A Desperate Bribe - Matthew 28:11-15

Good morning. It's good to see everyone here this morning. For those who are visiting us for the first time, thank you so much for being a part of our worship. For those who haven't been here, we've been in the Gospel of Matthew for quite some time and we're really wrapping it up.

So this morning we're going to find ourselves in Matthew 28, verses 11 -15. Give you a minute to turn there. So we find ourselves in the Gospel of Matthew, kind of in the closing chapter of Matthew, and the title of this message here is A Desperate Bribe.

Now if you recall in our previous study, at the beginning of Matthew 28, Micah did a really good job with that. We were introduced to that very first Easter sunrise service, if you recall, where Christ's resurrection would bring Matthew's narrative to its blessed conclusion.

And just as he predicted, Jesus Christ would arise outside of this narrative, even though there's just a few women in attendance. And while this event was sparsely attended, this single event is eternally significant to our salvation in the current day.

I mean, when you look at it, even on the cross, Jesus Christ was recognized as the King of Israel. And we see this in Matthew chapter 27, verse 37, and we also found that Christ is King, He would have all authority, no enemy could defeat Him, and certainly death would not be able to subdue Him.

For His part, the Apostle Paul also summed this up quite nicely in his first letter to the Corinthian church, where he said this in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verse 26. He said, the last enemy that will be destroyed is death.

Jesus Christ destroyed death brought about by our sin, and He restored our standing before a holy God. And while all the gospel accounts diverge widely in terms of length and focus and details, the principal events and the emotional tone align in a story which was but a foreshadow of the Old Testament.

It extended beyond that silent period of approximately 400 years between the Old and the New Testament. And it comes as a fulfillment in the gospel accounts, one of which we're looking at today, of the synoptics.

All accounts report an empty tomb. All accounts have a messenger of God proclaiming that He is not here. And all accounts have the women as the first witnesses who ran to tell the disciples that Christ had risen.

In all the gospel accounts, we find the witnesses experiencing fear, joy, a flurry of activity, and yes, even a level of incomprehension. So the resurrection of Jesus Christ here is a very important event in terms of Christianity.

And it is of immense benefit of us as Christians as well. In fact, what we find in the answer to question number 45 in the Heidelberg Catechism, it provides us with a three-fold answer here of how Christ's resurrection really is of immense benefit to us as Christians.

First, we find, by His resurrection, He has overcome death so that He could make us share in the righteousness which He had obtained for us by His death. Secondly, by His power, we too are raised up to a new life.

Third, Christ's resurrection is to us a sure pledge of our own glorious resurrection one.

Day.

So in the first 10 verses which Micah covered last week there in chapter 28, a lot has happened in a very short period of time. And these latest events, of course, were quite distressing to the religious leaders of the day who had conspired to put Jesus to death.

I mean, think about this. The earth shakes. An angel descends and rolls back the stone and then sits on it. The guards are literally paralyzed in fear. And the angels then tell the women, not to fear, inviting them into the empty tomb and then directing them to go and tell the disciples that Christ had risen.

All of these are very ominous events here in this passage, the passage leading up to where we're at today. And of course, the passage that we will examine today will really draw a picture of the religious leaders who will pay a desperate bribe to try to maintain control over their false narrative.

So let's take a look at Matthew chapter 28, verses 11 through 15. Matthew records the following for us. He says, now while they were going, behold, some of the guard came into the city and reported to the chief priests all the things that had happened.

And when they had assembled with the elders and consulted together, they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers saying, tell them his disciples came at night and stole him away while we slept. And if this comes to the governor's ears, we will appease him and make you secure.

So they took the money and they did as they were instructed. And this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day. So as we move further now into Matthew chapter 28, we will find ourselves looking now at a panic stricken attempt here at damage control.

And in this, we will find that this involves a desperate bribe. And of course, we will discuss this in the following three points of our message this morning. The first point that I would like to bring your attention to is that of a disturbing.

Report.

This will be covered in Matthew chapter 28, verse 11. This will bring us to the second point in our message this morning, which is a haphazard conspiracy. This will be in view in Matthew chapter 28, verses 12 and 13.

We will wrap up this message this morning with our third and our final point, which is an attempted coverup. This will be covered in Matthew chapter 28, verses 14 and 15. You know, any objective look that we find in the world around us would really provide us with an abundance of coverup stories.

