With Elder Elico Manenji
✝️The Gospel is anchored in the preaching of the death and resurrection of Christ which gives hope of a new life to believers. It puts clearly that Christ died for our sins, and rose again the third day and that many were witnesses of his resurrection such as Peter, James, and more than five hundred brethren and lastly Paul himself saw him and was called by him to Apostleship. Though there were some in the Church who taught against the resurrection as did the Sadducees and Epicureans, the Apostle made a strong argument based of faith and the natural order of things were see and do such as sowing seeds which only germinate after they are buried in the soil. So the Apostle encourages the Church that indeed there will be a resurrection of the dead just as Christ died and was raised to life. That the raised shall put on immortality and new life at the trumpet call of Christ. This settles the believer's hope and faith.
*1️⃣ 1 Corinthians 15:1-19: The evidence of Christ's resurrection is the foundation of faith gives hope to all who believe.*
⏹️Religion is based on historical facts not human reasoning and imaginations, it is based on Christ, a historical fact, that He came and was born in this world in human flesh that He lived and died in human flesh was buried and rose to newness of life on the third day. The prophet Daniel says, *"“Seventy weeks have been determined upon your people, and upon the holy city, for sin to be ended, to seal up transgressions, to blot out iniquities, to make atonement for iniquities, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy"(Daniel 9:24).*
⏫That His life was proclaimed by Angels and witnessed by humanity, that he appeared to Mary, Peter, James and lastly Paul who was made an Apostle when he met Him on his way to persecute the Church. The scripture says, *"To whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many convincing proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God"(Acts 1:3).*
*"This Jesus God raised up on the third day, and caused Him to be seen: not to all the people, but to witnesses, who having been chosen beforehand by God, even to us, who ate and drank together with Him after He arose from the dead"(Act 10:40-41).*
⏹️That Christ died to put away sin is evidence that our sins in Him are expiated and we are saved as we renounce and hate sin and we become new living creatures. The Apostle says, *"Since it would have been necessary for Him to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now, once at the consummation of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin through the sacrifice of Himself"(Hebrews 9:26).*
The Apostle Peter says, *"Who Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, in order that having died to sins, we might live unto righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed"(1 Peter 2:24).*
⏭️That the preaching of Christ's death and resurrection is the foundation of our faith and hope of eternal life. The Apostle says, *"That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and you believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved"(Romans 10:9).*
*2️⃣ 1 Corinthians 15:20 - 34: As the first Adam sinned and brought death for all men, the Second Adam(Christ) brought life and Spirituality to all men.*
⏹️That we suffer death as the result of sin and all who are descendants of Adam will die but all who have faith in Christ will triumph over death. This victorious resurrection of believers will take place at Christ’s second return to earth with glory.
⏭️That by His resurrection, Christ banished death by being victorious over it on the Cross until the last outpost of rebellion. He thus established full and complete authority over everything and everyone and delivered His victory to the Father, the work He was willing to complete for the human race.
⏹️By reason of uniting with Him in newness of life, we are baptized and immersed in His death and buried with Him in the water by
immersion and rise to new life with Him as we became dead to sin and trespasses. The Apostle says, *"Likewise you also, consider yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord"(Romans 6:11).*
⏭️In doing this we have a seal of approval as we are counted as sons and daughters of God, having no spot or wrinkle as we walk and live in newness of a holy life as we die daily to sin and damning it's power, through the death of Christ and it's governing power through the power of the Spirit and grace of Christ. Jesus said, *"Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you; for upon Him God the Father has set His seal.""(John 6:27).*
*3️⃣ 1 Corinthians 15: 35- 58: The trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised to immortality.*
⏹️As seeds dies when they are put in the ground, this being part of the process of bringing forth new life in the form of a plant that grows up out of the ground, so will be the resurrection of the dead, they first are planted in their graves and risen to immortality newness of life at the trumpet call of the Lord. The Psalmist says, *"As a lump of earth is crushed upon the ground, our bones have been scattered by the mouth of the grave"(Psalm 141:7).*
The Apostle says, *"And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our trespasses"(Colossians 2:13).*
⏭️It is God who will give a different life in it's beauty and form according to His purpose. As the body is buried in corruption, so it will be raised incorruptible, as it is buried is perishable, unattractive, and powerless, then it will be raised imperishable, attractive, strong and beautiful. The prophet Daniel says, *"And the wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and the many righteous as the stars forever and ever"(Daniel 12:3).*
Jesus said, *"Then the righteous will shine forth like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!"(Matthew 13:43).*
⏹️Flesh and blood can not inherit eternal life for all will be raised in a new body as that which their Lord and Master had at His resurrection. The trumpet shall sound, and all who sealed their relationship with Him will be raised first to glory and everlasting life. This is the hope we need to continue to encourage one another, that this death is not the end of life, but that this death is the planting of new life if we are in covenant with Christ. The Apostle says, *"For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made by hand, eternal in the heavens"(2 Corinthians 5:1).*
*🅰️Appeal*
At the resurrection of the just, *"Death is swallowed up in victory"( 1 Corinthians 15:54).* The prophet Isaiah said, *"Death has prevailed and swallowed men up; but again the Lord God has taken away every tear from every face. He has taken away the reproach of His people from all the earth; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it"(Isaiah 25:8).* For mortality shall be then swallowed up in immortality, so death will be perfectly subdued and conquered and the saints for ever delivered from its power. The Apostle says, *"Because the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first"(1Thessalonians 4:16).* Amen!!!
Elico Manenji
(+263712952704)
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