I want to speak to you this morning on the subject of another body for Christ. Another body for Christ. I ask you to turn in your Bibles to the book of Hebrews, chapter 10. Chapter 10, the book of Hebrews. The book of Hebrews is a wonderful book because it takes us to a place where Sometimes we really need to be, to understand, leaving the law service and coming and seeing the goodness of the grace of God. It is a sad thing to have to admit that many of God's children are still living in the shadow of the law, in that they feel like that they must help God do something in order to make them acceptable to God. and get them into heaven. Now we know that God's Word makes it very clear. It's by the amazing grace of God that we will appear one day accepted in the book. And so we begin with verse 1 of chapter 10 with the writer saying these words, for the law having a shadow of good things to come and not of the very image of the things, can never with these sacrifices, which they offered year by year, continually, make the comers thereunto perfect. He's just saying that year by year they brought these sacrifices, but they did not do anything about making these people more and more holy, more and more acceptable unto God. For then would they have ceased to be offered, because that the worshippers once urged, should have had no more conscience of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. He said if these sacrifices would have done it, that they would not have continued to worry about their sins. In fact, in verse 3, he says, what these sacrifices did was to remind them what a great sinner they were. Verse 4. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sin. Wherefore, when he cometh into the world, now that he is Jesus, when he cometh into the world, he sayeth, Sacrifice and offerings thou wouldest not. But a body hast thou prepared me. A body thou hast prepared me. I want to go over to the book of Ephesians before we go any further to the fourth chapter of Ephesians. Chapter four of Ephesians, Paul is writing here to the church at Ephesus. He says, I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called. I wonder how many of us this morning could say we're walking worthy of the call that God has given us. I fear we could not. But he says, I beseech you to walk worthy of the calling that you have gotten. And how is that Paul? How are we to walk? What are you talking about? In all lowliness and meekness and long-suffering and full-bearing one another in love. Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit even as you were called in one hope of your calling. One Lord and one faith and one baptism. One God and one Father of all who is above all and through all and in you all. But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. He says walk worthy. Then he says here is the way you can test whether you're walking worthy. Are you lowly in mind? Are you meek? Are you longsuffering? Are you forbearing one another? Are you endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace? And then notice verse 4, he says, there is one body. He's talking about the church. And we know that the Bible tells us that Scripture is given by the inspiration of God and it is profitable to teach us the things that we need to know. And one of the things we need to know this morning, I believe, is that the Bible tells us that there are four different bodies of Christ mentioned in the Bible. Four different ones. And so if someone were to say to you this morning, I want to talk to you about the body of Christ, you might well ask them, which body are you talking about? And so we're going to talk about the bodies of Christ this morning. The first one that I want to talk to you about this morning is what I want to call the pre-incarnate body of Christ. That's the one that he had before he was born of Mary and came to earth and to reside for some 33 years. That's the one that the scripture tells us about although it does not tell us a whole lot about it. We find it from time to time mentioned especially in the Old Testament. In fact we see it from time to time as Jesus Christ appeared in his pre-incarnate form. In Genesis 20 and 32, we find that the angel of the Lord came and wrestled with Jacob. That was the pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus Christ who came and wrestled with Jacob. By the way, that appearance has a special word. You may hear it sometime, some preacher, or you may read their book somewhere. Christophany. And that word just simply means there is the appearance of Christ before he was born in his body to live upon earth. So he was the angel that wrestled with Jacob. Then in Genesis 16, 7, he appeared to Hagar. She ran away, taking Ishmael with her. The angel of the Lord appeared to her and said, go back to your mistress and stay with her. there was the angel of the Lord. By the way, when you read the Bible and you find it says the angel of the Lord, and that word Lord is all capital L-O-R-D, that is the angel of the Lord, that's Jesus. Now if it's capital L, little o-r-d, then that's just an angel. But if it's capital letters all the way through, that's talking about the Christophany. That's the Christ who is appearing before He was born. Genesis 18, He appeared to Abraham and said, Get you out from among your kindred, out from your country, and go to a place where I will show you. And I will go with you. In Joshua chapter 5, you appeared to Joshua before they went in and took the promised land. We read where it says that the angel of the Lord appeared and Joshua said to him, Are you for us or are you for the enemy? And he said, I am not for you nor the enemy. I am the captain of the Lord's host. That was the Lord Jesus Christ. He appeared to Isaiah in Isaiah 6. Let's look there just a moment. That's a beautiful scripture to look at over in Isaiah chapter 6. Just look at it with me just a moment. Isaiah had a vision. He said, I saw the Lord high and lifted up. He said, in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting up on the throne high and lifted up and His train filled the temple. And above it stood the seraphim, that's the angels of heaven. He said one had six wings, and with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he did fly. And one of them cried unto another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord. See that Lord there? Capital O-L-O-R-D. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is filled with His glory. Why do you say holy, holy, holy three different times? Holy is the God, the Father. Holy is God. They cried one to another, saying, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. And the post of the door moved. And the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. And he said, the Lord is me. I am undone. I am the man of unclean lips. I dwell in the midst of a people. of unclean lips. Mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts." Oh, beloved, we never see the Lord like Isaiah did. We too will say, I am a person of unclean lips. I am a person of unclean deeds. If we saw the holiness of the Lord like He was. Christ appeared in the fire and furnished with the three Hebrew children. The king threw the Hebrew children in the fire and furnished. But they didn't burn. In fact, it says they didn't even smell like they'd been around the fire. And when they looked in, they saw four people there walking around in that fire and furnished. And the king said, did you throw three in? He said, yes, but I see four and one of them looks like the Son of Man, the Son of God. Who was that fourth one? That was Jesus in there. He was in there to take up all the heat, take up all the suffering, take up all the misery. He was the one who said when He was here on earth, come unto me all you that labor and heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. And when you and I encounter troubles and trials and situations that overwhelm us, he says, come unto me. Cast all your cares, your troubles and trials upon me. And so the first body is the body that manifested itself from time to time. It wasn't permanent, it just came in what form and how it appeared is hard for us to understand. It didn't stay here. It came and it went. It came and it went. But it was always there when it was needed. That's the point. God's always there when you need him. He's always there when you need him. You remember that. If you don't hear anything else I say this morning, you just remember God's always there when you need him. He's there when you need him. That's the first body. The second body. is the natural body, the body that he was born in, the body that was necessary for him to come and be the savior of sinners. In Hebrews chapter 10, let's go back to the book of Hebrews where we were reading first. In Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 5, it says, when he comes into the world, he said, sacrifices and offerings I would not have, but a body that is prepared for me. You see, He needed a body to be put on the cross. He needed a body to sacrifice for sinners. That was His purpose for coming. Jesus Christ is the only person that was ever born upon this earth that came specifically to die for sin. You and I were not designed to die for sin. We were going to die as a result of sin. You know that. We die because of sin. But He died for sin. And He said He came to die for sin. It's a mysterious thing to think about. How that Jesus came and had a human body. In Luke chapter 1 verse 31. When the angel appeared to Mary and told her she was going to bear a son And she said, how is this possible? I have never known a man. I've never been with a man. It's impossible. The angel said, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb and bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus. And she said, the Holy Ghost will overshadow you. It's the work of the Holy Spirit. It's the work of God. Just like when you and I are born again, It's the work of God. God did not need men to bring Jesus unto this world. She had a husband. His name was Joseph, and as far as we know, he was an honorable man. But God didn't need Joseph to bring Jesus to this earth. In fact, He bypassed it. He didn't intend for Joseph to be involved, because you see, if Joseph had been involved, Joseph would have passed a sinful seed along. And the Bible tells us that Christ came without sin. That's true. When you and I are born again, God bypasses human endeavor, human work, when we're born again, it's all of God. It's all of God. I know there are those preachers who tell you that you must do something, you have to do something. I forget what I say to you sometimes, but I may have told you about getting things in the mail here the last few weeks from a so-called Church of Christ in the community. I don't know why they sent it to me. They just wasted their paper in the postage. But anyway, inside this little brochure, they had listed about 10 things that you have to do to be saved. There was about 10 things that they said, God's plan