God, Who Raises the Dead

I. Introduction
A. Read 2 Corinthians 1:8–10
B. The Bible is the revelation of what is wrong with man and his world, and what God does to resolve it.
1. If we had to reduce God's redemptive activity down to one word you could easily choose the word resurrection.
2. We see resurrection in the creation, in our circumstances, in most Bible stories, in many scriptural descriptions of the character of God and in His promises of hope toward us. Everything centers around this concept of resurrection.
3. This morning’s passage describes God in terms of resurrection: “God who raises the dead.”
C. Easter is a time when we celebrate the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.
1. But resurrection is at the core of what the Bible says God is doing.
2. The story of the entire cosmos is a drama with progression and characters and an audience.
a. Resurrection is the theme song of the story of the entire cosmos. You hear it in the overture. You hear it recurring throughout the story in subtle ways. At the climax of the story it is brought out stronger and clearer. And in the finale it is literally blasted over and over again.
b. Resurrection is the theme song of the drama of the entire cosmos:
(1) The creation is the overture.
(2) Christ's resurrection is the climax.
(3) The return of Christ on the judgment day is the grand finale.
II. There is a lot packed into this phrase: “God, who raises the dead.” Let’s look at how the Bible describes resurrection in the past. the present, and the future.
A. The past: Resurrection in the story of the Bible
1. Christ’s resurrection is certainly the high point of God’s resurrecting work in the past. But it is certainly not the only divine work of resurrection in the Bible.
2. Creation - the curtain opens up onto a death-like scenario: formlessness, emptiness, darkness
a. Wasn’t alive in order to be brought to life again.
b. But, resurrection is a repeat of creation, it is re-creation. So, the pattern of creation is important to include in this theme.
3. Noah's ark is the story of a resurrection.
4. Opening of Sarah's womb (Gen.11:30) & opening of other barren wombs: Rebekah’s (Gen.25:21), Rachel’s (Gen.29:31, 30:22), Elizabeth’s (Luke 1:7), and especially Mary’s (Matt.1:23).
5. Abraham & Isaac
a. And if you think I’m going too far in using resurrection language to describe these stories, I am doing the same thing as Hebr. 11:19 where it says that Abraham “considered that God was able even to raise him [Isaac] from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.”
6. Circumcision: cutting off, figuratively speaking, your posterity. And yet, God brings new life nonetheless. It is an act that pictures death and resurrection. It is no mere coincidence that Ishmael was born before Abraham’s circumcision and Isaac, the child of God’s promise, was conceived after.
7. Exodus: resurrection of a people from an Egyptian grave
a. Crossing the Jordan (Josh. 3-4): another ark through another water
8. Cleansing ceremonies in the law of Moses - e.g. Lev. 15:14, 29
9. First-born symbolically sacrificed to the Lord - Lev. 9:1; 22:27
10. Naaman (2Kings 5) and other healings
11. Jonah and the great fish (Jonah 1-2)
12. Coronation of Joash (2Kings 11:1-20)
13. Psalms
a. Ps. 40:1-2 Up out of the pit and onto a solid rock
b. Ps. 107: 10-16 He brought them up out of darkness & the shadow of death
c. Ps. 113: 7-9 He lifts the lowly & opens the barren womb
d. Ps. 126: 5-6 Sow in tears, reap in joy
e. Ps. 146 He is in the business of lifting up the lowly
14. Valley of the dry bones (Ezek.37:1-14) - points ahead to the New Covenant
15. Exile and restoration (Jeremiah 24:1-7)
16. Destruction, rebuilding of the temple and Jerusalem's walls
17. Prodigal son - Luke 15:24 He was dead but now alive
18. Peter from prison
19. Paul’s 3 days of blindness
20. Our own past
a. Regeneration (Ephesians 2:1–6 You were dead in the trespasses and sins 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ 6 and raised us up with him.)
b. John 5:21 “For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will.”
c. Baptism - buried with Him in baptism and raised again (Rom. 6:4, Col. 2:12)
B. The present
1. Also built into the fabric of normal life (Seasons, each new morning, a seed falling and then sprouting, eating food: something must die to give life).
2. Present resurrection is primarily what Paul’s talking about in 2Cor.1:8-10.
a. He’s been through a death of sorts. Listen to his language:
(1) “affliction we experienced in Asia”
(2) “such a deadly peril”
(3) “We were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself.”
(4) “We felt that we had received the sentence of death.”
b. And yet, “God who raises the dead” “delivered us from such a deadly peril.”
c. Not only this, but “He will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again.”
d. Resurrection isn’t just something God has done in history, it is not just something God has done in our past, it’s something He is doing over and over again in our lives.
e. Like Paul, we are constantly dying. This is a part of human experience. And if we’re honest with ourselves we feel it every day. This is one of the reasons life is so empty and meaningless and scary for those who don’t know the God who raises the dead!
3. But for you, Beloved, your God is the God who raises the dead.
4. This is why you experience death, and danger, and disappointment and difficulty.
5. This is what Paul argues in 1Cor.15. If there is no resurrection, he reasons, “Why are we in danger every hour?...I die every day!” 1Corinthians 15:30–31
6. Our lives are a series of deaths. But we don’t need to despair in the face of deaths, because our God is the God who raises the dead!
7. This is what 2Corinthians 4:8-11, 16 is talking about. “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. 11 For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh...16 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.”
8. Of course, if there is no resurrection, if God is not the God who raises the dead, then everything really is vanity, and that’s the end of the story!
C. The future
1. The final aspect of resurrection is the resurrection of all men and of all creation at the last day.
2. It is not merely that Jesus was resurrected, but that He was the first-born from the dead. (Col.1:18)
3. His resurrection pointed ahead to and guaranteed a larger resurrection.
4. One man, by falling into death, pulled the entire creation down into death with him. This is what we call “the curse.”
5. Now one man, by being raised from the dead, has initiated resurrection from death to the whole creation.
6. His resurrection is the promise of a restored creation (incl. resurrected bodies).
7. He is the God who raises the dead, and through Christ He will raise all things from the dead on the last day.
8. I would like to end by reading to you portions of the picture Scripture paints of this day at the end of the last book of the Bible, the book of Revelation. It begins with the events just preceding the last day.
a. Revelation 20:7–22:21 Satan was released from his prison 8 to deceive the nations. 9 And they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and consumed them, 10 and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
b. 11 Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. 12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books. 14 Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. 15 And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
c. 21:1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” 5 And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” 6 And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. 9 Then came one of the seven angels spoke to me, saying, “Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.” 10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, 11 having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal.
d. 22 And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. 23 And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. 24 By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, 25 and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. 26 They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. 27 But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life. 22:1 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. 3 No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. 4 They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5 And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever. 6 And he said to me, “These words are trustworthy and true. And the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, has sent his angel to show his servants what must soon take place.”
e. 12 “Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay each one for what he has done. 13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” 14 Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates.
f. 17 The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price. 20 He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus! 21 The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen.