The Village Church
Road to Easter: Newness of Life - Audio
So God, our Redeemer, our refuge, our mediator, our priests, our prophet, our king, our Jesus, our Savior. Precious Lord, we thank You for Christ. We thank You for the life He lived. We thank You that Lord He was perfect, we are not. We thank You that He died of death that was meant for all of us, Father. Precious Lord, we thank You that the grave cannot keep, death cannot keep it. Precious Lord on the third day, He did rise again and He did defeat sin and death. He rose up in victory. Our Jesus, and right now Father, He is sitting at Your right, our God is alive, our Savior is not dead. And we thank You Father for Him, we thank You that one day, one day He is coming back to claim His home, to take us home, to take us to glory, and we will see Him face to face Father. Our faith will be made sight. So Lord, until the end, until that magnificent day, we pray that Your Spirit will continue to strengthen Your people, Your bride, the bride in whom You died, the bride in whom You bled, the bride in whom You have reconciled to God, Your did. Spirit encourages, Spirit strengthens us, Spirit, take the word of this priest today and apply to all of our hearts. We are all in different places this morning, we are all dealing with different things this morning, but the gospel of grace can come in and make a difference in our life, no matter what we've done, no matter what we're going through. Father, as I always pray every Sunday, I pray that I will move out of the way, that I will just be in the shadow, the Spirit will receive what is taken and glorify You. You will be lifted up because of what is done, not me, it's not about Alex, it's not about us, it's about our King, it's about His glory, so Spirit, take the word and pray out to the hearts of God's people, we will rise to the Father. For the past three weeks, we have been looking at the road to Easter, you know, not our road to Easter, but Jesus is road to Easter, and today we come to the end of it. What's at the end of the road is the resurrection, the resurrection of Christ, which is more than just a story, it's more than just a sunny school lesson that teach our kids, it's more than just a sermon topic, the resurrection is not a myth, it's not a myth, it's not a fairy tale, it's not a parable, it's not some twisted religious speculation, the resurrection is historical, it happened, it happened, it is real. I know none of us from personal experience can relate to that, unless you are a different being than I am, none of us have witnessed a resurrection, none of us can say that we knew a person who died and was in a grave three days and then rose again, we don't know anyone like that in our lifetime, we haven't met anyone like that, so what calligori do you put the resurrection of Jesus in, what does it belong, Christianity people is supernatural, the resurrection is supernatural, and just like the cross, the resurrection is very, very important, why is that, because if Jesus did not rise from the grave, you still lost in your sin, you realized that right, he had to rise again, not just die for our sins, but he had to come up out of the grave, because if he didn't, what I'm doing here means nothing, why are you even here, so the resurrection is very important, second reason why is that through Jesus' resurrection power, you can walk and live in newness of life, you see the end of the Easter road of Jesus marked a new beginning for sinful people like you or not, a new beginning, and what is that new beginning, it's the free offer of a newness of life, a free offer of a newness of life, now what does this newness of life mean, how it talks about it in Romans 6, beginning in verse 1, so if you have your bowels, open them to Romans 6, beginning in verse 1, what shall we say then, are we to continue in sin, the grace may abound, by no means, how can we who die to sin still live in it, do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ was baptized into his death, you are buried therefore with Christ not baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised for the dead, not a power to father, we too may walk in newness of life, where if you have been united with him in his death like his, we should surely be united with him in a resurrection like his, we know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we are no longer enslaved to sin, for the one who has died has been set free from sin, now if you have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him, we know that Christ has been raised from the dead, we will never die again, death no longer has dominion over him, for the death he died, he died to sin once for all, the life he lives, he lives to God, so you must also consider yourself dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus, that not sinned therefore reign in your mortal bodies to make you obey their passions, but do not present your memories to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourself to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments of righteousness, but sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under the law, but under grace, that this is God's holy, magnificent word, amen. Notice of life, walk in the newness of life, and the first thing that Paul tells us about this newness of life is that he tells us what it is not, what is it not? You see here in these first four verses, Paul asked these questions, these questions that he asked, he asked these questions into a response to a misunderstanding about his teachings about sin and grace. There were some that misunderstood the implications of grace in sin and his newness of life. You see in chapter 5 verse 20, Paul says, "Now that the law has come to increase sin, but where sin increased, grace abound all the more." Romans 5, 20, "Now the law came to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abound all the more." Now, what's the misunderstanding? The misunderstanding is that people thought this will allow people to continue to live in sin, just so grace would increase. Is that what Paul really teaches? Is that what these words truly mean? That I can continue to live in sin, so grace may abound all the more, by no means. He says, "How could we who have died to sin continue to live in it? Do you not know that all of us have been baptized into Christ or baptized into his death? This newness of life he received from Christ is not marked by continuing to live in sin. This is what Paul wants us to understand. And he goes on to call us to remember our baptism, remember where it symbolizes. It symbolizes your union with Christ, that you entered into once you received him as your Lord and Savior in saving faith in that. That in him you are now a new creation. The whole has gone right, the new has come. Saving faith is the right security clearance that sets you on the path to understanding this newness of life. And if you don't have the security clearance, you're going to be able to understand Christianity, you're going to be able to understand the truth. You've got to have a saving faith. Do you have it? Are you growing in it? You as a believer, you as a child of God, you as a son and daughter of the king, you were buried with Christ into baptism. Why? And ordered that. Just as Christ was raised from the dead by the power of the Father, you too may walk in newness of life, newness of life. Don't walk in it. For you have died to sin and should not continue to live in it. We were buried with Christ in his death and we were raised up in the newness of life. That's salvation and through the power of the Spirit, you can now walk in that life, shield it with grace, unlimited amounts of grace. Let me ask you this question. This newness of life here, is it just to come? Is it just to come? Is he talking about once we get to heaven, we were experiencing this in life? Or do we can we experience it here? Or is it still to come? We experience it here. We experience it here. You can walk in it here. The catch is that you won't ever experience it in its fullness until Jesus comes back. But you do taste of it. What do you think the resurrection stories were about that people have been sharing? Roar's resurrection story, Diane's resurrection story, Melissa's resurrection story. What is that? That's tasting of the life to come when we would truly be free from all sin, all hardships. But on this side of heaven, we taste of what that is going to be like when we get to glory. We taste of it now. All those resurrection stories are about that tasting of this newness of life. Think about it like this, a child that has been adopted into a good family has been given a newness of life. Do you agree? Freely, a new home, parents, stability, safety, security, hope, love, acceptance, discipline, even a new identity because of their last name. Now, does that child understand the education of their adoption once they are adopted? Do they understand all those things at that very moment? No, they don't. As that child lives in that adoption, as that child walks in that adoption, their understanding of the implication of their adoption grows. And when it grows, they begin to see that all that stuff is a permanent, not temporary home. They're not my temporary parents. This is not temporary security. This is not temporary hope. This is not temporary love, but it's permanent love. My adoption is permanent. And the same is for each of us when we are adopted into the kingdom of God, permanent, but you ain't ever going to understand it at that moment. You grow in your understanding of it. As the spirit changes you. Your baptism, what it symbolizes, it symbolizes something that's permanent. Your union requires it's permanent. You ain't ever going to lose it. Ever. Your newness of life in Jesus is permanent. You ain't ever going to lose it. Ever. You are a child of God, a guard of God, because of Jesus. And that is a permanent status that Satan cannot steal. He won't ever steal it from you. But as you walk in this newness of life, you grow in your understanding of those things. You see, there are benefits to our adoption. Benefits. And those benefits are marked to the new life. Now, we know that the new life is not marked by continuing in sin to the grace may abound, but what is it marked by? Verse 5, chapter 6. "For if you have been united with Christ and His death and a death like His, we will surely be united with Him in a resurrection like His. For we know that our old self was crucified with Him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin. For the one who has died has been set free from sin." The first mark and benefit of this newness of life is that we are not dead to sin. We're not dead to sin. Paul says you have been united with Christ and the death like His. And this happened when our old self was crucified with Christ. Who is the old self? What is He referring to there? It's who you were in Adam. It's who you were before you came to know Christ. It's your former way of life. It's the fact that all of us were born into this real sinful. And whether our sin bent was towards self-righteousness or whether your sin bent was toward unrighteousness, all of us were born into sin. And not only born into sin, sin ruled over us. Let's put it this way, sin was your pimp. It owned you, it beat you, and it abused you. That's what we were before Jesus. We didn't own it. It owned us. It was our daddy. And most of us were blind to it. That's what we were before Christ. We were enslaved to it. But now Paul says for those who are in Christ that old self has died has been crucified, crucified with Jesus on the cross. And His death was created to our sin death. He was delivered up on the cross for your sins. And the purpose of His death was so that death might be brought to nothing, zero balance through His death. He slaughtered sin through His death. Our sin death, we're never going to pay off. We think our nation's death is huge. Our sin debt is greater. And it took the death of Christ, the counts of that debt out. Nothing else will do. His death brought sin to His zero balance. And here's the thing. His death is not some lowly monthly payment. It doesn't ever pay off the debt. It was paid in full people with all of His interests, one sacrifice for you, for me, and for anyone who doesn't know Him. That's what He did. What is the body of sin? Sin and its totality. All of its rule. All of its power. All of its dominion over us. No longer exists. The result is that you're no longer enslaved to it. Your chains people have been broken. Your chains have been broken. You are no longer in bondage to it. The one who has died, the one who has been crucified with Jesus, has been set free from sin. Whether it's your self-righteousness, thinking you better than everybody else, and if you have no issues, or really it's your unrighteousness, you can do all kinds of immoral things. When you come to Christ, He sets you free from that. Do you understand these words and what they mean to you? That means you are free from your personal sins, generational sins, sins that have been done to you about other people. Your former well life no longer defines you. The person you used to be before Christ is now dead. You are not a product of your environment in Christ. You are not the black sheep or the family in Christ. You don't only have to live under the pressure of being like your big brother or sister. You're not what was done to you as a child. You're not. No longer do you have to live out the role of being the bad child or the perfect child. You are free. Your identity is in Jesus and in Him alone. Are you weary this morning? Are you tired this morning? Are you fed up this morning? Are you beat down this morning? Are you in need of hope this morning? Then come to Jesus and He was set free. Paul says in verses 11 that you must consider yourselves dead to sin, dead to his voice, dead to his passions, dead to his false promises, because sin promises stuff to us, but it's dead people. It's not life. Now here's something you should keep in mind. You are dead to sin even if you don't understand what that really means, and even at times when you don't even believe it. As you walk in your new needs of life, you are growing your understanding of what that means for you. Remember, the child who has adopted does not fully understand his adoption at that very moment. He's adopted. He grows in it. He grows in his understanding of it. And so as you walk in your new needs of life and Christ, you will understand what it really means to be dead to sin. You will. And when you receive Jesus like your Lord and Savior, that's when you come into the kingdom of God. And then you learn how to walk in that and what it truly means. The Spirit is the one who grows you, gives you understanding, shows you what it means to be dead to sin. All of us have, well, they call that one sin that we struggle with. You know, the one sin that we think is really holding us back from Jesus. And if we no longer had that one sin, then your relationship with Christ would be where it needs to be. You'll be a better Christian if you no longer struggle with that one sin. So what is that one sin for you? We all have it. So don't sit there as if you don't. What's wrong? In college, I got addicted to a sin that's quite common to men. If you're a guy, you know what I'm talking about. I just just called it lust. Let's say, go with the kids here. And I was a believer at the time, but that sin had me. I couldn't shake it. And for a longest time, what Paul says in verse 6, I didn't believe because I wasn't experiencing this one particular sin. I was stuck in a cycle that I couldn't get out of, a cycle of falling into simple pleasure. Then I was feel guilty about it. And then I made vows to Jesus. Jesus, this time I'm sorry. I swear to God, Jesus, this time I'm not going to do it again. Now I go a few weeks and I have a bad week. Then I'm back in the cycle again. Jesus, I'm sorry, but please forgive me, Jesus. I promise this was the last time and you see where I'm going over and over a cycle for me with that one particular sin. Proverbs says, "As a dog returns to his vomit, so is the man who repeats his father. But six years of my life, that was me with that one particular sin." I kept going back. I kept going back. What happened to me? I had to let other Christian brothers inside my battle. I stopped fighting alone. And over time no God used those brothers to help heal me, to help me understand the gospel, to help me understand what it means to be adopted into the family and God. And what I've come to understand about those six years of my life is that every time I return to the vomit of that sin I never once truly washed my mouth out with the gospel. Never truly did. I would go back to the vomit, but I would never go to the gospel and wash my mouth out. My problem was that I was desperately struggling to be free and I never truly embraced the fact that in Jesus I have freedom to struggle now. And we all do. In this newness of life, does it mean you're not going to ever struggle with sin because you will? But it does mean you would not continue to live in sin without any sense of conviction and the humility to repent of it. You see the difference? Living, being dead to sin does not mean you would no longer struggle with sin because you will, but it does mean you are now convicted of your sin and you're conviction will lead you to repentance of your sin because you're dead to sin. And so I ask you, are you convicted of your sin this morning? Whatever your sin struggles may be, does your conviction lead you to repentance or is your sin just too comfortable? Is your sin still sweeter than sweet with no sense of conviction? In this newness of life and Christ, you have the freedom to struggle except that your transgressions are now forgiven. You know what that means? Past, present, future sins have all forgiven. Even the ones you committed now in your mind have all been nailed to the cross. For your sins have been covered in the blood of Jesus and your sins are no longer counting against you. Not even the ones you're going to struggle with when you leave here. Even those who went to the cross court. You've got to believe that. So as you walk in this newness of life, your sin struggles will never change your adoption status without any body. It won't. You know why he already knows you messed up, but he loves you anyway. You already knows you're broken and he loves you anyway. He sent Jesus because of that. You are eternally a son, eternally a daughter, and when the spirit brings you to a place where you truly can believe these truths, man, it changed your life. It changed your attitude towards sin. You will begin to hate it more. You will begin to hate your self-righteousness. You will begin to hate your unrighteousness. You will begin to unmask sin and you'll be able to see sin for what it truly is. It's death and it's not life. It hates you. It despises you. And I say hate it and it spies it back. That's what I say. You have to have the attitude. I'm sorry. There will also be more conviction. You will repent more. I love repentance, man. I love it. And you need to see it as a gift from God. It brings me, it's repentance to me. It brings me great joy. You should do it all through the same thing for you. You have to have the attitude that you won't have the attitude that I'm going to sin so that grace may increase. You won't have the attitude when the spirit brings you to understand this to your life. See, the spirit will also empower you to do what you could not do before you can't even know Jesus. And you know what that is? You will begin to fight against the sin in your life. Your pride, your ego, your immorality, your addictions. Realize that before Jesus you couldn't fight against those things. Because God's spirit lives in you can to the power of Christ. Paul says here in verses 12 and 13, "Let not stand therefore reigning or more about mortal bodies to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness." What is he talking about there? He's talking about you getting in the game to fight against your sin in your life. Notice I didn't say die for it because Jesus already died for it. But we still struggle with sin. And now you're able to do what you couldn't do before. You can fight against it. As I grew in applying these truths to my struggles with sin and particularly that one sin, I came to a place where I finally accepted the fact that the temptations of sin are going to always be in my life. And the temptations of that one sin is going to be with me until I go to the grave. I came to terms and accepted that fact. That's going to be an eternal battle. It can be a lifelong battle for me for that particular sin. But you know what else I realized is that I didn't always have to give in to it for the power of the Spirit. I could say no, not today. I can say no, not today. Daniel 1132 says, "The people who know that God will stand firm and fight. The people who know that God will stand firm and fight. Sin is an enemy of our Heavenly Father. And for those of us who know Him, for those of us who are now alive in Him, it is also our enemy as well. It is. The love of God, don't you know that in this newness of life you have in Christ, you are not just dead to sin but now you are alive for the Father. You are now alive to God. Go back to verse 5, chapter 6. "For if you have a united with Christ and his death like his, we should surely be united with him in the resurrection like his. Then go down to verse 8. Now if you have died with Christ we believe that we should also live with him. We know that Christ has been raised from the dead. We will never die again. Death alone has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin and once for all. For the life he lives he lives to God. So you must also consider yourself dead to sin and the life to God. The second mark in the benefit of this newness of life in Christ that you are now alive to God and Jesus. Paul says you have been united with him and his death like his and we should surely be united with him in the resurrection like his. Because we are united with Christ and his death the logical future is that we will also be united with him in the resurrection and this is not just pointing to the future resurrection that is to come but he is talking about we experience that in this life time. The present reality of it being united with Christ in the resurrection means in this presence in this present life your life belongs to Jesus. This life lived unto him. The newness of life is no longer lived on our terms. It is lived under the lordship of Christ who is our Savior and our Lord. That is how we walk in the newness of life. It is unto him and for him and through him. We actually can live and fellowship with Jesus now and communion with Jesus now. You can have an intimate relationship with Christ in this newness of life and guess what that relationship again is a fortece of what is to come and turn. There was moments when you feel like you are in deep communion with God that is how it is going to be in heaven for all the time. Uninterrupted communion. Uninterrupted fellowship. So you are tasting people what is to come in glory? Are you tasting it? Are you enjoying it? When Jesus resurrected from the grave he not only defeated sin but he also defeated death. Death no longer has to be in over him. He is no longer in the tomb. As Paul says, the death he died he died to sin once for all and he will never die again. Jesus does not repeatedly die for your sins. He does not do that. He does not repeatedly die. It was one sacrifice, one perfect sacrifice for once for all. As I said, past, present, future sins have been nailed to the cross and you bear them no more. No more ever, ever again. Blessed are those whose sins are no longer counted against them and that is you people. So you can leave here today knowing that when you fall short this week it is not kind against you. Blessed are those who live that way, who know that truth. It has been covered in the blood of Christ. Jesus resurrected from the grave and then we know he ascended into heaven and what is he doing now? He is sitting at the right hand of God and Father Almighty. Roman says he is making an intercession for us still and one day we know he will return. Think about this. Before you came to know Christ you were dead to God. Think about that. Before Jesus called you into his magnificent kingdom save you from your sin you were dead to God cut off from God and guess what else and you were alive to sin. You see what Jesus had done for us? Because of Adam's fall in Genesis 3 people are spiritually dead and separated from God. We are all made sinners through Adam. But now you are no longer in Adam if you are a believer. You are in Christ and in Christ the reverse is true. The reverse of that is true. What do you mean by that Alex? You are no longer alive to sin but dead to it. You are no longer dead to God but alive to him. The reverse is true. He came and reversed what Adam did and returned us back to what Adam was before the fall. He was alive to God before the fall. He realized that and he died when he disobeyed and in Christ we are now alive to God, dead to sin. He has reconciled each of us to our Creator. We are now restored to God. We are at peace with the Father no longer are we his enemies. We are his friends in Christ. How do you live a life that is alive to God? Paul tells us in Galatians 2, I have to crucify the Christ. There is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the flesh I live by what? Faith in the Son of God who loves me and gave himself up for me. So how do you walk in this newness of life? There is a life to God. It is true faith in people being empowered by the Spirit. Faith in the Son of God who died for our sins and who was raised up to make us right with God. Do you have saving faith in Christ? Do you know him? If you want to be alive to God that is how you become alive to God. Otherwise you are dead to him if you don't know Jesus and you can't work your way back to life. You can't do enough good stuff. There is one way we get to glory and it is through Jesus alone. And that is it. And so I ask you do you know what? Have you surrendered? Let Jesus give you your own resurrection story and he will. Are you going to say Jesus? Come into my life. Now if you already have done that I think many of us have already surrendered. Now it is time for us to celebrate. Now it is time for us to celebrate this newness of life that we have in Christ by partaking of the Lord Sefra. What is the Lord Sefra? Is it just a fancy meal? What is it? The Lord Sefra was instituted by Christ at the last Sefra. It is a spiritual proclamation in the gospel. He says as often as you eat of this bread and drink of the cup you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes. Now this is the Lord's table. It is not my table. It is not the churches table. Therefore all baptized Christians are welcome. Those who actively trust in Jesus for salvation who are willing to forsake their sins and who are members of a congregation that proclaim the gospel. You are welcome to receive communion with us. Friends, neighbors those who have not professed faith in Christ. We love you. We consider it the honor to have you here. Although the Lord's table reserved for those who have faith in Christ, it is open for observation and the public display of our unity in Christ. If you are not able to receive communion, this is very appropriate. Please use this time to meditate on what was preached, to pray, to reflect back on the worship. You don't have to hang your head below. Just watch and observe. And parents, finally parents, will ask you not to let your child protect the elements until they are made a public professional faith. Now we leave that to the oversight of the parent and children. I encourage each of you to observe one of the most holy events, sacred events of our church. If you have been baptized and have not yet made a profession of Christ, this is a reminder of Christ's sacrifice for you and call upon your life. The bread, I suppose, behind the table. I am back here now. We are very informal here. So I am very laid back. This is my style. So the Lord Jesus on the night, on the night he was betrayed, he took bread. We had given thanks for it. He broke it and gave it to his disciples. He said, "Take and eat. This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me." And in the same manner he also took the cup, having given things. He gave it to them as well, saying, "This is the cup of the, this cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. Drink of it. All of you, please pray with me. Father God, we pray for this time that you, Lord, become minister to us. I love the Lord's Supper and what it symbolizes for us, Father. It is a true picture of your death. And so in being in this Lord to Christ's command, we ask you to set aside these elements for their coming use and bless them in the name of the Father and the name of the Son and the name of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Before we pass our