Ten Ways Easter Changes Everything

00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)

00:00:02.580 | Well, given the church calendar,

00:00:07.160 | it may seem premature to talk about Easter today,

00:00:09.720 | but since this is a weekday podcast

00:00:11.840 | and because there is so much to say about Easter,

00:00:14.520 | we're closing out the week with two episodes

00:00:16.540 | on the implication of Christ's resurrection.

00:00:19.400 | And today we welcome Matthew Harmon to the podcast.

00:00:22.200 | Dr. Harmon serves as professor of New Testament studies

00:00:25.500 | at Grace College and Theological Seminary,

00:00:28.400 | and he is the co-author of a really good new book

00:00:30.840 | along with Benjamin Glad.

00:00:32.360 | It's titled "Making All Things New,

00:00:35.080 | "Inaugurated Eschatology for the Life of the Church."

00:00:38.840 | And today I wanna talk about Easter.

00:00:40.580 | Dr. Harmon, thank you for joining us.

00:00:42.600 | - Well, thanks for having me, Tony.

00:00:43.760 | I really appreciate it.

00:00:44.720 | - Well, certainly.

00:00:45.640 | Of course, Easter is a few days away,

00:00:48.280 | and you claim that the resurrection of Jesus Christ

00:00:52.520 | changes everything.

00:00:54.500 | Explain this.

00:00:55.480 | Why is such a bold statement like that no exaggeration?

00:01:00.480 | - Well, at first it can seem like to claim

00:01:02.720 | that the resurrection changes everything

00:01:04.840 | is an example of hype,

00:01:06.840 | but as you read the Bible and you understand

00:01:10.280 | all that flows out of Jesus' resurrection,

00:01:12.480 | it is no exaggeration to say that Jesus rising from the dead

00:01:17.480 | literally changes everything.

00:01:19.780 | And we could talk for days about the implications

00:01:23.240 | and things that come out of that,

00:01:24.960 | but in the short time I have today,

00:01:27.240 | I wanna focus on 10 things

00:01:29.440 | that Jesus' resurrection tells us about him,

00:01:32.420 | what it did for us,

00:01:34.680 | and what it did for creation itself.

00:01:37.320 | So first, Jesus' resurrection embodies the new creation

00:01:42.320 | and launches God's end-time kingdom

00:01:45.600 | into this present world.

00:01:47.960 | So when Jesus rose from the dead,

00:01:49.520 | it was the beginning of a new era in human history.

00:01:53.080 | Ever since Adam and Eve had rebelled against God,

00:01:55.720 | the world has been under the curse,

00:01:58.460 | but throughout the Old Testament,

00:01:59.880 | God had promised to redeem his people

00:02:02.640 | and transform creation itself through a descendant of Eve.

00:02:07.640 | And in Ezekiel 37,

00:02:09.920 | God describes that redemption of his people

00:02:12.560 | as an act of resurrection,

00:02:14.720 | God putting flesh and skin on dry bones,

00:02:18.680 | raising people from their graves

00:02:20.760 | and breathing his spirit into them.

00:02:23.240 | So because Jesus rose from the dead,

00:02:25.680 | God's new creation kingdom has broken into this fallen world.

00:02:30.680 | Second, Jesus' resurrection identifies him

00:02:35.400 | as the promised Davidic king who rules over creation.

00:02:39.840 | In Isaiah 11, one through nine,

00:02:42.160 | God had promised to raise up a king from David's line

00:02:45.720 | who would be anointed with God's spirit.

00:02:48.120 | And he would rule in righteousness.

00:02:50.320 | And as a result of his rule,

00:02:52.200 | creation would be set right

00:02:54.560 | the way it was supposed to be originally.

00:02:57.040 | So in his sermon on the day of Pentecost at Acts 2,

00:03:00.960 | Peter tells us that when Jesus rose from the dead,

00:03:03.640 | it proved that he was this promised descendant of David,

00:03:08.160 | the promised king who would come

00:03:10.520 | and be the one who rules over creation.

00:03:13.580 | So because Jesus rose from the dead,

00:03:15.760 | he proved that he was the anointed,

00:03:19.160 | spirit anointed king from David's line,

00:03:21.720 | establishing his rule over all creation.

00:03:24.200 | Third, Jesus' resurrection identifies him

00:03:27.720 | as the end time judge of the world.

00:03:30.960 | So in that same passage in Isaiah 11,

00:03:34.200 | this Davidic king is said to rule over creation

00:03:37.840 | with perfect justice.

00:03:39.600 | He wouldn't be swayed by people's appearances

00:03:42.240 | or their wealth or their socioeconomic status,

00:03:45.160 | but he would execute perfect justice.

00:03:48.760 | So when Paul appears before the men of Athens

00:03:52.600 | on Mars Hill in Acts 17,

00:03:54.880 | he says that God has fixed a day to judge the world.

