Preached Resurrection Sunday, March 31, 2013 from Matthew 28:9
Theme: Jesus’ resurrection has brought about for us the true, lasting, prevailing reason to “rejoice”.
(Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are taken from The Holy Bible, New King James Version; copyright 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc.)
This morning, I’d like to draw your attention to just one word. It’s an important word; because it was the first word that the Lord Jesus spoke to His followers after He rose from the dead. It’s the simple announcement, “Rejoice!”
We find this announcement in the story of Jesus’ resurrection as it was told to us in Matthew 28.
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As we look at this passage together, I need to remind you that the context in which this wonderful announcement occurred seemed—at first—anything but “joyful”. The people to whom it was first spoken had started that day very sad, and were certainly not expecting either to see Jesus alive again or to hear the call to rejoice.
The Gospel of Matthew tells us,
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 (v. 1).
The ‘other Mary’ in this story was the the mother of James and Joses. She was another follower of Jesus. And these two women certainly didn’t come to the tomb to celebrate. They came for the sad task of completing the process of preparing Jesus’ dead body for burial. They had spent the Friday before—after Jesus’ body was taken down from the cross—preparing the spices and oils that were to be used. And then, after resting on the Sabbath—as soon as they could—they returned to finish the preparations that they had begun and to say a final ‘good-bye’ to their beloved Master and Teacher.
Did you notice that when we began our Easter service this morning, it was with a song about the cross on which Jesus died? You probably thought to yourself that that’s not a traditional way to begin Easter Sunday celebration. But we did so this morning because that’s what predominated the thoughts of Jesus’ disciples—the cross. He had died; having been put to death by cruel hands. And it’s understandable that a feeling of great sadness and despair would have overwhelmed the hearts of His followers. Their attitude was well expressed in the words of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus: “But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel” (Luke 24:21). Jesus had been crucified; and His dead body placed in a tomb. Where were those hopes now? Those hopes seemed as dead as He was. What sadness it was that characterized the beginnings of that first Easter morning!
And what an unexpected thing it would have been, at such a time as that, to have been met with the call to “Rejoice!” I don’t believe we can fully appreciate this wonderful call unless we first appreciate the seeming-hopelessness of death that preceded it. Jesus once told His disciples—just before He went to the cross for them;
Most assuredly, I say to you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; and you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy. A woman, when she is in labor, has sorrow because her hour has come; but as soon as she has given birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. Therefore you now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you (John 16:20-22).
And as we read on in Matthew’s story, we see how that joy came. The two women arrived at the tomb early in the morning—hoping perhaps that someone would let them in to finish their sad work. But they found—to their bewilderment—that the place was unguarded, the stone that closed the tomb had been rolled away, and the tomb itself was now opened. Surely it was the correct tomb. They had sat and watched on Friday as the Lord’s body was placed in it.
Matthew tells us why things were as they found them;
And behold, there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat on it. His countenance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow. And the guards shook for fear of him, and became like dead men (vv. 2-4).
I love reading that after he had rolled the enormous stone away, the angel sat on it. It was almost as if he was telling the guards—and even to the whole world—”I have rolled away the stone that once closed this tomb; because the tomb is now empty. Go ahead and just try to put the stone back!” I have even wondered if, later on, at least one of those guards became a believer. How else would we know what had happened at the tomb on that morning unless one of them had testified of it later? Who knows? Perhaps more than just one of them believed.
It seems that the guards had awoken from their fainting spell and had run away from the scene before the two women had arrived. But the angel was still there. Matthew tells us;
But the angel answered and said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. And go quickly and tell His disciples that He is risen from the dead, and indeed He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him. Behold, I have told you.” So they went out quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to bring His disciples word (vv. 5-8).
What a combination—”fear and great joy”! Perhaps the angel had to tell them, “Behold, I have told you”; because they were still standing there in that state of fear and joy.
Now; the promise that Jesus would be seen in Galilee was meant for the disciples. But there was something very special that was about to be given to these two women. We’re told;
And as they went to tell His disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, “Rejoice!” So they came and held Him by the feet and worshiped Him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell My brethren to go to Galilee, and there they will see Me” (v. 9-10).
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So; what a wonderful greeting! “Rejoice!’ Given the circumstances—and given the one who spoke it—it was certainly a happy one to hear, wasn’t it? I appreciate what my wife pointed out to me about it. She suggested that it was a “shared” greeting. The Lord Jesus—who told the women to rejoice—was, Himself, also rejoicing as He spoke it! Wouldn’t you have loved to have seen the warm smile of joy on His face as He greeted these women—alive from the dead—and told them to rejoice?
But what do you think? Was that only a greeting and nothing more? Given the circumstances, couldn’t it also be taken as something like a glorious command?—a command that was now made possible to be obeyed by the fact of Jesus’ resurrection?
We live today in a very joyless world today; and in very dark and dismal times. Sometimes, the darkness and joylessness of this fallen world touches us in some very personal ways. And if Jesus—the Son of God in human flesh—had not literally come into this world as the Scriptures promised, had not literally been crucified as the Scriptures promised, and had not literally been raised from the dead as the Scriptures also promised, it would have remained a hopelessly dark and dismal place. Joy would be inappropriate. It would even be ridiculous to think of having joy in the midst of it.
But because Jesus truly has risen from the dead, it’s no longer ‘business as usual’ in this dark and fallen world. Did you notice that the Lord Jesus told the two women, “Do not be afraid . . .”? In fact, the call to not be afraid was given twice in this passage; because the angel who had rolled the tombstone away also told them, “Do not be afraid . . .” I wonder if that’s meant to be considered a crucial part of Jesus’ announcement to the women—and perhaps to us today as well. The resurrected Lord Jesus would tell us this morning not to be afraid any longer in this dark world. Sin has been dealt with. Evil has been given a time-limit on earth. Death has been defeated. Jesus Christ—the Son of God—was Himself dead; but is now alive! Don’t be afraid! Trust Him! Keep your eyes on Him! And in fact, rejoice!
And my hope is that, this morning, you and I will take that one word from Jesus—”Rejoice!”—and on the basis of the testimony of His literal, bodily resurrection from the dead, treat it as a wonderful, liberating command that we are encouraged to obey!
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Now; why can we rejoice? What is it about the resurrection of Jesus from the dead that gives us the substance for real rejoicing in this dark and sad world? There are probably more things that we could mention in one lifetime. But to keep the sermon from becoming too long this morning, I’ll just mention four.
First is the fact that . . .
1. DEATH IS NOW CONQUERED!
What a great reason to rejoice! Just before He went to the cross—in the light of His upcoming death, and of the resurrection that would follow—the Lord Jesus told His disciples;
“A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me.”
And then He added,
“Because I live, you will live also” (John 14:19).
Death, according to the Bible, is the great enemy. It’s the most evident and most grievous consequence of the sin of our first father Adam to have come upon this world. But now, because Jesus has risen from the dead, death is no longer the threat it once was. It is now a conquered enemy. It’s still there, of course; and we still feel its presence. But because Jesus Himself took full humanity to Himself, tasted personally of the death that we must suffer, and then rose from the grave victoriously as one of us, death can now no longer harm us permanently. It is defeated.
In 1 Corinthians 15:20, the apostle Paul wrote,
For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.
But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep (1 Corinthians 15:16-20).
Jesus is the “firstfruits”—meaning the prototype of those who would follow after Him. God the Father raised Him from the dead as the first of those who would also be raised who are united to Him by faith. His resurrection was intended to put this on public display for us. Paul went on to write;
Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed—in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”
“O Death, where is your sting?
O Hades, where is your victory?”
The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord (1 Corinthians 15:50-58).
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ; one of the things that Easter Sunday testifies to us is that because Jesus Christ has literally, bodily risen from the dead for us, we will be raised also! Death is now conquered for us! Those in the Lord who have died before us will be raised on the last day! And we will be raised too! The cruel reign of death has now been rendered ‘temporary’! Rejoice!
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Another reason why we can now rejoice is because . . .
2. SIN IS NOW ATONED FOR!
The Bible tells us that there is an absolutely inviolable law in operation in God’s moral universe—and that is that “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). As it says in Ezekiel 18:20, “The soul who sins shall die.” When sin happens before our holy God, it must be paid for by death of the sinner.
And you and I are sinners. What a situation we’re in! How can we pay the price that must be paid for our own sins and still live before a holy God? We never could. But God has provided the solution. He has sent His own Son to die in our place. As the apostle Paul wrote in Romans 3:23-26;
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus (Romans 3:23-26).
