I invite you to turn with me in your Bibles this morning to the gospel according to Matthew, Matthew chapter 28. We're going to read the first 10 verses. Matthew chapter 28, beginning at verse 1. Now after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb. And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone from the door and sat on it. His countenance was like lightning and his clothing as white as snow. and the guards shook for fear of him and became like dead men. But the angel answered and said to the women, do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. and go quickly and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead and indeed he is going before you into Galilee. There you will see him. Behold, I have told you." So they went out quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy and ran to bring his disciples word. And as they went to tell the disciples, behold, Jesus met them saying, rejoice. So they came and held him by the feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, do not be afraid. Go and tell my brethren to go to Galilee and there they will see me. So far the reading of God's word. Beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, this must be the most beautiful day of the entire year. Jesus died on the cross of Calvary, but his death has opened up the Holy of Holies, so that now we can come into the very presence of God. He opened the graves He also opened our hearts so that we don't have to be afraid anymore because death does not have the last word. Oh death, where is your sting? Oh grave, where is your victory? You don't have it. It's gone. Jesus has opened all of these doors for us. There is no more fear. And yet we read in our passage this morning that the women were afraid. that's understandable you look at their circumstances first of all they went to a grave with their spices to pay their last respect and honor to Jesus they went to a grave he who had the very power to open the grave and call the dead from within it Lazarus come out is now entombed himself they went to a grave. What will be their reaction? They loved Jesus. They had always listened very carefully to His words as He preached the gospel. And now they had to go to a tomb. Will they be able to take it? And they went to that grave with heavy hearts and they were afraid And secondly we know that that grave was sealed. That was a very heavy stone that was placed in front of the opening of that grave. The grave was not open. And that was going to be an obstacle for these women. One of the other evangelists even mentioned that. Will they be able to get in and pay their last respects to Jesus? Will they, as a small group of women, will they be able to move that stone away? They were afraid. And with their heavy hearts, they went to the tomb of Jesus. And when they came to the tomb, they saw that the stone was already rolled away. They saw now that the grave was open. And their first reaction was fear. What now? Wasn't it enough that they killed our Master? Wasn't it enough that they crucified him? Do they now have to defile his grave? Do they have to steal his body? Now what? The tomb was open. And they were afraid, says the evangelists. And then finally when they came to the tomb, they saw that angel sitting on the rolled away stone. Now we are given different details by the different evangelists, and I don't want to try to harmonize those details. We really can't harmonize them. That's not our task. We must let each evangelist speak for himself. That's the proper biblical interpretation. And so we want to stick with Matthew 28 this morning. They came to the tomb, and there they saw the angel upon the rolled away stone. and that angel was in glowing white garments and everything about him was majestic and everything about him was heavenly and they were afraid very much afraid and yet brothers and sisters they were not the only ones who were afraid the guards there were afraid also now I don't want to spend too much time talking about the guards but I do want to mention them The guards were afraid, because these guards had felt the earth shake. And when they saw that tomb open, most likely they saw Jesus himself rise from the dead. And they were afraid. They became like dead men. But theirs was a different fear. Because these guards wanted to keep Jesus' body in the grave. These guards wanted to suppress the body of Jesus and keep it down in unrighteousness. They were afraid and they became like dead men and they fled. And the angel had no gospel for these guards either. But the angel had a beautiful gospel for the women. he said to the women now don't you be afraid don't you be afraid that the grave is open don't you be afraid because I'm sitting here don't you be afraid why not because you have come to this grave for a very different purpose the guards wanted to keep Jesus in the grave but you came to see Jesus well listen anyone who comes to see Jesus and that's the same thing today anyone who comes to see Jesus does not have to be afraid don't be afraid because you were looking for Jesus he is not here no the crucified one is not here but he is risen just as he told you beautiful isn't that beautiful Don't be afraid. You are in contact with the heavenly. The earth shakes. The angels of God are now with you. Everything is different. The grave is empty. But you don't have to be afraid because Jesus is not dead. He is the living one. He is the risen one. And you should