What did you learn from last week’s sermon?
Q1. Was Paul’s point in talking about resurrection to shed light on Christ’s resurrection or our future resurrection?
Q2. Why did the Greeks have a hard time understanding the idea of a believers’ resurrection?
Q3. Where did Paul get the knowledge of Jesus Christ?
Q4. Did Jesus reveal to Paul some new revelation that was not foretold in the Old Testament (OT)?
Q5. Can you recall at least three places in the OT where the truth of Jesus is foretold?
Q6. What are you supposed to give other people from the Gospel?
Q7. Are we continually being saved by the Gospel, or are we already saved?
Q8. If believing in Jesus does not save us, what does?
Q9. What three things must happen for us to know for sure that we are held in Jesus’ hands eternally and that we will have a believer’s resurrection?
Q10. What will we prove with our continual belief in the Gospel?
ANSWERS IN SUMMARY
As we jump into the next-to-last chapter of 1 Corinthians this week, we see Paul moving from correcting the church on secondary practical matters (doctrine) of living and worship to reminding them of the essential foundations of their Christianity (theology).
Paul uses Christ’s resurrection to remind the church members of the saints’ (believers’) future resurrection. He knows their Greek philosophical culture (Plato) tells them that there is no resurrection of human bodies after death, but Jesus said the opposite. Our Bible tells us that our souls yearn to be reunited with our bodies. Paul needed to do this because they were slipping back into their old ways of thinking.
Paul does this by reminding them of the Gospel that he had already preached. He tells them that this Gospel was not crafted in any way by man. It is the truth about a divine man, Jesus. He says it was “received” through the direct revelation of Christ when he was in Arabia and that knowledge took him right back to the same Gospel foretold in the Old Testament Scriptures.
- Psalm 16:10
- Psalm 22:1; 22:6-8; 22:16-18
- Isaiah 53:4-5; 53:9-10
Paul is adamant that words must be used to preach the body of truth that is our Gospel directly from scripture, not words and stories that we invent to make its content relevant or more easily consumed. Pastor Wilson also points out that we have to adorn or live this Gospel out loud, or we will end up confusing people who are looking at us to reflect some semblance of Christ for them. For a more in-depth understanding of doing that, see last week’s sermon Decently and In Order.
“If you preach the Gospel and don’t live the Gospel, you will confuse people. BUT…if you simply live the Gospel and don’t preach the Gospel, you will damn people. Your life isn’t the point. The life of Jesus is the point.”
Pastor Steve Wilson
Therefore, “this little light of mine, I’m going to let it shine” is not good enough. You have to use true and exact words (scripture/Gospel) to give other people.
1 Corinthians 15 also tells us that we are saved and are continually being saved by the Gospel. There is an on-going life-giving power that comes from God’s word being heard. Sins are forgiven, and death is conquered for all who believe. The Gospel also can keep us. Nothing can take us from Jesus’ hand. There is actual POWER in the Gospel.
Just believing in Jesus and His resurrection does not save us. Jesus does. Satan believes every word of the Bible. It is our believer’s resurrection (like Christ) that lets us walk into heaven. How do we get that?
- We must hear the truth;
- We must receive the truth;
- We must believe the truth, embrace the truth, cling to the truth and trust the truth.
You cannot just check these three items off a list. They are the sovereign work and grace of God applied through the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit on our rotten character. He did it for our sins. The truth about our crimes against God (sins), and our just punishment is also an essential part of the Gospel message. Jesus took our punishment, and we took on His righteousness. We never have to prove the content of our faith; we have to prove the character of our faith through continual belief.
Did you find this quiz and sermon summary helpful? Log on to gccbg.com/blog each week for the latest sermon study guide. Jessica will send the link out in the Midweek church emails. I’d love to hear your thoughts and suggestions. Please email me at thepew@gccbg.com.
