What the Resurrection Signals

Romans 4:25

who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.

Sermon Transcript:

We’ve been doing a series here over the last seven weeks on the passion week of Christ, taking a day each time, each Sunday from the triumphant entry, and coming to this morning, actually this morning, out at the. Prayer garden. We had a robust, awesome, um, sunrise service this morning.

We talked about the events that happened on Easter morning with Mary Magdalene and others that saw Jesus resurrected this morning. I’d like to continue the theme but look a little differently, um, on the events to, to now talk about the significance of the resurrection. Throughout history, there have been signals that announced important events.

In March of 2013, Roman Catholics all over the world watched media events, watched the media as its centered on the rooftop of the v. As they were awaiting each day, the smoke that would come up, different colored spoke, uh, distinguished different results waiting for the white smoke to come, which would announce that a new pope had been chosen.

Finally, on March 13th, 2013, the smoke appeared in indicating that Pope Francis had been chosen by the College of Cardinals many years ago. You history, people know this story. Our Star Spangled Banner was put together. It was written by Francis Scott Key, and it was actually, he was sitting in a, in a ship, a prisoner.

He had been a representative from the United States government to plead for a, a man that had been wrongly imprisoned by the British. And as he pled for this guy, he heard their, their plans to attack Baltimore. So he kept Im prisoner. And so he was on a British ship imprisoned, watching Fort McEnery, hoping that as the dawn broke, After a whole night of bombardment, actually 24 hours of bombardment, hoping that the American flag would still be flying over Fort McHenry, he awakened to see the 15 stars and stripes waving, and he wrote the Star Spangled Banner.

To him, the flag was a banner. It was a signal that the battle had not been, the battle had been victorious. Actually, it ended up being the turning point of the war of 1812. Some events signal important news, so it was and is with the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This event is not honored by millions of people around the world simply because of what happened.

Though it is pretty cool to have the founder of your faith rise from the dead, but it also is a picture. Of an announcement. An announcement that something has been successful. The verse that I’d like to read is found in Romans chapter four, and I’m only gonna read one verse this morning and spend a few moments on it.

Romans chapter four, verse 25. This is what we read. It’s talking about Jesus Christ, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. He was raised for our justification. Literally the term means the resurrection is a signal. Something has worked. It went according to plan. He says here, justification has worked.

It has reached its appropriate end and goal, which raises of course, a very obvious question. What in the world is justification, this big mouthful, theological term? What does it refer to? And I’ll just give a quick definition here, and then we’re gonna look at a couple of things related to this. This morning.

To be justified means to be declared righteous or maybe more easy for us to wrap our hands around to be declared acceptable. We look at that, the term in the same way today, we talk about justification or justify. In this term we, we, we might say, I, I can still remember my mother, uh, and also my grandmother saying things to me like, mark, how can you justify that behavior?

And what they meant was, how can you argue that that is acceptable? How can you believe that that meets the standard of decent human behavior for an eight year old boy? Well, this is the idea. Justification is the declaration that something has been declared acceptable. In this case, someone has been declared acceptable.

To be justified means that an individual has been declared acceptable in the sight of God. The verdict is passed past, you have passed the test, you have qualified, and it is all tied to the cross of Jesus Christ. All the events of Easter weekend are related. The resurrection is hardwired to the crucifixion.

Jesus died Jesus rose. They are utterly, completely compellingly united. And Paul is telling us here in Romans chapter four, the resurrection of Jesus Christ is that banner. It is that signal that declares that a means by which we can be accepted by God. Presently eternally has worked. The resurrection declares it.

So the resurrection actually signals two things about our acceptability to God. Number one. This is my whole outline this morning. Our normal way doesn’t work. It declares that. The second thing it declares is that Jesus offers a new way that does work. Our normal way of acceptance with God does not work.

Why do we even need a way? I mean, what are you talking about, mark? What do you mean? We need a way to God? Isn’t God always there? Isn’t God always available to us? Well, the Bible presents to us consistently that there is a breach in humankind’s relationship with God. As a matter of fact, it describes it by the term theologically, that we are dead to dead.

Death in the scripture is always referencing separation. If I expired this morning on this stage, it would simply mean my immaterial part has separated from my material part. We’re physical. We are also immaterial. We are material and immaterial. Our immaterial part has two orientations. We have an orientation that is horizontal with one another.

It’s called the suko. That’s the word for the Greek word for soul. We have this horizontal relationship. We, it’s how we relate to ourselves. It’s how we relate to others. The study of psychology. Psychology is the study of the suko. We have this, this horizontal dimension where we can relate to other people and we also process ourselves.

