Matthew chapter 28. As I said, I titled the message,
As He Said, out of verse 6. You know, our Lord said to the
disciples often, especially as they got closer to his crucifixion,
that the Son of Man must suffer. He must suffer. He must die. He must be buried. We must rise
again from the dead. And it happened just as He said. Just as He said. Everything our
Lord said has come true. Everything. To the jot and tittle.
Everything. And still there are many things
that will yet come true as He said. There's going to be a new
heaven and a new earth as He said. New heaven, new earth,
wherein dwells righteousness, and nothing that offends will
enter into that city," as he said. Just as he said, you can
take him at his word. We can take great comfort in
this, as he said. God's word is the foundation
of all that we believe, is it not? As he said. Faith takes
God at his word, and trust him. Trust Him to do just as He said.
Now, before we get into this chapter, I want you to notice
back in chapter 27, I want you to notice the providence of God
here and how that God uses all things to His glory in our good. All are His servants. It says
in verse 62, Now the next day that followed, The day of the
preparation, the chief priest and the Pharisees came together
to Pilate, saying, Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, and
I tell you what, they still remember that now. Remember what Abraham
said to that rich man who lifted up his eyes in hell? Son, remember. Remember. And they say, we remember
the dead deceiver said while he was yet alive, after three
days I will rise again. They remember that. Command therefore that the sepulcher
be made sure until the third day. God used his enemies to
protect that grave. That no one could disturb it. Even His enemies had to admit
that no one really came and took that. Those men, those keepers,
they knew that no one came there and stole that body. They knew
that. That angel, they saw the angel
there, and they feared, and they said they became like dead men.
But here's the providence, and here's the power of God over
His enemies. He said, Command therefore that
the sepulcher be made sure until the third day, lest his disciples
come by night and steal him away, and say unto the people, He is
risen from the dead, so the last error shall be worse than this
one, shall be worse than the first. Pilate said unto them,
You have a watch, go your way, and listen, make it as sure as
you can, make it as sure as humanly possible. And they went and they
made the sepulcher, and they sealed that stone. They didn't
just roll that stone into place, they sealed that stone. And then
they set a watch. They set a watch. Not just one
or two men there. There's a company of men sitting
at this gravesite, guarding it. His own enemies guarding it to
make sure nothing comes in there bothers him. All the providence
and power of God over all. Alright, now let's look at verse
28. This struck me while I was sitting up here reading this.
Now that God uses all things. All things serve Him. All things
serve Him. Now it says here, in the end
of the Sabbath. Now this was the Passover Sabbath. This is what happened this Passover
here. God, on the sixth day of creation,
finished His work. Just as the Lord Jesus Christ,
on this sixth day here, cried, It is finished. And then He rested
the seventh day in the grave. His body rested in that grave.
Then on the first day of the week, He arose. He arose. It's the end of the Sabbath.
It is the end of that old Jewish Sabbath. Our Lord lay His body
now. His body lay dead in the grave
on that Sabbath day to show that it's an end. It's come to an
end. This is the end of that old Sabbath. This is the end
of the ceremonies. This is the end of the tithes.
Christ has fulfilled all of them. The Lord Jesus Christ is our
Lord. He's our rest. He arose on the
first day of the week, and the first day of the week was a Sunday.
We come together, but I'm telling you this, Sunday's not my Sabbath. The Lord Jesus Christ is my Sabbath. He's your Sabbath. He is our
rest. He's our rest. And that old Sabbath
that they observed is gone. It's gone. And it says He arose There was more than one son that
came up that day. The Son of Righteousness rose early at dawn. At the crack of dawn, the Lord
Jesus Christ arose. The night is over, the day starts
going high, He's risen, and He's risen with healing in His wings. He arose early at dawn, the first
day of the week. Someone said this, we are not
saved by a dead Christ, Yes, he was buried, but if it
goes no further than that, I'm still lost. I'll show you that
in a minute in 1 Corinthians. We are saved by Christ who's
risen. The apostles in the book of Acts,
when they preach, they always preach Christ risen. They preach
Christ crucified, but they preach Christ crucified risen. He's
not in the grave. He's not in the grave. He's not
still hanging on a cross. He's seated at the right hand.
