Dennis Tuuri

As I said, there’ll be no Sunday school for the children, but of course, the babies will be cared for downstairs if you want to take your small ones downstairs. Now, several weeks ago when Takushi was kind enough to bring in a plant again last week, we talked about the fact that that plant was kind of an interesting symbol to us about what Sunday is all about. Sunday is a model for the rest of the week for us.

It’s not a day that we come to and do things really different, totally different from what we do the rest of the week. The rest of the week should be characterized by our praising God, by our worshiping him, by singing songs to him, and by reading the scriptures and understanding them better. And Sunday is a model, then, the way that bonsai plant is a model. And if Sunday is a model for the rest of the week, then certainly the Sunday that we come together to remember the resurrection of our Lord, the one day of the year that we set aside to do that specifically, that has to be then the model for the rest of the Sundays of the week of the year as well.

And so in a way, today is a model for not just the rest of the week, but for the rest of the year and will give us valuable lessons to take with us into the next year as we go through life that God has in his providence laid out in front of us. Again, Takushi, I guess this came from Dr. Shea this morning. This cross is beautiful and fits in very well with what we’ll be talking about this morning, which is the importance of the resurrection and understanding properly the importance of resurrection being a primary thing that we’re supposed to understand.

Paul in the verses that we just read, in verse three, says, “If I delivered to you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures.” The way that reads there, and some of the modern translations bring it out a little bit better, is that this is of primary importance. God has, in his own word here, said that this is a primary nugget of truth from which many other things in the scriptures flow out of.

And so it’s important that if this is the model for the rest of the year, that we turn back to the basics this morning, then, to look at the primary thing that God has instructed us from his word. So we want to turn this morning to 1 Corinthians 15. The entire chapter really deals with the resurrection of Christ and the importance of that resurrection and its place in the gospel. And we’ll talk about three things on the basis of 1 Corinthians 15.

The first thing we’ll talk about is that the resurrection means freedom from death. The second is that the resurrection means freedom from sin. And the third thing that’s pointed out in 1 Corinthians 15 is the resurrection means the establishment of the kingdom. I might just say by the way that if this is of primary importance according to God, then this also should underlie all the education that we give to our children. If they don’t understand this, if they don’t understand the resurrection, its implications for death, sin, and the kingdom and dominion, then really all other education will be built upon a foundation other than what God has said is the proper foundation. The primary importance of these important truths we’ll be discussing this morning.

First thing we’ll be talking about is freedom from death. Now death is an inescapable fact. Death plagues us, as it were, daily. This last week, the assistant that works for me at the graduate center hurt her knee playing softball. She had a cast on her knee for three weeks or so. And I’m sure that at her age, when you get injuries like that, you never really fully recover from them. I know that I’ve had several injuries playing basketball and softball—torn tendons in my ankle and pulled muscles and whatnot. And you never really get over those after a certain point.

And to this day, I’ll sometimes wake up this morning, as a matter of fact, and have a pain in my leg that was from where I injured it, I don’t know, probably eight, ten years ago now, playing softball. These things are reminders to us of our mortality. I remember when I was, before I became a Christian, I was hitchhiking one day and got in the car too fast, opened the car door up and broke my front tooth. And that’s why I have this chip in my front tooth, by the way. It’s my own stupidity, lack of patience. We could talk about that for a long time. But the point was that after I hurt that tooth, I was so depressed for weeks, and I think because I was only about eighteen or nineteen at the time and it was again a reminder of our mortality—that tooth will never be the same again. And our bodies, of course, are in a process of dying as we get older.

And the older we get, the more death we’re going to see and the more death we’re going to come in contact with. For those of us who watched and listened to Mr. Antonio this last week, the fact of death is continually before us in that conversation as well. And it’s evident from what’s going on with the AIDS epidemic that death will be a constant part of our lives in a very heightened sense with the impact of that disease on society.

I watched last week the third episode in that screenplay by Horton Foote that’s been on PBS, and there was a scene in that where you have a young couple, they’re married and she has her first child and a man dies and she starts saying she doesn’t want to see her son, her child, grow old and die eventually. She doesn’t want to die. She doesn’t want to watch her husband die. And none of us do. Horton Foote in his screenplays deals with the big issues in life, and that is certainly a big issue that plagues all of us.

