• Philippians 3:7–11
• Colossians 3:1–3
• 1 Thessalonians 4
• Ephesians 2

Thoughts:

• When Jesus Christ rose from the grave, He was the firstfruits of all those who sleep in Christ. He rose from the grave to life. It is not just a story, not just a picture of something mystical that happened long ago—it is a reality. He is alive!
• Before we are saved, we are spiritually dead in trespasses and sins. There is no power in the withered hand to get a hold of God by faith. There is no mind that can conceive of such a dying love in Jesus, and trust in the fact that He literally rose from the grave. (Ephesians 2)
• Unless God works on your heart, there is maybe a thought of “what happens when I die,” but there is no conviction that would lead you to salvation, because that’s too painful. Conviction is that first painful inkling that you need to be brought to life. (It’s pain like unto a hand or foot that’s gone to sleep, and when the blood finally circulates again, there is a painful tingling.)
• If you are not saved, you are going to find that when God really does bring you under conviction, that all-of-a-sudden there’s a painful experience. It is a conviction that you have not known Christ and you are lost without Him, and you are dead. You do not have a hope because you do not have a living Christ.
• Believers, pray that God will bring the unbelievers around you to a saving knowledge of Christ, because life is not designed to stay in the grave.
• Is the grave where you want to be for the rest of eternity? Neither is the grave of fleshly self-centered life where we belong for the Christian existence on earth. (“If you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above….” Colossians 3) As with Lazarus, the grave clothes—that which stinks of decay—is to be cast-off.

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Jesus Christ is:

1. The name above all angels (vv. 1–7)
2. The name of absolute sovereignty (v. 8)
3. The name of royal annointing (v. 9)
4. The name of eternal immutability (vv. 10–12)
5. The name of assured triumph. (v. 13)

Take Home Points

• Do you know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior?
• Is Jesus—the name that stands for us as absolute sovereignty—in control of your life? Have you yielded to His control? Have you done so while you still have breath? (Know this: One day you will do so when you are resurrected unto judgment.)
• Is His the name of assured triumph? Has He conquered you? Have you yielded to His conquering grace?

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Related Scripture:

1. Joshua 21:1–3
2. Exoudus 21:12–13
3. Numbers 35:6, 9–34
4. Deuteronomy 4:41–45
5. Deuteronomy 19:1–13
6. Hebrews 6:17–20

Take Home Points

• We as guilty sinners are to fly to refuge, to the Lord Jesus Christ.
  • He doesn’t bar the door or bar the gate.
  • He protects us from the avenger of death.
  • His blood covers our sin.
• It is upon the death of the High Priest—Jesus Christ—that our freedom is founded. We are released from that guilt that we so rightly deserve.
• When we as believers go out into a lost world, we have the message of a place of refuge.
  • We are supposed to be making sure that the path is clear.
  • We are supposed to put up signs, “This Way to Refuge.”
  • We are supposed to make sure that people know where they should go to find refuge from the guilt of their sin.
• When we are tempted to follow the moral relativism of this world, we have ignored that which fixes law. We should remember to value things through God’s eyes.

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1. Preparation (vv. 30–31a)
2. Prelude (vv. 31b–33)
3. Promises (vv. 34–35)

Take Home Points

• The Lord Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary became cursed for us, so that we might be blessed. (Gal. 3:13)
• Remember the principle of cursing for disobedience & blessing for obedience.
• Commit to a pause in your life to assess your obedience to God, & worship Him in submission to His will.

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1. Difficulties
2. Difficulties dealt with:
   1. Grant that there is a God—God is
   2. That He is omnipotent—God is able
   3. Find out if He promised—God said so
3. Believing Response

Take Home Points

Believing responses:

• Joy at the homegoing of a saint
• Outlook beyond death to the resurrection
• Take care what you do in this body
• Fear He who is able to destroy both body and soul.

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1. The notice (v. 38)
2. The ne’er-do-wells (vv. 39–41)
3. The needy ones (v. 42)
4. The Good News (v. 43)

Take Home Points

• ”Father, be merciful to me a sinner” is the sinner’s prayer.
• God always gives us more than we can ask or think.
• Both of these thieves saw the same thing, but these thieves went two different directions: One went to hell never seeing heaven, the other went to heaven never having to face hell.
• You’ve gone through your life and you’ve seen everything everybody else has seen, but do you know Christ as Savior?
• Have you really come in faith believing, repenting of your sins, under that sense of condemnation? And what have you asked for?
• The Good News is:
  • God is merciful.
  • Jesus is sufficient.
  • There is an answer to the sin problem.

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1. The story (vv. 3:1–15)
2. The lesson (vv. 3:16–18)
3. The invitation (vv. 3:19–21)

Take Home Points

• Genuine salvation begins with God.
• Those who receive Him with abiding trust and confidence may have everlasting life.
• The work of God in the soul always precedes the work of God with the soul, the work in which the soul cooperates.

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1. Christ came to save men from:
   1. Guilt (Ephesians1:7; Colossians 1:14)
   2. Slavery (Romans 7:24–25; Galatians 5:1)
   3. Punishment:
      1. Alienation from God (Ephesians 2:12)
      2. Wrath of God (Ephesians 2:3)
      3. Everlasting death (Ephesians 2:5–6)
2. Christ came to save men to:
   1. Righteousness (Romans 3:21–26, 5:1)
   2. Freedom (Galatians 5:1; 2 Corinthians 3:17)
   3. Blessedness:
      1. Fellowship with God (Ephesians 2:13)
      2. Love of God (Romans 5:5)
      3. Everlasting life (Ephesians 2:1&5; Colossians 3:1–4)

Take Home Points

• Are you born again so that you may have communion with God?
• Are you observing communion in a worthy manner?

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