Easter - the resurrected Saviour.
Matthew 27:57-28:20
During the last few weeks we studied about the cross and what it meant to us.
The scriptures tell us that on the first Good Friday darkness came over the land from the sixth hour until the ninth hour or from about noon to three pm. The earth itself was mourning and protesting the death of its Creator and you have the great symbolism of the Light of the world being extinguished and the world being plunged into darkness. It was also a dark day for the disciples and for the early followers of Christ. All that they had sacrificed, all that they had lived for, all that they had believed was seemingly gone. They had identified themselves with this man, whom they were convinced was the Messiah, only to see Him die in the worst possible way He hadn’t even defended Himself!
They took this death as a sign that He was not who He had claimed to be and all of them had fled and abandoned Christ and turned away whether by their words, or their actions. They thought it was over.
Jesus spent much of His last days teaching these men that this would happen. He taught them that He would suffer, He taught them that He would die, but He always linked it with a triumphal resurrection. He always included that He would rise from the grave and that He would be the conquering Son of God who would provide victory!
Jesus had made sure that His disciples would be ready. But because of the way that He died, the disciples lost hope. All of that talk of rebuilding the temple in three days was thrown out of the window. They forgot what it was that Christ had taught them. Remember, these are the men that God chose to change the world through, these are the men who knew Jesus better than any other men on Earth, these were the ones who had been taught and trained and invested in for three years, and yet they now were so sure of defeat that they went away.
Today I want to look at the last chapter and a half of the book of Matthew. I want to pull out the facts and offer proof that Jesus Christ has risen indeed!
Let’s begin by looking at:
I. The Facts
There are certain things that we know, they are not in question. These are documented not only by the historical record of the Bible, but by every other reliable book of history that we have. These are facts that were accepted by all at that time, even those who opposed everything that Christ stood for and did.
A. Christ Died on that Cross.
The death of Christ was never in question. There are some today who try to explain away the post resurrection appearances by saying that Christ never really died on that cross. We know that He died for several reasons.
1) The Romans were Experts
The Romans had perfected the art of torture and crucifixion. They crucified hundreds of thousands of people during the years of their empire. They knew what they were doing. So, when the soldiers came to Christ in order to break His legs and found that He was already dead, you can be sure that they knew what death looked like.
2) Pilate Made Sure
Read Matt. 57-61. Here you have the account of what happened with Jesus’ body after He had hung on the cross and had given up His Spirit. The normal protocol for a crucifixion would have called for the body to hang there for several days. The Romans wanted a visual reminder to the people of who was in charge and what the consequences were for stepping out of line. So, in order for Joseph to get the body, He would have to ask permission from Pilate. Mark 15:42-47 tells us that Joseph is a prominent member of the Sanhedrin, the very body that had sentenced Jesus to death. Joseph would have been alienating himself from other Jews and aligning Himself with Christ. This was a man who was going to stick by Christ even when the disciples wouldn’t.
When Joseph asks for the Body, Mark tells us that Pilate is surprised and sends someone to make sure. So, we know He was dead because careful examination was made of the body.
3) He was handled in preparation for burial
Mark also tells us that the body was wrapped in a linen cloth by Joseph and John 19:38-42 tell us that Nicodemus was also there helping. They would have been moving the body about in such a way that if there was any life left it would have become obvious. Christ was dead, that’s a fact.
B. Christ was Buried in that Tomb
In Matt 27 verse 61 we’re told that Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were watching the burial of Christ. As the stone is rolled into place, these women are sitting there watching. Verse 1 of chapter 28 tells us that these same women were on their way to look at the tomb on Sunday morning. They were witnesses, we have their testimony that Christ was placed in the tomb of Joseph. But there’s more:
Read 62-66
The Pharisees were concerned that the disciples would try and steal the Body and that this deception would be worse than the first. They had taken care of the first deception, that Jesus claimed to be the Messiah, by killing Him. If the Body was taken then the disciples would point to Him as the risen Son of God and all their hard work of disposing of the threat would be undone. They had a guard placed in front of the tomb and they sealed the stone. The Pharisees were careful, before they sealed the stone, they would have made sure that it contained the Body of Jesus. So, we know that He was buried in the tomb of Joseph and that it was under a guard.
According to Matthew's version, the chief priests and Pharisees ask Pilate for a guard to secure the tomb to prevent the disciples from stealing the body and thus 'fulfilling' Jesus' prediction of rising on the third day. Pilate says, 'Take a guard ; make it as secure as you can.' It is not clear if this means that Pilate gave them a Roman guard or told them to use their own temple guards.. The fact that the guards return to the chief priests is evidence that a Jewish guard is intended It is also unlikely that Roman guards would agree to spread a story for which they could be executed (execution was the punishment for Roman soldiers who fell asleep on watch) The mention of the governor in 28:.14 might indicate a Roman guard, but then it would not be clear how the High Priest could do anything to keep them out of trouble. Matt: 27: 62-67 ) Indeed, if these were Pilate’s soldiers, they would have secured the tomb and put on the Roman seal, not the seal of the Jews (Mt 27:65 ) Pilate tells the Jewish leaders to “Go, make it as secure as you know how. It seems, then, that the Jews were not requesting Pilate’s soldiers, but rather his permission to set up their own guard at the tomb (just as Joseph needed permission from Pilate to obtain and bury the body of Jesus—Mt 27:57-58.)
The third fact that we know is that:
C. That Tomb was Empty
The guards saw it, the women saw it, the disciples saw it. The tomb that Jesus was laid to rest in, was occupied no more. Those are the facts, they don’t change. Since that day, men have been forced to decide how they’ll interpret those facts. When the truth is not something that you want to accept, it’s amazing what stories you can come up with.. With the empty tomb, the truth was devastating to the Pharisees.
See, there is one of two possible explanations, either the empty tomb was of
(a)divine origins, or
(b) it was of human origins.
The Pharisees knew that the truth had to be explained away or they were in big trouble and so a lie was invented to make the empty tomb a work of men, not God.
II. The Human Theories
There have been multiple theories that have been presented by men to explain the resurrection. If you can prove that the empty tomb was a result of the work of men, Christianity crumbles.
And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. 1 Corinthians 15:17
From the swoon theory that says Jesus never really died, to the wrong tomb theory that says that everyone, including the owner of the tomb simply forgot where Jesus was buried, each theory has major holes in it and can be refuted with the facts that we’ve just looked at. The major theory that was put forth that day, the cover up by the Pharisees and chief priests that continues to be used by many skeptics today is:
A. The Theft Theory
This theory says that Christ’s body was stolen by one of three groups: The disciples, the Jews, or the Romans.
Let’s deal with the Romans and the Jews first because these are the simplest to refute. The Romans would not have taken the body because the very reason that Pilate crucified Jesus was to keep the peace. The missing body stirred up all sorts of trouble and problems in Jerusalem. If the Romans had the body, they would have produced it and ended the matter immediately. The same is true for the Jews. As soon as the disciples began preaching the resurrected Christ and Jews began turning away from tradition and entering into a relationship with Christ, the Jews would have said, " hold it, we have the body, it’s right here" and the matter would have been put to rest.
The most popular belief was that the disciples had taken the body.
Read 28:11-15
The guards knew that the empty tomb meant that they were responsible and that they would fall into trouble if they were allowed the body to be stolen, so they approached the chief priests .. The Chief Priests were faced with their worst nightmare, the tomb that they had under guard to contain the Body of Christ was empty. They had to think fast. The Chief priests paid them and promised to protect them if they would spread a lie about what had happened. The problem with the story is that
A) if they were sleeping, they would not have known who took the body, and
B) the disciples could not have pulled off a theft like this.
The disciples would have had to overpower the guards (whose own testimony refuted that that took place) to even have a chance to get into the tomb. 11 ordinary men would never have stood a chance against these guards. If they could have gotten in, they would have grabbed the body and bolted. Instead, the grave clothes were laid neatly in the grave where they had been. They wouldn’t have wasted time with the graves clothes, they would have been in a hurry to leave. Also, we see how brave they are when each one flees and deserts Christ. This is a group who has been humiliated and they are depressed, and defeated.
Their actions show that they believed it was over and being good Jews, they would have wanted the body of Christ to rest and would not have defiled it or themselves by moving it. There is also the fact that they still didn’t understand Christ’s teaching about Himself, the fact that He would rise.
In John 20:3-9 when Peter and John went to the tomb and saw that it was empty, John says that they still didn’t understand that He had risen. The disciples were just as confused by the empty tomb as the chief priests.
Mary didn’t know what was happening either. She was crying outside the tomb because she thought that someone had taken the body, if the disciples were involved, she would have known. As she cried, Jesus appeared to her and then she understood that the empty tomb was not a work of any man. She knew that it must have been a work of God and Christ indeed rose from the dead as He said He would. No one moved the body, the Romans and Jews had no reason to and the disciples lacked the means to.
III. The Divine Proofs
A. The Angel – Just as His birth was announced by angels, an angel was there to proclaim the Good News of His resurrection. Read Matt. 28:2-7. God did not want any mistake in understanding what had happened and by what power and authority it had been done. So, He sent His angel as proof to the Truth and to comfort and explain that Jesus’ teaching was being fulfilled.
B. The Eye Witnesses
Another proof that Jesus did indeed rise is the number of witnesses to His bodily resurrection. If I tell you that I saw something happen, you might believe me. If I tell you and then two other people tell you the same thing, you’re more likely going to believe it. If a huge group says they saw the same thing, you’re going to be convinced. Jesus appeared to many people and they gave eyewitness accounts of what happened that are documented in Scripture and in the books of history of that time.
1CO 15:3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. 6 After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, 8 and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.
The resurrection appearances are a historically documented fact. The eyewitnesses were there and they were able to testify to the Truth that Jesus is alive. They taught and proclaimed that they had seen the risen Christ.
Another proof is the:
C. The Changed Lives
There is nothing that could have taken a group of cowards and weak willed individuals and turned them into the world changers that we read about in Acts other than a bodily resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. They endured prison, beatings, ridicule, poverty, and all but one met a violent death. All of that could have been avoided if they had stopped preaching, but they had seen proof that Jesus was the Son of God because they had seen the Risen Savior. Their lives now had meaning and purpose and it’s the change that we see in these men that is one of the most convincing proofs of the resurrection. People don’t die for what they are not convinced in their mind as true. Seeing Christ again forever changed these men and through them, the world was changed.
D. Christ in Us!
Finally, the most personal proof of the resurrection is the reality of what the resurrection means to us. The proof is in the change that only a resurrected and living Christ could make in our lives. It’s a rebirth:
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead 1Peter 1:3
It’s also the reality that the risen Savior that dwells in our hearts.
Col 1:27 To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
You ask me how I know He lives, He lives within my heart. I can have the head knowledge of these other convincing proofs but I can also testify to the resurrection through the relationship that I now enjoy with the living Christ in my life. The Light of the World, is the light that shines in me.
As we close the book of Matthew and as He left the disciples, He commanded that they take His Good News to the ends of the Earth.
18 Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go (literally means while you are going, whatever you are doing, use it for God) and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." Matt. 28:18-20.
In death the punishment for our sins had been paid, but it was in the resurrection that the victory was truly won. By conquering death, the sacrifice became eternal, once for all. It was no longer necessary to continually sacrifice to pay for our sins, it was done.
Heb 9:25 Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. 26 Then Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. 27 Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, 28 so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.
The resurrection completed the perfect sacrifice and proved beyond all doubt the power and the authority and the identity of this Jesus. In conquering death, the Son of God was shown to be all that He had claimed to be.
The disciples had failed Jesus once, they had experienced the agony of shattered dreams. But then they saw Jesus. They had seen Him die and yet here He was again in their midst. It was this truth and reality that drove them to carry that light, the message of the empty tomb, and to become a light themselves to point others towards the Christ that they loved. The cross was the reason Christ came, but without the resurrection that death would have been a waste. It’s in the sacrificial death and the resurrection of our Lord that we find hope, purpose, forgiveness, and the salvation of our souls. This is the greatest Story ever told. I hope that as you hear it and as you share it, that it never grows old for you but that you are always filled with wonder and awe at the love of God and the sacrifice that He made for you. This is what sets Christianity apart from any other religion or belief, it is the cross and the empty tomb .
The tomb of Jesus Christ is empty, the stone has been rolled away and the angel has proclaimed: He is not here! He is risen just as He said! Go and tell others.
This is the Good News of the Gospel.
