Oh What A Beautiful Morning - Now What?

In the history of the world there is no single event that is more significant or impactful than the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Taken in conjunction with the events that happened on the cross - because really you cannot separate the one from the other. They are two acts if you will in the same drama and one means nothing without the other. Without the resurrection, the cross would mean nothing. And without the cross, the resurrection would mean nothing. We’re going to see it all this morning - we’re going to be witnesses of the resurrection as we look at a beautiful morning. We’re going to see the world’s attempts to hide the truth of the resurrection and then finally we’re going to ask the question “now what?” - what is required of us in light of all that we’ve observed. Matthew has much to say to us in this chapter so let’s dig in and see what the implications are for us 2000 years later.

Before we do that though, it is important to get a quick overview of what Matthew’s motives were when he wrote his Gospel. In order to understand what Matthew’s point is in this chapter we need to understand that first century historiography regularly valued both accuracy and ideology even if it did not insist on compartmentalizing the two the way modern historians do. Matthew had an agenda as he penned these words and every story, parable and event supports his goals in the writing of his Gospel. Matthew was a Jew writing to other Jews or newer Jewish-Christians. Throughout his Gospel his purpose is clear: to demonstrate that Jesus is the Jewish nation’s long-awaited Messiah. His extensive quoting of the OT is specifically designed to show the tie between the Messiah of promise and the Christ of history. With this understanding lets now open the Word of God and see what Matthew wrote to his audience and how these three seemingly distinct events actually tie together to demonstrate for us how we should be living now.

Matthew 28 CSB

After the Sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to view the tomb. There was a violent earthquake, because an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and approached the tomb. He rolled back the stone and was sitting on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing was as white as snow. The guards were so shaken by fear of him that they became like dead men. The angel told the women, “Don’t be afraid, because I know you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here. For he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has risen from the dead and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; you will see him there.’ Listen, I have told you.” So, departing quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, they ran to tell his disciples the news. Just then Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” They came up, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him. Then Jesus told them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to leave for Galilee, and they will see me there.” As they were on their way, some of the guards came into the city and reported to the chief priests everything that had happened. After the priests had assembled with the elders and agreed on a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money and told them, “Say this, ‘His disciples came during the night and stole him while we were sleeping.’ If this reaches the governor’s ears, we will deal with him and keep you out of trouble.” They took the money and did as they were instructed, and this story has been spread among Jewish people to this day. The eleven disciples traveled to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshiped, but some doubted. Jesus came near and said to them, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Let’s pray and then we’ll unpack these stories together.

Oh What A Beautiful Morning

Matthew 28:1-10;

In the mid 1950’s Rogers and Hammerstein were the toast of Broadway musicals, but it was their first effort that set the tone and standard for everything they would produce afterward. In the early 1940’s they produced the musical “Oklahoma” and included the song “O What a Beautiful Morning”. The song is sung by Curly who it seems that everything is going in his favor as the show opens - even the corn is as high as an elephant’s eye.

As our story opens however, it would appear to be anything but a beautiful morning. Christ has been crucified and laid in a grave. All the hopes of His disciples were crushed. In fact they were not even present for either His crucifixion or this story. Instead it was the women who always seemed to be present and closest to Jesus throughout the Passion narrative following His arrest. His disciples - despite their pledges of undying loyalty and to follow Him to the death - had scattered and were in hiding. But here we find the women approaching the tomb in order to view. In his parallel account Mark gives us more detail of what their intentions were. In Mark 16:1 he writes that the women had brought spices so that they might anoint Him. The women weren’t going to the tomb to embalm Christ or to preserve His body but to anoint it with spices that would keep the stench of the decaying body to a minimum. This is a step that was skipped over by Joseph of Arimathea during the burial process most likely because shops had closed by the time of the burial and would have remained closed until the evening prior when the Sabbath would have ended around 6pm. So now on the first morning following the Sabbath the women are on their way to correct this oversight. The account that Matthew provides in Matthew 27:57-61 says that it was already evening when Joseph of Arimathea went to Pilate to request His body and that both women named in this account were present when Christ was buried.

As the women approach the tomb another earthquake takes place. Whether they were actually witnesses to the angel’s arrival and removal of the stone or not is unclear. But what is clear is that this second earthquake and the arrival of the angel serve as bookend events to the story of both Jesus’ life and death. Luke tells of the announcements of the angels to Mary and more prominently the shepherds at Christ’s birth, but Matthew also has an angelic announcement as an angel speaks to Joseph to reassure him that he should marry Mary and that what has happened to her is a work of the Spirit. Now here at the climactic event of Christ’s mission here on earth an angel is present to announce His resurrection. The other event that provides and exclamation point for the crucifixion/resurrection event is the earthquake that takes place as the grave is opened. While the earthquake coincides with the removal of the stone from the grave front it likely isn’t caused by that removal as the stone wouldn’t have been large enough to cause a local geological event. The earthquake during the crucifixion tore the curtain that separated man from the Holy of Holies signifying the opening of access to God for the common man. The second earthquake during the resurrection opens the way to eternal life. The threat of death was conquered.

