Sermon: The Mind of Christ, the Body of Christ

What is your personal part in the body of Christ? How can you personally contribute to the harmony, the unity of the body of Christ around the world? Each one of us has a part to play and the most important part is to have the mind of Christ.

Presented by Saúl Langarica
Cincinnati, Ohio - March 28, 2009 (36 minutes)

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Sermon Transcript

For my wife, Carmen, and I, it is a privilege to be in the Home Office for this pastoral program. For us being here helps us to understand much about the body of Christ, about the Church of God and about how it is organized. The fact that we are being instructed, the fact that we are having fellowship with several of the ministers helps us to be more united, more in harmony with the body of Christ.

My wife and I are actually from Mexico, but we pastor the United Church of God in South America. We were sent there about seven years ago and we are enjoying that part of the world very much. When we began our ministry, we began in Mexico and we really felt that the most important part of the work of God — at least for Latin America — was in Mexico. I do not mean that in the wrong way, I feel that we innocently failed. One country was more important than others and Mexico was the greatest in Latin America. That's what we felt in the beginning. Now it is still important, but I mean, when we have the chance to travel other countries and see the work of God in other countries, we began to understand that the body of Christ doesn't have borders; it doesn't have races; it doesn't have colors.

After about five years in Mexico Mr. Walker, our regional director, asked my wife and I if we accepted to be transferred to Guatemala in Central America, which we did. We were there in Guatemala for about eleven years and after being there, we began to understand more that God doesn't have nationalities; God doesn't have languages or preference for any country. God has a universal mind. He gives the Holy Spirit to whoever repents, believes the gospel, and believes on the blood of Jesus Christ anywhere in the world. God is calling many wonderful people to conversion in Guatemala, Central America, in Mexico.

Our concept about the body of Christ got more mature when we went to Guatemala and after we had lived in Chile for several years, we understand even more, I think, about what is the Church of God and the body of Christ. That's why I feel it is very important for the members of the Church to travel other places from time to time — to travel other countries — especially for the Feast of Tabernacles. When you have the chance to go anywhere in the world, please take the opportunity because the mind changes when you go to other countries and see other people and see that there are different personalities, different heights, different colors, but when God is working with the people, they have the same feelings, the same spirit.

After eleven years in Guatemala, we were asked if we would transfer to South America, which we did. In South America we have the chance and the opportunity to serve several countries there. We have been there for more than seven years and it has been wonderful to us. Every opportunity we have to travel to other countries, we take the opportunity because we are the ones who maybe learn the most. I feel that my wife and I have matured over the years with those changes, with those different cultures — even within Latin America.

When we first came to Chile, the first congregation we visited there was Osorno. Osorno is a small city, a small congregation, but I knew that Osorno is the congregation most south in the world. It is very far away in the south of Chile and when we began to sing the same songs with the rest of the congregation, it was so moving because we were coming from Guatemala then we were in Mexico after that and then we were the farthest congregation in the South listening to the same songs, the same truth, the same people, the same feelings. It was very, very moving.

So the body of Christ has no nationalities. The body of Christ has no races. I remember when we were in college many years ago in Ambassador, a friend of mine and I used to sing one song. He likes to play guitar a lot. His name is Mario Hernandez and he likes to play the guitar a lot and we used to sing a song together. The name of the song - 'If you go to Chile'. That was many, many years ago. I never thought I was going to be in Chile now. I like the song. I loved when it said you never know in the ministry where God wants you to serve. My wife and I have had the mind and mentality that where God wants us to serve, we will go because we learn the most. We begin to understand more of the minds of the converted people of God anywhere in the world and that is right.

I want to read a scripture in Galatians 3:26. They are inspiring words. It says,

Gal. 3:26 — For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.

Verse 27 — For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

Verse 28 — There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Verse 29 — And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.

So God is doing a work in many, many parts of the world. Of course, I am very glad that God is using the U.S. to do His work. I was telling Mr. Kilough that I don't know what would happen if God didn't use the U.S. to lead us in the way — I mean, doing the work of God. I don't know what we would do. I don't feel that Latin America would have the means, the environment, the peace that you have in order to lead the work of God in a physical sense and also with the teachings and doctrines. So God is using the U.S. with this purpose of doing the work, in leading the work, but at the same time God is calling people everywhere in the world.

