Two Journeys

So turn in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians 16, as we go now to a new chapter in this marvelous Epistle. And as we do, I'm thinking about a couple of quotes from Scripture that just are powerful in my mind. 1 Timothy 6:7, the Apostle Paul said, "We brought nothing into this world and we can take nothing out." We brought nothing into this world and we can take nothing out. The Apostle Paul was just repeating the wisdom from the ancient patriarch, Job, who lost all of his possessions, his worldly possessions in a single day, dreadful day and all of those things taken from him. And Job said in Job 1:21, "Naked I came from my mother's womb and naked I will depart." So we need to meditate on these things.

We need to realize how transitory are the material blessings of life. We need to think properly about money and possessions and eternity. John Piper gives us a powerful image, rather humorous actually, in Desiring God in his chapter on money. And the image was of a foolish man who was... You're walking with this individual and he's going through a museum and much to your shock and horror at some point, he starts picking artwork off the wall, paintings and putting them under his arm and he's… And you're stunned. And you're saying, "What are you doing?" And he says, "Well, I'm becoming an art collector." [chuckle] "I'm becoming an art... You can't take those things. And I tell you right now, they are never going to let you get out of here with those things under your arm."

So I thought how ridiculous that image was. I thought about my time in Amsterdam, in the Rijksmuseum, and seeing those beautiful Vermeer paintings, four of them in there. Especially the Milkmaid and it's so beautiful, and it's a good size for being stolen. The night watch is 12 feet by 14 feet and there's like 500 people around it all the time, but maybe it'd be possible to get a Vermeer under your arm. They sold it at auction, one of them did for $40 million. But again, those words, they are not going to let you get out of here with those things, you're not becoming an art collector.

Well, the image is one of a transitory passage through this world and a decisive end in which we are effectively stripped of everything that we have. So how should our knowledge of the world to come, our knowledge of the future world, affect the way we live? And it's really quite remarkable in this incredible Epistle here, 1 Corinthians, we're moving from the sublime to the practical. We're moving from a meditation on eternity and resurrection bodies to talking about money.

We have just finished soaring into the realms of eternity as we consider the glories of the resurrection body. 1 Corinthians 15:51-52, Paul says, "Listen, I tell you a mystery. We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed in a flash in a twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised imperishable and we will be changed."

In Verse 54, "When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that has been written will come true. Death has been swallowed up in victory." These words should fill us with a radiant buoyant hope. A hope that transcends anything that we could ever face in this present world of sickness, sorrow, loss, and of death. We are to feed our souls continually. So that our hope will be shining brightly. We should fix our minds on things above and on things to come." Colossians Chapter 3 says.  "Now the glorious world to come defies all description." Paul, when he was caught up to the third heaven, it says he heard inexpressable things, things that man is not permitted to talk about.

So that's really quite remarkable. The world to come cannot be put in words and Paul at least, was forbidden even try. The Apostle John was translated up in the heaven, through a doorway in heaven and he saw amazing things and he was given the role of writing what that world would look like. Revelation 21:1-4, "Then I saw a new heaven, a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. And I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Now the dwelling of God is with men, and He will live with them and they will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There'll be no more death, mourning, crying or pain, for the old order of things had passed away.'" So this heavenly perspective, as we meditate on what we do know about the world to come, should affect, should color, the way we live every day of our lives.

Now, the last thing we were told in 1 Corinthians Verse 58, is that our labor in the Lord is not in vain. Because we will receive resurrection bodies, glorious, powerful, incorruptible, resurrection bodies. How then should we live? And Paul ends in Verse 58 says, "Therefore my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain."

So he wants the Corinthians based on 57 verses of solid, true doctrine about our future, the resurrection body that we're going to get. He wants them to live an energetic, fruitful Christian life. So the question then in front of us now, as we transition to the first four verses of Chapter 16. It seems to be not merely how should we live, but how should we spend. What should we do with our money? And that's the question that immediately comes to us. Just as we should be steadfast and immovable and always abounding fruitfully in the works of the Lord, we should do the same with our money and with our possessions. Now the world is gonna throw at us temptations to be worldly-minded all the time.

Either by, on the one hand, temporary successes or on the other hand, temporary failures, financially. Temporary successes would be financial windfalls, raises, winning the lottery, getting an inheritance, accumulating wealth that you didn't imagine. These things, however, can deceive us into a carnal mindset, temporary successes. And so can temporary setbacks or failures, like sickness and surgery, and unemployment and financial reverses and economic reverses and losses and financial stock market crashes. These things can also make us very focused on worldly things and anxious and having that materialistic mindset.

So Paul wants us to work hard for the kingdom, liberated from temporary concerns. Set free from idols, set free from the deception of wealth so that we can store up effectively treasure in heaven. So Paul's gonna move seamlessly from the resurrection body to money. He's gonna give us an eternal perspective on how we spend, how we save, how we give. And he's not gonna do all this in these four verses. But I'm taking an opportunity to walk through these four verses in which he's exhorting them to save up money for the relief of the poor among Jerusalem as a doorway into a deeper meditation on Christian spending.

So that's what we're gonna do this morning. Now concerning the collection for the saints, Verse one. But there's no real division in Paul's mind in light of the fact that someday you will be raised out of these corruptible bodies and these temporary circumstances. How should you spend your money? Just like, how should you spend your time and your energy? How should you give to the poor and needy among the saints in Jerusalem? That's the way he thinks.

Money really does have the power to reveal the state of the soul, money reveals the soul, reveals the health of the soul. Randy Alcorn in his great book on this topic, Money, Possessions, and Eternity, said, "Jesus spoke more about how we are to view and handle money and possessions than any other topic, including heaven or hell." He went again and again to materialistic concerns. He looks again and again at how you spend your money. And in doing this, he's just lifting up Jesus's theme in the Sermon on the Mount and many other places. But in Matthew 6:19-24, Jesus said in the Sermon on Mount, "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy, and thieves break in and steal."

"But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where moth and rust do not destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness?" Then Jesus said, "No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money."

So Jesus says you have to make a choice when it comes to money and material possessions. Either they will rule you and dominate you or you will use them in your service to King Jesus, one or the other. It's a battle and if you are generous with your money here if you're generous with what you do with it, giving it away as the Lord leads by the Spirit, as the Scripture says, "You will be actually storing up treasure in heaven." You'll be rich for all eternity.

Conversely, if you're not careful, if you're not on your guard about money, you could make a shipwreck of your faith, as Paul gives us that image. Think of a terrible shipwreck, a wooden sailing vessel getting closer and closer to the shore in a storm and then the rocks loom up and then you're dashed, and so there's that image of a shipwreck. And he specifically, Paul does, links it to concern about material things, about money. So we need to be very, very careful. The love of money is dangerous to our souls. The love of money is dangerous to our souls. It's the root of all kinds of evil, Paul says. And Jesus said in the parable of the seed in the soils, you remember the different seed was going in different outcomes. So the different soils and one of the soils that he describes is the seed sown among thorns. He said in Mark 4:18-19, "Still others, like seeds sown among the thorns, hear the Word but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the Word, making it unfruitful." That's a very powerful triad there of outcomes of thorns, weeds that come in and deprive the growing seed of nutrients.

There's only so many nutrients in the soil and in come these weeds and crowd out the seeds so it can't bear fruit. The worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth. Powerful phrase. How is wealth deceiving us? How is it lying to us? And then vaguely the desire for other things other than what, other than the Kingdom of God. Just other things have the power to choke out the Word.

Covetousness, I find is a very sneaky sin, it's the kind of thing we don't tend to confess. There are other sins that we're very aware of and they're dangerous and they are dangerous. But greed, materialism, covetousness is something that we, Western Christians, American Christians, have a hard time facing up to, being honest about. And so I think Psalm 139 comes in as it always does, Verse 23 and 24, "Search me, O God and know my heart. Try me. Test me and know my anxious thoughts." We could say my materialistic thoughts.

"See if there's any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting." Alright, so that's just setting up the topic, now let's talk about the context for the actual offering. Alright, the context for that offering. We need to understand Paul's ministry and Paul was commissioned by the Pillars, the leaders of the church in Jerusalem, he's called by God, he makes this plain in Galatians 1, "Nobody gave me my ministry, I got it directly from God, got it directly from Jesus Christ. But I went to the church at Jerusalem and those that were Pillars there, James, Peter, and John agreed that we should go to the Gentiles," this is Galatians 2:9-10, "and they to the Jews."

So Paul's the Apostle to the Gentiles and Peter the Apostle to the Jews and his entourage, they were gonna focus on Jewish evangelism, but Paul was gonna be sent out to do Gentile evangelism. And then they say this, "All they asked is that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do." In context, that's the poor among the Jewish Christians there in Jerusalem. "Don't forget them as you go out among the Gentiles," and so Paul's keeping that promise, that commission from them. Now, we need to understand what we're dealing with, with poverty, what it was like back then compared to the way we would tend to think of poverty here in America in our setting.

Poverty then was pervasive and devastating. People were facing, in some cases, their own extinction, when they ran out of resources. For the most part, we, here in America, have never seen that kind, that level of poverty. Really have to go overseas, you have to go other places to see it. I was in my 20s before I saw that level of poverty and I had to go to Africa and then eventually to Haiti, Port-au-Prince. Some of these other places in India where I saw that level of life-threatening poverty. But poverty is an issue all over the world. And that's what Paul is addressing here. He's addressing poverty that is so deep and powerful and pervasive, it really threatens their lives. And he wants the Gentile Christians to be concerned about it, so he's dealing with the poor among the saints in Jerusalem. Look at Verse 3, he talks about a gift, he's gonna send some men with a gift, men that they approve, with their gift, he says, to Jerusalem. So here we get to this issue of Jew-Gentile relationships and the Jew-Gentile unity in the Body of Christ and the need to look out for one another. The collection was being taken among Gentile converts to a Jewish Messiah. Gentile converts to a Jewish religion as it were. And as Jesus himself said, "Salvation is from the Jews."

And so Jesus was a son of Abraham, a son of David. So these Gentiles had been grafted into a Jewish work, a Jewish olive tree, the image from Romans 11. So the material needs among the Jewish Christians was a prime opportunity to put the unity of the Gospel on display. Now, why were they poor? Why were Jewish Christians in Jerusalem, why were they poor? Well, it started even in Jesus's lifetime. Do you remember the account in John 9 of Jesus healing the man born blind? And so Jesus heals a man born blind and then he gets hauled up in front of the Jewish authorities, and it says very powerfully in John 9:22, "Already the Jews had decided that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Christ would be put out of the synagogue."

So that's very significant. If you think Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ, is the Messiah, you're out of the synagogue, kicked out of Jewish life. It was the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem that condemned Jesus and handed him over to be crucified. It was the unbelieving Jewish Sanhedrin that organized the first systematic persecution of Jewish Christians in Jerusalem. The Book of Acts makes it clear that there was a relentless persecution of Christians by Jewish leaders again and again, in the Book of Acts. Confiscation of property, arrests, even death by the Jewish Sanhedrin.

So Jerusalem was one of the worst places on earth to be a Jewish Christian. Now central to that eviction from the synagogue were economic effects. If you were a Jew, a Jewish person kicked out of the synagogue, that will have a devastating effect on your economic life. You could no longer make a living. If you were a carpenter, no one would hire you to do carpentry. No one would buy your furniture, if you're a furniture maker, they wouldn't buy it. If you're a potter, they wouldn't buy your pottery. If you're a farmer, they wouldn't buy your harvest. If you were poor, they wouldn't hire you. You're out, you're blackballed. And so that ends up being, creating severe economic difficulties for the Jews, the Jewish Christian, Jews among the saints in Jerusalem. Paul also argues in Romans 15 to the Gentile converts to this Jewish faith, that they have an obligation to take care of their Jewish brothers and sisters, financially. He's very clear about this. He says in Romans 15:25-27, he says, "I'm on my way to Jerusalem in the service of the saints there, for Macedonia and Achaia to Greek churches, Gentile churches, were pleased to make a contribution for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem."

"They were pleased to do it, and indeed they owe it to them." How do you think that, Paul? Well, if the Gentiles have shared in the Jews spiritual blessings, they owe it to the Jews to share with them their material blessings. So we are in obligation, Paul would've said if we lived back then. We are under obligation to Jewish Christians in Jerusalem to give because we have received such rich spiritual blessings from the Jewish people. It also, as I mentioned earlier, a great opportunity to show the new covenant unity that there is between Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians. And this whole thing is unfolded so beautifully for us in Ephesians 2, that through Christ, those who are at one time aliens and strangers have been brought near, that's Gentiles, have been brought near through the blood of Christ, and they're no longer aliens and strangers, they are now part of God's household, part of God's people. And the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, set up in the old covenant circumcision, the dietary regulations have been abolished, they're done. And now God is making in Christ one new man out of the two. Out of Jew and Gentile, one new man thus making peace. And in this one body, to reconcile both to God through the cross. By which he put to death their hostility. We can put that on display by just generously giving to our Christian brothers and sisters, that's the argument.

So Paul's making his collection, it's progressing, he's going to various Gentile communities where he planted churches and he's collecting money from them. Verse 1, Now about the collection for God's people, do what I told the Galatians churches to do. Now, he's already talked about the Macedonians and he elaborates this at length in 2 Corinthians Chapter 8, and he goes on into Chapter 9. Now, 2 Corinthians 8:1-4, he says, Now brothers, I want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty weld up in rich generosity. For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability, entirely on their own, they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the saints. So here are some very poor Macedonian Christians. And they have given lavishly to their Jewish brothers and sisters in Jerusalem, they gave abundantly more than Paul ever imagined that they could give. They pleaded, they begged for the opportunity to do this. And they gave themselves first to God, and then they gave themselves to the Apostles as God led. And they were so generous, he talks about them.

So he's already collected some money to the point now he's going back to the Corinthians, so what's going on with them? Well, he's collecting money from them, and he talks about the practicalities of it, Verse 3 and 4, Then when I arrive, I will give letters of introduction to the men you approve and send them with your gift to Jerusalem. And if it seems advisable for me to go also, they will accompany me. So I think you should read between the lines if it's wise for me to go then we'll go together. Well, Paul, why wouldn't it be wise to go? Not enough money yet. The offering isn't big enough yet. I've heard this one account of a church in which they were raising money, and this is in some literature, and they're raising money for a situation and they passed the hat and they got an amount and it wasn't enough yet. So he said, It's not enough, passing it again. And so they passed the hat again, and it's like, Aren't you glad we don't do that at FBC, alright lock the doors when we have enough, we'll let you go home.

