10.21.06
Why It Matters (a message on Matthew 28)
I am posting below the rough notes for the above message deilverd at Seaford on 10/22/06. I do this with some reservation because they are not well polished. But I place them here to encourage further discussion.
Gene
Why “It” Matters
A Fresh Look at the Resurrection of Jesus
Part 1
Matthew 28
Some events transpire and you know immediately that nothing will ever be the same again. The first time you met your spouse. An acceptance letter to college. Getting hired for your dream job. The birth of a first child. Getting driver’s license. Some times thought even in experiencing these wonderful things we are afraid to allow ourselves to get too caught up in the moment because we are afraid of traumatic life changing events. a dreaded phone call in the middle of the night, a scary report from the doctor, Learning that your spouse has been unfaithful. 9/11. Experience in combat. A car accident. Some who face extreme trauma must deal with post traumatic stress disorder. It would seem that we can only stand so much mental strain.
I tell you those things to help us think about a very well known incident in scripture. The people involved in this incident actually experienced two life changing encounters within just a few days. In this case they experienced a horrendous tragedy, a gruesome death, an unjust execution, dashing their hopes, revealing a hopeless world. Then within just a few days something took place so momentous that wiped away the earlier tragedy. That’s rare. When we experience something that tragic, nothing can make it better but that is what transpired in this moment.
The passage we are about to read together contains supernatural events. We live in a sophisticated age were many look at such material and label it fairy tale, “this is embellished. It’s probably of value but I don’t need to take it literally to get the value.” I want you to know, in case you wonder where I stand on this subject. If God created the world and I believe he did, then he can choose to operate in that world in whatever way he wishes. So miracles, supernatural events are no big deal. The scripture reports this and many other miracles as fact. If they are not true, then the credibility and value of the whole book is seriously in doubt. It seems important to say that I, (along with many of you and many before me) have taken a hard look at the objections to the validity of these accounts. I am a reasonably intelligent, fairly well educated and well read individual and I believe to the very depths of my soul the account you are about to read as it is reported.
We need to enter into this event. We need to step into Narnia and breathe the air, feel the ground, and see the sites to grasp the full significance of what has transpired. Most of us have grown up with a form of cultural Christianity that makes it difficult for us to experience this event in its raw power.
The telling is sparse. It’s condensed. We want to know more. We are meant to linger over the details. Please join me on an expedition through that first Easter morning.
Matthew 28:1 (ESV) 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.
This was after the Sabbath. That means it was Sunday morning. It was apparently just before dawn. Both of these ladies were going to see the tomb.
Need to mention experience of crucifixion. Often when we grieve we don’t know what to do, business as usual is impossible, so we go to the site where the tragedy happened. Sometimes people leave memorials or they gather at homes. That’s the state these women were in. they are disoriented. Their world has come crumbling down around them. Every hope they had ever had, dashed. They were completely out of their routines. Nothing made any sense to them anymore. It’s what happens when we experience tragedy. You know that nothing is ever going to be the same again.
Matthew 28:2 (ESV) 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.
Already the women are disoriented, not focused, troubled. Then they experience an earthquake. I’ve never been in one. But it’s my understanding that the experience is frightening and disorienting. Their world figuratively was unraveling. Now if that weren’t enough, the very literal world was shaking underneath their feet. We are told why there is an earthquake, but the women have no idea.
Matthew 28:3 (ESV) 3 His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow.
The jolts just keep coming. We have never seen a living being look like that, not in person. Perhaps in special effects. But we can only imagine what it would look like. His appearance was like lightening and his clothing was as white as snow. Again more completely disorienting, life altering stimuli. They can’t get their bearings on anything and the shocks, the emotional jolts just keep coming one after another.
Matthew 28:4 (ESV) 4 And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men.
In case you wonder the effect it might have on the women, look what it did to the soldiers. They trembled. That is quite an image. This is not something you see often. People work hard to keep other people from seeing them afraid. We have images to uphold. We want to appear in control. It’s not easy to admit fear, especially for someone in such a profession as this. These guards shook and became immobilized. Can you imagine? I’ve been afraid. I’ve been deeply afraid a handful of times, but I’ve never become so paralyzed by fear that I passed out, or became frozen to the spot. I came close on a ropes course last year.
Matthew 28:5 (ESV) 5 But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified.
Now the angel speaks. The women have approached. Look at the emotional upheaval they have experienced. Their hopes crushed. Imagine the grief of a parent who has witness their child die tragically, cruelly and unjustly. They saw it all. They not only experienced the trauma and the shock of losing Jesus, they witnessed the carnage, they are only a couple of days now from that event, they are going to the tomb early, it was still dark, they experience an earthquake, they see a being, an overwhelming being sitting on the stone that had covered the entrance and the guards whom they likely feared and wondered how they would deal with, they were out cold from fear but now the being speaks. He speaks. And he says, this is funny, really it is. Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified.
Not only does the being speak, he knows them, and he knows what they are doing. He sees into their hearts. And he says, don’t be afraid. Don’t be afraid. I know why you are here. You are seeking for Jesus. You are looking for him, who was crucified. The being acknowledges it as well. He knows them. He knows their terrible news. That’s important to frame what he’s about to say.
Matthew 28:6 (ESV) 6 He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay.
Could they scarcely comprehend what they were hearing? Sometimes things happen to us so momentous, so huge, so overwhelming we feel detached from what is happening. We cannot fathom the enormity of what we are hearing. Jesus is not here, for he has risen, as he said. He told you this was going to happen. He’d said it several times. But they hadn’t gotten it.
Risen? What did that mean? Can you imagine the confusion in their mind? We are built in such a way that it is difficult for us to take in information that we are completely unprepared to see. We have a powerful tendency to see in events and in people what we expect to see, when often the evidence points in a different direction. This had to be the experience of these two women. Even though Jesus had told them this was coming, they were unprepared. They had no categories in which to place this new information. It did not fit with their view of the world. It messed with their pre-conceptions.
The angel invited them to look at the evidence themselves. We know from other accounts of this incident that the evidence they would see didn’t allow for other explanations. They were given some concrete data to help bring them around to reality.
I hope you are mentally and spiritually engaged in this incident. I want us to walk through the rest of it. I will point out things I believe that we need to do in light of these truths.
Implications for how we should operate in the world in light of the resurrection
Matthew 28:7-8 (ESV) 7 Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and behold, he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him. See, I have told you.” 8 So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples.
Women had no legal status in that society. Everything about that society would have screamed that delivering this critical news was “a man’s job”. But God sovereignly orchestrated that it be a woman. We better be very careful when we are stating what women can and can’t do in the church. Just make sure you are taking all of scripture into consideration when you interpret passages that speak to that issue. This is an important part of the evidence. The most important message ever delivered up to this point is delivered by God’s choice: two women. Let’s not put limits on who God can choose to use.
There is something big there. God does not play by the world’s rules. You may think that you have nothing to offer, you aren’t smart enough, old enough, wise enough, pretty or handsome enough, or whatever. God doesn’t operate that way. God often uses the weak things of the world to shame the wise. That does not mean that God never uses people who are smart or wealthy or good-looking or well educated. However, he does insist on humility in those he does use.
So the story continues, They grasped the urgency of the moment. They left quickly and they ran. The fear is not gone, they are still afraid; the events are too overwhelming to stop their fear and trembling. However, it is mixed with something else. An overwhelming joy is beginning to creep up within them. Hope dawns. Faith expands. The reality of a completely different world, a world they could not have imagined was beginning to dawn on them. It was so amazing and so overwhelming that it could only be described as a mixture of fear and joy. And so in this state they are running to tell the disciples.
Mat. 28:9 9And behold, Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped him.
Jesus interrupted their morning run and says hello. What was the expression on his face? What was the tone in his voice? We don’t know. Here is what we do know. The new world in which they found themselves, the new realities which were beginning to dawn on them, the combination of fear and joy demanded worship. I can’t find the words to say this. All they had experienced over the previous days, the witnessing of the crucifixion, the despair in their souls, the fear in their hearts, the disorientation, the complete absence of hope but then . . . new awareness, hope, joy, life. Then they encounter Jesus and they fall at his feet, they came up and took hold of his feet and they worshipped. They worshipped.
Let me ask you something. I want you to listen closely. Has anything like this ever happened to you? Have you ever been so overcome with the greatness of God, the joy of knowing who he is, the dawning reality of the glory of God and collapsed in front of him in adoration? If not, are you certain that you really know God? How can we not see, o God I have not seen. Most of the time I don’t live with this reality.
Everything about the reality of this instant for the two Mary’s is just as true right at this second as it was for them. O that God would wake us up the reality of the world in which we live. O God have mercy on us for not being captured by your greatness and your glory in worship. This is the reality of the world in which we live.
Mat. 28:16 16Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. 17And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted.
