People of the Resurrection: Jesus is Raised and Exalted! Hebrews 12:2 & Philippians 2:9
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Introduction
Introduction
I love a happy ending don’t you? Don’t give me Romeo or Juliet.
And do not give me Where the Red Fern Grows. I watched the movie as a young boy hoping for the dog to come back to life. I waited to the end of the credits, then I sobbed. No, I love a happy ending, instead.
One of the happiest movie endings that stands out in my childhood memory is Star Wars, a New Hope. After Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Chewbacca, and the rest of the gang destroy the death star, there is the award assembly where they walk down an aisle to triumphant music, and they receive medallions and honor from Princess Leia and the Resistance.
Then, it cuts to credits! That’s how you do it.
This morning, we celebrate a happy ending that’s infinitely greater than anything any movie could pull off.
Today we celebrate the happy ending of the Greatest Story Ever Told. The true story of how Jesus rescued us from our sins.
That story left us grieving and in suspense after Jesus died on the cross. His death tempted us to succumb to despair, to begin sobbing after the credits (so to say),
But today, we hear the words of the two angels in the garden to the women...
6 He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, 7 that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.”
This is the greatest happy ending ever.
This happy ending is so perfect that it will spill out into your life if you will let it. This morning the happy ending of the resurrection of Jesus Christ can result in the happiest of things happening in your life today. This something so happy is actually the door for even greater happy things to come to you in the future!
Some of you don’t look convinced. I understand, I haven’t told the story. If you watched the last scene of Star Wars, you would not appreciate it unless you experienced the story unfold. Infinitely, more so do you appreciate the joy of the resurrection when you experience that story unfold.
We know what makes a good story line. You’ll notice they often follow a familiar storyline. Something like this-
Good guys and bad guys
Evil headquarters & evil plans- threaten harm, take over the world, or hold prisoners
Then the good guys realize they have a moral duty to
thwart the evil plans,
destroy the evil headquarters,
and free the captives
But in order to do so, the good guys will have to infiltrate enemy lines, face off with the evil villain, free the prisoners, and then fight their way out before he destroys the evil headquarters.
Then there is always some suspense. Will the hero make it out alive?
Award ceremony. Ride off into the sunset.
We never get tired of this pattern. Something about it resonates with our hearts. As a little boy I acted it out with friends dozens of times. Or by myself with legos and matchbox cars.
I think the reason it resonates with us so much is that it harmonizes with the Greatest Story Ever Told, the true and epic story which we call the Gospel. I believer our hearts know it is true and that’s why we love this plot-line.
The Good Guy- God
The Good Guy- God
First, you have the Good Guy- The Good Guy is God. God is good.
There is One Most High God whom we know Him from Scripture as God the Father, God the Son, Jesus, and God the Holy Spirit. Dwelling with one another in perfect community from eternity past.
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
And...
2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
Our Good God does a good thing, according to His delight, creates the world and makes humanity in His image. He makes us good (Gen 1:31). He made us to glorify Him and enjoy Him forever. All creation was made to declare God’s glory.
But something bad happened...
The Bad Guys and the Evil Plan
The Bad Guys and the Evil Plan
Yet, Soon after the creation humanity is captured by the devil, sin, and death. It happened in Eden, when Satan tempted Adam and Eve, and we all become captives (Romans 3:23).
1. Devil- captured by him to do his will
26 and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.
2. Sin- if we sin we become a slave to it.
34 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.
3. Death...
12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—
This is bad news. It looks like all is lost and God’s good will is thwarted.
What now? Who will rescue humanity, the world? Who will free us from the devil, sin, and death? Where is our hope?
The Good Guy is Compelled to Act
The Good Guy is Compelled to Act
We can’t free ourselves. No created being has what it takes to overcome the devil, sin, and death. Only God is great enough to rescue us. He acts because of His love for us.
Yes, He is good and just and makes wrongs right. Moreover, His great love for us compels Him to act (For God so loved the world...John 3:16). Like a Father desperate to rescue His children, so God is compelled to act for our deliverance.
What’s the Plan?
What’s the Plan?
How will He do it? The plan has a few requirements...
We’ve already discussed that only God has the ability to defeat the enemy.
In Scripture, we discover that humanity needs to be delivered by a human (inside job).
After all, as the head of humanity, Adam, led us all into sin. So, another head of humanity would have to lead us out of sin.
18 Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. 19 For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.
Also, the plan would require that this deliverer come into the world, which has been captured by darkness. The hero will need to defeat the devil, sin, & death, on their turf. Then the Savior will have to lead us out.
Okay, here it goes.
