Now, without playing mind reader,
I'm confident that the vast majority of you sitting in this building
this morning are aware of the fact that this particular Lord's
Day is designated throughout the so-called Christian world
or Christendom as Easter Sunday. It is a sad fact that in our
increasingly pagan country, our beloved United States of America,
There are many, were you to interview them on the street or in the
public schools, who have little or no idea of the connection
between this day in the so-called Christian calendar called Easter
Sunday and anything that is specifically religious or Christian. Once they've talked about bunnies
and bonnets and blue-colored eggs, their knowledge of the
significance of Easter Sunday. is exhausted. However, I'm confident
within this gathering this morning that most, if not every one of
you, is aware that in some way or another, for some reason or
another, Easter Sunday is supposed to have something to do with
the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead. Now these facts raise some very
interesting and perplexing questions. Questions such as, where and
when did this practice begin of designating an unspecified
Sunday, at least those of us who are not the initiate with
regard to how they determine where Easter Sunday is marked,
where and when did this practice begin? How and why is the date
set each year? Should we who profess to regulate
all of life and thought by the Bible Even consider a special
Lord's Day being designated as Easter Sunday, a day to give
specific remembrance to the resurrection of our Lord Jesus. Well, those
are interesting and at times vexing questions, and it's not
my intention to answer any one of them. Much to the disappointment,
I'm sure, of some of you having raised them as liking a man,
making a man itch, and then refusing to scratch him. But rather, knowing
that the teaching of the Bible is very clear that the resurrection
of Jesus of Nazareth from the dead is a foundational tenet
of the Christian faith, I want to preach to you topically this
morning on this subject, the biblical significance of the
bodily resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Or more simply
stated, Christ is risen from the dead, so what? Now you can take the lengthier
title or the more brief title. Christ is risen from the dead,
so what? The biblical significance of
the bodily resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. And in taking
up this subject, I want you to know, by way of introduction,
that I stand upon two central affirmations of the Christian
faith. We live in a day when words that have had a specific
biblical content for centuries have been bled of their biblical
significance. And when I say we're going to
speak on the theme, Christ is risen, so what? I am speaking
in a sphere of reference that rests down upon these two foundational
pillars which I now affirm in your hearing. Affirmation one
is an affirmation of the historical reality and factual accuracy
of the biblical accounts of the bodily resurrection of Jesus
of Nazareth. All four Gospels end with independent
accounts of the resurrection of Jesus. The fourth Gospel,
the Gospel of John, has an appendix, John 21. But in Matthew 28, Mark
16, Luke 24, and in John chapter 20, God has given to us, through
these independent witnesses, independent accounts of the bodily
resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. And while some details are included
in one gospel record that are not included in the other, Each
one of them teaches with unmistakable historical reality and factual
accuracy that the same body that was taken down from the cross
and laid in a borrowed tomb is the body that joined to the Spirit
that was committed to the Father, constituted the bodily resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the second affirmation that
rests, or upon which our entire study rests, is this. I am affirming
not only my belief in the historical reality and factual accuracy
of the biblical accounts of the resurrection, but I am affirming
my belief in the convincing testimony of the eyewitnesses who actually
saw the resurrected Christ. For example, in Acts chapter
1, verses 1 through 3, Luke writes as follows, the former treatise
I made, O Theophilus, concerning all that Jesus, and he could
mean only one Jesus. Remember, he's writing now toward
the close or the three-quarter mark of the first century. Just
a matter of several decades after the facts, and when he said Jesus,
He didn't mean some mythological figure who was the construct
of some wild-eyed theologians or overly enthusiastic religious
followers. He was referring to Jesus of
Nazareth. And he says, This Jesus began
both to do and to teach, until the day which he was received
up, after they had given commandment through the Holy Spirit unto
the apostles whom he had chosen, to whom he also showed himself,
presented himself alive after his passion by many proofs, appearing
unto them by the space of forty days, and speaking the things
concerning the kingdom of God. Do you notice the crassly materialistic
evidences set forth with respect to his resurrection. He presented
himself alive. He didn't present a notion of
his livingness in terms of his teaching and his spirit. He who
had been slain was raised from the dead and represented himself. In the integrity of bodily resurrection,
He presented Himself alive, and He did this by many proofs, appearing
unto them by the space of forty days, and speaking He constructed
vocables in his resurrected body that caused the larynx and the
tongue and the lips to frame words which sent out vibrations
that were picked up by ears and transmitted by the auditory nerve
to the brain, and they said, we heard the resurrected Jesus
speak. At one point when they were frightened
and wondered, is it really the resurrected Lord? He says, look,
touch me, feel me, a spirit hath not flesh and bones as you see
me have. Touch me, feel me, see that indeed
it is I. So when I attempt to speak to
you this morning on the theme, Christ is risen from the dead,
so what? or the biblical significance
