Is It Worth It | S2E12

In this episode of Deeper at Life, we go deeper into 1 Corinthians 15:23–34 and the question every believer wrestles with at some point: is following Jesus really worth it?

We unpack how the resurrection of Jesus changes everything, securing our future, giving purpose to our sacrifice, and calling us to live differently right now. This conversation tackles both the deep theology of resurrection and the everyday reality of living it out in a world full of distractions, doubts, and competing voices.

If you’ve ever struggled with endurance, sacrifice, or staying faithful, this episode will remind you why the Christian life is not only meaningful — it’s worth it.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:09

Welcome back to Deeper of Life. Here with Pastor Andrew and Pastor Matt today. Cited for another week. Beauty and the Broken, our verse-by-verse study in the book of First Corinthians. Third week in a row talking about the resurrection. Um, chapter 15, you went through verses 23 through 34. It was good. Your big idea was the Christian life is worth living because the resurrection is real. This is cool, man. I mean, First Corinthians has been an incredible book, and just seeing different things. I mean, the fact that we've talked about the resurrection now for three weeks in a row, and there was a lot of new stuff this week. So yeah, let's just get into it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 0:49

Yeah, it's uh another layer. Uh, if you think in layers here, Paul is uh establishing at the beginning of first of chapter 15 proofs of the resurrection. So these are things that he was saying. This is undeniable, historical, falsifiable realities of the resurrection. And it has to be true. If it's not true, then he goes into that section where if then's, and now he says, but it is. So this is what impact it's gonna have. This is the the motivation it provides. This is this is the um the implications of the reality of the resurrection coming to bear on our lives. And then he's gonna get into some of the details of the future resurrection. So he's still kind of focusing on the resurrection of Christ with kind of some nods to the future bodily resurrection. And then next week he's gonna get into more of the um the resurrection of the dead one day. So in this layer, yeah, he's motivating us. He's um he's he's I likened it to hiking, right? If is it worth it? Is it worth the journey? Is it worth the the work that we're doing in in laboring up this hill to get to the top of this mountain? Is the view good? Is it hard? Is it, you know, does the sacrifice um outweigh the payoff, or is it is it worth it? And I think that what Paul is doing is he is he's in in a sense kind of doing that for us. Yeah, it's it's worth it. Don't uh don't miss um the the implications of the resurrection and the and the joy that it provides. And and in it, there's kind of a warning, um, kind of like a warning light, it check engine light on your dashboard, right? There's an there's a warning here. So there's some problems that you need to also be aware of that are true if you start questioning the bodily resurrection and the resurrection of Christ. And so is it worth it? Why is the Christian life worth living based on the reality of the resurrection? And and this is not um a simple text. Every every section of this text has some nuanced difficulty to try to understand what exactly Paul's laying down for us. Um I think the big thoughts are clear. It's kind of how he gets to the big thoughts that you're like, whoa, what baptism of the dead for the dead? What what's what's that mean? And yeah, like what's going on? Beasts in Ephesus? Like, who are you wrestling over there, Paul? Like, they they let the dogs out on you or what? And and who's who's what's this whole talk about he and him and submission and subjection and presenting the kingdom and he's reigning now? Is he reigning now? I mean, there's some things there that you're like, and I gotta I gotta think about that. And that's helpful because it forces us to think about that, but it ultimately leads us to the clear big idea that it's worth it. Here's some things he's talking about. So yeah.

SPEAKER_03 3:36

That's that's been a discipline throughout the whole letter, right? Is resisting our urge to to make the minor things major, yeah, um, and and not stick with the the main point, right?

SPEAKER_02 3:48

So yeah, that's something we talked about a small group last night. Was like these texts are super intense, or dense, um, and there's a lot going on, and a lot of them have been widely debated or di differences on, but the the what is important, the topic that Paul wants to get across, yep, um, is clear.

SPEAKER_00 4:09

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 4:10

And that's been super cool to see. Yep. Because even, you know, like tongues and and this for sure, like eschatology, yeah. You're like, wait, no, like Jesus is coming back. That's that's what it is.

SPEAKER_00 4:19

So yeah, and I've likened it a lot in this talk already too. We're listening to a one-sided phone conversation and we're not hearing what the person's saying on the other side. So, you know how like when you're riding in the car with your wife and she's on the phone, and you know what she said, but you're like, Why did you say that? What's going on? What are our kids up to? And why did you have to tell them that? I didn't I you don't get the whole picture. And I think to a certain degree, we get glimpses of the picture. Now, I know what this side of the conversation is saying, the big thought, but he's a dealing with something that's happening on the other side of the phone conversation that we're not all the way aware of, and we don't necessarily need to be aware of in order to get the main point that was communicated, but we can get some glimpses of what he's talking about that ultimately drive home the big points that he's trying to make. So listen to the one-sided conversation, get the big points that the spirit intended for us to have today.

SPEAKER_02 5:09

So good. Yeah. What was the hardest thing you think to wrestle with in this in this specific text?