But in contrast to the animals which are described of having a soul, we also have a vertical dimension. The NUAs or the spirit. We have a spiritual dimension, and the scriptures say that because of sin, that relationship has disconnected. That there is what the Bible calls spiritual death. We are spiritually separated to God.

Every religion in the world is trying to help people be restored into a relationship with God that has been lost because of sin. And so how do we get this, this reparation? How do we get this reconnection with God? Well, the typical way we do that is to try to earn our way. And as we look at through throughout the scriptures, we would say, I, I think most of us would be willing to say, I, I rarely meet a person that would say, well, I’ve, I’ve never sinned.

And we, we get it. I don’t think I’ve ever met anybody. It says, well, I’m not flawed. You know, I’ve got, I’ve got things. Yeah. There’s things I shouldn’t have done. There were, there were inappropriate things I’ve done. So if God asked the question, why should I let you Mark or Bob or Brenda or Tim or Terry, why should I let you into my heaven?

Many of us would say, well, I’ve tried to live a good life. I’ve tried to do the best I can. I I I’m certainly not perfect. Um, but I’m better than some people that I know. And, uh, I’m no Alf Hitler. I’m no Hannibal Lecter. Um, so, you know, I I, I, somewhere in, I, I’m hoping I’m, you know, my good are gonna outweigh my bad.

And, you know, the, you know, I’m, I’m, I’m I, I’m hoping, but how well it works is indicated in number of passages of scriptures. And the very fact that there is Easter weekend where Jesus died and rose from the dead, argues that our natural way of trying to earn heaven or do to merit heaven may not have worked real well since God, the son had to come and die and go through all that he did for us.

Romans chapter three talks about it this way. If we can bring that verse up now, we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore, no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law, rather through the law, we become conscious of sin.

Here he’s talking about when he says the law. He’s talking about the 10 Commandments and such, the law of God, and he says, nobody is going to make it there. No one will be declared righteous by doing. Now of course, this, this begins to be a little bit confusing and, and let me try to illustrate it this way, because what this passage is arguing is that no one can measure up to the standard.

No one can be acceptable. No one can be justified, declared righteous, declared right, acceptable to God in their own, uh, um, deeds, that there is still a gap that we don’t reach the standard. Years ago when I was in college, I was playing little basketball, but I also was involved when it wasn’t basketball season, uh, intramurals and I played, um, Our, our floor, actually our dorm participated against other dorms.

And this big intramural tracked me and I was happy that I qualified in the long jump. Now, I’m not a great long jumper. I’m probably not even a good long jumper. And today I wouldn’t even try long jumping. But the, at the time, I, I, I was excited about being able to compete in the long jump thing. And so let’s fast forward now, come back to New Jersey, leave Indiana.

I’m back here in New Jersey, and, and somebody says, Hey Mark, we heard you, we heard you did okay in this intramural, uh, long jump contest and we’d like you to compete down at the shore Atlantic City. We’re, we’re, we’re actually having this kind of cool long jump. We’re, you know, it’s a, we’re we’re, we’re doing a ramp out, right?

And we’re gonna have you jump into the water and we’re gonna measure it there. It’ll be kind of fun. I say, wow. Nah, that sounds fun. I’m not sure why he asked me, but who else gonna be there? Oh, Carl Lewis is gonna be there if you don’t know who Carl Lewis is. Carl Lewis jumped 28 feet about more than seven feet farther than I did on my job.

Okay? So here I am. So I said, well, I said, I have enough ways to be publicly humiliated. I don’t need to go and compete against Carl Lewis. And I say, well say, no, no, no, no. You are not competing against Carl. He’ll be there. But actually alls you have to do is compete against the standard. It’s pass fail. You get one jump, and if you go foreign enough, you reach the standard, you win.

And there can be multiple winners. Alls you have to do is do I say, oh, well, okay. So I’m not really going up against Carl. I mean there be the other people there too. I can make sure I don’t go when, when he goes, yeah, yeah, there’s gonna be lots of people. Carl will be there, but, but. So I say, okay, I just have one question.

How far do I have to jump to pass? And the answer is simply given, you have to jump to England.

So here’s this thing. Carl Lewis gonna jump 28 feet. I’m gonna do my little thing. Gonna be people probably in between, but none of us are gonna begin to reach England in our jump. It’s just immeasurably beyond our capacity. The scripture is presenting, it says in Romans chapter three, there is none righteous.

No, not one. There is none that meet the standard for spiritual long jumping or righteous living. God gave everyone the capacity to live holy lives. We all have chosen not to. You may say, well, yeah, but it’s, that doesn’t make sense. I mean, why would God have this standard nobody can reach? I mean, it just, and, and, and, and I think, I think you need to understand God does God’s fair.

