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The Early Christians Make the Case

The Early Christians Make the Case. A purpose of the New Testament writings is to enable early Christians to make the case for the gospel with their lips and in their lives. Early Christians were encouraged to make the case in challenging circumstances. Difficulty for converts:

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The Early Christians Make the Case

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  1. The Early Christians Make the Case A purpose of the New Testament writings is to enable early Christians to make the case for the gospel with their lips and in their lives

  2. Early Christians were encouraged to make the case in challenging circumstances Difficulty for converts: • “After you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to abuse and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated….you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property” (Heb. 10:32-34) Cont’d

  3. Early Christians were encouraged to make the case in challenging circumstances Afflictions of evangelists: • “I am a better [servant of Christ]….with far greater labours, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death. Five times I have received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I have been beaten with rods; once I was stoned. Three times I have been shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure upon me of my anxiety for all the churches” (2 Cor. 11: 23-28 ).

  4. The convictions and lifestyle that the earliest convert are instructed to have in order to make the case are fitting in and for difficult circumstances

  5. Making the case effectively in difficult circumstances requires a rich, broad and deep Christology

  6. Christ is the inaugurator of the kingdom of God

  7. Obedient Son of God

  8. Jesus’ life is attached to thelong-standing purposes of God.

  9. Jesus’ life is attached to thelong-standing purposes of God. • “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord….Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” (Lk. 4:18-21)

  10. “I myself conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne” (Rev. 3:21) “Weep not; lo, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered” (Rev 5:5). Christ conquers death

  11. Christ’s death mortally wounded the power of Sin

  12. “Therefore…sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all humanity because all sinned” (Rom 5:12). “As one man’s trespass led to condemnation for all, so one man’s act of righteousness leads to acquittal and life for all” (Rom 5:18). Christ’s death mortally wounded the power of Sin

  13. Believers can re-enact the unique event of Christ’s conquering sin and death • “Consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Rom 6:11)

  14. Consequence of Christ’s life, death and resurrection is deliverance • “[God] has delivered us from the dominion of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Col. 1:13-14). • “When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness, but …what return did you get from the things of which you are now ashamed? The end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the return you get is sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 6:20-23).

  15. Christ is more than the answer to a problem • “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God; he was in the beginning with God” (John 1:1-2)

  16. Christ is divine • “[God’s Son] reflects the glory of God and bears the very stamp of his nature (hypostasis)” (Heb. 1:3) • “In [Christ] the whole fullness of God was pleased to dwell” (Col 1:19)

  17. “All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made” (John 1:3) “[Christ] is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation; for in him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities – all things were created through him and for him” (Col 1:15-16) “In many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets; but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world” (Heb. 1:1-2) Christ is instrumental in creation

  18. Christ now sustains creation • “In him all things hold together” (Col 1:17) • Christ is “upholding the universe by his word of power” (Heb 1:3)

  19. Christ will return as God’s agent of deliverance

  20. Christ will return as God’s agent of deliverance • “You turned to God from idols, to serve a living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come” (1 Thess 1:9-10) • “The high priest asked him, ‘Are you the Christ, the Son of the blessed?’ And Jesus said, ‘I am; and you will see the Son of man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven” (Mark 14:61-62) • “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing to the glory that is to be revealed to us…the creation will be set free from its bondage to decay…in this hope we were saved” (Rom 8:18-24)

  21. Christ’s body is the church

  22. Christ’s body is the church • “[Christ] is before all things, and in him all things hold together, he is the head of the body, the church” (Col 1:17-18) • “[God] has put all things under Christ’s feet and has made him the head over all things for the church, which is his body” (Eph 1:22-23)

  23. The writers of the NT did not make the gospel flat or simple; they took time with their churches to unravel the glories of what God had done in Christ and of the very being of Christ.

  24. Making the case with integrity

  25. Making the case with integrity • “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as refuse, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, based on law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith; that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that if possible I may obtain the resurrection from the dead” (Phil 3:8-11)

  26. Making the case through love • “By this it may be seen who are the children of God; and who are the children of the devil; whoever does not do right is not of God, nor he who does not love his brother” (1 John 3:10) • “The one who does not love abides in death” (1 John 3:14) • “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and those who are born of God and know God….we love because he first loved us” (1 John 4: 7f, 19)

  27. In order to make the case for the gospel, it is essential that believers both think deeply about Christ and live lives that reflect the gospel they proclaim

  28. Making the case inchallenging circumstances • “Worthy art thou, …for you were slain and by your blood you ransomed humanity for God from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.” (Rev. 5:9) • “Though [Christ] was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of humanity, and being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross; therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heave and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil 2:6-11)

  29. Making a convincing case for the gospel can only be done if “the love of Christ controls us” (2 Cor. 5:14)

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