The first two posts in this series were on the topics of Creation<\/a> and Original Sin<\/a>.<\/p>\n [This post gives the text of a sermon preached on Easter Sunday 2014, New Life Church of the Nazarene, Cupertino<\/a>.\u00a0 I tried to keep it short because it was being translated into Chinese.\u00a0 I began with the following Scripture reading from St. Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians, 15:1-33<\/a>]:<\/p>\n Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand.\u00a0 By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you.\u00a0 Otherwise, you have believed in vain.<\/p>\n For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve.\u00a0 After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep.\u00a0 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.<\/p>\n For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.\u00a0 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect.\u00a0 No, I worked harder than all of them\u2014yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.\u00a0 Whether, then, it is I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed.<\/p>\n But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?\u00a0 If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised.\u00a0 And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.\u00a0 More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead.\u00a0 But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised.\u00a0 For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either.\u00a0 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.\u00a0 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost.\u00a0 If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.<\/p>\n But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.\u00a0 For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man.\u00a0 For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.\u00a0 But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him.\u00a0 Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power.\u00a0 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.\u00a0 The last enemy to be destroyed is death.\u00a0 For he \u201chas put everything under his feet.\u201d Now when it says that \u201ceverything\u201d has been put under him, it is clear that this does not include God himself, who put everything under Christ.\u00a0 When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all.<\/p>\n Now if there is no resurrection, what will those do who are baptized for the dead?\u00a0 If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized for them?\u00a0 And as for us, why do we endanger ourselves every hour?\u00a0 I die every day\u2014yes, just as surely as I boast about you in Christ Jesus our Lord.\u00a0 If I fought wild beasts in Ephesus with no more than human hopes, what have I gained?\u00a0 If the dead are not raised,<\/p>\n \u201cLet us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.\u201d [Isaiah 22:15<\/a>]<\/em><\/p>\n Do not be misled: \u201cBad company corrupts good character.\u201d [This quotation is from “Thais”, a Greek play by Menander<\/a>, now lost except for fragments.]<\/em><\/p>\n Come back to your senses as you ought, and stop sinning; for there are some who are ignorant of God\u2014I say this to your shame.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Rejoice! Christ is risen!<\/p>\n I want to speak today about the Resurrection of Christ’s body, and what it means for our own physical bodies.<\/p>\n After he suffered and died on the Cross, and his body was laid in the tomb, God raised Jesus up from the dead, and he appeared to his disciples.\u00a0 He was not a ghost; he had a real, physical body which could be seen and touched, and he could be recognized as being the same person (although sometimes it took his disciples a little while to realize who it was).\u00a0 But there were also some important differences: he was given glory and power and immortality, and he was able to appear and disappear at will, and to ascend up into Heaven to be with the Father.<\/p>\n Now why is this important for you?\u00a0 The reason is that the Resurrection of the Body isn’t just for Jesus!\u00a0 When Jesus died and rose again, he also gave to everyone else the ability to experience his death and resurrection.<\/p>\n In the future, when Christ comes back, God will raise from the dead every single person who has ever died.\u00a0 Men and women and children, tall people and short people, fat people and skinny people, people from every country and religion, righteous people and wicked people, all of them will come out of their graves!\u00a0 Everyone who has ever lived will be resurrected from the dead, like Jesus was.<\/p>\n Good news for the sick and the disabled!\u00a0 God will heal you from all your diseases.<\/p>\n God created the physical world and he created our bodies as well as our minds.\u00a0 Our bodies are an important part of who we are.\u00a0 That’s why God wants us to have bodies for all eternity.<\/p>\n If God loves our bodies, we should love our own bodies. We need to treat our body with respect and care, because at the Resurrection it will be remade into the glory of Christ.\u00a0 A lot of people don’t like their bodies and they do everything they can to change them. But the good news is that God created our bodies and thinks we are beautiful… It’s not a sin to make some small changes to our body be healthy and look good, but we should do it out of love and not because we dislike ourselves.