All right, in Matthew chapter
27, verse 54, here we are at the cross. Christ gave up the
ghost. He yielded up the ghost, the
spirit, that's what it's talking about. Talking about his life. Christ actually died on the cross. Somebody said, well, God cannot
die. Well, that's true. But his death is to be attributed
to his sinless humanity. And I know we can get kind of
mind boggled here, you know, in a lot of ways. But you know,
this body that's hanging on this cross, who is none other than
God manifest in the flesh, that body was prepared for him. Hebrews chapter 10 tells us.
A body hast thou prepared me. And that's so that he could die
the death of a substitute, a surety, giving himself. He said during
the Lord's Supper, he said, this is my body which is broken for
you. And then he actually died. This
is my blood, the blood of the new covenant. So there was an
actual death here. There was no fake. This was not
a hoax or anything like that. He actually died. And when we
say he yielded up the ghost, it means that he voluntarily
did all this. He said, no man takes my life
from me. Now again, I always caution us
to understand that fallen humanity as represented in these who were
there accusing him, nailing the nails in his hands and feet,
putting on the crown of thorns, we meant it for murder. That's
really what it was. But God meant it for good, to
save much people alive. And that's what he's done here.
So understand that. Well, it says here in verse 54,
well, and we know when he died, it says, let's just look at verse
51. Behold, the veil of the temple
was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth did quake. The rocks
rent tore like an earthquake. The graves were open. Many bodies
of the saints which slept arose. I believe they were raised just
like Lazarus was raised from the dead. They would die again.
Scripture says, you know, they're not we're not going to work on
I'm going to talk about that in the in the message at 11 We're
not going to exist forever with God in Christ in these bodies
It's going to be a new body And what we know about that is probably
summarized in 1 Corinthians 15 more than any other passage of
scripture, and that's what we're gonna look at. So he says, and
came out of the graves after his resurrection and went into
the holy city and appeared to many. Now verse 54, which begins
our lesson today, Christ is risen. Now when the centurion and they
that were with him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquake, And
those things that were done, they feared greatly, saying,
truly, this was the Son of God. Now, a lot of people go a lot
of different ways on this. Was this a confession that the
Holy Spirit brought about that leads to salvation? I don't believe
it was. What caused them to fear? We
talk about the fear of the Lord. You know, the Bible says by nature
there's no fear of God before our eyes. What that's talking
about is there's no respect or regard for the honor of God in
us by nature. But men and women naturally fear
God. I mean, they fear their idea
of God. They fear of the judgment, all
of that. That's legal fear. that the Holy Spirit implants
within the hearts of God's people a godly fear which springs from
faith. And it's a good fear. Hebrews
chapter four talks about that when it talks about entering
into his rest, which Christ is our Sabbath. Let us therefore
fear. Let's respect God. That's what
that's talking about. Let's honor God. Now we don't
do that by nature. We have to be brought to that
point by the spirit through the preaching of the gospel that
drives us to Christ for salvation. And then there's that godly fear.
That's what we're doing this morning. We're fearing God. We're
worshiping. That's what that is. Worshiping
God. We're thanking God. All of that
comes from that godly fear which springs from faith. But their
fear, it says here, was brought about because they saw the earthquake. and those things that were done.
Now the Bible tells us plainly that saving faith, godly fear,
and repentance does not come from seeing miracles. And one
of the clearest passages on that is when Christ told the story
of the rich man and Lazarus. Remember the rich man, when he
was in hell, he said, send Lazarus back to speak to my brothers
so they won't end up where I am. And he said, for if they see
one risen from the dead, then they'd believe. And you remember
what Christ said? He said, though they see one
risen from the dead, they will not believe. They have the written
word of God, the gospel, Moses and the prophets. In other words,
if you're not gonna believe what God says here in his word, seeing
an earthquake or seeing bodies come out of the grave is not
gonna bring you to that godly fear, saving faith. Now, their
testimony was something to be appreciated. Truly this was the
Son of God. I'd say it like this, truly this
is the Son of God. Always was, always is, and always
will be. But understand the gift of saving
faith is given to God's people by the power of the Spirit in
the preaching of the gospel, not in seeing miracles performed. The miracles of this day and
age here in the histories were given only to give credence to
the word. Am I speaking for God? Did Paul,
Peter, James and John, see they didn't have a Bible like what
we've got. They didn't have the written word of God. There were
written scriptures, but I mean, you know, very few people, unless
they were rich, they didn't have copy. Remember the Ethiopian
eunuch, he had a copy of the book of Isaiah. I don't know
if he had any more, but he was rich. The average person didn't
have that. He didn't carry around a Bible.
So how do I know that this man who's preaching this word is
telling me the truth from God? And that's what the miracles
were for. Mark, in Mark 16, when he talks about the Great Commission,
he says they were doing miracles to confirm the Word. And that's
what it is. Well, as I'm standing up here
speaking to you, what confirms the Word to you? This right here. Now, if I jump up and say I'm
healed and flip down the aisle, would that confirm it for you?
Now, it'd make me happy. But it wouldn't confirm any more
than what I'm saying than what this book says. So, what did
Isaiah say? To the law and to the testimony,
if they speak not according to this word, there's no light in
them. We sing a song, How Firm a Foundation,
ye saints of the Lord is given in his excellent word. So understand
that. All right, verse 55. And many
women were there beholding afar off, which followed Jesus from
Galilee, ministering unto him, serving him, among whom were
Mary Magdalene. Now you know who Mary Magdalene
was. I've got in your lesson here. Well, first of all, it
says they were beholding afar off. They were at some distance. And I thought about this. Peter
and the rest of the disciples, except for John, according to
John chapter 19, they were absent. And the only one that we know
that was there at the crucifixion was John. Now, they may have
been far off, too. I don't know. They may have been
close enough to see things. Matthew, for example, probably
was there. He saw some things. That's what
he's recording. They could have recorded what
they heard. We know Luke did. Luke wasn't there. But he recorded
what they had told him by the power of the Spirit. So we know
it's the word of God. But they basically were gone,
and these women were a far off Mary Magdalene, I've got in your
lesson here, out of whom Christ had cast out seven devils, and
having received much from him, loved much, which he showed in
her zealous and constant attachment to him. So, and then it says,
marry the mother of Zebedee's children. That's the mother of
James and John. Her name was Salome, or Salome,
as put in Mark 15. So these women were present.
They saw him die. They were eyewitnesses to all
of this. And look at verse 57. It says,
when the evening or the evening was come, there came a rich man
of Arimathea named Joseph, who also himself was Jesus' disciple,
one of his disciples. And it says, and he went to Pilate
and begged the body of Jesus. And then Pilate commanded the
body to be delivered. And when Joseph had taken the
body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth and laid it in his
own tent. And listen, discount all of these
modern mythological stories about the Shroud of Turin and all that
stuff. All right? That means nothing. That's just
sinful, unbelieving men trying to gain some, I think, mainly
money for themselves. But he laid it in his own tomb. Joseph of Arimathea, being a
rich man, he had a tomb, and he laid the body of Christ there,
which he had hewn out in the rock, and he rolled a great stone
to the door of the sepulcher and departed. So there you have
Joseph of Arimathea, a disciple. We don't know, he's not mentioned
before this, and he's really not mentioned after it, but he
was a man of considerable wealth. And a lot of the commentators
say this is a fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah 53, when
it says in verse nine of Isaiah 53, he made his grave with the
wicked and with the rich in his death. And I think the significance
of that is that Christ's people, sinners saved by grace, come
from all walks of life. There's no physical situation
that qualifies you or me or anybody to be saved. It's all of grace.
It's for Jew, Gentile, male, female, rich, poor. Nothing hinders
His saving us by His grace. Joseph of Arimathea, you know,
some people say he was a secret disciple. I don't know about
that because we don't have anything else recorded about him here.
I don't see him being very secret now. He went to Pilate and begged
for the body of Jesus, wrapped it up, put his body in his own
tomb. So I don't know about all that.
I don't like to speculate about the scriptures. I try not to.
I guess sometimes I have done that. But I try not to. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. And that's what you are. And
that's what I am. And we're different, different
people, different likes, different dislikes, but God saves his people
by his grace through the blood, the righteousness of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And that's it, final. And verse
61, it says, and there was Mary Magdalene and the other Mary
sitting over against the sepulchre. They rolled that, Joseph is the
one who had that tomb closed by that big rock, a great stone,
and here are these two women. Well, apparently they left for
a little while and then came back. Look at verse 62. Now the
next day that followed the day of the preparation, The chief
priest and the Pharisees came together under Pilate, saying,
Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, and that's how they looked
at Christ. He was a blasphemer, a deceiver.
And he says, while he was yet alive, after three days I will
rise again. And so they said, command therefore
that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day, lest his
disciples come by night, steal him away, and say unto the people,
he's risen from the dead, so the last error shall be worse
than the first. Now isn't that something? How much they must have hated
the Lord of glory. And I think about that a lot
because I can remember When I first began to hear the gospel, I hated
it. And that's equivalent to hating
the Lord of glory. What do you mean by that, preacher?
Well, I hated what I was being told about him. Now, I would
have said back then that he's God and man, but I believed that
he died for everybody and that salvation was up to us, and I
hated to hear anything else. And that's, to me, that's blasphemy.
That's what God brought me to repent of. But they wanted to
make sure that there was no discrepancy here, nothing which could make
the last error worse. In other words, his disciples
going around saying, that he is risen. They didn't believe
that Jesus was the true Messiah. They didn't believe he was the
Savior. They didn't believe he was God manifest in the flesh.
But here's the thing, we're told in passages like, I've got them
cited here in your lesson, Psalm 1610, which Peter quoted, I believe,
in Acts 2, 27, and then Acts 13, 35, the grave could not hold
him. God would not suffer the holy
one to see corruption. And so he came out of the grave.
Well, look on, he says, they said in verse 65, Pilate said
unto them, you have a watch, go your way, make it as sure
as you can. So they went and made the sepulcher
sure, sealing the stone and setting a watch. Now we're gonna go down
into chapter 28, because this is real telling, and probably
I'll finish up Matthew next week, or it may take me two more lessons,
but look at verse one. It says, in the end of the Sabbath,
as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary
Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulcher, and behold,
there was a great earthquake. Here's another one. For the angel
of the Lord descended from heaven, a messenger from God, came and
rolled back the stone from the door and sat upon it. Man didn't
roll the stone away, God did through his angel, his messenger.
And his countenance was like lightning, that's power, and
his raiment white as snow, that's righteousness. That's what this
angel represents, power and righteousness. And doesn't it remind you of
Romans 1, 16 and 17? I'm not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ, it is the power of God. Unto salvation to everyone
that believeth, the Jew first, the Greek also, for therein is
the righteousness of God revealed. From faith to faith, as it is
written, the just shall live by faith. So this messenger of
God represented power and righteousness, both of which brought Christ
out from death and the grave. You see, he'd finished the work.
He'd accomplished it. He was successful. And he accomplished
that righteousness which God requires in saving his people
from their sins. Therefore, death could not hold
him. The grave could not hold him. He must live because righteousness
demands life. And it was sin that demanded
his death, you know that. That's our sins imputed to him,
charged to him as our surety and our substitute. And it's
righteousness that brought him out, demands life. And it holds
true for his people. What held true for our Savior
holds true for us. Sin demanded our death. We fell
in Adam into a state of sin and death, spiritual death and depravity. And our sins were imputed to
Christ as our surety before the foundation of the world, and
the righteousness that he accomplished on Calvary that brought him out
of the grave will bring us to life, first in the new birth. That's the guarantee, the down
payment, you might say, the earnest. of our expectation. Well, what
is our expectation? To be raised again unto life
eternal, to live forever and ever and ever with Christ. And so we have that promise that's
secure because of Him. And it says, and for fear of
Him the keepers did shake and became as dead men. I guess what
he's talking about is they fainted. And so they couldn't stop it.
No power on earth could have held him in that tomb. Well,
look at verse five. It says, and the angel answered
and said unto the women, fear not ye, for I know that you seek
Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here. He's not in the
grave. You know, people today, they'll
travel to Israel and I'm sure they've got a place where they
say this is the grave. I sort of doubt it But I'm they
might have I don't know they might have an entrance fee or
something. I don't know But all that stuff
just discount that he's not here He's with this he's he's risen
and it says for he is risen as he said come see the place where
the Lord lay and And so there they are, having satisfied completely
the wrath of God against us for the sins of his people, having
established perfect righteousness whereby God justifies us, Christ
arose from the grave. Paul wrote it this way in Romans
4.25. He was delivered for our offenses, that's our sins imputed
to him, raised again for or because of our justification. That's
his righteousness imputed to us. And so it says, as he said,
he's risen. Our Lord himself declared that
he would rise from the dead. He told his disciples that. And
they doubted it. And you can see that, especially
in other passages, you know, where when the women went and
told him of it, and they didn't believe it. And some people say,
well, that was an incredulous belief. In other words, they
just couldn't believe Believe it because it was too good to
be true or something. I don't know, but I'm not getting into
that today. All I'm simply saying is that what he said would happen
is happening. According to his word. And he
never told a lie. And so, He said, he declared
it himself. I got cited in your lesson what
he told Martha. Remember Mary and Martha, the
sisters of Lazarus? In John 11, 25, he said, I am
the resurrection, the life, he that believeth in me, though
he were dead, yet shall he live. And in John 14, 19, he said,
yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more, but you see
me, because I live, you shall live also. And we're gonna talk
a lot about that in the next message. But when John wrote
Christ teaching the disciples of his work of redemption and
the work of the Holy Spirit and the new birth, he taught the
spirit convincing God's elect in the world of sin and righteousness
and judgment. And he said in John 16, 10, of
righteousness, because I go to my father and you see me no more. Bodily, they would see him no
more, Because he went unto the Father, where he's seated at
the right hand of the Father, ever living, to make intercession
for his people. And let me tell you something,
as long as he's on that throne, as long as he's seated, making
intercession for us, we're safe. We're secure. And all that promises. And then the angel said to the
women, come see the place where the Lord lay. What he's talking
about there is evidence. You know, there's a lot of evidence
of our Lord's resurrection. The empty tomb was one of many
to show this was no hoax. Paul dealt with that. We've already
studied those passages in 1 Corinthians 15, how he was seen of over 500
people in his resurrected, glorified body. But this is no hoax. This is no myth. It's a reality. And it's the believer's hope
of everlasting life in glory with God. Okay.