The Risen Christ - Matthew 28:1-10

Well, good morning and welcome to Faith Bible Church, a blessed Resurrection Sunday to you all.

This is a day to celebrate and to do a—we really do this every week, you know, we celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus.

But we're setting this one aside especially for him, and so it's always a blessing to get to give—rejoice in the

Lord. So this is a good day, and we're glad you're all here, and if you are visiting for the first time, we welcome you and we're glad that you're here, and we trust that you would sense the warmth and the love that folks have for others.

And that's what attracted us to Faith Bible Church many years ago, is just the warm, caring character of the people that are here.

It's Christ, really, that's what it is. It's the Lord. It's the Lord. You know, he is risen indeed. And announcement -wise, there's really a men's

Bible study next. It's every Saturday at 3 .30 here at the church, every

Saturday at 3 .30. This is a day that we do enjoy. The world kind of tries to grab onto Christian holidays.

They don't want us to celebrate the way God would intend us to celebrate, so they kind of put distractions in our way.

You know, they put other things, and you know what those things are. But the fact that we're gathered together today as a church is all because of Christ's death and resurrection.

That's why we're here. If it weren't for his resurrection, none of you would be sitting here. I wouldn't be standing here.

So we thank the Lord for his gift to us in his Son, Jesus Christ, and we celebrate that today.

Oh, and I want to draw your attention to the back of the bulletin today. I honestly,

I forget to read these many times, so there's some really good pearls in there. And if you could read it and maybe pass it on, it's maybe some things that some of you hadn't thought about before today.

And sometimes we go to church week after week, and you may not have a relationship with the

Lord. And we would just ask that you would pause and reflect on that and come to him, seek him, and he will accept you and bring you in to his family.

So let's open up in a word of prayer. Lord God, we thank you that you have brought us here together,

Father, that this is your day. This is a day that is set aside, set apart to worship you, to honor you, to give you glory,

Father. As we lift our voices today, as we hear the message preached,

Lord, we pray that our hearts would be changed, that we would realize and try to plunge the depth of the love that you have shown us in your

Son, Jesus Christ, Father. Nothing on this earth can compare to that. And Lord, as believers, as those that have put their faith and trust in you, what a glorious place that is to be.

So Lord, today, may everything that we do please you, bring you glory. And we pray for those that aren't here today, that are ill, that are struggling with other things in their lives.

Father, we pray that your hand of mercy would be upon them, that you would bless them no matter what they're going through.

Lord, you are sufficient, you are always sufficient. So God, we rest in that. So we thank you and we give you praise in Jesus' name, amen.

Amen. So today, we have no piano player, and this is kind of unique.

So we've got our violin and our guitar and me. So just my apologies ahead of time, but so we're going to do a responsive reading.

Then Pilate took Jesus and scourged him. They came up to him saying,

Hail, King of the Jews, and struck him with their hands. Pilate went out and said,

See, I am bringing him out to you, that you may know him. So Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe.

Pilate said to them, Behold, the man. When the chief priests and the apostles saw him, they cried out,

Crucify him, crucify him. Pilate said to them, Take him yourselves and crucify him.

Then he handed him over to them to be crucified. So they took

Jesus, and he went out, bearing his own cross, to a place called the place of the skull, which is called

Baraka in Hebrew. There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, and Jesus sat between them.

Pilate also wrote a title and put it on the cross. It began with the name of Jesus.

I'm going to be reading from 1

Corinthians, chapter 15, verse 1 through 11. Moreover, brethren,

I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which

I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you first of all that which

I also received, that Christ died for our sins, according to the

Scriptures. And then he was buried, and then he rose again the third day, according to the

Scriptures, and that he was seen by Cephas, then by the

Twelve. After that, he was seen by over 500 brethren at once, of whom the greater part remained to the present, but some have fallen asleep.

After that, he was seen by James, and then by apostles. Then last of all, he was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time.

For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.

But by the grace of God, I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain.

But I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not

I, but the grace of God which was with me. Therefore, whether it was

I or they, so we preached, and so you believed. May the

Lord add his blessings to the reading of these words. Okay, would you please stand with me again as we are going to sing in Christ alone.

Okay, and I will begin.

If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are all men most to be pitied.

