Main teaching topic: “Remembrance” in Scripture
Michael picks up a theme from his last teaching, distinguishing how remembrance functions across biblical eras:
- Old Testament: God gave physical, visual signs (Mount Sinai’s thunder and fire, tassels, circumcision, Sabbath, feasts, sacrifices) so Israel could see, remember, and obey the covenant. He traces this through historical Psalms (105, 106, 107, 111).
- Time of Christ: Christ was “the light of the world,” and people who saw His signs and miracles were called to think more deeply and recognize Him as Messiah — though many didn’t, at least not at first.
- New Testament epistles (main new insight): Beyond simply “remembering Jesus Christ,” Paul repeatedly points to himself and other apostles as living examples (“be imitators of me,” “remember my ways in Christ”). Since most Gentile believers never saw Christ in person, they needed to see Christlike character embodied in Paul and other post-Pentecost believers who had also inherited Adam’s spirit-less nature yet lived transformed lives through the gift of holy spirit—something Christ himself could not personally model.
He supports this with passages from Philippians, 1 Corinthians 4, Ephesians 5, Romans 12, and 2 Timothy 3, emphasizing that Paul’s authority came from the congruence between his teaching and his conduct (“truthing it”). He connects this to the idea that genuine godly living invites persecution, closing with a preview of 2 Corinthians 6:1–10 for the next session, which will explore how Paul endured suffering without self-pity or victimhood.
06 NT remembrance