Sermon on Lord’s Day 17⤒🔗

45. Q. How does Christ's resurrection benefit us?
A. First, by His resurrection He has overcome death, so that He could make us share in the righteousness which He had obtained for us by His death.[1] Second, by His power we too are raised up to a new life.[2] Third, Christ's resurrection is to us a sure pledge of our glorious resurrection.[3]
[1] Rom. 4:25; I Cor. 15:16-20; I Pet. 1:3-5. [2] Rom. 6:5-11; Eph. 2:4-6; Col. 3:1-4. [3] Rom. 8:11; I Cor. 15:12-23; Phil. 3:20, 21.

Scripture Reading: Ecclesiastes 2:1-11; Colossians 3:1-17

Singing: (Psalms and Hymns are from the "Book of Praise" Anglo Genevan Psalter)
Hymn 26:1,2
Psalm 17:4,6
Psalm 30:1,2
Hymn 28:1,2,3,4
Psalm 39:3,6 &  Hymn 51:1,8

Beloved Congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ! 

The subject of Christ’s resurrection is well-known to us; it’s part and parcel of the Christian faith we’ve been taught aver the years.  In what way, though, does that resurrection affect you, brothers and sisters?  Yes, we believe that one day we shall arise out of our graves even as did Christ, but: we live today, today we go about our daily affairs.  What effect does Christ’s resurrection of long ago have upon your life today?  To ask the question differently: would your life be any different if Christ were still in the grave?

With our LD we acknowledge that the Saviour’s resurrection makes a great difference to us.  In fact, the LD mentions three distinct benefits for the believer flowing from the resurrection of Jesus Christ from His tomb.  Of the three, I wish today to lift out the second for special attention.  That second reads as follows: ‘by His power we too are raised up to a new life.’  That’s to say: because Christ arose from the dead long ago, we today are also no longer dead but truly alive.

I summarise the sermon with this theme:

When Christ arose long ago, we also were raised to a new life

1. the need for our resurrection
2. the reality of our resurrection
3. the response to our resurrection

The Need for our Resurrection←⤒🔗

“We too were raised up to a new life,” we confess in our LD.  That sentence in our confession implies, congregation, a rather unpleasant thought.  Inherent in that formulation is the thought that somehow it is necessary for us to be raised up to a new life; implicit here is the fact that our natural life is not good enough.  The natural life, the old, must be replaced by a new life, and we cannot obtain that new life unless we are raised with Christ from the dead....

To understand the new life God’s people receive as a result of Christ’s resurrection, we need to have straight in our minds what the old life is all about.  What kind of existence is it that we’re raised up from?  That question takes us back to the Garden of Eden.

In Paradise those two people, Adam and Eve, were alive in the Scriptural sense of the term.  That’s to say: those two lived under the blessing of God day by day.  They were safe in His Fatherly hand, they had no lack; there was no curse, no pain, no frustration, and no sorrow.

It al1 changed when they ate of the forbidden tree.  God had already said that on the day they ate of that tree they would die.  At the instigation of the devil, in deliberate disobedience, Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit.  According to God’s promise these two persons died that same day.  True, physical death did not come to take them until many years had passed.  But they died straightaway in that they died spiritually.  They became what Paul calls “dead in sin”.

But what does that mean: they died spiritually?  How did this new condition affect their lives?  What did their lives become?  Listen to what God said to them.  To the woman God said:

I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception;
In pain you shall bring forth children;
Your desire shall be for your husband,
And he shall rule over youGen 3:16

With those words God describes what shall characterise the life of the woman.  We can pick up the key words; her life shall be characterised by ‘sorrow’ and ‘pain’ and frustrated ‘desire’.   We realise: that’s not the life Eve enjoyed in Paradise.  This is something very different.  In fact, this is the life of one dead in sin, the life of the ‘living dead’.

