Christ's Vindication

Christ's Vindication  •  Sermon  •  Submitted
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Introduction

He was manifested in the flesh,

vindicated by the Spirit,

seen by angels,

proclaimed among the nations,

believed on in the world,

taken up in glory.

This week we’re taking a break from Matthew’s Gospel to focus upon Jesus’ resurrection. Much of the Church throughout history has taken time during this season to specifically celebrate and remember his resurrection, and it’s not without good reason. The resurrection is absolutely essential to Christianity and central to the Bible. In fact, while we put a special emphasis on it today, the truth is, the reason we gather corporately for worship on Sundays is, in large part, because it’s the day of the week that Jesus exited his tomb, which is why his first disciples would later call it the Lord’s Day. A time when they would gather together for fellowship, to break bread, to dedicate themselves to the Apostle’s teachings, and to prayer. So in a very real sense our weekly worship on Sundays is a consequence of Jesus’ resurrection on that day, a natural celebration of Jesus’ conquering of death and the grave.
But this morning I want to spend some time looking specifically at the doctrine of the resurrection. We’re not going to look at the subject exhaustively, but we’re going to zero in on a certain aspect of it, surveying a bunch of passages to see its significance. And since we’ve been in the Gospel of Matthew for so long, and more recently, have seen the resistance that Jesus has encountered with Israelite leaders, I figured it would be insightful to build upon that by looking at what we might call the vindication of Christ, or Christ’s vindication. That Jesus’ resurrection was his vindication against his enemies. That despite all of the accusations, all of the ridicule and ultimately his execution, that God vindicated him by raising him from the dead.

Vindication defined

Now, before we go any further let’s pause and define this idea of vindication. We don’t use the word very often in our speech, but it’s still relatively prevalent in modern English. The dictionary definition of the word vindication is “the act of clearing someone of blame or suspicion, proof that someone or something is right, reasonable, or justified.”
There’s not one of us here that hasn’t attempted to vindicate ourselves of false accusations, or false charges. Someone accuses you of something that isn’t true or that you haven’t done, and so you defend yourself, you attempt to clear your name or vindicate yourself, to prove that the accusations aren’t true. This happens daily within our household, a day doesn’t go by that doesn’t include at least some refereeing of accusations between siblings. Someone gets hurt and immediately the offender begins justifying their actions, they make a case to clear their name. While the other is pleading that I don’t let the offender get away with their actions.

David’s plea for vindication

In the Book of Psalms David often pleads with God that he would be vindicated. That God would not let his enemies get away with their evil schemes. For an example, turn with me to Psalm 54. This Psalm comes directly from an incident in 1 Samuel 26 when Saul is pursuing David’s life and he’s betrayed by his own countrymen known as the Ziphites. They rat him out and tell Saul where David and his men are hiding, and so David writes this Psalm.

1  O God, save me by your name,

and vindicate me by your might.

2  O God, hear my prayer;

give ear to the words of my mouth.

3  For strangers have risen against me;

ruthless men seek my life;

they do not set God before themselves. Selah

4  Behold, God is my helper;

the Lord is the upholder of my life.

5  He will return the evil to my enemies;

in your faithfulness put an end to them.

Daniel’s vindication

And also turn with me to Daniel chapter 6, if you would. In the Book of Daniel most of us are all very familiar with the story of Daniel and Lion’s Den. The Israelites had been conquered and dragged into captivity by the Babylonians, and eventually conquered by the Persians. Daniel lived through the transition, and under king Darius Daniel became distinguished above all the high officials, so much that the king planned to set him over the entire kingdom. However, this made the other high officials exceedingly jealous, so they tried to find a complaint against him to get rid of him, but they couldn’t find any fault in him.
So they devised a strategy to trap him. They convinced the king to establish a law that whoever prayed to any god or man for thirty days, except to Darius himself, would be cast into a den of lions. The king agreed to their proposal and signed it into law. However, even after Daniel became aware of the law, he went into his house where he had windows opened toward Jerusalem and began to pray. He got down on his knees three times a day and prayed before his God, as he had always done.
Then the high officials came and caught Daniel praying before his God, so they reported him to the king. They pressed Darius to cast Daniel into the lion’s den. And though the king was exceedingly distressed, he reluctantly delivered Daniel to the lions. But before they shut him in, the king declared to Daniel there in verse 19,

“May your God, whom you serve continually, deliver you!” 17 And a stone was brought and laid on the mouth of the den, and the king sealed it with his own signet and with the signet of his lords, that nothing might be changed concerning Daniel.

So Daniel is taken into the lion’s den and sealed inside using a large stone. Then in verse 18 we read,

18 Then the king went to his palace and spent the night fasting; no diversions were brought to him, and sleep fled from him.

19 Then, at break of day, the king arose and went in haste to the den of lions. 20 As he came near to the den where Daniel was, he cried out in a tone of anguish. The king declared to Daniel, “O Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to deliver you from the lions?” 21 Then Daniel said to the king, “O king, live forever! 22 My God sent his angel and shut the lions’ mouths, and they have not harmed me, because I was found blameless before him; and also before you, O king, I have done no harm.” 23 Then the king was exceedingly glad, and commanded that Daniel be taken up out of the den. So Daniel was taken up out of the den, and no kind of harm was found on him, because he had trusted in his God. 24 And the king commanded, and those men who had maliciously accused Daniel were brought and cast into the den of lions—they, their children, and their wives. And before they reached the bottom of the den, the lions overpowered them and broke all their bones in pieces.

This is a story of vindication, a story of Daniel’s vindication. In fact, it’s hard not to see the allusions to Christ. The officials couldn’t find any fault in him, they attempted to execute him by sealing inside of his tomb with a large stone, and God vindicates him by closing the mouths of the lions and executing his wicked accusers. You can’t help but see Christ’s vindication in the Book of Daniel.

Vindication predicted

We even see Christ’s vindication pictured in the famous Messianic texts of Isaiah. Turn with me to Isaiah 50, starting in verse 4. We actually read this passage last week during worship. It’s one of 4 sections known as Servant Songs that picture believing Israelites who endure persecution during captivity.

4  The Lord GOD has given me

the tongue of those who are taught,

that I may know how to sustain with a word

him who is weary.

Morning by morning he awakens;

he awakens my ear

to hear as those who are taught.

The Servant is pictured here as one who has been taught, or as one who knows the Scriptures, and knows how to encourage others who have become weary. That every morning he willingly submits himself to God with a teachable and obedient spirit.

5  The Lord GOD has opened my ear,

and I was not rebellious;

I turned not backward.

6  I gave my back to those who strike,

and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard;

I hid not my face

from disgrace and spitting.

The Servant is not rebellious like unbelieving Israel, he does not rebel even when he’s treated unjustly. He endures persecution, he endures unjust treatment, he willingly submits himself to humiliation. We’re meant to see a portrayal of the Messiah.

7  But the Lord GOD helps me;

therefore I have not been disgraced;

therefore I have set my face like a flint,

and I know that I shall not be put to shame.

8  He who vindicates me is near.

Who will contend with me?

Let us stand up together.

Who is my adversary?

Let him come near to me.

9  Behold, the Lord GOD helps me;

who will declare me guilty?

Behold, all of them will wear out like a garment;

the moth will eat them up.

In spite of the injustice, the Servant understands that the Lord God will help him, that He who vindicates him is near. Therefore, he will not be disgraced, he will not be put to shame. For who can contend with him if God is near? Who can call themselves his adversary and win? And who has the power to declare him guilty? These questions are rhetorical of course, no one can disgrace him if God helps him, no one can put him to shame, because He who vindicates him is near. No one can contend with him and win, no adversary can stand, and only God can declare him guilty - for he is the judge. And God will vindicate him.

Vindicated of blasphemy

And we of course know that Jesus suffered immensely, like the Servant does here in Isaiah 50, like a believing Israelite in captivity, he’s maligned and he’s spit upon, he’s mistreated, mocked by Roman soldiers, flogged, beaten, and executed on a cross, but these things were carried out during the final hours of his ministry. All of these things were a result of false accusations, the charge that he was a blasphemer.
The leaders of Israel accused him of blasphemy when he forgave the sins of a crippled man (Matthew 9:2), they picked up stones to throw at him when he said, “before Abraham was, I am.” (John 8:58-59). When Jesus told them, “I and the Father are one.” they picked up stones to stone him for blasphemy, because Jesus, being a man, was making himself God. When they asked him, “If you are the Christ, tell us.” Jesus said, “I am”, so they condemned him to death (Mark 14:61-62) and delivered him over to Pilate to be executed.
Jesus is falsely accused and wrongly condemned, executed and sealed in a tomb, but his resurrection would be his vindication. Jesus would be vindicated of these accusations, vindicated of their false charges. They accused him of blasphemy and so put him to death, but God raises him from the grave, God overturns their condemnation of his Son. They claim he’s guilty but God shows them that he is not. Jesus can forgive sins, Jesus is the Son of God, Jesus is one with the Father, and Jesus is the Christ!
In Romans chapter 1, verse 4, Paul writes that Jesus,

