The resurrection, what an extraordinary,
extraordinary event. No wonder the scriptures mark
the beginning of a new time with it. When the people of Israel
were taken out of Egyptian bondage and that glorious exodus happened,
they began a new calendar and a new set of dates, and they
were a new nation with a new set of markers for time. And we are here in 2025, in July
of 2025, and these days have, for the last 2,025 years, been
marked in the calendars of all the people of this world, I believe. Marked because of this extraordinary
event, the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead,
we have a glorious, victorious, risen Saviour. And I love the
reality of the resurrection. I love the nature of the Lord
Jesus Christ when he was resurrected. These 40 days after the resurrection
and before the ascension and before the Holy Spirit came were
remarkable days in the life of the church. Remarkable in so
many ways. The Lord Jesus Christ came to
his own people only. He didn't go to Pilate and tell
Pilate, you've acted very unjustly in condemning an innocent man.
You've broken all the laws of Rome. He didn't go down to Caiaphas
and the Sanhedrin and say, you have broken all the laws of God. And he didn't ask any of his
disciples to do so. My point simply is that the resurrection
is personal and particular to the Church of God, and then the
resurrection is going to be in time personal and particular
to all humanity. Turn with me back and we'll have
a look at a couple of scriptures in John. Then I want to read
some verses that talk about the seriousness of the resurrection.
In 1 Corinthians 15, we are in the presence of a holy, holy
God. Our God put his son to death
on the cross of Calvary because he found sin on him. The Lord Jesus Christ was made
sin and he was made a curse and he suffered the infinite wrath
of God Almighty and he was dead. He really was dead and he really
was buried in a tomb and there really were lots of witnesses
to it. This is the most well-known fact of all history. If people
are serious, they will not deny the crucifixion and the resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ. But turn with me in John chapter
5. I want us to see that this is personal for us, all of us
here. In John chapter 5 verse 24, the
Lord Jesus Christ says, Verily, verily, truly, truly. All of his words are incredibly
significant, but when he says verily, verily, when he says
truly, truly, he's doing that to get our attention especially.
I say unto you, he that heareth my word, and believeth on him
that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into
condemnation, but is passed from death unto life. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the
voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live. Faith comes by hearing. People
are raised from the dead of what they were in Adam by the preaching
of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. For as the Father hath
life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself. And he hath given him authority
to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of Man. Marvel
not at this. For, or because, the hour is
coming in which all that are in the graves shall hear and shall come forth they that
have done good unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done
evil unto the resurrection of damnation." There is a resurrection
coming for all of us, all humanity. You are eternal beings. God has made you so. And whether
you like it or not, that's just the reality of life, of all humanity. There will be a resurrection. There will be a judgment. It is appointed, Hebrews 9 says,
it is appointed unto man. There is an appointment that
we have with God Almighty. The resurrection, for the other
verse I want to, thinking about how serious that is, I want you
to turn with me to chapter 11. And I want us to see that the
resurrection is a person. God has placed in the hands of
his dear and precious Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, all things. He has power over all flesh to
give eternal life to as many as the Father has given him.
But here we have the Lord Jesus Christ coming back to Mary and
Martha. Jesus says to her in verse 23
of Matthew 11, Your thy brother shall rise again. Martha saith unto him, I know
that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.
She knew about resurrection at the last day. She seemed to know
more about it than the apostles and others around the tomb. I know that he shall arise again
in the resurrection at the last day. Jesus said unto her, I am
the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me, though
he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever, don't you love
that whosoever? I can fit myself into a whosoever,
a demographic of the whosoevers. And whosoever liveth and believeth
in me shall never die. Do you believe that? The resurrection is an event. Historic, real event. The resurrection is a person. The resurrection is a person.
I am the resurrection and the life. He is. is. He's the beginning and the
ending. He begins all things and he ends
all things. He doesn't say I was in the beginning
and I was in the ending. He says I am the beginning and
I am the ending. That's in Revelation chapter
1. The resurrection is the person. The resurrection of all of God's
people and the death of all of God's people is a past event. It's the reality of the lives
of God's people. There is still time and there
are still events to go on. God's children, according to
God Almighty, do not die. They have passed from death to
life. People say, well, someone has
passed away. The reality is that for the believer,
Everything that hinders their intimate relationship with God
Almighty has passed from them. They're leaving all of this behind.
