Okay, well, turn back now with
me to John's Gospel. We're looking at John Chapter
20, and not in so much detail because it's a very familiar
passage. But I want to bring a message
from this that I believe the Lord has laid on my heart. We
looked at John Chapter 19, which was the account of the dreadful
crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ. his terrible death, how
he drained the cup of the wrath of God, and how in it he fulfilled
all scripture. And it was all with one single
purpose, and that was the redemption of his elect. Every step of the
way was that he might redeem. That when the books are opened,
that there might be nothing laid to the account that would condemn
any of his people, for he must not lose any of them. He must
save all of them. He died. He was buried. He really did die. You know,
there are those who say, oh, perhaps he wasn't properly dead,
and they took him down from the cross, and he revived, and that
explains the way of the resurrection. He really died. You ask any cardiologist,
if the heart chamber, the pericardium, was punctured as his obviously
was, he died. And they had no doubt, they didn't
need to break his legs. He died, he was taken down. He
was taken to the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea with Nicodemus.
Do you remember the one who came to him in the night in John chapter
3? They took him, and embalmed him,
and wound him in grave clothes. This is kind of like a straitjacket
of grave clothes and the embalming ointments. And they put him in
a tomb and it was sealed with a stone because the Pharisees
wanted to make absolutely sure that there was no talk of any
resurrection or anything like that. They wanted to make absolutely
sure. They set a guard and all of these things and he was sealed
in a tomb. He was dead and buried. And it
was the Friday, what we call Good Friday. And then there was
the Saturday. which was the Jews' Passover
and the Sabbath, the Sabbath day, it was the Passover Sabbath
day. And then now in chapter 20, it's Sunday, the first day
of the week, it's the third day. And as he'd said, he would die
and on the third day rise again. And Mary Magdalene comes early,
while it was still dark, to the tomb, to the sepulcher. And you
know the story, it's a very familiar account. And she sees the stone
taken away. And she's horrified. Somebody's
taken the body of her Lord. What have they done with him?
So she runs to get help from Simon Peter and John, the disciple
whom Jesus loved. And they come and they look.
And looking in, what do they see? They see the grave clothes. And the implication of these
verses here, verses 4 and 5 and 6 and 7 even, the implication
of the account, it says quite a lot about the grave clothes,
is that they were just as if he passed through them. They
weren't unwound, lying in a heap. as if somebody had unwound them
and taken the body away. They were there as if the body
had just passed through them. And they would, the shape was
there, but they were just lying flat where he had been lying,
the grave clothes. He's risen from the dead. Now
what's the significance of this? It's a familiar account. Of course,
we go on and Christ appears to Mary. And then he appears to
others, he appears to the disciples, and then to Thomas, and you've
got the other gospel accounts of his appearances to the disciples
on the Emmaus road, and all of those things. And then he appears
again to them in John 21 and cooks them breakfast by the sea,
and we'll probably look at that next week. These appearances
of the Lord Jesus Christ. What does it mean for you and
me? I've called this message an optional
happy ending with a question mark? Is it just an optional
happy ending to a dreadful story of a death? You know, like a
fairy story, and they all lived happily ever after. Is that what
it is, that all those dreadful things, but don't worry, he rose
from the dead. It's a happy ending. No, it's
much more than that. Much more than that. You see,
optional You know, oh well you can believe it if you want to,
but it doesn't really matter, you can still be a Christian if you don't
believe it. You remember the Bishop of Durham, it's probably
not the same one these days, but of many years ago, David
Jenkins I think his name was, who caused an uproar when he
denied the necessity of believing in the resurrection and said
he himself didn't believe in a literal resurrection. Can you
be a Christian? and not believe in a literal
resurrection, and not just mentally believe in a literal resurrection,
but with the heart know and believe in a literal resurrection of
the Lord Jesus Christ. What I want to look at with you
in the minutes that we have this morning is the fact of the resurrection,
the significance of the resurrection, and the personal impact of the
resurrection. You may say, well, these are
familiar things. Well, just bear with me. Just listen. Just meditate
on these things. Think about them. the fact of
the resurrection. You say, I'm a believer, you
don't need to prove the fact of the resurrection to me. It's
like me wasting time in the pulpit convincing you that God created
the earth rather than it happening by evolution. I don't need to,
you know, because you'd say it's by faith I believe those things.
Well, no, I think we live in a world where there is so much
opposition to everything to do with the gospel of grace. I want
you to know that believing in the literal resurrection of the
Lord Jesus Christ is not some leap into the irrational unknown. It's not something that marks
you out as a nutcase for believing it, because sensible people don't
believe in such nonsense, because we know that it doesn't happen.
