Biblical Christianity
Series: Faithology
1 Corinthians 15:1-6
Welcome
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Good morning and Happy Easter.
We are glad that you are here today.
A couple of announcements before we get started.
Offering
Baptism Opportunity – next week
Ladies tea invitations available in foyer – Saturday, May 8th @ 3pm
Directories available next week - $4 each to have them in a binder
This morning, as we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the defeat of sin and death that He accomplished, we are going to be beginning a new sermon series called Faithology.
Series Intro
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If you have never heard that word before, it is because it is just made up, but it does have real meaning.
We have combined “Faith” - a term that refers to a confident belief in a transcendent reality, a religious teacher, a set of Scriptures, teachings or a Supreme Being.
Wikipedia – accessed 3/30/2010 at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faith
And -ology – from the Greek word meaning “the study of”
To come up with Faithology – the study of belief’s that people have in regard to a transcendent reality or a Supreme Being.
Over the course of the next 7 weeks, we are going to be looking at some different religions of the world and the essential beliefs of those faith systems and we will be seeing how they line up with reality and also comparing them to Biblical Christianity to gain a better understanding of the differences in religions as well as a better understanding of the truth of Christianity.
Sermon Intro
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Now, today we are going to be starting out looking at Biblical Christianity and what the essential beliefs of Christianity are so we will be able to better compare other religions and faith systems to it.
Now I say Biblical Christianity because there are many of us who have thoughts in our head of what Christianity is without any real support for why we believe that.
Baptism = Christian
There are some who believe if you were baptized as a baby, or any other age for that matter, that makes you a Christian.
Giving = Christian
There are others who believe that because I give money to charity, that makes me a Christian.
Kind = Christian
Still others believe that if you act kind toward others, that makes you a Christian.
Now, none of those things are bad, and in fact, Christians will do those things.
But being a Christian is about being in relationship with and a follower of Jesus Christ.
And it is not us who gets to decide who Jesus is. We can’t just believe that he was a good teacher or a moral man or a prophet who was wise.
To be a Christian in the Biblical sense means we have to believe in who Jesus really is and what He really did and we find that in the Bible.
So this morning, we are going to look into what the Bible says about who Jesus is what He did that are essential to believe for us to consider ourselves Christians and to have salvation in the biblical sense.
And if you have never really understood what salvation is or what it is to be saved, it means to be assured of an eternal life with the Lord after you die vs. an eternity apart from the Lord in hell, which is what happens to those who don’t have salvation.
I would ask if you have a Bible to Turn with me to 1 Corinthians 15:1-6
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We are going to look closely at what the apostle Paul said was imperative to believe about who Jesus is and what He did to have salvation.
1 Corinthians 15:1-6
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15:1 Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. 2 By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.
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3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. 6 After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep.
Pray
There is a whole lot tied up in these 6 verses that we are going to unpack for you, so that by the time you leave here today, you can leave knowing if you believe the essential beliefs of Christianity and if you do, to receive Him and follow after Him by faith if you haven’t already.
Ok,
Let’s look at these first 2 verses.
Paul reminds them of the gospel, and he tells them it is their belief in this gospel that saves them.
What are they saved from?
When the Bible talks about being saved or having salvation, it has a two-fold meaning.
First, it is being saved from an eternity in hell apart from God and
Second, it is being saved to an eternity in heaven in the eternal presence of God.
So if this gospel is that important, it is vital that we understand what exactly the gospel message is because the gospel message contains the essential beliefs of Christianity.
Thankfully, Paul reminds them of exactly what these beliefs are in the next verses.
Look at 1 Corinthians 15:3 - For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures
Ok, I want to look at this first part, where Paul says “Christ.”
He is calling Jesus the Christ. There is a lot of theology tied up in that simple truth.
What does it mean to be the Christ?
This is important for us to understand because it is essential to believe that
Jesus is the Christ, which means he is God in the flesh
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Wait a minute. I thought Jesus was the Son of God.
He is.
Being the Christ means being the Son of God and being the Son of God means you are God.
Let me walk you through this.
In Matthew 16, Jesus asked Peter who he thought Jesus was and Peter’s response was
"You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." (Matthew 16:16)
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Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God.
Ok, so you can see that being the Christ means that He is the son of God,
but how is being the Son of God the same as being God?
Listen To what Jesus says and what the Jews do in
John 5:17-18
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17Jesus said to them, "My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working." 18For this reason the Jews tried all the harder to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
The Jews recognized the claims Jesus was making about himself and wanted to kill him for blasphemy, for claiming to be God by the statement he made about being the Son of God.
Not only that, but we see the Apostle John affirm the essential belief that Jesus is God in the flesh.
He says in
1 John 4:2-3
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2This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God.
This doesn’t mean that you just need to acknowledge Jesus was a man. It was obvious he was a man. This means acknowledging that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh.
It is even more clear when you see what John said in chapter 1 of his gospel account.
John 1:1, 14
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1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…14The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.
Jesus is the Christ and that means He is God in the flesh and that is an essential belief of Christianity. According to the Bible, to be a Christian, you must truly believe that Jesus is God who has come in the flesh.
Transition
Ok, so what are the other essential beliefs of Biblical Christianity?
Well another essential belief is believing that
Jesus died in your place because of your sins
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1 Corinthians 15:3b - 3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures
We have all sinned and because of that sin, we have been separated from God.
Because of our sin, we are unable to do anything to restore our relationship with God.
But God loves us and He does the work that is necessary to restore our relationship with Him.
Because Jesus is God and because He put on flesh and became man, He was able to come to this earth, live a perfect life as a man, while still always being God, and die in your place to pay the price for your sins.
1 John 2:2 says “He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins…”
He paid for our sins, so that when we receive him, that payment is credited to our account as righteousness.
So it is essential that you know you are a sinner and that Christ died for your sins, taking the punishment you deserve.
Another aspect that Paul talks about as being an essential belief of Christianity is believing that
Jesus Resurrected from the Dead
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1 Corinthians 15:3-4 - For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,
The resurrection of Christ is a lynchpin to Christianity and it is the one that seems so impossible.
This why you see shows on that purport to tell of “the Lost tomb of Jesus” or hear stories that try to explain why the tomb was empty, because there are those that know if they discredit the resurrection, they have completely undermined Christianity.
Paul knew that as well.
Listen to what he tells the Corinthians in regards to the resurrection
Slide - 1 Corinthians 15:14 - “if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.”
If Christ did not physically resurrect from the dead, then your faith is useless.
Why is the resurrection so important?
For 2 reasons
First, Jesus said he was going to come back to life.
Second, it was another proof of His Deity, that He is God.
Jesus told his disciples over and over that he was going to be raised to life. If He didn’t do that, he would be a liar and couldn’t be God.
Secondly, it was the ultimate proof that He is who He said He is, God in the flesh.
The resurrection is vital to the Christian faith and is an essential belief to anyone who calls themselves a Christian.
Transition questions
But this is a really tough one, isn’t it?
I mean, I have never witnessed a resurrection, have you?
This is not something that most people are going to believe if you just tell them.
There has got to be some evidence that supports the claim of the resurrection.
And actually there are a number of things that can only be explained by the truth that Jesus rose from the dead and that support the resurrection.
First is
The Body was Missing
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Nobody has ever found the body or remains of Jesus.
Well, maybe they lost it or grave robbers took it.
Those explanations couldn’t have happened because of the precautions taken at the time to make sure that wouldn’t happen.
You see, the religious leaders at the time knew that Jesus said He was going to rise after 3 days.
Matthew 27:63-66
63 "Sir," they said, "we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, ’After three days I will rise again.’ 64 So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first."
65 "Take a guard," Pilate answered. "Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how." 66 So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard.
The authorities made the tomb as secure as they knew how by putting a roman seal on it that would make it punishable by death if someone opened the seal who was unauthorized to do so.
Not only that, but they posted a guard, which was not just a single guard, but a guard was a guard unit, 16 men whose job it was to make sure nobody broke the seal. If they did, they would be put to death.
Nobody was going to get in that tomb to steal a body.
The religious and political leaders wouldn’t steal it. They could have ended the Christian faith if they produced a body. But they couldn’t.
The disciples who ran off scared just a couple nights earlier did not have the courage to go against a Roman guard unit. And even if they did, they would have been quickly killed by men who were trained warriors vs. fishermen and working class men.
The fact that there was no body when there should have been is a huge support to the claim of the resurrection.
Not only that, but after claiming to see Jesus alive after he was dead,
The Disciples were Changed
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As I just said these disciples were running scared on the night Jesus was arrested. Throughout their time with Jesus, Jesus would rebuke them for their weak faith.
But after they claimed to have seen the resurrected Christ, these men went from cowering to courageous.
They began preaching fearlessly that Jesus Christ resurrected from the dead even when threatened with beatings, and floggings and even death.
This is within days of Jesus ascending into heaven.
Listen to this account in Acts 4
Acts 4:1-3, 7-10, 13
4:1 The priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to Peter and John while they were speaking to the people. 2 They were greatly disturbed because the apostles were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead. 3 They seized Peter and John, and because it was evening, they put them in jail until the next day.
7 They had Peter and John brought before them and began to question them: "By what power or what name did you do this?"
8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: "Rulers and elders of the people! 9 If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a cripple and are asked how he was healed, 10 then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed.
13 When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.
They went from cowering to courageous. They were beat, flogged and most of them eventually killed simply because they would not stop proclaiming that Jesus rose from the dead.
People today die for what they believe –What is the difference?
There are people today who undergo suffering and even die for the things they believe, and not just in Christianity, but in other faiths as well.
What is the difference between the Apostles and martyrs of today?
Here is the difference.
They were 100% sure that what they were saying was either true or false.
They believed because they saw, with their own eyes, Jesus Christ alive after he was dead.
If you were being tortured and threatened with death because you were saying something you knew to be a lie, wouldn’t you stop?
We probably all know people who would stop proclaiming the truth or even lie to avoid punishment or torture, but I don’t know anyone who would continue to lie to endure punishment and even death.
