Dennis Tuuri

# Sermon Transcript – Matthew 28

Chapter 28, the concluding chapter of Matthew’s gospel, the first gospel written and in sequence in the context of our English Bibles as well. Please turn to Matthew 28. I’m going to focus on the first portion of the chapter, but I want to read the whole thing to put it in context. Please stand for the reading of God’s word.

Matthew chapter 28: “Now after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb. And behold, there was a great earthquake. For an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat on it. His countenance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow. And the guards shook for fear of him and became like dead men.

But the angel answered and said to the women, ‘Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus, who 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 indeed, he is going before you into Galilee. There you will see him. Behold, I have told you.’

So they went out quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy and ran to bring his disciples word. 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. Then Jesus said to them, ‘Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brethren to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.’

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. When they had assembled with the elders and consulted together, they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers, saying, ‘Tell them his disciples came at night and stole him away while he slept. And if this comes to the governor’s ears, we will appease him and make you secure.’

So they took the money and did as they were instructed. And this saying is commonly reported among the Jews unto this day. Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them. When they saw him, they worshiped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen.’”

Let’s pray. Father, we thank you for this most glorious piece of scripture. We thank you for the wonderful news of the risen Savior. We thank you, Lord God, that the angel rolls away that stone so that we can peer into the empty tomb and see, discern what our Savior has accomplished for us.

Father, we meet on your holy mountain today. We come as your disciples, but some of us doubt. We doubt your love. We doubt your power. We doubt your strength. We doubt our own future. Give us, Lord God, encouragement by the Holy Spirit who is our strengthener, our comforter, and our encourager. Take this text, Lord God, and transform our lives by it that we might be your people, a strong, courageous people following the Lord Jesus Christ. In his name we ask it, and for the sake of his kingdom, not ours. Amen.

You may be seated. I asked my Sunday school class this morning if they knew why the angel rolled away the stone. Did they know the angel rolled away the stone? And if they did, why did the angel roll away the stone? It wasn’t to let Jesus out. Jesus was gone. Rather, the stone was rolled away so that the light—the light of that dawn of that first morning after the Sabbath—could come into the tomb and more importantly that the disciples who would come to that tomb could see.

The women come to see Jesus. The angel opens the tomb that they may see the message of the resurrection, that they may discern. It’s my prayer this morning that as we look at this particular text in the structure in which it’s given to us—and I provided that for you on your outlines—that the Lord God might help us to see.

We come today in the context of a couple of great battles going on. There was a wonderful meeting this last Monday, 2,000 people assembled somewhere around that number at New Hope, and Dr. Dobson brought us the message that he thought that this contest, this battle we’re in terms of the defense of Christian marriage, is the pivotal battle in the culture wars of our day and age. It’s our Gettysburg, he said.

So we have that going on and we have our commitment to stand forth and to speak forth rather the truth of God into the public policy area as it relates to marriage. We have that battle ongoing, and of course we have the action in Iraq taking on new significance for us.

I was listening to a radio talk show person this last week, a liberal person named Don Famous. He’s rather pagan, but he does have some good guests on—guests that don’t go on most shows for whatever reason. And he has a newsman. He’s a supporter of Kerry for president, so he’s not a conservative. But it was interesting what he said on Tuesday morning. His newsman said, “Well, the world is kind of coming off its hinges now.” And I said, “Well, you know what the elephant in the living room is?” And Charles, his newsman, said, “No, I don’t.” He says, “Well, the elephant in the living room is there are one and a half billion Muslims and they all want to kill us.”

And Charles said, “Well, they don’t all want to kill us.” “Well, how many do you think would want to kill us?” I asked, and the question was left rhetorical, wasn’t answered. There are a significant number of Muslims in the world today who want to kill us. Muhammad, the religion of Muhammad has always been a power religion. Now maybe it transmutes itself and becomes Christianized in our culture, but Islam is a power religion and Christianity is a religion of service, benevolence, and speaking forth the power of Christ’s word. That’s the difference between those two.

So we have a battle here in our state, kind of at the epicenter of a battle in our country in terms of the culture war. And we have this tremendous battle worldwide now that’ll go on for some years and decades in terms of the emergence of radical Islam, which really is nothing but reborn and fundamentalist Islam all over again.

And it’s easy to lack courage in these kinds of times. It’s easy to be intimidated. Well, this text tells us that the day of the resurrection, our Savior says two things to us. He says, “Rejoice, be of good cheer, rejoice.” And he says, “Don’t be afraid.” And this particular text gives us that at the center of these first three narrative accounts.

There’s first a time reference given to us at the beginning of the text—at the end of the Sabbath, at the first day as the first day of the week began to dawn. So there’s a time reference. And then there’s three little narrative structures for us, right? The women are at the tomb and they see the angel and there’s an incident there and then they go away, and then Jesus comes and he talks to them—a separate narrative account—and then finally we’re given another narrative account of the soldiers who are at the tomb and who they are and what they’re up to.

