A church of flesh and blood

Luke 24:36. And the word of the Lord says: "While they were still talking about these things..." that is, about the Resurrection of Jesus Christ -the commotion that there was around the fact that Christ had risen, they commented about these things- "Jesus became in the midst of them and said: 'Peace to you, Shalom', he told them, then "shocked and frightened they thought they saw a spirit", and that is very... or that they saw a spirit, that they saw a ghost in other words. In the original Greek the idea is that they thought they were seeing a phantom –a ghost–, that was the idea. But He said to them: "Why are you troubled and these thoughts come to your hearts?" and this verse It is key to what I want to develop at this moment. "Look at my hands and my feet that I myself am, that I myself am. Handle and see because a spirit does not have flesh and bones" Luke 24:39. This is the key verse of this whole passage, I could even read only that Verse as a basis. "Look at my hands and my feet, that I myself am. Touch and see because a spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you see that I have".

Notice what He said there, right? Let's not spiritualize things too much, right? It says here, "a spirit has neither flesh nor bones, as you can see that I have", because sometimes, how many times have we tried to spiritualize the risen Christ a little? and perhaps we see him in a white robe, semi-transparent like a spirit; but look, it says here that he had "flesh and bones." Dare we say it had intestines too, wow! Do you dare to think that?, that it had a heart and esophagus, that it had ribs, hm?, that is, give meat to Jesus at that moment, do not take your meat from the Lord. It says here very clearly "a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have." He had blood that was running through his veins. Visualize it in all its corporeality at that moment, which is very important.

"And saying this, he showed them his hands and feet. And since they still did not believe it with joy and were amazed, he said to them: 'Do you have anything to eat here?', so I assume that he also had teeth, he had a mouth , it had a throat and stomach and possibly intestines, I don't know, but I think it had everything a human body has. I'll say it: sexual organs, ugg! It had everything a human being has and I say that not to shock but because there is a purpose to what I am saying and I want to shock you because that is very important. 'Do you have anything to eat here?' "Then they gave him part of a roasted fish and a honeycomb and he took it and ate ". Everyone say: he ate... "in front of them". May the Lord bless his Holy Word.

What went into Pastor Miranda's head when he read this passage and tried to get something out of it for him? Well, I always like when I talk about these, on these days that are repeated every year, I don't want to come back with the same Sermon all the time, but always... I believe that the Resurrection, what the crucifixion is, the suffering of Jesus, Christmas; those events that we celebrate year after year, have so much teaching that can be extracted from them that we do an injustice by always preaching the same topics over and over again.

There are many, many interpretive angles to these events and as I was thinking about it this week and thinking about the Resurrection, the death of Jesus, his crucifixion and all of these things this passage came to mind. Again, as I was saying last Friday speaking of Peter denying Jesus, one sometimes stumbles upon these verses, these passages and one knows that there is something hidden in them; the spirit reacts to them and then the mind says "well, what is it that my spirit is feeling and what is it seeing?", then the task of the Teacher, Preacher, Exegete, Bible scholar like you and I we must be, our part is then that our spirit speaks to us and that the Lord begins to pass on to our understanding what we are perceiving spiritually. I want to share with you what I feel that the Lord has spoken to me about that verse where he says: "Touch you and see because a spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you see that I have".

This passage, brothers, tells us about something very important and that is that the Resurrection and its power, its consequences, the effect, the impact –listen to me carefully– that the Resurrection has had have invaded human reality, the realm of time and space. space, now and here. Not only eternity, not only the future, not only the future, but the Resurrection was a burst of energy, like an atomic bomb, but of an inconceivable magnitude. When the Resurrection broke out, when Christ rose from the dead, when life entered through the cloths of his dead body and a powerful energy unleashed his body and... that energy pushed aside the rock that stood between the life of God that had exploded inside that cave and the world outside, something extraordinary, revolutionary, irrevocable, unprecedented happened in the realm of time and space. History would never be the same again. The world would never be the same again, just as sin and the fall unleashed irrevocable consequences in the human context, in time and space in matter itself, in the same way the Resurrection unleashed equally radical and powerful consequences. Now the Sacred in a way like never before in reality and its consequences had invaded human reality and from that Resurrection a potentiality was opened like never before and from then on every man, every woman who wanted to embrace what Christ represents and accepting him as Lord and Savior could then enter into a new reality, into a new economy – we could say so – spiritual.

