Faith & Resurrection
Pastor Zach Pummill • April 04, 2021
Sermon Overview
HEBREWS 10:19–25, 32–39
How is it that the resurrection of Christ becomes normative for the church? How can it become the lens through which we see all things? Hebrews teaches us how to understand our lives through the power of God that’s revealed in the resurrection of Christ. The resurrection isn’t just an event, it’s the only way to understand the world.
Sermon Transcript
In the deep forest of India there's a man whose name is Eliah. Eliah is a poor man, an untouchable, an outcast forgotten by the world. He's a man with very little to his name other than the clothes on his back, but there's two things he had plenty of, anger and alcohol. He worked all day in the hot sun for a few rupees, would go home at the end of each long day, any one meal of rice that was all he could afford, and then he'd wash it down with enough rice alcohol to make him forget that great sadness within him even if it was just for a few hours, in the darkness. His life felt as meaningless as it was mundane. He lived a Dark Saturday-kind of life, that was his normal.
Then one day Eliah's son got sick, his young, precious little son. They tried everything they could, but he only got worse. They were helpless to do anything about it and they were left as simply watch and wait in powerlessness, and then tragedy, his son died. And so all of that meaningless and mundane was now added the crushing weight of misery.
But Eliah remembered an old pastor that used to come to his village and talk about a man named Jesus, and Eliah knew that pastor very well. Because on many occasions he'd beaten him with sticks, driven him out of his village, beat him within an inch of his life. He took out all of that anger and rage on this pastor who would dare preach that hope was a possibility, who would dare preach that there was a different way of seeing and understanding the world.
But on this tragic day, that pastor was the one person Eliah wanted to find most. Eliah's gods hadn't helped, so he thought he'd tried a new one. But will this pastor help him, after all that he'd done to him? When he finally found the pastor he delivered an ultimatum. Eliah said this, "You say your God can raise the dead, you will come and pray for my son, and if your God will raise him from the dead, I will give him my life. But if he doesn't, then I'm gonna take yours. I'm going to kill you." Most shockingly of all, the pastor went with him. He agreed to the terms of engagement.
He got up, traveled with Eliah to his village, walked into the hut, laid his hands on the lifeless little boy, and he prayed. He prayed for him to come back to life. He prayed for resurrection.
From the first time I heard that story is sitting on a bus in that same deep forest, I've so wished that I could have been there in that moment. It's a story that's already so compelling enough just to have watched this moment of absolute human desperation play out. But then to add to it, the slightest hope of resurrection, well, that places it in a category that would make even the most hardened skeptic take notice. I've often thought if I were there who would I have watched in that moment? The pastor? The boy? Who would have gotten my attention? I think at this point I'd settle my attention on Eliah, because I'd want to see what happened on his face, when he watched his son open his eyes. I'd like to see the look on his face when he watched his son resurrected. And in that moment, he was given a new normal.
But here's the real question, do you believe it? Do you believe it?
Even as a Christian you hear me tell that story, and you still feel that tug of doubt rise in your heart. You're looking for a way out. You're looking for something to explain it away. Maybe there was a detail that went unnoticed. A weak pulse. A quick rush to judgment and the fog of emotional hysteria. You think, well, maybe the boy was just comatose, or non-responsive, maybe they made a mistake. After all, Eliah is poor and uneducated and probably prone to superstition. Yet, I'm sure they said the same things about Mary Magdalene and Peter. Why is it that there's something within us that wants just as much to not believe, as it does to believe?
It's because resurrection changes the game. If that story is true, then the way that you see the world has to change. Resurrection challenges what we think we know about the world. It challenges what we think is possible and impossible. It doesn't fit nicely into any box that you have, or situate itself comfortably in any category. It requires a belief in a power that we can't see, a power we can't control, and a power that is not constrained by the one thing that we know is certain in this life, death. Resurrection is that place where belief and unbelief slam together, and it imposes itself on how you view the world. Resurrection demands a new normal.