And these three narrative accounts prepare us then for the great commission. Whether we’re speaking forth the truth of God’s word in terms of marriage or whether we’re trying to bring the gospel to the Middle East where it’s been forbidden, that’s our commission—the great commission. And what will give us courage to accomplish that is what this narrative structure lays out for us—these three narratives.

So first, as I said, there is this time sequence. You know, last Friday we had a Good Friday service. We’ve left the draping of the cross, a reminder that the Lord Jesus Christ suffered and died on the cross for his people, for our sins. And so this is now Saturday. Nothing has happened. But this is Sunday morning, the day after the Sabbath. Saturday being the Sabbath of that time. And this is simply a time indicator on one level telling us that it’s now the day after the Sabbath.

It’s the first day of the week and it’s at twilight rather. It’s at the beginning of the day. It’s at dawn. And many churches have sunrise services commemorating this particular idea. So that’s the time sequence.

And then we have this incident of the women at the tomb. So Mary and the other Mary go to the tomb. Now we’re familiar with these markers of literary structures. The account begins by saying they’re at the tomb and by the end of this little narrative account of what happens there, they leave the tomb and the word is repeated. It’s a bookend for us. It tells us this is a little sequence. We already know that because thematically all this is happening there, but the structure is given to us to cause us to realize this is a section as well and has kind of a center to it.

Well, as they get to the tomb and they see the tomb, there’s the angel’s might is then presented to us. “Behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone from the door and sat on it. His countenance was like lightning and his clothing as white as snow.”

Now, this is the second earthquake in Passion weekend. On Good Friday, we read that as the Savior died in Matthew 27—the same gospel—another earthquake occurred. A great earthquake occurred as Jesus died. The land goes dark for three hours and a great earthquake happened in the context of his death. And Mel Gibson’s movie, The Passion, for those of you who have seen it, he does a wonderful job of showing that earthquake.

And we talked about that last week, that the Mount of Olives is broken in two. The tectonic plates, whatever it is, move and shaking begins with Christ’s death. And then this earthquake transforms down, and as Gibson traces it in terms of his moving, we then see it actually breaking apart the floor of the temple and a chasm made, and then the veil rent too. And that’s correct. It was the great earthquake, and the centurion in Matthew’s gospel sees the earthquake and the darkness for three hours and says, “Surely this was the son of god.”

So the angel’s might now is this second earthquake. Now we have an earthquake not brought about by events on earth. Now we have the shaking that comes from heaven, right? The angel comes and he brings and initiates a heaven-induced sign of might and power—this second earthquake. And that’s what happens here. And the angel rolls away the tomb. The angel’s countenance is bright like light. His garments are white. And he shows the might of heaven brought to earth. And that might is demonstrated in this earthquake.

Two earthquakes. A double witness to something very important going on. The earth is being ripped. The world is being ripped in two. You know, when I prepare my sermon notes, I have all these papers because my sight isn’t good and I have to have big blown up things. And if I have stuff that I’ve decided Saturday night to not include in my sermon today as I do my final review, I put it aside.

But I don’t just put it in a different pile of papers because I’m prone then to get confused with all these piles and not remember what I’m doing with these. I’m going to throw them away. So what I do is I’ll pick up a piece of paper that I’m not going to use and I’ll rip it in two, right? And I’ll throw it away. And sometimes at home if I’m sorting my mail—good stuff I keep in one pile, stuff I’m going to throw away, I rip it in two to mark it, put it away.

My shredder in my office rips things in thirty-seven parts or so. I don’t know how many parts it rips it into, but you rip it apart to throw it away. And I think what’s going on here is heavenly might is picturing that the old world, the fallen world brought to destruction through the work of Adam, our forefather, and his sin, that world is being ripped in two so that a new world might come forward.

So we have these women at the tomb, and as they discern the empty tomb, they discern that heavenly might is involved here—this angel, this heaven-induced earthquake and the rolling back of the tomb, and the power of the angel is given to them.

So we have this earthquake and then we have the angel’s heavenly message to the women. “The guards shook for fear of him.” Now, note, the angel has just brought an earthquake. The land is shaking. And these men, the text tells us explicitly—the guards who are not disciples of Jesus, but rather powers of the state and the temple—these guards now shake with fear.

So, you know, we have to remember that the earth is really man, right? Adam is named earth, dust, land, because that’s where he came from. So if the earth is being ripped in two, men are being shaken. People are being decreated. They’re being destroyed by God pictorially here given to us as these guards who are quaking with fear.

Now, on the other hand, the text goes on to say that they became like dead men. Old creation, ripped in two. The sacrificial animals that Abraham used in his covenant that God prepared for him were split in two. The old world has to be ripped in two and discarded dead then.

“But the angel answered and said to the women, ‘Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here. He is risen as he said.’”

