Our Resurrected God-Man | Luke 24

Okay, let's turn to our Bibles in the

Gospel of Luke, chapter 24, Luke chapter 24.

This isn't typical of our Lord's Day service, but I did want to read the entire chapter today in light of it being

Resurrection Sunday, and this is a very awesome passage pertaining to the resurrection.

I did make also a slight adjustment to the sermon title.

You know, it says, The Resurrected God -Man. Really, I wanted also to focus on the fact that Christ is our

Resurrected God -Man, our Resurrected God -Man, and there's many amazing scriptures pertaining to the resurrection of Christ, and our resurrection as well.

I hope that we can dive into some of them today. Luke chapter 24, beginning in verse 1.

Why do you seek the Living One among the dead? He is not here, but He has risen.

Remember how He spoke to you while He was still in Galilee, saying that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.

And they remembered His words. And when they returned to the tomb, they reported all these things to the eleven and to all the rest.

Now Mary Magdalene, and Joanna, and Mary, and the mother of James, and the rest of the women with them were there.

They were telling these things to the apostles, but these words appeared to them as nonsense, and they were not believing them.

But Peter stood up and ran to the tomb, and stooping to look in, he saw the linen wrappings only, and he went away by himself, marveling at what had happened.

And behold, two of them were going that same day to a village named Emmaus, which was sixty stadia from Jerusalem.

And they were conversing with each other about all these things which had happened. And it happened that while they were conversing and debating,

Jesus Himself approached and was going with them. But their eyes were prevented from recognizing

Him, and He, Jesus, said to them, What are these words that you are discussing with one another as you are walking?

And they stood still, looking sad. And one of them, named Cleopas, answered and said to Him, Are you the only one visiting

Jerusalem and unaware of the things which have happened here in these days? And He said to them, What things?

And they said to Him, The things about Jesus the Nazarene, who was a mighty prophet indeed, and word in the sight of God and all the people, and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered

Him to the sentence of death and crucified Him. But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem

Israel. Indeed, besides all this, it is the third day since these things happened.

But also some women among us astounded us. When they were at the tomb early in the morning and not finding

His body, they came, saying that they had also seen a vision of angels who said that He was alive.

Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it exactly as the women also said, but Him they did not see.

And He said to them, O foolish ones and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!

Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?

Then, beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He interpreted to them the things concerning Himself in all the scriptures.

And they approached the village where they were going, and He acted as though they were going farther. But they urged

Him strongly, saying, Stay with us, for it is toward evening, and the day now is nearly over.

So He went in to stay with them, and it happened that when He had reclined at the table with them, He took the bread and blessed it, and after breaking it,

He was giving it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized Him, and He vanished from their sight.

And they said to one another, Were not our hearts burning, burning within us, while He was speaking to us on the road, while He was opening the scriptures to us?

And they stood up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem, and found gathered together the eleven and those with them who were saying,

The Lord has really risen and has appeared to Simon Peter. And they were relating their experiences on the road, and how

He was recognized by them in the breaking of the bread. Now while they were telling these things, He Himself stood in their midst and said to them,

Peace to you. But being startled and frightened, they were thinking that they were seeing a spirit. And He said to them,

Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? See My hands and My feet, that it is

I Myself. Touch Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.

And when He had said this, He showed them His hands and His feet. And while they still were not believing because of their joy and were still marveling,

He said to them, Have you anything here to eat? They gave Him a piece of broiled fish, and He took it and ate it before them.

Now He said to them, These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all these things which are written about Me in the

Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. Then He opened their minds to understand the

Scriptures, and He said to them, Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.

You are witnesses of these things, and behold, I am sending the promise of My Father upon you, but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.

And He led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up His hands, He blessed them. And it happened that while He was blessing them,

He parted from them and was carried up into heaven. And they, after worshiping

Him, returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple blessing

God. Amen. So, what an amazing and powerful chapter from Luke's Gospel.

There's parallel passages in the other Gospels about this very account in Jesus after His death and His resurrection.

And I wanted to zero in on a few things in this chapter.

There's so many amazing things here, but I want to focus on a few of them in particular. The first thing is, the

Greek word for resurrection is anastasis. Anastasis.

And that's where we get the name like Anastasia. Or, it's funny because we visited a

Greek Orthodox Church, the local one, and there was a gentleman there by the name of Anastasio. So, it could be feminine or masculine.

