Word of Salvation – Vol. 21 No. 25 – April 1975

 

The Risen Lord

 

Sermon by Rev. Keith V. Warren on Lord’s Day 17

Scripture reading: Hebrews 2

Psalter Hymnal: 408:1,3; 372:1,3,4; 366; 360:3; 493

 

Congregation!

The first big lie about the resurrection was told on the very day that Christ stepped out of the tomb alive.  Only an hour or so after that grave had become empty, the chief priests in Jerusalem had fabricated a story, so as to give an explanation of that empty grave: "His disciples came by night and stole him away while the soldiers who were guarding the grave, were asleep."

But what a pitiful story they had made up!

Would that small group of fearful disciples have had the courage to come up to the tomb, boldly destroying the seal, rolling away the heavy stone, and carrying off the body?

And mind you, all of this must have been done without waking any of the Roman soldiers, who were committing the capital crime of sleeping while on duty, all at once, and all quite soundly.

We may very properly ask the question: How did these soldiers know that the body of Jesus was stolen, and how did they know that the disciples were the guilty ones?  If all these soldiers had been asleep, how did they get their information?

And isn't it remarkable that these disciples who had stolen the body, were never arrested for that misdeed?

What's more, many of these followers of Jesus later died a martyr's death, giving their life for the sake of Christ.  Now can you imagine someone dying for a cause of which he knows that it is a deliberate fake?

No, that first lie about the resurrection was a very poor one.  But then again, there hadn't been much time to think up a story.

It is incredible that people still believed it, but they did nevertheless, for Matthew writes that "this story has been spread among the Jews to this day."  So at least for a generation or so, that story was – for many Jews – the explanation of the empty tomb.

I don't think that today many people would believe it.

But that does not mean that there is a ready acceptance of the truth of the resurrection.  Definitely not!

Many people today may still believe in a 'resurrection', but then NOT a flesh-and-blood resurrection, and that's exactly where the catch is.  While the WORD 'resurrection' is still used, the MEANING has altogether changed.  It has all become terribly vague: people talk about it in terms like "the invisible presence"; "the lingering spirit" and "the enduring influence of Jesus".  But try to pin them down to a PHYSICAL resurrection, and you draw a blank.  For so many people today: no flesh-and-blood event, no real human being stepping out of that grave alive!

Yes, it is a very tall order to believe that a dead man walked out of his grave!  The philosophers at Athens gave the apostle Paul a sympathetic hearing, but he lost most of his audience when he began to mention the resurrection of the dead.

Later, when Paul is on trial, and in his defence makes reference to the resurrection, governor Festus impatiently interrupts him: Paul, you are crazy!

To Jews, Romans and Greeks alike, this Christ who was supposed to have broken the power of the grave, was an offense; a stumbling-block; foolishness!  But what is religion WITHOUT the resurrection?

Any religion that fails to present the living Lord Jesus, who has conquered death, any religion which doesn't do THAT, is useless!  For it fails in what it is supposed to do.

If Christ has not come alive in a very real way, how could I possibly know...
            whether death has been overcome,
            whether my sins are truly forgiven,
            whether God's wrath has been turned away,
            whether Christ is indeed the victor over death and Satan?

In this confused world, the Church has to raise a very clear voice when it repeats the words of Paul:

"If Christ is not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.  And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain, you are yet in your sins."

Or to put it in somewhat different words:

If we cannot accept the bodily resurrection of the crucified Lord,
            then we came to church today for no reason at all,
            then young people who are getting ready to confess their faith,
                         are wasting their time,
            then our Sunday School teachers are running nothing more
                        than a kindergarten...
      close the Bible, close the church, stop believing,
            IF CHRIST HAS NOT BEEN RAISED!

A Moslem once challenged a Christian: "We have proof in our religion," he said, "that YOU don't have in yours.  When WE go to the city of Mecca to visit the tomb of our great prophet Mohammed, we come face to face with real proof that he once lived.  But when YOU go to Jerusalem, you cannot find anywhere the burial place of Jesus.  YOU have no grave like WE have."

"That's true," said the Christian, "we have no grave to visit, for the simple reason that there is no dead body.  Our gospel does not end in a corpse, but in a conqueror; not in a tomb but in triumph."

