You're listening to the teaching ministry of Harvest Fellowship Church in Boyertown, Pennsylvania. You can find out more about us on the web at www.harvestfellowshipchurch.org. We pray that through our teaching we may present everyone mature in Christ. Alright, last week Matthew 20 755-61, although there was a 45-minute excursus, I guess we could say, before we jumped into those verses. We took additional time to take a deeper dive into the theological implications, the breadth and depth of all that Jesus accomplished at the cross. Two weeks ago, we looked at sort of the physical aspects of the crucifixion. Last week, we looked at the theological aspects of the crucifixion. First, we observed how Jesus was the means of propitiating, so that word propitiation, propitiating the wrath of God by making satisfaction for God's holy displeasure against sinners. And what's the result of that? The result is God's pleasure in those whom Christ saves. Secondly, we considered how at the cross Christ redeemed to himself an enslaved people, so we looked at redemption. Third, we talked about reconciliation, how God both authored and initiated the reconciliation of fallen mankind to himself, how in Christ, by the death of God's Son, and that brought about peace with God. Then we examined penal substitution. I realized I probably should have written that one out on the board. Think of the word penalty, penal. We have penal codes in our law system. But penal substitution, a theological concept that has to do with God's legal judgment. There's that legal aspect, and we talked about how Christ as our substitute took our place under the law. suffered the curse of the law, and shed his blood in order to satisfy, there's that word satisfaction, to satisfy the sin debt that mankind owed to God. As a result, man who stood guilty before God is judicially pronounced not guilty by God because of Christ's work. The final theological concept that we studied was the perfect obedience of Jesus. And we distinguished, of course, between the active and the passive obedience of Christ. Those are two separate things. The active obedience of Jesus was his keeping of God's commandments perfectly as revealed to us and to him in Scripture, in God's word. And His passive obedience, which may be a little less familiar in our minds, is this voluntary submission by Jesus to the Father's will, to God's purpose that He suffer and die for our sins. And both of those things are wrapped together, separate things, but wrapped together and called the perfect obedience of Jesus. And it's through obedience, through His obedience, that Jesus fully met both the penal sanctions and the positive demands of God's law. And to that, we said, hallelujah, what a Savior. Then we finally got back to the text. In verse 55, we saw Matthew highlighting the faithful female disciples of Jesus. While all the men were running and hiding, we saw these faithful female disciples who demonstrated their faithfulness to Christ in good times and in bad times. Then we had our attention brought to Joseph of Arimathea. It was quite a joy for me to watch you all with quizzical faces when I asked you where we had seen him before, especially you, Bob. We hadn't seen him before, because this is pretty much the only mention of him in scripture. But this man, who used to be a secret disciple of Jesus, no longer a secret disciple, he boldly steps forward. He asks Pilate, I would like to give Jesus an honorable, proper burial. And we talked about all the things that would come Joseph's way. Persecution, loss of honor, the loss of his place serving on the Sanhedrin. And he found the worth of Christ to far surpass any of those considerations. And we were surprised in some ways that Pilate granted his request. It was unusual to grant such a request, but he does. And Joseph then prepares Jesus's body for burial. He lays it in a brand new tomb. never had a dead body in it before, and he sealed the tomb with a great stone. And we said that was further proof that Jesus had died a real death, a real man dying a real death. In the final verse, we see the burial scene closes with Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, as referred to by Matthew. There at the tomb, they followed Jesus even unto his grave." And so that brings us tonight to verse 62. We're going to go into chapter 28 through verse 10, which I'm now going to read. So if you have your Bibles, turn to Matthew 27, 62. Hear now the word of the Lord. The next day, that is after the day of preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate and said, Sir, We remember how that imposter said, while he was still alive, after three days I will rise. Therefore, order the tomb to be made secure until the third day, lest his disciples go and steal him away, and tell the people he has risen from the dead, and the last fraud will be worse than the first. Pilate said to them, you have a guard of soldiers. Go, make it as secure as you can." So they went and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone and setting a guard. Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went 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 and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. And for fear of him, the guards trembled and became like dead men. But the angel said to the women, Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here, for He has risen, as He said. Come, see the place where He lay. Then go quickly and tell His disciples that He has risen from the dead, and behold, He is going before you to Galilee. There you will see Him. See, I have told you." So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. And behold, Jesus met them and said, greetings. And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me. And may the Lord write the eternal truths of his word to our hearts on this Wednesday night. We are now in the hundreds. We have reached teaching 100 here in our study of Matthew with just, I believe, four to go, three or four to go. And tonight, You know, we've dwelled on so much of the passion, or maybe what we'd call the negative aspects. You know, it's not fun to talk about the crucifixion and all the suffering of Christ on our behalf, but here we see the other side of that. First, we'll look at the guard at the tomb, but then the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And what I wanted to mention as we begin here, and I've said this a few times, is that obviously we're not covering everything in the four Gospels. And again, I would encourage you to read all four Gospel narratives, because they present the Passion narratives, and especially the Resurrection narratives, from four different distinct viewpoints. especially encourage you to read through those because as you read through the four gospel narratives on the resurrection, you're going to encounter, as you read through, what at face value might seem to be contradictions or even facts that disagree. Now, when you find that in the Bible, what should that cause you to do? That should cause you to read it more, study it more. After all, it was not too long ago, it wasn't recent, but it wasn't too long ago that we were studying through paragraph one, the London Baptist Confession of the Holy Scriptures. We made a lot of statements about what we believe about the Holy Scriptures, and we certainly don't believe that it contains any errors or contradictions. And so we must press into the text to come up with reasonable explanations. And just one thing to consider. just a practical explanation, is that each author is writing from a very specific point of view. And I'll just give you a very quick example. If I were to go to Greg and Annette's house, which supposedly is coming sometime later this summer. Now, if I go to Greg and Annette's house and I was telling somebody else about it, I might just say, I went to Greg's house. Was Annette there? Yes. Did I say she was there? No. Now, if my wife was telling that same story, she might say, we went to Greg and Annette's house, but only talk about Annette being there. So you can see that there is ways to present different narratives from different perspectives. And you're not focused. And you do the same thing when you tell stories to people. You present the specific details that you want to highlight. And that's the case with these four gospel narratives. So we shouldn't look at the gospels from this perspective of there must be a contradiction. We should look at it from we believe in the infallibility of scripture. How can we reconcile this? What could be a common practical sense explanation to what's going on? So I'd encourage you to, one, read through them, observe what those are, and then work through the text. But we are working through Matthew. And so again, we are at verse 62, where Matthew writes, the next day, that is after the day of preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate and said, sir, we remember how the imposter said, while he was still alive, After three days I will rise." Now these four verses here, verses 62 through 65, this is a unique part of the Passion narrative. It's found only in Matthew's Gospel. So Mark, Luke, and John, they don't mention this, just Matthew does. But we see this picture here where Matthew says, the next day, or actually the very literal sense of the text there says tomorrow. And we don't talk like that, but that's what the word says. So this was the day after Jesus was buried. And Matthew knows that you may be a little bit confused, so he says, that is, he clarifies, The day, or after the day of preparation, the day of preparation was the day before the Sabbath. So if the day of preparation was the day before the Sabbath, then the day that Matthew's talking about is the Sabbath. You can look at Mark 15, 42. But on the Sabbath, and presumably in the morning, We see this group of men, they again come to Pilate. We've seen them come to Pilate before, but that was to request that Jesus be executed. But now we see a group of chief priests and Pharisees. They gather for Pilate. And in their mind, of course, we talked about this before as well, as long as they're not traveling more than a day's journey, or entering the residence of the governor, as you saw in John 18, 28, then from their perspective, they are not defiling the Sabbath. Even though we showed how terribly that these men had already violated the Passover celebration itself. But I thought what John Gill wrote here was very thought-provoking to me, because as he's talking about what these men are doing on the Sabbath, he said this passage shows what consciences these men had. And I think there's a bit of sarcasm there. I think he really means what consciences they did not have. They didn't have a proper conscience. He says they had just accused, or not just accused, but previously they had accused the disciples of Christ in violating the Sabbath for just simply plucking a few ears of corn on that day. They had sought to kill Jesus because he had healed a man on the Sabbath. And he had told that man to take up his bed and walk. And John Gill says, yet they themselves, these men, these religious leaders, he said they could leave their devotions, their day of worship. And first, he says, meet together and agree upon an address to Pilate. then go in a body, in a group of men, to his palace. Then after he grants their request, he says to march to Joseph's garden, that's Joseph of Arimathea, and make the sepulcher secure, sealing the stone and setting a watch. All of these things, John Gill says, are servile works, prohibited on the Sabbath. And he says, and according to their, that's what he says, according to their laws and traditions not to be done on the Sabbath day, and yet they cared not. And I really hadn't considered that aspect before, of all these things that these men are doing on the Sabbath itself. But since it is convenient, since it is advantageous to them, they decide that they can do this. And consider also, once again, what an unlikely pairing this is. The chief priests are really Sadducees. So you've got Pharisees and Sadducees, again, groups that typically bitterly oppose each other. We'll see that later in Acts how Paul says, I'm a Pharisee, and like a fistfight breaks out. But their mutual hatred for Jesus is what brings these men together, as well as that desire that people in power have to maintain their control over power. And so together they come in this cooperative request to Pilate. And they say, sir, or maybe even you could think of it as your excellency, And they are acknowledging his authority here. But they say to him, sir, we remember or we recall how that imposter said. And so with that introduction, they're recounting for Pilate words that they know that Jesus said. They're also disparaging Jesus here as a deceiver. Even his death has not assuaged their anger in any way at all. So we see them addressing Pilate with respect. We see them mocking Jesus as a deceiver. And notice yet again, they still cannot bring themselves to call him by his name. They always allude to him by something different. Here they disparage him. But they do acknowledge that Pilate is the one with the authority here. They don't have the authority, Pilate has the authority. So just as Joseph of Arimathea had to come to Pilate, he had to ask for the body of Jesus, so too these men had to come to acknowledge his authority, and they're going to make a request. But first, They give the words of Jesus, so they say that while he was still alive, in the days of his earthly ministry, before his crucifixion, and notice that even through that statement, what are they confirming? That Jesus had died a real death. But what did he say that they were so worried about? It was after three days, I will rise. Or you could even say, I will awake from the dead. And what's very fascinating is that these men seem to have a far better memory than even Jesus' own disciples did. And there were times where, according to Mark, that the disciples were afraid to ask Jesus what he meant by his words. In Mark 9, 30 through 32, it says, they went on from there and passed through Galilee, and he, Jesus, did not want anyone to know, for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And when he is killed, after three days he will rise. But they did not understand the saying, and were afraid to ask him." So they were afraid to ask him. But these religious leaders, however, if they had it relayed to them or if they heard it directly, they remember, they recall, and they are very concerned about it. Now, it's important to understand As we talk about these three days, and we see that we've talked about that many times, that the Jews did not count three days as three 24-hour periods. They had something that they called inclusive reckoning. So they would count days inclusively. So for example, even if they were going to count three days, if they were making that statement today, today would count as day one of that three-day reckoning. And so from the very technical sense of their inclusive reckoning, Jesus was in the tomb on three separate days. And remember, this is in the Jewish month of Nisan. So Nisan 14 is Friday. This happens before sunset. He is placed into the grave. Nisan 15 is the day we're talking about here, where they're speaking to Pilate. That's Saturday. That's the Sabbath. And Nisan 16, which is the first day of the week, So they remember, they recall these words for Pilate. And so now they say, or this is a request from them to Pilate. They said, because of these words of Jesus, they say, therefore order or command the tomb to be made secure until the third day. And this is a request of urgency. They want this to be done right now. Why? Because they're afraid. They say, lest his disciples go and steal him away. And what will be the result of that? They will tell the people he has risen from the dead. And here's the further result. The last fraud will be worse than the first. So what do they do? They ask Pilate to add extra security at this tomb where Joseph had just buried Jesus. They want to make it secure against any form of tampering, at least until that third day arrives. So just as through their statement they have confirmed that Jesus died a real death, they have confirmed that Jesus was definitely buried in a tomb, in a specific tomb. Their concern here is they say, we don't want his disciples to come and to steal him away. We want to prevent that. We don't want them to secretly steal his body. And once they've stolen the body, then what will happen? They will tell the people a story that Jesus has miraculously been raised from the dead. And it seems that they are unsure of their own ability to prevent such a thing from happening. And they're very confident, though, in the military, in the authority of the governor who's been appointed by Rome, that he can provide to them a far superior means of dispelling and preventing any such what they would call a ridiculous rumor. Because, they say, the last or the final fraud or the final deception or deceit will be worse than the first. So they say that such an event, for such a thing to happen, would be worse than even Jesus claiming to be the Messiah. Benjamin Gladden says, an empty tomb would generate an incalculable number of disciples and turn the world upside down. And of course, that is exactly what will happen. But an empty tomb would also testify to the authenticity of Jesus' earthly ministry. And so their statement could also, though, be considered from this perspective, that they would perceive such an event to be worse than even how long that they had tolerated his lies, or at least what they perceived to be lies. So they make this request, this formal request. Remember, this is on the Sabbath. They make this request, and Pilate said to them, verse 65, you have a guard of soldiers. And he gives them a command, go. Make it as secure as you can. So they went and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone and setting a guard. So essentially, Pilate grants their request. He says, you have a guard of soldiers. You can supply the word can. You can have a guard of soldiers. You may have a watch of Roman soldiers at your disposal. Now, this isn't specified in any of the four Gospels of exactly how many soldiers this was. But I think it's very reasonable to conclude that it would have been very similar to what we'll see later in Acts when Peter's imprisoned. So it probably was at least 16 soldiers, and perhaps as many as 30 to 50. But with these men being allotted to these religious leaders, he says, go make it as secure as you can. He says, you have my permission to use these men as your resources to make this tomb as theft free as possible to the best as you can possibly do, as best as you know how. And so once I've given you all these resources, you will have no one to blame. If this doesn't work out, you have no one to blame except yourselves. And so they do it. These men, who many serve on the Sanhedrin, they do as Pilate tells them, and of course, I'm sure they were thrilled that he had granted their request. They don't know how he's going to respond, just as Joseph of Arimathea doesn't know. And so they go and they do this. It says, by sealing the stone and setting a guard. So they ensure that this stone that Joseph of Arimathea and other men had rolled into place, they make sure that this stone was firmly in place and also that it is carefully watched by these many Roman soldiers. Now, this word seal here, there's the same sense of this word as we see in the sealing of Satan in Revelation 20, verse 3. And it also likely was some type of wax and signet sealing that would officially prevent an unauthorized opening. And it's a very strong parallel to what happens in the life of Daniel. In Daniel 6, 17, a stone was brought. This is when Daniel is put into the lion's den for prayer. A stone was brought and laid on the mouth of the den, and the king sealed it with his own signet, and with the signet of his lords, that nothing might be changed concerning Daniel." Would anyone have dared to go and to break that seal? No way, because otherwise they're going to be in that same place. Who would dare then to break such an official Roman imperial insignia seal that was authorized by Pilate? But there's something very unique that we ought to consider here, is that these evil men have very unwittingly accomplished something that they were trying not to accomplish. And that is through their precautions, they are going to make the proof of the resurrection an irrefutable proof. So the thing that they're worried about could not possibly be the reason, even though they're going to try to still explain it away. But these evil men are unwittingly later proving the resurrection. John Chrysostom, he says, do you see how even against their will, his enemies, Christ's enemies, contend for proof of the truth? And even as we consider the present state of Jesus' disciples, These are men who ran, they fled just at the sight of Him being bound. And if that was their disposition then, where would this courage have suddenly come from? Where would they have mustered this courage to steal a body from such a heavily guarded tomb on the Sabbath? But there is this truth that we see in Psalm 2-4. He who sits in the heavens laughs. The Lord holds them in derision. And of course, God is superintending all these things. So just as he uses Joseph's brothers to accomplish his purpose, so here he's using these evil men. And as we consider that aspect, the sovereignty of God, the power of God, the superintending of all things, as Christians, as believers in Christ, this should fill our hearts with great confidence. We ought to take heart We live in a world where all things, not some things, all things are ordered by a hand of perfect wisdom, God's hand of perfect wisdom, where all things are working together continually for the good of the body of Christ. J.C. Riley says, the powers of this world are only tools in the hands of God. He is ever using them for his own purposes, however little they may be aware of it. And these men do not have any awareness that they are being used by God to accomplish the actual resurrection story. So that leads us into chapter 28, into these 10 verses. In verse 1, we read now, after the Sabbath, that's the next day, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, so we're talking about Sunday here, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. So the Sabbath, at this point, has fully passed. It's fully expired. And Sunday morning, we could say, is drawing near. It's about to shine forth, so to speak. And again, who do we see here? It's women. faithful women, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, the same faithful female disciples that were mentioned in chapter 27 verses 56 and 61. They are now going to travel back to view the tomb now that they have rested on the Sabbath. Their day of rest has passed. It says in Luke 23, 56, on the Sabbath, they rested according to the commandment, which stands in stark contradiction to what these religious leaders were doing. They're off working. These women are obeying the law of God. And they come to this tomb, it says in Mark 16, 1, with the purpose of anointing the body of Jesus. It says, when the Sabbath was passed, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome. So there's a different perspective from Mark. He adds in, and Salome brought spices so that they might go and anoint him. But what's really interesting is that they go, and they have no idea how they're going to do this. Because Mark goes on in verse 3, they were saying one to another, who will roll away the stone for us? is remarkable faith that they're going to go to try to do something that in their minds is impossible, and yet they're going. But it does seem, as you read across all four gospel narratives, that there is this aspect of, as they leave to go, that it's dark. And by the time they arrive at the tomb, that by now the sun has risen. Verse 2, and behold, there was a great earthquake, And Matthew supplies the reason or the cause. He says, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. And for fear of him, the guards trembled and became like dead men. Notice how many times, even in these few verses, that Matthew uses that favorite word of his, behold. Look, pay attention. He's introducing here the most extraordinary of events. And of course, these events that are taking place here that are described by Matthew, they seem to take place before the women arrive. So these women are going to witness the after effects of what Matthew describes. So Matthew says there was a great earthquake. So he's describing these events that take place that the women see the after effects of as they walk up. But he talks about first this severe violent earthquake that shook the area. William Hendrickson talks about how often throughout scripture we see as we see the presence of the Lord manifested, as we see mighty redemptive acts of God, as we see the manifestation of God's anger poured out upon the enemies of his people, that often with that we see the occurrence of earthquakes. I want to give you a few examples. Exodus 19.18, now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln and the whole mountain trembled greatly. Why? Presence of the Lord. Numbers 16.31, As soon as he had finished speaking all these words, that's Moses, the ground under them split apart and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up with their households and all the people who belong to Korah and all their goods. There's a manifestation of God's anger poured out upon his enemies. Job 9, 6, this describes God as he who shakes the earth out of its place and its pillars tremble. Psalm 18.7, then the earth reeled and rocked, the foundations also of the mountains trembled and quaked. Why? It says because he, referring to God, was angry. And then lastly, Nahum 1.5. The mountains quake before him. The hills melt. The earth heaves before him. The world and all who dwell in it." And those are not all of the passages. Those are just a short handful of a vast array of scriptures that use this phraseology of earthquakes. And so again, there is this severe, violent earthquake. And Matthew says it's because this cosmic upheaval came because an angel of the Lord descended from heaven. And even in that short phrase there, from heaven, we have this wonderful picture that Matthew's drawing for us. He's signifying heaven coming down to earth. And it is through this atoning work of Christ, and now through his resurrection, that there's this definitive rejoining of heaven to earth. If you go all the way back to Genesis, what happens? God creates everything, it's perfect, we have this picture of perfection. As man walks with God in the garden, in the cool of the day, you have this picture of a perfect joining of heaven and earth. And when Adam and Eve transgress, as they rebel against God, it's as if those two parts of the universe are ripped apart through what man does. And suddenly, that's where that separation comes between God and man. Man having estranged himself from God. So through this resurrection, through all that Christ accomplishes on the cross, it's as if it's being stitched back together. Now, it's not complete yet. It's not perfect yet. We still are sinners. But there's this picture of the rejoining that, as we talked about, remember with the rending of the veil, that mankind can now approach God in great confidence in his presence. And so this angel descended. It says, he came and he rolled back the stone and sat on it. So this stone, which sealed Jesus's body in the tomb, so to speak. is rolled away by the angel. The angel then sits upon this stone. And what does he demonstrate? He demonstrates through that sitting on it that, hey, I'm the one who rolled it away. It wasn't rolled away by Roman soldiers. It wasn't rolled away by disciples. I rolled it away, an angel of the Lord. The earthquake didn't roll it away. The angel did. And in Mark 16.4, this is a significant feat because it says, looking up, this is the women, they saw that the stone had been rolled back. It was very large, a huge stone. Now Matthew describes for us this angel. He says his appearance was like lightning. He was brilliantly bright, radiating with light. His clothing white as snow. There's this symbol of perfect whiteness, the sparkling luster of his garment signifying a few things, and that is his holiness and the purity of his nature as an angel of the Lord. And how do these men respond? These guards, these many Roman soldiers that were placed there by Pilate's command, it says, for fear of him. Notice, this is what they're afraid of. They're not afraid of the earthquake. They're afraid of him and his appearance. This terrifying appearance of the angel terrifies these men. And so what's the result? These guards, or you could even call them the keepers, they trembled. Or you could even think of the picture of they were shaken. These men were shaken. And it says they became like dead men. And so it is, as we read through scripture, that we often see these confrontations as people are confronted with an appearance or a manifestation of the divine, whether it's God himself or a heavenly messenger that serves as a representative of him. What is the typical human response to that? a trembling, a fear. You see that in Luke 2.9, that's the shepherds as they encounter the heavenly host. You see it in Acts 7.32. And also, if you remember how John responds to an appearance of Christ himself in Revelation 1.17. Now, what I just cited as examples were positive encounters. They ended up being very positive encounters. But this is not a positive encounter for these men. It says they were like dead men. Now remember what kind of men these were. These are hardened Roman soldiers, veterans of war. They had been used to terrible sites in the battlefields. They were men of courage. These were men fearless of danger. And yet now, every single one of them seems to be seized with a panic. Their every limb is trembling and shaking at the sight of this angel. and perhaps for fear that He had come as an executioner of vengeance upon them specifically. These are men, probably some of them, ones who had helped with the crucifixion. But they had watched Jesus as He had hung on that cross, and now they had seen His body in the sepulcher And this manifestation of glory and majesty appears. They had never seen anything like this before. And if we were able to observe this scene, or if you were able to observe this scene, maybe you would have been unable to guess what was shaking more, the earth or these men. And there is a certain irony in this situation here, and that is that these men, these mighty men who were assigned to guard a dead man, became like dead men while the one that they were guarding is now alive. So the men have become like dead men. But verse 5, the angel said to the women, Do not be afraid, for, here's the reason, for I know that you seek Jesus who is crucified. He is not here, for he has risen. As he said, come, here's a command. This is an exclamatory command from the angel. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and behold, he is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him. See, I have told you." So the angel, here, the men have fainted away with fear. He speaks to these women. He responds to their situation. In Mark 16.5, we see that they are entering the tomb. They see a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed. But he says to them, don't be afraid. And we could add the word you, because the word you is there in the Greek, probably emphatically. Don't you be afraid. You don't be afraid. Technically, we could translate this as, stop being afraid. We've talked about that before in the Sermon on the Mount. Some of the things that Jesus says is he's essentially saying, stop doing this. Here, the angel's saying the same thing. Stop this fear that is taking place. Stop being afraid. The soldiers here, they have a good reason to be afraid of me, but you do not To be afraid, you could almost think of it like this, to be afraid is not for you, but for those that crucified Jesus. And the angel goes on, he says, for I know that you seek Jesus who is crucified. I know why you're here. I know that you're looking for Jesus who had been fastened to a cross. And all throughout the New Testament, here and in other places in the New Testament, we find these statements about Jesus being crucified. Scripture isn't afraid to talk about that, to describe Jesus in that way, him who was crucified. And that's what the angel says here, Jesus who was crucified. Even though the world had rejected, despised Jesus, they crucified him on a cross. These women, they've remained loyal, and they've demonstrated that loyalty by being here, by coming to the tomb. It's hard to really fathom what they thought at these next words when he says, he is not here. He's not here in this place. He's no longer in the tomb in which you just saw him later. Remember, these women were there with Joseph of Arimathea, with Nicodemus, and possibly other men laid his body in the tomb. He's not here anymore. We've talked before about the parallels of Moses from the Old Testament, Jesus as the new and greater Moses. There's this parallel that Moses' body was never found because nobody knew where he was buried, according to Deuteronomy 34, 6. But the greater Moses here, Jesus, his body cannot be found Not because no one knows where he's buried, but because he is risen. And that's what the angel says. He says, for he has risen. Jesus has been raised from the dead. He wasn't stolen by anyone. He wasn't moved to another place. He was raised from the dead through the power of the triune God. I'm going to quote several verses here. Romans 6, 4, "...we were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life." Galatians 1, 1, Paul, an apostle, "...not from men, nor through men, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead." 1 Peter 1.3, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Romans 8.11. If the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you. And remember those words of Jesus himself, which I quoted before, John 10, 18, no one takes it from me, his life, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it up again. So I said this is the actions of the triune God here. And of course, possibly what the Pharisees were remembering, John 2.19, Jesus answered them, destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. And John went on to explain he was talking about his body. The angel says he has risen just as he said. Jesus's predictions about himself have been fully completed, completely fulfilled. Every single detail, 100%. And perhaps that phrase there, as he said, may have been a sense of a gentle or a mild rebuke to this woman, but perhaps also a gentle, we could say, admonition or a loving reminder to them. Hey, don't forget, this is what he said. And we should also remember the angels don't speak their own messages. He's simply relaying or announcing the message of God. They're the messengers of God. And so after he says this to them, he says, come. Almost like, come here or come on. This is the command that he gives. See the place where he lay. I want you to take your eyes and to confirm that this tomb is now empty. The earthquake was not the means of releasing Jesus from this tomb. But the removal of this stone did serve a purpose, and that was to allow eyewitnesses to see that this tomb was empty. Notice as you read through all four gospel narratives, none of them tell you exactly on that Lord's Day morning when He arose. But everyone was encouraged to come and to see this empty tomb. These women had earlier seen Jesus' physical dead body laying in this tomb and He says, I want you to now behold with your own eyes this empty tomb. It's not just a declaration for them, it's a declaration for the whole world. For the whole world to acknowledge that the Lord had already risen. And this is an interesting application here as we consider this as Christians, as professing Christians. Firstly, is that when you enter the waters of baptism, as you descend into those waters of baptism, which is one of the two sacraments that we observe as commanded by Christ. What happens is that as you are plunged into the water, as you are plunged into the water, there's a sense that the baptized person sees the place where the Lord lay, as you are baptized with him into death. So the baptized person sees the place where the Lord lay. And then it's through the other of the two sacraments, the Lord's table, that those who commune with Christ at the table, what are they doing? We could say that they are coming and they are seeing His hands and His feet. But there is a distinction in those two things, and that is through baptism. Baptism occurs once. You are buried with Christ. You are raised with Christ once through those baptismal waters. But we participate in that which signifies He is alive in the table, the table of communion, the Lord's Supper, and we do that many times. Many times do we make that proclamation together that our King and our older brother is alive. So he says to them, come see the place where he lay. Then, verse seven, or after that, as soon as you've done that, go or travel quickly. I want you to see it, and then I want you to leave. Leave this empty tomb area without delay, because I have a mission for you, and that's to tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead. You need to go and communicate this to the 11. In Mark 16, 7, it's a little bit more specific. But go tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him just as he told you. And the men have not been as faithful. They've been mourning. They've been weeping the death of Jesus. They've been despairing of his resurrection. As you look to the other gospel narratives, they seem to be in great disbelief at what the women will tell them. They have little hope. They don't seem to remember his predictions. And so we see through this, not only is it a mission for the women, but it is a grace of God to these men. To these