Matthew 18

Chapter 18. The Prince of Life"Come and see the place where he lay." (Matthew 28:6)An keeping with the special design of Matthew’s Gospel, it is interesting to notice the resurrection of the Lord Jesus as it shows the fulfillment of Messianic prophecy and reveals Him in His kingly character. His Own Predictions

1. First, it was in accordance with His own predictions and had been always contemplated as part of His redeeming plan. In the very beginning of His earthly ministry, when they asked Him for a sign by which to authenticate His claims, His answer was, “‘Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.’… But the temple he had spoken of was his body” (John 2:19, John 2:21). Again in Matthew 16:21, which is before the transfiguration, we find Him explaining to His disciples “that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.” In the following chapter we read again, “When they came together in Galilee, he said to them, ‘The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. They will kill him, and on the third day he will be raised to life” (Matthew 17:22-23). Still later, on His last journey to Jerusalem, we read: “Now as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside and said to them, ‘We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will turn him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. On the third day he will be raised to life!’” (Matthew 20:17-19). So widely known were these announcements that His enemies were familiar with them, and after His crucifixion they went to Pilate and said, “Sir… we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise again’” (Matthew 27:63). These repeated announcements of His resurrection give an emphatic and conclusive significance to the value of that resurrection as an evidence of His claims. It was the one sign which He always submitted as the supreme test of His divinity and His authority as Messiah. When they demanded a sign from heaven, He had said unto them that “none will be given… except the sign of the prophet Jonah,” and that even as Jonah had been “three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish,” so He, the Son of Man, should be “three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matthew 12:39-40). Therefore we find the apostles, in their preaching to the unbelieving world, always insisting upon the doctrine of the resurrection of Jesus Christ as the cornerstone of Christianity. The Apostle Paul builds up a powerful argument on it and declares: “if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith…. you are still in your sins” (1 Corinthians 15:14, 1 Corinthians 15:17). In one of the most powerful books of a generation ago, Dr. Horace Bushnell’s Nature and the Supernatural, there is a chapter on the resurrection of Jesus Christ which is the most conclusive piece of evidence in this class of theological literature. The writer on one occasion submitted this argument for the resurrection of Christ to a learned lawyer who had confessed himself an unbeliever in Christianity. The lawyer promised to weigh the evidence and study the case. At the end of a fortnight, he returned and frankly confessed that the argument was overwhelming and that he had no doubt, and never again could have any doubt, that Jesus Christ had really died and risen again and that the claims of Christianity were divine. At the same time, he added that he was not yet a Christian and now discovered that he did not even wish to be, and that the trouble was not in his head but in his heart. The resurrection, therefore, of the Lord Jesus Christ was designed as His own special vindication and was announced by Himself again and again. Therefore, when it occurred exactly as He had predicted it, its effect is irresistible and overwhelming. Old Testament Prophecies
2. The resurrection of Jesus Christ was in accordance with the prophecies of the Old Testament. The ancient story of Abraham and Isaac and the offering on Mount Moriah was an obvious foreshadowing of the resurrection of Christ. Speaking of it the apostle says: “By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, ‘It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.’ Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death” (Hebrews 11:17-19). Isaac’s release from that sacrificial altar was a figure of Christ’s resurrection from the dead. Abraham had even expected Isaac to be raised from the dead if the sacrifice had really been consummated. The story of the prophet Jonah was a type of Christ’s resurrection. Jonah’s burial in the bowels of the sea monster was a distinct type of Christ’s entombment in the heart of the earth, and his coming forth on the third day completed the type and foreshadowed the resurrection of the Son of Man. David in the 16th Psalm uses language which the apostle interprets as having reference exclusively to the resurrection of Jesus Christ: “my body also will rest secure, because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay” (Psalms 16:9-10). Speaking of this on the day of Pentecost, the Apostle Peter thus comments on it: Brothers, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day. But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne. Seeing what was ahead, he spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to the grave, nor did his body see decay. God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact. (Acts 2:29-32) To the same effect, also, the Apostle Paul quotes this passage in his address to the Jews at Antioch. “For when David had served God’s purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep; he was buried with his fathers and his body decayed. But the one whom God raised from the dead did not see decay” (Acts 13:36-37). The greatest of all prophets, Isaiah himself, does not fail to point out the resurrection of Jesus Christ. In Isaiah 53:10 we read: “Yet it was the Lord’S will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand. After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied.” This language evidently describes a Sufferer who survives His sufferings, prolongs His days and lives afterwards to rejoice in the fruits of His great sacrifice. So the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ is true to the Messianic ideal and we may say of it as He Himself, in His conversation with the disciples on His walk to Emmaus, said: “‘Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?’ And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself…. Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. He told them, ‘This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day” (Luke 24:26-27, Luke 24:45-46). Victory Over His Enemies
