Title: LORD’S DAY 17
Author: Sjirk Bajema
Last saved by: Andrew Nugteren
Company: Backdraft

Arise With Him!

Sermon by
Rev. S. Bajema
on LORD’S DAY 17
of the Heidelberg Catechism
Scripture Readings: Matt.27:57-28:10; 1 Cor.15:12-20

Beloved congregation...
As we consider what happened with Christ’s suffering crucifixion, death, and resurrection, we know that His followers were confused. Our Lord had told them what was going to happen. But when it actually took place it took them by surprise.
So they couldn’t straight-away work out what had happened. In fact, it wasn’t really until after Christ’s Ascension and Pentecost that they were able to put together all the pieces.
We stand, then, in a special position. We can look upon Christ’s humiliation and exaltation, and see how this whole picture affects us. Particularly we can focus on Christ’s resurrection, at the same time applying it to our lives.
This is what Lord’s Day 17 addresses itself to. And if you look at the list of scriptural references below Answer 45 you’ll see that they all come from New Testament Letters.
So what we have is the early Church putting this amazing fact into practice. Because you can see the fact of what happened without realising what it means. The Lord’s Day has to deal with relating this fact to our lives.

How it got to what we are
But let’s consider, in the first place... HOW IT GOT TO WHAT WE ARE. For in the first scripture reading we heard the story of Christ’s resurrection.
On the first day of the week, the day after the Sabbath, the two Mary’s went to look at the tomb. What reasons they had don’t really concern us. The fact is that they went to the tomb. A tomb that was empty! 
Now - that would have been a shock! After all, hadn’t the chief priest and the Pharisees arranged with Pontius Pilate to secure the tomb with an armed guard? They didn’t want the disciples in any way to be able to make out that what Jesus had said had come true! They had gone and said to Pilate, as we read in Matthew 27 verse 64, “give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception would be worst that the first.”
Pilate agreed. He told them, “Take a guard. Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how.”
Those chief priests and Pharisees went and made that tomb as secure as they could. They placed a special seal upon that stone, and put armed guards there to make sure no tricks were played.
Yet we find the two Mary’s coming to an empty tomb! So what had happened to spoil the plan of those wicked men? Christ had won - that’s what happened! In the words of the hymn, “Vainly they watch his bed...vainly they seal the dead!”
How could the evil plan of mere men dare to stop God’s perfect plan? Not even death itself could keep our Saviour down! He who won over the powers of hell and the devil on the cross, now shows Himself victorious over death.
That’s why he was in that tomb for three days. He would show, once and for all, that death’s corruption couldn’t hurt Him. There was no way He was going to decay.
Instead, He rises in the same form He died. Yes, it was that same person, Jesus Christ - very God and very man - who arose with the same body in which He had suffered.
That’s why Thomas, that doubting disciple, recoiled in godly fear when confronted with the bloody holes in the Lord’s hands. For those holes were real - frighteningly real!
So there was an empty tomb awaiting the two Mary’s. And on top of that huge stone that had been rolled away sat the angel who had moved it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The guards had been so scared of him that they shook and became like dead men.
It was this angel who said to the women in Matthew 28 the verses 5 till 7, “Do not be afraid, for I know you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. ‘There you will see him.’ Now I have told you.”
 
These women were eye witnesses. And later Peter also went and ran to the tomb. He saw those strips of linen lying there by themselves, and he went away wondering what had happened.
Mind you, he didn’t need to do that for long. It was soon after that that Jesus appeared to His disciples in that locked room. For forty days He was with them, instructing them about what had happened, and what was about to happen. And there were hundreds of witnesses to this.	
So what we have in the resurrection of Jesus Christ is a totally true fact. It’s not the concoction of some over-zealous followers of an obscure carpenter from Nazareth. This is the completely accurate and reliable story of the victory over death by God’s own Son. The story which through the ages has comforted the saints and challenged the sinners.
		
Congregation, this Jesus did for His people, for that Body of which He is the Head and each of us are its parts. So let’s look now at what this means to us - His Body. That’s what Answer 45 does.

What we are
And it does this first of all through recognising WHAT WE ARE. Our second point... WHAT WE ARE.
As the Catechism begins in answering the question about how Christ’s resurrection benefits us, “First, by his resurrection he has overcome death, so that he make us share in the righteousness he won for us by his death.”
Therefore we now share in Christ’s righteousness. We are justified in God’s sight.
We were guilty - we were about to be eternally punished by God the Judge. But a substitute has stepped in our way. Jesus Christ has taken our place! And so it is as if we had never sinned, or been a sinner.

