[The following is a full manuscript of my sermon delivered on Sunday morning, the 10th of April, 2016. Look for the video on our Vimeo channel, http://vimeo.com/pilgrimreformedchurch.]
We know the story. Christ died on the cross for us, to free us from the chains of sin and death. God the Father raised His Son from the grave so we could also share in that resurrection.
Baptism can represent our dying and being resurrected with and in Christ. But beyond that, what does the Easter story really mean to us? What implications do Christ’s death and resurrection hold for us who call ourselves Christian? Are we supposed to do something now, or just wait for the next Christian holiday to roll around on the calendar?
What does our Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth users guide say on this (that’s BIBLE, for short)? Listen and follow along as I read to you from the Contemporary English Version of our Bible, from the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Colossians, chapter 2 verse 20 through chapter 3 verse 11…
Baptism can represent our dying and being resurrected with and in Christ. But beyond that, what does the Easter story really mean to us? What implications do Christ’s death and resurrection hold for us who call ourselves Christian? Are we supposed to do something now, or just wait for the next Christian holiday to roll around on the calendar?
What does our Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth users guide say on this (that’s BIBLE, for short)? Listen and follow along as I read to you from the Contemporary English Version of our Bible, from the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Colossians, chapter 2 verse 20 through chapter 3 verse 11…
2:20 You died with Christ. Now the forces of the universe don’t have any power over you. Why do you live as if you had to obey such rules as, 21 “Don’t handle this. Don’t taste that. Don’t touch this.”? 22 After these things are used, they are no longer good for anything. So why be bothered with the rules that humans have made up? 23 Obeying these rules may seem to be the smart thing to do. They appear to make you love God more and to be very humble and to have control over your body. But they don’t really have any power over our desires.
3:1 You have been raised to life with Christ. Now set your heart on what is in heaven, where Christ rules at God’s right side. 2 Think about what is up there, not about what is here on earth. 3 You died, which means that your life is hidden with Christ, Who sits beside God. 4 Christ gives meaning to your life, and when He appears, you will also appear with Him in glory.
5 Don’t be controlled by your body. Kill every desire for the wrong kind of sex. Don’t be immoral or indecent or have evil thoughts. Don’t be greedy, which is the same as worshiping idols. 6 God is angry with people who disobey Him by doing these things. 7 And that is exactly what you did, when you lived among people who behaved in this way. 8 But now you must stop doing such things. You must quit being angry, hateful, and evil. You must no longer say insulting or cruel things about others. 9 And stop lying to each other. You have given up your old way of life with its habits.
10 Each of you is now a new person. You are becoming more and more like your Creator, and you will understand Him better. 11 It doesn’t matter if you are a Greek or a Jew, or if you are circumcised or not. You may even be a barbarian or a Scythian, and you may be a slave or a free person. Yet Christ is all that matters, and He lives in all of us.
--Colossians 2:20-3:11 (CEV)
Let us pray… Father God, when we pause to ponder the awesome message of the cross, we can’t help but wonder how we are supposed to respond. We can never repay what Jesus did for us, so we sometimes seem confused as to what we should do to show our appreciation. But You tell us, Lord, that it’s all pretty easy: we are simply to follow Your Son Jesus and become more like Him each day. Help us do just that, dear Lord, and beginning right now. Help us hear the message You have for us this day so we can understand that process. In the blessed name of Your Son Jesus we pray. Amen.
How many of you remember Spud Webb? In the NBA where the average height is around 6’ 9”, at 5’ 6” Spud was more like Zacchaeus - too short to see over the crowd. Yet Spud played for 9 years in the NBA. Despite a successful high school career, no major college offered him a scholarship. So Spud attended the little two-year Midland College and helped lead his team to a national junior college championship. North Carolina State University decided to give him a chance and he led the Wolfpack to the NCAA tournament Sweet 16. When he graduated from college, nobody in the NBA wanted to even give Spud a look. He did okay in college but the conventional wisdom had it that he would get killed in the NBA. Finally, the Atlanta Hawks gave him the opportunity to play. In his first four seasons with Atlanta, the Hawks went to the playoffs four times.
Perhaps one of the greatest moments in Spud Webb’s career came on February 8, 1986 at the annual NBA All-Stars Slam-Dunk Contest. Competing against players who were over a foot taller than he was, when the Slam Dunk Championship ended, the shortest guy on the court - Spud Webb at 5’ 6” - was the winner.
Spud gave this testimony: “I used to pray that the Lord would make me bigger when I was in Junior High School and Senior High, but every time I went to measure myself or to stand in front of the mirror, I’d always be the same size. And then one day I got the message, so I said to the Lord. “If you won’t make me bigger on the outside, will you make me bigger on the inside? And the Lord liked that prayer, and that’s what he’s helped me become.”
I like how Spud put it: “One day I got the message”. Then he prayed, not to be made bigger on the outside, physically. But to be made bigger on the inside, spiritually. And the Lord liked that prayer.
Are we praying for outside, physical things to make our life better? Or inside, spiritual improvement? Does God like our prayers?
Earlier I called our Bible our Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth. That’s just a clever phrase somewhat came up with to make the acronym B.I.B.L.E. But it really is our users guide, our set of basic instructions. And if we ever get stuck with what we should do next, we can find the answer there in its pages.
We just completed a long journey through Lent, including a parade into Jerusalem and a horrible stop at the cross before coming to an empty tomb that once held the body of Jesus. The angel told us He is risen! He appeared in front of His Disciples on more than one occasion, even behind locked doors. All in all, over 500 people witnessed the risen Jesus, after He had been declared dead and sealed in that tomb!
And the first thing the Apostle Paul tells us in our scripture reading this morning is that we died with Christ! We . died . with . Christ, there on that cross. We were buried in the tomb with Him. We arose again from the dead with Him. And now, all the forces of the universe no longer have any power over us!
Wow! Now we don’t have to worry about going out and playing golf during a thunderstorm and holding our putter up, do we.
Well, that’s not exactly what Paul means here. Although he goes into more detail a little later, Paul’s opening comments are all about new life, not death. Those forces that no longer have power over us are the forces of darkness and evil. We are no longer captives to death, slaves to sin.
Satan may try his best to trip us up and make us fall, but if we keep our trust in Jesus it will all work out for our good in the end. And Paul says why in the 1st verse of chapter 3. For we have been raised to life with Christ. Just as He was raised from the grave, we have been raised into a new life with Him, through Him, alongside Him.
We died, not physically, but to our sins. That was the old self, the old life, and we have to put it completely behind us. Paul says we must now set our hearts on what is in heaven. And what is in heaven is Jesus, sitting there at God’s right hand, ready to judge all the world when the time is complete to do so. We are to focus on Jesus, not on the things of this earth.
We are to let Christ give meaning to our lives - not material things that we can acquire, not what other people think of us, not our political affiliation, not even what church we go to. If we focus on Jesus, everything else will fall in place. We won’t be so concerned with material gain or wealth or success. We’ll care more about how the hungry might be fed, how the naked might be clothed, how the thirsty might be given something clean and safe to drink.
If we center our thoughts and lives on Jesus, we can control our bodies rather than letting the flesh control us. Jesus will help us kill every desire for the wrong things, for the lusts of the body and immoral, indecent, and evil thoughts. When we follow His command to love, greed will no longer be a concern because we will want to give as much as we can to help others.
Behaviors like these anger God, just like we angered God when we acted that way in our old life. But we need to put all that behind us and stop doing those kinds of things. Our new life, our new opportunity, demands that we quit being angry, hateful, and evil. We must no longer say insulting or cruel things about others. And we must stop lying to each other.
Yes, those are all tough to do, but we can do it with Christ’s help. And we must do it because we are now a new person. The old person died with Jesus. It was buried there in the tomb. The new person rose with Him out of the grave. This is our new life. If we truly accept it, then we must give up our old way of life and our old habits.
