and we were boxing out on my back porch. He pushed me, and we broke the porch window. Another time I got my dad’s four-wheeler when I got it stuck on a beach, and couldn’t get it off again before the tide came in. And our most infamous break was another guy’s arm in a wrestling match. He too is a Wesleyan pastor. Whodathunk?
We got into trouble fairly often, and we learned that things were usually better before they were broken. In fact, most things are more valuable when they are not broken. But not always. Today we will look at what the Scripture calls “the body of Christ”, and we will see how God chooses to break it. The broken body of Christ, we will see, is God’s method of saving the world.
There are three things in the Bible called the body of Christ. If you’re a Bible scholar, perhaps two of them pop right into your head. But we’ll begin looking at the most obvious of the three:
1) the physical body of Christ. We believe what Colossians 2:9 says: For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form. We believe that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and God the Son, entered this world as a baby. He remained fully God, but he became fully human as well. John 1:1 says that in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And v14 says: The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. Christ, who was very much God, also took on flesh. Why?
a) to show the way. To show us how to love and forgive, to care and to stand up for the truth. But, lest He be confused with any old moral teacher like Confucius or Muhammed, Christ also came
b) for a debt to pay. This debt of sin, which we all have accumulated over the years. It’s like a bank account: the problem happens when we take out more than we put in, when we withdraw more than we deposit. Now, people try to make deposits like going to church, being good, giving to charity and so on. But each of us made too many withdrawals. We each needed someone to make an investment into our spiritual bank accounts.
Which is what Christ did. He paid the debt for us. The penalty due to each one of us because of our overdrawn bank account, He absorbed. The penalty was death. And He took it. This is the first area where we see “brokenness” come into play. The physical body of Christ was broken for our sacrifice. He took the penalty for us. He made the sacrifice for us. Watch what He went through:
Matthew 26:49 – a deceitful kiss from a good friend. 27:26 – He was flogged and whipped with stone-studded leather straps. 27:29 – He had a crown of thorns placed on his head, and v30 says the guards hit him in the head, driving the thorns deep into his flesh. He also spat on Him, and finally in verse 35, we read they crucified Him. They hung Him on a cross. He was certainly broken.
If Christ had only taught good living, we’d still be slaves to sin. We’d have no positive hope of rising from the dead. But since He was God, and paid our debt for us, He set us free from sin: from its penalty (hell), and its power (having to obey it, having to sin). In order for the body of Christ to reach everybody, to touch everybody, to save anybody, it had to be broken. Broken for you, for me, for all who live. We must believe these facts, and receive Him into our lives. We must ask this broken man to come and fix us. To accept His sacrifice, to stop trying to pay our debt ourselves. Even as we prepare for communion, let’s take a moment to remember His sacrifice, the broken physical body of Christ.
The second thing in the Bible referred to as the body of Christ is…well, us. 2) The spiritual body of Christ is the church. 1 Cor. 12:27 says this: “Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.” Believers are called the body of Christ. The Greek word for church, “ecclesia”, literally means “called-out ones.” If Christ has called you out of the world, out of sin, and into eternal life, you are the church.
So how are we to be broken? Not broken down, broken up, or broken into pieces, but just plain broken? The Bible tells us how we are to be: Psalm 34:17-18 – “The righteous cry out and the Lords hears them; He delivers them from all their troubles. The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” And Psalm 51:16-17 – “You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. A broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”
God wants us to be broken before him, that is, humble, responsive, available, sensitive. Just as Christ was broken and gave of Himself, so too must we, as His spiritual body, as His representatives on earth, be broken and available to be used by Him. The spiritual body of Christ must be broken for service.
Once Jesus was in a crowd of people who needed to be fed. He took one boy’s lunch, and broke it, and multiplied its effectiveness. He fed the thousands of people with on little boy’s lunch. What if the lunch had not been given? The people would have gone hungry, people would have left because of their hunger and missed Jesus’ teaching, or the miracle might never have happened.
