2016.3.27 Easter Service 1 Corinthians 15:1-20
誰でも気軽に集える、明るく、カジュアルな雰囲気の教会です。
2016.3.27 Easter Service 1 Corinthians 15:1-20
Image of “faith” held by many people could be described by a saying in Japan: “those who are about to drown will hold on or cling even to a straw.”
In other words, people in great difficulty will desperately try to hold on to something that could not be relied on at all except for a little hope.
① Don’t believe what has no ground
1 Corinthians 15:14 and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also in vain.
1 Corinthians 15:19 If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied.
A religion without good objective reasons/explanations could be a fraud.
1 Corinthians 15:15 Moreover we are even found to be false witnesses of God, because we testified against God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if in fact the dead are not raised.
② Have a good reason to believe in Christ
1 Corinthians 15:3-5 3For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.
Consider the faith of Thomas
John 20:25 The other disciples therefore said to him, “We have seen the Lord.” So he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.”
Does this mean Thomas did not have faith? The answer is “NO!”
John 20:27-29 27Then He said to Thomas, “Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; ad reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.” 28And Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!” 29Jesus said to him, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
What is it to believe without seeing? It is to believe the testimonies of the eyewitnesses.
1 Corinthians 15:2-4 2by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. 3For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. 4and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,
Archeological surveys have found traces of what are written in the Scriptures.
③ Understand the reason of your faith, be relieved in the love of God and leave everything to God.
Romans 6-8-9 8Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9knowing that Christ , having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him.
God’s love is clearly made known.
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
