Christ our Curse Breaker (Easter Sermon - Funeral)

One of my favorite books of all time is “The Chronicles of Narnia: The lion, the witch, and the Wardrobe,”

And in it, the land of Narnia is under an evil curse, which is described as:

“Always winter and never Christmas”

And if you think about that: “Always winter and never Christmas” it’s not just true for the world of Narnia,

It’s actually true for our world too.

Yes, not literally - though sometimes Minnesota Winters do make us wonder...

But if you look at the sad state of life in this world, it becomes quite obvious that we too are under a miserable curse

that often makes things feel like it’s “Always winter and never Christmas”

Why?

Because of things like sickness and disease

Things like drought and famine

Things like difficult relationships

Which often end in misery, separation, and, as we are painfully reminded of today

Death.

And yet, we are forced to live our lives under the shadow of death knowing that one day soon, all of our joys will turn to ash.

And yet, we continue to celebrate birthdays all the same, fully realizing that each year of life is but another year closer to death.

Another year closer to the day when our loved ones will be taken from us or us taken from them.

And why?

Because like Narnia, our world is under a powerful curse which eventually strikes us all.

And it is a curse called death.

But... though our world is under a terrible curse,

Like Narnia, thankfully there is one who has come to break the curse.

An Aslan figure who has come to end the spell and free us from the curse of death!

And so, though today we come to together to grieve the loss of Lynette,

We don’t grieve as those who have no hope.

Because for Lynette, the curse was powerfully broken!

And because it was broken, death is a but a shadow that she has passed through into everlasting life!

Which is something we too can one day do if we are freed from the curse just as she was!

But… for that to happen

There’s something to be done

There’s a prescription to be taken

There are steps that must be taken

And the first step is:

Knowing the power of the curse (2:1-3)

In Ephesians chapter 2, the Apostle Paul tells about the power of the curse, saying:

1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

In these verses Paul describes what the curse of sin has done to us,

and it’s not just bad - it’s REALLY BAD.

Paul says it made us:

spiritually Dead (v. 1)

spiritually Disobedient (v. 2-3)

spiritually Doomed (v. 3b)

He doesn’t say we are spiritually limping and just need some crutches

He doesn’t say we just need some spiritual medication,

He doesn’t say we are on spiritual life support,

What Paul is saying is that because of this curse we are all born into spiritual death

That means there was NO SPIRITUAL LIFE IN YOU WHATSOEVER!

But is Paul exaggerating here?

Like are we really all that bad off?

“Surely it can’t be that bad?”

“Look, I’m not Mother Theresa, but I’m not Adolph Hitler either!”

How can you say the curse resulted in my spiritual death?

“Sure I’m not perfect!, but I’m a pretty good person!”

Well, on one hand you’re right, you’re not as morally bad as you possibly could be, but on the other hand you are missing the fact that even your good works are done with WRONG motives attached to them.

And in the book of Matthew, Jesus makes it pretty clear that doing the right thing for the wrong motives is still wrong!

For right actions without the right heart motive is NOT COMMENDABLE before God, it is CONDEMNABLE.

And what is our heart’s motive?

Look at verse 3:

"… we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind,” Eph 2:3.

When Paul uses the word flesh, he isn’t talking about our physical bodies.

He’s talking about our selfish desires.

What he’s saying is - we all used to orchestrate our lives to satisfy our selfish desires.

He’s saying that we used to look at this world - all the people and things in it, and say: “How can I conduct them to play the music I wanna hear?

What the curse did was warp our hearts into being like little computer processors who automatically analyze everyone and everything in the world and try to figure out a way to make them serve us.

Which the Bible calls idolatry - which is sin

And why is idolatry wrong?

Because not only does God say so in The Ten Commandments

But it’s wrong because we are made to worship the CREATOR not the CREATION.

In fact, our hearts were originally created by God to love Him supremely!

Which is why Jesus says the greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind, AND the second is to love your neighbor as yourself!

But sin’s curse reversed this,

and instead we now put ourselves in the place where only God deserves to be,

and not only does this not work - but it leads to disintegration, death, and destruction!

Which is actually what the system of our entire world is built upon.

We live in a “ME’ culture

We’ve been told this ever since we were a kid:

Burger King told me I could have it my way

Disney told me “all my dreams would come true and I could live happily ever after”

Bon Jovi told me: “It’s MY LIFE.”

We even have decorations that say: “Follow Your Arrow” - which simply means to follow your heart!

But what is the problem is with following our heart?

The problem is, according to the Bible, our hearts have been warped by the curse so badly that “my way” is Hell’s way, not Heavens.

The problem is our dreams conflict with God’s commands!

And our lives are not even ours, for they completely belong to HIM!

And so following the arrow of our heart only leads us through the guard rails and over the spiritual cliff to fiery destruction below!

And so Paul tells us that we must not follow our flesh or the world which are hell-bent upon this destruction!

