Faith

Psalm of the Day: Psalm 34

Psalm 34 ESV

Of David, when he changed his behavior before Abimelech, so that he drove him out, and he went away. I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul makes its boast in the Lord; let the humble hear and be glad. Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together! I sought the Lord, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears. Those who look to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed. This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them. Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him! Oh, fear the Lord, you his saints, for those who fear him have no lack! The young lions suffer want and hunger; but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing. Come, O children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord. What man is there who desires life and loves many days, that he may see good? Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit. Turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it. The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and his ears toward their cry. The face of the Lord is against those who do evil, to cut off the memory of them from the earth. When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all. He keeps all his bones; not one of them is broken. Affliction will slay the wicked, and those who hate the righteous will be condemned. The Lord redeems the life of his servants; none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned.

Scripture Reading: Matthew 28:18-20

Matthew 28:18–20 ESV

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Sermon:

Good Morning Church!

I was Glad when they said to me let us go and worship in the house of the Lord!

I'm pretty excited for this Sunday. For though we are 95 Sundays into our series through the book of Matthew. We are here. Getting to the heart. We're going to get to, this week, I would argue, The very reason that Matthew sat down and wrote his book in the first place. Truly, as we look at the resurrection of jesus christ, we get to: The very hearts of the book of Matthew, the very heart of the christian life, the very heart of all of our hope and trust, the very heart of all that we believe. All this and more truly in this event The resurrection Of our savior.

I do not believe it's possible for me to overstate the importance of what occurs In our text this morning. I don't think it's possible for me to overstate the the depth and weight of the beauty and glory of god and in particular of jesus on display in this moment. I couldn't oversell it, overstate it, over emphasize, this text. “So how in the world” is the question i asked myself Am I going to preach this? How can i do justice to this? shortly: I can't. But how can we get to this That is just the payoff of this entire series through the book of Matthew.

And what i've decided is. We're going to handle this text a little bit differently. We're still going to do something we often do just walk through the text. But here's my belief, we've been in this book long enough thar a lot of the theological weight of what Matthew's trying to do. We've seen. We've understood. We've read over and over again, in Matthew. This was to fulfill what this prophet wrote, we understand that jesus and his death, and his resurrection in his ruling and reigning is the fulfillment of all the old testament.

We've been with Matthew as he's Called for himself and put this name in other people's that he is truly the son of god. We've walked through Matthew to see his authority as he's proclaimed done, miracle after miracle proclaimed truth, after truth and even proclaimed the ability to forgive sin. We've seen this So, how do we apply it?

And so this morning as we walk through this text, My goal is to show us how our faith Is strengthened. But also to show us the object, the direction, and the force of our faith when it is pointed towards Jesus christ. My goal is not to defend the resurrection. I think Matthew does a fine job of doing that. My goal is even not necessarily... Paul, does a fantastic job, right? If christ hasn't doesn't resurrected then we have all. People are most to be pitched and sort of downloading all the theological importance and we'll get to some of that. But truly, my goal today is just to stir our affection, stir our heart and strengthen our faith. As we look to the resurrection of jesus.

We're gonna take this and rather large chunks. We're looking at a larger text the normal this morning, And so, before we even dive in, let's open with a word of prayer.

Our father in heaven. Holy, Righteous is your name. We thank you today for the precious gift of your son. Our lord, our savior, our king, The one who intercedes on our behalf. The one who conquered all of our enemies. Thank you for the precious work of Jesus Christ. Thank you for The truth. And the true life that you have given us through his word. May we appreciate this all the more. May we we can form into his image. We pray that your spirit would be at work within us opening. Our eyes to see the hope that we have. For it is in jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen. ‘

As i said, we're just going to walk through this, reading it in chunks. We'll start with Matthew chapter 27 verses 62 through 66. The end of chapter 27, that's a pretty big deal too.

Matthew 27:62–66 ESV

The next day, that is, after the day of Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate and said, “Sir, we remember how that impostor said, while he was still alive, ‘After three days I will rise.’ Therefore order the tomb to be made secure until the third day, lest his disciples go and steal him away and tell the people, ‘He has risen from the dead,’ and the last fraud will be worse than the first.” Pilate said to them, “You have a guard of soldiers. Go, make it as secure as you can.” So they went and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone and setting a guard.

The thought I'd like for us to deal with in this section is what I've called, the quote unquote faith. Of the pharisees.

The “FAITH” of the Pharisees

We opened, if we remember last week, we looked at the death and the witnesses to the death. Verse 61, we ended Mary Magdalene in the other Mary were witnessing the stone being rolled over. jesus dead -- prepared By Joseph of Arimathea, his body wrapped in a linen cloth. Placed in the grave. The stone was rolled over, surely and truly jesus was dead. And now we're introduced not to maybe who we would think, maybe we will hear mary in the other mary lamenting what's happening. Maybe we'll go to a scene where in the disciples who all disappeared back in chapter 26, maybe they're talking and maybe they're plotting, maybe they're doing something. we don't see them.

