April 20, 2025 | Raised to End All Restlessness

Raised to End All Restlessness | Romans 4:13-25

Romans 4:13–25

For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith. For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression.

That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring—not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.” He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.” But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. (ESV)

In Raised to End All Restlessness, Jed Gillis draws from Romans 4:13–25 to show that the resurrection of Jesus is not just a story that can change you—it must change you. By pointing to strong historical evidence for the resurrection, Gillis challenges listeners to see that Jesus’ victory over death demands a response of faith. The resurrection proves three life-changing truths: hopelessness is never true, Jesus is active for His people now and forever, and God's promises are backed by infinite power. Like Abraham, who trusted God to bring life out of barrenness, believers are called to rest in the risen Christ. Because Jesus was raised for our justification, peace with God is possible, replacing all restlessness with true, lasting hope. Gillis closes by urging listeners to trust fully in the living Lord, whether for the first time or as a daily return to the peace Christ alone provides.

Transcript of Raised to End All Restlessness | Romans 4:13-25

The Resurrection: A Story That Can Change You or Must Change You?

This morning, our scripture readings have walked us through the story of Jesus' trial, his death, his burial, and his resurrection. And in our remaining few moments, I want you to ask yourself, what impact should that have on my life? Why does it matter for me, for you, for us? Some think the resurrection is just a, a feel good story, a myth, and even if it were just a story, it could change you in some ways. Stories have that impact on us.

But here's the difference. A myth, A, a story could change you, but if the resurrection of Jesus is actually true, then it must change you. Stories can have that effect, but when something is real and true, it must change us.

How Can We Tell if the Resurrection is Real?

So what do we look at to know if the resurrection is the kind of story that can change you or the kind of story that must change you?

We could look at a lot of different things. We could look at the testimony of modern transformed lives. We could point around this room at people who would say the story of Jesus death, burial and resurrection has changed me. We could look at evidence of fulfilled prophecy. Our brother Dan mentioned some of that this morning. We could look to just the beauty of God's truth as he's revealed it in his word. But even if we just look at facts that have strong historical support, really facts that even atheistic skeptics believe. If you just look at facts that those kinds of scholars accept, we find six significant pieces of evidence.

1: Jesus Really Died by Crucifixion

Number one, Jesus really died by crucifixion. He didn't pass out, he didn't swoon. It wasn't a story made up afterwards. Even atheistic skeptics agree, Jesus of Nazareth really died on a cross. Very soon afterwards.

2: Jesus's Followers Believed They Encountered the Risen Christ

Number two, Jesus followers had experiences that they believed were experiences with the risen Christ.

3: Jesus's Followers Were Willing to Die Because of Their Belief

Number three, their lives were changed to the point that they were willing to die because they believed that they had seen the risen Christ.

4. The Ressurection was Taught Early in Christianity

Number four. The resurrection was taught very early. Within days of the crucifixion. Jesus followers were saying he's risen. It's not like they had a hundred years for the tall tale to get bigger. It's not like the fish stories where the fish grows an inch every time you tell it. Within days, they were saying he's risen.

5. Christ's Brother, James, Began Following Jesus After the Resurrection

Number five, James, who is Jesus' unbelieving brother? Started following Jesus and worshiping Jesus. Now, I don't know what you know about brothers, but most of the brothers I've known, if one of them tried to convince the other one that they were perfect and God, there wouldn't be worship coming their way. But after James had an encounter with the risen Christ, he said, yes, I will worship him.

6. Paul Began Following Christ After Persecuting Christians

Not only that, but you have the Apostle Paul who persecuted Christians, killed followers of Jesus, and then he had an encounter with the risen Christ, and from then on he was willing to die for the risen Christ.

Now, there's plenty of other facts, but those six, even most atheistic skeptical scholars agree with those six. So everybody has to explain those things. And the best explanation for those six things is that Jesus physically came out of the grave that he was alive like we just sang about.

Three Beliefs Justified by the Resurrection

And based on that, Christians have three justified beliefs that I want you to think about today.

We're going to use some verses from Romans chapter four. If you want to turn over there, we'll get there in just a minute.

Belief One: Hopelessness is Never True

Belief number one is that hopelessness is never true because of the resurrection of Jesus. Hopelessness is always a lie. Think of Jesus followers. Like imagine we just heard through the story, but imagine what they felt like when they buried him. Imagine all of the hopes and dreams they had about Jesus and who he would be, and then they pull his lifeless body off the cross and put it in a tomb and sealed it.

When something bad happens in your life, have you ever felt like this is just a hopeless situation. I don't deserve this and I can't make it any better.

Now take that feeling, multiply it by a thousand. That's Jesus on the cross. What more hopeless moment could there be than when a perfect innocent man hung helpless in shame on the cross?

Well, there's one moment that might seem more helpless than when he first went on the cross, and that was the moment when God died. Think about the, the shock of that statement alone. We sing phrases like this and we celebrate it. We sing God eternal, humbled to the grave. We sang this morning, the maker who made everything was made to die. We sing. How can it be that thou, my God would die for me? We sing and we celebrate it and we should celebrate it. But think, for the followers who didn't yet know what was going to happen, how hopeless is it when God is dead?

It seems hopeless. As Andrew Peterson beautifully wrote to the followers of Jesus, he said, they laid their hopes away. They buried all their dreams about the kingdom he proclaimed.

Think with me about what he proclaimed. Jesus said, my kingdom welcomes the poor, the ones who feel like nothing, and they put their hopes in that I feel like nothing but I can be in Jesus' kingdom, and now they're burying it in a tomb.

Jesus said, my kingdom welcomes the humble and the sinful. They put their hopes in that, and then they buried that. Jesus said, my kingdom welcomes those who feel like outsiders. Do you ever feel like an outsider? How great is it when you feel like an outsider and you say, this is the situation that's gonna help me belong? That's a wonderful hope, isn't it? And Jesus followers put their hope in Jesus to give them that. And when they took him off the cross and buried him, that hope was crushed for them at that moment.

Imagine the full weight of all of your dreams, all of your hopes to be fully known and fully loved, and welcomed, to be home, to take all of the weight of that hope and that dream. That's what Jesus followers were sealing in his tomb with him. If there was ever a moment when hopelessness seems real, that was it.

And yet, hopelessness was still not true because the same king that they now buried said, nobody takes my life from me. I lay it down, and I can pick it back up. Since Jesus was raised, hopelessness is always a lie, always.

We see this in in Romans chapter four. If we look at the story of Abraham, verse 13. Paul begins this section by saying the promise to Abraham in his offspring that he would be heir of the world, did not come through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. He starts by saying, there is this promise, and this promise is one of hope. This phrase, he says, heir of the world. He says, you can't inherit the world if hopelessness is true. If God guarantees that those who have faith in Jesus will inherit the world. If he says that, then hopelessness can't ever be ultimately true.

That's where Paul starts. If you jump down to verse 16, he says, this promise depends on faith in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring. Not only to the adherent or to the keeper of the law, but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all. As it is written, I have made you the father of many nations in the presence of the God in whom Abraham believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence, the things that do not exist.

Well, what is this promise for? It's for those who believe, those who have faith in what? Well, I just read it that God gives life to the dead. And that God calls into existence, things that don't exist. For Abraham, that meant giving Abraham and Sarah a child long after that should have been completely impossible.

Again, think of Abraham and Sarah trying to have children over and over and over and over again, and finally saying it's hopeless.

But that hopelessness wasn't true either. Because Abraham believed God could give life to the dead. And the text says, verse 18, in hope he believed against hope that he should become the father of many nations. He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead, or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb. No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God. You see that text says in hope, he believed against hope. At that moment when he felt hopeless, that hopelessness was a lie. Hopelessness is never true for those who believe God can raise the dead.

Now, I want to be careful here and make sure you hear me. I don't mean sorrow is never real. There is pain. Jesus followers wept. They should have wept. Sometimes things hurt physically, spiritually, emotionally. I don't mean sorrow is never real, but we don't sorrow as those who have no hope. Paul tells us in Corinthians, hopelessness is not real.

So I wanna ask you, where have you believed the lie of hopelessness? Have you battled to try to improve in your life spiritually. Have you battled to try and overcome a habit, a sin? And have you said it's just hopeless? I can't.

