Can I Believe in Resurrection? - 1 Corinthians 15 - 17

Do you believe there is a God in heaven and that he is the one and only Jehovah God? Do you believe that Jesus Christ is the Only Begotten Son of God? Do you believe that Jesus died on the cross for your sins? Do you accept the Bible as the true and infallible word of God? If your answer to any of the above questions is NO, then there is no way you will be able to fully believe in resurrection. If your answer is YES, then there is no way to disbelieve in the resurrection of Jesus Christ on the third day and that the open grave is your door to heaven.

I hope you are not a doubter, but if you are then you may be startled by my intensity in this pronouncement that if Jesus Christ did not die on the cross; and if Jesus Christ did not arise from his death and burial—then the bible is a hoax and there is no hope for man kind. No man can truthfully believe and say that there is not a higher power because God created man with a built in instinct that causes him to believe and worship something that is in existence above him. Columbus found that Indians in America who did not have access to any source of spiritual knowledge were very religious, and worshipped what they believed to be a higher power. Christian missionaries have found the same condition existed among all heathen tribes.

There are many examples in the bible, and made known through secular history, that prove that uneducated man who does not know and/or accept the one true God, will make or select his own deity. The golden calf at Mt. Sinai is a good example; the Indian Totem-pole, the sex goddesses of the Egyptians that contaminated the Jerusalem Temple, the sun, moon and stars have all served as idols of worship. Who or what do you serve?

If you believe the bible, then you know that God created man and gave him a helpmate with instructions to inhabit the earth. When God finished his creation He declared that all was good. There was no sin and all were the children of God, created by him and endowed with a free will. Sin entered a perfect space [the garden] and man chose to ignore God’s instructions and disobeyed him. Man’s free choice to sin disrupted God’s plan for his children [family] and he had to devise a plan by which they could return to Him.

God sent his son, Jesus Christ, to earth to complete the plan of return for all who will believe in Him. Jesus lived here among us for thirty plus years and devised the plan of salvation. He taught his followers the plan and told them that he would shed his blood and die on the cross, and that he would be resurrected and would ascend into heaven where he would prepare a place for those who would believe and accept him as their Lord. He explained that his resurrection would show the way that we, all believers, too would die and be resurrected and meet him in glory.

In Corinthians, Paul has been busy answering questions that believers in the new church were having trouble believing. He had found that some of them were denying [or maybe were just not able to understand] the possibility of the resurrection. Just as we, they had no visible evidence and did not realize that we must accept the total plan of salvation by faith. Simple faith. I did not see Christ die—but thousands of witnesses did and I believe what they have told me. I did not see him coming forth from the grave but hundreds did see him after he was resurrected [500 at one time 15:6], and I believe them. Simple faith. Paul says that “these are truths according to the scriptures” One of my questions today was, do you believe the bible is truth? You can not know the truth unless and until you believe God’s word to be the truth.

Verse 12 tells us that Christ was raised from the dead, and if this is true why is it that you can not believe that there is resurrection from the dead? If there is no resurrection then we must conclude that Christ did not rise from the dead. If Christ was not resurrected from the dead our faith is useless and we are still in our sins. Only by God’s grace [free gift] and our simple faith is there any hope for the future.

Then Paul refers back Genesis and the first Adam. In verse 20 he says “But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man” whose name is Jesus Christ. In Adam all died, so in Christ all will be made alive.

There are so many beautiful things to know about the results of the resurrection and little time or space to explain here, but I suggest you read about the resurrection body in the last part of chapter 15: 35 and on. He compares the body with a seed. Plant corn and stalks grow; plant an acorn and a tree grows, and the emphasis is that we will be planted [buried] a corrupted body but will arise [be resurrected] imperishable. We will be planted a natural body and arise as a spiritual body. The first Adam was a living being the last Adam [Christ] was a living spirit. Believers are Christians [Christ like] and therefore just like Christ—a living being and a spirit.

Paul explains that when Christ returns there will still be people living at the time and they will not die, but will be changed in a moment and become spiritual bodies. These living spirits will be caught up or carried up into the heavens along with all who sleep [all who have been buried] and we will share heaven with God, the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holly Spirit.

It seems odd to me that the last problem that Paul addresses in his letter to Corinthians is about money. As I have said before, we do not have the letter that the church wrote to Paul, so we do not know all of the problems they were concerned about, but one of them must have been money. Maybe they were reluctant to give offerings to the Jews in Jerusalem. If so, we do not know for sure the reason for their reluctance to give to the Jews. Anyway, his instructions to the church were to save up their tithes and offerings so they would have a gift for those who were living in Jerusalem and were in financial need. Paul remembered that the LOVE OF MONEY was the root of all evil and he is reminding them that they are to love their brothers in Christ more than they love their wealth. This true love for souls can be proven by placing your love for souls above love for your self.

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How Can I Express Love? - 1 Corinthians 13

There is only one word that gives us the name of the most important person that has ever been a citizen of this earth. His name is God. There is one word that explains why God was the most important man that ever lived on this earth. That word is love. For God loved people so much that he gave his only son Jesus Christ to be crucified and to die for our sins.

In this 13th chapter of First Corinthians, Paul pens the most beautiful story in the bible regarding the importance of love—and leaves no doubt in any of our minds that without love we are nothing. We can truly say that in order to be Christ like—in order to be a Christian—we must have a deep love for our fellow man. Yes we must love people—even our enemies. We are not required to love what people do, but we are required to love the soles of man and have a desire to see everyone redeemed from their sinful nature. Our heart must be in tune with the heart of Christ whose desire is that none [no single person] should perish but that everyone should have everlasting life.

Paul begins by telling us that a man can possess all of the spiritual gifts except love and still be a useless being. We can speak with voices as beautiful as angels speak and without love in our hearts, it will sound as a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal and will be only an irritating noise. We can have a faith so great that we can remove mountains from their bedrock and cast them in the sea, but if there is no Agape love in our hearts that reaches out to our fellow man, and the Lord, we are worth nothing. In order to become a Christian and remain a Christian you must possess all three—faith, hope, and love; but the greatest of these is love.

One example stands out more for me as I write and it is something I read that said that Sir George Adam Smith once ask a member of the Greek Orthodox church, which had suffered tremendously at the hands Islam, why God had created so many Mohammedans. The answer he got was that they were created so hell would be full of people. [That is preaching a scare tactic, which may scare some but will save few, if any.] This fits in with my thoughts so well because I fear the teachings of Mohammed; I believe that Christians greatest fear should be aroused by the goals of the Islamic race.
They have stated their desire and committed goal is to kill all Christian infidels, especially those in America. The forefathers of Mohammed can be traced through Old Testament history and this history tells us that they have always been the enemies of God’s chosen people. However, it is their sinful nature that we must fear and hate but not their souls. We must acknowledge and believe in our hearts that Christ loved Mohammed and his followers so much that he died to save them. The bible teaches that [whom so ever—each and every person] that acknowledges Christ as Lord, repents of their sins and trusts Him, will be saved.

The secret to this lies in the definition of the word love which we are teaching in this lesson. This is not the same love we have for our spouse or our children—but it is agape love or a Christ like desire to see souls saved from the destruction that their sins bring on them. Paul says that we may have intellectual knowledge—or we may have a passionate faith—or we may practice what men call charity without love and it is nothing. Nothing would be more humiliating than for a Christian to dole out so called charity to a person that they do not love. This would be a deception.

Paul even goes so far as to say that “if I give all that I have to the poor and have not love it is nothing. He even says that if I give my body to be burned and have not love, I gain nothing.” I have wondered what he meant here. Maybe he was thinking about the Hebrew men, Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-ego who were cast into the fiery furnace, who loved God so much that they refused to bow down to an Idol and disgrace God.

Our society today confuses love with lust. Lust is a desire of our hearts; it is directed inward and not outward toward others. Agape love is directed toward our fellow man and is patient, kind, does not envy, does not boast, and is not proud, rude, or self-seeking. The best example I can give you of a forbidden love is where the bible tells us that the “love of money is the root of all evil.” This is an example of love that is directed inward…when man desires wealth for his own good above and beyond his desire to know God and be fruitful and giving.