Maybe we don’t think about it consciously because we don’t want to think about it consciously often enough, but it’s back there all the time impacting our lives, bringing us down, as it were, depressing us. None of us want to die, but die we must in the providence of God. Hebrews, in the second chapter—third chapter, I guess—Hebrews 3:15 characterizes fallen man as being in bondage through fear of death all their lives.

Now, that’s what God says about it. And that means that every man that walks the face of this earth must understand himself correctly in the light of God’s scripture—that he is in bondage through fear of death. And that’s the characterization of his life that God gives us. I’ll be quoting as we go along this morning from a man named Steiner, George Steiner. There was an interview I saw with Bill Moyers and Mr. Steiner several years ago, 1981 I think that was, that was really an incredible interview. And I got a transcript of it. Steiner has some incredibly accurate perceptions of things that go on, although he doesn’t understand the answers to them. And here’s an example of his understanding of the impact of death upon our culture.

He’s talking, by the way, in the context of talking about the future tense, about how the future tense gives us hope even though we have to die. He says, “Language, art, literature have been the drugs of dreams, without which, I think, in the face of the scandalous fact that all of us have to die—and again I find that a profoundly scandalous fact—in the face of this lousy, rotten scandal that not one of us will get away with it, in the face of this, we have simply refused to lie down and we have constructed these great anti-worlds, these worlds of antimatter, which are art and literature.”

Steiner’s only answer to the problem of death that he acknowledges plagues mankind as a lousy, scandalous fact is really insanity—a denial of death by using the future tense and constructing these great anti-worlds, which is to say they’re not founded in the reality of things. Steiner’s answer is a schizophrenic leap, a linguistic trick, as it were, to talk about the future tense and thereby to think that we’ve escaped death somehow.

Now, compare Steiner’s incredibly failed attempt to deal with the fact of death with the quote that I’ll read from St. Ephraim the Syrian that R.J. Rushdoony quoted from in a recent talk. He was an early church father and did apparently a long study of the incarnation. But listen to Ephraim’s perspective on what has occurred with death. Ephraim said, “Let us praise him that prevailed and quickened us by his stripes. Praise be him that took away the curse by his thorns. Praise be him that put death to death by his dying. Praise be him that held his peace and justified us. Praise be him who rebuked death, or that had overcome us rather. Glory be to God that cured we humanity. His son became a medicine that showeth sinners mercy. Blessed be he that dwelt in the womb and wrought there a perfect temple that he might dwell in it, a throne that he might be in it, a garment that he might be arrayed in it, and a weapon that he might conquer in it.”

God’s answer to the problem of our death is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And that is what is clearly taught in the passage before us in 1 Corinthians as well. 1 Corinthians 15:21 says, “For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.” And so by one man, Adam, came death upon the world. Now, through the one man, Jesus Christ, has come the resurrection of the dead.

God’s answer to the problem of death is no leap into insanity, but rather it’s the answer of the atonement made through Jesus Christ his son, of which the resurrection is the proof. We see this message repeated throughout scripture. In the passage that I quoted earlier from Hebrews, the 3rd chapter, verses 14 and 15, the point of his description of man is there this: He says, “And again I will put my trust in him. And again, behold I and the children which God hath given me.”

He’s talking here about the fact that God has delivered us who are held in bondage through fear of death. He says in verse 14, “For as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same, that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil.” So we see then that the death of Jesus Christ means deliverance from the power of death, deliverance from the bondage to death that we all feel.

And that portion from 1 Corinthians 15 tells us that the resurrection is the picture of our own resurrection and our participation in that resurrection. In 2 Timothy 1:10, we read the following, talking about Jesus: “who hath saved us and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, but is now made manifest by the appearing of our savior Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.”

As we ponder upon the resurrection this morning, we should ponder upon the fact that in that resurrection is the demonstration that Jesus Christ has abolished death once for all. And so we have an answer to the great problem and the great fear that death has brought about us. We have the resurrection of Jesus Christ given us to assure us that Christ has triumphed over death and abolished it.

