How Does Easter Change Us?
00:00:00.000 | (music)
00:00:04.000 | Well, today is Good Friday in the annual church calendar.
00:00:08.000 | We celebrate the death of our Savior, Jesus Christ, on the cross,
00:00:12.000 | absorbing the wrath that our sins deserved.
00:00:16.000 | It's a huge day, it's a huge week. Easter is just a few days away this weekend.
00:00:20.000 | And so we turn our attention today on the podcast to the resurrection of Christ.
00:00:24.000 | And this question is from a listener named Allison.
00:00:28.000 | Pastor John, hello and thank you for this podcast. Thanks to the death
00:00:32.000 | and resurrection of Christ, we have the hope of physical resurrection to come,
00:00:36.000 | an amazing reality, but one off in the future.
00:00:40.000 | It seems that the Apostle Paul also talks about some ways in which we now participate
00:00:44.000 | in the resurrection of Christ. Can you explain these to me? Particularly,
00:00:48.000 | I'm thinking of when Paul says that we can know the power
00:00:52.000 | of Christ's resurrection in our lives today.
00:00:56.000 | That's Philippians 3.10. And then he also says that God raised us
00:01:00.000 | up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly places
00:01:04.000 | in Christ Jesus. That's in Ephesians 2.6.
00:01:08.000 | So can you explain both of these implications of Easter for our lives today?
00:01:13.000 | Well, the effect of Christ's resurrection
00:01:17.000 | on our present life as Christians is,
00:01:21.000 | Tony, Allison, immeasurably
00:01:25.000 | great. Yes. I mean, none of us has
00:01:29.000 | exhausted the possibilities of what God may
00:01:33.000 | be willing to do in us and through us because
00:01:37.000 | of the power of the resurrection of Christ in us.
00:01:41.000 | And I say that because Paul said
00:01:45.000 | in Ephesians 3.20, God is able to do
00:01:49.000 | far more abundantly than all that we ask or think
00:01:53.000 | according to the power
00:01:57.000 | at work within us. And he identified that power
00:02:01.000 | in chapter 1 this way. The
00:02:05.000 | immeasurable greatness of his power toward
00:02:09.000 | us who believe that he worked in
00:02:13.000 | Christ when he raised him from the dead. So there's the
00:02:17.000 | connection between 3.20 and 1.19.
00:02:21.000 | The power that makes it possible for us to do far
00:02:25.000 | more abundantly than we even dream we could is the very
00:02:29.000 | power of God that he worked when he raised Christ
00:02:33.000 | from the dead. So Allison's question is like plugging
00:02:37.000 | an electric cord into a socket with 10,000
00:02:41.000 | volts. So how does the Bible
00:02:45.000 | spell this out? It starts by
00:02:49.000 | teaching us that what happened to us in our
00:02:53.000 | conversion to Christ, in our new birth,
00:02:57.000 | is that by faith we were spiritually
00:03:01.000 | united to Jesus Christ.
00:03:05.000 | God established a bond,
00:03:09.000 | a union, a living, unbreakable attachment
00:03:13.000 | to Jesus Christ. And the point of this
00:03:17.000 | union, this bond, was that
00:03:21.000 | Christ's death and Christ's resurrection
00:03:25.000 | would count as our death and our resurrection.
00:03:29.000 | And the key text is Romans 6.5.
00:03:33.000 | If we have been united with him
00:03:37.000 | in a death like his, we shall certainly
00:03:41.000 | be united with him in a resurrection
00:03:45.000 | like his. And so if you ask,
00:03:49.000 | "How do we experience this union with Christ?"
00:03:53.000 | Because I can imagine there would be listeners who say, "Whoa.
