(#047) 1 Corinthians 10 - If You Want to Know the Lord You Have to Examine the Evidence

Class Outline:

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Only the best can have all the credentials and deliver.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Welcome To 

BARAH MINISTRIES

a Christian Church

 

Rory Clark

Pastor-Teacher

 

Good Morning!  

 

Welcome to Barah Ministries…an intimate, local Christian Church with worldwide impact.  My name is Pastor Rory Clark.  No matter what is going on in this world to distract us, believers in the Lord Jesus Christ can count on Isaiah’s wisdom in Chapter 54, Verse 17…

 

ISAIAH 54:17

“No weapon that is formed against you will prosper…and every tongue that accuses you in judgment you will condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord…and their vindication is from Me,” declares the Lord.

 

Both peace and safety are the heritage of those who trust the Lord.  We study the Bible to let God inculcate us with the spiritual wealth that comes to believers in Christ who hear the Word of God and regard it as a foundational part of their lives.  Do you?  Welcome to the lesson!

 

At Barah Ministries we know this truth…that Jesus Christ is God.  As the Lord He is 100% Deity…He is God the Son, a member of the Triune Godhead.  He is also 100% human just like you and me, and His name is Jesus Christ.  The Lord…God the Son…became flesh…Jesus Christ...and lived among us.  He is the uniquely born One…100% God and 100% man in one Person forever.  He is the Sovereign God of the Universe.  He is the Jewish Messiah.  The Lord was not sent by God the Father to judge the world, but that the world would be saved through Him.  He died on a Cross to make the ONLY perfect payment for sin in the eyes of God the Father through the shedding of His blood.  As a result of His strategic victory at the Cross, we are fully and forever forgiven of our sins. 

At Barah Ministries, we make a difference by teaching the Word of God from God’s perspective and not from man’s perspective.  As those who make Barah Ministries our spiritual home, we are Christians.  Being a Christian means we believe in the DEITY of the Lord Jesus Christ, and we have a deep, intimate, and personal relationship with Him.  You heard it right…Christianity is a relationship, not a religion.  The Lord Jesus Christ is a Person … He is not a “thing” … and He is not a concept.  Just as we do with anyone whom we love, we spend time getting to know the Lord. Since the Bible is His exact thinking, we come together to learn about Him through the study of His mind, the Word of God.

 

God has an enemy, Satan, “the ruler of this world.” He is a liar who deceives the whole world, including you.  He doesn’t want you to get to know God, and he interferes with your chance to know God. 

 

The Word of God is the truth…and it keeps us aware of Satan’s insidious deceptions.  As believers in Christ, we are in union with Christ, and we have the victory over Satan through our Lord, who has overcome the world. 

 

TODAY’S BIBLE LESSON

If You Want to Know the Lord You Have to Examine the Evidence

 

LESSON INTRODUCTION

 

What does Jesus Christ have to do to prove Himself to you?  What does He have to do to prove that He is God? For the Jews in the wilderness, even the parting of the Red Sea was not enough.  In today's lesson, we'll continue our look at First Corinthians, Chapter 10 and we'll get a cautionary tale about a well-loved and well-cared for group, the Jews, who took their eyes off the evidence.  And just as we do every month, we’ll remember our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ by celebrating The Lord’s Supper…and we’ll learn that His work at the Cross made Jesus peerless.

 

SONG INTRODUCTION

 

Let's hear some music!  One thing the Lord Jesus Christ did to prove that He is God is He was resurrected from the dead.  As a result of our union with Christ, we have access to the same power.  Here’s Chris Tomlin to describe this power in song…RESURRECTION POWER.

 

MUSIC AND REFLECTION

Be Occupied with the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ

Enjoy the Singing of His Praises

 

RESURRECTION POWER

Chris Tomlin

 

OPENING PRAYER

Let us pray...

