WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.080 Okay, for a little while this morning we're going to turn back to Matthew chapter 28, 00:00:06.080 --> 00:00:11.279 the chapter that Bekah read for us. It's the last chapter and this is the last sermon 00:00:11.279 --> 00:00:19.559 that we'll be doing on the Gospel of Matthew. Now it's almost a year to the day that we 00:00:19.559 --> 00:00:28.560 started this series in Matthews. It was on the 1st of December 2019. So we've done approximately 00:00:28.559 --> 00:00:34.759 between 45 and 50 sermons on Matthew, which is the longest series I've ever done by miles and miles. 00:00:34.759 --> 00:00:39.119 It's Thomas's fault. It was something that suggested having a really long series. But I'm 00:00:39.119 --> 00:00:45.759 really glad because it's been fascinating and fresh, I think, and it's the kind of Gospel that 00:00:45.759 --> 00:00:52.840 allows you to learn something new every time that we come to it. So it's about a year since we 00:00:52.840 --> 00:01:04.240 started. But it's almost 100,000 weeks since the events that are recorded in Matthew 28 actually 00:01:04.240 --> 00:01:11.000 happened. This is a long time ago, nearly 2,000 years ago, as we know. However, they remain 00:01:11.000 --> 00:01:20.200 vitally relevant and vitally important for us as we think about them and consider them. You know 00:01:20.200 --> 00:01:26.840 that sometimes with films or with books, that they can be really great right up towards the end. 00:01:26.840 --> 00:01:34.400 And then the climax is really dull and boring or just disappointing. It doesn't match what you were 00:01:34.400 --> 00:01:44.520 expecting to happen. We watched a film last night called Dark Water, which actually had a pretty 00:01:44.519 --> 00:01:50.280 good ending. It was quite climactic. So that was good. And that was, although it was a bit of a depressing 00:01:50.280 --> 00:01:56.679 film, if you've seen it, if you haven't seen it, I'll not spoil it. But it's a kind of true story. 00:01:56.679 --> 00:02:04.679 Anyway, that's beside the point. But here we have this book of Matthew, which is part of the 66 00:02:04.680 --> 00:02:14.520 books of the Bible. And its climax is absolutely devastating and powerful. And it's the single most 00:02:14.520 --> 00:02:23.480 important historical narrative that was ever written, these verses of Matthew 28. Because these 00:02:23.480 --> 00:02:31.760 words have changed the lives of millions of people, having heard them and recognized and come to 00:02:31.759 --> 00:02:39.679 recognize who Jesus is and what He's done and what He's achieved. So it really is a climactic 00:02:39.679 --> 00:02:47.039 chapter. And it's not disappointing in the slightest for us to consider. So that really the theme today 00:02:47.039 --> 00:02:54.840 is about resurrection and baptism, because they both come into this chapter very powerfully. And 00:02:54.840 --> 00:02:59.479 of course, this is primarily about the resurrection of Jesus. Over the last number of weeks, we've 00:02:59.479 --> 00:03:05.599 been looking at leading up to His crucifixion, the last supper, and in the crucifixion and His death. 00:03:05.599 --> 00:03:12.359 And now we come to this climactic end of the book of Matthew, which is the resurrection of Jesus 00:03:12.359 --> 00:03:20.359 on the third day. Okay, so it's God's antidote to despair. Because really, as we know about it, 00:03:20.359 --> 00:03:23.799 and okay, I'm going to just talk about things that we don't really like talking about for a little 00:03:23.800 --> 00:03:29.960 while. Because I think that's very important because it brings us round to the hope that comes 00:03:29.960 --> 00:03:34.880 from it. But death is the end, isn't it? The death is the end of all hope. It's the greatest 00:03:34.880 --> 00:03:38.960 anti-climax. So we're talking about climax and we're talking about great endings. Well, 00:03:38.960 --> 00:03:46.600 death is really the very opposite of that for us. And it's the concentrated finale of all that's 