In the sermon 'One Body, Many Members' by Scott Brown, Romans 12:1-8 is explored, emphasizing verses 3-5. The church is depicted as a body with many members, where each person has a unique function and is vital to the whole. Brown urges believers not to think too highly of themselves but to embrace humility, reflecting the mind of Christ. The sermon discusses the concept of faith as a divine gift that varies in measure among individuals and can be nurtured by engaging with God's Word. The speaker draws a parallel between church members and mothers, highlighting qualities like attentiveness and care. The sermon calls for a culture of love and service, where members support each other and foster interdependence. Brown critiques the modern casual approach to church, urging a deeper commitment to the church as a relational, organic community. He stresses the importance of each member's participation in creating a harmonious and effective church body, akin to the interconnectedness of cells within a human body.

Please open your Bibles to Romans 12 and we'll be reading from verses 1 through 8, however focusing on verses 3 through 5. This is the inerrant, all-sufficient, sweeter than honey word of God. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. For I say through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.

For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function. So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually, members of one another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them. If prophecy let us prophesy in proportion to our faith. Or ministry, let us use it in our ministering.

He who teaches in teaching, he who exhorts in exhortation. He who gives with liberality. He who leads with diligence. He who shows mercy with cheerfulness. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever.

Let's pray. Oh Lord we pray that you would come and teach us your ways that you would bind us together as one body to do your will that you would that you would grow our faith so that our faith might be expressed to one another in deeper and more wonderful more helpful ways to one another as we gather together as one body. Thank you Lord for making a body together, a place of refuge, of help, a place of love, Lord. I pray that you'd fulfill all these things in us today. Amen.

Please be seated. So if you've been tracking with us, you know that this chapter begins a new section in the Book of Romans. It's really resting on the foundation of the first 11 chapters, which speak of the predicament that we're in as sinners before God that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth and unrighteousness but God sent his son to redeem sinners. So the first 11 chapters are focusing on our predicament and the solution in justification by faith. And then when you turn the page to Romans chapter 12, you enter into a completely different kind of section.

It's the really the application of the doctrine and it speaks of what the people of God look like and what they do. It describes the relational fabric of a local church. And what does it look like when people love one another? What does it look like when people come to Jesus Christ and are united to Jesus Christ. So that's the whole picture of Romans chapter 12.

And the picture of the renewed mind, the believer who's been justified, He presents his body as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. He gets up in the morning and he says, Lord, take my life. Take, use my body today. That's the heart of a Christian. And so in these first two verses, you see this life of genuineness of character in the sense that a true believer desires to give himself to the Lord.

This actually creates a frustration, doesn't it? Because our passions ebb and flow. But the heart of a Christian is to desire to present his body as a living sacrifice and that creates the culture of a church As the body gathers together these renewed minds who are no longer being conformed to this world, who've sincerely given their bodies, what does it look like? Now you have a an outline of super brief outline in front of you. I want to focus first of all just very briefly on the there's a command in verse 3 and and then there is an illustration of in verses 4 and 5 so that's that's what we'll do that but first of all the command the command is do not think more highly of yourselves than you ought to think and We talked about this the entire sermon last time about pride in our hearts that expresses itself in different ways in the church.

But what does it look like to not think more highly of yourself. Well, it's to think like Jesus Christ, to have the mind of Christ. We just sang that beautiful song, May the mind of Christ my Savior dwell in me from day to day. And Of course, Philippians two explains what the mind of Christ is, that he humbled himself and he gave his life for his church. So that's what a humble heart looks like.

And then there's a second matter here in verse three that God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. So in other words, faith is the the greatest driver of the culture of a church, the faith of that people, and each one has a different measure of faith. You would think everyone gets the same measure of faith. That isn't actually what the Bible teaches. We all have different, we have different levels of faith, and we have different manifestations of that faith.

Two things about faith briefly. Faith is a gift of God. Faith is something that God gives, but at the same time faith is something that you can increase because faith comes by hearing the Word of God. You can increase your faith by sincerely setting your mind on the Word of God. That's how you increase your faith.

It's not rocket religion. I mean, you set your mind on the things above. You fill your mind with the word of God. You know, there is this moment in the life of Jesus where the disciples express this. They said, Lord, increase our faith in Luke 17.

In other words, faith is something that can grow. And as a local church, When we gather together, the whole proposition is that we're gathering together to grow our faith so that we actually might create this beautiful culture in the church. You know, I was talking to one of my kids who had just recently gone to LA spent a few days in California and He came back and he said He said he It's not a human place It's not It's not a place where human life really exists. People are just running from one place to another. Everybody is so disconnected from life.

And he said, he said, L.A. Is inhuman. Now I used to live there right so I don't think it's maybe as inhuman as you might say but you know what struck me just looking at this passage what you have in a local church is you have humanity. You have this cross section of humanity. Everybody comes from a different place.

They have one North Star together, and they're working out their salvation. In the midst of their weaknesses, they're patient with one another, and they hang together. And the best thing they can do for one another is to keep hanging in with one another. That's like, that's called humanity and this passage of Scripture speaks of this sort of earthiness and humanness of a local church. It's really very beautiful.

We look around and we see one another and we're all so different. We have different thoughts, we grew up different. But this is the humanity of a local church. And in a local church, God brings his people together by his word. He focuses them on really the most beautiful culture that can ever be created in the world.

There's no culture like the culture of a local church. And it's all described here. And it's a manifestation of the measure of faith. Each one has a measure of faith. And you know what it means.

You can only play the cards that are dealt to you. You can only operate out of the faith that you actually have. You don't put it on, you don't fake it till you make it. It comes from an actual source of life from the Holy Spirit. It's real, it comes from the Spirit of God by the word of God And then it is applied among the people of God.

And it's really a very beautiful thing. God has sovereignly measured out faith. You know, I was reading last week, and it was, I was reading about Jesus, and it says that faith was not measured to Jesus Christ. He had it all. There was no measure of faith.

It was infinite. But that's not true with us. We're His creatures. We're His disciples. You know, we are learners.

That's what a disciple is. So Faith is a gift of God and also faith can be increased and faith is increased by the hearing of the word of God which is why it's important that we gather together to hear. So then after this command, Do not think more highly of yourselves than you ought to think, which by the way is usually the source of all kinds of problems at work, at home, and in churches as well. Everybody wants to think so highly of themselves and their opinions. But God calls us actually to have our faith in God.

Okay, not in ourselves. And then you have this illustration of the body and this illustration of the body of Christ that the church is the body of Christ this is the premier central illustration or metaphor of a local church a local church is like a what a human body it's human It is implicitly human. And it actually functions like a human body. And well, Before we talk about that, what does this mean? I mean, we all come from different places and different experiences during the week, but the body metaphor really answers the question, how do I fit into a church?

You know, how do I think about myself in a church? How should I think about other people in a church? What is it that makes the church a family? That's really all explained in this metaphor of the body and what do the different parts of the body do? Maybe you've asked yourself this question, you showed up here and you came to this church and you realized there weren't a hundred programs for you to plug yourself into, there weren't ten titles you could have, you know, there weren't a lot of positions, there were elders and deacons and then there's the whole body, you know, working itself out together in love.

It's not programmatic, it's not institutional. It's highly relational. You know, You want to be the person that says scripture is sufficient for church life. And what scripture describes church life to be, it's a relational life. It's a human life with people.

And it doesn't, it's not really about positions and titles and structures. It's really about people. And that's why the apostle Paul told the Corinthian church that the greatest is love. So the church is not like a corporation at all. It's a relational, organic, human body.

That's what it's like. And in this metaphor, everybody plays a part in the body. You play a part. And so the apostle here, he's instructing the Roman church. Remember, this is a church in a city called Rome, and apparently the church in Rome needs to hear that they have a participation in the body.

