Aug. 25, 2024

Believe Again

The Gospel

Primary Text:  1 Corinthians 15:1-9     

Last Teaching:  His Body The Church

1)  A Radiant Church

Ephesians 5:23-27:  For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior….  Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.  

2)  Ripe For Harvest

John 4:35:  Do you not say, ‘Four months more and then the harvest’?  I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields!  They are ripe for harvest. 

Matthew 9:37-38:  Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.  Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” 

This Week’s Teaching:

1)  The Condition of Mankind

Romans 8:6-8:  The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God.  It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.  Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God. 

DQ 1) What is the condition of human beings apart from God?

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2)  The Gospel Preached

1 Corinthians 15:1-2:  Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand.  By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you.  Otherwise, you have believed in vain. 

DQ 2) Define the word “gospel.”

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3)  The Essential Message

1 Corinthians 15:3-9:  For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve.  After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep.  Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.  For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.  

DQ 3) Summarize the gospel in one short statement you could share with someone else.

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4)  Set Apart for the Gospel

Romans 1:1-4, 9-10:  Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God—the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding his Son, who as to his human nature was a descendant of David, and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord….  God, whom I serve with my whole heart in preaching the gospel of his Son, is my witness how constantly I remember you in my prayers at all times; and I pray that now at last by God’s will the way may be opened for me to come to you.  

DQ 4) What is the gospel promised through the prophets?

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5)  I Am Not Ashamed

Romans 1:14-17:  I am obligated both to Greeks and non-Greeks, both to the wise and the foolish.  That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are at Rome.  I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.  For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.” 

DQ 5) Why was Paul not ashamed of the gospel?

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