of the bodily resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, all that
I say rests down upon those two affirmations of faith. The one,
the historical accuracy and factual, historical reality and the accuracy
of the biblical accounts. And then secondly, the convincing
testimony of the eyewitnesses. Read 1 Corinthians 15, 5-8, and
four times this phrase is used, He was seen. He was seen. He was seen. He was seen. Now,
with that as foundation and introduction, Jesus Christ is risen from the
dead. So what? Well, in broad strokes
this morning, I want to set before you the significance of the resurrection
of our Lord Jesus, first of all, with reference to Himself, secondly,
with reference to His people, and thirdly, with reference to
the world at large. Christ is risen, so what? So what with reference to Christ
himself? What does the resurrection mean
to him? So what with reference to us
who are his people? What does the resurrection mean
to us? And so what with reference to
you who are not his people? who claim no adherence to Christ
in faith, in love, and in obedience. The resurrection speaks sobering,
eloquent, and hopeful, and wonderful things to you as well. First
of all then, what does it say to Christ himself? What did the resurrection mean
to our Lord Jesus? And here again, I'm just dealing
in broad strokes. I'm touching the mountain peaks
of biblical revelation. In the whole range of the Bible's
teaching on the significance of the resurrection, there are
the Matterhorns and the Mount Hoods, there are the lesser mountains
of revealed truth, there are the foothills, there are broad
valleys and plains. We're just focusing on a few
of the highest mountain peaks. And with reference to the resurrection
as it impinges upon our Lord himself, I want you to note with
me these three things. Number one, first and foremost,
the resurrection was and is the climactic validation of his personal
claims. When we stand by Joseph's empty
tomb, we must understand that supremely, above all other things
that God is saying in the resurrection of his son, That open, empty
tomb is the validation, the climactic validation of all of our Lord's
personal claims. Now think back through the Gospels.
In those brief years of his public ministry, Jesus of Nazareth made
some staggering and amazing claims about himself. For example, he
claimed to be God's unique son. And he claimed that in such a
way that his contemporaries understood him to mean that he actually
shared in the divine essence, that he himself was God the Son. And there are several explicit
instances of this. I refer you to the familiar one
in John's Gospel, chapter 10. In John's Gospel chapter 10,
we read in verse 30, the words of Jesus, I and the Father are
one. I and the Father are one. Verse 31, the Jews took up stones
again to stone him. They took up stones to kill him. Well, why are you going to kill
a man who says, I and the Father are one? The text tells us. Jesus
answered them, many good works have I showed you from the Father,
for which of those works do you stone me? The Jews answered him,
for a good work we stone you not, but for blasphemy, and because
you, being a man, make yourself God. Now did they mean to accuse
him that he had by his own will somehow taken what was mere manhood
and exalted it into God who know. When they said, you make yourself
God, they mean you make by your claim to be one with the Father. He made this claim in such a
way and in such a setting that the Jews said, stone him for
blasphemy. He is claiming to be equal with
God. And the Lord did not say, oh,
I'm sorry, I overstated the case, you misunderstood me. No, he
goes on to demonstrate from the Scriptures that his claim was
justified. Furthermore, he not only claimed
to be God's unique Son, God the Son, But he claimed to be the
appointed judge of the world. Think of it. A humble son of
a carpenter's shop coming out of a town with a checkered reputation. Can any good thing come out of
Nazareth? Can any good thing come out of
the Sixth Ward? Any good thing come out of, and
you think of the section in some of our teeming cities that are
known for crime and drug dealing. Can any good thing come out of
Nazareth? And this one who comes out of
Nazareth, who has no halo around his head, who has calluses like
any other man plying his trade in a carpenter's shop, he claims
to be the judge of the world. He says in passages such as John
chapter 5 and verse 22, these astounding words, John 5 and
verse 22, for neither does the Father judge any man, but He's
given all judgment unto the Son. All judgment of men has been
given to the Son. Verse 26, As the Father has life
in Himself, even so He gave to the Son to have life in Himself,
and He gave Him authority to execute judgment, because He
is a Son of Man. And then in verses 28 and 29,
He says, An hour is coming in which all the tombs will give
up their dead, and they will do it in response to the voice
of Jesus of Nazareth. All that are in the tomb shall
hear His voice and shall come forth. And according to Matthew
chapter 25 and verse 31 and following, then shall the King come in His
glory and all the nations shall be gathered together before Him. He shall separate the nations
as the sheep are separated from the goats. He will judge them
and He will consign them to everlasting bliss. or everlasting torment. What claims? For Jesus of Nazareth,
he claims to be God. He claims to be the judge of
the world who will determine the internal destinies of men. He claimed to be the one true
revealer of God. Not one among many, but the one
true revealer of God. Did he not say in John 14 6,
I am thee way? the truth and the light no man comes to the
father except by me that was his claim again in Matthew 11
and verse 25 he said no man knows the father save the son no man
knows the son save the father and he to whomsoever the father
wills to reveal him he's the only true revealer of God What
claims? For someone who when you saw
him there was nothing that struck you but that this is an ordinary
first century Palestinian. He has no form nor comeliness.
