SPEAKER_01: This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
SPEAKER_00: Good morning and welcome again.
SPEAKER_00: Please take your Bible with me to the Gospel of Matthew.
SPEAKER_00: Gospel of Matthew in chapter 27.
SPEAKER_00: I've been asked by a couple of folks in the last two weeks or so what we're going to do when we get to Easter, since we're already finishing up Matthew and talking about the crucifixion.
SPEAKER_00: And this morning, our text is the resurrection account.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm not going to tell you yet what we're going to do for Easter, but we're going to be back in Matthew for part of the Easter season.
SPEAKER_00: But I want to wait for the resurrection itself, the resurrection elements for Easter, since that's just about a month from now.
SPEAKER_00: So that gives us an opportunity to consider these sections of Scripture that we often read wholly and primarily and properly about the person of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: It gives us an opportunity to look at them a little bit differently.
SPEAKER_00: But as we look at them a little bit differently, it's a challenge for us.
SPEAKER_00: It's a challenge for us because we are put into a place of having to identify with some individuals in these texts.
SPEAKER_00: I want to look at the final moments of the crucifixion this morning.
SPEAKER_00: And then Matthew's account of the burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And as we approach these parts of the gospel accounts, the primary focus is on Jesus, and that's entirely appropriate, because the gospels are his biography.
SPEAKER_00: But there's a tremendous richness that sits in the background.
SPEAKER_00: That means that there are elements of the story that aren't the primary focus, but are still necessary because they support the reality of the death and resurrection of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: This morning I want to consider the supporting elements of that reality.
SPEAKER_00: It's a different way of thinking, but I trust it will be fruitful because what we find here are contrasts in individuals and contrasts in some groups of people.
SPEAKER_00: Our difficulty is going to be in identifying ourselves with one of those contrasts.
SPEAKER_00: Where do I fit in the background story of Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Because even today, as we're going to find out next week, Jesus is what it's about.
SPEAKER_00: We have a great commission.
SPEAKER_00: We are commanded to go and to make disciples, to follow Christ.
SPEAKER_00: It's about him, but we have a part in that.
SPEAKER_00: We are in the background.
SPEAKER_00: So too in the crucifixion and resurrection narrative.
SPEAKER_00: Where do I fit?
SPEAKER_00: Would you look at the text with me?
SPEAKER_00: Matthew chapter 27.
SPEAKER_00: Begin reading in verse 55, and we're going to go all the way through chapter 28, verse 15.
SPEAKER_00: Again, Matthew 27, beginning in verse 55.
SPEAKER_00: There were also many women there.
SPEAKER_00: Where is there?
SPEAKER_00: We're at the cross.
SPEAKER_00: We're at the location where the three individuals are hanging on the crosses, and one of them, the Lord Jesus, has already given up his spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And these women are looking on from a distance, Matthew says.
SPEAKER_00: They had followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to him.
SPEAKER_00: Among whom were Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of James, and Joseph and the mother of the sons of Zebedee.
SPEAKER_00: When it was evening there came a rich man from Arimathea named Joseph, who was also a disciple of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Then Pilate ordered it to be given to him.
SPEAKER_00: And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen shroud, and he laid it in his own new tomb, which he had cut in the rock.
SPEAKER_00: And he rolled a great stone to the entrance of the tomb and went away.
SPEAKER_00: Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there, sitting opposite the tomb.
SPEAKER_00: The next day, that is, after the day of preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate and said, Sir, we remember how that imposter, that deceiver, said while he was still alive, After three days I will rise.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, order the tomb to be made secure until the third day, lest his disciples go and steal him away and tell the people, He's risen from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: And the last fraud will be worse than the first.
SPEAKER_00: Pilate said to them, You have a guard of soldiers, go, make it as secure as you can.
SPEAKER_00: So they went and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone and setting a guard.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow.
SPEAKER_00: And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men.
SPEAKER_00: But the angel said to the women, Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified.
SPEAKER_00: He's not here, for he is risen, as he said.
SPEAKER_00: Come, see the place where he lay.
SPEAKER_00: Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead, and behold, he is going before you to Galilee, and there you will see him.
SPEAKER_00: See, I've told you.
SPEAKER_00: So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy and ran to tell his disciples.
SPEAKER_00: And behold, Jesus met them and said, Hi.
SPEAKER_00: And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshipped him.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said to them, Don't be afraid.
SPEAKER_00: Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.
SPEAKER_00: While they were going, behold, some of the guard went into the city and told the chief priests all that had taken place.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: And if this comes to the governor's ears, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.
SPEAKER_00: So they took the money and did as they were directed, and this story has been spread among the Jews to this day.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: The section contains three contrasts that provide insight into the disciples, into God's plan, and our following after Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We observe the first contrast at the foot of the cross.
SPEAKER_00: It's a contrast between distressed discipleship and deliberate discipleship.
SPEAKER_00: The distressed are women.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew tells us that there are a handful of disciples standing in the area of the crucifixion, standing back a ways at a distance of some kind, and we see nothing else but that.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, he does tell us that they had followed Jesus and ministered to him.
SPEAKER_00: They'd followed him all the way from Galilee.
SPEAKER_00: That tells us that these ladies are committed to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: They have followed him from Galilee to Jerusalem, probably anywhere between 75 and 100 miles on foot.
SPEAKER_00: Among the most committed are Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee.
SPEAKER_00: John tells us in his gospel that Mary, Jesus' mother, was there as well.
SPEAKER_00: These women have served Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That's what verse 55 says.
SPEAKER_00: They ministered to him.
SPEAKER_00: They deaconed to him, they served him.
SPEAKER_00: But here at the cross, they cannot help him.
SPEAKER_00: They've traveled with him many days, many weeks, many years.
SPEAKER_00: Now they have to stand at a distance and they cannot help him.
SPEAKER_00: They hear the mocking of the passers by, but they cannot speak.
SPEAKER_00: They hear the Lord's loud cries over the hours on the cross, and they huddle together against the strange darkness that comes upon the land.
SPEAKER_00: And if you put yourselves in their shoes, you can feel their distress.
SPEAKER_00: It's like a mother who gives all she can to care for her children, and then the moment comes when she is powerless to provide any kind of assistance, and these women are now powerless to help their Lord.
SPEAKER_00: But if we look carefully, there are others who are distressed as well.
SPEAKER_00: Who is not here?
SPEAKER_00: Who is absent from this picture?
SPEAKER_00: Who ought to be present but are strangely absent.
SPEAKER_00: Sorry, guys.
SPEAKER_00: The men aren't here.
SPEAKER_00: The men are absent.
SPEAKER_00: The bold and courageous disciples who would give their lives for Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Peter, who says, I would die for you, are nowhere to be seen.
SPEAKER_00: It's the women who are standing there desperately wanting to help Jesus in the last moment.
SPEAKER_00: I suggest that the twelve disciples, sorry, eleven disciples, are also distressed, at this point in time, hampered by their inability to do anything for the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: In their minds, they've failed him.
SPEAKER_00: The boisterous boldness of the disciples lends an eerie silence here at the cross.
SPEAKER_00: While the quiet strength of the women present with Jesus speaks loudly.
SPEAKER_00: Ladies, if I can speak to you for a moment.
SPEAKER_00: Never think that your faith is too weak.
SPEAKER_00: Never think that your service is unnecessary or that you have no place among the Lord's disciples.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew's emphasis on women here becomes even louder when you consider his narrative in light of the cultural customs of the day.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew presents women as the key witnesses to the death and resurrection of Jesus in a day when women were not allowed to be witnesses.
SPEAKER_00: Here, Matthew places only women at the cross.
SPEAKER_00: They are the only ones strong enough, convinced enough, supportive enough to be there with the Lord Jesus at the end.
SPEAKER_00: They are the only disciple witnesses to be present in the final moments of the Lord's death.
SPEAKER_00: But in all of that, they're distressed.
SPEAKER_00: They are servants who cannot serve.
SPEAKER_00: They are helpers who cannot help.
SPEAKER_00: They are comforters who cannot comfort.
SPEAKER_00: They are a strength to Jesus who are weak.
