Introduction

Take your copy of Scriptures, if you would, this morning to Paul’s letter to the Philippians. Take a one-week break from our study through Mark. Philippians, chapter three, starting in verse 12.

Opening Prayer

Before we hear the word read, let’s ask his blessing upon it once more. Pray with me. Our merciful God, you’re the one whose lamp is a word to our feet and a light to our path, and we would ask, Lord, that you would open and illuminate our minds, that we would rightly understand your word as it goes forth. The power of the Spirit in our lives would be conformed according to it, Lord, and that in nothing we would be displeasing to you. Lord, we ask that you would grant to us your Holy Spirit, that the pure light, even of resurrection morning, might shine within our lives, make us children of light. Lord, for we are in the light. Lord, be with us, we pray. Extend your grace to us, to those who hear and the one who speaks your word. we ask in the name of Jesus, our Lord, the light of the world. And all God’s people together said, amen. Please give your full attention, this is the word of our God.

Scripture Reading

Philippians 3:12-4:1
Not that I have already obtained this, or I’m already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own, but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on towards the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way. And if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained. Brothers, join in imitating me. And keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. For many of whom I have often told you and now tell you, even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their God is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. but our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly bodies to be like his glorious body by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself. Therefore, my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved.

The word of the Lord. Amen, the grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of the Lord endures forever. You may be seated.

The Resurrection of Christ

We come again this Lord’s Day together as God’s people to celebrate the victory won by Christ on the cross. And Lord’s Day by Lord’s Day, we come again and rejoice in his sacrifice and his powerful resurrection. And the resurrection is supremely important to us as believers. supremely and is dear to all believers. And it’s not only once a year that we take special note and remember the resurrection, but every week we do so. And up front, I must remind you that this is not just that there is a resurrected Savior that saves people from their sins. That’s not merely the glory of this proposition. The glory of this truth is that He is your Savior personally. The glory is that He’s accomplished salvation for you if you trusted in Him for your life. We are here like we are every Lord’s Day because Jesus is alive. He is risen. He lives. And this is our profession. This is our confession. We have been given the gift of faith and bow the knee to the Creator and Redeemer.

We know, we believe this to be true. If you’ve not yet given serious consideration to this fact, that Christ indeed, though he died, yet lives, and not yet realized the extent of your sin and your need of one to come and deal with those sins, if you’ve not yet entrusted your life upon Christ for yourself, for your own rescue, I invite you to do so today. Taste for yourself and see that the Lord indeed is good. Commit your life to Christ, repent and believe, even at this very moment. Please come after the service and speak with me or one of the elders or with a trusted brother and close with this Jesus, this Redeemer, even this very day.

I want to look at a number of things this Lord’s day. And what I want to look at primarily is what is the benefit of the resurrection for those who trust in Christ? What is the benefit of the resurrection of those who trust in Christ, those who know and confess He is risen indeed? What is the benefit of Christ’s resurrection for you and for me? One succinct answer to this all-important question is that when we put our trust in the resurrected Christ, we come to share in the righteousness that he won for us by his death.

Romans 4, Paul tells us in Romans 4, this one who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.

1 Corinthians 15. It says, for if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.

And the apostle Peter will go on to say, 1 Peter 1, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

There’s so much in these verses, brothers and sisters, entirely too much to unpack in one setting, to be sure. But the point stands, if you belong to Christ, his resurrection has justified you. You are declared righteous before the Father by virtue of his righteousness that is over you. When we put our faith in the resurrected Christ, we come to be raised, as Romans tells us, Paul tells us in Romans, to newness of life. We are now new creation.

The resurrection of Jesus is sanctifying you, changing you, making you more holy, conforming you to his image. And when we put our trust in the resurrected Jesus, we come to have a guarantee of our own glorious resurrection. The resurrection of Christ will glorify you. In other words, a way of looking at this, there is a past benefit that comes in our justification. There is a present benefit that comes to us in our sanctification. And there’s also yet a benefit into the future that will come to us in our glorification.

This is the hope of the believer. As Christ was raised, we too shall be raised. Christ’s resurrection in the past provides for us hope for our future, sure hope, confident hope, firm assurance now, even in this life, this in-between time as we pilgrim in this foreign land, firm assurance now regarding what will come in the future, grounded in what? In what Christ has accomplished in the past.

Why do we have hope that we will be raised and glorified in the future? It’s because Christ has already been raised. And as he is, so we shall be also. And as we heard, he was the firstfruits of those who will follow. We see this in that wonderful and glorious passage in 1 Corinthians 15. Paul tells us with firm assurance and certainty about the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

We’ll look to that text a little later, but this morning, right now, at least, I wanna look at our sermon text, particularly Philippians 3, verses 20 and 21. These verses speak of our hope that we will be raised and glorified in the future because Jesus has already been raised from the dead.

A resurrection hope, brothers and sisters, this Resurrection Sunday and always is very dear to us. Christ is risen indeed, and that is very, very good news to those who know and love him. And I want and I pray for each of you that you would know this certain hope for yourselves, resurrection hope.

