Category: Matthew 28

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Matthew Matthew 28

The one who is always with us

Matthew

We are rapidly coming to the end of the gospels. It certainly took a lot longer than I expected. I thought harmonizing the gospels would make things go a lot faster.

Maybe it has, but it’s still taken nearly 11 months to get through them. But it’s been fun, and I’ve really enjoyed it.

I wanted to talk about this in the last blog, but it was getting long as it was. After giving all his instructions to his disciples, Jesus encouraged them saying,

And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. (Matthew 28:20)

Jesus was soon going to heaven. And after he left, the disciples would have a great work to do, to spread the kingdom of God.

While there would be great joy in that, Jesus also knew they would suffer persecution and hardship as well. Most of his disciples would die for their faith.

But the one thing Jesus promised them was that though they would no longer be able to see him with their eyes, he nevertheless would be with them.

He would not leave them as orphans, but send his Spirit to dwell within them and be with them. (John 14:16-20)

He makes the same promise to us. No matter where we go, no matter what we do, no matter what joys or hardships we go through, he will never leave us lonely. He is with us. And always will be.

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Matthew Matthew 28

Making disciples

Matthew

Somehow in 35 years of reading scripture, it never really occurred to me that the events in Matthew 28 and Acts 1 were two separate events. One happened in Galilee and the other on the Mount of Olives.

It was perhaps here in Galilee that Jesus appeared not only to the 11, but to 500 other followers of Jesus as well, as mentioned in 1 Corinthians 15:6.

It would also perhaps explain why “some doubted,” not the 11 disciples who had already seen him before, but the others who had come and who had yet to see the risen Lord.

Whatever the case may be, there was no doubt remaining once Jesus appeared and started speaking to them. He said,

All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. (Matthew 28:18-20)

It’s significant to me that Jesus didn’t simply say to go out and preach the gospel, although they were to do that too.

He told them to make disciples. Not of themselves, but of Jesus.

How were they to do that?

They were to baptize new believers first, as a sign of their commitment to Jesus.

What is baptism? What does it mean? It basically identifies you with Christ.

It’s saying, “Just as Christ died and rose again, I am dying to my old way of life, and rising up as a new person. And one day, after I die here on this earth, I will rise up and be with Christ forever.”

I think it’s very interesting that here in Japan, in some sense, even the non-Christians have a stronger idea of the implications of baptism than believers in the States do.

I have heard many stories of how parents have told their (adult) children, “Well, you can go to church, but don’t get baptized.”

That’s one of the biggest struggles that young believers face here. Will I take that step of baptism at the risk of alienating my family?

I think for many of the Jews, they faced the same kind of pressure from their families.

But if we are going to become true disciples of Christ, we need to get to the point where Jesus is more important to us than anything else. And baptism is a very visual and public way of proclaiming that.

Jesus also told his disciples that they were to teach people everything that he had taught them. And not only that, to teach them to obey.

A lot of Christians feel uncomfortable with that idea. After all, doesn’t it smack of legalism? And aren’t we saved by grace?

Yes, we are saved by grace. And no, we shouldn’t be presenting Christianity as a series of dos and don’ts.

But what we should be doing is reminding people that God really does love us. That he desires the very best for us.

And if we trust him enough for our salvation, shouldn’t we also trust him enough to believe that his way is best and to follow that way?

More, if we truly love him, shouldn’t we do the things that we know will please him?

In short, we need to be teaching people to draw closer to God in a relationship where they learn to love and trust him more every day.

It is, unfortunately, an area that the church all too often fails at.

As a result, we have a bunch of baby Christians that never really grow up. Christians who though they say they love God, nevertheless never really learn to trust God.

And because of that, their lives remain an utter mess.

Let us not make that mistake.

Let us not just preach the gospel, but teach young believers to be disciples of Christ, so that they will become people who love, trust, and obey him, growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

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John John 20 Luke Luke 24 Mark Mark 16 Matthew Matthew 28

The One who is always with us

The gospels

A couple of notes on the resurrection.

I think I will be cutting out Mark 16:9-20 from my commentary since it is considered by most scholars to not be in the original text.

It was apparently added on to Mark by someone, either because Mark died before it was completed or because the original ending was lost.

Second, there is some difficulty in harmonizing the events of the resurrection. What I give here in my blog is my best guess.

The thing to remember, though, is that all the essential facts are the same.

The tomb was empty when the women arrived there. Angels appeared to the women to tell them that Jesus had risen. Jesus appeared to Mary and the women. They all went to tell the disciples.

Lawyers today will tell you that in a court of law, any apparent discrepancies in the testimony of these four sources would not be able to overturn these essential points.

With that, a very quick summary as to what I believe happened.

The women went to the tomb and found it empty. When Mary entered the tomb and found the body gone, she immediately left to tell the disciples.

The other women lingered, however, and at that point, two angels appeared, with one giving them the good news that Jesus was alive. The women ran to tell the disciples talking to no one else along the way. (Matthew 28:5-8; Mark 16:1-8; Luke 24:1-10)

Meanwhile, Mary told the disciples that the body was gone. (John 20:2). And so Peter and John (probably) went to investigate, with Mary following after.

After they had left, the other women arrived with their tale of the angels. (Luke 24:9-11)

Peter and John then arrived at the tomb and found the body gone, and while John seems to have believed that Jesus rose from the dead, Peter wasn’t so sure. Perhaps discussing the situation, they then left. (Luke 24:12; John 20:3-9)

Mary, by this time had arrived at the tomb. Whether Peter and John were still there when she arrived is not clear, but it’s possible they had already gone.

Jesus then appeared for the first time and spoke to her. She then went to tell the disciples. (John 20:10-18)

As she was on her way, Jesus then appeared to the other women, perhaps as they were on their way back home, discouraged that the disciples had not believed them.

Encouraged once again, they returned and told the disciples what Jesus had told them, bolstered by Mary’s testimony. (Matthew 28:9-10)

I don’t know if that was the exact order of events, but it seems to be a reasonable harmonization to me.

At any rate, I want to focus on Mary for a moment.

The image that strikes me most was Mary in the garden, in the depths of sorrow and despair.

If the order of events were as I imagine, she had not heard the story of the other women. All she knew was that Jesus was gone.

She enters the tomb, and sees the two angels, but because she never heard the other women’s story, she doesn’t recognize the angels for what they are.

So when they ask her, “Why are you crying?” she simply says, “They’ve taken away my Lord, and I don’t know where they’ve put him.”

Perhaps the angels were about to tell Mary the truth when they saw Jesus appear behind her.

At first, through her tears, she couldn’t recognize him, but then he spoke her name, “Mary.”

And in an instant, all of her tears of sorrow were washed away by joy.

How often are we like Mary? We’re going through a tough time, and God seems far away. We pray but our prayers bounce off the ceiling. We seek him, but we can’t seem to find him. For all we know, he’s dead.

But the truth is, he is there. Like Mary, we can’t see him, but he is there. And at the proper time, he will reveal himself to us.

So don’t give up. We all go through times of sorrow. We all go through times when God seems distant.

But he is Immanuel. He is God with us. And through the same power that raised Jesus from the dead, he will change our sorrow into joy.

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Matthew Matthew 28

A people that will not be convinced

Matthew

The hardness of heart that the priests and Pharisees had is simply unbelievable to me. Despite all their efforts, the tomb was empty. That is one thing even they did not dispute.

They had the testimony of the guard who told them that there was an earthquake, and then an angel rolled away the stone.

More, they had to have heard of all the people that had died who were suddenly now living again. (Matthew 27:52-53)

But with all this evidence before them, they still didn’t believe Jesus was the Christ. Instead, they went out of their way to bribe the guards so that they would spread a false rumor that the disciples had stolen the body.

And these were people that prided themselves in keeping God’s law.

It just goes to prove what Jesus said in his story about Lazarus,

If [people] do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead. (Luke 16:31)

Jesus rose from the dead and so did many others. But the Pharisees and priests refused to believe.

And there are many people like that today. You can throw out all the evidence there is for God; you can answer all their questions about the Bible and Jesus.

They may even see things they can’t explain, people healed of cancer or other terminal illnesses. Yet they still won’t believe.

Ultimately it comes down to the fact that there are people who simply will not believe. It’s not that they can’t believe. They choose not to. And apart from God’s grace, they never will.

So what am I saying? Pray. For only God can open the eyes of such people.

The apostle Paul tells us,

And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing.

The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. (2 Corinthians 4:3-4)

What do we pray? That God would make his light shine in their hearts to give them the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. (2 Corinthians 4:6)

Indeed, that was what saved Paul. In his blindness and rejection of the truth, God shined his light upon Paul both literally and figuratively and it changed his life.

Are you discouraged by the hardness of heart in the people you love? You cannot change their hearts. No matter what you say or do, you don’t have the power to change a heart.

But God does. So don’t give up. Pray. Fervently.

And by his grace, God will bring his light of salvation to them.

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Matthew Matthew 27 Matthew 28

A God who cannot be thwarted

Matthew

This is perhaps one of the more humorous incidents in the Bible if you really think about it.

The Pharisees and chief priests were concerned that perhaps the disciples might come to steal the body and claim that Jesus had risen from the dead as he had prophesied. And so they asked Pilate to make the grave secure so that no one could come and steal the body.

Pilate assented, and gave them a guard (that is, a group of soldiers), to protect the tomb from any robbers.

But on the third day, there was an earthquake, and an angel rolled away the stone and sat on it. This so freaked out the guards that they fainted dead away.

Imagine the consternation of the priests and the Pharisees when they heard this.

They had to have been questioning themselves, “Why in the world did we set that guard? All we did is make it more inexplicable that the body has disappeared?”

But it all goes to prove one thing. People can make all their plans to achieve their purposes while denying God’s. But God is not someone who can be thwarted. And his purposes will stand.

Many people wonder about the tension between God’s sovereignty and our free will.

I certainly don’t have all the answers, but I think you catch a glimpse of the answer here. By their free will, the priests and Pharisees put out a guard to prevent Jesus from coming out from that grave.

God didn’t interfere with that choice at all. But after they made their choice, God made his. He raised Jesus from the dead, rolled away the stone, and scared the living daylights out of the guards in the process.

In the same way, we make our choices, and God lets us do so.

But then God makes his choices, and his purposes will not be thwarted. It wasn’t thwarted then back at the tomb. Nor will it be thwarted now nor into eternity.

So let us praise him and walk with confidence knowing that no matter what happens, God is in control, and his purposes will be accomplished.