Easter Sunday
March 30, 1997
ALIVE AGAIN!
INTRODUCTION
This past week, America has been shocked and puzzled by the mass suicide of 39 people near San Diego, CA. The group, as you well know, was called Heaven’s Gate and its members, led by the charismatic Marshall Applewhite, believed that by ridding themselves of the shell of their human bodies they might rise to a brighter reality with God in the eternity of space. They claimed that a UFO hiding behind the tail of the Hale-Bopp comet was waiting for them.
It was a resurrection of sorts that they were in search of. The video tapes I saw on the news showed a smiling, giddy group of individuals ready to end their lives to begin another. And so by eating the drugged pudding and applesauce and downing some vodka, they each lay down ready to pass from this life to the next. The union they envisioned could not be entered until they died. But I’m pretty sure that every one of us here today is quite confident that what they found on the other side of life was not what they hoped.
What if the news this past week had been something like this:
Dateline Jerusalem – On the eve of the annual celebration of the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, the 1 million inhabitants of this city were shocked by the announcement that a body, identified as that of Jesus, was found in a long-neglected tomb just outside the boundary of the city.
Rumors had been circulating the last week that a very important discovery was about to be announced. The news, however, far outstrips all of our wildest guesses. The initial reaction of Christians here and around the world has been one of astonishment, bewilderment, and defensive disbelief. We will have to wait and see just what effect this discovery will have on the 2000-year-old religion. It appears at this point that Christianity will have to reckon with itself and finally be content to take its place on the same level with the world’s other major religions. No longer can its followers claim that, unlike other religions, the tomb of its founder is empty. Evidently a 2000 year-old lie has come to an end.
The women who went to the tomb of Jesus on the Sunday after his death discovered that the stone had been rolled away and that the tomb was empty. Not only do the Scriptures verify this, they don’t over-dramatize. Not there to prove it – just there to let us believe.
Jesus’ disciples didn’t understand what had just happened
Only later did they begin to see and understand.
What had just happened would forever change the spiritual possibilities for humanity. Jesus had just displayed what could happen to us. We can join with him in his resurrection.
Are we as naïve as the people of Heaven’s Gate to believe that such an event is possible? For one thing, it doesn’t take suicide for it to happen. The Bible tells us that the resurrection of Jesus Christ holds within it the hope of all ages of mankind. That is, a life beyond this one – not through a bizarre cultic ritual, but through a unique and special union.
READ: Romans 6:5-11
THESIS: We must join Christ in his resurrection if we are to claim we believe in the resurrection event.
BRIDGE: Does it mean we are united with him in a resurrection in the future, or in the present newness of life? Paul probably did not conceive of one without the other. Life is resurrection anticipated; resurrection is life consummated.
Let’s look together at this passage and find some truths that help us understand what it means to be united with Christ in his resurrection.
I. We Must Enter the Union by Faith Through a Contract (v. 5-7)
A. The Meaning Behind Christian Baptism
Look at Romans 6:4 – the contract is BAPTISM – that’s what “united like this” means in 6:5. United through baptism.
1. The word “united” means – grown together, or fused. It means we have joined with Christ or shared in him.
We are incorporated into death by our natural birth – as we are born into Adam – or into the sinful human nature. But through baptism, or the second birth – we are united with Christ.
2. Romans 6:5 says that baptism unites us with Christ in his death.
READ v. 6 “For we know that our old self was crucified with him”
Old self crucified – Our former self, or the person we once were in sin is nailed to the cross with Jesus.
“So that the body of sin might be rendered powerless.”
The body of sin – our sinful nature is done away with.
We no longer serve sin as slaves – there is freedom from the penalty of sin because of this death.
3. Other scriptures on baptism:
Again, baptism is our union with Christ – Galatians 3:27 says, “For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.”
It is our union with his Spirit – Acts 2:38, “Repent and be baptized every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins might be forgiven. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
Assures us of the forgiveness of sins – Acts 22:16, “And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away calling on his name.”
4. ILLUS. Baptism is kind of like a wedding ring because they both symbolize transactions or contracts, if you will. A wedding ring symbolizes marriage and baptism is a ceremony that symbolizes salvation. Wearing a wedding ring doesn’t make you married, any more than being baptized makes you saved. Anyone can go through the action of putting a ring on their finger just as anyone whether they have faith or not could be dunked under some water. If a person does not wear a wedding ring you can usually assume that the person is not married. In New Testament times if a person was not baptized you could probably assume that they were not a believer. Baptism is a sign that we’ve entered the relationship with Jesus Christ. We’ve been united with him – a marriage of sorts.
In marriage just as in baptism there is an oath of allegiance. There is an end and a beginning. Leave the “self” life for a “shared” life.
I’m going to be doing that very soon. Going from where I call the shots – I decide where I put my dirty socks, how long the dirty dishes stay in the sink, how often I clean out the bathtub, what time I come home, when I eat my meals. I willingly sacrifice these luxuries because I realize that apart from Kim I can never become what I could become with her. New possibilities arise. Better realities. Sharing a love and growing old together. An end to being alone. Being in a ministry team. Becoming a father. These realities are better than the realities of the former way of life.
We accept Christ because we realize that apart from Him we can do nothing. A whole new life arises because of our commitment to a relationship with him. New possibilities arise: a home in heaven, life to the full, forgiveness of our sins, the gift of the Holy Spirit, strength for the day, constant companionship. What could be better?
