“RISEN LORD.” MAT T. 28: 1-10; EPHESIANS 2: 4-5, 6, 7, 8-9.
MATT. 28: 1,2,3,4,5,6, 7, 8, 9, 10; EPH. 2: 4-5, 6, 7, 8-9.
PLEASE OPEN YOUR BIBLE TO MATTHEW 28.
Today’s lesson is extremely important! Jesus chose His resurrection as the supreme proof that He was the Son of God, the Savior of the world. Easter is the reason why we celebrate Christmas! If Christian did not believe that Jesus rose from the dead, we probably would not celebrate His birth! We could be grateful for the great teachings of Jesus but our eternal salvation depends upon His crucifixion and resurrection.
Last Sunday from Matt. 27 we read of the crucifixion, death, and burial of Jesus. His enemies rejoiced when Jesus cried out, “It is finished!” They assumed that would be the last they would hear of this person. To be sure His body was not removed from the tomb, they saw it sealed and a guard posted.
Matt. 17: 61-66 further confirms that Jesus was dead. On Saturday, the chief priests and Pharisees made another request of Pilate. They asked permission to place guards at the tomb. They remembered Jesus’ predictions about being raised form the dead. These enemies of Jesus did not believe this would happen, but they feared that the disciples would take Jesus’ body and claim He had been raised form the dead. Thus it is clear that the soldiers, Pilate, Joseph, and the chief priest s all knew Jesus was dead. Only centuries later did determined skeptics develop the incredible theory that Jesus was not really dead.
Three days have now passed. Jesus promised that if they were to destroy the temple He could rebuild it in three days. Jesus rose from the dead as He said He would. If you want to know how important the resurrection of Jesus is to us, take time this week to read 1 Corinthians 15.
Matthew 28:1 says, “Now after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb.” John 20: 1 adds it was still dark, and Mary Magdalene saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. The time of the women’s coming to the tomb was “after the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week.” Thus Jesus was crucified on Friday, His body was in the tomb on Saturday. The women came to be tomb on Sunday morning. Herschel H. Hobbs explained, “According to the Jewish method of reckoning time any part of a day was considered an entire day. Jesus’ body was placed in the tomb late on Friday, and the tomb was found to be empty early on Sunday morning. So the Lord was in the tomb a part of Friday (first day), all of Saturday (second day), and part of Sunday (third day). When Jesus spoke of ‘three days and three nights’ in Matt 12:40, He was speaking in general terms of three whole days. There is no conflict between this and the actual event.
Jesus lay in the tomb on the Sabbath or Saturday, until sunset. Sunday, the first day of the week arrived at sunset Saturday. At that time the women could purchase and prepare spices. Mark 16: 2 says, these women had “bought sweet spices.” They went to the tomb at dawn because this was the first chance they had to anoint the body of Jesus and give Him a proper entombment.
Jewish law forbade anointing a body on the Sabbath. These women would not break the Sabbath even to preserve the body of their beloved Lord, so they came at first light on the day after the Holy day. Mark added in Mark 16:1 that a third women, Salome, the mother of James and John accompanied Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James the Less, to the tomb.
2.“And behold, there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat on it.” This is the second earthquake associated with Jesus death. This one may have been confined to the immediate area around he grave, then “an angel” supernaturally “rolled back the stone from the door.” He did not roll away the stone in order that Christ might come forth from the grave; but he rolled it away in order to show that Christ had left the grave. He had risen unseen by friend or foe; and the angel’s mission was to show the empty grave. Jesus was already gone.
Sitting on the stone, the angel engaged the women in conversation and frightened the soldier guards away. But before Matthew discussed these events, he described the heavenly messenger.
3.“His appearance was like lightning, and his robe was as white as snow.” Angels are supernatural beings, pure spirits, who assume the human form at will and can disappear at will.
4. “The guards were so shaken from fear of him that they became like dead men.” The resurrection itself is never descried anywhere in Scripture, presumably because no one ever saw Jesus leave the tomb. We don’t know how much the guards saw, but they we terrified at the sight of the mighty angel---for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men. They were paralyzed from fright at the sight of the angel. These were not docile and timid men; they were calloused fighting soldiers who would have attacked anything that threatened the successful completion of their watch over the tomb. The angel of the Lord must have been an overwhelming spectacle. The angel seems to have ignored the guards and spoke to the women.
5. The angel told the women, “Don’t be afraid, because I know you are looking for Jesus who was crucified.” Whether the soldiers heard the angel’s words is unclear. They had either fainted or were so paralyzed with fear that they could not function. When they regained their composure they ran to the city to report what happened, but no Gospel records that they ever quoted the angel’s words.
The good news was that Jesus was not at the tomb, for He had been raised from the dead. “He has been resurrected.” The angel also gave an important mission to the women. He told them to “go quickly and tell his disciples that He has been raised from the dead.”
When the religious leaders asked Pilate for permission to post a guard, he said to them in Matt 27:65, “Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how.” The religious leaders sent guards and even placed an official seal on the stone. The enemies of Christ thought they had won a great victory. Jesus was dead. His tomb was sealed, and guard wee posted to be sure no one took His body.
But Pilate’s words proved ironic. They made it as secure as they know how, but they could not make it secure from the Power of God. God raised Jesus form the dead and sent the angel to roll away the stone and to announce that Jesus was alive. The world had condemned Jesus and tried to dispose of Him, but God condemned the world and vindicated Jesus as His Son.
According to John 20:1-2, Mary Magdalene had already left the scene to go find Peter and John, so the other two women had this conversation with the angel. The sight of the angel frightened the women, for the angel told them, Fear not. Given the response of the soldiers, don’t be afraid must have been comforting words indeed. Perhaps the angel pointed at the guards and said, “You don’t have to be afraid of me like they are.” The angel knew the women were there, looking for Jesus, but they were just looking for His lifeless body. They could not have imagined what they would actually find!
“Who was crucified” is important language because of its tense. The perfect tense of the verb used here points to completed action with ongoing results. Jesus is our crucified but risen Lord. This is precisely how Paul described Him in 1 Cor. 2:2. “I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” The results of Jesus’ death continue even today, yet He arose from the dead.
The empty tomb is one of the two main ways the Gospels proclaim the resurrection of Jesus. The appearances are the other way. If we had only the empty tomb, other explanations could be given for Jesus’ body not being in the tomb. In fact, the Gospel record shows this in Matt. 28: 11:15. Some of the guards went to the religious leaders and reported what had happened. Jesus’ enemies bribed the guards to claim that the disciples stole Jesus’ body while they were asleep. Even Mary Magdalene thought someone had taken Jesus’ body.