Today's scripture is found in Genesis 3. You can follow along on the screen behind me or in your bulletins.
Starting in verse 1, we read,
Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made.
He said to the woman,
Did God really say, You must not eat from any tree in the garden?
The woman said to the serpent,
We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,
but God did say, You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden,
and you must not touch it, or you will die.
You will not certainly die, the serpent said to the woman,
for God knows that when you eat from it, your eyes will be opened,
and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.
When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye,
and also desirable for gaining wisdom,
she took some and ate it.
She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.
Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked,
so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God
as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day,
and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
But the Lord God called to the man,
Where are you?
He answered,
I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid,
because I was naked, so I hid.
And he said,
Who told you that you were naked?
Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?
The man said,
The woman you put here with me,
She gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.
Then the Lord God said to the woman,
What is this you have done?
The woman said,
The serpent deceived me, and I ate it.
So the Lord God said to the serpent,
Because you have done this,
cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals.
You will crawl on your belly,
and you will eat dust all the days of your life.
And I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers.
He will crush your head,
and you will strike his heel.
To the woman he said,
I will make your pains and childbearing very severe.
With painful labor you will give birth to children.
Your desire will be for your husband,
and he will rule over you.
To Adam he said,
Because you listened to your wife,
and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you,
you must not eat from it.
Cursed is the ground because of you.
Through painful toil you will eat fruit from it
all the days of your life.
It will produce thorns and thistles for you.
You will eat the plants of the field.
By the sweat of your brow,
you will eat your food
until you return to the ground.
Since from it you were taken,
for dust you are,
and to dust you will return.
This is God's word.
Great.
Thank you, Soda, for praying.
Jaya, for reading.
Yeah, we're going to look at this passage together.
But if we want God to speak to us,
we should pray.
So why don't we do that first?
Let's pray together.
Our Father, thank you that you speak to us.
Thank you that you tell us the truth.
If you tell us about ourselves,
about the world,
please would we listen.
Thank you that you also give us hope.
Pray that, yeah,
today we would listen to the bad news
and the good news
and come away encouraged by Jesus.
In his name we pray.
Amen.
Great.
So we're doing a series,
and it is about our physical bodies,
as you may know.
If you've been here the past few weeks,
our bodies,
yeah,
we often don't think about them.
We,
yeah,
we just have bodies.
We think they're not important.
Actually,
they are.
So we're having this series on it.
And certainly two weeks ago,
Kevin talked about how our bodies
are fearfully and wonderfully made.
And he encouraged us,
I think,
to give thanks for our bodies,
which I think we don't often do
because we take our bodies for granted.
We don't notice them.
Actually,
when do we notice our body
is when they don't work,
right?
When it hurts.
When you come out of bed
and your foot is hurting
or when you stomp your toe
or when you have a fever
or when you have been working hard
in the office
and you're so tired,
that is when you suddenly notice,
okay,
there's,
my body is struggling.
My body is hurting.
It can,
that's kind of short-term things.
Maybe there's diseases that you,
long-term conditions that you have.
Some things we don't even think about anymore,
right?
So,
I wear contact lenses
and I think I've worn them now
for 33 years
and for 33 years,
every morning,
I put them in
and every evening,
I take them out.
I don't think about it anymore
but actually,
my eyes don't work.
I can see until here
and no further,
right?
My body is broken.
I don't know if you've ever been
to the church office.
There's one desk
that has this really wacky keyboard.
I don't know if you've seen that,
if you've ever been to the office.
Well,
it's my keyboard
because ever since my student days,
I've got repetitive strain injury
and without this keyboard,
I've got all this pain
in my arms
and my hands
and I don't think about
but actually,
yeah,
my body is broken
and these are mild things,
right?
Just contact lenses
and a keyboard.
Some of us,
we have far more,
far worse conditions
that we struggle with.
That is the reality
of our bodies
and they don't seem
as wonderful
as the Bible says,
right,
sometimes?
Well,
that's because we need
to listen to the whole Bible.
The thing is,
the Bible is not
an aesthetic book.
There's a story
and just as our bodies,
yeah,
we are created
and there's still
a lot of goodness
about our bodies.
Actually,
they are broken
and that's the big topic today,
how our bodies are broken,
how we see that
and what we should do
with that
because if we don't know
that our bodies are broken,
you probably wonder,
well,
why does the Bible
is so positive
about our body
when it hurts so much?
