congregation, tonight we are called to pause for a moment in our life. Or should I say, pause for a moment to consider the end of our life and the life to come. as we have to consider those two last articles of our confession of faith that ends with the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. Or as the 19 creed, it says in 325, I look forward for the resurrection of the death and the life of the world to come. And as such to meditate tonight about the resurrection and everlasting life. Two things in which the scripture is quite reserved. Although the catechism has a Lord's day on it. More specifically, as we have read together from Lord's day 22, what comfort Does the resurrection of the body afford you? What comfort do you take, do you receive from the article, The Life Everlasting? A congregation reflecting on our resurrection and the everlasting life seems to be challenging in our time. And not a question where the challenge immediately for those outside the church in terms of Sunday is the first day of the week and the church commemorate Christ's resurrection and the response could be in our world, our post-Christian world, how unbelievable or do you believe in that? Resurrection? Is there more in life than here? But a question may be, as church family, in the context of the Heidelberg Catechism, those who confess and profess faith, The question to consider these two last articles of our creedal faith in time of COVID pandemic, related challenges in this world, in difficult times, maybe in your life, in disbelief, depression, death. Hey, young people, and I think we have entered in the world a new age of anxiety. There's a growing hope of crisis of hope. And then in the midst of all of that, we have tonight, we have to consider, Lord's Day 22, about comfort of the resurrection of the body and comfort of the everlasting life. And then to believe, to believe tonight. that these concluding articles speak of hope in times of fear, speak of hope in the face of suffering and death. This hope of the resurrection, and without the resurrection, Young people, without the resurrection in this, say, post-Christian world in which we live, that world reminds us time and time again that human life, so it appears ultimately pointless, no meaning. And yet, we have decreed, we confess. that the resurrection holds the key to the hope we all need, that it is a certain hope, a future hope, a glorious hope. So it is for the Christian. And therefore, a very personal question comes to us this night. Does the resurrection of the body, your body, offers you comfort? Do you take, do you receive comfort of the article about the life everlasting? And congregation, to consider those two brief articles, I want to focus your attention on the text words that we will consider tonight in conjunction with the Heidelberg Catechism, as we have read it from John 11, particularly the verses 25 and 26, where Christ says, I am the resurrection and the life. It's quite remarkable that the first sermons in the New Testament, the centrality of these sermons, of Peter, of John, of Paul, they are all about the resurrection. And Peter, for example, speak to God's covenant people, the Jews, Acts 2, speaking about Christ, whom God has raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should beholden it. Peter and John preaching in the temple, Acts chapter four, preach through Jesus the resurrection from the dead. Paul, the apostle Paul to the Jews and Gentiles, Acts 13 in Jerusalem, but God raised him from the dead. And Acts 17, we would say a very post-Christian world in Athens, where he has given assurance unto all men in that he has raised him from the dead. It's quite remarkable if you check those sermons, every time you see that the church growth. And many more. For example, the Apostle Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15 that the resurrected Christ was seen above 500 brethren at once. Now let me ask you for a moment. Imagine that you are one of the 500 of those people and Christ reveals himself to you and you have seen him. Would you say, let's not talk about this? Not good for the social fabric. My neighbors are so different. Speaking about Christ, the living Christ, the resurrected Christ. He says, that is maybe bad for the community harmony. Would that be the first thing on your mind? I don't think so. How could you possibly think of that? And therefore the church in the New Testament thereafter was not a result of planning of development. But in every case, the people of the church were simply responding to questions because the people outside the church recognized a reality inside the church that they could not account for. They so changed lives. They saw fellowship, they saw love, community. And so the people outside the church came to the people inside the church and they kept asking, what happened to you? And the answer, the resurrection. They could attest of Christ who is the, I am the resurrection and the life. Christians were saying as it were, Christ who was crucified has been raised and is seated at the right hand of the throne of the universe, and he is going to rule all until all things have been put under his feet and all evil has been put down. There is a reality up there that all people on earth have to take in account, but there's also a reality here in me. So the words that we find in John 11, verse 26, is a classic statement of the doctrine of the resurrection and everlasting life, which talks about these two realities, of which Christ, the living Christ, says to us tonight, I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall live. And everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this? Friends, this is foundational. for our understanding, no, more