Sermon on Lord’s Day 22⤒🔗

57. Q. What comfort does the resurrection of the body offer you?
A. Not only shall my soul after this life immediately be taken up to Christ, my Head,[1] but also this my flesh, raised by the power of Christ, shall be reunited with my soul and made like Christ's glorious body.[2]
[1] Luke 16:22; 23:43; Phil. 1:21-23. [2] Job 19:25, 26; I Cor. 15:20, 42-46, 54; Phil. 3:21; I John 3:2.
58. Q. What comfort do you receive from the article about the life everlasting?
A. Since I now already feel in my heart the beginning of eternal joy, [1] I shall after this life possess perfect blessedness, such as no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived-- a blessedness in which to praise God forever.[2]
[1] John 17:3; Rom. 14:17; II Cor. 5:2, 3. [2] John 17:24; I Cor. 2:9.

Scripture Reading: Romans 8:31-39; Revelation 21:1-5

Singing: (Psalms and Hymns are from the "Book of Praise" Anglo Genevan Psalter)
Psalm 17:3,5
Psalm 103:6
Psalm 16:4,5
Hymn 27:1,2,3,4
Psalm 73:8  &  Hymn 55:2,3

Beloved Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ!

Years ago the Lord God graciously established His everlasting covenant with us. At our baptism –for most of us in our infancy- He told us that He would forever be our gracious Father, for Jesus’ sake nevermore imputing to us our sins. Over the years we’ve delight in God’s wonderful promises, and today we still find much comfort in the grace He’s extended to us.

As the years go by, however, we observe a reality that questions the comfort of God’s covenant of grace with His children. That covenant is everlasting, God had said. But we notice loved ones die. And death: the loved one is here no more, is instead buried. And bitter experience impresses upon us that in death the body of the loved one is subjected to the humiliation of decay. After a matter of months or years, there’s nothing left of the loved one… We wonder: is that evidence of God’s eternal love?! It certainly doesn’t look like it….

There’s the problem. God has said that His love for His own is everlasting; He never breaks His covenant. But as the naked eye sees it, death in fact does break that covenant. And that’s to say that there are forces in this world stronger than God’s love; death is stronger than His covenant promises. What, then, has become of our only comfort in life and death?

As it is, brothers and sisters, the Lord has told us in His Word that death is not what we observe it to be. We observe a lifeless body, we observe a funeral, we observe decay. But when all is said and done, it’s not human observations that count for anything but God’s promises. He tells us that much more happens at death than meets the eye. So we have boldness today to speak not about death itself or the decay that follows, but about the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. And as we confess the good news about the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting, we in effect confess the unchanging faithfulness and love of our almighty covenant God.

I summarise the sermon with this theme:

God’s covenant love is stronger than death

1. The love of God in death
2. The love of God after death

The love of God in death←⤒🔗

The Lord does not hesitate to confirm in His Word what we also observe about death. Job reflects on the death of the rich and the poor alike, and says that "they [both] lie down alike in the dust, And worms cover them" (21:26). The word God spoke in the beginning is fulfilled: "Dust you are, and to dust you shall return" (Gen 3:19). The writer of Ecclesiastes puts the matter so painfully plain:

For what happens to the sons of men also happens to animals; one thing befalls them: as one dies, so dies the other. Surely, they all have one breath; man has no advantage over animals, for all is vanity. All go to one place: all are from the dust, and all return to dust Eccl 3:19f

Yet the believers of Scripture, congregation, confessed more than the reality of the grave and the resulting decay. The men and women of Scripture knew their God to be an everlasting God and His covenant to be eternal too. And that confession, they understood, had consequences in relation to death.

The sons of Korah, for example, penned a psalm, Ps 49. They recorded what they saw: "wise men die" and "likewise the fool and the senseless person perish" (vs 10). And then: "Like sheep they are laid in the grave; Death shall feed on them; … And their beauty shall be consumed in the grave…" (vs 14). All the effort spent on bodybuilding, all the skin creams and vitamins and health foods: "their beauty," says the psalmist, "shall be consumed in the grave." Decay, worms, dust….

But directly on the heels of that cold reality the psalmist makes this confession: "But God shall redeem my soul from the power of the grave, For He shall receive me" (vs 15). He knows: his God is more than death, his God is greater than the grave. The power of the grave - that decay, those worms, that dust- is not the end; this almighty covenant God "shall receive me".

Asaph confessed the same thing. He acknowledges that his "flesh and heart may fail", be it a heart attack or simply that the body is worn out. But beyond the heart attack Asaph does not see simply the grave with its shameful decay; rather, he says that "God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever" (vs 26). Notice that last word, "forever". To Asaph’s vision, death is not the end of things, nor does death break God’s covenant promises. Somehow God remains Asaph’s portion "forever", despite the decay of death.

David confessed it too. He knew that death lay ahead. But, he says, "my flesh shall rest in hope. For You will not leave my soul in Sheol, Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption" (Ps 16:9f). That’s to say: David knew that God had claimed him as His, knew that even death could not break God’s claim on him. So the grave cannot be all there is to death.

The prophet Isaiah took the matter further still. He was moved by the Spirit of God to announce that God would "swallow up death forever" (Is 25:8). Indeed, "Your dead shall live; Together with my dead body they shall arise" (26:19). Hence the command to the dead: "Awake and sing, you who dwell in dust; For … the earth shall cast out the dead." The angel told Daniel that "many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake" (12:2). Through Hosea the Holy Spirit says it like this:

I will ransom them from the power of the grave;
I will redeem them from death.
O Death, I will be your plagues!
O Grave, I will be your destruction! 13:14

What we have? The saints of the Old Testament knew death to be a hard reality indeed. But by the grace of God these saints of old could testify that God’s love and faithfulness extends beyond death; death cannot put an end to God’s love and God’s care for His own. They knew: there must be life after death; more, death itself shall be overcome, defeated.

This revelation of God to the saints of the Old Testament receives greater clarity in the New Testament. Jesus told the Sadducees that God was God of the living and not of the dead, and so they should count on a resurrection from the dead; death could not be the stone end of things (Mk 12:27). In agreement with that teaching, Jesus when He was about to go to the cross, implored His Father in that Highpriestly prayer that "they also whom You have given Me may be with Me where I am that they may behold My glory which You have given Me" (Jn 17:24). That’s to say: Jesus asked the Father to grant that all His own shall be with Him in heaven. In the words of our LD: Jesus asked the Father to grant that Christ’s members should be taken up to Christ the Head. And the Father, Jesus knew, would answer every petition the Son would make. So, the very next day, when the criminal on the cross requested Jesus to please remember him when He came into the kingdom, Jesus said this: "Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise" (Lu 23:43).

This, my brothers and sisters, is a statement that needs our attention. For what was about to happen to that criminal on the cross? We know it, Jesus knew it: certain death awaited him. But see: Jesus does not speak to this criminal of death; Jesus speaks of Paradise! Yet it’s not one or the other, death or Paradise. It’s instead one through the other; death is the door that leads to Paradise. And we’re to realise too that Jesus does not speak of death holding the criminal captive until a resurrection in the distant future, so that at that time the criminal shall enter Paradise. No, Jesus explicitly says, "today you will be with Me in Paradise." That’s to say: by nightfall both Jesus and the criminal would be dead, more, by nightfall both Jesus and the criminal would be in Paradise, in heaven with God. For God would answer Jesus’ prayer; every one whom the Father gave to Jesus would be with Jesus where He was to behold Jesus’ glory in heaven. That’s to say: the criminal on the cross after this life would be taken up to Christ his Head!

This is material, congregation, with which Stephen, that first Christian martyr, worked. As the crowds around him pelted him with stones, he worked with the promise of the gospel that death was not the end, worked with the promise of the gospel that God’s love and faithfulness persists even in death. He believed that God would make death the door to life eternal in His glorious presence, and so he called on God saying, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit" (Acts 8:59).

The apostle Paul worked with the same glorious gospel. He wrote to the Philippians that he longed to depart from this life – No, not because he was tired of this life, but rather because he knew death to be the door to being with Christ forever (1:23). He knew: God was faithful always, and so death could be not that terrible enemy any more. He knew: departure from this life would not mean that Paul would disappear into the world of memories, knew too that Paul would not disappear into some grey limbo of non-existence till the day of Jesus’ return and the resurrection of the dead. No, Paul knew that the God Who made His covenant with Paul would be faithful to Paul even in the face of death. To leave this life was to "be with Christ"; after this life – O glorious gospel!- his soul would immediately be taken up to Christ his Head (cf II Cor 5:8).

Because of all this material, dear brothers and sisters, the apostle Paul could write so passionately of God’s faithfulness in Rom 8. Who, he asks in vs 35, "shall separate us from the love of Christ?" That love of Christ: that’s the love that God displayed by sending His Son to pay for our sins, it’s the love that the Saviour displayed by laying down His life for us on the cross. That’s the question: what is there in all the world that can axe God’s love for us, that can stop God from loving us, that can prevent God’s love from reaching us? Paul asks: can tribulation separate us from that love of God in Jesus Christ? That’s to say: is it true that the pressures we experience in this life can function as the tap that cuts off the flow of God’s love for His own? Or can distress do that? We know from experience: pressure and distress can lead to health problems, and those health problems can bring us to the brink of death, yes, can lead to a heart attack, death. Well now: does that pressure that leads us to death stop the flow of God’s love to us?

Or what shall we say of persecution or famine or nakedness? In this present world there are countless who are persecuted on account of their faith in Jesus Christ, and suffer the martyr’s death. There are famines in Africa because of religious wars, famines that leave thousands upon thousands of believers starved, dead. And the media have reported how those soldiers raped the women and girls of Kosovo, and then killed their victims. Paul asks whether "persecution, or famine, or nakedness" can separate us from the love of Christ, and it’s of these sorts of horrors, beloved, that we need to think. Persecution, famine, nakedness: in such horror we see no evidence of love from God at all, in such horrors God is gone, His love for His own effectively hindered, rendered powerless….

But listen, congregation, to Paul’s conviction in vs 38. "I am persuaded," he says, "that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." We would say: death –and especially death via persecution or rape- would surely separate us from God’s love; where, we say, is God’s love in the face of such horrors? But Paul is adamant: death, no matter how it comes to us, can never, ever serve as the tap that shuts off the flow of God’s love to us. Paul is convinced: the covenant God made with His own stands forever; even death cannot undo that grace!

Then we might think, brothers and sisters, that death (or what leads to death) might cut us off from God’s love. But Paul is absolutely convinced: nothing, not even death, can shut off the flow of God’s love for His own. It’s something of which Paul is absolutely persuaded –on what grounds?- because he knows Who God is. This God is faithful always to His promises; nothing can prompt Him to renege on His covenant.

And that in turn, congregation, is why Paul himself was not distressed when he had to go to prison, and why Paul was not distressed when he was whipped or scourged or stoned or denied food or imperilled by robbers or by countrymen or soldiers, etc (cf II Cor 11:25ff). He knew: if the Lord God would use the dangers that be to push Paul through the door of death, it would be gain alone. He knew: his Father in Jesus Christ would surely take Paul directly to Himself into heavenly joy and glory. He knew: God would not fail, not matter the difficulty of the crisis! Death is not the end, death is not the enemy it once was; on the other side of death is life, life forever with God!

That brings us to our second point:

The love of God after death←⤒🔗

My Saviour’s love surpasses the power of death and the grave so that the moment I pass through the door of death I am taken into His glorious presence; my soul after this life is immediately taken up to Christ my Head. What it’s like in the presence of our God? In the period between one’s death and Christ’s return, there is a time of waiting. The Scriptures speak little of the circumstance today of those who have already died. Certainly, it’s Paradise already (Lu 23:43), it’s gain (Phil 1:23), it’s joy beyond compare (Ps 16). But it’s an incomplete perfection; the souls John saw under the altar cried out saying, "How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?" And these souls were told to "rest a little while longer… (Rev 6:9ff).

And while the souls of the departed cry out in the glory of Jesus’ presence for the day of vengeance, their bodies waste away in this earth, till they return to the dust from which God made them. But God has declared: one day "the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first" (I Thes 4:16f). This body of mine –now wasted by disease, destroyed by bombs, or burned with fire- shall be raised from the dead; "the dead will be raised incorruptible" (I Cor 15:52). And body and soul shall be reunited and made like Christ’s glorious body.

And then? Lift up your eyes, congregation, and behold the splendour that your Father in heaven has prepared for you! No, no, you cannot today look into the splendour of life everlasting; for we can’t see beyond the horizons of this life. But the God Who made with you an everlasting covenant has promised to be God to you forever, and so enfold you with eternal care. How so? Says David:

In Your presence is fullness of joy;
At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore Ps 16:10f

What this fullness of joy and everlasting pleasures may be? The Old Testament speaks in figurative language, like this:

The wolf … shall dwell with the lamb,
The leopard shall lie down with the young goat,
The calf and the young lion and the fatling together;
And a little child shall lead them.
The cow and the bear shall graze;
Their young ones shall lie down together;
And the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
The nursing child shall play by the cobra’s hole,
And the weaned child shall put his hand in the viper’s den.
They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain,
For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord
As the waters cover the sea Is 11:6-9

We understand: here’s no danger, no pressure, no hurt, no hunger. Here is peace, the peace of God’s blessings, the peace of God’s nearness. Here’s what John describes with those glowing words of Rev 21:

And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away vs 4

Words fail us, congregation, as we attempt to capture the splendours of God’s eternal care for His own on the new earth. The Catechism can go no farther than to speak of a "perfect blessedness, such as no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived – a blessedness in which to praise God forever." Yet even as we seek for words to capture what the new earth is like, this much is so very clear: God’s covenant love endures forever. That’s the overriding theme of what’s to come: the love for God displayed on the cross of Calvary will overflow eternally in perfect evidence of deepest affection for unworthy sinners. We’ll see God face to face, and live with Him in eternal blessedness – forever praising His glorious name.

How it all shall be? What the details are? The Lord has not told us everything; we shall have to wait and see. Meanwhile, beloved, let’s not busy our minds with the details of the splendours that lie ahead. Instead, let’s take on board for today the gospel that’s embodied in God’s Word about the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting, and that gospel is this: our God is faithful, His love is eternal. In the pressures and the trials of this broken life, this is news that encourages us on, ever onward until God grants us the crown of eternal glory. Amen.