SPEAKER_00 5:16

My head cold, probably. Your voice is resurrecting week by week here. Slowly. Man, I just it's funny. I was like, I thought about that. I was like, Lord, you had to lead it to or make it so that I have this like debilitating head cold and voice leaving me on one of the most deep and difficult texts that I had to study. So Saturday I barely did anything because I was like, I'm I'm gonna fight to stay alive, not wrestle with the text. Um, and then I I don't I think probably um I don't the most the big things for me in wrestling with this text is what's the what's he talking about when he's talking about the son in subjection to the father? Like there's this, there's a whole book written on the eternal subordination or the eternal subjection, eternal subordination, something like that of the son. So there's this sense in which the son is living in submission to the father, yet equal to the father. Now so we're talking triunity stuff here. We're talking this the role of the son is to live in subjection to the father while also being equal to the father, so not not ontological um subordination, meaning he's not he's not less in essence, he's equal in essence, but diverse in the way he functions with the father in subjection. And we don't have an ability in our mind to totally wrestle with that because when you think subjection, you think inferiority. Well, in the triunity, there is a sense in which the son is in subjection to the father, yet equal in essence to the father. So I had to wrestle with that, and he uses a lot of pronouns in here that's referring to different people. So in in English grammar, we always are really careful to make sure that the antecedent of pronouns is clear. And Paul didn't care about that. Apparently, he didn't take grammar class because he's like he him, talking about two different antecedents there. And you're like, Well, who's the he here and who's the him there? And what about he here there? So there's that. And then I think that the verse 29, which is the being baptized on behalf of the dead, um, being in a Western context here with the LDS church being so so prominent and using this verse to justify proxy baptism, um, we've got to try to understand that. And it's hard to get there. Like, I don't know that we fully understand exactly what Paul's dealing with here because there's so many different interpretations of what's happening here. So that was a tough one. We'll talk about that, I'm sure. But um, yeah, I think that was the wrestle, is just like, well, okay, and then how do those concepts ultimately drive home what Paul's trying to drive home for us? Well, at the end of the day, he's giving us this like bullet point order of eschatological events for the purpose of just simply saying, relax. Your future is secure. Okay, what we what we often do is we kind of major on the minor. Well, what when's that gonna happen? What's gonna happen at this point in the tribulation, if after the tribulation? And if you don't believe this, you're wrong. And we get into all kinds of turmoil about who's right, who's wrong. And Paul's like, I'm not even worried about who's right and who's wrong on what, when it's actually gonna happen. I just want you to know that it is actually going to happen. And all of that is to encourage you for the reality that your future is secure. So stop majoring on the thing that I said over here and focus on the big thing that I was trying to drive home. And that is that your future is secure because Christ is alive and he's coming back. And so that's why in the middle of the sermon, I was like, look, we can disagree on a bunch of things, but there are some things we do agree on. And we listed some of the things that we all have to agree on, and those are the things that Paul's writing here. So he's not writing this to be an eschatological time frame. He's writing this just to hit bullet points of the things that are true in the future concerning Christ that help us have hope that our sec our future is secure.

SPEAKER_02 9:11

That's good. Yeah, we're one day closer to him coming back. That's what we know.

SPEAKER_00 9:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:17

And are we living with that urgency? Yeah. So that was your first point. The resurrection secures our future. So you just started talking about that. I thought one of the coolest things you did um that I think was unbelievably beneficial to our congregation and our people was really explaining first fruits. I just don't think that that happens often that people like know about that, or it's just more or less can be assumed that that's well known. Yeah. You talk a little bit more about that.

SPEAKER_00 9:43

Yeah, first fruits is uh it's a biblical concept. So um, when you know, when you have a tree, we talked about the apple tree. The apple tree produces one apple. Nobody who has an apple tree, or let's say we don't have many apple trees here because the weather is different, but we have a citrus. So let's think orange tree, lemon tree. When your tree produces uh a fruit, you don't think nobody who owns that tree thinks, oh, good, I got one. That's all I'll get. You think, oh, this is a sign uh of more to come. This is the first one of hopefully many to come. And the full expectation and anticipation of a of a of a person who owns a tree is that I got one and many more to follow. Now, think of it in a professional context, like a like a person who's a professional farmer. Let's say it's like, so in Colorado, when I pastored, they would have alfalfa fields and they would have first cuts and second cuts and third cuts and fourth cuts, because they would cut it and then it would grow. And so their point would be I got one cut, that's all I'll get. No, that's just the first cut. There's more to come. And I'm gonna get a second cut, and I'm hopefully gonna get a third cut, and we're gonna have bales of hay that come from this over the course of the whole summer, not expecting one, but expecting the first of many. And that's what he says, Christ is. Christ isn't the one and only resurrection. Christ is the first of many resurrections. And not just the first in time, yes, the first in time, but the first in pattern. The way that that tree produced that fruit, it's gonna produce more. And in the same way that Christ rose from the dead, more are gonna follow him. So you can't believe in the resurrection of Christ and deny the resurrection of those who belong to Christ because those are together, they're connected. They are from the same source, the power of the Spirit of God who brought new life. That's the concept of the first fruit. So he was raised bodily, we will be raised bodily. He was glorified, we will be glorified. He rose to never die again, we will be right raised to never uh die again. That's that's the point.

SPEAKER_02 11:49

So yeah, that's so good. It was it was cool. You used Colossians 3, uh, one through four, which was the part of the text that I preached on Sunday night. And that starts with if then you've been raised with Christ. And just the perspective of the fact that when we come here on a Sunday morning or Sunday night with the students, like it's a shocking, like we we are shocked that we should be dead, but we're alive. Yeah, if you're alive in Christ, and so that's super cool.

SPEAKER_00 12:15

Um, and the key to all of that is just being confident that you belong to Christ. Yeah, he starts with you either in Adam or in Christ. If you belong to Christ and you have um assurance of that, that you have again, we went to a couple passages where it talks about repentant belief. Um, if you have the the the new life that's in Christ, if you have been born again and you now belong to Christ, then the future coming of the king, the future coming of Jesus and the resurrection of the dead is hope-filled. Before I knew Christ, when I grew up in church and I was a young kid and a teenager, before I knew Christ, anytime anybody talked about the coming of Christ, I was like super scared. Like, that's gonna be crazy. I hope that doesn't happen soon because I was afraid. I was horrified. I'm like, I don't, I don't think I'm ready for that day. And I didn't know all of the theological reasons I wasn't ready for that day. But the reality was is I wasn't ready for that day because I was in Adam. And then when I came to become in Christ or come to belong to Christ, now that day is not a day of dread. That's a day of hope. That's a day of yes, come, Lord Jesus. That's why the early church, going through all of the tribulations that they went through, longed for that day. Could it be now? Please even come. Thy kingdom come. That's the model prayer that Christ gave us to pray. That's the desire. We cannot wait for that day when this body will be brought to life again, as will be described later in First Corinthians chapter 15.

