We live in a world today where people are constantly seeking security in every area of their lives. So it is not surprising that enterprising people have capitalized on that desire for security by providing us with all kinds of products that promise to give us security. Just the other day as I was driving in my car I was bombarded with radio ads that promised me to give me security in many different areas of my life. I could be protected against identity theft for only $10.00 per month and if I put in the right code I could even get a 10% discount on that. And then there were the ads that promised to provide me with financial security if I bought gold or invested my IRA funds with a financial advisor whose clients had never lost even a dime. I could have security while on the road by getting my brakes inspected for free or by getting the crack in my windshield fixed or by pressing my “OnStar” button – assuming I had an “OnStar” button. I could be secure at home by installing an alarm system that would protect my family and my belongings. And when I head to the airport at the end of next month to go on vacation, I’ll be subjected to screening procedures that are intended to provide security for me and the other passengers on our flight.
But the desire for security is not new. In fact, as we gather here this morning to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus, we’re reminded that the desire for security played a significant role some of the things which occurred in connection with that important historical event.
This morning, I’m going to be reading from Matthew’s account of those events. I’ll begin in Matthew chapter 27, verse 62 as Matthew recounts an event that took place on the day after the crucifixion of Jesus:
62 The next day, that is, after the day of Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate 63 and said, “Sir, we remember how that impostor said, while he was still alive, ‘After three days I will rise.’ 64 Therefore order the tomb to be made secure until the third day, lest his disciples go and steal him away and tell the people, ‘He has risen from the dead,’ and the last fraud will be worse than the first.” 65 Pilate said to them, “You have a guard of soldiers. Go, make it as secure as you can.” 66 So they went and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone and setting a guard.
Matthew 27:62-66 (ESV)
Both the Jewish religious leaders and Pilate had a vested interest in keeping the tomb of Jesus secure. The chief priests and the Pharisees had heard Jesus claim that He would rise from the grave after three days and they wanted to prevent that from occurring. They knew that if the people believed Jesus had risen from the dead, people would flock to follow Him and they would lose their position of power and influence over the people. Although they told Pilate that they were worried the disciples would steal the body, it seems to me that wasn’t their real worry. After all, the disciples were all hiding out, fearing that if they were seen in public, they might meet the same fate as Jesus. Although they would never admit it, I think these religious leaders believed it was possible that Jesus would somehow be able to fulfill the promise He had made. And foolishly, they thought they might be able to somehow prevent that.
And Pilate, as the governor of Judea, wanted to prevent anything that would disrupt the peace there because that would threaten his standing with the Roman authorities who had given him his position of power. Although Pilate viewed this as primarily an internal matter among the Jews, he still didn’t want a body to turn up missing.
But we also get the feeling that, after his previous encounter with Jesus, Pilate sensed that there was something about Jesus that made some kind of miraculous event seem plausible. Pilate’s response to the Jewish leaders is very telling: “Go, make it as secure as you can.” It was almost as if Pilate discerned that the guards that he was sending wouldn’t be able to stop what was going to occur.
Each Easter, I really like to focus on some particular person or group of people whose lives were changed by the resurrection of Jesus. And this year, as I read the gospel accounts of the resurrection and the events which followed I was really intrigued by these men who made up this Roman guard. As we’ll see in a moment, they were among only a very few who actually witnessed the empty tomb as the stone is rolled away.
Between the text itself and other relevant historical information, we can get a pretty good picture of the nature of the Roman guard that was sent by Pilate to secure the tomb of Jesus. A typical Roman guard had a minimum of four soldiers but the context suggests there were probably significantly more than four assigned to guard the tomb of Jesus. Typically half of the men would keep watch for a three hour shift while the others rested and then they would switch off for the next three hour shift.
We also need to keep in mind that these were Roman soldiers who had been assigned to guard the tomb of a criminal. They didn’t care about Jesus or the claims He had made or about the Jewish religious leaders and their laws and rituals. All they cared about was making sure no one broke the Roman seal on that tomb because if that happened it meant, at a minimum, the end of their careers and potentially even death. They were not about to fall asleep on the job.
We’ll pick up the account at the beginning of Matthew 28:
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. 2 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. 3 His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. 4 And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men.
Matthew 28:1-4 (ESV)
It is just before dawn on the very first Easter. We know from the other gospel accounts that the two Mary’s were coming to the tomb to care for the body of Jesus with the spices they were carrying. But it turns out that “as secure as you can” isn’t all that secure. The security of man comes face to face with an earthquake from God. And it’s obvious which one prevails. And as the angel rolled back the stone, these strong, burly Roman guards fell to the ground in fear and became like dead men. Their swords and spears and shields were no match for the power of God.
