There is a second truth we should learn from this section as well. It comes in this magnificent verse 13: “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tem
In 1517, the same year in which Martin Luther posted his “Ninety-Five Theses” on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenburg, Raphael Sanzio began a painting of Christ’s transfiguration. When he died in 1520 at the age of thirty-seven the painting was not finished, but Raphael had completed enough for us to understand it. He showed Jesus on the mountain with Peter, James and John. Everything is bathed with light.
When Jesus tells the disciples that they have “so little faith” it is not a matter of quantity since he explains in the next verse that even faith “as small as a mustard seed” can move mountains. Moving mountains is a proverbial expression for overcoming difficulties (see Isa. 40:4; 49:11; 54:10). The disciples must have had at least that much faith in some sense or they would not have tried to do the exorcism.
The second failure of the disciples in this section is handled briefly, probably because it has occurred before and will appear again several times more. It is their failure to understand Jesus’ prediction of his death and resurrection. This is the second explicit prediction in Matthew, the first having occurred in the previous chapter where it was the reason for Peter’s foolish rebuke of his master (Matt. 16:22).
In today’s lesson we look at what we can learn from the story of Peter and the tax collectors.
1. The importance of inoffensive conduct. Jesus explained that although he was exempt from the two-drachma tax he would still pay it in order not to cause offense. It was not that he was unwilling to offend the temple authorities or anyone else when that was necessary, as it was when the truths of the Bible were at stake.
We ended yesterday’s study with the question, “How can Jews and Jewish Christians support a pagan religion with their taxes?” The story is unique to Matthew, but it is understandable that he alone should record it since he had been a tax collector. He is saying that, however odious they seem, taxes even to the Roman government should be paid since what really matters is not the use pagans make of Christians’ money but whether the state gives us freedom to keep on preaching the gospel.
As we come to the twelfth chapter of 1 Corinthians, Paul begins to deal with the matter of speaking in tongues. There are a lot of people who do not like this subject. This is true in my own confession; many Reformed churches are against it. That is because they are concerned that if individuals claim to be able to speak under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, what they say should carry the full authority of God because the Holy Spirit is God.
Spiritual Gifts1 Corinthians 12:1-31Theme: Our role in the body of Christ.This week’s lessons challenge us to know our spiritual gifts and to use them in the Church.
Is there a particular number of spiritual gifts? That question is difficult to answer. Paul gives two lists here in chapter 12. The first one identifies nine gifts (vv. 7-11). Then in 1 Cor. 12:27-30, Paul identifies another set of nine gifts, but here the list is different. Some of the gifts from his first list are repeated in the second, but others are new. There are three other passages in the New Testament that also list gifts in a formal manner.
We’re studying Paul’s analogy between a human body and the Church. The illustration of the human body makes some obvious points. The first one is that all of these parts have different functions. The eye sees, but it does not walk. The foot walks, but it does not handle. The hand handles, but it does not think. All parts of the body have different functions, and so do we.
There are three applications that I want to make from 1 Corinthians 12. The first is, be content with what you have been given. If you are not content, you are telling God that you know better than he. Therefore, be content with whatever God has given you, because God gave it to you and he knows best.
We have been studying Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians and we come here in our final lesson to chapter 16, which is a very practical chapter. It almost seems anti-climactic after his focus on matters such as the Resurrection, spiritual gifts, and Christian love. Here he begins to talk about Christian giving, as well as some personal matters concerning his relationship to Timothy, and Apollos, and some of the people from Corinth.
The second principle Paul presents concerning Christian giving is regular giving on the first day of every week. I do not think that means that in every single instance for every single person, giving has to be once a week. But it is saying that giving should be regular because it is built into the fabric of the Christian life. As a matter of fact, if someone in need comes along, regardless of when that is, the Christian has an obligation to help out.
In the next portion of this sixteenth chapter, beginning with verse 5, Paul speaks of himself and his fellow workers. Paul is an apostle, so he speaks with a special divine authority not given to many others. Since his writing was divinely inspired, he actually wrote with the authority of the Holy Spirit. He mentions Timothy, whom he was training to carry on a lot of the leadership of the church after he was gone. Timothy was a younger man, a godly man, and one about whom Paul speaks very favorably.
In verse 13, Paul gives a series of statements meant to encourage the Christians at Corinth. There are five statements there. First, he tells them to be on guard. Second, he encourages them to stand firm in the faith. Third, he exhorts them to be men of courage. The fourth statement is simply, “be strong”; and finally, he tells them to do everything in love. That is a good challenge for any group of Christians at any time because it speaks of our work in Christianity as warfare, and reminds us that there are enemies.
At the very end of 1 Corinthians Paul talks about a number of individuals. He generally does that in his letters. Paul, for all of his ability and all of his missionary strategies, nevertheless was always thinking about people. And he thought about them in a very warm way.Paul mentions Stephanas. This man was one of the first converts in Achaia there in Corinth.
Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised.
Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised.
We now come to verse 20 where Paul wrote, “But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.” Christ really has been raised from the dead, and the very fact of that is proof that we ourselves will be raised if we are joined to him in saving faith. He is talking about Christ’s resurrection and our resurrection. As we look at that from the perspective in which he was writing, he is talking about a relatively small span of years.
