| Series | Location | Subjects | Takeaways | Sermon Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| - | Emmaus Orthodox Presbyterian Church | - | - | - |
💡Big Idea
Takeaways and Next Steps
📖Bible Passage
Finally, brothers, rejoice! Be perfected. Be comforted. Be of the same mind. Live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you.
Points
- Here, Paul, is beginning his conclusion to the letter to the Corinthians.
- Paul is saying goodbye to these people. Sadder yet. This is a final goodbye. They will not see him again.
- To say goodbye, to show a gesture of love and affection before departing is important.
- Paul is saying goodbye to these people. Sadder yet. This is a final goodbye. They will not see him again.
- Paul gives 5 commands to the Corinthians.
Rejoice
- Paul says “You (plural, all of you) rejoice.”
- The timbre of our heart should be one of joy.
- We are called to be a rejoicing congregation.
- Rejoice in Greek:
- Strong’s 5463, chairete
- NKJV: farewell
- Examples of rejoice:
- Phil 4.4 Rejoice in the Lord always! Again I will say, “Rejoice!”
- ⭐ To rejoice and to feel pleasure is not always the same thing.
- It is our duty to rejoice in God.
- ❓ Hasn’t Christ been your loving Savior? How then can we be crestfallen and sad?
- It is our unbelief that hinders from us rejoicing in the LORD.
- Rejoicing is a response to the wonderful works of Jesus for us.
- Man’s chief end is to glorify Him. We glorify Him by and through our rejoicing in Him.
- ❓ Hasn’t Christ been your loving Savior? How then can we be crestfallen and sad?
Be perfected
- Be perfected:
- NKJV: Be complete
- Greek: Strong’s 2675
- This greek word is passive.
- Matt 5.48 Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.
- 1 John 3:1-3[[1 John-03#v2|]][[1 John-03#v3|]]
- This command points to the fact that we do not live in a static situation
- We must continue to be complete, be perfected.
- Move on toward that goal of glory.
- You are not going to be like you are forever. Even a year from now you will be different if you are truly abiding in Christ.
- How can this happen? How can we be complete?
- How can we change from lustful to pure? Mean spirited to generous?
- First, you must be truly converted. Born again from above. You must trust in Christ. The Holy Spirit must change you from the inside out. It is absolutely impossible to change without the power of the Holy Spirit within you.
- People can cleanup their lives in all sorts of ways. They can improve on the outside, but mankind has a far more fundamental problem than these.
- Mankind has been separated from God because of their sin. They do not have intimacy with their Creator because they do not want Him.
- This is why, if we only tell others to rejoice, it is unsatisfying. You must first be brought to life by God.
- Allison: If I preach to a corpse, there would be no response at all.
- Unless God has changed you from the inside, you will not be able to increase your rejoicing in the LORD.
- Aim to be complete, perfected. And aim for nothing less.
- People can cleanup their lives in all sorts of ways. They can improve on the outside, but mankind has a far more fundamental problem than these.
Be comforted
- NKVJ: Be of good comfort
- Remember that the Holy Spirit is the comforter.
- Our comfort does not come from ourselves. It comes from the Spirit of God.
Be of the same mind.
- Literally: think the same thing
- There will be a day when we will be able to perfectly, completely be of the same mind. Unfortunately that day is not today.
- We still live in a fallen world with false doctrine
- Nevertheless, this is still the ideal, the direction that we ought to be striving toward.
- This is why it is so important that our Church is brought up in right teaching. Right true teaching, makes it so that we are united, and so we are of the same mind.
Live in peace
- There was conflict and strife in the church in Corinth.
- People liked to hear new and different ideas so that they could disagree.
- Likewise, today, we live in a very autonomous age. We think that each individual is the judge of right and wrong.
- The problem is that people have not learned how to judge rightly in a Biblical way,
- and that we do not understand how to separate the important from the unimportant.
- The problem is that people have not learned how to judge rightly in a Biblical way,
- The corinthians could not live at peace because they were not of one mind.
- There is a promise: Live at peace and the God of love and peace will be with you.
- How many Christians have the indwelling of the Spirit? Every single one of them.
- To lack love and peace and forgiveness is a serious thing. Let us repent and turn to God.