Matthew 28:1-15

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Introduction

The Resurrection

28 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. 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. 3 His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. 4 And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men. 5 But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. 6 He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. 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. 9 And behold, Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped him. 10 Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.”

The Report of the Guard

11 While they were going, behold, some of the guard went into the city and told the chief priests all that had taken place. 12 And when they had assembled with the elders and taken counsel, they gave a sufficient sum of money to the soldiers 13 and said, “Tell people, ‘His disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep.’ 14 And if this comes to the governor’s ears, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.” 15 So they took the money and did as they were directed. And this story has been spread among the Jews to this day.

As we reach the final chapter of Matthew’s Gospel we also reach it’s climax, that is, Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, Jesus’ triumph over the grave. In the previous section, Jesus was taken down from the cross and his body claimed by a man called Joseph of Arimathea. Joseph with Nicodemus and several women, who were his disciples, took Jesus’ body to lay it in a tomb that Joseph had made for himself. They anointed the body with more than 75 lbs. of myrrh and aloes before sealing the entrance of the tomb with a great stone. We’re told that at least two of the women stood by sitting opposite the tomb that evening.
While Jesus had been counted among the wicked, as he was put to death on a cross, he was given a rich man’s burial. While Jesus had been subject to public humiliation, because he had done nothing wrong, Joseph honored him with a proper burial, even a burial fit for a king. And while almost all of his disciples had deserted him, many of the women had yet remained by his side. However, the Sabbath was upon them as the sun fell over the horizon, and so even the women were forced to travel back to the city.
But the Pharisees were concerned that Jesus’ body would be stolen during the night by Jesus’ disciples to make it look as though Jesus had risen from the dead, so they pleaded with Pilate to secure the tomb. However, Pilate was not interested, so he told them to secure it themselves with their own soldiers, so they sent the Temple guard to the tomb to seal its entrance and to set a guard.

Differences not contradictions

And so it’s at this point in the story that we pickup there in verse 1 of chapter 28,

28 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.

So Matthew tells us that after the Sabbath (which would be Sunday morning at dawn by our reckoning) the women made their way back to the tomb. Mark 16 and Luke 24 indicate that the women were going to the tomb to more adequately prepare Jesus’ body for burial, that they were bringing spices and ointments, and due to the Sabbath, the day before, they had to wait until the first day of the week to do so.
Now, it’s at this point that some attack the testimony of the Scriptures by pointing out that Matthew only records two women going to see the tomb while the other Gospel writers record more. And it’s important for us as students of Scripture to understand that this isn’t something that should trip us up, and that differences are not necessarily contradictions which many critical scholars might have you assume. In fact, it’s quite expected for eyewitness testimonies to include differences, that what one person notices another might not, or what one person might emphasize another does not. Incidents like these are not contradictions, they’re simply different perspectives of the same events. Which, in fact, adds to the veracity of the Gospel accounts. In other words, it indicates to the historian that these four Gospel writers didn’t conspire together in some back room to prop up some kind of fairy tale, working together to make sure they get their stories straight. Instead, when we take the Gospels together, our picture of the events they record take on fuller form. Where one Gospel writer doesn’t include one detail another does, and where one writer doesn’t emphasize one aspect another does. These differences are not contradictions, but rather they build upon one another.
So, when Matthew records that “Mary Magdalene and the other Mary” went to the see the tomb while the other Gospel writers record that “Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices” we now know that it was more than just the two Mary’s at the tomb, but others also. Again, remember, differences are not necessarily contradictions.

The Lord’s day

Also, notice that this takes place on the first day of the week (Sunday), when they return to the tomb to find it empty. The Apostle John would later refer to it in Revelation 1:10, as the Lord’s day. And this is the historical reason we gather together on Sundays to worship, because it was on the first day of the week that our Lord was risen. And it’s the pattern that the NT sets out for us worship corporately. In Acts 20:7 the pattern of the Lord’s Day was already assumed, when Luke wrote,

7 On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day, and he prolonged his speech until midnight.

It was Jesus’ resurrection recorded here in chapter 28 that would serve as the foundation for our corporate gathering to worship, marked by fellowship, the breaking bread together (i.e. the Lords’ Supper), and the teaching of the Apostles.

Angel(s) of the Lord

Now, returning to the story, I want you to imagine how the women likely felt at this point. While they had remained loyal to Jesus even during his crucifixion and burial, they had returned to his tomb to anoint the dead, in other words it wasn’t as if they had traveled to see if Jesus had risen from the grave. They were undoubtedly downcast. In fact, Mark records that on their way to the tomb they were saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?” From their perspective everything had ended tragically and without hope, but little did they know that there would be someone there to roll away the stone for them, however, it was one whom they never expected.
We continue there in verse 2,

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. 3 His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. 4 And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men.

So, when the women reached the tomb they encountered an earthquake, and this time the earthquake was in response to the arrival, or the appearance of an angel. In fact, Luke and John indicate that there were two of them who had come to roll away the stone at the entrance of the tomb. Matthew describes their appearance like lightning, and their clothing as white as snow. Luke describes the angels as being clothed in dazzling apparel. This, of course, is typical of biblical descriptions of angels. In Daniel chapter 10 we’re given a similar description of an angel that appeared before Daniel in a vision, in verse 5 we read,

5 I lifted up my eyes and looked, and behold, a man clothed in linen, with a belt of fine gold from Uphaz around his waist. 6 His body was like beryl, his face like the appearance of lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and the sound of his words like the sound of a multitude. 7 And I, Daniel, alone saw the vision, for the men who were with me did not see the vision, but a great trembling fell upon them, and they fled to hide themselves.

So, often when an angel appears it’s in dramatic fashion, and those who see them must grasp at the most dramatic earthly imagery to describe these heavenly beings, and their presence typically elicits fear and trembling. And so Luke records that the women were “frightened and bowed their faces to the ground.” And like Daniel’s companions in his vision Matthew says that “the guards trembled and became like dead men.”

Jesus is risen

Then we read in verse 5,

5 But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. 6 He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay.

The angels have not come to speak to the guards but have come to speak to the women, and to show them that Jesus is no longer in the tomb by rolling the stone away from the entrance. They hadn’t come to let Jesus out of the tomb (as many paintings often depict) but to show them that he was no longer there.
And they came to give the women a particular message. It says there in verse 7,

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.

The women are to go and tell the disciples that Jesus has risen from the dead, to report what they’ve seen and heard. They’re also told to remind them that Jesus has gone before them to Galilee just as he had told them, because if you recall back in Matthew chapter 26 just before Jesus had been arrested, and while on their way to the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus told them in verse 31,

“You will all fall away because of me this night. For it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’ 32 But after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee.”

So the angel tells the women to remind the disciples of this. And it also says there in verse 8 that the women departed quickly with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. Their despair and hopelessness had immediately turned to fear and great joy. An emotional roller coaster that undoubtedly made them wonder, “Can this really be?” “Has our Lord truly risen from the dead?” Only to have their overwhelming shock and joy met by Jesus himself along the way. It says there in verse 9,

9 And behold, Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped him. 10 Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.”

At this point, there can be no doubt, they know first hand that he has risen, they have seen him with their own eyes and even kissed his feet. He is not some phantom or ghost as many would later claim, he is their Lord come in the flesh, and risen from the grave. And unlike the angels at the tomb Matthew says they worshiped him.

Cover up

Then Matthew draws our attention back to the soldiers who had been tasked with guarding the tomb. They had obviously failed at their duty, but who could blame them, what could they have done, except to become like dead men out of fear of the angels who had appeared like a flash of lighting and at the coming of an earthquake. Besides, when the stone was rolled away from the entrance of the tomb there was no body inside. What were the soldiers to do? Well, it says there in verse 11,

11 While they were going, behold, some of the guard went into the city and told the chief priests all that had taken place. 12 And when they had assembled with the elders and taken counsel, they gave a sufficient sum of money to the soldiers 13 and said, “Tell people, ‘His disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep.’ 14 And if this comes to the governor’s ears, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.” 15 So they took the money and did as they were directed. And this story has been spread among the Jews to this day.

Jesus’ tomb is empty and the chief priests find themselves desperate to come up with a story to explain why. So desperate are they that they bribe the soldiers to lie about what happened, and it must have been a large sum of money because they even convinced them to circulate a story that they had fallen asleep at the wheel, that they had neglected to properly guard the tomb, that while they were asleep Jesus’ disciples came by night and stole the body, in order to make it appear as though Jesus’ had risen from the dead. They bribed the soldiers with enough money to convince them to tell a story that might, under normal circumstances, have resulted in their own punishment, even death, had Pilate found out. That’s why verse 14 says,

14 And if this comes to the governor’s ears, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.”

In short, the Jewish attempt to snuff out Jesus had failed, his tomb was empty, and to the chief priests it was better to pretend that their plan to stop Jesus’ disciples had failed than to admit that Jesus had risen from the dead.
And as I mentioned in our last time together Matthew is the only Gospel writer to include this particular part of the story. He’s the only Gospel writer to record the length to which the Jews went to bury Jesus’ influence, whether it was sealing the tomb and setting a guard of soldiers outside the door, or circulating false testimony of why the tomb was empty. And we can see why Matthew includes it there in verse 15 when he says,

15 So they took the money and did as they were directed. And this story has been spread among the Jews to this day.

We actually know from history that this story was actively being spread by the Jews until at least the 2nd century, during the time of Justin Martyr in 160 AD. And given that Matthew’s intended audience was Jewish it makes sense that he would make an effort here to counter their claims that Jesus’ body had been stolen by his disciples at night. He aims to set the record straight.

Truthfulness of the resurrection

Now, as we reach the end of our text today I want to consider two items, 1) the truthfulness of the resurrection, and 2) the implications of the resurrection. As we’re all acutely aware, both from this text and our own experience, there are many who have challenged the truthfulness of the claim that Jesus rose from the dead. And so I want to point out both the biblical and historical merits that affirm the veracity of this claim.
There is eyewitness testimony of this claim. Here in chapter 28 alone there are many women who witnessed not only the empty tomb, but Jesus himself, even touching his feet.
There is early testimony of this claim. The resurrection was testified to as early as 3 days after his death.
There were many eyewitnesses to the resurrection. The Apostle Paul famously wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:3-8, only 22 years after the resurrection,

3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8 Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me

