Mat 3:11-12; Your Greatest Role – and You Didn’t Apply for It.

Thursday January 11, 2024

Idea 1 (Mat 3:11-12): Jesus baptizes with the Holy Spirit in order to gather His grain into the barn (KOH).

1Co 12:12-13

For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. 13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.

Idea (1Co 12): People are made members of the body of Christ by the baptism of the Holy Spirit in which they are supernaturally unified in love and service to one another.

The church at Corinth was established by the apostle Paul and he laid there a foundation of the gospel and truth of Jesus Christ.

Problem in Corinth: disunity caused by the blindness of sin.

When Paul left them, they were standing on a solid foundation of the gospel and had within them the doctrines of God, the mysteries of Christ and the church; they were filled with spiritual gifts, especially prophecy and tongues.

Sins of pride, lust, envy, self-centeredness dismantled the function God’s power and purpose among them.

1Co 1:10-13

Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment. 11 For I have been informed concerning you, my brethren, by Chloe's people, that there are quarrels among you. 12 Now I mean this, that each one of you is saying, "I am of Paul," and "I of Apollos," and "I of Cephas," and "I of Christ." 13 Has Christ been divided? Paul was not crucified for you, was he? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?

1Co 1:26-29

Remember, dear brothers and sisters, that few of you were wise in the world's eyes or powerful or wealthy when God called you. 27 Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful. 28 God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important. 29 As a result, no one can ever boast in the presence of God. [NLT]

God united you (and all other saints) with Christ through the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

One body, one Spirit.

1Co 1:30-31

God has united you with Christ Jesus. For our benefit God made him to be wisdom itself. Christ made us right with God; he made us pure and holy, and he freed us from sin. 31 Therefore, as the Scriptures say, "If you want to boast, boast only about the Lord." [NLT]

God freed us from sin through the baptism of the Spirit when He crucified us with Christ. We are washed by the blood of Christ. The b/HS has united you with Christ forever. That changed you completely, and eternally.

Paul reminisces about how they were when he met them, immature and carnal, and then adds, “You haven’t changed a bit.”

1Co 3:3-4

for you are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men? 4 For when one says, "I am of Paul," and another, "I am of Apollos," are you not mere men?

With Paul no longer in the picture, it seems that a significant number of the members of the church starting to visit the temple of Aphrodite, which boasted of 1,000 priestesses.

1Co 6:13-20

Yet the body is not for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body. 14 Now God has not only raised the Lord, but will also raise us up through His power. 15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? May it never be! 16 Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her? For He says, "THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH." 17 But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him. 18 Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body. 19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? 20 For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.

What gives you the courage to say no to the sinning crowd is to know who you are in Christ by the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

You are of Christ, not of them.

They are fleshly children even though they have been baptized into Christ (death, burial, resurrection).

[click in] Pride, envy, competition, lust - old world stuff.

A significant part of this letter is composed of Paul answering questions that the Corinthians had.

1Co 7:1

Now concerning the things about which you wrote …

Marriage, circumcision, slavery, meat from animals sacrificed to idols, and spiritual gifts.

When Paul answers their questions on spiritual gifts, he has insight enough to use it as an opportunity to further instruct them about unity, and in this case, on the basis of the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

The baptism of the Spirit enters a person into the body of Christ in the position that the Spirit wills.

1Co 12:4-7

Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. 5 And there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord. 6 There are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons. 7 But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

1Co 12:11

But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills.

1Co 12:12-13

Emphasis in 1Co 12:4-13 is “one”.

There are three vast unities set forth in the Bible – the unity of the Persons of the Godhead; the unity between the Persons of the Godhead and the believer (they in us and us in them); and the unity between believers themselves.

All three unities are referred to by Christ in His priestly prayer (Joh 17:21-23).

Joh 17:20-23

"I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; 21 that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. 22 "The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; 23 I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.

The baptism of the Holy Spirit made you a son or daughter and clothed you with Christ (Gal 3:27). The baptism of the Holy Spirit entered you into Christ’s crucifixion, burial (fully dead), and resurrection so that you would live forgiven and in newness of resurrection life – the way of heaven itself (Col 2:12; Rom 6:1-5).

And the baptism of the Holy Spirit gave you a particular function in God’s family that He chose for you.

Are you doing what He called you to? Are you doing the work He planned? Are you doing it right?

1Co 12:14-30 Paul goes on to tell us that every member of the body, though different, is vital to the proper function of the whole.

Every one of us has a vital role to play. Every one of us has a function in Christ’s church that He chose. If we are faithful to follow that which we were made for, by faith, then we will fulfill our role and glorify the maker of the body. Doesn’t that sound far more wonderful than anything else we can accomplish in our lifetime?

1Co 12:27

Now you are Christ's body, and individually members of it.

1Co 12:31

And I show you a still more excellent way.

At the end of the chapter, he seems at first glance to say that there is something better. It’s not something better. It is a more excellent way than their silly bickering, jealousy, infighting, self-serving, and disunity. The more excellent way is love.

The more excellent way (v. 31) is the function of any gift in love.

Not love alone or the gift alone, but the function of service in agape love.

Implications:

The baptism of the HS crucified forever your old sin nature, buried it, and raised you with Christ to walk in newness of life as a son and heir of God, and placed you in the body of Christ along with all other saints.

You must live in a unified way with other members of the body.

You must serve the other members of the body.

They cannot be done without love.

You must love the other members of the body (all of them).