It’s not hard to imagine why these men cowered in fear. First of all, they had failed in their duty to prevent the stone from being rolled back from the opening of the tomb and they understood the consequences of their failure. Secondly the earthquake and the appearance of the angel would have been enough to make them frightened. But I’m convinced that what terrified them the most was what they witnessed when the stone was rolled away. The body was gone! You see, the angel didn’t need to roll away the stone so Jesus could get out. He was already gone! The stone was rolled away so that the soldiers and the women could be witnesses to the reality of the resurrection.
These men had come face to face with the reality of the resurrection and with the inadequacy of all that in which they had previously placed their security – their physical prowess, their training, their discipline, and their weapons.
There is a sense in which Easter still serves that purpose for all of us today. When we are brought face to face with the reality of the resurrection of Jesus, it forces us to reconsider all those things that we have chosen to rely upon for our security – our jobs, our material possessions, our health, our training and skills, our discipline and all our other resources.
So these men, just like us had to make some decisions about how they were going to respond to the resurrection. And as Matthew continues his account, we see their response.
11 While they were going, behold, some of the guard went into the city and told the chief priests all that had taken place. 12 And when they had assembled with the elders and taken counsel, they gave a sufficient sum of money to the soldiers 13 and said, “Tell people, ‘His disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep.’ 14 And if this comes to the governor's ears, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.” 15 So they took the money and did as they were directed. And this story has been spread among the Jews to this day.
Matthew 28:11-15 (ESV)
When I read this part of the account, my heart just breaks. These men have just been witness to the greatest miracle of all time, to the greatest event in the history of mankind. They get to see with their own eyes the tremendous power of God. But instead of turning to God, they turn to a group of Jewish religious leaders.
There are a couple of interesting things that we see in this account. First of all, only some of the soldiers go to the chief priests. That raises the question: Where are the rest of them? We really don’t know. Perhaps they stayed behind to wait for instructions from their fellow soldiers. Perhaps they had fled in terror. Or perhaps, and I pray this is the case, a few of them recognized the real significance of what they had just seen and had turned to God. There are certainly other accounts in the Bible where Roman soldiers had professed their faith in Jesus when they saw His power displayed. So that is at least a possibility, although we can’t know for sure.
But what we do know is that at least some of the soldiers go to the Jewish religious leaders to report what happened. It is telling that the soldiers don’t go to their superiors in the Roman army, but rather to these religious leaders. They knew they couldn’t go to the Roman authorities because they had failed in their task and would be subject to punishment and even death. So they tried to find some security where they thought they would have the best chance of finding a willing ally. They were aware of the fact that the Jewish leaders were trying to prevent what had just occurred so they thought, correctly as it turned out, that they would find a sympathetic ear there.
And sure enough, these religious leaders came up with a plan that would serve both of their purposes. For the religious leaders, it would provide a story they could use to try and refute the resurrection of Jesus and in return the soldiers would receive protection from their superiors. And it didn’t hurt that they would get a large sum of money as well.
But before we’re too quick to condemn these soldiers, we need to take a step back and look at our own lives first. We’re probably a lot more like those soldiers that we’d like to admit – at least at times. Like them, we’re often quick to seek our security in the wrong places. And that is true both when it comes to our present and our future security. Let me begin by addressing our future security.
Our Future Security
There is more to life than just this physical life that we live here on earth. Regardless of how long any of us live here on earth, we will die one day but our existence does not end there. We will either spend eternity in the presence of God or will face everlasting punishment and torment apart from God. Most people obviously desire the security of eternity in the presence of God, but unfortunately far too many of them try to find that security in the wrong places.
Some people try to find that security in religion. They’re actually not all that different than the religious leaders who rejected the evidence of the resurrection of Jesus. They think that by going to church, or participating in the right religious rituals and practices that will somehow make them right with God and secure their eternal life.
Others try to find that security in good works. I know this from my own personal experience. For much of my life I viewed life like a sporting event and I assumed, quite wrongly, that God had this giant scoreboard and that all I had to do was to make sure that at the end of my life I had done more good deeds than bad deeds.
Other people try to find that security in knowledge. They figure that if they can just soak up enough knowledge, they can somehow figure out how to get into heaven.
