Speaker 1: Imagine if you were living in a time when declaring your faith in Jesus Christ could cost you your life.
Speaker 1: During the time of Emperor Nero, from 54 to 68 AD, christians faced severe persecution.
Speaker 1: Nero, in one instance, blamed Christians for the great fire that consumed much of Rome.
Speaker 1: And those accusations began to catch like wildfire around the rest of the city and Christians, who were already looked upon with suspicion because of their rejection of the Roman gods and their refusal to worship Nero as emperor, they began to find their faith tested in ways that would bring them to the limits of human endurance.
Speaker 1: Christians were subjected to horrible punishments.
Speaker 1: Some of them were burned alive, some of them were crucified, some of them were thrown to the wild beast to be torn in public spectacle.
Speaker 1: Several prominent Christians at that time were killed.
Speaker 1: The church was under persecution, under fire, but despite those atrocities, their faith remained steadfast.
Speaker 1: In fact, during those times they discovered that their hope in Christ was stronger than the claws of the beast and the flames of the fire.
Speaker 1: And when others witnessed their perseverance amidst those things, their endurance during their suffering, many too came to know Jesus Christ as their Savior.
Speaker 1: This morning, we're going to explore how the resurrection of Jesus Christ gave them hope and strength in that difficult time, and we're going to do so by listening to the very words of one man who lost his life during that time of persecution.
Speaker 1: He lived and died in the Neronian reign of terror.
Speaker 1: His name, the Apostle Paul.
Speaker 1: We're going to read some of his final words.
Speaker 1: So let's take our Bible and go to 2 Timothy, chapter 1.
Speaker 1: 2 Timothy, chapter 1.
Speaker 1: It was during this time of severe suffering and persecution that the Apostle Paul stood as a beacon of hope and wrote a word of encouragement to his protege, timothy.
Speaker 1: We'll look at 2 Timothy, chapter 1, and we'll begin in verse 8 and work our way down to verse 12.
Speaker 1: Shortly before he lost his life, this is what Paul said to Timothy.
Speaker 1: So don't be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord or of me, his prisoner.
Speaker 1: Instead, share in suffering for the gospel, relying on the power, power of God.
Speaker 1: He has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which he has given to us in Christ Jesus, before the world began.
Speaker 1: This has now been made evident through the appearing of our savior, christ Jesus, who has abolished death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.
Speaker 1: For this gospel I was appointed a herald apostle and teacher, and that is why I suffer these things, but I am not ashamed, because I know whom I believed and am persuaded that he is able to guard what he has entrusted to me until that day.
Speaker 1: So here the apostle Paul is telling Timothy not to shy away from the gospel, not to shy away from speaking about Christ, but to do so with a full reliance upon God and to welcome whatever sufferings might come for the sake of the good news of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: Now, those words were written during that Neronian reign of terror, and his words still resonate today, and they provide for us some timeless lessons about life and enduring troubles.
Speaker 1: And so this morning, I'd like for us to look at this section of scripture and uncover four timeless anchors that will keep us steadfast despite whatever turbulent waters we might find our life in, and the first one I want to bring up is that salvation is secured.
Speaker 1: Salvation is secured, and you can find that in verse 9.
Speaker 1: This is the first anchor that Paul gives to Timothy about why he shouldn't be ashamed of Jesus Christ and why he shouldn't be ashamed of Paul, who is a prisoner for the gospel.
Speaker 1: And he puts it this way he has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace.
Speaker 1: What Paul is reminding Timothy of is that the gospel that he's being called to suffer for is a gospel that has saved him.
Speaker 1: That has saved him.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 1: Read this verse carefully with me.
Speaker 1: Timothy's not being called to endure suffering in the hope that he might find God's favor and mercy, but that he would suffer rather, because he's already received God's favor and mercy.
Speaker 1: Let me read verse nine again.
Speaker 1: He has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace.
Speaker 1: Now notice the completion of those words.
Speaker 1: Here the apostle is using the perfect tense, which means a completed action that has present effect.
Speaker 1: He has already, we could say, saved us.
Speaker 1: He has already brought us into the realm of deliverance.
Speaker 1: And so Paul is saying to Timothy, and he's telling us, whenever we're in times of difficulty as a believer, not to look at ourselves as a person who may be perhaps hopeful, perhaps hopeful, but still in a tenuous state, that the possibility might be that one day we could ultimately be saved.