Not at all. Think about it. The Pharisees
They wanted a sealed tomb, a guarded seal. Why did they want it? Because
they wanted proof that Jesus of Nazareth had been silenced
for good. This one that caused them so
much trouble with his preaching and teaching, he'd been silenced
for good. This one who troubles Israel,
as Ahab said of Elijah, this one who troubles Israel, he'd
been silenced, and they would have no more trouble from him.
There he is, people, this one that you were putting palm branches
down for, and coming to the temple to hear him preach, and talking
about his miracles, look at him now, he's in that tomb, he's
dead, he's finished, it's over, let's hear no more of it, you're
upsetting the peace that we have with Rome, so we'll hear no more
of it. They thought he'd been silenced for good, but here's
an empty tomb. and empty grave clothes as a
body had just risen from out of them. And when he was seen
by the disciples, you know, they say, oh, well, he just revived. You know, like Clint Eastwood
films, you know, where he's beaten within about one percent of death.
And, you know, he's finished. He's finished. You know, people
fall over and bang their heads on the pavement and die. But
no, not him. He gets shot and he gets beaten up and everything
else. And somehow he manages to recover
and come back and wreak vengeance on the man who did it. And so
there's this view that he didn't properly die. And when he comes
back, he's in a terrible state, but he's gradually recovering.
No, when he appears, he's whole. He's fit. He's strong. He's not
bloodied. Oh yes, there are the scar prints
of the nails and the wound in the side. But he's in his fully
resurrected body, an empty tomb, empty grave clothes, a strong
Lord Jesus Christ with nail prints and the spear scar. but seen
by all of these people. Mary Magdalene, the Emmaus Road
disciples, Peter and the other disciples, that same day, verse
19, at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors
were shut, they were frightened, they were terrified. Their Lord,
who'd been with them for three and a half years, had been cruelly
crucified, and they were absolutely despondent. What was all this
that he'd promised them? What was this great hope he'd
given them of eternal life? What's happening to it? They
were shut in because of fear of the Pharisees. They were hiding
for fear of their lives. Assembled for fear of the Jews. And then came Jesus and stood
in the middle of them. Locked doors. Just came in and
said to them, Peace be unto you. And there he stands, whole before
them. The disciples didn't invent this
story of the resurrection. It wasn't something that just
occurred to them. They were entirely taken by surprise
by it. Look at verse 9. For as yet they,
the disciples, knew not the scripture that he must rise again from
the dead. As yet, they didn't know that.
They were completely, you know, the idea that the disciples made
it up is ludicrous. They didn't invent the story,
they were entirely taken by surprise. Even though they'd heard Jesus
himself say things like this, Matthew 17, 22 and 23, says this,
And while they abode in Galilee, Jesus said unto them, The Son
of Man shall be betrayed into the hands of men. and they shall
kill him and the third day he shall be raised again and they
were exceeding sorry they'd heard him say that yet they knew not
the scripture that he must rise again from the dead they didn't
make it up it wasn't something that they invented and after
Pentecost you know forty days on after Pentecost Oh, was it? No, 50 days on, because he ascended
and then 10 days later, Pentecost. After Pentecost, the apostles
preached. What did they preach? Read through
Acts. They preached Christ, but again and again and again that
he rose from the dead. That was it. That was key. They
preached the resurrection. They preached it again and again.
And If the authorities could have disproved it, wouldn't it
have been easy for them to do it? Wouldn't it have been easy
to say, look, here's the body? No, he didn't rise from the dead.
We've got it. He didn't rise from the dead.
And why did they preach it? Because what did it do for them?
Those disciples who went about preaching the resurrection, What
did it do for them? Did it have everybody going around
saying, oh, what a wonderful story, brilliant, yes, we'll
have some more. No. They suffered great persecution.
It gave them no worldly advantage whatsoever. It brought them nothing
other than trouble, in worldly terms, preaching the resurrection.
