Resurrection

I. Introduction
A. Matthew 28:1-10 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. 2 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. 3 His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. 4 And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men. 5 But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. 6 He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. 7 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.” 8 So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. 9 And behold, Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped him. 10 Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.”
II. Explanation of Matthew 28:1-10
A. 1 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.
1. I love the fact that Jesus showed Himself to these two women whose only qualification was that they loved Jesus.
2. They were there at the cross, the burial, the tomb.
3. Friday they spent watching Him die on the cross and then watching Him be buried.
4. Saturday they kept the Sabbath, but it must have been filled with grief and many tears.
5. Sunday they left for the tomb before it was even light.
6. We know from the gospel of Mark that Salome was there with the two Marys at the tomb.
B. 2 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. 3 His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. 4 And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men.
1. This seems to be meant as a parenthesis of what had happened earlier.
2. In other words, there had been a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord had descended from heaven and rolled back the stone and sat on it.
3. 4 And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men.
a. These are men whose job is to be tough and fearless. They make others afraid, others don’t make them afraid.
b. But here they are paralyzed with fear. They are too afraid even to run.
4. This is how the resurrection actually happened. And this is the only gospel which records it.
C. 5-6a But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. 6 He is not here.”
1. The women came to the tomb but Jesus wasn’t there. This was quite a disappointment. This isn’t obvious in Matthew’s gospel, but it is in John’s.
2. The women must have felt like salt was being rubbed into their wounds. They’ve already been pierced by the loss of Jesus their beloved Lord. The only way they could think to honor Him and love Him at that point was to dress His body for burial. But they couldn’t do it on Friday when they really wanted to do it because the sabbath began. So they rushed out early the morning after the sabbath to finish the job. But now the body was no longer there.
3. Three times John tells us that Mary wept (John 20:11-13).
4. Mary didn’t get what she wanted. She wanted to find the body of Jesus so she could finish preparing it for burial. She didn’t get that.
5. Instead, she got so much more – more than she could have ever dreamed of.
6. And that’s the way it often was with Jesus.
a. The lame man in John 5 just wanted to get into the pool, Jesus made him able to walk.
b. The widow of Nain just wanted to bury her son in peace, Jesus brought him back to life.
c. Martha just wanted help making lunch, but Jesus taught her the key to life.
d. Then Martha & Mary wanted their brother healed, but Jesus raised him from the dead.
e. In Ac.3, the lame man wanted coins from Peter & John, but instead they made him walk.
7. It’s this way for us too. We want God to take away our problems, but He wants to do so much more. He wants to make us into beings fit to live in a new heavens & a new earth, fit to rule over nations and angels.
a. We want to make it through the day, but He wants to prepare us to be His glorious bride.
b. We get upset about the spot on our back or the wrinkle on our face, but God wants to remove every spot, wrinkle and blemish from our souls.
c. We worry about paying our bills, God wants us to teach us that EVERYTHING belongs to us.
d. We are preoccupied with how we look; God wants to make us the light of the world.
8. When bad things happen to us, when heartbreak and loneliness and humiliation crash into our lives, when it seems like God is not there, then we can either feel cheated, we can feel sorry for ourselves, we can conclude that God has abandoned us.
9. Or, we can say to ourselves, “This is exactly what He said would happen! This is exactly what He told me to expect. Instead of resenting my hardships, I’m going to expect Him to bring life out of death, I’m going to trust that He is working it all for good, because He loves me, and has called me according to His purposes.”
10. “For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ.” – 2Corinthians 1:5
11. Dear Friends, there’s a great day coming: a day of resurrection & vindication, a day of glory & triumph!
a. But before it is said, “He is risen!,” it is said, “He is not here.”
b. And before we are risen, we are required to walk by faith and not be sight. We are called to walk in the triumph of faith, not yet in the triumph of sight.
12. “Though we do not now see him, we believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of our faith, the salvation of our souls.” 1Peter 1:8-9
D. 5 But the angel said to the women, ...6 “He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. 7 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.”
1. We haven’t seen a herald angel since the announcement of His birth. In the Bible angels are often associated with stars. It’s as if they are stars that shine before the sun comes up and then after it goes down.
2. “He has risen, as He said.” A very mild and gentle rebuke.