But that's an effective, effective strategy, but anyway, I'm gonna go to Jerusalem if there's enough money, if not, I'm gonna be here and persuade some more and pray and I'm gonna work. So now the Corinthians, we learned from 2 Corinthians 8 had made an earlier pledge on this, an earlier pledge. They gave some and they made pledge to give more. So 2 Corinthians 8:10-11, he said, "Last year, you Corinthians were the first not only to give but also to have the desire to do so, now finish the work," so that your eager willingness to do it may be matched by your completion of it according to your means. So thank you for the pledge. Now, give the money. [chuckle] So it's this matter of, good intentions are not enough. It's not gonna look good on judgment to say, "Well, Lord, I had already always intended to give to the poor and needy. I had always intended to give to missions. I always intended to support the church financially, I just didn't quite get to it the way I wanted to. It's not gonna look good on judgment day.

So you've had a start, you've had some indications and some intentions, now do it. Now do it. As Jesus said, "Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, but those who do the will of the Father, not those who say it but those who do," Matthew 7. So it's time for action. So let's derive from this text and some of the others I've alluded to some principles. I'm aware, and I sense that it could be that numbers among you haven't really been biblically trained on giving. There's aspects of it that are new to you, there are themes that you haven't heard before, so my desire is that you will not be able to say that after hearing this sermon, that you'll be able to dry out... And I'm not gonna, it's not comprehensive, there's a lot of other things I could say about giving. But this is a timeless opportunity and timeless because though the immediate circumstances of that offering are done now. The elders of this church are not taking up an offering for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem. Those times are done, but the Holy Spirit, in his wisdom, put this in the written Word of God, and he means for these principles to be standing over every generation of Christian.

Not just these, but the other New Testament principles on giving over every generation of Christians. So that we can learn how to give financially. Now, we begin by saying that the priority that Paul has is for the saints, the giving is for the Saints. So we start almost in concentric circles. We learned from 1 Timothy, if any breadwinner doesn't provide for his own family, he's denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. So you need to work hard with your own hands, make money and provide for your own family so that you won't be dependent on the church. Or you just take care of your immediate family, so the church isn’t burdened with them. You start there, so it goes out in concentric circles, we got from there to talk about the family of God, verse 1. Now, concerning the collection for the saints, the church must take care of its own. We need to take care of Christian brothers and sisters. The same matter of Christian witness. The Church's reputation is on the line. Okay, Psalm 37, Verse 25, the psalmist says, I was young and now I'm old, and I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread.

Now, this does not mean Christians should never give to non-Christian needs, it doesn't mean that at all. Think about the teaching on the second great commandment, to love your neighbor as yourself, and Jesus tells a story about the Good Samaritan. And in that story, we've got a Samaritan, that's the hero of the story, he was a neighbor to the man that was lying bleeding by the side of the road, a different culture, different religion perhaps, different background, but he cared for him. And so when there are life and death issues, we don't ask, "Are you a Christian or not?" We do whatever we need to do to save people's lives. So if there are disasters, disaster relief, there are earthquakes, there are hurricanes or other things in this life and death issues, Christians have always stepped up and cared for those in disasters and in those situations. However, there is still a Biblical theme of a priority on the family of God, the priority. We see this in Galatians 6:10, Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people. That's anybody, everybody but especially to those who belong to the family of believers.

So do good to all people is uploaded in our minds, we are gonna be generous to everybody, but especially has the uploaded to. What do you mean by especially? Focus on the saints, on the people of God. So at FBC, we have a benevolence fund, the church has been generous to give. It's a good amount of money in there. As the elders disperse that fund, we are looking primarily first and foremost to our own local church and then to other Christian brothers and sisters for pressing needs, immediate kind of physical needs that there may be. And so that's what the benevolence is for. Now, also one theme here is the interconnectedness of the body of Christ, the church. So a local church in Corinth should care about a local church in Jerusalem. Because we're all part of the body of Christ. So he talks about, then verse 3, he's gonna send the gift with the men that they chose to Jerusalem. So this isn't just a Jew-Gentile issue, it's a our church, your church issue. So the word church is used in two marvelous different ways in the New Testament, you got the church universal, and you got the church local. So the church universal is a mystical communion of the body of Christ that we become a member of the moment we come to faith in Christ.

So that's everyone who in history has ever crossed over from death to life and has become a Christian, living or dead, they're part of that mystical communion, the Body of Christ. And you can never go back the other way, you crossed over from death to life. You live forever and you're in that body, you're part of the mystically... But you can't see that, that... You can't see it with your eyes but you know it's true. We've got brothers and sisters in Christ all over the world, most of whom we've never met, but it's so sweet when you do mission work with them, you go to other countries and you can't even share a common language or culture, but you share a common faith, and so through a translator, you can find out, you believe the same things about Jesus and about the Bible, and about missions and all that, it's so beautiful. But when there's needs out there that should matter, and so a local church, the other way that the New Testament uses the word church is local church, and that's what we are, First Baptist Durham, it's a place you assembly where you can know and be known, you can be a covenant member of that local church, and that has value as well, use your spiritual gifts there, you develop, you come here and there's that connection. But we are part of a network of churches all around the world, and we should care about needs other people have.

Now, obviously, the mystical body of Christ that's up in heaven doesn't need your money. Amen. Hallelujah. They are fine, there's no more death, mourning, crying, or pain for them, they don't need money. But there are brothers and sisters in other parts of the world who do, and so there's a sense of obligation that we have. We also have implied here and these are the role of ministry leaders like apostles and pastors to teach the people of God about money. So, I've preached on money many, many times, I've been here 22 years. Yes, I preach on money again and again, I'm kept safe by sequential exposition, I can say, "Not my fault. It's the next text." But why would I have such an attitude? Why would you, any of you complain about pastors preaching about money again. It's kind of an interesting dynamic there, all churches ever do is care about money, do you ever realize what a two-edged sword that is, how you're really looking in the mirror. Could be that you might have an unhealthy view of money yourself. If you don't want pastors going there and talking about money, the fact is we're gonna give it all up anyway. And for me, as a pastor as a shepherd of souls, Oh, how I yearn to set as many of you as I can free from idolatry, so that you can lead fruitful free lives and store up treasure in Heaven.

I want you to be rich on judgment day and beyond. So I have no fear in this matter, we're not looking to press people or fleece people like we're some cult, we just wanna teach faithfully on what the Bible says. And so, as an apostle, the Apostle Paul had a role to teach about the doctrine of giving. Earlier he talked about money given to spiritual leaders to support them in their financial needs. 1 Corinthians 9:4, he said, "Don't we have the right to food and drink?" Food and drink. And so, key theme in this is, we're talking not about luxuries, but necessities. Food, clothing, shelter, those basic things are met, and so those who preach the Gospel should make their living from the Gospel. So he laid all that out, and I'm not going into that in detail, here, but money given to leaders is part of the theme. But then there's money given through leaders as well, money given through leaders. So the idea is that spiritual leaders are more aware of ministry opportunities and good ways to spend the Lord's money than the lay people are.

