Hebrews 12.1-2
Today, we focus on Jesus' resurrection. It's good that we do this. The death and resurrection of Jesus is the most important event in world history since the Fall. The fate of all creation – ourselves included – was determined by what Jesus did back then. Powerful forces were at work changing everything. It is good to pause and consider what this resurrection is about and how it changes things. But I have heard – and have probably preached – way too many sermons on the resurrection that are vague and that don't really touch real life. And that is so sad. I hope to avoid that today. My goal is to say something that is simple and helpful. And, God willing, that's what's going to happen.
We're going to start with something very basic. What does it mean to be resurrected? I think that it might help to first take a look at what it doesn't mean. The Apostle John records how Lazarus died and was buried, and how Jesus called him out of the tomb, raising him to life again. 'Lazarus, come forth!' Was Lazarus resurrected? He did walk out of that tomb. Is that what it means to be resurrected? No. Lazarus wasn't resurrected. He was simply given life once again after having lost it. The day came when he died a second time. And the same thing is true of all the others Jesus raised from the dead. What happened to Lazarus is not the same as being resurrected. Being resurrected is something more.
Then there's the author of Hebrews who refers to 'the spirits of the righteous made perfect'. These are the believers who have died, whose bodies have been buried but whose spirits have gone to be in the presence of the Father. They have been perfected so they no longer sin, and death will never touch them again. They live on as spirits in heaven. Are these the resurrected? No, they are not. They are still awaiting resurrection. So, the resurrected Jesus is not a spirit in heaven and our great hope is so much more than merely joining these others in heaven as another spirit.
So, resurrection is neither simply being raised again like Lazarus, nor is it something the spirits in heaven now enjoy. It is something more. A resurrection has occurred when a person's body is restored to creation perfection and it is rejoined to the perfected spirit of that person. Resurrection is about being made like Adam and Eve – in body and soul – on the very first day of their existence. They were two people without any sin whatsoever, without any imperfection, in either body or soul. When Jesus raised Lazarus to life, he still had the affects of sin in his body and in his soul. That's why his body later again succumbed to death and his spirit needed to be perfected. Jesus didn't remove the affects of sin. Jesus didn't resurrect Lazarus. He was, and still is, waiting for his resurrection. The saints with the Father right now have not been resurrected. They have no physical bodies. They are only spirits. But Adam and Eve were more than just spirits walking around. They were whole people. They were perfect spirit-bodies. So, the saints in heaven also await their resurrection.
Thus far, Jesus is the only person to have been resurrected. And that means that He is not just some spirit. He also has a body to go with that spirit. And because He has been resurrected, He can no longer be affected by sin. Sin did affect His body during the days before His resurrection. We know that because He died. That could only happen to a body affected by sin and the death that it brings. Jesus never committed any sin, but that does not mean that He was untouched by the affects of sin. But that is not His situation now. Jesus now has a body beyond the reach of sin. He is a sinless body and perfect spirit who will live that way forever. He has been resurrected.
Jesus' situation is a bit of an oddity not to be repeated by anyone else. He is a resurrected person waiting for what might be called a resurrected creation. Paul writes about how creation awaits being freed from its slavery to sin and brought into real liberty. Remember that creation was cursed by God when Adam sinned. It has been groaning in that state ever since, awaiting the day when it too will be restored to its original sinless perfection – when it will once again be like the Garden of Eden. When that happens there will be no death, not even a taste of it. So, no cancer, diabetes, heart disease. There will be no flu or headaches or even any sniffles. There won't be even the slightest taste of death. Only perfect health. Life in the resurrected creation will not have any spring snow storms that interfere with the plans of gardeners and golfers. Instead, there will be sunshine and lots of it. And when it does rain it will be the kind of rain that you can enjoy, the kind of rain that creates little puddles that you can splash dry with a friend and then laugh about. And there will be no frustration. So, little projects that you figure should take about an hour will take ... about an hour. And when you're finished you'll look at what you've done and feel very good about it. There will be no discouragement, no sadness, no walls. There will be no signs of death at all. Instead, there will be lots of laughter, good food [including scrumptious desserts that go so well with coffee], happiness that lasts and lasts, and a kind of satisfaction that never fades away. That's resurrected life in a resurrected creation. And it will never end.
All of this helps us to understand aspects of our text. Let me read it to you again. 'Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the Cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.' The joy set before Jesus included the joy of resurrected life in a resurrected creation. The joy that was set before Him was the joy of a kind of life that He did not have but deeply desired. However, to get there He had to endure the suffering of the Cross. No Cross, no joy. But – and this is the point – the promise of the joy helped Him endure the suffering of the cross. '... who for the joy set before Him endured the Cross...' That suffering was the only route for Him to get to the joy. And if the route was faithfully followed the joy was assured. And that is exactly what happened. Jesus endured the cross and now is resurrected. The joy of that kind of life is now His.
I've gone all through that to get to this point. All of this is intended to encourage us. What happened to Jesus will happen to us. We wait for the resurrection of our bodies and the resurrection of this creation where we will enjoy sunshine and laughter, where we will find endless happiness and deep satisfaction. We wait for our resurrection so that we can enjoy life without the slightest taste of sin. We will be a resurrected people in a resurrected creation. And that is what we all long for. And we should long for that because that is what we were created for. This is what the Garden of Eden was about. But all of that was lost when sin entered the world, bringing with it all its different forms of death. And that explains why Jesus has come. He has come to rescue us from the experience of death in this fallen world. He has come so that our deepest desires will be met. The hope of the resurrection. It's not here yet. We wait for it. But it is certain. We know that it is certain because Jesus has been resurrected.
All of this is more than an encouragement. It is also protection. We all are influenced by the world around us. We have all been taught certain lessons. One of them is that we should expect something like a resurrected life in the here and now. Resurrection life but without being resurrected. Oh, they don't use the language of resurrection, but we have all been told that we can have a life that is filled with satisfaction, happiness, and all sorts of good things. All we need to do is work hard and play our cards right. But is that true? Is that what we are to expect in this life? What does the Gospel say? We need to remember that sin still haunts this place. Death is not yet dead. Our ancient foe has not yet been consigned to the lake of fire. This is not to say that life is grim. It isn't. There is much that is good and much to be enjoyed. And we should enjoy as much of it as we can. But we will become confused and greatly discouraged if we expect a resurrection life here. We will labor hard to get it, putting our hopes in things that cannot produce such a life. And then, we will become frustrated and disillusioned when it does not happen. If we do not hold to Gospel expectations we will try to bring about here what cannot happen here. And instead of being grateful to the Father for the good we can enjoy now, we will become bitter. We need to acknowledge that there will always be the aftertaste of sin – at least that – in whatever we experience here. And that is why the hope of the resurrection is so important.
What I am doing is simply appealing to you for a bit of biblical realism. We are not yet resurrected people, and this is not yet a resurrected creation. Our expectations need to be molded by these facts. Sin still affects us. And you know that because we still deal with cancer, diabetes, and all the rest. And how many of you struggle with things like frustrating jobs, difficult family issues and more. We still taste the sin. This biblical realism is assumed in our text. '... let us run with endurance the race that is set before us...' If life were easy, there would be no need for endurance. Our lives are a long race that requires endurance. It will be hard. We will not find the joys of resurrection here. This is biblical realism.
But let's read on a bit. '... looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of faith...' As we work to endure we focus on Jesus. We look at Jesus. He is our example of endurance. He endured the cross. We also bear a cross. Remember Jesus' call, 'If anyone would come after me let him ... pick up his cross...' Bearing the cross is shorthand for all that we suffer as we strive to follow Jesus. Bearing a cross is hard. It is something that we will do for a lifetime. It requires endurance. But remember, Jesus is our example of endurance. '... who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross...' Our motivation for continuing to follow Jesus in this life, our motivation to endure, is the hope of the resurrection: becoming resurrected people in a resurrected creation. And the only way to get there is by bearing the cross. That's what Jesus did and it worked. His resurrection is the proof.
But we don't just look at Jesus. We look to Jesus. He is 'the author and perfecter of faith'. Success at cross bearing will be ours only if we trust Jesus to give us that success. The world, the flesh and the devil are far too strong and far too subtle for us to defeat on our own. But faith in Jesus leads to success. He will get us through it. He will give us the endurance that we need to be able to experience the joy set before us. He will make it work.
When we arrive at our last day here, the day of our death, we will still be un-resurrected people and this will still be an un-resurrected place. But we will still have accomplished something. We will have finished the race set before us. And then Jesus will return. And at that point He will change this very fallen world into a resurrected creation. At that point we will receive our resurrected bodies, perfect and sinless, never again to be touched by death. And when He does that we will gather around Him to enjoy this resurrected place with Him. And that, forever. This is our hope, and we know that it will surely occur. After all, Jesus has been resurrected.
