“Our Response to the Resurrection”
Matthew 28:17; Selected Scriptures
Easter 2016
Story
of two twins one was a pessimist and one was an optimist.
Here
in Matthew 28:17 we have two very different reactions. Every person here today
is in one of these two places.
I. The Response That Were Mixed (Mt. 28:17).
“When
they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some were doubtful.”
There
were two groups who reacted to Jesus’ resurrection. One group gave the
appropriate response-worship. The other group displayed a sinful
reaction-doubt. Every person walking the planet today is either worshipping
Christ because of the resurrection or allowing the Satan to sow seeds of doubt
in their hearts.
Why should the resurrection cause us to
worship and praise Jesus Christ? Because the resurrection is the gateway to
eternal life.
2 Corinthians 5:17 (ESV): “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he
is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
Notice
here the conditional statement is “if anyone is in Christ.” To experience
eternal life and all of its benefits, you must be in a personal relationship
with Jesus. The only proper response to a life that has been renewed and set
free from the penalty of sin is to worship.
Two weeks ago we saw that worship to
God should include everything we do. Our very breathing in and out is an
expression of our worship and a testimony to God's faithfulness in our lives.
We also learned that praise is but one part of worship. Stated another way,
while all acceptable praise is worship, not all worship is praise.
Praise is that upward focus toward
God. You may not even consider some of the things you do to be worship because
they flow so naturally from your heart and mind and are almost unconsciously
given to God. However, you are almost sure to know when you are praising Him.
That is because praise is direct and deliberate adoration. Praise is a choice.
Read
2 Chronicles 20:18-21. Notice the two references to praise in this passage. In
verse 19, “Some Levites...praised the Lord.” Jehoshaphat in verse 21,
“appointed men...to praise Him.” The
word translated as “praise” in these verses is the Hebrew word hallal.
In order for us to appreciate the people of Judah's resolve to praise their
God, we need to take a closer look at this word. It is used 99 times in the Old
Testament, more than any other major word translated “praise.”
Together with Jah
(which is the shortened form of God's name, Yahweh), hallal makes
up the first two syllables of our most famous praise word, hallelujah, which
means “Let us praise Yah.” The definition of hallal is “to
praise, celebrate, glory, sing (praise), boast.”
Strong's Concordance includes in the
definition “to rave.” There was nothing accidental or unintentional about their
actions toward the Lord that day in Jerusalem. They deliberately and boldly
praised Him, no matter how mad or foolish it may have seemed.
Luke 7:36-50 describes another woman
whose praise was motivated by a heart that was boiling over with devotion. She
poured a very expensive gift on Jesus. Do you see how this was a deliberate act
of praise? The woman outwardly expressed her love to Christ.
Our response to the resurrection of
Christ should cause to deliberately, consistently, and joyously praise Him
every day.
II. The Reasons
That Are Given.
1. God's people have always praised
Him.
It is exciting to see just how far
praise as come. More and more churches and individual Christians are embracing
greater freedom in worship. Praise is no longer just for “that denomination
down the street.” With strong teaching on biblical worship and praise, this
freedom will continue beyond any worship fad.
In one form or another, praise to
our wonderful God has always been in style. In Psalm 33, the opening words of the call to worship
include, “Sing joyfully to the Lord, you righteous; it is fitting for the
upright to praise him.” Throughout Israel's history, the people's most
shining moments-those most pleasing to God-were times they lifted God up in
praise. In fact, David
said of God, “You are the praise of Israel” (Psalm 22).
We've
already seen in 2 Chronicles 20:18 that “all the people of Judah and Jerusalem
fell down in worship before the Lord.” Some
Levites even praised God “with loud voices” (v. 19). Whether they were kneeling
quietly or being loud and joyful, they never considered what they were doing as
strange or inappropriate.
The fact that all of Judah bowed in
worship shows that praise was not just for the “less educated” or “less
cultured.” Rather, it was every believer's most natural response to God's power
and grace.
2. Throughout God's Word we find
praise being lifted up to Him.
The word praise can be found over
200 times in the Bible. When we include related words such as worship, sing,
shout, and bow down, that number climbs to close to 500.
3. For all eternity God will be
praise.
Revelation chapter 4 describes part
of a vision John, the author of Revelation, has of a glorious gathering in
heaven that will take place at some point in the future. It's interesting to
note, however, that everything John described was in the past tense because he
was telling about a heavenly vision he had already seen. Yet when he spoke of
the praise taking place in heaven in verses 8 through 11, John suddenly spoke
in the here and now. Notice the verbs that are used in these verses: saying,
give, sits, worship, lives, lay, say.
What do all these words have in
common? They are all in the present tense. I believe John's abrupt change from
the past tense to the present tense was intentional. John wanted to be clear
that the praise he was witnessing was not a one time event. Praise in heaven is
ongoing, both in the present and in the never ending future.
4. Throughout all creation, God will
be praised.
Revelation
5:11-14:
Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many
angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders; and the
number of them was myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands,
12 saying with a loud voice,
“Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive
power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.”
13 And every created thing which is in heaven and on the
earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all things in them, I heard
saying,
“To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be
blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever.”
14 And the four living creatures kept saying, “Amen.” And the
elders fell down and worshiped.
All heavenly beings, including
angels, living creatures, and elders will praise Him. Every created being,
including people, animals, fish, and all of nature will sing to Him. Praise is
obviously both pleasing to God and natural for His creation.
5. At this very moment in heaven,
God is being praised.
Revelation 4:8: “And the four living creatures, each
one of them having six wings, are full of eyes around and within; and day and
night they do not cease to say,
“Holy, holy, holy
is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come.”
Did you notice the four living
creatures never stop saying, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty”? You
may recall that was precisely what they kept saying in Isaiah's vision too. So
if they said those words in the past and they will be saying them in the
future, it's reasonable to conclude they must be saying them now.
Praise to our holy God is so
important that heaven itself never stops praising Him, especially when it seems
you are about the only one in the whole congregation who is participating. But
be encouraged. There is a loud roar of praise to God in heaven at the exact
moment you are praising Him.
III. The Reactions
That Are Different
Have you ever thought how strange
praise must appear to those who don't know Christ? After all, why would anyone
want to sing and carry on for a God they can't see or touch? People around you
may never know you are worshiping God through the normal activities of your
day. But if anyone happens to be nearby when you are compelled to praise, they
will not only notice you, they will probably wonder what you could possibly be
doing.
Say, for example, you are sitting at
a red light. Your favorite praise CD is blaring. Before you know it, you're
lost in the moment. You start lifting your hands, singing at the top of your
lungs. For you this kind of behavior may be perfectly normal. But imagine what
the guy beside you must be thinking. He can't hear what you're singing, but
what he sees definitely has your attention. He's probably thinking, “Why does
that person have her hands up? If she's trying to reach the sun visor, it would
help if she opened her eyes!”
Praise, by its very nature, is
outward, open, demonstrative, and obvious to anyone watching. We are exhorted
numerous times in Psalms to praise the Lord publicly and outwardly:
“Let
them exalt him also in the congregation of the people, and praise him in the
assembly of the elders” (Psalm 107:32, KJV).
“I
will praise the Lord with my whole heart, in the assembly of the upright, and
in the congregation” (Psalm 111:1, KJV).
David
writes in Psalm 40:3, “He has given me a new song to sing, a hymn of praise to
our God. Many will see what he has done and be amazed. They will put their trust
in the Lord” (NLT).
Apparently we are not only to praise
God among the saints but also in front of those who have never placed their
trust in the Lord. We are on this earth to make our God known through our
praise.
Jack
Taylor in his book, The Hallelujah Factor, has grouped them into categories to
help us remember them. One category is vocal and indicates singing and
shouting, as well as speaking. The second category is audible and includes
clapping and playing instruments. A third category does not involve sounds.
That group, called visible, includes kneeling, dancing, and raising our hands.
1. One visible expression of worship
is kneeling.
In the account of the worship
service in 2 Chronicles 20:18, the Hebrew word used to describe how the
children of Judah responded is shachaw. It's often translated as
“worship,” but is also translated in the King James as “bow down,” “reverence,”
“fall down,” “stoop,” and “crouch.”
First
Chronicles 16:29 says, “Bring an offering and come before him; worship the Lord
in the splendor of his holiness.”
Do you remember what the Magi did
when they first saw the baby Jesus? Like the children of Judah, they knelt or
stooped as an act of worship (Matthew 2:11). They had to physically bend the
knee or somehow crouch down. These are both obvious and deliberate positions of
the body.
The Greek word for worship as used
for what the Magi did is proskuneo which literally means
“to kiss, like a dog licking his master's hand.” It is humbling and powerfully
worshipful to bow down before our great Master.
2. Another expression of worship is dancing.
Psalm
149:3 (NASB) says, “Let them praise
His name with dancing; let them sing praises to Him with timbrel and
lyre.”
David himself danced before the Ark
of the Covenant as it was brought into Jerusalem (2 Samuel 6). Now, being
Southern Baptist, dancing has been frowned upon in any form. However, like many
things within our denomination, I believe this has been a knee jerk reaction.
Like anything else we do, dancing can be done for the wrong motives and in the
wrong way. Nevertheless, genuine, joyful dancing before God and for God is
absolutely biblical.
3.
A third visible form of praise is raising our hands.
We are exhorted in several passages
to lift up our hands. A favorite verse is Psalm 63:4: “I
will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands.”
Read Nehemiah 8:5-6. The people
responded when Ezra read from the Law by lifting their hands. The Hebrew word
used in these verses is yadah. Yadah is the second
most frequently occurring word that is translated “praise” in the Old
Testament.
It means “to worship with extended
hands, to throw out the hands, to give thanks to God.” It is often translated
“thanks” or “thanksgiving” in the English translations. Yadah is
the exact word Jehoshaphat used to instruct the singers when he appointed them
to go out at the head of the army saying, “Give thanks (yadah) to the Lord” (2 Chronicles 20:21b).
Now we can add another dimension to our mental picture of this amazing story:
imagine hundreds of musicians leading the army, singing at the top of their
lungs with their hands stretched toward the sky.
Perhaps you have a son, daughter, or
grandchild. How did you feel the first time you saw this child looking up at
you with those big eyes and holding out those tiny hands? You probably stopped
whatever you were doing and reached down to hold that child, didn't you?
Imagine how our Father must feel when we reach up for Him!
4. A final visible form of praise is
vocal.
1 Samuel 4:5-6: “As the ark of the covenant of the Lord came into the camp, all Israel shouted with a great shout, so that
the earth resounded. 6 When the
Philistines heard the noise of the shout, they said, “What does the
noise of this great shout in the camp of the Hebrews mean?” Then they
understood that the ark of the Lord had come
into the camp.”
Some
specific definitions for the word translated “shout” here are “alarm,”
“signal,” “sound of tempest,” and “shout of joy.” That same word is used in
Ezra 3:10-13. In this passage, the Israelites had only recently returned from
exile. Their first Temple had been destroyed years earlier, and now they were
rebuilding it. They sang to the Lord “with praise and thanksgiving.”
Then
they all gave a shout of praise to the Lord that was heard far away.
Have
you ever been to a football stadium when the home team scored a touchdown? The
shouts are deafening. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the next time someone comes
forward to receive Christ in our churches we all stood up and shouted,
“Touchdown Jesus!”
Psalm 5:11 (NKJV) says, “Let them ever
shout for joy, because you defend them.”
Shouting
isn’t just for a few people, but for all of us whom the Lord has defended and
redeemed.
You
can praise God vocally by singing as well.
Psalm 100:2 (NLT) says, “Worship the
Lord with gladness. Come before him, singing with joy.”
It
is a little slice of heaven on earth to hear Christians signing “Amazing
Grace,” or “How Great Thou Art.”
A final way to praise God vocally is to tell
others what Jesus has done for you.
Psalm 107:2 (KJV), “Let the redeemed of
the Lord say so.”
Rod
Crowell tells an amusing story that illustrates what our reaction should be
this Easter morning.
The doorbell rang, and it was another
small band of elementary school boys, roaming our small town just to see who
was home. They stopped at our place because my wife is frequently their
substitute teacher. She opened the door, and they had an excuse ready for their
random visit: "Save us from our dog" they said, "He ate a
dead deer and has a case of RAVE-ies!" My wife looked at their dog; he was
wagging his tail happily. Their vocabulary was off, but maybe they
were right--the dog DID appear to have "RAVE-ies."
Oh, to be so happy in daily
life ourselves! Fact is, we CAN be so happy. Christ died for our sin and rose
again; God is sovereign over human injustice, incompetence and confusion; and
we have His Word and Spirit as our faithful guides all the way through life to
heaven.
If we demote joy to be merely another duty we
"ought" to do, we miss the point. It is a gracious invitation to live
a consistently thankful life in light of the fact that the most basic problems
of our existence have been solved through the salvation Christ purchased for us
on Calvary.
Even in today's pseudo-sophisticated,
don't-give-me-that-Christian-baloney world, praise and gratitude for God's
mighty works strikes a chord in even the most outwardly hardened, skeptical
heart because it provides stark contrast to an UN-thankful, perpetually
dissatisfied, jealous and self-focused world.
Catch a case of God's "RAVE-ies," and spread it around!
"Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!"
(Philippians 4:4).
