How Can The Resurrection Change Your Life?
Sermon Notes
Happy Easter everybody! My name’s Louis I’m the lead pastor here at City Awakening, it’s great to gather with you both onsite and online. At this time let’s go ahead and dismiss our children to children’s church, and if you didn’t get a chance to check your child in, please see our children’s ministry leaders in the back and they’d be more than happy to assist you with that...
If you’re a first time guest with us, we want you to know City Awakening is a place for both skeptics and believers to seek truth and find joy in community. We believe that truth and joy is found in Jesus, but we also know some of you aren’t there yet. We know some of you are here to explore Christianity, and some of you are here because you didn’t want to disappoint the person that invited you. Some of you are here as believers, and some of you are here as skeptics. But regardless of why you’re here, we all have this in common. We want our lives to get better not worse...We want our lives to get better not worse, and today’s scripture can help us with that.
We’ve been doing a teaching series on a book of the bible called Romans, and it’s a series about renewing your mind for the transformation of your life. What we’re talking about specifically today is how the resurrection of Jesus can make your life better not worse. We’re talking about how the resurrection of Jesus, can change your life. So let’s turn to Romans 6 and get into it. You can find Romans in the last quarter of the bible, and we’ll be in Romans 6:1-11. Title of today’s message is How can the resurrection change your life? The big idea is the resurrection gives hope for a better eternal life in the future, but also an entirely new life in the present!...The resurrection gives hope for a better eternal life in the future, but also an entirely new life in the present!..
Here’s your context. Romans was written by the Apostle Paul who was a skeptic and enemy of Christianity, until 35 A.D. when he has an interaction with Jesus that changes his life, and he becomes a Christian. He writes this letter to teach Christians living in Rome about Jesus, and the very gospel that transformed his life. In ch’s 1-5 he teaches both skeptics and believers are guilty of sin. He teaches we’re all guilty of sin, and need Jesus to save us from our inherited sin nature. But here in ch 6 he’s about to teach us about the new life we can have in Christ. He’s about to teach us 3 ways the resurrection of Jesus, can change your life. Let’s check it out.
Romans 6:1-11, “What should we say then? Should we continue in sin so that grace may multiply? 2 Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Or are you unaware that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 Therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead...” Notice Paul’s talking about the resurrection of Jesus as a factual event that’s already happened. He says Jesus was, raised from the dead. But if you’re a skeptic you don’t believe it happened, and if you’re a believer you have days you struggle in life so much, it may cause you to question if it actually happened! Both skeptics and believers can grow by looking at the lives of the early followers of Jesus, because they started out as doubters too. In fact the first doubters were Jesus’ own family. His family said in Mark 3:21, “He’s out of his mind!” It says in John 7:5, “Not even his brothers believed in him.” That isn’t very shocking considering nobody worships their family as God. I mean if one of your family members, especially a sibling started claiming they were God, you’d be like “No you’re not! You gave me swirlies and used my toothbrush to scrub the toilet. I can assure you, you’re not God!” Nobody worships their family as God! So the first doubters of Jesus and his resurrection were Jesus’ own family. But we also know his original disciples, his Apostles, his inner circle doubted too. It says in Matthew 28:17, “Some worshiped him, but some doubted!”After seeing Jesus brutally murdered on the cross, they were doubting and hiding knowing they’re next on the hit list! But both Jesus’ family and the Apostles went from being doubters to worshipers of Jesus, after seeing he was raised from the deadlike Paul says.
We also know Paul was a doubter too! We know historically he’s responsible for the death of the first Christian martyr, the stoning of Stephen. So he wasn’t just a doubter, he was an enemy of Jesus and his followers! But he went from doubter to worshiper too, after seeing Jesus raised from the dead. He left a life of prestige and power in the Jewish intellectual community, to live a life where he was brutally persecuted and beheaded for not denying his faith in Jesus. None of the Apostles were willing to deny their faith in Jesus and his resurrection! Chuck Colson was an attorney, political advisor, and Special Counsel for President Nixon. When the Watergate scandal happened, he secretly met with a total of 12 men to come up with a story they swore to keep. They were some of the most powerful, smartest men in the world, and Colson said they caved within 3 wks. But later in life he said this about the resurrection of Jesus: Colson said, “I know the resurrection is a fact, and Watergate proved it to me. How? Because 12 men testified that they had seen Jesus raised from the dead, they proclaimed that truth for 40 years, and never once denied it. They all were beaten, tortured, stoned, and put in prison. They wouldn’t have endured that if it wasn't true! Watergate involved 12 of the most powerful men in the world, and they couldn't keep a lie for three weeks. You're telling me 12 apostles could keep a lie for 40 years? Absolutely impossible!” His point is nobody would withstand the persecution Paul and the Apostles went through for a lie. They started as doubters like some of you, but then they saw something that changed everything. Paul says they saw Jesus raised from the dead, it changed everything, and they’d rather die than deny that truth. Every single one of them were willing to be persecuted and killed so we could hear and believe that truth. It’s that truth, it’s seeing Jesus raised form the dead, that leads Paul to now tell us 3 ways the resurrection can change our lives.
