Easter Week 3 • Matthew 28:1-20

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Well, good morning.

Glad that you guys are here with us.

This is our third time around this morning, starting bright and early at 730, but I want

to tell you, we're just as excited to do it now as we did it at 730, right?

Maybe with a little bit more energy now than I had at 730, but we are glad that you guys

are here.

We want to make sure everybody had an opportunity to pick up your elements for the Lord's Supper.

We're going to do that at the very end of the message, and so they're at the very back.

If you didn't get one, we're not going to judge you.

Get up and head back there now.

Would be a great time to do that.

If you haven't done the Lord's Supper with us yet, what you'll see on here is the wafer

is in the top section, and so we'll do that first, and then underneath that is the juice

that we'll take at the very end.

And so, again, we thank you guys for being here, for worshiping with us today.

I want to let you all know that next Sunday, we're going to have a special guest here with

us.

Dustin Stotman, Pastor Dustin Stotman, is going to be here to preach with us.

I'll be here.

Dustin is our church planner that we partner with in West Jordan, right outside of Salt

Lake City, Utah, and he and his family are planning the Hope Valley Church, and he called

me and he said, hey, I'm going to be in South Carolina the week after Easter and would love

to come and share with your church and preach the gospel and share with them.

Would you allow me to do that?

And so, absolutely.

So we're going to be blessed to have him here.

I'm going to be excited to be here.

So I want to invite you to come here and hear about what God is doing, but also to be with

Dustin as he opens up God's Word.

So that'll be next Sunday.

Let me ask you guys a question as we get started, all right?

Can you think of a day in your life where an event happened and your life from that moment

forward was changed?

I want you to think about that.

Think of one day in your life where the events that unfolded that day changed everything for

you moving forward.

The truth is, you probably can't just think of one day.

You probably can think of multiple days where events happened in your life and it changed

you.

It changed details around you.

It maybe even changed your location in life.

Some of you, as you begin to think through that, you'll go to some happy memories, some good

times of things that happened before.

But also there may be some of you in here, you go to a tragic moment, a tragic event where

when it happened and took place, your life was altered and drastically changed.

You know, it's hard for me at least in my childhood.

My parents stayed together.

They're still married to this day.

So I didn't walk through a season of divorce like many people have.

I didn't lose anyone in my family at a young age.

My grandfather passed away when I was in high school and be able to watch him walk through

that.

To be honest with you, as bad as his health had gotten, it was very gracious in that moment

for us to watch him pass on to be with the Lord.

When I look at my childhood, though, and think of an event, it seemed minor at the time, but

for me, it's rippled true into who I am today.

When I graduated from high school, my parents had given me some gifts for graduating, but

my dad did something that my dad had never done before.

My dad gave me a letter, and he handed me that letter, and I opened the letter.

He wanted me to read it in private, and so I went and read that letter in private and laid

it out.

Me and my dad have a great relationship, okay, but this is not the norm of my dad in my life,

right?

You would think we're brothers.

We pick on each other so much.

But laid out through those pages was how much he loved me and would sacrifice for me, and

it really just imprinted on my heart, affirming to a deeper level how much my dad loved me

and cared for me, and then able to take that on and to carry that into the relationship that

I have with my son or my daughter.

That letter changed me.

It changed my future.

It changed my trajectory.

I'll never forget, December 15th, it was at First Baptist North Augusta.

Many of you have heard this story.

You know where I'm going.

And I saw walking down the stairs, I was set up on a blind date, and I saw this beautiful

college-age girl come walking down the stairs, and I thought, I hope that's her, but if it

is, she's too good for me.

And it was, and she is too good for me.

But we got married.

She's loved me through a lot.

But that day changed the trajectory of my life.

I remember the day that I got saved.

I remember the day that God called me into ministry.

I remember the first time my wife told me she was pregnant.

And I remember thereafter her telling me that she lost a baby.

I remember the second time she told me she was pregnant with a baby.

And she came back, said, just kidding, two babies, all right?

And I thought my life changed then.

And then Emma and Grayson were born.

And man, did things change from that point moving forward.

And there's been time and time again where my life, events have happened, and my life has

been altered and changed and shown up and seen what God is doing.

And I can look back on those memories.

I can think back to when God called me here to be the senior pastor.

I can think back to the time where Emma called us up to her bedroom to profess to us her relationship

with Jesus Christ.

I can remember when Grayson called us to his bedroom about six months later and told us that

he trusted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior.

I can remember baptizing both of them, like I can remember mission trips, and I can remember

these moments and opportunities where my life was altered and changed because of the events

that took place.

And as you look at your life, you've got those milestones as well.

