Alright, let's take our Bibles
now and turn to Matthew chapter 28. We're going to look at the first eight
verses of Matthew chapter 28. 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, for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven,
and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat
upon it. His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow. And for fear of him, the keepers
did shake and became as dead men. And the angel answered and
said unto the women, he didn't say anything to those soldiers,
Fear not ye, for I know that ye seek Jesus which was crucified. He is not here, for he is risen,
as he said, Come see the place where the Lord lay, and go quickly
and tell His disciples that He has risen from the dead, and
behold, He goeth before you into Galilee. There shall you see
Him." Lo, I have told you. And they departed quickly from
the sepulcher with fear and great joy, and did run to bring His
disciples word. Now this is early on the resurrection
morn, the perpetual end of the Sabbath is fulfilled. And the
first dawn of the Lord's day, the dawning of the day of the
Lord, this whole age from that day forward is the day of the
Lord. It's the Lord's day. And that
first day of the week where He rose from the dead, It's called
the Lord's Day. And God interrupts these hardened
soldiers. These were men who battle in
those days wasn't fought from a distance the way it is today.
They lined up with swords and spears and just had at it. These
men had seen blood and battle and they knew something about
They were hardened. They were battle-hardened. I
don't know what else to say about that. It just wasn't much shook
them up anymore. What might really shake up the
average person, it didn't bother them at all. You take folks who
have been in the war, in our day, and you get them in situations
here where people absolutely panic, they're not shook up a
bit. They've seen it before. And these
two hardened soldiers, there were at least two of them, they
shook. They shook. They were shaking
in their boots. And it said they were as dead
as men. They just froze. They didn't
know what else to do in the sight of this messenger of God. And
God interrupts these hardened soldiers and these mourning women
with a great earthquake. He was about to shake up the
whole world with His Gospel. And He begins by shaking the
very ground into which our Lord's body was committed. And this
most unusual messenger is sent from God. This is the angel who
came from God. And his appearance was like lightning. I can't imagine. We drove home
one night from 13th Street, going back down to where we lived.
And we had a bad electrical storm. And it's the first time I ever
seen lightning actually hit and roll on the ground. And there
was so much lightning that it actually hurt my eyes when I
got home. His whole countenance was his
lightning and his raiment. Whatever it was he had on was
white as snow. And those keepers, those men
who had been charged to keep that tomb, shook and become as
dead men. And then sitting there upon that
great sealed stone. This angel came down from God. We don't know a whole lot about
angels. But this angel came down from God and he rolled that stone. This was a huge stone. Some of
you men in here, you had to deal with... I know you don't have
a lot of stones and rocks around here, but up in Kentucky, we
have them everywhere. I'm going to tell you something. You get
a stone this big around, you can't hardly handle it. You've
got to have two men. This stone covered the door to that sepulcher. It was a huge stone. And he rolled
that thing back like it wasn't even there. And toppled it over
and sat down on it. And there he sat before these
women and before these And he tells these two ladies, he didn't
say anything to these two guards. He left them in fear. He left
them quaking in their boots. But to these two women, these
two mourners, he said, fear not. Fear not. He's not dead. That one that you seek, he said,
I know whom you seek. You seek Jesus who was crucified. That's who you seek. And you
fear not, he said, because he's not dead. He's not asleep. He's risen. He's risen. The resurrection of Christ is
the leading message of the New Testament. If you read through
the book of Acts, he introduces his message with the resurrection.
That's what he said. He starts out with David and
he said, David said that he wasn't going to leave He's not going
to leave this holy one in corruption. He's not going to leave him in
the grave. And he said, but David's in the grave and he did corrupt.
And he wasn't talking about himself, he was talking about Christ.
And he didn't see corruption. God raised him from the dead.
And this Jesus, they said, whom we preach unto you, this is the
Christ. This was the leading doctrine In the Gospel, as it
is set forth in the book of Acts, Peter said, Blessed be the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His
abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope,
now listen, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Our hope is not in the memory
of a dead martyr, or a lifeless image, or even a spiritual inspiration,
but in the living, reigning, victorious Christ, whoever liveth
to make intercession for us, who sits upon the throne of omnipotence,
is our surety and guarantor of all that God has promised. Salvation
is in a person. It's not in Catholicism, or Protestantism,
or Arminianism, or Calvinism. It's in the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Bible said, He that hath the Son hath life, and he that
hath not the Son of God, whatever he has, he hath not life. And
having said that, let me say this, that the living Christ
can only be seen as He sat before men in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He's not going to appear to anybody.
He's already appeared. He's already appeared. He's appeared
before hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of witnesses. He's
already come. It's a matter of history. To
deny his appearance in this world is just to deny plain fact. It's an established fact. He
came. He died. He was buried. And he
rose from the grave. But he can only be seen now as
he's set forth before men by the gospel of Jesus Christ. And
as the tabernacle of old was patterned in detail so that each
piece individually, or the whole of it assembled, set forth the
Redeemer. And so the doctrines of Christ,
if we preach them individually or put all of them together,
they set forth the Lord Jesus Christ according to the Word
of God. And to believe on a Jesus that's
contrary to the one set forth in the Gospel of Christ is to
believe on a false Jesus. It's to believe on another Jesus,
Paul says, which is not another, but a perversion of ignorant
men. And you can find that in Galatians
1, 6 through 9, and 2 John, verses 7 through 9. I know today we hardly hear anything
about the resurrection of Christ except on Easter. And then on
Easter they stand up and they have nothing really to say about
the resurrection of Christ. They talk about Him raising from
the dead, but they don't tell you why. They don't tell you
what He accomplished when He was raised from the dead. They
really don't tell you anything at all to give you any hope or
assurance concerning the resurrection of Christ. But if you'll go through
the Word of God, the doctrine of the resurrection of Christ
was the major theme of the early church. Now, some of you are
taking notes, so let me give you some places here to read.
In Acts 2, verses 23 through 24, you'll find that in Peter's
message. Acts 4, verse 2. Acts 4, verse
10. Acts 10, verse 4. Acts 13, verses 30-37. Acts 23, 6. Acts 24, 15-21. And Acts 26, verse 8. All the
way through the book of Acts. Nearly every message they preached,
the leading doctrine of that message was the resurrection
of Christ. The resurrection of Christ was
a prominent doctrine It was preached continually by the apostles in
the early church, and without the resurrection of Christ, all
His eternal appointments, His incarnation, and all of His accomplishments
would be meaningless. Totally meaningless. Without
His resurrection, Christianity could not be. There would be
no Christianity. And without His resurrection,
faith would be in vain. That's what the Scripture said,
Christ be not risen, we'd bleed in vain if He's not risen. Faith
would be in vain, hope would be a delusion, and preaching
just a useless exercise. Without His resurrection, redemption
could not be accomplished, justice could not be said to be satisfied,
and Christ would be exposed as an imposter, and God would be
made alive. All of that having to do with
His resurrection. And then add to that, if Christ
did not rise from the dead and ascend into glory and take His
place at the right hand of God, the glory and the purpose of
God would be defeated and proved to be a miscarriage if He didn't
rise from the dead. There was a lot riding on the
resurrection of Christ. Everything He promised, Everything
that he was about, everything that he manifested, everything
that he accomplished, all riding on his resurrection from the
dead. Salvation is a work of God that God has purposed in
Christ to manifest His glory. I'm talking about the glory of
His wisdom and the glory of His love and His mercy and His grace
and His justice and His wrath and His righteousness. Everything
that makes God, God. So that if Christ, who is the
brightness of the Father's glory, did not rise the third day from
the tomb, God would be discovered to be a liar and His purposes
proven a miscarriage. The message of the resurrection
of Christ has several things that it tells us. Several things
that it speaks to the believer and gives him hope and gives
him assurance and communicates to him not only the purpose of
God, but the love of God. Let me give you four things this
morning. I've just got a short time, and
let me give you four things for you to consider. First of all,
His resurrection is God's confirmation of our Lord's last words on the
cross. Our Lord said in a loud voice,
He said, It is finished. It's finished. God confirmed
that when He raised him from the dead. God confirmed. It's finished. How do I know
it's finished? Because God raised him from the dead. Everything
that salvation is about, everything that God has for the sinner is
in this man. Until you see that, you'll never
see the glory of his resurrection. Everything that God has promised,
everything that God has purposed, All of these things. He first
rested in Christ. Do you see that? And here He
is. And now He's dead. And they put
Him in a tomb. And all of these things riding
on Him. Riding in this person. All the
whole purpose and glory of God in Him. All the hope for sinners
in Him. What's God going to do? Christ
said it's finished. How do I know it's finished?