God pronounced something similar for the man.  Said God to him:

Cursed is the ground for your sake;
In toil you shall eat of it
All the days of your life.
Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you,
And you shall eat the herb of the field.
In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread
Till you return to the ground,
For out of it you were taken;
For dust you are,
And to dust you shall return Gen 3:17-19

The key words are telling: ‘cursed’, ‘toil’, ‘thorns and thistles’, ‘sweat’, ‘dust’.  It’s a life of grief, of suffering, of frustration, and it will invariably end in death….  Again, such a life is a far cry from the life Adam enjoyed before the fall.  This too is the life of one dead in sin, the life of the ‘living dead’.

This, congregation, is the life which the Preacher of Ecclesiastes describes as ‘vanity’.  “Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher; “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity” (1:2).  But that wasn’t a conclusion the Preacher reached blithely.  He very much tried to enjoy to the full the life-of-frustration he was given to live, very much tried to overcome that frustration and brokenness and toil and heart-break.  We read his efforts as he describes them in chap 2:

I said in my heart, “Come now, I will test you with mirth; therefore enjoy pleasure”; but surely, this also was vanity.  I said of laughter - “Madness!”; and of mirth, “What does it accomplish?” I searched in my heart how to gratify my flesh with wine, while guiding my heart with wisdom, and how to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was good for the sons of men to do under heaven all the days of their lives.  I made my works great, I built myself houses, and planted myself vineyards.  I made myself gardens and orchards, and I planted all kinds of fruit trees in them.  I made myself water pools from which to water the growing trees of the grove.  I acquired male and female servants, and had servants born in my house. Yes, I had greater possessions of herds and flocks than all who were in Jerusalem before me.  I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the special treasures of kings and of the provinces. I acquired male and female singers, the delights of the sons of men, and musical instruments of all kindsvss 1-8

We’d say: the man must have been happy as could be.  Fancy having at your disposal all the women, wine and song your heart desires.  Add to that a big house, a summer cottage, a pool, a private garden; the man must have been happy as Larry.  But listen to what he says in vs 11:

Then I looked on all the works that my hands had done
And on the labor in which I had toiled;
And indeed all was vanity and grasping for the wind.

What a letdown!  Why does he conclude that all his vanity?  Why isn’t he happy with his abundance?  That, my brothers and sisters, is because any effort to overcome the sorrows and toil and frustrations of Gen 3 is doomed to fail, to fail because no effort can get a sinner away from the curse of God!  Life in the full sense of the word is out of our reach for fallen man simply because God’s heavy hand weighs down upon us on account of our sins.  We are spiritually dead, and so we can’t live in the full sense of the word.  And that’s what the Preacher learned after years of frustrating efforts to find happiness and contentment in what this life has to offer.              

And the Preacher, we need to know, was not the only one to come to this conclusion.  The apostle Paul describes for the believers of Ephesus what their lives were like before they came to faith in Jesus Christ.  He says:

… you … were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air…, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind… Eph 2:1ff

Paul speaks here of a life of following one’s passions, of fulfilling the lusts of the flesh.  That’s precisely Ecclesiastes 2, the sort of life that the Preacher declared was “vanity”.  More, it’s precisely the life described by God in Gen 3 as a life of sorrow and heart-ache, of toil and frustration.  For to be a slave to the lusts and passions of the flesh is to experience the curse of God.  Well now, this sort of life is what Paul calls ‘death’!  “You … were dead in trespasses and sins,” he says.  Following the passions of the flesh, giving oneself to whatever excess one fancies – be it sex or drink or expressions of anger or vengeance, etc, etc- is not life, says Paul; it’s instead death.  Such a person is not alive in the full sense of the word; such a person is in effect dead even while he lives.  That is why it’s so necessary that one be raised up to a new life!  There is no other way to truly live!