was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead

which is is why Paul also says in 1 Timothy 3:16 that Jesus,

was manifested in the flesh,

vindicated by the Spirit,

The ultimate proof

You see, the resurrection is the ultimate proof for what is true. It’s the miracle of miracles, the overcoming of death itself, attested to by hundreds of witnesses, and an empty tomb. Attested to by men who were willing to suffer and die to proclaim it. It’s why within just a few hundred years the entire known world was captivated by it. If Jesus overcame death then he is Lord, he is the way the truth and the life, for only God has power over life and death.
The resurrection is an unavoidable flag planted in the dirt of human history, that Jesus is Lord. This is why it has created so much hope for some, yet elicited so much vitriol from others. Sinners do not, by nature, love the truth, rather we love our sin, and so the resurrection becomes an obstacle and a stumbling block, a fragrance of impending death and judgment, but to those who are being saved, a fragrance of eternal life.

Making the truth ambiguous

This is why the unbelieving world works so hard to make truth appear ambiguous or unknowable, so as to absolve themselves of any responsibility to it. In this way the truth is suppressed. When Jesus told Pontius Pilate that he had come to bear witness to the truth, Pilate famously responded, “What is truth?” Scoffing with unbelief, as though truth could not be known, if it even existed at all.
In fact, the world goes so far as to accuse us of being narrow-minded and even arrogant to proclaim that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. As though their rebellion toward God was somehow humble or noble. They plead ignorance and call it humility, while refusing to submit to the one true God and his only Son, whom he raised from the dead.

Ultimate authority

The resurrection is also the ultimate proof that Jesus has all authority in heaven and on earth. Jesus overcame death and the grave. Therefore, his resurrection demonstrated his authority over death itself, that not even death could hold him.
Israel’s religious leaders would often ask Jesus for a sign, and Jesus responded that no sign would be given them except for the sign of the prophet Jonah (Matthew 12:38-40, 16:4), in other words, his resurrection. At one point while inside the Temple he drove out the money-changers with a whip, and the Jews asked him,

“What sign do you show us for doing these things?”

What are your credentials, by what authority do you do these things, and Jesus answered them,

“Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”

for “he was speaking about the temple of his body,” that he would raise himself from the dead.

Authority and the great commission

In the great commission of Matthew 28, what does Jesus preface his commission with?

18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

How do we know that? How do the disciples know that he’s been given all authority in heaven and on earth? They knew that, because God had just raised Jesus from the dead! He’s standing among them in his resurrected form when he commissions them. So don’t forget, it is the one who conquered the grave that has commissioned us!
The resurrection changed everything. It’s the hinge on which the door of the church swings! Without it we’re all still dead in our sins and trespasses, a people who ought to be pitied most of all.

Our vindication

And finally, Christ’s vindication means our vindication, Christ’s vindication becomes our vindication, because we are in Christ! If Christ has been risen, then so also will we rise. Our resurrection depends upon his resurrection. You see, Christ was vindicated, he was raised from the dead, because his punishment was unjust, he was innocent. However, our death would’ve been just, because we are not innocent, we’re sinners, deserving of death, but when Christ was punished he bore our punishment, therefore we will share in his vindication!

21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Jesus’ resurrection is also proof that our debt of sin was paid. It’s the receipt of our redemption. We can know that our future is certain because of Christ’s resurrection.

Conclusion

The resurrection gives us hope. The resurrection gives us hope that this world is not all that there is. That this life is not all that there is. That we have a future, a future that is certain, a future beyond this life! Jesus is the firstborn from the dead, he’s the first to return! Therefore, one day, whether today or tomorrow, when we follow him into the grave, we do so knowing that death cannot not hold us either! And so we can ing with the prophet Hosea,

“Death is swallowed up in victory.”

55  “O death, where is your victory?

O death, where is your sting?”

Prayer

Lord, we rejoice in Christ’s resurrection! We take great courage because of it. May the surety of it embolden us to go into all the world, making disciples of all nations. May it strengthen us to endure trials and suffering. May it remind us that a day of vindication for your people is coming. May it give us an unshakable joy that the world cannot quench. I pray that we would embrace your Son without reservation, to submit our whole lives to the one who overcame death and the grave. Amen.
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