Speaker 1: He's not telling us that at all.
Speaker 1: He's saying, timothy, you can suffer for the gospel because you're already delivered, already saved, already brought into the realm of God's purposes that are here and yours because of his mercy and grace.
Speaker 1: Now, what does that tell us?
Speaker 1: That tells us that people are either in one of two places we're either saved or lost.
Speaker 1: The categories of humanity we can split in a lot of different ways, but when it comes to our spiritual life in eternity, there's only one You're either saved or not saved.
Speaker 1: You're either delivered or not delivered.
Speaker 1: You're not in some measure of finding deliverance.
Speaker 1: You either have it or you don't.
Speaker 1: And salvation is not a blessedness that is reserved for us on our deathbed that we awaken into at our final breath.
Speaker 1: No, it's not a gift to be sought in some distant heavenly future.
Speaker 1: It is here something to be embraced, cherished, experienced in the present.
Speaker 1: And so Paul is telling Timothy remember what you've received already.
Speaker 1: Now, why could he take such confidence in these things?
Speaker 1: Paul gives the reason because salvation is holy of God.
Speaker 1: He has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began.
Speaker 1: I don't know if he could put it any stronger than that, but what he's telling us here is that salvation is all of God, that we cannot save ourselves.
Speaker 1: Now the scriptures say that believers are built up as a holy temple in the Lord.
Speaker 1: Now are we to think that somehow that holy temple built itself if it was derived by our own works and actions?
Speaker 1: No, of course not.
Speaker 1: Now, this building that we're in, would we think that the bricks somehow shaped themselves and built themselves into this building that we're now housed in?
Speaker 1: If somebody asserted that, we'd probably think they were kind of crazy.
Speaker 1: We would think that somebody would be more than just kind of crazy if they would think that somehow, by our own efforts, we're building ourselves up into that holy temple.
Speaker 1: You see, god is the architect, god is the supplier of all the building needs, god is the builder and God is the completer of this building.
Speaker 1: He is the one who has started the work and he's the one that's going to finish the work.
Speaker 1: And that is a wonderful comfort, because when we're in times of difficulty, self-doubt and questions arise, the problems come into us and often we wonder why is this happening to me?
Speaker 1: And then introspection leads us down some dangerous pathways.
Speaker 1: You know, maybe this is punishment, or maybe I need to do something different or something better, or whatever.
Speaker 1: We start to ask all kinds of questions and Paul wants to say to Timothy here you don't need to go down that road.
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 1: Because God has already saved you.
Speaker 1: You can suffer with confidence, because your salvation is without any regard to your own worthiness.
Speaker 1: It's about God's eternal purposes and plan that he wants to demonstrate his grace and mercy in, and plan that he wants to demonstrate his grace and mercy in.
Speaker 1: And this gives us a distinctiveness about Christianity from every other religion which say, basically, if you're a moral person or religiously devout person, you might have hope of deliverance.
Speaker 1: But here the scriptures tell us that God doesn't owe us anything and if he were to repay us, he would repay us with judgment, because that's what we rightly deserve.
Speaker 1: But he tells us that our only hope is grace.
Speaker 1: We cannot make ourselves alive in Christ, we cannot atone for our sins, we cannot cleanse ourselves of our impurities, we cannot rid ourselves of this nature that is ours, that is in opposition to God.
Speaker 1: We cannot make ourselves his friend.
Speaker 1: We cannot do it, but we can rely upon the one who did it.
Speaker 1: And that's what Paul is saying here.
Speaker 1: And because we are saved by God's divine initiative, which he has brought from his eternal purposes and plans in Christ in order to bring the glory to his grace.
Speaker 1: What does that mean for us?
Speaker 1: That we're liberated from the grinding uncertainty of doubt that comes from self-effort.
Speaker 1: What if I'm not quite there?
Speaker 1: What if I haven't done quite enough?
Speaker 1: What if I need to do more?
Speaker 1: Is there some prayer I need to say?
Speaker 1: Is there some sin I've forgotten to confess?
Speaker 1: We don't need to go there Because we were chosen in grace and we're kept grace and we're going to be received in the presence of God by grace, for the glory of God's grace.
Speaker 1: We sing a song here only a sinner saved by grace.
Speaker 1: And that's exactly what it is.
Speaker 1: We have no reason to boast whatsoever.
Speaker 1: And if you come into this church thinking that perhaps we're just a trophy case of glorious humanity, I just want to sort of tell you there's something completely different about us.
