Thank you.
I want us to finish our series in Matthew 28.
In Matthew's gospel, I've loved it.
I hope you've benefited from it.
But Matthew 28, if you've got a Bible, do open it up.
You may have come across, I've told you before,
the story from Russia before the end of the Cold War.
A Baptist pastor is reading his New Testament on the train.
And he gets up from his seat to stretch his leg on the train
and he leaves the New Testament on the seat.
While he's away, a guard comes along, picks it up,
reads what it is, opens the window, and throws it out of the window.
A month later, a farmer comes to see the pastor
and he asks the pastor wonderfully to lead him in becoming a Christian.
The pastor was delighted to do so.
And when he'd finished, the farmer reached into his pocket
and pulled out the pastor's New Testament.
And he said, you'll never believe it.
I was working in my field a month ago by the railway track
and a train went past and this hit me on the head.
And I want to say, as I've looked at the resurrection passages
and studied them, it's been a little bit like that for me.
I've been working away at it and suddenly the reality of what God has done
in raising the Lord Jesus from the dead has hit me on the head.
And I hope it'll do the same for you.
Because the resurrection of Jesus is the center of our faith.
The early Christians in Acts called the gospel
the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.
It was the resurrection of Jesus that created the early church
and gave it life and fire.
And in Matthew 28, Matthew's point is that what the resurrection of Jesus has done
is turn everything upside down.
The resurrection acts as a huge reversal in the world.
And how Matthew does that is he skillfully shows us that
it shows this reversal in the life of everyone it touches.
The resurrection of Jesus shatters for all time,
for all people, the matter of going back to business as usual.
The resurrection of Jesus literally creates a new normal.
And Matthew's interest is not so much in the kind of mechanics
of the actual resurrection, who moved the stone
and giving us the evidence and that sort of thing.
But Matthew's interest is the massive impact it makes
on four different parties.
And so the first group that there's this huge reversal in is the women.
Can you look at verse 1 with me?
Now after the Sabbath, towards the dawn of the first day of the week,
Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb.
And they don't know that a guard has been posted
in front of the tomb.
They don't know how they're going to roll away the massive stone
to get access to the body.
But they're in for a huge surprise, aren't they, when they arrive?
They discover the guards lying on the ground trembling.
The stone is rolled away.
And even worse, there is an angel sitting on the stone.
And he is no ordinary messenger boy.
He is an angel who's come from the presence of God.
So look at verses 5 to 7.
You see, the angel says,
Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus,
who was crucified.
Matthew is very deliberately telling us again and again,
he was crucified.
But he's not here if he's risen.
As he said, come see the place where he laid.
And then go quickly and tell his disciples he's risen from the dead.
The stone has been rolled away,
not to let Jesus get out,
but to let the women see in.
We're not left to guess
what it means.
The angel explains it exactly.
He says Jesus, who was crucified,
is now risen.
He says it twice.
He's saying to you and I,
they were at the right tomb.
He was dead,
but he is no longer dead.
He is risen from the dead.
And it's not reincarnation.
Jesus has risen from the dead.
And it's impossible for you and I
to capture in those simple words
the enormous transformation that's taken place.
Because for the first time in history,
the iron grip of death
has been broken from the inside out.
Somebody has gone through death
to show that he's stronger than death.
And the angel says Jesus defeated death.
I read of a Muslim student in Africa
who became a Christian.
And when his friends asked him,
why is that?
He said, well, it's like this.
Suppose you're going down a road
and the road forks in two directions.
And you don't know which way to go.
And there at the fork,
there are two men.
One dead
and one alive.
Who would you ask for directions?
Well, as the women race off
to tell the disciples
their imaginations running on ahead of them,
they meet the risen Jesus.
Verse 9.
And he says to them,
Greetings.
Hi.
And they came up and took hold of his feet
and they worshipped him.
And then Jesus said,
Don't be afraid.
Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee
and there they will see me.
Jesus gives them the most normal
and natural hello.
If you're in Australia,
it would be G'day.
If you're in Wales,
it would be Shammai.
The women,
they fall on his feet
and they take hold of his feet.