An area where the power of God could be manifested, where the same power that raised Christ from the dead as Paul says in Ephesians 1:17,18 "now had to dwell in every believer", where we no longer had to live in chains to the power of the Devil and his illegitimate kingdom. You see, if Christ had simply come to Earth preached, proclaimed, healed, delivered from demoniacs but when he was crucified his body would have been buried and everything would have stayed there, I assure you that no... this matter of Christianity would not have the power and meaning it has. The Resurrection was absolutely key and important in the entire plan of God, it was the jewel on top of the crown. That is why Paul in First Corinthians: 15 says – read it later whenever you want – that "If Christ did not rise from the dead, then we are the most worthy of Mercy, because we are still lost in sin". The Resurrection is what confirms, consolidates the triumph of Christ over death and darkness and I will be walking and stepping here to celebrate the fact that this platform is here too. Glory to God.

The Resurrection has also invaded the void of the stairway here. So, brothers, it is very important to say, understand this, I always like when I talk about the Resurrection not to talk about it as something that simply assures us of eternal life, that assures us of our own Resurrection at the Second Coming, that opens access for us to to Paradise and to the new life in Heaven; I have always tried to preach that the Resurrection has consequences for the now and the here, for our time; How many can say...? Okay, to scare you a little bit, say amen. It has consequences for the reality that we inhabit, for your life and for mine. Tomorrow when you go to work, you will be living in the power of the Resurrection. Glory to God.

The Resurrection has invaded Monday morning, my brother, even those days when there is snow and there is cold and there is ice; says "I live in the power of the Resurrection" and you can walk with that authority, even when your body is sick and you are struggling with difficult situations in your life, tell your flesh, tell the reality of that diabolical what it wants destroy you: "I inhabit, move and live in the power of the Resurrection". The power of God is in me and that is why I am more than victorious, I can do everything in Christ who strengthens me and when we are living in that fight of the fall of the world without the Resurrection, we have to remember: "no, I I move in a dimension where Christ has risen and has delegated His Power in my life", where the power that raised Christ from the dead moves within me and I can look at that giant in the face and say: "I'm going to to tear down, I'm going to destroy you because the power of God lives in me.

That is important, brothers, understand, because many Christians are like these disciples: they do not know that Christ has risen and, even worse, they do not believe it, so much that they suffered, so much that they suffered, so much that they heard him say that he was going to rise again and when Christ rises they do not know it and do not believe it, they cannot... adopt it, digest it and Christ is interested that you and I know that He has risen. But more important than that, He is interested in knowing...that you and I know how he has risen, in what form He has risen. But, brothers, it is very important that you do not leave here on this day, please remember this: "if you are in Christ, you inhabit a new reality", you cannot continue living under the dominion of the devil, you cannot you can continue living under the inertia of fallen life, you cannot continue living as if Christ had not risen, you cannot continue living as if the Resurrection had not been a revolution, you cannot continue living as... the same the way you lived before. What does the Word say? It says: "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature." The old things passed away and behold, ALL! they are made new, my financial and economic life, my moral life, my mental life, my emotional life, my family life, my married life, my life in everything... put what you want there, it is new in Christ and his... the Resurrection. That is what I think is important in the risen Christ the human and the divine are mixed in a new and different way than they were mixed in the incarnation merely.

I know I am... I know it will take a little time to digest, but the incarnation mixed the human with the divine, yes or no? In Mary's womb a very special chemistry was made: the human and the Divine were mixed, but you know what? Now when Christ resurrects the human and the divine have acquired a new way of mixing. I know I'm getting into deep water here theologically speaking, but it's important that we understand this. Before the Divine essence inhabited the body of Jesus and there was a perfect mixture of the human and the Divine, but now the interesting thing is that the very body of Jesus, although it is the body that He walked before on Earth, is saturated with a new Glory. But it is like that now the divine has entered in a different way in the human, the corporeal. Now it is a truly glorified body, where the Lord moves, appears, disappears. Read after the Resurrection how He appears to the disciples and at the moment He disappears, they see Him and don't see Him, He walks with the disciples on the road to Emmaus and they don't know Him and at the moment He opens... breaks the bread and oh! they discover it then it disappears from them and appears in another place...

There is a new form, it is Jesus, but his deity and his body are mixed in a different form. It is the body now glorified, the Resurrection has operated something different, but it is still a body, and that is very important. That is one of the great lessons of the Resurrection, it is the following, listen to this also: "it is an event that affects the now and the here of the children of God." The body and the Spirit mix in a different way, the meaning of life completely changes, our suffering, our inconveniences, our struggles are redeemed and penetrated by the Glory of God. We can now live in the supernatural in a different way, we can inhabit and move in a completely different way than we did before.

Let me ask you something, why didn't Jesus Christ directly ascend to Heaven after his Resurrection? Have you wondered that? Why did He have to come into the world, for a short time? Because the time He was in the world was very short before He came back, why didn't He just be sent straight to Heaven after He was in the grave and maybe went to Hell to declare something there? Why did He have to come and enter the world, in time and space, talk to His disciples, do certain things? Because? Unless God did not want it to be clear that now what his Son had experienced his Resurrection was invading human reality, in a preliminary way until he came to consummate the total transformation at his second coming. But the Re... the Christ who walked on Earth in time and space, for a little while, after rising, wanted to announce to the world, to human reality: "I have risen and the world will never be again." the same from here on out." He wanted to walk again now in his resurrected power, the man who had been resurrected had to walk on Earth, declaring God's victory over death, invading our life, letting us know: "now you and I inhabit a new potentiality , a new power, a new dimension".

Brothers, this is very important, that we understand that God wants to unite Heaven and Earth, the body and the spirit, because this sermon is about the body more than anything, but how is it related to the Spirit? I want to emphasize that the power of God invades the corporeality of life, invades matter, invades the body, invades... that is why I emphasized about Jesus, his organs, his body, his corporeality and Christ is interested in the disciples know that He is not just some ethereal, disembodied spirit walking around. He is interested in knowing that it is a body, that this is him, that this is his body, that when he rose, he rose with the body. You know what, brothers? I have no way to prove it but you know? I believe that Christ up there in Heaven is not... How do we imagine it?

I want you to understand, how do you imagine Jesus sitting there at the right hand of the Father? How do you imagine Jesus in Heaven? Do you imagine it as such a merely ethereal spirit? It is a body. Look when Christ... I don't know what He was before he came down, but I think I know what He is now, after he went up. He is the one who walked on... He who ate that piece of bread and that fish was the one who climbed up and the one who will come... his body, is a man... God. I... I didn't wonder the chemistry of that thing but it's... when Christ became a man, He didn't leave His humanity down here when He ascended. That is important. I know that I am getting into hot water here, but remember that well, maybe when I get there they will have to give me a theology lesson, but every day I understand more and more this matter that... look at me I believe that when Christ came down to Earth, incarnated, became man, He did not leave his humanity down here as I believe that "I already used it for what I needed, and –whew– he left it there and then a spirit ascended" No, it ascended a man, God, perfectly united, glorified, in a glorified body and therefore, I believe that this Jesus, I looked, that has terrible, great, serious implications and that is what I want to develop in the minutes that I have left.

The corporeality, the humanity of Jesus glorified that allows him a contact with us that you cannot even imagine. This allows you a way of understanding each other and for us to relate... Do you know what human beings, humanity needs that? That is why, I believe, that by not understanding the corporeality of Jesus, Humanity has had to invent Mary as that mother, that human intermediary; because the human being is always in need of something with which to identify, touch, see, feel, identify with it.

Look... I... Christ is from... Christ is human, divine, He is a glorified body, He is God, but He is also humanity there in Heaven and He comes into the world and He knows my weaknesses, He knows my struggles, He knows my worries, he knows my pains, I can talk to him. The word says that we have a High Priest who is capable of compassionate us because He knows what we feel. And I can talk to that Jesus, he is my brother, he is my friend, he is my counselor, he is my buddy – as the Mexicans say – and when I talk to him about anything I feel he says: "Of course, yes, I know, because I was there", without sin, but He knows. Your body, your redeemed humanity can be identified and connected with that dimension of who I am and that is why it is so important that we focus on that moment when Jesus tells you "look, I am not a spirit, gentlemen", he tells you, "I I have flesh and bone" and if you don't believe me, look for some hamburgers with a little 'bacon' and see if I don't get my hands on it.

A spirit doesn't do that, it's like the dolls... if it had been a spirit, when it eats it, what happens? it goes away and you see the hamburger going down, no, no... He digested it, He ate it, chewed it as it were, because it was a glorified body. Brothers, look, this is not something in vain, this has implications that it would take us a long time to unravel that... don't be scared, I'm not going to take it all out, but I just want to suggest that yes, it is very important that you and I understand this . Do you know that the disciples were always trying to turn Jesus into a ghost?

