Walking According to the Spirit (5 Parts)

July 29, 2007 5:09 pm admin Sermon-Series, Chapter 8, Romans

A five part sermon series addressing the theme of Walking According to the Spirit from an exegetical treatment of Romans 8:5-9. The sermons address issues like what it means to walk in this world, how we can be happy and please God, what is Christian peace, did Jesus Rise From the dead and if so what that means for us. These sermons were originally preached July and August of 2007 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA.

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Romans 8:5-9 (ESV)
5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. 6 For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.

The first of a sermon series addressing the theme of Walking According to the Spirit from an exegetical treatment of Romans 8:5-9. This sermon was originally preached July 29th of 2007 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA.

Walking According to the Spirit (part I)
Romans 8:5-9

Introduction
I. Where we are in the book of Romans
II. In this world we walk
III. Beginning with verse 9 and the supernatural
IV. Two different walks compared
without Jesus’ Spirit with Jesus’ Spirit
“according to the flesh” “according to the Spirit”
- inability - ability
- cannot please God - please God
- hostility - peace
- death - life
V. Position, practice and conversion
Conclusion

Introduction

Good morning my friends and family. We have spent a month away from Romans, the book we are taking a few years to study here at The Resolved. It’s been a good month. We have been talking about how The Resolved Church is a church plant and why and what the vision is for this place and what we want to become and do in this city and what needs to happen for that to take place. Soon we are going to have sermon sets available on the book table, we have the first prototype of the last Romans series, “No Condemnation in Christ” available back there now. We are going to try and start to have more of those series available, like the “Inner Confliction and the Gospel” series” and the “Law and Gospel” series.

Hopefully, next week we’ll be able to have available, “The Resolved is a Church Plant” series with the audio and corresponding notes for the last three sermons. We are a church plant and believe God has some awesome things ahead for us and we need you. We are looking for people to partner with us for a time and commit to this church. If you missed some of those sermons, or you are kind of interested, I encourage you to hit up iTunes, to sign-up for our newsletter, and check it out.

So we are back in Romans today, which feels good. Romans to me is kind of like crawling into my nice warm bed when I am really tired, it can be one of the most comforting and encouraging books of the whole Bible. Other times it is like getting into a car accident because it shakes you and breaks you down and gets deep into the soul, tearing everything apart. Romans is a book that goes deep into the gospel and shows us layer after layer of how great Jesus is and what he has done for us and how that really really does change us. So let’s read today’s text and pray.

Romans 8:5-8 (ESV)
5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. 6 For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.

Holy Father. I call you holy because that is what you are. You are unlike us in every regard. You are greater, wiser, kinder, and more perfect than we could ever dream. You are truly one, truly holy. Though you are greatly unlike us, we are made in your image, after you, in your likeness and because of Jesus, you know and understand us better than we do ourselves. God, we are sojourners here in this world. And you have given us this great and wonderful book as a guide. Help us today to read it and read it with understanding. You sent Jesus into this world for us, you have given us His Spirit, and this book tells that story and becomes the facilitator of life at work in us. Work life in us today. Where there is deadness and brokenness breath life. Save souls and may the powers and principalities of the world of the flesh be defeated in us as we meditate upon the power of the Spirit which is at work in us who follow Jesus. Jesus Christ is Lord, Amen.

I. Where we are in the book of Romans

The plan this morning is for us to sort of re-orient ourselves to Romans, since we’ve been gone from it for a little bit and because some of you may just be joining us. Then we’re going to start working with today’s text, what it says and what it means for us…and today we’ll probably get about half-way through it.

So Romans. It’s called Romans because it was written to one of the first churches in history in the great city of Rome. It was written in a time when it was said that the “world was being turned up-side down” by the gospel of Jesus Christ. That is what we are hoping for and into doing, turning the world up-side down, beginning with San Diego. Romans was a big city and cities are key in doing that.

Romans is a book about God and his greatness, how truly glorious and wonderful and beautiful he is and how Jesus shows that supremely. In the beginning the book talks about creation and how all it points to God as the chief designer and how crazy awesome he is, but how humanity is pretty messed up because each of us individually and collectively, together as a race, are more into ourselves than God. That’s a big problem. And the problem goes deep.

So Paul, the human author, I say human because he says that God is the divine author behind his words, spends three chapters tells us how big of a problem that is. Then he spends another three chapters telling how great Jesus is and just exactly what God did in history in sending him and what happened when Jesus died on the cross and rose again and what that means for us. The core of it is that Jesus died on the cross as a representative for each of us individually and for the human race collectively as a sacrifice to God to pay the penalty for our disregard and self-focused adoration. Jesus rose again and in that guarantees and offers new life to us. That new life begins at the point in which we embrace and follow Jesus and it carries through into eternity.

If you want to picture Romans as a story, what happens at the point in the story when a person starts following Jesus is that after not too long, you realize that even though you are now with Jesus you discover you are still pretty messed up inside. It didn’t magically make you perfect. And so in chapter six he began breaking that down and explaining it to us. That took us through chapter seven and now in chapter eight he started talking about the Holy Spirit and how the spirit gives us great encouragement and assurance as believers in Jesus.

II. In this world we walk

Romans 8 is extremely practical. It is about life and how we live as followers of Jesus. Verse 4 of Romans 8 ended by saying that as followers of Jesus, we “walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” We walk. In this world we walk. The Bible’s perspective is that this world is not permanent. Life is short. Eternity is long. And how we live effects eternity for us. Our time, however long you live here on this earth, whether it is 30, 40 or a hundred years, is a journey, it is a sojourn, a walk and how we walk will take us to one of two places, heaven or hell.

It is a walk, a journey. A journey of growth, of discovery, filled with seasons of joy, pain, discouragement, enlightenment, and fulfillment. Now you need to think about something. The Bible was written a long time ago. Which doesn’t mean that it is outdated and irrelevant, but it does mean it is easy to miss the practicality of its words.

In the first century, when this was written, people walked. Everywhere. No trains, no buses, no BMW’s or Mercedes and no beat up old cars. I’m pretty sure everyone drove sandals. And they didn’t wear Birkenstock’s with socks like people from the Northwest, or Locals, like people from Hawaii, or Rainbows like people from San Diego. They wore sandals…with a sole of wood fastened with straps of leather. Here is a picture of a 1st century sandal.

Walking was more common to life than anything. And this is what the first followers of Jesus did. Jesus shows up on the scene. Says, I am here, repent, the kingdom of God is at hand, believe in the gospel, and follow me. Some think he’s crazy, some think he is a liar, others figure he must be the Lord, so they quit their jobs and go walking with him.

They traipse all around Israel and the middle east for three years and at the end of those three years, Jesus gathers together his disciples and tells them he is going to die but he’ll rise again and then go to be with his Father in heaven and entrust them to do his work, but he says this important words,
“5…now I am going to him who sent me…7 I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. 8 And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; 10 concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; 11 concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged…13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 14 He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you (John 16:5,7-11,13-14).”

This is where Romans 8 is. No doubt some of the people in the church of Rome had walked with Jesus and now Jesus was gone. Paul knows this, but he also knew Jesus words, and so here in Romans 8 he says, now we “walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”

So here is the beginning question for us today, how is your walk? Do you even realize that you are walking? Have you thought about where you are walking to? Or who you are walking with, if anyone? Are you aimlessly walking alone? Or are you walking with the Spirit of Jesus?

This is the picture we should have in our heads of what it means to be a Christian. Christians came about because they were followers of Christ. And today is no different, what makes a person a Christian is whether or not they are a follower of Christ. Whether our lives have become all about him or about something else. Whether we follow and do what he says and love the things he loves or whether we follow someone or something else and do what we want. Walking today with the Spirit of Jesus, that is what it is about.

III. Beginning with verse 9 and the supernatural

Jesus is clear in several places that this is His Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit, God himself, the Spirit who by his power and creativity made everything in this world. We are a church that believes in the Trinity, that the Father is God, Jesus is God, the Spirit is God, and the three are one and yet distinct at the same time.

The point for us today, here in this text is that the work spirit is “supernatural.” Christian living is supernatural. And by supernatural I don’t mean psychics, and telekinesis and palm reading and astral projection or levitating like Mitch from HBO’s new John from Cincinnati. I mean it involves a power that is above nature. Above our nature. Above the way that we are and normally act and react. Things like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, and self-control do not come naturally to us, the fruits of the Spirit (Gal 5:22-23).

What comes naturally to us are things like sex, with whomever and whenever we like. Self-adoration and worship…the mirror and the opinion of others. Dissatisfaction and a disregard for God…a sense that he is not that important or at least not important enough to give much attention to in our lives. Jealousy and envy…always wanting more or wanting what other people have. Strife and divisions and anger…fighting with our spouses and with our friends and wars with co-workers, other business and wars with nations. These are the things that come naturally to us, the works of the flesh (Gal. 5:19-21). And apart from a work of the Spirit of God they will not change. We need Jesus. It begins with Him and his life and death imparted to us by His Spirit.

Look at verse 9, “You however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.” That is a sobering phrase that ought to scare us. It means that when we find the lack of the fruit of the Spirit in our lives, when we find what comes natural to us at work, it ought to cause us to cry out, Oh Jesus come! Change my heart. Come and dwell in me. This word dwell is the word, house. Come house in me. Make your home in me. Change me.

We begin our study of these verses with verse 9. Let me show you why. In verses 5-8, Paul is making comparisons between what it is to be according to the flesh versus according to the Spirit. He stacks reason upon reason. “For those who live…For the mind that is set on the flesh…For the flesh does not submit to God…” For, For, For…and the ground, the beginning of the “for” is verse 9, whether one has the Spirit of Christ or not.

So we are going to work somewhat backward and start at verse 9 and then look at Paul’s comparisons. So we begin with the question, what is the Spirit of Christ? And I am saying it is something supernatural. It is supernatural in three ways. I already alluded to the first way. That it is above our natures, our human natures. It is a different way. It goes against the flow of humanity and they way we are as people. What our natural inclinations and affections are. It is different. We may think we are loving or happy or kind and gentle people, but if we truly look at ourselves and ask what we mean by that, we find something far different the real things.

Love is not feeling aroused sexually or feeling pity for a poor man. Happiness is not something manufactured by some physical stimulant, like a pill or new TV. Being nice, is not kindness and gentleness but our social inhibitions that flow from pride. True loves cares for an enemy because you know you are the worst enemy of all, true joy springs from a soul that captures a vision of the glory of God and his sovereign care, true kindness and gentleness comes from a hardened heart that has been softened by the tender graces of God. Those things are not natural and they only come by getting close to Jesus. They are supernatural.

Here is the second way, Christian living, brought about by the Spirit of Christ, is supernatural. It is because it is rooted in the historical death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, a truly supernatural event. When Paul here calls the Holy Spirit the Spirit of Christ, he is referring to the same spirit as he is two verses later in verse 11, when he says it is “the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead.”

