Will you please turn to Matthew, the Gospel according to Matthew, Chapter 28? We will read from verses 2 through 10.
Matthew 28:2:
And behold, there was a great earthquake;
for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled away the stone, and sat upon it.
His appearance was as lightning, and his raiment white as snow:
and for fear of him the watchers did quake, and became as dead men.
And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, who hath been crucified.
He is not here; for He is risen, even as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.
And go quickly, and tell His disciples, He is risen from the dead; and lo, He goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see Him: lo, I have told you.
And they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to bring His disciples word.
And behold, Jesus met them, saying, All hail. And they came and took hold of His feet, and worshipped Him.
Then saith Jesus unto them, Fear not: go tell My brethren that they depart into Galilee, and there shall they see Me.
Please turn also to 1 Corinthians 15. We will read verses 3 through 5.
For I delivered unto you first of all that which also I received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures;
and that He was buried; and that He hath been raised on the third day according to the Scriptures;
and that He appeared to Cephas; then to the twelve.
Dear Heavenly Father, we do rejoice in Thy presence, knowing that Thou hast given us Thy beloved Son. We believe for His blood shed for our sins. We believe for the body broken for us, reconciling us to Thyself.
Father, we are here this morning because of Thy beloved Son. We ask that Thou wilt again open our eyes to see Thy Son, the glory of Thy Son. We ask Thee, Lord, that we may be so occupied with Thyself that we will forget Henry, because Thou alone art worthy.
We worship Thee. We commit this time into Thy hands and pray that Thou wilt reveal Thyself through Thy Word afresh to us. Constrain us by Thy love. We ask in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
On the fourteenth of the month Nisan, a lamb was to be sacrificed for every family of the children of Israel. On that very same day, our Lord Jesus Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed.
He was on the cross for six hours. During the first three hours, from nine o’clock to twelve, He suffered from the hands of men and of the evil forces in the universe.
Then, from twelve to three, the whole scene changed, because our Lord Jesus now suffered from the hand of God. It pleased the Lord to bruise Him, to subject Him to suffering when He was made an offering for sin.
During those three hours, our Lord Jesus suffered eternal death for us: separation from God. He cried out in desperation:
My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?
But He ended up with a shout of victory:
It is finished.
Then He bowed His head and committed His spirit to His Father.
Because this was the day before the great Sabbath, the soldiers came. They wanted to make sure that the crucified ones were dead. So they broke the bones of the legs of the two robbers who were crucified with our Lord, to speed them to death.
But when they came to our Lord, they found that He was already dead. To make sure that He was really dead, a soldier thrust a spear into His side, and out of His broken heart came blood and water.
Joseph of Arimathea asked for His body. He and Nicodemus, who came to see our Lord Jesus that night, prepared the body. Nicodemus came with a hundred pounds of spices, and they bound our Lord Jesus in linen cloths and put Him in a tomb in a nearby garden—a tomb that Joseph had prepared for himself.
They buried Jesus, and a few women were there to see it.
While this small mourning party was returning to Jerusalem, a noisy crowd came out from the city. It was a crowd led by the elders. They were going out of the city to an appointed field, where a sheaf of firstfruits was already found standing there, ready to be cut.
This was the preparation for the Feast of Firstfruits. They came out to witness the cutting of the sheaf. Three men, with sickle and basket, went into that place, and they cut that sheaf and prepared it to be offered on the day after the Sabbath as the firstfruits unto the Lord.
Because unless that was offered, no one could eat any corn or barley recently harvested. It was the Feast of Firstfruits.
But on the third day, on the day when the priest was to offer a wave offering of that firstfruit to the Lord, our Lord Jesus was raised from the dead. Because our Lord Jesus is the firstfruits.
But now hath Christ been raised from the dead, the first fruits of them that are asleep.
Christ the firstfruits, and then those who are His at His coming. We find that in 1 Corinthians 15.
So, brothers and sisters, here you find Christ our Passover and Christ the firstfruits. He was typified long ago in the Old Testament.
Concerning the resurrection of our Lord Jesus, it was typified in the Old Testament not only by the Feast of Firstfruits, but even when Abraham offered his only son Isaac. He was a type of God giving His beloved Son to us.
By faith Abraham received Isaac back, as from the dead. It is a type that our Lord Jesus, God’s only begotten Son, was offered for us, and then on the third day the Father received Him back, as it were, from the dead.
David, the prophet psalmist, in the Messianic Psalm, Psalm 16, said:
For Thou wilt not leave my soul to Sheol;
Neither wilt Thou suffer Thy holy one to see corruption.
His resurrection was prophesied in Isaiah 53. When He was made an offering for sin:
He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days,
and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand.
He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied;
by the knowledge of Himself shall My righteous servant justify many,
and He shall bear their iniquities.
Therefore will I divide Him a portion with the great,
and He shall divide the spoil with the strong.
In the Old Testament there are many places where the resurrection of our Lord Jesus was prophesied. Even when our Lord Jesus Himself was on earth, He predicted His death and resurrection.
In Matthew 16, after Peter confessed Him as the Christ, the Son of the living God, He told them how He would go to Jerusalem, be treated by the elders, the scribes, and the Pharisees, and be killed; but on the third day He would rise from the dead.
The Lord seemed never to tell of His death without at the same time telling of His resurrection.
Then in Matthew 17, when He was in Galilee, He again told His disciples that He would be killed, but on the third day He would rise from the dead.
As He was going to Jerusalem in Matthew 20, again He said He was going to Jerusalem to die, and yet on the third day He would rise from the dead. Even after He had His Passover feast with His disciples, and after His conversation with them, they came out of the upper room on their way to the Garden of Gethsemane. Again, He told His disciples that He would rise on the third day.
But somehow His disciples could not take it. They were grieved because they knew something was going to happen to their dear Lord. But when the Lord told them He would be raised from the dead, it did not sink in. As a matter of fact, they did not believe it.
Isn’t it strange that His disciples did not believe that their Master would be raised from the dead?
The priests and the Pharisees somehow believed it. You remember, as Christ was crucified and buried, they went to Pilate and said, “We heard this deceiver say that on the third day He would be raised from the dead.” They asked for a guard to guard that tomb, lest this should happen.
They somehow had a premonition that it might happen, but the disciples did not believe it.
In the early morning, on the first day of the week, suddenly there was an earthquake, and an angel of the Lord came down and rolled away the great stone. The guards were frightened as dead men. Evidently, they fled.
But in that early morning some women came to anoint the Lord, because our Lord was embalmed very hurriedly. It was not properly done. So these women who loved the Lord prepared the myrrh and the aloes to come and anoint the dead body of our Lord.
Evidently, they did not all come together. They came in groups. Mary Magdalene loved the Lord so much, so probably she was the first one who came.
When she approached the tomb, she found that the stone had been rolled away. Immediately she turned and went to find Peter, telling Peter that something had happened.
So Peter and John went to the tomb. While they were going to the tomb, the other women arrived. They went into the tomb and saw an angel.
The angel said, “Fear not. I know you come here to seek the crucified One. He is not here. He is risen, as He said. Come and see the place where He lay. Go and tell His brethren that He will go to Galilee, and there they shall see Him.”
So they went with fear and joy, running to tell the disciples. While they were going away, Peter and John arrived.
John, being younger, ran faster. So Peter arrived later. But John, being very timid, came to the tomb and looked inside, but he dared not go in. Peter rushed right into the tomb, and they saw the burial cloths lying there. The handkerchief that had been upon His head was in another place.
In other words, it was not something done hurriedly. But the body was not there. They saw it and believed, not yet knowing what the Lord had said. So they went back.
After they went back, Mary Magdalene arrived. She went into the tomb. She was weeping.
She heard a voice behind her: “Woman, why are you weeping?” She thought it must be the gardener, so she said, “Where did you take Him? I will go and get Him.”
Then the voice said, “Mary.” She turned back and said, “Rabboni!” The Lord said, “Touch Me not; for I am not yet ascended unto My Father. But go and tell My brethren, I ascend unto My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.”
So Mary Magdalene and the women were on the way to the disciples. The Lord met them. He allowed them to touch His feet and said, “Go and tell My brethren to meet Me in Galilee.”
That same morning, two disciples—one was Cleopas—were so disappointed because they believed that Jesus was the Messiah, and yet He was dead. So they left Jerusalem. They were on their way to Emmaus.