And so we see this in Acts Chapter 4:34-35, it says, there were no needy persons among them for from time to time those who own lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the Apostles feet and it was distributed to anyone as he had need. So there's that image, I don't know if they literally put it at the Apostles’ feet, but it's like given to the apostles to disperse as they were aware of the needs. And so in our church, the plurality of elders is overseas, the money that's pulled and collected and spent wisely, and that's a very good system, very good situation where you have a group of interconnected men holding each other accountable, not fleecing the flock or taking the money wrongly, etcetera, but dispersing money wisely according to the church budget. And according to needs as they come up. So the money given to leaders and money given through leaders. Also ministries come up that the ministry leaders know about and they know they take money. We're gonna look at this a little bit next week, but verse 6, he's talking about his own... Paul's talking about his own plans. And he says, “Perhaps I will stay with you a while or even spend the winter so that you can help me on my journey wherever I go.”

Now, what do you think he's talking about there? Help me on my journey. He does the same thing in Rome, he said, I'm going to Spain to preach where people have never heard the name of Jesus, and I want you to help me on my way, that's financial, that you would support my mission, that you would support my ministry. And so all of these things are principles as well.

He also gives some practical insights on the first day of every week, look at verse two, "On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income." So this first day of the week was the Lord's day. It was the day of worship, so what that implies is that Christian giving is a part of worship. It's something that we do as an act of worship to the Lord. And so when the Church is assembled for worship, we would give on the first day of every week. Now, there are practicalities, if you get paid once a month, you could give your tithes and offerings once a month without sinning. But the idea is that Christian giving needs to come across your mind regularly and be something you choose to do as an active worship.

Okay. You don't want a prayer app that does all your praying for you. You just hit go and get some extra sleep while your prayer app does your praying for you. No, it has to pass through your mind and heart and you have to care about it, so it is with Christian giving. I think there is some benefit to having money automatically taken out of your account and given to the church. The church, financial secretaries love that. It's very regular, but there's some danger to it too, I don't know the answer to it, but I just think it's good for you to think and pray and give regularly. It's an active Christian worship as well. And he says, saving it up. So this again is practical, don't go running around like a chicken with your head cut off when I get to town.You should have planned out, figured out and saved up what you wanna do for this. Because that kind of hurried approach to Christian giving is gonna reduce the amount and going to be less effective.

So save it up, accumulate it, and then give when I come, that's what he's saying, and then he says, "Each of you." Oh yes, look at it. On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money. This is something that we need to teach to our children. It's something that we need to talk about with each other, husband and wives need to discuss it together, this is something all of us are in on, we all get to give to the Lord's work, it's part of a healthy Christian life, just like all of us have spiritual gifts, and therefore should have a spiritual gift ministry. Every one of us should feel the weight of Christian giving and give. Every one of you, he says.

And he says, The giving should be in proportion to your income, it's all a matter of what you have, not what you don't have. It's in proportion to how the Lord has blessed you. You remember the story of the widow that gave those two little copper coins, remember Jesus is watching the offering. And he does watch the offering, he sits there and watches the offering, and so the widow gave the two copper coins, and Jesus said this in Luke 21:3-4, “I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put in more than all the others, all these people gave their gifts out of their wealth but she gave out of her poverty everything she had to live on.”  So the Lord will account or measure your giving based on sacrifice, how much it pinches you, how much it cost you to give. That's how he measures, proportion to what you have and your resources.

Now, not mentioned here, I definitely wanna bring in 2 Corinthians 9:7, Cheerfulness, cheerfulness. Our giving should be cheerful not under compulsion, he says in 2 Corinthians 9:7, each one should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. So just ask the Lord to set you free from invisible materialistic chains so that you have the joy and delight of blessing people here and now horizontally, 'cause that's all money can do. Money doesn't pay for spiritual things, it pays for physical things. You can enable missionaries to preach the word, you can enable pastors to preach the word, you can give to the poor and needy so they have something to eat, physical things, but there's a joy in giving. And then you know that you're storing up treasure in heaven, there should be a cheerfulness to it. You should not think God needs your money. Wow, God's constantly begging, he doesn't need anything from you. But you need to give.

Alright, what applications can we take from this? Well, first of all, to all of you that are non-Christians, there were non-Christians when you came in this morning, I wanna tell you, I don't want you to give anything, I want you to receive something freely. I want you to receive the gift of full forgiveness of sins without money and without cost. It says in Isaiah 55, "Why spend your money on what doesn't satisfy? Listen, listen to me and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest affair without money." The Lord didn't come from heaven to earth to get something from us. He says very plainly in Matthew 20:28, "The Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and give His life as a ransom for many." So what I want for you that are non-Christians, I want you to hear the Gospel. I prayed it at the beginning, I have referred to it throughout this message, that God sent his Son, Jesus, who was rich in Heaven, became poor for us, so that we through his poverty on the cross, his death on the cross, might become rich forever. Rich in forgiveness of sins. Rich in Heaven for all eternity. So trust in Christ. And THEN do your Christian giving after that. So for those of you that are members of our church, FBC members, I'm speaking to Covenant members, this sermon is a call to each of you to search your heart concerning your giving patterns. Is cheerful, faith-filled giving a regular part of your Christian life or not?

Have you asked the Lord to search your heart and know your soul about covetousness? We live in a very materialistic culture in which we're lied to all the time. Jesus said, A man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. The advertisers say, "Yes, it does." So we're being lied to about that. Have you given yourself in prayer to the pattern of giving to the budget of our church, specifically the FBC budget? Are you sacrificially giving to support the ministry here? It is part of our church covenant, we were talking about this earlier and it could be one person said it may be that people just don't know that that's part of what you promise to do as a covenant member of the church. To support the church financially, but it is part of our lives, and then beyond that, do you pray regularly about how you can use your money to the relief of poverty around the world, to the spread of the Gospel around the world, to various other Christian Ministries as the Lord leads you? This is the beautiful thing. René Alarcón said, "It stuck with me." The money, you can't take it with you, but you can send it on ahead. Isn't that great? Wire it ahead by faith. By giving it away by faith.

Now, one of the approaches that I tell young preachers as they're growing, it's like, how do you make very difficult squirmy kind of applications to people? How do you do that? It's like, Well, here's one approach I call it, If the shoe fits, wear it. I just describe a shoe, and then I just say, I don't know, but there may be somebody in our midst that this fits you. And now I'm gonna do that when it comes to giving. So the elders have general information about giving patterns of the members of this church. We do not have specific information about who gives what, I do not know, as I look at your faces, I do not know what any of you have done, or... I've been here 22 years, I've never known specifics, ever. But we are aware of trends and patterns, so according to our data, last year there were 315 giving units, at FBC, the membership of FBC 315 giving units, that's individuals or households. Of that 65% gave some money to FBC's budget at all.

That roughly two-thirds of our members gave money. Turn it around, one-third, roughly one-third of our members gave not one single dollar to FBC last year. Of that, again, we don't know any names, we don't know that, but further categories, there are some people that just are not in a position, they're not situationally, able to give, we understand that, and then there's others that it seems they were in a transition going to another local church, perhaps were giving to other local church but that leaves effectively 20% of our regular attender type members that gave nothing to the church at all. So at that point then, I just wanna say, are you aware of the promises in the church covenant, that this is part of what it means to be a healthy member of this church?

To support your own local church, the ministry here is a responsibility that the elders think is incumbent on all of us as members of the church, beyond that there are other patterns of giving, different steps of priority, it's not easy to compare this category of giving and this category of giving and which is more important. I'm not able to do that, but I've already listed them.

We've got the spread of the Gospel to the ends of the earth, giving to missions, and you can give to various kinds of missions, I would advocate giving to unreached people group missions as a top priority, 'cause they get about 1 out of every 100 mission dollars worldwide so let's, as a church, expand and give more and more to unreached people group missions, especially through the IMB. We have members of our church that are in process with the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist and will soon be on the field ministering the gospel, and we as a congregation are part of supporting their finances, we're helping them go. And so that's pretty exciting when you do that, so again, alleviation of the poor and needy, find out things, invest your time and your energy before you invest your money, find out ways you can help alleviate physical suffering in the world and just ask the Lord, search me, O God and know me. Are my giving patterns lined up with your purposes for my life? Am I giving as I should? By faith. Close with me, if you would in prayer.

Father, thank you for the Word of God, we thank you for how it searches us, it knows us. Nothing in all creation, Lord, is hidden from your sight, everything's uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give an account. So Lord, help us to be faithful. Help us to give, I Thank you, O Lord, for those in our church that are giving faithfully and sacrificial and grateful, there's so many. Lord, for all of us, help us to just come before you by faith and allow you to lead us to be generous, to change perhaps aspects of our lifestyle so that we can give as you wish, in Jesus name, Amen.

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Every Christian has a responsibility to give to the church, other Christians, and unbelievers in need in light of God's eternal blessings.

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In this episode, Andy and Wes cover part 2 of John 21:1-25. Jesus appears one final time to His disciples, miraculously helping them catch fish. This miracle is designed to remind them that being fishers of men is the point of all their training. Jesus speaks with Peter, commissioning him to the task of shepherding His flock and allowing him to reaffirm his love for Jesus after his three denials. The gospel concludes with the sobering news that Peter would die for the gospel.

The post John 21:1-25 Episode 44 – Feed My Sheep, Pt.2 appeared first on Two Journeys.

In this episode, Andy Davis focuses in on the church father John Chrysostom who lived from 347 to 407 AD. John Chrysostom was nicknamed "golden mouth" because he was an extraordinary preacher. Additionally, John Chrysostom exemplified what it means to speak the truth when it is unpopular, to love one's enemies, and to care for the poor and needy.

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Well, these are times of great uncertainty for Christians in America. 2020 was a challenging year, to put it mildly, with the COVID pandemic, with race-related riots, in which armed demonstrators were destroying property and terrorizing many. Then a season of political election resulted in massive questions about the process and the outcome and the future. 2021 dawned with another armed demonstration this time in the very heart of our federal government, with many taking their rage to the level of over-lawlessness. Our nation has taken some massive steps away from sound government, peaceful descent, and honoring of God and righteousness. A year ago, on January 30th, 2019, Democrats in the state of New York led the way in passing the Reproductive Health Act in that state, openly espousing infanticide. Legalizing abortion all the way up until birth for any reason in that state. Democrats in the New York State legislature stood and applauded at that time. Now, Democrats have been elected to control the presidency and both houses of Congress. Now as Christians, as we look ahead we may well ask, what does the future hold? What does the future hold?

Well, it is my delight, therefore, to preach this sermon this morning. To be able to give you the rock-solid doctrine of the resurrection of the body is what the future holds. The triumph of our resurrection from the dead is what the future holds. The second coming of Jesus Christ in power and glory. And the destruction, the effortless destruction of His enemies, with the sword coming from his mouth, with the breath of his mouth destroying the wicked government that will await him at that point. Effortless destruction. And the establishment of an eternal and perfectly righteous government, in which we will delight in the King of kings and Lord of lords for all eternity, and we will be in resurrection glory. That's what the future holds for the people of God.

So, therefore, as the Apostle Paul says plainly in Romans 8, I consider that our present sufferings aren't even worth comparing with that kind of glory. He's talking in Romans 8 about the resurrection body, the whole creations waiting for the children of God to be revealed in glory. And so I want us to swim this morning in that confidence. I want us to feel that I want it to just pulse through our spiritual bloodstream, to feel that kind of confidence that we should have when we read the words at the end of 1 Corinthians 15, the triumph of our resurrection.

Today is not Easter Sunday. I'm not deluded, I know that. Yet we are assembled, are we not on the first day of the week? And we're here to celebrate Christ’s mighty resurrection, victory over the grave. I believe this is right and proper. I think every single day should be a celebration of Christ's resurrection for Christians around the world, every day. Even the very pattern of corporate worship was changed forever in the New Covenant, we, the children of God, we Christians, assemble on the first day of the week, rather than the seventh day of the week. The Jews of old in the old covenant, they looked back, they were commanded to look back every week at the mighty power of God in the first creation. The creation of the present heavens and earth, by the word of His power. In six days, He made the heavens and the earth, and He rested on the seventh day. And so He commanded the Jews of old in the Old Covenant to assemble on the seventh day and to look back with joy and thanksgiving at the first creation.

But we are in the new covenant, it's a better covenant. Founded on better promises. So the book of Hebrews tells us. And we are commanded and we assemble on the first day of the week, what's called the Lord's day. To not forsake the assembling of ourselves together. And we meet on the Lord's Day to look ahead. To look forward to what's coming to the new creation, the New Heavens and the New Earth, the new Jerusalem, we meet, assemble in the light of Christ's resurrection, looking ahead. And it is right for Christians around the world to celebrate this mighty victory today and every day. And every Sunday. And so today we're gonna finish this marvelous journey through 1 Corinthians 15, it's been incredible. And we get to look at these final nine verses of the chapter, and we get to drink in the marvelous truths of these verses, to pick up all of the themes in these verses these nine verses. Like rare jewels, kinda hold them up and turn them around slightly in the light and see the different facets. By the Spirit's illumination to see the glorious glow of details in the texts radiating from this central reality. Jesus Christ rose from the dead, and the secondary reality that flows from it, and so shall we be in Christ, raised from the dead.

My main job here this morning is get out of the way of these nine verses, by the power of the Holy Spirit. I just want the words to flow through your mind, I want you to see the certainty of what we have believed, and to rejoice. That your faith would be strengthened. Faith would be strengthened. Again, this morning, I heard that quiet word from the Holy Spirit, that the Lord spoke to Peter, "Feed my sheep," feed them. And your food, the food of your faith is the word of God. So we get to do that today, we get to walk through these nine verses, how marvelous is that. And for us, this is the greatest triumph because it overcomes our greatest foe... Death our personal enemy. Death, the great thief that comes to steal, kill and destroy. Death, the enemy we could never defeat.

We live in the City of Medicine, and rightly celebrate amazing medical advances, scientific achievements made by brilliant medical researchers. But all they have done through their research, as they research cures, as they research vaccines and new surgical techniques, and genetically tailored design therapies that are just staggeringly amazing. All they have done by all that is postpone the inevitable. To divert the relentless stream of death to other tributaries, and it will come. The powerful, pounding, relentless flow of death, unstoppable by any human ingenuity, by any human strength, by any governmental authority. Death, the great penalty under which we all stand for our sin, we the members of this cursed race of Adam.