So at the center of this narrative, we have the angel’s message after the angel’s might. Now the message. And the message that the angels bring to the disciples of Jesus Christ and pictured here by these two women is “do not be afraid.” That’s what the angels say to the women. And this is in contrast to those who reject Christ and are not there because they serve him. Those men are fearful and they become like dead men. But the women are brought out of their fear through the message of the angel.

And then the angels don’t just leave it with contenting them without being fearful, but rather the angel then is a heavenly mandate to these two women. They’re supposed to go as witnesses of the Lord Jesus Christ. “Come see the place where the Lord lay,” and there’s the beginning of this mandate. The one who was crucified is the Lord, the master. So the angel just in using the designation of “the Lord” reminds us, reminded these women that the Lord Jesus has eased our fears but to the end that we might serve him.

“Go quickly tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead. And indeed, he is going before you into Galilee. There you will see him. Behold, I have told you.”

And then the women leave the tomb. “So they went out quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy and ran to bring his disciples word.”

So they have a proper fear of God, but they’re told to put away the sinful fear that they had through the demonstration of the angel’s might.

So this first little narrative, nice bookends—a tomb, they come to the tomb, they leave the tomb—and in the middle of all this action, the angel shows his might, this great earthquake. The angel gives a message to the women: “Do not be fearful,” and the angel then gives a mandate to the women as well to go.

And this is our life, right? This is what happens to us. We come to the place of worship. The messenger of God tells us that he is powerful. He is mighty. Jesus Christ is risen. That’s what the Lord’s day is all about. It’s a proclamation of the power of God, the risen Savior, that the old world has gone away and the new world has been brought through the work of the Savior. And the message from Jesus through his messenger to us is the same thing as this message is: “Do not be afraid.”

Do not be afraid of this—that the old world shakes and it’s troubled and it gets destroyed as history progresses. Don’t be afraid of wars, difficulties, culture wars, shooting wars in the Middle East. Don’t be afraid in any of this, but obey the mandate of the Lord Jesus Christ: Go and tell the message of the Lord Jesus to others.

This same story is basically repeated. At the very center of these three narratives is the narrative of the women on their way now to going to the disciples, actually running into Jesus. And so now we have not a messenger from God, but now we have God the Son here meeting the women. And again here there’s kind of a beginning and an end. They’re going to the disciples. And at the end Jesus tells them to go to tell the brethren something.

And as we move our way in there’s a message from Jesus. And right at the center is this worship. Look at verses 9 and 10. That’s what we’re looking at now.

“And as they went to tell the disciples… So they’re going on, they’re following the mandate. And look down at the last half of verse 10. Jesus says, ‘Go and tell my brethren to go to Galilee and there they’ll see me.’ So they’re going to the disciples. The narrative here of this little story where they talk to Jesus ends with them going—again, a mandate from Jesus like the mandate from the angel.

Then as you look at the second half of verse 9 or the middle of verse 9: ‘Behold, Jesus met them saying, Rejoice.’ And this is what Jesus says in some versions. All hail, rejoice. It’s the root word of eucharist. Are we rejoicing at the word supper every Lord’s day. So the first word of Jesus in this first gospel account of the New Testament, the first word he tells his church is: rejoice. That’s the message of Jesus Christ.

Their response to this message is then given right at the center of this narrative structure. “They came and held him by the feet and worshiped him.” And then he brings the second part of his message. “Then Jesus said to them, ‘Do not be afraid.’” And then he gives them the mandate.

So here in this little middle account—we got the account of the women at the tomb, we have the guards and the false report that they’re going to engender, and at the very middle of those, we have the church represented by the women meeting the Lord Jesus Christ. And as they meet Jesus, at the very center of that narrative is their worship.

So as we come to this account, as the angel rolls away the stone for us and helps us to discern the meaning of the empty tomb, what we see is the very center of this narrative structure is the worship of Jesus Christ. Our proper response to discerning the meaning of Easter is worship for Jesus. And in the context of that worship, the Savior gives them two messages: “Rejoice” and again, “don’t be afraid.”

Fear is our great problem in life. And this whole sequence of events is telling us not to be fearful, to have courage and to be bold as we move toward the future. And then again, he gives them the mandate to go tell his brethren to go to Galilee where he would meet them. And this is what we find in the great commission in the last half of Matthew 28. They go to Galilee. So it’s the same message that the angel gave. Now Jesus gives the same thing directly to his people.

And then there’s a third narrative which seems odd to have here. And yet I think of course it has a reason, and maybe we can understand a little bit of it if we look at it as well. A third narrative structure: the guards who are at the tomb they run and tell the people what’s going on. They were there to make sure that Jesus couldn’t get out of that tomb, that the disciples wouldn’t come and steal his body away.

