Letting Us In …Because He is Risen! 

Matthew 27:57-28:10   

Sermon by Pastor Dennis Gleason -- Easter, 2005

      57As evening approached, Joseph, a rich man from Arimathea who was one of Jesus’ followers, 58went to Pilate and asked for Jesus’ body. And Pilate issued an order to release it to him. 59Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a long linen cloth. 60He placed it in his own new tomb, which had been carved out of the rock. Then he rolled a great stone across the entrance as he left. 61Both Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting nearby watching.
      62The next day—on the first day of the Passover ceremonies—the leading priests and Pharisees went to see Pilate. 63They told him, “Sir, we remember what that deceiver once said while he was still alive: ‘After three days I will be raised from the dead.’ 64So we request that you seal the tomb until the third day. This will prevent his disciples from coming and stealing his body and then telling everyone he came back to life! If that happens, we’ll be worse off than we were at first.”
65Pilate replied, “Take guards and secure it the best you can.” 66So they sealed the tomb and posted guards to protect it.
Matthew 28
      1Early on Sunday morning, as the new day was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went out to see the tomb. 2Suddenly there was a great earthquake, because an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and rolled aside the stone and sat on it. 3His face shone like lightning, and his clothing was as white as snow. 4The guards shook with fear when they saw him, and they fell into a dead faint.
      5Then the angel spoke to the women. “Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I know you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. 6He isn’t here! He has been raised from the dead, just as he said would happen. Come, see where his body was lying. 7And now, go quickly and tell his disciples he has been raised from the dead, and he is going ahead of you to Galilee. You will see him there. Remember, I have told you.”
      8The women ran quickly from the tomb. They were very frightened but also filled with great joy, and they rushed to find the disciples to give them the angel’s message. 9And as they went, Jesus met them. “Greetings!” he said. And they ran to him, held his feet, and worshiped him. 10Then Jesus said to them, “Don’t be afraid! Go tell my brothers to leave for Galilee, and they will see me there.”
      11As the women were on their way into the city, some of the men who had been guarding the tomb went to the leading priests and told them what had happened. 12A meeting of all the religious leaders was called, and they decided to bribe the soldiers. 13They told the soldiers, “You must say, ‘Jesus’ disciples came during the night while we were sleeping, and they stole his body.’ 14If the governor hears about it, we’ll stand up for you and everything will be all right.” 15So the guards accepted the bribe and said what they were told to say. Their story spread widely among the Jews, and they still tell it today.

You probably do not remember the name Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin nor
should you. But during his day he was as powerful a man as there was on earth.
A Russian Communist leader he took part in the Bolshevik Revolution 1917,
was editor of the Soviet newspaper Pravda (which, by the way, means truth),
and was a full member of the Politburo. His works on economics and
political science are still read today.

There is a story told about a journey he took from Moscow to Kiev in 1930 to address a huge assembly on the subject  of atheism. Addressing the crowd he aimed his heavy artillery at Christianity hurling insult, argument, and proof against it.

An hour later he was finished. He looked out at what seemed to be the smoldering ashes of men’s faith. “Are there any questions?” Bukharin  demanded.

Deafening silence filled the auditorium but then one man approached the platform and mounted the lectern standing near the communist leader. He surveyed the crowd first to the left then to the right.

Finally he shouted the ancient greeting known well in the Russian Orthodox
Church: “CHRIST IS RISEN!” En masse the crowd arose as one man and the response came crashing like the sound of thunder: “HE IS RISEN INDEED!”

When we come to our  text for this morning, we need to be reminded that Matthew in writing his gospel, wanted to tell us about Jesus the King of Israel and the coming Kingdom of God.

With that in mind, let us consider our text for this morning and focus on two things that Matthew reveals to us.

First of all the King resting.
Secondly, the King risen

The King Resting:

Jesus was crucified on Friday, and died at the time of the afternoon sacrifice of the Passover lamb. That was about 3 pm. He was then hurriedly buried and is out of our sight until Sunday morning.

What has taken place is this: His followers have been scattered for fear of the Jews. But we find that Joseph of Arimathea a member of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish ruling council, went to Pilate and asked for permission to take down the body of Jesus from the cross and bury him. The Passover was approaching and time was of the essence. Pilate, the Scriptures tell us, gives him permission to take down the corpse of Jesus. Note the difference in perspective. To a loving follower, it is the body of Jesus. To an unbelieving, disinterested man it is the corpse of Jesus.

Joseph of Arimathea, had objected to the illegal meeting in the middle of the night to try Jesus and to the decision to hand Jesus over to death. And now he is no longer a silent disciple of Jesus.

We are told elsewhere that Nicodemus, the one who came to him at night, was also there to assist him in preparing the body of Jesus for burial. They gather the spices, wrap the body of Jesus and place it in Joseph’s tomb.

If we have the chronology correct, we will notice also the women…the Mary’s. Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary watched the tomb after Joseph and Nicodemus had gone. They saw the stone rolled across the entrance to the tomb. They saw the guards put in place and the sealing of the tomb so that it would be known if someone attempted to remove the body of Jesus from the tomb.

