The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the central theme, demonstrating God's ultimate triumph over death. The sermon recounts the events of Easter morning as described in Matthew 28, highlighting the angel's announcement to the women at the empty tomb and the subsequent attempts to cover up the resurrection. It emphasizes that Christ's resurrection, a demonstration of God's immense power, is the foundation of Christian faith and the first fruit of those who will be resurrected. The message concludes by urging listeners to accept the resurrected Christ as their Savior and Lord, dedicating their lives to Him.
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East of Sundays bring back many, many memories for all of us. When I was serving with the British Royal Air Force in Egypt in World War II, I had a great friend called Captain Murdoch, Jim Murdoch. And he was a great song leader. And we never sang, he lives better than when he led the singing. I'll never forget it. Some of our meetings in Egypt were... It brought us right to a gray crescendo when Jim Murdoch kept on that last word. He lives. We went right on and on, but what is it? Wonderful.
He lived within my heart. We're going to read the twenty-eighth chapter of Matthew. We have been reading Matthew's Gospel all the week since last Sunday morning, when we started there in the twenty-first chapter on the Palm Sunday. The story of the Lord entering Jerusalem. Now we're going to read about the resurrection from Matthew's Gospel. Matthew twenty-eight. In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre. And behold, there was a great earthquake, for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone from the door and sat upon it.
His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow, and for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men. And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye, for ye know that ye seek Jesus, for I know that ye seek Jesus which was crucified. He is not here, for he is risen. As he said, Come, see the place where the Lord lay. and go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead. And behold, he goeth before you into Galilee. There shall he see him. Lo, I have told you.
And they departed quickly from the sepulchre with fear and great joy, and did run to bring his disciples' word. And as they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, All hell, and they came and held him by the feet and worshipped him. Then said Jesus unto them, Be not afraid, go, tell my brethren that they go into Galilee, and there shall they see me. Now when they were going, behold, some of the watch came into the city and showed unto the chief priests all the things that were done. And when they were assembled with the elders, and had taken counsel, they gave large money unto the soldiers, saying, Say ye, his disciples came by night and stole him away while we slept.
And if this comes to the governor's ear, we will persuade him and secure you. So they took the money and did as they were taught. And this saying is commonly reported amongst the Jews until this day. day. First Corinthians chapter fifteen, please. First Corinthians chapter fifteen. And we're going to read from verse twelve. Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen?
And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. Yea, and we have found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God, that he raised up Christ, and we raise not up, if so be, that the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised. And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain, and ye are yet in your sin. then they also which have fallen asleep in Christ are perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ we are of all men most miserable.
But now is Christ risen from the dead. Now is Christ risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. May God bless that portion, those portions from his word. Shall we pray? Blessed God, our Father, we thank you for the triumph of this wonderful Easter Sunday morning. We thank thee, now is Christ raised from the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept.
We thank thee, our faith is not in vain, but we believe but we have just been singing in a living Savior who lives within our hearts. We pray, Lord, that thou make this true to our hearts this morning. We pray, thou give us just the words from thyself, and may the Holy Spirit bring the words home to every heart. Search every heart here, Lord. Thou knowest thee. state and condition of every one of us. Maybe there's someone here that has never yet accepted Christ as Savior.
Oh God, we pray that today might be that wonderful day of decision. Maybe some of us have been halting between two opinions as to the pathway that was have us go, walk all that that was have us do. and how we should spend the rest of our short lives for thee here in this world. We pray, Lord, that help us to make decisions. Speak to our hearts today and lead us and guide us for thine own glory. Speak, Lord, in the stillness of this morning hour. May we hear thy voice, Lord, and feel thy touch of power. We ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Now as we have said, and as most of us know, we have been studying in Matthew's Gospel all the week.
Two meetings last Sunday and then two meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday and Friday. As I say, we've had ten meetings already this week from Matthew's Gospel studying verse by verse following what we have called the road to the cross, the road to the cross. And we follow the footsteps of the Lord Jesus. right up from the River Jordan, right up from Jericho, all the way up to Jerusalem, into the temple and out and back to Bethany and back to Jerusalem and so on. And then up into the upper room, out into the Garden of Gethsemane, where he was arrested. We followed him as he appeared before the Jewish Sanhedrin, the Jewish leaders, Caiaphas, the chief priest, and the elders.
and scribes and we listened to that trial. They tried to force one point and they got what they wanted in order to put him to death for they could find no fault in him and they had to find one thing and they could find they searched for witnesses and then they found two false witnesses that came and said this fellow said I am able to destroy the temple of God and build it in three days. And the high priest arose and said unto him, Answerest thou nothing? What is that which we witness against thee?