Paul concludes that each one of us is now a new person. But the full change is not necessarily immediate. Even Paul admitted that he was still maturing in his faith. In his letter to the Philippians, chapter 3 verse 12, Paul concedes that…
How many of you remember Spud Webb? In the NBA where the average height is around 6’ 9”, at 5’ 6” Spud was more like Zacchaeus - too short to see over the crowd. Yet Spud played for 9 years in the NBA. Despite a successful high school career, no major college offered him a scholarship. So Spud attended the little two-year Midland College and helped lead his team to a national junior college championship. North Carolina State University decided to give him a chance and he led the Wolfpack to the NCAA tournament Sweet 16. When he graduated from college, nobody in the NBA wanted to even give Spud a look. He did okay in college but the conventional wisdom had it that he would get killed in the NBA. Finally, the Atlanta Hawks gave him the opportunity to play. In his first four seasons with Atlanta, the Hawks went to the playoffs four times.
Perhaps one of the greatest moments in Spud Webb’s career came on February 8, 1986 at the annual NBA All-Stars Slam-Dunk Contest. Competing against players who were over a foot taller than he was, when the Slam Dunk Championship ended, the shortest guy on the court - Spud Webb at 5’ 6” - was the winner.
Spud gave this testimony: “I used to pray that the Lord would make me bigger when I was in Junior High School and Senior High, but every time I went to measure myself or to stand in front of the mirror, I’d always be the same size. And then one day I got the message, so I said to the Lord. “If you won’t make me bigger on the outside, will you make me bigger on the inside? And the Lord liked that prayer, and that’s what he’s helped me become.”
I like how Spud put it: “One day I got the message”. Then he prayed, not to be made bigger on the outside, physically. But to be made bigger on the inside, spiritually. And the Lord liked that prayer.
Are we praying for outside, physical things to make our life better? Or inside, spiritual improvement? Does God like our prayers?
Earlier I called our Bible our Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth. That’s just a clever phrase somewhat came up with to make the acronym B.I.B.L.E. But it really is our users guide, our set of basic instructions. And if we ever get stuck with what we should do next, we can find the answer there in its pages.
We just completed a long journey through Lent, including a parade into Jerusalem and a horrible stop at the cross before coming to an empty tomb that once held the body of Jesus. The angel told us He is risen! He appeared in front of His Disciples on more than one occasion, even behind locked doors. All in all, over 500 people witnessed the risen Jesus, after He had been declared dead and sealed in that tomb!
And the first thing the Apostle Paul tells us in our scripture reading this morning is that we died with Christ! We . died . with . Christ, there on that cross. We were buried in the tomb with Him. We arose again from the dead with Him. And now, all the forces of the universe no longer have any power over us!
Wow! Now we don’t have to worry about going out and playing golf during a thunderstorm and holding our putter up, do we.
Well, that’s not exactly what Paul means here. Although he goes into more detail a little later, Paul’s opening comments are all about new life, not death. Those forces that no longer have power over us are the forces of darkness and evil. We are no longer captives to death, slaves to sin.
Satan may try his best to trip us up and make us fall, but if we keep our trust in Jesus it will all work out for our good in the end. And Paul says why in the 1st verse of chapter 3. For we have been raised to life with Christ. Just as He was raised from the grave, we have been raised into a new life with Him, through Him, alongside Him.
We died, not physically, but to our sins. That was the old self, the old life, and we have to put it completely behind us. Paul says we must now set our hearts on what is in heaven. And what is in heaven is Jesus, sitting there at God’s right hand, ready to judge all the world when the time is complete to do so. We are to focus on Jesus, not on the things of this earth.
We are to let Christ give meaning to our lives - not material things that we can acquire, not what other people think of us, not our political affiliation, not even what church we go to. If we focus on Jesus, everything else will fall in place. We won’t be so concerned with material gain or wealth or success. We’ll care more about how the hungry might be fed, how the naked might be clothed, how the thirsty might be given something clean and safe to drink.