I read that to you out of Hebrews. He's seated at the right hand
of God. That's where He is right now. Jesus Christ is alive and
well and seated at the Father's right hand right now, ruling
and reigning over absolutely everything and everyone in all
principalities. That's where He is. He's not
here. He's risen. He's risen. is the foundation of all of our
hope. Everything we hope for is in
our risen Lord. He's alive. If He's not risen,
we are of all men, the scripture says, most miserable. Now turn
over to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. Look at verse, in chapter
15, let's start reading in verse 12. be preached that he rose from
the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection
of the dead? But if there be no resurrection
of the dead, then is Christ not risen? Because if he's not risen,
no one else is either. If he's not risen, no one's risen.
And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain? And your
faith is also vain, useless, empty, worthless. Yea, we are
found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of
God, that he raised up Christ, and we raised not up, if so be
that the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not, then
is not Christ raised. And if Christ be not raised,
your faith is vain, and you are yet in your sins. You are no
better off than before. And they also which are fallen
asleep in Christ are perished. Most miserable. But now, listen, here's the truth
of it. Now has Christ risen from the
dead and become the first fruits of them that slept. For since
by man came dead Adam, by man the Lord Jesus Christ came also,
the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even
so in Christ shall all be made alive. He's risen. He's risen. But if he's not risen,
no one's risen. And our faith is vain, and our
preaching is vain, it's useless. What are we doing here if he's
not risen? As Mike sang it, we serve a risen
Savior. He's in the world today. Now,
we not only have God's word on this, but we have several credible
witnesses to his resurrection. We have these women here. We
have the angel. We have the disciples. We have several credible witnesses
of his resurrection. But I want you to notice, first
of all, here. I had a little water in my throat
this morning. I want you to notice, who is
at the grave first? Who's here? Is it the disciples? Are the disciples the ones there
first? The ones who was with him day and night? The first
at the grave was Mary Magdalene and the other Mary. But they
never call Mary Magdalene the other Mary, do they? This is
the one whom the Lord cast out seven devils. And she went to
that grave early that morning, early at the crack of dawn. The
scripture teaches us to whom much is forgiven. They love much. They love much. And I tell you
this, there's nothing wrong with visiting the grave of a loved
one. There's nothing wrong with that. I think it's part of the
healing. But she come here, she's coming
to this sepulcher because this is where her Lord lay. And of course, if you go read
the other Gospels, they bring spices and stuff, and they were
going to use it on Him. But here, she's the first one
at the grave site. And when they get there, in another
place, they're asking, who's going to roll away the stone? They're wanting to know who's
going to roll away the stone. And there's a great earthquake.
A great earthquake. Here in verse 2. And behold,
there was a great earthquake, for the angel of the Lord descended
from heaven, and he came. He came and he rolled back the
stone from the door, and he sat upon it. This sight, this glistening,
this person whose countenance is as lightning sitting upon
this stone and going to speak to these women. But there was
this great earthquake. Our Lord did not slip out of
the tomb. No, there was a real announcement of His resurrection.
Just like there was at His death. The earth did quake at His death
and the rocks did ramp. And then He arose from the dead. You see, when he was on the cross,
they couldn't help him. They were not sent to help him.
