Good morning. Wow, what, what a wonderful
worship time. And this is the presence of God
in this place and they're so grateful for all of you who have
a heart to serve the Lord in different ministries like John
is here today. I, I went through that program
many years ago in the company I work for in Pittsburgh, an
optical company and the owner of the company was a Christian and
part of our monthly management meetings were going through
experiencing God together. It was really life changing and
I'm really at the time I really needed to experience God in the
deeper way. So if you feel that way or you
need the Lord more, which I believe we all do, take
advantage of that class. You won't regret it.
Invite some friends too. Maybe they don't want to come to
church, but they'll come to the class and then leave after.
But I would encourage you to also consider inviting some
people that need to, to really experience God.
So we're studying the resurrection now.
One of the help you guys and as well as myself to understand the
critical importance of understanding the literal
resurrection of Jesus Christ rising or raising from the dead.
Our our faith hinges on this truth.
It's pivotal, it's foundational. It's the most important aspect
of our belief as Christians. There's no other religion in the
world that has a leader and a savior like Jesus Christ who
died for our sins and conquered the grave and rose again from
the dead. And because he rose again from
the dead, that gives all of us as believers the hope that there
is truly everlasting life, eternal life.
And I don't know about you, but the older I get, the more I'm
excited about the fact that this isn't all there is.
This is just the beginning. And so we showed a short video
last week from the Chosen and it was Jesus coming up to Martha
after Lazarus death. And I want to read what that was
all about. Verse 17 of John Chapter 11.
So when Jesus came, he found that he had already been in the
tomb for days. This is referring to his friend
Lazarus. Now Bethany was near Jerusalem,
about two miles away, and many of the Jews had joined the women
around Martha and Mary to comfort them concerning their
brother. And we always need comfort.
When someone passes away that we love deeply, It's not an
immediate recognition that we'll see them again many times
because we're believers and we know that there's life after
death, the horror of death and the sadness of death and what it
does to everyone that goes through it.
Family I'm Speaking of and loved ones and friends is unlike any
other heartache that anybody could ever experience.
But in time God by his Spirit comforts us, the God of all hope
and the God of all comfort, and he gets us through the loss of
the loved one with the anticipation of the fact that
one day we will see each other again.
And heaven isn't that wonderful? And so they were grieving.
And Martha, she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met him.
But Mary was sitting in the house.
Now Martha said to Jesus, Lord, if you had been here, my brother
would not have died. But even now I know that
whatever you ask of God, God will give you.
And Jesus said to her, Your brother will rise again.
And Martha said to him, I know that he will rise again in the
resurrection at the last day. And Jesus said to her, I am the
resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me, though
he were dead, yet shall he live, and he that believeth in me
shall never die. Do you believe this?
And she said to him, Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the
Christ, the Son of God who has come into the world.
And so I've done a lot of funerals in my life as a as a
pastor. And I know Pastor Lewis has as
well. And this might sound weird or
strange, but that's my favorite service to do.
Why in the world would I be excited about doing a funeral?
Because it's the greatest place to preach the gospel.
Most people at a funeral, many times are lost and they don't
understand the fact that there is life after death.
And if it's the person who passed away who's a Christian,
we can really emphasize the fact in that service that they are
alive in the Kingdom of God as we speak.
Some of you have lost a loved one this past year and you're
still grieving. And I remember doing the funeral
for your loved one and seeing your face and your expression in
the midst of the memorial service, the funeral, and seeing
the hope and the glow on your face and the trust and the
belief you have, knowing that you'll see your loved one once
again in the Kingdom of heaven. There's nothing like that.
And then the challenge to the people.
I always say like to know my audience when I'm preaching.
How many here today believe that there is life after death?
Just raise your hand, keep them up for a minute because I want
to zero in on you who haven't raised your hand.
It looks like we got 100% belief in that, which is awesome, but
it's important for us to realize that the belief that we have
needs to be communicated to people that have no clue about
what the resurrection is all about.
So I think about the the mind, how it works, and there's a lot
of people that don't believe in life after death for various
reasons, philosophical reasons, lack of hearing the gospel of
being impacted by smart people that don't know what they're
talking about. That that Hawkins got it passed
away. The sad he died without any
understanding that there was life after death.
He just said it's done. The only wisdom he gave to
people was whatever you do, do not speak to aliens,
supernatural beings. I don't know how he came up with
that or what why he said that. But that was one of the things
he was known for after he died. But he had no faith and he had
debates with believers and and he he just never came to the
knowledge of the fact that Jesus died for him and that he needed
a savior. Now you may be here today or you
may know people that have their reasons why they don't believe
that there's life after death. And so in the Bible, Proverbs
chapter 3, verse five and six says trust in the Lord with all
your heart. Lean not into your own
understanding in all your ways. Acknowledge him and he will
direct your path. So for us, logic or philosophy
is secondary to our thought processes.
Intellectually, if we're Christians, we're really
Christians. We know the foolishness of man's
thought processes and the things that maybe we were taught when
we were in school or college or whatever books we read,
philosophy books that they have no ability to speak the truth
that the Word of God can speak to us.
This, this book, this Bible, everything you have need of in
your life that means while you're living and while you're
preparing to pass on to eternity has the clear answers for what
the human heart longs to know. You don't have to buy a bunch of
different books of Barnes and Noble to try to convince
yourself of some kind of truth. That's a lie written by man.
You can go right to the main book, the source of truth, the
word of God, which is the words of life from Jesus, and clearly
learn the truth and by God's grace and believe the truth.
And when you believe the truth, your life changes.
When you don't know the truth, your life is very, very dismal
and depressing. I can't imagine what it must be
like because I've never been in that place where I'd lost a
loved one that knows the Lord, that I didn't believe with 100%
conviction that I was going to see them again.
But that's not what happens to people that don't know Jesus.
They're hopeless, they're despairing, they're depressed,
they're fatalistic, and they think that life has no purpose
or no meaning, no reason. Now, when we study, excuse me,
First Corinthians 15, which is where we're at today, there was
so much credible documentation historically of eyewitness
accounts that saw Jesus after he rose again from the dead.
It wasn't like a rumor. It was a reality and people
confronted him in his resurrected body after he rose
again from the dead on the third day.
The evidence is 100% historical, 100% reliable, and 100%
convicting for people to be able to trust in and believe in
without any shadow of doubt. And so Paul was referencing the
different people that had seen Christ.
And I'll just read the verses up to where we're going to start
today. Moreover, brethren, first one of
chapter 15. I declared you the gospel which
I preached you, which also you received, in which you stand, by
which also you are saved if you hold fast that word which I
preached you, unless you believed in vain.
For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received,
that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and
that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day
according to the Scriptures. So everything we teach,
everything we believe, everything we stake our very
lives upon is what is found written in this reliable book
called the Bible, as was prayed this morning.
All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and it's
profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction and
instruction of righteousness, that the person of God may be
thoroughly furnished, equipped into living a life that would
please God. And the Word of God is sharper
than any 2 edged sword. It's able to Pierce and divide
asunder the heart and the flesh, the joints in the marrow.
It gets into the deep recesses of what makes you a human being
and causes you to be alive and to breathe.
And it says that that word and the power of the Holy Spirit is
a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
So today as I'm preaching, I have complete confidence that
the Holy Spirit is doing something in your heart that I
could never do, and I have no business thinking I could do.
It's His word that'll convince you.
It's his word that'll convict you.
It is his word that will encourage you.
And it is his word is what alone can save you from your sin and
your despair and your hopelessness.
And then he says he was seen by Cephas.
That's Peter, the one who denied Jesus.
Then by the 12, the rest of the other 11 that were still alive,
that you know Judas had committed suicide after
betraying and denying. After that he was seen by over
500 brethren at once, of whom the greater part remained to the
present, that some have passed away or fallen asleep.
After that he was seen by James. That's the half brother of
Jesus. He became the first apostle,
first leader in the church in Jerusalem, then by all the
apostles, then last of all, he was seen by me also as by one
born out of due time. So Paul's now going to give his
story about how he came to faith in Jesus Christ.
Now he wasn't one of the original 12.
He came on the scene much later on and the church in Corinth
gave Paul a lot of problems. This this book of Corinthians is
a corrective letter for a church.
It was really messed up. It had a lot of weird thoughts
and actions and ideas and attitudes.
And so Paul, being the founder of that church, had written
letters to bring them back into a place of biblical stability
and reliability. So Paul says I experienced
Jesus. Now how did Paul experience
Jesus himself? Like to go over to Acts, the
book of the Acts, Chapter 9, we're going to read how Paul
came to faith in Jesus Christ and what type of person he was.
Now, Saul, that's what his name was before he became Paul.
