Risen with Christ - Eric Troyer

Good morning, and welcome to each one. Glad to see

you all here this morning, on this beautiful Easter day,

and welcome to the visitors. Were glad that you're here

with us this morning. Appreciated the devotional that Brother Joel

had there. And one thing that stood out to me

there at the end of verse six was the invitation

to come and see the place where the Lord lay,

where he used to be. He's not there anymore. This

morning for a message, I was originally thinking that I

would have some sort of an Easter message. And while

this is the message for this morning is not exactly

an Easter message, it definitely relates to the death of

our Lord and him rising again from the dead. This morning,

I want to look at three different points. I want

to look at death, and I want to look at

being risen from the dead and maintaining a risen state.

And this is in the context of the Christian life.

So to start with, we're going to look at death.

What is death? Death is the end of life. Death

is the absence of life. Death is when your heart

stops beating and your lungs stop taking an oxygen and

the soul departs from the body, and when a loved

one or someone close to us dies, it's painful. It's

painful for those of us left behind. We feel the

whole that is left by that individual. Death is raw.

Death is uncaring and unfeeling. It doesn't care about how

we feel. It just is what it is. It's final.

It's the parting of our relationship with the individual or

the being that has died. It's it's the final parting

as we know it here on this earth. And while

death is a natural part of the cycle of life,

it feels so unnatural, and I'm not exactly sure why

it feels so unnatural. We know that we're all going

to die someday, unless the Lord returns before that. But

when we have an individuals who's maybe laying up front

here in a casket, who has departed from this world,

it feels very unnatural, and it causes us to stop

and to consider, just taking a few moments to consider

the death of Jesus on the cross. Death by crucifixion

was slow and agonizing, and it was not a fun

way to die. If there is a fun I don't

know that there's such a thing as a fun way

to die, but it was not a fun way to die.

It was shameful. It was considered one of the most

shameful ways to die. And because of this, the crucifixion

was reserved for the worst of criminals. And to think

that our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ was subjected to

one of the worst forms of death imagined at the time,

is something that's hard to wrap our head around. The

God who created the earth, who created life, who is life,

was subjected to this physical death. And as unnatural as

death is to us, I wonder how it must have

been for Jesus to be subjected to a physical death.

So we have been talking about physical death as we

understand it, But I want to shift our focus to

spiritual death. What brings death spiritually in our lives. Romans five,

verse twelve says, wherefore is by one man, and that's

referring to Adam sin entered into the world, and death

by sin, and so death passed upon all men for

that all have sinned. Romans eight six says for to

be carnally minded as death, but to be spiritually minded

is life and peace. And so we see that when

we sin, and when we blatantly disregard what God wants

for us in our life, and we disregard his will,

and we turn and we go the other way. We

are dead spiritually. There is no life in us. Us

if we are governed and controlled by fleshly desires and

appetites instead of by the spirit of God, we are dead,

and there is no life in us. And things that

are dead are usually not attractive. Now, I guess hunters

might think sometimes that a dead animal is at least

somewhat attractive, if it's a big trophy buck or a

big trophy elk or something. But usually death is not attractive,

because as we leave that thing that was alive and

was now and is now dead, we leave it to

the natural course of nature and of life, it starts

to decompose, and it stinks, and it is repulsive. And

I believe that is in a sense, how we are

to God when we are spiritually dead in our sins.

Ephesians two, verse three says among whom also we all

had our conversation in times past in the lust of

our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of

the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath,

even as others. And there's a word that's stuck out

to me in this verse as I looked at it,

and that is the word nature. We were, by nature

the children of wrath, and like it or like it

or not, we all have that nature within us, the

fallen nature of man. And if left to ourselves and

our own strength, even if we try to be as

good as we can, and we try to follow God

on our own strength, that fallen nature will always manifest itself,

and it will always take us down a carnal path

that leads to death. There's no way around it. We

are all born with that nature and we cannot help it.

So how do we get around this nature? My second

point here is being risen with Christ, and that is

the title of the message this morning, Risen with Christ.

I went to look at several verses from Romans six

versus three through ten, and this is not going to

be the main scripture that we look at this morning,

but I did want to read it and just reflect

on it briefly because I believe this is the stepping

stone for where I want to go with the rest

of the message here. And thinking about being risen with Christ,

Romans six, verse three says, know ye not that so

many of us, as were baptized into Jesus Christ, were

baptized into his death. Therefore we are buried with him

by baptism into death. That, like his Christ was raised

up from the dead by the glory of the Father.

