And as we have the last couple of weeks today, we'll cover some significant territory in that effort. If you were here last week, you'll remember that we looked at the cross. We saw Christ upon the cross, and we finished that in verse 56 in that region with the death of Christ upon the cross. Today, as we continue, we will cover some significant ground again, as I said before, and look and see the burial and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. The life, the death, the burial, the resurrection of Jesus Christ, His life, His death, and as the culmination of all of that, His resurrection is rightly called by those who know the truth, the turning point of history. It is the watershed of all the reality of mankind. It's the event that separates everything. Believer from unbeliever. Condemned from redeemed. As we observe these events and their unfolding, we'll see and recognize things we've seen all along in the latter part of Matthew. We'll see the power of God on display. We'll see prophecy fulfilled. And we will see the very foundations of our faith, the foundation stones upon which everything else rests in our system of belief as Christians. They will be laid down in these texts today. I invite you to look with me. I'm going to read to just begin, beginning in verse 57. And I'm going to go in chapter 27, and I'm going to go through verse 61, and we'll read the rest as we go. There the Bible says, Now when evening had come, there came a rich man from Arimathea named Joseph, who himself had also become a disciple of Jesus. This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. And Pilate commanded the body to be given to him. When Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth and laid it in his new tomb, which he had hewn out of the rock. And he rolled a large stone against the door of the tomb and departed. And Mary Magdalene was there and the other Mary sitting opposite the tomb. Let's pray. Lord, help us for a few minutes as we look at your word. God, I pray that the power of the resurrection would just remind us of all that you've done, all that you are, all that you have called us to be. Lord, let us be reminded. Let us be strengthened. I pray in Christ's name, amen and amen. I want you to see in this section, this first section of we're gonna cover today, really the courage of Joseph of Arimathea. Joseph was a man who was well known in the region. He was a man who, by all accounts, was a man of means. But look at what this man does. He comes to Pilate. asking for the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. You say, well, that means something that, you know, a friend might do. Yes, but remember what all has just taken place. This man's been condemned as a criminal. This man's been declared an enemy of the state by both the Roman government and the Jewish leadership. Joseph coming and asking for Jesus' body in order to care for his body and to bury him in a tomb. Joseph was in those moments risking his reputation. He was risking probably his safety. He was definitely risking ridicule and persecution. Joseph was a bold man who was coming to do what he could do to care for his Lord. But do you know that as God does, as God uses His people as agents of His will, do you know that Joseph of Arimathea coming and taking the body of Christ and putting him in a tomb that he had hewn out for himself and for his family most likely? that God was fulfilling prophecy all along the way there. It's a prophecy, honestly, that I had either forgotten about or was just completely unfamiliar with. But in Isaiah 53 9, here's what the Bible says. And they made his grave with the wicked, but with the rich at his death. because he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. So his grave, the place that he died, was with the wicked, the other criminals there with him on the cross, but it says, with the rich at his death. Joseph of Arimathea was a rich man. He was placed in the tomb of a rich man. Fulfilling this prophecy again, I want you to imagine for a moment This condemned man and the courage of Joseph to, not only, we know he's being used by the hand of God, but the courage that he was showing by doing this. Sacrificial courage, prioritizing the Lord over his own personal security. And the question we must ask ourselves when we see something like this is, are we willing to do that? Are we willing to live sacrificially? Are we willing to boldly identify with Jesus even if it might cost us something? Maybe it will cost us social standing. Maybe it will cost us comfort. We have arrived at times, I'm afraid, within the faith where we have decided that it's not enough that we have the things that God's promised to His people, which is just the necessities of life, but whenever someone is perhaps they're wanting to give their life to following the Lord in a specific way, And you say, well, that's going to be a hard life. You're not going to have this. You're not going to have that. You're not going to have this. And people seek to almost talk folks out of it. You want to go be a missionary and live this way? And man, missionaries don't make any money. Or church planters don't make any money. Pastors don't. Or even another type of calling. It doesn't matter what, even