EPISODE 241 GOSPEL OF MATTHEW CHAPTER 28 ""The Resolution"

Welcome to Share the Word. I can't believe that we've reached the last chapter of the Gospel of Matthew. For me, these last two chapters have been so important and emotional. I want to personally thank Pastor Paul Nitz for the enormous care and time he put into these chapters as well as all of the others. Matthew 28, Night Three, The Resolution. So we've reached the end of Matthew's Gospel and the final night of our imaginary three-part miniseries.

If you just happen upon this podcast, please go back to episode 239 and begin there to get the complete story of the last days of Jesus. Where we left the story, Jesus had been crucified, in fact had died, but his body was still hanging on the cross sometime around 3 p.m. or a little after on Friday afternoon. This was the day the Jews celebrated their most important religious festival, the Passover. The Roman centurion, the officer in charge of the detail assigned to crucify Jesus and keep watch over that site as they died, had remained at Calvary with some of his men to be sure everything was secure. He saw everything that day. He'd never seen anything like it either.

A crucified man who did nothing to resist, who did not verbally lash out at anyone, even when he was cruelly mocked by ugly people who came out there just to watch him die. He heard instead a remarkable prayer for their forgiveness from Jesus' own lips. He saw him hung up to die, and he witnessed the strange darkness that suddenly fell over the whole area in the middle of that day. And then around 3 p.m., he felt the ground shake like an earthquake after Jesus yelled something from his cross. And now he had expired, and everything the centurion heard and saw surrounding Jesus that day struck him as so bizarre. He thought, in fact, he said out loud in the hearing of John and Mary and the others who stayed near the cross, Truly this man was the Son of God.

Part three of our series picks up with the last paragraph of Matthew chapter 27. Scene one, The Last Deception. There was a lot of witnesses to Jesus' death, not only this Roman officer, we're told about, but his men also. And there was, of course, Jesus' mother, who was there. Mary Magdalene was there. John the apostle was too, as well as other women, we're told, were followers of Jesus, but who watched this from a short distance away.

The point being, Jesus really died that day. They all witnessed it. In fact, John, who was there, writes in his gospel that when it was time to get these men down from their crosses, one of the soldiers ran a spear up through Jesus' side, just to be sure, I guess. And John wrote that he saw a great outflow of blood and water. Jesus was definitely dead. John and Mary, through their grief and shock at the events that had unfolded over the last several hours, were now forced to consider what to do with Jesus' body.

They certainly didn't want it ending up in the potter's field. Unbeknownst to them, Sanhedrin member named Joseph, a wealthy man from nearby Arimathea, had taken the initiative to approach the Roman governor and ask for custody of the body. He and another prominent elder of Israel, Nicodemus, were sort of secret followers of Jesus up until now, and certainly didn't agree with the way Jesus had been treated, although they couldn't do anything to prevent it. Now they just wanted to be sure he was given a proper burial according to the Jewish customs. Pilate agreed to their request, and so they proceeded to Calvary with his permission and were given possession of the corpse. Joseph recently had had a new tomb built for himself and his own family's use, and it was close by, and that's where they took the body of Jesus.

These tombs, they were like small caves hewn out of rock on a hillside. Matthew doesn't describe details of the burial, but only says that they wrapped him in a clean linen cloth and he was laid out in that tomb. Others were there as well, undoubtedly, probably John, some of the women followers of Jesus. At 6 p.m., the Sabbath officially began, and they could not finish everything they wanted to do with his body because their religious laws prevented them from handling a dead body on any holy day. And that day was, of all days, the Passover. So they did not do what they came to do entirely, and together they had to roll the large stone back in place, and maybe they could finish it later.

Evening was approaching. Joseph wasn't the only one who came to Pilate about Jesus' body, though. Some of the chief priests and their allies on the Sanhedrin, after playing out several scenarios, decided that his tomb needed to be secured. So they too approached the governor, asking him to post guards there. Here's how Matthew describes their request. Sir, we remember that when he was still alive, that deceiver said, 'After three days I will rise again.'

