The Church Victorious
Pastor: Rev. Dr. Blake Altman Series: The Beauty of the Church Verse: Luke 24:1–12
Brothers and sisters, if you're willing and able, would you grab a Bible and open with me to Luke, Chapter 24. You can take a seat for a moment. If you would grab a Bible. You may find it helpful to have a physical Bible. Somebody asked me the other day why did you bring attention to having physical Bibles.
It's not just a preference. We are discipled by the way we use our phones so much over the course of the week. It's kind of nice to give yourself a break from your phone to open God's Word in your lap. To see real words on the page, printed words. And so whether you use your phone or the physical Bible, I would encourage you to try to use the physical Bible.
There are some in the back, or bring yours from home, but open together to Luke chapter 24. We've been in a series called The Beauty of the Church. The Church of the Lord Jesus Christ is His people. It is not a building. We of course know from Scripture that God is not contained in a physical space. It wasn't until the reign of Solomon that God's people actually had a physical place where they worshipped Him.
They worshipped Him in tabernacles throughout the wilderness. And so we, as God's covenant people, we are the church. But we're looking throughout all of redemptive history about the beauty of the church. From Adam, all the way until the New Jerusalem at the end of Revelation. And we, in our series, have looked at the garden.
We have looked at the life of Abraham. We have looked at Moses. We have looked at King David. We have looked at the prophets in the exile in Daniel. We have looked at the return to the New Jerusalem, to Jerusalem in Ezra and Nehemiah. And then, several weeks ago, we looked at the incarnation in the manger.
All focusing on the beauty of the church and its iterations and all this unified story in these different beautiful pictures of the gospel. We looked at the wedding of Cana and the last week we looked at the cross. But John Stott says that we are a resurrection people. And Christianity is, if anything at all, it is a resurrection faith.
And the resurrection is central to the Another theologian has said, the resurrection makes sense of the whole of redemptive history. And the resurrection doesn't just warm our hearts because the story of the gospel is far bigger than just warming our hearts. It is about the renewal, not only of our lives, but of the entire cosmos, all of creation itself.
And we see that together in Luke, chapter 24. So if you're willing and able, would you stand with me and let's read Luke 24, verses 1 Before we look at the church victorious.
But on the first day of the week at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared, and they found the stone rolled away from the tomb. But when they went in, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. And while they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel.
And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you while he was in Galilee that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified, and on the third day rise.
And they remembered his words. And returning from the tomb, they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles. But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them.
But Peter rose and ran to the tomb, stooping and looking in, and he saw the linen cloths by themselves, and he went home marveling at what had happened. This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. You may be seated, please.
This week, a friend of mine invited me and 5, 6, 7 other pastors to go to Covenant Seminary and to meet with some of the professors. And we were going to talk together about how to lead churches through this critical cancel culture kind of environment. And thinking about the readings of That we have to do before this little get together in St.
Louis here in a couple of days. One of the books we read is a book by Christopher Watkins called Biblical Critical Theory. And that book is arguing that the way that you put the world back together actually is through the beauty of the resurrection. Our faith that we have as Christians in the truth that the Lord Jesus Christ rose again from the dead.
And it reminded me, thinking about all of these critical theories and social critical ideas, it reminded me of this old poem I think that you may have heard before. Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall. Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. Say it with me. And all the king's horses and all the king's men sat Couldn't put Humpty together again.
And this poem, of course, is a silly poem. It's a poem that we all know as children, and who Humpty Dumpty is, is a source of great debate in the history of that poem. For some, it was an egg that was Lewis Carroll shaped as an egg and Mother Goose in the 19th century. For others, even earlier than that, the poem existed.
During the British Civil War, a Humpty Dumpty was a cannon that sat on the edge of the wall at St. Mary's Church that had fallen when the wall was destroyed, and all the king's men couldn't figure out how to get the cannon working again. For others, it's whatever it is that you want it to be, but it is a metaphor, it is a picture of our fallen world, is it not?
