Turn with me in your Bibles to
John chapter 20. I just want to briefly look there
and I want to answer the question that's asked by this text of
scripture and try and do that as briefly as possible. We're talking about the words
of a resurrected Lord Jesus Christ, and the resurrection is just
absolutely foundational and fundamental to everything to do with our
faith. The gospel began all those years
ago. Obviously the gospel was in the
Old Testament, but the gospel in the Old Testament was the
gospel of a resurrected and glorified God. And we have so many pictures
in the Old Testament and so many scriptures in the Old Testament.
And this was the challenge that the Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy
Spirit, wrote down here. These disciples in John 20 run
to the tomb of The Lord Jesus having heard that he wasn't there,
and John looks in and he believed. And then it says, in verse 9, this is what I wanted
to think about for a little bit this morning. For as yet they,
the apostles, knew not the scripture that he must rise again from
the dead. In Acts Chapter 2 what was the
declaration? A resurrected reigning God. The Lord Jesus Christ is God
Almighty and he reigns and rules over all. At the end of Acts
24-26 it is when Paul's speaking to Agrippa, he said, Why do you
think it's a strange thing that God should raise the dead? It
is at the heart at the very heart of the character of God, and
it is at the very essence of your life, a resurrection. There will be a resurrection.
We have been looking at these events in light of what 1 Corinthians
15 declares the Gospel to be. And it's the Gospel that's preached. It's the only way you know the
Gospel is by the preaching of the Gospel. Romans 10 makes that
abundantly clear. God is making statements. People
believe that they come to saving faith apart from the preaching
of the Gospel. They do all over the world. God
says, no, you didn't. And no, you can't come to saving
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ apart from the preaching of the
Gospel. It's a Gospel that's preached,
it's a Gospel that's received by believers, it's a Gospel wherein
you stand, it's a Gospel by which you're saved if you keep in memory
what I preached unto you, unless you have believed in vain. I
don't want there to be empty faith in my life or in your lives
or the lives of anyone. This world is full of vain faith. You think about that. Empty faith. Zealous religious people with
empty faith. May it not be us. And Paul then
talks about what was delivered. And he delivered what he received.
This isn't a gospel that's made up by man. This isn't a gospel
that's taught in the Bible colleges. This isn't a gospel that men
by their wisdom come to concoct. And men by their wisdom can make
all sorts of religions. Norm spoke so well about that.
They make all of these gods and ultimately They pray, as Isaiah
says, unto a God who cannot save. Talk about vain faith. Talk about
vain, empty profession. And it's how that, the Gospel
is how that Christ died for our sins. as a sacrifice, as a substitute,
as one who bore in his own body all of those the Father gave
to him and none other. Know others. If Christ died for
you, you will be saved. If Christ shed his precious blood
for you, you will be saved. And God, the glorious God of
Trinity, will make sure that that's the case. Because God
the Father chose you before the foundation of the world. God
the Son stood as your surety before the foundation of the
world. God the Son shed his precious blood for you. And God the Holy
Spirit has the crowning glory of taking all of those things
and exalting the Lord Jesus Christ by creating faith, creating life. Resurrection is a new life. Salvation is a resurrection.
It's life in you that was never there before. But it's all according
to the scriptures. This is just so important. Paul
goes on in Corinthians and it's just one long sentence in the
original, just and, and, and. But listen to from verse 13,
there's no resurrection from dead. You listen to these seven
things. No resurrection from the dead, then Christ is not
risen. Our preaching is vain. We might
as well be down at the pub or the beach or wherever you want
to go and enjoy yourself. Your faith also is vain. Your
faith is empty. We are found false witnesses
of God because we're saying that God did raise up Christ. And if the dead rise not, then
Christ is not raised. Verse 17, your faith is vain. And you are yet in your sins. For those who've been made sinners,
that's a horrifying thing to think that my sins are not taken
away completely and perfectly. And also in verse 18, the seventh
one is that they which have fallen asleep in Christ are perished. There is no salvation, there
is nothing. One of the wonderful things about
the Scriptures is that the enemies of God declare what God is declaring
through His preachers. If you want to hear what is said,
you can go to what the people who hear say, but also you can
go to the enemies in Acts 4. Verse, the Sadducees came upon
Peter and John and they were being grieved. This is what they
were grieved over. The religious people in Jerusalem
were grieved. The Sanhedrin was grieved that
they taught the people, these apostles taught the people, and
preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead. So what was their
gospel preaching? There is a resurrection of all
humanity from the dead, according to the scriptures, and it's in
the hands of God Almighty, and we are in His hands, and He is
God. He has been given power over
all flesh. And in Acts 26.8, Paul speaking
to Agrippa, he says, why do you think it's an incredible thing
with you that God should raise the dead? It was taught throughout
the Jewish scriptures, and it's a necessary work of
God the Spirit to bring this to bear in the lives of his people,
and he does so in the hearts of his people.
I love what Hebrews 11, 13 says. All of these Old Testament saints,
he's talking about Moses and Abraham and Abel and all of the
others, they all died in faith, not having received the promises,
but having seen them afar off and were persuaded of them. Paul
said, I'm persuaded. I'm persuaded by God. They were persuaded of it and
they embraced them and they held them to themselves and they confessed
that they were strangers and pilgrims on this earth. This
is not their home. Their home of the resurrection
is their home. Their home is the home with the
resurrected one. And what is in that summary of
that section? It says that they desire a better
country, which is a heavenly one, wherefore God is not ashamed
to be called their God, because he's prepared for them a city. You can read about that city
in Revelation. That glorious city that comes down out of heaven
as a bride adorned for her bride. What's she adorned in? The righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ is her adoring. It is the work of God. It is the work of the triune
God for us to believe in the resurrection, but also for us
to believe in the resurrected Christ as he's revealed in all
of the scriptures. The dying thief believed in resurrection. What a remarkable event. What a remarkable testimony the
dying thief is to the fact that God saves by sovereign grace. Your good works and your good
learning don't add to it, and your bad deeds don't detract
from it. God saves by grace. The dying
thief believed, like all people who are taught of God, that salvation,
he believed in the Lordship of God Almighty. He believed that
this most ignominious event that you could possibly wish to have,
betrayed before men, In the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, he
believed that that blood was precious. He believed that the
one next to him was a king and he had a kingdom. And he was
going to his kingdom and he was gathering people to his kingdom.
What sort of a king doesn't have a kingdom and people in it? And
he prayed the prayer of those who are resurrected to newness
of life here. Lord, remember me. The prayers
of the saints are short and sweet pleas, aren't they? Lord save
me. Lord save me. Lord remember me. Who taught him? And that's how we must be taught.
I love, we read Luke 24 a little while ago at the beginning of
our service, and I love how it spoke there that the Lord Jesus
Christ was revealed unto them at the breaking of the bread. When he broke the bread, he revealed
himself to them. And we're praying, in all of
our services that the Lord Jesus Christ would come and break the
bread and the manna from heaven would fall and God would teach
his people from the scriptures about his Son. So this Gospel
Age begins with a declaration of resurrection. This Gospel
Age will conclude with the resurrection of all humanity. Baptism is a
declaration of a resurrection. You are buried with him, and
you are raised with him, and you walk in newness of life. The Lord's Supper is a declaration
of a resurrection, isn't it? We do this, we proclaim his death
till he comes. There was a resurrection of the
Lord Jesus Christ, therefore there will be a resurrection.
a resurrection of all humanity, but a glorious resurrection of
all of God's people. So let's go and see, and may
we not hear the Lord say to us, as he has in the past, but he
said to those people on the Damascus road, on the road to Emmaus,
O fools and slow of heart to believe all. So what do God's
people believe? or that the prophets have spoken. Ought not the Christ have suffered
these things to enter into his glory? Of course, the Lord Jesus
Christ, as we've seen as we've gone through John's Gospel, he
spoke of resurrection over and over again. His first visit to
Jerusalem to these same Jewish people who were going to crucify
him, he said, destroy this temple and in three days will I raise
it up again. And it's only after the resurrection
that the disciples knew that he was talking about his body.
But according to the scriptures, according to the scriptures,
and the specific scriptures that the Holy Spirit directs the people
of God to, Psalm 16, this is what's preached in Acts chapter
2. They're preaching out of the,
all they have is the scriptures to preach the Lord Jesus Christ
in all of his glory, to preach the resurrection and all of its
wonder and power. All they have is the Old Testament.
That's why we love the Old Testament. We love reading the Old Testament.
We love studying the Old Testament. We love the Christ that's revealed
in the Old Testament. In Psalm 16, it says, In verse 10, thou will not leave
my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to
see corruption. Thou will show me the path of
life. In thy presence is fullness of
joy, and at thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore. I love to think about that. Heaven,
resurrected to glory with God in heaven, is going to be something
that is so infinitely wondrous that only eternity can embrace
it properly. Don't you think that's lovely?
Never die. never sinning. For those who
know themselves to be sinners and know themselves to hate the
secret sins of their lives, the secret sins that no one else
sees, the sins of thoughts, the sins that corrupt our mind
for all of their for it to be impossible for them to ever come
back. Nothing that defiles is going
into that heaven. I love, turn with me, we'll turn
in a few scriptures, turn with me to Job. Job's the oldest.
So they say, all of the scriptures are as fresh as a daisy as far
as I'm concerned, and I wish they were fresher, but it's reputed
to be the oldest book in the Bible, and Job speaks of resurrection
In chapter 19 of the book of Job, turn with me there. I love how Job begins this particular
little section. He says, Have pity on me, have
pity on me, are ye my friends, for the hand of God has touched
me. He saw that this, that it come
upon him was from God. And then he says, why do you
persecute me as God? And I'm not, this is verse 21,
and I'm not satisfied with my flesh. Oh, that my words were
now written. Oh, that they were printed in
a book. They were, thankfully, thanks
to our great God. that they were graven with an
iron pen and lead in the rock forever. Because, verse 25, read
it with me. For I know that my Redeemer liveth. The ETH means that he lives and
lives and lives and lives and doesn't stop living. and that
he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. And though after my skin worms
destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God, whom I
shall see for myself. and mine eyes shall behold and
not another, though my reins be consumed within me. But these
eyes, but these hands, they handled the word of life. My eyes shall
behold not another, even though my reigns be consumed within
me. If you go further back in the
scriptures, back into Genesis, you'll see that in Genesis 22
it's just such a glorious description of the acts of one who is the
father of the faithful. Abraham is given a command that
only Abraham was ever given by God Almighty. You take this son,
this only son you have, and you take him up on Mount Moriah and
there you sacrifice him. There you plunge a knife into
his heart and the sacrifice was a dividing of the body. This
was an extraordinary thing that was going to happen and Abraham
got up early in the morning and left. But I love what he said
to the servants in verse five. Turn with me over and let's read
what Hebrews 11 says of Abraham at this time. Hebrews 11 verse 17. How did he live, Abraham? How did he act, Abraham? By faith. Hebrews 11, 17. By faith, Abraham, when he was
tried. What a trial that was. offered
up Isaac, and he that had received the promises offered up his only
begotten Son, of whom it was said that in Isaac shall thy
seed be called. Accounting, this is what he reckoned.
This is what faith accounting that God was able
to raise him up even from the dead, from whence also he received
him in a figure. Them coming back down the mountain
having worshipped God is a picture of resurrection. It's a picture
of God's God-given faith in the hearts
of his people. Abraham had a promise, an extraordinary
promise. We don't have time to go to all
of the Old Testament scriptures, but you know the story of Enoch. He was taken. and never seen
again. He was taken bodily up to heaven,
a bit like Elijah was. When Joseph died in Egypt, he
said, you take my bones back up to Israel. I'm going to be
resurrected up there. I want to be buried with the children
of God. I'm going to be resurrected with the children of God. There's
an extraordinary scene in 2 Kings chapter 13 where Elisha had died
and he was put in a tomb. And so the other men were in
the process of burying a fellow nearby, and all of a sudden there
was a band of people came to disturb them. And they basically
threw the body of this man they were burying into the tomb with
Elisha, and the body touched Elisha's bones and lived again. Life on this earth is not all
of life at all. We are eternal beings, all of
us. Everyone you meet is an eternal
being. So let's go on through some of
the Old Testament scriptures. And it's wonderful to think,
I love to think that these men that the Lord was speaking to
in John were saved men and they were clean men. And yet they
had an ignorance about some profound things. Isn't that the case with
us? Isn't that the case with us? that we're fools and slow of
heart to believe. We know, we don't. We know the
doctrine of the absolute sovereignty of God and we know the verses
like Romans 8.28. And how often do we live as if
it's true? Oh fool, I can say it about myself. Some of you here might be above
all that and all the best to you, but I'm not. The longer
I go on, the more needy I become and I'm so thankful that God's
written it down in words and I can go back and have a look
again and say, did he really say that? Did he really say that? That's remarkable. Turn with
me to Isaiah chapter 26 verse 19 and if you go back to these chapters
and read around these chapters of resurrection that I'm giving
you, you'll find there are just glorious things said in them.
But he says in verse 19, Thy dead men shall live. Thy dead
men. possession, they belong to him. Thy dead men shall live, together
with my dead body shall they arise. And then what's he going
to say? Awake and sing, ye that dwell
in the dust. For thy dew is the dew of herbs,
and the earth shall cast out the dead. Thy dead shall live. Let's leave the italicised words
out. Thy dead shall live. My dead
body shall they arise. When he arose, resurrected, all
of his people were resurrected in him. When he went in and sat
down on the throne of heaven, Ephesians 2 says that we're seated
together with him. We can't be separated. He's the
head and we're the body. We can't be separated from Him.
Just as all of the food and the nourishment and the air and everything
that we need for life that comes into our body comes where? Through
our head. So through Him, He nourishes
all of His body in all of these truths. If you're in Isaiah,
let's turn over to those familiar passages in Isaiah chapter 53. No wonder the Jews of today try
and ban this from being read to any. Verse 10 it says, Yet
it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He hath put him to grief,
when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. He shall
see his seed, and he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of
the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see the travail
of his soul, and shall be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a
portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the
strong, because he hath poured out his soul under death, and
he was numbered with the transgressors. and bear the sin of many, and
made intercession for the transgressors. Sing, O barren! Sing, O barren! Thou that didst not bear, break
forth into singing and cry aloud. Thou that didst not travail with
child, are more than the children of the desolate. Daniel, as we
go through the Old Testament, Daniel, we could go so many places,
it's just extraordinary. The Old Testament speaks of resurrection
in so, so many clear ways and in so, so many beautiful pictures. But in Daniel 12 verse 2, he
says, and many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall
awake. some to everlasting life, some
to shame, and everlasting contempt. And they that be wise shall shine
as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness
as stars forever and ever. The earth shall cast out its
dead, If you're near Daniel, just over a few pages is a book
of Hosea. In Hosea chapter 6 it begins,
Come let us return unto the Lord, for he hath torn, and he will
heal us. He hath smitten, and he will
bind us up, and after two days he will revive us. The third
day will he raise, who? us up he'll raise us up and what
do the raised up ones do and we shall live in his sight we
shall live in his sight Then shall we know, if we follow
on to know the Lord, and his going forth is prepared as the
morning, and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter
rain and the former rain upon the earth. Resurrection is a declaration
of the glory of God, the glory of a finished work, the glory
of a successful saviour. Resurrection is a declaration
that all of what the Lord Jesus Christ did and all of what he
purchased will be performed in the hearts of all of his people.
From him is our fruit found. He will ensure that all of his
saved ones will come to rejoice in the resurrection. Hebrews
13.20, you should nearly know it off by heart because I love
it so much, but it speaks so gloriously of God that we declare
and the God that we love and the God who resurrects us in
this life to newness of life and resurrects all of his people
with him. Now the God of peace, listen
to it, Hebrews 13.20, the God of peace. I'm at peace with God,
I'm so thankful there is a God of peace. In this world you'll
have troubles. The God of peace that brought
again from the dead our Lord Jesus, Listen to what the bringing
of him back from the dead was, the great shepherd of the sheep. Can he lose a sheep? He can't
be called a great shepherd if he loses one. He can't be called
a great shepherd if he fails. A great shepherd through the
blood of the everlasting covenant. He's the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world in eternity. I believe, according to the Scriptures,
the wounds will still be there. This same Jesus is coming back. The blood of the everlasting
covenant make you perfect in every good work to do His will. Working in you, that which is
well-pleasing God is still absolutely sovereign, brothers and sisters.
God still has power over all flesh, my friends. Through Jesus
Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. We could go on and
we could speak of the many, many times the Lord Jesus Christ spoke
of his resurrection. He spoke of his coming and dying
as a grain of wheat that must lie dead in the ground, Mark
chapter 12. And when it comes forth, it brings
forth much fruit. And what does wheat bring forth?
brings forth wheat. It doesn't bring forth apples
or bananas. It brings forth wheat. We'll
be made like him. We'll see him as he is with these
eyes. With these eyes we'll see him.
His resurrection. In his resurrection appearances,
there was an opening of hearts. The opening of the hearts and
the opening of the ears of his own, and their hearts burn within
them when he opens to them the scriptures. Don't you love the
fact that he preached to them? I don't know how long he preached,
I would have loved to have heard him. Don't you love the fact
that he preached to them, and then he broke bread, and then
he opened their eyes. It's a lovely order to the work
of the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ. We are declaring, as we take
the Lord's Supper, we are declaring for those who know him, We are
declaring the glory of blood that was shed for us. And I love how the two ordinances
leave no effect whatsoever on the flesh of man. Someone can
be baptized and five minutes later you could never know that
they were baptized. Baptism's a glorious picture,
isn't it? Of us in the Lord Jesus Christ,
immersed into his life and into his death and into his resurrection. And the Lord's Supper is just
such a glorious picture that all of our hope of glory is Christ
in us, the hope of glory. Just as there are so many with
vain faith, there are countless multitudes in this world who
take the Lord's Supper in a way of vanity. Last time I was in
some sort of religious service, there was a man standing behind,
standing in front of a symbol of idolatry, a cross, speaking
empty words that spoke nothing of the glory of the finished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then they handed out puffed
up bread full of leaven. What does leaven do? It puffs
you up. What was leaven a symbol of in
the Old Testament? Sin. What does sin do? It puffs
you up. Why do we have wine and unleavened
bread? Because the Lord Jesus Christ
said, you do this in remembrance of me. You don't make it up and
you don't puff it up and you don't change it. He said, take Eat. This is my body which is
broken for you. and what the brokenness means
and what the brokenness for you means. This do in remembrance
of me, 1 Corinthians 11.25, and after the same manner also he
took the cup and when he had supped saying, this cup is the
new testament, the new covenant in my blood. This do ye as often
as you drink in remembrance of me for, because as often as you
eat this bread, and drink this cup, you do show the Lord's death
till he come." We are like the people of the Passover. We are
looking back to a Passover. We're looking now and we're looking
forward to a resurrection. We're declaring a resurrection
in participating in the Lord's Supper. Wherefore whosoever shall
eat this bread and shall drink this cup of the Lord unworthily
shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. I don't want
you to be guilty of that. I don't want you to be guilty
of that. What's worthiness? What did Abraham have that made
him worthy? Faith. Simple faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ. It's expressed in baptism, but
it's expressed in a relationship between you and Him, which is
a living relationship with the living Lord. The Lord that's
declared to be the Lord of the Scriptures. It's faith. But let a man examine himself.
And that's the examination, isn't it? Examination is faith. And
so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. For he
that eateth and drinketh unworthily, without any acknowledgement of
the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ, with some acknowledgement
as it happens in so, so many other places, where there's a
declaration of a God who is not the God of the scriptures. Drinketh,
eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the
Lord's body. Why did he come in a body? What's happened to that body? Where is that body now? That body is coming back, not
discerning the Lord's body. Let's pray. Heavenly Father,
we pray that you would cause us to delight in the wonder of
the ordinance of the Lord's Supper, to delight in the fact that it
declares the glory of a finished work. Your dear and precious
son bearing the sins of all of his people in his own body on
the tree. Your dear and precious son being
buried. Your dear and precious son risen
and reigning in heaven. Your dear and precious son. bestowing
through the Blessed Holy Spirit all the things of the Lord Jesus
Christ to his people. Heavenly Father, cause us, as
you alone can do, to eat and drink, discerning his body and
discerning it with the faith that you gave to the Father of
the faithful and to all of your people. We pray this for your
glory, Heavenly Father, and we pray that we would go from here
rejoicing in the glory of a finished work, in a glorious Saviour who
came to save his people from their sins. Bless us, Heavenly
Father, as we go into this world. Cause us to walk worthily. and leave with the simplicity
of faith that looks to him and him alone.