In the south of America you have five hundred brethren in Chile, 90 brethren in Argentina, 50 in Bolivia, 50 in Brazil, 10 in Uruguay and God continues to do His wonderful work there and in many parts of the world.

I want to tell you a story that happened three weeks ago. Three weeks ago I received a phone call from a man in Argentina. He told me he stopped coming to services in 1993 for personal problems. At the beginning of 1995 he wanted to come back to Church and he sat down in services and heard the changes of doctrine. He decided not to go back to services any more. He went back to his home very disappointed and decided to stay home to keep the Sabbath and the Holy Days by himself. He thought that the Church of God was over. Well, a few weeks ago he found a friend of his of many years and the friend is a member of the United Church of God in Buenos Aires. So the friend said, "No, the Church of God is alive. Maybe you should try to come to one of our services and just hear and feel what is going on." So the member of the Church called me in Santiago and he said, "This is the question, can I invite the person to services?" And I said, "Please do." So he went to services and that afternoon after the Sabbath I called the man. His name is Ramon Horta. So I called him and I said, "Mr. Horta, I am Saul Langarica, I am the minister for the United Church of God in the area. I understand that you went to services today. How do you feel? What do you feel?" He couldn't speak. A minute went away. I only heard he was crying over the phone and then after a minute he said, "The Church of God is alive and I promise I will never leave the Church of God. It was a mistake I made. For fifteen years I thought that God was only working with myself and I was wrong."

So God is doing His work in many, many parts of the world. Even though the body of Christ has no nationalities, the body of Christ has a work to do. And I believe that we need to do the work in harmony. That is why it is very important for us to come to the Home Office and receive the same instructions, the same doctrines, the same education that unites the body of Christ. I have come to understand that education and doctrine is very important, that unites the body. But it is more important for us to have the mind of Christ. Whatever we are, whatever nationality we have we need to have the mind of Christ. So the title of my message is 'The Mind of Christ for the Body of Christ'. That is the only way that we can be in harmony in the body.

In a few days we will be taking the Passover and God wants us to discern the body of Christ. He says there is that very important ceremony — the Passover. 1 Corinthians 11:29 is talking about the Passover.

1 Cor. 11:29 - For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself... and the next phrase...not discerning the Lord's body.

Discerning the body of Christ when we eat of the bread refers to meditating on the sufferings of Christ because we all have need of that sacrifice, regardless of nationality. We all need to repent. We all need to analyze the body of Christ and meditate on it. But also I think it refers to meditating about the body of Christ in the sense of the Church. What is my part in the body of Christ — my personal part? How can I personally contribute to the harmony, the unity of the body of Christ around the world? I feel that each one of us has a part to play and the most important part is to have the mind of Christ. Whatever we are, having the mind of Christ brings unity, brings harmony to the body.

Ephesians 4:1 — this is a scripture, we all know it, but from time to time it is very important to meditate about this. It says:

Eph. 4:1 — I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called... so this is a calling.

Verse 2 — with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love,

Verse 3 — endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Verse 4 — There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling;

When you go to other countries like Guatemala or Chile or Argentina or Brazil or Uruguay or Bolivia it is so inspiring — so inspiring to see how God is working with so many people changing their inner parts, changing their minds and their hearts. That is the most important part.

During the Passover services it is the only time of the year when we all — the members of the body of Christ around the world — read the same scriptures. We meditate on the same subject — the same sacrifice of Christ. We eat of the same bread. We drink of the same wine. We wash the feet of one another. It is the time of greatest harmony in the body during the year. And I ask the question to myself, it that for a purpose? Is that for a purpose that once a year God wants us to be in the greatest harmony we can have — thinking, meditating and planning on the same scriptures, on the same sacrifice, same bread, same wine? I think there is a very big purpose for that.

1 Cor. 10:16 — The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?

It is very important that for the bread and for the wine, God is using the word 'communion' — communities with unity — it is not talking about physical unity, it is talking about the unity of the mind. It is much more than physical unity.

Verse 17 — For we, though many, are one bread and one body; for we all partake of that one bread.