It is a picture of how we as human beings. By nature, in our fallen world, are really good at looking at the mess of our world and trying to put it back together again. And how we're frustrated by all of our attempts to do so because we move the pieces of Humpty around. We try to reform him, to reshape him, and we find that No social theory, no political ideology, no human effort is able to put the world back to rights again.
And this is true even in the way that some of us, even in this church, when we come to Bible studies, for example, we have to be careful that we don't fall into this kind of critique mindset, because it is so easy for us to critique, isn't it? Because critique makes you feel smart, and it can make you feel smug, and the reason why some of you are here is because you've tried to become part of churches at other places, and you just felt like the critique was so thick.
You felt it when you walked in that room, but isn't it interesting? That we have to resist the desire to just simply critique. It's easy at Bible studies, for example, to just critique other people. It's right now, it's really popular to critique pastors. It's really easy to critique different theologies besides that, which is taught in the Westminster Confession of Faith.
And you do sound so bright and so smart and so doing, but it's interesting. Oh, people of the resurrection, that it is only in Christianity It is only in the gospel that provides you a worldview that not only critiques the world, but actually gives you the power to reconstruct it because it has already been reconstructed for you in the finished work of Jesus.
Amen. And as Christians, you have the power not only to identify where the illness may be. But you, by the grace of God, have the power, through the resurrection, to begin to build civic life in a way to help all the world flourish, and especially help you, as one who rests in the finished work of Jesus, to find peace and rest for all that you've been chasing after.
In Luke 24, Luke is writing to Theophilus. A young man, a lover of God, and he writes an orderly account. Kathesis, an orderly account to put together exactly what happened in the life of Jesus so that they would understand from Luke all the way to the book of Acts. And when he gets to the first of chapter 24, Luke teaches us that the resurrection of Jesus is the fulfillment of God's redemptive plan.
It confirms his covenant promises and in an amazing way, it inaugurates. New creation. And so the sermon in a sentence is there in your notes at the top of the page, but if I could say it simply, I would say it this way. The resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ announces the dawn of new creation. And Luke invites you to let the resurrection shape your worldview and apply it to every area of your life.
And so let's look. Look at the text together. Let's look at it together. First, the resurrection announces the dawn of new creation. Notice what it says in verse one, but on the first day of the week, now let's stop. In Greek, It says the first of the week. It is a metonym of Greek to say it's the beginning of the week.
It's the first day of the week. And Luke is giving this orderly account to Theophilus, but he is also drawing your attention to something even more mysterious. The Apostle John does this also in his book. He's drawing us back to the first week of creation. Well, how do you know that? Well, notice where they are.
Here they are, back in a garden. But instead of finding death in the garden, what do these women find? Resurrection life.
In Genesis, out of the void and chaos, the Lord spoke order, beauty, light. And here Jesus, the light of the world, emerges on the new first day of the week. As though to say, I am announcing not only the beginning of creation, but I am putting all things to right, because I am the first fruits, as Paul says.
of the new creation. God began his work by bringing light out of darkness. And as John 8 says that Jesus was the light of the world who emerges. And so you begin to see new creation breaking in the first day of the week. It is taking us back to Genesis to show that Jesus is, He is the true light of the world that is coming to dispel the chaos and the disorder of our life.
And His resurrection is the sure sign of His church. Paul says that Jesus is the first fruits of a new creation in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. That is that he is the first evidence, he is the first sign of what it will be like when the world is completely restored and remade. And Luke, in the midst of telling Theophilus, detail by detail, The life and ministry, death, resurrection, and glory of Jesus.
He is reminding Theophilus that the gospel is bigger than just personal doctrine about how you get to heaven when you die. It is about the Lord inviting you into his great renewal campaign in which all of creation is renewed under his kingship. Hallelujah! One Reformed theologian, Hermann Bavink, says the resurrection of Christ is the principle and source of the resurrection of the entire cosmos.