The apostle, still breathing threats and murder against the
disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked
letters from him to the synagogues that Damascus said if
he found any who were of the way, meaning people who were
following Jesus, whether men or women, he might bring them bound
to Jerusalem. So Paul's whole life was
involved with persecuting people that believed in Jesus Christ,
people like us, to bring them into prison and eventually have
them martyred and killed because of their faith in Christ.
As he journeyed, he came near Damascus.
So this is just like another normal day Paul out there.
How many Christians can I get and get him in jail and see him
kill that? That was his joy.
That was his, his vision in life.
And as he's journeying, he comes near Damascus and suddenly a
light shone around him from heaven.
So this, this bright light. And we believe it's the Shekinah
glory, the the very presence of the living God that was seen in
the temple in the Old Testament and showed up in specific times
when God was really about ready to do a big, big thing in which
he is about ready to do in Paul's life.
Paul's encompassed by this light.
Then he fell to the ground. This light was so bright and so
intimidating, it weakened his knees and he fell on his face to
the ground. And he heard a voice saying to
him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?
This is Jesus himself speaking to Paul vocally.
Not only did Paul hear this, but the people who were with Paul
actually heard this voice too. And he said, Who are you, Lord?
He didn't have to. He didn't have to guess at this
point in time. Immediately he knew who he who
he was dealing with. He calls him Lord.
Then the Lord said, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.
It is hard for you to kick against the goads.
In other words, now that the reality of who I am is being
revealed to you, you can't kick against my ways anymore.
And so he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what do
you want me to do? I wish there was more.
People like Paul when they came to faith in Jesus Christ would
be like Paul on their face. And the first thing they would
say after they got saved was, Lord, what do you want me to do?
The world would be completely different, wouldn't it?
Then the Lord said to him, Arise and go to into the city, and you
will be told what you must do. And the man who journeyed with
him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no one.
Then Saul arose from the ground, and when his eyes were opened,
he saw no one. He was blind because of the
light, but they led him by the hand and brought him into
Damascus. And he was three days without
sight, and neither ate nor drank.
I find it interesting how God uses a symbolism of three days.
Three days Christ in the tomb rises again.
On the third day Paul's blinded for three days.
So Paul runs into the sky by the name of Ananias.
Now there was a certain disciple at Damascus named Ananias.
And to him the Lord said in the vision, Ananias.
And he said, Here I am Lord. And the Lord said to him, Arise
and go to the street called Straight and inquire at the
House of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus.
For behold, he is praying. So not only is Paul waiting for
his sight to be recovered and restored, but he's actually
talking to God. He's he's having a conversation
with him, he's praying. He's he's probably got all kind
of thoughts and, and the Lord is communicating to him.
And this is wonderful relationship that's beginning to
develop now because he's now a follower of Jesus Christ.
And in a vision, this Ananias, he's seen a man named Ananias
coming in and putting his hand on him so that he might receive
his sight. Fascinating how the Holy Spirit
gave Paul this vision that it's going to be OK, You're going to
be able to see again this guy Ananias.
And Ananias answers, Lord, I've heard from many about this man,
how much harm he's done to your Saints in Jerusalem.
And here he has authority from the chief priest to bind all who
call upon your name. So Ananias is like checking it
out with the Lord. You really sure you want me to
go to see this guy Like I'm I'm my knees are shaking and I'm
intimidated. I I don't want to I actually
don't want to do this. But Ananias is obedient and the
Lord said to him, go, for he is a chosen vessel of mine to bear
my name before Gentiles, kings and the children of Israel.
For I will show him how many things he must suffer for my
sake. So I I find it fascinating he's
telling Ananias like the plan he has for Paul.
So think about your own life or the, the person you, you, you
see in your, your world is like the worst person you could ever
like, want to have a friendship with someone you just like,
don't want to be around or or be even even near, like Maduro,
right? The guy that just got captured
in, in Venezuela, just a wicked, wicked leader and ruler, right?
Is that guy beyond God's hand to salvation?
Maybe he's going to get saved in, in the American prison here.
That would be wild, wouldn't it? That would be cool, right?
That's what we should be praying for.
Amen. But anyway, we all have our own
thought processes about people and what we think should happen.
If you were on the planet at the time and you were a Christian in
the church in Jerusalem, and all of a sudden you get news that
this guy saw who used to kill Christians is now one of God's
main spokespeople, what would you think about that?
