The resurrection hope has come down to us through many centuries of Church history. Let it pass to our children and to our children’s children, until the living Lord Jesus Christ returns in His glory. Jesus Christ lives! He lives! Then let us tell others, and let us shout with Job, “I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth”!
The resurrection hope has come down to us through many centuries of Church history. Let it pass to our children and to our children’s children, until the living Lord Jesus Christ returns in His glory. Jesus Christ lives! He lives! Then let us tell others, and let us shout with Job, “I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth”!
There is a third point to Job’s statement. Not only does Job declare that he has a Redeemer, not only does he affirm that He is a living Redeemer, but he adds, quite properly, that He is his Redeemer. “My” is the word he uses. “I know that my redeemer liveth!” Do you know that “my” in relation to Jesus Christ? It is a reminder of the need for a personal religion.
What made the difference? What made cowards bold, a scattering body of individuals into a cohesive force, a disillusioned following into evangelists? Only one thing accounts for it: the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
In the same way we too have a living Redeemer, the same Redeemer, who is Jesus. This is the thrust of our testimony on Easter Sunday, and indeed on every other Lord’s Day also. We testify that Jesus rose from the dead and that He ever lives to help all who call upon Him. The evidences for this fact are overwhelming.
As we think about the resurrection on this Easter Sunday, I want to take you to a very special verse from the Old Testament. It is Job 19:25, which reads, “I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth.”
The appearance of this city of God, the new Jerusalem, is in a certain sense the culminating point of the entire Bible. This is the destiny for which we were created. But unless, by the work of Christ, you are a new creature, you can take it on the authority of the Word of God that you will never enter that city. So we need to search our hearts. We need to make our calling and election sure. We need to say: “Lord Jesus Christ, am I really yours? Have you really changed me? Have I been made a new creature?
John begins to describe some of the other details, and he talks about this great wall all the way around it. A wall would symbolize protection, and so you have an image there of our eternal security and safety. He talks about the twelve foundations. Why twelve? Well the reason is that they relate to the twelve apostles of the Lamb in verse 14. And the reference to the twelve apostles goes along with the twelve gates in the city, which represent the twelve tribes of Israel. This shows us the kind of base upon which this heavenly community is established.
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