Introducing the New You

Let me invite you to take your Bibles and turn to the book of Colossians chapter 3 verses 1 through 17. Colossians 3 1 through 17. And as you're turning there, let me just say how delighted I am to be back here with you again. Had a great time here in January and have grown in a very short time to just very much love and appreciate your congregation. Very excited to be back here for the next two weeks and especially on this Easter Sunday, this Lord's Day of Lord's Days. And so very excited to be here this week in particular. If you've turned to Colossians chapter three, verses one through 17, let me invite you, if you are physically able to let's stand together in honor of the reading of God's word. If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you, sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these, the wrath of God is coming in these. You, too, once walked when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away. Anger, wrath, malice, slander and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there is no Greek and Jew. Circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free. But Christ is all and in all. Put on, then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness and patience, bearing with one another. And if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other as the Lord has forgiven you. So you also must forgive. And above all these, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts to which you were called in one body and be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Will you pray with me? Heavenly Father, we are so very grateful for the opportunity that we have had to worship you this morning through song, to worship you through giving and through prayer. And father, we now delight in the opportunity to worship you in the word. And so we pray, Lord, that your Holy Spirit would speak to us in the next few moments in whatever way he sees fit. We pray that you would soften our hearts and help us to be receptive to your word. And we pray this morning, Lord, that the same spirit who brought our Lord Jesus Christ back to life would awaken the spiritually dead this morning and that your Holy Spirit would work among us, drawing all men to yourself. And Father, I pray as the preacher for this morning that the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart would be pleasing in your sight. Oh, Lord, my rock and my redeemer. And it's in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that we pray. Amen. And you may be seated. I want to speak to you this morning about introducing the new you. I want to begin with an interesting fact about my family. I don't know if this is true of your family, but it's true of my family, and some people think it's kind of weird. We don't have cable television. And there's a couple of reasons we don't have cable television. On the one hand, we don't have cable because we just don't want to be tempted to watch too much television. That doesn't have to be your conviction, but that's our conviction. We just don't want to spend hours and hours and hours every week. And so if we don't have cable, it takes away some of those opportunities. The other reason that we don't have cable is because we're cheapskates. And we don't apologize for that. We're kind of like that. Because we don't have cable, it is a special treat whenever we travel and we stay in a hotel room or we visit with family, because we're introduced to all kinds of television programs that we hear about second hand, but that we don't normally watch ourselves because they're found on cable. In fact, that was even the case last night in the hotel we were staying in. Now, one thing I've noticed over about the past decade, especially as I've visited other places and had a chance to see some of the things that are on TV, is there's just an enormous amount of shows that revolve around people's physical appearances. Have you ever noticed that before? And there seems to be more and more as time goes on. Some of these shows take ordinary people and give them an extreme makeover that allegedly then makes them glamorous. Some of these shows highlight how some poor fellow is exhibit A for what not to wear, and so the heroes come in and they get rid of his old wardrobe from college, and they give him a new wardrobe, and now he's debonair and his wife likes him again, and apparently he's a better person because he has new clothes. And one of the most clever twists on this theme, one of the more popular shows focuses on who can be the biggest loser by staging a competition between people who are obese to see who can lose the most weight. And the idea, of course, being that the person who loses the most weight is now more attractive because they've lost the most weight. And of course, this is just scratching the surface of television shows that play off of this emphasis on physical appearance. And as superficial as some of these shows are, though I have to admit I do like the idea behind The Biggest Loser, as superficial as these shows are, I do think they point out a fundamental characteristic of American culture that we would do well to heed as Christians. Americans in general are a narcissistic people. that are far too concerned with outward appearances. I just really believe that to be true. And lest you think I'm being overly critical, I think there are