Unregenerate man—Steiner—his only answer to the great problem of death that he sees so evident and obvious is a linguistic trick and a charade. But regenerate man, Christian man, dominion man, says with St. Ephraim that death was put to death by Christ dying, that Christ rebuked death that had overcome us, and that the incarnation of our Lord was itself to provide for him a body, a weapon, wherein he might conquer death through it.

That’s the great emphasis of the resurrection—the fact that we have been delivered from death—and it’s an emphasis that should be important to us as we go throughout the rest of the year. It forms the basis for our freedom to act. But death is not a fact in isolation. Death is a fact that occurred as a result of specific actions. The wages of sin are death. And so in order to deal with the problem of death, we must also consider whether or not God has dealt with the problem of sin.

And certainly the resurrection also tells us that he has done just that. In the passage in 1 Corinthians 15 again, Paul says, in demonstrating the fallacy of saying that Christ was not resurrected, that “there is no resurrection. In verse 17, if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.” So Paul says here, the resurrection is of primary importance. It’s of primary importance because in it we are assured of our own deliverance from death and from the fear of death, because Christ has abolished death. But it’s also of primary importance because without the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we are still in our sins.

Now, sin is another matter that Steiner and other honest thinking people will acknowledge in the world, although they may not call it by that name. Following one of the quotes I just read you from Steiner, Bill Moyers, who interviewed him, began talking about Nazi Germany and how Nazi Germany occurred in the context of a civilization that was extremely cultured and refined in the greater and finer arts, had great educational systems, and a very cultured people. And we see the totalitarian dictatorship of Hitler rise out of that culture.

In their conversation, they said this. Moyers first of all says, “How do you explain the springing up at the core of European civilization of the crime of the century, one of the most bestial political crimes of the totalitarian state?” Steiner’s response is, “If I could answer that, I would be at peace and stop working and writing probably.”

Moyers says, “You’re not at all at peace then, Steiner?”

Steiner says, “I’m not at peace.”

Moyers asks, “Because of that?”

Steiner: “Yes, because of that. The great Jeffersonian hope—others have hoped it, but in Jefferson it has a kind of crystal and power and dignity—was as we learn more, as our imagination becomes more educated, certain kinds of beastiality won’t be possible to us anymore. We based this on this hope, and one sees in our nineteenth century schools and universities, but also in the modern hope of education. One sees it in a figure such as Lincoln supremely, and Matthew Arnold and others, that the school, the library are the great instruments of making man compassionate and humane, and giving to him the realization that any other human being is an infinitely complicated and valuable presence. The great liberal hope. Out of a culture charged as perhaps no other was Germany with this great, real hope, arose the tyranny of Hitler and the modern totalitarian regime and the beastiality of totalitarianism.”

Steiner acknowledges sin in the world. He acknowledges the fact that man doesn’t do what he should do. And Steiner looks to the educational system itself as an answer for that sin. Steiner sees the answer as being education and as being the culturization process, even holding on to that answer in the midst of saying that out of that very package, as it were, emerged Hitler and beastiality and totalitarianism.

Steiner acknowledges the miserable failure of the system, but it doesn’t make him give up the hope. It just perplexes him all the more and prevents him from having any peace. God’s answer, of course, is found in verse 17 as we just read—that the resurrection assures us that we are no longer in our sins, that Jesus Christ has dealt not just with death but with sin itself by his death and by his resurrection.

In Romans 4:24-25, we read the following: “But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered for our offenses and was raised again for our justification.”

Galatians 2:20: “I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

And again in Romans 6:5-11: “For if we have been planted together in the likeness of Christ’s death, we will also be in the likeness of his resurrection. Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died unto sin once, but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.”

The resurrection reminds us and is an assurance to us that God has dealt with the problem of sin with mankind by dealing with Jesus Christ, by imputing the sins of the elect upon him and then pouring out his wrath upon Christ for our stead. And the demonstration of the satisfaction of God’s wrath is the resurrection. And so the resurrection can be said to be the proof whereby our sins are taken care of by God righteously, in accordance with his righteous judgment.

Now in the inescapable knowledge of man’s moral depravity, Steiner and unregenerate man look to the great Jeffersonian hope—education—as being salvific, or able to provide salvation and freedom from sin. The vehicle whereby man was to be freed from his service to sin and his improper use of his neighbor. In this, of course, Steiner also mimics Dewey. Dewey, of course, said that the teacher is the true prophet of God, that he’ll bring about the true kingdom of God through the educational process. And yet Steiner and any other halfway honest man looking at these issues must acknowledge the absolute failure of the educational system and the textbooks that they use.