You've got those points and times where God and his kindness and his graciousness allowed

moments of triumph and tragedy to happen to you to massage and mold your heart to be one

that more resembles and looks like his.

And that's the beauty of how God works.

But you know, like, what happened to me on a day that might have been just an okay day

for you.

My events aren't your events.

My story's not your story.

My journey's not your journey.

I know that.

I understand that.

So while we all have our stories, they're all different.

But today we're here because there's been one story that's happened.

And as a result, mankind feels the ripples for eternity of what has happened and what has

taken place.

And the entire point of Easter is that.

The events that we're going to read about, the events that are going to culminate of what

we're going to see here in Matthew chapter 28 is going to ring through through the pages

Matthew 28 · chapter mention

of time that your life and your life and your life and my life and people who are filling

churches all over the world and who have passed and have gone on before and people who will

be born, like, all of their lives are affected because that tomb is empty and because Jesus is alive.

And so we gather on Easter Sunday and we celebrate the Resurrection Sunday and we do things

differently.

Like, y'all know me.

My shirt usually ain't tucked in and I definitely don't have one of these on, right?

But we do things differently because it's Easter.

But what I want us to think through this morning is what does our life begin to look like if we

live each day as it's Easter?

What if we lived in every moment with who we are of the defining, the decisions that we make,

the pursuits of our hearts, the lives that we live, the messages that we share,

because it's Easter, because an Easter, because of Easter, everything changes.

I love the video that we were able to show that Dawn and her team found for us, right?

That lays out the story and the narrative of what is laying forth of defeat.

It should be done.

It should be over with.

But at the end, there's victory.

Like, you go back to that Thursday, the betrayal in the garden of what Jesus faced, the conflict

that happened and existed there.

But the betrayal in the garden is redeemed.

Why?

Because Jesus is alive.

We look forward on that Friday and we see the horror and the gore of the crucifixion.

Of Jesus beaten, crown of thorns shoved onto his head, beaten with a whip, clothes stripped

off of him, hands and feet nailed to a cross.

But now there's life that comes from that gore.

Why?

Because Jesus is alive.

You know, a day that we don't talk about in the narrative enough is Saturday.

The day of silence is his body laying in the tomb.

And can you imagine being one of those closest, like you've lost someone close to you.

You know what that day after is like when it begins to hit you.

Things are different.

Things are changed.

And just as we just sang, right?

Because Jesus is still alive, a day of silence, a day of mourning will be filled with shouts

of joy.

And the beauty and the hope and the reason why is because on that day they show up to the

tomb and it's empty.

Not only is it empty then, it's still empty today because Jesus is alive.

Let's read that account starting in Matthew 28, verse 1.

Matthew 28:1

We're going to read all of Matthew 28 together.

It says,

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,

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 he lay.

Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he is 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 the 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.

Verse 11.

While they were going, behold, some of the guard went into the city and told the chief priest all that had taken place.

And when they had assembled with the elders and taken counsel,

they gave a sufficient sum of money to the soldiers and said,

Tell people his disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep.

And if this comes to the governor's ears, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.

So they took the money and did as they were directed.

And this story has been spread among the Jews to this day.

Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them.

And when they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted.

And Jesus came and said to them,

All authority in heaven on earth has been given to me.

Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations,

baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

teaching them to observe all that I commanded you.

And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age.

There's so much that's found in this story.

There's so much that unfolds for us in Matthew chapter 28.

Matthew 28 · chapter mention

We're not going to talk about it a lot, but I don't want us to miss verses 11 through 15,

where understand this about truth.

Understand this about truth of the gospel.

That there will be points and times where even those who know it to be true

will suppress the truth for their own sake, for their own benefit.

And this is what we see here.

They know that he hasn't been stolen,

but they create this story and pay off.

Why?

Because of the selfish narrative of the heart of the lost.

And this is what we can see in here.

And they choose to live their life under the law.

They choose to live their life as the result of the deception that's there.

But for us, we get the opportunity to live not just today like it's Easter,

but we get the opportunity to live every single day in the power and the truth of what comes out of this Easter story.

And so I've got five things of reminders or encouragements for us that we can live in this morning,

because the tomb is empty.

The first that we can live in is we can live in promises.

We can live in the promises of God.

All of God's word, we can live as it's true, because the tomb is empty.

You see, if Jesus were still in it, if the tomb were filled, this would be a lie.

Every page.

Because the point of everything that happens before is to point to this day,

and the point of everything that happens after is to point back to this day.

Everything that is going to culminate is based in this reality that Jesus is not dead,

that Jesus is now alive.

We can live in the promises of Jesus, who he is, and what he says.

