Get's me going...

So what is it that gets people hot under the collar, pushing people's buttons, and getting them all riled up to speak out and up about what they really care about?

I don't know what any of you have to say about it, but in my opinion, it has to be the topic of religion. Jesus Christ. Faith. God. Christianity. People always tend to have their own opinion, would love to force it upon somebody else, and most of all, need to have the last word.

Is it that difficult to simply walk away and say, "They're right. I don't need to say anything else."? Maybe. But in this walk of ministry that I currently am on, one of the most important things for me to learn is to hold my tongue, stay quiet, and most importantly of all, be in prayer. Because who can do more convincing: me and my loud boisterous, I-can-talk-more-and-louder-than you monologue or the Holy Spirit as He convicts us?

Bring up religion anywhere and you're sure to get people all driven to speak their mind. Bring up Christ and for sure there will be somebody else with a different perspective trying to prove to you that your opinion is only slightly correct and that they have a better more accurate view of our Savior.

Don't tell me what you know. Tell me what the Bible says. If you can tell me that, I'll listen.

The Bible tells me that Christ is Lord. Christ is God. (John 1:1) He is fully God and fully Man. He died on the cross for my sins. Salvation can only be had by faith in Him alone. No man can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.

Don't tell me what some scholar, scientist, priest, or religious leader said to someone, who wrote it down, which then was read and re-interpreted, and now you hear about it second,third, fourth, fifth hand. Don't tell me that you read it off the internet cause some late night blogger had some sort of epiphany about who Christ is and how God works.

Read the Bible yourself and tell me what it says.

Then I'll tell you what it says to me.

Jesus loves me... this I know.

Day after Christmas

I don't like taking naps or falling asleep early on Christmas, or Thanksgiving, or any other holiday for that matter, because it shortens the day. No matter how tired I may be, I try to truck it along, extending the day and taking it all in, knowing that I only get one of these a year.

After taking a look at my finances, even after all the uncertain and surprise transactions go through (oh there goes the checks I wrote for those parking tickets!) and however little my account balance is, there never seems to be a sense of panic. Rent is due in less than a week and combined with the numerous bills that are due toward the end of this month and the beginning of next month, I'll be shelling out thousands of dollars.

But still. Serenity. I'm reminded that God still provides. He owns the cattle on a thousand hills, so what if my needs equal a few thousand dollars a month? In retrospect, the Lord took me out of one job, with lots of room for growth and promotion, and placed me in another that was completely out of my comfort zone. This, all in time for the greatest economic crash in my young life. And job security was never an issue. With the other job, it sure would have been.

There are a lot of uncertainties in the air. But one thing is not. Every month I don't wonder any more if we'll have enough money to pay for what we need. God drops in little surprises just to remind me that He is still there. He hasn't ignored me. He hasn't forgotten about us. That every once in a while He just waits... to see if I'm faithful.

I hope I'm not making Him wait too long.

Jesus IS the reason for the season

I just finished reading a blog entry from another site arguing that Jesus is not the reason for the season. It argues that it should be about family, and giving, friends, and love. All well and good. But without Christ, there would be no enjoyment of family, giving, friends, and definitely not love.

Christ is the paramount example of love. Christ is the paramount reason for hope. And to exclude Him from Christmas is just ludicrous.

Christmas is a time to celebrate our Savior's birth. He came, sent by God the Father, to come to this earth to die on the cross for our sins. If He never came, there would be no propitiation of our sins. We would all be guilty of our sin nature and the wages of it would be death. Yes, it's true that Christ was never born on December 25, but it should not negate the fact that this entire season should be celebrated with His birth in mind. It is His birth that represents hope, love, and faithfulness.

I stated that without Christ there would be no enjoyment of family, giving, friends, and love because if there is no hope beyond this life, can we really enjoy the temporal time we have here on this earth?

It is truly unfortunate that people place more emphasis on the lights, decorations, trees, and snappy holiday tunes than the birth of our Lord. But just because the secular world may place it's emphasis on these things does not negate the truth that this season is to remember Christ's incarnation. Sure, some of these things may have been derived from pagan traditions, and we should never compromise our conservative Biblical theology, but Christ's birth is an absolute.

And when this world begins to dilute and eliminate Christ, then we know for a fact that we are in the end times (1 John 2:18). This is exactly what the enemy wants, to make people turn away from Christ. Because we know that there will come a day when the abomination of desolation takes place and someone will sit on the throne of God, declaring himself as God. (Mark 13:14

We are fast approaching that time. But until then, during this Christmas, and every subsequent Christmases to follow, let's never forget that it is because of Christ that we have a reason to celebrate in the first place.