Look at a passage when Christ... when they were at sea and there was a storm that was... it was tormenting them, they had been under the storm all night and it says that the wind was contrary to them and it says that at the end of the In the early morning night Jesus came walking on the water and what does verse 49 say? He says that: "When they saw him walk on the sea, they thought he was a ghost and they shouted" because they all saw him and were disturbed, but he immediately spoke to them and said: "Have courage, I am". The same thing that he says when he is resurrected: "I myself am", ego eimi, I myself am. The Lord was always saying that: "I am", you see when they see Jesus walking on the water they say: "no one can do that except a ghost". This is a dead man who has appeared to us here, the Lord says: "no, no gentlemen, I am the one who is walking on those waters, my power. Do not want to turn me into a ghost." You know, brothers, the Church... we, in our humanity and our lack of faith, are always trying to reduce the power of Christianity and faith and the Resurrection and the promise of God, I tell you: "Father help me" because I... my biology... I have like a thin cloth that covers my spiritual understanding that prevents me from feeling the power of God as God wants me to feel it. I tell him: "Lord, tear off the membrane that covers my faith, so that I can see and feel all the power that dwells within me through Christ Jesus; so that I am not tempted to spiritualize, metaphorize, poeticize, literaturize your declarations of power and potentiality".

You know what? Today there are many churches that are continually doing that, cowardly, they have stopped insisting on the statements that God has made and have sold the Gospel and dishonor it and have killed the power of God's statements in the Word. Dead churches, churches... a lot of poetry, a lot of theology, a lot of cheap statements that sound great but dishonor the God who declared them because they have taken the power of the statements and they have numbed the people of God and have created a weak people, a cowardly people, a timid people, a people that does not live and vibrate under the declarations of God, incapable of coming into contact with the power of the Resurrection. And they've turned it into a ghost instead of saying, "No, eternity, the power of God, the utterances of God, the miraculous move, the abundant life of God exists here in time and space, moves in me." life moves in my reality and with Christ, with that risen Christ I can do anything".

Brothers, I will die, insisting that things are exactly as God said. And if I cannot see them in my life or in my Church, the problem is mine, not God's or the word that declared it, and I will never lower what the Word says to adapt it to what I live. No, what I live has to conform to the Word. Christ is here, Christ lives, Christ is real. Christ has invaded corporeal reality, the body, matter, time, space. Christ says: "I am not a ghost" that is the title of this Sermon, it is more "I am not a ghost". Christ is a living, real being who has invaded time and space and that reality invades my life, too, and He is extremely interested. That's why He insisted, why go to such trouble to test the disciples? He tells them 'Look, touch my hands, my body. Look at my hands, look at my feet. Look there are the marks of the wound. Look there are the marks, if I were a ghost that would already be made up, I would have had plastic surgery there in Heaven. No, I still have the marks, there. Listen to me, if we could see right now... when a nail was driven into a person, maybe a quarter of an inch thick and they drove it through the tendons and bone as was done to those crucified... Do you think that in three, four days it would be closed and beautiful? Look, you get a little cut, and for years afterward you will have the mark, the more so that some nails are inserted into it. When they nailed her hands, they weren't the hands here as we thought, the body would have been torn apart. They stuck it in the wrist, they put it in, it was a strong nail to break the bone and go through and into the wood.

When Christ rises he says: 'Look at that, this is me'. But now my body has a very different power and thing, and Christ wants you to know that He has already risen. That bruised body, that pierced body, that penetrated body broke the moorings of death and now they will never crucify him again. When he comes again, he comes to put... says, "He will rule the nations with a rod of iron." No one will be able to resist. That is the Christ that I believe, brothers, that is the Lion of Judah, that lion that is out there roaring. That is the Christ that God has called me to serve. It's not the Christ who chickens out, you know? He is a Christ of power, he is a Christ of authority.

Look, let me conclude with this, the fact that Jesus ate and was resurrected with a physical although glorified body, teaches us several things. Listen to that again... the fact that Jesus ate and rose again with his nails, his marks and that he proved to the disciples that he was a body with flesh and bones, stomach and physical sinews although glorified teaches us several things.

