They Met the Living Christ Personally (Matt. 28:9–15)

9 And as they went to tell His disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, “Rejoice!” So they came and held Him by the feet and worshiped Him. 10 Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell My brethren to go to Galilee, and there they will see Me.” 11 Now while they were going, behold, some of the guard came into the city and reported to the chief priests all the things that had happened. 12 When they had assembled with the elders and consulted together, they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers, 13 saying, “Tell them, ‘His disciples came at night and stole Him away while we slept.’ 14 And if this comes to the governor’s ears, we will appease him and make you secure.” 15 So they took the money and did as they were instructed; and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day.

It is when we are obeying God’s Word that He comes to us. Jesus had already appeared to Mary Magdalene in the garden (John 20:11–18; Mark 16:9). Notice that our Lord’s first two Resurrection appearances were to believing women. These faithful women were not only the last to leave Calvary, but they were also the first to come to the tomb. Their devotion to Jesus was rewarded.

I. “All hail!” can be translated, Grace.

9 And as they went to tell His disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, “All hail”. And they came and held Him by the feet and worshiped Him. (KJV)

A. What a marvelous greeting for the Resurrection Day!

The women fell at His feet, took hold of Him, and worshiped Him. There must have been some fear in their hearts, for He immediately assured them with His typical, “Be not afraid!”

The phrase “My brethren” revealed the intimate relationship between Christ and His followers. Jesus had spoken similar words to Mary Magdalene earlier that morning. Jesus reinforced the instructions of the angel that the disciples meet Him in Galilee. In the Garden, Jesus had told His disciples that He would rise from the dead and meet them in Galilee; but they had forgotten (Matt. 26:31–32).

B. While the believers were worshiping the living Christ, the unbelievers were plotting to destroy the witness of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

By now, some of the soldiers had realized that they were in a desperate plight. The Roman seal had been broken, the stone had been rolled away, and the body was not in the tomb.

For a Roman soldier to fail in his duty was an offense punishable by death. But the soldiers were shrewd: They did not report to Pilate or to their superior officers; they reported to the Jewish chief priests. They knew that these men were as anxious to cover up the miracle as were the soldiers themselves! Between the chief priests, the elders, and the soldiers, they put together a story that would explain the empty tomb: The body was stolen.

II. By examining this story, we see that it actually proves the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

A. If Jesus’ body was stolen, then it was taken either by His friends or His enemies.

His friends could not have done it since they had left the scene and were convinced that Jesus was dead. His enemies would not steal His body because belief in His resurrection was what they were trying to prevent. They would have defeated their own purposes if they had removed His body. And, if they had taken it, why did they not produce it and silence the witness of the early church?

Anyone who stole the body would have taken the body in the graveclothes. Yet the empty graveclothes were left in the tomb in an orderly manner. This was hardly the scene of a grave robbery.

B. The religious leaders had given money to Judas to betray Jesus.

They also gave money to the soldiers to say that the body had been stolen. These Romans would have demanded a large price, for their lives were at stake. If their superiors heard that these soldiers had failed, they could have been executed. Even if the story got to Pilate, he was not likely to do much about it. He was sure that Jesus was dead, and that was all that mattered to him. The disappearance of Jesus’ body created no problems for Pilate.

There is something in human nature that makes it easy for people to believe lies. It was not until the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost, and the powerful witness of the Apostles, that the Jews in Jerusalem discovered the truth: Jesus Christ is alive! Any sincere person who studies this evidence with an open heart will conclude that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is a historic fact that cannot be refuted.

III. The soldiers agreed and kept their end of the bargain.

A. This false and ridiculous story of the disciples’ theft and the guards’ sleep was widely circulated.

It remained in circulation even at the time of Matthew’s writing of his Gospel decades later. In fact, this remains a popular explanation of the Resurrection among skeptics even today.

Whether the guards’ failure was discovered by Pilate, and whether the Jewish leaders went so far as to intervene for them, we don’t know. It was not important to Matthew’s purpose.

B. The explanation that the disciples stole the body is patently false, and other theories fare no better.

Some have theorized that the women visited the wrong tomb, or that Jesus on the cross had merely swooned and later revived, or that there was so much wishful thinking on the part of the disciples that they had a collective hallucination and all thought that they saw Jesus.

All we need to know is the Truth, and the truth is that the tomb is empty! Jesus is alive! He did die so that we could be saved from our sins, but he conquered death! He is risen!