Matthew 28:1-10 – The Surprise Worship Service
When Nikita Khrushchev died, a humorous story circulated in political circles. Apparently, the Communist party who’d cast Mr Khrushchev aside were uncomfortable about burying his body on Soviet soil. So they called the President of the United States, Richard Nixon, asking if the U.S. would take Khrushchev’s corpse. Nixon had his own problems at the time and declined. Then the Soviet leaders tried Golda Meir, Prime Minister of Israel. She was agreeable but added, "I must warn you that this country has the world’s highest resurrection rate."
There is something astonishing when the dead come back to life. It’s not natural. It is supernatural. It’s certainly never been common. It happens overseas every once in a while. But even in biblical times, it was rare. People generally resigned themselves to the fact that when a person died, that person stayed that way.
There is something permanent about death. We will never see them again. We will miss the time we had with them. And we generally wish that we had had more time with them, or we wish we had said or done something different. Death causes regrets. Death causes us to know whom we loved the most.
In our scripture passage today, we’ll look at the women who went to find Jesus that Easter Sunday, wanting to do one final act of devotion, one last act of love, one more act of service, to their lord and master, applying more spices to his lifeless body.
These women lived their lives to worship Jesus. To worship means to place a great worth on, to value highly. This is the essence of our church’s 3rd purpose: to value Christ highly through worship. These women placed Him first, and we are to do that too.
Worship is often misunderstood. Singing, praying, and attending church – we call these worship. But worship goes deeper than these actions. Or, we classify worship as “good” or “bad”, as in, “That worship service wasn’t very good today” or “I prefer when Glenna or Donna leads worship, because it’s better than.” But worship goes so much deeper than preferences or style too. Worship is about loving the Lord with all our heart, mind, soul and strength. Worship means waiting on Him and serving Him. It really does mean putting Him first in all we do. To accept no other gods before Him. To have Him as our first priority, whether it’s Sunday morning or not.
Let’s take just a few minutes today to look at 3 truths about our worship of the risen Jesus.
1) it may surprise us in our search – v1-7. Understand: these women had an agenda in mind. They were going to anoint Him with perfume and place more spices on his body. They knew what they were going to do. They were prepared to come to Jesus as they understood Him. But God was going to surprise the women that morning. God was about to upset their agendas. What they thought was an appropriate form of worship was about to be re-arranged by God’s plans. Instead of worshiping Jesus by anointing Him, they worshiped Him by falling at His feet, in devotion to the One who had just defeated death.
Often we come to church with an agenda, as if we were marking the list off from our calendar or daily planner. OK, I’m going to sing, pray, listen, and leave. Check! No surprises or shocks. Just following our agendas. I will worship Jesus in my own comfortable, particular way.
That starts off nice and noble. Not being a slave to someone else’s thinking. Being an individual. Working out your own salvation and all that. But the problem is that through the centuries, history has shown it doesn’t stop there. It always progresses to “I like it my way,” to “I think my way is the best way.”
Then, “If it’s not my preferences, it’s wrong.” Most of us have battled with this in regards to most things in church: service format to preaching style to musical style to hymn preferences to chorus preferences to Bible translation. If it’s not what I’m used to, it’s wrong.
Well maybe what you’re used to is right, and maybe it’s wrong. But simply being used to it doesn’t make it one or the other. What you’re comfortable with isn’t right or wrong, just because you’re comfortable with it. And sometimes God wants to break you out of it. Sometimes God will surprise you in your search for Jesus.
As you go through life trying to please Him, God will change your mind. God changed your mind once about something fairly important. From “I don’t need You” to “I do you need You.” From “I’m alright” to “No, I’m lost”.
Think about it: if the women had walked away from that worship experience, that encounter with the risen Jesus, and not been surprised or changed, what would they have missed out on? If they had just ignored the facts, this bump in their plans, this surprise by God, they would have missed out on the greatest thing that ever happened in this world. Same with you. If you walk away from a surprise by God, if He tries to show you something new or say something new to you, something that just might make you change your mind or your heart, and you don’t allow it into your life, you may miss out on some of God’s greatest truths.
The Sermon on the Mount was only preached to Jesus’ closest followers. Only the few that climbed the mount with Jesus that day heard firsthand the greatest sermon ever preached. You too will miss out on God’s best-kept secrets and surprises if you don’t allow Jesus to show up in your life in a different way than you ever have before.
2) it might make us go farther than our feelings – v8. Let’s look at how the women were feeling. Earlier that morning they were sad, mournful, depressed, feeling mighty low. Then, they met the angel who said to them: Fear not. Jesus is alive. Then v8 tells us how they were feeling: afraid or fearful, yet joyful. They had already been transformed from sad to happy, from gloomy to uplifted. And then they met Jesus, who told them the same thing. He said, “Greetings”, which in essence means, “Rejoice! Be happy!” And then He told them to fear not, not to be afraid.
Understand how difficult it would be to take all this in. To go from gloom to joy to, well, uncertainty. What would you be feeling if you went through what they had just gone through in the space of an hour?
But when they finally met Christ, they worshiped Him. You know, half of us in here struggle with having any emotion in our worship – it’s all so cut-and-dry. We come, we go, but nothing ever engages us. We go through motions. We set our brains in neutral and coast. We empty our thoughts instead of take them captive.
But the other half never get around to worshiping because we are lost in our emotions. We let our feelings control us. They determine what we do and how well we do it. If we don’t feel like doing something – “I don’t feel like going to church today” – we don’t. As if our emotions were our god. As if we worship the god of feel-good.
These women worshiped Christ even if they had been on an emotional roller-coaster all morning. Believe me, I know what it’s like to not feel like coming to church. Who wants to come to church if they’ve been fighting with their kids or spouse all morning? You’re not alone. But you need to break through letting your feelings dictate your life. Come, relax, rest, ask God for forgiveness, and deal with your problems an hour later. They may be gone, or God may just give you a new perspective on them. Please, don’t let emotions rob you of a chance to spend time with Jesus.
3) it must overflow into obedience – v10.
Watch what the women did once they found Jesus. They came to him, they wrapped their arms around his feet, and they worshiped Him. They showed Him how much they loved Him. They spent time with Him. They let Him know how much He meant to them. Then Jesus said, “Do not be afraid.”
Well, obviously they weren’t afraid at that point. They had already been spending time with Him. Why would He tell them not to be afraid? Because of what was coming next. He told them to go tell others. Why would they need not to be afraid in telling others? Because they were women. People didn’t listen to them. Their testimonies weren’t even admissible in court. They were going to need courage to be obedient to Jesus’ commands.
You know, it’s easier to be here in church than out there in the world. No-one nagging, tormenting (usually), complaining, needing, criticizing, persecuting… It’s easier to stay here in worship than be out there with people who don’t understand you. But Jesus told them to go. Their worship had to outflow and yours does too. Your life needs to be a message of what’s in this church: grace, love, mercy, faith, peace, hope. What you get when you’re here needs to be spilled out into those around you. What God does to bless you in your own personal quiet times should be used as a blessing to others. Matthew 10:27 says: “What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs.” Whatever God says to you personally needs to be lived and shared with those around you.
So how’s your worship? We judge worship by how good the preaching and singing are. As if we are the ones that need to be pleased with it. It is Jesus alone who deserves worship, who deserves to be pleased. And He finds pleasure in the condition of your heart, not in the entertainment value. We strive to do our best, doing it all to the glory of God. But it’s Jesus, not us, who is the real audience. Will you allow the risen Savior to surprise you, to shake you out of the familiar? Will you worship the risen Savior, even when your emotions are all over the place? And will you allow your worship to overflow into the world around you?
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Matthew 28:1-10 – The Surprise Worship Service
There is something about death that is usually permanent.
Death causes us to reflect on our loved ones.
It causes us to know who it is that we really love.
The women loved Jesus – they worshiped Him.
We are meant to worship Jesus as well.
But we often misunderstand what worship is.
We can learn three truths about worship
from the women who met the risen Jesus.
1) It may s________________________ us in our search – v1-7.
We often come to church with our own agendas in mind.
We like what we are used to, and we usuallt think it’s the best.
But God may want to show us something new, something different.
2) It might make us go f__________________ than our feelings – v8.
The women had had quite an up-and-down morning already.
Yet they worshiped Jesus, despite their roller-coaster emotions.
We need to get past “how we feel” and do what’s right, anyway.
3) It must o_____________________ into obedience – v10.
It’s easier to be with Jesus than be in the world,
but we are sent out to let others know Jesus is alive.
God blesses us to make us a blessing to others.