SPEAKER_00: Contrast to that, to that distressed discipleship is a man from Arimathea who demonstrates deliberate discipleship.
SPEAKER_00: Joseph of Arimathea, we don't know much about him at all.
SPEAKER_00: He shows up here at the end of the gospel accounts and then he sort of disappears from history.
SPEAKER_00: It was difficult for Joseph to be a disciple.
SPEAKER_00: Probably the most difficult element in being a disciple was that he was rich.
SPEAKER_00: He was wealthy, he had bank accounts, he had resources, he had position, authority, influence.
SPEAKER_00: Do you remember what Jesus said about the rich in the Gospel of Matthew?
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to remember, I'll tell you.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew 13, verse 22, Jesus says, As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word of God, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches, choke it out, and it proves unfruitful.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, Jesus said in the sower who sows seed in all different kinds of ground, he says there's a there's a certain kind of ground that is hard for the seed to grow in.
SPEAKER_00: And what chokes it out, Jesus says, is is the ease of life that comes with riches, with wealth, with ease.
SPEAKER_00: But then again, Jesus says in chapter 19, verse 23, Jesus said to his disciples, I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: And again, he says, it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: And do you remember the disciples' response to that?
SPEAKER_00: They said, then who can be saved?
SPEAKER_00: Because in their minds, God would obviously want the rich people in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: And so if it's so hard for them, then who can be saved?
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said, Well, you know, with human beings, there are a lot of things that are impossible.
SPEAKER_00: But with God, all things are possible.
SPEAKER_00: So when Matthew tells us in verse 57 that when evening came, there came a rich man from Arimathea named Joseph, who was a disciple of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That is a highly significant statement.
SPEAKER_00: It's difficult for someone to cast aside trust in wealth for trust in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: But with God all things are possible.
SPEAKER_00: So Joseph is here a rich man who sacrificed to honor Jesus with his effort, with his labor, even with his own possessions, and perhaps most intimately with his care.
SPEAKER_00: And he appears to do all of this alone.
SPEAKER_00: By himself.
SPEAKER_00: That was a duty for men.
SPEAKER_00: But there are no disciples lending a hand as Joseph apparently removed the spikes from the Lord's hands and ankles.
SPEAKER_00: There are no disciples as Joseph carries God's earthly vessel to the tomb.
SPEAKER_00: There are no disciples as Joseph cleans and preps and wraps the Lord's body for burial.
SPEAKER_00: And he's a member of the council.
SPEAKER_00: He's either a Sadducee or a Pharisee.
SPEAKER_00: But at the end of verse 57, we're told he was a disciple of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He's a disciple of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: This is fascinating.
SPEAKER_00: Here is a prominent, influential, wealthy individual who, contrary to the norm, out of the unusual, or out of the usual, is a disciple.
SPEAKER_00: What do we make of that?
SPEAKER_00: Well, as we mentioned before, grammar is sometimes significant in the scriptures for understanding what's happening.
SPEAKER_00: It's similar here.
SPEAKER_00: When Matthew says he was a disciple, he doesn't say it in a way that says that Joseph chose to follow Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He says it in a way that says, Joseph was made to be a disciple.
SPEAKER_00: You know, we we tend to emphasize the individual choice in following Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That is, I believe in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I have come to believe that he is the Son of God who died on the cross, who was buried, and who rose again.
SPEAKER_00: And so I believe in him, and so I've chosen to follow him.
SPEAKER_00: And there's nothing wrong with those assertions.
SPEAKER_00: We are commanded to believe.
SPEAKER_00: We are commanded to follow.
SPEAKER_00: We are commanded to take up our cross and follow after him.
SPEAKER_00: But there's another side to the biblical coin of discipleship, and that is the work of God, the divine work of invading our lives while we are on the broad road to destruction.
SPEAKER_00: And God steps in and graciously, mercifully, and savingly turns us in another direction.
SPEAKER_00: He puts us on another path, on the narrow path to life found in faith through following the Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the way Matthew writes his account.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Here's Joseph.
SPEAKER_00: He's a Pharisee or a Sadducee, which automatically puts him in the wrong camp for discipleship.
