That I Might Know Him and the Power of His Resurrection

Sermon for Morning Worship, First Christian Church, Berryville

April 24, 2011

Job 19:23-27; Luke 24:1-12; Philippians 3:7-14

In writing to the Philippians, Paul said, 7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. 12 Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Just a little enrichment of that text: back in verse 10, "may share his sufferings" could also be translated, "may know the sharing in his sufferings," "may know the participation in his sufferings," "may know the fellowship of his sufferings," or "may know the community of his sufferings." The key Greek root word is koinonia, and as Paul uses it, it has to do with what we do in solidarity with our fellow believers.

I have preached on this text several times in the past three years, sometimes emphasizing the surpassing worth of knowing Jesus, sometimes emphasizing the righteousness that comes by faith. Today, I have a different emphasis. Why have I chosen this text again on Easter Sunday? Because it is one thing to believe that Jesus rose from the dead, and it is another thing to experience the power of his resurrection. Paul wants to experience the power of Christ's resurrection. He wants his first readers to experience the power of Christ's resurrection. He wants us to experience the power of Christ's resurrection. Easter people should experience the power of Christ's resurrection. So today we are exploring what the power of Christ's resurrection is and how we might experience it.

Paul wants us to know in personal experience the power of Jesus’ resurrection. I wish to suggest that knowing in our personal experience the power of Jesus’ resurrection is a good goal for us to set for ourselves on Resurrection Sunday 2011.

Paul, having been called by Christ to be his own, is pressing on toward the fulfillment of this calling. He sees it as a two-step process, a dying and a rising.

In writing to the Romans, Paul had said that, when we are baptized, we are baptized into Christ’s death and resurrection, dying with Christ to sin and coming alive with Christ to the living God. Now writing to the Philippians, he is talking about how he views the dying and rising in his own life.

Paul has accepted that his journey as a Christ-follower may not have an easy road in this world. Of the New Testament figures you would consider the greatest apostles, which of them would you say had an easy road of it? Peter? Andrew? James the fisherman? John? James the brother of Jesus? Paul? No, not one! In fact, Paul’s goal is to be so like Jesus as to “share in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.” This does not mean that Paul was seeking to become a martyr, but that he was seeking to devote himself so fully to Christ that he would not turn back no matter the cost. As he said earlier in his letter to the Philippians, he took the attitude that to live is Christ and to die is gain, and that he was ready to be faithful either way. At that time, he expected that he would live a little longer for the sake of the churches he was leading. A few years later, writing his Second Letter to Timothy, he expected correctly that his time on earth was drawing to a close, but he still sought to live every bit of it for Christ. His goal at the end, was to be able to say, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” He did not expect to stop living until he died, and, because of the power of the resurrection, he did not expect to stop living even then. It is only people who are prepared to experience the cross who experience the power of the resurrection.

Paul is not a masochist who enjoys suffering. He does not glorify suffering for its own sake. He is not seeking to suffer. Suffering is significant only as it comes in the course of sharing and living out Christ’s self-giving love, only as it involves dying to ourselves so that we might live for God. Wherever there is godly dying, we ought to expect to see the glory of the resurrection in some way coming on its heels.

Already in this life, by prioritizing faithfulness to Christ at all costs, Paul has died to his own achievements, and he has come alive to the spiritual journey into Christlikeness. Once Paul meets Christ, the question is no longer what Paul can make of himself, but what Paul will allow Christ through the Holy Spirit to make of him. Paul wants to be conformed to Christ in his dying and in his rising. For Paul, glory is no longer defined by what he has accomplished, but by the transformation he is experiencing through his faith in Jesus. He is moving on from one degree of glory to another as the risen Christ through the Holy Spirit works within him. This is the power of the resurrection at work in Paul. Paul wants the same for us. He wants us to know in personal experience the power of the resurrection.