These guys knew the truth of the eternal life that Jesus offered and had seen it with their own eyes and were willing to proclaim it even unto their death.
And that is just what they did. These men were changed.
They went from faithless to fearless, seemingly overnight.
The only thing that can account for the change that took place in the lives of the disciples is that they actually saw the resurrected Christ and Jesus did what He promised in giving them the Holy Spirit to indwell them to give them strength and courage and joy in the midst of it.
Not only that, but another evidence of the resurrection is that belief in the resurrection did not die out with the Apostles.
The fact that
The Christian Faith still exists
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Is another support that the resurrection really happened.
The whole of the Christian faith is based upon the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.
And Christianity did not slowly develop over the years, but it exploded overnight and has grown ever since, not by sword, (One nation conquering another and importing their religion), but by the Spirit (One person being changed by their belief and being indwealt by the Holy Spirit to share their faith with others).
This is how Christianity has grown over the past 2,000 years.
If the resurrection did not happen, Christianity would have died out in the first century because it was based on the testimony of people who saw and testified to what they saw, that Jesus Christ died for the sins of people and rose again from the dead.
And it wasn’t just the apostles who saw and testified to this.
Paul tells the Corinthians that over 500 men had seen the resurrected Christ at once and most of them were still alive, they could talk to them and get even more eyewitness testimony.
If the resurrection did not really happen and lives were not being changed by the power of the Resurrected Christ indwelling people who believed and received Jesus Christ as their Savior, we would not be meeting here this morning to celebrate the resurrection.
Even Gamaliel, one of the Pharisees and a teacher of the law and a non believer, knew if what the Apostles were saying were not of the Lord it would die out. He said that “if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. 39But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God." (Acts 5:38-39)
The best explanation of the events and circumstances surrounding Jesus Christ was that he was killed and then rose from the dead proving He is God and offering eternal life to those who believe in and receive Him as Savior.
Two final quick points that are essential to Christianity that Paul speaks of here, in addition to believing
that Jesus is God in the flesh,
that He died for your sins, and
that he resurrected from the dead .
One is that
Jesus is the only way to Heaven
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Paul told the Corinthians in verse 2 that “By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. (1 Corinthians 15:2)
Paul says you are saved by this belief in Jesus, otherwise you have no hope of salvation.
Peter says the same thing. He says in Acts 4:12 that
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“Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved."
And Jesus says, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)
Biblical Christianity teaches that there is only one way to a relationship with God and an eternity in heaven, and that is through the way God Himself made, through the death burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
There is no other way.
And finally, the last essential belief of Christianity that Paul speaks of here is that
Salvation is a Free gift received by Believing in Jesus Christ
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Christians know that they have done nothing to deserve Salvation and that salvation is only possible because God made a way and we can’t do anything to earn it.
Paul says “By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you.
If you believe you are saved.
Otherwise, you have believed in vain. (1 Corinthians 15:2)
It is only through believing and receiving Jesus as your Savior.
Slide - Ephesians 2:8-9 - 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God- 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.
John tells us
John 1:12 - Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God
Slide - Romans 10:9 - if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
While all of these beliefs are essential to being a Christian, (you can’t not believe any of them and be a Christian as the Bible describes), and all faith’s have some things that are essential to believe, this last one is something that truly is different from other faiths.
You see in other faiths, there are things man must do, works that we must do, to get right with God.
In Christianity, there is the recognition that there is nothing man can do to get right with God. We can only get right with Him by accepting the work He did by sacrificing Himself on the cross for our sins. It is a free gift that is received by believing in Jesus Christ, the real Jesus that is revealed through the Bible.
Conclusion
Now over the next several weeks we are going to be looking at some of the beliefs of other faiths, but just some full disclosure and I am sure not something that will surprise you since you are in a church to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
I believe and we teach Biblical Christianity. We are going to be looking at these other faiths to compare them to see the differences between Christianity and these others and to see why they are false, so we can better know the truth of Christianity.
If you are here today and you have heard these truths of Christianity and believe them, I want you to ask yourself if you have ever done what the Bible says to do to receive the free gift of salvation, what it says right there in Romans 10:9, confess with your mouth that “Jesus is Lord” confess your belief that He is God, and confess the belief in your heart that he died and God raised Him from the dead and receive the free gift of Salvation.
If you have never done that, I am going to pray and just lead in a prayer that acknowledges that belief that is in your heart. These are not magic words that if you say them you are saved. You must believe them truly for salvation. If you do, I ask you to pray along with me as we close.
Pray
If you have received Jesus today, if you have acknowledged that belief to God for the first time today, I would ask that you tell me as you leave so we can rejoice with you over the salvation you have received. I also want to invite you back for the rest of the series. You are always welcome here.
We are going to close in worship this morning. We are going to sing the stand which acknowledges Christ’s death to pay the price for our sins and the only thing we can do is stand and receive that salvation and worship Him with our whole lives.
Won’t you stand as we worship the God who died for our sins and rose to life and now offers us the free gift of salvation by His grace as we believe and receive Jesus Christ as our Savior.
Worship with us.