Theme: Like him we rise.
This week’s lessons teach us the consequences of disbelief in a bodily resurrection.
SCRIPTURE
1 Corinthians 15:12-34
Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?
In the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, you find the story about the Sadducees’ coming to test the Lord Jesus Christ on the subject of the resurrection, something in which they did not believe. The Sadducees were the modernists of that day. They thought they would give him a question that would expose how foolish the idea of a resurrection is, and, if he held to the resurrection, they would show how foolish he was, too.
Here in this portion of 1 Corinthians, Paul deals primarily with this matter of the resurrection body, that is, the nature of the kind of body that we are going to have in the resurrection. He did that, presumably, because that was the chief question in the minds of the Greek people here to whom he was writing. I mentioned in an earlier study of Paul’s epistle how this difficulty with the resurrection grew naturally out of Greek philosophical thought.
Now, in chapter 15, verse 35 and following, Paul was likely addressing those who acknowledged that the Resurrection is true. This audience believed that Jesus rose from the dead, and as a result of their union with him, they would rise too. Nevertheless, this group still had questions about the resurrection of the body. They could not understand how, if we will be in heaven with new bodies, that will really be any different from life here on this earth.
I once did a study of what Paul had to say about death in chapter 15 of 1 Corinthians. I found it interesting that he mentions death even more than he mentions the resurrection. The word death or dying or dead occurs twenty-five times in the chapter. And the word resurrection or raised, or anything related to that, occurs twenty-four times–just about equal, but actually the words for death occur more often.
When Hollywood makes movies about the life of Christ, they are often very good up to the point of the Resurrection. I saw one of those films, and in it, at the scene of the Resurrection, the disciples were there, but Jesus was nowhere to be seen. Finally towards the end, there was a sort of mystical, cloudy head up in the sky, just floating away.
First Corinthians 1:26-29 is one of the most important passages with the words “But God–” in the Scriptures. Quite a few verses that begin with the words “But God–” come from the first epistle to the Corinthians, probably because Paul looked upon the situation as he found it in Corinth and then thought of all that God is able to do to the contrary.
If we look at Ephesians 2:1-10 (nkjv), we find some important adjectives that describe us. They are not at all complimentary. Paul said that we “were dead in trespasses and sins,” that is, that we were corpses, spiritually speaking. Then he added that we were, however, not inactive corpses–ones just lying there–but, rather, active ones; ones that were always up to some mischief.
Years ago, Donald Barnhouse wrote an interesting little pamphlet called How God Uses Little Things. It was excellent. In that pamphlet he went through the Bible from beginning to end, listing all the things that God uses. He began with Genesis, asking, “What did God use when He made man?” It was not plutonium. It was not gold. It was not steel, or any of the many other things we would consider valuable. It was dust, one of the most useless things there is. But what happened? God breathed into the dust so that man became a living soul.
Do you know what God hates most? One of the things he hates most is boasting by sinful men and women who want people to notice how well they are doing spiritually. Moreover, he says that one reason why he does things the way he does is that he does not want us boasting in his presence.
Finally, this text also says something to those who are already Christians. As you think about what is needed to live a Christian life, to live in a way that is honoring to the Lord Jesus Christ, you naturally feel inadequate to such things; and indeed you are. You say to yourself, “Even with my wisdom I am still foolish; even with my strength I am weak; even with my nobility I feel like a nobody; I still fail to achieve; I still have no status in God’s sight.”
Traveling to and from Corinth by sea was difficult and dangerous. A journey over land was safer and easier. So the Corinthians devised a way to save commercial ships about two hundred miles of ocean travel. They found that it was possible at times to sail a ship into Corinth’s harbor on one side and drag the ship up over an area of low land and down to the other side in order to avoid having to sail the whole way around the southern portion of Greece.
Today we continue our close examination of 1 Corinthians 1:2. Although Paul uses the same word hagioi in the first two phrases of this verse, there is a slightly different meaning between the two uses. The first phrase, “sanctified in Jesus Christ,” talks about our separation, which is what it means to be a saint. In the second phrase, “called to be holy,” Paul is not repeating himself, saying exactly the same thing. He is saying that you are separated unto Christ.
Yesterday we learned how Paul established himself in the city of Corinth. During those early months in Corinth the Jews were stirring up trouble against Paul. The Lord appeared to Paul on one occasion and said, “Do not worry. I am not going to let anything happen to you here. I have many people in this city.” Paul took courage from that, in spite of having been mistreated – even stoned – in other places, and carried on his ministry there in Corinth for eighteen months.
We are looking at the opening of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians. In verse 7 he says that they had spiritual gifts. In the context of this book, that is really quite something to say. Here at the very beginning of his letter he begins to address himself to these Christians saying, “Yes, and among all those other gifts that are yours of God, there are certainly these gifts of the Spirit with which God has enriched you and does so to such a degree that you lack nothing that is essential for the health and well-being of your Christian fellowship.”
At the conclusion of yesterday’s lesson, we looked at the many problems in the Corinthian church. Today we continue to explore the depth of their struggles.
The believers at Corinth are commended by the apostle Paul in the first seventeen verses of chapter 1 for what they have and are in Christ. But in practical terms, they were rent with all kinds of divisions and personal loyalties. As we read on in the letter, their troubles unfold.
