Jesus Is Not Dead Religion
Notes
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A man was coming out of church one day, and the preacher was standing at the door as he always is to shake hands. He grabbed this man by the hand and pulled him aside.
The Pastor said to him, “You need to join the Army of the Lord!”
My friend replied, “I’m already in the Army of the Lord, Pastor.”
The pastor questioned, “How come I don’t see you except at Christmas and Easter?”
The man whispered back, “I’m in the secret service.”
Historical/Cultural Context -
Historical/Cultural Context -
Paul preached the gospel in Corinth in the early 50s AD during his second missionary journey (Acts 18:1–18). When opposition grew fierce there, the Lord Jesus spoke to him in a vision assuring him that he had ‘many people’ in the city (Acts 18:10). With this encouragement, Paul stayed on for eighteen months, ‘teaching them the word of God’ (Acts 18:11). God used Paul’s ministry to bring about the birth and establishment of the church in Corinth.
Biblical Text -
Biblical Text -
I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given to you by Christ Jesus,
that you were enriched in everything by Him in all utterance and all knowledge,
even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you,
so that you come short in no gift, eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who will also confirm you to the end, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
-[Prayer]-
-[Prayer]-
Life Principle - True Inner Change Only Comes Through The Power Of God
Life Principle - True Inner Change Only Comes Through The Power Of God
Exegetical -
Exegetical -
I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given to you by Christ Jesus,
that you were enriched in everything by Him in all utterance and all knowledge,
even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you,
I always thank my God for you and for the gracious gifts he has given you, now that you belong to Christ Jesus.
Through him, God has enriched your church in every way—with all of your eloquent words and all of your knowledge.
This confirms that what I told you about Christ is true.
Homiletical -
Homiletical -
Paul is continuing his greetings. He starts by telling them the good things about their church, their gathering together of believers.
He thanks God for them, for the gracious gifts God has given this church. Which come by belonging to Jesus.
What gifts is he referring to here?
We established it is the gift of salvation. To be saved by God to a newness of life.
To have our spirit renewed in Christ and not only that but to have the peace of God.
We discussed this peace a little bit last week.
This is peace is not from the world, but is spiritually given by God to the saved. Not peace between God and the unsaved.
Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, “Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?”
Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.
He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father’s who sent Me.
As we are regenerated by the Holy Spirit we are given newness of life. We stop doing the things we don’t want to do, and start doing the new things we do want to do. Will we do this perfectly? No. Sin, like a stain of ink on the skin can stay on your hands for a long time to come.
There will be certain sin you will struggle with for a while. The cleaning up of your life is something that will take all of your life. The more God takes away, the more you submit the more the little things begin to matter. The so-called little sins will bother you more and more.
Romans 7:15-24
Berean Study Bible Struggling with Sin
14 We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do. But what I hate, I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I admit that the law is good. 17 In that case, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
18 I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh; for I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do. Instead, I keep on doing the evil I do not want to do. 20 And if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
21 So this is the principle I have discovered: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law. 23 But I see another law at work in my body, warring against the law of my mind and holding me captive to the law of sin that dwells within me.2
24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?
We know from the world that those who are not saved will not begin to keep His words. Salvation is not about just saying a prayer, but a complete change of an individual from the inside out. They are given new hearts, new natures. Spiritual fruit begins to grow. Not because your works will get you to heaven, but out of a true love for Jesus Christ and others.
What is this spiritual fruit?
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.
And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.
Did you notice the scripture says fruit, not fruits?
When we look at fruit we see that each kind of fruit has a characteristic.
What is a characteristic of an orange?
Its’ color is orange.
It is round.
It has pulp.
It is sweet.
With these characteristics we look at it and say, yes that is an orange.
What we have done in the church, wrongly I might add, is taken the spiritual characteristics of the fruit of the Spirit and called each characteristic its’ own fruit.
This is not the case. The spiritual fruit has the following characteristics:
love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control
With these characteristics being what makes up the fruit of the Spirit, then I can look at someone and say, yes that is saved person.
Someone may say, “but pastor, we see an orange and when we say orange everyone knows what Characteristics it has so we don’t have to list the characteristics.”
Yes this is true, but unfortunately not everyone can see the Spirit with their own physical eyes, because He is spiritual and must be recognized by His characteristics in the life of the believer. The natural man cannot even recognize these characteristics clearly in anyone, because they are spiritually discerned.
