Resurrection is... Recreation

Resurrection Is…Recreation

Seventh Sunday of Easter 

As we come to the final Sunday of Easter, we reflect on the last and perhaps most beautiful truth we’ve learned: Resurrection is… Recreation. In John 17:20–26, Jesus prays not only for His disciples but for all who would come to believe in Him—including us. His prayer echoes the creation story: He gives us a name, shares His glory, and asks the Father to make us one with Him. Like Adam in the garden, Jesus enters a death-like sleep, has His side opened, and rises to call forth His Bride—the Church. Just as Eve was formed from Adam, we are being formed into the Bride of Christ. Resurrection is more than life after death; it is the re-creating of us into something new. We are no longer alone—we belong to Christ. Resurrection is not just what happened to Jesus. It’s what’s happening to us.

Transcript

Well, this is the seventh Sunday of Easter. It is our last Sunday of Easter. And we began on Resurrection Sunday, Easter Sunday, to begin to dive into what is this resurrection that we are receiving from Jesus, who is raised from the dead? What is this resurrection? And we've been every week throughout the Easter season, been walking through defining what resurrection is.
In the second Sunday of Easter, we learn that resurrection is peace with God, power of the Holy Spirit, and a message to be proclaimed. In the third Sunday of Easter, we learn that resurrection is the purpose to which God has called us. The fourth Sunday of Easter, we learn that resurrection comes to us by faith. The fifth Sunday of Easter, we learn that resurrection is loving others the way Jesus loves us. And last week, the sixth Sunday of Easter, we learned that resurrection is further up and further in discovering more of what our lives will experience when we are risen with Christ.
So here we are again on the final Sunday of Easter, the seventh Sunday of Easter. And next week, we will adorn the church in red and celebrate the the day of Pentecost. But what is our final lesson for now about resurrection? What are we to learn today about what resurrection is? Now, I want to tell you that resurrection is recreation.
But before I dive into that, I want to kind of have a little interaction right here. I want to do a little pop quiz with you all, and I need your all's response. I want you to think about the various types and kinds of movies, the genre, be it a romantic movie, a horror movie, a scary film, if you will, or a western or a romantic comedy, whatever it is. I want to see if I can supply you with just a few clues and then you can respond to me with the type of movie you are expecting to watch if I give you these clues. Okay, so let's just try this.
Rolling tumbleweeds, swinging saloon doors, and a five shooter in a holster. What kind of movie might you be expecting to watch? Western. All right, good. We got that.
Wonderful. So far, so good. Okay, here's another one. You guys ready for this? Rolling thunder, flashes of lightning, and a dark silhouette of a Victorian house.
What movie might you be expect. Spooky. Spooky scary movie. That's right. Okay, this one's a little bit different.
This is more about a scene in a movie. But let me give you this phrase and see if you can tell me what kind of scene we are watching. You ready? Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue, and a sixpence inner shoe. What kind of scene would you be watching?
Yes. Yes. Yes. Yeah. A wedding, right?
Wonderful. You guys, pass 100% A. We're good to go. Let's go home. No, I'm just joking.
That is a practice that I find very interesting. I can give you just a handful of scenes or a handful of clues, if you will. And you already know and have already been trained by Hollywood what kind of movie to expect that you are watching. That's amazing. That's wonderful.
Right? And all of those genres that you guys just said, each one of those have those things in them right? Now, what's even more interesting than that is the Scriptures. And the way to read Scripture is the exact same way. Let me tell you what I mean right here.
In Jesus prayer, there are repetitions that he prays over and over again in John chapter 17. Now, we're looking at a brief section today, but John chapter 17 is often referred to as this high priestly prayer that Jesus prays at the end of the meal with his disciples. This is his last moment with them. And so he closes out these moments in prayer. But he's repetitious, and he's repetitious in this way.
He talks about over and over again about giving them a name. Then he talks about over and over again his glory, which he has shared with them. And then he talks over and over again about this unity he desires and is asking the Father to celebrate and to bless that as I'm in you. He says, they are in me and they are in us. And he refrains this and repeats this.
And he becomes really repetitive throughout his prayer. So what might this mean? Well, these three things are clues that take us back to another scene that will help us understand what he is praying for us. Let me take you back to the creation scene. Right at the beginning, you open your Bible in Genesis chapter one, and God begins to create things.
He begins to name things. He says, let there be light. There is light. And he called the light day. And all the things that he's creating reflect bits and pieces of the wonder and the majesty and the glory of God.
But in the pinnacle, the climax of all creation, after he's created all the animals and he's filled all the earth and all that he's created, he creates man in his own image, and he calls him Adam. And then he takes Adam and he's already everything is created. Takes Adam and he sets him in the garden and he declares that everything is good with the exception of one thing. Sky is good, water is good, land is good, animals are good, and all the creatures are good. Adam is good, except that he is alone.
It's the first time something isn't good at the beginning. So to remedy this, God the Father causes a deep sleep, a sleep like death in the Hebrew, the fall on Adam. Adam sleeps. And then he opens his side, and he takes from Adam a piece of himself, his rib. And he takes this rib and he fashions a wife, a bride, a woman.
And then Adam wakes up and he sees this new creation. He identifies that this new woman, this new creation, has come from himself, that this is bones of his bones. And in the Hebrew, the name that he says is Ish, which means Adam and Isha, they share, that the woman shares an essence, a part of Adam. And so he names her bone of my bones, flesh of my flesh, because he shared himself with her. And she was created from his side, from this rib.
So in this scene, what you have so far is things being named, essence being shared. And then when all of this takes place, after Eve is named by Adam, God the Father comes and blesses and says, for this reason, the two shall become one. And God blesses this union, and they're united. The problem is, though, sin then enters and everything unravels. And the rest of the history of the Bible is that a new Adam arises time and time again, but then ends up failing all the way until we get to the New Testament, when not just another Adam is born, but the last Adam, this last Adam is born.
He grows to maturity. He finds for himself 12 men that he disciples. And then we find ourselves at this prayer of Jesus, this final Adam. And what he's praying is, he's praying to his Father, these things I have named my bride, I have shared my glory with them, and I want you to bless our union together. And that's what he's praying.
That's the significance of this prayer that Jesus is recreating for himself. The final Eve, the final bride, the one that we will be united to him forever. And when he ascends to his Father, His Father, he is asking to bless this union, to keep them in this name and to continue for them to share in the glory. And what does Jesus do? Jesus himself, as the final Adam, goes to sleep a deadly sleep on the cross.
And to signify whether he's dead or not, they jab him in his side, and out of his side flows blood and water. And it's from his side that his bride is nourished and his bride is created. And on the day of Pentecost, what happens is that when Jesus returns to His Father's side, His Father then blesses this union and sends the Spirit. And the final Eve has been recreated, never to be recreated again. The Church is born and birthed and Christ rules and reigns and begins to recreate his bride so that at the final day when he returns back, he will receive to himself this recreated final Eve, this bride.
And that's what we learn about his prayer. This prayer is the final Adam praying to his Father, the one who he comes from, to say, I've chosen for myself a bride. I have named her with our name. I have shared my glory, my essence with them. And now I ask that you bless this union with them, that they are one with me as I am one with you.
That the love we share is like the love that you and I share. Father, will you gracious, righteous Father, make this be. And then he goes and accomplishes and succeeds in the opposite way that the first Adam who fails this final Adam succeeds and will succeed in reclaiming and renaming and recreating his bride. And that's where we find ourselves. We find ourselves in this Gospel lesson, in the middle of Jesus betrothal prayer to His Father about the woman that he wants to unite to asking His Father's blessing.
But in verse 20 of this, in the beginning of our Gospel lesson, this isn't just those 12 men. This isn't just his disciples that he's praying for. He says something that involves you. He says, not only them am I praying for, but everyone that comes and believes by their word about me. He's praying for you.
He's praying for me. He's praying all who come to believe in Jesus. And that teaches us something, that Jesus has prayed for you to be his recreated Eve, his final Eve that he unites his life to. And that's what it means to gather here together as the Church. See, it's just not a bunch of individuals that he's praying for.
He's praying for a gathering of people who believe in him to become one with each other. And by being one with each other, they become his one and only final Eve who. Who he unites with.
So what must this mean for our lives? What does Jesus praying in John 17 mean for us today? Well, one, it's that you're not your own, that you've been recreated to be a bride, to be a final Eve, to be a church, to be together, to be perfectly unified to Christ, that you don't get to live, if you believe in Jesus, a life of individuality on your own. God has already said it's not good for Adam and Eve to be alone, but that it's better for them to be together and to live in unity. It's not good for us to be alone.
And oftentimes it seems that we live individual Christian lives, but then we gather here and this is actually the image that we're supposed to embody. This is actually what Jesus is recreating, is a final Eve of all of us together. I will admit that this morning there's people that are sick that I'm aware of, that are doing other things that I know of. And so I'm not bothered by people's lack of appearance here. But I will tell you that because this is the outpost and this is supposed to be the bride of Christ right here among us, that I do feel sometimes when rows are empty, that I feel like I'm missing something.
It's like as a bride missing some earrings or her tiara or her shoes. Because we're just not complete without one another. Because we've been bonded together in the love of Christ. And this is the idea of the church that I'd have you believe, that we're just not individuals where we're just good with doing personal devotions and we're just good with living out our Christian life on our own, but that we live in community and we're living in the church together to make this a reality for our beloved. That if he has recreated us to be his bride, then we will be a bride for Him.
A bride who gathers and united in perfect unity by his love represents the fullness and the wholeness of a final Eve. There's no other Eve that's coming. There's no other recreation of an Eve. This is it. This is the final one.
And so it means that we have to live into that. We have to live into this identity that Jesus is recreating us to be. We have to be the bride, and we have to serve Him. We have to wash ourselves and prepare ourselves by the teaching and the preaching of God's word. That's what it says, that Christ is going to present himself with Himself.
He's going to present to Himself a bride radiant and glorious. Radiant. And glory made from his own glory, made from his own essence, made from his own outpouring of his side. And she's going to be adorned not with her own garments, but he is going to have folded white robes and garments that he has provided her to wear. And he's going to come back for her.
And he's going to see her wearing these things, acting these ways, speaking with his words and he's going to present her to himself. God the Father is going to preside and all is going to be unified. And that's the picture of the kingdom of heaven, that's the picture of the city of God. And that's just not something that awaits us. That's something that we begin to feel and live into even now.
That's what Jesus is praying. So resurrection is recreation of living into what we're being recreated to be the final Eve, a bride for Christ, the Church herself. And that's why we have to maintain and share his love with each other, fellowship with each other, continue to have that perfect bond of unity.
One last note, and this is kind of an aside, but if you think and you compare Adam's rib from his side fashioned Eve and then you compare Jesus side split open and blood and water come out. And you think about the fact that the Church in all the world holds two things as sacred. The things that connect them and tie them and bind them to their king, to their Lord, to their groom. It is the water of baptism. That is what baptism means and signifies that you unite your life to Jesus and then in communion, which we get to celebrate here in just a few moments, is but his body and his blood.
And oftentimes because we call these symbols, we lose its significance, we lose its practice and becomes insignificant to us. But let me help you to understand the significance and how sacred these things are, both baptism and communion. Did you know that hand holding is a symbol? Kissing is a symbol. I kiss my wife as a sign that I love her.
And when I kiss her I feel something. It's just not a symbol that I disregard or it's not just a practice that I don't experience very much kissing. I feel warm, I feel in love, I feel united. Probably should kiss more, right? And you take that, you take that idea of symbolism.
Symbols aren't just symbols and mean nothing and don't do anything. Symbols do something. So today when you come and you take the body of Christ and you dip it in the blood of Christ and you eat it, you are eating and drinking your groom, the final Adam in your life, as a symbol, but a symbol that ought to be felt and realized every time we do it, that it does something to us, that there is a grace that somehow unites us, that we feel more warm when we do it, that we feel more in love when we do it, that we feel more united to our King when we do this symbol. So let me just challenge you today to come and partake of a sacrament that nowhere else in the world celebrates, but only us. And it unites us to Christ and it makes us his body.
Let's pray.