Word of Salvation – Vol.23 No.19 – February 1977

 

God’s ‘Yes’ To Jesus’ Work

 

Sermon by Rev. C. Moerman on Matthew 28:6a

Text: Matthew 28:6a “He is not here; for He has risen……!”

Scripture Reading: Matthew 28

Psalter Hymnal: 356: all; 358:5 (after Law); 364: all;
357:1 & 3 (after sermon); 360:1 & 2; 360:3

 

Congregation of our glorious Prince of Life,

An English T.V. singer was asked why she no longer did anything about the faith she was taught in childhood and at her school.  She answered, “the faith which I was taught there has nothing to do with the reality of daily life.”

If her answer is right, we’d better pack up and go home; or to the beach, or to the bush, or, for that matter, any place would be better than the Church; for we would be wasting our time.

But…  but…
Adam lived 930 years and he died, full stop.  Methuselah lived 969 years and he died, full stop.  Abraham, he died; Mohammed, he died; Confucius, he died; Buddha, Karl Marx, they died, full stop.

BUT Jesus of Nazareth lived 33 years and He died, COMMA, and on the third day He rose again from the dead.  And then the Bible tells us that Jesus Christ rose as the first fruit of those who have fallen asleep… in other words: MORE TO FOLLOW..!

If that has nothing to do with the reality of daily life, then what does?

The Bible says, when the sun had risen, very early on the first day of the week, the women went to the tomb . . . . and that SUN RISEN ON EASTER MORNING has never gone under since.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is a piece of new world. . . O NO, not in isolation, but part of God’s wonderful history of salvation.  It’s all one, from “In the beginning God created heaven and earth” till “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth”.  And in the centre, in the fullness of time, Jesus Christ, risen on Easter morning: re-creation. . . new life. . . a new world. . . a new beginning. . . the curse lifted. . . we can never separate the one part from the other.  Genesis looks already beyond its own pages to Easter, and Easter tells us that Revelation 21 will come true.  The whole of creation has waited for this renewal.  As the whole of creation rested under the curse of sin and death, so the whole of creation shares in the blessing of the resurrection.  We must learn to think in terms much wider than just our own personal salvation.  The breakthrough HAS begun. . . and so Easter becomes universal, worldwide, all-embracing.

Relevant??  You’re telling me!!

There may be times, I believe, that many a minister would want to give up preaching.  For what does it help, all that stammering and stuttering about God and His world?  It seems that people do not change anyhow.  It can be so tiring and frustrating, or, as The Preacher says, “It is striving after wind, so it seems”.  But then comes Easter again. . . and the most glorious message needs to be passed on: Jesus is risen.  .  .  He is not here. . . the tomb is empty, death is conquered, swallowed up in victory; EASTER IS THE MESSAGE OF LIFE!!

And Ministers, faithful to the Bible, do not want to give that up, for THAT is good news.  THAT is Gospel, it is something which has value for the reality of my life here and now.

And therefore again on this glorious Easter day we may preach the Word of God proclaiming the theme: “God’s YES to Jesus’ work.”

Yes, that’s what Easter in effect means for Christ.  You remember the great love revealed on Skull Hill?  That was love alright.  But, whatever way you look at it, Jesus was forsaken by God, and that was hell.  Nature, in wrath, turned against its very Creator, and then our dear Lord breathed His last, commending His Spirit to His heavenly Father in His evening prayer: “I’ll see You in the morning, Father, but I’ll first enter into the night of death, into the darkness of oblivion. . . see You in the morning. . .!”

But, was there going to be a morning?

“After three days I will rise again,” Jesus had told His disciples time and again.  But would it really happen??

Our text finds the women, followers of Jesus Christ, at His tomb, very early on the first day of the week.  We know what they wanted to do.  They wanted to pay their last respect to Him.  Everything had been done in such a hurry on the day of His death, just before Sabbath.  Time had failed them to make all the necessary arrangements for anointing and embalmment.  And the Bible says, “They went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared.”

Final honours for a dead Jesus. . . and it was early in the morning of this third day.  But it was too late for them to bring tribute to a body.  God’s YES to Jesus Christ had been spoken already.  And nature had joined in that song of triumph; an earthquake shook the earth; an angel of the Lord winged his way to the tomb, snapped the seal and rolled away the stone.  Come out, You beloved of the Father, see the Kingdom, the throne prepared for You.  Come out Jesus Christ, here is the Victor’s crown.  You have conquered Satan, death and sin.  You made it possible, O Prince of Life, a reality that is glorious, and incorruptible. . . world without end. . . You stopped the march to the cemetery. . . Come out, Prince of Life, well done.  Now mortality has put on immortality.