It wouldn't, like, connect right away.
There's got to be a mistake. Anybody but Paul, anybody but
Saul. And I think about my life and
your life and how God saved us from wherever we were and
whatever we were doing. I had dreamed last night and I
was praying and I was thinking about this message.
And, and then all of a sudden, I, I, I sensed that I needed to
have a, a life confession. A life confession going back
into my earliest years of my sin and rebellion against God and
him flashing in front of my eyes and my memory, all the things
I've done that were so sinful and ugly in a mess.
And just like, I mean, it was, it was graphic, it was painful.
It was like, God, can I get a redo?
I'd love to have a redo. And he says, yeah, the redo is
repentance. I'm long-suffering, I'm
forgiving, I'm patient, I'm gentle, I'm merciful.
You just come with all that dirt, all that guilt, all that
memory stuff, and you and you just give it to me and ask for
me to forgive you. And I will forgive you, for I
choose to remember your sins no more.
How beautiful is that? How good is God?
How patient God is. Cindy and I were praying this
morning about this message and the importance of God's mercy.
And who are we to judge anybody for anything?
After you have a life repentance and a life confession, you
realize God is gracious, He's patient, and He will receive to
Himself anybody that comes to Him with a heart of knowing they
need Jesus. And he won't say, huh, Not you.
Your list is too long. There's too much dirt, too much
baggage, too much. You're beyond help, Clark.
You're beyond ever getting saved.
God is not like that. He seems to choose like the
worst of the worst, and then He chooses to use them for His
purposes. That's what's astounding.
That's what's so wonderful. So Ananias went his way, entered
the house and laying his hands on him, he said brother Saul.
And it was cool. He didn't say the Saul.
He said brother. He's a brother now in Christ.
He's part of the family. The Lord Jesus who appeared to
you on the road as you came, has sent me that you may receive
your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.
And immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales.
He was able to see, and he received his sight at once, and
he rose and he was baptized. So when he had received food, he
was strengthened. Then Saul spent some days with
the disciples at Damascus. This is fascinating.
He, he, he gets saved, he gets filled with the Holy Spirit.
And what's the next thing he does?
Immediately he's preaching the Christ.
And the synagogue said he is the Son of God right away.
He's sharing his faith, telling people what Jesus has done for
him. Then all who heard were amazed
and said, is this not he who destroyed those who called on
his name in Jerusalem, and has come here for the purpose, so
that he might bring them bound to the chief priest?
But Saul increased all the more in strength and confounded the
Jews who dwelled in Damascus, proving that Jesus is the
Christ. You talk about an encounter with
the Lord and someone who's qualified by the by the Lord to
speak to these people in Corinth that were really messed up in
their understanding of what this faith in Jesus Christ really is
truly all about. And then Paul, he also writes
the book of Galatians and he says in Galatians chapter 1,
something very fascinating as well.
Paul, an apostle, not from men nor through man, but through
Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead,
and all the brethren who are with me.
Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus
Christ who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us
from this present evil age according to the will of God and
our Father, to whom be glory forever and ever.
Amen. This is several thousand years
ago and Paul is saying to the church in Galatia that Jesus is
the one who gave himself for your sins that he might deliver
you from the present evil age. We're living in an evil age
right now and he's still the one that delivers people in the
midst of this evil age from their sins.
But anyway, Paul then says, I marvel that you are turning away
so soon from him who called you in the grace of Christ to a
different gospel. So they were being deceived by
false teachers and false preachers to to not understand
the grace of God. They were putting legalism on
them and they were giving them a bunch of rules and different
things saying, well, you got to do this.
If you're really saved, you got to do this.
And if you if you do this, you're not saved.
And this a lot of crazy stuff, right?
And so this different gospel, Paul says is not another, but
there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel
of Christ. And then Paul so convicted and
committed to the truth of what the word of God and the Holy
Spirit teaches that even if we are an Angel from heaven preach
any other gospel to you, then what we have preached you.
Let him be accursed, as we said before.
And so we say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you
than what you have received, let him be accursed.
For do I now persuade men or God, or do I seek to please men?
For if I still please men, I wouldn't be the bondservant of
Jesus Christ. So we go back to the Corinthians
now, First Corinthians 15, and Paul is the spokesperson now to
this church in Corinth regarding the gospel, the death, the
burial, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, Paul's testimony
of grace. This is what Paul begins to to
speak about regarding his own life.