 

We’re grateful, Heavenly Father, for the privilege of studying Your absolute truth...the Word of God…

 

Father, thank you for giving us everything we need to thrive in Satan’s kingdom…help us keep our focus on what You are able to do and not on what the propaganda of the world tells us to rob us of hope…help us to keep our eyes on the path You preordained in eternity past that we would walk in it…

 

…we ask this through the power of God the Holy Spirit…in Christ’s

name...Amen.

 

TODAY’S BIBLE LESSON

If You Want to Know the Lord You Have to Examine the Evidence

 

The passage under study extends from First Corinthians, Chapter 8, Verse 1 to First Corinthians, Chapter 11, Verse 1.  

 

Chapter 10 is the strongest part of Paul’s argument against partaking of idol meat.  Let’s look at the passage verse by verse…

 

FIRST CORINTHIANS 10:1

For I (Paul) do not want you to be unaware, my Corinthian brethren, that our Jewish ancestors were all under the cloud of protection and they all passed through the Red Sea…

 

The Lord delivered the Jews from slavery to their Egyptian captors who, after letting the Jews go, changed their minds.  After sending the Jews out from Egypt, the enemy of the Jews changed their minds and came after them to bring them back.  The Egyptians pursued the Jews to the Red Sea.

 

The Red Sea is analogous to salvation.  The Jews were trapped.  There was no way for them to get out of the predicament on their own.  But the Lord parted the Red Sea, the Jews walked across on dry land, and when the Egyptians followed them into the Red Sea, the Lord drowned the Egyptians.  In a completely hopeless situation, the Lord delivers…the Jews were saved!

 

Now the Jews were in the wilderness.  The Jews forgot about the deliverance from slavery…they forgot about the parting of the Red Sea…they ignored the evidence of what God had done to save them…and they started complaining about wanting to go back to Egypt…back to slavery!  They missed the food!

 

After the wilderness journey, the Jews would be in their very own land…the land promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  Israel is analogous to eternity…it is the Promised Land…it the place that is exceeding and abundantly beyond anything we could ask or think.

 

FIRST CORINTHIANS 10:2 

…and our Jewish ancestors all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea…

 

FIRST CORINTHIANS 10:3 

…and all ate the same spiritual food (manna for heaven…in unity)…

 

FIRST CORINTHIANS 10:4 

…and all drank the same spiritual drink (in unity)…for they were drinking from a spiritual rock (the one struck by Moses’ rod…a rock that was) following them…and the real rock was Christ.

 

Supernatural food and drink were delivered by the power of God.  The Jews should have seen this gift from heaven as evidence of God’s continuing provision…the same provision He made when He parted the Red Sea.  They ignored the evidence.  DO you ignore the evidence you see about God?  Are you aware that God ALWAYS provides?  Do your idols provide?

 

 

FIRST CORINTHIANS 10:5 

Nevertheless, with most of our Jewish ancestors, God was not well-pleased…for they were laid low in the wilderness.

 

God satisfied their needs even though He was not pleased with them.  He provided for people who were rejecting Him.  Do you do the same in your human relationships?

 

FIRST CORINTHIANS 10:6 

Now these things in the wilderness happened as examples for us so that we would not have cravings for evil just as they also craved evil.

 

Only Joshua and Caleb made it to Israel…the promised land.  Paul wants the Corinthian believers to learn from this example.  The Corinthians wanted to eat idol meat.  They wanted to mix paganism with Christianity.  Paul is warning them.  Here is how they further ignored the evidence about God’s perfect provisions…Acts, Chapter 7, Verse 41…

 

ACTS 7:41

At that time, they made a golden calf and brought a sacrifice to the idol, and were rejoicing in the works of their hands.

 

Laura Story asks in song, “What if trials of this life are god’s mercies in disguise?”  They are!  Are you noticing the evidence?  Paul continues with a command in First Corinthians, Chapter 10, Verse 7…

 

FIRST CORINTHIANS 10:7 

Do not become idolaters, as some of them were…as it stands written, “The people sat down to eat and drink, and they stood up to play.”