Yesterday we began to look at the foolishness of the world. Today we will look at specific examples of such folly. There should be a connection between wisdom and results, and this is precisely the point at which the world’s wisdom, which is foolishness to God, is found wanting.
Yesterday’s lesson mentioned Carl Sagan’s book and television series on evolution, Cosmos. Today I want to point out the great errors in Sagan’s approach to things. Let me suggest a few. The first is the error of supposing that all there is can be observed by the human eye. I cannot see anything spiritual, but I can see planets, and atoms, and the relationships between those things.
Theories will come and go. Today’s theory about psychology, or sociology, or science is very quickly superseded by another theory. We know perfectly well how passing all of that is. Yet, there is the Gospel, which endures, which is based on the very nature of God (who is reality himself) and which changes not. The world says, “Oh, all that is foolishness.”
Yesterday we looked at how the Jews, the Greeks, and the Romans were all offended by Paul’s message of the cross. So what did Paul do when faced with this opposition? When he preached to the Romans, he preached Christ crucified in weakness, but in the power of God. When he preached to the Jews, he preached Christ, who came not as a sign, but to die and give his life as a ransom for many in the power of God.
“But God because of the great love he has for us has made us alive in Christ.” Those are Paul’s words as they are written in the second chapter of Ephesians (v. 4). In this verse, and in many others like it, there is a great contrast highlighted in the words “but God.” Those two words also occur in the fifth chapter of Romans. There, Paul says that for the love of a good man, someone might be bold enough to die.
In 1 Corinthians Paul is talking about how people suppress the knowledge of God in nature. He says the result is what he quotes from the Old Testament: “No eye has seen, nor ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.” Is that because there is nothing to be seen? No, it is there to be seen.
Some years ago, I received a letter from a pastor out in western Canada who was asking a number of questions about what he perceived to be contradictions in the pages of the Word of God. I could not tell from his letter whether this was a genuine question or whether he was one of those people who already have their mind made up and was just giving, in the form of questions, the reason why he would not believe that the Bible is the Word of God. But I took his questions seriously and I answered them at some length.
Yesterday I recounted the story of a man who refused to accept Scripture as the authoritative word of God. The reason I tell that story is this: Some six years after receiving that letter, I did a men’s luncheon series on Scripture: what it is, how we received it, how we understand it, and such questions. In one of the sessions I was to give an address on dealing with Bible difficulties. One of the illustrations I prepared for this question about Bible difficulties quoted this man from western Canada.
All week we have been examining 1 Corinthians 2:6-16. Have you discovered the main point that Paul is making? He stresses that the basis of all communication, the basis on which regeneration takes place, and the point at which we have illumination by the Spirit is the Word of God, the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments.
In my Bible, the section heading to 1 Corinthians 3 is called “On Divisions in the Church.” That is what this chapter is all about. There are two themes in this chapter that have divided Christians: one theme is this matter of the carnal or worldly Christian, and the other is this matter of being saved, yet so as by fire. In both of these passages, there are significant divisions.
Yesterday’s lesson pointed out two opposing views about regenerate people. When you put this dispute between the two camps in the context of what Paul is saying in 1 Corinthians 3, it is not all that difficult to reconcile them. First, what Paul is saying is that these Christians in Corinth were acting like unbelievers.
Yesterday we were introduced to the term clericalism, which has to do with ministers who assert too much control. There have been reactions against clericalism which John Stott calls “anticlericalism” – that is, if the clergy messes things up, as they do when they try to take over in a way they should not take over, then the proper thing to do is get rid of the clergy.
We ended yesterday’s lesson by looking at an unbiblical view of living for Christ. That view states that you can be saved without any visible evidence of the grace of Christ in your life. I was appalled to have anybody suggest that. I was appalled theologically because regeneration has to mean that you are different. It is true we are justified by grace through faith, but nobody is justified who is not also regenerate. Jesus said, “You must be born again.”
Yesterday we began looking at strong and weak foundations in 1 Corinthians 3. Paul is saying, “Look, if you have any responsibility as a minister, as a teacher, as a parent, be careful to build well. You do not have to build in a flashy manner, but you do have to build with solid material. You have to take time to do it. A person can throw up a straw building in a hurry, but then strong winds come and blow it all down. It takes much more time to lay bricks and to do it well.”
Paul described the church at Corinth as being enriched with all spiritual gifts and with a great deal of theological knowledge and other good things but also as being divided over loyalty to one leader or another within the church. There were people who said, “We follow Paul.” There were others who said, “We follow Peter,” and still others who said, “We follow Christ.”
Yesterday we looked at the meaning of the Greek word translated in our Bibles as “servant.” Another word Paul uses here conveys the idea of stewardship. We read the translation “those entrusted,” and it actually means “a steward.” We get our word economy from the Greek word Paul uses. The steward was the one who managed the household economy; that is, he took care of the business for whoever owned the house.
In yesterday’s lesson we saw that faithfulness is to be the standard of God’s stewards. In the passage that we are studying, Paul mentions a number of areas in which we are to be faithful. One is handling the mysteries of God rightly, the secret things of God. When Paul speaks of mysteries, he is not speaking of mysteries as the Greeks would have understood them.