00:03:57.000 | Okay, you say we're united. I don't know where to look
00:04:01.000 | in my experience for that." If you ask, "How do I
00:04:05.000 | personally experience a union with Christ
00:04:09.000 | in his death, in his resurrection?" the biblical answer is
00:04:13.000 | by faith in Christ. When the Holy
00:04:17.000 | Spirit brings about your embrace
00:04:21.000 | of Christ, your believing in Jesus Christ as
00:04:25.000 | Savior and Lord and treasure of your life, that is his way
00:04:29.000 | of establishing the union between you
00:04:33.000 | and the risen Christ. We see this in, for example,
00:04:37.000 | Galatians 2.20. "I have been crucified
00:04:41.000 | with Christ." So there's the union. "I have been united
00:04:45.000 | with Christ in his dying. It is no
00:04:49.000 | longer I who live, but Christ, the risen Christ,
00:04:53.000 | who lives in me." And now here comes
00:04:57.000 | the conscious experience of that, as Paul describes it.
00:05:01.000 | "And the life I now live in the flesh
00:05:05.000 | I live by faith in the Son of God."
00:05:09.000 | So by faith, the cord
00:05:13.000 | of our lives is plugged in to the 10,000-volt
00:05:17.000 | death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
00:05:21.000 | That secures our future resurrection.
00:05:25.000 | "If the Spirit of him," this is Romans 6,
00:05:29.000 | no, Romans 8, "If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus
00:05:33.000 | from the dead dwells in you, he who raised
00:05:37.000 | Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to
00:05:41.000 | our mortal bodies." So if Christ is in you now, the
00:05:45.000 | risen Christ dwelling in you now, you will be raised
00:05:49.000 | from the dead. So here are five present
00:05:53.000 | implications or experiences that we
00:05:57.000 | can know here and now because of our
00:06:01.000 | 1,000-volt union with the risen
00:06:05.000 | Christ and the certainty of our own resurrection.
00:06:09.000 | What a difference it makes in our hearts that we can be certain that
00:06:13.000 | our own future resurrection is going to happen. So here's number one.
00:06:17.000 | There is a new security, a new confidence of hope in
00:06:21.000 | our lives. Christians are in a profound sense
00:06:25.000 | immortal. We will never see the full
00:06:29.000 | destructive power of death because Jesus said,
00:06:33.000 | this is John 11:25, "I am the resurrection and
00:06:37.000 | the life. Everyone who lives and believes in me
00:06:41.000 | shall never die." Amazing.
00:06:45.000 | Oh, what a promise. The effect of this
00:06:49.000 | certainty in the future is to make our present
00:06:53.000 | experience in this world joyful, a joyful
00:06:57.000 | freedom from fear and a full
00:07:01.000 | security and confidence and hope. Peter said,
00:07:05.000 | this is 1 Peter 1.3, "God caused us
00:07:09.000 | to be born again to a living hope
00:07:13.000 | through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead."
00:07:17.000 | All of us know there's a world of difference
00:07:21.000 | between living right now in despair and uncertainty
00:07:25.000 | and insecurity and fear and, on the other hand,
00:07:29.000 | living right now in security and confidence
00:07:33.000 | and hope and joy and freedom from fear because we
00:07:37.000 | share an indestructible life, namely
00:07:41.000 | the resurrection life of Jesus. So that's the first effect
00:07:45.000 | of Christ's resurrection on our present
00:07:49.000 | experience. Here's number two. We have a new
00:07:53.000 | unshakable, glorious identity.
00:07:57.000 | The world looks at you, me,
00:08:01.000 | after our conversion to Christ, and what do they
00:08:05.000 | see? Nothing very spectacular. You're not
00:08:09.000 | 100 feet tall. Your true life
00:08:13.000 | is hidden. Son of God.
00:08:17.000 | I mean, son of God, that's like a galaxy.
00:08:21.000 | Your true life is hidden. Listen to Colossians
00:08:25.000 | 3.3. "You have died, and your life
00:08:29.000 | is hidden with Christ, the risen
00:08:33.000 | Christ, in God." That's where you are. That's who you
00:08:37.000 | are. "When Christ, who is your life, appears,
00:08:41.000 | then you, the real you,
00:08:45.000 | will appear." That is, will be finally manifest to the
00:08:49.000 | world. You will be 100 feet tall. "With him in glory."
