Episode Transcript
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Well, this morning I'm not only
do we have the joy of celebrating the
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Lord's Resurrection on Easterday, but also
we have the opportunity to welcome new members
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into our church and even through baptism, and that's a great thing. And
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I want to reflect on all of
these things together, which we did a
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little bit here in our hymn a
moment ago, right through the Jordan right
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a picture of baptism there. God's
work in the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
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a work that is continuing even now
in our lives as he sanctifies us and
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helps us to grow. These are
things I'd like to consider you with you
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this morning, from two passages,
first matthew chapter twenty eight and then Romans
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six. So let's turn to the
first of those two, Matthew Chapter Twenty
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Eight, verses one through ten.
Tonight will return to this chapter and consider
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the Great Commission on that Jesus gives
us as a result of his resurrection,
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but for now, Matthew Twenty eight, versus one through ten. Now,
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after the Sabbath, toward the dawn
of the first day of the week,
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Mary Magdalen and the other Mary went
to see the Tomb and behold, there
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was a great earthquake, for an
angel of the Lord descended from Heaven and
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came and rolled back the stone and
sat on it. His appearance was like
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lightning and his clothing white as snow. And for fear of him, the
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guards trembled and became like dead men. But the angel said to the women,
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do not be afraid, for I
know that you seek Jesus, who
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was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen, as he
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said. Come see the place where
he lay. Then go quickly and tell
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his disciples that he has risen from
the dead, and behold, he is
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going before you to Galilee. There
you will see him. See I have
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told you so. They departed quickly
from the tomb with fear and great joy,
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and ran to tell his disciples.
And behold, Jesus met them and
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said greetings, and they came up
and they took hold of his feet and
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worshiped him. Then Jesus said to
them, do not be afraid, go
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and tell my brothers to go to
Galilee, and there they will see me.
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And now let's turn it to Romans, chapter six, Romans six,
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verses one through fourteen. What shall
we say then are we to continue in
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sin? That grace may abound?
By no means how can we who died
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to sin still live in it?
Do you not know that all of us
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who have been baptized into Christ Jesus
were baptized into his death? We were
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buried, therefore, with him by
baptism into death, in order that,
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just as Christ was raised from the
dead by the glory of the father,
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we too might walk in newness of
life. For if we have been united
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with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him
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in a resurrection like his. We
know that our old self was crucified with
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him in order that the body of
sin might be brought to nothing, so
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that we would no longer be enslave
to sin, for one who has died
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has been set free from sin.
Now, if we have died with Christ,
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we believe that we will also live
with him. We know that Christ,
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being raised from the dead, will
never die again. Death no longer
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has dominion over him, for the
death he died, he died to sin
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and once for all. But the
life he lives, he lives to God.
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So you also must consider yourselves dead
to sin and alive to God.
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In Christ Jesus, Let not sin
therefore reign in your mortal body to make
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you obey its passions. Do not
present your members to sin as instruments for
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UNRIGHTEOUSNESS, but present yourselves to God
as those who have been brought from death
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to life, and your members to
God as instruments for righteousness, for sin
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will have no dominion over you,
since you are not under law but under
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grace. Man. So I want
to begin with Matthew, Chapter Twenty Eight,
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and think about the account here,
this history that is recorded for us,
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of the resurrection from the dead of
the son of God, who became
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man and died on a cross for
the forgiveness of our sins. was buried
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in a tomb, a tomb that
was sealed up, a tomb that had
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guards placed in front of it,
a tomb that was meant to secure him,
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and yet did not. Of course
it did not, because death itself
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could not. The Lord's work was
done in Jesus and he rose from the
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dead. What do we learn about
the resurrection from this passage? Well,
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one thing we learned is that it
happened. It's a fact. This great
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and marvelous thing, the most marvelous
thing in the history of the world has
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has happened, though. Jesus was
sentenced to die, though he did die
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publicly, a very horrible and gruesome
death, in which he was scourged and
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which he was crucified and which a
spear impaled his side so that his heart
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and lung would be punctured. This
Jesus, who died for us, rose
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from the dead. The grave could
not keep him down. The stone,
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the guards, the devil, nothing
was able to overcome the righteousness of the
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Lord. It happened. The promise
happened, the promise that from long ago
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had been anticipated that one would come, a son of man and also God
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himself would come to accomplish the salvation
of Man, a salvation in which not
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only would sins be forgiven, but
sins would be forgiven so that man and
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God could dwell together forever. We
also see from the resurrection not only that
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it happened, but that it was
accompanied by mighty angelic beings, much like
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the birth of the Lord and which
Great News, good news of great joy,
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was announced, in which the angels
had to tell the people don't be
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afraid. Here at the resurrection we
see the same thing as the Lord is
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being announced as he is risen from
the dead. These mighty angels are there
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and they are present, not ruling
over the Lord, but pointing to him
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as one who has come. This
appearance of this angelic being is amazing.