The Reality of our Resurrection←⤒🔗

And see: this new life is what’s given to us in the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead!  I don’t know how Jesus arose from the dead, for the Lord has not told us.  But we do know the fact of the resurrection (cf I Cor 15:3ff).  And the apostle is emphatic: when Christ arose from the tomb on that Easter Sunday so long ago, He was not the only one who arose!  Listen to his inspired words in Eph 2.  After he has described how the saints of Ephesus used to be dead in sin, not alive in the full sense of the word, he says this:

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ … and raised us up together Eph 2:4ff

Paul does not say that the believers of Ephesus were “made alive” and that’s it; no, he says that they were “made alive together with Christ”.  That is: when Christ arose, these Ephesians arose also.  Here is the same thought as in Romans 6.  The apostle maintains that there is union between the believer and Christ, a union which implies that when Christ was crucified the believer was crucified also, and when Christ was buried the believer was buried also, and when Christ was raised the believer was raised also.  No, the apostle does not mean that the believer was physically nailed to the cross with the Saviour, bodily buried in with Christ in the tomb of Gethsemane.  The apostle speaks instead of a spiritual presence.  In a way I can’t understand, I was present with Adam when he fell into sin so that I fell into sin also.  Similarly, in a way I can’t understand I – together with all believers from Adam to the end- were present at Christ’s death, were included in His death; I died with Him.  In a way I can’t understand, I – together with all believers from Adam to the end- were buried when Christ was buried.  So too, in a way I can’t understand, I – together with all believers from Adam to the end- was raised from the dead when Christ was raised.  I grant: I can’t understand this for it goes beyond what my mind is able to comprehend.  But that doesn’t matter; if God says it, then that’s the way it is.

Christ, God would have us know, arose from the dead for a purpose, and that purpose was not simply to demonstrate His power over death as such; it was also to obtain new life for the people of God.  This is what the Old Testament had said –the saints would not remain in the clutches of Sheol (Ps 30)- and it’s this that the apostle draws out in Rom 6 under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.  So we’re told that Christ’s resurrection was not just the resurrection of Jesus Christ alone; that resurrection implied our resurrection, implied not just our glorious resurrection on the last day, but implied our resurrection now.  In this life already the believer is raised to a new life; behold, the old has passed away, the new has come. 

What then, concretely, does our resurrection to a new life mean for us?  What is this new life all about?  This: we are made alive to God!  Recall: that sin of the beginning resulted in Adam and Eve (and we with them) becoming dead in sin.  Because we had become dead in sin we could no longer expect God’s blessings; that deadness drew upon us the wrath of God, His curse.  Hence the ‘sorrow’ and ‘pain’ and frustrated ‘desire’ and ‘toil’ and ‘sweat’ and ‘dust’ of Gen 3, hence also the drone of the Preacher that all is vanity.

But the child of God has been raised to a new life by the power of Christ.  That’s to say: God considers the raised sinner to be alive in the full sense of the word!  The curse of Gen 3 is gone!!  Then yes, the children of God still experience much ‘sorrow’ and ‘pain’ and ‘toil’ and ‘sweat’ and frustration, and death still takes the children of God so that we return to the dust from which we were taken.  But the heavy hand of God’s displeasure is removed form the ‘sorrow’ and ‘pain’ and ‘toil’ that characterise our earthly lives.  Instead of living under the frown of His displeasure, we may know ourselves to live under the smile of His favour.  So whatever evil He sends upon us in this life of sorrow He turns to our good.  Life has perspective again, has purpose, has meaning!

The Response to our Resurrection←⤒🔗

How shall I respond to God’s Word about my resurrection?  Concretely, shall I follow the example of the Preacher and set out to taste the opportunities this earthly life can offer me?  Let it be clear, brothers and sisters: one raised to a new life, one restored in his relation to God, one no longer dead in sin but alive to God, focuses his whole being fully on Him.  No longer, therefore, do the things of this life excite me (be it the Preacher’s houses and cottages, or the pleasures of woman and wine and song, or the pursuit of laughter for the sake of laughter or a party for the sake of a party); instead, the focus of my living is the God who restored me to life.  Paul puts it like this:

For the death that He died [Paul says of Christ], He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.  Likewise you also [Paul says to the saints of Rome], reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord Rom 6:10ff

“Alive to God”, he says, and with that term would impress upon the Romans that their lives are God-directed.  The object, the purpose of living is no longer the self, is no longer anything of this world, is no longer the dollar or the boat or the drink or the holiday or the reputation or whatever aspect of this earthly life upon which one can set his heart.  Rather, the object, the purpose of living is God, the glory of God, the praise of the God who created us for His glory and sent His Son also for the praise of His glory.  The Christian is included in the resurrection of Christ, and the Christian responds to his own resurrection by focusing his new life fully on the God of his salvation.  To the Colossians Paul says it like this:

If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God.  Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.  For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.  When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory Col 3:1ff

Congregation, I need to impress the apostle’s emphasis on you.  Paul insists that the fact of one’s resurrection with Christ prompts a new set of priorities, a set of priorities focused in heaven and not on earth.  In fact, in the verses that follow Paul gives concrete instructions which, he says, necessarily follow from being raised to a new life.  Vs 5: “Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness.”  Notice, please, the overlap with the topics mentioned by the Preacher.  In his pursuit of happiness, the Preacher obtained his male and female servants, and we should not be so naïve as to think that these male and female servants were only to do his gardening and his housekeeping.  But of the fornication implicit in Eccl 2 the Preacher also says that it’s ‘vanity’, and Paul in Eph 2 echoes that when he insists that the person who truly lives cuts all fornication out of his life.  But that’s not all, for the apostle continues:

… you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth vs 8

Instead,

as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do.  But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection vss 12ff

Do you see, congregation, what the apostle does?  He connects the resurrection of Christ from the grave with the life-style of the Christian.  Christ was not the only one who arose on Easter Sunday, and those raised with Him invariably show their renewed life, yes, need to make it their business to live as persons raised to a new life.  Those raised from the dead have no room for anger in their hearts, have no room for hatred or blasphemy, for these are all works characterising the spiritually dead.  Those raised to a new life are kind to one another, merciful to one another, forgiving of the other, understanding of the other’s weaknesses, longsuffering in love.  Those raised with Christ to a new life do more than recite the Apostles’ Creed Sunday by Sunday in grateful confession that Jesus was not only crucified, dead and buried but also arose on the third day; those raised with Christ to a new life adorn that confession with a lifestyle that’s very much God-directed.

That, congregation, is why it dismays me to see judgmental, condemning attitudes in the congregation, that’s not the tender mercy and kindness and humility and meekness of which the apostle spoke.  That is why it dismays me to hear strong language about one another, dismays me to observe a lack of compassion toward all who hurt.  That is why it dismays me to notice more concern about maintaining the comforts of this life and preserving our reputations intact and pursuing our pleasures than reaching out in gentleness and compassion to the other in his need.  Let it be clear to us: there is no more room in Kelmscott than there was in Colossae for lying to one another, and there is no more room in Kelmscott than there was in Colossae for anger and hatred towards each other, “for you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Col 3:3).  Tender mercies and kindness and humility and meekness and longsuffering and bearing with one another and forgiving one another are as necessary for every member of Kelmscott to demonstrate as they were for the saints of Colossae to demonstrate –why?- “for you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”  The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is not a doctrine we can divorce from our daily living, nor a doctrine valuable only on our deathbeds.  The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is the catalyst for how we ourselves live day by day.  Let each of us do more than confess with the mouth the gospel of Jesus’ resurrection; let each of us confess this resurrection also in our deeds. 

What difference, my brothers and sisters, would it make for your life today if Christ were still in the grave?  We understand it now: if Christ were still in the grave, we would still live under the heavy hand of God’s curse.  But as it is, the Lord arose, and we did too, and so we may live in the gentle hands of Father’s almighty care.  Here is comfort in the sorrows of this life, a comfort we want to share with the other – for mutual encouragement and God’s glory. Amen.