Why would they do it if it wasn't true? Why would they do it if
they didn't know for certain, for sure, that it was true? you
could read Acts 24 verse 21 where Paul is being tried and he says
before the scribes and the Pharisees and the rulers he says it's for
the resurrection that I stand here accused before you now this
is why this is the key thing that's really upset you all for
the resurrection I stand here and everything that that stood
for the salvation of a specific people everything to do with
it that's why he suffered great advantage So why do it if it
wasn't true? A man called Henry Morris, and
I don't make any claims for what the spiritual state of these
men is, he's the one who wrote The Genesis Flood along with
some Whitcomb many, many years ago. But he said this, he wrote
a book or an article about the resurrection, he used this term,
I like this, he said, it's the best proved fact in history. There's lots of history, and
a lot of them are proven facts, but he says, this is the best
proved fact. And I know many of you know of
the book, again I don't know the spiritual state of the man,
but a man called Frank Morrison, some 50 or 60 years ago, came
to this as an absolute unbelieving skeptic and he wanted to disprove
all this Christianity nonsense and show a bit like Richard Dawkins
today what a load of rubbish it was and he would take it and
with the mind of a lawyer he would analyse it and he would
pull it apart and he would prove what an absolute load of nonsense
it was. and in the process of him doing
his research just as a lawyer I'm not saying what it did for
him faith-wise but just coming and looking at the facts he wrote
a book called Who Moved the Stone because at the end of it he fully
believed that there was nothing more true in history than the
resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ the fact of the resurrection
my friends you'll find people all around you will regard you
as an idiot if you say you believe in the resurrection and you have
a hope of eternal life because Christ rose from the dead You're
not believing something that's irrational. You're not believing
something that's nonsense that only silly people believe. You're
believing something that somebody called, quite rightly, the best-proved
fact of history. It's a fact. These things that
we read here, you know how true the Word of God is. You know
who is the author of the Word of God. Does he ever lie? Has
he ever lied? In so many other things, has
he ever told you any lies or any untruths? This is true. He
has said it. It's his Word. So what's its
significance? What is its significance to us? You see, so many so-called Christians
regard the resurrection as an optional extra that rational
people just choose to treat as literally impossible, but with
some sort of mystical significance. That was the David Jenkins, the
Bishop of Durham's view of it. Well, I don't believe it literally
happened, but let's look at the mystical things that we can read
into it beyond that. No. this literal resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ that Mary Magdalene first witnessed.
that the other disciples witnessed, the apostles witnessed again
and again, over 500 people saw it at one time, all of those
people, 500 at once, that's 1 Corinthians 15 verse 6, Peter read it earlier,
500 at one go, of which when he was writing the majority remained,
some had died, some had fallen asleep and gone to be with him
in eternity, but the majority, this wasn't something that two
or three people made up, a lot of people saw it. In the mouths
of how many witnesses does the Old Testament say that a thing
is established? Two or three. In the mouths of
two or three witnesses are the facts established. Here were
five to six hundred who saw him. And Paul says, and last of all,
by me, the one who is the least of all the apostles, as one born
out of due time, on that Emmaus Road, and then when Christ taught
in the gospel in Arabia, as we read in Galatians, the account
of Paul's life. Three years being taught that
he appeared to the Apostle Paul, the risen Lord Jesus Christ.
He is alive. He is risen. These are facts. And it's absolutely at the core
of gospel preaching. Turn over to the book of Acts,
just a couple of pages, into Acts chapter 4. And of course
we could spend the rest of our time just looking up the references
in Acts, that where they preached the resurrection, the factual
resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ as the absolute sealing
proof of what they were saying about the gospel of grace and
the way that a man is made just with God, a way that somebody
is saved. In chapter 4 and verse 2, Well,
let's read the first verse just for the sense. And as they spake
unto the people, the priests and the captain of the temple
and the Sadducees came upon them to arrest them. Being grieved,
they were upset that they, the apostles, taught the people and
preached through Jesus. What were they preaching? The
resurrection from the dead. And they put them in prison.
Or look down at verse 33 of the same chapter. Turn over a page,
or at least you have to in my Bible. Verse 33. And with great
power, where did that power come from? Was that not the Holy Spirit
anointing? These were just common uneducated
men. Oh, they'd been with Jesus for
three and a half years. That's a good university course,
isn't it? They'd been with him for three and a half years. He
taught them the truth. They'd still been very slow of
learning, but Here, now, it's after Pentecost. And everything
he promised concerning the Holy Spirit has come upon them. And
with great power, gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of
the Lord Jesus. And great grace was upon them
all. And we could multiply those references
over and over again. Go to Acts 17, don't do it now,
but you go there and you see Paul preaching to the philosophers,
the Greek philosophers on Mars Hill in Athens. And he's preaching
there and talking to them about the unknown God whom he declares
to them. And he spoke of the resurrection
from the dead. And it caused such a, this was
the thing, caused such a division amongst them. And some of them
said he's mad and he's a babbler, what's he saying? And others
said, we'll hear you some more about this. because some of them,
no doubt, God had written eternity in their souls and they wanted
to hear more about this, about the resurrection from the dead.
