Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Strain Forward & Press On – Part 1

Philippians 3:10-16 That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, have this attitude; and if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that also to you; however, let us keep living by that same standard to which we have attained.” (NASB)

Last Sunday, our little church in Anaheim, California combined with another church for a joint Easter Sunday Worship service. Lead Pastor Kyle of City Church preached the sermon on the above Bible passage of holy Scripture, reminding us that the Easter message is that Jesus has risen defeating sin and death; the tomb is empty, now go live like it. That we can “press on” because of what Christ has done for us; we can live the resurrection life. Christianity is not a religion, but a relationship with the God that paid it all for you and I on the cross, so that you can live your life in and through Him. God is not just interested in our going to church on Easter Sundays, but wants us to make this resurrection life a part of our every day living.

Isaiah 43:1 But now, O Jacob, listen to the Lord who created you. O Israel, the one who formed you says, “Do not be afraid, for I have ransomed you. I have called you by name; you are mine.”

The great truth of Easter is that we can “press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” because Christ Jesus has made us His own. What does it mean to take ownership of something? A good example is the day that you bring your little baby home from the hospital; that ownership of that child as parent changes your life forever. Inherent in ownership is responsibility. When God sent His Son to die for the sins of the world, Jesus owned our sins as His own. We belong to Him, but how did He make us His own? The Bible tells us in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price” and in 1 Peter 1:17-19 “And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.”

The fact is that we are only truly His when we give God the ownership of our lives. But ownership is only present in our lives as long as we let the Lord own us. When we take control back in our lives, pridefully, what we are practically saying is: “You know what God? I own me and I can do a better job of running me than you know how to.” Ownership implies responsibility and when Jesus rose from the dead, He paid the price of our sins in full. He didn’t pay just the minimum credit card balance payment for our sins. That’s the big difference between the old and New Testament. Every sacrifice made prior to Jesus was like that minimum payment on that credit card. Jesus owned my sins and paid for them in full on the cross. Jesus made us His own by dying on the cross for us and rising from the grave so that we could have the hope of the resurrection. I want you to know that no matter what we’ve done, Jesus paid for it all. All sins, past, present and future, Jesus paid them all in full. What we simply have to do is to confess that truth with our mouths and believe it in our hearts, and God says that we’ll be “saved” (Roman 10:9).

We’ll continue Pastor Kyle’s Easter Sermon on the next post.

In Christ, Brian

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