And Easter reminds us that we claim a story with a resurrection at the very heart of it. The very integrity and credibility of our faith rests 100% on resurrection. We're given a story that's so extraordinary, that it can't be accessed by certainty, it can only be accessed by faith. And we're called to live by that resurrection, and proclaim it to the world so that the world may believe in the resurrected Son of God. We're called to tell that story to every single person, to a skeptical, scientific world that demands facts and evidence, and yet, neither you or I could ever prove it at all. And yet, the call remains the same. Just like Eliah's son this gospel story is one that can only be told, and therefore it can only be received by faith.
And if we feel that tug of doubt and unbelief as Christians to the story of Eliah's resurrected son, how much more so would the world believe you or I about the resurrected Son of God? You have to command to proclaim that resurrection lies over us all, because it's through the Church that God the Father says to the world, "I have resurrected my Son. Do you believe it?" Do you believe it?
In light of that then maybe the resurrection isn't just an event that we believe in, but also a power that is at work in this world, a power that demands a new normal.
How do we as Christians live in light of a game-changing resurrection? How does resurrection give us a new normal?
Today we're finishing our sermon series By Faith where we've looked at each of the times in the Bible we see the phrase, "the righteous shall live by faith." and the last time we see it is here in Hebrews 10. It's written to a struggling church that's facing all sorts of challenges and hardships. They were having a Dark Saturday, 2020-kind of year. At one time their faith had been vibrant, and alive and their churches full, but challenges arose that brought them to a place of despair and to the edge of falling away, why? Because faith became hard, and they were shrinking back.
We know we can struggle in our faith as individuals, but it's the story here in Hebrews that reminds us we can also struggle as a people, that doubt and despair and unbelief are contagious. Our collective faith can run cold and we can so easily shrink back in the face of adversity, trial, and uncertainty.
And for them, their unbelief brought them to the verge of falling back into Judaism, and offering sacrifices again. They struggled to believe that God could be so gracious to provide one sacrifice for all sin, for all time, through Jesus Christ. So they're falling back into old predictable patterns to help them deal with their guilt and their shame. They're shrinking back, to something more believable, something a little more controllable.
They also faced persecution for being Christian. They lived in a world that didn't make it easy on them. They lived in a world that didn't share their values and was hostile towards their faith. They felt small, outnumbered, and insignificant. And since Judaism was allowed in the Roman Empire, they thought maybe they'd go back to it because it was safer and it was more secure. And in the face of that persecution they stopped meeting together for worship, to keep from drawing attention to themselves. They're shrinking back, why? Because they were only looking at life through their circumstances.
They were allowing their circumstances to determine what was possible, what they should do, how they should live. Their circumstances were imposing a new normal for how they lived and causing them to quietly privatize their faith, to disconnect from one another, to pull away from an unwelcome world, and to go back to predictable patterns of personalized religion that didn't require so much faith. They were shrinking back and falling away one-by-one.
And to them the author of Hebrews writes a message that is loud and clear. He says, "Stop living as though your God is still in the grave. Do not shrink back in the face of your struggles. We have always been and we will always be those who live by faith. Don't you know who your God is? Don't you know what your God does? Our God is the one that brings life from death, hope from sorrow, joy from mourning. By faith, if all that you see is difficulty and devastation, then cling to your God and ask, by faith and hope in resurrection power, "My God, what new life will you bring from these ashes?"
He wants him to see that as Christians our normal is not determined by our circumstances. Our normal is determined by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, why? Because that's what's true in good seasons and bad seasons. That's true on sunny day, shipwrecks, and dark nights of the soul. That's the anchor that roots us in something unchangeable, immovable, and irreversible. The resurrection is our normal. What God has done, what God is doing and what God will do through Jesus Christ, for in Him are not all things being made new, even when it feels like all things are falling apart.
Because this gospel does not bend to the circumstances of this world, this world will bend to this gospel. That's why he tells him in verse 25, remember the Day. Remember that the world is rushing towards that great Day, the Day of all days, when the resurrected Christ returns and brings all things into subjection under his feet and the world is boiled down to one answer to a simple question, "I've resurrected my Son, do you believe it?"