There it is again. To know the truth that Jesus died and to experience and see the reality of the resurrection is to understand that no other response is appropriate but worship. Nothing else makes sense. It is good and right. May that vision of the resurrection so grip us that we are overwhelmed with a desire to worship. This is a vision of what our worship services need to be about. We recognize the suffering of Jesus. We sense the reality of the resurrection, we encounter the living Christ and we worship. We worship. We abandon ourselves to him. It doesn’t matter any more who is watching. It doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks. We worship him. Jesus Christ himself. He is not a son of God. He is the Son of God. He is God himself and he accepts worship.
There’s something else to mention briefly that shows up in this passage.
Mat. 28:5-6 5But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. 6He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay.
Mat. 28:10 10Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.”
Then Jesus said to them, Do not be afraid, go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee and there they will see me. Do not be afraid, this is a theme of this day. If you examine the words that were verbalized in this passage, this is a big part of the message that heaven was communicating. Do not be afraid. What is there to fear, if Jesus is real and is alive?
Mat. 28:20 20teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
What is there to fear. Jesus is alive. He overcame our worst enemy. He gives specific instructions to not be afraid and then he promises that he will always be with them, to the very end of the age, meaning he is speaking about us.
The last verses in Matthew are often quoted. But they need to be understood in light of the reality of the resurrection. It puts a huge exclamation point. We need to start reading from verse 16
Mat. 28:16 16Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. 17And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted.
So what is important for us to grasp about the resurrection story? What do we need to do differently based on what is seen here in this place? Well we want to allow the scripture to speak to us. Right here in the passage in same chapter where the resurrection is communicated we get these final words from Jesus. They should be heard and understood as an application to the stupendous reality of the resurrection. The world has been turned upside down. The disciples have been wrung inside out. As such they are fresh. They have relinquished all claim on their lives as they have had before. They know that nothing will ever be the same again and now they stand before Jesus. “Here we are.” They have been broken and restored and they are waiting for instructions. They have no interest in going back to life as it has been.
I want you to join me in a little exercise of the imagination. Because the full ramifications of the resurrection leads to an open listening to the word of Jesus, you experience, you believe and you worship and then in a figurative sense you sit with the disciples on the quiet hill. The worship has gone on, the fellowship has been sweet, hugs, slaps on the back, laughter, they are stunned and overjoyed. But at some point in time things begin to settle down. The group quiets down a bit. And they are starting to wonder, what does this all mean? Nothing is ever going to be the same again? Who is this? What is he asking of me? I will do whatever he says. (Perhaps some of them even said, Jesus, now what? What else can happen? Where do we go from here?) That’s the reaction of the apostles. That is their frame of mind. There they sit on the top of the hill and Jesus is looking at them. His eyes are intense. The disciples are hanging on every word. This is it. They could sense that what he was about to say was critical.
So he says to them verse 18.
Mat. 28:18-20 18And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. That answers one of their questions. Who is Jesus? He is God himself. What else could all authority mean? I am God himself. It is good and right for you to worship me. They are still listening to Jesus instructions. Okay we get it. Now what? What do we do?
19Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Go therefore, as you go, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.
These are Jesus instructions to us. Go and make disciples of all nations. The all nations phrase is a part of the original instruction. This is what we are meant to get after grasping the resurrection. What does it mean to make disciples? He goes on to explain that, you baptize them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and you teach them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold I am with you always, to the end of the age. To the end of the age, that’s how we know that this was not just meant for them. It was meant for us, to the end of the age, refers to the end of history as we know it and as we understand it.
Conclusion
This is a picture of what needs to happen every time we hear strongly from God. We hear the truth of God’s word. We feel convicted by the power of the Holy Spirit. We understand the reality of God. Such encounters bring about fundamental change. We are cleaned out. We are shaken out. We have let go of our previous way of thinking and then we say to Jesus, okay, now what? What next? And they are hanging on his every word. They are listening, intensely they are leaning forward in their seats.
Possible conclusion How about you? Are you fully grasping the reality of the resurrection or are you doubting the full implications? If we are not engaged in the final part the only explanation for that is that there is a problem with the faith stage.
Questions for Reflection and Application:
- Compared to the response of the women and the disciples who encountered Jesus after his resurrection, what does your desire to worship God say about your grasp of the truth of the resurrection?
- How would it affect the way you live if you felt your reason to be on the earth was to make disciples? If you answered the question, “What do you do?” With the answer, “I make disciples,” how would that affect the way you live?
For Further Study:
The Case for Christ, Lee Strobel
See Chapter 6 “Watergate and the Resurrection” in Loving God, Chuck Colson
A Skeleton in God’s Closet, Paul Maier
You can hear this message again at: http://www.sbc-va.org/weekly_sermons.htm