They were sad, talking to each other, and suddenly a man appeared and walked with them. He asked them, “Why are you so sad?” They said, “Do you not know what is happening in Jerusalem? A man by the name of Jesus, whom we believed to be the Prophet, was killed—crucified. But a strange thing happened. Some women came back and said they saw Him.”
Then the Man who walked with them said, “O foolish men, and slow of heart. Do you not understand that the Christ must suffer before He enters into His glory?” And He explained to them, from the Law and the Prophets, the things concerning Himself.
They arrived at Emmaus. It was getting dark, and this Man seemed to be going farther. So they urged Him to stay with them and said, “It is getting dark. Stay with us.”
They entered the room and prepared supper. That Man took the bread, blessed it, and gave it to them, and their eyes were opened. It was the Lord. Then He disappeared.
They said, “Was not our heart burning within us while He spake to us in the way?” So immediately they turned back to Jerusalem.
When they arrived there, the apostles said, “The Lord has appeared to Simon already. He is indeed risen.” At that very moment, our Lord appeared to them and said, “Peace be unto you.”
After that, during those forty days, He appeared a number of times. He appeared to Peter. He appeared to the twelve disciples, the apostles. He appeared at one time to more than five hundred people. He appeared to James.
And Paul said, “At the very last, He appeared to me, as to one born out of due time, who was not worthy to see the Lord.” He is risen.
Brothers and sisters, there is no doubt that the Lord is risen from the dead.
There is physical evidence: the empty tomb. There are the testimonies of those who had seen Him after His resurrection. Their testimonies were challenged. They were persecuted because of their testimony, but their testimony stood.
Not only that, their lives were changed. Those disciples, when our Lord was crucified, were in that room with the doors shut because they were afraid. But after they saw the risen Lord, they were completely changed.
Brothers and sisters, this transformation is not only true of the disciples who saw the physical, bodily resurrection. What transformation has been witnessed throughout the twentieth century by countless people all over the world, of different backgrounds, as their lives were completely changed because they believed in the risen Lord?
That is the best evidence that our Lord is alive.
Doctrinally, the Lord must be raised from the dead. Why? Because, being the Son of God, the Originator of life, how can He be held by death? He went into death, robbed death of its power, and came out in victory.
Romans 1:4 says that the Son of God was declared by being raised from the dead. Our Lord is risen.
Brothers and sisters, what is our faith? In 1 Corinthians 15, the Apostle Paul said, “We delivered to you that which we received from the Lord.” And what did he receive?
Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. He was buried. On the third day, He was raised from the dead.
Brothers and sisters, His death, His burial, and His resurrection are the three cardinal articles of our faith. This is our faith. We believe in His death, we believe in His burial, and we believe in His resurrection.
This is the gospel.
Do you notice in the book of Acts, when the gospel was first preached? For instance, on the day of Pentecost, Peter stood up and delivered the gospel. He mentioned the death of the Lord, but his whole emphasis was on the resurrection of the Lord.
Why? The people in Jerusalem knew that He was dead. It had happened forty or fifty days before. But they did not know about His resurrection. His resurrection was known only to those who were His.
So you find that when Peter preached the gospel, it was the resurrection that was emphasized.
Resurrection was the focus of conflict between the apostles and the priests, the Pharisees, and the scribes. That was the focus of their controversy, because the apostles witnessed that Jesus is alive. He was dead, but He is alive. He is living.
When Peter preached in the house of Cornelius, he started with the life of our Lord Jesus, coming to His death. But when he came to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, the Holy Spirit came down, and they were baptized in the Spirit.
In Acts 13, when Paul preached the gospel at Antioch in Pisidia, he began with the story of Israel. Then he came to the life of Christ, His death, and concluded with His resurrection. That is the gospel.
In Acts 17, on Mars Hill, when he said that one day God had appointed a Man to judge the world, the Man whom He appointed was proven by being raised from the dead. Everywhere you find, when the gospel is preached, it is resurrection that is emphasized.
The Bible tells us that we must believe in the resurrection of the Lord. It seems that we think we are commanded to believe in the death, but if you read the Bible, you will find that we are commanded to believe in the resurrection.
In Romans 10, the gospel of grace is not far from you; it is near you. If you confess the Lord with your mouth and believe that God has raised Him from the dead, you are saved.
The gospel is the gospel of the risen Lord, of a living Christ. That is the gospel.
Of course, we believe in His death, because without death there is no resurrection. But believing in His death alone is not enough.
