We'll be turning our attention initially to the reading from 1 Corinthians chapter 15, one verse in particular from that, and then we'll take time to look at some of the material from Colossians chapter 3. So both of those verses or both of those readings are significant for us. I want to preface my remarks this morning by refreshing us in the knowledge of something that we have come, I suppose, to understand as a sort of truism and you can say things so often that we lose the meaning of them. The thing I think that we need to refresh ourselves in before we say anything else this morning is that the whole of the Christian life is lived by faith. The whole of the Christian life is a life of faith. In the matter of the resurrection, That faith is not simply whether Christ rose from the dead or not. There's plenty of evidence for anyone who wanted to receive it, even in Paul's letter you get an indication of it here in 1 Corinthians 15. There's plenty of evidence for anyone who wanted to receive it that Christ had indeed been raised from the dead and that he had indeed appeared to the people whom he appeared to, that he had indeed commissioned them with a message to take to the uttermost parts of the earth. So in Paul's day, for example, you could point to that evidence and say this is a fact that Jesus Christ rose from the dead. And very often in Easter time, particularly in the media and the things that come on our televisions, there are questions about could this man have been raised from the dead? Did it happen? If it didn't happen, where are his bones? Are they buried in a stone box somewhere? And from one point of view, if we say, well, faith, all Christian life is a matter of faith and we have to believe by faith that Jesus rose from the dead. And if we just link the question of faith with the question of the fact of his resurrection, we're actually still missing the main point of what Paul and the others bring to us in the New Testament with regard to the resurrection. There is no doubt I don't think there is no doubt anyway that Jesus Christ literally rose from the dead, that bodily he appeared to people and that bodily he has ascended into heaven. That testimony is so plain and it's throughout all of the pages really of the New Testament that we couldn't ignore it. But the question of faith that I want us to focus on today is not whether he rose from the dead, but what that means. I want to talk about the meaning and the significance of the resurrection and what it means for us to actually live in that reality by faith today. And the scriptures give us in the gospel a wonderful message to proclaim and that message is truly life transforming. We've heard of John Bunyan today and Pilgrim's Progress and what a marvellous picture of that burden rolling off his back and disappearing down into the mouth of the open tomb never to be seen again. It's almost too good to be true, isn't it? But it is true by faith. And what about the slave trader, John Newton, whose hymn we've sung this morning? The message of the Gospel is life transforming but it's life transforming by faith And again I say that and we tie into something wrongly in our society today in which faith seems to be something linked with positive thinking that arises from within yourself. No, faith of which we speak, New Testament faith, biblical faith, is not faith that arises from within yourself that makes something to be so. Faith is that which comes to us as a gift from God, which actually sees what is already so. The whole of the Christian life is lived by faith. It does not make something to be so, but actually sees what is so, and we live in accordance with what is so. And in that living, in accordance with what is so, we find that there is a whole spiritual reality brought to us in the Holy Spirit who brings to us that faith at the beginning anyway. But that Holy Spirit brings to us a life of the risen Jesus within our own hearts and minds and within our own relationships. Now, let me just illustrate. None of us here have a personal memory or a personal emotional experience of being in Adam when he sinned. And none of us here have a personal memory or a personal emotional experience of being in Christ when he was crucified, but the scriptures tell us that both those things were so. That Paul says for example, when Christ died, I died. When he was crucified, I was crucified. So when we look at the message and the meaning of Jesus' death and resurrection, we are always tempted to look at it as a spectator watching someone else do something from which we are removed. And so when you see films like The Passion of the Christ and these sorts of things, We are moved to sympathy by the suffering of this man and how could he come through so much physical suffering and we said on Good Friday that the physical suffering wasn't even the beginning of the sorrows that he experienced. But that's the story we're not going into now. We could never understand the cross just by looking at the physical sufferings, not in a million years. But when we look at that, and watch it at a distance as a spectator might watch something else. We lose the meaning of it because Jesus Christ at that point of his crucifixion, of his burial and of his resurrection and now of his ascension has never at