Matthew 28
The Resurrection

When Adam and his wife heard the sound of the Lord coming as the Spirit of Judgment Day in the garden, they hid for fear. But the curse that came upon them was not the curse in its final form. That is to say, God did not come and immediately put them in the torments of hell, judging them with eternal wrath. He did not deal with them entirely as their sin deserved. And in the middle of a curse that ended with the grim pronouncement of death, he smuggled in the gospel of life. He promised that the serpent should not have the victory, but a child, born of a woman, born according to this and many yet unspoken promises, would crush the serpent's head.

Meanwhile, death reigned. The children of faith, born to Adam and Eve, lived, bore children and died. The 5th chapter of Genesis drives this point home with macabre and eerie solemnity. So and so lived and bore so and so, lived so many more years "and he died." And he died. And he died. That sad refrain burdened the heart and weighed heavy on the soul. And he died. The phrase, a single word in the Hebrew, spoke of the suspended judgment of God. However long a man lived, at the end death got the victory, and the man went down to the dust from whence he came. He might live many years and rejoice in them all, but always he must remember the days of darkness would be many and all that was coming would be futility.

And this physical death spoke of an eternal judgment of God, too terrifying to contemplate, where the fire is not quenched and the worm does not die. This judgment had been suspended, but for how long? Sooner or later the uncompromising demands of God's justice must break through.

Three days prior to the events described in this chapter, the justice of God had finally come due. On a terrible day that we dare to call good only because of the good that came from it, the judgment of God-so long suspended-came down upon the head of a single man who bore the entire brunt of God's wrath and fury on a cross.

He bore it in agony for three hours before giving himself up to the final indignity of Adam's curse, death itself. Thus this second Adam stood in the place of the first and bore in himself the full judgment that the first Adam had earned.

His death was accompanied by great and terrible signs. There was darkness in the middle of the day; the earth quaked; the rocks were split. All the signs that the prophets had said marked the end of the world and judgment day. In Christ judgment day was being accomplished and the old world, the world of Adam, the whole creation of the heavens and the earth, was coming to an end.

And in the middle of this, a new creation was being prepared for, a creation in which men might return to fellowship with God, in which even the dead might rise. For the veil of the temple, the symbol of man's separation from God, was torn in two. And the bodies of many of the saints were raised, and coming out of their graves after the Resurrection, they appeared to many.

This is the story of that resurrection morning. It is the story of a new Adam coming into a new creation, a new paradise, and a new fellowship with God-a better creation, a better paradise, and a better fellowship than the first Adam had known. For the first Adam had lived in paradise and walked with God, but always with the threat of death before him if sin overcame him and he fell. But this new Adam arises into a new world with the threat of death behind him as an enemy that he has overcome.

This is your story.

As surely as the history of the first Adam belongs to you and his guilt condemns you and his sin makes you filthy and the curse of death on him is the curse of death on you…. So surely the history of this new man belongs to you who look to him in faith. His resurrection is yours. The new creation into which he arises is a kingdom of which you are the citizens. The fellowship with God the Father that he has entered into is your fellowship with God. And the power of the new life with which he is raised is your power, dispensed by him who sits at the right hand of power through the very Spirit who raised him from the dead.