What does it mean to know the power of Jesus’ resurrection? What is that power? Paul’s word for power is the Greek word dunamis from which comes the English word dynamite. Okay, dunamis does not mean dynamite. Dynamite had not been invented yet. Our subject is the power of the resurrection, the power of salvation, the power of miracles, the power that makes all things possible; the power that means that nothing that accords with the will and character of God will be impossible. The reason that most churches in our day do not have much impact is that they are simply not aware that they have power, dunamis. Too many of us Christians have been sleeping on spiritual dynamite without even knowing we have it. Say it with me: Dynamite! I am not sure that saying dynamite is very enlightening, but it is fun to say, and it keeps us on our toes, so we will keep saying it.

The power of Jesus’ resurrection is tied to the power that the risen and exalted Jesus exercises from his position of authority at the right hand of God. In his Letter to the Ephesians, written sometime near the time he wrote to the Philippians, Paul prayed that his readers might have the eyes of their hearts enlightened to know, among other things: … what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

That’s quite a mouthful, and it is only part of Paul’s long sentence. Let’s break it down: The power that is available in our experience is the same power that raised Jesus from the dead, the same power that exalted Jesus above all spiritual powers, and that means above all the forces of evil at work in our world. The power that raised Jesus from the dead put all things under his feet including the last enemy death. The same power made Jesus head over the ongoing mission and fellowship of the people of God, the church. Putting that another way, the power of the resurrection has given believers in Christ a friend in the very highest of places, and he will share his power and authority with his earthly body, the church. If we will let him, he will break the power of evil over us and free us to be filled with his power for good. Say it with me: Dynamite!

That’s extraordinary! To the degree that we are in Christ, we wield a mighty power for good in this world. A little later in his letter, Paul assures us that God is able to do far more abundantly than all that we have yet dared ask or think or imagine, through the same power that is already at work within us, the power of the resurrection. Wow! Far more abundantly than we have dared dream! Say it with me: Dynamite!

How does the Lord fill us with this power? A few years earlier in his ministry, Paul had written to the Romans, “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.” God the Father, who by God the Holy Spirit raised God the Son from the dead, by that same Holy Spirit gives us our new birth as children of God. Paul continues, “The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 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.” The power of the resurrection is the power of the Holy Spirit, which in turn is the power that transforms us into children of God in God’s image. Say it with me: Dynamite!

In the end of all history, God will bring about a new heaven and new earth, a perfected new creation where God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit-- will reign fully and perfectly and where believers will reign with him. But already, now, God’s reign is breaking into this world with signs and wonders, transformations, and new possibilities of godly living. Over time, even through intense difficulties, faithful people learn to see that God reigns even now. Nothing that happens can separate us from his love and promises. No illness, no natural disaster, no world war, no financial collapse, no spiritually and morally wayward cultural climate, no family breakdown, no illness or affliction can separate those who persevere in faith from God’s perfect plans for us. Even in human upheaval, God reigns through and for his faithful children. Say it with me: Dynamite!

And since God reigns, death does not have the final word, nor does evil. The power of death and evil was broken when Jesus died on the cross and was raised from the tomb. However history appears, its true meaning since that first Resurrection Sunday, has been the conducting of a mopping up operation. The outcome is already decided. Only the details are still being worked out.

Long after World War 2 was over, an occasional story would appear about a Japanese soldier being found in an island jungle who did not yet know that the war was over. The majority of our world’s population is still in that unenviable position of not knowing that Jesus has already won the war by means of the power of the resurrection. They do not know it because the church has been sleeping on its dynamite, the power of the resurrection. It is high time for us to know the power of the resurrection, to know it in real life experience, and to get it out in the open where it can do some good. Let us study and pray and take actions toward that end. Say it with me: Dynamite!