 

FIRST CORINTHIANS 10:8 

Nor let us act immorally (in fornication) as some of them did (with extra-marital sex and orgies)…and twenty-three thousand of the Jewish ancestors died in one day.

 

The celebration of the day involved eating meat sacrificed to idols, orgies, and bowing down to pagan gods or self-created gods.  The real God was not pleased.  

 

FIRST CORINTHIANS 10:9 

Nor let us tempt the Lord, as some of the Jewish ancestors did, and were decimated…(bitten and killed) by snakes.

 

God doesn’t want us to be like them.  The warning is just because we are saved does not mean that God can’t take us out, and He will for our good.

 

FIRST CORINTHIANS 10:10 

Do not grumble, as some of them grumbled, and were decimated by the destroyer (angel).

 

 

FIRST CORINTHIANS 10:11 

Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction (a warning against certain activity)…upon whom the ends of the ages have come.

 

The end of the ages…the transition from old to new…the fulness of times…the veil of the temple is lifted…it is torn…new things have come.

 

The Jews in the wilderness became cautionary tales for Church Age believers.  Paul warns us about arrogance.

 

FIRST CORINTHIANS 10:12 

Therefore, let him who thinks he stands take heed so that he does not fall.

 

People of God in every age are warned not to tempt God.  We are not to have false assurance by thinking that God won’t discipline His own.  No pagan banquets.  No idol meat.  No overconfidence.  Fidelity to God and God alone.  Now a final reminder…one of my favorite verses…

 

FIRST CORINTHIANS 10:13 

No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to humans…and God Father is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able to endure…but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to handle it.

 

Regardless of the temptation you experience, God always gives us an out.  Will you choose it?

 

What Paul is suggesting was not easy for the Corinthians. They faced ostracism by being different in the way Paul suggests.  Paul wants us to not ignore the evidence about what the Lord is doing for us.  When we return from our five-minute break, we’ll take the offering and then we’ll celebrate The Lord’s Supper.  

 

FIVE MINUTE BREAK

NOBODY

Casting Crowns

 

TODAY’S BIBLE LESSON

If You Want to Know the Lord You Have to Examine the Evidence

 

God’s will for His believers in Christ is that we are generous in every respect…that we give and not count the cost…except the cost of knowing that we are doing the will of God!  Give generously.  Let’s welcome up Deacon Denny Goodall with the offering message.

 

THE OFFERING

Deacon Denny Goodall

 

OFFERING VERSE

 

FIRST JOHN 3:8

…the one who practices sin is of the devil…for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose…to destroy the works of the devil.

 

OFFERING SONG

THERE IS NONE LIKE YOU

David Bauer, Instrumental

 

THE LORD’S SUPPER CELEBRATION

At the Cross, the Lord Jesus Christ Demonstrated that He is Peerless

 

Welcome to The Lord’s Supper Celebration, the most intimate expression of our love for the Lord Jesus Christ in The Christian Way of Living.  The Lord demonstrates His desire for a deep, intimate, and personal relationship with His believers by creating a way to keep on sharing His body and His blood

with us, just as He did with His apostles on the night before His death.

Luke, Chapter 22, Verses 14 to 16… 

 

LUKE 22:14

When the hour had come (and His crucifixion was near) … the Lord Jesus Christ reclined at the Passover table…and the apostles reclined with Him.

 

LUKE 22:15 

And the Lord said to the apostles, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover meal with you before I suffer … ”

 

LUKE 22:16 

“…for I (the Lord Jesus Christ) say to you that I shall never again eat this

Passover meal until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God the Father.”

 

In First Corinthians, Chapter 11, Verse 26, the apostle Paul says, on behalf of the Lord…

 

FIRST CORINTHIANS 11:26

…as often as you eat this bread (representing His body)…and as often as you drink this cup (representing His blood)…as part of the Lord’s Supper Celebration…you proclaim as a reality and you announce the significance of the Lord Jesus Christ’s death on the Cross…and His resurrection from the dead…until He comes again at the second coming.