Therefore, give orders for the grave to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the corpse and say to the people that he has risen from the dead. Then the last deception would be worse than the first, meaning all the trouble this false Messiah, in their view, and his tricks have stirred up recently will pale in comparison to the problems we'll have if his body somehow goes missing and his followers claim that he's actually alive again. I'm sure Pilate was less concerned about this than the Jewish leaders. But he had several hundred Roman soldiers in Jerusalem to keep the peace, some of whom were assigned to the temple and so more or less under the authority of the high priest. So he granted them their request.

You've got soldiers, he said. They are at your command. Go and make the tomb secure, which they did, even placing an official seal on the covering stone, warning, This tomb must not be tampered with. With that warning and a Roman guard set in place to keep watch around the clock, the tomb site was as secure as they could make it. Jesus' followers were not going to pull off any final deceptions on them. Scene two.

With fear and great joy, that Friday evening and throughout the night, and all day Saturday and all Saturday night, the tomb was guarded continuously. Sometime very early Sunday morning, I imagine around 5 or 5:30 a.m., the ground around Jerusalem began to quake again. The Roman soldiers on watch at the tomb were alarmed, I'm sure, and those who were not on duty were awakened by that. And what they saw when they were awakened was even more alarming. They were confronted by a mighty angel of God who was dazzling in appearance. Angels are spirit beings, we know that, but they can take on different forms as needed when God sends them to intervene in the affairs of our world.

This angel radiated with super bright light and energy, and he displayed superhuman strength, picking up and moving the massive stone that covered the tomb's opening like it was made of Styrofoam. Then he sat atop the tomb, staring down the soldiers. Initially, they were frozen with fear, trembling. Their eyes were like saucers. They knew this was a supernatural being, and nothing they could do would contend with it. And within moments, they had all fled in fear for their lives.

At the very same time, at that Sunday's first light, now that the Sabbath was over, some of the women who had seen where Jesus was buried were returning to the tomb to grieve, just as the Roman soldiers were running away from it. Some of those terrified men probably ran right past them. I'll bet the women thought, What in the world are those soldiers running from? As they approached the place where the tomb was located, they were greeted by the same angel. But he had no reason to frighten these women. In fact, he welcomed them.

Do not be afraid, he called out. I know that you're here looking for Jesus, who was crucified, but he's not here. He's risen just as he said. Come and see the place where he was lying. And they did. They peered inside Joseph's tomb, and yes, there was no body there.

I'm betting they backed away then at this otherworldly scene, and as they did, the angel instructed, Now go quickly and tell the disciples that he has risen from the dead and that he's going ahead of you into Galilee. They didn't need to be told that twice. They turned on their heels and started running back the way they came, Matthew says, with fear and great joy. Fear and joy at the same time. And as they ran, they ran smack dab into the risen Lord. Can you see Jesus holding up his hands like a stop sign?

Whoa, slow down, ladies. They knew instantly who he was, and they fell at Jesus' feet in worship. Don't be afraid, he told them. Go on, take word to my brethren, meaning the disciples still in the city, with fear and great joy. That struck me. The Roman soldiers were just overcome by total fear at what they encountered that morning.

They were terrified, while the women were fearful, yes, because what they encountered was so out there, so seemingly impossible, but at the same time full of incredible joy at the thought that Jesus had really risen as he said he would. He was really alive again. Scene three. You are to say. Some of those soldiers who had fled the tomb site, once reaching a safe distance or perhaps once back in the city, decided they had to report back what had happened out there. You might be thinking, of course they would, but not so fast.

Roman soldiers were normally very highly disciplined, expected to be completely disciplined. To lose their composure and run from their guard duty at Jesus' tomb, that was not something they would want to admit. In fact, such a failure would be punished very severely or could even require death if the legion's commander chose that. But at least some of those who had been guarding Jesus' tomb returned to the temple and did report to Caiaphas what had happened. I would have loved to have heard their description. Caiaphas would not have known what to make of any of that.