Jesus death and resurrection was a supernatural event. People do not come back to life after being buried in a coffin in the earth for three days. It does not happen. You are not beaten to death with whips and crucified on a cross and hung to death and stabbed by a spear and come back to life. You don’t. Only the Holy Spirit can make that happen. The Spirit who made everything, who took dust from the ground and breath life into it and man became a living being. Only that supernatural spirit can do that.

And that is how true Christian living happens. When the Holy Spirit steps into our life and breaths resurrection power into our misdeeds of death and destruction. This is the gospel, death turned to life by Jesus. That will not happen on its own. It is not the human way. You cannot make it happen. It must come from something, someone greater. A Spirit who knows how to raise the dead.

Lastly, the third thing I mean by supernatural is mindset. You find it in nearly ever verse of our passage for today. Verse 5, the ones with “minds on the things of the flesh” and the ones with “minds on the things of the Spirit.” Verse 6, “the mind on the flesh is death” and “the mind on the Spirit is life.” And verse 7, “the mind on the flesh is hostile.” This is where our comparison of two different walks begin.

IV. Two different walks compared

We are not going to get into the comparison this week. That is next week. But I will set it up. What we are going to be looking at is what is entailed in being a person who is “according to the flesh” versus a person who is “according to the Spirit.” And the dividing line is the mindset which results from each state, from those who have the Spirit and from those who don’t.

When I say mindset, the word I am talking about is “mind.” It looks simple as “mind” in our verses, is not simple. It is a very difficult word to translate. And this is not the normal word for “mind.” This word is phroneo. You know a word is difficult to translate, when you look it up and you find a whole slew of possible translations.

Many Greek words are straightforward and simple. Zoe means life. Artos means bread. But not phroneo, which looks simple here and isn’t. Here are some possible translations: to think, to mind, to be of opinion, to take considered thought, to entertain sentiments or inclinations, to be minded, a frame of mind, to heed, to pay attention, to give regard to , to imagine, to concentrate on, to be devoted to, to have the mentality, to have the outlook, or to have the aspiration. This word is not easy.

John Calvin found it difficult to, he concluded it was “all the faculties of the soul - reason, understanding, and affections.” Perhaps the German idea of a weltanschauung, a worldview might do it. A set of beliefs and understandings of reality, a way of viewing the world. But it is more than a worldview. It is a life pursuit and a way thinking that effects your and feelings. All through the week I have been stuck on this word. Every day this I have woke up in the morning and prayed God, help me have the phroneo of the Spirit today and help me understand what that is.

I think it has something to do with the mind. We have an ability, especially those of us whom God’s Spirit is genuinely and truly working in, we have an ability to control our minds. That is why 2 Corinthians 10:5 tells us to “take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ.” You can do that. And some of you guys especially need to learn how to do that, how to take your thoughts captive and not let certain pictures of women you are not married to enter your head. And some of you girls too need to learn how to take your thoughts captive so that you think less of how you look or how other girls look at you. So there is a piece about the mind…what you spend most of your time thinking about.

And some of you guys and girls alike, just are not thinking straight. You don’t think much at all and just live without any regard to where you headed or how you are living. And your whole mindset needs to change to where it is driven and directed by Jesus’ Spirit.

But it is even more than that, than just what you think about. It has to do with the actions or way of life you are devoted to. It’s the certain things you consider to be okay for you and the things you don’t. It is the way you live and the choices you make, there is action involved. And there is most certainly affection mixed up in all that. Jonathan Edwards says it well and captures it in his book, Religious Affections, when he says this about the mindset of the Spirit, it is…
“A holy disposition and spiritual taste, where grace is strong and lively, will enable the soul to determine what actions are right and becoming [of] Christians…He has as it were a spirit within him, that guides him; the habit of his mind is attended with a taste, by which he immediately relishes that air and mien which is benevolent, and disrelishes the contrary, and causes him to distinguish between one and the other in a moment…[It is ] the mind [having] a new taste or relish of beauty and sweetness.”

When I read things like that I shrink and realize I have much to learn. Having the mindset of Christ. To think and to act and to feel the way he does…mindset. Jesus’ mind. Think of Jesus. The God-man, walking around the middle east in sandals in the first century. And we are following him and watching him and listening to him. As he looks out across faces and across the plains of the desert and talks…what is his mindset. How does he see the world? What is it that drives him? What is he thinking and what motivates him to do and say such things? To live the way he does? The mindset of Jesus. That is what he leaves to us to be imparted inside us by His Spirit.

Conclusion

We’ll talk next week more about mindset, and what is to be according to the flesh and to be according to the Spirit and how to put that all together. But here is how I want to conclude today’s message. I want to conclude with a word of encouragement.

Some of you may not think there is anything wrong with you and you are doing fine on your own you really do not have much need for Jesus and his Spirit. When I think about that, it is my instinct to want to prod and to prick in hopes that you will see yourself in a more clear light so that you might see the true light and the glory of Christ Jesus, who knows you are far worse of than you ever dreamed but at the same time has more love and grace and compassion than you ever thought possible. That is my instinct, to try and break you down, so you will see your great need.

And there is certainly that tone with this text. The tone that says don’t be according to the flesh, be according to the Spirit his way is better and to tell you how much your way is not good at all. Don’t get me wrong. That is there, to challenge us and to show us what is good by showing us what is not good so that we will strive after purity, that is there. But I do not believe that is the main purpose of this text.

This text falls in the portion of the book of Romans after Paul has already talked about how the Christian is at times conflicted and has to wrestle and war against sin in his life. Now he is in the chapter of the book which is intended to give us great encouragement and hope and to tell us how wonderful the Spirit of God is that Jesus gives those who are his.

So this is what I think the main tone of the text is. It is to give relief and consolation to the saints. It can be a great obstacle for believers to turn to Jesus and to begin following him and then fail hard, sometimes seemingly way harder than they ever have. It can be crushing. If you find yourself pursuing Christ and you slip up and discover there is still much fleshly mindset and worldliness at work in you, it can be crushing. It can easily lead one to great despair, where you say “forget it” why even try.

I think this text is for you. This passage of Scripture announces with great authority and encouragement. That is not who you are and is not who you are destined to be finally and ultimately because you have been born of the Spirit of God. Jesus has given his spirit to you and it is a spirit of life and peace and pleasure in God. None in this world can yet be found to be wholly free of flesh and our author wants to provide hope to the faithful…to those who will hold on and not give in and give up. “You are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit.”

So here is some application. For you, the individual. Are you walking with Jesus? Have you begun to follow him? Have you embraced him as the soul saving sufficiency for your life? He died for you so that you might be supernaturally changed deep in your heart? Have you been honest with yourself and who you really are? If so, you know your need, and I am here today to tell you that Christ is sufficient. Embrace Jesus today. If you know that has never been a real reality in your life, turn to him this morning. Take communion with us as a church family. I am available for prayer at that back during communion. Come tell me and let me pray with you.

For individuals who have been following Jesus. We need the supernatural work of Jesus’ Spirit to change us. We need the true fruit of God’s Spirit to flow from our soul. We need deep heart work. We need to be changed and changed and changed by the gospel. There is a lot of heart work involved, there is a lot of mindset that needs to be changed, it takes time and gracious effort. Let us soften ourselves before our Lord today and have his Spirit work in us. May we be challenged and yet encouraged by the rejuvenating measures of his Spirit.

For parents, here is what this means for you. One, you can’t make your kids love God. They need a supernatural work of God’s Spirit. Jesus needs to dwell in your homes so that he can dwell in your children’s hearts. You need to teach them about Jesus. Two, it means you can’t be good parents. You need God’s Spirit to teach you. He needs to supernaturally change your heart so you react to your children right when they mess up, so that you demonstrate a good example of a husband and wife before them, so that you have the patience and understanding they need. Those things don’t come naturally. So dwell with Jesus and walk in his ways for sake of your kids.

Kids, here is what today’s message means for you. Life is like a trip, it is kind of like a very long walk. So you need to know where you are trying to walk to and who you are going to walk with. If you walk with Jesus he will take you to the only place where there is true peace, where you won’t have anything to worry about or be scared of. So walk with Jesus and not on your own, don’t go your own way.

Church family, here is what it means for us as a community. We are on a walk together here in San Diego. We are here for a time and we are here for such a time as this, to plant a glory driven, gospel centered, city within the city. This text tells us we can’t do that. We need a supernatural work of God to take place. Jesus’ Spirit must come and take his rightful place in us as a group. It must be all about him. For his glory, for his gospel, and when that happens we will see this city change. We must let Jesus and his person and his work and his values be the thing that drives us. We need to be committed to his mission. The way we do that is by inviting friends and neighbors into our lives, getting to know and understand them so we can share the gospel with them. We do it by inviting them to worship with us and being committed to worshipping ourselves, every week. We do that by giving our money and giving out of our heart of love and devotion to him instead of whether or not we think it will be spent correctly or whether we will have enough. We need to allow Jesus’ Spirit to permeate our mindset and overtake every area of our lives, thought, and practice. Jesus is everything.

Let’s pray.

The second of a sermon series addressing the theme of Walking According to the Spirit from an exegetical treatment of Romans 8:5-9. This sermon was originally preached August 5th of 2007 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA.

Walking According to the Spirit (part II)
Romans 8:5-9

Introduction

Read text and pray. God, the world is big, we are small, and you reign as God, our great heavenly Father, over it all. And you have given us this book as a guide through our time here where we live and walk. You sent your son, Jesus into this world to save us from sin, ourselves, and the corruption we encounter and carry in this life. This text today is a wise text you have given us. One which tells us how those believe in Jesus, get Jesus’ Spirit and become able to experience real pleasure and have peace and life. May it stab us awake from the deadness of life without Jesus, where we become unable to please God, hostile to him and godly things, where we end dying internally and eternally. Save souls today, awaken us where we slumber, mature us where we are weak. Holy Spirit of God come and sharpen our minds and soften our hearts as we study your book. Amen.

Last week we began our first sermon in our “Walking According to the Spirit” series which will last several weeks. And last week’s sermon was primarily a set-up sermon. We had been away from the book of Romans for a month, so we needed to re-orient ourselves. Then we talked about walking. The paradigm for life and for many early Christians was walking. They didn’t drive cars, they walked. Kanye West had it right when he said “Jesus walks.” J Jesus did walk and the picture of a Christian in this passage is one who walks with him. And to the one who walks with Jesus today, since Jesus is seated on his throne in heaven until his time comes to return and consummate all things, to the one who walks with him today his gives his Spirit.

In 1 Corinthians, another book the author of Romans wrote, he said “in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body.” He explained that two chapters ago in Romans 6, when he said that those who follow Jesus unite with him and we are baptized into his death and resurrection. That is the gospel, our sin gets buried into his death and we get new life, for being with Jesus. This new life is a life where we live in the presence and power of Jesus’ Holy Spirit.

My main point last week was that we need Jesus’ Spirit, bad, because what we need is supernatural. As fallen, sinful human beings, who are really good at making messes of our lives, who are in large part numb or dead to the things of God, we need a supernatural work to take place in our hearts. I said that things like true “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, and self-control” do not come naturally to us and that what comes natural to us are things like “sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, self-spirituality, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, and envy.” For those things to change in us, takes a supernatural work of God’s Spirit in our hearts. The human heart is not physical, it is spiritual, and it needs a Holy Spirit to fix it.

We have a guarantee that it can happen, that we are not just lost or hopeless, because Jesus rose up from the dead and that is a pretty supernatural event. It makes me think that perhaps someone like that can change my heart, something I can’t change myself no matter how hard I try. Then lastly I said that the work of Jesus Spirit in us, walking in Jesus Spirit, is supernatural because it gives us a new mindset.

That is where we left of with this word mind, which is this difficult word to translate, phroneo. So we talked about it for awhile. Mindset is probably a better translation than just mind. But today we will hopefully get a much better idea of what this mindset is by looking at how Paul compares the two mindsets, the mindset of the flesh and the mindset of the Spirit.

There are four ways they are compared here. But before we begin going through them I want to ask you guys a question I asked myself the other day. And it’s this, why does it matter? I mean really, okay fine, “mindset” is it really that big of deal. Why would anyone care much about mindset anyway or want to listen to anything the Bible says about?

For some, like me, my mind is the problem. It is why I can’t sleep at night a lot of times, because there is all this stuff I am thinking about and my mind is going a hundred miles an hour and I can’t go to sleep. Amy finally kicks me out of bed at like 3:00 am and so I…I go pray. J No, actually I get up and watch UFC re-runs. So my problem isn’t my need to think more, my mind is turbo, I need to think less!

Then there are some of you who don’t think about anything. I will never understand you, you’re just weird to me or high in my book. J I don’t know, but sometimes I’d sure like to trade places but I’m not into doing drugs anymore. What I need is something like the opposite of coffee. I love coffee and drink it almost every day. But I need some drink like coffee, that will slow me down. Okay, so I know I am probably the odd ball. I’m guessing most of you are not like me and you just don’t think much about anything. Do you ever even think about what your mindset is?

Everyone has one, even if you don’t think you do, than that itself is a mindset. So what is your mindset? What is your reality? What is your motivation for life? The way you see things and the world around you? What are you striving for and how and why? That is your mindset. John Stott said it is your “interest, affections, and purpose.” What is your mind set on? Nothing? Or something? And if it is something what is that something? What is the thing that drives you?

IV. Two different walks compared

Let’s look at our text and how these two different mindsets or two different walks are compared. Last week I said that the logic of verses 5-9 works best to see it backwards. To start at verse 9 and then work backwards. The reason that is best is because we are cutting into the middle of a book, so we need to follow his reasoning and Paul’s reasoning begins with whether you have the Spirit of Jesus Christ or not. From Jesus’ Spirit flows a certain mindset, the one he had when he walked on this earth. And from not having Jesus flows a certain mindset, the mindset of the flesh.

So here is how the logic flows, look and see if you can see it with me. If you belong to Jesus (verse 9), then you have Jesus’ Spirit, the Spirit of God (verse 9). If you have the Spirit of God then you can please God (verse 8), because with the spirit you can satisfy God’s law, what he requires for pleasure (verse 7), and when that happens you are at peace with God (verse 6), and have life (verse 6). That is the logic that flows from the mindset of the Spirit: belong to Jesus > have Jesus Spirit > able to please God > can satisfy the demands of law > can have peace > and have life.

Now let’s look at the contrary and see how its logic flows. If you do not belong to Jesus (verse 9), you do not have the Spirit and are in the flesh (verse 9). Because of that you cannot please God (verse 8), cannot submit to God’s law (verse 7), have hostility toward God (verse 7), and your life is and ends up as death (verse 6). That is the logic that flows from the mindset of the flesh: no Jesus > no Spirit but flesh > not able to please God > not able to satisfy law > no peace > just death.

That is the logic, things begin with Jesus, then a supernatural work of God can take place in your heart and life, the pleasure in knowing God and joyful obedience follows and you have peace and end up living the life you were intended to live.

inability vs. ability

Last week we dealt with following Jesus and I present to you that the main paradigm for becoming a Christian in the 1st century was walking with Jesus, following him. At a point in that following a deep change takes place in your heart and you really begin to see and understand your great need for Jesus and you give him your life in exchange for his and then you as verse 9 says, “belong to him.” You become part of him. Part of his family, part of the body of believers of whom he is the head.

When Jesus ascended into heaven after he died on a cross and rose again, he said he was not leaving us alone but that he would send his Spirit into us until he returned to consummate all of human history. Now all people who believe in Jesus, who really put their faith in him, they get his Spirit, the most powerful force in the world because the Spirit changes our sinful hearts and minds and that is hard to do. Our hearts and minds are hard, like steel, and it takes a lot to change them, and the Holy Spirit of God can do that and does.

So our comparison of the two different lives, two different walks, two different mindsets begins at the point of ability. Notice something with me that occurs both in verse 7 and in verse 8, the word “cannot.” “For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”

Cannot. What a horrible word. Our human person hates it. Just saying it, something inside me reacts and wants to spit it out and say, “No! Don’t tell me I cannot! You think I can’t, watch me.” Cannot goes against everything we are taught and everything our natural selves feel.

I’m a kid of the eighties. Back when cartoons were good, when riding a bike was better than video games, and when one the best movies of all time was made, “Back to the Future.” In it the wise and esteemed Dr. Emmit Brown taught us so well that, “If you put your mind to it you can accomplish anything.” I did a little search and found that phrase occurs several times. And it captures not only the spirit of our age but something even deeper than that, a sense inside us that hates to be told we can’t do something.

In 1989, Norman Vincent Peale wrote a now famous book, which nearly has a whole movement spawned in connection with it, the book titled, “The Power of Positive Thinking.” Its key point is that maintaining positive thinking and a positive attitude will drive you to success and with that you can do anything. There is a whole educational program called, “You Can Do It Education” which claims that with this mindset, “social and emotional well-being” is possible for the “world of tomorrow.” And this program has been incorporated into public school programs since the early 80’s. I suppose this is where Rob Schneider got it from, who appears in almost every one of Adam Sandler’s films, showing up an saying “You can do it!”

My point is that we live in a society which says we can do anything if we want to. There is nothing we cannot do. And not only that but I am saying there is something deeper to it than even just a societal thing. I am saying there is this sense deep down inside each of us which does not like the thought or the idea of someone telling us we can’t do something. It is something almost basic to our humanity. A child hates being told no. The teenager wants complete freedom, to be able to do whatever he or she wants. And the adult can’t stand the struggle which surfaces when they find out they can’t accomplish anything and life is hard. So they either become depressed or addicted to pills, alcohol, or sex to appease their pain or they just work harder and if they get what they want it is never enough and they just end up feeling proud about it and feed that sense by writing their book and telling everyone they can do it to, everyone just needs to do what they did.

When it comes to religion this sense of ability and the power of choice becomes even stronger. You want to make someone made or start a bar fight. Tell someone there is only one true religion and everyone else who does not believe in that religion is wrong and is going to hell. You’ll make a lot of friends that way. J Nobody wants to be told they can and cannot believe certain things. Everyone wants to be free to either be their own god, choose who is god (which is really the same thing), and so create their own religion and not have anyone tell them different.

So fine. Do that. Try. Here is the news. It doesn’t work because you cannot change your heart. You cannot make love and joy and peace flow from inside of your being. You cannot change your natural inclination towards jealousy, envy, competition, impurity, self-adoration. Only the Spirit of God can do that.

And on top of it all, have you really ever thought much about it? Can you really do whatever you want? There is a lot of stuff I cannot do. I cannot fly. I cannot make myself disappear. I cannot see through walls. I cannot get pregnant. J There is a lot of stuff I cannot do.

Martin Luther, the great reformer, was a wise man. He recognized this and he wrote a book about it called “The Bondage of the Will.” In the early part of the book he first points out the self-refuting error of one who says you can do anything and those who tell you that you can’t are wrong. Listen to him, he says “you forbid us to examine, weigh, and know, first, our ability, what we can do, and what we cannot do, as being curious, superfluous, and irreligious…and to make your madness still greater, you persuade us, that this temerity is the most exalted and Christian piety, sobriety, religious gravity, and even salvation.”

Then Martin Luther begins to probe deeper, recognizing that our limitations as humans are not only physical, things like we cannot fly, but they are spiritual and moral. Toward the end of the book he quotes the passage we are studying in Romans and says this, “Now let us see what his opinion is concerning the endeavor and the power of “Free-will” in the carnal, who are in the flesh. “They cannot please God.” Again, “The carnal mind is death.” Again, “The carnal
mind is enmity against God,” And again, “It is not subject to the law of God neither indeed can be.” (Rom. viii. 5-8)… there is in the saints, and in the godly, so powerful a warfare between the spirit and the flesh, that they cannot do what they would. From this warfare I argue thus:—If the
nature of man be so evil, even in those who are born again of the Spirit, that it does not only not endeavor after good, but is even averse to, and militates against good, how should it endeavor after good in those who are not born again of the Spirit?”

Ability and inability. There is a ton we could talk about here. I suspect that even in just reading that quote there are a few of you who didn’t like it. And that is okay, it illustrates my point. We talk more about this subject in our membership which will start again in a couple months.

I’ll just say a few things for now. Lest we misunderstand Mr. Luther, let me clarify a couple things. By saying we don’t have what it takes and that our natural inclination are not directed to God and his goodness but to ourselves and the things which are not good and that that is evil…we are not saying that every person is as bad as could possibly be nor that there is not the knowledge of good inside every human. What we are saying is that we are in the grip of sin and are first and foremost bent toward our own good rather than toward others and God and that this is part of our nature as humans.

We’ll end on this note about ability and inability. One, the Bible here clearly says life is spiritual and moral and that there are certain things you can and cannot do. The Greek word behind cannot here is dunamos, is the word power or ability. So what this verse says you, as a human being are not able, you do not have the ability, you do not have the power in yourself, to please God or obey his law. That is first thing I’ll leave you with about ability.

Here is the second thing, if you think you do have the ability, then why Jesus? If you are able in and of yourself, then you don’t need Jesus. Jesus only came for the sick. That is what he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners (Mk 2:17).” I suspect everyone who is here is here either because you have some sense inside you that you need Jesus or at least that other people need him or you would not have even considered coming to church. Your need begins at your ability. Recognizing that you need the chief physician, the doctor of the soul, Jesus. He who heals and mends and changes and empowers us by his great spirit.

cannot please God vs. please God

Let’s move on this morning and talk about pleasure. Do you see that word “please” in verse 8? “Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” So what we have is comparison of pleasure, between being pleased or unpleased. I do not contend with those who say life is about pleasure. I freely admit I am a hedonist. In front of my desk I have a framed piece of paper I made with five resolutions on it that I strive to live my life by and the first one reads, “I resolved to pursue happiness with all my might.”

The pursuit of pleasure is something we know much of. Our culture is in large driven by it today. Whether you are the business man, a gangster, or a hippie…the theme is to do whatever makes you happy. When you are high seemingly everything is funny…so there is that happiness that can be induced by drug stimulant. Anita Baker is famous for her song whose chorus is just that “whatever it takes to make you happy.” Donald Trump has shown us all he is convinced that happiness is his goal and the key for him is financial success. Baby Boy doesn’t disagree, he sings “This is the way I live. Lil’ Boy still pushin’ big wheels I stack my money, lay low, and chill. Don’t need to work hard that’s the way I feel, I feel, I This is the way I live.”

Here is what I can make of it all when I try to listen to people and to the culture and the messages that are being thrown our way. The message seems to be this, do whatever makes you feel good, whatever makes you happy and that the goal in life is to not have to do anything so you can just sit in your happiness. And I am not in disagreement, mainly. Let me explain why.
Look at our text. “Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” Think about it with me. We are clearly talking about pleasure. The assumption behind this phrase is that we should want to or need to please God. So there are two characters, there is us and there is God. But this text puts the focus of pleasure on God, his pleasure. Him doing whatever makes himself happy and that everything is about him being pleased. Do you see that?

The Westminster Shorter Catechism, a great confession, a great creed of the Christian faith, starts out with the words, “The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.” Here is the rub. It seems to me that many, especially Christians, want to say that pleasure is bad. That the problem with humans is they are immoral and are always seeking pleasure, their feelings, and what they should do is just turn themselves off to their feelings and the pursuit of pleasure and just do what is right. That the idea of your own pursuit of pleasure is the thing which corrupts you. Immanuel Kant said that if there is any personal benefit you acquire then your action is contaminated. I submit that this is the ancient Greek philosophy called “stoicism” and it is not Christianity and that God’s pursuit of pleasure and our pursuit of pleasure are not opposed.

Let me quote John Piper here because I don’t think I can say it better than him. “Here is the great discovery that changes everything. God is glorified by our being satisfied in him. The chief end of man is not merely to glorify God and enjoy him forever, but to glorify God by enjoying him forever. The great divide that I thought existed between God’s passion for his glory and my passion for joy turned out to be no divide at all, if my passion for joy is passion for joy in God. God’s passion for the glory of God and my passion for joy in God are one.”

John Piper gets this from Jonathan Edwards, let’s hear him: “God is glorified not only by His glory’s being seen but by its being rejoiced in. When those that see it delight in it, God is more glorified than if they only see it. His glory is then received by the whole soul, both by the understanding and by the heart. God made the world that He might communicate, and the creature receive His glory and that it might be received by both the mind and the heart. He that testifies his idea of God glory doesn’t glorify God so much as he that testifies also his approbation and his delight in it.”

Now to be clear, I have taught on this before and some have missed it. They have thought I was saying that since life is about pleasure then they everything is okay so go and do what you want and make yourself happy. That is not what I am saying. What I am saying is that we are human beings who feel and we were made to feel and we were made to feel joy and pleasure and this is the key part, that joy and pleasure spring from a pursuit of God, from seeking to please him.

The rub with culture is not that pursuing pleasure is wrong. The rub is the word “whatever.” A moment ago in my cultural assessment I said the theme of culture was “to do whatever makes you feel good, whatever makes you happy.” What I am saying that there is no whatever, there is just God. Do God, that is what makes you feel good, God is the appointment of our happiness. Having him as the center of our lives with Jesus as king is the way life is intended to be.

There can only be one who is whom it would be right to say all pleasure is connected, God. The only one who is not limited in any regard. Completely free in all his perfections. Completely able, completely powerful, completely compassionate, completely wise, completely holy, completely beautiful. The Lord of the Universe. We were made for him and to please him.

The difference between the mindset of the flesh versus the mindset of the Spirit, the two different walks compared here are a walk that pursues delight first and foremost and out of a relationship with God versus one that pursues delight out of one’s relationship with themselves and whatever you individually think will make you happy. I am saying there is not different things that make different people happy. I am saying God is the happiness for which everyone was made. When you are pleasing to him then you are pleased, then you feel true pleasure. And I am saying that we need a great work of Jesus’ Spirit in our hearts to turn our attention away from ourselves and onto God so that we might truly find the pleasure for which we were made.
Conclusion

So, if you look out our outline of comparison. We are about half-way through the comparison of the life of the flesh and the life of the Spirit. Rather than to just pass over the last few points quickly, I’ve decided just to deal with them next week and we’ll do part three on these verses. The last two comparisons are connected and understand our place as Christians in regards to the realms or positions of the flesh and the Spirit is significant. There is no reward for speed and I think these things are too big and too important to just pass over quickly and I don’t think you guys want to hear me preach for another 45 minutes. So we’ll do with them next week.

In conclusion of today’s sermon what I want to address “religion.” Religion, at least in western America, for many is almost a dirty word, religion is bad, spirituality is good. We began our service watching a video clip about that. And our text for today’s sermon has a lot to say about religion and spirituality.

It may seem that religion is only for those who are into God, those who even care about these things. But it appears to me that everyone has a religion. Being spiritual is very popular these days…it is a la carte religion. Many years ago James Montgomery Boice what he foresaw concerning what was to come, he says this, “people choose will choose the times they like from a potpourri of religions and then combine them to make their own comfortable little religious systems…In our largely irrational age it is a common thing for people to hold many mutually inconsistent ideas, the only force holding them together being their own individual attractions to them. But as I have thought about it, it seems to me that this is what all religions already are in one sense. They are collections of human thoughts held for no other reason than that they are comfortable. The are comfortable because what they actually do is protect…from the only truly valid claims of God.”

In this world we walk. And how we walk matters a lot. We walk with a mindset, either one that purely according to ourselves, our flesh, our own desires and wants or one that is according to the Spirit. Our own mindsets ruin us. We lack the ability to make ourselves happy. We need a massive change to take place in us. We need that change to sink deeper and deeper into our person. We need to be turned from a self-centered perspective to a God entranced perspective. Only Jesus can do that.

Martin Luther said we are beggars. We come to God with money we do not have. We come with nothing to offer and we acknowledge it and beg God to change us. The gospel is that change is possible. The joy is possible. That life and peace is possible. And that it is through Jesus. Jesus is able.

Jesus was not constrained by the insecurities and contaminations of sinful flesh, he was pure. Sent into this world as a God-man and lived a perfect life, the one we should have lived but couldn’t and can’t. Jesus, full of grace and truth, came into this world and walked and taught and shared and gave. A perfect example of love, a perfect example of non self-centered compassion. A perfect example of one’s who goal in life was to please God and sought his pleasure in worshipping the Almighty. Jesus, the God-man, the savior.

Jesus, the one who not only shows us a perfect example but offers his life for us. He dies on a cross, ending his life, dying the death we should have died in order that we might live the life we long to live but can’t. So turn to Jesus today. He is sufficient. Receive him and his Spirit into your hearts. Jesus Spirit is real and by belonging to him, his Spirit truly begins to change us. Where we have been weak and unable Jesus makes us able and empowers us. Where we have been dead and dry he brings life and creativity and vitality. Where their has been failure and frustration, Jesus Spirit brings a heart that loves and desires to please God.

This is our lives my friends. Our life is the gospel. The good news in our souls. Living and dying for Jesus over and over again. We seek not to create our own religion but to be caught up into the religion of Jesus. To take part in the wonder of his life and death and resurrection. With Jesus Spirit we begin to experience the true fruits of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, and self-control. With Jesus Spirit we begin to be freed from our patterns of self-destruction and self-worship.

My message is simple. It always comes down to Jesus. The gospel is simple. It is our need for a savior. For our kids, big ones and small ones, this is for you. You can’t do anything and be whatever you want to be when you grow up, but you can do and be who God wants you to be and if you are that then you will really be happy in life. So love Jesus, put him first, and his Spirit will help you become who he designed you to be.

Let’s pray.

The third of a sermon series addressing the theme of Walking According to the Spirit from an exegetical treatment of Romans 8:5-9. This sermon was originally preached August 11th of 2007 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA.

Walking According to the Spirit (part III)
Romans 8:5-9

Introduction

Good morning. Today we are going into our third sermon of our “Walking According to the Spirit” series. Let’s read the text and pray.

God, this is your book, these are the words you have left for us through your servant Paul. Help us as we look into them this morning. It is so easy to just read things and pass through them and miss the great meaning and significance that is there. These words mean something, help us to get that meaning. Help us to get a picture, an idea in our heads of what it means to be a person who walks according the the Spirit in this word. There is much we don’t understand and know about life, life in this world. So we look to Jesus and ask that the way of His Spirit, the way he walked here on earth, the mindset he had, the mindset of life and peace would become our mindset, our way. Jesus Christ is Lord, Amen.

Last week we got about halfway through comparing the two different walks, two different mindsets.

IV. Two different walks compared

The mindset of the flesh, according to the flesh vs. the mindset of the Spirit, according to the Spirit. When we talk about these as walks what we are talking about is an analogy of life as a journey or a walk. Tom Cochrane is famous for his early nineties song with the chorus, “Life is a highway, I want to ride it all not long.” Herman Hesse wrote a great book called ” Siddhartha” which is sort of a presentation of the life of Siddhartha Gautama, who most know better as the “Buddha.” He’s that statue of a fat dude you see at Chinese restaurants and is the one gets most the credit for most of the eastern philiosphy that’s out there. In the book Siddhartha and in Buddhistic philosophy in general the paradigm for life is one as a journey in which you walk.

Paul, here in Romans doesn’t disagree…life is a walk or a journey. Jesus too, was went around walking and called people to walk with him. And that is what this text and this series is about, walking with Jesus and how you do that. Paul here is saying the way you do that is by having the mindset of Jesus, which transforms the way your mind thinks, feels, and reacts toward the people and the things around you.

Last week we looked primarily focused on verse 7-8 and the two words the word, “cannot” and the word “please.” From the word “cannot” we talked about ability and inability and our limitations as humans. Our inability to fix ourselves and why. From the world “please” we talked about appraching life as a pursuit of pleasure and how that fits in or works with a belief in God and an our inability to fix ourselves and make ourselves happy.

Today, we are going to look at these last two comparisons and then talk about how this works for you if you a Christian or not. But before we do I thought I should give an explanation for why I preach sermons the way I do here at The Resolved Church. Because if you think about it, it can seem kind of weird that we would go so slow through a text.

We don’t really read any other book like that. I finished the new Harry Potter book, I know that’s probably bad and Christians are not supposed to read Harry Potter, but I can’t help it, I freaking love those books. J But I don’t sit down and study and dissect phrases and words that J.K. Rowling wrote. So did Paul, the author of Romans really intend for us to look at these words, words like “life” and “peace” and “hostility” and “cannot” and “please” and really make that much of a deal about them?

Two, responses. One reason is because this book was written a long time ago. Nearly 2,000 years. When was the last time you read a two-thousand year old book. Anyone ever read, Homer’s Illiad or the Oddessy? It’s kind of weird. Diffferent, culture, different time period, different way of life and thinking and on top of it all the Bible wasn’t written in English, so we have to deal with a translation.

So that is one reason we have to slow down and spend a little bit more time reading it carefully, because there is so much distance between us and these words. When the first readers, read these things, they’d have the same associations and things in their head that Paul did and be able to pick up on what he was saying right away. So there is a historical distance.

Second, there is a theological distance, and this one is the same for us as it was for the first readers. It goes like this, Paul was convinced, as we are, that if we are to know anything at all then it would have to be because God makes it known. And Paul was convinced, as we are, that God distinctly makes himself known in words of a book he has geniusly compiled from various authors. So here is what would happen. When a church got a book of the Bible they would read it, and read it, and re-read it and study it together. In Acts 2:42, it says that the church, “devoted themselves to the apostles teaching.” In the first Christian Church in Thessolonica, when they first heard about Jesus it says they “searched the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.” And in 2 Timothy 2:15 Paul calls his readers to “study [the Scriptures]” and so “rightly handle the word of truth.” When one church would get a book of the Bible, they would then send to another church to have it read and studied (Col 4:16), and so these books would get circulated throught he churches until they eventually just compiled them altogether into one book, the Bible. That’s how we got our Bible.

So we take these words seriously because that is how they were intended to be taken by their authors and if what they are saying is true then we have a natural problem as humans which makes it hard for us to accept a lot of things the Bible says, so we have to think about it and wrestle with it. So going slow helps us with that. We want to be careful we don’t just read our own ideas and thoughts into the Bible and use it like we would use a computer where we load whatever programs and songs and pictures into it that we want. The Bible is more like wikkipedia, it just tells us what is up when it comes to God.

hostility

Okay, enough set-up. Let’s get into it and talk about hostility and peace.

Look at verse 6 & 7, “to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.” So the corrsponding part to death is life and the corresponding part to peace is hostility.

Hostility and peace. These are war words. The middle east both when this was written and still today is a place that has been ravaged by war. I don’t think any of us can truly comprehend what it would be like to have war on our own soil. I mean think about it, where you live. Picture your house and the street you live on and picture soliders walking in down it, picture tanks rolling through your street. And picture those soliders and those tanks being from a foreign country who wants to take over your governement and change your way of life, where you wouldn’t own your house anymore, would have to pay higher taxes, and you were not allowed to go to certain parts of the city anymore.

Do you think then you might feel some hostility? Some lack of peace? Some enmity toward those soliders and that regeime? Some sense of war. That is the connotations, the pictures these words trigger. Hostility is resentment and desire to attack someone. You ever felt hostility toward a person? Someone who has wronged you? Perhaps someone who has said bad things about you behind your back? Feel some hostility toward them?

We know hostility. It is what daytime talk shows are about. How Rosie O’Donnell and Donald Trump hate each other. How the view kicked off Rosie O’Donnell. It’s court TV and who wronged who. Jerry Springer has got a whole TV show based on hostility. Gang wars are about hositilty. And the husband or wife who makes that dark decision to leave…it’s about hostility.

Hostility. Now the thing here that verse 7 says there is hostility when your mind is set on the flesh and that hostility is toward God. So how does that work? What does that mean? I think most of us would think it is the other way around. We picture God as this helpless being up in the sky who wants us to love him and we don’t, we think about and love a lot of other things instead…and so we imagine he feels hostility toward us. He doesn’t like us. We have hurt him so he is going to hurt us back. It’s what philosophers call capriciousness.

But notice what we have done when we think like that. We have taken the way we know how humans are, how we are ourselves our and then we have projected that onto God and imagined that he must be that way too. But this text doesn’t say that. It doesn’t say God is hostile toward those who have their mind set on the flesh, it says the mind set on the flesh is hostile to God.

What does that mean? It means we don’t like God. We might like him if he makes us look good or seems to make our life better or give us what we want. But other than that we are not too interested in having our lives revolve around someone other than ourself. He is an intruder, walking down our street, who disprupts our lives by coming in and telling us to worship him.

Look at what the second part of verse 7 says, it defines what hostility toward God is, hostility “does not submit to God’s law, indeed it cannot.” Here is the heart of hostility, law. Law says God is a holy God and he requires certain things and we don’t like that. Something about someone telling us what to do does not sit well. Our feelings are hostile. Most respond one of two ways…we either respond to the demand, with “no.” I can do whatever I want and it doesn’t really mattter, so we become a law to ourselves. Or we take the demand and say, “you think I can’t do all that, watch me, I can do it.” Just the existence of a law breeds hostility.

Why do you think every single nation on the planet has varying groups of people that support different leaders. Because no one is ever happy, there is always something wrong with some law leader that one group will not like. Hostility is discontent and despise. And that is what comes natural to us. We have been saying the last few weeks that the mindset of the Spirit, the walk of Jesus, does not come natural. We do not naturally love. That is why Jesus summarized all the law as saying it is all about “loving God.” Obedience does not come natural, only the love of Christ can change your heart and make you delight to obey.

You see it is not about doing the law perfect, it is about love. If you ask your friends, do you think you are a good person, most will say, “well, I’m not perfect but I try and I think I’m pretty good.” But being pretty good does not cut it. But that is not love. That’s why Jesus said, “If you love me you will keep my commandments.” How much do you delight to obey? Do you think of yourself as an obedient person? Or do you just do what you want and what you think is right? Who do you obey? Your boss? Your parents? Yourself? Who? Obedience. That is the measure of love, not our good intentions.

I mean, let’s be honest. I’m all about honesty. And being honest really feels good, when you are able to just share all your frustrations and thoughts and feelings about something to someone. That feels good. It feels authentic and it feels real. And that is good. But you know what I don’t like being honest about, is my rebellion. I don’t like to admit that the way I feel sometimes is wrong. You see, we like to be honest and share how we feel because we feel that our honesty about it justifies our feelings and somehow makes them okay. But that isn’t quite full honesty is it? We like honesty, but not honesty with God. To say we are wrong and proud and sick and self-reliant and disobedient…No one likes to say that about themselves unless it is an excuse to keep on being that way.

Real honesty comes with confession and repentance, admission and change. My chief goal is to build a church I enjoy being a part of and my wife and my family enjoys being a part of. But I had to get honest with myself and confess to my wife this week that my passion and focus and intent to grow and build this church and for us to really become a glory driven, gospel-centered, city within the city, has been eclipsing my desire for Sundays to be exciting and happy day. Not a day I look to with so much pressure for everything to go just right. If I put so much pressure on that, she and our kids will grow up hating church and I don’t want that. Hostility is discontent and disobedience toward God as the soul sustaining pleasure of our lives.

peace

Let’s talk about peace for a minute. We have already said a lot about it without saying it because peace is the opposite of hostility. It is the lack of war. The opposite of discontent. It is joyful obedience that comes natural from the heart. Because most us have a lack of really knowing what war is like…I think when we hear the word peace, we most often think, tranquility.

What kind of peace are we talking about here? “…the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.” Is Paul sort going all out Buddhist here? Atman is Brahaman? The way I need to deal with suffereing and strife is to just realize it doesn’t really exist and I everything and everything is me and to just be one with it all? Is that what he is saying here? Is Paul trying to teach us some mind trick?

I don’t think so. Here is how he defined peace ealier in Romans. Romans 5:1 “Since we have been justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowning that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” Do you hear the connection? Holy Spirit, given to us. Love for God from our hearts. Peace despite suffering because of faith in Jesus which makes us right, or justified before God. The God problem in us gets dealt with.

Paul was a Jew and for Jews the word peace is and always has been a big deal. Even today most Jews will greet each other by saying “shalom.” That is the Hebrew word for peace. The peace of Israel is the Jewish hope. And the Messiah it was prophesied who was to come was to be a “prince of peace (Is. 9:6).

Peace is the absence of war with God brought by Jesus, the Messiah. The hostility from our end dies. We admit our condition, recognize that God is God alone and we are not. We bend our knees. Lay down our arms. Plead Jesus on the cross on our behalf for our rebellion. And God accepts. And we have a peace. From that there may be feelings of tranquility or happiness that follow, but bibilical peace here runs much deeper. Peace is a state before God. Where in his gracious acceptance of Jesus instead of us, he maintains his goodness and upholds justice, which can’t let wrongdoing and rebellion go unpunished, and then at the same time offer us mercy and the end of war. Jesus gets the punishment, we get the peace. Our offense is taken away. There is no longer fear of wrath for our wrongs.

Obedience then becomes delight. Love and thanks and adoration of God’s kindness toward us becomes the theme of our lives. We humbly then begin to submit ourselves with an attitute that says, we’ll now I know, God is better. A life of peace following him rather than fighting him all the way along is much better.

Here is one way that Jonathan Edwards talks about it as it relates to our affections that flow from surrending our war with God, “All the gracious affection that are a sweet odor to Christ and that fill the souls of a Christian with heavenly sweetness and fragrancy, are brokenhearted affections. A turly Christian love, either to God or to men, is a brokenhearted love. The desire of the saints are earnest, are humble desires: their hope is a humble hope; and their joy, even when it is unspeakable and full of glory, is a humble brokenhearted joy, and leaves the Christian more poor in spirit and more like a little child and more disposeed to a universal lowliness of behavior.”

Here is a definition of Christian Peace: The security of soul which comes from letting go of any rights of my own before God and trusting in the punishment of Christ on the cross for the wrongdoing and wrongness inside me. So how it works is like this. The mind set on the Spirit being peace. Okay, when trials and life comes to threaten me and my face, my response is no, God is not my enemy. Something did not go wrong. I am safe and secure in Christ. Peace reigns and is the ground of my belief. God is not at war with me. Christ was punished in my place for me.

death vs. life

Let’s look at the last comparison death vs. life. Today’s sermon is a difficult sermon in many ways because we are dealing with these huge concepts. These words that you can easily commit the error of taking them and springboarding to all this other stuff that might not be intended here in Romans. So I am striving hard to stay within the intended bound of Paul’s thought and discussion here in Romans 8.

Let’s look at verse 6, “For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.” I think Paul has two things in mind when he talks about death here. Quality and quantity.

In chapter 7, the last chapter he addressed the internal moral struggle of the Christian and toward the end in frustration he says, “Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom 7:24-25).” I think there he mainly has in mind a certain quailty of life…where one feels as though they are dying inside and longing to live a life that they just can’t quite seem to achieve. Have you ever felt just dead inside? Have you ever longed for your life just to be good? A quality of death. A quality of life. So that is the first thing.

