Kansas City, Missouri, United States - Reflecting God – Embrace Holy Living - "We Are Made Alive In Christ" Wednesday, 7 January 2015 - Scripture: 1 Corinthians 15:16-20 If corpses can’t be raised, then Christ wasn’t, because he was indeed dead. And if Christ weren’t raised, then all you’re doing is wandering about in the dark, as lost as ever. It’s even worse for those who died hoping in Christ and resurrection, because they’re already in their graves. If all we get out of Christ is a little inspiration for a few short years, we’re a pretty sorry lot. But the truth is that Christ has been raised up, the first in a long legacy of those who are going to leave the cemeteries.21-28 There is a nice symmetry in this: Death initially came by a man, and resurrection from death came by a man. Everybody dies in Adam; everybody comes alive in Christ. But we have to wait our turn: Christ is first, then those with him at his Coming, the grand consummation when, after crushing the opposition, he hands over his kingdom to God the Father. He won’t let up until the last enemy is down—and the very last enemy is death! As the psalmist said, “He laid them low, one and all; he walked all over them.” When Scripture says that “he walked all over them,” it’s obvious that he couldn’t at the same time be walked on. When everything and everyone is finally under God’s rule, the Son will step down, taking his place with everyone else, showing that God’s rule is absolutely comprehensive—a perfect ending!
29 Why do you think people offer themselves to be baptized for those already in the grave? If there’s no chance of resurrection for a corpse, if God’s power stops at the cemetery gates, why do we keep doing things that suggest he’s going to clean the place out someday, pulling everyone up on their feet alive?
30-33 And why do you think I keep risking my neck in this dangerous work? I look death in the face practically every day I live. Do you think I’d do this if I wasn’t convinced of your resurrection and mine as guaranteed by the resurrected Messiah Jesus? Do you think I was just trying to act heroic when I fought the wild beasts at Ephesus, hoping it wouldn’t be the end of me? Not on your life! It’s resurrection, resurrection, always resurrection, that undergirds what I do and say, the way I live. If there’s no resurrection, “We eat, we drink, the next day we die,” and that’s all there is to it. But don’t fool yourselves. Don’t let yourselves be poisoned by this anti-resurrection loose talk. “Bad company ruins good manners.”
34 Think straight. Awaken to the holiness of life. No more playing fast and loose with resurrection facts. Ignorance of God is a luxury you can’t afford in times like these. Aren’t you embarrassed that you’ve let this kind of thing go on as long as you have?
"We Are Made Alive In Christ" by Stephen Mayes
Before they set foot in Sierra Leone on November 16, 1828, William Munro and William Peck, Wesleyan Methodist missionaries from England, received news that their predecessor had just died. With hearts saddened, they moved forward to engage their call. What they found was a thriving community of believers alive in faith. In the service of welcome the brothers and sisters prayed, “Lord, bless we, make we heart soft, make we love Jesus more, keep we from sin.”*
“The white man’s grave” is how Sierra Leone was known in the nineteenth century, yet early missionaries kept ‘stepping up’ knowing the odds. Through their labors, in the midst of death brought on by Adam’s sin, God kept raising people to the new life made possible by the second Adam!
Before a year had passed, missionaries Peck and Munro also laid down their lives in the cause. Yet, out of their investment numerous others followed the host who had already found eternal life, the Christ-life!
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