Allen Jackson - Back from the Dead - Part 1
I struggled with the title for these messages. This is a continuation of what we started in a previous session and I’m not sure I ever got the titles right, but the one for this session is «Back from the Dead». I was out of town for a few days and I called in, and I said, «I have an idea,» which usually causes great concern. Said, «I want to fill the building with caskets this weekend». And I didn’t wait for a response. I said, «I gotta go». And I checked in the next day, and Craig said, «Well, I don’t know if that’s the best idea».
And I wasn’t here, so I conceded, but it’s an idea, really, it started, I think, in my heart. They sent me a compilation of podcasts that we’ve done over the last few months, and they’ve been edited down a bit. It was just kind of some highlights of those conversations, and as I listened to it, I was really overwhelmed with the reality, the life that God is pouring into people, the stories that person after person tells about being delivered from places where physically the doctors had stepped back and said, «There’s nothing more we can do. We can’t restore the heartbeat». Or people who were trapped in addictions and they were hopeless and there was despair. They had no way of delivering themselves.
Story after story about heartbreak or tragedy or addiction or physical death, and God stepped in and by his Spirit brought new life. It was remarkable and it started me on a little Bible study. I started making notes of scriptures and building lists, and I was off and running and that’s really what I wanna share with you, but I have an objective, and I’ll be open with you on the front. I wanna reframe our faith just a bit to realign a bit of our imagination of what it means to be a Christ follower. And I believe in the new birth and being born again, or salvation or conversion, whichever label you prefer for that initiation into the kingdom of God. It’s not about joining a church, it’s about a spiritual transformation. But the majority of that presentation in my lifetime in evangelicalism has been centered on that initiation point, that conversion point. And then the rest of the discussion seems pretty iffy.
As long as you get that part right, then we build whole theological structures around how that’s an unassailable point once you’ve established that, and I’m not trying to get into that debate today, but I think it’s a very incomplete, inadequate, unfortunate presentation of the gospel. Again, I believe in the necessity of the new birth. It’s clearly a biblical a biblical But there is so much more that comes beyond that, and so I’ll start with just a moment of recapitulation, if you didn’t hear the previous session. I’m gonna suggest to you that every one of us who are Christ followers, it’s back from the dead that we’ve come. It’s not original with me. I borrowed the line from a Crowder song.
I was working out, and he was on the headsets, and I just, I put it on a loop and by the time I’d listened to it about 30 times, I began to get the idea. That it’s back from the dead we’ve come. And that notion changes everything about the perspective of who we are as a people. I’ll give you a couple of scriptures just quickly. Ephesians 2, it says: «As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins». The language is very plain. Paul’s writing to a group of Christians, believers, and he said, «You were dead». It’s past tense, but you were dead. «In which you used to live,» so he’s talking about being dead and living at the same time, so he’s not talking about physical death. He said you were dead even though you were living, because «you followed the ways of this world and the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who’s now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time».
We’ve all been dead. How do you know? What’s the evidence of that kind of spiritual death? He gives it to you in the next phrase: «You lived to gratify the cravings of your sinful nature, and you follow its desires and thoughts». So for a moment, I wanna challenge some notions a little bit today. I’ll try to do it gently, but sitting in church does not make you a Christ follower. Owning a Bible, serving, volunteering, being kind or generous, doesn’t make you a Christ follower. And if your life is described as following, making every attempt you can to gratify the cravings of your sinful nature and to follow its desires and its thoughts, then you should not imagine you’re a Christ follower. You’re dead.
Look at the next phrase. Said, «Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath». That’s the worst part of that. The real death isn’t the struggle with your old carnal self. The real tragedy in that is we stand in opposition to Almighty God, the Creator of heaven and earth, and his wrath will visit us. That’s not a future you would wish on anyone. «But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgression, it’s by grace that you’ve been saved».
So the description that Paul is making to the church at Ephesus to believers is that although you were spiritually dead, you were living physically, you had a heartbeat, neurological impulses and your senses were working and your immune system was functioning, but you were spiritually dead. And he said, I can give you the diagnosis for that, the diagnostics for that. You’re gonna follow your old carnal thoughts and try to gratify your old selfish nature. But he said, thank God in his grace, something we didn’t earn, something we don’t deserve, he made us alive. So the idea is that you and I as Christ followers, back from the dead we’ve come. I was dead, but I was alive.
This is a fundamental idea in scripture. Resurrection isn’t just a Jesus story. It’s woven all through the scripture. It’s woven all through there. Elijah, Elisha, their lives had resurrection narratives around their ministries. In fact, a young man was being hastily buried under threat of some invaders, and they tossed his dead body and it landed on the bones of Elisha, and he came back to life. And it rolls right into the New Testament. It certainly was a part of Jesus’s ministry with the widow from Nain. Her son was raised to life again. Jairus’s daughter who died. Lazarus, perhaps most notably. He was dead so long they said he stinks. King James, «He stinketh».
You know, when you get to heaven and you meet Lazarus, he’ll have a little nickname. You know what his nickname is? Stinky, makes perfect sense. But it continued past Jesus. Peter raised a young woman from the dead. Paul had a young man he was preaching. He fell out a window and killed himself. So if you go to sleep when I’m preaching, it’s very biblical. Doesn’t make it right, but it’s biblical. And he was raised back to life again. But the larger application of this is Paul’s very clearly, and it isn’t some subtle theme we looked at a lot more fully in a previous session, is that a Christ follower is described as someone who has come to life, that we were dead, and through God’s grace we were brought to life again.
And what I’ve suggested, and I’m gonna continue to suggest, is that if you’re dead and you come to life again, you’re never the same again. You think Lazarus was a little different post resurrection? Y’all were kind of calm about that. I watched those podcasts over two or three times and the enthusiasm, there was no hesitancy in those people. They were very transparent, forthcoming about stories that most of us would bury or hide, but they said, «My life was a mess, I was broken, I was dead. But I’m alive again».
Folks, we as Christ followers, we’re back from the dead. We shouldn’t be ashamed or reluctant or hesitant. I need a sippy cup, apparently. Don’t bring me one. The alternative to that, and it’s important, I think, to have it fixed in your awareness, and this is a bit of review, is that if you haven’t been brought to life again, then the biblical definition, if we use common language, is they’re just dead people walking. I mean, they’re physically alive, but they’re not spiritually alive. They don’t have an awareness of the kingdom of God. They can talk about it, they can discuss it in clinical terms, they can discuss it in academic terms.
One of the great surprises of my life is when I was in the academic world, I would have faculty members and professors, very accomplished, very celebrated, amazing credentials, studying scripture as a profession, but they weren’t believers. And it leaves a gap in your understanding and your insight. Now, what’s unfortunate is because people in very prestigious institutions, celebrated institutions, institutions of great influence, hold those positions and they’re spiritually dead, and it causes people who’ve been believers to hold in high esteem the thoughts of people who are dead. And we’ve got to have enough discernment in the church, if we don’t get to it in this session, we will, to recognize what it means to be alive.
We wouldn’t imagine you were a very good physician if you couldn’t tell the difference between the patients who were alive and those who weren’t. And I would submit to you, you’re not a very good Christ follower if you can’t tell the difference between those who are alive and those who aren’t. You see, we’ve got that, we’re gonna have to have the courage to say, if we’re not alive in Christ, we’re just dead people walking. Because if you’ll do that, it changes your orientation towards the world. God brought you back to life. He’ll bring anybody back to life. It’s an expression of grace. It’s not earned, it’s not merit-based. We don’t pay for it.
So if you have friends, family members, neighbors, co-workers, whoever they may be that they’re not alive in Christ, you don’t want to spend time with them and not be willing to share the good news of what God’s doing in your life. Don’t preach a sermon, don’t hand them a link to my last message. Just share your God story. Tell them the good things God’s doing in your life, how God’s made your life better. Be excited about God. You know how to do that. If you’re an advocate for UT, you know how to share that enthusiasm. Whatever you advocate for, if it’s gardening or your favorite program or something, whatever it is, you know how to do that, be an advocate for Jesus.
There’s people around you, and we gotta have the courage to recognize this distinction. There is no third lane presented. We have a false gospel that’s flourishing in contemporary American Christendom. But you see, to be apart from God, be dead men walking, means you have no future, you have no hope, you have no life. I mean, you got a heartbeat, but you are totally captured by that old carnal nature. It drives you. It owns you.
Jesus said to the religious leaders in Jerusalem, the scholars, the ones who were engaged in the most religious activity of anyone, they were celebrated as the influencers, as the most…they were the crème de la crème of the religious community, and Jesus said, «Your father’s the devil». You’re dead. You’re dead. Do you know you can be religious and be dead? You can be kind and be dead. You can be generous and be dead. You can be well educated and be dead. You can be very successful and be dead. You can be sophisticated, you can be well traveled. You can be chic, you can be an influencer. You can be a pastor.
You see, we haven’t had the courage, we haven’t cared enough. We haven’t valued the fact that we’ve been brought to life. We were brought back from the dead, folks. I’m gonna tell anybody that’ll listen to me. We’ve had this Christianity line where we say, «Listen, really, all you need to do is walk an aisle, say a little prayer. They’re gonna sing a little something while you come, every head bowed, every eye closed». Again, I believe in conversion, but the emphasis of that is that you can be brought to life again. You’ll never be the same again. It’s intended to usher in, to point you towards a totally different kind of existence, a totally different experience.
Look at Ephesians 2:12: «Remember at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of promise, without hope and without God in the world». Dead men walking. Colossians 1:21, «Once you were alienated from God, you were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior». That’s exactly the parallel that was made in Ephesians. We looked at that a while ago. Your thoughts and your behaviors take you away from God. Folks, if there are people in your family, I know you love them, I know you care about them, if there are neighbors or coworkers, they’re important to you, they’re friends. And they’re dead people walking. Don’t avoid the issue and say, «Well, they’re good people,» or «They’re kind people,» or «They’re my family. I love them».
I’m not saying that you don’t love them. I’m not debating that they’re good or kind. Hell will be occupied with people who were kind. We have to care enough about them to say, «Listen, God brought life to me, and I think he’d bring life to you. I’m so excited about who Jesus is and what he’s doing. He’s changed my perspective, he’s changing my want to’s, he’s changing my ambitions and my desires. He’ll do it for you». See, the point of this coming back from the dead that we’ve come from is that we’re a new creation, a new kind of life.
Look at 2 Corinthians 5, says: «He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he’s a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come»! See, as Christ followers, we live by a different set of standards, a different set of patterns, not rules, not compliance. We have something else to live for. We’re not just living for ourselves. That’s the life of the dead. Satisfy their cravings, satisfy their desires, get what they can, can all they get, and sit on the can. We’ve been called to a different kind of life, because it’s a life that doesn’t come from us. It isn’t my life. I’ve been given life in Christ. He paid a price that I could have that life so that I could have a different kind of a journey under the sun. We’ve got to talk about it more. We haven’t talked about it with enough enthusiasm.
Look at Romans 6: «We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death». Did you know that’s what you’re acting out in baptism, Jesus’s burial and his resurrection? I mean, people go, «Oh, how would you… I never do… I… bapti… pfft, baptized, blegh». Folks, I’m of the opinion that if the Lord pointed us towards something, if Jesus presented himself to be baptized, maybe you and I should get over ourselves and get in the pool. But the activity of baptism is that we’re buried with Christ «in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we can live a new life». It’s a resurrection, this Christ follower stuff.
Now, if we died with Christ, we believe that we’ll also live with him. «For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he can’t die again; death no longer has a mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once and for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. In the same way,» now he’s turned the mirror around. He says now this is for us, this is the application. «In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus».
Count yourselves dead to sin. You know, for three generations, my family was involved in the funeral business. When we had holiday gatherings, and my cousins, we’d all get together, we’d play hide and seek in the casket room. That explains a lot, doesn’t it? And so, I had quite a bit of exposure to that whole world and I can tell you when you’re dead, it changes your behavior. It really does. The things that you consider very attractive, very appealing, compulsory in your life, when you’re dead they’re not attractive. I mean, you might have considered them addictive. They won’t be addictive to you when you’re dead. You know, things that annoy you to the point that you just can’t be silent about, things that elicit a reaction.