I wonder why, today, when we preach the gospel, there is not power. Is it because we do not tell the resurrection of our Lord Jesus?
Our Lord has died for us, but on the third day He is risen from the dead. This is the gospel we preach, and this is the gospel we believe.
Brothers and sisters, what is His resurrection to us today?
The resurrection of our Lord Jesus is not only a historical fact. He is bodily risen.
The resurrection of our Lord Jesus is not only an article of our faith that we believe in. The resurrection of our Lord Jesus is our daily experience.
Brothers and sisters, the resurrection of our Lord Jesus to us is everything. There is no Christian life if our Lord is not risen.
You remember Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:14 and 17:
And if Christ hath not been raised, then is our preaching vain, your faith also is vain.
And if Christ hath not been raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.
Our preaching would be false and powerless, and our believing would be futile. It would not accomplish anything if Christ is not risen.
How do we know that when our Lord Jesus was crucified on the cross, offering Himself voluntarily as a sin offering for us, God accepted that offering? How do we know, if He was not raised from the dead?
You remember in Old Testament times, the high priest, on the Day of Atonement, would enter into the holiest of all behind the veil, bringing the blood to sprinkle before the mercy seat, with incense and its smoke to cover him. For who can come into the very presence of God?
When the high priest was in the holiest of all, making atonement for the people, all the people stood outside with fear and trembling. They were listening.
You know, on the fringe of the garment of the high priest there were bells. As he walked, the bells would ring. If there were no sound, if the bells were not ringing, the high priest must have been smitten to death in the presence of God, and atonement was not made.
So they listened to the bells. When they heard the bells ring and saw him coming out, they knew that atonement was made. They were safe for another year.
Brothers and sisters, in Romans 4:25 it is said:
Who was delivered up for our trespasses, and was raised for our justification.
He was delivered for our offenses as a sin offering, but He was raised for our justification. How do we know we are justified? How do we know God has accepted His offering for us in our stead?
We know because God has raised Him from the dead. It is accepted; therefore, we are justified.
Brothers and sisters, if Christ is not risen, then in vain we preach and in vain we believe.
Furthermore, in the same chapter, verse 19, the Apostle Paul says:
If we have only hoped in Christ in this life, we are of all men most pitiable.
You know, if Christ is not risen and we believe in Him, what does it mean? It means that we admire His moral character. We take Him as our model. We want to imitate Him. We want to live as He lived.
Brothers and sisters, when we try to imitate Him, we have to forsake the world, and yet at the same time we will never come to a place where we can say, “Now we are like Him.” In other words, the more we try to imitate Him, the less we are like Him. We are condemned. We are accused. Our conscience is never at peace. We are the most miserable of all men.
People who do not believe in Him can go to the world and enjoy themselves, but we cannot. But if there is no resurrection, it is all in vanity.
Brothers and sisters, Christ is risen. Because He is risen from the dead, we are justified—not only justified, but sanctified.
If He died for our offenses, how much more shall we be saved by His life?
Because He is risen, therefore He becomes a life-giving Christ—Christ our life. He gave His life to us. We have His life here.
By this life we live. By this life we are separated. By this life we are sanctified. By this life we are glorified, transformed, and conformed to the image of Himself.
In a very real sense, His resurrection is the very foundation of our life. It is the secret of Christian living.
There cannot be a Christian if Christ is not raised from the dead. There can be no Christian living if it is not Christ who lives in us.
The problem today is that even though we believe in the resurrection of our Lord Jesus, somehow it is just an article of faith that we confess instead of seeing it as our daily living experience.
Who is a Christian? What is a Christian? What is Christian life?
A Christian is one who believes in the Lord Jesus, in His death, burial, and resurrection. Christian life is Christ in him, the hope of glory.
His death is our death. When He died on the cross, we died in Him and with Him. He concluded the old creation.
He died to sin once for all; so also are we dead to sin. He died to the world; we died to the world. He died to the old creation. The whole old creation was dead when He died. So the old man was dead—our old man was dead.
His death concluded us as the old creation. His resurrection becomes our real life.
The Apostle Paul said:
For to me to live is Christ.
And again:
I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me.
Christ our life. Brothers and sisters, does it register deeply in you?
What is resurrection? Resurrection is life out of death.