SPEAKER_03 13:45

It's awesome. I I had never heard the comparison of uh David being anointed and the in-between.

SPEAKER_00 13:53

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:54

Uh time we I think it was last week, yeah. We watched the the new David movie, the cartoon. Have you seen it? It's super fun. It's got Phil Phil Wickham's the grown-up David, but the when he is running from Saul, there's they show a faction of people who know he was already anointed king, but don't know what to do with this in-between state while Saul is still the one in charge, you know. And I've never seen that comparison of how we're we're waiting for this to be a good one.

SPEAKER_00 14:24

You know what I regret every Sunday I go home and think about, man, I didn't say that because I didn't use that fully in the first service. I use that in the second service. So if you are listening to this and you were in the first service, um, what what we're talking about here, which is such a cool illustration, is that uh in verse 25, it says he must reign. So there's a present tense in which Christ is reigning. So then there's this tension point of like, wait, he is reigning or he will reign. Yes, he is reigning, but the fullness of his reign, the fullness of his uh kingdom is not established yet because he's still dealing with some enemies. There's still some work that's being done. He has been in his his kingdom, his kingship has been inaugurated. The anointing has taken place, he will reign and will reign until, in this way, until the enemy is subdued. And the Old Testament picture of that is King Saul was the king of Israel. But King Saul disobeyed the Lord and the kingdom was stripped from him, though he maintained the position of king. At the same time now, Samuel goes out and finds David, led by the Spirit, and anoints David the shepherd boy to be king. The anointing of king is you're now king. So now he is king, and yet he's not in the position of king because Saul's still there. So there's this time frame where he's the anointed king, but not the sitting king. And there's a group of people who followed him. I I'm I'm gonna say this wrong. You guys can, I think it's about 400, the Old Testament tells us, uh, recognized David as king while the rest of Israel recognized Saul as king. And that remnant, that small group of people that followed the anointed king, um, were followed him into hiding and into um all kinds of struggles until one day King Saul dies and passes off the scene, and David takes his spot as king. That to me is a picture of what's going on here. The church who follows Christ as king now will one day celebrate the setting up of the kingdom in which the anointed king will not just reign while the enemies are being defeated, but enemies will be defeated, Christ will be set up as king, and we the church will um will join him in that new kingdom. Revelation calls it the new Jerusalem, the new city. That that's what we're looking forward to and anticipating, which again all points to that thing, right? The future is secure because God established the kingship of the seed of David, Jesus, who will reign in that way. That's awesome. Yeah, it's a great picture.

SPEAKER_02 17:12

That's good. I didn't know that because I sat there for service. So that's that's incredible to get here. Um, in the subjection part, you know, he's talking about Christ delivering the kingdom to the Father. Then he's talking about he must reign until all the enemies are under his feet.

SPEAKER_01 17:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:28

There's a lot going on here. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Can you just you unpacked it well, but like maybe we go, yeah, dude.

SPEAKER_00 17:34

It's like I was talking total victory. Yeah. We're not talking like, all right, mercy, all right, go blow, go live in your corner of the world. It's like total submission, total subjection, total defeat. This isn't, this isn't just like um, like, okay, we agree to disagree, we came to a peace treaty. This is like, no, you've opposed me for too long. It is now time for a decisive and final victory to be executed. And that is, again, we we read the Revelation 20, 21, 22, when this finality is done, when the earth opens up and swallows the enemies, and all of the opposition to the king is now gone and done away with. That is over. And and it says, I love the picture that that he, Jesus, will present the kingdom to the father. Like, I don't know what that's gonna be like. I have no concept of what that'll feel like or look like, but I just picture Jesus saying to his father, here it is, it's done. Enemies defeated. My people have been gathered. The people you gave to me that you said were mine, here they are. The enemies are now done. It's it's now time for you to reign supreme. That's the phrase to be so God may be all in all. Now is the time for you to once again reign supreme as you originally created this whole thing to be. You're now supreme leader, and let's go. It's awesome. I again, I don't, I mean, there's not there's not details on like this is this is what that's gonna look like. It's not, I mean, there's volumes that could be written if he gave us sight to see all of this on what's gonna happen there. I just know that it's this picture of Christ is gonna win. Christ is gonna present the kingdom to the Father, he's gonna res re-enter into that place of you know, uh rightful spot in the triune, Godhead, and then he's gonna reign supreme all in all, and the kingdom is set. The future for the below those who belong to Christ is secure. It's eschatology that's just summed up in just a beautiful, powerful way. Yeah, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_02 19:30

So good, man. I mean, the statements like God, maybe all in all, is just is an unbelievable piece of scripture. Yeah. Um, I mean move to the next next point. The resurrection justifies our sacrifice, but kind of diving into verse 29, like you talked about the tension there. I mean, I just know from growing up with LDS friends, with Haley was Mormon before, the fear of that, that it that instills in people of that um religion that feel this weight that they have to save their their dead family members. And we were talking about that in small group about like you had brought up the Catholic Church, um yeah. So it's just this this wrong fear, yeah, not the reverence of God, but this different fear. So let's let's like Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:14

