Christ s Death as the Freeing

Transcription

1 A few years ago when I was in college, a certain motto came about in pop culture that infiltrated the lifestyles of much of the younger generation. YOLO was that motto, and it stood for you only live once. It became a word that people would tweet, Facebook, and say out loud when they took chances, when they decided not to study for a test, when they got drunk and blacked out, when they would spend all their money on something ridiculous. You only live once. How often have you heard something in your life that relates back to you only live once? Maybe they are saying like There s no day but today! or Life is short! Because of all this focus on one life and living it to the fullest, we have books like The Purpose Driven Life, or Your Best life now! I m not saying you should not pass life over as if it doesn t matter- rather what I m saying is that we have begun to believe a lie that we only live once. Christ s Death as the Freeing Now when I m talking about this lie that we believe, we must first start with Jesus. If you re here today wondering about the Christian faith, or perhaps you come to church but you re just a very skeptical person about Jesus and who he is and what he s all about, let me introduce you to the Jesus I see in the bible and the Jesus I know. I mentioned on Holy Thursday that when we come to realize the train wreck of a life that we live, the more able to we are to realize just how much Jesus loves us. The Jesus we see today, on this festival of the resurrection, is a Jesus who willingly took on sin and death so that our death would not be the hell that we would ve experience. The Jesus we see today gives a forgiveness like you ve never experienced in life. The Jesus we see today has the capability of remembering everything bad that you ve done, but instead of holding that against those who believe in Him, He willingly takes all of it on himself and says I ll take care of it. Easter is a time where we hear Christ say to us Here s my life given for you. And here s your new life given by me. On Easter we are able to get an image of Christ that wholly and complete says, I love you without any reservations. And in that love, there is life. Ferguson 1

2 Life, Death and Baptism Now when I talk about Christ giving us life, then there is obviously a need for life. If you were raised in an orthodox Christian tradition, I m guessing you ve heard of original sin and heard even babies are born with sin. So right from the get go, we experience a separation from God because of our sinful state and that s devastating. If maybe you wonder about this original sin for babies I believe in that because I consistently see children who grab something from another child, say mine, and then walk away. That s one of many reasons I believe that we are just a bit twisted right from the get go. Scriptures say that we were once dead in our sins which is why new life is essential to us. This new life for Christians is presented through baptism. For Christians there is no YOLO in light of the resurrected Christ because there is a need for new life. Here s what Paul says starting at verse 1: If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. What Paul is looking at here is the resurrection of Christ- he s looking at Easter as the point at which those who are followers of Christ, have had their old person drowned, and they rise up with a new life a life which is given freely by Christ. Often times our understanding of baptism involves bringing a baby up to the font, saying the Apostles Creed, and pouring water on the babies head as everyone tears up and says its a beautiful moment and we think to ourselves that s it. It s over. Baptism was a success. But baptism is not something over and done with at once. It is a life long call to the mission of Christ, and a lifetime reminder that Christ saved you from all your pitfalls and that is why Paul says to seek the things that are above and set our minds on the things of Jesus. Paul is calling for us to live in this new life. Maybe you ve been in the position I have where there s times I wished I could have a new life. I think back to several people I ve met throughout the years who have just seemed less than happy with Ferguson 2

3 the life they re currently living who just seem as though they wish they could live as someone else. My mind immediately goes to a man I met when I visited the Nebraska State Penitentiary for a panel discussion. I was able to tell my life story to these prisoners, and after hearing what I had experienced, many of them came and talked to me afterwards. One of these guys was once a very upstanding member of society. He was a typical upper middle class husband and dad. Unfortunately, he began to get greedy, and started embezzling money from various businesses. It led him to jail. When he got out the first time, his kids and wife were willing to accept him back into their lives. Unfortunately old habits came back, and he ended up in the penitentiary. His wife divorced him, and his kids didn t want to talk to him anymore. He talked about how he hopes that one day his kids will accept him again, and that he hopes he can change. What I heard is I wish I had another chance at life. After I talked with him for awhile about his kids and how to reach them when he gets released, I told him that he has indeed been given a new chance in life, and it all revolves around the life that Christ has freely and willingly given him through his death and resurrection. You have been given a new chance in life, and it all revolves around the life that Christ has freely and willingly given to you through his death and resurrection. Living a New Life So what does it look like to live a new life that Christ gives to us? Paul makes it pretty simple for us by essentially saying look to Jesus. Paul uses two different phrases: put to death and put away to talk about the things which we used to do. It makes it sound like a list of rules but for the person who has come to the realization that they are in desperate need of someone to take all of their dirty laundry, all of their corrupt desires, and then comes to the realization that Christ freely and willingly offers that to anyone who calls on His name it s not a list of rules, but a way to remove the barriers which we've set up in regards to our relationship with God. What Paul is talking about getting rid of in life (coveting, idolatry, lying, deceit, and so on) are things that separate us from experiencing or believing the love of Christ. If we are living a life that is Ferguson 3

4 full of these things, we become focused on something that is unhealthy in our lives. I think any person, whether you re following Christ or not, would look at the list Paul gives, and say this is probably something that we should stay away from. When we attempt to stay away from these things, we are looking at our new life and saying how can I live this to the fullest? No longer do we say you only live once, but rather we say how can I live this life which is a gift in a way that is helpful not only to me, but to God and to others as well? When we begin to look at the life we now live as new people, we begin looking at ways that restore a relationship between God, ourselves, and one another. You can look at it as an up, in, and out relationship. Christ has made the first big step in saying let me come to you let me show you my love, but so often we set up barriers to that. So, we begin to look towards a way of living life that is beneficial to our relationship with God we look towards ways in which we can avoid the separation that we so often put in place. In doing this, we begin to restore our relationship with one another (the out ). When we begin to put all these things away in our lives we begin to restore a relationship with people where there was once brokenness. And finally we come to ourselves and we realize that the way we ve been living, or the way we used to live, hasn t been beneficial to us at all. A danger in looking at all of this is thinking that we can do this on our own and that s not true at all. This is why Paul, when he is saying set your mind on Christ is calling us to not just do it once, but rather to remember that Christ gave us new life in our baptism which in turn causes us to remember Christ who saved us constantly in our lives. Our baptism reminds us that Christ died so that you may not deal with the hell you were set out for or that you were once in. If YOLO Were True See- if we only live once then we would discover that we re all destined for lowliness. When we realize that we have a new life in Christ, we discover that we are destined for glory because of Christ. If we only live once then we are destined for lowliness because this life isn t going to last forever- Ferguson 4

5 and after that day comes where we breathe our last breath, chances are after many years not many people are going to remember our names. When we realize that we have a new life in Christ, we realize that we are destined for glory because in Christ we have become known and been made whole. In Christ we have been restored and renewed. In Christ we have received love. In Christ we have received all. I want to end with something C.S. Lewis said in his book Mere Christianity which I think gets right down to it. Christ says, "Give me All. I don't want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work: I want You. I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it. No halfmeasures are any good...hand over the whole natural self, all the desires which you think innocent as well as the ones you think wicked--the whole outfit. I will give you a new self instead. In fact, I will give you Myself: my own will shall become yours. And that, brothers and sisters- is the whole idea of Easter. Christ gives you himself all of his becomes yours. Ferguson 5