Over the years, we have looked at the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, from several perspectives. We’ve considered it from the position of the ladies who were first to the sepulchre on Sunday morning. We’ve studied how the resurrection was essential to the completion of our salvation. An excellent subject for consideration is how the resurrection should motivate God’s people. I have preached from Romans 1:4 where Jesus was “declared to be the Son of God with power,” by way of his “resurrection from the dead.” We’ve had messages from I Corinthians 15 which ties together Christ’s’ resurrection and our own. I have coupled Jesus’ resurrection to Joseph of Arimathea, who hosted Christ’s body for a while. We’ve used this Sunday to look at the resurrection from a variety of angles, even through the angels. But, until this morning, I don’t believe we’ve considered it from God the Father’s point of view.
This is a perspective which is sorely needed ON this day – IN this day and age. Because the vast majority of American religion is man-centered rather than God-centered. As my mentor and Bro. Erik’s old pastor used to say… American Christianity is “ego-centric” rather than “theo-centric.” Those parts of Christianity – the parts of the Bible – which make people feel good are vigorously preached. And Easter is one of those subjects. It makes people feel good. It is tied to new life, to spring, to new beginnings and – suggesting to undeserving people – the hope of eternal life. But What glorifies God above man is not considered important. What the Bible declares about man’s sin and depravity are rarely declared. And what Jehovah/Elohim says about Himself is ignored, shunned and even despised. Because when God is elevated to where He should be, sinners like us are reminded about where we are.
This morning, in the light of Christ’s resurrection, let’s look at the fact that it was God’s resurrection. The resurrection was not about Christ alone, but all three persons of the God-head were involved. Acts 2:24 – Christ, “Whom GOD hath raised up;” Acts 10:40 – “Him GOD raised up the third day.” Romans 8:11 – “If the SPIRIT of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.” The question is: Does the Spirit of God dwell in you.? And John 10:17 – “Therefore doth my father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it form me, but I lay I down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.” Neither the death of Christ nor His resurrection were CAUSED by sinful men. Nor did they take place primarily for the purpose of man. The resurrection was not God’s RESPONSE to the death of Christ. It was not a statement the Lord was trying to make. Christ’s resurrection belonged to God from beginning to end. It was planned by God and prophesied by God. The resurrection was all about God – Jehovah, Elohim; El Shaddai
And that requires a brief explanation.
First, let’s consider GOD’S RESURRECTION from the perspective of His UNIQUE and INEFFABLE BEING.
Learn the word “ineffable.” It speaks of something too extreme to be expressed or described in human words. We don’t have the minds, the education, the vocabulary – the ability to thoroughly describe God. From the very first statement of the Bible we are taken into an inexplicable world – “In the beginning God.”
There was a time, when there was no time. There was no day or night; no light and no darkness. There was nothing but Elohim. God existed in His triune state – Father, Son and Spirit – in an atmosphere of absolute nothing. Some call that a “vacuum,” but I won’t say that, because God “filleth all in all” and always has. With the Lord there is no such thing as a vacuum. He wasn’t living in a big three-room house all to Himself. In the beginning there was no heaven, where His glory is now concentrated. There was no earth to engage His attention. There were no angels to sing His praises; there were no sinners to be saved. There was no universe to be “upheld by the word of His power.” For unimaginable eons, there was nothing – no one – nothing but God. The ineffable God. It is impossible it is to describe God as He reigns over us today. But I find it infinitely more difficult to describe God, without anything to relate Him to or compare Him to.
Not for a day, or a year, but “from everlasting” there was nothing but the Lord. Elohim had no beginning, just as He shall have no ending. During eternity past, God was self-contained, self-sufficient and without a single need. Had the universe, or had people, been necessary to Him, He would have created them at the outset. But there was no “outset.” As far as the eternal God is concerned there was no “beginning.” For a hundred billion, trillion “years” there was nothing but the Lord. There are no words to describe the indescribable eternality of Jehovah. But I have – we have – the Bible which declares these things about Him.
And our Bibles also speak of the decrees, or the decree of God. Far back – beyond the existence of anything, God determined to DO certain things. Ephesians 3:11 calls this decree of God “the eternal PURPOSE which he purposed in Christ our Lord.” And 1:9 speaks of “his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself.” He was content within Himself. Somehow there was perfect and sufficient fellowship between the three Persons of the God-head. And yet, He inexplicably and sovereignly chose to decree certain things to take place.
And here things get interesting and exciting. One “day,” at the very beginning of the “eternity” we can’t comprehend, God chose, or decreed, to create. He didn’t need to create; there was no constraint, no obligation, no necessity to create. That He chose to do so was purely a sovereign act on His part. It was caused by nothing outside Himself, determined by nothing but His own good pleasure. And because of all this: God is the supreme master over everything. Elohim, the Almighty God, is God in the sense that nothing supercedes, or acts independently of Him. As the one and only sovereign King He decreed decrees; He ordained rules; He governs everything. For example, He decreed to set boundaries on His creation. He set boundaries on the seasons, on the seas, on planet and stars – on all things. And yet, even in the light of those restraints, He decreed to permit push back against His boundaries. God was not surprised by Adam’s rejection of His restrictions, His decrees. The Lord wasn’t shocked at Adams disregard of His love and provisions. In other words, God decreed to permit sin to enter into His creation and into the hearts of men. And… and this is inexplicable… In the light of God’s decree about man’s sin, the Lord decreed to redeem and save a certain multitude of Adam’s descendants.
