Resurrection the Task of the Church

Today we continue our series on the resurrection of Jesus.
Two weeks ago we looked at evidence of the resurrection, last week we looked at what the resurrection means to us personally, and today I want to look at what the resurrection means to the Church as a whole.
First of all – I want to propose that the Resurrection is not just a resuscitation of a dead corpse. It is not just the fact that God brought Jesus’ dead body back from the grave.
The Scripture paints a picture that when Jesus came out of the grave something far greater was achieved.
What God did in Christ was bring God’s future plan for this entire Creation into the past.
Once again God brought His future – the Grand future of what God has planned for the world and us into the past – He brought that future right into April of 30 AD.
We must start seeing the resurrection that way to truly grasp what it means to the Church
Secondly – the Resurrection is part of Christ’s Achievement. Christ achieved victory over death, and victory of the principalities and dark spiritual forces at work in this world.
Christ’s achievement opened up heaven to flesh and blood. Christ’s achievement made it possible for us to be saved.
Our second task as a Church is to implement the Achievement of Christ – we are to take that story and put it to work in this world. We are to become heralds of that Gospel that truth.
This morning I want to propose to you that if we are going to understand what the resurrection means for the Church we have to go back to the beginning of the Bible.
So today – I want us to walk out understanding that we have been sent into the world – we are sent knowing two things that Jesus resurrection was God’s future crashing into our fallen and corrupted world.
And Christ achieved something wonderful through His resurrection that is good news for the Entire World.
STARTING POINTS:
We must start in Genesis to get the proper perspective on how to implement the resurrection.
Jonathan Edwards was an American preacher in that lived right before the Revolutionary War. He was big and important player in the 1st Great Awakening in American Society.
Edwards claimed that the purpose for God’s Creation was to pour forth and proclaim His Glory – Part of the Great Awakening in America was a waking up to this reality – that everything we do should be about putting that back together.
In other words the Genesis account was about God making a Creation that proclaimed God’s Glory and Part of that was the creation of man.
The way man was to do that was that we are God’s Children.
Literally Luke’s account of the Genaeology tells us that Adam was the son of God.
When God created man we were to be His Children – part of God’s Family – literally.
Also that original purpose was for man to have Dominion. Another way to say Dominion is to say KINGSSHIP
Dominion and kingship go hand and hand in the ancient world.
Genesis 1: 26-27
26 Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness ; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." 27 God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them
God created man in His image – that doesn’t mean that we look like God or have some type of physical resemblance but the easiest way to say that we reflect God’s image is that we are part of His family
Later in Genesis 5 we will see that Adam’s children are made in his image – in other words being in the image of someone means that you are their child.
That means that being in God’s family carries with it the responsibility of reflecting God’s just rule and dominion.
In other words – we are God’s stewards- He made this earth to reflect His glory and put us in charge of making sure that it was cared for.
In that responsibility we are to bring God’s just rule and glory to every situation.
Now without getting into detail we know that Adam and Eve failed at that task. They chose to obey Satan instead and began a rebellion against God.
So to speak they were kicked out or estranged from God’s family.
In times past I have shared with you in great detail how God has enacted a great rescue plan in Scripture that begins with the Fall in Genesis 3 and ends up in Revelation.
I would propose that in Genesis God’s plan all along was that man would produce societies, cultures, and situations that would manifest God’s glory.
Many people including Jonathan Edwards caught fire to this idea and that is why they believed that this truth carried over to every aspect of society – even government.
Genesis 1:28
28 God blessed them; and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth."
God wanted man to advance – to grow – to multiply – have families, have culture – and always increasing in our dominion.
Science, Art, Law, architecture – all of these studies are not bad – they are good because they are part of this creation mandate – we are to grow in our Kingship and rule over this earth.
False Dichotomies:
Many preachers have wrongfully told people to hate this world and have not clarified what they mean.
God’s Creation Mandate to have dominion and be fruitful and multiply was not revoked. It continues to this day.
What has changed is that mandate has been twisted and corrupted by the Fall – by Sin and rebellion.
We are to love the part of this world that is God’s – there is nothing wrong to experience a beautiful ocean scene, a mountain vista, or hug your child and just glorify God because that is good.
I will say to you that you are getting a glimpse of what God has in store for us for eternity.
But there is a part of this world that we must hate.
It seems there is a contradiction in the Bible and many times we don’t clear this up and become sharp and concise about it.
First of all, John 3:16 says that For God So Loved the World.
God loves the world and sent Jesus for the sake of the world.
But then James in James 4 says:
James 4:4
4 You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God ? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
How can you reconcile that God loves this world but we must be enemies to the world.
Let me give you an illustration that might help.
Imagine if you lived during World War 2 in Nazi Germany and you were a good Christian German citizen.
You would love your homeland – you would love Germany.
At the same time you would hate the Nazi regime. You would despise what Hitler was doing to your country.
So at the same time you love your country but there is something about it that you hate.
The same is true for this world. We love the good part – the God inspired created part but we hate the fallen sinful part.
Do you think God would leave it like this? Do you think that God will just burn this world up and let it go away and just throw up His hands and say – Devil you win. You destroyed my good creation so I am just going to take my Christians to this far away space land called Heaven and destroy this earth.
Do you know a lot of Christians think that this is exactly what God is going to do? They have a muddled understanding of what God is really going to do.
They have no vision for God’s exciting future for all of us.
Most think there will be a judgment day – the earth completely obliterated and then we will go off to some Valhalla Viking type of disembodied Heaven playing harps and singing songs for eternity.
Do you want to know why young people are not excited about being Christians? Probably because they have no vision for what God truly intends. That is not the Biblical view of what God has in mind and will bring about. When Jesus came out of the grave that was the advanced sign – the gauntlet being thrown down saying that this project is underway. God will put things right – God will renew Creation and the resurrected body is that future flooding into our fallen space and time.
CURSE VS. RESCUE
So keeping this all in mind let me give you a paradigm or way to see the current situation: There is the world that is under the Curse – that is the sinful fallen bad parts of this creation.
Listen to the Language of the Curse:
Genesis 3: 14-19 14 The LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, Cursed are you more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field ; On your belly you will go, And dust you will eat All the days of your life ; 15 And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed ; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel." 16 To the woman He said, "I will greatly multiply Your pain in childbirth, In pain you will bring forth children ; Yet your desire will be for your husband, And he will rule over you." 17 Then to Adam He said, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, 'You shall not eat from it'; Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you will eat of it All the days of your life. 18 "Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; And you will eat the plants of the field ; 19 By the sweat of your face You will eat bread, Till you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken ; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return."
The curse was upon the Serpent, Upon Adam, Upon Eve and even upon the physical world. This curse would bring about pain in childbirth –
It would rupture the family dynamic – man would abuse his authority and this would be manifested when husbands lord it over their wives and will even play out in our political scenes.
How many men today in public office have abused their God given authority just like this curse says is going to happen.
Adam’s labor will become cursed- Realize Labor is not the curse – Work is good and God ordained but Labor under the curse will become fruitless labor.
How terrible does it feel to go to work all day and have fruitless labor – like you went to work and dug a hole and then had to cover it back up again.
When you have days like that just pick up and read Genesis 3 and you will see that it is part of the curse that sin brought to our world.
But an Invasion has happened. - The Curse and living under that way of life is no longer the only answer
REDEMPTION – God has redeemed part of this Creation before the end of time.
Paul says in Galatians 1:3-4
3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father
When one becomes a Christian they have been rescued from this cursed or fallen state. We are setting up a new society – the rebellion against God is now being taken on by those that choose to be obedient to God.
1 Corinthians 7: 31 tells us
That the world in its present form is passing away
In the work of Christ the principalities and powers have been put on notice that the current hold that sin has on this world is coming to an end.
That is the message of the Book of Revelation. For so long people have focused on the book of Revelation as a message of an Antichrist or Tribulation but they are missing a main theme of that book.
One of the main themes in Revelation that is so overlooked is the idea of Throne or Dominion. God is going to reign completely.