He wants the resurrection to be their normal, for these Hebrew Christians, to shape how they live, and become a people that see everyone and everything around them through the hope and power of the resurrection. But to become that kind of people, they have to see Jesus. They have to see the resurrected Jesus, in all of those spaces from which they are shrinking back and pulling away from. Instead of seeing those spaces through their circumstances, he wants them to see the resurrected Christ, in every arena, in every aspect of their lives and their existence and their life together.
And he gives them three spaces that the resurrected Jesus fills, so that they can learn to see him in all things.
That first space that he fills is that space between them and God, a space from which they've shrunk back in unbelief. He says, don't you know who your God is? "Therefore brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a heart in full assurance of faith. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering", why? For he who promised is faithful, for he who promised is faithful.
Before, that space between them and God, was untraversable chasm. But the resurrected Christ, the resurrected Jesus has made the way open and open wide. He is the great high priest that intercedes for them and knows their suffering. All those sacrifices and all those things they want to go back to, to deal with their guilt and shame are dead, but Jesus is the sacrifice that lives. He is the new and living way to God, so he's saying in light of that, do not let your circumstances silence your prayers. He has removed every single obstacle between you and the Father, why? Because the Father wants to hear your voice, and the price of him hearing your voice for you to have that kind of access, was his own Son. Do not shrink back, but run to that sacred space by faith that is open by the resurrected Christ.
That second space he wants them to see that Jesus fills is that space between them, so that whenever they see and look at one another, they see the resurrected Jesus. There are people that share in his life, they're united together in him. So he says, "Don't forsake meeting together" because when you are together, that is how you experience the life that you share together in Jesus Christ. Encourage one another, build one another up. Let the faith of one strengthen the faith of the other, why? Because we can't do it on our own. And we need one another and Jesus says, "I fill that space and I bind you together. Run towards one another, stand firm, stand together by faith, because I dwell among you."
In that last space that he wants them to see, is that Jesus fills that space between them and the world. He wants them to consider their future by remembering their past. He wants them to have a resurrection vision of the future and see life through the resurrection, but he does that by urging them to remember the past and what God has done. He says, "Do you not remember those former days when you endured hard struggles and suffered together, when you were publicly humiliated? You stood firm with those who were persecuted. Remember when you had compassion, upon those in prison and those who suffered. Remember when you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, because you knew that you had a better and abiding possession." Don't you remember those days Hebrews?"
He wants them to remember because he's implying a very simple question to them. When you did those things, did not your faith feel alive? Was it not real? Was it not so real and precious to you? Why was that? Well, it's because the resurrected Christ fills that space between you and the world, and when you moved out into the world you met the resurrected Christ. Your heart burned within you, because he was with you. Do not shrink back from the world, run towards it Hebrews. He's with you. His power is displayed through you.
He's the one that says, "That as often as you do any of those things to the least of these," it's the same as doing it unto him. He's with you. He's the one that promised in the Great Commission, "I will be with you always even to the end of the age. You can go out into this world with confidence that I won't leave you, I won't forsake you, I will fill that space between you and the world. Do not shrink back, but run towards it by faith and there you will find me. It's in these three spaces that the author is giving them a resurrection vision of life. So that whether they look up at God, whether they look at one another, whether they look at the surrounding world, everything they see, they see through the resurrected Jesus, who was all-in-all and preeminent in all things.
This is how the resurrection becomes their normal. This is how they live with a hope that transcends circumstance. This is how they live by faith. This is how they become a people that display the power of the resurrected Christ to the world, and it's through this kind of people that God uses to ask the world that great question, "I've resurrected my Son, do you believe it?"
Might we have that same resurrection vision of life, Rockwall Pres. We need it.
