Made New: By Faith

No longer do we look at death with fear — as Hebrews 2:14-15 says: Jesus death and resurrection takes away the slavery of the fear of death. Fear of dying NO longer has power over us.

We have different priorities: Revelation 12:11 (LSB) “And they [speaking of the saints, that is, everyone who has repented of their sins and asked Jesus to be Lord of their life] [WE saints] overcame [the devil] because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their witness, and they did not love their life even to death.

We must not allow the devil to try and stop the child of God by inciting fear by telling him or her — “I’ll kill you!”

We must boldly say” “Devil, you no longer have the power of death. Jesus has set me free from the slavery of that fear!”

So the death and Resurrection of Jesus SHOULD radically change our view of OUR death — our view of death is MADE NEW.

Also, the Resurrection of Jesus has changed what happens after death.

Yesterday, one of the charter members of this church, Majean Browning, died.

Majean (96!) and her husband Ivan (91!), who died a few weeks ago on March 7, were here when this church began over on Pat Colwell in July of 1996.

We will take time to remember them more in June.

But Jesus changed the Brownings’ eternal destiny.

No longer do the righteous go to “Abraham’s bosom” like the poor man named Lazarus did in Luke 16 or to Paradise (same place?), like the thief who was crucified with Jesus — instead they go directly to be with the Lord.

As Philippians 1:21, 23 (LSB)For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. … 23 … I am hard-pressed between the two, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better,

2 Cor 5:8 says that to be absent from the body is to HOME with the Lord.

Yes, I would say that is BETTER, VERY MUCH better!

What happens after death has been MADE NEW.

So, as I said last week:

The effects of the resurrection reverberate throughout history.

Jesus’ defeat of sin and death has changed everything.

The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is available to us as well.

If we will accept what Jesus did BY FAITH…

It will change us. It will renew us. It will breathe fresh life into us.

The key is faith.

Through faith …

New life is unlocked as we place our hope and trust in the work of Christ.

As we think about what we just read in our text, we need to remember…

Easter morning began with ashes.

The Messiah was dead.

Jesus had been arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Abandoned and betrayed by His friends.

Beaten.

Unjustly tried and sentenced to death by crucifixion

Jesus was nailed to a cross and hung between two thieves.

And within hours, He breathed His last and died.

And with him, died the hopes and dreams of all those who had followed him.

They believed He was the one who would usher in the Kingdom of God and make all things right, but now they mourned the loss of their friend.

Jesus’ body was taken down from the cross and laid inside of a cold, dark tomb.

It seemed like the end.

It felt so final.

No one, not even His closest followers could see that it was just the end of the beginning.

Yesterday, I just had to re-listen to a song that I have listened to many, many times.

It still brings tears to my eyes.

Written and sung by the incomparable David Phelps, it is entitled:

The End of the Beginning

by David Phelps

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDbqsWhKSMI

I would like to encourage you to listen to it on YouTube. Listen to the version that displays the lyrics so that you can read along.

Before the text I read, three days had gone by.

Some of the disciples had returned to their old ways of life.

Any hope they had had was buried behind a massive stone that was rolled to cover the entrance to the tomb where Jesus lay.

But then Sunday came.

Women witness the Resurrection

The Bible tells us that at dawn two women, both named Mary, traveled to Jesus’ grave.

Other places in the scriptures tell us these women had come to anoint his body for burial.

Suddenly a violent earthquake shook the ground as an angel of the Lord appeared, rolled the stone away from the tomb entrance and then sat on it.

The appearance of the angel and his clothing was shocking, like lightning and bright white.

The guards who were watching over the grave were terrified, as were the women.

But the angel spoke tenderly to them.

He spoke a word of comfort that is pronounced over people nearly 365 times throughout the scriptures.

He said, “Do not be afraid”.

He told them he knew for whom they were looking: Jesus.

But Jesus was not in the tomb.

His body was not laying on a slab of rock.

The tomb was empty then and it is STILL empty today!

The angel told the women what we too need to hear:

Jesus has risen — JUST AS HE SAID.

Now Go and tell — WE need to go and tell.

Realize Jesus goes ahead of us.

We are not going where Jesus has not already been.

He knows what we are facing.

He will give us the resources to go through it — whatever IT is.

The Resurrection of Jesus is not a time for the kind of fear that brings torment.

But it should be so awe-inspiring that we walk in the awe and reverence of the fear of the Lord.

And not only the fear of the Lord, but joy.

The Resurrection Offers Us Both Awe and Joy

We live in a world where it is easy to find ourselves in a very similar place to these women in the story…

Hopeless

Defeated

Maybe even angry at God.

Just going through the motions

Any given Sunday, there are people all across the world who come to church expecting to find a lifeless Jesus.

Many are filled with anxiety and fear:

fearful that their lives will never change,

that their circumstances won’t change,

that their marriage cannot be rescued,

that their diagnosis is a forgone conclusion.

For too many of us, our lives are dominated by anxiety and fear.

Perhaps this morning the first thing YOU need to hear is the message of the angel at the empty tomb. “Do not be afraid”.

The resurrection confronts our fears.

The empty tomb reveals the mighty power of God that was not just a reality for Jesus then, but a reality for us today.

The angel told the women: Do not fear.

And yet verse 8 says they left the tomb with fear and great joy.

Strange.

But maybe a better translation, in consideration of the context is: they left the tomb in deep wonder and joy.

This same Greek word is also used for reverence, respect, wonder — not just terror, fear and alarm.

It is used in the phrase “the fear of the Lord.”

I think the women left the tomb, not afraid, but full of the wonder, awe and fear of the Lord and His great power.

This “fear of the Lord” led to great joy.

Because the Resurrection is a source of great joy for Christians.

We are filled with joy because resurrection power is able to make everything new.

The empty tomb means your past can be made new.

The empty tomb means your hope for the future can be made new.

The empty tomb means your life can be made new.

Joy is a byproduct of hope, hope that if Jesus indeed has risen from the grave, then through our belief in him, there is nothing that is impossible for us either.

No matter where you find yourself today, the empty tomb pushes back against our fear and reminds us that the best is yet to come because Jesus Christ is alive!

A Proper Response to the Resurrection is FAITH

So, how do we respond to the resurrection?

A proper response is FAITH.

Romans 10:8–10 (NLT) In fact, [the scripture] says, “The message is very close at hand; it is on your lips and in your heart.” And that message is the very message about faith that we preach: 9 If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved.

Faith is a word that is used a lot in the Church.

We have faith in all kinds of things.

But the kind of faith the Bible speaks to is a deep trust in something or someone that cannot be explicitly proven.

Once the tomb was found empty, it was unexplainable, but the women had a choice to make, as did the disciples.

Would they have faith that Jesus was indeed alive?

This has been the defining question for 2,000 years.

Do we trust the resurrection?

Do we believe that the power of God raised Jesus then and can make us new now?

The way to experience the power of God that can make us new is a two-step process.

Romans 10 says, first you must declare with your mouth that Jesus is Lord.

This means that we demonstrate that Jesus is our authority by the things we say and the things we do.

It is the outward evidence of an inward conviction.

Second, this passage says we must believe in our hearts that God raised Jesus from the dead.

Our hearts must be convinced that the power of God is real.

The first step is an intellectual exercise.

The second step is an exercise in trust.

To celebrate the Resurrection without making the fundamental decision to trust in Jesus’ resurrection power is to miss the point completely.

You can be made new, and it is made possible through faith in Jesus Christ.

Our faith ensures that we are anchored in Him.

Allow Jesus to Take the OLD and Make It NEW

And when we anchor our faith in Jesus and His resurrection from the dead — we are MADE NEW.

2 Corinthians 5:17 (NLT) … anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!

This scripture speaks about the implications of placing our faith in Jesus.

After Jesus’ resurrection, there is an amazing transformation in the lives of the disciples.

They encounter Jesus in his resurrected form, and it causes them to go from being afraid for their lives to being bold witnesses to what they have seen and learned from Jesus.

Paul expects this transformation to happen in the lives of every believer - even today.

2 Corinthians 5:17 says that when people put their faith in Jesus, they become new creations.

The first creation takes place in a garden in the book of Genesis.

God created humankind without sin and they exist in a perfect relationship with him.

The Bible then tells us that after sin enters the world, everything is broken and in disrepair - man could no longer walk in the Garden with God.

This is why Jesus did what he did.

It was his broken body and shed blood on the cross that pays the price for our forgiveness of sin and restores us.

What is so interesting is that Jesus’ body is laid in a tomb in a garden.

It is in this second garden that a new creation takes place.

All of our old ways of living are replaced with new ones.

Jesus takes our selfishness and replaces it with generosity.

He takes our anger and replaces it with love.

He takes our addiction and replaces it with freedom.

The Resurrection is the proof of the power of God. Today, you can confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that Jesus is alive and he wants to work in you. Invite him in your heart to do the remodeling work that only he can do.

Pray

God, I believe that the tomb is empty and Jesus is alive. I ask you to come into my heart and make me new. Remove all of the sin in my life and replace it with your Spirit. Jesus, I confess that you are my Lord and I believe that God raised you from the dead. Thank you for making me a new creation. Amen.

Made New – How Easter Changes Everything

Write Up: The resurrection of Jesus Christ changes everything! The residual effects of Easter echo on to this very day, as men and women place their faith, hope and trust in the risen Savior. The journey of faith begins with confession, but is sustained by commitment. When we are found in Christ, the old ways of living are gone and we are made new.

SERMONWEEK 1

Write Up: Easter morning revealed an empty tomb because Jesus had risen from the grave.

The two women who first made the discovery had a choice to make.

Do they trust the good news or do they ignore the evidence in front of them?

The resurrection of Jesus was good news that changed the lives of the disciples and by their impact, the world. We have the same choice to make as the woman did. When we choose faith, we are found “in Christ” and our lives are made new.

Think: Jesus’ resurrection from the dead requires me to respond in some kind of way.

Feel: My faith in Jesus can take all of the old in my life and make it new. I can be filled with hope.

Do: Confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that God raised Christ from the dead and be saved.

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