Instead Matthew takes us to see the pharisees. And as we think about the faith of the pharisees, there's a few things i want us to note. First is They put their faith in their own strength and might and scheming. Thus far Their scheming has seemingly got them What they wanted: Jesus dead. That was their goal and their aim. But they remembered, they knew what jesus was predicting. They were aware of what jesus had said about himself about what will happen. And so now they put their faith in pilot.

Pilot, we need you to give us soldiers. And then they put their faith in these soldiers and their ability to defend the tomb from those rapscallion disciples. The faith of the pharisees here as we read it. And as we see, it is faith in their own strength and might their own intellect, their own scheming, The strength of man. They think they have their faith that their life can go on as that as it was, go on as they wish, because that jesus problem --It's been dealt with.

Their faith is a faith that says i will take care of me. I don't need this christ. At all. The faith of the pharisees as we open here in the scene of them, asking pilot for these Guards is a faith in themselves to be able to to do what they want, how they want, when they want, and get their intended results. As we see. As we know, This faith. Will fail.

Any faith in your own strength and might is a faith destined to let you down. I often say i say the grace group. I feel like fairly regularly. It's not the strength of your faith that matters, It's the object. And this is especially true of the pharisees. It doesn't matter how strong your faith is in yourself. It doesn't matter how strong your faith is to be able to pull yourself up by your bootstraps faith in yourself. Will always let you down.

But there's a little side note i'd like to make. Something that's rather interesting. I put the word faith in quotations of the pharisees because there's something else going on here. And that is, they have more faith in the disciples Than the disciples have in themselves.

We're worried the Pharisees say the the disciples might be scheming and plotting They might remember jesus words because we do, we pharisees -- weren't his disciples, We didn't follow him, we didn't even like him — they know his words. Where are the disciples? Where are the disciples working in this. The Pharisees have more faith, that the disciples have faith than the disciples have faith in themselves. And so it's important that we note. And we understand looking forward. How much faith the disciples have or don't have Is not what rose jesus from the dead. The scheming and plotting of the pharisees is not going to stop jesus From raising From the dead.

God will do. What god will do. When god wills To do. What he will do. There's no working around this. There's no amount of thinking and planning, and scheming that can conquer the sovereign will Of god.

The faith of the pharisees teaches us, not to trust in ourselves. But rather to trust in the sovereign hand of the high king of heaven. But then we can move to our next lesson verse chapter 28 starting in verse 1.

Matthew 28:1 ESV

Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb.

Here, i'd like to talk about for just a moment, the faith. Of these women. Because their faith. In this moment is surely. A broken faith.

The FAITH of the women

Two days ago. In verse 61, they were there sitting opposite the tomb. Before that two days ago, they were sitting there a distance off from the cross. Witnessing all of these things. Mary, Magdalene and Mary, the mother of James, and Joseph. Watched their savior Die. They watched their savior being put in the grave. Here they are some two days later. Coming to his tomb.

We don't know their heart, we can guess. By their reaction to the angel. And to what is said, I don't think they expect to see the resurrected savior. Their faith though is a faith of: “What else can i do?” I've put all my trust in jesus. Here i am at the end of my rope. Where it feels like my faith has failed me. Where it feels like i have nothing left to hold on to. So i hold on to... A grave. With some broken frail. Hope. These women Come marching to the tomb.

What are we going to do? We know from the other writers. We have some perfumes. Guess we'll care for jesus. We read last week, they'd spent their lives, ministering to him. So now maybe they think well one last time we’ll minister to jesus one last time. And maybe pick up the broken pieces. I don't know.

The faith of the women. Is a faith. At the end of its rope. It's probably a fleeting, probably a broken faith, but i said it earlier, i'll say it again, i'll say it again before. We're done with this sermon. It is not the strength of your faith that matters, but the object. And though it was broken and though their faith in some sense, figuratively, lay in the grave with jesus, they still had faith-- In him.

And that faith was rewarded. Verse 2 AND BEHOLD! This is. The great change in the book of Matthew. Look behold.

Matthew 28:2–7 ESV

And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men. But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and behold, he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him. See, I have told you.”

Again I will read: HE IS NOT HERE FOR HE IS RISEN

This. This simple profound and beautiful phrase. He is not here for. He is risen. Is the source of our faith.

The source of our FAITH

The empty tomb is now the source of our faith. These women go from broken fleeting frail faith to witnessing an angel from heaven descending down. Fear strikes them, not just these women but these trained roman centurions prepared for anything -- trembling in fear. They became like dead men. Because of the power of the empty tomb. He is not here. For, he has risen.

Your faith. As you come to this grave. Your faith that was in the grave with Jesus can now leap with life. For he is not here. He is risen.

We could go into depth. And we should in our lives. And our hearts think through what does this mean? But let me encourage you, this morning. This is why you have hope. In the face of anything that you face. I don't care how terrible, how How painful, how huge and fearsome the situation that you face is -- here is our hope: that our savior is not here. He is risen.