He died alone. He was forsaken. My God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me? But that's over with now. Sin's
been put away. And now this angel, probably
Gabriel, was sent to roll back this stone. You know how many
men it probably took to roll that stone in place? This was
a great stone. They made sure that this stone
was not going to be moved easily. It took several men to roll this
stone into place in the ceiling. It took one angel just to roll
it out of the way. You know, God's going to send four angels,
and they're going to take hold of the four corners of this earth,
and they're going to send their plagues, and it's all going to
be four angels. One's going to destroy the third part, I think
it is, the third part of earth. Just one angel. Powerful. Powerful. We have no
idea how powerful that angels are. But anyway, this earth quakes
and he comes out of that grave. He comes out of that grave. When
I read this, I thought of another place over here. Look. Over in
Judges. Let me read it. Over in Judges
16. Over in Judges chapter 16, I
want you to listen to this. In verse 2, and it was told the
Gazi saying, Samson is come hither. And they encompassed him in and
laid wait for him all night in the gate of the city and were
quiet all the night saying, in the morning when it is day, we
shall kill him. And Samson lay till midnight
and arose at midnight and he took the doors of the gate of
the city and the two posts, and He went away with them, bar and
all, and put them upon His shoulders and carried them up to the top
of the hill that was before Hebron. I can see our Lord taking death,
hell, and the grave upon His shoulders and coming out of that
grave. Conqueror. A mighty, a mighty conqueror. And it says here, And the angel
of the Lord descended from heaven, and He came and rolled back Why did not our Lord remove the
stone himself? Could he? He could turn water into wine,
couldn't he? He could feed 5,000 with a boy's
lunch, couldn't he? He could heal the sick. He could
raise the dead. Why didn't he just roll the stone
back? I believe it's for this reason. By this act, we see that
he was set free by divine authority. Let it go. Death could not hold
him at all. He had a fair discharge. And
then it shows here also that this was truly an angel, here
in verse 3. His countenance was like lightning,
and his raiment white as snow. Anything that comes from above,
that's it. It's holy. It shows his purity. That's what it's like in that
place. We get a glimpse, we're getting a glimpse of that place
just in seeing this angel here and what they're like. And just
the sight of this angel, look in verse 4. And for fear of him
the keepers did shake and became as dead. They became as dead. Just the sight of this angel
made the keepers shake, shake as dead men. Now what's it going
to be like when they see him sitting on the throne? Scripture
says they're going to call for the rocks and the mountains to
fall on them and hide them from the face of the wrath of the
Lamb. But here's this angel's message.
Fear not ye. He didn't say that to those keepers,
those men that fell down like dead men. He's not speaking to
them. He's speaking to Mary Magdalene. He's speaking to the other Mary,
those women that came there. Don't be afraid of me. Don't be afraid of me. We have
nothing to fear. God's people literally have nothing to fear. We have no one to fear. Fear
not ye, don't be afraid of me. Angels are sent, and I read Hebrews
over there. They are sent to help those who
are heirs of salvation. They're our helpers. They're
our helpers. Nothing to be afraid of. If we
only knew, if we only knew how many We wouldn't be so afraid. If
we could literally see this morning how many is on our side, the
power that God has given them, we wouldn't be afraid. We wouldn't
be afraid. But notice here this angel's
knowledge of them. For I know, I know that you seek
Jesus. I know who you're looking for.
You know, the Lord knows our hearts.
He knows who we're seeking this morning. He knows exactly who
we're seeking this morning. And this angel said, I know whom
you seek, that you seek Jesus, which was crucified. You don't
have to be around someone too long before you know what it
is their heart's after, do you? It doesn't take too long to find
that out. You notice here, they sought
Him even though He was crucified. This angel points this out. He
points this out. He says, I know that you seek
Jesus, which was crucified, even though he was crucified as a
criminal. He was put to death as a criminal.
Yet, you still seek him. You're not afraid. You're not
embarrassed of him. Your love to him has not diminished, though
he was crucified among two thieves. And that's the one we seek, too.
This morning, we seek Jesus who was crucified. That's who we
seek. And we're not ashamed of Him.
Not ashamed of Him. He's our hope. He's our rest. He's our everything. Our Lord
is. You are not ashamed to own Him,
though He was crucified. And that angel knew it. Now listen
here. He's not here. And in other places
it says, by seeking the living among the dead. He's not here,
for He's risen, as He said. He told you He was going to rise
the third day. Even His enemies remember that. They remember
that. And He said, He's not here. He's risen, as He said. He's not here, not because someone
stole His body. but because He's risen, as He
said. Our Lord is alive. When I read
this, I cannot tell you the comfort this gave me, reading this this
past week. When I get that verse, He's not
here, for He's risen. That statement, for He's risen,
gave me so much comfort. I just sat back and I thought,
my Lord is risen. My Lord is seated. the right
hand of the Father, my Lord is in full control of what's going
on right now. And that gave me so much comfort.
He's risen. He's risen. You're not going
through this alone. He's risen. And if He's risen, He's with
every one of His people. He's with every one of them.
Now come see the place where the Lord lay. He was really dead. Dead. No life in it. At all. And you come see the
place where the Lord lay. I just imagine that there was a
fear about them walking into that tomb. Walking into that
grave. The grave is a scary place to
people. But he says, you come in here
and you see where he lay. You see where he lay. I'm sure
they were scared to enter that tomb. But he said to them, come
in here, there's nothing to be afraid of now in this grave. The grave holds nothing for us
to fear. See, this is where the Lord lay.
This is where he got the victory. There's nothing here to fear.
We're all headed to the grave. Now you come see where the Lord
lay. We don't need to fear the grave.
You have nothing to fear. You come see where the Lord lay.
I wish we all this morning together could see the place where the
Lord lay and see all that that really contains for us. The victory
is there for us. There's no sting there now. There's
no dread. He took it all away. He took
it all away. You know what we'll see? He says,
come see where the Lord lay. You notice he didn't say where
Jesus lay. He called him Lord. That's his Lord. That angel knows
who he is. This is where my Lord lay. Here's
what you're going to see. You're going to see an empty
grave. You're going to see an empty
grave. Then you're going to see the
Scripture fulfilled. He's not here. He's not here. There's
not a body here now. And in other scriptures, there
was an angel sitting at the head and at the feet where he lay.
And a napkin was folded up and laid to the side. If somebody had stolen him, it
would have been, you know, somebody breaks him out, you know what
it looks like. They would have hurried up. But everything was
so neatly and in order. Everything was just in order.
It's just like he just Just like this morning, I just got up out
of bed easily, quietly, stood up, walked out of the room. That's
what he did. The earthquake, that angel came
down, rolled back the stone, and he just walked out. He just
walked out. Conqueror. A mighty conqueror
is how he walked out. Now go quickly. We're not dead anymore. We do
not serve a dead Christ. We serve a risen Lord. He's not
dead. Behold, He goes before you in
the Galilee. He's waiting on you. He's already
ahead of you. He's going before you in the
Galilee, and there's how you see Him. Now, if you're told to go someplace,
and you're going to see the Lord, and the Lord's going to be there,
do you reckon you ought to go? How important is it to be here?
Where two or three meet together in my name, there am I in the
midst of them. How important is it to be here?
There is a special, there's a special blessing upon the meeting of
God's people. He says, you go in the Galilee,
the Lord's gonna go before you, and there you'll see him. There
you'll see him. And he goes before you. a place where He is not. He goes before. We don't go before. You say, we don't go before and
then He comes after. No, He goes before. And He brings
His servants. And there's how you see Him.
I hope this morning we can do that. I hope He enables us by
the Word of God, by His Spirit, to see Him. To see Him. They had some kind of understanding
of Him, to see Him. And they departed, in verse 8,
and they departed quickly, just as they were told to do, from
the sepulcher with fear and great joy. They believed. Those women
believed. You see, some of the disciples,
when He showed up, didn't believe. Some believed, some didn't. But
these ladies, these ladies believed. And they left there with fear
and great joy, and did run to bring his disciples word. And
as they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying,
All hail! And they came, and they held
him by the feet, and they worshipped him. They were on their way to
do what they were told to do. You know, if you know, back in
verse 7, look here. In the end of that verse, verse
7, Lo, I have told you. I have given you what I was given
to tell you. He did his job. This is what he was told to do,
and he did it. He said, Lo, I've delivered the message. And this
is what they were doing. They were going to deliver the
message. And on their way, he met Him. He met Him. Then said Jesus unto them, He
says unto them, don't be afraid. What would it be like to have
been then, to have seen this crucifixion, to have actually
witnessed it personally, to have seen it, and then three days
later to see Him standing there? What would that have been like?
Don't be afraid. He said, don't be afraid. Don't tell my brethren that they're
going to Galilee And there shall they see me. There shall they
see me. But everything our Lord has said, everything our Lord has said
has come true, as I said, and shall yet come true. We can take
Him at His Word. He's risen. Our Lord is risen. seated at the right hand of the
Father, ruling over everything for our
good, everything for our good, in His glory. We do serve a risen
Savior. We do serve one.