have known it. Beloved, there is also a reason why these women were afraid. And we can understand that pretty well. But if they had only paid more attention, if they had only listened more to what Jesus had told them, if they had only said, what do we really sing when we sing that Psalm 118 that talks about the builders that rejected that stone that has now become the cornerstone. If they had only listened to Jesus a little more carefully, as he talked to them about the fact of he was going to destroy the temple and then rebuild it in three days, then I don't think they would have come to this grave with such fear, because they would have expected something. Even though God came with the key to his very, very self, Jesus talked about the Old Testament and how that applied to the Messiah he was always telling them about how that Old Testament was to be fulfilled and he would be the one to fulfill it they heard him he spoke about that again and again he gave them the key to his very self that's in the Old Testament and the angel could not help but press that upon them one more time that they should have known that they should not have been afraid Jesus not only was the crucified one but he is the living one and they should have known it because just as he told them he is risen from the dead now don't be afraid he is not here but he is risen That is the gospel that comes to them, and that is the gospel we hear again this morning. That is the beautiful Easter gospel. China's government knows that. They let Christians celebrate Christmas for all their worth. Sure, let them celebrate the birth of their dead hero, Let them celebrate Christmas. The Chinese government has all kinds of scruples about the celebration of Easter. Because intuitively, even in their unbelief, they sense that Easter is the power of the Gospel. It is the heart of the Gospel. This is the power. Death could not keep its prey. Jesus, my Savior, tore the bars away. Jesus my Lord. And that's why in China the Christians may not celebrate so freely this Easter. Easter is the very heart of the gospel and we know it because of all the obstacles that are taken away from us as well. All that fear is taken away from us, that fear of death that's always with us. Every time we go to the cemetery, every time we go to bury another loved one, too often it seems. We have that hole staring us in the face. We have the casket and it's lowered into the ground. And it seems as if death has the last word. Got another one. And he died. And he died. And she died. And she died. And now suddenly there was, and he died, and he rose! that's brand new and if he can open his grave he will also open our graves and the graves of our loved ones who died in Jesus he is not here he is risen and you should have known it but now go quickly said the angel don't keep this message to yourself go to the disciples and tell them what you have heard and what you have seen And amazing this is, they went quickly, we read, with joy, and I can understand that, and so can you, but also with fear. And that's my second point. With fear. I remember one of my pastor friends whose children were playing church in their living room and his son had a little piece of paper that had three dots on it and and he said what's that is it well that's the sermon dad oh yeah see these are my three points well this morning we're not going to have three points we're going to have two they left with joy and with fear And I really can't understand that at first sight. Why? They've seen so much. They came to that heart, that grave. with lead in their shoes. Oh, we have to go, but I really don't want to. And what's it going to mean? And can we move the stone? And will we be able to see what's going on? They came to that grave to pay their last respect to Jesus. And they were afraid, and we can understand that. But now they saw the empty tomb. They saw the place where Jesus lay. They saw with their very own eyes that the stone was moved away. I don't know how much of the earthquake they felt. All the details are not given to us. I don't know how much they saw of the guards. Yet they had seen so much. They saw the angel in white garments. And they heard the gospel. And they heard the message from the angel say to them, don't be afraid. He's not here, but he's risen. And yet, we read they were afraid. Why were they still afraid? They should have been joyful, only joyful. What greater joy is there than to see the grave opened? And if Jesus could open that, then he will also open our grave someday. And yet they were afraid. And when you really think about it, you can understand why they were afraid, even after the resurrection. Because you see, they were also afraid just like I'm afraid. And you're afraid. Because what the angel said to them is not an easy assignment. The angel said, now you must go quickly and tell the disciples. Who were these disciples? Well you recall that they were the men who were with Jesus in his seminary for about three years. Jesus had given them time and time again the key to himself. He had placed that key of the Old Testament Scriptures in their hands. Jesus had very plainly preached to them and he taught them about the fact that death could not keep him in the grave. But that victory would come, and it would come only through suffering. And yet what happened in Gethsemane? The disciples slept. One of them took a sword. They fled. They denied Jesus. They forgot all about that Old