in the end of the Sabbath. Now, we often point out that
that is not just a reference to the end of the weekly Sabbath.
That's the end of the Sabbath. Now, for our dear neighborly folks who worship
on Saturday, we're not trying to pick a fight. And I want to
tell you something, when our Lord came out of the grave, that
was the end of the Sabbath. It was given initially, from
the beginning, as a symbol of rest. Rest on the seventh day. Well, our rest is in Him who
came out of the grave. He is our Sabbath. He is our
Passover. He is our Lamb. He is our everything. So it's 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 sepulchre. 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, fear not ye, for I know that you 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 is risen from the dead. And behold, he goeth before you
into Galilee. Therefore, shall you see him?
Lo, I have told you. And they departed quickly from
the sepulchre with fear and great joy and did run to bring his
disciples word. That's reading down through verses
eight, Matthew chapter 28. Let's bow for a moment of prayer,
if you will. Our Father, we bow in thanksgiving
again today for your mercy and your grace and your kindness
and your love to your people. We're so thankful, dear Lord,
in our hearts that you came our way one day. Lord, that we wasn't
looking for you, but you came looking for us. And we're glad,
oh God, this morning that we're yours. And we thank you for this
time together. We thank you for this worship
hour, this another Easter Sunday when we celebrate And our minds
and hearts are tuned toward the glorious resurrection of Jesus
Christ, our blessed Redeemer and Lord. And now we thank you
for each one that's come this way. Help us Lord to realize
that we're not here by accident. We're here by divine appointment.
Lord, you have arranged it. You have brought it this way
and we're thankful for it. We ask now that you would speak
to our hearts. Put it, Lord, thy word, not just
in our minds, but in our hearts. Lord, I pray that you might give
hope today to some struggling soul here, to look unto Jesus,
the author and finisher of our faith, he who died but now lives. And as we heard the verse read
a while ago, that he said, I am he that liveth and was dead. And behold, I'm alive forevermore
and have the keys of death and hell. Oh, bless your holy name. Lord, we thank you this morning
for what you're doing and what you are have for us today. We ask thy blessing upon it now
and encourage each heart and do for us. We ask you to bless
our visitors. We thank you for coming for them.
We thank you for them coming wherever from. We just praise
you, Lord, for all your goodness to us today. And we ask these
things. In the blessed name of our Lord
and Savior, Jesus Christ. We thank you, Lord, that you
have allowed some to be with us that hadn't been here for
a long time. We praise you for that, Lord. We're glad in our
heart that you're still on the throne. And though we mess up
and though we falter and stumble and wonder if we're going forward
or backwards half the time, we're glad, oh Lord, that you're right
on schedule. We're glad, Lord, that you're
still on plan A and you don't have a plan B. Bless your holy
name. We thank you that as you said
in the book of Ephesians 1 11, that you're working all things
according to the counsel of your own will. And that we've never
messed you up, nor can we mess you up. Bless your holy name. You're worthy of our praise and
worship today. So ask these things in the name
of our blessed Lord and savior, Jesus Christ. And for his sake. Amen. All right, we've read these
verses here in Matthew 28, 1 through 8. To me, the three greatest
events in the history of the world, all miracles, are the
virgin birth of Christ first, the sacrificial death of Christ,
and third, the bodily resurrection of Christ. And we speak on all
three of these things from time to time. We could speak at length
about any one of the three. To unbelievers, the great mystery
of how one could be born of a virgin makes them just that, unbelievers.
But to believers, those who have been quickened by the Spirit
of God, have been given spiritual life, we don't solve the mystery
We just look beyond the mysterious and believe the miraculous. We
believe the miracle worker. We believe that God is God. What was impossible to men was
not only possible, but it was purposed and performed and perfected
by God. Then when we think about the
cross, the death of our Lord Jesus Christ, He died in a place
belonging to sinners. Adam could not die before he
sinned. Did you ever think about that? But he couldn't keep from dying
after he sinned. Why? Death is the wages of sin. And yet there is one hanging
on the middle cross, dying who had never sinned. How could that
be? That was really as great a miracle
as the virgin birth. That one without sin could die. He who is life incarnate. He who is the way, the truth,
and the life. He of whom John said in chapter
one of John's gospel, in him was life. That didn't mean he
was alive. It means that all life is wrapped
up in him. And coming into this world in
the body of flesh, he is life incarnate. How could life incarnate
be dying? Well, since he knew no sin in
his flesh, It is only by imputation of our sin to Him and placed
upon Him that He could die. That Bible word, imputation,
is an interesting word. It is an accounting term, a banking
term, if you please. It means to withdraw from the
account of one and to deposit into the account of another.
And that's what God was doing when He sent His Son into this
world to die on the cross. He was depositing into the account
of the Lord Jesus Christ the sins of His people. And Christ died in our stead. And because of His death, there
was a double imputation that day. Our sin debt was taken from
us and put on Him. and his righteousness was taken
from him. He was crucified as an unrighteous,
guilty, transgressor, blasphemer. He was put in our place. His
righteousness was taken from him and given to us, deposited
to our account. The crucifixion was a judgment,
the great pouring out of God's wrath against sin. Christ was judged as being what
we are. And we were judged as being what
He is. What a deal. What a deal. God
was not uninformed. Neither did He make a mistake.
He deliberately charged His Son with our sin. and credited us
with His righteousness. So it's not about what we can
do. It's not about turning over a new leaf. It's not about making
a profession. It's not about quitting a few
bad habits and all this kind of stuff. No. It's not about
anything we can do. It's about what Christ has done
for us. That's why we're here today,
met in His name. to worship Him. Some might even
wonder, well, why is He worthy to be worshipped? Because He
it is that's kept us out of hell. He it is that has paid our sin
debt. He it is that has made us accepted
with God. I bless His holy name for that.
So we come this morning to look at this third miracle I mentioned,
the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. The resurrection
of Christ involved all the Godhead. It is a work ascribed to the
Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. In John 10, 17, and
18, Christ said, I lay down my life that I might take it again. So he did it. He did it. He said, I can take it again.
He got up. The Son did it. Romans, excuse me, Acts 13, 30,
God the Father did it. He had fulfilled his promise
in that he hath raised up Jesus again. There God the Father did
it. In Romans 8, 11, the Holy Ghost
did it. But if the spirit of him that
raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, so we see that
the resurrection is the work of the triune God purposed before
there was a world that we would come into the world and die.
And that together, Father, Son, Holy Ghost, all had a part in
it. And so before we look at this
text for a few minutes, I want to say that the resurrection
was not just a resuscitation of the physical frame that was
beaten and bruised and bloody and taken down from the cross
and buried. No, it was more than that. It
was more than a dead man being brought back to what he was before. It was rather a transformation
of Jesus' humanity that enabled him to do numerous things. to
appear and to vanish and to move unseen and to just show up behind
closed doors instantly from one location to another. It was a
creative renewing of his original body, but now fully glorified
and impossible to die again. When he said in Revelation 118,
we've had this verse two or three times already, I am he that liveth.
I am he that liveth. He didn't just mean I'm alive
again. He meant it's in the continual sense. He liveth never to die
again. I am now and forevermore he that
liveth. The resurrection demonstrated
his victory over death. It vindicated him as righteous. It guaranteed our justification
before God. And it promises our resurrection
as well. What a blessed thing. All right,
here in Matthew 28, the two Marys come to the sepulchre. Mark's
account mentions that on their way there to anoint his body,
they had this question. Who shall roll the stone away
for us? It was going to be a problem.
They didn't know how, but here in Matthew 28, verse 2 says that
when they got there, it says there was an earthquake and the
angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back
the stone from the door and sat upon it. So when the women got
there, the stone was rolled away. The angel of the Lord was sitting
on it. And the words of the it's the words of the angel in verse
six this morning that I want to center our thoughts around
verse number six. Listen to what the angel said
to him. He is not here for he is risen, as he said. Come see
the place where the Lord In this verse, there's four definite
themes that I want to call our attention to for a few minutes.
Number one, a shocking, absolutely shocking proclamation. He is not here. How shocking that must have been
to those ladies. They were certain he was there.
