Matthew 27:62-28:20

Thank you.

I want us to finish our series in Matthew 28.

In Matthew's gospel, I've loved it.

I hope you've benefited from it.

But Matthew 28, if you've got a Bible, do open it up.

You may have come across, I've told you before,

the story from Russia before the end of the Cold War.

A Baptist pastor is reading his New Testament on the train.

And he gets up from his seat to stretch his leg on the train

and he leaves the New Testament on the seat.

While he's away, a guard comes along, picks it up,

reads what it is, opens the window, and throws it out of the window.

A month later, a farmer comes to see the pastor

and he asks the pastor wonderfully to lead him in becoming a Christian.

The pastor was delighted to do so.

And when he'd finished, the farmer reached into his pocket

and pulled out the pastor's New Testament.

And he said, you'll never believe it.

I was working in my field a month ago by the railway track

and a train went past and this hit me on the head.

And I want to say, as I've looked at the resurrection passages

and studied them, it's been a little bit like that for me.

I've been working away at it and suddenly the reality of what God has done

in raising the Lord Jesus from the dead has hit me on the head.

And I hope it'll do the same for you.

Because the resurrection of Jesus is the center of our faith.

The early Christians in Acts called the gospel

the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.

It was the resurrection of Jesus that created the early church

and gave it life and fire.

And in Matthew 28, Matthew's point is that what the resurrection of Jesus has done

is turn everything upside down.

The resurrection acts as a huge reversal in the world.

And how Matthew does that is he skillfully shows us that

it shows this reversal in the life of everyone it touches.

The resurrection of Jesus shatters for all time,

for all people, the matter of going back to business as usual.

The resurrection of Jesus literally creates a new normal.

And Matthew's interest is not so much in the kind of mechanics

of the actual resurrection, who moved the stone

and giving us the evidence and that sort of thing.

But Matthew's interest is the massive impact it makes

on four different parties.

And so the first group that there's this huge reversal in is the women.

Can you look at verse 1 with me?

Now after the Sabbath, towards the dawn of the first day of the week,

Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb.

And they don't know that a guard has been posted

in front of the tomb.

They don't know how they're going to roll away the massive stone

to get access to the body.

But they're in for a huge surprise, aren't they, when they arrive?

They discover the guards lying on the ground trembling.

The stone is rolled away.

And even worse, there is an angel sitting on the stone.

And he is no ordinary messenger boy.

He is an angel who's come from the presence of God.

So look at verses 5 to 7.

You see, the angel says,

Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus,

who was crucified.

Matthew is very deliberately telling us again and again,

he was crucified.

But he's not here if he's risen.

As he said, come see the place where he laid.

And then go quickly and tell his disciples he's risen from the dead.

The stone has been rolled away,

not to let Jesus get out,

but to let the women see in.

We're not left to guess

what it means.

The angel explains it exactly.

He says Jesus, who was crucified,

is now risen.

He says it twice.

He's saying to you and I,

they were at the right tomb.

He was dead,

but he is no longer dead.

He is risen from the dead.

And it's not reincarnation.

Jesus has risen from the dead.

And it's impossible for you and I

to capture in those simple words

the enormous transformation that's taken place.

Because for the first time in history,

the iron grip of death

has been broken from the inside out.

Somebody has gone through death

to show that he's stronger than death.

And the angel says Jesus defeated death.

I read of a Muslim student in Africa

who became a Christian.

And when his friends asked him,

why is that?

He said, well, it's like this.

Suppose you're going down a road

and the road forks in two directions.

And you don't know which way to go.

And there at the fork,

there are two men.

One dead

and one alive.

Who would you ask for directions?

Well, as the women race off

to tell the disciples

their imaginations running on ahead of them,

they meet the risen Jesus.

Verse 9.

And he says to them,

Greetings.

Hi.

And they came up and took hold of his feet

and they worshipped him.

And then Jesus said,

Don't be afraid.

Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee

and there they will see me.

Jesus gives them the most normal

and natural hello.

If you're in Australia,

it would be G'day.

If you're in Wales,

it would be Shammai.

The women,

they fall on his feet

and they take hold of his feet.

