Go & Tell
Notes
Transcript
Go & Tell: Matthew 28:1-10,16-20
Prayer-
Morning Recap: Matthew 28:1-6
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. 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. 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. 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.
Come and see…He is risen!
We have all been given an invitation to come and see that Jesus is alive. That he is Risen from the grave. And we have all been given the invitation to follow him. His invitation to his disciples to follow him was come and see. Come and see what I am up to, where I am living, where I am going. Come and See why I have come to this earth. I have come to seek and save the lost. I have come that you may have life and life to the full. I have come to offer myself as your perfect and spotless lamb. I have come to give you resurrection power.
Resurrection life. A New Life.
See we all have sinned. We all have fallen short of the glory of God. And the wages, our payment for the sin that we have committed against God is eternal separation. It’s death.
But what if I told you there was a way to have everlasting life. What if I told you there was a way to be forgiven from all the bad things you have ever done.
What if I told you that you can have a fresh start. A new life?
Because the good news is that you can.
While the wages of sin is death, the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus, our Lord.
God said that he demonstrates how much he loves us in this. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
The punishment that was due to us, He bore on that cross. He took our punishment, he bore our sin and shame. By his wounds we are healed.
For God loved the world so much, that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him, will not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
So all we need to do to access this new life is to repent and believe. To confess with our mouths that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead. Then you will be saved.
Romans 10:9-10
“If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. “
And that is good news is it not. You can be forgiven. You can have a new life. You can have everlasting life. But you must confess and believe. You have to repent, turn from your sin and come and see the goodness of God in Christ.
Come and see, experience the resurrection life.
Billy Graham once said,
There would be no Easter without the truth of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Springtime itself speaks of new life. The resurrection gives meaning and power to the cross. The ultimate victory of the cross is that it could not hold the Savior of the world who rose to new life and was victorious over death. He finished His work for mankind there but the cross did not finish Him. He triumphed over sin, winning salvation for mankind. Easter would mean nothing without this powerful truth, carrying our hopes beyond the coldness and depths of the grave.
Some believe that Jesus died leaving a legacy of being a good teacher who left behind profound thoughts and challenges, but they reject the truth that He was raised from the dead. Others think the resurrection was a hoax. There are those who question whether Jesus even existed. True believers in Jesus Christ have no doubt that He lived among us and ultimately conquered the sting of death, offering the human race the greatest gift—His sacrificial love.
The bloodstained cross is gruesome to some, but the empty cross is full of hope. Satan, overly eager to thwart God’s purposes, overstepped his bounds, and God turned what seemed to be life’s greatest tragedy into history’s greatest triumph. The death of Christ, perpetrated by evil men, was thought by them to be the end, but His grave became but a doorway to victory. Jesus purchased our redemption and provided righteousness that we could not ourselves earn. The cross is the symbol of salvation because it represents doom for sin and hope for sinners. Christ’s sacrifice condemns sin and cleanses souls. This is the ultimate victory.
Martin Luther
"Our Lord has written the promise of resurrection, not in books alone, but in every leaf in springtime."
So the invitation is to come and see…but that’s not where the story stops.
Come and see, come experience this almighty and amazing God.
But the story continues…
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.”
Once we experience and almighty God there should be something that happens within us. We should want to share this news with others.
Go and tell was the angels instructions.
You just experienced something amazing. Something that has never happened before. Life from death. You saw him raise others from the dead. You heard him say that he was going to do it and he has. He is alive. And now he is revealing himself you to personally.
Matthew 28:7-10- Personal encounters with the Resurrected Christ.
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.”
He is still to this day personally revealing himself to people.
Every person who has an encounter with the Risen Jesus is changed. The accounts in the New Testament show the many different emotions and responses people experienced when they saw Jesus alive after they had witnessed His death on a cross and burial just three days prior. Can you imagine what that might feel like?
Well, the good news is, we can do more than imagine. We can experience the Risen Jesus in our own lives. It is not a thing of the past.
We can encounter Christ through His Spirit he left behind.
Jesus Promises the Holy Spirit- John 14:15-21
15 “If you love me, keep my commands. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 21 Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”
26 “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me.
5 but now I am going to him who sent me. None of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ 6 Rather, you are filled with grief because I have said these things. 7 But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. 8 When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 about sin, because people do not believe in me; 10 about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; 11 and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned. 12 “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. 13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. 14 He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. 15 All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.”
Matthew 28:16-17- Some of them doubted.
16 Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted.
Jesus met them in their doubt.
You may doubt…did this really happen?
Jesus will meet you in your doubt, if you come to him in sincerity, asking with expectation with eyes opened to the possibility
24 Now Thomas (also known as Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.” 26 A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.” 28 Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!” 29 Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
But those who do believe are now new creations in Christ. We have experienced the resurrection power of new life. We are fully confident that are saved and will live eternally and so we worship Christ for what He has done.
And we are then empowered to Go and tell.
18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “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.”
Acts 1:8- But you will receive power when the Spirit of truth comes upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria and even to the ends of the earth.
But I have to ask us church…how often do we really Go and Tell about the amazing things that God has done for us?
11 Jesus is “ ‘the stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone.’ 12 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” 13 When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. 14 But since they could see the man who had been healed standing there with them, there was nothing they could say. 15 So they ordered them to withdraw from the Sanhedrin and then conferred together. 16 “What are we going to do with these men?” they asked. “Everyone living in Jerusalem knows they have performed a notable sign, and we cannot deny it. 17 But to stop this thing from spreading any further among the people, we must warn them to speak no longer to anyone in this name.” 18 Then they called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. 19 But Peter and John replied, “Which is right in God’s eyes: to listen to you, or to him? You be the judges! 20 As for us, we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.”
We cannot help…
I wonder church if the condition for us today is this… We can help it.
Paul and Johns conviction was so powerful that they could not help but share what they have experienced. They couldn’t help themselves…they had to witness to the amazing salvation and new life in Christ.
But can we? Can we help ourselves by not sharing. If we can help it…then we have a problem to address.
We are commissioned to go and tell.
We are entrusted to go and tell.
We are empowered to go and tell.
So if you can help it this morning. If you have no passion for being a witness or for completing the great commission, i would simply suggest you take yourself back to that cross. Experience again Come and see the greatness of our God and how much He loves you.
That he desires to meet with you, to transform you. To give you a new life. He desires you to come and learn from him.
Let’s pray…