Yesterday we saw that the Corinthian church seemed to be thriving – at least in worldly terms. But we find, given his tone, that Paul is being sarcastic. He is saying, “You already have what you want. You have become rich. You have become kings and you have done it all without us. Good for you! I wish that you really had become kings so that we might become kings with you.”
We have come in our study of 1 Corinthians to a section that deals with Christian discipline. This is a hard subject for churches to face. And yet, as we come to such passages, we need to deal with them. We are faced with two problems in this matter of Christian discipline in our time. One is the disposition to take it too lightly, and the other is the disposition to overdo it, both of which unfortunately occur in some Christian circles. We need God’s wisdom in each case.
In addition to what we have here in 1 Corinthians, there are other texts that deal with church discipline. One of the key texts is Matthew 18:15-17. There we find what Jesus Christ said about how to deal with a fellow believer who is living in sin. He said that the first thing to do is go to him with admonishing words. If he won’t hear you – that is, if he won’t acknowledge the offense, turn from it, repent of it, and seek reconciliation – then take two or three witnesses back to confront him with the events.
Yesterday we started looking at the shameful sin that was occuring in the Corinthian church. As we continue to examine this situation in today’s lesson, the second thing we notice is the fact that this sinful relationship was public. It wasn’t even something that had happened in a quiet way, which perhaps, therefore, could be dealt with in a quiet way. There is a good principle here. If a wrong can be made right quietly without broadcasting it abroad, that is certainly the procedure to be followed
Why does Paul insist that the Corinthian church expel this unrepentant person? The first reason is for the good of the individual involved. We find that hard to understand because our ideas of discipline are so lax. We think the worst possible thing we could do to somebody is embarrass them, or put them on the spot, or make a judgment that perhaps they are doing something wrong. But Paul says that isn’t true. Where there is open and flagrant sin, the sin must be confronted, and this must be done for the good of the individual involved.
The word litigious is relatively new in common speech. It means “prone to litigation” or “prone to go to court.” The reason this is somewhat of a new word is that a proneness to go to court is something relatively new, at least in American life.
Let us look further at this third problem in the church that Paul discusses in chapter 6. Apparently, Christians in Corinth were taking each other to court. We have to be careful not to get the idea that somehow the courts are utterly illegitimate, because they are not. All you have to do is read the Bible to discover the contrary.
Now concerning this matter of being cheated, we must understand that there is a difference between what you will endure as an individual in terms of personal conflict, and what you should endure on behalf of someone else.
I want to say something about the role of the state because although Paul does not develop it here in 1 Corinthians 6, considering another context will give us a more complete picture of this issue. What is the role of the state? Does the state have legitimate authority over the lives of Christians?
At the very end of this section, Paul begins to talk about how Christians must then live. He uses strong words. We have such a temptation to water them down because we believe in the doctrine of justification by faith.
Still another issue is ecumenism. Ecumenism is the desire to get all Christians together under one umbrella, whether or not they hold to the cardinal doctrines of Christianity. Schaeffer refers to a meeting of The World Council of Churches held in Vancouver, British Columbia, that by all objective accounts was a disaster. So much so that even the secular magazines, Newsweek and Time, in particular, said how ironic it is for these men to be calling upon the name of Christ while issuing the kind of proclamations they did.
In the present system there is no spiritual dimension. In the past there was the idea of God, because nature was made by God, and the laws of nature reflect, in some manner, the nature of God. Man, therefore, fit within that pattern. There was an established order in the universe because it went back to God who had established the universe. Then as God began to be removed, people fell back on the idea of the laws of nature. Because there was no longer an absolute, since God was denied, even the laws of nature became questionable.
So, we talk about the “Me generation,” which is just a way of saying in popular language what has happened philosophically. Man has become the center of all things. Perhaps to go further than that, man is all things. Or to go even further, I am all things. I am responsible to no one else. The great expressions of this secular spirit are the self-improvement movements and the human potential movements of our time.
So, we talk about the “Me generation,” which is just a way of saying in popular language what has happened philosophically. Man has become the center of all things. Perhaps to go further than that, man is all things. Or to go even further, I am all things. I am responsible to no one else. The great expressions of this secular spirit are the self-improvement movements and the human potential movements of our time
We come to the seventh chapter of 1 Corinthians where Paul discusses some specific issues within marriage. The spirit of our times has made these matters – sexual immorality and the difficulties of marriage – particularly problematic. Paul found that the church in Corinth had adopted the mindset and values of the world, and we find the same mindset in the church today.
In the first chapters of 1 Corinthians, we see that Paul was facing serious problems with the church at Corinth. In light of those problems, Paul could have said, “Shame on you for writing to me about something as silly as meat, considering what is going on in the church. You ought to be worried about the immorality.” Paul does not do that. He operates on the basis of the need, addressing the problems that people face. He deals forthrightly with the principles first, the most important things.
Yesterday we studied Paul’s clarification concerning the nature of true Christian knowledge. Once Paul has made this important admonition, he plunges into the question itself. It is at this point that he begins to lay down some principles. The first is that an idol is nothing. The book of Isaiah uses the same words. In Isaiah God is challenging the idols of the heathen. Isaiah quotes God and says, “Look, here is a man who cuts down a tree. He uses half of it to build a fire and cook his food. The other half he dries out, carves an idol, then falls down and worships it” (Isa. 44:14-17, abridged). Have you ever heard anything as ridiculous as that?