So that's what
we're going to look at
and yeah,
this chapter,
of course,
is the chapter
that we always go back to.
I think this is
the 11th sermon
at Watermark
that has this chapter
as the reading
because,
you know,
we talk about work.
Well,
you want to understand
why your work is hard?
Come to Genesis 3
and now you want to understand
why your body hurts?
Come to Genesis 3.
This is so foundational,
right?
Because this is the world
we live in
and God made a beautiful,
perfect world.
He put Adam and Eve
in the garden
and they had everything
but then they listened
to the serpent
who told them that,
you know,
God doesn't love you,
God isn't good to you,
why don't you take this fruit
and you don't need him
and they listened
and they took it
and then their relationship
with God was broken
and then,
yeah,
and as a result
everything was broken,
their relationship
with each other.
You hear them blaming
each other
for what happened.
They are hiding
from God
and of course then,
yeah,
the curse.
If you've been here
earlier this year,
we had kind of
the cause
and the effects,
the sin
and the curse.
Well,
we are cursed.
We live in a cursed world.
As you hear,
cursed is the ground
because of you
in pain.
You will eat of it
all the days of your life
or earlier with the woman.
I will surely multiply
your pain
in childbearing.
In pain,
you shall bring forth children.
Pain is a refrain,
right,
for Adam and Eve.
This is life now.
God gave you everything
but you don't want God,
well,
you miss out
on everything else
and it's pain
and ultimately death,
right?
To dust you are,
sorry,
for dust you are
and to dust you shall return.
The world is now broken.
Work is hard.
There's natural disasters.
There's diseases.
There are wild animals.
The world is broken
and that's why,
yeah,
our bodies are broken.
That's why we suffer.
So that's what we're going
to talk about.
We're going to just think
about some of the details
and how we see that
and how we deal with that.
And just to say,
we are whole people.
I mean,
we talk about our bodies
but sometimes it's hard to know
where does your body start
and where does something else begin?
Right?
Like your mind.
Is that your body?
Well,
in some ways,
how I think is affected
by my brain,
right?
And my brain is part of my body.
So even though I might think,
well,
that's my body
and my mind,
actually,
they're connected.
You know,
your desires.
Is that your body
or is that your mind
or your spirit?
And we are whole people
and so,
you know,
they'll be a bit mixed up
but to be honest,
yeah,
we are broken
in all of those.
So,
how do we see
our broken bodies?
Well,
first of all,
I guess,
just like in this chapter,
it starts with sin,
right?
we use our bodies
for sin.
Our bodies
are sinful.
Adam and Eve,
of course,
they use their bodies
to sin.
Last week,
Oscar talked about,
you know,
it's about our hearts
but what we do
with our hearts
get expressed
with our bodies,
right?
If we love God,
we will love him
with our bodies
and the thing is,
if we sin,
we sin with our bodies
and so often,
the Bible talks about sin
as,
yeah,
with your body
and so Romans 6,
you know,
if you're a Christian,
just as you once
presented your members,
your body parts
as slaves to impurity
and to lawlessness
leading to more lawlessness,
so now present your members
as slaves to righteousness.
Your body parts,
you used to use them
for sin,
for impurity,
now use them for God,
right?
That's the idea
but we sin with our bodies.
Sometimes it's very obvious,
sexual sin,
physical violence
and abuse,
that's what you do
with your body
but,
you know,
those unkind words,
they come out of your mouth
and you covet with your eyes,
right?
And you,
it's nasty text
with your thumbs
and,
right?
And you plot revenge
with your brain
and,
right?
It's our bodies
that we use to sin
but it's not just that
our body is kind of neutral
and you can use it
for good and for bad.
Actually,
the way the Bible
talks about our bodies,
it's like there's
this kind of corruption
and when Adam and Eve
sinned,
our bodies became corrupt
and it's like sin
is kind of running
through our bodies
and we just can't do right
even if we try.
Romans 7
is a very classic
and listen to the Apostle Paul
as he talks.
verse 1.
Verse 1.
For I delight
in the law of God
in my inner being
but I see in my members
another law
waging war
against the law
of my mind
and making me captive
to the law of sin
that dwells in my members.
Wretched man that I am,
who will deliver me
from this body of death?
Hey,
you can hear him.
He wants to do good,
he wants to please God
but he,
there's just this sin
inside him
that in his body,
in his members
and how can I get rid
of this body?
It's like the corruption
of sin,
it runs through us.
I don't know physically
how that exactly works,
right?
