Title: Faith Must Have Power
2014. 3. 16 Sunday morning worship service
Bible: 1 Corinthians 2:1-5
Title: Faith is Power
There are two kinds of salvation that the Bible wants to say through the church: eternal life and life. When sharing and listening to these two messages of salvation, if it ends with a theoretical story, we are wasting each other's time. The faith that the church is trying to say must have power, as said in verse 5.
1. The blood of Jesus is power
The fundamental purpose of God sending His Son Jesus into the world is for sinners who will go to hell to believe in the atonement of Jesus and receive eternal life through atonement (John 6:40). It is a mysterious thing to hear and believe in this gospel, which has been continuously preached for 2,000 years. It's not something that's forced.
A person cannot change a person's soul, and it is only communicated in the hope of believing that way, and sometimes even in death.
How much do you impress people if you learn, or how much will you buy people's hearts with material things? The will of a soul going to hell is as heavy as a stone. People cannot change people. So Paul is
1 Corinthians 2:1-2‘1. Brethren, when I came to you and preached the testimony of God, I did not do it in the prettiest of words or wisdom. 2. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.”
Could Paul be wrong? Aren't you wise? But he said that he decided to give up on those things and only preach the death of Jesus on the cross.
2. The life of faith requires the manifestation of power
The second are lessons on how to live the world by faith.
The words of Jesus or the messages of the apostles change our hearts and enable us to manifest miraculous lives. Because it is preached by the power of the Holy Spirit rather than persuading it with human words, amazing miracles are still taking place.
Text 1 Corinthians 2:4-5 ‘4. My words and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in the manifestation and power of the Holy Spirit, 5. That your faith might not be in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.”
The saints' own lives should also show the power of God, not self-deprecating whether they have good faith in themselves. There must be evidence of a modest lifestyle of faith or that life is going well and that something changes and creates something.
In verse 5, we must remember, “your faith did not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.” Faith is not theory or culture. It is normal to be able to express yourself in common sense.
The Bible is not a philosophical book, but the word of life, and the Christian faith is not a level of cultivating the way, but a religion of life with dynamics that shows the history of life.
How would you describe your beliefs?
The fact that we have been saved by believing in Jesus and have eternal life is shared by everyone, and since this is God's total grace, confession is enough.
But the salvation of life is different. Don't just try to convince with your mouth, you need to show the evidence. By what evidence can you show your faith? nothing? Then, frankly speaking, there is only eternal life, and the rest is not yet faith. To live by faith is to testify with power, not words.