The Paul who wrote about marriage to the Corinthians also wrote Ephesians 5, where he gives a really beautiful description of marriage. There he states that God ordained marriage in order to illustrate the most sublime of all spiritual truths, namely, the way the Lord Jesus Christ is the bridegroom and faithful husband of the Church, and how we, the Church, are his bride. Paul is not saying something utterly different here in 1 Corinthians. He says that marriage is good. But notice, he is not saying marriage is the only good.
A good friend of mine, Howard Hendricks, who is a professor at Dallas Theological Seminary, spends a lot of time counseling Christian people. He says one of the difficulties he discovers in marriages, Christian marriages, especially among some of the young couples associated with the seminary, is that one of the spouses, usually the wife, thinks that somehow sex is not the kind of thing a godly person would do. So when the husband has a desire for a sexual relationship, the wife holds back and thinks, “Well, you know, he’s young and immature yet. I suppose it’s the sort of thing you have to do, but maybe as he grows in the Lord, this will become less necessary.” That is a terrible thing.
In 1 Corinthians 7, Paul talks about a third issue, divorce. He says, “The husband must not divorce his wife. A wife must not divorce her husband.” But somebody will say, “Well, what about a condition where a Christian is married to a non-Christian?” Marriage is to be a union in the Lord, and this spiritual union is possible only if both parties are Christians.
You may think, “I don’t think I can stay unmarried.” Or you may say, “I don’t think I can stay married.” The problem is not your martial status; it is a problem of sin. In our sinful state we are so focused on ourselves, and so stimulated by our culture to focus upon ourselves, that we cannot imagine continuing in a situation, which, from our point of view, is not the most personally satisfying relationship we can imagine. That is not Christianity.
We wish that the Bible were clearer than it is. But the Bible is not written to specific individuals. Neither is it a book of rules. There are indeed some rules in it, but when we are talking about this matter of doubtful situations, the Bible does what the Bible should do. God treats us like the adult human beings he’s made us. The Bible does not give easy rules so that you can get off the hook simply by looking up your particular problem or question in the index. Rather, it lays down principles by which, if we are serious about the Christian life, we should live.
In yesterday’s lesson we saw that Paul urged the Corinthians to consider their brothers and sisters in Christ in how they used their freedom. Does this mean that nobody can ever eat meat that has been offered to an idol? No, Paul has just said he does not mean that. I am also certain he does not mean that these weaker brethren can use their weakness as a club over those who regard this as a matter of freedom in the Lord. If that were the case it would be a way of using a rear door back to legalism. You may say, “Well, I’m free.” Yes, you are. But, what if a brother thinks I ought not to be free?
In this week’s lesson we have seen that our freedom in Christ must take into consideration our weaker brother. This requires balance. All the way down through history the church has come up with tests to measure a person’s level of spirituality, and whenever that mindset becomes dominant, you get a false kind of spirituality. We do not want that. But at the same time, you often have people in the Church of Jesus Christ who swing to the other pole.
Yesterday we started to look at what it means when Paul says that the Israelites were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. This matter of baptism in verse 2 has confused a lot of people. There are those who say, “You see! They were all baptized in the sea. That’s talking about immersion.”
Our study has brought us to the great chapter of the New Testament on the Resurrection, the fifteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians. In the first eleven verses of the chapter Paul reminded the believers at Corinth what they had been taught; namely, that the Lord Jesus Christ was crucified for our sins.
The second consequence of denying the resurrection is found in verse 14. If Christ has not been raised, then preaching the Gospel is meaningless, and faith is futile. The Greek word Paul used here in verse 14 is translated as “useless” in the New International Version. This is the same Greek word that has been used for what has been called the “kenosis theory” of the incarnation. It means an “emptying.”
Death Swallowed up in Victory1 Corinthians 15:35-38Theme: The last enemy conquered.This week’s lessons teach us that death is not an end, but a beginning.
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Death Swallowed up in Victory1 Corinthians 15:35-38Theme: The last enemy conquered.This week’s lessons teach us that death is not an end, but a beginning.
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Death Swallowed up in Victory1 Corinthians 15:35-38Theme: The last enemy conquered.This week’s lessons teach us that death is not an end, but a beginning.
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Death Swallowed up in Victory1 Corinthians 15:35-38Theme: The last enemy conquered.This week’s lessons teach us that death is not an end, but a beginning.
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Final Greetings1 Corinthians 16:1-24Theme: Practical Christian living.This week’s lessons provide us with practical teaching on giving, loving, and standing firm.
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Final Greetings1 Corinthians 16:1-24Theme: Practical Christian living.This week’s lessons provide us with practical teaching on giving, loving, and standing firm.
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Final Greetings1 Corinthians 16:1-24Theme: Practical Christian living.This week’s lessons provide us with practical teaching on giving, loving, and standing firm.
Final Greetings1 Corinthians 16:1-24Theme: Practical Christian living.This week’s lessons provide us with practical teaching on giving, loving, and standing firm.
