The Scripture reading this morning comes to us from Romans, the book of Romans. It is printed in your program, Romans 6 verses 8 through 11. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him. We know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death He died, He died to sin, once for all. But the life He lives, He lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Father, thank you for this Word. Dance and pack as it is. Would you help us in the moments ahead to understand it as your Word to us? Not only this morning, but for the whole of our lives. And may we take it and receive it and live by it. That we might be new people made after the fashion of Christ's resurrection. We pray for His glory, say, and for our joy as well. Amen. You may be seated. I am told that there are slaves in Indonesia. It may be the last place on earth where one human being owns another. The very idea of a person being under the complete dominion of another human being, both and sold as property, being the possession of another to do with His one pleases, seems virtually unthinkable to us. Yet for most of human history, at least for the last six or seven thousand years, slavery has been commonplace. In fact, it is only in the English-speaking world and it is only in the last 300 years that the wicked institution of slavery has been dismantled. The dismantling came at the hands of one man. His name was William Wilberforce. He was a member of the British Parliament who spent his long political career over 50 years in a patient but unrelenting determined effort to abolish the British slave trade. He worked together with prominent businessmen, physicians, government officials, and ministers of his day. They together were known as the Clapham Group, named after the street on which Wilberforce had his home in London. The Clapham Group strove to end not slavery itself. That was too ambitious. They knew that. But rather, to cut the quick of slavery's life by ending the slave trade, the stealing of human beings from their homes, the transportation of human cargo, the selling of human flesh, 1800 years before Wilberforce, slavery was so common in the Roman Empire that when Paul wrote the words in this epistle, the economy of the civilized world depended upon this institution. One out of every five people were slaves. They had few rights. They were not permitted to own property, including the clothes on their back. Their marriages were not legally recognized, and they were not permitted to raise their own children necessarily, nor to have the rights over their upbringing. Today, slavery thinks it seems to us to be unthinkable. As Americans, we can be proud that the foundational principles and documents of our own land undermined the theoretical basis for slavery. Today, we use the idea of slavery metaphorically, like I slaved away in my backyard all afternoon, or my teacher, or my coach, or my boss as a real slave driver. As beneficiaries of the Enlightenment and the American Revolution, and the spreading now of democracies all over the world, we know that men are not slaves, and we know that no man is to call another man master. We are free. We are free, or are we? If a slave is one who is under the absolute authority of another, if a slave is one whose ultimate freedom is compromised by that service, then are we free? And I want to suggest to you that the institution of slavery is actually a figure, a representation of what the Bible describes as a far greater slavery, a slavery that is wicked to the core is much more thorough than any human indentured service, and has a reign and a rule that is more tyrannical than any human institution ever invented. It is the way in which the Bible describes our slavery to sin. The Bible says that we are enslaved to sin as if sin were a person. The Bible speaks uniquely and unusually about sin. It does not say that sin is something that we do. It says that sin is someone in whose service we follow. Sin is a person, a wicked person, to be sure, and with him comes our slavery inevitably to death. For in the Bible sin and death go together. They are the twin taskmasters that rule our lives. And because of them there is no freedom unless we are made free by another. That is what the Bible says. It is what it teaches about the nature of the world and the nature of our humanity. Literature in the West has echoed the Bible for many centuries. Death is often personified and treated as a person. Death is a bloody warrior said John Dunn and no victory at last. A tepteptuous sea and no harbor at last. A slippery height and no footing. A desperate fall. Dunn said and no bottom. Aristotle said death is a dreadful thing. It is the end. And Thomas Hobb said, I am about ready to take my last voyage. A great leap into the dark. And he who pretends to be without fear at death said Russo is a liar. In the Bible the Psalm writer picks these themes up in Psalm 116. The chords of death entangled me, he says. The anguish of the grave came upon me. I was overcome by trouble and sorrow. The apostle Paul addresses death as a person. Oh, death, where is your sting? He says at one point. And elsewhere he speaks of death's mastery over life, calling it the last enemy, not last in the sense that it is the final enemy, but more last in the sense that it is the comprehensive enemy. It is the all-inclusive enemy of enemies. It is the most formidable thing you and I will ever face. It is inevitable. And there is no way around it. When all other battles have been fought, when all other tyrannies have been defeated, death will loom as the ultimate master. There is no escape only waiting. There is no exception only postponement. Jesus speaks soberly of demon death when he says, do not fear him who can kill the body, but fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. If the story