Well, I think just to make sure we understand, and I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna poorly summarize the the LDS theology. So if you're familiar with that, you can correct me. But there's a theology in the LDS church that living people, living Mormons, can be baptized in the temple on behalf of dead people. And in doing so, um, delivers them from I again, I don't know if their theology would say these people are in a lower level of heaven, and them being baptized gets them into one of the higher levels of heaven, or kind of how that that theology works. But basically, I can do something as a living person on behalf of a dead person by being baptized that delivers them from some situation and and gets them into a higher situation or better situation. So they it would be like baptism by proxy, right? So I'm there, I'm I'm I'm representing them in these baptism waters. And then, you know, you can see pictures of the Mormon baptistry. It's it's a bowl that sits on the back of, I think, 12 oxen in the temple. Um, and they're they go and they have these services where you're baptized. So I remember reading not too long ago that the LD LDS church made a point to uh do baptism services for Jews who were murdered during the Holocaust. So they were being baptized on behalf of Holocaust Jews who died so that they could deliver them from whatever whatever they were delivering them from. This was by proxy, right? So um that's that theology. And then where uh some of the Catholic theology would go here is this indulgences practice where a living loved one pays money to the church so that the Their loved one can be released from purgatory and be allowed into heaven. Right. So that's kind of a, in my opinion, a fundraising scheme. So um, so based on what this teaching is, is that living people can do something in this life for dead people to help a dead person's state. Now, that should sound crazy to anybody who's consistently studying scripture. That's not accurate with any other theology of the Bible. And so there's some problems with that. I think obviously it's clear that nobody, each individual is responsible for their own faith and their own place before God. Nobody can do anything on behalf of another person. The soul that sins, it shall die, Isaiah says. Um, there's not this proxy. I cannot do something on behalf of another person. There's nowhere in scripture that that's true. Another thing is that baptism doesn't save anyone. So me being baptized for myself doesn't necessarily save me. So why would my baptism on behalf of another person save that person? That would be a works, uh works salvation. We know that by grace are you saved through faith that you must be born again. The individual must be born again by repentance and faith. That's a decision made by the individual. So here's what we do: we never interpret um vague, hard to understand passages as the authority. We always want to take a vague, maybe potentially unclear verse and uh translate that through or with the influence of the rest of scripture. So when something's not clear, let's start with that which is clear and then say, okay, based upon the fact that these other verses are actually abundantly clear, that can't be true.

unknown 23:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:59

So we know that's not true. So then we have to say, okay, well, what is this saying? So what this is saying, that people being baptized on behalf of the dead, is one of one of a few things. There's like, I read that one guy wrote there's 48 different interpretations that there's a couple hundred, but 48 that you could actually be like, these might actually be what's saying. One interpretation is that in Corinth, they actually were being baptized on behalf of the dead. And it was pagan-influenced. The Gnostics had a practice of being baptized for the dead. So Paul here is not condoning the practice of being baptized on behalf of the dead. He's just calling out the inconsistency of this practice that they were a part of while at the same time denying that the dead rise. So he's like, I'm not saying that's a good thing, but why are you doing that if you don't believe this? That could be what's happening here. The other thing that is happening here is that they were being baptized, which in the New Testament, first century, baptism and salvation were so closely connected that you would never talk to somebody who was saved and not baptized. They would never be separate. So, what baptism here represents is somebody professing faith in Christ through baptism. So, not that baptism saved them, but that they believed and were being baptized. And Paul just says they're being baptized or they're getting saved based upon the testimony of the Christians who have now died, that they have watched die. They're like though their testimony, the heritage that they left is why I believe, because I believe them and I believe their story, and I believe their testimony. So, on behalf of the dead, because of their story, um, I'm I'm I'm declaring my faith in Christ and being baptized. Um, again, there's a few options here that we could go with. The point is not that Paul is teaching y'all should be baptized on behalf of the dead. The point is that they had a practice that was anchored in a future resurrection while denying the theology of the future resurrection. And he's saying, that doesn't make sense. This whole work that you're doing and sacrifice that you're making and being baptized makes no sense if the resurrection of the dead is not a real thing. So I don't know if that makes sense, but that's kind of what we're wrestling with because we don't know. We don't know for sure what was going on in Corinth that was taking place here. Some people have stronger opinions on this than others, but we can rest assured this is not a proxy baptism or salvation of a dead person based upon my actions as a living person.

SPEAKER_03 26:52

That makes sense? It does. Okay, I think it's super clear. Yeah. Um, there's if you overcommit, and it seems like this happens as a pattern through first Corinthians, where he's using an example and there's like a passive suggestion that that thing exists. So now you zero in and go, okay, that thing exists, let's build a whole theology so we can practice that. We saw that with spiritual giftings, we see this with baptism.

SPEAKER_00 27:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 27:14

And you can see the logical rabbit trail of if you believe that baptism is what saves you, if I have a heart at all, let's get everybody baptized. Yeah, you know, and you can start to branch off into a bunch of other theologies. It's like, no, no, that was never, that was never the point. And if you're not careful, it starts to become anti-gospel.