God’s YES to Jesus’ work.  It had been confirmed; the sun had started to shine.  (But for the women and the disciples it still may have been night.)

There they come, the women, “What’s that…?” The tomb is open, the stone rolled away!  And an angel, his appearance like lightning, his raiment white as snow.  .  .  and . . . and an empty tomb.

Where is their dear Lord?  What’s this all about?  And fear filled their hearts!  “Fear not, do not be afraid..!”  You remember the same words spoken by the angels in Bethlehem’s fields; “Fear not..!” . . people who know Jesus Christ, people who love Him, who have given their heart to Him. . . they need not fear.
I fear no foe with Thee at hand to bless…!

Jesus died for sin, but also for its consequence: FEAR.  “Fear not, I have good tidings” . . Gospel Fear not. . . I know that you seek Jesus Who was crucified. . . The Good News “HE IS NOT HERE” – have a look, the tomb is empty, He is not here.

Those words of the angel just cannot be misunderstood. . . He is not here. . . look, the tomb is empty.  And all the ministers, theologians, progressive, liberal, or what have you, who deny the bodily resurrection of our Lord, they have their problems here.  They do not know what to do with these few words: “He is not here.”

And the great danger which confronts the Church is not so much from outside BUT from inside.  If a minister says “dead is dead”, then we’d better roll back the stone before the tomb quickly and let Jesus crumble to dust.

If the body of Jesus Christ indeed crumbles to dust in the tomb, then everything else is going to crumble to dust; faith, my faith, is gone; I have believed in vain.  Paul makes the resurrection the crux, the criterion, of all our belief.  And how else can it be?  For the empty tomb spells life.  And the tomb was (IS) empty…. He is not here…. No re-interpretation can change this truth!  But what about natural science?  Can a man come back to life again?  But the reality of natural science is not the full reality.  Natural science itself draws so many blanks.  The only FULL reality of our universe is God Himself; and God answered Jesus’ sacrifice and forsakenness with a definite YES, I ACCEPT. . . and therefore the tomb was empty. . . the seal on Christ’s work.

Pascal, the French philosopher and mathematician, says, “What reason has man to say that man cannot be resurrected.  What is more difficult, more miraculous, to be born or to be resurrected?”

God will not forsake the works of His hands. . . God holds on to His creation.  He does not wipe it out or smite it.  That’s the message of the empty tomb… that’s the message of Easter morning.  He is not here.  No, of course not, for He has risen.

You hear the angels laughing in heaven, you hear them singing the Hallelujah chorus:
Hallelujah; for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth.
The Kingdom of this world is become
the Kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ;
and He shall reign forever and ever.
King of kings, and Lord of lords.

Hallelujah, for Christ the Lord is risen today…!

It’s not only negative: He is not here; but God speaks positive, clear, unmistakeable language on Easter morning: He has risen!  I have accepted His work, I have confirmed Him with My YES, and He shall wear the victor’s crown, no more by foes assaulted.  He has risen. . . the beginning of a new future, the beginning of the end.  A new future for all those who believe on Him; but the beginning of the end for Satan and his followers.  For the words “He has risen,” spells it out: Satan has lost, death is vanquished; life did win.

What is needed is that we know exactly the great issue which is at the centre of the Bible, at the centre of the Easter story: Who is going to control, to be in charge of God’s wonderful creation, of our world?  God or Satan?

If Satan is going to control it, it will ultimately be destroyed and you and I will be destroyed with it.

But if God is in full control, then there is HOPE and FUTURE and LIFE for all those who put their trust in Him.  That’s the issue at stake!  And Jesus Christ settled the issue once and for all on Easter morning: He has risen!
The strife is O’er; the battle done……..!

The darkness has not overcome Jesus, Who is Life everlasting, and as such, the Light of the world.  But Jesus, the Easter-Prince overcame darkness….. the Easter-Sun started to shine.  The forces of darkness dispersed. . . and the gospel train started to roll.

Jesus, Creator, God, conquered the forces of evil, sin and death, and therefore there is FUTURE. . . there is LIFE, there is even LIFE ETERNAL..!!  He has risen, and therefore the life which I live today, in the midst of a world subject to decay and death, is nevertheless a life that is saved; saved through the horrors of a cross; saved through Jesus Christ, crucified and risen!!

Jesus lives.  Henceforth is death
But the gate of life immortal;
This shall calm our trembling breath,
When we pass its gloomy portal….
Alleluia.

Let every kindred, ev’ry tribe
To Him (on this glorious Easter day)
all majesty ascribe…….
And crown Him, crown Him, crown Him….
Lord of all.

Amen.