Please turn in your Bibles this
morning to the book of 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians chapter 15. I want to read a few verses beginning in verse
1. Moreover, brethren, I declare
unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also you have
received, and wherein ye stand. by which also ye are saved, if
ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed
in vain. For I delivered unto you first
of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our
sins according to the Scriptures. and that he was buried, and that
he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures." Now, I have no doubt that on
this day, much will be said about the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And sadly, most will simply view
it as an event of history. But the fact that he raised from
the dead is not really the issue though. The issue most important
to sinners like us is what Did he accomplish? He raised from the dead. Now what? He raised from the
dead. What was that all about? When the apostle was writing
in Philippians 2, he said, and being found in fashion as a man,
He humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the
death of the cross. But listen to the words that
follow that. Wherefore, God also hath highly
exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name, that
at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in heaven
and things in earth and things under the earth, and that every
tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of
God the Father. You see, all of the dying and
the burial and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ has
something to do with the glory of God. Hold your place here
and turn over to 1 Peter. 1 Peter chapter 1, where the apostle
Peter is writing, and he talks about what the Spirit of God
was signifying or showing through all that the prophets said. Verse 11. searching what, or what manner
of time, the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify,
when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and
the glory that should follow." the glory that should follow."
In other words, what the apostle is saying to us is that something
glorious followed as a result of the resurrection of Jesus
Christ. And when Peter writes here in
his epistle, as Paul does in all his epistles, he addresses
this letter to the elect of God that are scattered on the earth. Look back in verse 1 of 1 Peter. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia,
Asia, Bithynia, elect according to the foreknowledge of God the
Father, written to the Lord's people, written to these chosen
of God, and therefore called the elect of God. And in these verses, he speaks
of the salvation of their souls. Look down in verse 9. He says, receiving the end of
your faith, or the goal of God-given faith, even the salvation of
your souls. And as He does, the Spirit of
God shows us that these apostles and all true gospel preachers
and all the prophets of God declare the gospel of God's sovereign,
purposed grace in Christ to all these people. Verse 10, "...of
which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently
who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you." He prophesied
all these prophets of the grace that would come to the people
of God. that Christ would suffer in their
place, and glorious things would be the result of that suffering. When Paul writes to the Ephesians
in chapter 1, he says of Christ, "...in whom ye also trusted,
after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your
salvation." What Paul calls the gospel or grace of your salvation,
Peter says, the grace of God that He purposed and gave unto
you. And this means that the gospel
has to do with the sufferings of Christ. and the glory that
should follow. And this is exactly what the
Lord Jesus Christ Himself declared. Listen in Luke chapter 24. Then He said unto them, O fools
and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken,
Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into
His glory? The sufferings and death and
burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, those things
were to precede His entering into His glory. Then a few hours probably later,
He says to another group, and He said unto them, Thus it is
written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer and to rise
from the dead the third day." And this is exactly what the
Apostle Paul is saying there in 1 Corinthians chapter 15,
especially in verse 4. If you look at that last phrase
in verse 4, it says that what he preached unto them as an essential
part of his gospel was that Christ was raised again, or rose again,
the third day according to the Scriptures. All that he preached, he preached
according to the Scriptures. What he preached about the dying
of Jesus Christ was how that he died according to the Scriptures. And not only how he died according
to the Scripture, not simply the fact that he died, but how
he died and how his death is in light of the Holy Scriptures,
those Old Testament Scriptures. I say that because when Paul
spoke these words, wrote these words, there was not that whole
body of the New Testament Scriptures. So the death of Christ is according,
or in some way pictured, shown in type and shadow in the Old
Testament Scriptures, and not only his death, But also, Paul
says here, and how that he rose again the third day according
to the Scriptures. Everything that is to be preached
about the death of Christ, the life of Christ, And even the
resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ is to be preached according
to the Scriptures. And that presents a bit of a
problem in our day. And it presents an especially
big problem on this day. Because the scriptures nowhere
teach us, either by a direct command or by an example of the
people of God doing so, never ever in the Scriptures do we
find that we are to observe a special day commemorating the resurrection
of Jesus Christ. And that doesn't seem really
to bother or hinder or slow down or impede the fast pace of organized
traditional religion. In other words, not only are
we not commanded to do such, But Paul, writing to the Colossians,
he says, let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink,
or in respect of an holy day. They call this a holy day. But men and women, when they
are confronted with the truth of the Scriptures, And they are
faced with the reality of just what God has said and not said. They hear what God says, what