some other symptoms that confirm my diagnosis of our culture in this regard. I think of things like eating disorders, fad diets, tanning beds, excessive wardrobes, cosmetic dental procedures, plastic surgery, and the list could go on. You see, the whole idea behind some of these things, of course, there are situations where people ought to have these things done, and I think that's true. But in many of these cases, and for most people, I think the idea here is that the real me is not very satisfying. And so I'm always in search of a new me who is skinnier, a new me who dresses a little bit better, a new me who's a little more tan, a new me who doesn't have any noticeable physical defects. And of course the assumption behind this mentality is that this new me must be a better me, because this new me looks better, and other people will notice that, and so new must be better. Well, as we come to Colossians 3, 1 through 17, I think we see that there is a sense in which it is healthy for us to desire to become a better version of ourselves. I think there's something healthy about that, but far from the shallow attitude that focuses only on improving our physical appearances, The Apostle Paul here speaks of a new and improved version of me and of you that goes far deeper than shedding a few pounds or updating what's hanging in the closet. So as we look at this passage together, what I want to do this morning is introduce you to three aspects of the new you that God wants you to be. It may not be the new you that you want to be, but I hope and pray by the end of this time together it's the new you that you want to be, because it's the new you that God wants you to be. And so I want you to notice first, this first aspect is a new foundation. The first aspect of this new you is a new foundation, which appropriately enough on this Easter Sunday, the new foundation is the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Read with me, if you will, again, the first part of verse one. If then you have been raised with Christ. If then you have been raised with Christ. The idea here is that Christ has been raised, what we're celebrating today, and we have been raised with Him. Now, this sounds a little bit confusing at first blush, doesn't it? We're used to thinking about Jesus being raised, even if you're here today and you're not a Christian. Maybe you're here because it's just a thing that you do on Easter, or maybe you're here to please your parents or your grandparents or something like that. Maybe someone invited you. But probably everyone in this room understands that Christians talk about the resurrection of Jesus Christ. But what about this business of us being raised with him? Well, the if then at the beginning of verse one ties this passage back to the previous chapter. And what Paul is doing is he's clarifying what he was talking about in that chapter. So if you turn a page back to Colossians chapter two, verses 11 through 14, Let's read those verses together, because I think they give us one of the best brief treatments of salvation that we find in the entire New Testament. So just a page back or so, Colossians 2, 11 through 14. In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith and the powerful working of God who raised him from the dead. And you who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. So according to these verses in the previous chapter, Christians have been regenerated, or the more common language we use today is born again. Our sins have been forgiven because our sin debt has been paid by Christ. And we've been symbolically buried and raised with Christ in our baptism. All of this by the power of the same God who raised Jesus Christ from the dead. This is the idea that Paul's building on in Colossians 3 that we're looking at this morning. When we trust in Christ for our salvation, we share in his death and in his resurrection. Verses 3 and 4 continue this idea. Let's look at those together of chapter 3 now. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Paul is claiming that our own lives as Christians only really make sense because who we were once is dead and we're now united with Christ, which is the source of our new life. And we might even say the source of our true life. And this is a theme that we see throughout Paul's writings and other places in the New Testament, especially Romans chapter five and Romans chapter six. And I'm not going to ask you to turn there for the sake of time, but let me briefly summarize each of these passages for you. In Romans five, Paul argues that all people are united with Adam and his sin because Adam is the covenant head of the human race. And all Christians are united with Christ and his perfect righteousness and sacrificial death because he is the covenant head of all believers. So everyone is in Adam, but all Christians are now in Christ. And when we get to Romans 6, Paul argues in particular that believers' baptism by immersion symbolizes our union with Christ's death and resurrection because our old lost self is symbolically buried in that watery grave and our new saved self is symbolically raised up into new life. These are ideas that we see throughout Paul's writings. Notice that Paul said in particular that we will appear with Christ in glory because our lives are hidden with him in the here and now. And I don't want you to miss this, especially on Easter. This is also a reference to resurrection, this idea of appearing with Christ in glory. The resurrection of our dead bodies at the end of time is a common theme that we find throughout scripture. I know we have this idea in popular culture and maybe even with some in this church that Christians believe that at the end of time, we're sort of floating on the clouds in heaven, playing our harps and wearing white clothes and having a generally bland life. But at least there's no dirt or muck or sin or anything like that. But that's not actually what the Bible teaches. That's just pop culture. That's not really what we see in Scripture. The unanimous testimony of Scripture is the resurrection of the dead. I'll just give you a brief survey of this. In Job chapter 19, Job says that his skin will be destroyed, yet in his flesh he will see God at the last day. Probably the earliest reference we have to resurrection in Scripture. In Isaiah 26, 19, it's as clear as it can be. Your dead shall live, their bodies shall rise. You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy. For your due is a due of light, and the earth will give birth to the dead. In John 6, verse 44, Jesus promises he will preserve all of his elect until the last day when he will raise them up. In 1 Corinthians 15, if you were here for the sunrise service, we read this passage this morning. Paul calls Christ the first fruits of the resurrection because he argues we will be raised just like he was. And in Revelation chapter 20, the dead in Christ are raised. And in Revelation 21 and 22, they inhabit a new earth or a new Jerusalem that is wholly cleansed of sin and suffering. The dead will rise again. The resurrection of Christ has secured our salvation as Christians because He has defeated death and guaranteed that one day every man, woman, and child who turn from their sins and look to Him for salvation will share in that resurrection, will share in that victory. We too will defeat death because Christ has defeated death. This is the very new foundation. What I should say, rather, is that this resurrection is foundational. It's central to the gospel. The gospel, you'll remember, is the wonderful announcement of everything that God has done on behalf of sinners in the perfect life, the atoning death, and the victorious resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is part of that gospel. When we turn from our sins and we trust in the saving work of Christ, we're united with Him in His death and resurrection. Our sins are paid for, and one day we will be raised just as He was raised. This is the new foundation for the new you. If you have been raised with Christ, right now spiritually, your life is different than what it once was. You have this new foundation. And this is way better than going out and getting a tan, or dropping 20 pounds, or paying for liposuction, or buying a new wardrobe, or whatever it is that you may do. Those are surface level changes. But the Gospel brings real, deep, and lasting change. not just surface level changes. You know, you can repaint a house that has a foundation that's sinking, but you're not fixing the real problem, are you? You may put a new coat of paint on that house, but eventually cracks are going to appear in the walls and the roof might just cave in on top of you. In the same way, we're so tempted to try to remake ourselves in superficial ways as we want to, but only a foundational change is really going to produce a new and better version of who we are right now. So to recap, if you're a follower of Jesus Christ, the first aspect of the new you is a new and better foundation, the gospel benefits that have been secured for you through the death and the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. But notice, secondly, that once you have a new foundation, the second aspect of the new you is a new focus. A new focus that is the gospel priorities that now characterize your life. Let's look at the second part of verse one and verse two of chapter three. Seek the things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God, set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. Have you ever heard the old adage that somebody can be so heavenly minded they're no earthly good? Have you ever heard that before? I think we've probably all met people at one time or another who are so focused on a particular Christian doctrine or a particular Christian practice or habit that these things begin to dominate who they are and they become an end unto themselves and can actually lead some Christians to isolate themselves from others and sometimes can even lead to gospel irrelevance. And often these folks are focused on good things, but they make these good things into idols. Not to stir the pot too much, but let me just tell you as a professor and minister and deacon, some of the things I run into, I think of the guy who is obsessed with end time speculation. And that's all that he talks about. You know, he's always ready to whip the chart out. I think of the woman who thinks that any family that doesn't homeschool is dishonoring Christ and it's a high-handed sin that you might just go to hell for if you don't homeschool or sometimes if you're homeschooling but you're not using the right curriculum. You hear that fight too. Or I think about the folks whose chief concern is defending their particular worship preference at all costs. The church will die before my favorite worship preferences will die. You know, we meet people like this. You know, not to be irksome, but I would imagine there are people like this in this church. There are people like this in virtually every church. This is not what Paul is talking about when he says we should set our minds on the things above, not on the things of earth. What Paul is talking about is not fixating on one or two sort of Christian pet peeves and making those the only thing that you ever talk about. What he's talking about is having the type of heavenly priorities that ought to flow from our gospel foundation. He talks about new gospel priorities. In other words, Paul is saying we ought to be the type of people who don't have to cross our fingers when we pray that part in the Lord's Prayer about God's will being done on earth as it is in heaven. Do we really believe that when we pray that? I don't think we disbelieve that in the sense that we think it's not true, but I'm not sure we really believe that whenever we pray the Lord's Prayer. Paul hits on this same theme in Romans 12 too, when he tells us not to be conformed to this world, but rather to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. Make no mistake about it. In these passages, Paul is arguing for new priorities that totally reshape the way our lives look. That's what he's talking about. In fact, he does it even more in this passage. If you look, he ends this passage in verse 17. Let's read that together. And whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. So whatsoever you say, whatsoever you do, do it all with a thankful heart and in the name of the Lord Jesus. What's he saying? He's saying, do everything you do for the glory of God. That's the new gospel priority. Do all that you do for the glory of God. This sounds a lot like what Jesus is talking about, doesn't it? When he says that we should love the Lord our God with all of our heart and soul and mind and strength. I think that these two ideas are connected. And so let me ask you this morning a pointed question. If you are here and if you claim to be a Christian, have your priorities changed from what they were before? I mean, do your priorities look different now than they did on the other side? of your conversion experience, or your baptism, or your walking the aisle, or whatever it is, your praying the prayer, whatever you think of as your conversion experience, do your priorities look different now than they did before that experience? Have your worldly, self-centered priorities been replaced with gospel priorities? Do you desire to honor Christ above all things, or are you still mostly concerned with your own benefit? It's not my desire to cause any of you here to unnecessarily fret about your salvation. I don't think that's a healthy thing to do. But at the same time, let me be clear. If your life is not characterized by gospel priorities, it is at least possible that you have never responded appropriately to the gospel. It's at least possible. I can say this with confidence. If your priorities don't look like gospel priorities, even if you are a Christian, you need to turn from your sins and you need to cast yourself upon the mercies of Christ. because we are to be characterized by new priorities as Christians. Our new foundation is supposed to lead to a new focus, one that takes our eyes off of ourselves and fixes our eyes on Jesus. This is what's supposed to happen. We're supposed to now be focused upon the One who loved us enough that He died for us and that He was raised for us. And when we fix our eyes upon Him, our priorities begin to look increasingly like his priorities. And so to recap, if you're a follower of Christ, you should be characterized by a new focus, the type of gospel priorities that characterize Jesus and that reflect the values of heaven more than the values of the fallen world. But I want you to notice a third thing this morning. Not only do we have this new foundation, the resurrection, Not only do we have this new focus of gospel priorities, notice thirdly, this third aspect of the new you is you should have a new fruit. You should have a new fruit, the spiritual growth that results from your new foundation and your new focus. Jesus once famously told his followers in Matthew 7 that just like certain trees bear certain types of fruit, so Christians would be known by the type of fruit that they bear. I think what we see in Colossians 3, 5 through 16, is the type of spiritual fruit that ought to characterize followers of Jesus Christ. And we're going to walk through some of these verses fairly quickly for the sake of time. But notice again, the first part of verse five, we see that we're to fight against our sinful tendencies. This is what Paul says. Put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you. Pretty strong language, isn't it? Paul is using this strong language to communicate, friends, that we are in a fight to the death with our sin. We're in a fight to the death with our sin. Look at the second half of verse five. Paul gives us a list of these vices. We're supposed to fight to death, sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire and covetousness, which is idolatry. These are some of the types of sins that we should be raging against day by day. I don't think this list is exhaustive. He's going to