The Risen One

Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to him to call his attention to its buildings. “Do you see all these things?” he asked. “Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.” As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. “Tell us,” they said, “when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places.

Jesus died on a Friday, and three days later, on a Sunday, Jesus arose.

Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of Jesus, went to the tomb to be near the body of Jesus. But, instead, they witnessed the empty tomb.

These followers of Jesus, the Marys, went to anoint the body of Jesus. We may not be able to relate with this, because here in the West, we don’t really deal with dead bodies. We let the morgue deal with it. But back in the day, the closest ones of the deceased would go and take care of the body.

In this case, the Marys, went to take care of the body of their loved one. As they went to the tomb, they wondered who was going to open the tomb, since it was sealed by a stone. But it turns it, when they arrived, the stone was rolled back, and on the stone sat an angel of the Lord.

His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow—there’s a sense of purity. The appearance of this angel caused the guards who were protecting the tomb (they were protecting it because the Jews feared that somebody would steal the body so they wanted to keep the body inside the tomb)—The angels caused the guards to faint.—What a sight!? What happened to the guards is a typical response to a divine encounter.

This angel tells the Marys, “Do not be afraid. You are looking for Jesus but he is not here. He has risen. Come and see the place where he lay.”

Jesus has risen from the dead. This is what the the religious chief priests and Pharisees feared, this is why they had guards guard the tomb—so the tomb wouldn’t be emptied. But the tomb is empty, not because the disciples stole the body (they wouldn’t be able to if they’d tried, since guards were present). The temple is empty because God has raised Jesus from the dead. Jesus has risen. According to the angel, this is the message, the message that Jesus has risen—this message is the message the Marys were supposed to preach. The angel asked the Marys to follow his example. The angel was an evangelist.

Angel —> Marys —> The Disciples —> The World

The angel proclaimed that Jesus had resurrected. He said it to Mary. And now, Mary had the opportunity to tell others that Jesus had risen. Mary told the disciples, and the disciples went to tell the world.

They preached this so much because they understood this idea that Hodge presents:

“If Christ did not rise, the whole scheme of redemption is a failure, and all the predictions and anticipations of its glorious results for time and for eternity, for men and for angels of every rank and order, are proved to be chimeras. ‘But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first-fruits of them that slept.’ Therefore the Bible is true from Genesis to Revelation. The kingdom of darkness has been overthrown, Satan has fallen as lightning from heaven, and the triumph of truth over error, of good over evil, of happiness over misery is for ever secured.”

Jesus has defeated death. In Jesus, death died for Jesus killed death. He defeated the consequences of the tohu vabohu. And the greatest proof of this is the empty tomb. We can go today to the grave of anyone, and we will find their body. But at the grave of Jesus, you won’t find a body. Why? Because He has risen. He has resurrected.

N.T. Wright

The resurrection, in short, is presented by the evangelists not as a "happy ending" after an increasingly sad and gloomy tale, but as the event that demonstrated Jesus's execution really had dealt the deathblow to the dark forces that had stood in the way of God's new world, God's "kingdom" of powerful creative and restorative love, arriving "on earth as in heaven."

The resurrection shows us that what Jesus did on the cross actually worked. Jesus has dealt with the dark forces of the world, and now the God’s kingdom has arrived.

With the resurrection, Jesus has instituted God’s kingdom of powerful creative and restorative love on the earth as in heaven.

We just the Gospel of Matthew’s depiction. Here’s a chart that could help us see the resurrection through each of the four gospels.

Matthew - It brings Jesus into the position for which he was always destined, that of the world’s rightful Lord, sending out his followers to call the world to follow him and learn his way of being human.

Mark - The moment [of the resurrection is] when God’s kingdom “comes in power.”

Luke - The resurrection is the moment when Israel’s Messiah “comes into his glory,” so that “repentance for the forgiveness of sins” can now be announced to all the world as the way of life.

John - The resurrection is the launching of the new creation, the new Genesis.

The resurrection confirms the effectiveness of the cross (N.T. Wright):

It is the resurrection that declares that the cross was a victory, not a defeat. It therefore announces that God has indeed become king on earth as in heaven.

The Ascension

Not only does the empty tomb provide support that Jesus actually resurrected, but there is also support because Jesus, in bodily form, after his death, spent time with his disciple.

Look at what he says and does post-resurrection:

Matthew 28:16-20

Matthew 28:16–20 NIV

Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 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, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

As the Resurrected One, Jesus spent time with the disciples. He also received worship. Even after resurrecting, people doubted. People will always doubt.

As the Resurrected One, Jesus taught with authority. He said that all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him.

This begs the question: Did he have less authority before? Is what Jesus had said before the resurrection less authoritative than what he said after the resurrection? No, his words before and after the Resurrection have the same level authority.