 

The Lord’s Supper Celebration is a time when the resident members of this congregation join hands through the miles with our non-resident members, and we demonstrate our unity by remembering our Lord together.  This is a celebration for which we set aside time.  We don’t do it on the move.  

 

During the Lord’s Supper Celebration, Jesus wants His believers to look

back to the Cross for a moment.  He wants us to REMEMBER how He rescued us from the kingdom of darkness.  He wants us to REMEMBER the sacrifice of shedding His blood to cover our sins.  He wants us to REMEMBER the deliverance to the resurrection life He orchestrated, bringing us into His kingdom of light.  Most of all, the Lord wants His believers to look forward with ANTICIPATION that He is coming again.   

 

As believers in Christ, when we celebrate The Lord’s Supper, we ask ourselves in reflection, “What did the Lord Jesus Christ do for us at the Cross?”   This month we acknowledge that at the Cross, the Lord Jesus Christ demonstrated that He is peerless.

 

Those of us who call Barah Ministries home know that we study the Bible from God’s perspective and not from man’s perspective.  Man’s interpretation of God does not capture the essence of God.  If you have ever asked anyone the question in Matthew, Chapter 22, Verse 42…

 

MATTHEW 22:42

“What do you think about the Christ?  Whose son is He?”

 

…you have heard various answers, most of them completely erroneous.  He’s a great man…He’s a great teacher…He’s a great Jewish Rabbi…He’s a prophet…He is not God…He did not live a sinless life…He’s a fairy tale.

 

Did you ever stop to think that man’s answer about who Jesus Christ is, whether they are for Him or against Him, does not matter?   Did you ever stop to think that man’s answer about what happened at the Cross…which we believers know was the perfectly satisfactory payment for the sins of the whole world made by Jesus Christ through shedding His blood…whether people believe this does not matter.  Human thoughts, whether for or against Christ, don't alter the truth about Christ one bit.

 

I would love it if the people I love and admire most would truly get to know me.  Many people who are close to me know “about” me…but they don’t know me.  So it is with Christ.  We can know Him if we want to know Him, but most of us just know “about” Him.  To us He is a thing…He is a concept in our minds...He is a genie who gives us the magic of salvation.  We use buzzwords and catchphrases to describe Him.  “Jesus Christ is my personal Savior.”  “I remember, like it was yesterday, the day when I let Jesus Christ into my heart”  “All because of you Lord!”  The magnificence of Jesus Christ can’t be appreciated through the intellect.  He can only be known through the mind and the heart as the Holy Spirit gives clarity to us.

 

Do you know the omnipresent One, the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who has known you and who has been with you for every moment of your lives?  Do you know Him, and not just about Him?  Is He real to you?  Is He more than just a doctrinal box that you check off every week so that you can be a “good Christian?”

 

When we look back at The Cross during the Lord’s Supper Celebration, and as we remember who it is hanging there, we must look at Jesus Christ from God’s perspective as well.  What are God the Father’s thoughts about the Lord Jesus Christ?  What does Deity think about Deity?  What is God’s the Father’s perspective about His Son, the One who became flesh and tabernacled among us?  Philippians, Chapter 2, Verses 8 to 11 …

 

PHILIPPIANS 2:8

Being found in appearance as a man, Jesus humiliated Himself by becoming

obedient to the point of death, even death on a Cross.

 

PHILIPPIANS 2:9 

For this reason, also, God the Father highly exalted Jesus, and bestowed on Jesus the name which is above every name…

 

PHILIPPIANS 2:10 

…so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow…of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth…

 

PHILIPPIANS 2:11 

…and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord (He is God the Son…Deity)…to the glory of God the Father.

 

Ultimately, God the Father wants the whole world to see Christ just as He is…the Father wants the whole world to see Christ just as He sees Christ… and the Father’s plan is already in place to bring this reality to pass.

