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

Hill City Reformed Baptist Church iconHill City Reformed Baptist Church

2 views

An Encounter with the King Matthew 28:8-10 Sermon by Micah Green Hill City Reformed Baptist Church Lynchburg, Virginia

0 comments

00:06
Hope you'll turn with me again to Matthew chapter 28, you know, it's going to be an interesting morning when you come in and The room is 98 degrees and the
00:18
HVAC is obviously doing its dead -level best to pump every bit of hot air in this Commonwealth into the room
00:29
But a blessing that it is blowing cool air at the moment and For those of you anyone who may be visiting today, please please be assured
00:39
It is not our not our common practice to run a sauna on Sunday morning as well
00:46
Come back next week and Lord willing it will be climate controlled adequately But also a reminder is as we were praying
00:59
Was struck by the reality that would I had not rather be in this room as hot as it may feel right now with Brothers and sisters in Christ worshiping together
01:09
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 worshipped and Man is being worshipped self is being exalted
01:29
It is a blessing to gather together So in chapter 28 last week, we saw the woman or the women rather at the tomb
01:42
They had arrived the Sabbath is over a new day has dawned as Matthew tells us both literally and figuratively
01:54
Jesus having been victorious over sin and Death on the cross he cries it is finished
02:01
Jesus has now proven that he is victorious over sin and death with the empty tomb
02:10
Last week we saw that the angel appeared That these guards who were under pilots authority
02:18
They were symbols of the power that pilot had The tomb is sealed under his authority and yet this is all for nothing that the schemes of man
02:31
The enemies of God the enemy himself Satan all of these plans are for nothing.
02:37
They 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
02:56
And all the while these women who should have been more scared They're unarmed.
03:03
The only thing they bring to the tomb with them that morning or our spices things that they're going to use to 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
03:23
Talk to them He bids them to come and look at the empty tomb and see that Jesus is no longer there.
03:30
He wasn't there Even before the stone was rolled away
03:37
And Then the angel tells the women to go and tell the disciples to give them the message to meet
03:45
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
03:55
Savior I'm gonna start back in in verse 1 because it's Hopeful to remind ourselves of the context and also it the flow
04:08
Helps us to to remember what has happened and It's just a blessing to read of the resurrection of our
04:15
Savior again Now after the Sabbath as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week
04:21
Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to look at the grave Behold a severe earthquake had occurred
04:28
For an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled away the stone and sat upon it
04:34
And his appearance was like lightning his clothing as white as snow
04:40
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
04:51
He is not here For he is risen just as he said
04:58
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,
05:13
I have told you and They left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy and ran to report it to his disciples
05:22
And behold Jesus met them and greeted them and they came and took hold of his feet and worshiped him
05:30
And 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.
05:43
We thank you This morning that we we acknowledge that we were once your enemies
05:57
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
06:14
Savior Jesus Christ We who were once your enemies are now at peace with you
06:25
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 were special and they were holy and there was to be
07:06
There was to be purpose and intentionality and how those stones were shaped and fitted together
07:12
That you are fitting us together and To the perfect and the holy temple with our
07:27
Savior Jesus as the cornerstone Father would we would we never get would we never get over that reality?
07:37
Would it never become something that we just think about and we hear and we gloss over and we move on or does we?
07:47
Consider your word today Would we be freshly affected by the grace and the mercy
07:55
You have shown that you continue to show and that you will continue to show to us
08:03
Lord would our response be one of worship? We ask this in Jesus name
08:09
Amen a few months After we began meeting as a church
08:17
Nearly eight years ago. The first 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 is his epistle his letter was an emphasis on genuine faith many of us
08:33
Many of us can can think of those words that that verse that kind of typifies the the book of James.
08:41
I Will show you my faith by what I do that the evidence of my faith is fruit
08:48
Not that we produce fruit so that we will have faith and salvation that but that because we have salvation and faith
08:54
That God has given to us We will have fruit. We will bear fruit to be clear
09:02
All of salvation is a work of God's grace. And again that grace is evidenced
09:09
By our obedience our worship of him a true
09:15
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
09:27
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 and just these short three short verses
09:48
We can see three acts of God's grace three acts of God's grace that he shows
09:53
That he gives graciously to those who he calls to himself first Act that we can see is that God gives a gracious faith
10:08
See in verse 8 that the women last week we left off as as the angel is telling these women go quickly and go tell the disciples to meet
10:19
Jesus in Galilee and Today we see the women's response We see that Matthew Specifies clarifies that the women went quickly
10:30
It was immediate. They did not wait. They did not delay They didn't make excuses
10:38
The angel said go quickly. And so they went quickly we see at the same time that they
10:47
They were not perfect in their response I left the tomb quickly with fear
10:57
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
11:09
They said nothing to anyone For they were afraid So mark tells us that there is a genuine fear here.
11:18
There's a there's a fear there. They're concerned. They're they're worried but there's also this idea of of awe of astonishment of Wonder at what has just happened and what they have heard and what they have witnessed
11:31
So their response is is not perfect We'll see that in just a moment as Jesus has to remind them to not be afraid
11:42
But while they had a certain amount of fear, they also had great joy
11:51
Matthew says that they left the tomb with fear and great joy The word for joy here is kara that the
12:02
Greek word. It means gladness cheerfulness It's closely related to the words cardi's or grace
12:16
But it was not just glad list and gladness that The women felt not just a simple gladness
12:24
Matthew says it was a great Gladness a great joy
12:33
Literally, the the Greek word that's used here for greatest is from which we get the word mega.
12:39
It was mega joy The in in some parts of the New Testament depending on the context is say superlative the greatest joy exceeding joy
12:51
So these women are leaving the tomb the empty tomb with this mixture of of Excitement and awe and fear and joy probably one of the most most
13:08
Almost palpable combinations of Emotion that we can feel
13:16
Something that we all probably can identify with at some point in our lives For me when
13:24
I think of this combination of of nervousness and fear and joy I always think of this time just a little over 24 years ago now
13:36
Jennifer and I were sitting at a restaurant down in Florida I've been working at home in Atlanta that summer.
13:44
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 you know
13:56
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 ten seconds
14:07
I was padding 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.
14:18
There was a mixture. I can tell you of fear and excitement of Nervousness and exceeding joy
14:28
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.
14:42
I Wonder if maybe that's why Mark said that they said nothing to anyone
14:48
Perhaps they were afraid to stop and talk to anyone until they had reached the disciples and delivered their message
14:54
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 they wouldn't be there
15:06
So it's completely Understandable and with good reason that these women had great joy, but they also had fear
15:19
But what was the source of the women's faith? Where did that faith come from? the faith that would
15:26
Upon seeing this angel and seeing this empty tomb Would then convince them that I'm not just seeing things
15:34
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
15:42
What was the source of the women's faith? Was there something special about these women? 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
16:00
And we should have days dedicated to them and we should have special prayers that we utter to them
16:06
No There was nothing special about these women. They were sinners who were saved by the gracious act 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.
16:26
It was not something that was just a special personality feature or characteristic
16:36
This was a gracious gift of God it was not of their works a
16:43
Gracious gift of God this faith that enabled them to respond in obedience It was
16:49
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
17:04
Powerful soldiers they stunned like dead men and these women are able to hear the word of the angel
17:11
And then go do it quickly So we see this gracious faith that's giving to given to them.
17:19
We also see a second gracious act of God a gracious encounter Jesus met these women while they were going in obedience.
17:29
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
17:35
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
17:47
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.
17:54
Where is he? I want to 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
18:18
Jesus met them. There's an intentionality here The women are on their way to the disciples and Jesus comes into their path
18:29
It always amazes me at how how many? passages how many verses
18:35
That someone has to overlook and ignore To say that salvation is not of the
18:40
Lord when every time we see Jesus act every time we see someone Come to truth or or or be the truth is revealed to them.
18:49
It's not because they're seeking it out It's because God intersects them God interrupts them wherever they're headed this
19:05
Greeting that Jesus gives to them. It's it's a it's a common greeting.
19:12
It was one that was used very often The word was Kairita it sounds like Kara or gladness.