Instead, the idea here is that “the spheres in which he now exercises absolute authority are enlarged to include all heaven and earth, i.e., the universe” (D. A. Carson). Jesus has now demonstrated that he has authority in heaven and earth. Here, we see the fulfillment of Daniel 7:13-14 (D. A. Carson):

The Son of Man, once humiliated and suffering, is given universal authority.

As the supreme authority of heaven and earth, Jesus says “therefore.”

Because he has authority, Jesus said this… What does the one with supreme authority say? Go and make disciples.

There is something we miss when we don’t read the Greek.

Look at it in the Greek.

Great commission 1

Kinda hard to understand if you haven’t dabbled with Greek, but let’s at least identified some things.

Maybe this next slide could help.

Great commission 2

The words that are underlined blue are the verbs of the verse.

The first underlined word, poreuthentes, means go.

The second, mathaeusate, means, disciple making

The third, means baptize.

Let’s just focus on these verbs.

Great commission 3

Do you notice anything with the endings?

The endings are different right. poreuthentes and baptizontes have the same ending but the ending of mathateusate is different.

We don’t see that in the English.

In Greek, the endings are extremely important. Go and baptize, poreuthentes and baptizontes, have the endings that they have because they are participles.

We won’t spend too much time studying participles today, but just for right now that our English “go” is in the same case as “baptizing”

That means, that the main verb is mathateusate, disciple-making, and poreuthentes, go, and baptizontes are just modifying the main verb-disciple making. Maybe this pic can help us see it.

Great commission 4

Sometimes we get caught up with going and baptizing, and don’t get me wrong, they are important, but Jesus is emphasizing the disciple-making portion.

D. A. Carson, a Greek-New Testament professor confirms:

The main emphasis, then, is on the command to “make disciples” also include great commission 4

Evangelism is important—we must go. But let’s not forget the focus:

It’s important to “go,” but it is only important because our end goal is to make disciples.

But what does disciple making look like.

Here’s one definition (D. A. Carson):

Disciples are those who hear, understand, and obey Jesus’ teaching (Matt. 12:46–50)

A disciple hears what Jesus has taught, begins to understand what Jesus said, and starts to practice what he has said.

Because a person is a disciple of Jesus, the person’s life is different (Leon Morris):

The life of a disciple is different because of his attachment to Jesus. The Master is not giving a command that will merely secure nominal adherence to a group, but one that will secure wholehearted commitment to a person.

A disciple can’t just say he or she follows Jesus and have no change in his or her life. No, if you are a disciple, you are wholeheartedly commited to Jesus. You listen to him, understand him, and follow him.

We are to be disciples, and we are to make disciples. We are to wholeheartedly commit ourselves to Jesus, and we are to help people wholeheartedly commit themselves to Jesus.

Jesus said that we were supposed to make disciples from πάντα τὰ ἔθνη

πάντα τὰ ἔθνη = every nation, every people group, every tribe

That means we are to make disciples of people, everywhere, without distinction. We should not say, “Oh that person, that group over there, will not be discipled.” No, that is not what Jesus is saying here. He is saying, that πάντα τὰ ἔθνη, from all people, we are to make disciples.

Jesus mentions two characteristics of discipleship: baptism and teaching.

Here’s another way of looking at it:

The response of discipleship is baptism and instruction

Discipleship should involve both baptism and teaching.

I am aware that while we have excelled in teaching, we have lacked in baptisms. Part of it is that we are finding our groove, still, and we are in a middle of a pandemic. Nevertheless, we still strive to follow what Jesus said.

As the church we will follow what the church has done for centuries.

Leon Morris noted,

We have no knowledge of a time when the church was without baptism or unsure of baptism. It is difficult to explain this apart from a definite command of Jesus.

And as a church, we will follow the command of Jesus as the church has followed over the ages.

Jesus said how we were to baptize—in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. There’s just one name so there’s a sense these three are one.

Most of church history explicitly recite this formulation of baptism. Look at the writings of the Didache, which were written most likely, during the first century, just a couple years after the Apostles:

It says this:

And concerning baptism, baptize this way: Having first said all these things, baptize into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,

I will continue this practice, and we will continue to the practice of the Apostles baptizing in Jesus name. We will follow both biblical mandates: baptizing in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit as Jesus commanded and baptizing in the name of Jesus as the Apostles modeled. The main idea behind this is making allegiance to God and Jesus.

And as a church, we will teach. This type of teaching is not just for cerebral knowledge—not just to make smarter sinners. No, we teach so that you will obey the commands of Jesus.

Disciples teach Jesus so people would follow Jesus.

And whether we are hearing or teaching, our goal is to follow Jesus.