It is the pledge and guarantee that all misery and death and sin and destruction will be overcome. The resurrection, Bavink says, is the dawn of new creation. But there's still more. Notice the angel's proclamation about the resurrection. Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James verses 4 to 8 and the other women they come to the tomb They're perplexed.
They expect to find a dead body. They brought spices on the truss and the church You can see it under your notes and the bulletin You can see the spice jars that the women are bringing to the tomb They expect to find Jesus's dead body and they are stunned when they see two men in dazzling array angels Two men, as a testimony, as Deuteronomy chapter 19 says, where there are two witnesses.
You know it's a significant event. There are two witnesses of this amazing event, and they say, why are you looking for the living among the dead? As though the angels are looking at the women going, duh. Don't you know what he said? Six times Luke makes the point to say six times before chapter 24. Luke goes on to say to Theophilus that Jesus said.
I will rise again on the third day. The day is coming when I will rise. And these guys, listen, these 11, the disciples, right, minus Judas, the 11 disciples, they're pretty smart guys. They've given their years, left their careers to follow Jesus. Pretty bright. With Jesus.
And they didn't get it. Which is encouraging to me because it reminds me that we need God's word to continually remind us of the truth because you don't get it. I know you're smart, and I know that you know a lot of theology, but it is amazing how we can know so much theology and yet have so little gospel changing our life.
We need to continually to run back to His Word. And God gives us something beautiful, doesn't He? He gives us His Word to remind us of what is true, and so we take no apology of holding high God's Word because it is the source of truth.
These angels, they tell the women, He is not here. He has risen. And they remember, they remember that the Son of Man must be delivered to the hands of sinful men, as Jesus said back in Luke 9 verse 22. And on the third day, rise again. They knew that He must. be delivered. Why? Because it was God's foreordained and divine plan to redeem the world.
And his resurrection is the inauguration of a kingdom. It is the beginning of new creation. And the resurrection, the resurrection didn't just happen for those women, of course, or for those 11 disciples. It happened for you. It happened for you because just as these women find themselves again in a garden, like we did in Genesis.
So, also, now you have angels who also were in the garden, weren't they? The cherubim with flaming swords, what were they doing? They were keeping people out of the garden, but isn't it interesting, here you have angels who are what? They're inviting you in. It's the great reversal in the resurrection. You see new creation breaking in.
And the angels are inviting them in. It says Peter, when he heard the idol tell, he didn't believe the women, he ran to the tomb. And stooping and going in, it's like the angels say, hey, come look. And the Holy Spirit is saying to you through His Word, just as Luke told Theophilus, come look. I know you have doubts.
I know you're wondering about who you are and your identity. And Jesus says, come look at the resurrection. Like He said to Thomas, come look at my wounds, touch me. Feel me. Come to this Lord's table in just a minute. Come to Him with faith. Taste and see that He is real and He is risen, that He is good. And so not only do we see the first day of the week as we do back in the garden, not only do we see angels now, they're inviting us in, they're not keeping us out.
But also, we see that the women, though the women, they go and they tell the apostles, They run and they tell the apostles, isn't it interesting that the women are the heralds of the gospel for the first time? Isn't that interesting? They go and they tell the apostles, and what do they do when they hear the women tell, you know, they tell these men that, hey, we saw the tomb and it was empty.
And when the women tell them, the men respond, But, but thinking that it's a lairos in Greek. It is an idle tale. They think that they must be dreaming. It's the word that other poets use of those who have visions that are divorced from reality.
And yet, following Peter, they do believe. And again, you kind of see the reversal of the guard in here, don't you? Because who was it that Satan went after first? Eve, hmm. And Adam didn't leave his family. He didn't point Eve back to the truth of Scripture. But here you have Eve's in the garden, heralding the good news back to the disciples, bringing it to them.
