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INTRODUCTION

When is the first day of the week? Which day is it? There can be a lot of confusion on this topic. For the vast majority of people (in the United States) the first day of the work week is Monday. That makes Sunday the last day of the week. And you can buy calendars that are arranged in just that way. However, the last day of the calendar week is Saturday. And biblically speaking the last day of the week is Saturday.

In Genesis we read how God created the world in six days and on the seventh day he rested. Later we see God commanding his people to follow his example and to rest one day a week. They were to rest on Saturday, the seventh day of the week. This is called the Sabbath, which means rest. It doesn’t mean Saturday or seventh, it means rest. Every seven days they were to take a rest. You may also remember that the Jewish day starts at sundown not at midnight. Rest for the Sabbath therefore starts at sundown on Friday and ends at sundown on Saturday.

The Sabbath was and still is the day Jews take to worship God. Observant Jews still don’t work on Saturday, but use that day to go to synagogue.

We no longer use that day to worship God. We use Sunday to gather together and worship God and the reason we do that is because Jesus rose from the dead on the first day of the week. He rose on a Sunday.

Before Paul wrote his first epistle the day was already becoming known as The Lord’s Day and people were meeting on that in recognition of the resurrection. That’s good, but what we need to remember is that Sunday is not the Sabbath. The biblical Sabbath is on Saturday.

Today there are a number of people who believe we should meet on Saturday and not on Sunday. There are Seventh Day Adventist. Before that there were and are Seventh Day Baptists. There is also a small movement that encourages Christians to keep Jewish holidays and insists that our worship should be on Saturday, the Sabbath. So why don’t we do that?

First, because we are never told what day we are supposed to worship on. For the Jews who didn’t work on the Sabbath because it was a day of rest it made sense to worship on Saturday since they had the time. But there’s no command to worship only on Saturday or only on Sunday. We worship on Sunday because of the example of the early church who met on Sunday in recognition of the resurrection.

Second, we are told that we are not to hold any day as more special than another. There were some believers who were claiming to be more holy because they were observing special days. Paul addresses this several times telling them not to. Instead, every day should be lived in worship of God. In fact, we’re told that everything we do should be done in worship of God. The problem is when we get legalistic about it. That’s when Paul spoke up against it. When they got legalistic about these days Paul addressed it in his letter to oppose it. Additionally, Paul said we shouldn’t allow others to judge us with regard to the special days they may keep. These special days are only a shadow of reality which is found in Christ.

The Sabbath is about rest. It was a sign of dependence on God. While everyone else was working seven days a week to make ends meet, God’s people only had to work six days a week because they trusted him to provide what they needed. Plus, God knew they needed the rest. But all of this just points us to Jesus in who we find our true eternal rest. We look forward to that day when we will be with him. Today we rest in what Jesus did for us on the cross and we celebrate that every Sunday remembering that he not only died but rose from the dead.

SERMON

Video

SLIDE 1 Matthew explains why Jesus is the answer to every problem we will ever face because he is the answer to the biggest problem we will ever face – death. Death is a sign of God’s punishment for sin but also a sign of God’s grace who doesn’t make us live forever in a fallen and broken world filled with sin. Death wasn’t the only consequence of sin though. Sin caused a break in the relationship between God and his people. There was a spiritual death. Additionally, the relationship between Adam and Eve was never the same. It too was broken.

But God had a solution to this problem of death. He would send his Son who would come and die a physical death on the cross. In Revelation 13:8 John writes about: SLIDE 2

. . . the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world. (Revelation 13:8b)

Jesus died a physical death to pay for our sins so that we might be spiritually alive. As Paul explained to the Ephesians: SLIDE 3

1 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions – it is by grace you have been saved. (Ephesians 2:1-5)

Matthew is trying to explain that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God who died for our sins. As a result, we can put our trust in him.

But it’s not enough that Jesus died, he also needed to rise from the dead. As we read in Romans: SLIDE 4

1 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. (Romans 6:1-5)

Think again of the prophecy given by God to the serpent in the Garden of Eden. SLIDE 5

He will crush your head, and you will strike his heel. (Genesis 3:15b)

Satan struck Jesus’ heal when Jesus was nailed to the cross, and Jesus crushed Stan’s head by rising from the dead and defeating death. Therefore, everything rises and falls on the resurrection. As Paul wrote to the Corinthians: SLIDE 6

12 But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 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 of all people most to be pitied. (1 Corinthians 15:12-19)

SLIDE 7 Of course on Sunday morning none of his followers were expecting Jesus to be alive. So when the women arrive at the tomb that Sunday morning they weren’t expecting an empty tomb, they were expecting to find the body of Jesus lying there behind the rock that had been rolled in place to protect his body. They were carrying the spices and perfumes needed to finish his preparation for burial. And they were wondering who they could get to move the stone for them.

The disciples didn’t even go. Even though Jesus had told them numerous times that he would rise from the dead the disciples weren’t expecting it. Even though the Pharisees remembered this prophecy by Jesus and had the tomb guarded because of it the disciples weren’t expecting it. They weren’t thinking resurrection, they were thinking retirement. They were wondering what they would do next now that their Rabbi had died.

In Mathew 4 Jesus had given them an invitation to follow him in order to become something more than they could have become on their own. So they for the next three years they followed Jesus everywhere he went watching him do some incredible miracles. Jesus was definitely worth following – till he was arrested. At that point they took off running. They were willing to follow him, but they weren’t willing to follow to the cross. At the cross we only read about one disciple who was there – John. They mourned because of his death, but they didn’t want to die too.

However, no one was continuing the mission. They knew what to do. They had watched Jesus do it for three years. Additionally, they had done it themselves. Jesus had sent them out to heal the sick and preach the kingdom. But none of them was out doing it now that Jesus was dead. They weren’t out healing the sick. They weren’t out loving people. They weren’t out teaching and bringing in the kingdom. It would seem their salt had lost its saltiness and their light was being hid behind closed and locked doors. That’s because as far as they were concerned their movement was as dead as Jesus.

It was a good while it lasted, but why follow a dead Messiah? At Caesarea Philippi Jesus had declared Jesus to be the Messiah, the Son of the living God. But now in behind locked doors in Jerusalem Peter was wondering if he’d gotten it wrong. Surely the Messiah wouldn’t die. Although, that’s exactly what Jesus had told them would happen. On multiple occasions Jesus had predicted his own death on a cross in Jerusalem. Yet they were still surprised by his death and not one of them was expecting a resurrection.

Read the four gospels stories. None of them tells about even one disciple sitting at the tomb that Sunday morning waiting to see Jesus alive and walking around. Only the women are there and they only come to finish the burial process. No one is expecting Jesus to rise from the dead. There was no sunrise celebration service being planned that day because no one was expecting a resurrection.

The only ones expecting anything were the religious leaders who thought the disciples might come steal his body. But none of his followers had any thoughts about stealing his body, only completing the preparation of his body for burial. Because the Sabbath began on Friday evening there wasn’t enough time to do all that custom dictated before the Sabbath began and all work had to cease. Even for the supposed Messiah this work had to stop.

This is where Matthew picks up with Mary and the other Mary going to look at the tomb on Sunday morning – the first day of the week. After seeing an angel that told them to go tell the disciples Jesus had risen from the dead, Jesus appears before them. He too instructs the women to go tell the disciples.

Matthew doesn’t tell us what the women did, but Luke does. Luke tells us that when the women told the disciples they had seen Jesus alive and risen from the dead that the disciples didn’t believe them. Maybe Matthew left this part out because he was ashamed that he didn’t believe after all the times Jesus had told them he would rise from the dead. But Luke, wasn’t one of the disciples in the room that morning, did include it and he said: SLIDE 8

But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense. (Luke 24:11)

The words of the women seemed like nonsense because dead people stay dead. The disciples had seen Jesus raise two people from the dead, but now he was dead. Who would be able to raise him from the dead? No one. So the women didn’t make any sense.

SLIDE 9 If you have ever struggled with belief about the resurrection you can know that you are in good company. Even the disciples struggled with believing. But all that changed when Jesus appeared in the room with them. When they finally saw Jesus for themselves they too believed.

It’s been said that seeing is believing. But that’s not true, seeing is knowing. When you see something it moves past belief. I’ve made this comment before (and maybe you have too) that I’ll believe something when I see it. But what actually happens is that when I see it I go from belief to knowing. It becomes fact. You now know it for sure.

What we need to remember is that it’s the resurrection that makes Christianity so difficult for some people to believe. Like those disciples they have a hard time believing Jesus could rise from the dead. But it’s the only thing that makes Christianity valid. Without the resurrection there is no Christianity. If Jesus didn’t rise from the dead then he really was just some great moral teacher who also had some amazing medical skills. But he wasn’t a Messiah or Savior. His resurrection validated everything he claimed to be – his divinity, his messiahship, his kingdom, and his church. All of that hung on the line when he hung on the cross. For the three days he was in the tomb all of it was in doubt. Without the resurrection there is no Christianity, there is no movement, there is no church.

Think about what that would mean. What would it mean if there was no church? Do you know why we have hospitals? The church is responsible for the development of hospitals because it was Christians who took care of sick people that no one else wanted to deal with. It’s where the nursing profession came from. The word hospital comes from the word hospitality. Christians showed the hospitality of Jesus to the sick and dying.

Do you you why we have orphanages that take care of children who have no parents or family to take care of them? It’s because of the church. The prevailing practice of the day when the church was just getting started was to abandon children on the side of the road. If the parents died or if the parents couldn’t provide for them the children were abandoned. There they either starved to death, joined other children in gangs that stole to stay alive, or were picked up by cruel adults who enslaved them or turned them into prostitutes. That was the accepted practice until Christians started providing a place for them to be loved, nurtured, and educated. Then, when they grew up they could provide for themselves.

Do you know where universities came from? They came from the church that provided education so that the study of the Bible could continue. Most of the first colleges in America that eventually became universities were started to train preachers.

It was the church that gave value to women and children who were often seen as little more than possessions in the first century. Yet Matthew tells us that it was women who first saw the risen Lord. It was women whose testimony wasn’t even allowed in a court of law at that time. This speaks to the value that the church placed on women. If they were making this story up they would not have had women discover the empty tomb. It would have been a man. But Jesus gave value to all people. Jesus invited the children to come to him and he commanded men to keep their marriage vows. We need to understand that this was a culture where women were not allowed to divorce their husbands, but men could simply write a note on a piece of paper and they would be divorce. No lawyer, no court, no judge, no alimony or child support. Just a piece of paper declaring they were no longer married. No cause necessary. And Jesus said that was not valid.

Jesus touched lepers. He ate with tax collectors. He hung out with those called “sinners and prostitutes” – the outcasts of society that no one else wanted anything to do with. He showed them the love and mercy of God.

This example of love continued through the church not because it was a good idea but because of the resurrection. If Jesus rose from the dead then everything he said was true. Therefore, loving your neighbor isn’t an option. It’s a command. All of this and more were proven true when Jesus rose from the dead.

The Jewish historian Josephus, who was born just a few years after the resurrection of Jesus, wrote about revolutionary leaders of that day. He said that when a revolutionary leader died his followers had two options: disband and move on or find another leader. The followers of Jesus did neither because Jesus came back from the dead.

Matthew tells us about the efforts of the religious leaders to disprove the resurrection. They bribed the guards to say the disciples had come and stolen the body. But that doesn’t make sense. How could the disciples overpower trained Roman guards? The other option was that they were asleep when the disciples came. Either way it didn’t look good for the Roman guards. Remember the penalty for a Roman guard if you didn’t carry out your assignment. You took the place of the one you were guarding. That would have meant death for each of the these guards. It was not to their advantage to say the disciples had taken the body, but what other answer could they give? Jesus rose from the dead?

It wasn’t advantageous for the disciples to say he was alive either. Tradition tells us that everyone of the disciples were executed for their faith except for John who died an old man exiled on a small prison island. There have been millions of people who died for what they believed to be true, but who dies for what they know to be a lie?

Blaise Pascal, a French philosopher in the 1600s wrote, “I believe those who get their throats cut.” He believes the testimony of those willing to die for what they believe because he knows they wouldn’t be willing to die for what they know to be a lie. They were willing to die because they had seen the risen Lord.

Remember what Jesus told Peter after he made that good confession of faith at Caesarea Philippi. SLIDE 10

And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. (Matthew 16:18)

The word for “church” is the Greek word ἐκκλησία (ekklēsía) and it refers to a gathering of people. Jesus wasn’t saying that he would construct a building, but a movement of people that even death could not stop. Death can’t stop it because Jesus has conquered death. We gather tonight and every Sunday because of what Jesus predicted two thousand years ago.

SLIDE 11 Jesus told the women to tell the disciples that he would meet them in Galilee and that’s what he did. Matthew tells us that the disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain he instructed them to go to and there he appeared to them. While some worshiped him, some doubted. What did they doubt. Did they doubt his resurrection? No, Jesus was standing right there in front of them.

The word for doubt means to waiver or hesitate. The only other time it’s used in the New Testament is when Jesus pulled Peter up from the water he’d been walking on and asked, “Why did you doubt?” In other words, “You were doing so good, why did you waver?” It’s possible to believe and still waiver.

Jesus then gives what has been called the Great Commission.

18b 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.” (Matthew 28:18b-20)

There is only one verb in this command – make disciples. We are not told to make believers. There are enough believers. We’re told that even demons believe. It’s not enough to be a believer; Jesus wants disciples. Jesus tells us to make disciples. That’s the only verb in this Great Commission. That’s the action we are to take. It’s the great command. But there are three participles that modify the verb. The three participles are: going, baptizing, and teaching. They tell us how to make disciples. But his command is that we be disciples and then in turn that we make disciples.

Are you a disciple? I’m not asking if you believe that Jesus is the Son of God who dies for your sins and rose from the dead, I’m asking if you are a disciple? Are you a student and learner of Jesus who is striving each day to live more like him? One of the problems with the church today is there are too many members and not nearly enough disciples. There are too many people with opinions about how things ought to be done but not nearly enough people willing to live like Jesus, to love like Jesus, and to forgive like Jesus. We need more disciples. Are you a disciple? Being a disciple isn’t a goal for the overachievers, it’s the goal of all who place their faith in Jesus. And it’s the desire of Jesus that we be and make disciples.