Hopelessness is always a lie, because Jesus came out of the grave. Have you battled to say, I've tried to make things right with that person, and it's just hopeless. It's never getting any better.

Hopelessness is always a lie for those who trust in the God who can give life from the dead.

Are there situations in your life where you say, I don't see how God could work anything good out of this? Hopelessness is always a lie.

Belief Two: Jesus is Active for His People, and He Always Will Be

Belief number two, since Jesus came out of the grave, Jesus is active for his people and he always will be. You're not left alone. Jesus is active. If Jesus stayed dead, no matter what he did for you before, he can't really help you now. But he didn't stay dead. He came out of the grave and scripture tells us some of the things that Jesus does.

Ephesians one says, Jesus is reigning. He's king now. And Paul says that God gave Jesus as head or ruler over all things for the sake of the church for his people, because Jesus really did come outta the grave. Jesus rules over everything for our good.

Jesus is advancing his gospel. We see in in the Book of Acts, the Apostle Paul when he comes to follow Jesus, the Apostle Paul we're told, encountered Christ and Jesus made his gospel go forward. You go to Acts chapter 16, Lydia. Here's the gospel and the text tells us. The Lord opened her heart to hear it. Jesus is active. If Jesus is dead and didn't come out of the grave, he can't do that.

But Jesus didn't stay dead. Or Hebrews chapter two we're told Jesus is able to help those who are being tempted. If Jesus stayed dead, he can't help you.

But Jesus didn't stay dead .As we sang, His heart beats. His blood flowed again. He came out of that grave, and so Jesus can help you, whatever it is. This ties with the fact that hopelessness is a lie. Why? Because the infinite king of the universe can help you 'cause he's alive.

Not only is he active though, but he will always be active. We see this in Romans six. It says, Christ being raised from the dead will never die again. See, if Jesus were just alive and you thought he could die tomorrow, it'd be wonderful help, but you don't know how it's going to work out in the long run.

But Jesus not only died and came back to life, but scripture tells us he will never die again. That means that the help Jesus can give you now, he will give you forever. That means that when he rules over everything for the good of his people, now he'll do that forever. Jesus is active.

We see this in Abraham's story as well. If you look again back at verse 16, the promise of hope and joy depends on faith in order that the promise may rest on grace. That's God's active favor. God's acting for someone else, grace, favor, that's not deserved. The promise of hope rests on the fact that God is not dead. He can act for you.

Not only that, but if we continue in verse 21, Abraham was fully convinced that God was able to do, he could act, able to do what he had promised.

I want you to hear this well this morning. Jesus is not active for people who try really hard and somehow get on his good side, that would be the opposite of what Romans is telling us. Jesus acts with grace, not because we deserved it, but out of his great love with which he loved us. Jesus acts for his people. Jesus is active for all who share the faith of Abraham. For all who believe, God can give life from the dead and call into existence things that don't exist yet.

Belief Three: Infinite Power Guarantees God's Promises

So if the promise rests on God's favor and not on what I do, text tells us that it's guaranteed. But a guarantee is only as good as whatever stands behind the guarantee, right? I can guarantee you that the Tennessee volunteers will win the college football playoff next year, but none of you'll trust that, and you shouldn't, 'cause I have nothing to back that up.

That leads us to belief number three because Jesus was raised from the dead. Infinite power guarantees God's promises, not only the power that can bring someone back from the dead, which is pretty amazing power, but what Jesus said is, I lay down my life and I pick it back up. So the kind of power that can die and then come back yourself.

That's what Jesus promises. Infinite power guarantees God's promises. So this truth of the resurrection is supposed to change you. How different would your life be if you never believed hopelessness was true?

How different would your life be if you always knew Jesus is alive and active for you and will be tomorrow and will be the next day, and will be the next day and will be the next day forever? How different would your life be if you knew that every promise of God was backed by infinite power?

This truth must change us. How? How does it connect to us?

We get to the end of this section in Romans four, and we find out it wasn't just about Abraham. Verse 23 says the words, it was counted to him, that's his faith was counted to him as righteousness. The words it was counted to him were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him, who raised from the dead, Jesus, our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.