We see this in our political environment. We see this in the lives of our celebrities. Regrettably, we even see instances of this in the modern day church as well. It usually begins with a story of an immoral or illegal act that is subsequently covered up with a lie to avoid disclosure.

And then it becomes a scandal as it unravels under scrutiny. So this is the context of our message this morning here, and of course the context is quite clear. Jesus has risen. The tomb is empty. The guards become unforeseen witnesses to these supernatural events which were described in the previous passage.

And in Matthew chapter 28, verses 11 through 15, we now see this desperate attempt on the part of the religious elites to suppress the truth of Christ's resurrection. And of course they attempt to do this by paying off a desperate bribe.

So let's take a look at the opening verse in our passage this morning. Let's take a look at a disturbing report. You know, after the crucifixion, the chief priests and the Pharisees, they had gone to Pilate and they actually reminded him what Jesus had foretold, saying, after three days I will arise.

This is what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 27, verse 63. And in an effort to thwart God's sovereign plan, they urged Pilate to set a guard at the tomb. And they did this encouraging him to keep that guard in place for three days lest the disciples come and retrieve the body and proclaim Christ's resurrection.

You know, this plan starts to quickly fall apart, especially when these religious leaders begin to hear disturbing reports of a resurrected Christ. And so now we take a look at our opening verse in verse 11 here, which really kind of sets the stage of this desperate bribe here.

You know, one obvious observation that we see is the problem that was posed by the witnesses themselves. In Matthew chapter 28, verse 11, we find that the guards now become witnesses to the resurrection.

And this, of course, caused them to bring the report to the chief priests and the Pharisees instead of the Roman superiors. This misdirected report was probably because they were motivated out of fear as they understood that an empty tomb would certainly be attributed to a dereliction of duty on their part.

The consequences for that, of course, were dire and they knew that. And now with the women also bearing witness to the fact that the tomb was empty, they no longer had this option of just kind of keeping it to themselves anymore.

Word was spreading fast and they were quickly losing control of the narrative. This caused them great fear. So they go to the chief priests and the Pharisees who are looking out, looking for a way out of their own predicament as well.

And so the religious elites then get together. They try to do everything possible to keep this news from spreading further into the community. But this brings us to another problematic observation here, which is the condemning irony that we see in this passage of Scripture.

You know, an interesting thing that we need to consider here in this opening verse is that there's an irony that would come from this disturbing report. First, we see that Christ's foes, they would actually really remember what He promised in terms of His resurrection with even more accuracy than His own disciples did.

However, the Jewish leaders did also believe that the disciples would eventually remember what Christ had said, so they would then put measures in place to prevent it from happening and to prevent any fake resurrection story from taking root in the community.

In his expository commentary on the Gospel of Matthew, Daniel Doriani, he points this out saying that that Pilate had secured the tomb. The authorities' plans worked after a fashion in that no one steals the body, nonetheless the body does disappear due to the resurrection.

Now this is where the condemning irony really comes into play here. The religious elites, they fortify the tomb to do what? To prevent a false resurrection story from being told. And what is so condemning and what is so ironic here is that they never consider the implications of what would happen if Christ actually had raised from the dead.

So now they have a problem on their hands because by posting the guards at the tomb, they now have incriminating witnesses who've seen what happened, and of course they now have to deal with those incriminating witnesses, and it's going to cost them dearly.

And they also found themselves now having to create a fake resurrection story of their own, which is really what they sought to prevent the disciples from doing all along, and therein lies the irony. So how are these things relevant in the times in which we live today?

You know, as Christians, we find that life is full of ironies between truth and fiction, between what is beneficial and what is not, as well as what glorifies our Lord and Savior and what refutes the evil conspiracies of mankind.

I believe if we take a look at modern day life, we'd find countless examples of people who really turned to worldly authorities when confronted with divine truth. Or it could be a situation where people seek into control or maybe dismiss the truth by amplifying their own false narratives through social media.

Or perhaps just by creating a different version of Jesus who is much, much more less inclined to be a God of justice. This really should examine, cause us to examine our own hearts here. I would really like to challenge each of us, including myself, to ask us this question.

How do we respond when we are faced with undeniable evidence of God's work? Do we embrace it or do we resist it? You know, this is something that I believe that we should all think about as we consider our own walk with Christ.

