He Has Risen, Just As He Said (Matthew 28: 5-10)

He Has Risen, Just As He Said (Matthew 28: 5-10)

 

5 The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified.

6 He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.

7 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.”

8 So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples.

9 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.”

 

Head)

1. The resurrection of Jesus Christ and believing it is the essential core of Christianity. If you take out the Resurrection, Christianity bears no difference from other religions. Christianity separates itself from others and is the religion of life because of Jesus’ resurrection. It is crucial to know and understand that the resurrection of Jesus Christ was not a chance encounter or a coincidental event; it was something that had been prophesized and spoken of for generations.

 

The difference between Christianity and other religions is like the difference between a dead and living fish: the former drifts lifelessly down the stream wherever the water flows while the latter fights the current and swims upstream towards a better life.

 

2. Verse 6 of today’s scripture says, “6 He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.”  On the day of Jesus’ resurrection, Mary Magdalene, Mary (the mother and James and Joseph), and a few other women, went to Jesus’ tomb. But they found an angel was by the tomb instead.

 

3. The angel rolls away the stone blocking the tomb entrance and tells 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.” Jesus’ resurrection had been prophesized in the Old Testament and even spoken of by Jesus himself before his death.

 

Body)

A) The Resurrection is Fulfillment of God’s Word

 

The Bible frequently prophesized Jesus’ suffering, death, and resurrection. Let us first take a look at Jesus’ own prophecy about his death:

 

1. Matthew 12:40 – “40 For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” When God told Jonah to go to Nineveh, Jonah disobeyed and instead took a ship headed for Tarshish. But when the ship faced sudden storms, Jonah was found to be the cause and thus he asked to be thrown overboard.

 

 Jonah was then swallowed by a giant fish, prepared already by God, and stayed in its belly for three days and three nights before the fish spat him onto dry land. Jesus had predicted that he too would spend three days and three nights “in the heart of the earth” before rising from the dead.

 

2. Matthew 16:21 – “21 From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.”

 

Matthew 17:23 – “23 They will kill him, and on the third day he will be raised to life.” And the disciples were filled with grief.”

 

The disciples had always thought Jesus would one day save Israel on political terms, literally become their king and reign over them. But when they heard Jesus tell them he would die and come back after three days, they were understandably worried. They did not focus on the more hopeful “resurrection” part of his speech but on the more depressing news of his impending death.

 

3. Through this we can see the importance of our attitudes and how we approach His message. If we focus on Jesus’ death, then we will undeniably be filled with worry, fear, and despair. However, if we focus on the fact that Jesus will be raised to life, then we are overwhelmed with hope, joy, and courage.

 

4. There are two types of people: those who never smile and those who are always smiling. It is said that the immune system of the two types are different. Those who smile release abundant levels of endorphins while those who are constantly angry releases noradrenaline, a hormone with toxic elements. Smiling and laughing strengthens your immune system.

 

5. Dr. Haruyama Shikeyo conducted research that revealed if you accept any circumstance with positivity, no matter how upsetting, your body releases positive and helpful hormones. Focusing on the negative brings negative side effects; hence, it was no wonder why the disciples, who focused only on Jesus’ death, were filled with worry.

 

Jesus says in Matthew 20:19 , “ [They] will hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. on the third day he will be raised to life!” The angel’s proclamation to the women saying, “He has risen, just as he said,” was about how Jesus’ death and resurrection took place just as Jesus’ himself had said it would.

 

6. Bible exegetist Westcott wrote a timeline of the day Jesus was resurrected:

 

*5:00 AM – Before sunrise, Mary Magdalene, the other Mary, and the other women arrive at Jesus’ tomb.

 

*5:30AM – Other women arrive at the tomb.

 

*6:00 AM – Joanna and other women arrive at the tomb.

 

*6:30 AM – Peter and John arrive at the tomb. They arrived an hour and a half later than Mary and her group.

 

*4:00 PM – Jesus shows himself to two disciples on the road to Emmaus.

 

B) God Made It Happen

 

The true hero of the Resurrection is actually God Himself. In Acts 3:15, Peter preached at Solomon’s Colonnade, “ You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this.”

 

We call our God the Almighty God, and rightfully so. He created the heavens and earth, parted the Red Sea and then drowned Pharaoh and his armies. He split the Jordan River. He made man from dust. Our God can do all these things and more.

 

Raising a man after three days of death is nothing to Him. It’s a piece of cake. Jesus even raised Lazarus from the dead four days after he died when he was already smelling like a corpse. We must believe that our Almighty God has the power to revive the dead. Hallelujah!

 

After reviving Lazarus, Jesus says in John 11:45, “5 Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him,” and in verse 53, “53 So from that day on they plotted to take his life.”

 

While some people believed in Jesus after seeing him resurrect Lazarus, others were scared and plotted to kill him. In other words, believing gives you life while denial leads to death.

 

C) We Die With Jesus and We Live With Jesus

 

1. Romans 6:8 says, “8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.” If we give all our doubts and sins to Jesus, put our faith in him, and nail them to the cross Jesus died on for us, we too can repent and become one with Jesus. If we believe that the blood Jesus shed on the cross was for our sins, accept him as our Savior, and confess that Jesus is the Son of God and our Savior, we too can take part in the grace of Jesus’ resurrection.

 

You must die to live. You must rot to give life. You must lose to win. You must take a step back to move forward. These are all philosophies of Jesus and should be Christians. John 12:24 says, “24 Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.”

 

2. Jesus tells us that a grain of wheat must fall and die to produce life. For any seed to grow roots and bear fruit, the seed itself must die. Without dying, nothing can be produced. This is resurrection.

 

3. Mary spread the joyous news of Jesus’ resurrection to Peter and Peter to the other disciples. The news of Jesus rising from the dead quickly spread by word of mouth, eventually to the corners of the earth. And the Christians who wanted to continue to spread this joyful miracle were persecuted, beaten, stoned, and even burned alive.

 

 4. About 123 years ago, the news of Jesus death and resurrection also reached Korea. The Korean churches and Christians faced imprisonment, violence, and shed the blood of martyrdom. But the Gospel of Jesus’ revival spread throughout the Korean peninsula and the world.

 

 

Con)

1. The problem lies between resurrection and me. Do you believe Jesus rose from the dead? Do you believe you will be raised from the dead? If we do not believe that we too will be revived, our faith has been in vain.

 

But if we do believe we will have life after death. If we can see ourselves resurrected as Jesus was, we will be filled with new hope and strength. Our faces will glow and life will empower us. We will not live life defeated by the world. We will have faith in victory.

 

2. The Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:57, “57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” We can only be forever grateful for the God’s gift of grace through His Son’s resurrection. He saved us with the blood of Jesus on the cross, just as He had said, and we must believe He will also resurrect us.

 

3. As a final note, let us look at 1 Corinthians 15:58, “58 Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” Amen!

 

By Ik s, Ahn  / Translated by yebin  choi, Ahn