Ira Baptist Church
April 5 Easter Sunday

      • Psalms 118.15-18NIV2011

      • Psalms 118.19-21NIV2011

  • Because He Lives
  • Christ the Lord is Risen
  • The Power of the Cross
  • The King in All His Beauty
  • The King in All His Beauty
  • Romans 14 is not primarily a resurrection/Easter passage. It actually is a passage that deals with one-anothers. Relationships.
    It deals with giving grace and seeking peace. It deals with allowing for differences in conviction, differences in spiritual maturity. In things like, what we eat and don’t eat. What we drink and don’t drink. What traditions we observe or don’t observe.
    It calls us to walk in love toward one another and seek to build one another up and to live our lives in faith.
    What, then, does this have to do with Easter?
    Well, at the heart of Paul’s teaching in Romans 14 is one big point. The point is, whatever we do in life, it is not ourselves that are the final authority and judge - it is God.
    Romans 14:10 ESV
    Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God;
    And in making that point very clear, right at the center of this discussion, right at the heart of the matter and the argument and the reasoning, Paul says this.
    Romans 14:7–9 ESV
    For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.
    Do you see that? Isn’t it interesting that the Bible will hardly discuss practical matters of life and living and love and relationships without centering the focal point on the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
    I suppose, then, that you could say that the resurrection has more to do with just celebrating Easter, doesn’t it?
    Would you agree with me, that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is at the heart of everything we do, say, and are as Christians?
    What we see in this passage today is that the Resurrection of Jesus Christ is the driving point and the ground and basis for our entire lives - because in the resurrection, God the Father said his “Amen” to everything that the son had accomplished in his living and dying.
    And in the resurrection, Jesus ascends not just out of the grave, but into his rightful place as Lord.
    Lord, as this passage says, both of the living and the dead.

    No man is an island unto himself. A self-driven life is a life without purpose. True purpose is grounded in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

    No Man is an Island

    The resurrection is not a personal, private matter.
    Family dinner, some families have this rule when they get together they don’t talk about two things: religion and politics.
    Now, if politics don’t come up around your family dinner today - perhaps you’re better off.
    But will the importance of Jesus rising from the grave come up around your family table?
    Revelation 1:17–18 ESV
    When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.
    Philippians 1:12 ESV
    I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel,
    I’m not after personalities this morning. Perhaps your personality is to be a quiet and reserved individual. There is no defect in your faith if that is your personality.
    What we have, though, through the Gospel - through the death and resurrection of Jesus, is worth sharing. And if you believe it, it changes your focal point in life.

    No Purpose comes with Selfishness

    Romans 14:8 ESV
    For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.
    we live to - toward, in reference to, with direction toward.
    Philippians 1:20–21 ESV
    as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
    Practically speaking, it means that for believers we can never be without a purpose in life, regardless of the normalcy of our tasks or the redundancy of life’s roads.
    “God claims such power over life and death that every individual is to bear his own condition in life as a yoke laid on him by God. It is just that God should assign to every man his station and course in life. In this way we are not only forbidden to attempt to do anything hastily without a command from God, but we are also commanded to be patient in all trouble and loss.” - Calvin
    Whether your station in life is to be a keeper at home, a mother or wife living in the midst of growing children, or whether it is to be a worker in some intricate field where life and death is on the line, or anything in between - there will be times where even your loved ones or the importance of the task will fail to motivate you to keep on.
    It is in those times that you remember this, Christian - none of us lives purely for him or herself, but for the Lord.
    Are you here without purpose? Sometimes life can cause you to feel like you are floundering in the struggle. There are no fish out of water in Jesus’ kingdom. There is never a moment without a cause or purpose. In every moment and every decision, you can say with the utmost assuredness - “I can press on, I must press on, because I belong to Jesus Christ who died and rose again - who loves me and gave himself for me, who holds me in the palm of his hand, and whose faithfulness knows no end.”

    Purpose is Grounded in the Resurrection

    To this end/purpose.
    Romans 14:9 ESV
    For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.
    Specifically, Paul says that Jesus’ death and resurrection accomplish the goal of His Lordship.
    Romans, Volume 4: The New Humanity (Romans 12–16): An Expositional Commentary Jesus, the Lord of All

    There is a sense in which Jesus is and has always been the Lord of all things. For Jesus is God, and lordship actually means God’s sovereignty. There is nothing in all creation nor anything that has ever happened in all the history of the earth or universe over which Jesus has not been Lord. Yet Paul is writing here about Jesus’ special lordship over his own saved people, and he is saying that he has become their Lord by dying for them and then rising again. By his death he achieved their deliverance from sin’s dread penalty and power, and by his resurrection he has established an ongoing relationship with them by which he guides, protects, and saves them day by day until they come at last to be with him in heaven.

    Do you see that? Jesus died and rose again to achieve your salvation and deliverance.
    Colossians 1:16–17 ESV
    For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
    That is and was always true. (elaborate)
    But -
    in the Gospel, in his life, death, and resurrection, Jesus did that work not only to be Lord generally over all creation - but to be Lord specifically over a people who would be his loved and treasured possession.
    A Lordship of relationship, which spans beyond the years of your earthly life into the millennia of eternal life.
    Romans 8:38–39 ESV
    For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
    What is our only hope in life and death?
    “That I am not my own, but belong—body and soul, in life and in death— to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ. He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood, and has set me free from the tyranny of the devil. He also watches over me in such a way that not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my Father in heaven; in fact, all things must work together for my salvation. Because I belong to him, Christ, by his Holy Spirit, assures me of eternal life and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him.”
    Believer, you know that is true - and if you do, say amen!
    If you are here today, though, and you cannot claim that kind of relationship and confident assurance in life and death, then this message goes out to you as an invitation and a call to know him.

      • Romans 14:10NIV2011

      • Romans 14:7–9NIV2011

      • Revelation 1:17–18NIV2011

      • Philippians 1:12NIV2011

      • Romans 14:8NIV2011

      • Philippians 1:20–21NIV2011

      • Romans 14:9NIV2011

      • Colossians 1:16–17NIV2011

      • Romans 8:38–39NIV2011

  • Turn your Eyes

      • Hebrews 13.20-21NIV2011

Ira Baptist Church
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