Jesus Risen
Matthew Series | Matthew 27:62-28:18 | Pastor Duane Smets
This week is an exegetical sermon on Matthew 27:62-28:18 where soldiers, women and Jesus’ disciples encounter him risen from the dead. The reactions and of each group of people is emphasized and what options the story presents for us in how to react to Jesus’ resurrection. This sermon was originally preached on November 21st, 2010 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA.
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The Resolved Church
Pastor Duane Smets
November 21st, 2010
Jesus Risen!
Matthew 27:62-28:18
I. Soldiers: Fear, Money & Speculation
II. Women: Fear, Joy & Worship
III. Disciples: Fear, Brothers & Worship
IV. Jesus: Authority of Heaven & Earth
Introduction
Well, I’m excited for the day. Last week, in one sense was a pretty dark and dismal week where we worked through the story of Jesus being crucified in the book of Matthew. This week is a lot happier week as work through the story of Jesus rising from the dead.
There is a sense in which we as human beings are built for this story…we love resurrection stories. Whether they come in fantasy form, like in books, movies or comics or whether they come in real life form…we love stories of resurrection.
For example, Harry Potter is kind of a big deal right now with a new movie out…it’s the story of a guy who escapes death and comes back to fight and defeat the evil lord Voldermort. In Ironman 2 recently, he is facing death and finds a new life energy to become a super Ironman who can come back and defeat the evil Vanko. You have it in almost every comic book, superhero, fantasy movie. Whether it’s Gandalf the Grey who comes back as Gandalf the White in Lord of the Rings, or Superman who defeats Kryptonite and Lex Luthor…every hero is seeking to defeat evil and save humanity.
And we have real life stories too. If you’re a football fanatic like me then you may have seen last Monday night’s football game where Michael Vick came back from being in prison and having injuries to playing the game of his life and setting all kinds of NFL records. Or you’ve got guys like Lance Armstrong who had cancer and nearly died, who beat it and came back and won the Tour De France six years in a row. We love a comeback story. We love resurrection. There is something built into who we are as human beings that we love resurrection stories.
And Jesus’ resurrection from the dead is the greatest of all because it isn’t just a story, because it really happened and Jesus defeated the source of all cancer, disease and death, he defeated sin and Satan, the greatest villain of all. Every single resurrection story in our culture, whether we realize it or not is really modeled after the bodily resurrection of Jesus from the dead. He’s the original hero and source of hope.
You see, before Jesus there was no thought of a person physically coming back to life, permanently defeating death and living forever. The ancient Egyptians thought people would be resurrected into a new life in another world, so they mummified bodies to help them make the trip. The eastern religions of Buddhism and Hinduism have said for thousands of years that people are reincarnated, carrying their soul into a new cycle of life in plants, animals or another human being. Ancient Judaism believes all people will be resurrected when the world ends in one great final end. Ancient Greek philosophy said when you die that’s just it, lights out and it’s the end forever. Bleak.
Until Jesus, there is nothing like a physical bodily resurrection, where a person after truly being dead, come back to life to live forever, never to die again. This is the historical and scientific fact upon which the entire Christian faith rests.
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the crown and the heart of the Christianity. The church was founded upon this claim, that Jesus rose from the dead. His resurrection is what fueled the preaching of the early church, spawned the writings of the entire New Testament and really is the only reason I am standing up here preaching today…because I believe Jesus rose from dead!
If Jesus did not rise from the dead, then the Bible says Christians are “fools” who ought to be pitied for being so stupid and gullible, throwing their lives away for something that never happened.
It really is one of the key things which separates Christianity from every other world religion…Christianity says there’s a way you can prove it wrong. No other religion does that. Every other religion bases it’s claim or persuasion based upon some personal spiritual experience. Christianity does not. That’s not to say we don’t have spiritual experience as Christians but that isn’t supposed to be the reason we believe.
Listen to 1 Corinthians 15:14 from the Bible, “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.“ Prove Jesus did not rise from the dead and Christianity is done and over with. But if Jesus really rose, then that changes everything. It not only gives feet to our faith but life to our message.
So we’re talking about this today because this week is our second to last week in the our study through the book of Matthew in the Bible, which has taken us about a year and three months, and this week our text covers the story of Jesus resurrection. As we’ve seen several times throughout our study of the book, Matthew, the human author is pretty selective in what includes and what he doesn’t.
All throughout the book, one of Matthew’s main goals has been to prove Jesus is in fact the Christ…fulfilling the Hebrew Scripture prophecies, refuting the religious leaders, and demonstrating his divine knowledge and power.