Today, we focus on Jesus' resurrection. It's good that we do this. The death and resurrection of Jesus is the most important event in world history since the Fall. The fate of all creation – ourselves included – was determined by what Jesus did back then. Powerful forces were at work changing everything. It is good to pause and consider what this resurrection is about and how it changes things. But I have heard – and have probably preached – way too many sermons on the resurrection that are vague and that don't really touch real life. And that is so sad. I hope to avoid that today. My goal is to say something that is simple and helpful. And, God willing, that's what's going to happen.
We're going to start with something very basic. What does it mean to be resurrected? I think that it might help to first take a look at what it doesn't mean. The Apostle John records how Lazarus died and was buried, and how Jesus called him out of the tomb, raising him to life again. 'Lazarus, come forth!' Was Lazarus resurrected? He did walk out of that tomb. Is that what it means to be resurrected? No. Lazarus wasn't resurrected. He was simply given life once again after having lost it. The day came when he died a second time. And the same thing is true of all the others Jesus raised from the dead. What happened to Lazarus is not the same as being resurrected. Being resurrected is something more.
Then there's the author of Hebrews who refers to 'the spirits of the righteous made perfect'. These are the believers who have died, whose bodies have been buried but whose spirits have gone to be in the presence of the Father. They have been perfected so they no longer sin, and death will never touch them again. They live on as spirits in heaven. Are these the resurrected? No, they are not. They are still awaiting resurrection. So, the resurrected Jesus is not a spirit in heaven and our great hope is so much more than merely joining these others in heaven as another spirit.
So, resurrection is neither simply being raised again like Lazarus, nor is it something the spirits in heaven now enjoy. It is something more. A resurrection has occurred when a person's body is restored to creation perfection and it is rejoined to the perfected spirit of that person. Resurrection is about being made like Adam and Eve – in body and soul – on the very first day of their existence. They were two people without any sin whatsoever, without any imperfection, in either body or soul. When Jesus raised Lazarus to life, he still had the affects of sin in his body and in his soul. That's why his body later again succumbed to death and his spirit needed to be perfected. Jesus didn't remove the affects of sin. Jesus didn't resurrect Lazarus. He was, and still is, waiting for his resurrection. The saints with the Father right now have not been resurrected. They have no physical bodies. They are only spirits. But Adam and Eve were more than just spirits walking around. They were whole people. They were perfect spirit-bodies. So, the saints in heaven also await their resurrection.
Thus far, Jesus is the only person to have been resurrected. And that means that He is not just some spirit. He also has a body to go with that spirit. And because He has been resurrected, He can no longer be affected by sin. Sin did affect His body during the days before His resurrection. We know that because He died. That could only happen to a body affected by sin and the death that it brings. Jesus never committed any sin, but that does not mean that He was untouched by the affects of sin. But that is not His situation now. Jesus now has a body beyond the reach of sin. He is a sinless body and perfect spirit who will live that way forever. He has been resurrected.
Jesus' situation is a bit of an oddity not to be repeated by anyone else. He is a resurrected person waiting for what might be called a resurrected creation. Paul writes about how creation awaits being freed from its slavery to sin and brought into real liberty. Remember that creation was cursed by God when Adam sinned. It has been groaning in that state ever since, awaiting the day when it too will be restored to its original sinless perfection – when it will once again be like the Garden of Eden. When that happens there will be no death, not even a taste of it. So, no cancer, diabetes, heart disease. There will be no flu or headaches or even any sniffles. There won't be even the slightest taste of death. Only perfect health. Life in the resurrected creation will not have any spring snow storms that interfere with the plans of gardeners and golfers. Instead, there will be sunshine and lots of it. And when it does rain it will be the kind of rain that you can enjoy, the kind of rain that creates little puddles that you can splash dry with a friend and then laugh about. And there will be no frustration. So, little projects that you figure should take about an hour will take ... about an hour. And when you're finished you'll look at what you've done and feel very good about it. There will be no discouragement, no sadness, no walls. There will be no signs of death at all. Instead, there will be lots of laughter, good food [including scrumptious desserts that go so well with coffee], happiness that lasts and lasts, and a kind of satisfaction that never fades away. That's resurrected life in a resurrected creation. And it will never end.
