Matthew 28:1-8
Introduction:
1. This morning we ponder two key issues surrounding the resurrection: 1) the implications of the event, and 2) the evidences for the event.
2. Tonight, we will ponder a life lived with “resurrected Messiah faith.”
Discussion:
I. What’s At Stake
A. Consider the blessings granted by our resurrected Messiah:
1. Newness of life bought by His atoning sacrifice for our sins (Romans 3:21-26; 6:3-6; 2 Corinthians 5:17-21; Hebrews 9:23-28; 10:11-14; 1 John 2:2).
2. Our Advocate with the Father (Hebrews 7:23-25; 1 Timothy 2:5; 1 John 2:1).
3. Access to God in prayer (Hebrews 4:14-16).
4. Freedom from death’s grip (Hebrews 2:14-15; 1 Corinthians 15:20-23; 1 Thessalonians 4:14).
B. All this hinges on the reality of the resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:14-19).
II. The Weight of the Evidence
A. Of course, naturalists deny the resurrection as a historical reality.
B. The Jews did too, but the tomb was still empty (Matthew 28:11-15).
1. In Justin Martyr’s Dialogue with Trypho, he cites a Jewish letter that says: “A godless and lawless heresy had sprung from one Jesus, a Galilean deceiver, whom we crucified, but his disciples stole him by night from the tomb where he was laid when unfastened from the cross and now deceive men by asserting that he has risen from the dead and ascended to heaven.”
2. The Toledoth Yeshu (sixth century): “A diligent search was made and he was not found in the grave where he had been buried. A gardener had taken him from the grave and had brought him into his garden and buried him in the sand over which the waters flowed into the garden.”
C. This notion begs a few questions:
1. How did they bypass the Roman guards? (Matthew 27:62-66)
2. How could the guards identify them? (Matthew 28:13)
3. Why were the guards not punished? (Acts 12:19)
4. When Peter preached the resurrected Christ a mere fifty days later, why did they not just produce His body and end this hoax?
D. The apostles’ testimony makes these questions more impactful.
1. Many atheists recognize the apostles were good faith witnesses.
a. Joseph McCabe admitted: “Paul was absolutely convinced of the resurrection; and this proves that it was widely believed not many years after the death of Jesus.”
b. Shirley Jackson Case: “The testimony of Paul alone is sufficient to convince us, beyond any reasonable doubt, that this was the commonly accepted opinion in his day—an opinion at that time supported by the highest authority imaginable, the eyewitnesses themselves.”
c. Paula Fredrickson stated, “I know in their own terms what they saw was the raised Jesus. That’s what they say, and then all the historic evidence we have afterwards attest to their conviction that that’s what they saw. I’m not saying that they really did see the raised Jesus. I wasn’t there. I don’t know what they saw. But I do know that as a historian that they must have seen something.”
2. In Fox’s Book of Martyrs we learn that “Paul was beheaded, Peter was crucified, Thomas was thrust through with a spear, Matthew was slain with a halberd, Matthias was stoned and beheaded, Andrew was crucified…”
3. Why would the apostles, who claimed to be eyewitnesses of this event willingly die for what they knew was a lie?
4. Wayne Jackson rightly stated: “While men may die out of religious deception, they do not willingly go to their deaths knowing they are perpetrating a hoax.”
E. Because He was raised and proven to be God’s Son (Romans 1:4).
Conclusion:
1. Everything hinges on a resurrected Messiah (1 Corinthians 15:14-19).
2. The evidence strongly points to the historical reality that Jesus of Nazareth is the resurrected Messiah.
3. We must live every day with resurrected Messiah faith (1 Corinthians 15:1-4).