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Have you ever tried to look at
lightning? It's usually pretty fast. It's
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blinding, right, is one of
the ways we described lightning. Have you
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ever not in in a storm and
been blinded by light really fast? Now,
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imagine if that light was just turned
on and sitting in front of you,
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this great shining light, clothes as
wide as snow. Surely that would
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be something you would worship. But
no, this angelic being like all of
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the angels of God who serve the
Lord and worship him. They are not
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our gods, but they point us
to him and they announced the good news.
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And here. Why are for fear
of this, this creature, for
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fear of him. The guards trembled
and became like dead men. Right,
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you can imagine that, lying on
the ground, not moving, in some
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sort of state of shock. To
the women, they don't fall down like
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dead men. They hear this word
from the angel, who says, do
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not be afraid, for I know
that you seek Jesus, who is crucified.
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Whenever we seek Jesus, who was
crucified, we don't need to be
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afraid when we trust the Lord Jesus. We don't need to be afraid because
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he's the Lord, he's the victor, he's the king, and if we're
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following him, if we're trusting him, we are people who are okay,
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we're people who are doing just fine. Now, this, of course,
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is a fearful thing and amazing thing, and it does bring them a measure
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of fear, but not dead men
kind of fear, the fear that leads
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them to worship, as we see
at the end of this when they see
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the Lord Jesus, they fall down
in his feet and they don't listen to
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him as a good teacher, though
he certainly is and they should, but
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they worship him as the one true
God, hero Israel, the Lord,
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our God, the Lord is one. Worship Him and worship him alone,
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which is also to say worship Jesus
Christ, our God, who accomplished our
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salvation and who rose over death itself. So we know that the resurrection happened,
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we know that it was attested to
by angels. We also know that
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it was witnessed to by both friends
and enemies. We have here are the
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Romans and others. Will see Jesus
and we see his friends as well,
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and that reactions, as we have
noted, are different. Those who are
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threatened by Jesus make up stories about
what happened in the resurrection. They stole
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his body, they said. They
come up with lies, they try to
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find ways of getting around this,
but of course they can't, because people
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keep seeing him. He says,
I will go before you and you will
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see me. I will go before
you and see for forty days after his
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death, people were seeing Jesus,
they were eating with him, meeting with
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him, worshiping him, and the
word begins to spread. I love this,
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this picture here of the whole Christian
life that we have based on the
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death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
We follow him, we trust him and
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we spread that word about him.
He tells the women to go and tell
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the disciples, tell them what,
that he has risen from the dead and
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he is going before you at to
Galilee. This is the news that we
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are to announce over and over and
over again, not just on Sunday,
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Easter Sunday, but every Sunday and
really even every day we walk, as
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we will think about in a moment, from Romans Chapter six, in Resurrection,
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life and the newness of life.
We ought to be constantly, constantly,
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constantly considering this fact, that this
thing has happened in history and it
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has affected everything before it and after
it. And every single one of you
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are invited to day as well,
to do the same as these, these
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ladies and the other disciples after them. Each and every one of us are
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invited to know the truth, to
believe the truth and to share the truth
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about Jesus Christ and his reserve election
from the dead, and I honestly hope
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that you do, because nothing in
the world, nothing has ever happened that
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is more important than this. There
is nothing that has happened that is more
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trustworthy, more dependable, more life
changing, more important and significant than this.
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If I told you all that in
one hour the electricity would go out
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on our city for ten years,
that would not be as significant as Jesus
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Christ's resurrection from the dead. If
I told you that in one week,
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you would be the proud owner of
ten billion dollars, this would be pennies
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in a hat compared to the debt
of sin that you were forgiven and the
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glorious inheritance that you are promised in
eternal life that is proved from the resurrection
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of the dead. If I told
you that in one year, most certainly
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you, you are self, would
die, your reflections on your own death
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would not be worth thinking about as
much as the death of our Savior,
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is Jesus himself, who died and
rose from the dead. Why is Jesus's
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resurrection and death so central in our
lives, the core of our lives,
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the foundation of our lives? Well, Here's how the Apostle Paul put it.
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In First Corinthians fifteen, he says, if there's nose resurrection from the
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dead in general, then not even
Christ has been raised. And if Christ
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has not been raised, then our
preaching is in vain and your faith is
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in vain, which means this whole
thing that we're doing here this morning is
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worthless vanity, like smoke, just
rising and vaporizing. But it's worse than
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that. It's not just being involved
in an activity where you could spend your
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time better, but Paul goes on
to say, of Christ has not been
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raised, your faith is feudal and
you are still in your sins. You
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see why the resurrection is so important, because if the resurrection of Jesus Christ
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is not it is not true,
then we are still in our sins and
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those who have fallen asleep, those
who have died, they're still in their
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sins, having perished and soon to
perish even more under God's wrath and judgement.
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If in Christ we have hope in
this life only, Paul says,
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if Jesus is a good person or
somehow something, that's someone that's important to
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us, but he doesn't really promise
to US resurrection life, if he only
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has value for kind of helping US
along in this world, having a family
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to come and visit on Sundays a
good thing to celebrate from time to time,
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but has no real promise for the
life to come. If that's who
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Jesus is, Paul says, the
Apostle of Jesus Christ. He says we
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of all people, are most to
be pitied. Imagine people that you might
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pity in this life, people who
are perhaps very sick in their bodies,
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people who are experiencing massive amounts of
conflict in their lives, people perhaps who
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are very poor and can't seem to
get a handle on just even the basic
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essentials? who can't eat, can't
provide medical care, who are frustrated in
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every turn, or people who are
enslaved by certain passions of the flesh,
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whoever you might think of. That
is pitiable. Paul says, we are
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more so if Jesus Christ did not
raise from the dead, totally lost,
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not just one thing feudle in our
lives, but everything feudile in our lives.
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It's all game over, it's all
done, it's all worthless, it's
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all pointless. of vanity of vanities. But of course Christ has been raised
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from the dead. In anyone who
believes in him is not in their sins
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but has been forgiven their sins.
The Bible says they are like people who
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have been washed clean. They're like
people who have been given new lives.
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Have you ever stepped out of the
shower and said to yourself, I feel
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like a new person. Have you
ever been so tired, so so dirty
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and frustrated or weary that you're like, I just need a clean shower,
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maybe a little sleep? Perhaps you've
been stuck in the hospital for several days
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in a row. Perhaps you've been
at work over and over and over again.
