Stand Firm

Stand Firm

The Resurrection of Christ

15 Now, brothers and sisters, 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.

3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance[a]: 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 Cephas,[b] and then to the Twelve. 6 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. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, 8 and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.

58 Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

The Apostle Paul is the writer to the Corinthians, in this letter…. Do you know what the purpose of this letter was?

My study bible says it this way: To identify problems ins the Corinthian church, to offer solutions, and to teach the believers how to live for Christ in a corrupt society.

I’m guessing that every believer in America needs to take a close look at this letter to the Corinthians, because my friends we find ourselves living in a corrupt society today, and we need to know how to take our Stand, not for ourselves… We need to learn how to take our stand for Jesus, that is who they are after.

I looked up the phrase Stand Firm. My bible resource that I use came up with 34 places in the Bible where this phrase is used. Our passage this morning uses it twice, and its used earlier in 1 Corinthians in Ch. 10:12 when it says, 12 So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!

Do you know How to Stand Firm?

Let’s look at what Paul is stressing to this Church in this corrupt society, and we will notice that is applies to us today.

1. Stand Firm in what God Teaches in His Word and In your Salvation.

V. 1 Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand.

Friends, it’s important that you know what you believe and why you believe it. Your testimony should flow out of what you know God has done for you, how He has saved you, and what He has saved you from.

The apostle Paul is teaching in this passage about the Resurrection of Christ, why… because there were those in the area that were teaching that Christ had not been resurrected, they were teaching against the resurrection… in other words, they were attacking one of the most central teachings of Christianity and this was around 55AD, so some of those people in that church would have been alive during the life of Jesus….they would have heard the first hand accounts, first hand testimonies of those who had been with Jesus after his Resurrection.

How quickly Satan had set out to try to twist the truth, they to spin the truth to discourage and to confuse the lost.

I want to remind you of a basic fact. Satan is a liar, and those he control will lie to try and move people away from the Truth, Satan was the first spin artist….taking the truth and just putting his little lying spin to it, to fit his agenda.

Remember Adam and Eve in the Garden…. The serpent lying to them about God’s motive.

Remember Satan taking Jesus away in the desert, how he kept offering Jesus lies to try and disrupt the Father’s perfect plan for our salvation…. If Satan would attempt to deceive Jesus…. Don’t you think he will attempt to deceive you and me?

So, very simply we need to be ready to take our Stand, we need to be ready to Stand Firm upon the Truth of God’s Word.

So how should we stand?

I had the privilege of coaching youth basketball for 8 years while I was at the Westside schools, and I coached my own kids when they were really young, I grew to love coaching basketball.

Teaching a player how to stand, how to get ready to defend is one of the most basic concepts in basketball…. Or really all sports, how should you be standing when the play is about to start?