Hebrews 9:27, "It is destined all of us... For all of us, man is destined to die once and after that to face judgment." Or as God said to Adam in Genesis 3:19, "Dust you are and to dust you will return." Death is likened to a mighty tyrant whose power cannot be broken by any sinful descendant of Adam.

Romans 5:17, "By the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man." Death reigns like a tyrant, we can't throw off his yoke, and incalculable has been the sorrow brought by this vicious, relentless tyrant. How many parents have had their hearts ripped out by the death of a child? Over 20 centuries, Martin Luther, the great German reformer was one. As his little daughter was dying of an illness, he came frequently by her bedside to be with her. His heart was wrapped up in that little girl.

And when it became clear that she would die, he hugged her and wept over her and said to her, "Magdalena, my little girl, would you like to stay with your father here, and would you just as gladly go to your Father in heaven?" She answered, "Yes, dearest Father whatever God wills."

Her mother Katie, at that point, couldn't stand to watch the scene, so she stayed in the room but turned around, she couldn't watch it. At Magdalena's funeral as her little coffin was being lowered down into the earth, Luther said, "My Darling, you will rise and you will shine like the stars and like the sun." But even consoled by the promises of the Gospel, Luther's heart was breaking, he wrote to a good friend, "My wife and I cannot think of her without sobs and without groans, which tear the heart apart. The memory of her face, her words, her expressions in life and death everything about our most obedient and loving daughter lingers in our hearts so that even the death of Christ and what are all deaths compared to his is it seems almost powerless to lift our minds above our loss. So would you give thanks to God in our stead for hasn't He honored us greatly in glorifying our child?"

I believe that the kind of emotion that we see in that account is why Jesus wept in front of Lazarus' tomb right before raising him from the dead. He knew that death was the final enemy, as this chapter has taught us. And that only at the end of all things, would death be finally defeated. So in every generation, this vicious heartless foe would rip the hearts of every one of his people that would ever live. But here in the words of 1 Corinthians 15, we can celebrate ahead of time, the crushing of death forever. We get to celebrate that by faith, even though it hasn't happened yet, we get to look ahead, trusting in the words of scripture to a final victory. So let's just walk through these themes, seven of them, first, the fact of Christ's resurrection. Secondly, the link to our resurrection. Thirdly, the nature of our resurrection. Fourthly, the necessity of our resurrection. Fifth, the timing of our resurrection. Sixth, the triumph of our resurrection. And seventh, the application of our resurrection.

First three will be review. First, the facts of Christ's resurrection. Some Corinthians were questioning whether resurrection could even happen at all or even should happen. Verse 12, "How can some of you say, There is no resurrection from the dead." But the resurrection of Christ from the dead is foundational to the Gospel of our salvation. As he said at the beginning of the chapter, I wanna remind you of the Gospel that I preach, that we receive. That Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures. And that He appeared to Peter and then to the 12, and after that, He appeared to more than 500 of the brothers at the same time. The fact of Christ's resurrection is foundational to the Gospel. Now that fact must be accepted by faith. We're not eyewitnesses. So a week after the resurrection, when Thomas was there, so-called Doubting Thomas. Jesus said to Thomas, "Because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are they who have not seen and yet have believed." That's us, brothers and sisters. We have not seen and yet we have believed.

On what basis do we believe? On the basis of Scriptures, testimony to it. We read it in the Bible, we believe what the Scripture has said That Christ rose from the dead. The fact of Christ's resurrection. Now, faith in that fact, faith in Christ's resurrection is essential to our salvation. It's essential to us being forgiven of our sins. Romans 10:9 and 10, "If you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved." The fact of Christ's resurrection is essential to our salvation.

Secondly, the link to our resurrection. What good would it be to us personally, individually, if Christ rose from the dead, but we don't? We're condemned for our sins. What good would it be? The joy of Jesus' resurrection is this. As he said in John 11:25 and 26, "I am the resurrection and the life, he who believes in me will live, even though he dies, and whoever lives and believes in me will never die." That's the joy of Christ's resurrection. Victory, as he said in another place, "Because I live, you also will live." And in our chapter today, these two verses, verse 20, "Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep."

And then verse 23, "Christ the firstfruits. Then when He comes, those who belong to Him, we belong to Him," we will be raised like him. This is the fact of our resurrection, the link to our resurrection. We celebrate because we believe that Christ's resurrection has guaranteed our own resurrection, because he lived, we also will live. We believe that Christ has destroyed death for us. His victory over the grave is our victory over the grave. 

Thirdly, the nature of our resurrection. We walked through this last week. Paul addresses questions we all have about this doctrine, verse 35, someone may ask, how are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come? And so he gets into that question of the nature of the resurrection body, with the idea of continuity and contrast. There's a continuity with the seed that is sown, it is raised language. The seed that's sown rises up. So our bodies will be raised, not created ex nihilo, but raised up. So that's continuity, but there is definitely contrast. We walked through this last time, look at verses 42 through 44, "So will it be with the resurrection from the dead, the body that's sown as perishable it is raised imperishable. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body."

Do you remember that last week, a series of magnificent contrast with the present physical body four couplets, four pairings, perishable versus imperishable, dishonor versus glory, weakness versus power, natural versus spiritual. So the present body is sown like a seed in the ground, the corpse in-depth in the grave is sown a perishable seed and it begins immediately to decay, as Martha said by now, there's a stench. Perishable, it is sown in dishonor. There's a sense of shame connected. It's because of sin that we die. And so there's a dishonor to death, and it is sown in weakness is the very picture of weakness, weakness has to do with inability and the corpse isn't just unable, it can't do anything. So as we age, we come less and less able, but the corpse can do nothing, it is sown in weakness. And then natural, it is subject to the natural, the forces of nature. The laws of nature.

Now, by contrast, the resurrection body will be imperishable, glorious, powerful, and spiritual. Imperishable means it cannot die, we will never die again, and we will not have a process of decaying or of losing capabilities over millennia of time and eternity. We will not lose any capabilities. Imperishable. Glorious. Matthew 13:43 says it all, "Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father." We are going to shine radiantly in glory.

Powerful, we will be characterized, our resurrection bodies will be characterized by power. We will not be omnipotent, that's God, but we will have power. Energy coursing through our resurrection body veins. We will be able to do anything God wants us to do. We will be powerful, tireless. And then spiritual, a spiritual body, spiritual body, what a mystery. We walked through that last week. A kind of a combination of the body and the spirit together. And we saw it in Jesus' resurrection body, how it had flesh and bones. Spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have. He said that plainly, but he's also walking through walls, the walls of the cave where he was buried, through the walls of the upper room. Twice though the doors were locked, he is disappearing. He's appearing, he's our spiritual body. So that's the nature of our resurrection.

Fourthly, now, new material today, the necessity of our resurrection, the necessity of our resurrection. The bodily resurrection according to this passage must take place. Has to happen. We MUST be transformed if we are to be fit for the new heaven and new earth. Look at Verse 50, "I declare to you today, I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable." Cannot inherit.