disconsolate men, here comes a gracious act from God. The angel says, and behold, again, this is an important declaration. He, referring to the resurrected Lord, is going before, going ahead of you into Galilee. Jesus is headed back to Galilee. He's leading the way for his faithful disciples to return. Remember we talked about the women had followed him to his passion all the way from Galilee. Remember back to what Jesus said in Matthew 26, verses 31 and 32. Jesus said to them, to his disciples, you will all fall away because of me this night. But it is written, I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered. But after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee. Well, here's the fulfillment of it. And the angel says, there you will see him. Risen Lord will appear to you there. And there's a bit of a, I think there's a bit of a puzzle there. Is he saying that to the women? That's where you'll see him? Or to the 11? I kind of like to think it's both. It's a promise meant for them both. And then notice he uses the word behold yet again. This word see here is the word for behold, again signifying great importance. This is a monumental passage of scripture. But essentially what the angel is saying to the women here is, you've heard the glad message. You know what to do. Go do it. Go do it. The news of how God has raised up the Son of God, loosing the pangs of death, as we see in Acts 2.24, because it was not possible for him to be held by the pangs of death, is a message, a declaration that cannot wait. You have to go now. Remember what Jesus himself will later tell John in Revelation? He laid his right hand on me saying, Fear not, I am the first and the last and the living one. I died, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and Hades. So what happens in these final three verses, in verse 8, here's the result. They depart quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and now they have a purpose. They ran to tell his disciples. And behold, there's the word again. Jesus met them and said greetings, and they came up and took hold of his feet and worshipped him. Then Jesus said to them, Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me." So the women do exactly as they are instructed to do. They immediately leave the tomb. But they have this sense of fear, or we could use the words alarm or fright, and great joy. So they have a mixture of things going on within them. This brilliant angel who has just appeared and spoken to them surely has struck them with fear. They've received very incredible news, and their eyes have just beheld an empty tomb. They have now seen an amazing event that surely exceeded all their expectations as they were walking down there. We see these two emotions paired together in Psalm 211, serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. But no matter whatever fear that they're feeling, their joy is filling them because it says they ran or they rushed to tell his disciples. They're sprinting to announce this good news to the 11, and as they're going, as they're returning from the tomb in Luke 24 9, because they are going to go and they're going to tell this message, behold, or look, Jesus encountered them on the way and said, greetings. So Jesus suddenly appears to these women here, warmly greeting them as a very alive man. Now, it's translated here as greetings. We could also say all hail, meaning all health of soul and body, all happiness and prosperity, both temporal, spiritual, and eternal attend you. That's sort of what that means. And one of the older church fathers Hillary of Poitiers, he says here, he makes this observation, he says, the gender through which death entered the world, and he's not referring to Adam's federal headship, he's just talking about that the sin whereby the woman takes the fruit, the forbidden fruit, he says, the gender through which death entered the world would also be the first to receive the glory, vision, fruit, and news of the resurrection. So what do the women do? It says, they came up, so they approach the resurrected Jesus, and they took hold of, they clasp his feet. And what's happening there? Well, one, it's an expression of love and devotion. You see a woman do that in 2 Kings 4.27 to one of the prophets. But it is through this act of physical touch that they have now received in their hearts this irrefutable proof that Jesus has been resurrected in a body. This is not a spirit before them. This isn't a phantom. This isn't an apparition. This is Jesus himself and he has truly risen from the dead. And what do they do? Well, the only thing that you can do when you are in front of the Lord, they worship him. They prostrate themselves before him. They acknowledge and submit to his lordship. And they worship him. They demonstrate, we are dependent upon you. You are our authority figure. We see in the resurrection a powerful confirmation of Jesus's identity as the Son of God. And this is what the women recognize. They're not just showing him respect, they are worshipping him. He's worthy of worship, and we could say in the highest sense of the term. And what does Jesus do? As God rightfully does, he accepts it. He receives it. Jesus is acknowledging before them his deity, and he's highlighting this truth that only God is to be worshipped. In the final verse, we see Jesus speaking very kindly to these women. He's essentially saying the exact same thing that the angel said to them. He's saying, don't be afraid. Stop being afraid. You're still a little afraid here. Stop being afraid. And he casts aside their fear, and he makes room for faith. But he says, go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee. So he's giving them a command, but what words of patient love does he give to these women that are meant for the ears of those men who had forsaken him in his greatest trial? What an honor and a privilege it was for these women to be given such a commission to carry these good tidings to the eleven, how greatly Is their faith and desire here increased to carry out that message? They've already been given that command by the angel, but now that they have been appeared to, strengthened by Jesus himself, it's probably almost as if they've just floated as they went to tell the 11. And Jesus here, he calls them, what wonderful words, he says, my brothers. Remember all the way back to Matthew 