The resurrection matters to us because the Bible gives us the teaching of substitution of the fact that when Jesus died, he died in my place. He died as my representative. He counts for me.

You see, if you deserve a punishment or if someone is about to attack you, and someone else jumps in front of the attack, and they die in your place, then what happens, because it's, it's a mere human dying for a human, instead of you dying, they die and you live. Now, that's wonderful. And we applaud those kind of self-sacrificial, loving actions.

But this is something better because Jesus was not just a mere human. So when he died as your substitute, he had completely paid the punishment that our sins deserved. He still had infinite life left over.

That's why he came out of the grave. And the resurrection tells us that he paid that debt in full. If you imagine you had a prison sentence for 10 years, let's say. And someone comes along and says, I will serve in their place, and they do. They go in prison. Well, that's wonderful and you're grateful. But I know what I would do. I would think, what if they decide this doesn't work? What if they decide they want to come out of prison, and I have to go in? When I know, when I have confidence that that prison sentence has been paid in full is when the person who went to jail for me comes out.

When Jesus came outta that grave, the punishment, the debt, the prison sentence was paid so much in full that he didn't stay in the grave. Which means I don't have to ever fear that punishment. He took my punishment, he took your punishment, what we deserve, and we get eternal, abounding, indestructible life, which is what he deserved. And the resurrection of Jesus gives us confidence that that is exactly what he deserved. He took our place by dying. And you notice in Romans four it says he was delivered up for our trespasses.

That's substitution, but it doesn't stop there. It says he was raised for our justification. Both the death and the resurrection were for you. They were for me.

The Resurrection Brings Peace

So since Jesus died and was raised as a substitute for everyone who has faith in him, everyone who believes in him, hopelessness is never true. Jesus is active for his people for all time. And infinite power guarantees God's promises. So think with me. What do you call it? If you have a hope, that's always true. You have a king who is and will be forever with you. And you have infinite power to back up these promises.

I think you call it peace. I think you call it rest.

And that's exactly where Paul goes right after the verse I just read. He was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. Therefore, since we have been justified declared righteous by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. There is a direct line in Romans from resurrection to peace, from resurrection to rest.

Jesus came out of the grave so you don't have to be restless anymore. He guaranteed hope and help and safety for everyone who trusts in him.

Did you feel restlessness this week? I did. Did you feel that your peace wasn't all that you want it to be?

Look to the risen Lord. Will you trust him today? Maybe you've trusted him for a long time, but you find your heart wandering. You find your heart restless over and over return to the risen Lord that you love. Maybe you've never trusted him.

Maybe you've tried to find peace and rest in all kinds of other things, and maybe you've found they work for a little while, but there's a gnawing, nagging sensation that it doesn't give that kind of peace.

Will you turn from trusting your performance in any way? Turn from ruling your own life and bow before Jesus. When you feel restlessness, where do you go to try to escape? Where do you go to try to numb yourself? Because the restlessness is so bad. You don't have to escape. You don't have to numb yourself. You can go to Jesus and have peace, because Jesus didn't stay in that grave. He came out and he lives.

Treasure the risen Lord and find his peace. I want to invite you, maybe that's a wonderful repeated chorus in your life and you need like, I need this week to remember the risen Lord and to remember when I'm tempted to be restless to look to him. Maybe it's new to you. Maybe you say, I don't know how you people believe all that stuff, but maybe there's just a little bit inside you that says, man, it would be nice if it were true. Maybe there's a little bit that says that kind of hope would be wonderful. That kind of peace would be wonderful.

I want to encourage you, that's God working in your heart. To give you that little sense, that little sight. Don't waste that. Read in God's word, reading the Gospel of John. Hear the words of Jesus.

Maybe someone invited you here who's a believer in Jesus. Talk with them about it. Come back next Sunday. We'll celebrate the resurrection again in a different way. Or maybe you don't live here. Find another place that will teach you about the risen Lord and will teach you this kind of peace.

I'll invite you all just to bow your heads, to ask God for his help. Whatever he's impressed on your heart, ask him to work this kind of peace throughout your day and throughout this week.