Again vs. 4, “Therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead, by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life.” Paul’s saying the day you put your faith in Jesus, is the same day you die to the old sinful life you were living without Jesus. You aren’t that same person anymore. You’re now free to walk in newness of life with Jesus, and this is the 1st way the resurrection can change your life.
#1 The resurrection can give you a new life, with a new power = The resurrection can give you a new life, with a new power. Paul even says in vs. 6, “Our old self, was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be rendered powerless...no longer be enslaved to sin!” You’ll still be tempted by sin, but you don’t have to walk in that old sinful life anymore, because you’re now a new person, with a new power, who can walk in newness of life with Christ.The reason we aren’t experiencing the fullness of that new life and power yet, is because we haven’t transitioned from this mortal life into eternal life yet. But internally our spirit has been changed and filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, filled with the power of Jesus to help us walk in newness of life with Jesus. The resurrection didn’t just change Paul’s mind, it had the power to change Paul’s life! It’s because you can’t put your faith in Jesus, you can’t experience the life transforming power of his love, and not be changed by it. When you put your faith in Jesus you immediately become connected to his life transforming power, and it’ll start changing your life.
It reminds me of the time I was at a family reunion in New Smyrna beach, and the battery died on my Toyota Tundra. My cousin pulled up in his Ford, took out his jumper cables, then he yelled in front of everybody at the hotel, “Should’ve bought a Ford!”...But it took the power in his battery, to jump start my battery, and without that power my truck would’ve remained dead. The same is true for our lives without the power of Christ. We need the power of Christ to jump start our lives in a way that’s different than we’re living now. Once his power starts flowing in us, it starts transforming every aspect of our lives, it starts changing our lives. The resurrection of Jesus gives us a new life, with a new power, so we can walk in newness of life with Christ.
Vs. 5, “For if we have been united with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly also be in the likeness of his resurrection.” Paul says we will certainly be, in the likeness of his resurrection. He wants us to know if we put our faith in Jesus, we’ll enjoy a physical resurrection too! The one thing we all want is for the joys of life to continue. When we die we want to see the people we love again, touch them again, enjoy the pleasures of life again, without the sting of death ever robbing us of those joys again. The good news is we have all that and more in the physical resurrection of Jesus! After Jesus was raised he appeared to his disciples in a physical body saying in Luke 24, “‘Look at my hands and my feet, it is I myself! Touch me and see, because a ghost doesn’t have flesh and bones like I have!’ 41 ...While they were still amazed in disbelief because of their joy, he asked them, ‘Do you have anything to eat?’ 42 They gave him a piece of broiled fish, 43 and he took and ate it.” So Jesus in his physical resurrected body can see, touch, eat, enjoy all the physical pleasures of life with those he loves again! You can’t have those things believing in atheism, which teaches this life is all there is, so when you die all the joys of life die with you. You can’t have those things believing in Eastern Religious Spiritualities that teaches you’re just a spiritual force, because a translucent spirit can’t enjoy physical pleasures and touch. The only way to see, touch, eat, enjoy physical pleasures of life again, is by believing there’s a physical resurrected body like Jesus. Jesus is the only God who offers this to you, and Paul says if you put your faith in Jesus, he’ll certainly give it to you. He’ll give you exactly what you’re hoping for, which is a renewed, imperishable, physical resurrected body in the likeness of Jesus, allowing you to enjoy the physical pleasures of life with those you love again, never to be taken away by the sting of death again. This leads to the 2nd way the resurrection can change your life.
#2 The resurrection can give you freedom from FOMO = The resurrection can give you freedom from FOMO, the fear of missing out. So many of us are overworked, overscheduled, stressed out, burnt out, because we have a fear of missing out or that our kids will miss out. We fear missing out or that our kids will miss out on certain pleasures if we don’t say yes to working overtime, making more money, signing up our kids for every season of sports. If we don’t live remembering the resurrection has infinite pleasures for us in the next life, then we’ll live trying to obtain every finite pleasure in this life. But you can’t enjoy this life if you’re too busy being overworked, overscheduled, stressed out, burnt out from fear of missing out. You can’t enjoy this life if you’re trying to obtain every pleasure in life, because you’ll just feel discouraged when you aren’t obtaining those pleasures. It’ll get worse the older you get because you know time is running out, and you’ll feel regret if you didn’t obtain all the pleasures you were trying to get. So many of us are overworking and overscheduling, even neglecting our faith and time with Jesus, trying to achieve and help our kids achieve finite dreams and pleasures. It’s because of FOMO.