00:03:46.600 --> 00:03:51.680 wrong in the world and all that's wrong in our experience. And maybe all that's wrong that we 00:03:51.680 --> 00:03:58.520 feel in our hearts. It's just that desperate end to life. And I think for many people in the world 00:03:58.520 --> 00:04:04.560 in which we live, particularly if they live their lives without reference to God and without 00:04:04.560 --> 00:04:10.760 reference to spiritual truth or spiritual reality, their thinking is encapsulated for me very, 00:04:10.760 --> 00:04:19.639 very powerfully in the brilliant but flawed song of Freddie Mercury of Queen. It's an amazing song, 00:04:19.639 --> 00:04:26.800 but I believe it's flawed fundamentally and brutally at its core. You see, there is no time 00:04:26.800 --> 00:04:33.639 for us. There's no place for us. What is the thing that builds our dreams? Yet slips away from us. 00:04:33.639 --> 00:04:40.719 Who wants to live forever? You know, the words of the great refrain, the great chorus of that song. 00:04:40.719 --> 00:04:48.279 Who dares to love forever when love must die? But touch my tears with your lips. Touch my world 00:04:48.279 --> 00:04:56.279 with your fingertips and we can have forever. And we can love forever. Forever is our today. So you 00:04:56.279 --> 00:05:02.679 see the thinking of that song and the thinking and I think it does help explain how a lot of times 00:05:02.679 --> 00:05:09.079 that people think and it's the experience of many people that love is fleeting, that love can't 00:05:09.079 --> 00:05:17.359 really fully be grasped, that happiness isn't always happiness, that life passes, that we can 00:05:17.360 --> 00:05:23.000 become content with the myth that forever will just make forever today. We'll just make what happens 00:05:23.000 --> 00:05:28.680 in our day-to-day experience. We'll make that forever. That's the only forever there is. And we 00:05:28.680 --> 00:05:35.240 wrestle and battle with and it's in many poems and many songs, isn't it? The paradox of beauty and 00:05:35.240 --> 00:05:41.520 joy and yet suffering and pain and illness and death and evil and darkness. And even in the best 00:05:41.519 --> 00:05:49.680 of times there's that shadow knowing that something's going to end. And for many who don't maybe enjoy 00:05:49.680 --> 00:05:57.879 love and family and wholesome living and wholesome life for whatever reason, today's forever can be 00:05:57.879 --> 00:06:07.639 absolutely hopeless. It can be a rubbish forever. Their experience of today, sorrow or brokenness or 00:06:07.639 --> 00:06:14.839 guilt or failure or emptiness or poverty. And you know, we can absolutely associate with people 00:06:14.839 --> 00:06:20.319 like that who says, well, who would want to live forever? If this is all there is, if this is the 00:06:20.319 --> 00:06:25.159 climax of the experience of living, who would want to live in this environment and in this world 00:06:25.159 --> 00:06:33.800 forever? And really Jesus is saying and the message of the passage here is that His resurrection 00:06:33.800 --> 00:06:41.240 blows that thinking apart and blows that philosophy apart. And it challenges us to take note of who 00:06:41.240 --> 00:06:48.920 Jesus claims to be and what He says about life and what He says about death and how He can change 00:06:48.920 --> 00:06:55.560 our lives forever. So there's that element that comes into the thinking and the reality of the 00:06:55.560 --> 00:07:03.560 claims of Jesus. And as we've seen as we've studied this last forty, six, forty, eight weeks or however 00:07:03.560 --> 00:07:12.199 long it's been, we've unpacked the character and the person of Jesus that He is God in the flesh, 00:07:12.199 --> 00:07:22.000 He's God the Son, who had no ordinary life and certainly not an ordinary death. We've seen all 00:07:22.000 --> 00:07:28.480 this leading up to this and His preparation for and His prediction of what was going to happen 00:07:28.480 --> 00:07:37.519 in these last number of months. But in His death on the cross, we see the death of the