But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.

For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead.

For as a man and Christ shall all be made alive.

Someone will ask, how are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?

You foolish man, what you sow does not come to life unless it dies.

And what you sow, not the body which is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain.

As he has chosen, and to each kind of seed his own body.

So it is with the resurrection of the dead, what is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable.

It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory, it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power.

It is sown a physical body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a physical body, there is also a spiritual body.

For this perishable nature must put on the imperishable, and this mortal nature must put on immortality.

When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written,

Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy victory?

O death, where is thy sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.

But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the

Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. Amen.

Pastor? Christ is risen. Let us turn to Matthew chapter 28.

Matthew chapter 28 verses 1 through 10. Now after the

Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other

Mary came 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 from the door and sat on it.

His countenance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow. And the guards shook for fear of him, and became like dead men.

But the angel answered and said to the women, 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,

Come, see the place where the Lord lay, and go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead, and indeed he is going before you into Galilee, there you will see him.

Behold, I have told you. So they went out quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to bring his disciples word.

And as they went to tell his disciples, Behold, Jesus met them, saying, Rejoice! So they came and held him by the feet and worshipped him.

Then Jesus said to them, Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brethren to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.

This is the word of the Lord. Let us pray. Father, we are thankful that we can gather as brothers and sisters to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

And we remember what it cost him so that we may celebrate together, that he would die for our sin on the cross and face the punishment that we deserved in order that we may be forgiven and be adopted into his family.

Father, we pray that today we would focus on Christ and his finished work on the cross and the empty tomb which shows that the resurrection has occurred.

In Jesus' name, amen. Many people in our culture accuse

Christianity of being anti -women or misogynistic.

However, today's text challenges such a slanderous notion.

After all, the apostle Matthew depicts women as the first witnesses of the most important event in history, the resurrection.

And this is further more significant because the Jewish tradition did not put any value in the testimony of women.

According to their oral tradition, from Mishnah Rosh Hashanah 1 .8,

they believe that thieves, gamblers, and slaves were not reliable witnesses at all.

Not only that, women were not reliable witnesses. And I'm quoting this.

This is not my view. This is the principle. Any testimony of which a woman is unfit, these too are unfit, the thieves, gamblers.

Although in certain cases, a woman's testimony is accepted, for example, to testify to the death of someone's husband.

In the majority of cases, her testimony is not valid. End quote.

Yet Matthew highlights that the women were the first witnesses to the most glorious event in human history.

And this has a couple of major implications. First, the risen

Messiah, the risen Christ, is the Lord of the rejected.

His light shines on the despised people. The kingdom of heaven belongs to the poor in spirit, those who are not accepted commonly by the world.

Second, the testimony of Jesus does not depend on the power of the testifiers, but the power of the message of the gospel itself.

Or else it makes no sense that we're celebrating his death and resurrection 2 ,000 years later, despite the first witnesses being social rejects of that time, of that tradition.

They were, their witnesses would have been worthless according to their culture.

Third, this shows the careful historical recording of the apostles.

Imagine for a second if the resurrection were fabricated, made up, why would the apostles depict the first witnesses to be women, those whose testimonies were regarded as worthless back in the days?

Now, they wrote, all four gospel writers wrote that the women were the first witnesses of the empty tomb.

Now, why would they do that if they were trying to make up a religion? Unless that really occurred historically.

They couldn't change it up even if they wanted to. That's what happened. I don't know about you, but if you were trying to make up a fraudulent religion that could catch fire, would you not choose men back in the days?

Maybe, maybe some powerful men. After all, there were some powerful men following Christ, like Nicodemus, Joseph of Arimathea.

They were there at the burial. They could have been the first witnesses too. Because the resurrection is a historical event, the first followers of Christ held firmly to the truth that these two women, or more women, were the first witnesses of Christ's resurrection.

The main point of this passage is that we proclaim the risen

Christ who fulfilled his promises to make us a new people.

We proclaim the risen Christ who fulfilled his promises to make us a new people.

First point, we proclaim the risen Christ who faithfully fulfills his promises.

We proclaim the risen Christ who faithfully fulfills his promises.

Now, after witnessing the death and burial of Jesus, the women return to the tomb of Jesus.

