Living Daily in Light of the Resurrection: A Life Fully Surrendered

Main Idea: A life experiencing full release will only come through a life fully surrendered.

Luke begins the last chapter of his gospel with these words, "But very early on Sunday morning the women came to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. They found that the stone covering the entrance had been rolled aside. So they went in, but they couldn't find the body of the Lord Jesus. They were puzzled, trying to think what could have happened to it. Suddenly, two men appeared to them, clothed in dazzling robes. The women were terrified and bowed low before them. Then the men asked, ‘Why are you looking in a tomb for someone who is alive? He isn't here! He has risen from the dead! Don't you remember what he told you back in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be betrayed into the hands of sinful men and be crucified, and that he would rise again the third day?’ Then they remembered that he had said this. So they rushed back to tell his eleven disciples—and everyone else—what had happened. (Luke 24:1-9, NLT)

Telling the story of the resurrection was the purpose given to these women. They would tell the story to the disciples as well as everyone else and forever live each day in light of what they had seen and heard. Dietrich Bonhoffer said, "Living daily in light of the resurrection-this is what Easter means."

At 16 Ashley Smith was convicted of shoplifting. At 18 she was convicted of possessing alcohol as a minor. At 23 she was arrested twice for speeding and once for driving under the influence. At 24 she violated her probation. At 25 she was arrested for assaulting her mother’s ex-husband. When she was 23 her husband was stabbed to death and she held him as he died. Through all of her struggles, though, Ashley Smith found what she always wanted—her purpose in life. She found that purpose by surrendering her life to follow Jesus Christ.

At age 26 Ashley found herself widowed, a single mom, working two jobs and a police record. Somewhere along her journey she read The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren. On March 11 Ashley’s daughter had gone to an Awana function at Hebron Baptist Church in Dacuala, Ga., the same day Brian Nichols killed three people in an Atlanta courtroom and a fourth outside the courthouse then escaped into the city of Atlanta. During the predawn hours of March 12 Brian Nichols saw Ashley Smith in the parking lot of her apartment, grabbed her from behind and held her hostage in her apartment.

During the hours of her captivity she gently and compassionately shared her faith in Christ and read to Brian Nichols portions of chapter 33 of The Purpose Driven Life. The title of that chapter is "How Real Servants Act." One sentence in that chapter says, "If you will remind yourself at the start of every day that you are God’s servant, interruptions won’t frustrate you as much, because your agenda will be whatever God wants to bring in your life." (Purpose Driven Life, p. 259) Ashley had suddenly been confronted with the ultimate of "interruptions" and she used it to share her faith. Ashley surrendered her life and her moments to God’s hands and Brian Nichols released her as a hostage. She said, "I guess he saw my faith and what I really believed in. And I told him I was a child of God and that I wanted to do God’s will. I guess he began to want to, too." (Arkansas Democrat Gazette, 3/16/05)

Ashley Smith sought to be fully released from the man who could take her life. She found it, though, by fully surrendering her life in that moment to the purpose of God for her life. Two thousand years ago Jesus Christ sought the release for all humanity from the tragic results of our own sins. The release he sought would only be accomplished by demonstrating to the entire world the depth of his surrender. The depth of that surrender would mean his death on the cross but it was the only way to bring release. Jesus’ desire for our release was so great that nothing less than full surrender to God’s purpose would accomplish that. That surrender would bring the cross but it also brought resurrection and resurrection would bring release from death and life for you and me.

So let me ask you, "Where in your life do long to find release?" You may desire to be free from something so desperately that you have exhausted all human resources and all your energies yet you are still bound and chained. It may be an illness, a circumstance, a problem, a habit, a past, an addiction, a future or a question. You know that freedom, release is there but it doesn’t come. The reason may be that until you fully surrender to the purpose of God for you will ever know the release you seek. The only problem is that the path to release will take you to the cross. Jesus said, "If any of you wants to be my follower, you must put aside your selfish ambition, shoulder your cross daily, and follow me. If you try to keep your life for yourself, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for me, you will find true life. (Luke 9:23-24)