To be “justified” in God’s sight means that we are declared released from the guilt of our own sins and are officially pronounced righteous by Him because of what Jesus has done for us. And how do we know for sure that this is so? You’ve got to admit; that’s something that would be important to be able to trust with full confidence! Our eternity hangs on it! How can we know—without any doubt—that sin is fully paid for at the cross, and that God is completely satisfied with the payment Jesus made on the cross on our behalf, and that we are now able to stand “justified” in God’s sight through faith?
The answer is because of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. If Jesus had died on the cross for our sins, and had remained dead and forever buried in the tomb, we’d never be able to know that we could trust Him as our Savior. We’d never know for certain that God was truly satisfied with His sacrifice on our behalf. But as the apostle Paul wrote in Romans 4:25, Jesus’ righteousness can now be imputed to those of us who believe on Him—and that we can know it with absolute certainty—because Jesus is the holy sacrifice from God
who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification (Romans 4:25).
Dear brothers and sisters; it’s an unspeakably wonderful thing to know that our sins are completely forgiven—fully atoned for by the blood of Jesus Christ. We have the proof of it through the fact that Jesus—our atoning sacrifice—was raised from the dead afterward! And as a group of forgiven sinners, I believe that the resurrected Lord Jesus Himself would tell us this morning, “Rejoice!”
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A third reason to rejoice at the news of Jesus’ resurrection is because . . .
3. FAVOR WITH GOD IS NOW SECURED!
Did you know that, because Jesus rose from the dead, you and I can now confidently draw near to God the Father—as His own dear children—and enjoy fellowship with Him and ask anything that we need of Him? Before He went to the cross for them, Jesus spoke to His disciples of what things would be like after He rose from the dead for them; and He told them,
“These things I have spoken to you in figurative language; but the time is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figurative language, but I will tell you plainly about the Father. In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I shall pray the Father for you; for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came forth from God” (John 16:25-27).
Jesus didn’t come and die on the cross for us in the hopes that the Father might love us as a result. Even before He went to the cross, Jesus told us that the Father Himself loves us. In fact, it was because the Father loves us and wants to have a deep relationship with us as His children that He sent His Son for us in the first place. It was the Father’s initiative of love.
And do you know what happened after Jesus died for us, took the guilt of our sins away, and rose from the dead the third day? Do you know one of the things that the Bible tells us that He told Mary at the tomb? He said to her—and please listen to these words carefully:
“Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God’” (John 20:17).
After Jesus rose from the dead, He Himself declared that we are His brethren; and that His Father is now our Father; and that His God is now our God! You cannot have a closer relationship with God the Father than what Jesus the Son has; and now, He has made that very same relationship available to us through His own death on the cross. You can be absolutely certain of it because He Himself officially declared the depth of that closeness to the Father after He rose from the dead! We can now freely draw near to God our Creator in love as His own fully qualified, fully adopted, fully welcomed sons and daughters!
Favor with God is now ours! What a great thing it is that Jesus purchased for us! No wonder the resurrected Lord Jesus—who Himself loves us infinitely, and who gave Himself for us, and who wants us to enter into all the fullness of that relationship with His Father—commanded us to “Rejoice!”
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So; Jesus invites us to rejoice on the day we celebrate His resurrection. Death—that great enemy—is now conquered for us, and our sin is now fully atoned for, and favor with God is now secured for us!
And there’s one more thing. We’re encouraged to rejoice because . . .
4. HEAVEN IS NOW OURS IN HIM!
Jesus made a promise to His disciples before He left them and went to the cross for them. He told them,
“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. And where I go you know, and the way you know” (John 14:1-4).
One of His disciples—Thomas—said, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?” (v. 5).
Jesus said to him,“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (v. 6).
But how do we know that Jesus truly is the way? How can we have confidence in His promise that He truly will come one day to take us to His Father’s house forever? I remember how, as a brand new Christian many years ago, I felt the need to be sure of it. Am I really going to be in heaven? Will I really dwell forever in the Father’s house?
Well; do you know what makes us sure of it? It’s the fact that our Lord has risen from the dead. The apostle Peter put it this way;
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Peter 1:3-5).
And I love how Peter closes those words off . . .
In this you greatly rejoice . . . (v. 6).
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Well; that’s what the Lord Jesus has called us to do; isn’t it? “Rejoice!” I am so grateful for that wonderful word that He declared to those dear women at the tomb on that first Resurrection Sunday. It took the saddest event this dark world has ever seen and instantly turned it into the only true, lasting, prevailing reason to have joy!
I hope that you have your trust in the cross of this wonderful Jesus who rose from the dead. If you do, then you too can truly “Rejoice!”