Because He Lives

Lead Vocalist (Kelly)

Welcome & Announcements (Hopson)

GOOD MORNING AND WELCOME to the gathering place of Poquoson Baptist Church!

My name is Hopson and I’m one of the pastors here at PBC.

We’re so glad you’re here today.

If this is your first time with us, or the first time in awhile, I want to take a moment to tell you WHAT TO EXPECT today.

PBC is a church that is serious about the Bible. We really believe it is the Word of God!

So in our service we will read the Word, pray the Word, sing the Word, preach the Word, and encourage you to respond to the Word.

We’re also a church that is serious about relationships. Members here really view this as a spiritual family.

So if you call PBC home, please try to get to know anybody around you that you don’t know before you leave here today.

I also want to share a few PRACTICAL DETAILS so you can relax and enjoy your time with us this morning.

We typically stand up when we sing and sit down to pray, read, and hear God’s Word. But if at any point you need to take a seat, please do so.

If you need a restroom at any point in the service, you’ll find one behind the partition to my left.

All children are welcome to be in here with us, but if you would like your kiddos aged 5 and under to be in childcare during the service, you can drop them off in the main lobby just past the welcome table.

If you would like to talk to a pastor after the service, I’d love to greet you in the parking lot and we’ll also have one of our pastors at the white flag behind you.

If you would like to purchase great Christian resources available at cost, please visit the bookstall behind you.

IF YOU ARE NEW HERE, we would love to learn how we can serve you best.

You can help us by filling out a Connect Card and dropping it off at the Welcome Table or in one of the black boxes near the exits.

You can also fill it out online by scanning the QR code on the back of the cards in the seats in front of you.

Also, if you’re new here, you can stop by the Welcome Table for a free gift to thank you for your visit.

Now please take a moment of silence to prepare your heart for worship.

Call to Worship (1 Cor. 15:55-58)

Prayer of Praise (Mendi Keatts)

Christ Our Hope In Life and Death

Christ the Lord Is Risen Today

Prayer of Confession (Chris Berlin), Doubting the resurrection

Assurance of Pardon (Romans 8:1)

Hallelujah What A Savior

In Christ Alone

Scripture Reading (Ephesians 2:1-9)

For nearly two thousand years, Christians have greeted one another (especially on Resurrection Sunday) with a special greeting called the Paschal Greeting. It goes like this:

Leader: He is risen!

Congregation: He is risen indeed!

Why has this greeting been translated into hundreds of languages and been used all over the world for almost two thousand years?

Or, to put it another way, what exactly is so great about the Resurrection?

There’s a number of answers we could give to that question.

One answer is found in our sermon text in Ephesians 2.

Please open up your Bibles and turn there now.

You can find it on page 1159 in the black Bibles.

If you don’t have a Bible, please take one as our gift to you.

Ephesians 2:1–9

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

Pastoral Prayer (Hopson)

Prayer for PBC—Help Christians here to live like we truly believe the resurrection

We pray for same for our sister churches in the Pillar Network...

Carrolton Baptist

Christ Fellowship of Williamsburg

Fox Hill Road Baptist

Mecklenburg Community Baptist

Nansemond River Baptist

Reformation Christian Fellowsihp

Seaford Baptist Church

Would you use the faithful preaching of the gospel in those churches to strengthen believers to live like they truly believe the resurrection?

We don’t just pray for believers...

Our hearts long for more to know the truth that Jesus is risen!

For unbelievers from Boston and Baltimore, to Beijing and Bangkok, and Bogota and Berlin.

Like you did with Lydia in Acts 16, open the eyes of many to believe the truth.

Perhaps even in this room this morning.

Pray for the sermon

SERMON

START TIMER!!!

You’d have to be living under a rock to not have heard the devastating news of the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore just a few days ago.

At 1.6 miles long, it was the third-longest bridge of its type in the world.

For over 47 years the bridge stood, carrying an estimated 11.5 million vehicles across every year.

But all that came to an end on March 26, 2024 at 1:28 AM when a container ship crashed into one of its support pillars.

A collapse like this is a reminder that we live in a fallen world.

More importantly, it’s a reminder that we cannot save ourselves from this fallen world.

We can build amazing things, like 2-mile bridges or container ships that can carry 116,000 tons at 25 miles per hour.

But far too often, like in Baltimore on Tuesday morning, one of our technological marvels leads to the destruction of another technological marvel.