But the truth is
that certainly
every human being
is sinful,
right?
If you have young kids,
you don't have to teach them
to disobey you,
you don't have to teach them
to throw a tantrum,
they can do that naturally.
Why?
Well,
that's who we are.
You need to teach them
to be kind.
You need to teach them
to obey,
right?
That's what we're like.
We're all corrupt.
But,
right?
When will we get rid of sin?
Well,
only,
well,
that's what he says,
who will deliver me
from this body?
It's only when you die
that we no longer sin.
Hopefully,
as you grow in Christ,
you will sin less
but we will struggle
with sin
until we get a new body.
That's the truth.
And so,
we need to know that.
Some of you may be
very aware
you struggle with sin
and you feel
you can't get rid of it.
Yeah,
there's this corruption
in our bodies.
They are broken.
And in other people.
Yeah,
the sweetest little baby
is a corrupt sinner.
You know?
We sometimes don't get that
maybe with adults,
right?
So,
someone looks very good
on the outside
and we think they're also
very good on the inside.
No.
Just because someone
is very beautiful
or very handsome
doesn't mean
they are also perfect.
They are sinners.
What?
We need to know that
about ourselves
and about everyone else.
So,
sin is one big way
that,
yeah,
we're all broken.
A second thing here
that comes
is shame,
right?
There's shame.
So,
you know,
end of chapter 2,
Adam and Eve,
they were,
the man and his wife
were both naked
and they were not ashamed.
Everything was great.
What happens
after they sin?
Well,
3 verse 7.
Then the eyes of both
were opened
and they knew
that they were naked
and they sewed
thick leaves together
and made themselves
loincloths.
And then later
God shows up
and they hide,
right?
They feel ashamed.
They feel ashamed
of their bodies,
right?
They try to cover up.
They know they're not
who they should be.
They're kind of ashamed
of who they are
and so they hide.
And that's a reality,
right?
None of us,
we all feel
like we are not
the people we should be.
We want to hide.
That's why we put on
clothes and other stuff
or we stay away
from people.
We don't open up.
We are ashamed
of who we are
and often ashamed
of our bodies.
And that's a reality.
Now,
sometimes that is,
of course,
right.
I mean,
if you compare yourself
to a holy God,
yeah,
we should be ashamed.
We know the way we live,
the way we've rejected him.
We should be ashamed
and yeah,
if it wasn't for Jesus,
we'd have a huge problem
with God.
But,
of course,
other types of shame
are not right,
right?
Sometimes you feel ashamed
because you don't look
like the supermodel
in the advertisement.
That,
of course,
is a wrong kind of shame,
right?
That's just unrealistic beauty.
That's just not,
you know,
then you don't need
to be ashamed
of who you are.
Don't listen to those things.
We will come back
to that in a moment
as well.
But,
yeah,
sometimes shame is right.
Sometimes we feel ashamed
because of how we look
or whatever
for the wrong reasons.
Yeah,
we,
you know,
maybe your body's changing
or whatever.
But,
yeah,
shame.
It's a reality.
But then,
the big one,
I guess,
how we feel it the most,
suffering,
right?
This is a world
of brokenness
and our bodies
are broken.
This broken world
affects us
and hurts us
and we see that
in so many ways.
Just to say,
when we talk about
suffering,
you know,
the world is broken.
It's not that,
you know,
my suffering
is due to my sin.
Sometimes it is,
right?
If I live an unhealthy life,
then,
yeah,
I will suffer
the consequences.
But,
at the same time,
the whole world is broken
and there's a kind of randomness.
You know,
sometimes there's a really evil person
and they are happy
and healthy.
And then,
here's a little child
suffering unimaginably
who's never done anything wrong,
right?
That is the world we live in.
It's all a bit random.
So,
don't feel,
you know,
I'm suffering.
That's because of something
I've done wrong.
It doesn't work like that.
But,
we all suffer
from this broken world.
What can we talk about?
You know,
lots of words
with a D,
usually.
I mean,
can think of
destitution,
deprivation.
Here's some big ones.
Disease,
right?
Diseases are now in the world
since Adam and Eve
and we,
you know,
sometimes small ones,
sometimes big ones.
But,
we get,
we're confined to bed.
We need to go to hospital.
We need treatment.
Our bodies don't work,
do what they do.
If you're a doctor,
you probably know
there's so many diseases.
Damage,
right?
