Sermon Central
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The Graveyard Series
Contributed by David Rumley on Apr 16, 2009 (message contributor)
Summary: THE GRAVEYARD: Finding the purpose of Palm Sunday and becoming Dead to sin but Alive in Christ
THE GRAVEYARD
Finding the purpose of Palm Sunday: Dead to sin, Alive in Christ
1 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. 5 If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. 6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin-- 7 because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. 11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Today is Palm Sunday…
The moment of triumphal entrance of Jesus… one in which the palm branches are lowered and the people shout his name… the same people that will cry out crucity him in a short week of time…
Palm Sunday… a moment where Jesus enters into the last moments of His life… but He does not do it blindly… He walks into with foreknowledge of all that was about to come… in fact He is stepping into the purpose for which He came to Earth… He must die … He must be sacrificed.
Hinged to the Christian faith is the moments that transpire this week… Jesus by His own choice giving His life… God by His choice turning away and allowing the word to take His son… because with Eternity in His minds eye He had to provide a perfect sacrifice to meet the requirements of justice demanded by a righteous God…
For while God is full of grace and mercy… He is just… and Righteous… and the only way in which we could be redeemed is for Him to send His son to die for us…
The purpose for which Christ entered the world… He was Driven by Eternity…
Focused on what must happen to create the pathway for those that choose Christ can know God. To create the means by which SIN can be erased… and we can be set free…
Sin: What is it? That which seperates us from a just and righteous God. 1 a: an offense against religious or moral law b: an action that is or is felt to be highly reprehensible
Bible is clear… all have sinned. All have fallen short. The best of us don’t add up to how it should be…
Jesus comes in to Jerusalem… a triumphal entry with palm branches in hand and those shouting hozanna in the highest… the beginning of the red road of Easter… which would be paved with His blood for our sin… Jesus will die this coming week… why?
This was God’s process by which the sin of the world can be taken away… dead and buried… that we might have new life, new hope, and a new future in Jesus Christ. But understand… sin is to be taken away…
o Patrick Morley’s book “Walking with Christ in the Details of Life.” It is a book of meditations that includes one called “Revival: The Gospel of Addition.” In it, he said the following, “The American gospel has evolved into a gospel of addition without subtraction. It is the belief that we can add Christ to our lives, but not subtract sin. It is a change in belief without a change in behavior… A changed life is one that has added Christ and subtracted sin, that attracts a world weary of worn-out words. Obedience is the proof.”
Paul is talking in Romans 6 about the purpose for which Christ died… the destruction of sin… but our role to play in living the life that is now before us… how must we now live? How must we be driven by eternity?
What is this process we must take… to accept what Jesus offers this palm Sunday… the purpose for which He came… the purpose for the triumphal entry…