The Meaning of All History Rests on This

Sermon for the Berryville Alliance of Churches Sunrise Service

8:00 A.M., April 24, 2011

Isaiah 52:7-10; Psalm 118:1, 10-29;

John 20:1-18; 1 Corinthians 15:1-19

I am going to tell you about Abram Jones. If you happen to know an Abram Jones, this is not the same one. The reason I know that he is not the same one is that this Abram exists only in my own mind. Abram had gone to Sunday school as a child, but along the way through adolescence and young adulthood he had gradually assembled a case from the History Channel, the Discovery Channel, the leading news magazines, some Internet surfing, plus a New Testament survey course in college that was taught by an atheist, that the death and resurrection of Jesus was simply a variant on common ancient myth about spring rebirth with no connection to historical reality. Based on this rather flimsy and easily discredited theory, Abram announced that he was no longer a Christian, but an existentialist. Now for some people the existentialist philosophy has specific content, but for Abram, it was just his way of saying that he would make up whatever meanings he wanted for his life as he went along, and it would save him a lot of time and trouble and money on church activities, and a lot of fretting about whether he was sinning or not.

But here are some well-supported historical facts that Abram did not consider:

1. Jesus was unmistakably dead when he was taken down from the cross on Friday afternoon. Abram could have read a pretty convincing case for that, in full medical detail, in an old Journal of the American Medical Association article posted all over the Internet. Jesus really died on the cross.

2. According to the Scriptures, when the reign of God broke through early on Sunday morning, with a great earthquake and shining angels, an angel of the Lord rolled back the stone that had been sealed over the entrance to the tomb and then sat upon the stone. The guards who had been assigned to guard the tomb trembled and became as dead men, presumably passing out from fear. The women, a considerable collection of them who had followed Jesus from Galilee and of whom only a few are named, came to the tomb to complete the anointing of the body of Jesus, an anointing that had been begun by Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus before the arrival of the Sabbath at sundown Friday. The women as they arrived at the tomb found an extraordinary scene and a message from the leading angel which first terrified them into silence, but then, apparently gathering their courage, they carried the message to the inner core of eleven disciples who did not believe them. Peter and John ran to the tomb and found it as the women had said. This caused them to believe something, although we are not told what they believed at that point, perhaps only that the tomb was empty. But that is a significant piece of evidence in itself. The account does not appear to be contrived because a contrived story in that culture would not have started with women witnesses and scared and skeptical disciples.

3. The Scriptures give more attention to the appearances of the risen Jesus: first to Mary Magdalene, then to Cleopas and another unnamed follower, then to the eleven, repeated times, both in Jerusalem and back in Galilee, then to more than 500 at one time, most of whom were still alive 20—25 years later when Paul wrote 1 Corinthians, then to Jesus’ brother James and presumably to his other brothers who had not been believers during Jesus’ earthly ministry, and finally in a different manner, years after his ascension, to Paul on the Damascus Road. The resurrection appearances taken together affirm that Jesus’ resurrection body is at once physical and yet not limited by the laws of physics. It is a new kind of body. He can walk, talk, eat, even cook breakfast, allow himself to be touched in his wounds from the cross, but he can also walk through walls and appear and disappear at will. This is a new kind of existence.

4. If that is not yet enough evidence, then consider this: these formerly fearful disciples who ran away when Jesus was arrested, who were still hiding behind locked doors at the time of his first resurrection appearances, began, within 50 days of the resurrection, to publicly proclaim that Jesus who had been crucified, was now the risen and exalted Christ, the Son of God, the Savior and Lord for all the world. These disciples, empowered by the Holy Spirit, who came to those who believed, carried the gospel to the entire Mediterranean world and beyond, many becoming martyrs of the faith in the process. Tradition says that all the original eleven were martyred, with John being the last to die in exile on Patmos, perhaps the only one to die in old age. The message of the risen Jesus was not for them the path to political power or worldly wealth. There was no earthly reason for them to risk their lives repeatedly over the years unless they were utterly convinced that Jesus was risen from the dead.

It has been claimed with some justification that we have better evidence for the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ than for any other ancient event. That is as it must be, for no other event in history so challenges ordinary human reasoning. What would be different for Abram Jones if he knew evidence for the resurrection?

If Abram was convinced by the evidence that Jesus was indeed crucified to death and then raised from the dead in a new kind of physical body, then the following things are also true:

1. God is absolute sovereign of the universe, reigning even over death. Abram would acknowledge God’s rule over his life.

2. God has placed the divine stamp of certification on Jesus as the one-of-a-kind Son of God, Messiah, Lord, and Savior. Abram would deal with the utter uniqueness of Jesus Christ by becoming his disciple.