SPEAKER_00 27:33

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. So, so think about this for a second. This is the answer to the question of why do the Mormons have um warehouses full of genealogies? I I don't I think the Mormons run Ancestry.com. Why is that? Why, and and it's impressive. I can go back and track my bloodline all the way back to a little town in Ireland. I have family who's done that. I know the town that my ancestors came from, I could go visit where they come from because the Mormon church has tracked our DNA back to that point. And it is impressive what they've done. And the reason why they've given so many millions and millions of dollars and hours to this is because I then identify who my ancestors are so that I can then be baptized on behalf of them and name them. So my great, great, great, great, great, great grandma. I'm being baptized on behalf of my great grandma. Okay, baptized. Okay, now they're good. Based on this one obscure verse, like you just said, that Paul's using in a passing way to call out an inconsistency that ultimately is trying to say, no, you, you, you're denying belief in the baptism in the resurrection. So you're doing this thing without ever giving a nod to the validity of this thing. We do not base an entire theology and practice on an obscure verse that isn't meant to teach that point. It's meant to tell us something else. Let's get the main point of the text. Let's be good Bible students and think, okay, what's he actually trying to say here? Let's take that and run with that rather than latching on to one little thing and making that the main thing. Yeah. And I think that's the danger in all of scripture, right? All of scripture. So, like, even the go back to the head covering situation. We've got to understand it, or else men are never going to wear hats and women are only ever going to wear head coverings. And we've got to understand what's actually happening here. What's the point? And let's stop latching on to these things and let's get the heart. It's it's kind of almost the, you know, the letter of the law versus the spirit of the law. Instead of saying, well, this is actually what it says, let's understand what it says. Yes, we want to be committed to that. But we also want to know what's he actually trying to get across to us in regards to this. Now, if he says something black and white, we hold on to that, we go with that. But if it's an obscure verse like verse 29, is let's latch on to what we should latch on to and then run with that. That's right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:01

All right. Moving down into um verses 30 through 32, Paul starts talking about suffering and danger and dialing, dying daily. He brings up the beast at Ephesus. Let's talk about that as about suffering and and the reason, you know, behind this, these, this stuff.

SPEAKER_00 30:18

Yeah, I mean, I'll I I think Paul is the way Paul writes and thinks, obviously led by the Spirit, but you know, you can see the personality of Paul coming through here. I know we'd be friends, man. Because he's like, what? What's the point of all this? Like, what's the point of all of this? If they if Christ, if Christ uh is the only one that's gonna rise and there's no future resurrection, or even if Christ didn't rise, if we're questioning this theology, then why am I dying daily? Why am I living in danger every hour? Why are we going through all of this? Persecution and imprisonments and physical violence, and why did I get stoned? Why did I get shipwrecked? Why am I getting beaten? What's the point? It's reckless, it's wasteful, it's irrational. It doesn't make sense. It's sad. That's why he says we should be pitied. Because we we're going through all of this for what? So I think his point is like obviously clear, right? Like the flip of it is true. No, it is worth it. My sacrifice is worth it. My battles in Ephesus are worth it. And I don't know what the beasts in Ephesus are. I was like, that's cool. Let me figure out what that is. Maybe, maybe somebody has a cool explanation of what that actually is. I don't know. Nobody does. I know Acts chapter 19, though, describes his time in Ephesus and how how rough it was. And there was something going on there that was um pretty intense. And so I think he's just like, why did I? For some reason, he calls out Ephesus. And I'm again, I don't even know why. Maybe there were people in Corinth who were familiar with what he went through in Ephesus. Maybe there was um some sort of maybe people in Corinth were there in Ephesus while he was going through it. And he's like, Remember, I met you there. Remember that? Remember all that stuff that I went through in Ephesus? Why would I do all of that? Remember that guy? They didn't say his name, but remember that guy, Bill? He was like a beast, man. He never let me go. He was after me. Remember that family that let the Rottweilers out on me? Or maybe somebody suggested that maybe he actually was in Ephesus thrown to animals in kind of a Coliseum. Probably unlikely because I don't think any of them ever really lived out of that unless he was like a gladiator figure and he defeated the beasts or what? I don't know. The point he's making doesn't, it doesn't, it's not necessary. Again, we don't build a whole theology that we need to fight beasts. The point he's making is why did I go through all of that stuff if it if it's not, if the future's not secure, Christ is not risen, or our future resurrection isn't a reality. So his point is again, sacrifice is worth it. So faithfulness is worth it, sacrifice is worth it, missions is worth it. Going through the tough times of being persecuted or shamed or ridiculed or spoken against or going through all of the things that he promised would be ours is worth it. And so again, it's hard. It's funny living in a in a westernized Christian culture where the sacrifices that we make for Christianity are relatively minimal. I'm not gonna try to say they're nothing, because there is a level of sacrifice for sure, but relatively minimal to how much is going on to others. So I just think when I read this, I was thinking about uh a South, a North Korean Christian reading this, saying, Yeah, that's right. I've experienced stuff like that. Yes. Why why am I in this work camp? Because I owned a Bible. Well, I'm in this work camp because there's a hope that I have a future resurrection because Jesus is alive. I think about um Christians in in in I'm gonna I'm gonna be going into Nepal soon. Think about Christians who the the leaders are have the threat of getting arrested for baptizing um people into Christianity. So we're gonna have this big baptism service because the Americans are there. I from what I understand, there's gonna be a little bit of a better situation. I don't know how much to expect on that. But the reality is that there's a real threat to living for Christ in the Paul that I'm gonna experience next week that I just don't even have a file for, a concept for. So when they read this, they're like, Yes, it is worth it. Let's go. So if they can do that, when my neighbor rejects the message, or when my friend mocks me for being the follower of Jesus, or the the new thing that I'm noticing, this may be just a rabbit trail for a second, but I'm noticing every time lately in TV or movies, um, typically when Hollywood portrays a pastor, they make us um effeminate, weird, weak, wimpy, um, we like like really strange, like really strange. Like there's a new, there's a new show coming out, I think on NBC or something. I don't know, that portrays a pastor and they make him out to be this ridiculous guy. And I'm just like, okay, I'm not I'm not that it's not that's not the same as persecution and being thrown in work camps. I get that. But there's still a level of societal shame that's being associated with Christianity and being a spiritual leader. And so to a certain degree, not as strong, but to a certain degree, I'm thinking it's absolutely worth it. Take, I'll take all the shame and all the misrepresentation and all the ridicule, and if it leads to shipwrecks and imprisonments and being being beaten with a cat of nine-tails, and if it takes all of that, I need verses like this to remind me sacrifice and suffering is worth it because Christ is alive, which means there's future bodily resurrection for those who belong to Christ.