any circumstance been operating as an individual human being for himself, by himself. Now the analogy that helps us understand this immensely is the picture of the Old Testament priest. The high priest, you remember, would wear over his ephod a breastplate and that breastplate would have stones and each stone represented the 12 tribes of Israel. So there was one man once a year who could enter into the most holy place and he would make sacrifice first for his own sins and then for the sins of the people So yes, it was one man doing that, but by virtue of that representation and by virtue of that identification, when the people of Israel saw the priest go into that holy place and then into the holy of holies beyond it, they knew somehow or other they were there with him and he was taking them with him into that action. So when he came out of that place and he proclaimed to them, the forgiveness of sins and that the Lord's face was shining upon them and his countenance was lifted up upon them, at that point they understood that they had been one with the action of the priest even though it was only he who physically was present. so that no Israelite had actually a personal emotional experience of what that priest went through as he went into the Holy of Holies, but every Israelite knew that that priest took him there with him symbolically in the 12 stones that were across his heart. Now in like manner, everything that we hear about Jesus Christ's death and resurrection has to be taken by the Holy Spirit, yes to be sure, but it has to be taken to us personally so that we can understand that what is so of Jesus Christ in his death and in his resurrection is actually so of us. So that in his death to sin he made an end to sin and so it is for us that in Christ sin has no more dominion over us. That in Christ our sin was judged and so in him we are justified. So let's think about the resurrection like that this morning. Not just Christ's bodily resurrection. as an article to debate and an article to perhaps express faith in, but what it really means that we could be raised up with him in that resurrection. The first thing I want to say in relation to that, and it seems perhaps a little bit of an aside, is who raised Jesus from the dead? Who raised Jesus from the dead? Now, the obvious answer and the dominant note that comes through the New Testament is that God the Father raised Jesus Christ from the dead. And we could think of a multitude of scriptures which talk about that. This Jesus whom you crucified, God raised up again, we're told in Acts chapter 2 verse 32. Acts chapter 2 verse 24, God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death because it was not possible for him to be held in that death. So we could look at many other verses in the New Testament and it would be made very plain that he was put to death at the hands of godless men, but God raised him up again to vindicate all that he had done was in fact according to the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God. But then you have some other references which indicate something slightly different. You remember for example that statement in John chapter 2 where Jesus is speaking about the temple and he says as he's coming out and everyone has been admiring the magnificent architecture of the temple and the stones and how glorious they are and Jesus says you tear this temple down and in three days what? I will raise it up again and in brackets we're told afterwards he was speaking of the temple of his body and his disciples remembered this afterwards. And you remember in John chapter 10 where he's speaking about himself as the great and good shepherd of his sheep and he says, I have authority to lay my life down and I have authority to take it up again. So those verses, and there's other verses where a very, not unusual, but a somewhat different construction is used where it seems that the subject of the verb and the object of the verb is actually Jesus. Before he rose from the dead, he said, or after he rose. So who's doing the rising? And then there's a couple of verses where you find the ministry of the Holy Spirit is also mentioned in relationship to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 3 verse 18, in fact someone else is preaching on this this morning at one of the churches that we were praying about. For Christ died for your sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous to bring you to God. He was put to death by the body but made alive by the Spirit. And other verses talk about the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead bringing life to our mortal bodies. It's the spirit of the Father bringing resurrection life through to us. And also in Romans chapter 1, he was declared to be son of God in power according to the spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead. Now, I'm not trying to say anything other than God raised him from the dead. But I want us to emphasise this point, that in that act of resurrection, the whole Godhead, Father, Son and Holy Spirit were involved in bringing about a new creation. Now, we should not be surprised by that because wherever the action of God is spoken of in the scriptures, it is as though each person of the Godhead has been involved in that action. There is nothing that the Father does that does not by nature involve the ministry of the Son and the Spirit. There is nothing that the Son does that is not in obedience to the Father and by the power of the Spirit. So there is always a triune communion which is overflowing in a triune action and in the triune action of redemption we receive the benefits of the work of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. So that means that we are secured, settled in the life of the whole triune God. We are raised up with Christ through the Spirit by the will of the Father. We are raised up to have access to the Father in Christ by the Spirit. You say, well, why are you speaking about this? And the answer is something that comes to us in Ephesians. We've been, those of you who are visiting here this morning, just excuse us for a minute. We've been going through a series in Ephesians over the first part of this year. And you just might like to flip to Ephesians chapter 1. Or if you don't like to flip, you could turn. Ephesians chapter 1, verse 7. In him, that is in Christ, We have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace which he's lavished on us. In all wisdom and insight he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his kind intention which he purposed in him." And then it goes on to talk about that intention being everything summed up in Christ and us being given an inheritance with Christ. The point that I want to make in relationship to this verse this morning is simply this. God's purpose has always been to sum everything up in Christ. Sometimes we can think of the plan of redemption, we can think of the action of God in the redeeming action of the cross and the resurrection. We think, well, things went pear-shaped at the beginning. God has had to do something to fix that. It was a really ingenious plan that he used to fix it, so ingenious that the evil one and none of the princes of this world understood it and now it's been revealed. But we're still thinking in that way as though that plan of the cross and the resurrection was a sort of catch up. No, not at all. God's purpose has always been that everything would be brought to its fullness in Christ. It's not as though the first creation of the first human beings was the first experiment and that didn't work, so now we'll try Jesus Christ as the second experiment. Jesus Christ is the one in whom it was always intended to be. That means that in Him, in Christ, the new humanity has always been purposed to find its fullness and its identity and its destiny and its glory. And that brings us back to where I started. If you're just as a human being, looking at Jesus Christ as a spectator, you're missing the plan and purpose of God. The plan and purpose of God is not that you would look at Jesus Christ as a spectator, but that you as a new humanity would actually realise that something has happened in Jesus Christ. He has taken you with him in that cross, through the tomb, through his resurrection, and now in Jesus Christ, The plan and purpose of God is being fulfilled in and through you, in Him. Does that make sense? The plan and purpose of God, the triune Father, Son and Holy Spirit has always been focused on being fulfilled in Jesus Christ. That rules out forever the possibility of just looking at Him as a spectator. Well, it's a possibility. You could do it, but you'd be foolish. to do it. Just look at him as a spectator. Because God is telling us that something has happened in Jesus Christ and that thing that's happened in Jesus Christ has changed everything for us all and that in Jesus Christ there has been a death and a resurrection in which you participated. You have been crucified with Christ You have been buried with Christ, and you've been raised up with Christ, and faith says, Amen. It is so. It does not make it to be so, it reckons on the fact that it is so. Does that make sense? Now this brings us back to our first reading and one particular verse from 1 Corinthians chapter 15. Paul tells the people about the ministry of the gospel. Christ died for our sins, verse 3, according to the scriptures. Christ died is a statement of history. Christ died for our sins is a statement of faith. Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures is a statement that that faith is based on the revelation of God. And he was buried and that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures and then these people to whom he appeared and then the consequences of what would happen if he had not appeared, if he had not been raised and verse 17, if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless You are still in your sins. If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile or worthless and you are still in your sins. Now, Paul's phrase that, sort of as a negative, if he is not, then you are not, sort of thing. But the negative actually has a positive built into it. The converse of it is this. If he's not been raised, you're still in your sins. If he has been raised, what? You're not in your sins. If he has been raised, you're not in your sins. Now in the New Testament the idea of being in our sins has a whole lot of things packed into it. It means to be under condemnation, it means to be under judgement, it means to be in a state of guilt, it means to