All of this helps us to understand aspects of our text. Let me read it to you again. 'Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the Cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.' The joy set before Jesus included the joy of resurrected life in a resurrected creation. The joy that was set before Him was the joy of a kind of life that He did not have but deeply desired. However, to get there He had to endure the suffering of the Cross. No Cross, no joy. But – and this is the point – the promise of the joy helped Him endure the suffering of the cross. '... who for the joy set before Him endured the Cross...' That suffering was the only route for Him to get to the joy. And if the route was faithfully followed the joy was assured. And that is exactly what happened. Jesus endured the cross and now is resurrected. The joy of that kind of life is now His.
I've gone all through that to get to this point. All of this is intended to encourage us. What happened to Jesus will happen to us. We wait for the resurrection of our bodies and the resurrection of this creation where we will enjoy sunshine and laughter, where we will find endless happiness and deep satisfaction. We wait for our resurrection so that we can enjoy life without the slightest taste of sin. We will be a resurrected people in a resurrected creation. And that is what we all long for. And we should long for that because that is what we were created for. This is what the Garden of Eden was about. But all of that was lost when sin entered the world, bringing with it all its different forms of death. And that explains why Jesus has come. He has come to rescue us from the experience of death in this fallen world. He has come so that our deepest desires will be met. The hope of the resurrection. It's not here yet. We wait for it. But it is certain. We know that it is certain because Jesus has been resurrected.
All of this is more than an encouragement. It is also protection. We all are influenced by the world around us. We have all been taught certain lessons. One of them is that we should expect something like a resurrected life in the here and now. Resurrection life but without being resurrected. Oh, they don't use the language of resurrection, but we have all been told that we can have a life that is filled with satisfaction, happiness, and all sorts of good things. All we need to do is work hard and play our cards right. But is that true? Is that what we are to expect in this life? What does the Gospel say? We need to remember that sin still haunts this place. Death is not yet dead. Our ancient foe has not yet been consigned to the lake of fire. This is not to say that life is grim. It isn't. There is much that is good and much to be enjoyed. And we should enjoy as much of it as we can. But we will become confused and greatly discouraged if we expect a resurrection life here. We will labor hard to get it, putting our hopes in things that cannot produce such a life. And then, we will become frustrated and disillusioned when it does not happen. If we do not hold to Gospel expectations we will try to bring about here what cannot happen here. And instead of being grateful to the Father for the good we can enjoy now, we will become bitter. We need to acknowledge that there will always be the aftertaste of sin – at least that – in whatever we experience here. And that is why the hope of the resurrection is so important.
What I am doing is simply appealing to you for a bit of biblical realism. We are not yet resurrected people, and this is not yet a resurrected creation. Our expectations need to be molded by these facts. Sin still affects us. And you know that because we still deal with cancer, diabetes, and all the rest. And how many of you struggle with things like frustrating jobs, difficult family issues and more. We still taste the sin. This biblical realism is assumed in our text. '... let us run with endurance the race that is set before us...' If life were easy, there would be no need for endurance. Our lives are a long race that requires endurance. It will be hard. We will not find the joys of resurrection here. This is biblical realism.
But let's read on a bit. '... looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of faith...' As we work to endure we focus on Jesus. We look at Jesus. He is our example of endurance. He endured the cross. We also bear a cross. Remember Jesus' call, 'If anyone would come after me let him ... pick up his cross...' Bearing the cross is shorthand for all that we suffer as we strive to follow Jesus. Bearing a cross is hard. It is something that we will do for a lifetime. It requires endurance. But remember, Jesus is our example of endurance. '... who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross...' Our motivation for continuing to follow Jesus in this life, our motivation to endure, is the hope of the resurrection: becoming resurrected people in a resurrected creation. And the only way to get there is by bearing the cross. That's what Jesus did and it worked. His resurrection is the proof.
But we don't just look at Jesus. We look to Jesus. He is 'the author and perfecter of faith'. Success at cross bearing will be ours only if we trust Jesus to give us that success. The world, the flesh and the devil are far too strong and far too subtle for us to defeat on our own. But faith in Jesus leads to success. He will get us through it. He will give us the endurance that we need to be able to experience the joy set before us. He will make it work.
When we arrive at our last day here, the day of our death, we will still be un-resurrected people and this will still be an un-resurrected place. But we will still have accomplished something. We will have finished the race set before us. And then Jesus will return. And at that point He will change this very fallen world into a resurrected creation. At that point we will receive our resurrected bodies, perfect and sinless, never again to be touched by death. And when He does that we will gather around Him to enjoy this resurrected place with Him. And that, forever. This is our hope, and we know that it will surely occur. After all, Jesus has been resurrected.
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