Here is the second thing, quantity. Going back to chapter 6, Paul ended it by saying, “the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom 6:23).” Here there seems to be mainly a duration in mind. What happens after your physical body dies. We will talk more about this next week when we move on to verses 10-11 of Romans 8…but here the promise of the gospel is that believers in Jesus who receive His Spirit will receive a body like Jesus’s after he rose from the dead and will live forever in a kingdom of peace and love and joy, a place where Jesus reigns as king and there is no more sin, nor more sorrow, no more death and no more pain…just free worship, an unending experience of life the way it should be and we long for it to be. Jesus called this heaven.

The same thing is true for the duration of death…it too is an undending experience, an unending experience of death. After you die, being giving a body that cannot be killed but instead be eternally tortured, always subject to sinning and be sinned against, always feeling sorrow and pain and regret. An eternal death. Jesus called this hell.

Notice something with me. Notice the finality and tone of factuality in Paul’s words in verse six, “The mind on the flesh is death…the mind on the Spirit is life.” There is a tone of certainity and fixedness. It comes almost as a warning. If you don’t have the Spirit of Jesus your will mindset with be on death, the things that will kill you. If you do have the Spirit of Jesus your mindset will be on the things of life, the things which will enable you to truly live. It feels like a warning. It feels like, be careful of your outlook on life, how you set your mind.

I haven’t been able to get away from this. Still all this week I have been waking up thinking about this word, phroneo, mindset. I got this from it this week. We’ve talked about it being a worldview and how it effects not only our thoughts and feelings and decisions. But this week as I have been meditating on it. Two additionally things came to me. One, I think it is an attitude, a general demeanor and commitment to a certain type of affection.

And two, I think it is a discipline. I have to fight for a phroneo mindset because the truth is I don’t really think and see things the way Jesus did and does very much of the time. I am much more pessimistic and mean. My tendancy is not to think the best of people or situations. My tendancy is not to think about God and look at the world through the eyes of the gospel. My tendancy is not to always feel grateful and privilege to be here. My tendancies are much darker, much deathlier, too much of the time. I have to fight to see things and see people and see the world with the hope and the power of Jesus’s Spirit.

Let me ask you a question and then we’ll move on to our final point. How is your mindset? How is your walk? How much do you find yourself consumed with frustration and anxiety or anger or desires for things or people or places you know are not good for you? How is your honesty doing? Your openness and communion with God? Is there life? Or is there just hostility and death? Do you know Jesus? Have you ever really been introduced to anything other than just walking the way you have always walked, on your on, with God over here and you over here, and you haven’t even thought where you are walking to and you know now you are walking to death? Embrace Jesus today and walk with him.

V. Position, practice and conversion

Alright. My final point in adressing verses 5-9 of Romans 8, “Position, practice and conversion.” And what I need to address here is the inherent tension I have not said anything about which exists here. You see, there are two ways of thinking about this passage and these comparisons.

One way is to say, oh well I am a Christian so I am walking with Jesus and I have his Spirit, so I am totally on this side over here. I have ability, I can please God, I have peace, and a promise of eternal life…and so I am all good. And man, doesn’t it suck for those people who are on the other side. Who can’t do anything, have no pleasure, no peace and are going to burn in hell. I’m glad I’m not one of them.

But the problem is that every one of us who claim to be a Christian, if we are honest, we sometimes find ourselves over here on the flesh side and sometimes we find ourselves over here on the Spirit side. So what is going on with that? I thought we start with verse 9 and if we have Jesus then we have his Spirit and it guarantees us the life of the Spirit? Right? Then why do I so often find myself on the flesh side?

Here is my answer. There are two main ways you can picture Romans, one is a as a courtroom an done is as a story that goes from creation to consumation. Since we’re talking about walking and the life of Jesus and how he walked and the mindset he walked with that he gives to his followers. Let’s go with story today. We could do courtroom, but I’ve done that one before. And I got to keep it interesting for myself.

Life according to the flesh begins at birth, goes back in human history all the way to Adam, makes us unable, unhappy, hostile to God, and on a track to death. God sends his Son Jesus into human history and a new age begins, the age of Jesus’ Spirit. Jesus lives, walks, dies on a cross, rises again, promises new and eternal life for those who follow him. That’s verse 9. Then walk according to the Spirit is established and give to his followers. They are transferred into the realm or age of the Spirit and begin walking there.

But here is where our tension rises. Why it seems we are still in the flesh so much of the time…the time between the time. The time between when either Jesus returns to end all things and set up his physical kingdom here on earth or the time when we may die before his return and receive the full reception of Jesus Spirit and quality and quantity of our life in the Spirit becomes a permanent fixture for us in heaven.

Now I know that is prettty heady. And I don’t want to spend a ton of time on this. We could easily spend a whole sermon on it. I just wanted to give you a picture in your heads for what we are talking about when we talk about walking according to the Spirit versus walking according to the flesh and why we as Christians still feel like we are not totally on one track or the other.

Here is the appeal, walk up here. Walk in the new life of the Spirit. Don’t walk in the old dead and dying way. Walk with Jesus. If you are wanting to know how to become a Christian, here it is, walk with Jesus, believe in him and follow him and get to know him, what he says and tells you in the Bible. Trust in him and his cross to take care of your sin. And begin to experience the new eternal life of Jesus’ Spirit.

For Christians, I think Paul’s appeal is an encouragment and a rebuke at the same time. I think it is an encouragment in that it says…”I know you feel weighed down, a lack of peace and pleasure, and an inability to do everything right…But don’t be disheartened, you are according to the Spirit and God is fusing new life into your bones. He is changing your mindset from death to life, from hostility to peace, from displeasure to pleasing God, from inability to ability. Jesus Spirit is real and is working in you. So don’t give up. Hold on. Keep fighting and wrestiling the flesh. Realize who you really are, your position which has been granted to you, the destination of heaven accoridng to the Spirit. Jesus walked and fought all the battles for you. So just look to Him and His Spirit. I think that is an encouragment.

Here is where I think it is a rebuke…in how it says, “You are in the Spirit, you are walking with Jesus so what the heck are you doing going back, backward, back to the old way of the flesh…stop doing that…stop the things which kill you internally, the things which you know are not good for you, stop being hostile to God and fighting him and thinking you know everything and that he must fit within your measily demands and ideas, stop looking to be please by having things other than God as your source, don’t turn to some other functional messiah, turn to Jesus only, don’t go back to the old way, it doesn’t work, it is unable…only by following close to Jesus will you be able to live the life you long to live.

Conclusion

Here is my conclusion for this morning. It is a simple one today. Walk with Jesus. Walk with Jesus. Walk with Jesus. If you have never even began to walk with him, become a Christian today and start walking with Jesus. If you are a Christian and you are walking with Jesus, keep walking, be encouraged, you’re going somewhere, keep trusting him and following him. Don’t sway off the path. Keep walking.

Jesus walked like no man ever walked. Jesus, the son of God, showed us the glory of the Father, and then he laid down his life for us. Jesus, the prince of peace, the morning star, the messiah of the world, the resurrected king, Jesus. He walked this earth for us that we might walk with him.

Let’s pray.

The first segment of two sermons addressing the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This sermon is part of the Walking According to the Spirit sermon series and is an exegetical treatment of Romans 8:9-13. This sermon was originally preached August 19th of 2007 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA.

Two If’s and a Walk Stronger than Death - (part I)
Romans 8:9-13

I. If Christ was raised
A. Biblical Evidence
B. Circumstantial Evidence
C. Historical Evidence
II. If Christ is in you
A. Sin is Death
B. The Body is Important
C. Christ is Life

Introduction

Good morning. Let’s read the text and pray. Father God, this is a beautiful text, a text full of hope, an honest text, one that challenges the very motions of life and life beyond the grave. In our world today it seems the truth comes to us elusively at times. We hesitate at belief for fear that what we accept as true will later turn out to be false. Secure us today. As we work the muscle of our minds may we as individuals be sharp and be willing to be convinced and to be changed. Show us the glory and wonder of Jesus. May our small perceptions which so easily only see the now and the immediate, may they be enlarged so that we see life here and now in view of eternity. As assuredly as Christ was raised from the dead, raise us up from the dead this morning. Awaken us from slumber, enliven us to hear and see and believe truth, and give us Jesus. May Jesus Christ descend into our hearts today, may we truly believe and walk with him. Jesus Christ is Lord, Amen.

We begin our study this morning by looking into a very small and very significant word, “if.” It occurs several times in this passage and there are two particular times where the way they are used is hugely important. On the word “if” in these two places hang two incredibly important, incredibly life changing, incredibly powerful conclusions. Look at them, “if Christ is in you (you belong to Jesus, walk with him, follow him, are led by his Spirit, if Christ is in you), although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.” That is one “if.” It is an experiential if concerning whether or not you are a Christian. That is important.

Then there is the second “if,” “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. This second “if” is an intellectual if, an evidential or historical if, a factual if that hangs on the question of whether or not Jesus Christ really died and really rose.

These two if’s, in one way represent the two different reasons or ways people come to faith in Jesus. And everyone in this room probably leans more to one way than the other. What I mean is, some of you believe because you have experienced something, an emptiness or a guilt, or you have had a need that was met, or someone who loves Jesus has shown love to you, or you went to church and heard a moving sermon. But the reason you believe is because you have had an experience.

Others of you believe what you do because you are smart and have really thought about what is and what can be true and why. You may have studied philosophy, or science, or world religions, or studied Jesus Christ and the Bible and have become convinced. That’s a few of you, probably not many.

I’m going to start today with the second reason or way that a person comes to faith because I think that is where affection or experience truly begins, in the mind in what you think and assume. The other is an experiential if and so it is more of a heart if. This second if is more of a head if and I want to start there and slowly move forward and show how this head if effects the heart if. Because they are connected. There is a connection between the heard and the heart, between physical and spiritual life, between the soul and the body.

I. If Christ was Raised

So let’s begin with our first “if,” “if Christ was raised.” John Dominic Crossan, he is a considered by some to be a scholar, others scholars call him an imposter for his lack of scholarly credibility and method, but you might be familiar with him because the news people and the discovery channel people like to interview him. He is a short little white haired man, who is very nice and he says this about Jesus’ resurrection,
“The resurrection is a fabricated myth used for religious propaganda, only effective with an audience of unsophisticates and children. “…after the crucifixion Jesus’ corpse was probably laid in a shallow grave, barely covered with dirt, and subsequently eaten by wild dogs; the story of Jesus’ entombment and resurrection was the result of ‘wishful thinking.’”

Paul, our human author of Romans, was aware of what was at stake if Jesus did not rise from the dead, and Paul agrees with Mr. Crossan that if Jesus did not rise from the dead, Christians are fools. Here is Paul in 1 Corinthians 15, “if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain….(and) we are of all people most to be pitied (1 Cor 15:14,19).” If Jesus did not rise from the dead Christianity is false, not true, it is a wishful myth and those who believe in it are to be pitied for being such fools. And I don’t want to be a fool.