It's not that They just show up to a meeting and sing songs and then hit the road. They actually are part of an organic fellowship and they're part of a particular congregation. In this case, it's the church in Rome. Of course, these letters that the Apostle Paul writes to the church are designed to teach every church how to function. And the Apostle Paul wants to make it very clear to the Roman church that their participation in that local church is highly relational.

It's like a human body. And well, you know, since it's Mother's Day, let me just say it like this. Church members are a little bit like mothers. And mothers are always looking around to try to find ways to outfit their families. Mothers feed their young.

Mothers actually know where the kids are. One of the most dangerous things a mother can say to her husband is, here, you take care of the kids. Because she knows she's more attentive to the kids and church members actually should be like that very attentive toward what they should know they should know who's who's not there they should know who's lost they should know who's discouraged you know this is this is one of the the most ridiculous things about the COVID days where everybody was running around with masks. You couldn't see how they were doing. You couldn't see the look on their face to see if they were discouraged or whether they were happy or whether they were actually engaging with you Because the churches is a is a relational Community mothers keep their children clothed Mothers keep their children fed.

This is what mothers do Church members are really a lot like mothers. Church, you know, you have, she has the fruit of her hands. You know, in fact the Apostle Paul, he said, we were gentle among you like a nursing mother taking care of her children. The Apostle Paul demonstrated this. He was a man but he was demonstrating this this motherly you know kind of kind of care.

Everybody everybody knows of the affection of a mother. It's legendary. Everybody knows about the bondedness of a mother. It's, it's exponentially higher in a mother than a father when a baby is born. The attentiveness of a mother, the compassion of a mother.

All this to say, church members are actually meant to function a little bit like mothers. Maybe not exactly in every way, but the commands that are listed here in Romans 12, they all bear witness to this kind of love of a mother. So you have this interdependence. You have the members of the body. You see those words?

You have the body and members of the body. So that's the big illustration. And the whole idea, I think, is interdependence. The interconnectedness and the interdependence of the body of Christ is meant to be like the interdependence of the members and every part of the human body. That's the illustration.

You know the human body has billions of cells. There are over 200 different kinds of cells in the human body, and there are hundreds of different kinds of people in the body of Christ. You have nerve cells, muscle cells, you have blood cells, You have red blood cells that carry oxygen. You have white blood cells that are defending against infection all the time. You have platelets that create blood clotting so you don't bleed to death whenever you scratch yourself.

You have immune cells and stem cells. You have T cells. You have killer cells that are going around your body, killing cancer all the time. You want to make sure your killer cells are healthy. You have the brain, and you have your heart and the lungs and you have the digestive system and you have this this system of blood vessels, you know, miles and miles and miles of blood vessels are in your body.

Paul is using the human body to illustrate the interdependence of the people in the local church. You know, you have these arteries and, you know, Sometimes they get blocked, you know, and your muscles get weak and other things happen, you know. And, but the body, if one little piece of the body is not functioning, then the whole body gets weaker. And that's why it's so critical that the church have a biblical understanding of what they're doing when they get together We are a body everybody needs to be here actually, you know The people that are that name the name of Jesus Christ should prioritize the gatherings and the relationships of the body of Christ. It should be their greatest priority in life.

And your life should be centered around a local church because God meant for you to be part of this human body. And it's explicitly human, it's organic, it's this thing that's so different from every other culture. You know, Like if you join some kind of a club, it's like a special interest thing. The church is not like that at all. It's not a special interest group at all, except for that there is a head, and that is Jesus Christ.

But we're interested in one another, and our welfare together as a church. And so the church is a body. You know, there's some really interesting modern research about the cells of the body. There's this body of literature out there that says your brain is not actually the central commander of your body, but that all the cells communicate with one another and they integrate and they integrate and operate with the brain and every cell is talking to every other cell. It's really interesting.

