Sermon  Title- Paul Joins Old and New

Sermon  Subject- Christians either let the Spirit Lead or They

  Don’t!

 

Scripture- Romans 8:(5) 6-11

 

Date- 17 March, 2002  (Fifth Sunday in Lent)

 

             Our Scripture for this morning is again rich and exciting with the wonderful imagery in Ezekiel of the valley of dry and brittle bones that God restores to life as He promises the exiled Jews in Babylon redemption, a new spirit and relief from exile and the powerful story in John of Jesus restoring life to a man dead for four days as He declares His power over sin and death. 

            The Jews are in exile because of their apostasy, that is worship of idols and other gods, and their general unrepentant disobedience to God.  The key word is repentance.  Asking forgiveness without a true desire to not repeat the sin is as far from repentance as the skunk is from the peacock and done repeatedly begins to have the odor of insincerity rather than the joyful colors of obedience.  God’s prophets called the people to repentance and Jesus said, “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is near”, not ask forgiveness.  So God disciplined the whole nation with exile.  But he also sent Ezekiel with the exiles to preach His promise of restoration and a new spirit to the chastened exiles.  We have been learning about God’s discipline and chastening in our Lenten Bible study. 

               In the resurrection of Lazarus Jesus reveals and declares that He is God’s restoration and new spirit.  The Jews believed that after physical death the spirit lingered for three days, but by the fourth day the spirit was gone so the four days is important.  The Jews understood that Jesus not only resurrected the physical body, but put a new spirit in Lazarus.  And many believed in Jesus as the Son of God, the Messiah.  By His Grace through faith in Jesus God promises cleansing of our sin and eternal life.

            Now in Romans Paul joins these promises of restoration to God in the Old Testament and eternal life and a new spirit through Jesus in the New Testament is a few short verses.  He points out that anyone who accepts God’s Grace by believing in Jesus as His Son belongs to Christ and has the same spirit living in them that raised Lazarus from the dead, the same spirit living in them that was promised to the exiles and the same spirit living in them that caused the grave to be empty on Easter morning.  And now each Christian has a choice to make.  Will you and I allow the spirit to lead or will we continue to follow our own desires?  Paul is talking about sanctification or as John Wesley described it, sanctifying Grace.     Paul begins his discussion of sanctification in chapter 6 of Romans and concludes in chapter 8.  Will we slide down in one of those easy chairs inside the gate of salvation and follow our desires or will we follow the spirit down the path of discipleship with Jesus as our model?   Lent is the time to face this choice honestly and prayerfully as we prepare to celebrate the resurrection of our Lord.

            In our Scripture today Paul describes 2 classes of believers; those who continue to be lead by the desires of the flesh and those who allow the spirit to lead.  The first group can not please God.  In Galatians Paul tells us that for the second group the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  And Paul says that since we have the spirit, we must keep in step with the spirit.  This, so that Jesus Christ will shine through us and out to the world.  And yet many look at the church and Christians and cry, “Hypocrites!” because they see those who choose not to allow the spirit lead, those through whom Christ does not shine, those whose lives are not much different from the lives they lead.  We hear talk about spirit filled Christians and non-spirit filled Christians.  But we all have the same spirit, the spirit that made the empty tomb on Easter morning a fact and the greatest event in the history of mankind.  The difference is whether we seek the guidance of the spirit and allow the spirit to lead.  And the more we allow the spirit to guide and lead our lives, the more Christ shines through us into the world around us.  God’s plan for us is not only for eternal life sometime in the future, but to bless us every day if we will allow the spirit to lead us.  This is what Jesus was talking about when He said, “I have come that you might have life, and that you might have it abundantly”.

            So let us use this Lenten period to keep in step with the spirit and to renew our commitment to God to let the spirit lead as we prepare to celebrate the loving sacrifice and the power of the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, this Easter morning.                   Amen.