But Jesus held his peace. That's just what the Scripture had said. Isaiah fifty-three said he was led as a lamb to the slaughter. And as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, he opened not his mouth. I remember many years ago when I was a little boy who had a man who used to be in our meeting, and I remember some of the things he said some Sunday mornings at the Lord's table all those years ago. But I heard him say this one day, he was a butcher. And over there in England, they didn't have multiple stores. A butcher was a butcher, and a baker was a baker, and so on. Everybody was separate. And one of his jobs was to work in the slaughterhouse and kill the animals.
And he said, they're an awful job with the squealing pigs and with the strong oxen and so on. But he said, to kill a sheep, to slaughter a sheep was the most pathetic thing. He said, they were so gentle, led as a sheep, as a lamb to the slaughter, he said... the little lambs that actually licked the blood from off your hands they were so tender and gentle he said kind of hurt to slay to slaughter a lamb and the lord jesus was led as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before her shears is dumb so she opened not his mouth and the priest said answers thou nothing what is this that they witnessed against thee but jesus held his peace and then he said these words I adjure thee by the living God that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ the Son of God now when they put it to a person in that way under Jewish law they were bound to answer I adjure thee by the living God and he
had to answer and the great question was are thou the Christ the Son of God. And Jesus said, Thou has said. Now we've been over this during the week, but I want to go over it again. Jesus said, Thou has said. That means to say, yes, that's right. I am the Messiah. I am the Son of God. Now the Jewish law said that if anyone rose up to say he was a Messiah, that was blasphemy. And there was one rule. You get it in the In Leviticus, if he made that statement, he had to be stoned to death.
That's what they wanted him to say. They wanted some legal reason for putting him to death. Ata the Son of God, Ata Amasar, he said yes. And the high priest rent his clothes who said, He has spoken blasphemy. What further need have we witnesses? Behold, we've heard the blasphemy. What think he? And they answered and said, He's guilty of death. That was the Jewish side. Now early in the morning, it says, when the morning was come, all the chief priests and elders and people took counsel against Jesus to put him to death.
And when they had bound him, they led him away and delivered him unto Pontius Pilate, the governor. Now the governor had one great question. He didn't worry the governor whether he was the Messiah or whether he claimed to be the Son of God. He didn't believe in any of that thing. That belonged to the Jewish people, the despised Jewish people. But there was one thing that would concern the governor. One of the accusations was that he said, I am the king of the Jews. Now there could be no king but Caesar. So the governor asked him a question.
Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor asked him, saying, Art thou the king of the Jews? And Jesus answers, Thou sayest, that is, yes, I am the king of the Jews. Now then, he must be condemned to death. No one could be king but Caesar. So from the Jewish point of view, he was guilty of death. And from the Roman point of view, he was guilty of death. It's significant that the Jews did not carry out the death sentence. There, the Jewish method of execution was to stone a person to death.
The Roman method, the cruelest method of execution ever known, was to crucify a man. one wonders how man could be so cruel as to invent such an awful awful thing as crucifixion but it was invented for one purpose God allowed it for one purpose for his beloved son to die that shameful painful excruciating death at the place called Calvary and Pilate scourge him and delivered him to be crucified. And then we've seen through our talks this week the awful picture of the Lord Jesus, mocked by the soldiers, crowned with thorns, beaten upon the head, spat upon, and they led him out to Golgotha for the place of a skull, and they crucified him.
And on Friday night we saw the last picture here. as Joseph of Adamoth Hill came and took the body from the cross and laid it in a tomb. And it says there were women watching there as he was laid in the tomb. And there was Mary Magdalene and the other Mary sitting over against the sepulch. Now they had to wait all the long next day, our Sabbath, our Saturday, their Sabbath.
They couldn't do anything on the Sabbath. They were not allowed to do any work. They wanted to go and anoint the body. They wanted to go and take their spices. They couldn't do it. It was Sabbath. And they waited all that long, long Sabbath. I was telling you Friday night, how in the ten years we lived in Greece, We used to be very impressed by the fact that on the Easter Saturday all day long the bells, the church bells were told, solemn monotonous tolling of the bells, all day, all day, all day until midnight on the Saturday. And that long Sabbath day they waited.
They had filled the grave. Parnate said to them, Ye have a watch. Go your way, make it as sure as you can. And they went and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone and setting a watch. Did you ever hear such ridiculous words? They made the sepulchre sure, as if the Roman Empire, with all its power, could keep the son of God in the grave, couldn't be. as if the seal of Pilate had any effect when God begins to work. They made, he said, make it as sure as you can.
That wasn't very sure. But they thought it was. And when these women came, at the end of the Sabbath, significant words, the end of the Sabbath, and as it dawned toward the first day of the week, this is the first time you hear about the first day of the week, You hear about the day after the Sabbath. We'll come to that in a moment. The day after the Sabbath. But here you get a New Testament term, the first day of the week. The end of the Sabbath. To me, they're very significant words. It was the end of the Jewish Sabbath. The veil of the temple had been entwined from top to bottom.
The Jewish ritual and the Jewish system of religion had ended now. And something new was coming in more than that. An era had ended. An age had ended. God has divided this world's history up into various dispensations. And this was called the dispensation of law. But the dispensation of law ended. when the Lord Jesus Christ said, it is finished. All that Jewish ritual, it is finished. And a new era was dawning, not quite yet come, because it wasn't till the day of Pentecost that the Holy Spirit came down and the Church came into being.
But it says it's dawning toward the first day of the week. Which is the day that we celebrate? Not the Sabbath. Oh, some people... in their ignorance called the Sunday the Sabbath, but it's not. The Sunday is not the Sabbath. The Sunday is the first day of the week. The Sabbath was the seventh day of the week. And we celebrate the first day of the week, the great resurrection day when our Lord Jesus Christ rose from the dead. It was dawning toward the first day of the week when Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the sepulchre That's rather significant. Really they came to anoint the body of the Lord.
But here it says they came to see the sepulchre because it tells you in the other, one of the other accounts, as they were going along they said, Who can roll away the stone for us? That was a large stone. Who can roll away the stone? How easily it was done. God sent an earthquake. God sent an earthquake. and rolled the stone away. How easily God did it, but they didn't know how the stone would be rolled away. How could they break the Roman feel when the Roman God was there on duty? How could it be done? And that's what troubled them. But let's leave that a moment and go back. I would like to talk again about the fact that this happened on the first day of the week.
Let's go back to Leviticus twenty-three. Leviticus twenty-three. Because the Word of God is very exact, perfect in all its details. And in Leviticus twenty-three you get the seven Feasts of Jehovah. And one of the Feasts of Jehovah was the Feast of First Fruit. The Feast of First Fruit. I'll read you from Leviticus twenty-three. Verse nine, the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say, When ye come into the land which I will give you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheath of the first fruits of your harvest unto the priest.
Here's the harvest growing, but they had to gather together one sheath of first fruits, and offer that to the priest. And he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord to be accepted for you on, listen to the words, on the morrow after the Sabbath shall the priest wave it. And he shall offer that day when he wave the sheaf, he shall offer and he lamb without blemish of the first year for a burnt offering unto the Lord. And it was on the morrow after the Sabbath. If you go back in the same chapter to the fifth verse, it says, On the fourteenth day of the month at Eve and is the Lord's Passover.
That was the Friday. On the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto the Lord. That was the Sabbath. But the morrow after the Sabbath they brought the feast They brought the sheaf of first fruit. How significant is the Word of God? The Lord Jesus was crucified on the Friday, we believe, on the Passover day. And then came that long Sabbath. But on the first day of the week now, being called the Lord's Day, He was the first fruit.
We read it in Corinthians just now. He was the first fruits, it said, Now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of them that slept. For as by man came death, by man, the God-man, the Lord Jesus, by man came also resurrection of the dead. So he was the first fruits unto God of resurrection. And further down it says afterward we, the ones who sleep in Jesus, and we, at His coming.
But He was the first fruit. And so every detail that took place on that memorable weekend took place in absolute accord with the details laid down long, long ago, the types and the figures and the shadows. and all the words of Scripture, even to the fact that he was buried with a rich. He made his grave with a rich in his burial, it says, and Joseph of Arimathea. And the Scripture is careful to say that Joseph of Arimathea was a rich man.