As we will see later in:
But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one.
For “who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given to you by Christ Jesus,
Remember that the grace of God is His unmerited favor toward us. He chose us, not because of anything in us. This favor bestowed upon us gifts (meaning salvation, regeneration, and the infilling of Himself The Holy Spirit).
Who gives you this?
It can be given to you only by Jesus Christ.
Through His shed blood on the cross.
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,
not of works, lest anyone should boast.
Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law.
If everyone because of Adam and Eve’s sin is born in sin and deserving of death. God in His mercy took upon Himself flesh and dwelt amongst us, so that we might be justified. I remember the basic meaning of this word by saying “Just if I had never sinned.”
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
But the free gift is not like the offense. For if by the one man’s offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many.
And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned. For the judgment which came from one offense resulted in condemnation, but the free gift which came from many offenses resulted in justification.
For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.)
that you were enriched in everything by Him in all utterance and all knowledge,
1 Corinthians 1:5
Berean Study Bible (Philippians 1:3–11; Colossians 1:3–14)
5 For in Him you have been enriched in every way, in all speech and all knowledge, 6 because our testimony about Christ was confirmed in you.
When a person is unsaved they cannot see the work and the power of Christ. Why? Because they are not in Him, that is regenerated by God to newness of life. Scripture says that these folks’ lives have been enriched. Meaning a better life on the inside of the person.
Throughout history we know that the Christian is persecuted, whether that is physical or social. Or both. Did you know that in most Muslim countries, if you are an outsider and they let you live amongst them and you claim the name of Christ you must pay a tax to the state?
Did you know that while you live, because in all honesty a lot of Christians get murdered in these countries everyday, you are a second class citizen. Police may not respond to your needs. If they do, not much is done for the person who is a Christian.
Did you know that Christians in countries all over the world, especially in Africa are murdered just because they are Christians?
It’s not that bad here, yet. Notice I said, “yet.” Do you know why I say yet? Because there are more and more folks in America who hate Christian churches and Christians in general.
Ever since this Roe v. Wade leak the radical left have targeted churches and broken windows, spray painted graffiti, and have thrown Molotov cocktails inside churches to cause as much damage as they can. They didn’t go after any other religious organization in America who disagree with abortion.
Do you know where the one city in America where Christians are being pushed out and persecuted, physically is?
Deer-borne Michigan.
This place has been over run with muslims and now business and schools are being shut down to celebrate Muslim Holidays. As well as stopping municipal services so that the Muslims can stop and pray the five times a day that is required.
During one of their festivals a group of Christians were outdoor preaching and handing out flyers and they were beat up. When the cops showed up they didn’t arrest the aggressor but threatened the Christians with arrest if they didn’t leave.
By-the-way, the Christian group had gotten a permit to stand where they were standing to open air preach.
In this country not too long ago, about twenty years ago, here in Florida, it was inconceivable for most schools to hold sports practices, or anything else on Wednesdays, because those were church nights for students. They respected that, but no more. I know that there is sports, bands, and group meetings on Wednesday’s now.
All of that to say, These Christians in the Corinthian church suffered persecution. Yet, Paul write that the have been enriched in their lives in every way with knowledge and speech thanks to the work of Christ in their lives.
How can he say this? Because they were dead and now they were alive! They had grown in Christ! They had been made new in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Unless someone experiences this they don’t know what I’m talking about. They remind me of Nicodemus when he came to Christ at night so that no one would know that he went to the radical named Jesus.
There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.
This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.”
Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”
Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’
The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
Jesus looked at this powerful teacher of the law. A man who had the respect of the religious leaders and told him a great spiritual truth. You Nicodemus are dead. You cannot even see the Kingdom of God. You need spiritual life. You must be born-again of the Holy Spirit.
Just like Nicodemus there are many in the church today, all over this nation who need to be born-again. There are so-called “pastors” and “christian leaders” who need to be born-again.
Paul warned us of this time
But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come:
For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good,
traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,
having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!
There are many today who are in churches that have no Gospel. They don’t have a problem with those around them, because they don’t preach a living Gospel that tells them to repent of their sins and turn to Christ. They are so concerned about so called “social needs” that they miss what they need most.
They need Jesus.
Maybe thats you today and you need Jesus. He can break every bondage, forgive every sin and make you new in Him. Will you call to Him?
Call to Action – altar call….
Call to Action – altar call….