So that’s the flesh and the world, but what about the devil stuff?

Well, that’s a MUCH bigger conversation than we have time for this morning, but in 1 Timothy 3 verse 6 Paul warns against becoming conceited - or puffed up.

And the reason he gives is that those who do so will face the same judgment as the devil.

And this is actually quite profound, because it means that the same problem that led to the devil becoming the devil is the same problem led to our spiritual self-centered “deathness.”

I know that word is made up

But, technically all words are made up - so why not.

But here’s the point

No one really has a problem with the idea of God sending the devil to hell.

Like if anyone’s got it coming, he’s got it coming!

But do you see what Paul is telling us?

The same poison that makes the devil the devil lies is within every single one of our hearts.

And this poison is absolutely deadly to us

In fact, it leads to our spiritual DOOM

This is why Paul says in verse 3 that we were “children of wrath!”

which is talking about God’s coming and future judgment.

Now, we live in a HIGHLY achievement-driven culture.

We are used to earning the grade

Gaining the promotion

Winning the medal

Earning the job - you get the idea.

And so what we all naturally do is apply this same concept to God.

And so when it comes to being a good moral person...

When it comes to pleasing God and receiving His blessing...

When it comes to heaven and hell...

our achievement-driven hearts think we can make it if... we... just... try… hard enough...

If our good works outweigh our bad works then that will be enough

But it won’t!

And it won’t because the curse of sin is so powerful that even we lived 1-million Mother-Theresa-like lives

all of our good deeds wouldn’t even budge the scale a micro-fraction of an inch!

Which means our “goodness” isn’t enough!

Jesus tells us that the curse of sin is so bad, so completely and entirely deadly, that there is absolutely NOTHING we can do to fix it.

And while we have absolutely no power to save ourselves… thankfully there is one who has all the power and more

and so the second step to being set free from the curse is:

Knowing the power of the curse (2:1-3)

Knowing the power that breaks the curse (2:4-9)

“4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

We were DEAD in our trespasses and sins, BUT ____ what made us alive?

“BUT GOD!”

Which means if you and have passed from spiritual death to life

If you are a Christian at all then

you’re entire Christian testimony boils down to THOSE 2 WORDS and THOSE 2 WORDS ALONE!

“BUT GOD!”

I was dead in my trespasses and sins!

“BUT GOD!”

I was disobedient and following the world, the flesh and the devil!

“BUT GOD!”

I was desperately doomed and destined for destruction!

“BUT GOD!”

Who is rich is His mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, EVEN WHEN WE WERE DEAD IN OUR TRESPASSES AND SINS, MADE US ALIVE TOGETHER WITH CHRIST!

FOR BY GRACE YOU HAVE BEEN SAVED, THROUGH FAITH, THIS IS NOT OF YOUR OWN DOING, it is the GIFT OF GOD, not a result of works, so that no one may boast!

To be a Christian means you’re saved from the curse of sin and the coming wrath of God, and its ENTIRELY because of HIS GRACE!

not because you’re a good, but because HE IS GOOD, and He has done for us what we could never do for ourselves!

And make no mistakes about it, because Paul is CRYSTAL clear here:

the grace of God and our goodness are COMPLETELY incompatible!

They are like oil and water.

Which means that our salvation is either based upon GOD or our goodness, NOT BOTH!

it’s one or the other, and I would advise you against your goodness, because as the apostle Paul tells us, all of our goodness are worthless rags before a HOLY GOD!

And so when it comes to breaking the curse of sin, only God could do it!

How did He do it?

This is the question that runs right through the Old Testament Scriptures

And in Genesis 3, when the curse of sin takes effect, God promises to one day send a curse-breaker who would end our endless winter, and bring it everlasting Christmas joy!

But, throughout the years people were born and people died, yet no curse breaker appeared.

The death promised in the garden took life and after life as no hope appeared to be in sight.

But then one day God’s voice spoke again to a man whom He told would have a son.

And not just any old son, but a very special son!

In fact, God said that this son was so special that the entire world would be blessed through him!

Upon hearing this the man’s heart skipped!

“Was this the one?”

Would His son would be the long awaited curse-breaker who would undo the deadly spell once and for all!?

But how could this be, as He and his wife were unable to have children for they were too old!

They were well beyond the years of child bearing.

How would God do this?

Would He do a miracle?

Sure enough God did exactly that and His promise came true as they had a wonderful son whom they named... Isaac, who was a strong and healthy little boy who made them so proud.

The years went by, and one day God’s voice spoke again, but this time what He said shook the man to his core!

“Abraham!” God said:

“Take your son, you’re only son Isaac,”

“The son whom you love, and take him with you to a hill and kill him there as sacrifice to me!”

“What?”

“Why?” the man thought.

“This couldn’t be true!”

“Why would God do this?”

“Why would He have him kill the son of promise?”

“How would the curse ever be broken?”

“Hadn’t their been enough death already?”