And has not, throughout the ages, the Church confessed with joy and confidence: "The third day He rose again from the dead!'  In THAT there is indeed gladness, assurance and salvation, the resurrection, as it were, being the hinge around which God's work of salvation turns.

And so the words of the Catechism too are words of confession and conviction.  It doesn't for a moment refer to the PROBLEMS around the bodily resurrection of Christ.  Now that is understandable, for most of these problems are of the last hundred or so years.

But regardless of that, what a splendid approach we find in Lord's Day 17!  Very personal, very practical.  What good is the resurrection to YOU?

Yes, YOU!  No theological problematics here, but: what profit do YOU get out of these events that took place on Easter morning!  And I am sure that the Church ought not to be too much occupied with the 'problem' of the resurrection, but rather with the PROFIT.  We ought to CONFESS rather than DISCUSS!

A song of glory!  The Lord is risen indeed!

Is there a more impressive illustration to be found as to what GRACE can do to SIN?  WE did put Christ into the grave, and – Oh, miracle of miracles – for US He came again out of that grave.

Let's again turn to some of these powerful verses in 1Corinthians 15: (please request congregation to open their Bibles at that chapter, and encourage them to read these verses while the reader reads aloud)

vs.13,14  But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised; if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.

vs.17  If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.

vs.18  Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.

vs.19  If in this life we who are in Christ have only hope, we are of all men most to be pitied.

And then those triumphant words in vs.20: But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep

Probably, the most moving account of the REAL POWER of the resurrection is found in John 11, where we read of the death and resurrection of Lazarus, the friend of Jesus.  The words of Christ to Martha in particular are most impressive: Jesus said to her: I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die (vs.25,26).

Are we really aware of what Christ's resurrection means to US?

Lord's Day 17 mentions 3 things, three blessings:

First: that He might make us partakers of the righteousness which He has obtained for us by His death; that is the blessing of JUSTIFICATION.

Second: that we also are raised up by His power to a new life; that is the blessing of SANCTIFICATION.

Third: that the resurrection of Christ is to us a sure pledge of OUR blessed resurrection; that is the blessing of GLORIFICATION.

Lord's Day 17 confronts us immediately with the most glorious victory of our Lord: "He has overcome death."  HE HAS OVERCOME DEATH!

  Death, the most destructive power on earth.

  Death, which at the most can be postponed for a little while, but never stopped.

  Death, which will come for each one of us.

But the resurrection of Christ makes us sing:
            "Death no longer, is the stronger; Hell itself is captive led.”

For the Lord Jesus Christ went right INTO death, and came right OUT of it!  He conquered death, He changed it.  Changed it in such a way, that for the believer death is no longer DEATH, but a DOOR.  An open door into the presence of God.

In 1Thessalonians 4:14 we come across a remarkable word of Paul.  There, in the space of one verse, he talks about: Jesus who died, and: the believer who falls asleep.

Now we must note that difference.
            Jesus DIES, the believer FALLS ASLEEP.

And isn't that very true?  For is not our Saviour the only one who really died?

He went into the real, terrible and frightening death, wholly and completely, totally forsaken by God.

And because of THAT, I suppose we may say: The believer will not die, but fall asleep.  For the sting has been taken out of death, its destructive power has been overcome.  Falling asleep in Jesus, waking up in the glory of heaven!

Easter morning.  The morning of the miracles.

Not only the open grave, not only the way from death to life being opened, but also the way from man to God again wide open.  Paradise regained.

Easter morning is abundant proof of that.  That heavy stone, rolled away, was clear proof...
            that the price for sin had been paid,
            that in Christ the curse was removed,
            that eternal life was not a dream, but a reality!

"What language shall I borrow,
 to thank Thee, dearest friend,
 For this Thy dying sorrow,
 thy pity without end."

What a glorious blessing: those who accept the empty tomb in faith, are justified!  DECLARED JUST!  Right in the eyes of God.  God will look at those who BELIEVE, and the wonder of it all is, that He will see these believers as being without sin.  Because He sees Christ in them.  The risen Christ, the living Christ.

