Don't Be Afraid?!
Notes
Transcript
Easter/Resurrection morning is a wonderful day to be together to worship the LORD.
We do this every Sunday. We gather. We sing. We pray. We study God’s Word together; we take a portion of verses from the Bible and I (along with other men in the church) preach about what those verses mean and how they apply to our lives.
We’d love to have you all with us next Sunday. This morning, we’re going to study together the first 10 verses of Matthew 28. And then next week, we’ll pick up in verse 11.
During the month of April, we’ll look at what happened in the days and weeks following the Resurrection of Jesus.
We’d love to have you join us next week and the week after, and the week after that.
We are so glad you’re here today. You are always welcome.
>If you have your Bible (and I hope you do) turn with me to Matthew 28. If you don’t have a Bible, you can grab one of the red pew Bibles in front of you and turn to Page 1,553 and follow along.
The words will be on the screen as we go, but I can’t encourage you enough to keep your Bible open before you this morning.
Let’s look together. I want to walk through this familiar passage verse-by-verse this morning. Matthew 28, verse 1.
1 After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.
The other gospel accounts tell us that these women were going to anoint Jesus’ body. A proper burial. They wouldn’t have had time to do this before the start of the Sabbath two days earlier. So they went to do it now, they went to prepare Jesus’ body for burial early on Sunday morning.
The women remain courageously faithful to Jesus.
They were there when He was hanging on the cross. They were there when His lifeless body was taken down from the cross. They were there when they put Him in a borrowed tomb. They were there, even when His other followers had deserted Him.
And now they’re going to the tomb they know is guarded by a group of Roman soldiers.
Going to look at the tomb or going to prepare Jesus’ body; Either way, they’re not going to find what they're looking for.
I assume this story is not a secret to any of us.
We know the women will find an empty tomb. We know they won’t prepare Jesus’ body for burial; there won’t be a body in the tomb.
We know what these women don’t. We’re meant to think about their sorrow as they walked to the tomb that Sunday morning.
“They said nothing as they walked.
Silence.
Aching silence.
Heavy, breaking, agonizing silence.
Jesus was dead—dead—dead.” - Calvin Miller
Their silent walk to the tomb where Jesus’s body was laid was interrupted by a major geological event.
2 There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it.
It’s likely the earthquake occured a little before the women arrived, but I can’t believe they missed it. “Another earthquake? One on Friday and now another on Sunday? What in the world is going on?!?”
The earthquake is a well-known, biblical symbol of God’s mighty intervention in the affairs of this world—(earthquakes are mentioned all over the Old Testament, in the books of Judges, Psalms, Jeremiah, Joel, Amos, Nahum, etc.).
An earthquake alerts the reader that supernatural events of great significance are taking place. If, as you read your Bible, you read “earthquake” think: God is up to something big.
The first earthquake in Matthew is in chapter 27. It’s Friday. Jesus is hanging on the cross.
50 And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit.
51 At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split 52 and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. 53 They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people.
That earthquake signified that God was up to something big:
The death of God’s Son, Jesus, means that the old way of doing things has passed away—access to God is no longer granted through the temple system with its priests and sacrifices; access to God is now granted by and because of the sacrificial death of Jesus.
The earth quaked…and shook everything up.
This second earthquake, the one in our text today, is the result or the setting of the angel’s coming. “An angel of the Lord” came from heaven and there was a violent earthquake.
God is certainly up to something big here: an angel of the Lord has come to move the stone away, revealing an empty tomb. Jesus had already left.
The angel comes in the presence of the guards to show them, to show the women, and to show us here today the empty tomb.
The earth quakes, God is up to something huge: Look! The tomb is empty; Jesus is not here.
Earthquake beside, the appearance of the angel himself is startling:
3 His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. 4 The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.
At the sight of the angel, the troop of soldiers begin to shake and then they quickly fall down.
This is no run-of-the-mill, sit on your shelf, knick-knacky version of an angel. No sir. This angel was an expression of the power and awe and might of God.
The guards—grown men, armed men; strong men who were scary in their own right—were “so afraid of [the angel] that they shook and became like dead men.”
Poor little fellas…
Some of you are afraid of snakes or mice or needles, aren’t you? Some of you are scared of the dark, scared of clowns, scared of the number 13 (it’s a real thing, ‘triskaidekaphobia’). Some of you are scared of spiders, scared of heights, scared of Terry Heuser.
If you’re scared of those things, you’d certainly be scared when an angel of the LORD appears, shining bright as lightning, clothes as white as snow. We’d all be terrified of an angel whose appearance is accompanied by an earthquake.
The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.
Matthew intends some irony here:
The man who is inside the tomb and supposedly dead is alive; the men who are guarding His body outside are supposedly alive, though here they become like dead men.
This is the power and the humor of God.
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.
“Do not be afraid?!?!” Really, Mr. Angel? Every single one of those tough, Roman guards are knocked out-cold and we’re supposed to be just fine? Don’t be afraid?!?!”
(I made up that dialogue. No one here in Matthew, or in any account of the resurrection, speaks, except the angel and the Risen Jesus).
Imagine what these women must be thinking! Consider the emotional whiplash they’ve just experienced. They were walking to the tomb of a dead man, and instead, they find 1) an angel and 2) an empty tomb!
“Do not be afraid…”
The women would have been leveled by the terror of the angel’s appearance if he hadn’t said, “Do not be afraid.”
Can you imagine? “Don’t be afraid??!?!” Really? Everything the women were expecting to see has been flipped on its head, not to mention the news the angel is there to announce.
The angel knows they’ve come looking for Jesus who had been crucified. Of course the angel knows; he’s one of God’s messengers.
The angel affirms the death of Jesus (the crucified One), but then adds the Good News: He is not here; He has risen, just as He said.
Jesus is no longer dead! He isn’t lying dead in the tomb; the women were invited to see the place where Jesus had been—check it out, investigate it—because Jesus was no longer there.
He has risen!
This is the Good News of this Resurrection Morning. This is why we are here today. It’s why we worship every Sunday morning, because Jesus rose from the dead on the first day of the week.
We are resurrection people! The women there to witness the empty tomb are now resurrection people. His disciples, all, will soon be marked out as resurrection people.
He is not here; He has risen, just as He said.
Over and over, Jesus told His disciples this would happen.
Matthew 16:21 “…He must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.”
Matthew 17:23 “They will kill him, and on the third day he will be raised to life.” And the disciples were filled with grief.”
Matthew 20:18–19 “…They will condemn him to death and 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 resurrection, Jesus rising from the dead, should have been expected to some degree. Jesus talking about it was so well-known, even His opponents heard Him discussing it.
Matthew 27:62–63 “The next day, the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. “Sir,” they said, “we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’”
Gobs of people heard Jesus talk about His resurrection. But it’s still hard to believe. There’s no real category for this. This is astonishing stuff. No other religious leader has ever come back from the dead.
All the buddhas, all the mahatmas, all the prophets, all the mohammads, the allahs, Joseph Smith, Confucious—they’re all dead. And dead they remain. You can visit their graves and tombs and sepulchres. L. Ron Hubbard was cremated and is scattered across the Pacific Ocean; go for a swim and you might run into him (well, parts of him).
Jesus’ disciples should have trusted Jesus would rise from the dead. He said that He would.
For the women’s sake (and ours) the angel rehearses the events of the last few days.
Jesus was crucified.
Jesus is not here.
Jesus has risen.
These truths are the foundation of the Christian faith. This is the Good News, the gospel of Jesus Christ.
The apostle Paul would summarize what is of first importance:
3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve.
This is the Good News. It’s the content of Resurrection Morning. This is it, friends.
There’s nothing in the world more important than this news right here.
What the angel announced that first Resurrection Morning is the very most significant truth there is.
I have nothing more important to tell you than this right here.
Jesus was crucified (He died for our sins).
He’s not in the tomb (though He was buried).
Jesus has risen from the dead (on the third day, just as He said).
And Jesus is alive today.
After announcing this incredible news, and inviting them to discover for themselves that the tomb is empty, the angel gives the women a task.
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.”
The task given to these women is to go and tell. This is simply a reporting of what they had been told. Specifically, the angel told them what to say.
Tell His disciples (likely the 11): ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see Him.’
The women were to report these words to the disciples. The angel had told them not to be afraid, had recounted the Good News about Jesus, had invited them to have a look around, and then had commissioned them to carry a message.
Go quickly and tell…
Many have given special importance to this verse saying, “This glad tiding of the Resurrection is not given to you alone for the secret comfort of your own hearts; you must extend it to all!”
“Quickly,” says the angel.
The Resurrection message is not only wonderful, but it’s urgent.
“Go…and tell,”
This is the first command the women receive.
“Go…and tell,” is the command that comes to you and me—we who have discovered the wonder of Jesus Christ, we who have been given eyes to see, we who have been transformed by the Crucified and Resurrected Jesus.
We are instructed: “Go…and tell.”
8 So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples.
Yes, the angel had told them not to be afraid, but that only goes so far to counteract the reality of what they’ve just faced.
The women hurried away, in an odd combination of fear and joy—fear in the face of supernatural reality; joy at the message of Jesus’ triumph over death.
Don’t be afraid?!
I don’t think there’s any way to not be afraid to some degree or another. This is earth-shattering, life-altering, reality-bending, other-worldly stuff.
And it’s first thing in the morning. They haven’t even had their coffee yet, and one of the first things they see is the angel sitting on the stone that had been rolled away from the tomb. Guards passed out in front of the tomb. Jesus’ body not in the tomb.
Don’t be afraid?!?!
