John 11:25,26; Colossians 3:4; Romans 13:11,12
I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?
When Christ, who is our life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.
And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.
A. W. PINK (1886-1952): Christ was crucified on the fourteenth of Nissan, or about the beginning of April. It was the first of Israel’s great national feasts—the most important season in the Jewish year. It was the Passover, when solemn celebration was made of that night when all the firstborn sons of the Hebrews were spared from the angel of death in the land of Egypt.
JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): The Chaldees call this month Abib, from the new fruits or ears of grain then first appearing. It was the first month unto Israel, in respect of sacred, not civil affairs, because of their coming out of Egypt therein. It answereth to part of March with us, and part of April.
C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): It seems to me that spring reads to us a most excellent discourse upon the grand doctrine of revelation. This very month of April, which, if it is not the very entrance of spring, yet certainly introduces us to the fullness of it. This very month—bearing by its [Latin] name the title of the ‘opening’ month, speaks to us of the resurrection. As we have walked through our gardens, fields and woods, we have seen the flower buds ready to burst upon the trees and the buried flowers starting up from the sod; and they have spoken to us with sweet voices, the words, “You, too, shall rise again. You, too, shall be buried in the earth like seeds that are lost in winter, but you shall rise again and you shall live and blossom in eternal spring.”*
THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): The resurrection of Jesus is the support and comfort of the dying believer; for if we have been planted with Him in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection: as members of His body, because He lives, we shall live also.
MARTIN LUTHER (1483-1546): About the time of Easter in April, Pharaoh was swallowed up in the Red Sea, and the nation of Israel delivered from Egypt—and at the same time Christ rose again to renew the world. Perchance the last day will come about the same time.
MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): There is a certain series in the works of providence, as there is in the works of nature. The signs of the times are compared with the prognostics of “the face of the sky,” Matthew 16:3. So here, with those of the face of the earth, Matthew 24:32; when that is renewed, we foresee that summer is coming, not immediately, but at some distance; after “the branch grows tender,” we expect the March winds, and the April showers, before the summer comes; however, we are sure it is coming; “so likewise ye, when the gospel day shall dawn, count upon it, that through this variety of events which I have told you of, the perfect day will come.” “The things revealed must shortly come to pass,” Revelation 1:1; they must come in their own order, in the order appointed for them. “Know that it is near.”
MARTIN LUTHER: I am of the opinion it will be about Easter, when the year is finest and fairest, and early in the morning, at sunrise, as at the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. The elements will be gloomy with earthquakes and thunderings about an hour or a little longer, and the secure people will say: “Pish, thou fool, hast thou never heard it thunder?”
J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): The days of Noah are the true type of the days when Christ shall return, Matthew 24:37,38. When the flood came, men were found “eating and drinking, marrying and given in marriage,” absorbed in their worldly pursuits, and utterly regardless of Noah’s repeated warnings. They saw no likelihood of a flood. They would not believe there was any danger. But at last the flood came suddenly and “took them all away.” All that were not with Noah in the ark were drowned. They were all swept away to their last account, unpardoned, unconverted, and unprepared to meet God. And our Lord says, “so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.”
MARTIN LUTHER: The Christians and the righteous shall ascend upward into heaven, and there live everlastingly, but the wicked and the ungodly, as the dross and filth, shall remain.*
J. C. RYLE: “Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh,” Matthew 24:44. Let us mark this text, and store it up in our minds.
THOMAS COKE: We too shall have our spring-time of resurrection.*
JOHN TRAPP: At that day of “Revelation,” as it is called, “we must all appear,”—or be made transparent, translucent, like a perfectly transparent body, as the word there signifies—before the judgment seat of Christ, 2 Corinthians 5:10; and all shall be laid naked and open, the books of God’s omniscience and man’s conscience also shall be then opened, and secret sins shall be as legible in thy forehead as if written with the brightest stars or the most glittering sunbeams upon a wall of crystal. Men’s actions are all in print in heaven, and God will at that day read them aloud in the ears of all the world. “For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil,” Ecclesiastes 12:14. Then it shall appear what it is, which before was not so clear; like as in April both wholesome roots and poisonable reveal themselves, which in winter were not seen. Then men shall give an account, of good things committed unto them; of good things neglected by them; of evils committed by them; and lastly, of evils done by others, suffered by them when they might have hindered it.
WILLIAM PRINGLE (1790-1858): Moreover, know the time, that it is even now the very time for us to awake from sleep; for nearer now is our salvation than when we believed: the night has advanced, and the day has approached; let us then cast away the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light; let us, as in the day, walk in a becoming manner.
ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): This is the current language and sense of our Lord and His apostles. They represent his coming as “at hand,” as “drawing nigh,”—and admonish their hearers to “watch,” lest His coming should find them unprepared.
J. C. RYLE: Millions of professing Christians will be found thoughtless, unbelieving, Godless, Christless, worldly, and unfit to meet their Judge. Let us take heed that we are not found amongst them.*
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*Editor’s Note: For true believers in Jesus, the Day of His coming in power and glory will be one of great joy. But not for unbelievers, no matter what they may call themselves. An old preacher once said that the Sadducees were “sad, you see,” because they did not believe in the resurrection, and thus had no hope. How much greater will be the sadness of unbelievers, when they must face the true reality of Jesus Christ’s resurrection, and hear His judgment of eternal doom upon them.