3. The resurrection of Christ was a victory over the plots of His foes. They had specially feared this very thing and had laid their plans to circumvent it. They went to the governor immediately after His death and told him that they expected the disciples to come and steal His body from the tomb and then pretend that He had risen from the dead. They were given permission to place a powerful guard of Roman soldiers for three days before the tomb and also to close the sepulcher with a great stone and securely fasten it with the Roman seal, making it a treasonable crime for any one to break that seal and open the sepulcher. Everything was done that they asked for. And when, in spite of all their precautions, the resurrection was accomplished according to the divine order, their very plot only added to its significance and made it the more glorious a vindication of the Lord. They could not say that they had been surprised; they did all that they could to prevent it and failed, and they must stand the consequences of their defeat and concede the claim of the friends of Christ. Still more emphatically have we a right to demand from them some light on the disposal of the body. Human courts refuse to proceed with a charge of murder unless the body is produced. We may well refuse to consider the charge of the stealing of Christ’s body unless our opponents can produce that body and show us what was done with it. How would it have been possible for the little company of terrified men and women who had fled from the judgment hall in dismay, who had given up their Master and their cause as lost, who were without means or influence or human resources, how would it have been possible for them in the face of the whole Roman government and the keen watching eyes of the entire Jewish nation on guard against this very thing happening. How, we ask, would it have been possible for them to have stolen away the body and succeeded afterwards in permanently concealing it from the keen scrutiny that would have hunted it down with all the detective resources of the ecclesiastical and civil authorities? The idea is simply preposterous and the question answers itself. The story of the Roman soldiers that they had slept and been surprised by the disciples would not have stood a moment with Pilate if he had really believed it, but as a good-natured concession to the men who were sufficiently angry with him already, he took their bribe and allowed it to pass while he laughed in his sleeve and knew as well as they that they had only tried to fool him and themselves too. So the very efforts of the adversary recoiled upon his own head and left the evidence of Christ’s resurrection unassailable. Angelic Witnesses
4. Christ’s resurrection was witnessed by the angels of God. Not often do these mighty beings interpose in human affairs. Certainly they do not come down from heaven to play a farce such as the enemies of Christ’s resurrection would imply. Their presence on this occasion intimates that some stupendous event had occurred. There were apparently three angelic parties, the one that rolled away the stone and two others that afterwards were found sitting where the body of Jesus had lain. So mighty was this glorious being that “his appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men” (Matthew 28:3-4). But as the women drew near with their loving offerings for the body of Jesus, he answered and said unto them, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay” (Matthew 28:5-6). The voice of heaven proclaims the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The mighty angels, who came down at Sinai and at the Savior’s birth and who are to come once more when the Lord returns, were there to herald His victory over the grave and the ushering in of the great redemption which His death assured. Joyfully we listen to their message and echo back the glad refrain, “The Lord is risen indeed.” Human Witnesses
5. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is established by the strongest human testimony. We have in this chapter the words of the women who had gone to anoint His body in the early morning and who heard first the message of the angels and immediately afterwards the very voice of Jesus Himself as He met them on the way, saying “Greetings,” and sent them on with the glad command: “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me” (Matthew 28:9-10). The other evangelists add many similar testimonies respecting the various appearings of Christ after His resurrection. The whole evidence is summed up by the Apostle Paul in the strong language of 1 Corinthians 15:4-8 : He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,… he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born. The cases of our earthly courts are all founded upon human testimony. If we cannot believe the testimony of honest men and women, then thousands of lives have been sacrificed by public execution and thousands of sentences have been passed by men upon their fellow men which were unjust and cruel. We believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ on precisely the same testimony on which men are convicted every day in our courts of justice, and as we have stated above, the evidence of Christ’s resurrection is in every way as conclusive and unassailable. Supernatural Signs