Now, it is of the essential nature, both of our humanity and of the purposes of God that we receive the resurrection body. Human beings are created to be like God, and in our sense, both physical and spiritual, in the image of God. For us through sin, to lose our physical side, forever. So that we would eternally be absent from the body present with the Lord would be to violate his original purpose in creation, and then his purpose in recreation, in redemption. It would be that He failed when it came to the body, but He will not fail. So this must happen. And clearly, it must happen because He has promised that it will happen, He has stuck his reputation to this, and so it must happen. The necessity of our resurrection body. If we spent eternity in these corruptible bodies, it would be a form of torture. It cannot be.

Paul says, "Our present bodies are perishable, they're corruptible, they are not fit for eternity, and God Himself cannot dwell in the presence of that corruption." He will not. He must have us pure. So our bodily resurrection is an absolute necessity, so that when we've been there 10,000 years, bright shining as the sun, we will be still vigorous and new as the first moment we are in our resurrection bodies.

Fifthly, the timing of our resurrection, the timing of our resurrection. Verse 51-53, "Listen, I tell you a mystery, we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed. In a flash, in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised and perishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable and the mortal with immortality." 

So we come to a Gospel mystery. What is a Gospel mystery? It's truths that were not revealed until a certain moment in redemptive history. People didn't know it in the past, but then it comes. And what is that mystery? Well, the mystery is not everyone will die. It is appointed to each one of us to die once. It says that in Hebrews 9:27, but you... Scripture interprets Scripture. You put it together, yes, except... Except for the final generation of Christians. They will not die. We will not all sleep, that is, we will not all die, but we will all be changed. So that's a Gospel mystery.

So this gives us insights into the circumstances of the second coming of Christ. As Jesus said, in Matthew 24, He talks about the second coming and the circumstances. And he says, "As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man." For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying, and giving in marriage right up to the day Noah entered the ark. And they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and swept them all away. That's how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. Two men will be in the field. One will be taken the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill, one will be taken the other left.

So life is gonna go on in some sense in a normal pattern right up until the second coming of Christ. So we're not all going to die, that's what the text is telling us here, but we will all be changed. We, meaning Christians, we Christians, we'll be glorified. We will be transformed, we will receive resurrection bodies, we'll be fitted for eternity, we'll be changed, transformed, made new as we've been saying.

So the first timing aspect that I'm giving you here, although I've already told you about the timing of the Second Coming, we'll get to that. But, how long will this take? Well, he says, "In a flash, in the twinkling of an eye." That's awesome, isn't it? The change will be instantaneous. A good translation of flash is split second. Split-second, a period of time actually so brief, it can't be split. That's the idea in Greek. It's just quick, in the twinkling of an eye, a blink of an eye. There will be no process to this. No training regimen. No time in the gym. No weight loss regimen. No dietary shifts needed. No training program for us. Just instantly resurrection, and we see it, don't we? In all of Jesus’ healings, they're instantaneous, except one which had its own purpose, the man that was healed progressively and then instantly after that, but all the other healings are just instant.

They are pictures of what Jesus can do to the body. There's no process. Glorification, the final stage of salvation, instantaneously, made physically perfect in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye. When will this happen? Here it comes, it happens at the second coming of Christ, at the last trumpet. Paul is speaking about the second coming of Christ here, this is the timing of the resurrection from the dead. Look at verse 52, "For the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised and perishable and we will be changed."

Look earlier in the chapter, verses 22 through 24, "For as in Adam all die, so in Christ, all will be made alive. But each in his own turn. Christ the firstfruits, then when He comes, those who belong to him." Friends, could it be plainer? Really couldn't be more complicated here or plainer. It's very simple. At the second coming of Christ, we get the resurrection body. At the last trumpet. Then the end will come. And elsewhere in Matthew 24:30-31, he says, "At that time, the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky. The second coming. The sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the Earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory, and He will send His angels out with a loud trumpet call. And they will gather his elect from the four winds from one end of the heavens to the other." 

That's what it means. Two men will be out in the field, one taken the other left, two women will be grinding with a hand mill, one taken the other left. The angels are sent out at the Second Coming to gather the elect. This is what we call the rapture in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, "For the Lord, Himself will come down from heaven with a loud command, with a voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first." Could it be plainer?

After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together... That rapture, caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. That's the timing of the resurrection, the second coming of Christ.

Number six, the triumph of our resurrection, Verse 54 and 55, "When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true." Death has been swallowed up in victory. "Where O death is your victory? Where O death is your sting?" These words are just filled with triumph, aren't they? Filled the triumph.

For all of human history, death has seemingly reigned undefeated and undefeatable by medical science or by Black Arts or meditation, or meticulous care or any human thing. Death wins. Death reigns. Death is the final enemy. The last enemy and a bitter enemy it has been. Death entered history as an enemy, death plunders like an enemy, death is a universal enemy, death is a mocking enemy, death is a sudden enemy. This great, powerful enemy is more than we can handle. And unless we have a savior, we shall be trampled under death's tyrannical boot. The Christ... In Christ, eternal victory has been snatched from the jaws of this terrifying monster. Death is addressed directly here and boldly, "Where O death is your sting? Your triumph, your victory."

So it's like a battlefield where enemies are talking to each other, and at the end of the battle, the foe is vanquished, laying down, prospered in the mud. And the vanquished foe is trampled and taunted and derided and mocked, "Where now is all of your vaunted power O death, what's become of all of your terrifying weapons now?"

And I love this expression, "Death is swallowed up in victory." Swallowed up. For those of you who like sports, Christ didn't eke out a one-point victory in double overtime over death. He swallows it up in victory. Swallowed up. Consumed. Overwhelmed death. How so? How so? Well, because death can never do anything to him again, and after our resurrection, death will never be able to do anything to us either. We're gonna be celebrating this victory for all eternity, that's death swallowed up in victory.

And Christ has rescued a multitude greater than anyone could count from every nation on Earth, and death will have no power over any of them either. So death is taunted here, Paul's quoting Isaiah 25 and Hosea 13, but he changes the word slightly from the old testament to focus on the victory aspects, zeroing in on victory, to rejoice over death and celebrate it totally.

Now, where did death get its existence and its power? Look at Verse 56, "The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law." We should not imagine that death is merely a biological issue. You hear this a lot. "Death is just a natural part of life." No, it's not, death's an interloper, an enemy. God didn't create us to kill us, but sin entered the world through one man and death through sin. 

And then the law came. The law came to draw sin out and make it evident and apparent, it's holy and righteous and good. But it wasn't brought in to solve the sin problem and the death problem, not at all. Verse 20 of Romans 5 says, "The law was added so that the trespass might increase." That's strange. Yeah, let's get it all out. Let's see how big sin and death really are. You wanted an education in evil, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? Here it is, look at it.

So the law was added for that purpose, and then Paul himself said... Personally, Romans 7:9, "Once I was alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died." We are all lawbreakers, we have the root of lawlessness inside our hearts. We are the ones out in the street spiritually rebelling against King Jesus and against God's kingdom, that's us.

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But Christ's death on the cross paid the penalty the law demanded for our sin. He died the death we deserved, and He removed for all time the stinger from the Scorpion or the spider of death, removed the stinger, "Where O death is your sting?" There's no sting for us. And it says, triumphantly in Verse 57, "Thanks be to God, he gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." This is awesome. Thanks be to God. We're gonna spend eternity saying that, thanks to be to God.

