An Encounter with the King - Matthew 28:8-10

And if you'll turn with me again to Matthew chapter 28, you know it's gonna be an interesting morning when you come in and the room is 98 degrees and the HVAC is obviously doing its dead level best to pump every bit of hot air in this commonwealth into the room.

But a blessing that it is blowing cool air at the moment. And for those of you, anyone who may be visiting today, please be assured it is not our common practice to run a sauna on Sunday morning as well.

Come back next week and Lord willing, it will be climate controlled adequately. But also a reminder as we were praying, was struck by the reality that would I not rather be in this room as hot as it may feel right now with brothers and sisters in Christ worshiping together, hearing God's word in the presence of the Holy Spirit than to be anywhere else in the city or in the world right now where the world is being worshiped and man is being worshiped, self is being exalted.

It is a blessing to gather together. So in chapter 28, last week we saw the woman, or the women rather at the tomb. They had arrived, the Sabbath is over, a new day has dawned as Matthew tells us both literally and figuratively.

Jesus having been victorious over sin and death on the cross, he cries it is finished. Jesus has now proven that he is victorious over sin and death with the empty tomb. Last week we saw that the angel appeared at these guards who were under Pilate's authority.

They were symbols of the power that Pilate had. The tomb is sealed under his authority and yet this is all for nothing. The schemes of man, the enemies of God, the enemy himself, Satan, all of these plans are for nothing.

They are nothing in the face of God's sovereignty. We saw this juxtaposition, this contrast last week between these soldiers who are well-armed and well-trained and well-equipped and they're laying on the ground as if they are dead.

And all the while these women who should have been more scared, they're unarmed. The only thing they bring to the tomb with them that morning are spices, things that they're gonna use to tend to Jesus's body.

And these women who should have just been just as mortified, if not more so, instead are standing and they're hearing this angel talk to them. He bids them to come and look at the empty tomb and see that Jesus is no longer there.

He wasn't there even before the stone was rolled away. And then the angel tells the women to go and tell the disciples to give them the message to meet Jesus in Galilee. So today we pick up as the women leave the tomb, we see their actions, we see the gracious and loving actions of the risen Savior.

I'm gonna start back in verse one because it's helpful to remind ourselves of the context and also the flow helps us to remember what has happened and it's just a blessing to read of the resurrection of our Savior again.

Now after the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to look at the grave. Behold, a severe earthquake had occurred for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled away the stone and sat upon it.

And his appearance was like lightning, his clothing as white as snow. The guards shook for fear of him and became like dead men. The angel said to the women, do not be afraid for I know that you are looking for Jesus who has been crucified.

He is not here, for he is risen just as he said. Come, see the place where he was lying. Go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead and behold, he is going ahead of you into Galilee.

There you will see him. Behold, I have told you. And they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy and ran to report it to his disciples. And behold, Jesus met them and greeted them and they came and took hold of his feet and worshiped him.

Then Jesus said to them, do not be afraid. Go and take word to my brethren to leave for Galilee. And there they will see me. Father, we thank you this morning that we acknowledge that we were once your enemies.

That if we are in Christ, we were once set apart from you. We were once not a people. And that because of the great love that you have shown to us through your son, our savior, Jesus Christ, we who were once your enemies are now at peace with you.

We who were once destitute and orphans, we are now adopted as your children, sons and daughters and heirs to the promises in Jesus Christ. We who were once not a people have now been made a people. And we even now are being built up into a spiritual dwelling.

That just as the stones that were used in the temple were special and they were holy and there was to be purpose and intentionality and how those stones were shaped and fitted together, that you are fitting us together into the perfect and the holy temple with our savior Jesus as the cornerstone.

Father, would we never get over that reality? Would it never become something that we just think about and we hear and we gloss over and we move on? Lord, as we consider your word today, would we be freshly affected by the grace and the mercy you have shown that you continue to show and that you will continue to show to us?

Lord, would our response be one of worship? We ask this in Jesus' name, amen. A few months after we began meeting as a church, nearly eight years ago, the first book that we went through as a church family was the book of James.

And one of the themes throughout the book of James, his epistle, his letter, was an emphasis on genuine faith. Many of us can think of those words, that verse that kind of typifies the book of James. I will show you my faith by what I do.

The evidence of my faith is fruit. Not that we produce fruit so that we will have faith and salvation, but that because we have salvation and faith that God has given to us, we will have fruit and we will bear fruit.

To be clear, all of salvation is a work of God's grace. And again, that grace is evidenced by our obedience, our worship of him. A true encounter with the risen Jesus removes fear and it replaces it with a longing, a desire for joy-filled worship.

And then it gives us a task, it gives us a calling in the kingdom of God. It gives us those words of life that we share sometimes with ourselves, hopefully all the time with ourselves, with one another, with the world.

And today in this passage, in just these short, three short verses, we can see three acts of God's grace, three acts of God's grace that he shows, that he gives graciously to those who he calls to himself.

Gracious Faith in the Women at the Tomb

First act that we can see is that God gives a gracious faith. See in verse eight that the women last week, we left off as the angel is telling these women, go quickly and go tell the disciples to meet Jesus in Galilee.

And today we see the women's response. We see that Matthew specifies, clarifies that the women went quickly. It was immediate. They did not wait. They did not delay. They didn't make excuses. The angel said, go quickly.

And so they went quickly. We see at the same time that they were not perfect in their response. They left the tomb quickly with fear. Mark in his account of the gospel in chapter 16 of Mark's gospel, he says that they went out and fled from the tomb for trembling and astonishment had gripped them.

They said nothing to anyone for they were afraid. So Mark tells us that there is a genuine fear here. There's a fear, they're concerned, they're worried, but there's also this idea of awe, of astonishment, of wonder at what has just happened and what they have heard and what they have witnessed.

So their response is not perfect. We'll see that in just a moment as Jesus has to remind them to not be afraid. But while they had a certain amount of fear, they also had great joy. Matthew says that they left the tomb with fear and great joy.

The word for joy here is kara, the Greek word. It means gladness, cheerfulness. It's closely related to the word kardes or grace. But it was not just gladness that the women felt, not just a simple gladness.

Matthew says it was a great gladness, a great joy. Literally, the Greek word that's used here for great is from which we get the word mega. It was mega joy. In some parts of the New Testament, depending on the context, they say superlative, the greatest joy, exceeding joy.

So these women are leaving the tomb, the empty tomb, with this mixture of excitement and awe and fear and joy. Probably one of the most almost palpable combinations of emotion that we can feel. Something that we all probably can identify with at some point in our lives.

For me, when I think of this combination of nervousness and fear and joy, I always think of this time just a little over 24 years ago now. Jennifer and I were sitting at a restaurant down in Florida. I'd been working at home in Atlanta that summer.

She had been working down in Florida where we were going to Bible college. I came down under the pretense that I was just getting things ready at the house that I was renting and just getting ready for school.

Of course, you can imagine why I was really there. We're sitting there at this restaurant down in Panama City and I know every five to 10 seconds, I was patting the pocket of my shorts to make sure that I could still feel that little piece of stone and metal that was in my pocket.

There was a mixture, I can tell you, of fear and excitement, of nervousness and exceeding joy. And I think that was just a small taste of what these women must have felt when they were experiencing something that was unprecedented that never has happened before and never will happen again.

I wonder if maybe that's why Mark said that they said nothing to anyone. Perhaps they were afraid to stop and talk to anyone until they had reached the disciples and delivered their message. Perhaps they were afraid that they were going to be detained on the way.

Maybe they were afraid that once they got to where they thought the disciples were going to be, they wouldn't be there. So it's completely understandable and with good reason that these women had great joy, but they also had fear.

But what was the source of the women's faith? Where did that faith come from? The faith that would, upon seeing this angel and seeing this empty tomb, would then convince them that I'm not just seeing things, I'm not just imagining this.

No, I need to go now to the disciples and say what the angel has told me to say. What was the source of the women's faith? Was there something special about these women?

No.

No.

We don't fall into the error that many in church history have fallen into and say that there was something special about this person that we should now venerate them and we should have candles with their image on it and we should have days dedicated to them and we should have special prayers that we utter to them.

No.

There was nothing special about these women. They were sinners who were saved by the gracious act and mercy of Jesus Christ. So the faith that they had was not one that they had worked up. It was not something that was just specially genetic about them.

It was not something that was just a special personality feature or characteristic. This was a gracious gift of God. It was not of their works. A gracious gift of God, this faith that enabled them to respond in obedience.

It was God's grace and mercy that allowed these women to stand when those strong soldiers were falling down and they were laying there still as if they were dead. These powerful soldiers, they stunned like dead men and these women are able to hear the word of the angel and then go do it quickly.

So we see this gracious faith that's given to them. We also see a second gracious act of God, a gracious encounter. Jesus met these women while they were going in obedience. They were already on the way.

They didn't have to wait for Jesus to show up and say, hey, the angel told you to do this, go do it. They were already on the way. They were already obeying. They weren't looking for Jesus. One thing that if I'm being honest with myself and if I were that woman at the tomb and the angel said he's risen, I might be tempted to try to go look for him.

Where is he?

I wanna see him. What this says for the obedience of the women, the faith that God had given them that when the angel said, go tell the disciples, they went and told the disciples. And so Jesus intersects them on the way.

Jesus met them. There's an intentionality here. The women are on their way to the disciples and Jesus comes into their path. It always amazes me at how many passages, how many verses that someone has to overlook and ignore to say that salvation is not of the Lord.

When every time we see Jesus act, every time we see someone come to truth or the truth is revealed to them, it's not because they're seeking it out. It's because God intersects them. God interrupts them wherever they're headed.

This greeting that Jesus gives to them, it's a common greeting. It was one that was used very often. The word was kairita. It sounds like kara or gladness. It also sounds like kairis or grace. And the greeting means exactly to rejoice or be glad.

It was similar to a hello for us or how are you doing? It was a familiar greeting. The form that Matthew uses indicates that Jesus is greeting friends. It's not a formal use. But this word is also the exact one that Matthew uses when he records the words of Jesus back when we looked at the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter five.

Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you and falsely say all sorts of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad for your reward in heaven is great for in the same way they persecuted the prophets.

Who were before you.

The Greek scholar Spiros Zotiates says that these three words are so connected together. They're so similar as to be interchangeable. That grace and this word that Jesus uses for greeting and the joy that the women felt, the great joy, it's all the same thing.

It's all rejoicing. In other words, these women are surrounded by God's grace, by his cardis. God's grace allows the women to stand and hear the angel's message. God's grace empowers the women to act in faith and run and tell the disciples immediately.

God's grace permeates this joy that they have as they leave the tomb. And it is literally God's grace, the word which Jesus uses to greet them. And we see the only fitting and logical response to this grace.

The women took hold of Jesus's feet and worshiped him. This is the one point at which we could say the women are distracted for a second from their mission. They're not, for a moment, they're not headed to tell the disciples.

They take hold of his feet, the feet of his physical resurrected body. This is no ghost or spirit. This is no analogy. This is no symbol of Jesus's victory. Jesus is resurrected physically. This is Emmanuel.

This is God with us. This is the word that became flesh and tabernacled among us. I can't help but wonder, these women, as they're grabbing at Jesus's feet and as they're worshiping him, did they smell the myrrh and the other spices that had just been used a few hours before to anoint Jesus's body, that Nicodemus had brought to the tomb, as he was hastily prepared?

These smells that would normally have been associated with death and with burial and the funeral process are now the ones they're smelling on the resurrected Christ. And isn't this a beautiful picture, an accurate picture, a fitting picture of what Jesus does?

He takes the things that are dead and he makes them alive. He takes us who are enemies and makes us his friends and his children. He takes the things that are meant for cursing and causes them to be used for the good of those who are loved by God and who are called according to his purpose.

