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᛭ INI ᛭
Alleluia! Jesus Christ is risen!
He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
(5. Oops!: Most people live like Christ is still dead.)
Most people in the world live like that’s not true. Most people live like IHS is still dead. Most people live their lives like life’s a meaningless struggle, to eke out some pleasure or success until it’s over. Maybe they admit “god” exists, but really life’s all about “let’s eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die!” (1-Cor 15) And that’s the end of it. Dead and gone. Most people live like IHS is also dead and gone.
(4. Ugh!: Christians do, too!)
Thing is, it’s not just unbelievers that live like Christ is still dead. All the disciples and the women lived that way that first Easter morning! The only thing that they believed was Christ was still dead and someone took the body. Our flesh, like theirs, gets the better of us. Your flesh will always live like Christ’s still dead, unless the Spirit keeps it in check through the Word. The ways abound where we live like Christ is still dead!
To live like Christ is still dead is to live and do things like the world in dating relationships. To live like Christ’s dead is to live with grudges months, years, decades, generations old! To live like Christ is still dead is Christians not reading their Bibles. Most Christians don’t! (Be a weird Christian. Read your Bible. It’s the living, powerful Word of the risen Christ!) To live like Christ is still dead is to pray “to god.” Christ says to pray to “God the Father in His name,” or to Him, to Christ, in His name. His Word indicates that time ought to be set aside to do it… (Maybe family devotions before bed.) To live like Christ is still dead is delaying Baptism for babies, caring more about family than the baby, like it’s only a nice initiation rite. To live like Christ is still dead is to think Communion isn’t something all that necessary for being a Christian. I’ll suss some that out in a bit, so you might actually want to pay attention to the whole sermon… Not considering the Word, also is to live like Christ is still dead.
It’s impossible for true faith to be in a heart at the same time as the wicked intention to persevere and continue in sin. A person can’t have and keep true faith, righteousness, and salvation even though he is and remains a corrupt and unfruitful tree, from which no good fruit comes at all. It’s incorrect and false to say someone has faith who persists in sins against conscience or purposely engages again in these sins. (SD-IV 15) To keep doing what you know is wrong is sin and will sear your conscience. It’s to live like Christ is still dead.
(3. Aha!: But now Christ has been raised from the dead.)
“But, in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead.” (1-Cor 15) Lot’s of people saw Him! Mary Magdalene saw Him. So did a few other women. Wasn’t just them—He was seen by two disciples on the road to Emmaus. But wasn’t just them, either: “He was seen by Cephas” (that’s Peter), “then by the twelve. After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep” (died). “After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. Then last of all He was seen by me also,” (1-Cor 15) that is, Paul saw Him, too, on the Road to Damascus.
Christ isn’t dead. He once was dead. (Rev 1) The death He died, He died for sin, once for all. (Rom 6) Now, He’s alive forevermore. (Rev 1) Death no longer has dominion over Him. (Rom 6) The life He lives His lives for God. (Rom 6) He was delivered for your trespasses, and raised for, your justification,” your forgiveness, your innocent verdict, “before God. (Rom 4) So, what does this all mean? Well, it’s everything! If IHS Christ wasn’t raised from the dead, then nothing else matters, but if, in fact, Christ did come back to life, then nothing else matters!
(2. Whee!: Becuase He lives, we live like He lives!)
And so when you are brought to true and living, active faith in Christ, it means we live like He lives! His being alive right now, living and reigning the universe with the Father and the Holy Spirit, affects every aspect of a Christian’s life. Christ being alive either affects your behavior and lifestyle, or it doesn’t. If it doesn’t affect your faith toward God, your relationship with God, if doesn’t affect your love toward one another, your relationships with the people around you, then, well, how are you Christian beyond the label?
No, Christians live like Christ lives—died and raised—which means sins are paid for. Not just your sins, but the sins committed against you. What place is there for grudges, malice, hatred, evil? All that’s been bled for, buried, and only the new life of innocence remains. To live like Christ’s alive means there is Someone to pray to, and Someone’s name to pray! It means God the Father is Our Father, and we pray in IHS’ name, and so He hears us! It means that we don’t grieve like others who have no hope. If Christ is alive, and He is, that means a graveside is the gateway to life eternal. For those with true faith in Christ, they will rise to eternal life to live with Christ forever. For those who had not faith in Him, the will rise to an eternal life forever separated from Him—just the way they lived their lives.
To live like IHS is alive means we actually live differently than the world’s YOLO lifestyle that’s looking for the next thing to buy, eat, or do. We live like Christ’s alive, like His Bible has power to save us (2-Tim 3) and make us holy (Jn 17). We live like Baptism saves (1-Pet 3) and works daily repentance (Rom 6). Living like Christ’s alive means He’s preaching the faithful sermon! (Lk 10) We commune like it’s as important to us as it is to IHS’ who said, “Unless you eat [My] flesh, you have no life in you. Whoever believes in Me and eats My flesh and drinks My blood as eternal life.” Separated from Him and His flesh and blood we have as much growth potential as an uprooted cornstalk. For He also says, “Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood remains in Me, and I in Him,” (Jn 6) and “whoever remains in Me and I in Him, he will bear much fruit.” (Jn 15) We live like that’s the fellowship that actually matters for the life of the Congregation, as Acts and 1 Corinthians make clear.
To live like all of that is to live He’s alive!
(1. Yeah!: WE LIVE LIKE CHRIST IS ALIVE BECAUSE HE SPEAKS TO US.)
But the only reason we live that way is because Christ speaks to us. That’s right:
WE LIVE LIKE CHRIST IS ALIVE BECAUSE HE SPEAKS TO US.
That’s the only way we can. As it was for Mary in our Gospel reading. She only lived like Christ was alive, since He is alive, was because He talked to her. Same with the Apostles. They believed because Christ spoke to them, too. First through Mary and the other women. Then He appeared to them, too. And He speaks to us through them. That’s His promise elsewhere in John (Jn 17) that there will be those who believe in Him through their Word, because their Word is His Word.
And Christ’s Word, His living voice is coming to you, right now in the sermon, in a liturgy that’s mostly the Bible. Since Christ is alive, it’s His living voice that echoes over the waters: “I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Because Christ is alive, the Absolution delivered by a Pastor has power to forgive sins. It’s Christ speaking that forgiveness through him. Because Christ is alive Christians forgive one another in their daily lives. He’s speaking through them. Because Christ is alive Christians read their Bibles, He’s speaking to you in the Bible. He sent the Spirit to inspire each and every Word to save you and make you holy. There He tells you all about Himself, and everything you need to know about Him, your salvation, and also how live a holy life in His sight. WE LIVE LIKE CHRIST IS ALIVE BECAUSE HE SPEAKS TO US.
Because Christ lives, death’s destroyed, the grave isn’t the final stop. And Christ’s almighty Word breaks in once again. He speaks to you: “This, this, this is My body given for you.” He’s saying, ”My crucified and raised body is yours. You will live even though you die.” He says, “This [wine] is My blood shed for you for the forgiveness of sins,” saying “eternal life is yours. I hold you through death itself. Eat and drink and live forever!” And with hearing that, eating and drinking, believing, WE LIVE LIKE CHRIST IS ALIVE BECAUSE HE SPEAKS TO US.
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