A New Life…The Resurrection of Jesus
Making All Things New (Easter 2025) • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 14 viewsEaster is the celebration of the historical event of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Without it, there is no hope for the new life promised to us in the gospel. Today, let’s lean in together to the truth of the gospel presented in the first few verses of Paul’s New Testament letter to the church in Rome.
Notes
Transcript
Personally I love Easter…this weekend. The most significant weekend of the Christian calendar.
Easter can be one of the hardest messages to preach because there are no surprises…no tension.
You didn’t walk through the doors and wonder: “What will the pastor be preaching on this morning?”
But that’s ok because there is…a message that needs to be proclaimed!
On any given Easter Sunday…churches are full of a vast array of people…
“Committed…” Those who don’t miss Easter…because they know & believe…Jesus has risen!!
“Seeking…” There are those who are sincerely looking for hope in life…so they come to Church.
“Not So Sure…” Those who may believe in Easter…death & resurrection…go thru the motions…but they’re just not sure how it makes any difference in their day to day life…
“Given Up…” Maybe others have walked away & given up on the Gospel because they have been hurt or judged by a Christian or the hypocrisy of the church…and they have walked away.
“Cynical”…who simply refuse to believe anything about the death, burial & resurrection of Jesus
We need to share the good news with all those…Those who love it & those who have given up on it.
For the Seeking, the Religious…Committed…Not so sure…Apathetic…Cynical or Skeptical…
Wherever you may be on that spectrum of people…understand this: You are in good company.
You may be relieved to find out that…
Christianity is not FOUNDED on Christians…
Christianity is not a POLITICAL movement…
Christianity is not a PHILOSOPHY/teaching…
Christianity is not even a SELF HELP movement.
The teaching of Jesus & Christianity is based on THE CLAIMS Jesus made about Himself…
And what He said He was going to do.
Mark 9:30-31 Jesus took His disciples aside…and told them…this is what’s going to happen.
30 They went on from there and passed through Galilee. And He did not want anyone to know, 31 for He was teaching His disciples, saying to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill Him. And when He is killed, after three days He will rise.”
That is what Jesus predicted about Himself.
It is the FOUNDATION of Christianity…based on Jesus’ own prediction that He would die & rise again from the dead…so then…Christianity is based solely on the claims that Jesus made about Himself!
But even though Jesus predicted it…none of His followers never really expected it would happen.
Every one of His disciples STRUGGLED with their UNDERSTANDING & BELIEF!
None of them were standing at the tomb on that first Sunday morning waiting for it to happen.
Ready to sing “Up from the grave He Arose”
Once Jesus died…they expected Him to stay dead.
Even the women…first to the tomb early Sunday morn…concluded…someone stole the body!
Then when they did return to the disciples…listen to what happened:
Luke 24:9 , 11 “…and returning from the tomb they told all these things to the eleven (disciples) and to all the rest…but these words seemed to them like an idle tale, and they did not believe them.”
9 and returning from the tomb they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest.
“…but these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them.”
The first conclusion of the disciples was not: “He is risen!”
Their first conclusion was “These women are crazy!”
It wasn’t until they saw & experienced the risen Jesus
that their whole perspective and WORLDVIEW changed.
The Importance of Eye Witness Accounts…
Historical records tell us that over the next 40 days there were many eye witnesses of Jesus.
11x Jesus APPEARED to people…proving to them He was resurrected. It changed their life.
He appeared to…men, women, individuals, groups and at least one huge crowd 500+.
He appeared inside & outside…in different locations…and at different times of the day.
People touched Him…heard Him…saw Him…and even ate food with Him.
All of them knew Him before His death…they knew He was the same Jesus who died on the cross.
Know what else happened in the first few weeks following His resurrection?
In the very location where Jesus died and was buried…
There was explosive growth in the # of followers of Jesus…convinced that the grave was empty and that Jesus had truly risen!
How do you account for that?
Think how dangerous it would have been for anyone to associate with a guy who was supposed to have been crucified on a Roman cross…and lived.
Christianity grew in the face of hostility, opposition & persecution from civil & religious leaders.
The only way to explain the explosive growth of Jesus followers…is that Jesus truly did rise from the dead…
Just as He said that He would…it can’t be explained any other way.