<\/p>\n Every part of our body was created to be good.\u00a0 The physical emotions that come from our body, including feelings like anger and anxiety and sexual desire, were created by God for a good reason.\u00a0 They were twisted by the Fall, but their purpose is good.<\/p>\n Jesus felt all of these emotions, but he lived a perfect life without sin.\u00a0 He sometimes felt sad or angry or afraid or depressed, and he didn’t sin because he had perfect love for God.\u00a0 (He chose not to get married for the sake of the Kingdom of God, but of course we know that it isn’t a sin for Christians to get married.)<\/p>\n Now I will say something which may seem to contradict what I said before.\u00a0 But it is very important!<\/p>\n Because of respect for our bodies, we have to resist all of the evil impulses that come to us from our bodies.\u00a0 Our bodily desires were created good, but they were corrupted because we inherit a fallen and sinful nature\u2014this is what Paul means, when he says that in Adam, we all die.<\/p>\n For example most people struggle with some kind of sexual perversion, something which is forbidden by the Bible, or anything else which you know isn’t right.\u00a0 Or perhaps you have an eating disorder, or a bad temper, or you’re very lazy.\u00a0 You’re jealous when you see other people being happy, or you think it’s funny when bad things happen to them.<\/p>\n But I don’t need to tell you what things you struggle with.\u00a0 You already know.<\/p>\n Partly these things come from making bad choices, but sometimes these sinful desires just come from our physical flesh. Our brain tells us that certain things will make us happy, and we have to do these things or else it feels like dying.<\/p>\n People are always saying, \u201cI can’t obey the Bible in some area of my life, because this is part of who I am. I didn’t choose to be this way, and I can’t change myself.\u201d\u00a0 It’s true you can’t change yourself.\u00a0 But the Holy Spirit can change our hearts so that we want to serve Jesus and do his will.<\/p>\n Paul says that the Christian life is about dying and being raised from the dead.\u00a0 That’s why we get baptized, to say \u201cI will die alongside Christ because I believe that those who are born of the Spirit of God will come back to life again.\u201d\u00a0 The blood of Christ has the power to heal us from all sin and transgression.\u00a0 Some parts of our body will be healed in this life, other things will have to wait for the next life.<\/p>\n \u201cI die every day,\u201d Paul says in the passage we just read.\u00a0 In other places he says that \u201cWe always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body\u201d [2. Cor 4:10<\/a>], and that \u201cthose who are in Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its desires and passions.\u201d [Gal. 5:24<\/a>].<\/p>\n It’s not just Paul; Jesus says the same thing: \u201cIf anyone wants to come after me, he must deny himself, pick up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.\u201d [Matt. 16:24-25<\/a>].<\/p>\n So you must treat your body with respect because it is good, but you must also allow the fleshly desires coming from your body to be killed, if you want to be saved.<\/p>\n I’m not talking about giving up just one or two things.\u00a0 Nor do I mean treating your body harshly all the time, or never taking pleasure in life.\u00a0 Not at all.\u00a0 What I’m talking about is giving your whole self to God, and letting him decide what stays and what goes.\u00a0 You can submit to death with joy and patience and hope, if you believe that the same God who raised Christ from the dead will raise you from the dead as well.<\/p>\n Even if it feels like you are giving up an important part of your identity, we have to trust him that he knows who we really are.\u00a0 When you finally become the holy person that God created you to be, you will be more glorious than you can possibly imagine.<\/p>\n This isn’t salvation by works.\u00a0 It’s trusting God to do what he promised by grace.\u00a0 But you must submit to death; there’s no way around it.\u00a0 Don’t be deceived.\u00a0 The false Gospel says, \u201cChrist died so that I don’t have to die.\u201d\u00a0 The true Gospel says: \u201cChrist died, so that I too can die and be resurrected along with him.\u00a0 Those who suffer with him will reign with him in glory, and be happy forever.\u201d<\/p>\n Is it possible that some of you, who who have been in this Church for such a long time, have never really understood or accepted the Gospel of Jesus Christ?\u00a0 Even if you don’t repent of your sins, God will still raise you from the dead.\u00a0 But then I can’t promise that you’ll be happy forever.\u00a0 Since our bodies are part of who we are, God will judge us in our new bodies for what we do with our bodies here on Earth.\u00a0 So be reconciled to God.<\/p>\n So that is why Easter is important. It teaches us that God loves our physical bodies, that there is hope for the future, and that we can give things up with joy and confidence, because we know God will give our life back to us again, only a million times better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The first two posts in this series were on the topics of Creation and Original Sin. [This post gives the text of a sermon preached on Easter Sunday 2014, New Life Church of the Nazarene, Cupertino.\u00a0 I tried to keep … Continue reading