The Resurrection of Jesus Christ

Published by Stanley Pouw in 2015 · 13 September 2015

This is the great cornerstone of the Christian faith. Everything that we are and have and ever hope to be, is predicated on the reality of the resurrection. There would be no Christianity if there were no resurrection. On the other hand because there is a resurrection, all elements of our faith are affirmed as true in every sense.

Christians believe that Jesus rose from the dead. But there are many possible reactions to the resurrection. First, there is the reaction of rationalism which says that the resurrection must be rejected because it cannot be explained by human reasoning. The humanistic view says that only that which man can perceive and explain can be true. So rationalism rejects the resurrection as it rejects God and all other miraculous elements of redemptive history.

A second reaction is the reaction of unbelief which just refuses to believe the plain truth. Unbelief is a denial of what is a fact, because the resurrection is perhaps the most indisputable fact of all of ancient history, based on evidences and testimony from eye witnesses. Another response is indifference. That is the response that says it may be true or in fact it is true but I just don't care. That is not at the top of my priority list whether it happened or not.

And there is also the reaction of hostility. It is more than a rationalistic rejection based upon the supremacy of human reason. It is more than indifference and more than ignorance, it is anger. The proper response is the response of faith, of belief, of application of the reality of the resurrection. Now all the gospels believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ not because they were forced to believe, but because they who were close to the evidence, as were all the other people of the believing community.

In Matthew 28:1-10, we are going to join those who see the resurrection through the eyes of faith. Some people think that the Bible is just a whole lot of spiritual truths put together at random. That's not true. What we see in Matthew 28 is the climax of everything. It is the point of everything and the purpose of everything. This is a time then to memorize everything we have learned so that we may understand the glory of the resurrection, this greatest of all events.

The first sermon ever preached in the church the day the church was born was preached by Peter in Acts 2 and it's a sermon on the resurrection. The reality of the resurrection became the theme of all apostolic preaching. Peter preached again on the resurrection in chapter 4 and again on the resurrection in chapter 10. And Stephen preached the resurrection in chapter 7. And Philip preached the resurrection in chapter 8. And Paul preached the resurrection in chapter 9 and chapter 13 and on to chapter 28 of Acts.

The whole theme of the New Testament is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And we are here because of the resurrection. This is Sunday, this is the first day of the week, and this is resurrection day. Spurgeon wrote, "We gather together on the first rather than the seventh day of the week because redemption is even a greater work than creation and more worthy of commemoration. Jesus has placed our rest day not at the end of a week but at the beginning of the rest. Every first day of the week we should meditate on the rising of our Lord and seek to enter into the fellowship in His risen life.”

Here is the foundation of all our hope. Because Jesus said in John 14:19, "Because I live, you shall live also." It was Jesus who said in John 11:25-26, “I am the resurrection and the life. Who-ever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.” The resurrection is the core of all we believe. And so we are real excited to study this record of our Lord's resurrection.

Now each of the four gospel writers presents the resurrection in a unique way, picking out certain elements of the event of the resurrection to enforce certain spiritual truth from the mind of the Spirit to the heart of the reader. And as we go through Matthew's picture of the resurrection, we are also going to draw from Mark and Luke and John in order to enrich and fill out the wholeness of the scene that we may appreciate all of its great truth.

Matthew approaches the resurrection through the emotions of a group of women. Mark, Luke and John all approach it differently. They all use the same historical truth, there is no contradiction, but each is selective as to the elements of the resurrection on which they focus for the purpose the Spirit of God gave to each writer.

Let us look at it from Matthew’s viewpoint, emotionally. We are going to look at it through the heart of some loving women who are sensitized to the event itself in marvelous ways. So we will feel the resurrection. We will experience the resurrection as we share in the emotions of these women who first encountered the risen Christ.

Let look at Matthew 28:1, “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.” That beginning phrase really means "long after the Sabbath" to express the idea that an interval of time has occurred since the Sabbath which ended Saturday at sundown. And now it is "toward the dawn of the first day of the week." Notice the Jews did not name the days. They just named the days numerically after the Sabbath, it was day one after the Sabbath and so on.

So, now it is Sunday morning and maybe ten hours have passed since the Sabbath. This is the third day the Lord has been in the grave. He was there part of Friday, all of Saturday the Sabbath and ten hours already on Sunday toward dawn on the morning of that first day with reference to Sabbath. Mark 16:2 says, giving us the same time note, "And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen.” And Luke 24:1 says, "At early dawn..." And John 20:1 says, “while it was still dark.”

So the stage is set on this third day for a great event to happen. Jesus had said He would rise from the grave on the third day. He had said it many times as recorded in all four gospels. It is resurrection day and it is Sunday after the Sabbath. But the Sabbath that Jesus was in the grave was the last authorized Sabbath. So it was the end of the Sabbath as part of the old covenant. And it was also the dawning of a new covenant which would no longer be at the end of a week but at the beginning. It is the start of a new era.

And that is why we meet on Sunday, not on the Sabbath, Saturday. Let us now join the women. And this evening we are going to look at their attitudes and emotions as they are confronted with the fact that Jesus whom they expect to be dead in the grave is gone and alive. At first they feel the emotion of sympathy. These women loved the Lord Jesus Christ more than anyone else.

Look in Matthew 28:1, "Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb.” But they are not alone. Mark 16:1 adds, "Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him,” she was there too. Luke 24:10 adds, “Now it was Mary Magdalena and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them.” And John uses the plural pronoun "we" in John 20:2, so we assume that he too saw all those women.