importantly, for our comfort. What the Heidelberg Catechism teaches us and reminds us also tonight, that comfort in Lord's day 22, about the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. But what does Christ's word mean? I am the resurrection and the life. There's a resurrection reality in him. Because only then we can speak about comfort of the resurrection and life everlasting. Well, Christ is not saying, I will be resurrected, though he will. He's also not saying, I will show you how you can live and so you will be resurrected, though you and I will. But he is saying to each of us this night, I am. The resurrection, I am raised for you, for each of his children. He says to Martha, who believed in the resurrection, verse 24, my resurrection is yours. I've been raised for you. This is who I am, your resurrection and your life. When you believe in me, Is it not so, friends, that Christianity is in essence found in the personal pronouns? If you were here tonight this evening and would say, Jesus, the son of God, was born, he died, he was raised, he was ascended, he's coming again, again, that does not make you a Christian. But if you now can say by grace, and this is the end of our confession of faith in the Heidelberg Catechism, If you can say by grace that the Son of God was born for me, that he died for me, and that he was raised for me, that is the essence of the Christian faith. You remember, we are on Lord's Day 22, the final part of our confession, as I said, which begins, I believe, very personal, I believe in God the Father, I believe in Jesus Christ, I believe, do you believe, the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting? I said personal, personal. Don't look immediately to another person. Personal. Personal, so the scriptures speak, Paul in Romans four, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus, our Lord from the dead, who was delivered for our offenses and was raised again for our justification. Peter speaks in 1 Peter 3, blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy has begotten us, has made us alive again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Personal. Maybe there's one in our midst who sighs and struggles or just plainly ask, but how can I know that this is for me? That Christ, I am the resurrection of the life is my resurrection in life. Let me give you an example how you can know by grace, experientially, personally know that this resurrected Christ was also your life, what Christ did for each of his children. Say you go into a store. and you buy groceries, say, for example, Costco. Now, you must make sure to get a receipt, because a receipt shows, guarantees that these groceries were paid for, that you never have to pay for those groceries again. And so if you're walking out of the store, most of the time, says Costco, someone will stand there and say, hey, wait a moment. Is that really your merchandise? Is that really your purchase? And what do you do? You take out your receipt. You pull it out and you say, as it were, look at this. It has been paid for. I never have to pay for this again. And the store clerk will say, all right, you are free to go. Friends, listen. There are a lot of people, and maybe it is you here tonight who are listening or watching online, who cannot believe or don't believe that you can ever be free from the sins of your past, never be free from your failures, from your flaws, from your shortcomings. You have been taught or you're teaching yourself or both, but there are things in your life you can never put behind. You always have to live with them. But God, God says, no. When he looks at the cross where Christ paid for all your sins, failures and flaws, sins of each of his children, of which the writer of the Hebrews says, no better yet, the Lord says to you tonight, for I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. No more. And of that, I have given you your receipt. What is the receipt? How do you know that Christ paid in full for everything that you never could and can accomplish for your salvation? How do you know that Christ paid so that you never have to pay again for any of those things of the past? How do you know that God has given you the receipt? What is the receipt? When Christ was raised from the dead, God said with reverence, God stamped paid in full across the pages of history. The resurrection is the receipt paid in full. Or as Jonathan Edwards explained it in this way, for if Christ were not risen, it would be evidence that God was not yet satisfied for our sins. But now in the resurrection is God declaring his satisfaction and hereby declared that it was enough and Christ thereby was released from his work. God said, this payment by my Son on the cross is sufficient and therefore you have to never pay for those things again. Never! Do you understand that? Let me ask you different. Friends, do you have that receipt? Do you have that receipt? If you can look to the resurrection, can you say, this is God's way of saying to me, I have never to pay for any of these things again, my sins, my shortcomings, but has been paid. Do you have the receipt? Do you live that? Particularly in light of the end of your life, with this promise, I am the resurrection, meaning I have been raised for you, his child. When the Apostle Paul meditates upon those things, He burst out, O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of the sin is the Lord, but thanks be to God who gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. So the Lord reminds us in 1 Corinthians 15, and so we were reminded last Sunday, victory for Christ's church. O death, Oh, Grave. Death looms over and casts a huge shadow on us in our society, covert or not. And in our post-Christian world, it seems there are at least two ways in which we can deal with this monstrosity, because death is a monstrosity. Nobody, be honest tonight friends, be honest, nobody can live without a day of some kind of a strategy of dealing with the reality and inevitability of death. Our culture says, on the one hand, denial. Let's not talk about death. Death is obscene. Death is something we just don't want to talk about. Till you come. Have you ever mentioned till you come at a funeral home or at a funeral? Nowadays it seems to be a reunion or a family reunion, but it is, I think, a sense of embarrassment and kind of an unbearable disturbance caused by the ugliness of dying. Try to deny death, but you can't ultimately. Denial is the one end of what we see in our culture. Or secondly, we sentimentalize it, we sanitize it. When people say, let us face it, death is a natural thing. Death is not awful. Death is a beautiful thing. Death is peaceful. Death is just the final stage of life. Maybe you have heard it. But when you hear it, you know in your heart it is a lie. Because the only and the honest assessment concerning death is a biblical understanding what death is. The apostle says in 1 Corinthians 15, he calls us the last enemy. It is an enemy, not your friend. We know it is not a friend. And when you get into the present of death, and maybe some among us have experienced that, you sense it is not your friend. And when somebody dies under some circumstances, they can look beautiful in the casket, but leave them for a couple days alone. And you will see what that is. Twisting, perverting, destructive thing. Even here in the presence of Lazarus, here in John 11, Christ ready to raise Lazarus from the dead. And what does he do? He weeps. He weeps, because in the presence of death, he senses what we sense. And yet we hear the apostles say, oh death, where is thy sting? Oh grave, where is thy victory? Why can God's people, knowing that it is the last enemy? And sometimes that is felt so deeply, the last, enemy. Yet by times they may attest, O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? Why can they say that? Because Christ, the I am, the resurrection and the life, Christ broke the bones of death. Remember Acts 2, Peter's sermon speaking about Christ? God raised him up, have loosed the pains of death because it was not possible that he should be holden of it. Death cannot harm God's people. When they die, it brings them in the throne room, in the throne room. Or what the catechism has said, what comfort does the resurrection of the body affords thee? That my soul after this life shall be immediately taken up to Christ its head. That is the future for all God's children. Do you live that reality? Do you have the receipt? And one of the ways you can tell whether or not that you have peace with God, young people, one of the ways you can tell whether you have a receipt is how you handle death. If you deny it, If you sentimentalize it, you see if you are, then probably it means that Christ might be a moral example. He might be your model. You try to live upright here a little, there a little, but he is not, he is not your resurrection or your death. But then by grace, you cannot deny the Lord's work in your life. What resonate what the apostle experience and writes in Romans seven, for when I was alive without the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. Friends, you become a two person. You begin to understand for the good that I would, I do not, but the evil which I would not that I do. Oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death. but then also experience and those things go together, never separate them. The Lord has told you that they go together. I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. You know what it is? The Catechism points this out as the beginning of everlasting life, which begins on earth. This comfort of which we read in Ancestors 58. Now, since I now feel in my heart the beginning of eternal joy. Those times in life, Those times in life that you can sing, whom have I in heaven but thee? And there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee. My flesh and my heart fills but God. But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. To say at times to be with Christ is far too difficult. I mean, you cannot deny that. And the principle, I'm not talking about the profundity, the depth of it, or that it is always there, but by grace, you cannot deny this tonight. You got the receipt. And therefore is he, Christ, your resurrection and life. So you can die having the comfort of everlasting life. Are you living this? Are you rejoicing in that? Can you bids corn defiance to death or is death still an unbearable disservice to you? Is Christ your only comfort in life and death? And therefore the question for all of us tonight There's these articles of our faith, undoubted Christian faith, the resurrection of the dead, life everlasting, comfort you. Each Sunday night, when we make this confession, do you believe that? And Christ says to Mark here in John 11, he that believe in me, though he were dead, And then the wonder, yet shall he live and whosoever also here tonight, live it and believe it in me shall never die. Do you believe this? And with the receipt of his resurrection, which is ours, each of his children, when you believe in him, The words of Christ, he that believes in me, points out in fact to two aspects, this reality of the resurrection of Christ. Two realities that come in our life, and by grace you receive faith, as the catechism have told us in the preceding Lord's days. And the first one is this, Christ says, he who believes in me, though he were dead, points to the present. In the original point, it says, though he died at one point, yet he shall live. That points to true conversion, a spiritual resurrection. When the Holy Spirit, when the Lord works in your life, when you begin to experience, now I feel in my heart the beginning. When was it the last time, friends? When was it the last time? that you felt in your heart this beginning of eternal joy, this quickening of the new man, the mortification of the old convert, spiritual resurrection, a spiritual resurrection now. That is Jesus' whole point. With Martha here in John 11, Martha says, yes, I know that my brother will be resurrected sometime in the future. She believes in the resurrection. But what does Jesus say? I am the resurrection. The resurrection is not a future possibility alone. It is a present certainty. And where I am, there is life. He not only shows the way of life, gives life, he is the life. And therefore is your life being changed by him who is the resurrection and the life. Where there was hardness now, is there now softness. Where there is stagnation, is there freshness. When there was blindness, there is now sight. Where there was death, there is life. Weak as it may be, struggling as it may be even now, but he who my soul loves, that you cannot deny, feel in my heart. And secondly, and this, yet he shall live, whoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die, that that points also to the future. What Christ is saying here, when you die, you won't stay dead. but your body will come back to life. You will get a new body. Or with the words of answer 58, and also that is my body being raised by the power of Christ shall be reunited with my soul and make like unto a glorious body of Christ. So in death, Our old flesh shall be eaten away, fades away. And in the resurrection, we'll get a new flesh. The resurrection transform, changes everything. Our bodies will undergo an extraordinary change. Words fail. In comparison, very, very weak comparison. When you look to a picture of a seven-year-old boy, Later on you look to a picture of the same person who is 70 years old. There is a vague familiarity. It is the same person but very different. How will this be? A resurrected body. The scripture as I mentioned before is very reserved about it. The Apostle reminds us that it is a spiritual body, 1 Corinthians 15, so a natural body, our bodies, is raised a spiritual body, heavenly bodies, in contrast but in continuity with our earthly bodies. And when the disciples, just to point one aspect, when the disciples see for the first time Christ in his resurrected body, they were terrified, afraid, and they supposed they have seen a spirit, but it was not a spirit. As the resurrected Christ said to them, for the spirit has not flesh and bones as you see that I have, and he ate with them. How then will that be? At least we can say from scripture four aspects. Resurrected body will be imperishable. So is with the resurrection of the dead. What is shown perishable, what is erased is imperishable. Our bodies will be glorious, it is shown in dishonor. It is erased in glory. It is powerful, it is shown in weakness and it is raised in power, says the apostle in 1 Corinthians 15. And last but not least, our resurrected bodies will be godly. It is shown a natural body and raised a spiritual body. There are very few things that scripture shows us. What more, Christ here in John 11 says about the same thing what Job says in chapter 19. For I know that my Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand on the latter day upon earth. And though after my skin worms destroy my body, yet in my flesh I shall see God. This verse literally says, I know my Redeemer liveth and he will stand against the earth on the last day, meaning probably something Christ is looking at the last day on earth and he says, earth, you have got my people in there, in the dens, in the caves, in the oceans, in the mountains, in the grave, wherever they are, give them up to me and out we will come. And nothing will be able to withstand his command on that day because he is the name, which is above every name. And on that day, we are all coming and our bodies will be suddenly, we have new bodies and our souls in heaven will be united, reunited with our new bodies. of which we ultimately have to say what we see in the answer of 58. After this life, I shall inherit perfect salvation, which I have not seen, nor ear heard, neither had it entered into the heart of men to conceive. What a day that will be. but a day that will be delivered from sin and self. Are there not times in your life that you long for that day? Not to escape the inconveniences of life, of the struggles of life, of the cares or concern of life, but to lay sin behind. being delivered from itself. The Apostle says, beloved, says the Apostle John, we are God's children now, and what will it be? What we will be has not yet appeared, but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. Do you long for that day? Therefore we expect. And that is a life, eh? Therefore we expect that great day with a most ardent desire to the end that we may fully enjoy the promises of God in Jesus Christ our Lord. That awaits each of his children at the end of your life. And remember the nice thing, I look forward to the resurrection of the dead. We look, we wait, we hope, we look waiting with hope Eats, do you hear? Eats of God's children. Wavered children. Wandering children. Struggling children. And also children who forget so often there is seed. And yet Christ is there. And John 13, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. Maybe many times you give up, but not he. He loves each of his children to the end. And when the end comes, he will be there. And then you have to cross the Jordan of death. He will be there. And when we can arrive in heaven, he will be there waiting for such one as you are. Amazing, amazing grace. And he prays for that. He prays, Father, I desire that they also whom thou has given to me may be with me where I am to see my glory that thou has given me because thou loved me before the foundation of the world and so you, I love with an everlasting love. Is that your comfort, which the resurrection offers you? Is that your comfort, what you receive from the article of faith, life everlasting? For Christ's sake, through his resurrection, we deserve nothing. He gave everything, and he did it for you. The English hymn writer Joseph Hart wrote once, come ye redeemed of the Lord, come and obey his sacred word. He died and rose again for you. What more could the redeemer do? What more? What more can he do? Young people, if you believe that this world is all that there is and you die, what about all the suffering in this world, the fear and the anxiety, and no hope? You are and you will be most miserable outside Christ. Oh, tonight, take refuge in Him, this willing and resurrected Savior. who with outstretched arms on the cross invites, come to me, come to me and you will find rest for your soul. He is the I am, the resurrection and the life. This is my offer to you, regardless your past, irrespective who you are. Will you reject such an offer of grace? This is the hope of the resurrection, which holds the key to the hope we all need. Christ's resurrection not only gives you hope for the future, for your own resurrection, it gives you hope to handle the scares of life right now. And it is a certain hope, a future hope, a glorious hope. The apostle said, for since you have been raised with Christ, that a certain seek those things which are above, living with that reality of the resurrection, direct your life to the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. And therefore also for this new week, set your mind on the things above and not on the things of the earth. Live with the resurrection reality, for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ, secure in him, in God. That's the gift of the resurrection. There's a resurrection hope. There's a resurrection hope in Christ. And that resurrection in Christ, the I am the resurrection and the life is free and suitable for anyone and everyone, is powerful, is available, gracious and generously. Because Christ is raised and resurrected from the dead and is alive. That is true according to the scripture. And that power of his resurrection by grace is experienced and can be experienced. Even now. Friend, let us first sing. And I make a change, not 135, but Psalter 28, the stanzas one, three, and five. 28, the stanzas one, three, and five. ♪ Meditate on mercy taught divine ♪ ♪ My grateful heart excites my tongue ♪ ♪ To bless the Lord my God ♪ shall rest. For evermind, thou show'st me And so we have tried to reflect not only on the end of our life, but also about the resurrection and everlasting life. And we have seen and we have heard, and I hope we have also tasted that these two final articles of our undoubted Christian faith are Comfort, not only in the pandemic year of COVID or in times of anxiety, suffering and death, but comfort in our life now. Through the hope of the resurrection, Christ's resurrection, your resurrection. And therefore, friends, should we not speak more about the reality of the resurrection, our resurrection? Would it not give more perspective in our life, comfort with all the ups and downs that we face in life? a more, a deeper realization of the life to come, world without end. But also that the people outside the church come to the people inside the church and ask us questions, what happens to you? Will you not answer them? Come and hear, and I will declare what God has done for my soul. What we have seen and heard, Christ, He is my resurrection and my life. And therefore I have this resurrection comfort in my life, that not only my soul after this life shall immediately taken up to Christ's head, but also that this my body being raised by the power of Christ shall be reunited with my soul and make like unto the glorious body of Christ. That is what we have seen. and heard and declare also in this world so that they also may have fellowship with us. That is church growth. May have fellowship with us and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. This comfort received, this comfort received by grace of the life everlasting. And therefore, there are times I already feel in my heart the beginning of eternal joy. After this life, I shall inherit perfect salvation, which I have not seen nor heard, neither has it entered into the heart of men to perceive, and that to praise God therein forever and ever and ever. And so the Lord comes to us this night, to you, to you, to you, and says, I am the resurrection and the life. You who believe in me, though you were dead, yet shall you live, and whosoever Whosoever, whosoever live it and believe in me shall never die. Do you believe this? Amen. Let us pray. Lord, what an unspeakable comfort you have given to your church, to each of your people, each of your children. This promise of the resurrection of the death of our bodies and the life everlasting. Lord, we'll give that the fruit of thy word of this day, in this morning and this evening, may transform us, may direct us to thee, and that we truly may live with this reality of the resurrection and the life everlasting, that it is a professed and confessed faith worked in each of our life, and that we may go through life with that hope, with that expectation that awaits each of thy children. So remember us in mercy, bless thy word richly, and that for Jesus' sake, amen.