I challenge you to examine your motives for the giving of your tithes and offerings to your church. Is it directed inwardly so that you can be proud of what you are doing for the church? Is your motive so that others will see you as a faithful supporter? Or, do you give because you love God, your church, and the lost souls that it may reach and fulfill the commandment that Christ gave to the church to go into the entire world and preach and teach and baptize the believers?

In closing this lesson, there can be no greater message than Paul preached in the closing words of this chapter on love. He in essence says that this subject is too deep for me [Paul] to fully understand. It is like a poor reflection in a mirror now but one day we will fully understand. We know in part [understand some things about the depth of agape love] but when we get to heaven we will fully understand…we will be fully known. Then he ends the 13th chapter by telling us that there are three very important gifts of the spirit that a Christian must have—these three remain: faith, hope and LOVE. But the greatest of these three is agape LOVE.

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What Spiritual Gifts Can I Use? - 1 Corinthians 12 - 15

Beginning with the lesson we studied about marriage as discussed in chapter seven and on through chapter 16, Paul is responding to a list of questions that the believers in Corinth had sent to him. The Corinthians were confused about and having problems with some of the same questions that confront us in our lives during the present days of the 21st century. What did Christ teach regarding sex, marriage and divorce? What political liberties are enjoyed by Christians who know the bible’s teaching regarding food offered to idols or proper dress for men and women in church? And today we are looking to see how we are to use our spiritual gifts. If you will pay close attention you will see that he moves from one question to another by using a phrase typically translated “about” or “now concerning;” and so in this manner he opens the discussion on spiritual gifts in chapter 12. “Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant.”

Since God gives man all of his spiritual gifts the answer to the opening question is quite simple—you and I can use all of our spiritual gifts if we use them for right reasons to accomplish tasks that God approves. Let us take a simple one for an example; a beautiful tenor voice is a spiritual gift. There is no doubt how we are to use our voice because of explicit teachings in the bible that tells us our voice is given for us to communicate with man and God. We are directed to sing praises to Him and to praise Him with our voice. So long as our voice is used to help us communicate and help us and others enjoy Godly music there can be no reason to refrain from or refuse to use it this way. The sad side of this illustration is that the same voice can be used destructively to curse God [use His name in vain] or to sing seductive and wayward music in a strip joint, or rap a porno rime.

I personally believe that we can enjoy a more informative discussion pertaining to the matter of spiritual gifts if we ask ourselves what spiritual gifts God has given us individually and how we can know the ones that he expects us to develop and use in our worship and in our service to him through the church in particular. I will start by answering the most important question and that is—have all Christians been endowed with spiritual gifts from God? The answer is yes. God never made a mistake; and therefore he never made anyone without endowing them with spiritual gifts that they are to recognize, develop and us in their worship of God and their work for Him and his children. One of the most destructive views one can have regarding spiritual gifts is to argue that they do not have any. You are the first one, and may be the only one, that is completely in error because all bible scholars have learned that all Christians are endowed with spiritual gifts.

In 12: 7 Paul says that it is clear to our minds or evident [manifested] that gifts of the spirit are given for the common good and common good means your gifts are to be enjoyed by others. He then uses the parts of the body and shows how they work together for common good. All parts are needed for the body to function completely as it should. Each part has its own function: the eye sees, the ear hears, the nose determines different odors, legs run, and the heart pumps blood. So it is with the gifts of the spirit, each has its own purpose.

Wisdom is the first gift mentioned, then knowledge, faith, healing, miraculous powers, prophecy, the ability to distinguish between spirits, speaking in different kinds of tongues, [and to some others] the interpretation of tongues. Now in verse 27 he says that we make up the body of Christ and each member of the church is a part of the body. For the body of Christ [the church] to be complete it must have apostles, prophets, teachers, miracle workers, gifts of healing, abilities to help others, administrative abilities, and those who speak tongues. We have already mentioned the gifts of knowledge and wisdom, and it is easy to see that these would be necessary to support many of the other gifts such as preaching, teaching, and daily witnessing.

The greatest of all spiritual gifts is the ability to love as Christ loved us, and the entire 13th chapter is devoted to the discussion of the importance of love in the Christian life. Paul says that we can excel in all other gifts and accomplish absolutely nothing, if we do not have love in our hearts. Love will be discussed more completely in lessons yet to come.

The most difficult for me to understand and try to explain is the gift of speaking in other tongues. Paul indicates that some have this special gift. He says that it is the ability to talk to God, but that the speaker and God only are able to understand what is being said, and that it should not be used unless there is a third person present who is able to interpret the message for the benefit of listeners. Paul says that he utters mysteries with his spirit. He says in verse seven that other gifts such as prophesies is greater than tongues—unless he interprets so the church [can understand and] may be edified. My personal position is that I have never heard anyone ‘speak in tongues’ and then explain to me what he said. I have heard some who spoke in tongues, but never witnessed an occasion when the speaker had ‘another person present’ who could tell me what was being said.

Paul then asks a question. Verse 6, “If I speak to you in tongues, what good will I be to you, unless I bring you some revelation? He then gives an example by referring to a musical instrument which is a lifeless thing. Anyone can blow on a trumpet and make a noise that can be heard, but if the musician does not use different notes [which are understandable] there is no musical message. “If the trumpet does not sound a clear call, who will get ready for battle”? “So it is with you. Unless you speak intelligible words with your tongue, how can anyone know what you are saying? You will just be speaking into the air.”

V 18 Paul says “I speak in tongues” and for this reason I do not doubt that God gave him this special gift. But I am not worried or concerned that I personally do not have the gift because Paul went on to explain that “I would rather speak five intelligent words to instruct others than ten thousand words in a [UNKNOWN] tongue.” There was usually more than one nationality of people present in his services and I think Paul was making it clear that he should be able to speak more than one language or have an interpreter present to help all present understand what was being preached.

How do you and I fit in this discussion? WHAT SPIRITUAL GIFTS CAN I USE is our question for today. We have the spirit of learning, intelligence and knowledge and therefore we must STUDY to show ourselves approved and to instruct others in spiritual matters—sorry to say, but some have neglected to study His word. Some have received beautiful voices and should use them to worship, and praise and for the pleasure of others as well as a way to lead them to Christ. I believe God gave me the spiritual gift of teaching, and I have tried to use it to teach for over sixty years. More teachers are needed, and I am afraid that YOU are one that was given the gift and you have neglected to use your gift. It is not too late so report to your pastor or educational director that you are ready to practice your gift of teaching. Yours may be a very special gift of working with young children, and you are needed even more.

Would you love to see your home church grow in great numbers? Become the undisputed Spiritual leader in your denomination world wide? Win many who are lost and without hope? Do you want to reach the place where you are looking forward to every Sunday morning with great anticipation? If the answer is YES—all you will need to do is start using three or four of your best spiritual gifts daily—pray, witness, visit the ill and outcast, study His word, sing, play your instrument, teach, prophesy, love your neighbor and praise your God. Be thankful and give God the glory but don’t be selfish and brag.

What Can I Do? - 1 Corinthians 8 - 12

Last Sunday I asked you the question… What Should I do? Very simply stated the answer was that you should do what ever God expects you to do. The question before us today is… What Can I do? In one sense of the word, the two answers are the same. You can do what ever God expects you to do. Do you know why this is true? It is true because God has never asked his children to do anything that they should not do. It fact he has made us a promise—and it is that he will never place any task or burden upon us that we are unable to bear so he will never ask us to do anything that we are not capable of doing. We have learned that there are some restrictions that apply specifically to born again Christians. These are actions or deeds that are not sinful to us personally but may cause others to stumble.


Now I want to add a third question to the lesson today; and the question is: “How can you always know what God thinks you should do and what you should believe that you can do?” My answer is very simple but it is one of the most neglected acts that we are expected to do. You must both read and study God’s word. It just so happens that the right answer to ever question we have in life can be found in His word. We really have no excuse not to know the truth. This is so very important when we realize that only the truth is able to set us free.

Paul had witnessed in Corinth and moved on when this problem about eating food that had been sacrificed to [gods, idols] came up and was causing problems. New Christians were being criticized for eating the meat. Now Paul reminds them that there are really no other gods…these are false idols…and sacrificed meat to a god that does not exist has no effect on the meat, therefore there is nothing wrong with eating it. However, he also reminds them that if it causes weak Christians to falter, or unsaved to disbelieve then true believers should abstain from eating the meat that will offend others.