19:21
It also sounds like Cody's 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?
19:34
It was a familiar greeting the forum that Matthew uses Indicates that Jesus is greeting friends.
19:40
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
19:51
Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 5 Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you and falsely say all sorts of evil against you because of me
20:03
Rejoice and Be glad for your reward in heaven is great for in the same way.
20:09
They persecuted the prophets Who were before you the Greek scholar
20:16
Spiro Sotiate says that these three words are so Connected together, they're so similar as to be interchangeable
20:27
Grace and this word that Jesus uses for greeting and the joy that the women felt the great joy
20:33
It's all the same thing. It's all rejoicing in other words.
20:39
These women are surrounded by God's grace by his
20:45
Cardi's God's grace allows the women to stand and hear the angels message
20:51
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
21:06
God's grace The word which Jesus uses to greet them and we see the only fitting and logical response to this grace
21:22
Women took hold of Jesus's feet and worshipped him This is the one point at which we could say the women are distracted for a second from their mission.
21:32
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
21:41
Resurrected body. This is no ghost or spirit. This is no analogy. This is no This is no symbol of Jesus's victory.
21:50
Jesus is Resurrected physically This is
21:57
Emmanuel. This is God with us. This is the word that became flesh and tabernacled among us
22:04
I can't help but wonder
22:10
These women as they're grabbing at Jesus's feet and as they're worshipping him Did they smell that the myrrh and the other spices that had just been used a few hours before to anoint
22:22
Jesus's body? That Nicodemus had brought to the tomb As he was hastily prepared these smells that would normally have been
22:32
Associated with death and with burial and the funeral process Are now the ones they're smelling on the resurrected
22:39
Christ And isn't this a beautiful picture an accurate picture a fitting picture of what
22:45
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
22:58
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
23:07
This is what a gracious encounter with the Savior does and our only logical and fitting response
23:18
Is to worship with joy Finally as we see this gracious message from God in verse 10
23:30
Jesus Says to them do not be afraid Matthew uses what is called the historical present here depending on your translation.
23:41
You might see an asterisk. You might see a note If you're reading this text, it might say
23:48
Jesus said to them in the Greek Matthew's actually using the present tense of the word
23:54
Jesus says to them The historical present is used in the
24:00
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 of the historical present is to draw attention to what is happening if Matthew had had
24:20
Microsoft Word he might have used bold or italics to write what comes next I Think it's probably a blessing.
24:26
He didn't have Microsoft Word most days But the historical present is intended to draw the readers attention to what comes next
24:37
Jesus says to them and what does he say? Do not be afraid
24:44
This is why we can say that. Yes, the women were filled with joy.
24:50
They were filled with great exceeding joy They were filled with astonishment and all but they also
24:55
Were obviously filled with some amount of fear that Jesus needed to correct. He needed to remind them not to be afraid
25:07
Again what were the questions that they had? Well, maybe what if pilot found out that Jesus is alive?
25:12
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
25:24
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
25:38
To go to Galilee or tell my brethren to leave for Galilee rather and there they will see me
25:46
Why does he repeat this instruction? Could be that the the women needed to be reassured in their mission.
25:54
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 of Grace of the
26:15
Lord that he's giving the women this message a second time that by the time they get to the disciples
26:20
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
26:26
But the fact remains that for Jesus to repeat this message.
26:34
It is it is an evidence of his grace and his mercy But notice that this is not a verbatim repeat of the angels instruction.
26:44
Is it? It's not a word -for -word repeat the angels say go and tell his disciples
26:52
But Jesus says go tell my brethren These men her hold up and huddled together and they're doubtful and fearful
27:04
One of them won't believe it until they can see Jesus's wounds for himself One of them has just cut off the ear of the priest's bodyguard
27:14
Only a day or so before They scattered they fell away
27:20
After Jesus arrest and crucifixion and yet Jesus calls them brothers
27:28
This is the grace of God Grace that gave the women faith that filled them with joy that greeted them on the way
27:38
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
27:50
I will strike down the shepherd and the sheep of the flock will be scattered But after I have been raised,
27:56
I will go ahead of you to Galilee Jesus didn't just say well you failed me you scattered you abandoned me.