00:03:59.320 | And the proof that he's going to judge the world

00:04:02.000 | is that he has raised the judge, Jesus Christ,

00:04:05.640 | from the dead.

00:04:07.600 | So because Jesus rose from the dead,

00:04:10.220 | it establishes him as the one

00:04:13.160 | who will judge all creation at the end of time.

00:04:16.360 | Fourth, Jesus' resurrection identifies him

00:04:20.180 | as the last Adam.

00:04:22.200 | So in 1 Corinthians 15, 21 and 22,

00:04:25.760 | Paul writes, "For as by a man came death,

00:04:28.880 | by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead.

00:04:32.740 | For as in Adam all die,

00:04:34.960 | so also in Christ shall all be made alive."

00:04:38.440 | When Adam sinned, death entered the world.

00:04:42.440 | When Jesus Christ, the last Adam, rose from the dead,

00:04:45.760 | new creation life began to flow into this world.

00:04:50.120 | That's because Jesus obeyed where Adam had failed.

00:04:54.360 | So death had no rightful claim over Jesus as the last Adam.

00:04:59.000 | Fifth, Jesus' resurrection accomplishes our spiritual birth

00:05:04.960 | and spiritual resurrection from the dead.

00:05:07.560 | In 1 Corinthians 15, 45,

00:05:10.040 | Paul says that through his resurrection,

00:05:11.960 | Jesus became a life-giving spirit.

00:05:15.400 | Now this is a really difficult verse to understand,

00:05:18.020 | but at least part of what Paul means

00:05:21.200 | is that the risen Jesus is the one

00:05:23.160 | who gives spiritual life to his people.

00:05:26.520 | And in Ephesians 2, 4 through 6,

00:05:29.000 | Paul makes a similar point when he says

00:05:31.280 | that God made us alive together with Christ,

00:05:35.000 | raised us up with him,

00:05:36.700 | and seated us with him in the heavenly places.

00:05:41.400 | So because Jesus rose from the dead,

00:05:44.000 | he raises us from our spiritual death into spiritual life.

00:05:48.360 | Sixth, Jesus' resurrection accomplishes our justification.

00:05:54.360 | So at the heart of saving faith in Jesus

00:05:58.280 | is believing that God raised him from the dead.

00:06:01.840 | And when God raised Jesus from the dead,

00:06:03.840 | he was vindicating Jesus.

00:06:06.240 | He was demonstrating to the world

00:06:07.960 | that he was innocent of the charges against him

00:06:10.920 | and that death had no rightful hold on him.

00:06:14.800 | Romans 4, 25 tells us that Jesus was delivered up

00:06:19.520 | for our trespasses and raised for our justification.

00:06:24.520 | So because Jesus rose from the dead,

00:06:27.320 | we who are joined to him by faith are justified.

00:06:31.460 | We are declared not guilty in God's court of law.

00:06:36.080 | Seventh, Jesus' resurrection enables him

00:06:40.040 | to give the Holy Spirit to his people.

00:06:42.320 | John 7, 39 says that the Spirit could not be given

00:06:47.200 | until Jesus was glorified.

00:06:49.920 | Now by glorified, John means Jesus' death

00:06:53.320 | and his resurrection.

00:06:55.360 | So on the day of Pentecost, in his Sermon to the Crowds,

00:06:58.620 | Peter says in Acts 2, 32 and 33,

00:07:02.120 | that because God raised Jesus from the dead

00:07:05.600 | and exalted him to the right hand of the Father,

00:07:08.240 | he is able to pour out the Holy Spirit on his people.

00:07:12.640 | So because Jesus rose from the dead,

00:07:15.200 | he is able to give us his Holy Spirit to live inside of us.

00:07:19.440 | Eighth, Jesus' resurrection frees us from our slavery

00:07:24.920 | to sin, death, and the devil.

00:07:27.800 | And this is really where some of the most practical

00:07:30.160 | applications of Jesus' resurrection come to the front.

00:07:33.920 | Romans 6, 1 through 11 talks about how everyone

00:07:37.740 | who is joined to Jesus Christ by faith has died,

00:07:41.960 | has been buried, and raised with Christ.

00:07:45.120 | And since that is true, we are no longer slaves of sin,

00:07:50.120 | but instead, we are slaves of righteousness,

00:07:53.500 | given the power by the Spirit of God to obey him

00:07:57.800 | and to be his instruments of righteousness.

00:08:01.200 | And then Romans 8, 10 through 17 goes on to talk about

00:08:04.480 | how the Spirit of the one who raised Christ from the dead

00:08:08.380 | lives in us to empower us to put sin to death.

00:08:13.380 | And Hebrews 2, 14 and 15 talks about the fact

00:08:16.900 | that Jesus has delivered us from the devil

00:08:20.300 | and from the fear of death.

00:08:22.180 | So because Jesus rose from the dead,

00:08:24.740 | we have this remarkable promise

00:08:28.840 | that the Spirit of God lives in us and empowers us

00:08:32.140 | to be free from our slavery to sin

00:08:35.000 | and to death and the devil.

