What Comes After Resurrection?

Introduction

Easter has come and gone. Two weeks ago, on Easter Sunday, we remembered God’s grace that Jesus would die on the cross for our sins. We celebrated that Jesus rose victories over death. But what comes after Easter? What comes after the resurrection?

Does the resurrection make any difference our lives with things like sin? Our sermon text today says something about this, but let me check something first.

Could you please raise your hand if you “do not sin.” If you are with us online just let us know in the comments. Is there anyone present who does not sin?

Maybe we have some sinless people who didn’t hear me or simply don’t raise hands, so let me ask the opposite. If you ever sin could you please raise your hand.

Excellent, that poll confirms what I thought - this statement will sound shocking:

“Everyone who has been born of God does not sin.” That’s from 1 John 3.

John also puts it this way:

“The one who commits sin is of the Devil.”

To a room full of people who do sin, these sentences by themselves seem like terrible news. They raise questions about what it means to be a Christian and at face value suggest the possibility that all of us are doomed.

That is of course, only if you read these sentences by themselves, out of context. Because when we read these sentences in context we will see something more encouraging and more helpful.

You will in fact see a vision for the Christian life that starts with the resurrection but doesn’t end there only to bring it out once a year on Easter. No, you will find a vision for Christian life that starts with the resurrection of Christ, and and invitation for you to experience resurrection - being raised to life in Christ. And what comes after the resurrection? Actually living new life in Christ.

Read the Scripture

I invite you to open your Bibles to 1 John 2:28 and we’ll be reading through chapter 3 verse 7.

1 John 2:28–3:7 HCSB

28 So now, little children, remain in Him, so that when He appears we may have boldness and not be ashamed before Him at His coming. 29 If you know that He is righteous, you know this as well: Everyone who does what is right has been born of Him. 1 Look at how great a love the Father has given us that we should be called God’s children. And we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it didn’t know Him. 2 Dear friends, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him because we will see Him as He is. 3 And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself just as He is pure. 4 Everyone who commits sin also breaks the law; sin is the breaking of law. 5 You know that He was revealed so that He might take away sins, and there is no sin in Him. 6 Everyone who remains in Him does not sin; everyone who sins has not seen Him or known Him. 7 Little children, let no one deceive you! The one who does what is right is righteous, just as He is righteous.

1. New life in the in between

The Gospel of John & Revelation

1 John is a letter written by John, one of the twelve disciples.

He also wrote the Gospel of John which tells the story of Jesus Christ life death and resurrection. He wrote the Revelation, the last book of the Bible which is about Christ’s future coming and our hope in him.

The Letters of John

But in between these two points, the past we see in the Gospel and future we see in Revelation, John also wrote three letters to believers. We call them 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John.

These letters focus on believer’s present experience, and God’s work of sanctification, that is God making believer’s holy. They are written to ordinary believers in churches struggling with the same types of problems and challenges we face today.

Looking Backward

He addressed problems by looking back to the Gospel he had written. Think back to the most familiar verse from the Gospel of John: “For God so loved the World.” We see God’s love featured here as well as throughout the letter.

Less familiar is John 1:12 where John writes of Jesus: “But to all who did receive Him, He gave them the right to be children of God to those who believe in his name.

John’s letter is thoroughly grounded in what Jesus has taught and done. How Jesus taught of God’s love and how we can have life and become children God through faith in Jesus.

Looking Forward

You also see in this passage John looking forward to Christ’s return. John starts this section with Christ’s second coming being our motivation for remaining in Christ now so that when he returns we can have boldness rather than shame.

John also reminds us that though we are God’s children now “what we will be has not been revealed.”

At Christ’s glorious return all of those hands that went up as sinners will be fully and completely made holy. We will be like Him, because we will see him as he is.

So part of living as a Christian is holding on to that hope we have in Christ for the future. John isn’t beating up his readers, including us with this talk of sin but he’s sharing with us the glorious future in store for us that we might have confidence, hope, and encouragement in our lives today.

He’s also reminding us that this new life, although it will be made complete in the future has already begun!

The reality of what it means to be made alive in Christ is already here. God sees us in a new way. In fact he sees all who believe in Jesus as sinless because of the completed work of Jesus. God works in us in a new way. That is a present reality. Now! We are called to live as Children of God!

2. New life as Children of God

What Manner of Love

Being a child of God is something that still strikes wonder in John the apostle. My Bible translation renders this in 3:1 as “look how great a love the Father has given us” which does a good job of capturing how big God’s love is - “how great a love,” but misses some of the wonder John is expressing.

The King James captures more of the Greek with “ behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us.” What manner does a better job than “how great” at capturing the Greek word that John is using. It literally meant “from what country” and was an expression that expresses wonder about something that is outside of our expectations for what is normal or even possible here where we are.

It is the same word Mary used in Luke 1:29 when the angel suddenly appeared to her and she wondered “what manner of greeting this could be.”

It is the same word used in Matthew 8:27 after Jesus had calmed the raging winds and waves of the stormy sea and the disciples asked “what manner of man is this? Even the winds and the sea obey him?”

It is the same word used negatively by the Pharisees in Luke 7:39 when the woman anointed Jesus’ feet with perfumed oil and washed his feet with her tears. The Pharisees asked said if Jesus were a prophet he wouldn’t he know what manner of woman this was. A sinner.

But you see, not only did Jesus know about her she knew what John did and the Pharisees did not what manner of love God has for sinners like us.

What amazing, out of this world, heavenly love God has that is greater than any love we have ever known. The great great love the Father has given us.

The Father Has Given Us

When John says in a moment “The one who commits sin is of the Devil” we can become quite afraid as sinners if we don’t understand this great love of the Father.

We may think: I must get my life together, stop sinning so I’m no longer of the devil. I must try harder, work more, claw my way out of the devils family by abandoning sin.

Jesus’ cross and his resurrection we throw aside like used Easter Eggs Easter and resurrection is something that comes once a year at church but our real day to day life depends on our own effort. It’s about my responsibility to save myself. But I keep failing.

Or even worse I think I’m succeeding. Like the Pharisees in the story. I build my salvation on how good I am at keeping the rules. And what a sad salvation that is, as my own good works designed to cover up my own sin only blind me to the Father’s love.

If that were the message of the Gospel - me saving myself by living without sin- it wouldn’t be good news.

Instead, the Gospel, the good news of Christianity is that it is God not us who does the saving. It is God who gives his love.

For God so loved the world he gave his only son.

The free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Look how great a love the Father has given us.

God is the one initiating, who is pursuing who is saving, who is loving lost sinners and inviting them to be his children.

In this letter John is warning us of two ditches we might fall into. The first is the idea that we earn salvation through own our effort.

You can’t earn your place in God’s family by being sinless. But oh, how great a love the Father has given us.”

You can’t earn your place in God’s family by outweighing your sin with good deeds. But oh how great a love the Father has given us.

You can’t restore your broken relationship with God through your own work. But oh how great a love the Father has given us.

That we should be called children of God.

Children of God

And we are, John assures his readers. You see they believe in Jesus and because of Jesus’ they are truly and surely God’s children. God sees them as righteous. God sees them as sinless. Because of Jesus.

But here John points out another ditch we might fall into, or said more positively, the path of the road before us. In fact, one of the reasons John is writing this letter is to encourage a church congregation where some have fallen into the ditch causing great chaos.

If the first ditch was living as if Jesus death and resurrection didn’t matter and so we must earn salvation, the opposite ditch this is living as if being a child of God is doesn’t matter. It is claiming salvation without allowing God to change us as all. It is claiming to be a child of God but refusing to let God move, mold or guide how we live.

It’s seeing salvation as a get out of jail free card and nothing more. The false teachers in John’s church weren’t willing to raise their hands as sinners. They claimed to be perfect and sinless because they were children of God! Oh they didn’t change how they lived, but they had a new high view of themselves that didn’t need or want God’s work in their lives dealing with sin.

But we are saved into God’s family and that changes us. We now have brothers and sisters family to love. John will talk about this in the following verses. We are called, as we see in verse 3 to become more like God in our purity, in the way we live. Perfect purity is something we will know until Christ's return but in this time, being a child of God means becoming more like our Father.

We are not merely raised up out of death but into God’s family.

Dealing with Sin

John goes on to define sin for us. Sin is breaking the law. It means doing what God has said is wrong. It means not doing what God has said we must do.

If you’ve been following John message so far he’s established that God has made Christians his children and suggested we must be pure. Then he defined sin as breaking the law.

Here’s what should come next in a normal direct argument.

Sin is breaking the law so… don’t sin.

Sin is breaking the law so… do your best as children to quit breaking the law.

But that’s not what John does. Instead he says:

“you know that He was revealed so that He might take away sins, and there is no sin in him.”

Instead of turning to us, as we might expect John turns back to Jesus. This is a great picture of how you can face the reality of sin first to become saved by faith in Jesus but then to live as a child of God by always turn to Jesus. He has come to take away sin. He is the one who is sinless.

When it comes to living as children of God, John’s answer to sin, and here he is quoting Jesus words in his last supper directly, is to remain in Jesus.

Remain in Christ.

Conclusion

John is offering a warning. You can’t can’t earn salvation but can see it. You can see it in how God changes you. You may look at your life and see yourself growing more like Christ little by little. You may put some struggles with sin behind you. You may find yourself beginning to struggle against sin you once didn’t even see or held to dear to address. You may find yourself more aware of God’s love, more aware of God’s grace and mercy. You may find ourselves more forgiving and loving, and more Christlike because you have been forgiven and loved by God.

Then rest in the peace of knowing because of God’s great love you are a child of God and be encouraged to remain in Jesus and continue to live and grow as God’s child.

But what if you don’t find anything at all. What if you find yourself, like some in John’s congregation denying your need for Christ and rejecting Christ’s work in your life?

Then hear God’s invitation to you today to turn to Jesus and accept this amazing gift of love to be forgiven and live as a child of God.