Maranatha! Our Lord, Come!

1 Corinthians 16:1-24

We can examine 3 points Paul presents for living a Christian life.

1. Opposition will come when we pursue opportunities to do the Lord’s work but we should trust in His plans and persevere.

Verse 9: “for a wide door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many adversaries”

God provides us a lot of opportunities to do the work of the Lord but we may also encounter hardships and resistance along the way. If you are faced with this hardship, what will you do? We might think that it is not the right time or right circumstance to do the work of the Lord. We also might think a God-given opportunity requires all conditions to be perfectly met. If this was the case, we would never have an opportunity to do God’s work. 

Verse 9 clearly states that whenever we try to do the Lord’s work, there will be opposition. Recall an earlier sermon on the 3rd law of spiritual physics, for every action of faith there is an equal and opposing reaction, in the form of spiritual warfare. With every step we take towards God, Satan is trying to pull us away and prevent us from doing the work of the Lord. For example, in 2 Corinthians 11:24-27, Paul was persecuted, beaten, shipwrecked, and placed in danger for following the Lord. From Paul’s example, we can learn to persevere through hardship. We can see how Satan can try to pull us away from God in our house churches. House church multiplication is a blessing and opportunity provided by God; however, some may not want to become a house church shepherd because it is known to be difficult and hard to do. Instead of avoiding opportunities because something is hard, we can challenge ourselves to do hard things for the sake of the Lord. 

Encountering difficulty and spiritual warfare does not mean God doesn’t want us to continue. Instead, we should persevere and trust in God’s plan and direction for us. 

2. Let’s fix our eyes on Jesus and be imitators of Him

Verse 13: “Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.”

God calls us to be watchful, to wake up. This means we should fix our eyes on Jesus and not others or the world. Fixing your eyes on others leads to comparison which leads to complaining and grumbling. If we fix our eyes on Jesus, we will have great expectations for Christ and will want to know how God is working. 

Paul states we should “act like men, be strong.” In this verse, “men” refers to both men and women as equals. More importantly, Paul draws a comparison between a child and adult. Specifically, we should act like adults and take responsibility. Jesus Christ is someone who comes to mind as someone who took responsibility for us. He took on the ultimate responsibility of dying for our sins (Isaiah 53:3). As Christians, we can look to Christ and understand the lengths He went to take responsibility. We can have hope that our hearts change so that we could also become more like Jesus Christ. 

How can we be more like Jesus? “Be Imitators” of Christ.

3. Christian life starts with us and ends with Christ.

Verse 22: “If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed. Our Lord, come!”

Maranatha is Aramic for “Our Lord, come.” At this point, God has already come to earth in the form of man as Jesus Christ. In this context, Maranatha refers to Jesus’ second coming. To have the faith of Maranatha means to believe that He is coming again. We can practice eschatological spirituality by having hope in Jesus’ second coming. It is important to distinguish that Maranatha indicates we are not going to God but that He is coming to us. If we have the faith of Maranatha, we can have great comfort. Our lives begin when we are born physically from the womb, then spiritually reborn through the Holy Spirit, and ends with Jesus Christ. The goal of Christian life is for our lives to show more of Christ and less of ourselves.

Reflection: I have often given the same excuse to wait for the perfect moment to be used by God. In those moments, I realized I was not letting God work in my life but trying to force my own will. In those moments, my eyes were fixed on myself and not on Jesus. I was acting selfishly out of complacency and a stronger desire for comfort. Instead, how can I be more like Christ? The first step is to wake up and fix my eyes on Him and then take responsibility as a follower of Christ. There will be challenges, hardships, and persecution but I can look to God and trust in His plan for me. Through the difficulties, I can be reminded of the faith of Maranatha and understand that my life leads to Christ in the end. I can pray for my life to be less about me and more about God.

Discussion Questions:

• Have you encountered opposition in your life as a Christian? How did you react or think?

• What are some qualities/traits of Jesus Christ (ie. Responsible)?

• What are some practical ways we can take responsibility as Jesus did?

• Any takeaways from the sermon message?