have the wrath of God upon us, it means to be living according to the flesh, it means to be dominated by the principalities and powers, spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. All of those things and more would be bound up with being in our sins. When Jesus Christ rose from the dead and took a whole new humanity with him, that whole new humanity is no longer in that place. Christ went to that place in his sufferings on the cross, about which we spoke on Good Friday. And in the outer darkness of the wilderness where he bore our sins in his body on the tree, he defeated all of the things that belonged to that terrible place of guilt and fear and failure and judgement and condemnation. And he has risen up with a new humanity in his heart or in his hand, and in that new humanity, we who are in that new humanity by faith are no longer in that place, we're in a different place. And that's what the writer to the Colossians says. Paul, if you just go across to Colossians chapter 3, our second reading. since then or therefore or in view of the fact or because you have been raised up with Christ. See the past tense is there. You have been raised up with Christ. Keep seeking the things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not of the things that are on the earth for you have died. past tense. And your life is hidden, present tense, with Christ in God. And when Christ who is our life is revealed, then you also will be revealed, future tense, with him in glory. So you now live in a place where you were in one place Christ met you in that place and in his cross he took you to the final and complete and utter judgement of that place and he's been raised up on the third day for your justification. So that that place in which you were, you are no longer because you're in Christ, You have already died, you have already been raised up, you are hidden with Christ in God. In fact, your life is so hidden with Christ in God, it is inseparable from Him. But it's so hidden with Christ in God that you don't know it except by faith. It's not a jiggery-pokery, positive thinking, witchery thing. Just as by faith I know my sins were pinned on Christ and I was taken to the death and judgement that I deserve in him, by faith I know now that I have been raised up with him, that I have been justified with him. By faith, I know that to be so, because the scriptures tell it to me to be so and to be honest, it's so strange no one would have ever thought of it. You know, in every culture and in every religious system, everything tells us that in order to get yourself sorted out, you've got to get yourself sorted out. You've got to do the work to achieve your righteousness, to establish your goodness, to manufacture your glory, to control your destiny, you know. We're a performance orientated world, aren't we? No one would have ever thought of telling us that our whole righteousness, glory, destiny is actually bound up with what someone else does on our behalf and we don't lift a finger to it. It goes against everything that lies within every human heart. But here's this dear, dear, dear man who has loved us and has worked for us in the cross as we saw in our Good Friday sermon. and he's taken away our sins and now has been raised up in the triune power of the whole of the Godhead and he's taken us with him and by faith that is where we are today. So you are looking and I am looking at a resurrected humanity here present among us. You think well no it doesn't look like that very much to me. by faith. Your life is hidden with Christ in God. So hidden you don't know it except by faith. But so hidden you could never be separated from Him. And then Christ will appear, it says, when He who is our life, not ought to be our life, when He who is our life is revealed then you also will be revealed with Him in glory. And that will be one of those aha type moments. When you see Him as He is and in seeing Him as He is, you see yourself as you are and you think, oh, that's who I am. That's what He's done. That's where I am and that's where I have been all the way along. Why didn't I see it before? I could be so stupid." That's why some of us now have hair on our heads because we have to do that so often, don't we James? But it's what we look forward to in the hope that is set before us. That at that point, as he is unveiled, we are unveiled in him and so it's no longer faith at sight. But now, in the present, it's faith with a view to sight. Does that make sense? It's faith with a view to sight. Now our time is running away with us, but let's go to the bottom of the passage and work backwards from Colossians 3 verse 17. In the place where Christ is, seated, at the right hand of the Father as we're told in the scriptures. In that place where Christ is, all that happens there is with the view of the glory of God the Father. So at the last day we're told that every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. So part of the resurrection life will be that all praise and all glory will be through Jesus Christ to God the Father. Does that make sense? So have a look at verse 17. Whatever you do in word and deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks through him to God the Father. In that place of resurrection life, when the veil is removed