And so it's not a vision.

It's not a hallucination.

It's not an apparition.

It is a bodily and physical resurrection.

And it's not merely a resuscitation

back to life

because they didn't worship Lazarus.

Do you remember when Lazarus came out of the tomb?

They didn't worship him.

No, this is a risen Jesus,

physically raised from the dead

with feet that you can hold on to.

And Jesus encourages the women,

Do not fear.

And he gives them the same job

that the angel gave them to do.

Go and tell the other disciples.

And because of that,

their world is upside down.

So just look with me

at the women over the last couple of weeks.

Look at verse 56 of chapter 27.

Jesus being crucified.

And there are the women,

verse 55,

following,

looking on at a distance.

They can't get too close.

But they are looking on at a distance,

aren't they?

And then Jesus is buried.

And verse 61,

you have this little incident

where Mary,

Magdalene,

and the other Mary,

are sitting there,

sitting down opposite to the tomb.

Verse 55 and verse 61 of Matthew 27,

they're on the edge of the action.

They're on the periphery.

They're helpless.

They're forlorn.

They're the most powerless.

And then you come to Matthew 28,

Matthew 28:1

verse 1,

and they go,

don't they?

Mary and the other Mary

went to see the tomb.

They don't know what to do.

Their hopes have been shattered.

The bottom has fallen out of their world.

But by verse 10 of chapter 28,

the women who were on the fringes

are now at the center.

And their hopes,

which have been shattered,

are literally raised to life.

Their fears have been transformed

into joyful confidence.

And now they become

the first tellers of the good news.

Because they are the first witnesses

of the resurrection

to the risen Christ.

It's a complete reversal, isn't it?

A total reversal.

Their lives have been turned upside down.

And it's all based on the fact

that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead.

The second group are the guards.

I think you've got a sympathy with the guards.

They were told, weren't they,

it's a very routine exercise.

All they had to do was guard a dead body.

If you were a policeman,

I'm sure it would be a pretty boring job

for the evening, wouldn't it?

To keep a dead body dead.

A massive rock is put in front of the entrance.

They seal it with whatever they could find.

They are a picture, aren't they?

These guards,

they are a picture of human authority and power.

They are the winners.

They are the rulers.

They are the ones with the weapons.

They are the ones with the capability.

And they are the ones that are in command.

They are the figures of authority.

And they are in control.

Then verse 2.

Behold, there's 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 is white as snow.

Angels in our culture are seen as wonderfully reassuring, aren't they?

Kind of lightness and,

oh, you're an angel.

Some of us eat angel delight.

We think of angels as reassuring.

People talk about guardian angels.

Sophie Burnham in a terrible book

called A Book on Angels,

A Book of Angels,

says this,

Angels always bring us a calm and peaceful serenity

that descends sweetly upon over you.

Their message is always,

don't worry,

things are working out perfectly.

You're going to like this.

Well, look at verse 2.

This angel comes and he brings with him a splintering earthquake.

He tosses the stone to one side

and then when he comes,

he sits on it.

It's a lovely picture, isn't it?

I grew up in a family of four

and there would be fights

and how do you know,

how do you know those of your own families,

how do you know who was the winner of the fight?

Well, it was whoever ended up

sitting on the other one, wasn't it?

That's how you knew the victor.

What was the great sign of victory in a fight?

That you would sit on your sibling

and they would kind of lie there

trying to get up

but you sat on them

because you'd won.

Look at the angel here.

The only respect he shows

is a lovely little picture.

He sits on death.

Here's a symbol of the closed door of death.

The security of the sepulchre

and the only respect he pays to it

is to sit on it.

It's a wonderful picture.

And the word for tremble.

The word for tremble in verse 4

is the same word for earthquake in verse 2.

Isn't that amazing?

Isn't that amazing?

The guards are experiencing

a quaking of themselves

they have their own private earthquake

as they see the angel

and the angel comes to announce

that Jesus is risen

and the rocks quake before the angel

and those whose job it is

to keep Jesus from rising

they quake as well.

All they had to do

do you remember

was to keep a dead man dead

and with all their power

and with all their skill

they couldn't do it

and instead

Matthew says

do you see the little detail

at the end of verse 4?

They became like dead men.

The living and the powerful ones

become like dead men

because the dead man

has been raised to life.

The living and the powerful ones

become like dead men

because the dead man

has been raised to life.

And the resurrection

doesn't it?

It brings a complete reversal

in the values of our world.

What we think of

ultimately as human power

is actually utterly powerless

in the face of Jesus Christ.

Death

is now transformed into life.

We don't have time

to look at verses 11 to 15

but there's a remarkable contrast there.

There's a contrast between the joy

and the obedience of the women

in going to tell

and then there's the reluctance

of the guards

going to the chief priests

and telling them what happened.

And the response of the priests

is to cover up, isn't it?

To do whatever they can

to cover up.

I think it's a wonderful story.

Because it tells you and I

that the resurrection

also faces you and I

with a fundamental choice.

Like the women.

Will we be like the women

who fall at his feet

and worship him

or will we hold on

to the illusion of our own power

and our own control?

And one way is the way

of deception and death

and the other is

the way of life.

The resurrection of Jesus

turns everything upside down.

And not only for the women

but for the guards

but thirdly,

most important of all,

for Jesus.

Do you notice twice

the angel says

Jesus has been raised.

It's a divine passive.

The will of God

will not leave him

in the grave.

But that is not all

Matthew wants you to know.

So when we look at verse 18,

can you see how Jesus speaks

after he's been raised

from the dead?

He says, doesn't he,

all authority in heaven

and on earth

has been given to me.

I think that's difficult

for us to kind of register

the scope of that statement.

The word of authority

is not just naked power.

It is the right to decide.

And it's the freedom to act.

It is God's own authority.

And God's own authority

is now Jesus' authority

because God has given it to him.

And Jesus is saying, isn't he,

my authority is unrestricted

and it's unqualified

and it's unconditional.

My authority extends

from the farthest reaches

of space

into the smallest

subatomic particle of matter.

And it draws under its canopy

all men

and all women

and all places

who've ever lived.

And it does not diminish

over time

and it doesn't weaken

in the different circumstances

of life.

And he says,

all authority in heaven

and on earth

has been given to me

over angels,

over archangels,

over demons,

over principalities,

over might,

over thrones,

over the natural world,

over the supernatural world.

world,

Jesus now has

the ability

and the freedom

and the right

and that's very important

to us.

Because there's no area

and there's no people

and there's no culture

and there's no single being

in the universe

that's outside the authority

of Jesus Christ.

And Jesus could not assert

with any more clarity

his absolute faultless,

consummate sovereignty

and dominion

and rule and command

over all things.

And so here is a man

who three days before

had been crucified.

And now he's risen from the dead

and he says,

all authority is mine.

And I think in many ways

that's the key point

of the chapter.

It's no wonder

that in verse 9

Jesus accepted their worship.

And in verse 17

they recognize him

as Lord and God

and he accepts their worship.

And he is conscious

that the resurrection

is the beginning

of a new moment.

And that new moment

is marked by his

universal lordship.

And if there was any doubt

then you come to verse 19

and you'll see

that he includes himself

in the name,

not the names,

in the name of the one God,

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

And that is how God

comes to be known

from now on.

And I think when we come

to this point

we come to the very heart

of the gospel.

And so when you look at

how did the early church

in the book of Acts,

how did they tell people

about Christianity?

How did they teach the gospel?

The heart of the Christian message

was this.

You rejected Jesus

as worthless and irrelevant.

You thought he was nothing.

But God has raised him

from the dead

and enthroned him

from heaven

where he is Lord and Christ.

Let me show you that.

Come with me to Acts chapter 2.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

Come with me to Acts chapter 2

Acts 2 · chapter mention

if you've got a Bible with you.

Acts chapter 2

Acts 2 · chapter mention

and in verses 22 to 24

Peter is preaching.

And he says this.

He says,

Men of Israel,

hear these words.

Jesus of Nazareth

was a man

attested to you

by God

with mighty works

and wonders

and signs

that God did

through him in your midst

and you yourselves know.