They must acknowledge the failure of their savior, the educational system, the Jeffersonian hope. But God doesn’t leave us with that failure. Christian man, regenerate man, says with Ephraim the Syrian, “Praise be him that took away the curse by his thorns. Glory be to God that cured we humanity. His son became a medicine that showeth sinners mercy.” By his death and by his atonement, he has destroyed the power of sin. And by his resurrection, he assures us of our relief from sin and the bondage to it.

Now, with both these issues—with sin and with death—we acknowledge the fact that with death, for instance, although 2 Timothy tells us that Christ has abolished death, yet in 1 Corinthians 15, later in this chapter, we read that it’s only in the consummation of the age that death will be totally abolished. In verse 54 we read:

“So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, ‘Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O death, where is thy victory?’”

So there’s an acknowledgement here that death is only fully abolished in terms of its abiding with us when all things are finally consummated. And so it is with sin as well. We’ve been delivered from bondage to death. We’ve been delivered from bondage to sin. But we’re not delivered from the presence of either of those two things. There is a fully accomplished fact in Jesus Christ dealing with that two thousand years ago. But that fact is being worked out now as we go through time, heading toward the consummation of all things, in which we’ll be removed from the very presence of both death and sin.

And so God, in his grace, to reinforce to us that this is an accomplished fact, that it is a reality in which we should base our hope for the future upon, gives us weekly the—keeps before us, as it were, the meaning of the resurrection. Every week we get together on Sunday to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ, to remind us that we are indeed freed from death, that we are indeed freed from sin.

Every week we get together and as part of our communion service, we talk about—as Howard L. said last week—we proclaim forth the death of Jesus Christ. God has us do that for a reason, because he knows that he wants to continue to point us back to Jesus Christ, to his finished work of the resurrection and of his death and of his ascension, to remind us weekly of our freedom from sin and our freedom from death, to encourage us, as it were.

Now God doesn’t just use getting together on Sunday, of course. He gives us images throughout the week that remind us of this as well. This is a good image, this cross with the flowers coming out of it, to keep in front of ourselves when we fear death, to remind ourselves of God’s promise in the resurrection, that Jesus Christ has indeed risen from the dead and so shall we, too, if we see ourselves in covenantal union with him.

Jesus talked about the wheat itself that would have to fall into the ground first and then come forward as a new plant. And every time we plant and every time we see things growing, we can remind ourselves of that great truth that God has given to us again, to remind us and to reinforce us, that death has been taken care of by the finished work of Jesus Christ. We are fallen creatures and we tend to doubt, but God has given us these reminders to remove that doubt and to encourage us in the faith of the things that are taught by this—the primary things again: the resurrection of Christ and his release from bondage to sin and death.

We have communion every week and remind ourselves. We have an absolution that’s proclaimed during the communion service. We don’t mean by that we magically somehow forgive people’s sins, but we think it’s an important part of the service to remind people that they are indeed absolved from sins through the efficacious death of Jesus Christ that they place their trust and hope in. It’s a reminder and an encouragement to people that they are indeed forgiven in Christ. And that’s why taking communion is so important—to build yourself up in that faith. God reminds us of the death of Christ. He reminds us of our freedom from sin. And that then forms a model throughout the week as well.

And it’s perfectly proper to sit down at your table at home and to remember the fact that true life comes from Jesus Christ. And that life is found in the resurrection that followed the death of Jesus Christ for our sins and our release. God has given us many, many signs to teach us these things and to reinforce them to us, because they are primary. They are absolutely essential to the meaning of the gospel.

But Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 15. He goes on to stress that the result of our freedom from sin and death is not simply to be relieved. The result of our deliverance from sin and death is that we might go on to evidence the resurrection in our lives by expanding the kingdom of Jesus Christ and reifying it in the world around us.

In 1 Corinthians 15:23-28 we read the following:

“Every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming, then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father, when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. For he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is accepted which did put all things under him. And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.”