3. God has planned a future new heaven and new earth where those whom Jesus recognizes as living in him will share resurrection bodies like his and share his reign over a perfected creation in which death and grief and strife will be no more. Abram would know that death is not the last word on our lives, that there is solid reason to hope for more and better.

4. Our goal for life beyond death is not to slip away from the material realm into an ethereal realm where we float on the clouds and play harps, but to be transformed for a realm that is at once material and spiritual, that is as material and spiritual as God planned life to be before there were sin and death, purified and durable material existence infused with the life of God. Abram would have a solid goal for his life both now and beyond death.

5. The meaning of our present lives is to live even now as reborn children of God in God’s inbreaking kingdom. Our lives are given over to proclaiming, demonstrating, and celebrating the reign of God as we represent his mercy, grace, compassion, longsuffering, and his abundant steadfast love and faithfulness, cooperating with the Holy Spirit as the Spirit produces in ever greater degrees the fruitof Christ-like living in us. In this way, our character and preferences are being pre-shaped for the future new heaven and new earth, and they are helping others believe our message about our good and sovereign Creator, our loving Lord and Savior. Abram would have guidelines that would help him live now in a way that is fitting to the future that has been promised.

In short, Abram would have resources of hope, faith, love, purpose, courage, and deep joy that he has not even imagined as possible.

Although Abram Jones had never given the matter much thought, he bears the name of a major Bible character. The biblical Abram was, late in life, called by God to a journey of faith. As he neared the fulfillment of his journey and was about to pass the milestone that would bring all the promises of God for him into place, God changed his name to Abraham, meaning “father of multitudes,” starting from one embryonic Isaac. Eventually from one man, and him as good as dead, came not only all the physical offspring of Isaac and his son Jacob/Israel, but also the spiritual offspring who came through the much later offspring Jesus. As Paul writes, “And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.”

If Abram jones believes that Jesus died on the cross and was raised from the dead, he might need to change his name and become Abraham Jones to point to the bigger destiny of which he is now a part. For the promises to the original Abram/Abraham lives on. In Christ believers may have many spiritual offspring. May it be so.

All that, the meaning of all history and of your life and mine, rests on the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Don’t let anyone take the bigness of that meaning away from you.

Sometimes It Is Hard to Believe Good News

Psalm 22:1-2, 7-8, 14-18, 22-24, 27-31

Psalm 22:1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning? 2 O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest….7 All who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads; 8 “He trusts in the Lord; let him deliver him; let him rescue him, for he delights in him!”…. 14 I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted within my breast; 15 my strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws; you lay me in the dust of death. 16 For dogs encompass me; a company of evildoers encircles me; they have pierced my hands and feet 17 I can count all my bones—they stare and gloat over me; 18 they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots….

22 I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will praise you: 23 You who fear the Lord, praise him! All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him, and stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel! 24 For he has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, and he has not hidden his face from him, but has heard, when he cried to him.… 27 All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you. 28 For kingship belongs to the Lord, and he rules over the nations. 29 All the prosperous of the earth eat and worship; before him shall bow all who go down to the dust, even the one who could not keep himself alive. 30 Posterity shall serve him; it shall be told of the Lord to the coming generation; 31 they shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn, that he has done it.

Luke 24:1-12

24:1 But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. 2 And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3 but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4 While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. 5 And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? 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.” 8 And they remembered his words, 9 and returning from the tomb they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. 10 Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles, 11 but these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. 12 But Peter rose and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; and he went home marveling at what had happened.

From Thursday night through Friday afternoon, Jesus, the perfect Son of God, had been arrested, abandoned by his disciples, illegally and inaccurately charged with treason, cruelly beaten, otherwise mocked and tortured, and crucified to the point of an agonizing death. Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, two Pharisaic members of the Sanhedrin who apparently had not consented to the Sanhedrin’s charges against Jesus, sought his body, prepared it for burial, and entombed it in Joseph’s own tomb just before the Jewish Sabbath began at sundown Friday. Sunday dawn brought the first post-Sabbath light in which the women who had followed Jesus from Galilee could go to the tomb.