They've passed into the presence of God Almighty, and it's a glorious,
glorious event, isn't it? God's children do not die according
to God. They just leave this behind. And life, real life, begins. Real life begins and they are
instantly in the presence of their saviour and hear those
glorious songs of heaven. They're instantly there. They
don't die. That's why in the scriptures
God's children are only ever said to fall asleep. It's not
much trouble falling asleep. I look at it in prospect and
the reality is that dying is something that's sort of close,
coming in upon people of my age. And I have to think about it
a bit more closely than lots of other people. But it's falling
asleep. I like falling asleep. The older
I get, the more I enjoy falling asleep. In fact, I spend lots
of, I spend hours of every day wanting to fall asleep. The resurrection is a glorious,
glorious declaration of what the Lord Jesus Christ prayed.
Remember that all of these... Ben, turn with me in John chapter
17. Let's hear the Lord's prayer
for all of those who believe. Martha believed. Martha then
got to see a glorious picture of what resurrection is. Lazarus
come forth and he came forth. But in John chapter 17, this
is the Lord's prayer for his people. This is his prayer for
us today. Our God doesn't change and our
God still has power over all flesh. He says, Pray I for these
alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their
word, that they all may be one as thou, Father, art in me and
I in thee, that they also may be one in us, that the world
may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou
gavest me, I have given them, that they may be one even as
we are one. I in them, and thou in me, that
they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that
thou hast sent me, and hast loved them as thou hast loved me. Father, I will. that they also
whom thou hast given me be with me where I am." Do you reckon
he had that prayer answered? That's what the resurrection
is saying, isn't it? to be with him where he is. That
they may behold my glory which thou hast given me, for thou
lovest me before the foundation of the world. And it broke his
heart. It broke his heart and great drops of blood fell to
the ground. And those great drops of blood
continued to fall as he went into those trials and those great
drops of blood continued to fall as he went to the cross of Calvary.
And when he was taken down from the cross of Calvary, Joseph
and Nicodemus wiped those great drops of blood as best they could. And these women were watching
on. Mary and the other women watched
on. They watched him die on the cross
of Calvary, they watched him taken down from the cross, and
they watched him buried in a tomb. And now we have this glorious
event of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, the first
day. The Lord Jesus Christ has an
eternal union with all of his people.
So intense and so infinite is it that he can dwell in them
and they can dwell in him. I don't understand it. I'm so
pleased that God says we are just to believe the glorious
things we're talking about. I can't explain resurrection.
You try and get some jolly scientist to explain resurrection. It's
impossible, isn't it? But we believe it. We believe
it. We believe it. We believe that
there was, according to the scriptures, an extraordinary union with the
Lord Jesus Christ. We were united to him before
the world began. We were united to him in his
life on this earth. When we perfectly obeyed God
in heart and word and soul, we were united to him on the cross
of Calvary. real death. His death was a real
death and it was our death. It was me. Paul said I was crucified
with Christ. Every single one of God's children
was put to death on the cross of Calvary. We'd committed that
sin. It was me that had to be judged
by God Almighty. It was me and the Lord Jesus
Christ that had to be punished to the full extent of the holy
wrath of God and to experience all that hell is. It was me that
was died. It was me that was buried. It
was me that was raised. We're not talking about fictional
things. We're just talking about reality. This is just the reality
of human life. It's appointed unto men once
to die and after this the judgment. All of God's children have died
in the Lord Jesus Christ. All of God's children have been
buried in the Lord Jesus Christ. All of God's children have been
resurrected in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is our resurrection. He is our life. He is our death. He is our resurrection. He is
our exaltation to heaven. He is the resurrection of our
bodies. I love the fact that when we bury our brothers and
sisters in Christ, that little patch of ground becomes holy
ground in a very, very special way. When I take people out to
the cemetery, I said, you'd be very careful treading around
here. You'd be very careful treading around here. One day soon when
the Lord comes back, those graves will be open and he'll take his
people out of there. They're going to have a resurrected
body. A resurrected body that's like
the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. They touched him and they handled
him. He could eat. and he could teach, it was a
real man, resurrected man, that walked those paths in Galilee
and Judea for those 40 days. Christ is all. The resurrection of the Lord
Jesus Christ is a declaration of the fact that He is God. I
do love Romans 4 and I can read it to you, but if you think about
this, He was put, He was delivered. He was delivered, Romans 4.25,
he was delivered for our offenses. He was delivered because of our
offenses and was raised again because of or for our justification. What's his resurrection saying?
