Serving a Risen Savior

1 Paul, an apostle (not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised Him from the dead), 2 and all the brethren who are with me,

To the churches of Galatia: 3 Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, 5 to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

Galatians 1:1-5, NKJV

What motivates you to serve Christ? In other words, what is it that leads you to get up everyday of your life and decide to live the Christian life? I don’t know what motivates most believers today to live the Christian life, (in fact, my experience is that the majority of professing believers today fall woefully short of living anywhere close to the true Christian lifestyle).

I do know what motivated the Apostle Paul to live as a Christian. It was the same motivation that moved every believer of the first century church to live for and serve Christ, simply put, they knew they were worshipping and serving a living Savior.

Other than Jesus Christ, perhaps the one man who had the greatest impact upon the first century world and upon the Christian church, even to this day, is the man known as the Apostle Paul. But who was Paul?

Paul describes himself in the Scriptures as a Jew of the Jews. He was born, bred, read, and died as a Jew. At one point, he was a Pharisee. He hated the Christian way. He hated Jesus. Paul, who was called Saul at the time, was personally responsible for the arrest, imprisonment, persecution and deaths of many believers in the first church.

But all of that changed one day for Saul while on his way to Damascus where he intended to hunt down more followers of Jesus of Nazareth and drag them back to Jerusalem for trial and imprisonment, or worse. What happened? Saul met Jesus. Acts 9. On a bright sunny day, about noon time, Saul ran into the living Christ and found out it’s not nice to pick on God’s children.

Listen to what Paul says further down in Galatians 1, beginning at verse 11.

11 But I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. 12 For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ. 13 For you have heard of my former conduct in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it. 14 And I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries in my own nation, being more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of my fathers.

After Paul experienced a personal “revelation of Jesus Christ,” v. 12, he gained a whole new motivation for serving Christ, the risen Savior. This should be our motivation as well.

I. A RISEN SAVIOR MOTIVATES OUR SERVICE FOR GOD,

15 But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, 16 to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood, 17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; but I went to Arabia, and returned again to Damascus.

18 Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and remained with him fifteen days. 19 But I saw none of the other apostles except James, the Lord’s brother. 20(Now concerning the things which I write to you, indeed, before God, I do not lie.) 21 Afterward I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia. 22 And I was unknown by face to the churches of Judea which were in Christ. 23 But they were hearing only, “He who formerly persecuted us now preaches the faith which he once tried to destroy.” 24 And they glorified God in me.

Let me introduce this first point by asking you a question. Do you think Paul really believed that Jesus Christ had risen from the dead? So do I. All you need to do is follow Paul in the Book called the Acts of the Apostles. Listen to him preach. Everywhere he went and everyone with whom he talked, he preached Christ crucified, buried and risen from the dead.

His keystone passage is found in I Corinthians 15:3-4. Listen to what he says, 3 For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures,

Compare what Paul believed about the resurrection to one of today’s liberal preachers, a man named Dr. N. T. Wright, (though I think he should be called, “Dr. Wrong!”) who said this:

"I think the resurrection of Jesus really happened, but I have no idea if it involves anything happening to his corpse, and, therefore, I have no idea whether it involves an empty tomb. . ..so I would have no problem whatsoever with archeologists finding the corpse of Jesus for me. That would not be a discrediting of the Christian faith or the Christian tradition."

Listen to what another misguided theologian of our times has to say regarding the resurrection of Christ, he is the founder of the infamous Jesus seminar, Dr. Robert Funk, told TIME magazine, "The tales of entombment and resurrection were latter-day wishful thinking. Instead, Jesus' corpse went the way of all abandoned criminals' bodies: it was probably barely covered with dirt, vulnerable to the wild dogs that roamed the wasteland of the execution grounds."

