And if you would open up your Bibles to Matthew 28, 1 through 10, it's in your pew Bible, it's on page 992.
And what we're going to find out is that this passage is full of surprises.
Speaking of surprises.
Life is full of surprises.
Some unpleasant, some pleasant.
Pink slips.
Divorce papers.
Blue and red flashing lights in your rearview mirror.
Hypothetically speaking.
Cancer diagnosis.
Betrayal.
And then of course, stepping barefoot on a Lego in the dead of night.
Unpleasant surprises.
Do I have an amen on that last one?
You know it.
Then there are the pleasant surprises.
The unexpected bonus from work.
Then there's this out of the blue encouraging phone call from a friend who had no idea what you're going through, but the timing was impeccable.
That's a pleasant surprise.
You bring your car into the mechanic.
It's making a weird noise.
He says to you, it's just five bucks.
That's a pleasant surprise.
Miracle.
It's a pleasant surprise.
Miracle.
Miracle is right.
Parents of teenagers.
Your teenager cleans up after themselves without being asked.
It's a pleasant surprise.
Teens, I got you.
When your parent gives you $20 just because.
Pleasant surprise.
Life's full of surprises of all kinds.
But how would you classify Jesus Christ?
Would you classify him as an unpleasant surprise or a pleasant surprise?
Maybe if you're like, well, I gave him a shot.
And he didn't do what I wanted him to do.
And so you might not classify him as an unpleasant surprise.
It might just be disappointment.
Maybe in your mind, Jesus represents some kind of oppressive structure.
It's not a pleasant surprise.
Maybe you're not disappointed with Jesus.
You're just undecided.
You don't quite know what to think about him yet.
You're curious.
But to say that you're surprised either way, you're not there yet.
So whether you're disappointed with Jesus or undecided about Jesus,
I am really glad that you're here this morning.
Because what we're about to see in this historical account of the resurrection of Jesus
is a surprise for you.
And you're going to need to make a decision of what we see in the pages of this book
is true or false.
There's some in the room, many in the room, who have been pleasantly surprised by Jesus.
More like shocked that God would become a man,
pay the sin debt we owed with his own death,
and then be raised from the dead as Lord of all.
And we get to live for him now.
That's shockingly good news for us.
And so when we hear he is risen and we say he is risen indeed,
we say it from our toes because we believe it to be true.
It informs our entire life.
You've been rescued.
And now you live for him.
And it has been a surprisingly good thing.
In fact, you'd say Jesus is God's most pleasant surprise.
With all these said, let's look at now Matthew 28, 1-10.
I'll read it.
And after I read it, I'm going to walk us through it.
And then I'm going to kind of bring it to a point and say,
hey, what is this claiming and what does that mean for us?
Hear God's word.
Chapter 28, 1-10.
Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week,
Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb.
And behold, there was a great earthquake.
For an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it.
His appearance was like lightning and his clothing white as snow.
And for fear of him, the guards trembled and became like dead men.
But the angel said to the women, do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified.
He is not here, for he has risen.
As he said, come, see the place where he lay.
Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead.
And behold, he's going before you to Galilee.
There you will see him.
See, I have told you.
So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy and ran to tell his disciples.
And behold, Jesus met them and said, greetings.
And they came up and took hold of him, his feet, and worshipped him.
Then Jesus said to them, do not be afraid.
Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee.
And there they will see me.
May God bless the reading of his word.
So let's walk through this historic account.
If you're not familiar with the Bible, we're looking at a gospel.
And what a gospel is, it's basically a New Testament biography of Jesus.
It's historical.
It's accurate.
It's reliable.
And it's written by an eyewitness.
Matthew, who wrote this, would witness the resurrected Jesus himself.
And so let's start in this account in the setting of the scene in verse 1.
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.
Matthew, who wrote this, is being very clear.
He's adamant that he wants you and me to know as readers what day of the week this is.
And the reason why is because of something Jesus said.
Now, if you're not familiar with the kind of Jewish tradition and understanding of a week, the Sabbath was their Saturday.
So if you remember Genesis chapter 1, God created all things in six days and on the seventh he rested.
And so from there, the Jewish people would observe that seventh day as the last day of the week in which they would rest from their labor.
But why is Matthew telling us this?
Why does he want us to know that it's now the first day of the week?
It's Sunday, not Saturday.
Well, it's something that Jesus had said repeatedly.
In fact, he predicted something.
More like prophesied something.
So in Matthew 16, 17 and 20, Jesus tells his disciples, he says to them,
when we get to Jerusalem, I'm going to be handed over to the elders and chief priests of the Jews.
And they will kill me.
And then on the third day, I'll be raised.
Repeatedly.
And so what Matthew is doing here is he's saying, it's that day.
It's the third day.
It's the day that he was talking about.
Now, the chief priests and the elders who were enemies of Jesus, they knew of these prophecies as well.
That's why in Matthew 27, 62 through 66, they deploy a unit of soldiers to the grave to seal the stone on the tomb and say,
off limits to everybody.
They're trying to keep people out of the tomb from the disciples from stealing the body.
So they knew about these prophecies.
If you're not familiar with this account, three days earlier, Jesus Christ was crucified on a Roman cross.
He was dead and his corpse was laid in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea.
And if you're familiar with the story, you know that all of his male disciples, they either betrayed him, denied him, or deserted him.
But there was a handful of female followers of Jesus that were at the crucifixion that they saw where his body was laid.
And two of them, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, are spoken of in verse 1.
They are on their way to the tomb.
We know from other gospel accounts that they're on their way to the tomb in order to finish anointing Jesus' body for burial.
So let me ask you this.
If you were in the minds of these two Marys, what were you expecting to find when you reached the tomb?
You would be expecting to find the corpse of Jesus Christ.
Do you know why?
Because we all know that dead people who've been dead for days stay dead.
They're expecting to find the corpse of Jesus.
But what they were expecting, what actually happened, was a surprise.
It's something else actually happened.
And we start picking it up in verses 2 through 7.
There's this surprise.
Mary, Mary, we're not expecting this.
An angelic surprise.
And there's a number of things I want you to see that make this so surprising.
The first is the entrance.
It is a seismic entrance by this angel.
And behold, there was a great earthquake.
An earthquake precedes the arrival of this angel.
That's a big deal.
I didn't walk into this building and there was an earthquake this morning.
But let's not miss why this angel is here.
He's there to make the most surprising announcement in the history of the world.
You know, any kind of human event with seismic activity around it is going to be extraordinary and memorable.
Wouldn't you agree?
Three days earlier, remember Jesus is hanging on the cross.
He says, Eloi, Eloi, Lameis Epictone.
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
He gives up his spirit.
The temple, the curtain is torn in two from top to bottom.
And then there's an earthquake.
He breathes his last.
And there's an earthquake.
Could it be that here in Matthew chapter 28 verse 2,
that that earthquake is at the breathing of his first?
And with that comes the attending of an angel to announce that he,
well, something surprising has happened.
This angel arrives with seismic fanfare.
And he rolls away the stone, just blows through the seal.
He doesn't care who seals on this.
And then he sits on the top of the stone, which was massive.
No man or men in this room could have moved it on their own.
It's kind of...
Sitting on the stone?
Does anybody else experience kind of like,
boy, that seems kind of playful.
That's kind of lighthearted.
He knows something.
In verse 3, we see his shocking appearance.
His appearance like lightning.
His clothing was like white like snow.
He's obviously not from around those parts.
He is adorned in even emitting a heavenly brilliance.
This is a visitor from heaven.
I'm guessing Mary and Mary, when they were looking at him,
seated on that rock, they were kind of squinting.
It's that kind of brilliance.
Notice the stunning effect in verse 4.
Remember, the guards who were there.
Remember, it was the elders and the chief priests who sent those guards there to protect the tomb from being entered.
Well, they see the angel.
They tremble in fear and they fall down as though dead.
Stunned.
Has anybody seen the videos of the goats?
Some kind of goat gets kind of all excited or afraid.
It kind of freezes up and falls over, stunned as though dead.
These guards had been in the presence of a brilliant angel and they are stunned and fall over dead.
These guards will later in verses 11 through 15 go to the elders and chief priests
and they will bear eyewitness to what they have seen
and the chief priest will pay them off and then they'll give them another story to spread.
It's a seismic entrance.
It's striking appearance, stunning effect, but this is all serving a spectacular announcement.
This angel speaks and he just ignores the guards and speaks to the women.
And the first thing that he says, he speaks calm to them because surely they were terrified too.
He says, do not be afraid.
He knows why they're there.
He knows that they have come to see the crucified corpse of Jesus.
He tells them, I know why you're here.
You're here to see Jesus, him who was crucified.
All heaven knows he was crucified.
But in verse 6, he moves from calming them to this spectacular claim.
He's not here.
For he has risen.
What you need to understand is that this angel is God's explanation for the empty tomb.
This angel is a messenger from God to make this announcement.
That's why at the end of verse 7 you see him say, see, I've told you.
He's delivered the mail.
But the reason for the empty tomb, according to this angel from God, is that Jesus has been risen.
Just as he said.
And that just as he said is to stir our thoughts and memories to those prophecies that Jesus had spoken of.
Of him being handed over, killed, and on the third day raised from the dead.
You see, what's going on here, according to this angel, is that Jesus has died.
And that he's been raised in fulfillment of his own prophetic claims.
It demonstrates that Jesus is quite unique, to say the least.
And so what's going on here is this surprise.
Go and see him for yourself.
It's an empty grave.
It's an empty tomb.
There's one scholar that, I'm going to paraphrase him.
He says, the angel didn't roll away the stone to let Jesus out.
The angel rolled away the stone to let the eyewitnesses in.
And he gives them the explanation.
This is unbelievable.
It's a surprise.
Dead people who've been dead for days are supposed to stay dead.
And so here we have this claim, which is at the very center of Christianity.
That Jesus, who was crucified, was raised supernaturally, miraculously, bodily from the dead.
It is the core center of the Christian faith.
Which means this.
If you do not believe that, you're not a follower of Jesus.
It's central.
You take that out of the Christian faith and you no longer have a Christian faith.
It's critical.
Now, for those of you who are disappointed with Jesus,
if Jesus is alive,
it means he's bigger than your disappointments.
That's what that means.
And if you're undecided about Jesus,
you're going to need to decide whether or not this angelic explanation of the empty tomb is actually true or not.
Of whether Jesus has been raised from the dead.
But if you are like, you hear this and you're like, yes and amen, he has risen.
This for us who are followers of Jesus,
it like satisfying confirms, like it's all true.
This isn't made up.
He is who he claimed to be.
In verse 7, this angel then tells Mary and Mary to go and tell.
Go.
Tell.
Go tell the disciples.
He has risen from the dead.
And go tell them to go to Galilee where they shall see him.
Where you shall see him.
One of the things that we're kind of leaving this scene realizing is,
at this point,
what do you think Mary and Mary were expecting?
What do you think,
having encountered this angel who says Jesus has been raised from the dead,
now go,
tell his disciples he's been risen from the dead,
and you all will see him in Galilee.
What do you think they're thinking at this point?
They're thinking,
no way is he raised from the dead.
We're going to see him in Galilee?
We've got to go tell the disciples.
And so right at this point,
they're expecting something.
But here comes another surprise.
The Jesus surprise.
In verses 8 through 10,
these women actually encounter the risen Jesus.
So they departed quickly from the tomb in verse 8.
With fear and great joy and ran to tell his disciples.
They are not expecting what is about to happen.
They hightail it out of the tomb.
And Matthew tells us it's with fear and great joy.
What's the fear all about?
The fear is having been in the presence
in a spectacular angel
making this declaration
that Jesus has risen from the dead.
If that was us,
it would have been a seismic rattling of our worlds.
It would have been overwhelming
processing all that.
Well, this is new.
What does this mean?
But greater than their fear is their joy.
Could it be that Jesus is actually alive?
Could it be that all these things that he said
are actually true?
That it's all coming together?
This great joy in anticipating,
seeing Jesus is the stuff of hope.
Real hope.
He did say that.
And then it happens.
Verse 9.
They're running to tell the disciples
and Jesus meets them on the way.
The very first eyewitnesses,
human eyewitnesses to the resurrection
of Jesus Christ in the Gospel of Matthew
are these two women.
Now look at their response in verse 9.
Seeing the risen Jesus,
they came up and took hold of his feet
and worshipped him.
They draw near
and they must have fallen down
because they are seizing his feet
and they're not imagined feet.
They're not hallucinated feet.
They're not visions of feet.
They grabbed onto the real bodily resurrected feet
of the risen Jesus
and the reason why they are at his feet
is to worship him.
God in the flesh,
risen from the dead.
His resurrection
means that he's greater than death.
He's bigger than death.
His resurrection
means the death of death.
It's what we were singing about
moments ago.
His resurrection demonstrates
he is the demolition man of death.
Blows up death.
In Revelation chapter 1,
there's this portrayal
of the risen, reigning, and radiant Jesus.
And he's got a key chain.
And on that key chain
are the keys
to death and Hades.
He has authority over death.
It doesn't have authority over him,
which means he has authority
over our deaths.
Now you can't help but notice
that Mary and Mary
respond quite differently
to the risen Jesus
than to that brilliant angel.
They didn't fall down
and worship the angel.
They did fall down
and worship the risen Christ.
It's very instructive for us.
What is the most appropriate response
to encountering
the risen Christ?
It's to fall down
and worship him.
In verse 10,
Jesus speaks
and these four words,
just like the angel
who speaks a word of calm,
Jesus speaks a word of calm,
do not be afraid.
These four words
coming from
the mouth of the resurrected
Jesus Christ
are probably the four greatest words
any sinner could ever hear.
Don't be afraid.
Do not be afraid.
He's speaking these words
to Mary and Mary.
Why shouldn't they be afraid?
afraid.
Because
He's not a threat.
This Jesus,
risen Jesus standing before them
had died the death
they had deserved
for their sin guilt
before God.
They don't need to be afraid.
They don't need to fear Him.
They don't need to fear
their Savior
in His resurrected glory.
He gave His life for theirs.
Do you remember
that book by C.S. Lewis,
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe?
After Aslan, the lion,
who is a Christ type.
After He's raised from the dead
and that great stone table
is put asunder.
Do you remember
who He appears to?
Two female witnesses,
Susan and Lucy.
And do you remember
what He does?
In His resurrected glory?
He gently invites them near.
This risen Jesus,
speaking,
do not be afraid,
to these two female disciples,
this is the same Jesus
who in Matthew 11 says,
come to me,
all you who are weary
and heavy laden,
who are burdened with sin.
Come to me,
all you who are weary
and heavy laden,
and I will give you rest.
Rest for your soul.
And then He gives a reason.
For I am gentle
and lowly of heart.
This Jesus who is speaking gently,
do not be afraid,
is this gentle and lowly Savior
now risen from the dead.
And that claim,
that invitation stands.
Come to me,
all who are weary
and heavy laden,
and I will give you rest.
I will give you peace.
Peace.
There's this speaking of calm,
but He also made a claim.
It's maybe not the claim
that the angel made.
Did you notice,
I skipped over it,
verse 9.
And behold,
Jesus met them and said,
greetings.
It's a surprising greeting
because it's basically like this.
It's like seeing a friend
you've seen two days ago
and you're like,
hey, good to see you.
Hey, good to see you again.
It's almost shockingly
kind of like underwhelming.
Because you're thinking Jesus
at this point would be like,
surprise!
