Having our cake and eating it, too!
Easter, 2003
Texts: Romans 6:3-11, John 11:25 (NASB) (note: Scripture references for this sermon can be found at the end of the page)
Topic: resurrection/ salvation
Theme: balancing present and future salvation
Intro: We’re here worshiping together on this Sunday (and every Sunday) because the founder of our religion is not dead, but arose on a Sunday nearly 2,000 years ago. And there are many benefits for us arising from Jesus’ resurrection. Today we’re going to talk about two of them. But first, I’d like to talk about a beer commercial.
Okay, so it’s a bit strange to talk about a beer commercial in a sermon, but for any of you who—like me—grew up in the 80’s in North America, if you hear “less filling,” probably the first words you would think of would be “tastes great.” [Summarize the commercials].
Of course, the point was that the beer was supposedly both great tasting and less filling. While the commercial was perhaps silly, it does illustrate something that commonly happens: people tend to pick one or the other of two complementary truths about an issue and hold it up to the exclusion of the other. In other words, we tend to go to one extreme or the other. There are plenty of such issues in Christianity. For example, throughout history, some people have emphasized Galatians and salvation though faith alone, while others have emphasized James and faith without works is dead. Of course, both are true, and the two truths balance each other nicely, but many people support one to the exclusion of the other.
Well, the two benefits of the resurrection I’d like to discuss today provide another example. If I say to you that Jesus’ resurrection can change our lives, you’d all probably say, “yeah, yeah, yeah.” And if I say that because of Jesus resurrection we can have eternal life, you’d again probably say, “yeah, yeah, yeah.” Although I’m sure we’d all agree that both of these statements are true, when it comes down to how the resurrection really affects us, many Christians tend to gravitate toward one or the other of these benefits, to the exclusion of the other. So while these two ideas are nothing new to any of you, I would like to emphasize that
Thesis: Jesus’ resurrection
provides us with salvation benefits both
in this present life and in the life to come.
I. Present implications of the resurrection: Kingdom come (Rom.
6:3-11)
1. The old self is dead (v. 6; 2 Cor. 5:17)
2. We have been made new (2 Cor. 5:17)
3. We have a right relation with our Creator (v. 11)
1. We should live righteously, as Jesus did (I Pet. 2:21, 24)
2. Our lives are not ours anymore, we are to live for Christ (2 Cor. 5:14-15)
3. We have been enabled to do good works (Eph. 2:10)
4. Because of the resurrection, we are equipped to do God’s will (Heb. 13:20-21)
5. We should be growing in sanctification—becoming more and more Christ-like (transformed—Rom. 12:1, 2 Cor. 3:18)
1. Some people pray “the sinner’s prayer” and then carry on with their lives with no changes; they wrongly think the prayer means everything is squared away with God.
2. This is where James’ gospel comes in: faith without works is dead.
3. Because of the resurrection, we are free from enslavement to sin and free to live righteously (Rom. 6:17-18)
1. We are still part of this world
2. Christ transforms culture (as Rick often pointed out)
a. We can make a difference in the world around us. We pray, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Often, God uses His people to make that happen.
b. We should do our best in all we do, for Christ’s glory (Col. 3:17). This applies to our secular jobs, hobbies, and activities. Be a Christian teacher, a Christian student, a Christian businessman. When you play soccer or tennis or play the piano, when you exercise or go out with your friends, do it all unto Christ and for His glory.
c. Because of the resurrection, we can make an impact.
II. Future implications of the resurrection: Eternity with God (John
11:25)
A. Death is not final; there is more than just this short life
1. We need not fear death (I Cor. 15:55-57)
Four friends were talking about death. One of them asked the other three, "When you are in your casket and people are mourning you, what would you like to hear them say about you?" The first man said, "I’d like to hear them say that I was a fine physician in my time and a great family man." The second fellow said, "I’d like to hear that I was a wonderful husband and a school teacher who made a huge difference in our children of tomorrow." The third man replied, "I’d like to hear them say, ’Look, he’s moving!’"
2. Jesus defeated death; He took the sting out of it
· “Death. The bully on the block of life. He… badgers you… he taunts you…: you, too, will die someday. You see him [in the funeral procession]. He’s in the waiting room… of the intensive care unit. He’s near as you stare at the pictures of. …the starving in Zimbabwe. And he’ll be watching your expression as you slow your car past the crunched metal and the blanketed bodies on the highway. ‘Your time is coming,’ he jabs. Oh, we try to prove him wrong. We jog. We diet. We pump iron…. We try to escape it, knowing all along that we will only, at best, postpone it…. He’ll fence you in with fear…. He’ll make you so afraid of dying that you never learn to live. That is why you should never face him alone. The bully is too big for you to fight by yourself. That’s why you need a big brother…. Take heart. ‘Since the children have flesh and blood, He too shared in their humanity so that by His death He might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.’ (Heb. 2:14-15)” Max Lucado, Six Hours One Friday (pp. 131-132)
3. For the Christian, death is not this end; it’s the beginning (of eternal life)
1. The therefore of I Cor. 15:58
2. “Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven” (Matt. 6:20)
