Sunday
03/11/18 Freeville/Homer Avenue UMC’s
Sermon Title: “The Apostle Paul proclaimed it”
(“The power of the Resurrection” Series – Part 2 of
5)
Old Testament
Scripture: Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22
New Testament
Scripture: Ephesians 2:1-10
Gospel Lesson:
John 3:14-21
My friends, my sisters and brothers in Christ, welcome once
again on this our Fourth Sunday in this the season of Holy Lent. This season
were we are called to prepare our hearts, our minds, our souls, and our bodies
for the coming crucifixion and death of Jesus Christ our Lord. Fear not though,
a resurrection is coming!
This Sunday, we also celebrate our United Methodist Church’s
relief agency, UMCOR, and we all have an opportunity to give to this ministry
today and in general.
With this said, last week, in an effort to slowly move us
towards Easter Sunday, I started a sermon series called “The power of the Resurrection”.
The belief in the resurrection of Jesus Christ is central to the Christian
faith, our faith witness, and our faith beliefs. Every Christian tradition that
I have ever encountered in fact, believes in “The power of the Resurrection” of
Jesus Christ. I believe personally that Christ was bodily or physically resurrected
on Easter Sunday, while some other Christians and some other Christian traditions
might have other understandings of the resurrection of Christ. However people
view the resurrection, it is certainly powerful and transformative.
In this sermon series, as I said last Sunday, it is my hope
to convey some of “The power of the Resurrection” of Jesus Christ through
different biblical perspectives. Why should we believe in the resurrection
Jesus Christ though, and why is there “The power of the Resurrection”? I have
picked five of the many reasons that I believe in “The power of the Resurrection”
of Jesus Christ.
Last Sunday, I cited in our gospel reading from John
2:13-22, that Jesus said in his own words:
“Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days
I will raise it up” (Jn. 2:19, NRSV).
Jesus of course was talking about the
temple of his body. He was saying of himself, I will be beaten, whipped, spat
upon, crucified, dead, buried, but then rise to new life. Resurrection, “Jesus proclaimed
his own resurrection”. Further, you can find Jesus making the predictions of
his crucifixion, his death, and his resurrection, in all four of the gospels of
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
So while there are many reasons to believe
in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, one the biggest reasons for me, is that
Jesus said it would happen in all four gospels.
Of the many other reasons to believe
in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the next one that I want to discuss this
morning is that “The Apostle Paul proclaimed it”.
Now just as refresher course, the
Apostle Paul was not one of Jesus’ original twelve disciples, and he was
formally named Saul of Tarsus. Saul of Tarsus was a Jewish rabbi or priest, and
he fiercely persecuted the Christians. So much so, that Saul asked the high
priest to have letters drafted up to bring the Jewish Synagogues in Damascus,
which is modern day Syria. Paul hoped these instructions would not only help the
Jews in Damascus and in other places to resist the new faith of Christianity or
“The Way” as there were called in their first years of the church. On the way
to Damascus to submit these instructions on how the stop the Christians, Jesus
appears to Saul. In fact, it says in Acts 9:1-6, speaking of the man who would
become the Apostle Paul:
“Meanwhile Saul, still breathing
threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and
asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any
who belonged to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. Now
as he was going along and approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven
flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him,
“Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” He asked, “Who are you, Lord?” The reply
came, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But get up and enter the city, and
you will be told what you are to do” (Acts
9:1-6, NSRV).
This set of
events concludes with Saul being blinded for three days, finding a man named
Ananias in the city of Damascus, being baptized, regaining his sight, and fully
becoming a Christian. Saul of Tarsus, the great persecutor of the Christians,
will become the Apostle Paul, a mighty man of Jesus Christ.
Now it is
possible that Saul, who would become the Apostle Paul, knew or had met Jesus
before he was crucified and resurrected? He could have met Jesus, but we can’t
prove this for sure. All we do know is that Paul saw Jesus Christ, a vision of
him anyway, and that he was changed. After this the Apostle Paul began to proclaim
Jesus’ death and resurrection. This once hater and persecutor of the Christians
or “The Way”, became one of the top leaders of the early Christian Church.