SPEAKER_03 35:49

So good. This is one of those passages. There's a few times I can think of just off the top where the ambiguity is like supernaturally deliberate. Right. When the apostle Paul's talking about the thorn in his side, he does we talked about this before. He doesn't say this is what it is. Because if he did, we would go anytime that physical or psychological circumstance happens, this is how we apply that passage. So the beast at Ephesus, become beasts in Las Vegas, beast in your context, whatever that is, know that Christ is worth it, He's sufficient and and uh worthy of it all, right? That's it.

SPEAKER_00 36:29

Yeah. What do I gain? If humanly speaking, I fought with the beast. I love that phrase. What do I gain? We don't I don't know that we we serve the Lord for gain, not in the tangible monetary sense, but we do serve the Lord for the promise that he's coming again. So he's like, I've given everything. If I don't gain eternity, if I don't gain resurrected life, then I've lost everything for nothing. It's pointless. So again, it's not this like, what do I gain in what how much money am I making? It's I would give everything up in order to gain Christ, to gain eternity. But if I don't gain that, then I've gained nothing. I've gained nothing. So he's like, I love how he ends it. He's like, okay, so the dead are not raised. Let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die. Now, I made a joke about bottomless mimosas on Sunday and people latched onto that. I had like a dozen people come up and talk to me about bottomless mimosas. And I'm like, look, I wasn't trying to say let's go get bottomless mimosas. I was just using that as an example because it was about 11:30 when we would go get brunch. And that's typically something that the point I'm trying to make is why are we at church? Why are we doing this? Let's just go do something that's more earthly fun. This is it. Yeah, let's just eat and drink and have a good time and quit talking about sacrifice and giving and missions trips. Why am I going to Nepal? Let's go to the Mediterranean or to the Caribbean. What are we doing? That's his point. So let's focus in on sacrifice is worth it.

SPEAKER_03 38:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:04

Because Christ is alive and the resurrection.

SPEAKER_02 38:06

You really dropped the mic with the golf. Let's go golfing and drink beers. I was like, well, I mean, yeah. I mean, if this is not true, then yeah. And all those.

SPEAKER_00 38:14

Just a little insight of what I want if Christianity's not real. Brunches and mimosas and golf and deer. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 38:21

I mean, so well, yeah, and all those things are temporary, but eternity's not. And so that's the that's the motivation, man. And um, it's so, so powerful to have your perspective and your practices and your pursuit fixed on the heavenly, fixed on what Jesus loves and what he wants from us in our life. And there's a bigger mission for us here than mimosas and golf and beers and yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:45

Those things, I think one of the things to think about is those things are all consuming. Eat and drink, those are all consuming. One of the dangers of alcohol and food is it just consumes you if you're not careful. That's why where addiction happens, that's why we're told not to not have a drink, not to be drunk, not to make drinking the thing that you live at, that you are consumed by. Those things are all consuming. And if if our perspective is down, we tend to be consumed with the things that are all consuming, like eat, food, and drink. Like the things that, like, like we we live in Vegas, like we see this so on display, like the best restaurants, the best food, the best drinks. Go get a custom craft cocktail and a and a drink or a food and then enjoy the show. Everything's everything's about the here now experience and it's all consuming. And he's like, listen, if this is as good as it gets, dive in. Let's go. Let's let's enjoy it to the degree that we can enjoy it, and and let's just blow everything for it. But if this isn't it and there is a future resurrection, then stop living for the all-consuming thing here now that only disappoints you and only leaves you empty, and only leaves you hung over, and only leaves you bloated, and only leaves you looking for more in the next thing because it overpromises and underdelivers. And start looking for the thing that doesn't overpromise and underdeliver, that actually does bring peace, joy, fulfillment, and a hope that is beyond compared. Live for that thing if it's real. And since it is real, let's live for that thing. Let's go after that thing. Enjoy a good steak along the way. Fine. That's not the point. The point is don't be consumed by it as if that this is it and only it. Live for that thing.

SPEAKER_03 40:36

Yeah. One of the beautiful things about staying in the resurrection is as long as we have these last few weeks. There were a million ways for this thing to untangle. This letter was probably passed around to other churches.

SPEAKER_01 40:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 40:50

And if there was one person who was like, you know what, I just I saw him steal the body. You know, I can't, I can't live like this. And if there was one, yeah, yeah, they would but every single one who was a follower of Jesus goes, you know what? It is worth it.

SPEAKER_01 41:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 41:03

The beatings, the ostracization, all of it. It's all worth it because Jesus is alive.