if it's a calling that does make some money, say, well, you're not gonna be able to be around your family a lot, or you're not gonna be able to do this. And we seek, sometimes we seem to seek to discourage people to pursue the thing that they believe God would have them to do for the sake of comfort. Friends, comfort is perhaps the greatest idol in our culture and in our churches. I'm guilty of pursuing comfort over boldness. I'm guilty of pursuing comfort over doing the things that should be done or could be done in order to carry out what God would have me to do in my life. You know I've seen you've seen the pictures sometimes where you know there's people in some country and they're knee deep in water with wooden pews sitting there because there's been a flood or something and having church standing knee deep in water and people say well would you go to church if that's what church look like this morning and the truth is probably not I'd have called it off you wouldn't have nowhere to go. Friends, we can't allow comfort to keep us from prioritizing the Lord Jesus Christ in our life. Whatever it costs to pursue the thing that God would have us to do in our life is worth it. Joseph honors Jesus. He wraps his body in a clean linen. He places it in a new tomb. I heard one old gospel song that called it a borrowed and barely used tomb. This careful burial reminds us again of the love that Joseph has, the reverence he has for Christ. But do you notice the witnesses to the burial? Mary Magdalene in verse 61 and the other Mary sitting opposite the tomb. They know where the tomb is because they watched him go in, which becomes important here in a few verses. They watch it happen. It solidifies the reality of Jesus's death. And for them, who are going to be some of the first witnesses of the resurrection, it also dispels any thought that Christ was still alive, which was going to be the story that was going to go around. As they look, they see there's no way. that he was alive. They've wrapped him up. They've placed him in this tomb. All of these things have happened. These women have really a steadfast devotion, much like Joseph of Arimathea in a different way. We look and see that they're there. The disciples, where are they? They're scattered. But here they are looking, watching. Why? Well, we know that they're actually wanting to go and to do some things to his body. Some of the other Gospels tell us they were going to go and put some things on his body, spices and the things like that, that they would use in order to preserve the dead. They're showing their devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ. Again, much like Joseph, probably potentially at the risk of their own safety. Friends, I am concerned. I am deeply concerned in the day in which we live for myself, for you, for those that I see as I read the Word of God and I see these things that just look like simple kindnesses when we recognize the gravity of it that we don't forget That following the Lord Jesus Christ is supposed to cost something. It's supposed to cost us something. It is a sacrificial way of life. That's why Jesus spoke of taking up your cross and following after me. Because he knew that living for him would be a sacrifice. Sometimes we seem to want a faith that is rooted in the greatest sacrifice that there ever was, and Christ gives the greatest sacrifice that's ever given, calling us to follow after Him in His footsteps and living sacrificially toward Him, and somehow we think it should cost us nothing. It's a bloodless gospel. It's a false sacrifice. These women, Joseph, and these women, they're showing their willingness to take whatever might come in order to be faithful to the Lord. And I hope that we have the same attitude. Because we're gonna see, there was some things that were gonna happen that could have potentially caused them a lot of problems. In verse 62, the Bible says this, it says, Therefore command that the tomb be made secure until the third day, lest his disciples come by night and steal him away, and say to the people, he is risen from the dead, so the last deception will be worse than the first. Pilate said to them, you have a guard, go your way, make it as secure as you know how. So they went and made the tomb secure, sealing the stone and setting the guard. Isn't it funny that they recall that Jesus said he was going to rise from the dead? And it seems like his disciples have kind of forgotten that. His enemies recall that. Here these men are. I'll tell you what they are. They're like Like somebody, you ever see like on a submarine movie or something like that where like a pipe's busting and there's like some guy that's just like got his arms around the leak and the boat's going down or it's like a cartoon where the boat's already underwater up to their neck but the guy's still scooping water out. That's what these guys are doing. They are trying to get in the way of the unassailable will of God. They're trying to put themselves in the pathway of God, like a dam trying to hold back a mighty river. And here it's coming. It's way too powerful. We've got to recognize that our plans, if we think we're going to get in the way of God's plan, that's futile. These men were standing right