PREACHING OF THE WORD OF GOD
A.J.E.Welch
Wonderful matters as to Christ are set forth in this passage. Its intention is to direct our hearts to Him in the greatness of His Person and work. The glory of the Person of Jesus has, I verily believe, left a certain mark upon this day together. In what grace He has warmed our hearts as to Himself! How He has reached into our affections and attached them freshly, and in the touch of His own power, to Himself! This is just what He would do as we speak together of the wonderful matters that have been accomplished by Him. How small and puny the accomplishments of men become when we range them alongside what is said of Jesus in this passage! "The glad tidings", the writer says, "which I announced to you". These are truly glad tidings which are sounded out tonight as this glorious Person is presented to men - something which has nothing but the blessing of men in mind; something which brings abiding satisfaction to the heart by engaging that heart with a settled glorious object in Jesus. We long that He may be magnified by a time like this, that this same Person may have a greater place in every heart, in every life, in consequence of what the Spirit would say to us about Him.
So the substance of the glad tidings which Paul had delivered to them is firstly "that Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures". How richly the Scriptures present the work of Jesus! I was reading last night the fifty-third chapter of the prophecy of Isaiah - full of the glory of Christ, full of the amazing grace of His work in suffering and despising by man. I wonder if we realise what we owe to Him as this passage brings it out. "Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures"; that is, the scriptures looked on to it; the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah and other chapters in that evangelical prophet's writings pointed on to something which was to come in ; but as we speak to you this afternoon not only is this pointed on to by the scriptures but it is accomplished. The work is done; the matter is settled, settled and final in what Christ has effected. Marvellous thing! We are not presenting something which is yet to be improved upon. Far be the thought! What is said as to Christ here is final in respect of God's dealings with men but the intent is to reach into your soul for blessing, that you may find and establish in your own experience what the heart of God is toward you. Oh, the blessedness of it! How blessed for souls to find in their experience, particularly through the gift of the Holy Spirit, that God loves them - that they have a place in the love of God. Are you conscious of this - conscious of a place in the love of God and of Christ? He longs for a place in your heart assuring you that you have a place in His heart. But it stands related to this work of His, that "Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures". How brief the statement is and yet how much in actual accomplishment it involved! We had a hymn this morning that turned our thoughts to His sufferings. Oh, the reality of those sufferings! and He alone could sustain them. There were His sufferings at the hand of men - despised, smitten, spat upon, crucified; once on the cross, scorned and rejected, the object of men's taunts as He suffered there. What a sufferer Jesus was! and it was on your account and mine. Let none of us be cold or unfeeling as to the sufferings of Jesus. I know of nothing that so plunges into the affections of persons true to Christ than to reflect over His sufferings, to read of them and allow the Spirit to speak to us as to the depths of those sufferings without which we could know no peace, no blessing; without which the love of God could never be known in the way in which, blessed be His Name, it is to be known as the word is preached today.
But beyond all those sufferings, the scorn of men, the violence of men, the way in which men with their evil minds worked against Him, He suffered under the mighty hand of God. He suffered as it says: "Christ died for our sins". But as He was on that cross, placed there by men to die, He suffered abandonment.. Think of the awfulness of it! One who had been so near to God in that pathway that He trod down here, one who was in such perfection of communing with God, being forsaken and that by God Himself; "made sin" as the scripture says, 2 Cor 5: 21. Do we realise what we owe to the Lord Jesus? Do the facts of the gospel leave our affections cold? Surely not. We can always come back to these precious facts, setting forth as they do how God is toward men for blessing and we can find our souls nourished by them and by the holy love that enters into the whole matter.
