Adult Enlightener: July- September 2019

By R.H. Boyd Publishing Corporation

The Adult Enlightener Contemporary Training for the Church (CTC) quarterly guide is designed for the career-oriented adult. It uses language and ideas that are meaningful to the adult learner who is primarily handling work and family responsibilities. It is a practical resource for everyday Christian living.

• Language: English
• Publisher: R.H. Boyd Publishing Corporation
• Release date: Jun 1, 2019
• ISBN: 9781681675480

Book preview

Selected Scripture: 1 Corinthians 15:1–11, 20–22

@R.H. Boyd Publishing Corporation

@NationalBaptist

@NationalBaptist

@NationalBaptistCongress

BIBLICAL TEACHING EMPHASES:

I. A Reminder of Good News

II. The Resurrection of the Dead

RESOURCES:

The Holy Bible, God’s Promises Edition (Nashville, Boyd Publication, 1998).

LEARNING SESSION

Paul’s first letter to the Corinthian church comes to its climax with an extended reflection on the security and hope that we have in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He takes a potentially frightening subject—the death of the Christian believer—and connects it to the hope we have in the fact that Christ was raised from the dead. Paul had personally encountered the resurrected Christ, and therefore, he could attest that He now lives. Because of Paul’s testimony, Christians today can also trust in the coming resurrection of the dead. This lesson points out two things for our consideration. The central truth of the Gospel narrative is Jesus’ resurrection to new life and to honor it as a time for celebration.

I. A REMINDER OF GOOD NEWS

The central truth of Christianity is that Jesus Christ rose from the dead on the third day. Moreover, He lives today and reigns at the right hand of the Father. But how can we be certain of this? As our text for today opens, Paul reminded his readers that there were many eyewitnesses who had personally seen the risen Christ: Peter, James, and the rest of the Apostles, as well as more than five hundred other disciples (see vv. 5–7). Paul also had seen Him: And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time (1 Corinthians 15:8, KJV

After Paul acknowledged that he was an eyewitness to the risen Christ, he reminded the Corinthian church that her faith is grounded in the resurrection: Therefore whether it were I or they, so we preach, and so ye believed (1 Corinthians 15:11, KJV). He wanted them to experience the joy that comes from serving a risen Savior. He also wanted them to know that death is not the end. He stated in his second letter to the Corinthians that death is about being absent from the body, and . . . present with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:8, KJV).

Paul then said that it was nothing but God’s grace that saved him for work in the Church of Jesus Christ. He wrote, But by the grace of God I am what I am; and His grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me (1 Corinthians 15:10, KJV). Paul wanted to make sure that the grace of Christ was not bestowed upon him in vain. So, he proclaimed to the world that Christ now lives to save anyone who believes in Him.

II. THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD

Easter Sunday is a time of great celebration in almost every corner of the Christian Church. On this day, we proclaim that our Lord is alive. The implications of the resurrection, though, go far beyond the bodily resurrection of Jesus Himself. His death and resurrection, Paul argued, have a direct effect upon us. He wrote, For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive (v. 22, KJV). How do we explain this statement? What does it mean? For Paul, the fall of man in Adam was undone in the second Adam, Christ. Moreover, through the second Adam, Christians conquer their ultimate enemy: death. The promise of God in the second Adam is eternal life for all who believe. Leon Morris noted that we are involved with Adam in a solidarity of guilt. There is a sense in which the race is one. But as Adam’s sin brought untold consequences of evil, so Christ’s work brought untold consequences of good (1 Corinthians [Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1985], 210). Notice that Paul said that the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human being (v. 21, NRSV). The emphasis here, of course, is on the fact that Jesus was fully human. But notice the verb tense—has come. This might have been subject to some misunderstanding on the part of the Corinthian believers, so Paul was quick to clarify: But each in his own order, Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, after he has destroyed every ruler and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet (vv. 23–25, NRSV). In other words, the resurrection is still a hope for us, but it is a hope that is made certain because of Jesus’ own resurrection.

ACTIVITY

MAKING IT RELEVANT:

Read the passage from 1 Corinthians and discuss the importance of the resurrection of Jesus.

Given that all of this is true, there still remains another problem. How can the world believe in this promise unless His resurrection is preached (see Romans 10:13–15)? This is the primary task of the Church of Jesus Christ. We do this in two main ways. First, there