Thus, in Matthew’s account of Jesus’ resurrection we see this same theme as he puts extra focus on the explanation of the soldiers and religious leaders while he recounts two of the nine different encounters various individuals and groups had in seeing and talking to the risen Jesus.
So let’s read the text and we’ll work through each of these characters, scenes and encounters with Jesus that Matthew records.
Read text and pray.
I. Soldiers: Fear, Money & Speculation
All right. It’s been a tumultuous week in ancient Jerusalem in what was likely the year 33 AD. Over a million people were in Jerusalem for the Passover festival. Jesus arrives in the city. His reputation precedes him. Everyone has heard about his miracles, his preaching, and most of all his claims to be messiah. There are high hopes for him to lead the nation of Israel in a revolt against Rome and become their next king.
When Jesus expresses no interest in a political and military battle and instead directly allows himself to become subject to the betrayal of his own men, a hurried and shady trial, the crowd turns against him and wants him dead. It the midst of it even when Jesus has opportunity, he still doesn’t fight back and instead restrains use of his divine power and authority and let’s the soldiers beat, crucify, and kill him.
So Jesus is dead. It’s the next day. And the chief priests and Pharisees are still seething with disdain for Jesus. You can hear it in the tone of their voice in verse 63, “remember how that imposter said…I will rise.” Jesus said he was the Christ, the Messiah, but he was a poser and we proved it by killing him…he was a “fraud” verse 65 says.
It’s somewhat interesting that Jesus’ enemies here remember his promise, but the disciples didn’t. The Gospel of John tells us the disciples went into hiding, into a secret location and locked the doors because they were afraid (Jn 20:19). They figure, everyone knew we were with Jesus and they killed him…they’re probably coming for us next…and they are scared, scared for their lives. Jesus’ multiple predictions about his death and resurrection are apparently nowhere in their minds.
But the Pharisees, whom Jesus was so hard on, remembered…so they ask Pilate to make sure Jesus’ tomb is guarded so the disciples don’t try come and steal his body and tell everyone he is risen. Pilate consents, assigns a group of soldiers to guard the tomb and also puts his Roman seal on the stone.
Basically, what they would have was a cave dug out into a rocky hillside. In front of the cave they would make a trough where a circular stone could roll in front of the entrance and close it up. The Roman seal was a rope that would be attached both the the stone and the front of the cave with melted wax that was then stamped with the Imperial signature.
Here’s what happens. Imagine you’re a soldier. You’ve been assigned to guard this tomb. It’s the third morning after Jesus has been put in the tomb and some women roll up with to pay tribute with some customary spices and flowers. And all the sudden there is an earthquake, then a figure appears who has light radiating from his body, and this figure single handedly moves this two ton stone…which normally would have taken six to ten men to budge.
Verse 4 of chapter 28 says the guards, “trembled and became like dead men.” That about sums it up. You see something you’ve never seen before and never thought possible which messes with your entire worldview in what you think is real and how the world works…and you freeze in disbelief.
Then the angel speaks, not to the soldiers, he ignores them. But they overhear him tell the women Jesus has risen. What do you do? The soldiers are scared. They don’t know what to think about what just happened. On top of it, Pilate assigned them this duty and according to Roman law, the punishment for anyone messing with a tomb or a grave was a penalty of death. On top of it Pilate assigned them this task to specifically prevent something like this from happening. They’ve failed and don’t know what they’re going to do.
So they go to the chief priests. They figure maybe they can help us out. And sure enough they do. The chief priests give them money to say the disciples stole the body and in exchange the chief priests say they will get the soldiers off the hook with Pilate. Check it out. Verse 13-14, “Tell people, ‘His disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep.’ And if this comes to the governor’s ears (Pilate), we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.”
Okay. So basically here’s where we’re at. Jesus died. Three days later something happened and his body disappears. Only two explanations emerge. One, disciples stole the body. Two, Jesus rose from the dead.
Now since then, there have been other explanations people have tried to come up with, we’ll talk about a few later. But as far as the first century goes, there is no other explanation besides Jesus stole the body. There is not a single report saying, people said he was risen but his body was really here or there. Instead, everyone acknowledges the body is gone, including his enemies.
As far as the explanation goes it’s never been very convincing or popular for several reasons, not just by Christians. Here’s why. Romans were very strict, about everything. They were professional killers and did their jobs well. If you screwed up, you don’t just get fired you get executed. You don’t want to tell your boss you fell asleep on the job.
Two, if you were asleep, how did you not hear the stone being moved and how do you know it was the disciples who stole the body? Three, why would these disciples, who all abandoned Jesus in the end and go into hiding scared for their lives, somehow get up courage to go risk their lives by breaking the law? Four, why would these disciples then courageously go around telling everyone Jesus had risen and give up their lives to death upon that claim if they knew it was a lie because they really stole the body?
For most, it makes a lot more sense that money was actually involved with the soldiers in some sort of cover up and that something else happened, but we can never really know what. And there’s all kinds of speculation.
Here’s where I think the text leaves us. Either you just cover it up and choose not to try and figure it out…like the soldiers. Or you actually dive in and consider the possibility that Jesus actually rose and you look into the evidence of it. You either just say, “who knows and we probably can’t know” and just push it aside. Or you stop and say, “okay, well let’s just consider for a moment the alternative, if it really could be true that Jesus rose.”
You see, what’s amazing about the Bible here is it is really honest and fair. It gives you two stories to choose from. You can choose the soldiers story and it’s there in full detail or you can consider the story Matthew has become convinced of, that Jesus actually rose.
II. Women: Fear, Joy & Worship
So let’s look into that story for a few minutes. Let’s check out the women here. We’ve got two of the Marys here. Both of whom had been ministered to by Jesus. Mary Magdalene had a number of demons cast out of her by Jesus. Jesus healed and raised the other Mary’s brother Lazarus. Jesus meant a lot to both these women.
They are sad and come to pay their respects. This angel appears and they like the soldiers freeze. Then the angel speaks to them. Look at his words, verse 5, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen.” And then the angel let’s them check out the empty tomb and tells them they will see Jesus soon and to tell the disciples.
Immediately the run off, verse 8 says “quickly” full of “fear and great joy” to tell the disciples. So much is going on here. There’s this huge mix of emotion. I mean one moment you are sad and it feels like the world has fallen apart. The next there’s an angel in front of you telling you Jesus is alive.
I’m sure all the promises from Jesus that he would rise came flooding back in. Their hearts start beating fast. Could it be true?! Did he really rise?! What the heck was that angel thing?! Are we going to get in trouble?! What if Jesus really is alive?! Fear and joy…
Then as they are leaving Jesus appears. The only thing Matthew records here is him saying “Greetings!” The gospel of John tells us Mary Magdalene didn’t recognize him at first and literally had to raise his voice to get her attention (Jn 20:16).
When the Marys see and realize it’s Jesus. All the questions. All the emotions. All the thoughts and fears and longings simply flee at the sight of him and they collapse in front of him. I mean you have to imagine this. You’ve seen Jesus beat to a bloody pulp and crucified and then there he is, alive and well in front of you. They do the only appropriate thing…they fall down in worship.
Look at it. Verse 9, they “took hold of his feet and worshipped him.” The word “worship” here in the Greek is the word, “proskuneo” which literally means bow down or towards. Right then and there, there is no thinking or processing that occurs. Jesus is risen. They bow down, grasp his feet and worship.
They see him and automatically, they realize he is God and do the only appropriate thing and bow down and begin worshipping him. They don’t start hugging him and having this conversation about what happened. They worship. They know the Jewish Scriptures and religion well, no one is to be worshipped but God alone. And they worship God in the flesh standing there right in front of them.
This is what I want us to think of for a second. We’ve seen it all throughout the book of Matthew and we noted it distinctly last week in the arrest and death of Jesus that the main thing which essentially got him killed was his claim to be God. To think that Jesus is God is a big pill to swallow.
I man this whole deal is really. That Jesus is God. That there are angels. That Jesus rose from the dead. You’ve got to be crazy to believe this stuff.
But just think here for a moment. If Jesus really was God and if he really rose from the dead…wouldn’t you expect something like this. A big earthquake to announce your resurrection. An angel being the first one to tell people what happened. And worship from your people at their first sight of you. This is exactly what we would expect.
Now here the deal. On one hand this makes sense. It’s exactly what we would expect if the story were true. But on the other hand…this is kind of crazy talk isn’t it? Are we really serious here?
Here is what the most common objection is and maybe this is what you’re thinking right now. How do we know this is really what happened? I mean couldn’t the Bible just be making all this stuff up? This is the most common response. The disciples, particularly Matthew here, is just manufacturing this story and trying to convince people of something that never really happened.
Well what about that? Here’s the thing. Women. The way that culture and society looked at women back then was far different than it is now. A woman’s testimony was considered unreliable. You know…women are just so emotional and dumb how can you believe anything they say? So they were not even allowed to be witnesses or give testimony in the courts of law.
So follow this with me. You’re Matthew and the other disciples. Somehow, you’re able to steal Jesus body and dispose of it somewhere. You come up with this idea for a whole new religion you are going to get momentum for by telling people Jesus rose from the dead and when you tell the story you are going to tell it by having women be the ones who find out Jesus rose?
That doesn’t help you. That makes people not believe you. If you were going to make it up, you should have someone prominent and respected discovering Jesus alive…at least a man!
It makes no sense for Matthew to have this scene with women here in the story unless that is what actually happened!
Here’s where we are at. Looking at the soldiers leaves us with speculating about what happened to Jesus. Looking at the women leaves us with worshipping the risen Jesus. I think those are really the only options for us today. Speculation or worship.
Sometimes I’ve said it like this. Some of you think you are Christians but you’re really not. On the other hand some of you may not be sure about being a Christian but you may already be. Here’s how you tell. If you saw Jesus, right now here in this room. How would your heart respond?
Would you respond in fear like the soldiers, afraid of what might happen to you because you didn’t really believe? Or would you respond in fearful worship like the women, overwhelmed with awe and love and joy at the sight of Jesus?
When we sing songs to Jesus here in this room, do you have to fight the urge to want to get down on your knees because you realize who you are singing to, the risen Lord? Or are you thinking about other stuff and wondering why we go through all the motions of singing these songs here?
Some of you need a fresh realization of who Jesus really is and why he is worthy of our worship. Some of you need to lay down your speculations and fears and begin to do what you were made to do and worship your God and king.
III. Disciples: Fear, Brothers & Worship
I think, for many of us…realizing the significance of what it means for us personally that Jesus rose is what really floods life and energy into our worship. And I think that’s what we see with the disciples. Let’s look at them for just a couple minutes.
First, let’s remember who the disciples are and what has happened with them. For the most part they are a band of misfits. Some bottom grade fisherman, a mobster gangster dude, and a few other nobodies. Jesus comes along, invites them a special privilege and honor, to be disciples of a rabbi…so they all leave their jobs and go along with him as his apprentices for three years.
Their hopes get high that Jesus is going to be the new ruler and king and change the socio-political landscape but instead things start to go south with him. He gets arrested and they all leave and abandon him. Jesus gets killed as an impostor and a fraud and now the disciples are seen as part of an insurrection group and they are afraid, filled with fear and in hiding hoping all the hoopla will die down and no one will come after them too.
Now remember, one of you betrayed Jesus for thirty pieces of silver, one of you denied even knowing Jesus three times, and all of you scattered when he was arrested leaving Jesus alone. You were Jesus closest friends and followers for three years and Jesus is completely abandoned.
Check out verse 10 in what Jesus says to the women, “Then Jesus said to them, ‘Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.”
This is huge. Jesus shows himself to the women first, then what does he tell them? “Go and tell my brothers!” He calls them brothers. That’s a big deal. It’s a seemingly insignificant remark and it’s easy to pass over.
But think about it. If in your worst hour, your biggest time of need, your best friends, the people you are living life with all ditched you, do you think you’d be excited to see them much less call them your brothers? This remark is loaded with the grace and forgiveness of Jesus.
Brothers. It’s where we hear the gospel in today’s text. You see the truth is, like the disciples, all of us have abandoned God and have gone off and done our own thing and sought to make ourselves happy by turning to all kinds of other things rather than trusting God and having him as our Father.
We are all God’s children in that he is our Creator and we are made in his image, but we have all turned away from him and not had him as our heavenly Father…and that is a serious serious offense. One deserving eternal judgment. And this is the reason Jesus came into the world.
In Jesus God came into the world as a real human being and at the same time fully God. Unlike us however, he never turns away from the Father, but always trusts him and obeys. Then he gives up his perfect life on the cross to pay the penalty of eternal punishment for turning away from the eternal God. Jesus dies, in our place to satisfy the penalty we owe. The result is we get forgiven, our hearts get changed, and we get adopted into the family…truly and joyfully having God as our Father.
You see, the disciples were not brothers of Jesus they were betrayers…but through his death he made a way for them to become brothers and not just them but all of us who become his brothers and sisters through faith in him.
If you’re not yet a Christian you can become Jesus’ brother or sister in the family of God by putting faith in him today. Maybe you’re like okay…what that? I don’t know how to describe it fully. There no one word which encapsulates it and any time you point to outward actions, it’s easy to begin thinking faith is something you do which it isn’t.
What we have here in our text this morning to describe it is worship. It’s really the final scene in the book of Matthew. Jesus appeared to the disciples several times after his resurrection, eating meals with them, going fishing with them, one time he appears to them and a group of over 500 people…which makes the idea that people just saw a hallucination or a vision or had a spiritual enlightenment type of resurrection encounter a far fetched idea.
Anyway, Jesus shows himself several times and it’s hard to tell here in Matthew what the chronology is, if those other times happened before or after the scene Matthew ends with here. Some of the disciples could have already seen him, there could have been others there, or maybe it was just them and this was the first time.
What’s important here is what happens when they do see him. Verse 17, “When they saw him they worshipped him, but some doubted.”
Now that word doubted is not the word that used in other places for doubt as in lack of faith. The word here is much softer, “distazo” not “apistos” for you Greek nerds. That has led many to think that some of the either the disciples or the wider group of people, maybe the 500, hesitated in their worship at first but as they got closer, like Thomas in the gospel of John, they too fell down in worship.
Either way, I don’t think it’s too important. What is important is the response of worship. Thomas is actually a good example. He gets a bad rap and is known as doubting Thomas. I guess that sounds smoother than hesitating Thomas. Thomas heard Jesus had risen but said he wouldn’t believe until he saw Jesus face to face and inspected the nail holes in his wrists and arms. When he did, John 20:28 tells us the words of his worship, he says, “My Lord and my God!”
Last week we talked about how the only proper response to Jesus’ death on the cross for us is thanks. This week I don’t know what other response there is to the risen Jesus except worship. The only way I know to respond is to fall down in worship and say, “My Lord and my God!”
IV. Jesus: Authority of Heaven & Earth
So the way I want us to conclude today is by fully taking in the extent of that claim and that cry. We’ll finish out the book of Matthew and this last paragraph next week and talk about mission but I want to end today on Jesus’ words to the disciples in response to their worship.
Look at it. Verse 18, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” This is the risen Jesus. In the book of Revelation, John sees him with his eyes blazing like the sun, his hair is bright white, his robe is dipped in blood, he has a sword, a golden sash across his chest and a tattoo on his thigh that says “King of Kings and Lord of Lords”.
He is no longer a weak, silent, beat up and crucified man. He is the risen son of God and is now garbed in the fully array of his splendor. He is Lord of heaven and earth.
What’s that mean? “Authority in heaven and on earth.” It means he rules over all of heaven and all of earth. He is Lord over it all. Jesus always had authority over heaven as the divine son of God. Now he has authority over earth where he fought and defeated all the dark forces of sin and evil at work in it. He died and he rose and is alive forevermore and displays it to the world!
You see Jesus‘ resurrection is the heart of the Christian faith because it is the thing which gives us a secure hope…that death does not have the final say, that sin will not get the best of us, and that we who believe in him will be resurrected as he was!
For me personally, what induces great love and worship in me towards Jesus…is knowing that I am a sinner who has strayed far from God and yet he has had mercy on me dying for my sin. But if he did not rise and just stayed dead I would not know that anything he did on the cross for me worked. Because Jesus rose I know it did. And because Jesus rose I know I have a victorious and mighty savior who is worthy of my worship.
So it does not matter to me if I die to today because I know in whom I have believed. When I imagine seeing Jesus face to face I will bow in worship and cry out, “My Lord and my God, maker of heaven and earth!”
Conclusion
We are going to receive the Lord’s supper here in a second. Here’s how I want to appeal to your hearts and prepare us today.
One of the great things we sometimes miss in communion because of its vivid reminder of Jesus’ death in the elements of the wine and the bread is that he is no longer dead. He is risen. The elements are a reminder of what has already been successfully accomplished.
John Calvin said that in our partaking of the Lord’s Supper we are caught up into the heavens where Jesus is seated. For many of us, that is exactly what receiving communion is like.
We come to the table and we don’t lay hopes or wishes on it, we meet with Jesus. We talk to a living Jesus and tell him thanks, tell him we love him, we pour out our hearts in worship to him. That’s what this is about.
For some of you, perhaps you have thought Christianity was about something else…that it was about something to make your life go better, or that it was about having some personal spiritual experience, or a something to help you start living right instead of being bad. The truth is Christianity really isn’t about any of those things. Christianity is about the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and Christians are those who follow him and worship him and love him and make everything about him, not us.
So let’s be Christians today and truly worship our risen Lord and savior!
Let’s pray.