And that means resurrection. And in church history, it's actually similar to the word

Anabaptist. The word Anabaptist means to re -baptize or the re -baptizers.

And similarly, the word Anastasis refers to someone who was laying down horizontally in death.

And stands, stands, stasis, stands back up, rises alive.

It means to re -stand from death to life. That itself could preach a whole sermon.

Amen. So, that's to stand, re -stand from death to life. And this brings us to another important matter.

And it is that the resurrection of Jesus Christ really happened, truly happened.

These gospel accounts are historical accounts. And it is clearly attested, further attested by the shock and doubt and disbelief of Jesus' closest disciples, his apostles.

All of them doubted. All of them, in some sense, were doubting Thomas' in a sense.

We often isolate Thomas as the doubting one, but all of them doubted.

All of them did. They all had a sorrowful doubt and did not think that he was going to come back from the dead.

And the resurrection was an amazing and shocking reality to them all.

Now, one other major point of this chapter.

I want us to understand something very clearly here. Notice Christ's focus in this chapter.

What does Christ focus on? What is he constantly pointing to in this chapter?

When he is talking to the disciples, to the men walking on the road to Emmaus, what does he constantly point them to?

He directs them to the Scriptures. The Scriptures, the

Old Testament. All the prophets, the law and the prophets and the

Psalms. Even though what they witnessed was a miraculous event, supernatural.

Christ came back from the dead. An utter shocking reality to the disciples that they did not believe.

Even though that happened, those supernatural events, Christ nevertheless pointed them to the

Old Testament writings, the Scriptures. And from there he showed them, why did you not believe when it was already written down to happen?

And it is emphatic throughout this whole chapter, which is why I had preached on many of these verses on the series on Scripture alone.

It is amazing to see Christ's focus here. That is something that is of major importance for us to this day.

Many people try to focus on the miraculous and on the resurrection. All of which are extraordinarily important.

But it is important because the Scriptures foretold them and because the

Scriptures explain why they matter. Why they matter. So even something as miraculous and supernatural as a resurrection is always established and grounded by the

Scriptures. Amazing stuff. And you see even two angels, the angels appearing before them in dazzling clothing.

And they were so sorrowful that they had forgotten what Christ had taught them just a few days ago.

And they remembered his words. And in verse 11 of Luke 24, it says,

But these words appeared to them as nonsense. That Christ wasn't there anymore. Empty tomb.

And they were not believing them. There was a lack of understanding and sorrowful unbelief.

It was a momentary lapse of disbelief. And people were conversing and debating about these things.

What really happened? What really happened? And even when

Jesus appears directly in front of them, they still don't even recognize him.

It is astounding how the gospel presents these things. Very frankly, very matter of fact.

And Christ repeatedly, in every one of these situations, points them to what the prophets had spoken of old.

What the prophets had spoken of old. Moses and the prophets. All the prophets in all the

Scriptures. The writings, the law, the prophets. And he also says

Christ was to suffer these things and enter into his glory. Take note of that passage, that phrase as well.

And so we find amazing how

Christ presents himself is just amazing. And that is what our focus needs to be in light of what

Christ has revealed to us and taught us and teaches us. Remember how verse 25 says that it was necessary.

It was necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and enter into his glory.

Keep that in mind as well. I want to read from the Baptist Larger Catechism.

It is such an awesome tool for us to study and to understand the whole counsel of God.

The trees and the forest of Scripture. Question 53 says, How was

Christ exalted in his resurrection? Christ was exalted in his resurrection in that not having seen corruption and death, for it was impossible for him to be held by death and having the very same body in which he suffered with all its essential properties, truly united to his soul, but without mortality and other common infirmities associated with this life.

He rose again from the dead on the third day by his own power.

By his resurrection, he plainly declared himself to be the son of God.

The resurrected God man. To have satisfied divine justice, to have conquered death as well as him who holds the power of death and to Satan and to be lord of the living and the dead.

He did this as a federal covenant head and as the head of his church in order to justify believers by his death.

That is by his death and make them alive in his grace, supporting them against their enemies and to assure them of the rest.

Their resurrection from the dead at the last day. Amen. That is an amazing summary of what

Scripture says about Christ and his glorious resurrection.