And this Jesus

delivered up

according to the definite plan

and foreknowledge of God

you crucified

and killed

by the hands

of lawless men.

God raised him up

loosing the pangs of death

because it was not possible

for him to be held by it.

Then he speaks about

how the resurrection

fulfills the Old Testament.

And do you see what he's doing?

He's saying,

you thought Jesus

was nothing more

than a common criminal

or swear words.

But God's assessment

is very different

and the proof of that

is the resurrection.

Verse 32 to 33

comes to his conclusion.

And he says,

this Jesus

God raised up

and of all that

were witnesses

being therefore

exalted at the right hand

of God

and having received

from the Father

the promise of the Spirit

he has poured out this

that you yourselves

are seeing and hearing.

And his conclusion

verse 36

that all the house

of Israel know

for certain

that God

has made him

both Lord

and Christ

this Jesus

whom you crucified.

It's a really interesting sermon.

You could go to Acts 4

and see the same thing.

You could go to

many of the sermons

and Acts

but notice

what he doesn't say.

He doesn't say

let all the house

of Israel know

that because Jesus

is risen from the dead

you can have eternal life

and go to heaven.

He doesn't say that.

It's true

but that isn't

what Jesus says.

That isn't what

the preaching

and Acts says.

He doesn't say this.

He doesn't say

God loves you

very very much

and you are really

important to God.

And God wants

the very best

for you

and that is true.

You may hear that.

But that isn't

how they preached

the gospel and Acts.

Or you might hear this

Jesus died

an atoning death

for our sins.

Please come

to the Lord Jesus.

And again

that is true.

But it's not

how they preached

the gospel and Acts.

How did they preach it?

They said

your view of Jesus

is exactly

the opposite

of God's.

And the proof

of that

is the resurrection.

And what you think

is wrong.

And what you've done

is wrong.

And the one

whom you crucified

do you realize

now rules

heaven and earth.

We could pick

half a dozen sermons

in the book of Acts

that Christ

is the key

to God's

everything

and the proof

of that

is the resurrection.

resurrection.

And it's so

confrontational

isn't it?

So, so very

confrontational

to say what you

think of Jesus

is wrong.

And you've

misunderstood

who he is.

You've got to

understand that

he is God's

king.

He is God's

enthroned ruler

and he is Lord

whether you like it

or not.

Matthew's point

in Matthew 28

is that the

resurrection

is a great

reversal.

It's not just

that Jesus

is alive

and stronger

than death

all that is

true praise

God.

The key

significance

in Matthew's

gospel is that

Matthew is that

Jesus has been

given all authority

in heaven and

earth.

He is now

Lord and

Christ and that

is the great

reversal.

So a reversal

for the women

for the guards

and for Jesus

and then finally

let's come to

the reversal

for the

disciples.

We think back

to where the

disciples were

at the start

of the

Matthew 28

and they are

scattered.

They fled

with their

tails between

their legs

and through

the words

of the women

they understand

that Jesus

is going back

to Galilee.

And the point

of verses 16

to 20

is that Jesus

wants to spell

out the

implications

of his

resurrection

to his

disciples.

And here's

the central

meaning of

the resurrection

if you're a

follower of Christ.

It's not just

life after death.

It is that

but it's not

just that.

It's not just

our resurrection.

But in

Matthew's

gospel the

key point

of the

resurrection

is an

occasion

for Jesus

to transfer

his mission

to his

church's

mission.

That's why

there's such

an emphasis

in Galilee.

Galilee was

the place

where Jesus

launched his

first mission.

And that's

where he

launches his

continuing

mission.

where his

disciples

will be

the main

players.

Jesus

will

continue

his

ministry

as the

risen

and

ascended

Lord.

He will

continue

to rescue

people

but in a

different

way.

Just look

at verse

18.

When he

says all

authority in

heaven and

on earth

has been

given to

me,

what's the

obvious

question?

All

authority in

heaven and

earth has been

given to me.

What's the

obvious

question?

What are

you going

to do

with it?

And the

answer is he

doesn't say he

is going to

do anything

at all,

does he?