Paul goes on, while talking about the resurrection of Jesus Christ, to talk about the freedom from death bought therein, to talk about the freedom from sin and the bondage to those two things. But he goes on then to say that the manifestation of the resurrection is in the reign of Jesus Christ, who now is sat down at the right hand of the Father. And so the establishment of the kingdom is here stressed by Paul as also being an element that is primary to our faith and is pictured by the resurrection. Jesus Christ’s resurrection guarantees to us the establishment of the kingdom, and this is clearly taught in the scriptures.

Now the fact that there is a kingdom and that Jesus Christ is in the process of subduing people to himself, the fact that there is warfare—as it were, ideological warfare—present, also does not escape the vision of a man such as Steiner, who again is an incredibly profound writer and yet has not the answers. He sees the questions. In their discussion between Moyers and Steiner, Moyers says the following:

“It was said of Hitler, it was said that Hitler said of the Jews that they invented the conscience of mankind. This idea of a monotheistic God who arose on Mount Sinai, preached by the prophets, permeated the parables of Jesus—that this presented such an ideal that a culture simply could not tolerate coexisting with that ideal and had to try to eliminate it forever.”

Steiner says, “That’s true. He said it almost breaks our backs, the load of hope, of dreams which the great western legacy, Judaic and Greek, has put upon us. Whom do we hate most? We hate most those who ask of us more than we want to give. Who suggest to us that we are far from stretching to the full height of our own ethical possibility.”

Steiner goes on to talk in other places of the interview that these two systems simply cannot coexist. Hitler’s vision of salvific totalitarianism could not coexist with the ideal presented by Judaism or fulfilled in Judaism and Christianity. And Steiner says it does—it almost breaks our backs to see people in the midst of our culture making those sort of demands in terms of ethical action. Ideological warfare is inevitable, and that’s what Jesus tells us in this passage of scripture as well.

Jesus, having accomplished his resurrection, deliverance from sin and death, and having established a people for himself, then puts that in the context of not just conquering those enemies, but now conquering the entire world with the message of his resurrection. Conflict is inevitable. But Christ’s resurrection gives us the clear outcome of that battle. How, after all, can Steiner, Hitler, anybody else who falls under that incredible burden and attempts to throw it off for themselves—how can they conquer an enemy who will not stay dead? Impossible.

The resurrection and Christ’s ascension marks the beginning of the visible manifestation of the reign of Jesus Christ in this world, the kingdom. God’s reign is testified to by the resurrection. And that reign is reified and made visible throughout the entire created order as history marches on and as the gospel of Jesus Christ and his resurrection continues across the face of the world.

1 Corinthians 15 says the resurrection of Jesus Christ guarantees and demonstrates the inevitability of the reign of Jesus Christ and its encompassing all things, because that’s what it says in verse 27: “He hath put all things under his feet. All things means all things.” Paul goes on to say that the only thing “all things” doesn’t mean is the one who has subjected them—God the Father himself. But the entire created order has been subjected to the risen Christ. And time is a process whereby the reign of Jesus Christ is reified, made visible in the world around us. What is now a given fact in reality—his reign—becomes a conscious fact in reality to all the created world with the procession of time.

Colossians 1:13 we read: “Christ has delivered us from the power of darkness and hath translated us into the kingdom of the sun of his love.”

Now, the word “translated” was used at the time of the writing of the scriptures when an invading army would go in and conquer a territory to itself and then put people there to populate the colonized areas. Well, that’s what Jesus Christ is said to have done with us. He’s conquered the earth and he’s now peopling the earth, populating the area that he has conquered now with his emissaries, with his people, with us, the church. We are colonies, as it were, of a conquered area that Jesus Christ has translated us into—that kingdom, a very real kingdom ruled by a real king.

In Romans 6:13, that portion we just read a little bit ago, the end result of the deliverance from sin and death that’s talked about in Romans 6 is: “Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead, and you and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.”

Yet another illustration there using the body itself. We said we’re to use our hands for the work of God, or use our feet for the work of God. And whenever we look at ourselves in the mirror, we shouldn’t just see death anymore. What we see is the power of the resurrection. We see and believe that Jesus Christ has included us as members of him—the head—in the same way that our hands belong to our body. And so we’re part of Christ’s body. And so when we look at ourselves in the mirror, that should be a reminder as well that we’re part of the resurrected body of Jesus Christ. And this tells that the purpose of that resurrection is not just simple relief, but that we might actively serve the one who has resurrected us.

