Easter 2023

April 11, 2023

Book: Matthew

Bible Passage: Matthew 28:1-10

Hey, do you remember the first time you were told the earth was round?  Maybe you saw one of those blue globes in elementary school?  Maybe it was one of those pictures of the solar system where all the planets are round?

Remember when Pluto was a planet?  They tried to tell us Pluto was round also!  But did you know there is a group of people who believe the earth isn’t round but flat?  How do you know?

How many of us are under the impression that Australia is a real place?  Are you sure?  Are you thinking, “You’ve been to Australia, so you know!”  It seems there are groups of people who are convinced anyone from Australia has been hired by the government to talk with funny accents.  And any person who lands in Australia is really landing in a remote place located in South America.  How do you know!

Perhaps that’s how some of us think about Jesus’ resurrecting from the dead.  After all, it’s a wild claim.  Jesus is the only One to have claimed to resurrect from the dead but how do you know?

The disciples believed Jesus resurrected from the dead but what if it was just a conspiracy?  The early church believed Jesus resurrected from the dead but what if they faked it?  How do you know?

We’re going to look at the bible, because we teach the bible.  We’re going to talk about why we can trust the bible and why we can trust the amazing claim that Jesus resurrected from the dead.  Let’s look at Matthew 28, verses 1-2:

Matthew 28:1-2, “1 Now after the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to look at the grave. 2 And behold, a severe earthquake had occurred, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled away the stone and sat upon it.” 

Big picture first!  The resurrection of Jesus is captured by 4 different perspectives knowns as Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.  Every other inspirational writing is written by one person claiming to be the final authority but the life of Jesus has 4 different perspectives and Matthew 28 is describing the first people to witness Jesus’ resurrection and it’s two women.  Did you see that in verse 1?

Maybe that isn’t a big deal to us today but in the first century the testimony of women wasn’t valid in a court of law but as Matthew is describing the fantastic claim of Jesus resurrecting from the dead he leads off with two women because Matthew isn’t trying to make up a story.  Matthew is simply describing the events of the resurrection.

Second, not only does Matthew lead off with two women, we also see basic details of Jesus’ resurrection.  Yes, there is an angelic being but doesn’t it start off a little anti-climactic.  We’re talking about Jesus resurrecting from the dead!

Wouldn’t you include a parade?  Wouldn’t you have fire rain down from heaven?  Like an angel that appears in the sky with some kind of music playing in the background, “You know Him, you love Him, don’t you want more of Him!”  But Matthew is describing the most important event in human history as a matter of fact.  It’s just what happened.

Third, you need to know there are more details about the resurrection that Matthew could have included.  Jesus’ resurrection last for 40 days.  Jesus’ resurrection is witnessed by the apostles, individually and collectively.  Jesus’ resurrection is witnessed by more than 500 people at one time.

Most of the people who saw the resurrected Jesus are still alive when Matthew is writing, which means Matthew could interview them 30-40 years after the resurrection to include more details to support this claim but instead Matthew isn’t trying to convince or persuade but simply describes factual information that Jesus resurrected from the dead.  Look at verses 3-5:

Matthew 28:3-5, “3 And his appearance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow. 4 The guards shook for fear of him and became like dead men. 5 The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid; for I know that you are looking for Jesus who has been crucified.” 

We could talk about the angel.  We could talk about the soldiers guarding the tomb but let’s talk about these two women again.  Back in verse 1 we see Mary Magdalene and the other Mary are coming to visit Jesus’ tomb.  We don’t know much about the other Mary, it was a common name but Mary Magdalene is a woman who grew up on the coast of Galilee.

Her hometown had a reputation of sexual prostitution, so it’s thought that Mary’s life is one of challenges and difficulty, and it is through her relationship with Jesus that her life is transformed.

So much so that before Jesus her contribution in life would have been overlooked but now through Jesus she is catapulted to a role of power and significance as an eye-witness to the most important event in human history.  Isn’t that amazing?

This is why in verse 5 the angel speaks to the women and says, “Do not be afraid.”  Yes, they are talking to an angel but also the must be in a place of shock.

Mary Magdalene had just witnessed the death of Jesus on Friday.  Jesus was the One who saw her, comforted her, healed her, and transformed her life.  She must have felt like her whole life was crumbling right before her eyes.

This is why some people say, “Well, maybe the disciples were just hallucinating from shock?  Maybe they just imagined the resurrection because they wanted the resurrection to be true?

Yeah, but we don’t have any recorded events of mass hallucination taking place over 40-day period.  Does that make sense?  So that’s not what is taking place here.

Some people will say, “The resurrection of Jesus is just made up.”  But if you were going to make up a fantastic claim would you start it off with unreliable eye-witnesses to verify the account?  That doesn’t make sense.

Some people say, “Maybe Jesus didn’t really die?  Maybe Jesus was just hurt and recovered?”  Yeah, maybe Jesus was whipped with bones and metal dips that dig into your skin in a way that some people would actually die but not Jesus.

And maybe when Jesus needed help carrying the cross He was just faking?  And maybe Jesus hanging on a cross wasn’t that bad?  And maybe Jesus rolled that 1,000lb giant stone by Himself?  Maybe Jesus snuck past the guards?  C’mon!

I don’t mean to be graphic, but just to be clear, when you nail someone to the cross and then stand the cross right side up it means the weight of your body is going to collapse onto itself so that the person will struggle to breathe.

In fact, the only way to breathe is to press yourself up to take a breath and then eventually a person will become so exhausted of this process, that eventually a person suffocates in the process.

C’mon.  The disciples were convinced Jesus died.  They prepared Jesus’ body like He died.  They were grieving like He died, so we have to ask ourselves, “What happened to Jesus’ body that day?”

There are guards standing by making sure nothing happened.  I mean, all those guards had to do was roll the stone back over the tomb and tell everyone, “No, Jesus is still in there.”  But that’s not what happened.  So, what happened? Look at verses 6-7:

Matthew 28:6-7, “6 He is not here, for He has risen, just as He said. Come, see the place where He was lying. 7 Go quickly and tell His disciples that He has risen from the dead; and behold, He is going ahead of you into Galilee, there you will see Him; behold, I have told you.”

In verse 6 I guess Mary and Mary are still looking for Jesus, because the angel has to say, “He’s not here.”  Again, Mary and Mary are confused because the idea of resurrecting from the dead was wild!

Jesus literally told the disciples, “I am going to be put to death and resurrect on the third day.”  You would think, “Maybe one of them would show up on the third day and look around?”  But Mary and Mary, some of Jesus’ most beloved followers are coming to grieved and when Jesus isn’t there they need to be convinced, “Come, see where Jesus was lying.  He’s not here.  He’s gone!”

Listen to me, that’s the invitation of the resurrection.  God’s Word never implies that we “just need to believe the resurrection.”  Our faith in Jesus isn’t like Santa Clause, just believe.  No, the resurrection is always presented as, “Come, see, consider the evidence!”

Consider the evidence of how this rag-tag group of followers could have crafted a story that has transformed the last 2,000 years of the world?  That’s some good writing!  They should have written some other books, right!  But none of Jesus’ followers were particularly educated.  None of Jesus’ followers were particularly positioned in politics, status or wealth, yet they were able to craft a story that was so influential that historians today look back at this point in history and struggle to explain what took place if it wasn’t Jesus resurrecting from the dead.

Buddha spent 50 years after his enlightenment establishing places of mediation, so that his influence would spread around the world.  The prophet of Islam led military campaigns to spread his influence, established a dynasty to spread his influence and left a book claimed to be dictated by god to spread throughout the world.

Jesus left a tiny group of demoralized, dejected followers, something happens, and within weeks of something happening, we see all types of communities of people becoming followers of Jesus.  What?

Within weeks we see communities of people that are made up of different ethnicities, male, female, rich, poor, educated and uneducated, Jew and Gentile, people who once hated one another, and yet now they are voluntarily gathering in worship because they believed something happened.

After all, if the resurrection is just made up, then at best the life of Jesus would have died out in a generation. Think of David Koresh in Waco.   Jim Jones in San Francisco.  There is a flash of influence, the leader dies and then the movement dies, and yet with Jesus, 2,000 years later men, women and children are still talking about the bodily resurrection of Jesus.  What do you do with that?

I know for me, I didn’t grow up believing about Jesus.  I live in Austin, Texas now but I grew up in Dallas, TX with a mega church on every corner and I never went to church.  I never knew anything about the Bible.  I had a grandmother I saw twice a year who would make me and my brother say this prayer to ask Jesus into my heart but it didn’t mean anything.  We literally did it so she would leave us alone.

It wasn’t until I was 18-years old and someone started talking to me about Jesus’ life, death and resurrection in such a way that I couldn’t overlook the evidence.  I had to investigate the evidence.  I had to ask myself, “What happened?”

And then one day, the evidence became too much, so that I believed, as crazy as it might sound, Jesus resurrected that day.  I wasn’t looking to believe in Jesus.  I thought my life was okay.  I wasn’t planning to become a pastor for a Christian church in Austin, Texas one day.  I just investigated the life of Jesus and like Mary Magdalene of old, Jesus changed my life.  Won’t you do the same?  Look at verses 8-10:

Matthew 28:8-10, “8 And they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy and ran to report it to His disciples. 9 And behold, Jesus met them and greeted them. And they came up and took hold of His feet and worshiped Him. 10 Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and take word to My brethren to leave for Galilee, and there they will see Me.”

Isn’t that amazing?  It’s not only women who witness the empty tomb but it’s also women who first witness the resurrection.  Of all the people for Jesus to speak to first.  It’s Mary Magdalene and the other Mary.  Isn’t that fascinating?

If you were making up this story, then surely you appear to the religious leaders.  Surely you appear to those who put you to death.  Surely you appear to your closest disciples; Peter, James and John.  Nope.  It’s Mary and Mary!

Listen to me, if you are a female, please don’t ever listen to someone telling you that the Scriptures have a low view of women.  We are talking about the most important event in human history and eye-witness testimony begins with women whose lives have been transformed through Jesus.

And how do Mary and Mary respond to Jesus in verse 9?  They fall on their face.  They kiss His feet.  The word “worship” in verse 9 means she is kissing His feet and worshipping Jesus as God.

And how does Jesus respond to these women in verse 10?  Jesus encourages them, “Don’t be afraid.”  And Jesus sends them, “Go and tell others!”  Isn’t that good?  That’s the response that’s available to us this morning.

You don’t have to go to Jerusalem to meet Jesus.  Jesus is with us right now as a church family in Austin.  Jesus is with us right now as a Christians in Austin.  The evidence of His life, death and resurrection is being presented to you through His Word.  How do you respond?