And so it's not a vision.
It's not a hallucination.
It's not an apparition.
It is a bodily and physical resurrection.
And it's not merely a resuscitation
back to life
because they didn't worship Lazarus.
Do you remember when Lazarus came out of the tomb?
They didn't worship him.
No, this is a risen Jesus,
physically raised from the dead
with feet that you can hold on to.
And Jesus encourages the women,
Do not fear.
And he gives them the same job
that the angel gave them to do.
Go and tell the other disciples.
And because of that,
their world is upside down.
So just look with me
at the women over the last couple of weeks.
Look at verse 56 of chapter 27.
Jesus being crucified.
And there are the women,
verse 55,
following,
looking on at a distance.
They can't get too close.
But they are looking on at a distance,
aren't they?
And then Jesus is buried.
And verse 61,
you have this little incident
where Mary,
Magdalene,
and the other Mary,
are sitting there,
sitting down opposite to the tomb.
Verse 55 and verse 61 of Matthew 27,
they're on the edge of the action.
They're on the periphery.
They're helpless.
They're forlorn.
They're the most powerless.
And then you come to Matthew 28,
verse 1,
and they go,
don't they?
Mary and the other Mary
went to see the tomb.
They don't know what to do.
Their hopes have been shattered.
The bottom has fallen out of their world.
But by verse 10 of chapter 28,
the women who were on the fringes
are now at the center.
And their hopes,
which have been shattered,
are literally raised to life.
Their fears have been transformed
into joyful confidence.
And now they become
the first tellers of the good news.
Because they are the first witnesses
of the resurrection
to the risen Christ.
It's a complete reversal, isn't it?
A total reversal.
Their lives have been turned upside down.
And it's all based on the fact
that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead.
The second group are the guards.
I think you've got a sympathy with the guards.
They were told, weren't they,
it's a very routine exercise.
All they had to do was guard a dead body.
If you were a policeman,
I'm sure it would be a pretty boring job
for the evening, wouldn't it?
To keep a dead body dead.
A massive rock is put in front of the entrance.
They seal it with whatever they could find.
They are a picture, aren't they?
These guards,
they are a picture of human authority and power.
They are the winners.
They are the rulers.
They are the ones with the weapons.
They are the ones with the capability.
And they are the ones that are in command.
They are the figures of authority.
And they are in control.
Then verse 2.
Behold, there's 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 is white as snow.
Angels in our culture are seen as wonderfully reassuring, aren't they?
Kind of lightness and,
oh, you're an angel.
Some of us eat angel delight.
We think of angels as reassuring.
People talk about guardian angels.
Sophie Burnham in a terrible book
called A Book on Angels,
A Book of Angels,
says this,
Angels always bring us a calm and peaceful serenity
that descends sweetly upon over you.
Their message is always,
don't worry,
things are working out perfectly.
You're going to like this.
Well, look at verse 2.
This angel comes and he brings with him a splintering earthquake.
He tosses the stone to one side
and then when he comes,
he sits on it.
It's a lovely picture, isn't it?
I grew up in a family of four
and there would be fights
and how do you know,
how do you know those of your own families,
how do you know who was the winner of the fight?
Well, it was whoever ended up
sitting on the other one, wasn't it?
That's how you knew the victor.
What was the great sign of victory in a fight?
That you would sit on your sibling
and they would kind of lie there
trying to get up
but you sat on them
because you'd won.
Look at the angel here.
The only respect he shows
is a lovely little picture.
He sits on death.
Here's a symbol of the closed door of death.
The security of the sepulchre
and the only respect he pays to it
is to sit on it.
It's a wonderful picture.
And the word for tremble.
The word for tremble in verse 4
is the same word for earthquake in verse 2.
Isn't that amazing?
The guards are experiencing
a quaking of themselves
they have their own private earthquake
as they see the angel
and the angel comes to announce
that Jesus is risen
and the rocks quake before the angel
and those whose job it is
to keep Jesus from rising
they quake as well.
All they had to do
do you remember
was to keep a dead man dead
and with all their power
and with all their skill
they couldn't do it
and instead
Matthew says
do you see the little detail
at the end of verse 4?
