Your Body Actually Matters

Transcript

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[0:00] So our reading for the sermon is 1 Corinthians 6, 12 through 20. Just a few words of introduction, and we're in a series on 1 Corinthians. This is a letter from the Apostle Paul to the church in Corinth. This is a church that he probably started and had spent a lot of time with. He lived in Corinth for quite a while and worked there. And the church is struggling. The church is making all sorts of mistakes. What I love about this is not that they made mistakes, but their mistakes became an opportunity for him to correct the mistakes. And in the course of correcting those mistakes, he's illuminating all sorts of things that we actually need to hear, even though we don't have quite the same problems as them. And so it's actually, there's some grace in this, is that we get to learn things about the world and about God that maybe would not have come up unless these people had made these mistakes. Now, hopefully all these mistakes got corrected so that not only was there growth there, but we also have the blessings. Isn't that weird that, and I hope you can look at your own life that way. Any mistakes you've made, instead of you look back, you know you can rewind sometimes and feel a lot of shame. But I hope you can rewind and look at your mistakes and go,

[1:09] what a blessing that I learned from that. What a blessing that the change that came from that. What a blessing, the wisdom that resulted from that. And say, it's forgiven. It's in the past. So I really hope that this church righted the ship. I don't know if they did, though. That's kind of one of those unspoken things. It's a very important part of the scripture. But let me recap so far what Paul has said to this church.

[1:32] He was aware that people don't think that much of his talents. They think he was kind of not very good at speaking. But he doesn't care. It doesn't bother him, he says. Because he didn't come to preach himself. He says, I only came to preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified. So he cares about the cross more than his own reputation. He cares about the cross more than almost anything else. And it's that driving force. It's that driving towards the cross that ends up being the corrective to all sorts of the issues that are going on in the church.

[2:03] And the cross is this great equalizer. There were divisions in the church along class lines. We'll get to that a little bit later. But everyone's equal in front of the cross. And even Paul is equal to another person who's a better speaker than him in front of the cross. Because in front of the cross, we're all sinners and we're all broken. And we all need God's grace equally. And so the cross is this beautiful equalizer. Where we don't have to feel good about ourselves or bad about ourselves. We just are forgiven and redeemed people. That's great. Now, Paul says human wisdom. We're going to get into this today. Human wisdom can't comprehend the cross. In fact, to humans, especially Greek philosophers and Jewish philosophers, the cross looked like either foolishness or weakness. To the Greeks, it looked like foolishness. Like this is not a very good philosophy. This is a foolishness. And to the Jewish philosophers, it looked like weakness. Because to the Greeks. You know, why would somebody who was a great leader die and not come back to life? Like you said, he would. And for the Jewish philosophers, it was more about power. They wanted something like the Messiah to come in power and clean everything up. But instead, the Messiah died in a humiliating way.

[3:12] And so it looked like either foolishness or weakness. But Paul says, in fact, that the cross of Christ is both wisdom and power. Power in the spirit. And so there's this great sort of conflict between human wisdom and power. Versus the cross's sort of weakness and foolishness. And as Paul will say, the cross is actually wisdom and power. And the spirit is wisdom and power. And the world is wrong. What a surprise. Did you know the world was wrong? And that Jesus is right? That's like the whole. Okay, it's over now. So I'll just walk away. No. That was pretty simple. So human wisdom can't comprehend this. And we're going to get into that more today. Especially a particular case where human wisdom. Falls apart. Now, what's great about.

[4:00] I'm going to skip that part. Because I already recapped that last week. So last week we talked about how the reputation of the church matters. They had to expel a person who was doing something particularly bad. They needed to both care for him. But they also needed to care for the reputation of the church. And so that was sort of a tightrope that Paul was attempting to walk. And I think he did a good job of it. But basically he says the church has a reputation that's important. Because the church is the representative. Of the reputation of Jesus Christ on the earth. And if people in the church are so openly into sort of unrepented sin. That reflects negatively on the gospel. And what's important is that people hear the gospel of the cross of Jesus Christ. So today it seems that Paul has also heard that some members of the church are frequenting prostitutes. And possibly at the temple of Aphrodite in Corinth. There was a temple to Aphrodite. And in the temple courts you could visit. Uh. A priestess who was actually a prostitute. And you would pay an offering to the goddess Aphrodite. But really it was just a payment for the services of a prostitute. And that's particularly grimy I think. Because here this place of worship was really just a brothel.

[5:11] You know. And it was. And this worship was not worship at all. It was something far more depraved. Right. So there's a lot of hypocrisy there too. I think that Paul probably really didn't like. But there were people even in the church. In the church of Corinth it seems like they were frequenting prostitutes. And just like was the problem last week with the man who had an affair with his stepmother. They didn't think it was particularly wrong. Okay.

[5:38] Can you imagine that? A church where some members went to visit prostitutes. And they didn't think it was particularly wrong. And Paul's like wow. I've got a lot of work to do with you people. And so that's the work that's going to happen today. Part of the reason they didn't think it was wrong. Was because of Greek. Philosophy. So we're going to talk about the philosophy today. So today's kind of the heady day. Little professor hat is going to go on. You know. Natalie's excited. I'm good. I'm glad. So. So Paul has to set the record straight. And he does it also by talking not just about the correct philosophy. But talking about the importance of our physical bodies. And our physical bodies are important. And what we do with our bodies are important. So with that introduction let's go to our reading. First Corinthians 6. I'll start at verse 12. The Apostle Paul writes this. You say I am allowed to do anything.

[6:32] But not everything is good for you. And even though I am allowed to do anything. I must not become a slave to anything. You say food was made for the stomach. And the stomach for food. This is true. Though someday God will do away with both of them.

[6:55] But you can't say that our bodies were made for sexual immorality. They were made for the Lord. And the Lord cares about our bodies. And God will raise us from the dead by his power. Just as he raised our Lord from the dead. Don't you realize that your bodies are actually parts of Christ? Should a man take his body which is part of Christ.

[7:22] And join it to a prostitute? Never. And don't you realize that if a man joins himself to a prostitute. He becomes one body with her? For the scriptures say the two are united into one. But the person who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him.

[7:43] Run from sexual sin. No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body. Don't you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. Who lives in you and was given to you by God. You do not belong to yourself.

[8:04] For God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body. Let's pray. Father thank you for your word. We ask that you add your blessing to it. In Jesus name. Amen. Well that was cheerful. Right? Again Paul this is like this is the letter that Paul wrote. Paul pulls no punches. So first Corinthians is if you're looking for something interesting read this one. You know it's very interesting. And just imagine that this is all happening in a church. And Paul's like I honestly have to tell these people not to go visit prostitutes. What is what is that? Like he had started this church. He must be thinking what happened after I left. You know the WWE took over the church after I left or something. I don't know they're having monster truck rallies in the church. I don't know what was going on. So but today we're going to look at some philosophy. Right? Remember that Paul told the church that there's a difference between the world's wisdom and God's wisdom. And God's wisdom seems like foolishness but it's the real thing. And the world's wisdom is actually folly. So that's important to remember. But it's so good to remember that the world looked at the church and said that's ridiculous. We have our own system.

[9:11] Especially the Greeks are like we're pretty proud of this philosophy. We've been developing this for 500 years. 500 years they've been developing this philosophy or more. Right? They're like we've got it down. We're not going to let these people come in and tell us what wisdom is. We've figured this out a long time ago. Right? So we're going to see directly what this looks like that God's wisdom is very different from the world's wisdom. And so I'm going to start with this slogan. It starts at the very beginning. And Steve I'll ask you to maybe go back to the very first slide. And I'll tell you when to go through the next ones. The very first slide of our reading is where Paul quotes to them the saying that evidently they all knew. And that saying is. I am allowed to do anything. Which sounds like a great. Actually it sounds like a commercial. Like on TV doesn't it? I'm allowed to do anything. I can do what I want. Right? And the interesting thing though is there's two possible. There's two possible. Sorry about that. I didn't like that. There's two possible sources for this saying. And one of them might have been the Apostle Paul. Isn't that interesting? Because Paul had told the Galatians for example that there's freedom in Christ.

[10:29] And if you live in Christ then you're truly free. And if you're led by the Spirit then there are no laws that actually contain you. Because all the fruits of the Spirit are in line with the law and keep the law as you do them. And so he's like I must have told these people you're free to do anything you want. And they conveniently forgot the second half of it. Which is when you're in the Spirit. When you're connected to Christ. And they just sort of cut that part off. They're like well we didn't want that part. We just like the part where you say I can do whatever I want. Anything is okay for me. And so he probably had to send like go to the photocopier and send them a copy to get the letter to the Galatians. Which was hard to do because it was more like a scribe. And send them a copy of that. By the way please refer to my other letter.

[11:16] So it's possible that Paul was the source of this. But it's also possible that Greek philosophy was the source of this. I'm allowed to do anything. Greek stoic philosophers but not just the stoics believed that if you had reason and logic. And you sort of had a virtuous life. Then you could do whatever you wanted to do was okay. Basically that was one version of Greek philosophy. So the Greeks themselves had a saying somewhat like this. I'm allowed to do anything. Right? And. But Paul would have followed all of that up to say in Galatians 5.13. Don't you. Yes you have freedom. But in Galatians 5.13 it says don't use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature.

[12:07] Instead use your freedom to serve one another in love. So your freedom isn't for you. And it's not for your sinful nature or your appetites. Your freedom is actually the freedom to serve other people. Which is a different concept of freedom even than Americans have. Do you realize that? When Americans talk about freedom it's all about themselves.

[12:34] When Paul talks about freedom it's about the other. And we're going to get to this at the very end. So I want you to bookmark this idea that freedom, true freedom is about service to others. Okay. So. Um. Paul is mentioning this phrase here. I'm allowed to do anything. Because it seems that people think that means that they can go see a prostitute. At the temple of Aphrodite or wherever else. I'm sure that wasn't the only place you could find a prostitute. And so in the next verse Paul anticipates their thinking about this. Like you're free to do anything. If it was the Greek philosophy. Within the realms of virtue and logic and reason. You're free to do anything. So they might not have even thought that visiting a prostitute was an un-virtuous thing to do. And that's probably true of the Greeks especially. I think in Jewish philosophy there was definitely a thought that visiting a prostitute was wrong. But in Greek philosophy it's possible they thought that there was really nothing about it. Because this next phrase. That the Greeks would say. Food was made for the stomach. And stomach for the food. Do you see that one there? It's at the bottom of the slide here. Food was made for the stomach. And stomach for the food.

[13:52] And that was a saying the Greeks said. And it essentially means that if somebody has this bodily need. Such as eating. Then there was nothing really remarkable about feeding your need. That was just something. And Paul says you know what? That's true.

[14:08] Your body needs food and you have a stomach. So you have to eat. This is a true statement. The food is for the stomach. And the stomach is for food. No problem there. But he kind of says. There's something further on the longer horizon. That kind of points us to where Paul is going. He says someday God will do away with both of them. Let's go to the next slide. As you see this is true. Though someday God will do away with both of them. And that doesn't mean that in our future bodies. We won't have stomachs. I think we will. Because isn't heaven a feast? So I feel like there's going to be some stomachs in heaven. But what he's saying is we're all going to die someday.

[14:44] And in the long sense. In the long scheme of things. Feeding your stomach is not the most important thing in life. It's transitory. There's something more important going on with your body and your life. Than just your appetites and satisfying your appetites. Right?

[15:00] So here's where their error comes in. Some of the Corinthians are saying. Well eating is a bodily need. You all get that right? You're going to have lunch today. If you don't get lunch you'll get hungry. Maybe you could skip a meal. It's not the end of the world. You know. But eventually you're going to have to eat. Or else something bad is going to happen to you. So eating is a bodily need. I eat. I feel full. And then I move on. I'm just satisfying my appetites. And the Corinthians were possibly saying. In the same way they have an appetite for what a prostitute provides for them. And they satisfy that need. And they move on. And they don't think about it. They're just satisfying their appetites. But Paul says never. These are not the same appetites. These are very different appetites. And they have very different consequences for you. Eating your food. That's normal. You need to do that. Even Jesus says it's not what goes into a person that makes them unclean. It's what comes out of them.

