Prepare
Opening Prayer
Father, thank you for this beautiful day and for your Word. Attend its reading by your Holy Spirit and teach us what you would have us believe. In Jesus' name, amen.
Read
Scripture Passage
The Risen Christ, Faith’s Reality
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.
The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982), 1 Co 15:1-11.
A — About
What Is This Passage About?
Paul restates the gospel the Corinthians received and in which they stand: Christ died for sins according to the Scriptures, was buried, rose on the third day, and appeared to many eyewitnesses. Paul also explains that God's grace transformed him from a persecutor into an apostle who labored and preached the same gospel.
B — Best Verse
Which Verse Best Summarizes the Passage?
1 Corinthians 15:3-4
Bryan explicitly says Paul summarizes the gospel in verses 3-4: Christ's atoning death, burial, and resurrection fulfill Scripture.
C — Called or Christ
C — Christ Connection
Hold fast the gospel you have received. Do not abandon Christ's incarnation, the truth of Scripture, or the historically witnessed resurrection; cling to the risen Savior in whom believers stand and are saved.
Devotional Study
Transcript of the devotion. Minor transcription errors may remain.
hey good morning good morning welcome to coffee and devotions that's where every day you and i we get together we have a little bit of coffee we get into god's word and we grow in our love for the lord together and this year 2022 lord willing will make it from the book of acts through the book of philemon and we're at first corinthians chapter 15 the first roughly 11 verses let's have some coffee pray and get into god's word let's pray father thank you so much for this beautiful day thank you for your word we pray that as we read your word that you would attend to it by your holy spirit please god teach us this morning what you would have for us to believe in jesus name amen all right we're at first corinthians chapter 15. first corinthians chapter 15 and where the first 11 verses first corinthians chapter 15 the first 11 verses moreover brethren i declare to you the gospel which i preached to you which also you received and in which you stand by which also you are saved if you hold fast the word which i preached to you unless you believed in vain for i delivered to you first of all that which i also received that christ died for our sins according to the scriptures and that he was buried and that he rose again from the in and then he rose again the third day according to the scriptures and that he was seen by cephas and then by the twelve after that he was seen by over 500 brethren at once of whom the greater part remain to the present but some have fallen asleep after that he was seen by james then by all the apostles then last of all he was seen by me also as one born out of due time for i am the least of the apostles who am who am not worthy to be called an apostle because i persecuted the church of god 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 therefore whether it was i or they so we preach and so you believed well we need to ask ourselves hey what's this about b what are the best verses or what's the best verse to summarize this section and see what are we called to do in response to these words right what do we do about this so a what is this about well paul's going to tell us a couple things here first he's going to tell us about the gospel and he's going to tell us about the veracity of the gospel and then he's going to tell us how he became a minister of the gospel so first what is this gospel what is this good news well he says i declare to you the gospel which i preached to you which also you received and in which you stand what is this good news that's what gospel means evangelion what is the gospel well he he kind of summarizes it doesn't he verse 3 that christ died for our sins according to the scriptures verse 3 verse 4 and that he was buried and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures the messiah has come and the messiah died for your sins and for mine according to the scriptures according to the prophecies given in places like isaiah chapter 53 and he rose again from the dead just like the sign of jonah was going to be fulfilled and so he died and he was rose and he was raised again from the dead this is the heart of the gospel the incarnation the active and passive obedience of christ and his resurrection from the dead this is according to the scriptures this is the hope that verse 2 it says you hold fast to the word which i preached to you right this is this is what they're clinging to that the christ has come according to the scriptures and the veracity of this the truth of this is what he points out and that he was seen by cephas and then by the twelve cephas is the name for peter right when jesus was first risen again from the dead it was john and peter after mary right they ran to the tomb and and there peter goes in first john beats him there but peter goes in first and he sees the risen lord but it wasn't just to peter what does it say after that he was seen by over 500 brethren at once and this is historically true right he says some of these people are still living hey people in corinth get on a boat