They became like dead men.
The living and the powerful ones
become like dead men
because the dead man
has been raised to life.
The living and the powerful ones
become like dead men
because the dead man
has been raised to life.
And the resurrection
doesn't it?
It brings a complete reversal
in the values of our world.
What we think of
ultimately as human power
is actually utterly powerless
in the face of Jesus Christ.
Death
is now transformed into life.
We don't have time
to look at verses 11 to 15
but there's a remarkable contrast there.
There's a contrast between the joy
and the obedience of the women
in going to tell
and then there's the reluctance
of the guards
going to the chief priests
and telling them what happened.
And the response of the priests
is to cover up, isn't it?
To do whatever they can
to cover up.
I think it's a wonderful story.
Because it tells you and I
that the resurrection
also faces you and I
with a fundamental choice.
Like the women.
Will we be like the women
who fall at his feet
and worship him
or will we hold on
to the illusion of our own power
and our own control?
And one way is the way
of deception and death
and the other is
the way of life.
The resurrection of Jesus
turns everything upside down.
And not only for the women
but for the guards
but thirdly,
most important of all,
for Jesus.
Do you notice twice
the angel says
Jesus has been raised.
It's a divine passive.
The will of God
will not leave him
in the grave.
But that is not all
Matthew wants you to know.
So when we look at verse 18,
can you see how Jesus speaks
after he's been raised
from the dead?
He says, doesn't he,
all authority in heaven
and on earth
has been given to me.
I think that's difficult
for us to kind of register
the scope of that statement.
The word of authority
is not just naked power.
It is the right to decide.
And it's the freedom to act.
It is God's own authority.
And God's own authority
is now Jesus' authority
because God has given it to him.
And Jesus is saying, isn't he,
my authority is unrestricted
and it's unqualified
and it's unconditional.
My authority extends
from the farthest reaches
of space
into the smallest
subatomic particle of matter.
And it draws under its canopy
all men
and all women
and all places
who've ever lived.
And it does not diminish
over time
and it doesn't weaken
in the different circumstances
of life.
And he says,
all authority in heaven
and on earth
has been given to me
over angels,
over archangels,
over demons,
over principalities,
over might,
over thrones,
over the natural world,
over the supernatural world.
world,
Jesus now has
the ability
and the freedom
and the right
and that's very important
to us.
Because there's no area
and there's no people
and there's no culture
and there's no single being
in the universe
that's outside the authority
of Jesus Christ.
And Jesus could not assert
with any more clarity
his absolute faultless,
consummate sovereignty
and dominion
and rule and command
over all things.
And so here is a man
who three days before
had been crucified.
And now he's risen from the dead
and he says,
all authority is mine.
And I think in many ways
that's the key point
of the chapter.
It's no wonder
that in verse 9
Jesus accepted their worship.
And in verse 17
they recognize him
as Lord and God
and he accepts their worship.
And he is conscious
that the resurrection
is the beginning
of a new moment.
And that new moment
is marked by his
universal lordship.
And if there was any doubt
then you come to verse 19
and you'll see
that he includes himself
in the name,
not the names,
in the name of the one God,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
And that is how God
comes to be known
from now on.
And I think when we come
to this point
we come to the very heart
of the gospel.
And so when you look at
how did the early church
in the book of Acts,
how did they tell people
about Christianity?
How did they teach the gospel?
The heart of the Christian message
was this.
You rejected Jesus
as worthless and irrelevant.
You thought he was nothing.
But God has raised him
from the dead
and enthroned him
from heaven
where he is Lord and Christ.
Let me show you that.
Come with me to Acts chapter 2.
Come with me to Acts chapter 2
if you've got a Bible with you.
Acts chapter 2
and in verses 22 to 24
Peter is preaching.
And he says this.
He says,
Men of Israel,
hear these words.
Jesus of Nazareth
was a man
attested to you
by God
with mighty works
and wonders
and signs
that God did
through him in your midst
and you yourselves know.
