Matthew 28:1-20 The Resurrected Life

Matthew 28:1-20

The resurrected life.

Friday night we gathered and worshipped in remembrance of the death of Jesus.
Do you remember what I said was just as importance as His death?
It is that I too must accompany Jesus in that death.
That decision is important.
Many people think that to know that Jesus died for our sins is enough, but the Bible is clear, and all that Jesus taught us on the way to the cross is saying that we are to live a life like Him.
To tell us to carry our cross and follow Him, does not mean the little inconveniences we face in our daily lives, but like He said, He is laying down His life for us out of His love and He tells us to share this love.
He tells us to live our lives as if we have been crucified with Him.
Then we can partake in the resurrection of our Lord.
The requirement for resurrection is death.
Have you ever heard of anyone resurrecting without dying?
It would not be possible.
In order to say one is resurrected death must have happened.
Without death you cannot be resurrected.
If you want to be resurrected, to live a life of resurrection, to participate in the resurrection of Jesus, then what is the requirement?
You must first die.
Do you believe this?
What evidence is there that this is so in your life?
You can answer and say yes 100 percent, but if Jesus our judge says no, then it does not matter that I approve of you 100 percent.
We can live our lives here and make it seem like we are good in the eyes of others.
Is that not so?
At school you can pretend and act nice to your teachers, or to your bosses, or to the ones you love, your parents or anyone.
But if your heart is not right, you may fool people, but the most important thing is that God looks at our hearts and we tend to forget this.
Though I give you a score of 100, or 200 or 300 but if Jesus gives you a score of 0 is that not much more important?
Do you want to receive a good score from me or do you want to receive a good score from the Lord?
People are more concerned with how they appear to others.
It is possible to live your life in a manner in which you find favor from the pastor and are on his good side.
I am not talking about me but about people in general
But the truth is when you live your life of faith centered on God, then you will live a life that shows Him and people would commend you for it, but we fail to do this.
We do not understand how this is possible.
It is because we do not understand we live according to the standards of this world,
especially at our work, amongst our peers.
We are to show them what it means to believe in Jesus, but because we fear being rejected by others we participate in their way of life.
It may be a drink, or smoking, but whatever it is they justify it saying that everyone else is doing it and that there is nothing wrong with it.
They entice you saying that they will not tell anyone.
You do not think that you are sinning because others know what you have done though it is in secret from all the rest of the people around you.
Rather than living a different life there are too many times where we fall into their way of life.
Then are we living thinking that God who sees our heart is watching me and giving me a score?
We do not.
The heart is the most important.
There are many circumstances that arise in our daily lives.
There are things where the beginning is important and some things may be the end or the middle.
Some things we can take pleasure in the appearance but some things we take pleasure in the meaning of the work.
We can look at a building and say that it is beautiful, but without the structure holding up the building, soon it will not be able to stand.
Do we see the foundation and the structure upon which the building is built?
We do not.
It is that which is not seen that important but in man that is the heart.
Our heart and our thoughts must be rooted in God’s Word so that it may be revealed in the life that we live.
We wear nice clothes and people notice us.
But this is not what is important.
I must know that what God sees is my heart and that I am must be clean so that I can live a life that is clean.
A clean life in speech, action, and the path I walk.
Is the path I am going the path following the Lord?
Or is it the path following the world?
Are my actions that are the reflection of my Lord or is it a reflection of this world?
Are the words I speak glorifying to God and a fragrance of Jesus or is it useless words only to boast of myself?
It is my heart that is important.
But I am unable to be patient and expose my anger, frustration and everything out of me.
Afterwards I feel better for having vented, but then what?
Now that you have aired out everything you realize you have made a mistake and say you are sorry.
You think that resolves everything.
Can the aftermath of your sin be resolved just by saying sorry?
No it cannot.
We are mistaken to think this way in our life of faith.
You fail to realize that after what you did and simply saying sorry does not resolve the matter of your sin between you and God.
Because we do not acknowledge this we cannot change our behavior.
It is important to know that we are the ones causing others to sin because of our behavior and we must resolve that matter but what is also important is to see that we have fallen before God and I must repent.