in the middle of the train tracks, and here was coming the will of God for the resurrected Christ. The question becomes, are there times, are there places where we find ourselves seeking to stand in the way of the will of God? You ever just absolutely known in your life that you were doing things that were not just outside the will of God in a way of sin, but it was outside the will of obedience for you in particular, and you knew it, and you felt it every moment of every day of your life? It's a terrible way to live. And you just know, God really wants me to go this way, God really wants me to go this way. And you refuse, and you refuse, and you refuse. Let me tell you something, you better surrender. If that's where you're at, you better surrender. These men were getting in the way of the, thought they were going to get in the way of the resurrection power of the Lord Jesus Christ. foolishness to the nth degree, obviously, but you and I are just as guilty of the same kind of foolishness if we are going to ignore the leading of the Spirit of God for His children, because that same reality is rooted in the resurrection power of Christ. God working in your life is the same power that worked in Christ to raise Him from the dead. Don't resist the plan of God, the power of God. You're gonna lose. And God will rip things away if He must. If you're His child, God will tear out of your hand those things that are keeping you from following Him if you truly belong to Him. I have witnessed it in the lives of others. I've experienced it in my own life. What the Bible means that when the Bible says that God is a jealous God, what it means is, is that if you're gonna choose something over him, God has no problem in pulling that out of your life and it doesn't really matter what it is. You notice Pilate, he doesn't really care. Pilate was like, I killed the guy. Can I be done with this? He's indifferent. He says, yeah, go ahead, take a guard, go secure it, do the best that you can, whatever. You just see him just like, I wish these guys would leave me alone. I am sick to death of this situation. Pilate just dismisses this whole reality of the potential resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ because he just can't be bothered. He's sick of the situation. He's apathetic. I don't think Pilate was almost ever really hostile towards Christ, but he was definitely apathetic. You know that there's so many people that are going to miss heaven that way? Not because they're actively hostile to the gospel in an outward way, but they just don't care. They're apathetic. They're just passive. And they just say, whatever's going to be is going to be. No, I'm here to tell you that what's going to be is what God says is going to be in His Word. What about us? Even as believers, are we hopefully not apathetic when it comes to the realities of the resurrected Christ and following Him? Let us not be found as apathetic, drifting, wandering. Pilate was dismissive. You say, well, that's terrible. Or that's what's to be expected of a guy like Pilate. What about us? As followers of Christ, is it to be expected of us to be dismissive of the commands of the Lord Jesus Christ? Are we called to live to his glory and honor? They go, they secure the tomb. Again, it's like, one commentator said it this way, it's like locking the window against the sunrise. I'm gonna close this window, I'm gonna lock it real up, lock it up really good so the sun can't come through this glass. Not even covering it over, I'm just gonna lock the window and keep it out. That's just, that's not how it works. The guards' efforts were going to be futile, they just didn't know it yet. Now let us look to the wonderful reality of the resurrection for a few moments in chapter 28. The Bible says now after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to 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, sat on it, 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. 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, bringing 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 worshipped 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." Mary Magdalene, the other Mary, come. This earthquake is happening. The stone is rolled away. The angel has descended, the guards are scared to death. As like unto dead men, the Bible says there. Can you imagine to attend for them, in essence, was a funeral? And then you show up and the casket's empty? That's really what happened here. They showed up for a funeral and the casket was empty. And we know from the other gospel accounts that they didn't know what happened and there was some fear surrounding what happened to his body. And the angels had to tell them all that had taken place. But here we see these women, they come and they're shocked. They see the miracle. They see the angel come. And the angel has a simple message for the women. And it is the message that I want to ring through for you today, I want to ring through for me today, so that it might ring out in the world, that it might ring out in your family, that it might ring out in Ozark and the surrounding areas. And the simple message of the angel is simply this. He is not here, for He is risen, as He said. That's the simplicity. That