No Resurrection Without Death

No Resurrection without Death

 

I got a phone call from my dad tonight and he told me that there pastor had passed away. Will was wonderful Pastor and I’m sure he will be greatly missed. You know the truth be told we are all going to die one day, but the bible says that we only walk through the valley of the shadow of death and we need not fear!!! Which got me to thinking that without death there will be no Resurrection!!! The book of Romans says it like this.

You Don’t Really Know What It’s Like to Live, Until You Are Willing To Die Romans 6:3-18

 

In our world or technology and automation everybody is looking for an easy way to do everything. If something is difficult or involves a lot of effort or work it is considered old fashioned.

 

Even in the church, people are looking for easy answers. They want everything to be joy, peace, and happiness, but without the blood, sweat, and tears.

 

The answers for our troubled world are in the Word of God, but few will accept them because there can be no resurrection without a death, and no victory without a battle. It is confusing but true! You will never really know what living is, until you are willing to die. Paul told the Church in Rome that our death was a prerequisite to living for God, and to experiencing the Resurrection God is offering.

 

Life is like that: You can’t have one without the other!

 

Things you can’t have without something else

Sunrise without a night

Flowers without the rain

Victory without a fight

New life without the death of the old

Resurrection without a death

 

Spiritual life is much the same as Natural Life

It’s popular to be born again but, it’s not very popular to be dead to sin

It’s one thing for Jesus, it’s another for me

It’s easy to see Jesus in the garden
It’s easy to see Jesus on the Cross dying in our Place, suffering an agonizing death

But not easy for us to do this dying. Our natural man fights death. Death to our old life is a fight we must win in order for there to be a born again experience

If Jesus died for me, why do I have to die ?

Our death is done in Real Repentance

The painful death of repentance

We enjoy sin, it’s tough to quit. Why quit when so many call themselves Christians and they continue to sin? It’s one thing to say God I’m sorry for my sin, but another thing entirely to actually quit what we are sorry for. Change is what God is looking for in our lives.

 

Whose servant we are depends on which Lord we choose to obey. Don’t fool yourself into thinking that if I call Jesus my Lord, He automatically is! Paul told of the real criteria for servant hood,

 

Rom 6:16 Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?Life springs out of death

When we finally die out to the old man God is there waiting to provide us a new man Eph 4:24 And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.

2 Cor 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

Death is only the beginning to Eternal Life and one day we’ll see Jesus face to face like Will did tonight. My peace and comfort come to their Family in the days ahead and say a prayer for them in their time of Grief.

 

Anticipate!!!

 

Pastor Bryan Strickland