00:08:37.340 | That's just unbelievable in terms

00:08:39.240 | of its practical application.

00:08:41.080 | Ninth, Jesus' resurrection ensures us

00:08:44.280 | that we too will one day have resurrection bodies.

00:08:47.260 | Now, what those resurrection bodies are like

00:08:50.200 | is something of a mystery.

00:08:51.840 | In 1 Corinthians 15, it tells us that there will be

00:08:54.320 | some continuity and some discontinuity

00:08:56.720 | between our current bodies and those resurrection bodies.

00:09:00.000 | But Philippians 3, 20 and 21 tells us

00:09:03.740 | that when Christ returns, he will transform our bodies

00:09:07.860 | to match his glorious resurrection body.

00:09:12.220 | And that is a remarkable promise as well.

00:09:14.140 | Living in a fallen world where our bodies decay,

00:09:17.220 | are subject to sickness and to aging,

00:09:20.140 | that there's coming a day when because of Jesus' resurrection

00:09:23.460 | our bodies will be transformed

00:09:25.780 | to match his perfect, glorious resurrection body.

00:09:30.000 | And 10th, Jesus' resurrection guarantees

00:09:34.160 | that God will one day transform all of creation.

00:09:37.800 | So 1 Corinthians 15, 20 through 28 presents

00:09:40.720 | Jesus' resurrection as the beginning

00:09:42.800 | of God transforming the entire universe.

00:09:45.960 | We experience that new creation

00:09:49.120 | the moment we are born again by God's Spirit.

00:09:52.720 | And Romans 8, 18 through 25 tells us

00:09:55.120 | that creation is groaning right now

00:09:57.000 | under the weight of the curse,

00:09:58.680 | waiting for the day when God will completely transform

00:10:02.320 | all of creation so that the entire universe

00:10:05.320 | will be full of the knowledge of the glory of the Lord

00:10:08.580 | as the waters cover the sea.

00:10:10.680 | And when that day comes, Revelation 21, 3 and 4 tells us

00:10:14.720 | that we will draw face to face with God himself.

00:10:18.320 | Every stain of the fall and the curse

00:10:20.240 | will be gone from creation.

00:10:21.860 | Every tear wiped away, no more death,

00:10:24.360 | no more sorrow, no more weeping.

00:10:26.840 | All of it is done away with.

00:10:28.560 | And all of that stems ultimately from the fact

00:10:32.000 | that Jesus Christ rose from the dead.

00:10:34.880 | - That is glorious.

00:10:35.720 | - So those are just a few of the reasons

00:10:38.080 | why Jesus' resurrection is so important.

00:10:41.180 | It literally changed everything.

00:10:44.760 | And that's not only why we celebrate Easter,

00:10:47.480 | but it's why we gather every Sunday morning

00:10:49.600 | because every Sunday morning is Resurrection Sunday.

00:10:54.160 | And to think how amazing is it that we can experience

00:10:56.840 | the power of Christ's resurrection in our daily lives

00:11:00.200 | because of God's spirit living inside of us.

00:11:04.080 | And what hope that gives us,

00:11:06.200 | no matter what we face in this fallen world,

00:11:08.920 | we can endure because the risen one, Jesus Christ,

00:11:12.460 | lives inside of us to empower us

00:11:15.400 | to remain faithful to him to the end.

00:11:17.960 | And that is just scratching the surface

00:11:20.820 | of all that Jesus' resurrection has done

00:11:24.280 | for creation and done for us.

00:11:26.880 | - Amen, that is a brief survey,

00:11:28.960 | but a feast in and of itself.

00:11:30.440 | Dr. Harmon, thank you for helping us

00:11:32.760 | to appreciate the scope of the resurrection.

00:11:34.880 | - It's my pleasure, thanks for having me.

00:11:36.920 | - Well, Easter changes everything.

00:11:39.880 | That is not hyperbole.

00:11:41.360 | And one thing that fascinates me about Easter

00:11:43.680 | is that the resurrection is not something

00:11:45.880 | that happens in the New Testament by surprise.

00:11:48.000 | In fact, if you study the Old Testament carefully,

00:11:51.200 | you'll see all sorts of illusions that are there,

00:11:54.020 | all pointing us towards Christ's

00:11:55.880 | eventual defeat over the grave.

00:11:58.240 | And tomorrow we welcome Dr. Don Carson back to the podcast

00:12:01.800 | to give us a whole Bible theology of resurrection.

00:12:05.960 | You will not wanna miss this episode

00:12:08.180 | as Easter comes upon us.

00:12:09.920 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke.

00:12:11.280 | Thanks for listening to the Ask Pastor John podcast.

00:12:13.680 | We'll see you tomorrow.

00:12:14.780 | (upbeat music)

00:12:17.360 | (upbeat music)

00:12:19.940 | [BLANK_AUDIO]

Ten Ways Easter Changes Everything

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