There is nothing in his whole demeanor and bearing that would
make him stand out as a giant among pygmies. And yet his claims
are, I am God's unique son. I am God the son. I am the appointed
judge of the world. I am the one exclusive revealer
of God and the exclusive way to God. And people didn't forget
his sayings. They may have twisted them and
put a false meaning on them, but they didn't forget them.
We read in such passages as Matthew 26, verses 59 to 61 when Jesus
is standing before his accusers notice how they remembered words
spoken very very early in his ministry Matthew chapter 26 verses
59 to 61 now the chief priest and the whole council sought
false witnesses against Jesus that they might put him to death
And they found it not, though many false witnesses came. They
couldn't get two and three to agree on their charges. All kinds
of trumped up charges, but they couldn't agree. And what does
the text say? It says, and they found it not,
though many false witnesses came, but afterward came two and said. This man said, and they quote
his words, I'm able to destroy the temple of God and to build
it in three days. Almost a verbatim quote, not
quite. Jesus said, destroy this temple and in three days I will
raise it up. They give a little bit of their
own interpretation and say, what he said is this, I'm able to
destroy the temple of God and build it in three days. But the
point I'm making is they remembered words that Jesus had spoken early
in his Judean ministry, in his first cleansing of the temple.
They remembered his words. And we can find other instances
of this as well. He trusted in God. He says that
God is his father. Let God now vindicate him. What's that all have to do with
the resurrection? Precisely this. Gather with me
outside Jerusalem in a place of execution called Golgotha.
And there look at two common criminals put to death for their
crimes. they are undergoing a form of
execution that was not given to any Roman citizen to slaves
and to outcasts and in the midst there is a third one no indication
that his cross was higher the artist notwithstanding no indication
that the sun shined more brightly until the three hour there was
just three criminals hanging up willy-nilly being executed
cast off Roman fashion And you're one of these who heard these
words. You were there as one of the witnesses saying, destroy
the temple! I'll raise it up! Ha ha! I heard
him! in those words recorded in John
5, saying, He is going to speak, and the graves are going to vomit
out their dead, and they're going to stand in front of Him, and
as the exalted King, He's going to separate them as sheep from
goats, He's going to say, Come, you blessed, depart, you cursed,
look at Him. Languid eyes, crown of thorns,
helpless, impaled, mocked, jeered, spittle-mingled with blood. His
face so contused from the blows, it is marred, Isaiah said, more
than any man. Oh, did you have fuel for mockery
now? Ha ha! Judge of the world, look
at him. He can indeed resist Pilate and
Herod and a few trumped-up charges of the religious leaders. Judge
of the world, look at him! With what hands will He destroy
and build the temple when those hands are stretched out and impaled
on a cross? God the Son, the God who controls
the motions of the sun in the sky, is showing how He looks
upon this scene. For there was darkness over the
whole land from the sixth hour to the ninth hour. All of the
claims of Jesus of Nazareth seem to be swallowed up in his gore,
in his blood, in his forsakenness. And they seem to be forever taken
with him into Joseph's buried tomb. God in a tomb! Judge of the world in a tomb! The only revealer of God in a
tomb! Gather all the demons of hell,
gather all the hosts of darkness, gather every enemy of God and
of his truth, and let's have a hallelujah meeting. All his
claims are bunk and junk and nothing. It would seem rational if demons
are rational. But when they came early in the
morning on the first day of the week, drawn to that tomb by loving
concern to give it a proper, give his body a proper embalming. It had only had a quick band-aid
embalming. Now they come with pounds of
wraps and spices. And the tomb is empty. As the
old writers said, not to let him out, but to let the witnesses
in to see. And what is that resurrection
to Jesus of Nazareth? It is supremely the climactic
validation of His personal claims. I say climactic because Jesus
was conscious that his works were a validation of his claims.