SPEAKER_00: And not only that, he's a rich guy.
SPEAKER_00: And if we're thinking along with Matthew, we know that this rich guy is not likely to be a disciple.
SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus has said it's push a camel through the eye of a needle.
SPEAKER_00: Even if it's a really big needle, that's going to be a really hard thing.
SPEAKER_00: But with God, all things are possible.
SPEAKER_00: Because when God steps into an individual's life and says, You're no longer walking on the broad path to destruction.
SPEAKER_00: I'm turning you to the narrow road.
SPEAKER_00: The impossible now becomes possible.
SPEAKER_00: So this is deliberate discipleship, not because Joseph decided to follow Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He did.
SPEAKER_00: That's a part of it, it's the human part.
SPEAKER_00: But what Matthew emphasizes that this is deliberate because God decided to do the impossible in a rich man's heart.
SPEAKER_00: So there are contrasts here.
SPEAKER_00: At the cross and at the tomb, there's distress, there's sorrow, there's agony.
SPEAKER_00: But we also see this glimpse of deliberate discipleship when God steps into someone's life and turns it around.
SPEAKER_00: Then we move from distressed and deliberate to the second contrast.
SPEAKER_00: The first contrast is on Friday.
SPEAKER_00: The second contrast appears on silent Saturday and sunny Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: Contrast number two is a group driven by disdain.
SPEAKER_00: And then a picture of devotion.
SPEAKER_00: The chief priests and the Pharisees, that's the council, on Saturday, the day of after the day of preparation.
SPEAKER_00: They gather before Pilate.
SPEAKER_00: Now, the chief priests and Pharisees, you remember, have refused to believe in Jesus as the Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: They've refused to believe his word.
SPEAKER_00: They've refused to believe anything that he's done, his miraculous signs.
SPEAKER_00: They've disdained everything about him, including his disciples.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, where's Joseph?
SPEAKER_00: Where's Joseph on Saturday?
SPEAKER_00: Joseph is a member of the council.
SPEAKER_00: On Friday evening, he's burying Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Where is he on Saturday?
SPEAKER_00: We don't know that.
SPEAKER_00: But we do know that Joseph demonstrates for us that true disciples follow Jesus to the end, making their discipleship abundantly clear.
SPEAKER_00: And the opposite then is also true.
SPEAKER_00: Those who despise the Lord and disdain his followers, they display their lack of allegiance.
SPEAKER_00: And here, the council members believed Jesus was some kind of messianic imposter.
SPEAKER_00: They use a word that means a deceiver.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody who is not only false himself, but leads people to believe and to follow something that is false.
SPEAKER_00: Rather than seeing Jesus leading people down the right path, they claim he deceived people and led them down the wrong path.
SPEAKER_00: And their unbelief is couched in terms of, oh, we're just concerned for our people.
SPEAKER_00: We're trying to protect the people.
SPEAKER_00: We don't want them to be deceived.
SPEAKER_00: They claim that they want to protect the people from fraud.
SPEAKER_00: We don't want people to be hearing, oh, he's risen from the dead in verse 64, and the last fraud will be worse than the first.
SPEAKER_00: Do you see the pictures that are happening?
SPEAKER_00: We have distress and sorrow and grief, and we have commitment and care and deliberate discipleship.
SPEAKER_00: And the complete opposite of that is looking at all of that and saying, that's all fraudulent.
SPEAKER_00: That's all deceptive.
SPEAKER_00: The irony is that the leaders of Israel were themselves deceiving people.
SPEAKER_00: We'll look at that in a moment, but Pilate first grants the Jewish leaders a group of soldiers who would guard the tomb against deception by theft.
SPEAKER_00: See, the leaders of Israel are concerned.
SPEAKER_00: They're concerned about Jesus' followers, the disciples.
SPEAKER_00: If they're committed enough to follow Jesus to the end, then they're probably going to be committed enough to open up the tomb and take his body and make it look like he actually rose from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: So there's distrust and disdain, not just for Jesus, but for Jesus' followers.
SPEAKER_00: And friends, that's always going to be a part of your world.