And this Jesus
delivered up
according to the definite plan
and foreknowledge of God
you crucified
and killed
by the hands
of lawless men.
God raised him up
loosing the pangs of death
because it was not possible
for him to be held by it.
Then he speaks about
how the resurrection
fulfills the Old Testament.
And do you see what he's doing?
He's saying,
you thought Jesus
was nothing more
than a common criminal
or swear words.
But God's assessment
is very different
and the proof of that
is the resurrection.
Verse 32 to 33
comes to his conclusion.
And he says,
this Jesus
God raised up
and of all that
were witnesses
being therefore
exalted at the right hand
of God
and having received
from the Father
the promise of the Spirit
he has poured out this
that you yourselves
are seeing and hearing.
And his conclusion
verse 36
that all the house
of Israel know
for certain
that God
has made him
both Lord
and Christ
this Jesus
whom you crucified.
It's a really interesting sermon.
You could go to Acts 4
and see the same thing.
You could go to
many of the sermons
and Acts
but notice
what he doesn't say.
He doesn't say
let all the house
of Israel know
that because Jesus
is risen from the dead
you can have eternal life
and go to heaven.
He doesn't say that.
It's true
but that isn't
what Jesus says.
That isn't what
the preaching
and Acts says.
He doesn't say this.
He doesn't say
God loves you
very very much
and you are really
important to God.
And God wants
the very best
for you
and that is true.
You may hear that.
But that isn't
how they preached
the gospel and Acts.
Or you might hear this
Jesus died
an atoning death
for our sins.
Please come
to the Lord Jesus.
And again
that is true.
But it's not
how they preached
the gospel and Acts.
How did they preach it?
They said
your view of Jesus
is exactly
the opposite
of God's.
And the proof
of that
is the resurrection.
And what you think
is wrong.
And what you've done
is wrong.
And the one
whom you crucified
do you realize
now rules
heaven and earth.
We could pick
half a dozen sermons
in the book of Acts
that Christ
is the key
to God's
everything
and the proof
of that
is the resurrection.
resurrection.
And it's so
confrontational
isn't it?
So, so very
confrontational
to say what you
think of Jesus
is wrong.
And you've
misunderstood
who he is.
You've got to
understand that
he is God's
king.
He is God's
enthroned ruler
and he is Lord
whether you like it
or not.
Matthew's point
in Matthew 28
is that the
resurrection
is a great
reversal.
It's not just
that Jesus
is alive
and stronger
than death
all that is
true praise
God.
The key
significance
in Matthew's
gospel is that
Matthew is that
Jesus has been
given all authority
in heaven and
earth.
He is now
Lord and
Christ and that
is the great
reversal.
So a reversal
for the women
for the guards
and for Jesus
and then finally
let's come to
the reversal
for the
disciples.
We think back
to where the
disciples were
at the start
of the
Matthew 28
and they are
scattered.
They fled
with their
tails between
their legs
and through
the words
of the women
they understand
that Jesus
is going back
to Galilee.
And the point
of verses 16
to 20
is that Jesus
wants to spell
out the
implications
of his
resurrection
to his
disciples.
And here's
the central
meaning of
the resurrection
if you're a
follower of Christ.
It's not just
life after death.
It is that
but it's not
just that.
It's not just
our resurrection.
But in
Matthew's
gospel the
key point
of the
resurrection
is an
occasion
for Jesus
to transfer
his mission
to his
church's
mission.
That's why
there's such
an emphasis
in Galilee.
Galilee was
the place
where Jesus
launched his
first mission.
And that's
where he
launches his
continuing
mission.
where his
disciples
will be
the main
players.
Jesus
will
continue
his
ministry
as the
risen
and
ascended
Lord.
He will
continue
to rescue
people
but in a
different
way.
Just look
at verse
18.
When he
says all
authority in
heaven and
on earth
has been
given to
me,
what's the
obvious
question?
All
authority in
heaven and
earth has been
given to me.
What's the
obvious
question?
What are
you going
to do
with it?
And the
answer is he
doesn't say he
is going to
do anything
at all,
does he?
So verse
18 he
says all
authority has
been given
to me,
therefore you
go,
you go and
make
disciples.
