1 Corinthians (Program #20) – The Building Work with Transformed Materials (1)

The goal of the Christian life is not merely to live a proper and upright life, died and then go to heaven. The goal as presented in 1 Corinthians has to do with being built up into a spiritual building that ultimately becomes God’s dwelling place on earth with His people. In short this building is the church becoming the real temple of God on earth.

What a high calling, our real work in the Christian life is a building work.  And to this end Paul instructed the Corinthians believers and us in chapter three of 1 Corinthians :

“For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s cultivated land, God’s building. According to the grace of God given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid a foundation, and another builds upon it. But let each man take heed how he builds upon it. For another foundation no one is able to lay besides that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. But if anyone builds upon the foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, grass, stubble, the work of each will become manifest; for the day will declare it, because it is revealed by fire. ”

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS

1 Corinthians (Program #17) – The Church, God’s Farm, God’s Building (2)

The believers in Corinth in the early church were rich in many things. They have received the initial gifts of the divine life and the Holy Spirit. They were enriched in all knowledge and they even have many miraculous gifts in their midst.  Yet Paul referred to them as infants or babes in Christ. How could that be with all that God had given them?   Primarily is because they neglect the mater of life and growing spiritually in the divine life. So, the apostle Paul points out to them in clear types and pictures the importance and necessity of the divine life.

Listen again as his words are so full of references to life and growth:

3:5-9 “What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Ministers through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave to beach one of them. I planted, Apollos watered, but God caused the growth.  So then neither is he who plants anything nor he who waters, but God who causes the growth.  Now he who plants and he who waters are one, but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor.  For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s cultivated land, God’s building.”

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS

1 Corinthians (Program #16) – The Church, God’s Farm, God’s Building (1)

The first two chapters of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians are very rich in their presentation of Christ. Paul clearly was doing all he could to bring the troubled Corinthians to Christ in their experience.

But in Chapter three Paul turns his focus to the church. Though not in shallow or superficial language rather he speaks in marvelous profound expressions referring to the church in types.  First as a farm growing, producing a rich crop. Then as a building and ultimately as a temple, a divine dwelling place, build out of priceless materials such as gold, silver and precious stones. Of course these materials are not literally either but types of the transformation work that the Holy Spirit is engaged in with all of us, God’s redeemed.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS

Acts (Program #15) – The Propagation in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria through the Ministry of Peter’s Company (11)

As Christians, we all know Christ as our Savior and our Lord. We may also know Him as our friend, even our healer, and many other precious items. Yet, can we say that we, like Peter in Acts chapter 4, know Christ as the stone for God’s building?  Stay tuned for today’s life study of the Bible as we get a priceless view into the very heart of God.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS

John (Program #9) – An Introduction to Life and Building (5)

God’s economy is not to have a giant, litter with power to accomplish some movement. No.  God’s economy is to send His son to be the little lamb with His Spirit as the little dove.

The main subject of this message is Christ as the Lamb of God with the Spirit as the dove to produce stones for God’s building. If I would ask you, what are the main points or main things in this title?  Number one, Jesus as the Lamb of God. You have to pick up Lamb. The second point, the dove. And the third point, stone. And the fourth point, the house or the building of the house. What is the last item? The Son of Man. These are the five main points: the Lamb for redemption, the dove for anointing and uniting, the stone for material, and the house as the building, and the man as the very substance. The substantial element of God’s building is man…

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS

John (Program #1) – A Foreword to the Life-Study of the Gospel of John (1)

In today’s program, we like to see something from the whole Bible. The Bible is a book of two things. Many of you would say Christ and the Church. The two things are not Christ and the Church, but life and building. Christ is life and the Church is building. If you don’t realize that Christ is life and the Church is building, when you say Christ and the Church, it is just a kind of doctrine. When we say Christ, we mean life. When we say the Church, we mean building. What is Christ? Christ is our life. What is the Church?  The Church is God’s building.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS

Revelation (Program #68) – Experiencing the Seven Lamps, the Seven Eyes, and the Seven Spirits

The portrait of the New Jerusalem in the final pages of Revelation is a sign, showing us God, mingled and built together with His redeemed people as His enlargement, a living composition of God and man, a building; the ultimate consummation of the Bible of God’s purpose, and our destiny.  This is the portrait painted by the divine Word of God.  And it’s the portrait that we have been delighted to bring to you for these past three months…

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS