Introduction: The human heart is a hard-working marvel. It can keep on beating automatically even if all other nerves were severed. In a 70 year lifetime, it will beat an average of 75 times a minute, forty million times a year - or two-and-a-half billion times. At each beat, the average adult heart discharges about four ounces of blood. This amounts to three thousand gallons a day or 650,000 gallons a year—enough to fill more than 81 tank cars of 8,000 gallons each.
The heart does enough work in one hour to lift a 150-pound man to the top of a three-story building. It exerts enough energy in twelve hours to lift a 65-ton tank car one foot off the ground, or enough power in seventy years to lift the largest battleship afloat completely out of the water.
But what happen, when the heart starts slipping? The cardio-vascular system is the one system that is crucial for the support of all the others. When the heart stops, the rest of the body shuts down within minutes. Maybe that is why heart specialists are some the most highly paid doctors and are in great demand. If a doctor mends a bone or fixes a ligament, a patient is thankful. But when a doctor fixes or replaces a heart, well, it is a life-changing event. Usually, there are lots of life-changes that need to be made, and so the surgeon will instruct a patient how to take care of their new heart.
Because of Easter, you and I have had a heart-transplant of sorts. So, through Scripture this morning, God tells us how to go about Living with a Resurrection Heart. Peter reminds us first, why, we should be thankful for this new heart, because I. It is set in motion solely by God’s Grace (18a, 21)
The Apostle Peter makes some important theological statements in the few verses of our sermon text. But it all centers around the first part of verse 18: For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God… God was the one who gave us new hearts. It goes back to the very beginning, after Adam and Eve fell into sin. Because of their rebellion, the Bible says, we inherited a “heart” problem. Genesis describes it this way:
The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain (6:5-6).
Every man, woman, child and yes even baby is born with a a wicked heart. In Matthew 15, Jesus commented on the corruption of the human heart, “out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander”(19).
In the Old Testement, the Lord said that he was the only one who could change this situation. In Ezekiel, he said, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws… you will be my people, and I will be your God” (36:26-28).
Illustration: I was reading about heart transplants this week, and came across an interview with a mother who had recently lost her 7 year-old son. She had lost her husband a year earlier in a plane crash, now her son had died. The interview took place after she met the family of the little girl who received her son’s heart. The reporter stated, “With tears welling up in her eyes, the boy’s mother said, ‘I see that there was a purpose in my son’s death. He died so that your little girl could live.’”
Application: That is what God says to you. “My Son had to die so that you might live,” or as verse 18 put it, For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. But God doesn’t stop with the message of Christ’s death. No, proves that he is responsible for setting your new heart in motion by Christ’s resurrection. He attaches this miraculous heart transplant with the Resurrection of Christ. For many of us that started already at the baptismal font when we were a baby. In verse 21, he reminds that even there, He is the One who has graciously given new hearts to us, for, as Peter put it, “baptism… now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Transition: The Bible is very clear that the Resurrection of the Savior is the one eternal life-changing event we need. In Romans, the Apostle Paul wrote, “if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (10:9). You and I have that new heart. Living with it is easy for II. It pumps the message of Christ (15-16, 18b-19, 22)
Peter reminds us of the daily effect the Resurrection is going to have on our heart: 15 But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, 16 keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. The reason for this is because Christ lives victoriously. Peter refers to Christ’s descent into hell and proclamation of that victory. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit, through whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison who disobeyed, and his ascent into heaven, who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand—with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him.
This same Savior who defeated Satan and death, this Savior, lives and reigns over all things. You and I know him but there are many in this world who do not know him.
Illustration: Stop me if you have heard this one: What is 750,000 miles long, could wrap itself around the earth 30 times and grows an additional 20 miles longer with each passing day? Give up? It is the line of people on earth who do not know Jesus.
Darrell W. Robinson, in his book, Total Church Life, (Broadman & Holman Publishers, Nashville; 1997 pp. 174-175) gave some very interesting statistics about the people we live among every day. In a 1995 survey by Barna Research Group, it was discovered that non-Christians have no clue what Christians mean when some they use some of the phrases Christians often take for granted. 63% of non-Christians don’t know what Christians mean when they use the term Gospel. 75% of non-Christians don’t know what John 3:16 is. More interesting was that 40% of Christians don’t know what the Gospel means, and 53% of Christians don’t know John 3:16.
Application: No people in history have had as many opportunities to hear the truth about God, to learn how salvation can be found in Jesus Christ, than those who live in this country. Do you realize there are 450,000 churches in the United States? A few years ago it was estimated that 95 percent of Christians today never witness to an unbelieving soul about Christ. This is the reversal of Jesus’ strategy of New Testament evangelism. These trends must change if our world is to be reached, and you and I have the gift which can change that. So Peter encourages us to always be prepared. After all, living with a Resurrection heart naturally includes a heart that pumps the message of Christ.
Transition: When we share that good news about Jesus with others, Peter reminds us that we might face a negative reaction, may even be physically persecuted. But that too is part of living with a Resurrection heart. But he assures us that III. It takes a licking and keeps ticking for Christ (17)
Because we believe in Jesus, there is a marked difference between us and the world. The Bible says that because the Holy Spirit lives in us, we are going to be different. The resurrection heart is going to shine through in nice words and kind actions. The Bible says that people are going to ask us why we are different. And the Bible says that not everyone is going to like our response. In fact, they are going to hate us for it. Jesus said it would be so. In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus says, “All men will hate you because of me.” But we are to stand on God’s Word and the certainty of our Risen Lord. We cannot persuade men, only the Holy Spirit can do that with His Almighty Word. So, Peter reminds us of the proper response to persecution, It is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.
Illustration: Bill Vaughan once said, “Stormy weather is what man needs from time to time to remind him he’s not really in charge of anything.”
Application: Peter reminds us that we have life with Resurrection hearts, not because of any innately good thing of our own. No, it is God and only God who has called us. Our confidence should be that persecution, suffering for the sake of Jesus and the Gospel, testifies that we are His. No matter what happens when we share God’s message of sin and the only salvation in Christ Jesus, you and I are encouraged to entrust ourselves to the Lord. Proverbs reminds us that this is the natural response of a resurrection heart. Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight (3:5-6). The Lord promises that he will not let us down. He will sustain and even strengthen our faith in such adversity. After all, He created these Resurrection hearts to survive. They may – no I should say they will - take a licking, but these resurrection hearts will keep on ticking.
Conclusion: As long as we are in this world, the physical heart will need help. Science has found one avenue to attempt to help the heart. It has been making great strides on creating and implementing an artificial heart. The world’s first recipient, Robert Tools, lived for 151 days after his artificial heart surgery. On Tuesday, April 16th, according to a report from Reuters, the second recipient, Tom Christienson was sent home having survived 215 days with the electrically powered device. So far, he is still doing fine. Asked what he at 71 years old was going to do now, Christienson responsed, "I’ve been given a second chance at life, and I can’t wait to get home and begin celebrating it."
You and I have been given more that a second chance at life! With Resurrection hearts, we have been given eternal life! Let us celebrate the wonder of this new life by always giving Christ the proper place in our hearts as our Lord. Let us keep living with the good news of Christ pumping forgiveness and new life into our hearts until the rest of our bodies catch up with our hearts. Amen.
May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 15:5-6).