go over to to jerusalem and you'll meet a whole bunch of people who saw him with their own eyes some of these people have fallen asleep right some of them are dead but many of them are still alive this is a true account this is not some fable or fairy tale it says after that he was seen by james then by all the apostles right jesus said appeared to his own brother to james and james becomes one of the leaders of the church in jerusalem he says and then he appears to the rest of the apostles then last of all who's the last apostle that jesus makes who's the last one he's he appears to what does verse 8 say he was seen by me also as by one born out of due time right paul says that i i'm one who wasn't in line with all the rest right everyone else saw jesus in his earthly ministry and immediately at the resurrection but later on like a child of sarah i was born out of time but still he appointed me an apostle notices those who see christ who are the apostles as those who have been sent out apostle pastor louie uh means those who have been sent out with the good news and so paul is the last one that jesus commissions with this but he's humble about this in his own seeing of christ and his own ministry and this is where he finishes up at in verses 9 through 11 when he speaks of him being the least of all the apostles why right he persecuted the church he tried to destroy the church he went into homes and he was ripping apart families he still sees the tears in those people's eyes and still hears their screams of horror as he knocked on their doors ready to rip apart their families and drag them to prison he says it was a gift of god that he was saved and not just saved but commissioned to be an apostle so he doesn't care right there's a very first our philippians chapter one ask right he doesn't care how the people in corinth heard the gospel maybe it was by paul when he was there with them or maybe what it was by apollos maybe it was by cephas or maybe it was by anyone else doesn't matter to him are they clinging to christ i got a real hard problem here i don't know what to underline let me know i'm going to lean heavily on you i need you to let me know down in the comments if you're on facebook youtube come to find out somebody left a comment on sermon audio the other day let me know down in the comment section what would you underline in your bible as the best verse to summarize this we'll see calling what are we called to believe i'm going to point you again to verse 2 by which also you are saved if you hold fast that word which i preached to you hold fast i don't know what's going on in your life maybe you're surrounded by people who are going through this this fancy uh deconstruction stuff a fancy way to say apostasizing they're questioning everything about their faith they're questioning the incarnation of christ or questioning the scriptures or questioning the truth of the things that they've been taught my call out to you to believe the things that you have been taught they are historically verifiable the resurrection is true eyewitness accounts time and time and time and time and time and time and time again and he says over 500 people at one time saw this this wasn't some type of fable and people might say well why aren't there other accounts of it how many more accounts do you need right we think that the bible is a one account but there you got matthew you got mark you got luke you got john you got acts you got paul's testimony in his own letters you have peter's testimony in his own letters you got john's testimony and his own letters each of these are independent documents that are held together yes in the canon but each one of them are verifiable truths we have witness upon witness upon witness but i'm going to encourage you to cling to the holy spirit for his test his spirit testifies to our spirit that these things are true cling to him hold to him remember the gospel the good news that jesus christ the messiah died for our sins and was raised again from the dead according to the scriptures the words have been fulfilled our savior reigns i can't wait to spend the most of this next week examining with you and reveling with you in the truth of the resurrection of christ may you rejoice in your risen savior maybe you may you cling to him let's pray father we pray thanking you for sending us our king jesus thank you for the truth of his resurrection and thank you for the work of your spirit god i pray in these in my heart and in the hearts of those listening and watching this father we might know who you are cling to who you are and love you in jesus name amen may god bless you may you rejoice in the holy spirit may you believe in the resurrection because of the hope we have for all eternity i'll see you see you tomorrow bye [Music] thanks for listening to this week's message from god's word for you a ministry of sharon rp church in rural southeast iowa we pray that the message would be used by god to transform your faith in your life this week if you'd like to get more information about us feel free to go to the website sharonrpc.org we'd love to invite you to worship with us our worship time is 10 a.m every sunday at 25 204 160th avenue morning sun iowa 526-40 may god richly bless you this week [Music]