1. We get so caught up in our lives in the here-and-now that we forget that something so much better awaits us.
2. Illustration—will there be baseball in heaven?
3. Heard in a sermon: “This world is my home”—trying to make the point that we are part of this world (see above), but not biblically accurate (Heb. 11:13-16)
4. Quote from Ben Hur
5. Don’t lose sight of the splendor that awaits us in an eternity with our Lord in Heaven
Conclusion: The key is balance. Christ’s resurrection does make a difference in our lives here and now. We do have a restored relationship with God. And we should look forward to an eternity in heaven with God. Don’t get so wrapped up in one of these truths that you forget the other. You’ve heard the old saying, you can’t have your cake and eat it too (meaning you can’t have it both ways, or you can’t have two incompatible things). Well, the good news in this case is that we can have our cake and eat it, too!
Quote from Ben
Hur
[speech by Balthasar, one of the magi, now an old man, to Judah Ben Hur]
“See me as I am—weak, weary, old, shrunken in body.
Look at my wrinkled face, think of my failing senses…. What happiness to me is
the promise that when the tomb opens… to receive the worn out husk I call
myself, the doors of the universe, which is but the palace of God, will swing
wide to receive me, a liberated, immortal soul!
[He then goes on to argue that the
particulars of what the afterlife in heaven will be like are not something to
worry about now; God, who is the source of all goodness and beauty, will
provide for us.] “Trustful as a little child, I leave to Him…every arrangement
for the life after death.
“I might ask you now,… whether this human
life, so troubled and brief, is preferable to the perfect and everlasting life
designed for the Soul? But… [look at it this way]: Supposing both to be equally
happy, is one hour more desirable than one year? …[Likewise], what are seventy
years on earth compared to all eternity with God?
“God meant [for] us to know [that we are] created for another and a better
life…. But… the nations… live for the day, as if the present were everything,
and… say, ‘There is no tomorrow after death, or if there is, since we know
nothing about it, it is [not our concern].’ So when death calls them, they may
not enter into the enjoyment of the glorious afterlife because of their
unfitness. That is to say, the ultimate happiness of man was everlasting life
in the society of God.
“For my part, …I would not give one hour
of life as a soul [in heaven] for a thousand years of life as a man [on earth].
…“What can be compared to knowing God?
God, who… lit the darkness and out of nothing appointed the universe. [In the
hereafter] I will be filled with divine knowledge. I will see all glories,
taste all delights…. The furthest limit of desire will be passed, after which
the attainable ambitions of this life and its joys of whatever kind would only
be like the tinkling of little bells.
…“Consider the excellence of the existence that is reserved for us after death, and give heed to the feelings that the thought is sure to awaken in you—because they are your own soul stirring, doing what it can to urge you to go the right way…. You will find that the need of a Savior is so infinitely greater than the need of a king, and the one we are going to meet [which was Jesus] will no longer be to you a warrior with a sword or a monarch with a crown.”
—from Ben Hur, by Lew Wallace,
edited by James Bell, Jr. (pp. 402-404)
Scripture References
(New American Standard Bible)
Romans
6
3 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into
Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we
have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was
raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in
newness of life. 5 For if we have become united with Him in the
likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His
resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified
with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we
would no longer be slaves to sin; 7 for he who has died is
freed from sin. 8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe
that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having
been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master
over Him. 10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once
for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11 Even
so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
John
11
25 Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection
and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies.
2
Corinthians 5
14 For the love of Christ controls us, having
concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; 15 and
He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but
for Him who died and rose again on their behalf. 17 Therefore
if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away;
behold, new things have come. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for
Christ
1
Peter 2
Christ Is Our Example
21 For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also
suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps, … 24 and
He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin
and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.
Ephesians
2
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His
great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in
our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been
saved), 6 and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in
the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the ages to
come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in
Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith;
and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a
result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are His
workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared
beforehand so that we would walk in them.
Hebrews
13
Benediction
20 Now the God of peace, who brought up from the
dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant,
even Jesus our Lord, 21 equip you in every good thing to do His
will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ,
to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.
17 And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the
Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.
1
Corinthians 15
55 "O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY? O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR
STING?" 56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin
is the law; 57 but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory
through our Lord Jesus Christ. 58 Therefore, my beloved
brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord,
knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.
Hebrews 11
13 All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but
having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed
that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. 14 For those
who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own.
15 And indeed if they had been thinking of that country from
which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 But
as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God
is not ashamed to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them.
© 2003 by Jeffrey Westbrook
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