Now after the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to look at the grave. And behold, a severe earthquake had occurred, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled away the stone and sat upon it. And his appearance was like lightning, and his garment as white as snow; and the guards shook for fear of him, and became like dead men. And the angel answered and said to the women, “Do not be afraid; for I know that you are looking for Jesus who has been crucified. He is not here, for He has risen, just as He said. Come, see the place where He was lying. And go quickly and tell His disciples that He has risen from the dead; and behold, He is going before you into Galilee, there you will see Him; behold, I have told you.” And they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy and ran to report it to His disciples. And behold, Jesus met them and greeted them. And they came up and took hold of His feet and worshiped Him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and take word to My brethren to leave for Galilee, and there they shall see Me.” (28:1-10)

Like every piece of good literature, Matthew’s gospel is not a random collection of facts or ideas or stories but has a specific plan and purpose. Chapter 28 is not simply a closing group of anecdotes about the life of Christ but is the powerful climax of everything else he has written under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

The central event of that climax, the resurrection of Jesus Christ, is also the central event of God’s redemptive history. The resurrection is the cornerstone of the Christian faith, and everything that we are and have and hope to be is predicated on its reality. There would be no Christianity if there were no resurrection.

The message of Scripture has always been a message of resurrection hope, a message that death is not the end for those who belong to God. For the believer, death has never been an end but rather a doorway that leads to eternity with God. Abraham willingly obeyed God’s command to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, because, in faith, “he considered that God is able to raise men even from the dead” (Heb. 11:19). The psalmists declared, “God will redeem my soul from the power of Sheol; for He will receive me” (Ps. 49:15) and that “with Thy counsel Thou wilt guide me, and afterward receive me to glory” (Ps. 73:24). Isaiah proclaimed, “Your dead will live; their corpses will rise” (Isa. 26:19). Through Daniel the Lord assures His people that, although they die, one day they “will awake . . . to everlasting life” (Dan. 12:2). Hosea assures believers that the Lord will raise up all believers to live before Him (Hos. 6:2). Job asked rhetorically, “If a man dies, will he live again?” and then declared, “All the days of my struggle I will wait, until my change comes” (Job 14:14). That ancient man of God even foresaw the reality of resurrection, proclaiming to his three friends, Bildad in particular: “I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will take His stand on the earth. Even after my skin is destroyed, yet from my flesh I shall see God” (Job 19:25-26).

Such has been the promised hope of God’s people throughout history, a hope predicated on the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is His resurrection that guarantees ours. “Now Christ has been raised from the dead,” Paul declares, “the first fruits of those who are asleep. For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive” (1 Cor. 15:20-22).

It is also tragically true, however, that throughout history many have denied, despised, and mocked the truth of resurrection, especially Christ’s. But only a fool tries to explain away resurrection, because the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ are man’s only hope of salvation and eternal life.

An early Protestant missionary to the Ryukyu Islands in the western Pacific discovered a strange mass grave. The grave marker revealed that more than 11,000 heads taken from bodies of Christians were buried there. On further investigation he learned that in 1637 the Japanese government, which then controlled the Ryukyus, ordered all Christians in the empire exterminated. Because they knew Christians believed in the resurrection, the heads of martyred believers were buried a great distance from the bodies, in the belief that their resurrection would thereby be prevented.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the single greatest event in the history of the world. It is so foundational to Christianity that no one who denies it can be a true Christian. Without resurrection there is no Christian faith, no salvation, and no hope. “If there is no resurrection of the dead,” Paul explains, “not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain” (1 Cor. 15:13-14). A person who believes in a Christ who was not raised believes in a powerless Christ, a dead Christ. If Christ did not rise from the dead, then no redemption was accomplished at the cross and “your faith is worthless,” Paul goes on to say; “you are still in your sins” (v. 17).

