TUESDAY April 30th
1 Corinthians 1:17-31
V18 ‘For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God’.
Let’s add here as well the verse I used yesterday from Romans 1:16 ‘For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes’.
Recently we have remembered again the events of that weekend a little over two-thousand years ago when Jesus of Nazareth was taken and crucified, and after breathing out his last breath, crying out ‘it is finished’, was buried.
Now wouldn’t it have been a tragic waste of a life if the burial of Jesus had been the end of the story. All the predictions of the Old Testament and the promises that he had made himself while preaching and teaching about eternal life would have been just utter nonsense, because a dead man can offer absolutely nothing.
But thank God the burial and the sealing of the tomb with a stone was not the end, because on the third day, as some of them went to the tomb they were greeted with what is one of the most incredible statements that have ever been made ‘Why do you seek the living among the dead, he is not here he is risen’.
Imagine the conversation:
‘What do you mean he is risen’, ‘Well, do you not remember what it was that he told you when he was with you in Galilee?’ ‘No, remind us.’ ‘The son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise’. (Luke 24)
I am sure we have all heard news reports and stories of what we can only describe as incredible, some of them almost sounding unbelievable, but the evidence has been overwhelming. As an example, is it not strange that despite all the evidence that has been given, many will not accept that man has stepped on the moon, they will do all they can to discredit the story. When it comes to the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus, despite all the evidence of those who witnessed and testified about it, Paul says a few years after the event that it was considered as foolishness to so many, they just would not believe. In fact, at first the disciples thought it was all just an idle tale (Luke 24:11 nonsense NIV). But Paul goes all out to demonstrate that the resurrection of Jesus was a fact, there were too many witnesses to write it off as fake news, and he himself, although a little later than all the other witnesses had encountered Jesus himself while travelling from Jerusalem to Damascus. Yet, despite the testimony of many, despite the evidence of those whose lives have been transformed by the power of the gospel over the last two-thousand years, most of the world’s population still consider it all to be foolishness, nonsense, an idle tale.
Where do you stand today as you read this devotion, for, how you respond and what you believe will decide your eternal destination, for as Paul defends the resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15:22, he says, ‘For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive’. Want to know more? I will continue with this same verse, 1 Corinthians 1:18 in the next devotion.