It's at the core of gospel preaching. Why is it at the core? Let me
use some analogies. You know, when you order something
online these days, I always like it when the email comes through
within a few seconds, your bill of sale, you know, the proof
that you've purchased it. Keep a copy of this. in case
anything goes wrong, like their servers crash and they lose their
records. But you keep a copy of this. It's the bill of sale.
It's the proof. It's the proof that you've purchased
something. It's the proof that you've paid and you've made the...
Well, so it is. The resurrection is what? It's
the bill of sale of salvation. It's the proof of purchase. What
purchase? Redemption. It's the proof. God
raised him from the dead, proving that what he did in his life
for his people and in his death to pay the penalty of sins was
accepted. And God couldn't leave his soul
in hell. Psalm 16. Couldn't leave it there. He had
to cause his holy one not to see corruption, but to rise from
the dead for the salvation of his people. He's raised for our
justification. It's how God declares Christ
to be his son. Turn over again to the epistle
to the Romans after Acts. First chapter of the epistle
to the Romans. These first few verses. He's talking about the
gospel of God. He's separated to the gospel
of God, which God had promised, in verse 2, before time, by his
prophets in the Holy Scriptures. This gospel isn't new. He's promised
it by his prophets in the Scriptures. So when we were reading Isaiah
earlier, and when you read the Old Testament Scripture, there's
the gospel. It's there. God has promised it. In all the
dealings with Israel, He's promised it. And what does it concern?
His Son, Jesus Christ. This gospel's about his son,
for remember what's the key question? How can a man be just with God
in the gospel? Which concerns his son, Jesus
Christ our Lord, for there is no other way. For he is the way,
the truth, and the life. And no man comes to the Father
but by him, who was made of the flesh. Of the seed of David,
according to the flesh, he was descended from King David, that
man after God's own heart, who in the flesh no doubt committed
terrible sins, but was a man after God's own heart by the
Spirit. And according to his line came Christ. Of the seed of David, according
to the flesh, but, look at verse 4, declared to be the Son of
God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, How? How has he declared it? By the
resurrection from the dead. By raising Christ from the dead,
God has declared Christ to be his son. What does that mean?
So what does that mean? Is it like me declaring Stephen
to be my son or Michael to be Stephen? No, no, much more than
that. Look, you've got to think about
these things. It means this. Who is the son
of God? The Son of God is the God-man. He's God become man for the purpose
of redeeming his people. He's very God of very God. He's
in no way inferior to God. He's of one with the same substance
with the Father and the Spirit. One God but three persons. He's
co-equal with them. And by the resurrection, this
man is declared to be that one. He's declared to be God in human
flesh. Come for the salvation of his
people. He's declared, by being the son
of God, he's declared to be the saviour of sinners, the saviour
of his people. What does God call himself again
and again? The prophecy of Isaiah and over
and over again, God our saviour. Who is our saviour? Our Lord
Jesus Christ. Our Jehovah Jesus is our saviour. He's our God and saviour, Jesus
Christ. is the fullness of God, for in
him, that man, dwelt the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And he's
declared to be that by the resurrection from the dead. He's declared
to be that suffering but triumphant servant. God spoke of the suffering
servant who would come, behold my servant, to save his people.