So God wants us to meditate during the Passover time on that harmony that must be in the body of Christ. I feel that more than ever we need to be together. More than ever we need to do a work together. We very much need to have the same mind. I believe that the greatest work of the Church of God is still ahead and I am speaking seriously. It is still ahead. God, at this moment, I feel that He is working for us preparing our minds, preparing our hearts, preparing our dedication to the work of God with one purpose. He will bring many, many people, many sons to glory. And He is using us. He is preparing us in a very personal way at this moment in the Church because we are not a big Church at this moment. But God is using us; He is preparing us and He will do the greatest work ever. I am sure of that.

So this is a time for meditation for the Passover. We really need for the Passover to be a new start in the Church, and I mean from my own experience in South America. In Latin America the United Church of God is becoming the only choice to look for the truth - the only choice. The reason is that the other groups that formed in 1995, they are little by little growing smaller and some of them are disappearing. And to me it is very important to see that. Even though we are not perfect in the Church, even though we all have mistakes, but God is using the Church, the United Church of God, to do a work. And in Latin America we are becoming the only one choice for the people looking for the truth. That is very inspiring.

So the Bible says there are parts of the body that seem to be less important parts of the body. Following the same reasoning, we can say that there are some important parts of the body of Christ. When I meditate about this, I feel that the most important part of the body is the mind — the mind. That's why I called it 'The Mind of Christ and the Body of Christ' in order to have that harmony.

1 Cor. 12:21 says — 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."

Verse 22 — No, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary.

Verse 23 — And those members of the body which we think to be less honorable, on these we bestow greater honor; and our unpresentable parts have greater modesty,

So while at the same time there seem to be parts of the body that are not very important, the mind is the most important part of the body. You know that analyzing this part of the body, the mind - our human minds only by themselves cannot work together. Our human minds, our human reasoning — our human mind does not have the ability nor the power to bring harmony to us. In fact, the human mind tends to be more polluted in time and does not and cannot bring harmony to the body or to the body of Christ. The human mind is divisive. The human mind likes controversy. The human mind does not like peace, doesn't know the way to peace. Now the converted mind is not a guarantee of harmony in the body.

I was thinking about this for some time and I was talking with Mr. Kilough and about this with Mr. Walker and I expressed what I felt and they said, "Yeah, that is the case." The converted mind is not a guarantee of harmony in the body. In fact, if we are not careful, the converted mind spends much time — a lot of time in an internal fight. When we have the Holy Spirit for the first time our mind begins to fight. I remember when I was out of the Church I didn't have an internal fight. I went to the world and I enjoyed the world. There was no fight. But when I received the Holy Spirit through repentance and baptism and the laying on of hands, then the fight began. And if we are not careful — if we are not careful, you and I, we spend a lot of time trying to win that battle — that internal battle — like Paul did. So that's why the converted mind is not a guarantee of harmony. It is not a guarantee that we will have the mind of Christ. We have to work it. The Holy Spirit comes when we repent, when we are baptized and when we receive the laying on of hands. But, again, that is not a guarantee that we will have the mind of Christ right away. Like Paul says in Romans 7:15 he says:

Rom. 7:15 — For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do.

So he became aware when he received the Holy Spirit — he became aware that there was a battle in the mind and sometimes we stay there with our own worries, our own problems, our own fights in the mind. But God wants to go one step ahead as I will read a little later before finishing. The Apostle says:

Verse 23 — But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members.

Verse 24 he says — O wretched man... wretched man ...that I am! He was like any of us, but he was seeing himself as he was. He didn't see himself as he was before, but now he did. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?

Verse 25 — I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.

So if we are not careful we can spend a lot of time — even our whole lives — in that fight and we forget what is around us. What is around us is the body of Christ. Other members are having the same worries, the same fightings, the internal fightings. When we come out of ourselves and begin to worry for the rest of the body of Christ, then — then we begin to have the mind of Christ.

So God wants us to have that mind. We'll need to go to that step of the converted mind. We need all to have the mind of Christ in order for the body of Christ to be in real harmony. Having the mind of Christ requires that we use the Holy Spirit united to our will and, therefore, in order to look for the well being of others in the body of Christ — whatever they are — the mind of Christ requires that we make a real effort to come out from ourselves, from our own bodies and our own minds and begin to look for the comfort and the well being of others in the body. It means coming out of ourselves and worrying about other people, other converted people around the world.

