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Holy Week Messages

HOLY WEDNESDAY

Matthew 21:23

23.) Now when He (Jesus) came into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people confronted Him as He was teaching and said, “By what authority are You doing these things? And who gave you this authority?”

 

Mark 11:27

27.) Then they came again to Jerusalem.  And as He was walking in the temple, the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders came to Him.

 

Luke 20:1

1.) Now it happened on one of those days, as He taught the people in the temple and preached the gospel, that the chief priests and the scribes, together with the elders, confronted Him,

 

John 12:1

1.) Then six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was who had been dead, whom He had raised from the dead.

 

HOLY WEDNESDAY

 

I share these four scriptures from different Gospel writers with you today to demonstrate one point: The entirety of Holy Week, Jesus was in Jerusalem.  From the moment He entered Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives until His arrest on the Mount of Olives, He was in the temple in Jerusalem.  He wasn’t hiding or holed up in a secret location.  He was in the temple, teaching and preaching the Gospel.

 

Mark has Jesus walking in the temple as He is approached by the Jewish authorities.  Matthew and Luke have Him teaching Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.  He would get up early and go to the temple and teach all day. Then He and the disciple would return to the Mount of Olives for the night.  There Jesus would ply a crash course of instruction for His disciples.  I truly believe that one reason the disciples had such a hard time staying awake the morning He was arrested is because they had gotten very little sleep or rest the previous four nights.  That, on top of the feast they had just shared…(Well, all we have to do is think about a typical Thanksgiving celebration, and we can understand!)  Read all four Gospels from the points listed above and you find the majority of the teaching is for the disciples.

 

None of the Gospel writers break the account up, detailing that this was done on this day or that occurred in such-and-such a location.  The story is all incorporated together.  But this and probably much, much more was spread out over a four-day period.  Each Gospel tells us the Jewish leaders were plotting to kill Jesus.  He was there right in front of them as they tested Him, hoping that He would say the wrong thing.  But He didn’t, and they left Him alone.

 

As He taught, Jesus most likely was seated in the colonnade. The colonnade ran from end to end of the temple grounds along both the east and west walls.  In Israel today, there is very little left of the Temple mount, and none is fully restored.  There is a section about 150 feet long on the west wall.  It has a step-up of 6-8 inches high and 30-35 feet wide.  And although today the remains are only of part of the original structure, it is easy to see how this would be a great place for teachers and rabbis to hold their classes.  The Gospel writers tell us that the Jewish leaders couldn’t afford the uprising it would create if they arrested Jesus in the temple, because all of the pilgrims were congregated there also.  That’s why they tried to test and trick Him.  They couldn’t arrest Him when He left town either.  Jesus and His disciples went to the Mount of Olives, as did a thousand others.  They could stomp around out there all night and not find Him, and also all the commotion could warn Him off.

 

I know you’re thinking, “Okay, preacher, why are you sharing this? Why do you think this is important?”  Well, because it comes down to God’s timing.  Everything is about God’s timing.  God’s timing is all about what God wants to accomplish, His reasons, and His plans.  At one point or another in all the Gospels,  Jesus set His face toward Jerusalem for the specific purpose of the sacrifice He would make.  It wasn’t just the sacrifice itself.  No, it had to be at the Passover, the greatest celebration of the Jewish faith.  The time they celebrated their deliverance from Egypt.  Those who have joined us in the past for the Passover and Seder know that it is celebrated as a time of deliverance.  Jesus’ death was not just to be the deliverance of a nation but of the world.  By His taking of the partial loaf of bread, which was set aside for Elijah, and of the wine, which was placed outside for Elijah, Jesus confirmed to His disciples that Elijah had come, and the Messiah was there!!  Thus, the establishment of a new covenant through His body and His blood….  The beatings and mocking and scourging would then fulfill the Scriptures about the suffering servant.  Remember, it’s about the timing:   The nails being driven into His hands and feet at 9 a.m., the traditional time of the morning sacrifice.  His cry, “It is finished” at 3 p.m., the traditional time the Passover lamb was slain.  The Passover lamb whose blood kept away the Angel of Death and delivered a nation, replaced by God’s Passover who took away the sins of the world and made a way of deliverance for all humanity.  It is interesting, is it not?  God’s timing…..

 

Consider this crazy virus, which has caused so much change in our lives.  This coming Sunday marks the fourth Sunday in a row that we have not been able to meet together as the Body of Christ.  Our local congregation had planned to celebrate the Passover and Seder this year.  No Sunrise Service. No Easter breakfast together.  This virus has taken away of lot of our freedom.  So much is still unknown about it.  The facts that we do know cause us concern.  Those who have contracted it, those who are hospitalized, those for whom it has caused death.  We look around and wonder if what we don’t know will end up affecting us in a negative way.  In our own immediate family, both Kate and Clayton have been informed that people they worked with last week became symptomatic and have now been diagnosed with the virus.  Because of that, we were not able to celebrate Wyatt’s birthday together with them on Sunday.  This difference in our routine, like other situations in our lives, could add to the worry, fear, and frustration about what we don’t have, what we can’t do, and what we don’t know….

 

But you know what we DO have?  We have the blood of Jesus! If the blood of a simple lamb could keep the plagues of Egypt away from the children of Israel, just imagine what the blood of the only begotten Son of God can do today!  The blood of the One who made the lame to walk, the infirm well, the maimed whole, the lepers clean, the blind to have sight, and the dead to rise back to life. Imagine what He could do if we truly turned to Him instead of just Fox News, CNN and MSNBC.

 

Know what else we have?  We have His word in which we find the statements of faith of the saints who have gone before as well as His promises.  Imagine if we were to dive deep into His Word in search of them instead of focusing on our fears and doubts….

 

Know what else we have?  We have His very presence.  Through the indwelling of His Holy Spirit, He fulfills every moment of every day the promise that He will never leave us of forsake us.  We are not alone.  We are not locked down.  We are locked in with the God who created the universe and Who is also our Loving Heavenly Father.

 

Know what else we have?  We have each other.  Through the Holy Spirit, we are able to be joined together in our spirits.  The space of separation is absolutely no problem for our Heavenly Father.  Through our Facebook page, our website, our phones, our letters, and our computers, we can communicate and share our burdens, our joys, our fears, our hope, and our faith.

 

I love God’s timing.  It is giving us a chance now to see not just what He can do, but what He is already doing.  It is giving us an opportunity to experience what He wants to do through us as well.

 

PEACE AND BLESSINGS

 

Remember – claim Psalm 91 in the first person every day.

Categories
Holy Week Messages

HOLY TUESDAY

Psalm 120

 

1.) In my distress I cried to the LORD, and He heard me.

2.) Deliver my soul, O LORD, from lying lips and from a deceitful tongue.

3.) What shall be given to you, or what shall be done to you, you false tongue?

4.) Sharp arrows of the warrior, with coal of a broom tree!

5.) Woe is me, that I dwell in Meshech, that I dwell among the tents of Kedar!

6.) My soul has dwelt to long with one who hates peace.

7.) I am for peace; but when I speak, they are for war.

 

HOLY TUESDAY

 

Psalm 120 is the first of the Songs of Ascents.  There are 15 of these, beginning with Psalm 120 and going through Psalm 134.  Four of them, Psalms 122, 124, 131, and 133, are attributed to David.  Psalm 127 is attributed to Solomon.  The authorship of the others is unknown.  They are called Songs of Ascents because they held the ceremonial function of being read at the feast of Passover as the celebrants approached the temple.  The main entrance of the temple in Jesus’ day was on the south side of the temple mount.  There, one would go by the baths and the merchandisers and on to the main temple court.  There were other gates, of course, but this was the primary gate for the people.  It was here where Jesus entered on the day following Palm Sunday.  There were 15 steps (not your typical steps) approaching the gate.  The custom was for the pilgrims, as they approached, to stop on each step and read or recite from memory one of the Psalms.  One entire Psalm for each step.  The gate as it was in Jesus’ day is not there anymore, but the steps are.  They are located in the middle of what is now the Christian/Crusader cemetery outside the southern wall of the temple grounds.  On our trip to Israel, stopping at these steps was one thing we were told would happen, and I was looking forward to it.  We were to stand and read a Psalm of Ascents on each step, reliving the ancient tradition.  Disappointingly, we were not able to because of time constraints….