But we do not think about this, so then when we sin again in the future, we think that we are forgiven easily again, according to our pleasure, and because we have not crucified ourselves with Christ we do not live a life of the resurrection.
To truly live a life of the resurrection you must first make the decision and turn from your life of sin.
It must come from your heart.
What is it then that you will live your life of faith centered around?
It does not matter what I tell you it is because if you refuse to accept it then the answer means nothing to you.
Meet Jesus for yourself and when you are led by the spirit and shown truths from the Word then do not ever let it go.
I am saying this to you because the Bible is teaching us to receive the answers from the Word.
I am not saying to live your life according to the standards of what you think the Bible means to you, but there is a standard which the Bible gives, and you must find this standard.
If I say I found something in Matthew, how you accept it is dependent on each of your faiths.
The amount of faith you have is dependent on how much you are willing to die to yourself, humble yourself and be filled with the Spirit and Jesus and to the degree you accept this is the degree of your faith.
If I lay down 10 percent of the world and accept 10 percent of Jesus then when I read the Bible I will only understand 10 percent of it.
If I am blessed and surrender 30 percent more, then I can understand 30 percent more of the Bible.
If I surrender 50 percent then I can understand 50 percent more.
If I am able to say that I have surrendered 100 percent then through the Holy Spirit I am able to understand 100 percent.
If I am at 30 percent but someone who is at 50 percent is sharing what they know of the Bible then who will win if there is a disagreement?
The 30 percent?
Why?
Because there is more that the 30 percent person does not know and because he does not understand he refuses to change his views.
The Bible cannot be understood by human knowledge.
But we study the Bible and use our knowledge to analyze and critique it to fit it into our lives.
That is why we are falling more into Liberal Theology, away from the Bible.
It is because we do not try to understand the Bible through Holy Spirit, but we try to understand the Bible through our own ideas and thoughts to fit our desires, because what we see does not make sense.
And trying to make sense of what we do not understand we have made up new teachings that are not 100 percent in the Spirit.
Rather than listen and accept the teachings of someone who understand the Word more than I, we accept the teachings of men who agree on what they decide is what the Bible says which is new and different from the Bible.
How do you read the Bible?
Do you read the Bible from the view of the world?
Then if you study all the writings of the scholars then you will know everything.
But if you think that is not all, and that daily you must surrender yourself before the cross, and kill your will so that you can be filled with the Holy Spirit then you will live a life of change.
This new life of change is to participate in the resurrection.
Without your resurrection you are only remembering the resurrection of Jesus and it has nothing to do with you, then what use is it?
People have a difficult time seeing someone else prosper.
But others are prospering.
Why?
Because they have put their faith in Jesus, they have died to their self and participated in the resurrection, and being filled with the Spirit and power of God’s grace they are living their lives.
But it is not happening to me.
But if we look at our personal history, I am the one who has gone to church since the womb and I am the one who witnessed to that person, but why is that person changed and I am not?
Rather than look at myself to see what is wrong with me, I would rather point a finger at them and say do not follow the Jesus they believe in.
People behave this way because they do not understand the reason for others growth.
People fail to understand that which does not fit into their way of thinking.
This is why they judge other people’s faith is wrong.
When they see that others have changed and are living a new life of the resurrection and seeing that they are not doing so, rather than look at themselves they refuse to accept the other person.
What is to become of your relationship with the Lord?
You are to stand right in your relationship with the Lord but people are more concerned about their relationship with others.
If I tell our church members to only do what I teach and do not go outside of the boundaries that I set and to not do things that I do not approve of then who am I making you a copy of?
I am making you like me.
Then whose life are you living?
I am telling you to live your lives like me.
Then what happens to you?
God has called each of you according to His purpose and through each of you He is training you up in His own way.
Each of you has a different purpose.
Do each of you all have the same calling?
Do you all do the same work?
You are all different.
As men, women, husbands, wives, father, mother, parent, child, each has a calling that God is preparing them for, through training.
But in the mind of someone who does not understand everyone is to be the same.
They bind them which make them live a life of faith that is a lie.
Then who takes care of the head, the hands, the feet, the body, the inside.
What is important, that which we do not see or that which we see?