It's like he said at the end of Romans 7, "What a wretched man I am, who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord." It's the same thing. I am looking forward to thanking God for my resurrection for all eternity, I'm looking forward to thanking God for yours too. I'll be so liberated from myself that I would care as much about your rescue as my own when I get to heaven. And I will celebrate it and say, "Thanks be to God for your resurrection victory and for my own."

Alright, so what application do we take of our resurrection? Well, Verse 58. And if any of you have been here all along as I've been preaching, 1 Corinthians 15, you may have heard this verse before. I basically decided to make it the application of every sermon I preach from 1 Corinthians 15, but here it is. And now it's time to look at it.

"Therefore, because of all of this magnificent truth... Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm, let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain." So Paul lands the plane here on labor in the Lord, on the demeanor of Christians while they live in this world. He's zealous for our work in our labor in the Lord. A different translation says, "Therefore my beloved brothers, be steadfast and immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain." He uses two different words, work in the Lord, labor in the Lord. So that's any work done for Jesus Christ, motivated by the Holy Spirit, but especially perhaps our spiritual gift ministries that he discussed, using our spiritual gifts, our labor in the Lord. But perhaps even more than that as we build up the church to maturity, it's the labor of evangelism. Doing the work of an evangelist proclaiming this good news to a world that desperately needs to hear it. Our labor in the Lord. That's what he's talking about, and he yearns for them to not give up those works.

This Corinthian church, this tempted, tried, assaulted Corinthian church to keep on doing their works for the Lord, to not give up through discouragement. Those labors and those works that God is using to build up the church to the end of time. Don't stop doing those works. And he talks about their demeanor, their attitude, their carriage as you would. Their approach to life, be steadfast and immovable, always abounding.

So defensively, offensively. So defensively, let nothing move you. Don't get swept away. Be steadfast and immovable. That's what he's talking about. Two words in Greek gave a sense of unshakable determination in the face of overwhelming forces. So he's really going after their morale. Can I just stop and ask? What's your morale these days? Are you steadfast and immovable in hope, in joy, in energy? Steadfast, protecting your attitude, your demeanor. Be steadfast and immovable. Don't let the flood of what Satan is doing, is temptations and accusations in the world, the flesh, and the devil, sweep you away. I have a better idea. Let's turn the thing around offensively, let's be the flood that sweeps His kingdom away. Jesus said, "No one can plunder a strong man unless he first ties up the strong man, then he can rob his house."

This has been 20 centuries of plundering Satan's house. Hey, let's take part. What do you say? He said in Matthew 16, "I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it or prove stronger," That's a defense mechanism by Satan, and by death. We're coming at the gates and we win, we are the flood. And every one of the unconverted elect to the ends of the earth is going to be rescued. None of them are gonna be missed, he's gonna raise all of them up at the last day.

And so we're the flood, be steadfast and immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. Abounding, be rich, superabundance. Let not your works and labors for Christ be few, let every day be lived fully to the glory of Christ, do all the works that God has ordained for you to do. He's gone ahead of you and set up works for you to walk in. Don't have a batting average, get them all. I want it, Lord, I don't wanna miss any of the good works you've gone ahead of me and prepared today. I wanna be abounding in the work of the Lord, always. Not some days. My abounding in the work of the Lord days are Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays. No, don't do that. Always be abounding in the work of the Lord, every day be rich.

And why? Why? Because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. That's what he says. How do we know? This is the whole point of this whole chapter, 57 verses of resurrection body means work hard for Jesus. You know this by faith. And labor in the Lord is not in vain. That brings me back to the Book of Ecclesiastes. You remember where he... The depressed... The most depressed writer of scripture ever. Vanity of vanities. Everything is vanity. All of our works are vanity, all our relationships are vanity. Everything's vanity. Well, that's true, because we die and sink into the... But if there is a resurrection, and if the works we do for the Lord now actually make a difference in eternity, winning people to Christ, building other saints up in the faith, all of that goes across Judgment Day into eternity, then our labor in the Lord is not in vain. That's the link, he begins, verse 58 with, therefore, because of 57 verses of resurrection truth. Work hard for Jesus.

So when we look around at current events, we look at things that are going on in our country, we should care, we should occasionally weep, we should pray. We should do various tasks that God's assigned for us to do. People have different callings in life. We should do them for the Glory of God, we should pray for Christians in government to be like Daniel was in a pagan government in Babylon. Salt and light in influencers, we need to pray for brothers and sisters that are doing that, and pray that their labor in the Lord would not be in vain, 'cause we know it's not.

For you who are listening to me who are not yet Christians or weren't when you heard this message at the beginning, I pray that now you believe in Christ, that I proclaim plainly that Christ has been raised from the dead. And that He came to remove the sting of sin, which is the law, that you violated the laws, but Jesus came to take your punishment on Himself. He died in the place of sinners. Trust in Him. I want you to be shining like the sun on that final day because you believe in Jesus. You don't need to do any good works for the forgiveness of your sins. All the work has been done by Jesus, trust in Him.

And for those of you that are Christians and just rejoice in your future resurrection, study this chapter, I hope you get the sense that I've gone rather quickly through these seven points. That you could go back this afternoon and meditate on each of them. So feed on it, ponder the details of the resurrection body. As I said last week, don't fear aging and death. Don't fear it. Be ready to die well, die filled with hope, if the Lord calls you to not be one of the final generation, but actually to go through physical death, die well, die in hope knowing that you're gonna be raised first before those that are still alive at the second coming. And always be abounding in the work of the Lord. Use your spiritual gifts to build up the body of Christ. Encourage, use your gifts, whatever God's gifts are, that he's given you. And be rich in good works and be active in evangelism and in missions.

We're surrounded by people who are without hope and without God in the world. And they need us to be filled with hope. I believe you have in these 58 verses, everything you need as a Christian to be filled with good hope, close with me in prayer. Father, we thank you for the time we've had over weeks now to walk through this incredible chapter, and I thank you for these nine verses with which it closes.

I pray, Father, that you would strengthen each one of us. Fill us with good hope, fill us with joy, fill us with energy, and enable us, O Lord, to do the good works of both evangelism and discipleship that you've gone ahead of us to prepare. And we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Paul expands on the great mystery of the resurrection, its fact and nature as well as the great triumph over death we have in resurrection.

The post The Triumph of our Resurrection (1 Corinthians Sermon 65) appeared first on Two Journeys.

In this episode, Andy and Wes cover John 21:1-25. Jesus appears one final time to His disciples, miraculously helping them catch fish. This miracle is designed to remind them that being fishers of men is the point of all their training. Jesus speaks with Peter, commissioning him to the task of shepherding His flock and allowing him to reaffirm his love for Jesus after his three denials. The gospel concludes with the sobering news that Peter would die for the gospel.

The post John 21:1-25 Episode 44 – Feed My Sheep, Pt.1 appeared first on Two Journeys.

In this episode, Andy Davis covers Athanasius of Alexandria who lived from 298-373 AD. Athanasius was a very powerful combination of deep rich meditations theologically, and a bold life lived for the glory of God.

The post Journeys from the Past, Ep.12: Athanasius (298-373) appeared first on Two Journeys.