I'm sure he could readily see the soldiers were legitimately scared to death. But remember, high priestly clan in Israel were Sadducees. This is a sect of liberal Judaism that didn't even believe in the supernatural. Caiaphas and the priests called in some of the other elders of Israel for their opinion and input on what to do now. And after consulting together, although probably not agreeing on what the phenomenon was, they decided the best thing to do now was to bribe the soldiers to lie. They gave them each a serious sum of money and instructed, This is what you are to say.

Say, 'We fell asleep, and the followers of Jesus came and stole his body.' The guards were assured that if the governor heard of their failure, they would be protected from any consequences. The high priest said he would do his very best to keep them out of any possible trouble. Matthew adds, So they took the money and did as they were instructed, and this story was widely spread among the Jews and is to this day. He meant even 25 or 30 years later when he was writing this down. Guess what?

It still is to this day. But what else in the world could anyone say? The tomb was empty. So it was spread the word, this flimsy story, wholly inadequate explanation of events about the stolen body. Trained Roman soldiers all fell asleep while on an important assignment, and Jesus' timid, disheartened disciples decided to risk their lives to steal his dead body. For what?

And they managed to move a three- to four-thousand-pound stone without a sound and then snuck off with a corpse. Taking it where? And what did they stand to gain from any of that? No, he arose all right, and there's no other real explanation for what happened. The final scene, the Great Commission. If we read all four of the New Testament's Gospels, there are many overlapping confirmations in the resurrection accounts and post-resurrection appearances of Jesus, and admittedly some difficult-to-reconcile details among those reports too.

But the very fact that there are so many recollections from so many different people, if you compare all the four Gospel accounts, that's one of the best evidences the resurrection of Jesus actually did happen. They are proof that the earliest Christians did not get together and concoct a false narrative that turned into the legend of the resurrection. Had that been the case, there would have been only one storyline. But that isn't the case. There are many. For Matthew's part, he chose to emphasize Jesus meeting with his followers back in Galilee, where his whole relationship with Jesus had started.

Maybe because, outside of Judas, who is now gone, all the original disciples were Galileans, including Matthew, the one-time tax collector in Capernaum. What he wants to leave ringing in our, his readers' ears is the risen Lord's final instruction to him and the rest of his first followers, the Great Commission, as we call it. All authority is now given me in heaven and on earth, Jesus told them. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of this age. He meant the end of this age we're currently living in, the age that will end with his second coming.

Looking at all the gospel accounts again, Jesus showed himself for forty days after his resurrection, according to Acts chapter one. He showed himself to individuals like Peter and Thomas and to his own half-brother James. He showed himself to small groups like those women he ran into on the road as they were running away from the tomb site, and to Cleopas and his friend on the Emmaus road later that afternoon. He showed himself to doubters, to deniers, to unbelievers even, and to the eleven remaining inner circle disciples. He showed himself multiple times in several different settings. But the apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 that once he showed himself to 500 people at one time.

When that final appearance in Galilee happened, at a place Jesus designated his followers meet him there, I believed it was with a lot more than eleven remaining disciples. Galilee, remember, was where Jesus had the strongest following, where most of his public ministry had happened. I believe that meeting in Galilee must have been the time Paul heard about when more than 500 people at once saw the risen Christ. Family members from Nazareth, followers from Capernaum, from Bethsaida, from Cana, they all gathered to this place Jesus designated that he would meet them. If I'm right, it was then that that crowd that the risen Lord gave his all-important commission to heard him say these instructions about taking the gospel everywhere, the gospel story of his remarkable life, his vicarious suffering and death on the cross, and of course his powerful resurrection from the tomb.