and everything is revealed for what it really is, you will be filled to all the fullness of God, will you not? And all of the fullness of the richness of the will and word of God will dwell in your heart and you will see that fullness in your face and everyone else's face all the time, in every place. Verse 16, let the word of Christ richly dwell within you with all wisdom, teaching, admonishing one another with psalms and hymns, spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your heart to God. And when you're in that place, will there be anything at all that will disturb your peace? Will there be anything that could possibly enter that resurrection life unveiled fully as it will be at the end? Will there be anything that could ever take away what Christ has done? Verse 15, let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts to which indeed you are called, the peace of Christ. And in that place will there be anything that is not love? And the answer is no, the whole will be love, love in every thought, wish, intention, love in every glance. Beyond all these things put on love, verse 14, which is the perfect bond of unity. In that place what will be your song? Worthy is the Lamb who loved us and loosed us from our sins. who has forgiven us, who has washed away all of our transgressions, bearing with one another, forgiving each other, not because there you will have to do that, there will be no sin, but because here it has already happened. Your whole life then will be built on the forgiveness that's come to you in the Lamb of God. Your whole life now is built on that. Forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone, just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. Let me just ask you, has the Lord made you really grit your teeth and sweat it out? And when you've gritted your teeth and sweated it out enough and eventually you've jumped through all the right hoops, he said, oh alright, I forgive you. So how has he forgiven you? So how should we forgive one another? And in that place will there be anything other than the fruit of the spirit? The answer is no. Kindness, gentleness, patience, forbearance. So what is there now? Verse 12. And conversely in that place will there be any immorality, any thieving, any lying, any deceitfulness, anything that is wicked, any idolatry? The answer is no. So what do you do now? You put it off. So when you read these statements in Colossians 3 and like places in Ephesians, don't think that Paul's saying you do this, you do this, you do this, you put on that, you put on that, you work hard, you perform, you perform and eventually you'll get to the place where you might get resurrection. Paul's tipped that entirely on its head and said, you are in Christ, you have been raised from the dead, you are seated with him, your life is hidden with Christ in God, the resurrection life that you will participate in fully is already present, therefore live in it. So you put on these things because that's the whole of the eternity that you've been destined for. It's all going to be love, so walk in love. It's all going to be based on the forgiveness of your sins, so forgive as you have been forgiven. It's all going to be based on the mercy and the kindness and love and peace of God, so that's the way it is to be. It's all going to be filled with the word of God, so let that be the way it is now. And nothing unclean and nothing impure and nothing idolatrous and nothing blasphemous is going to enter, so yeah, get rid of all of that, that doesn't belong, because you are in Christ and Christ is in God. So all the other foreign material just doesn't belong. But do not, do not beloved, hear this as a list of performances that the Lord's wanting you to do in order that you'd be pleasing in your sight so that you could eventually squeak over the line in the last day. No, it's all already happened in Christ. Therefore, since you have been raised up with Christ, And so that's how we live by faith in the resurrection of the Son of God. So as something comes to us, I don't know if anyone has ever had an envious thought or a covetous glance or anything amongst us here, possibly, maybe. You say, no, that doesn't belong. And has anyone of us ever had to say, yeah, look, I'm really sorry about what I said the other day, I was out alone. And we say, well look, if you crawl around the building five times backwards, I'll forgive you. What? Is it just? No, that's okay. Because Christ has dealt with that sin as he dealt with my sin and how can a man who's been forgiven 50 million dollars hold someone to ransom because of 50 cents? Can you see that what we're speaking about here is not a spectator to a resurrection life that has taken place in some other person, It's actually a participation in a resurrection life which is now given to us in Christ. And as we put on and put off, we are living in the resurrection life that will be ours for eternity. Does that make sense? By faith we can say no, that doesn't belong. And when Satan tempts me to despair and tells me of the guilt within, Upward I look and see him there who has made an end to all my sin. He has rolled off his back down into the sepulcher. So we participate, we beloved, are a resurrection community. That is the life of Christ in us. Amen.