Now, what about the resurrection according to the Old Testament? Because notice how

Christ said these things were told. They were foretold in the Old Testament.

And I want to take us back a little bit to visit some of these matters for us today.

Acts 12 verse 4 in the King James Version says, And when he, Herod, had apprehended him,

Peter, he put him in prison and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him.

Intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people. Now, the word

Easter, that's not really accurate. I've preached on that before. Really, the term is

Pascha. The Greek word is Pascha. It means Passover. It's referring to the

Passover or in Spanish. It's more accurate. And it's referring to the

Hebrew celebration of the Passover. So it's the

Jewish commemoration of God's destroyer angel sparing the firstborn children of the

Israelites and those who posted lamb's blood on their doors when they were still in bondage to Egypt.

The Passover, which in the Hebrew goes by words like Piska, Pesach, and Pascha, is a sacred observance in Judaism that commemorates the climactic 10th and final plague in the book of Exodus.

When Yahweh punishes Egypt by killing all the firstborn but passes over, passes over Pesach, the firstborn of Israel, in Exodus chapter 12, resulting in the

Israelites' deliverance from slavery in Egypt. Amen. This is a powerful recount.

One of the momentous events in the history of the scriptures and of God's nation of Israel.

Now, let's turn to the book of Daniel chapter 12. In the book of Daniel chapter 12, we also find a very powerful prophetic promise in the book of Daniel.

In chapter 12, beginning in verse 1 of Daniel chapter 12,

God's word says, Now at that time, Michael, the great prince, who stands guard over the sons of your people, will stand.

And there will be a time of distress such as never happened since there was a nation until that time.

And at that time, your people, everyone who is found written in the book, will be rescued.

And many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake.

Will awake. These to everlasting life, but the others to reproach and everlasting contempt.

And those who have insight will shine brightly like the brightness of the expanse of heaven. And those who lead the many to righteousness, like the stars, forever and ever.

Amen. This is one of several other passages where the word of God foretells these things.

Those who are asleep in the ground is a euphemism for death.

They have passed on. They will rise again.

They will awaken. They will awaken. And in the New Testament, there are similar phrasings like awake, oh sleeper.

Because Christ has arisen. And this is very important.

And even in the Gospels, when Christ is refuting his enemies, his opponents, he tells them, you don't know what you're talking about.

You don't know the scriptures. God is God of the living because he said, I am.

I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Not I was, but I am the

God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob because they are still alive. And they will be raised to life at the resurrection on Christ's final return.

Amen. This is Old Testament reality foretold.

And Jesus, the Christ, the eternal son of God, is our prophetic anti -type fulfillment of this

Passover lamb of Exodus. Our deliverer from death and from judgment, from final judgment.

Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. That's referring to the

Passover lamb. The Passover lamb in the

Gospel of John 129 from John the Baptist. Now, I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe.

That's Jude 1 .5. It was the Lord Jesus who delivered them out of Egypt.

Yahweh. Now, notice, take note of what the people did during God's inauguration of the

Passover in Exodus 12, verse 27. I'm going to read from that and draw something from that.

I'll start at verse 26. And it will be when your children say to you, what is the meaning of this new slavery to you?

That you, Israel, shall say, it is a Passover sacrifice to Yahweh who passed over the houses of the sons of Israel in Egypt when he smoked, killed the

Egyptians, but delivered our homes. And the people bowed low and did what?

They worshipped. They bowed low and worshipped. This brings us now to the day of the resurrected

God -man. The day of the resurrected God -man. When did Jesus rise from the dead?

What day of the week was it? It was on the first day of the week. The first day.

This hearkens us back to the gospel accounts because Jesus rose again on what the scripture refers to as the

Lord's day, the first day of the week. And this is why also in our

Protestant and Reformed tradition, every Sunday, not just resurrection

Sunday, but every Sunday we refer to it as the Lord's day. It is a worship celebration of Christ and what happened on that day.

His resurrection. His resurrection. And this is the same day that Christians met together for worship in church on the

Lord's day. The Lord's day. Acts chapter 20 verse 7 says,

And on the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, that's a fellowship.

Paul began speaking to them, intending to leave the next day, and he prolonged his message until midnight.

This is one instance of where in the book of Acts, God's people gathered together to break bread.

That's a term for fellowship and to worship together. And Paul was speaking to them.

