Four Points Church

Genesis 1:26-28 - ”The Only Good King - Advent 2023 Week 1” - Jeremy Brannon / December 17, 2023

The Only Good King - Advent 2023 Week 1

1 Corinthians 16:12-24 - ”The Common Bond of Gospel Mission” - Brent Stephens / December 10, 2023

Shakespeare’s Henry V has its share of great speeches, but the best-remembered in our culture is found in Act IV, Scene III, as the king addresses his men before the Battle of Agincourt, a fight in which they know they are greatly outnumbered. He calls his men a “band of brothers”—very familial words for a mixed group of peasantry and nobility, especially in a society in which one’s birth determined so much in one’s life. The Apostle Paul continues to call out his own brothers (and a sister!) in the Lord in this final section of 1 Corinthians, people from different backgrounds and stations in life. Like soldiers on a battlefield, they find themselves united by their common mission and love for their King. Their dedication to the mission and to one another encourages us to better our commitments to Jesus and to our brothers and sisters in Christ.

1 Corinthians 16:1-11 - ”The Privilege of Participation in the Mission” - Brent Stephens / December 3, 2023

Most of us turn off the credits at the end of a movie, unless the music is really good! The endless scrolling list of names does not carry the entertainment value that the rest of the film does. As a student of the Bible, when you start seeing names and personal greetings, don’t treat them like that list of movie credits and tune out! All Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for His people (2 Timothy 3:16). In this passage, we get a glimpse into how the budding New Testament churches interacted with one another. How did these small groups of people across the Mediterranean grow into a burgeoning gospel movement that progresses so powerfully across the globe? The churches and their workers walked through “open doors” of ministry through the power of the Holy Spirit. Sometimes they faced adversity on the other side of those doors, but a love for Jesus and His people kept them struggling toward the prize (1 Corinthians 9:24; Philippians 3:14; Hebrews 12:1).

1 Corinthians 15:50-58 - ”The Victory of the Resurrection” - Daniel Pernell / November 26, 2023

Paul has just spent the last several verses discussing what the resurrected bodies of believers will be like. He now explains to the church in Corinth about the change that must take place for those that are in Christ to enter into the glorious presence of King Jesus for all eternity. This change is necessary because “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable” (1 Corinthians 15:50). “The perishable” is describing our current bodies, and “the imperishable” is describing our eternal glorified state in God’s kingdom. Dead in Christ or alive in Christ, it doesn’t matter. When the last trumpet sounds, those that have not fallen asleep and those that are already dead—all will be changed “in the twinkling of an eye” (v. 52). To hammer home the point of the necessity of this change, Paul uses the word “must” twice in verse 53. Our perishable and mortal bodies are not fit, as currently constructed, to enter into glory. The saints receiving their glorified bodies is the last step in the unbreakable, golden chain of redemption. “And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified” (Romans 8:30).

1 Corinthians 15:35-49 - ”The Hope of the Resurrection” - Brent Stephens / November 19, 2023

In the previous section, Paul deals with some in the church who are saying that there is no resurrection from the dead (1 Corinthians 15:12). Apparently, one of the sticking points for this group is the inability to understand what kind of resurrected bodies they will have. We see this belief in Paul’s anticipation of the follow-up question: “With what kind of body will they come” (v. 35)? Paul is upset at the line of questioning and calls the Corinthians “foolish” in verse 36, not because they lack intelligence, but because they lack faith in the omnipotence and sovereignty of God. Paul says in verse 34 that some within the church actually “have no knowledge of God,” and he directly addresses their lack of knowledge by defending the omnipotence and sovereignty of God. He says, “But God gives it a body as He has chosen” (v. 38).

1 Corinthians 15:12-34 - ”The Implications of the Resurrection” - Nick Steinichen / November 12, 2023

Paul begins this chapter by validating the truth of Jesus’ resurrection. If Jesus has risen from the grave, what does that mean for you and me? What are the implications of the resurrection for the believer in Jesus? Paul addresses these questions now.

1 Corinthians 15:1-11 - ”The Evidence for the Resurrection” - Nick Steinichen / November 5, 2023

This book has been full of important issues. However, there is one issue that is vital to all other issues that have been addressed in 1 Corinthians. In this section, the subject matter now shifts. Paul addresses this very important subject—not that the other issues he has addressed were not important, but this issue is of "first importance” (1 Corinthians 15:3): the resurrection. It seems as though some of the Corinthians were denying a physical resurrection of the body. This shouldn’t surprise us considering that the ancient pagan and Greek religions viewed the body as inferior to that of the soul. Paul addresses this issue with a compelling and biblical argument, beginning his defense of the resurrection with a defense of Jesus’ resurrection.

1 Corinthians 14:26-40 - ”The Proper Procedure for Prophecy -The Gifts, Part 8” - Brent Stephens / October 29, 2023

God is a God of order and not chaos. Think for a moment about the universe, our world, and society itself. God has purposefully built order into everything. Those who accept His order will flourish, while those who reject it live under the shadow of a curse. Imagine if the mayor of the town you live in suddenly gathered everyone together and made the following speech: “We are no longer going to have leaders, police, firemen, or any other government agency within this city. Our goal is for each person to live freely as they see fit.” What do you think the outcome of that experiment would look like? Do you think the complete freedom of each individual to do as they wish would lead to more order, or to chaos? People who only do what is right in their own eyes always lead society to deprivation and despair. Anarchy, which is built on the freedom of the individual, can lead to no other place but chaos. This is why Genesis, the first book of our Bible, opens with this truth: God brings order to chaos (Genesis 1:1-31). God creates the family which, when ordered by God’s design, is the first building block of a healthy society.

1 Corinthians 14:13-25 - ”The Proper Procedure for Tongues - The Gifts, Part 7” - Brent Stephens / October 22, 2023

Imagine being in a worship service when a woman interrupts the sermon by loudly singing in tongues. Or a man standing in a service and praying in tongues for several minutes. Both the woman and the man would be personally edified by using their gift of tongues, but no one else in the room would get anything out of it. No one else could even say “Amen” afterward because they have no idea what had been sung or prayed (1 Corinthians 14:16). I was once in a service where a man spoke in tongues for several minutes. When he finished a young child said very loudly, “I have no idea what that man just said!” Everyone around who heard the child’s exclamation had a good laugh about it, but if the apostle Paul had been there, he would have given the child a hearty “amen!” Tongues is a gift that has no purpose in a gathered worship setting unless someone interprets what has been said (v. 17). Paul is not saying tongues has no purpose at all. Paul loves the gift of tongues and uses it every chance he gets (v. 18). However, when Christians gather to worship Jesus, Paul would trade 10,000 words in a different language for just five words everyone gathered could understand (v. 18). The church gathers to “build up” everyone present, not just a single individual who speaks in tongues.

1 Corinthians 14:1-12 - ”Striving For the Gifts That Build Up - The Gifts, Part 6” - Brent Stephens / October 15, 2023

Two aforementioned realities are again made very clear at the beginning of chapter 14. First, God has given gifts to His Church, and His people should earnestly desire those gifts. God gives these gifts to be used so that the Church can be built up (1 Corinthians 14:3, 5). It should not surprise us that God wants to build us into mature believers who together act as salt and light in this world around us (Matthew 5:13-16). It is through His people that God makes His glory and salvation known to those who are lost. God sends His Spirit to empower and gift us to that end. Why would we not want gifts that He has made available for the benefit of all our brothers and sisters in Christ? Second, gifts are to be used through the vehicle of love (1 Corinthians 14:1). The greatest misconceptions concerning grace gifts come from seeing them abused or used wrongly. Many pastors and theologians opt to sweep chapters 12-14 under the rug and declare there is no point or purpose in these gifts any longer. It is not that they despise God’s Word, but more that they fear the mess that some of these gifts will bring. The believers in Corinth are eager for spiritual manifestations of the gifts in their gathered services (v. 12). They are praying and singing in tongues, interrupting the order of the service, and causing unbelievers to think Christians are completely out of their minds. Many churches today follow these same practices. Both the believers in Corinth and the modern proponents of the gifts who act in these ways miss the point of the gifts God gives. Love for the person sitting on your right and left in church is the key to rightly using the gifts as God directs. Grace gifts in a gathered service should only build up everyone present. Unbelievers should be convicted of sin and drawn to repentance and faith in Christ through the use of our gifts. Likewise, believers should be consoled, encouraged, and built up through their use.