This is what a gracious encounter with the Savior does. And our only logical and fitting response is to worship with joy. Finally, we see this gracious message from God. In verse 10, Jesus says to them, do not be afraid.

Matthew uses what is called the historical present here. Depending on your translation, you might see an asterisk, you might see a note. If you're reading this text, it might say Jesus said to them. In the Greek, Matthew's actually using the present tense of the word Jesus says to them.

The historical present is used in the New Testament, mostly in the Gospels. I think Mark uses it most of all, but Matthew uses it quite a bit, 90-something times. And the purpose of the historical present is to draw attention to what is happening.

If Matthew had had Microsoft Word, he might have used bold or italics to write what comes next. I think it's probably a blessing he didn't have Microsoft Word most days. But the historical present is intended to draw the reader's attention to what comes next.

Jesus says to them, and what does he say? Do not be afraid. This is why we can say that, yes, the women were filled with joy. They were filled with great, exceeding joy. They were filled with astonishment and awe, but they also were obviously filled with some amount of fear that Jesus needed to correct.

He needed to remind them not to be afraid. Again, what were the questions that they had? Well, maybe what if Pilate found out that Jesus is alive? What if the Jewish religious leaders found out that Jesus is alive?

What if somebody stops us on the way and wants us to help them with something, and we're detained? And so Jesus repeats the words that his messenger, the angel of the Lord, has just uttered a few moments before.

Do not be afraid. And then he repeats the instruction. Go to Galilee, or tell my brethren to leave for Galilee, rather. And there they will see me. Why does he repeat this instruction? Could be that the women needed to be reassured in their mission.

Maybe they needed to hear that again. Maybe they're filled with enough fear that they're distracted. It could be that they're so overwhelmed by what's happening that they need to be reminded of the mission that they've been called to undertake.

It could also be, again, an act of grace of the Lord that he's giving the women this message a second time that by the time they get to the disciples, they can say, an angel told us to tell you to go to Galilee.

And then we saw Jesus, and he said the same thing. But the fact remains that for Jesus to repeat this message, it is an evidence of his grace and his mercy. But notice that this is not a verbatim repeat of the angel's instruction, is it?

It's not a word-for-word repeat. The angels say, go and tell his disciples. But Jesus says, go tell my brethren. These men are holed up and huddled together, and they're doubtful and fearful. One of them won't believe it until they can see Jesus' wounds for himself.

One of them has just cut off the ear of the priest's bodyguard only a day or so before. They scattered, they fell away after Jesus' arrest and crucifixion, and yet Jesus calls them brothers. This is the grace of God, grace that gave the women faith, that filled them with joy, that greeted them on the way, grace that Jesus knew back in the upper room at the last supper when he said, you will all fall away because of me this night, for it is written, I will strike down the shepherd and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.

But after I have been raised, I will go ahead of you to Galilee. Jesus didn't just say, well, you failed me, you scattered, you abandoned me, so nevermind. Grace that not only were these words spoken by Jesus in the upper room at the last supper, but grace that these same words were given to the people of Israel through the ministry of Zechariah under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit hundreds of years before.

In that day, a fountain will be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for impurity. It will come about in that day, declares the Lord of hosts, that I will cut off the names of the idols from the land and they will no longer be remembered.

I will also remove the prophets and the unclean spirit from the land. Awake, O sword, against my shepherd and against the man, my associate, declares the Lord of hosts. Strike the shepherd that the sheep may be scattered and I will turn my hand against the little ones.

I will come about in all the land, declares the Lord, that two parts in it will be cut off and perish and one third will be left in it. And I will bring the third part through the fire, refine them as silver is refined and test them as gold is tested.

They will call on my name and I will answer them. I will say they are my people and they will say the Lord is my God. That God would promise this fountain of living water, that he would promise that this shepherd would be stricken, that God would save a remnant and he would refine them and call them his people.

That God would keep his promises perfectly through Jesus Christ. This is the grace of God. So this morning, what is your response to the gospel? Do you have a holy sense of God's power and his holiness?

Do you have an awe? Is the sense of awe accompanied by a joy that desires to fall at the feet of Jesus and worship him? Don't misunderstand me. Commitment to truth and doctrinal truth, love for doctrinal truth is absolutely important.

It's critical. We must have that, but it also must be accompanied by a sense of what God has saved us from and what he continues to forgive us of and what he continues to do for us. Show me a church that is full of doctrinal truth and is devoid of any evidence of joy over being delivered out of the bondage of sin and I'll show you a church that's full of pride and legalism.

Imagine someone inheriting a beautiful house on the beach,.

Immaculate, beautiful.

They take a picture of this house and they put it in this beautiful, ornate frame and they dust the picture and they write books about the house and they go to conferences about the house and they study the architectural details of the house but they never go and enjoy the house.

How abjectly foolish and sad would that be? And yet if we know the truth, we study the truth, but we never worship in spirit and in truth, we are missing that blessing of worshiping at the feet of Jesus.

Pray that God would grow you in your love for him, that he would lead you to rejoice in your salvation. I'll never forget the church that Jennifer and I grew up in. There was a man who was saved, he was not old, but he was in his 30s, always was talking about the Lord, always in worship, so wonderful to see him in worship and when he would talk about what the Lord had done for him and it was said of him more than once, yeah, he's gotten saved and just never got over it yet.

Lord, that we would not get over being saved, that we would be a people and a church that would be awed, that we would be emotionally moved by the breadth and the length and the height and the depth to experientially know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that we would be filled up to all the fullness of God.

Are you following Christ in obedience today? When the women encountered Jesus, they were obeying. What a blessed testimony that is, that when Jesus found them, they were obeying him. Was their faith perfect?

No, as we've already considered, their faith was not perfect, they were fearful, they had to be reminded, do not be afraid, but there was grace for them, there is grace for you, there is thankfully grace for me when we follow Jesus imperfectly.

The faithful obedience of these women was a reminder to us that we are called to be living and holy sacrifices, acceptable and pleasing to God, which is our spiritual service of worship, that we're not to be conformed to the image of this world, that we're to be continually transformed by the continual renewing of our minds, that we may prove the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

If the day of the Lord were to come today, if he came to you and me, would he find us on the way? Would he find us obeying him? Finally, like these women, this is a gracious reminder that we need to be told things more than once.

In fact, we need to be told them every day. We need to preach the gospel to ourselves, to be reminded of it through the reading of God's word, through fellowship with other believers, that Jesus is the great physician, as the psalmist reminds us, who pardons all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases, who crowns you with loving kindness and compassion, who satisfies your years with good things, that Jesus is compassionate and gracious.

He is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. That these women, the fickle disciples who Jesus calls his brothers, that he did not deal with them according to their sins. And rest assured that he, if you are in Christ, will not deal with you according to your sins either.

That as far as the East is from the West, so far has he removed your transgressions if you will come to him in faith. This is the grace of the gospel. You who were not a people are now the people of God.

You who had not received mercy, you now have received mercy. And indeed, with the apostle John, we can say with joy, grabbing to the feet of Jesus that we have received from the fullness of Jesus Christ, grace upon grace.

Lord, how do we understand the height and the width, the breadth, the depth, the magnitude of your love for us? Father, if we are in Christ, but our hearts have grown cold, they've grown lukewarm, we have pursued knowledge of you, but we have neglected experience of you.

We have neglected worship of you. Father, would you forgive us for that neglect? Would you call us to your throne of grace that in prayer and in the pursuit of sanctification that we would grab to the feet of our savior, Jesus?

Father, would you grow us? Would you grant us grace upon grace that we would not be afraid? That in the kingdom and the gifting that you've called us to and the purposes for which you have created us, which you have knit us together, Father, that we would not be afraid, we would not be dismayed, but we would fix our eyes upon our savior, Jesus.

In all of this, would you be honored and glorified? And in all of this, would we display the grace and the mercy that you continually pour out on us, your needy, sinful, fickle children? Would you do this again for your honor and glory?

We ask this in Jesus' name, amen. Well, let's stand and sing together.