author of 00:07:37.519 --> 00:07:44.480 life, the greatest paradox of all time, the death of the author of life. Born miraculously, 00:07:44.480 --> 00:07:53.480 into dire poverty, family knew crushing bereavement, unknown for the majority of his life. But yet 00:07:53.480 --> 00:08:01.520 when he became a public figure, he spoke and he preached like nobody else ever. He healed the sick, 00:08:01.520 --> 00:08:09.160 he raised the dead, he performed miracles, but he always spoke about moving towards Jerusalem, 00:08:09.160 --> 00:08:15.920 moving towards the crucifixion. He always spoke about that. He made clear that he's the only 00:08:15.920 --> 00:08:23.920 person who ever lived that came to die, specifically and intentionally. And then as we saw maybe two 00:08:23.920 --> 00:08:32.160 or three weeks ago that he told his disciples on the third day, he would rise again expecting that 00:08:32.159 --> 00:08:43.439 resurrection. And he did. And this chapter speaks about that. And why is that the story of Jesus? 00:08:43.439 --> 00:08:49.240 Why does it take that direction? Why does it move like that? And why did he die and why was he 00:08:49.240 --> 00:08:54.959 resurrected? Well, because he's claiming, and this always therefore remains relevant for all of us in 00:08:54.960 --> 00:09:03.320 our lives, because we all face that enemy one day, is he claims that death is a spiritual issue, 00:09:03.320 --> 00:09:11.879 not a natural one. Very unpopular reality for us to consider. But the Bible unpacks and makes 00:09:11.879 --> 00:09:18.560 clear that sin and evil entering the world resulted in this great and horrible reality. A 00:09:18.559 --> 00:09:26.079 humanity that chose to reject the worship of God and the love of God and run our lives on our own, 00:09:26.079 --> 00:09:35.000 independently of Him, was the disaster that has brought this world into the turmoil and brokenness 00:09:35.000 --> 00:09:45.479 that it sees. Because God is a holy and a pure being. He can't ignore or accept sins, 00:09:45.480 --> 00:09:53.039 destructiveness as if it was okay, the disease of sin, as if it was not a problem, it's okay. No 00:09:53.039 --> 00:09:58.200 problem, just live without recognition of your Creator and God. He couldn't do that because 00:09:58.200 --> 00:10:06.320 he knew that he couldn't live in the presence of sin. Therefore, we can't live in His presence as 00:10:06.320 --> 00:10:13.840 sinners. And he passed the only sentence he could pass in His holiness and justice, which was death 00:10:13.840 --> 00:10:22.320 and separation from eternal life, from Him, from love, hope and joy, ultimately in Him as its source. 00:10:22.320 --> 00:10:29.639 That is horrible truth. It's universal truth and it's serious truth for us. And if we were leaving 00:10:29.639 --> 00:10:37.480 it there, it would be depressing truth and miserable truth and horrible truth. But Freddie 00:10:37.480 --> 00:10:44.519 Mercury got it right on one of his lines when he said, love must die. He is absolutely right. And 00:10:44.519 --> 00:10:50.879 that is absolutely the core of the Christian message is that the author of life, the author of love, 00:10:50.879 --> 00:10:59.440 Jesus Christ, came to bring about the death of death because he knows and experienced will tell 00:10:59.440 --> 00:11:04.399 us that no one is able to defeat the power of death in and of themselves. No one is able to 00:11:04.399 --> 00:11:11.639 self-resurrect. No one can live forever. The song is right in that sense. He knows that none of us 00:11:11.639 --> 00:11:16.720 can make ourselves right with God by how we act or what we do in our own strength. It's just too 00:11:16.720 --> 00:11:23.720 much. It's too much of a way. It's too much of a burden. He's too holy. It's impossible. But in 00:11:23.720 --> 00:11:32.480 His love and in His grace, He recognizes that He had to come in our place to provide the answer. 00:11:32.480 --> 00:11:38.440 Because none of us love God perfectly and one another perfectly. And that's really the summary 00:11:38.440 --> 00:11:43.960 of the Ten Commandments, to love God and love one another perfectly. We can't do it. It's impossible. 