Easter 2020

Uh good morning.

Welcome to church this morning.

He is risen.

He's risen indeed.

There we go.

Yeah, I was waiting for all of you to say it.

I hope you did.

My name is James Rathman.

I'm the pastor here at Redemption Church Denver.

Thanks for joining us this morning.

Uh this kind of gloomy, dreary Easter Sunday morning, uh, although the snow is kind of nice.

We've got a lot to celebrate.

We've got the greatest thing, the greatest news to celebrate this morning.

Like Zach said, and uh I just want to keep talking about it because when we showed up this morning to see all of your pictures, uh seated in the pews.

So I'm actually getting to look out right now and see the faces of our church uh looking back, and that is so joyful.

Um, it's such a wonderful thing, and it and it kind of you know it brings to mind the strange nature of this Sunday morning, this Easter celebration, that we are separated from each other and that this whole time uh is a this is a day of celebration, but it's also filled with such a lament this morning.

And so we want to create the space for that because um right now we are uh not able to gather together.

Our afternoon services uh or our our times together with our families uh are not available like they normally are.

Um and uh uh many of us are just full of an anxiety with regards to our careers or our finances for this week or our health uh or how we're going to manage more weeks of us working together uh in our homes and trying to balance having kids and full-time jobs and all those things that are kind of compressed into this strange season or just an extended time of loneliness that many of us are experiencing.

Uh so uh with that background, we come together, although separate in our rooms, we come together in time to remember the greatest news that is hopeful even in the midst of all that's happening today.

It's still hopeful.

Uh so with that kind of in mind, and with that as our background, let's pray and then we'll get into the word for today.

Holy Father, I pray that you would bless this Sunday morning, that you would bless this Easter celebration, that your church, the world over, is separate but gathered together in spirit to worship this news that is always good.

We praise you for the resurrection and the hope that it gives us, no matter the season that we're in, we have this anchor of the soul, which is that Jesus came back to life and secured us, secured for us eternal life in you.

We pray that we would see that today in your word.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

So, as I said, I'm James Rathman.

I'm the pastor here at Redemption Church.

Thanks for joining us if this is your first time.

Uh, a great way to be connected is to download our app.

You can download that in any app store, uh, or go to our website, redemptiondenver.com, and you can sign up for our newsletter.

And also immediately following this service, something we've been doing on Sundays is we've been hosting a Zoom prayer meeting.

So uh you can click the link, it's right under the video that you're watching.

Um, there's a link to uh the Zoom meeting, and you can jump on and we'll pray together, usually about 20 minutes to a half hour immediately following the service.

So this is our first Easter in the Berkeley neighborhood as a church.

We moved into uh this neighborhood on January 12th.

That was our first service.

And we started uh and we were setting up and tearing down at uh Centennial Elementary, which is actually named Centennial, a school for expeditionary learning, which is perfect because that's exactly what we did there.

We went like on this expedition to set up a new church in the area, and we learned a lot.

Um, so we should write that on their Google review that uh it works.

Expeditionary learning is a real thing.

Uh and uh this is our first uh and then so we moved into that school, and then on March 8th, we were thrilled to host our first service in this building uh where we all got to gather together, and these faces weren't just pictures, but they were real human beings sitting in these pews.

We were sitting next to each other uh with just reckless abandon, uh sitting next to each other like we used to do, you remember.

And uh uh looking back now, what an amazing joy that we got to have our first service in our permanent location in this neighborhood.

The margin was so thin.

If we were a week in if we were a week further out, we wouldn't have gotten to meet, but God blessed us so abundantly by bringing us here, establishing us in this place, giving us that Sunday of celebration before it was time to learn how to do church in a new way for this unique season.

Uh an incredible blessing.

But here we are on a Sunday where we can't be together, surrounded by this swirl of anxiety, surrounded by so much bad news.

And, you know, it it the word that we're all using to describe this uh is unprecedented.

If I hear one more person say, This is unprecedented, um, this is like this is like a Supreme Court case or something.

This is an unprecedented time, but it's true because there's there's nobody that any of us can ask and be like, hey, what was it like the last time you went through a global pandemic?

Uh how did you structure your finances, or what did you do for your employees, or what bills did you pay and not pay?

Uh how did you pray for your loved ones?

And there's nobody to ask.

This is all of our first times through something like this.

So it's helpful to zoom out.

And what if instead of just considering our own perspectives, this morning we considered the perspective of all of church history?

So the past 2,000 years, you know, the church has been through a lot of things like this.

Right after the resurrection, uh, Jesus sends the Holy Spirit onto his church, and they're immediately thrown into persecution.

It's a matter of weeks until the first person is killed for being a Christian.

And in that persecution, the church learns how to thrive, and the good news marches forward.