He had predicted he would be raised up in three days. They knew that. So they put a guard on the tomb. That guard is set in place both by Pilate and by the Jewish religious leaders. So church and state are apostate here, and they both conspire. Lost solemn too, right? Why did the people conspire in the heathen, imagine the vain thing? The kings set themselves and the rulers of the people—the kings and the ruler of the people. Caesar/Pilate and the elders of the people conspire here to lock Jesus in the tomb.

But of course, it’s ridiculous. But that’s what they’re doing. And so these guards run back to tell them, “Oh, he’s out. The tomb has been rolled away.” They promise money to the guards. They then tell them what to say. There’s a conspiracy going on here. A true conspiracy. And then they promise the guards security. And then the guards go away and bring the false report.

So again, the guards come with a true report; at the end of the structure they’re going away with a false report. And right at the middle of it is the false report, the conspiracy to tell the lie about Jesus’s resurrection. And the inducements—very significantly I think—are money and security.

You know, men want glory. Money is weight or glory. These men are promised glory by giving them large sums of money. Men want life. They don’t want to be struck down by Pilate if he knows that they’re spreading a lie. And so they’re offered security by these leaders, the Jewish leaders of the people.

Money, knowledge, and life. These are the gifts of God. Glory, knowledge, and life, rather. And their glory here is a false glory. They think that their weightiness can come from their possessions. And they think that their security can come from someone other than God, those who are opposed to God. And they, as a result of that, end up serving the lie rather than the truth.

At the center of it, the lie is told to them and they serve that lie.

Look at verse 11. “While they were going before…” So they’re going away. These narratives are all stitched together by these kinds of accounts. The guard came to the city, reported to the chief priests things that happened—a true report. Verse 12: “When they had assembled with the elders and consulted together, they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers”—false glory is the inducement to them—”saying, ‘Tell them the disciples came at night and stole him away while we slept.’ Tell the lie, give them false knowledge. And if this comes to the governor’s ears, we will appease him and make you secure.’ Secure, false life. We’re going to promise you life as opposed to life coming from God. And the soldiers go out then and move in terms of false glory, false knowledge, and false life.

I saw a movie recently and it said that the human body when upon death loses twenty-one grams of weight at the point of death. And I wish I would have watched it a little closer, but at the end of the movie, the guy gives things that weigh twenty-one grams: a stack of five nickels, a Hershey bar, and there was something else in between there. Well, you know, the Hershey bar is the Lord’s table, right? Life is rejoicing, life, food giveth life. The stack of nickels represents glory. And the point of the movie is: what are you going to do with your soul?

Meta by way of analogy represented as weighing twenty-one grams. What are you going to do with your soul in the world in which you live? It’s a glorious thing—nickels, money—and it’s a life-giving thing and joy—a Hershey bar. I don’t know if the middle representation was representing knowledge or not, but it wouldn’t surprise me because this is how men live. All men want glory. All men want knowledge and all men want life.

And these soldiers represent fallen man who moves in terms of false knowledge—the lie—induced by false glory, the large sums of money, and false life.

So there’s a contrast drawn. If we’re rending apart the old creation and if the guards are represented as dead men, this is how dead men behave. The world apart from the enlivening grace of Jesus Christ is dead in sins and trespasses, and they will always move in terms of false knowledge, false glory, and false life.

And the contrast is to the women. They’re told not to be afraid, to rejoice, and to go about the work they’re to do boldly in spite of these soldiers, in spite of a great powerful conspiracy, in spite of the great might of Pilate and the religious leaders brought against Jesus Christ who had put him in the grave. In spite of all the demonstrations of the supposed power of the civil state and the religious leaders of the time, these two women—right—powerless women are told to be strong, to not be afraid, and to do the task of King Jesus, the Lord.

Heavy conspiracy at work in the land to get rid of what they’re—what the message of these women are. They killed the leader. What will they do with the disciples? The women are not to fear because death has been conquered for them. They’re to be strong and they’re to be courageous.

And after these three narratives, then we have the great commission. And we know that text very well. It serves as the vision statement for our church. The strategy map is laid out in terms of this great commission.

Indeed, the disciples go to Galilee. They meet on the mountain. Some doubt. Some need to be told, “Rejoice. Do not be afraid.” Some need to be encouraged in the meaning of the empty tomb. Some need to discern the message of the risen Savior, just like some here in this congregation do. Some of us doubt, and we doubt at various times in our lives. That’s all right. Jesus meets with them.

The women were afraid and didn’t know what was going on. But Jesus didn’t disdain their worship of him. He accepts it and he instructs them in the context of that worship. “Rejoice. Don’t be fearful. Don’t doubt. Believe.” The angels rolled away the stone so that you could see the empirical evidence of the risen Savior before you. You’d see the earthquake. You’d know that the old world has passed away and the new world has come.

The great message that I take away from these Easter stories—story of Easter morning—is the message that we’re to be courageous. We are not to fear. The message of Jesus to us is certainly rejoice. But I want to focus on that second message: “Do not be afraid.”

**First, we’re not to be afraid to face our Creator and Redeemer.** That’s the problem the women have. There’s Jesus in front of them. And it’s a naturally frightening thing to see someone risen from the dead. But we know over and over again, whether it’s in Isaiah 6—Isaiah is taken into the heavenly vision and he sees the glory of God and he says, “Woe is me. I am undone because I’m a sinful person.” He falls down dead. The book of Daniel: Daniel’s given a vision, and the vision and the bring the message of the messenger of the vision is so overwhelming that Daniel falls down and says, “I’m dead. All strength left me.” And in fact, in Daniel chapter 10, it happens twice to Daniel. He loses all strength. He falls down before the vision and the message of God because he’s aware of his sinfulness.

Revelation 1: John sees the Lord Jesus Christ and he falls down as a dead man before him. We begin our service by falling down as dead men, recognizing that we’re a sinful people. But Jesus says to us, “Do not be afraid.” He raises up John. He raises up Daniel. He raises up Isaiah, telling us that do not be afraid because our sins have been dealt with definitively through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Turn to Hebrews chapter 2, verses 14 to 18. A text that I talk about a lot to you. I know pastorally and have mentioned from the pulpit more than once. But it’s so important that we talk about this today. Sin drives fear. The propitiation for our sins—the Lord Jesus Christ—takes away our fear of death, and as a result of that takes away the bondage of sin.

Verse 14: “Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared in the same that through death he might destroy him who had the power of death, that is the devil, and released those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.”

The message of the risen Jesus is that he has conquered death for his people. We need not be fearful of death because he has paid the price for our sins. And that’s what this text goes on to say. “For indeed he does not give aid to angels but he does give aid to the seed of Abraham. Therefore, in all things, he had to be made like his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God to make propitiation for the sins of the people.”

Jesus has conquered your sin. Jesus has made propitiation for your sins. That is the message of Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday. We are not to be fearful. We are not to doubt that the Lord Jesus has forgiven us our sins.

When you take those communion elements today, rest assured in your spirit and soul. The Lord Jesus has forgiven your sins. At the beginning of the service, you confess them. We assure you Jesus has forgiven your sins. At the end of the service, we tell you, you are part of the body of Jesus Christ. He has paid the price definitively for your sins. Do not doubt the forgiveness of the Lord Jesus Christ that is affected for your sins, because in that doubt and fear, you will be subject once more to sin and slavery to sin through fear of death.

Hebrews says we sin. Do not be afraid of encountering the risen Jesus Christ. He has paid the price for your sins.

**Secondly, do not be afraid to face the world of fallen conspiring enemies.** Our enemies are conquered. This is the great immediate message, right, of these women. They’re put in opposition to the power of the empire and the power of religious leaders. But Jesus says, “Don’t be afraid”—not just of me and my response to your sinfulness, but don’t be afraid of those conspiring against you.

These were real conspiracies going on. It wasn’t some nut thinking there was a conspiracy theory that wasn’t in fact true. There was a conspiracy theory. It continued to be promulgated for at least, you know, a decade or two and probably down to this age amongst some groups in spite of the opposition of people who actually are conspiring to destroy the Christian faith and message. That is true.

In spite of however many millions, hundreds of millions of Muslims who want to destroy Christianity, in spite of all of our enemies, do not be afraid because Jesus Christ demonstrates in Matthew 28 that all power has been given unto him, that we’re to go into all the world. All of the enemies of Christ have been dealt with definitively. Heaven has spoken. The earthquake has twice said that whoever identifies with the old creation will lie down as dead men at the foot of Jesus Christ. They will be ripped into and thrown away as history moves ahead.

The resurrection of Christ, as much as being life to his people, is death, destruction, and judgment to all of his enemies. Our enemies are conquered. The culture war in America has been won definitively in Jesus Christ. Now we’ve got work to do. There’s no doubt about it. But don’t for a minute think that if we lose this battle somehow the kingdom of Christ will not be made manifest in this land. It certainly will be. That’s the message of Easter morning. All enemies of Jesus have been conquered.

We don’t need to be fearful of people. We don’t need to be fearful of homosexual activists. We don’t need to be fearful of liberal judges. We don’t need to be fearful of the control of the state, even if it becomes more and more tyrannical, who knows? But we’re never to be fearful of those powers and people. We’re never to be fearful.

David is here today when he goes over to Iraq. This the fall. He’s not to be fearful of those enemies. How can you fear enemies when Jesus Christ has died and assured you that your death is your life? I mean, there’s a sense in which, you know, we cannot be put to death ultimately. Death is simply the entrance into broader life for us and more joy. No death should fear us. Any form of death should not cause us to be discouraged, downhearted, or afraid. No. We don’t fear those things. We can go forward boldly into, if necessary, physical combat. We can certainly go forward boldly to speak the truths of Christ’s claim.