So verse

18 he

says all

authority has

been given

to me,

therefore you

go,

you go and

make

disciples.

The result

and the

consequences of

Jesus' risen

authority is

spelt out on

what his

church will

do on

earth.

In verses

19 to

20 in

English we

have four

commands,

go,

make

baptize,

baptize and

teach.

But in

the Greek

there's one

command and

that command

is make

disciples.

And the

other three

are all

there to

serve the

one command.

So Jesus'

complete authority

in heaven and

earth is

exercised as

his people

make

disciples.

And so if

you want to

see Jesus in

action and

you want to

see what

Jesus'

authority looks

like,

you see

it most

clearly when

people make

disciples.

And the

whole idea of

making disciples

is not

kind of

dreamt up in

the 1970s by

some American,

it comes

directly from

the risen

Jesus.

It's a really

precious word,

isn't it?

It's the word

to be used to

describe Christians

and it

describes kind

of two

aspects,

two ideas.

A disciple is

primarily a

learner.

learner.

And when you

become a

disciple of

Jesus,

you become a

lifelong learner.

You never

reach a stage

as a follower

of Jesus where

you've learned

it all,

there's nothing

more to learn.

Following Jesus

ought to make

you more curious

in every area

of life.

And the

second part of

being a

disciple is

that of being

a follower.

And that

describes our

personal attachment

to Jesus.

Jesus.

We're not

learning for

the sake

of learning.

The life

of the

disciple is

to be

different from

every kind

of life

precisely because

of our

love and

allegiance for

Jesus.

Basically,

we love

him and

we want to

know him.

It's not

primarily an

intellectual

assignment.

It means

that as we

live our

lives, we

open up our

lives, every

area of our

life to him

and he

opens every

area of his

life to us.

But Jesus

here doesn't

command us to

be disciples,

he commands us

to make

disciples.

That's terribly

important.

There's loads

of confusion,

isn't there,

as to what

churches should

be doing.

This chapter

tells us our

central purpose

as disciples

of Jesus is

to make

disciples of

the nations,

to call on

people to

change their

allegiance,

to call

on them to

recognize that

the one they

thought was

irrelevant to

life is

actually the

Lord and

Christ.

To call on

them to

recognize that

he has all

authority in

heaven and

on earth.

And Jesus

doesn't spell

that out in

detail, but

he does tell

us three things

it'll involve.

He says it'll

involve going.

That means it

will not come

naturally to us

as a church

family.

It will need

to stir us

up.

to move us

out of our

comfort zone.

It will be a

bother that if

you're going to

make making

disciples a

priority, it

will be a

bother.

Secondly, it

will mean

baptizing with

the local body

of Christ.

We don't

become disciples

in isolation.

You are not a

disciple, in

fact, unless

you're bound up

with other

disciples.

discipleship is

all about the

church.

Thirdly, it'll

involve you

teaching you to

observe all I've

commanded you.

It's not so that

you become some

kind of Bible

nerd, but that

our lives would

be recognizably

different.

So that means

there'll be a

comprehensiveness to

it.

means there'll be a

comprehensiveness to

it.

The book finishes,

doesn't it, with

enormous encouragement.

Enormous

encouragement from

the risen Jesus.

Jesus to whom

belongs all

authority.

And he says,

your mission as

my church is to

go into all the

world and to

make disciples,

baptizing them and

teaching them.

And then he gives

this remarkable

promise, doesn't

he?

And he says,

at the end of

verse 20, I am

with you always.

At the end of

the age.

Gospel of

Matthew begins,

doesn't it, with

Jesus coming as

Emmanuel, God

with us.

And Matthew's

gospel finishes with

him saying to his

people, I am God

to you.

God with you to the

end of the age.

And I'm not

winging my way into

heaven, leaving you

to do the work.

I am deeply

invested.

I am promising my

personal companionship,

not just

every day,

but always.

So it doesn't

matter what your

circumstances are,

that you're in.

It doesn't matter

whether you feel

like it.

It doesn't matter

whether you feel like

he's with us or is

he not with us?

any success or

any success?

any success or

any success?

any success or

any success?

any success or

any success or

any success?

any success or

any success?