SPEAKER_00: We will face the same kinds of things today.
SPEAKER_00: We will face unbelief, we will face disdain, as though we promote deception in the name of religion and faith and hope.
SPEAKER_00: Pilate's order here is intriguing.
SPEAKER_00: He says, make it as secure as you can.
SPEAKER_00: Make it as secure as you can.
SPEAKER_00: Literally, it says, as secure as you know how to.
SPEAKER_00: So you're going to have a rock wall and you're going to have a hole cut in that rock face that leads into a cave.
SPEAKER_00: And in that cave there are going to be ledges upon which to lay out bodies, and then you're going to roll that stone over the entrance to the tomb.
SPEAKER_00: And so however you know how to make that secure, make it as secure as you can, and you have a guard of soldiers at your disposal to help with that.
SPEAKER_00: They were given the authority to make a tomb a maximum security prison.
SPEAKER_00: There would be no getting in and no getting out.
SPEAKER_00: Such is the level of disdain and unbelief towards the Lord Jesus and the disciples.
SPEAKER_00: But there are some women at the cross, we've already seen our stark contrast to that.
SPEAKER_00: And unlike these rulers of the Jewish people, the distressed women at the cross show their devotion to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: In chapter 28, we begin to see that on sunny Sunday, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, they are already moving towards the garden.
SPEAKER_00: They're going to the garden where the tomb is located.
SPEAKER_00: And this begins a theme in this section on seeing.
SPEAKER_00: We see this concept of seeing in verse 1, in verse 6, in verse 7, in verse 10.
SPEAKER_00: Toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb.
SPEAKER_00: In our culture, the equivalent would be returning to the cemetery on Sunday morning after the burial on Friday afternoon.
SPEAKER_00: We would drive into the cemetery, to the area where our loved one was buried just a few days ago, and we'd park the car and get out of the car and walk to the to the foot of the dirt covering the casket.
SPEAKER_00: We'd be standing there and looking at the ground and why would we do that?
SPEAKER_00: Some of you know why you would do that.
SPEAKER_00: You've experienced that.
SPEAKER_00: Sadness and grief would motivate you, perhaps.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe a maybe a sense of of longing to possible connect.
SPEAKER_00: One more time.
SPEAKER_00: Through memory, through emotion.
SPEAKER_00: But Matthew tells us they went to see the tomb.
SPEAKER_00: And Matthew says they they went to see the tomb.
SPEAKER_00: What would they expect to see?
SPEAKER_00: A rock wall with a large round stone placed in a channel cut in the rock?
SPEAKER_00: That's the last thing they saw on Friday.
SPEAKER_00: They were there, sitting opposite the tomb, watching as Joseph cared for the body of Jesus and took him inside that hole and inside the cavern and probably laid him out on a ledge cut in the rock wall, and they saw Joseph roll the stone across the opening.
SPEAKER_00: They saw that, and so they're going back to see that again.
SPEAKER_00: Did they expect to see anything else?
SPEAKER_00: Is Matthew assuming just the typical aspects of grief and loss that might motivate someone to return to the cemetery?
SPEAKER_00: Is that what he's wanting us to do?
SPEAKER_00: Or is he painting this in a little bit different way so that he is reorienting our minds to understand this is not your normal cemetery.
SPEAKER_00: There is something to see here.
SPEAKER_00: I think that's an important question.
SPEAKER_00: Regardless, the action of the Marys early on Sunday morning reveals a level of devotion, does it not?
SPEAKER_00: Again, there are only women.
SPEAKER_00: There are no male disciples here.
SPEAKER_00: The men are still somewhere else, still probably wondering what to do next, while the women are making their way to the last place they saw the body of the Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: No, they didn't go to steal the body.
SPEAKER_00: They went to honor him.
SPEAKER_00: They didn't go as thieves.
SPEAKER_00: They were devoted followers who refused to give up on following their Lord.
SPEAKER_00: What a contrast to the religious leaders.
SPEAKER_00: They mocked and ridiculed in unbelief while the curtain in their temple was torn in two and the rocks cried out as their Maker died.
