Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and Paul’s apostolic authority over this [Corinthian] Church, what arises from this highly corrective letter, helps us understand what matters to God about His local Churches. Below is an outline summary of the sermon for your further study and deeper reflection.

SERIES:  The Gathering: Why Sunday Matters
TEXT: 1 Corinthians 11:17-34
TITLE: Communion: A Holy Celebration
PREACHER: Tim Lambros
BIG IDEA: The Sunday Gathering Matters to God because gospel proclamation matters to God.

POINTS:
1. The Sunday Gathering Matters
2. The Communion Celebration Matters
3. The Communion Posture Matters

SERMON EXCERPTS:
All quotes are taken from the pastor’s notes.
”Paul is bringing a rebuke, a correction concerning when they gather on Sundays. He doesn’t waste time and is very clear. Your  Sunday gatherings are not for the better but for the worse. …[These are] God’s people gathering as Christians, saved by grace, saved by the power of the gospel – yet their Sunday gathering is not commendable. …It’s not even neutral. It’s for the worse. When you gather it’s not good, it’s not healthy, it’s not productive. In fact, Corinth, it’s for the worse.”

“God is using the Apostle Paul to speak into a messy situation in the Corinthian Church on numerous fronts – earlier in this letter Paul dealt with sexual sin, later he will deal with the pride of exalting of a spiritual gift like tongues – here God is concerned with the Sunday gathering. Are you getting the idea that the Sunday gathering  matters to God?”  

“Paul will move on to instruction concerning the Lord’s Supper next but clearly the Corinthian Church and all local Churches would know from this rebuke that the Sunday Gathering Matters to God.”

“The early Church met in rich people’s homes. The unity the gospel brought was still  being worked out in the Churches – Jew/Greek, rich/poor, master/slave, male/female.  The tradition and institution of the Lord’s Supper was getting lost as the rich people  were more concerned about their meal while drinking their wine while others were not  eating anything. Societal discrimination was being cultivated when they met and the  sacred observance of the Lord’s Supper was getting lost.”

“Paul directs their attention to the communion celebration. One of two sacraments. A  sign. A particularly important celebration commanded by the Lord Jesus Christ to be  done regularly because it’s one of the richest pictures and reminders of the gospel of  Jesus Christ.”

“Paul draws their attention to the tradition of this institution. This is too rich and too meaningful a tradition to confuse it with mealtime or to come hoping to get your stomach satisfied or to drink wine. The Church is to come together for a communion  celebration that reminds them of the significance of what Christ had done.”

“During the Lord’s Supper, we preach the death of Christ that paid the cost for discriminating one another, paid the price for selfishness and self-centeredness in the Church. Can you see why Paul brings correction and in fact is  saying “this is important to get right, the communion celebration matters!” this rich  and meaningful and important celebration means something – look at v. 26 – you are  proclaiming the Lord’s death until He comes.”

“Bottom line, if you participate in the Lord’s Supper in an unworthy manner you will be guilty concerning the body and blood of Christ. In other words, if you are self-centered when the Church gathers for this sacrament and sin against your brothers and sisters  you disrespect Jesus Himself.”

APPLICATION:
- Does the Sunday gathering of this local Church matter to you?
- In what ways can you fight our heart getting cold about the Sunday Gathering?

For all of us, here’s the bad news: You can’t avoid death. Everyone eventually dies, and there’s nothing anyone can do about it. But Easter changes everything. Easter is the remedy for death. Below is an outline summary of the sermon for your further study and deeper reflection.

EASTER 2024
TEXT: 1 Corinthians 15:20-26
TITLE: The Ultimate Hope of Easter
PREACHER: Derek Overstreet
BIG IDEA: Because death is our greatest enemy, Easter is our greatest hope.

POINTS:
1. The Resurrection of Jesus Guarantees Our Resurrection
2. The Resurrection of Jesus Guarantees the Renewal of All Things

SERMON EXCERPTS:
All quotes are taken from the pastor’s notes.
”I read a study titled—What We Fear More Than Death. Does anyone think they know the answer? 75% of people polled answered public speaking. That means most of you would rather die than get up here and speak. If that’s you, here’s the good news: You can avoid public speaking. For all of us, here’s the bad news: You can’t avoid death. Everyone eventually dies, and there’s nothing anyone can do about it. But Easter changes everything. Easter is the remedy for death.”

“Easter is our greatest hope because the resurrection of Jesus guarantees our resurrection and the renewal of all things.”