 

If you read all fifteen Psalms, you will find they are not really alike.  As a sum, they incorporate the total spectrum of life. From praise and thanksgiving to fear and doubt. From statements of faith and promise to questions of grace and mercy.  It is interesting, because we think of Passover as this massive celebration of joy, love, and peace.  It was!  But the Psalms helped to ground the children of Israel in the remembrance of their true celebration.

 

I intend to return to Israel one day and stand on those steps and read those Psalms.  Yet we don’t have to be in Israel to read them.  As we prepare ourselves for Easter, let us in our own homes take time this week to read these Psalms.  They are not long at all.  You could read them in one sitting. But let’s divide them up, three a day, beginning today.  Put yourself in the place of the Hebrew pilgrims as they approached and prepared to enter one of the grandest sites in the world:  the center of their faith, the throne of the God Most High, the Master of the Earth and Sky, the God of Power and Creation, the Almighty Sovereign of the Universe.  Let them help us, as we move toward Easter, to celebrate the God who lives with us in our total spectrum of life; the God who walks with us through our praise and thanksgiving, our celebrations of joy, love, and peace and who rejoices in our faith; the God who also carries us in our fears, our doubts, and our questions.  That we may truly have a heart of real celebration this week!  Just think what we have to celebrate – the gift of the Lord’s Supper, the finished work of salvation on the cross, the empty tomb, the resurrection which brings our justification. This enables us to approach not the throne made by humanity, a throne of wood and stone, but the very throne of grace eternal in the heavens, where our Lord Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father.  Where all His enemies are placed at His feet!

 

AMEN

 

Remember to read and claim Psalm 91 in the first person each day this week.

 

Categories
Holy Week Messages

HOLY MONDY

Mark 11:15-19

15.) So they came to Jerusalem. Then Jesus went into the temple and began to drive out those who bought and sold in the temple and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves.

16.) And He would not allow anyone to carry wares through the temple.

17.) Then He taught, saying to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it a den of thieves”

18.) And the scribes and chief priests heard it and sought how they might destroy Him; for they feared Him, because all the people were astonished at His teaching.

19.) When evening had come, He went out of the city.

 

Thoughts on a Holy Monday:

 

In March of 2018, I along with my sons, Ricci and Clayton, took a trip to the Holy Land.  We saw so many sites, and so many are engraved upon my mind.  The sad thing is, there were many I did not see that I wanted to see, and a few I want to revisit and see again and hopefully for more time of prayer and meditation.  On our second day in Jerusalem, we went to the old city, beginning with the temple mount. The security was as intense as, or maybe even more so than, at the border checkpoints.  We went through as a group, showing passports and being checked for weapons.  When I went through the x-ray, fortunately my hip replacement did not cause the same delay as it did in Atlanta, coming back from Jordan and Tel Aviv, and finally, in Newark, NJ.  But I digress…I can remember walking onto the temple grounds and experiencing a sense of total AWE.  It was the size of ten football fields!! I stood there for probably 20 minutes just looking around. You cannot see from end to end unless you’re standing in the middle where the Mosque of the Rock is positioned.

 

We were given a designated amount of time to wander around and take pictures, so I went to the southern end where in Jesus’ day the mikveh baths were located. This was a place where the people could undergo ritual cleansing before entering the temple grounds if they wanted to or needed to. Archaeological work has uncovered about 50 of these baths. On the top level was where the merchandising was done.  Imagine entering the temple grounds and the first thing you see are money changing tables and vendors for goats, sheep, bulls, doves, oil, wine and grain.  Before I started seminary, I was visiting schools and was seriously considering ORU in Tulsa, Oklahoma.  I remember walking into the world-famous prayer tower, and the first sight to be seen (because I had to walk through it) was the gift shop, filled with high-priced, cheaply made souvenir products.  This was not the campus bookstore or the student center, but the prayer tower! I was totally taken aback. The first thought that came to my mind that day was today’s scripture…

 

Back to the temple: These vendors were necessary but not the graft that went along with their business. Pilgrims could not bring their own animals for sacrifice with them, but they were forced to pay exorbitant prices for those guaranteed by the priests to be unblemished. The folks who did bring their own sacrificial animals would often be told their offering was blemished in some way and would be forced to buy one of the “guaranteed” animals. Then there were the money changers. The temple taxes had to be paid in the temple currency.  You can imagine how they scalped on the exchange rate. They were necessary, but the graft and corruptness were not. They were necessary, but that location was not….Now, imagine Jesus walking into the temple the Monday before He goes to the cross. I’m sure it was not the first time He had walked through the market. I’m sure His heart was stirred each time He did.  But now it was just a few days before Calvary.  He began turning over the tables, chasing the vendors out of the place.  And the ones He chased out had to leave all that they had behind.  In the Greek words, He did not in any way allow them to take anything with them.  He did not allow them to go through the temple or take any of their goods with them when He ran them out of the temple!

 

Then Jesus quotes from a combination of Isaiah 56:7 and Jeremiah 7:11. But before He quotes the scripture, He says, “It is written.” This does not mean pen put to paper, it literally means to be sculpted or engraved. This word is permanent, eternal. “My house shall be a house of prayer for all nations.” Jesus had come to Jerusalem to fulfill the Father’s plan for salvation – not for the Hebrews only, but for the Gentiles as well. At this time, the most holy symbol of God was the Temple.  And what was the first thing a Hebrew person or Gentile saw as they entered the temple grounds?  A place of commerce, graft, and deceit….

 

Most of the area where this would have taken place is now covered by the second and least-known mosque located on the temple grounds, but it is actually larger than the Dome of the Rock.  On our trip, the mikveh baths were closed off. Yet, later that night as I was lying awake in my bed, between the stereo snoring of Ricci and Clayton, my thoughts focused on this truth: Jesus didn’t say a house of worship.  He didn’t say a house of praise.  He didn’t say a house of singing or Psalms.  Jesus said His Father’s house was called a house of prayer.

 

On this first day of our Holy Week, we are not facing a painful crucifixion on a Roman cross. We are, however, facing a lot of uncertainty.  Some of us are trying to deal with the quick spread of this virus that has the world by its throat.  Some of us are dealing with the uncertainty of the future after this whole ordeal is done. Some of us cannot go to work because of the lock-down and are worried how we are going to make it financially.  Some of us are in essential jobs and have to work and are worried about exposure to disease by either customers or coworkers.  Some of us are about to retire and watch our retirement funds dwindle with even the safe havens taking huge hits.  How will our health be? How will the economy be?  What happens when my essential job is not essential anymore?  When this whole mess is over with, will I have a job once again?

 

I do not have an answer to all these questions. Neither does our President and definitely not the congress, or the CDC, or the WHO, or the UN.  But there is One who DOES know.  He sent His Son to enter the unfriendly streets of Jerusalem and face an unwarranted death so we could live in His unmerited favor.  This One is God the Father, and He said in 2 Chronicles 7:14,”if My people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek My Face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”  Pray!  Earnestly, thoughtfully, intentionally, profoundly – PRAY!  Turn off Fox News, CNN and MSNBC and turn on TBN or the Hillsong channel.  Get into His word or the words of anointed believers.  Put away the merchants of fear, death, and uncertainty.  Wear the armor of faith and salvation.  Claim His promises, stand on His word, and trust.

 

But first we must humble ourselves, realizing it is not all about us and that there is nothing we can do about it.  Then we are to PRAY with the understanding of faith, knowing in our souls that what needs to be done, He is already doing.

 

AMEN

 

Remember, continue to claim Psalm 91 in the first person.

Categories
Holy Week Messages

PALM SUNDAY

Matthew 21:1-11

1.) Now when they drew near Jerusalem, and came to Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples,

2.) saying to them, “Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Loose them and bring them to me.

3.) And if anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord has need of them’ and immediately he will send them.”

4.) All this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying:

5.) “Tell the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold your King is coming to you. Lowly and sitting on a donkey. A colt, the foal of a donkey.”

6.) So the disciples went and did as Jesus commanded them.

7.) They brought the donkey and the colt, laid their clothes on them and set Him on them.

8.) And a very great multitude spread their clothes on the road; others cut down branches from trees and spread them on the road.