Just to give you an idea once again of
the significance of the Apostle Paul, who was once Saul of Tarsus, also called the
“Apostle to the Gentiles,” Paul was so significant that of the 27-books of our
New Testament, Paul is attributed to thirteen of these books. This means that
of the 27-books of your Christian New Testament, Paul is recorded as the author
of at least thirteen of those books. These “books” are Epistles or letters,
like Romans, Ephesians, Colossians, 1 Timothy, and etc. The reality therefore,
is that the Apostle Paul wrote almost 50% of our Christian New Testament.
Before diving into our reading from
the Apostle Paul’s Epistle or letter to the church in Ephesus or the Ephesians
for this morning, I want to give you one of the best examples of the Apostle
Paul proclaiming the crucifixion, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
In 1 Corinthians 15:3-8, the Apostle
Paul says:
“For what I received I passed
on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according
to the Scriptures, that
he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the
Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. After
that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the
same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then
he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and
last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born” (1 Cor. 15:3-8, NRSV).
The Apostle
Paul clearly therefore, proclaimed the life, teachings, crucifixion, death, and
resurrection of Jesus Christ.
In our reading
from the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Ephesians for this morning, Paul
proclaims the resurrection, but he does it a little differently than the
scripture that I just read from 1 Corinthians 15:3-8. Once again the Apostle
said in our scripture for this morning from Ephesians 2:1-10:
“You were dead through the trespasses and sins in which
you once lived, following the course of this world, following the ruler of the
power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among those who are
disobedient. All of us once lived among them in the passions of our flesh,
following the desires of flesh and senses, and we were by nature children of
wrath, like everyone else. But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love
with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made
us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up
with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that
in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness
toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and
this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God—not the result of works, so
that no one may boast. For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus
for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life” (Eph. 2:1-10, NRSV).
What is fascinating about what the
Apostle Paul does here, is that he not only proclaims the resurrection of
Christ, but he then likens what our own lives are like before we have faith in
Christ. Specially, he likens our lives before faith in Christ to being similar
to Christ being dead in his tomb for three days prior to his resurrection. The
Apostle Paul then tells us that when we come to and have faith in Christ that
we are spiritually resurrected and alive, as Christ was physically and bodily resurrected
and alive. In my belief. This is powerful idea. The idea of physical and bodily
resurrection, but also the idea of us being spiritually resurrected. This
resurrection power, of us going from guilt, shame, despair, and sin, to new
life in Jesus Christ. For the Apostle Paul is saying that this is part of “The
power of the resurrection” of Jesus Christ.
I also wanted to briefly touch upon
our gospel reading for this morning from John 3:14-21. Once again, this gospel
of John 3:14-21 reading says:
“And just as Moses lifted up the
serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in
him may have eternal life. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only
Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal
life. “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world,
but in order that the world might be saved through him. Those who believe in
him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already,
because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is
the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness
rather than light because their deeds were evil. For all who do evil hate the
light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. But
those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen
that their deeds have been done in God” (Jn.
3:14-21, NRSV).
In this gospel reading it says in
the first verse of the reading,
“so must the Son of Man be lifted up”
(Jn. 3:14, NRSV).
This could be interpreted as lifting
Jesus up spiritually, lifting up his cross at the crucifixion, and or being
lifted up in his resurrection and then his ascension.
While the Apostle Paul however,
never saw the empty tomb of Jesus Christ, he believed in the “The power of the resurrection”.
This belief changed him, and through it, God used him to change countless
others.
As we are preparing in this season
of Lent for the trial, crucifixion, death, burial, and then the resurrection of
Christ on Easter, are we letting the power of the resurrection change us? Is
the power of who Christ is and what he has done for us, bubbling up in us in
this season of waiting, this season of Lent?
It
is my hope and prayer that we live the power of the resurrection of Christ
today, this week, and always. When we great someone in church, we are living
resurrection power. When we help or love someone, we are living resurrection
power. We when serve the poor, the helpless, and etc., we are living resurrection
power. When we give things away that we don’t need, visit the lonely, care for
the sick, we are living resurrection power. Will you dare live resurrection
power like the Apostle Paul did? Amen.
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