Adult Mentor: July- September 2019

By R.H. Boyd Publishing Corporation

The Adult Mentor Contemporary Training for the Church (CTC) quarterly guide is for the adult learner and is designed to increase Christian faith and biblical understanding using a variety of learning methods. It is a practical resource for every day Christian living.

• Language: English
• Publisher: R.H. Boyd Publishing Corporation
• Release date: Jun 1, 2019
• ISBN: 9781681675473

Book preview

FULLY ALIVE

QUARTERLY THEME:

Love and Justice

Lesson Scriptures:

1 Corinthians 15:1–11, 20–22

DISCIPLINES LEARNED

I. CONFIDENCE IN CHRIST’S RESURRECTION

II. EYEWITNESS ACCOUNTS

III. FUTURE RESURRECTION OF BELIEVERS

KEY VERSE:

For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

(1 Corinthians 15:22, KJV))

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LEARNING SESSION

The life of a young adult is known for the life-altering decisions that are made. We choose to go to college or develop a career. We may start over in a new city, get married, and have children. These decisions greatly affect our life stories. These decisions, however, do not affect our lives as drastically as choosing to follow Christ. Becoming a Christian has the greatest impact on our lives now and determines where we will spend eternity.

In today’s lesson, we will look at the amazing resurrection of Christ. His death, burial, and resurrection changed the course of our lives and our eternal destination. Sinners, who once were enemies of God, now are justified by faith and have peace with God because Jesus’ death paid for our sins.

EXPOSITION:

I. Confidence In Christ’s Resurrection

We are saved by the blood of the Lamb when we accept Christ’s sacrifice as the payment for our sins. To accept His sacrifice, we must believe in the resurrection and confess that Jesus is the Son of God. The Apostle Peter wrote, Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you (1 Peter 3:15, NRSV). We have the responsibility to be educated in our faith so that we can explain our hope in Christ to those who do not believe. How valuable is our faith if we cannot provide reasons to believe?

THEOLOGICAL CONCEPTS:

1 The resurrection of Jesus Christ is a powerful component of the believers’ faith in Christ.

2 The Christian faith is alive because it is anchored in the Good News that Jesus is alive.

3 The Gospel doesn’t stop at Christ’s death. It provides continuous life to believers after death.

The Apostle Paul wrote to the church of Corinth and encouraged them to continue to believe the message of the Gospel. Those who no longer proclaimed the Gospel believed in vain (1 Corinthians 15:2, NRSV). Redemption through Christ is so powerful that we cannot whole-heartedly believe in Christ and then forget that He has saved us. A belief in Christ transforms our entire being. Paul reminded the Corinthian Christians of their hope in Christ. Their strong belief in the tenets of faith would unite the believers and ward off false teachings. Paul taught the Corinthians many principles of faith, but he said that this is the most important truth: Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures (vv. 3–4, NRSV). This is what comforts us in times of uncertainty, affliction, and even death.

II. Eyewitness Accounts

The Corinthians never saw Jesus and were removed both in time and culturally from the crucifixion of Jesus. Thus Paul was led by the Holy Spirit to provide the Corinthian church with accounts of others who testified about Jesus. These people would support Paul’s message of Christ’s resurrection and would provide the Corinthians with other points of reference to the truth of Christ. Christ appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve [Disciples]. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time (vv. 5–6, NRSV).

Paul wanted to name those who had witnessed Christ during His ministry or His days after the resurrection because he understood the power of an eyewitness. A great example of the power of eyewitnesses is found in John 9:1–34. A man who was born blind experienced the miraculous healing of Jesus. The people who had seen this blind man grow up were astonished that he could see, and the blind man proclaimed that Jesus healed him. The religious leaders did not accept that Jesus or His healing was from God. However, the formerly blind man said, ‘You do not know where [Jesus} comes from, and yet he opened my eyes…. Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing’ (vv. 30, 32–33). This was a powerful testimony that Jesus is the Son of God. It was also a testimony to the power Jesus had to overcome life’s toughest challenges. In this situation He gave sight to the blind. He caused the darkness that had capsuled the man’s life to cease from restricting him any longer. Jesus has the ability to arrest all obstacles immediately and definitively. It is this witness to His authority that believers must share with their communities, and world.

ACTIVITY:

MAKING IT STICK

Read the accounts of Jesus’ resurrection in the Gospels and compare and contrast them to our textual passage.

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If we have accepted the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ, we also are to share our testimonies with those who do not know Christ. Because we have the Holy Spirit within us, our testimonies have the power to open the eyes of the spiritually blind so that they will see that Christ, the Son of God, has risen. Jesus said, ‘"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the