9.) Then, the multitudes who went before and those who followed cried out saying: “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!  Hosanna in the highest!”

10.) And when He had come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, “Who is this?”

11.) So the multitudes said, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth of Galilee.”

 

THE MISUNDERSTOOD ENTRY

It is Palm Sunday.  Like most of you, I am disappointed that we cannot be in our houses of worship this morning. But even though we are unable to meet together in one place this morning, we can be joined together in one Spirit through the power of the Holy Spirit.

 

I titled this message The Misunderstood Entry because it is. This passage is often represented as a triumph, but it wasn’t. For a long time, I could not understand how Jesus went from triumph one Sunday to the lowest point in His earthly life the following Friday, to the ultimate triumph the next Sunday.  Jesus had come to the top of the Mount of Olives. The other Gospels tell us that He had been in Bethany at the house of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus a few days before.  He had come the way the pilgrims from Galilee would normally travel.  He had healed the blind at Jericho and had been camping out on the Mount of Olives for a day or two. The pilgrims from Galilee had been gathering there as well. Some maybe had places to stay in Jerusalem, but most stayed around Bethphage, Bethany, or on the Mount of Olives. It was a time of great excitement – the Passover, one of Israel’s three major feasts. And as the pilgrims from Galilee could see with their own eyes, there was Jesus the prophet from their own region, the one who had performed so many signs and miracles, the one whom many were wondering (and some proclaiming) could be the Messiah. In their minds was that question:  Could this be the time?  The place was perfect, it was Jerusalem. What more perfect time could there be than the Passover? The week where they would celebrate their deliverance from Egypt. What better time to be delivered from the Romans and other enemies?

 

Jesus came to the top of the Mount. The people saw Him. and instead of going on to the city, they waited in anticipation to see what He would do.  He told two of His disciples to go into the village and procure a donkey and her colt.  I am sure it had been prearranged.  Jesus was not unfamiliar with this area, and the people of this area were not unfamiliar to Him.  What makes this story important is not that there was a donkey and a colt waiting for Him, but what that donkey and colt represented.    What stands out to me are two words Jesus gave in His command to the two disciples, “You will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her.” The Greek word for with is meta, pronounced met-ah. When you delve into the Greek you will find prepositions that may have 2 pages of definitions of ways that they are used. Meta is one of them. Here it means together, to share the same experience. The second word is loosed. The Greek word translated here for loose is luo, pronounced loo’-o, and it means to unbind. These two words stand out because the two donkeys were about to share an experience with their creator.  But to share that experience, they first had to be unbound…. God created us to share Himself with us. From the very beginning in the book of Genesis, to the Tabernacle in Exodus, to Solomon’s Temple, to Pentecost Sunday – God’s goal has always been for us to be in relationship with Him. But before that can happen, we like the two donkeys have to first be unbound…

 

Verse 4 tells us that this was done (donkeys found and unbound) so that the prophesy might be fulfilled. The Greek for was done is ginomal, pronounced ghin’-om-ahee. It means that this act was done for a specific purpose.  The word fulfilled is pieroo, pronounced play-ro’o. Here it means to finalize, bring to a complete conclusion.  And what was that conclusion? God’s plan of salvation for His creation!

 

Verse 5 brings us the Old Testament prophesy from Zechariah 9:9, “Tell the daughter of Zion, behold your King is coming to you, lowly and sitting on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey.”

Matthew doesn’t quote the whole passage, stopping at verse 9 and not including verse 10.  He also leaves out the portion regarding the King coming with righteousness and salvation. To understand this, we have to first understand what Zachariah was saying. In chapter 8, Zachariah was talking about the conquests of Alexander the Great.  As he came from Syria to conquer Palestine, he went ahead of his army, adorned in splendor and riding a magnificent steed. The deliverer of Israel will not do so.  He will not come in His own power, but in the power of God’s righteousness.  He will be meek and humble, submitting Himself to the will and word of God.  He will not do His own work but the work of God.  He will not come at the head of a mighty army on a beautiful charger but on a donkey.  And not just any donkey but a colt, a donkey foal.  And the other Gospels tell us it was one that had never been ridden before.

 

So, the disciples bring the donkeys to where Jesus was, a spot somewhere from 100 to 300 feet higher than the Temple mount; and from this location, He can see the entire city of Jerusalem.  He already knows that in a few days His work on earth will be done.  Is there a chance that Jerusalem will receive their King?  We could look at the scene on top of the Mount of Olives and think there was hope. The disciples began to put their clothing onto the donkey.  Matthew wanted so badly to fulfill the prophesy that he had Jesus riding both animals at the same time. Sorry church, Jesus was not a circus act. It would be impossible to ride both animals at the same time and accomplish what Jesus was trying to do here. His riding into Jerusalem with one foot placed on the back of each donkey would not project the humble and meek spirit intended.  In Zachariah the Hebrew translated that He rode only one.  So Matthew, while being literal in this point, missed the true translation.  Matthew tells us that there was a huge crowd.  Seeing what the disciples did, and Jesus then riding the colt, the people began to place their clothing on the road.  Others started cutting branches from trees and placing them on the road. Then all began the descent from the Mount of Olives through the Kidron Valley to Jerusalem.  All the people were praising God and saying, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”- part of which comes from Psalm 118:26. What doesn’t come from Psalm 118 is “Hosanna to the Son of David” and “Hosanna in the highest.” They were proclaiming their hope that this prophet would be the Messiah. The word blessed translates as the blessing of God toward a particular person and the Greek translation of LORD going back to the Hebrew is Yahweh. The covenant keeping God, the God of absolute power and authority.

 

The celebration continued the whole trek of three quarters of a mile to the eastern gate of Jerusalem. The people within the city heard it, and our scripture says they were “moved”.  The English word moved does not tell the whole story.  Moved in the English could mean a lot of things: moved to joy, anticipation, excitement, wonder, sympathy – well, you get the line of thought. The Greek word used here is seio, pronounced si’-o.  It literally means to agitate, to rock, to cause to tremor.  These people in the city were not celebrating, they were severely shaken and agitated. They asked the question, “Who is this?”, and the multitudes answered, “Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth of Galilee.”  Notice they did not answer,  “Jesus of Nazareth” or Jesus of Galilee” but “Jesus the prophet from Nazareth of Galilee!”

 

Now, the majority of people inside the walls of Jerusalem were from Judea or Jerusalem.  To them Galilee was not much more than their hillbilly cousins whom they looked down upon.  And as we have heard before, the lowest point in the Galilean cesspool was the town of Nazareth!  Dr. James Fleming has written and spoken on the fact that at the feasts like Passover, there were two types of people: those inside the walls of Jerusalem and those outside the walls.  Outside the walls were the pilgrims from Galilee and other places.  Inside the walls were the locals for the most part.  Outside the walls, Jesus was relatively safe.  Inside, He was in enemy territory.  Inside the walls were the religious strongholds of the pharisees and the priests.  Those inside the walls were not excited by His entry.  They were shaken.

 

Jesus came into that stronghold riding on the colt of a donkey.  He was fulfilling prophecy. Matthew tells us that He came that way for a specific purpose, to finalize and bring to completion God’s plan for salvation. Yet both sides misunderstood.  The multitudes were hoping for the military overthrow of the Romans and maybe then a spiritual renewal of the Temple and the Temple cult.  The religious leaders were afraid of a political uprising that could upset their apple cart and threaten their power.  Neither group understood that Jesus could care less about political or religious power.  He came to bring salvation to the world through the righteousness of the Father.  He came to restore the opportunity for us to once again walk and live in the presence of the living God.  He came to break the yoke of sin, the oppression of condemnation.  He came to bring God’s grace and mercy to a world shackled by religious rules and regulations.  He came to take upon Himself our sins so that we could take upon ourselves His righteousness.  He came to take the curse so that we could be free from the curse.  He came to show us in His life and His death the unconditional love of the Father – and with His resurrection, the unconditional faithfulness of the Father.  He came that we, like the donkey He rode into Jerusalem, could be unbound.

 

This Sunday is Palm Sunday.  It is the first day of Holy Week. As we move through the week, let us not overlook and skip forward to Easter.  Let us meditate on the entire week:  Holy Monday, Holy Tuesday, Holy Wednesday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday. Let us remember that today begins Jesus’ walk toward Calvary and the end of our separation from our loving Heavenly Father. That shortly after today, we, like the donkeys, will be unbound…..     AMEN

 

******************

 

Remember Deuteronomy 31:8, “And the LORD, He is the One who goes before you. He will be with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you; do not fear or be dismayed.”