Lesson
Final Greetings1 Corinthians 16:1-24Theme: Practical Christian living.This week’s lessons provide us with practical teaching on giving, loving, and standing firm.
Lesson
Death Swallowed up in Victory1 Corinthians 15:35-38
Death Swallowed up in Victory1 Corinthians 15:35-38
Death Swallowed up in Victory1 Corinthians 15:35-38
Death Swallowed up in Victory1 Corinthians 15:35-38
Death Swallowed up in Victory1 Corinthians 15:35-38
Speaking Sense about the Resurrection1 Corinthians 15:12-34
Speaking Sense about the Resurrection1 Corinthians 15:12-34
Speaking Sense about the Resurrection1 Corinthians 15:12-34
Speaking Sense about the Resurrection1 Corinthians 15:12-34
Speaking Sense about the Resurrection1 Corinthians 15:12-34
Theme: Like him we rise.
This week’s lessons teach us the consequences of disbelief in a bodily resurrection.
SCRIPTURE
1 Corinthians 15:12-34
Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?
Gilbert West and Lord Lyttleton were two cynical young students who lived in the eighteenth century. They set out to disprove Christianity. They agreed that the two strongest evidences for Christianity were the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the conversion of Saint Paul. So Lyttleton offered to disprove the conversion of Paul to Christianity, and West offered to disprove the resurrection. When they met again sometime after they had begun their two projects, both were shamefaced.
In his classic treatment of the evidences for the resurrection of Christ, Who Moved the Stone? Frank Morison calls attention to Paul’s undoubted knowledge of the fact that the tomb of Jesus Christ was found empty. Everyone in Jerusalem would have known this, and Paul in particular must have known of it.
Yesterday we concluded by looking at the first two striking things that Paul would have noted concerning Stephen’s death. The third thing about Stephen’s death was the way he died—not cursing or pleading for life, as some might have done, but peacefully and in an atmosphere of prayer.
According to Lyttleton there were four explanations for Paul’s claim of his own conversion. We will look at the first two today.
Let’s look at the two other explanations for Paul’s conversion. Yesterday we dismissed the first two. Was Paul deceived by others? Did Paul genuinely see Jesus and convert?
Theme: The Way of Love
In this week’s lessons we learn how Jesus perfectly carries out the biblical understanding of love, and how we, as his disciples, are called to show that same kind of love to others.
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 13
It would not take a great spiritual genius or even a great literary genius to pick 1 Corinthians 13 as one of the greatest chapters in the Bible.
Theme: The Importance of Love
In this week’s lessons we learn how Jesus perfectly carries out the biblical understanding of love, and how we, as his disciples, are called to show that same kind of love to others.
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 13
Paul teaches the importance of love by contrasts. He says that if he could speak with the tongues of men, or even angels, but without love, it would be nothing.
Theme: The Standard of Love
In this week’s lessons we learn how Jesus perfectly carries out the biblical understanding of love, and how we, as his disciples, are called to show that same kind of love to others.
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 13
Whom do you think of when you read these verses? “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
Theme: The Nature of Love
In this week’s lessons we learn how Jesus perfectly carries out the biblical understanding of love, and how we, as his disciples, are called to show that same kind of love to others.
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 13
As I look at these items at the beginning of this chapterr, I think they characterize the major types of Christian ministry today, even the types of ministry present in a single Christian congregation.
Theme: The Permanence of Love
In this week’s lessons we learn how Jesus perfectly carries out the biblical understanding of love, and how we, as his disciples, are called to show that same kind of love to others.
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 13
In yesterday’s study we concluded by referring to the three reasons John gives in 1 John 4 for why we should love one another.
The first reason is found in verse 7: “Dear friends, let us l
During the last half of the nineteenth century, an evangelist by the name of Henry Drummond wrote a sermon called “The Greatest Thing in the World.” It was about love. It was based on I Corinthians 13, which is certainly one of the greatest chapters in the Bible. If people know anything about 1 Corinthians, this is probably the chapter that comes to mind. This chapter teaches that love is greater than faith, that love is greater than hope.
In the context of the entire book of 1 Corinthians, Paul has repeatedly set love over against the things that the Corinthians thought were most important. He contrasts love with the supernatural gifts. He also contrasts love with the idea of wisdom. In verse 3, Paul contrasts love with doing good deeds, even to the point of becoming a martyr for the sake of something good. He says you can be famous for doing extraordinarily good works, but if you have not love, it profits you nothing.
Do you remember where that expression “Pyrrhic victory” comes from? It comes from a battle that took place between the Greek armies directed by General Pyrrhus and the Roman armies in the year 279 B.C. The Greek armies were in southern Italy, and they were engaged in a massive conflict with the Roman forces. The armies under Pyrrhus lost thousands of men, even though they won the battle, and Pyrrhus lost some of his most able commanders. And he lost all of his supplies and baggage. After the battle, one of the Greeks came up to him and congratulated him on his victory. Pyrrhus replied, “Another such victory and we are ruined.” And so a Pyrrhic victory came to refer to a victory which is a genuine victory, according to some standards, but which is won at a devastating and destructive price. Now that’s what we’re talking about when we’re talking about the death of Jesus Christ.