As the women arrive at the tomb they find the stone has been rolled away and an angel is sitting on the stone waiting for them. The soldiers who were guarding the tomb were laying around like dead men - it must’ve been a shocking scene. It definitely wasn’t what the women were expecting. They were expecting to find a stone in place over the grave of their teacher and Lord, they were expecting to have to bargain with the soldiers or someone else to get the stone moved. And yet here they are and the stone is moved - why? Why was the stone rolled away? The obvious answer is to let Christ out of the grave - everyone knows that. But again why? Isn’t this the same Christ who had the power to raise Himself from the dead - did He not have enough power then to move the stone Himself? Isn’t this the same Christ who, just a few days from now, would violate the physical rules of the universe as He appears to His disciples in a room that was completely locked up to the outside world - how did He get in? The stone wasn’t removed to let Christ out of the tomb - it was moved to let us in. It was removed to allow us access to the very place where He had been laid, to give the disciples access so that they could testify that He truly had risen from the dead and that His body was no longer there.

Matthew also debunks one of the common objections to the resurrection. One of the common objections to the account of the women’s testimony is that they were hallucinating or dreaming both the angel and Christ’s. But these women get up at day break, grab spices and head to the tomb for what? Does that demonstrate an attitude of expectancy or one of grief looking to anoint a dead body? They were not physically, emotionally, mentally or spiritually prepared for what they came face to face with. They approached that tomb that morning consumed by their own thoughts, fears and situation - and they were met by Christ. They fell at His feet and worshipped Him. They left the tombs changed women - and with a command “Go and tell”. What started out as anything but a beautiful morning turned out to be exactly the beautiful morning the women needed.

But why just these two women? And why Galilee? Christ sends them with a strange command for His disciples - it’s not strange that He would say Go and tell them but why does He tell them to go to Galilee and they will see Him there. Why not Jerusalem? If we were to rewrite the story of the Crucifixion today it would be vastly different. There would be no rolling away of a stone - it would explode into a million pieces and Christ would march triumphantly from the tomb. He would walk straight into the Temple courts look the High Priest in the eye and say something cool like “Now what?” or he would carry the nails in His hand and He’d drop them like some sort of cosmic mic drop. I mean these were the same men who had taunted on Friday that if He could come down off the cross while He was alive they would believe - how much more impactful would it be if He walked out of the grave?

Christianity has never been a faith that can be found through signs and wonders. All those can do is bring us to a moral life. The great reformer Martin Luther pledged to give his life to the monastery in the middle of a thunderstorm if only God would preserve him. But he was so unconverted that he spent the next years of his life trying to earn his righteousness until he came across the words that the righteous will live by faith. Are you waiting for God to prove Himself to you this morning? Are you looking for a sign that will point you to belief? If so, you’re looking in the wrong way and you will only ever achieve a moral life from that. Christianity is not a faith that can be simply appropriated intellectually without ever having it impact the heart and faith of an individual. And as we’re about to learn even a spectacle like Christ walking back into the Temple courts wouldn’t have been enough to convert the hard hearts of the Pharisees and the Jewish people.

That They Can’t Hide

Matthew 28:11-15;

There were some that morning who the morning was anything but beautiful. Stationed outside tomb was a cohort of soldiers given by Pilate to the Chief Priests. There is a great responsibility to standing guard. When I was in the Navy we had a Third Class Gunners Mate who fell asleep in the galley on our ship while he was on watch. Unfortunately for him, our First Class Gunners Mate found him asleep and took his weapon. Things didn’t really go well for that sailor after that.

In the first century if the soldiers had fallen asleep and allowed the disciples of Christ to steal the body they were responsible for they would be subject to execution. Yet the Chief Priests and Sanhedrin called some of them in and convinced them to admit to this. It is amazing - almost shocking - the lengths that the world will go to to keep the truth of the Gospel from being spread.

In 2010 Psychology Today published an article entitled “Top Ten Secrets of Effective Liars” and these are instructive to us in understanding the motives behind the worlds incessant desire to suppress the truth. The first is to “have a reason” the world’s reason is that they love their sin more than they do God and they will protect that sin at all costs. They have to lay their groundwork and tell the truth, misleadingly. False religions have been doing this for centuries. Some of them have their lies so well refined that they nearly mirror to truths that we teach just with a subtle difference that muddies the water enough to be believable. They know their target and they strive to keep their facts straight. This is the best place to address them because we know their facts wilt when the light of the Word of God is applied. They are focused on their goal - they want to keep the truth suppressed. The last four tactics are to watch your signals, turn up the (emotional) pressure, counterattack and bargain. We see all of these played out in society as our culture changes to become more accepting of sin.

