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Well, after a several-week interlude
talking about issues relating to the Church Constitution, we're
back into the 1689 Confession. And as you may recall, I hope,
those of you who attend regularly, we've been in Chapter 31, which
deals with the state of man after death and the resurrection of
the dead. And we've spent, I don't know how many months, several
months, talking about the state of man after death, talking about
issues of what happens to us right after we die, what is heaven-like,
what is hell-like. Now we're finally moving on from
that first point in the confession to the second point, which deals
with the resurrection of the dead. And I wanted to begin by
talking a bit about the resurrection of the dead in general terms,
and we'll get into specifics from the confession maybe next
week. It's fitting that this topic should come up around Easter
time, obviously the resurrection, while it should always be somewhere
close to the front of our minds, on Sunday mornings, especially
since we remember the Lord's resurrection on the Lord's Day.
That's when he rose again, and that's one of the things we celebrate
together. It's especially on our minds around Easter time.
And so, in the Lord's providence, that's the way it worked out,
and I'm glad when that happens. As I think you all know, the
resurrection is central to the gospel message. It's not incidental
at all. Some people might think, well,
I can believe in Christ, but maybe not in the resurrection. Those
of a more liberal bent may not be too concerned with the fact
that Christ may or may not have risen in a literal physical body.
As long as I love Jesus or I want to live like Jesus, that's all
that matters. Now, I trust that there's no one here who would
remotely buy into that sort of view, but it is a view that we
see from time to time. Since it is so central to the
Gospel message, it's come under heavy attack, maybe not so much
under attack as salvation by grace through faith alone, that's
probably over through the history of the church been more of an
attack. But certainly in the early part
of church history and in the last say 200 years from the the
liberal elements of what people who call themselves Christians,
there's been a tremendous attack against their resurrection. Even
as soon as the immediate aftermath of Jesus' resurrection, there
was an attack on the Doctrine of the Resurrection by the Pharisees.
What was it the Pharisees did when they realized, hey, we've
got this empty tomb to deal with. How do we handle this? They bribed the Roman soldiers
who were supposed to be standing guard and said, just spread the
story that his disciples came and took him. And the gospel
writer says, this story has circulated to this day. And so there were
those who thought, oh, the disciples just came and took Jesus' body.
That was the first attack on the truth of the resurrection. Brian, in the past several weeks,
has talked from time to time about the Greek views of resurrection. And many Greeks believe that
Spirit was good, matter was intrinsically evil, and so the last thing they
wanted was to have a literal physical body attached to them
forever. That was anathema to many Greeks. And so there were
Greek-influenced heretics early in church history that would
deny that Jesus actually was raised in a physical body and
would also deny that we as his believers would also someday
have our own resurrection bodies. They didn't want that. They wanted
to be rid of the physical constraints. sort of like Paul when he said,
a wretched man that I am, who will set me free from this body
of death? The Greeks would agree with that up to a point, perhaps,
in getting rid of the body completely. But Paul in 2 Corinthians 5 says,
I don't want to be unclothed but clothed. That is, Paul wanted
to be rid of his fleshly body, but he did want his resurrection
body at the appointed time. And of course, as I mentioned
before, modern liberals deny the resurrection of Christ. They
deny miracles, anything that seems miraculous, they just immediately
write off and write out of scripture. They may say that Jesus is resurrected
in the sense that he lives on in us as his followers, and we
can be like Jesus, and that is the way in which he's resurrected.