SPEAKER_00: While the rulers of the earth are counseling together against the Lord and is anointed, two humble and devoted women come to the tomb to serve the Lord with fear and to kiss the sun and find refuge in him.
SPEAKER_00: While the world showers its disdain on the Lord and his people because of unbelief, these two disciples let the rain of disdain fall around them while they remain faithfully devoted.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, what examples these women are to us.
SPEAKER_00: Now look with me at the last contrast.
SPEAKER_00: A divine declaration and a deceptive direction.
SPEAKER_00: The two Marys saw a heavenly messenger instead of a sealed tomb.
SPEAKER_00: They went to see the tomb, but what they saw was not what they expected to see.
SPEAKER_00: Unlike the cherubim preventing entrance to the garden that we call Eden, this angel invites them to come and to see that God was not in the tomb because he had risen, as he said.
SPEAKER_00: The religious rulers had the might of Rome behind them to make that tomb as secure as they knew how.
SPEAKER_00: But their maximum security prison could not retain the living God.
SPEAKER_00: Rome's soldiers, the most dominant fighting force of the time, Rome's soldiers faint at the sight of God's warriors.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever said that God doesn't have a sense of humor?
SPEAKER_00: I love this image.
SPEAKER_00: The angel descends from heaven, and it seems as though there's this earthquake happens because he descends from heaven, and he and he rolls back the sealed stone while the Roman soldiers pass out from fear.
SPEAKER_00: Then the angel just hops on the stone and sits down.
SPEAKER_00: Big deal.
SPEAKER_00: If you do, then why do you worry?
SPEAKER_00: Why are you anxious?
SPEAKER_00: If your father clothes the flowers of the field more gloriously than royal Solomon and all of his royal glory, and if he gives the birds of the air their food, will he not care for you?
SPEAKER_00: Beloved, Hebrews says that his angels are ministering servants on your behalf.
SPEAKER_00: They are his servants for you.
SPEAKER_00: What have you to fear?
SPEAKER_00: Who is there to fear if God is for you?
SPEAKER_00: The might of Rome faints before one angel.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, the angel did not roll back the stone to let Jesus out.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus told the people in John chapter 11 to roll back the stone to let Lazarus out of the tomb.
SPEAKER_00: But the Lord of life cannot be restrained by military guards, even by granite tombs and the Prince of Darkness.
SPEAKER_00: The tomb is already empty when the angel descended and rolled back the stone.
SPEAKER_00: He opened the tomb so that the disciples could see that it was empty and believe.
SPEAKER_00: And then the Lord Jesus himself honors the devotion of these women by granting them the first sight of the empty tomb.
SPEAKER_00: The last eyes to see the tomb closed were the first eyes to notice its emptiness.
SPEAKER_00: Even more, the Lord Jesus appears to them momentarily, and it wasn't an apparition.
SPEAKER_00: He's real.
SPEAKER_00: They grab his ankles and hold on, full of worshipful awe.
SPEAKER_00: You see, the two Marys heard from the angel that he had risen, then they saw that he had risen, and they were then to go and to tell that he had risen.
SPEAKER_00: And all of this seeing is for your benefit, so that you might see that the tomb is empty, so that you might see that he has risen, and so that you might go and tell that the tomb is empty because he's risen.
SPEAKER_00: But in contrast, the leaders of Israel continued to deceive.
SPEAKER_00: While the women were going, behold, some of the guard went into the city and told the chief priests all that had taken place.
SPEAKER_00: Put yourself in the soldier's sandals.
SPEAKER_00: How do you tell your story?
SPEAKER_00: You remember being a kid and doing something that you knew you weren't supposed to do, and then you you you knew that mom and dad found out, and then you're trying to figure out, okay, how do I tell this story?
SPEAKER_00: What am I gonna say?
SPEAKER_00: Take that feeling and and ratchet it up several notches.
SPEAKER_00: Because in the Roman world, these soldiers were dead men walking.
SPEAKER_00: They had failed in their duty, their captive had escaped, and the punishment for that was execution.
SPEAKER_00: How do you tell your story?
SPEAKER_00: Well, one, you don't go to your commanding officer, they go to the Jewish leaders.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, you guys were the ones that wanted us to do this.
