travel plans

Posted on June 12, 2016 by Jefferson Vann

June 2016 (12)

1 Corinthians 16:5-7

1Co 16:5 But I will come to you whenever I go through Macedonia (because I am going through Macedonia),
1Co 16:6 and I might stay with you, or even spend the winter, so that you can send me wherever I need to go.
1Co 16:7 Because I do not want to see you now just as a stop over. I hope to spend some time with you, if the Lord allows it.

travel plans

If all goes well, by the time this is posted, my wife and I will have arrived back in New Zealand, after visiting two countries in Africa. That will make four different countries we have visited so far this year, either as Asia Pacific missions area directors, or as global trainers. These trips help us to see what God is doing in different parts of the world, and gain a better perspective on the people he has gifted his church with, and the problems they face. It is not always fun. In fact, sometimes we are overwhelmed by what we see. But, by God’s grace, we hope to be an encouragement, and to be encouraged. There is no substitute to going and spending time with these holy ones whom God has sent.

LORD, raise up a team of heroes who have the time to spend with those you have placed on the mission field.

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serious spiritual business

Posted on June 11, 2016 by Jefferson Vann

June 2016 (11)

1 Corinthians 16:1-4

1Co 16:1 But about the collection for the holy ones, follow the directions I gave to the churces of Galatia.
1Co 16:2 On the first day of a week, each of you must put something aside, storing it by himself, depending on how much he has gained, so that no collections have to be taken when I come.
1Co 16:3 Then, when I arrive, I will send those whom you approve with letters from me to carry your gift to Jerusalem.
1Co 16:4 And if it there is cause for me to go also, they will travel with me.

serious spiritual business

Paul puts this last bit of advice at the end of his letter, which brings us to a question. Is Paul just tacking this chapter on as an appendix, or are the issues he brings up here part of the broad category of spiritual (12:1) things? I take it as the latter. Collecting funds for the needy is not just practical business. Relief work is serious spiritual business. Money matters, not because it is money, but because it is a tangible way of showing love to the needy.

LORD, may we learn to practice the spiritual discipline of helping the needy.

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victory in one gulp

Posted on June 10, 2016 by Jefferson Vann

June 2016 (10)

1 Corinthians 15:54-58

1Co 15:54 And when this person that rots does put on indestructibility and this mortal person puts on immortality, then what scripture has predicted will happen: “Death has been swallowed up via victory.”
1Co 15:55 Death, where is your victory? Death, where is your sting?
1Co 15:56 Sin’s sting is death, and the law empowers that sin to kill.
1Co 15:57 But thankfully, God has given us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
1Co 15:58 For this reason, my loved brothers, hold your ground, be immovable, keep working incessantly for the Lord, because you know that your labour in the Lord is not for nothing.

victory in one gulp

Paul has spent this entire chapter arguing for the resurrection. He has shown that it is essential to the gospel message, that its reality is inextricably linked to what we know about Christ, that it is essential for God’s plan to harvest the earth, and to eliminate all evil from it. Paul pointed out how ridiculous it is to be a believer and serve Christ if you don’t accept a resurrection. He demonstrated by the seed analogy what the resurrection body would be like. He explained that those resurrected bodies would be fit to live forever, not like our present “in Adam” bodies. We will be transformed and made indestructible.

Knowing that sin and death, decay and mortality is all going to be swallowed up in one gulp of victory, we are free to invest ourselves in working for the Lord and his coming kingdom. The resurrection is our rescue. It is essential to the gospel hope.

LORD, thank you for the hope of eternal rescue that is coming with you.

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transformed in a split second

Posted on June 9, 2016 by Jefferson Vann

June 2016 (9)

1 Corinthians 15:51-53

1Co 15:51 Notice, I am telling you a mystery. All of us are not going to fall asleep, but all of us will be transformed,
1Co 15:52 in a split second, in a blink of an eye, at the last trumpet. Because it will blast, and the dead ones will be raised indestructible and we will be transformed.
1Co 15:53 Because this person that rots needs to put on indestructibility, and this mortal person needs to put on immortality.

transformed in a split second

All it will take is a split second. Everything that death has destroyed will be brought back. The dead ones in Christ will be made indestructible. Those believers who have not died will be immediately transformed as well, made immortal. Why, because we need it. We cannot fulfil God’s plan as mortals. He has a plan for an eternal kingdom. The last blast of the trumpet will signal the battle that will commence that kingdom. His angels are preparing for that battle. For those angels, that trumpet signals the battle. For us, it signals our rescue.

LORD, thank you for the blessed hope of our immediate transformation at your return.

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inheritance and resurrection

Posted on June 8, 2016 by Jefferson Vann

June 2016 (8)

1 Corinthians 15:47-50

1Co 15:47 The first man came from the dirty land; the second man came from the sky.
1Co 15:48 Like the one made from dirt, so also are the ones made from dirt, and like the one made from sky stuff, so also are the ones made of sky stuff.
1Co 15:49 Just as we now look like the dirty man, we will someday look like the sky-stuff man.
1Co 15:50 I am saying this, brothers, because flesh and blood is not able to inherit the kingdom from God, nor can the thing that rots inherit that which is indestructible.

inheritance and resurrection

Paul continues to argue that the resurrection is absolutely necessary. His opponents in the Corinthian assemblies have suggested that upon death, human beings automatically inherit immortality and fly away to “heaven” or the other place.

Paul says there is nothing automatic about our gaining immortality. It comes from the one who came from the sky: Jesus. So, it will come only by his raising us from the dead, and fitting us for forever. Flesh and blood (humanity as a whole) cannot automatically become spiritual beings. We are creatures made to die and rot; we cannot automatically become indestructible. That will take a resurrection unto eternal life. That does not take place automatically at death. It needs the life-making touch of the second Adam. It requires the intervention of Christ.

LORD, thank you for our future hope — a hope that rests solely on Christ.

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soul and spirit and resurrection

Posted on June 7, 2016 by Jefferson Vann

June 2016 (7)

1 Corinthians 15:44-46

1Co 15:44 It is planted a soulish body, it is raised a spiritual body. If what is planted is soulish, what is raised is spiritual.
1Co 15:45 Scripture puts it this way, “the first man, Adam, turned into a living soul”; the last Adam turned into a life-making spirit.
1Co 15:46 But the spiritual does not come first, the soulish does; the spiritual comes next.

soul and spirit and resurrection

Paul is still arguing for the necessity of a resurrection. It seems that in Corinth there are some leaders who are promoting a theological mixed bag when it comes to human nature. They have infused elements of the Greek philosophical doctrine of human immortality with the Christian teaching of resurrection. They appear to teach both. Thus, they are saying that humanity presently consists of a mortal soul and an immortal spirit at the same time. The soulish part dies, but the spirit lives on. With that understanding, it is easy to see how they can conclude that a physical resurrection is unnecessary.

Paul says no. He concedes that there is a distinction, but it has to do with the whole human being, not parts. Our whole being is soulish, and we inherited it from Adam. When Adam sinned, he became completely mortal, and so did all of us. That is why we die. The good news is that when Christ overcame sin and death, he became a life making spirit. So, we have the potential for immortality, because he has planned a resurrection for us as well.

But Paul reminds the Corinthians that there is an order to the events. That means that until our turn — our resurrection day — we still suffer the consequences of our relationship to the first Adam. One of those consequences is mortality. That is why we need the resurrection.

LORD, thank you for raising Christ, and giving us the hope of eternal resurrection life when our life-maker returns.

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fit for forever

Posted on June 6, 2016 by Jefferson Vann

June 2016 (6)

1 Corinthians 15:39-43

1Co 15:39 Not every organic structure is the same. Human beings have a certain organic structure, domesticated animals have another organic structure, birds have another organic structure, fish have another.
1Co 15:40 There are bodies made for flying in the sky, and bodies made for living on the land, but what makes the sky creatures glorious is one feature, and what makes the land creatures glorious is another.
1Co 15:41 The sun is glorious for one reason, the moon for another, and the stars for another; in fact each star  is glorious in a different way than every other star.
1Co 15:42 That is what the resurrection from the dead ones will be like. The body is planted to rot, but it is raised to be indestructible.
1Co 15:43 It is planted to our embarassment, it is raised to our glory. It is planted without the capacity to endure, it is raised with the ability to live forever.

fit for forever

This is another one of those passages where the translators of our English versions invariably reveal their theological bias and misrepresent the meaning of the original author. Paul was not in the least bit interested in proving that our present bodies are made for earth but our future bodies will be made for heaven. In verse 40, he was drawing attention to the difference between the creatures that fly in the sky, and those who live on the land. Both are glorious in different ways, because of the environment they are suited for. In the same way, the glory of our present bodies is one thing (and we are pretty amazing) but the glory of our future bodies will be different because those bodies will be fit for forever.