He says that I am the least of the apostles in verse 9, who am
not worthy to be called an apostle because I persecuted the
Church of God. But by the grace of God, I am
what I am. And His grace toward me was not
in vain, but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet
not I, but the grace of God which was with me.
Where therefore, whether it was I or they, so we preach, and so
you believe. Paul understood the grace of God
and thank God he did because if he didn't we wouldn't understand
or have the grace of God. God used him to be the
spokesperson of the grace of God, not religion, not self
works, righteousness, earning our way into the presence of
God's forgiveness, but receiving it freely by the grace of God.
Nothing you and I could do other than believe for he said Paul
again. For by grace are you saved
through faith, and this is not of yourselves.
It's a gift of God, not of works.
No one can boast, Amen. No one can boast.
Paul received the grace and he gives the grace of God to others
because he so was full of it and aware of it.
Now if Christ is preached in verse 12 that he's been raised
from the dead, how do some of among you say that there is no
resurrection of the dead? Paul talked about the importance
of of working for Jesus and he talked about his relationship
along with the other apostles. And Paul wasn't working for
salvation anymore or never did work for salvation.
He was working his heart out for the sake of people to know Jesus
Christ. This was on his thought in the
morning when he got up and before he went to bed at night.
Who can I tell about Jesus? There's a lot of work to be done
and it can't be done by one person.
Jesus said go into all the world as we speak into his disciples
and preach the gospel to every living creature.
Your responsibility and my responsibility is to share our
faith as we're able by the power of the Holy Spirit with people
who need to know the gospel. Paul was always looking for
opportunities and ways to to change the conversation as we'll
have the training in a couple weeks, I guess coming up to
learn how to share your faith with people.
A lot of people don't share their faith because they're
intimidated. They don't know how.
I encourage you to come to that training with Fred and Gideon's
training. But there's nothing like sharing
your faith and seeing someone get saved.
It's, it's better than hitting the lottery.
Believe me, I never hit the lottery but I know it's better
when you see someone come alive and their whole life changes and
you begin to hear them tell you, all I want to do is become a
better person. I want my life to change.
I don't want to do the same things I used to do.
I'm working with a young man now that this got saved recently.
He was telling me yesterday up here in the front of your
praying the new believers Bible. All he wants to do is become
more like Jesus and to see the hunger and the thirst and his
life for the word of God and the understanding of his need of the
Holy Spirit at a young age, 18 years old.
Here I am, 75 in February, sitting with a guy.
He's got his whole life ahead of him, ahead of himself.
I'm thinking if he can catch this now and understand the
power of the Holy Spirit in his life, oh ha, I'd love to trade
places with him and get a get another shot, knowing what I
know now. But I pray that Lord will use me
to encourage him to to go deeper and to be used mightily.
And the Lord, but that that was Paul's whole effort, his
emphasis and his life every day. So now he's, he's saying this
thing to them about him being the least of the apostles and
not worthy to be called an apostle.
And all these different thoughts and processes and comments he
had about himself. It's interesting because
everything he did, everything I'm doing, everything you do in
regard to the Kingdom work is by grace, right?
It's all by God's grace that we do what we do.
So God does this work in you, gives you favor, gives me favor.
And then his expectation of us is we're not going to be
perfect. But boy, one thing he he's
definitely like focus on. I hope you guys want to share
this with other people because someone had to share it with you
for you to know. So share this with other people
so they can know. And Paul didn't rest in his
laurels. He didn't want to be receiving
this grace of God and being passive.
He wanted to be active in his faith and sharing it with other
people. He said in First Corinthians 39,
we are God's fellow workers. So I was praying with Pastor
Lewis this morning and he was talking about the work that
needs to be done, the hard work that needs to be done in order
for God's Kingdom to be brought on earth as it is in heaven.
And it comes by everybody being mobilized and using their
gifting and, and sharing what it is that God wants us to do.
And a lot of Christians, they struggle at this point.
They say, well, what am I supposed to do?
And what, how, how do I do it? And you got to trust God.
You got to have a heart like Jesus, obviously.
And when he comes into your life, he gives you his heart
that you begin to care about other people more than you care
about yourself. Self love is one of the biggest
sins that we all have. We, we love ourselves, we watch
out for ourselves, we care about ourselves.
We need to think about ourselves, right?
