Page 1 of 10 *Christ Rose from the Dead but What about You Philippians 3:7-11 A teacher asked a young boy to read the verse John 3:16. As the boy began to read, he stumbled over the words and read the verse this way, "For God so loved the world that he gave His only "forgotten" Son. The teacher corrected the boy and said, It's not "God's only "forgotten" Son" but "God's only begotten Son". As he said the words, she realized the boy had stumbled onto a sad reality. For most people in our country "God's only Begotten Son" has become "God's "forgotten" Son. Almost 2,000 years ago the virgin born sinless Son of God hung on the cross. With his flesh torn from a terrible beating, his head pierced with a crown of thorns, he was nailed to that cross to die for your sins and mine. There suspended between heaven and earth He willingly suffered the eternal judgment for the sins of the whole world. He did all that because he loves every person on the planet and he wants them to be with him in heaven for all eternity. As the last act of cruelty, a Roman soldier shoves a spear into his body. Water mixed with blood poured out because His heart had ruptured. He was already dead from a broken heart. Then they laid Him in a tomb and sealed the opening with a stone. But on the third day by the awesome power of God, He rose from the dead and won the victory over the power of sin, death and hell. Let s pause there and ask some very important questions. *What has the resurrection of Jesus Christ done to change your life?
Page 2 of 10 Do you think differently? Do you act differently? Do you live differently? Do you treat people differently? Do you have a different purpose? Is your life filled with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control? All of that and more is possible through the resurrection of Christ. You see, when Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead He defeated Satan, the enemy of our souls. He dealt him a deathblow. Because of that, you and I can have a brand new life! Are you experiencing the victory that comes through the resurrection of Christ? Are you experiencing it today? The greatest problem in our world is that most people live lives that are defeated and are in bondage to sin. The only begotten Son of God has become the forgotten Son of God. Far too many do not realize that the resurrection can change their life. *Romans 8:11 He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His spirit who lives in you. NIV The power of God that raised Jesus from the dead, will give you and me life. Jesus said, I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. (John 10:10 NIV) Don t the words of Jesus just make your hearts long for life that is full and meaningful?
Page 3 of 10 T.S. Do you want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection in your life? The first step is to *I. Surrender everything you are trusting in now. *Whatever you are trusting in to get you to heaven, let go of it. Whatever you are doing to gain God s approval, give it up. We have to swallow our pride and acknowledge that all our efforts to earn our way to heaven are worthless. Can you say to God, I am not good enough? That is a very hard thing to say, but that is what it takes. The apostle Paul was one of the most religious people that ever lived. I am convinced he was more religious than Gandhi and Confucius put together. If anyone could have made it to heaven by being good or by being religious, it would have been Paul. He followed all the religious laws and traditions of the Jewish Pharisees meticulously. Yet, he had to surrender everything he was trusting in because it wasn t near enough. He had to come to God with empty hands. Listen to what he said. Philippians 3:7 But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. *I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. NIV
Page 4 of 10 Inspite of all Paul s efforts to be good, he could only be saved by trusting in Christ s sacrifice on the cross. If you asked the average person on the street, What do you have to do to go to heaven?, they would say something like try to live a good life. Most people think based on that assumption that they will go to heaven. But the truth is, nobody can be that good. We have all done too many things that are wrong, said too many bad things, and thought too many bad thoughts. We have all rebelled against God in some way. Because none of us can be good enough to earn eternal life and because God loves us so much, Jesus went to the cross to save us. The truth is, we all have sinned and have fallen short of God s standard of holiness. (Romans 3:23) We can only be saved by God's gracious act of dying on the cross for our sins. Ill. What if you took Michael Phelps, the winner of 18 Olympic gold medals in swimming, and lined him up next to me on a beach in California and you told us to swim to Hawaii. We jump in the waves and start swimming. I might make it a couple 100 yards, but then I would drown and die. Now Michael is a far better swimmer. He is really good. He might make it 25 miles or even 50 miles. You might be tempted to think that that would be great, but what would be great about it? He would still drown and die. He would still be 2,400 miles from Hawaii. Obviously, Michael is a much better swimmer than me, but we both would drown and die. That s the way it
Page 5 of 10 is when it comes to being good enough to go to heaven. No one can make it! *The Bible says, " it is by grace you have been saved, through faith and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9, NIV) There won t be anybody in heaven bragging, I got here because I was so good! T. S. So surrender everything you are trusting in now. Your good works, your health, your wealth, your good looks, whatever you are trusting in, surrender it and... *II. Seek the Lord Jesus. *He loves you more than you can imagine and he wants to save you from the penalty, the power, and the presence of sin. Salvation begins with a relationship with God. It is not enough to just give mere intellectual assent to the fact that Jesus lived, died, and rose from the dead. Let me give you an example of what I mean. ILL. We have all heard of George Washington and you believe that he was a real person and the first President of the United States, but you are not expecting him to do anything for you today. He is dead. You are not trusting in him to do anything for you today? You just believe he was real. Believing in Christ is far more.
Page 6 of 10 *Listen to what Paul says. Philippians 3:10 says, I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. NIV To know Christ is far more than just knowing some facts about him. Knowing Christ is having a relationship with him. It is to trust him to forgive your sins and to come into your life today and to be your God. That is what Paul did about 30 years before he wrote these words. He trusted Jesus to be his Savior and God. He entered into a relationship with the resurrected Christ. So why does he say he wants to know Christ? The answer to that question reveals one of the marvelous mysteries of the Christian life. When we ask Christ to save us, we come to know him in a personal relationship. The more we live with Christ, the more and more we get to know him. If someone says, I came to know Christ many years ago but they are not living for Him now, that is a real danger signal. If you think you are a Christian, but you don t have the desire to know Christ more and more through studying the Bible and through relationships with God s people in the church and you have no desire to tell others about Christ, then I strongly encourage you to reexamine your relationship with God.
Page 7 of 10 If you are not seeking to know Him more today, you probably have never come to know Him. Knowing Christ is the greatest experience in life. The more you know him the more you want to know him. This is too important to get it wrong. Your eternal destiny hangs in the balance between heaven and hell. Put everything aside you have got going on and get this right. Wouldn't you like to experience the resurrection power of Christ living in you? To change the way you treat the members of your family, to change the way you act at work, to change the way you talk, to change the way you think, to enable you to live a life that is pleasing to God, to set you free from habits or addictions that have enslaved you. You can have all of that and much more through a real relationship with Christ! That's why Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead. It was not just so we could remember it one time a year on Easter. Jesus rose from the dead so you and I could experience a relationship with Him and have His resurrection power in our lives 365 days a year. T.S. Your relationship with Christ begins when you *III. Submit your life to God. *You and I have to say to God, Here is my life. I give it to you, hands off. I have made a mess of it but now it is yours. God will take you just like you are. This is what Paul said. *Philippians 3:10 I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings,
Page 8 of 10 becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. NIV To become like Christ in his death is to die to yourself. It is to die to self-effort to be good. It s to die to pride, that says, I am good enough. It is to die to a selfish living or living life for ourself. It s to die to a self-directed life. It is to submit to God as our boss and surrendering to his direction for our life. It is letting go of anything that we are hanging on to that is displeasing to God. It might be a relationship with some person that is immoral. It may be a habit or an addiction. You and I know what we have to let go of. It is anything that keeps us from seeking Christ. I am not saying you and I have to change all these things in our lives on our own. What I am saying is that we submit our life to God and let him come in and change us from the inside out. You can t have a resurrection until you die. Now someone might be thinking, submit my whole life to God, die to everything that I am holding on to, and let him have my life hands off, that seems extreme. Ill. What if I went out to west Texas and found a piece of land that was so expensive it would take everything I owned to buy it. I would have to sell my home, car, and cash in my retirement. But this is where it gets good, underneath that land is an oil field worth billions of dollars. Now, would it be extreme for me to give up everything that I have now to gain that oil field. Not at all! That would be a bargain! What I would give up would be trivial compared to what I would gain. Would you do it? Sure you would. Anybody would.
Page 9 of 10 That is what happens when you and I submit our life to God. What you give up is trivial compared to what you gain. When you and I say to God, Here is my life you can have it, hands off, we gain infinitely more than what we give up. Paul said everything that he gave up was like rubbish compared to what he gained in Christ. *Invitation: Christ Rose From the Dead but What About You? Are you ready for a resurrection? Do you want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection in your life? Do you want to be changed from the inside out? Do you want to experience the abundant life that he wants to give you? Do you want to enter into a relationship with the God who created you and loves you and wants you to know him? If you want to know him Surrender everything you are trusting in now. Admit to God you re not good enough. Ill. Swimming in Hawaii Seek the Lord Jesus. Let him know that you want to have a relationship with him. ILL. We have all heard of George Washington Submit your life to God. Give him your life, hands off. What you will gain is far, far greater than what you give up. God will take you just like you are. He will forgive you and change you. That is why he died on the cross. Knowing Christ and the power of his resurrection can begin for you right now. Don t wait, it is the best thing you will ever do. If you enter into a relationship with God through Christ, you will come to know him in a personal way and you will spend
Page 10 of 10 the rest of your life getting to know him more and more and all of eternity with him doing the same. Let s pray.