give us more in a minute. But these are some of the things that as Christians, we're to be at war against seeking to put to death or I love the old word seeking to mortify. These are the sins we should be seeking to mortify. Let's look at verse six. Paul says, On account of these, the wrath of God is coming. We must fight these sins in ourselves because they deserve God's wrath. These are the very actions and attitudes that sent our Lord Jesus Christ to the cross on the first place. Sins just like these, found in you, found in me, found in every person who's ever lived. Look in verse 7, Paul says, In these you too once walked when you were living in them. In other words, these were the type of sins that characterized our old life. This is who we used to be. Maybe we didn't act out every one of these impulses, but search your hearts, friends. You know that these things were true of each of us, whether we ever acted them out or not. We were people of slander. We were people of malice. We were people of sexual immorality. We were people of covetousness. And sometimes we still are, aren't we? in isolated moments, hopefully just in isolated moments. Verse 8. But now you must put them all away. More things. Anger, wrath, malice, slander and obscene talk from your mouth. And why, you may ask, should we put these things away? Look at verses 9 and 10. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator." Paul is saying here that we should put away our sins because we have traded our old selves for our new selves. Christians, meet the new you. The old self is gone. You've got a new self now. And note that the new you is being renewed in knowledge after the likeness of the God who created you, which sounds a lot like the reason we are to set our minds on the things above. This is another idea we don't just find in this passage. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5, 17, one of his most famous quotations. Therefore, if any man is in Christ, he's a new creature. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come. Christians meet the new you. This is true of you if you are in Christ. The good news gets even better than this. Paul tells us that anyone can put off their old self and become a new creation if they look to Christ. Look at verse 11. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free, but Christ is all and in all. Friends, the gospel is a universal message for every type of person. What's he saying here? This can be true of anyone. Your social class doesn't determine whether or not you can put off your old self and put on a new self. Your ethnic identity does not determine whether you can do this. Your national citizenship doesn't hinder or help someone come to faith in Christ. Your particular sin patterns don't help you or hinder you in this. It's been said this way, and it's a cliché, but like most clichés, it's grounded in truth. The ground is level at the foot of the cross. Jesus Christ died for people from every tribe and tongue and nation, every type of struggle, every type of sin, every type of habit, every ethnic group, every socioeconomic class, both sexes, people of all ages. It's a universal message for all people. Anyone can put away their old self and become a new creation if they cast themselves upon the mercies of Christ. This idea of putting our sin to death is the negative side of spiritual growth. But in verses 12 through 16, we see there's also a positive side. Not only are there vices we should put away, there are virtues we should cultivate. Let's read verses 12 through 16 together. Put on then as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness and patience, Bearing with one another and if one has a complaint against another forgiving each other as the Lord has forgiven you So you also must forgive and above all these put on love which binds everything together in perfect harmony and let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts to which indeed you were called in one body and be thankful and Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God. This is a long list of godly virtues, and I'm not going to dive too deeply in this for the sake of time this morning. Perhaps we can do that another time. For the sake of our sermon this morning, I would summarize Paul's list of virtues like this. Those who are in Christ, their lives are characterized by lives that look increasingly like Christ's. So in other words, not only should our priorities now look like Christ, our actions should look like Christ. Not just our motivations, but what we actually do should look increasingly like Christ. We should be growing in what Christians call personal holiness. walking closer with Christ, looking more like Christ, sounding more like Christ because we are becoming more like Christ. And to be sure, we are not going to achieve some type of sinless perfection this side of heaven. That's precisely why we need Christ's sinless perfection to be credited to us, isn't it? We can't do it on our own. We need him to do it for us. But If you are a Christian, the longer you live, the more your life ought to look like the one who rescued you from your old self and has transformed you into a new self. You ought to look more like Jesus, knowing at the same time that you will only be completely like him. That is to say, without sin, whenever we reach that last day, when you are resurrected