And so the communication system is not just from your head, your whole body communicates. And I think that's meaningful to this whole discussion. Paul is trying to teach the Roman church how to conduct themselves in the household of God. But I just don't want us to miss how plain, how unassuming, how humble, how real, how simple, how relational, how human God meant the church to be. Where you have real people operating out of the faith that God gives.

And there they are together in the church. And its humanity by its very nature creates all kinds of opportunities for people to grow in love as we sort of moderate with one another. We weep with those who weep. We rejoice with those who rejoice. We'll get to that later on in Romans 12.

But the pathway has been mapped out for the church And it really is a very beautiful thing, and it's so different from all the other cultures and civic groups that you might want to join or political parties that you might wanna get connected to. There's nothing like this in the world at all. And the path has been mapped out. Now, that's why I think Paul begins this by saying, I beseech you therefore, brethren. He's urging the Romans with an urgent appeal, and he's exhorting them.

And you know, I think quite likely, the church in Rome had the tendencies of the church in America. The evangelical church in America actually minimizes the importance of local churches and their behavior patterns and their commitments actually bear witness to that. So in the current environment, people come to church very casually. People come to church with very little intentionality. People come to church with very little anticipation.

People come to church sometimes with very little passion for the work of the body, for their own work in the body. They're actually waiting for somebody else to do something for them. People come to church with very little urgency about the importance of the moment. Have you ever done that? I've done that.

I'm a pastor of a church and I've done that. So people often come with very little appetite for the things that God has commanded the church to do. For the prayers and the singing and the scripture reading and the fellowship and the preaching and all the things that happen, they come with very little appetite for the things that God has actually prescribed for the church. So that's a legendary problem. I think that problem was going on in Rome in the first century and it continues to go on and it touches each one of us in different ways at different times, at different weeks, maybe different months.

We might go through a period of lackluster faith, and our faith is low, and we just don't know if we have anything to give. And I'm sure you can relate to that. So these words are here to try to correct that in me and in you to go through an adjustment you know a spiritual adjustment and so You This is a picture of the way that a renewed mind operates in the body of Christ. And so you have this culture of the church. Now, when the apostle says, "'I beseech you, therefore brethren, ' what in the world does that mean?

Well, I think it means a couple things. It means that the church is the place of exhortation. It's appropriate for church members to be exhorted to live a little bit differently than they're living. Well, that's what I'm doing today through these words. You know, I'm here on a mission to represent these words to instruct the church to, if need be, to live differently than you're possibly living.

And I know this can hit any one of us at any time, okay? Including me. So the church is a place of exhortation. The other thing, when he says, I beseech you therefore, brethren, the implication is that our lives together is a life of progressive sanctification, progressive holiness. In other words, the only reason you would beseech someone is to call them higher.

And so the church is the place of sanctification. The church is the place of progressive faith. And We are being transformed by the renewing of our minds and as a result we're not conforming ourselves to the pattern of this world. We're conforming ourselves to the pattern of scripture. The apostle Paul said, look, we have no other pattern.

It's only the Bible. It's all we have. And scripture is sufficient for the creation of the culture of a church. I don't even think you need to read another book. Look, read Romans 12.

It's right here. Scripture is sufficient. Scripture is all we need to define what a local church is. You know, many, many years ago, my pastor, I was probably in my teens, he gave me a book called The Church, the Body of Christ. Well that's it right there.

That title of that book tells the whole story. The Church is a body. Okay, now, this reads a little bit like a job description with very specific duties. And notice how the logic goes. You have the people who presented their bodies.

They're not thinking more highly of themselves than they ought. They've been granted a measure of faith and they have specific duties to carry out that faith. And the duties are very clearly defined. And that's what creates the culture of a church. The Church of Jesus Christ operates under the very best commands that have ever been given to a people, to humans, to create this humanity, this new community, this, it's a family, the church is a family, it's a building, and it's a body of Jesus Christ It's the body that has arisen out of faith in Jesus Christ so in in this metaphor of the body everybody is pulling in the same direction and but there's a way that they do it and We'll get to this in more detail later, but there's a phrase in here, not lagging behind in diligence.

Fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. So there's a way that we do, we have to ask ourselves, am I lagging behind in diligence? I mean is anybody here lagging behind in diligence in their love toward the body of Christ, their service, their Growing their faith so that they might be of benefit to one another, you know even more Not lagging behind Indiligence, that's one of our greatest problems You know we we start to lag behind indiligence that was That must have been happening in Rome, and it happens in all of us in different times, and in different ways. Where are you at now? Are you at a moment where you know you're lagging behind in diligence?

And well if so, the Lord is here to talk to you, you know, using his own words to help you pull out of this funk, this spiritual, you know, eddy that you're in and to get you out of the eddy and get you rolling down the river again. And this is one thing, this is one thing I am so thankful to the Lord. He's always lifting you up. He's always lifting you out. He's always taking you to a better pasture.

He's always trying to give you a sweeter drink of water. That's what the Lord does. You know, there's this phrase, who would not serve him in the Bible? And the idea is, who would not serve him knowing of his power and his love and the goodness of his kingdom. So not lagging behind in diligence.

So I mean, you know, how are you doing? I mean, really, how are you doing? Are you lagging behind in diligence in serving the Lord by serving the people in a local church? It just so happens we're all sitting here in one room and we have an opportunity to bump into each other and to look each other in the eye and see what's going on. We're gonna have like well almost as long as you want to spend time eating you know having having a fellowship meal together across the table.

You know we're going to eat at minimum 52 meals a year together in this church and we like to do that because it helps us it helps us be a body that's described here. Really it facilitates what we call body life. And you know there are, this body life is so carefully described in such detail and it's so interesting I was talking to a brother about this yesterday. The things that are called for here, they're so clear. It's just remarkable how clear they are.

I mean here's just here they are. Don't think more highly of yourself than you ought. That's in verse 3. Let love be without hypocrisy. That's verse 9.

Abhor what is evil, that's also in verse 9. Cling to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection, That's in verse 10. Brotherly affection. Well, I can't wait to get to that phrase because it's what we are supposed to be together.

Outdo one another in showing honor, verse 10. Not lagging behind in diligence, verse 11. Be fervent in spirit, verse 11. Serve the Lord, verse 11. Rejoice in hope, verse 12.

Be patient in tribulation, verse 12. This is the culture of the church. Be steadfast in prayer, Verse 12. Contribute to the needs of the saints. Verse 13.

Show hospitality. Verse 13. Oh now this one, this one must be your favorite verse. Bless those who persecute you. Verse 14.

Bless those who persecute and do not curse. Not just bless but don't curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice verse 15 and then of course weep with those who weep. This is the human nature of the Church of Jesus Christ. It's very, very human, the way that God built us.

Live in harmony with one another, verse 16. Do not be wise in your own eyes, verse 16. Repay no one evil for evil. Now I'm assuming that this is the kind of thing that can happen in a church. Somebody isn't gonna behave in this church toward you and what are you gonna do about it?

Well the Bible tells you what to do about it. Repay no one evil for evil. Live peaceably with one another. Verse 18. Do not avenge yourselves.

Verse 19. In other words, you don't have to get your pound of flesh out of everybody who wrongs you, says something they shouldn't have said. You know, anybody here ever said something they shouldn't have said to one another? Anybody? You know my both hands are up, But all of us are like that.

You know Solomon said don't get too discouraged when you hear your servant cursing you. He basically said just let it fly over your head when you hear your servant cursing you because you've done the same thing. If your enemy's hungry feed him, if he's thirsty give him a drink. Oh do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good. Well that's that what a culture overcoming evil with good.

