Word of Salvation – Vol. 14 No.13 – March 1968
He Has Risen
Sermon by Rev. J. VanderStaal, B.D. on Luke 24:1-8
SCRIPTURE READING: Matthew 28
PSALTER. HYMNAL: 233 (5,6); 319 (3); Procl. Grace Rom. 3:23,24, 4:25;
361 (1,2); 491 (After Creed); 356;
124:5 (After sermon); 362; 282:3
"The Lord is risen; He is truly risen.”
This glorious message of the gospel is proclaimed again today throughout the world. Wherever Christian believers meet today to worship, the Easter message of Christ's resurrection is proclaimed, and it is also sung of in the hymns of the church.
Alleluiah! Alleluiah!
Hearts to heaven and voices raise!
Sing to God a hymn of gladness,
Sing to God a hymn of praise.
He who on the cross a victim
for the world's salvation bled,
Jesus Christ, the king of glory,
now is risen from the dead.
Easter is a feast of joy, of the most unexpected joy. For did you ever realize that with this feast, things have changed in the most unexpected way? There is a sudden transition from the sorrow of Good Friday to the joy of Easter. For seven weeks, during the time of Lent, we have sung here in the church the hymns of the Passion of our Lord. And now, all at once, the situation has changed, and we sing our Easter songs.
Do you perhaps think that this change is too abrupt? Is it difficult for you to adapt yourself on this Sunday morning to the joy of Easter? But then you must remember that this abrupt and unexpected change is one of the characteristics of this feast. Suddenly the believers are translated from the deepest gloom into the brightest light. All at once the sorrow of the disciples at the death of Jesus changes into joy at His resurrection.
In the morning they are still worrying about many things, but in the evening all their worries have disappeared, and all their problems have been solved. Then we hear them saying to each other on this glorious day: "The Lord is risen; He is truly risen!"
Early that Easter morning the women went to the tomb with spices to anoint the body of Jesus. We can scarcely imagine how great their grief was.
At first, when Jesus appeared among Israel, they had looked upon Him as a great Teacher. Gradually they had learned to believe in Him as the promised Saviour, the Messiah. But how then was it possible that He had died in such a terrible way?
On Calvary they had continually hoped and prayed for an act of divine intervention, by which He would be rescued from his enemies. But it had not happened. Previously, the Lord had performed many miracles. But this time there was no miracle. Had God then forsaken Him? Or had they been mistaken? Was He not really the Messiah after all, and had their faith in Him been an idle dream?
As the women approached the tomb of Jesus, other problems presented themselves. From a distance they observed that the stone in front of the tomb had been rolled away. What had happened to the grave of Jesus? Had it been violated? Had His enemies put their hands on His body?
Hurriedly they entered the sepulchre. Their fears seemed to be confirmed. The tomb was empty. In the place where the body of the Lord had been laid two days before, now only the linen cloths were lying. The body itself was no longer there.
Helplessly, the women stood in the sepulchre.
They looked at each other. What could have happened to the Lord? His death already had evoked many questions which they could not answer. This new enigma of the empty tomb was almost more than they could stand. How well we can understand the feelings of the women on that first Easter morning... their worries and their despair. We too have our troubles and our worries. Perhaps not as great as those of the women, but how depressed they can make us feel! How easily we lose courage in times of trial and distress!
But then it is time for us to listen to the gospel of Easter. Then it is time to realize what this gospel means to us. On this day we are faced with the work of GOD in the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. He intervened in the course of events; and, by this divine intervention, all the worries of the women were taken away, and all darkness was dispelled.
As the women are standing at the sepulchre in great dismay, suddenly two men appear at their side; two angels, sent by God to proclaim to them the message of the resurrection.
"Why do you seek the living among the dead?" they ask. "He is not here, but He has risen."
There is a mild reproach in these words of the angels. They blame the women for seeking the living Saviour in the tomb, where He had been buried. They should have known better, for Jesus had told His disciples that on the third day He would be raised from the dead.
But the women, and as a matter of fact also the disciples, had forgotten this promise of the Lord. They were so bewildered by the things that had happened, and they were so completely absorbed by their grief, that they did not remember anything of what Jesus had told them.
They only thought of the SAD things that had happened to Jesus; His cross, His death, His burial. And despite the fact that the Lord had clearly taught them so – they did not realize that there is a God in heaven whose divine possibilities are far beyond our human possibilities; that He is a God who is able to rescue even from death.
Do we not often make the same mistake? Often, in our human short-sightedness, we only notice the difficulties we meet up with. We only think of the troubles we have, and we forget what we are clearly taught in the Bible: that also in times of adversity we are guided by the hand of an almighty and merciful God; that He is a God for whom nothing is impossible.
Well, THE EASTER GOSPEL SHOWS GOD'S POSSIBILITIES TO HELP US AND TO SAVE US.
It also shows us that WE are to blame, when we lose sight of these divine possibilities and merely think of the possibilities of the world, of the possibilities of men.
For us, too, it is therefore of the greatest importance to listen to the message of the angels in that empty tomb: "Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen."
"He is not here." Not where the women expected to find Him. Not where He SHOULD have been, if things had happened according to our human order, and according to the possibilities of the world. "But He has risen. God had intervened in the course of events. The miracle to which the women had looked forward in vain as Jesus suffered and died, had now occurred. When all human possibilities had been exhausted through Jesus' death and burial, the possibilities of God were shown. An angel came down from heaven. The stone was rolled away. Jesus rose victoriously from the grave.
At present many people, even many church people, do not believe the gospel message of the resurrection of the Lord. It is impossible, they say, that a dead man can come back to life again. Consequently they consider the Easter story a myth. In their opinion it is a fictitious narrative, for it is evident that things like this do not really happen.