He now rules and reigns in heaven. He has proven, shown that he can conquer ALL of our enemies. He is greater than ALLof our fears. He can hold ALL of our cares. He can come comfort ALL of our sorrows. Because he's not in the grave. He is not here. He is risk. That's the source of all of our faith. That's the source of all of our joy. That's the source of all of our hope. We place it here in the empty tomb, knowing He is not there. For, he has risen.

When you feel overwhelmed when the world crashes on down around you, when all of the world is raging in chaos and confusion all around you. Here is your hope the source of your faith. The message of the angel: He is not here. For he is risen.

Come. He tells the women. Come see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead and behold, he is going before you to Galilee there, you will see him. See, i have told you.

There's a little bit more, there's a little bit more faith. That's needed of these women. You've seen the empty too. You've seen where he's risen. You'll see him. If you just go to Galilee, And then, After seeing this life-altering world, changing universe, shaking events, We can come back again and evaluate the faith of these women.

The FAITH of the WOMEN

Matthew 28:8–10 ESV

So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. And behold, Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.”

Here's what faith should look like. Fear and great joy. Jesus is risen. We have so much. Incredible joy. But with a holy reverent fear, we understand that same power as it work within us. We see the might and power of jesus christ, our lord. So, we've depart quickly with fear and great joy, and we run to tell people,

And behold verse 9. Jesus. Met them. The face of these women results in them beholding, their savior. Our faith. Directed towards jesus christ. Will result. In the same pay off. We will behold our savior.

Now we see him with eyes of faith in a mirror dimly, but soon, one day we will see him face to face. Faith is running forward with fear and great joy. In some sense. Faith is also look what they do. They see jesus. And what do they do? They took hold of his feet and they worship him. They bow down before their savior, that's faith.

This is what faith looks like. This is faith in action, it's worshiping the high king of heaven. They become for us, these women, the microcosm -- in in a few short moments in 10 short verses, they give us the entire extreme of the christian life.

It's sorrow and walking down to the grave. It's great, joy, it's fear, it's worship, it's splendor, it's appreciating, worshiping glorying, honoring the king of kings. So, a faith does. The faith of the women before the the resurrection. The thought and the idea here is, How do we hold on? To our frail faith. But as we see the faith of the women coming after the resurrection glorifying and magnifying the savior we can ask: What does your faith do?

Does it cause you to run forward with fear and great joy? Does it cause you to worship at the feet of jesus? That's the faith of these women.

But there's one more turn in this story. We have to get Chapter 28, verse 11. We're going to come back and end once again. With the quote unquote faith. Of the Pharisees.

The FAITH of the Pharasees

Matthew 28:11–15 ESV

While they were going, behold, some of the guard went into the city and told the chief priests all that had taken place. And when they had assembled with the elders and taken counsel, they gave a sufficient sum of money to the soldiers and said, “Tell people, ‘His disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep.’ And if this comes to the governor’s ears, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.” So they took the money and did as they were directed. And this story has been spread among the Jews to this day.

The pharisees Prove. They have no faith in jesus. Even when confronted with the greatest miracle the world has ever known still they refuse To serve know or even acknowledge Jesus.

The centurions come back. You guys tasked us with guarding This grave from the disciples. We did that. But We're not strong enough to defend this grave from an angel descending from heaven and rolling the stone away. Sorry Pharisees, that's what we saw.

The 12 disciples... we could have taken care of them... This angel, there's no way. Just so you know, the grave is empty. We couldn't do anything about it.

The same Pharisees, who just a chapter earlier said, if he comes down from that cross, then will believe him. The same pharisees that over and over again. Have put themselves in opposition to jesus. Now stand against him one last time. Jesus rose from the dead but i people can't know about. We can't let people know of peep about that. So, let's pay off these centurions.

I'm going to bet. We don't know the amounts. It probably costs them a lot more to keep this centurion's quiet about his resurrection than it costs them to get Judas to betray him to his death. They're just throwing good money after bad at this point. Paying off these centurions.

Okay, we know the disciples weren't there, you've told us, they weren't there, we need you to lie, tell everyone. The, the disciples did come they snuck in while we were sleeping. Tell people that somehow, this great stone was rolled by the disciples and we didn't hear it at all. We slept through the whole thing like babies. And if that gets you in trouble with your boss, I don't know why it would... but if that gets you in trouble with your boss, we will satisfy the governor's Ears. We’ll defend you Just spread our lie for us.

The faith of the pharisees here. It drives us to ask this question. When you hear And see The resurrected savior. Will you Accept him Or will you reject him?

This is the question that every person must ask. Your two options are painted for us by Matthew here in these last two points. When you see the resurrected savior, your two options are: one. You can be like the Pharisees deny him, reject him and go on with your life. Or Two to you can bow down. Take hold of his feet and worship him. That's it.

What will you do? With this resurrected. Jesus. Let's pray.