#2006-12
Title: Invincible
Text: Matthew 28:1-15
Truth: You can’t defeat Jesus!
Aim: I want them to trust and obey Jesus.
Life ?: Why can’t Jesus be defeated?
INTRODUCTION
Jerry Seigle and Joe Shuster were barely out of high school in the down and dirty days of the Great Depression when they came up with their brainchild. During these desperate days when big governments and big business and big problems made the little man feel even less powerless, these two Jewish boys came up with a comic book hero. He was stooped-shouldered and wore round-rimmed glasses, but when he was backed into a corner, he would rip open his shirt and take charge. The first dime novel that bears the name of Superman has him throw a wife-beater against a wall, grab a spy by the leg—leaping upwards with the terrified man in tow—and pitch a wailing warmonger over a stand of trees.
As other super heroes came on the scene his powers grew to offset diminishing sales. He could see across the universe, hear a cough on the other side of the earth and sunbath in the heart of the sun. In the effort to sustain interest in Superman, writers increased and decreased his powers all in the effort of trying to make him more human. In 1992 in the long series “The Death of Superman”, he dies from exhaustion and loss of blood. He is laid in a tomb. And then—silence, as DC Comics ceased publishing its flagship title. Was it the end?
Then in the spring of 1993 he was sighted. How did he beat death? The writers spun a tale of scientific-gobbledygook. The fans could’ve cared less. Superman, like Mr. Spock of Star Trek and Jesus Himself—had risen. That’s all that mattered.
Today one of the most popular TV programs is Smallville. It’s the story of Superman as a teenager. There is talk of a new Superman movie to be made.
Whether it is Lex Luther and kryptonite or other super hero competitors or even death, Superman appears to be invincible. But in Superman’s own words to a young man whose life he had rescued, “I’m not God.” As he jets into the air, he reminds the young man he is Superman.
I’m here to tell you that the God-Man, Jesus Christ, is not a fictional character. He literally lived. No reputable historian disputes this assertion. His death on the cross and his rising from the grave is not a piece of fiction. The evidence is convincing even to skeptics. Christians have placed their faith in the invincible Jesus Christ. Jesus can’t be defeated!
The O.T. ends with the hope of the coming Messiah to the Jews. Matthew’s gospel is first in the arrangement of the N.T. because it was written to a Jewish audience. He writes to convince the Jews that Jesus is that promised Messiah. Matthew closes his gospel with the shocking report that the Jews rejected their King and Messiah. They crucified and killed Him! The Jews may have rejected their King, but God vindicates Him and establishes Him as the ruling regent of the universe. The women, the angels, the soldiers and indirectly the religious leaders all witness that Jesus is invincible. Even death cannot hold Him down.
Notice three instances that reveal Jesus can’t be defeated. These things might stop other powerful people or forces, but they don’t stop Jesus. He actually uses them to carry out His purposes.
First, …
I. JESUS USES A REMNANT (MATT. 28:1-10)
The key interest of Matthew in this last chapter is the resurrected Christ’s concern with the disciple’s future ministry in extending the kingdom of Christ. The message the women are given is to tell the disciples they have an appointment and assignment from Christ.
Another key theme in Matthew is authority, which fits with Jesus being King. This book closes with His disciples receiving a commission from the King to go make other followers of Jesus, and they are to do it in the authority of Jesus.
Jesus can use anyone under His authority to accomplish His purposes.
One of the strong evidences that the story of the resurrection is factual and not fictional is that the first to be witnesses to the resurrection of Jesus Christ are women. If someone were to concoct a story to attempt to deceive others, we presume that they would not knowingly tell the story in a way that would hurt the credibility of the story. For example, when Senator Joseph Biden of Delaware ran for the Democratic nomination for President of the U.S., he fabricated his educational attainments and plagiarized a speech and life experiences from a British politician. He had to withdraw from the 1988 Presidential campaign because his lie destroyed his credibility.
In all the gospels the women are listed as the primary witnesses. In that day, the Jewish and Roman cultures held women in low esteem and questioned their testimony. It’d be very tempting for the gospel writers to have left this part of the story out.
Here are some things that Jewish writings have to say about women:
“Sooner let the words of the Law be burnt than delivered to women.” (Talmud, Sotah 19a)
“Any evidence which a woman [gives] is not valid (to offer), also they are not valid to offer. This is equivalent to saying that one who is Rabbinically accounted a robber is qualified to give the same evidence as a woman.” (Talmud, Rosh Hashannah 1.8)
Ladies, according to this statement, your testimony was given the same regard as that of a robber. This is why Luke 24:11 says that the disciples first response to the women’s report of Christ having been raised from the dead was considered nonsense. They didn’t believe the women. If the Gospel writers had invented the story of the empty tomb, it is far more likely that they would have depicted men as having discovered the tomb vacant and being the first to see Jesus.