We simply cannot build or work our way out of disaster.

Tragedies like this are reminders that we live in a world longing to be made new. We live in a world longing for resurrection.

On a day like Resurrection Sunday, we often think about the resurrection of Jesus.

This morning I want you to understand how Jesus’ resurrection is the ultimate answer to the longing for resurrection that is embedded in our fallen world.

To put it really simply, Because Jesus lives we can truly live.

That’s the Big Idea I hope you learn from today’s message from Ephesians 2.

With God’s help I want to show you Two Ways we can truly live because of the resurrection of Jesus.

1) Because He Lives You Can Live SPIRITUALLY.

2) Because He Lives You Can Live ETERNALLY.

Let’s get started...

1) Because He Lives You Can Live SPIRITUALLY.

We’re going to spend most of our time on this first truth, because it is so essential.

Let’s begin by imagining you’re at the ophthalmologist for a routine eye checkup. He puts the little numbing drops in your eyes, which isn’t all that out of the ordinary, and then he pulls out a needle and tells you to lean back.

If you’re there expecting a routine eye checkup how would you respond if the eye doctor tries to put a needle in your eye?

But what if you knew you had a rapidly advancing eye disease called diabetic retinopathy which would blind you without those eye injections?

Wouldn’t you be more willing to appreciate the cure if you knew the diagnosis?

It doesn’t mean much to say “because Jesus lives you can live spiritually” unless you first understand the diagnosis. And the diagnosis the Bible gives is that by nature you and I are dead.

Ephesians 2:1—And you were dead in your trespasses and sins...

Without Jesus you are dead spiritually because your life is marked by trespasses and sins.

That word sin literally means “missing the mark.” The word trespass means to slip or fall down.

The idea conveyed by both terms is that God has a standard we have not met.

Romans 3:23—For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

We were called to live for God's glory and we've missed the mark, we’ve slipped, we’ve fallen short.

Think of our sin problem like this.

Let's say that after service we all went to Yorktown Beach by the Coleman Bridge for a little contest. We’re all going to try to jump across the York River and land on the other side at Gloucester Point.

Would you be able to jump across?

What if I let you have a running start?

What if you were the best long jumper in the world?

All of us would miss the mark. Sure, we would all miss by different lengths, but none of us would reach the other side.

You may feel as if you haven’t sinned and missed God's mark as bad as your neighbor, but you've still drastically missed the mark.

And because of that the Bible says you and I, without Jesus, are spiritually dead.

Now what does it mean to be dead?

The dead have no AWARENESS.

A few weeks ago in rural Ohio two women were arrested for an unusual crime. Their 80-year-old roommate had recently died, so they took his body, put it in the passenger seat of their car, then drove to the bank drive-thru and withdrew money out of his account. Because their dead friend had zero awareness of what was happening, the withdrawal was considered theft and abuse of a corpse. [1]

To be spiritually dead means there's no awareness to the things of God.

Could it be, friend, the reason you can’t spend most of the year without even thinking about God is because you’re spiritually dead?

The dead have no APPETITE.

Corpses don’t get hungry!

To be spiritually dead means there's no appetite for God.

Could it be, friend, that the reason you really don’t care about God or church or the Bible is because you’re spiritually dead?

The dead have no ACTIVITY.

I’ve preached many funerals through the years, but I’ve never once seen a corpse get up out of casket. Why? Because dead people don’t move!

But if you look carefully at the spiritually dead people in our passage, they actually are moving a lot...

Ephesians 2:1–3—And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 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— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind...

Christianity teaches that humanity has three great enemies: the world, the devil, and the flesh.

In verse 2 the spiritually dead are actively following the world!

Also in verse 2 the spiritually dead are actively following the prince of the air, which is a nickname for the Devil!

And in verse 3 the spiritually dead are actively fulfilling the desires of the flesh.

So the spiritually dead are active in a sense. It’s just that none of their activity is really all that good.

Now, I’m not trying to offend you, but if you’re spiritually dead you’re kind of like a zombie!

Happy Easter!

