He Is Risen! He is risen, indeed!
. . . but from what?
A sermon for the Resurrection of Our Lord.
In der Liebe Christi,
Rev. Kurt Hering, Pastor
Trinity Lutheran Church
Layton, UT
Then the other disciple, who came to the tomb first, went in also; and he
saw and believed. For as yet they did not know the Scripture, that He must
rise again from the dead. John 20:8_9 NKJ
He is risen! He is risen indeed!
Yes, Jesus is risen . . .
. . . but from what?
He is risen from the grave.
He is risen from the temptations of the devil.
He is risen from the battle with sin.
He is risen from the taunts and torture of evil men.
He is risen from the unthankfulness, denial and betrayal of relatives and
friends.
That is, He is risen from the dead! Alleluia!
He is risen, indeed, and it is Easter. Millions flock to church to
celebrate - not as many as on Christmas, but if every Sunday were Easter
Sunday . . .
And why is that? Why are churches full on Christmas and Easter, but not so
much the other Sundays of the year?
Everybody has their own answer to that. They are called excuses. "I can't
come to church because ___________ ." Pick your best one. But dear people of
God, when we say can't, what we really mean is won't. That is, it is not
that we can't it means we have something we deem better, more important, or
at least more urgent.
Now that might explain why people don't go to church most Sundays of the
year, but it doesn't really explain why they do go to church on Christmas
and Easter. So what is it about Christmas and Easter that brings out the
masses? Well, nostalgia and tradition certainly play a part. It's just what
you do. It is what Christmas and Easter are about.
But there is something more to it. I would submit to you that it is our
desire and quest for glory. Christmas and Easter are for of glory. They make
us feel good. They pump us up. And I suppose that is good. But that kind of
high is not sustainable.
So we look for it in other places. Sunday TV is a good place to illustrate
this search for glory. Perhaps the easiest way to find this glory is
witnessing it. Sports provide a great way to participate in someone else's
glory. The trouble with this is, all we see is the glory, not what went into
it. We see Tiger Woods win virtually every time. Yet how did he get to the
point where lifting trophies has become so common place? - hard work and
practice, and probably a bit of suffering and putting aside other, more fun
and glorious things.
Scientific studies show that:
There are certainly minimal requirements to become an expert in a field.
Generally you''ll need to meet any minimal physical requirements, but beyond
that, research is showing that how much time you spend practicing a skill
far outweighs any amount of inborn talent, if there is such a thing, in
showing whether you will learn a skill. In fact, we''re talking about 10,000
hours of practice being needed to become a world-class expert in your chosen
field. K. Anders Ericsson calls this the ten year rule [that's three hours
of practice a day for 10 years]. It takes about ten years of lengthy
practice to become an expert in a field.
This isn''t any sort of practice, though. It isn't just repetition. It is
was Ericsson calls effortful study. You have to be continually stretching
yourself to reach beyond your current limits, not doing the same thing over
and over and over. . . . To be able to flow, to derive optimal enjoyment
from what you are doing, you need to be working on something that is
challenging, but not beyond your limits. It has to stretch your skills,
without being beyond them.*
There are at least two things we Christians can learn form this. One, since
we are sinners at birth, given half of the child's time is spent sleeping,
that means we become expert sinners by the time we are 2. No wonder we call
them the terrible twos.
Two, glory does not come easily or without effort and even pain.
Christmas is the beginning, but it does not save us.
Easter is the victory proclamation, but it does not save us.
Good Friday is what saves us - the Passion of the Christ, the death of God.
"It is finished!" Jesus cries, and gives up His spirit. And you are saved
because it is the death and condemnation you deserve - the punishment that
you could never bear, being forsaken, left alone, by the Father. That is
something that would utterly destroy you. But thanks be to God and His one
and only Son, it something that never has to happen to you - unless you
insist on it. For you have been baptized, forgiven of your expertise as a
sinner - and delivered from it.
Take a look at what your Baptism means. Turn to page 325 in your hymnal.
Look at the Second Part under the Sacrament of Holy Baptism. What benefits
does Baptism give? Say it with me, please. "It works forgiveness of sins,
rescues from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who
believe this, as the words and promises of God declare." [Keep your place.]
If your baptism does all that, why jump back into that from which you have
been rescued? Why become slaves of sin, death and the devil again?
What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?
Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you
not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized
into His death?
Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as
Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also
should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the
likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His
resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that
the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves
of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin.
Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,
knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death
no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin
once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you
also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God i n
Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body,
that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as
instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as
being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness
to God. (Rom 6:1_13 NKJ)
Now look at the Fourth Part under the Sacrament of Holy Baptism. What does
such baptizing with water indicate? Please readi it out loud with me again.
"It indicates that the Old Adam in us should by daily contrition and
repentance be drowned and die with all sins and evil desires, and that a new
man should daily emerge and arise to live before God in righteousness and
purity forever."
But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved
us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ
(by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit
together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He
might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in
Christ Jesus. (Eph 2:4_7 NKJ)
So why, if Christ has raised into the heavenly places do we insist on diving
back into the lowly places wallowing back in the muck of our sin and
avoiding the very place where he continues to forgive our sins, bath us in
His righteousness, train us for good works, and even give us His very body
and blood that we may participate in His resurrection until we receive our
own resurrected body?
It's because church isn't glorious enough for us.
But, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, [we see where
His glory and ours really is to be found]. [F]or the joy that was set before
Him [Jesus] endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the
right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who endured such hostility
from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your
souls. You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin. And you
have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: "My son, do
not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are
rebuked by Him; For whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son
whom He receives." (Heb 12:2_6 NKJ)
Just as Jesus' glory came by way fo the cross, so to does ours. Jesus' glory
is in His suffering and death. You want proof?
To this day, the resurrected Jesus insists on showing you His wounds. How
did the disciples know the resurrected Jesus was the same Jesus they had
followed and seen crucified? He showed them His wounds. He even had Thomas
place his finger and hand inside those wounds.
How do you know the resurrected Jesus is here for you? For as often as you
eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He
comes.
(1 Cor 11:26 NKJ)
The glory you seek in the world is in fact all that Jesus left behind. Those
things that keep you away from church, it is precisely those things from
which Jesus is risen - for you! So I suppose there is a third lesson to be
learned from the ten year, 10,000 hours of practice theory - it takes
perfect practice to make perfect. If you practice error and mistakes, you
will just ingrain those errors and mistakes. No wonder we are so good at
sin, eh?
For us the only perfect practice is that which is performed by Christ.
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves;
it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are
His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared
beforehand that we should walk in them. (Eph 2:8_10 NKJ)
This being the case, if we want to become accomplished Christians, we need
to be where Christ puts His work into play. For it is only His work that
forms us into the people he would have us to be for the sake of our
neighbors - our friends, relatives, and the acquaintances with whom we come
into contact during our every day lives. God doesn't need our work, and
nothing we do can approach His glory. But our neighbors do benefit from our
work, whether for the daily bread of the world, or for the spread of the
Gospel good news of Christ.
You want glory? Every Lord's Day, and wherever and whenever the Word of God
is proclaimed for the forgiveness of sins, glory is here for you - in the
name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
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