is the culmination of the fullness of all that has happened in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is not here, for He is risen. This truth, this reality, is the separating point for Christianity across the ages when compared to all other religions. He is not here, for He is risen. There is no Muslim, there is no Buddhist, there is no Shintoist, there is no Confucianist, there is no anyone who can stand at the tomb of the founder of their faith and say, he is not here for he is risen. It is the separating factor. It is the thing that proves that all that Jesus said that He is, that He is. He is the Son of God, the Messiah, the Savior, the Lord, the One who is going to return and to judge the quick and the dead. It is the promise. It is proof positive that everything Jesus said is true about the past, that in the past, everything that Jesus said about the future is true and that He can be trusted to save us from our sins. He is not here. He has risen. And I love to do this, and some people say it's a bridge too far, but I love to look at this and think about what was the first thing, when these women encountered Jesus, and even the angel told them, but what was the first thing they were told to do? Go tell somebody about this. Go tell the disciples. Go tell the boys to get to Galilee. The band's getting back together. Go tell somebody. Friends, this is us. It's so tempting. For people who love the Word of God, to see somebody come into the faith and say, all right, we've got to sit this guy down and we've got to give him a class on the Old Testament and the New Testament, and we've got to teach him about how to read the Bible and hermeneutics and all of these kinds of things. But that was not the discipleship method of the Lord Jesus Christ. Are those things important? You better believe they are. But what did Jesus tell him to do? What did the angel tell him to do? He said, go and tell. What happened to the woman at the well? Jesus said, go tell them. But she went and told everybody, and people came and saw Jesus. Friends, if you know Jesus, this, in the simplest of terms, is your mission. Go and tell them. Go quickly, that he said, and tell the disciples he's risen from the dead. Friends, let me tell you today, if you know Jesus, to go from here and tell other people he has risen from the dead. And they may say, what in the world are you talking about? He said, boy, I got a story to tell you. He said, what do I tell them? You tell them that you once were lost and now you were found, and you were found by the King of kings and the Lord of lords, and His name is Jesus Christ, and this is why He's the King and King of Lord of lords, because He is risen, as He said. Point them to the life and the death and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. They are instructed to just tell The women were filled with fear, they're filled with joy. Jesus tells them all of this. And they were joyful in the midst of fear. You see that? In the midst of fear. Look at verse eight. So they went out quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy and ran to bring the disciples his word. And then they run into Jesus. Then they worship Jesus. Can I tell you, you can be both two things at the same time. You can be fearful and joyful. You can be fearful and worshipful. You can have the weight of the fear of the Lord upon you in a real way in reverence for God and have a heart full of joy proclaiming him because he is high and lifted up. They were fearful and joyful. They go, they tell the disciples, Then what happens? We get this really strange kind of epilogue here about the resurrection account. We have all of this wonder, this glory of the resurrection. And don't you love how God does something? Practically speaking, He answers a situation that was already known to exist. That they were going to lie about what took place. Here we stand at the pinnacle of the faith. Christ is risen and He's risen indeed. I can be saved and you can be saved because the Lord Jesus Christ is risen from the dead. And yet, let me just tell you about the lies they're going to tell so we can take care of that. Isn't it amazing how God does that? It says in verse 11, Now while they were going behold some of the guard came into the city and reported to the chief priest all the things that had happened. When they had assembled with the elders and consulted together they gave a large sum of money to the soldier saying tell them his disciples came at night and stole him away while we slept. And if this comes to the governor's ears we will appease him and make you secure. So they took the money and did as they were instructed. And this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day. God has just shown us the beauty of His resurrection. He's shown us the reality that the disciples were going to come and to meet Jesus. We'll get into the Great Commission next week. All of this wonder that has gone on, and now we've got to deal with these knuckleheads going to tell lies on Jesus? I'm gonna tell you in a few sentences, I hope, because I'm a preacher, that's relative. A few sentences why the story about the disciples stealing Jesus's body doesn't hold water. Let me tell you how. It doesn't make any