He made his grave with a rich. And now on this triumphant Sunday morning, these women go to the tomb. They came to see the sepulchre, to see if anybody could help them roll away the stone. What triumph? Behold, there was a great earthquake, for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone from the door and sat upon it. What triumph? He sat, the stone was that which was going to keep them from getting into the tomb. And the angel was sitting on the stone. To me that triumph, that's wonderful. Look at this angel. The angel of the Lord, he descended from heaven.
It says his countenance. was like lightning. Now I cannot, it's beyond my brain power to understand what that can be. To me, lightning, when lightning flashes, that awful flash you can, look at it, it's so bright. But his countenance was like lightning. Great flash of light as they gazed upon this person, this angel who had come down from heaven. His countenance was his lightning. His raiment was white as snow.
You can't get anything whiter than snow. You compare some of your cleanest linen that you put through all the washing machines you like and hang down the line or do what you like and compare it with the snow. It looks so dirty. Snow is white. And his raiment was white as snow. But this angel seemed to know. He said this, Fear not ye. He said to the women, Fear not ye, for I know that he seeked Jesus who was crucified. They came to look at the sepulchre, but he knew that in their thought they wanted to get in.
They wanted to find Jesus. They wanted to anoint his body. They brought spices. What a useless thing. Mary had the right idea. As we saw earlier in the week when we were talking about that wonderful supper at Bethany, the Lord said of her, she hath come beforehand to anoint my body to the burial. She knew she couldn't get through a Roman guard. She knew he was going to die. I suppose, as I can understand it, she was the only one who fully and really understood what he'd been saying that he was going to die. And she came beforehand and anointed his body. The other women never anointed his body. They couldn't do it. Because he was risen. But she did it in time.
She anointed it. And as our brother told us in the first meeting this morning, the wonderful savor of that ointment she placed upon his head, the wonderful aroma. must have been with him. I understand that aroma was something that wouldn't die away for many days. It must have been with him, as our brother said this morning, even when he was hanging upon that cross, that aroma told him about the love of Mary Bethany. And when they took down that body and laid it in the tomb, that aroma was still there. That which she had done some days before, as she anointed his body beforehand for the burying.
The angel said, I know, fear not, I know that he seeked Jesus which was crucified. He is not here. He is risen. I've given a number of Easter Sunday morning talks. When I was up in living in Delaware, I used to go up to Philadelphia on an Easter Sunday morning and give a sunrise talk over the air. WVCH in Chester, Pennsylvania, and I think I've got about six of them. And little talks I made up, twelve-minute talks on some of these words. I remember giving a talk on he is not here. I remember giving a talk on come see the place where the Lord lay.
I remember giving a talk on who is risen. I remember giving a talk on his own new tomb. Wonderful Easter subjects. We could preach on these things, but this week we're not preaching. We're studying. We're taking the verse by verse as we go through Matthew's Gospel and seeing the wonderful things that took place. He is not here. He is risen. He said, Come see the place where the Lord lay. I remember giving a talk on that one. Come see the place. where the Lord lay. And go quickly and tell his disciples, Behold, he goes before you into Galilee, and there shall he see him.
No, I have told you. Now the Lord had told them before, that he would meet them in Galilee when he rose from the dead. And now the angel emphasizes, go and tell his disciples, I'm going into Galilee, there shall he see me. And we read this morning in our sunrise service, we read what Paul said that he was seen of Seifers. then of the twelve, after that he was seen of about five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remained to this day, after that he was seen of James, then of all the apostles. I imagine it was down in Galilee where the five hundred met, but he was seen of five hundred at one time.
Truly he rose from the dead. There is no question about that. Now I'd like to Read three verses. Hebrews thirteen, twenty. Hebrews thirteen, verse twenty. Verse twenty. Now the God of peace, This is one of the wonderful prayers and benedictions the Apostle Paul.
Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, makes you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you, that which is well pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ, to whom the glory forever and ever. Amen. But what I want to emphasize is this. Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead, our Lord Jesus. Who rose the Lord Jesus from the dead? By whose power did he come up out of the grave? By God's power. The Father, the God of peace, he rose him from the dead.
Ah, but let me read you another one. John two, verse nineteen, John's gospel. John two, verse nineteen. The Lord Jesus is talking there about the temple, and he says to them, Destroy this temple, John chapter two, eighteen. Then answered the Jews and said, What signs showest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things? Jesus said, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Who rose Christ from the dead? God the Father rose him from the dead. Who rose him from the dead? he rose in his own power.