Even before creation – even before the beginning of “time,” God made a decree to save. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: (Ephesians 1) According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.”
Psalm 2 asks: “Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?” Part of the answer to the Lord’s question is people’s refusal to recognize God’s decrees. They refuse to admit that Jehovah really is God; that He is sovereign over all things. They will permit God to be sovereign over death; They will let Him raise them from death, if it is to take them to heaven. But as far as the rest of His decrees go they live in constant denial. They say, “Let us break (God’s) bands asunder, and cast their cords from us.” “Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure.” The Triune God says, “I will declare the decree; the Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee.”
I can’t explain it; please don’t ask me to try; all I can do repeat what God has revealed in His Word. A huge, blessed part of His eternal decree is that He would do everything necessary to deliver a specific number of sinners from His judgment against them – through the death of Jesus Christ. But remember, “Jesus” is the human name for the God whom we could call “Jehovah” or “Elohim.” Jesus was not someone chosen out of many to become the Saviour of a few. Even as the Lamb of God, He was not selected out of a larger flock, only because there was no flaw or blemish in Him. For the lack of a better term, Jesus was, and still is, the “Second Person” of the Trinity. And He didn’t become the Saviour of sinners in contrast to the Father or the Holy Spirit. Yes, in Psalm 2, “God hath said… Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee.” But who made that decree that Christ was the “only begotten Son” of God? The grammar of Psalm 2:7 makes it sound like it is the Son Himself who is speaking. It was not God the Father who decided to send God the Son to the cross, while God the Holy Spirit was looking on. Before the foundation of creation the decree was made by all the three persons of the God-head to save specific sinners through the death of the Son of God. And that plan of redemption included the resurrection of Christ. It can be said – it should be said – that the resurrection of Christ was God’s resurrection.
And that brings us to the actual event that evening two thousand years ago.
Yes, I said “evening.” Christ arose on Saturday night at the time when the Jewish seventh day became the first day of the week. The Jews’ day didn’t start at midnight. The transition from one day to the next took place at sundown. They based that conclusion on what God had said in the very beginning of creation. Genesis 1 – “And the EVENING and the MORNING were the first day.” “And the evening and morning were the second day…” “the third day…” and so on. Other Bible penmen, like Daniel and Paul refer to “night and day” as if that was their proper order. For this reason, and others, I believe Christ came out of Joseph’s tomb as the Jews were offering their evening sacrifice. “And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him. And very early in the morning the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun.” At day break, as the ladies were wondering how they couple move the stone from the tomb’s doorway, they discovered it already had been moved and the tomb was empty.
It was the decree of God to permit Adam and Eve to sin, and then to have sin slay all their descendants. Sin was not a surprise to God. It was a part of the sovereign decree. But then, it was also a part of that decree for God Himself, to step forward to save some of their children. So at the appointed hour, the Son of God entered this world through the womb of Mary. At the decreed place, Bethlehem, David’s city, Jesus was born into the family of a couple from Nazareth. “When the fulness of time was come…” When the precisely decreed moment arrived… “When the fulness of time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.”
When Jesus grew into manhood and began His ministry, almost immediately, He was telling His disciples that it was the decree of His Father that He would die the death of the Lamb of the Lord. He pointed out that it was the decree of God that He be lifted up to die, and that He’d occupy the tomb of a wealthy man for three days and three nights. God’s decree included a prophecy of those 72 hours in the person of the Old Testament prophet Jonah. Joseph, the owner of the tomb, most likely was not aware of the Divine Decree, but he willingly carried out his role in the plan. After Christ’s death, the hours began to tick down, until there were nothing but minutes ticking away. Or maybe I should say that the rays of the sun gradually diminished until they disappeared. And it was all predetermined by the unbreakable decree of God.
Then at the moment of God’s eternal design, Christ emerged from his tomb to the joy of some of his angels. Jehovah ordered Christ’s death. God put on Joseph’s heart to give away his burial place, not knowing it was only a loan. God set the timer and started its three-day downward trajectory. And at the decree of God, Christ burst out the other side of death on behalf of those He intended to save. Christ’s resurrection was in the hands of God from start to finish; from eternity past and with effects extending into eternity future.
I am going to assume, this morning, that you are a part of that divine decree.
I am going to assume that you are here, or you are listening, or you are reading this message – because God has brought this word of grace to you in order to bring to your knees in thanksgiving and worship. I am going to assume that the Holy Spirit, in accord with all the rest of His decree, is speaking to your heart. Don’t you hear Him telling you that you need the resurrected Saviour? Can’t you feel your proud soul crumbling within you, admitting to your sin before God’s holiness? Can’t you sense your eye moving from all those human salvation plans toward the decreed and declared salvation of God?
As God’s evangelist, I am asking you this morning to put your faith, hope and trust, on God to save you. “Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven, given among men, whereby ye must be saved.” There is a Saviour available to you today, because it was decreed by God to raise Him from death to live on our behalf. Christ Jesus has been decreed to be the Mediator between God and men. But you must humbly bow before the resurrected, living Lord. Won’t you put your faith in the Lord Jesus today?