The WORKS OF JESUS…VALIDATE…THE WORDS OF JESUS.
There is no greater work than God bringing Jesus back to Life…
It validates the reality that He is the holy Son of God and He is truly making all things new.
A Man Who Hated Jesus…
I want you to hear from someone who once hated Jesus…he hated everyone who followed Jesus.
He was a very proud Jewish man…born & raised in Judaism…named after first king of Israel…
Born in Tarsus…a Greek centre for learning & culture…home of one of the great universities of the time.
Learned under Gamaliel, the grandson of Hillel…the most famous rabbi of all time.
When he learned about this “new sect” of people claiming Jesus as the Messiah…He dedicated himself to stamping out what he believed was “heresy”.
Instead of his heart being softened by the Gospel of Jesus…his heart became hardened.
He was bent on destroying Jesus’ followers. Talk about being antagonistic, cynical, skeptical…
The foremost persecutor of Christians & the Church…he thought he was doing God & man a favour.
But something happened…he became a proclaimer of the Good News he had been trying to silence.
His name was: Saul of Tarsus…
Acts 9 records how this enemy of Jesus became His #1 committed follower.
After he was wonderfully confronted by the risen Lord Jesus Saul…his perspective…HIS ENTIRE WORLD VIEW Changed
He was so convinced of the trustworthiness of the Gospel...and the assurance of the risen Christ…that He became a committed follower…and pastor/missionary/church planter for Jesus….His name would be changed to Paul.
Paul then criss-crossed the Roman Empire as God’s ambassador of the Good News of Jesus Christ.
He preached the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ…that Jesus died for our sins…and that He was buried and that 3 days later He was raised to new life!
Everywhere Paul went…he started little gatherings…called churches formed in the 1st century.
He then would write letters to encourage & strengthen & correct any misunderstandings about Jesus.
One of those churches was in the city of Rome. His letter to the church in Rome is found in the Bible.
In Romans…Paul gives us the fullest & most detailed & foundational account of the Gospel of Jesus Christ…Rome of course was a city of many great thinkers…philosophers…skeptics, cynics, alike.
Even the church there was having difficulty getting along…with so many differing views of Jesus.
So as He introduces his letter written to this divided church…in Rome.
He begins right away to help us understand this Good News…we are simply going to look at 4 verses
My hope and prayer for us is to maybe see with fresh eyes…the beauty of the Gospel of Jesus.
This is how Paul begins His letter to the church in Rome:
“Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God,
He begins his letter…like a standard greeting…telling the reader who he is.
If you were to sit next to Paul on an airplane…and ask “What do you do & what is your life all about?”
Romans 1:1 is what he would tell you.
“I am a servant of Christ Jesus…” doulos=bond servant=carries idea of voluntarily serving till death
Paul had given himself whole heartedly in love to the One who saved him from sin and death.
I.e. “This is what I have given & committed my life to…”
My occupation…I am called to be an apostle….apostle = sent one.
One who has been sent out with this message. And what is the message?
“Set apart for the Gospel of God”…not the Gospel of Paul…but for the Gospel of God.
That word GOSPEL…means a “…proclamation of Good news!”
When you think about God…if you don’t associate and connect Good News with your view of God…then it is probably because the version of Christianity of God that you heard is not quite the way it is presented in the Scriptures.
So after introducing himself…Paul says let me tell you a little but more about this Good News about this gospel of God
Romans 1:2 “…which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures,
“…which he promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures,
Paul says …this is not something I have invented. This is not coming from me…or from a church…
Paul draws a line of connection back to the OT…back to the promise God made…Genesis 3:15
Where God promised to fix the brokenness in the world..and to fix the broken human heart.
Soon after Adam & Eve sinned…God promised…a Deliverer who will fix the problem of sin.
But there is a line that is drawn the whole way back in time to a PROMISE that God has made.
Paul says…the prophets in the Holy Scriptures promised. (Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah Daniel, Micah…
Probably not just one prophet…He probably has the one story of the Bible in mind…
So it is something that has been promised by God…And look what the promise is concerning:
“…concerning His Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh”
You see we get out of alignment when we make the Gospel about something other than Jesus.
Good works…we help the needy…feed the hungry….we do this we do that
Or when we narrow and mix the Gospel with some other agenda…or some other movement.