So often,
we get damaged,
you know,
because you get hurt
by things,
by accidents,
you're cutting food
and you cut yourself,
you stomp your toe.
Bigger damage,
right?
Accidents
that can really
disable you
for the rest of your life
or something like that.
Mental damage as well.
I don't know,
does that fall under our body?
So many of us,
we have scars from,
you know,
people,
what people have said to us.
Things that have happened to us
that have just
led to trauma
and experiences
and then we have this damage
kind of in our mind
that,
yeah,
affects the way we live,
that we,
stops us functioning
as we want to.
That kind of brokenness,
damage.
Here's a big one,
defects.
That's what we struggle with,
right?
Because so often,
diseases can be treated
and damage,
you know,
yeah,
you go to the hospital,
you get a cast
and,
but defects.
Some people are just born
with something wrong with them.
Now,
legs that are not the same length.
Someone who is blind.
People who are infertile.
Infertile,
right?
That can happen.
Less fingers
than you should.
DNA,
that means you are very prone
to depression
or Alzheimer's
and you're just born with it
and it's there
for the rest of your life.
Sometimes it can be treated,
often it can't.
Life-threatening allergies,
right?
We are broken,
we are defective
and because it's
for the rest of your life
that can be so hard
to deal with,
right?
The brokenness
or if you have it
in loved ones,
if you have a child
that you really need
to care for
because of,
yeah,
there's a defect
and,
yeah,
it's not a nice word
but that's the truth,
right?
Right?
And just to say,
of course,
I'm talking about
real defects,
right?
Really,
your body isn't working.
Again,
sometimes people,
they compare themselves
with social media
and think,
oh,
my body is defective,
right?
It's,
parts of my body
are the wrong shape
and the wrong size
and the wrong color.
That's not a defect.
You know,
God has made billions
of human beings
and we're all different
and that's just part
of the wonderful variety,
right?
So often,
there's nothing wrong
with your body.
I'm talking about
real defects,
right?
That your body
really doesn't work,
that it's really not
as a human should be
but those are not defects.
Think of anorexia.
You know,
a girl who is very thin
but she thinks she's fat
and she hurts her body
more to just lose weight.
It's her brain that's wrong.
It's nothing wrong
with her body.
Well,
nothing wrong
with the rest of her body
if that makes sense
but,
yeah,
defects,
right?
And then,
of course,
what else?
Decay.
This is when you're
a bit older like me.
You start growing old.
You lose your hair.
Your hair turns gray.
You lose your muscle.
You start forgetting things.
You lose your mind.
We all get old.
Yeah,
some of you are really feeling that.
You can't do
what you used to do.
You try to play sports
and you get hurt
and injured
and then it takes ages
to heal
because you're just getting old.
Why?
Because,
well,
it leads to the last D of death
and one day
we will all die.
Our body will fully,
finally stop working
and God is the God of life
and when we reject him,
we have death
and the death rate
has never changed.
It's still 100%.
No matter what we have tried to do,
no matter how much technology
we have,
we will all die.
Our loved ones die,
right?
That's something we really feel
and some of us are very aware
that the death is hanging over us.
That is the ultimate brokenness
when our bodies will ultimately fail.
So yeah,
that is our,
the brokenness of this world,
the brokenness of our bodies
and I don't know how you feel.
My guess is you will feel depressed,
right?
Because this is depressing.
This is the world we live in
and it's,
yeah,
and if you,
if this is all there is,
if you just,
you're going to decay and die,
isn't that a horrible prospect?
Now,
how do we deal with this?
Well,
in some way,
we shouldn't complain.
We're sinners.
This is a broken world
and it's better than we deserve.
But here's a few things.
First of all,
we can have faith.
We can trust God
in the suffering and brokenness
of this world
and of our bodies.
We can have faith.
We can trust.
What would that,
well,
what do I mean?
Well,
even this,
in our brokenness,
you know,
if you're a Christian,
God is your father,
right?
He is in control of everything.
He shapes you.
He forms you.
He knows what's going on
and he,
he has a purpose
in what's happening.
So,
the brokenness
that you experience,
God promises
he's using that.
And so,
like we see in James,
you know,
trials lead to steadfastness.
We can trust him in that.
A big example,
of course,
is the Apostle Paul,
right?
He had a problem.
2 Corinthians 12.
And so,
to keep me
from becoming conceited
because of the surpassing
greatness of the revelations,
a thorn was given me
in the flesh,
a messenger of Satan
to harass me,
to keep me
from becoming conceited.
Three times,
I pleaded with the Lord
about this,
that it should leave me.
But he said,
he said to me,
my grace is sufficient
for you,
for my power
is made perfect
in weakness.
I don't know
what it was,
but some kind of,
something physical,
right?
A thorn in the flesh.
Something that he
struggled with.
The great Apostle Paul
is not,
he didn't have
perfect health,
no,
he had something
and it really annoyed him.
But,
you know,
God gave that to him
for a reason.
I mean,
it was a messenger
of Satan,
right?
In some ways,
God didn't cause it.
It's caused by
other causes,
but God was in control.
And God gave it
for a good reason,
hey,
to stop you becoming proud,
to keep you humble.
And Paul learned
to accept that,
that hey,
yeah,
I suffer with this,
but I can trust God
with it.
And so,
I don't know
what you are facing.
We can trust God
with it,
that hey,
God is using this.
And even though
it's hard,
I know God
is with me in this
and he's got a purpose.
It's not always easy,
it can take time.
Sometimes it's not even
easy to know
what to do.
I mean,
clearly Paul prayed
that he would take it,
that God would take it away.
That's a good thing to do.
It's not just that
he just accepted it.
I mean,
and if you're sick,
it's good to go
to the doctor,
right?
And if your leg is broken,
please go to hospital.
That's not a bad thing.
But sometimes it's really hard
to know what to do.
Infertility.
What do you do?
Do you just accept
that you don't,
that you know,
that you can't have children?
Do you adopt?
Do you seek fertility treatment?
They're all legitimate options
open for Christians?
You know,
trusting God.
What does it look like
in those cases?
It's actually
very difficult.
I mean,
you know,
as you get older,
you need to work
on your health,
but how much,
right?
You don't want to become
a gym rat,
you know,
but at the same time,
it's good to be healthy
and work on your heart
and your,
right?
Those kind of things.
Actually,
there's a lot of wisdom
that you actually need
how to deal with this.
But the basic idea,
hey,
I know I'm broken,
but God is in control
of my brokenness
and I can trust him in this.
That's the big message.
We can have faith.
And of course,
we should have love,
right?
We should care
care for each other.
If we know
that we're all broken
in so many ways,
so many ways
that we,
sometimes we can't see
in people,
but we know
we are scarred
and damaged
and there's things
going on.
Well,
it should give us
compassion,
first of all,
right?
We should be gentle
and patient
and gracious
with people
because
we're all broken.
And sometimes
as a pastor,
there's,
you know,
people,
and you know,
this is what God says,
go and do it.
That's my instinct.
Just go and do it.
But actually,
you know,
people have experienced things.
People have struggles.
People have mental health.
People have things going on
in their life
that means they're broken.
They're struggling.
I should be gentle
and patient with people.
We can be gentle
and patient with each other.
Maybe in your CG,
you know,
people aren't doing
what you want them to do
or something.
Hey,
let's understand each other.
Let's have compassion
and be gracious
and gentle.
Practical help as well,
right?
It's not just
our attitude.
If people are broken,
we should help each other.
And it's great to hear
of someone in hospital
when their CG
kind of jumps into action
and takes care of them.
That's wonderful to see.
Sometimes,
as a church,
we're really good at that.
I mean,
it's a lot easier
when it's short term,
though.
How about long term?
Maybe if you're,
you know,
I saw that prayed.
If you're caring
for elderly relatives
and it's just every day,
every week,
caring,
every,
all this practical help
that can be so tough
and hard.
And you love this person,
you want to help them,
but it's draining
and,
yeah.
But love is a beautiful thing
in that case.
But it could be
all kinds of things,
right?
Not just that kind
of practical help.
Maybe someone
with same-sex attraction
and it means
they will never marry
someone they're attracted to.
They're going to be lonely.
And so,
inviting them
and hanging out with them
for the rest of their life,
that can be a long thing.
But it's a good thing to do.
It's how we can love each other,
practically.
But finally,
beyond faith and love,
I mean,
if this is all,
if it's just,
yeah,
we love each other,
but we still die,
it's nothing.
No,
there is hope.
Yeah?
As Christians,
we have hope.
Of course,
if,
you know,
if this world is all there is
and we're just going to decay
and die,
that's hopeless.
But as Christians,
no,
there is hope.
Right?
We know there is more.
I mean,
back in this chapter,
all the way at the beginning
of the Bible,
there is,
there is hope.
Things went wrong
with the serpent.