But he's triumphant over death and over sin. He's conquered
it. The resurrection puts God's seal
on his son's redeeming work. That it really is the currency
that has paid for the salvation of his people. and salvation
is incomplete without the resurrection you cannot have salvation without
the resurrection look at Romans chapter 4 at the end of it Romans
chapter 4 in these verses towards the end
he's talking about Abraham and the righteousness that became
Abraham's you know Abraham wasn't righteous because Abraham was
a righteous man in himself Abraham did some deceitful things, Abraham
told lies deceitfully Abraham was a man in the flesh just like
we all are by nature but Abraham was shown the light of the gospel
of grace in the face of Jesus Christ and Abraham believed God
And it was accounted to him for righteousness. Not his believing,
but what he believed in was accounted to him for righteousness. And
it's talking about that righteousness. And it says in verse 24, but
for us also. You see, it wasn't just for Abraham,
but for us also, to whom it shall be imputed. What? Righteousness. The righteousness of God. If
we believe on him, that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead,
who was delivered, Jesus our Lord was delivered for our offenses. and raised again for our justification. Yes, he died on the cross for
our offenses, but the proof that that death was accepted, that
the penalty was paid, that the price of redemption, the ransom
was paid, was that God raised him from the dead. He was raised
for our justification, to prove it. Do you see how important
it is to your faith, to your standing in Christ, that Christ
is risen from the dead. It's symbolized in baptism. It's that union with Christ that
is symbolized in baptism. Romans 6 verse 5 says this, for
if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death
we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection you know
how it is in baptism there's the idea of burial symbolizing
that going into the tomb with Jesus when he was taken down
from the cross going into the grave going down in there but
then rising again to newness of life that is what is symbolized
in immersion going down into the water symbolizing burial
in death and being coming out of the water symbolizing being
raised in resurrection. If we've been planted together
in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness
of his resurrection. And he is the final thing in
terms of what's the significance. Well, obviously it's not the
final thing, but it's the final thing as far as I found them
when preparing this. But he's the first fruits of
his people's resurrection. He's the prototype. That's wrong
in that prototypes have sometimes got things wrong with them and
you make a prototype so that you can find out what's wrong
and you can correct it and make it better. But he's the perfect
prototype of the resurrection of his people. He's the proof
that it's going to happen. He's the first fruits. You pick
the first fruits that are ripe, you know, some ripen first. Oh,
that's good. Now look at all these other strawberries
that are going to ripen over the next few weeks. Not now,
it's November. They don't ripen now in this
part of the world. But, you know, firstfruits, it's
the down payment for what's coming. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter
15. 1 Corinthians chapter 15, where Peter read earlier for
us. And verse 23. But every man in
his own order, Christ, the firstfruits, afterward, they that are Christ's
at his coming. How do you know that you are
going to rise from the dead. You know that hymn that Don Faulkner
wrote about, don't stand around my grave and cry, I'll not be
there, I will not die. My body lies beneath the clay
until the resurrection day, it says. And then, I can't remember
exactly, body and soul will be reunited at that time. Don't
stand around my grave and cry, I did not die. I'm with Christ,
I did not die. The first fruits, how do you
know you're going to rise again? on that day. You know because
Christ did. He's the firstfruits. He's the
guarantee of his people's resurrection. And then finally, the personal
impact of the resurrection. What does it mean to you? Is
it just a historical fact? Like the execution of Charles
I is a historical fact and you think, well that was sad for
him, wasn't it? But maybe it was good for the people. You
know, it really doesn't... What's the personal impact of
the resurrection? Look at the effect on Thomas.
Look at verse 24 of John chapter 20. You know, Thomas... You know this really well. I
know it's very, very familiar. Thomas, one of the twelve, called
Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples
therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. We've seen the
risen Lord. But he said unto them, Because he's a man in the
flesh. Except I shall see in his hands
the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the
nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe. Unless I, you know, he might
be somebody that's a good double of Jesus. You know, you might
just have seen somebody that looks like him. But I saw him
hanging on that cross, dead. I saw him taken away. I don't
know if he did, but maybe this is what he was saying. I saw
him taken away and put in a tomb. I saw all these things happen.
That man was dead, and I won't believe it, but if you show me
a man that's got nail prints in his hands, and a spear wound,
a deep spear wound in his side, a really deep spear wound. If
you show me that, I might believe, but unless I see that, I won't
believe. And eight days later, they're in the same room, locked
in, for fear of the Jews. This fearful band of downcast
disciples wondering what was happening. remembering the promises
and wondering how on earth could those promises be fulfilled. You know, just like we might
do, we've got this promise of eternity, but sometimes don't
we seem so far away from it? And yet in truth, we're so close
to it all of the time. And here they are, and Thomas
this time is with them, and Jesus comes again. And note, it says,
the door's being shut. He didn't have to open the door.
He's got a heavenly body. The body that he's risen with
is not the body that was before his death. This is a body that
it passed through the doors into the room where they were. He
was there in the midst of them, the doors being shut. And he
says again, peace to you. This is his message. This is
the message of the risen Lord, peace to you, to his people.
Isn't that a glorious thing? How many of the epistles start
with peace with God, peace from God? This is the greeting, peace
from God, and he says, peace to you, and then he looks at
Thomas. Thomas, come here, give me a finger. Behold, look at
my hands, look, touch, touch, feel, it's real, it's not fake.
