Body of Christ: Providing

1^st Kings 17:14-24; Matthew 7:7-20; 2^nd Corinthians 8:3-15

Rev. Chris Harbin, Rocks Baptist Church—Pamplin, VA

15 February 2004

When we think of being the body of Christ, we may be tempted to dwell on the privilege it affords us. Being the body of Christ makes us special. Perhaps we glory in our knowledge of and relationship to God. Perhaps we pat ourselves on the back for being so loved by God that He called us into His family. Perhaps we miss the point. Being Christ’s body has much more to do with our responsibility to portray Christ before others.

We are called to be the body of Christ. As such, we are Christ’s physical presence in the world. Christians, then, are to do as Christ would do, extending His ministry in our surroundings. Among other things, that requires that we provide for others.

Elijah was not just God’s spokesman—he represented God. His coming announced Yahweh’s presence and action among the people. Even in the land of Baal, he heralded God’s presence before such as the widow who accepted the challenge to trust Yahweh to meet her needs. In heralding God’s presence, he met material needs. Meeting the human needs was one of Yahweh’s prime traits. It was a calling card that helped Israel remember to return to God in service.

As Yahweh met the widow’s needs through Elijah, she came to understand God’s loving character and trust Yahweh to be faithful to her. She did not expect to find a loving God coming to her. The gods of the nations, like Baal, were not loving and caring, but had to be cajoled not to forget the plight of those who served them. They were as self-absorbed as men who allow power and wealth to blind their eyes to the needs of those less fortunate than themselves. Her cry to Elijah was a cry of desperation—a cry of “I knew this was a bad idea! I should never have trusted you!” She considered that Elijah had not come to meet her needs at all, but to herald before Yahweh her own sinfulness. She began to feel that she would have been better off without being brought to God’s attention.

In the midst of her turmoil and distress, Elijah took the dying child and restored him to health. In so doing, he did not simply restore the child’s health, but the woman’s faith and understanding of Yahweh’s love and care for her. She received a healthy son, and a healing faith as well. She began to truly understand that God cared for her.

Peter characterized Jesus’ ministry as “going around doing good.”^[1] This summary was not a comprehensive statement of Jesus’ ministry, and yet Peter understood Jesus’ merciful actions to be a major portion of his teaching ministry. One of the core elements of God’s character presented in the Sermon on the Mount is the aspect of God’s love, care, and calling us into His presence. Jesus taught confidence in approaching God. He preached a God with arms open to receive humanity. We are called to ask and receive audience with God. He are told to knock and be invited into God’s presence. We are told that God cares for our needs and response to us in love. We are then taught to treat others in the same manner as God treats us—with love, acceptance, and generosity.

Peter pointed to Jesus teaching us by example to use power and authority to help the oppressed as an expression of God’s love. Jesus also spoke of our responsibility to care for others as His disciples. Just as meeting the needs of the hungry, poor, sick, and disabled characterized His earthly ministry, it should characterize ours. This was not the only aspect of Jesus’ ministry, but it was a core ingredient to establish his identity and God’s loving character. He warned that meeting the needs of others becomes a test of the genuine character of one’s faith. In John’s words, “Since God loved us so much, we ought to love one another.”^[2] Love expresses itself in care.

Paul wrote the Corinthian Christians to give generously to meet the needs of Jewish Christians suffering with the ravages of a famine in Palestine. He impressed upon them how Macedonian Christians had given sacrificially and joyfully to aid those suffering famine in Palestine. This was an overflow of Christ’s love and character flowing through them. Paul characterized it as an expression of the fullness of the gospel. He said it is one thing to know God, but knowledge is only complete when it bears fruit in the genuine expression of meeting the needs of others.

As Peter, Paul points to Jesus’ example in giving His riches to meet the needs of the poor. It is the model of Jesus’ life that we are to follow. It is in emulating Him that we truly become Christians, for then knowledge and surrender bear fruit in action. We are called to be His body, and indeed we are. It is in living out that reality, however, that we truly begin to understand who Christ Jesus is. We begin to know Him more fully when we allow Him to act in and through us.

Being the body of Christ—His presence on earth—includes caring for the needs of those around us, and even those far away. Lottie Moon exemplified Jesus’ care for meeting needs by baking cookies to share with children in China. It was in this service that doors opened for her to teach others of the love of Christ that enabled her to share. Long ago, other women joined Lottie’s giving spirit by joining her in giving sacrificially to share God’s love by meeting the needs of those who still need to know of Jesus’ love.

Following the example of Christ, we share God’s provision for our own needs reaching out to Liberia with seeds of love. In doing so, we become the body of Christ—the corporate expression of Jesus’ love and presence in a hungry world. We share the gift of God’s love, trusting God to meet our own needs, even as we take our own resources, energy, and position to help others in need. We are His hands. We are His feet. We are His people. We are His body.

We love, for He first loved us and gave His own life as a ransom for our own. It is up to us to find ways to express the same love and care for others. This is being the body of Christ: giving all we are that He might live through us. How else shall all know that we are His disciples?

—©2004 Christopher B. Harbin

This sermon in pdf

¹ Acts 10:38.

² 1^st John 4:11.