But Jesus made it clear that none of those means are the way to finding eternal security. Shortly before His crucifixion, Jesus was with His disciples and He told them very simply and clearly the only way they could truly have security for their future:
“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
John 14:6 (ESV)
Even though they came face to face with the reality of the resurrection, the Roman soldiers failed to accept and commit to this truth. Perhaps there are some of you here this morning who would have to honestly say that you’ve done the same thing. You believe in the resurrection of Jesus, but you are still depending on some other means for your future security. If that describes you, then I want to encourage you this morning to find your security in Jesus alone. The Bible is quite clear on how you need to do that.
…if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
Romans 10:9 (ESV)
The first thing to note about this verse is that if you take these two steps, you can be guaranteed that you will be saved and that your future will be secure. So let’s look at the two steps, beginning with the second one – believing in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead. I’ve got to believe that at least to some degree the Roman soldiers did that. They certainly saw the evidence of His resurrection with their own eyes.
But the problem is that they weren’t willing to take the second step – that of making Jesus their Lord. We don’t use the word “lord” a lot in our culture today. Today we might say our “master” or even our “boss”. What is means is that I’m willing to give up controlling my own life and give that control to Jesus. It means that I quit trying to find my security anywhere else and put all my faith in Jesus alone as the means to my security. And these self-reliant men just weren’t willing to do that.
So if you’ve never done that, then we want to encourage you to make that decision this morning. In just a moment, I’ll share with you how you can do that and how we want to help you in the process of coming to that decision. But before I do that, let’s briefly consider the second aspect of our security.
Our Present Security
I have to think that the Roman soldiers felt pretty secure when they went to guard the tomb. After all, they had the best training and the best weapons available so there wasn’t much to fear from some scared followers of this criminal who had just been executed a couple of days before. But they soon found out that all the people and things that they had relied upon for their security were inadequate for what they faced.
At the beginning of this message, I mentioned some of the products that people try to sell us to provide for our security. There is, indeed, nothing inherently wrong with any of those products. In fact, I could make a pretty good Biblical case that we need to take prudent steps to do what we can to protect ourselves and our families from potential risks.
But the problem occurs when we begin to rely upon those things that we have chosen as the basis for our security. Ultimately, none of those things can provide the kind of security we’re looking for. There is no guarantee that someone can’t still steal our identity or that we won’t be ruined financially or that we won’t get in an accident or even that a terrorist won’t somehow manage get on my plane flight.
But, if I’m willing to trust my life completely to Jesus, I can still have real security even in the midst of those kinds of difficult circumstances. The Apostle Paul certainly learned that lesson. Listen to what he writes in his letter to the Philippian church:
…The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:5-7 (ESV)
God promises that if we’ll take every circumstance in life to him in prayer that He will provide us with the peace of God. Notice He never promises to change our circumstances – just our outlook. We saw that with the Roman soldiers. Although we didn’t read the entire account, we know that the two Mary’s also witnessed exactly what the soldiers saw – the earthquake and the angel rolling away the stone in front of the tomb. But because they trusted God, they responded in a completely different manner than the soldiers and eventually placed their faith in the resurrected Jesus. Same circumstances – two completely different responses.
Paul goes on to provide us with some further insight into how to find our present security in Jesus:
Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
Philippians 4:11-13 (ESV)
Paul had learned how to be content regardless of his circumstances. That is because he realized that the only way he could have security in the midst of those circumstances was by trusting in Jesus and allowing Jesus to give him the strength to survive, and even thrive, even in very difficult times.
If we’re honest, even those of us who have committed our lives to Jesus often struggle with finding our day-to-day security in Jesus. Far too often we’re tempted to be like those Roman soldiers and try to rely upon that which we can control in order to find security. So for us, the resurrection of Jesus serves to grab our attention and remind us once again of our need to trust completely in Him in every area of our lives.
This morning all of us face the same question that those Roman soldiers faced nearly 2,000 years ago when they came face to face with the resurrection of Jesus – What are we going to do with the resurrection? Are we going to be afraid of it and run from it in fear? Are we going to ignore it and pretend it never happened? Or are we going to embrace it and embrace Jesus and trust in Him alone for our future and present security?
We understand that at an event like this, there are people who are at all different places in their spiritual journey. Some of you have never really started the journey by making Jesus your Lord and giving Him control of your life. Some of you have done that but you’re still struggling to let go of all the things you’re hanging on to in order to find security and to trust completely in Jesus regardless of your circumstances. And some of you are further along in your journey and are finding it easier to do that, although you would have to admit that you still slip up once in a while.
I want to let you know this morning that Thornydale Family Church is here to come along side you and help you wherever you are in your journey. We would consider our privilege to be your partner in that process. So if we can help you in any way, please take a moment after the service to come and talk to me or you can also fill out the information on the flap of the bulletin and give it to me or one of our greeters after the service.