Have you seen these pavement artists that draw things on the
pavement and people are walking down the street and they just
think they're going to fall down a hole because the picture is
so realistic in three dimensions. They think they're going to fall
down a hole. You know, maybe there was something. No, reach
your finger here and feel. It's a real wound. It doesn't
just look like it. Put your hand deep into my side
where the spear went in. And be not faithless, but believing. And Thomas answered and said
unto him, My Lord and my God. Do you note how Jesus doesn't
say to him, Oh no, don't call me God. No, worship God the Father. No, you must worship Jehovah
only. No, don't do it. No, of course, he accepts Thomas'
worship. My Lord and my God. And Jesus
said to him, Thomas, because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are they that have not
seen physically and yet have believed. Blessed, blessed are
those that have seen God. When they look at the Lord Jesus
Christ, the risen Lord Jesus Christ, they see their God. My Lord and my God. He is risen,
my Lord and my God. Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they shall see God, said Jesus. Those who are made pure
in heart by the salvation that he's accomplished, they shall
see God. Are you made pure by him through
the gospel of his grace? And as you look at him by faith,
Do you see my Lord and my God, my Jehovah Jesus, my Prophet,
Priest and King? He saw Him, His Saviour, the
One who is omnipotent, the One who is victorious over death.
Blessed are they which have not seen physically, but with the
eye of faith, and yet have believed. and then it's the believers it's
the basis of the believers hope and faith look at those uh...
words in one corinthians fifteen again from verse fourteen down
to twenty one corinthians fifteen verses fourteen down to twenty
and if christ be not risen then is our preaching vain and your
faith is also vain Yea, and we have found false witnesses of
God, because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ,
whom he raised not up, if it so be that the dead rise not.
For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised. And if
Christ be not raised, your faith is vain. Yea, yet in your sins,
then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ have died, are
perished. loved ones that have gone before.
If Christ is not risen, they're perished, he says. This is the
strength of the argument. If in this life only, Because
there's no resurrection, we have hope in Christ. We are of all
men most miserable. What's Paul saying? If there's
no resurrection and Christ is not risen, then go and live like
everybody else, because what a miserable life you're going
to give yourself. A miserable life of denial of all sorts of
things. If there's no truth in the resurrection,
ah, but if there is truth in the resurrection, which there
is, oh, is that not worth living for? Is that not worth trusting? we're of all men most miserable
but now is Christ risen from the dead here he asserts it he
affirms it and become the first fruits of them that slept Peter
says this in his epistle 1 Peter 1 verses 3 and 4 blessed be the
God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ which according to his
abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by
the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead that's the basis
of our hope do you have a hope? Which men might ask you a reason
for why you've got that hope? What's at the basis of it, of
that hope? It's the resurrection of Christ
from the dead. To an inheritance incorruptible
and undefiled and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven
for you. That's my hope. What's the reason for it? Christ
has risen. Why did Christ rise? To prove
that what he did in accomplishing the salvation of his people was
accepted by the justice and law of God. It's at the foundation. This is at the foundation of
all Christian service. And of bearing suffering. Think
of those who endure physical persecution. Why do they do it?
Because they know the truth of this. And they know the part
that they have in it. That it's Christ the first fruits
and then them. That they don't fear man who
can only kill the body. They reverence God who when he
has killed the body can cast the soul into hell. That's what
they fear. That's what they reverence. But
seeing him and loving him and knowing for certainty the truth
of his resurrection, they serve him. They follow him, even to
death, even to martyrdom. You know, you read such as Foxe's
Book of Martyrs and and accounts of the martyrs in the time of
Mary, the sister of Queen Elizabeth, you know, the first one, the
daughter of Henry VIII. And the terrible, terrible, bloodthirsty
martyring, the burning at the stake and the dreadful things
that they did. And some of those martyrs went
into that saying, this is it, I'm going into glory. Not like
some Islamic martyr strapping a bomb to himself on a tube train.
in the falsehood of everything that goes with that, but in the
certainty of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ and
their part in it. John 14 says this, we looked
at it a few weeks ago. Yet a little while, said Jesus,
and the world seeth me no more, but you see me. Because I live,
you shall live also. Do you believe that? Because
I live, he said, and he's risen from the dead, you shall live
also. At that day, you shall know that
I am in the Father, and ye in me, and I in you. Are you, like
most of humanity, frightened of death? Most of humanity is
frightened of death. You know what Hebrews 2.15 says,
deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime
subject to bondage. Are you confident? of a place
in eternity because you know Christ has risen and you know
that you're in him. This is the personal impact of
the resurrection. It's the confidence of the believer.
It's the reason for the hope that is in us. Amen.