You know this is such a wonderful thing And these are the kinds of things that we're called to do with the people that we've been put together with in our church. Hey, by the way, we have an incredibly high percentage of people in this church who have taken formal vows of membership in this church. It's incredible. There are only a very few people who are not members, formal members, who've actually entered into a covenant to actually act this way. It's pretty amazing.

And I mean, we think people should devote themselves formally along with the body to church membership. We're having two church membership classes coming up. I think it's next week and the following week in my house. We're not going to have the second service. We're going to suspend it and there's going to be a membership class in my house.

And Trent and I will be there to walk through the things about being a member of this church. But in this illustration, you have one body but many members and all the members do not have the same function and in this picture everybody is a worker in the church. One of the great maladies of local churches today is that people come to be entertained. They come, If I don't get something out of this, I'm not you know, I don't know what I'm gonna do they don't actually come to be a member of a body a human body and Where every member is contributing to one another and so I'm just here to exhort you when you know when we break up here You know pray look around see who you might go minister to. One of the problems that we have as human beings is that we just do the same thing.

We sit in the same place, we talk to the same people, this is just part of who we are. We're a little bit like cows, you know, we just like to go do what every, you know, everything is a routine. And, but don't don't act like a cow, you know, go do something, go talk to somebody different that you don't talk to, go encourage somebody else in the body, you know. It's really easy for family members just to stick together and just talk to one another. Well is that really, is that like the family of God?

Now you're in this big family, you're not in your little family, You got a bigger thing going on when you come to the church. Everybody has two families they have a family they were born into and then they have the family of God, that's the big family and Welcome to your two families And so we are one body in Christ. Though we are many, we are one bread and one body, for we all partake of that one bread." That's 1 Corinthians 10-17. We're a body, well, there's another metaphor. We are bread, okay?

We're like bread, and we're one loaf, and we all partake. Let's just elaborate on this. In 1st Corinthians 12, go ahead and open your Bibles, 1st Corinthians 12, and find And find verse 12. In 1 Corinthians 12, We have this remarkable language that describes how a local church is constructed. It's very connected principally and in the actual language.

The words used, 2 Romans 12. You have these words, members and body, one body in 1st Corinthians 12. So let's read it, 1st Corinthians 12 12. For as the body is one and has many members but all the members of that one body being 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, we have all been made to drink into one spirit.

For in fact the body is not one member but many. If the foot should say because I'm not a hand I'm not of the body is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear should say because I'm not an eye I'm not of the body is it therefore not of the body if the whole body were an eye Where would the hearing where would be the hearing if the whole were hearing? Where would be The smelling isn't that something the Apostle he makes these ridiculous images You know the whole body is a nose. No, I don't think so verse 18 But now God has set the members each one of them in the body just as he pleased.

And if they were all one member where would the body be? But now indeed there are many members yet one body. And 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. No, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary, and those members of the body which we think to be less honorable on these we bestow greater honor and our unresentable parts have greater modesty but our presentable parts have no need but God composed the body having given greater honor to that part which lacks it that there should be no schism in the body but that the members should have the same care for one another for if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it. Or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.

Now You are the body of Christ and members individually. The apostle sums it up with such remarkable clarity and we have been grafted into Jesus Christ. And as a result, we are one body with one God, one spirit, one Lord, one faith, one baptism. And we are members of one body in Jesus Christ. So that's the heart of this text.

And it's critical that we don't think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think. But that we should actually honor one another and and create this interdependence that is so unnatural in the culture that we live in. Because we actually live in a culture that destroys the humanity that God has designed for us to function within as a body of Christ. So there you have it. Let's pray.

Father you have created such beauty and glory in the world from all of creation that we see it and all of its complexity and interdependence where the heavens and the earth interact to create life and humanity. And the humanity of the church is seen just like a body. Lord, I pray that you would give us such a well-functioning body that as we gather together, we know what we're doing, we know who we are, and we're all about creating this beautiful culture of humanity under the lordship of Jesus Christ. Amen. Thank you.

Thank you.