Daily Devotion by Ray Stedman

[Obadiah]

A daily devotion for October 26th​

The Value of Prophecy​

Follow the way of love and eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy. For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to people but to God. Indeed, no one understands them; they utter mysteries by the Spirit. But the one who prophesies speaks to people for their strengthening, encouraging and comfort.

1 Corinthians 14:1-3

That ties this back to the love chapter. Love is to be the basic, biblical reason for exercising a spiritual gift. Love is the hunger to reach out for someone else's benefit. That is to be the controlling theme throughout this whole chapter in the discussion of tongues and prophesying. Love is building up someone else. To that end, desire spiritual gifts, so that they may be a means of helping others and fulfilling love.

Clearly the one spiritual gift that is most effective in that direction is prophesying. The gift of prophesying is not predicting the future. That may be an element occasionally in it, but it is the explanation of the present in the light of the revelation of God. The closest term we would call it by today is biblical preaching that unfolds the mind of God and applies it to the daily struggles of life. That is prophesying. That is the gift for a congregation to desire above all others.

Beginning with Verse 2 and on through Verse 5, Paul compares the gifts of prophesy and tongues. Anyone who speaks in tongues is not understood in a congregation because he speaks mysteries in the Spirit. The reason for that was he was speaking in a language that they did not understand. At Corinth people would stand up and speak in these languages, perhaps recognizable as being languages used somewhere nearby (as on the Day of Pentecost), but the people there did not understand the language, and so they could not know what the speaker was saying.

In contrast, Paul now describes the gift of prophesying, which Paul says has a threefold effect. First, it builds people up. The word is oikodomen in the Greek, oiko means house, and domen means to build. To build a house on a solid foundation is the idea; and the work of prophesying gives people a foundation. One of the major problems among Christians today is the struggle they have with the sense of their true identity. Many people are emotionally torn apart because they do not understand that they are new creatures in Christ; they are no longer what they once were. Because they still get feelings of being what they once were, they believe those feelings, and they react accordingly. There is an up-and-down experience that they can never get away from. Prophesying corrects that. It teaches us who we are in Christ.

The second thing prophesying does is strengthen people. This is the word from which we get the word paraclete, one of the titles of the Holy Spirit. He is the strengthener of God's people. It means to support and encourage; it is one called alongside, that is the literal meaning of the term, to support you and steady you and strengthen you.

The third ministry of prophesying is that of comforting. Still a third Greek word is used here, paramuthian, which means to empathize, to put yourself in the place of others, to understand the pressures they are under. It means to be able to feel with them and be able to encourage them with the fact that you know how they feel. That is what the word of prophesying is inclined to do. We have all had the experience of listening to a text of Scripture expounded, and it seemed to speak right to our basic problem. That is what prophesying does. You can see how useful and how important it is to have this exercised in a church.

Thank you, Father, for the ministry of the Word of God in life. I pray for those who expound it that they might be your mouthpiece to a needy people.

Life Application​

What is the primary aim in the exercise of spiritual gifts? In what ways does the gift of prophesying, as in exposition of the Word of God, fulfill this basic purpose?

Daily Devotion © 2014, 2025 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A daily devotion for October 27th​

Of First Importance​

For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures...

1 Corinthians 15:3-4

There are three elements of the gospel. First, Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. Isn't it amazing that he does not mention a word about the whole life of Jesus? That is rather startling, but that is where the gospel begins. He does not even say, Christ died. Ask people today what the gospel is and this is often what they will say, Well, Jesus lived and died. No, that is not the gospel. Everyone believes that Jesus died. Go to any of the modern presentations of the life of Jesus and you will find they all end at the death of Jesus. But there is no good news in that. The good news is Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures . The scriptures tell us that his death accomplished something for us. It changed us, it delivered us, it set us free. That death had great significance in the mind and heart and eyes of God, and that is the good news. As Peter puts it in his words, He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, (1 Peter 2:24 RSV). Or, to use the words of Isaiah, He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed, (Isaiah 53:5 KJV).