3. I love the contrast between these two kinds of lovers of Jesus.
a. Angels so strong and mighty and heavenly, the women so gentle and meek and earthly.
b. And yet the angels sent to proclaim the news of comfort and assurance to the women so that together they might love and worship the risen Lord Jesus.
c. What gentleness, what comfort, what assurance, what encouragement is given to these dear women of the Lord.
E. 8 So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. 9 And behold, Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped him. 10 Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.
1. “Fear and great joy”
a. This didn’t just represent the return of a friend. It represented the turning of history.
b. This was not just a great miracle-working prophet. This was the miracle of God in human flesh. His rising meant a new order of things which His followers would inherit in the great consummation. He was the beginning of the end. The new beginning of the world.
2. We can’t imagine how much it meant to them to see Him!
3. You know, life is amazing in that a short time can make such a difference. Five minutes, or even five seconds, can change the whole course of a person’s life.
a. In one sense those women lived more in those few minutes than in many months beforehand.
b. Well, in these few minutes the whole course of history changed.
4. “And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped him.”
a. They represented mankind beholding its hope, its Savior, its victory over death.
5. This was God’s great surprise.
6. God loves surprises.
a. He never seems to do things the way we expect. The Lion of Judah is not a tame lion.
b. Isaiah 29:13-14 Then the Lord said, “Behold, I will once again deal marvelously with this people, wondrously marvelous; And the wisdom of their wise men will perish, And the discernment of their discerning men will be concealed.”(I’m going to blow their socks off!)
7. Jesus surprised people by
a. The way He was born.
b. by His teachings. (E.g. Matt.7:28)
c. the miracles He performed.(e.g. Matt.15:31, 9:8 and 33)
d. Who He spent time with: lowly disciples, women
e. Who He was kind towards: sinners
f. What and who He got angry at: The “righteous”
g. Things that happened to Him: the transfiguration, etc.
h. He smashed their expectations — even John the Baptist! (Luke 7:19-35)
i. The cross
j. He left a lot of dazzled people standing there in amazement.
k. And later:
(1) The ascension
(2) The salvation of the chief of sinners
8. But nothing was more surprising than His resurrection – even though Jesus had said repeatedly that it was going to happen (e.g. Luke 24:13ff.)
9. “Our wildest dreams had simply not been wild enough!”
10. You can’t put God in a box. He always breaks out.
11. “For nothing will be impossible with God” (Luke 1:37). This is one of God’s favorite things to say, it would seem. He loves to amaze us. He loves to display His glory and power to us.
12. God doesn't want us to figure Him out, He wants us to trust Him.
13. And God loves to hear us say, “Nothing is impossible with God.” He loves for us to live in wonder, to be constantly mindful that, though I can’t see Him, there is a very big God Who is acts on behalf of His people.
14. The surprise continues. The wonder of those who come to know Him continues. That's exactly how God planned it. It’s supposed to amaze us! God wants us startled by His wonders. When we stand in awe with our mouths open, God has us exactly where He wants us.
15. It doesn’t matter how dark life gets. It doesn’t matter how hopeless things look.
16. If you are in Christ, you have a triumphant Savior who never forgets His own, and who never loses in the end, and who never ends a story with tragedy.
F. One more surprise awaits us — when He returns like a thief in the night.
1. The parallel with Christ’s churchly body
a. Born of the Holy Spirit
b. Speaks mighty words
c. Performs mighty deeds
d. Suffers many persecutions and trials
e. Ends up dying and being raised again from the dead
f. (The only thing which doesn’t really match is making many mistakes.)
g. We’re on the path of Christ. We know where it leads. We know that we will suffer, we know that we will be hated, we know that we will have to love those who don’t love us, but we also know that our story will end in triumphant victory just as His did!
III. There are two more things which need to be said.
A. Go and tell
1. “Come and see...go and tell.”
2. Worship, then “Go and tell”
a. “I love you” “Feed My sheep” John 21
3. The sweetness and happiness of the resurrection is meant to put on our lips a message which others need to hear.
B. There’s another side to the surprise.”
1. His surprise a two-edged sword. The tough, supposedly fearless guards “trembled and became like dead men.” But the weak, fearful, vulnerable women whose fear was not as strong as their love, whose fear had not stopped them from putting themselves out there while the men were in hiding, were comforted and encouraged.
2. Guards fear, women comforted
3. Everything will be turned on its head. The lowly and humble will be vindicated and exalted; the strong and fearsome will be terrorized.