But not obsessively where we're not thinking about other people
and first of all, thinking about what it is the Lord wants us to
do. So we need to go to work and
work hard as you possibly can so that God's work and his plan in
your life is accomplished. I often think about let when I
pass and I'm in the presence of God and I'm in that like fire
where he's trying my works and whatever was done by the Spirit
of God for the glory of God comes out gold, silver, precious
stone and whatever was about Clark, is this going to burn?
I pray that there's some evidence when I'm before the
Lord that my life was lived for a purpose that was worthwhile as
opposed to wasting my life on social media or some other
stupid thing, right? You got a phone, I'm sure, and
it tells you how how many hours you're on social media.
It's sort of embarrassing, isn't it?
It's encouraging to say, well, last week it was 9 hours, this
week at six hours. That's a step in the right
direction. Maybe eventually it would be 10
minutes because most of that stuff isn't even worth looking
at, right? So I don't want to live my life
in vain. And I'm sure you don't either,
right? So he goes on to to talk about
this debate. Why are some of you, and these
are Corinthian believers supposedly that say there's no
resurrection of the dead? And I'm going to read something
here. Fascinating because like this is
circular thought. If you read these verses and I'm
sure you have in a path, you're like, what's he saying?
Who's he talking to? Who has the problem?
Is there some people that really don't believe he rose again from
the dead? That wasn't the case.
They all believed that Jesus rose from the dead.
The issue was they didn't believe that they'd raised from
the dead. OK, that that's that's the
issue. So.
So where does this thought come from?
One must always be careful to separate people's personal
beliefs from the church. Teaching popular traditions and
personal beliefs have a way of taking a life of its own, as in
the case of this text and this issue.
Paul's face with the situation in Corinth that needed an
immediate nipping in the bud and the matter and the question
concerned the central belief They carried on their shoulder
these false teachings. They probably had been under the
influence of what's called Phelonic wisdom or philosophy.
Phelonic was a an early philosopher and his writings
were fascinating, but the whole focus was the writings and the
philosophy of men were superseding the teachings of the
Word of God. And this wisdom came in the
sense that they believed that they already possessed eternal
life. Well, that's a step in the right
direction. The Christian and Corinth
believed that they had eternal life, but to them the
resurrection of the body would have been meaningless because
they principally attached no importance to the body.
So there's people that live on the face of the earth that think
the body is no good, it's worthless.
It's just a tent to walk around and do your life in and when you
die, there's no more need or importance of it.
Well, the body is sacred and and God created it.
It's so beautiful that whenever Jesus was on the Mount of
Transfiguration, in his glorified state before his death
and burial, resurrection, guess who showed up with him and
physical bodies that were recognizable?
Moses and Elijah, right, they could be seen Peter, James and
John were there seeing this whole miraculous thing before
their eyes. They were blown away and they
they saw Jesus shining as he truly is, the glorified Savior.
And we'll see him in heaven that way, this glowing and shining
with brightness that is beyond comprehension.
But the human beings, the sinful human beings, Moses and Elijah
were alive and well in physical bodies, proving that there is
life beyond the grave. And there was a temporal body
because of the restoration of the physical body at the final
resurrection hasn't occurred yet.
But nonetheless, Vince, if you went to heaven tomorrow, you're
going to see her. You're going to recognize her.
She's going to be beautiful as she was here, and she's going to
be strong and healthy and just, it's going to be awesome, right?
And all you have lost loved ones.
You're going to see them and you're going to be able to touch
them and feel them. So what could have brought about
such a thought? Corinth, and we studied this in
the beginning chapters as a home to many popular mystery
religions. The New Age religion was back in
Corinth. Believe me it this didn't start
in the in the 60s, which I've written and spoke about
previously. These mystery cults claim that
their initiates had already overcome death and we're living
the life of the gods. While this is what we know about
the mystery religions of that time, we can't be sure what
extent these ideas influenced Corinthians.
The Greek philosophy looked down on the resurrection is
undesirable. They thought a pure spirit to be
superior to a resurrected body. But within Judaism, we also know
that the Sadducees remember the Sadducees.
They were Sadducee because they didn't believe in the
resurrection. They rejected the resurrection.
They thought that the world beyond the dead was just wishful
thinking. The bottom line is that some of
the Corinthian Christians believe that they lived forever,
but not in resurrected bodies. So that's heresy.
So anybody that doesn't believe in the literal resurrection of
the dead or what the true gospel is, is believing a false gospel
and a lie. The Paul's reply to the
Corinthians that Christians denying the dead men are raised.
