Sermon Dan
Neary
Death and Resurrection
He
is Risen!
Happy Easter!
Let me read to you the account
of Resurrection morning from the Gospel of John 20:1-18.
Beyond all the other stuff we
add to Easter (food, bunnies, eggs, ham) the simple message of Easter is this:
Jesus,
our savior, conquered Death by His Resurrection.
Jesus is alive… and we can be alive, too, alive eternally.
This is the good news of the
Gospel… Jesus is alive and brings life to us.
Death is swallowed up in
victory.
Resurrection is the foundation
of Christianity. I sort of hate to delve deeply into what might seam like the
theological weeds so quickly in an Easter sermon… but resurrection is the
theological hinge of Christianity. We don’t need to take a modern theologian’s
word for it; we go right to the Bible. The Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians
15:
12 But 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? 13 If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14 And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. 15 More 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. 16 For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.[1]
Resurrection Sunday, Easter, is the
Christian holiday. It is the culmination of Passion Week (Palm Sunday – King,
Good Friday – Redeemer, Easter – Savior and Lord). But more than that – it is
the basis of our faith. Christ’s resurrection:
·
Is evidence of the Father’s
acceptance of His work of redemption
·
Is victory over death and the
grave for all His followers
·
Is validation that the Gospel is
true – and that Jesus is the Son of God
·
Is a pledge and an earnest of
the resurrection of all believers
Death is conquered.
Can we pause a moment and think
about what that means? What does it mean for Death to be conquered? What is
Death anyway? Is conquering Death any big deal?
So it is with this in mind that
we get back into our series of theological themes of the Old Testament. From
the Old Testament context, what is Death anyway?
A survey of the Old Testament
indicates a fairly common sense approach
to what Death is. It starts with an understanding of what life is:
·
Dust/Flesh – earth stuff
·
Breath/Spirit – God stuff
·
Soul/Life – Human Person
the Lord God formed the mand from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. [2] (Genesis 2:7)
This notion of human physiology
is commonsense, because anyone could see that when the breath departs, the
organism dies. The breath, moreover, is always a gift upon which human life is
dependent – a gift cannot be held or
possessed. Human life thus depends daily, moment by moment, upon the
life-giving generosity and attentiveness of the creator God, apart from whom
life is not possible.
From the very beginning, human
life, all of it, is understood to be a gift from God. Life is God’s. Any life
we enjoy was God’s first and depends on Him to sustain.
This is important for a couple
of reasons:
·
The soul is not separate.
o Not
floating about in eternity waiting to be matched up with a body
o Doesn’t
continue apart from God’s continued sustenance
·
Life is entirely dependant on
God
Life starts… is lived… and then
ends. The Old Testament doesn’t have a lot to say about what happens after
death. A person may be said to be “gathered to his people” or to “descend into
Sheol.” But in such characterizations what is really described is some state of
non-existence… just gray eternity. Not eternal life, or even eternal
punishment, just eternal nothing.
So…
if we ask the Old Testament “What is Death?” It would first say it is
lifelessness. Further examination would
help us to remember that it isn’t merely binary.
·
Switch on = life
·
Switch off = death
That we exist in this spectrum
of life and death… that sickness, hunger, and isolation leads to dying. On the
other hand, healing, food, and affirmation brings restoration or life.
The
second answer the OT would give us to the question is punishment. As Bill Cosby
would say “I’m the one who brought you into this world, and I can also take you
out.”
The covenant laid out throughout
the Old Testament makes it clear that God punishes with Death. We see it both
in the context of individuals… but also in the case of groups and nations. God’s
holiness demands obedience… and punishment for disobedience, even punishment
that leads to death.
The
third answer that the OT gives is what I’m calling antiLife… more than Death
just being the polar opposite of Life… Death is the enemy of Life.
This is evidenced in the way
that Death is treated like a personal enemy; Death is given personhood. Other
religions in
4 The cords of death entangled me; the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me.
5 The cords of the graveb coiled around me; the snares of death confronted me. [3]
The
fourth answer the OT gives is separation from God. This, again, is a spectrum…
where the human position that is filled with the most vitality, the most life,
is when we are in God’s presence praising Him. Death, on the other hand, is
positioned in terms of separation from, or distance from God.
So, Death is depicted as
lifelessness, punishment, antiLife, and separation… but what about the notion
of life after death? What about the idea of resurrection in the Old Testament?
Most scholars agree that there
are only three specific OT references to resurrection. All are in the prophets…
fairly late (chronologically) in the OT; two in Isaiah and one in Daniel.
From an OT perspective,
resurrection is a sort of marginal doctrine that comes along late in the
history of
Again, without getting too far
off in the theological weeds of what differentiated the Sadducees and
Pharisees, it will be useful for us to place the idea of resurrection in an Old
Testaments context. In that context, resurrection has less to do with eternal
life, and everything to do with the sovereignty and power of God.
From
an Old Testament perspective, resurrection belongs among the broad theological
themes of the Old Testament that demonstrate God’s Power.
·
Creation from Chaos
·
Restoration from Exile
·
Forgiveness from Guilt
·
Birth from Barrenness
·
Deliverance from Slavery, and
finally
·
Resurrection from Death
Resurrection is the capstone of the
Old Testament’s testimony to God’s Power. It is an affirmation of Faith that
God has sovereignty over everything and every power.
So
what? What does consideration of what the Old Testament has to say about Death
& Resurrection have to do with us on this Easter Sunday?
Haven’t you begun to wonder? Wow
Pastor Dan… thanks for giving us this really uplifting, long and drawn-out
definition of Death! Can we go eat our ham now?
No… give this just a few more minutes.
The
first so what goes right back this idea of God’s power and sovereignty.
This morning, for example, we
hosted an 8:00 service specifically for those who have loved ones buried on
this campus. The message of Resurrection Morning is a great comfort, especially
to those who are mourning the loss of loved ones. But let’s not settle merely
for that sort of comfort.
Resurrection is the final mark
of God’s sovereignty over every thing and every power. When we think of Jesus,
God’s Son, our Redeemer, Savior and Lord conquering Death through resurrection…
we should be convinced of God’s power and sovereignty and control.
And what of this foe? What of
victory over Death?
Let’s
go back to those OT definitions of Death. Just what did Jesus conquer through
his resurrection?
·
Lifelessness: The resurrection
of Jesus is the promise that we can enjoy full life. That our days on this
earth will come to an end, but they can be full of life.
Jesus conquered lifelessness
·
Punishment: The resurrection of
Jesus validates that He paid the penalty for our sin. When He said “It is
finished” He could very well have said “paid in full.” We deserve punishment… this
is for sure. But Christ paid the price to take away the penalty of our sin.
Jesus conquered punishment.
·
AntiLife: the resurrection of
Jesus changes the very nature of death… no longer an end or an eternal
nothingness. Death is no longer a wall… it is merely a curtain.
Jesus conquered the enemy of life.
·
Separation: the resurrection of
Jesus does the miraculous… although our sin should separate us far from God
forever; we are now invited to be children of God.
Jesus conquered separation
So when we grasp a bit of what
resurrection really means, we might just understand how profound victory over
death truly is.
1 Corinthians 15:1-8; 54-57
He gives us the victory!
·
Full life
·
Freedom from punishment
·
Release from the enemy
·
Fellowship with God
This
morning, receive this gift. Let this truth of the resurrection of Jesus take
hold of your heart. Believe this morning that God’s power has no limit… that
even Death is swallowed-up in victory.
Take hold of this hope… and let
it permeate and control every aspect of your life.