into the final version of the new you. Now, before moving on, I want to be very careful about something at this point. It is tempting for many people right here at this discussion about virtues and vices. to slip into the idea that we can earn God's favor somehow by trying to conquer our vices and trying to cultivate certain virtues. I think this is the default thinking of most people, and even sincere Christians fall into this idea. If I can just get rid of this sin, or just start doing this good thing, then I'll earn God's favor, He'll bless me, He'll really love me, whatever the case may be, I would argue that this type of thinking is a deadly mistake. We call this approach to the Christian life legalism, and it's actually the opposite of the true gospel, because it claims that we can somehow merit God's favor rather than resting in the favor that he's already shown us in Jesus Christ. We don't have to earn his love. We don't have to earn his favor. We don't have to try to deserve those things. We don't deserve those things. We've gotten those things anyway through what Jesus Christ has done. And that's the good news. We've not gotten what we have deserved. We have gotten what we did not deserve. The real gospel teaches us that putting our sin to death and pursuing godliness is not the means to salvation. It's rather the fruit of salvation. And that's exactly the point that Paul's making in verses five through sixteen. This is the fruit of a person who's been changed, a change. Pay close attention here. It's only after we gain a new foundation and a new focus that we can bear new fruit. A changed life results from our trusting in the saving work of Christ. And if we get the order wrong as Christians, it can kill our spiritual life and lead to all kinds of doubts and despairs. Maybe you're someone this morning who's a sincere believer struggling with doubt and despair because you've slipped into a pattern of trying to earn God's love and God's favor. Even more tragic. If unbelievers get this order wrong, they will remain dead in their sins and continue to be under the just wrath of God because they're trying to earn something they can't earn, rather than resting in something that's been done on their behalf. Let me say it this way. All of the different do this ideas of the Christian life, all of the do this of the Christian life must be the result of the done this that Christ has accomplished on our behalf. If we are really resting in Him, our lives are going to be conformed to His example, not because we're doing something to earn God's favor, but because something that shows God's favor has been done for us, and we do these things now as a result of what God has done on our behalf through Jesus Christ. And so as we come this morning to the close of our time together, at least with this sermon, I want to leave you with some final suggestions about ways that we can apply these ideas to our lives this morning. If you're here and you're a Christian who is struggling with particular sinful tendencies, maybe something that only you know about, maybe your friends, your spouse, your children don't know about it, but you know that you've got this struggle. I want to encourage you this morning to fight that sin, recommit to fighting that sin. Put it away. Walk in a manner that is worthy of the Lord who has saved you. What sins, Christians, what sins do you need to repent of this morning? What pockets of your life look like the old you instead of the new you? I would suggest we all have some of those pockets. If you are here and you are a Christian who is enduring a season of spiritual dryness, all of us go through those seasons where we have trouble praying, and when we do pray, we think the prayers are hitting the ceilings. We have a hard time reading our Bible and getting into it. It's difficult to talk about Jesus. I wouldn't say this is normal. But I would say it's inevitable. Everybody goes through this from time to time. And if you're someone who is enduring a season of spiritual dryness, let me urge you today and over the next few days to spend some time meditating on the resurrection of Christ. Meditate on these passages we've looked at today, especially during the Easter sunrise service. Turn to the back of your Bible, look for the word resurrection and read all of those passages that use words like resurrection or raised or raised up and meditate on these things. The old you has been crucified. With Christ, the new you has been raised with Christ. You have been born again. You have conquered death because he conquered death. And one day you will never see death again because it will be finally eliminated. If you're here and you're a Christian who's concerned about your lost friends and family, and if you have lost friends and family, I hope you are that Christian. If you're here and you're concerned about lost friends and family, commit today to being a herald of the resurrection, an announcer of the resurrection. Christ is risen. Hallelujah. This is good news. And all people who turn from their sins and look to him for salvation will never taste a lasting death. but will have everlasting life because they too will share in his resurrection, commit to being a herald of his resurrection. And finally, if you are here this morning and you are not a Christian, and I've been doing this long enough to know that on this Sunday, perhaps