Election Night 2008

With the lights off, the television set on, and Keilah sleeping by my side, I feel compelled to voice my opinion regarding the United States Presidential Election. I am not a US citizen, therefore I am not entitled to any vote. But the beauty of America is that I am still entitled to my opinion.

First, even though my position as a pastor of EL International Church Pasadena provides me with a platform to help sway peoples votes either one way or another, I will never do so for three reasons: 1) there are not nearly enough people in our congregation, 2) I was taught in EL Theological Seminary and by my grandfather that the position of a pastor should never be abused for politics, and 3) it is not, nor will it ever be my job and priority to tell the church who they should or should not vote for.

That is not important to me. I hope everyone understands that a US presidency can only last at most, 8 years. Not even Daniel's Seventieth Week is that long. But eternal life is.. well.. for eternity.Don't get me wrong. I am in no way diminishing the importance of a good government. But we have to understand that every government in place at this moment is in accordance to God's will. He has appointed each and every person in authority and leadership all around the world. If one party wins, the supporters of the other will not be happy and vice versa. It's a never ending cycle.

With that said, there is only one thing I would like to point out and this is the stance that I vehemently take. As long as there is a human being, man or woman, behind any governmental position of authority, power, or leadership, that government will ALWAYS be corrupt because man is inherently corrupt. Argue if you want. But if you can vote for who you want as president, then with that same freedom, I can say what I feel needs to be said.The only government that will ever be absolute and perfect is the government of which Jesus Christ, our Savior, will be head of. And my eyes for that prize.

Because of that, the priority of every Christian should not be to push the more conservative evangelical or the one with the agenda closest to Gods will. Rather, that should be secondary to the mission and ministry of leading others to Christ and sharing the Gospel of salvation with them. The political world should never take precedence over the spiritual. Because, as I've mentioned, eternal life is.. well.. for eternity.

In the end, whoever wins this election and all future ones, if the most conservative, down to earth, born again Christian wins because of the efforts of every church and religious organization, but not one other person comes to Christ, then what did we really gain?

ROJC - Preach and Believe

Intro:

1) One of the things that I love the most in regards to my jobs is training other people. Either at the golf course or at Jamba, I’ve been in charge of training people that we’ve hired. Actually, it starts off with an interview which I conduct and relaying my opinion back to the person in charge. The thought is that I’ll be training these people so I better like them and feel that I can work with them. In any case, I like working with someone with a clean slate, who don’t know anything about the job and where the responsibility falls directly on me in order to train them the proper way.

2) When I train, I tell them to double-check with me just in case anybody else tells them how to do something. I have a sense of ownership and pride in each person that I train. I take it personally if one of my trainees does not work up to expectation. It’s a reflection of me. Now, the point is, the newly hired employees do not know what to do. They will not know until they are told and informed of how to work.

3) In the same way, how would believers, Christians, know what to believe if there was no one to inform us and preach to us?

I. Preach and Believe

1 Corinthians 15:11- “Therefore, whether it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.”

1) There’s something that happens to me frequently. When I’m driving, if somebody cuts me off or performs an idiotic move on the road, I get angry, just like everybody else. However, every once in awhile, the car that cuts me off ends up having a Jesus fish on it’s bumper or a license plate frame that says “No Jesus No peace, Know Jesus Know peace.” After seeing it, I lose my anger and allow them to slide because they’re apparently believers.

2) My first emotion is to scream at the driver. My second is serenity. I had a situation like this earlier this week. It made me think. How am I supposed to act like? Am I supposed to be irritated because of the inconsideration of someone? Or am I supposed to pardon them because they’re fellow believers? Then another question came across me. How do I know how I’m supposed to act?

3) We have the Bible and it tells us how we should act. The Bible presents to us the standard, tells us how to behave, act, and tells us the rights and wrongs. We have it there. Everybody has it there. And yet there are so few that follow it. We read it and it goes right over our heads. We never seem to take it seriously. And it never hits us hard even when we’ve read the same passage over and over again.

4) There are people in the world that can read the Bible, feel convicted, and have a profound effect. But unless we hear somebody explain it to us, scold us, and make it relative to us, we don’t really allow it to sink in. The efficiency of another person’s voice, understanding, and relativity of the Bible to everyday life is incomparable and the Apostle Paul realized that.

5) Let’s take a look at the verb “preach.” The verb means “to proclaim or make known,” specifically the gospel of Jesus Christ. It wasn’t a generic preaching. It was specific. It was the preaching of the truth, things that could not be denied. Too often, preachers in this world preach things that are not true, that are of the wrong theology. But the apostle Paul stated here that when he or any of the other apostles preach, they preach the truth, not heresy.

6) The verb “preach” is in the present tense which indicates that all the apostles from Peter to Paul continued to preach. They preached the same truth and didn’t stop until God decided to take them home. There was an importance to the apostle’s preaching. There could be writings. There was evidence. But all the apostles knew the importance of getting up and sharing the Gospel with the people. Even Christ knew it, thus giving us the great commission.

7) The Apostles knew that they could not just leave it alone and feel that the world would come to the truth of Christ’s death and resurrection on their own. Yes, the Lord could work that way. But He also chooses to use us. The Apostle’s realized that the Lord had given them a ministry to work in. That ministry was to preach and share the gospel so that others would believe.

8) Let’s take a look at the verb “believe.” The church in Corinth had a complete faith in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Through continual preaching of the apostle’s their belief was in its entirety. Can you imagine how great preachers the apostles were? A simple message, yet so powerful and so effective. The apostle’s preached and the people believed. I’m sorry to say but there are preachers today that are vastly ineffective. But the apostles! Imagine being able to hear the apostle Paul! If you’ve ever seen Billy Graham in person and hear one of his 5 minute, simple messages on salvation, you’ve seen the thousands of people that answer the alter call. You know how powerful it is. I would imagine that the apostle Paul’s preaching would be 100 times more powerful than Billy Graham. Not to take anything away from Billy Graham, I just think that the apostle’s were just so amazing.

9) I’m not trying to take anything from the Bible. I’m not saying that preachers are the most important part of a ministry, especially since preachers preach from the Bible. The Lord doesn’t need us. He doesn’t need us to prove to people that He actually died and rose again from the dead. If the Lord wanted to, He can just force everyone to believe. But that wouldn’t be love. The point is, the apostle’s preached, Paul preached, Peter preached, Timothy preached, hundreds of thousands of people down throughout history have preached. They’ve been used by God. Preacher’s today are used by God. It’s just a different dynamic when we hear somebody talking and presenting to us the Word of God and it’s relevance in our lives.

1) Don’t leave here saying that preachers are more important than the Word of God, because that’s not what I’m saying. When preachers preach, hopefully they’re still preaching from what the Bible says. When the apostle’s preached, they preached the truth, which is what the Bible is. God works in that way. Through word of mouth, through witnessing, many people have come to know Christ as their Lord and Savior.

2) When people preach, people believe. As long as people preach, and preach the gospel and the truth of the word of God, people will believe. As long as people witness, people will believe. Once again, we don’t have to be formal preacher or pastor or bishop or seminary student to share the truth of God. All we have to do is open our mouths.

ROJC- I Am What I Am

Intro:

1) I believe that I, more so than anybody right now, have been trying to figure out what I want to do and be in the next few years. I’ve been battling and going back and forth about things in my life and the different options and roads that I can take. Subconsciously, I think that I’ve been working so much because it takes my mind off the confusion of trying to figure out what God has planned for me.

2) In the process of trying to figure this out, I have to develop into the man that my peers, my family, my employers, and my God want me to be. You want to talk about finding out what you’re doing with your life and how tough it is, this development may even be harder. Each aspect of my life demands a different “Justin.” Both jobs, assistant manager at one, lead team member at the other, group member at school, leader at church, a certain friend to certain friends, another friend to other friends, a son and a brother all demand me to act a certain way. On top of that, I’m a Christian, a believer, a follower of Christ. It trumps everything, but all my other personas conflict with this one character. It gets tiring.

3) I’m waiting for the day that everything in my life, and how I change my personality to accommodate these aspects, will finally conform and evolve into one personality that I can carry around and not have to change simply because of my environment or circumstance. I’m waiting when I will have one character, one personality that will show through all aspects of my life. More specifically, I’m waiting for the day that I can be Christ-like every hour of the day. But what’s great is that God is in charge of who I am and who I will become.

I. I Am What I Am

1 Corinthians 15:9-10 – “For I am the least of the apostles, 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.”

1) The Apostle Paul just finished telling the church in Corinth that there were hundreds of people who had seen Christ. He named off the apostles and disciples as well. Then he went on to say that if you need more, that he himself saw Christ. V. 8- “Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time.” But despite him seeing Christ, he informed the church that he was the least of all the apostles and shouldn’t have even been called an apostle because of how he persecuted the church. Acts 8:3- “As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering every house, and dragging them off men and women, committing them to prison.”

2) Afterwards, Paul even admitted it to his apprentice Timothy, in a letter. 1 Timothy 1:12-13 – “And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has enabled me, because He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry, although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man, but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.” He was still used by God, was given a ministry to work in, and by which the mercy and grace of God helped him through.

3) Even though the Apostle Paul was all these things before he was converted, he was still sent and used by God, thus the difference between an apostle and a disciple. The Greek word for disciple is mathetes which means “someone who learns or a pupil.” The Greek word for “apostle” is apostolos which signifies “a delegate or a messenger, someone with orders.” Even though Paul persecuted the church, He was still sent by God with orders for a ministry which he did to a greater extent than those who preceded him.

