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