One Jesus, which was dead, whom Paul affirmed to be alive.
Christ alive, a subject of debate
I.Why was Christ, of all persons, the subject of so much observation and debate?
1. Because He claimed the very highest descent.
2. There were proofs embodied in His circumstances and character which none could or can deny, that were equal to His claims and secured unparalleled notableness to His name.
3. Because of the strange circumstances connected with His early history.
II. Why was there such emphasis laid upon the fact of His being alive? If alive--
1. The truthfulness of His character is confirmed.
3. The vital importance of His teaching is established.
3. The work He came to do was accomplished.
4. The success of His cause is assured. (D. Jones.)
The resurrection of Christ as viewed by the man of the world and by the earnest believer
One cannot fail to be struck with the contrast between the results produced by it in Festus and Paul. In the apostle belief in it had kindled a fire of all-sacrificing devotion, and braced him with a courage which no terrors could quell. But Festus received it with complete indifference. Had it been a question of politics or law, that keen judge would have brought all the power of his intellect to bear upon it; but because it referred to an unseen world he dismissed it without for a moment troubling himself to inquire whether it were false or true, and possibly wondered how a man gifted like Paul could waste his powers in proclaiming such an idle tale. Note, then, the aspect of Christ’s resurrection as viewed--
I. By the man of the world.
1. What is worldliness? The preference of the pleasurable to the right--the visible to the invisible--the transient to the everlasting. Hence the awful questions--What is God? What am I? What is beyond death? are passed by as dreamy and unprofitable questions. And that this was the temper of Festus we infer from the character of his age, and from his opinion of the insanity of Paul. The well-being of his province, the success of his policy, the vision of an old age crowned with wealth, and bright with the sunshine of the emperor’s favour--these were the great hopes of his soul.
2. To a man in that state the assertion of Paul would inevitably appear as an idle tale. From Paul’s statement he would learn that Christ was--
(1) The Teacher of a new truth. But he knew that hatred, persecution, death, were generally the penalties for the proclamation of ideas the world could not understand, or which clashed with existing prejudices. Truth! What was that but an empty name; what enthusiasm and unselfishness but childish weakness?
(2) The Founder of a new religion. This again was a familiar story. Like most cultivated Romans, Festus has lost faith in all religions.
(3) A Revealer of supernatural worlds. If anything could waken his interest and suggest inquiry that would. But to a worldly mind the idea of immortality is dim. Its range of vision and sympathy is limited to the visible and tangible. When do we believe in immortality? When spiritual aspirations are stronger than bodily tendencies, or when sorrow has drawn the veil across earth’s attractions. From the same source it comes that the risen Christ is to thousands only “one Jesus,” etc. For to feel Christ’s resurrection as a power in life demands spiritual sympathy with Christ. The selfish cannot see the beauty of unselfishness, nor the sensual the beauty of purity.
II. By the earnest Christian. Turn from Festus to Paul. To him Christ’s resurrection was--
1. A sign of the Divinity of His teaching. He had come revealing a new world of truth, and He appealed to His future resurrection as a proof of that truth. He died, but had He not risen, His whole doctrine would have become meaningless. But He rose, and Heaven’s seal rested on His teaching. If this were false, Paul was indeed a dreamer; but it was true; hence his mighty zeal.
2. A witness to the perfection of His atonement. The question of the ages is, Who shall deliver us from the curse and burden of evil? But One came manifestly bearing this burden, and the only confirmation of the truth of His atonement lay in being able to bear it unconquered. Had He passed away in silence forever, Death would have conquered Him. But He rose and presented the perfect atonement in His own Person in heaven.
3. A pledge of the immortality of man. Man needs a living witness to a life beyond death. He has it in Christ. Paul had it: hence his all-consuming zeal. (E. L. Hull, B. A.)
The death and life of Jesus
I.Jesus died. In this we have--
1. A proof of His humanity. He paid the debt of human nature. “Death passed upon all men,” Himself not excepted.
2. An exhibition of human sin. Beyond this sin could not go. Diabolism here reached its climax.
3. An example of supreme self-sacrifice. “Greater love hath no man than this,” etc. But Christ died for His enemies.
4. A demonstration of Divine love. “God commendeth,” etc.
5. An atonement for the world’s guilt. “He bore our sins in His own body on the tree.”
6. An anodyne for the world’s sorrow. Death is robbed of its terrors when we remember that Jesus died. To suffer in fellowship with Christ is to glory in tribulations.
II. Jesus is alive. In this fact we have--
1. A proof of His Divinity. He is declared to be the Son of God with power by His resurrection.
2. An exhibition of His power. He has vanquished him who had the power of death.
3. A guarantee of His presence. “Lo, I am with you alway.”
4. A call to His service. He is Lord of the dead and the living.
5. Eternal hope--“Because I live ye shall live also.” (J. W. Burn.)
Jesus a living Saviour now
Standing in the crypt of the cathedral of St. Paul’s in London your eye is attracted by a huge mass of porphyry, to gain which they searched the continent of Europe. They wanted something large, massive, grand. At length they came upon it in Cornwall, England. They cut it, shaped it, polished it, at last lifted it upon its plinth of Aberdeen granite, and dedicated it as the tomb of their grandest man. On one side you read, “Arthur, Duke of Wellington, born May 1, 1769; died September 14, 1852.” A great man was buried when they buried him. His hand had been for many a year on the helm of the British Empire. His influence remains, indeed, but his personality has departed. Pass beyond the Channel, and in Paris take your place beneath the golden dome of the Hotel des Invalides, and behold the most magnificent sepulchre in the world. You are gazing now at the burial place of Wellington’s chief antagonist. But Napoleon himself has gone. His influence remains, but he is not in the world. Him neither can France have in any way of personal presence. Go to Rome, stand for a moment under the encircling dome of the Pantheon. Raphael loved that majestic building, more majestic even than St. Peter’s. It was his wish that he might be buried there. Look! There on the wall it is written, “Here is the tomb of Raphael.” But Raphael is not there. You may gaze entranced upon his “Transfiguration” in the Vatican, you may be touched and softened as his wonderful Madonnas tell you the story of that virgin motherhood with its pains, its mysteries, its beatitudes. But Raphael was done with this world at thirty-seven. He puts colour no more to canvas. Everywhere in Rome you may see something that he has done; nowhere can you see anything that he is doing. His works last; he has gone forever. The great heroes, painters, poets, teachers--they have been; but, as to this world, they are no longer. They have gone elsewhere. They have carried their presence with them. They are memories, they are not presences. But Christ is a present, personal, living Saviour. (Christian Age.)
