The Gift of Easter
The Gift of Easter • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 2 viewsTheme: Jesus' resurrection provides the gift of eternal life. Purpose: To receive the gift and live in its new reality. Gospel: Without the resurrection no gift of eternal life. Mission: Faith is receiving the gift, and trusting God's way to life.
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Well then, since God’s grace has set us free from the law, does that mean we can go on sinning? Of course not!
Don’t you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living.
Thank God! Once you were slaves of sin, but now you wholeheartedly obey this teaching we have given you.
Now you are free from your slavery to sin, and you have become slaves to righteous living.
Because of the weakness of your human nature, I am using the illustration of slavery to help you understand all this. Previously, you let yourselves be slaves to impurity and lawlessness, which led ever deeper into sin. Now you must give yourselves to be slaves to righteous living so that you will become holy.
When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the obligation to do right.
And what was the result? You are now ashamed of the things you used to do, things that end in eternal doom.
But now you are free from the power of sin and have become slaves of God. Now you do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life.
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.
In 2022, the average Easter basket cost $70 to fill, according to this data: https://www.mystateline.com/news/local-news/average-easter-basket-will-cost-70/). Take a silly poll, by the raising of hands, to see what candies or gifts were found in the Easter baskets opened before church this morning. Start with the most general and move to the obscure items: chocolate bunnies, jelly beans, PEEPS, homemade candies, books, crayons or craft supplies, a new Easter dress, a pair of sneakers. Then, if the crowd is able, ask if someone received something super weird or unique.
Contrasts working for wages and receiving a free gift.
11 - We work for wages.
11 - We work for wages.
God to Cain: If you do well will I not accept you? But if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. And its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.”
In Romans 6:23, Paul uses vivid imagery to describe our indebtedness to Christ. “Death is as due to a sinner when he hath sinned as wages are to a servant when he hath done his work. This is true of every sin. There is no sin in its own nature venial. Death is the wages of the least sin. … It comes by desert; but the life is a gift, it comes by favour. Sinners merit hell, but saints do not merit heaven. … It is Christ that purchased it, prepared it, prepares us for it, preserves us to it” (Matthew Henry, commentary on Romans 6, https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/mhc/Rom/Rom_006.cfm?a=1052023).
If you don’t believe me think of the 10 commandments -
Murder obviously leads to death.
Stealing - may not once, but over and over again. People get sick of it.
Adultery - Have you watched dateline.
Dishonoring parents -
Coveting -
In some way there is a dramatic nature to what I am saying. Just because you say a lie or commit disobey a commandment does not mean it specifically will lead you to death, but all of them are ways of death and not life. Think about it, not worshipping the God who made you disengages you from the one who gives you life.
- Stealing is a dishonoring of people’s means of living.
- Adultery is messing around with the key relationships that need to be healthy to raise up children - “Life.”
The Result - the payment, the wage, what is earned for all of these things is death.
Have you thought angry thoughts towards someone, stolen something, lusted, coveted something from someone else, dishonored your parents. worshipped other things above God?
We earn death.
But Paul gives us an alternative
12 - Jesus’ resurrection provides the gift of eternal life.
12 - Jesus’ resurrection provides the gift of eternal life.
Romans 6:4
For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives.
We are sure of this because Christ was raised from the dead, and he will never die again. Death no longer has any power over him.
When he died, he died once to break the power of sin. But now that he lives, he lives for the glory of God.
- “Easter Sunday is the moment Christmas points to, the moment the Passion obscures, the moment the tomb reveals. On Christmas morning we find the manger full of life; on Easter morning we find the tomb empty of death. We know the whole truth now: death is not the end, and life as we know it is only the beginning of Life. There is no suffering from which we cannot rise if we live a life centered in Jesus. It is the empty tomb on Easter Sunday morning that says to us, ‘You go and tell the others. Now!’” (Joan Chittistler, The Liturgical Year: The Spiraling Adventure of the Spiritual Life [Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2009],164).
16 - The gift of Easter is Jesus’s willing payment of our debt, which is too large for us to ever pay back. This eight-year-old helped pay off the lunch debt of his own schoolmates by making and selling keychains. He earned “$4,015 to erase the lunch debt of students from his school and six others” (Alicia Lee, “An 8-Year-Old Boy Paid off the Lunch Debt for His Entire School by Selling Key Chains,” CNN, February 4, 2020, https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/04/us/boy-pays-off-lunch-debt-trnd).
17-Skit Guys - “Grace”
18 - That's what the Christian gospel does is it says there's therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ. You are set free. Your guilt is erased. Your sins are forgiven. And when you're set free, you're set free to discover. Invent, explore. Right, right. You're set free” – Doug Wilson To Kirk Cameron (How does the Resurrection produce a society of discovery and technology?)
Faith is defined many ways, but one way is....
19 - Faith is living the gift.
19 - Faith is living the gift.
20 - Receiving the gift.
20 - Receiving the gift.
- Gifts are received and not earned.
The Lexham English Bible Chapter 1
12 But as many as received him—to those who believe in his name—he gave to them authority to become children of God,
The Lexham English Bible Chapter 2
38 And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized, each one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Offer yourself to Jesus - Everyone has to serve someone
21 - Living according to the gift.
21 - Living according to the gift.
Bob Dylan - Everyone Must Serve Someone.
Romans 6 deals with two questions: “Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?” (v. 1) and “Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace?” (v. 15). Paul is striving to show that God’s grace and forgiveness do not give us a license to sin; God does care about our moral character. Robert Mounce clarifies the rhetorical questioning of sin and grace in chapter 6, saying, “The text does not say that sin dies to the believer; it is the believer who has died to sin. Origen, the most influential theologian of the ante-Nicene period, described death to sin in this way: ‘To obey the cravings of sin is to be alive to sin; but not to obey the cravings of sin or succumb to its will, this is to die to sin.’ Sin continues in force in its attempt to dominate the life and conduct of the believer. But the believer has been baptized into Christ, and that means to have been baptized into Christ’s death as well. Christ’s death for sin becomes our death to sin” (Robert H. Mounce, Romans, The New American Commentary 27 [Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 1995], Logos).
Paul uses the analogy of being a slave to two different Masters.
Highlight that the slave terminology is a human analogy, as is Chapter 7:1-6 the Analogy of a woman bound to a man in marriage, when he dies, she is released to marry another man, but if she is with another man while married it is adultery.
He is pointing out the trade-offs.
Other analogies we could use.
"I don't live to eat, but I eat to live." - If you eat junk, yes you have a freedom to eat whatever you want and enjoy all of the tastes, etc., but then you will be constrained by certain things, like low energy, health problems etc.... If you eat healthy, you are constrained by what you eat. You will not eat certain things even if it tastes good, but you will find freedom in your health, and energy to do the things you love.
Trade-offs - Car Loans - You are free from some worry that your car would break down, but you are bound by interest and the worry that if your car is totaled, your loan is worth more than the car. No car loan - You are free from the cost of interest and concern of being upside down on the car, but you may be constrained by the challenges of a les than reliable car.
What are the trade-offs in this passage?
If sin is your master if you serve sin then. Free from God, Free to do your own thing, free to experience say some of the pleasures of sin, however, you will not be free from the consequences, you will not be free from the emptiness of it all, you will not be free from the weight of it, and you will not be free from the resulting death that sin earns.
If your master is Jesus then. You receive His free gift, and you are free from condemnation, you are free from the worry of eternity, you are free to love God and love others, you free from the weight of sin, and you are free to live eternally with God as His child, you are free to receive the Holy Spirit. But you are not free to sin, you limit yourself to obeying Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit. - Faith is Trusting your entire life to Jesus.
An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life:
“A fight is going on inside me,” he said to the boy.
“It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil–he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.”
He continued, “The other is good – he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you–and inside every other person, too.”
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: “Which wolf will win?”
The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”
Conclusion: The Resurrection Means you can be freed from ultimate death. Do you want to be free, do you want Eternal life?
Who are you serving this morning? Who is your master? Sin or Christ?