God’s good. He does, like any good teacher would do, they grade on a curve. Right. And so, so maybe I didn’t get a hundred percent, but if I got 90, come on. I mean, well the book of James, I dunno if you know this, but the guy that wrote the book of James was the phy physical brother of Jesus. They were both the son, they had the same mom in Mary.

And James talks about this, actually, it’s, it’s one of the first two books of the New Testament that was written. And James is writing this letter and he’s talking about the conclusion of how to evaluate how we are measuring up to God’s standard. And here’s what James said in James chapter two, verse nine through 11.

But if you show personalities talking to people that were in, in the church that were sort of welcoming people, that were filthy rich and giving ’em a better place than, than people were that were dirt poor. And here’s what he says. He said, if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors, for whoever keeps the whole law, but fails in one point, has become guilty of all of it.

For he who said, do not commit adultery also said, do not commit murder. If you don’t commit adultery, but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. Now we look at that and they say, wait a minute. You’re talking about, I give a rich guy a nicer seat than a, a poor person. And you’re comparing that with murder and adultery.

I mean, this is, this is insane. This is comparing firecrackers to hydrogen bombs. I mean, how can you say, these are what, what James is arguing, saying that any sin breaks the chain of God’s commandments. Now we have a lot more than any sin. We have many sins, but the laws of God are a chain break one, and you break the chain.

You’re guilty then of being a sinner. And so he says there is none righteous. No, not one. Okay. So the, we have this ridiculously overwhelming scenario that basically says, well Mark, you just emptied heaven of everybody.

And that’s exactly why Jesus Christ came to this world.

Jesus Christ offers a new way of acceptance with God. If you look at our passage here in Romans chapter three, verse 25, he said he was delivered up for our trespasses. On the one side, Jesus takes our sin. The consequences of Jesus behavior, of our behavior falls upon Jesus Christ. Now, now track with me here, even if this is familiar to to you, track with me here.

What it’s saying is that Jesus Christ, when he died on Friday, on the cross, he became liable for your sin. It’s why in Galatians chapter three, it has this interesting statement. It says, our sins. Were nailed to the cross of Jesus. What’s that talking about? Well, when a man was crucified, they would take a little placard, a little board, and on the board would be listed the crimes that he had committed and on the cross as God the father looks upon the cross of his son.

What he sees on the placard

are our sins. He sees our sins nailed there. The sinless one who had a blank slate of guilt as first second Corinthians five says, he who knew no sin became sin for us, that our sin was put upon Christ. He became liable as if he had done all of those sins. And by bearing the eternal punishment for sin, which he did in a moment of time as he cried out as an eternal son, fried out to an eternal father.

Why have you forsaken me? Experience separation from the father, which we would have had to experience eternally in hell. Jesus bore hell for us. He took the punishment for our sin, but that’s not all he did. That’s the one side of the cross. Our sins were laid upon Jesus Christ. But not only does he take our sins, he gives us his righteousness.

Look at what he says here in verse 25 again of our text. It says, he’s raised for our justification. There’s that word again. Our being declared acceptable. We are told in the book of Romans chapter three, this statement, but now apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been made known. This righteousness, this measuring up to the standard is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe and all are justified freely by his grace.

What are all those words saying? This is what they’re saying. Jesus Christ came and not only did he die, the death we should have died. He lived the life we should have lived. He lived sinlessly. He lived obediently every part of his life, even in the most excruciating, horrific hofi moments of his life in the garden, as he knew and saw, was coming the next 24 hours at the cross.

And he says, father, if there’s any way, if there’s any way this can pass him, but what does he end up with now? I will, but you’ll be done. Jesus lived righteously. Here’s what we’re told in the scriptures in second Corinthians 5 21. God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of God.

Years ago, when I was a kid up on Long Island, lived in Hicksville, long Island and we used to ride our bikes or jog over to the Mid Island Plaza that was there and there was a pizza place there. And, uh, my buddies and I would, from the neighborhood, we would often go to the pizza place or from school, I’d meet guys there.

We love the pizza. It’s great pizza. Every time I go to Long Island, last time I won, it was gone. It was just devastating. But, um, we would go there and, and you know, imagine one day. That the pizza place, as we called it, I don’t even know what the name was, but it was our pizza place. They put a sign in the in the wall and it said, anybody that gets straight A’s on their report card gets a free pizza.

Well, I’d be momentarily ecstatic until I remembered my report card and saw a dog. Ah man. So no pizza for Mark. And then I go by and I notice it says Anybody who gets straight A’s on the report card or has a member of their household, that gets straight As gets a pizza. So I go to my sister, Priscilla.

