Today we are going to look at the effect the gospel has on our health and our mortal bodies, as we live in this world beholding Jesus.  The name of the message is divine health.  You cant find that term in the Bible.  You can find the word peace or Shalom in Hebrew used to talk about health.  Its a holistic term.  It speaks to the wellbeing of a person prospering, and them being filled with contentment.  It talks about a state of wholeness or completeness.  Its where a soundness and quietness is upon you.  

1Co 11:20  When you come together therefore into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's supper.
1Co 11:21  For in eating every one takes before the other his own supper: and one is hungry, and another is drunk.
1Co 11:22  What? have you no houses to eat and to drink in? or do you despise the church of God, and shame those that have not? What shall I say to you? shall I praise you in this? I praise you not.
1Co 11:23  For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread:
1Co 11:24  And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.
1Co 11:25  After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.
1Co 11:26  For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, you do show the Lord's death till he come.
1Co 11:27  Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.
1Co 11:28  But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup.
1Co 11:29  For he that eats and drinks unworthily, eats and drinks condemnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.(perfected-Hebrews)
1Co 11:30  For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.
1Co 11:31  For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.
1Co 11:32  But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.
1Co 11:33  Wherefore, my brethren, when you come together to eat, tarry one for another.
1Co 11:34  And if any man hunger, let him eat at home; that ye come not together unto condemnation. And the rest will I set in order when I come.

The apostle Paul is writing to the Corinthian church about their gatherings, and how their gatherings are meant to be in remembrance of the Lord’s supper.  We call it communion, Paul calls it the Lord’s supper.  He tells the Corinthians they are eating and drinking condemnation to themselves.  He says they are forgetful hearers.  Not remembering death has passed over them.  Not remembering their lives have been liberated from the corruption in the world.  Not remembering their lives are begotten from the word of truth.  Paul says to them, they aren’t discerning the Lord’s body.  Their hearts and minds arent filled with the lamb God provided when they gather together, and because of that, many among them are weak and sickly and fallen asleep. 

Listen, certainly this has application to our natural bodies, and our physical health, and we’ll look at that.  With that being said the primary context of being weak and sickly and fallen asleep isn’t talking about having a cold, or a virus, or a fever or a flu.  

Proverbs 17:22  says A merry heart does good like a medicine: but a broken spirit dries the bones. 

Solomon says a merry heart is like a medicine.   He draws a connection between being healthy and the heart.  Solomon says in Proverbs 13:12 Hope deferred makes the heart sick: but when the desire comes, it is a tree of life.  The Hebrews word for sick is to be weak and diseased.  Solomon equates being sick and weak and diseased, to the condition of the heart, not whether a person has a physical illness.  

The book of Proverbs contrasts many times what it is to be healthy, and what it is to be weak and sickly, and its speaking about what’s in the heart.  Yes, it has a physical manifestation because as proverbs also says out of the heart flow the issues of life.  But thats not to say if you are dealing with a genetic type of illness that you are now the weak and sickly Paul is talking about.  A person can be dealing with an infirmity in their flesh or an illness, and not be weak and sickly.  Go into example of man without arms and legs ….. Nick Vukicic.  I promise you he’s neither weak or sickly.  His fellowship isnt with the body of death.  He’s discerned the Lord’s body, and that’s made his heart merry.  And thats been a medicine.  

Proverbs 13:17 says a wicked messenger falleth into mischief: but a faithful ambassador is health.  Solomon contrasts being full of mischief with being healthy.  To be full of mischief is to be weak and sickly.  The people Paul describes as weak and sickly in Corinth were full of mischief.  They were coming to the gathering to get drunk, and fill their own bellies.  They were filled with wantoness.  They were filled with lust.  They were weak and sickly.  

Paul says many of the people in Corinth were eating and drinking the condemnation of the world to themselves.  The condemnation of the world isnt talking about a cancer or an injury like not having arms and legs.  This same Paul describes the condemnation he’s talking about in great detail in romans 7-8 when he says oh wretched man I am who shall save me from this dying body.  The condemnation Paul’s talking about to the Corinthians is the condemnation that comes from not partaking with God in His incorruptible life, through the body of Christ.  Its the condemnation that comes from forgetting your communion with the world and the death thats in the world has been destroyed, and you are one flesh with God and His indestructible life, through the body of Christ.  