It is hardly surprising, therefore, that the first sermon on the day the church was born focused on the resurrection of Christ. After charging his hearers with Jesus’ death, Peter declared, “And God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power” (Acts 2:23-24). Peter continued to preach the resurrection to his fellow Jews (Acts 4:10) as well as to Gentiles (10:40).

Paul preached the resurrection continually. In the synagogue at Antioch of Pisidia he declared that “God raised [Jesus] from the dead” and “He whom God raised did not undergo decay” (Acts 13:30, 37). He proclaimed the resurrection before the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem (23:6), before the governor, Felix (24:15, 21), and before King Agrippa (26:8). The resurrection is a central and strongly emphasized theme of Paul’s epistles. He declared that Christ “was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Cor. 15:4), that “He who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and will present us with you” (2 Cor. 4:14; cf. Gal. 1:1), and that the Father “raised Him from the dead, and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places” (Eph. 1:20; Col. 2:12). Paul longed to know Christ “and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings” (Phil. 3:10).

Peter spoke of our “living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven” (1 Pet. 1:3-4). In his vision on Patmos, John beheld the Lord Jesus Christ, who declared, “I am the first and the last, and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore” (Rev. 1:17-18).

The foundation of all our hope is expressed in Jesus’ own words: “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me shall live even if he dies” (John 11:25), and, “Because I live, you shall live also” (14:19).

Even the most irreligious person who knows anything about Christian history and doctrine knows that Christians believe Jesus Christ rose from the dead. But the unbelieving world has many reactions to that belief, most of them negative and all of them wrong.

One of the most common modern reactions is that of rationalism, which rejects the idea of resurrection and all other supernatural elements of Scripture because such things cannot be explained by scientific observation and human reason. This humanistic philosophy considers man’s mind to be the ultimate reality, and only that which his own mind can perceive and comprehend is recognized as true or significant.

Many people are simply indifferent to the resurrection, not caring whether it is true or not. Religion in general, and Christianity in particular, are of no concern to them. Other people do not believe in resurrection because of ignorance about its nature and meaning. They may never have heard of such a thing or never have heard it explained accurately and clearly.

Some people are intentionally hostile. They do not reject the resurrection because it seems unprovable to human reason or because they have honest doubt or lack proof. They denounce it simply because they hate the things of God. Some people even seem to consider it their role in life and history to try to discredit the resurrection.

The gospel writers, however, and every other leader in the early church realized that their supreme role in life and history was to proclaim the reality of the resurrection and the many other truths about Jesus Christ. Although the disciples, and most of Jesus’ other followers, were slow to believe their Lord actually rose from the dead, they soon became so overwhelmed by its reality that they could think or talk of little else.

Although they reveal the same divine truths in perfect harmony with one another, each of the gospel writers presents the resurrection from a distinctive perspective. Matthew does not approach the resurrection from a scholarly, historical, analytical, or evidential perspective but focuses rather on the emotional reaction of a group of women who loved Jesus deeply.

COMPASSION

Now after the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to look at the grave. (28:1)

After the Sabbath translates an unusual construction in the Greek, opse de sabbatn. The phrase could also be rendered, “well after the Sabbath,” indicating that a considerable amount of time had elapsed since the Sabbath ended. The actual time was from sundown the previous evening, when the Sabbath had ended, until it began to dawn the following day, which was Sunday, the first day of the week, totaling perhaps ten hours. John states specifically that when the women came “it was still dark” (20:1).

The first day of the week also translates an interesting Greek phrase, which literally means, “day one with reference to the Sabbath.” The Jews did not have names for days of the week, such as Monday, Tuesday, and so on, but simply numbered them in relation to the Sabbath. Sabbath means “seventh,” and, although it was at the end of the week, because it was the central and holy day, all other days were reckoned by it—as the first, second, third, and so forth, day after the Sabbath.

As explained in the previous chapter of this volume, because Jews considered reference to “a day” as meaning any part of that day, Sunday was the third day of Jesus’ interment, the day which He had repeatedly predicted would be the day of His resurrection (see Matt. 16:21; 17:23; 27:64; Mark 10:34; Luke 18:33).