4) And still, even through his pre-meditated persecution, the apostle Paul could now do what he does and be who he is because of God. People questioned his sincerity. They wondered whether or not Paul’s faith was real. Or was it just some way for him to get into the Christian church and persecute it from the inside out? Here is a man who had thrown hundreds of Christians in jail for simply believing in Christ. If you were a Christian at that time, would you trust a man who had that reputation? Probably not. But yet he continued to do so. This was one of the mountains that he had to climb. He had to prove to everyone that he had been converted and that his intentions were good. He was given the strength to overcome the accusations and the lack of trust because of His belief in God. His faith in Jesus Christ provided the mercy to endure all those things and use his natural gifts and talents for the ministry of Jesus Christ.

5) Working backwards, let’s take a look at verse 8. The phrase “born out of due time” in the Greek is ektroma which speaks of “an abortion or an untimely birth.” What Paul was saying was he was chosen not because of his background or his education or because he was walking closely with Christ. On the contrary, him being chosen was a complete surprise to him! He wasn’t expecting it. It wasn’t as if he was as qualified as others were or was mature as those who wanted to be in the apostolic office. No! He was chosen without any experience, without any knowledge, without any aspiration to be that. And the fact that he was chosen in this manner thoroughly humbled Paul.

6) We don’t have to be a seminary student or aspire to work in the ministry in order to be used by God. Actually you can argue that some of the most dynamic, passionate, productive people are those who never thought to go into the ministry in the first place! And as often as you may hear it, you may not think that God will use you because of how badly we’ve sinned against Him, but He still can and He still will. If God can use a sinner like Paul or a sinner like David, then He most certainly can use a sinner like me. And the fact that He uses a sinner like me, with a list of sins as deep as the ocean, that’s humbling.

Conclusion:

1) When God chose Paul, He didn’t choose Paul because of his good looks, his faith in Jesus Christ, or his love for Him for that matter. He didn’t choose him for any of that. All we know is that God chose him. When God chooses you, it may not be because of your knowledge of the Bible, or how close your relationship with Him is, or how many Greek words you know. God just chooses you. And He chooses you just as you are.

2) And we are who we are because of God's grace, because of His mercy. We can choose the path of life that we'll travel and the man or woman that we'll become because God gives us the reign to so. And as Paul said that "I am what i am by the grace of God," when it is because of God that we are who we are, who we become should be chosen people who love the Lord.

