Friday, April 21, 2017
Let me now remind you, dear brothers and sisters, of the Good News
I preached to you before. You welcomed
it then, and you still stand firm in it. It is this Good News that saves
you if you continue to believe the message I told you—unless, of course, you
believed something that was never true in the first place. I passed on to you what was most important
and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the
Scriptures said. He was buried, and he
was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said. He was seen by Peter and then by the
Twelve. After that, he was seen by more
than 500 of his followers at one time, most of whom are still alive,
though some have died. Then he was seen
by James and later by all the apostles. Last
of all, as though I had been born at the wrong time, I also saw him. For I am the least of all the apostles. In
fact, I’m not even worthy to be called an apostle after the way I persecuted
God’s church. 1 Corinthians 15:1-9(NLT)
Paul had
started off this letter in a very confrontational tone, charging that he’d been
brought news of division destroying their fellowship. Some were claiming that they followed Peter,
or Apollos, and some wanted to be disciples of Paul. But by the close of his message to a church that
was getting off-center in its ways, Paul uses the phrase, just as the Scriptures said. He was reminding these fellow believers that
they were followers and disciples of Jesus Christ, the Messiah, that Holy One
promised by God’s written and living Word. Following Paul was too low a goal for their
lives; he even declared he was the least of all the apostles. Only Jesus is worthy of worship…just as the Scriptures said.
As a firm
and vivid reminder Paul pointed to the message of the Gospel (Christ’s death,
burial and resurrection) as being the central focus of everything he’d first
shared with the Corinthian believers.
That was what the Scriptures
had said; that was what God had promised. Paul wanted them to remember the source of power
in their salvation; it wasn’t in Paul, but in Jesus!
In the
twenty-first century that Gospel message has not changed. If Paul could speak to us today he would be
the first to say that servants of Christ will be born and die, come and go in
popularity or influence, but it is still God’s power in the death, burial and
resurrection of Jesus that overcomes the death of sin and darkness.
Movements
are born in a heartbeat these days; it happens with a cellphone video of some
injustice on the street or frustration over the growing division of wealth or
health, or crowded condition of prisons.
Compared to the impact of the Gospel, these movements ebb, flow, live,
and die like the life cycle of a gnat.
This points
up the importance of that to which we would attach our lives. If what you’re going to put your life’s blood
into cannot be traced back to God’s purposes in loving His creation, it becomes
necessary to rethink your plan.
For
instance, what the Scriptures did
not say was:
·
Hey,
young person, go to college; your plan is to graduate with a business major,
attend grad school, get an MBA, find a job and make a truckload of money to
have a life filled with expensive toys.
·
Hey
you…forget college, do trade school; get a union job that will pay enough to get
a great bass boat and four-wheeler.
Miller-time will be great!
·
Listen,
spend your life on whatever fulfills your need of self-gratification, because
you owe it to yourself to be happy and have what you want.
No,
Scripture never said that was God’s plan for anyone. However, the Good News of Scripture did say someone would die for
your freedom, and you will need to make choices as to how to spend that gift.
For You Today
Choose
wisely how you will use the gift of freedom you’ve been given in Christ. Otherwise you could spend your life drowning
in a mud puddle!
NOTES
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