 

Remember to read Psalm 91 each day and claim it for yourself. Read it in first person. Watch out, though – it changes from a statement of faith to a promise in verse 14.  You can still claim it in first person, just be sure you claim your blessing not God’s pronouncement.

 

Blessing for Your Week:  

 

Now may the God who promises He will never leave you nor forsake you, the God who promises He will work all things for your good because you love Him and are called according to his purpose, the God who is your Rock, your Strength, your Shelter, your Horn, and your Salvation:  keep you, protect you, and give you His peace.  AMEN

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Studies

1 Corinthians 15:12-19

12.) Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?

13.) But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen.

14.) And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty, and your faith is also empty.

15.) Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up—in fact the dead do not rise.

16.) For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen.

17.) And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins!

18.) Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.

19.) If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.

 

In the message last week (I Cor 15:1-11), Paul began his argument for the resurrection of the dead by stating two points of common ground, two points on which he knew the Corinthians agreed with him:  1) that he didn’t measure up as an apostle and 2) that Jesus was resurrected from the dead.  Remember, there was a group in the Corinthian church who claimed there was no resurrection of the dead for the believers.  Also remember that this thinking stemmed from the Greek mindset of an everlasting soul, but not an everlasting body.  As far as these persons were concerned, the body would be corrupted beyond repair.

 

In today’s Scriptures, Paul begins by asking a question, “If it has been proclaimed that Christ is raised from the dead, how do some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?”  In other words, you say on one hand that you believe that Christ was raised from the dead, but you also say you don’t believe in the resurrection of the believer from the dead.  He goes on to tell them that they can’t have it both ways.  Either there is a resurrection or there is not a resurrection.  If what they said was correct, and there is no resurrection for the believer, then there was no resurrection for Jesus, either.  In these 8 verses, Paul uses the word risen or raised up seven times.  In the Greek, this means to go from death to standing, and it is in the present perfect tense; therefore, it is continual, without interruption or end.

 

Paul then tells them that if Christ is not risen, then “our” preaching (literally, proclamation of the Gospel) is empty. That everything they have heard and seen is a farce, a lie, without meaning or truth of any kind; and their faith (which is used by Paul as saving faith, the belief in Christ’s finished work and our justification) is also a farce, a lie, without meaning or truth of any kind.

 

Notice in verse 14 Paul says “our” and in 15 he uses the word “we”.  He doesn’t say “I” or “me” or “mine”.  Go back and read verse 11, where he reminds those who are causing this division, those who claimed to follow Peter, Apollos or someone else besides Paul, that “we” preached the same Gospel and you believed the same gospel.  In other words, this thought process of no resurrection of the dead did not come from Peter, Apollos, Paul or any other preacher of the Gospel!!  It came from outside the Gospel message, and it was not what they first believed…

 

Paul continues with the idea that if what the Corinthians proclaimed was true, then Peter, Apollos, Paul, and others were false witnesses and were claiming for God something which God did not do; thus, they were breaking one of the commandments found in Deuteronomy.  (In the fourth chapter of that book, God tells Moses to tell the people not to add or take away from the commandments He is leaving with them, that they may dwell long in the land in which they are about to go and possess.)  Now, some in Corinth might have been willing to claim these things regarding false witness by Paul, but not about their favorite leader, the one they claimed to follow.

Paul then tells them that if the dead do not rise, which includes Jesus, then their faith is futile. There is no forgiveness of sins.  They are all living in their sins.  If there is no resurrection, there is no forgiveness, because there is no justification.  And there is no justification because there is no resurrection.  You see, the crucifixion is not complete without the resurrection!

It all goes back to an understanding about the Day of Atonement in the Jewish belief system. Even today the Day of Atonement is the holiest day in the Jewish year.  They just celebrated Passover, and that is a major celebration, but the Day of Atonement is the most reverent and solemn.  It is a day of fasting and repentance.  It is not a feast day, but a day of confessing and seeking forgiveness.  Even many non-religious Jews will honor this day.

During the times of the Tabernacle and the Temple, the people would bring their sacrifices. Numbers 28:7-11 says,” On the tenth day of the seventh month, you shall have a holy convocation.  You shall afflict your souls.  You shall not do any work.  You shall present a burnt offering to the LORD as a sweet aroma; one young bull, one ram, and seven lambs in their first year.  Be sure they are without blemish.  Their grain offering shall be of fine flour mixed with oil: three tenths of an ephah for the bull, two tenths for the one ram, and one tenth for each of the seven lambs; also one kid of the goats as a sin offering, besides the sin offering for atonement, the regular burnt offering with its grain offering and their drink offerings.”  And Leviticus 16: 30-34 tells us, “For on the day the priest shall make atonement for you, to cleanse you that you may be clean from all your sins before the LORD.  It is a sabbath of solemn rest for you, and you shall afflict your souls.  It is a statute forever.  And the priest, who is anointed and consecrated to minister as priest in his father’s place, shall make atonement, and put on the linen clothes, the holy garments.  Then he shall make atonement for the most Holy Place (Holy of Holies), and he shall make atonement for the tabernacle of meeting and for the altar, and he shall make atonement for the priests and for all the people of the assembly.  This shall be an everlasting statute for you, to make atonement for the children of Israel, for all their sins, once a year.”

To make atonement, the High Priest would take some of the blood from the sacrifice of the young bull, place it in a bowl, and enter the Holiest place first.  This was the only time all year that it would be entered sacramentally.  (In the wilderness, it would have to be entered by the Levites in order to take down and reset at their new location).  But when it was set up permanently at Shiloh and then the temple, the High Priest and only the High Priest was allowed to enter, and only on one day, the Day of Atonement.  He would take the blood and with a hyssop branch dip it into the blood seven times and shake it those seven times at the Ark of the covenant.  Then he would do the same inside the tabernacle at the door of the tabernacle and on the priests and the people gathered at the door of the tabernacle and the altar of burnt offerings.  The belief was that the standing of the High Priest was the standing of the nation.  If God saw the High Priest as righteous, He would accept this offering. Then, the High Priest would be allowed to leave, the people would be forgiven, and all would be good for the nation until the next Day of Atonement.  However, if God didn’t see the High Priest as righteous, He would strike him down, and the people would not be forgiven, and all would not be good for the next year.  There were bells sewn along the bottom of the High Priest’s robe so the people could hear him moving.  They also tied a rope around one of the priest’s legs so that if God struck him down, they could pull him out.  Remember, no one was allowed to enter the holiest place except he who consecrated as High Priest.  The High Priest’s exit from the Holiest place meant that God had accepted their sacrifice, and they were forgiven and justified in the sight of God.  In effect, the High Priest carried the sins of the nation in the bowl of blood into the holiest place.  See the connection here?  Jesus bore our sins upon the cross and carried them into the tomb.  The resurrection meant His sacrifice had been accepted!!  With the acceptance of the sacrifice, we have forgiveness and receive justification.  No resurrection = no forgiveness and no justification.

Paul tells us in his letter to the Hebrews that Jesus is our High Priest and that His priesthood is eternal.  He sits at the right hand of the Father, which means not only is His sacrifice accepted, and we are thus justified and forgiven, but also because he paid the price with His own blood and His own life, the work of atonement is done forever.  Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father.  He sits because the work is finished.  And all we have to do is believe and receive.

 

Next, Paul addresses this errant thinking even more sternly.  If there is no resurrection, then those would have died in Christ are lost (Paul says “have perished”).  The Greek here means totally destroyed.  Not only is there no forgiveness or justification for the living, but those who died in the faith died believing in a lie.  Died unsaved – not forgiven and not justified.  If there is no resurrection, then what do we put our hope in?  What hope is found in the cross with no empty tomb?  What hope is found in the cross with no forgiveness available?  What hope is found in the cross with no justification? NONE!  Without the resurrection, there is no power.  Without the resurrection, the finished work on the cross is just a finished life.

 

Paul wants the believers in Corinth to see the foolishness of their argument.