sense. If the disciples stole Jesus's body and it was all a lie, why in the world did they all die for the faith? Why'd they all die for the faith? Here's what I'm going to tell you. Somebody will die for a lie that they think is true. But nobody's going to die for a lie they know to be false because they were in on it. Why in the world would they give their life to building churches and proclaiming the gospel, getting beat up by Romans and Jews alike? No. These men were transformed by the power of the resurrection, the commands of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Great Commission that we'll talk about next week, and they lived their life up until the end for the glory of Christ and His kingdom. And if they had stolen His body, don't you think when the whip started falling, they'd be like, boys, you know this didn't happen. Let's get out of here. It's foolishness. And yet it must be dealt with, why? Because it's the same thing today. There are many who would tell lies about the Lord Jesus Christ. There are many false stories, false tales out there about who Christ is. There's many even false so-called gospels, not just in the fact that people are preaching the gospel wrongly, but that they've got these accounts that supposedly about Christ that have nothing to do with the truth. We have to look and we have to understand that there is a true gospel and people have laid down their life for it, so we had better not allow it to be perverted. The guard's lie was kind of like trying to put out a fire with gasoline. They were trying to kill this thing where it was. Snuff it out. And yet it was going to start spreading everywhere. Here's another reason that none of this holds water. One of the other things that they like to say that Jesus was just dead and it was all a lie, whether he stole his body or not. Guess what? If he was still dead and he was still in the tomb, somebody to walk them down there by their arm and said, there he is. He's still dead. There's all these stories that have been told. I bet if we took the time, we could stand up and we could say, man, I've heard people say this about Christ and His resurrection. I've heard people say this about Christ and His resurrection. And I'm here to tell you that none of them can touch it. It's one of the most widely attested historical events in history. You can prove it six ways to Sunday. People don't believe that, but I'm telling you that's the absolute truth. It can be proven historically that Jesus Christ rose from the grave. And people, People try to fight against it. But friends, it's not on us to try to prove everything nuts and bolts historically to the world. It's upon us to proclaim the truth and let the Spirit of God do the work that only He can do. And so, my commendation to you today, first and foremost, as we look at this text, is to be reminded that Christ is risen and you live in the power of that resurrection if you know Him. It should be the lifeblood of everything that you do and everything that I do and everything that we do as a church. It is the power by the reality of the resurrection of Christ, the power of the Spirit of God. And friends, if you know not Christ, I'm here to tell you, you're going to be found among the liars. You're going to be found among the doubters. You're not going to be found among the joyful proclaimers of His truth. And I want you to know Him. Why? Because He's risen. And because He's risen, I know He's the only way to heaven. He's the only way to God. I want you to know Him because He's risen. He lived perfectly, He died on the cross for sin, and He is risen from the dead. Friends, I would stand here and stand up on this pulpit if I thought I would get the point across, and just say, He is risen over and over and over again, because it is the truth, it is the very linchpin of our faith, and we cannot forget it. So go from here today with the yes, the realities of the life and the death and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ on your lips. And if you're here and you're a believer, go here with the story of how the resurrection power of Jesus Christ has saved you from death, hell, and the grave, proclaiming that truth, your testimony, along with the realities of Christ's resurrection to a world that desperately needs to hear it. And friend, if you know not Jesus Christ, I'm here to tell you on the basis of the Gospels, on the basis of the Word of God, on the basis of just unassailable historical fact and the faith once and for all delivered to the saints, you must trust in Christ today, repent of your sins, and believe in the Gospel before it's eternally too late, because Christ is risen, and He is risen indeed. Trust in Him today. Let's pray. Father, help me. Help us. Help us to see your truth. Help us to love it. Help us to proclaim it. God, give us a heart that wants others to know. God, we know we can't turn anyone's mind or heart. That's your business. But give us a heart that's so full of the joy of the reality of your resurrection that we can't help that it spill out of our mouth and our life onto all of those around us. Renew us, refresh us, strengthen us in your power, that resurrection power today. We pray in Christ's name. Amen and amen. Please stand as we