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8 Sermon Illustrations on Body Of Christ

8 illustrations

The Body of Christ illustrates the unity and interdependence of believers as members of one spiritual organism, with Christ as the head (1 Corinthians 12:27; Ephesians 4:15-16). Illustrations often use physical body parts, building imagery, and commerce to show how diverse members contribute uniquely, working together for growth and mutual edification in the church.

Christians Are Members of the Body of Christ

Believers are integral parts of Christ's body, assuring their secure place in Him.

A lady accepted Christ as her Savior late in life and found in Him such joy that she could not keep still about it; she was praising God and talking about it all the time. One day a friend said, "You seem pretty confident about this salvation of yours. I would not be too sure if I were you; suppose the Lord should let you slip through His fingers?" "But," said the elderly lady, "I am one of the fingers." A Christian Should Be: A MIND through which Christ thinks, A VOICE through which Christ speaks, A HEART through which Christ loves, A HAND through which Christ helps.

Every Member Valuable

Every member of the body of Christ is valuable and interdependent, none can do without another.

The eye is placed in the upper area of the head, so that by virtue of its position it's easy for it to entertain a high opinion of itself. The human hand drops down at the side of the body, so that it's natural for the eye to look down upon it in both a literal and figurative sense. But the hand knows how to speak up and defend its usefulness. Suddenly a fly alights on the eye. Instantly and instinctively the hand elevates itself and brushes the fly away, saying, "Who said, Eye, that you don't need me?" The hand goes on to plow the ground, sow the seed, and reap the harvest. It mills the wheat into flour and kneads the dough to make bread. Then it turns to the eye and says, "You, Eye, would have died long ago if it hadn't been for my labor for you. Without the food I've earned, you'd have become sightless and starved to death. You can't do without me any more than I can do without you." Paul rightly says, "The eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee" (1 Corinthians 12:21).

Building Factories

Ephesians 2:20

Believers are built into Christ's spiritual temple, growing together in Him.

An engineer who was responsible for building great factories said that all such construction is now planned with the machines that are to be housed in the factory in mind. The walls and floors of the buildings are constructed so that a machine can be built into the very foundation and structure of the building, rather than set in as an afterthought. This is the way the Lord builds believers into Christ. We are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, and in Him all the building is fitly framed together, so that it "groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord" (Ephesians 2:20-21). That is surpassing even the modern engineers. They can frame their building and foundation and machines together "fitly," but they cannot make the building "grow." The true believers are fused in Christ and grow in Him together with Him and together with one another.

Energized by the Holy Spirit

The believer's body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, showing full consecration through bodily life.

Seneca, the Roman historian and philosopher, said, "No one is free who is a slave to the body." In 1 Corinthians 6:19 Paul specifically refers to the body of the believer as the temple of the Holy Spirit. "What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?" Yet in 1 Corinthians 3:16 he says, "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?" Is there a contradiction here between the body as the temple, and the whole person as the temple? No, both are correct. Our spirit pervades our body, and it is through the works of the body that the spirit, the real person, is shown. This is why the stress is on the body, because that is what people can readily discern, while the spirit is invisible. Paul knew that the body is the last area of man to be brought entirely under the Spirit's influence and power, just as the twigs and leaves are the last parts of a plant to be energized by the sap. Thus the bodily temple presents to us the complete picture of the fully consecrated man.

Body, Care for the

Neglecting the inner spiritual self while caring only for the body is foolish.

If one should send me from abroad a richly-carved and precious statue, and the careless drayman who tipped it upon the sidewalk before my door should give it such a blow that one of the boards of the box should be wrenched off, I should be frightened lest the hurt had penetrated further, and wounded it within. But if, taking off the remaining boards and the swathing-bands of straw or cotton, the statue should come out fair and unharmed, I should not mind the box, but should cast it carelessly into the street. Now, every man has committed to him a statue, moulded by the oldest Master, of the image of God; and he who is only solicitous for outward things, who is striving to protect merely the body from injuries and reverses, is letting the statue go rolling away into the gutter, while he is picking up the fragments, and lamenting the ruin of the box. Beecher.

from New Cyclopaedia of Prose Illustrations · Elon Foster stewardship

Christians, Relationship of

All believers are spiritually related through Christ, sharing a deep, familial bond.

Every well-doer on the face of the earth is my blood relation through Jesus Christ. I feel his heart beating right up to my ribs, and mine beating back to his. All the good passed away and transfigured into glory are mine. My own mother is not more really, though more tenderly mine, than is the mother of St. Chrysostom or St. Augustine. Beecher.

from New Cyclopaedia of Prose Illustrations · Elon Foster christian love

Harmony, Example of

Like coral polyps, believers are united and contribute to the whole body in harmony.

The stone-corals grow by germination; so that each polypary consists of a series of generations, constantly increasing and multiplying, without ever separating from the parent stock. A necessary consequence of this mode of propagation is the intimate union of all the members of these vast communities. Each polyp has its own tentacles, mouth, and stomach; each is capable of shrinking within its cell, or seizing its prey; but here its individuality ceases, as it communicates by membranes and vessels with its neighbors; and the juices which it elaborates are made to contribute to the nutrition of the whole community. Linked together by an indissoluble chain, five millions of individuals live together in peace and harmony in one single porite of ten feet diameter.

— Hartwig

from New Cyclopaedia of Prose Illustrations · Elon Foster

Wicked, Shelter of the

God's people can inadvertently shield the wicked, exposing the need for holiness.

A story is told of a stag, who, when pursued by the hunter, concealed himself among the branches of a thicket. He browsed off the foliage which concealed and protected him; when he was discovered by his pursuers, and slain. So God's people are a screen to the wicked. How, then, should they be treated?

from New Cyclopaedia of Prose Illustrations · Elon Foster

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