The Cross And The Resurrection

Introduction

Tension, defined by the dictionary, means to be stretched tight or a strained state or condition resulting from forces acting in opposition from each other.

We live in a world of tension. Most all of us feel we are stretched thin. In the first Lord of the Rings, one of the characters, Bilbo Baggins, who was celebrating his One Hundred and Eleventh birthday, says to Gandalf, a quote that resonates with me, “I feel thin, sort of stretched, like butter scraped over too much bread.”

This is tension. The idea that we are stretched because of the things in our lives. Indiana Jones has another similar quote, he says when his love interest says “you are not the man I knew 10 years ago,” and he responds, “it’s not the years honey, it’s the mileage.” That’s tension. It’s the idea that life is stretching you. It’s opposing forces pulling you tight. And we live in a world that creates that sort of tension in us.

In the movies, this sort of tension is a bad thing. But tension doesn’t always have to be bad. Tension, in the Bible is discussed in lots of different ways. In the New Testament, it’s a good thing, God is stretching us.

We see a tension between things that are and things that are to come. It’s an already, yet not. It’s a kingdom at hand and a kingdom coming. The Bible talks about this tension in great detail, but it’s never more evident than during what we call the Easter season.

During Easter, we celebrate two distinct events - the cross of Christ and the Resurrection of Christ. These events changed the course of history. Time was split into because of these events. Any person could claim to be God or preach a good sermon, but what Jesus different was that he backed up his claims with power.

He died in weakness, but rose in power. That’s tension. He was weak, yet he is strong. He died, yet he lives! And we live in that tension ourselves.

This leads me to my main point today…

New Life Starts Where Death Begins

Talk about tension! Welcome to Cornerstone Church, this Easter Sunday we are looking at the tension in the message of the cross and the message of the resurrection. These two events are joined together in a beautiful way that will change your life if you allow it.

Today we are going to be looking at this subject from Paul’s letter to the church in Rome. Join with me as we read together, Romans 6:5-8. Hear now the words of God.

Romans 6:5–8 ESV

For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.

I want to look at this passage from it’s two main ideas - that we are united with Him in death and united with Him in the resurrection and what that means for us today.

United With Him In Death

In the beginning God commanded Adam and Eve not to eat of the Fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He promised that if they did, death would be the reward. Since that time, we have all faced that same penalty.

Because God cannot lie, death had to come. His word is true. Death had to come because the command was broken. Every person born after Adam suffered the same fate - death.

God had a plan. He would send Jesus his son to pay the penalty for all who believe in Him. He would die in our place. The theological term for this is substitutionary atonement. He died in our place, taking our punishment upon himself. This is the message of the cross.

Union with Him. The message doesn’t stop with Christ though. Paul here says that when we become a Christian, we become united with Christ in his death. We have union with him in death. In other words, we die with Christ on the cross.

The Old Self was crucified. When Jesus died on the cross, it wasn’t just him that died. In Him, we die as well. In Him, we are crucified on that cross.

Galatians 2:20 ESV

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

What’s the Old Self? It is everything that I would describe as me before I met Jesus and everything that I still hold onto that’s not Him now.

That is every thought or action that I do that is contrary to what God wants for my life. The Old Self cared only for itself. The Old Self was riddled with sins, like envy or hatred, lust or lying. The Old Self was self-seeking, self-focused, self-centered. The Old Man died with Jesus on that cross. He was crucified with Christ!

If that’s the case, for those of us that have been saved, why do we continue to sin? Here’s that tension we live in again. We have been crucified…and yet we are told to put to death all works of unrighteousness in our life.

Colossians 3:5 ESV

Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

The evil desires in us, have to be put to death. So there’s a tension. We live in an already been crucified, but not everything has been put to death yet. There’s tension there.

A Death Like His. Paul says in our passage that we are united and he uses the phrase, “a death like his.” What kind of death was the death of Jesus? Is Paul saying we need to literally die on a cross? No. He’s not. He is saying that the death of Jesus was a model for us on how we should die. Here’s three things to draw from this phrase:

Sacrificial - The death of Jesus was a sacrificial death. He laid down his life. No one took it from him. Jesus was not truly murdered. He could have called down 10,000 angels to get him off that cross. He could have spoke a word and fire would have rained down from heaven on Pilate and the religious leaders who sought to kill him. He laid down his life.

In the same way, we are asked to lay down our life. Jesus says that if any man is going to come after Him, they will have to deny themselves, take up their cross and follow him. By taking up our cross, the implication is that God isn’t forcing it on us, it’s a choice. You are to take up your cross. You are to willingly lay your own life down. Death to the old man!

God Honoring. The next thing we notice about the death of Jesus was that his death was God-Honoring. He was obedient even unto death. His death honored God because of his obedience. In the same way, God is asking for us to honor God in obedience by surrendering our lives to Him. That’s the obedience He is looking for, full surrender. Some of us come to Christ and want to hold on to our old life. He’s asking us to completely lay it down. Don’t hold on to it, don’t try to keep that old man on life support. Let it die.

Others-Focused. The third thing I noticed on this was that Jesus’ death was other’s-focused. He laid down his life for others. WE have to deny ourselves…One of the big enemies in our lives is our self-centeredness. It keeps us from living a full life loving and serving others. When we deny ourselves and crucify that old man, our lives are forever changed. When we kill the old man, we are killing our selfishness. Jesus poured out his life for others and we are asked to do the same.