ended there, we would not be here this morning. If there was nothing else to say from God's word, the end would be the end, and the sadness would be so profound and overwhelming that worship would be a mockery, and joy would be a memory, long lost. But it is not the end of the story. For the apostle Paul tells us in this particular passage that a remarkable thing has happened. In time, in space, at a particular moment in history, Jesus Christ was raised from the dead by the power of God. This I proclaim to you, as Paul says, I declare it. He doesn't even really defend it. He just declares it. Jesus has risen by the power of God. There was at a specific moment in time such an exertion of power, such a revolutionary force unleashed, that it can now be said of Jesus that death no longer has mastery over him. Death no longer has dominion over him. Jesus healed a succession of broken souls. He cared for painful minds and troubles, spirits. There were showdowns with false gods and idols. But the last enemy is the slaveholder, the wicked slaveholder death who is reluctant to give up his slaves. And Paul's argument is this. It is not only that death is defeated by Jesus, but death is defeated by us. Because Paul's argument runs that when Christ died, those of us who put our faith in him died with him. And when Christ rose, those of us who put our faith in him rose with him. It is not only that Christ died for me, Paul says, it is that I died with Christ. Christ's death and resurrection is effective. It works in the lives, in the physical, spiritual lives of people who put their trust in the one who is conquered death. For the declaration of Paul is it in a great mystery, in a way that is indeed deep and profound and even mystical. We were with Jesus when he died and rose again. We were there. We were there when our Lord was crucified. And we were there when He rose up from the grave. And those who believe in Jesus and in that, the fact that He did these things specifically in time and space, know that they have been given an altogether new life. We were joined with Him in His death, Paul says, so that what is true you see of His relationship to death is now true of us. And what is true of Christ's relationship to death? It no longer has hold over Him. It is no longer the evil slave master. Slavery has been abolished for those who trust in the risen Christ. His death means He never had to face the terrors of death again. And His death means that you and I who put our faith in Him never have to face the terrors of death again despite the fact that we will die. There is a hope and there is a truth that changes that death. That is the promise of God's Word. And that is the thing upon which you can rest your lives now and forever. Christ's resurrection is His defeat of the old slave master death. Literally it says, death no longer lords it over Him. And if death no longer lords it over Christ, and if you and I are in Christ by faith, then death no longer lords it over you and me. Because of God's action, His supernatural powerful exertion of power in His Son. We have been identified with Christ and we are free of the wickedness of the slave master death. That is what the Bible teaches. Now I want us to understand this morning from this passage of the implications of what the Bible teaches. And there are three right here in this passage. The first simply is this. We have a future with Christ. We have a future with Christ. Look again at verse 8. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe we will live with Him. That is a promise for our future. It is in the future tense. If you are holding onto Christ by faith, then what is true of Him is true of you. He has already passed through death. He has already broken it and crushed it and He leaves it in the dust of the grave. Now He is truly and really alive. And we will be too. The resurrection means you have a future worth wanting. A future that begins now. This is the way the New Testament always describes the Christian's life. It is a great gift, a great inheritance, that we begin to enjoy now. The future is here. We partake of what we will partake of forever. We begin to taste it now. The future is not just out there. It is come back to us, much like the science fiction movie, back from the future. America's first missionary was a man named Adonaya Judson. He went to Burma at the end of the 18th century. He used to always speak about the future in these words with great faith and hope. He said, the future is as bright as the promises of God. And Vinnie was put in prison in Burma for his faith. And his Bible translations were destroyed and his converts were scattered. And he was hung upside down in prison by his ankles. And his tormentors mocked him. Adonaya, what do you say now about your future? His answer? The future is as bright as the promises of God. The future is reflected back into how we live now. So the fact that we will be resurrected with Christ begins to lend meaning, hope, incentive, purpose, correction, joy, and gladness to this life now. It changes everything, perhaps especially our relationships with one another as those who have Christ in common. Our daughter, Carrie Beth, went on a trip to Nicaragua over her spring break. It was a service trip organized by her college. It was not a mission trip organized by a church. Most of the kids, however, that went on this trip. Her friends were followers of Christ. But a few were not. And one of the girls who was not a follower of Christ by her own admission came to Carrie Beth at the end of the week and said, what is it about you, Christians? She was almost angry. What is it about you that makes you tick? What is it that compels you to care for one another the way you do? And then she said almost in spite of herself, whatever it is you have, I want to be a part of it. You see, what these kids had was the future. What they had was the taste of the way it's going to be, the way it should be, the way it will be when we are with Christ forever. A great man named Francis Schaeffer, a generation ago, said, Christians should live their lives as if they have been to heaven, seen the glory of God and come back. Everything would be different. And so like some old prophet or like Martin Luther King Jr. or an ordinary Christian who has hope, we can see the future. We can see the future, we know what it contains and its effects come back to us now in our life, in everything, in everything, especially again the way we treat one another. So that as C.S. Lewis famously said, if we could see one another now, the way we will one day see one another, we would want to call one another, gods and goddesses, and we would be sorely tempted to worship each other. We have a future with Christ. And second, the second implication of the end of the work and the reign of the old slave master death is that we are under the authority of Christ. Look verse 9 again. We know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again. Death no longer has dominion over him. Now that language of dominion is a very specific language. It is the language of country identification or citizenship. It is as if the Apostle Paul is saying, once you are a citizen of this country, once you belong to this nation, but now you have changed your citizenship, you have renounced citizenship in one country and you have become a citizen of another. His argument is that we should act, not as if we have choices so much about whether we live one way or another. He is saying instead we must choose to operate on the basis of the choice that we have already made, of the wonder that we are already in Christ, of the truth that we already belong to him. The argument is that we are no longer those who are under dominion of the old authority. Our citizenship has been transferred. We are no longer in the kingdom of darkness. We are instead in the kingdom of light and the kingdom of his son. Jesus changed his territory by virtue of his resurrection and if we are in him, our country, our territory, our homeland has changed as well. We must change our ground. We must change our territory. We must, so to speak, change our country and we must learn to live accordingly. I cannot tell you enough, my dear friends, that the difficulty and the problem in the modern church is that we want the church and we want the old country too. We want it both ways. We want to live as those who are citizens of everything that we seek here but we also want to have this new life and in the end, the authority of Jesus Christ will simply not allow it. He is the new authority. You are one who has given up one citizenship and you have moved to a new country. Now learn the language. That is what the Apostle Paul is saying. We are under Christ's authority. Sometimes I am ashamed of how I do not translate my beliefs into my living. It was as if I had been to heaven and I had seen the glory of God and I came back and I said, well, that is nice. Now let us get on with it. Most Christians do not live as if they really believe Christ has authority. We worry and care and fight for the things we want just like everyone else. And sometimes the Lord with a wonderful sense of humor shows us even in a surprising way that he actually has authority even over perhaps a small thing in our lives to demonstrate his authority over the largest of things. I do not recommend that you go to four Asian cities in nine days. It is a little bit exhausting. And after being in Hong Kong and then Tokyo and then getting to Beijing, I found myself being taken directly from the airport to a meeting with underground pastors. My son who was with me on the trip and other friends were not permitted to come to this meeting because of its somewhat secretive nature. I went to this meeting and taught these pastors for about two hours and then was driven by another car to dinner where my son and the other guests were also invited. I gave a few remarks at this dinner that night went on. It was quite late. It had been a very long day after many other long days and Chris and I got back to our hotel room just before midnight. I walked in the hotel room looked around saw Chris's luggage and didn't see mine. I said, Chris, where is my luggage? He said, Dad, the last time I saw it, it was with you. Well, that was three cars and nine hours earlier. I had no idea, no idea where my luggage was. And at the end of a very exhausting day, I confess I said out loud in my son's presence, O Lord, what do I do now? And at that exact moment, the doorknob and the bellman in the hotel was there with my luggage. I have no idea where he got it. I have no idea where he found it. I have no idea how it got there. And the Lord was just saying, I am the Lord of luggage and of life. I am the Lord of everything. I am the Lord who has authority over the smallest things in your life. And over the largest things in your life. And unless it until we recognize his authority, we will be the lesser. We will not be everything the Lord intends us to be. The biblical way is that we only find ourselves under Christ in Christ because of Christ and because of the power of his resurrection. We have a future with Christ. We are under the authority of Christ and so is our luggage. And third, we reckon ourselves alive with Christ. Look at verse 11 one more time, the last verse of this small passage. So you must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Paul says to consider ourselves, that is to reckon ourselves dead to sin and alive to God. When we do that, when you reckon something, you don't create it. In other words, when you reckon how much money is in your checking account every month, you don't create money in your checking account. You might wish you did. I know I do when I balanced my statement. It would be nice to create a little money there, right? You don't create money. You reckon what is already on deposit. Our problem you see as Christians is that we do not reckon what has been put on deposit for us. And if we are not Christians here this morning, we do not reckon what we could have and we do not consider what it is possible to be and to do with our lives. Christians live their lives as poppers when we don't have to. We tip toe to the back door of heaven and we ask the Lord to give us what He has already promised is ours. It is like someone with a huge fortune, huge mammoth fortune in the bank. And she goes to the bank once a week and says, is it all right if I write a check for $25? How silly. Does she not know all that already belongs to her? Can she not live on the basis of this enormous wealth that has already been given to her? Again, C.S. Lewis in a very well-known quote said, we are half-hearted creatures fooling around with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered to us. We are like ignorant children who want to go on making mud pies in the street because we cannot imagine what is offered by a vacation at the seashore. We can't imagine how great the vacation is and so we keep on making mud pies in the gutter and Lewis ends this quote by saying, we are far too easily pleased. That's it. When you give your life to the things of this dominion, you are far too easily pleased. And you and I do not realize the great things that are there, the wonderful riches that are ours, the beauty the Lord intends us to see day by day, the wonder of what it means to know him and walk with him. My friends, if Easter means anything, it means that it's Easter when it's raining and chilly as well as when it's bright and spring-like. If we died with Christ and we were risen with Christ, then three things are true. We have a future with Christ as bright as the promises of God. Second, we are under the authority of Christ and therefore we deliberately and consciously moment by moment decide to live under His authority. Change your mind about your life if you are in Christ. Deliberately decide to live under His authority and not under the authority of sin and death. And third, we reckon ourselves alive in Christ. We add up the deposit that Jesus Christ has put in our accounts and we live accordingly. Some of you may have seen the article in yesterday's Dallas Morning News on the front page about the massive immigrations that are taking place in China right now. It has estimated that 10 million people a year are moving from the rural areas into the cities. This is creating an underclass, an underprivileged Chinese class of people who have little hope, who find it difficult to get work, who are caught in the gears as the nation moves from communism to capitalism. We had dinner one night in Beijing with a man named Ken who has a very interesting ministry to these people that are moving tens of thousands, millions of them into the cities. You see the government gives them no status. The government does not even recognize them as legal residents of the cities. And so they cannot put their kids in public schools. My friend Ken has begun a number of schools almost 200 now, private schools where even poor immigrants from the country for just a few you on a year can put their kids in school. But what my friend Ken does with his team is take the principles and the teachers from those schools and takes them on conferences to show them how better to do their jobs. But gladly and willingly they receive from him also the truth of life in Christ as he teaches them how to be followers of Jesus and how to believe in his resurrection and through them the students become Christians and through them their families become Christians and through them many, many churches have been established as a result of this very simple endeavor. There's one problem the government doesn't like and the government is on to can and the government just last week started to make things very, very difficult for him can met with us only after having to postpone the meeting twice because he was busy dealing with one crisis after another with the government. When we finally got together and he began to tell us this story he looked me right in the eye and he said skip do you believe that Jesus is risen from the dead he said are you going home to preach an Easter sermon to your congregation. Do you really believe it he said. And if you do and he had a stubby little forefinger and he started poking me with it if you do then you believe that God can do anything in the midst of what it seems to be failure for him in the midst of what seems to be defeat in the midst of what seems to be overwhelming odds against what he's trying to do. He says if you believe in the resurrection of Christ you can do anything you can do the impossible and then he paused and said impossible impossible I love it when they say impossible. Remember skip Jesus said that apart from me you can do nothing and then he made this sign right in my face nothing skip and that ain't much he said but Jesus also said that with me anything is possible. In him anything can happen because he rose in him anything is possible and the difference skip between nothing and everything is absolutely enormous absolutely enormous so where are you today. If in your life there is heard and broken this because of the results of dominion the dominion of sin and death then do you know you have a future and do you know that you are under the authority of one who is graciously going to lead you and do you know that it is possible to reckon all things possible in Christ even the worst thing in your life. And the difference between nothing and everything is enormous.