However, it wasn’t only the enemies of Christ that seemed to have won on that Good Friday. It was also a victory for the devil, or so it seemed. The devil had begun his onslaught against Jesus even before the religious leaders. Even before the leaders knew He was around to cause them trouble, the devil knew He was there.
Jesus is the One who described Himself in John 14:6 as the way, the truth, and the life. Jesus said, “No one takes my life from me. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again.” But when Jesus stood alone before this formidable foe, it seemed by any reasonable analysis, any objective appraisal, that it wasn’t Jesus who was victorious, it was death.
Yesterday, we concluded by making the point that Jesus’ resurrection is proof that God the Father accepted Christ’s sacrifice for our sins on the cross. And not only that, the resurrection is also a victory because it shows that the ravages of sin will be reversed—those ravages of sin which affect us in our bodies and eventually bring about our physical death.
Because Jesus has removed death’s sting by His death in our place, although physical death comes, for believers what follows is the receiving of our resurrection bodies. This is necessary because, as Paul himself says, flesh and blood can’t inherit the kingdom of God. You have to have a resurrection body. We have to lay aside this body in order that we might take on a new body in order to be able to be presented in heaven.
It would not take a great spiritual genius or even a great literary genius to pick 1 Corinthians 13 as one of the greatest chapters in the Bible. It deals with love, and according to the very teaching of the chapter love is the greatest of all the things one could be considering (v. 13). Love is greater than hope. It is even greater than faith, without which it is impossible to please God.
Paul teaches the importance of love by contrasts. He says that if he could speak with the tongues of men, or even angels, but without love, it would be nothing. Or prophecy: “If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge” but if I do not have love, it is nothing. Or faith: “If I have faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.” Finally, “If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.”
The second section of the chapter deals with love’s nature. In the Greek language there are three main words for love. C.S. Lewis wrote a book in which he added another word, but generally speaking the common words for love are: eroo, from which we get our word “erotic”; phileo from which we get the word “philanthropic”; and agapao, which refers to the divine love. All three types of love are known to the biblical writers. But it is interesting that when the Bible writes about love, it uses only two of these words.
Whom do you think of when you read these verses? “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” Do you know anyone like that?
The reason why you and I do not love is that we are not aware of love, and the reason we are not aware of love is that we do not think often enough of Jesus. As we learn how He loves us, we will learn to love Him and each other.
I do not think I need to say a great deal about the importance of this chapter as concerning the resurrection. Next to the resurrection accounts as we find them in each of the four gospels, this chapter is of the greatest importance. What I have discovered to be quite interesting, however, as I have studied it, is that it deals with what we would consider a depressing subject as much or even more so than it deals with the glorious theme of the resurrection. I am talking about death, of course, and the two are connected because it is only as we understand the significance and the horror of death that we understand the importance and glory of the resurrection.
And may I say something else? Death, if you understand it spiritually, is not only an enemy, it is, secondly, also the ultimate enemy, the greatest enemy there is. I think we sense this in our fear of death. We are afraid of death, even though death is transformed for Christians and fear is changed in some sense.
When the Lord Jesus Christ transforms us, He saves us in spirit and soul so that we have a new spirit and a new soul, and by means of death are taken into the presence of Himself. And then at our resurrection He saves us in body also. It becomes, not just a spiritual salvation, not just a soul salvation, but a whole salvation.
Fourth, I want you to see not only that death is an enemy, not only is death the ultimate enemy, and not only is there an ultimate victory over death for us. But I also want you to see that there is a present victory now because the resurrection of the Lord transformed even the kind of death that we know now in our own time and in our own existence and experience.
But at the same time, Jesus’ death is not just a literal death; it is also a literal resurrection. A real resurrection with a real body and a real person standing there that they could handle and touch and furthermore the kind of person who could eat broiled fish to demonstrate the reality. It was no ghost.
Every time I begin a study of a new book of the Bible I do so with mixed feelings because, on the one hand, the book is a challenge. It is exciting because it is filled with thoughts that we need to make our own. And yet, at the same time, any book of the Bible, as the Holy Spirit speaks through it, as we trust He will and as He promises to do when we study it, is going to produce changes in us. It is going to challenge us in areas of our discipleship. It is going to address us in areas in which we need to grow.
Paul visited Corinth on his second missionary journey. He had been in the northern portion of Greece, in Philippi. He had made his way down the coast from Macedonia, spending some time in the city of Berea. He then went further south into Attica and came to Athens, where he spent some time. After he left Athens, he went down to Corinth, leaving for the time his companions behind.
Paul writes of the first “bright spot” in the Corinthian church in verse 2: “To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” He says that the Corinthians are sanctified, or holy.
When we read that description of the church at Corinth, we think to ourselves how wonderful it would be to be part of a church like that—a church that was separated unto Christ, mature in its knowledge of the doctrines of the faith and their application, a church in which the spiritual gifts were very evident, a church that was eagerly waiting together for the return of Christ. Is not a church like that a marvelous thing? Well, I dare to say I do belong to a church like that. That is a description of the church of Jesus Christ wherever it is truly found.