The Infiltration (Incarnation)
The Infiltration (Incarnation)
In the fulness of time (Galatians 4:4)
God sent Jesus the Son into the world to rescue us.
This would require that Jesus set aside His heavenly glory and descend from heaven to earth. This would require that Jesus became one of us. Philippians 2:6-7 details this Jesus’ infiltration. Jesus Christ...
6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
This part of the story we celebrate at Christmas. God gave His Son to save us and God came near. This was an invasion.
Transcendent comes near
Transcendent comes near
This, in and of itself, would have shaken things up in the ancient world. People had a hearty respect for boundaries between God and the world. God is Spirit (John 4), immortal, eternal, and transcendent. This world is physical, mortal, temporal, and common. But then...
14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
“The center of God’s life and thought (the Word, Jesus) entered the depths of our world and took up its form, its sarx, its flesh, in order to be known by us and to save us.” (Burge, Mounce, 77) This crossing of the boundary for our sakes is a pretty radical step.
We celebrate Christmas, the birth of our savior. But even here, the enemy tries to snuff out the mission by having King Herod threaten the life of Jesus and compelling Joseph and Mary to flee to Egypt.
Facing the Enemy, Suspense
Facing the Enemy, Suspense
The next movement of the story leads us to Good Friday.
Jesus grows up. Around the age of 30, He begins the rescue mission, specifically He begins His ministry. Jesus is baptized by John the Baptist.
But the time comes when Jesus has to defeat our greatest foes, the devil, sin, death, and the devil.
He’s going to destroy darkness in the world and start the process for creation itself to be redeemed to the light.
He did each of these at the close of His earthly ministry.
He battled the devil...During the last night before the cross, Jesus faced the temptation of Satan in the Garden of Gethsemane to turn from the will of God.
Yet, like His earlier temptation, Jesus overcame and never went against the will of God the Father.
42 saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.”
After intense prayer and pressure to go back, Jesus resolved Himself to the cross. He was arrested, tried, and condemned to die on the cross for crimes He did not commit.
8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
He fought to defeat sin...He went to the cross to face our sin and the Father’s wrath against sin.
10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
Propitiation means wrath-bearing sacrifice.
4 Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
This is the reason no one but God could endure the cross. No one could go to the cross without sin and absorb the wrath of God for sinners.
“It is finished!”
Finally, Jesus faced death.
He died.
We reach the end of this epic battle concerned and in suspense.
I think we thought a better ending would be for Him to call down those legions of angels and make a great big fight scene. Instead, He says "It is finished,” and then He dies.
After the burial, we reach borderline despair. Because at the point of His death, we don’t know if He was successful.
If Jesus failed, we are still slaves to the devil, captive to sin, and beholden to death!
But if He is successful...
Devil- Having resisted the devil, and giving us His Spirit, he will have forged a way for us to no longer required to go with the devil’s schemes.
Sin- by His righteous death, He will satisfy the justice of God and clear our sin debt. P.I.F.
Death- If we come to have no sin through faith in Him, then we will no longer have the wage of sin, which is death. This means death is going away. spiritually now, physically soon
But things look bleak after His death and they put Him in the tomb. But this is when it’s good to already know how the story ends…Sunday’s comin’ ya’ll.
The Victory
The Victory
The next movement centers on Easter. The angels told the women that Sunday morning,
Luke 24:6-7, “He is not here. He is risen!”
On the cross, Jesus defeated our foes.
Our perspective of Friday and the cross is very different now! Still unpleasant to watch, but because Jesus is risen, we know that indeed victory is the “It” that was “finished” on the cross.
15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.
and...
9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God.
It turns out Friday was a very Good Friday- so celebrate Good Friday because the greatest of work was done that day!
Then celebrate Easter Morning because the resurrection verifies the work. It is the proof of rescue. Really, it is the beginning of the award ceremony for Jesus Christ our Lord.
Jesus is raised and exalted as the victor and our hero.
9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
This is the greatest happy ending ever!
This happy ending is so perfect that it will spill out into your life if you will let it. This morning the happy ending of the resurrection of Jesus Christ can result in the happiest of things happening in your life today. This something so happy is actually the door for even greater happy things to come to you in the future!
It goes like this…those who put their faith in Him share in His victory over sin, death, and devil. We are now free. Some day soon, everything will be completely restored and finally redeemed.
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.
and...
9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
and...
17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
So, today
ABC
You will know that you will have freedom from Satan, power to overcome sin, eternal life in heaven… not to mention...
9 But, as it is written,
“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,
nor the heart of man imagined,
what God has prepared for those who love him”—
But you must call upon Christ to share in this happiest of endings!