Amen. Well, it's good to be back with you after a couple of weeks of vacation and study leave. And I was able to get a lot of things read and done and have an enjoyable time with my family. But it's always good to get back here and to open the word of God with you. I feel like I should say he is risen. Amen. You know, it's not just Easter Sunday that is resurrection Sunday. Every Sunday is resurrection Sunday. I don't have anything against celebrating and remembering that on one particular Sunday, Jesus really did rise. But every time we get together, what are we doing? We're celebrating the fact that he is risen, that he's alive right now at the right hand of the Father. He rolls over all. He reigns over all. And that's why we worship him. That's why we trust in him. That's why we look forward to all of his promises, coming to pass, because he rose again from the dead. You know, two weeks ago, three weeks ago, I guess really, when we left off in Matthew, we left Jesus as it were in the grave, in the tomb, with the soldiers and the stone and the seal, all of the power, the state, all the power of the Jewish church, trying to keep Jesus in the tomb and end his message, and then his ministry. And I hesitate to say that there is one particular doctrine that's more important. One thing Jesus did that's more significant than anything else. I mean, how could anybody say that there's anything more significant than becoming the atonement on the cross, the sin offering, the propitiation, to satisfy the wrath of God, the expiation to take away our guilt? How could anything be more important than that? How could anything be more important than the righteousness? Jesus earned in His whole life of active obedience in our place and covenant with God, the second atom. How could anything be more important than the incarnation? More mysterious, more wonderful than God uniting together with man, two natures, one person. The early church fathers wrote volumes on it and they haven't exhausted it. We can't get our minds around that incredible mystery. There is real that God is man, that man is God in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, the one person. How can we fully do justice to the doctrine of creation, that there was God from all eternity, perfectly and fully satisfied in His triune being, and yet then He made something that wasn't Him, that really has existence, and that He is still infinite and inhabits all things and is overall things, and how can we get our minds around that? And so is there such a thing as one most important, wonderful, most amazing work of God? I don't know how to justify that, but I do think this. I think for the Christian faith there is one most important doctrine, and that's the doctrine of the resurrection. Why would I say that? Because if Jesus Christ rose again from the dead, then everything He said is true. Then everything He promised will come to pass. Then everything that He said about Scripture is 100% proven and established and true. But if He didn't rise from the dead, then you can throw your Bibles away. Because if He didn't rise from the dead, then He's not the Son of God. Because the Son of God rose again. The Son of God can't be kept by death. He's over death. He is God. If He didn't rise again from the dead, then He wasn't a true prophet because He said over and over again on the third day I will rise, on the third day I will rise. And if He didn't rise, then He's not a true prophet. He's a liar. And if He didn't rise again from the dead, then He can't be the Messiah. The King, that's what the Messiah is. We've seen the King, the promised King, the King of the Jews, the Son of David, the fullness of the King. David was just a type. He can't be the Messiah, the Messianic, the anointed King because the Messiah, the Messianic anointed King, according to Scripture, His reign will never end. Death will never end it. And if He died and if He didn't rise, then death ended His reign. And so for us as believers, the most important to capstone the proof of everything else is that He rose again from the dead. Really, factually, historically, truly, bodily, that body that was dead came back to life. And those synapses and blood cells and everything else that had stopped in that were decaying, leaped back into full life without subjection ever again to weakness or sickness or death or things that Jesus would have undergone as a man in the likeness of sinful flesh, never again because He rose again from the text. Well, in, rose again from the dead, in our text, we had this simple declaration. We're just going to look at the first six verses this morning, this simple, unadorned, unsophisticated, no fabulous, fantastical things, just the fact that this man who had died came back to life, not revived like some of the people in Scripture that were healed and brought back to life, not restored, but resurrected, never to die again. And this is again the confirmation of all of our faith. And so let's pray as we turn to God's word. Father, again, we just want to pause and ask you to give us faith in your word. We confess that your word testifies to the resurrection. We believe it. That's why we're here. And yet, Lord God, I don't think there's a person here who wouldn't say that at times they struggle to believe. They have a crisis of faith. If we never struggled to believe, we would never struggle in anything, but we are weak. And things come into our lives and we forget. And so Father, we pray that this morning, the doctrine of the resurrection would be confirmed again in our hearts, that we would grow and be stronger in our faith, that we would believe, Lord Jesus, that you are alive because you are. Help us to know and believe that again this morning, we pray. And Jesus, name Amen. Here now the word of the Lord from Matthew chapter 28, beginning in verse 1, this is the holy and perfect word of God. 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 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 is white as snow and the guards shook for fear of him and became like dead men. 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, the Word of the Lord.
I want you to notice, first of all this morning, the flawless witness of Scripture. I want you to notice the flawless witness of Scripture. Again, the straight forward fact, record of the resurrection just told to us in the gospel of Matthew as it is in all four gospels. And we've looked at this in the past, but I just want to remind you that there are different details in the way in which the gospels record, for example, the time of day and exactly how they say it, or what the women were there to do and what details they give or don't do, or how many angels were present and where they were and what was their posture and all of those details which differ in the different gospels can easily be harmonized and not a single two of them are in contradiction or single one is in contradiction with another. And that's important for us to recognize. And maybe you might be thinking, well, wouldn't it have been great if God would have inspired the exact same record four times over the exact same statements for the things like the time of day and the number of angels and where they were. And there's a sense in which we would say, well, yeah, I guess in our modern way of thinking it would be great to have that. But by the same token, it would actually be much less if we had that because if all four gospels just repeated the same statements, what we would have would be one witness to the resurrection repeated three times. And that's not what we have. And FBI manuals on how to notice lies and how to tell the truth and you can read about this. And I've read some of these books. We'll tell you that it's exactly when someone and and cohoots with other people give the exact same phraseology, the exact same statements that it's very clear that they've conspired together beforehand. Or if all the details or all of the questions are answered in some way, say, perform and nothing is left, unexplained. That's the clear mark of a lie because liars won't allow anything any detail to be to be unanswered because that's where they're fear fearful that their lie will be exposed. And so whenever we're in cohoots or in a conspiracy to tell a lie, we'll always try to to figure out every possible question that could be asked and give an answer to it and try to make sure we give the same answer. And again, that's the whole mark of the lie because when you tell the truth, you don't care if the other person is saying what you said. You don't care what the other witnesses say. You're not worried about saying the thing because you know what you saw. And so you just say it. And that's what we have in the four gospel accounts. We have four independent eyewitness testimony that describes from the point of view of the different witnesses there exactly what they saw. Recognize as we look at the first verse. Now after the Sabbath as the first day of the week began to dawn, the first day of the week is Sunday. The Sabbath is Saturday. Shabbat is the same word for seven or for rest in Hebrew. And it's the seventh day is Saturday. Saturday they rest. Jesus rested in the grave. Sunday morning they go to the tomb. And according to the way the Jews kind of thinks at the evening, the next day begins. So that on Saturday evening, after the sun is fully set, you can buy things. And we know that's when the women bought some of their spices after the Sabbath ceased Saturday evening. But first light on the first day of the week, Sunday they go to the tomb and understand this. None of the gospels mentioned precisely all of the women that were at the tomb. Matthew says Mary and the other Mary. Mark tells us about Mary and Mary, but he also tells us that Salaman was there. Luke adds a woman name, Joanna. Luke gives three total women. And then he says other women were with them. So we know from Luke with three women and then other women plural, there were at least five women that went to the tomb Sunday morning on Easter Sunday, at least five. It has to be that. It was probably more, probably six, seven, eight, maybe ten. We don't know. But I know this. Have you ever walked anywhere in a decent size group of people, six, eight, ten people? You ever walk anywhere? A significant length of time. You don't all get there at the same time. Do you? We go to Geneva every year. Geneva on the Lake Ohio. That was our that's our vacation. I've probably been going there 28, nine years now since I started going up when Robin. I was just dating and I had to sleep outside in the tent while they slept in this Taj Mahal motorhome. But I think her dad was testing me. But every night, what we do at Geneva is we walk from the