Main Idea: We can experience life on God’s terms because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Phillip Yancey’s new book is called Rumors of Another World—What on Earth Are We Missing? The book raises the question: Is the visible world around us all there is? "Does faith delude us into seeing a world that doesn’t exist, or does it reveal the existence of a world we cannot see without it?" (Rumors, p. 10). His main idea is that as humans—those who are what we call believers and those we call unbelievers—see signs, hints, clues or "rumors" that there is a life going on around us, waiting for us that we are missing. That we hear and see rumors of another world, another kind of life that we think, believe, long for, and desire but we have settled for something far less. What we perceive from the rumors, hints and clues is that this life is not something that is yet to be but is waiting for us now. It’s here but somehow beyond our reach.

What you and I celebrate this morning is that because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ there is a kind of life, a quality of life that is waiting for us to experience now. I have said recently that the one lasting impression from the Mel Gibson movie The Passion of the Christ has been the scene that depicts the resurrection. The scene is less than five minutes of the more than two-hour movie but it was for me the most significant. The sight and sound of that moment were simple but unbelievably powerful. The movie climaxes with the horrible sight of Jesus’ tortured body being lowered from the cross into the arms of his waiting mother. Those few who are still there are wrecked by grief and sorrow. The screen goes dark and you hear the sound of massive stones grinding against one another and light streaming into a dark tomb. You see the wrappings in which Jesus was enclosed vacant of their purpose, collapsing back onto themselves, and Jesus standing to walk out of the tomb. But you notice his hands still scarred from the nails driven through them. Just that sight of light and just that sound of the grinding of the stones brought a huge smile to my face because the message was: Everything is different because of this moment!

I am a person who enjoys the examination of the evidences for the resurrection of Jesus. We have studied them, talked about them and encouraged you to see that your faith has an objective basis for what you believe. Yet I say to you this Easter Sunday is that there is something more than the objective facts regarding the reality of the resurrection. For when that stone rolled away from the mouth of the tomb and light poured in, Jesus being alive changes everything! His rising from the dead suddenly reveals to us and makes possible life that is unlike any we could ever know. His resurrection was a rebirth of life! The question is: Does your life need a resurrection?

How is your life? What is the real quality of life that you are living? I mean, be willing to ask yourself the hard questions of evaluating your life. Is it all that you would dream? I’m not talking about a perfect world or a perfect life. I’m talking about a new kind of life, a new way of life, life that is more than merely filling up the hours of a day wishing that as those hours passed that they meant something. Does it need a new start? Does it need "rebirth"?

That’s what we want to talk about this morning. This message is for those who long for life, life that is a new way of life. Some have never tasted it, yet you smell its aroma in the air. Some have forgotten what it tastes like but you know nothing you are experiencing now is like the life you once knew. Life needs rebirth!

In Paul’s letter to the Romans he describes what I believe is the quality of life we all long for. He points out that this life is only possible through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. I want to read the passage to you from The Message Bible because it describes the quality of life in a way that excites my own heart. "But if God himself has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of him. Anyone, of course, who has not welcomed this invisible but clearly present God, the Spirit of Christ, won't know what we're talking about. 10But for you who welcome him, in whom he dwells—even though you still experience all the limitations of sin—you yourself experience life on God's terms. 11It stands to reason, doesn't it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he'll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ's!" (Rom 8:9-11Msg)

I love that phrase, "experience life on God’s terms." It describes life on an entirely new level! Did you notice that Paul makes a distinction between those who have this kind of life and those who don’t? The distinction is between those in whom God has taken up residence and those in whom he has not. He says that a person who "has not welcomed this invisible but clearly present God" doesn’t get it. That’s the difference between people—either you are a person who has welcomed the very presence of God to make his home in you or you are not. Those who have know what it is to live life on God’s terms—they may not be living that to its limits but they know what it’s like. Others again see hints, clues or rumors of what this life is like but have never fully welcomed God to make his home in their heart.

You might think that once you make this choice that suddenly life is going to be perfect and problem-free. That’s not the case at all. Paul says that we still experience all the limitations that are the result of sin in our life. We will still get angry, jealous, or hurt. We will still know what it is to get close but still fall short. Yet we know life that is different, richer, greater and more satisfying. What is the source of this life? Where does it come from? Is it something we think up on our own? Is it the result of a better environment—just being around better people? Where do you gain the ability to live life on God’s terms? It comes from, if you would, another world!

