April 20, 2025
Just as He Said
Matthew 28:1-9
Most of us are creatures of habit, drawn to the familiarity and comfort of our routines. We could have a restaurant or coffee shop we enjoy, and when we go there, they know us by name and know exactly what we order. Maybe we have a music album or playlist that we listen to repeatedly, or maybe it’s a favorite movie or TV show that we find ourselves continually enjoying. I happen to be one of those who like to watch the same TV shows or movies repeatedly. I’m usually too busy to watch something new that would demand my full attention, so I’ll put on something I’m familiar with that won’t demand my total attention, and I can enjoy it while working on something else. Those who produce TV and movies know that there are people like me who will watch their favorites over and over. They add things called “Easter Eggs” to them to make it worth watching multiple times. There are just a few little things that you might not notice the first time you watch. There are way too many of these in entertainment to mention. Some of my favorites are R2-D2, which appears in hieroglyphic form in one of the Indiana Jones movies, E.T., showing up in one of the Star Wars movies, and almost everything you see in the background of all the Back to the Future movies. It’s always fun to watch and see what new things you can find each time you watch the movie or show, and I find myself doing the same thing when I read Scripture. Now I know there is nothing “hidden” in Scripture because it’s all there plain and simple, but I do know that the Bible is God’s Word. It’s the living Word that is empowered by the Holy Spirit, and it’s the Holy Spirit that will bring to our attention new things each time we are ready and study the Bible.
This morning, we celebrate Resurrection Sunday, and in the Bible, we have four accounts of that miraculous event. I love reading about resurrection time and time again. I do so because the resurrection is the linchpin of all of Christianity. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:12-19 that if Christ is not risen, then our preaching, our hope, and our salvation are all wasted, and we should be pitied more than anyone else. However, because of Resurrection Morning, we can hold onto the promises like the one recorded in the later part of John 14:19 when Jesus says, “Because I live, you will live also live”. As I read these wonderful accounts of the greatest moment in human history, the Holy Spirit illuminates different parts of those stories and shows me something new practically every time I read them. As I was preparing the sermon this week and reading over Matthew's account of the resurrection, the Holy Spirit pointed out something very important to me that I’ve skimmed over many times. It’s this truth in Matthew’s account that I want to share with you this morning, and it all starts early Resurrection Morning with an invitation.
The Invitation - Matthew 28:1-6
Early on Sunday morning, as the new day was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went out to visit the tomb. Suddenly, there was a great earthquake! For an angel of the Lord came down from heaven, rolled aside the stone, and sat on it. His face shone like lightning, and his clothing was as white as snow. The guards shook with fear when they saw him, and they fell into a dead faint. Then the angel spoke to the women. “Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I know you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead, just as he said would happen. Come, see where his body was lying.
Jesus had died around 3 pm the previous Friday, and because the Sabbath would have started at sunset on Friday night, Jesus had to be taken from the cross and quickly moved into His resting place. The haste was due to the Mosaic laws concerning being ceremonially clean and the ability to participate in Sabbath activities. During this time, they were only able to wrap a cloth around His jaw to secure it and then wrap Him in a burial cloth and lay Him in the borrowed tomb. That’s all they would have been able to accomplish in the amount of time between His removal from the cross and sunset. It was after they had laid Him in the tomb that a large stone was rolled in front of the door, and the Governor’s seal would have been placed upon it as a warning for anyone who would try to tamper with it. For the next few days, the followers of Jesus sat hopelessly and in mourning over the loss of the one they loved. As sunrise came on Sunday, the women were now ceremonially able to go and finish the proper burial preparations for Jesus since the burial had been cut short. Mark's account makes it evident that the women who were going to the tomb didn’t have a plan of how to get into the sealed tomb; all they wanted to do was show one last act of love and devotion to Jesus by making sure all the Jewish burial rituals were completed on His behalf. But as they set out early that morning, they had a plan that they were going to prepare Jesus' body. Little did they know what Jesus had prepared for them.
One of the amazing things about the resurrection account is that everything we see happening was not for Jesus’ benefit, but it was all for the women to be able to see for themselves. It started with the earthquake. The only people at the tomb that morning before dawn would have been the soldiers who were assigned to guard duty. In Roman culture and mythology, an earthquake was a sign of divine intervention and a warning of things to come. This natural event would have woken all the soldiers who would have been sleeping. It would have brought them to full alert and would have made them a little apprehensive about what might be coming their way. Because the earthquake would have had them all on high alert, they would now all be witnesses to the next event, and their superstitious beliefs would have been used against them to make a pathway for the women. Next, we see an angel come down and roll the stone away from the tomb and sit upon it. Just like any rational person would, those mighty soldiers (who were skilled, fearless killing machines) shook and fell to the ground like dead men. The invitation that was about to be extended to the women was coming together perfectly. I also want you to notice that when the stone was rolled away, it wasn’t to let Jesus out. He had already risen, so that wasn’t needed. Like we have said, this entire event was God making a way for those women to be able to get in to see the evidence of the resurrection for themselves. Once the women arrive at the tomb, there is a wonderful nuance in the language of the angel’s greeting. His command to “not fear” was not directed at everyone; it was only directed at the women. It’s like the angel is telling the guards to still be afraid, but the women not to fear because this was all done for them. The angel then tells them Jesus is not there, but He is risen, and that they could come and look in the tomb themselves. From the other Gospel account, we see that the only thing that was in the tomb was the burial cloth they used to secure the jaw of Jesus and the cloth they wrapped Him in. This was proof that something supernatural had happened. If His body had been stolen, the thief would have taken Jesus wrapped in all his clothes, especially because of the shape that Jesus was in. The angel gave the woman that day an invitation that is the same invitation each one of us has been given. Come and see for yourself that Jesus is risen. Come and see for yourself the proof of the resurrection. Come and see that Jesus did all of this for you.
The Lesson - Matthew 28:6
He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead, just as he said would happen. Come, see where his body was lying.
Have you ever had a time when you wished you had listened to someone because of the grief you suffered because you didn’t? I’ll give you an example. I don’t have any mechanical skills, especially with cars, but I am stubborn and think I do. I have a neighbor who, if I were to say, is just gifted with mechanical knowledge of automobiles, I would be making a huge understatement. He has been a huge blessing to me and my family, and He tells me that any time I have a car problem, to come over and ask him for help. There are times I find myself being as stubborn as an old mule and think I can do it myself, so I’ll sit in my driveway struggling for hours before I finally give in and walk over and ask for help. When I do, he hands me a tool, tells me briefly what I need to do, and within minutes, my task is complete. He usually then adds, “I’ve been sitting on my porch watching and wondering when you would come over and ask for help.” Can you imagine how much aggravation and busted knuckles I would have saved if I had just listened and asked for help in the first place? This is a lot like the “Easter Egg” the Holy Spirit pointed out to me in our text this morning. It’s right here in verse 6 when the angel says, “Just as He said would happen”. We have recorded multiple times in Scripture, Jesus’ point blank telling His disciples (and everyone else that was present) that He would be crucified, die, and would come back from the dead three days later (Matthew 16:21; 17:9, 17:23; 20:19; 26:32, Luke 9:22, Luke 9:44, Luke 18:32-33, etc.). This was such a well-known saying of Jesus that it was the reason the Chief Priests went to Pilate and asked him to secure the tomb of Jesus with the stone and soldiers, because they were convinced that the disciples would steal the body and tell everyone that He had come back. Even though the religious leaders heard Jesus and His claims, the disciples and His other followers didn’t. It would have saved them all a ton of heartbreak and grief if they had just listened to Jesus. Instead of worrying and stressing about the events of that Good Friday, they would have just been counting to three. Now, before we are too hard on the disciples, we are told in Luke 18:34 that the truth of these claims of Jesus was hidden from the disciples. So they did have an excuse for missing the point, but we don’t. We have the Word of God, which is a light to our path. Should someone hide a light that is in their home? No, let it shine so it can show us things that we might not see otherwise. However, even with the light of God, has it ever happened to you that you know what God’s Word has illuminated in your life, and instead of following the truth, you just do what you want and end up suffering from hurt, heartache, and the brokenness this world is full of? This happens to all of us time and time again. The consequences will vary in their intensity. These followers of Jesus only suffered for a few days because they didn’t pay attention to what Jesus was telling them. But what if Jesus told us something that, if we were to ignore, it would cause suffering? Not just for a few days, but for all eternity. He did tell us something about these dire consequences. He told us that He is going to return, and we need to be ready.