In case you’re not familiar with zombie lore, one author explains it this way:

“A zombie is a corpse that’s active and moving. Zombies aren’t resurrected or even resuscitated bodies. Even though their limbs are lurching and their jaws are snapping, these fictional creatures are dead–but zombies are far more morbid than mere moving corpses. Zombies feed on living flesh. They consume the living, and their appetites control them. You’ll never see a zombie slow down to soak in the beauty of a baseball game or stand in awe at the white cliffs of Dover. Zombies are death seeking life, but succeeding only in spreading death. They have neither the capacity nor the desire to trade their death for life. Worst of all, zombies are rotting away even as they are walking around.” [2]

Could it be, friend, the reason you are so enslaved to your passions and the things of this world, and so easily trapped by our Enemy is because you’re spiritually dead?

Now when you put all this together, it’s no wonder what we read in the second half of...

Ephesians 2:3—… [we] were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

What does it mean to be “children of wrath”?

It means without Jesus every single one of us is doomed to face the wrath of God for our sin.

The image the Bible gives of this wrath is a place called hell. It’s not a party where you hang out with your best friends and listen to cool rock music.

It’s a world of unending suffering, all alone, completely divorced from every good thing you’ve ever experienced.

That’s what you and I deserve by nature.

But there’s one more characteristic of spiritual death we should consider...

The dead have no ABILITY.

The dead cannot wake themselves up!

Spiritually there's nothing you can do to make yourself come alive!

Some preachers have explained salvation like this: you’re out in the ocean somewhere in the middle of a storm. You’re screaming for help, treading water, and quickly running out of strength. Pretty soon you’ll drown. All of a sudden Jesus comes by in a rescue boat. He tosses a life preserver into the water, and all you need to do is grab onto that life preserver and you’ll be saved!

The problem with that analogy is that dead people don’t scream for help. Dead people don’t tread water. And dead people don’t grab life preservers.

A better analogy for your condition without Jesus is you’ve got cement blocks chained to your ankles and you’re decomposing on the bottom of the ocean.

Think of the story of the rich young ruler in Matthew 19.

After telling His disciples how hard it is for a rich person to be saved...

Matthew 19:25–26—When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying, “Who then can be saved?” But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

Without Jesus you are spiritually dead.

You have no AWARENESS to spiritual things...

...no APPETITE for spiritual things...

...no ACTIVITY devoted to anything but sin...

...and no ABILITY to make yourself come to life!

But thanks be to God the story doesn’t end there!

If life without Jesus is like being chained to the bottom of the ocean then salvation is like Jesus diving to the ocean floor, swimming to the surface with your body, then breathing new life into decomposing lungs. Becoming a Christian is like being resurrected!

And that’s exactly what our text describes...

Ephesians 2:4–5—But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved.

The solution to your spiritual deadness isn’t YOU. The solution is GOD! He is the One who makes us alive!

And notice how God makes us alive. The text says He “makes us alive together with Christ.”

You can be spiritually resurrected because Jesus was physically resurrected.

Or to put it another way, because He lives you can live spiritually.

Here’s how this works:

God the Father sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to live a life without sin. Even though He was truly human, He wasn’t spiritually dead like us. He did not follow the world, the Devil, or the flesh. He lived His entire life in perfect obedience to God.

And yet, He died on the cross as if He was the worst of sinners. Why? 1 Corinthians 15:3 says He died “for our sins.” He died as our substitute. He took the wrath of God that we deserved.

Now if the story ends there, it’s bad news. But the Bible says Jesus rose from the dead on the third day. And because Jesus rose from the dead, His people can rise too.

Because Jesus lives we can truly live.

And truly living begins with coming alive spiritually.

But also...

2) Because He Lives You Can Live ETERNALLY.

There’s a tension that every faithful preacher struggles with on a Sunday like Easter.

On the one hand, since there’s often a number of people in our churches on Easter that aren’t Christians, we want to simply and clearly explain how a person can respond to the resurrection of Jesus.

But on the other hand, since most of the people in the room are Christians, we want you to leave being encouraged about how to live the Christian life in light of the resurrection.

So how can the resurrection of Jesus be an encouragement to those of you who have already trusted Jesus?

Notice how Jesus’ resurrection doesn’t merely save you at some point in the past, it is the hope that you cling to in the future.

Ephesians 2:6–7—God. . . raised us up with [Jesus] and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

Notice what the text is saying here. Through the physical resurrection of Jesus you have been guaranteed an eternal resurrection.

That promise is so certain that the author talks as if it’s already happened.

He says Christians are already “seated with Jesus in the heavenly places.”