D. A. Carson wrote,

What the disciples teach is not mere dogma steeped in abstract theorizing but content to be obeyed.

It’s not just to feel good, make us cry, make us smarter. No, it’s so we would obey Jesus. We can go into church, have a great experience, but there needs to be change.

D. A. Carson concluded on these words of our king:

Christianity must spread by an internal necessity or it has already decayed; for one of Jesus’ commands is to teach all he commands. Failure to disciple, baptize and teach the peoples of the world is already itself one of the failures of our own discipleship.

We must do these things—we must disciple, go, disciple, and teach. As disciples, we must. Christianity grows because Christians disciple. If we fail to disciple, baptize, and teach, we failed to spread the kingdom.

All this could look hard—making disciples, evangelizing, baptizing, teaching could look hard (imagine how hard it looked for the early Christians in pagan Rome)—

But look at how Jesus ended his teaching—our king shares that he will be with us until the end of time.

D. A. Carson said,

[T]he Gospel [of Matthew] ends, not with command, but with the promise of Jesus’ comforting presence.

It does look hard. Discipling in the middle of a pandemic looks hard. Making disciples with a generation that couldn’t care less about what the church has to say looks hard. It all looks hard. But be comforted, we will build the kingdom. We will follow our king’s command. We will spread his rule. We will make disciples, we will baptize, and we will teach about our Lord. Why will we be successful? because, behold, Jesus—the risen one—the risen king—is with us always, until the of the age.

Let’s go to another talk about how Jesus and the kingdom.

Acts 1:6-9

Acts 1:6–9

Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.

This was one of our first teachings so I won’t spend too much time. If you’d like to check out what I’ve said about it, check it out on Youtube or Spotify haha. But I do want to look at this passage again, because there is always more we can say about a verse, especially with the theme of the kingdom.

Jesus had just reminded the Apostles about the promise of the Holy Spirit. So, logically, they asked if this is when the kingdom would be fully established. But Jesus said, that it’s not for us to know. We should not anxiously calculate when the fullness of the kingdom will come. No, we shouldn’t. Instead, we should follow what Jesus tells us: It’s not for us to know but instead we are supposed to receive the Spirit and be witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth—basically, we are to be witnesses everywhere.

We will witness with the Spirit of God.

We do not know when the kingdom is coming, but we can start witnessing about our king—we can start spreading the reign of the king and consequently building his kingdom. We will do this by the Spirit.

Patrick Schreiner said,

The kingdom will now advance by the authority of the exalted King, by the power of the Spirit and through his gospel.

Jesus ascended into heaven, and a few days this is what happened.

Let’s go to Acts 2:4

Acts 2:4 NIV

All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

The Apostles received the Spirit. And you know what they did with the Spirit? They began to witness, just as Jesus said. In Jerusalem, with the promise of Spirit, Peter got up and began to preach.

Look at Acts 2:29-34

Acts 2:29–34 NIV

“Fellow Israelites, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day. But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne. Seeing what was to come, he spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, that he was not abandoned to the realm of the dead, nor did his body see decay. God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it. Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear. For David did not ascend to heaven, and yet he said, “ ‘The Lord said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand

They began to witness about Jesus.

They used a Psalm of David to show that Jesus is the Messiah. Jesus is the one who sits on his throne and whose kingdom will never cease.

The Apostles were witness that Jesus came resurrected and that he was exalted to the right hand of God.

Then they talk about how he received the promise of the Holy Spirit and has now poured it out to his disciples.

I want to conclude with how Peter concluded his witness:

Acts 2:38–41 NIV

Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.” With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.

Because Jesus is the Messiah and because the audience of Peter had sinned, the Jews had to repent.

I. Howard Marshall defines the word:

The word indicates a change of direction in a person’s life rather than simply a mental change of attitude or a feeling of remorse; it signifies a turning away from a sinful and godless way of life.

Have you have decided to turn away from a sinful and godless way of life? Peter tells his audience that they should.

Then, you should be baptized in Jesus’ name.

This is what I. Howard Marshall said after much study on the topic:

Baptism was performed in the name of Jesus, a phrase which may represent a commercial usage, ‘to the account of Jesus’, or a Jewish idiom, ‘with reference to Jesus’. However precisely the phrase be understood, it conveys the thought that the person being baptized enters into allegiance to Jesus, and this would tie in with the evidence that at baptism it was customary to make a confession of Jesus as Lord.

Today, we have seen that Jesus is king—and death cannot keep him down. We see his last words—make disciples. We see the Holy Spirit empowering the disciples to build the kingdom. Things that key in making disciples and in building the kingdom is having people be baptized and repent. If you have not done so, I encourage you to seek help. The church is here to help out.

Let’s pray.