He commands, what He says not to do, and they say, so what? We'll just go on with our tradition. There's no harm in it. There's
no this in it. There's no that in it. But the
truth of the matter, is that when religion begins to do what
God in His Word has not commanded them to do, that's when what
is taught, what is preached, and what is practiced is nothing
short of idolatry. And there is a great temptation
to me, there's a great temptation to every gospel preacher to stand
on days like this and spend all the time correcting all the various
idolatry and errors that characterize a day like Easter in our day. There's a great temptation to
spend all the time showing the errors. But the truth of the matter is,
if you saw half of the multitude of errors that surround worship
or so-called worship of God on this day, if you could recognize
and condemn yourself 50% of that great multitude of errors, you
still wouldn't know the truth. You still would not know, and
would not have heard, and I would not have preached the gospel. You see, now, because of Christ's
resurrection, we have what the Bible calls the glorious gospel. When Paul wrote in the second
letter to the Corinthians, he said, "...but if our gospel be
hid, it is hid to them that are lost, in whom the God of this
world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not." How
does he blind the minds of these in the world that he describes
as believing not? By hiding that gospel. By covering
over that gospel. By keeping that gospel from men
and women which gives the glory to God and hiding it in all these
things of religion. He says, lest the light of the
glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine
unto them. He hath blinded their eyes, the
God of this world, the devil, blinded their eyes, hidden from
them with all His power, the truth as it is in Christ Jesus,
hiding it amidst all of this show and pomp and ceremony and
crosses and whatever that characterizes all the religious holidays of
our day. But the resurrection of Christ, gives rise to this glorious gospel. So that rather than try to tear
down all the idols, I want as best I can to set the truth before
you. I want to do Like we have pictured
whenever the Ark of the Covenant was taken by the Philistines. You remember, they took the Ark
of the Covenant and they brought it into the midst of the temple
of their god Dagon. All they did was bring it in
and set it there in the midst before that great statue of Dagon
as if Dagon had enabled them to overpower the people of God
and conquered their God, except for one thing. They woke up the
next morning and Dagon was fallen on his face and broken in part. And then they took and they raised
him back up, they stood him back up, I'm sure, and dusted him
up and maybe glued the parts back on. And they came back the
next morning and there he had fallen over on his face again
and broken in even more parts. So the best way to expose error
and that which is not of God is to set before it that one
that the Ark of the Covenant testified, that the Old Testament
Scripture showed Christ and Him crucified, that blood that was
to be sprinkled on the mercy seat where God dwells. You see, the resurrection of
the Lord Jesus Christ is a truth that is essential to the Lord's
people at all times. All times. The Apostle Peter says in another
place, Something that ought to grip us and help us to understand
the gravity of what this is all about and the glory of the gospel
of Christ. He said, blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant
mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively or a living hope."
Are you interested in a real hope? A living hope? A hope that has a real foundation? A hope in the face of your sin,
a hope in the face of eternity, a hope in the face of one day
soon meeting God, a hope in the face of death itself, a living
hope. He says, God, in His abundant
mercy, hath begotten us again unto a living hope by the resurrection
of Jesus Christ from the dead. This hope, this mercy, is demonstrated,
is proved, is announced, declared on the basis of Jesus Christ
being raised from the dead. Paul said that he rose again
the third day according to the Scriptures. He hath been raised,
permanently raised, still risen, and continues risen, never to
die again." We're not talking about somebody in a tomb. We're
not talking about somebody on a cross. We're not talking about
a mere mythological figure or historical character. We're not
talking about somebody who just did a few things, died a martyr's
death. We're talking about somebody. A unique person, God manifests
in the flesh, who after His death on that cross and His burial
in that borrowed tomb, was raised from the dead and lives at the
right hand of the Majesty on high. All our race as we are in Adam. as we are in our sins. All our
race stand before God within ourselves as those who are guilty
of the murder of the Son of God. And men thought that when He
died, when they were able to put Him to death, even Satan
himself thinking that doing so, that would be the end of Him. And sad it is to say, apart from
grace, that's what every one of us think too. We'll shut Him
out of our mind. We'll ignore Him. We won't act
like He even exists. We won't even act like He has
any sway over us or power over us when the truth is. He sits
on the throne of glory, and He sits there as the God with whom
we have to do. He's the one we have to face. And He'll either be our Savior,
He'll either be our life and our salvation, or He'll be to
us the righteous judge. Now how would you? like to be
guilty of murdering a man. And then when you went to court,
where it would be determined what your sentence is, whether
you're guilty or not, how would you like to look up on that bench
and see as the judge the man you killed? Well, he'll either be our Savior,
God will either bestow abundant mercy and grace on us in Him
that He is our Savior, having satisfied Himself as that Judge,
or we'll perish before Him. You see, the glory that follows
has to do with the consequences of His resurrection. It has to
do with the accomplishments of His death, and it has to do with
the success of His sufferings for His people. He died according to the Scriptures,
and He rose according to the Scriptures. Turn back over to
Matthew's Gospel, to Matthew chapter 12, and look with me
in Matthew chapter 12 at what our Lord says in verse 39. They ask a sign, just like all
men and women do by nature, show their depravity and their blindness.
Show us a sign. Well, verse 39, "...but he answered
and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh
after a sign, but there shall no sign be given to it but the
sign of the prophet Jonas." What was that? For as Jonas was three
days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son
of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. And the men of Nineveh shall
rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it, because
they repented at the preaching of Jonas, and behold, a greater
than Jonas is here." The sign that the prophet Jonas
gave, even by his own life, pictured how that Christ would die and
be in the belly of the earth three days and night, and then
he'd rise from the dead. And not only Jonah, but many
of the prophets, they spoke not only of the resurrection of the
Messiah, they spoke of how it pertained to his people. Listen to Hosea. After two days
will He revive us, in the third day He will raise us up, and
we shall live in His sight." In other words, Christ and His
death and His resurrection has a significance because it pertains
also to the death, burial, and resurrection of His people in
Him and with Him." They weren't just talking about the Messiah
raising from the dead. They were talking about the people
of Messiah rising with Him. Why? Because they died with Him. Listen to this, Isaiah, "...thy
dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they
rise. Awake and sing ye that dwell
in dust, for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall
cast out the dead." You see, this is hope for those who in
themselves have nothing but death. Isaiah 53. Yet it pleased the
Lord to bruise him. He shall put him to grief when
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, for he shall see his
seed, he shall prolong his days. You see, that day when Christ
hung on the cross, that was not His last day on the earth. He
shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper
in His hands." The will, the purpose of God shall prosper
in His hands. And so in John 6, Christ says, "...and this is the will of the
Father who sent Me." that all that He hath given to me I may
not lose of it, but may raise it up in the last day. And this
is the will of Him who sent me, that everyone who is beholding
the Son and is believing in Him may have life, age enduring,
and I will raise Him up at the last day." Our hope If we have
hope of God, if we have hope of mercy and grace, hope of salvation,
it is inseparably joined to Christ who died and who was raised from
the dead. You see, the glory of Christ
is the glory of His people. And His glory is that He shall
raise them all up at the last day because Because He has already
raised them up through their union with Him in the resurrection. That is, they are in this sense
already raised up from the dead, because He's already raised up
from the dead. And the glory of Christ is that
every one God chosen him, and gave to Him, and put in union
with Him, when He was raised from the dead, from that state
of death to which He came, when He died in their place, when
He died as their substitute, when He died for their sins,
they all in Him passed from death unto life." They went into that
tomb with Him. And they came out in resurrection
with Christ. Why? Because He is a representative
man. There was another representative
man by the name of Adam. And so the Bible says, and makes
so clear in Romans 5, that Adam, this representative man, when
he sinned, all his race sinned in him. When He died, all His
race died in Him. In Adam, all die. Now there is this other people
who are the people represented by another representative man,
the man Christ Jesus. And when He rose from the dead,
they rose with Him. It says, in Adam all die, in
Christ They'll be made alive. Alive. When you read in Revelation
26, he says, "...Blessed and holy is he that hath part in
the first resurrection. On such, the second death hath
no power." Death doesn't have any power over them. Because
just as Christ, their head, their representative, just as He died
and rose again, Paul said, never to die again. So they were raised
in Him, never to die again. They have a living hope. But they shall be priests of
God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years."