But that is not at all what the writers of scripture had in mind
when they talked about his resurrection. I mean, that is true as far as
it goes. Christ does live in us, as Paul says, but he also
lives in heaven as well in an actual physical resurrected body. Now, as I mentioned before, the
resurrection is central to the gospel message and it has a great
import in Scripture. Jesus himself mentioned it many
times even before he was crucified. He was prophesying his death and his
burial and his resurrection for a long time before it actually
happened. Look at Matthew chapter 16, verse 21. Matthew 16, 21. says, from that time Jesus began
to show to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer
many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes and
be killed and be raised in the third day. And Peter contradicts
him in the next verse. And Peter says, get behind me,
Satan, in verse 23. Peter didn't want this to happen because he
was thinking in fleshly terms. He wanted to in some way protect
Jesus, perhaps, but Jesus knew that this must happen. It says
in verse 21, He must go to Jerusalem. These things were a necessity
for Him and His ministry. Matthew 17, verse 22 and 23,
Now while they were staying in Galilee, Jesus said to them,
The Son of Man is about to be betrayed into the hands of men,
and they will kill Him, and the third day He will be raised up.
and they were exceedingly sorrowful. That's interesting to try to
get into the minds of the disciples right now, seeing their sorrow,
seeing their denial of what was to come. They seem to focus on
the early part, that he would be betrayed and that he'd be
killed, but they didn't seem to have a whole lot of interest
in what he was saying by the third day he will be raised up.
And we see that despair when Jesus is finally crucified and
is in the grave, Are the disciples sitting in a room anticipating
His resurrection on that first Sunday morning? They're depressed,
they're despondent, they're fearful, wondering what's going to happen
to them now that their leader, their Lord, has been killed.
So they seem to have somehow blocked out this word of Jesus
that He would be raised up on the third day. They seem not
to have really gotten a grasp of it. Matthew 26. Verse 32, and this is while Jesus
is celebrating the Passover with his disciples, Matthew 26, verse
32. Verse 31 says that, all of you
will be made to stumble because of me, but verse 32, after I
have been raised, I will go before you to Galilee. And again, there
doesn't seem to be much interest on the part of the disciples
as to what he means by this being raised. Peter instead focuses
on the fact that he will never stumble at that moment, and of
course he did. Turn with me to John chapter
two. We're looking at Jesus' predictions
of his resurrection. John 2 verse 19, the Jews had
challenged Jesus saying, what is the sign to us? Jesus answered
and said to them, destroy this temple and in three days I will
raise it up. Then the Jews said, it has been
46 years to rebuild this temple, and will you raise it up in three
days? But he was speaking of the temple of his body. Therefore,
when he had risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that
he had said this to them, and they believed the scripture and
the word which Jesus had said." It appears again from this verse
that the disciples didn't have that resurrection focus beforehand,
but they had it afterwards. It was only after the fact that
it really clicked in their minds what Jesus was talking about.
And Jesus also says elsewhere that He uses Jonah as an analogy
for Him. He would be buried and be raised
again after three days. So Jesus predicted His own resurrection.
He also predicted our resurrection. Look with me at Luke chapter
14. We'll just look briefly at this
verse. We won't look at the whole passage here. But one of His parables
Jesus says, when you give a feast to people who can't pay you back,
you will be blessed because they cannot repay you for you shall
be repaid at the resurrection of the just. Verse 14, Luke 14,
14. And then look at Luke chapter
20. verses 35 to 38. And this is
in the context of, we talked about this some time ago, the
Sadducees, you remember, some of the leaders, the religious
leaders in Israel, deny there's a resurrection. Look at verse
27, which says that. And they are trying to challenge
Jesus. Say, well, if there is a resurrection,
what if there's a man who has married a wife and then he dies
and his brothers marry his wife and so on down the line. In the
resurrection, whose wife will she be? And Jesus said, That's
an invalid question. There is no marriage in the resurrection. But, verse 35, those who are
counted worthy to attain that age and the resurrection from
the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, nor can they
die anymore, for they are equal to the angels and are sons of
God, being sons of the resurrection. So Jesus uses the term resurrection
several times here. But even Moses showed in the
burning bush passage that the dead are raised when he called
the Lord the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God
of Jacob. For he is not the God of the dead, but of the living,
for all live to him. So Jesus here uses the passage
in the burning bush back in Exodus chapter 3 to indicate that God
is the God of the living. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob still
exist in some way. The Sadducees, I believe, taught
that once you die, that's it. There's no resurrection. You'll
just go away. Sort of an annihilationism, but
not just for those who are unrighteous, but those who are righteous as
well. implied in here, I think, is
the fact that it is not a normal state for a human soul to be
without a body. God, from the beginning, has
created our soul and body to be sort of symbiotic. One relies on the other, they're
connected, and so a soul, a bodiless spirit or bodiless soul is an
unnatural thing. And while that is the case for
those who have died in Christ, it will not be the final destiny
of them. The final destiny of these spirits
who believe in Christ is to have a real physical body, which we'll
look at in coming weeks. Let's look at a few more passages
in John. John chapter five, verse 21. Jesus several times mentions
our resurrection. And forgive me if I don't go
into detail in all these different passages. I just want to indicate
to you that the truth that Jesus spoke often of resurrection. John 5.21, for as the father
raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the son gives
life to whom he will. So God here promises that he
will give life to the dead. Look further down in verse 24.