As much as I love existentialist philosophy and as much as I love Zombie movies…I don’t want to believe something is true just because. I don’t want to be a Zombie Christian who takes some great leap of faith into some experiential abyss of spirituality where I leave behind my brain. I can believe all I want that I am going to inherit a million dollars from Bill Gates some day, but unless I see some evidence to convince me of it, that is a vain hope and useless to try and build my life counting on that money. So we are going to go through some evidence for the resurrection. The question on the table is “if” it actually happened.

We are going to begin with the biblical evidence, then the circumstantial evidence, and then the historical evidence. Today we’re just going to do the biblical evidence and next week we’ll finish up our outline with the circumstantial and historical evidence and look deeper into the words of Romans. If you have some friends who are skeptics and you have been thinking of inviting them to church, next week would be perfect week. I’m inviting a few of my friends and hoping that something from the truth of the word of God will open them up to the gospel.

A. Biblical Evidence

We start with the biblical evidence because the way this discussion about Jesus’ resurrection usually goes when you talk to people about it is that you usually just get an assumption of what the Bible says about it. But very few have actually looked inside to see what the Bible says specifically.

1. Jesus’ Prediction

We’ve got Jesus who’s been around for about thirty years and just laying low, making rocking chairs and tables and houses and knick knacks for old ladies as a carpenter. When he is about thirty years old he starts teaching and preaching and healing people, doing miracles and he does this straight for three years. I’m turning 29 next Sunday, so Jesus would have been just about my same age when he started doing all this stuff. Toward the end of those three years he starts saying on several different occasions that he is going to die and in three days later he will rise from the dead.

Here is one of those occasions. Jesus is in a small village near Caesarea Philippi, which is now the area called Golan Heights on the edge of the border of Israel. He may have been near the Banyas Spring, which is right in that area. He pulls some of his closest followers together and starts asking them some questions about what they think about him. Who people think he is and what he came to do. They start answering and then Jesus says these remarkable words, “(I) must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again (Mark 8:31).”

Astounding words. Prediction that is specific and supernatural and shows Jesus knew who he was and what he planned to do. He wanted to give let his followers know what was going to happen before it did so that they would know he could be trusted, they could trust him. Now, I know you could say, we’ll they wrote this after it all happened so how do you know they didn’t just make it up that Jesus said this. Maybe, perhaps. But listen to the very next words in Mark after this, Mark 8:32 “And he said this plainly.” It is almost as if Mark knew some might think that, so he goes out of his way to emphasis that Jesus really said this.

2. Jesus Died

Next in the story we look at Jesus’ death. This may seem like an obvious point. But many today, especially Muslims, do not believe that Jesus died on the cross. In the Qu’ran in Sura 4:157 it says, ” And for claiming that they killed the Messiah, Jesus, son of Mary, the messenger of GOD. In fact, they never killed him, they never crucified him - they were made to think that they did. All factions who are disputing in this matter are full of doubt concerning this issue. They possess no knowledge; they only conjecture. For certain, they never killed him.” And so, the explanation is that Jesus did not die on the cross but merely swooned, he merely passed out for awhile and was resuscitated.

The story of Jesus death…one written by a tax collector, one written by a meal servant/waiter, one written by a primitive medical doctor, and one written by a fisherman. And their story is unanimous. Jesus is taken from a garden where he is seemingly sweating blood, is thrown into a hurried up trial in the night. Is taken out and flogged, which is where a solider takes a whip with pieces of bone tied up in it and hits a persons back until the flesh is all opened up. They put a crown on his made out thorns from a throne and press it onto his head. In the morning they take him up on a hill, lay him down and drive 5-7 inch spikes through is ankles and wrists into a cross made of wood. And then they stand him up so that he hangs from his wrists and if he needs to breath, he has to push up on the spike in his ankles and pull on the spikes in his wrists to get air into his lungs. This can go on for a long time, so sometime the soldiers would break the person’s legs so they couldn’t push up anymore and they wouldn’t have enough strength in their arms and would just suffocate. They don’t end up breaking Jesus legs because it didn’t take long for him to die. He had lost so much blood and strength they could see he was dead and to prove it and make sure a solider takes a spear and jabs it up under his rib cage into his heart. When he does that the gospel writers say they saw blood and water flow out. Jesus was dead.

A modern medical examination looks at these documents written by people who knew nothing about modern medicine and here is what they say. Jesus suffered from hematidrosis, a condition, where under a great deal of stress one sweats blood. Jesus suffered from respiratory acidosis, which is where one suffocates from not getting oxygen into their lungs. Jesus suffered from hypovolemic shock and cardiac arrest, which is where one loses so much blood that their organs shut down, Jesus heart stopped beating. And Jesus experienced pericardial and pleural effusion, pleural is the fluid around the lungs and pericardial is the blood that flows through he hearts, so when the solider stabbed Jesus, it was clear, he was a real human who was dead.

3. The Empty Tomb

Next in the biblical story is the empty tomb. Jesus was buried in a tomb. Not everyone was buried in a tomb. You only got a tomb if you had a lot of money and Jesus didn’t have any. But a rich man, named Joseph of Arimithea, he was probably a prominent member of society had been following Jesus because it says he did so secretly. When Jesus died, he came out from his secrecy and offered his tomb for Jesus to be buried in because it was the tradition for holy men to be buried in a tomb. A tomb was a big hole cut out of rock in the side of a mountain or hill and there would have been a stone that would have taken at least three or four men to move in front of it.

We’ll talk about those who found the tomb empty three days later in a minute. But first note, there is no other historical story found anywhere than that Jesus was buried in a tomb. And if he was buried in tomb then the question is simple. What happened to him? If Jesus did not rise from the dead, where did the body go? When everybody was saying he rose from the dead they could have easily gone to the tomb and proved it and that is probably what the Roman government would have done to squash this new group that was forming, because the Roman government did not like anything that disturbed the peace. The pax Romana, the peace of Rome was their official virtue. But Jesus dead body has never been found.

So many people were becoming Christians when the disciples started preaching about Jesus having risen from the dead, but no one would have believed them if they all knew Jesus’ body was still in the tomb. But it was just the opposite. Everyone was talking about how the tomb was empty. The only explanation anyone every came up with was that the disciples stole the body. Which is funny if they did, because they were scared for their lives.

After Jesus died his followers were afraid. When Jesus first appeared to them as a group the Bible says they were hiding behind locked doors afraid that the Romans were coming to get them and crucify them next for being part of the Jesus rebellion. Tampering with a dead body was punishable by death, these men would not have had the courage and if they did, why would they all end up giving over their lives to death for a lie. All the disciples were killed (except John) for staked their preaching and their death on the claim that Jesus rose from the dead, why would they do so if they all knew that they really stole the body? Everyone knew the soldiers just said that so they wouldn’t get fired or worse. Jesus’ dead body has never been found since his crucifixion, only an alive, living, breathing, talking and walking Jesus, who rose up from death and is alive today.

4. The Eyewitnesses

After the tomb was found empty and Jesus began appearing to people. In the first century, an eyewitness was the strongest evidence a lawyer could bring forth in court. It is still strong today, not as strong as videotape. But they didn’t have video camera back then. There weren’t these guys you could hire to go film your spouse and see if he or she is cheating on you. They didn’t make home videos and happen to catch things on tape to send in for Americas Funniest Videos or wildest car chases. But eyewitnesses were a big deal, the strongest evidence around.

In the Bible there are 15 specific names of people who are recorded as having seeing the risen Jesus, there are 19 independent personal accounts or stories of what happened, and there are several verifications where Jesus appeared to huge crowds of people. One specific time is famous where there were 500 people all in one place who all saw and heard Jesus. Can you imagine 500 witnesses testifying in a court today. And the Bible records these people’s names and was written when they were still alive and openly admits, if you don’t believe us go ask them, they’ll tell you the same thing. This is not conspiracy theory, this is widespread confirmation. This is not one person’s spiritual meanderings, like Siddhartha’s, this is hundreds of people’s authentifications. This is not a few individuals hallucinating because they loved and longed to see their dear friend who had just died, this is tons of people seeing the exact same thing.

a. Women

Listen to a few the personal accounts. The first people all four gospel accounts record having discovered Jesus resurrection are women, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Joseph and some others. They go to the tomb to leave some memorials and spices and they discover the tomb empty and an angel appears to them and tells them Jesus has risen.

Okay, so set aside your potential disbelief in angels. But note this, it is an important one, Jesus and the apostles and the writers of Scripture and Christians throughout the century are the ones who have given women a high place of honor. We value and love our women. We may think there are different roles intended for men and women but women are very very important. This was not the case in the first century. Women were looked down upon and were not even allowed to give a testimony in court. Their testimony was considered unreliable. So if all four of the disciples are making up this story about Jesus’ resurrection, then the last thing you do is have women being your first eyewitnesses, it doesn’t even count.

Some of you today might have heard everything I have said so far and you are like, “yeah, so what, that is just what the Bible says and just because the Bible says it happened doesn’t mean it really did, the Bible says a lot of crazy stuff.” Listen, that the Bible records women first discovering the resurrection of Jesus is blaring proof that what the Bible records did in fact actually happen.

b. Thomas

One of my favorite accounts is the one from Thomas the disciple. He wasn’t there the first time when Jesus appeared to a bunch of the disciples and so when they got all excited and went and told Thomas Jesus had risen. He told them they were crazy, to get some sleep, and to stop drinking so much…and they are like no, we weren’t drunk, Jesus really rose. Then Thomas gets super intense and says unless I see his scars from the nails and the spear I won’t believe it. I love Thomas, because he is there for all of us skeptics. So Jesus appears to Thomas and offers his body for inspection. So Thomas checks out his hands and touches Jesus’ side, looks into his face, hears that familiar voice, and Thomas breaks down, tears well up in his eyes and he falls down and starts to worship and says, “My Lord and my God!” I think for Thomas, Jesus had just been a good teacher, an interesting dude, but at that moment his heart changed and he realized Jesus was in fact the messiah. He wasn’t just seeing a ghost. This was real, flesh and bones Jesus. After this they ate a meal together having some fish and talking. Jesus was alive and had rose up from the dead.

c. Paul

The last account I want to share is Paul’s himself, the author of Romans. Before he wrote Romans he had a very high and esteemed job. He was a protector of the purity of the Jewish religion. A new movement spawned rapidly and quickly when Jesus rose from the dead and started showing himself to all these people. So Paul was on the inside track from the Jewish authorities to try and stomp out this new heresy called Christianity. Paul oversaw the first Christian to die for saying Jesus rose from the dead, his name was Stephen. Paul was a high class murderer. He is on a trip to Damascus to go try and have some more Christians stoned to death and while he is traveling there, Jesus shows up in the middle of the road, stops Paul and asks him why he is doing all this. Paul stares at Jesus in disbelief and asks who are you? And Jesus answers, “I am Jesus who you are persecuting.” And Paul becomes a changed man going on to write 1/3rd of the books of the Bible about Jesus.