Number one – I don't have time to do it, but write it down there, meditate on it later – one of the things that will seem a little strange to you is this: Christians have to be open-minded, realistic, down to earth, accessible to us, brothers, not spirituality. self-righteous, cheap, esoteric, mystical, sanctimonious... I renounce that in the name of Jesus. God wants men and women of flesh and blood. With deodorant there, smelling, no, no, no, they smell like sweat every once in a while, you know? Yes, gentlemen, let them eat chicken and pork and everything else in between. People who do know how to fast, pray, cry out, seek holiness, but also people who know how to make a good joke, laugh at themselves, enjoy life, and be accessible to others.

Brothers, that guilty conscience that projects itself into a cheap, useless, useless, self-righteous spirituality does not serve God. God needs men and women with bodies. You understand? That they rescue their humanity, people that yes, that they be saints, that they seek the will of God in their lives, but that the people out there can recognize them. This is a person like me, she has her struggles, she has her difficulties, she has her flaws, but she's living a glorified life that... in a way that I don't know how she does. That when people come to our churches they see people who laugh, who enjoy life, who slap each other on the back, who rub from time to time but then reconcile, people who enjoy life, rejoice in the Lord. People who have rescued matter.

You understand? Because the Church has always wanted to reject the body. If you go back to the times of the Second Century there with the monastic movement at the beginning, right? the monks are there stuck in their cells, whipping each time they had a bad thought or whatever and all this and refusing marriage. Then they say "no, my creation is good, and what you need to do is redeem it, but don't reject it from me because everything I did is good." The family is good, the marriage is good, the friendship is good, the sex is good, brothers forgive me, the food is good, I did everything and it is good in me Holiness. And we have to understand that, brothers, and celebrate it, live it, none of that self-righteousness for this Church. I rebuke and reject them in the name of Jesus. We want real people, true people, and that is what Christ meant, where... give me a piece of bread and a piece of salmon, and I am going to prove to you: "This here is a man, it is a body, and do not turn me there into a Saint made of wood or plaster. I am a redeemed or glorified man" And our churches have to be like that.

This world is not going to come to anything other than that. I believe in laughter, I believe in celebration, I believe in joy, I believe in partying. In the Lord.

This week I was reading a quote that Martin Luther said, the Reformer of the Church, and Martin Luther said: 'If you can't laugh in Heaven, I don't want to go there' and that's... let's ask the Lord to teach us the balance between our humanity and our holiness, our eternity and our temporality, our body and our spirit. A balanced Church. That is what I ask of the Lord: "Lord, teach me, teach us the balance." A healthy personality, a Church that represents the joy of the Lord, abundant life in Christ Jesus, the ability to enjoy everything but now under the power of the Resurrection. The body rescued, preserved, redeemed, glorified, living as God designed it to live as much as possible. Because we will never achieve the totality of what God wants and that leads me to another thing, I believe that we need a Church that can understand sin and can... these souls that will be more and more destroyed every day by the war that is unleashing out there, by a humanity that every day rejects more and more the values of God; the lives that arrive here they will have more terrible spiritual illnesses than ever before in all of history, and if we have a church here that sheds a little bit of blood and a bad smell and all of a sudden they start making faces and all that and "oops, ooops," we're not going to to be able to fight c with that humanity. We need people who, like surgeons, like doctors, can see the distended intestines and bad smells and can say: “Hey! In the name of Jesus we declare the life and healing of God."

If next to you sits a person who doesn't look like, doesn't smell, or doesn't speak as you are used to, hug him and bless him in the name of the Lord. Don't put me there looking at weird things.

I tell you, brothers, in the name of Jesus I reject all rejection of the people who come from outside this Church, no matter what. This Church is open, blessed to the alcoholic, the homosexual, the adulterer, the drug addict, the person perverted by life, the person who has spent many bad nights. Let them come, here they will find healing, here they will find the power of the risen Christ, here they will find the capacity for the body to become something that truly glorifies God.

Because the Church of Jesus Christ has to be in tune with the body, with Humanity, with the concrete, do you understand? We have tried to make our churches antiseptic, like a surgical operating room in a hospital. I have told them if you want to see me upset, tell me: "Pastor, there is sin in the Church" and I am going to tell you "Where were you? Of course, there is sin, it is full of human beings". we wait?

What we have to do is properly relate to and deal with sin and declare the holiness of God. But look, don't be scandalized and walk around with lots of faces and lots of things. Sin will be with us until Christ comes. Get used to that at once. What we have to do is deal with it properly, declare the word. I will never bias on what the Word of God says. I will deal with my humanity and I will deal with sin until the last day of my life, but I say, I am not going to get neurotic about sin, neither in myself nor in others.

