Good morning. And if Christ has not been raised, then our
preaching is vain, your faith also is vain. That makes sense. Moreover we are
even found to be false witnesses of God, because we testified against God that
He raised Christ, whom He did not raise if in fact the dead are not raised. Is
your head beginning to swim? For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ
has been raised, and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless;
you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ
have perished. From what he says later, they must have had great concern about
their friends or relatives who were Christians and had died earlier. But now
Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits (The first sheaf of the
harvest given to the Lord as a token that all of the harvest belonged to the
Lord and would be dedicated to Him) of those who are asleep. Jesus was just the
first to be raised from the dead, not the only one. We will see next time that
Paul amplifies this concept for a few verses. Father thank You that Christ was
the first, not the only one to be raised from the dead. We can be confident
that we will follow Him one day.
Unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God
Good morning. While Jesus was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name, observing His signs which He was doing. Jesus was not entrusting Himself to them, for He knew all men. Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. It doesn’t say, but I assume it is still during this time of the Passover. This man came to Jesus by night. Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do the signs that You do unless God is with him. It just said that the people believed in His name because of the signs He was doing; yet it does not say what those signs were. Unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God. That is why unbelievers cannot tell what is of the kingdom of God and what is not – they’re not born again. Nicodemus doesn’t have a clue. How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he? Unless one is born of water and the Spirit ...
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