May I say to you that kind of dead faith doesn’t motivate anyone to service. I prefer the confidence of the Apostle Paul whose life was changed by the historical fact of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

I would like to ask Drs. Funk and Wright, (sounds like a group of bad lawyers doesn’t it?), I would like to ask them, “How do you explain the dramatically changed lives of the early Apostles and men like Paul, who went from a critical Pharisee who persecuted to the death Christians who believed Christ had been raised, to the greatest proponent of the Christian gospel, a gospel, for Paul, that always included a physical, visible, bodily resurrection from the dead!!!

So, number one, a risen Savior motivates our service to God. Secondly, notice also that a risen Savior vindicates our deliverance from sin.

II. A RISEN SAVIOR VINDICATES OUR DELIVERANCE FROM SIN,

Go back to verse 3 of Galatians 1. 3 Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, 5 to whom be glory forever and ever.

The key verse is verse 4, “who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil age.” Do you know that apart from the resurrection of Jesus Christ, that the death of Jesus Christ would have been a hopeless tragedy? The cross of Christ has significance only in the light of the empty tomb.

Arnold Toynbee, the eminent British historian, once said, "If the body of one Jew, Jesus of Nazareth, can be produced, then Christianity will crumble into a lifeless religion." Toynbee was right. The only problem is nobody has found the body of Jesus Christ, and nobody will find His body, unless you look for it sitting at the right hand of God the Father!

As much as I marvel at the virgin birth of Jesus; as much as I wonder at the sinless life of Jesus; as much as I glory in the cross of Jesus; it is the resurrection of Jesus that makes Christianity unique among all of the world religions.

Confucius died and was buried. Buddha rotted away with food poisoning. Muhammad died in 632 A.D. and his body was cut up and spread all over the Near East. But Jesus Christ has risen from the dead.

A Buddhist in Africa was converted to Christianity. They asked this Buddhist why did you change your faith? Here's what he said: "It's like this: If you are walking along and come to a fork in the road and two men are there, and one is dead and the other is alive, which man's directions would you follow?"

My pastor used to say that the resurrection was God’s AMEN to all Jesus ever did or said. The resurrection authenticates, it vindicates, the reality that men can be forgiven of their sins and saved from this present evil age, because Jesus is alive.

I like the way Adrian Rogers puts it. He said, “Without the resurrection of Jesus Christ I wouldn't give you half a hallelujah for your hope of heaven. That he died for you is not important unless he also rose from the dead, which was the stamp of approval and authenticity upon the full payment for your sins. No resurrection, no Savior. No Savior, no forgiveness. No forgiveness, no justification. No justification, no cleansing. No cleansing, the penalty of your sin is upon you. The penalty of your sin is still upon you then you are destined for death and hell and you're still in your sins.”

The words of an old hymn say it well, "Living he loved me, dying he saved me, buried he carried my sins far away, rising he justified, freely forever. One day he's coming, oh glorious day."

Thank God that we're no longer in our sins because we have a risen Savior who has paid the price for our sins.

There’s one final truth I want to share with you from this Easter message this morning. Not only does a risen savior motivate our service for God, and a risen savior vindicates our deliverance from sin, but number three, a risen Savior generates our abundance of life,

III. A RISEN SAVIOR GENERATES OUR ABUNDANCE FOR LIFE,

Look at verses 3-5 one more time and listen closely so you will understand this last point.

3 Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, 5 to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

Do you see the words there in those verses, “grace,” and “peace?” Someone has correctly said, we cannot know the peace of God until we have come to know the grace of God. Paul said in Romans 5:1, Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Not only grace and peace, but in verse 4 again, “forgiveness” and “deliverance,” which we have already talked about.

Look again at verse 5. The words, “to whom be glory forever and ever,” indicate to me, the privilege of “praise” and “worship,” for those of us who have experienced the power of the resurrected life of Christ living within us.

That takes us to Paul’s great declaration of faith in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

My dear friends, there is no greater message than the message of God’s love for each of us today. Through His sinless life, vicarious death, and victorious resurrection, we too can know him, love him, live for him and serve him. Do you know the risen Savior today?

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