God is now reigning over this present fallen state of affairs but in the future God’s reign is going to come crashing in and His Kingdom rule will be evident.
Revelation is moving toward the idea of God reigning over all – that brings about the explosions and convulsions that this present fallen world undergoes throughout that book of visions of John.
The Church is the beginning of that rule on Earth.
Maybe this may help us understand what I am saying – Just as Christ’s resurrection is an advanced sign of what is going to come in its fullness – the resurrection of all of us.
The Church is an advanced sign of God’s full Kingdom rule – God’s rule through the Church – his kingdom Lordship is evident in the local Church will one day be fully manifested to all.
That is when God will put together what has been broken.
When man has become fully what God intended for him to be –His Child part of his family.
SONS OF GOD again:
Galatians 3: 26
We are all Sons of God through Faith in Christ – When we put our faith in Jesus – we become sons again.
Welcomed back into God’s family – God’s original intent
Romans 8: 16-19
16 The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him. 18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19 For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God.
Even the Cursed Creation longs for us to be revealed- The creation longs for the image bearing sons of God to be revealed
There will be time when God puts it right – the curse will be overturned.
New Heavens and New Earth:
Isaiah the prophet speaks of a time of renewal. A time when God will renew the covenant.
Isaiah picks up the three themes of New Covenant, Suffering Servant that leads to New Creation.
For the longest the Jews could not figure out passages like Isaiah chapter 60
Isaiah speaks of a time of an end to violence, and a time when a city is built that’s gates are never closed.
In the ancient world that would be unheard of – a city whose gates were never closed.
No one understood what Isaiah was predicting until John wrote the book of Revelation.
In Revelation chapter 21 John quotes Isaiah 60 extensively to build a picture of a new city – a city called New Jerusalem.
Now what is John talking about what is this new city?
In John 20 we see two themes:
1) 1000 years of the binding of Satan
2) Satan freed after this period and then destroyed ultimately
3) Great throne and Judgment scene of the entire world.
People get so fluffed up about Revelation 20 they fail to read Revelation 21 which maybe the most beautiful passages of Scripture in the Bible.
Here is the magnum Opus – God will put is all right – the fall in Genesis is overturned.
Man is resurrected – we are given new bodies – glorified bodies like Christ’s but where will we inhabit with these new bodies?
We need to get a picture of what this is all about.
Revelation 21:1-6
1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth ; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, 4 and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes ; and there will no longer be any death ; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain ; the first things have passed away." 5 And He who sits on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new." And He said, "Write, for these words are faithful and true." 6 Then He said to me, "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost.
John tells us that the first earth and heaven have passed away – this heaven that has passed away may be better understood as the cosmos – not the Heaven where God dwells.
So the earth and cosmos as we know it have passed away – but they are not obliterated forever.
2 Peter 3 speaks of them burning up with fervent heat but they are not obliterated but transformed.
Now we have a New Heaven and New Earth. You see God is putting it right again.
Remember in Genesis God walked with man – face to face – now God’s presence – his tabernacle is among us again- no need for a Temple because God will be there in the New Earth with us again.
God will be so intimate with us that He will wipe away our tears and we will be in His presence for eternity.
Other places in Revelation liken it to a great banquet feast of the Lamb. A reunion of us and loved ones as well as us finally seeing God as He is in all of His glory.
God is making ALL things New. Satan does not win – the body is redeemed it doesn’t stay in the grave- the earth is renewed and the fallen curse is lifted.
Isaiah 65 predicted that God would create a new Heavens and New Earth and here it is in all its glory. Now look at the end of chapter 21 of Revelation:
Revelation 21: 22-27 22 I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. 23 And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb. 24 The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. 25 In the daytime (for there will be no night there ) its gates will never be closed ; 26 and they will bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it; 27 and nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life.
Think about this city – the grandeur – kings coming into – gates never closed –
These Kings of the Earth or us – those who Reign with Christ – we will be glorified in Christ and bring our glory into this new City.