The New Beginning - Matthew 28:7-9
And now, go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and he is going ahead of you to Galilee. You will see him there. Remember what I have told you.” The women ran quickly from the tomb. They were very frightened but also filled with great joy, and they rushed to give the disciples the angel’s message. And as they went, Jesus met them and greeted them. And they ran to him, grasped his feet, and worshiped him.
Living in the South, storms of all kinds would come through, and they were a big deal that everyone would need to prepare properly for. When tornadoes were predicted, schools and businesses would close, people would get their safe place ready, they would make sure they had enough water, they would have blankets, a phone, an emergency radio, and everything else they thought they would need for the impending storm. Even when a dusting of snow was predicted, they would raid every grocery store to buy up all the milk and bread they could buy to make sure they were ready for it. I was a Southerner for over 35 years of my life, and the life-saving recipe that included this milk and bread that would save my family from the horrors of the ½ inch of snow that fell was never shared with me, so if you know this recipe, I’d like a copy. But the point is that when we knew a catastrophic event was coming, those who were wise would make sure that they were prepared. However, when Jesus says that He is coming back and He is coming back to judge the world and all its inhabitants, very few are ready for that event. The first thing we need to understand is WHY we need to get ready for the judge of all judges to return, because in our eyes, we are all just fine. However, when we look at the truth of Scripture, the Bible tells us that we aren’t. God has given us a standard of perfection that we all must live up to, and we also see in scripture that none of us can. We have all sinned and missed God’s perfect standard (Romans 3:23). It’s like taking a test and you miss one question, you can’t get a perfect score, and a perfect score is what we need to spend our eternity in heaven. So, if Jesus is coming to judge all of mankind and we have all fallen short, how can we make sure we are ready? We have someone else take our test for us. When Jesus came to earth, He came with one mission: to seek and to save that which is lost. When He died on the cross, He did so to make a way for us to have all our sins forgiven and have His righteous perfection credited to our account. The Bible says if we confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in our hearts that God has raised Him from the dead, we will be saved. In other words, when we make Jesus the Lord of our lives, Jesus takes the test for us, and Jesus passes the test perfectly.
Now, back to our text, we see that these women were given a set of tasks. They were given an invitation to see the evidence of the risen Jesus themselves. Then they were given a command to go and tell what they had seen, and when they followed through in obedience, they had an encounter with the risen Savior. We must do the same if we are going to encounter Jesus. We must first examine the claims of the Bible that we are sinners, that there is nothing we can do. Because God loved us so much, He sent Jesus so that whoever would believe in Him would not perish but have everlasting life. When we examine the evidence and see that we have no hope outside of Jesus, we then must respond in obedience to Him by surrendering our lives and making Him the Lord over it all. When we have faith in Jesus as our Savior, we are told we are saved by His mighty grace. We have an experience with the risen Savior, where He picks us up right where we are. He cleans us off and clothes us in His righteousness and adopts us into His family. When we do this, we are made new in Christ. The moment we place our faith and trust in Jesus and His resurrection, “A new day is dawning for us”, just as the women experienced that first resurrection morning.
When we read a biography on the life of an individual, when they die, it’s usually the end of the story, but not with Jesus. His death was just the beginning, and when we place our faith in Him. It’s just our beginning as well, because we are forgiven, we are saved, we are free, and we are ready for His return — Just as He said.