cottages or from the campground at that time and we go to the center and the center is like this strip and it's got little stores and little restaurants and antique stores and arcades and you know ice cream places and all these kind of little shops. And it's at least from the cottages a 10 or 15 minute walk and back in the day, Robin's whole extended family would be up there and we would all begin from the cottages to walk to the center together and there might be 15 of us and every time when we got to the center, it was the same. We'd be spread out over 150 yards, 200 yards and there'd be two people way out in front, you know usually a couple of the younger ones. They can't wait until they get to the center and then about 20 yards back there might be one person and then 30 yards behind them to a group of three and then like 50 yards back to the clump of the main body and then another 30 yards back two dads hanging out and then 30 yards behind them a couple of the grandparents. You know and that's what it always was. That clump would have you know several strollers at the time and that's the way we would always get to the center. Calvin believes that Mary and the other Mary that Matthew tells about got to the tomb first. That seems to be the most
likely understanding because of John's account of Mary Magdalene seeing the tomb empty running off telling the other women that she's running past them. The tomb's empty. I'm going to go get to the disciples. She never going in and then she's gone when the angel appears in the tomb to the ladies as they all get together to the tomb. But what's interesting is whoever you talk to might have given it to you a different way, right? Mary Magdalene, John gives her account of what she saw. Perhaps Matthew is getting the other Mary and Mary as they talk together at a different time. But what we see for example again and I've talked about this before but the differences in the way they described the time of day. I remember Penn State this was said to be the great contradiction and proof of the resurrection accounts not being accurate you know because Matthew says that it was
as the first day of the week began to dawn. Mark says very early in the morning when the sun had risen. Luke says early in the morning. John says early while it was still dark. Now what's noticeable about those phrases is they're all remarkably pointing to a very very minute portion of the day that everybody would see early in the morning. Clearly they're all saying that. Now John says while it was still dark and Mark says when the sun had risen those are the two places that might give us the most difficulty but again they're leaving from Jerusalem. They're going outside the city to where the tomb is. We're talking at least a 20 to 30 minute walk and oh by the way they have to wake up. They have to get dressed. They have to use the facilities and everything else we do in the morning. These women would have had it done something with their hair. You don't just walk out of the house. They are carrying spices it says so they have to do that. They have to gather up their spices that they bought the night before several of them. Then they have to meet together somewhere inside or maybe just outside the gate of the city and they and they all begin. We're talking probably at least a 30 minute journey and 30 minutes to get ready to leave the house and eat something and do all that you do to get ready and dressed and go out. So we're talking about an hour of time. Clearly when they got up the sun had not risen it was still dark and clearly when they got to the tomb the sun had fully risen. You know how long it takes to sunrise? I think it's about eight minutes. I didn't look exactly but we've watched it at Geneva before because you can see the sun over Lake Erie and if on a clear day the sun is right there and I don't typically see it in the morning but I do see it in the evening but it sits right on the water and you can see the whole round sun and then you can see it as it goes below the water. You know it's only like three quarters and then half and then just a little like sliver and then it disappears. It takes about eight minutes for the for it to be completely above the surface and completely below the surface of the water. I love it when the little kids around me and I always look and say did the sun just go in the water? It's going to go out. Kids like what did it go in the water because it looks like the sun goes in anyway. And so clearly there's no issue there. What about the angels? Were they in the tomb or were they outside of tomb? None of the text, none of the information says anything about the angels being outside the tomb when the women are talking to them. Later on when Mary Magdalene comes back, yes, but not here, not initially. Even when it says 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. Come and see the place where the Lord's lay. It's as if he's standing right where the Lord had laying. Clearly they're inside the tomb when the angel is speaking just as it says in Mark and in Luke. Were they sitting or standing? They talked to the angels for a while, for a while they were sitting and for a while they were standing. All of these things were clearly harmonized and if they were trying to create a story there was a lie there wouldn't be those details. And that's funny because one of the things that the critics always criticize our Bible is about, well Matthew just slavishly copies from Mark and Luke just copies from Matthew and Mark and yet they would leave all these things like this. So easily noticed, so easily corrected with just a few words if they wanted to make it say exactly the same but they didn't. Why? Because each one of the witnesses said it this way and they were there and one of the witnesses said when we walked in there was a man there and he spoke to us and so that's the way Mark records it. And another one says, oh actually there were two people in the room and that's not a contradiction either. If I saw two people in a room and I tell somebody else, hey I was talking to Jim he was in the room. Not denying there was another person. It's only a contradiction that the gospels of Matthew and Mark who only mentioned one angel would say there was only one angel. They don't say that. They say an angel said to them and here's the thing logically if there were two angels in the room then there had to be one. So to say that there was one is not contradicting the fact that there was actually two and all of the other things and if again somebody was objective and just trying to find the truth they would say well actually though we get different details there's nothing here that is a bona fide contradiction with something else that's here. Everything can be put together and if we had all of them sitting together and maybe if we could stand back like a Hollywood film production and see it all maybe we would see all the details harmed harmonized in a way that I haven't surmised but the fact of the matter is all four gospels say when they got to the tomb the stone was rolled away all four gospels say it was very early in the morning all four gospels say it was these women and they all named some of the women who are the same although they don't give the exact list they all have Mary Magdalene they all have the other Mary. All of the gospels say that the tomb was empty all of the gospels say that there was an angel there who spoke to them all of the gospels say that the women left the tomb being told that Jesus had risen from the dead what an amazing amount of agreement and harmony from four unique and independent witnesses beloved we can believe the flawless witness of scripture which predicted these things a thousand years beforehand we saw it in our call to worship and we saw it again in the scripture reading that these things came to pass just as the word of God said and so secondly I want you to notice the fearsome heavenly angels I want you to notice the fearsome heavenly angels all four gospels speak of the angelic beings who are at the tomb but only Matthew gives us this account of how they arrived and it says in verse 2 behold there was a great earthquake four an angel of the Lord descended from heaven I personally believe this was a supernatural earthquake it doesn't need to be there wasn't earthquake on Friday and typically when there's an earthquake especially a big one there are aftershocks over the next few days so this would make sense in the natural but because the text says four an earth there wasn't earthquake four because an angel of the Lord descended from heaven I think this is the the immediate reason of the tomb shaking as this angel comes down just like Mount Sinai shook when God came down and it says here that he descended from heaven he came and rolled back the stone from the door and sat on it now he doesn't roll back the stone so Jesus can get out of the tomb Jesus doesn't need an angel to come down and roll back the stone we know Jesus appears in the upper room when the doors are shut I believe that his glorified body is not hindered by physical objects just as it's not hindered by yet or by gravity when he ascends into heaven so he can do what he wants with his glorified and with his resurrected I should say bodies not fully glorified yet he doesn't appear in this shining brightness of his Shaqina but he now has a resurrected body that's never going to die again and he's able to do these things no the angel rolls away the door for a couple of reasons one to let the women in to see the tomb I'm going to talk about this later but we need that we need their testimony we need to hear what they have to say because it builds our faith but secondly God is actually sending the angel here to show us that the resurrection of Christ is not Jesus as it were an escaped criminal fleeing from prison breaking the doors open you know illegitimately and wrongly no God who is the Lord of all sends this angel who would be Lord over all mankind to legitimately open the door Jesus has led out of prison because the prison has no right to hold him anymore that's why the angel rolls away the stuff Rome with its seal on the stone says whoever opens this tomb is forfeit their life is forfeit you can't break the seal of Rome the stone itself was there to keep the body of Jesus in the tomb the soldiers were there to keep the body of Jesus in the tomb and when the angel comes and he rolls away the stone and breaks the seal and throws the stone down and sits upon it he's using all of those things that the world the flesh and the devil would have to end the message of Christ to augment it right the fact that there was a stone that was rolled away that's a great proof of the resurrection because who