Even if people want to talk to us and yell at us and make fun of us, you can talk to people. You don’t have to be fearful because all the enemies of the Lord Jesus Christ are conquered. And we have no need to fear death at all because our sins have been dealt definitively with. Jesus Christ has conquered our sins and given us life eternal.

**Third, do not be afraid to take up our cross and live.** Death has been conquered. You know, the great might and power of God and his sovereignty is the great message of the Reformed faith. But with that we have to understand what this text tells us and what it goes on to tell us. Jesus says the angels say: go. Jesus is going before you into Galilee. And Matthew’s gospel concludes with the command from Jesus to go into all the world.

Mark’s gospel begins by showing us how that accomplished. Mark’s gospel begins immediately, not with the genealogy, but it begins with a description of John the Baptist coming to prepare the way of the Lord. He’s going to show the way that Jesus Christ will walk in. And early on in those first few verses of Mark’s gospel, John the Baptist is thrown into prison. That’s the way of the Lord—to be thrown into prison, to go into death, to go into the pit, to take up our cross, to die to ourselves.

That’s the way of the conquering king. The conquering king is not like the kings of the earth. He’s not like Muhammad’s god who wants people to bow because of his physical power and might, his ability to beat them. No, that’s not the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, he has all power and might. He is sovereign, but he is a triune God whose very nature is to give himself for his creation.

We’re talking here about the recreation of the world on that first Lord’s day morning. And whether we’re talking about the creation of the world or the recreation of the world, we have to ask ourselves: why? Why create the world? Why bring about the new creation? Not because God has any need. Completely the opposite. It is of the nature of God to give of himself: the Father to the Son and Spirit, the Spirit to the Son and Father, the Son to the Father and Spirit. It is of the very nature of God to be self-offering to other people.

And here the work of the Lord Jesus Christ offering himself for us, going to death for us, this tells us the nature of the God of the scriptures, the God of reality, who our Creator and Redeemer is. And it encourages us then to not be afraid to take up our cross daily and live in the way that Jesus Christ has instructed us to live. Death has been conquered.

Jesus says that we are remade in his image. We are Christians. We image the Lord Jesus Christ, who images the Father to us. And that Father is a Father, a Son, and a Holy Spirit. God is one who gives of himself to others. And that is our nature now. We’re to take up our cross to take up gladly the sufferings, the trials, the tribulations that come upon us because we know that it is our nature to give ourselves—soul, body, and spirit—for other people. That is our nature.

**Fourth, do not be afraid to trust Jesus for all of our tomorrows.** As I said, the new world has begun. The old creation has been ripped in two and the new man come forward. And if we look at it from that perspective—this great second witness of earthquake and the rending of the world and the killing of Christ’s enemies—then those first few verses in this text, the first few verses, take on a renewed significance for us, don’t they?

“At the end of the Sabbath, on the beginning of the of the week, at dawn.” It’s not just the end of that particular Sabbath of that particular week. We have here the definitive transition from Sabbath to Lord’s day, from seventh day to eighth day. At the end of Sabbaths, at the conclusion of that old world—after four thousand years of Sabbaths—things now are finished with the old order definitively. And now the new week, the new period of time begins.

The new creation has sprung into being now through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Sabbath is connected with the old creation ripped in two, and the new Lord’s day has come on the eighth day, the beginning, the first day of the week, and it begins to dawn. Resurrection Sunday morning, Easter morning, is about the beginning of the new creation. The world has been made new through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, through the final rending of the old order—the temple being split in two symbolically by the veil, Mount of Olives being split in two symbolically through that great earthquake.

The angel comes—a heaven-induced earthquake, second witness: old creation destroyed and put away, new creation come—not just shaking the earth, but the heavens and the earth, that only those things that are of Christ’s kingdom will be established. Everything else in human history is shaken out over time. The gods of the old creation—they refuse to move into the Lord’s day from the Sabbath, and they identify themselves as false knowledge, false life, false glory, and they are then destroyed as Christ’s enemies.

We do not need to be afraid of our tomorrows. No matter how discouraged, depressed, whatever it is you are today—holidays have strange effects on people. People believe that the Lord Jesus has brought about the new world, and that is what your future is. Your tomorrows are filled with blessings from God in Christ. Now, there’s trials and tribulations. You take up your cross. You work for twenty years to raise those children, right? And many of those days they don’t seem very grateful and thankful. But you know, that’s not why you’re doing it. You’re doing it because you’re following in the way of Jesus Christ who for the joy that was set before him endures the cross.

You don’t live for yourselves. You moms know this better than the dads. You don’t live for yourselves. You laid down your life for those children. Praise God. You’re walking in the power of the resurrection. That’s what the new creation is: to serve other people, to lay down our lives.

We don’t need to fear what’s going to happen with our children. They’ve been brought into this new creation through the waters of baptism. The first world was birthed in water. The second world is birthed in water. And our children are brought into that new creation through the waters of baptism. We’re to think of it that way. Not saying they’re all going to end up in heaven, but I’m telling you, those are the glasses we’re to put on when those kids are baptized. We’re not to doubt their salvation.

Some doubt today. Don’t tell me, Pastor Tuuri, that I don’t have to be fearful and worried about tomorrow. I don’t know what’s going to happen. Yeah, yeah, you do. You know the old creation is going away and the new creation is being reified, made visible and established. You can trust God for your children. You can trust God for your husband. You can trust God for your wife. You can trust God for your job. You can trust God for your security. You can trust God that your future is bright, Christian. Have no doubt about it. It’s as bright as this morning’s sky is out there. So it is for us.

The end of Sabbath has come. The new day has dawn. And it now is established throughout the world. We’ve come to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, the bringer of the new creation.

**Finally, we do not have to be afraid to go.** Right? The mandate was to go, touching others and speaking to them. The curse has been reversed. Now, Paul writes in Romans 5:12 that through one man death came and death spread to all men because all sin. You know the laws of cleanness and uncleanness in the Levitical system. You got a dead body. You touch the dead body. Oh, now you’re dead. Now you’re ceremonially unclean. You touch somebody that’s touched the dead body—ceremonially unclean. Uncleanness flows through death.

So death begins at Adam and spreads to all men, right? The Old Testament—every time you touch somebody, if you’re unclean, boom, unclean, unclean, unclean. And it all spreads throughout the world. Well, now that’s all been reversed. Now we’ve got the Midas touch, right? We touch people and things turn gold. This is what Paul was saying in Romans 5. It’s different now. This is why Peter was in such sin to God. He didn’t want to go to Cornelius and the Gentiles.

“No, don’t call unclean what I’ve cleansed. You’re supposed to go and touch them and cleanse them. I’ve already cleansed them. Actually, they’re going to cleanse more people.” It’s all been reversed. In the old world—before I ripped it in two—yeah, uncleanness spread. But now in the new world, cleanness spreads.

You see, we’re commanded to go touch the lepers, which we couldn’t touch before. There are demon-possessed people at the base of our mountain that we’re worshiping on today, and we’re supposed to go touch them. Right now, I say touch here because in the Bible, touching is pretty important. I got, you know, these same verses—Revelation, Isaiah, Daniel—it isn’t just that Jesus speaks a word to them through his messenger and raises them up.

Revelation 1 says this. John says, “I felt that he did as a dead man. He laid his right hand on me, saying unto me, ‘Fear not.’” You get that? He laid his hand on me. He touched me and said, “Fear not.”

Then in Isaiah verse 6, Isaiah says, “Woe is me. I live in a land of unclean people. I’m dead.” Then one of the seraphs flew to me, having a live coal in his hand, which he taken with the tongs from off the altar, and he laid it on my mouth, and said, “Lo, this hath touched thy lips. Thine iniquity is taken away.”

Isaiah is touched through the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. God is going to touch our lips, the body and blood of Christ in a minute. And we’re going to be sure that his word is spoken to us that our sins are forgiven.

So touch and then the word. Daniel chapter 10 is the same thing. We read in Daniel 10 that Daniel, he says, “was in a deep sleep on my face, my face toward the ground. Behold, a hand touched me which set me upon my knees and upon the palms of my hands, and he said unto me, ‘Oh Daniel, a man greatly beloved, understand the words that I speak unto you.’”

Now, this same message goes on, and then in verse 12, the words are, “Fear not.” So the same message: don’t be afraid, rise up—but delivered through a touch and then a word. And as the chapter proceeds—I said before—he has a second loss of strength. He says, “By reason of the vision, my sorrows are turned upon me. I retain no strength.”

In verse 16, “Now how can the servant of my lord, my lord, talk with this my lord. As for me, straightway there remained no strength in me, neither was there health left in me.”

Then there touched me again, one like the appearance of a man, and he strengthened me. And he said, “Oh man, greatly beloved. Fear not. Peace be unto you. Be strong. Don’t be fearful. Rejoice. Have strength to do what I’m telling you to do.”

We’re supposed to be empowered and have the strength that Jesus tells us today. Do not be afraid that might fulfill the mandate to go with the message.

Now, these people were already touched by Jesus. He’d already ministered to these eleven disciples. But the people that we go to usually that is not the case. And God calls us maybe literally before we speak words to people to touch them. What does that mean? It means to minister to people.

I saw a movie recently. Lots of talk about Jesus early in a man’s life, but he doesn’t quite get it. He’s trying hard to be a Christian, you know, and he’s trying to do the right thing, and he’s condemnatory toward people that aren’t Christians, yada yada. He’s really trying hard as he can. But the man doesn’t come to salvation till someone else lays down his life deliberately for that man. And then healing comes to this man. Then he understands life.