In Hebrews 2:15, when we talked about the fact that he might deliver them who fear death or are all their lifetimes subject to bondage, the context of that in Hebrews 3 is the following, where he quotes from the Psalms:

“What is man that thou art mindful of him? Or the son of man that thou visitest him? Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; thou crownest him with glory and honor and didst set him over the work of thy hands. Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things under him. But we see Jesus made a little lower than the angels.”

The point of Hebrews 3 is that mankind itself has been given dominion over the earth. Man lost that dominion through his fall, but Jesus Christ has bought it back through his death and through his resurrection. And so Hebrews 3 tells us later that Jesus has delivered us who were held in bondage by fear of death. We have been delivered now to fulfill what was always our intended purpose to begin with—which is to exercise dominion and to subject all things under our feet now as emissaries of the King, Jesus Christ.

Unregenerate man—Steiner—exchanging the truth of God for a lie, unable to cope with death except through a linguistic trick and a flight from reality into insanity, unable to cope with sin. And when his only answer, education, fails miserably, he is also incapable of accepting the implications of that failure. Unregenerate man, failed and miserable, not at peace at all, cannot stand, cannot tolerate the truth, the blinding light of the scriptures of reality that penetrates his life. When regenerate man applies that scripture to everything that he puts his hand to do, the light shines in the darkness. And not only can the darkness not overpower the light, the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ and his resurrection will, we are assured, by that resurrection, penetrate the darkness and bring light to all the world.

The conflict is real, but no more real than the certainty of victory that’s been given to us through Jesus Christ our Lord, and promised to us in his resurrection power and by the fact of that resurrection.

And so we, every week, come together to be reminded of these three facts, important as they are, primary to the gospel. The day of resurrection assures us of our victory over sin and death, our deliverance from bondage to both, and of the establishment of the kingdom and the subduing and victory over all enemies of King Jesus. This model day must ring forth throughout the rest of the year for us. In everything that we do and say, we must be acknowledging these three primary truths of the resurrection as we rest in the finished work of Jesus Christ, trusting in him and his release from sin and death, and his one act that has established his visible kingdom in which we put our hands to accomplish the work that he has given us to do.

I think that troubled waters lie ahead for our country. We’re part of this country. We’re going to live in the midst of a world that is experiencing the judgment of God. Troubled days are coming ahead of us in this country because the judgment of God is being made manifest. Again, if anybody watched or listened to Mr. Antonio speak and begin to consider the implications of that crisis, and no longer look at it glibly, but begin to say, “What can we do about it as a church? How will it affect this church? How will it affect the communities we live in?” and recognize that we’re going to live in those communities for another, you know, for the rest of our lives—we’re going to live in the midst of the judgment of God upon unregenerate man who seeks to eliminate regenerate man and the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Now, that judgment is being poured out by God now. And as I said, it’s going to have tremendous implications for us as well. Our midst as a people, as a nation, and as a church, as well here at Reformation Covenant Church, will be sorely tested, I believe, in the next years as God continues his judgment against pagan man. What will be the basis for our hope as we look for the future? When we begin to consider the implications of this in our own lives and the lives of our community, what will be the basis for our hope?

Will it be Steiner’s basis for his hope? I’ll tell you what Steiner says about hope in one final quote from this man. He says, “Hope is based in this future tense. The idea to be able to talk about the day after your death,” he says, “is the great thing that makes us human, because we now have hope.” But what is hope for Steiner? Hope is a kind of future tense often without any anchorage in substantial reality. Hope for Steiner, hope for unregenerate man, is based upon again insanity and denial of reality. That’s their only answer.

But that’s not our answer. Our hope is hinged upon the resurrection of Jesus Christ, a given fact. And that’s why St. Paul in the passage we read goes on to cite the hundreds of people that witnessed the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is an affirmation of reality. To hope in the resurrection, to understand it as a given fact by God, that will be our hope for the future. It will provide us a sure foundation as we look around at the death and dying that will occur around us as a nation.