All of these things fulfilled prophetically from Scripture. Take that message, he told them, everywhere, to the whole world. He challenged his followers to do that, and then he said, Teach them all the things that I have taught you, and I'll be with you even to the end of this age. That's what they did. Followers of Christ are still at it to this day. That's what we're doing right now.

The whole purpose of Share the Word. Epilogue: The Passover. I don't want you to miss the significance of the fact this all played out over Passover, the most important Jewish festival, which commemorated Israel's salvation from Egyptian bondage. Fifteen hundred years or so earlier, Moses had told the enslaved Israelites that on that appointed day, they should kill a lamb, mark the lintel and doorposts with its blood of their homes, and he promised them, when the death angel sees that blood, he will pass over your homes. You'll be safe from the final judgment about to come on Egypt. I heard a preacher say once, and this stuck in my head, The Lord did not check inside the house for who was worthy.

He checked for the blood on the doorposts, because none of us are worthy. Only the blood of Jesus can save us. To me, there are few things I hate worse than getting invested in a mystery kind of show, and you're hooked, so you watch and you watch, but things never really get resolved. It's bad enough when there's no good ending, but worse when there's no ending at all. This happened to me not long ago. I was invested in this show.

I watched who knows how many episodes, and then, then it just ended, up in the air, no resolution to the storylines. Just ended. And I thought, that can't be right. There's got to be another season coming or something. So I Googled for information, and wouldn't you know it, the show was canceled. I remember feeling so frustrated by that, even though it was just a stupid made-up story, and honestly, can't even remember the name of the show now.

But the story of Jesus? Ha, no made-up story here. This is history. Many very real people like Matthew lived. On the pages of his gospel, he tells us about the miraculous birth of a long-promised Savior, the Messiah, Emmanuel, God with us. He told us how he came to know Jesus during his public ministry in Galilee.

Told us about the many miraculous things Jesus did and the amazing things Jesus said that convinced him he was in fact God with us. He also told about the many times Jesus said to him and to the other disciples, one way and another, that he had really come into our world to die. That that was his divine mission, and he was going to accomplish it. He told in detail how that finally came about: Jesus' betrayal, his arrest, the trumped-up charges at his fake trials, the governor who knew he was innocent but condemned him to death anyway. And he told us about his agonizing death on the cross on Passover, when the perfect Lamb of God was sacrificed for our sins, his blood spilled to purchase our salvation.

But the story of Jesus has a resolution, a perfect, even glorious resolution, because Christ arose from the dead as he promised he would, a fact witnessed by many, many people, including Matthew. We can be sure that this actually happened. And the implications of that are enormous. It means the potential for resurrection and eternal life for all of us too, because Jesus died for all of us, and he rose for all of us, the just for the unjust, as Paul wrote, to lead us to God. He arose for our justification, to make a way for us to be forgiven and accepted by God. This is what the New Testament teaches.

The good news the first followers of Christ shared in their world is the same message we are still sharing. We can be justified before God because of the death and resurrection of Christ. If we will turn in our hearts and receive by faith the salvation he purchased for us, we will be saved. That's the promise. I certainly hope you've done that, embraced Jesus as your Savior and turned your life toward following him, or, if you haven't, that you will make that most important decision today. That would be the perfect resolution for you to this whole story.

Thanks for listening to the Gospel of Matthew. Until next time, this is Paul for Share the Word. It's not what we do on this earth that will get us into heaven. If that was remotely possible, then what Jesus did on the cross would not have been needed. Jesus was very clear when he said, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Scripture tells us that we're saved by repenting of our sins, confessing with our mouths Jesus as Lord, and believing in our hearts that God raised him from the dead. Then we'll be saved. Have you accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior? If something is stopping you, I would love to know what that is. Please email me at tony@sharetheword.org. I would be honored to talk and answer any questions, talk about any barriers, anything that's stopping you from making that most important decision of your life, the decision as to where you will spend eternity.

The definition of eternity: infinite and unending time.