«I just got to say, I had to say something, I couldn’t be quiet». When you’re dead, you can be quiet. When you’re dead, it won’t exhibit any attraction to you, and it won’t elicit any reaction from you. And the counsel we were just given is consider yourselves dead to sin. But count yourself alive to Christ. It’s this we’re back from the dead again. I’m alive to a whole new set of things. Before Jesus, those things are what I lived for, but now I’m alive to Christ and I’m living for a new set of things. I have a new set of thoughts, a new set of objectives, a new set of parameters. I’m alive to Christ. But then he gives us some, it’s kind of the how to.
Verse 12: «Therefore,» because of that, «do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires». You’re gonna have ungodly desires. You’re gonna have temptations and prompts. You’re gonna have to reprogram, retrain, your thinking. You’re gonna have to reorient. It says, «Do not offer the parts of your body to sin». It doesn’t say don’t do it very much. It doesn’t say don’t do it at church. Don’t do it when you’ll get caught. Just don’t do that. Verse 13: «Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness». Don’t put yourself in places to cooperate with things that are ungodly. Just don’t do that. «Well, Pastor, I believe in grace». Me too, but I also believe in obedience. When you see the Lord, imagine you’ve got two buttons, you got a grace button that you’re pushing. «I believe in this one».
And you’ve got a little obedience button you push every time you’re obedient. Here’s my suggestion. You want the obedience button to be more heavily used. I’m disturbed, to be candid, with much of the messaging that I hear coming from contemporary Christendom, the license we give. We’re more concerned about offending the ungodly than we are calling the godly to holiness and righteousness and purity. Be certain of this, the gospel is offensive. They wouldn’t have killed the boss if the truth were not offensive. And if the truth in you, doesn’t mean you have to try to be obnoxious. You’re obnoxious enough without trying. And so am I, but we have to have the courage to tell the truth.
«Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wicked, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life». There’s the image again. We were dead and we were brought to life again. So what’s your response? If you were dead, when Lazarus came out of the tomb, you think he was different? I think he was different than he was when he got sick. I promise. I promise. Do you think when he came out of the tomb, he looked around and he said, «You know, I appreciate this. Does that mean I don’t ever have to do cardio again? Can I eat all the junk food I want? Am I golden now? No more broccoli»? No, I don’t think any of those questions were coming to him.
Look at Acts 5. These are the apostles, Jesus is gone. Says: «During the night an angel of the Lord», they’ve been arrested for preaching the gospel. «During the night an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the jail and brought them out. 'Go and stand in the temple courts, ' he said, 'and tell the people the full message of this new, '» what? «This new life». You have a new life. Folks, we are back from the dead. I’m gonna tell everybody. «Do I have to be a Christ follower»? No, but you don’t have to stay dead. You could have a whole new life. It changes everything. It’s the message that we have. We have to live it out. We’ve been asking the wrong questions.
«Well, how far is too far? How much is too much? How much do I have to give? How often do I have to come? Oh, how far away do I have to park»? Look at Ephesians 4: «You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires». Do what? To put it off. Don’t hold on to it. Don’t keep a space in your closet. You know, it’s like your closet’s segmented into fat clothes and skinny clothes and in-between clothes. Don’t keep your old self in the closet.
«Well, once in a while I like to get it out and wear it around a little bit. Get tired of this godly stuff». It’s like playing Monopoly and you get that Get Out of Jail Free card. You wanna hold one of those little, you know, «Today, I’m gonna play my Get Out of Christianity Free card». I believe in grace. You pull in front of me today, I’m gonna hit you. And I’ll just get out and hand you my card. I’m at the grocery store, the express line, ten items or less, and you’re in front of me and you got 15 items, I’m taking my celery stalk, I’m gonna beat you with it. «Here’s my card».
You see, for far too long, we haven’t put off our old self. We just decided to dress it up. We took it to the dry cleaners. We took it to the alterations. We had it altered so it’s still fashionable. I mean, we’re born again. We said the prayer and we walked the aisle and we took a dip in the pool and we go to church sometimes, and I mean we’re good to go with God, but we still wear that old self. That isn’t what the Bible says. It concerns me. It concerns me. «You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness».