Main idea: The resurrection of Jesus is the beginning of the new creation - he personally comes into our lives and our world to bring freedom from sin and death on a path of total renewal.
Outline:
1. God created the universe as the place where he might live in covenant relationship with humanity and through that relationship, rule the world and demonstrate his glory.
2. Humanity's willful rebellion against God has infected the whole creation with the curse of sin and death.
3. God's plan of salvation has always been total and complete renewal of BOTH his people and his creation.
4. The resurrection of Jesus is the beginning of the new creation
5. Jesus sends his renewed people into the world, carrying within their hearts and bodies his resurrection power as the hope of the world

Application:
• In Christ, you are free from the chains of sin and death. You have power to kill your sin and walk in newness of life.
• The difference you make today is eternal. The task of the church to be like Jesus, and to call others to follow Jesus - is a work of new creation that will last forever.
• You have an unshakable hope - all pain, all evil, all suffering - will one day be destroyed.
• Death and resurrection are the way of the kingdom today

Scripture references:
• Colossians 1:18-20
• Isaiah 6:3
• Psalm 19:1
• Romans 5:12
• Isaiah 12:10-11
• Romans 4:13
• Isaiah 65:17
• Revelation 21:1-5
• John 11:25
• 2 Corinthians 5:17
• Ephesians 1:18-20
• 1 Corinthians 15:51-53
• 2 Corinthians 4:7-12

Key concepts:
• new life/resurrection
• new creation
• sin and death
• hope
• spiritual power

--------------------------

At the heart of Easter is the proclamation of the defeat of death and what comes after.

In many ways, how you view what lies beyond the grave.

The words of a popular country gospel song by J. R. Baxter:

"This world is not my home I'm just a passing through
My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue
The angels beckon me from heaven's open door
And I can't feel at home in this world anymore"
Confession: growing up as a kid, I thought that heaven sounded a bit boring. Just clouds and angels and harps. Of course, Jesus is there so thats great, but the rest....
What if I told you that the Bible does not teach that the future vision for believers is that we spend eternity in heaven with Jesus?
This is a very important question because our vision of the future determines how we treat the present.
Key point: it is SO MUCH BETTER than most people think.
And the Bible's vision for the future (and the present) is much grander and more beautiful than most christians understand.
Everything starts with the resurrection of Jesus.
What is the significance of the resurrection of Jesus?
Colossians 1:18-20
He is also the head of the body, the church;
he is the beginning,
the firstborn from the dead,
so that he might come to have
first place in everything.
19 For God was pleased to have
all his fullness dwell in him,
20 and through him to reconcile
everything to himself,
whether things on earth or things in heaven,
by making peace
through his blood, shed on the cross.

"he is the beginning..."

Notice the core connection here to the resurrection "the firstborn from the dead"...

The beginning of what?

In order to answer that question, we need to situate the life, death and resurrection of Jesus within the broader story of the Bible.

We cannot understand the importance of the resurrection, nor can we understand what the Bible teaches about the future - unless we understand the whole story of the Bible as a whole.

I want to take a few minutes and briefly run through most important aspects of the story of the Bible together - with a special focus on this question "Does the Bible teach that those who believe in Jesus will spend eternity in heaven?" - and how does the resurrection of Jesus help us understand this question?


1. God created the universe as the place where he might live in covenant relationship with humanity and through that relationship, rule the world and demonstrate his glory.

Genesis 1

"and he blessed them...be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it..."

"And God saw that it was very good..."

"and they heard the sound of the Lord walking through the garden in the cool of the day..."

God loves his world. God loves humanity. God loves to reign in his world, demonstrating his love and power.

Isaiah 6:3
"Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Armies;
his glory fills the whole earth."

another way to phrase it is "the whole earth is the fullness of his glory"

Psalm 19:1
The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the expanse proclaims the work of his hands.

God has a very special relationship to creation - everything in it - humanity especially. The whole created world is like a royal garment or cloak that he wears - it puts on display his inner power, wisdom and beauty.

The world has a sacredness to it. Not because the world itself has special powers - but because it is charged with the glory - love, power and wisdom of God.

You can't separate God's people from God's place.
Notice you see this everywhere in the Bible, where this is promise to a people of God, there is always promise of place - land, space where God dwells with man.

Covenant relationship - deeply intimate and binding relationship.

Bible reading tip - garden, temple and city - all interconnected to one idea - the place where God dwells with his people.

Key point - In the original plan, heaven and earth are one and together.

Love and faithfulness bound his lordship to this world.

Those who have children - you know the powerful experience of witnessing the beginning of a new life.

Think about what it was like for God to witness the creation of his world and human life in the midst of it.

"This world is not my home..." - depends what you mean. This world was created as the space where you and God live together, experiencing his faithful love and purposes.

All the amazing things we aspire to in our lives - they never reach the height of what God himself has created us for, has built this world for.

Think about our deep drive for significance, for love, for a life that is meaningful, for a healthy sense of strength and power in the things that we do - all that was built into us by our Creator. And he deeply cares about us and our lives in this world - every detail of it.

2. Humanity's willful rebellion against God has infected the whole creation with the curse of sin and death.

So often we approach the Bible from our own viewpoint. Have you ever tried to read it through the eyes of God himself?

This world which is the overflow of your love and power - goes in a totally different direction.

God's garden was a world of "yes's" and a single "no".

"The day you eat of it you will die."

What is the point? This is an invitation into genuine participation.

Sin is a desire to take God's world away from God's purposes and God's presence.

Its not just about doing forbidden things. Its a choice to push the heaven out of earth. To have God's gifts without God's presence. The result is inescapable.

Romans 4:12
"12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, in this way death spread to all people, because all sinned."

Sin leads to death. You cannot separate the two.

What kind of world do we live in today? A world conflicted between beauty and life on the one hand and pain and death on the other.

Death is at work everywhere around us.

Isaiah 12:10-11
Many shepherds have destroyed my vineyard;
they have trampled my plot of land.
They have turned my desirable plot
into a desolate wasteland.
11 They have made it a desolation.
It mourns, desolate, before me.
All the land is desolate.."

In Romans 8, Paul says "the creation is groaning in pain until its redemption is complete..."

think of the tragedy of natural disasters.

Death is at work all around us.

Death is at work in our gardens, in our bank accounts, in our bodies.

This is why it makes sense to see our lives as conflicted. We are constantly in a battle with sin and death.

Example - the myth of Sisyphus.

what hope does the world have? Where is all this going?

the result of sin and death, you see a distinction in the Bible between "heaven" and "earth" - heaven as the place where God dwells in the fullness of his presence, "earth" being the place where brokenness and death exists.

But also, all through Scripture there are glimpses of hope - small spaces where heaven and earth still overlap.

Temple - was decorated with garden and stars. A symbol of heaven on earth. A pointer back to eden. God is withdrawn, but not given up.

What is it like for God himself to witness this?
• I don't think that the death or suffering of a child in our own experience comes close to the sorry God has as he sees his world ravaged by sin and death.
• He is the God who sees and feels all the pain and suffering that fills this world, and fills our lives - much more than we realize.

Hagar called him "the God who sees" when she was alone and dying in the wilderness.

3. God's plan of salvation has always been total and complete renewal of BOTH his people and his creation.

When we read the story of the Bible as a whole, we don't ever see the idea that God will just one day rip our soul out of the body and take us to some eternal cloudy existence.

Instead, we see a consistent message of renewal for the world.

It starts with Abraham - "through you, all the nations of the earth will be blessed..."

Romans 4:13
"For the promise to Abraham or to his descendants that he would inherit the world"

When we read the prophets, especially Isaiah - we see a glorious vision of a future where God renews the whole world.

Isaiah 65:17
"for I will create a new heaven and a new earth..."

"all the nations will stream into my city...feasting, joy, gladness"

here is where we come back to Paul's words in Colossians 1

"he is the beginning...in him all things in heaven and on earth will be reconciled back to God..."

God's plan has never been JUST about forgiveness of sin. Its about the abolition of death and total renewal.
Forgiveness of sin is just the first step to the true plan!
In every story - bringing the evil perpetrators to justice is NEVER enough.

Think about the desolation in the cities of Ukraine today. Bringing everyone responsible to trial wont even begin to do justice to the situation. The death and destruction still remains.

The true vision of restoration, that we see in Revelation 21 is a image where heaven and earth are reunited - where heaven comes back down to earth as a city where God forever dwells with man.

Revelation 21:1-5
"Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 I also saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband.
3 Then I heard a loud voice from the throne: Look, God’s dwelling is with humanity, and he will live with them. They will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them and will be their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; grief, crying, and pain will be no more, because the previous things have passed away.
5 Then the one seated on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new.”

The God who himself created the world, the God who weeps over its desolation and death - is the God who himself purposes and executes a plan of total renewal, victory and restoration.
What does all this have to do with easter????

God himself takes on a human body and human nature so that he may face death for us, and in his victory he might unleash in his body the work of total renewal upon the world.

4. The resurrection of Jesus is the beginning of the new creation

His resurrection body is the very first thing to burst through the bonds of sin and death, and as N. D. Wilson says, Jesus leaves behind him a hole so big "that a parade of souls comes out, banging drums and throwing candy..."

Col. 1
"He is also the head of the body, the church;
he is the beginning,
the firstborn from the dead,
so that he might come to have
first place in everything.
19 For God was pleased to have
all his fullness dwell in him,
20 and through him to reconcile
everything to himself,
whether things on earth or things in heaven,
by making peace
through his blood, shed on the cross."

Think about how personal this is for God himself. Christianity teaches a God who is infintely more preasant and close to the pain of this world, a God who is compassionate, a God who loves to the end.

A God who HIMSELF comes into our world to do what NO ONE else can do - he came to face death on our behalf - so that, as the Giver of life, as the Creator himself - he, in his own body might open the way to NEW Creation.

He gave a powerful illustration of this outside the tomb of Lazarus. Everyone was crying. Mary is crying. Jesus says, "Lazarus will rise again." Mary responds, "Yes Lord, I know he will rise in the future, in the resurrection."

The biggest mistake christians make in relationship to the present life is to think that the life to come is totally separate from the life we have today.

Jesus resurrection set in motion the process of the work of resurrection and new creation in the world.

He doesn't just give us forgiveness, he gives us his resurrection life.

John 11:25
"Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me, even if he dies, will live."

What is real faith in Jesus?

It is understanding that without him you are dead in your sin. It is acknowledging your sin and turning to him as your only hope for forgivenss and life.

You know what happens at that moment?

The power of his new creation life comes to live in you as well.

2 Corinthians 5:17
"....if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come!"

Where do you stand today? Are you walking in death? Have you come to Jesus to have life?

5. Jesus sends his renewed people into the world, carrying within their hearts and bodies his resurrection power as the hope of the world

The resurrection of Jesus sets in motion a revolutionary process - the undoing of sin and death in a fallen world.

But then theres a curious plot twist - he asends up to heaven - and says - "I have won the victory. But when it comes to its proclamation throughout the world - you do it."

"all power is given to me - and I send to you my Spirit, my resurrection power - and I send you out into the world to be the thousands upon thousands of agents of grace and new life in the world for me"

Think about the PERSONAL implications of this - God himself enters our world to bring renewal and to bring his children home to himself. But he doesn't stop there. He now lives with us, walks with us, and sends us out in his power to do his work. He doesn't just purpose to renew the world - he shares with US the work of renewal as a way of drawing us in to his deepest joy and power.

As a believer, you have been raised to new life - your life is a life of resurrection power in the presence of the King! Do you savor the beauty of this reality? Or are you living as though you are still dead?

Do you understand the power that is at work in you today?

Eph. 1:18-20
"18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you may know what is the hope of his calling, what is the wealth of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the mighty working of his strength. 20 He exercised this power in Christ by raising him from the dead and seating him at his right hand in the heavens."


what this means today:
• In Christ, you are free from the chains of sin and death. You have power to kill your sin and walk in newness of life.
• The difference you make today is eternal. The task of the church to be like Jesus, and to call others to follow Jesus - is a work of new creation that will last forever.
• You have an unshakable hope - all pain, all evil, all suffering - will one day be destroyed. The power that is at work in you today will be unleashed - upon your own body and upon the whole world around you.

1 Corinthians 15:51-53
51 Listen, I am telling you a mystery: We will not all fall asleep, but we will all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we will be changed. 53 For this corruptible body must be clothed with incorruptibility, and this mortal body must be clothed with immortality.

• Death and resurrection are the way of the kingdom - live your life to die for others. Lay down your selfishness. Lay down your self love. Die to self that you may live in him. All of ministry is death and resurrection. We die as we serve others. We die as we fight sin.
◦ And in our death, we see life at work - his resurrection life.

2 Corinthains 4:7-12
"7 Now we have this treasure in clay jars, so that this extraordinary power may be from God and not from us. 8 We are afflicted in every way but not crushed; we are perplexed but not in despair; 9 we are persecuted but not abandoned; we are struck down but not destroyed. 10 We always carry the death of Jesus in our body, so that the life of Jesus may also be displayed in our body. 11 For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’s sake, so that Jesus’s life may also be displayed in our mortal flesh. 12 So then, death is at work in us, but life in you."