00:00 Introduction and Welcome

00:22 New Testament Reading Plan Overview

01:41 Using Reading Plan Apps

02:24 Encouragement for Consistent Bible Reading

03:20 Habit Tracking and Personal Routines

05:26 Discussion on Longevity and Modern Medicine

08:10 Bible Reading: 1 Corinthians 15 and 16

10:49 Understanding the Intermediary State After Death

11:59 The Resurrection of Christ: Foundation of Faith

12:15 Historical Evidence and Faith in the Resurrection

15:09 Addressing Skepticism and Faith

19:59 Paul's Final Instructions to the Corinthians

22:33 Concluding Thoughts and Prayer

23:53 Podcast Outro and Information

Find out more about Compass Bible Church.

Learn more about our Bible Reading Plan.

Questions or Comments? Email us podcast@compassntx.org

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Introduction and Welcome

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Everybody welcome back to another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast. It is Wednesday and we are back, and we were just talking about it, man. We are making tracks through the New Testament. We are flying through the New Testament, which the good news is we have them here hot off the press in our hands.

You can't see them because this is not a video podcast, just an audio podcast. But we have right here our.

New Testament Reading Plan Overview

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Cards are our bookmarks for next year's daily Bible reading plan. Will they be available online? They will be available online. So there'll be a PDF or some kind of download option where I could get it?

Yes, there will and there will be availability of us to spend a little bit more time in the New Testament next year. Yeah. We'll be through. In the New Testament the whole year round. Yeah. It won't be chronological, but we'll be in it the whole time, which I really am looking forward to. Yeah, because this goes just so quickly.

That's how deliberately we're going through the New Testament reading. For example, on January 19th, you're gonna read Matthew 14, one through 21. Well, there's 36 verses in Matthew chapter 14. So you're reading a portion of the chapter. We're gonna take two days to get through Matthew 14. So that's gonna be, I think, helpful for us to slow down to be more methodical, more.

More deliberate. We'll have a little bit more thoughtfulness on our approach. In the podcast though, we will be covering the Old Testament and New Testament sections in the same day with each episode. So that's going to present its own challenges from time to time. But we will be in the New Testament every single day, which will be a refreshing change for sure.

Using Reading Plan Apps

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And the plan that we're gonna be doing next year is called through the Bible number two, so through the Bible. Number two, if you're looking for the plan on that app, and it's free and all you do is you find your reading plan, you set it up for when you wanna start it. It'll map it out for you for the whole year, and then you just click on your hyperlink for that day's reading, and then it'll open up in your Bible and boom, you're off to the races.

So if you use that on top of our physical bookmarks, man, you're doing great. Super helpful.

Encouragement for Consistent Bible Reading

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Also, just as a reminder for you, I know as we come up to the end of the year, a lot of people are. Are thinking about next year, you're making resolutions. You're thinking about how much different life is gonna be next year.

If you start out strong on Bible reading and you are tracking with us and you're hitting it every single day, and then you hit a bump in the road, don't give up. Don't throw in the towel. Don't think, okay, well I'll just go do something else and I'll try this again next year. Jump back in, wherever it is.

It's gonna be more profitable than you thinking. Oh, well I guess I'll try this again next year. Yeah. That's one of the reasons I'm excited about this, these bookmarks that we're gonna hand out. I know. When we used them last, a lot of people would mark on their bookmark when they did that day's readings.

Yep. And so it's just a little way, a little psychological hack to show yourself, I'm making progress. And those little things do end up making a bigger difference.

Habit Tracking and Personal Routines

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In fact, that's what Jerry Seinfeld used. I've learned this multiple times now through a lot of predictivity blogs and books that are written about the subject that he would.

Put an X on this big wall calendar, and every time he would do that, he would create this chain of Xs on his wall. And then his only hack, if you can call it that, was, don't break the chain. And so every day he'd write a new joke, several jokes, and as long as he did that, he would create an X on the calendar and he just kept on going.

So I would say the same for you. There's something really satisfying about finishing a by boarding plan, but don't look down on finishing just that day. Yep. It's really special. It's good, and once you get into the habit of it I can't even tell you now. I don't, it's not like I don't struggle when I'm getting up and I'm doing my thing, but it's just habitual.

Definitely positive difference in my life. Even if the downside is, Hey, pay attention to what you're doing, this actually matters. Yeah. In fact, there's Habit Tracker apps out there. I use 'em for a couple of things in my life and it is rewarding to be able to move the wheel and fill the wheel up with the number of things that you're trying to get done or whatever.

And it's a visual way to go, okay, that was a valuable day. And so those are good things. What are some of the habits that you're tracking PPJ People wanna know, people wanna know. No, no. I track I try to run five days a week. So five steps a week, six days a week. You run six steps a week.

'cause you can always build on it. Yep. As opposed to saying, I'm gonna run six miles a day every day. And then of course by day two, you're done. Right. Well, it's in the military why they teach them to make their beds a certain way? Because if they can give them discipline in the small things, then when they have to be disciplined in the major things, the things that really count for life and death, they know they're gonna have them because they've taught 'em to be disciplined in the small things.

Right? So gotta learn to walk before you run, before you run. Yep. And before you drive. And before you drive. Yeah.

Discussion on Longevity and Modern Medicine

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Alright, well, hey I was remiss yesterday, I don't always do this, but it was Luke's 10th birthday, so my son Luke turned 10. Happy birthday, Luke. Yeah. So that was a big day. Two hands now full of double numbers.

It's double digits. Yeah. And then someday he might actually make it to triple digits. He, you would think about that. Actually, you know what's interesting that today is his birthday as we're recording this, my twins mentioned that, and one of my other kids was like, no, he'll be dead by then. I don't know, man.

I have to imagine that our bodies were not the same at that point. Maybe at 600 years you were looking like you were at 60, or you would be at 60. Yeah. Yeah. It must have been different. It must have been different. 'cause otherwise you'd be like, this is torture. I want die 100 years, man. Let me go please Lord.

Hobbling with the canes and everything. Yeah. They don't have modern medicine. They don't, you know, I'm thinking about how many times you get the flu. If you lived 800 years? Probably quite a few. I mean, come on. Yeah. What would your face look like? I don't know, man. If you aged at the same rate you do today, but you lived until 800 years, I have to imagine there'd be a lot of problems.

It can't work. Yeah. Can't push off my legs. I don't get it amputated. I guess I don't know what I would do with that. Yeah. But I'm so grateful that modern medicine allows me to get it fixed, prepared fully, and to have it fully recovered. Now, in fact, my doctor, when he prepared it, he said, here's the cool thing about this.

Your ruptured tendon will be stronger. Then your normal tendon because I've repaired it and now it's gonna, it's gonna heal better. So then I was thinking, okay, maybe I wanna rupture the other one to even it out a little bit. Yep. He didn't recommend that I do that. No. It's fascinating that you say that 'cause there are some high school students in high school athletes, pitchers that are opting for Tommy John's surgery even without needing it for that very reason.

It doesn't sound. So I would agree. That's a misuse of surgery. I, yeah, no, same. But that's why they're doing it. 'cause they're like, you know what, eventually I'm statistics show I'll probably need it at some point in my baseball career. Oh. So I'm just gonna get it now and get it out of the way. What happens if you have to get it again then in 20 years and people, do you just get it twice?

Bible Reading: 1 Corinthians 15 and 16

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Well, let's get into our Bible reading for today. We are in one Corinthians 15 and 16.

Chapter 15 is known as the resurrection chapter, and that's because that's the main thrust of what Paul's argumentation is here in chapter 15. And it basically boils down to this, if Jesus Christ has not been resurrected from the dead, then our faith is vain and we are still in our sins. The resurrection of Christ matters for everything and it's the stamp of approval from the Father.

It's payment accepted from the Father because if Jesus didn't rise from the dead, that would mean that death had a hold on him, which would mean and imply that Jesus Christ had sinned. At some point. And so he would stay dead because he had to pay for his own sins. The resurrection was possible because Jesus did not possess any sin of his own.

In our own resurrections eventually on the day that he returns for the church. That's probably something that is of worth in us talking through here, is a lot of people have the question about glorified bodies. There's questions about, do we have a body when we're in heaven, in between now and then, when do we receive our glorified bodies?

What does that look like when I die? Now what happens? There are different views out there. In fact I was. Interested to find that Randy Alcorn, I think teaches that there might be an intermediate physical form in heaven while we await our glorified bodies, that there might be something there that we inhabit, though not the glorified body, but some sort of physical form that we have while we're in heaven waiting for our glorified bodies, which disagree.

If we are body in flesh or rather soul and spirit Yeah. Doing the same thing. Yeah. If we're spirit and body, thank you Rain. You got it. If we're spirit and body. And death is a separation of those two things. I understand the logic that God would supply us with some kind of rental if you will, to allow us to navigate in something that makes sense to us as opposed to being a disembodied spirit floating around like Casper.

I think that's probably more challenging to my mind than to say, okay, we've got some kind of rental thing, some kind of intermediate thing. But then Paul does say Second Corinthians five. We wanna be clothed rather than naked. So there's something about that vessel or something about that state that suggests a vulnerability or at least an exposure that we're not used to.

Right.

Understanding the Intermediary State After Death

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I think the conscious that is, so there's an awareness. It's not a soul sleep. It's not as some suggest that when we die, we go into this state of perpetual slumber until the resurrected bodies and we're not aware of anything. I fully believe that we're aware and to be. Absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.

But all that to say, we don't get our glorified bodies as soon as we die. We know that to be sure. Right? 'cause your body's still here. Right. We have proof, right. For lots of people. Right. And I think this passage helps because it's at that moment of the trump resounding when at his coming,

as it says in verse 23, those who belong to Christ will rise and receive their glorified bodies. And that, like we said in one Thessalonians four, is coincided with what we believe to be the rapture of the church.

The Resurrection of Christ: Foundation of Faith

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Okay. Is it true that our religion. Either stands or falls based on the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Yes.

Historical Evidence and Faith in the Resurrection

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Therefore, if that's the case, how can we know that Jesus rose from the dead? I mean, there's apologetic arguments that are stacked up. Towards that in favor of it. I think when you appeal to some of the historicity of the lives of the apostles after this, you appeal to, we've seen it already in the Book of Acts, the transformation of Peter.

What takes Peter from denying Christ three times to you servants and slave girls, to standing in front of the Jewish leaders who crucified Jesus and saying, you crucified him by the hands of lawless men. Which amounts to their willingness to die. And a lot of people will counter that and say, well, but don't you know, Islamic terrorists die for their supposed faith.

It's not true. It didn't happen. So when you take some of the accounts of the disciples and there's some pretty graphic accounts and in the way that some of them suffered for their claim to be eyewitnesses of the resurrected Christ the fact that they were willing to die for those things is another.

Stack in the column of the fact that this is true, you've also got some external sources that are unbelievers that are pointing to the rapid growth of Christianity, which is another reason why we point to the veracity of the resurrection, that the church exploded so quickly in the immediate wake of the resurrection claims during a time when people could have produced the body and immediately snuffed out Christianity.

And I think probably most simply are some of the things that we look at in scripture. Jesus a predicted it. I think that's one of the most compelling arguments. He didn't just die and he was surprised by, Hey look. I'm alive again. He predicted his death and his resurrection. But to your point, you'd have to explain what happened to the church.

Some have claimed to died and have gone to see him in heaven. I don't know. We should rely upon those either. But what we can see is that the church did undergo some kind of massive transformation, starting with the apostles who were known as the disciples. At that point, they were commissioned by Christ and suddenly things changed for them.

And how might you respond to that?

Addressing Skepticism and Faith

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PPG, the scientist in the room who says, look, you can't test it. You can't confirm it. You're relying on historical evidence or historical evidence through the book and through other potentially good resources. You can't test this thing. Right. And I would say, for example, to the atheist and to steal from Frank Turk's book title, I don't have enough faith to be an atheist.

Everybody eventually is gonna have to come back to faith in something. The atheist who's the evolutionist is gonna have to have faith that their interpretation of what they've. View as the historical record and what they're putting forth as facts is the right view, our view, we're gonna have to come back on faith.

This is our interpretation is the right view. And that's where ultimately, our religion is built upon faith. It's not built upon tangible hard evidence. There is tangible hard evidence that supports our faith, but that which saves us is not empirical logic. That's that which saves us is a faith that is rotten us by God.

Right. Yes. I can't test this in a laboratory. I can't slice it up and do an autopsy and see these things. But good history is done by asking good questions in an honest way. And again, I think one of the most compelling arguments that Jesus actually rose from the dead is by answering the question, what led to the growth of this church, this organization that started as a seedling with 120 people in an upper room suddenly exploding in two thousands on one day.

According to Acts chapter two, with the birth of the church and then much more today, you have Christianity still being one of the dominant religions in the world. Now there is different expressions and different traditions that underlie that, but you have to account for that. What led to that change.

How might you respond to that? Yeah I think we go back there to two things. Number one, you've got the law of non-contradiction. So two competing truths cannot be true at the same time. So that eliminates the idea of there can be equal veracity in Islam and Christianity and Hinduism and these things.

One has to be true. The other's. Can't be true. And so then it comes down to looking at again, the evidence and looking at the history and looking at what is in keeping with what we believe to be true according to the word of God. But then realizing what we're gonna read about Second Corinthians, chapter four tomorrow, and that is that the God of this world is blinded, the minds of the lost.

And so there are going to be masses that follow after a lot of things. And Solomon said in Ecclesiastes that God has put eternity in the heart of every man. And so even those that are lost, there's an understanding, there's something that's I think, inherent within mankind to say, there's gotta be something more than what this life is.

