Matthew 28:6

AS HE SAID

‘He is risen, as He said.’

Matthew 28:6

On what grounds do you believe in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ? There is a great deal of collateral evidence. There is the evidence of His enemies. There is the testimony of His friends. There is the testimony of what St. Paul witnesses.

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.

—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.’

(SECOND OUTLINE)

THE EMPTY TOMB

‘As He said’—was there not here an implied reproof? Why wonder at the empty tomb? It was a matter of course to the angel. He—the Truth—had spoken. We may wholly trust His word.

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.

—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.” ’