And the church survives famines, and the church has survived plagues, and it's even survived times of just like gluttonous prosperity, where there's this inevitable stagnation that happens for a movement like this.

And uh it's survived world wars and the Great Depression and even televangelists.

And right now we're all televangelists, so it takes one to know one.

And it's even survived those.

But somehow, amidst all of that, all the corruption, we see the good news moves forward.

Through all of these unprecedented times, there's something about this good news that can't be stopped.

That's the good news we're going to talk about today.

You know, it's strange because for this moment, good news, what good news would be, seems so obvious.

Good news is a cure.

Good news is, look, it turns out those those scientists that are somewhere like pipetting things or whatever, however you however you make a cure with potions and cauldrons or whatever it is that scientists do.

One day, you know, that maybe they'll they'll happen upon this thing, and it's like, hey, if you put this molecule next to this molecule, then it just stops that from happening.

And then we've solved this.

And so you can go back to work.

Your finances will recover, your uh friends will be taken out of the hospital, your uh you'll be able to hug one another again and see your families, and we'll be able to gather together as a church and sing the doxology again together.

It seems so apparent what good news would mean for this moment.

But of course, during a famine, it seems so apparent that good news would mean food.

Uh during a recession, it's so apparent that good news would mean money.

And yet, during all of those things, we see that this good news, which isn't any of that, remains good news in any context.

This transcends whatever moment it happens to be in, and the good news of Jesus seems to keep moving forward throughout the world unstoppably, unshakably.

So that means that this is connecting with something in the human heart that transcends any cultural moment that it happens to find itself in, and causes us to see, wow, this is the good news that no matter what is plaguing me, this is the real good news that I've been waiting for the whole time.

Now, what is this good news?

What are the results of the death and resurrection of Jesus?

I can say it in a verse.

These are the verses that we're going to be going through this morning that I realize now I completely forgot to read in the beginning, but it's okay.

I'll read them all as we go.

These are the verses that we'll go through.

But I can say this good news in one verse.

It says Romans 8, verse 1.

Romans 8:1

It says, There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

That's the good news.

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

So here's what we're gonna see.

What does that mean?

How can that be?

How would your life be different if you believed that?

Three things.

What does that mean?

How can that be?

And how would your life be different if you believed that?

First, what does that mean?

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

That means, because of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, that for those who put their faith in him, when God looks at them, when God looks at you, Christian, he sees not a hair, not an ounce, not anything worth condemning.

And all your messed upness and all that's broken and wrong in your heart, all of those things that you know, those those things you would heap upon yourself at any moment, when God looks at you in Christ, he sees none of it.

There is no condemnation whatsoever for those who are in Christ Jesus.

That is the good news of the cross.

Now I know for many of you, that statement didn't really pack the punch that I want it to.

To find out, yeah, God isn't condemning me because of what Jesus did.

You know, you may hear that and think, well, of course he's not condemning me.

Why would he?

What have I done worth condemning, especially to something like hell?

And what type of God is it anyway that is uh is always out there condemning people?

This is why I stay away from religion, and this is why I uh uh have have left this uh these types of faith that are always heaping this condemnation.

And so a statement like that isn't shocking, but it should amaze you to hear that for you there could be no condemnation whatsoever from God should completely amaze you.

There's at least a couple of reasons why.

Reason number one, that's not the way you treat yourself.

You don't treat yourself as though you are not condemned.

Just pay attention to the way that you talk to yourself.

The way that you talk to yourself is full of condemnation.

It's full of phrases like, why can't I stand up to this?

Why am I not courageous enough for this moment?

Why didn't I plan better for something like this?

Why did I treat that person that way?

Why am I acting so stupid?

Why am I acting so arrogant?

Why am I acting so fill in the blank?

Why can't I finally quit being so anxious?

Why am I so driven by this fear?

You don't treat yourself as though there's no condemnation.

So what news is it that God in Christ treats you as though you're not condemned at all?

Reason number two, that's not the way you treat others.

Uh, my wife and I uh we're having another child, and um we are uh so we're shifting bedrooms in our home, and we moved into the back bedroom.

And our neighbor uh has like this incredible bass system uh to some people, I'm sure it's incredible.

And now that we've been trying to sleep back there, uh that that bass system, which I once thought of as incredible, is now uh my arch nemesis because we are unable to sleep.

And the things that I think about this person who's just playing music in their home.

And when I walk outside to have the confrontation of like, hello, uh, could you please turn your music down?

It's me, the pastor that lives next door.

You know, there's no way to come out of that conversation.

Cool.

Uh uh the things that I think in my mind are terrible.

What type of person would listen to this music so late?

And uh it's because I'm trying to sleep.

I'm heaping condemnation.

My thoughts get to the point where it has nothing to do with the music, uh, but it has to do with the type of person that they've chosen to be.