It's important to note the form of his argument is a circular
one designed to reduce a logical absurdity.
The position of his opponents. Paul shows how the resurrection
of Jesus not and he proves his own resurrection, but it proves
the principle of resurrection. He answers them head on.
How can some of you say there's no resurrection of the dead?
If there's no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not
been raised, and then our proclamation has been in vain,
and your faith is in vain. Paul says that there's several
consequences of such a belief, and it goes on to highlight
these things. Jesus was truly man and truly
God. This physical resurrection of
Christ from the dead is critical and pivotal to prove that He
truly is the Christ, the Son of the living God.
The reality of Christ's resurrection.
The Christian faith is the foundation of what is, what we
stand on, what we believe. So do you see how important this
teaching on the resurrection is? I'm not scooting through this
fast. I want to go through it slow.
So not only do you understand the truth and the validity of
it, but it it's going to impact your personal life as you move
closer to death yourself or loved ones.
You're going to be able to tell them Jesus said I am the
resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me though
he were dead, yet shall he live, and he that believeth in me
shall never die. Hallelujah, That's it.
If we're not excited about this, we might as well turn the lights
out, shut the building down, give the money away, it's in the
bank account and just go live your life and do whatever you
want to do. Who wants to do that?
We got to keep on keeping on, keep on preaching the truth,
keep on loving people, keep on sharing the gospel.
I love it when I run into people in Calvary and they tell me,
boy, I'm so excited. I got to tell someone about
Jesus this week. Ted was telling someone about
Jesus in the supermarket the other day.
He's telling telling me and Lewis about it.
My friend Gary's telling me people he runs into in the
business world, he loves to tell them about what Jesus did for
him. And you all you guys are like
this. Keep doing it.
This is what it's about. Christ died for our sins
according to the scriptures. He was buried and he rose again
the third day according to the gospel in the scriptures.
There's a worship team can come forward.
I woke some of you up, John. You woke up and I was yelling.
You know, I do it more often, John.
John listens even when he's sleeping.
So that's good. Because you know, Joe folks,
your pastor in Philly says I'd rather you fall asleep in church
because at least like subliminally something's coming
into your conscience. You'll, you'll remember what the
Holy Spirit gives you, right? So that's a good thing.
Well, let's take the Lord's Supper and we'll we'll continue
in Corinthians next week and praise the Lord.
Thank you for your hearts, for the Lord.
I, Lewis and I were so blessed. We come here and you're hungry
for Jesus. You're desperate for Jesus.
You want to know him better, You want to follow him closer, You
want to become more like him. That proves that you're a
Christian. That proves that you know him
and you got a heart that you want your loved ones to know him
too. So we just keep, keep on keeping
on. Lord Jesus, we're so grateful.
Thank you for the Apostle Paul. Thank you for working in his
life. Thank you for giving him the
grace to do what he did until he was martyred.
He was in prison. He's preaching the gospel.
He was in the chains. He was preaching the gospel.
He was in the streets of an empire that hated Christianity,
much like our own country today. It didn't stop him, he just kept
sharing Jesus with people. Lord, enable us to do that this
week. Enable us to do it today with
our loved ones, living on our faith and letting people see you
in us. What really matters to us,
what's most important to us, is you, Lord.
It's because of your grace. You come after us, Lord, you
chase us down. You grind away the vanity in the
immaturity and our weaknesses, Lord, and you show us really
what is most important to live for.
Bless these dear people, Lord, Continually favor them and their
marriages and singleness and kids and little kids next door.
And this all the things you're doing on the air, on the Grace
FM, on the YouTube, in the lives of each believer in this church,
Father. Use them mightily, Father, so
that our faith is not in vain, that we didn't waste our life,
that we'll finish well, all of us together.
And Lord, you've given us this supper to have frequently, to be
reminded of what's most important, how we're learning to
love you more, and how much you love us and how patient you are
to us. Lord, on the night that Jesus is
betrayed, he took the bread in his hands and he broke it and he
gave thanks and he said, this is my body which is given for you.
Eat this remembrance of me the same manner that night He took
the cup, and he said, This cup is a new covenant in my blood
which is shed for the forgiveness of sins of many.
Drink this in remembrance of me for His awesomely eat the spread
and we drank this cup. We show forth the Lord's death
till he comes again. God bless you guys.
Thank you for listening. Have a great week.