Easter '23 - Death to Life

Teacher: Rusty Kennedy
​Series: Holidays

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Rusty's Notes

Jesus toyed with Pharisees about death & life
 
John 8:51-59
51 Truly I tell you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.”
52 Then the Jews said, “Now we know you have a demon. Abraham died and so did the prophets. You say, ‘If anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death.’ 53 Are you greater than our father Abraham who died? And the prophets died. Who do you claim to be?”
54 “If I glorify myself,” Jesus answered, “my glory is nothing. My Father—about whom you say, ‘He is our God’—he is the one who glorifies me. 55 You do not know him, but I know him. If I were to say I don’t know him, I would be a liar like you. But I do know him, and I keep his word. 56 Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day; he saw it and was glad.”
57 The Jews replied, “You aren’t fifty years old yet, and you’ve seen Abraham?”
58 Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, before Abraham was, I am.”
59 So they picked up stones to throw at him. But Jesus was hidden and went out of the temple. [1]

• We have always been fascinated with death & the afterlife.
• Death Education Class in China
• “Heaven is For Real”
• In all created things God has created this incredible symphony.

 
1 Corinthians 15:35–58 (NLT)
The Resurrection Body
35 But someone may ask, “How will the dead be raised? What kind of bodies will they have?” 36 What a foolish question! When you put a seed into the ground, it doesn’t grow into a plant unless it dies first. 37 And what you put in the ground is not the plant that will grow, but only a bare seed of wheat or whatever you are planting. 38 Then God gives it the new body he wants it to have. A different plant grows from each kind of seed. 39 Similarly there are different kinds of flesh—one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish.
40 There are also bodies in the heavens and bodies on the earth. The glory of the heavenly bodies is different from the glory of the earthly bodies. 41 The sun has one kind of glory, while the moon and stars each have another kind. And even the stars differ from each other in their glory.
42 It is the same way with the resurrection of the dead. Our earthly bodies are planted in the ground when we die, but they will be raised to live forever. 43 Our bodies are buried in brokenness, but they will be raised in glory. They are buried in weakness, but they will be raised in strength. 44 They are buried as natural human bodies, but they will be raised as spiritual bodies. For just as there are natural bodies, there are also spiritual bodies.
45 The Scriptures tell us, “The first man, Adam, became a living person.” But the last Adam—that is, Christ—is a life-giving Spirit. 46 What comes first is the natural body, then the spiritual body comes later. 47 Adam, the first man, was made from the dust of the earth, while Christ, the second man, came from heaven. 48 Earthly people are like the earthly man, and heavenly people are like the heavenly man. 49 Just as we are now like the earthly man, we will someday be like the heavenly man.
50 What I am saying, dear brothers and sisters, is that our physical bodies cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. These dying bodies cannot inherit what will last forever.
51 But let me reveal to you a wonderful secret. We will not all die, but we will all be transformed! 52 It will happen in a moment, in the blink of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown. For when the trumpet sounds, those who have died will be raised to live forever. And we who are living will also be transformed. 53 For our dying bodies must be transformed into bodies that will never die; our mortal bodies must be transformed into immortal bodies.
54 Then, when our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies that will never die, this Scripture will be fulfilled:
“Death is swallowed up in victory.
55 O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”
56 For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power. 57 But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ.
58 So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless.[2]

• It’s important to remember that resurrection after death was not a new idea:
• In the Fall, leaves drop from the trees and the plants die. They turn brown, wither, and lose their life.
• They remain that way for the winter – dormant, dead and lifeless.
• And then Spring comes, and they burst into life again. Growing, sprouting, producing new leaves and buds.
• For there to be Spring, there has to be Fall and Winter. For nature to spring to life it first must die.
• Death then resurrection.
• It’s true across our environment with ecosystems, food chains and seasons.

"The death of one living thing for the life of another." (Circle of Life)
What are some examples of death leading to life?

• Genesis – Produce from the trees – Died.
• (Death entered the world.
• Adam & Eve’s spirits died.
• Animal was the first sacrifice.
• Skin cells die and flake off daily and after 30 days we have a new skin.
• Firemen at 9-11
• Now these oranges were originally alive; they were connected to the tree which has its roots in the soil.
• They grew from the earth.
• They were once all receiving nutrients from the earth, but then they were harvested, thrown on a truck, brought to the farmer’s market, and eventually ended up in our kitchen.
• When they were harvested, they were severed from the tree, they were pulled from the soil, they were disconnected from their life source, and they were brought to us so that we could eat them.