John indicates that the group arrives at the grave at the breaking of dawn. They did not come to see the resurrection, their faith could not handle that. They didn't believe it, they came to see the grave. But why? Mark 16 says, "Here they came in the morning to anoint Him.” What was the point? Hadn't He already been anointed in excess of 70 pounds of anointing substance? The Jews had a tradition to anoint on the third day to preserve the body a bit longer because at the fourth day the body was too decayed.

And Mark 16 says that as they were walking along, they were having a discussion about how they were going to get this great stone out of the way. They had no idea it was being guarded by Romans and sealed. And what they lacked in faith they made up for in compassion. It is one final act of love. But no sooner do they approach the grave the sympathy is transformed into fear. Their second emotion was of terror.

Verse 2 says, “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.” Now this is the second earthquake in three days. There was an earthquake when Christ died that split the rocks wide open and opened graves and dead people came alive among the saints. And now God again is moving and God is demonstrating it physically.

The epicenter of the earthquake is at the tomb. The women feel the earthquake not knowing what has happened. Matthew tells us why, "for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven." When this angel came the garden it created an earthquake. Nothing says that he let Jesus out of the tomb. That is a fallacy. No one actually saw the resurrection, it occurred in an invisible way, Christ just came out of that grave.

The angel moved the stone to let the women in so they could see that He was already gone. Well, how could Jesus get out of there? The same way John 20:26 says, “Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them.” The same way He came through the wall into the upper room is the same way He went out of the rock of the grave. And when the women arrived, they went in and they saw. And when Peter and John arrived, they went in and they saw.

And there were the linen wrappings undisturbed the way they had been wrapped around His body. And the head napkin in the place for His head. It was just the way it had been when His body was in it only Jesus was gone. And little do the high priests and Pharisees know that all of their efforts would only increase His influence and only validate His resurrection.

Now here we have to insert John's gospel special interest in Mary Magdalene. Mary was to the women what Peter was to the Apostles. When Mary comes in all she sees is that the stone is moved and the body gone. And she does not pay attention to this angel. John tells us her reaction in John 20:2, “So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him.”

Mary Magdalene didn't know who that was. John 20:3, "So Peter went out with the other disciple, and they were going toward the tomb.” Verse 4 says they ran and John outran Peter and arrived first. The other ladies stayed and they have the wonderful encounter with an angel. The angel is described in Mathew 28:3, “His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow.” So here is a holy angel representative of deity, a created being who represents the uncreated cause of all beings, God Himself.

And verse 4 says, "And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men.” They were there to make sure nothing happened but something happened they couldn't have anticipated. And they went into temporary coma. Fear will cause people to be paralyzed to the point where they go unconscious and that's what happened. Yes, the women were afraid too but they were sustained by the angel himself.

Verse 5, “But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified.” Some things need explaining even though no one is asking. And so he explained to the women, this is what he said, "Stop being afraid, there's no reason to be afraid." Now remember, Mary Magdalene is gone but the rest are there. She's right now on her way running trying to find Peter and John. Meanwhile the angel calms the fears of these ladies.

The soldiers had reason to fear when Christ arose. But those who loved Him had no reason to fear. They came to find a corpse, not to see a resurrection. Their faith was weak, their understanding was feeble but God is ever gracious. And they loved the Lord Jesus Christ and even in the moments of their doubt and despair, God recognized their love and responded in grace. The Greek text says, "He was raised, He is not here."

And the word indicates resurrection from the dead. That's why the soldiers who were experts at death didn't break His legs, He was already dead. They thrust a spear into His side penetrating the heart and out came the blood from His heart and the water from the pericardium. And these same women, along with Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, would have known that He was dead. And lying in that tomb for this the third day, no question He was dead.

But now He was raised. And the Bible emphasizes that He was raised by the power of the Father in Romans 6:4, Galatians 1:1 and 1 Peter 1:3. In addition Jesus in John 10:18 says, "I have power to lay My life down and I have power to take it up again." So He was raised not only by the Father but He was raised by His own power. And then in Romans 8:11 it says, "It is the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead." So the whole trinity is involved in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

And then the angel says, verse 6, "He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay.” Well Luke 24:3-4 says they did. And it also says the angel showed up on the inside, too. And when they got inside the angel appeared again and gave them basically the same speech. Why did he give it twice? Well, it was the kind of message you would need to repeat at least twice to emphasize the incredible reality.

Then Luke 24:4 says that first angel who gave that speech twice was joined by a second angel, one at the head of where the body used to be and one at the feet of where the body used to be. The Ark of the Covenant in the Old Testament on the top had the Mercy Seat where atonement was made for sin and on both sides it had two angels too. And here with an angel on either side with Christ in the middle is the true Mercy Seat where Christ made atonement for all the sins of the world.

Then in Luke 24:5-7 it says those two angels then gave another message, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? 6 He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, 7 that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.” Now this is the third time they repeat the same message. And finally after that third time it says in verse 8, "And they remembered the words of Jesus."

The angel then commanded in Matthew 28:7, “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.” Even though those disciples were weak, they fled, they denied, they abandoned the Savior and yet he says, I want you to go as fast as you can and tell them Christ is alive. What grace that is.

You know why those women were the first to see the angel and the living Christ? Because they were there. The closer you stay to the Lord and what He is doing, the more you are going to enjoy what He is doing. What you may lack in faith you make up for in devotion, what you may lack in understanding you make up for in loyalty. And God will confirm your weakness and turn it into strength, Amen? Let's bow in prayer.