The word there is the word for the Greek word for dialogue. He was speaking to them or preaching to them a message.

His message. Don Logan. Logan like logos. It's referring to worship of the corporate worship of God's people and the preaching of God's word.

And Paul preached all night until midnight. Amen. He went and preached until midnight.

With God's people. Similarly, for in 1st Corinthians 62,

Paul instructs the Corinthian church on the first day of every week. Each one of you is to set aside something, saving whatever he has prospered, prospered so that no collections be made when

I come. So there was a corporate gathering of God's people on the first day of the week. So then resurrection

Sunday, as with every Lord's day, should be about worshiping God rightly in the truth of his word.

For God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.

Amen. Like John 424 speaks to us through the mouth of Christ.

Now, this brings us to the gospel, the gospel according to the resurrection, the gospel according to the resurrection.

We saw the resurrection according to the Old Testament. Some some references to that.

What about the gospel according to the resurrection? Turn with me to 1st Corinthians chapter 15.

1st Corinthians chapter 15. This is a very important passage about the gospel, about the gospel.

1st Corinthians chapter 15, beginning in verse one. Now, I, Paul, make known to you, believers, the gospel, which

I proclaim as good news to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which you also are saved.

If you hold fast the word, the word which I proclaim to you as good news, unless you believed for nothing in vain.

For I deliver to you as of first importance, primary importance, what

I also received from God, that Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day, according to the scriptures, and that he appeared to Kephas, then to the twelve.

After that, he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time, most of whom until now, remain until now, but some have fallen asleep.

Some have passed away. There's that reference to falling asleep. After that, he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared to me,

Paul, also. So this is the gospel. Paul is laying out the basics, the basic propositions of the gospel.

The gospel is not an encounter. It's not a personal encounter. It's not a mystical experience.

The gospel is a series of propositions, of declarative sentences, which were revealed to us by God in the

Old and New Testaments, that Christ died, that he was buried, and that he was raised the third day, and that he appeared to his followers.

Now, this leads us to a very important conclusion.

There is no resurrection without the once for all time death of Christ.

You cannot have a resurrection without death. The resurrection of Christ presupposes, it necessitates, it is prerequisite, it presupposes the vicarious, sin -bearing, wrath -satisfying death of Christ, because the only way a satisfactory death can be made or demonstrated is if there was a resurrection, because resurrection demonstrates that life was earned, that life was gained, because all men die.

They die in their guilt and in their judgment apart from the eternal life in Jesus Christ.

But Jesus came back from the dead as the firstborn of the resurrection, the firstfruits of the resurrection, because he conquered death for us.

There is no resurrection without the death of Christ. Take careful note of that. And I want to read from the very, very powerful words of reformer

John Calvin in his Institute to the Christian Religion. He has some very, very powerful words to explain, help us to make sense of this matter.

He says, If Christ had died only a bodily death, it would have been ineffectual.

It would have been insufficient. In other words, no, it was expedient at the same time for him to undergo the severity of God's vengeance to appease his wrath and satisfy his just judgment.

For this reason, he must also grapple hand to hand with the armies of hell and the dread of everlasting death.

A little while ago, we referred to the prophet's statement that the chastisement of our peace was laid upon him.

That's Old Testament Isaiah. He was wounded for our transgressions.

By whom? By the father. He was bruised for our iniquities.

To that, I would add that it pleased the Lord Yahweh to crush him, to crush him.

By these words, he means that Christ was put in place of evildoers as a surety and pledge, submitting himself even as the accused to bear and suffer all the punishments they ought to have sustained.

All with this one exception, he could not be held by the pangs of death.

In Acts 2 24, death could not hold him. It was impossible for death to hold him because he alone accomplished and merited eternal life for us.

Amen. This death and only this death and none other is enough to ransom us from eternal death and wrath.

God's wrath for Christ alone came to give his life as a ransom for many, according to his own words in Mark 10 45.

Now, we have to be careful here. There's a lot of misunderstandings regarding this.

This does not mean that God the Father was ever angry at his beloved eternal son with whom he was well -pleased, right?

The scriptures say that repeatedly in the Gospels. This is my beloved son with whom I am well -pleased.

So how do we reconcile that? How do we reconcile the fact that God the

Father was eternally pleased with his son and yet he bore divine wrath?