of John 5, Most assuredly I say to you, he who hears my word
and believes in him who sent me has everlasting life and shall
not come into judgment but has passed from death into life.
Most assuredly I say to you, the hour is coming and now is
when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who
hear will live. For as the Father has life in
Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself,
and has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because
He is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this, for the
hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His
voice and come forth, those who have done good to the resurrection
of life and those who have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation."
So, Jesus mentions two kinds of resurrection, those who are
resurrected to life and some who are resurrected to judgment
or condemnation. The very next chapter, when Jesus
is talking about being the bread of life, John 6, verse 39. This is the will of the Father
who sent me, that of all He has given me, I should lose nothing,
but should raise it up at the last day. Next verse. This is the will of Him who sent
me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have
everlasting life, and I will raise Him up at the last day.
Verse 44, no one who comes to me unless the father who sent
me draws him and I will raise him up at the last day. Verse
54. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks
my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last
day. So this phrase, raise him up at the last day, punctuates
several of these comments that Jesus makes. And so this is at
the forefront of Jesus' teaching here, not just that he gives
some sort of vague spiritual eternal life, but that this eternal
life comes along with a real resurrected body. John 11, 25. This is the place where Christ
raises Lazarus from the dead, and he's speaking to Martha and
Mary and those who love Lazarus. Verse 23, Jesus said to her,
your brother will rise again. Now Jesus here is speaking of
actual physical resuscitation, not his final resurrection. That
is, Jesus is going to raise his his literal body out of the tomb
at this moment, but Martha misunderstands and says, I know that he will
rise again in the resurrection at the last day. And Jesus said
to her, I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes
in me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives
and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this? And
she says, yes, Lord, I believe. So Martha was correct, but she
didn't have the full picture. She had put Lazarus' raising
way off into the future, but Jesus was talking about raising
him up at that moment. But she was truly saying that
Christ was the resurrection and the life. So we have Jesus predicting his
own resurrection as well as our resurrection. So those who challenge
the idea of resurrection are challenging the very words of
Christ himself. So if there is no resurrection then Jesus is
either a liar or he is greatly deceived or else this isn't the
word of God. And that's the approach I think
that the liberals would take is that they just they would
take out of God's word, those verses that deal with things
like resurrection and miracles, say they're not really what Jesus
said. So, you need to say that Jesus is a liar, he's a deceiver,
or was deceived himself, or that this isn't the word of God, and
we can't accept any of those points. Now, not only did Jesus
himself speak often of resurrection, but it was a focal point of the
apostles' teaching in the book of Acts. Look as early as Acts 1, verse
22. Remember that the disciples had
to choose a replacement for Judas. They wanted to keep the number
of the apostles at 12. And so when they're talking about
what the apostles are meant to do, Let's look at verse 21 of Acts
1. Therefore, of these men who have accompanied us all the time
that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from
the baptism of John to that day when he was taken up from us,
one of these must become a witness with us of his resurrection.