He Is Risen! With this in mind, let’s transition through this tension of death into life. Jesus just didn’t die on the cross. That’s not the end of the story. He died and was buried in the grave, yet today we celebrate because…He is Risen! He is risen indeed. Paul says if we have been united with Him in death, we SHALL CERTAINLY be united with him in Resurrection! Let’s look at that.

United With Him In Resurrection

We believe in a Resurrection, NOT a resuscitation! Jesus didn’t almost die on the cross. He didn’t get really sick. He didn’t get revived from his wounds! He was resurrected. That means He died on the cross, but He was RAISED to a new life! Not the same life over again.

He was unrecognizable at first. One of the mysterious things about the resurrection, as you read through the gospels is that Jesus was somewhat unrecognizable upon his resurrection. The two men on the road to Emmaus, did not recognize him until He broke bread with them. Peter and the disciples who were fishing didn’t recognize him either at first. Mary mistook him for the gardener, until He said her name. Jesus was different. It was still Him, but something was different. It was a new life. It was unrecognizable to the old.

When I got saved, I became a new person. My old life was riddled with my own self-centeredness. I lived for myself. Doing drugs, lying, stealing. All the things that you are not supposed to do. But when I got saved, God created in me a new life. And that life was unrecognizable compared to my old one. In fact, my friends noticed. Some of the guys I would smoke weed with didn’t want to hang out with me anymore. I was different. I was new.

2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

New life means the old has passed away. When you are born again or saved, your old life has passed away. Your old identity, the way you would describe yourself, the things that you held as important, all of those things passed away and what is standing here today is a new creation, a new life in Christ Jesus.

New means new. Again, this is that tension I was talking about, you look like the same person. You may fall into some of the same temptations. You may look into the mirror and not feel much different, but when God says that you are new, you are new. That doesn’t mean refurbished. He didn’t just polish up your old life. But here’s some more tension.

It is a New Life, that carries old wounds. When Jesus resurrected, even though they struggled to see Him the way they had seen Him before, there was one running theme - he carried his wounds with Him. When talking to his disciples and then to doubting Thomas, he says look at my wounds. Put your hand in my side Thomas. His wounds were still there.

When we are born again, our wounds are still there. The hurts and pain that we have experienced in our life is still there. But here’s that tension again. We are wounded, but we are healed.

The wounds of Jesus were not killing him anymore. They were visible but they had lost their power over him. He was wounded, but he was unashamed of those wounds. In fact, he was pointing out his wounds to heal his disciples.

In the same way, in this new life, God is asking us not to hide our wounds, but to expose them. Show others your wounds, show them your weaknesses and there is healing to be found in that.

It’s a new life, but not a complete life. With our theme of tension, one thing we see is that God has given us a new life, but that doesn’t mean we are perfect or that we are now complete, but that we are a work of art.

If you’ve ever seen Michaelangelo’s masterpiece, David, you have seen one of most beautiful works of art ever made. What’s more remarkable in my mind is that it’s carved out of marble. When Michaelangelo was asked about how he created this beautiful piece of art, he said…

“I created a vision of David in my mind and simply carved away everything that was not David.”

In a similar way, God is carving away at you. He’s trying to remove everything that’s not supposed to be there. Everything that’s not the new you. Hence, why some of us feel like butter, spread over toast. We are being chiseled away at. We live in a tension of a new life, but not yet complete.

In other words, God’s Still Working On Me. We are not finished yet. We are not done. There’s work to be done. To look at it one way, we are born again, not as adults, but as children. We have to grow into this new life that’s been given to us. We are no longer enslaved to sin, but yet we still have to put to death that sin. We still have to kill it. We have been set free from sin, because of our death, but now we have to continue to fight it!

How Then Shall We Live?

With this tension in mind, with these to opposing ideas at work - we are called to die and yet live, what does that look like? What do we do with this message of the cross and the resurrection? How do we apply this?

We MUST Die! If you are here today and you don’t know Jesus, God is asking you to lay it all down. Lay down your life and you will receive a new one! Lay down your sin and you will be set free to live a life glorifying to God. You have to die. You have to lay down your life today. If you are a Christian already, you are not exempt. We are asked to make a continual life of surrender. We must die to ourselves daily. Continue to put to death those sins that so easily beset us.

We MUST Live! The promise of life after death is the message of Easter. You must die, but you also will certainly be united with Him in life after death. You will be resurrected. Now, this isn’t just spiritual. This is physical. When the trumpet sounds, we will be change in a twinkling of an eye and our bodies, the decaying flesh that we call home, will be changed into a new glorious body that we will live in forevermore. But in the spirit of tension, we are not there yet. If you have breath in your lungs, God is asking you to live that new life today.

To sum it all up and to close today. I want to give everyone a chance to respond. David will sing and we will have a time of prayer and ministry around the altar for anyone who needs it. I will be up here and I invited you to come. But as we close I want to read from Colossians, which I hope will tie all of this together and encourage you today to live that new life in Christ.

Colossians 3:1–17 ESV

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all. Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Won’t you come?