He says, if you don't believe me as to my words, believe me
for the very what sake? The works sake. The works testify
that my Father has sent me. So it's not the initial, nor
is it the only, it is the climactic validation of all of his personal
claims. And you have a beautiful example
of that. In Romans chapter 1 and verse
4, where the apostle says, with respect to the gospel that he
preaches, a gospel that centers in the Lord Jesus. Romans chapter
1, Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated
unto the gospel of God that he promised to for through his prophets
in the Holy Scriptures, concerning his son who was born of the seed
of David according to the flesh. Now notice, who was not constituted,
who was not made, but declared, determined, marked out and openly
designated the Son of God with power according to the spirit
of holiness by the resurrection from the dead. Even Jesus Christ,
our Lord, central to the gospel of the grace of God, is the proclamation
of a Savior whose claims are validated by His bodily resurrection. The resurrection was the climactic
validation that Jesus Christ is all that He said He was in
His person. so that we might be confident
he can do all he says he will do in his work. For the foundation
of his efficacy in his work is what he is in his person. Matthew
16, Peter confesses on behalf of the other disciples, you are
the Christ, the Son of the living God. And our Lord, after saying,
no human instrumentality has revealed this, Peter, he then
says, you are Peter and upon this rock, that is the rock of
this identification of my person, I will build my church. The whole
fabric of the Christian faith unravels If Christ is not who
he claimed to be, but it remains in all of its integrity because
of Joseph's empty tomb. But I must hasten on, it was
for our Lord not only the climactic validation of his personal claims,
but secondly, it was the permanent termination, the radical and
permanent termination of his state of humiliation. It was
the radical and the permanent termination of his state of humiliation. Now what do we mean by those
words? Simply this, as the eternal Word, the Son of God, the second
person in the Godhead, there was never a time when our Lord
was not. In the beginning was the Word,
John 1, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God. Not the same became or began
to be ever was. You cannot say God without saying
the eternal Word, God the Son, the Son of God, pre-incarnate,
yes, but His beginnings were not in Bethlehem, His goings
forth have been, the prophet says, from everlasting. Well,
what happens in the incarnation? In the incarnation, He lays aside
the accouterments, the paraphernalia, of all that was His in the immediate
presence of the Father, and comes into a condition of humiliation. And from the moment of his conception,
Until his session at the right hand of the Father, he was in
this period, in this state of humiliation. Philippians 2, 5
and following. Let this mind be in you that
was in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought not
the being on an equality with God a thing to be retained, selfishly
grasped, but emptied himself, taking. This is subtraction by
addition. He emptied, taking. He did not
cease to be what he had always been, but he began to be what
he had never been. He takes to himself a true human
soul and body. And from the conception in Mary's
womb until his session at the right hand of the Father, he
is in what we call his period of humiliation. Now he loses
nothing of his essential deity. And trying to illustrate that,
I thought in the early hours of this morning, suppose we had
in our possession, or within sight, the most beautiful, well-cut,
largest diamond in the world. I don't know how many carats
that would be. Something even larger than the Hope Diamond.
And it were contained in a beautiful, clear, plexiglass case, set against
dark velvet, with professional gemologists training lights upon
it to show the depth of its fire and the beauty and the purity
of that gem. Think of that large diamond,
sparkling every time you move an inch here, an inch there,
you catch another facet of its glory and its beauty, its fire,
its brilliance. Do you see it? Don't expect it
on your finger, girls. But do you see it? Now suppose
we were permitted to take that diamond and bury it in a mud
ball. You remember back when you were
a kid in the backyard, you played with mud balls? You take a mud ball
and you push the diamond down in the center of the mud ball.
Now my question is this, has the diamond lost any of its inherent
worth? No. Has it lost any of its inherent
beauty? No. But if it's buried in the
mud ball, will people go by and say, oh, look at that diamond. No, its inherent beauty and glory
is obscured because it's buried in the mud. But it's lost nothing
of that beauty or its worth. That's Christ's period of humiliation. His essential deity is veiled
and buried in a true humanity. And in the period of his humiliation,
without denigrating human bodily existence at all. Don't go into
asceticism with my illustration. The resurrection was the beginning
of the tearing away of the mud ball. That he might go back into
that place of unrestricted exaltation And the resurrection was that
radical and permanent termination of the state of humiliation.
Philippians 2 shows that from the moment he takes the form
of a servant, it is down, down, down, until he can go no further
and it says, even the death of the cross. And then you have
the transition, wherefore? God has highly exalted him. And what was the first act in
that exaltation? It was raising him from the dead. And from that point, all the
steps were upward, upward, upward, upward. And there's one great
upward step yet awaits. When the heavens part, and the
voice of the archangel and the trump of God sound, And every
eye shall see him, every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess. But you see, the turning point
was the resurrection. That was the radical and permanent
termination of the state of his humiliation. And think what that
must have meant for the Lord Jesus. He prayed in John 17 5
as we studied a few months ago. He asked that he will be glorified
with the glory that he had with the father before the world began. And when he was raised from the
death, he knew he had taken one giant step in the experience
of the fulfillment of that desire of his heart. It was only a matter
of days now before he who had been raised from the dead by
the glory of the Father would be taken back and seated at the
Father's right hand. And here one can only use what
I would call a wholesome exercise of sanctified imagination. What must it have meant for those
creatures described in the Bible as cheraphim and seraphim that
in a way we cannot fathom are nearest to the immediate presence
of God in heaven. the host of angels that do his
bidding, one of which came and strengthened him in the wilderness
temptation. Another came and strengthened
him in the agony of Gethsemane. What must it have meant for Abraham
who saw his day and rejoiced the glorified spirits in heaven
when he went back into the presence of his father? And then he had
no more. the jaundiced eye of a people
of whom it is said they lay in wait, seeking to catch him in
his words, no longer shooting out the lip, saying, Ha! You
trust it in God? Let him deliver you. He's welcome
back. to the undiminished adoration
and praise and worship. And who can measure if angels
sing and if seraphs worship? And we know they do. Cherubim.
Read Isaiah 6. What must it have been in heaven
when the glorified Lord came back and all those intelligent
Holy Spirits received Him with joy and acclamation? Well, the whole issue turns on
Easter morning. The resurrection was to our Lord
Jesus, not only the climactic validation of his personal claims,
it was also the radical and permanent termination of his state of humiliation. Not his humanity, he's carried
back with him. the sympathy of human experience. For we have not a high priest
who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but
was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. You
see, he's left the humiliation attached to his humanity, but
he hasn't left either his humanity or the reservoir of the human
experience that he had while among us. He's carried both of
those back to heaven. You want something to meditate
upon today? Just stretch your brain on that reality. God, with the sympathy of a man,
who knew what it was to get splinters in his hands, who knew what it
was to scrape his elbow when as a little kid he fell in the
parking lot, who knew what it was to feel disappointment in
human relations, will you also go away? Who looks out over Jerusalem
and Wales, the broken heart of disappointed longings for the
well-being of others. He's carried all that back to
him, but without the slightest trace of humiliation. You say, Pastor, that goes beyond
me. It goes beyond me too, but it doesn't go beyond my Bible.
It doesn't go beyond my Bible. But then thirdly, it was to our
Lord, and I know I'm taking an inordinate amount of time fixing
on Him, but in this self-centered, navel-gazing age, if we err,
let's err in thinking what things mean to Jesus. Instead of, what
do I get out of it? What did the resurrection mean
to him? Well, it was in the third place, his formal installation
as the mediatorial king. The resurrection resulted in
his formal installation as the mediatorial king. And when I
say his resurrection, I'm talking here now of that complex of events
of which it is the first installment, resurrection. his ascension and
session at the right hand of the Father. And what do I mean
his formal installation as mediatorial king? Well, when he was conceived,
he was conceived a king. The words in Luke's Gospel are
very, very clear. When the angel came to Mary,
she said, you are going to have, the angel said to her, you are
going to bear a king. Verse 32 of Luke 1, he shall
be great, shall be called son of the Most High. And the Lord
God shall give unto him the throne of his father David. And he shall
reign over the house of Jacob forever and of his kingdom there
shall be no end. He was a king conceived in Mary's
womb. He was a king announced at his
birth. You remember the Magi came. Where is he that is born
king of the Jews? Matthew chapter 2. And then our
Lord Jesus in his earthly ministry proclaimed himself as David's
son. You remember they said? He asked
these detractors a question. Well, if Messiah is David's son,
how come David calls him Lord? The Lord said unto my Lord, sit
at my right hand until I make your enemies the footstool of
your feet. Any notion that Jesus is sort of waiting in the wings
till some future date before he's king does not wash with
the Bible. He was conceived a king. He was
born a king. He labored and ministered as
a king. He even died as a king. They
had the inscription over him, Jesus of Nazareth, King of the
Jews. And he stretched out his kingly
scepter and took one of those malefactors into heaven with
him. A scepter of grace. But we're talking about his formal
installation as mediatorial king, and the Bible is clear that it
occurred in conjunction with his resurrection. Turn to Acts
chapter 2. This was the emphasis of Peter on his Pentecostal sermon,
and it comes through again and again in the preaching of the
book of the Acts. Chapter 2 of Acts. Speaking of David, verse
30, being therefore a prophet and knowing that God had sworn
with an oath that of the fruit of his loins he would set one
upon his throne, he foreseeing this spoke of the resurrection
of Christ. David being a prophet, and knowing
God had sworn that of the fruit of his, that is, David's loins,
one would be set upon his throne, foreseeing this, he spoke of
what event? The resurrection. The resurrection
has something to do with Jesus of Nazareth, Christ, being set
upon his throne. He was not left unto Hades, neither
did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus did God raise up,
whereof we are all witnesses, Being therefore by the right
hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise
of the Holy Spirit, he has poured forth this which you see and
hear. For David ascended not into heaven, but he says himself,
The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit at my right hand till I make
your enemies the footstool of your feet. Let all the house
of Israel therefore know assuredly that God has made him both Lord
and Christ. This Jesus whom you crucified.
Does that mean Jesus was not Lord or Messiah until he was,
quote, made this in the resurrection, in the ascension, and in the
session? No. It means that He was formally,
officially installed as Mediatorial King in redemptive history. He
was conceived a King. He lived a King. He died as a
King. He rose as a King. But in His
resurrection, as it were, God began the official ceremonies
of this installation as Mediatorial King. And therefore, in Acts
5, 30 and 31, we have the language of God has constituted Him a
Prince and a Savior. Verse 29, We must obey God rather
than men. The God of our fathers raised
up Jesus, whom you slew, hanging on a tree. Him did God exalt
with His right hand, a Prince and a Savior, to give repentance
to Israel and remission of sins. A parallel passage, Ephesians
1, 19-21. And we could take time to look
into Acts 13, 32 and 33. Let's do it so that you see it
with your own eyes. Here, quoting the second psalm, Acts chapter 13, verse 30, But
God raised him from the dead, and he was seen for many days
of them that came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who
are now his witnesses to the people. And we bring good tidings
of the promise made unto the fathers that God has fulfilled
the same unto our children in that he raised up Jesus. Now
notice, as it is written in the second psalm, you are my son,
this day have I begotten you. The Jehovah's Witness likes to
take this text and say Jesus was not eternally the son of
God. There was a point in which he
was begotten. Well, that violates some of the principles you're
going to have articulated in the adult class. You don't read
in your 20th century Western terminology into Biblical terminology. In the Eastern context, the day
of a king's coronation, he was said to be begotten into his
position as king. And that's precisely what the
Spirit of God is telling us here. When in the 2nd Psalm we read,
I will tell of the decree, the Lord said unto my Lord, I have
begotten thee. That phrase, according to the
Holy Spirit, refers to the resurrection of Christ. When He is raised
from the dead, officially installed as the Mediatorial King, He is
begotten openly, officially into His place as Messianic King and
Priest upon His throne, fulfilling the Old Testament prophecy. Think
what this meant to our Lord Jesus. To have known that He was a King. that the father had appointed
to him a mediatorial reign in which all principalities and
powers are put under his feet. Ephesians 1 19-21 mediatorial
reign in which he will be able to say, all authority in heaven
and in earth has been delivered over unto me. And to exercise
that reign over all things with a view to the calling out and
the preservation and ultimate glorification of his church.
What it must have meant when all of the mockery and all of
the unbelief and all of the misunderstanding that attended the king in the
days of his humiliation were over and he is officially installed
at the father's right hand and the scripture says he must reign
until he has put every enemy under his feet and the last enemy
to be destroyed is death and he will reign as mediatorial
king until your rotting flesh and mine is resplendent with
the glory of resurrection life and power what must it have meant
to our Lord to know that I am now seated the days of suffering
the days of rejection the day of pain the day of opposition
is all behind me well in brief strokes that's what the resurrection
meant to our Lord validation of his claims termination of
his humiliation installation as mediatorial king you got some
grounds to worship him today do you have some biblical stuff
for worship this idea that we don't want theology we just want
to feel good well when the feelings go what do you got left underneath
you If you've got an open tomb and in your mind's eye you can
stand by that tomb and say to that tomb, what is your message
to me? And hear thundering out of that
tomb, I am first of all the validation of all of the claims of your
unseen but trusted Savior. I am not only the validation
of His claims, I am the termination of all of His humiliation. Can't
you rejoice that your Lord will never again have a mouthful of
spittle laid upon His beard? The hand of His creature doubled
up to smack Him in His face. And that's what the Gospel record
says. It may say they buffeted Him. You don't talk about buffeting.
You say you beat up on someone. That's what they did. And they
did it with reeds as well as with their fist. and when they
scourged him they laid his back open to the bone with those horrible
leather thongs in which they were tied pieces of glass and
metal no one will ever lay that upon his back again and the resurrection
was his initial and radical escape in the will of God from all of
the humiliation and then it was the first step to his being officially
installed as the Messianic King. Well, let me just give you the
heads to meditate on. What does it mean to the true
people of God? What's it mean to the true people of God? Those
who've seen their sin, for whom Christ crucified, buried and
risen is not just abstract religious notions, but this is the stuff
of which the soul's deepest needs finds its answer. What is the
resurrection to them? According to scripture, it is
the receipt of a full pardon and the pledge of a perfect righteousness. Romans 4.25, he was delivered
up for our offenses raised on account of our justification. I like to think of Joseph's empty
tomb as God's echo chamber through which he says his irreversible
amen to the cry of Golgotha. You say, what in the world are
you talking about, Pastor? The cry of Golgotha, God's echo
chamber, just this. You remember, before our Lord
committed His Spirit to the Father, what was His final cry of redemptive
triumph? It was Tetelestai. In the Greek,
a perfect tense. It has been accomplished and
it yet stands and ever shall abide accomplished. It is finished! But you would have thought he
was saying, I'm finished, because it says he bowed his head and
yielded up his spirit. Is it really finished? Is all
that the Father demands in the face of burning justice and unremitting
equity in the light of God's holy law, is every demand against
the sinner fully satisfied? How can I know? He said it is
finished, but he himself was finished. He's taken and put
in the tomb. Romans 4.25 says, delivered up
for our offenses, but raised on account of our justification. You see, Joseph's empty tomb
is God's echo chamber in which he says a delayed, Amen! It is finished. If it were not,
I would not raise my son from the dead, never more to die.
The wages of sin is death. He has paid the debt. He dies
no more. In that he died unto sin, Paul
says, once for all, he will never, never die again. Why? Because
all that our sins demanded, he discharged. And so the empty
tomb is our receipt of a full pardon and of a perfect righteousness. Secondly, it is the assurance
of an indefectible salvation. a salvation once imparted and
applied that can never be lost, taken away. Hebrews 7.25, wherefore
He is able to save to the uttermost, not from the uttermost, that
is true, but it's to the uttermost those that come unto God by Him. Why? Seeing He ever lives, He
ever lives, He ever lives to make intercession for them. Dear
people, our salvation is never mechanical at any point. It is
the personal engagement of the triune God with the person of
the sinner. And when God comes forth in omnipotent
grace to lay hold of that sinner, God commits his whole being to
a salvation once imparted and applied that can never be lost. And it's secured not by empty
words, but by the activity of a living Savior. He ever lives
to make intercession. Wherefore, he is able to save
to the uttermost. Go to Joseph's empty tomb. when you're struggling with your
indwelling sin, with perplexities, with disappointments, with griefs
that you feel are going to crush you, and you say, oh God, if
these things in life so unstring me and unhinge me, what will
it be when I come to that cold, dark, inescapable river of death? Do you bring near your death
day? Death is a frightening thing to me. I've never had the experience. I don't like going to the dentist,
but I'm not too scared because I've been there a lot of times
and I know what to expect. You've never died. The thought of my
spirit being wrenched from my body when all I've known is a
body-spirit existence from the dawning of consciousness. I'm
not afraid of the consequences of death, but I fear the act
of dying. You tell me you got a nice big
steak waiting for me home today and a nice big baked Idaho potato
and some nice veggies and I say, man, I can't wait. You ask me.
You knew you were going to die in a week. Would you look forward
to it? I say no. I sure look forward to what lies the millisecond
after my spirit departs to see him face to face. What do you do when you face
troubles, perplexities, disappointments, and they're about to crush you?
And you say, I've yet to face the greatest trial. Go to Joseph's
empty tomb. And there, in looking in and
hearing that voice of the shining ones, he is not here. He has
risen from the dead. God is saying the salvation I've
given is indefectible. Every part of it that my son
purchased and every part that I purpose to give, I shall give. And Joseph's empty tomb is my
pledge. And the third thing it says to
us, his people, is, and I've already anticipated this, it
is, it is the infallible pledge of our resurrection. For 1 Corinthians
15, 20 says, Christ is risen. Now is Christ risen, firstfruits
of them that slept. In other words, when Jesus went
into Joseph's tomb, he didn't go as a private person. He went
individually, he went personally, but he went representatively. As he died in our place and took
us with him to the cross, he took us with him to the tomb.
and bless God he took us with him out of the tomb. He was firstfruits
of all who sleep and I shall never forget standing by the
graveside of my dear father and as they were about to lower him
into that hole in the earth a baptism of such joy came over my spirit
as I thought of the words the dead in Christ shall rise first. And why is there a shall rise? Because there's an empty tomb
somewhere in Jerusalem. And He didn't come out as a private
person. He was firstfruits. You and I
are part of the harvest. And as surely as the tomb could
not keep Him, it can't keep me. And as that joy flooded my own
soul, and I was able to express something of it I've told, and
I've never said this publicly, there were some of my loved ones
that said, in essence, not these exact words, Al, we almost wanted
to jump in there with Dad. So filled were we with the joy
of anticipating resurrection morning. Child of God, The wrinkles,
and as I passed my 64th birthday and tried to reckon with the
realities, I said, ah, skin that was once taut is getting wrinkles.
Veins that once were buried in flesh now stand up like the veins
of an old man. And I said, Lord, the process
is going to go on until, if Jesus comes, I'm going to be rotting
in a grave. But I won't rot forever. As sure
as that tomb is open, I must I must come forth, or God will
have to stuff His Son back in that tomb. And He's not going
to do it. And He's not going to leave you
there. Now, what are bunnies and bonnets
and blue eggs compared to this stuff, folks? If there's any
significance to Easter, resurrection, Lord's Day, It is that we have
the receipt of a full pardon, the assurance of an indefectible
salvation, and a pledge of a glorious resurrection. And my last word
is to those of you, you're not in Christ. You may have sat here
this morning and said, well you know, that old man seems to believe
what he's saying. I don't think he's just playing
games. I don't think this is all, you know, stage and histrionics. I think maybe he means what he
says. He believes it. I don't know if I can. You've
been thinking something like that? Maybe you've even thought
this and said, when he speaks of Jesus and being in Jesus,
he talks of things that seem to be real to him. They are real,
my friend. But there are realities that
are real to you as well. For the Scripture tells us that
Joseph's empty tomb, if you're not his, speaks a word to you,
one of Frightening overtones and one of glorious inviting
overtones. The word of frightening overtones
is this. Joseph's empty tomb is the validation
that the same Jesus who went into that tomb and came out,
we're going to meet him in judgment. Acts 17 30 and 31. God commands
all men everywhere to repent. Why? because he's appointed a
day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by the
man whom he hath ordained, and he's given assurance unto all
men in that he raised him from the dead. I know it's not popular
to preach judgment, but I want you to listen to a text in Acts
10, verses 39 to 42, where Peter, preaching, says, we are witnesses
of all the things that Jesus did in the country of the Jews.
And in Jerusalem, whom they slew, hanging him on a tree, him God
raised up the third day, and gave him to be made manifest,
not to all the people, but unto witnesses that were chosen before
of God, even to us, who ate and drank with him after he rose
from the dead." You see, this corporeal emphasis, this empirical
data, ate and drank with him. Now notice, and he charged us
to preach unto the people and to testify that this is he who
is lovey, lovey, lovey, cuddly, cuddly, cuddly. No, no. Charged
us to preach to the people and to testify that this is he who
is ordained of God to be the judge of the living and of the
dead. Peter says we're charged to preach
that the empty tomb is validation. You're going to meet him as judge.
If you met him today, my friend, where would you stand for his
withering eye? What would you say to plead clemency
for your sins, for your pride, for your lust, for your rebellion
against mom and dad, your stubbornness, your angry words, your covetous
desires? Your refusal to worship God and
love him with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. Your
defiance of his right to one day in seven marked out especially
for him. What would you say to your judge?
Will the judge plead your case? Not if you're not united to Christ
by faith. Joseph's empty tomb is the certain
pledge of your future judgment. That's the frightening message
that comes from the tomb. But bless God, there's an encouraging,
wonderful word that comes from that tomb. Look at verse 43 in
that passage. To him bear all the prophets
witness that through his name, the very one who is appointed
judge, everyone that believes on him shall receive remission
of sins. You see, when you come to God
seeking mercy through the Lord Jesus, you don't need to wonder,
well, if some way or in some other fashion God will be favorably
disposed, for what reason, I don't know, to forgive me. No, no.
Almighty God can be just and the justifier of those that believe
in Jesus. He doesn't need to wink at his
justice or righteousness when he opens his eye to show mercy.
Both eyes are toward you in mercy because it's mercy seen through
righteousness fully satisfied in the death of his son. And
Joseph's empty tomb has a message for you, my unconverted friend,
and that message is, if you will confess with your mouth Jesus
as Lord and believe in your heart that God hath raised him from
the dead, you shall be saved. For with the heart man believes
unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made
unto salvation. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. Well, those are the broad strokes
of just some of the mountain peaks of what the Bible says.
God says to us from Joseph's open, empty, forever vacated
tomb. What it says about our Lord,
it was vindication of his person. It was the laying aside of his
humiliation. It was the first step in his
installation as messianic king. What it says to us, There is
the pledge that sin is dealt with. There is the pledge that
all of the salvation purpose will be ours. There is the assurance
of our own resurrection. My unconverted friend, the open
tomb says to you, the risen Christ will be your judge. But the risen
Christ today stands with outstretched hands in the gospel in all the
glory and dignity of His exaltedness. He says to you, my sinner friend,
come to me and I will give you rest. Let us pray.