Jesus Sleeping with Prostitutes

 Read 1 Corinthians 6

 

We begin this message where we will conclude in the second service. That shouldn’t be a problem for us. We know that the last will be first and the first will be last. So, let’s go.

Because of God’s great love for us that we know in his holy word and in Christ Jesus, the Word made flesh, we don’t fear hell. That’s some cool stuff right there.

That’s some powerful love right there. Hell has been taken off of the table for us. We cannot out sin the grace of God.  Grace is more powerful than our worst sin.

That’s fantastic! That’s incredible! That is more than we can handle on our own as our human spirit starts thinking, “Man, can I get away with some stuff now.”

Let’s see what you remember from the years of Bible reading gathered here.  Give me the chapter and verse, or just the chapter if that’s all you remember, when Jesus met with and slept with the prostitutes.

It’s the House of the Rising Sun story. It took place in Gaza. I guess that place will get torn down when they build the New Dubai in present day Gaza.

Anyone remember the chapter and verse? 

What do you mean you can’t find it. What do you mean it’s not there? What do you mean that Jesus would not and did not join his body with a prostitute?

If you did find it in your Bible, I would like to give your version a once over. Jesus did not join his body to a prostitute!

So why do we?  Why do we what?

Join the body of Christ to a prostitute or put heroin into it?  Why do we make our Lord into a glutton? Why do we make him into an alcoholic?

Do will fill his body with bitterness, resentment, hate, and other poisons?

We are the body of Christ. God lives in us. We are a holy temple of the Lord.

That’s cool. I’m saved from hell. Let’s get a few drinks and go for it. Oh yeah, we are going to party now!

But it’s not just us anymore. We are the body of Christ.

But that’s a metaphor, right? The whole temple thing is a metaphor, right?

Literal or figurative, we do not think it, do it, or embrace it. That’s not who we are now.

We were bought at a price. That price was the blood of Jesus.

By gratefulness alone, we should not do anything that would disgrace our Lord by surrendering his holy body to our carnal nature and the evil behind it.  

Paul is terse. Do you think you will inherit the Kingdom of Heaven? Do you believe there is a place prepared for you in God’s Kingdom for the sexually immoral?

Most of the big-ticket items for Paul in this part of the letter were sexual perversion, rampant fornication, and disregard for the body that now belongs to Christ Jesus.

So was he saying that these people were losing their salvation?

I don’t think so. I think he was challenging these believers as to whether they truly declared Jesus is Lord.  Did they really believe or did they just follow the crowd because that’s where the crowd was going?

God will judge us all. Until that day of judgment comes, the word of God will judge the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

But if you have not received the Holy Spirit and do not seek God, did you really believe or were you trying to hedge your bet in case your 401K crashed?

We are told not to judge—to condemn—but to have eyes to see. We talked before about not having to hunt down wickedness. You will know it when you see it, at least if you have surrendered fully to the Spirit of God within you.

But if you were just hedging your bet and didn’t actually believe, what then?

If you suspected this God and Jesus stuff was real but never received the gift of life that comes in the profession, Jesus is Lord! what then?

But we are vulnerable as humans. You remember last week's discussion of the flesh. We still sin.

If the Spirit of God is living in you, and if you professed and believed, he is, you will know when your sin. You might do it anyway, but the Spirit of God that lives within you will let you know that it is time to get back on the path that I call God’s Way.

If we do not declare Jesus is Lord and then wrestle with sin, the wrestling match is lost from the beginning. I know all the breakthrough leadership techniques for impossible situations.

Force of personality might get you through the impossible once, twice, or a dozen times, but it is not sustainable.  We need Christ and his Spirit who lives within us.

You remember I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, right? I can’t resist the most basic of temptations for long without Christ in me. It’s too much.

But God did not leave us in a hopeless condition. He lives in us, and when we embrace that, we are tempted much less by the debased things of this world. They have no more appeal.

Let us get to that place where Christ lives in us. The Spirit of God shows us the way. We learn and live God’s way as he shows us the path and teaches us his way.

Our body is his body, and it is a temple. Let’s realize what God has trusted us with.

Amen.