ROJC 1 Corinthians 15:5-8

Intro:
1) There are so many paintings, pictures, assumptions of what Jesus Christ looks like. In a way, because of how Christ has been portrayed through these pictures and movies, that we assume that He’s going to look this way when we finally see Him. However, what I’ve been educated on is that He is probably not going to look anything like how He’s been portrayed. Because of where He was born, the culture that surrounded Him and the nature of the people He was born into, it’s very likely that He would look extremely different than what people have made Him out to be.
2) In any case, regardless of how He looks, it will still be breathtaking and amazing to finally see Him. This is our Savior. The Man who died for us on that cross. He’ll know everything about us and declare His love for us. That’s amazing. Of course, we’ll have to wait until either He returns to earth or until God finally decides to take us home.
3) But what would the effect be if we were able to see Him today? How would we react? How would we feel? How would it strengthen our faith to see our Messiah in person? After doubting His death and resurrection, it’d be amazing to see Christ and prove to all those doubters how they were wrong. Seemingly, it always takes people having to see with their own two eyes if something is true.
I. Seen
1 Corinthians 15:5-8- “and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present but some have fallen asleep. After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. Then last of all He was seen by me also, as one born out of due time.”
1) Even though Christ will not be seen until He returns to earth again, where at that moment “every eye will see Him,” it was testified by Paul that after His resurrection, He was seen by plenty of individuals. He was showing the church in Corinth that it wasn’t just Him or a select few who had seen Christ. It wasn’t as if they were hallucinating. Christ had actually been seen by hundreds of people!
2) Now even though the church in Corinth may not have necessarily seen Christ, Paul was giving in full detail specific individuals who did. He names Peter, James, the 12 disciples, and all the apostles. He then goes on to say that over five hundred people had been able to see Christ after His resurrection. And look at verse 6. It’s important to realize and underline that of those five hundred who had seen Christ, most of them were still alive! Some had passed away, but most of the five hundred were still living!
3) What this indicates is that if the church in Corinth had any doubt whatsoever, it was very simple for them to reaffirm their faith in the resurrection of Christ by simple approaching any of the remaining five hundred who were still alive and hear from their own mouth and personal testimony of how they saw Christ, alive and in the flesh. At that time, believers, Christians had the luxury of being provided the tangible evidence and visible facts of a living Christ to defend their belief in a risen Savior.
4) How many more Christians would there be today if we could resort to that sort of affirmation? If we could bring our non-believing friends to a physical Savior and say, “This is Christ,” have them shake His hand and put their fingers in His nail pierced hand, what do you think is the probability of them finally believing and accepting the truth of Christ’s sacrifice and resurrection? But we don’t. We have a viable weapon of truth in the Bible, but as I’ve mentioned, seemingly that’s not enough for a lot of people. They always need visual and physical confirmation.
5) And that’s understandable. We can’t get angry that we don’t have anybody alive today that has actually seen and talked with Christ in order to help strengthen and defend our belief in a risen Christ. We have the Word of God but with the closed mindset of our society it’s hard to make them believe. But that’s why our faith is so remarkable. The fact that we believe in a risen Savior, without tangible evidence is astounding. That is unbelievable faith. It is a faith that God and Christ appreciate even more.
6) We are then reminded of Thomas who stubbornly held that “unless I see in His hands the print of the nails and put my finger into the print of the nails and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.” Even a disciple refused to believe. If a disciple of Christ who walked, talked, was taught first hand by Christ would refuse to believe, it’s understandable that millions of others down throughout history would refuse to believe as well. But after that declaration of unbelief Christ revealed Himself to Thomas, had him place his hand into His side, and finally, Thomas cried out shockingly, “My Lord and My God!” It was then that Christ said in verse 29 of John chapter 20, “Thomas because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
7) The first “believed” is in the perfect tense. This means that after Thomas had finally seen and touched Christ, He finally and permanently believed. Sadly, it took Thomas having to touch Christ to finally believe. The second “believed” is a constant participle meaning that it is a greater blessing for those who has not seen as Thomas has, but yet still continue to believe.
8) Going back to 1 Corithians 1: 5-7, let’s take a look at the verb “seen.” The Greek word for “seen” is optanomai. It is in the aorist tense which means that Christ was completely seen and the indicative mood indicates that there was no question that He was seen. The disciples, the apostles, the five hundred who had seen Christ had not just seen a part of Him, or a glimpse of Him. There was no way that their eyewitness testimony could be questioned. They had seen Him. End of story.
1) If we had Christ to resort to and fall back on, how much easier would it be to witness to others and convince them of the truth of the death and resurrection of Christ? We don’t, but that doesn’t mean we should be discouraged. Right here in the Scriptures, we are told of how hundreds of people 2000 years ago actually did see Christ. And as we learned last week, despite what many people believe, there are no holes in the Bible, the Word of God is the truth and there is no denying that. If it says that Christ was seen by hundreds then He was seen by hundreds.We have a risen Savior. And even if people refuse to believe it, they have a right to. Even Thomas refused to believe. But, we can take encouragement in the fact that just like Thomas those who hold themselves in unbelief will one day be shown the truth. Christ will make Himself real to them. In one way or another, the holes in His hands and His pierced side will make the grandest statement of all: we serve a risen Savior because Christ is alive.

ROJC 1 Corinthians 15:3,4

If I had one wish, something that God had asked me and that He would grant me but upon receiving this wish, He would automatically take me to heaven, it would be one of two things. The first thing that would pop into my mind would be to have my grandfather alive again. The second thing that I would want for Him to grant me would be to see His book, His blueprint for my life. I want to see what He has planned for me. I want to know where I’m going to go wrong, what I’m going to do, the life that I’m going to live and how the rest of my years will pan out. I want to see it.

See, God has a plan for all of our lives. And I’m wondering, what would they be like if He had it written down, and there was something tangible, a book, that we could refer to that would discuss the details of our life and death, before we knew it would happen? It’s a good thing that we don’t, but just what if?

Continuing on with our studying in 1 Corinthians, we come across some defenses for the resurrection of Jesus Christ, based on prophecy, prophesied centuries before it actually happened.

I. Died, Buried, and Rose

1 Corinthians 15:3,4- “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.”

We may not have something tangible, or spoken down throughout the years concerning our lives, but Christ most certainly did. His life purpose was detailed centuries before and was fulfilled. No other man in history can say that His life was foretold and had come to fruition. Only Christ.

Let’s look at the word “Scriptures.” This is a reference to the Old Testament. Some of the disciples, the apostle Paul, and even Christ Himself made references, pointing back toward the Old Testament writings, concerning Christ and His sacrifice.

Passages in the Bible that discuss the death, burial and resurrection of Christ include: Isaiah 53, Zechariah 13:7, Psalm 22:18, Psalm 69:21 for His death, Psalm 30:3, 41:10, and 49:15 for His resurrection.

One of the more familiar passages where the resurrection of Christ is mentioned is found in Psalm 16:8-11. Here the resurrection of Christ is applied through David, one who took strength and encouragement, from these words, but through which the Lord was using to prophesy of His inevitable end. Let’s make a comparison and imagine the emotions that both men must be feeling and apply these words to both situations, for one a man in sin, for the second a Man in sacrifice. In both instances, they are statements of confidence, hope in victory of the Messiah.

There is one difference, however, in our application of this passage to both David and Christ. David died. He was buried and did not rise again. However Christ did not. The apostle Paul puts it best in Acts 13:36,37- “For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell asleep, was buried with his fathers and saw corruption, but He whom God raised up saw no corruption.”

Christ died, but He rose again from the dead. His facets of His life were prophesied. We think, facets, what facets? It was only His death, life and resurrection right that was written in the Old Testament and fulfilled in the New. But it wasn’t. Everything from His lineage, to His temptation, His rejection, His obedience, authority, humility, and His mission. His sufferings, His priesthood, His claims to be God, to be Messiah, to be the Lamb of God and God of Israel were all prophesied and fulfilled in word in the New Testament. That’s how amazing it is! All this and more were prophesied and fulfilled by Christ!

Now, all this is well and good, but what does it mean? Is this an apologetics sermon? I don’t want to think that it is. Here is the significance of knowing that Christ died, was buried, and rose, according to the Scriptures. Because everything happened in accordance to what the prophets wrote during the time of the Old Testament, it only fuels the overall truth of the Bible. If the Old Testament is true about Christ and the fulfillment of all His prophecies, then everything in the Old Testament and New Testament will eventually come to fruition as well.

The first thing that we must keep in mind that will come true according to the Scriptures is that Christ will return to this earth again. The second is the actuality of the entire book of Revelation, and the third is the judgment which will befall on everyone, either by the Book of Life or the Book of Works.

Imagine the reality that we must all be facing. The Bible is truth. If it’s true then millions will be going to heaven, and millions will be going to hell. Millions will have to endure the tribulation period. Millions will face the judgment seat of Christ. Once again we take it for granted. Just because we didn’t see David slay Goliath, or Daniel sleep with the lions, or Job scrape off his boils, we don’t seem to be able to develop that sense of urgency that the future that the Bible actually speaks of will happen!

What will it take to make others see? What will make them believe? The Bible is right there. The truth is out in the open. Why is it so hard to grasp? One of my co-workers, who is a Mormon confessed to me that she loves reading the Mormon bible, but that it was difficult to read the Bible. People have to be willing to accept the truth. They must be willing to be guided by the Holy Spirit to open our eyes to the teachings of the Bible. The Bible is such a wonderful blessing. People treat it as a curse. Even those in churches who refuse to read it treat it as if it’s leprosy.

Conclusion:

The life, death, and resurrection of Christ help prove to the world that the Bible speaks the truth. It gives in full the details of Christ. So many prophecies have been fulfilled. It’s amazing how people still don’t believe that the Bible is real and truthful.

What I’m trying to say is believe that the Bible is real. That it tells the truth. And go out there and live with conviction that the Bible is real. Let the world know. We need to stop staying quiet about it. There’s too much at stake. There’s too much to lose. What’s the point of prophecy and fulfillment of prophecy if all it leads to is people sitting on their hands, not willing to shout for joy?

The one lesson that we can learn from the passage this morning is what the Apostle Paul told the church. That he is now delivering to the church what he received first. Now that we’ve heard, we have to share to others.

Let's share to others the story, love, and sacrifice of Christ. Yes, Christ is ours. But let's keep in mind that in accordance to the Scriptures, He's ours to share.

ROJC- 1 Corinthians 15:2

Intro:
It’s amazing how things can change in the span of a week. Last week, it was full of excitement. Developments in my life were taking place, God was using me, and I was on top, feeling so assured of my relationship with Him. This week, I feel useless. I feel disappointed, non-productive, and worst of all so far detached from the man I call my Savior. I feel like a hypocrite. I feel selfish and self-involved. I feel that after all the work that I’ve done these past seven days, that this week has been a waste.

During these times, what do I hold on to? What do I remember? What are the thoughts that seep into my mind? Last week, I reaffirmed my faith in Jesus Christ and declared my faith in Him each and every time doubt, or distress, or overwhelming sense of failure hit me. This week, instead, I thought about those failures. I thought about the let downs, the collapses, the people’s opinions and how they would view me, especially having to appease 10 different people all at one time. I forgot about the one person that would love me, even more, in my failure.

It’s tough. Our lesson today is tough. The point of this sermon today is tough and I can tell you first hand because I’ve lived it this week. One of the messages that the apostle Paul left with the church in Corinth was something that was very importantly tied to the resurrection of our Savior.

I. Stand Fast

1 Corinthians 15:2- “by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you- unless you believed in vain.”

The church in Corinth was able to stand and be saved in the gospel in which they received. Today, millions of people are able to be saved if only they receive the gospel. Thousands stand in it. Notice the difference in numerical value. Now, let me make a disclaimer. This is not based on exegesis. This is added insight. Last week, we learned that to stand in the Gospel meant to stand in it with strength and permanence. Millions can be saved, true. And they will never lose their salvation. But only thousands stand in it.

Count to ten, the number of people who would react as Jesus would react, make decisions as He would, live as He lived, even just 50% of the time. Who are the people who would turn to God, the ones who would slowly stop conforming their lives to the world and slowly emulate Christ? And then who are the ones who abandon the gospel, the Word, when it has become the most necessary to do so? I guarantee you, that those that you think are strong, pastors, leaders of the church, are not even strong. That we all fail, and we constantly have to read the Bible to encourage us to stand fast.

Let’s proceed onto the exegesis of this passage. First, let’s look at the qualifying word “if.” We are saved if we hold fast to the word. The verb “hold fast,” in the Greek is translated “keep.” We are saved if we keep the word of the Gospel. Here’s the semi conflict. The Greek word for “keep” is in the present tense. Does that mean that if we for once believe in something else, or begin to lose faith, do we lose our salvation? If that is the case, doesn’t that conflict with the truth that we’ve been speaking that we cannot lose our salvation that even we cannot even take ourselves out of the love of God? If we accepted Christ and twenty years down the line we stray and no longer believe that there is a God, do we still keep our salvation? That’s the conflict. Are we saved only if we continue to keep the Gospel? Here’s the explanation and the clarification.

We must remember the context in which the Apostle Paul was giving this statement. The church in Corinth would be saved by the Gospel of Jesus Christ that Paul brought if they continued to keep and believe in what he preached. This means if they would not be corrupted or adhere to any of the other false teaches and enemies of Christ that would try to lead them astray. They had to continue to hold fast to the gospel of Jesus Christ which was the only way of salvation, contrary to what any of the other false teachers had to say in that time period.

Let’s take a look at the verb “saved.” The Greek word for “saved” is sozesthe which comes from the root word sozo. Now here’s the interesting part of it. The Greek word for “saved” is also found in the present tense. There can be two different conflicts in our Christian theology presented in this one verse. One, which we just discussed is our ability to lose our salvation. The second is also tied to that, which, based on the parsing of this verb sozesthe, may imply that we are constant need of being saved. It implies that the Gospel saves us over and over again. The present tense is true in the sense that it constantly saves us, but not in terms of us losing our salvation. The present tense implies that the Gospel has the continuing power to save a believer from the influence and power of sin and the devil.

It is not through our power as human beings, but through the Gospel. This also clarifies the qualifying word “if” which may insinuate that we are saved through our own discretion and power of holding fast to the Gospel. On the contrary it is through the salvific power of the Gospel by which we are saved.

Lastly, let’s take a look at the phrase, “unless you believed in vain.” There are people in this world with shallow faith. There are people who put on a Sunday face, act and try to convince people that they are Christians but have not accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior. There are those people who act as if they abide by the Word of God but do not hold fast to it. There are those who believe as the demons believe. They believe that there is a God also, but does that save them? First and foremost, determine the depth of your faith. We answer to no one but God. I’m not going to know. I can assume, and if you’re a good enough liar, then I’ll believe you’re a solid Christian. If not, then it’s between you and God.

Also, the apostle Paul demonstrated that if our faith is real, and not in vain, that also our persecutions and discouragements were then not without purpose and that the strength of our faith is unyielding. And by no less than the strength of this sort of faith, will we be saved.

Conclusion:

This sermon may sound tough from an exegetical standpoint because it was somewhat confusing. But this sermon is tough because it presents a truth to our faith that we so often need but frequently neglect. Day in and day out, do we constantly stand fast in the word of God? There are two roadblocks. First of all, do we have the strength, will, and faith to make the decision to live the way that God wants us to live, as believers? We have to make the conscious decision to stay strong and permanent in the Word.

The second roadblock is, do we even know what's in the Word of God? Do we know what it says? How can we stand fast in the Word if we don't know what to do, say or act? So, we've made the decision to live the way God wants us to live. The question is do we know how He wants us to live? If we don't, how can we stand fast?

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Isidro Annotated New Testament- 1 Corinthians 15:2

Resurrection of Jesus Christ 1 Corinthians 15:1

Intro:
This past week, people that I’ve been working with, either at Jamba Juice or the golf course are either reminding or complaining to me how this weekend isn’t a holiday. All that they care about is whether or not they get paid time and a half on Good Friday or Easter Sunday. It’s somewhat disappointing and it opens your eyes to what this world is really about. Doesn’t this month, this weekend mean more than getting paid holiday rates?

