TODAY’S MANNA SATURDAY, JUNE 30, 2018. TOPIC: HOPE OF RESURRECTION

TODAY’S MANNA

SATURDAY, JUNE 30, 2018

TOPIC: HOPE OF RESURRECTION
TEXT: 1 CORINTHIANS 15:12-28
1) THE KEY VERSE: 
“If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable” 

(1 Corinthians 15:19).
2) THE TEXT:

(1 CORINTHIANS 15: 12 – 28 KJV)
“12. Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?
13. But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen:
14. And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.
15. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not.
16. For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised:
17. And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.
18. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.
19. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.
20. But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.
21. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.
22. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
23. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.
24. Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.
25. For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. (Psa 110:1; Matt. 22:44; Luke 20:43; 

Acts 2:34; Heb. 1:13)
26. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.
27. For he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put all things under him. (Psa 8:6; Eph. 1:22; Heb 2:8)
28. And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.”
3) THE MESSAGE:
i) On one occasion, Michelangelo, the great artist, turned on his fellow artists in a spirit of indignation. He said, “Why do you keep filling gallery after gallery with endless pictures on the one theme of Christ in weakness, Christ on the Cross, and most of all, Christ hanging dead? Why do you concentrate on the passing episode as if it were the last work, as if the curtain dropped on Him with disaster and defeat? That dreadful scene lasted a few hours. But to the unending eternity, Christ is alive; the stone has been rolled away and He rules and reigns and triumphs!” 
ii) The Christian life is lived in anticipation of a better life to come. 
iii) Apostle Paul emphasised the centrality of the hope of resurrection to our lives as believers. If Christ had not resurrected, then our salvation and hope for eternal life is in vain. In fact, the hope of resurrection is the reason we are in faith until now. 
iv) The expectation that the day would come when our mortal bodies shall put on immortality and the corruption put on incorruption stimulates our faith and makes us count our present trials and tribulations as light affliction which cannot be compared with the eternal weight of glory which is to come 

(1 Corinthians 15:53; 2 Corinthians 4:17). 
v) According to Apostle Paul, this hope alone removes the fear of death, because death shall be swallowed up in victory. Christians are strangers and pilgrims in the world. For the believer, life does not consist in the abundance of the things we possess. That is why all possessions are held with loose hands. 
vi) What we hold fast is our faith in Christ anchored in the hope of a better life after our departure from this world. Heaven is the prize; and the hope of resurrection to be with the Lord becomes so important that without it, our entire Christianity falls apart. 
vii) Sinners do not have this glorious hope. Sinners and backsliders must genuinely repent of all sins and forsake them before this hope can be activated in their lives.
4) THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: 
Our future is far greater than our past.
5) BIBLE READING IN ONE YEAR: 
2 CHRONICLES 19-23
Happy Weekend😁😁😁