However, these people are making a serious mistake. They measure God by a human measure. They start from the supposition that God can do but little more than man can do. They assume that God's possibilities are exhausted at the same time as our human possibilities are exhausted.
What a ridiculous supposition! As if God were not GOD! As if He has to stop working when WE have to stop working! As if His divine and almighty power does not surpass all powers which are working in the world!
Indeed, when we look upon the Easter story from a mere human point of view, when we only reckon with what is possible in this world, according to our own ideas, then those critics of the gospel of Jesus' resurrection are right. Dead is dead, and a dead man can not return to life again. That is impossible with man. But it is possible with God.
Easter shows us the OMNIPOTENT POWER of God, by whom the dead can be raised, and with whom nothing is impossible.
* * *
We must also give attention to what is said in the message of the angels from the open tomb, about the connection between the death and resurrection of the Lord.
These two are inter-related. In the various announcements of His sufferings to the disciples, our Lord Himself always mentioned His death and resurrection in the same breath. The angels did so too, as they reminded the women of these statements of the Lord. "Remember how He told you, that the Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and on the third day rise."
Christ's death and resurrection belong together. Both are essential for His work of salvation. His death was connected with our sins. It was the punishment which we have deserved. The resurrection of the Lord, His victory over death, is connected with the EXPIATION of our sins. By His atoning death, the power of sin and death has been broken, and by His resurrection from the dead, life is brought to light again.
Unless we are aware of this connection between the death and resurrection of the Lord, we cannot understand the real meaning of Easter, its significance for the church and for all believers.
The Easter message is part of the biblical message of our salvation. The resurrection of the Lord not only shows the omnipotent power of God by which the dead can be raised: it also shows that, by the power and the grace of God, the power of sin and death has been conquered, and that all things are made new again.
Nothing is impossible with God. That is the glorious message of Easter. It was not impossible for Him to raise the Lord Jesus from the dead. Neither is it impossible for Him to raise us, sinners, from the deadness of sin, and make us partakers of the new life in Christ.
On this glorious day of Easter we should remember the message of the angels from the open tomb. We should remember what the Lord has said: that He must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and on the third day rise.
We should remember, even on the day of the resurrection of our Lord, that His death was necessary for the expiation of our sins. We cannot pass by the events of Golgotha, not even at Easter. Even at this feast the gospel urges us to confess our sins at the cross of Jesus. Only then can the Easter message be understood by us: the message that Christ died for us, to deliver us from all our sins – and that, after that, He was raised to make all things new for us again.
For the believer, the DEATH of Christ means the end of his old life; the end of that life which was subjected to the powers of sin and death. And the RESURRECTION of Christ means the beginning of a new life, free from sin; a life of holiness in communion with the Lord. "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation,” the apostle says; "the old has passed away, the new has come.”
This new life of the Christian is also a VICTORIOUS life.
The Easter story tells us about the worries and anxieties of the women on that Easter morning. It also tells how they overcame their worries; how their unrest disappeared, and how their hearts were filled with the joy of Easter.
"They remembered His words," the gospel says. Suddenly it came home to them how the Lord Himself had foretold that these things would happen to Him. At the time, they had not been able to understand that message. It was contrary to all their expectations. Even now, on the first Easter morning, they could not yet. comprehend the full meaning of Jesus' death and resurrection. And yet – they felt the impact of what had happened. The Lord had died and He had risen. There were still many things which they did not know and which they could not understand. But, even so, they realized that things had changed completely. A heavy load had been taken from their hearts, and they were filled with a peace and joy such as they had never felt before.
Here the Easter gospel comes with a message especially to those Christians who are lacking true spiritual joy and happiness. They are not able to bear the hardships of life with a joyful heart, in the power of faith. They are always worrying. They are always sad.
Why is this so with some of us? Don't we know the message of the gospel? Of course, we do. Don't we know the Easter message of Christ's victory: that He conquered sin and death and that all things are made new by Him again? Of course, we do. Yet we cannot get hold of it. It does not appeal to us. We know it with our minds, but it has not entered our hearts, and we do not live by it. That's why so often we are downhearted and depressed, even while we know the gospel message. Just as it was with the women on the Easter morning. They could have known that the Lord had risen, for He Himself had told them so. Yet the thought of His resurrection had not entered their minds for a moment.
Until the angels reminded them of the words of Jesus. THEN they remembered what He had told them.
That's what must happen to us, congregation, in that state of spiritual depression. It must come home to us again what the Lord has told us.
Here, in the Bible, we find the most glorious promises of the Lord. Here, the message of salvation through the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus is proclaimed to us. Here we are told of His victory over sin and death. Here it is said that all things are made new again by Him. He makes us a new creation. He gives us new hope. He opens up a new prospect for us. He gives us new strength and courage to cope with the hardships of life.
All these promises are given us in the Bible. Now we need the Holy Spirit. He must remind us again of those promises. He must apply them to us in our hearts. He must teach us to see how we are involved in the message of the gospel: how Christ's suffering and death on the cross of Golgotha is not only a message for others.
WE are involved. It is a message for US. Also the message of Easter: how He conquered sin and death and made all things new. That message, too, is not only meant for others. We are involved. It too, is a message for us.
Christ, the living Saviour, wants to live in your heart through His Holy Spirit.
If you feel – like the women on that Easter morning the impact of the message of the resurrection; if you feel the impact of His living power in your heart, then things will change for you completely. Then, no difficulties are insurmountable, no hardships are unconquerable any longer.
If you know the Lord by a living faith, and if His power works in you – the power of His resurrection – then you shall not be overcome by the troubles of life any more. No, in all these things we shall be more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
A Christian's life is a victorious life, indeed.
How shall we ever be able to thank the Lord for this marvel of our salvation!
Let God be praised with reverence deep...!
Amen.