The phrase “after the Sabbath” could also refer figuratively to the new day of rest for God’s people. As a commemoration of God’s resting after creation, the Sabbath was to be a day of rest and worship for Israel (Ex. 20:8-11). But the day before Jesus arose from the grave was the last divinely ordained Sabbath for His people, because on the following day the New Covenant in Jesus Christ was ushered in. That Sunday was the dawning not only of a new day but of a new era in redemptive history.

It is because of the resurrection that Christians worship on Sunday rather than on the Sabbath.

At that predawn hour on Sunday morning Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to look at the grave. Although they had witnessed Joseph’s and Nicodemus’s wrapping Jesus’ body in the linen cloths and spices (Matt. 27:61), the women had secured and prepared their own spices (probably a small amount in comparison to that brought by Nicodemus) with which they would personally anoint the Lord (Luke 24:1). Although Salome, the mother of James and John and the wife of Zebedee (Mark 16:1; cf. Matt. 27:56), and Joanna (Luke 24:10) were also there, Matthew focuses only on the two Marys.

The other Mary was the mother of James and Joseph and the wife of Clopas (see Matt. 27:56; John 19:25). The women obviously thought Jesus would still be in the grave and would remain there, or else they would not have brought the anointing spices. They had not come to see Jesus risen but to look at the grave where they expected His body to still be lying. They had been among the women who ministered to Jesus in Galilee and who had stood with Him at the cross (Matt. 27:55-56). Now they came to the garden hoping that somehow the great stone could be removed so they could minister to Him one last time (Mark 16:3). But despite their lack of faith in Jesus’ promises to rise on the third day, they came to the tomb out of deep affection for their Lord.

Jewish tradition wrongly held that the spirit of a dead person left the body four days after death because by that time the body had become so disfigured by decay that the spirit could no longer recognize it. That tradition may be reflected in Martha’s comment to Jesus about her brother, Lazarus: “Lord, by this time there will be a stench, for he has been dead four days” (John 11:39). Perhaps the two Marys and the other women came to Jesus’ grave with the intent of anointing His body one more time before His spirit departed from it.

The women did not have confidence in Jesus’ resurrection, but they had great love and great devotion for Him. What they lacked in faith they compensated for in loving compassion, and what they lacked in understanding they made up for in courageous devotion.

TERROR

And behold, a severe earthquake had occurred, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled away the stone and sat upon it. And his appearance was like lightning, and his garment as white as snow; and the guards shook for fear of him, and became like dead men. And the angel answered and said to the women, “Do not be afraid; for I know that you are looking for Jesus who has been crucified. He is not here, for He has risen, just as He said. Come, see the place where He was lying. And go quickly and tell His disciples that He has risen from the dead; and behold, He is going before you into Galilee, there you will see Him; behold, I have told you.” (28:2-7)

No sooner had the women reached the tomb than they found the stone had been moved aside by a severe earthquake. This was the second supernaturally caused earthquake in connection with Jesus’ death and burial, the first one having occurred at the moment of His death (Matt. 27:51).

God caused an earthquake on Mount Sinai just before He revealed the law to Moses (Ex. 19:18) and on Mount Horeb when He revealed Himself to Elijah (1 Kings 19:11). In the end times He will also send numerous earthquakes (Joel 2:10; Matt. 24:7; Rev. 6:12; 8:5; 11:13-19). Now, within three days, He caused two earthquakes just outside Jerusalem.

This earthquake had occurred when an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, causing the earth around the grave to tremble violently. The angel had come to open the secured and sealed grave, and when he arrived he rolled away the stone and sat upon it. Although it had probably taken several strong men some time to put the stone in place, the angel removed it in an instant.

The angel did not move the stone in order to let Jesus out of the tomb, as many Easter stories and paintings suggest. If Jesus had the power to raise Himself from the dead, which He did (John 10:18), He certainly had the relatively minor power required to escape a sealed grave. As He demonstrated during several postresurrection appearances, just as He was no longer bound by death, He was no longer bound by the limitations of the physical world or of time (see Luke 24:31; John 20:26). In His glorified form He could escape a closed grave just as easily as He could enter a closed room. In comparing the gospel accounts, it becomes clear that Jesus had already left the tomb when the stone was rolled away. The angel moved the stone not to let Jesus out but to let the women and the apostles in.

From John’s gospel it seems that Mary Magdalene apparently left the garden as soon as she “saw the stone already taken away from the tomb” (20:1). Before the angel appeared, “she ran and came to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and said to them, ‘They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him’” (v. 2). Obviously she had missed the angel’s announcement of Jesus’ resurrection. She was so overwrought at discovering the tomb empty that she ran frantically to the two most prominent disciples, Peter and John, to tell them what she thought was terrible news. It did not occur to her that Jesus might be risen as He had predicted, and she assumed that someone had stolen the body and hidden it. It is obvious that Peter and John did not consider the possibility of resurrection either, and they immediately ran to the tomb to find out what they could (John 20:3-4).

Meanwhile the angel had manifested himself to those who were near the tomb, and his appearance was like lightning. The description suggests that God transmitted some of His own Shekinah glory to the angel, just as He had transmitted a measure of it to Moses on Sinai when the covenant was renewed (Ex. 34:29). In a similar way, the angel’s glistening garment that was as white as snow suggests God’s purity and holiness. The angel bore the very imprimatur of the character of God in order to make clear to the observers not only that he was a supernatural messenger but that he was an agent of God and not Satan.

The guards were so awestruck that at first they shook for fear of him. Shook translates a Greek term that has the same root as “earthquake” in verse 2, indicating that the soldiers experienced personal earthquakes of both mind and body. But after a brief moment of shaking, they then became like dead men, paralyzed with fear. The idea seems to be that they not only became rigid but unconscious, completely traumatized by what they saw.

The women were also frightened, but, unlike the soldiers, they received comfort from God’s messenger. Aware of their fright, the angel answered and said to the women, “Do not be afraid.” Perhaps a better translation than answered would be “explained,” because the women, too terrified to speak, had not asked a question.

The soldiers had good reason to be afraid. Not only was the angel’s appearance terrifying in itself but, because they had been charged with protecting the grave, an empty tomb could spell their death. The women, however, had no reason to fear, and the angel’s first words were meant to give them comfort and assurance.

They had not come expecting to find Jesus raised, but in His gracious mercy God overlooked their weak faith and their lack of understanding. Acknowledging their great love, God responded with great love. “I know that you are looking for Jesus who has been crucified,” the angel said to them; “He is not here, for He has risen, just as He said.”

Has risen translates a Greek aorist passive and can also be rendered, “has been raised.” Jesus Himself had power to give up His life and to take it up again (John 10:18). But Scripture makes clear that He also was raised by the power of the Father (Rom. 6:4; Gal. 1:1; 1 Pet. 1:3) and of the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:11). The entire Trinity participated in the resurrection of Jesus.

The angel gently reminded the women that Jesus’ resurrection should not surprise them, because it happened just as He said. Luke reports that they then “remembered His words” (24:8).

Next the angel invited the women to come, see the place where He was lying. At this point the women went into the tomb and observed that it was indeed empty. The angel joined them in the tomb and reiterated the same basic message, saying, “Do not be amazed; you are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who has been crucified. He has risen; He is not here; behold, here is the place where they laid Him” (Mark 16:6). Perhaps the message was repeated because the women found it so hard to believe, despite the fact that they now remembered Jesus’ predictions that He would rise on the third day.