Christ was forsaken on the cross, such a cry was brought from His lips as the scripture records: "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?", (Matt 27: 46); a question which receives no immediate answer but one which would come home to every person in whom the light of God has shone that He was there for me. He was there on my account, He suffered untold suffering which I could never sustain because for me it would mean divine judgment and banishment for ever from the presence of God. He went into that banishment in the sense that He was forsaken. I say it in all reverent feeling, I trust, but that was intensely real! He actually bore it for me and for you that the question of our sins might be settled; but having thus suffered He delivered up His spirit, He laid down His life and His precious body was laid in the grave. He laid down His life. Think of such a life reaching a point where in that sense it came to an end, the perfection of the life of Jesus; a perfection which exposes what is in every one of our lives in sin. But He Himself knew no sin - "who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth", 1 Pet 2: 22. The path, the way of Jesus, was perfect but it came in that sense to a finish. He laid down His life and He laid it down on our account; the word is plain here: "Christ died for our sins". It does not exactly say that He suffered for our sins in the verse that I read but that He died for our sins, embracing the uttermost point so to speak of the work that He accomplished. He went right into death to take our place because death was my place. Death was my due as a lost guilty sinner - death and judgment. The Lord Jesus went that way on my account: as you come believing, on your account. It is what He has done uniquely for you. There is that which He has accomplished for God, glorifying God at every point of His dealings with men. There are the amazing extensive eternal results of what Christ has effected in the widest sense but He has done something for you, just you yourself, which is set out in these verses. Does it not affect you?
The efficacy of the work of Christ is stupendous - the matters that it will have a bearing upon as God comes in to set everything right and secure the universe responsive to Himself - but He has done something for you which no other person could undertake. He has carried the whole matter related to your case through to a settled finish - completion, that the burden of your sins might be done away, that the burden of your guilt might be forever put away, that you might know the blessedness of being at peace with God, justified and at peace towards God. Peace! What a lovely word. How little the world knows of it! How little any one of us would know of it were we going along in the current of all that is around us: but God has in view for men peace towards Himself. Oh, the reality of that peace! And, oh, that in our relations with God all is finally settled, nothing is left to be settled. Everything is settled by Jesus: "Christ died for our sins" - a statement so brief, the blessedness of it so rich in its extent and bearing upon us.
Then it says, "and that he was buried". How brief again; the very brevity of these statements is calculated to penetrate the more deeply into our hearts. The pungent brevity of these statements is of the Spirit to reach right deep into us and it says "he was buried". Think of Jesus buried - going down into the grave. That was our due place and portion that one order of man might be put right out of sight in view of a new order of man coming into view. That comes in in a moment but the first thing is that "he was buried". He went in that sense right out of sight as if to bring us an impression of the total finish of one line of things in sin which has affected men. God is not looking to that man any more; God has put that order of man away from before Him in the sufferings and death and burying of His Son that God might bring into view, and that for the blessing of men, a new order of man in a risen and glorified Jesus.
So it quickly moves on to that - "and that he was raised the third day". What a day that third day was when the Lord Jesus came out of the grave, His work thus far complete, and He was presented living to those who had known Him and loved Him! Think of Christ out of death, a living person, who lives still, who lives today and would engage you in life with Himself. "Was raised the third day, according to the scriptures": we are reminded again that it was 'according to the scriptures'; that is, it was God carrying through His grand proposal for the blessing of men. But it is not now just a proposal, it is an accomplished matter. That is what I want to bring home especially - a final accomplishment of everything by Jesus. It is not looked on to as the prophets looked on to it (we learn much as to the work of Christ by the way the prophets looked on to it and the expressions that the prophets under the Spirit's touch used about it) but what the prophets looked on to is now actual and consummated and effectual.