Now FOMO isn’t anything new, it started in Genesis 3 when Satan told the first humans they’d be like God if they ate the forbidden fruit. He tempted Adam and Eve with FOMO, with thinking something was missing in their life, when God had already given them everything they needed to enjoy life. He tempted them with thinking something was missing that’s better than having a relationship with the God who created their life. The same thing happens to us today! We’re pursuing all kinds of things thinking they’ll give us greater joys in life than God. We’re like greyhounds chasing a fake rabbit at the dog track. My dad used to take me to dog tracks as a kid, and the dogs would chase after a fake rabbit flying around the track. Race after race the dogs are like “Rabbit!...Run!...Rabbit!...Run!” They sometimes let the dogs get close enough to keep them interested, and the dogs fall for it every time! But if a dog catches the rabbit, chews it, and realizes it’s fake, they never race again...We’re like the greyhounds but worse, because we never stop chasing the rabbit! We’re constantly chasing the rabbit, chasing all kinds of things thinking it’ll bring us greater joy than God. But if we catch the rabbit, if we achieve our dreams and get the things we want, we realize it didn’t satisfy like we thought and we chase another rabbit. Every morning the alarm goes off, the race begins, and you chase another rabbit. But you don’t have to keep chasing the rabbit, keep chasing every finite pleasure in this life, because Jesus has infinite pleasures waiting for us in the next life. C.S. Lewis states, “We’re half-hearted creatures fooling with drink and sex and ambition, when infinite joy is offered us. We’re like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum, because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at sea.” The resurrection offers us infinite pleasures in heaven with Jesus. The more you focus on Jesus and his resurrection, the more freedom you’ll have from the temptation of overworking, overscheduling, stressing out, burning out, from fear of missing out.
Again vs. 5, “We will certainly also be in the likeness of his resurrection...8 Now if we died with Christ we believe we will also live with him, 9 because we know that Christ having been raised from the dead, will not die again. Death no longer rules over him...11 So you too consider yourselves dead to sin, and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” Paul says consider yourselves alive to God, but we also need to consider those who aren’t alive to God. We need to consider the eternal implications of all this, which leads to the 3rd way the resurrection can change your life.
#3 The resurrection can give you a new destination and purpose = The resurrection can give you a new destination and purpose. If you’re a skeptic you need to consider what Paul’s saying. You need to consider if what this former skeptic is saying is true. I mean if Jesus truly has risen from the dead, it means there are eternal implications to the decisions you’re making today. If you reject Jesus today, it means you won’t be raised to life with him later. But if you accept Jesus today, it means you’ll be raised to life with him later. Your entire life will change putting you on a new path, a new destination that leads to eternal life in heaven with him. If you’re a believer, this is the one FOMO worth losing sleep over. It's the fear of missing out on enjoying eternal life in heaven with those we love. We’ve already been given a new destination with Christ, but we’ve also been given a new purpose to lead others to that destination. If there’s no life after death, if this life is all there is, then none of the joys we’re pursuing in life matter, and nothing we do in this life has lasting purpose. We live, we die, and that’s it! But if life after death is real, then it means the things we do in this life, have eternal implications and purposes.
The big idea of the message is the resurrection gives us hope for a better eternal life in the future, but also an entirely new life in the present!...The resurrection of Jesus changed the life of his family, the Apostles, Paul, so many others, and it can change your life too! It can change your life for the better not the worse! It can give you a new life, new power, new freedom from FOMO, with a new eternal destination and purpose. It can give you freedom from guilt over sin knowing your sins don’t get the last word in your life, because Jesus died for your sins and his resurrection will get the last word in your life. “But I’ve made a lot of mistakes in life.” We all have! We’ve all sinned, which is why Jesus came to give up his life for your life! “But I’ve been through a lot of pain in life!” Jesus can relate with your pain, because he suffered pain too. But he also proved pain and death don’t get the last word in your life, because he rose from the dead showing he gets the last word in your life! Death for a Christian isn’t a period, it’s a comma! Death for an atheist is a period, but death for a Christian is a comma, a slight pause as you transition into eternal life in heaven with Christ. Death isn’t the end of our story, it’s only the beginning of our eternal story. In the words of Billy Graham, “One day you’ll hear Billy Graham is dead. Don’t you believe it! I’ll be alive more than ever...It’s just my address will have changed.”
The Christian life isn’t a perfect life or a suffering free life. It’s a changed life, a better life when you’re walking this life with Jesus. Paul says he’ll certainly take you to an even greater destination, a greater resurrected life in heaven with him. The questions is do you want to make your life better or worse? Do you want to walk everyday life with Jesus, or keep chasing the rabbit?