Adult Mentor: Adult Bible Study: Community, Love, and Justice

By R.H. Boyd Publishing Corporation

The Adult Mentor is a topical Christian quarterly study 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: Mar 1, 2020
• ISBN: 9781681676623

Book preview

Fully Alive

LESSON SCRIPTURES:

1 Corinthians 15:1–11, 20–22

DISCUSSION POINTS:

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)

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 Pet. 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?

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 pro-claimed the Gospel believed in vain (1 Cor. 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 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. 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 eyewitness is found in John 9:1–34. A man who was born blind experienced the miraculous healing of Jesus. The people who have 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.

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 ends of the earth (Acts 1:8, NRSV).

THEOLOGICAL CONCEPTS:

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

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

•Jesus’ resurrection from the dead guarantees God’s victory over sin and death.

III. Future Resurrection of Believers

In Paul’s day, there were some who did not believe in the resurrection of the dead. The Corinthians lived in a culture of Greek philosophy that esteemed logic and did not esteem the physical body. In order not to offend their way of thinking, some taught that the resurrection was only a spiritual event. Paul strongly refuted this idea, stating that the resurrection of the body was of vast importance.

Faith in the resurrection of Jesus is essential to the life of a disciple. Paul wanted the Corinthian church to know that Jesus’ resurrection was only the beginning. Death