CHRIST CRUCIFIED, LIVING, AND GLORIFIED

Matthew 28:1-6; Luke 24:1-6 (to “risen”); Acts 3:12,13

This gospel preaching is an opportunity for God to present Christ. He will never miss an opportunity to do so. God’s heart is full of Christ and He will take every opportunity to present Him to you. The gospel is God’s glad tidings concerning His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom.1:1-4). God’s object is to present Christ in order that He might draw your heart and mine to Him; we need to understand that. There are of course moral matters that need to be addressed, but God’s thought and His purpose remain. Ephesians tells us that He is going to “head up all things in the Christ” (chap.1:10). Christ is going to be given a place of supremacy; that is God’s mind, His purpose. In heading up all things in the Christ, God will bring in persons whose hearts have been secured by Christ, He will have persons who have been brought to an appreciation of Christ, and it will be to God’s own glory.

The Lord Jesus Himself has provided the basis for all that God does: He has paid the price. We had some impression as to that this morning. Everything has been committed to this One, and that includes the securing of souls and the blessing of men. He had to go that way of suffering love to provide the righteous basis for God to come out to men. Everything has been committed to Christ. And whatever is committed to Him, whether it is things accomplished already, or things yet to be done in His blessed future administration, when things are committed to Christ they are as good as done! God has that One before Him; as the scripture says, “The Father loves the Son, and has given all things to be in his hand”, John 3:35. There is one Man to whom God has committed everything. It is a wonderful thing to have our hearts drawn away from ourselves where there is so much failure, to see One to whom God has committed everything. God presents this blessed Person to us in order that our hearts might be drawn to Him.

I read three scriptures and I have three impressions as to them. The first passage that we read speaks of the Lord Jesus as the crucified One, the second speaks of Him as the living One, and lastly the glorified One. Christ is an inexhaustible theme. The gospel has been preached countless times throughout the centuries, and that one Man remains the great theme. God has Him, and requires no other, to draw us to Himself. The first two scriptures we read give an account of the morning of the Lord’s resurrection, presented in two different ways. These two Marys come to the tomb. In Matthew’s gospel it is recorded that they come to the sepulchre, and they see the angel, and there is a wonderful revelation to them. The angel says: “I know that ye seek Jesus the crucified one”, suggesting they had an appreciation of Him as such a One. As God draws our hearts to Christ, He is pleased when we begin to appreciate Him as the crucified One.

That is how the world last saw Him publicly, hanging upon a cross in ignominy and shame, the crucified One. The whole world lies in the shadow of the death of that Man; publicly He is the crucified One. Scripture speaks of Him as “reckoned with the lawless”, Luke 22:37. It is very affecting that God’s own Son was regarded in that way. We have recently read in Mark 12 of the lord of the vineyard who let it out to husbandmen (vv.1-12). He sent his bondmen that he might receive the fruit of the vineyard, and they beat and killed them. Then it says: “Having yet therefore one beloved son, he sent also him to them the last, saying, They will have respect for my son” (v.6). The Spirit of God has inspired these scriptures, including how they are presented, to lead us to think about these things. That scripture tells us of the feelings of God, “They will have respect for my son”. ‘Surely they will have respect for my Son!’ And yet there He was hung between two common criminals, enduring all the shame and mocking, the crucified One.

I remember a preacher saying ‘you cannot have Christ without the cross’. I think I know what he meant. When you have to do with Him, you have to do with Him as One that was crucified. He came to shed all the sunshine of the love of God upon this poor benighted earth. It is like the sun rising on the day and bringing all its warmth and light. It is said prophetically of the people walking in darkness that they would see a great light (Isa.9:2). That was the opportunity that the world was afforded, when God’s own Son was here upon earth. There were those that received Him: Simeon spoke those wonderful Spirit-given words as to Him (Luke 2:29-32). But as He moved to the cross He was more and more alone until the point that even His own fled (Mark 14:50). He was brought before Pilate: the scripture says, “In his humiliation his judgment has been taken away”, Acts 8:33. The world has a lot to say about man’s rights, but in the Lord’s humiliation all that was rightly due to Him was removed, taken away, and He was hung upon a cross. It says: “And when they came to the place which is called Skull, there they crucified him”, Luke 23:33. Think of God’s feelings as to that, His own beloved Son, they crucified Him! The place of a skull: Paul says, “But we speak God’s wisdom … which none of the princes of this age knew, (for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory)”, 1 Cor.2:7,8. But there He was, crucified!

That has a bearing upon us as we have to do with Him: we accept Him and recognise that He is the crucified One. His name is associated with reproach, and for those who follow Him it is a pathway and a place of suffering – but a blessed one too. He is the crucified One: “for I know ye seek Jesus the crucified one”. That means there is a moral implication for us in seeking Him. Paul could say: “But far be it from me to boast save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world”, Gal.6:14. That is the moral implication that applies to those that receive Him. The world is the place in which we have to go to school, we have to earn a living and we have to work out ordinary things, but it is the world which has crucified Christ and that is to have an effect on us. It would change how we regard things. We have to do with One who was crucified. You wonder at the grace of God, that He is going on with men despite all that was meted out to His beloved Son. The grace of God is wonderful! Despite all that was done to His beloved Son, He goes on with men. May you receive Him, the crucified One. Whatever the world may appear to offer, it remains a system led by the kings of the earth, the rulers, that were gathered against Christ, “thy holy servant Jesus”, Acts 4:26,27. It is the world as a system, all gathered there against the One who was crucified.

Where we read in Luke’s gospel, it says “Why seek ye the living one among the dead?”. Now it is the living One! The crucified One: that is man in responsibility, “whom ye have crucified”, Acts 4:10. It is really man’s heart fully exposed at the cross, but now He is the living One. He has been into death: it is a most remarkable thing that the Saviour lay in the stillness of death. The Saviour, the Originator of life, lay there! With every other crucifixion, death is the point of complete exhaustion of the human body, but the Saviour went into death as the invader, having power over it. Death receded. The scripture says, “What ailed thee, thou sea, that thou fleddest? thou Jordan, that thou turnedst back?”, Ps.114:5. It is almost mocking. There was One who went into death, and as Peter says, “it was not possible that he should be held by its power”, Acts 2:24. He was raised by the glory of the Father (Rom.6:4). Every attribute of God was involved in that mighty act. His holiness: “neither wilt thou allow thy Holy One to see corruption” (Ps.16:10); His righteousness; His love. Think of the moment the Father raised Him from the dead, how it was not possible that He should be held by its power.

As God draws our hearts to this One who is living, immediately it sets the gospel apart from everything else, it engages our hearts with One who is beyond death. We often hear this said, but think of the wonderful possibilities of having to do with such a One. Everything that we see and touch and have to do with here is marked by death. Death has left its mark, but in the gospel we are presented with One who is beyond it! He has been raised and He is now the living One; He brings in a whole order of life which death will never taint; the power of death is removed and is gone. God has presented things for our lasting enjoyment and our satisfaction. How wonderful to come to know One who is beyond death and the bondage under which it keeps mankind; Christ the Lord, the living One! It is a message of victory. He has been into death and has won the victory for His own. For the believer, death becomes a servant. For those who pass through it – and we all will unless the Lord comes for us in our lifetime – it is a release to call us into the presence of the Lord Jesus Himself. There is no power of death there, it becomes a servant. Why? Because Jesus has been there Himself and He is risen, it is not possible that He should be held by death.

