A glorious life

MBC worship in the park
The evening service moves outside to Little Streams...

That was a really great time together, and a lot of fun to have such a great group of people, sharing meals, worshiping God...

As I said, we were not planning to record the sermon (so I have typed it up... an insight into my sermon notes!)

As it turns out Ant recorded it on his I-pod, I will put that up too once I get it from him.

God bless and here is the sermon...


A glorious life... 

• Sunrise above Simon’s town... 
• Something that happens every day
• Today it’s really significant for every Christian
• Because we remember (by watching it) an event - in history - that took place - and that changed forever the way humanity is able to relate to God
• But it also cemented a fundamental shift in the way people who follow God should approach their lives
• The moment Jesus conquered death, the hope of eternal life was secured – the focus of our lives was able to shift from simply trusting God for today to living for an eternal goal – an eternity with God.

God has both really challenged and encouraged me in how the resurrection of Jesus has changed, forever, the way we are able to live from day to day. I want to share that with you...

We're going to do that by looking at 1 Corinthians chapter 15

• Where Paul writes to address a way of thinking that could have begun to impact the priority of the Christians in the church and therefore the way they were living...
• There were some Christians in the church that were saying there was no resurrection from the dead
• It’s this life and that is it, we trust and love and serve God today, this life is our focus

So Paul says to them in 1 Cor 15

1Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. 2 By this gospel you are saved, ...

[In Vs 3-5 We see that there are 2 key parts to this gospel that save us]

vs 3For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance:
that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
4that he was buried,

• Jesus died – it was an actual event
• Not meaninglessly
• But as God had revealed that he would
• So that he could receive from God all the punishment that those who would trust in him deserved for themselves
• So that God’s wrath towards us could be satisfied...
• But then it goes on...
• that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,

5and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve... [and to many others[

• Jesus did not stay dead, he conquered death!
• He rose, it happened, it was an event in history
• The disciples and many others saw it...
• Paul goes on to say...

12But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised.
14And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.

• That is quite a statement – but he goes on
• But we see in it, how crucial the resurrection is
• Without it there is no Christianity

15More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. 16For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. 17And...

Then in vs 17 and 18 Paul makes the powerful statement that

... if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. 18Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. 19If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.

• This is a bit hard for us to understand because the popular view of what it means to be a Christ- follower has changed so radically from Paul's understanding of what it meant to be a Christian. 

But... essentially Paul is saying this:

• The Christian's life is completely meaningless without
• The resurrection of Jesus
• And it’s not worth living if we are living without the hope of our resurrection
• He says

If Jesus was not raised then

• Death and sin have not been dealt with
• We are still in our sins (we are not free)
• The gospel is not just that Jesus died for our sins, but that he conquered death and won for us new life.
• Baptism is a symbol of that new life
• Under the water – symbolises our connection to Jesus' death
• Coming out the water – our connection with his life
• If there is no resurrection
• There is still only death

But Paul goes on, and this really caught my attention

19If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.

You could put it another way...
There is nothing more pitiful than a Christian who is living only for what is present.
Paul puts it like this in vs 31

31I die every day—I mean that, brothers—just as surely as I glory over you in Christ Jesus our Lord. 32If I fought wild beasts in Ephesus for merely human reasons, what have I gained? If the dead are not raised,
   "Let us eat and drink,
      for tomorrow we die."

• Paul is saying, my life is a sacrifice, I gave it away
• But I have given it away for a purpose
• That I and others could be with God forever

The life that Paul understood that Christ followers should be living is so radically different from lives of those that are not following Jesus

• Is so self sacrificial,
• So prepared to suffer for others to know God,
• So unconcerned with comfort in this life
• That if our hope were only in this life
• Our life really would be pitiful
• It would make no sense
• The cost would not be worth the reward... 

Challenged me again about our definition of a Christian

• I think we really need, as a generation, to redefine what it means to be a Christ follower...
• Because for some, there is almost no difference between the life of a Christian, and the lives of those that do not live for God

If Christianity is just human gain today
We may as well go the whole way and just live like those that don’t know God

Eat, drink, for tomorrow we die.

• When the church stops living for an eternal goal, when we stop living for our future hope in God
• We end up living like everyone else
• Because our life becomes all about today

I found that I could not read that without being challenged...

Then in vs 20 we see the flip side of the coin...
20But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. 22For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. 23But each in his own turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. 24Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. 25For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26The last enemy to be destroyed is death.

There is a hope, a goal, that is worth our lives

• Because Jesus is alive
• He did conquer death
• When we choose him
• As Paul says in Romans 6, we share in the life that he has won!
• It is an eternal life
• There will be a day when this body of death is exchanged for what is imperishable
• And the kingdom, which is our inheritance, will be before us.
• The inheritance that God has been protecting for us, the inheritance that cannot perish or fade
• The goal
• The prize
• Eternity with God
• No longer protected from his glory, as we will be made to be like him for we will see him as he is.

Conclusion
And so the resurrection means life for us

1. Life in that Jesus' resurrection means there is a complete gospel

• That we can be fully free from the shackles of sin

1. But also that our hope goes beyond this life

• If it goes beyond this life for eternity
• If that is really true, if you do really believe it
• Then this life is fleeting
• And it can be lived as God calls us to live it
• For him, free...
• Not for ourselves – abundant life is found in giving our life away to him
• Because he has giving us everything forever
• Because there is a mission, and the mission is to achieve a purpose
• That people could come to know the God who died
• The God who rose
• The God who gives life, forever, to those who were dead.
• Living for that - that is not pitiful

• It is glorious
• Paul knew it
• That is why he could face the beasts of Ephesus
• Imprisonments
• Hardships
• The stoning and beatings..
• Because his hope was not here
• It was in the resurrection
• In Christ’s
• And in the hope - that in Christ - he too would share in Jesus' life