Be like Jesus Christ. Draw near to Him. And when you do, these divisions begin to fade away and the sin begins to be conquered. This knowledge gives expression to the glorious reality of the fellowship of the people of God. That is what this letter is to do. As you study it, pray that God will use these texts to speak to you and to lead you increasingly in the way that you should go for Christ’s sake.
With verse 18 of chapter 1 we come to the first major treatment of a theme that Paul considers in the book, the theme of wisdom and foolishness, the wisdom of God contrasted with the foolishness of men. It is a major section because Paul deals with that not only in the remainder of chapter 1 but throughout chapter 2. And it is not until chapter 3 that he gets back to the matter of the divisions among the church at Corinth that he mentioned in the introduction.
I suppose there is no greater example of the folly of this world in its profession of wisdom than in the great trust that is put in the theory of evolution. What is really foolish about
evolution is the inevitable attempt to make what is essentially a theory into a kind of religion by using it to try to explain how things came to be, when evolution cannot possibly explain it.
A third error in Carl Sagan’s view of the universe is to suppose that somehow in that kind of a closed, materialistic system which excludes God, moral purpose and moral obligation can come about. If I am the accident of the universe, why do I owe anybody anything? I do not. I am not answerable to anything. How am I answerable to an impersonal universe? And yet, Sagan cannot live with that kind of a universe, so he projects moral values into it, apparently not realizing that the impersonal cosmos is not able to account for morality.
We come now to the third section, where Paul begins to think about how God works. It is not only that God has demonstrated His wisdom at the cross in what Jesus Christ achieved there;
God also demonstrates His wisdom by choosing the foolish people of this world to come to Christ, not the wise.
That brings us to the final point that Paul develops in the first verses of chapter 2, which is the implication of all this for the preaching of the Gospel. Paul understood that the power of God was to be found not in the power of men nor in the wisdom of men, but in the simple Gospel of the preaching of the cross. That is precisely why Paul was so determined to preach the message that he did.
This portion of 1 Corinthians is one of the great sections of the Word of God for the doctrine of revelation. And verse 10, plus the verses that surround it, are a great analysis of what God has done to make Himself and the Gospel known to fallen men and women who, apart from His revelation, would live and die and perish in utter ignorance of that which alone would be their life and salvation.
Thus, not only do unbelievers fail to recognize God in nature; they also fail to see how God is revealed in the coming of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. God’s “secret wisdom” has now been given, but apart from the Holy Spirit people are unable to perceive what God has truly communicated and performed in the person and work of Christ.
Some years ago, I received a letter from a pastor out in western Canada who was asking a number of questions about what he perceived to be contradictions in the pages of the Word of God. I could not tell from his letter whether these were genuine questions, or whether he was one of those people who already had already made up his mind and was just giving in the form of questions the reason why he would not believe that the Bible was the Word of God. I took his letter seriously and I answered it at some length.
The problem, as we have mentioned already, is that our minds cannot conceive spiritual truth without the help and blessing of the Holy Spirit. And when you begin to talk about God’s process of revelation, what you come to next in the steps of God’s dealings with fallen human beings is regeneration, by which God takes one who is spiritually dead, and by means of the Holy Spirit makes him spiritually alive through the preaching and teaching of the Word. As a result, he now hears and understands that God has revealed Himself in Jesus Christ in the Gospel and the need for that one to be born again.
Do you want to be wise? That’s a very good ambition. How are you going to be wise? Are you going to find wisdom in the world’s way? Oh, if you seek it that way, you’ll be thought wise by the world but you’ll be spiritually foolish. Or are you going to seek wisdom in God’s way?
In my Bible there is a very appropriate section heading to 1 Corinthians 3. It is called “On Divisions in the Church.” Yet as I read this chapter, which is probably the greatest statement in all the Bible against divisions in the Church of Jesus Christ, I realize that it has actually been the cause of at least two more of them. I say that because there are two themes in this chapter that have divided Christians.
On the other side are those who say, “No you can’t distinguish between Christians in that fashion because if you’re born again, you must be going on with the Lord. You must acknowledge the lordship of Jesus Christ. Christ is no Savior if Christ is not the Lord.” And at that point I speak positively and say, “That is absolutely right. If you’re a Christian, you’re regenerate. It’s impossible to think of a regenerate person not going on with the Lord in some fashion, one who is beginning to grow and to hunger and thirst after righteousness.”
What is the biblical pattern? Paul says in verse 5: “What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task.” Paul’s emphasis is that the ministers in the church of Jesus Christ are servants, even as Jesus Christ Himself came not to be ministered unto but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many.
We come now to the third section, which is the second area in this chapter where people have been so divided. Here we are talking about people being saved, as the King James Bible says, “though as by fire.” And the question is, can anybody be saved that way—that is, without any good works whatsoever? This is the way this passage has normally been taken. I want to suggest that this is a wrong interpretation of it, but let me first explain how most people seem to understand it.
As we come to the end of 1 Corinthians 3, Paul brings us back to this matter of divisions in what is really a very brilliant paragraph. Paul is saying, “Think how foolish these divisions are. First of all, they are based upon the world’s way of doing things, which is folly in the sight of God. You don’t want to be like that. God catches the wise in their craftiness. He turns the wisdom of the world to self-evident foolishness before everybody. These divisions are part of that. Instead, you want to follow after God.”
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