Jesus' promise is fulfilled.

In Matthew 16, Jesus gives a promise.

In Matthew 16, he tells the disciples that he would suffer and die, and on the third day, rise again.

This is right after Peter had declared that he is the Messiah, and Peter wanted to argue with him.

And Jesus says, get behind me, Satan.

As he had his eyes set on the Father in obedience, he promised that this would happen.

In Matthew 17, the second time, Jesus tells his followers, look, I'm going to be handed over to men and killed,

but I will rise again.

And the scripture tells us that the disciples, that they were distressed by this.

But he promised them it would happen.

Matthew 20, Jesus and the disciples approached Jerusalem.

And I love this picture.

I want you to put yourself on this journey with them.

They've been headed toward Jerusalem.

They know where they're headed.

They don't fully understand what's going to happen and take place.

And scripture tells us that as they can see off in the distance, Jerusalem, Jesus pulls the disciples over to the side,

and he tells them, like, look, this is where I'm going to die, and this is where I'm going to be resurrected.

Make sure you don't miss this, right?

And what did Jesus do?

Everything that he said was fulfilled.

Was it easy to have the promises fulfilled?

No.

Because in order to fulfill him, he had to die.

In order to fulfill him, he had to take on the wrath.

In order to fulfill him, he who knew no sin had to become sin on our behalf,

that we might become the righteousness of God.

The weight of the man who knew no sin took on and became, for us, the promise that we see.

And so because today the tomb is empty, every promise of scripture we know will be fulfilled or has been fulfilled.

Why?

Because God said it would.

And so there's two promises I want us to kind of look at in this journey of this last year that we've been on.

The difficulty of what this year has been like.

Two promises that have stood out to me and reminded myself as I go through this journey along with you.

Matthew 5, Jesus gives a promise.

Where he says, blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

And because Jesus said it, we can take it to heart.

Here's the thing about a relationship with God.

Have you mourned this year?

Have you struggled this year?

Have you walked through the experiences and the difficulties of life this year?

Well, here's what God promises.

God promises his comfort.

Now, here's how we are.

We want the instant.

We want the now.

We want this in here.

But because the tomb is empty, because there's a hope for eternity, because things are different than in the now, we can take heart for that.

That as we mourn, we shall be comforted.

In John 10, Jesus says, my sheep hear my voice and I know them.

Now, I love that.

That Jesus says that as he's the shepherd, he knows his sheep and that they follow him.

And then he says, as a result of this, what this looks like is I give them eternal life and they'll never perish.

And no one will snatch them out of my hand.

You can't take me away because I'm his.

And he knows me and I know him, the truth of the gospel.

And then we see from this three times, Jesus looks at his disciples.

I'm going to be betrayed.

I'm going to die.

But I'm going to rise again.

And because it's true, we can live in his promises.

Next book that the empty tomb reminds us is that we can live in care.

We can live in care.

Now, it's easy to notice that Jesus' disciples missed this, right?

Like the followers of Christ, that they missed this.

We just said three times he told them that this is what would happen.

And then it happens and they're caught off guard.

They're surprised.

It's like they didn't see this coming.

Maybe they didn't believe him all the way.

But these events unfolded the exact same way that he said they would.

And they miss it time and time and time again.

Failing after failing after failing.

And on this third day, the day that he says that he will rise again,

they show up to do what?

To prepare his dead body.

To come into the tomb and to take care of what needs to be taken care of.

To fulfill the obligation for someone who had died.

They missed it.

It's not that they doubted.

They completely missed it in this moment.

Now, I want you to think about it.

Jesus has told them three times.

Parents, like, let's feel this for a moment, right?

If you're a parent, this has probably never happened in my household, right?

And you tell your kid to do something one time.

And they don't do it.

And then you tell them to do it again.

And they don't do it.

And then you tell them to do it a third time.

And they don't do it.

Has anybody else ever been there, right?

Like, do this, do this, do this.

And they miss it, right?

They ignored.

They didn't listen.

And what does that bring out of you?

What's the level of frustration that's there?

Well, think about this with Jesus.

You and Jesus, we're different, right?

Let's get that first.

Like, we're different.

Because I've let my kids down.

I've made promises that I haven't fulfilled.

I've been selfish.

My sin has come up in our relationship, but Jesus with them, it never has.

So if anyone stands in righteousness to rebuke them, it's Jesus, but he doesn't.

To punish them, it's Jesus, but he doesn't.

To mock them, it will be Jesus, but he doesn't.

And instead, and only the beautiful way of being displayed in the gospel, is he cares for them.

Verse 5, it says that the angel of the Lord said to the women, what?