I tried to tell myself – even to prove to myself that without the little boy and his lunch, this miracle could not have happened. I wanted to be able to say Jesus needed this little boy and his lunch to accomplish the task at hand and just as he needed him, he needs you. But I realized that’s not the case. I think the people would have been fed with or without the little boy and his lunch. Vs. 5 – Jesus says, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” Then it says, “He asked this as a test for he already had in his mind what He was going to do.”
To say that Jesus – who raised the dead, healed the sick, and turned water into wine – couldn’t feed 5,000 people without the boy’s help is to say he was dependent on Him to accomplish the task. God is God and His work will go on with or without you and me. We can’t run around thinking that we are so important that without us God is going to fail. He never fails.
So Jesus could have performed the miracle by some other means. He had that kind of power. At first, this was a real letdown to me. Then I thought of something else. Even though Jesus may not have needed this little boy and his little sack lunch, because he was there and because he gave it freely to be broken, a great distinction was his. Folks, it is an incredible privilege to be used by God. This little boy had the privilege and satisfaction of hurrying home that night, running in to find his mom and saying, “Mom, guess what! You’ll never believe what happened. I gave Jesus my lunch and he fed 5,000 people with it!” We can have that same distinction. No longer was that little lunch insignificant! Have you given your lunch to Jesus? Would you let Jesus break you, as He did the bread and fish, to be used by Him?
The third thing called the body of Christ in the Bible is another kind of bread. Communion. The Eucharist, which means grace. 3) The symbolic body of Christ is the Lord’s Supper. Luke 22:19 says: And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.’"
Jesus and his disciples were celebrating Passover, much as we will do on Good Friday, April 18. And part of the celebration of Passover was the breaking of the matzo, the unleavened bread. It was meant to be eaten after the meal, as a kind of dessert, in remembrance of God’s deliverance. And Jesus took this centuries-old form of worship and said, “I am the bread of deliverance. This is my body. I will be your salvation.” And even 2000 years later, we are told to remember, through communion, through the bread and the juice, how Christ’s body was broken for us.
Even as his physical body was broken for our sacrifice, and His spiritual body (the church) must be broken for service, His symbolic body is broken today for self-examination. We must look at our lives, and ask if we are living worthy of what He did for us. 1 Corinthians 11 says: “Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself.” No-one is really worthy of what He did for us, but He invites us to remember Him. He calls us to search our hearts, to be broken before Him. Again I quote Psalm 51 – “You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. A broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”
Are you broken before Him? Are you humble, remorseful, repentant? Or are you trying to do what pleases you, what makes you happy? Christ calls us as the body of Christ to get on board what He wants, and to live to please Him. He calls us to live, just as He died, willing to pay the price, willing to be broken. God used the broken and brings beauty from it.
(With help about the boy and his lunch quote from another Sermoncentral user!)
BULLETIN NOTES:
John 1:14; 1 Corinthians 12:27; Luke 22:19 – The Body of Christ
Usually things are less valuable when they are broken.
But God uses broken things to accomplish His purposes.
Today we look at the body of Christ,
and how it was broken so that God could save the world.
Three things in the Bible are called “the body of Christ”.
1) the p________________________ body of Christ.
That is, God coming as a man on earth – Colossians 2:9, John 1:1,14
Why? A) to show the w_________________
B) for a debt to p_________________
The physical body of Christ was broken for our s________________.
He took the penalty for us.
2) the s________________________ body of Christ.
That is, the church – 1 Corinthians 12:27, Colossians 3:15
Psalm 34:17-18, Psalm 51:16-17 – God calls us to be broken.
The spiritual body of Christ was broken for our s________________.
John 6 – Jesus multiplied a little boy’s lunch when He broke it.
God uses broken things to save the world.
3) the s________________________ body of Christ.
That is, the Lord’s Supper – Luke 22:19.
Jesus used unleavened bread to show what His sacrifice was.
He broke the bread to share with all who would eat of it.
The symbolic body of Christ was broken
for our s_____________________________.
We must use communion as time to look at our hearts.
Are we right with Him? With others?
Are we broken, even as He was?