You see, the church is known—whether it’s true or not, whether it’s a conspiracy theory or not—we are known as those who just want to tell people what to do. But God says that we’re the people that are touched, ministered to by others, then given a word and strengthened. And that’s the way Jesus comes to us—by dying for us first. And we’re to lay down our lives for others. We’re to touch other people.

I said last week, if we’re going to engage in a prominent place in this cultural war regarding homosexuality, please understand that there—no, you know, from one perspective—and no worse than, you know, half the people in this church. I know who you are, and I know that we all, you know, that many of us have engaged in sexual sins in our thoughts and in our deeds. Don’t think that these people are untouchable. They’re not. They’re like you and I. They need the message of the Lord Jesus Christ.

We’re trying to exhibit true compassion to the homosexual community by not giving them false assurance that what they’re doing is right because it’s not. God’s word says it’s wrong. Now, some of those activists really are self-conscious enemies of the Lord Jesus Christ. But so was Paul, and God reached out and touched him.

See, I got in here Portland Fellowship. There’s a group in Portland that’s done great work over the years, I hear. I’m not really been too exposed to their ministry, but they do great work. A lot of them are people that came out of the homosexual lifestyle, became Christians, and have families now. I’m hoping we can bring them here. I’m hoping they can teach us how to touch the homosexual community in service.

You see, laying down our lives for other people—not just commanding them. Not even commanding them. The word of strength comes after the touch of the angel, the touch of Jesus raising people back up to life.

It was a wonderful meeting on Monday. Two thousand people or so. I would bet at least maybe a thousand pastors, very impressive. Dr. Dobson, as I said earlier, said, “This is it. This is our Gettysburg. This is the decisive battle in the culture wars in America.” He said, “It’s like a mirror. If we don’t win this battle over marriage—defense of Christian marriage—if we don’t win this battle, the mirror will be broken and we will not be able to put it back together for a long, long, long time. What kind of world will we hand over to our grandchildren?”

Next week, praise God, Harold and Wanita celebrating their fiftieth year of marriage. We’re going to preach next week in praise of Christian marriage. Delightful thing, and it’s what we want to keep at the center of our message politically as well—the beauty of Christian marriage and what it’s all about. We need to engage in that cultural warfare. But we need to make sure that our message that we speak into that arena is accompanied by actions of benevolence.

You would believe some of the people I meet with in my office, do Bible studies with, counsel with, and the sins that they’ve committed would shock you and appall you. But you know, those are the people we’re called to minister to wisely. I’m not saying you’ll throw out our minds. They’re understanding. We have to protect our families, have to protect their communities. You know, some people look at Christians as shooting fish in a barrel because we’re so simple in this area. We get all into touch, never into word. But the other ditch is that we are frightened from these people, discouraged from entering into touching those people, and so we pull back from the very people that God said to go forward and go after.

This was why Jerusalem was judged in AD 70 because they failed to minister to the people around them. They wanted their own little deal going on instead of rejoicing that with the coming of Messiah the gospel would go to the Gentiles.

We have to be empowered to reach out and touch someone, to not be afraid to do that, to not be afraid to speak the message certainly to our friends and relatives—whether it’s about homosexuality, the difference between Christianity and Islam, the difference between how they going to run their house and how the Bible says our houses should be built, whatever it’s about—we should feel empowered and not be afraid to enter into that message, and we should be empowered and not afraid to lay down our lives for others, and yea even for our enemies. The Lord Jesus said that’s what we’re to do.

Little children, you can do this so easily this week. You can serve your brothers and sisters today, tomorrow, the next day. Don’t insist on your way. You want to sit at the end of the pew. Let your brother or sister, if they want to sit at the end of the pew, sit at the end of the pew, right? Put other people first. Forget that stuff you want to insist on your own rights or particular things. Serve each other.

The Lord Jesus says when you do that—when you honor your parents, when you help brother or sister or help mom and dad—you’re bringing to reality, not to reality, you’re bringing to picture, you’re reifying (is a fancy word)—you’re making visible the truth that the new creation has arrived on Resurrection Sunday morning. You move in terms of that new creation. You recognize that when you disobey your parents or speak disrespectfully or argue with brother and sister, that you’re moving in terms of an old world that is being shaken and destroyed and ripped into and thrown away. You don’t want to be ripped into and thrown away. You want to be whole. You want to serve Jesus by participating in this new creation.

Some doubted. Some had troubles. Some of you today have big troubles. You doubt the truth of this. Jesus says, “Rejoice.” The demonstrable truth is the Lord Jesus has arisen, has brought about the new creation. Do not be afraid.

Let’s pray. Father, we thank you for the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you for this momentous turning point in all of May this day also be a turning point in our lives. May we commit ourselves afresh to not be afraid to take up our crosses, to not be afraid to speak the truth of Jesus Christ, and to not be afraid to minister to others, even our enemies, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. In his name we ask this. Amen.