“Paul is correcting bad theology in 1 Corinthians. But in that, he is giving the Corinthians hope. There is safety and hope in sound doctrine.”

“In Corinth, there were some in the church rejecting a bodily resurrection. There is no hope in that perspective. If there is no resurrection, then not even Jesus is resurrected. And if Jesus has not been raised from the dead, if the tomb is not empty on Sunday, then all that happened on Good Friday doesn’t matter. We are still in our sins. The Christian faith is meaningless, even blasphemous. This life is all we have, so we are to be pitied above all. Why? Because if the tomb is not empty, the gospel unravels.”

“What are first fruits? The first fruits were the first crops the farmer gathered from their harvest. They would take the first fruits of their crops and give them to the Lord as an offering of gratitude for His provision. The first fruits also gave the farmer hope because they acted as a promise for a good harvest. The first fruits were a sign of good things to come. In the analogy, Paul says Jesus’ resurrection was the first fruit, the first spiritual harvest that will lead to many resurrections. Christ’s empty tomb guarantees a bountiful crop of resurrections to follow.”

“Paul says you have believed the gospel, which is of first importance. You believe that Jesus died for your sins on the cross, and after three days in the grave, he was raised from the dead and was seen alive by over 500 people, including ME. Now, if Jesus is the first fruit, the necessary implication of your faith is that his resurrection, which you believe in, guarantees your resurrection. Be hopeful!”

“Because Adam was the first man, he was the representative of mankind. The way he goes, we all go. Adam’s sin affected and infected us all. Because Adam sinned, we are sinners. We are sinners because we inherited Adam’s sinful nature. This is called Original Sin. You can read more about it in Romans 5. In Adam, we have all sinned, making physical and spiritual death the inescapable reality for us all.”

“We know sin—Anger, lust, greed, gossip, dishonesty, bitterness. We know pride, selfishness, judgementalism, coarse talk, sexual sin. We have been freshly reminded by the Book of Judges just how well we know idolatry, which is simply finding our purpose and joy in anything other than God. Why? We were born on Team Adam. But our text tells us there is another team.”

“This text tells us there is another representative whose actions affect us. In Adam, all die, but those IN CHRIST live! Isn’t God merciful and gracious? We deserve death—He gives us life.”

“The Hope of Easter is not that if you clean up your life, God will accept you. The Hope of Easter is not a personal commitment to diversity, equity, or inclusion. The Hope of Easter is not a disciplined approach to tradition or ceremony. The Hope of Easter is not found in politicians. The Hope of Easter is that all who believe in Jesus will live forever in his glorious presence. To be IN CHRIST is to have CHRIST IN YOU, and CHRIST IN YOU is the hope of glory! Such is the profound nature of the gospel and the guarantee of the resurrection.”

“In the resurrection of Jesus, God has the final word over sin and death. Jesus paid the price for our sins at the cross, crying—It is finished. Through the empty tomb, God makes the cosmic proclamation—It is sufficient! And on that glorious day when the trumpet will sound, and Jesus returns in all his glory, we will finally, fully, and forever realize our Easter Hope.”

ADDITIONAL SCRIPTURE:
Romans 3:23
Romans 6:23
Colossians 1:27

QUOTES:
David Garland - “Graveyards remind us of the brevity of life. Jesus’ resurrection reminds us of the brevity of death.”

APPLICATION:
If you have never placed your faith in Jesus, you are still on Team Adam. Eternal death and judgment await you. But today, you can believe in Jesus and live. You may say—Pastor, I am living. I’m good. You’re not living. The Bible says because of your sin, you are a dead person walking. You may be alive physically, but you are dead spiritually, and that’s what matters eternally. But Jesus is not dead—He has risen! That means if you believe in him today, you lean all your trust on him for salvation, you will be raised to life and truly live, not only today but forever. Will you come to Jesus this morning?

For the believer, Paul tells us exactly how we should respond to our Easter Hope—read 58. Our Easter hope is that one day, we will rise from the dead and reign with Jesus. But that resurrection promise, in a sense, is ours now. It’s in part, but we live the resurrection life today. 

In this topsy-turvy world, what is testing your faith today? The resurrection spurs you on to gospel steadfastness, knowing the best is yet to come. Are you becoming fearful of trying to live the Christian life in your country? You can stand immovable in the face of increasing hostility because what can man do to us—IN CHRIST, death is the door to life!

