Following His death, Christ was resurrected. This is the most meaningful matter in life. But it has never been adequately realized, even by genuine regenerated Christians. Because the thoughtful people were not given the adequate teaching regarding Christ’s resurrection, Satan filled their minds with the modernistic thought that resurrection is superstitious. In 1936 I was invited to preach to the students in the leading university in China. One night, in a professor’s home, an intelligent student who had been born in a Christian family asked me a question. He said that, according to the scientific view, he could not believe in resurrection in a superstitious way and he asked me to explain it to him. The Lord was with me and I pointed out that this matter of resurrection is commonly found in nature. That professor’s residence had many windows through which we could see wheat fields. I said to that student, “Look at the fields. Do you see the wheat that is growing there? Can’t you see resurrection in that wheat field? The seed is sown into the soil, dies, and eventually the wheat comes forth. This is resurrection. Every day and everywhere you can see resurrection. A hen sits upon a chicken egg, the shell breaks, and a baby chicken comes out. Does not this point to death and resurrection? Do not consider that this is my philosophical mind, for my mind is not that intelligent. This is the teaching of the Bible.” When he asked me where, I said that in 1 Corinthians 15 Paul tells us that the seed which dies and grows again is a picture of resurrection. That night this young man was saved and today he is a leading co-worker on the island of Taiwan. The low preaching of the gospel would have been unable to convince such a thoughtful university student.
Hebrews 2:11-12 indicates that in resurrection Christ has brought forth many brothers. Through His resurrection we were regenerated (1 Pet. 1:3). His death released the divine life from within Him and His resurrection imparted the life of God into us in order that we might become the many sons of God and His many brothers. He was the one grain of wheat falling into the ground, dying, and growing up to bring forth many grains, which are we (John 12:24). He was the one grain and we are now the many grains, His many brothers, brought forth by Him in His resurrection. So immediately after His resurrection He called us His brothers (John 20:17).
In His resurrection Christ not only brought forth many brothers, but He came to His brothers and declared to them the Father’s name (2:12). What is the Father’s name? This is a great matter. The Father’s name is simply the Father. The Father is His name.
The Father means the source of life and the source of being. From where did you receive your life? You received it from your father. From where did you receive your being? Also from your father. The Father is the source. We are all out of Him. The Sanctifier, the Firstborn Son, and all the sanctified ones, the many sons, are all out of the one Father. On the day of His resurrection, the Lord declared the Father’s name to the disciples. From that day on Peter came to realize that he had the divine nature. So, in his second Epistle, Peter said that we are “partakers of the divine nature,” having received “all things that pertain unto life and godliness” (2 Pet. 1:4, 3). How is it that we have received the divine nature and that all things pertaining to life have been given to us? Because we were all born of the Father. The name Father means a great deal to us.
In resurrection, Christ not only declared the Father’s name to His brothers, but also praised the Father in the church (2:11-12). When the Lord declared the Father’s name to His brothers, He praised the Father’s name in the church. The brothers are the church. Individually speaking, they are His brothers and collectively speaking, they are the church brought forth in His resurrection. In the evening of the day of His resurrection His brothers gathered together, and He came to meet with them. That was the first church meeting. The first church meeting was not on the day of Pentecost. On the day of Pentecost the church was enlarged, but the first church meeting was in the evening of the day of the Lord’s resurrection. In the church meeting the Lord not only declared the Father’s name to His brothers, but also praised the Father in the midst of the church.