My dad was a preacher. But he never worked for a church that was larger than about 45-50, so he never worked under an eldership. Most of the time, he had to work some other job, in order to support his work as a minister. When we lived in south Alabama, which was the only time we lived within about 30 minutes of my grandparents, my grandpa and dad started a business doing construction work. Grandpa was a carpenter and he and dad worked a lot together. One time dad came home having a black and blue thumb because he hit it a few times with the hammer and he told us that Grandpa told him that when when he got his thumb knocked around where he wanted it, he would quit hitting it!
A carpenter might nail a thousand nails a day, and that’s a lot of practice! The most important thing in hammering nails, as my dad learned the hard way, is to keep your eye on the nail. One time when I was helping my dad, I hit my thumb and dad said, “Son you are hitting the wrong nail!” If you keep your eyes on your thumb, you will hit your thumb; if you keep your eyes on the nail, you’ll hit it.
If Christ is at the center of our lives, then why do we keep hitting our thumbs? The resurrection of Christ is the event that impresses on our hearts the reason we need to have Jesus at the center of our lives. Let’s study the first ten verses together. We’ll look at the last ten tomorrow…
THE EMPTY TOMB – 28:1-7:
The angel said: 1) Do not be fearful. 2) He acknowledges they were seeking the Jesus who had been crucified. 3) The Jesus who had been crucified (dead), is not in the grave. 4) He has risen to life again. 5) He had so predicted this resurrection. 6) They are invited to see the evidence with their own eyes. 7) They are then to go tell the disciples that He was risen. 8) He will meet them in Galilee (as He had said, Matt. 26:32; cf. “Galilee of the Gentiles” from 4:15-16). 9) They will see Him alive there. 10) He has now shared the information that God told them to share.
THE FIRST MESSAGE FROM THE RESURRECTED LORD – 28:8-10:
Jesus repeated a few of the items of the angel: 1) Do not be afraid. 2) Go. 3) Announce to “My brothers” (see 12:49-50; 25:40; John 20:17; Heb. 2:11) that He is going into Galilee (John 21:1-14). 4) There they will see Him. Galilee had been the location of most of His ministry, in Matthew’s account.
APPLICATION:
If the gospel story was fabricated, or if the gospel story was written by misogynists, the testimony of the women would have been excluded or changed to men. Women were not considered reliable witnesses in the court of law.
The “first day of the week” becomes significant for Christians as the celebration of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ – through the Lord’s Supper – which happened on the first day, which came to be known as the “Lord’s Day” (see Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. 11:20; 16:1; Rev. 1:10).
Jesus’ resurrection is the first fruit (1 Cor. 15:20, 23) of a coming harvest of souls’ resurrections one day (1 Cor. 15:57-58).
Jesus ought to be worshipped; men and angels cannot be worshipped: Acts 10:25-26; 14:11-15; Rev. 22:8-9.
We also note that even though the disciples had forsaken Jesus and fled (26:56), and Peter had denied Him (26:69-75), Jesus still considered them “brothers” (verse 10). He would forgive them (singling out Peter himself in Mark 16:7) and restore them into His grace.
The fact that Jesus rose from the dead needs to be at the center of our lives. If the resurrection did not happen, then we (Christians) of all people deserve pity (see 1 Cor. 15:9) and nothing really is important. If the resurrection did happen, then we will experience a bodily (but changed) resurrection, Christ means everything, and nothing else is really important! See also 1 John 3:1-3.
Paul Holland
