Matthew 27:62-28:6
He Is Risen
Ogden Baptist Church
April 12, 2009
Introduction
In Matthew 27:62-28:6, the Bible says…
The next day, the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. “Sir,” they said, “we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first.” “Take a guard,” Pilate answered. “Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how.” So they went and make the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard. After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb. There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men. The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said…”
He is not here…He is risen! The cross is empty and the tomb is empty…He is risen! In the most powerful words Jesus ever spoke, He said,
“The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life – only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again.”
False Christs and false messiahs have been making that claim for thousands of years, but they’re still in the ground. You can go to their tombs and shrines today and see where they lay. But only Jesus had the power to take His life and raise it up again! He is risen! He alone is the resurrection and the life!
But what does that really mean? I mean, so Jesus is risen. So what? Does it really make any difference? Does it really matter? Is it all that important? They might sound like trite questions, but they’re not. They’re enormous questions with huge implications for our lives.
I am so glad to be here this morning to worship a risen Savior! I really don’t want to waste a bunch of time this morning with a clever sermon that’ll try to sneak something up on you or offer up useless platitudes that only marginalize the significance of Easter and the resurrection. Instead, I’d like to get right to the point by making two simple observations from our text and follow that up with what it means for you and me.
People will go to great lengths to keep from being persuaded of something they don’t want to believe.
Once Jesus was in the tomb, the religious leaders knew how damaging it would be for rumors of a resurrected Jesus to spread around. He’d predicted his resurrection throughout His ministry, but of course they didn’t believe it was any more possible that He was the Savior or Messiah than I believe you to be. In their minds Jesus was a heretic, a blasphemer, a slap in the face of God and all Jews – so there was no way on God’s earth that this man was going to do anything other than rot in the grave and quickly fade from the minds of the people gullible enough to follow Him.
But what they did believe to be possible was for Jesus’ disciples to plot and carry out the theft of Jesus’ body so it’d be possible to spread rumors of a supposed resurrection. Even though in their minds it couldn’t possibly happen, rumors that it had would be just as bad. So they went to Pilate and pressed him to assign Roman soldiers to guard the tomb and prevent anything from happening until after the third day. You can see the fear they had of anyone claiming Jesus was raised. “This deception (that Jesus was raised) would be worse than the first deception (that Jesus could be raised).
The Bible says “the fool says in his heart that there is no god.” The fool also says in his heart that Jesus isn’t the Savior, or Jesus isn’t the Son of God, or Jesus didn’t really rise from the dead, or that Jesus never lived in the first place. The fool says that Jesus was just a man, or Jesus was just a good man or a good prophet or a great spiritual leader, but not the Son of God and certainly not the only way to eternal life.
But that’s a fool. Those aren’t my words – they’re the words of God. Denying the reality of the resurrection doesn’t make it any less true.
• the Old Testament foretold it
• Jesus foretold it
• Jesus died on a cross
• was buried in a tomb that was easy to find
• appeared three days later with a physical body
• was seen by more than 500 people
• the gospels were written only a few years later and confirmed it
• the resurrection was celebrated in the earliest of church creeds
• it convinced his family to worship Him as God
• his most bitter enemies confirmed it, and
• the lives of His disciples were transformed by it
There is so much evidence testifying to the reality of the resurrection of Jesus Christ it’s almost ridiculous, and yet people still can’t believe it. In our text we find men who talked with Jesus, listened to Him talk about His coming death, burial and resurrection, and saw the miracles He performed, and all they can do is plot against a possible body snatch.
They didn’t want to believe! And regardless of 2,000 years of evidence and scholarship and life-transformation men still today will go to great lengths to keep from being persuaded of something they don’t want to believe. But here’s the great news…
God’s Plans Aren’t Bothered By The Ignorance Of Man
What it must have been like the morning of that third day! Oh I would love to have been hiding in a bush by the tomb! God’s not asking me, but if He ever wanted to know what I want in heaven my answer’s going to be instant replay!
The Bible says that on the morning of the third day there was a violent earthquake as the Lord’s angel came from heaven and rolled back the stone! Can you imagine those Roman soldiers posted at the tomb? I mean think about it! What were they going to do? This was the God that spoke the world into existence? The God who scraped up a cup full of dirt and breathed life into it! This was the God that parted seas and rivers, the God that made water flow from rocks! The God that turned a woman into a pile of salt and brought a giant of a man to his knees before a young shepherd boy. This was the God that swallowed a man for three days in a fish’s belly, and the same God that allowed that man to live. This is the God that preserved an old prophet in a lion’s den and the same God that swallowed up naysayers in the ground.
I know they didn’t believe any of that – but what were they going to do if it was? We know what they did do…they fainted on the spot and probably needed a change of shorts! The angel’s message to the women that day was the greatest news they’d ever hear: “I know you’re looking for Jesus, but he’s not here. He is risen!” Listen, God’s plans aren’t bothered by what man or demons might do. He is sovereign, omniscient and omnipotent. They could have posted tens of thousands of guards that weekend, but that grave was still going to open because there was a Savior coming out of the tomb!
Have you ever taken time to think that the entire Old Testament is Satan’s attempt to prevent the birth of a Savior and the story of how God wasn’t bothered by it? God promised a Savior. Satan killed Abel…God provided a Seth. And the story goes on and on. Jesus is born of a virgin and King Herod tries to kill Him. Jesus sets his path to the cross and Satan tries to tempt Him. Jesus is pouring His heart out in the garden and Judas betrays Him. But none of it mattered. Jesus came to earth for those very things: to be born of a virgin, live in victory over sin, die a cruel sacrificial death for you and me and finally be raised from the dead that Sunday morning long ago. If you think the guards got a surprise, I wonder what Satan got.
So What?
So I want to get back to my initial questions: so what? I mean, so Jesus is risen. So what? Does it really make any difference? The answer is yes – the resurrection of Jesus Christ makes a huge difference. The fact that Jesus is risen and is alive and well today has some important implications for you. I just want to give you four.
#1 - If the claim that Jesus made about rising from the grave is true, then we are compelled to believe that everything else He ever said is absolutely true too. He said “we must be born again.” He said that “no man comes to the Father except through Him.” He said that “He is the way, the truth and the life.” He said that one day He will return again. Will He find faith?
This means that everything Jesus said about salvation is true, everything He said about heaven and hell and the coming judgment is true, everything He said about being rightly related to God is true, everything He declared about loving others and being the church and his expectations for us are true. It means that everything He declared about Himself is true: He is the Son of God, the Son of Man, the Light of the World, the one and only way, the Bread of Life, and the Living Water!
If everything Jesus said is true – then there are no other ways, there is no second chance after death, your good deeds can’t outweigh your bad ones, none of your religious busyness matters, and He’s not worried about whom you might impress here on earth.
#2 - If everything Jesus said is true, then we need to be very careful how we respond to Him. Now I mean this on at least two levels. As the risen Savior Jesus is also the King of kinds and Lord of lords. The Bible declares Him to be the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the coming King and Judge.
People flippantly toss the name of Jesus around like it’s nothing, and Jesus gives us the freedom to do it. I’d just say to you that if Jesus is still on trial in your heart and mind…that is, if you’re still undecided about whether He is what the Bible claims and you’ve never given your life to Christ, be very careful about what you do with that freedom. There are only two possible destinations after this life, and there’s only one way to the one you want. Deny the Lordship of Christ all you want; it doesn’t make it any less true or sure.
Offer the plan of salvation.
Those of us who are believers…people who have been redeemed…we need to be careful also how we respond to Him. Jesus isn’t interested in our religious games. Are we living for Him like we ought? Or are we following from afar? Jesus made a statement in Luke 18 you and I need to think about. He said, “When the Son of Man returns, will He find faith on the earth?” Jesus wasn’t questioning whether He’d find “the faith” or people saved by faith. The question was whether Jesus would find us living by faith. Would He find people living what they claim to believe. I pray my life lives up to the holy expectations of a righteous God!
#3 – If Jesus is the risen Savior, then we of all people ought to be the most joyous people on the planet! Have you really listened to the words of the great hymns?
Because He Lives
Because He lives I can face tomorrow, Because He lives all fear is gone,
Because I know He holds the future. And life is worth the living just because He lives!
Christ Arose
Low in the grave He lay, Jesus my Savior! Waiting the coming day, Jesus my Lord!
Up from the grave He arose, With a mighty triumph over His foes;
He arose a Victor from the dark domain, And He lives forever with His saints to reign,
He arose! He arose! Hallelujah! Christ arose!
He Lives
I serve a risen Savior, He’s in the world today; I know that He is living, whatever men may say…
Rejoic, rejoice, O Christian, lift up your voice and sing eternal hallelujahs to Jesus Christ the King!
O, people! I wonder how it must break the heart of God to see His people who have been delivered from darkness to light, from blindness to sight, from weeping to laughter, from bondage to sin to liberty in Christ walking around in defeat and in shame and like our team is losing. Let’s celebrate the goodness and glory and majesty of God! Let’s celebrate today the risen Savior! He’s not in a tomb today – He is risen! Let us be like the women in Matthew 28 who, in verse 8, “hurried away from the tomb afraid, yet filled with joy!”