00:11:43.960 --> 00:11:53.840 But Jesus came, God the Son. And He lived that perfect life that we couldn't. He loved God and 00:11:53.840 --> 00:12:04.240 He loved His neighbor perfectly. But then He died the death that we deserve. He died in our place. 00:12:04.240 --> 00:12:11.480 Love must die. His love for us was so great. He recognized our need was so great. He would come 00:12:11.480 --> 00:12:18.519 in our place and He would die in our place so that we can live and know resurrection and fellowship 00:12:18.519 --> 00:12:24.679 with God. And so this chapter speaks into that. It's like if you had a visual picture of this 00:12:24.679 --> 00:12:30.199 chapter, it would be a big seal. You know, the seal used to put on an envelope where the king had 00:12:30.199 --> 00:12:35.120 a queen or someone important had a letter to send and they would close, you don't see it now, 00:12:35.120 --> 00:12:40.159 but you close it, you drip some wax in it, then stamp, you would seal it. Just, and it would be the 00:12:40.159 --> 00:12:44.840 king or the queen or the company seal that would go on it. Well, this chapter is like that. It's 00:12:44.840 --> 00:12:52.560 just a big seal on what God has done. It's the guarantee that what Jesus came to do has been 00:12:52.560 --> 00:13:00.480 accepted and has won the victory. That He has defeated death for anyone who will put their trust 00:13:00.480 --> 00:13:08.240 in Him. Anyone who believes His verdict, anyone who recognizes who He is and who puts their trust 00:13:08.240 --> 00:13:19.279 in this astounding act of love for them can know His friendship and can know this new start and this 00:13:19.279 --> 00:13:28.840 new life that is stronger than death, that will allow us to be raised beyond death into eternal life. 00:13:28.840 --> 00:13:35.879 It's a great truth and it's a truth that's transformed our lives as Christians and makes us 00:13:35.879 --> 00:13:42.600 live and think differently and it's the truth that's transformed Sarah in her own life as well. 00:13:42.600 --> 00:13:49.799 He gifts us this. We don't earn it. We don't work for it. We don't have to wait until the end of 00:13:49.799 --> 00:13:57.240 time to find out about it. He just gifts us this gift of life now as we put our trust in Him and a 00:13:57.240 --> 00:14:06.759 future now but also beyond this broken world, which I think is always best summarized by Jesus 00:14:06.759 --> 00:14:12.320 Himself who says it'll be a place of no more tears. And isn't that what really is the hardest thing? 00:14:12.320 --> 00:14:19.440 Is it whatever happens that there are tears? Now there might be different tears today and from Sarah 00:14:19.440 --> 00:14:24.560 and me probably, okay? But they're different. They are tears of joy. They are different kind of tears, 00:14:24.559 --> 00:14:33.279 but the tears of sadness will have gone when Jesus takes us to be with Him. And therefore this 00:14:33.279 --> 00:14:38.599 chapter which we've read about the resurrection of Jesus is probably the ultimate chapter on hope. 00:14:38.599 --> 00:14:47.439 And hope is such a great thing in life. Have you ever met anyone who is entirely devoid of hope? 00:14:47.440 --> 00:14:54.880 It's a terrible place to be and it's a terrible thing to experience, to be hopeless, utterly and 00:14:54.880 --> 00:15:00.720 completely hopeless. Now we know just now in a societal way, we know about that a little bit, 00:15:00.720 --> 00:15:06.440 just now don't we with COVID-19 and with the restrictions and the trouble and the difficulties 00:15:06.440 --> 00:15:14.120 and the fear and the masks and all the separation that we've heard about the vaccine. And that 00:15:14.120 --> 00:15:19.120 brings us hope. And that's good, that's right, different vaccines from different places. And 00:15:19.120 --> 00:15:23.360 we put our hope in that that maybe things will get a bit back to normal, that we'll all be able to 00:15:23.360 --> 00:15:27.039 meet together, a whole church will meet together, families will meet together, Christmas will be 00:15:27.039 --> 00:15:31.919 normal, all these great things we hope for and that's great and that's good and that's important. 00:15:31.919 --> 00:15:38.440 And we pray about that and we pray that they do get a really effective vaccine and we thank God 00:15:38.440 --> 00:15:44.080 for the skill and the expertise of the people that spent months and months and months spending 00:15:44.080 --> 00:15:52.120 hours and hours looking for this vaccine. But we also know that this vaccine will not help us 00:15:52.120 --> 00:15:59.360 love God and love one another better. It won't heal broken hearts and it won't meet our deepest 00:15:59.360 --> 00:16:08.280 longings. But the gospel does. And the gospel that is the good news of Jesus Christ isn't 00:16:08.280 --> 00:16:13.240 wishful thinking hope, you know, simple minded people need something just to give them wishful 00:16:13.240 --> 00:16:19.879 thinking to keep them going in life. It's not like that. It's not vague optimism. Everything will 00:16:19.879 --> 00:16:26.320 turn out alright in the end. It'll be fine. It's not a vague kind of hopeless optimism. Nor is it 00:16:26.320 --> 00:16:31.159 the kind of just the hope that says I'm going to make the most of this life and just go for it. 00:16:31.159 --> 00:16:38.600 Which is unrealistic, I think, often in the face of suffering and pain and difficulty and loss 00:16:38.600 --> 00:16:47.320 and guilt which we face in our lives. But this is a sure and certain hope. It's not wishful 00:16:47.320 --> 00:16:55.440 hoping. It's a sure and certain hope based on the character, the claims, the promises and the 00:16:55.440 --> 00:17:01.080 historical reality of Jesus Christ who lived and died and who rose again in the third day. 00:17:01.080 --> 00:17:07.960 Billy Graham, the great evangelist, not from St. Columbus but the American Billy Graham said, 00:17:07.960 --> 00:17:13.759 there is more evidence that Jesus rose from the dead than there is that Julius Caesar ever lived 00:17:13.759 --> 00:17:25.039 or that Alexander the Great died at the age of 33. Now, who wants to live forever? If we cling 00:17:25.039 --> 00:17:33.880 on to that hope and then cling on to a resurrected Savior who promises as the first who was resurrected 00:17:33.880 --> 00:17:43.960 to raise all who trust in Him to new life and eternal life. So nearly done. What is His word 00:17:43.960 --> 00:17:49.400 for us today? What is Jesus' word? What is Heaven's word for us today when we're faced with this 00:17:49.400 --> 00:17:55.160 monumental fact? When we're faced with this historical reality, what's the word for us? 00:17:55.160 --> 00:18:02.200 What takes it into twenty-fourth century Edinburgh for us? Well, I think it's the words that we hear 00:18:02.200 --> 00:18:10.640 coming from Heaven in this chapter. We hear it from the lips of the angel who says to the women 00:18:10.640 --> 00:18:18.759 who come to the tomb, don't be afraid. You're looking for Jesus? He's risen. So it's don't be 00:18:18.759 --> 00:18:26.279 afraid. And then Jesus says in verse 10, He says the same thing when they meet Him. He says, don't 00:18:26.279 --> 00:18:34.200 be afraid. Go and tell my brothers and there they will see me. And later on He goes and says to His 00:18:34.200 --> 00:18:42.559 followers, I am with you always. Isn't that great? In that most monumental of historical facts that 00:18:42.559 --> 00:18:48.079 turns really our thinking and reality of life upside down and you might think, oh, that's great, 00:18:48.079 --> 00:18:54.440 that's nice or whatever. But He knows that usually a response to that is fear. It's fear of the 00:18:54.440 --> 00:18:59.279 unknown and it's fear of the spiritual realm that we can't really see and it's fear of maybe our 00:18:59.279 --> 00:19:03.320 lives being turned upside down. It's fear of all kinds of things and He says, look, don't be afraid. 