  1. The New Morning
    1. The First Day of the Week
      1. Who can fail to see the glorious significance of this?
      2. The first day of the week, the day on which God had at the beginning said "Let there be light"
      3. So now he calls a new light into the world, the risen Sun of Righteousness with healing in his wings.
      4. For it is the day after the Sabbath; it is a new week
        1. God had rested on the 7th day from the work of creation
        2. That old creation is defunct, it may pass away
        3. A new day has dawned with a new creation in Christ Jesus
      5. For Adam, the Sabbath came at the end of his week, after he had worked. The Sabbath represented the eternal rest of fellowship in glory with God, a fellowship and glory he was to earn.
      6. But Christ has already earned entry into this rest. And so he is glorified.
      7. So our day comes at the beginning of the week, before we work. We have been brought into fellowship with God in the glory Christ first, and his new life is the power of our new obedience.
      8. It is just dawning toward this new week as the chapter begins. The sun of righteousness, already risen and shedding his light abroad, is about to come up over the horizon and dazzle all his new creatures with his brilliance
      9. There is a great earthquake
        1. not so that the stone will be rolled back, an angel does that
        2. but using images given in the prophets, this signifies the judgment of God (e.g. Isa 29:6 - "you will be visited by the Lord of hosts with thunder and earthquake and great noise, with whirlwind and tempest, and the flame of a devouring fire.")
        3. It is judgment day for Christ
        4. On the cross that was not his judgment day but ours, Christ taking the penalty of our sins upon himself (and there was an earthquake then as well).
        5. Now his judgment day comes, and the Father, judging him to be righteous, repeals the curse of death. The angel rolls away the stone and sits on it. It will not be moved. Death has been overcome.
        6. And just as Christ took our judgment day upon himself, so he gives his judgment day to us. This experience is ours as well.
        7. The Father declaring the Son righteous, declares us righteous as well. We are justified in his justification.
      10. And the guards, faced with the presence of the new life, have no life to speak of in comparison with the glory of what has come. They become as dead men.
    2. The Good News
      1. The women, though, have not become as though dead.
      2. Their faith has saved them; with their Savior they have entered into his new life.
      3. So the angel preaches the good news to them.
        1. They are told not to fear.
        2. They need not fear the noise of the earthquake
        3. They need not fear the presence of an angel of the Lord though such an angel had come in the past in judgment, destroying Sodom and Gomorrah, or killing the firstborn sons of Egypt.
        4. They have been passed over. They have survived the day of judgment.
        5. The good news of Christ's resurrection is the good news of their justification
        6. It is the good news that their beloved, with whom they had enjoyed fellowship from God, has risen forevermore to bring them that fellowship.
      4. They go to see the place where he lay
        1. this is no sham resurrection, a matter of spirit only
        2. This is the real thing, an actual reversal of the curse on Adam who went down to the dust
        3. Jesus has come up out of the dust and into life eternal.
    3. The Women Worship
      1. Rejoicing and in awe, they run to tell the others, for the good news of the resurrection must always gladden our hearts and make us long to declare it to one another
      2. Along the way they encounter Jesus, who greets them
        1. The pun is impossible in English
        2. But in Greek, when you want to say, "Hello," you use this word which means "Rejoice!"
        3. Through repetition the word had become a standard greeting of little significance beyond "Hi."
        4. Yet Jesus dusts this old word off and gives it new bounce - from the smallest things to the greatest, he is making all things new.
        5. When he says it in such a context, your translation is exactly right: It means "Rejoice!" Shake off your fears and delight before the Father revealed in my glorious presence
      3. So they worship at his feet
        1. Again, so you don't forget, this is a bodily resurrection
        2. At the resurrected feet of this resurrected man, they fall before the eternal Son of God
      4. When Adam and his wife heard the sound of the Lord on that ancient judgment day, they ran to hide.
      5. Now these children of Adam run to meet their Maker, their new creator, their judge in whom they have been judged not guilty.
      6. What sweeter picture could we ask for that we who were far off are now brought near?
      7. The one we could not approach lest we die, we now run to meet for in him we have our life.
  2. The Choice of the Wicked
    1. The Evidence is Presented
      1. A brief interlude in the story shows that not all have faith to benefit from this miracle.
      2. The Roman soldiers are confronted by the evidence of the resurrection.
      3. They run to tell the chief priests and the elders.
      4. While the women run to tell the good news to the disciples, these guards run to tell the bad news to their superiors.
      5. For it is bad news to the children Satan
        1. The one whom they hate has conquered their master the devil
        2. The death knell of their world, which they love, has been sounded in the inauguration of a new heavens and a new earth in the body of Christ.
        3. The evidence does not persuade them to switch allegiance.
        4. There is no more dramatic evidence of the truth of Christ's claims, yet all the evidence in the world cannot persuade those who are dead in their sins to rise into the new life of Christ. Only the Spirit of Christ can do this.
    2. Their Foolish Hearts Are Darkened
      1. They don't even address what really happened.
      2. Their only concern is to construct a plausible lie.
      3. They do not stop for an instant to say, "If he arose, what does that mean?"
      4. It means death! Death for them and their world and their way of life. Death and judgment.
      5. Only those who trust in Christ and worship at his feet will have a part in the new creation.