 

• And if we don’t eat, we don’t live.
• This food …this dead food …gives us life,
• The more recently food has been living the more life it gives us. Fresh food is better for us.

John 12:24 - Truly I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains by itself. But if it dies, it produces much fruit.[3]

• Jesus teaches us how to die so that we can really live.
• Jesus invites parts of us to die to our flesh.
• This is what holds us back from living – like the part of us that constantly tries to make ourselves look good, or the part of us that always has to be right, or the part of us that always has to be better than others, or the part of us that always tries to look like we have it together.

 
What Jesus is teaching with the use of the metaphor is that we must undergo a process of transformation ...a change from death to life.

Admittedly, we resist the process. It is hard to give up our agendas, our objectives, our aspirations, our interests—our ego. Yet this is what we have been called to: the new life of Christ in us. That is a marvelous exchange!

• In our dying, Christ is alive within us.
• In our brokenness Christ is seen clearly. The way to fullness is brokenness; the way to life is by death.

Two points seem unmistakably clear to me here: the first is that this is hard; the second is that this is glorious.

• We don’t need to miss either of these. If we only see the hard part, we will miss the power and the freedom.
• If we only see the glorious part, we will minimize the sacrifice.
• The seed must die. ―Unless a seed falls to the ground and dies, it cannot bear any fruit.

 
Jesus refers here to his own impending death and resurrection. Jesus makes a promise.

• His death will result in life, not only for his crucified body, but for all humankind.
• I hope we all understand the truth Jesus is sharing: our hope for life is in his death, burial, and resurrection.
• To receive God’s free gift of eternal life, we must die to our own efforts to earn or control our destiny and put ourselves totally in Jesus’ hands.

 
In Luke 9:23 Jesus says, ― “If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me.”[4]

• Denying ourselves is dying to self.
• What we allow to die in our lives
• We’re invited to trust Jesus because we’ve been told we can never do it alone.
• But some people refuse to die.
• They relentlessly cling to their egos and false selves and keep propping up that version of themselves that they think is desirable, and trust in their own efforts to accomplish this somehow, someday.

 
Is this you holding on to your life so tightly that you are actually losing it? And you can’t really experience it?
 
“All men die… Not all men really live.” – William Wallace
 
Trying to kill the flesh through our flesh always fails!

• Truly dying to self means saying no to the flesh and its attempts to decide what's good for us apart from God. 
• It means coming under the authority of God's Word and submitting to the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. 
• The Holy Spirit is the one who leads us down the path of death to self-rule. 
• As we entrust ourselves to Jesus, the Spirit enables us more and more to die to self and live to Christ. – (Jeff Pokone)

 
In a supreme act of faith, a farmer opens his hands and drops his seed into the earth.

• It lies there dead and buried, and he waits throughout the long winter for some sign that there will be a crop in the spring.
• Scientists cannot explain this mystery.
• A dead seed lies buried in the soil for weeks.
• And then, defying all logic, it comes alive.

We want to control everything.

• The problem with this picture is that it is not about living …it may be about existing, but it is hardly the abundant life that Jesus said he had come to bring.
• May we remember that if we die to self …if we die with Christ …we will also be raised to new life in Christ …that death leads to life.

 
Our Lord's cross is the gateway into His life.

• The tomb was the beginning... Not the end.
  
  

1 Corinthians 15:26 - 26 The last enemy to be abolished is death.[5]
 
Oswald Chambers - The Cross was the place where God and sinful man merged with a tremendous collision and where the way to life was opened. But all the cost and pain of the collision was absorbed by the heart of God.

[1] Christian Standard Bible (Jn 8:51–59). (2020). Holman Bible Publishers.
[2] Tyndale House Publishers. (2015). Holy Bible: New Living Translation (1 Co 15:35–58). Tyndale House Publishers
[3] Christian Standard Bible (Jn 12:24). (2020). Holman Bible Publishers.
[4] Christian Standard Bible (Lk 9:23). (2020). Holman Bible Publishers.
[5] Christian Standard Bible (1 Co 15:26). (2020). Holman Bible Publishers.