Death, Burial and Resurrection
Notes
Transcript
This morning we are going to celebrate Baptism!!! I love water baptismals, and COVID has kept us from our annual one this past Spring, but this morning we have a couple of individuals that are going to make their PUBLIC Proclamation to serve Jesus...
These times of witnessing others take this step of obedience in their faith is a great time to remind us of when we took ours!!! Are we still living the life that HONORS CHRIST in all that we do...
We claim we are a Christ honoring church, which only begins when each individual is also Christ honoring in their lives.
We recognize that water baptism does not save us or guarantee anything, rather it is a response we make toward Christ in saying, we have received HIS FORGIVNESS and choosing to follow Him and identify with Him in our lives.. and through our obedience to HIs Word.
We are also identifying that our OLD SINFUL MAN is being put to death, buried and we are rising in newness of life to serve CHRIST!
1 Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace?
2 Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it?
3 Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death?
4 For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives.
5 Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised to life as he was.
6 We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin.
7 For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin.
8 And since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with him.
9 We are sure of this because Christ was raised from the dead, and he will never die again. Death no longer has any power over him.
10 When he died, he died once to break the power of sin. But now that he lives, he lives for the glory of God.
11 So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus.
12 Do not let sin control the way you live; do not give in to sinful desires.
13 Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life. So use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God.
14 Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under the freedom of God’s grace.
1. DEATH
1. DEATH
We are all so familiar with the fact that Jesus died for our sin!!! He went to the cross and laid down His life so we could be made free the bondage of sin and the law that demands punishment for that sin.
Paul was writing in a day where antinomianism was rampant...
Antinomianism (Ancient Greek: ἀντί, "against" and νόμος, "law") is any view which rejects laws or legalism and argues against moral, religious or social norms (Latin: mores), or is at least considered to do so. The term has both religious and secular meanings.
A rejection of any moral law and a legality to govern behavior ...
In the church the danger is a LICENSE TO SIN...
This same spirit is alive and well today, in the church and in society. There is a war on to be free to do whatever one feels like in rejection of any moral compass or guideline.
The tension in this comes with grace, that grace is abounding toward our sin, but it is not a license to be abusive and sin without regard to the relationship we have found in Christ.
20 God’s law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were. But as people sinned more and more, God’s wonderful grace became more abundant.
God sent Jesus because the reality is without a CHANGED NATURE man could not be empowered to overcome sin and live in the moral, Christ honoring way that GOd desires us to live. Grace had to abound to bring about this change in nature
15 It doesn’t matter whether we have been circumcised or not. What counts is whether we have been transformed into a new creation.
17 This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!
It is the power of the Gospel and confession...
8 But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.
9 But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.
When we choose to follow Christ, we are choosing to die to our old sinful nature!!! To put to death the sinful man and all his old ways and habits that contradict God’s design for our lives, the morality and righteousness He desires us to have.
Knowing that our own strength is not enough, we need to be changed by His shed blood and grace.
When we are baptized we are making that identification.
2. BURIAL
2. BURIAL
There is no true death if we don’t bury that old man!!!!
Here is where we all need to be reminded, that we put the old man to death to serve Jesus --- when we were baptized we are publicly proclaiming that FUNERAL!!!!
Yes, we are leaving the old man behind in the water!!! That is the symbolism of baptism, and how so many of us need to remember that truth!!
What would happen if we went out to the graveyard and dug up the bodies there - they would STINK!!!!!
Decay and rot has set in — yet so many Christians after burying the old man want to dig up the dead, stinking, decaying, rotten being we left behind.
BURIAL is important to mark a change, a point of new existence.
The question is have we buried that sinful man — baptism is symbolic of what we choose to do spiritually every day we serve Christ… our death to the old man through Christ broke the power of sin in our lives, but so many are allowing themselves to still be enslaved.
The power of sin over is DEAD.
This is why v. 4 says you died and were buried with Him in death.
Just like Jesus died on the cross for our sin and took them to the grave, our act of baptism is our identity with that personally in our lives.
12 Do not let sin control the way you live; do not give in to sinful desires.
13 Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life. So use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God.
14 Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under the freedom of God’s grace.
My question today is - are we living with our sinful life buried and behind us???
because this baptism is not completed until we RISE UP!
3. RESURRECTION
3. RESURRECTION
There is a spiritual resurrection that takes place in our lives after we die to sin and bury the old man!!!
We RISE UP TO NEWNESS OF LIFE!
Jesus saved you to free you...
Just as I don’t leave people behind lying in the water, we pull them forward to rise up and walk in this newness.
v. 13 says to give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead but now you have new life...
15 Well then, since God’s grace has set us free from the law, does that mean we can go on sinning? Of course not!
16 Don’t you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living.
Resurrected to be free from the bondage of sin and the law and free to walk in the RIGHTEOUS MANNER GOD ORDAINED FOR YOU...
Not to put off moral restraint… not to hindered by moral restraint, to LIVE ABOVE IT
16 For the Scriptures say, “You must be holy because I am holy.”
We cannot become holy on our own, but through Christ we rise to new life.
6 But now we have been released from the law, for we died to it and are no longer captive to its power. Now we can serve God, not in the old way of obeying the letter of the law, but in the new way of living in the Spirit.
10 Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him.
24 Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy.
This act of baptism reminds us to LIVE IN THE NEW!!!!
CONCLUSION
CONCLUSION
So today, as we baptize those who are coming forth today, I want to remind those of us who have been baptized --
We have died and been buried with Christ in our baptism, and we rose to newness of life.
It is not a season to embrace sin and sinful things, but to remember He has set us free from that bondage. HIS GRACE IS POWERFUL not just to forgive, but to EMPOWER OUR NEW NATURE TO SAY NO TO SIN!!!