 

Jesus alone is sinless.  Jesus alone is holy.  Jesus alone is Lord.  Jesus alone is the name above all other names.   Jesus alone is the One to whom EVERY knee will bow.  In all of the created universe, the Lord Jesus Christ has no peer…He stands alone.  The One we worship is One of kind.  Acts, Chapter 4, Verse 12…

 

ACTS 4:12

“…there is salvation in no one else…for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved (except the name of the Lord Jesus Christ).”

 

What is God the Holy Spirit’s perspective on God the Son?  Matthew, Chapter 16, Verses 15 to 17…

 

MATTHEW 16:15

Jesus said to the apostles, “Who do you say that I am?”

 

MATTHEW 16:16 

Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ (the Messiah)…the Son of the living God.”

 

Peter is looking at God from God’s perspective.

 

MATTHEW 16:17 

And Jesus said to Peter, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-jona…because flesh and blood (a human) did not reveal this to you…but My Father who is in heaven revealed this to you (through God the Holy Spirit).

 

Our offering song honors Jesus every week…There is None Like You!  So true!

 

To the degree that we see with God the Father’s eyes…to the degree that we see with God the Holy Spirit’s eyes as we look at Jesus…to this degree we have a chance to really know Him…to have a deep, intimate, and personal relationship with Him.

 

We have yet to meet our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ face-to-face, yet the revelation of Him by God the Holy Spirit makes Him as real to us as if we were seeing Him every day.  Learning about Him during Bible study fills us up, in an invisible way, with all of the fulness of Him.  The fulness in us that is installed in every Bible study only becomes apparent when we hear a song that moves us, and tears come streaming forth for a seemingly unexplained reason.  The reason is the fullness of He who is indwelling us coming to the fore.  Colossians, Chapter 1, Verse 27…

 

COLOSSIANS 1:27

…God the Father willed to make known the glorious riches of a mystery among the Gentiles…which is CHRIST INDWELLING YOU…the hope (the absolute confidence) of (our future) glory.

 

Because we believers in Christ are in union with Christ, we share everything that is Christ including His glory…and we look forward with confidence to meeting Him face-to-face and living with Him forever.  Ephesians Chapter 3, Verse 19…

 

EPHESIANS 3:19

…and I (Paul) pray for you to know the unconditional love of the Christ which surpasses knowledge…that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God the Father.

 

As we get to know the Lord, we realize that no matter how much we know Him, we want to know more.  He fills our minds and our hearts with questions about Himself so that we will keep on eagerly seeking Him.  And even though we will live with Him for all eternity in heaven, we will always have the deep desire to know Him more deeply, more personally, and more intimately.  Our monthly look back to the Cross increases our curiosity about what would have motivated Jesus to pay for the sins of all mankind in such a public and gruesome manner.  The answer, the ONLY answer, is simple.  Love.  Unconditional love.

 

There is no merit on our part when we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.  God the Holy Spirit does all the work.  He introduces us to the Lord with the gospel message…He convicts us concerning sin, and righteousness, and judgment…He invites us to believe…and He makes our desire to believe effective for salvation.  When we believe, the Holy Spirit baptizes us, identifying us with Christ, and places us into a forever unity with Him.

 

What happens when we turn our attention away from the Cross…away from Jesus…and fix our eyes on the world?  We get caught up in the eddy of the world.  We forget that the Person we’re in union with always gets what He wants.  He is peerless in that regard as well.  Isaiah, Chapter 46, Verse 10…

 

ISAIAH 46:10

Declaring the end from the beginning, and declaring from ancient times things which have not been done, saying, ‘My purpose will be established, and I will accomplish all My good pleasure’ …

 

God the Father wants the whole world to see Jesus Christ just as He is, and the Father’s plan is already in place to bring this reality to pass.  Let us open our spiritual eyes.

 

THE LORD’S SUPPER CELEBRATION

Enjoying the Lord’s Supper Elements

 

Let’s remember Jesus in the way He told us to remember Him.  Obeying our 

Lord’s command, we keep on celebrating the Christ and His Cross regularly.  We eat to remember who He is as a PERSON.  We drink to remember His WORK on the Cross…the voluntary sacrifice He made to deliver us.  We remember with gratitude what God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ have done to save us.  Matthew, Chapter 26, Verses 26 to 28…

 

MATTHEW 26:26

While they were eating, Jesus took some bread, and after a blessing, He broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take…eat…this is My body (which is being broken for you).”

 

MATTHEW 26:27

And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, Jesus gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you…”

 

MATTHEW 26:28 

"…for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”

 

Let’s listen to the Lord.  Let’s keep on eating this bread…let’s keep on drinking this cup…let’s do both to remember Him.  Let’s keep on being transformed by His life…His death… His burial…His resurrection from the dead…and His Word.  

 

SONG INTRO

 

John, Chapter 20, Verses 31…

JOHN 20:31 

…the things written in the Bible have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ (The Jewish Messiah) … the Son of God (in human form) … and that by believing in Him you may have the resurrection life in His name.

 

Hillsong Worship sings praises to the name of Jesus in their song WHAT A BEAUTIFUL NAME.

 

LORD’S SUPPER SONG

WHAT A BEAUTIFUL NAME 

Hillsong Worship

 

GOD WANTS YOU!

Make the Most Important Decision of Your Life

 

The closing message of this study is the most important message of this study.  We want you to know that GOD WANTS YOU. 

 

First and foremost, this message is for the benefit of believers in Christ.  First Peter, Chapter 3, Verse 15 says…

 

FIRST PETER 3:15

…believers…sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts…always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that is in you (the absolute confidence provided by your faith in Christ)… and give the defense with gentleness and respect…

 

Second, this message is for unbelievers, so you can be saved.  Whether you know it or not, you were born a sinner.  That’s bad news for you.  Sinners need a Savior.  The good news is that this gospel message offers you the chance to make the most important decision of your life.  

 

The apostle Paul gives unbelievers the vital information concerning who Jesus Christ is and what He did that is significant to them…another of the things that make Him peerless.  First Corinthians, Chapter 15, Verses 3 and 4…  

 

 

FIRST CORINTHIANS 15:3

For I (Paul) delivered to you as of first importance the gospel message I also received…that Jesus Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures…

 

FIRST CORINTHIANS 15:4 

…and that He was buried…and that He was raised from the dead on the third day…according to the Scriptures…

 

The most important decision unbelievers must make is outlined in Acts, Chapter 16, Verse 31…

 

ACTS 16:31 

“Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and everyone in your household who also believes.”

The most important warning unbelievers must heed comes from John, Chapter 3, Verse 36…

 

JOHN 3:36

“He who believes in the Son has the resurrection life right at that moment… but he who does not obey the command to believe in the Son will not see the resurrection life…instead the wrath of God (the Lake of Fire) abides on him.”

 

Unbelievers, take the free gift of eternal life right now!  There’s no time to waste!  Unbelievers…God wants you!  Believers…spread the good news to everyone you love and to everyone you don’t…now, not later.  

 

SONG INTRODUCTION

 

The Lord Jesus Christ is peerless.  That’s why June Murphy calls Him HERO.

 

CLOSING SONG

HERO

June Murphy

 

 

 

CLOSING VERSES

         A Doxology of Praise to Our God

 

PHILIPPIANS 4:6

Stop worrying about anything…instead, in everything by prayer and petition with an attitude of thanksgiving…let your requests be made known to God the Father. 

 

PHILIPPIANS 4:7 

And the peace of God the Father, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds (flooding your souls with peace)…you who are in union with Christ Jesus.

 

JUDE 1:24

Now to Jesus Christ…the One who is able to keep you from stumbling…and the One who is able to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy…

JUDE 1:25 

…to the only God…our Savior…through our union with Jesus Christ our Lord…be glory…majesty…dominion…and authority…before all time…and now…and forever. Amen.

 

CLOSING PRAYER

Let us pray...

 

Thanks for coming!

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Thanks for listening!

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