If we center our thoughts and lives on Jesus, we can control our bodies rather than letting the flesh control us. Jesus will help us kill every desire for the wrong things, for the lusts of the body and immoral, indecent, and evil thoughts. When we follow His command to love, greed will no longer be a concern because we will want to give as much as we can to help others.
Behaviors like these anger God, just like we angered God when we acted that way in our old life. But we need to put all that behind us and stop doing those kinds of things. Our new life, our new opportunity, demands that we quit being angry, hateful, and evil. We must no longer say insulting or cruel things about others. And we must stop lying to each other.
Yes, those are all tough to do, but we can do it with Christ’s help. And we must do it because we are now a new person. The old person died with Jesus. It was buried there in the tomb. The new person rose with Him out of the grave. This is our new life. If we truly accept it, then we must give up our old way of life and our old habits.
Paul concludes that each one of us is now a new person. But the full change is not necessarily immediate. Even Paul admitted that he was still maturing in his faith. In his letter to the Philippians, chapter 3 verse 12, Paul concedes that…
12 Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.
--Philippians 3:12 (NKJV)
Like Paul, we need to press on, to lay hold of Jesus and never let go. Notice in verse 10 our today’s reading that Paul says we are becoming more and more like our Creator. We can never be completely like Jesus, but we can become more and more like Him, maturing spiritually every day. And in that process we gain a greater understanding of Him and His ways, of God’s will for us and for His creation. We build a closer relationship with Jesus. We become more like Him. We understand Him better.
But first we have to put the old life behind us. Jesus has given us another chance. Just like the trees and the flowers show signs of newness every spring, just as the earth is renewed each year, we too have been given new life. It’s available to us every day, every year. It doesn’t matter who we are, what we do, where we came from, who our parents were, in what place we were born.
The only thing that matters is Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and He lives in each of us. Take hold of Him and the new life He offers.
Amen.
Let us pray… Father God, it is so easy for us to fall prey to Satan and his traps and temptations. He trips us and we slip right back into that old life we thought we left behind. And then we pick up our old habits and do those things You hate so much. We disobey You. We give in to the flesh and its desires. We treat others with hostility and cruelty. We react with anger when we should be loving and forgiving and seeking peace. Help us, Father, to remember what You so generously offer: Your great grace that will free us from these chains of sin.
Hear us now, Father, as we come before You in the silence, repenting of our old, disobedient ways, and asking for Your forgiveness…
Christ Jesus, You give us the chance to truly die with You, leaving our sins, our old life, in the tomb and rising with You into the light of a brand new life, free of the shackles of sin and death that now bind us. Help us, please Lord, to become more and more like You – more loving, quick to forgive, ready to serve. Help us grow closer to You so that we might better understand our Father’s will for us. Help us be bigger on the inside. In Your glorious name, Lord Jesus, we pray. Amen.
But first we have to put the old life behind us. Jesus has given us another chance. Just like the trees and the flowers show signs of newness every spring, just as the earth is renewed each year, we too have been given new life. It’s available to us every day, every year. It doesn’t matter who we are, what we do, where we came from, who our parents were, in what place we were born.
The only thing that matters is Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and He lives in each of us. Take hold of Him and the new life He offers.
Amen.
Let us pray… Father God, it is so easy for us to fall prey to Satan and his traps and temptations. He trips us and we slip right back into that old life we thought we left behind. And then we pick up our old habits and do those things You hate so much. We disobey You. We give in to the flesh and its desires. We treat others with hostility and cruelty. We react with anger when we should be loving and forgiving and seeking peace. Help us, Father, to remember what You so generously offer: Your great grace that will free us from these chains of sin.
Hear us now, Father, as we come before You in the silence, repenting of our old, disobedient ways, and asking for Your forgiveness…
Christ Jesus, You give us the chance to truly die with You, leaving our sins, our old life, in the tomb and rising with You into the light of a brand new life, free of the shackles of sin and death that now bind us. Help us, please Lord, to become more and more like You – more loving, quick to forgive, ready to serve. Help us grow closer to You so that we might better understand our Father’s will for us. Help us be bigger on the inside. In Your glorious name, Lord Jesus, we pray. Amen.
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