SPEAKER_00 41:10

Think about that for a second, too. Like, that's such a good point. Like, that's why he brings up the 500. Um, that's why he talks about go talk to them. They're willing to die, they're willing to get beat, they're willing to get sacrificed, they're willing, willing to do this based on a lie. All you need, all they needed was one person to be like, guys, listen, Dom's lying. Don't listen to him. Dom's like, no, I'm not. And one person, then they have something to latch on to, and they didn't. They held true to it. Not only that, um, recently, I don't know if you guys ever watch, I think it was Wesley Huff put it out um on taking the cross as the icon of our faith. Go back to First Corinthians at the beginning when he talks about the the foolishness of the cross. And what Wesley Huff did is he put out a picture recently of one of the earliest depictions of the cross. It was written in graffiti and it was a mockery. And what it was was it was a cross with a person on it with a donkey head and then people bowing to it in mockery of Christianity. And what it was was it was because the cross was so shameful. Like just the just to just to associate yourself with a cross was so shameful that I think it was somebody will say this better, but um watched it. But I think it was not until the fourth century that even the church started embracing symbols of the cross because of the shame associated with the cross. They wouldn't even put it up there. It would there was no pictures, there was no representations. The only representations of the cross were in mockery of Christianity. And it wasn't until later, as customs began to change, that the church began to adopt the cross as a symbol of our faith because of the shame. So think about that. Here's a group of people that lined themselves up with a man who was raised up on a cross, the most shameful mode of execution you could think of, and then developed an elaborate story of him being buried and then rising again. This is this is beyond absurd. This is this is the most ridiculous foolishness, moronic thing you could think of if it was man-made. Nobody would do this. And then make women be the first ones to experience the resurrected Christ at the empty tomb who can't even be uh their testimony can't even be entered into a court of law. And then to do what he did again and again, it just makes no sense for them to do this. And yet, Paul here is saying all of the suffering, all of the beating, all of the rejection, all of the persecution is worth it to follow the cross, to follow the resurrection. Savior because he rose again and he will come again. And we say, let's fall in line. Let's go. Let's run through some walls, in the words of our friend Dom here.

SPEAKER_02 44:08

Let's go. I mean, I don't even we didn't really do 33 and 34, but I kind of want to I don't know if I want to end it there, but he does. I think these are important verses. I mean, you've started to talk about it, but do not be deceived. Do not be deceived. Bad company ruins good morals. And we we talked about that a lot at um small group last night of just the influences, social media influences of online preachers. And um, there's some crazy statistics around how much Christians or people that go to church consume online stuff like that.

SPEAKER_01 44:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:43

Um, and then don't fact check it. Don't don't take it to the Bible. So this is a pretty big point that he is ending with.

SPEAKER_00 44:50

100%. I think he's calling out. This is the warning lie, probably. Um it appears that some people had already gone to get the bottomless mimosas. I said that in the second service and nobody laughed. They just stared at me. I'm like, that's kind of funny, I thought.

SPEAKER_02 45:04

That was just really clever how you threw that in there, right? That was kind of funny.

SPEAKER_00 45:08

Like, I thought that was good. Like, nobody even gave me a nod. I was like, at least a chuckle. But he's like, wake up from your drunken stupor. Like, wake up. Like, and it was, I don't know that that's the point. The point is stop being led into this intoxicated thinking based upon the influences that you're allowing to speak to you. So don't be deceived. Bad company, again, not just bad friends, but bad influences. They corrupt the way you think and the way you live because we cannot separate the way we live with the way we think. The way we live is always influenced by the way we think. So the way we think is important. So we've got to have good theology and good instruction and good guidance and good ways of thinking and biblical worldviews, because that's gonna affect the way we live. And appear apparently, again, we're not positive all of it, but apparently what was happening was there were people that were influencing the church in Corinth among them who were teaching things or influencing their thinking and their acting that did not know God. So who's influencing your thing? Again, I have no ability to call out who it was. I don't know who it was. I don't know how they were listening to them, but some way they were listening to people. They were keeping company with immoral bad thinkers who did not know God, and it was corrupting or ruining their good morals, and it was leading them into somewhat of an intoxicated state where they were living in an immoral way because of their belief about the resurrection. So, again, hard to like latch on to what exactly is being said here, but what we know is what we believe about the resurrection affects the way we live our lives now. And I only read Colossians chapter one, kind of summarizing it all up in our time because I ran out of time. But Romans 13, 11 through 14 nails it again that he's like, listen, the hour's coming. Our salvation is nearer than it's ever been. That's resurrection, that's return of Christ. The night is gone, the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness. Let us stop living in, let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh in light of the return of Jesus Christ, the resurrection of the dead. Titus chapter 2, 11 through 14. The grace of God has taught us that the day is coming. We are waiting for the blessed hope, the appearing of the Lord, uh, of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all unlawlessness, uh, all lawlessness, and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. That's zealous for good works in light of the blessed hope of the return of Jesus Christ. So again, I read those rather quick, Titus 2, 11 through 14. But the point he's making is when you stop believing or at least being reminded of the reality of the resurrection of the dead, based upon the theology of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, your lifestyle begins to get focused on here. It's the I'm I'm so earthly focused, I'm no heavenly good, right? That kind of mindset. Where some people say you're so heavenly focused, you're no earthly good. Like all we're waiting for is that day. I think the opposite. We become so earthly focused that we're no longer living for the glory that one day is coming to us. And Paul's concern is that they were living in a sin pattern because they were being being influenced by people who didn't know God on how to think about a theology of the resurrection. So that's a warning for us to be careful on who we're listening to. Think of good teachers and good people and run everything through scripture, make sure that our our theology is right because that's going to influence how we live and how we interact uh while here on this earth.

SPEAKER_03 48:57

So that's good. So good. I've been experimenting with a new idea with my kids, and the idea is Jesus is not important. He's not important, he's he's not a he's not something to prioritize. Some he's not doesn't fall on a list of a really powerful part of your life. He is everything, he is the only thing. So everything else has its fullest and best meaning. And that was proof of payment was the resurrection. So everything that's true about you, everything that's true about what you ought to prioritize and be meaningful in your in the life of your family, your job, or wherever life takes you, it's not Jesus is my top priority in a list of these other things. He is everything, he's everything. And that's Paul understood that to his bones that it's only Jesus. So whatever comes, it doesn't matter because my whole life is him, you know? That's great.

