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‘He is risen, as He said.’
Mat_28:6
I. Sure testimony.—But the best testimony that Christ is risen from the dead is that of Jesus Christ Himself. St. John had it from His own lips in that wonderful vision, and the angel beside the empty grave announced it to the frightened women, ‘He is risen, as He said.’ Christ has spoken and the matter is settled. We accept it by faith—faith in the Word of God Himself, ‘He is risen, as He said.’ Do not rest the doctrine of Christ’s Resurrection on a probability. We must be absolutely certain. We must know in Whom we have believed. There must be no ‘perhaps,’ no ‘inference,’ no ‘it may be.’ It must not be a matter of opinion, but a matter of certainty—the certainty of faith in the Word of God; ‘He is risen, as He said.’
II. Dead, buried, risen.—The force of the Resurrection all depends, of course, upon the great fact of Calvary. He was born in order that He might be able to die, and He died; and because He died, He rose again, the circumstances of His death being detailed to us that we might be quite certain. In the cemetery we see the graves, and one day the dead shall all rise again, and we shall be united again in Christ. That is our religion.
III. A Gospel worth receiving.—This is a Gospel worth preaching, and worth receiving, is it not? We do not preach it on the faith of the word of man, but it is on the faith of the Word of God. ‘He is risen, as He said,’ and opened the Kingdom of of Heaven to all believers. Believest thou this? Wherefore these words to you? Because to men and women the Cross is something more than a refuge; it has changed bereavement into joy.
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The Rev. A. H. Stanton.
Illustration‘Whether you are young or old, whether your life lies all in the sunshine or half in the shadow, Easter brings you joy. Through the darkness of the crucifixion you have struggled with the foe. In the light of the resurrection-morn victory is given to your hands. Surely when you saw the Son of God upon the Cross, you put away from you for ever the fiction that sin can be fair. You felt the hideousness of the death which it brings in its train. You prayed then, if you never prayed before, for the strength which cometh from above. You strove then, if you never strove before, to conquer the chaos in your heart. And now your earnestness has bred hope, and hope has been turned to confidence. Because Christ has risen from the dead, you know that there is a Power in the universe stronger than the power of sin. You realise that purity cannot die, righteousness cannot utterly perish. These things you desire. These things with the help of the Saviour you will gain.’
THE EMPTY TOMB
All is, all was, all shall be—‘as He said.’
I. Life must pass, and death, as we call it, draw near. There is a whirl in the broken worldling’s heart at the thought, but the Christian need not fear. ‘When thou passeth through the waters, He will be with thee,’ as He said; and as He said, ‘He that liveth and believeth in me shall never die.’ The body will grow cold, but
II. The homeless soul, whither shall it wend its way? To the humble believer there need be no fear. ‘Far better’ than ‘to abide in the flesh’ is ‘to be with Christ.’ In Paradise, where the Master is, there shall also the servant be, as He said.
III. He shall come again, as He said, and at His coming His faithful servants shall rejoice. Had Christ not risen, ‘then they who are fallen asleep in Christ’ had perished. But Christ is risen, as He said.
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Prebendary Vernon.
Illustration‘In a letter to a clergyman the late Lord Salisbury said: “Every one has their own point of view from which they look at these things. To me the central point is the Resurrection of Christ, which I believe. Firstly, because it is testified by men who had every opportunity of seeing and knowing, and whose veracity was tested by the most tremendous trials, both of energy and endurance, during long lives. Secondly, because of the marvellous effect it had upon the world. As a moral phenomenon, the spread and mastery of Christianity is without a parallel. I can no more believe that colossal moral effects lasting for 2000 years can be without cause, than I can believe that the various motions of the magnet are without a cause, though I cannot wholly explain them. To any one who believes the Resurrection of Christ, the rest presents little difficulty. No one who has that belief will doubt that those who were commissioned by Him to speak—Paul, Peter, Mark, John—carried a Divine message. Matthew falls into the same category. St. Luke has the warrant of the generation of Christians who saw and heard the others. That is the line which the evidence of the inspiration of the New Testament has always taken in my mind. But intellectual arguments, as you well know, are not to be relied upon in such matters.” ’
‘Come, see the place where the Lord lay.’
Mat_28:6
I. A place of sacred interest.—‘Come, see the place.’ Cemetery or village churchyard, the place of our sleeping dead must always be to us a place of sacred and surpassing interest. But as we think of those righteous who are now sleeping, let us not be slow to ask ourselves whether we have a good hope that we shall have a part and fellowship in their rising. Let us learn wisdom from the lesson-teaching graves. Two may sleep together in them; and yet, when He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth, ‘one shall be taken, and the other left.’
II. A mighty battlefield.—‘Come, see the place where the Lord lay.’ It was a mighty battlefield; the scene of a strife, unparalleled in its intensity. The strife and its issue had been foretold over and over again: ‘He shall swallow up death in victory’ (Is. Mat_25:8; see also Hos_13:14). But the battle is fought, and won; and now it is ours to have part in the gathered spoils. For a time, and within limits, death must reign, and the grave also. Still, if we are Christ’s, the grave receives us only as a trust. (See Is. Mat_26:19.)
III. A sanctuary.—The place where the Lord lay represents a sanctuary; the shrine of the sleeping righteous; the robing-room of the saints, whence they may, on the great Easter Morn, mount up with wings as eagles and ‘meet their Lord in the air.’ In that intermediate state we are only ‘in joy and felicity,’ only delivered from the burden of the flesh. Centuries may elapse before we are ripe for our perfect consummation and bliss.
‘In Christ’ or ‘out of Christ’ every hope turns upon this alternative. If we would have one unshaken and never-failing ground of confidence, let us think of the Resurrection. As an enemy death is not; as a prison-chamber the grave is not. ‘Come, see the place where the Lord lay.’
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Prebendary D. Moore.
Illustrations(1) ‘A dead Christ might have been a Teacher and a Wonder-worker, and remembered and loved as such. But only a Risen and Loving Christ could be the Saviour, the Life, and the Life-giver, and as such preached to all men. And of this most blessed truth we have the fullest and most unquestionable evidence.’
(2) ‘The Resurrection Body, which was recognised as the same Body, had yet undergone some marvellous change, of which we can gain a faint idea by what is directly recorded of its manifestation. It was not directly recognised, nor bound by material laws. The life which is revealed to us is not the continuation of the present life, but a life which takes up into itself all the elements of our present life, and transfigures them by a glorious change, which we can regard at present only under signs and figures.… The whole complex nature is raised and glorified. It is not that the soul only lives; nor yet that the body, such as it was before, is restored to its former vigour. The Saviour, so far as we regard His Manhood, is not unclothed, to use St. Paul’s image, but clothed upon. Nothing is taken away, but something is added by which all that was before present is transfigured. The corruptible puts on incorruption: the mortal puts on immortality.’