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(iii) THE RESURRECTION WORLD

Roland Brown

The comfort, dear brethren, for our sorrowing hearts is to be found in the resurrection world. The Lord Jesus spoke of two worlds. The sons of this world, and their activities, and those that are counted worthy to have part in “that world”. I wonder what we know of “that world” and the resurrection from among the dead. The comfort for our souls today is not in dwelling upon what we have lost, but in the simple fact that our sister was among those that were counted worthy to have part in “that world”, and the resurrection from among the dead.

I read the verse in Corinthians because it shows how that portion has been established for her, by One who was crucified in weakness. Our sister has known weakness, but He had to be weakened. Weakness comes upon us through old age and infirmity, through illness and disease. Nothing like that could weaken Him. “He weakened my strength in the way”, Ps 102: 23. He knew what it was to be weakened. He knew weakness like none other. It says of Him that “going forward He fell upon the earth”, Mark 14: 35. He was crucified in weakness. It appeared outwardly a pathetic sight. Many regard it as foolishness. “The word of the cross, is to them that perish foolishness”, 1 Cor 1: 18. Is there any one in this company to whom that word is foolishness? Or are we all, all of us in this room, among those who believe; to whom the cross is God’s power, and God’s wisdom? He was crucified in weakness. That is historical. What is current today is that He lives by God’s power. How wonderful to lay hold of that. How wonderful to have our eyes fixed upon Him, the One who is “the resurrection and the life”, John 11: 25. Though crucified in weakness, He went into death. It has often been said that death had no claim upon Him and how true that is. But it is not sufficient. He went into death in order to destroy it forever. To deliver “those who through fear of it, through the whole of their life were subject to bondage”, Heb. 2: 15. How blessed to be delivered from the fear of death, to have the light of that world and the resurrection from among the dead.

So the Lord is speaking in this scripture to unbelievers. Persons who deny the resurrection are unbelievers. “If we believe that Jesus has died and has risen again”, 1 Thess 4: 14. “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord and shalt believe in thine heart that God has raised Him from among the dead”, Rom. 10: 9. How wonderful to know that He has been “raised from among the dead, first fruits of those fallen asleep”, 1 Cor 15: 20. There were others raised in the Old Testament days, before Him chronologically, but Christ has been raised as the first fruits of those fallen asleep. And here He is, speaking to unbelievers about that world, and the resurrection from among the dead, and how the truth of resurrection was demonstrated and held by faith, even in the hearts of Old Testament saints; “he is not God of the dead but of the living”, and then He adds that profound statement “for all live for Him”. I suggest that those are words of the widest possible bearing “all live for Him”. The scripture tells us about the unsaved dead being held, awaiting the day of judgment. They live for Him. But in a very positive sense, we can say with the assurance with which we have known and loved our beloved sister, that her portion now is “to know the love of the Christ, which surpasses knowledge”, Eph. 3: 19. How wonderful to think of that. We know it now, it gleams, as the hymn writer says:

Gleams through the present gloom. (Hymn 81)

But what we know now in these conditions at best is partial. The apostle says “We see now through a dim window obscurely, but then face to face; now I know partially”, 1 Cor 13: 12. Think of the beloved apostle saying that. He could speak of his “intelligence in the mystery”, Eph 3: 4. He says “but then face to face; now I know partially, then I shall know according as I also have been known”. Our sister has been known by God. Foreknown indeed. One of those that was foreknown before the foundation of the world, that she should be “conformed to the image of His Son, so that He, that is God’s Son, should be the firstborn among many brethren”, Rom 8: 29. She will be there eternally for His distinction, for His glory, that He might be the firstborn, in His pre-eminence, of myriads that are like Him, our beloved sister among them. But she was foreknown. She was known in Christ. I suppose we may have come to an occasion like this, with many thoughts, as our brother has said, in our minds as to ‘why’. “I know partially”, what we do know, the vast number that have come here today, is a testimony to the fact that our hearts have been touched by our sister’s home-going, and the circumstances of it. And not only has that hand, of which our brother has spoken, wrought in our beloved sister, but through touching our hearts, dear brethren and friends, it has wrought in us. The writer to the Proverbs said “take away the dross from the silver, and there cometh forth a vessel for the refiner”, Prov 25: 4. Our brother has spoken of a vessel of mercy, but you think of a vessel coming forth out of the circumstances of sorrow and of suffering that our sister has known, a vessel coming forth for the Refiner. For Him. Our sister’s service has been referred to; what she has been to others, as a mother, as a wife, as a daughter, as a daughter-in-law. That is what she has been to others, but you think of what is coming forth out of such circumstances for no one else but for the Refiner. What a right He has! “We are not our own”, dear brethren, “we have been bought with a price”, 1 Cor 6: 19,20. The silver would speak of that. A price so great, that it is beyond us to measure it. We “have been redeemed, not by corruptible things, as silver or gold … but by precious blood”, 1 Peter 1: 18,19. How blessed, amidst the sorrow, to have our view upon the resurrection world, and the one who fills it, who lives there today, by God’s power. It says of Him, the One who holds the keys of death and of Hades that “all live for Him”. It rejoices my heart, at any rate, to think of our beloved sister living for Him, living in the enjoyment of His love, without anything to distract from it, and awaiting with us that “body of glory, like unto His own”; where what has been formed through tribulation and suffering will be expressed in a body of glory. The scripture speaks of God giving to each “a body as he has pleased”, 1 Cor 15: 38, one flesh of birds, one flesh of fishes, each given a body suited to the conditions in which it lives and moves. You think of it pleasing God to give our beloved sister, and us with her, “a body of glory, like unto His own”. A body suited to conditions of glory, where we shall live, where we shall move, where we shall be for His glory, where we shall be eternally “for the praise of the glory of His grace”, Eph. 1: 6. How wonderful to have our view, dear brethren, lifted above this poor scene and all its activities, the sons of this world and what they do. But it comes to an end. How wonderful to have our view fixed upon that resurrection world, and the One who fills it, and sustains it, and will do eternally for God’s pleasure, and for God’s glory. May He bless the word.

At the burial of Mrs. Elizabeth Eastwood

WORCESTER

21 December 2005

I am sorry that inclusion of this ministry was delayed. ECB

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