The key to our being made right with God in this way was Christ’s resurrection. That proved the victory. And so God the Judge can say, “The price has been paid. It is sufficient.”
In the words of the apostle Paul in Romans 4 verse 25, “Christ...was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.” It’s our story.
As another apostle, Peter, declares in his first letter, chapter 1 verse 3, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”
Christ has overcome death! The Head has secured salvation for His Body. And it’s an unchangeable part of the believer’s life.
Each Sunday we remember it again, as we worship now on the day Christ arose. The Christian Sabbath is the first day of the week - not the last as it was before.

Congregation, that’s why the story of the open tomb is so dear to our hearts. And just as Christ was resurrected to life by His power, so we are now resurrected to a new life. We are WHAT WE ARE.

With whose power we show what we are
Though, how now do we go about showing that great fact? In the words of a third aspect... WITH WHOSE POWER WE SHOW WHAT WE ARE.
Is it in our own strength? Certainly not! Instead it’s in the strength of that One who has made us right in the first place.
This is Resurrection power! This is the power of God Himself being made real in our lives through His Spirit. That’s why the Nicene Creed can also say that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Son, because He makes us to share constantly in Christ’s own force.
In the dirty and thick mud of this sinful world we can look up, and indeed we can be above the mud! As Colossians 3 the verses 1 till 3 says, “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.”

Here we see something of that mystical union between us and Christ. For as Jesus Christ arose from the dead, taking back to Himself life, that life flows right through His whole Body. And it’s that life, that resurrection power, which is making us each a part of His Body - holy as He is holy.
Jesus pictures this in John 15 verse 5, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”
Christ’s Spirit is at work. He’s taking the branches, yes, we the branches, and is ingrafting us into the true vine - the living Christ.
And how is it that this resurrection power works in us? Obviously there’s a difference from what was before. We, who were once controlled by sin, now have within us the power that sin cannot control.
The disciples show this change. Jesus’ death had left them confused and disillusioned. While they had seen all those amazing miracles and healings and heard His preaching, suddenly the Master was dead, and the bubble burst! They were meeting behind locked doors because they were scared of the authorities.
Yet those same disciples, just a short time later, couldn’t be more different! They had been completely changed! They were willing to go into the temple itself, and there preach the good news about Christ!
So what had happened? They had met the risen Lord - that’s what had happened. And each one of us, also, by faith have met with the risen Lord. We too have been empowered for heavenly service!
That’s why we have to work out that power in our lives. Let’s make the position we have before God become our condition - right now! In the words of Romans 6, the verses 11 till 13, “count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal bodies so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life.”

In living God’s way we can show the glory that one day we’ll have forever. And this future glory is also pointed to in Answer 45. As it says, in the third part, “Christ’s resurrection is a guarantee of our glorious resurrection.”

The end result of what we are
So, in the words of a fourth part to this text, this is... THE END RESULT OF WHAT WE ARE.
Soon will come the day when our faith will be sight! Then all will indeed be in all.
And already now this glorious hope is there for the believer. Just as Christ arose, so we too will arise. Didn’t we read in 1st Corinthians 15 verse 20, “Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep”?
Believer, He is the first-fruits of the most tremendous harvest! He is the older brother to many other brothers and sisters to follow Him home. And because He is the first-fruits He is the example of those who will follow.

Already here we can see a pointing to Ascension, and to Christ’s rule at God’s right hand there in heaven. And that’s the place we’ll one day be with him!
In fact, when we die our souls go immediately to be with Jesus. That place which is so much different than where we are now. For, now, we as Christians are plagued with weaknesses, sicknesses, pain, sorrows, and burdens. We and this world are far from perfect.
The same can be said about the Church. She has many problems. She too is far from perfect. Yet by God’s wonderful grace we are whole in Christ, and the Church is His glorious Body.
So we can say to each other, “There are better times ahead.” Christ will return! And there is kept in heaven for us an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade. As Paul says it so well in Philippians 3 the verse 20 and 21, “Our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Saviour from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.
Maranatha! Come quickly Lord Jesus! Amen.

PRAYER:
Let’s pray...
O Lord Jesus, You who has risen triumphant over death, please bring your life renewed to us again by Your Spirit. As we go into this new week, the week we have begun today, the day we worship because You arose upon it, do bless us to be Your new people.
May Your Life be lived out among us. Amen.