I tell you these not to help you become a better liar - but instead to help you recognize the great lengths the world will go to to conceal and suppress the truth. It will convince men to lie to hide the truth and protect them from death and it will kill those who speak the truth and refuse to recant even in the face of death. It will invent fictional religions in an attempt to counter a religion that it claims is fiction. After the resurrection of Christ the world called its minions in, gave them some money and sent them out to spread the false gospel that His body had been stolen and they thought that would work.

In so doing they revealed the hardness of their own hearts. These were the religious leaders of the nation - these men should have known better. When these soldiers brought to them the story of the angel and the stone being rolled away it should have resulted in their reevaluation of everything they thought or believed about Christ. But it didn’t. What it resulted in was their determination in their own hard hearts to further deny the truth of who Christ was by explicitly denying the truths of the resurrection. And by so doing they demonstrated the proof of Christ’s accusation towards them when He said that they would make men twice the sons of Hell that they themselves were. As they were explicitly denying the resurrection they were getting the soldiers to implicitly deny what had happened. The soldiers were just simple, uneducated, non-religious men who were trying to make their way in the world and keep their head in one place - between their shoulders. These religious leaders were educated and were supposed experts in the Scriptures and yet they missed the truths of who Christ was and in their desire to promote their own religious well-being they chose to deny the only truth that mattered.

It didn’t take them long at all to make their decision and to deny the resurrection they started immediately.

Now What?

Matthew 28:16-20;

It took the disciples a bit longer to get started. For most of their three years with Christ they were lagging behind and that did not change after the crucifixion and resurrection. The text says that the disciples travelled to Galilee but the picture from the other Gospels tells us that it was not right away. There was a week in between Christ’s original meeting with the women outside the tomb until the disciples made the journey to Galilee that He had commanded them. Even before the crucifixion, during the Last Supper, Christ had commanded the disciples to go into Galilee.

Matthew 26:32 CSB

But after I have risen, I will go ahead of you to Galilee.”

Then there were the commands given by the angel and Jesus himself to the women outside of the tomb. Later in the day Jesus appears in the midst of the disciples after his encounter with two of them on the road to Emmaus. You will remember that Thomas was not present on this occasion and when told of it he refused to believe it. So a week later in a story recounted in John 20:24-29 the disciples are still in Jerusalem and Jesus appears to them again. This time Thomas is with them and Christ shows Himself to Thomas. Then John picks up the story in chapter 21 with the disciples beside the sea of Tiberias. This is another name for the Sea of Galilee so the disciples had finally gotten the message and travelled to Galilee like they had been commanded. This was to be a very important meeting. It is so important that Matthew chooses to end his Gospel with this event. The ascension described by Luke in the first chapter of Acts didn’t happen until two to three weeks after this meeting. But Matthew chooses to end his Gospel with these words and commands from Christ.

They are of singular importance for the mission of the church - not just the eleven disciples or those considered to be the professional clergy but to the whole church. Notice what the text says - The eleven disciples traveled to Galilee…when they saw Him, they worshipped, but some doubted. This appearance of Christ was to more than just the original eleven disciples and the commands He gave here would have been to more than just those men. The eleven had had their doubts erased - even Thomas the last holdout had already been converted to a believer in the resurrection. Yet there were some present at this meeting who still harbored some doubts. This word for doubt is the same word that described Peter’s distraction as he walked on the water. This phrase is the same as the many times that Christ chides His disciples “Oh you of little faith”. This is a great encouragement for those of us who may still have doubts. It is critical to understand this morning that there is a difference between doubt and disbelief. The occasional doubt creeps into all of our psyches and it is the Word of God that moves those doubts aside by the power inherent in the Word. I would think this example that we have here is a demonstration of that in practice.

Christ comes near to His disciples and tells them that “all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.” Before He gives His disciples the mission He has for them to complete, He assures them of the power available to them to complete it. Throughout His ministry Christ demonstrated His power over natural events (i.e. weather), the natural world (i.e. when He made food to feed the multitudes), the spiritual world (i.e. casting out demons), and even death by raising Lazarus from the dead. Now through His death and resurrection all of creation has been placed back under His power and authority (not that it was ever really out from under His control but for a time He didn’t necessarily exercise His full control over it) and that power is available to His disciples who are charged with accomplishing the mission He has given them.