In fact, when you step back and look at the gospel story it is stunning whom God uses to accomplish His purposes. He uses a teenage virgin to be the mother of the Son of God. He uses Judas, a wicked-hearted man, to betray Jesus and set things in motion toward the cross. The Pharisees are used to pick the means of death—crucifixion. Pontius Pilate is used because he has the power to condemn Jesus to death. The Centurion is important because he oversaw the nailing of Jesus to the cross and the inspection of His death on the cross. Look at that! He is so unstoppable that He used the bad people at the end of the gospel to accomplish His purposes for salvation.
The point is clear: God can use anybody. He can use Balaam’s donkey. He can use a Saddam Hussein like ruler in Nebuchadnezzer. He can use Judas. In fact, a strong case can be made that the most useful of the twelve disciples was Judas!
If God can use the Pharisees, Pilate, Judas, women and the betraying disciples, God can use you. God can use me.
Comedian Ken Davis spoke on Focus on the Family this week. He told about an incident that happened to him at church camp. There was a boy named Bernie that was physically and mentally handicapped. Ken would walk behind this boy mocking his difficulty in walking and speaking. It caused his little group of boys to laugh.
On the last day of camp they are standing in a group with their suitcases and sleeping bags waiting for the bus to come pick them up. He hears Bernie often the distance coming across the campus. He is shouting in his hampered speech, “Good News! Good News!” Ken begins to think what is one last thing he can do to mock this boy so the other boys will laugh and like him.
Before he can think of anything, Bernie bursts into the midst of this group of boys and with excitement leaping in his eyes he looks at each of those boys and proclaims, “Good News! Jesus loves me.” Then he breaks out of the group and continues his journey across the campus shouting, “Good News! Good News!”
Ken says he would never have remembered that boy, but now he will never forget him. That physically and mentally challenged boy knew something about God that he didn’t know but needed to.
The devotional writer, Oswald Chambers said that it is God’s grace that protects us from seeing all the effectiveness we have in this world. Isn’t that a new thought? Bernie probably doesn’t know Ken Davis told that story and that untold numbers of people are challenged and inspired by his unashamed joy in knowing Christ. Even now it’s being told all these years later to challenge and inspire Christians.
You can’t stop Jesus! Tie a boy’s tongue with a handicap and God will use him for his glory more than a city full of preachers. Take a person that is the most disrespected in society and God will give them the assignment of announcing the most stupendous news the world has ever heard. He can use enemies, traitors, and cowards to accomplish His purposes.
The world will have a greater chance of stopping the sun to rise or to prevent it from setting than to stop Jesus. We can’t hold back the seasons from coming or stop the north winds from blowing in during the winter. But we’d have more of a possibility to accomplish this than to stop Jesus.
The resurrection tells us no one can defeat Jesus. Why? He can use anyone to accomplish His purposes. He can even use you and me.
Second, …
II. JESUS OVERCOMES RESISTANCE (MATT. 28:11-15)
Why would Matthew record this negative story at the end of his gospel? It reveals the complete apostasy of the nation of Israel. It is clear, unmistakable proof that Israel had rejected their God. This was first hand, unprejudiced testimony that Jesus arose from the dead. The reason those guards were posted was because these religious leaders knew Jesus’ prediction that He would live again in three days. Now it has happened as Jesus prophesied. They show no interest in verifying the guard’s story. They believe it!
In Luke 16:26 Jesus told about a man that went to hell. This man in hell asked Abraham to send someone from the grave to warn his brothers to not go to hell. An Abraham says if they won’t believe Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone rises from the dead. The spiritual leaders of Israel are so evil, self-willed and spiritually blind that Jesus’ life, teachings, miracles and resurrection would not convince them to be saved. Unless God does His work of conviction and conversion, this world will not be convinced Jesus Christ is the Savior and Lord of all.
A second reason that Matthew would include this at the end of his gospel is that the testimony of Jesus’ enemies is perhaps the strongest evidence for the reality of the resurrection. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is so absolute that even a lie against it helps to prove it! Whether the testimony is from a friend of Jesus or an enemy of Jesus, the conclusion when all the facts are known is Jesus arose from the grave.
If a Roman soldier lost the prisoner he was guarding, he took that prisoner’s place and was executed. If a Roman soldier was caught sleeping on duty, he was executed. If a Roman soldier abandoned his post, he was executed. These guys are trying to save their necks. They were assigned to work with the Chief Priest, and so they go to him for help.
Also, the Chief Priest and the leaders of the ruling religious body, the Sanhedrin, stand to lose everything if it gets out they crucified the real Messiah and He came back to life.
The religious leaders bribe them with a large sum of money to tell people that the disciples stole the body. Even at that, the soldiers are reluctant to agree to this solution. It doesn’t make sense. All of the soldiers were asleep? No one was awakened when they moved this large stone? Why didn’t they go in search of the thieves instead of reporting to the Sanhedrin? Who told them it was the disciples that stole the body. I thought they were all asleep. You mean to tell me that the men who ran away when Jesus was alive somehow found the courage to steal His body under the nose of professional soldiers to perpetuate a hoax at the cost of their own life?
The greatest difficulties to answer are not those who believe Jesus rose from the dead. The greatest difficulty in explaining the empty tomb lies with those who do not believe. How do you explain the empty tomb? Believer and skeptic alike all believe the tomb was empty. The first explanation given by the enemies of Jesus was the disciples stole the body. Since then skeptics have offered many different explanations for the empty tomb. Some of them border on the absurd.
Let me show you why Matthew would include this explanation of Christ’s enemies as a proof of the resurrection. Historians employ principles to determine the credibility of a historical event. One principle concerns how many, independent sources support the credibility of a historical account. Other principles deal with the eyewitnesses and how close the testimony is to the actual event. But one of the principles that historians use to determine the credibility of a historical event has to do with the enemies of that person or cause.
An enemy is considered to not be biased in favor toward that person or cause. One of my daughters was involved in a car accident with a student on the Norman High School parking lot. This boy backed out into her as she was passing by. His passenger said that my daughter hit his friend. But a half-dozen witnesses who did not know either one of them told the police officer that the boy backed up into my daughter. Who would you believe? We won hands down. It might have been a different story if it had been me telling that policeman it was the boy’s fault.
Matthew is telling us that angels, women, disciples and the enemies of Jesus Christ attest to the empty tomb. There would have been no need to circulate this lie that the disciples stole the body of Jesus if His body was in that tomb. When a student tells his teacher that the dog ate his homework, this is an indirect admission that his homework is unavailable for assessment. When the enemies of Jesus circulated the report that the disciples stole the body of Jesus, it is an indirect admission His body was unavailable for public display.
You can’t stop Jesus. He uses even His enemies and their lies to accomplish His purposes. He overcomes resistance.
Our spiritual heritage in missions traces back to Adoniram Judson who lived from 1788-1850. Years ago I read his biography. Judson lived the suffering life of the apostle Paul. He was one of the first to bring the Christian message to the Burmese. When war broke out with England, the Burmese arrested Judson because being light-skinned and English-speaking, he looked and talked like the enemy.
He was force-marched barefoot for eight miles to prison where each night the guards passed a bamboo pole between his heavily shackled legs and hoisted the lower part of his body high off the ground. Blood rushed to his head, preventing sleep and causing fierce cramps in his shoulders and back. Clouds of mosquitoes feasted on the raw flesh of his feet and legs. Treatment like this went on for almost two years, and Judson managed to endure only because his devoted wife brought him food each day and pled with the guards for better treatment.
A few months after his release, Judson’s wife, weakened by smallpox, died of fever, and shortly after that their baby daughter also died. Judson nearly had a breakdown. He would kneel by his wife’s grave for hours each day, regardless of weather. He built a one-room hut in the jungle, morosely dug his own grave in case it might prove necessary, and worked in solitude on a translation of the Bible in the Burmese language. Only a handful of Burmese had shown any interest in the Christian message. Yet he stayed on, 34 years in all, and because of his faithfulness more than 1 million Burmese Christians today trace their spiritual roots to Adoniram Judson. The dictionary he compiled, now nearly 200 years old, remains the official dictionary of Myanmar. (Yancey, Rumors)
Why would someone choose to do that? Why would anyone choose to follow a God that promises hardship? It means purity in a world of lust. It means honesty in a world of getting ahead by cheating. It means sacrifice and putting others first and humbling yourself to apologize for doing wrong.
We choose to follow Christ because hardships are not permanent; they are temporary. Our God defeated death. He has promised to take us to heaven. He has promised to make us like Jesus.
We don’t deny that this world is full of hurts and heartaches. Our Bible is filled with the testimonies of hurting believers. One of the books in the Bible is named “Lamentations.” But we eventually win. Our future is secure. You can’t stop Jesus. He overcomes all resistance. Praise His holy name!
Third, …
III. JESUS RECOMMISSIONS (MATT. 28:10, 16-20)
I know this passage is known as the Great Commission. In one sense it is the Great Recommission. Recently, a deserter was arrested in the U.S. He fled to Canada during the Vietnam War. He was released and not prosecuted. The news channel interviewed a Marine Colonel about his views on how this man should be treated. The Marine officer’s brother and several friends died fighting in Viet Nam. He didn’t want any government money spent on prosecuting the deserter. Instead, he wanted him branded with a big red “D” and forbidden to never come to the U.S. again. People have strong feelings about deserters. Jesus restores and recommissions the deserters.
The only place in the gospels where Jesus refers to the disciples as his brothers are in verse ten. The One they abandoned still loves them and accepts them.
Matthew closes his gospel with Jesus passing the torch to his disciples. They are responsible to announce the good news to the whole world and to develop believers into the likeness of Jesus Christ. Pure and simple that’s what our church is to be about. If this community does not hear the saving message of Jesus Christ, it is because our churches have not done their job. If Christians are not growing in Christlike maturity it is because our churches are not doing our job.
The only right we have to stand on someone’s doorstep and call them to repent of their sin and place their faith in Jesus Christ is because Jesus is fully God. Therefore the whole universe is to yield to His authority. The resurrection is the proof of His deity.
He promises us that He will be faithful to us even if we fail Him. He will not be defeated. He recommissions us to duplicating His saving message and His spiritual maturity. When we are redeemed, we are not only saved from sinful motivations that drive us but restored to fulfill our original purpose.
Evangelist Bob Harrington may not be a familiar name to most of you, but at one time he was nationally known. He was proclaimed in 1963 by the mayor of New Orleans to be “the Chaplain of Bourbon Street.” He would go into those dens of iniquity and speak to half dressed women and bold sinning men about Jesus Christ. Billy Graham said Bob Harrington was bringing a witness for Christ to the middle of hell. When he preached at churches, there would be standing room only, and the crowd would spill out into the parking lot. It takes a Beth Moore or Benny Hinn to do that today. He appeared on talk shows such as Donahue and Oprah.
He became addicted to making money and the flattery of young women. He lost his focus and turned his back on his Lord, his faithful wife and family. Instead of a prodigal son, he was a prodigal father. It was a son-in-law who was working in Bob’s ministry that confronted him over his immorality. That son-in-law, Chuck Kelly, is now the president of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.
For twenty years this evangelist who brought thousands to Christ, lived for finances and fun. In time that lost its appeal and satisfaction. He was in Los Angeles and considering jumping out the window to end his misery when the phone rang. It was Rex Humbard. He said, “Bro. Bob, aren’t you ready to come back?” Bob began to cry. “Yes,” he said, “I’m so ready!” Rex Humbard led the former Chaplain of Bourbon Street to read Psalm 51 and pray David’s prayer of restoration. The guilt was lifted, and Bob Harrington knew God had other plans for his life.
Bob has reconciled with his family and friends. He has preached at some of the best-known churches in our land. Bob says he has lived four lives—he was lost, he was saved, he left the Lord, and he was restored.
On July 9, 2000, at 72 years of age, he preached Sunday morning and evening at the Thomas Road Baptist Church where Jerry Falwell is pastor. Three hundred people were saved on that Sunday. At the end of the day Jerry Falwell said, “I wish every church in America could have heard what we have heard today. We evangelical/fundamentalists will make monumental efforts to win drunks, addicts and adulterers to salvation, but, when a brother falls, we excommunicate him forever. We must take a strong stand against sin…but we must not shoot our own wounded.” Then Falwell asked Bob Harrington to be Jerry Falwell Ministries “evangelist at large” to “the fallen and the unwanted.” Jerry Falwell supports and promotes this recommissioned evangelist’s ministry.
Moses, Jacob, David, all of the disciples and many others in the Bible experienced recommissioning from the Lord. He’s not through with you. He waits for you to return. He wants to use you again. Guilt or wasted years or big mistakes can’t prevent the death defying Son of God from making you a useful servant of His. Remember, nothing can defeat Jesus.
CONCLUSION
It’s an amazing Savior I preach to you today. On His body are the marks of defeat: nail prints in his hands and feet, a scared brow and a puncture wound in His side. But He is so great and invincible those wounds are testimonies of victory. You can’t defeat Jesus! He can use anyone to achieve His purposes. He overcomes all resistance, and He recommissions those the world would say are washed up and useless.
PRAYER
INVITATION
Some have suggested that there is really only one story, which everything else is a variation of the story of redemption. From “Cinderella” to Star Wars to Robin Hood and Tarzan it is stories about people in need of a rescuer. They need someone to do for them what they cannot do for themselves.
The next time you watch a TV program or read a novel look at how it reminds you of your need for a Savior. Somebody needs help. Somebody steps in and does for them what they cannot do for themselves. God can even use Hollywood to present to you the plan of salvation.
God loves you. Because of your sin, God must punish you. He must do this because He is holy and just. But He has provided forgiveness through His Son Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection. If you will turn from sin and yield authority to Jesus Christ, He will save you.
Christian, no one gets an exemption from being of use to the Lord. That’s good. He can use you. Absolutely nothing can stop that. Let’s make this altar a place of recommissioning.
