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The Two Resurrections

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International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, Cal. · May 27, 1886

FromThe Signs of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 20

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The Two Resurrections.

The following is part of an Easter sermon by Rev. E. S. Chapman, D. D., pastor of the first Presbyterian Church, East Oakland, Cal. We hope it will receive the careful reading that it deserves:—
“For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” This is the divine promise; it will be accomplished by divine power, and according to divine order.
Our waywardness and sinfulness may produce much of disorder and confusion in this earthly life, but divine system and order will prevail at the resurrection of the dead. It will not be the intermingling of heterogeneous elements, as is too often the case now, “but every man in his own order; Christ the first-fruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.” All the details of this wonderful event are carefully traced in the sacred pages. We may there learn all that our inquiring hearts may yearn to know respecting that which precedes, attends, and follows it.

WHEN JESUS COMES

This resurrection shall occur. “Afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.” It was the oft-repeated promise of the blessed Master to his disciples that he would come again and receive them to himself. He declares that his coming shall be “at an hour when ye think not” (Luke 12:40), “as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west” (Matt. 24:27), “in the clouds with great power and glory” (Mark 13:26), and “in the glory of his Father, with his angels” (Matt. 16:27). The purpose of that coming is declared by himself to be, to “gather together his elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven” (Mark 13:27). In his last discourse before his crucifixion he renewed this promise in the memorable words, “I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” And when the amazed disciples had witnessed his ascension and were steadily gazing into heaven, hoping to see him return again to the earth, the white-robed messengers of God gently rebuked their folly and said, “This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11). This assurance brought to their remembrance the Master’s oft-repeated promise, with which it was in such perfect harmony. And in this hope of his speedy return they patiently endured all their sad afflictions and faithfully performed their work. This hope was the crowning glory of all their faith, and the inspiring theme of all their teachings. It was always made prominent both in discourse and epistle, for it was the “hope of the church.”
When the Thessalonians had accepted the gospel as preached by Paul, they were daily looking for the Lord’s return, so prominent had that promise been made in the preaching of the great apostle. And when some of their number had fallen asleep, they were greatly distressed lest death had robbed them of a part in that promised coming of the Lord. To correct this distressing error the apostle wrote them a fuller explanation of that great event to which they were all so anxiously looking. They had failed to consider the resurrection features of the Lord’s coming, and to this the apostle directs their special attention.

THE LIVING IN CHRIST

Shall not be the first to greet the returning Lord. “We which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not precede them which are asleep.” The glory of that coming shall enswathe the whole earth. It will light up with its own radiance all the receptacles of the dead, and warm into newness of life the ashes of all who sleep in Christ. “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God.” It will not be a shout of anguish like that unlanguaged cry which he uttered upon the cross, but such a shout of triumph as earth has never heard; such a shout as shall awake the sleeping dead, whether buried in the deepest sea, upon the mountain-top, in the dreary desert, or in the city full. “And then shall he send his angels, and shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven.” Mark 13:27. “With the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God” shall his shout of triumph be attended, and

“THE DEAD IN CHRIST SHALL RISE FIRST.”

“Christ the first-fruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.” The first to answer that divine summons will be those who have lived and died in Christ. Not even the living in Christ shall precede them in responding to that heavenly call. The deepest seas shall yield their precious treasures; the hardest marble shall crumble, and the strongest bars shall break as the redeemed of God shall awake and arise to meet their blessed Lord. O, the glory of that resurrection day, “when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality.” Not in the weak and wasted forms in which we have here toiled and suffered and died, will we answer that divine summons. “It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.” 1 Cor. 15:42–44. “For our citizenship is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ; who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto this glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.” Phil. 3:20, 21.
But though they are the first, the dead in Christ shall not be the only earthly participants in the events of that great and glorious day. The Thessalonian believers feared their departed friends would have no part at all in the promised blessing. But the apostle shows them that their awakening shall be the first human answer to “the voice of the archangel and the trump of God.” “Then we which are alive and remain shall be CAUGHT UP TOGETHER WITH THEM IN THE CLOUDS, to meet the Lord in the air.” “Behold, I show you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.” 1 Cor. 15:51, 52.
O, what a glorious truth is this! No wonder that in the days of the apostles it was called the “hope of the church.” No wonder that so much of the New Testament is devoted to the setting forth of this one doctrine. No wonder that the great apostle Paul labored and prayed that he might know him, and the power of his resurrection, and that the very height of his ambition was to “attain unto the resurrection of the dead.” Phil. 3:10, 11.
For this wonderful event the blessed Saviour admonishes us to watch and be always ready. Many of his most impressive parables were spoken to awaken in our hearts the interest that would cause us to be always prepared for his coming. And in the Apocalyptic vision, the voice of a great multitude is heard joining in the glad chorus of joy: “Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to Him; for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.”
“It may be at morn, when the day is awaking, When sunlight through darkness and shadow is breaking, That Jesus will come in the fullness of glory, To receive from the world ‘his own.’”
“It may be at mid-day, it may be at twilight, It may be, perchance, that the blackness of midnight Will burst into light in the fullness of glory, When Jesus receives ‘his own.’”
“Oh, joy! oh, delight! should we go without dying, No sickness, no sadness, no dread and no crying, Caught up through the clouds with our Lord into glory, When Jesus receives ‘his own.’”
We may live to see that day, and we may not. Many, dear to our hearts, have already been called away, and we too may lie down in the narrow house. But though our resting-places may be separated from each other by continents and seas, we shall together awake and arise in the perfection of resurrection, beauty, and glory. This was the hope with which Paul sought to comfort the hearts of the Thessalonian believers, and this is the hope with which I would inspire you to faithfulness in the Christian life.
But all this applies to none but those who are living or sleeping in Christ. In the text it is “they that are Christ’s,” who shall be raised “at his coming.” In the epistle to the Thessalonians it is “the dead in Christ” who shall rise first, “then we,” believers, “shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”
(Conclusion next week.)