 

Unfortunately, there are many in the church today who are willing to accept a Christianity without power.  They accept Jesus, not as Lord and Savior (although those words are used) but as a teacher and example of how to live a good life.  There are those who question the stories of healing and signs and miracles, not believing that they really happened but were just symbols of life.  And always there are those who question the authority of Scripture, picking and choosing what they want to believe, or what they can agree with.  Some even think that serving humanity in Christ’s name is the same as serving Christ and allowing Him to work through us to bless humanity.   One viewpoint is like asking “What would Jesus do?”  The other is like asking, “Lord, what would you have us do?”  The first is based on what we think; the second is based on searching out His will.  The first is based on creating Christ in our own image; the second is based on submission to a holy and righteous God who through His grace allows us to be recreated into His image…

 

The good news is, there is a resurrection!  Jesus was raised from the grave.  It is continual, complete, and eternal.  Because there is a resurrection, we are able to walk in His power.  We are able to believe in the authority and truthfulness of His Word.  Because there is a resurrection, we are able to walk in His forgiveness and justification in this life.  Because there is a resurrection, those who have fallen asleep in their faith will not see destruction or corruption but a new incorruptible body.  Because there is a resurrection, we have hope – confident expectation – not only in this life but also in the life to come.

 

He is Risen!  And so are we!

 

AMEN!

 

Remember to continue to claim Psalm 91in the first person.

 

Blessing:

Now may the God who raised our Lord Jesus Christ from the grave, resurrect you life today. That you may walk in the power of our resurrected Lord and the presence of His Holy Spirit! AMEN

 

 

 

 

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Studies

I Corinthians 15:1-11

1.) Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand,

2.) by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you unless you believed in vain.

3.) For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures,

4.) and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the scriptures,

5.) and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve.

6.) 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.

7.) After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles.

8.) Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time.

9.) For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.

10.) 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.

11.) Therefore, whether it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.

 

Today we resume our study of 1st Corinthians, beginning with the 15th chapter.  Paul moves from his discussion of what entails proper worship to another issue:  the resurrection.

 

Last week I shared from Colossians about the resurrection.  There, also, Paul was dealing with a form of Gnosticism that was very Jewish in nature, which was very works oriented.  There Paul tried to reiterate to the Colossians that through their faith and baptism they had died and been resurrected with Christ.  There was no need for all the earning of levels to get to the throne of God.  Through the finished work of Jesus on the cross, His resurrection, and ascension, believers already had access to God freely given.

 

The situation in Corinth was different because here Paul was dealing with a Greek mindset.  Now, the Gnosticism that Paul was dealing with in 52 A.D. was not the Gnosticism that would plague the church a hundred years later.  The situation in Corinth was a belief prevalent throughout Greek society.  You see, the Greeks believed in the eternity of the soul but not in the eternity of the body.  The body would decay and become corrupted.  So, with a belief in the eternity of the soul, combined with an enthusiastic grasping for the gifts of the Holy Spirit, especially the gift of tongues, who needed an eternal body?  A belief in a need for a resurrected body was being challenged by some in the Corinthian church.  It did not mean that they didn’t believe in the resurrection of Jesus (that would become more prominent about 100 years later), but some were arguing against the resurrection of believers, or even the need for it.

 

What is interesting is the strategy Paul used to begin his argument. These first 11 verses were just the beginning, and Paul would carry this argument throughout the whole 15th chapter.  He begins his defense for the resurrection of believers by finding two points on which he and the church can agree.

Point number one is the Gospel of salvation.  In verse 1, Paul says,  “I declare to you the Gospel which I preached to you, which you also received and in which you stand,(vs2) by which also you are saved.”  When we read these words, we can easily see that Paul believes the Corinthians are still living in their salvation.  He didn’t say “were saved” but “ by which also you ARE saved.”  He states,  “I know you believe these three things: 1) Christ died for your sins.  You believe in sin, the presence of sin in the world, the power of sin in the world, the presence of sin in your life.  That you were powerless over that sin, and that Christ’s finished work on the cross washed you from all your sins. 2) Christ was buried.  (Being buried means He was really dead. They believed that Jesus really died.  In the Gospels, Jesus raised three people from the dead.  Jairus’ daughter, the son of the widow of Nain, and Lazarus. Jairus’ daughter was less than a couple of hours , the widow’s son definitely less than a day, probably less than six hours. People could argue that these two were not really dead, just unconscious in some way.  Lazarus, on the other hand, no one could deny.  He had been in the tomb four days before being brought back to life.  The Jews believed that unrecoverable corruption occurred by the third day, so Paul says that the Corinthian church believes with him that Jesus died for their salvation and the salvation of the world, and that He really, truly died.) and 3) Jesus rose again on the third day, and they believed in the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

These are three very important tenants of the faith.  They capture the work of both the Son and the Father: Jesus’s finished work on the cross, His taking away of all our sins, (not just covering up, but the total destruction of all our sins) through His burial, and the Father justifying us through His resurrection of Jesus. This meant the debt was completely paid, once and for all.

 

Then Paul listed a whole host of witnesses. These are not in chronological order, but first mentioned is Peter, who Luke tells us in Acts Jesus saw.  Then there were the twelve, referring to the original disciples (although we know that the first time there were only 10 because Thomas was absent and Judas was dead).  The 500 brethren are believed to be those who saw Jesus’s ascension in Galilee. Next mentioned was Jesus’ half-brother, James, who became a believer after Jesus’ resurrection, and then the apostles which were those who became part of the church in Jerusalem before Jesus’ ascension.  Last listed is Paul himself.  You see, the church at Corinth could not deny the issue at this time because they had met many of these listed people, and some they even claimed to follow, like Peter.

 

Paul’s apostleship was the second point on which he knew that he and the Corinthian church could agree.  He had already dealt with this once at the beginning of this letter.  There was a division over Paul’s apostleship, which meant a division over his authority.  Some people preferred Apollos, and others preferred Peter, although it has never been proven Peter had ever been to Corinth.  Even though Paul was the founding father of this church, for all kinds of reasons they didn’t think he was worthy to be called an apostle.

 

Paul agreed with them, referencing himself as “one born out of due time.”  In literal Greek, he was saying, “I was stillborn, a miscarriage.”  Do you catch his humility here? He said that he was the least of the apostles, inadequate, not good enough.  While he and the Corinthians agreed on the status, I don’t think it was for the same reasons.  Paul carried around the knowledge and the weight of the fact that he had been a persecutor of the church.  The Corinthians believed he didn’t qualify for other reasons, but they both believed Paul just didn’t measure up…

 

Paul didn’t say, “But I came here, didn’t I?  You would have never heard the gospel if I hadn’t come! You would have been still a bunch of unsaved pagans if I hadn’t come!”  No.  Instead, he gave all the credit to God and His grace.  God’s undeserved favor.   In essence Paul was saying, “I am an apostle not because of anything I have done, but because of God’s undeserved favor. Nothing that I have done makes me worthy, adequate, or good enough.  It is God’s grace that has made my work fruitful.  You are now a church, and there are other churches in Greece and Asia Minor because God’s undeserved favor was with me.”  The word with in the Greek literally means an inseparable relationship.  Paul was literally telling them, “I know what you think of me, but all I have done and will ever do is not based on me, but on the grace of God.”

 

Then he made reference to the beginning of his letter where he talked about divisions, with some who follow Apollos, some Peter, and some who say they only follow Jesus.  Paul reminded them that they all preached the same message, the same Gospel, and they had all believed the same thing – that Gospel.

 

Notice that Paul began this crucial presentation by finding common ground. I wonder in our world and our lives how far we might get if instead of immediately pouncing on our differences we focused on the thing we have in common in our world, our country.  I remember hearing and reading stories of President Reagan and Tip O’Neil doing all-nighters at the White House, both pledging not to leave till they had a deal worked out.  Of course I understand whiskey probably played its part as well… But could you imagine President Trump and the Democratic leadership doing that today?…. In the world church of United Methodism, we surely have some things in common.  Imagine if the delegates attended General Conference not focused on their own agendas but finding common ground to work together and still be servants of God!  Who knows – maybe this will be one good thing to come out of the viral pandemic impacting our lives.

 

The promise of our resurrection is important!  It carries the promise of living and reigning with Jesus.  The promise that we will not only be with Him but also like Him.  And in the next few weeks, Paul will be telling us why.

 

AMEN

 

Remember during this time to read Psalm 91 in the first person and claim it.  Every day.

 

Blessings and Peace:  Now may the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the fellowship and communion of His Holy Spirit, be with you, guide you and keep you unto Him. Amen

 

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Studies

1 Corinthians 15:12-19

12.) Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?

13.) But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen.

14.) And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty, and your faith is also empty.

15.) Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up—in fact the dead do not rise.

16.) For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen.

17.) And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins!

18.) Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.

19.) If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.

 

In the message last week (I Cor 15:1-11), Paul began his argument for the resurrection of the dead by stating two points of common ground, two points on which he knew the Corinthians agreed with him:  1) that he didn’t measure up as an apostle and 2) that Jesus was resurrected from the dead.  Remember, there was a group in the Corinthian church who claimed there was no resurrection of the dead for the believers.  Also remember that this thinking stemmed from the Greek mindset of an everlasting soul, but not an everlasting body.  As far as these persons were concerned, the body would be corrupted beyond repair.

 

In today’s Scriptures, Paul begins by asking a question, “If it has been proclaimed that Christ is raised from the dead, how do some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?”  In other words, you say on one hand that you believe that Christ was raised from the dead, but you also say you don’t believe in the resurrection of the believer from the dead.  He goes on to tell them that they can’t have it both ways.  Either there is a resurrection or there is not a resurrection.  If what they said was correct, and there is no resurrection for the believer, then there was no resurrection for Jesus, either.  In these 8 verses, Paul uses the word risen or raised up seven times.  In the Greek, this means to go from death to standing, and it is in the present perfect tense; therefore, it is continual, without interruption or end.

 

Paul then tells them that if Christ is not risen, then “our” preaching (literally, proclamation of the Gospel) is empty. That everything they have heard and seen is a farce, a lie, without meaning or truth of any kind; and their faith (which is used by Paul as saving faith, the belief in Christ’s finished work and our justification) is also a farce, a lie, without meaning or truth of any kind.

 

Notice in verse 14 Paul says “our” and in 15 he uses the word “we”.  He doesn’t say “I” or “me” or “mine”.  Go back and read verse 11, where he reminds those who are causing this division, those who claimed to follow Peter, Apollos or someone else besides Paul, that “we” preached the same Gospel and you believed the same gospel.  In other words, this thought process of no resurrection of the dead did not come from Peter, Apollos, Paul or any other preacher of the Gospel!!  It came from outside the Gospel message, and it was not what they first believed…

 

Paul continues with the idea that if what the Corinthians proclaimed was true, then Peter, Apollos, Paul, and others were false witnesses and were claiming for God something which God did not do; thus, they were breaking one of the commandments found in Deuteronomy.  (In the fourth chapter of that book, God tells Moses to tell the people not to add or take away from the commandments He is leaving with them, that they may dwell long in the land in which they are about to go and possess.)  Now, some in Corinth might have been willing to claim these things regarding false witness by Paul, but not about their favorite leader, the one they claimed to follow.

Paul then tells them that if the dead do not rise, which includes Jesus, then their faith is futile. There is no forgiveness of sins.  They are all living in their sins.  If there is no resurrection, there is no forgiveness, because there is no justification.  And there is no justification because there is no resurrection.  You see, the crucifixion is not complete without the resurrection!

 

It all goes back to an understanding about the Day of Atonement in the Jewish belief system. Even today the Day of Atonement is the holiest day in the Jewish year.  They just celebrated Passover, and that is a major celebration, but the Day of Atonement is the most reverent and solemn.  It is a day of fasting and repentance.  It is not a feast day, but a day of confessing and seeking forgiveness.  Even many non-religious Jews will honor this day.

 

During the times of the Tabernacle and the Temple, the people would bring their sacrifices. Numbers 28:7-11 says,” On the tenth day of the seventh month, you shall have a holy convocation.  You shall afflict your souls.  You shall not do any work.  You shall present a burnt offering to the LORD as a sweet aroma; one young bull, one ram, and seven lambs in their first year.  Be sure they are without blemish.  Their grain offering shall be of fine flour mixed with oil: three tenths of an ephah for the bull, two tenths for the one ram, and one tenth for each of the seven lambs; also one kid of the goats as a sin offering, besides the sin offering for atonement, the regular burnt offering with its grain offering and their drink offerings.”  And Leviticus 16: 30-34 tells us, “For on the day the priest shall make atonement for you, to cleanse you that you may be clean from all your sins before the LORD.  It is a sabbath of solemn rest for you, and you shall afflict your souls.  It is a statute forever.  And the priest, who is anointed and consecrated to minister as priest in his father’s place, shall make atonement, and put on the linen clothes, the holy garments.  Then he shall make atonement for the most Holy Place (Holy of Holies), and he shall make atonement for the tabernacle of meeting and for the altar, and he shall make atonement for the priests and for all the people of the assembly.  This shall be an everlasting statute for you, to make atonement for the children of Israel, for all their sins, once a year.”

 

To make atonement, the High Priest would take some of the blood from the sacrifice of the young bull, place it in a bowl, and enter the Holiest place first.  This was the only time all year that it would be entered sacramentally.  (In the wilderness, it would have to be entered by the Levites in order to take down and reset at their new location).  But when it was set up permanently at Shiloh and then the temple, the High Priest and only the High Priest was allowed to enter, and only on one day, the Day of Atonement.  He would take the blood and with a hyssop branch dip it into the blood seven times and shake it those seven times at the Ark of the covenant.  Then he would do the same inside the tabernacle at the door of the tabernacle and on the priests and the people gathered at the door of the tabernacle and the altar of burnt offerings.  The belief was that the standing of the High Priest was the standing of the nation.  If God saw the High Priest as righteous, He would accept this offering. Then, the High Priest would be allowed to leave, the people would be forgiven, and all would be good for the nation until the next Day of Atonement.  However, if God didn’t see the High Priest as righteous, He would strike him down, and the people would not be forgiven, and all would not be good for the next year.  There were bells sewn along the bottom of the High Priest’s robe so the people could hear him moving.  They also tied a rope around one of the priest’s legs so that if God struck him down, they could pull him out.  Remember, no one was allowed to enter the holiest place except he who consecrated as High Priest.  The High Priest’s exit from the Holiest place meant that God had accepted their sacrifice, and they were forgiven and justified in the sight of God.  In effect, the High Priest carried the sins of the nation in the bowl of blood into the holiest place.  See the connection here?  Jesus bore our sins upon the cross and carried them into the tomb.  The resurrection meant His sacrifice had been accepted!!  With the acceptance of the sacrifice, we have forgiveness and receive justification.  No resurrection = no forgiveness and no justification.

Paul tells us in his letter to the Hebrews that Jesus is our High Priest and that His priesthood is eternal.  He sits at the right hand of the Father, which means not only is His sacrifice accepted, and we are thus justified and forgiven, but also because he paid the price with His own blood and His own life, the work of atonement is done forever.  Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father.  He sits because the work is finished.  And all we have to do is believe and receive.

 

Next, Paul addresses this errant thinking even more sternly.  If there is no resurrection, then those would have died in Christ are lost (Paul says “have perished”).  The Greek here means totally destroyed.  Not only is there no forgiveness or justification for the living, but those who died in the faith died believing in a lie.  Died unsaved – not forgiven and not justified.  If there is no resurrection, then what do we put our hope in?  What hope is found in the cross with no empty tomb?  What hope is found in the cross with no forgiveness available?  What hope is found in the cross with no justification? NONE!  Without the resurrection, there is no power.  Without the resurrection, the finished work on the cross is just a finished life.

 

Paul wants the believers in Corinth to see the foolishness of their argument.

 

Unfortunately, there are many in the church today who are willing to accept a Christianity without power.  They accept Jesus, not as Lord and Savior (although those words are used) but as a teacher and example of how to live a good life.  There are those who question the stories of healing and signs and miracles, not believing that they really happened but were just symbols of life.  And always there are those who question the authority of Scripture, picking and choosing what they want to believe, or what they can agree with.  Some even think that serving humanity in Christ’s name is the same as serving Christ and allowing Him to work through us to bless humanity.   One viewpoint is like asking “What would Jesus do?”  The other is like asking, “Lord, what would you have us do?”  The first is based on what we think; the second is based on searching out His will.  The first is based on creating Christ in our own image; the second is based on submission to a holy and righteous God who through His grace allows us to be recreated into His image…

 

The good news is, there is a resurrection!  Jesus was raised from the grave.  It is continual, complete, and eternal.  Because there is a resurrection, we are able to walk in His power.  We are able to believe in the authority and truthfulness of His Word.  Because there is a resurrection, we are able to walk in His forgiveness and justification in this life.  Because there is a resurrection, those who have fallen asleep in their faith will not see destruction or corruption but a new incorruptible body.  Because there is a resurrection, we have hope – confident expectation – not only in this life but also in the life to come.

 

He is Risen!  And so are we!

 

AMEN!

 

Remember to continue to claim Psalm 91in the first person.

 

Blessing:

Now may the God who raised our Lord Jesus Christ from the grave, resurrect you life today. That you may walk in the power of our resurrected Lord and the presence of His Holy Spirit! AMEN

 

 

 

 

Categories
Studies

I Corinthians 15:1-11

1.) Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand,

2.) by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you unless you believed in vain.

3.) For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures,

4.) and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the scriptures,

5.) and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve.

6.) 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.

7.) After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles.

8.) Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time.

9.) For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.

10.) 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.

11.) Therefore, whether it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.

 

 

Today we resume our study of 1st Corinthians, beginning with the 15th chapter.  Paul moves from his discussion of what entails proper worship to another issue:  the resurrection.

 

Last week I shared from Colossians about the resurrection.  There, also, Paul was dealing with a form of Gnosticism that was very Jewish in nature, which was very works oriented.  There Paul tried to reiterate to the Colossians that through their faith and baptism they had died and been resurrected with Christ.  There was no need for all the earning of levels to get to the throne of God.  Through the finished work of Jesus on the cross, His resurrection, and ascension, believers already had access to God freely given.

 

The situation in Corinth was different because here Paul was dealing with a Greek mindset.  Now, the Gnosticism that Paul was dealing with in 52 A.D. was not the Gnosticism that would plague the church a hundred years later.  The situation in Corinth was a belief prevalent throughout Greek society.  You see, the Greeks believed in the eternity of the soul but not in the eternity of the body.  The body would decay and become corrupted.  So, with a belief in the eternity of the soul, combined with an enthusiastic grasping for the gifts of the Holy Spirit, especially the gift of tongues, who needed an eternal body?  A belief in a need for a resurrected body was being challenged by some in the Corinthian church.  It did not mean that they didn’t believe in the resurrection of Jesus (that would become more prominent about 100 years later), but some were arguing against the resurrection of believers, or even the need for it.

 

What is interesting is the strategy Paul used to begin his argument. These first 11 verses were just the beginning, and Paul would carry this argument throughout the whole 15th chapter.  He begins his defense for the resurrection of believers by finding two points on which he and the church can agree.

Point number one is the Gospel of salvation.  In verse 1, Paul says,  “I declare to you the Gospel which I preached to you, which you also received and in which you stand,(vs2) by which also you are saved.”  When we read these words, we can easily see that Paul believes the Corinthians are still living in their salvation.  He didn’t say “were saved” but “ by which also you ARE saved.”  He states,  “I know you believe these three things: 1) Christ died for your sins.  You believe in sin, the presence of sin in the world, the power of sin in the world, the presence of sin in your life.  That you were powerless over that sin, and that Christ’s finished work on the cross washed you from all your sins. 2) Christ was buried.  (Being buried means He was really dead. They believed that Jesus really died.  In the Gospels, Jesus raised three people from the dead.  Jairus’ daughter, the son of the widow of Nain, and Lazarus. Jairus’ daughter was less than a couple of hours , the widow’s son definitely less than a day, probably less than six hours. People could argue that these two were not really dead, just unconscious in some way.  Lazarus, on the other hand, no one could deny.  He had been in the tomb four days before being brought back to life.  The Jews believed that unrecoverable corruption occurred by the third day, so Paul says that the Corinthian church believes with him that Jesus died for their salvation and the salvation of the world, and that He really, truly died.) and 3) Jesus rose again on the third day, and they believed in the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

These are three very important tenants of the faith.  They capture the work of both the Son and the Father: Jesus’s finished work on the cross, His taking away of all our sins, (not just covering up, but the total destruction of all our sins) through His burial, and the Father justifying us through His resurrection of Jesus. This meant the debt was completely paid, once and for all.

 

Then Paul listed a whole host of witnesses. These are not in chronological order, but first mentioned is Peter, who Luke tells us in Acts Jesus saw.  Then there were the twelve, referring to the original disciples (although we know that the first time there were only 10 because Thomas was absent and Judas was dead).  The 500 brethren are believed to be those who saw Jesus’s ascension in Galilee. Next mentioned was Jesus’ half-brother, James, who became a believer after Jesus’ resurrection, and then the apostles which were those who became part of the church in Jerusalem before Jesus’ ascension.  Last listed is Paul himself.  You see, the church at Corinth could not deny the issue at this time because they had met many of these listed people, and some they even claimed to follow, like Peter.

 

Paul’s apostleship was the second point on which he knew that he and the Corinthian church could agree.  He had already dealt with this once at the beginning of this letter.  There was a division over Paul’s apostleship, which meant a division over his authority.  Some people preferred Apollos, and others preferred Peter, although it has never been proven Peter had ever been to Corinth.  Even though Paul was the founding father of this church, for all kinds of reasons they didn’t think he was worthy to be called an apostle.

 

Paul agreed with them, referencing himself as “one born out of due time.”  In literal Greek, he was saying, “I was stillborn, a miscarriage.”  Do you catch his humility here? He said that he was the least of the apostles, inadequate, not good enough.  While he and the Corinthians agreed on the status, I don’t think it was for the same reasons.  Paul carried around the knowledge and the weight of the fact that he had been a persecutor of the church.  The Corinthians believed he didn’t qualify for other reasons, but they both believed Paul just didn’t measure up…

 

Paul didn’t say, “But I came here, didn’t I?  You would have never heard the gospel if I hadn’t come! You would have been still a bunch of unsaved pagans if I hadn’t come!”  No.  Instead, he gave all the credit to God and His grace.  God’s undeserved favor.   In essence Paul was saying, “I am an apostle not because of anything I have done, but because of God’s undeserved favor. Nothing that I have done makes me worthy, adequate, or good enough.  It is God’s grace that has made my work fruitful.  You are now a church, and there are other churches in Greece and Asia Minor because God’s undeserved favor was with me.”  The word with in the Greek literally means an inseparable relationship.  Paul was literally telling them, “I know what you think of me, but all I have done and will ever do is not based on me, but on the grace of God.”

 

Then he made reference to the beginning of his letter where he talked about divisions, with some who follow Apollos, some Peter, and some who say they only follow Jesus.  Paul reminded them that they all preached the same message, the same Gospel, and they had all believed the same thing – that Gospel.

 

Notice that Paul began this crucial presentation by finding common ground. I wonder in our world and our lives how far we might get if instead of immediately pouncing on our differences we focused on the thing we have in common in our world, our country.  I remember hearing and reading stories of President Reagan and Tip O’Neil doing all-nighters at the White House, both pledging not to leave till they had a deal worked out.  Of course I understand whiskey probably played its part as well… But could you imagine President Trump and the Democratic leadership doing that today?…. In the world church of United Methodism, we surely have some things in common.  Imagine if the delegates attended General Conference not focused on their own agendas but finding common ground to work together and still be servants of God!  Who knows – maybe this will be one good thing to come out of the viral pandemic impacting our lives.

 

The promise of our resurrection is important!  It carries the promise of living and reigning with Jesus.  The promise that we will not only be with Him but also like Him.  And in the next few weeks, Paul will be telling us why.

 

AMEN

 

Remember during this time to read Psalm 91 in the first person and claim it.  Every day.