B. In baptism, All of the work of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ happens to us
1. This can be seen in the very mode of baptism – traditional immersion
2. “That plunge beneath the running waters was like a death; the moment’s pause while they swept overhead was like a burial; the standing erect once more in air and sunlight was a species of resurrection.” (Sanday and Headlam commentary on Romans in Romans, by John Stott, p. 175)
2. Confusion over baptism arose probably around 400 A.D. through the Catholic notion of original sin combined with the ever increasing belief that by performing a sacred action the desired result would occur. The action itself does the work. Therefore, Holy Water sprinkled on a baby’s forehead would bring about salvation just because the ritual had been performed and because the water had been blessed. Since most Protestant churches are closely tied to their Catholic roots, the practice of sprinkling infants has been retained, but believing it is God at work and not the action itself that brings salvation.
3. The truest expression of Paul’s words here in Romans is found, however in traditional baptism by immersion. That’s why immersion was exclusively practiced in the New Testament and on through the 4th Century and why the Christian Churches still practice it today. Not to be nit-picky, but just to be biblical. The picture is one of death, burial and resurrection. Through baptism we are united with Christ in all of these aspects.
TRANSITION: We enter the union with Jesus’ resurrection by faith through the contract of baptism.
II. We Must Hold Onto the Guarantee (v. 8-10)
A. Christ cannot die again (v. 9)
1. He has been raised to a plane where he is unable to experience death again
2. The irreversible had been reversed
3. ILLUS. Reversible jacket. Red on one side, blue on the other. Death is not like that – once it’s been turned to show its true colors there is no turning back. That’s why we mourn the loss of a loved one so much – because once death has them, they’re not coming back here.
B. Death has no power over Christ (v. 9)
1. The word mastery means that Death is no longer his “lord” - it has no lordship over him
2. He is Lord over death! It is subservient to him. Formerly it was man’s most powerful enemy – now there is someone stronger.
3. Quote from Yancey, p. 217 (The Jesus I Never Knew), John Updike said,
“Make no mistake; if he rose at all
it was as His body;
if the cells’ dissolution did not reverse, the molecules reknit, the amino acids rekindle,
the Church will fall.”
4. Jesus conquered death! He was truly dead, and returned truly alive.
TRANSITION: If we want to be united in Christ’s resurrection, we accept the invitation by entering the contract of baptism while holding onto the guarantee from Christ. But the acceptance of this invitation means one thing more. . .
III. We Must Live the Reality on a Daily Basis (v. 11)
If Christ’s death was a death to sin (which it was), and if his ressurrection was a resurrection to God (which it was) and if by baptism we have been united to Christ in his death and resurrection (which we have been), then we ourselves have died to sin and risen to God.
READ v. 5, v.8 & v.11
A. We Are Dead to Sin, but alive to God
Being dead to sin doesn’t necessarily mean that we are unresponsive to it – No we all struggle with sin, even after we accept Christ. It’s features still stimulate and attract us to it. We can’t say that we are unresponsive to sin like a dead corpse. Rather we are dead to sin’s penalty and dead to the person we once were before accepting Christ into our lives.
B. Being dead to sin and alive to God means that a return to the past would be unthinkable
ILLUS. Our lives are Like 2 volumes of books – Volume I ends with the decisive death of the former self, putting an end to sin’s career. Volume 2 opens with a resurrection. Volume I is long since closed. We are now living in volume 2. It is inconceivable that I would reopen Volume I and write more in its pages there as if our death and resurrection had never taken place.
A Christian should no more consider the possibility of a return to the former way of life any more than adults could to their childhood, married people to their singleness, or discharged prisoners to their prison cells.
C. Union with Jesus in his resurrection means simply this: “Starting now, we live forever.”
I started living forever on September 11, 1977. When did you?
“If Christ has not been raised our preaching is useless and so is your faith” (1 Cor. 15:14)
TRANSITION: So we can pretty easily see why this union with Christ’s resurrection is such a good thing, and how it takes place. The contract of baptism is clear to understand. The guarantee of victory over death is evident from Christ’s own resurrection. And the reality of living forever beginning now makes Resurrection Sunday the greatest event in history!
CONCLUSION
When I was in high school there was a white cat that took up residence on our farm. Almost all farms have cats that seem to migrate there. This cat arrived at a time when we didn’t have any regulars living on our property. I named her Nomad – because like a true wandering Nomad, one day she just showed up and stayed.
Gradually she became more and more tame. And we began to notice something about her. Nomad was a virtual kitten factory. I’ve heard that heaven for Mormon women means being eternally pregnant. If that’s true, then Nomad would have certainly fit right in. We figure that Nomad was having a litter of kittens every 3.5 days. She had certainly learned how to be fruitful and multiply. Soon our farm was so filled with cats that we feared a rebellious takeover.
One day when my father and I were working on a project in the tool shed we heard the cries of baby kittens coming from underneath the workbench. They were Nomad’s kittens. Her 67th litter that year. But Nomad was nowhere to be found. They were so young that their eyes were still closed. They were hungry. We kept an eye on them, and the next day the situation had gotten worse. Their mother had not shown up and now they were starving. We gathered them up and put them in a cardboard box underneath a heat lamp and tried to feed them some warm milk. But it was no use. They were too young to be fed like that. On the third day we really began to wonder what had happened to Nomad. It seemed like an odd time in kitten raising career to resort to child abandonment. Something must have happened to her.
That afternoon when I was working outside I noticed something moving on the road about ½ mile away. It was an odd shaped figure, but it appeared to be an animal. I looked again a little later and it had gotten closer now only ¼ mile or so away. I started walking down the road to see what it could be and as I got closer I could hardly believe what I saw.
I realize I have exaggerated a little about Nomad up to this point, but I give you my word that this is true. What I saw was the missing cat walking down the road on her two front legs with her entire body balanced above her in the air.
Nomad the cat – returning to save the kittens after three days “in the grave”
Christ came back victorious – not crippled
The same kind of victory can be ours when we join with him
