Christ the Lord is risen. He is risen indeed.
The title of our sermon today is The Garden in
the New Creation, subtitled Jesus Keeps His Word.
Let us pray. Glory be to you, O God, the Father
who did raise your Son Jesus Christ from the
dead and made us partakers of his victory over
sin and death. Glory be to you, O Jesus Christ,
who for our sakes became flesh, has overcome
death, and has opened up the gates of eternal
life for us. O glory be to you, O Holy Spirit,
who has made us your people, your temple, and
who day by day does lead us in all truth in Jesus
Christ. We entreat you to make the words of my
mouth and the meditations of all our hearts acceptable
in your sight, O Lord, our nearest kinsman, Redeemer.
Jesus Christ amen I'm expanding the gospel reading
by a few verses our sermon text 27 beginning
in verse 57 Now when evening had come there came
a rich man from Arimathea named Joseph who himself
had also become a disciple of Jesus This man
went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.
Then Pilate commanded the body to be given to
him. And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped
it in a clean linen cloth and laid it in his
new tomb, which he had hewn out of rock. And
he rolled a large stone against the door of the
tomb and departed. And Mary Magdalene was there
and the other Mary sitting opposite of the tomb.
On the next day, which followed the day of preparation,
the chief priests and Pharisees gathered together
to Pilate, saying, sir, we remember while he
was still alive how the deceiver said, after
three days, I will rise. Therefore, command that
the tomb may be made secure until the third day,
lest his disciples come by night and steal him
away. And say to the people, he is risen from
the dead. The last deception will be worse than
the first. Pilate said to them, you have a guard.
Go your way. Make it as secure as you know how.
So they went and made the tomb secure, sealing
the stone and setting the guard. Now, after the
Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to
dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came
to see the tomb. And behold, there was a great
earthquake. for an angel of the Lord descended
from heaven and came and rolled back the stone
from the door and sat on it. His countenance
was like lightning, his clothing white as snow.
Fear him and became like dead men. But the angel
answered and said to the women, Do not be afraid,
for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified.
He is not here, for he is risen, as he said.
Come see the place where the Lord lay go quickly
and tell his disciples that he is risen from
the dead and Going before you into Galilee where
you will see him Behold I have told you so they
went out quickly from the tomb with fear and
great joy and Ran to bring his disciples word
and as they went to tell his disciples behold
Jesus met them saying rejoice So they came and
held him by the feet and worshiped him and then
Jesus said to them Do not be afraid go and tell
brethren go to Galilee and there they will see
me Now while they were going behold some of the
guard came into the city and reported to the
chief priests all the things that had happened
and when they assembled with the elders and consulted
together They gave them a large sum of money
the soldiers saying tell them his disciples came
by night and stole him away while while we slept
Comes to the governor's ear will appease him
and make you secure So they took the money and
did as they were instructed and this saying is
commonly reported among the Jews until this day
These are the words of Almighty God receive them
in your heart Now as we look through this passage
I want us to see three things. Three things.
One, the great reset of creation. The great reset
of creation. Two, there are always two competing
messages. Every day in your life, there are always
two competing messages. And finally, the good
news. Rejoice! Christ Jesus is resurrected. Rejoice!
Christ Jesus is resurrected. One of the reasons
that the religion of evolution is so dangerous
is that it attempts to change the narrative concerning
creation. And in doing so, it pushes people to
a place where they do not understand what is
truly happening. Not only through the scriptures
as a whole, but particularly through the death
burial and resurrection of Jesus. At the first
creation, Adam finds himself in a garden with
a tree and a woman. Adam does not guard the woman
from the serpent. And in his obedience, Adam
brings death from a tree and so both Adam and
Eve, that woman, and all men since are separated
from God. That is, enmity with God. Now for those
of you kids look up this way you probably don't
use the word enmity all the time in your vocabulary
But when I hear the word enmity we need to understand
that that is war So that is to say that those
that are separated from God are at a rebellious
war with God and so see death as Hebrews 9 27
tells us it is appointed for men to die once
but after this the judgment and so all men see
death. Death from the garden seems so hopelessly
permanent and for those outside Christ Jesus
it is permanent in that they will be in eternal
hostility and suffer judgment and not just in
this life. Revelation 21 8 tells us but the cowardly
the unbelieving, the abominable, murderers, sexually
immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars
shall have their part in the lake which burns
with fire and brimstone, which is the second
death. When we were left together on Friday evening,
we memorialized Jesus' arrest, his innocent sufferings,
and his death. At his death, Jesus cried out,
it is finished signifying that the debt for the
sins of his people were paid in full at that
very moment. Just like during the first creation
where God rested, Jesus completed his work and
then he rested on the seventh day. Only he rested.