SPEAKER_00: Well, what happened?
SPEAKER_00: Well, you know, we were we were keeping watch, not by our flocks by night, but by this tomb by night.
SPEAKER_00: And all of a sudden, that in the middle of the night, the sun just appeared right there at the tomb.
SPEAKER_00: But it wasn't really a sun, it was it was it was like a person, a being, and then the next thing we know, we're waking up and the sun is shining and the tomb is empty and there's nobody around.
SPEAKER_00: If you're a soldier, how do you make that believable?
SPEAKER_00: In John chapter 10, Jesus told the Jewish leaders that if they didn't believe what he said, if they didn't believe his word, they should at least believe the works, the miraculous things that he did.
SPEAKER_00: The very next chapter, the miraculous thing that he does, is he raises Lazarus from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: The miraculous works ought to be enough to lead them to believe.
SPEAKER_00: And this Sunday morning is the most significant sign of all.
SPEAKER_00: It's the sign of Jonah.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, as Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights, so too would the Son of Man be in a tomb.
SPEAKER_00: These leaders ought to have believed when Jesus rose again and they heard the testimony of those hardened soldiers.
SPEAKER_00: But instead, they worked to generate deception themselves instead of believing in the one they insisted was a deceiver.
SPEAKER_00: And their deception worked.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew says that the lie that they made up was still floating around amongst the Jews decades later when Matthew wrote his book.
SPEAKER_00: So do you see how gracious it is when God steps into our sin-driven lives and redirects us by granting faith to believe.
SPEAKER_00: Look at the mercy of God in these contrasts.
SPEAKER_00: Look at the difference between Joseph of Arimathea and the rest of the council members.
SPEAKER_00: What a contrast.
SPEAKER_00: Look where humanity ends up without divine intervention.
SPEAKER_00: Now, as we've seen with other portions of this part of Matthew, this section is all narrative.
SPEAKER_00: Just tells the story.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew doesn't give commands from the mouth of Jesus or commands from Matthew himself.
SPEAKER_00: There are no directives.
SPEAKER_00: He merely relates what happens.
SPEAKER_00: So our application needs to come from the narrative itself, from the story that he tells.
SPEAKER_00: What are we to take away from the background elements in this story?
SPEAKER_00: Here's my thought.
SPEAKER_00: Dedicated discipleship is drawn by divine action.
SPEAKER_00: It is dedicated to the Lord Jesus Christ, and it is driven by brotherly love.
SPEAKER_00: What do I mean by that?
SPEAKER_00: Well, some of that you already know.
SPEAKER_00: Dedicated by divine action.
SPEAKER_00: Dedicated discipleship is Joseph of Arimathea.
SPEAKER_00: Joseph of Arimathea inspires hope for every follower of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Joseph was the most unlikely of people to become a disciple.
SPEAKER_00: He is in a pressure cooker of a council where everyone, except for maybe Nicodemus, we haven't heard from Nicodemus in quite a while, everyone around him is putting pressure on the disciples and pressure against Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: They want him gone, but Joseph is standing alone.
SPEAKER_00: He is standing firm because he has been drawn to Jesus by divine action.
SPEAKER_00: Here he is.
SPEAKER_00: This is encouraging because making disciples, friends, begins with God, not with us.
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus says in the very next section, as you're going throughout life, make disciples, that is encouraging because God starts that process.
SPEAKER_00: It is not by our power or our effectiveness or our influence that people are made to be disciples.
SPEAKER_00: It's not our abilities, our knowledge, or our persuasiveness.
SPEAKER_00: It is in the power of God making decisions.
SPEAKER_00: But when God does that, when God draws people to himself, those disciples become dedicated to the Son of God.
SPEAKER_00: And what we've considered today, that dedication, reveals itself in times of difficulty.
SPEAKER_00: You know, discipleship is learning to follow Jesus when it matters most.
SPEAKER_00: Discipleship is learning to follow Jesus when it is most painful to do so.
SPEAKER_00: Discipleship is learning to follow Jesus even when it's dangerous to do so.