I don't treat myself, you don't treat yourself as though there's no condemnation, and you don't treat others as though there's no condemnation.

So if those two points stuck, you may be thinking, okay, you're right, you're right.

I I really need to stop with this negative self-talk that I have.

And I need to stop projecting all these values and ideals that are really just my own onto other people.

And then I won't be living in such a condemning way.

And maybe that's true.

You know, that may that may be something that you should try and do.

That may be a good effort.

But let's imagine how we could try and do this.

Let's uh see, okay, we're gonna stop trying to live in such a condemning way.

Let's just imagine just towards ourselves.

We've got two options.

Option A, just stop disappointing yourself.

Stop breaking the commitments that you've made to yourself.

Uh uh stop not measuring up to the ideal that you have for yourself.

You know, let's show some effort.

Game faces, game faces, everybody.

And I can tell by looking at all of your faces right now, staring back at me.

There's some game faces out there.

That's option one.

Meet your standard.

Option number two is you could stop caring about the things that disappoint you.

So option two is to lower your standard.

Now, the difficulty with option number two, this could afford you some immediate sense of freedom.

Because no longer would you have to experience the pain of a missed ideal?

The risk, what happens if you meet someone inspiring?

What happens if you see someone who legitimately, selflessly loves you?

And what if you consider I'd kind of like to be like that?

I'd like to legitimately, selflessly love someone.

Mr.

Rogers, uh who was a, I'm just kidding, I don't need to explain to you who Mr.

Rogers was.

Uh he won an Emmy, and I saw a recording of his speech that he gave when he won the Emmy, and he said, Let's take 20 seconds, and I want you to reflect on all of the people who loved you on your way to being who you are now.

The ones that sacrificed and served to love you into the world.

And he said, I'll keep the time.

Oh, look, a watch.

I'll keep the time.

Twenty seconds.

All those people that loved you into the world.

What happens if you're inspired by them?

What happens if you'd want to be more like them?

Are you willing to lower your standard?

So we've seen that option one, meet your standard.

Look, isn't that what you've been trying this whole time?

Is impossible.

And option number two, lower your standard.

Well, it's self-defeating.

And both are extremely prone to self-deceit.

Now we've just been talking about your standard.

And the hope that we've seen by looking at these two is that perhaps you could get less condemnation later.

But what this scripture says is from God there is no condemnation now.

Now, how can that be?

Did you suddenly wake up this morning and oh, you've met God's standard.

Congratulations.

The ideal for humanity that he imagined at the foundations of the world, you met it.

Great job.

No, I sorry, you didn't this morning.

I'm sure you're great.

You didn't meet God's standard.

Did God overnight decide, you know what?

Those ideals and those hopes that I had for humanity when I made them in my image and I gave them this incredible capacity to create and to love and to selflessly serve and enjoy one another and enjoy me and worship me and find their deepest satisfaction in who God is.

Did God suddenly say, you know, I think I had my sights set a little too high for what humans could be?

Maybe I've uh my eyes were a little bigger than my stomach in that regard.

No, uh God did not suddenly decide that.

He you didn't suddenly meet his standard, and he didn't suddenly lower his standard.

His ideal is perfection and wondrous beauty for what a human could be.

So then how can this say that there is now, right now, no condemnation?

Let's look at the verses that follow.

We're going to look at how can that be in Romans 8, verse 2.

Romans 8:2

It says for, so that's B.

Because, so there's now no no condemnation, because the law of the spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.

Okay, so this verse is describing how it is that we can be set free, so that we can be not condemned at all in God's eyes.

And how is it?

Well, Paul introduces, the writer of this letter, Paul, introduces these two phrases.

We've been using the word standard, and he uses the word law.

He says, look, there's this type of law that you're used to living with.

And it's the law that he calls the law of sin and of death.

And in Christianity, we see throughout the whole Old Testament, these are explicit laws, explicit commands.

You know, you can think just the Ten Commandments.

And these are laid out, and he calls those laws, those good ideals of God, the law of sin and of death.

And why does he call it the law of sin and of death?

It's because when God describes to us his perfect ideal, all it exposes in our hearts is that we can't attain it.

Because of our sin, because we have ignored God and who he is, and we have turned on ourselves and our own selfishness, we have denied him as God and made ourselves God.

And so the law exposes that we are condemned.

But there's this new law, the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus.

And that's a phrase that Paul uses to describe the gospel.

That because Jesus came into the world and died and took on our sin, because of this principle of his free grace towards us, we can be set free completely from the condemnation which we receive from the law.

Now, this is not the discovery of some new philosophical principle.

This is true because of an event that took place in history, that God can make this statement, there is therefore now no condemnation over you.

The argument continues in verses three and four.

So why has this law of the spirit of life set us free from the law of sin and of death?

Four, it's because God has done what the law weakened by the flesh could not do.