And so let’s look now at our resurrection hope and these three aspects of that hope. We’re gonna look first at our current hope, and then a certain coming hope, and then a completed act on which it is grounded.

Our Current Hope

But first, our current hope. We have hope now. Our hope is now. Again, verse 20 says, Verse 20, but our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Right, as we look at this verse, what is it that is in heaven? Well, we see that our citizenship is there, and our Savior is there. And from heaven we await our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And that word, await, there, we await, this is a word of hope. The word is a word for now, it means to wait, to eagerly anticipate or wait eagerly or to await.

And if we look at it, I’m gonna look at a couple of the verses. If you want to turn there, you can or just write them in down perhaps and reflect on them the remainder of your Lord’s day. But I’m gonna read you a couple of passages to give us a flavor of what he’s talking about here.

Romans 8 verse 19. tell us this, for the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God, right? It waits for this eager longing.

Or if we go to verse 23 of that same chapter, Romans 8, and not only the creation, but we ourselves who have the firstfruits of the Spirit grown inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

Or verse 25. But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience, right, this waiting that we do there.

And then I’ll read another verse from Hebrews chapter 9, Hebrews 9, 28. So Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly awaiting him.

So you see, this is the flavor of that word, this anticipation, this longing for the Lord. That is our hope now in this present time, awaiting eagerly.

I hope you get a sense of this word. It’s from heaven that we eagerly long. We await our Savior to take us to our true home to be with him. Heaven is our home. It’s where we belong. We belong in glory.

We’ve all seen pictures or read imagery of people who are long away from their homeland, whether in periods of war or whatever long expedition, wherever it might be. When they finally reach home, they are so grateful to be there. After longing for the smell of the air and the feel of the dirt between their fingers and the taste of their own water of their homeland, they’re so overjoyed when they finally arrive back to their homeland, that they kiss the ground of the place that they hold dear.

And this is a pale comparison, but something of what scripture talks about for you, a believer in Christ. The waiting eagerly, the longing, the joy, the hope for heaven, your true homeland. There is a pull on our souls and a beacon to our hearts from the place where we truly belong.

And for those of you who have been purchased with the blood of the Lamb, the place to which you belong is glory. It is heaven itself. Our citizenship is in heaven.

Ephesians 2:19, Paul tells us in Ephesians 2.19, so then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.

Our citizenship is in heaven. We have a current hope, a hope now, even as we eagerly await and long for our Savior. We have to think, we have to reflect as we look at these verses and we contemplate this. Do you eagerly wait? Do you long for Christ to come from heaven to bring you home? Do you long for that time? Do you long to be home in glory with him?

I pray too many of us are. are all too comfortable longing for the things of this world and the comforts of this world and the freedom of the suffering, freedom from the sufferings that we find in this world. But I pray for myself and for you that you would long for that day, that you would truly long and await eagerly that day.

And if our merciful Father has brought specific degrees of suffering in your particular life, or if you’ve lived long in this foreign land, you perhaps know a greater longing and anticipation and expectation for your king to come and to take you home. And he will come, and he will take you home.

It’s also an interesting thing to note as we look at this as well, that I don’t know, I don’t know how many of you considered this, but because Christ’s glorious resurrection, because of that, his resurrection, his ascension and his session, these make our longing increase, right? And that longing to be home with him is a very real part of our suffering here as we await.

Again, Romans 8, 18 to 23, tell us this. We wait as part of our suffering for the wrapping up of all things, the consummation for Christ to come and make all things new. This is our current hope. We are not home at present, but we eagerly await Christ to come and take us to our true home.

Our Certain Coming Hope

And then we have from our current hope to our coming hope, our certain hope. And that is our hope will be a reality in the future. It will come to pass. We await the consummation of that hope, the wrapping up of all things.

And we see how the apostle describes our waiting. It is for the Savior and the ultimate benefit of our salvation. Again, listen to Philippians 3. But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus, who will transform our lowly bodies to be like his glorious body.

Do you see that? What is our hope this Resurrection Sunday and every Lord’s Day and every moment and every hour of our lives? Our hope is not in the sensational things of this world, not in a longing for charismatic gifts or perfect health and wealth in this life or relief from our sufferings on this planet or power or fame or influence.

As the Lord tunes our hearts, our souls for glory, which he does through the means of grace that he’s instituted and all the circumstances of life that he brings you through. As he tunes our hearts for home, he grows us more and more to long for what is true. And we wait and we hope for Christ coming again.

And God’s promise to you and to me, dear Christian, is that when he concludes all things, he will indeed transform our bodies to be like his body. What a glorious thing.

Let’s look back at 1 Corinthians 15 and see what we read of this. Inspired word, 1 Corinthians 15, 42. Listen to what we’re told. So what is with the resurrection of the dead? What is sown perishable, what is raised imperishable.

It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown in a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.

Thus it is written, the first man became a living being. The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual that is first, but the natural. And then the spiritual, the first man was from the earth, the man of dust. The second man is from heaven.