LORD, thank you for the hope of eternal resurrection life.

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seeds and scatterbrains

Posted on June 5, 2016 by Jefferson Vann

June 2016 (5)

1 Corinthians 15:35-38

1Co 15:35 But someone is bound to ask “just how are the dead ones going to be raised? And what sort of body will they come out with?”
1Co 15:36 Scatterbrain! That seed that you are planting is not going to come to life unless it dies first.
1Co 15:37 And what you are planting is not the body that is going to be, but a naked seed; it might be of wheat, or some of the other kinds of grain.
1Co 15:38 But God is giving it a body just like he wants it to have, and he has given each of the seeds its own body.

seeds and scatterbrains

I may have taken a bit of liberty translating the first word in verse 36 as “scatterbrain,” but to me, the typical word “fool” is too general to convey its meaning. Danker says the word is “characteristic of one who fails to take account of various aspects before drawing a conclusion or adopting a course of action.” The Corinthians who were questioning the resurrection thought only of the impossibility of reanimating dead flesh. They failed to take God into the equation.

Paul reminded them how they plant naked seeds, and God gives them the bodies that he wants them to have when he raises them to life again. They witness that miracle every harvest, yet they fail to take that fact into account when they think of the planting of their own bodies.

LORD, help us to stop being so scatterbrained, and trust you with our future.

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listening to the wrong crowd

Posted on June 4, 2016 by Jefferson Vann

June 2016 (4)

1 Corinthians 15:32-34

1Co 15:32 From a human perspective, what have I gained from fighting wild animals at Ephesus? If the dead ones are not raised, we should just eat and drink, because tomorrow we are dying.
1Co 15:33 Do not be led astray! Listening to the wrong crowd corrupts good habits.
1Co 15:34 Sober up as you should, and stop making that mistake, because some are just ignorant of God –to your disgrace.

listening to the wrong crowd

Paul had been making a careful, reasoned apologetic argument in favour of a future, bodily resurrection. Now, he gets a bit emotional as he recounts the fact that he has put his life on the line — daily — to preach the gospel of resurrection life. And, some ignorant people sit around asking themselves whether a resurrection is necessary! This crowd of theologians is not only undermining the gospel truth, they are also keeping the Corinthians from sharing the gospel. So, Paul tells the church that they should be ashamed of themselves for listening to the wrong crowd.

LORD, feed us on your truth, and develop in us a distaste for any ignorant talk that might distract us from it, or from sharing it.

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baptism for the dead

Posted on June 3, 2016 by Jefferson Vann

June 2016 (3)

1 Corinthians 15:29-31

1Co 15:29 If this were not so, why do people get baptised for these dead ones? If the dead are not raised at all, why be baptised for them?
1Co 15:30 And why are we putting ourselves in danger every hour?
1Co 15:31 I die every day! That is as certain as my boasting of you– a boast that I make in Christ Jesus our Lord.

baptism for the dead

This text has really been abused and misrepresented. Paul is not saying that people are getting themselves baptised as proxys for their dead relatives. He’s talking about the missionaries and proclaimers of the kingdom who had first shared the gospel, and led people to Christ. If a person had been won to Christ, he or she would be baptised at the request of the missionary who led them to faith. That is what it meant to be baptised for someone. Paul had mentioned that some of those early missionaries were already asleep in Christ (15:6,18). He is arguing here that if there is no resurrection, the believers who they won to Christ had been baptised for the dead. Even Paul, who put himself in danger all the time — is doing it for nothing if there will be no resurrection.

LORD, thank you for those who now sleep, awaiting your resurrection. Thank you that they cared enough to lead us to faith, and baptise us. We know it was not for nothing.

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