Living In Light Of Our Blessed Hope

Resurrection: Living in Light of our Blessed Hope

Text: Philippians 3:1-14

I am so happy that you have chosen to gather with the Church this morning as we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead. For Christians – THIS is one of the most important holidays of the year! Resurrection Sunday and Christmas! Without the Birth of Christ, and the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ – you don’t have Christianity. You’ve got something that’s just like every other religion in the world. The Apostle Paul even tells us that if Christ be not raised, our faith is in vain and we are still in our sins. In other words, if Jesus was not raised from the dead, that would mean we are not forgiven, we are not saved, we do not have any hope of eternal life, and everything we do as Christians would be meaningless. But thank God – He was raised from the dead! And what that means is – ALL of those things – Forgiveness, having eternal life, being made right with God… all of those things are yours if you have put your faith and trust in Jesus.

That’s a short summary of 1 Corinthians 15:12-20 if you want to write that down and read it later… that’s not our text this morning… but it does help us wrap our minds around how important the Resurrection is, and why the Resurrection is an essential doctrine of the Christian Faith. No Resurrection = No Christianity!

So knowing that, the next question should be: “How should we then live?” If Jesus was raised from the dead, and you believe that – How should that impact you? How should that shape your thoughts, your mind, your behavior, your speech, your world-view, your spending habits… or habits in general? How should that impact the way you treat others? The way you treat your spouse? The way you raise your kids?

CHRIST IS RISEN – He is Risen Indeed: So… “How Should We Then Live?”

With that question in mind, let’s open up our Bibles to the Book of Philippians 3:1-14 (READ).

Church, when you look at the disciples – including the Apostle Paul… There is a vast difference between before and after. What I mean is – as we read through the Gospels, and the rest of the New Testament, we see a huge difference in their lives, in their thoughts, in everything. There’s a vast difference before the Resurrection and After.

Before the Resurrection the Disciples were pretty selfish dudes… They were so caught up on the world, and worldly things… Their focus was on themselves. They were like, “What can we get?”, “What can we achieve?”, “Jesus, let me sit at your right hand next to the throne.” And Paul… who was called Saul at that time… Man this guy was a real piece of work right?

We just read it in our Text, you’ll see it… Circumcised on the 8th day, Tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews… a Pharisee, zealous, persecuting the Church. Basically Paul was like a mob enforcer… He was working for the Pharisees, and going out and persecuting Christians… arresting them, and sometimes even watching them be put to death.

And really, for all intents and purposes – Paul was moving up the ladder of worldly success. In-fact, if you would’ve asked most Pharisees, they would’ve said, “Saul of Tarsus… yeah, he’s a good guy… he’s a moral and upright citizen… he’s probably going to be the head of the council one day.”

The world was his oyster so to speak.

But that was BEFORE. His life changed drastically after meeting the Risen Lord.

When Paul writes this letter to the Philippians, he’s writing to a congregation that he loves dearly… and they love him too. He’s writing to people that he knows well, and who he has built relationships with. And they would’ve been eagerly waiting for this letter, to see what Paul would tell them, and teach them… and in the first two chapters he’s said and taught them a-lot, but as he comes to chapter 3 he begins to give them a somber warning. He says, “Look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh.”

Now I’m a dog guy (I like dogs) but you’ve got to understand that EVEN TO THIS DAY, dogs in many parts of the Middle East are usually more like scavengers… more like coyotes or dingos than family pets. And then he calls them “evildoers” and “those who mutilate the flesh”… And the reason Paul is doing this is because he’s like, “Listen… I was there… I was one of those guys. I was on the fast track for success.” And depending on where you live… what you do… the kind of people you’re around… that may look different, but the idea is still the same. The world has all kinds of ideas and wants to give you all kinds of input on what it’s going to take for you to “Make It!”