Resurrection is life that enters into death, robs death of its power, and comes out in victory. That is resurrection.
Anything that has not gone into death and is able to come out of death is no resurrection. That is the old creation. The old creation enters into death and is buried there forever. It can never come out.
But only the divine life can enter into death, conquer it, and come out in victory. That is resurrection.
Our Lord Jesus said:
I am the resurrection, and the life.
In other words, His life is resurrection life. This is the only life that is resurrection. All other lives will go to death and, being conquered, cannot come out.
In other words, this is the only life by which we live as Christians.
Brothers and sisters, have we discovered the secret of our Christian living? Are we always struggling to live our Christian life by our old life? Or are we serving the Lord with the energy of the flesh?
If we are doing that, we do not know what resurrection is. Anything that is not resurrection is not of God. It is not acceptable to God. God is not pleased with it, because God’s verdict is that the old creation must die.
Old things must pass away. All things have become new. All things are of God. It is a new creation.
Wherefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature: the old things are passed away; behold, they are become new.
But, brothers and sisters, how often we are still living before resurrection—not yet in resurrection. Not only do we try to live before resurrection; we also try to serve before resurrection.
Is there the mark of the cross in our life? The Apostle Paul said, “From henceforth let no man trouble me; for I bear branded on my body the marks of Jesus.” It is the mark of the cross.
It shows that he is no longer living by his old life; his old life is dealt with. It shows that he is living altogether in the resurrection life of the Lord Jesus.
That is the only life that counts. That is the only service that counts.
Brothers and sisters, I have the fear for myself and for my brethren that we do not really know what resurrection is.
Whatever is not by the resurrection life of the Lord is not Christian. Any work done for God that is not by the power of His resurrection is not Christian service.
You remember Paul in 1 Corinthians 15 made it very clear. He said:
Why do we also stand in jeopardy every hour?
I protest by that glorying in you, brethren, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.
If after the manner of men I fought with beasts at Ephesus, what doth it profit me? If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die.
If there is no resurrection, why bother? There is no sense. Enjoy yourself. But because of resurrection, Paul dared not be careless. He was willing to die daily.
In the same chapter, 1 Corinthians 15, the great chapter on resurrection, he ends with why we should labor. It is because there is resurrection in you.
One day, brothers and sisters, Christ the firstfruits will come, and we will all be resurrected. There we shall receive our reward.
This body of humiliation will be transformed into the body of glory. We groan in this body, waiting for sonship, the redemption of our body.
In the future, there will be the resurrection even of our physical body. But today we can experience resurrection every day. We live by the resurrection life of our Lord Jesus.
Paul said, “I have the sentence of death in myself, that I may live not by myself, but by the One who raised Jesus from the dead.” Is this our testimony?
Resurrection has everything to do with us, not only individually but corporately. You know, the church is built on resurrection ground.
Christ, in Colossians 1, is the Head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from among the dead.
Resurrection is the building block of the church. God deals resurrection life into you and into me, and with that resurrection life He builds the church.
That is the reason why He said:
I will build My church; and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
Why? Because that life has already overcome Hades.
Today we see the church so weak, so fragmented, so defeated, broken up. Why? Is it because it is not built on resurrection ground?
If it is built on resurrection ground, the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. The church is a church triumphant, never defeated.
The enemy is already defeated, and the greatest enemy is death. It has been overcome.
Brothers and sisters, whenever we bring something other than resurrection life into the church, that corrupts the church. That gives the enemy opportunity to destroy.
How much more we need to be before the Lord that it is resurrection—resurrection life. In other words, it is Christ, because He said, “I am the resurrection and the life.” Then you have a church, a church triumphant.
So, brothers and sisters, we believe in the resurrection of our Lord Jesus as a historical fact, as an article of our faith, as the theme of our gospel. But we must take it very personally.
His resurrection is our life. Not only personally, but collectively, resurrection builds the church. So may the Lord help us.
Dear Heavenly Father, we rejoice because Thou hast raised our Lord Jesus from the dead. He is risen.
We do praise and thank Thee that we believe in a living Christ. We thank Thee that we serve a living Lord. Our Head is a living Head; therefore, the body is a living body.
Oh, we worship Thee. We ask Thee, Lord, that Thou wilt open our understanding, that we may really know Thee and the power of Thy resurrection, to the praise of Thy glory. In the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.