6. The resurrection of Christ was signalized by the natural world. We are told “there was a violent earthquake” (Matthew 28:2). The earth rocked at His death and it shook once more with the travail of a great birth when He came forth from its bowels, the first fruits of the new creation. This was but in keeping with the testimony of nature everywhere, for God made the little seed that germinates and bursts forth from its tomb in the dark soil of earth and the opening bud and leaf and flower, all to be types of the great doctrine of the resurrection. He made the little chrysalis which emerges from the dark womb of nature and is transformed into the gorgeous butterfly to tell of the higher transformation of grace. Truly it has been said: All nature dies and lives again The flower that paints the field, The trees that crown the mountains’ brow And boughs and blossoms yield. Death Destroyed7. Christ’s resurrection was His victory over death. He had gone down into the den of the King of Terrors in single combat and come forth Conqueror, and not only had come forth alone, but brought with him a train of rescued captives. In Matthew 27:52-53, we read: “The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs, and after Jesus’ resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many people.” These were the first fruits of the resurrection and they are pledges of that great company who at His second coming will come forth from the cemeteries of earth and will be clothed upon with glorified bodies and enter with Him into the inheritance of the age to come. Henceforth death is a conquered foe; its sting is gone and, to the child of God, it has no terrors. It may still come to him as it came to the Master, but it will be as a servant and not as a master, to open the gates of heaven and let us pass into the joy of our Lord; for “Christ Jesus… has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel” (2 Timothy 1:10). And He Himself has told us, “if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death” (John 8:51). Satan Overthrown
7. Christ’s resurrection was His victory over Satan. Death was but one of Satan’s dark disguises. When Jesus conquered death, He conquered “him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil” (Hebrews 2:14). His resurrection has guaranteed the final overthrow of the “prince of demons” (Matthew 9:34), and standing by that open grave we can put our feet upon his neck and triumph over him as a conquered foe. Sin Put Away
8. Christ’s resurrection was His victory over sin. He went down into that tomb as a person might go into a dungeon under a sentence for debt and crime. Had He remained in that prison, it would have shown that the debt was still uncanceled and the sentence still in force. But when He comes forth in victory and glory, all the officers of heaven’s court of justice waiting upon Him and the Father Himself recognizing Him and taking Him to sit down by His side on the Ascension Throne, then we may know that the debt is paid, the cross is canceled and the power of sin destroyed. His deliverance was your deliverance for “he was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification” (Romans 4:25). Therefore faith can shout its triumph: “Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us” (Romans 8:34). But not only does His resurrection cancel the curse that was against us, it brings the power of His life to dwell within us and purifies from the dominion of sin. Our life is just an impartation of His resurrection life. He rose from the dead not for Himself but in union with His body, the Church, and that resurrection guarantees to each of us the power to rise above sin and into all the resources of His grace and the fullness of His life. Sanctification as well as salvation springs from the open tomb and the life of the risen Lord and the very secret of it is: In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. (Romans 6:11-13) Head Overall Things
9. The resurrection of Jesus Christ guarantees victory over every obstacle that can obstruct our way. It is the pattern of His kingly power over all forces and adversaries and guarantees to us who abide in Him and press on in the power of His resurrection that nothing can prevail against us but that all things shall be subdued under the victorious feet of overcoming faith. There is a striking and beautiful feature about the resurrection of Christ that we may not have noticed. The rolling away of the stone which had closed His tomb was not, by any means, necessary for Christ’s resurrection. He had risen and come forth before that stone was moved. The power that could pass through closed doors after His resurrection could easily pass through that mass of the intervening rock. The stone was rolled away, not for the convenience of the Lord, but for the convenience of the women that they might be able to enter in and see the proofs of His resurrection. When the women came, He was not coming from the tomb through the open gate but He was approaching the tomb from the open garden where He had already been. This is indeed most blessed. The Lord Jesus can pass through the stones of difficulty. And if we are walking with Him, we can pass through them, too, and so rise above them that even if they still remain they cannot impede us or imprison us, but we may overleap their barriers and laugh at their resistance. Have we spiritual difficulties, temptations and obstacles? Let us not wait for them to pass away but rise above them in the resurrection life of Christ, and instead of being hindered by them, turn them into occasions of greater victory and blessing. God help us, like the mighty angel, to sit down upon the stones that threaten to obstruct our way and look into the face of Satan, sin, sickness and the world until, like the Roman guards, they shall be ashamed and flee away.