The Berean Pursuit
Who has believed our message?
And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
He grew up before Him like a tender shoot,
and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no stately form or majesty to attract us,
no beauty that we should desire Him.
He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief.
Like one from whom men hide their faces,
He was despised, and we esteemed Him not.
Surely He took on our infirmities
and carried our sorrows;
yet we considered Him stricken by God,
struck down and afflicted.
But He was pierced for our transgressions,
He was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him,
and by His stripes we are healed.
We all like sheep have gone astray,
each one has turned to his own way;
and the LORD has laid upon Him
the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet He did not open His mouth.
He was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before her shearers is silent,
so He did not open His mouth.
By oppression and judgment He was taken away,
and who can recount His descendants?
For He was cut off from the land of the living;
He was stricken for the transgression of My people.
He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
and with a rich man in His death,
although He had done no violence,
nor was any deceit in His mouth.
Yet it was the LORD's will to crush Him
and to cause Him to suffer;
and when His soul is made a guilt offering,
He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days,
and the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand.
After the anguish of His soul,
He will see the light of life and be satisfied.
By His knowledge My righteous Servant will justify many,
and He will bear their iniquities.
Therefore I will allot Him a portion with the great,
and He will divide the spoils with the strong,
because He has poured out His life unto death,
and He was numbered with the transgressors.
Yet He bore the sin of many
and made intercession for the transgressors.
"Shout for joy, O barren woman,
who bears no children;
break forth in song and cry aloud,
you who have never travailed;
because more are the children of the desolate woman
than of her who has a husband,"
says the LORD.
"Enlarge the site of your tent,
stretch out the curtains of your dwellings,
do not hold back.
Lengthen your ropes
and drive your stakes in deep.
For you will spread out to the right and left;
your descendants will dispossess the nations
and inhabit the desolate cities.
Do not be afraid, for you will not be put to shame;
do not be intimidated, for you will not be humiliated.
For you will forget the shame of your youth
and will remember no more the reproach of your widowhood.
For your husband is your Maker-
the LORD of Hosts is His name-
the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer;
He is called the God of all the earth.
For the LORD has called you back,
like a wife deserted and wounded in spirit,
like the rejected wife of one's youth,"
says your God.
"For a brief moment I forsook you,
but with great compassion I will bring you back.
In a surge of anger
I hid My face from you for a moment,
but with everlasting kindness I will have compassion on you,"
says the LORD your Redeemer.
"For to Me this is like the days of Noah,
when I swore that the waters of Noah
would never again cover the earth.
So I have sworn that I will not be angry with you
or rebuke you.
Though the mountains may be removed
and the hills may be shaken,
My loving devotion will not depart from you,
and My covenant of peace will not be broken,"
says the LORD, who has compassion on you.
"O afflicted city, lashed by storms,
without solace,
surely I will set your stones in antimony
and lay your foundations with sapphires.
I will make your pinnacles of rubies,
your gates of sparkling jewels,
and all your walls of precious stones.
Then all your sons will be taught by the LORD,
and great will be their prosperity.
In righteousness you will be established,
far from oppression,
for you will have no fear.
Terror will be far removed,
for it will not come near you.
If anyone attacks you, it is not from Me;
whoever assails you will fall before you.
Behold, I have created the craftsman
who fans the coals into flame
and forges a weapon fit for its task;
and I have created the destroyer
to wreak havoc.
No weapon formed against you shall prosper,
and you will refute every tongue that accuses you.
This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD,
and their vindication is from Me,"
declares the LORD.
"Come, all you who are thirsty,
come to the waters;
and you without money,
come, buy, and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without cost!
Why spend money on that which is not bread,
and your labor on that which does not satisfy?
Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good,
and your soul will delight in the richest of foods.
Incline your ear and come to Me;
listen, so that your soul may live.
I will make with you an everlasting covenant-
My loving devotion promised to David.
Behold, I have made him a witness to the nations,
a leader and commander of the peoples.
Surely you will summon a nation you do not know,
and nations who do not know you will run to you.
For the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel,
has bestowed glory on you."
Seek the LORD while He may be found;
call on Him while He is near.
Let the wicked man forsake his own way
and the unrighteous man his own thoughts;
let him return to the LORD,
that He may have compassion,
and to our God,
for He will freely pardon.
"For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways My ways,"
declares the LORD.
"For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so My ways are higher than your ways
and My thoughts than your thoughts.
For just as rain and snow fall from heaven
and do not return without watering the earth,
making it bud and sprout,
and providing seed to sow and food to eat,
so My word that proceeds from My mouth
will not return to Me empty,
but it will accomplish what I please,
and it will prosper where I send it.
You will indeed go out with joy
and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and hills will burst into song before you,
and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.
Instead of the thornbush, a cypress will grow,
and instead of the brier, a myrtle will spring up;
they will make a name for the LORD,
an everlasting sign, never to be destroyed."
A song of ascents.
Blessed are all who fear the LORD,
who walk in His ways!
For when you eat the fruit of your labor,
blessings and prosperity will be yours.
Your wife will be like a fruitful vine
flourishing within your house,
your sons like olive shoots
sitting around your table.
In this way indeed shall blessing come
to the man who fears the LORD.
May the LORD bless you from Zion,
that you may see the prosperity of Jerusalem
all the days of your life,
that you may see
your children's children.
Peace be upon Israel!
Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, and in which you stand firm. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.
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, and that He appeared to Cephas and then to the Twelve. After that, He appeared to more than five hundred brothers at once, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles. And last of all He appeared to me also, as to one of untimely birth.
For I am the least of the apostles and am unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace to me was not in vain. No, I worked harder than all of them-yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. Whether, then, it was I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed.
But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is worthless, and so is your faith. In that case, we are also exposed as 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 not even Christ has been raised. 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 have perished. If our hope in Christ is for this life alone, we are to be pitied more than all men.
But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own turn: Christ the firstfruits; then at His coming, those who belong to Him.
Then the end will come, when He hands over the kingdom to God the Father after He has destroyed all dominion, authority, and power. For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For "God has put everything under His feet." Now when it says that everything has been put under Him, this clearly does not include the One who put everything under Him. And when all things have been subjected to Him, then the Son Himself will be made subject to Him who put all things under Him, so that God may be all in all.
If these things are not so, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized for them? And why do we endanger ourselves every hour? I face death every day, brothers, as surely as I boast about you in Christ Jesus our Lord. If I fought wild beasts in Ephesus for human motives, what did I gain? If the dead are not raised,
"Let us eat and drink,
for tomorrow we die."
Do not be deceived: "Bad company corrupts good character." Sober up as you ought, and stop sinning; for some of you are ignorant of God. I say this to your shame.
But someone will ask, "How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?" You fool! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or something else. But God gives it a body as He has designed, and to each kind of seed He gives its own body.
Not all flesh is the same: Men have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another, and fish another. There are also heavenly bodies and earthly bodies. But the splendor of the heavenly bodies is of one degree, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is of another. The sun has one degree of splendor, the moon another, and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor.
So will it be with the resurrection of the dead: What is sown is perishable; it is raised imperishable. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. So it is written: "The first man Adam became a living being;" the last Adam a life-giving spirit.
The spiritual, however, was not first, but the natural, and then the spiritual. The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven. As was the earthly man, so also are those who are of the earth; and as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are of heaven. And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so also shall we bear the likeness of the heavenly man.
Now I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.
Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed- in an instant, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must be clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.
When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come to pass: "Death has been swallowed up in victory."
"Where, O Death, is your victory?
Where, O Death, is your sting?"
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!
Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast and immovable. Always excel in the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.