I will deal with sin as a doctor deals with disease, in the grace and power and sufficiency and positivity of the Lord. We need Churches like this with a clear theology of sin and Holiness. A very suitable mix.

So that's balance, we have to be easygoing. The Christ who ate bread and fish and who has flesh and bones says "I want a Church with flesh and bones" and that knows how to relate to other people with flesh and bones. Very important.

Another thing, we have to... this of our León de Judá Church and the church of Christ has more and more to take into account the body and not only the spirit in its ministry. That is why I love it more and more every day when we, for example, this ministry of the Crown Financial Ministry –El Ministerio Financiero– this class that about fifty people are taking in the area of Finance. I love this idea that Finance is no longer something that is said in the pulpit spiritually speaking esotericly, abstractly, no, look, what does Finance mean? It means credit, it means saving, it means having a budget, it means subjecting yourself to a certain order, it means giving your tithe to the Lord, it means paying your debts if you have debts, it means planning. People need the Church with its divine wisdom to teach them how to live in that concrete dimension. Every day the Church has to develop more programs that have flesh and blood. Not only the etherealness here from the pulpit, but come down there and mingle with the people in their day to day.

The church has to be teaching more about finances, working with people who are dealing with immigration, in counseling. Lift up, help through the Institute for Pastoral Excellence. Raise Pastors who can deal with the community, who can deal with families, who can deal with youth, who can deal with sexuality, who can deal with counseling, so that our churches have that corporeality. Those concrete ministries, those ministries of hand-to-hand combat, discipleship. How do they embody the truths of God in human life? In day to day? And how can you do, give life and body to the values of the Kingdom of God? And every day I ask the Lord that our Church can more and more have that level of specificity in its Ministry, second thing.

Third... well, that goes a lot there... forgive me brothers, sometimes I try to be brief and to be... but there are so many things and... I can't... it's that the word of God is too much... the Gospel, the Church has to get involved in the needs of the total man, it has to include the social, the political, the artistic, the intellectual. We have to seek to affect and inseminate all human reality. Don't talk to me about putting the Gospel in a closet, in a temple, in a house, we have to leaven the whole mass of humanity, brothers.

I read an article yesterday, Rupert are you here? Rupert submitted a Times Magazine article "The Death and Decline of Christianity in America." I rebuke it is a lie from the devil, Christianity is going to have more power than ever, I declare it, the Church is not going to die. And this confused Episcopalian, I am going to say it to myself, who writes the article says that it is good that the Christian Church loses influence in America and that every day the Church stops speaking about sexuality, about laws, about politics.

The Lord rebukes, those are the doctrines of the devil that the Apostle spoke of in his book that would come in these "false Christian" times, excuse me, brothers, because the wrath of God fills me many times. I am no longer going to remain silent about certain things. For a false decency and courtesy that does not suit the Kingdom of God. I rebuke any Christian who is celebrating the death and waning of Christian influence in this nation. And he supposedly celebrates the fact that the Church no longer has as much influence and that the Gospel is going to be extracted from politics and society. I know that the evangelicals here in America have not been able to handle that matter very well, but brothers, let me tell you something, the Gospel is supposed to penetrate politics, laws, morality, education, art, in the intellect, in philosophy, in all dimensions of life.

And the devil wanted to intimidate the church and limit the Gospel to the house, to the four walls of the Temple. That is what he would like, to put the Gospel in the closet, while others come out of the closet.

Lord, rebuke that wickedness of the devil. The Church has to speak to all dimensions of life. And that's why that theology is so important. Christ rose in flesh and blood and came here in history, time and space before going to Heaven. He did not leave directly, he passed through the world to leave here the deposits of his Resurrection.

The church has to work on that a lot. What are the implications of this corporeality of Christ in terms of our way of doing the Ministry?

Third thing, this is very important, so please forgive me if I go a little too far. Listen to this, sexuality, everyone say: sexuality. Sexuality is included in the Resurrection, in God's plan. That's why I celebrate this program that is... thank you Lord... it's through Copani but León de Judá is playing a very important role and this program is called: "It's worth waiting"– you don't know, but that grant from three million dollars that we receive through Copani, to work with Copani and with the resources that God has given us to teach our young people to wait, for that reason "it is worth waiting", to have a healthy sexuality, a sexuality... because this world, brothers, is perverting our youth more and more.

