Preparing for Worship - May 20, 2025

The Psalm for Easter Sunday is Psalm 16. David prays that the Lord would preserve him, as He has blessed him so richly in the past, even in very difficult times. David knows that all “good” comes from the Lord for him and for all “the saints,” the believers, in his land. (See John 3:27 and James 1:17, too.) David calls the Lord his “Chosen portion,” his “Cup,” his ‘lot’ in life, and “a beautiful inheritance” for his future. The Lord continues to give him “counsel” and “instruction” through His Word and “is at his right hand,” giving him stability in this life and the promise of joy and blessings in His “presence forevermore” in heaven. (See 1 Thessalonians 5:9-11 and 23-24, and 2 Timothy 1:9-10 for these same promises for us in Christ our Savior.) Some of what David says, though, is really prophetic of and happened only with Christ Jesus Himself. Only Jesus was the truly “Holy One" who was without sin and died for our sins. When He died, His body did not see corruption, but He was raised from the dead on the third day and provided “the path of life,” eternal life, through the gift of faith in Him. (This psalm is quoted by both Peter in Acts 2:23-32 and Paul in Acts 13:34-39.) David died, and his body saw corruption, but Jesus’ body did not. Christ’s death and resurrection for us ensure that we will have eternal life, too, through Him. Therefore, with David, “our heart is glad, and our whole being rejoices” in the Lord.

The Old Testament lesson is from Isaiah 65:17-25. God Himself tells, through Isaiah, that He will one day “create new heavens and a new earth.” A whole new existence in which we can rejoice forever in our Lord in “gladness and joy.” It is the opposite of the time of curses and judgment for nations and people because of sin and rebellion against the Lord and His will and rejection of Him. (See the warnings to Syria and Babylon, for example, in Jeremiah 49:16 and 51:53 and even to the Israelites in Deuteronomy 28:15ff. and 25ff.) In that new existence, there will be no more weeping and distress. Strong picture images are given of the wolf and the lamb and the lion being together and not hurting or destroying and of people no longer “laboring in vain.” With the coming of Christ and the New Testament, we will hear of “death itself being swallowed up in the victory of Christ” in His resurrection and all other evil banished in eternal life with our Lord.

That victory is seen in the Gospel lesson in Luke 24:1-12 when women who had followed Jesus (see Luke 8:1-3 and 23:55-56 and John 19:25) came to the tomb to anoint the body of Jesus and found the stone rolled away and Jesus’ body gone. Angels appear to them “in dazzling apparel” and tell them that Jesus had risen from the dead, just as he had earlier predicted both His death and resurrection that had to happen to complete His saving work for the world. The women then remember these Words of Jesus but don’t immediately understand. They tell Peter and the other apostles what they have seen and heard, but these words sound like “an idle tale, and they did not believe them.” Peter himself does go to the tomb to check things out and finds the tomb empty and finds the linen cloths that Jesus was wrapped in, by themselves. He marvels at all this but does not understand. Dealing with so much sin and evil and death in this life, and knowing that Jesus had been crucified and died, none could easily believe until the risen Lord Jesus began to appear directly to them. (The angels were correct in telling the women that Jesus had predicted all of this. See Luke 9:22,24 and Matthew 16:21 and 17:22-24 and Mark 8:31 and 9:30-31.)

In the Epistle, in the great Resurrection Chapter of 1 Corinthians 15, Paul strongly affirms and defends the reality of the resurrection because the risen Lord Jesus had appeared to him and many others. He knew it was true (1 Cor. 15:1-11). Some churches may use 15:19-26, which affirms “the fact” of the resurrection, but we heard these words earlier during Epiphany, on February 23. You can read comments about those verses there in my podcast. We’ll look at the alternate reading, 1 Cor. 15:50-57. Paul begins by saying that “flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God” - the human, natural flesh and blood we all have and are born with. When Jesus was raised on Easter, the third day, His body and not just His spirit was raised, but it was changed and glorified. He could appear and disappear and go through walls, etc. His perishable body could not inherit what is imperishable in eternal life. When we die, our soul will go to be with Christ in eternal life in heaven. (See passages like Romans 6:23, Acts 7:59, Philippians 1:23, Luke 23:42-43 and 46, Ecclesiastes 12:6-7, Philippians 3:19-21, 2 Corinthians 5:1-8, etc.) When Christ returns on the last day, the dead shall be raised at the last trumpet (v.52 and Matthew 24:31 and 1 Thessalonians 4:16). The bodies of all believers will be raised and changed and glorified and become imperishable and immortal, even as Jesus’ body became when He rose. Paul refers to Old Testament passages, Isaiah 25:8 and Hosea 13:14, when writing of this. We thank God, together with Paul, for giving us eternal life, which he says is an “inheritance,” a gift of God by His grace through the gift of faith when we die, and we thank Him for the gift of our changed, glorious resurrection body coming on the last day. (See 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 and 5:9-12 for another discussion of the same and our always living with Christ.)

One last comment. Paul ends this resurrection discussion by reminding us to be steadfast in faith and abounding in the work of the Lord, for “in the Lord our labor is not in vain.” That was one of the promises for the time of the new heavens and new earth to come (Isaiah 65:58). With Christ and the Holy Spirit in and with us, even in this life, our labor in the Lord is not in vain. Whether we see results or not, God is working for good for us and for one another, too, as we seek to follow Him and His Word. Paul reminds us that we “shine as lights” in a “crooked and twisted generation” when we “hold fast to the Word of Life.” In that way, through the Word Paul shared with us, his own labor and ours are not in vain (Philippians 2:15-16)!