Speaker 1: We are people brought into the wondrous grace of God undeservedly.
Speaker 1: It's.
Speaker 1: Not a single one of us could ever stand up and say we have a right to be in God's family, and I hope that brings you some hope.
Speaker 1: If you're here this morning, you don't know Christ.
Speaker 1: We're the same people.
Speaker 1: We're all sinners.
Speaker 1: The scriptures tell us that.
Speaker 1: But here is this promise, a promise that Paul, in a time of deep suffering, at the very end of his life, about to be executed, says to Timothy don't be ashamed of the gospel, because you are already saved, because God's good purposes are already enacted on your behalf.
Speaker 1: That's the first anchor this is going to build.
Speaker 1: This is a tight argument.
Speaker 1: We're not going to spend hours on it, but it is a tight sort of nuanced argument.
Speaker 1: So he talks about him being saved and called according to God's purposes, not according to our works, and then he tells us the second anchor that the Savior has been sent already.
Speaker 1: Timothy, why can you stay strong in the midst of this troubling time, this neuronian reign of terror?
Speaker 1: Well, because you are saved, because a savior has been sent, the second anchor.
Speaker 1: Now let's read on from verse nine he saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before time began.
Speaker 1: This has now been made evident through the appearing of our Savior, christ Jesus, in the previous anchor.
Speaker 1: In the first anchor, paul points us back to eternity, past and God's purposes and counsels before time began, in God's purposes and counsels before time began.
Speaker 1: And now Paul is bringing us into the present, in which God has launched his eternal plan into time and space.
Speaker 1: We've come to the fulfillment of it all in the life and the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and it tells us exactly how God has activated his purposes and plans.
Speaker 1: In Christ Jesus, in the Savior appearing, there's only one place that the salvation happens, there's only one location that God's plan is being fulfilled in, and it is in Christ Jesus.
Speaker 1: Now, I know that runs counter to our pluralistic age in which we are sort of pressurized by society to say well, you've got your faith, I've got my faith.
Speaker 1: Faith is all the same essentially, anyway, isn't it?
Speaker 1: We can all sort of just get along.
Speaker 1: Well, we're not talking about civil peace here, we're talking about eternal life, and there's a difference here.
Speaker 1: And I'm not talking about Christianity as just one among many religions in this world.
Speaker 1: And I'm not even talking about Christianity as maybe perhaps the best religion among many others in this world.
Speaker 1: I'm not even talking about that and I'm not even getting into the whole thing about denominations and which ones you might want to talk about.
Speaker 1: I'm not even talking about Christianity at all.
Speaker 1: I'm talking about Jesus, the person.
Speaker 1: Where is God's plan and purposes for his grace and mercy?
Speaker 1: In one person, jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: Jesus said that he was the way, the truth and the life and that no one would come to the Father except by him.
Speaker 1: In the early apostolic preaching in Jerusalem, the same place where Christ was crucified, buried and resurrected, the apostle said there is no other name given in among men under heaven by which we must be saved.
Speaker 1: There's only one place that this deliverance happens.
Speaker 1: And in the first letter to Timothy that Paul wrote, he told him.
Speaker 1: He said there is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man, christ Jesus.
Speaker 1: You see, in more ways than one, god's eternal plan literally hangs in Christ crucified.
Speaker 1: This is why Paul said everything is from God, who has reconciled us to himself by Christ Jesus and has given us the ministry of reconciliation that is Christ in Christ.
Speaker 1: God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them.
Speaker 1: And he's committed to us the message of reconciliation.
Speaker 1: How are we brought into a reconciled relationship with God?
Speaker 1: How are we come to the place where our sins and our trespasses are not counted against us in the day of judgment?
Speaker 1: In Christ?
Speaker 1: In him, not in Christianity, not in religion, not in a denomination, not in a Baptist church, not in any denominational marker, but in one person alone, jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: And this reconciliation is not just a concept, it is an act of God's divine love by which he has reconciled people who are not reconciled with him, that is, sinful people, and he has done so by not counting those sins against them.
Speaker 1: Where did he put them then?
Speaker 1: Well, the scriptures say this he made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Speaker 1: And this wondrous transfer where the righteous one receives the judgment of our sin, so that we, who ought to be judged for our sins, might receive the righteousness of Christ himself.
Speaker 1: What a remarkable thing that is.
Speaker 1: Peter wrote it this way.
Speaker 1: He said Christ suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring us to God.
Speaker 1: You see, the only way to be brought to God is to be counted as righteous.
Speaker 1: And the scriptures tell us that we can't make ourselves righteous.
Speaker 1: And the scriptures tell us that we can't make ourselves righteous, but God can declare us righteous because Christ can stand in our place.
Speaker 1: Now, how does this work?
Speaker 1: Well, the scriptures tell us that this gift, in which we are now no longer condemned, tears down this barrier of separation that we have and we're in a restored relationship with him.
Speaker 1: And he talks how this relationship of reconciliation moves us through seasons of suffering.
Speaker 1: I'm going to quote a passage in Romans, chapter 8, that gives us the connecting point between the suffering that Paul and Timothy were going through in this Neronian reign of terror, and how salvation brings us to an overarching position of victory and hope and security.
Speaker 1: Paul said this in Romans 8.
Speaker 1: You did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back to fear.
Speaker 1: Instead, you've received the spirit of adoption by which we cry out Abba, father, the Spirit himself testifies, together with our spirit, that we are God's children, and if children, then also heirs, heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with him, so that we may also be glorified with him.
Speaker 1: And then he said in a summating word I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory that will be revealed in us.
Speaker 1: What is Paul saying here?
Speaker 1: Because we are saved and because the Savior has been sent to reconcile us, we don't have to fear any longer, and during challenging times, that's exactly what creeps into our minds and hearts and weighs heavily upon us.
Speaker 1: However, romans says that we're no longer enslaved to that fear.
Speaker 1: Rather, we've been given a spirit of adoption.
Speaker 1: We've already been received by God into his family.
Speaker 1: We can already cry out with intimacy to him Abba, father.
Speaker 1: We can look to God with trust and love, because he's a God who is present and attentive to his children.
Speaker 1: He's with us.
Speaker 1: It tells us that our identity is different, that we are now the children of God rather than children of wrath, and that is a truth that can transcend any of our difficulties.
Speaker 1: It includes an inheritance that is one of eternal glory that promises us a restoration and a delight far beyond the difficulties that we might struggle with now, that we might struggle with now.
Speaker 1: And then he tells us, in this perspective about it, that, in light of our sufferings, we have an incomparable glory.
Speaker 1: Now, let's take that word incomparable for just a minute, because Paul uses it.
Speaker 1: He said I think that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory that's within us.
Speaker 1: And Audrey and I were talking just a couple days ago about this and I said you know, I can compare a drop of water out of an eyedropper with an ocean.
Speaker 1: I mean, it does take your mind quite an expanse to walk off to the edges of the Pacific and think a drop of water compared to that, that's huge.
Speaker 1: But Paul says the sufferings of our present time are not even worthy of being compared to the glory that will be revealed within us.
Speaker 1: What are you even thinking?
Speaker 1: You can't even begin to measure the difference here.
Speaker 1: It's incomparable.
Speaker 1: The glory that awaits God's children.
Speaker 1: So listen to this.
Speaker 1: What is Paul telling us?
Speaker 1: He said our fear doesn't define us.
Speaker 1: Our identity as children of God secures us and the promise of future of glory strengthens us.
Speaker 1: This is what we have.
Speaker 1: We have it because God's eternal purposes and plans were to demonstrate his mercy and his grace to undeserving people apart from any of their own effort.
Speaker 1: And he secured it because he sent Jesus Christ into this world.
Speaker 1: And Jesus fulfilled the plan of God, and that is why one of the things that he said on the cross was it is finished.
Speaker 1: God's plan has been completed, the scriptures have been fulfilled.
Speaker 1: That leads us to some implications of this.
Speaker 1: The third anchor First anchor our salvation is secured.
Speaker 1: Second, the Savior has been sent.
Speaker 1: And the third anchor sins cursed has been abolished.
Speaker 1: Let me read the verses again.
Speaker 1: He saved us and called us with the holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which has given us in Christ Jesus before the world began.
Speaker 1: This has now been made evident through the appearing of our savior, christ Jesus Notice the next phrase who has abolished death.
Speaker 1: So Paul, from God's eternal plan to the present time of Christ's ministry and his life, his death and his resurrection, is now talking about what's been accomplished by all of that that Christ has abolished death.
Speaker 1: Now the term that he's using there, about abolishing, means to render inoperative, to take the power out of it.
Speaker 1: Now, some of you are going to thank less of me for this, but it's something I did when I was a boy.
Speaker 1: I used to go out in the fields and I'd lightly step on honeybees, and now we don't do it because we need our honeybees.
Speaker 1: But I would take a popsicle stick and I would pull the stinger out of the honeybee and then I would let it crawl around on my arm and walk up to my sister and go look at what I got.
Speaker 1: And you know, I was looking to creep my sister out and it did and I thought that was a great thing.
Speaker 1: Well, when you're 10 years old you do all kinds of silly things.
Speaker 1: What was that?
Speaker 1: The stinger of the bee was gone and that bee wasn't going to hurt me at all.
Speaker 1: The power of the sting of the bee was it rendered inoperative by the silly 10 year old doug?
Speaker 1: Let's take that a lot higher and a lot a important comparison Jesus Christ is rendered inoperative.
Speaker 1: The power of death for a believer.
Speaker 1: He has made death nothing but a doorway into the very presence of God.
Speaker 1: Death is no longer a threat to us.
Speaker 1: Yes, it still seeks to stand against us as an enemy, but it is no longer powering over us.
Speaker 1: Until Christ came, all humanity stood under the power of this reality that no one of us could escape.
Speaker 1: I was reading about Chris Hoy, who was a British cyclist that I used to follow.
Speaker 1: Several years ago won several medals in the Olympics.
Speaker 1: He had a great sort of personality found out he has cancer, inoperable cancer, and he's going to die in the next year or two probably.
Speaker 1: And he talked about death just simply being a natural process and he needed to come to terms with the reality of it being there.
Speaker 1: No, that's not correct, chris.
Speaker 1: It's not correct for any of us.
Speaker 1: Death is an unnatural process that has been invaded humanity because of our disobedience.
Speaker 1: Death is a result of iniquity.
Speaker 1: Death is not some happy friend that just completes the circle of life.
Speaker 1: It's hostile, it disrupts our life and we'd be foolish to think it doesn't.
Speaker 1: Death is a great foe of our human race, the result or part of the curse and condemnation of our sin.
Speaker 1: It's arrived here with massive, unforgiving jaws and it swallows us up or someone we love and we live in, the thrashed out part of our family that's just been destroyed by its clutch.
Speaker 1: It is, as Isaiah said, the covering cast over all people, the veil that spread over all nations, no matter who we are.
Speaker 1: There's not enough money to make us pay away to escape it.
Speaker 1: There's not enough that we can do to say we're worthy of not receiving its power.
Speaker 1: We can't educate ourselves outside of its grasp.
Speaker 1: We can't get a good enough doctor to keep us away from it forever.
Speaker 1: But someone has come to rescue us from it and his name is Jesus, and the scriptures tell us that he's abolished death.
Speaker 1: He's rendered it inoperable, he has taken its power away, he's removed its sting.
Speaker 1: So we sing a song it's not death to die.
Speaker 1: It's not death to die to leave this weary road and join the saints who dwell on high, who found their home in God.
Speaker 1: It's not death to close the eyes long dimmed by tears and walk in joy before your throne, delivered from our fears.
Speaker 1: Oh Jesus, conquering the grave, your precious blood has power to save those who trust in you will find in your mercy that it is not death to die.
Speaker 1: It is not death to fling aside this earthly dust and rise with strong and noble wing to live among the just.
Speaker 1: It is not death to hear the key.
Speaker 1: Unlock the door.
Speaker 1: John Stott said that on a Christian's epitaph it should never say RIP, rest in peace.
Speaker 1: It should say CAD.
Speaker 1: Christ abolishes death.
Speaker 1: I like that.
Speaker 1: So if I happen to die and you're still alive, put C-A-D on my gravestone.
Speaker 1: Would you and they go?
Speaker 1: What their pastor was, a cad what?
Speaker 1: And that takes us to our last anchor.
Speaker 1: Our first anchor salvation is secure.
Speaker 1: Our second anchor a savior has been sent.
Speaker 1: Our third anchor sin's curse has been sent.
Speaker 1: Our third anchor sin's curse has been abolished.
Speaker 1: And the fourth anchor a shining light has dawned.
Speaker 1: One Sunday morning, just outside the wall of Jerusalem, the world was still cloaked with the quiet of dawn, and Mary Magdalene walked to a tomb with her heart heavy with grief.
Speaker 1: The events of the past few days have been a whirlwind for her, full of sorrow and despair.
Speaker 1: The man that she had followed, the one that she believed to be the Messiah, had been taken and crucified and laid to rest in the tomb that she was approaching.
Speaker 1: But as she arrived to give her respects to this teacher that she had followed, she was astonished to see something she didn't expect A stone rolled away in an empty tomb.
Speaker 1: I'm sure confusion and fear must have struck her heart as she wondered what happened.
Speaker 1: Someone taken away the body?
Speaker 1: Well, she didn't need to fear that, because the people who put Christ into that tomb were more concerned about where that body was than anybody actually.
Speaker 1: She ran and told Peter and John that something had happened.
Speaker 1: Peter and John ran too, and came to the tomb astonished to see it empty, seeing the grave clothes lying there.
Speaker 1: Slowly, through the demonstration of that moment and the revelation given to them by the angels, they realized Jesus had risen, that death didn't hold him any longer.
Speaker 1: But even in that astonishing truth, little did they really understand, little did they know the monumental epical transformation of humanity on that moment.
Speaker 1: You see, that was the day that, in this world of humanity in which death reigns and darkness holds us all, that there was a breaking in of light and immortality and life.
Speaker 1: This is what Paul is saying here.
Speaker 1: It has been made evident through the appearing of our Savior, christ Jesus, who has abolished death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.
Speaker 1: What does this mean?
Speaker 1: This means that there's a whole new focus, a whole new epical age for humanity that is overlying the one that we presently understand, and it is a kingdom of light, of life and immortality in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: And these thoughts about living forever and these thoughts about being in a place full of beauty and rest and peace are not just long, distant hopes and achings of our troubled heart.
Speaker 1: They're realities that have been brought into life because of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: There is now an era in which life triumphs through the resurrection.
Speaker 1: What we have seen in all of us is decay and despair are now replaced in the kingdom of life Eternal light, flourishing life, eternal life.
Speaker 1: And this is not just some distant future, some hope we long for.
Speaker 1: It is something that empowers us as believers now.
Speaker 1: That's what Paul, what I prayed a moment ago in Ephesians, that we might have the ability to understand.
Speaker 1: What is that hope that we have?
Speaker 1: Because what's operative in us now is the power of the resurrection.
Speaker 1: I was talking to a dear brother this morning who came to church alone.
Speaker 1: His wife wanted to be here, but her physical troubles have kept her home and have kept her home a lot.
Speaker 1: But he said he's not in despair.
Speaker 1: Why isn't he in despair?
Speaker 1: Why is he now living years of retirement taking care of her instead of being on a cruise ship with her and going places with her as they had hoped and dreamed and talked about?
Speaker 1: And why is he able to wake up every day wondering what the day will bring?
Speaker 1: Because in his heart lies the resurrection power to bring him encouragement and hope and help and endurance and peace, whatever the day might have.
Speaker 1: You see, this new age is already dawned and it's already operative.
Speaker 1: It's already working in his children.
Speaker 1: The resurrection gives us the courage to face life's trials.
Speaker 1: It gives us a hope that secures us in our problems.
Speaker 1: It reminds us that, no matter how dark the night might be, the dawn of eternal life has already come into us because of Jesus Christ, and that the life we live now is just the beginning of what we will have as an everyday in eternity.
Speaker 1: And this is why the scriptures talk about love and joy and peace and patience and gentleness and meekness and kindness and self-control as the fruit of the Spirit.
Speaker 1: What are these things?
Speaker 1: The Spirit is given to us as an earnest or a deposit or a foretaste to the future glory.
Speaker 1: And every time you wake up with the love of God in your heart and the peace of God reigning in your heart, whenever you find yourself with persevering endurance, with joyfulness in your heart, those are breaking ends of the eternal age into your heart and life.
Speaker 1: And just think the punctuations of those things will be the full demonstration of your eternal self in the presence of God, without condemnation.
Speaker 1: Let's bring this to a close.
Speaker 1: The Apostle Paul's writing these words in prison, sitting on the dirt of a Roman jailhouse, maybe eating his rations out of some rough-hewn clay cup, waiting for the day the judgment comes down that says this is the day of your execution.
Speaker 1: He's not writing these things from some air conditioned, comfortable, theological ivory tower.
Speaker 1: He's in jail, he's about to be executed.
Speaker 1: What does he say in verse 12 about himself?
Speaker 1: I'm not ashamed, I'm not ashamed, I'm not ashamed.
Speaker 1: Now we might think of those words as simply saying well, I'm not embarrassed to be in prison.
Speaker 1: That's not what he's saying.
Speaker 1: He's talking about a wholly different kind of shame.
Speaker 1: Here you see, the Roman and the Greek world were shame-honored societies, and the public regard is what determined whether something was honorable or shameful.
Speaker 1: And whenever, according to the Roman or Greco sense, something was pure or good or true, it was counted worthy of honor and esteemed among society.
Speaker 1: But on the other side, certain things would be deemed vile and deceitful and evil and were worthy of shame and so shameful not perhaps even to be discussed.
Speaker 1: Paul is not here talking about his personal lack of embarrassment I'm not ashamed.
Speaker 1: What Paul is talking about is the final verdict of his life and the estimation of it, not from society but from God.
Speaker 1: And when he says I'm not ashamed.
Speaker 1: What he's saying is, when all is said and done and time is over and eternity is brought into bearing and the judgment of God has been executed, then I will not be ashamed.
Speaker 1: What he's saying is here, in the shadows of this present day.
Speaker 1: They have judged me to be shameful, to not be worthy of honor, because crucifixion was one of those things that was considered shameful.
Speaker 1: To claim a crucified person as your God was to be considered shameful.
Speaker 1: To deny your citizenship and roam in order to claim the citizenship of heaven would have been a shameful thing In every way.
Speaker 1: Paul's life was considered not worthy of honor.
Speaker 1: But what he's saying here is, when the full light of dawn comes, that he will be seen for what he truly is a recipient of God's salvation, not based upon his own works, but based upon God's ultimate purposes before the world was begun, to demonstrate his grace and his mercy.
Speaker 1: And that when that day comes, when everything is revealed, when the bright streaks of light that we see glimpses of in our days becomes the full noon of eternal light, becomes the full noon of eternal light, in that day when light and immortality have been brought fully to light, he says I will not be put to shame, nor will anyone who trusts in him.
Speaker 1: You see, no one ever appeared more shameful than Jesus did on the cross.
Speaker 1: But there was no greater honor than when Jesus looked behind him and saw the tomb empty as he resurrected.
Speaker 1: And so God's people will never be brought to shame, and I love what one slave said.
Speaker 1: He said nobody knows who I am until the day of judgment.
Speaker 1: The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the ultimate assurance that God's redemptive plan has triumphed over darkness, over death and over despair.
Speaker 1: It is the anchor for us, the salvation that is secure, this Savior who has been sent this sin's curse that has been rendered inoperative, and this shining light that's broken into our very day.
Speaker 1: This is why Paul reflects so much upon the resurrection in the middle of his prison and before his imminent execution.
Speaker 1: It isn't an abstract concept and it's not just some past reality.
Speaker 1: It is a present reality for all of us who believe on Christ.
Speaker 1: And just as Mary Magdalene and the apostles encountered the risen Savior outside the tomb, we're invited to experience the reality of that kingdom of light now by faith in Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: Paul's words I am not ashamed, I will not be put to shame Are the very words that you could say as a believer in Jesus Christ are the very words that you could say as a believer in Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: Even from the shadows of that Roman prison, Paul could see eternity, and he knew that his shame and his suffering would be swallowed up and would not prevail over the glory that's found in Christ.
Speaker 1: The resurrection reminds us, no matter how dark our circumstances are, the dawn has come.
Speaker 1: No matter how marked by shame our lives might be in this world, there is a victory in Jesus Christ, that we can have unshakable confidence, that we can walk in this light, that we can enjoy the glorious morning that was brought to dawn outside of Jerusalem.
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 1: Because the resurrection changes everything.
Speaker 1: It literally changes everything and it can change you.
Speaker 1: Let's pray, father.
Speaker 1: What a wonder it is for us this day to be able to speak about that day and to speak about the coming day in which Christ will unveil the fullness of his glory and that day in which all things will be put under his feet and the last enemy that will be destroyed is death.
Speaker 1: And the entrance of this kingdom, which already exists in the bringing of your children into it, will be unveiled as the eternal kingdom and all the things of this present one death, crying tears, loss, separation and the sins that have caused it will be no more Father.
Speaker 1: In the light of that day, in the light of the resurrection of Christ, in the light of your glorious eternal purposes in him, may we live today and tomorrow and the next, and we pray this in Christ's name Amen.