Stand Firm
The Resurrection of Christ
15 Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. 2 By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.
3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance[a]: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas,[b] and then to the Twelve. 6 After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, 8 and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.
58 Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
The Apostle Paul is the writer to the Corinthians, in this letter…. Do you know what the purpose of this letter was?
My study bible says it this way: To identify problems ins the Corinthian church, to offer solutions, and to teach the believers how to live for Christ in a corrupt society.
I’m guessing that every believer in America needs to take a close look at this letter to the Corinthians, because my friends we find ourselves living in a corrupt society today, and we need to know how to take our Stand, not for ourselves… We need to learn how to take our stand for Jesus, that is who they are after.
I looked up the phrase Stand Firm. My bible resource that I use came up with 34 places in the Bible where this phrase is used. Our passage this morning uses it twice, and its used earlier in 1 Corinthians in Ch. 10:12 when it says, 12 So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!
Do you know How to Stand Firm?
Let’s look at what Paul is stressing to this Church in this corrupt society, and we will notice that is applies to us today.
1. Stand Firm in what God Teaches in His Word and In your Salvation.
V. 1 Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand.
Friends, it’s important that you know what you believe and why you believe it. Your testimony should flow out of what you know God has done for you, how He has saved you, and what He has saved you from.
The apostle Paul is teaching in this passage about the Resurrection of Christ, why… because there were those in the area that were teaching that Christ had not been resurrected, they were teaching against the resurrection… in other words, they were attacking one of the most central teachings of Christianity and this was around 55AD, so some of those people in that church would have been alive during the life of Jesus….they would have heard the first hand accounts, first hand testimonies of those who had been with Jesus after his Resurrection.
How quickly Satan had set out to try to twist the truth, they to spin the truth to discourage and to confuse the lost.
I want to remind you of a basic fact. Satan is a liar, and those he control will lie to try and move people away from the Truth, Satan was the first spin artist….taking the truth and just putting his little lying spin to it, to fit his agenda.
Remember Adam and Eve in the Garden…. The serpent lying to them about God’s motive.
Remember Satan taking Jesus away in the desert, how he kept offering Jesus lies to try and disrupt the Father’s perfect plan for our salvation…. If Satan would attempt to deceive Jesus…. Don’t you think he will attempt to deceive you and me?
So, very simply we need to be ready to take our Stand, we need to be ready to Stand Firm upon the Truth of God’s Word.
So how should we stand?
I had the privilege of coaching youth basketball for 8 years while I was at the Westside schools, and I coached my own kids when they were really young, I grew to love coaching basketball.
Teaching a player how to stand, how to get ready to defend is one of the most basic concepts in basketball…. Or really all sports, how should you be standing when the play is about to start?
I want you to write this down if your taking notes. “If you’re not in a good stance, you cannot properly defend”.
Let me explain. On the basketball court, when the offensive player is dribbling the ball towards you, trying to attack the goal, your job is to keep them away from the goal, so you need to be able to move your feet quickly, to be able to keep your body in front of the player with the ball.
If you are standing straight up, with your legs straight, knees locked…. Not only can you not move quickly, but if anyone was to nudge you, you would fall over easily. So the proper stance is vital. A great defensive player will have the following things happening in their stance.
a. Feet a little more than shoulder width apart… (base)
b. Stand on the balls of your feet, not on your heels… (ready)
c. Knees slightly bent, this gets all your leg muscles engaged..
d. Back straight, to keep balanced
e. Keep your hands up, mirroring the offensive player
f. Watch the offensive players waist… (don’t be fooled by the fakes)
We are going to apply these principals to the idea of Standing Firm, or Taking Our Stand against Satan and all his lies.
So I’m going to explain to you how we can Stand Firm in our Faith, How we can Stand Firm in our corrupt society.
1st - the first thing I said for the BB player, was establish a good base, feet need to be properly placed. The Base is the most important aspect.
In our Christian Faith, our Base is God’s Word, taught to us through the infilling of the Holy Spirit. God’s Word taught to us through the power of the HS, that is our base, without that in our lives, we have no chance to defend ourselves against false teaching, against the schemes of Satan and those who lie on his behalf.
When I say you need to be getting into God’s Word and allowing the HS to teach you, I’m not talking about on Sunday mornings, or any other gathering… No doubt God wants to use our time together to teach us, to encourage us, to help us in our journey, but what happens on Sunday should be the overflow of what you and God have been doing all week long together in Study, in Prayer, and in Worship…. Just you and Him.
Where are you studying right now? What has God been dealing with you specifically in your personal life? Who has God placed on your heart to witness too? Who has God placed on your heart to pray for? Has God spoke to you about forgiving someone in your life?
You see all those kinds of questions should be getting answers every week, not on Sundays…. In your Monday through Saturday Bible Study time.
As a teen, when I heard the preacher, which was my dad also, talking about having personal bible study, personal prayer time, I looked at it as another chore I needed to do.
What I didn’t realize was it was actually the one activity that would keep me grounded in my Faith, it was the one discipline that would help me when doubts and temptations would come into my mind and heart.
Taking this Stance, getting your heart and mind Ready by getting into God’s Word and allowing Him to get into your heart, it’s the only way we can fight the onslaught of lies and schemes of the evil one. Are you in the stance? Is your base set?
15 Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. 2 By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.
We live in a time where the media, the intellectuals, the elitist, they will all come together and begin to attach the church, attach Christianity, and they will use every means possible to get you to give up your faith. This attack is already here, you may have not recognized it yet, but it won’t be long before it will be out in the open just like it is in so many other countries. The only thing that holds them back besides the Almighty, is our Constitution which gives us Freedom of Religion.
If you haven’t noticed, the Constitution is under attack, you can lose your job now for saying there are only 2 genders, it’s happened all over our country. By the way, God created us Male and Female, there are no other options, no matter how hard you try to pretend.
Have you noticed that our Government has tried to mandate a vaccine, and if you don’t comply, they will take your livelihood away from you, you have no recourse. If that isn’t an attack on your freedom over your own health than I don’t know what is…. The truth is Freedom in America is under attack, and you and I better know how to Stand Firm, and We better know what We are Standing For…. So you need to Spend time with God through His Word, everyday and in prayer, so He can show you the way forward.
In AD 55 they were already attacking the truth of the Resurrection, why would we expect anything different today?
Listen to the words of Paul in the last verse of this chapter…
58 Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
One of the steps I stated for a good defensive position for a basketball player is to look at their waist…does anyone know why?
When you watch some of these really good offensive players, they can fake you so bad that you will end up on the ground, not even knowing where they went…. So you don’t watch their face, or their feet because they can fake you out if you watch that, but their waist is going where they are going… so keep your eyes focused.
Friends, we need to keep our Eyes focused on Jesus, because as I have already pointed out, we are being led astray by most in the media, most in our government are just playing politics, we need to not be duped, not be led around like sheep with no Shepard…. Because we have a Leader, and He is the Lion of Judah, We can keep our eyes on Him by allowing Him to inform us through His Word, and through Prayer. And He will also use His Church, but as a Church we need to be careful, there are many in the church world who are being led astray also, that is why we don’t put our Faith in just any person…. Only Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, who was Raised on the 3rd day and now is in Heaven sitting at the Right hand of the Father, who on a day not too far from now, He will be coming for those who are remained Faithful and True, those who have Stood Firm, who have let nothing move us…. Does that describe you?
Today’s the day to Stand firm, if you wait any longer to get things straight, you may be swept away in this corrupt generation.