You and I have a belief that what God wants most in my life is my comfort and that if there is something that is uncomfortable then that can’t be God’s plan for me. We continually say, "The safest place you can be is in the will of God". We interpret that to mean that God will keep all pain out of my life if I am in his will. It wasn’t true for Jesus and it is not true for us. Erwin McManus says, "Instead of finding confidence to live as we should regardless of our circumstances, we have used it as justification to choose the path of least resistance, least difficulty, least sacrifice. Instead of concluding it is best to be wherever God wants us to be, we have decided that wherever it is best for us to be is where God wants us. Actually, God’s will for us is less about our comfort than it is about our contribution. God would never choose for us safety at the cost of significance. God created you so that your life would count, not so that you could count the days of your life". (The Barbarian Way, p.44-45)

Jesus knew that the safest place for him would be through the suffering on the cross. Therefore he made the choice to surrender to the purpose of God for him. Luke would write of Jesus, "As the time drew near for his return to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem."(Luke 9:51) The writer of Hebrews 12:8 would say, "Fixing our eyes on Jesus…who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." The release he sought only came through a life fully surrendered.

How do you measure the depth of His surrender? You can measure his surrender by understanding what He released. (Phil. 2:5-8a) Paul said, "And in human form he obediently humbled himself…" Those words tell us that there was something more to Jesus before He appeared as a human. He describes what that something was in verses 5-7. Paul defines for us the understanding that Jesus was in every way co-equal with God. Everything that God was Jesus was. To have seen God would be to see Jesus. To see Jesus would have been to see God. Yet all of that, all of His nature as God, was not a hindrance to his surrender to the purpose of God. He did not see that relationship and identity as something to be clinched but something that could be released.

Yet that alone was not enough, for when Jesus came to this earth He came as a servant. He surrendered the identity of being co-equal with God to being co-equal to a servant. So that when you saw a servant you saw what Jesus had become. When you saw Jesus, then you saw a servant. The extreme was as if Jesus went from commanding the creation of the universe to being commanded to clean toilets. That may sound offensive but if you don’t see the extremes you miss the meaning.

Still that was not enough. When he was a man he was a servant and the motive behind his releasing his position of equality with God was one of total self-humiliation, "he obediently humbled himself." All that He was—He released. All that living on this planet would mean—released. All that God’s purpose for Him would mean—released! He released everything that was a point of glory or honor for Him—and he chose to surrender himself.

Jesus’ release of all that He was to come to earth and endure the shame, suffering and death was his own choice. You can measure His surrender by understanding what he released. The hard question is, "Can you measure your surrender by what you have released?" To find the release you seek will mean the surrender of what is most difficult to give up and that is your pride. As long as you hold on you will never know full surrender. What do you still hold on to that is keeping you from surrendering to God’s purpose for you? Today is a time to let it go.

How do you measure the full surrender of his life? You can measure His surrender by observing how he responded to God’s purpose for him. (Phil. 2:8b) Paul described the very nature of Jesus on earth as that of a servant. Yet he shows that His humility was a process. He uses a verb that lets you know this choice was one that was a continual decision. Hebrews 5:8 says, "…even though Jesus was God’s Son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered".

That "learned" obedience and surrender was seen as a boy when He placed Himself in submission to Mary and Joseph (Luke 2:51-52). It was demonstrated when He submitted to the baptism of John (Luke 3:21). That surrender was tested in the wilderness when Satan offered Him everything but the Cross (Luke 4:1-13). His surrender would be as he washed the feet of His disciples only hours before His arrest (John 13). Yet there would be no place that this surrender would be tested more than in the Garden of Gethsemane. There He agonized, face to the ground, saying to the Father three times, "Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will, not mine." (Luke 22:42) Luke would record that after Jesus’ trial that Pilate "delivered Jesus to their will" (Luke 23:25). Jesus said himself that he could have called twelve legions of angels or 72,000 spiritual forces to deliver Him (Matt. 26:53). But, instead, He surrendered because He was the servant of the Father! The truth was their "will" didn’t have anything to do with it. His going to the cross was a response of a lifetime of surrender as a servant to His Father.

Jesus’ surrender can be measured by His response of service. Jesus said, "All those who want to be my disciples must come and follow me, because my servants must be where I am. And if they follow me, the Father will honor them." (John 12:26) Can others measure your surrender by observing your response to the purpose of God for you? Does it take you to places others abandon?

How do you measure the surrender of Jesus? You can measure his surrender by recognizing all He sacrificed—even death on a cross. (Phil 2:8c) Paul said so simply that the process of Jesus surrender ended or was measured in his being willing to die even if that would mean the humiliating death on the cross. The little word "even" introduces the most striking element in the depth of Jesus’ obedience. What was it like for Jesus to have been dragged from court to court and then led out to be crucified? What must he have felt as he was mocked, jeered, spat upon and finally nailed to the cross?

Luke writes, "And when they came to the place called The Skull, there they crucified Him and the criminals, one on the right and the other on the left" (Luke 23:33). There was nothing more humiliating than the naked body of Jesus crucified before the entire world. Yet he would cry out, "Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing" (Luke 23:34).

Last year Mel Gibson’s "Passion of the Christ" stirred the world with it’s graphic portrayal of the scourging and crucifixion of Jesus. His movie was criticized for it’s brutality and offending our modern sensibilities. So much so that Gibson re-cut his movie and deleted the length of the scene of Jesus scourging. The truth is that scene can be limited to make it more palatable and profitable but it will not even come close to the true brutality that Jesus endured. Let me just ask you: Can you measure your surrender by your sacrifice? Do you try to revise what it means to sacrifice so it is more acceptable and even profitable?

Jesus’ surrender was so deep that it was defined by what he released, by how he responded and by all he sacrificed. Yet the Father knew that deep, depth-defying surrender would only be complete by a reward that cannot be measured. (Phil. 2:9-11) Paul describes the reward of Jesus by God as reaching down and lifting his Son to a place of honor and reward for his sacrifice and surrender. Can you not see God, the Father, peering into that pitch-black tomb and said, "No Son of mine whose surrender was so absolute will be permitted to remain wrapped in a shroud of suffering. No Son of mine will be allowed to be sealed in a tomb of tortured memory. No Son of mine will be merely the object of grief by weeping women and depressed disciples. No Son of mine will be only a martyr to forgotten dreams and promises that life could be more than the hopeless existence that it appears to be. No Son of mine who surrendered to this death, this shame, this humiliation, this sacrifice will be locked in a grave.

No, no, no – but when the women came to the tomb that Sunday morning at early dawn, with the spices to finish the burial preparation they found the stone rolled away and heard the first witness to the resurrection, "He is not here, but He has risen" (Luke 24:1-6ff). "Therefore," Paul would say, "God highly exalted Him" in resurrection. He rewarded Him with a name so revered that every created thing, in every dimension of existence would recognize that Jesus Christ is Lord. "There is no reward that would be too great for my Son whose surrender was so full!"

Yet you see, my friends, this promise of the reward of resurrection for full surrender was not just for our Lord. No, for it is ours as well. Yes, the surrender to God’s purpose may be painful but the reward is immeasurable! As we live life this side of eternity whenever we wonder if the obedience, the surrender, the service, and the sacrifice is worth it, will it ever be rewarded, all we need to do is look closely at an empty cross, look deeply at an empty tomb and then look up to heaven where Jesus rules triumphant over all the struggles of our lives. Will you bear the cross as a reminder of surrender so full that no sacrifice would be too great?

Where do you seek release? Your release depends on the depth of your surrender! What has to be released for God’s purpose to be fulfilled through you? What is your response? Is it obedience? What are you willing to sacrifice? The reward won’t come without the release and the surrender!

I have no doubt that Ashley Smith wanted to be released from the hands of a murderer more than anything else in her life. Yet she found release through surrender. Through her surrender the killing stopped and Brian Nichols saw the grace of God perhaps for the first time in his life. A life experiencing full release will only come through a life fully surrendered.

Sunday, March 20, 2005

Dr. Bruce Tippit, Pastor

First Baptist Church

Jonesboro, Arkansas

btippit@fbcjonesboro.org