Paul tells us that he appeared to hundreds of people in the flesh, often before many at one time, and many of whom were still alive. In other words, there were others still alive at the time Paul wrote 1 Corinthians who had seen Jesus in the flesh after his death, of whom anyone could have spoken to directly.
The eyewitnesses had nothing to gain by lying. Those who witnessed Jesus’ resurrection had nothing to gain by making this claim, there was no earthly glory in it, they didn’t gain women, money, or fame, rather only ostracism, suffering and even death. Now, many people have died for their faith in other religions, but different here is that the disciples would have known firsthand whether or not they were telling a lie, whether Jesus had really appeared to them or not, and yet most of them chose to lose their lives for what they believed. They didn’t die for what someone else had told them, but for what they had seen with their own eyes. The 17th century French mathematician, Blaise Pascal, said it well when he said, “I believe those witnesses who get their throats cut.”
Unlikely eyewitnesses of the resurrection. As we’ve seen, the first eyewitnesses of the resurrection were women, and at that time women were not usually considered credible witnesses, in fact, the disciples didn’t believe them at first. Therefore, if you intend to add validity to a claim the last thing you should have done at that time was to have women be the first to eyewitnesses.
Hostile eyewitnesses to the resurrection. In Acts chapter 9 Jesus appears to Paul, who was a Pharisee hostile toward Christianity. This experience would be the beginning of Paul’s conversion to Christianity. Jesus’ brother James didn’t believe in Jesus before he died either, but because Jesus would appear to him in person he would become a stalwart within the early church.
Now, no matter how much evidence we give to the unregenerate man no amount of evidence will ever suffice, because a lack of evidence is not mankind’s problem, rather his sin is (he does not want God in his thinking). And I think the chief priests and the Pharisees were a manifest example of this. Moreover, I’m reminded of Jesus’ story concerning a certain rich man and a man named Lazarus. Lazarus was a beggar who was fed with what fell from the rich man’s table. Eventually both men died, Lazarus was carried away to Abraham’s side while the rich man was tormented in Hades. Because of his torment the rich man begged Abraham to send Lazarus to his father’s house in order to warn his five brothers who were still alive, that they might avoid his own fate, but Abraham told him, “They have Moses and Prophets, let them hear them.” But the rich man said, “No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.” But Abraham said to him, “If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.” In other words, evidence, even miraculous signs and wonders are not enough to convince the unregenerate heart. Which is why our efforts of evangelism should always be accompanied with with much prayer, because it is only God who is able to cause a man to be born again that he might see the kingdom of heaven. Conversion is always a divine act working though the faithful evangelism of God’s people.

Implications of the resurrection

Now, lastly, I want wrap up by taking a moment to consider the implications of the resurrection. If Jesus did, in fact, return from the dead, if he was, in fact, resurrected then there are massive implications for us as Christians, and even for the whole world.
Jesus has authority over life and death. When Jesus said in John 10:18 that,

18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again.

that’s an astounding statement to make when you think about it. However, I suspect as Christians we’re prone to just read that and move on without feeling the impact of it. There’s no one on planet earth that has that kind of authority. None of us control when we’re born or when we die, or have the power to raise ourselves back up again, yet Jesus claimed that he did, and his resurrection proved it, that he, indeed, has authority over life and death.
Jesus has authority over sin. Romans 6:23 says that, “the wages of sin is death”, and while Jesus never sinned, for our sake God made him to be sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. In other words, Jesus died for our sin, and Jesus is the only one to have ever overcome death, to ever have come back from the grave. The Apostle Paul teaches us in 1 Corinthians 15 that Jesus was victorious over death, then in 1 Timothy 1:10 that he abolished death, and then the Apostle John quotes Jesus in Revelation 1:18 that he has the keys of Death and Hades.
Jesus has authority over you and me. 1 Corinthians 6:19-30 says,

do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

In other words, God has purchased us by his blood and we are no longer our own. We no longer go to and fro wherever we like to do this or that as we please, but we have a master, we have a Lord who purchased us. Our lives are no longer our own. Yet, many of us don’t act like it, many of us go about our business giving very little thought as to what pleases our Lord, rarely considering whether our plans are submitted to him or how our plans might please him.
I love what James says in James 4:13-15,
James 4:13–15 ESV
Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”
Now, I’m not saying that God is going to give you some access to his secret will for your life, like a particular person to marry, or how many children you should have or what car to buy, but he most assuredly gives us biblical parameters by which we make choices. The point here is that God owns us, therefore our chief concern in every aspect of our lives should be what he thinks.
God will judge the whole world. In Acts 17:30-31 the Apostle Paul delivered his famous message of repentance to the pagans in Athens, Greece, and he said this,

30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

God will not put us to shame. The resurrection is the assurance that God loves us and has saved us, and that he will not put us to shame. In 1 Corinthians 15:14 Paul wrote that,

if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.

17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.

and

we are of all people most to be pitied.

20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.

And as Paul says in Romans 10:9-11,

if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. 11 For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.”

Prayer

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