The work was done. Jesus worked for our redemption
and reconciliation was complete. Now our passage
today bridges the gap between where we left off
on Good Friday. Remember now it said now when
the evening had come there was a rich man from
Arimathea named Joseph who himself had become
a disciple of Jesus. This man also went to Pilate
to ask for the body of Jesus and then Pilate
commanded that the body be given to him. So let's
talk about Pilate. You have Pilate, the governor,
who not only gave permission for the death of
Jesus after questioning him at length and was
fearful of Jesus when he realized that he is
the Son of God. But of course, remember what
did he say when Jesus says that here is he is
the truth. What is truth? And he goes about,
to preserve himself. And Pilate, the governor
there, he's the one that has the power. Jesus
is dead. Joseph, we know from reading through
across all the gospels, Joseph of Arimathea was
a believer. He believed in Christ. As a matter
of fact, he sat on the Sanhedrin, the grand council,
and the scriptures tell us in Luke that he actually
voted against He didn't agree with all of the
conspiring against Jesus to put him to death.
And like most of us, he had some fear. But it
tells us he had courage because he took that
courage and he went and he talked to the governor,
the one who put Jesus to death. And he asked
for his body. And when Joseph had taken the body,
he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth and laid
it in his new tomb, which he had hewn out of
the rock. And he rolled a large stone against
the door of the tomb and departed. And Mary Magdalene
were there and the other Mary sitting opposite
of the tomb. So there was Japhav, Arimathea,
these ladies were there. They did what they could.
They wrapped him in linen clothing and they put
him in there. But they had to stop. because the
Sabbath was beginning. The day of preparation
was almost over and at dusk they had to stop
work so they had to cease. Now there's some interesting
things in this passage. Why did Joseph of Arimathea
put him in a linen cloth? Why does God give us
this detail? Well if you look at Leviticus chapter
16 verse 4 we see that on the day of atonement
that the high priest had special linen garments
that he put in to go into the Holy of Holies
and make an atonement for the sins of the nation
of Israel. So here we see Joseph putting him
in high priestly linen garment and putting him
in the tomb seeing the Holy of Holies here. We
also see that we are given the detail that he's
put into a new tomb among the rich Which means
only one person per tomb only the rich could
do that This is a this is a fulfillment of the
prophecy in Isaiah 53 verse 9 and This we need
to see and understand is important because Jesus
fulfilled everything that the scripture said
about him. And finally, we see that he rolls
a rock in. Now, to give you context, typically
a normal stone for a tomb like this would take
about six men to roll across. But when they use
the emphasis of a large stone, that's more like
20 men. I'm assuming that Joseph of Arimathea
Rich man being the leader of Israel. He had some
helpers with him and They pushed that large stone
into place And he says they rolled the rock in
place And this is a different word rolled that
is used on the day of resurrection This is just
kind of they kind of rolled it over Just softly
and it's interesting this I'm gonna come back
to this later But there's a difference between
all the resurrection rolled away and this one.
This is just normal men rolling it away. And
all this happened on Friday before sunset as
the Sabbath was about to begin, the seventh day,
the day of rest. Passage continues saying on
the next day, which followed the day of preparation.
So that's the Sabbath day. The chief priests
and the Pharisees gathered together with Pilate
saying, sir, we remember while he was still alive
how the deceiver said, after three days, I will
rise. Therefore, the tomb be made secure until
the third day, lest his disciples come by night
and steal him away and say to the people he has
risen from the dead so that the last decision
will be worse than the first. And of course,
what does Pilate say? You have a guard. Go on,
get as secure as you know how. So they went and
made the tomb secure, sealing the stone and setting
a guard. It's interesting. Here we have the day
of rest. And the Pharisees and the chief priests
in particular, they've been very careful all
through. They have all these extra rules for
the Sabbath day. They think all through the ministry
of Christ, they are railing against Jesus doing
miracles, restoring people, healing people, bringing
people back to life, doing all these wonderful,
good, kind, and restorative things for people
on the Sabbath, and they hated it. But they didn't
want anybody to know what it was they were doing.
Right? Here on this Sabbath day, it would seem
that they didn't consider conspiring work meetings
to be against the Sabbath rules. Right about
you, but if somebody wants to call a meeting
on the Lord's Day there better be a really good
reason for it Right somebody dies Somebody has
a flat tire. Well, okay together. We'll go out
there and change it right That's not what these
guys were doing they were conducting can spy
conspiring against God and the Lord Jesus and
they were having this meeting man. We got to
make sure In no way can there be any deception
here, which is interesting because what are they
full of? Lies and deception. It's interesting
also that God haters remember what God said.
They remember what Jesus said, and they're actually
afraid. We read that the disciples, what do you
see? After the resurrection, after Jesus shows
up, then they remember. After Jesus breathed
the Holy Spirit on them, they remember all the
things that God had said. All the things that
Jesus had said. James chapter 2 verse 19 tells
us this. He's actually speaking to Christians.
You believe that there is one God. You do well.
Even the demons believe. And they tremble. These
men did not tremble. except out of fear that
Jesus might come back to life and remove them.
We also see that they remembered the words. What
did they remember? Well, they remembered Matthew
12 where they asked for a son. Jesus says, for
as Jonah was three days and three nights of the
belly of the great fish, the son of man be three
days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
We also know that Jesus told, His disciples in
Matthew 16, and there's always other people around,
Matthew 16, Matthew 17, and in Matthew 20 about
his death, burial, and his resurrection. In chapter
20 we read, now Jesus going up to Jerusalem took
the twelve disciples aside on the road and said
to them, Behold we're going up to Jerusalem,
and the Son of Man will be betrayed by the chief
priests and the scribes, and they will condemn
him to death and deliver him to the Gentiles
and mock him. Scourge and crucify. And the third
day He will rise again. The disciples we know
had all fled. They'd all deserted Jesus. They're
hiding in locked rooms, waiting in fear and dread.
Why? Because they didn't remember the words of
Jesus. The Pharisees they did remember and fearing
any truth to Jesus's words They conspired with
Pilate to have a Roman guard seal up the tomb
and guard over it This would have been like today
us going to Fort Bragg getting Delta Force guys
and saying We need you to come over here and
guard this and you need to seal it most secure
thing in the world right here This Roman Legion
was no joke They were hardened battle men. They
understood the task at hand. They also understood
that if they fell asleep, if they didn't do their
duty, they'd be put to death. That's motivation.
So what did they do? They did everything they
could to seal up that tomb, put guard around
it. They were ready. This one's just a couple
guys. This was probably a group of about eight
to 16 men. They never went out in twos. It was
too dangerous. The worst thing for these self
-preserving, at all costs, chief priests and
Pharisees would be for Jesus to rise again. They
feared that Jesus would take away their power,
their influence, their glory, and their money.
So having done everything they could to prevent
Jesus from rising, they went home. For all men.
The greatest day in history is about to come
to pass in this text. And we need to remember
that no efforts by men or anything in creation
could thwart the plans of Almighty God. It says
this, now after the Sabbath that the first day
of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and
the other Mary came to see the tomb. And behold,
children, behold, there was a great earthquake.
And the angel of the Lord descended from heaven
and came and rolled back the stone from the door
and sat on it. You know, sitting down, that's
an important visual thing, right? If you have
an honored person, nobody else sits down until
the honored person sits down. The powerful kings
would walk and then go and sit down. And then
the other people could sit down. That's authority.
He's sitting on that stone. He authoritatively
moved it. He was visible. He was there. His countenance
was like lightning. That is, his face and everything
was so glorious. His clothing was white as snow.
And these battle -hardened Roman soldiers, they
shook for fear of him and became like dead men.
There's a few interesting things here. One, there's
the first day of creation. This is the eighth
day, the first day in the new creation. We're
going to see this eighth day theme coming through
the rest of Easter season. You'll find the eighth
day returning again and again, which is why we
worship on Sunday, the eighth day, and celebrate
the new creation. We see that this also happens.
If you look through the other passages, you understand
that this isn't just a stone tomb, but it's a
stone tomb in a garden. And we see women in the
garden reminding us, giving us that imagery of
the first garden with a woman in it and a man
and what he's going to do to deliver or not deliver
this woman. Now back to that stone size a big
giant stone Probably took 20 men to roll it back
Now this is interesting this word rolled back
now You got to think about this if the writer
by the influence of the holy writing and they
use rolled back the stone use one wording And
just a few lines later use an entirely different
word that is important And of course, you might
not see that in your English text, but if you
look at the Greek, you see this. And there's
one other place, other than all of the places
in the gospels where the stone is rolled back,
where we see that word being used. If you go
to the Septuagint, the Greek version of the Old
Testament, that rolling back of the stone. is
the same word used in Genesis chapter 29, three
times, where Jacob goes and he rolls the stone
off the well to water the sheep. So that he can
get the bride. The stone is rolled off, that
the waters, the living waters of life are proceeding
to feed the sheep, to water the sheep. And Jacob
gets The woman We back to our text we see But
the angel answered and said to the women do not
be afraid For I know that you seek Jesus who
was crucified You know he's bringing terror like
dead men to the enemies of God and he speaks
with kindness He knows I know why you're here
You don't have to be afraid of me You're here
to see Jesus And He says, He is not here, for
He is risen. Come, see the place where the Lord
lay, and go quickly and tell His disciples He
is risen from the dead. Every time that you have
this moment, the Word of God says, here, see
the proof? Now go and rejoice and tell others.
And indeed, And so they do look. And he says,
gonna go before you into Galilee, and there you
will see him. Behold, I have told you. So they
went out quickly from the tomb with fear, a little
bit of okay, it's not what we were expecting,
not what we thought was gonna happen, kind of
perplexed, but they're obedient even in fear.
And. In that obedience and fear, they have great
joy. Can it be so? And they ran to bring his
disciples word. Now, of course, this is actually
where the story of Matthew becomes so dramatic.
We thought it was dramatic already, big earthquake,
stone being tossed, big stone being tossed away.
We see all that, right? A glorious angel present.
No, this is what the real joy is the real dramatic
moment and As they went to tell his disciples,
so as they're going they turn leaving the they're
going out. They're gonna run Jesus met them saying
rejoice So they came and held him by the feet
and worshiped him Then Jesus said to them do
not be afraid go and tell my brethren to go to
Galilee and there they will see me. Jesus meets
the women in the garden and declares, rejoice.
The women held his feet and worshiped him. This
word held means to take possession of. They actually
touched and held on to the resurrected physical
body of Jesus. Jesus is alive in a real and tangible
way. Jesus sends the women to tell his brethren
the good news, not only of the resurrection,
but also that they would see and embrace Jesus
as well. So the women went right away rejoicing
in Jesus. Jesus kept his word. But as Matthew
points out, the women are not the only ones on
their way to tell of the resurrection. Remember
in verse 11, now, while they, that's the women,
were going, behold, some of the guard came into
the city to report to the chief priests all the
things that had happened. When they had assembled
with the elders and consulted together, they
gave them a large sum of money to the soldiers
saying, tell them his disciples came at night
and stole him away while he slept. And if this
comes to the governor's ears, we'll appease him
and make you secure. Because remember, if they
fail in their duty, they're to be put to death.