We have to see that Jesus Christ has taken care of death and that we have no reason to fear death. We have every reason to hope for the future because Christ has delivered us from bondage to death. As we look at the sin that will surely grow in the world around us as this judgment of God continues, we needn’t fear that sin. We needn’t say that we’re bound to it somehow. We must look to the given reality of Jesus Christ’s resurrection. Remember that weekly. Remember that as we go throughout the week in all these various images God has given to us to reinforce that to our minds. And go forth with hope, recognizing that Jesus Christ has delivered us from bondage to sin.

And we shouldn’t fear the future because God has told us—as sure as Jesus Christ has risen from the dead, which we know to be true, as sure as that’s true, the kingdom has been established. And what we see around us is the manifestations of the reign of Jesus Christ. We should thank God for his judgment that he pours forth upon this nation. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t have compassion for the people around us. We are the only people who can have that compassion because we’ve been freed from fear of sin and death, that we might then show that grace to others.

And when death continues to be an important part of people’s lives in this country, we have the answer for death. We don’t have to tell them, as Steiner does, we’ll just imagine the future and everything will be okay. We can point them to Jesus Christ. We have the only answer. We have the firm foundation, and we know that the future brings forth victory for Jesus Christ over all his enemies and victory for us as we see ourselves in covenantal union with Jesus Christ and identify ourselves with him. Our hope is built on the certainty of our Lord’s resurrection and anchored therefore in reality. And we see the future with hope because we affirm the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Let’s pray.

Almighty God, we thank you for yourself. We thank you, Father, for the message of the resurrection. And we pray, Lord God, that throughout this week we would continue to meditate and ponder these things and store them up in the base of our being, that when troubled times come, we might understand the hope that we have in Jesus Christ, that we might not be fearful of sin and death and bondage to them or of the future and what it might bring, but that we should be rejoicing before you in all these things, recognizing the implications of Christ’s gospel being worked out throughout the created order.

Almighty God, we thank you that we have a sure hope for the future in him. And we thank you, Lord God, that we can teach our children on the basis of their being freed from sin and death, that they might serve you as dominion boys and girls under Jesus Christ, working out the implications of his kingdom and calling people to a visible ascent to that kingdom truth. We thank you, Lord God, for this Sunday, and pray that it would be a model for us throughout the rest of the year to walk in the power of the resurrection, not fearing sin and death, but using instead everything that you’ve given us as members of righteousness for the spread of the gospel of Jesus Christ and his grace.

In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

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The scriptures teach us that Christ died for our sins and we were baptized into the death of Jesus Christ, united with him in his covenant of grace, understanding that his death was performed for our benefit. We’re united with Christ in the likeness of his resurrection as well. We’re given an assurance by the sign of baptism that we also will be resurrected by Christ. And the implications of that, of course, as we said this morning, is that we’re freed from sin and death. And we’re also brought into the victory of Jesus Christ over the enemies of him, who he assured us would also be our enemies as well.

And then, of course, baptism was also into the covenant community of Jesus Christ, the visible covenant community. And we see our place in the body of Christ, then again, to be used as members of him for the purpose of righteousness. This morning we’re really pleased to be able to baptize three members of the Walter family. They’ve been visiting us many times now for the last, I guess what, four or five months? That about right? Over the last year. Most of you probably have met them at least once or twice. And they also participate in the Saturday market. They live in Port Orford, but they participate in Saturday market, which is now on again, I guess, for a while anyway. And so we thought this would be a good time. They did, and I agree, to go ahead and baptize the members of their family that hadn’t been baptized yet.

Why don’t you go ahead and come forward now?

The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him and his righteousness to his children’s children, to such as keep his covenant and to those that remember his commandments to do them. He shall feed his flock like a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs with his arm and carry them in his bosom. For the promise is unto you and to your children and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Dearly beloved, the sacrament of baptism is of divine ordinance and is a sign and seal of our cleansing, of our engrafting into Christ, and of our welcome into the household of God. Yet it is not lawful to baptize adults and professors unless they first feel their sins and make confession of their repentance and of their faith in Christ. For this cause did not only John the Baptist, according to the command of God, preach the baptism of repentance under the remission of sins and baptize those who confess their sins, but also our Lord Jesus Christ commanded his apostles to make disciples of all the nations and to baptize them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, adding thereto this promise: “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.”

