JUST AS HE SAID
Matthew 28:1-8
Introduction: Five people showed up. Five! Four women and one elderly gentlemen was all that showed up in a concert hall which could easily seat 1,800 people. His name was William Brown. He was a world-class tenor, twice performed at Carnegie Hall. On this occasion, around 1968-69, he was to perform at Howard University in Washington D.C. Two days prior to the concert chaos broke loose. Confusion, racial riots, picketing, vandalism and violence everywhere, and the night of the concert it began to rain! The atmosphere and the streets in Washington were so severe no one would go out. Even the musical critics canceled. The pianist went to William Brown and said, "Look, five people are out there. They look lost in that huge auditorium. Let’s just go home!" To which William Brown responded, "No! I have made a promise that I will sing and I’m going to sing." And sing he did for five people! He made a promise. He made a contract. He made an agreement. It is said that one’s character can be measured by the degree to which one keeps promises. He made a promise and he kept it! The problem that we find is so often that people follow another adage – promises are made to be broken. The result is that we often find it very difficult to believe people or to place our confidence in them. They let us down. Do you ever have a problem taking people at their word? Today, I want to tell you there is One who never breaks His word; who always does just as He says! His track record is impeccable. His very name is Truth – the Lord Jesus Christ!
I. He said He would rise from the garden tomb – and He did just as He said!
A. At least three times Christ told His disciples that He would die and that He would rise again after three days and three nights.
B. After Peter’s confess that Jesus was the Christ in Mark 8 we read in verse 31 that “he began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.”
C. In Mark 9:9, when Christ was transfigured before Peter, James, and John, “He charged them that they should tell no man what things they had seen, till the Son of man were risen from the dead.”
D. Again in Mark 10:32b-34 we read, “… And he took again the twelve, and began to tell them what things should happen unto him, saying, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be delivered unto the chief priests, and unto the scribes; and they shall condemn him to death, and shall deliver him to the Gentiles: and they shall mock him, and shall scourge him, and shall spit upon him, and shall kill him: and the third day he shall rise again.
E. Matthew 28:5-6 "And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come; see the place where the Lord lay."
II. He said He would not leave us comfortless but would send another Comforter – and He did just as He said!
A. Christ said that He was going to return to His Father in heaven, but that in returning He would not leave us comfortless.
B. John 14:1-2 "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you." 16-18a: "And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it sees him not, neither knows him: but ye know him; for he dwells with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless…"
C. As Christ was caught up into heaven he said in Acts 1:8, "But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth."
D. Just as He said in Acts 2:2-4 we read, “And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost…”
E. Ephesians 1:13 tells us that Just as He said, "… after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise"
III. His Word is His bond
A. A promise from Christ is a statement we can depend on with absolute confidence. Here are just a few of His promises we can rest eternity upon.
B. His gracious acceptance – "Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out." (John 6:37)
C. His compassionate care – "Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matt. 11:28).
D. His complete forgiveness – "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9)
E. His abiding presence – "I will never leave you nor forsake you" (Heb. 13:5)
F. Hebrews 10:23 instructs, "Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for HE IS FAITHFUL THAT PROMISED.)"
G. He will do just as He said.
IV. He said He will come again just as He said would.
A. John 14:3 "And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also."
B. March 11, 1942, was a dark, desperate day at Corregidor. The Pacific theater of war was threatening and bleak. One island after another had been buffeted into submission. The enemy was now marching into the Philippines as confident and methodical as the star band in the Rose Bowl parade. Surrender was inevitable. The brilliant and bold soldier, Douglas MacArthur, had only three words for his comrades as he stepped into the escape boat destined for Australia: I shall return. Upon arriving nine days later in the port of Adelaide, the sixty-two-year-old military statesman closed his remarks with this sentence: I came through and I shall return. A little over 2 1/2 years later -- October 20, 1944, to be exact -- he stood once again on Philippine soil after landing safely at Leyte Island. This is what he said: This is the voice of freedom, General MacArthur speaking. People of the Philippines: I have returned! MacArthur kept his word. His word was as good as his bond. Regardless of the odds against him, including the pressures and power of enemy strategy, he was bound and determined to make his promise good. Christ said: "I will come again." The fulfillment of that promise is even more certain than was that of MacArthur.
C. Biblical prophecy provides some of the greatest encouragement and hope available to us today. Just as the Old Testament is saturated with prophecies concerning Christ’s first advent that have been literally fulfilled, so both testaments are filled with references to the second coming of Christ. One scholar has estimated that there are 1,845 references to Christ’s second coming in the Old Testament, where 17 books give it prominence. In the 260 chapters of the New Testament, there are 318 references to the second advent of Christ--an amazing 1 out of every 30 verses. Twenty-three of the 27 New Testament books refer to this great event. For every prophecy in the Bible concerning Christ’s first advent, there are 8 which look forward to His second! (Today in the Word, April, 1989, p. 27.)
D. Revelation 22:12, 20 “And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be… He which testifies these things says, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.