Even so we also should walk in newness of life.

For if we have been planted together in the likeness

of his death, we shall also be in the likeness

of his resurrection. Knowing this that our old man is

crucified with him and the body, that the body of

sin might be destroyed, and henceforth that henceforth we should

not serve sin, for he that is dead is freed

from sin. Now, if we be dead with Christ, we

believe that we shall also live with him. Knowing that Christ,

being raised from the dead, dieth no more death hath

no dominion over him. For in that he died, he

died unto sin once. But in that he liveth he

liveth unto God. So I want to look at what

it means to be risen with Christ. He's talking here

about several different things, being dead, crucifying the old man

as he refers to it, and being raised again with

Jesus Christ. And before we can look at what it

is to be risen. I think we need to recognize

that there has to be a death, and this death

is not the death of the physical death or being

being dead spiritually. This death that I'm referring to is

the death of the old man, our old self, our

sinful nature. This death is a necessity for there to

be new life. We cannot have new life without having

this death first. And thinking of the resurrection of Jesus

is the same way. Without death, there could be no resurrection.

Just as Jesus had to die so that he could

rise from the dead to conquer sin and death, so

we must die to sin and our selfish carnal desires

before we can be risen with Christ. We cannot take

our sin into a right relationship with God. It says

here in Romans six, the body of sin must be

destroyed so that we should serve sin no more. It

has to be done away with. And Jesus willingly took

this and the shame of the whole world upon himself

when he died on the cross, so that one day

you and I could be risen with him in a

renewed life. And praise God for that. It is very

humbling and very amazing that He did that for us.

When we put to death the old man and the

works of the flesh, it is not the end of

our physical life, but rather the death of our carnality,

and it is a transition into a new and beautiful

spiritual life with Jesus Christ as the focus and the center.

And while being renewed and being transformed has its effects,

some of them think immediately, not at least, I believe

that not all those effects are immediate, and I guess

you can correct me if I'm wrong on that, but

I believe that it is. It is something that we

must strive for. We must be renewed daily, and it

is a progression throughout our lives to attain and to

keep this renewed state. We do not automatically attain to

the perfect new Man, but by God's grace we grow

day by day. Turn in your Bibles, if you will,

to Colossians three Colossians three, and I want to spend

some time looking at some verses here. I'll be reading

verses one through sixteen at this time, and then we'll

take some time to look at what is being said here.

So Classians three, verse one, if ye, then be risen

with Christ. Seek those things which are above, where Christ

sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection

on things above, not on things on the earth. For

you're dead, and your life is hid with with Christ

in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear,

then shall ye also appear with Him in glory. Mortify

therefore your members, which are upon the earth fornication, uncleanness,

inordinate affection, evil, concupiscence, and coveteousness, which is idolatry, for

which thing's sake. The wrath of God cometh on the

children of disobedience in the which ye also walked some

time when you lived in them. But now ye also

put off all these anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication.

Out of your mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing

that you have put off the old man with his deeds,

and have put on the new Man, which is renewed

in knowledge, after the image of Him that created him.

Where there is neither Greek nor jew circumcision, nor uncircumcision,

Barbarian Scythian bond, nor free, but Christ is all and

in all. Put on therefore as the elect of God,

Holy and Beloved vowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness,

long suffering, forbearing one another and forgiving one another. If

any man have a quarrel against any even as Christ

forgave you, so also do ye. And above all these things,

put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. And

let the peace of God rule in your hearts. To

the Witch, also you are called in one body, and

be thankful. Let the Word of Christ dwell in you

richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another, in

psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in

your hearts to the Lord to help us understand the

difference between the old man and the New man. I

want to take some time to consider the characteristics or

the deeds of the old man and the new man,

and to make some comparisons between these two men, if

you will, It says here in verse five, to mortify

therefore your members which are upon the earth. And then

he starts into a list here and and mortify means

to put to death or to subdue. And so we

have this idea of the putting to death of the

old man. And he talks here about many different things. Fornication, uncleanness,

inordinate affection. Uh. These these three things are are very

similar to each other, although maybe not exactly the same,

but they have to do with impure motives and sexual immorality.

Evil concupiscence is lust or evil or impure desires. Coveteousness,

which is idolatry. Coveteousness is greed or an inordinate affection

for possessions that we covet that we maybe we see

other people have, or something we notice that we'd like

to have an inordinate affection for those things. And when

we covet something, we have an immoderate attachment to that thing,

And that immoderate attachment is the same thing as idle worship.

It says that coveteousness is idolatry. Anger, wrath. I don't

know about you, but I always have a hard time

remembering what the differences between anger and wrath. Anger is

a strong feeling of displeasure and usually provokes hostility. Wrath

is a strong or vengeful anger. It's ramped up a

notch or two. It also has the idea of retribution

or recompense for something that has happened. Getting back at

someone for something that they have done to us. And

I'm sure we've all heard maybe children or maybe even adults.

It's not just a children problem. But well, this, this

person did this to me, so I'm going to do

something to get back at him, and then we'll be even.

It is wrath wanting to recompense someone for what they

have done to us. And we know how that goes.

It usually doesn't just stop with getting even the Usually

the other person has to get even, and it goes

back and forth. James One nineteen and twenty says, Wherefore,

my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear,

slow to speak, slow to wrath, For the wrath of

man worketh not the righteousness of God. The wrath of

man is not beneficial. It is not something that we

want in our lives. It does not draw us closer

to God or to help us grow into the new

man that we should be. The next one that he

mentions here is malice. And I thought I knew what

malice was, But as I studied into it, I've decided

that I didn't know what malice was exactly. After all,

malice is to have a desire to cause pain or

injury to someone simply out of cruelty or spite, and

just for the satisfaction of doing harm. It's just seems

like pure evil. That person may or may not have

done anything to us to provoke that. It is just

simply evil intent. And this is also not a characteristic

of the new Man Ephesians four thirty one and says,

let all bitterness and wrath, and anger, and clamor and

evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice blasphemy.

I won't spend a lot of time on blasphemy, but

blasphemy is simply insulting God or showing lack of reverence

for God or for things that are holy. Filthy communication, cursing, swearing,

taking God's name in vain. I believe these are all

forms of filthy communication. It can also be things like

dirty jokes, off color comments, as we sometimes call them.

These things are not edifying, and they should not be

a part of the new Man's life. Let no corrupt

communication proceed out of your mouth. But that which is

good to the use of edifying, that it may minister

grace unto the he lie not to one another. And

I have a few different kinds of lies listed here.

If there is such a thing as different kinds of lies,

I think there is. I have a few different kinds

of lies listed here that I think are helpful for

us to understand what all is included here. The first

one I have is simply telling an untruth telling saying

something that you know is false, and maybe maybe you're

doing it to cover your own back or to make

yourself look good to avoid consequences for something that you've done.

Lying is a sin. The next one is deception, leading

someone to believe something that isn't true. False accusations accusing

someone of something that they have not done, something that

is not true. Flattery. Flattery is insincere praise, and flattery

can be used to make someone think more highly of us,

to butter them up. You might say flattery can be

used to manipulate others, but the fact is that it

is lying. Flattery is speaking things that you don't mean,

is speaking things that may not even be true to

achieve some sort of benefit or desired outcome. Hypocrisy. I

think we all know what hypocrisy is saying one thing

and doing another. Inconsistency in our speech and actions. And

the last one I have here is false teaching, teaching

things that are not true, and leading people down a

path that is away from truth, teaching things that are

a lie. Ephesians four to twenty five says, wherefore, putting

away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor, For

we are members one of another. And maybe this is

just a personal belief here, But I sometimes feel that

lying is maybe perceived as something that isn't as serious

as some other sins. But the scripture would indicate otherwise.

God takes lying very seriously, and he says in Revelation

that liars will have their place in the lake of fire.

And then and he gives liars there with a list

of other sins that will be cast into the lake

of fire. God takes lying very serious. Now let's look

at the new man. We've talked about what the old

man is. Now I want to look at what the

new man is and should be. And I also want

to look at practical ways in everyday living that we

can be renewed and can be risen with Christ. The

first step I believe is that we need to acknowledge

and confess our sin and to have faith and believe

on the Lord Jesus Christ. For by grace are ye

saved through faith, And that not of yourselves. It is

the gift of God, God, not of works, lest any

man should boast. Verse ten here of Colossians three talks

about putting on the new Man. Says, put on the

new Man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image

of Him that created him. And as I mentioned earlier,

I don't think that this renewing always just happens in

an instant. It is it is something that is a progression,

and it is a path that we must walk, and

that we must strive for a goal that we must

strive for. Strive for that completeness or that perfectness. So

what are some of the characteristics of the new Man?

The first one here bowels of mercies. And bowels of

mercies is a term that we don't use today, but

I think what it's talking about here is compassion. Compassion

is a consciousness of others distress and a desire to

help them and to help alleviate the situation that they're in.

And I know that my little family has experienced the

compassion of you all in whatever it might be, the

death of a loved one. New babies being born, things

like that, all the meals and the care that we

have felt. It is very very humbling to be the

recipient of that care and compassion, and it brings such

a sense of a sense or a feeling of belonging

and community. Community and knowing that people care and have

your back is it's just very encouraging and like I said,

very very humbling. It is also contagious. I know for us,

when we experience the compassion that others have had on us,

it makes us want to share with others that are

in need as well, to pass the blessing on to

someone else that could use it. Kindness. I don't think

I need to explain what kindness is. The kindness I

believe is universal, It knows no social or geographic boundaries,

and humans as a whole I believe understand what kindness is.

And kindness is I guess you could say one of

the oils of life that keeps the wheels turning smoothly.

A small deed of kindness can absolutely make someone's day

and turn someone's bad day in to something pleasurable. Kindness

is so basic and yet it is so profound. Do

not underestimate the power of kindness, humbleness of mine. I

won't expound on that much, but humbleness of mind, the

absence of pride. It is a characteristic of the new

Man meekness. I don't know about you, but I have

a hard time understanding exactly what meekness is. It just

feels like, I, uh, yeah, I'm not able to wrap

my head around it. But from what I've found, it

seems like maybe some people who try to define it

don't exactly know what all meekness is either. But I

found a definition of meekness that really resonated with me

and helped me understand a little better what meekness is.

We are, Paul says, here to have meekness. Meekness is

a quality of being gentle, humble, and patient, often described

as strength under control rather than weakness or passivity. It

involves restraining power, managing anger, and choosing Humility is often

shown through quiet, strength forbearance, and a calm, unaggressive demeanor.

And Jesus said in Matthew five that the meek will

inherit the earth. Meekness is one of the fruits of

the spirit, And I feel like meekness, at least for

myself is something that is hard to attain, but through

the help of the Holy Spirit, I believe we can

attain meekness long suffering. This seems to go right along

with meekness here to patiently endure lasting offense or hardship.

And those things can be very hard and very unpleasant,

and they can they can cause bitterness and frustration, but

that is not the way that God would have us

to respond to these situations. Instead, we are to wait

patiently on Him to help us through these times and

to endure the difficult things. Forbearance, to hold oneself back,

to restrain oneself, to be slow to anger, to refrain

from enforcing something that is due to us a right,

an obligation, a debt. That is forbearance, to have self control.

The new Man is to be restrained and to have

self control. Forgiveness. I believe that forgiveness is a very

essential part of the life of a believer. And it's

not a matter of if we will be hurt in

this life. It is a matter of when, and it's

up to us to decide what we are going to

do with those things. We're going to let them fester

and build, We're going to let ourselves become bitter, or

we're going to put on the new Man, and we're

going to forgive. Christ has forgiven us so much, and

he has set the example for us that we are

to forgive others as he has forgiven us. In verse fourteen,

here he says, above all these things, all these good

things that we talked about, above all this, put on charity,

or put on love, which is the bond of perfectness

or maturity. The two greatest commandments found in the Bible

are to love the Lord God with all your heart, soul, mind,

and strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself. And

this love that it's referring to here is a love

that is generous, and a love that shows kind concern,

a love that is devoted and selfless, a love that

is deep and caring. One Peter four eight also echoes

this by saying, above all these things, have fervent charity

or love among yourselves, for charity shall cover the multitude

of sins. And I don't know what all that means

by covering the multitude of sins, but it is clear

that we are to have love in our hearts for

each other. And I think sometimes we underestimate the power

of love. And loving our fellow man is not an option.

It is a command. Already gave the one command there

to love your neighbor as yourself. And John fifteen twelve.

This is Jesus talking. He says, this is my commandment

that ye love one another as I have loved you.

And I don't know if it's possible for a human

to love another human as much as Jesus loves us,

But that is the goal that we should set our

sights on, to love each other as Jesus has loved us.

Verse fifteen. Let the peace of God rule in your

heart and rule here has the idea of an official

in a sports game or something like that, and an

umpire or a referee. Let the peace of God referee

your heart when things don't go our way in a

decision that's made. Does the peace of God rule in

your heart? When others hurt us or wrongfully accuse us,

do we let the peace of God referee our response

to that situation? And there are many other examples we

could think of. When the world is just seemingly falling

to pieces and the fuel prices are skyrocketing, and they

are wars and all the things. Do we let the

peace of God rule? What about when you're just having

a bad day? Anybody ever have a bad day? I

thought I was having a bad day recently? Do we

do we let the the peace of God rule in

our hearts? Do we let it referee our response to life?

Mm hmmm? Be thankful. The new Man is a thankful person,

especially for what God has done in his life. And

we have so many rich spiritual blessings and so many

rich physical blessings to be thankful for. Let thankfulness be

part of the new Man. Now, I want to look

at maintaining a risen or renewed state. How do we

maintain this this new Man that we have put on.

Seek those things which are above. Seek ye first the

Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things

shall be added unto you. By seeking the Kingdom of God,

we will accomplish His will in our lives. And that

process of becoming the new Man will be much easier

if we are seeking first the Kingdom of God, and

God in turn will be faithful and He will meet

our spiritual and our physical needs through that process. Set

your affections on heavenly things, not on earthly things. Jesus said,

where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

And I think we do well to remember that this

world is not our home. It is only a place

that we are passing through on our way to a

better home. And all the possessions, all the things that

we have here on this earth, either we are going

to pass away, or the world and our possessions will

pass away. Either way, the end result is the same.

Those things are not important. Set your affections on things above. First.

John says to love not the world, neither the things

that are in the world. If any man loved the world,

the love of the Father is not in him. For

all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh,

the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life,

is not of the Father, but is of the world.

And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof. But

he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. And

the last one that I have here is to let

the Word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom.

Psalm says, Thy word have I hid in my heart

that I might not sin against thee The word of

God cannot dwell in us if we don't do anything

about it. We can't just sit back and expect the

words of the Bible to jump off the page and

fill our brains. It takes effort, and it takes discipline

to fill ourselves with the Word of God and to

let it dwell in our lives. He also mentions singing

in this verse, and as I thought about it, I

believe that singing is also a way that we can

let the Word of Christ dwell in us richly. And

singing is a very powerful thing. It is an effective

way to worship and to praise God. And even as

I was studying for this sermon, there were multiple songs

that came to mind as I thought about this and

pondered this and looked at different scriptures, and somehow the

combination of the words and the music have a way

of sticking in our brains better than just trying to

memorize words off of a page. And so I think

this is an important way to let the Word of

Christ dwell in us richly. God created music to be

something beautiful, but the devil has taken it and perverted it,

as so many other good things that God has created.

And I would even like to say this that I

believe that the songs that we sing and the music

that we allow ourselves to listen to, will have an

effect on whether we walk according to the ways of

the New Man or according to the ways of the

old man. Music is powerful and we should not underestimate

that power. I heard a story recently of a Mennonite

man who was traveling somewhere, and he was traveling with

another individual, a young man, I believe, a Christian man,

but not Mennonite at all, and this Mennonite man asks

him what he would observe as his biggest concern for

the youth of his church, and this young man said

that he viewed the biggest concern of those youths the

music that they were listening to. He said, they say

that the words of the music don't matter, that they're

only only or that the words of the song don't matter,

and that they're only listening to the music. But he

said that is not true. The words do make a difference,

and I would agree with that there thereof I believe

is a serious trap in that type of thinking, that

the words of music do not matter. And if you

find yourself in that position, I would challenge you to

take the time to consider whether the music that you

are listening to is helping you maintain the new man

in Christ, or is it leading you down the path

of the old man. In closing Colossians three seventeen, and

whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in

the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to

God and the Father. By Him and God bless