So when looking at qualifications for an apostle, they wanted somebody
who was going to be a witness of the resurrection. That was
a central point of their teaching. Acts chapter 2, on the day of
Pentecost, when Peter preaches to many and thousands are saved,
the resurrection is a center point of his teaching as well. verses 22 and 23. Men of Israel,
hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested
by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs, which God did through
him in your midst, as you yourselves also know, him being delivered
by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have
taken by lawless hands, have crucified and put to death, whom
God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it
was not possible that he should be held by it. For David says
concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face. He
is at my right hand that I may not be shaken. Therefore, my
heart rejoiced and my tongue was glad. Moreover, my flesh
will also rest in hope. For you will not leave my soul
in Hades, nor will you allow your Holy One to see corruption.
You have made known to me the ways of life. You will make me
full of joy in your presence. Men and brethren, let me speak
freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and
buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Therefore, being
a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him
that the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, he would raise
up the Christ to sit on his throne, he, foreseeing this, spoke concerning
the resurrection of this Christ, that his soul was not left in
Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus has raised
up, of which we are all witnesses. Therefore, being exalted to the
right hand of God, and having received from the Father the
promise of the Holy Spirit, he poured out this which you now
see and hear." And so this center point of his sermon is about
Jesus' resurrection. And this didn't come out of the
blue, but it was foretold, although in a hard to understand way,
by Jesus' great forefather, David himself. David's body did see
corruption in the grave, but his son, Jesus Christ, did not. And that's what he was prophesying
in this quote from Psalm 22. Look at the next chapter, chapter
3, Acts 3, verse 15. Again, Peter's preaching and
he He says, verse 15, that you killed
the prince of life, whom God raised from the dead, of which
we are witnesses. Here's yet another time they're
talking about being witnesses of his resurrection. That was
an intrinsic part of their gospel ministry. Chapter four, very next chapter.
Remember the Sadducees don't believe in a resurrection. The
Sadducees had a large part of the power in the main Jewish
council. The chief priests would have
been a Sadducee. They came upon Peter and John
being greatly disturbed that they taught the people and preached
in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. Verse 10, Peter's responding
to these men, let it be known to you all and to all the people
of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom
you crucified, whom God raised from the dead by him, this man
stands before you whole. Verse 33, With great power, the apostles
gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great
grace was upon them all. So the resurrection was no incidental
doctrine to them, or unimportant doctrine. Chapter 10, verse 20. Again, we're going through these
fairly quickly, but I just wanted to give you an idea of the import
of this doctrine to the apostles. Acts 10, verse 40. Peter here is meeting with Cornelius
and other Gentiles. And in telling them the gospel,
he says, him God raised up on the third day and showed him
openly, not to all the people, but to witnesses chosen before
by God, even to us who ate and drank with him after he rose
from the dead. So here we have Peter again,
witnessing to Christ's resurrection. Acts 13. Here Paul is speaking to some
Jews in Antioch in Pisidia, or Pisidia in Antioch. That's about
in the middle of what is modern day Turkey. And here again, he's
speaking to Jews. Start in verse 27, we'll kind
of jump in the middle of this. For those who dwell in Jerusalem
and their rulers, because they did not know him, nor even the
voices of the prophets which are read every Sabbath, have
fulfilled them in condemning him, that is Christ. And though
they found no cause for death in him, they asked Pilate that
he should be put to death. Now when they had fulfilled all
that was written concerning him, they took him down from the tree
and laid him in a tomb. But God raised him from the dead.
He was seen for many days by those who came up with him from
Galilee to Jerusalem, who are his witnesses to the people.
And we declare to you, glad tidings, that promise which was made to
the fathers. God has fulfilled this for us, their children,
in that he raised up Jesus. As it is also written in the
second psalm, you are my son, today I have begotten you. And
that he raised him from the dead, no more to return to corruption,
he has spoken thus, I will give you the sure mercies of David.