“Hadn’t they suffered enough?”

Nevertheless, the man knew he must obey God and trust Him, and so off they went on their journey to the mountain where God told him to sacrifice his son.

The trip was a solemn one, and the father kept looking at his son wondering why God wanted him to do this.

On the 3rd day they arrived at the foot of the mountain, and the father left his servants and headed up the mountain with his son.

The father placed the wood on his son’s shoulders to carry up the mountain, while he carried the fire and the knife.

Then, the boy turned to his father and asked:

“Father, where is the sacrifice for the burnt offering?”

The man replied:

“My son, do not worry, for the Lord will provide.”

Finally they arrived at the place of sacrifice upon the mountain.

The father built the altar and arranged the wood upon it.

And he then turned to his son he bound him and laid him upon the altar on top of the wood.

With a look of fear in his eyes, the father obediently picked up the knife, raised it high in the air, and then as the knife was about to come down,

A voice rang out from heaven: “Abraham! Do not hurt him in any way, for I see that you truly fear God, for you have not withheld even your son, your only son.”

Genesis 22:13–14 NLT

Then Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught by its horns in a thicket. So he took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering in place of his son. Abraham named the place Yahweh-Yireh (which means “the Lord will provide”). To this day, people still use that name as a proverb: “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.”

The reason the curse is broken is because of

“Yahweh-Yireh,” The Lord provides:

and it is the sole reason we can have any hope at all on a day like today

For nearly 2,000 years ago God provided by leading His one and only Son Whom He loved up a hill, with a wooden cross upon His back,

and when He reached the top he was bound and placed upon the wood

but this time heaven remained silent,

the knife of judgment was not held back

For it came down swiftly upon Him

And why?

Because this was the cost to break our curse.

Because of the curse of sin we were dead in our trespasses in sins,

BUT GOD made us alive in Christ Jesus - through the power of the cross, which not only breaks the curse, but actually reverses it into blessing!

and if we want that blessing, we must take that third step and trust in the power that reverses the curse.

Knowing the power of the curse (2:1-3)

Knowing the power that breaks the curse (2:4-9)

The power that reverses the curse (2:6-7 & 9)

4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

After Christ died upon the cross, they buried His beaten and bloodied body in a tomb where it laid in the cold and heavy air, surrounded by death.

There it laid completely lifeless, breathless, no pulse or heartbeat whatsoever.

But then.... in the early morning of the 3rd day...

‘His heart began beat

His blood began to flow

Waking up what was dead but a moment ago!’

And because His heart beats, it means that everything is changed!

“Because the blood that brought us peace with God began racing through His veins!”

and so with that one breath, He put death to death!

Which powerfully broke our curse!

And because He lives - We live!

Yes, we still face death’s shadow - but that’s all it is - a shadow!

And yes, shadows can be scary, but they can’t hurt you!

Not at all!

And because Christ broke the curse of death by passing through it, and then powerfully stepping forward into resurrection life.

And because He did, we can too!

Which is why we can sing - even at a funeral

“OH DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING?

“OH GRAVE, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY?!”

“For sin is the sting that results in death, but thanks be to God who gives us victory over sin and death through our gloriously resurrected savior!”

A while back I learned that during World War 2, when Germany conquered France, they closed down the borders to prevent people from escaping into the nearby free countries,

and after the did the German army noticed something unusual with one of France’s border town.

and what they noticed was that this town was having a whole lot more funerals than they should have.

In fact, the town’s population was dropping drastically, and German intelligence wasn’t quite sure why.

But then after sending some soldiers in to investigate then finally discovered what was happening

What they discovered was that during the funerals, the French people would walk into the grave, and they just kept on walking

For in that grave was a tunnel that led right across the border into freedom!

Hear me this morning when I tell you that the path to freedom and everlasting life goes right through an empty grave!

And that grave is the grave of Jesus Christ.

Which is EMPTY!

For HE IS NOT THERE!

HE IS ALIVE!

And because He is alive HIS resurrection means OUR resurrection!

And not just spiritually,

But physically!

Not in heaven floating on clouds!

But here on the physical earth!

Where all those who have been freed from the curse will we experience the immeasurable riches of God grace and kindness towards us in Christ Jesus!

And all because of those TWO LITTLE WORDS:

“BUT, GOD!”

And so if you’re a follow of Christ, it means that your song this morning is “Yahweh-Yireh,” - THE LORD PROVIDES!

And He provided by sending us a perfect Savior who broke the curse of sin and death as He defeated it on the cross and proved it by the power of His resurrected life!

Do you know that power?

Have you received that power?

Lynette did.

And it wasn’t because she was some great saint with a life full of good works

It was because she repented of her sins and turned to trust in Christ Jesus, who became her powerful curse-breaker!

and because she did, though we bury her today, one day very, very soon, her body will rise just as Christ’s did into everlasting life

Do you have that life?

If not - why not receive it today?

Let us Pray