You will note that Paul is saying that true Christians and he knows that the meat is clean and eatable because there simply are no gods. Those that worship false idols do not know the truth and Paul says that Christians should abstain from eating the meat because of their love for the lost ones, and not because they have knowledge that the lost do not have.


I am so thankful that this Sunday school lesson time falls on July 4; which makes this America’s [234th] two hundred and thirty fourth birthday. Allow me to get personal and challenge you to listen carefully to what I have to say. I will be 86 years old on July 22, 2010. That means that I have been alive and kicking for more than [1/3]… more than one third of the time that America has existed!!! I attended public school and college a total of 24 years and worked as teacher and administrator in public education for 34 years. However, the answers I give to a majority of the questions I receive and of the statements that I make are dependent upon the facts of life that I have learned from God’s word which is the same yesterday, today and forever—and not from history books that are continually being rewritten by authors with an ax to grind; some believers, some nonbelievers and some atheist or agnostics.

Having been a history and social studies major, I have a fair knowledge of what has been written in these fields and I know that the American History books that our children are studying today in the public schools and in the nation’s colleges are nothing to compare with the ones written and studied prior to the end of WWII. Unlike God’s word, which never changes, secular writings have changed until it is impossible for us to know what to believe and what to condemn as truth that has been contaminated by liberal thinkers, and people who practice immorality openly. No problem has caused more harm than the differences of opinion we have in America on the subject of separation of church and state.

This problem is so critical that there will be criticism of pastors that lead in patriotic based worship in churches today—and there will be criticism of churches that devote time for Christians to praise God for their religious freedom. If you will check closely you will find that this kind of criticism comes from a group of people that are bent on and determined to remove God’s name from our currency, and prayer and the commandments from public buildings. We will not be worshipping our freedom. We will be worshipping and praising the one that has made our freedom possible. The source of worship comes from deep within the Christian heart; the act of worship expresses our feelings openly but the OBJECT of our worship is most important of all—Almighty God. To God be all the glory and praise for all our blessings, including liberty.

In chapter 9, Paul is discussing the rights of an apostle because some of the problems in the new church were caused by some who were questioning Paul’s apostleship. At first sight this chapter may seem disconnected from no. 8 which dealt with what Christians can do and what they should do—but it is not. Here is the point—some of the Corinthians who thought they were more mature argued that they could eat meat that had been sacrificed to the idols because they had the knowledge to know that there were no idols pertaining to the true God. Paul said they should not do this. Now he is an apostle and has a right to demand that the church take care of him financially, but he does not demand that they do so. He works and makes his own way, even though he is a disciple.

He makes two arguments on behalf of his apostleship. One is used by all the apostles. He saw the Lord with his own eyes. The Acts makes it clear that this is the supreme test regarding proof of apostleship…see Acts 1: 22 2:32 3:15 and 4: 33. Have you noticed that faith in the New Testament seldom acquiescence in a creed but it almost always names a person of trust. So it is here with Paul; he does not brag about what he believes—he says I know in whom I have believed. When Christ called the other disciples, he did not offer his thoughts, tell them his plan, give them a philosophy to examine—he simply said “follow me. All Christianity starts from a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Do you two have a personal relationship?

Paul’s second argument is that he not only knows Christ but he [Paul] has been effective and successful in his work with and for Him. He reminds them that they [the Corinthian Church] are the living proof of his success. It is clear here that Paul brags about his making his own living and that he did not receive pay from anyone in this city with a heavy Greek population. He was a tent maker by trade and would not accept free room and board or pay from church members.

Paul did not accept money for his working for Christ. He regarded it as his privilege. He regarded his preaching as a duty. He did not choose preaching…God chose him as an apostle and that he could not charge for work God told him to do. He received no payment but he acknowledged that he received a great reward daily. Paul spoke of his method of ministry as of becoming all things to all men. He surely did not mean that he was hypocritically one thing to one person and then something else to a second person. But as we would say he was able to walk along beside any man and help him with his problems.

It is too bad that the Corinthian members were not arguing about a problem that had arisen between church and state in his day—may be he would have given us a clearly defined answer for our problem in America today. God bless America! And you!