It's been a long year. I thought all week about all that's happened since last Easter. I remember having pretty much a breakdown because I got 25 minutes into recording last year's Easter sermon and then a car alarm went off outside and my phone just started blowing up, so I just had a little meltdown in here last Easter. At least the year got better, right?
It's been a year of disconnection. It's been a year of disappointment, discouragement. A year we don't understand. A year the world has changed. A year we lost so much. A year we've laid two of our own to rest. A year we wish we could forget, but a year we can't ignore. It's a year that's challenged us all in our faith, myself included. I can't tell you how many times I just sat in this room, in silence and struggle over these last 12 months.
It's a year that's shaped us and impacted our lives and confronted us with circumstances that make us feel the same exact impulse as these Hebrew Christians. We feel that impulse within us to shrink back, to pull away, to adopt some normal that's really just more shaped by despair and discouragement and unbelief as though God is still dead. And we can live as though our best days are now just memories, and what life was it will never be again. And what we've lost, we can never have back.
And so we can look at one another and think that, "Oh, those are the people I used to do life with." Or we can settle into a rhythm where we look at worship as though it's just like a wake, where all we do is come and we remember someone who died and all the good things they did in life. We can look at the world with contempt and confusion and something from which we should pull away. We know that impulse within us to shrink back, let our circumstances take over, and when that happens, the first casualty will always be hope. And all of that's enough to make anyone wonder, "How will the future look? What will the future hold? What will the future look like?" I don't know.
But I'd like to begin that future this morning by saying, "Forget all of that."
By God's grace, our future together will be one defined by the hope and power of the resurrection. Because that hope tells us our God is faithful despite what circumstances tell us. We have a resurrection Story that reminds us that sometimes he creates darkness so that he can reveal his light. Sometimes he breaks down so that he can rebuild. Sometimes he brings heartache so that he can heal. Sometimes he brings death so that he can bring life. We know how the Story goes. In the end, the window black comes down, the light rushes in, and he is faithful. That is our normal.
We have a future that lies before us where we could lay hold of exactly what Hebrews is telling us, to not shrink back but to move forward by faith, towards God, towards one another, and to the world around us. Because we know in all of those spaces, we will find the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ. And to lay hold of that, the author of Hebrews encouraged them to consider their future in light of their past, and so might we lay hold of that by doing the same.
Let's consider our past, has God not been faithful?
Do you remember spending all of last fall in a season of prayer? How in the midst of our circumstances we asked God to move among us? We didn't even really know what we were asking for in the midst of all of this confusion that the year was, but we went to him in faith and in hope. We asked him for more. We asked him to move. We asked for conversions, for baptisms, for doors of opportunity in ministry to be open to us. We prayed as men. We prayed as women. We prayed corporately. In the midst of all of that confusion our prayer request was simple, we asked that God would reveal his glory among us.
And we will continue to pray those prayers as we look to the future, because those aren't just little prayers we pray during a little season of prayer, those are the prayers that are to be the bedrock and foundation of our life together. Because by faith we believe that the resurrected Christ gives us access to the Father. He has removed every single obstacle so that we can come boldly with bold requests, regardless of situation, regardless of circumstance, because he is faithful.
Do you remember how we prayed that God would unite us together as a church all fall? In a time of division we asked that God would make us have one mind and one mission. That our unity in Christ would transcend the dividing lines of our day and that we would stand firm and stand fast together because this family is precious. This family is worth praying for and this family is worth fighting for, because the resurrected Christ dwells among us.
And for the better part of the last year, our leadership has looked to the future with a united sense of urgency to renew our commitment to be the people that God has called us to be. Because He is our normal. We have adopted a plan to go all in on building community in this body of faith and going all in and doubling down on relationships in a time of disconnection, because it's not a time to shrink back, but to remember the resurrected Christ fills that space between us and, by faith, to move towards one another.
Do you remember how we prayed for our community and for our neighbors? We walked the streets and we prayed that God would move not just in us, but in the world around us. It's not a time to shrink back when the world is so hungry for resurrection hope. The world doesn't want the proof of resurrection, the world wants the power of the resurrection. And who will go to them? Might we do so. And we prayed that God would move in our community around us, and my friends, God has been faithful. God has been faithful to us in the midst of all of those prayers. He's grown our family in explicable ways.