The angelic messenger and the after-effects of the resurrection are frightening, even if they are amazing tidings of the best news.
But there’s more!
9 Suddenly Jesus met them. “Greetings,” he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him.
My unofficial medical diagnosis is that Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were in good, physical condition. Their tickers must have been in tip-top shape. The events of the morning thus far would have thrown anyone for a loop or sudden cardiac event.
And now, on their way to share the greatest news of all time with the disciples, THE RESURRECTED JESUS meets them!
He says, “Greetings.”
“Greetings” is the most everyday, common greeting of the time. It’s today’s “Howdy,” or “Hey there.” Or, as the kids might say, “Sup.”
These women recognize Jesus. They hear Jesus speak. They run to the Resurrected Messiah and grab His resurrected feet (He has a physical body they could touch; He is not a ghost or spirit).
They run to Him, they grab hold of Him, and they rightly worship Him.
Of course they worship Him. Jesus is who He said He was. He did what He said He was going to do. He conquered death and rose victorious! You worship the person who does that, worship with everything you are.
Of course they worship Jesus! They saw Jesus crucified. Had a front row seat to the whole thing. They saw His lifeless body taken down from the cross and put in the tomb of the Arimathean. And now He’s alive! The only proper response is worship.
Jesus meets them on their way and speaks to them. And Jesus, the Son of God, gladly accepts their worship.
10 Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”
“Do not be afraid,” says Jesus. “Don’t be afraid?!?!” Here’s that command again.
These poor women have been through A LOT for one Sunday morning. Earthquake, angel, empty tomb, meeting the Resurrected Jesus. And they’ve been told, three times now, “Do not be afraid.” It makes sense to me that they would be afraid.
But hearing “Do not be afraid” from the Resurrected Jesus, changes things. He’s not dead; He’s defeated death and is alive!
The Resurrection of Jesus changes EVERYthing!
All history before Jesus has taught us to expect death as the end of things.
"The book of Genesis ends with Joseph’s death. The book of Deuteronomy ends with Moses’s death. The book of Joshua ends with Joshua’s death.
The Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) end with Jesus’s resurrection. And that changes everything." — Tony Merida
The Resurrection of Jesus Christ changes absolutely everything. It’s the turning point of history. It affects every facet of your life, whether you realize it or not.
That Jesus is raised from the dead declares to us all that Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross paid the full price for sins, once for all time.
“The resurrection is God’s “Amen!” to Jesus’ statement, “It is finished.” - S. Lewis Johnson
Paul writes this about Jesus’ death and resurrection:
25 He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.
When God raised Jesus from the dead, it signaled God’s acceptance of what Jesus had done. God looks with favor upon Jesus’s sacrifice. AND now, for all who belong to Jesus by faith, God’s favor is extended to us!
Jesus’ death paid for our sins.
Jesus’ resurrection secures our right relationship with God.
Don’t be afraid?!?!
Don’t be afraid is right! The person who belongs to God by faith in Jesus Christ has nothing to fear.
The death of Jesus defeated death forever.
The penalty our sins deserve has been paid by Jesus’s sacrifice. Jesus took our place and absorbed the full measure of God’s wrath we deserved.
And, through Him, we have been made right, justified, declared “not guilty”—and we know this because Jesus is not in the tomb; He’s alive.
Don’t be afraid! Hear this news. Repent of your sin and believe in Jesus, the crucified and risen Son of God.
Don’t be afraid! Jesus has risen! Go and tell the world the news that changes everything:
Matthew 28:6 (NIV)
6 He is not here; He has risen, just as He said.
In one Peanuts comic strip, Snoopy, and the little bird, Woodstock, are sitting on top of Snoopy’s doghouse.
Snoopy says, "What are you doing here? You’re supposed to be out somewhere sitting on a branch, chirping. That’s your job. People expect to hear birds chirping when they wake up in the morning."
With that, Woodstock flies off to the top branch of a shrub and belts out…one single chirp. Then he flies back to the doghouse, and Snoopy says, "You only chirped once. You can’t brighten someone’s day with one chirp."
So Woodstock flies back to the shrub and lets out six more chirps. And when he again returns to the doghouse, Snoopy smiles and says,
"There now, didn’t that give you a real feeling of satisfaction? But, there’s something else you need to know. You’re supposed to do that every morning, for the rest of your life!"
That was more than Woodstock could take, and he faints.
I trust you won’t faint when you hear me say:
As Christians, we are called to “Go…and tell” the Good News of Jesus raised from the dead, not just one day a year, but every day. “Go quickly and tell: He has been raised from the dead!”
We are meant to share the joy of our faith with others, every day of our lives.
He is risen! (He is risen, indeed).
Every day of our lives we should say it, shout it, sing it, and live it.
“He is not here; He has been raised, just as He said. Come and see the place where He lay. Then go quickly and tell: He has been raised from the dead!”
Jesus is alive, and that changes everything!