According to this rule, the apostles, as appears from the book of Acts, baptize no other adults or older children but such as made confession of their repentance and faith. Therefore, it is not lawful now to baptize any other adults than those who have learned and understand from the preaching of the holy gospel the mystery of holy baptism and are able to give an account thereof and of their faith by the profession of their mouths.

Well, beloved, you have come hither desiring to receive holy baptism. We pray that our Lord Jesus Christ would vouchsafe to receive you, to release you from sin, to sanctify you with the Holy Ghost, to give you the kingdom of heaven and everlasting life.

Dost thou renounce the devil and all his works, the vain pomp and glory of this world with all covetous desires of the same, and the sinful desires of the flesh, so that thou wilt not follow nor be led by them?

I do, by God’s help.

And do you confess Jesus Christ as your savior?

I do believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God.

Dost thou believe in Jesus, the Christ, the son of the living God?

I believe in Jesus, the son of the living God.

Christian, dost thou accept him and desire to follow him as thy savior and lord? Wilt thou be baptized in this faith?

Wilt thou then obediently keep God’s holy will and commandments and walk in the same all the days of thy life?

Let’s pray.

Most merciful and loving Father, we thank thee for the church of thy dear son, the ministry of thy word and the sacraments of grace. We praise thee that thou hast given us so gracious promises concerning thy covenant people and that in mercy thou callest them to thee, marking them with this sacrament as a singular token and pledge of thy love. Set apart this water from a common to a sacred use. And grant that what we now do on earth may be confirmed in heaven. As in humble faith we present these servants to thee, we beseech thee to receive them, to endow them with thy holy spirit, and to keep them ever as thine own through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Jerry, should we start with you?

Jerry Diana Walter, I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. May the blessing of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit come upon you and stay upon you now and forevermore.

Megan Ruth Walter, I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. May the blessing of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost come upon you and stay upon you now and forevermore.

You wrote Christian. That’s Christian Howard Walter. I baptize you in the name of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. May the blessing of God the Father, God the Son, and the Holy Spirit come upon you and stay upon you now and forevermore.

Amen.

Let us pray.

Almighty God and merciful Father, we thank thee and praise thee that thou hast given us, forgiven us all our sins through the blood of thy beloved son Jesus Christ, and received us through thy holy spirit as members of thine only begotten son and so adopted us to be thy children and sealed and confirmed the same unto us by holy baptism.

We beseech thee also through him, thy beloved son, that thou wilt always govern these brothers and sisters by thy holy spirit, that they may lead a Christian and godly life and grow and increase in the Lord Jesus Christ, in order that they may acknowledge thy fatherly goodness and mercy, which thou hast shown to them and to us all, and live in all righteousness under our only teacher, King, and High priest, Jesus Christ, and manfully fight against and overcome sin, the devil, and his whole dominion, to the end that they may eternally praise and magnify thee and thy son Jesus Christ, together with thy holy spirit, the one and only true God.

Amen.

Thank you. The sign of our engrafting into the visible covenant community of Jesus Christ. And we also learn from scriptures that part of that covenant is that the visible covenant community has established in churches. And so we’re very pleased this morning also to receiving the TSI family into membership in the covenant of Reformation Covenant Church. Would you come forward now, please?

Tony, could you read the covenant statement of the church and then affirm it and sign on the back, please?

“I agree with the confessional statement of Reformation Covenant Church and will endeavor to support it and this fellowship of believers. I pledge not to marry a non-believer. I pledge to give God his tithe. I pledge to regularly attend this church’s worship services. I pledge to support the leadership of this fellowship and to subject myself to and to participate in the government of this church. I abhor the sin of abortion and pledge to oppose it. I pledge to educate my children in the fear and admonition of the Lord. I pledge to keep the Sabbath, not doing my own pleasure, but God’s according to the scriptures.”

Congregation of the Lord, this family has now entered into solemn covenant with this covenant community. And I, as the appointed representative of this congregation, do hereby pledge our covenant loyalty to them and to their descendants. You, the people of this assembly, are now under obligation to pray for this family, to exhort and encourage them in the faith, and to be of whatever assistance.