Philippians 2:3, this is also a very, very nice scripture to analyze before the Passover. My wife is checking the time so... (ha-ha).

Phi. 2:3 — the Bible says — Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself.

Verse 4 — Let each one of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.

Verse 5 — Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,

Notice especially verse 5 says letting this mind be in you — the mind of Christ — does not come automatically. Even thought we have the Holy Spirit, the mind of Christ doesn't come automatically. The Bible says, Let this mind be in you... because we are converted does not mean that we become automatically, as Paul says, with the mind of Christ.

1 Cor. 12:25 — I am about finished — it says< — That there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another.

Verse 26— And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.

Verse 27 — Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually.

Verse 28 — And God has appointed these in the church... To me it is very interesting, the following verse. That is talking about that we should worry for the members of the Church and that we should be happy with those who are happy, and support those who are going through trials. But then verse 28 says, And God has appointed these in the church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, varieties of tongues.

It is very interesting to me that Paul refers in this verse to those positions of leadership in the body of Christ. You know what I deeply, deeply believe is that in order for the body of Christ to have harmony, we need to deeply respect and support those men God has appointed to lead us and that is the mind of Christ as well.

So the mind of Christ thinks about others, supports those who are in trials, and is happy with those who are happy, joy with those who are in joy, but now the Bible is saying that we should also respect and support those men whom God has appointed to lead us. That brings unity to the body of Christ. That is the mind of Christ. I do not believe that the government of God has to have in a specific scripture, but I do believe that the government of God must be — in my mind — in my mind — I am speaking for me — and if the government of God is in my mind, then God wants me to support and respect those people whom God has appointed to lead us, to lead me. So God governing our minds is also the mind of Christ and when that is the case, and we love God, then we love and respect and support those whom God has called to lead us. Then we really look for the well being of others. Then the body of Christ will have more harmony. It is very important.

Brethren, we really need the mind of Christ in order to have the body of Christ in harmony - in order to do what God wants us to do. We need to be together as never before — really. You know, my wife and I are thousands of miles from here — thousands of miles. We have no pastors around. The next pastor close to us is about 2,000 miles — 2,000 miles and the other pastor is maybe 4,000 thousand miles away. The Home Office is — what — 6,000 miles away from us. But — but, when we have the mind of Jesus Christ, then we feel supported and we receive the strength from other parts in order to serve the people of God wherever they are - wherever they are. We have the strength to go to the mountains, or to the desert, or to another city, but we have the support of the whole body. And I don't mean just for me, I mean for so many pastors, so many brethren around the world that are so isolated. My point is that we all need to have the mind of Christ in order to have the body of Christ together as never before. I do not think this is idealistic. I really feel that with the Holy Spirit we are able and we receive the power to have the mind that worries for one another, that really feels for one another, that really supports the government of God in the Church of God. I use the government of God because it doesn't matter, the structure, but it matters the way we respect those people whom God has called to lead us in peace and in harmony. So this is not idealistic. It can be real. God says it can be real.

1 Cor. 2:16 — this is my last scripture. For "WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD THAT HE MAY INSTRUCT HIM?" But we have the mind of Christ.

We have the mind of Christ. In other words, the mind of Jesus Christ is available to us through the Holy Spirit, but it doesn't come automatically. We need to unite the Holy Spirit to our will, to our desire, to our effort to have it. But it is available through the Holy Spirit.

As I said before, this coming Passover is the only time of the year when we read the same scriptures in all of the Church from Alaska to Osorno, from California to Australia. We will be thinking about the same great sacrifice of Jesus Christ. We will be washing one another's feet. May this great ceremony of the Passover help us in the body of Christ, the Church of God, to have even more of the mind of Christ and be more in harmony, more worrying about the different parts of the body of Christ in different parts of the world — here and Latin America, Asia, Europe — we really need each other. We very much need each other. We need to be together, we need to do a work together because of the difficult times that are ahead and I know that God will support us. He will do a great work before He sends His Son, Jesus Christ.