Anderson, Colin: Christmas And Easter

He sent me a tract. That's a little paper which proclaims the gospel message. And in that tract, it says some very interesting things. The heading of the tract is Two Sides of the Same Story, Easter and Christmas. And, uh, here I have the tract here. Easter and Christmas, it says, two sides, two parts of the same story. And inside it says, during the joyous Christmas season, Christ's birth is often overshadowed by the bright lights, parties, and Santa Claus. Similarly, at Easter, his death, burial, and resurrection are often replaced with spring fashions, egg hunts, and Easter Bunny. Because of this, many people never understand the importance of these two events in the life of Jesus Christ. He goes on to develop that further. Two parts of the same story. Actually, the scripture presents the story of Christ in at least four parts. I want to think of those with you this morning for a little while. The first one is what? The birth of the Lord Jesus. What does that mean? It means God was being made known to people in a human body. He was going to come into this world and assume a human body and soul and spirit and become man, having existed before eternally with the Father. So the birth of Jesus is the first event that belongs to the other four, or the other three. Secondly, there's the teachings of the Lord Jesus. They're important too, aren't they? He went through every city and village preaching the glad tidings of the kingdom of God, and the teachings of Christ, of course, are tremendously important, and we need to pay attention to those. Then there's the death of Jesus. So you have the birth of Jesus, the teachings that Jesus gave, and then the death of Jesus outside the walls of Jerusalem in a place called Calvary. The fourth thing is the one that we think of today, the resurrection and the ascension of Jesus from Bethany back to the throne of God. True faith in the Lord Jesus means that we have to think of him in at least those four ways. Think of his birth, think of his teaching, his ministry, think of his death, and think of his resurrection, to have a complete view of the person and work of the Lord Jesus. So the de- the faith of- faith in Jesus Christ means that we think of him in at least those four ways. Let's think about his birth for a moment, for it precedes, of course, his other activities, his ministry, and his death and his resurrection. What is remarkable about the birth of Jesus? Well, he entered the way, entered into this world in a different way than Adam, and I think that's very important for us to remember. He entered the world in a different way than Adam. Adam was created out of the dust of the ground, a direct creation of God, never having a beginning before, never having an existence before, but he was created from the dust of the ground. It was a miraculous thing. It was a direct creation of God. When Jesus came into the world, that's not what it was. Here was one coming into the world who existed before, and he assumed a human body and came into the world. So he was different, came into the world different way than Adam did. Of course, he came into the world in a different way than you did. You resulted in this world as a result, you came about in this world as a result of the union of a man and a woman, a father and a mother. The Lord Jesus had both in one sense, that Joseph was his foster father, but Mary was only his mother, and her womb was the vehicle through which he entered into this world from eternity. So he entered the world in a different way than Adam. He entered the world in a different way than yourself. The birth and life of the Lord Jesus and his ministry reveal something that nothing the sons of Adam could supply, nothing that you or I could have supplied. God required a man who would come and be a sacrifice for sin. He needed a sinless man. He couldn't find them in the children of Adam, but he needed a sinless man. I sought for a man, says Ezekiel, a man from among them who would make a wall and stand in the gap before me, that I should not destroy the land, but I found none. The words are prophetic, aren't they? The Lord was looking, as it were, over the sons of Adam, and he could find no one who would stand in the gap and supply the needs of the land and preserve it. Isaiah sixty three says, God looked, but there was no one to help. And it says, he wondered that there was no one to help, and there was no one to uphold. Therefore, his own arm brought salvation. So the death of the Lord Jesus was that of something that the Old Testament pro- prophecies demanded and looked for. And it was essential that there should be a sacrifice that was pure and holy and sinless. We sometimes sing together when we meet for the breaking of bread, O spotless Lamb of God, in thee the Father's holiness we see, and with delight thy children trace in thee his wondrous love and grace. What God was looking for down through the ages, so to speak, using human terms, God looking for something, he knew it wasn't there, of course, but he was expressing himself that way so that we would understand what his need, what the, what the world's need was. And he found it in the person of the Lord Jesus. Now, the resurrection of Christ, which we think of today, is the crowning feature of the good news. It's the climax to everything else. In the book of Acts, it brings conviction. This Jesus God raised up, of which we all are witnesses. He's exalted to the right hand of God. God has made this same Jesus both Lord and Christ. And when they heard this, they cried out, what shall we do? They were convicted because God had reversed the decision that they had made. Their decision was to crucify him, to get rid of him, to remove the problem that he presented to their religious world and their religious thinking. But God raised him from the dead. These people were convicted of their sin. Men and brethren, they said, what shall we do? What had convicted them was the news that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead. In the book of Romans, it's the very climax of the gospel. Let's turn to Romans chapter one, please. Romans chapter one, And we're saying that the resurrection is the climax to the gospel. We'll start reading in verse one. Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God, which he prophesied before through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures, concerning his son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead. So he's declared to be the son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead. So it's the climax of the gospel. Then if we turn over to Romans chapter four, we notice there, that is the very heart of the gospel message. Verse twenty five: he was delivered up because of our offenses and was raised because of our justification. This is telling us what the gospel is all about. He came into this world to be handed over, to be delivered up because of our offenses. Now, who delivered him up? Well, of course, in one sense, we immediately think of those who rejected Christ, but really we're thinking here of God himself, who handed over his son, delivered him up in order that our offenses might be atoned for, that the price might be paid for our sin. He was delivered up because of our offenses, and he was raised because of our justification. Notice that. He was raised because of our justification. So he was delivered up in order to meet the need that man had as far as his sins were concerned. But supposing he stayed in the grave, supposing Jesus never arose, there would be no assurance at all that our sins were atoned for, that our sins were forgiven. He was delivered up for our offenses, but he's raised again because of our justification. Well, that's the force of the word there. Because our sins have been thoroughly dealt with, because the need had been met, God raised his son from the dead since he had come into association with our need in coming into the world in his birth. God now raises him from the dead, the one who has become associated with us and our need. That means we're raised too, because he came to be linked with us. Even though he was sinless, he came to be linked with sinful man in the sense that at the cross he was handed over for our offenses. To show that the debt was paid, God put the stamp on it and raised his son from the dead because we were delivered, because we were justified, because our s- sheet was cleared, the debt was paid. Therefore, in order to give assurance of that, God raises him from the dead, and in raising from the dead, he raises us up as well, so that Christ and his people, those who believe on him, are united together. And in the resurrection of Christ, we have the assurance that we have been counted righteous by God. We've been accepted by him. So it's important to believe in the birth of Jesus Christ. It's important to believe in his ministry, his teaching. It's important to believe in his death, but most of all, it's important to believe in his resurrection, because only then do we gain assurance that the work is complete, the work is done, our sins were forgiven, God justifies us and counts us righteous in the court of heaven. So it's the assurance that we are justified. Be it known unto you, says the apostle, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins, and by him all that believe are justified from all things. What must we believe? We must believe that he is the Son of God who came into the world. We must believe that the words he spoke were the words that the Father gave to him to speak. We must believe that when he died on the cross, it was because he was delivered up for our sins. We must believe that he was raised from the dead in order to give us that assurance. For it says, the forgiveness of sins, by him all that believe are justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses. Now, to translate that into my experience and yours, let me just change that translation a little bit and say it this way, from which you could not be justified by self-effort. Because the law of Moses represents a divinely given law. If there had been a law, the scripture tells us, which could have blessed men, could have saved men, then righteousness would have been by the law. There was no better standard. It was divinely given standard, but it was a divinely given standard, not in order to provide a ladder up to heaven, which we could gradually climb by obeying this law, that law, and the other law. It was not that. It was rather, by the law is the knowledge of sin. God in his love and grace gave the law to men in order that it might be clearly seen that man cannot be saved by self-effort. It's only the truth that he has to face that truth, and in order to make him face that truth, God gave the law. By the works of the law, the scripture says, there shall be no flesh justified in his sight. So the law has been satisfied through the work of Christ. It is the power, the resurrection is the power by which believers are enabled to think differently. Turn to Romans chapter six. What shall we say then? Verse Shall Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Now, this is a frequently misunderstood text. It's a question that appears at the beginning of this chapter, and I want you to notice some things about this text which are very important. The question is, what shall we say then? That means the apostle is appearing, appealing to us as if we were the audience in a courtroom, and he's turning to the jury or to the audience and saying, how shall we look at this? How shall we consider this? What does this mean? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? Is that the way it's to be? It isn't an invitation to us to continue in sin, obviously. The Apostle Paul is not inviting us to continue in sin. He's saying, shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Notice he's not saying, shall we continue to sin? It's obvious that we will continue to sin. We are made in the image of Adam. We're like Adam, and he sins, and after his sin, through his disobedience, sin has entered into the world, and when we were born into the world, we were born with a sinful nature. Shall we continue to sin? Would simply be asked, now we're saved, shall we evermore commit sins? That's not what he's saying. What he's saying here is, shall we continue in sin? Not to sin, but in sin. We will continue to sin, not perfect, not all the time, but occasionally we will sin. Even though we've been saved, we still continue to sin. Let me give an illustration from the story of The Tale of Two Cities. I referred to this last week, because I remember the story, Dr. Manette had been imprisoned in the Bastille, that terrible prison in France. And of course, in the days in which Charles Dickens was writing, the Bastille was a terrible place to be. And in that prison he'd been for fifteen years. Now he was a skilled surgeon, a doctor, so he was le- used to a genteel sort of life, but now he was thrust into this prison, living a miserable, wretched experience for fifteen years. And as the story goes, according to Charles Dickens, Doctor Manette is released from prison by somebody else coming in and substituting for him, taking his place, somebody who looked alike, and he's released from the prison. So he's taken outside the precincts of the prison, he's delivered from there, and he's going back now to his own mansion, his own home, to freedom. But the story goes on to say that because of the fifteen years in prison, he continues sometimes to return when he gets depressed to that which occupied him while he was in the prison. While he was in the prison, he was very often occupied with cobbling shoes. Hardly the thing you would expect of a doctor, but that's what he used to do in the prison, I suppose, to keep himself occupied. And, uh, now he's out of the prison. When he gets depressed, he sometimes cobbles shoes, but that's not what he's supposed to do. He's delivered from the prison. He belongs outside of it, but his mind still goes back sometimes to what he did in the prison, and he forgets who he really is. And sometimes Christians are like that. We have been lifted out of sin, not only as to its punishment, but out of its power. We're freed from the power of sin. We're not to continue in sin, not to continue in the prison that we once occupied, not to continue doing the thing that we once did. We're to be changed persons because we're outside the prison now. We have the right to live as Dr. Manette should have lived, a life that he had known years before, of course. We haven't had that experience, but we now have been delivered from our prison, the prison of our sins, in order that we might live a new kind of life, and that's what it tells us in chapter six. For it says in verse seven, for he who has died has been freed from sin. When the Lord Jesus came into this world, he came to die not only for our sins, but to free us from sin. When he died on the cross and was raised again from the dead, that meant that he had dealt with both those things. He dealt with the penalty of our sins, he dealt with the power of them. We're free to live a new kind of life because we have died. You say, but we haven't died. Well, that's true. But again, going back to the story of Dr. Monette, the substitute who had taken his place made it legally possible for him to say, I have died, because the substitute was executed in his place. You and I have been associated with Christ in his death, and we shall be occupied with, associated with him in resurrection. Notice what it says in verse eight: If we have died with Christ, we believe also that we shall live with him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over him. So when the Lord Jesus passed through death and into resurrection, he did that for us, so that we can say, I have died to sin in order that I might live unto God. So the Christian is really a freed man. The thing is that he so often doesn't realize that he is a freed man, and sometimes we as Christians give a poor testimony to the world by allowing ourselves to go back to our cobbling, mending shoes, when we should be living a different kind of life. God has saved us. He's delivered us from the prison in which we once held. We don't need to think the way we once did. We don't need to behave the once we did, the way we did when we were in prison. We are freed men. The gospel teaches that. So the question is, are we to continue in sin then, that grace may abound? Because God's grace would have to abound towards us if we were allowed to continue doing what we once did in a perpetual fashion, continuing to do it, continuing to do it, continuing to do it, waiting for the moment when we will be finally delivered and taken home to heaven. That's not the way it is. He has delivered us from the penalty of our sin. He's delivered us from the power of our sin. Are we then to continue in it? Of course not. We can't. We have been delivered by the power of Christ. So, God knew when he justified his people that they were governed by evil, but he knew how to deliver them from that and make them new creatures in Christ. So the question really is in chapter six, would God leave us in the condition in which he found us? Would you think that likely? If God forgave us, would he still leave us in the mire of our sin? Certainly not. Would he leave us saved but still slaves? Certainly not. So the question has to do with our title to freedom, not our experience of it. May I say that again? The question of chapter six and verse one has to do with our title to freedom, not our personal experience of freedom. We may fail. We may be like Doctor Manette and go back to our cobbling, only going back to things that we should never do because we have been delivered from those things, but we may continue to do that. That's our experience, but our title is to be free from sin, and Christ has made that possible to us. So then, the question is really being based on the character of God rather than the gratitude of those who've been forgiven. It's not that God says to us, shall we continue in sin that grace may abound because we're now grateful. Far more than that. It's something that God himself would not allow. Would he do that? Would he allow us to continue in the sin from which we've once been forgiven? That's not according to the character of God. That's the force behind the question. And that's the only way it harmonizes with the teaching of verses one through to eleven. And we need to remember that. We are freed from sin. We no longer abide in it, for that's what the word is. The word continue is the same word meno, abide, which is used of the Lord Jesus being the true vine, and we're to abide in him. It means to stay where you are. Are we to continue to stay where we are that sin may abound? Of course not, because we have been delivered by the Lord Jesus. So then we're freed from sin. Notice verse seven: He who has died has been freed from sin. Notice verse eighteen: And having been set free from sin. Notice verse twenty two: Now having been set free from sin. He's not talking about the fact that we've been set free from the penalty of our sins. He's talking about the fact that we're set free from the power of them. So we're free from sin. We must no longer abide in it. That's what God has done for us in the Lord Jesus Christ. I wonder if we're walking in that freedom today. I wonder if we're enjoying that freedom. I'm experiencing to some degree. I haven't perfectly experienced it. There are mistakes I still make, apologies I have to make to people, confessions I have to make to God from time to time. But the fact is, I know I'm a freed man. I know I'm not only forgiven. I know I've been free to live a new kind of life. That's my calling. That's your calling too, if you're a Christian. If you're a Christian, you're someone who has been forgiven, and you're someone who's given the power to live a new kind of life. Paul says, I have been crucified with Christ. That is, my old life has been brought to an end. Nevertheless, I live. Yet it's not I, but it's Christ that lives in me. You must have Christ within in order to live a new kind of life. You must have a power which is not your own. You cannot originate your own deliverance. It must come entirely from the Lord. He's the only one who can do it. And thank God, through his death, burial, and resurrection, he has freed us from the penalty and the power of our sin. I wonder if we'll enter into that this Christmas, this, excuse me, we'll enter into that this Easter season and remember who we really are and walk in newness of life, which God calls us to do. One is conscious how poorly we explain these things, but they'll only really be understood as you look for yourself into the charter of freedom which God has given us in his word. Let us turn to our hymn books in closing and sing together, shall we, about the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. One sixty nine. He died, he died, the lowly man of sorrows, on whom were laid our many griefs and woes. Our sins he bore beneath God's awful billows, and he hath triumphed over all our foes. One sixty nine. To be over, we close in a word of prayer, but let me just remind you that those who brought their lunch will be downstairs to enjoy it, and we're going to give thanks for it at the same time as we close in prayer. Our Father, we do thank you for the Lord Jesus. We thank you that at this time of the year there are many people who perhaps, who rarely think of the Lord's resurrection and what it means and what is involved, but perhaps some will stop to think of what it means for them and will embrace the truth that is found in the Bible concerning the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. We ask that your grace might be upon us as speaker and hearers, that our time together this morning may be a profit to each one of us. We ask your blessing upon your word. We thank you too, Lord, for the provision made for us, even though our own hands have prepared it, yet we're grateful for your provision, and we ask your blessing on the meal downstairs, our fellowship together, and our coming together afterwards. We ask you these things in the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen.