Easter

I love C.H. Spurgeon. He could very well be the most quoted dead pastor in evangelical pulpits today. I read a sermon of Spurgeon’s every week particularly if it is a text I will preach on. If you took a sermon of Spurgeon’s a read one each week you would still be reading a decade later that is the vault of this man’s sermons largely due to his personal secretary and his wife. The following is an excerpt of a sermon that Spurgeon preached at the Tabernacle, his first Easter sermon there. He was twenty years old at the time. In many parts it is vintage Spurgeon speckled with old hymns and catapulting his listeners with direct application. If you read Spurgeon’s sermons enough and develop an eye for it, you will even notice how often he draws application from his introductions. Little wonder discouragement comes from my spirit when I read him.

““Hark! from the tomb a doleful sound,

Mine ears, attend the cry;

Ye living men, come view the ground,

Where ye must shortly lie.

Princes, this clay must be your bed,

In spite of all your powers;

The tall, the wise, the reverend head,

Must lie as low as ours.”

“It is a fact we do not often think of, that we shall all be dead in a little

while. I know that I am made of dust and not of iron, my bones are not

brass, nor my sinews steel: in a little while my body must crumble back to

its native elements. But do you ever try to picture to yourself the moment

of your dissolution? My friends, there are some of you who seldom realize

how old you are, how near you are to death. One way of remembering our

age is, to see how much remains. Think how old eighty is, and then see

how few years there are before you will get there. We should remember

our frailty.

Come to Christ’s tomb then, for the silent vault

must soon be your habitat ion. Come to Christ’s grave, for you must

slumber there. And even you, ye sinners, for one moment I will ask you to

come also, because ye must die as well as the rest of us. Your sins cannot

keep you from the jaws of death. I say, sinner, I want thee to look at

Christ’s sepulcher too, for when thou diest it may have done thee great

good to think of it.

And now, Christian brethren, “Come, see

the place where the Lord lay, to learn a doctrine or two. What did you see

when you visited “the place where the Lord lay?” “He is not here: for he is

risen!” The first thing you perceive, if you stand by his empty tomb, is his

divinity. The dead in Christ shall rise first at the resurrection, but he who

rose first-their leader, rose in a different fashion. They rise by imparted

power. He rose by his own. He could not slumber in the grave, because he

was God. Death had no more dominion over him. There is no better proof

of Christ’s divinity, than that startling resurrection of his, when he rose

from the grave, by the glory of the Father. O Christian, thy Jesus is a God;

his broad shoulders that hold thee up are indeed divine; and here thou hast

the best proof of it-because he rose from the grave.

A second doctrine here taught, well may charm thee, if the Holy Spirit

apply it with power. Behold this empty tomb, O true believer: it is a sign of

thine acquittal and thy full discharge. If Jesus had not paid the debt, he

ne’er had risen from the grave. He would have lain there till this moment if

he had not cancelled the entire debt, by satisfying eternal vengeance. Oh!

beloved, is not that an overwhelming thought?”

From Spurgeon Sermon #18, Vol.1, Metropolitan Pulpit