would have done that the disciples couldn't have done it they were terrified they were afraid the women couldn't have done it they confessed that themselves Christ enemies would not have done it and Rome wouldn't have done it so who rolls away the stone who removes his body again Christ's disciples terrified would never have done it the women couldn't have done it his enemies wouldn't have done it so the angel rolling away the stone and then sitting upon it the the thing that was was ostensibly to keep Jesus' message and ministry from continuing now is a place of rest for the angel until the women come and he can give them the message that he was sent to give them but this angel noticed clothing like lightning his countenance rather his light of it coming from his face and his clothing is white it's no what does that remind you of remember Jesus in Matthew 17 the transfiguration when his clothing became like light when his face shown like the sun or when Paul sees him and again his face is as bright as the sun sun this is the Shakina glory of the angel clearly the soldiers see it's an angel and their response is they shake with fear and they become like dead men the word shake here is the same word as earthquake in the Greek there was an earthquake on the ground there was another earthquake in the soldiers we get the word seismic from that it sounds like in Greek seismic seismic waves I don't know which was shaking more the ground are the soldiers but the soldiers fall down in other words they pass out they're not unconscious they quickly come too because they're gone when the women get there that's something that you need to recognize what verses two and three are telling us the women weren't there yet no one sees that except the soldiers but that also means no one actually sees Jesus rise again from the dead there is not an actual direct witness of his rising again the angel declares it the women see the empty tomb the soldiers are gone the tomb itself is open they have been let in by the angel to see that God's will is done and this is important for us to recognize you now we don't see angels are rational beings spiritual beings created righteous just as man was but they are heavenly beings that are enabled to be in heaven with God but they're sent often on missions the bible describes them as flaming fire we see them taking the form of human beings at times we don't fully understand a whole lot about the angels but we know as Hebrews tells us that they are ministering spirits sent in service of those who are to inherit salvation and so God uses these angels to accomplish His saving purposes and here it's to be the communicator of the the gospel to the women the first preacher really is the angel to preach the resurrection of the dead but what I want you to see in this fact is that even though we don't normally see angels God still sends them it's still God's power that makes sure that his plan comes to pass Rome the priests the stone the seal the soldiers could not stop the resurrection and don't think that anything that God would do in your life according to his will can be stopped either because those same angelic beings scripture says inhabit our praises are with us when we gather together to worship our Lord and we need to believe what the bible says about them because God is going to accomplish his purposes and he uses these things to do it and so I want you to notice thirdly the faithful women disciples I want you to notice the faithful women disciples well let's get to the human level of this we've looked in general that we can trust scripture we can see that it's accurate we've looked at the angelic beings and how appropriate that an angel would be their angels at his resurrection there were angels at his announcement of his incarnation at the the conception as it were there are angels at his birth there are angels at his baptism there are angels at one point strengthening him in the garden after he was tempted and angels ministered to him so how appropriate that they would be at his resurrection the one place the angels are not are at the cross because God for silk Jesus on the cross to bear our wrath and so the angels couldn't minister to him either but I want you to notice the faithful women disciples we get two of them named in our text Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joseph and James and as I said Salome Joanna and Luke helps us there were at least one or two more and well maybe maybe significantly more but let's notice them William Hendrickson says let us not overlook their exceptional love and loyalty they were at Calvary when Jesus died they were in Joseph's garden when he was buried and now very early in the morning here they are once more to look at the tomb to see that everything is in good order and to anoint the body we know they had spices and Hendrickson asked the question meanwhile where were the eleven where were the eleven and we have to phrase these faithful women disciples who showed again courage who showed love who showed loyalty who were not afraid of what would happen if they were linked with Jesus and all of the eleven are gone they're hiding they haven't been seen since Thursday night when Peter denies him three times and the rest of them flee in terror for their lives yes John mentions that John was at the cross with Mary for a time but that's the only one other than that they had all fled they had all left and you know it's it's it's interesting because by leaving Jesus on the cross they were consigning his body to just be thrown on the garbage heap if somebody doesn't vouch for and go and get his body he's not given a proper burial which is a great disgrace and shameful thing not only today but even more so then Rome would have thrown his body on the garbage heap would have been eaten by jackals and crows and it was the cowardly formerly cowardly Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus who had been secret disciples because they were afraid like the disciples are now they find their courage by the grace of God and they ask for his body so that they can bury him but you know we have another example in scripture of this phenomenon when John the Baptist remember John the Baptist is put in prison by the Roman authority King Herod he's executed by the Roman authority King Herod and you know what scripture says scripture says that John the Baptist disciples took his body and buried it it says that for us in Matthew 1412 then his disciples came and took away the body and buried it and they went and told Jesus John the Baptist disciples were more courageous and more loyal at this point and more loving to their master than the 11 were because they again would not have gone and gotten it and yet the women were there the whole time and again we need to praise their love and praise their loyalty and they're given a great gift because of this they're given the first testimony of the resurrection they're given the first mission to proclaim the resurrection and they're given the first sight of Jesus because I think of their faithfulness again God blesses that faithfulness because these women they loved him they believed in him they're like Mary of Bethany again they chose the one good thing they're going to sit at the feet of Jesus and learn his doctrine like Mary did well now they're going to go and do what they can they're going to honor him they're going to they're bringing the spices to anoint him by the way sometimes that's criticized why would they bring spices to embalm him when they saw Joseph and Nicodemus the night or Friday night before the Sabbath before the sunsets you know with a hundred pounds Nicodemus brings a hundred pounds of spices and the wrappings and they they embalm him why did they continue to do it well there's a couple of reasons number one they probably didn't finish the procedure because they had to seal the tomb again before the sunset because then it's the Sabbath they're not allowed to do that so they had to rush and quickly do it number two these are two men from Judea and the women don't know them they had been secret disciples they weren't part of the the people following Jesus from Galilee like these women were so for several months these women were with Jesus maybe they'd been with them for years we don't know some of them certainly were but they don't know these two Judeans who were they putting Jesus in this tomb and like anybody else you know they're from Galilee Judeans don't know how to do anything right would we trust a couple of people from Cleveland to do anything here no offense then wherever he is but you've got to look at another way too and you know I think at this all the time I mean all right so they see these men doing these this involving work I know this if Robbins and Michigan and she comes home and I say oh I cleaned the whole house guess what the first thing she's gonna do she's gonna go and clean the whole house because I don't know what I'm doing you know so there's probably some of that but also this is the way you honored a body right did it you ever walk into a funeral home and you see all the flowers right there's flowers on the casket there's flowers beside the casket there's flowers in the doorway there's flowers throughout the room and each one has a card from this person from that person from the father from the mother from you know from the children from the grandchildren from the co-workers and you do that right nobody says oh somebody's already sent flowers we don't have to you do that to honor your loved one well this is the way they honored him you went and you anointed the the body with your spices because you wanted to pay your respects so there's a lot of reasons why the women would still do this and we would recognize that they would want to do this and so this is good this is showing courage it's showing respect it's showing love it's showing loyalty and in all these things they surpassed the men but we need to point out something else the women also did not believe in the word of Jesus they weren't looking for a resurrection the priests were the elders were that's why the soldiers were there that's why the seal was there we remember how that deceiver said on the third day the women aren't remembering in fact in Luke's account the first thing that the angel says to them Luke 245 why do you seek the living among the dead the women are standing there holding spices and oils to put on a corpse and they had heard Jesus say over and over again just like the man on the third day I will rise on the third day I will rise Calvin says quote the women did him wrong in seeking him among the dead yet Christ kindly and generously presents himself alive to them this is a great point yes they were wrong yes they were unbelieving they should have believed this word they should have gone expecting the resurrection I know that seems fantastic for us but that's what his word said we should believe in his word he had said it repeatedly wasn't just eat like he said it once and yet they were still there in their confusion in their unbelief in their not understanding not believing what he said not remembering it yet they were there they loved him enough to be there they were they cared about honoring him more than they were worried about their own lives again to the shame of the men they were there with confusion with even unbelief they still wanted to honor their Lord therefore God as Calvin says kindly and generously presents himself alive and what I want you to notice from that beloved is that don't wait until you figured all it all out to seek Jesus don't wait until you have it all understood and you have everything and all the mystery well I can't go and work and seek Jesus until I I cleaned up my life until I straight don't think that way if you have any desire to seek Christ if you have any love for him if you have any faith in him don't wait until you get it all worked out seek him now seek him today and he will meet you and he will forgive and overlook those sins because you believe it all and that's what Hendrickson says Hendrickson again notices the unbelief of the women they were wrong to not be seeking a resurrection but he says this quote it is as if the angel is saying in view of your marvelous courage and loyalty your lack of sufficient faith is hereby forgiven an angel appears to them if the disciples would have gone they would have seen the angel too but they weren't brave enough to go so the women get to see in it I don't know what an angel looks like but I'd love to see one I know it's strength in my faith not only that but they get to see Jesus risen again and so it's not by seeking Jesus rightly enough accurately enough when you have it all figured out that somehow you're going to earn his answering your prayer beloved go to him now in the midst of your sin in the midst of your anxiety in the midst of your weakness in the midst of your fear in the midst of your unbelief try out to him see if he doesn't meet you and bless you and forgive your lack because I tell you what even if you get it all figured out and I'm not there you're still not going to be worthy of him answering your prayers there's never going to be a time when you've earned going into his presence so go now it's only by his blood and his righteousness that you're forgiven no matter what baggage you bring and that's the message here be faithful like the women and what you have wrong hill over look and he'll bless you and give you what you need to follow him and so forthly in lasso I want you to notice the factual bodily resurrection the factual bodily resurrection as I mentioned before nobody sees him rise the soldiers are unconscious when it happens they see the angel maybe they see Jesus come out of the tomb I personally don't think so I think the angel rolls away the tomb or the door the soldiers pass out they quickly after a couple of moments get up see the angels sitting there run like crazy they're gone in fact verse 11 says only some of them come back into the city we don't even know maybe the rest of them are still running they've never seen anything like this but they didn't see Jesus come out of the tomb nobody sees nobody's permitted to see there have been many alternative theories of the resurrection people have to do something with this story maybe you've heard of some of them I've mentioned before the swoon theory made popular by Dan Brown in his Da Vinci code and golden compass and I don't even know what else is next in the series where he just completely disregards history makes up history changes history lies in order to try to make this idea that Jesus swooned on the cross wasn't fully dead comes back to life in the tomb and then again you've got to figure out well how does he open the tomb how does he get through the stone how does he fight off the Roman guards how does he walk out of the tomb you know when Jesus says to Lazarus Lazarus come forth the Bible says he walks out wrapped in his book grade cloths still bound hand in feet in the first command Jesus gives his loose him he shuffles out his faith cloth it says is on he's all bound he shuffles out of the tomb they see him and Jesus has to command this man who's fully healthy fully restored he can't get out Jesus if he somehow survived the cross he's barely alive and Nicodemus and Joseph of verimathia have bound his body with a hundred pounds of spices