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Perhaps something's happened in your life and
you just you feel like you need
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to be get clean. Perhaps you've
been in a shower, perhaps you've gotten
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cleaned up, perhaps you've gotten the
rest and you wake up be like I
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still don't feel good, because we
know water just washes the body. It
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might provide a temporary relief, but
ultimately it doesn't bring us hope and everlasting
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life. But that picture of being
renewed and refreshed and awakened, this is
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a tiny picture, but a true
picture of what happens when we trust in
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Jesus, of what happens when we
enter into new life, and it happens
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in a real way and in a
lasting way. The Bible says that when
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we repent of our sins and we
trust Jesus to forgive our sins, he
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washes US clean. One place and
titus are called the waters of regeneration,
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almost like birth waters, like being
born into something new. He makes us
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clean, he brings us into a
new world, free from the reign of
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sin, free from the the dirtiness
of sin and now ready to serve and
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love him as our king. Well, this picture is what Jesus gives to
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us and baptism, which is what's
mentioned in Romans Chapter Six. I'm wearing
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to turn there now and consider this
a little bit as we conclude. This
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picture of Baptism, this pretty picture
of washing and regeneration and purification, is
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tied to one thing, and that
is the death and resurrection of Jesus,
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a death that leads to resurrection.
In other words, there's no cleanliness,
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there's no washing, there's no growing, there's no freedom, that baptism only
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happens in connection with the death and
resurrection of Jesus. That's what we are
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baptized into. That's how we are
washed, that's how we are cleansed,
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and so that's why Paul says in
verse three, do you not know that
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all of us who have been baptized
into Christ, Jesus, were baptized into
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his death? We're baptized into the
cross, we're baptized into his crucifixion,
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and that's why he has this gruesome
picture where he says are old selves were
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crucified. You see that in verse
six he says we know that our old
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self was crucified. With him this
picture of baptism. In other words,
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our baptism is tied to this crucifixion, not only of Jesus Christ himself,
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but ourselves in him. Why,
then, are we free from sin and
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the or the reign of sin,
The Dominion of Sin, the enslaving power
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of sin? There's in our lives? Because it's been crucified. Dead people
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can't do things. The Old Flesh, which has been crucified in Christ no
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longer has that power it once did, and instead newness has begun. Look
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at Verse Four. We were buried, therefore, with him, by baptism
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into death in order that, just
as Christ was raised from the dead by
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the glory of the father, we
too might walk in the newness of life.
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In a few minutes we'll have the
pleasure of seeing these two little girls
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baptized along their father. They will
receive this sign of washing, this picture,
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in this promise of Resurrection, life
that comes from the work of Jesus
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Christ that has been accomplished on the
cross. Baptism is a god ordained sermon
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illustration. It shows us what he
does for us and for all who put
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their trust in Jesus Christ. But
it's more than that. It's also a
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mark of membership. It's a mark
of membership in the body of Christ,
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because we are crucified in him and
as those who have been brought to life,
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do we now take our members,
the members of our bodies, and
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present them as instruments of unrighteousness?
May It never be. Instead, we
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take our bodies as those who have
now been who have now begun in the
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resurrection through our death in Christ.
We take our bodies, as Paul says
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in at the end of this passage
and in verse twelve, Thirteen and fourteen,
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and we present ourselves to God as
those who have been brought from death
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to life and are members to God
as instruments for righteousness. We are members
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of his church, we are members
of the body of Christ and, as
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such, we now use our bodies
to love God and love our neighbors,
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because that is what Christ has done. That is the new life that he
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has brought us into. So,
you see, just as the penalty for
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sins was paid for us on the
Cross and our Old Self was crucified with
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Christ on the Cross, so too
have we been raised, for with him
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no longer are we subject to the
slavery of death, no longer are we
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subject and ruled, enslaved by our
passions and our sins. No longer are
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we only capable of raving against God, of lying and hurting other people,
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or lying to and hurting other people
that we ought to love, but in
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Christ, through his washing, through
his death and through his resurrection, we've
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been set free. We've been set
free to now walk in the newness of
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life. And so, brothers and
sisters, as we consider our baptisms to
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day, let us look to the
promise that they picture and the one who
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puts his name on us. And
if you do not know Jesus Christ,
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let us lead him, or lead
you to him, so that you too
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may be washed and made clean,
so that you may be ready to serve
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the king. Let's pray now and
ask God to bless us in all these
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things.
