The Victory

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.”