Now I know these chairs are comfortable, but you probably wouldn’t call them heavenly would you?

But because Jesus lives you can be confident that you will live eternally too. God would have to put His Son back in the grave before He would allow you to die without receiving this promise.

And what is the promise of eternal life?

Just like hell isn’t a party with all the cool kids, heaven isn’t a boring existence floating around on clouds with harps and halos.

The Bible actually doesn’t tell us a lot about heaven. We know it’s a place without suffering, without sin, without fear, and without death.

But perhaps the best description of heaven is right here in verse 7.

It’s a place where God will spend eternity showing you the immeasurable depths of just how much He loves you!

A 17th century pastor named Samuel Rutherford said that all the kindness from Jesus you have already received in this life is like all the water from the ocean that a child can carry in his hands.

Christian, you will spend the rest of eternity diving deeper and deeper into the ocean of Jesus’ love for you. He will spend the rest of eternity showing you the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness.

If you belong to Jesus, you need to fight to remember that especially when you’re suffering.

Remember who you were when God made you alive. He didn’t love you because you were lovely. You were a putrifying zombie. He made you alive because He IS LOVE!

And if He loved you then—when you were dead—would He fail to love you now?

Charles Spurgeon, one of history’s greatest preachers, said this about these verses...

“If, dear friends, the Lord loved us with such great love even when we were dead in sins, do you think that he will ever leave us to perish? Have you indulged the notion that, under your present trial, whatever it may be, you will be deserted by your God? . . . Did he love you when you were dead in sins, and is he going to desert you now? . . . Do you think, if that was his intention, he would ever have begun with you? He knew all that would happen to you, and all that you would do, so that nothing comes unexpectedly to him. Known unto the Lord, from the beginning, were all your trials and all your sins. . . do you think that he will now, or ever, cast you away from him? You know that he will not. [3]

If you belong to Jesus, you will never be forsaken. No matter what you feel, you must remember the truth!

Because God has given you spiritual life, you are guaranteed eternal life forever in endless joy.

Because Jesus lives we can truly live.

Truly living begins with coming alive spiritually.

But truly living never ends, because it means living eternally.

How do I need to do to respond to this Good News?

Ephesians 2:8–9—For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Those two verses tell us everything we need to know about responding to the resurrection of Jesus.

They tell us there’s a billion things we MUST NOT do to respond. We must not try to work for salvation in any way. Spiritual resurrection is a gift of grace. We cannot try to work for it!

These verses also tell us the one right way to respond.

We are saved by grace through faith.

Faith is the hand that grabs onto the grace that we receive by God through the death and resurrection of Jesus.

Think of it like this. You’ve got a piece of candy in your hand and you invite your child to take it. Faith is like the simple act of your child taking that piece of candy. Grabbing the candy didn’t create the candy or earn the candy. It simply received the free gift that was offered.

So too with faith. It doesn’t create salvation or earn salvation. It simply grabs onto the salvation that God offers.

Would you trust Jesus today, friend? Would you put whatever weak faith you have in Jesus today?

That’s the only way you can truly live. By grace through faith in the resurrection of Jesus.

We live in an area with a lot of bridges and tunnels.

Perhaps after seeing the devastating footage of the bridge collapse in Baltimore, you’re a bit leery about navigating some of the bridges and tunnels around here.

You’re not alone if you’ve thought about it, because our governor has already been asked by the press about the safety of Hampton Roads bridges.

But whether you’re terrified or you don’t even think twice, the sturdiness of the bridge does not waver based on how you feel.

That reminds me of faith.

You can have all the faith in the world, or faith the size of a mustard seed, it doesn’t matter.

The point is not the size or the strength of your faith, but the object of your faith.

If your faith is in something solid, you will survive. If your faith is in something small, you won’t.

Jesus is our bridge to God. And just like that barge that smashed into the Francis Scott Key bridge in Baltimore, all the forces of hell were aimed directly at Jesus in order to crush Him.

And in a sense they did crush Him. He was mocked, beaten, crucified and killed.

But Jesus did not collapse under the weight of Satan, sin, and death.

Three days later Jesus rose from the dead!

So whether your faith is strong or weak, it does not matter. What matters is where is your faith.

Even weak faith can grab onto a strong Savior.

Prayer of Thanksgiving

It Was Finished Upon That Cross

Benediction (Hebrews 13:20-21)

Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.