FOR THE JOY
SET BEFORE HIM
Matthew 28:1-15
With all the horrors of war filling the news each day, our nation needed some good news last week. It came with announcement last Sunday that seven POW’s missing since the first week of the war had been found and rescued. The elation we felt with the rescue of Jessica Lynch, the first POW found, was multiplied many times over because in many minds all hope of ever finding the other seven alive was slim at best.
When the
opportunity arose, one of the POW’s turned to the camera and declared with
great joy that the Marines were the real heroes and cried out, “I love you
Marines!” Not only were those rescued
full of joy, the Marines who found them were overwhelmed with having the
privilege of setting their fellow-soldiers free.
Perhaps that
simple event in the lives of a few this week offered hope to the families whose
sons or daughters are still in harms way, or still missing in action. What it did do was provide a moment of joy
in the hearts of those who witnessed the release from captivity and the threat
of death and saw the delight of those who had been set free.
That is in a
small way why we are here today…to celebrate the greatest rescue in the history
of the world. For those who have been
held captive and have been living under
the threat of death, God Himself a rescue squad of One—His Son, Jesus
Christ. Therefore, today as you look
around you, there are men and women who have been held prisoner because they
too got lost, took some wrong turns and ended up in captivity far from
home. But God was willing to “leave no
one behind” and sent His Son to find us and free us!
How did He
accomplish His mission? What happened
to give us reason to rejoice together today, this glorious Easter morning? The passage we just read from Matthew’s
gospel answers those questions and many others…
THESIS: The answer we need has been provided as we discover
the joys of the morning of the resurrection and the delight of an empty tomb!
We would have serious
doubts about the sanity of the prisoners if they had turned their backs on
their rescuers and told them to go away.
We would even have wondered what was going on if they had not been
exceedingly joyful and overcome by gratitude.
But for some reason, there are many who have been offered release by
Jesus Christ who have either turned away from Him and rejected their Savior, or
who have accepted the release—but without grateful or joyful hearts.
Listen to the
account Matthew gives of the basis for our joy!
I. JESUS HAS
RISEN!
--As the women made their way to the tomb where Jesus had
been buried, they expected nothing more than a hard time from the guards and a
mourning time by the tomb…not exactly what they ran into!
A. EVIDENCE
OF HIS POWER (28:2, 4)
--When they arrived at the tomb, what they found was that
the power of God had been at work in a way that the world had never seen!
·
Another Earthquake
·
A Stone Rolled Away (and the angel sat on it!)
·
Guards Shaken Up,
Paralyzed by Fear
--In a mighty display of power, God showed everyone that
nothing can hold back the works of His hand and no one can keep the Son of God
from accomplishing His work!
Note: The angel did not move the stone so that
Jesus could get out! No, He rose from
the grave on His own and with the power of God came forth alive. The stone was rolled away not so He could
get out, but in order for His disciples to be able to go in and see that He was
not there—He had risen!
B.
APPEARANCE OF HIS GLORY (28:3)
--The angel seated on the stone revealed some of the glory
of the One who had just been with Him—just as Moses’ face radiated God’s glory
after he had been with Him on the mountain.
--As we shall see more in a moment, the presence of God’s
power had left glimpses of His glory behind for the disciples to see as they
observed it reflected in the appearances of the angels.
C.
ANNOUNCEMENT OF HIS RESURRECTION (28:5-7)
--The angel had the privilege of announcing the good news to
the women that morning that Jesus Christ was no longer dead—He had risen from
the dead and was alive!
1. The Tomb Is Empty -- “He is not
here…come see the place where He was lying”
2. The Promises Are True -- “For
He has risen, just as He said”
Matthew 12:40 40for just as Jonah was
three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so shall the Son
of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
Matthew 16:21 21From that time Jesus Christ began to show His disciples
that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief
priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the third day.
Matthew 27:63 63and said, “Sir, we
remember that when He was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I am to rise again.’
3. The Savior Is Alive – “He is going before
you into Galilee, there you will see Him…And behold, Jesus met them, and
greeted them…”
--The message of the angel, followed by the meeting with
Jesus, must have absolutely astounded the women—and at first appeared to be
utter nonsense to the disciples who did not believe a word they reported!
D.
ALLEVIATION OF ALL FEARS
--But they had just seen Jesus so they did not care what
anyone thought—He had told them not to be afraid, the angel had said the same
thing and so they could allow the greatness
of their joy to shape the response of their hearts!
Matthew 28:8, 10 8And they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great
joy and ran to report it to His disciples.
…10Then Jesus said to them,
“Do not be afraid; go and take word to My brethren to leave for Galilee,
and there they shall see Me.”
--Please notice that they left the tomb with “fear and great
joy” and after the met Jesus all that was left was “Great Joy!”
E. COVER-UP
OF THE TRUTH (28:11-15)
--When they regained their senses, the guards went to their
leaders and reported what had happened…probably fearing the worst.
--What they found was the same deceptive, conniving group
who had done every devious deed they could to stifle the truth about Jesus—and
they were still not done—they paid their own guards “hush money” to lie about
what had happened!
In many ways, their response reminds us of what we
watched on the evening news of Iraq's Minister of
Information, Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf,
who repeatedly stood before the cameras and declared victory for the Iraqi
troops and bragged about all the enemies of Iraq who were now being buried in
Baghdad. Everyone knew he was lying,
but it served the purposes of Saddam Hussein to keep the truth covered up.
The chief priests and
elders conspired to smother the news of the resurrection knowing that what had
happened would turn their world upside down!
II. JOY HAS
COME!
--Because of the resurrection, Fear became JOY!
Captivity became FREEDOM!
Darkness became LIGHT!
As the nation rejoiced over the rescue of the POW’s last week, today we
should rejoice over the defeat of the last enemy—DEATH—it holds no power over
those who have been saved by the power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ!
--The joy we usually speak about is our own at being rescued and finding freedom, but today I want to
remind you of the joy of the Rescuer—the
joy of Jesus Christ!
--Jesus rejoiced and took great delight in the greatest
victory every won.
A. JOY IN
HIS OWN TRIUMPH
--Jesus knew the suffering He would endure when He
submitted to the will of His Father and went ahead to embrace the course that
would take Him to the cross.
--He had settled the issue once for all in Gethsemane in His
time of agonizing prayer.
--However, Christ was not intent on a suicide mission and
had no desire to become just another zealous religious martyr.
--No, He saw the agony of the crucifixion in real terms and
did not minimize its horrors in His mind, but He was able to see beyond the
cross—He saw the joy of His final triumph over sin and death!
Hebrews 12:1-2 …and let us run with endurance the race that
is set before us, 2 fixing
our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the
shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
--The joy was rooted in the ultimate defeat of death and the
victory He would then be able to share with all who would trust in Him.
Romans 6:9 9knowing that Christ, having been raised from the
dead, is never to die again; death
no longer is master over Him.
--For Jesus Christ, the crucifixion was a painful means to a glorious end—death would no longer be the master, sin would no
longer prevail.
Over the past three weeks, I have endured the pain
of surgery on my shoulder—first from the surgery itself, and now in the
physical therapy and rehabilitation.
The doctors and physical therapists have told me in no uncertain terms
that if I want to find the joy of a healed shoulder, I must pay the price now
and endure the suffering of hard exercises that will bring the joy that is set
before me!
B. JOY IN
OUR RESCUE
--When Christ looked beyond the cross to the
resurrection, He saw not only His own joy in overcoming death and the grave, He
saw His joy multiplied by the number of those who would share in His triumph!
--Each one of us who places our trust in Him will find that
He rescues us from the captivity of our own confinement to the chains of death,
the power of sin.
Romans 6:5 5For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of
His death, certainly we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection,
Romans 8:1 There
is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Interviews with the troops who participated in the
liberation of the POW’s last week, their point of view was clear—they found far
greater joy in fulfilling their rescue mission than in any other duty they
could have been called upon to perform.
As great as the joy of the POW’s was, their rescuers were equally elated
that they had been allowed to set them free!
--Jesus Christ delights in being our Savior,
rejoices in rescuing us from the sure condemnation we would face if He did not
come for us, die for us and save us!
Zephaniah 3:17
17The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will
quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over your with singing.
--On this Easter morning, remember that Jesus Christ
delights in you and finds unspeakable, inexpressible joy in saving you,
rescuing you, bringing you back home to His Father’s house!
C. JOY IN
HIS FATHER’S GLORY
--As much as there is joy in rescuing us, the
greater joy by far for Jesus Christ is in bringing glory to the name of His
Father—and that by doing everything that brings pleasure to His Father.
--When Jesus died, the Father was “pleased to crush Him,
putting Him to grief” (Isaiah 53:10) because He knew that only in His dying
sacrifice would the condemnation we deserved for our sin be addressed fully and
completely.
--For Christ, the crucifixion was the non-negotiable
means to defeat sin and death—but also to open the way to the life-changing
power of the resurrection to new life for all who believe in Him!
Romans 6:4
Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order
that as Christ was raised from the dead through
the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
--To say that Christ was raised “through the glory of the
Father” means that the awesome power of God that brought Him out of that tomb
also demonstrated the radiant splendor of the light of God’s glory.
--Rising from the grave, Jesus not only overcame
death for us, but He was able to reveal the matchless glory of His Father so
that all who look upon the events of that first Easter morning cannot miss how
different the appearance of lightning in the angels and brilliant radiance of
their clothes stood in stark contrast to the darkness of the heavens and the
shaking of the earth on the day Jesus died.
--God’s glory in the resurrection brought great joy the
Jesus Christ as He saw His prayers answered.
John 17:1, 4
1These things Jesus spoke; and
lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said,
“Father, the hour has come; glorify Thy Son, that the Son may glorify
Thee… 4 “I glorified Thee on the earth, having accomplished the work
which Thou hast given Me to do.
--Jesus found unceasing joy in seeing His Father
glorified—especially in the magnificence of the final triumph over sin and
death!
Most of you already know why we come to
Easter with a sense of celebration, an attitude of inexpressible joy. But if somehow it has escaped you—if for
some reason you have lost the ability to find that gladness of heart that should
overwhelm each one who sees the empty tomb—our prayer today is that you will be
able to look beyond the cross to the empty tomb.
Today as the smiling images of POW’s flash across the screens of your televisions, ask yourself if you fully appreciate how like them you are today! They were prisoners set free, rescued from the hands of those who had the power to kill them.
Jesus delights
in liberating you—freeing you from the certain condemnation you would have
experienced if He had not been willing to “endure the cross for the joy set
before Him.” As unthinkable as it might
be, the POW’s could have chosen to ignore their rescuers and remain in
captivity—just as each of us here could choose to reject our Savior and remain
in the prison of our own sin and under the sentence of certain death.
But the story of
the empty tomb this morning says all we need to say to give us every reason to
rejoice – “He is not here…He is risen!”
The joy set before Him is now available to us—will you allow Him to free
you so that you might begin to live each day in the fullness of His everlasting
joy?
Providence Baptist Church
© David Horner 2003
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