Paul says strongly that since the God who was welcomed into your life is the same God who resurrected Jesus from the dead, then he is able to give you the ability to experience life on God’s terms. He says, "he’ll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself." As a result of that life being given to us we possess a rebirth of life. He says, "With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ’s!" Can you imagine something so amazing? Can you think of anything more exciting? Can you see the possibility of experiencing life on God’s terms? That life is waiting for you. Some of you have never known it and may not even realize you are missing something. Others of you have known it and know what it is to miss life at that level.

So how can you experience a rebirth of life? Well, we will take a look at the time Jesus first appeared to his disciples and see how they discovered life on God’s terms.

How do you experience life, a rebirth of life, on God’s terms? There’s a story found in John’s Gospel of Jesus’ first appearance to the group of ten disciples that shows us how. It comes at the end of the first day of our Lord’s resurrection. By this time he has appeared to others but not to the disciples as a group. There may have been others who were there but we know that Thomas was not with them. John writes, "When therefore it was evening, on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst, and said to them, "Peace be with you." 20And when He had said this, He showed them both His hands and His side. The disciples therefore rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 21Jesus therefore said to them again, "Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you." 22And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit" (John 20:19-22).

When you hear this account of Jesus meeting his disciples it blends for us two things with which we are very familiar: opportunity or possibility and risk or fear. By the evening of the first day several things had happened. The women who followed Jesus, of whom Mary Magdalene was one, had gone to the tomb and found it empty. They went to the disciples and reported what they had seen. Peter and John ran to the tomb to see for themselves and discovered it empty just as the women had said. Mary Magdalene herself has met Jesus in a very touching way. Luke tells of Jesus meeting up with two unnamed disciples and they go and tell the disciples about their encounter. Yet by the time of this event none but Peter had actually seen the risen Christ.

They had the testimony of others but had no experience themselves. They knew he was "out there" somewhere. They knew that there was the possibility of this amazing miracle being true but they were locked up in a room, afraid. John says they were afraid of the Jews. I am sure with good reason—if Jews had crucified their leader then it would be nothing for them to kill his followers. So there they are, knowing the stories and rumors of the greatest miracle known to humanity and yet they are locked up in a room afraid of what might happen to them if they act on what they know at this point.

Then Jesus appears in the middle of the group of disciples! John doesn’t say how, he just says he did. When he did he said, "Peace be with you." Not, "How dare you run away when I needed you the most!" Not, "Why were you so faithless?" Just, "Peace be with you." He chose at the end of the day to put all their rumors, fears, sorrow and guilt at rest and stood in the middle of them and say, "Peace be with you." What you only thought might be possible is a reality!

What does this moment of Jesus’ appearance say to us? One thing it says to us is that experiencing life, a rebirth of life, on God’s terms is available. In other words, just as the disciples had heard rumors and the testimony of one of their own that his resurrection was a possibility so we know from our own experience that there is a better life – out there. We see people and know people who tell us that they have experienced this kind of life. Dr. David Larson, a medical doctor, has done research on the positive benefits of a spiritual life. His conclusion is that, "Those who follow biblical values live longer, enjoy life more, and are less diseased" (Rumors, p. 132). They know life at a different level even in the hard times. We know it’s out there! We know it’s available.

If it’s available then why don’t we accept it? The reason is we are afraid to risk. The disciples allowed their fear to keep them from opening not just the doors of the room but also the doors of their mind and hearts. In the same way we know that to experience life on God’s terms means not experiencing life on our terms. And not living by our terms means giving up the familiar and the comfortable for the unfamiliar and the unknown. Even though life on my terms is pretty much full of confusion and chaos, it’s still my confusion and my chaos. Letting go of that is a risk and it involves fear.

Yet Jesus is not "out there" but "in here." He is in this place, at this very moment. He is here in the lives of those who have opened their mind and opened their heart to experience life on God’s terms. He is here in the very presence of his invisible self. He doesn’t criticize you for not realizing all this sooner. He’s just here to say, "It’s o.k. Let’s talk and let me tell you about life from another world." Life is available and it is absolutely worth the risk!

Experiencing life, a rebirth of life on God’s terms is available for everyone and does involve risk. As this encounter with Jesus unfolds there are more clues that are shown to us as to how we can experience a rebirth of life.