In v3 Paul is saying…don’t think that Gospel is not about Jesus Christ…IT IS ALL ABOUT JESUS!
Notice Paul begins to tell us about Jesus Christ…where does he begin?
He said Jesus Christ…God’s Son was descended from David.
There is a human lineage that goes back to King David.
Why is this a BIG DEAL? (2 Samuel 7)
God made a promise to king David that from his ancestors…a King would come who would be the Promised Messiah…Deliverer…and He would sit on God’s throne in His eternal kingdom.
Paul is drawing the line back to that.
He said…this happened according to the flesh….the physical reality of the humanity of Jesus…
He wants us to know that Jesus is fully human.
Romans 1:3 Christmas verse…we celebrate the incarnation…God becoming man.
v.3 is about the HUMANITY of Jesus……. v.4 is about the DEITY of Jesus.
“…and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by His resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord,
This one…who is fully human…is also fully God.
God declared that Jesus was the Son of God.
How did He do that? How did He make that declaration?
We declare things all the time.
We usually use words…spoken or written…what we wear…a logo or something printed on clothes.
We might put a bumper sticker on our car…to make a proclamation/declaration about something.
How did God DECLARE Jesus to be the Son of God?
He did it in the most powerful way possible….according to the Spirit of holiness…He did it by His resurrection from the dead!
He declared it not with words…but the historical reality of bringing Jesus back to life.
The most powerful way possible.
Paul is saying because the resurrection is a reality…it is a reality that Jesus is the holy Son of God.
Do you see what Paul did in v.3-4?
v.3 Christmas …the humanity of Jesus.... descended from David according to the flesh
v.4 Easter…the deity of Jesus…He was declared to be the Son of God by His the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.
The CROSS brings it together…
You can’t have the empty tomb…without the cross…you can’t have the cross without the manger.
Think about it this way…at Christmas we celebrate the incarnation…Jesus becoming like us…at
Easter…we celebrate the resurrection which allows us to become like Him.
Paul packs so much of the truth of the Gospel in these few verses of his letter to the Romans…
Once a cynic, skeptic, persecutor of Christians…who hated Jesus & His followers…
Now he says: Jesus Christ is declared to be the Son of God…His identity is established because God raised him from the dead…
But not only that…the truth of that reality is not only that His identity is confirmed… through the resurrection of Jesus from the dead…but yours is as well.
SO WHAT?
What difference does the Resurrection of Jesus make for you and me?
The Resurrection of Jesus…
Tells us that Jesus’ death on the cross…did what He intended. It paid for the sin of the world.
Shows God’s immense power…if God created the world out of nothing…He can raise the dead
If He has that kind of power…then He is worthy of our faith and our worship.
3. Validates who Jesus said that He was…John 11:25 “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life…”
4. Validates what the Old Testament said about Him…Psalm 16:10
5. Provides assurance we too will be raised…1 Corinthians 15:20; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
Death is defeated…those who believe in what Christ has done for them…will not remain dead but will one day be resurrected to newness of life in Christ.
6. It gives us HOPE…1 John 5:11-13 This is the testimony that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life.”
WRAP UP…
The beauty and importance of the Gospel…
For those who are committed to Jesus…make sure Jesus is at the centre…
We can often get out of alignment…forgetting the Gospel of Jesus…and end up trusting in our good works and our words. The Gospel is all about Jesus.
For those who seeking…keep looking to Jesus.
Consider His claims…the works of Jesus VALIDATES His Words…
The greatest work is validating who Jesus is…is His resurrection from the dead.
For those who have been hurt…maybe hurt by the church or hurt by Christians…
I happen to believe that Moonlight Sonata by Ludwig Van Beethoven is one of the most beautiful pieces for piano ever written.
If I were too sit down at the piano and plunk out the notes…it would be no where near the original.
In the same way…so often the beauty and simplicity of the Gospel of Jesus Christ dying for sin and rising on the third day gets tangled up in a lot of unfortunate things…hurts, words, failures…the beauty of the Gospel gets lost.
For those who may be Skeptical…doubting…pursue the evidence.
Don’t take my word for it.
If it is not true…then you can walk away and not be affected….BUT If it is true…you don’t want to take the chance of not knowing it.
BENEDICTION…
20 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,
21 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.