When the women arrived at the tomb, they found the stone rolled away and the body of Jesus missing. Had the body been stolen? Two angels in the form of young men in glowing clothingtold them that Jesus was risen as he had foretold. The angels commissioned the women to go and tell the eleven. Mark tells us that the women fled in fear and were afraid to say anything. Luke tells us that the women remembered what Jesus had foretold and then went and told the men disciples. But the men considered the words of the women an idle tale and did not believe them. With the possible exception of Peter and John, who went to see the empty tomb and at least believed that it was empty, only the undeniable appearances of Jesus Christ in his resurrected body made real believers of them. For women and men alike, it was hard to believe good news. It still is. Why is it hard to believe good news? Let’s look at three common reasons:

Reason 1. It is difficult to believe good news when our minds are overwhelmed by bitter memories and present fears. The first messages about the resurrection came to the disciples when their minds were seared by the hard reality of the crucifixion. How absolutely horrible it had been and how much they feared what would happen next to them! They were in hiding behind locked doors. It is hard to believe good news when we are hiding behind locked doors.

It is hard to believe good news when we have just raced in terror to the scene of an automobile wreck only to hear an emergency medical worker say, “I’m sorry. Your child has died.” It is hard to believe good news when the doctor steps into the room and says, “I’m sorry. The form of cancer you have is incurable.” It is hard to believe good news when a year before your retirement plan matures, you get a pink slip. It is hard to believe good news when your spouse says, “I have found someone else.”

Almost everyone in this room—with no matter how much or how little faith-- has experienced some kind of pain similar to those examples. Sometimes that kind of news feels like the absence of God, which is to say it feels like hell on earth.

On the cross, Jesus on our behalf experienced the feeling of hell on earth, and from the cross he called out the opening words of Psalm 22, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Psalm 22 is a psalm of David written roughly a thousand years before Jesus. The Holy Spirit caused David to include in his personal lament a number of poetic details that were literally fulfilled in Jesus’ crucifixion: the mocking and insulting of him, his thirst, the piercing of his hands and feet, and the casting of lots for his clothing. Jesus’ experience of forsakenness was real, but even as he cried out his pain, he also knew how psalm ended, with the worldwide celebration of his great deliverance which was indeed fulfilled by the resurrection we celebrate today.

Psalm 22 exists to assure us that the feeling of God-forsakenness need not be the final word. Our bitter memories and present fears need not be in charge. There is a Sovereign God. He reigns even over our experiences of hell on earth. He can overturn them even after the worst has occurred. We all have bitter memories and present fears. But we need not let them govern our daily lives.

We are challenged to stay open to continuing resurrection experiences that come to followers of Jesus Christ. Resurrection experiences may not come quickly or easily or painlessly, but they will come. Psalm 22:27-28 says, “All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you. For kingship belongs to the Lord, and he rules over the nations.” In short, our God reigns over and, if we will let him, ultimately overrules our experiences of hell on earth, and, in the long run, that will make all the difference. It is the good news of the resurrection.

Reason 2. It is difficult to believe good news because of who we are…insignificant mortals and unworthy sinners. Just before the sermon, the choir sang, “Who Am I?” by Mark Hall of the singing group Casting Crowns. Hall says that his first sense of personal identity was as a attention deficit dyslexic, and as a class clown trying to hide the fact that he could not read well. This Christian song unveils what he learned about himself when he came to Christ.

The lyrics raise the issue of our seeming insignificance: “I am a flower quickly fading, here today and gone tomorrow, a wave tossed in the ocean, vapor in the wind.”

The lyrics also raise the issue of our unworthiness, filled as we are with sin and fear: “Who am I, that the eyes that see my sin would look on me with love and watch me rise again? Who am I, that the voice that calmed the sea would call out through the rain and calm the storm in me?” Our seeming insignificance and our sin and fear, our doubt, make us feel unworthy of God’s love. Indeed, we are unworthy. There is no contesting the point. We have no claim to the mercy of a Holy and Sovereign God.

It is hard to believe the good news that we can be saved. And yet the lyrics say, “Not because of who I am, but because of what you’ve done, not because of what I’ve done, but because of who you are….Still you hear me when I’m calling; Lord, you catch me when I’m falling, and you’ve told me who I am: I am Yours.” The message, true to scripture, is that, despite our unworthiness, God has claimed us in Jesus Christ. All we must do is to give ourselves to the One through whom we have been claimed, and let Him be our Savior and Lord. He will make us what we cannot be on our own, children and heirs of God! While we are indeed unworthy, our God reigns over and will overrule our insignificance and our sin if we will let him. If we will believe, confess, repent, and seek renewal, we will be covered by his righteousness while we are growing into it. It is the good news of the resurrection.

Reason 3. It is difficult to believe good news that conflicts with our culturally-formed expectations. With regard to our believing the message of the resurrection in our culture, there are a number of culturally-shaped expectations that get in the way. I have time to mention two such expectations:

Expectation A. Our popular culture broadly expects that, when we die, some immaterial part of us, our soul perhaps, automatically goes to a better place which we imagine to be according to our own tastes. Nowhere in the Bible is it suggested that there is an automatic immortality in a better place to which we all go. If Jesus was raised from the dead--and there is good evidence that he was—then those who believe in him will be raised to share resurrection bodies like his in a new heaven and new earth, not our worldly idea of pleasure, but God’s perfect plan for all creation which is far better than we can imagine. Our God reigns over death and for his faithful overrules death. That is the good news of the resurrection.

Expectation B. Our academic culture broadly assumes that all real events have material explanations that accord with physical laws expressing the current consensus of leading scientists. Again, if Jesus was raised from the dead--and it is hard to contest the evidence that he was—then there is more to reality than our scientists have imagined. I am not debunking science. There is a proper place for the study of the natural order on its own terms. I am just proclaiming that there are bigger truths that science cannot address, that we can know only as the Sovereign God reveals them. Our God created the natural order that science investigates, and our God reigns over it. The death and decay that appear to govern the natural order are not the final word. The final word is the word of life in Jesus Christ. That is the good news of the resurrection.

Conclusion: If Jesus was raised from the dead, then our experience of hell on earth, our bitter memories and our present fears, are not the final word; a better word will yet be spoken and it will prevail. If Jesus was raised from the dead, then our unworthiness, our insignificance and sinfulness, are not the final word; a better word will yet be spoken, and it will prevail. If Jesus was raised from the dead, then ultimate reality is not about our immortal souls automatically going to a better place that fits our sinful imaginations; a better word will yet be spoken, and it will prevail. If Jesus was raised from the dead, then ultimate reality is not limited by physical laws that are discoverable by even our best scientists; a better word will yet be spoken, and it will prevail.

Jesus was raised as the first citizen of a new creation, a new heaven and new earth which reflects not our personal desires, but the best plans of our Sovereign Creator. There is nothing automatic about our entering that perfect realm. Those who enter that realm must do so under the covering of Jesus’ righteousness and must have placed themselves on the road to being made in fact righteous, or they will not enter that realm at all.

We have a crucified Savior and a Risen Lord who is the key to our eternal destiny. It is not my job and it is not your job to decide who enters the future realm. Jesus himself tells us that he will separate the sheep from the goats, that only those whom he recognizes as living in him will enter that perfect realm. We want to be in that number when the saints go marching in. Jesus is our only Savior, our only Lord, our only Judge. He alone decides our ultimate destiny. He alone decides which people have lived their lives in union with him.

If he died for our sins and was raised from the dead as our living Lord, then that is the solid truth on which we must build our hope, our faith, our love, and our lives. Our God reigns over hell, sin, and death. If we are in Christ, we have nothing to fear. That is the good news of the resurrection.

Let us claim the good news for ourselves. Let us proclaim the good news for the world. Let us exclaim the good news right here and right now! Our God reigns! We are his! Say it with me: Our God Reigns! We Are His!