One of the gospels says that they had watched where they laid
him in the tomb. And so they say, well, he was
here. We know he was. Well, this angel was there to
convince the women. He told them in verse five, don't
be afraid. Fear not ye. I know why you're
here. You seek Jesus, which was crucified. But he is not here. We're sometimes confused as to
the ministry of angels. I know I talked to a lot of fellows
that's got all the answers. I guess that's I think that's
one advantage to getting as old as I am. I can remember when
I had all the answers and no questions. But I've got to the
point that I have a lot of questions and very few answers. So I don't
know all about angels and what their ministry is, but I do know
this. God didn't need an angel to roll
the stone away, but he did it that way. And the angel rolled
the stone away, not to let Jesus out. He's already out, but to
let the women in. Later to let Peter and John in.
To show them that they might see with their own eyes, He is
not here. So what a shocking proclamation
that was. He ain't here. He is not here. He's gone. Then secondly, note
these words in verse 6. He is not here. It's followed
by a simple explanation. For he is risen, as he said. That's the simple explanation.
That's why he's not here. I like to put special emphasis
on Christ's words here or the reference to his previous promises
as to why he's not here. For he is risen. Just like he
said he would. And he said it over and over
and over. This angel is saying you've got
my word on it. That it's happened. But you had
his word on it before it happened. He said it would be. He said
this would be the case. He has risen, as he said. The angel could say to him, this
is not anything he hadn't been telling you about for a long
time now. The verse in John 10, I laid down my life that I might
take it again. He was telling them then. Matthew
16, from that time forth, Jesus began to show unto his disciples
how that he must go to Jerusalem, suffer many things, be killed,
and be raised again the third day. He told them plainly. John
2, 19, destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it
up again. He spake of the temple of his
body. The disciples never understood that until after the resurrection. But then they did. Then they
did. Also in Matthew 12, he said for
as Jonah Was three days and three nights in the whale's belly So
shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the
heart of the air That's as long as he's going to be there and
Then he'll rise again So he told him over and over clearly and
the angel is here telling these women that It has happened. It's
what he's been telling you all along would happen. This is the
simple, simple, simple explanation for all the seeming chaos around
the sepulchre. The stone is rolled back. The
body is missing. What has happened? Has the graveyard
been vandalized? Yes, it has, by the corpse himself. He got up. That's the simple
explanation. He is risen, as he said. Then a third thought in verse
six, we have not only a shocking proclamation, he is not here,
and a simple explanation, he is risen, as he said, Then there
is a special invitation, and how precious this is, given to
these ladies from the angel. Look what it said. Come, see
the place where the Lord lay. Look inside the tomb. See the
emptiness of it with your own eyes. That word come. Come see the
place. Come. It's as precious a word
as we have in our English language. And it's so beautiful from the
lips of the Lord Jesus or from his angel here. Come see the
place. I think about the scripture in
Matthew 25, the separating of the sheep from the goats, which
is what God is doing, which one day all the sheep are going to
be said to, Come, enter into the joys of thy Lord. Inherit
the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
But to the goats it's going to be said, Go, not come, but go. Depart from me into everlasting
punishment. But here is the angel speaking
with the authority and the special invitation of God Himself. to
these who loved him, come and see. And he says today to all
who have been quickened, all to whom the Spirit of God does
work in your heart, come unto me, all you that labor and are
heavy laden, and I will give you rest. When he talks about
the laboring and the being heavy laden, He's not talking about
that load you carry over at the factory or over at the job. That
ain't the kind of labor he's talking about. He says, all ye
that are laboring and are heavy laden with the burden of your
sins, and you don't know what in the world you're going to
do, you don't want to go to hell, you don't want to face God like
you are. He said, you're heavy laden. You're laboring under
the load of it. Come unto me and I'll give you
rest. And so the message here is to
these women, come and see, he ain't in there. Come see the
place. Christ himself had said to them,
it's for you that my body is broken. Now the angel is saying
to him, it's for you that he's not still here. It's for you. Empty. Come and see the place.
He's not here. I've told you this little story
before. Children enjoyed this last time
and talked to me about it afterwards. Some of them did. In school, how many of your children
ever participated in what they call show and tell? Huh? Yeah. Yeah. Oh, some of you,
it's not children anymore. Okay. The kids bring something from
home, show the class, tell about it, what it is and what it means. Well, it was Easter time in the
school after they had had the egg hunt and opened the plastic
eggs and took out the prizes. And the teacher said, now we're
going to do something else. And she gave them all one of
the plastic eggs back, empty. And said, we're going to go back
out now. And said, I want you all to find something and put in
your egg something from nature. And then we're going to come
back and talk about what you found, what you put in your egg.
Well, one little boy called a grasshopper, and another one a worm, and a
little girl a blade of grass, and another a wildflower. And
there was one little boy in the class who was a special child.
His mind wasn't good. And so it came his turn and he opened
his egg and there was nothing. And all the other kids laughed.
And the teacher said to him, you didn't understand. You were
supposed to bring something in your egg for show and tell. And the little boy said, I did.
This is the empty tomb. Where Jesus was. But he's not
there now. He is risen. So the little fella
had it right. He had the message of Easter.
And that's what the angel is saying here to these women. He's
not here. The tomb is empty. And a fourth
thought, a final thought. This is another great thing I
see in this verse. And that is the sure exaltation
of Christ our Lord in the resurrection. Notice in verses five and six,
the names used, the titles used for the son of God. In verse
5, it's Jesus. The angel said, I know that you
seek Jesus, which was crucified. Well, Jesus was his earthly name.
That was the name of his humiliation and his suffering. And it's Jesus
that was crucified. But now look what the angel said
in verse 6. Come see the place. not where
Jesus lay, but where the Lord lay. It was Jesus, just a man,
so they thought, that was crucified, but it was the Lord that got
up. And that's what Peter said in
the book of Acts at Pentecost. This same Jesus whom you have
crucified, God hath raised him up and hath made him both Lord
and Christ, the Anointed One, the Redeemer, the Lord. He died a sinner's death, a transgressor's
death, a criminal's death, but in resurrection, He's the Lord. He's the Lord. Sure exaltation. He is the risen and living Lord
this morning. We don't worship a rejected,
humiliated man walking the shores of Galilee in sandals. And I emphasize this a lot. We
don't worship a redeemer this morning as the religious world
presents that is trying to do a whole lot more in this world
than he's able to get done. No, he's the Lord. He does as He wills with whom
He wills, when He wills. And we worship Him, the King,
exalted high, our risen and living Lord. And because He lives, we
live also. Because He has conquered death,
hell, and the grave, we can say, right along with Paul the Apostle,
as he said in the 15th chapter of 1 Corinthians, O death! Where is thy sting? O grave,
where is thy victory? And as the old poet said, since
Christ my Lord has lain there, I don't dread its gloom. Preacher Huntley used to say
that Christ lay there and he kicked both ends out of it. It's
not a binding place now for God's people. It's a passageway. This old preacher Kierkegaard
used to say, don't whine about death. He said, it's our ride
out of here. You don't want to stay in this
mess forever. You don't want to stay in that rotten body you're
in forever. No, there's a better day. Christ our Lord rose. And Paul
said in Philippians that when he comes, he shall change these
vile bodies of ours. We shall be changed and with
how bodies like unto His glorious body without sin, without sickness
and without death. Let me conclude with this poem
that we've read every year for several years and I love it.
So I'm going to do it again. I just do it once a year. Y'all don't remember it. It's entitled, He Wouldn't Stay
Dead. They laid his body in Joseph's
new tomb and filled his disciples with sorrow and gloom. They did
not remember what he said, that he must die, but he wouldn't
stay dead. Mary came at the break of day
and found the stone was rolled away. She saw an angel and in
terror fled and told his disciples, that he didn't stay dead. In
that cold, dark tomb, he would not stay. He conquered death
and walked away. And now that old grave has lost
her fear and dread. He lives again. He wouldn't stay
dead. Full atonement and pardon were
made. And for his elect, the sin debt
is paid. The price was his blood as it
flowed crimson red. And I'm thankful today that he
didn't stay dead. Risen today, he reigns on high. We're protected by his watchful
eye. Ever to be our daily bread. Oh,
hallelujah. He didn't stay dead. Bless his
holy name.