(Matthew 28)
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.
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.
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.”
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.”
11 Now while they were on their way, some of the guard came into the city and reported to the chief priests all that had happened.
12 And when they had assembled with the elders and consulted together, they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers,
13 and said, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came by night and stole Him away while we were asleep.’
14 And if this should come to the governor’s ears, we will win him over and keep you out of trouble.”
15 And they took the money and did as they had been instructed; and this story was widely spread among the Jews, and is to this day.
16 But the eleven disciples proceeded to Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had designated.
17 When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some were doubtful.
18 And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.
19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,
20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
If this is true, if this is real - that Jesus Christ has been raised from the dead (verse 6), and that all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him (verse 18), and that he will be with his disciples to the end of the age (verse 20) - if this is true, then nothing is more important in our lives, nothing is more crucial or more urgent or more needful than believing it and becoming a follower of Jesus.
Just think of it. Jesus says in verse 18, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.” If this is true, then today Jesus Christ is the Lord of the universe.
He has authority over politics and government; he has authority over all armies and military might;
he has authority over all industry and business (NASDAQ, Wall Street, and Dow Jones);
he has authority over science and education - all research and discovery and universities and colleges;
he has authority over all entertainment and media - radio, TV, magazines, newspapers, Internet, theatre, art;
he has authority over all sports and leisure - over the Leafs, the Argonauts, and the Raptors and over every playoff game;
he has authority over all natural phenomena - all weather and floods and volcanoes and earthquakes and tornadoes and hurricanes and global warming and ozone layers;
he has authority over all planets and moons and stars and light and energy and motion and time;
and therefore he has authority over our lives - health and disease and success and failure and life and death.
I don’t know where you are this morning. You may or may not believe the testimony of Jesus and his disciples. But I hope you see at least that if - if - it is true that Jesus rose from the dead as the Lord of the universe with all authority in heaven and on earth, then believing it and following Jesus as our Lord is the most important, most urgent, most crucial thing in our lives.
No matter how hard I try to think of an alternative, I can’t escape the conclusion that the resurrection of Jesus Christ as Lord of all the universe with all authority in heaven and on earth is the greatest event in the history of the world - except, perhaps, for one other, the one that happened three days earlier, namely, his death.
There would have been no need for the resurrection if Jesus had not died; and there would be no saving significance to his death if he did not rise. Both are utterly crucial. This morning, I want to answer the question WHY?
Picture the scene with me, early Sunday morning. Mary Magdalene and the other women have come to the tomb of Jesus. They see an angel whose appearance is like lightning (verse 3). Then, according to Matthew 28:5-6a, “The angel said to the women, ‘Do not be afraid; for I know that you are looking for Jesus who has been crucified.’” There is the first claim in this text that I want us to focus on: “Jesus has been crucified.”
What do we need to know about this event - that Jesus was crucified - so that his resurrection is seen to be what it really is? Here are five things:
1. The crucifixion of Jesus was public.
This thing did not happen in a corner (Acts 26:26). It was not a secret rite. It is not mythological. It is historical and public. There were crowds of people who saw it happen (Matthew 27:39) in an open public place. All the religious and secular leaders were involved. And secular historians of the earliest centuries treated the death of Jesus as historical fact. Tacitus, the Roman historian who was born in AD 55 and who did not follow Christ, explained who Christians were like this:
Christ, from whom they took their name, had been put to death as a punishment during the reign of Tiberius at the hand of one of our Procurators, Pontius Pilate, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for a moment, again broke out not only in Judea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome. (Annals 15:54)
In 1883 a long report filed by Caiaphas to the Sanhedrim was found. It was a report documenting the reasons for his part in the execution of Jesus Christ.
Vallius Raterculus was a Roman historian who was 52 years of age when Jesus was crucified. He wrote a comprehensive volume called the Historia Romania that included the report of Pilate to Caesar regarding the trial and subsequent crucifixion of Jesus. There are many supporting historical documents regarding the crucifixion of Christ.
2. The crucifixion of Jesus was painful.
The article on “Cross” in the International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia describes crucifixion:
The punishment was meted out for such crimes as treason, desertion in the face of the enemy, robbery, piracy, assassination, sedition, etc. . . . Among the Romans, crucifixion was preceded by scourging, undoubtedly to hasten impending death. The victim then bore his own cross, or at least the upright beam, to the place of execution. . . . The number of nails used seems to have been indeterminate. A tablet, on which the feet rested or on which the body was partly supported, seems to have been a part of the cross to keep the wounds from tearing through the transfixed members. (Irenaeus, Against Heresies, ii.42)
The suffering of death by crucifixion was intense, especially in hot climates. . . . The swell[ing] about the rough nails and the torn lacerated tendons and nerves caused excruciating agony. The arteries of the head and stomach were surcharged with blood and a terrific throbbing headache ensued. The mind was confused and filled with anxiety and dread foreboding. The victim of crucifixion literally died a thousand deaths. . . . The sufferings were so frightful [Josephus wrote] that “even among the raging passions of war, pity was sometimes excited” (BJ, V, xi, 1). The length of this agony was wholly determined by the constitution of the victim, but death rarely ensued before thirty-six hours had elapsed. . . . Death was sometimes hastened by breaking the legs of the victims and by a hard blow delivered under the armpit before crucifixion. Crura fracta was a well-known Roman term (Cicero Phil. xiii.12). The sudden death of Christ evidently was a matter of astonishment (Mk 15:44). (”Cross,” ISBE, Henry Dosker)
So there is no surprise when we read in the gospels that, Jesus gave a “loud cry” (Mark 15:37). His suffering in those last hours was indescribable.
3. The crucifixion of Jesus was planned by God.
Jesus said to his disciples several times that this was his destiny. For instance, Matthew 17:22-23a: “Jesus said to them, ‘The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men; and they will kill Him, and He will be raised on the third day.’” In Acts 4:27-28, the disciples prayed to God like this: “Truly in this city there were gathered together against Your holy servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose predestined to occur.” The death of Jesus was not a historical fluke or accident or merely the effect of great injustice. It was by the plan of God.
Many prophets, from many countries, over many generations and years, in three different languages, sat in their isolation and moved by the Spirit of the eternal “I AM” they wrote with conviction that exceeded by far their sight and their intellect:
He was to be descended from Abraham
He was to be of the lineage of David
He was to be born in Bethlehem
He was to be called from Egypt and live in Nazareth
He was to be born of a virgin
He was to exercise a benevolent ministry
Signs and wonders were to be done in His name
He would open blind eyes
He would heal deaf ears
He would cause the lame to walk
He would be a light to the gentiles
He would be betrayed by his friends
He would be sold for thirty pieces of silver
Those thirty pieces of silver would be cast down, then used to purchase a potter’s field
He would willingly give his body a ransom for others
He was to be crucified
His hands, his feet and his side would be pierced , but not one bone was to be broken
He was to die among transgressors
He was to make his grave in the grave of rich man.
He was to rise again from the dead
He was to ascend into heaven
All of these things were clearly foretold hundreds of years earlier in the Old Testament, and then fulfilled in miraculous, meticulous, detail in the New Testament.
Can it be spelled out any clearer than that the crucifixion was God’s plan than it is in the verse more memorized than any other? “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son . . .” (John 3:16). And again it says with ringing clarity in Romans 8:32; “[God did] not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all” Friends you need to understand, Jesus was crucified by design, not by accident.
4. The crucifixion of Jesus was punishment for sin, but not his own.
If Jesus did not sin – if He was pure and Holy – who’s sin did he die for? Isaiah tells us 700 years before. ” But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. [6] All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:5-6) His death was punishment for sin. But not his own.
Which leads to one last thing to say about this death.
5. The crucifixion of Jesus is precious.
This not my word, though I love it. It’s what those who knew him best taught. Peter wrote, “You were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your fathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ” (1 Peter 1:18-19). And again in 1 Peter 2:7, “To you therefore who believe, he is precious.” The crucifixion of Jesus is precious to those who believe, because by that death we are ransomed from sin and guilt and condemnation and hell, and given eternal life.
This is what Jesus came to accomplish: eternal life for all who believe. This is why he was crucified. So what have we seen so far? This death of Christ was public, painful, planned, punishment (for us!) and precious. My prayer today is that you will all see him for who he is, and that he will become precious to you.
But listen friends, He can’t be precious to you if he is dead. So the resurrection of Jesus is just as crucial as his crucifixion. So take the final moments of this message and ponder with me this other statement in Matthew 28:6. The angel said to Mary and the others, “He is not here, for He has risen, just as He said. Come, see the place where He was lying.”
What can we say about the resurrection of Jesus? We could talk for hours about it. If I had time, I would talk about how public it was, because he appeared to so many and for so many days (50) to increase our confidence that it is true and real (1 Corinthians 15:6; Acts 1:3); and how physical it was, not ghostly or mystical (Luke 24:39-43); and how productive it was, because it secured the resurrection of all who trust him (1 Corinthians 15:20).
In closing I want us to see two main things:
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The resurrection of Jesus was powerful; and the resurrection of Jesus was personal.
This is what Jesus said in verse 18b: “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.” This is what it means in the New Testament when Peter says, “[He has] been exalted to the right hand of God” (Acts 2:33); and Stephen says, as he is being stoned to death for his faith, “I see the heavens opened up and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God” (Acts 7:56); and Paul says, “Christ is seated at the right hand of God” (Colossians 3:1); and Hebrews says, “[Christ] endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (12:2).
The right hand of God is the place of ultimate authority along with God the Father. Paul says he is there “Because He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet” (1 Corinthians 15:25). The resurrection of Jesus restored Jesus to a place of triumphant-all-authority over all things. And from there he works out his saving purposes in the world -with authority over politics and government and industry and business and science and education and entertainment and media and weather and stars and light and energy and life and death. His cause cannot fail.
If you have all power and all authority and cannot die, your cause cannot fail.
This is a great reason for following Jesus. He cannot fail. Sin and death and hell and evil and Satan could not and cannot defeat his purposes. He is the victor! That is a good reason to trust him and follow him. To oppose him or, listen now, to ignore him, or reject His offer of forgiveness and hope places you under the hideous sentence of death.
2) The resurrection of Jesus was personal. Matthew 28:20b, “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” That means the Risen One is here today in Rosebank Church.
Here’s the practical value of this promise. You might take the truth of Christ’s authority over all things and just turn it into a theological problem. Well, if he has authority over the world, why is it in such a mess? Or: If he has authority over life and death, why did my child or wife or mother die?
But there is another way to respond to the power and authority of Jesus. If you will - and Jesus calls you to this - you can see it as the power and authority to free you from sin and fear and greed so that when you trust his promise to be with you, you are unstoppable in your love. If he is with you to the end, and if he has all authority in the universe, then you can, just like Jesus, love and serve and sacrifice, and never lose. This is the practical effect of the resurrection of Jesus when you experience it as powerful and personal.
If Jesus is not all-powerful and not personally with us to the end, and if we don’t trust him to be that for us, we will simply ignore the needs of others and live for our own private comfort. Let me give you two examples, and invite you to trust him in this way:
I want you to go with me in your mind to the Bosnian / Serbian conflict of the mid 90’s and picture a real scene that really took place. World Magazine reported in it’s March 1996 issue, that three children were killed in Bosnia when they wandered into a minefield. Close your eyes and picture that with me. One of them, an 11-year-old girl, called for help for hours before she died, but no one would go into the minefield to help her. What would you have done? What would I have done? Could it be that this is why Jesus told us that all authority is his - not so that people would create a theological problem out of it, but so that some follower of Jesus would lift his heart and say: “Jesus, all authority over these mines is yours, and you are with me to the end; if you will, you can keep me from stepping on a mine; and if you will, you can take me to heaven; but this I know, you call me to love that little girl; so trusting your power and your personal presence, I go.”
Why?
You’re the one in the minefield. He came just because He loves you.