The second element of the gospel is that Jesus not only died for our sins according to the scriptures but he was also buried. Why does Paul include the burial of Jesus? Is it not enough that Jesus died and rose again? The reason for it is that when his disciples came and took the body of Jesus down from the cross, it marked their acceptance of the fact of his death. Did you ever realize how hard it was for them to accept the fact that he died? They did not want to believe it when he himself told them that was what he was going to do. When it happened they went away stunned and unbelieving. But somewhere along the line some realist among them faced up to it and said, We have got to go get his body, and bury him. Joseph of Arimathea came forward and offered a tomb, and with loving hands they took his body down from the tree. They wrapped it in grave clothes, bound it tightly. They embalmed him with spices, and then they placed him in a tomb where he lay for three days and three nights. There is no question that the disciples believed that he was dead. They could never have entertained any idea that he had merely fainted on the cross, or entered into a coma, for they themselves had performed the burial service. That is why Paul adds that here. It marked the acceptance of the disciples that Jesus was truly dead.

But the third element is, he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures. Again, he fulfilled the predictions. It was anticipated that he would die; it was equally anticipated that he would rise again from the dead. On the third day, to the amazement of the disciples, he fulfilled all predictions. He was not merely resuscitated (that is, coming back to the life he had before), he was resurrected. That means he came back to a life he had never lived before, a real life, a glorified life, a different life, and yet in the amazing mystery of the resurrection, the same Jesus with the wounds in his body that they could touch and feel and see for themselves.

That is the story of the gospel — three basic facts. These are not doctrines; these are not philosophies; these are not ideas that men have had about what God should be like. These are simple, hard-nosed facts that occurred in history that cannot be eliminated or evaded. There they are. These facts have changed the history of the world. Our faith does not rest upon mere philosophy but upon facts that have occurred and cannot be taken away from us.

Heavenly Father, thank you for the marvel, the wonder of the gospel. Help me to understand that this is to be the center of my life, the most basic thing about me is my faith in this good news.

Life Application​

Have we grasped the importance of the three elements of the gospel which are essential to our faith? Do we see them as actual historic facts which give total authenticity to our life and our witness?

Daily Devotion © 2014, 2025 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A daily devotion for October 28th​

What If...?​

And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.

1 Corinthians 15:14-19

Paul considers the question, What if ...? What would the world be like if Jesus had not been raised? There are six history-changing facts that would have followed if Jesus had not risen. First, without the resurrection all preaching would have been a waste of time. All the messages you have ever heard or read, all the Christian books you have read, all radio and television broadcasts of the gospel you have listened to would have been a total waste of time had Jesus not risen from the dead.

Second, without the resurrection, all Christian faith would be useless. What would be the point of coming to church every Sunday morning, or going to a Bible study, or reading the Scriptures even, or trying to believe that God is there to help you? All that would be worthless, useless. It would be only a kind of religious game. Life would be reduced to grim, stark realities, with no hope now or later.

Third, if the resurrection is untrue, the apostles are the world's greatest liars. They deserve to be treated as arch deceivers rather than as honored men of integrity and truth. They are hypocrites, and worse than that they are deceivers who have led us into gross darkness and gross error. Now, after twenty centuries of the preaching of these things, they have undoubtedly won the title of the world's greatest liars. That is what Paul says. You cannot avoid that, if there is no resurrection, because the apostles staked their reputation on the fact that Jesus had risen from the dead.

Then a fourth point, and even worse: If Christ is not raised, then all our sins of the past are still with us; we are still in our sins. This means that even granting that there is a God, then we must stand at last before him and give an account of all we have done. And there is no way of escaping the justice with which God would deal with sin. There is no hiding place, no hope for mercy, no loving Christ to say, I've paid the penalty for you; I've taken your place; I've loved you and given myself for you.

The fifth thing, Paul says, is, those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. All those loved ones who have gone on to be with the Lord, we thought, whom we hoped to meet again, we will never see again. Our children, our parents, our friends, those who have been taken suddenly, those to whom we bid a weeping farewell with the hope that one day we would meet them again in glory, we will never see again. A terrible silence has fallen; they are gone forever.

Finally, the sixth fact: If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. Even the present is changed. We have to give up our beautiful dream and go back to coldness, selfishness, drabness, grimness, and darkness. It is all made worse by the fact that we once thought we had escaped; we once thought we had a hold of something so marvelous that it gave us great joy and peace and glory and blessing. But if there is no resurrection all this crumbles and is taken away from us; our darkness is all the darker for that.

Thank you, Lord, for the hope and purpose that the resurrection of Jesus gives me.

Life Application​

The Resurrection of Jesus Christ is totally crucial to the Christian faith, which in turn has changed the course of world history. Consider at least six major life-altering effects which would result if Christ had not risen from the dead, and be awed by this vast, historic reality!

Daily Devotion © 2014, 2025 by Ray Stedman Ministries.