WELCOME
PRAYER
SONG
SILENCE
1st Corinthians 6.1-8
April 1st 2018
Milk
In the New Testament Jesus gathers His apostles together prior to being betrayed.
We read in Luke 22 beginning at verse 14
14 And when the hour was come, (the hour where He would be betrayed) he sat down, and the twelve apostles with him.
15 And he said unto them, With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer.
(This insufferable death, as we know, was for the sins of the world. For all human kind, or as we read in 1st Timothy 4:10):
“And this is the purpose of all our work and our fighting, because our hope is in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, and specially of those who have faith.”
As a means to be THE SAVIOR OF ALL MEN ESPECIALLY OF THOSE WHO HAVE FAITH He would be taken and beaten and killed unjustly.
So with his disciples Jesus continues to say at verse 16:
“For I say unto you, I will not any more eat thereof, until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God.
17 And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, Take this, and divide it among yourselves:
18 For I say unto you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine, until the kingdom of God shall come.
19 And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, “This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me.”
20 Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you.”
We note that Jesus did this among his chosen eleven apostles – and then He went and died for us, providing us not only a living perfect sacrifice but also a perfect “template” (which we will talk about in a minute).
Years later and another chosen apostle named Paul says in 1st Corinthians 15 he wrote to those who believed on Jesus in Corinth and said:
23 For I (Paul, and apostle of Jesus Christ specifically trained by Him for three years on the Sinai desert) For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That . . . the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread:
24 And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, “Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.”
25 After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, “This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.”
Then listen to what Paul adds to these instructions:
26 For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, YOU do shew “the Lord’s death” till he come.
That line, “for as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup YOU DO SHOW . . . the Lord’s death . . . until He comes,” is interesting.
It might best be understood to read, “you do proclaim His death – until He comes.”
“By partaking of these elements you are proclaiming that He died for the sins of the world – until He comes.”
Why only until He comes? Because then He would then PROCLAIM to who were of His brethren (by His hands and feet and side . . . that this was the case – that He did in fact, die for the sins of the whole world.
This morning we are going to remember, hold a memorial, not by commandment but to recall the fact that Our Lord and Savior, Jesus of Nazareth did, in fact, offer Himself up as the Passover Lamb, but this time for the sins of the whole world – especially those who believe.
(INSTRUCTIONS)
On the right is actual wine and unleavened bread, on the left is grape juice and unleavened bread – all symbolic of Him and His material life given.
Come forward as you might then we will
sit and listen to the Seven Statements of the Cross together.
If you want, why don’t we all wait to take these elements together in remembrance of His ultimate offering on our behalf.
COMMUNION
“Seven Statements of the Cross”
COMMUNION OVER
In my estimation, the birth of Christ is representational of all who believe on Him and their spiritual rebirth, of Jesus entering into us and initiating our earthly walk with God.
This is what Jesus birth represents – celebrated on Christmas here in the world to some extent or another.
Unlike any of the other births of a woman into this world, Jesus birth – accompanied by shepherds, wise men, and shining stars in the sky – was a birth of “God with us.”
Every time someone is “born from above” it typifies another birth of “God with us,” which is such a significant moment in the life of every individual just as the birth of Jesus was significant in the life of this world.
There are people who make Christmas the focus of their religious life more than any other day of the year. I mean they go all out, making sure the family attends a church service on the day, and they drag out the scenes of the manger, and read from Luke.
Of course His birth was a wondrous event to reflect upon and remember. But does it all begin and end there?
Hardly.
We then read all about Jesus, who after his birth lived the life given Him. That life included growing and learned obedience by the things He suffered.
This suffering of God with us was progressive in His life as He lived in a direction to His cross.
At first, He was favored among men, and the masses were amazed at his miracles.
But the longer He walked, and the more truth He revealed, the less favor He experienced.
When he told people that they had to eat His flesh and drink His blood in John six we read:
“Because of what he said, a number of the disciples went back and would no longer go with him.”
In the end, he was left with eleven men around Him – before they too abandoned Him – and He found Himself cast outside the city walls, hanging naked and alone on a cross.
Anyone who follows Him as a disciple will experience a similar fate.
Hebrews tells us that He “learned obedience by the things He suffered.” Obedience to His Father through the things He suffered for Him and us.
We note that at the end of Christ’s mortal life he faced the ultimate submission of will to His Father’s – that of death.
This event, which stands in contradistinction to His birth, pictures for each of us who are his (especially those who believe) that our flesh also requires death, daily (Paul wrote) as we walk with Him, being crucified to the flesh so as to walk more fully by the Spirit.
So first, we too are born from above, just as the Word become flesh.
Then we take up our cross and die daily to our willful, sinful, selfish flesh becoming living memorials of His passion.
But is that all there is to gain from His birth, life and death?
If it is, Paul says we are of men “most miserable.”
And this brings us to todays external celebration – all around the world, Christians celebrate and memorialized a Holy-Day called resurrection Sunday (and more distantly, Easter) the day where Christians collectively recognized the resurrection Jesus of Nazareth experienced over sin, death and the grave.
Accompanied is lots of ritual (of pagan origin and not) lots of warmth, lots of celebration and external symbolism reinforcing our “internal devotions,” through codes, and colors, and clothing and food – NOT unlike what the Nation of Israel had under the law as there was a high Holy-day for almost everything under the sun.
Such things make for fantastic cultural development. God knew this among His Nation the Children of Israel – and through such things He made them a great Nation.
The Catholics and the Mormons know this and over time and through the same means have done the same.
But . . . is that the import of His resurrection too? To make a reinforce a collective of like-minded believers?
In fact, it there a deep and abiding benefit in the mere recognition of Jesus resurrection?
I’m not so convinced there is. We can recognize belief in all sorts of things but if the recognition has no application to our ways and means and attitudes and lives, what good is it all – no matter how colorful or tasty or festive.
Paul made this same opinion come alive when he said in Galatians 2:20:
Galatians 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
Unlike the birth and death of Jesus – which were separated by some 30 to 33 years, Jesus birth, insufferable death, burial and resurrection to new life occur almost concurrently in the lives of believers on a minute to minute basis.
In other words, we are born of the Spirit from above, the Word abides in our flesh, and as a result of this we immediately begin to change in our flesh – instead of feeding it we begin to allow it to suffer and die, we bury it, and then we rise to new life . . . over and over again over the course of our respective existences.
All because of Him.
Paul wrote in Romans 6:6
“Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.”
Did you catch it? Our OLD MAN (the one we were born with which did NOT have Christ in us from birth) “is crucified with Christ, that the body of sin (which is alive and well in the Old Man) might be destroyed, that from that point forward we should not serve sin.”
Galatians 5:24 says plainly, “And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.”
This is how and when genuine believers actually celebrate and rejoice over His birth, crucifixion, death and resurrection – when they participate in their own on a daily basis under the hand of God.
In my estimation there is NO GREATER memorial on earth in the mind of God and when they are present in the lives of believers, the need for “the physical” become less and less necessary and or even important.
In the Old Testament God comes to the COI and he is fed up with the external rituals. Micah writes in Micah 6:6 –
Micah 6:6 Wherewith shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before the high God? shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old?
7 Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
8 He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God.”
For a human being to “do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly before God” it requires an almost a “daily Christmas, and daily crucifixion, and a daily Easter.”
The Psalmist says in Psalm 51:16-17
“For thou (God) desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou (God) delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.”
Just as He does NOT delight in outward material offerings (like the burnt offerings of Old) I would add that neither does He delight in the outward celebrations over events in His Son’s life, but INSTEAD, how do those events apply and translate into the very lives of those who claim to appreciate and love them.
Instead of Easter baskets, Christmas gifts, and church celebrations, He seeks the “internal, individual SACRIFICES of a broken spirit and a contrite heart . . . these will God not despise.”
Inward always first – and then the outward . . . if still necessary and if you are still inclined according to your heart and mind.
The birth, person, life, death and resurrection of Jesus are not just things to remember, things to celebrate, to talk about, and look too – like we would look at a work of art.
His entire life is the Spiritual template that serves to outline all He wants for those who are His – all of it – His birth, His life, His suffering, His crucifixion, His death, His Resurrection and His ascention.
Don’t miss this in your walk – doing so is akin to adoring, decorating and worshipping an image of Jesus oinstead of giving His entire life actual living application. We recall what Paul said:
He said (in Galatians 1:4) that Jesus . . . gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father:
Titus 2:14, speaking of Jesus says, “He gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.”
1st Peter 4:2 says “That we no longer should live the rest of our time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God.
How does this happen? What does this look like? It sounds like bearing a huge burden.
Our answer lies in what the world of Christianity recognizes and celebrates from the life of Christ today – His Resurrection.
So where His birth is a picture of the Word becoming flesh in us (with Christ in us), and His death is a picture of all of us dying to our former man, our flesh and will, His resurrection a type and picture of all who truly have Him in them walking in a “newness of the spirit” – and therefore, of walking in life.
Remember, BEFORE there can be a resurrection, there must be a death.
Dying is not a burden so much as it is a letting go. Painful, at times – but we are not toiling to obtain the death of our flesh, we are letting go of it, placing it in the hands of the Romans as it were, and trusting God, by His SPIRIT, will raise us to New Life, and therefore, new thoughts, perspectives and behaviors.
Paul says in
2nd Corinthians 5:5, “And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and . . . rose again.
Did you catch that last line? That we should not henceforth live unto ourselves but unto Him which 1) DIED FOR US AND 2) rose again.
A model we too embrace in our Christian lives.
In other words, it does not seem complete to simply take up our cross and die to our old man of the flesh but we are ALSO . . . ALSO . . . ALSO . . . to rise to new life JUST AS HE ROSE AGAIN!
In Romans 6:5 Paul says something significant:
“For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection.”
In other words, IF a person has truly been born again (Christ is living in them through spiritual rebirth), and they have died to their will, taken up their cross and been crucified with Christ, to the point that they have been “PLANTED together with Him in the likeness of HIS death” . . . they will ALSO be “in the likeness of His resurrection.”
It is one thing to not allow your flesh to reign. To stop sinning, as it were. But it is an entirely different matter when we replace the reign of our flesh with an abundance of the Spirit and walk in the newness of that spirit.
The results of the latter is that those who pursue it will also “be in the likeness of HIS resurrection.”
I know many people who, as believers, would never smoke a cigarette, never drink alcohol, or ever have an affair – or the like – but just because they have been crucified with Christ does NOT mean that they have been raised with Him unto “new life.”
They’re just healthy livers (with healthy livers) – but it does not always mean that they are filled with an abundance of His love – which is the fruit of the Spirit – and is the result of them allowing Christ to reign.
In other words perhaps they have learned to just make less fleshly decisions about how to live their faith but forego the important part – to live as Christ in the Spirit.
Looking at what I am calling “the whole template of Christ” for some, to be Christian, is all about them simply being born again – having the rebirth experience. In our illustration these seem to love and relate to Christmas most.
But the net effect, if played out in Jesus is life, would be like the Word merely taking on a body, but never dying for the sins of the world or ever being resurrected.
Certainly, this was not God’s plan for His only Human Son, right?
For others, Christianity is being born again and then dying daily to the things of their flesh.
We might liken these to religionists who believe and receive Christ, and spend much of their time and attention going to church on Sundays, receiving communion to cover their sins, confessing – and being forgiven over and over again for whatever failures in their flesh might be.
But we might also see this approach as Jesus being born of a virgin, then dying for the sins of the world – and it ending there.
But remember how Paul described such people – as MOST miserable. Because while gifted with new life, and willing to give up the things of their flesh, they altogether MISS the whole point in these things occurring in the first place – so that God’s children can be raised to NEW LIFE of Christian LOVE!
For those who have received all elements of the life of Christ and have allowed it to reign in them, these experience rebirth, willingly die to the flesh when mocked, are beaten, and crucified, and are buried with Christ but they also rise daily to a new resurrected spiritual existence – that of exuding with unconditional love – for all.
In other words, these are bearing the fruit of having Christ in them, Just as Christ was the first fruits from the grave.
In other words, they just don’t “not sin” as much but they also bless the world with God’s goodness through the fruits of the Spirit which only come when we rise from the grave of our former flesh and live unto Him.
This is the picture or type that Jesus resurrection plays to those who follow Him in faith.
Paul speaks of this resurrection as being “sown (planted) in corruption but raised in incorruption.” (1st Corinthians 15:42)
I take this to mean it that His resurrection is planted (or sown) in us WHILE we are in this corrupt flesh ultimately we will be “raised in incorruption” at the day of our resurrection being final and complete.
Interestingly, we know from scripture that all will be resurrected but Paul Paul spoke of this resurrection as something he hoped for, saying in Philippians 3:11.
“If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.”
Since all will be resurrected, we know that Paul was obviously speaking of attaining to one that comes through spiritual growth, made possible by rising to new life, and granted by a different criterion (other than a universal gift).
Adding to this concept the writer of Hebrews 11:35 speaks of our “obtaining a better resurrection.”
Again, the importance of Jesus’ resurrection cannot be overlooked in our Christian lives here and now as Peter says in 1st Peter 1:3
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”
The word lively is used to describe activity, animation, and quickeining but in this case it could be Peter was speaking in contradistinction from that which is dead.
The hope which we have has a living power. It was not cold, inoperative, dead.
It is not a mere form–or a mere speculation–or a mere sentiment; it is that which was vital to our Christian welfare.
All because of Christ and His ultimate resurrection from the dead.
So important is His resurrection that while Jesus, the only Human Son was certainly born “the Son of God,” we know that He was declared to be “the Son of God with POWER,” based completely on His resurrection.
Romans 1:3 makes this plain, saying that Jesus was of the seed of David (and then verse 4 says):
“And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.”
In other words, it was ONLY after Jesus, the Man, Jesus of Nazareth, the Word made flesh, who “learned obedience by the things He suffered,” who willingly died to His flesh, and offered Himself up to suffering was then resurrected, that the only true and living God declared Him “the Son of God with Power according to the spirit of Holiness (which was fully in Him) BY THE RESURRECTION FROM THE DEAD!”
And of course, so it is with each of us.
To review – the birth, life and death, and resurrection of Christ – is a living water available for all who are His by faith to “assume” (so to speak) or drink into their own lives once we are born from above by faith.
Entering this path, we all then chose to take up our cross and to not only die daily to “the flesh of our Old Man” but to also live through Him and His resurrection, having been raised up in our new man, according to the Spirit, and by the power of the resurrection of God’s only Human Son by birth.
To embrace and live merely and solely in rebirth, or to merely experience Him and then die to our flesh (constantly) but to ignore living and bearing the fruit of the spirit is to discount this vital culminating event in His work among men – the resurrection.
Now, I have sort of separated these “events” from the life of Jesus out from each other in applying them to us (as they are separated in the life of Christ) but I think it’s really important for me to explain that in reality they all work interactively one with another in us as believers and in US . . . are not separate events.
In Christ – His birth, life, death and resurrection – we have interacting, interdependant participation rather than religious observances segregated into holidays.
By faith we believe on Him, Christ moves into us by God’s grace, and in His presence our flesh dies and fades as our spirit is quickened and made active leading to our ultimate resurrection granted us by God.
And while these things are all interconnected, and they seem to all take time to get going, they are all paradoxically immediately present upon faith.
Why? How? How is it that all believers are immediately born-again, dead to the flesh, and living according to the Spirit when Christ moves in, resurrected to New Life?
Ready?
It’s because all of these things HAVE already been accomplished by and through Him through His birth, life, death and resurrection!
Meaning – it has all been accomplished – BY HIM!
Remember, it is Christ living in US by where all of this accomplished THROUGH us. So, with “Christ in us” all the perfect living has been accomplished – therefore, when we “experience Him,” we are all immediately justified and sanctified before God once and for all as His righteousness is imputed to us all by faith.
Isn’t that amazing?
It goes all the way back to Abraham who, merely believing God’s word to Him, was seen by God as righteous without works, or as James says
James 2:23 And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God..
Paul writes
Romans 3:22 Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:
Romans 4:5 But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.
Romans 4:6 Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works!
Again – BECAUSE HE LIVES IN US AND HE HAS ALREADY ACCOMPLISHED THE LABORS, we, by faith, are COMPLETE, when we first believed!
HE HAS ALREADY CONQUERED HIS FLESH! By faith . . . we conquer ours.
HE HAS ALREADY ROSE FROM THE GRAVE! By faith . . . we rise from ours.
HE HAS ALREADY RISEN TO HIS FATHER! By faith in Him . . . we do the same.
HE HAS DONE IT ALL! ALLOWING – if we allow it in us – for Him to fill us with this reality.
Receiving Him in us by faith we are then complete in Him – so there is no need to fret or worry. He is in us by grace through faith and NOT by our works or our righteousness.
And for this reason we know that whomever receives Christ – whether they receive Him and die physically at that point or they receive Him and live long lives – all of us are equally justified and sanctified before God because it is Christ in us that lives who HAS – HAS – done the work as the Author and Finisher of our faith.
So then, in conclusion, what is all of this about dying to our flesh and producing fruits of the Spirit?
All I can say is both positions are clear in scripture – He is in us, having justified us before the Father, but also it is absolutely clear that God calls those who are His to apply the template of Christ’s life to their own, that He thrives only as we allow it, that there are rewards based on our willingness to let Him live in and through us.
Perhaps we might liken our Christianity and the works of the Spirit through us to a man who is without a job.
And the owner of a lighthouse – an important light house sitting on the outcropping of Rock on the coast of the Bearing Sea – comes to the man and offers him a job to run it.
The man is called and receives the job.
But he has to still get up in the morning and willingly climb the ten flights of stairs to open the shutters – even when he doesn’t feel like it or want to.
And even though he climbs the stairs against the will of his flesh, he still has to be willing to open the shutters and window flaps to let the light out.
He is not the light – the light is of its own self. Neither does he generate the light nor authorize it nor tell it where to shine.
He simply chooses to allow it to shine – day in and out.
Likewise, we have been offered life by our employer – but are not forced to take the job. And while we may not want to die to our flesh, and climb the stairs and let His light out – out of love and appreciation for our employer – we do.
In this there seems to the living relationship.
(beat)
In case you haven’t caught it – this was our an Easter message – much of which I also gave last year.
Next week we will return to our verse by verse with the aim to learn how to better let Him reign.
Questions/comments
Prayer
