Podcast Deleted

If Christ has not been raised then our preaching is both empty and a false witness against God. And if Christ is not raised our faith is empty and useless. It's not going to do us any good. So what were these people in Corinth putting their faith in? They were like many people today who have faith that Jesus was a great teacher and a good example of “the way of love.” These people in Corinth believed that the stories of Jesus' resurrection were merely symbols pointing to “the triumph of the human spirit,” and that Jesus' influence is what still lived on after his death. These people in Corinth did not say, “The resurrection is all a myth so we must REJECT it.” However, they did say, “The resurrection is all a myth and so we must REINTERPRET it.”

“8 Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, 9 where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years. 10 Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.’ 11 As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’” 12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.” Hebrews 3:8-14 ESV

A fearful nation is merely the fruit of a guilty nation.

The Bible promises us that a day is coming when the devil will be utterly destroyed, and it is true that this day has not yet arrived. However, even now, Christians can be encouraged in knowing that the devil's chief power (the “fear of death”) has been utterly stripped away from him for all those who are united to Christ through saving faith. For Christians, the “fear of death” has been neutralized because our guilt has been dealt with by Jesus on the cross. Christians do not have to be slaves to fear in death because we are no longer slaves to guilt in life.

55 “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” 56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 58 Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
1 Corinthians 15:55-58 ESV

Although Jesus was already morally perfect (without sin) before being subjected to suffering, through suffering his life and ministry was brought to a new place of completion that could not have happened otherwise. In other words, suffering brings about a new kind of “perfection,” the perfection of having been “tested.” If a newly invented device is subjected to a series of rigorous tests and passes these tests with flying colors, the inventor of this particular device might declare, “It is truly perfect!” In reality, the device was already perfect before it was tested, which is precisely why it passed the tests. Testing did not “create” perfection in the Son of God, testing “revealed” perfection in the Son of God.

Christ is currently ruling and reigning over all things. “Everything [is currently] in subjection under his feet,” and God the Father has “left nothing outside of [Christ's] control” (Hebrews 2:8). In other words, regardless of how many “kingdoms” there may or may not be, there is only one “King.” And this King is presently ruling over everything, even sin and suffering.

19 ...According to the working of his great might 20 that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. 22 And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church. Ephesians 1:19-22 ESV

We are blessed when we are persecuted for doing good. We are blessed when we are reviled for righteousness sake. But we are NOT blessed if we are fools, merely experiencing the natural consequences of being a jerk. Discernment and spiritual maturity is required to know the difference.

The “message declared by angels [which] proved to be reliable” was the Law of God, namely, the Ten Commandments. According to Deuteronomy 33:5, that was the day when God declared that he was “King in Jeshurun.” So God delivered his Law and announced his Kingship through Moses and angels. But now God has delivered not only his Law but his Gospel, announced not only that he is King but also Savior, and he has done all this not merely through Moses and the angels (who are servants in God's house), but through Jesus (who is the Son and rightful heir of all God's promises). If man's rejection of the Law delivered through mere servants “received a just retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect” the Gospel delivered through God's only begotten Son?

The angels were not only messengers but also worshipers, and Jesus is the one they constantly adore. Even at his birth they united in worship because God had commanded it. In the first three verses of Hebrews we saw that God “has spoken to us by his Son” and that Christ is “[seated] at the right hand of the Majesty on high” because his saving work is finished. In other words, Jesus is the true Prophet and the true Priest. But here we see that Jesus is also the true King who rules and reigns with “the scepter of uprightness.”

Throughout human history, God has spoken to mankind through his prophets, but in these last days God has spoken to us by his Son, Jesus Christ. It's important to recognize that Christ does not break with the great Jewish history. To the contrary, Jesus comes to bring it to fulfillment. Without him the Old Testament revelation is partial, fragmentary, preparatory, and incomplete. God spoke in different times by different means, but in Christ he spoke fully, decisively, finally, and perfectly. In other words, Jesus illuminates and confirms the Old Testament by assuring us that the prophets did in fact speak for God and providing fulfillment to their words. And Jesus ensures and commissions the writing of the New Testament by appointing the apostles and sending the Holy Spirit to inspire their writings. So when Hebrews 1:1-2 states that Christ is the final revelation, we are meant to understand that Christ is the final revelation as we witness him through the agency of the Scripture, both the Old Testament and New Testament.

David desires deliverance not only for his own personal welfare, but for the glory of God. David says, “In your righteousness bring my soul out of trouble!” In other words, he rightly recognizes that if the Lord chooses to rescue him from his enemies, it will be due to two things: Mercy & Righteousness. Mercy toward David, because he too is a sinner. And righteousness towards his enemies who deserve God's judgment. Therefore, David asks the Lord to “teach [him] to do [God's] will.” This request is not made so that David can earn God's favor by his own obedience, but so that David might at least grow in obedience to the point where God's judgment on his enemies (and choice to spare David) will be viewed as a “righteous” (just) act on God's part.