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By Pastor Glenn Pease
1. IS MARRIAGE FOREVER? based
on Matt. 22:23‑33
2. GHOSTS OF THE GODLY Bases
on Matt. 27:5‑54
3. THE COINS OF THE BIBLE Based
on Mark 12:41‑44
4. THE REALITY OF ACCIDENTS Based on Luke 13:1‑5
5. THANK GOD FOR GRANDPARENTS
Based on II Tim. 1:1‑7
6. GODLY GRANDPARENTS Based on Ruth 4:13‑17
7. GRANDPARENTS AND GRANDCHILDREN
Based on Psa. 128:1‑6
8. THE SPIRIT OF SPORTS Based on Heb. 12:1‑2
9. THE POWER OF MEMORY Based on
Ex. 12:1‑16
10. HARMLESS AS DOVES
MATT. 10:16
11. TALKING TREES Based on Judges 9:7‑15
12. HELPING THE HANDICAPPED
Based on II Sam. 9:1‑13
13. THE POWER OF MUSIC Based on
Psa. 47
14. THE POWER OF NEGATIVE THINKING Based on Isa. 1:1‑17
15. PETS ARE FOREVER Based on Isa. 11:1‑9
1. IS MARRIAGE FOREVER?
based on Matt. 22:23‑33
One of the greatest romance stories of all history is that of
Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning. Elizabeth was a normal active girl up to age 15, but then life
ceiling tumbled in for her. She became
an invalid, who for the next 20 years was confined to bed in a darkened room. She was a prisoner of pain and
loneliness. Her mother died when she
was 22, and she was left in the hands of a cruely stern father. Later, her favorite brother was taken by a
drowning accident. Few people have ever
written of the depths of despair as she did.
In spite
of her tragic and lonely life, she managed to write poetry of such quality that
it was published. She made a name for
herself among the world of poets. In
1845, after her 38th birthday, a poet six years younger than her, by the name
of Robert Browning, wrote to her, and asked if he could visit. Her spirit was willing, but her flesh was
weak, and she was reluctant to let any man see her frail and tortured
body. He was insistent, however, and so
the day came when he entered her darkened room.
The light
of love altered the darkness of her life almost instantly. They began to write letters to each other,
and her health took a sudden positive turn.
She wrote later that love drew her gently back from the gates of
death. Her father fought this love, and
forced them to carry on their friendship in secrecy. After a year of this, with a friends help, she stole away, and
was married to Robert Browning. Her
father never forgave her, and they never met again.
Her
wedded life was a taste of heaven. Love
lifted her from 20 years in bed to a life of adventure with her husband. They went to Italy, and together wrote great
poetry. She bore Robert a son, and she
became famous for the poetry her love inspired. One day she handed him a little pile of poems and said,
"Read these, if you don't like them tear them up." These were the now famous Sonnets From the
Portuguese. It is said of them,
"No purer expression of a heart on fire with love has ever been
written." The most famous of all
is this one which introduces us to our subject.
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to depths and
bredth and height
My soul can reach, when
feeling out of sight
For the ends of being and
ideal grace.
I love thee to the level of
every day's
Most quite need, by sun and
candle light.
I love thee freely, as men
strive for right.
I love thee purely, as they
turn from praise.
I love thee with the passion
put to use
In my old griefs, and with
my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed
to lose
With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my
life; and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better
after death.
The
question is, was her hope of a better love after death a vain hope?
Is this merely poetic dreaming, with no foundation in fact? Does love last forever? Does death become the dividing line that
divorces all true lovers? These are not
minor questions, but ones which all loving mates ask at some time or
another.
It is
fascinating to study the marriages of great men of God, and see how the hope of
reunion with their mates is such a vital force in their lives. When William Booth, the founder of the
Salvation Army, stood at the side of his wife's grave, he spoke these words,
"I have never turned from her these 40 years for any journeyings on my
mission of mercy, but I longed to get back, and have counted the weeks, days,
and hours which should take me again to her side." After some other words concerning his sorrow
he said, "When I have served my Christ and my generation according to the
will of God, ....then I trust that she will bid me welcome to the skies."
Jonathan
Edwards, one of the greatest preachers and theologians America has ever produced,
did not die speaking of books and theology, but rather, of his dear wife,
Sarah. His final words were, "Give
my kindest love to my dear wife, and tell her that the uncommon union which has
so long subsisted between us has been of such a nature as I trust is spiritual
and therefore will continue forever."
The
fascinating book, The Courtship Of Mr. Lincoln, ends with these hopeful words
of Mary Todd, that great president's devoted wife‑‑"The only
consolation left me, is the certainty, that each day brings me nearer my loved
and lost....I shall not much longer be
separated from my idolized husband, who has only gone before and I am certain
is fondly watching and waiting for our reunion, nevermore to be
separated." We could go on and on
quoting the hopes of lovers through the ages, both great and small. It is a universal conviction that what the
Song of Solomon says about love, is true.
In 8:6 it says, "Love is strong as death," and in verse 7 is
says, "Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown
it." The context makes it clear
that this is the love of a man and woman.
All else may be washed away in the flood, but love endures forever. Christina Rossetti expressed the universal
hope of lovers in poetry‑
O my love, my dove, lift up
your eyes
Toward the eastern gates
like an opening rose.
You and I who parted will
meet in Paradise
Pass within and sing when
the gates unclose.
This life is but the passage
of a day,
This life is but a pang and
all is over,
But in the life to come
which fades not away
Every love shall abide and
every lover.
This
universal hope would, no doubt, be unquestioned by Christians were it not for
the interference of the skeptical Sadducees, who asked Jesus the difficult
question we read in our text of Matt.22:23‑33. The Sadducees were a sect of the Jews started in 250 B.C. by
Sadok, a president of the Sanhedrin, the ruling body of Judaism. They did not
believe in any resurrection at all.
They knew they couldn't convince those who believed in a restored
paradise to give up the idea as nonsense, so they tried the next best
thing. They tried to make the idea look
so complicated and ridiculous that men would have to laugh at it. Ridicule has always been a powerful tool in
theological debate, and the Sadducees were skilled at it.
They
had, no doubt, watched many a pious Pharisee squirm as they presented this
problem, which seems to throw a monkey wrench into the machinery of marriage
forever. The Pharisees were the largest of the Jewish sects and they did
believe in the resurrection. Keep in mind, the motive behind this question is
not the desire to find truth, but to make the hope of the resurrection look
foolish. How amusing the whole thing
was to them. How delighted they must
have been to have thought of this
example. Imagine one wife bewildered as
to which of her seven husbands she should choose in the day of resurrection. How hilarious to imagine the other six
walking away rejected to enjoy paradise alone. Their sides must have ached from the laugher, as they reviewed
their question, and it's implications.
Trying to hold back the smile, and look solemn, the Sadducee hit Jesus with
this question, "Now then, at the resurrection, whose wife will she be of
the seven, since all of them were married to her?"
At first
glance, the answer of Jesus seems to shatter the hopes of lovers through the
ages. In verse 30 Jesus says, "At
the resurrection people will neither marry or be given in marriage; they will
be like the angels in heaven." It
would appear that the Sadducees came off with a considerable victory here. Even if they did not destroy the hope of the
resurrection, they appear to have robbed it of one of it's greatest joys.
This passage
had disturbed many who fear that Jesus is saying, husbands and wives will not
be united in eternity, and all the hopes of eternal love are mere human
sentiments, and of no interest to God in His eternal plan. Such fears are unfounded, however, if we see
that Jesus is only concerned about destroying the Sadducees basis for
ridicule. Jesus is not eliminating
reunion and love, but only those aspects of earthly marriage which would make
it as complicated and ridiculous as the Sadducees suggest.
The
Sadducees have painted a picture of heaven that is filled with conflict that is
worse than what we see in time. The seven husbands in time were had one at a
time, and so there was no conflict. But now, in the resurrection, they are all
there at once, and they will be fighting over which one is to have this woman
as their wife for eternity. This picture is based on the assumption that in our
resurrection bodies we will still have sexual needs, and that no man is going
to want to be without a sexual partner for all eternity. Thus, heaven will be
filled with civil wars, with millions of men fighting to possess a woman who
was also married to another man in time. If nothing is different from time,
between the sexes, then you can see the mess there will be in heaven .
But the
answer of Jesus eliminates the problems the Sadducees foresee, that make heaven
such a mess. Jesus says people will be like angels in heaven. What does this mean?
It means the whole issue of sex is taken away. Angels are sexless beings, and
they do not have conflict over relationships. You never read about Mrs.
Gabriel, or of any angel having a mate. Their is no adultery among angels.
Their is no jealousy or lust, nor any the problems that sex leads to in this
life. Jesus is saying that sex is not necessary in heaven. There will be no
death there and no need for reproduction to keep the new heaven and new earth
populated. Sex is what makes marriage an exclusive relationship in time, and it
leads to a lot of emotions that will not be a part of eternity.
The
Sadducees were trying to carry over all the baggage of sexuality in time, into
eternity. If this was what eternity was to be, they had a point. But Jesus
makes all their objections irrelevant by making it clear that the conflicts of
sexuality will not exist in the resurrected bodies. James M. Campbell in his
book, Heaven Opened, writes, "True marriage is something more than a civil
contract, a partnership of convenience, a legalized indulgence. Where it
represents only those things it has in it no element of perpetuity, and can
have no existence beyond the present. But that which underlies all true
marriage, the union of souls, the ever deepening companion of souls, abides.
'The children of this age' marry in a
conventional fashion only for earth, but 'the children of the resurrection,'
who 'marry in the Lord,' are united forever. They are 'as the angels,' that is
to say, they have reached that androgynous condition in which sex distinctions
are transcended, or rather, in which the qualities of both sexes are blended
together."
This
means that the millions who have had two or more mates in this life need not
worry about making choices in heaven. Their will be none of that says Jesus.
The millions of singles need not worry that they will be left out, as if heaven
will be a continuation of the couple oriented society of time. All angels are
single, and Jesus is single, and all of the redeemed will be single. Marriage,
in the sense of an exclusive relationship, will be no more. We may love
millions without any jealousy on the part of others we love, for the sexual and
exclusive is no more. We will be like brothers and sisters to millions with Jesus
as our Elder Brother. Their will be no jealousy or envy in the family of God.
All will dwell in perfect harmony in the Father's house.
But what
about the universal hope of lovers? Does the answer of Jesus eliminate all
these hopes? Not at all. It only eliminates the problems, but it does not
eliminate the dreams of lovers of having a special relationship in the eternal
kingdom. We shall be like the angels. Are we to suppose that this means some
kind of demotion to a state where love is less than what we know in earthly
marriage? Jesus is not letting the Sadducees rob heaven of love. He is telling
them they are ignorant of the power of God, and they have too small a view of
God's potential to see that He will make love even greater in eternity than it
is in time. They have tried to limit God to their concept of love, but God is
not so limited. He has a higher level of love for those in the resurrection. It
will be a promotion to a love level enjoyed now by the angels. We will be moving
on up to a level of love where all the problems, the Sadducees could conceive,
are gone forever.
We are
not to read into this that there will be no unique love relationships in
heaven. Jesus is not saying, that in the restored Paradise, Adam will have no
special relationship to Eve. Will Eve pass her former husband on the streets of
gold and say to her companion, "He looks familiar but I don't know him
from Adam?" If so, then all that Scripture says about reunion of families,
retention of memory, and maintaining our identity is meaningless. Jesus said in
Matt.8:11 "I say to you that many will come from the east and the west,
and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the
kingdom of heaven." But what about
Sarah, Rebekah, and Rachel? Is heaven to be for men only? Of course not! These
couples in the Bible will not lose their identity. If they did, there would be
no meaning to knowing them in eternity, for they would be a bunch of total
strangers. It is the retaining of the memory of who they were in time that
gives meaning to meeting them in eternity. You can eliminate conflict over
sexuality and exclusiveness, but you cannot eliminate the relationship of
married couples in heaven. Once you do that you destroy all that the Bible says
about recognition and reunion in heaven. This makes heaven meaningless, for then it is just a mass of beings who are
in paradise, but with no identity. This is a rejection of the Biblical hope.
So, what
do we conclude? Marriage as we know it will be no more, but the relationship of
married people will not be eliminated. Just as friends and family will have a
special relationship in eternity, so married people will have such a
relationship. If it was an unhappy or mediocre marriage, the couple will not
have to be in any relationship in heaven, even though all hostility will be
gone. But for those who want to go on forever in a special love relationship,
there is no reason, whatsoever, why this should not be so.
Rachel
and Leah are not going to go on for all eternity fighting over which one gets
Jacob to sleep with them, but there is no reason to doubt that they will both
have a very special relationship to Jacob, which they will not have with you
and me, even though we might become the best of friends in heaven. It can never
be that these people were not married, and so, even though they will not be
married in the sense of having an exclusive sexual relationship, they will be
married for all eternity. Will marriage be forever? The answer is both yes and
no. It is no, to the Sadducees limited concept of marriage, but yes, to the
concept of marriage, as a quality love relationship that the redeemed want to
possess forever.
I might
find myself greatly interested in Sarah. I have preached sermons on her, and I
might want to spend long hours hearing her story in heaven. She would become a
special friend to me and a sister in the family of God, but she would always be
the wife of Abraham. He would not be jealous of the time she spends sharing her
story with me, or millions of other men, for there is no reason for jealousy,
and no basis for fear that their unique relationship can be stolen. This means
the marriage relationship is more secure in heaven than it could ever be in time.
In time there are many things that can change the best relationships, but in
eternity they will be what they are forever, with no possibility of
change, except to get better. Their is
no decline of anything good or loving in heaven. Progress is forever, but
regress is never.
This
means that marriage will be forever for those who have a love they want to
enjoy forever. Not all married couples have such a love, but for those who do,
heaven will be the fulfillment of their hopes. Everyone will be married in
heaven, in at least one sense, for all will be married to the Bridegroom, who
is Christ. Matthew Henry, the great commentator, says, "The joys of that
state are pure and spiritual, and arise from the marriage of all of them to the
Lamb, not of any of them to one another." He may be overstating the case,
and be implying that there are no joys in any other relationship than that we
will have with our Savior, but his point is good. Just as all will love Christ
without any jealousy, so any love in heaven will not present any problem as it
often does in time.
A
husband was consoling himself and his wife who was on her death‑bed. He
said they would meet again and be together in heaven. But she replied that she
would not even notice him in heaven for she would be occupied forever in
praising her Lord. This sound super‑spiritual, but it has no basis in
fact. We will be ever in our Lord's presence and worship will be a perpetual
state of the redeemed, but to suggest that all other relationships have to be
denied is going against the grain of all Christian hopes. We are to love God
now with all our being, but this in no way detracts from loving others. In
fact, the second commandment is to love our neighbor as ourself. God is to be
our number one priority, but He expects us to love others as well. There is no
reason to suppose this will be changed in heaven where we will finally be able
to obey God's commands completely. We will be able to love God fully and still
be able to love others in a special way, as well as love all the redeemed. We must love others here to really love God.
It will be even more so in heaven. Our total love for God will make us all the
more loving to others.
Charles
Spurgeon, considered by many to be the greatest preacher in history, had a very
interesting and unique perspective on this issue. He writes, "I expect to
see and know all the saints, to recognize them, and rejoice with them, and that
without the slightest prejudice to my being wholly absorbed in the sight of my
Lord. Let me explain to you how this can be. When I went the other day into a
friend's drawing‑room, I observed that on all sides there were mirrors.
The whole of the walls were covered with glass, and everywhere I looked I kept seeing
my friend. It was not necessary that I should fix my eyes upon him, for all the
mirrors reflected him. Thus, brethren, it seems to me that every saint in
heaven will be a mirror of Christ, and that as we look upon all the loved ones,
gazing round upon them all, we shall see Christ in every one of them, so we
shall still be seeing the Master in the servants, seeing the head in all the
members. It is I in them, and they in me. Is it not so? It will be all the
Master. This is the sum total of heaven."
Spurgeon saw no problem in
loving one's mate forever, for it would not be a conflict with loving one's
Lord supremely.
The
Sadducees tried to make love a problem in order to make the whole idea of the resurrection
a problem. Jesus made it clear, their limited idea of love and marriage
was not the only concept of love and
marriage God was capable of designing. Failure to evaluate the answer of Jesus
in the context of this attack of the enemies of the resurrection has led some
to conclude that Jesus rejects the idea of love forever for mates.
This is
not so, and Christians all through history have never doubted that true loving
relationships will be eternal. Charles Kingsley wrote, "All I can say is,
if I do not love my wife, body and soul, as well as I do here, then there is
neither resurrection of my body nor my soul." This is the conviction of
many who have given this issue any thought. In the famous Pulpit Commentary,
widely used by pastors, we read these words on this passage, "Our Lord
says nothing here concerning mutual recognition in the future state; nothing
about the continuance of those tender relations which he sanctions and blesses
on earth, and in the absence of which we cannot imagine perfect happiness
existing....Love will continue, purified and deepened; husband and wife, once
joined together by God, cannot be put asunder." Herbert Lockyer, author of
numerous Christian books, says, "What kind of home would it be if its members
are to be strangers to each other for ever? ....the beautiful but broken
relationships of earth are resumed in the Father's house above where, as
members of the same family we dwell together in perfect harmony."
It is no
contradiction to the words of Christ to affirm that marriage will last forever.
It is probably more accurate, however, to say that the relationship and love of
married people will last forever, after marriage itself has passed away.
Marriage is an earthly concept, but love is heavenly and eternal, and that is
what lovers want. The old puritan theology of marriage put it this way‑‑"husband
and wife are to help each other to live together for a time as copartners in grace here, that they may reign together
forever as coheirs in glory hereafter." The idea that we will be like
angels ought not to cause us to reduce our concept of love. Are we to suppose
for one minute that angels are less loving than we are, and that to be like
them is a step down from our level of love. For all we know angels have a
pleasure in love that is far superior to what we know of in sex. All we know is
that there will be no jealousy and conflict in angelic love.
There is a land where beauty
will not fade,
Nor sorrow dim the eye;
Where true hearts will not shrink
nor be dismayed
And love will never die.
Marriage
existed in the first Paradise and God declared that it was not good for man to
be alone. God provided a partner for Adam, and Paradise was only complete when
he had his partner. Certainly, the final Paradise will not be less than the
first. There will be no widows or widowers in heaven. There will be no lonely
singles. Not all singles are lonely, but the fact is, many are so in time. This
will not be the case in heaven. Everyone will have a partner, for if it was not
good for Adam to be without a partner, it certainly will not be good for anyone
in the everlasting paradise to be without one. Christ will have His Bride, the
Church, and every man will have a companion, if not a wife, and every women a
companion, if not a husband. Nobody will be left out of a perfect love
relationship in that eternal Paradise. This would be a contradiction to all we
know of God in the Bible.
It is a
problem to grasp just what the relationship of mates will be in heaven, because
we are limited, like the Sadducees were, in our understanding. But it will be
something special. C.S.Lewis wrote, "About the nature of the relation
between spouses in eternity I base my idea on St. Paul's dictum that 'he that is joined with a harlot is one
flesh.' If the lowest, most corrupt form of sexual union has some mystical
'oneness' involved in it,...the married and lawful form must have it par
excellence. That is, I think the union between the risen spouses will be as
close as that between the soul and its own risen body."
Richard
Crashaw put the following epitaph on the tomb of a young married couple who
died and were buried together.
To these, whom death again
did wed,
This grave's their second
marriage bed;
For though the hand of fate
could force
Twixt soul and body a
divorce,
It could not sunder man and
wife,
Cause they both lived but
one life.
The last
line is the key to the hopes of lovers. If they are one in Christ, that unity will
be everlasting, but if they lack that oneness, they have no basis for eternal
oneness. All oneness, and all love that will be eternal, will be so, because of
a oneness in time in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is love for Christ that makes
every other love eternal. That is why Christians have always known that their
earthly loves will be a part of heaven. David knew that he would love his son,
he lost as a child, in heaven.(IISam.12:23). Dr. Lee Roberson, the great
preacher in the South, said in a message on this text, "This verse tells
me that we shall see our loved ones in heaven and know them." Martha knew
she would know and love her brother Lazarus, in heaven.(John 11:24). Paul
expected to know his Christian friends in heaven. In I Thess.2:19‑20 he
wrote, "For what is our hope, our joy, or the crown in which we will glory
in the presence of our Lord Jesus when He comes? Is it not you? Indeed, you are
our glory and joy." See also, II Cor. 1:14 and 4:14. How can we possibly
think that all relationships, but those of mates, will continue forever? All of
our problems with this reality revolve around the same issue the Sadducees saw,
and which Jesus eliminated‑sex. Ellicott in his commentary says,
"The old relation may subsist under new conditions. Things that are
incompatible here may there be found to co‑exist. The saintly wife of two
saintly husbands may love both with an angelic, and therefore a pure and
unimpaired affection."
The
answer of Jesus, to the trick question of the Sadducees, does not, in any way,
rob heaven of one of the great hopes of Christian lovers through the ages. On
the tomb of Charles Kingsley and his wife are three Latin words which give a
message that millions of mates feel is true. The three words say, "We have
loved, we love, we shall love." This has been the hope of Christians
through the centuries. St. Augustine, one of the greatest theologians of all
time, wrote a letter of consolation to Italica, a Roman lady of rank who had
lost her husband, way back in 408 A.D. In it he said, "We have not lost our dear ones who have departed from this
life, but have merely sent them ahead of us, so we also shall depart and shall
come to that life where they will be more than ever dear as they will be better
known to us, and where we shall love them without fear of parting." This
was also the conviction of Ambrose, the famous bishop of Milan from 340‑397
A.D. He wrote of his brother who died, and imagines the happiness of
Theodosius, "when he receives Gratian and Pulcheria, his sweetest
children, whom he had lost here; when his wife Flacilla, a soul faithful to
God, embraces him; when he rejoices that his father has been restored to
him;...." Recognition of, and
reunion with, loved ones has been the universal hope of believers. There is no
way you can leave mates out of this hope. John Greenleaf Whittier in Snow Bound
wrote these famous words of the Christian hope,
Alas for him who never sees
The stars shine through his
cypress trees;
Who hopeless lays his dead
away,
Nor looks to see the
breaking day
Across his mournful marbles
play;
Who has not learned in hours
of faith
The truth to flesh and sense
unknown,
That life is ever Lord of
Death
And Love can never lose its
own.
2. GHOSTS OF THE GODLY
Bases on Matt. 27:5‑54
History is full of the weird and mysterious in relation to the
dead. In Barbados, in the West Indies,
in 1812, a vault was opened and three coffins were in a confused state. In 1815 and 1819 it was opened, and again, each
time the coffins were in disarray. The
Governor, Lord Cambermere had the vault carefully checked and cemented up and
sealed. Nine months later it was opened in his presence with thousands of
spectators. To everyone's amazement the
coffins were scattered about, one was on end, and some on top of others. No one could explain it, and so it entered
the books as another ghost story, along with hundreds of other unexplained
mysteries.
Christianity has always been involved in the history of the unexplained,
because it too deals with the supernatural.
Many of the haunted houses of history have been parsonages, and you
wouldn't believe all the weird goings on that preachers have experienced. Much of the history of ghost haunting and
hunting has been written by Christian men.
For example, Sabine Baring Gould, author of Onward Christian Soldiers,
who died in 1924 at the age of 90, wrote much about ghosts, and his own brother
was seen by his mother after his death.
Ludwig
Levater, a Protestant Calvinist minister in Switzerland wrote a book in 1572
with the title, Of Ghosts and Spirits Walking By Night. He believed that the dead could appear, but
felt most ghosts were due to hallucination and pranks. He told of how merry young men would throw
sheets over themselves and scare the wits out of travelers at Inns. Sometimes they even went so far as to hide
under the bed. Ghosts are still a part
of most Halloween parties today, but they are so tame that seldom will a ghost
ever win a prize.
There was a young man of
Bengal,
Who went to a Halloween
ball.
He thought he would risk it,
And go as a biscuit,
But a dog ate him up in the
hall.
He would
have been better off as a ghost. This
type of humor was not appreciated by the Catholic Church. They officially believed in ghosts, and took
the matter quite seriously. In 1509
when four monks came to John Jetzer at night with sheets over them to give him
some theological answers from the other world, they were caught, and made to
give up the ghost in more ways than one, for they were condemned to die at the
stake. Some people just can't take a
joke. That phrase, giving up the ghost,
is used 5 times in the King James Version to refer to the death of Jesus on the
cross, and it is used also to describe the dying of Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob.
The
ghost, of course, refers to the spirit of man.
Only once did we find a reference to a ghost in its eerie supernatural
sense in the New Testament. When Jesus
came walking for the disciples on the sea, in the night, we read in Matt.
14:26, "But when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were
terrified, saying, "It is a ghost!"
and they cried out for fear."
Any of us seeing a white figure moving across the water in the night
would jump to that same conclusion that it must be a ghost. Mark tells us the same thing, and both use
the word phantasma. This is the only
place where the word is used in Scripture.
It does reveal that the disciples believed in the possibly of
ghosts. This is not surprising, for
most everybody did in their day.
The
issue of the reality of ghosts revolves around the question of whether or not
the dead can ever return and appear unto men.
The Catholic Church has concluded that the dead in heaven or hell can
never return, but the dead in purgatory might, if God permitted.
Protestants concluded that all the visions and
contact with the dead are simply demons impersonating the dead. That is, they do not deny the evidence of
the supernatural appearances, but they feel it is demonic deception rather than
the return of the actual dead. The
Catholic Church tended to support the stories of good ghosts who would return
to make up for their sins. They would
haunt a murderer until he confessed, or help solve some injustice and encourage
the faithful. The Puritans so objected
to this that they went to the other extreme, and wanted nothing to do with the
dead, and so they ceased even to have funeral sermons.
The
point of this introduction is to show that there has been a history of
Christian debate over ghosts. The
debate goes on yet today, and there is a great interest in the subject. Dorthy Scarborough in her book, Famous
Modern Ghost Stories writes, "Man's love for the supernatural, which is one
of the most natural things about him, was never more marked than at the
present." Along with the growing
interest in the occult there are also a growing number of books on ghosts. Shopenhower asserted that belief in ghosts
is born with man, and that no one is free from it. It is true that such beliefs are found in all lands and ages, but
it is not true everywhere. I asked my
three children if they believed in ghosts, and they thought it was silly. Mark even said that is like believing in
Santa Claus.
Most
American Christians would be highly skeptical of anything to do with ghosts,
and I am sure most of us would fit this category. I'm not interested in looking at ghost evidence, but our text
brings us into a realm far more mysterious than any story you ever heard of
about ghosts.
Some believe these dead raised to life were ghosts. It all depends on your definition. My interest in the passage is to point out
how much more mysterious reality is than fiction. People flock to see horror movies with all the terror of ghouls,
vampires, and monsters of every sort.
Blood flows freely, and people get their sadistic kicks out of it
all. But its all fiction, and everybody
knows it, even those who scream and get goose pimples.
But our
text, and the whole of Matt. 27 is a record of historical fact. This chapter is so filled with evil and
horror, and supernatural mystery, that if we could see it portrayed as it
really happened, it would make the Hollywood horror films look like bedtime
stories. I defy anyone to show me
anywhere in all the literature of history a record of more horror and mystery
than we have here in Matt. 27.
It
begins with the evil satanic inspired plot to kill the Son of God. It records His capture and deliverance to
Pilate. Secondly, it tells of the
stricken conscience of Judas, and his terrible despair that ended in a most
gruesome suicide. Thirdly, we have here
a supernatural dream of Pilate's wife giving warning. Fourthly, we have the demonic plot successfully carried out of
releasing a known criminal, who was Barabbas.
Fifthly, we have the cry of the cruel mob saying, "Crucify Him and
let His blood be upon us and our children." Sixthly, we have the inhuman mockery, and the crowning of Jesus
with thorns. Seventhly, we have the scene of dying men forced to drag their
cross to the place of skull‑Golgatha.
It was a place of horror and death.
Eighthly, we begin to see the whole creation involved in this most
supernatural event. At noon the sun goes
black and for three hours the land is draped in darkness. Nothing Hollywood could do could ever match
such a setting for the conflict of good and evil. Ninethly, near the end of darkness a blood curdling cry came from
the middle cross, "My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?"
There is
more horror and mystery per verse here than anywhere in God's Word, or in all
creation. If the world is hungry for
the mysterious and supernatural let them read the Bible, and let us who believe
it share it, and let the world know. We
have a text that should be a thrill to anyone who longs for more insight into
the supernatural. It is a text that has
a fantastic history, and more implications than we can begin to cover. It raises many questions that nobody can
answer. It leaves commentators
mystified, and many just skip over it.
Christians are often afraid of the supernatural, and text like this
bother them, and so they ignore them.
People say they believe the Bible, but if you ask them if they believe
any have ever risen from the dead, and come out of tombs, and appeared unto
others, they would write you off as some kind of a kook. Most Christians are not even aware this
passage is in the Bible.
Maybe
some would like to believe it is one of those passages that got into the Bible
by mistake. No chance, for there is
scarcely a scholar anywhere who does not agree that this is a part of God's
original revelation. It is as authentic
as John 3:16. There is no escaping it,
and so we must treat it as God's revelation, and incorporate it into our
theology. The earthquake, the tearing
of the veil in the temple, and tombs being opened, are all connected, and each
has a valuable message to convey. We
are focusing our attention on the saints who rose from the tombs. An unknown poet has put the whole scene into
poetry.
The graves flew open, and
exposed their store,
And into bodies shook the
human ore;
The temple corner‑stones
were seen to yield,
And to and fro the laboring
fabric reeled,
The hallowed loaves were
thrown the floor about,
And the seven golden burning
lamps went out.
The sacred incense lost its
odorous scent,
The awful veil was into
pieces rent.
Heaven
and hell were locked in mortal combat.
The destiny of men in the world was being decided. And because Jesus, through death, conquered
death, and delivered those in bondage by destroying the power of the devil,
even Hollywood knows that the way to deal with Dracula is by means of the
cross. Here we have the real war to end
all wars, for this war opened the way to eternal peace with God. The open tombs and risen saints bore
testimony to the cataclysmic effects of the cross. The magnitude of what Jesus did in dying could not be revealed
except by a very extraordinary miracle.
The Roman Centurion was so impressed by the supernatural effects of
Christ's death he confessed that He was the Son of God. Luke 23:48 says, "And all the multitude
who assembled to see the sight, when they saw what had taken place, returned
home beating their breasts." We
cannot be touched that deeply, but lets see what we can learn about these
temporary tenants of the tombs. The
first question we will look at is‑
I. WHO? Who were these saints whose bodies came to life again? There are two views. They could be saints of the Old Testament, or as most believe, they could be believers in Christ who died during His ministry.<