Friday, September 28, 2012

Friday, September 28th

Today's passage from the Chronological Bible In a Year Reading Plan is Nehemiah 8-10.
Today's scripture focus is Matthew 28


The Resurrection

28 After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.
There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.
The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you.”
So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them. “Greetings,” he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. 10 Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”

The Guards’ Report

11 While the women were on their way, some of the guards went into the city and reported to the chief priests everything that had happened. 12 When the chief priests had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money, 13 telling them, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.’ 14 If this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.” 15 So the soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story has been widely circulated among the Jews to this very day.

The Great Commission

16 Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”


The resurrection.

The single most important event in the Christian faith.

Yes, Christmas is amazing - the thought that Jesus would give up His place in heaven for 33 years to come to earth in human form is mind boggling.  And yes, Good Friday is also incredible - that the God-man Jesus Christ would willingly lay down His life out of love for wicked sinners is phenomenal.  But if it ended there, it would really be useless.

The hope of the resurrection permeates scripture.
Psalm 49:15 But God will redeem my life from the grave; he will surely take me to himself. 

Psalm 73:24 You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory.

Hosea 6:2 After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will restore us, that we may live in his presence.

Isaiah 26:19 But your dead will live; their bodies will rise. You who dwell in the dust, wake up and shout for joy. Your dew is like the dew of the morning; the earth will give birth to her dead.

Daniel 12:2  Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt.

Job 19:25-27 I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes—I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me! 

Ecclesiastes 3:11b He has also set eternity in the hearts of men

The resurrection is absolutely critical.  If there was no resurrection, our faith is useless.

1 Corinthians 15:13-19 13 If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14 And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. 15 More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. 16 For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. 19 If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.

If Jesus was not raised from the dead, then all gospel preaching is useless, faith in it is useless, the apostles (who preach the resurrection) are all liars, the power of sin remains unbroken and everyone who died believing in Christ is damned.

The resurrection is the most monumental event in the history of the world.  And the way it is told is simplicity itself - which is testimony to it's truthfulness.  Simple, without pretension, using common words, it states the simple and convincing truth.

v11-15 also confirm the resurrection.
There are a few theories to explain away the resurrection - all of them absurd.
One is that Jesus didn't actually die. Which is ludicrous - as the Romans were killing machines and knew exactly when someone was dead and when they were not.  MacArthur summarizes it well....
 if this theory is true, it means that Jesus successfully survived severe beating and loss of blood, crucifixion and further loss of blood, the spear thrust into His side, again draining the blood out of His body through a gaping wound. He survived entombment with 75 pounds of spices on His already weakened body. He survived three days with no food or water. Woke up without any medical assistance having lost most of His blood, moved the stone, walked out and convinced everyone that He was fine and alive from the dead. Once He got outside, overpowered the Roman guard and then walked seven miles to Emmaus on feet that had been pierced with nails. Ridiculous...that's absurd.

The next theory is that there was no actual burial and Christ's body was thrown in a pit with other common criminals.  That also makes no sense - why would the Jewish leaders seals the tomb and have the Romans guard the tomb if no one in it?

Another theory is that all those who saw the resurrected Christ were simply hallucinating.  That's ridiculous as it's obvious from scripture that the disciples were not anticipating a resurrection, and how would 500 people experience the exact same hallucination.  And even if somehow that was all true - then Christ was still dead and the Jewish leaders should've been able to come with a body.  Which they couldn't.  Because He was no longer dead.

There are a few other weird and unbelievable theories like telepathy, conjured evil spirits and the like, none of which hold up at all.

The last theory, and probably the most credible, is that someone stole the body.  The Jewish leaders and Romans obviously wouldn't steal the body, which only left the disciples, and that is why Matthew records v11-14 to show the religious leaders coming up with this story and basically testifying to the resurrection.  They knew the truth.  The guards came and reported to them everything that had happened - the earthquake, the rolling of the stone, the blazing angels, the empty tomb.  The Jewish leaders knew Jesus was dead, they knew what happened was supernatural, they knew Jesus had been resurrected. They never questioned it, our question the soldier's validity - they knew the truth.  The disciples had not stolen the body - if they had, the guards would've reported it!  The truth brought shock and fear, but not repentance or faith.  Instead they immediately came up with a lie and a cover up story.  And then they bribed the soldiers to lie, and promised that they would smooth things out with Pilate so they wouldn't be in trouble.

The hardness of their hearts is astounding!  They knew something supernatural had occurred, they knew Jesus Christ had been resurrected and they didn't even want to find out if it was true or not!

And Matthew includes it here so shows how ridiculous an assertion it was that the disciples stole Jesus' body.  They didn't believer there would be a resurrection, they were a bunch of fear filled men that fled at the least sign of danger, it wouldn't happen.  And the lie is a ridiculous one at that - while they were sleeping the disciples came and stole the body.  If they had been sleeping they wouldn't have seen anybody stealing anything - they would've been asleep!  It's absurd.  And the testimony of Jesus' enemies is a huge confirmation of the resurrection.

The resurrection is true - you can believe the testimony of Jesus' friends or the testimony of His enemies.  It makes more sense to believe in a supernatural resurrection than it is to believe any of the other versions of the "truth".

What does the resurrection mean?
It confirms the truthfulness of God's Word.
It confirms that Jesus is the Son of God as He claimed to be.
It proves that Jesus conquered sin and death and hell and rose victorious, making salvation complete.
It proves that the church is established - in Matthew 16 Jesus said that the gates of hell (meaning death) would not prevail against the building of His church, and the resurrection proves this to be true.
It proves that the judgment is coming because the Judge is alive, and He has been given authority by God to judge mankind.
And it proves that heaven is waiting and Christ is preparing it for His own - for us!

And, finally, in the last passage of the book of Matthew we have the Great Commission.  And so much could be said about this, but the basic point is simple - we are to make disciples of all nations.  Disciples.  Not just converts.  Not just "prayer repeaters".  Disciples.

What God wants from us is availability - we need to be willing to go where God wants us to go.
He wants a worshiping heart that's centered on Him.
We need to have a submissive spirit, acknowledging that He has complete sovereign authority.
And He wants obedience.  We have been commanded to make disciples - to making learning believers - from all nations.  He's commanded it.  Are we obeying it?  What are we doing about it?  All of us!  Not just foreign missionaries.  All of us.
How do we do it?  He tells us right here.  We need to go.  We don't wait for people to come up to ask and ask how they can become a Christian.  No, we need to go to them and tell them the good news.  And when a person genuinely believes, they demonstrate that by being baptized as a step of obedience - where they declare to the world their faith in the Saviour and their submission to His Lordship.  Not cheap grace.  Not easy believism.  Real faith, real obedience, real fruit.  And then we need to teach them.  A true believer will want to learn and they need to be taught so that they can grow in their faith.

And the only way we can do any of this is through His power.  Thankfully He is always with us, His power is always available to us.  He is with us always until the very end of the age - until He comes again, until we are with Him for eternity.



And that's our last passage in Matthew!  Tomorrow we start in Romans - I can't wait!

Tomorrow's scripture focus: Romans 1:1-7
Tomorrow's Bible In a Year Passage passage: Nehemiah 11-13, Psalm 126

1 comment:

Miriam said...

Great post. Thank you for sharing some of the myths surrounding Jesus' resurrection. Absurd, but interesting! I'm excited to start Romans too.