SPEAKER_02 49:55

Yeah, we're called to pursue him with aggression. Like chase after him always, and he'll lead you. And uh illustration I used on Sunday Night was like when I was a kid and I played cops and robbers, I'm not the smallest dude, but I was jumping over walls and going under fences to get that win to get whoever I was chasing. You were the cop. And I've yeah, that's some of his characterizations up there. Anyways, convictionally, am I am I chasing after Jesus the same way? Because that's what that's what we are told to do is to pursue him like that. And so yeah, that's great. And I think he is everything. And so that proper perspective, the intentionality to live like that is unbelievably important, and we've seen it over and over.

SPEAKER_03 50:42

Um someone's leading devotional in the green room. Um, Malin was walking us through uh uh I think it was John Piper's Solid Joys, and there she read a verse, and I hadn't it's funny how when somebody else reads it, you catch something that maybe you hadn't heard before. Acts two, it says, But God raised him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for him to be held in its power. And I think we talk about the resurrection a lot of times that like it's impossible for dead people to rise again. But what Acts says explicitly is it was impossible for him to be held by its power. That's sick. It was such a just a neat flip on no, no, the impossible thing was that Jesus could not be stopped.

SPEAKER_00 51:30

That's cool. One of my favorite verses in this text, probably kind of with that, is the last enemy to be destroyed is death.

SPEAKER_03 51:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 51:39

And so I'm gonna I mean jump ahead a little bit, but later he actually talks to death. Like Paul in his uh conclusion to resurrection, he says, Death is swallowed up in victory. Oh death, where is your sting? Or where's your victory? Oh death, where is your sting? So the sting of death is because of sin. But he removed the sting of death because he defeated sin. So death will be destroyed. Now what's crazy about that is that death still reigns supreme, it feels like, because every person dies and we all mourn death. And it's hard, I don't it's hard for us to think about like, yeah, death has no sting. It does have a sting. I mean, I I think about that. I think about losing a loved one. I think about my kids, I think about my wife, I think about the reality that death is in our future. Every single one of us is going to experience it, and there's an uneasiness because there's an uncertainty in that. Like, what's what is it gonna be? What's lost, what's what's absence gonna be like, and mourning and grief, all of that is is the reminder that death hurts, death stings, death is an enemy, and one day he will defeat death by bringing life so that all of the hurt and all of the pain and all of the tears and all of the grief and all of the care groups that meet mourning the loss of loved ones will be removed because Christ rose again and will bring back to life those who belong to him. And I don't know, that hits me after having for 20 years walked people through loss and death and thinking about the reality of that's inevitability in my life and for my family. I cannot wait for the day when that sting is removed. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 53:38

That's such a good clarifier because we sing that a lot. Hell, where is your victory, death where is your sting? And I think if if you're not careful, someone in the room is going, no, it stings now. It stings right now, and I feel it. Yeah, and that promises of the future hope of the resolve.

SPEAKER_00 53:55

Yeah, it's it's the already, but not yet, right? Like I feel, I feel the sting, but the sting is not as bad because I know that sting is going to be removed. Yeah, so it's like there's an already reality that everlasting life is ours. Yeah. But remember, I read Romans a second ago when he talks about our our salvation is nearer. Salvation is ours, but it's not here yet, in in that sense. Like we have it, yes, we have it, but it's not yet. It's an already, but not yet. Like there's coming a day when salvation is gonna be sight and it's gonna be a reality where death sting is actually actually going to be removed, not just a song we sing or a verse we memorize. And I again that this is such a hope-giving, future-focused, don't lose heart, keep going, which is why he ends it with don't don't stop, but be steadfast and immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, because it's worth it. Yeah, don't stop, keep going. Let's go. Yeah, let's go.

SPEAKER_02 54:52

That's great. Yeah, ready. I mean, gonna break some walls today.

SPEAKER_00 54:55

So um, yeah, I don't have anything else. Yeah, the question that remains is this, and then I'll pray and we can close out. But do I belong to Christ? If you don't belong to Christ, death stings and will forever sting. Yeah, it does.

unknown 55:08

That's it.

SPEAKER_00 55:09

If you don't belong to Christ, it's not your your life. You might as well eat and drink. Get all you can out of this life because this is as good as it gets. And I don't say that to be, you know, depressing. I just I think the warning has to go out along among the airways. You need to come to know Christ. Christ is the only hope for your despair and your your future. It's the only hope. If you belong to Christ, be full of hope, be full of joy, find tons of purpose in your sacrifice and pursue him in righteousness and love it. But if you don't know Christ, know him, come to know him, repent and believe, trust him today. So that so that all of this is yours. And you're not just reading about it conceptually, you're experiencing it personally. Come to belong to Christ. Great. Praise us out. Thank you, Father, this text and what it does for our hearts, our minds, our faith, our hope. There's so many truths in these passages that are so dense and so significant that it feels like we're trying to wrap our head around something that is impossible for us to fully understand what it's gonna be like. I don't I don't know what it's gonna look like for for for the son to present to you the kingdom. Um I don't know all of what actually lies ahead for us, but you've made it clear that there is hope, that there's a reason to continue to live and sacrifice and pursue holiness. There's a reason. And so you give us these verses as such a grace, and I'm thankful for it, and I pray that you'd help it to impact um a large amount of people, mostly that people who don't belong to Christ will come to belong to Christ. That you'd save people as they listen to these words, even now, as I'm praying now, they would pray, they would call on the name of the Lord, they would declare their faith, they would be repentant and uh trust and receive what Christ did for them so that the eternal hope can be theirs. You know, we're gonna praise you and look forward to the day when people from every tongue and nation will stand before you, celebrating and singing and honoring you who reigns supreme all in all. And we're thankful for that in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.

SPEAKER_02 57:34

Check out our latest sermon at life baptistchurch.com. We can't wait to see you this Sunday.