But one day,
yeah,
God says in verse 15,
to the serpent,
I'll put enmity between you
and the woman,
between your offspring
and her offspring,
he shall bruise your head.
Right?
It's like,
humanity was mastered
by the serpent,
but now,
someone is going to step
on the serpent.
Right?
He masters the serpent.
He deals with the problem.
The problem of sin
will be dealt with.
Later in the chapter,
God provides clothing.
He deals with their shame.
It's like,
the things that are wrong,
the brokenness,
God will deal with it.
And as we read on
in the whole Bible,
yeah,
God will deal with
all our sin and suffering.
He'll make this new world
that we've been singing about.
The new creation.
It's going to be wonderful.
And so,
we should have hope.
As,
yeah,
Romans 8.23
is such a great verse.
This is the Christian attitude.
Not only the creation,
but we ourselves,
who have the first fruits
of the Spirit,
groan inwardly
as we wait eagerly
for adoption as sons,
the redemption of our bodies.
In a chapter about
the brokenness of the world,
we groan.
Right?
We want to get out of it
and we wait eagerly
for the time
that our bodies
are set free.
That is,
Christians,
what we do.
So,
we need to look forward.
My wife still remembers
that when I was,
when my kids were young,
I would always,
whenever they grazed
their knee
or they had pain,
I always would say,
yeah, yeah,
this is a world of pain,
but Jesus is making
a world without pain
later.
Just giving them
a biblical framework.
But it's true, right?
If you know that,
it changes everything.
If this is all we have,
it's so depressing.
But if there is hope,
you know,
if one day
there will be
no more suffering,
no hurt,
nor pain,
as we just sang,
then it's okay.
We can go through it.
We just need to know
that there's an end,
right?
I don't know
if you remember COVID.
The worst thing
about COVID
was just,
it was never ending.
You never knew
when it would be over.
But if you know
something will be over,
you can endure it.
Yeah?
Yes,
we will all die,
but there is
a resurrection waiting.
As someone said,
death is not
a full stop
in your life.
It's a comma
for something
that comes later.
In two weeks,
I'm going to preach on it.
The resurrection,
I'm already looking forward
to it.
Right?
We need hope.
And so,
yeah,
don't look back.
You know,
don't look,
oh,
when I was young,
I could do all these things.
Don't look around.
Look forward.
Look forward
to the resurrection
that's coming.
There is hope.
There is an end.
And so,
we can trust God
in the meantime
with our brokenness.
And how can we know that?
Will God really have us back?
Yes,
he will.
How do we know that?
Well,
in a moment,
we're going to have
the Lord's Supper.
Look at the broken body
of Jesus.
You want to deal
with your broken body?
Look at the broken body
of Jesus.
Because
how would we get out of it
when we deserve punishment?
Well,
God himself
would take that punishment
on himself.
He would take
the brokenness
of our bodies.
He would
have a broken body
in our place
so we can be
redeemed.
Of course,
God didn't have a body,
right?
He's a spirit,
which is why
Jesus,
he took on a body.
And we see that
Hebrews 2
puts it so
wonderfully
that
since therefore
the children
us share
in flesh and blood,
he himself
likewise
partook of the same things
that through death
he might destroy
the one
who has the power
of death,
that is the devil.
And Jesus
took on flesh and blood
so that
through his death
he could destroy
the devil.
As it says
in Genesis 3,
the one who would
bruise the serpent,
his heel would be bruised.
He would suffer
in the process.
But a suffering
is for us.
And that is what
Jesus did.
He got a body,
he lived our life
and then
well,
he hung on the cross.
First of all,
so much shame,
right?
Hanging up naked
for everyone to see.
So much shame.
Well,
to deal with our shame.
And then all the pain
and all the damage
and the death
that we deserve
he took on himself
so that we
can be set free.
Of course,
it means you can go
to Jesus now.
He knows about suffering.
He knows about pain.
He understands that
because he went through it.
You can always come to him.
But his suffering
was so much more,
right?
It was in our place.
It saved us.
So look at Jesus'
broken body.
See his love for you
and know that
there will be an end
to our suffering,
our brokenness.
So later,
when you take
the Lord's Supper,
yeah,
take it in like that,
right?
Jesus,
thank you for,
yeah,
I have a broken body.
I need your broken body.
I need you to die for me.
Thank you that you did that.
Thank you
that I can be free.
Please raise me
from the dead.
Let's take it
in that way.
Okay.