Christ will be there and He will illuminate the city.
Only those that are Christ’s will be allowed to enter this city.
No sin – no lying no filth – no immorality – no R rated movies – no smutty TV shows will be in this city – I guess there will be no HBO in this city.
And in Chapter 22 verse 3 it all comes full Circle
God’s plan – original intent comes out.
Revelation 22: 1-3
Then he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb, 2 in the middle of its street. On either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month ; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. 3 There will no longer be any curse ; and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His bond-servants will serve Him;
Notice how this all ties back together – there is a river (think back to Eden), there is the tree of Life that has been missing since Genesis 3, and now the Curse is lifted.
The curse that was issued in Genesis 3 is now gone because of what Jesus did for us.
And what does that mean to us?
REIGN:
Revelation 22:3 we will serve Christ – we will see Him face to face and serve him.
2 Timothy 2:11-12
. 11 It is a trustworthy statement : For if we died with Him, we will also live with Him; 12 If we endure, we will also reign with Him; If we deny Him, He also will deny us
If we live for Christ – we will reign with Christ.
What was Paul’s argument against Lawsuits with the Corinthian church?
1 Corinthians 6:1-5
1 Does any one of you, when he has a case against his neighbor, dare to go to law before the unrighteous and not before the saints ? 2 Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world ? If the world is judged by you, are you not competent to constitute the smallest law courts ? 3 Do you not know that we will judge angels ? How much more matters of this life ? 4 So if you have law courts dealing with matters of this life, do you appoint them as judges who are of no account in the church ? 5 I say this to your shame. Is it so, that there is not among you one wise man who will be able to decide between his brethren,
They should be able to decide matters between brethren because they are going to judge the world even angels in some way will be judged by Christians.
Now I am not completely sure what Paul is talking about but I know for sure he is telling the Corinthian brethren that they will have some role to play in dominion and judgeship later so they better be able to be good judges and arbiters now.
Revelation 7:14-15 tells us that the reward of those that came through the tribulation that John speaks of will be rewarded with Service.
Service is a blessing – God will give us the ability to serve Him.
You see Heaven is not some retreat where we rest for eternity – it is a place where we will see God face to face and Serve Him.
Just like Service to God now means worship – that will be part of it – when we see Him we will not be able to do anything but just want to cry out Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God Almighty – but in that we will be given tasks.
I fully believe that comes from the Bible- we will have tasks to do in which we are in training for right now.
Part of that training is humility – we are to be humble and God will exalt us when the time is right.
1 Peter 5: 5-6
5 You younger men, likewise, be subject to your elders ; and all of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, for GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE. 6 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time,
Our humility in this life will end in God exalting us.
Jesus gave us this model in His life – he humbled Himself as the book of Philippians tells us in chapter 2 unto death – even a cross and he was exalted.
We too will be exalted with Christ.
IN some way it is a mystery but we are already exalted with Christ – Like I said earlier – two paradigms – fallen and redeemed –
We are already redeemed – raised up by the Achievement of Christ.
Paul talks about our former condition but now we are raised up – Paul says we were in sin – hopeless but Christ raised us up.
Ephesians 2: 5-6
5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved ), 6 and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
We have been RAISED up – past tense
When we became Christians – in some way that we cannot yet fully see or understand – we are already reigning with Christ.
So are you ready for that type of service and reigning with Christ.
That comes with a two-fold exhortation:
1)if you were put in charge of Fayetteville, TN by God today what would it look like. Could you reign over this city as God plans for it to be run?
You may think that is a bizarre question but that is exactly how you should look at your preparation in this life.
You are preparing to reign – you are practicing humility now so that you can understand how God rules.
God rules through humility and service.
2) Are you living a pure lifestyle that would be at home in the new Heavens and the New earth.
Remember there will be no uncleanness there.
If your filthy, violence ridden entertainment were taken away from you today would you be upset about it? Because its not going to be in this new place that God is making for us.
Lastly, can you say like John says at the end of Revelation – Come Lord Jesus
He is begging Christ to return – Do you want Him to return now? Are you ready?