He bore the divine wrath because contrary to the liberals, you'll hear many liberals say this and you'll also hear

Eastern Orthodox say this because they deny the propitiatory death of Christ on the cross, the wrath -satisfying sacrifice of Christ because Christ nevertheless indeed bore this divine wrath as a vicarious substitute in our place, not because he deserved it, not because God was angry at him, but because we deserved it and because God's anger was directed at us and somebody had to pay that ultimate price in order for us to have eternal life.

In order for us to have life, somebody had to die. Somebody had to suffer the pangs of death and of God's wrath.

So the resurrection necessitates the death of Christ.

We have to make sure we understand this carefully because many today deny it and you see in the scriptures that John Calvin quoted very clearly it was

God. There is no separation between the Godhead. It is divine wrath being satisfied, but God the

Father is the front -facing person of the Trinity that is representing that wrath and the

Son through Jesus Christ becoming a man bore that wrath for us and now the resurrection of Christ proves that it really happened, that that payment was truly satisfied, that it was finished, that it was done on the cross like Jesus said and proclaimed and announced.

The resurrection is a sine qua non of the gospel. It is that word, that phrase is

Latin for absolutely indispensable, essential to the gospel.

It is primary doctrine and it cannot be altered or watered down or compromised in any way, shape or form.

It is primary. What did Paul say? It is a first importance. It is a first importance and you will find again, it is very ironic, you will hear

Eastern Orthodoxy making claims to make a very big deal about the resurrection, that they're all about the resurrection and in some cases even define the gospel almost exclusively as the resurrection and yet as important and definitional as the resurrection is to the gospel, it is not exclusively the gospel because the resurrection itself necessitates death and necessitates something else and that something else had to happen first.

That is why the Apostle Paul says the gospel that I deliver to you as a first importance is what?

That Christ died, that he died, that he was buried and that he was raised and then he appeared.

All of those things are important and all of those things make up the gospel.

You cannot have the gospel without any one of those things. We cannot lose our balance of what the gospel is according to the scriptures.

What does Paul tell the church? I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him what?

Crucified, nailed to the cross because the death of Christ was necessary in order for Christ to raise to life and demonstrate to the world that he accomplished what he set out to do and what was foretold in God's Old Testament prophets and scriptures.

But they, Eastern Orthodoxy and like many other false teachers including some who claim to be

Protestant in even reform. I've mentioned these men before like John Piper, Tim Keller, many of these men, false teachers, federal vision who may affirm the resurrection in some sense in reality undermine the resurrection.

They undermine it, the power, the glory, the grace of Christ's resurrection because they also deny that our resurrection is attained as a free gracious gift of God by the finished work of Christ alone.

Alone. This is the glory and power and grace of the resurrection.

You cannot have the resurrection without rightly understanding this. The grace of the resurrection, the grace of the resurrection and according to these false teachings and teachers, you still have to earn your resurrection.

You still have to work for it. You have to earn it at the last judgment and present yourself to God to demonstrate your worthiness to receive that, to earn your resurrection which makes utter contradiction of the scriptures, utter contradiction of it because what sayeth the scripture?

Turn with me, beloved, to John chapter 11 verse 24. John chapter 11 verse 24.

Here in the gospel of John, we find powerful promises from our

Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amazing promises and assurances from Christ our

Lord. John chapter 11 verse 24.

Martha said to him, to Jesus, I know that he, Lazarus, will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.

Jesus said to her, I am, I am the resurrection and the life.

He who believes in me will live even if he dies and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die, ever, ever.

Do you believe this? Do you believe this? Notice what

Jesus emphasizes once again, who he is and what does he tell them to do?

Do you believe this? Jesus is the power and glory and grace of the resurrection.

He is the resurrection and the life. Christ is. And note too,

Jesus says, he who believes in me will live. Everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.

He covers both ends. You will live and you will never die. You will have eternal life.

But the only way that we can live in Christ in union with him is by believing in him, by believing in him, because all the ones believing in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

That's John 3, 16. It's the same message that Christ is proclaiming here because many of these false teachings,

Eastern Orthodoxy and the like, they try to redefine faith as a work because, oh look,

Jesus said, this is the work of God that you believe. They misunderstand what Christ meant.

Christ wasn't saying you have to work for eternal life. The work of God is that you believe.

He is refuting the Jews who thought that they had to work for it. What is the work? They may work the works of God.