That's a great response. It would, two Corinthians 11. Paul says Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Mm-hmm. It kinda reminds me of when I was a kid, we used to get the off-brand cereal. We wouldn't get Cheerios, we would get honeys or Yeah. Whatever it was. There was ser several different kinds.

Far more affordable, by the way. Better deal all around. But the fact that Honey Os existed Yeah. Was not to deny the fact that Cheerios was the original brand, right? Honey's is an offshoot, honey's is a counterfeit delicious counterfeit to boot, but they showed by their very existence that Cheerios did in fact exist.

Appear to compete with the one true religion that is Christ. Again, to your point Jesus says he's the way, the truth and the life. He himself eliminates the possibility that there's multiple roads to God, right? And if Jesus did say something like, Hey man, this is just one way. Don't trust me alone. You could trust whatever system that works for you.

Christians would be the first to be like, yeah, let's do that. Right? That'd make things a lot easier for us. But he says the opposite. He claims exclusive truth, exclusive. Access to God the Father, and therefore we say the same thing. So don't let any of that shake you. The resurrection is reliable, historically reliable.

It's historically v valid, viable. People have trusted in this for years, and even though we can't put it in the laboratory, it is still one of the best defenses and arguments for the existence of Jesus, his life, his death, and of course, his resurrection. True. Also, marshmallow Matis. Another great knockoff.

I just want the off-brand that only sells the marshmallows. Yeah, well that's fair too. That's what I want. Yeah, just the marshmallows.

Paul's Final Instructions to the Corinthians

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And some of his desires and plans there. In his final instructions though, and pr I'd love to get your thoughts on this because I know you preach on this verse to our men's ministry, but 16, 13, he says, be watchful. Stand firm in the faith. Act like men. Be strong and let all that you don't do be done and loved.

Do you have any thoughts on that, that you'd like to share with our church? I do, and you should go back and listen to that sermon and be reminded about exactly what I said. If you're not sure what I'm gonna say right now. Maybe I should take my own advice. Sorry, I didn't mean to put you on the spot.

That's okay. I could talk about these things. I'm, I know you can without much issue. So that's what a preacher does, right? Okay. Lots of things here. Notice this is the end of the book of Corinthians. This letter of Corinthians. So Paul is summarizing some of his instructions into pithy statements, and I love verse 13 and 14 because it really does capture almost everything that he talked about throughout the letter.

To not allow ourselves to be moved. The only way to stand firm in the faith is to make sure that you're building your life upon the faith, that you are standing upon it. And you do that through the word. Of course, you're gonna build yourself up in your most holy faith. That's what Jude says. Do that through the word.

And he says this is fascinating. Act like men. Now he's talking to a mixed audience. Corinthian church had more than just men there. So is he talking to the women as well? Absolutely. Yeah. He's saying what makes good men good courage, fearlessness A, a resilience. That's the mentality that even a woman should appropriately put on.

He's not mixing genders. He's not saying that women should wear pants or that they should conflate their gender to make it unsure of who you are. You know, he's saying take the Godly attributes that a man possesses and adopt those in appropriate measure for women, but especially for men.

Worthless. That's harsh. But again, coming back to one of his points here, the gifts are valuable to the extent that they serve the church. Love is what informs the use of your gifts in service of the church, and therefore all these things fit underneath that banner. The church should be a church of loving people.

Watchful standing firm in the faith, acting like men in appropriate ways, being strong and making sure that all they do is done in love. Awesome.

Concluding Thoughts and Prayer

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I love how the letters like this end by referencing people and situations because it's a reminder to us that the word was written and these letters were written to specific churches at specific times facing specific problems.

So as you read these names here, it's just a good reminder. Okay. Yeah. These were written to specific people on a specific time at a specific location facing issues that. That we still face today and we're grateful to have the word of God preserve the way that we do so that we can benefit from learning from these things as well.

Well, let's pray and then we'll be done with this episode. God, we thank you for the book of one Corinthians and the things that we've learned as we've studied it, pray that they would stay with us and stick with us. I pray that we would learn from the positive things. There's a lot of negative things with the church at Corinth there.

We want to avoid those errors, Lord, in excel. Still more in the things that are good. We thank you so much for the resurrection of Jesus and the confidence that we can have that Jesus Christ is in fact raised from the dead and what that means for us as. We ourselves look forward to one day also being resurrected to be with you.

And so we thank you so much for Christ and we pray this all in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Keep reading Bibles. Tune in again tomorrow for another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast. See ya. Bye.

Bernard: ​

Podcast Outro and Information

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PJ: Yeah. I would agree with everything that you said