Testament prophecy. They forgot all about that key that Jesus had placed in their hands. And they lied about Him. And they stood at a distance when Jesus died on the cross of Calvary. And when it was reported to them that Jesus died, all of their hope was gone. Everything that they had wanted to live for was now suddenly taken away from them. These were the disciples. And now these women were going to go to tell these disciples, these cowards, these doubters, these unbelievers. The women have to go and tell these disciples and must say to them, you know what? Jesus is alive. We heard that gospel from the angel. We saw the evidence of that gospel with our very own eyes, that the tomb is empty. He is not here, but he lives. How is Peter going to react to that news of the women? What's Thomas going to say when these women come in all their excitement? What are these disciples going to say when these women come with this good news? That's going to be a difficult task for these women. We know about the resurrection of Jesus ourself. We sing that our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and glorious resurrection. We know that we have to go out into our world, into our communities, by our neighbors and proclaim to them, beginning with our own families sometimes, we have a word of good hope and good news for the nations. And yet we are afraid. We're not always open about it, are we? We like to keep that message suppressed. And as our risen Lord has said, now go quickly and tell, we come up with all kinds of excuses and we're afraid. And beloved, to bring that word and to apply that word to our hearts and to the lives of people, we sometimes are hesitant. What must we do with that hesitancy? What must we do with that fear? Who can cure us of that fear? No one, but Jesus Himself. For we read as quickly as they went, with joy, because they had seen all this evidence of the Gospel. They were joyful, we read, and yet they go with fear. And we read, Jesus met them. And Jesus said to them, Rejoice! The strife is o'er, the battle is won, the victory over death is mine. The song of triumph has begun. Rejoice! The veil is rent from top to bottom. The world is now God's temple. And I am with you. My grave is open, and the graves will never be opened like this ever before, but they will now forever after. The day is coming when my grave opened will be but the first fruit of all the graves opening. Rejoice! Don't be afraid. Go quickly and tell. Now we have a message to proclaim. Listen, a message not based on evidence of an empty tomb only. A message not based on hearsay. A message not based on theological speculation of the early church, as there are some who would like us to think. No, our risen Lord Jesus said, don't be afraid to go and tell my disciples. Go quickly and tell, because you have a message to proclaim. And that message is based on eyewitness account. It's based on what you have heard and what you have seen in the empty tomb. And now what you are seeing in me, the living Lord Jesus. Look at the nail prints in my hands. I am the same crucified Lord. And I'm not dead. I live. and now go quickly and tell don't be afraid the angel and what he said is right absolutely on I give you the same commandment now go quickly and tell and go he said to my brethren or a better translation to my brothers and that I find so amazing he says go to my brothers Simon Peter the one who's hacking away with the sword in Gethsemane Simon Peter who said I've never known him no no I have nothing to do with that Galilean yes but your speech betrays you I swear I don't know him those disciples who were so close to Jesus but when the heat was on they fled they were deathly afraid they dare not identify with him anymore but you know what Jesus said he said go and tell my brothers because that's who they are they're not strangers they're not some distant relatives brothers brothers I live And they will live. They are now my brothers. I died for them. I covered their sins of doubt, their sins of unbelief, their sins of cowardness. I covered it all with that blood from Calvary's cross. They are now my brothers. Go and tell my brothers. Tell them what? He lives. He lives. Christ Jesus lives today. You ask me how I know He lives? No, not first of all because of a subjective experience in my heart. I don't know He lives because He lives within my heart. You know how I know that He lives? Because I have seen Him. That's what the women can say. Because I have heard Him, that's what we can say. We have heard the gospel, the gospel of the glorious resurrection of Jesus. You ask me how I know He lives? He lives because with the eye of faith, I have seen Him face to face. And I will tell the story, saved by grace. so be it, and all God's people said. O Heavenly Father, what a joy, what a joy to know that the grave does not have the last word, that Jesus is the majestic risen Savior, ascended from the dead, and seated at the right hand of God the Father, that He will come to judge the living and the dead. What a glorious day it was, Father, when they saw the open tomb, and when they could come as eyewitnesses and tell us the glorious gospel. And we ask, Father, that you will calm our fears, that you will dismiss our doubts, that we may come and be joyful and rejoice this day, because Jesus gave us the command, rejoice, I am alive. and I'm with you till the end. Hear our prayer for we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.