Sermon: Christianity and the Body
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 19-20

It has been said a healthy body is the soul’s great chamber and a sick body its prison. Maintaining our health is an aspect of Christianity – for us to impart our faith to our families, friends and even those who don’t know us yet.
It is part of an “individual’s business” to help ourselves be as healthy as possible. These bodies will one day return to the dust from which they came. But once we accept the Lord Jesus, they become the vessel in which GOD ALMIGHTY LIVES!

Think about that:
• Old body that hurts sometimes
• Old body that gets wrinkled up with age
• Old body is the temple of the Holy Spirit

Every day, we should rejoice that HE LIVES within.
God has chosen to live within these bodies for a very special reason. These bodies are made to bring glory to God. God gave us these bodies to glorify him. Paul made it crystal clear that we are, “…bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.”

Think about your activities over the past week. Consider your plans for the week ahead. If Jesus was hanging out with you in person, how much of last week’s activities might have changed. And how much might your plans for the coming week change?
That is really the heart of Paul’s argument here. The Holy Spirit is in us. Everywhere I go, it goes.

We get some idea of what Jesus thought of his body when the evangelist John says: He spoke of the temple of his body – John 2 vs 21 & 22: 21 But “the temple” he had spoken of was his body. 22 After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.

Paul went on to say this in 1st Corinthians 3:17 – If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for the temple of God, which you are, is holy.

Philippians 1:20: I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.

Romans 12 vs 1:12 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.