The Resurrection in Matthew

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, �But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we�re called by the Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

Reformed Disputes, Covenant Theology, and Seminary Controversies

Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth. Abendroth is probably the way it should be pronounced, but due to the family fight generations ago, we are now the Abendroths.

By the way, if you want to listen to some messages on Hebrews, or Pastor Steve�s Sunday school classes on the London Baptist Confession of 1689, you can go to bbcchurch .org, or if you want some other Abendroth preaching, Pat has been doing a great job.

His preaching was always good. Now it�s become excellent. You can go to omahabiblechurch .org and listen to Pat preach through the Bible. He is on my iPad. I like to listen to A Vow in Grace, but Chris is not an Abendroth, although I guess he could be.

He kind of looks like one. What else? Bible preaching churches. I tweeted this a while ago, and I just thought it was kind of funny. In the midst of all the Reformed confessions and the Reformed world, isn�t it kind of funny that Bethlehem Bible Church and Omaha Bible Church sometimes are more Reformed than certain seminaries and Presbyterian churches, OPC or PCA?

I mean, PCUSA goes without saying, but OPC, PCA, EP, UNRCA, URC, I can�t think of any because I can�t think of all the different things. Did it all start back with John Murray? I love John Murray�s book, The Imputation of Adam�s Sin.

That helped me so much think federally, covenantally. That�s the word �federal�, �foetus�, �covenant. That�s why some biblicists don�t like the word �federal. Or they want to have Adam�s headship as seminal or realistic, or most of the people I know don�t want to make it Pelagian, but anyway.

Murray doesn�t want to have the covenant of works, and therefore if you�re not going to have works on the front end, do this and live, you�re going to have something else. I guess they think all covenants have to have grace.

Then you�re going to have works at the back end somehow, and then you have the door opened by John Murray, walked through by Norman Shepard, and of course now, in its public knowledge, you have Westminster Seminary, Philadelphia, and Scott Oliphant wrote a book, I think God With Us.

I have the book here somewhere, written years ago, and now there�s questions, or there have been questions, but now those questions have been made public about his view of God and covenantal properties, and does God change?

How can he change? Is he immutable? Does he change after he creates? People are all questions that are being asked, and there are some charges against him in a presbytery. I can�t remember which particular presbytery, and I think that�ll all go through the presbyterian courts and how that all works.

Scott is still employed by Westminster of Philly because the courts need to do their job fine, but Jeff Waddington, he was teaching at Westminster, and he�s let go because I think he�s the one who�s either drafted or who�s public about the charges against Scott Oliphant, and so my question to Westminster Seminary Philadelphia is, why terminate one and not terminate the other?

And if you�re going to have the courts decide, then let�s let the courts decide what Waddington is going to say as well. It doesn�t make sense to me, although I�m not Presbyterian, and these kind of things don�t make me want to be.

There�s a lot of bad things in a Baptist world, but when my Presbyterian friends say, �See, come over to our side, baptism aside then it makes me think, �Hmm. But I guess we all fall short and we all have issues, and this is true from the heart.

I only want the best for, in no particular order, Jeff Waddington, Scott Oliphant, Westminster Seminary. I want men and those organizations and institutions to honor the Lord and to do well. That�s the only thing I want.

And I certainly, full stop, new paragraph, I certainly have taught things over the years that I wish I would not have taught, right? And we learn and grow, and my attitude, I�m sure it isn�t always good, but my attitude that I want to have is, if you show me an error, then I want to correct that.

And of course, the corrections have come in kind of categories from me over the last years in terms of creeds and confessions and what has the small-c Catholic Church taught. And when I say that, I�m not talking about Roman Catholic, just the universal Church and what has she believed as the Spirit of God has moved her and guided her.

And I don�t know if it�s been pulled or not, it probably should be. 1 Corinthians 11, and while I think Jesus is the Eternal Son and I�ve taught that for a long time, I don�t think to prove my complementary view, but does Jesus submit and what does his submission look like if he does submit in eternity past, before Genesis 1?

And I think my old view is wrong. And therefore, I need to change that view and move forward and acknowledge that and move forward anyway. That�s, I mean, we�re all works in progress and I just, I don�t, my particular issue with Westminster, Philly doesn�t really stem from, you know, does Calvin put a priority on union versus justification and all that stuff and, you know, why Truman leave and variety of those things, that�s not really my real issue.

But I just think if we want to be consistent, let�s let the courts decide, then why get rid of Waddington? That�s my big thing. So, anyway. That�s just a Baptist. What does a Baptist Bible teaching, you know, Bible Church kind of guy care about that?

Well, there�s always more to the story, is there not? We talked last time, or I talked last time, about gospel as genre. And to what degree is it its own genre? Are they these theological, covenant, Klein-like, biography, narrative, theological bios type of thing?

And we just looked at that in some detail. And the reason why we did is because since today, in real time, it�s Friday before Resurrection Sunday, called Good Friday by many people. I think even on my phone, let�s see, is it on the Apple deal?

I mean, I get all the Muslim deals. Oh yeah, it says Good Friday. And is that Good Friday, is it say on my Apple, or is it say just, oh yeah, it�s under U .S. calendar, holidays. Is today a holiday? Do I get today off?

Why am I in the studio if I get today off? By the way, I was reading 1 Corinthians 15 because out of everything in the Bible that�s important, which is everything, there�s some things more important. �I deliver to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.

And therefore, we have something that�s the most important, and that is the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, the Messiah, not for his sins, but for ours. Therefore, that made me want to look at the Message Bible to see how 1 Corinthians 15, 3 and 4 is translated, if this is the most important thing in the universe, most important thing in the Bible, as of first importance.

And don�t tell me that�s just the first thing Paul talked about when he got there. Because even if you default to that, then he got there and talked about the most important thing first, right? Let�s just see what this says.

I actually hope it�s good, but my fingers might be crossed. �Friends, let me go over the message with you one final time, this message that I proclaimed and that you made your own, this message on which you took your stand and by which your life has been saved.

I�m assuming now that your belief was the real thing and not a passing fancy, that you�re in this for good and holding fast. Now we come to the verse. �The first thing I did was place before you what was placed so emphatically before me.

So he�s talking about chronological time. This is what I did for you, church, at Corinth. This is what I talked about first. The Messiah died for our sins, exactly as Scripture tells us, that he was buried and that he was raised from death on the third day, again, exactly as the Scripture says.

Well, he got the first part wrong, but the second part, I don�t have that much to say about it. All right, so we�re talking about Gospels, and I was reading the four different Gospel accounts, Good News accounts of Jesus Christ by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, because I wanted to see the different perspectives of the resurrection, because I was trying to figure out, well, how should I approach now going into my 23rd year at Bethlehem Bible Church?

I think this is my 23rd time I�ve talked about the resurrection on an Easter Sunday. I don�t think I�ve ever missed an Easter Sunday, but what am I going to talk about? I don�t need to have fresh material or new material, but I�m trying to present things from different angles and not just get up and repeat the same sermon every single Easter, although I guess, you know, I�ll keep preaching it until you get it right, or I keep preaching it until I get it right.

What kind of coffee is this? It says it�s midnight velvet. It�s supposed to be dark with some overtones of chocolate. Yuck! Yuck! I didn�t put any creamer in there, stevia or anything, because if it�s midnight velvet, I think it�s supposed to taste like midnight velvet.

Is that like a scotch? Midnight velvet. Whoa. I taste no chocolate in there. I taste no midnight, but a little bit of velvet. She wore blue velvet. Different perspectives on the resurrection. And every gospel, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, ends with the resurrection.

Now, there might be something said afterward, or it might just kind of be, you know, as is, but four different gospels have different accounts of the resurrection, all describing the literal, physical, bodily resurrection of Jesus.

But they�ve got different nuances and different emphases, and therefore I wanted to have those emphases in this show and probably the next. Just a couple of creeds to set our minds. I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, I think in what I memorized, the Apostles� Creed, was crucified, dead, and buried.