And yet the men, whereas Adam believed and followed her, the men don't believe. And yet as they investigate the truth and as they see it, then they rejoice with the women. of the truth of the resurrection. It is this beautiful picture, isn't it? That Luke, even, even, oh, Dr. Luke, who was just trying to give the facts, he can't help himself, but tie this back to the garden to show that the resurrection is the inauguration of the new creation.
Not only did it happen, not only is it historical, not only did Jesus physically rise again from the dead, hallelujah, but the implications for our lives are massive. Do you know that? When, when Paul is reflecting on his relationship with the church at Philippi, and he's trying to think, how do I communicate to this precious young church how to apply the gospel?
And he talks about his pedigree. You know, he was a Hebrew of Hebrews, a Pharisee of Pharisees, and he says all of his resume he considers scubala, rubbish, for the sake of knowing Jesus Christ our Lord. And as Paul is thinking, how do I communicate this? He only says there's one Christian doctrine. that has a power.
The persons of the Godhead, Father, Son, and Spirit have power, but there is one doctrine in Scripture that has a power, it says. In Philippians chapter 3, verse 10, Paul says, Oh, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection. And it is a faith in the resurrection that allows you not only to critique what's wrong with the world, but begin, as those who were dwelt by the Holy Spirit, to actually move into civil society and create and provide blessing and wholeness.
Why? Because we are those people who have incredible hope. Because we have resurrection power. And so I just wanna spend a few minutes before we come to the table and think about what it means for us to really live as people with resurrection power. It's easy for us as we talk about the redemptive story to think about creation, fall, redemption, glory.
We talk about that a lot here. But when Paul thinks about the way the gospel actually applies to his heart, if you, in his epistles, he uses the language of death. resurrection and glory. And it's as though we see moments of, that are death moments. Sometimes it's a literal passing of our spouse.
Sometimes it's decisions that are harmful, that are made by members of our family or consequences of our own decisions. There are moments of death for which we need to repent. And then you see moments of resurrection You see moments of reconciliation amongst friends. You see the reunion of people who were once estranged.
You see people making positive contributions through common grace to the world to build up and to strengthen in a world that just loves to critique and tear down institutions and break down. Those, those are resurrection moments. And then every once in a while you see glory moments. In our garage, in our house, we have, we have, Lorne and I have this little plate that somebody once gave us, and it just says, it's a, it looks like a street sign.
It just says, Living the Dream, and we pull into our garage, and we say, oh, amongst everything in this house, we want this house to be a picture of what glory is like. And of course, there's six people in the house, so we all mess it up, but it is a picture. What is it going to be like? When you see the church operating beautifully.
When you see us loving each other, providing for each other, caring for each other with selfless service, it's a glory moment, and it's beautiful. And so some of these resurrection moments in our life, what is the power of the resurrection for us? Well, let's think about how the resurrection is a power that points us to ultimate healing and restoration.
Let's imagine my friend Jackson. His family is dead. He's deeply divided politically, even after the election. And he has a hard time having conversations with his family, because they hold so dear their political ideologies. And yet he's still able to listen and learn and humble himself and enter in and say, I want to hear your perspective.
I want to know. And over time, Jackson has talked about how his family is now able to, even if they disagree, they're able to dwell together because they, as Christians, have something far deeper that unites them. They don't let their differences on secondary issues divide them. The resurrection shows that ultimate healing and restoration is possible.
The resurrection shows that God can bring life out of death. There's a woman I know named Margaret. She struggles with depression and anxiety and PTSD from a very traumatizing and horrific experience in her past. And she battles these mental health challenges and the resurrection offers Margaret something more than just hope.
Vain hope. It offers her real life. She is now gathered in a church that loves her and walks alongside her and helps her both to critique the experience and grieve over it. And yet she knows that she has the hope of the resurrection, that one day, someday God will bring all justice to the land.
Hallelujah. He will restore that which has been broken. And she's able to make progress. And she uses means of common grace. She uses counseling and therapy. She's even used medication to help her. All these ways that God is saying there is resurrection hope, and she points her eyes. She sees the beauty of the resurrection, and she gets up day after day after day.