Their sins are gone forever. never to be remembered by God
ever again. All of God's children are perfectly
fit for God to dwell with them and in them and commune with
them as he did with Mary. So let's turn in our Bibles to
1 Corinthians 15. We've been looking at this passage
of scripture in terms of salvation. I want everyone that hears me
to be saved. I just long for people to be
saved. I pray that there will be salvation
come to this house. But if you're going to be saved,
you're going to be saved according to God's way of saving you. And
you're going to be saved according to God's gospel which saves you.
So turn with me back to 1 Corinthians 15. I know this is a long chapter
and we won't be dealing with all of it, but if you want to
have a wonderful read from God and hear from God about the resurrection,
1 Corinthians 15 is glorious. But it begins with salvation.
Moreover brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached
unto you, which also you have received. All the brethren receive
it. We won't have time to look at
it today, but when the Lord Jesus Christ is sent back to the apostles,
locked away in that room, he has a new name for them that
he never used before, brethren. Members of the same family. With
the same parents. My brethren. So Paul's talking
here to the brethren of Corinth. And if you want to read what
the brethren of Corinth was like, you just read the first few chapters
of this book and you'll see that they lived in a world exactly
the same as ours. And despite all the remarkable
privileges that they had, they behaved in the most extraordinarily
wicked ways. And yet God have mercy upon them. Moreover brethren, I declare
unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which you also received,
and wherein ye stand. This is a gospel that's to be
received, to be stood in. And it's a gospel in which if
you do the receiving and the standing, you'll be a brethren.
I want to be a brethren with the apostles. I want to be a
brethren with all of those. who are the brethren of the Lord
Jesus Christ. I want to be, as 1 John says,
I want to be fellows in the same ship with all of these people.
By which, this gospel is, by which also you are saved if you
keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless you have believed
in vain. Because I delivered unto you
first of all of the highest importance, that which I also received. Paul
didn't make up his Gospel. None of God's people make up
their Gospel. We just deliver what God has given. How that
Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. And you can put the how that
in, how that he was buried and how that he rose again the third
day according to the scriptures. Then he goes on to give all the
evidence. He was seen of Cephas, then of
the Twelve. After that he was seen above
500 brethren at once in one meeting, of whom the greater part remain
unto this present. Paul is saying if you want to
go and interview people back in Israel, there are 500 of them
there that witnessed the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. They
heard him teaching on that mountain in Galilee. But some have fallen
asleep. But after that, he was seen of
James, his brother, and then all of the apostles. And last
of all, he was seen of me also as one born out of due time. For I am the least of the apostles,
and I'm not qualified to be called an apostle because I persecuted
the church of God. By the grace of God, I am what
I am. So says every believer, by the
grace of God, I am what I am. And His grace which was bestowed
upon me was not in vain, but I laboured more abundantly than
they all. Yet not I, but the grace of God
which was with me. Therefore, whether it were I
or they, so we preach, and so you have believed. Now if Christ be preached that
he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is
no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection
of the dead, then Christ isn't risen. And if Christ is not risen,
then our preaching is vain, and your faith is also vain. Yea, and we are found false witnesses
of God, because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ,
whom he raised not, if so be that the dead rise not. For if
the dead rise not, then is Christ not raised? And if Christ be
not raised, your faith is vain. Faith here is a noun. All of what you believe about
God is empty, and ye are yet in your sins. Then they also
which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished, If in this life
only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. What's your hope? What's your
hope? When you look down the tunnel
of time, the events of life, what's your hope? A Christian's hope is a hope,
a real hope and a living hope. Christ is our hope. It's a real
hope and it's a living hope that someday soon all of his people
will be with him in a new creation, in a sense a resurrected creation,
the home of the righteous, where there will be no more sin, no
more snakes slithering around ever. Impossible for them to
get there. And every thought and every action
in that new creation will be centred on the glory of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And if you think it's boring,
I feel really sorry for you. Because he who can create a universe
by speaking a few words is more than capable of keeping his people
rejoicing in glory forever and ever. And there's no more death,
no more death. But now is Christ risen, verse
20, from the dead and become the first fruits of them that
slept. For since by man came death,
death came to all humanity when Adam sinned in the garden. 100% of humanity were in the
garden. Romans 5.12 says that you were there and you sinned
in the garden. And all of the death and all
of the trials and all of the troubles that we see in this
world of ours stem from that one event in the garden. But by man came also the resurrection
of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even
so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own
order Christ the firstfruits, and after that they that are
at Christ's coming. Then cometh the end, and he shall
have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father, and
when he shall have put down all rule and authority and power.
Don't you love this next phrase? For he must reign. He must reign till he hath put
all enemies under his feet, and the last enemy that shall be
destroyed is death. For he hath put all things under
his feet. When he saith, All things are
put under him, it is manifest that he is accepted, which did
put all things under him. And when all things shall be
subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject
unto him that put all things unto him, that God may be all
in all. I'll leave you to read the rest
of it at your leisure, but let's turn to the last few verses from
verse 51. For this corruptible must put
on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when
this corruptible shall have put on incorruptible, and this mortal
shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass
the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O Death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and
the strength, the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to
God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
He began this chapter talking about standing and being steadfast
and not being moved. Therefore, my brethren, be ye
steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the
Lord, forasmuch as you know that your labor is not in vain in
the Lord. It's not in vain, brothers and
sisters, to stand for the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's
not in vain, it's not in vain to cop whatever this world throws
at us that we might just stand and be found standing. I want
us in closing to turn to John Chapter 14. I want us to see
that the Lord Jesus Christ declared that the resurrection, His resurrection
is a cause for rejoicing. We'll look a little bit later
on at the Lord Jesus Christ coming to Mary, but he comes to his
own. John 14. Verse 18, he said, I won't leave
you comfortless. I need to be comforted. This
world is a place of thorns and briars and all sorts of things
and all sorts of trials. I want to be comforted. And the
only comfort that I can have is a comfort from him. But listen
to what he says. I'm not going to leave you comfortless. I will
come to you. This same Jesus. Yet a little
while, and the world seeth me no more, but ye see me. Because
I live, you shall all live also. At that day, at that day of the
resurrection, at that day of the new birth, at that day, you
shall know. This is what believers know.
It's not speculation. You shall know that I am in my
Father, and you are in me and I am in
you. That's close. That's a close
relationship and I just love it. That day. He that hath my commandments
and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me. And he that loveth
me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and I will
manifest myself to him. That's what he did in the resurrection.
He made himself known to all of these people. Judas saith
unto him, not a scarlet lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest
thyself unto us and not unto the world? And that's exactly
what happened in those 40 days. The world didn't know about it
personally at all. He comes to his people. Jesus answered and said unto
him, If any man love me, he will keep my words, he will guard
my words, he will hold on to my words. We've read the most
remarkable words from God Almighty this morning, haven't we? We'll
guard them, we'll hold on to them, we won't let them be damaged.
We'll keep them and pray that the Lord will cause us to keep
them. And my Father will love him and we will come unto him
and make our abode with him. He that loveth me not keepeth
not my saying, and the word which you hear is not mine, but the
Father's which sent me. These things have I spoken unto
you, being yet present with you. But the Comforter, which is the
Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach
you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever
I have said unto you. Peace, I leave with you. My peace I give unto you. What
were his first words to the apostles that evening of the resurrection? Peace, peace unto you. My peace, he is peace. Christ is our peace. He's made
peace by the blood of the cross. My peace I give unto you, not
as the world giveth. You've been given by this world,
haven't you? This world gives and it takes from you. There
was a lady just up the road from us who had this mansion of a
place called Terrera House. I don't know how many rooms,
but it had about 20 something bedrooms in it. And she owned
this place with her husband and they bought it for millions and
they spent millions on it. And she didn't own it. It was
so precious to her This is a wealthy woman. It was so precious to
her that she couldn't have cleaners come in because they might scratch
the skirting boards. Who owned the house? She was a slave to it. A slave
to it. So it is with all the things
of this world that we cling on to, brothers and sisters. It's
not worth it. Not as the world gives. He doesn't
give as the world gives. The world gives and takes. It
gives with one hand and takes with another hand. Not as the
world give I unto you, let not your heart be troubled, neither
let it be afraid. You have heard how I said unto
you, I go away and come again unto you. If you loved me, you
would rejoice. You would rejoice. If you loved
me, you'd rejoice in the resurrection. You would rejoice because I said
I'd go unto my father, for my father is greater than I. And now I have told you, before
it come to pass, that when it is come to pass, you might believe. What a remarkable things we have
to believe. Thank God, he says, we're to hold onto them by faith. I'd love to know more about them.
I'd love to study them more deeply. But most of all... and with him, and I want to have
the closeness of relationship that he promised his people.
And I pray that for everyone here, I pray that we would ourselves
be, find ourselves in a day, in verse 20, in the words of
verse 20, that you shall know, this is something that God's
children know, that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the Father,
and you are in him. That's how close, that's how
intimate, that's how personal. is the union of the Lord Jesus
Christ and his people. You in me and I in you. May the Lord give us the grace
to believe, to rejoice, to be so, so thankful that there is
such a glorious Saviour.