As the Catechism puts it so splendidly in Question and Answer 60:

“...God, without any merit of mine, of mere grace, grants and imputes to me the perfect satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of Christ, as if I had never had nor committed any sin, and myself had accomplished all the obedience which Christ has rendered for me; if only I accept such benefit with a believing heart.”

No wonder that Paul wrote: if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain... but in fact Christ HAS been raised from the dead.

With JUSTIFYING power.

Sinners being declared just.  Righteous.  As if they had never sinned.  But... if only I accept such benefit with a believing heart.

Have YOU come face to face with the One who said: I am the Resurrection and the Life?

Have we all made the same confession as Thomas? – who at first was quite doubtful about that open grave, but then by the grace of God could make that beautiful confession when he said to Jesus: My Lord and my God.

Have you made that confession?

Then you may put on the garment of the guest who is invited to the wedding feast.  A pure, spotless robe.  Washed white in the blood of the Lamb.

But then, suddenly, you may come to realise that this garment doesn't fit you yet.  Or at least, that's what you think.  It is too clean, too beautiful.  You may feel like saying: it is ridiculous that I should be dressed in the robe of righteousness.  I am too unworthy, too sinful.

Then, my brother, my sister, you have not yet understood the full implication of the empty grave.  Then you yet do not grasp the full meaning of being justified by faith.

You feel yourself too sinful, too unworthy.

But of course you are.  So am I.

But the blessings of God in Christ do not come our way because we are WORTHY, or any other reason within us..  If that is your idea, you do not understand.

Some people hesitate to do their confession of faith, because they believe themselves not good enough.

But then you will never do confession of faith, for in yourself you will NEVER be good enough.  It is the GOODNESS OF CHRIST: THAT is our only hope, our joy, our salvation.  And the RESURRECTION makes us share in His goodness in a very real way.  A very REAL way.

My power is your power, says the risen Christ.

That brings us to the second blessing of the open grave: Sanctification.  Call it the beginning of an inward transformation, at least the beginning of something radically different within.

Not my power, but the power of the risen Lord.

Not my strength, my effort in the first place, but that same strength and effort that took away that heavy stone.

Did you think that justification is God's work, and that sanctification is OUR work?

It is BOTH the work of the Lord of LIFE!

His Spirit reproduces the Lord's risen life in our heart, and so we grow in grace, and at least in a small measure begin to reflect the glory of our Lord.

Sure, we sometimes despair because there seems to be so little progress.  The apostle Paul is concerned about that too, in Romans 7: "the good that I want to do, I do not do, and the evil that I don't want to do, that I do."

But Paul goes on in Romans 7, and points us to the power of the risen Lord!  No, it is not the power of the better things within us.  It is not the power of positive thinking.  It is not your good intentions, and my fine decisions.

But... the power of God Himself wherewith He has raised His own Son from the dead.

That is a strange thing in our lives, isn't it, congregation?

The Christian is fighting the good fight of the faith, and yet ...the battle has been won!  That is the meaning of the resurrection.

The war is at an end, even though here and there troops are still shooting.  The chess-game has been won, even though the loser can still play a few more moves.

The clock has run down, even though the pendulum still swings a few times this way and that.

THE BATTLE HAS BEEN WON.  Christ is risen!

But not only justification, not only sanctification, but also glorification.  Christ's resurrection is a sure guarantee of the believer's glory.

Just as a diamond ring to a young woman is a pledge of real love, so the open grave assures me that MY grave too will, at the sound of the trumpet, be gloriously opened one day.

The believer may wear the conqueror's garment, and share his power, and enjoy his assurance.  All this and heaven too!

Yes, there are still the pains and doubts and sufferings and sins which make us weary and sad.

Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death?

That was Paul's complaint, even after so many years of Christian life.  No, he certainly was not impressed by his own achievements.

But he looked forward!

Praise God, we may look forward.

As for now, still in our bodies, still in the midst of sin and imperfection, still the frightening grave waiting to receive us.

Yet, there is glorious hope!

For the END shall not be weakness, but POWER; it shall not be loss, but eternal gain.

At the end of our life, when the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.  Is that YOUR hope?

Hallelujah, Christ is risen indeed!

Amen.