As Jesus is standing in the middle of this group of fearful, anxious and trembling disciples he does something to prove who he really is: he shows them his hands and his side. Now I do not understand all I know about this. I don’t know if all the other places of Jesus’ lacerated body were repaired and these were not. I don’t know why in God’s plan he didn’t remove those scars. I just don’t know. What I don’t know isn’t as important as what I do know and what I do know is that when the disciples saw the scars they were changed. They were changed from cowering at the mystery to being thrilled at the vision of Jesus they saw. No longer was it a question as to whether this could be, they knew it was the Lord! The scars of his suffering were proof of his reality.

Jesus doesn’t leave them with just the appearance but gives them a mission. He tells them that in the very same way that the Father had sent him he was sending them. The Father had sent him with a message to speak, a life to live and a life to give. So he was now giving to these followers a message of life, a way to live life and the command to give their life in service to him. It didn’t matter what they had done in the past. Their successes or their failures. He was giving them a purpose that would be their very reason for living and being. For him their past didn’t limit their purpose that he wanted to give them!

If we are going to experience life on God’s terms we must understand two things: our past doesn’t limit our possibilities or the purpose God has for us. The scars of Jesus’ suffering were transformed into proof of his reality and authenticity. For us, when we come to a place of knowing that life for us needs a "rebirth," a new start, whatever the scars of our past were is not a problem for the Risen Christ. In fact he is able to take every painful experience and transform it into an evidence for the reality of his power and work in our life. That means the scars of your failures, addictions, sins, flaws, hurts and problems he uses those to say to us, "That just makes my work greater. It’s not a problem!" Don’t let your past be a limit to your experiencing a rebirth of life, life on God’s terms.

Just as our past doesn’t limit our possibilities, neither does it limit our purpose that God has for us. Jesus gave his disciples a mission and by giving them a mission he gave them a purpose—a reason for living. It is because of the Risen Christ here and now that your life—all of your life—has meaning. Rick Warren says, "The purpose of your life is far greater than your own personal fulfillment, your peace of mind, or even your happiness. It’s far greater than your family, your career, or even your wildest dreams and ambitions. If you want to know why you were placed on this planet, you must begin with God. You were born by his purpose and for his purpose. (The Purpose Driven Life, p. 17). When the Risen Christ has stepped into your life he not only unlocks our fears, showing us unbelievable possibilities but at the center of this is a purpose for us, for our lives! Experiencing life on God’s terms isn’t limited by our past and is centered on God’s purpose.

What we’ve discovered this morning is that experiencing life on God’s terms is available, involves risk, and our past doesn’t limit our possibilities or our purpose. How, though, do you make this rebirth of life your own? Very simply, you receive it or, better, you receive Him. After Jesus had appeared to these disciples he gave them something that they didn’t have—real life. He gave to them the Holy Spirit of God so that God could take up residence in their life. John says he "breathed on them." The word is used only two other place in the Bible—in Genesis 2:7 when God breathed His very life into his human creation and in Ezekiel 37:9 when in a vision God breathed life into dead bones causing them to live. What Jesus was doing was giving to these disciples life from him that they didn’t possess without him. Life that was "out there" was suddenly able to be "in here."

Here’s the question: Are you experiencing life on God’s terms? Have you opened your mind and heart to the reality that the life you have heard about, seen in others, listened to the rumors whispered in your quiet moments can come into you? That life that is real life, God’s life, that’s "out there" can be "in here." What you need to do this day is simply let go of your fear of what might happen, recognize that whatever "has been" can become what "will be" because of God’s presence in you, and receive the life that is Jesus Christ into your life. When are you going to stop listening to merely the stories of others and be able to tell one of your own?

Others of you have known this life but the reality has been calloused over in your soul. The life is still there giving you reminders but it seems faint and dim. Aren’t you tired of telling the stories of what was? Are you not ready to tell the stories of what is now The life of the Risen Christ is there just as mighty, just as strong, waiting for you to receive it into your life once again. What fear is greater than this experience? Don’t the words, "With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ’s!" create an aching and a longing for a life like that?

If you have yet to taste this life or if you have forgotten what this life tastes like, then it all comes down to one word: receive. Not "work" or "try" or "will" or "want" but "receive." To "receive" you must surrender and to "surrender" you must "let go" of everything. When you do you will experience life on God’s terms. The Risen Christ is here. Life is waiting. Will you "receive" this One for yourself? Does your life need a resurrection?

Easter Sunday, April 11, 2004

Bruce Tippit, Pastor

First Baptist Church

Jonesboro, AR 72401

btippit@fbcjonesboro.org