Jesus said this is the work. Believe. It's an ad hominem argument.

He is refuting their misunderstanding of trying to work for something or earn it. He's telling them, believe.

And to believe is to understand and accept what Christ has done on our behalf, on the truth of that promise.

And that believing leads to eternal life. That belief in the gospel gives us eternal life in him.

That's what Jesus is explaining. And notice the words that I've recently preached on in 1

John as well. The Apostle John loves to use this phrase. The Greek, pas hopisteon.

Pas hopisteon. All the believing ones. All the believing ones.

He says in John 11, similarly, he who believes in me, hopisteon, who is believing in me, will live.

Everyone who lives and believes in me, pas hozon kai, pisteon, zon meaning life, zoe, life.

Zon kai pisteon. And believing. Pisteon.

The same exact phrases from the gospel of John in chapter 3. Everyone believing in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.

Eternal life. Amen. Notice what God emphasizes in addition to faith.

Very clearly. Notice what God clearly and unequivocally emphasizes about our resurrection in just a small sample of passages.

We see what Christ said about his resurrection in a very important passage, the

I am passage. I am the power, the resurrection, the life, the grace and glory and power of it.

Do you believe? But then what about our resurrection?

Romans chapter 6. Turn with me to Romans chapter 6, verse 3. Romans chapter 6, verse 3.

It is so assuring. The promises of God are so powerful.

They come to life in the pages of Holy Scripture. Romans chapter 6.

As we read this passage in light of the resurrection, and our resurrection, in addition to Christ's resurrection, notice here carefully.

Romans chapter 6, verse 3. Or do you not know, beloved believers, that all of us, believers, who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death.

Therefore, we were buried with him through baptism into death.

So just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the

Father, through the glory of the Father, remember that, how

Christ must suffer and enter into his glory. So we too might walk in newness of life, in newness of life.

Because of who? Because of his resurrection. For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection.

Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin.

For he who has died, died in baptism, buried with Christ by faith, has been justified from sin, has been excused from sin, pardoned from sin.

Now, if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him eternally.

Knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again, never.

Death no longer is master over him. For the death that he died, he died to sin once for all, for all time.

But the life that he lives, he lives to God. Even so, consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God, resurrected to God in Christ Jesus.

What does that mean, beloved? Christ's resurrection is our resurrection, our resurrection by his grace.

It is by his grace, by the justification of Christ on our behalf.

Amen. Turn with me now to Colossians chapter 2, another amazing passage to read in light of this glorious resurrection of Christ and our resurrection in the resurrected

God, our resurrected God -man. Christ is the resurrected

God -man and our resurrected God -man demonstrating to have power over all, including the power and sting of death and giving us that same power, not because we have to earn it or work for it or do something to merit or deserve it.

Colossians chapter 2, verse 8. See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, believers, according to the tradition of men like these false traditions which rob

Christ of his credit and his glory and his power and his grace according to the elementary principles of the world and not according to Christ and his power, his mercy, his grace alone.

For in him, all the fullness of deity, of Godhood, of God -ness dwells bodily and in him you have been filled who is the head over all rule and authority in whom you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands in the removal of the body of the flesh in the circumcision of Christ having been buried with him having been buried with him in baptism in which you were also raised up with him through what?

Through faith in the working in the working of who?

Whose working? Our working in the working of God of God who raised him from the dead and you believers being dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh meaning you couldn't do anything to get it you couldn't, you were dead in sin but you being dead uncircumcised he,

God, made you alive with him with Christ having graciously graciously apart from works in other words forgiven us all our transgressions

Amen having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us which was hostile to us the law condemned us

God's wrath was against us but he has also taken it out of the way having nailed it to the cross his cross

Christ's cross having disarmed the rulers and authorities he made a public display of them having triumphed over them in him in him notice beloved how just about every time the

Bible, God's word references the resurrection our resurrection there is an emphatic emphasis on grace and faith

I will raise you one further in the letter of Ephesians chapter 2 as we start to close out here today turn with me in the letter of Ephesians Paul's letter to the

Ephesian church chapter 2 verses 4 through 7 the overwhelming testimony of the scriptures how

Christ's resurrection is our resurrection by grace alone through faith alone in him alone the reformation models rallying cries it's all there it's all there in God's word plainly before all to see the letter of Ephesians chapter 2 verse 4 notice the transition here the apostle

Paul talks about being dead in sin once again very similar to to the passage in Colossians but God but God being rich in what?

in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us even when we were what?

dead in our transgressions hopeless unable to do anything on our own for ourselves made us alive together with Christ notice the in the legacy standard version there is an ellipsis not an ellipsis

I'm sorry hyphenated there's an emphasis there a phrase inserted in the middle of the sentence for emphasis what does it say?

by what? by grace you have been saved by grace alone you have been saved and what?

and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in who?

in Christ Jesus why? why? so that in the ages to come he might show the surpassing riches of his what?

of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus can

I get an amen beloved? amen that is the amazing power of grace and love of the resurrection of Christ it is all by grace all by his love all by his kindness that we did not deserve we deserve nothing but his wrath and punishment for our sin but Christ and the father the trium

God gave it all to us including the resurrection by his grace alone so that everyone will know who belongs to God at the final judgment solely by the power of Christ and his resurrection which is also our resurrection not by the believer's own works because Christ alone accomplishes the salvation and glorification and resurrection of his people remember what is the first thing that Jesus is going to do when his finally returns the very first thing we will all be caught up in the heavens and we will be instantly changed and glorified in our resurrected bodies there is no judgment there is not going to be a judgment to receive our resurrected bodies that is why these corruptors of the faith these false teachers who say you have to present yourselves at the final judgment in order to earn or prove yourself worthy no

Jesus is going to give it to us that is the first thing he is going to do everyone is going to know look at my bright shiny body

I have a passport to heaven because God has graciously given it to me because of his resurrection and making it my resurrection we will have a body like his glorious body in the end for it must necessarily follow that either all that is required for our salvation is not in Christ or if all is truly in him then he who has

Christ by faith has his salvation entirely entirely by grace through faith that is from the

Belgic Reformed Confession Amen Christ is our death

Christ is our baptism of death Christ is our glory

Christ is our resurrection it is Christ alone that is all of these things for us and to us don't ever lose sight of that beloved many have many have today but do not ever lose sight of that of what the scriptures powerfully teach us that is the glory of Christ's resurrection of our resurrected

God man because his power and glory and grace in his resurrection is given to us freely by his kindness by his love by his grace and we are gloriously raised to life solely because of Christ alone

Amen beloved let us bow our heads with a closing word of prayer our gracious precious

Lord and heavenly Father we thank you for the truth of the resurrection the power of the resurrection the glory the grace the immense assurances and promises that come from the resurrection of your beloved son

Father with whom you were well pleased with with whom you were so pleased with that he alone was perfect enough the spotless lamb to bear the ultimate punishment of your divine wrath satisfied fully perfectly and finally such that nothing else is required of us to earn pardon for all our sin and earn grace grace we know cannot be earned that is a contradiction in your scripture

Lord otherwise grace would no longer be grace if it is of works because then it would be earned and not a gracious gift as your word tells us in Romans Lord we thank you for these amazing promises help us

Lord to live in light of these promises and believe these promises to the fullest in Christ your son our resurrection our grace our death and baptism our glory is all because of your precious son and of you uniting us to him and with him and in him in all of our salvation from your choosing us our election our calling to all the chain the glorious chain of redemption to justification sanctification glorification regeneration and our resurrection

Father we thank you for these things we thank you for being the omnipotent and all powerful gracious loving kind God that you are

Lord that none of these things are earned nor could they be ever earned by us but by your love and gracious gift have become ours because of your precious beloved son the resurrection and the life our resurrection and our eternal life by your grace and through faith in him and in the gospel we thank you

Lord we ask that you help us to live as resurrected sons and daughters and to walk out this grace and forgiveness and love for others and for each other

Lord in Jesus name we pray Amen Thank you for listening to the sermons of Thorn Crown Covenant Baptist Church where the

Bible alone and the Bible in its entirety has applied to all of faith and life. We strive to be biblical, reformed, historic, confessional, loving, discerning

Christians who evangelize, stand firm in, and earnestly contend for the Christian faith.

If you're looking for a church in the El Paso, Texas area or for more information about our church, sermons, and ministries such as Semper Ephraim on the radio and the

Thorn Crown Network Podcast, please contact us at thorncrownministries .com and may the mercy, peace, and love of our