The following are the pulpit notes for the sermon of Easter Sunday, April 5th, Resurrection day! On Romans 1:1-7, how the resurrection of Christ becomes the center of the message of the gospel for the apostle Paul as he ministers to the Gentiles. This message of resurrection speaks to our life today as we address different levels of complacency in our walk with the Lord.

Romans 1:1-7

[1] Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, [2] which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, [3] concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh [4] and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, [5] through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, [6] including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ,

[7] To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints:

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

How easy is it for us to be led astray by the business of life, schedules, work, family? We are called, as believers to be in the world but not of it.

Predictable days and a regular routine are the breeding grounds of complacency.

Problem:

Maybe you have experienced a dryness in your Christian walk, perhaps you do not feel close to the Lord.

Complacency is being in a place of uncritical acceptance of ones’ circumstances. Where routine can bring security, change can bring uncertainty.

Paul, in this opening, comes in with his introductory theme, the resurrection. By these first few verses in this letter to the church in Rome we can surmise the resurrection is the central theme to the gospel of grace.

For Paul, the resurrection is the turning point in this message of recreation. The Book of Romans is full of the ideas of creation and recreation, Paul keeps coming back to this principle, the Lord has created the heavens and the earth, but creation has been effected by sin, but all things become new through the resurrection of Christ.

In each of our lives we know that the Lord is the source of everything good, but perhaps there are areas of our lives which have been touched by sin and the weakness of our humanness. Yet we look to the Lord, and we have faith in the resurrection that all things might be made new again.

For God, the relationship He desires to have with us is always His first importance. He has focused His will on that relationship from eternity. He sent His Son to suffer, die, be raised from the dead to reestablish that relationship with Him that was broken by sin in the Garden so many generations ago. His Son now reigns at his right hand to affect that relationship when we are reunited with Him in the resurrected body at his Second Coming.

Proverbs 12:27 “A lazy man does not roast his prey, But the precious possession of a man is diligence.”

[10] A little sleep, a little slumber,

a little folding of the hands to rest,

[11] and poverty will come upon you like a robber,

and want like an armed man.

(Proverbs 6:10-11, 24:33-34 ESV)

Time is short, eternity is long. Apathy comes before calamity in the dictionary!

The Best Is Yet To Come

John Stott: “We live and die; Christ died and lived!”

“Jesus’s resurrection is the beginning of God’s new project not to snatch people away from earth to heaven but to colonize earth with the life of heaven. That, after all, is what the Lord’s Prayer is about.”― N.T. Wright

The New Testament answer to this question is perfectly plain. According to the New Testament, the disciples believed in the resurrection of Jesus because Jesus really, after His death, came out of the tomb, appeared to them, and held extended time with them, so that their belief in the resurrection was simply based on their experience and encounter with the Lord.

Exposition of R0mans 1:3-4

The Gospel of God, promised beforehand through the Prophets in the Holy Scriptures.
Christ is a descendant of David
[Christ] declared to be the Son of God through the power of the resurrection.
Overview of Paul’s broader thought process

Paul uses the message of the resurrection to show Jesus is the true Messiah anticipated in the Old Testament. And, to also show the resurrection of Christ is the new empowerment for the believer.

The Risen Messiah as Lord and Gentile Inclusion (Rom 15:7-13, esp. v12)

Jesus’ Resurrection and God who justifies the ungodly (Rom 4:17-25)

Jesus’ Resurrection and the resurrection of believers (esp. 6:4-10; 7:4; 8:11)

Jesus’ Resurrection and faith in Christ as Lord (esp. 10:7-9; 14:9-11)

J I Packer: “Optimism is a wish without warrant; Christian hope is a certainty, guaranteed by God himself. Optimism reflects ignorance as to whether good things will ever actually come. Christian hope expresses knowledge that every day of his life, and every moment beyond it, the believer can say with truth, on the basis of God’s own commitment, that the best is yet to come.”

Application:

Parenting. Hebrews 4:16!
Kenneth Brannaugh’s Cinderella
Having Children
“A marvellous and mighty paradox has thus occurred, for the death which they thought to inflict on Him as dishonour and disgrace has become the glorious monument to death’s defeat.” Athanasius

“Immanuel, God with us in our nature, in our sorrow, in our lifework, in our punishment, in our grave, and now with us, or rather we with Him, in resurrection, ascension, triumph, and Second Advent splendor.” CHS

“After death something new begins, over which all powers of the world of death have no more might.” Bonhoeffer

The resurrection is not the reversal of a defeat but the proclamation of a victory. The King reigns from the tree. The reign of God has indeed come upon us, and its sign is not a golden throne but a wooden cross.” Leslie Newbigin

Isaiah 28:15, you made a covenant with death.

Christ the Lord is risen today Wesley

Christ the Lord is ris’n today, Alleluia!
Sons of men and angels say, Alleluia!
Raise your joys and triumphs high, Alleluia!
Sing, ye heav’ns, and earth, reply, Alleluia!
Lives again our glorious King, Alleluia!
Where, O death, is now thy sting? Alleluia!
Once He died our souls to save, Alleluia!
Where thy victory, O grave? Alleluia!
Love’s redeeming work is done, Alleluia!
Fought the fight, the battle won, Alleluia!
Death in vain forbids His rise, Alleluia!
Christ hath opened paradise, Alleluia!

[13] also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God’s gift to man.

[14] I perceived that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it. God has done it, so that people fear before him.

(Ecclesiastes 3:13-14 ESV)

WLC: Q. 191. What do we pray for in the second petition?
A. In the second petition (which is, Thy kingdom come), acknowledging ourselves and all mankind to be by nature under the dominion of sin and Satan, we pray, that the kingdom of sin and Satan may be destroyed, the gospel propagated throughout the world, the Jews called, the fullness of the Gentiles brought in; the church furnished with all gospel officers and ordinances, purged from corruption, countenanced and maintained by the civil magistrate; that the ordinances of Christ may be purely dispensed, and made effectual to the converting of those that are yet in their sins, and the confirming, comforting, and building up of those that are already converted: that Christ would rule in our hearts here, and hasten the time of his second coming, and our reigning with him forever: and that he would be pleased so to exercise the kingdom of his power in all the world, as may best conduce to these ends