That's a fear that they have. A large sum of
money. We don't know how much it was. But you
think about it. If you're going to lie in public
and take the risk of being executed by the governor,
it had to be a pretty large sum of money. The
kind of money where you could say, I'm going
to casually report in. Then asked for my retirement
time to check out of this job and then go live
off all this money. I just got It said took the
money and did they were instructed and this saying
is commonly reported among the Jews today, so
they went and did it and Those that that don't
want to follow Christ did not want to hear the
gospel Wanted to stay at war with God For their
own selfish reasons They're the ones that commonly
say all the disciples just These guards who experienced
the earthquake Saw the angel and saw that great
stone tossed away. They were there with the women
They saw Jesus These guards came to Jerusalem
to report all that they had seen So here we see
two sets of messengers. One set full of joy with
good news. And one set full of fear and bad news
for all those conspiring against Christ. One
set of messengers bringing the joy of the words
of Jesus because his words are true. And the
other set of messengers bringing dread. knowing
that the words of Jesus are true. So what do
these chief priests and elders do? Do they repent
in the face of Jesus' words being validated,
proven? Do they admit their mistakes in the face
of absolute proof? No. They do as all idolaters
do. Turn back to their idols. They bribe the
guards. to promote lies. And they paid a very
large amount of money and probably had to pay
off Pilate. No matter the proof or sign or argument,
the chief priests, the scribes, and the Pharisees
desire only in preserving their own interests,
even at great cost of money and death. Especially
the last death Dearly beloved Jesus did rise
first Corinthians chapter 15 tells us that Jesus
was not only seen by just a few but among his
appearances Beyond the Gospels that at one time
one of the times he appeared that more than 500
persons saw him and many of them were living
in the years to come Jesus is alive and even
though there are competing messages messengers
of joy and good news and messengers fear and
conspire eight Jesus words are true and So we
are called to be messengers of joy and good news
Jesus has come and destroyed death. He is the
firstborn in the new creation. He is the greater
Adam And he delivered his bride, the church,
from Satan. Jesus did crush Satan's head. We
have good news on this Easter Sunday morning.
No, we have great news. He is risen. Now, we're
right there at the end of the book. So you have
this big dramatic story of Christ's resurrection,
His proof, those that are conspiring against
Him. Just like there are those out there conspiring
against God and His church today, His bride.
I want you to hear the last three verses of this
chapter. And I want you to hear all the times
that the word all is used. So these are just
the next verses right here. Remember it said
go to Galilee and obviously this we know from
the Gospels. There's some other things that happen
in there We're going to cover that in the coming
weeks But I want you to hear this They go to
Galilee and Jesus came to saying all Authority
has been given to me where in heaven and on earth
Go therefore and make disciples of what all nations?
Baptizing them in the name of the Father and
the Son, Holy Spirit. Teaching them to what?
Observe all things that I have commanded you.
And lo, I am with you always, even to the end
of the age." And it closes, the book closes with
the word, amen. So all authority has been given
to him, prophesied from the very beginning of
history, human history, world history, creation
history. We see it right there in the garden.
It's promised that He'll destroy the serpent
and that we will be given life in the Son of
God. It's prophesied all through the Old Testament
that He will reign and that He will destroy death.
And so truly all authority has been given to
Him in heaven and on earth. And so because of
that great authority, we can be great heralds
of the good news that Christ is risen. And we
are told that it isn't just being the herald,
be the herald. But then baptize them. Make them
the people of God. Enter them into the covenant.
And then teach them all that I observe. Or excuse
me. Teach them to observe all things that I've
commanded. So here's the deal. This observing
all the things I've commanded. That's both speaking
and by our example. If we, in fact, take our
lives, that God has given us this new life and
the new creation in Christ Jesus, in the resurrection,
and we take all these given us, and we live in
obedience to Him, heralding the good news of
Christ's resurrection, and we demonstrate by
showing that we are different. We live differently.
We speak differently. And yes, We even rejoice
in the face of hardship and fears. This morning
you might be feeling a little bit like those
women, a little fearful. What about God? What
about what he can do? What about the work of
Jesus? Just obey and go and herald and speak
and follow him and declare him king. In our gospel
today we witnessed the great reset of creation.
Two competing messages on life and one to death
and the joy and peace found in Christ Jesus the
resurrected King So like our our psalm reading
this morning said we can say in confidence Psalm
118 verse 24 This is the day that the Lord has
made and we will rejoice and be glad in it. He
is risen Let us pray heavenly father We thank
you that you did send your son to be a redeeming
sacrifice for us and his death on the cross.
We humbly ask that you would, by the power of
the Spirit, remember the words that we would
remember the words that Jesus told us that we
might be joyful, obedient, and loving messengers
of the Gospel. Good news of our resurrected Lord
Jesus Christ, who reigns with you in the Holy
Spirit, world without end. Amen. Let us continue
are worshiped by the giving of His tithes and
our offerings. Let us pray. Blessed are you,
O Lord God, for through your goodness we have
these gifts to share. Accept and use your tithes
and our offerings for your glory and for service
in your kingdom. Blessed be God forever and ever.
Amen.