They're showing up to take care of his body.

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.

Verse 10, as they encounter Jesus himself.

What are his words to him?

Do not be afraid, but go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.

When Jesus provides care, when they didn't trust him, he cared.

When they didn't believe him, he cared.

When they didn't live out the expectation of what God has for them, what did Jesus do?

He cared for them time and time again.

You know, to live in the reality that the tomb is empty is to live in the care and the grace of God.

The story of Christ making dead people alive, of what he's done in your life and mine, is not a life that should be marked by shame and death and slavery,

but is marked with life and hope and freedom in the gospel.

And we don't have to pretend to be kids hiding away in their closets because we've disappointed our father,

but instead that we can come to him and receive the care that he gives us.

Why?

Because we're his.

And he holds us in his hand.

I love the words, don't be afraid, I'm here.

But also don't be afraid and go and tell.

The third area that we can live in because of Easter is we can live in victory.

We can live in victory.

And what the empty tomb reminds us is that death is defeated.

It can't be said enough.

We need to know this and believe this within our hearts.

Jesus died.

His life ceased to exist in that moment.

His heart was not beating.

His lungs were not working.

That in this moment on the cross, Jesus died.

But as he comes to life, death is defeated.

Sin was overcome.

The whole weight of the sin of the world poured out on him.

And it couldn't keep him back.

That at one, because he is going, because he rises again and he ascends into heaven to be the righteous judge.

That every injustice will be before him.

Because he is the king of kings and the Lord of lords.

Because of Easter, not only is everything leading up to it true, but everything after.

That we see as well.

The hope of what we have in Christ.

And so we should not live as those who have been defeated.

But we should live as those who have experienced, are experiencing, and will experience victory.

And victory eternally.

Because of Easter, the way that we live it every day in our life is we go.

We go.

I love the fact that when the women come to the tomb to find Jesus, what's the message?

Go.

Go.

Go.

Go tell.

Go bring.

What are they telling?

Where are they bringing them to?

To where Jesus is.

You know, we read the Great Commission at the end, and we're going to get to that in just a second too.

But from the very moment when the resurrection of Christ is being made known, it's not keep this secret.

It's not, what are they going to do if they find this out?

It's go and tell people, and then bring them to Jesus.

You see, the fact that the tomb is empty for us is the reminder that in our life of who we are, we are to go.

And then that's what Jesus is.

Everyone is drawn to Him.

That's the message that He gives.

That's what's been called.

That's what we see here in Scripture.

Go, therefore, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,

teaching them to observe all that I've commanded you.

And behold, I'm with you always to the end.

Jesus says, now this is getting out of Jerusalem.

This is getting out of Galilee.

And now what's going to happen?

Because the tomb is empty, people go.

And so here's the thing.

If you don't go, if you don't tell, if you don't make, if you don't baptize, you're still sitting there like Jesus is dead.

And that's what the gospel points us to.

To go and proclaim who we are and who He is.

And then the last one.

Because of Easter, you and I have power.

Because of Easter, we have power.

Paul writes these words in 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.

It's the reminder of the truth that we have in Christ, in Christ alone.

Because the Spirit that raised Him from the dead, the Holy Spirit, is the Spirit that lives in us.

That's why Jesus says in Acts 1-8, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.

And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria until the ends of the earth.

That because the tomb is empty, the power that raised Christ from the dead is the power of God that fills you.

And gives you life and hope and meaning and purpose.

And so stop trying to manifest your own power.

Stop trying to lean in to somebody else's power.

But live in the truth of the hope of the gospel that knows that God's Spirit is in you.

Because the tomb is empty.

And so today we're going to gather and when we celebrate, we talk about the resurrection on this Sunday.

It's a special day.

There will be more people in church today than there will be in any other day this year because the tomb is empty.

But church, too often times, the fact that the tomb is empty ends at these doors.

And we proclaim in here that Jesus is alive, but we live out there like he's still dead.

And so my challenge for you, the challenge for me this morning, is do we live each and every day of our life in the truth that Jesus is alive?

Would you pray with me?

Lord, thank you so much that the tomb is empty.

Lord, we thank you on a day like today that people were more apt to listen to and to hear the gospel.

To come to churches and to partake and to be with your people.

But Lord, I pray that for all of us, the truth and the hope of the gospel will ring true.

Lord, if there's anyone here who doesn't know you, I pray that today would be the day that they repent of their sins.

That they confess you as Lord.

That they believe in their heart of who you are.

And Lord, that today would be the day that you reveal yourself to them.

You draw them to yourself, Lord.

And today would be the day of their salvation.

Thanks again for listening to the Willow Ridge Church weekly podcast.

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