However, the story here is just beginning as we approach the second point in our message this morning where we see evidence of a haphazard conspiracy. In Matthew chapter 28, verses 12 and 13, we now find that the religious elites and the guards, of course, are at a crossroads here between truth and deception.

Matthew records it this way. He says, When they had assembled with the elders and consulted together, they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers, saying, Tell them his disciples came at night and stole him away while we slept.

You know, I believe that this here is actually the turning point in this passage. And I'll tell you why. Because it was a last chance, so to speak, to acknowledge the truth, to repent, and to embrace Christ's resurrection.

But we also see that spiritual blindness had taken a hold of the hearts of the religious elites. And they put their own vested interests ahead of the truth, and the door of redemption was closed, leaving them to their own fate.

And so the religious elites, what do we see? They're now scrambling here to salvage their sinister plan. A plan which is quickly unraveling before their eyes. And in an effort to recover from these supernatural events, they conspire here to put an end to Christ's story here while it's spreading rapidly throughout the community.

They're trying to keep a lid on something that's very quickly getting out of control. So what do they do? They perpetrate a conspiracy and a lie. We see this in Matthew chapter 28, verses 12 and 13. We find that when the chief priest and the elders here, they meet, they hastily devise this plan to spread a lie, claiming that the disciples had somehow stolen the body.

Now while this is quite laughable, what they're essentially is they're asking the community now to believe that the disciples had somehow summoned the courage to sneak by these Roman guards who were sleeping in the middle of the night, move an immovable boulder to the side and steal the body and hide it where it could not be found.

I mean, were these not the same disciples that fled in fear in the Garden of Gethsemane? You know, the lengths that people will go to to conceal wrongdoing is quite amazing. We see this in this passage of Scripture, especially when God provides a better way of dealing with such circumstances.

In the book of Proverbs chapter 28, verse 13, the writer tells us that whosoever conceals their sin does not prosper, but one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy. And this is really what makes this story here so tragic, because make no mistake, mercy is always going to be preferable to deception, and confession will always lead us to mercy and reconciliation.

But in the end, honesty in the face of undeniable truth would elude these religious elites of.

The day.

But there's another part of this conspiracy as well, where we also see a conspiracy and.

A bribe.

Again in Matthew chapter 28, verses 12 and 13, when the chief priests and the elders, they devise this plan to perpetuate their conspiratorial lie, we find that guess what? There's a price tag that goes with that as well.

And of course they're having to go to the guards and they're having to bribe these guards with a very large sum of money. In exchange for this bribe, we find that the guards would accept the blame for not guarding the tomb, and likewise they too would perpetuate this lie that the disciples had somehow stolen the body in the middle of the night.

So this bribe essentially would secure the guards' silence on what really happened there that night. And of course it would assist in spreading the false narrative initially created by the religious leaders.

This obviously of course would put the soldiers at great risk. It would put them in a bad position. But the religious leaders of course then would have to cover their tracks by promising to protect them from the Roman authorities.

Now there's a problem here with this haphazard conspiracy. And that is it could not stop the spread of Christ's glorious resurrection. Nor could it explain away the supernatural events that had taken place demonstrating that the resurrection had indeed taken place.

And this is why, and this is how we find another irony in this conspiracy. Because in order for them to try to explain away Christ's resurrection here, what we find is that they would have to advance a story that they really had hoped to prevent in the first place.

This is why they placed the guards at the tomb. When the religious elites told the guards here to say that the disciples had stolen the body they continued to spread the story that the tomb was indeed empty.

And in the end they would ultimately indict themselves because earlier they had demanded a sign from Jesus if you recall. We see this in Matthew chapter 12 verses 38 through 40 where they said, Jesus give us a sign so that we might believe.

What did Jesus Christ say here? He said that the only sign that you would receive would be my resurrection. And now here we find the very people who are confronted with this truth, they're confronted with this sign that Jesus had Himself promised and instead of believing what do they do?

They conspire to destroy the evidence. So their conspiracy all along here is predicated on a lie and a bribe. And of course their conspiracy would also seal their fate. It would fail to put a stop to God's sovereign plan and they would be powerless to present and to prevent the abrupt end of the old covenant and the coming of the new covenant in our.