Therefore, he also says in another psalm, you will not allow your
holy one to see corruption. For David, after he had served
his own generation by the will of God, fell asleep, was buried
with his fathers, and saw corruption. But he whom God raised up saw
no corruption. So here Paul quotes the same
passage. I said earlier it was Psalm 22, it's Psalm 16, I made
a mistake. Psalm 16, Paul quotes this passage and makes the same
point that Peter did, that David wasn't speaking of himself because
David himself was corrupted in the grave. He was speaking of
his future son, Jesus Christ. And again, when Paul here is
preaching to Jews, he wants to make sure they understand that
resurrection is an important, critical part of his message. Now we get to the city of Athens
in Acts 17. And Brian spent a lot of time
talking about this recently, and I won't go into the details.
But as I said at the beginning, For the most part, Greeks despised
the idea of a bodily resurrection because they wanted to be rid
of their flesh. They wanted to be free spirits,
as it were. So Paul is speaking to them,
Verse 18, they want to know what he has to say. Others said, he
seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods because he preached to them
Jesus and the resurrection. That kind of was strange to them
because the idea of resurrection was so strange to them. Look at verse 31. Paul says, God has appointed
a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by
the man whom he has ordained. He has given assurance of this
to all by raising him from the dead. So, Paul says that sort
of God's stamp of approval on Christ's atoning work is that
God raised him from the dead. And the reaction is, when they
heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked those who
hated this idea of resurrection, while others said, we will hear
you again on this matter. So that kind of broke up the meeting,
apparently, unless there was some other stuff that Paul said
that wasn't recorded. The idea of the resurrection
was to the Gentiles' foolishness, and so they turned their back
on Christ, for the most part. A couple more passages, Acts 23. Verse six, Paul has been hauled
before the Sanhedrin. This is the main Jewish religious
council, although it had a lot of political influence as well.
There are those who are Sadducees, there are the liberals, those
who deny the resurrection, deny angels, deny spirits, and then
the Pharisees who believe in all of those things. And Paul
himself was a Pharisee. And he's brought before this
group of people they basically just want to condemn him for
his preaching. But when Paul perceived that
one part were Sadducees and the other Pharisees, he cried out
in the council, men and brethren, I am a Pharisee, the son of a
Pharisee, concerning the hope and resurrection of the dead,
I am being judged. So again, Paul here is really
equating this hope and resurrection of the dead with his message
of Jesus Christ. There are certainly many aspects
of the gospel that we could talk about, but Paul here, when he
is referring, in this case, to the gospel, he talks about it
in terms of the hope and the resurrection of the dead. And
so when he did that, that basically split the council, the Pharisee
said, oh, it doesn't sound too bad. And the Sadducee said, this
man is ridiculous. And so verse 10 says, there arose a
great dissension and the Roman commander fearing lest Paul might
be pulled to pieces by them, commanded the soldiers to go
down and take him by force from among them, bring him back into
the barracks. So Paul basically started a fight between the opposing
factions in the Sanhedrin. Now, chapter 24, verse 15, Paul
here, in this series at the end of Acts, he's being bounced from
one court to another, from one place to another, generally in
chains, until he finally is on a ship toward Rome. Acts 24,
he's speaking to Felix, the governor, and he wants to make sure that
he speaks of the resurrection to Felix. Verse 15, he says,
I have hope in God, which they themselves also accept, that
there will be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just
and of the unjust. This being so, I myself always
strive to have a conscience without offense toward God and men. He's
telling Felix, I'm basically preaching what many of the Jews
already believe. And Jews by and large, except
for the Sadducees, did believe in a resurrection of some kind.
Verse 21, He says, he was talking, unless it was
for this one statement, which I cried out standing among them,
concerning the resurrection of the dead, I'm being judged by
you this day. He's referring back to his statement in Acts
23, when he was being tried by the Sanhedrin. So he wanted Felix
to know that central to this dissension between himself and
the Jewish leaders, resurrection was at the heart of it. Paul also mentions the resurrection
often in the epistles, and I'll just read a couple of examples.
We'll look at these more in detail, I think, later. Romans 1, verse
4. You can just listen while I kind
of cruise through the rest. God has declared, Jesus that
is, was declared to be the Son of God with power according to
the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead. So,
like I said before, this resurrection was the stamp of approval on
Jesus' atonement. I mean, really, anybody could
die on a cross. It's not that hard to die on
a cross, especially in Roman times. But the truth of Christ's
atonement was made public, proclaimed publicly because
of his resurrection from the dead. God declared that he was
satisfied with Christ's atonement and that he had triumphed over
death, and that was shown by the resurrection from the dead.
Anybody can die and say they're dying for sins, but only one
can truly do so, and that is the one whom God has raised to
show his approval of that man. Romans 10.9, I think many of
you have memorized this verse. Romans 10.9, this passage really,
And we see here again, the central part that resurrection plays
in the gospel. If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus
and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead,
you will be saved. So again, that's a crucial part
of the gospel. If you deny the resurrection,
you cannot be saved because you were denying the heart of the
gospel. Jesus is just a dead body in a tomb somewhere or something
discarded by the disciples. Without the resurrection, we
have nothing. And we'll see that next week in 1 Corinthians 15. Well, we're over time. Why don't
we stop there and look at a few more instances of Paul and even
Peter mentioning the resurrection. I just wanted to give you an
idea this morning that resurrection is so important in the gospel
message. It's not just a I don't want to say merely because
it sounds wrong, but it's not just about Jesus dying for our
sins, but it's also about him being raised for our life. And
there are so many links between Christ's resurrection and ours. Because Christ has life, we have
life. If Christ were still dead, we
would still be dead in our sins. And Paul makes that point explicitly
in 1 Corinthians 15, which we'll look at, Lord willing, next week.
Any questions? It would be also fitting because
it's Resurrection Sunday. Comments, questions? Yeah, Tom. In one of Josh McDowell's books,
he has a chapter called Lord Lyra Lunatic, and he draws just
really interesting parallels that Christ said he was going
to be raised from the dead. And so these churches and these
people who want to elevate Christ, Jesus as being this great and
holy man, but don't acknowledge the resurrection, pretty much
take the rug right out of their own heart. That's true. And I mentioned this, I think,
last week or a couple weeks ago. People who want to use Jesus
for whatever their political cause is, anti-war, this, that,
the other thing, they don't care about Jesus as Lord, Jesus as
the resurrected Son of Man sitting at the right hand of God the
Father. They want Jesus, the guy who's in company with Buddha
and Gandhi and Martin Luther King or, you know, pick your
your sage of the past. They want him in that company.
They don't want him in the company of the angels where he's at God's
right hand. And so you're exactly right.
People who want to deny the resurrection really want to deny who Christ
is. And if that's the case, as Paul said, let's eat, drink,
and be merry for tomorrow we die. Who cares about Jesus' moral
precepts if he doesn't have the power over death? Why not just
live the way we want? Okay, let's pray. Lord, we've
just scratched the surface of this great theme of resurrection
in your word, and while it's so central, it's easy for us
to forget it, even week to week, day to day as we go about our
business. But Lord, we have a risen Christ
who sits at your right hand, who loved us to the point of
death, And yet, who didn't stay in that grave, he wasn't just
a victim, but he was a victor over death, over sin. And he
now sits at your right hand in great power and majesty and will
return in that way. He's not the wimpy man standing
on a hill pleading with people to please be nice to each other.
He is the risen Lord of all creation. May he be ever so in our hearts
and in our thoughts, in our speech to our children, to those around
us. May they always see Jesus resurrected, living in us, that
you might be exalted through us. For it's in his name we pray,
amen.
1689 Confession, ch. 31, State of Man After Death, Part 23, Resurrection of Dead 1
Series 1689 31 After Death
| Sermon ID | 6612031304456 |
| Duration | 33:55 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday School |
| Language | English |
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