All Saints Day, What's that? (Ephesians 4:11-20)
Gary McManus, 10/27/2013Part of the DCC Basics series, preached at a Sunday Morning service
October 27, 2013 Ephesians 4:11-20 (p. 1158)
Next Friday is All Saints Day, November 1st.
Hardly anyone knows that these days.
The church celebrates the saints who
don’t have their own special day already.
[We looked at the word saint before;
It occurs about 80 times in the Bible.]
Saint means that you’re different.
You belong to the Lord Jesus Christ
—that makes you different because
not everyone belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ.
. . .It is not a status, more like an enrollment.
This is how we even get the celebration
of Halloween. Halloween is the word hallowed’s eve.
If you can’t be FOR Halloween,
then can you offer children an opportunity to dress up and pretend to be someone or something else?
You may have to decide WHAT Halloween is about
if you are going to enjoy Halloween.
One thing I always appreciated about Halloween
is that Halloween recognized and accepted that
there was evil in the world. That IS in the Bible.
Although many, including Christians, don’t believe
in Satan/the devil, Jesus did.
[Satan tempts Jesus: Matthew 4:10, Mark 1:13,
he is referred to as the devil in Luke 4 ]
But evil must give way to the forces of the Lord God.
[See Revelation 21:1-8, 22: 3-5, 14,15, also 20:10 ] Jesus’ work was victory over Satan.
See the word VICTORY in the Bible.
(Psalm 108:13, Psalm 118:15 )
1 Corinthians 13:51-56 is almost
ALWAYS used at the funerals of the believers.
We remember those who have passed from us
because we clearly SEE their victory.
We see the victory that God in Christ has won for them.
A key ingredient in that victory; perseverance.
Hebrews 12:1: . . the goal is to FINISH the race
. . .to persevere until the race is finished.
Perseverance is how we become
images of Jesus Christ for others.
[See James 1:3-4 ]
Perseverance will allow you to
get to the finish line—take it from a man who
has run a half a dozen races.
We believe the saints persevered until they died.
Hebrews 12:1-3
The Apostle at the end will say. .”I finished the race.”
. . .a crown. . .righteousness. . .victory (2 Tim 4:7)
You’re a saint! Amen
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