They reign with Him now. You say, wait now, that's all
future. No. No. The people of God, these
elect sinners, these believers, brought by His grace to believe
because of what He's done. They reign with Him as the resurrected
right now. Turn over to Ephesians chapter
1. Ephesians chapter 1. And listen
to the language that the Spirit of God brings the apostle to
use. He writes to these believers
at Ephesus and to the Lord's people in all times, and there
in chapter 1 beginning in verse 16, he says, that I cease not
to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers. That the God of our Lord Jesus
Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit
of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of
your understanding being enlightened, that you may know what is the
hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His
inheritance in the saints. And what is the exceeding greatness
of His power to us who believe according to the working of His
mighty power, which He wrought in Christ. when He raised Him
from the dead and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly
places." Or in the heavenlies. He raised up the Lord Jesus Christ
and those in Christ, and He seated Christ at the right hand of the
majesty on high in the heavenlies." That's what that word actually
is. "...far above all principality and power and might and dominion
and every name that is named, not only in this world but also
in that which is to come, and hath put all things under his
feet and gave him to be the head over all things to the church,
which is His body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all."
Now notice this next part. And you hath he quickened, who
were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein in time past ye walked
according to the course of this world, according to the prints
of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the
children of disobedience. among whom also we all had our
conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling
the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature
the children of wrath, even as others." God's people were by
nature the children of wrath. They were the children of His
grace. They were the children of His covenant unchangeably.
But by nature, they were never the children of the devil. God
doesn't change, He's immutable. They were the children of God's
grace and mercy. Behold what wondrous grace God
has bestowed upon us that we might be called the children
of God. And though we were by nature
the children of wrath just like others, though we follow the
same lusts and fallen desires that they do, but God, who is
rich, in mercy. For His great love wherewith
He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened
us together with Christ, by grace you are saved, and hath raised
us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in
Christ Jesus. When God raised the Lord Jesus
Christ, when He raised from the dead and was seated in the heavenlies,
every one of His people, every member of that body of which
He's the head, every stone in that building of which He's the
foundation, they were every one in this representative man, raised
from the dead in Him. And they are said to be seated
in the heavenlies, just like He is seated in the heavenlies,
because they are seated in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus. Paul writes to the Colossians.
He says, "...since ye then be risen with Christ, seek those
things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand
of God." And when Peter stands on the day of Pentecost, he talks
about this very thing. He said, you took and you crucified
the Lord of glory. You took and by wicked hands
slew the Christ. But this was all in the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God, foreordained of God, because
God has raised Him from the dead. And now through this man is preached
unto you the forgiveness of sins." Paul comes along in Acts 13,
he says the same thing. Because Christ has died, because
the sacrifice has been made, Because the work has been finished,
and because God has raised him from the dead, the gospel is
preached to you, and you are brought to believe the gospel. You see, the glory that follows
the resurrection of Christ is that it is a proof before many
witnesses that God accepted that work of righteousness on the
behalf of His people. I've told you this many times.
But you see, the death of Christ is according to the Scriptures.
Well, in the Old Testament Scriptures, the priest went into that Holy
of Holies one time a year with that blood, that sacrifice, that
life given for the people, and he sprinkled that blood, he did
that work out of sight of the people. So how were they to know? That the work, that the sacrifice
that was offered on their behalf, how were they to know that God
accepted it? That it was what God required
and was pleased with? They knew if that priest came
out alive. If he didn't come out, that meant
that God slew him there. God did not accept. God was offended
by what was done. But if he offered the blood that
was required, in the manner that was required, if he was the one
God had appointed, the fact that he walked out of that holy of
holies, out of that tabernacle alive, was the proof God accepted
it. And when God raised the Lord
Jesus Christ from the dead, That work that He had cried out
on the cross that was finished was accepted by God in the place
of His people. God accepted the sacrifice on
the behalf of His people. He raised Him from the dead,
which means He accomplished the Father's will and He saved all
His people from their sins. That's why not only is a cross
made out of stone or wood or gold or whatever, not only is
it idolatry, but especially if we think about it in the light
of resurrection. Why would I want to go out in
the field somewhere or churchyard and raise up a wooden cross and
hang a purple rag across it? No. The death of Christ is characterized
by resurrection. But that's no benefit to me if
I don't know what was accomplished by that death and resurrection. Paul's words to believers, such as this, tell it all. that Christ, being raised from
the dead, dieth no more. Death hath no more dominion over
Him. Not on a cross, not on a tomb,
not laying dead in Mary's arms. He raised to the throne. He looks
down on us right now from the highest throne of glory. He beholds
us with the eyes of sovereign dominion and power. But He beholds
His people by His grace in Himself. Raised with Him. Seated with
Him. Paul says, He was delivered up
because of our offenses. and was raised up because of
our being declared righteous." Then he writes to the Thessalonians.
He says, "...for they themselves show of us what manner of entering
in we had unto you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve
the living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven,
whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus, who delivered us
from the wrath to come." There's a statement in Scripture that
I love, it's that. We wait for that One that God
raised from the dead, that One who delivered us, who has already
delivered His people from the wrath to come. And one day, the resurrection
of Christ, and our resurrection with Him and in Him, assures
another resurrection. And that's the resurrection of
our bodies. The body that lays as dust in
the grave. What's called our mortal bodies. He'll raise our mortal bodies,
our vile bodies. He'll raise them up. And they'll be like His glorious
body. But between that resurrection
of Christ from the dead and we in Him. And the resurrection
of our bodies to be with Him and like Him. There's another resurrection. The resurrection in which we
are raised from spiritual death to life. We come into this world born
spiritually dead, which is evidenced by our having no interest in
God as He is, no desire to know His truth or learn of Him, no
desire of any of the things of God, no understanding of His
Word. That's the evidence of death. But He's going to raise all His
people to life. And what's that life evidenced
by? Faith. If He gives me life, I'll
have faith. I won't have faith so I can get
life. It'll be the evidence of life. It'll be the evidence of resurrection. The Apostle said, that we have
passed from death unto life. Because we love the brethren.
Love being the outpouring of faith. We love the brethren because
we believe on Christ. We love Christ. This resurrection
is characterized by repentance toward God and faith in Christ
is described by Christ Himself. He says in John 5, "...verily,
verily, 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." Now that's
not just my view, that's not my theology or my philosophy
or something. Listen to what it says. Listen
to what he says. He that hears my word, you know
it means more than just audibly in there, but hears so as to
believe it, and believeth on him that sent me, He has 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." They'll
hear the voice of the Son of God. How will they hear that? They'll hear it through the gospel.
He hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son. He that heareth and believeth
hath life. Can we hear? Can we really hear
what Christ's death, burial, and resurrection is all about?
Can we hear so as to be able to trust Him, to plead His bloodshed,
to rest in that righteousness that God imputes to His people,
the righteousness of God in Him? Can we trust Christ and only
Christ? Only hope of salvation, if we do, is because He's raised
us from the dead. Christ said unto Lazarus' sister,
I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in Me,
though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever lives
and believes in Me shall never die. Believest thou this? She saith unto him, Yea, Lord,
I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should
come into the world. You see, the glory of Christ,
the glory of the resurrected Christ is the fact that He has
saved all His people from their sins. When He raised from the
dead, that meant all their indebtedness was paid. It meant all their
standing before God had been brought to an unchanging state
of acceptance in Him. It meant that that death that
they fell into had now become life in the resurrected Christ. And He sits on the throne. And when you see Him on the throne
by faith, it just makes all of the nonsense of religion in our
days almost unbearable. Because there was a glory that
followed His resurrection. And that glory is what is set
forth in the Gospel. Free, full, eternal salvation. in Christ alone, by God's grace
alone. That's a reason to fall down
before His throne and thank Him and praise Him all our days and
for all eternity. Father, this day we give You
thanks and praise for Your beloved Son, for our living Lord Jesus
Christ, for Him who sits at the right hand of the throne, the
victor, the successful Savior of His people. May we be found
among Him. May we be found among those who
believe on Him and trust Him and love Him and thank You for
His work. We know that it is He who saved
us and not we ourselves. We pray that we might be enabled
to rest in Him until He come again, the resurrected Christ
in the glory of His resurrected being. We'll be made like Him
and meet Him. And we thank You. He has delivered
His people from the wrath to come. We pray and ask all things
in His name. Amen.