It’s become so diluted. There’s no longer any meaning to it. Why don’t we commit an entire season to it? We do for Christmas. His birth was important. But if you think about it, His resurrection, His death, because it happened, is even more important. What would happen if He never rose from the dead? What are the implications of that? That’s why, no matter how important His birth was His death was even more important because, despite all the miracles that He displayed, it was His death that declared His deity.

Starting on this Resurrection Sunday, it is important to understand what this event means to us. We could spend the next weeks defending that the resurrection actually happened. But instead, we’re going to go a different direction. This time, we’re going to go in depth so that we may be able to thoroughly comprehend the significance of this resurrection and its impact on our lives.

I. The Reality of our Faith
Our study takes us to the book of 1 Corinthians chapter 15. This is the explanation of the Apostle Paul to the church in Corinth about the importance and impact of the resurrection in their lives. “Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preach to you- unless you believed in vain.”

At this moment, the gospel is being preached throughout the world. And people may believe it or they may not. People may accept it and deny it later on in their lives. People may dispose of it out of fear, afraid of being mocked, persecuted, and ridiculed because of their faith. The weak Christians seem to never be able to hold to their faith.

Imagine, that on His death, our Savior was ridiculed. On His death, people denied Him. On His death, people scoffed and laughed at Him. This was the way He died. And is this what He died for? No, He died so that we may believe. The miracles didn’t force people to believe. His words, His perfect character, His sinless nature didn’t force people to believe. It was when the two on the road conversed with Him, it was when the twelve and then the 500 saw Him. It was when Thomas put his finger in His side and in His hand that they believed.

And now, because of belief, we have people, pastors, evangelists, who boldly proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Without fear, without worry of being ridiculed.

Let’s take a look at the two verbs here in verse 1. Look at the verbs “declare” and “preached.” The Greek word for “declare” means “to certify or give to understand. It can also mean to remind. Here’s Barnes: “Here it does not mean that he was communicating to them any new truth, but he wished to remind them of it.” The Greek word for “preached” means “to bring good news.” Now, here’s the interesting part of it. The verbs have different tenses. The verb “declare” is in the present tense while the verb “preached” is found in the aorist tense. What this means is that at one point in time, the Apostle Paul gave the church in Corinth, preached to them the Gospel in its entirety. And down throughout the days, he continues to remind them of what he preached to them, which is the Gospel of Jesus Christ, not something that is brand new, something that they already knew of, but needed to be told again.

One of the things that we learned was that if you wanted to change a habit in the workplace, it would take at least three months of telling the same person the same thing over and over again, day after day. It wouldn’t be until three months that the habit would eventually take place, but not before being impressed into their minds. One could argue that preaching is the same way. It would take months to tell you over and over again the significance of sin, the resurrection, the Gospel. And it’s not just me, but the Apostle Paul who believes it also. That’s why we can never give up. I forgot who quoted it, but there’s a saying that describes the breaking of a rock by a tiny hammer. It’s not the last hit that broke it apart, but the 1000 tiny hits before it.

Now, let’s take a look at the verb “receive.” The Greek word for “received” is paralamban which means to “receive with approval.” This means that the church in Corinth received the Gospel intelligently.[1] They were not ignorant. They were not tricked into receiving the Gospel. They used their intellect to make a decision to accept Christ. Yes, some people may not thoroughly understand our faith. Sometimes we may not understand some of the things that we believe. But God has provided enough evidence for us to make a cognitive decision that Christ lived, that He died, that He rose from the dead and that we are sinners and are in need of a Savior. There is no doubting that.

Lastly, look at the verb “stand.” The verb “stand” is found in the present tense which signifies the strength and permanence in which the church in Corinth stood in the Gospel. Sadly, that strength and permanence may not be too evident in the world today. Yes, there are a lot of people who stay in the Word and hold tight to the Gospel. But I guarantee you that there is a far greater number who do not. You can just tell. A lot of us are good talkers. A lot of us are good liars. But there is no way that you can fake this.

Conclusion:
In the middle of this sermon, I was wondering, what is the theme of this sermon? What is it that God wanted to share with us? I was frustrated. I didn’t know where I was going. But eventually, God showed me. After a brief stint of prayer, I realized what the purpose of this message was. God gives us the ability to believe, the ability to have faith. Our faith is placed in Jesus Christ. And it is Christ and the fact that He resurrected Himself from the dead that makes our faith real.

We’ve all been preached to. We’ve all heard of the Gospel and we continue to be reminded of things that we already know. But we should never get tired of hearing how our Savior is risen and has already conquered the world.

[1] Isidro Annotated New Testament