12? When Jesus' mother and his family are looking for him and stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, here are my mother and my brothers. He says, for whoever does the will of my father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother. Of course, Paul says in Romans 8 29, for those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son. in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And the writer of Hebrews, in Hebrews 2.11, says, for he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers. Samuel Pierce. in writing about this. He says, in our Lord's appearances and conferences, meaning as He met with His disciples and He says, and apostles in His resurrection state, what does He do? He says, He made known and fully declared Jehovah's name and salvation unto them. When he was ascended and seated at the right hand of the majesty on high, he shed, or we could say, poured out the Holy Ghost richly upon them. And by him, they were guided into all truth." And this is the first aspect of that, by calling them brothers, letting them know that he is going to welcome them. And he says, and there they will see me. There they will see the resurrected Lord now beholding him with their own very eyes. And as we consider this passage, I would say that it is in our life, in the experience, in the circumstances of our lives, that we can also at many times be brought down into a position of crippling fear. Not in this exact same sense that these women were, but the circumstances of life, the afflictions of life, the difficult times of life can bring us into moments of great fear. And it is in those moments where hope seems to have fled away from our hearts, It's those moments where we feel overwhelmed by the assaults of this sinful world that we live in, that we must do something, and that is to set our minds upon the truth, the blessed truth. This is something we must meditate upon in our minds, that Jesus has indeed risen from the dead, that he has conquered, and that he is alive forevermore. It's a great hope. Why? Because we find confidence in it that because Christ is risen from the dead, so too will he make us alive. He will bring us up from the dead. We will be raised from the dead. And so the resurrection that we've looked at tonight, you know, we talk about quite often we must preach the gospel to ourselves. This is part of that gospel message. We see that in the creeds, the resurrection. It's not just the crucifixion. It's not just the incarnation. But the resurrection of Jesus Christ is a significant, a monumental part of the gospel story. And so it is imperative that as fallen creatures, sin-filled human beings, that we must dwell upon this truth often. We must. We must preach this part of the gospel to ourselves. Now, just as we did with the crucifixion, tonight was a little bit more, here on the resurrection, was far more on just the narrative of the story. So, if you thought, well, that didn't get very theologically deep, you're right, because we're going to come back next Wednesday night, and that's what we're going to do. So, just as we did with the crucifixion, next week What does it mean theologically for us that Christ has risen from the dead? What are all the spiritual benefits of that? So that's what the plan is. So next week, Lord willing, that's what we'll cover. The week after that, Luke will be teaching, and he's going to complete the final verses, verses 11 through 20. So we see the fabrication of the lie by the religious leaders, and then some of the most commonly known verses in scripture, the Great Commission. And then I'm going to come back the following Wednesday to conclude the book. So I'll give a few final thoughts on the Great Commission, and we're going to test your knowledge. So you may want to study up. Some of the questions I've thrown out have been a little wanting for response. And I'm planning on giving a little sheet out that night, so study up for that. We're going to walk our way quickly through the book of Matthew to remind ourselves of all the wonderful things that we've seen. through the life of Christ, through the words of Christ, through the ministry of Christ, through the death of Christ, and the resurrection of Christ. And that will be it for the book of Matthew. And then we're going to take a couple weeks to do topical teachings. We're gonna take a week off. And then we're gonna dive into the book of the Acts according to the apostles. So at the end of Matthew, As we'll hear when we get to the Great Commission, Jesus says, go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. And we're going to see how the church, we're going to see how Christ's bride, we're going to see how His called out saints go and do that very thing. Do they encounter difficulties? Yes. Are there troubles? Yes. Are there doctrinal squabbles? Yes. Is there persecution? Yes. And so many of those things are very informative of how we ought to conduct ourselves because we are part of that same body of Christ. But it's a perfect segue to having heard that commission to go and to study it out for probably two and a half more years. I don't know, we'll see. So if you have any questions on tonight's passage, please feel free to come up afterwards. I thank you for your attention and your attendance. So let's close in prayer. Father in heaven, we give thanks to you this night. How can we properly even express our thanks for what we see and what we know to be true in the resurrection of our crucified Lord? Help us to not be ashamed to even refer to you as our crucified Lord, knowing that you did not remain in that grave. I pray, Lord, that as we face the difficulties of life, even this week, that you by your spirit will provoke our hearts to think upon that empty tomb. How you did not stay dead. how your body did not see corruption, and how that instills such a great hope within us that we will be raised to eternal life all by the power of your divine hand. Lord, we pray tonight for the health of Nelson. We pray that you will strengthen him physically. And we ask for anyone else, Lord, who may need your healing hand, even in this moment, that you will strengthen them. Send us home, O Lord, with spiritual blessings that permeate throughout our hearts and bring us back into gathered worship this coming Sunday. We pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.