Pastor Allan Kircher
Shell Point Baptist Church
Easter Sunday 2013
~The Victory~
Rev. 1:18
John saw our Lord as the “Son of man.” It had been 60 years since John had last seen the Lord and now he sees Him as the glorified Son of God.
Jesus:
• His radiant Person, John saw that day/Isle of Patmos.
• Head/hair white as wool/white as snow
• Eyes were the flame of fire
• Feet like burnished brass! Voice like voice of many waters.
Appearing to John that day in His own history.
• Central and all-important facts of the Lord’s history.
• According to my text is:
• He became dead—He is alive.
Certainly we are grateful for the other deeds indeed!
• The cleansing He gave to the leper!
• The hearing He gave to the deaf!
• The sight He gave to the blind!
• The speech He gave to the dumb!
• The comfort He gave to the sad!
• The hope He gave to the hopeless!
Those are not the crucial and all-important facts of our Lord’s life!
It is conceivable that there still could have been a Christian church if the Lord:
• Had never healed the sick or healed the palsy
• If there had been no story of Bartimaeus
• Or even if the sight was never restored to the blind.
But there never would have been a church w/o the cross/resurrection!
Here are two supreme facts of the Christian religion:
• The foundation stone of the Christian faith.
• He became dead—He is alive.
• These two facts is what we celebrate at Easter.
Notice what we have here:
1. We have death—“I became dead.”
2. We have life—“Behold I am alive for evermore.”
3. We have the supremacy of life over death—
“I have the keys of death and of Hades.”
It is about the facts/Joy of Easter I want to speak of this morning.
I. The Death of Christ.
First we have the fact of the death of Christ.
• “I was dead”
• Cross is the beating and throbbing heart of faith.
From His baptism/end of His life/Christ looked forward to the cross
• As a goal of all His endeavors
• Supreme act He had to accomplish
• The work His Father had given Him to do.
He said to John, “Do not be afraid, I am the First and the Last and the Living One, and I became Dead.”
Our Lord passes over:
• all His great parables/His wondrous words
• His grace and power
• not a single hint of them!
The supreme act of His life was the act in with it ended!
“I am the First and the Last and the living One, and I became dead.”
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The death of Christ differed from every other person:
• other men suffer death
• Christ achieved death
• Man’s death is sin
• Christ death consummated/crowned/completed His work.
Christ from the cross uttered that triumphant cry, “It is finished”
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Rev. 1:18 says two things about the death of Christ.
1. It insists the reality of His death.
• “I became dead,” says our risen/glorified Lord.
• What makes the end death?
• “the wages of sin is death.”
Now Jesus did no sin Himself, He made our sin His own.
• He who knew no sin became sin for us!
• He took upon His own head and heart all the shame.
• All the pain/guilt of our sin.
• It was that sin of ours that made Christ’s death most real.
Remember this:
The more pure and holy the soul, the more sensitive it is to the shame of sin.
• This is the realm of the spirit.
• The purer the soul the sharper the pain it may feel.
The ordinary man by his sinfulness has bred in his soul a certain callousness to the pain of sin.
But Jesus, with His absolutely pure and holy soul, felt it as no one else could feel it.
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When Jesus took upon Him the sin of man, He had to bear and receive the wages of it, and the wages was death.
The sting of Christ’s death was sin—our sin—He made His own.
We can comfort ourselves this morning with the thought:
• Whatever death is, Jesus knows it.
• Wherever death leads, Jesus has explored it!
Had He never stooped to the grave, He would have been unable to help us in the supreme experiences of life!
2. Our text insists on the voluntariness/death of Christ.
The First and Last said to John, “I became dead.”
• Absolute freedom and voluntariness/death of Christ.
• He passed through/same/solemn experience/we will face.
There is one critical respect Christ’s death differs from ours.
• Of Jesus Christ, “He became death.”
• We die because we can’t help it!
• Jesus willed to die/He laid down His life.
• He gave up the ghost/He became dead.
John 10:18, “No man taketh my life from Me, but I lay down of Myself, I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again.”
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II. The Resurrection of Christ.
Secondly in the text we have, “and behold I am alive forever and ever.”
• Shouldn’t celebrate Easter with joy if John’s message had finished at “I became dead.”
• Even though His death was voluntary, it wouldn’t bring us comfort if the grave was the end of it!
Certainly the cross is a pledge and instrument of victory.
• It leads us on our struggles and conflicts.
• Give us hope and courage to endure.
• If the Cross was the very end, no cause/gladness/glorifying.
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If the Cross was the end:
• It stands for defeat, disaster/ utter overthrow
• No one in the world’s history ever escaped/power of death.
• There has been no sacrifice for sin
• And you and I would have to bear our terrible burden.
• “the wages of sin is death.”
• Our preaching is in vain/our faith is in vain
• The belief of the church throughout centuries is in vain.
Thank God the Cross is not the end.
“Fear not,” said the First and the Last to John, “I became dead, and behold I am alive.” Alive!
• Death was not able to hold Jesus Christ!
• The great stone was not able to hold Jesus Christ!
• The mighty soldiers were not able to hold Jesus Christ!
• Death was not able to hold Jesus Christ!
On the third day the grave was found empty.
• The angel appeared to the women/said He is alive! Alive!
• That/glorious fact that Easter commemorates.
• It sheds radiance back on Good Friday.
• It says we are loosed from our sins.
• It changes the bitter tree into a royal seat.
Now we march into every battle “with the Cross of Jesus going on before us.”
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It sheds radiance forward:
• Now we walk our day in light of the risen Christ.
• Jesus is Alive! Alive!
• Just as much and truly alive as you and I!
Yes, there have been others who came back from death.
Let me remind you of the old Scripture stories:
• The Shunammite’s little son
• Jairus’s daughter
• Widow’s son at Nain
• Most of all, Lazarus/been in the grave 4 days.
• But they became alive to die again.
It is not so with Jesus Christ!
Christ, Paul says, “being raised from the dead, dies no more, death has no dominion over Him.”
• Alive for evermore, Forevermore!
• He went down to the grave, struggled and fought with death
• He won His victory over death.
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We rejoice today, “behold I am alive for ever and ever.”
• He has been alive/His people throughout/centuries.
• He is alive with His people today.
• He will be alive with His people to the end.
• Jesus Christ is alive!
• He was in our yesterdays,
• He is in our todays,
• And thank God He will be in our tomorrows.
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With Jesus at our side:
• Feel equal to any sacrifice and suffering.
• We can do anything/bear anything/face anything.
• We will not fear
• Whether mountains moved/earth removed
• We will not fear.
• We can meet trouble/fight temptation/endure loss.
Holding Jesus’ hand we can venture w/o trembling into the valley of shadow of death.
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III. Christ’s supremacy over death.
There is more than the death and resurrection of Christ today.
There is also the assertion of our Lord’s supremacy over death.
• “I have the keys of death and Hades.”
• Keys indicate control/authority.
• Jesus says, “I have in my hands, the keys to all the invisible world.”
• Fear not what is coming after death.
Belief in God carries with it belief in immortality.
If you believe deeply and truly in God, you also believe in immortality.
• “If a man die will he live again?”
• Do you believe in a supreme Being?
• Then you believe in immortality.
Even heathen nations w/o rhyme/reason believe in immortality.
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Now Jesus says, “I have the key.”
• Death is a secret no longer.
• An inscrutable mystery no longer
• A terrifying darkness no longer.
• Christ knows what death is
• He knows what lies on the other side of death.
• Millions have passed through the gates of death.
• But He, and He alone, has come back!
“I have the key,” Jesus says to you and me.
The word “key” suggests more than secret:
• Suggests idea of power and authority.
• The one who possesses “the keys”
• One who is vested with authority and rule.
• Jesus has the keys to death and hades.
He tells us the secret here:
• The secret of death
• He has subdued and taken captive and vanquished death.
• Listen to author of Hebrews 2:14-15….
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Jesus came forth from the grave…
• He has stripped death of its power
• He delivers all those who, thru fear of death
• Were in bondage all their lifetime.
The grave, we know, is no longer a prison-house of which death holds the key.
• Christ is Lord of death.
• Christ is King of that invisible world which we will pass.
• “I have the keys of death and Hades.”
To know this with conviction of heart means to lose your fear of death!
• It is not a deadly enemy that is waiting for us.
• It is our gracious/loving Lord waiting for us.
• When we realize that death will cease to appear terrible
We will lay hands on death and say with Paul, “death is ours”
We will say with that great apostle, “to die is gain.”
The story of Hugh Mackail.
Now I begin my fellowship with God, which shall never be broken off. Farewell, father and mother, friends and relations! Farewell, meat and drink! Farewell, sun, moon, and stars! Welcome God and Father! Welcome sweet Lord Jesus, the Mediator of the New Covenant! Welcome blessed Spirit of Grace! Welcome glory! Welcome eternal life! Welcome death!
What a splendid and marvelous triumph
That martyr knew that death had no more dominion over him.
He knew in that darkness and shadow Jesus was waiting.
That same happy and triumphant confidence may be ours!
You see, it is Easter morning that brings us to that serene and happy confidence….
• It is the same today as it was to John in Patmos of old.
The First and Last and Living One appears and says, “I became dead, and behold I am alive for evermore, and I have the keys of death and Hell.”