SPEAKER_00: But notice that I said learning.
SPEAKER_00: It's learning.
SPEAKER_00: The women were the most dedicated in this case.
SPEAKER_00: The men who followed Jesus were still learning.
SPEAKER_00: But later in Acts and in the epistles, we see that they too learned to dedicate themselves to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Why is that?
SPEAKER_00: It's because that they came to the tomb and they saw that the tomb was empty.
SPEAKER_00: And they saw the risen Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And they went and told others.
SPEAKER_00: But lastly, we see that disciples are driven by brotherly love.
SPEAKER_00: We need to clarify that.
SPEAKER_00: Because this is not our love for Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Because if you remember another passage of scripture, we love him because he first loved us.
SPEAKER_00: Look at with me.
SPEAKER_00: At verse 10 of chapter 28.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said to the women, Don't be afraid.
SPEAKER_00: That's mind-blowing in itself because here are these soldiers laying down as though they're dead out of fear.
SPEAKER_00: But you don't be afraid.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee.
SPEAKER_00: There they will see me.
SPEAKER_00: Don't overlook one of the most powerful and incomprehensible statements in the gospels outside of Christ's substitutionary death for our sins.
SPEAKER_00: Don't be afraid, but go and tell my brothers.
SPEAKER_00: The soldiers were so afraid of the angel that they fainted.
SPEAKER_00: But notice the command from the mouth of the Lord Jesus to his disciples.
SPEAKER_00: He says, There's no need for you to fear what life may bring, because the one you follow has conquered even death.
SPEAKER_00: We sang earlier, I will not fear that final day.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because that final day is the door to life.
SPEAKER_00: When the one that you believe in and you follow has exited the closed tomb and he is alive and well, what is there to fear?
SPEAKER_00: The serpent wounded his heel, but Jesus will crush him.
SPEAKER_00: There's no need then to fear what people, rulers, or governments might bring, for Christ is risen.
SPEAKER_00: And that truth is applied to whom?
SPEAKER_00: To Jesus' siblings.
SPEAKER_00: To his siblings.
SPEAKER_00: Do you see what he's done?
SPEAKER_00: He has utterly changed the disciples' identity.
SPEAKER_00: No longer are they merely followers, learners, disciples, and servants.
SPEAKER_00: They are all of that while also being his brothers.
SPEAKER_00: Tell my brothers.
SPEAKER_00: Now he's speaking to all of those boldly courageous men who ran away.
SPEAKER_00: That's who he's speaking about.
SPEAKER_00: The implication there is that these women who are there are his sisters.
SPEAKER_00: As we will see next Sunday, the Lord Jesus possesses all authority.
SPEAKER_00: And with that authority, he has declared that all who believe in him possess the authority to be called the sons and daughters of the living God.
SPEAKER_00: John wrote it in John chapter 1, verse 12, in a very unique way that many of us remember.
SPEAKER_00: He says, But to all who did receive him, in contrast to those who refused, he gave the right, literally the authority, they possess the authority to become children of God.
SPEAKER_00: And if you are a child of God, then you are a brother or a sister of the risen Christ.
SPEAKER_00: The disciples called Jesus Lord.
SPEAKER_00: They referred to themselves as his slaves, his servants.
SPEAKER_00: And that we are.
SPEAKER_00: Yet at the same moment, Jesus is our brother.
SPEAKER_00: That love shown first to us motivates our love for him, which drives out fear so that we might follow and obey our risen Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, the one we crown as king is our brother who was dead but is now alive and reigns forevermore.
SPEAKER_00: Will you love him in return by being devoted to him and following him to the end?
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Lord Jesus, we ask that you would enable us to see in our spirits with the eyes of our spirits, with the ears that are open to our hearts, that we would see what these women saw, that we would trust their testimony, their witness, that we would hear them, that our hearts would be drawn to you just like Joseph's was.
SPEAKER_00: Turn our hearts and our minds to see you, to be devoted to you, to worship you as our God and our King, and to love you as our brother, who gave himself to conquer death and sin and to free us to follow you.
SPEAKER_00: Inspire us in that way.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.
SPEAKER_01: Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.