The condemnation the world stands in is they’re stung with death.  They’re filled with fear and torment.  They’re filled with covetousness, and lusting after life through the strength of the flesh.  As the apostle Paul says they are walking after the flesh.  They are tormented by the body of death they see themselves clothed in, and they are trying to deliver themselves by looking to the strength in their own hand to gather peace and love and joy and comfort to themselves.  And because they are looking to their own strength; because they are looking to the corruptible things in the world to try and find peace.  Because they are walking after the flesh; because they are looking to their dying bodies to try and produce life, whats happened is its left them in the place where they are full of mischief, and bearing about in their bodies the fruit of death. 

When the apostle Paul says many of the Corinthians are weak and sickly, he’s talking about their heart being sick.  He’s talking about them walking after the flesh.  He’s talking about them not discerning the body and blood of Jesus, and not discerning they are the temple of the living God.  He’s talking about them fornicating with the strength of the flesh for life, and because of that it has destroyed their lives.  

Use me as example of being weak and sickly and passing away …. When I was a young believer, i wasnt discerning the Lord’s body.  I didnt understand my life wasnt hid in the world, that it was hid in Christ.  I thought life and glory and honor was found in … that left my heart sick.  I became a drug addict to try and comfort myself from my body of death … I mean … I actually died …. Example of drinking unto yourself condemnation ….. Left seeking the honor the world gives; left me seeking justification in the world, and the life I can gather to myself in the world; my heart said to me you only have a limited amount of time to be in the Olympics you must speed up the training; left me with an injury; a stress fracture in my foot …. My heart was sick.  I was identifying myself with the life that sin has fathered in the earth, ….

That doesnt mean discerning the Lord’s body doesnt play a role in our physical health.   Modern medicine tells us the root of sickness and disease is stress.  We were never created to live by the sweat of our brow.  We were never meant to carry the burden of bringing forth our own lives out of corruption.  We were never meant to know corruption.  We were never meant to experience fear.  Fear and stress and worry and anxiety are contrary to our design.  The frame of our bodies is not built to carry fear and stress and the burden of bringing forth our lives out of the dust of the ground.  If we dont see the care God has given our lives in the body of Jesus’ death and resurrection, our desire for peace will turn into us lusting after it through the things in the world, and that can break down our bodies.  

Example of robotic arm … more it tried, the more it broke down, and leaked out ….. 

Most of the things we do that harm our bodies is the result of desiring to be comforted from affliction.  The bad habits we develop.  I mean the reason we say they’re bad is because they’re harmful to our bodies.  All those things come from wanting to be comforted from affliction.  If we can begin to discern the Lord’s body in the midst of the affliction we experience in the world, we can find the comfort we desire in him.  We can find our hearts disesteeming the discomfort we can feel in our mortal bodies.  We can find a judgement born in us that says the discomfort ain’t so bad.  
 
Divine health looks like a life filled with peace and love and joy.  A life filled with the fruit of the Spirit is the most holistic approach there is to the health of the natural man.  When your heart and mind are filled with the knowing God has destroyed your fellowship with the body that can die, and has made you one flesh with Him and his indestructible life, through the body and blood of Jesus.  It is health and healing to all of you. 

Communion at the end …. Acts 20 says God shed his own blood to redeem your life from the body that has death in it.  God almighty; The Father of life offers Himself to you through the body of Jesus.  Your body is the temple of the living God.  Your body is the place God calls home.  You are the place God finds His rest.  He is come to sup with you to cause death to pass over you.  You are not one with the death and the weakness and the corruption in this world.  You are one flesh with God through the body of Christ.  

Father we are here today, seeing you provided yourself a lamb.  The word in our mouths.  The word of our testimony is you and what you’ve done to bring an end to our fellowship with death.  Thank you for making us one flesh with you and your indestructible life.  Thank you for causing death to pass over us.