He descended into hell. The third day He rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty. From there He will come to judge the quick, or the living, and the dead.

The Nicene Creed, not at the beginning, but midway. For us and for our salvation, talking about Jesus, He came down from heaven. He became incarnate by the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and was made human.

He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate. He suffered and was buried. The third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures. He ascended to heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.

He will come again with glory to judge the living, or the quick, and the dead. His kingdom will never end. Jesus triumphs over our main enemies. Sin? Triumph. Death? Triumph. Satan? Satan? Triumph. Demonic hordes?

Triumph. Therefore, no one is like Jesus, because no one can do this, and no one has the authority to lay his life down and then take it back up again, John chapter 10. It should not surprise you to think, well, there's a different emphasis in every one of the Gospels.

If Matthew is written specifically with a tie-in to the Old Testament Scriptures, or more than the others, as Jesus the King of Israel, and Mark talking about Jesus as servant, Luke, Jesus is perfectly man, and John, Jesus is perfectly God.

I mean, there's a mixture, of course, of all those four things in the four, but you can look at the genealogy pedigree in chapter 1 and following of Matthew. You can look at the lack thereof, as the servant doesn't really have the genealogy in Mark.

You can see the human genealogy in Luke's early chapters, and you can see the divine genealogy in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God in John chapter 1, verse 1 and following.

It shouldn't surprise you that there's going to be a different emphasis at the end. There's a different emphasis at the beginning, and throughout, and of course, at the end. That even begs another question, why did God give us four different Gospels?

Could He not have just given us one? Of course, yes, but now we have a full picture of Christ, more information, more data, with different backgrounds and personalities that the Lord has used to have these written, and whether that's from a physician's standpoint or a cousin of Barnabas, which Mark was, with a kind of a Gentile audience, or you've got Matthew writing to a Hebrew audience, and Jesus as the promised King, the Son of God, who sits on a throne.

Those three Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, we call synoptic Gospels. They're very similar, they're the same, and given the narrative of Jesus, and then you've got a different one. Those are similar, but the one that's different is the Gospel of John.

Anyway, all accounts are correct and accurate, but just different aspects of the ministry of the Lord Jesus. So what we're going to do is take some Midnight Velvet, okay, let's see how it is. Of course, Spencer always edits these things out when I'm talking and speaking, speaking of which, I'm going to have to do that another day.

Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, we're going to look at each of these four Gospel accounts and the resurrection of Jesus in these accounts, because then there's going to be a different response based on what Gospel narrative you're reading.

Of course, my motivation is to show you the differences, and if there was an ultimate response to this information, it would be believe. If you're not a Christian, that you would believe. If you are a Christian, that you would keep believing, and that you would believe that this is very important, of first importance, and that you would respond to the differences in a way that would be commensurate with what's written, right?

So therefore, the first one, Matthew, the end of Matthew, you're going to see, and I'll just tell you ahead of time so you know where we're going, you're going to see the resurrection, and then you're going to see the Great Commission.

Matthew’s Resurrection Account and the Great Commission

Therefore, point number one out of these four Gospels, every Gospel's going to have a point, Matthew's point tied in with the resurrection is commissioning. We're going to try to be a Baptist, we're all going to start with C, so I had to kind of reverse one, but that's because I'm a Baptist, and if you want alliteration, there's at least one that you can't figure out, and you're going to have to jam it in somehow.

I'd rather jam the alliterated word in as an outline point, than change the passage to make it fit my outline. See where I'm going with that? See what I mean? I have the solar pope standing there just doing all that.

But I know everyone's talked about it by now, and this is probably going to be late, but after being at Notre Dame, I don't know how many times I have been there, I guess only twice in my life. I am sad for the destruction of property, even religious property, of a system that I think is apostate.

If there was a Hindu shrine that was ornate and fabulous, I would not want that to see, I would not want to see that burned down. You know, some 700-year-old piece of history, some Muslim site or something, I don't want to see burned down.

There's a lot of history in these things, and of course when you walk in to the building, Notre Dame, you'll see all kinds of things. I just took the family in there, and again, I think the Roman Catholic Church is obviously preaching Galatians, one different gospel.

But I always enjoyed going in to Notre Dame, because I could see the different things that they had, and all the stuff for Mary, and after all, it's entitled Our Lady, right? And you can just see, without even understanding any of the language, what the emphasis was.

And of course, when I think of buildings, Protestant buildings, you know, for us it's not a building, the church, it's the people. Anyway, that was kind of sad when I saw that whole thing. I thought the whole thing was going to be just gone.

Anyway, I'll let other people get in trouble about selling indulgences like they were talking about on Presbycast. I think they were, didn't you do that, Brad? About will they elicit indulgences to rebuild it?

But I think it's over a billion dollars already committed to rebuild that. Anyway, just in my mind, just flashing through my mind. Matthew commissioning. Let me read the earlier section of Matthew about the resurrection, and then let's look at the commission.

Now, after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went 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 and sat on it.

His appearance was like lightning and his clothing white as snow. And for fear of him, the guards trembled and became like dead men. But the angel said to the women, Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who is crucified.

He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead. And behold, he is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him.

See, I have told you. So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy and ran to tell the disciples. And behold, Jesus met them and said, Greetings. They came up and they took hold of his feet and worshiped him.

Then Jesus said to them, Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me. While they were going, behold, some of the guard went into the city and told the chief priest all that had taken place.

And when they had assembled with the elders and taken counsel, they gave a sufficient sum of money to the soldiers and said, Tell people, his disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep.

If this comes to our governor's ears, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble. So they took the money and did as they were directed. And this story has spread among the Jews to this day. And there we have the account of Matthew, of the resurrected Jesus and how he appeared.

So Jesus dies as a substitute. He had lived as a representative, the last Adam, and he has been raised from the dead. The Spirit of God, it says in 1 Timothy 3, vindicated the ministry of Jesus. And now we know what he said was true.

The Father accepted the sacrifice and raised him from the dead. And the Son, because he is also God, raised himself. We have a tri—depending on what account of the gospel you look at, there's a different emphasis.

But if you want to take it systematically, the Father raised the Son, the Son raised the Son, and the Spirit raised the Son. One God, three persons. And this was to fulfill what the Scripture has taught, yes, to confirm, to vindicate, and all those other things.

And now we have the King, Jesus, the great Davidic King, giving an exhortation to those in light of the resurrection. And that's what we want to focus on today, because it's right for you to hear and good for you to obey as well.

Now the 11 disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And here we have the gospel of the mountain, as some call Matthew, right? The Sermon on the Mount, the Mount of Transfiguration, the Mount of Olives, Olivet Discourse.

And lots of times you'll see mountain, and there's going to be revelation from God, communion with God on those mountains, quiet, serene, getaway in the Galilean mountains. And when they saw them, they worshiped him.

But some doubted. On their faces they went. And we'll talk about that doubting one in a little bit. But they didn't doubt for long. That's the point. And Jesus came and said to them, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

The Father has given this great Son all this power. By the way, who talks like this? What sane man would ever say this? What man in his right mind might say this? All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.

That's pretty crazy. And here comes the commission in light of that. On heaven, on earth, go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, singular name, the Father, and of the Son, and of the Spirit, and of the, excuse me, of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Singular name, but three persons, teaching them to observe all that I've commanded you. And behold, I'm with you always, even to the end of the age. When we look at the different Gospels, there are different emphases and responses in light of this truth.

Right revelation demands response. And here, the revelation that Jesus Christ has been raised from the dead should not just be worship, but also to go tell other people. And that's something that's incumbent upon you to go tell other people about the Lord Jesus, to talk about guilt, grace, and gratitude, sin, and the Savior, and salvation, however you want to summarize it, a righteousness that they don't have, but a righteousness that God requires that God also grants through the personal work of Jesus.

God bless you. No Compromise Radio, with Pastor Mike Abendroth, is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church, firmly committed to unleashing the life-transforming power of God's Word through verse-by-verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbcchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.