28:04
So never mind grace
28:12
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
28:24
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
28:40
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
28:47
I will also remove the prophets and the unclean spirit from the land Awake Oh sword against my shepherd and against the man my associate declares the
29:00
Lord of hosts Strike the shepherd that the sheep may be scattered and I will turn my hand against the little ones.
29:08
I Will come about in all the land declares the Lord that two parts in it will be cut off and perish and one
29:14
Third will be left in it And I will bring the third part through the fire
29:21
Refine them as silver is refined and test them as gold is tested They will call on my name and I will answer them.
29:29
I Will say they are my people and they will say the Lord is my
29:34
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
29:49
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?
30:05
Do you have a holy sense of God's power and his holiness? Do you have and all is the sense of all accompanied by a joy that desires to fall at the feet of Jesus and worship him
30:25
Don't don't misunderstand me commitment to truth and doctrinal truth love for doctrinal truth is absolutely important It's critical
30:35
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
30:58
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 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 abjectly foolish and sad would that be and yet if we
31:40
Know the truth. We study the truth, but we never worship in spirit and in truth we are
31:57
Missing that blessing of worshiping at the feet of Jesus Pray that God would grow you in your love for him and he would lead you to rejoice in your salvation
32:12
I'll never forget the church that Jennifer and I grew up in I was a there was a man who was who was saved
32:21
He was not he was not old, but he was he was in his 30s always was talking about the
32:31
Lord always and Worship so so wonderful to see him when and in worship and when he would talk about what the
32:39
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 Or that we would not get over being saved
32:53
That we would be a people in a church that would be awed that we would be Emotionally moved by the breath and the length and the height and the depth to experientially know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge
33:06
That we would be filled up to all the fullness of God. Are you following Christ in obedience today?
33:16
when the women encountered Jesus They were obeying what a blessed testimony that is that when
33:23
Jesus found them they were obeying him It was their faith.
33:30
Perfect. No as we've already Considered their faith was not perfect. They were fearful. They had to be reminded do not be afraid
33:37
But there was grace for them.
33:43
There is grace for you. There is thankfully grace for me When we follow
33:48
Jesus and perfectly the faithful obedience of these women was a reminder to us that we are
33:56
Called to be living and holy sacrifices acceptable and pleasing to God, which is our spiritual service of worship
34:04
That we're not to be conformed to the image of this world and we're to be continually transformed by the continual renewing of our minds
34:12
That we may prove the good and acceptable and perfect will of God If the day of the
34:22
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
34:36
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
34:57
Great Physician as The psalmist reminds us who pardons all your iniquities who heals all your diseases
35:04
Who crowns you with loving kindness and compassion who satisfies your years with good things?
35:11
That Jesus is compassionate and great and gracious. He is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love that these women
35:22
The fickle disciples who Jesus calls his brothers That he did not deal with them according to their sins
35:30
And rest assured that he if you are in Christ will not deal with you according to your sins either
35:40
That as far as the East is from the West so far has he removed your transgressions
35:46
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
35:59
You now have received mercy And indeed with the Apostle John we can say with joy
36:09
Grabbing to the feet of Jesus that we have received from the fullness of Jesus Christ grace upon grace
36:20
Lord we how do we understand?
36:27
the height And the width of breath the depth the magnitude of your love for us
36:41
Father if we Are in Christ, but our hearts have grown cold they've grown
36:49
Lukewarm, we have we pursued knowledge of you, but we have neglected experience of you
37:02
We've neglected worship of you Father would you would you forgive us?
37:09
for that neglect Would you call us to your throne of grace?
37:17
That in prayer and in the pursuit of sanctification that we would grab to the feet of our
37:23
Savior Jesus father, would you
37:32
Grow us Would you grant us grace upon grace? That we would not be afraid
37:40
That in the kingdom and the gifting that you've called us to and the
37:47
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
38:03
Savior Jesus In all of this would you be honored and glorified and in all of this would we?
38:12
Display the grace and the mercy that you continually pour out on us your needy sinful
38:22
Fickle children, would you do this again for your honor and glory?