God raised Him from the dead. Raised him from the dead. He
came to this earth as a representative man. He came as a covenant surety
and guarantor and our federal head and substitute. So that
everything that he did, he did for us. It says he was delivered
for our offenses. And he was raised again for our
justification. His words that is finished have
to do with the fulfilling of all the Old Testament prophecies
concerning Him. It has to do with the fulfilling
of all the Old Testament types which He pre-shadowed before by His own appearances
and by those types. And it has to do with the accomplishing
of the redemption of God's elect. And that's the main thing that
believers say. This redemption that was purposed
in Him was fully accomplished, and His work is done, and God
raised Him from the dead. The resurrection of Christ is
God's confirmation that everything Christ came to do had been done. Justice is satisfied. Righteousness is sufficient. And to believe on the resurrected
Savior is to believe on Him in whom God is well pleased. All right? Secondly, having finished
the work God sent him to do, God raised him from the dead
and established in him the believer's rest. Christ is our Sabbath. You see
that? He fulfilled those things. He
accomplished those things. When God rested after creation,
God knew that Satan was in the world. He knew that Adam was
going to fall. He knew that the world would
be overcome with a flood. He knew all those things that
were coming. So how could He rest? How could
He rest? How could He have a Sabbath of
rest? Well, He rested in His Son. He
rested in that Mediator that He appointed to accomplish His
will. That's how He rested. And God
will be fully vindicated, God will be fully justified, God
will be fully glorified in everything that Christ did. And that's what's
going on here when they raised Him from the dead. Everything that lay ahead after
creation did not prevent God from resting in His Son. Listen
to this, we who have obtained an inheritance are to the praise
of His glory who first trusted in Christ, in whom you also trusted
after you heard the word of truth. That's when you trusted. My soul,
if God can trust Him, surely I can. And as God trusted in Him, so
we trust Him too. Christ is our rest. As God ceased
from His works and trusted in Christ, so we cease from ours
and rest in His finished work. In Colossians 2, verse 16, it
said, now, He said, let no man therefore judge you in meat or
drink or in respect of a holy day or of a new moon or of the
Sabbath days, are you listening, which are a shadow of things
to come, But the body is of Christ. It's His body, it's the physical
Christ, the reality of Christ that's casting these Old Testament
shadows. And when God raised our Lord
from the dead, He sat Him down at His own right hand, The Scripture
said, expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. He must
reign, the Scripture said, until he hath put all things under
his feet. He must. And he will. And he
does. Christ is our rest. And Paul
tells us in Hebrews 4, 3, that all which have believed do enter
in to this rest. They do. They rest. We keep the
Sabbath of God resting in Christ who finished the work and sat
down at God's right hand. And then thirdly, the resurrected
Christ means that God has given us a token pledge of all that
He has promised in Christ. In 1 Corinthians 15, verse 19,
it says this. Now, all through this first part
of 1 Corinthians 15, Paul is reasoning here how none of these
promises that God has given could give you any hope or any assurance
if Christ wasn't raised from the dead. He just goes through
all his arguments. And then he gets down to verse
19 and he said, If in this life only we have hope in Christ,
we are of all men most miserable. But now is Christ risen from
the dead and became, now listen to this, the firstfruits of them
that slept. For since by man came death,
by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all
die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." How do I
know that? Because God raised him from the
dead. And now he's alive. He's living
at the right hand of God. He's the firstfruits. But every man in his own order,
Christ the firstfruits, and afterward they that are Christ's that is
coming. And when God raised up our Lord
from the grave, Ephesians 2, verse 6, said, He raised us up
together with Him. With Him. And when He sat Him
down at His own right hand, it says, He made us sit together
with Him in heavenly places. And when God raised our Lord
from the dead, He ascended into glory and took possession of
our inheritance. And His presence there guarantees
the possession of everything God has promised the believer.
If the head be seated, the body will soon follow. His head ain't
going to be separated from His body. And then, fourthly, the
fourth thing our Lord's resurrection declares is a terror. An absolute terror to them who
believe not. These hardened men, I've heard
men stand to my face and tell me things that just make cold
chills run up and down my back. Saying things just, I wouldn't
even repeat them, what they said toward God and toward the things
of God. Just blasphemous things. And
just cold, just cold. And just make cold chills run
up and down my back. I'll tell you this, these hard-hearted,
battle-proven soldiers, what happened when the angel appeared.
This is just the angel with the news of the resurrection here.
This is not the Lord. This is just an angel. This is
just a messenger came and they were froze and shaking in their
boots. And I'll tell you this, when he came, he had no good
news for them, did he? None whatsoever. He just let
them shake and let them fear. What shall it be when the Lord
Himself appears? Well, we've got some Scriptures
in Revelation 1, verse 6. It says, Behold, He cometh with
clouds. Same way you saw Him leave, that's
how He's coming back. He cometh with clouds, and every
eye shall see Him, and they also which pierced Him, and all kindreds
of the earth shall wail because of Him. And then in Revelation
6 verse 14 it says this, And the heaven departed as a scroll
when it was rolled up. And every mountain and island
was moved out of its place. And the kings of the earth and
great men and the rich men and chief captains and the mighty
men and every bondman and every free man hid themselves in dens
and in the rocks of the mountains. and said to the mountains and
rocks, Fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sitteth
on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb. For the great day
of His wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand?" Having declared the resurrection
of Christ according to David's prophecy, Peter said, let all
the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same
Jesus that you crucify, both Lord and King. He is Lord and
Christ. And when they heard this, they
were pricked in their hearts. And they said, Peter, what are
we going to do? What are we going to do? We have killed the Lord
of glory. We have killed the judge of all the earth. We have
killed him. His blood is on our hands. We
stood there and cried when Pilate talked with us, and we said,
let His blood be upon our hands and upon our children. Let it
be on our heads, and let it be upon the heads of our children.
What are we going to do? Peter said, repent and believe.
That's what you're going to do. Or you're going to face Him whom
you pierced. You're going to see Him whom
you pierced. One or the other? One or the other. Oh, I tell
you, what you need to do this morning is to heed this warning
and listen to what I said about His resurrection and look to
Him and find hope in Him. There isn't any hope anywhere
else. Hope's in Him. Cling to Him. Look to Him. Follow
Him. Follow Him. That's where your
hope is. How do I know that? God raised
Him from the dead. And he sent a messenger. Not
a man, not a... I don't know. One of these days
when we know as we are known, we'll know what this angel was
all about. But there could be no denying
his presence. Boy, when he come, the stone
rolled back, the men shook in their boots, and the ladies received
good news. And this angel just sat on the
rock. He sat on the rock, worshiping God.