There's so many new faces here over this year. But by faith I think there's something more going on. Because if you are new here, I want you to know this, we didn't know it at the time, but we were praying for you. We were praying for you. We asked that God would reveal His glory among us, and He brought us you. And might we experience the resurrected Christ together.
And what feels like a lifetime ago, do you remember when we merged with Christ Covenant, and there was a chance that the Hispanic portion of their cross-cultural congregation would come as well? It didn't work out that way, did it? But do you remember the buzz and excitement, at just the possibility of that happening? Do you remember how excited we were on that congregational meeting Sunday, where we heard that that was a possibility and my phone blows up for the rest of the week for people wanting to be a part, wanting them to feel welcome and excited about a ministry and a life in this church that crosses boundaries that the world has no idea how to cross? And we can cross that in love, and love well.
And even though it didn't work out that way, we haven't forgotten that desire. I believe that desire came from God. Every week our staff prays that God would open those doors back up to us again. There are so many in our church that have spent the last decade ministering in a cross-cultural context, and they bring that in to us. Might we see with the eyes of faith that God might be doing something among us, but do we have the eyes of faith to see it? Every week our staff prays that God would open doors, for us to have a Hispanic ministry to a Hispanic community, and that He would honor that spirit that He gave to us and that desire long ago.
And as we started to pray that, we started looking around and we started putting the pieces together because it was right under our nose the whole time. God had already been moving the pieces in place, but we could only see it with the eyes of faith. Because it just so happens that our resident monk and beloved Chef Kenny, is also Mayor Chef Kenny of Mobile City down the street. And Mobile City is predominantly Hispanic, and they love Kenny, they trust Kenny. And they know Marq, they trust Marq, and that's good enough for us.
So in a few weeks we're going to have a ManTime in Mobile City. We're going to smoke up a bunch of ribs, and we're going to fellowship with them. And we're going to invite them and their families to a worship service the following Sunday night, to worship with them. We have Aaron Ellis, who can lead some songs in Spanish so beautifully. Do you know how many people we have been brought that are fluent in Spanish to help facilitate worship and to speak the good news of Christ, in the language of their heart? We have Zach Milstead, Lois Spragg, Katie Welch. I know Dave McIlrath is going to get in on that.
And we've been brought Mari Hutcheson, who just so happens to teach young women traditional Mexican cuisine. And she's agreed to make up a king's ransom worth of tamales, so that we can have a fellowship meal afterwards, why? Because the resurrected Christ fills that space between us and them. And we can move forward by faith. I asked Kenny, "Do you think they'll come?" He said, "Oh, yeah, I'm inviting everybody!"
And might we meet them with resurrection hope. Because my friends we cannot prove the resurrection, but by faith we can be a people that display the power of the resurrection. When we view all things through the hope, the power and the possibility of the resurrected Christ.
And that's certainly true of our friend Eliah. Because whatever happened to him?
He was given a new normal on that day, and that normal was now him going around and proclaiming this resurrected Jesus to every village. Which also meant that it was now him who was getting beaten with sticks, left for dead, and he has the scars to show for it. But here's the thing, here's the thing that pushes back against our doubt, and what is undeniable: do you think he would endure all of that if there was any doubt in his mind as to what happened? Getting beaten with sticks is a great time to rethink how much you believe in the thing that put you there in the first place.
And yet he goes back day after day. No, he can't prove what happened either. But the way that he lives testifies that there is a power at work in this world that you can't ignore. It's by his life, that he testifies to that power. And life has followed with him through conversions, baptisms, new churches, and new life. That's his new normal, a life shaped by resurrection power.
May it be so of us RPC - that by God's grace, our life together would testify to resurrection hope and power and our life together would put the world to a question, "I resurrected my Son, Do you believe it?"
Let's pray.