Their staying was an act of love for Jesus. But these people, along with the disciples of Jesus, are essentially hopeless, disappointed, bereaved, and heartbroken.

There is no anticipation of anything among them except his death and their loss. Resurrection is the farthest thing from their minds, even though Jesus repeatedly told them that the resurrection was coming. They come to the tomb on Resurrection morning with spices to finish anointing the body of Jesus for burial. They only see a dead Jesus.

At the same time, his foes are quite active too. The priests and Pharisees are filled with a superstitious fear that someone will come and take the body away and then claim that Jesus was raised from the dead. “We remember,” they said, “that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ Command therefore that the sepulcher be made sure until the third day.”

Isn’t it interesting that those who should have known God the best, don’t know Him at all. I find it also interesting that they have completely turned this whole thing upside down. They see Jesus, not as the Son of God, but as a deceiver. They have persuaded themselves that the truth is false and that the falsehood they are perpetrating is the truth. They are the good guys and Jesus is the bad guy.

These men had listened to Jesus in the early days with intense interest and they had been impressed with him, with his understanding of God’s Word, and with his ability. Here was a man of no education that they could not account for. Eventually  they became jealous of the power he exerted and they began fighting against him. And now that he was dead, they called him the deceiver.

Pilate, told them that they had their own guard and to make the tomb as secure as they could. It would appear that Pilate was tired of this whole thing and was telling them to go and do as they pleased, Don’t bother me any further with this matter. While he was saving himself by his choice of expedience over truth, his prisoner was saving himself, and his kingdom.

The King Risen:

Remember when the King was coming into the world, the angels of heaven announced it. With joy and rejoicing they announced his arrival into our world.

And now that the King has been crucified, they announce the fact that he is alive.

It is important for us to be clear about the fact that the angels came not to let Jesus out of the tomb. No, they came to let us in to see that Jesus had already risen. He was not there to be let out. He had already gone by the time the angels come to roll away the stone.

He rose without disturbing the grave clothes. The accounts of the state of the tomb when the women and disciples entered to see for themselves make it clear that the cloth and spices placed between the layers of that cloth were undisturbed. We all have an idea of what a mummy looked like, wrapped in strips of cloth…well, that is essentially what the grave clothes looked like…except they were an empty shell. Jesus had risen right through them. He left the grave without moving the stone from the doorway.  He was unseen as he left the tomb.

It was not until the angels came to remove the stone from the doorway that the guards were affected by any of this. When the angels came to show the world that Jesus was not there, the guards became as dead men in the blinding presence of the angelic messengers.

But to the friends of Jesus, there is the strange and tender comfort. “Fear not; for I know that you seek Jesus.”

They are seeking Jesus still, but in the wrong way. They seek a dead Jesus, not a living Lord.

Then came the announcement, “He is not here, for He is risen just as he said.”

The last words of the angel were these:  “Come and see the place where the Lord lay.” “Go and tell the disciples…”  This is why the angels were there, to let the disciples in to see that Jesus was not there and then to give the women their commission to go and tell what they have seen.

The resurrection was a demonstration that all the things that Jesus had said were true, and that he had accomplished all that he had set out to do. What he said was now shown to be true and what he had done was beginning to be explained to them.

And then Jesus met them as they were hurrying to go tell the disciples. “Greetings.” He said to them. In their recognition of Him, they fall at his feet and worship him.

One last thought of his enemies…when confronted with the fact of his resurrection and that it had actually taken place…instead of believing and falling down to worship him, they resorted to one final tactic in their unbelief…they lied about the empty tomb.

One can respond to the reality of the resurrection of Jesus and believe it or one will reject it as preposterous and end up in unbelief. The choice is always ours. The evidence for it is there if a person will receive it as being as valid as any other historical event of the past.

When it is accepted and believed there is a power present in our lives that changes things, that gives us hope in the midst of a troubled world. The result of the resurrection of Jesus in our lives is that one day we too shall be raised to be with Him forever for all those who are truly his disciples.

The story is told about the funeral of Leonid Brezhnev, Premier of the former Soviet Union. At the state funeral, his wife stood stoically by his coffin as the ceremony was held to honor him in death and for all he had meant to the Russian people and to Communism.

Just before the casket was closed, so quickly that no one could stop her, she stepped up to the body of her husband and made the sign of the cross over her husband’s body.

What a courageous gesture of hope in the midst of unbelief! Not even in the capital of Communism, could unbelief stamp out the hope that in Jesus, and his resurrection, life could be different.

There are numerous applications that we can make regarding the resurrection of Jesus. Out of all of the possibilities, let’s think about two things that are apparent because of the resurrection: There is renewed hope and commitment among those who follow Jesus. It was true than and it is true now. We have hope for tomorrow regardless of how difficult life can be here and now. And we have a powerful commitment to Jesus Christ…to know Him and make Him known to others who live around us. You have the power to change things around you because of Jesus and the fact that He is alive! 

He is Risen!   He is Risen just as He said.

--Dennis Gleason