The Still Small Voice (1 King 19:9-21)
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The Order of Resurrection Victory (1 Corinthians 15:23-28)
Paul Barnett calls this ‘a short history of Death’.
- Christ is the firstfruits.
- 15:23. Alfred Lord Tennyson: Behold, we know not anything. Not so. Charles Hodge: ‘the resurrection of Christ is a pledge and proof of the resurrection of his people’.
- Those who belong to Christ will be raised
Death in Adam, Life in Christ (1 Corinthians 15:20-22)
Jaroslav Pelikan: ‘If Christ is risen, nothing else matters. And if Christ is not risen – nothing else matters.’
- Death in Adam.
- 15:20-22. This is how death came into the world – Gen.2:17; 3:17-19. This is not by imitation, but incorporation. If we had been there, we would all
Women Presbyters? (1 Timothy 2:11-15)
Kathy Keller: ‘One woman told me tearfully when she learned Redeemer did not ordain women as elders or pastors, “It was like finding out that your fiancé is a child molester!”’ The subject has certainly made for drama and melodrama.
- Women are not to teach or exercise authority over
Dark Clouds Close-in – Elijah Under the Broom Tree (1 Kings 19:1-10)
Background: night and day change from 1 Kings 18 to chapter 19. The successes on Mt Carmel have not led to repentance in Israel. King Ahab and Jezebel in the town of Jezreel. Elijah is also in town.
- Persecution and Self-Exile (vv.1-4)
- Jezebel strikes fear into Elijah’s heart and
What if the Dead Are Not Raised? (1 Corinthians 15:12-19)
15:12. The Stoic philosopher Seneca in the first century said that at death ‘I will leave my body, and myself I will give back to the gods.’ Francis Schaeffer was adept at ‘lifting the lid’ off arguments.
- It would mean that Christ is not raised.
- 15:13. A. C. Swinburne:
How Are Sinners Justified? (Acts 13:38-39)
This is part of Paul’s sermon in the synagogue in Antioch in Pisidia in modern Turkey (not Antioch in Syria). The ESV uses the word ‘freed’ which is probably all right (David Peterson thinks so), but it is actually the word for ‘justified’.
- Neither the ceremonial nor the moral
After the Contest (1 Kings 18:36-46)
- Ahab and his lack of lack of faith
- Ahab has been soundly defeated, but his destiny seems confusing
- Lessons here for God’s people on
The Fact of the Resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:1-11)
Herodotus records Xerxes weeping: ‘I was thinking and it came into my mind how pitifully short human life is – for of all these thousands of men not one will be alive in a hundred years’ time.’ That is the human condition. For the immediate problem, see 15:12.
- The