The result
and the
consequences of
Jesus' risen
authority is
spelt out on
what his
church will
do on
earth.
In verses
19 to
20 in
English we
have four
commands,
go,
make
baptize,
baptize and
teach.
But in
the Greek
there's one
command and
that command
is make
disciples.
And the
other three
are all
there to
serve the
one command.
So Jesus'
complete authority
in heaven and
earth is
exercised as
his people
make
disciples.
And so if
you want to
see Jesus in
action and
you want to
see what
Jesus'
authority looks
like,
you see
it most
clearly when
people make
disciples.
And the
whole idea of
making disciples
is not
kind of
dreamt up in
the 1970s by
some American,
it comes
directly from
the risen
Jesus.
It's a really
precious word,
isn't it?
It's the word
to be used to
describe Christians
and it
describes kind
of two
aspects,
two ideas.
A disciple is
primarily a
learner.
And when you
become a
disciple of
Jesus,
you become a
lifelong learner.
You never
reach a stage
as a follower
of Jesus where
you've learned
it all,
there's nothing
more to learn.
Following Jesus
ought to make
you more curious
in every area
of life.
And the
second part of
being a
disciple is
that of being
a follower.
And that
describes our
personal attachment
to Jesus.
Jesus.
We're not
learning for
the sake
of learning.
The life
of the
disciple is
to be
different from
every kind
of life
precisely because
of our
love and
allegiance for
Jesus.
Basically,
we love
him and
we want to
know him.
It's not
primarily an
intellectual
assignment.
It means
that as we
live our
lives, we
open up our
lives, every
area of our
life to him
and he
opens every
area of his
life to us.
But Jesus
here doesn't
command us to
be disciples,
he commands us
to make
disciples.
That's terribly
important.
There's loads
of confusion,
isn't there,
as to what
churches should
be doing.
This chapter
tells us our
central purpose
as disciples
of Jesus is
to make
disciples of
the nations,
to call on
people to
change their
allegiance,
to call
on them to
recognize that
the one they
thought was
irrelevant to
life is
actually the
Lord and
Christ.
To call on
them to
recognize that
he has all
authority in
heaven and
on earth.
And Jesus
doesn't spell
that out in
detail, but
he does tell
us three things
it'll involve.
He says it'll
involve going.
That means it
will not come
naturally to us
as a church
family.
It will need
to stir us
up.
to move us
out of our
comfort zone.
It will be a
bother that if
you're going to
make making
disciples a
priority, it
will be a
bother.
Secondly, it
will mean
baptizing with
the local body
of Christ.
We don't
become disciples
in isolation.
You are not a
disciple, in
fact, unless
you're bound up
with other
disciples.
discipleship is
all about the
church.
Thirdly, it'll
involve you
teaching you to
observe all I've
commanded you.
It's not so that
you become some
kind of Bible
nerd, but that
our lives would
be recognizably
different.
So that means
there'll be a
comprehensiveness to
it.
means there'll be a
comprehensiveness to
it.
The book finishes,
doesn't it, with
enormous encouragement.
Enormous
encouragement from
the risen Jesus.
Jesus to whom
belongs all
authority.
And he says,
your mission as
my church is to
go into all the
world and to
make disciples,
baptizing them and
teaching them.
And then he gives
this remarkable
promise, doesn't
he?
And he says,
at the end of
verse 20, I am
with you always.
At the end of
the age.
Gospel of
Matthew begins,
doesn't it, with
Jesus coming as
Emmanuel, God
with us.
And Matthew's
gospel finishes with
him saying to his
people, I am God
to you.
God with you to the
end of the age.
And I'm not
winging my way into
heaven, leaving you
to do the work.
I am deeply
invested.
I am promising my
personal companionship,
not just
every day,
but always.
So it doesn't
matter what your
circumstances are,
that you're in.
It doesn't matter
whether you feel
like it.
It doesn't matter
whether you feel like
he's with us or is
he not with us?
any success or
any success?
any success or
any success?
any success or
any success?
any success or
any success?
any success or
any success?