[15:58] But visiting a prostitute is an external act. It is partly in a way. It is what comes out of you. And that is where the defiling nature of it comes in. So eating food and uniting yourself with a prostitute is nowhere near the same thing in any way. And it has to do with the body. Now again back to Greek philosophy. I told you this is a little heady. That there might have been even in the church. But definitely in Corinth what we call the gnostic view of the body. Gnosticism was not necessarily a religion. But a religious philosophy that kind of permeated many different religions. And is still with us today. Even in the church. Very interesting. That's for another time.

[16:42] But it's possible that this was in the early days. That the air around the church in Corinth. Remember when I said a few weeks ago that everything you bring you have in your pocket. Oh I have something in my pocket again.

[16:51] I didn't even plan this. It's just the aluminum wrapper for a piece of gum. I should probably throw these away or save them to put the gum into. But there it is in my pocket. My other pocket I have a pen and I have some keys. What's in your pocket? Anybody have anything in your pocket? Some people don't have pockets on their clothing. I know it's okay. But you bring this stuff with you. It puts you into the church. And so some people are like oh. Oh here's some Gnosticism. I'm going to bring this into the Corinthian church. And it kind of informs the way they think. And they're like can we mix Gnosticism and Christianity? Well they don't even ask themselves that question that directly. It's just an assumption. Oh all these things are kind of like a soup. And they all go together as different ingredients. Right? But the Gnostic view of things was that knowledge is the true virtue. Knowledge is the true virtue in Gnosticism. And that the material world and our bodies in particular are corrupt. And so things we can touch, they're important. You know I have to eat. But they don't matter as much as knowing the right things. So Gnosticism was about knowledge and it was about knowing the right things. And so there was secret knowledge and there were secret handshakes and secret passwords.

[18:05] And learning all these secrets is how you ascended in Gnosticism. And so on this measure you can say that there's still many Gnostic people. There's still many Gnostic like religions in our world today. I could name Scientology and Freemasonry and Mormonism as somewhat Gnostic religions that are still with us. But I would also say some Christians have fallen prey to Gnosticism. Where they rank their spirituality on how much they know.

[18:33] Rather than going back to how much they serve God and others. And there's a difference between how much you know and how much you don't. And how much you serve. And that's a good distinction to keep track of. So we can say there's still many Gnostic like religions. But so for the Gnostic since the body was corrupt in comparison to the mind and its knowledge. It didn't matter what you did with your body. Right? It didn't matter. Because it's corrupted. It's not really that important. So if your body has appetites you would spend time satisfying those appetites because you had to. But you didn't spend too much time thinking about it. So it's possible some people in the church were at least influenced by this thinking.

[19:13] But Paul goes on to tell them that the material world is actually very important. Over and over again in the writings of Paul especially. There's many, many repudiations of Gnostic thinking. The material world is actually very important. Like you're standing on it. You're sitting on it. Like the material world is there. Everything that exists was created by God. It is as good as being held together by Jesus Christ. I don't know if that means he's part of the weak and the strong atomic forces that hold atoms together. And the electromagnetism and magnetism and all these forces that keep atoms stuck together in molecules. And molecules stuck together in benches and bodies and floors and concrete underneath you. It's all made by God and it's all good. All creation is good and made by God. It's been corrupted by us and we ourselves are corrupted by the fall. But that doesn't mean we don't carry God's image. And it doesn't mean that our physical self isn't important to God or that it's not. Or that it's inconsequential that it doesn't matter what we do with our bodies. What we do with our bodies matters a lot.

[20:27] So we're not disembodied. This is the view that I think Gnosticism would have. We're not disembodied spirits that are just riding around our bodies until they can be freed for the next level. That's not what we believe. Gnosticism would believe something like that. And it's kind of infected Christianity too. People think, oh, I'm really just the spirit and my body is just this husk. And it's useful for now but my true self is going to fly away when I die.

[20:53] And that's not actually the Christian understanding. That's not what we would call Christian anthropology. Which is the nature of human beings. Christian anthropology is that you are your body. Did you get that? I'm going to say that again. You are your body. Yes, you have a spirit. You have a soul. God breathes it into you. You know what I mean? But you can't just pull these things apart and say one's important and one's inconsequential. They're connected. You are the whole thing. And your body is actually important to God and it's important to you. So you are your body. Your body is made in the image of God. And as Paul says, your body has been redeemed at a great cost by Jesus on the cross. So if Jesus died for your body, that means Jesus values your body. I think that's a signal to us that we have to value our bodies. And I think if you value your body and respect your own body, you're not going to go join it with a prostitute. There are all sorts of reasons why you wouldn't do that. That's just one of them. Paul's going to get to another one in just a second. So our body and our spirit are not two different things that separate at some point. It turns out that our bodies are... This is really weird but I want you to take notice.

