Finally, we are to remember the resurrection of Jesus Christ because if we do remember it, we will always have a satisfying Gospel. The truth of the resurrection of Jesus Christ satisfies. There is so much in life that is not satisfying. In some cases we may be satisfied for a time. But the pleasures soon pale and the satisfaction fades. When we are young and life lies before us, the offerings of the world are not so bad, it seems. There is an appeal to fame or wealth or companionship. The hunger of the imagination paints our goals in bright colors. We can live on dreams.
But what happens when the future does not bring what we ask for? What happens in the face of suffering, death, or sorrow? What happens in old age? If there is nothing more to life than the things which time takes from us, life becomes misery.
On the other hand, if we are united to the living Lord Jesus Christ who has gone before to prepare for us a place in His presence, then life retains its meaning and is filled with joy. We find an illustration of this truth in this very chapter of 2 Timothy. Here is the apostle Paul writing to Timothy. But where is Paul? Paul is in prison. There had been times of great liberty when he was free to preach the Gospel wherever he wished and to whoever would listen. But now he is confined. Those days are over. Soon his life will be ended. But does Paul complain? Is there bitterness? Does he regret his commitment to Christ? Not at all! He rejoices! Thus a little farther along in the chapter we find him declaring, “It is a faithful saying: For if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him; if we suffer, we shall also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us; if we believe not, yet he abideth faithful; he cannot deny himself” (2 Tim. 2:11-13). Paul found that the Gospel of the crucified and resurrected Lord was satisfying even at the end of life and in suffering.
It is satisfying in the moment of a person’s death. In one of his sermons on the resurrection the great evangelist D. L. Moody tells the story of a bright, fifteen-year-old girl who was suddenly struck down with illness. She was completely paralyzed on one side and was nearly blind. She was not expected to recover. One day as she lay on her bed, she overheard the family doctor say to her parents as he tried to prepare them for the inevitable, “I am afraid she has seen her best days, poor child.”
But the girl was a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, and as she heard the doctor she quickly replied, “No, doctor, my best days are yet to come, when I shall see the King in His beauty.”
You see, her hope lay in the living Lord Jesus, and in the hour of suffering and death that resurrection-based hope did not fail to satisfy her. This is our hope also. It is that which I call upon you to remember. Have you remembered the resurrection of Jesus Christ? If you have, you have a Gospel that is simple, supernatural, scriptural, and satisfying. And you have something that you will be able to communicate to those who need it desperately.