The law weakened by the flesh, because of our own sinful nature, we could never attain to the ideal that God called us to.

But God did what the law could not do.

How did he do it?

By sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit.

What happened?

What event took place?

God did in Christ Jesus what the law could not do.

No matter the striving that we committed ourselves towards, we could never attain to the law of God.

So what God did is he sent Jesus to live a perfect life on our behalf, and then to die the death that we deserve to die, so that his death might be counted as our death.

And then when he is resurrected on the day his resurrection is what we're celebrating today.

When he was resurrected, that means that our hope is eternally secured, that we will have life in him.

You know, for any standard that you have for yourself, there's two aspects to it.

There's a reward that you can imagine receiving, and there's a punishment that you would know you would get if you didn't uh if you didn't attain to that standard.

You know, every alarm clock has this in it that you set.

There's a reward if you wake up, then you'll you'll get some more time in the morning.

You'll be able to be more effective and get these things done, and you'll leave the house, you know, in a better mood or whatever.

Uh and if you don't wake up, there'll be a punishment for it.

You'll miss out on something or that meeting, whatever your boss, or you'll you know, not be ready for your Zoom call.

God's standard is exactly the same.

It has a built-in reward.

And that reward, because this is God, is eternal life with Him.

It means the ultimate fulfillment.

You as a creature, you as whatever your name is, say your name, me as James.

I would be able to live exactly as my creator intended me to be.

When he knit me together in my mother's womb, he had this intention for who I could be, this glorious hope for me.

And I could actually experience that.

That's the hope of the law of God.

It's real life.

And the punishment, of course, what you don't get when you attain that standard would be just the opposite.

It would be a crumbling from who you were made to be.

It would be a loss of the identity that you were born to have.

It's death.

For Jesus to fulfill the righteous requirements of the law on our behalf would mean he'd have to fulfill both aspects of what the standard of the law required.

Because we did not measure up to it.

He would have to fulfill the punishment in order for us to be saved.

And on the cross, that's exactly what he fulfills.

But it would not be enough just to bear the punishment.

He would have to bear it in such a way that shows his perfect obedience, his perfect adherence to who God had called him to be, in order that his righteousness might become our righteousness.

And in Christ we see both.

One of my favorite hymns is uh Rock of Ages.

It's also one of my favorite Tom Cruise movies.

And he uh uh in Rock of Ages it has this line.

It says, Rock of Ages, cleft for me.

Let me hide myself in thee.

Let the water and the blood from thy wounded side which flowed.

Listen to this, be for sin the double cure.

Double.

Save from wrath and make me pure.

Here's the good news.

Christ's death means that there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

But it means even more than that.

It means that when God looks at us in Christ, he sees us as perfectly righteous.

So how does God consider you?

How does he treat you?

In Christ, God treats you as though you are his very children.

And his spirit testifies with our spirit.

That's why we cry out, Abba, Father, because so we are the very children of God, adopted into his family.

And so we can know, no matter what your life history tells you, no matter what your present state tells you, we can know no matter what, because of the events, the news of Jesus Christ, that there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

You are free.

So how would your life be different if you believed that?

You might think something like this.

I know I don't measure up to God's standard.

I know I don't even measure up to my own standards most of the time.

When I try and do good, I find myself failing.

And when I try and do bad, I find myself easily able to succeed.

But who cares what I think?

Jesus Christ, while I was still a sinner, died for me.

And when I put my faith in him, it's his righteousness that's given to me.

And I can come to God in confidence now, because I have no fear of his punishment, because I saw that the punishment that was due to me was borne completely by his son.

So I know the depth of God's love towards me.

I don't need to hide who I really am from him.

I don't need to be insecure about how I'm not measuring up.

Instead, I can come to him completely as I am, knowing that he has already experienced the depth of the pain of my sin because he took it on himself.

And that he freely gives his righteousness so that I might be recreated in him.

This is for those who live according to the flesh, who set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the spirit set their minds on the things of the spirit.

For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the spirit is life in peace.

This Easter, set your mind on what the Spirit has accomplished in your heart, by the power not of anything that you have done, but by the power of the gospel, which is that Jesus Christ took on your sin and credited to you his righteousness, and that is freely available to whosoever would believe in him.

Come to him and hear the words.

Praise the Lord.

He is risen, our hope is secure.

Holy Father, we praise you.

We thank you for this good news that is good in all seasons.

Lord, I pray for all those who aren't gathered here with us, but who are scattered over the city.

I pray that you would show us the height and breadth and depth of your love towards us in Christ Jesus, that you would let us meditate and just wander in this good news that you have given us, that there's no condemnation for us.

You've accomplished our freedom.

We are made clean in you.

Let us look away from ourselves and towards Christ to cast off that can that those condemning voices and see it happened.

We lift this up in Jesus' name.

Amen.