To the point of saying that they are like animals that cannot be repressed, let us better teach them how to channel their promiscuity, instead of telling them, "No, we must do everything possible to remain in Holiness before God, even if we fail", whatever it is, we have to say that over and over again. The Church has to be that retaining wall. If our youth is not told at the very least: "look at this... this is what you have to aim for", then where are they going to end up? If there is no voice that says: "Look, this is what God expects of you" at least you have to aim for the moon, so that you can even hit the roof of your house, aim high. If we let our guard down, if we stop speaking to Humanity about God's values, what is expected then, brothers? The Church cannot get away from the aspect of sexuality and that covers all areas. A healthy, exuberant, holy, balanced sexuality for the children of God at this time. We have to speak clearly about what is happening in the United States. A review of the concept of human sexuality, in all areas, in all areas, and I include not only homosexuality, which is extremely important, but also everything else: promiscuity, adultery, pornography - which is eating up the Church and the Pastorate– in all areas, brothers. There is a healthy sexuality that God wants for his children and the Church cannot lower the standard, we have to continue even if we fail, even if we fight, but that is the truth of God and we have to declare it and we have to tie ourselves to it and may God have mercy of us.

But if we put that down and say "no, we can't talk about that, because people get offended", look, that's the devil trying to intimidate David so that he doesn't throw the stone that he has to throw at the giant in the forehead.

The church has to say "No, that is our territory, too" and that is hurting it, it is destroying, it is eating away at the texture of this society and we are agents of God's life and truth here. And we are not going to shut up, that is what the devil wants, to gag the Church in order to then checkmate this Humanity, which is already almost completely fallen.

The last thing, I promise you, we have to cultivate a different vision of what Heaven is and what things will be like at the second coming. That's just left there for the future. But that is very important, how do you see yourself in Heaven? Do you also see yourself, when you get there at the door they are going to give you a white coat of the same size with three little holes, four, one for the head, one for the arms and one so that it just falls down? With a custom-made harp, you know, all the same size and a little cloud for you to sit on and play for all eternity. Is that what you think of Heaven? Brethren, I believe it is something else entirely. I believe that in Heaven we are going to work, we are going to create, Heaven speaks of the nations. There are going to be nations, there is going to be a government, I don't know but I don't believe that... that's not... that monochromatic reality, everything the same.

We have to give body and bones to Heaven. It is a place. Also, the Bible talks about new Heavens and what? and new Earth. This Earth is going to be renewed, this Earth penetrated by sin, those Heavens that are polluted, God is going to clean them all, he is going to purify them and he is going to put them "opt to speck" and us too, as He originally designed us .

Look at Heaven like this, I anticipated something incredible, I am like Martin Luther, if Heaven is to play a harp for all eternity, look, I am not going to say that I do not want to go there but I would be very disappointed. I think God is much more creative than that. And that's why we have to look to the future with great expectation, live here waiting, wow! What does God have on the other side of the issue? And yearn for it and celebrate it and wish for it.

Stand up, our musicians, please come this way. Brothers, we are going to make a Church that celebrates the Christ, the risen body of Jesus. A Church that can comfortably inhabit the dimension of time, space, body, now and here. Christ was resurected! and Christ has penetrated into human reality. Hallelujah! Glory to the name of the Lord. Father, teach us, teach us to be your Church, a Church that serves the risen Christ of flesh and blood. He is not a ghost. Lord, in the name of Jesus by the Word that has been proclaimed, help us to live that way, teach us the balance, Lord of your perfect reconciliation of body and spirit, matter and Heaven, time and eternity. And help us to live in that balance, Father, as a congregation, we thank you for the beautiful proclamation of your Gospel on this day.

Bless my brothers, Father. Allow them to move out of here, in the power of the Resurrection. Glory to the name of the Lord. Give the Lord a big round of applause. Ada come here for a moment and Iris come here. We are going to sing that chorus again: "He is alive", please, and if all the brothers can conduct it, and we are going to declare that before we leave here. May the Lord bless you, brothers! Christ is on his throne and reigns over time and space, body and spirit. Live that way. Glory to the name of the Lord. Amen.

Sermon by Dr. Roberto Miranda recorded April 12, 2009 in Congregación León de Judá

Listen

|

View (100K)

|

View (400K)

Listen and watch more recorded presentations April 12, 2009

Sermon Archive