I will raise it up. Look at John ten a moment, and verse sixteen. Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold, them also I must bring. There shall be one flock and one shepherd. Therefore does my father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. So he rose himself from the day. Let's read one more. Romans eight, verse one. Or verse eleven. Romans eight, verse eleven. It says in Romans eight, verse eleven.
But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you. So the Spirit raised Him from the dead. Can you see that the three persons of the Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit were all at work in raising His Son from the dead. Now I believe that the greatest act of power that was ever shown in the history of the universe was the raising of God's sons from the day. It was a wonderful thing when God made creation.
Tremendous, God's mighty power. He spoke and it was done. I got no room for all these theories today that it took thousands of years. I believe when God said six days, he meant six days. And I believe when God said, let there be light, there was light. And I believe God created just as we get the story in the first chapter of Genesis. By his mighty power, the worlds came into being. But listen to this. I'm reading from First Corinthians. chapter, first Ephesians, Ephesians chapter one, he's praying that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of him, the eyes of your hearts being enlightened, that he may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what, listen, what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us, word who believe, according to the working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named not
only in this world, but also in that which is to come, and has put all things under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things to the church. the mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead. He took more power than creation to break that bond of death. Death was the great enemy of the human race. Unconquerable. Death conquers every time and one by one we go and fall victim to that awful enemy. by the Lord Jesus, the Lord of life.
He broke the power of death. And it took the great power of God, of the Holy Spirit, and the Son of God, to break the power of death and bring his Son up out of the grave. The other scriptures, Luke, Mark, John, they give us more details. Matthew doesn't tell us much. He just tells us now, that they went to the, they went to the, the soldiers went, some of the watch, some of the watch, that's the soldiers.
They went into the city and showed the chief prince all the things that were done. And when they were assembled with the elders, they'd taken counsel, they gave them large money, gave large money to the soldiers to say, you say his disciples came by night. and stole him away while we slept. Fancy a guard. Think of a soldier on sentry, and he says, while we slept, did you ever hear such nonsense in your life? Whether it had chucked his head off or away, if he'd said, I fell asleep on duty, that's punishable by death. And he says, while we slept, the disciples came and took the body away. And then they accepted large money to spread this story.
But it tells you this, that verse four, its countenance, the angel's countenance was like lightning, is Raymond White as snow, and for fear of him the keepers did shake and became his dead men. They knew what happened. They told lies, of course, but they knew what happened. For fear of him they shook and became his dead men. It seems to me that those men ought to believe, don't you think? They ought to believe that the one who was in that tomb was truly the Son of God. So we see the triumph, the wonderful triumph of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Our time is gone. We have a risen Savior. Now I'd like to ask a question. We sang just now, He lives, He lives, He lives within my heart. And we read about the Holy Spirit living in our hearts just now. I wonder every one of us can we say that he lives within my heart. Is Christ the Lord of your life? Is he the resurrection, resurrected, powerful Lord taking charge of your life? Are you doing your own thing, doing what you want to do, or are you doing what he wants?
Perhaps there's someone here this morning who had never accepted him as your Savior. Why not now in the closing moments bow at his feet like Mary they touched his feet? And gaze upon him, the one who went to the place called Calvary. And amid the darkness and pain and sorrow there he bore your sins in his own body on a tree. He is your Savior. Accept him this morning. He is your Lord. crown him as Lord this morning and let's go out on this Easter morning for what is left of life for some of us some of you a lot long time perhaps for some of us not much but may we give it back to him and make him the Lord of our lives the resurrected glorified Lord shall we pray blessed God our Father we thank you now for this triumphant triumphant victory over death thy beloved Son, who went down.
Oh, we've read, he said, as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale, so should the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the bowels of the earth. But thou didst bring him out, triumphant, glorious, victorious. We thank thee for the mighty power, the great earthquake that rolled the stone away, and the angels sat on in triumph. We thank you that the door was open, not to let the Lord out because he was out long before that. But the door was open that we might go in and see the empty tomb. He is not here. He is risen. Go and tell his disciples.
Help us, Lord, to do this as we leave this meeting now. We give our lives back to thee in all the detail. And ask thee to lead us and guide us for thy glory. We thank thee for... wonderful week of meditation on the sufferings of our Lord and a triumphant Easter Sunday morning in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.