We think the outside is more important than the things that are unseen in the inside.
The face, though important to take care of to show others, but to live a healthy life the insides must be healthy so that one can live healthy.
Everyone must do their part as we prepare to eat, when we go play sports, in all that we do so that as a team we can accomplish our goal, and so that we can enjoy our time together when we play sports and enjoy our time together as we share a meal.
But if all have the same job, one job, will the church function properly?
It will not.
From the time God created this earth to this day, in all everything that has happened to this point, and if you walk with the Lord, then you have been given a position, in your family, at work, amongst your friends, when you do the work that the Lord has given you, it is not you who must be revealed but the one who has called you, Jesus must be revealed through your life.
In order for Jesus to be evident in your life you must die.
Then He can live through you.
When you live a life of death to yourself, then through the life of resurrection, everyone you meet can be life that reveals Jesus.
This is the life of a Christian.
This is the life of one who has participated in the resurrection.
Without this life, without true change, how can you prove that you have any relationship with the resurrected Lord?
Our Lord tells us to live holy lives and commands us to be the light and salt and fulfill our purpose.
Paul after living this life tells us that it is a life that is fragrant of Jesus.
He tells us to live our lives like him as he follows Jesus.
If this is not evident in our lives, then can we say that we are worthy of being called Christians?
We say we believe in Jesus but it is a faith that is only in our heads.
That head knowledge has no value in our life.
When it becomes real in our lives then it is no longer only knowledge, but it is a life of obedience to the call of the Word that knocks on our hearts.
This is the life of faith.
For those of us who are first generations here did the knowledge we had of America the same when we arrived here?
The life I thought I would live here is now different.
The knowledge I tried to apply here was different.
It is more difficult.
But we think because we know it in our heads that we are doing it.
But trying to apply that which we know into real life is difficult.
What is the first thing we needed to do here?
We needed to know the language.
We needed to learn the culture.
Then to live our lives as a Christian, the language of Christianity, the culture of faith is what we must adapt to so that we can live a life of resurrection.
Without this, how can we say that we are living a born again life that will give us entry into Heaven?
Who will vouch for your life?
There are large churches where tens of thousands gather.
If they all vote and say something is right does it make it right?
No it does not.
All the world right now is saying that we all worship the same God but on different paths.
They all agree and vote on it.
Is that right?
If the Bible says it is not, then according to the Bible’s truth, their vote is wrong.
If all 7 billion people on this planet vote yes, but out Lord says no then it is no.
Whose standard must you meet to either enter in to eternal life or eternal punishment?
It is not according to your standards of what you think is satisfactory.
Unless you pass the judgment of the who shed His blood and sits in the seat of judgment, then you will not pass.
Unless you live a life that is of resurrection, then when you are raised from the dead it is not life but eternal fire which awaits you.
The proper Christian life is one that has died on the cross.
The resurrected life in Jesus is one that proves that there has been death in me.
Then this Easter weekend of 2013, if you had made the decision to turn your life over to Jesus on the night of His death to also die, then today you are to resurrect and live a new life of change starting from today.
This is the life you must live daily to have victory.
When you live this life, though it is the path of life it is also the path of suffering.
Do not forget this.
It is possible that you will be persecuted as you walk this new life.
When our Lord promises to bless us, we think that He speaks of this earth, but it not to be blessed here, though we work hard here in service to receive the blessing in Heaven which will last forever.
This is the true blessing.
To walk this blessed path, I will be persecuted as our Lord was persecuted.
It may start from my family.
It may start within myself and I may stumble at times.
This is the path of the cross.
But this is the path of victory.
Our Lord has already won.
If I only hold onto my Lord and follow then I too may live a life of victory and live a life that leads to the presence of His glory.
The life of resurrection is one of perseverance, that allows me to continuously live this life of change.
This is the life you must live so that God can use you for His will.
In order for you to live this life God will daily train you up.
In order for you to live this life God will provide you the blessings that you require so that you can be the fragrance of Christ.
This is the life of participating in the resurrection.
This is the life of praise and worship.
As you live this life may you be pleasing to the Lord and reveal the glory of God.


Sermon by Pastor Howard Park
Translation by Miguel Park