    3. They Prefer the World That Is Passing Away
  3. The New Dominion
    1. Worship Mixed with Doubt
      1. The disciples then see him and worship him, but some doubt.
      2. If Jesus has been raised from the dead, why has the resurrection of all not taken place?
      3. They thought, from everything that they'd read and heard, that the resurrection and the judgment were the last events in history, followed by the establishment of the eternal kingdom.
      4. And they were right.
      5. The old creation is to limp along a little longer, but they must believe that the new creation is already here.
      6. They must not doubt, though their mortal eyes cannot apprehend the new creation, yet by faith they must take part in it.
      7. They must live in the faith that the curse has already been repealed and death has already been conquered.
      8. Even as their outward man, which still partakes of the old world is passing away, they must understand that the inner man, which partakes of Christ, is being renewed daily in the power of this new creation.
      9. And one day, though their outward man has gone down to the dust, yet still they shall be raised as Christ was raised into glory. He is the firstfruits of that great harvest.
    2. Jesus' Assurance
      1. Jesus overcomes their doubt by preaching the gospel to them.
      2. He assures them that all authority in heaven and earth has been given to him at his resurrection
        1. Though they do not see him sitting on his judgment throne, condemning those who crucified him…
        2. Though they do not see him with a visible crown or a visible kingdom…
        3. Still they must believe that he has all authority, all power, for he has power over death itself and has conquered that so even death will not separate them from the love of God in him.
      3. This resurrection power in which he was raised is to be the basis of their existence until the end of the age.
    3. The Commission and the Promise
      1. So he tells them to go and make disciples
        1. Just as Adam was given dominion over the first creation, so the second Adam has been given all authority over everything, both new and old.
        2. And he will exercise this dominion by calling his people out of the old and dying world into the new life.
        3. A new and more glorious dominion covenant has been inaugurated in the resurrection of our Savior.
        4. And the disciples are to participate in this dominion, in this power.
        5. Just as they are living their lives by faith in Christ, so they must go and find others to so live their lives.
        6. His life must be their life too, his death to sin must belong to them, and his rising again in power must be their power of a new life.
        7. This is their commission: to call people out of the world that is passing away into the world that lasts forever-to sell all they have and come and follow Jesus.
      2. They must baptize them
        1. And Paul tells us this baptism is an entry into the mystery of Christ's death and resurrection.
        2. As he died to sin on the cross, so they appropriate that experience in baptism by faith
        3. As he rose again to righteousness, so they rise again to the power of a new life in him. They have put old things behind them; their whole world has become new.
        4. They have been born again to a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
        5. This is what it means to be baptized: to participate in the mystery of Christ, to be united with him so that what is true of him is true of you
          1. It is to commit yourself to him to be united with him in his sufferings in death.
          2. And as surely it is to commit yourself to him to be united with him in his glorification; you also shall be raised from the dead.
        6. Believe it! His life is yours and you are his
          1. count yourselves dead to sin and alive to God with the power of his resurrection
          2. be joyful when you are called to suffer for his name, for you participate in his sufferings and therefore in the certain hope of glory.
        7. We have baptized our young children as well, making disciples out of them, laying hold of this promise
          1. The power of this resurrection is offered to us that we may raise these little ones in hope, not fear.
          2. Their baptism is there, waiting for them, holding out to them all these benefits that they may lay hold of by faith.
          3. The power of this resurrection is offered to their faith; as soon as they need the smallest part of it, it is here for the m.
          4. May they never know a day when they were not disciples of Christ.
      3. And they must teach them to observe all that Christ commanded them
        1. Do not be afraid, little children.
        2. You are not suddenly being put back under a covenant of works, as though you must observe these commandments in your own power and thus earn favor.
        3. The resurrection has come first.
        4. All authority has already been given to your savior
        5. This power is yours that you may reign with him
          1. Not as the kings of the earth reign in great outward glory
          2. But as Christ reigns, conquering sin, and calling the citizens of this dying world out of it into a glorious new creation.
        6. Therefore his commandments are not burdensome.
        7. Indeed, these commandments begin with faith and work themselves out in love.
          1. 1 John 3:23-And this is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us.
          2. 1 John 5:3-For the love of God is this, that we obey his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome, 4 for whatever is born of God conquers the world. And this is the victory that conquers the world, our faith. 5 Who is it that conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
        8. Beloved, let us take the power of this resurrection to love one another as brothers of Christ and fellow-heirs of the kingdom.
        9. Let us take this power and stop rendering the members of our bodies as instruments of unrighteousness. What to we have to do with such behavior? We've been raised with Christ in baptism to a new life that has nothing to do with sin.
      4. As a final assurance of this, our Lord promises that he and the power of this resurrection will be with us always, even to the end of the age.

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