Or boo!
And He's like,
good to see you again.
These two women were not expecting
to see Jesus again,
but Jesus was fully expectant
to see these two women again,
and that's why there's
the leisurely greetings.
Good to see you.
greetings.
And with that greetings
is a claim.
I'm alive.
I'm here.
I'm present.
I'm not dead.
I've won.
Greetings.
It's the claim that
that He's alive.
And then He too
gives a charge.
In verse 10,
He says,
go and tell my brothers
to go to Galilee
and they will see me there.
Go and tell my brothers.
Hmm, interesting.
I'm not sure
if I would at this point
want to call
the men
that had denied me
and deserted me,
I'm not sure
if I'd want to call them brothers.
But Jesus does.
Do you know why?
Because He too
had died
for their desertion
and their denials.
And He's gentle
and lowly.
And He's telling Mary,
Mary,
go tell my brothers,
these men I love,
these men I've
I've paid for their sins.
Tell them
they don't need to fear.
Tell my brothers,
the family of faith
that I have purchased
with my blood,
go tell them
to go to Galilee.
What's up with Galilee?
Galilee was where
it all started
three years earlier.
Galilee is where
Jesus had called
these disciples
to Himself.
And now,
it's a restart.
Jesus is going to
meet them in Galilee
and He is
in His risen glory
going to
recommission them
as His witnesses
to go make disciples.
And the witnesses
are witnesses
of His resurrection.
because in verses
17,
16 and 17
of chapter 28,
the 11
see the
resurrected Jesus
too
and worship Him.
Some took a little
longer than others.
But they now
witness
the resurrection
of Jesus Christ
crucified,
buried,
raised,
and now they're
going to go
and tell,
make disciples
of the nations.
His calm,
claim,
charge,
Jesus
standing
in their midst.
This is the
Jesus surprise.
How about that
for an encounter
on the way?
This passage
is full of surprises.
There's an angelic
surprise,
there's a surprise
announcement,
and then there's
the surprise
of Jesus Himself.
The claim
is very simple.
The claim
of this passage
it's making
is Jesus
is alive.
And for us
today,
this is what
it means.
Jesus is still
alive,
and that needs
to change
our lives.
Jesus went
into the tomb
dead and came
out of the tomb
alive as God's
most pleasant
surprise to all
of humankind
weighed down
and burdened
by sin.
surprise.
Jesus is alive,
and He is
your only
salvation.
Now, you may
be asking,
wait, Jesus
is alive?
Where is He now?
Well, according
to the Bible,
He's at the
right hand
of God
enthroned
on high
in heaven.
That's where He
is.
Well, okay.
You might ask,
well, what is He
doing?
Well, the risen
Christ, seated
at the right
hand of God
enthroned,
He's building
His church.
Right now,
all around
the globe,
the risen
Christ is
saving sinners
from every
tribe, tongue,
and nation.
Based upon
His death
and resurrection,
He's calling
them to Himself,
and He is
gathering
together
a new
holy people
called the
church.
And He's
interceding
for us.
He's
strengthening
us.
He's opening
doors for us
to witness.
That's what
He's doing
right now.
Oh, by the
way, He's
also being
worshipped by
myriads of
angels in
His glory.
And He's
waiting.
Waiting for
what?
He's waiting
for the
next thing.
What's the
next thing?
The next
thing is His
return.
The next
thing is
when He
comes back,
it's His
final surprise.
He talked
about it as
a day has
been set by
the Father
in which He
will return
like a thief
in the night.
Nobody knows.
He's going
to come back
and when He
comes back,
He's going
to make all
wrongs right.
He's going
to judge
all and He's
going to
recreate the
heavens and
the earth
as far
as the
curse is
found.
He's alive
today and
He's our
only salvation.
In this
invitation stands,
come to
me.
All you
who are
weary and
heavy laden
with sin,
I'll give
you rest.
The real
question is
what's the
next thing
for you?
For those
of you who
have never
responded to
the risen
Jesus,
maybe you've
been disappointed
with Him or
you're undecided
about Him.
What's next
for you is
if this is
true and
you're like,
yes,
that's the
best explanation.
It's true.
I believe.
Fall at
His feet
and worship
Him.
That's what's
next.
Romans 10,
9 says
this,
if we
confess with
our mouth
that Jesus
is Lord
and believe
in our hearts
that God
raised Him
from the
dead,
you will
be saved.
And so,
if Jesus
is alive,
call out
to Him.
Confess Him
as your
Lord.
Receive
the salvation
He alone
gives.
And just to
be clear,
when you
become a
Christian,
you sign
over the
deed of
your entire
life.
Gloriously,
wonderfully
signing over
the deed
of your life.
So,
if He's
alive,
call upon
Him and be
saved.
and then
join us,
this ragtag
group of
people,
Christ the
King Church,
as we
together
follow Jesus.
Come follow
Him with
us.
For those
of you who
may have
initially
responded to
Jesus Christ,
but have
lost sight of
Him,
maybe you
have gotten
caught up
with the
temporary things
of this age,
distracted by
the timeless
treasure of
Christ from
Him.
Jesus went
into the
tomb dead
and came
out alive
to claim
all of
you for
Himself.
To give
all of
yourself to
Him in
response to
His glorious
sacrifice and
resurrection.
salvation.
So the
call on
you is
to turn
back to
Jesus
fully.
Join us
as we
follow Him.
You know
what your
next step
is?
Come back!
It's next
Sunday.
Gather with
us.
Journey with
us as we
seek to
follow Jesus
with all
that we
are.
Now for
those of
you in the
room,
which are
many,
when I say
He is risen,
you say,
He is risen
indeed,
and you're
like,
yes.
You're
trying to
treasure Jesus
with all you
got.
You're trying
to obey
Jesus and
all that He
commands.
You're seeking
to magnify
Him among
all people.
You're wanting
to belong to
Jesus with
all of His
blood-bought
beloved.
You're seeking
to love other
people.
You're trying
to be a
faithful follower
of Jesus.
well, I've
got a
couple
things to
say to
you in
light of
this surprise.
This
risen
Jesus
is worth
all of
who you
are.
He's worth
your
everything.
Don't give
up.
Give Him
everything.
He's
alive.
And His
resurrection
is a
declaration
that all
of your
sins have
been forgiven.
Live for
Him.
For those
of you who
are experiencing
some frustration
and trying to
help other
people live
for Jesus,
your labor
is not in
vain.
The risen
one is at
work in
your labor.
Don't give
up.
And then
there's this
one last
surprise.
Just as
the first
Easter was
a surprise
revelation
of the
risen Christ
that was
prophesied
of,
there's
another
revelation
salvation
of the
Lord Jesus
Christ.
That is
a surprise,
will be a
surprise
fulfillment,
and that is
His second
coming.
When He
comes back,
the Apostle
Paul talks
about it as
this.
We wait
for our
blessed hope,
the appearing
of our
great God
and Savior,
Jesus
Christ.
He's alive,
brothers and
sisters.
sinners.
And we
are one
day closer
to seeing
Him face
to face,
our risen
King.
Press on.
Don't give
up.
It's all
true.
Life is
full of
surprises.
Some
unpleasant,
some
pleasant.
The
resurrection
of Jesus
is God's
most pleasant
surprise of
all time.
He is
risen.
Let me
pray.
Risen
Jesus,
you are
risen and
reigning,
and you
are at work
all around
the world
gathering for
yourself,
the people
that you
have purchased
with your
blood.
We are so
grateful that
you have
come for
us.
It's our
joy to
follow you,
to know that
you are
alive,
to know that
you are at
work,
to know that
you see
us,
to know that
you're
interceding for
us,
strengthening
us,
giving us
hope.
You are
our hope.
There's no
one like
you,
and we
entrust
ourselves to
you.
In your name
we pray.
Amen.