There are other eyewitness accounts, I’d thought I’d just share a few of the ones with you today that come from unlikely sources. This is the point. This is what we are faced with. Maybe you’re sitting there and you are like fine, this thing happened in history like 2,000 years ago and a bunch of people testified that it actually happened, so what if it did?

5. The Christian Creed

What difference does it make? Here is the difference. Very shortly after Jesus rose from the dead, his followers started grouping together and the gospel began to click. Almost as though a light went on and everything Jesus had been saying and teaching and doing for the past three years made sense. So very shortly, perhaps a few weeks, maybe a few months, they formed a creed. A statement of faith about who they were and what they believed.

Paul shares it with us in 1 Corinthians 15, “(I remind you) of the gospel which you received, in which you stand and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast…(here is the creed, the gospel that saves) For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.” Jesus died, Jesus was buried, and Jesus rose from the dead. That is the gospel. Jesus died, Jesus was buried, and Jesus rose from the dead.

And that changes everything. No longer were any of Jesus words just good things to know, they are the words of life. No longer is God seemingly a distant source, Jesus truly is God himself, here among us. No longer is death the undefeatable foe, but death has been conquered. Life and new life now reigns through Jesus. Now in the midst of darkness and despair stands Jesus, the light of his resurrection pours in and gives hope and brings peace. Jesus the son of God live and stands to save.

Jesus’ resurrection is the source and the symbol. And all creation rings of its praise. Plants and grass that whither and turn brown from being scorched come back to life and turn bright green and champion the resurrection of Christ. The sun itself which sets and darkness covers the earth, rises in the morning and reminds us that everything in creation is about Jesus and his resurrection and the promise of true and eternal life. Life now becomes not about death but about how Jesus heals and saves and brings new life, he changes things. Creation calls out Jesus saves, Jesus saves, Jesus saves.

Listen to our verse from Romans again, ” If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.” Jesus gives and guarantees new life to those who follow him and are indwelt by his Spirit.

Conclusion

Next week we’ll look at the circumstantial and historical evidence from outside the Bible and we’ll deal with the second “if”…so bring your friends. To conclude today’s sermon I want to share one last resurrection appearance because it gives us a picture of Jesus that really helps us know who it is that we are worshipping. When we gather each Sunday to sing and to study and to take communion, we gather to worship the resurrected Jesus. We love him, adore him, marvel at him, are amazed at him, enjoy him, and devote our lives to him. Here is Jesus when he appears to the apostle John, while on the Island Patmos.

“…I heard a loud voice like a trumpet…then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw…(Jesus) clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. The hairs of his head were white like wool, as white as snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze refined in a furnace and his voice was like the roar of many waters…(he had a) two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.”

This is Jesus who we worship and him who we share our worship with the world as the only one true hope. This is the resurrected Christ is strong and able to save. This world is temporary. The last few weeks have been devastating weeks for many. A bridge in Minnesota collapsing and killing 7 people, a earthquake in Peru killing over 500, miners and rescue workers now dead inside a mountain in Utah, and even as we speak hurricane dean now plows through Jamaica. In the middle of such a world Jesus stands to save with a secure salvation that is stronger than death.

So turn to Jesus today. Walk with him. Walk close to Jesus. Receive his Spirit inside you. Trust him and be changed by him. Dying and rising, dying and rising, dying and rising. This is our life. The gospel at work in us through the resurrection of Christ our Lord.

Let’s pray.

The second segment of two sermons addressing the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This sermon is part of the Walking According to the Spirit sermon series and is an exegetical treatment of Romans 8:9-13. This sermon was originally preached August 26th of 2007 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA.

Series: Walking According to the Spirit
Two If’s and a Walk Stronger than Death - (part II)
Romans 8:9-13

I. If Christ was raised
A. Biblical Evidence
B. Circumstantial Evidence
C. Historical Evidence
II. If Christ is in you
A. Sin is Death
B. The Body is Important
C. Christ is Life

Introduction

Last week we began looking at these four verses in Romans eight and I said that on two of the “if’s” in these verse hang two incredibly important, incredibly life changing, incredibly powerful conclusions. “If Christ is in you” and “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells…” We began we the second if and began trying to answer the question of whether or not Jesus really rose from the dead.

We looked at the Biblical Story and the accounts it presents of Jesus’ prediction of his death and resurrection, we looked at the medical evidence of his death, and the eyewitness accounts of an empty tomb from four different unlikely sources, the unacceptable in court account of women, the account of a skeptic, the account of a person who’s job was to kill Christians and supress the Christian story, and the account of a person who could have avoided having his body dipped in a burning vat of oil and banished to island if he would just admit he was lying.

Today we finish up with this second if, the question of whether or not Jesus really rose from the dead and then we are going to look deeper into the words of Romans 8:-9-13 about what that means for us if he in fact did. Today the main question that is on my mind is what makes Jesus different than other individual’s experiences and stories.

Bertrand Russell, a famous athiest, wrote a book called “Why I am Not a Christian” and in it he states this about the resurrection of Jesus and the possiblity of our resurrection, “I believe that when I die I shall rot, and nothing of my own ego will survive.” That is what is on my mind today. Last week, we look at the evidence inside the Bible, but perhaps some of you would say that is circular reasoning, just because the Bible says it doesn’t make it true. Is there anything outside the Bible to support the resurrection.

Circumstantial Evidence

Circucumstiantial evidence is when unrelated facts when considered together can be used to infer a certain conclusion. Our lawyers here today know a lot about circumstantial evidence. So let’s look at the circumstances that surround the Bible’s claim of Jesus rising from the dead. So what the Bible says he did, is there any supporting evidence to conclude such a thing?

1. The Transformation of the Disciples

The disciples were changed from being lowly, timid, self-conscious followers to strong, powerful, compassionate and fearless leaders, giving to the poor, taking care of widows and orphans, who all suffered and died (except John) on the claim of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. Their good character and their courage evidences Jesus must have really appeared to them in bodily form.

2. The Day and Object of Jewish Worship Changed

The Sabbath was the sacred to Jews. That is Saturday. But Scripture tells us that the reason why Christians started worshipping on Sunday was because Jesus rose from the dead on a Sunday and worship had become all about Jesus, instead of the Torah. Jews would not have done so, they would have been mortified if Jesus did not really do something as great as rising from the dead to change their sacred tradition.

3. The Practices of the Church

Baptism and Communion became fixed elements of Christian worship and they are elements that are meaningless if Jesus did not rise. Baptism is a picture of death to life and was talked about as a symbol of Jesus’ resurrection. Communion is a picture of Jesus death on the cross, which would have had no meaning if Jesus was not God and did not rise from the dead, he would have been just another crucified human and there is no need to attach theological significance to his death.

4. The Preaching of the Church

The preaching of the early church was saturated with talk about Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. This would not have been their primary source of material if it had not happened, they were stuck on it.

5. The Tomb was not Enshrined

It was the cultural way to enshrine the tombs of holy men, yet there is no trace of any veneration for a tomb of Jesus. There is no question that a hoy man named Jesus existed in the first century, if so then where is his gravestone inscription, unless he rose from the dead?

6. The Growth of the Church

The church grew at an unheard of exponential rate…essentially a worldwide phenemoenon. Only the widespread knowledge of something like a resurrection of Jesus could have spawned such a movement. Any other explanation for the rapid growth just doesn’t make sense. There were many wise men around…none had results like that.

Historical Evidence

Lastly, we look at the historical evidence. Maybe you have wondered is there any books or writings besides the Bible which mention the resurrection, maybe ones written by people who were not Christians? The answer is yes, there are several.

1. Josephus from “Antiquities” written ~AD 93 (Jewish historian worked for Roman governer)

“About this time there lived Jesus, a wise man, if indeed one ought to call him a wise man. For he was one who wrought surprising feats and was a teacher of such people as accept the truth gladly. He won over many Jews and many of the Greeks. He was the Christ. When Pilate, upon hearing him accused by men of the highest standing among us, had condemned him to be crucified, those who had in the first place come to love him did not give up their affection for him. On the third day he appeared to them restored to life, for the prophets of God had prophesied these and countless other marvelous things about him. And the tribe of the Christians, so called after him, has to this day not disappeared.”

2. Seutonius “Vita Nero” written ~AD 54 (Roman historian under Nero)

“Punishment was inflicted on the Chrstians, a class of men given to a new and mischievous superstition [the resurrection].”

3. Tacitus “Annals” written ~AD 66 (Roman Historian)

“Nero fastened the guilt . . . on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of . . . Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judaea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome. . .”

4. Pliny the Younger “Letter to Turkey Emperor Trajan” written ~AD 111 (to explain Christian worship)

“I have never been present at an examination of Christians. Consequently, I do not know the nature of the extent of the punishments usually meted out to them, nor the grounds for starting an investigation and how far it should be pressed…They also declared that the sum total of their guilt or error amounted to no more than this: they met reguarly before dawn on a fixed day [Sunday rememberance of resurrection] to chant verses alternatlely amongst themselves in honor of Christ as if to a god…”

That’s the evidence. Ten confirming circumstances and written accounts outside the Bible, that Jesus did in fact rise from the dead. It will not due to simply dismiss it because we have never seen the resurrected Jesus or because it seems too fantastic. The burden of proof is on those who say it didn’t happen.

“If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.” It seems overwhelmingly so that Jesus did in fact die and rise and if that is true it has massive implications for our life and reality and us and our boides and our future.

II. If Christ is in you

Which brings us to our second if, “If Christ is in you.” Out second if has to do with the implications for the human race if Jesus rose from the dead because the second if says, “since the first if is true then it is possible for that same Jesus to grant the quality of life you long for and the length of life you were made for.

Look at our verse again, there are a couple key assumptions being made here. There is an assumption having to do with what your body is and second what will happen when you die. Do you see that? There is a certain idea of a mortal body and what normally happens at death.

So let me ask you a question, think hard about it. What are you? Are you just skin and bones and a head and heart and lungs and a brain? Is that all there is to being human? Am I just a collection of neurological paths and functions? I don’t think so. I am not just a very sophisticated biological robot. I am a person.

We treat people with a certain respect (most of the time) because we understand that they are people. They have personhood, a personality, a soul. The traditional Christian view of the human person is that we are a united combination of a physical body and a non-physical soul. Yes, you have bones and skin and human physical organs. But you also have a mind, your person, your heart, your soul and that is non-physical. You can’t put a person’s brain under a microscope and see their thoughts. You cannot put a stethoscope to somone’s heart and hear how they feel, because it is non-physical.

So let me ask you another question. What happens to a person when they die? Really, what happens? Do you ever think about it? Most people say something like this, “Well, no one can really know for sure.” You ask them why not and the answer is usually something like this, “Well, no one has died and been able to come back and tell us.” To which I respond, so if someone did come back and the evidence was overwhelm