[22:06] I'm going to say it twice. Our bodies are intensely spiritual. Does that sound like a contradiction? Or a paradox? Maybe a paradox is better, right? Our bodies are intensely spiritual. Take a note of that. Write that one down. Your body is intensely spiritual. You're like, how can that be? Those things are different. No. Not according to this. So our bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit himself. Doesn't that make our body spiritual? Right? If the Holy Spirit uses it as a temple where we can worship him. And then this is really confusing or amazing. And let's see. Go forward one.

[22:50] There we go. One more please. There we go. If you are joined to the Lord in faith, then you are one spirit with him. Now careful. You might have heard this differently. I did not say if you are joined to the Lord in faith, then you are one in spirit with him. Doesn't that sound like, oh, we're kind of on the same page?

[23:20] That's not what it says. This is translated correctly. Does everybody see how unusual this is? Like we can read over this and miss it. But this is huge. If you are joined to the Lord in faith, then you are one in spirit with him. You are one spirit with him.

[23:40] What? My mind just got blown. What is going on here? My body is one. Myself is one spirit with Christ. That breaks all sorts of rules for anthropology, Christology, all sorts of things. Is anyone like confused? Raise your hand if you're confused. It's okay. There we go. All right. Okay. At least one person is honest. No, I'm kidding. That's great. Everybody. It's fine. The person who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him. Your body is intensely spiritual. When you are with the Lord, you are one spirit with him. And honestly, some commentators don't know what to make of this. But I think what they're saying, and I think they're right, is that we are in Christ, and Christ is in us. At the same time. In a spiritual way. So that we are together in a unity with him. So we are one spirit with Christ. We are one spirit with him. And Paul says, would you take this same body, which is one with Christ in spirit, and at the same time, make it one in the flesh with a prostitute? Would you ever do that? And this question answers itself, doesn't it? Of course we wouldn't do that.

[25:02] So I hope you're seeing that Paul's like, this mistake you're making, which is terrible, is a real blessing to us because it gives us an opportunity to learn about bodies and spirits and souls. And it gives Paul a chance to kind of speak against Gnosticism, which is a falsehood. And it teaches us something that's just amazing that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit. They were bought with a price by Jesus Christ. And that when we're with Christ, we're not going to be like the rest of us.

[25:32] Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? sort of the thing that hovers over this whole book. Now, I'm about to be done here, but what do we do about our bodies now? You're like, you're thinking, I'm not aware of any of you visiting prostitutes, so good, but that doesn't mean in churches people don't, and some do, and that's a problem, and that's definitely a place for church care and discipline. If you are visiting a prostitute, come and talk to me. It's not healthy or a good thing, and as Paul says, it can destroy your body and your soul. So come see me. We can talk. There's ways to help you with that. It might just be a manifestation of a sexual addiction or something else. There's definitely help for that. All the problems of the church in Corinth are this blessing to us because they give us an opportunity to teach us some important lessons. And the lesson today, though, is not that you should avoid prostitutes, because you know that already. You know that you're not supposed to go visit prostitutes. I don't need to teach you that. Paul doesn't need to teach you that. The lesson today is that your body is important and that your body is you. You are your body, and your body is you. And that's the challenging thing.

[27:04] I'll be honest, that that's actually very challenging. Here's why. Because we don't always like our bodies, right? We don't always like how we look. And actually, our culture is designed to actually make us feel as bad about our bodies as possible so that people can maximize and monetize our insecurity. And that's a broken aspect of our culture and our commercial culture. And that we should pray against that, probably, because I think it's actually spiritually oppressive. That we are made to feel bad about our own bodies so that other people can make money. Think about that. That's so evil. That's just so evil. So we don't always... We don't always like our bodies. We don't like how our bodies look. We don't always feel comfortable in our own bodies.

[27:53] And that's normal. Even though it's who we are, even though it's in God's image, we don't always feel comfortable in our own bodies. And our bodies change all the time, but especially as we get older. And our bodies can get sick, and they eventually die. And our bodies have appetites that can drive us into some bad places, whether that's food or sex or alcohol. Or thrill-seeking. I was just talking to Christy the other day about how I really don't ever want to go skydiving. But at a certain point in my life, I did want to go skydiving. And she says, good, because you're not going skydiving. You know, you're not going to do that. I'm like, it's okay. I don't need to jump out of an airplane at this point in my life, right?

[28:35] Endorphins. You know, that's that... Like, there's these appetites that our body has. It's problematic. Our bodies, let's face it, they're problematic, even though they're good in God's image. You know, I often joke about this. I joke about going bald. It's just easier to joke about it than to hide it, right? When it first started, I started combing over.

[28:55] And then after about six months of combing over, I was like... And I'll be honest, part of it was vanity, because combing over is cringy. So I didn't want to seem cringy. But more of it was kind of like, what am I going to do? I'm losing my hair. What are you going to do? Are you going to spend money trying to get it all back? I don't have time for that. I don't have money for that. This is my body. God made it. He loves it. I love it. So I said, I said, Krista, we're going to start saving money on haircuts, because we have the clippers at home and she cuts my hair. She sets it to number three and just does it. And we save $20 every like four or five weeks. So, and you know, I don't know what I'm doing with that money. I guess I could give it to the church or I'll put it in my pocket or something like that. But the point is, this is my body. It's changing. It's getting older. It's losing its hair. And it's okay. Right? I've learned to love my body, even though it doesn't look anything like a movie star. I can never run for president. You have to have hair to be president. Have you noticed that? You have to have hair. Last person who didn't have hair was Eisenhower, but he was a general. You know, he had, he had something else going for him.

[30:10] Right? This is my body. It's mine. God made it. Christ died to redeem it. It's a temple where I can worship the Holy Spirit. And I can thank him for the gift of the material world with all its beauty and all its corruption mixed together. This is a mixed bag, this world and my body too. There's failings in it, but there's also beauty in it. And I can thank God even for that mixture. And it was bought at a great price by the blood of Jesus on the cross. And it's been redeemed from bondage and captivity to sin, death, and the devil. This is my body. God gave it to me. Amen. I have to love it. I don't have any, I don't have another one. And I'm not going to get another one. Right?

[30:50] So finally, and I alluded to this early, we don't live in our bodies to just satisfy our appetites. These are all the teachings that are for us. Love your body. Say no to the lie of our culture that you're not good looking. You may not be good looking, but who cares? I mean, maybe, I mean, to me, you're all beautiful people. That's fine. You know, it's like, like we'll be gone. You know, all the, all the women are handsome. All the men are strong. And all the kids are above average. You're all like that. That's fine. I don't have, you don't have to be good looking. You just have to be you. You just have to be the person God made. It's okay. This is a place hopefully where you don't have to look great. You know, you just have to be yourself.

[31:29] But it doesn't, we don't use our bodies just to satisfy our appetites. Our appetites are important. You should pay attention to your appetites. You should be aware of when they lead you in the wrong places. Absolutely.

[31:42] But your body is for service to us. Your body is for service to others. Your freedom is for service to others, right? That's the final thing the Corinthians were missing. For them, it was about what pleased them. It was about their own stomach. It was about their own gratification. They had a lot of work to do. If only they had even just thought what I do is for other people, they might not have even gotten into this problem in the first place. So Paul had a lot of work to do with them. The gift of our redeemed bodies is not only that we should love and appreciate our own bodies because they're amazing and made in God's image. It's that we should take the focus off ourselves. And then we use our bodies for the good of other people. Let's pray.

[32:21] Father, thank you. Thank you for, I don't know if anyone else wants to thank God for their body of soul. I can only thank you, Lord, for my own body and for my baldness and my overweightness and everything else that's gone wrong. But also that I can walk still and talk still.

[32:39] And Lord, I thank you for that. And I thank you for being one with Christ. And I thank you for being one with Christ in spirit. Being one spirit with Christ. That the Holy Spirit has set up shop in my body. That I can worship you in my body. So Father, remind us the material world matters. Remind us to use our bodies to serve others. And we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.