Walk with Christ.

So there's much to learn here. You know as Christians again we find ourselves living in a time where there are many parallels that we can see in Matthew's passage of Scripture here today. Sadly enough we find that the conspiracy of the religious leaders really it reflects a heart that had been hardened to the things of God.

Another problem that we find is that lies and manipulations they may temporarily obscure the truth but they can never change the facts. So many ways there's really a cautionary lesson here for all of us as well.

We should ask ourselves this question. Are there areas in our lives where we try to suppress or perhaps maybe twist God's truth for our own personal convenience? I think this is an important question for each of us to carefully consider.

And if our conclusions are lacking as it relates to that question I would say that that confession and repentance is the only way back. Let us avoid this temptation here and let us not forget that the religious leaders conspiracy would ultimately fail.

Why?

Because God's truth cannot be contained. So now that we've addressed the conspiracy of lies and bribes we now find ourselves with yet one more concluding point if I may where the religious elites have sown the seeds of an attempted cover up here.

You know when you think about what a cover up is we find that it really has become far too common in modern day society. You know whether it is actively hiding or disguising or maybe keeping a sin hidden or maybe it's a case of pride of preventing one from taking accountability and correcting the behavior.

In each case we see this propensity to cover up wrongful actions. Attempts to cover up sin have a long history. It started in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve they sinned and attempted to hide from God's presence.

To what Joseph's brothers did when they sold him into slavery or what King David did perhaps when he sent Uriah to be killed in battle and took his wife. In fact we see an admonition of such disobedience in the book of Numbers chapter 32 verse 23 which tells us the following.

It says but if you do not do so then take note you have sinned against the Lord and be sure your sin will find you out. In his book entitled The Golden Chain William Perkins he points out the futility of those who think that covering up sin is an acceptable practice where he tells us this.

He says the heart of man is a secret closet full of sin locked up from the eyes of men but open to the sight of God. So throughout history we find a testament of many ill-fated attempts at covering up wrongdoing and time and time again we see the consequences that come from that and of course we see this vividly displayed in this passage that we're looking at this morning.

And with all things considered here I would like to really examine a couple of final observations if I may for us to take a look at and one such observation was the fear of punishment that was really a thread that kind of weaved in throughout this passage of scripture.

In Matthew chapter 28 verse 14 we see that the chief priest and the elders now would have to go beyond a simple bribe in order to secure the guard's cooperation. And they now found themselves having to become full participants now in this cover-up as.

Well.

This would be because this would really put these elders and these chief priests and these Pharisees in a position where there would no longer be any plausible deniability. They were now full participants in this lie.

In the end from the soldier's standpoint when you think about it is no large sum of money is going to be of benefit to them if they get executed because of their dereliction of duty. So what happens now is the elders are now having to align themselves, they're having to advocate for this story as well in order to cover their tracks.

You know when they should have considered the fear of punishment here with more intent they would have probably relented and overwhelmed at the overwhelming truth that was before them but yet they did not do this.

They chose instead to do what? To dig their hole deeper, doubling down on a false narrative that they themselves had.

Created.

And they created this false narrative by spreading a lie. In Matthew chapter 28 verse 15 we now see here where the religious leaders become so concerned by these developments that they resort to what we call a propaganda campaign in an effort to salvage their quickly unraveling plan.

And even in the face of undeniable truth they were still trying to remove Christ from the spiritual life of the community. I mean let's take a look at the situation here from their perspective. I mean they trump up charges against Christ, they falsely accuse Him in lieu of His innocence, they incite the crowds against Him, they have a murderer released to the community so they can crucify Him, and then when He's dying on the cross they mock Him.

And then when He does die I imagine they probably congratulated one another on a job well done. But then things started getting complicated. Darkness swept the land for three hours as Christ was dying on the cross.

The veil of the temple was torn from top to bottom. The earth begins to quake, the rocks begin to split in the local area, and people who were long since passed are suddenly raised up and are seen by many in the community.

The guards of course bear witness to the stone being rolled away by the angel and Christ's body comes up missing. So you can see how complicated this little conspiracy of theirs is getting. And to say the least their plan was unraveling very quickly as well.

So what do they do? Again they launch a propaganda offensive to spread a lie and to cover up their involvement. And even though this false story does spread, it does persist somewhat to this day, it really goes to show you the enduring nature of deception and the desperate measures these religious elites would take to conceal their narrative.

Now, I'd like to go ahead and give us one last application if I may. You know as Christians we find ourselves in a world where false narratives about Jesus are all around us. And yet as believers each one of us are called on to really to boldly proclaim the truth.

Be prepared my brothers and sisters, we live in a world that seeks to weaponize Christian compassion against the counsel of God. We live in a world that creates a false narrative of who Jesus is. They seek to create a Jesus that's devoid of His divinity and His justice and they seek to embrace a way of life that really violates and runs contrary to God's holy standard.

And they will actively cover up wrongdoing by trying to shame the truth with charges of maybe judgmentalism or intolerance or perhaps being on the wrong side of history or maybe not loving thy neighbor.

I mean I've heard all of these things offered in the public discourse as it relates to that matter. You know I think if each one of us were to take a step back and kind of objectively take a look at the world around us I think we would find many examples of this.

Always remember this thing, that is extending true compassion toward one's neighbor should always compel us as Christians to warn them of God's judgment and to point them to Christ. The Apostle John I thought put it quite plainly where he quoted Jesus Christ Himself saying this in John chapter 14 verse 6.

He said, Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father except through me. Let us never forget that human schemes will never stop God's truth from prevailing. We can invest in that spiritually and otherwise.

Let us never forget that mankind's attempts at covering up a sinful condition will ever bring salvation. Let us never forget that while human platitudes may offer a temporary comfort and security I can assure you it's only God's truth that will ensure our eternal certainty.

If I may I'd like to pose a couple of I guess parting questions so to speak for us to consider here today. I think one such question is where do we place our trust? Do we trust things of the world or do we trust in God's promises instead?

I think another question that we should also consider is how can we actively share this truth of the resurrection in a society that's really full of intentionally false narratives. I mean that's a challenge for Christianity as well.

I believe the answer to these questions can be found in the truth of the resurrection. And how that truth of course over the course of history has outshined any convention that mankind has ever been able to lodge against it.

We see this validated by the growth of the church, the early church despite extreme opposition. And we need to understand that many may be spiritually blind and as a result will remain so despite the truth presented to them.

Let us not be discouraged when that happens. God will reward those who use their discernment. He will reward those who act on those opportunities that come their way to present the gospel. And he will reward those who remain faithful until that final day.

In 1877 J .C. Ryle he wrote a book that was entitled Holiness, Its Nature, Hindrances, Difficulties and Roots. And in that book he proclaimed an undying truth here as it relates to Christ's resurrection by making this statement.

He said the resurrection of Christ is one of the foundation stones of Christianity. It is a fact that the apostles constantly proclaimed and that the early church constantly believed. It is a truth that lies at the very root of our holy religion.

Without it our faith is vain. Our hope is delusion and our preaching is useless. So let us take comfort in the fact that the resurrection very clearly demonstrates that Christ is all that he claims to be.

Throughout his earthly ministry we see Christ took on the roles of prophet and priest, king, judge, healer and yes our own Lord and Savior. He is a prophet that foretold his own resurrection and it came to pass despite what anything that the religious elites could say or do.

He is the priest who offered himself as a perpetual sacrifice for our sin which the temple system of sacrifices could never accomplish. And he is the king who defeats all of his enemies of his people in accordance to God's sovereign plan and purposes.

And even though many may deny him we have learned from Matthew's account here this morning that he is one who still deserves our faith. Let's pray. Our heavenly Father, Lord, you truly are deserving of our faith.

Thank you so much for the sacrifice that you committed yourself to on the cross. Lord, we live in a world where mankind is constantly trying to distort the truth, where mankind is waging war against your truth, where people deny your resurrection and your relevance.

And yet, Lord, we know being in you that you did raise from the dead, that you do love us, that your grace and mercy is directed towards us, and Lord, that your salvation, the salvation you've given to us is sure and true.

Thank you, Lord, so much for the families that are represented in this room today. For those who are not with us, Lord, I just ask that your hand be upon them. Lord, I just ask that we also take this account found in Matthew and understand not only the times in which we live, but Lord, the way ahead, that each one of us is on a pilgrimage, Lord, a journey to glorify you in all that we do until that final day.

For we ask this in your name, amen.