After all, they were the ardent followers who witnessed

Jesus' burial. They were faithful to their Lord until the end. Verse 1, now after the

Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other

Mary came to see the tomb. There are a few reasons to approach the tomb on the first day of the week,

Sunday. First, the Sabbath would have prevented the women from traveling a far distance.

That would have counted as work. Second, there was a Jewish tradition to not visit the dead until the third day to make sure that the person is truly dead.

After all, these two women were going there to put the spices on the dead body.

Verse 2 tells us God sent a clear message for the first witnesses.

And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone from the door and sat on it.

In the Gospel of Matthew, angels play a significant role of announcing

God's message. This angel is tasked with the announcement of the resurrection of the

Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, the angel did not sneak in. It was not a secret spy mission, but appeared in a spectacular manner.

An earthquake. It could not have been more obvious. This is because the news of the resurrection was that much more important.

The news of the resurrection was literally and figuratively groundbreaking.

Now the angel rolls back the stone from the door and sits on it. There's no reason to think that Jesus needed an angel to roll back the stone.

After all, his resurrected body can go through walls. But rather, the stone is rolled back for those outside to witness the empty tomb.

It's for the outsiders to see there's no dead body inside. The angel came to not only proclaim the news of the resurrection, but to reveal it to the whole world to see.

Now what did this angel look like? Verse 3 tells us his countenance, his face was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow.

He was brilliant. And verse 4 tells us the impact this had on the guards who were stationed to protect the body of Jesus.

And the guards shook for fear of him and became like dead men.

Just as the ground shook at the arrival of this messenger, the guards shake in fear of this angelic messenger.

However, Matthew makes clear the focus is not on the messenger, but on the message.

The message of the risen Christ is more spectacular than the messenger who announces it.

He says, do not be afraid, for I know you seek

Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he is risen, as he said.

First, the angel answers the burning question in all of our minds. Where is the body?

Jesus who was crucified just a few days before, Jesus whom you saw dead and buried just a few days before, he is not here because he is risen.

Was this new information? Actually, the angel knew that Jesus announced his death and resurrection beforehand.

In fact, according to the Gospel of Matthew, three times. Matthew 16, verses 21 through 23.

Matthew 17, 22 through 23. Matthew 20, 17 through 19.

Three different occurrences of Jesus announcing that he will die, but will be risen on the third day.

When Jesus was crucified for our sin and he rose from the dead,

Jesus was fulfilling what he has promised beforehand.

When Jesus faced the wrath of God for our sake and rose from the grave, he was fulfilling what he came to do.

He was being faithful. And the angel knew it, and the women knew it.

And in case the women are still in disbelief, as this is not a natural phenomenon, the angel invites them to see.

Come, see the place where the Lord lay. Check it out for yourself.

You don't have to blindly believe what I've said. See for yourself.

The stone's rolled. I rolled it for you. And this is the characteristic of Christianity.

Even from the beginning, it was based upon historical evidence.

The scripture that Richard read even said that over 500 believers got to see the resurrected

Christ. And many of them still living when Paul was writing 1

Corinthians 15. Blind faith has no place in following Christ.

And now verse 7 clarifies the implication of the resurrected Christ. And go quickly and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead, and indeed he is going before you into Galilee.

There you will see him. Behold, I have told you. The news of the risen

Christ must be shared with his followers. Recall what happened to the disciples when

Jesus was arrested. They all fearfully fled. In fact, this verse is fulfilling what

Jesus said would happen in Matthew 26, 31 through 32.

And Jesus said to them, All of you will be made to stumble because of me this night.

For it is written, I will strike the shepherd and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.

But after I have been raised, I will go before you to Galilee.

Even before his arrest, Jesus knew that his disciples would leave him like the sheep without a shepherd.

When Jesus the shepherd was struck, his flock scattered. When the shepherd was pierced for their sin, his sheep went their own way.

However, what will Jesus do when he comes back from the dead? Does Jesus choose a new set of sheep?

Ah, you've all failed the test of faithfulness. Where were you? Does he pick out more faithful ones?

Ah, the women who have been here all along, you're the only followers. No. Jesus follows what he's promised.

But after I have been raised, I will go before you to Galilee. Soon after that, all of his disciples, even if they...

During that encounter when Jesus prophesied that they will all be scattered, all of his disciples boldly claimed, even if I have to die with you,

I will be with you. And we all know only

Jesus ends up keeping his word. And now what is the significance of Galilee?

Galilee was the hometown of Jesus' disciples. Remember, they were not city boys, but country bumpkins.

Many were fishermen from Galilee. Peter's Galilean accent betrayed him.

It was obvious to a native Jerusalemite that Peter was not a

Jerusalemite. They all entered Jerusalem thinking that Jesus will be made king to rule.

Some even entered thinking that one will sit at the right hand, the other at the left. However, when

Jesus was made king in Jerusalem, on the cross, they all fled.

Now, where would the disciples go when their king was dead and buried?

Naturally, they would plan on going back to their hometown, Galilee, where they're from.

They would go back to their former occupations before Jesus called them out.

They would go back to their former lives. And even before Jesus was betrayed, abandoned, and crucified,

Jesus knew that his sheep would leave him. So he promised that after his death, that he will return to the most familiar place that his sheep would run off to.

And as he goes to Galilee, even before his sheep, he will gather them back.

Even when his people are fearful, the shepherd will faithfully go before them.

Even when his people are faithless, Jesus remains faithful.

What does this mean for us? Well, it means Jesus, our

Lord, is faithful till the end. Jesus was faithful to his people despite his death.

He fulfilled everything he promised to do, and even death could not stop him.

How much more can we trust him with our lives now that he is risen and reigning from heaven?

Can a bad week at work? Can a belligerent family member against Christ?

Can the changing worldview of the culture change our state in Christ?

Can anything in all creation separate us from the love of Christ which he promised?

The resurrection tells us he was faithful even through death, and he was faithful after he resurrected.

Second, we proclaim the risen Christ who reconstitutes his people.

We proclaim the risen Christ who reconstitutes his people. Upon hearing the angel's announcement, the women quickly leave the tomb to tell his disciples.

So they went out quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy and ran to bring his disciples' word.

They were gripped with a mixture of both fear and joy because they expected to see a rotting corpse yet were greeted with an empty tomb.

They didn't know what to think of it. This doesn't happen. They expected their dead king, yet they encountered with the news of his return.

Now after the angel's brilliant visit, the women run into a more spectacular sight.

And as they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying,

Rejoice. So they came and held him by the feet and worshiped him. When the risen

Christ appears, the most appropriate response for his people is that of worship.

Worship is celebrating who God is. To these women,

Jesus is no longer just their human teacher but the resurrected

Messiah. Jesus is God incarnate, God made in the flesh, appeared to them.

Now the word for worship in Greek is the same word for kneeling down.

Hence some liberal believers, or they're not believers, hence some liberal theologians would argue that Matthew is only implying kneeling down, the position of it, rather than viewing

Christ as God because, of course, worship would only be reserved for God.

However, when we actually follow the thread of the word worship in Matthew, the gospel according to Matthew, the picture of worship becomes nearly impossible to avoid.

The first people to worship Jesus are the wise men in Matthew 2 who followed the heavenly instruction while the wise men gladly worshiped their newborn king.

Herod refused. Now the theme of worship becomes clearer when

Satan tempts Jesus to worship him, which

Jesus counters Satan by quoting scripture, you shall worship the Lord your

God and him only you shall serve. After this remark, the word for worship or kneeling down, it becomes really difficult to separate the two.

Worship and kneeling down in the context of Jesus is worshiping him as God whom all worship is due.

And here at the site of the resurrected Christ, the women fall down to worship him.

The women are truly celebrating who God is. Jesus is the

Lord their God whom they must worship only.

After that, Jesus commands the women in a similar manner as the angel, do not be afraid.

Go and tell my brethren to go to Galilee and they will see me. Jesus also wants his resurrection to be made known to his followers.

And he also assures that he will show up to them in Galilee and they will indeed see him.

Now, what is the difference between the two announcements? First, unlike the angel's announcement,

Jesus does not have to tell the women that he is risen because his appearance itself is clearly the final proof that he is resurrected.

Jesus did not rise spiritually as a ghost and showed up like a hologram, but he resurrected physically.

Hence, the women could grab onto his feet in reverence and worship.

Second, this is a very minute point but has a huge implication.

Jesus calls his disciples, my brethren, my brothers.

The angels didn't call the disciples his brothers, but Jesus does. What is the significance of that?

After the death and resurrection, there is a new reality of relationship between Jesus' followers and Jesus.

They're not just disciples. They are disciples, but it's more than that.

They're brothers. Christ is their older brother.

There is a renewal and development in their relationship. For any follower of Christ, Jesus is your older brother who reigns from heaven, and that's a tremendous comfort.

Furthermore, the term brother shows that the resurrected

Christ reconstitutes his people when he calls them brothers.

Now, when you turn to the first chapter of Matthew, you will notice a record of genealogy of Jesus.

The son of David, the son of Abraham. As you may have noticed, genealogies are more than just a historical record.

In fact, it narrates what kind of person this is. Structurally, Jesus' genealogy is divided into three equal parts of 14 generations.

Verses 2 through 6 depict Abraham to David, 14 generations. Verses 6 through 10,

King David to the Babylonian exile, 14 generations. 12 through 16, post -exile to Christ, 14 generations.

And one must be wondering what is the significance of the number 14. Well, in the ancient days, letters represented numbers.

The first letter of the alphabet would be 1. The second letter of the alphabet would be 2.

Now, what does 14 mean? Well, if you put the

Hebrew alphabet letter Dalet, Vav, Dalet, or the consonants

D, V, D, you get 14. And that name is

David. The genealogy structurally portrays

David. Jesus' lineage is the fulfillment of the promised

Davidic king to rule forever. He is the fulfillment of the

Davidic messiah. Now that hopefully

I have convinced you how purposeful the genealogy is, we can look at one more pattern.

The first two tables of genealogy, the first two 14 generations, contain the phrase, and his brothers.

Verse 2, Abraham begot Isaac, and Isaac begot Jacob, and Jacob begot

Judah and his brothers. And verse 11, Josiah begot

Jeconiah and his brothers about the time they were carried away to Babylon.

The phrase, his brothers, marks significant events in God's redemptive history.

The first phrase marks the constitution of Israel. Judah and his brothers are the 12 tribes of Israel.

Verse 11, however, signifies the dissolution of Israel, the death of a nation.

They were carried off to Babylon. The house of David is no longer ruling, according to verse 11.

And this begs the question, where is the third repetition of the phrase for the third table of genealogy?

Where is his brothers? The answer is not found in the first chapter of Matthew, but the last.

The genealogy of Matthew bookends the whole book of Matthew. How does

Jesus reestablish his people? It was precisely by dying on the cross and facing the judgment that his people deserved.

And Christ made them his brothers. A new people of God united in Christ.

He sets us apart by dealing with our sin on the cross, sin which alienated us from him.

This is why Christ's brothers come into the picture when

Jesus is resurrected, and he gathers them back. Christ reconstitutes his people through his death and resurrection.

Christ unites his people through the cross and the empty tomb. That's the significance of Christ, the risen

Lord, calling his disciples his brothers. It's the significance of a new reality we have in the resurrected

Messiah. And the book of Matthew takes the whole book to show us that because it required the

Messiah to die for his people and rise on the third day. Let us pray.

Father, we are thankful that Christ calls us his brothers, his sisters.

And as his family, we are reconstituted people of God. Although Israel fell after the

Babylonian exile, Christ gathered his people back by purchasing them with his blood.

And Father, we long for the complete fulfillment of Christ's death on the cross, where there's no longer death or pain, suffering, or sin.

Father, we pray that we would hope in the faithfulness of this Messiah who died to fulfill all of his promises.

In Jesus' name, amen. Thank you, Pastor. It never gets old, does it?

Just to think upon those things. God's plan is perfect.

And when you see these little nuggets and gems, they all align perfectly.

They really do. We just are horizontal brains that are limited to be able to grasp it.

But then we see glimmers of it, and it's just a beautiful thing. So thank you, Pastor. Why don't we all stand together?

We're gonna sing the doxology. Some of you know this. Some churches do this pretty regularly and have done it over the last century.

So, all right. And I'll begin. Praise God as things flow.

Praise Him, all creatures, here below.

Praise Him above ye heavenly host.

Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.