Are you growing weary of doing gospel good in an unresponsive community? You can throw ourselves into our gospel mission because Jesus is not dead; he is alive and advancing His kingdom purposes through us from the throne of God. As Christians, we aren’t living our best lives now, but we live now knowing that our best lives are yet to come.

God’s perfect holiness. Our radical sinfulness. CHRIST’S MIGHTY SACRIFICE. Grace always abounding. Below is an outline summary of the sermon for your further study and deeper reflection.

TEXT: 1 Corinthians 1:18-25
TITLE: The Wisdom and Power of God: A Study in Leviticus
PREACHER: Guest Pastor, Lynn Baird
BIG IDEA: The violent and catastrophic consequences of sin against a holy God, requires a violent and catastrophic response… the cross!

POINTS:
1. The Holiness of God
2. The Pervasiveness of Sin
3. The Need for Sacrifice - The Cost of Sin

SERMON EXCERPTS:
”Though I'm not going to be preaching on this passage [1 Corinthians 1:18-25] directly, the message here is important to what I want to say… The preaching of the cross causes religious people to stumble and worldly people to consider it foolishness.”

"This is going to be a different sort of expositional message. I'm not going to go through a particular passage of scripture but will be doing an overview of an entire book. The book of Leviticus.”

“From the beginning, God has used bloody, brutal sacrifices to cover or atone for sin. From the animal skins for Adam and Eve in the garden, to the lamb that replaced Isaac, to the sacrificial system under the law and priests. The ultimate culmination of this being Christ on the cross.”

“When we approach Leviticus, we want to ask two questions: Who is God? and What does that mean for us? One of the key ways to understand God is to see how he tells us to relate to him. This is what Leviticus is all about: how do you relate to a holy God?”

“So often we tend to think of holiness as purity or sinlessness, but the root of the word actually means to be separate. Completely other. Separate from them. In this case, God is so profoundly ‘other’ or ‘separate’ that God must communicate to the Israelites how he is to be approached. They cannot come near him, except in the way designed by God himself. If they don't they die.… His holy nature demands you only approach him in the way HE prescribes.”

“The underlying nature of sin is rebellion. Wanting to do things OUR way. The fact you are a sinner is a fact that is never going to change. But because of that, we better recognize who God is and how he wants to be approached.”

“The story of Nadab and Abihu in Leviticus chapter 10 may seem harsh and unjust to us. Death for simply putting the wrong kind of incense or “fire” on the altar? … we should not be surprised by God's judgment for sin, we should be surprised that any of us are still alive and haven't been judged already!”

“Left to ourselves we would simply make up a god of our own choosing, that we could relate to, that we like.”

“God's holiness is to affect how we live in every day life - Leviticus 19:2”

“The effect of sin is radical; everything is tainted by sin. We are not as bad as we could be, perhaps, but every part of us is affected. …Sin is the slightest act of defiance against God’s cosmic authority.”

“Here's the reality, though; the goal is not to somehow become sinless in order to be in God's presence. That is impossible. The goal is to come to God in the way he prescribes. … the doctrine of sin is humbling, and humility is the only appropriate response to it.”

“In one day, God brought the sin of the world and his anger and wrath against sin and rebellion and poured it out completely, and totally on one human being: his Son. His Isaac. His Passover lamb.”

“The same God who's zeal against sin consumed Nadab and Abihu was the one who flamed in fury against his own Son when our sin was placed upon him. The same God who required countless sacrifices, done exactly as he said, to cover the sin of a constantly rebellious people is the same God who required the death of his son for our rebellion. This was the one and only time God punished an innocent man. If you are appalled by the cost of pride and sin in the Old Testament, you should be absolutely aghast at the price. God was willing to pay, the extent to which he was willing to go, to deal with sin once, and for all.”

“The cross was God's design for the offering of the perfect sacrifice that could take away sin. There was no other way of doing it.”

“… we aren't afraid to talk about sin or the cross. We enthusiastically embrace the reality of our sin, knowing that the grace of God in Christ abounds all the more in the face of our sin. This is what gives us the power to fight against sin!”

ADDITIONAL SCRIPTURE:
The Book of Leviticus
Hebrews 10:9
Isaiah 63:5
John 14:6
Romans 5:20
Hebrews 13:15

APPLICATION:

• Don't ever let your pride to keep you from doing it God's way!

• Don't ever be dragged down or overwhelmed by your sin or the cross. Be amazed by Grace!

• Don't ever try to minimize sin or its consequences. Be amazed by Grace!