“Some Finial Reminders”
May 26, 2019
1 Corinthians 15
Last week I was finishing up the book of 1st Corinthians in my daily devotions. It is a good book to study. It deals with a lot of basic theology and elementary spiritual principles and guidelines. Paul concludes his letter to this immature church that had many carnal Christians in it with:
“Now, Brothers, I want to remind you of the Gospel I preached to you and on which you have taken your stand.” 1 Corinthians 15:1
What is it that he wants to remind them – and us? Let’s take a look at a few things that Paul felt important enough to emphasis. First of all, we are saved by the gospel of Christ. Peter said,
“Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” Acts 4:12
Jesus said, “Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6
“Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.” John 5:24
Paul writes to the Roman Christians, “If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” “for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
Romans 10:9, 13
Paul wants these Christians – and us – to remember that there is one way to heaven. You probably remember that before Christ’s followers were called ‘Christians’ they were called ‘Followers of the Way’. There is one way to salvation. There is one way to heaven. There is one way to God – that is through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Now, there is an interesting thing about the Greek grammar you need to be aware of. It differs from English in that in English there are three tenses. Do you remember them? Past, present, and future. In Greek there are four – Past, present, future and aorist. The aorist tense is ‘progressive’ or ‘on going’. It is kind of a combination of all three tenses. So, in English we might say “we are saved” meaning it happened in the past. In Greek we would say, “We were saved; we are saved and we are continuing to be saved.” It is ongoing. It isn’t finished or concluded. God’s part is. He did His part. But we have freewill. We have to believe and continue to believe. That is why Paul says.
“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
This is the second thing Paul reminds the church of. You can lose your salvation if you don’t hold firmly to the word. Now, if I were the enemy of God and I wanted to hinder the Gospel and the Body of Christ, I would convince them that once you are saved – you have your ticket to heaven. Once saved – always saved. But that isn’t what the Word of God says. Paul wants to remind them of that. Peter knew about backsliding. He backslid himself for a time. He, talking about backsliders, said,
“If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and are overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,” and, “A sow that is washed returns to her wallowing in the mud.” 2 Peter 2:20-22
Paul warned against backsliding. Peter warned against it. The Bible clearly warns that we can believe in vain if we don’t hold firmly to the Gospel.
Jesus said, “At that time many will turn away from the faith…” “They that endure to the end will be saved.” Matthew 24:10; 24:13
To deny that you can’t turn away from the faith you have to change the Word of God – and God warns that some people will do just that.
“…which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.” 2 Peter 3:16
There will be people who distort the Word of God to suit their own purposes. That is why it is so important to read the Word of God for yourself as a Spirit filled seeker. Most Christians in the Church today read it as those 5 foolish virgins with no oil – no Holy Spirit. They argue about translations and versions of the Bible when it doesn’t really matter - if you are Spirit-filled. If you aren’t then you are going to err and miss the truth whatever translation you use. Peter warns,
“Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your secure position. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.”
2 Peter 3:17-18
Did you catch that? You can fall away. Seek to grow. Hold firmly to the Word preached to you. I believe one of the reasons our Church is here and is necessary in this community is because of our holiness message. We are unique. We are different from the rest of the churches in our community because we preach a second work of grace. We strive to make ‘Christ-like’ disciples. We strive to teach people to obey everything Jesus taught (Matthew 28:20). That is not a popular thing to share right now and that is why holiness churches are usually few in number. We are in a day where people want to hear what their itching ears want to hear. That is that they can still sin – still live in rebellion and get to heaven. Some preach you can and ought to get rich follow Christ; Others that you can just name your desire and claim it. We are going to bring Christ to the community – but it will be the true Gospel.
The third thing Paul reminds the church is the resurrection of Christ. Read it again with me.
“For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.”
1 Corinthians 1:3-8
Paul wants to remind you that Jesus appeared to hundreds of people after the resurrection and to all the apostles and His brother James and even to he, himself. To deny the reality of the resurrection you have to call hundreds of people liars, and most were living at the time of the writing, all the Apostles, James, Jesus brother, who went from unbeliever to the Pastor of the Jerusalem Church because of it – and Paul, himself. That is called, ‘empirical evidence’. One or two could possible be wrong or even deceive people but not hundreds of good, honest, godly people.
You don’t have to believe in the resurrection of Jesus with blind faith. There is clear evidence of it. It still takes faith. You still have to choose to believe – but it is based on solid evidence that would stand the test for truth in any honest courtroom.
The fourth thing Paul wanted to remind the church of is that, not only did Jesus rise from the dead – but we will, too. He says, (Read 1 Corinthians 15:12-23; 35-54)
The key verse is verse 20. Paul, boldly and emphatically says, “But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead!” He goes on to say,
“I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.” 1 Cor. 15:50-52
Folks, this old world is not our home. We don’t belong here. We were created to fly – not crawl. Last week in our study of the Truth Project we learned C.S. Lewis said that you have never met a mere mortal. Everyone you meet; everyone you talk to; everyone you interact with - is an immortal being that will live forever. Some will live forever in horror; some will live forever in glory – but all are eternal creatures. Jesus said,
“Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out—those who have done what is good will rise to live, and those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned.”
John 5:28-29
What are you going to do about it? Peter asked and answered,
“Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming.” 2 Peter 3:11-12
Jude said, “keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life. Be merciful to those who doubt; save others by snatching them from the fire; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.” Jude 21-23
I want to challenge you to live holy and godly lives. Keep yourself in God’s love by walking in obedience and love. And don’t forget that eternal being who doesn’t know Christ. Snatch them from the enemy’s clutches if you can. We have an obligation to keep ourselves in the faith; we have a priority to make it to heaven – but we want to take as many people with us as we can. We want to make Christ-like disciples. We have a calling. We have a mission. We have an opportunity. Let’s take advantage of the time God has given us.
SONG