She's gonna make it. Because she is in her resurrection hope. The resurrection allows healing and restoration. It shows that God can bring life out of death. The resurrection validates both our grief and our hope. Imagine Harry, he just lost his wife of 60 years. And how does Harry move forward with such deep sorrow?
The resurrection gives him both permission to grieve, but also permission to hope. To know that while there be no, there will be no marriage in heaven, one day he will see his bride again. And they will be whole. Mm. Beautiful. And he longs for that. And so he doesn't just abscond into his home, he actually moves out into his church, knows people, sees people, allows them into his life to encourage him in these years.
They help him with many tasks that he now needs help with because his wife did so much for him. And the church enfolds him. Resurrection. A community. A community. The resurrection also reminds us that our triune identity, that our true identity is in our triune God, and it is the source and foundation of our worth.
Because Jesus resurrection validates all of His covenant promises to you, you're mine, Jesus said, and I'll show you the proof of that, and He rose again from the dead. And so, Heather constantly worries about her body image, and she feels overwhelmed by the social pressures to look perfect. And in a world that is just obsessed with appearance, the resurrection offers Heather a radical truth, that her worth is not tied to how she looks, but the resurrection speaks to her identity as a beloved child of God created in His image.
And it points her to the future promise of a glorified body, one that one day will be free from decay and pain and sin. There will be no more tears. Hallelujah. I wonder if you know the power of the resurrection. It is our hope. One of these days when we are at worship the, all the sound went out. You may remember that.
And somebody went over to the side and. Huh. I took the plug, and plugged it back in. And some of you in your own Christian life, you are without power. Because you have tried again and again and again, though you know that you were saved by faith, by means of grace.
You've tried to operate by human effort. And you cannot put Humpty Dumpty back together again. You need the power of the resurrection. I wonder if you know it. Luke shows Theophilus and us the historical and physical resurrection, announces the dawn of new creation, the resurrection reverses the curse that came of the fall, and the resurrection calls us to believe.
And if the gospel, and only the gospel, can put Humpty Dumpty back together again, in light of the resurrection, we might say Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. And only our King who rose from the dead renews all creation. It is finished, he said. The truth of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, friends, is that we have a worldview that is able and strong enough to both have critical reflection upon our culture, but not only criticize, but begin to rebuild.
salt and light, day by day by day. And remember what Paul says in Philippians, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection. And the next line, that I may share in his great victory and a perfect life that I now have. No, that's not what he says. That I may share in his sufferings. Becoming like him, even in his death.
That by any means possible, I may attain the resurrection of the dead. So, let's join the Apostle Paul, and let's have resurrection power even as we enter into our sufferings as a church. And let's join Peter, who at the empty tomb found the living presence of our risen Lord to be a fact. And as Luke tells us, he marveled.
So, as you come to this table this morning, let's marvel. At the fulfillment of all that God has promised in the first fruits of creation in the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ of the dawn of our new creation. Amen. Amen. Let's pray. Father, would you remind us that the gospel is bigger than we could have ever imagined?
It is restoring our hearts back to fellowship with you. Yes, but you're also renewing all creation of which the resurrection is the first fruit. Jesus, thank you that on that day you physically rose from the dead. May we marvel at it as we come to your table in faith and repentance and joy. In Jesus name we pray.
Amen. Let us give of our tithes and offerings as unto the Lord.
other sermons in this series
Nov 24
2024
The Church at Rest
Pastor: Rev. Dr. Blake Altman Verse: Revelation 21:1–5, Revelation 22:1–5 Series: The Beauty of the Church
Nov 17
2024
The Church Empowered
Pastor: Rev. Mark Kuiper Verse: Acts 2:1–13 Series: The Beauty of the Church
Nov 3
2024
The Church Redeemed
Pastor: Rev. Dr. Blake Altman Verse: John 19:1–42 Series: The Beauty of the Church