INTRODUCTION
• SLIDE #1
• Usually when someone dies we bury them and it is more or less the end of the story.
• There will be no more walks in the park, no more good times together.
• Death claims another victory; the world seems to go on like nothing ever happened.
• With Jesus something was going to be different.
• On Palm Sunday, Jesus enters into Jerusalem a hero… but just a few shorts days later, He leaves on a cross, buried in a tomb, BUT He did not stay in the tomb!
• SLIDE #2
• 1 Corinthians 15:55–57 (ESV) “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
• With the burial of Jesus came death’s demise!
• This does not seem like a victory, if people are still dying it does not seem as though death’s demise may be overstated.
• How does the demise of death help us? What does Jesus victory over death do for us because to this day we still die?
• Today we are going to examine Paul’s writing in the book of Romans, chapter 6 verses 1-5. In our passage today we are going to see some ways in which death’s demise affects us.
• One thing we always need to understand is that we are saved by the shed blood of Jesus.
• But the death of and the shed blood of Jesus on its own does not save us because IF just by virtue of Jesus dying on the cross for our sins we would ALL be saved.
• By the blood we all CAN be saved but we have to do what God asks us to do for that to happen.
• What needs to happen for that sacrificial death to have an effect on us is that we need to have the blood applied to us. We have to accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior.
• For the blood of Jesus to cover us we need to place our faith in Jesus, we need to confess Him as our Lord, we need to repent of our sins and we need to be immersed into Christ.
• There is a point in time where the blood of Jesus is applied to us. To see this we will dig a little deeper today.
• As a side bar to our dealing with death’s demise we will also see when the benefits of Jesus sacrifice on the cross is conveyed to us individually!
• Let’s begin our examination in verses 1-3.
• SLIDE #3
• Romans 6:1–3 (ESV) 1What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
• SLIDE #4
SERMON
Burial is Death’s demise because…
I. Our burial with Christ breaks our bondage to sin. (1-3)
• One of the themes of Romans that Paul lays out is that when sin is present, God’s grace is greater. In other words God’s grace can overcome any and all sin.
• A natural question one might ask then is why don’t we continue in sin so that God’s grace can shine through. This is what Paul is answering in verse 1.
• Think about the concept for a moment. When we hear of someone whom society considers a BIG sinner come to Jesus, we sit at the edge of our seats when we hear them describe their former life outside of Jesus.
• Then we are wowed when they reveal how Jesus changed their life.
• We too are impressed by a BIG sinner coming to Jesus through God’s grace.
• Being JUSTIFIED (declared innocent when one is guilty) BY FAITH was not meant to be an encouragement by God to sin even more. And Paul makes that clear in verse 2.
• The question, going back to verse 1 is, “are we to CONTINUE in sin that grace may abound.”
• Paul asks if we are to act as we did BEFORE we were converted or saved. The obvious answer in verse 2 is NO!
• Then verse 2 unlocks the reason we CANNOT CONTINUE living the way we did before becoming a Christian.
• How can we who died to sin still live in it?
• When something dies they cannot react. A dead cat cannot chase string anymore. You can parade a string of swimsuit models in front of a dead guy and he will not even crack a smile!
• When you are dead you cease to respond to stimuli.
• Before we DIE to sin, we are dead spiritually BECAUSE of sin. Romans 7 teach us that when we commit our first sin, we then become slaves to sin.
• The spirit within us is dead, we are separated from God, we then need salvation because one sin mars us.
• We are no longer able to control the body that we live in, we are driven by our passions, and the Devil needs no permission to mess with us because we belong to him since we are slaves to sin.
• When we are lost, the Devil tempts us and we respond in kind.
• Part of Death’s demise was the fact that by virtue of Jesus defeating death He also broke our bondage to sin because SIN leads to death!
• SLIDE #5
• Romans 6:23 (ESV) For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
• See, Jesus can offer us eternal life because He broke our slavery to sin.
• Now Paul says, How can we who died to sin still live in it?
• The question is when did we die to sin? When did it no longer become our master?
• SLIDE #6
• Romans 6:6–7 (ESV) We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin.
• So here we see that our death to sin, our freedom from the bondage from sin takes place when our old self is crucified, or our old self has died.
• But when does this take place? By a prayer? By faith with nothing else? When are confess Jesus verbally?