Priscilla, come on, we get, I’ll give you half my pizza. I can get pizza on the basis of her actions, right? It’s her. She’d earned it. So I take in her report card, I say, see the last name’s the same as mine, Willie, you know, and, and this is my sister. Maybe I have to take her along. But either way, I get pizza on the basis of her greats.

What happens in the transaction of salvation through Christ is this, Jesus Christ takes your sin. He’s liable for your sin, and Jesus Christ offers you his righteousness, his report card. You become liable for his righteousness. It’s as if we obeyed the law that we lived righteously, and to the person that looks to Jesus Christ and receives his salvation by faith and says Jesus.

I could never jump across the ocean spiritually. I can’t jump that far. I can’t measure up, but you died and there’s forgiveness to me. But not only that, you don’t just, God doesn’t just look at me as a person of innocence. He looks at me as a person that has utterly acc accept, fulfilled the law, that I’m utterly accepted in Christ, that I’m declared righteous on the basis of Jesus report card.

All that took place potentially through what Jesus stood on Friday, when he died on the cross and bore your sin and offered you his righteousness. But if Jesus Christ remained dead, He would simply be another victim to the penalty of sin. Death. Jesus resurrection is the declaration that all of it has worked, that he is the one who can offer forgiveness, that he is the one that can offer eternal life, that he is the one that can offer acceptance because he has conquered all of sin and all of the penalty of sin.

He died to death. You should have died. He lived the life you should have lived. And Easter Sunday is the declaration that he rose from the dead, declaring it all worked. It’s all available that we stand. The reason if, if you’re a guest with us today, the reason we’re passionate about singing these songs about what Jesus did on the cross and why the resurrection matters.

It is because you’ve entered into a community of people that are broken sinners, that are people that have recognized we don’t deserve forgiveness. We don’t deserve eternal life. That apart from Jesus Christ, we could not possibly do the spiritual long jump to be acceptable to God, but Jesus Christ did it all.

That’s why Christianity is different from any other religion in the world. Every other religion of the world, basically well intended, is basically saying This is what you must do to measure up, to earn life, to earn acceptance. Christianity, biblical Christianity is declaring. It is not a religion of do.

It is a religion of done that Jesus Christ has done it. And our sins have been laid on him and his righteousness has been laid on us. Easter Sunday is the declaration of the one who rose from the dead and its signals, there is acceptance for sinners. I don’t know where you are this morning. Maybe you’re here this morning and say, I, I don’t usually do this church thing and just kind of wandered in today, or I came along because my mom will only do lunch if, take me out to lunch if I go.

But I want you to know that if you hear about Christianity or faith and maybe you know people that talk about knowing Jesus and doing life with Jesus and you say, I, it’s never been personal to me. It’s never been this intimate thing where God is real. I always feel like I’m sort of looking through the glass.

Jesus Christ came to die for sinners like all of us. And maybe what he is saying to you this morning and bringing you here is that, won’t you receive the gift that I came to provide, that I died on the cross, that you could have life, that you could be reconnected with God, that your life is spiritually dead and, and, and, and the sense of distancing and, and looking through the glass is simply a reflection of where you are.

But Jesus has got you here to say, Hey, I did this for you. I bore your name was on that placard. Your sins were there, but my righteousness and my forgiveness is available to you. Maybe today God is calling you to embrace Christ. I hope he is. Let’s pray.

Lord

believe that the Bible says, and our own experience has affirmed. This is amazing grace. This is grace that reaches out to us. This is grace that takes broken people, ungodly, self-centered, broken people, and says they can be forgiven, they can be transformed, they can be raised to life, and one day rise to eternal life through Christ.

Lord, we look to the resurrection and after the soberness of our Good Friday service where we just felt the weight of loss for all of those that knew and loved Jesus. And then this morning out in the prayer garden, and here in this room, we feel the joy of celebration because Jesus rising declares it’s all therefore our taking forgiveness, life change hope.

God of heaven. You’ll look into the heart of every person that’s in this room. You’ll look into the heart of every person that’s watching this broadcast. God, may they experience.

Turning to you and saying, God, I didn’t know. I didn’t see it. Maybe I saw and I, and I refused to embrace it, but I see now Jesus Christ died from my sins. Jesus Christ Ro Rose to give me life. Lord, in this very moment. May your spirit draw them to say yes to Jesus to invite you in.

You who died, the death we should die eternally you who lived the life we should have lived. Your resurrection says it’s so and it works. God, I pray you draw people to experience this witch is surely amazing Grace, in Jesus’ name, amen.