 

 

Blessings and Peace:  Now may the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the fellowship and communion of His Holy Spirit, be with you, guide you and keep you unto Him. Amen

 

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Corinthians 14.20-25

1 Corinthians 14:20-25

  1. Brethren, do not be children in understanding; however in malice be babes, but in understanding be mature.
  2. In the law it is written: “With men of other tongues and other lips I will speak to the people; and yet for all that they will not hear Me” says the Lord.
  3. Therefore tongues are for a sign, not to those who believe but to unbelievers; but prophesying is not for unbelievers but for those who believe.
  4. Therefore if the whole church comes together in one place, and all speak with tongues, and there in those who are uninformed or unbelievers, will they not say that you are out of your mind?
  5. But if all prophesy, and unbelievers or an uninformed person comes in, he is convinced by all, he is convicted by all.
  6. And thus the secrets of his heart are revealed; and so, falling down on his face, he will worship God and report that God is truly among you.

    As we continue our study into Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, Paul is still trying to help them to understand the decorum of worship, using the examples of tongues and prophesy.

Paul tells them how they should be. He wants them to be babes in malice. The Greek word for babes is nepiazo. It means to have the innocence of a newborn. But he tells them he wants them to be mature in understanding. The Greek word for understanding is phren, which is literally the gut or the diaphragm where the Greeks believed was the seat of all mental and emotional activity.  And in this understanding, he wanted them to be mature. The Greek word for mature is teleios. It can be used in different ways but here in our text today it means complete in mental and moral character.  Paul then seems to pursue another direction; but keep verse 20 in mind, because Paul will return to it later.

I do not know about you, but in reading these next verses, I became confused. Verse 22 and verse 23 seem to contradict one another. Paul says that tongues are a sign, and we remember that when Paul says a sign, that it is, some act of power which God does to show His power and describes who He is. Jesus calming the sea, Jesus feeding the 5,000, Jesus turning the water into wine. Remember, Paul separates signs (or miracles) from the gift of healing in chapter 12, so Tongues is a sign.  In verse 22, Paul says that tongues is a sign to unbelievers, and that prophesy is a sign for believers. Yet then in verse 23, he says that if an unbeliever or uninformed person came into the church and everyone was speaking in tongues, they would say you were crazy, out of your mind.  For the longest time this week, I couldn’t wrap my head around the contradiction. I kept praying, “Lord please give ME understanding.”

Then I remembered something a man whom I consider a mentor, Dr. Fred Craddock, said in one of my preaching classes: “Sometimes in your preparation you find yourself with a decision to make. Are you to preach the Scripture or the Scripture’s Scripture?” Paul does have a Scripture for our Scripture! It is Isaiah 28:11-12.  Here, the Father is really not very happy with His people. They have refused to listen to his word. They have refused to listen to his prophets. They have gone and committed adultery with the gods of the land while giving lip service to the Holy One of Israel. So he says that he is going to speak to them with other tongues. These tongues are not the spiritual Tongues of the Corinthians. These are the foreign tongues of the invaders God was going to send to punish them. For the Hebrew people to be threatened with a foreign tongue meant invasion or punishment!  It was something that was intended to frighten the people to repentance. But verse 12 says that they still would not listen….

If we understand Isaiah, then we can understand I Corinthians 14:22 & 23 better. In the real world as we know it, Tongues should be a sign to the unbeliever to show the power and presence of the One True God among His people. It should make them say, “Wow!”, while on the other hand the believers say, “Yes, it is wonderful, but it doesn’t edify.”  What happens in reality is the uninformed and the unbeliever come in and hear it and say, “They are out of their minds. They are crazy. I can go to one of the prostitution cults and hear the same thing.”  Like the Hebrew children in Isaiah’s time heard God say he was going to speak with them in a foreign tongue, which means invasion and oppression (and that which should bring fear, brings no response at all), the uninformed and the unbelievers hear the Tongues which one would think would be an incredible sign, and they walk away saying, “Those Corinthian Christians are a couple fries short of a Happy Meal!”

Remember, Paul is not trying to degrade the gift of Tongues.  He has said it is a sign, but he wants us to continue with his two underlining themes since chapter 12 – 1) love and 2) the edification of the church. Here is where verse 20 comes back into play. He wants the Corinthians to be complete in their mental and moral character. He wants them out of love to do what is best for the believer and the unbeliever  –  to edify both. And how is that done? It is done through prophecy, proclaiming God’s word to God’s people in God’s time.

In verse 24 Paul says if all prophesy and an uninformed or unbelieving person comes in and hears it, there is a chance he could be convinced by all and convicted by all. Do you see the power of the words BY ALL??   It harkens back to the first few chapters in Acts where Luke says that they were in one accord. They prayed, worshiped, and sang in one accord. They held all things in common. Paul is challenging the Corinthians to follow the example of the Christians right after the first Pentecost. To be one as the first believers were one and as Jesus and the Father are one.

What did he want them to be at one about? First, that prophecy is also a gift given by the Holy Spirit.  Second, that proclaiming God’s word to God’s people in God’s time is the major way to edify (build up) the church – not the only way, but a major way.  It does this in two ways – first, by building up the believer. As Paul tells us in Romans 1:16 &17, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is reveals from faith to faith; as it is written, the just shall live by faith.” The church is built up, the church is strengthened. The church learns better how to walk in faith. The church learns and grows in the Father’s love for them. This enables the church to love God and the other better. The church is able to develop a relationship with a living and loving Savior instead of a religion of rules and regulations. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, the church can cease being a group of individuals seeking their own way, doing their own thing, believing what they want to believe, and instead be joined together as the body of Christ ministering to the world. Through the proclaiming of God’s word to God’s people in God’s time we can see where we are and be grateful for the finished work of Christ!   But we can also see where we can be, where the Father wants us to be, the joy He has for us as His children.  And through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, we have greater victory, as Paul says, when we move from faith to deeper faith.

What is the second way prophecy works? Repentance unto conversion. In verses 24 & 25, Paul says that by the proclaiming of God’s word to God’s people in God’s time, the unbeliever and the uninformed will hear the word of God empowered by the Holy Spirit, and they will convinced by the unity of the believers,  and they will be convicted…..WOW – the unity of believers!  Not just unity of believing together, but unity in what they believed.  In my readings about Father Wesley, the growth of the Methodist movement has amazed me.  One reason for that growth was not just the unity of believers, but a unity in what they believed. This was held together by the small groups, the class meetings where people weekly were held accountable not only for their actions but also for their beliefs.  I have read that in America at charge conferences and district conferences and even annual conference, non-church individuals would be invited because there was going to be a worship service where an invitation would be given – a chance to receive Christ. And from what I have read, this service was considered more important than the business which was being handled…

Then I look at our church today. We have ‘United’ in our name, but we are not united. As a global church, we can’t even agree on the authority of Scripture. As a global church, we say we want to grow. We say at Jersey that we want to grow.  What non-Christian would look at our national in-fighting and out-fighting and say, “That’s for me!”???   Locally, our unity of belief will be tested as we advance further.  What will those who visit us see – both the believer and the unbeliever??  If they see us united by love in our belief, I know the Lord has great things for us.  Paul says in order to grow we have to be united in our belief. The unity of the church, the BY ALL! To grow numerically, we need new blood. The uninformed and the unbeliever come in, and they hear God’s word to God’s people in God’s time, they see the unity of their belief, they feel the power of the Holy Spirit, and although they are not God’s people yet, they feel His calling in their life!  They experience the love and the joy of the congregation, the welcoming spirit of proclamation and praise.  They realize this is something you can’t find in a prostitute’s temple. They are convinced there is something better, something real, and something powerful that they are experiencing. They are convicted. They know the emptiness of their heart. They want more. They want a life of joy, peace and love – and they will worship God, which means they will say to Jesus like Thomas said to Jesus, “My Lord and my God!”    And then, Paul tells us, they will become evangelists, as he says, “and report that God is truly among you.”

We know that for Paul the second repentance unto conversion is really number one for him. He was an evangelist.  He went from place to place establishing churches.  He wrote letters to his churches to uplift, encourage, instruct and edify.  But his first love was to bring people into the saving grace and loving arms of our Lord Jesus. In the future, that will need to be our first love also. Those two little words – BY ALL!

When we unite ourselves in proclaiming God’s word to God’s people in God’s time, we will have the victory of a life growing from faith to faith and the unbelievers converted into our family.

AMEN

This Week: 

Claim II Timothy 1:7 “For God did not give us a spirit of fear, but of POWER and of LOVE and of a SOUND MIND”

Also, read the 91st Psalm every day, first person, and make it yours.

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Advent one