of salvation, they listed all these things that you have to do before God will save you. things that I had to do. And I just looked at that and I thought, oh, my. I don't know of a living human being that could pass that test, that could do all those things. Because every person I have ever met in my life, including myself, and that's why I look in the mirror, that's good enough to be accepted of God. All of these things I've got to do. I was so thankful that a few years ago that God opened my eyes and showed me the truth of amazing grace. I was so thankful that after many years of myself thinking that I had to do something to help God to save me and that I came to realize that it was all of God. That I didn't have to help God do anything. That God saved sinners in the way he's always saved sinners, by amazing grace. That's why His name was called Jesus. For He shall do it. He shall say so. It's the work of God. Not God in man. Not God in the preacher. Not God in the evangelist. Not God at a piece of paper called a trap. But God saves sinners. That's why Jesus came. To have this body that could be put on the church. And when I read about how they treated him, what they did to that body, I realize how they mistreated him. But let's think about that body for a few minutes. The Bible tells us that Jesus, while he was on earth, he did some wonderful things. Over in the Bible, we're told that he did some wonderful things. Go with me to the book of Acts 10, just a moment. Before they put him on the cross, he was busy using that body for the good of man. In Acts 10 38, we read this, that God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and power. who went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil. Now let me say this now. He went about doing good and included in that doing good, he healed all that were oppressed of the devil. For God was with him. Now you remember this. When he came upon a situation of demonic oppression he cast out the devil you get that all right go with me to Matthew chapter 4 keep that in mind and while we read Matthew 4 Matthew 4 23 Matthew 4 23 listen to this and Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people. Now do you get the picture? He cast out demons when he needed to cast out demons and he healed the diseases and sickness when he ran upon them. In other words, when he had somebody who had a demon, he cast the demon out. If they had a disease, he took care of that. He was a blessing to others. He never did anything wrong for anybody, but he was always a blessing. Let's talk about some of the things that he did in the way of healing people. In Mark 1.31, it says that when he came to Peter's house that day for refreshments and rest, that Peter's mother-in-law was sick. And so he touched her and he healed her. He touched her with his hands and he healed her. In verse 41, 10 verses down in Mark 1.41, it says there were some lepers who came to him. And they said to him, if thou wilt, thou may heal us. And he said, I will. And he touched them. Imagine touching people with leprosy in that day. Nobody would even be in a town if they were leprosy. Lepers were there. But he touched them. And then Mark 5, this is one of my favorite stories. There was a man by the name of Jairus who was the ruler of the Jews, the ruler of the synagogue. And it said that he sought the Lord greatly in verse 23, chapter 5. He said, my little girl, life at the point of death. I pray that you come and lay thy hands on her that she may be healed and live. She may be healed and live. And you keep reading over there and you find out in verse 46, she was 12 years old. Here's a man, maybe this was his only child. I sort of get the feeling he had one child, a little girl, she was 12 years old. And she was at the point of death. And here's a man who had heard that Jesus could do mighty things. And so he sought Jesus out, and he came, and he pleaded with Jesus, please come and heal my little girl. She's about to die. And Jesus started to go home with him. And as we read the story, all of a sudden, he's in a crowd of people who are thronging him, and here's a woman that said, who has had an issue of blood, she's been bleeding for 12 years. She's been bleeding as long as that child has lived. I don't know what her blood disease was, but she had a disease. And she had spent all the money she had on doctors, and nobody had been able to help her. You'd have been to a doctor and they couldn't help you. And you sort of get the feeling. And it says, as the people were pressing around him. She just had the idea, if I can just reach out and touch the hem of his garment, just touch his clothing. I just believe he's got the power to heal me. And she just touched him. And Jesus said, who's touched me? And people said, how can you ask that? Everybody's bumping up against you all around you. He said, I'm not talking about that kind of touch. Somebody reached out and touched me because the power of God has left me. And she fell down and said, Lord, it was me. It was me. He said, Thy faith has healed thee. Twelve years and that blood disease stopped like that. And he went on to Josh's house in the garden. As he was going, somebody came and said, there's no need of you bringing them home. She's dead. That one little girl. Now there's not going to be a child in that house. It's nothing like having a little girl in the house. It's a little boy. Nothing like children, brother Bob. Only thing wrong with children. They grow up and go away. They grow up and go away. Here's a little story of the old girl. The joy of this man's heart. And somebody buries the bad news. She's dead. She's gone. And Jesus says, come on. We're going to your house. She's just asleep. She's just asleep. You know why? That's why it says over in the Bible, blessed are those who die in the Lord. Because if you die in the Lord, you're just gone to sleep. And he says that she was just asleep. When he got there, oh, there was a big commotion going on. People just weeping and wailing back then, carrying on something awful. And he told them, he said, get these folks out of here. She's just sleeping. And that crowd, who had been wailing and crying, all of a sudden started laughing at her. And he took Peter and John. They went up to her bedroom. with the parents and shut the door and said, don't let anybody else in here. And he says that he just reached over and touched the little girl and spoke to her and said to her, I'm using free translation now. Honey, give up. It was really, literally he said, little girl get up but I'm just I'm just thinking about the joy and the feeling honey and he reached down and lifted her up on the bed and he said give her something to eat she'd been sick how did he know she'd need something to eat well she'd been real sick she didn't want anything to eat you see Jesus always knows what you and I need He said, give me something to eat. So he used his body to do good. Not only did he heal people, but I'm thinking about the demoniac, those who had the demon. I'm thinking about that demoniac who lived over there in the cemetery. And nobody could tame him. They put chains on him. He'd break the chains. And Jesus went over there, and this man was violent, vicious, cursing, threatening. And Jesus called the demons and told them, come out of him. And they said, what is your name? And they said, Legion. Now, there are many of us here. Don't want to be acting so bad. And they said, please don't. What if these demons pleaded with Jesus? Let me tell you something about Jesus, just in case you forgot. Why? Jesus got all the power there is. You are never going to face a situation that Jesus cannot handle. That's right. I don't care how many demons there are that threaten you, Jesus has got more power than all the demons in hell. That's right. They said, please don't throw us away, send us to hell. Because he was the one who was going to hell. He said, don't throw us away. Please let us go into the hogs. He had a great, what, about 2,000 hogs. I said, a whole lot of pork chops in there. 2,000 hogs. Please let us go into the hogs. And he said, get going. I'm going to tell you something about ham out there. Jesus didn't believe in ham and pork chops. But anyway, when that hog jumped over in the sea and drowned, I think about a man who had a child who was demon possessed. And he came to Jesus and he said, if you can do anything, heal my son. Jesus said, if you can believe, I can do it. The old man realized he had said the wrong thing. He said, Lord, I believe, help thou my unbelief. You see, that's where some of us are right now. We've got some faith, but sometimes it's just partial faith, just not quite complete faith. That's why we'll just go so far with Jesus and we're back up. We don't go all the way with Jesus. And I'm going to tell you one thing, until you go all the way with Jesus, you're not going to get all the way blessings that He promises in the Bible. If you want a full load of blessings, you're going to have to go all the way with Him. You're going to have to dump all that's out, everything else, and give Him room to give you a full load of blessings. He said, I believe, help thou my unbelief in Jesus, heal and cast the demons out. Oh, I could go on and tell you about it. He spit one time and touched eyes, There were times when he just spoke and he had miracles. Jesus' body was used to bless people. As long as he was here, Jesus blessed people. He did good. He went about doing good. Went about doing good. And that was the body that went to the Garden of Gethsemane. The word Gethsemane is an interesting word. That's out there where he sweat, great drops of blood and agony and prayer before you went to the cross. You know what the word Gethsemane means? It means a press. Press. P-R-E-S. That's a press. Because it was there that they had an olive garden. And they picked the olives and they pressed the oil out of it. Jesus Christ was pressed. The Bible tells us in Exodus 27 20, listen to this. God commanded the children of Israel to bring pure olive oil beaten for the light to cause the lamp to burn always in the tabernacle or the temple. You think about the unending light God commanded that burned with the oil from the olive. Now who was the eternal light that came into the world? Who was the light of the world? Jesus. Say it. Jesus. Jesus was the light of the world. Jesus was out there in the garden, the Garden of Olives, Garden of Gethsemane, the light of the world, pouring out of his heart, saying, Father, if it's possible, let this cup pass from me. If not, thy will be done. Tell you what, Jesus went all the way for you and me. He was willing to go to the press. Not only that, but the wine press. Isaiah 63 says, I have trodden the wine press alone. And of the people, there was none with me. Jesus was left alone. You know, even Peter, who said, I'll never leave you not forsaken. Everybody ran off and left Jesus. But you just remember one thing, my beloved. Jesus didn't run off and leave us alone. He said, I'll never leave you not forsaken. Never leave you not forsaken. You can always count on Jesus. Sometimes we feel like old Peter was. Peter who boasted. One day he saw Jesus walking on the water. You remember that? Jesus was out there walking. First of all, he thought Jesus was a ghost. And he thought that Jesus said, please see unto thee. It is I. It is I. Just like old Peter was, he said, Lord, if it's you, call me unto yourself. Let me walk on the water. He said, come on. See, Jesus had the power to walk on the water. And he was saying to Peter, according to your faith, You can walk on the water, too. And you know what? Peter got on that boat and started walking on the water until he lost his faith. And you can lose your faith. You don't lose your salvation, but you can lose your faith. You can lose your faith. And that's what happened to Peter. And he started sinking. And he cried out and said, Lord, save me. He was going down for the third time. Lord save me. And Jesus reached down and took him out. I'll tell you what, Jesus will never forsake you. Jesus will never leave you alone. Jesus will never cause you to face the troubled times, the hard times alone. Never. He'll never do that. Jesus will never do that. Amen. The glorified body. After Jesus died, he came back in a glorified body. And this is a strange thing because it looked enough like the natural body that people who saw him, although they didn't recognize who he was, they were not afraid of it. It looked enough like a natural body that they thought it was a human being as it was. And Mary Magdalene said to him, sir, she thought he was a gardener. She said, sir, where have they laid my Lord's body? And I will go and take it up. It's out of the tomb now. Where is it? Another place, it says that he asked for some food. He was able to eat food. There was one thing about his glorified body though that was not natural, not normal. He could go through doors that were locked. He could appear and disappear. And one day he disappeared forever and that was to go up into glory. I say forever as far as time was concerned until he comes back again in that glorified body. But here's the thing about his glorified body. His glorified body is a promise of the body that his people will have. because he said that Jesus Christ was the first fruits of them that slept. In other words, Paul says that those who die in the Lord will have a body like unto that which Christ had after he was raised from the dead. Now, I don't know all about this glorified body, but I know one thing. It says, We shall see him as he is, for we shall be like unto him. We shall be like him. The last body that the scripture talks about, of course, is the church. And the Bible talks about that over in the book of Ephesians, a mysterious body. In Ephesians chapter 4, let's look at it. Paul talks about the Ephesian church and he says in verses 11 and 12 He says he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. So the church is the body of Christ. He's the head of the church and we're the body. We're the body. And he says, till we come, all come in the unity of the faith of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullest We are the body of Christ here upon earth. He sits in the heavens now. What's Jesus doing right now? He's sitting in heaven, watching over his sheep. He's a good shepherd. Watching over his sheep right now. Taking care of them. Making intercession for us, Paul said. Praying for us. You know, if he told Peter, he said, I'm going to pray for you. I'm going to be praying for you. He's praying for us now. and watching over us, caring for us now. One day he's coming back. He's going to take his children home. But right now he's watching over his church, caring for us. And what's the purpose of the church? What's the purpose of the body of Christ? To do the will of the Son of God, to do the will of the head. To fulfill his mandate, to fulfill his will while we're here on this earth. He told the church, he said, tear in Jerusalem until you be endued with power. And then he said, go into the world and proclaim the gospel to all creatures. And it's our privilege, it's our purpose, is to let our light shine and be a salt in the world and to fulfill the commandment of the Lord, to live a life that will honor and glorify the Lord. For we are the body of Christ. We are that fourth body that's mentioned. We are the body of Christ here upon the earth. And until He comes again in His glorified body, we are the body that represents Him here upon the earth. God help us that we'll fulfill it in a way that will honor Him and glorify Him. Let us pray. Father, we thank You that You sent Your Son Jesus here upon this earth to live a life, a perfect life, a life without sin, and die perfect death for our sins and make us accepted in the blood with a promise that will come back and receive us unto himself and where he is that we may be with him. Lord, I ask you this morning to help us. Give us strength and courage to be about the master's work while we're here waiting upon him to come. We're like those in the parables that he told. We are waiting for the good man to return, the householder who went away on a long voyage. And you left us here to fulfill your work while we're waiting for you until you come to call us, either to come in your glorified body or else to call us in death. We're here to wait for you and to do what you want us to do. Lord, help us to be faithful to do what you want us to do. And we pray this in Jesus name.