The command is two fold - they are to go and make disciples. Because of the power that Christ now has, that He now shares freely with His disciples they were no longer to cower and hide in the corners but to boldly step out and go into the marketplace and make disciples for Him. This is the counter to the false gospels that the world is schilling. The true disciples of Christ must be willing to first go - Christ will expand on this command in the command provided by Luke in Acts 1:8

Acts 1:8 CSB

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

We are to be witnesses to His truths not only in our own Jerusalem but also to the ends of the earth. The proponents of false gospels are very busy in places like Southeast Asia, Africa and South America. The command to go means that we need to be willing to go wherever the Lord sends us. And if we aren’t willing to go then we need to be willing to support those who do. And we also must be faithfully ministering to the community that we have been placed in.

We are commanded to make disciples - and we’re given the way to do this. The Great Commission is a command to bring unbelievers throughout the world to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, and the term the Lord uses in this commissioning is make disciples. The true convert is a disciple, a person who has accepted and submitted himself to Jesus Christ, whatever that may mean or demand. The truly converted person is filled with the Holy Spirit and given a new nature that yearns to obey and worship the Lord who has saved him. Even when he is disobedient, he knows he is living against the grain of his new nature, which is to honor and please the Lord. He loves righteousness and hates sin, including his own. Baptism and teaching. Baptizing those who have placed their faith in Christ is a physical representation of the spiritual reality that has taken place within them. But we can’t simply stop there - we must teach the Gospel and the commands of Christ.

This is the message that Christ called His disciples out of Jerusalem to a hilltop in Galilee to give them. It is the message that reverberates down through the annals of history from that hilltop in Galilee to us today. We must go and make disciples.

Conclusion

Maybe you’re here today and you’re like the women on resurrection morning - you came here and weren’t physically, mentally, emotionally or spiritually ready to meet the resurrected Son of God. He is here to meet you. He paid for your sins on the cross and then rose again to defeat death. Your sins separate you from Him and the life that He came to give. This is the morning for you to fall at His feet and worship Him.

Maybe this morning you’re like the soldiers and you’ve been living and spreading a lie. Or you’re like the men of the Sanhedrin - you’re so comfortable in your own personal religious system that you would rather deny the truths of the Resurrection, deny the truths of Who Christ is that you will do anything to hide it - even though you should know better. You’ll just continue on in your own efforts and your own abilities to get yourself to Heaven. You’re so in love with your pet sins that you are still insistent on warring against God and seeking your own way. Today is your day to stop fighting. Surrender to Him because His truth is real and enduring and is the only path to freedom and eternal life.

What is it going to take? What more does He have to do? Is it not enough that He has been crucified for you? That He bled and died on the cross for you? That every drop of His blood that was shed was shed for you? Is it not enough that He did this even though you hate Him? Even though He knew that you would live your life until this moment denying and ignoring Him? What will it take for you this morning to come and bend the knee in repentance and submission to Him? Should He blow the doors off and walk right into our midst? I tell you that if your heart is not already moved by faith in Him that even that would not be enough for you. On that fateful morning Pilate asked the only question that will ever matter - What should I do with Jesus, who is called Christ? That is the question that is put to each of you this morning - what will you do with Jesus? Nothing else matters. It doesn’t matter what political party you affiliate with. It doesn’t matter what your skin color is. It doesn’t matter where you were born or even where you’re going to die. It doesn’t matter if you’re young or if you’re old, whether you are a male or a female. All that matters is how you will answer this question. What will you do with Jesus?

Maybe this morning you are doubtful - let the Word conquer your doubt and compel you to go and make disciples. If you are convinced of these truths - how can we do anything else but serve our Master and obey His greatest command. William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army, said this ““Not called!' did you say? 'Not heard the call,' I think you should say. Put your ear down to the Bible, and hear Him bid you go and pull sinners out of the fire of sin. Put your ear down to the burdened, agonized heart of humanity, and listen to its pitiful wail for help. Go stand by the gates of hell, and hear the damned entreat you to go to their father's house and bid their brothers and sisters and servants and masters not to come there. Then look Christ in the face — whose mercy you have professed to obey — and tell Him whether you will join heart and soul and body and circumstances in the march to publish His mercy to the world.” This morning we have heard His call. We’ve seen how a foreboding morning turned beautiful and we know what the ramifications are of that morning. The question is “Now what?” What will you do with this knowledge?

We are going to take Communion in a few moments and this is a meal for Christians - it is a commemoration of what Christ has done for us and our identification with Him as a part of His body and a believer. If you are not a believer this morning - now is your opportunity - this altar is open for you to come now and make peace with Him. Respond in faith - stop waiting for a sign, stop holding Him at arms length as if He will always be there when you’re ready - and come here to these steps and call out to Him in repentance and faith. Someone will join you - not to lead you in a prayer or to pray for you but to support you as you reach out to Him in faith.

If you are a member of His body feel free to come and partake of this table. This is a joyous morning as we celebrate a Christ who did walk out of the tomb, who did leave us with these words “remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

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