more than any other Sunday during the year, except maybe Mother's Day, there are many of you here today who are not Christians. I don't know who you are. This is not my church, but you know who you are. And if you are here today and you are not a Christian, it is not a mistake that you're here today. It's not an accident of history. It's not a coincidence. It's not a random thing. It's not something you're just doing so that you can please a family member or you're doing for some type of school assignment. If you're here this morning and you're not a Christian, I have good news for you. Jesus Christ came into this world 2,000 years ago, and He perfectly kept every one of God's commands, never sinning, not even once. And then He went to the cross, and He took upon Himself God's just wrath against sin. And He died, and He was really dead. But after three days being dead, praise be to God, he came back to life, the only person in history who has ever died and come back to life and not died again. Jesus Christ is still alive today. And he did all of these things, this perfect life, this sacrificial death, this victorious resurrection. Friend, all of these things were done for sinners just like you. And if you would turn from your sins this morning, and if you would trust Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, I promise you, He will save you. You, too, will be a defeater of death. You will become a new version of you. You will become who you were meant to be, who you were created to be. Not because of something in you, but because of what the God who created you and loves you has done on your behalf through the perfect life and sacrificial death and victorious resurrection of Jesus Christ. Friend, if you're here today and you're not a Christian, don't walk out of these doors until you've asked someone, what must I do to be saved? And if I've not made it clear, you won't hurt my feelings if you grab me after this service and say, can you talk to me just a little bit more? Or if you grab one of these men who's going to be down here in just a few minutes and say, what do I need to do? We want to talk to you about this. We don't want you to leave today confused about these things. Won't you today turn from your sins and trust Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior? We're going to do something just a little bit different today. It is this church's tradition to regularly celebrate the Lord's Supper. And we're going to now begin a transition into that time. And what I'm going to do is I'm going to close this portion of our service out with prayer and then the deacons are going to come forward. But let me go ahead and say just something about the Lord's Supper. You may or may not be familiar with it, especially on a day when perhaps we have many visitors. But the Lord's Supper is a Christian ordinance, a Christian practice that's celebrated by local churches just like Jefferson Park Baptist Church. It's a meal that celebrates by looking back at the sacrifice that Jesus has made, and it looks forward to that day where we will one day all sit with Him at His great banquet table and celebrate all that He's done on our behalf. If you're here and you're visiting and you are a Christian and you have followed the Lord and believers baptism, you are welcome to celebrate with this church. But this is a celebration that is specifically for believers. And so we do ask. that if you are here visiting and you are not a Christian, that you not participate in this, but that perhaps you spend this time reflecting on the things that you've heard this morning in the sermon, and know that even as we are celebrating the Lord's Supper, we are praying for you, and we are praying that next time we do this in just a few weeks, that you'll be right here with us, enjoying this celebration, anticipating that day when all things are made new in our Lord Jesus Christ. Will you pray with me? Heavenly Father, we thank you so much, Lord, that you came into this world to make us a new and better version of ourself. Not the type of self that we want to be when we're left to our own devices, but the type of person you want us to be. People of love and compassion. People of truth. People of tenderheartedness. people who care for orphans and widows, people who walk together in love, people who want to see this world changed for the better, people who want to see lost men and women come to saving faith in Jesus Christ. Father, we know that we can never be this if left to our own devices, but we are so thankful that in Christ these things are true of us. And so we thank you, Lord, that 2,000 years ago He did obey you on our behalf. And we are grateful that 2,000 years ago he shed his precious blood on our behalf. And Lord, on this Easter Sunday, we are exceedingly grateful that 2,000 years ago he was raised on our behalf. And Lord, we wait longingly for that day when Christ returns and the dead in him shall rise and all things will be made new and he shall reign forever and ever. And Lord, it is our sincere prayer that all of our friends who are here with us this morning who are not Christians before they leave today, that this would be their prayer as well. Thank you for the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is this gospel that we come to celebrate now through the Lord's Supper. And we pray these things in Jesus name. Amen.