And so the word is preached that it might take effect in companies of persons such as this and bring them into settled peace and the enjoyment of what the heart of God is towards them. So "He was raised the third day". Oh, what a moment when He came out of the grave, never again to be held in death's power, a glorious Man out of death, having really died and coming out of death; I say that in all reverence as to Jesus, He really died and came out of death. The power of resurrection is a reality. It is not something which is merely in the range of possibility; the power of resurrection is a glorious reality and we can point to Jesus, the glorious risen Man. What an object for your heart! "Delivered for our offences... raised for our justification" (Rom 4: 25) that we might see the whole burden of guilt gone. Jesus went into death bearing our guilt but came out of death, our guilt gone. The whole matter is settled, no question of guilt remains; so I can stand before God, not in the sense of guilt but in the sense of peace that Christ has accomplished everything. Does this not fill your heart with joy? It is peculiarly fitting on the first day of the week to refer to the resurrection of Christ; the first day of the week was the resurrection day, a day of peculiar exultation in the whole power of death overcome and a risen Christ brought into view, soon (as He was) to be taken up into heaven to be set in the place of glory and power: and He is there tonight, as to His settled position, to shine into your heart the blessedness of all that is accomplished in Himself. What place has He in our hearts, this same Jesus? Are our affections not wrought upon and freshly claimed as we read such a scripture, presenting the facts so tersely and yet with such deep penetration? This is what He has done for us, it is what Jesus has done, it is what no other person but Jesus could do; but in grace and in the expression of all that God is toward man He has done it and has completed at every point what was necessary to be done that you may know justification, clearance from guilt; that you may know peace towards God with nothing to disturb your relations with God as known to your soul.
But then this is not all, for it says "that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to above five hundred brethren at once, of whom the most remain until now.... Then he appeared to James; then to all the apostles; and last of all, as to an abortion, he appeared to me also". This wonderful list of appearings is as if the Lord would impress upon persons the greatness of His present condition or position, as if He would reach into our hearts to engage us with Himself as He is. As He was, was glorious - morally glorious, morally perfect. How moral perfection shone in Jesus! There was a marvellous presentation under the eye of God and under the eye of man of moral perfection; but now, as beyond death, He engages us with Himself glorified, a glorious Man presented in His glory and perfection for our apprehension, for our faith to seize upon, for our affections to be engaged with Himself. These appearings are wonderful. They are a special mark of this passage (which is one reason why I say that this whole passage is intended to reach into our affections and engage them with the Person of Christ and His glory) that He appeared to this one and to that one, to one company and to another company, even above five hundred brethren at once. It does not say what transpired but the fact is He appeared to them. He presented Himself to them and there is some sense in which He would do that even in a company like this, He would present Himself to us, risen, glorified, just to engage our affections with Himself; just to assure our hearts that all is done that was necessary to be done and that the heart of God is toward us in the most blessed and abiding way. God having from His side intervened with His Son to resolve everything that would keep us away from Him, everything that would bring in distance between God Himself and man, Christ has acted to put away. He would have us near. He would have us in the enjoyment of what fills His heart and we come into this as our eye rests upon Jesus as He presents Himself in grace to these hearts of ours even by the witness of the Spirit that would enter into such an occasion as this.
Beloved friends, my purpose in speaking to you is just to engage you with Christ and with all that is effected in Him, with all that is to be known in living present power in that Person. He is to fill your hearts with satisfaction in that your hearts have found an abundantly satisfying object and your eye is held by Jesus; and as you realise now the way He has been for you, He having died for you, His love is towards you to secure your heart with Himself as its object. Oh, the blessedness of a pathway of which Christ is the object! And so the writer of this scripture brings himself in: "last of all... he appeared to me also". That is the voice of experience; and what is to be known is the voice of experience. We speak of these things - God would have us to speak from experience - and here is one, under the touch of the Spirit, writing in the realm of experience involving the gift of the Holy Spirit. Do you know the blessedness of that gift? Do you young people here know the gift of the Spirit? Have you received the Spirit? God's thought is that you should, having believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. It is His characteristic gift; He loves to give it but it is His gift ; and the Spirit would fill your heart with a view of the Christ. Here is one who speaks, as I remarked, with the voice of immediate experience: "last of all... to me also". The Lord had presented Himself to Saul of Tarsus, as he then was, in the glorious light that came from heaven. He was brought into touch with Christ in glory and that is the end in view in the preaching going forth today - to bring you into touch with that Christ in glory, beyond death and all its power, that He should engage and affect and hold that heart of yours. May this be the issue as these scriptures are read, as Christ is in our minds and hearts, that we are engaged with Himself in glory, tasting in that sense the service of the blessed Spirit, known by way of gift from God, to keep us in our full relations with that glorious Man and make Him the object of our hearts, yea, of the lives in which we t read the rest of our course here below. May God bless the word, for His Name's sake.
VANCOUVER
4 April 1976