00:19:03.320 --> 00:19:13.480 I'll be with you. I'll be with you always. And these are great words and I hope they're comforting 00:19:13.480 --> 00:19:24.440 words for us today. Because the response is interesting as well, isn't it? Of the various people 00:19:24.440 --> 00:19:33.079 that hear about the resurrection. The women and the disciples, some of them doubt, but we're told 00:19:33.079 --> 00:19:40.120 that they trust in Him with fear and great joy. There's that weird mixture of emotions. Yes, they're 00:19:40.119 --> 00:19:46.359 afraid. Yes, they run to the tomb to see the resurrected Savior. And there's great joy as well 00:19:46.359 --> 00:19:53.039 as fear. And that is often how it is with us as believers, as Christians in our lives. There's 00:19:53.039 --> 00:19:59.119 things we're afraid of. We move forward in faith and we trust in Jesus and we hear His voice telling 00:19:59.119 --> 00:20:05.559 us not to be afraid. And we also have great joy. And you know, in this pandemic, the church should 00:20:05.559 --> 00:20:11.879 really be a place and the church of God and the people of God should really be a people of joy, 00:20:11.879 --> 00:20:18.359 not slapstick, stupid joy that is annoying for people going through difficulty, but a deep seated 00:20:19.559 --> 00:20:24.919 joy and a hope that goes beyond the physical reality of what we're going through. I don't think 00:20:24.919 --> 00:20:31.240 we should really be spending our time moaning and grumbling and complaining about what's happening. 00:20:31.240 --> 00:20:35.559 I don't think that's a great thing to do because we have this great good news of great joy. 00:20:39.799 --> 00:20:45.799 I think we should be shining, not whining. And I think that's important in these days because we 00:20:45.799 --> 00:20:53.240 have a great message, even though we might sometimes be afraid, we have great joy. So trust and joy 00:20:53.240 --> 00:20:57.559 was the response of the disciples. But we also know there was others and there's always the 00:20:57.559 --> 00:21:03.399 side of it in the gospel, those who denied it and who didn't want to know about it and who turned 00:21:03.399 --> 00:21:06.919 away while they were going through some of the guard went to the city and they told the chief 00:21:06.919 --> 00:21:12.200 priests when they had, when they heard about it, they gave the soldiers money, they bribed them and 00:21:12.200 --> 00:21:17.879 said, tell the people that the disciples stole the body. And Matthew says, and that was believed 00:21:18.759 --> 00:21:24.519 even to the day of the writing of the gospel. So there will be people who deny. 00:21:24.519 --> 00:21:30.440 And we all need to ask which group we're going to be part of and how we're going to respond to this 00:21:30.440 --> 00:21:37.960 message and this glorious truth. And then Jesus finishes by saying, you know, go therefore, 00:21:37.960 --> 00:21:41.960 says the disciples, made disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father 00:21:41.960 --> 00:21:46.519 and of the Son of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you and behold, 00:21:46.519 --> 00:21:52.279 I am with you even to the end of the age. So the message of the good news has always been 00:21:52.279 --> 00:21:57.960 for the Christian church to go and tell it, go and share it, make disciples and be baptized. 00:21:58.680 --> 00:22:06.839 And we've got a saying in Scotland, I think it's Scottish anyway, that says, it's better felt than 00:22:06.839 --> 00:22:14.759 tell. So I've tell you, and now Sarah is going to feel you, feel the message to you. And she's 00:22:14.759 --> 00:22:19.960 going to tell it from her own experience. And so there'll be a telling, but it will be from her heart. 00:22:19.960 --> 00:22:25.799 And that's very important. So I've finished saying what I'm going to say at this point, 00:22:25.799 --> 00:22:32.519 and I'm going to invite Sarah up, who's going to share her own story of coming to faith in this 00:22:32.519 --> 00:22:49.799 risen crucified and risen Savior. And we look forward to that.