• Verse 3 unlocks the door of understanding.
• SLIDE #7
• Romans 6:3 (ESV) Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
• We are told that when we are baptized into Jesus, we are baptized into His death.
• For one to be able to benefit from Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection, we need to also die.
• Now with Jesus, the death was physical ours will be spiritual as we will see later in verse 5.
• Baptism is an outward sign of something that has already happened but a sign of what IS happening when one is being immersed!
• Paul surmises that for one to VOLUNTARILY submit oneself to slavery to sin is a foolish thing to do.
• The death of Jesus according to chapter 3 was the redemption that allowed God to justify (or declare innocent) sinful man!
• When we are baptized into Christ we are also immersed into the benefits of His death.
• WE are justified by God through Jesus blood, it is applied to us when we place our faith in Jesus, confess Him as our Lord, repent of our sins, and we meet Him in the baptismal waters!
• Jesus death breaks sins hold on us and until that happens we cannot stand before God! The blood of Jesus is applied to us at the time we are buried with Christ at baptism!
• SLIDE #8
• Romans 6:4 (ESV) We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
• SLIDE #9
Burial is Death’s demise because…
II. Our burial with Christ empowers us to enjoy a newness of life. (4)
• Verse 4 tells us that our burial takes place at baptism.
• One of the ways our baptism is different than Jesus actual death and burial is in baptism the death and burial symbolically take place at the same time.
• We are also told that when one is baptized into His death, we too will be raised and walk in a newness of life!
• When we look at the salvation process, faith is our conception, baptism is our birth! Conception without birth does not lead to life, but also with no conception, there can be no birth!
• This issue of the NEWNESS of life denotes a NEW QUALITY of life, a life different from the old life that we used to live that was dominated by sin!
• A new life happens after birth!
• In John 3, Jesus tells Nicodemus that one must be born again to see the Kingdom of God!
• SLIDE #10
• John 3:3–5 (ESV) 3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” 5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
• When Jesus was raised from the dead, His life was of a new quality that is was before, so will yours!
• This happens when we put on Christ, once you put Him on you will not be the same!
• SLIDE #11
• Galatians 3:27 (ESV) For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
• Do you want to experience a NEWNESS of life? You can! You see the same power that God used to raise Jesus from the dead; He will use to raise your life from the path of death it was on!
• You think you cannot change, by the power of the Holy Spirit that God will give you, you can. Raising the dead takes power, changing a life takes power. God can do that for with you!
• SLIDE #12
• 2 Corinthians 5:17 (ESV) Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
• You do not have to be trapped in the old life, Jesus offering you the chance to be a NEW CREATION!
• He will help you live new life in Him!
• Let us conclude with verse 5.
• SLIDE #13
• Romans 6:5 (ESV) For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
• SLIDE #14
Burial is Death’s demise because…
III. Our burial with Christ unites us with Christ. (5)
• Notice verse 5 starts with IF. That is a big word, IF does not mean we have done it, it means all these blessings are conditional, IF we have been united with Him in a death like his, we shall certainly be untied with him in a resurrection like his!
• If we have done what was started in verses 1-4 then we have an assurance.
• Also what we are called to do cannot be some mysterious thing of which we know not if we have done; it needs to be something that we can point to.
• This is why I believe in part God commands us to be baptized into Him. It is something we can see, so we do not have to wonder IF!
• Our burial through baptism UNITES us with Him.
• The word translated UNITED is not really catching the true meaning of what Paul is saying.
• This is the only place in the New Testament in which this word is used. It speaks of the process of grafting a shoot onto a tree, therefore making the shoot a part of the tree as it grows.
• When we are immersed into Christ, we are grafted into Christ!
• We see the phrase used a couple of times in this verse “LIKE HIS”.
• This means His death and burial and resurrection and not absolutely identical. His was physical ours will be spiritual!
• But one day ours too will be physical!
• SLIDE #15
• Romans 6:8 (ESV) Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.
CONCLUSION
• When someone dies and we bury them, their life is over.
• When we are buried with Jesus, the blood of Jesus covers our sins and our new life is just beginning!
• SLIDE #16
• Hebrews 9:14 (ESV) how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
• Are you ready to enjoy the benefits of what Jesus has done for you?
