1 Corinthians 15:7-9 “After that, he was seen of James; then of all the apostles. And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time. For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.” Paul began, in the third verse of this chapter, to lay out again the gospel that he had preached in the church at Corinth. He declared unto them how that Christ died for our sins, how that He was buried, and how He rose again on the third day. This was all done according to the scriptures. He then proceeds to lay out to them a list of witnesses to Christ’s resurrection, many of whom were still alive at that time. In this seventh verse, Paul continues to confirm that Jesus rose from the dead by naming further witnesses. Paul obviously felt it important to give them an over-abundance of testimony to the resurrection of our Lord. It was easy enough to believe that He had died since this was something that men...
The text for this message is Joel 3:9-17. We have been nibbling away at this book for some time now. Let us briefly review what we have learned so far. There is no definite time period given. Joel may have been a contemporary of Elijah, some 870 years before the birth of Christ, or he may have been a contemporary of Nehemiah, 450 years before the birth of Christ, or he may have lived during some period in between. As concerns prophecy in general, it may be a fore-telling of future events or it may be a forth-telling of current events, relative to the time of the prophet. We find both in this short prophecy of Joel. In the first half of this book, it appears Joel is explaining current events to his original audience. Israel had been disobedient and walked away from God. We cannot pinpoint a time in Israel’s history when this was unique. It is a problem Israel dealt with continually. From as early as the Exodus from Egypt, to as late as the return from Babylon, Israel and Judah had a hab...