My dear brethren in Christ, today is Easter Day! Jesus Christ, the only Begotten Son of God is risen from the dead! He who hung on the Cross for our salvation and suffered the penalty for our sin in our place, He who descended into Hell on that Holy Saturday, is risen indeed, and in this resurrection offers life to every sinner that believes on Him! The tomb is empty, Christ is risen, but are you risen with Christ? To be risen with Christ means that you have a lively faith in the risen Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, a faith gained through hearing and receiving His Word in the light of His Holy Spirit, with the result that you forsake the things of this world, seeking instead the heavenly glory of God. Once again, I pose the question to you, Christ is risen from the dead, but are you risen with Him?
The Epistle
Colossians 3:1
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F ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.
Christ is risen. For Saint Paul, there is no doubt. It is an established fact of history.
To be risen with Christ, you must first believe that Christ is truly and bodily risen from the dead. This seems simple enough, but how many professing Christians are there today who claim that the Resurrection of Jesus Christ was only a hallucination or a myth. We are told that the resurrection is scientifically impossible, that our Lord must have escaped crucifixion, or that the disciples stole his body, or that the resurrection was only a mystical “experience” of the apostles severed from any objective reality. But where does such faithless “faith” lead to? Hear the words of Paul, “if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.” You see the danger, if you do not believe in the Resurrection of Christ, then you are not risen with Christ, you live in utter vanity, you are still dead in your sins.
Therefore, believing the Resurrection of Christ is essential for being raised with Him. How do we establish and strengthen our faith in the Risen and Ascended Christ, that we may be risen with Christ? Hear the word of the Lord spoken through Saint Paul, “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
Friends, if you suffer from doubt and temptation, if you feel a longing to escape the burden of your sins, to escape the condemnation which awaits you, to find a way out of death into life, if you yearn to establish and strengthen your faith, then go to the Bible and read it, praying for the guidance of the Holy Ghost, that God’s Word may convict you of your sins, that the Holy Ghost by the Word may move you to faith in the blood of the Saviour, and guide you into the whole Truth of God’s pure and perfect Word unto life eternal.
After you are risen with Christ, what next? You are to seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. What does it mean to seek those things which are above? It means that you are risen with Christ for a purpose, a purpose beautifully and simply put in the Westminster Catechism, “Man's chief and highest end is to glorify God, and fully to enjoy him forever.” You are to seek after God with your whole heart, to glorify Him in your lives, and to enjoy Him in His heavenly Kingdom forever. Through what means are you to seek after God? Through God’s Word, the Holy Scriptures which testify of Christ, received by grace through faith under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. This is the only path to God.
Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.
Thus, the Christian risen with Christ has a lofty calling. He must keep his mind ever set on God’s Kingdom, he must love the Lord Jesus Christ and His Word and seek His glory above all things, not coveting the things of this world, but using them in the service of God. The Apostle is saying that the Christian must not let anything get in the way of seeking after God. Why? Because, if you are truly risen with Christ by grace through faith, then you have already died to the things of this world. Thus, the world in itself leads only to your death. But your life, your eternal happiness and felicity, is hidden with Christ in God. If you would be risen with Christ, if you would live with Christ, then you must be as pilgrims in this world, as those who are only passing through on a journey to their final destination, setting your sights and the sights of your families on the heavenly city of God’s Kingdom. Set all your affections and your love on God and His Kingdom, earnestly following the way of the Lord Jesus Christ, who commanded, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets,” and in another place said, “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”
Friends, Care not for the world. So what if the world hates you, if you suffer tribulation and adversity in this life, for your true life is not in this world, but is hidden and preserved with Christ in God, and nothing can snatch it away from Him.Take comfort in this, that your eternal life is preserved and secure with God, and know that when Christ, who is our life, yea, who is the way, the truth, and the life, shall appear at His Second Coming, then the land and sea shall give up their dead, and you with all of His redeemed will appear with Him, finally attaining that glory of God which is the end ordained for all of God’s people.
Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: For which things' sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience: In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them.
We have talked much about being risen with Christ, but what are we risen from? We are risen from sin. Remember when our forefather Adam transgressed the Law of God in the Garden of Eden? He was the representative of all mankind at that moment. By his disobedience all mankind fell into sin and under the wrathful judgement of God. This is why Paul refers to mankind as the children of disobedience. What a woeful thing it is to be a child of disobedience and a slave to sin! And every person is born into this state, for all are contaminated by original sin. This is why in your unregenerate state you cannot seek those things which are above, you cannot attain to the glory of God. No, you are utterly severed from God, so instead of seeking God, instead of glorifying Him and enjoying him forever, your souls seek after and love those things which are of the world. This is idolatry. And where does it lead to? Does it lead to life? No. It leads only to death, for the things of this world which fallen men cling to will eventually pass away. Only the things above are eternal, only God is from everlasting to everlasting, which is why only those who have died to sin in the blood of the Lamb, only those who faithfully hear and receive God’s Word in the light of His Holy Spirit, only those who are risen with Christ and who faithfully seek after God in this life, are heirs of eternal life, for as the Lord says, Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.
If you are truly risen with Christ, you have died to the world, the flesh, and the devil. It is not enough to half-heartedly seek after God. Those who are raised with Christ are they who wholeheartedly seek after God by faith, who repent of their sins and who faithfully strive to live according to God’s Word in their lives by His grace for His honor and glory, for thus do the Holy Scriptures say, the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. Don’t cling to the world, to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. For all these pass away. Pray to God, that He may crucify the old man of sin in you, with all your worldly affections and lusts, that you may be truly risen with Christ, that you may be able to seek after God with your whole heart, to do His Will, and to enjoy Him forever.
Let me close with a small illustration. There was once a wicked woman, a woman who was dead in her tresspasses and sins. This woman was possessed by eight devils, and was given to all sorts of lusts and depravity. Then she heard the Word of God, and the Holy Ghost applied God’s Word to her heart, moving her to genuine repentance and conversion of life. She followed after Jesus with all her heart. She knew that He died for her, that He was buried in the tomb, but she didn’t know about the Resurrection, and lamented the death of her only hope in life. She rose up early and visited His tomb, only to find it empty. She wept by His sepulchre, thinking graverobbers had stolen His Body. Then she saw a Man, but she did not know who He was. Then this Man called her by name, and at that moment she knew that it was Jesus Christ, He is risen from the dead! At that moment, she was lifted from the depths of sorrow and doubt to faith in God’s Word. She was risen with Christ, she heard His Word faithfully, and went out and told it to the edification of her fellows. Do you know who this woman was? It was Mary Magdalene. If the wicked Mary, a poor and destitute sinner, is risen with Christ through faith, then every sinner who truly and wholeheartedly believes in Jesus Christ may be risen from the deadness of their sins to the glory of God!
Dear friends, if you desire to be risen with Christ, if you long for everlasting life and happiness with God, if you seek those things which are above, then open your Bibles, read, and patiently listen to the Word of the Lord calling you to Himself. Pray earnestly for this Word to take root in your heart, to convict you of your sins, and to turn you to Himself. For then will you be risen with Christ indeed, and will be enabled by His Spirit to seek after the glory of God all the days of your life, trampling sin and the devil under foot, and at the last passing through the gates of everlasting life into the eternal felicity of God.
Let us close in prayer with the words of the collect for Easter Day.
Easter Sunday.
The Collect.
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LMIGHTY God, who through thine only-begotten Son Jesus Christ hast overcome death, and opened unto us the gate of everlasting life; We humbly beseech thee that, as by thy special grace preventing us thou dost put into our minds good desires, so by thy continual help we may bring the same to good effect; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost ever, one God, world without end. Amen.
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