Think of having to do with such a One and having a link with Him. It floods joy and hope and lasting satisfaction into our souls. We know resurrection life! Resurrection is a wonderful thing; it is a great fundamental truth of Christianity. Christ has been raised, Christ the first-fruits, “But each in his own rank: the first-fruits, Christ; then those that are the Christ’s at his coming”, 1 Cor.15:23. What a wonderful demonstration of power by the One we know as the living One. Resurrection immediately brings in what nobody else and nothing else can offer. It is all centred in Christ. You can see why God wants to draw our hearts to Him. God knows us, He knows what we find in ourselves. We often despair of what we find, but He is drawing us to the living One. Jesus has not only met every thing that stood out against us morally, so that through faith in Him and His precious blood we have forgiveness of sins, but also we know Him beyond death, the living One. It says, “I became dead” (Rev.1:18) – it is a wonderful thing that He became “obedient even unto death” (Phil.2:8) – but now “I am living to the ages of ages”. How blessed to know such a One!

Finally, in the passage in the Acts, we have the glorified One. He is in glory now. The preaching started in the beginning of Acts, and it goes out in the very place in which the Lord was crucified. There are certain things that God is asserting. He was bringing before men their responsibility, including those involved in the crucifixion of Jesus, but He asserts something else. Peter is given power to heal this man, but he says there is one thing I want you to know, and that is that God “has glorified his servant Jesus”. We have spoken of Him as the crucified One. If you speak to anyone about the Lord Jesus most will recognise Him as One that hung upon a cross. But God is asserting His resurrection, and is proclaiming Him as the glorified One. Peter says, the One that ye have slain, God has glorified! In that sense everything is settled for God and His heart of love is free to come out to men. All is well with God. Christ is in His rightful place. He was here, as the hymn writer says:

‘A houseless, homeless Stranger,

Our sorrows all to share.’ (Hymn 188)

Wonderful ways of suffering love! He has been into death, and He is risen, and He is glorified. It is a moral necessity – Peter speaks of the One “whom heaven indeed must receive”, Acts 3:21. The heavens did receive Him, of course that is true, but Peter brings out the moral side of it, the heavens must receive Him! There are certain things that God takes great care to assert, and He continues to do so in the glad tidings. Christ is the One whom the heavens must receive. He has been given the place that only He is worthy of, and He is glorified now at the Father’s right hand. He is everything for God, despite all that man has done, and we are all responsible for how we receive Him. In His own time, God will ensure that Christ’s right to reign will be taken up publicly, the Lord must reign. That is also a moral necessity in the mind of God – that the One who was rejected and so ill-treated must reign, and He will. But in this day of grace He is presented to us for our acceptance because all is well now, Christ is glorified and in His rightful place.

God is therefore able to convey His heart of love to us. He is able to show mercy. God’s terms are favourable because the whole basis of the gospel has been established by Christ’s work and because God has glorified Him. He has given Jesus that place, and soon He will be seen in glory publicly. He is not seen publicly now, neither is it obvious that He has been given that place, but God has set Him above every power, principality and authority (Eph.1:21). Christ has the place of supremacy.

God is going on in grace, and the result of that is seen in those that love Christ: something of God’s disposition is seen in the saints. Scripture speaks about the day when He will be “glorified in his saints, and wondered at in all that have believed”, 2 Thess.1:10. That happens now! People may wonder why a man or woman is marked by a spirit of such gentleness, how they speak so freely of their Saviour, how they can speak truth so openly! That is something of Christ being “glorified in his saints”, that is how it is expressed now. He is the glorified One and He is expressed in persons who have been brought to believe on Him.

The preaching of the gospel is an opportunity for God to present Christ. May it be effective in each one here. God presents Christ to you and leaves Him with you. God will take up every person in relation to whether they have accepted Christ or not. That is how you stand before God. Have you received Christ? God takes care to present Him to you; He wants to draw your heart to Him. There is no one else for God than Christ, and He would point out to us that there is no one else for us. God wants to captivate our hearts with Christ. As we have to do with Him there is something formed in the soul of the believer by which Christ is glorified in His saints – those in whom there is a work of God, and to whom Christ has become precious.

May something of that preciousness be known by all in a real way. We who love the Lord Jesus appreciate what He has done for us, we love Him for it, but may there also be an expression in us of that which is to His own glory.

May it be so, for His name’s sake.

Preaching of the gospel, Maidstone

2 July 2023

Robert Webster