there is the conspiracy theory that the disciples stole the body we see that in our texts the conspiracy theory again the disciples are no question to do anything they're terrified they're they fled they're how how do they fight off the guard how do they do it while the guard is sleeping move the stone and then by the way we know from the gospels that all of his grave grave clothes are removed and they're just sitting the way he had laid and then the face cloth is folded to the side the enemies would never have done that with the grave cloths neither would his friends it would take way too much time and make way too much noise if you're trying to sneak in and out you do it as quick as you could so the conspiracy theory doesn't work some say the mistaken identity this is his lawn they took the gardener for Jesus he thought he was the gardener it's all a case of mistaken identity they Jesus appears to them ten times over 40 days he sits with them he eats with them they put their hands in the nail holes of his hands and feet it ain't the gardener the myth theory it's all made up it's all a myth it's there was a kernel of truth somewhere but all these myths and legends you know like we have about Zeus and Apollo and all that stuff well first of all there's no grain of truth behind Zeus and Apollo and second of all there's no evidence for any of that there's no fragmentary non non supernatural account of Jesus and then a development of that which there would be there would be some record of that but not only that but myth takes generations to develop nobody's going to believe myths while the people who knew the person are still alive and even the critics have to admit now that all the gospels were written by the end of the first century at that very latest even the most devout critics if they have any semblance to reality all when I admit any of the facts they have to admit that therefore myth could not have developed because people would have said it didn't happen I knew him or I knew someone that knew him so myth doesn't work hallucination it was all a hallucination we know a lot of things about hallucination hallucinations don't happen over 40 days ten different times four hours at a time it doesn't work that way hallucinations happen close to the event when people are expecting it the disciples were not expecting it they don't believe the women they don't believe when they see Jesus himself at first all of the things that would be necessary for hallucination don't work and all of these things to explain away the fact that the tomb was empty that the body was gone and if it was some of those things like the hallucination like the the swoon theory or the myth once they begin proclaiming the resurrection the priest just produced the body and it's over he's not risen here's his body what happened to the body as Frank Morrison said and who moved the stone somebody moved that stone all of the likely contenders couldn't possibly have done it the stone was moved the tomb was empty the body was risen yes it's by implication no one sees it but by implication the women see the stone roll away the guards are gone they see the grave cloths again lying as they were with Jesus in them but laying on the slab the face cloth folded up separate that's why he says come and see the place where he lay he wants the women to see that it was a resurrection see the evidence I know sometimes people get they don't like this they say well pastor I don't think scripture needs evidence scripture should just be believed we should never ask for evidence we should never look for evidence in the scripture we should just believe it because God said it that's great maybe you can do that but I can't I need to see the evidence I need to see the proof like the women are told to come in and look and see Jesus doesn't say to Thomas just believe he says to Thomas here's my hands put your fingers in them Thomas he gives us the proof God doesn't say to Gideon Gideon I'm sorry I've already told you I'm not going to answer your prayer he answers the prayer then he answers it again how many times does God condescend to give us what signs and seals why do we do this why do we do this over here why isn't God's word enough why do we have a sign and a seal because we need them we're creatures of sense and we need sensible things to help our faith which is weak in which remains weak that's why John Calvin says quote Christ by rising from the dead exerted the power of his spirit and proved himself to be the son of God Calvin's not ashamed to say he proved it because we need the proof we're weak and God gives us these things and we get to hear the testimony of the women act 1731 says God has said a day when he will judge the world with righteousness by the man he has appointed and he has given proof of this oh wait a minute God doesn't give proof well scripture says something different he has given proof of this to all by raising him from the dead it's because Jesus rose again from the dead the Christianity is true and Buddhism ain't the Christianity is true and Islam isn't it's because Jesus rose again and Buddha and Muhammad are dead and in the ground and so is everyone else let's not be ashamed of the bodily factual resurrection let us see this text let our faith be strengthened and let us worship our risen Lord let's pray father we thank you for your word we thank you for your goodness we thank you Lord Jesus that you did rise again we thank you for all of these witness accounts father that you just don't tell us and expect us to believe but you give us account after account after account with detail after detail after detail so that we can hold on father I pray that if there are any here this morning who are in fear who are in doubt who are in anxiety who are in temptation who are in loneliness that they would again remember who are in unbelief even to some degree let them remember and consider again the account of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus and that if he is risen all of their concerns can be resolved in him we thank you and we praise you and Jesus