As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust. And that is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. Just as we have been born in the image of man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man from heaven.

You see the glorious distinction there. And do you grasp it? Do you trust in what he says there? It should swell your hearts with delight and joy and thanksgiving and truly anticipation.

And you, dear Christian, your perishable body will be transformed to be like his imperishable body, from dishonor to glory, from weakness to power, resurrected body, from a natural body to a spiritual body.

Brothers and sisters, your body is made in the image of the dusty man, the man of dust. Adam, that body will be transformed to be made into the image of the man of heaven, the heavenly man, the last Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ.

This is the promise and testimony of God’s word. And it is a glorious truth, is it not? What a wonderful certain promise for us weak individuals here in this life.

It isn’t that a reason to rejoice in the promises of God and to praise our Redeemer and our King. Surely it is resurrection hope indeed.

Now it is the case that being humans that we are, we are weak and we are forgetful. We need help and strengthening of our faith. God has given us things to do that vary.

So we come weakly, and we hear again from his word of his love in providing the very thing that we need. And we come together, and we pray again as his people, and we partake of the supper together as we commune with him and with one another as his body.

And it’s a wonderful thing, brothers and sisters, that even in our weakness, even in our frailty, we can have a sure hope, not in anything in ourselves, but in the reality and the truth and the fact of what he did and what he promises for us in the future.

In all of our feebleness and foolishness and forgetfulness, in all the things that we go through in our lives here on this planet, on planet Earth, how can we have sure hope? How can we know that these things are true? How can you know that you will be raised?

Grounded in a Completed Act

Well, dear believer, we have a current hope of the coming certainty of our resurrection, because it is based on a completed act, and that act is the past work of God in raising Jesus from the dead to resurrected glory.

That very thing that we are here celebrating today, and that we celebrate each Lord’s Day, and that we should reflect upon and give thanks for every day of our lives.

Notice how Paul assures you of your coming transformation, that it will be like Christ’s in verse 21 of our passage. God will accomplish this for you, for his people, he says in 21, by the power that enables him to subject all things to himself.

By the power that enables him to subject all things to himself. Well, what is that? What does that mean? What is he talking about? The verse is talking about the power that raised Christ from the dead and exalted him over all things.

Listen to what the Spirit says in Romans 8, 11. If the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give you life to your mortal bodies through the spirit who dwells in you.

You see that? You see what Paul is telling us in Romans 8? It’s incredible. It’s hard to grasp.

Turn to Ephesians 1, or make note, Ephesians 1, starting at verse 19. Listen to the glory that’s revealed to us here, Ephesians 1:19. And what is the immeasurable greatness of his power towards us who believe, according to the working of his great might, that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at the right hand of God in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come.

And he put all things under his feet and gave him as the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

Right, Paul is saying the same thing here as he is in Philippians and he is in Romans. And it’s hard even to begin to grasp the weight and the magnitude and the wonder of this fact of what he’s telling us, brothers and sisters. The grace, the love, the power for me, for you.

And therefore, our current hope of our resurrection in the future, our resurrection hope is based on God’s completed action in the past, that most glorious and powerful act of raising the crucified Savior from the dead 2,000 years ago.

And this is far greater and more concrete hope than any hope that you will have in this world. Biblical hope is so rich and so gratitude driving and sure.

It is an assured promise of God to all who love him and believe in him today that as he was raised, you can be assured of your resurrection.

Application and Closing

As we close, brothers and sisters, let us magnify his glorious name. Let us praise him. Let us return back from here, from the mountain of God in worship, back into a land not our own, living and loving here with our hearts in glory.

Let us remember this day and always, even as we are about to approach the table of the Lord, let us remember that he gave his life that Good Friday on the cross for all the sins of his people, and that he took that life up again on that first Resurrection Sunday so that you would have new life, sustained life, indeed, resurrected life.

May God grant you true change through this gospel, and may we continue to praise him for his work for our lives, for the grace and strength to continue to embrace him by faith again and again, even now, for Christ indeed is risen. Amen.

Closing Prayer

Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, we do praise you and thank you. As beyond our imagination, yet near to us in our own flesh you are, we come before you this resurrection day in gratitude.

And we confess, dear Lord, that we allow ourselves to lazily think of today as a cultural day related to times and season of the year. But Lord, no matter what the season or what the day, on this day, your world remains in so many corners, a dark place, deep and rooted into sin and evil.

And on this morning, we do not want to forget the darkness of what Christ endured on that Friday. and the way by which resurrection victory about which we so happily sing on this day come about.

We cannot forget the sacrifice, the true, the bloody death, the God-forsaken pain that he endured, and this clash between your kingdom and this world that it was fierce.

And so today we praise you. for victory, for all the might and power and your sovereignty by which you won that victory. We praise you for raising from the dead our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, the Great Shepherd.

We pray that we would remember this, that it would have an effect on us daily as we plead before you, that we would be conformed evermore into his image as we truly walk in newness of life, veiling ourselves to the Spirit, Lord, for ourselves, for your glory.

We ask this in Christ’s name. Amen.