00:08:53.000 | In union with the risen Christ, you are not a mere
00:08:57.000 | mortal. Your true identity as a child of God
00:09:01.000 | is hidden with Christ in God, and it will be
00:09:05.000 | manifest in spectacular glory at his
00:09:09.000 | coming. Number three. In union with the risen
00:09:13.000 | Christ, we have a new, living,
00:09:17.000 | present friend helping us all the
00:09:21.000 | time. Jesus said to his disciples before
00:09:25.000 | he died, "I will not leave you
00:09:29.000 | as orphans. I will come to you." John 14
00:09:33.000 | 18. And at the end of the Gospel of Matthew,
00:09:37.000 | the very last verse, "Behold, I
00:09:41.000 | will be with you always to the
00:09:45.000 | end of the age." So we experience
00:09:49.000 | the presence of the risen Christ
00:09:53.000 | by his Spirit, the Holy Spirit.
00:09:57.000 | When John said in John 7 39, before Jesus died
00:10:01.000 | and rose, John, describing the situation,
00:10:05.000 | said, "The Spirit had not been given
00:10:09.000 | because Jesus was not yet glorified."
00:10:13.000 | Not yet raised and glorified.
00:10:17.000 | I think what he meant was not
00:10:21.000 | that the Holy Spirit was not at work in the world before the resurrection of Jesus,
00:10:25.000 | but that the Spirit had not
00:10:29.000 | been revealed or experienced or known
00:10:33.000 | as the Spirit of the risen Christ
00:10:37.000 | himself. That's what's new. That's our Christian
00:10:41.000 | privilege. The risen Christ is in us,
00:10:45.000 | with us, as our friend, our helper, all the time,
00:10:49.000 | all the way home. Number four, in union
00:10:53.000 | with the risen Christ, there is new power
00:10:57.000 | for defeating sin and walking in
00:11:01.000 | righteousness. And the key text is Romans 6.
00:11:05.000 | Indeed, just about the whole chapter and the first part of chapter 7 is all about
00:11:09.000 | this. Here's verse 4. "Just as Christ
00:11:13.000 | was raised from the dead, we too
00:11:17.000 | walk in newness of life." Right now,
00:11:21.000 | not just later. Verse 13. "Do not
00:11:25.000 | present your members"—that is, your tongue, your arms, your legs, your
00:11:29.000 | sexual organs, your eyes, your ears—"don't present your members to
00:11:33.000 | sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but
00:11:37.000 | present yourselves to God"—here it is—
00:11:41.000 | "as those who have been brought
00:11:45.000 | from death to life." And here's Romans
00:11:49.000 | 7, verse 4. "You belong to him who has been
00:11:53.000 | raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit
00:11:57.000 | for God." So in union with the risen Christ,
00:12:01.000 | we have a new power for holiness
00:12:05.000 | and love. And here's number five, the last point, and there
00:12:09.000 | are lots more. This is a rich,
00:12:13.000 | rich—I mean, we're plugged into mega-voltage here. So number
00:12:17.000 | five, in union with the risen Christ, there is a
00:12:21.000 | new power to suffer with Jesus.
00:12:25.000 | Allison asked about this one in particular.
00:12:29.000 | Philippians 3.10, "that I may know him
00:12:33.000 | and the power of his resurrection." Why?
00:12:37.000 | Here comes the answer. "That I may share his sufferings,
00:12:41.000 | becoming like him in his death."
00:12:45.000 | We have power to suffer well
00:12:49.000 | with Jesus. A new security and confidence of hope,
00:12:53.000 | a new unshakable, glorious identity, a
00:12:57.000 | new present friend helping us
00:13:01.000 | all the time, all the way home, a new power for holiness
00:13:05.000 | and love, a new power to suffer with Jesus.
00:13:09.000 | And so we say this Easter season, don't we, Tony?
00:13:13.000 | The Lord is risen. He is risen indeed. And so
00:13:17.000 | in him are we. Amen.
00:13:21.000 | Thank you, Pastor John. Everyone have a wonderful weekend, enjoying what Christ has done for us
00:13:25.000 | and in us through his resurrection. We'll see you on
00:13:29.000 | Monday.
00:13:31.000 | (Music)
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