Easter Sunday 2015

So the Bible actually says that this is possible for us.

This idea of new life.

The popular verse for this would be 2 Corinthians 5.17.

If you've been around church a while, you can read it and actually not even feel it because we've seen it on so many t-shirts.

If you haven't been around, it's an amazing verse.

It's an amazing truth.

And here's what it says.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, so not in your own merit, in your own work, in your own impressive resume of righteousness, but in Christ, then the new creation has come, the old has gone, and the new is here.

So what we see here in this verse is we see that the context, the context for new life is Christ.

It's his work, not our work.

So while we often try to anchor the core of our identities and our commitment to him, God's trying to get us to anchor the core of our identities and his commitment to us.

And so that's kind of what I want to talk about this morning.

I want to flesh that out in the next 10, 15 minutes.

So there's a story that speaks of a man who walks into a bank.

He goes into the bank, he goes up to the bank teller, and he's going to withdraw some money.

And the bank teller looks down at the account on the screen and very quickly hesitates, gets nervous because this guy owes an unbelievable amount of money.

He is in huge debt.

There's so much debt, there's no way this guy can pay it back.

He must have taken out a huge loan to buy some business.

It must have flopped, and the interest must have been just been just accruing over and over and over again.

The teller gets so kind of uncomfortable he calls the manager over.

The manager comes over, sees the screen, same thing happens.

He sees it, he's uncomfortable, calls the owner over.

The owner comes over, he sees it, it's as if he's been waiting for this moment.

He looks at the screen, he looks at the debt, he looks at the man, he does a few little typing on the keyboard, he says, you know what?

Debt's gone.

It's gone.

Don't worry about it.

The guy leaves.

Now let me ask you a question.

At this point, what is the financial condition of this man?

Well, he's at zero.

He's not in debt.

He's not wealthy.

Now, this is actually my understanding.

This was my understanding of Christianity for a very long time.

I was forgiven of my debt of sin by Jesus, but I was at zero, and I needed to move ahead in my own merit to build up my wealth.

So I had no security, no security before God as a righteous person.

It was just that the sins were forgiven.

But I had to go to work by my own merit.

Now imagine the same story, same guy, same teller, same manager, owner back at the computer again, owner again waiting for this moment, a few types on the board.

He says, you know what?

I have forgiven the debt.

And then he says, and also I have transferred all of my wealth to your account.

Now the guy leaves.

And now what is the financial condition of this man?

Well, it's totally different than the first story, right?

Same story.

But the transfer of the wealth is so important.

And this is just kind of what I missed for so long.

I'd received the forgiveness, but somehow I missed out on the new life.

I thought the new life was rooted in my work, and really the new life is rooted in his work.

That's what 2 Corinthians is about.

That's what this gospel story is about.

That's what the resurrection is about.

It's about his work for us, and that's where the new life is.

It's in Christ.

I knew nothing of a later verse, 2 Corinthians 5.22.

He who knew no sin became sin that I might become the righteousness of God.

So my sin is put upon him and his righteousness is put upon me.

That's new life.

That I am righteous not based on my work, but I'm righteous based on his work.

And that was true when I became a Christian, and it's true today.

And it'll be true ten years from now for me.

It's got to be true tomorrow.

This is God's secure promise to us.

It's his covenant to us.

We've talked some about covenant in our church the last few weeks, and covenant is God's secure promise to us that he's with us and he's for us.

It's just for so long I was just, I was committing.

Just like do more and be more and commit to more.

And really, when I look back on it, so much of it was just a mission of self-justification that I might feel better about myself.

But it was never enough.

It was never enough because there was always a sense, it was never a sense of peace.

There was always a little bit of anxiety there because at the end of the day, I was walking out of the bank at zero.

I wasn't walking out of the bank wealthy and secure in my righteousness because it was based on somebody else.

I was performing.

And when I didn't perform, I had to pretend like I performed because all the other performers would judge me.

Anybody?

Right?

You know the story?

And because of this, I was self-dependent.

I was friendly, but I was indifferent toward people.

I was self-absorbed, still am, by the way.

Get at that one.

Anxious on a daily basis, prideful, and then would swoop over and to be insecure, constantly sort of ranking myself on how good I'm doing based on other people, and then judging them, and then sort of thinking like, why can't they be a radical Christian?

Like, why can't they get their act together?

Well, probably because they're hurting, you know, you insensitive moron.

Maybe they're hurting.

Have you ever thought about that?

So I do you remember the show Lost?

Anyone remember the show?

I don't know, 10 years ago at this point, maybe.

Maybe you were 24.

They came out at the same time.

So if you're younger, um, these were the first binge shows.

And it was pre-Netflix, so you had to do on DVD if you binged, you did on DVD.

But they're the first binge shows where you just got unbelievably addicted to these shows.

We were we were lost people.

You sort of had like lost people or 24 people.

There wasn't a lot of crossover.

So we were lost people, and every once in a while you would watch the show with a group of other people.

And then every once in a while there would be like one person there that didn't watch the show, they didn't know the show.

And you'd be in like the middle of season three of Lost, and it was so crazy stuff going on in that show.

Like if you jumped in the middle of season three, it's crazy stuff.

I mean, if you started season one, episode one, it all made sense.

But but if you jumped in the middle of season three, you're like, what is it?

And that person's sitting over there and they don't care.

And for you, there's all this crucial plot development going on because Jack is doing this, and you can't believe John did that, or maybe you like John and you can't stand Jack, but all this is going on, and everybody's you're so into it, and then you know, Judy's over there, and she doesn't care about this show at all, and then commercial break happens, right?

And everybody feels the obligation to fill Judy in on the story.

And she doesn't she doesn't care.

She just doesn't care, right?

And here's why she doesn't care.

She doesn't know the context.

And the only way for her to care is to begin back season one, episode one.

Because context is everything.

Three points this morning, I'll tell you all in a row, and then I'll kind of explain them.

Number one, context is everything.

Number two, the context is the covenant.

And number three, your commitment to God is birthed and fueled out of the covenant.

So here's what I mean by that.

We love to pretend that the context is our commitment, not God's covenant of grace to us.

But see, that sort of life, that's actually not Christian faith.

That's a form of moralism, is what that is.

And we love it because it gives us a sense of control and it feeds our egos, and what the covenant of grace does is it slays your ego.

There is nothing for you to add.

Jesus is that sufficient in your place, and you need him fully sufficient in your place.

So it slays our ego, but it brings life.

See, only then do we discover power.

Only then do we discover the power of the empty tomb, the power of God, the power of the gospel.

This is the power that the covenant has for us.

God's secure promise to us that he is committed to us.

This is the covenant of grace.

It began with Adam.

Adam and Eve sin.

Adam, they're off hiding.

And what does God do?

Where are you?

He pursues them, he's committed to them.

And God promised to send a seed of the woman, talking about Jesus who would defeat evil in Genesis 3.

And that this man, this Jesus, will come and defeat condemnation and shame and death.

And we read about that in Galatians 3.

Listen, here's what that means.

When you realize there's nothing for you to add, you can stop performing.

And then your heart will finally be able to come alive to live for God and not for yourself.

See, in that way, your commitment is birthed from and fueled by the covenant.

So last Saturday I was coaching assistant coach, my little girl's soccer team.

It's an under-eight soccer league, very intense, very strategic play going on.

And I am the assistant coach, I'm not the main coach, so I am in charge of the goalie and the defender.

I said, I don't get to move upfield, I'm back by the goalie.

Very humble assistant coach back there, and I work with the goalie, I work with the defender, and at one point the ball moved out of my area, moved down the field, and the other defender on the other team, she kicks the ball, sort of hacks at it, and it kind of shoots off like a 45-degree angle off to the left.

Really wasn't that great of a kick, to tell you the truth, but um all of a sudden you hear this just applause break out from the sideline.

I mean, I mean, just like I mean, so loud.

I sort of turned and looked, like, like I mean, did we see the same thing?

And there were six people over there.

You can guess who the six are, right?

Mom and dad, and two sets of grandparents, right?

And to them, this was the most amazing kick they have ever seen in their whole lives.

You know, and then I started to notice it.

I did it with my daughter, Wes did it with Mary, Spain did it with Helen, Melanie did it with Caroline, and so on and so on.

We're just going nuts over our kids.

And they're just like running along out there, hacking along, limping along, just making it up and down of the field.

We're proud they didn't trip over a little clump of grass.

I mean, but but something happens and you're so into it, you're so amazed that this could happen.

I mean, you would think it was a field full of future Olympians.

Like a whole bunch of like ten Pelees are out there.

This is how amazing this is, because we are so wonderfully pleased with our children because they're our children.

So maybe you woke up this morning to try to please someone, to try to please God, try to please somebody else, try to earn your value, try to overcome your shame with your merit.

Listen, listen, the cross and the tomb are about the fact that God is so wonderfully pleased with you.

And it's not because you're a great person, it's not because you're a moral person, it's not because you're a righteous person, it's because his son died on Friday and rose again on Sunday, and your sin's been taken from you, and his righteousness is given to you, and you leave the bank a wealthy, secure person.

Now you're free.

Now your commitment can be birthed from and fueled by the covenant.

Right?

Remember, like context is everything, and the context is the covenant, and your commitment is birthed by and fueled by the covenant.

What God is saying is you don't have to be a pleaser.

You don't have to be a pretender, you don't have to be a performer anymore.

Let go of all the self-made props and trust in his work for you.

This can be your story, this can be your context.

Even if you're the worst player on the field, when he sees you, he's wonderfully pleased with you.

Let's pray together.

As we're bowed in prayer, maybe you're here, you've never placed faith in Jesus, but perhaps even now you find belief in your heart.

Because when it comes down to it, you've always had faith in yourself.

Or maybe it's always just been religion, it's been a self-justification mission, it's never really been living in response to the grace of God to you and what Jesus did for you.

And I welcome you.

You could just pray with me, not aloud, but in your heart to God.

Something like this.

God, I recognize I've always lived with faith in myself, refusing you and living as my own savior.

I know I'm messed up.

I'm a sinner.

I need your help.

I repent of my sin and receive Jesus as Lord and Savior.

Help me to trust in Him and have your way in my life.

For the rest of us in this room, we pray, God, that you would have your way in our lives, that you would bring new life to dead places as we root deeper in your great, gracious covenant to us.

That's enough.

And that our commitment, our passion, our desire, our devotion to you would be birthed by and fueled by your fully sufficient, never ending, always forever, completely reliable covenant to us.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.