Resurrection Life - Jesus is the Template
April 30, 2023      |     By: Jonathan Brickley      |      Category: Sermons      |      Location: El Dorado
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Picking up where he left off at the beginning of this month (in a sermon called “The Now and How”), Jonathan preaches about the need for a good understanding of suffering. Jesus life was “released” when the shell of his flesh was torn apart by his suffering and death. He is our template - He is the WAY! We too will share in glory because of what we suffer. Why the repetitive biblical reminders about suffering? Because God knows man’s objective is opposite His. Man hates the cross (blocking or doubting), while God uses the cross to conform us into the image of His Son. He finishes with 2 Corinthians 1 and a quote from Charles Spurgeon about the need for self dependence to be cut away. FLESH - not circumstances - is our real problem.

John 12:23-25 (NIV)
23 Jesus replied, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.
24 Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.
25 Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

Death “released“ the life of Christ

1 seed becomes 100

God’s had an “only begotten Son”, but his goal was a big family

Romans 8:29 (NIV)
29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.

Now God is “our” Father 

John 20:17 (NIV)
17 Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”

Jesus was showing us the way

John 17:19 (NIV)
19 For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.

Sanctification = to be set apart, separated from profane things. To be dedicated to God. To be purified and cleansed. To be hallowed.

Hebrews 2:9-11 (NIV)
9 But we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
10 In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered.
11 Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters.

Why is Jesus now crowned with glory and honor?
- His suffering & death
How will we be crowned with glory and honor?
- Our suffering and death

Suffering is no secret in the Scriptures

Paul, James, Peter, Jesus all spoke repetitively about it

Why all the focus on suffering?

God knows us

Man’s objective is opposite of God’s objective

Man = avoid the cross
God = conform us to the image of his Son

Peter blocked - opportunity for demonic agreement
John doubted - opportunity for a life of offense

Trials expose the flesh, which is the real problem

2 Corinthians 1:8-10 (NIV)
8 We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself.
9 Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.
10 He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us again. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us,

We want to be found cooperating with the cross, not blocking or questioning it.

Not:
good = God
bad = devil

Not:
“every good gift comes from the father”
But:
“every good and perfect gift”

Discernment is needed

What trial is promoting the glorification and adoration of God in your life & character?