When Peter and John entered the tomb a short while later, they “beheld the linen wrappings lying there, and the face-cloth, which had been on His head, not lying with the linen wrappings, but rolled up in a place by itself” (John 20:6-7). The burial clothes were just as they were when Joseph and Nicodemus laid the body to rest, except for the face-cloth, which was set to one side. Jesus did not have to be unwrapped any more than He had to have the stone removed. At one moment He was encased in the linen, and the next He was free, leaving the wrappings unchanged.

While the women were in the tomb, another angel joined the first, “one at the head, and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had been lying” (John 20:12). Their positions are reminiscent of the two golden cherubim who were on either side of the Mercy Seat on the Ark of the Covenant (Ex. 25:18). The two angels in the garden were posted at either end of the tomb of Jesus, who, by the sacrifice He had just made of His own life, became the true and eternal Mercy Seat for sinful mankind.

The two angels gave still another reminder to the women. “Why do you seek the living One among the dead?” they asked. “He is not here, but He has risen. Remember how He spoke to you while He was still in Galilee, saying that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of the sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again” (Luke 24: 5-7). For a third time the women were told the glorious truth of Jesus’ resurrection, a truth whose fulfillment they should have been eagerly expecting.

One of the angels then said, “Go quickly and tell His disciples that He has risen from the dead.” The women’s fascination must quickly turn to proclamation. They did not have time to revel in the marvelous reality of the good news but were to go immediately and announce it to the cowering disciples, who were still hiding in Jerusalem.

It would seem more than justified for the Lord to have allowed the disciples to suffer in fear, despair, and agony for a week or so before telling them the good news. They had stubbornly refused to believe that Jesus would die and be raised, although He had told them of His death and resurrection many times. But in His gracious mercy God sent the women to tell the disciples as soon as possible, so they would not have to experience another moment of misery and grief. He did not rebuke them for their lack of faith and for their cowardice but rather sent them messengers with a gracious word of hope and comfort.

One wonders why God chose to reveal the truth of the resurrection first to those women rather than to the disciples. One commentator suggests that it was because God chooses the weak to confound the strong. Another suggests the women were rewarded for their faithful service to the Lord in Galilee. Another holds that, because death came by a woman in a garden, so new life was first announced to a woman in a garden. Others propose that it was because the deepest sorrow deserves the deepest joy or that supreme love deserves supreme privilege.

But Scripture offers no such explanations. It seems obvious that the women were the first to hear the angelic announcement of the resurrection simply because they were there. Had the disciples been there, they, too, would have heard the good news directly from the angel rather than indirectly from the women.

This is analogous to the reality that the closer a believer stays to the Lord and to His work, the more he is going to witness and experience the Lord’s power. Those who are there when the Lord’s people gather for worship and prayer, who are there when His Word is being taught, who are there when the lost are being won to Christ, who are there when others are being served in His name, who are regular in their times of private prayer—those are the ones who will most often experience first-hand the work of God.

The angel’s further instruction to the women was to tell Jesus’ disciples that “He is going before you into Galilee, there you will see Him; behold, I have told you.” Earlier in the week Jesus had told the eleven remaining disciples, “After I have been raised, I will go before you to Galilee” (Matt. 26:32). Being both Jewish and Gentile, Galilee represented the world at large. It was there that Jesus began His ministry, in “Galilee of the Gentiles,” where “the people who were sitting in darkness saw a great light” (Matt. 4:15-16). It would also be in Galilee that the disciples would receive the Great Commission from the Lord to “go therefore and make disciples of all the nations” (Matt. 28:19).

It was not that Jesus would first appear to the disciples in Galilee, because He manifested Himself to them several times before that. He appeared to Peter (Luke 24:34), to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:15; cf. Mark 16:12), to ten of the disciples as they were assembled on resurrection evening (John 20:19), to all eleven disciples eight days later (John 20:26), and to seven of the disciples as they were fishing in the Sea of Galilee (John 21:1).

But Jesus’ supreme appearance to the disciples was to be in Galilee, where He “appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time” (1 Cor. 15:6) and where He would commission the eleven to apostolic ministry.

JOY

And they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy and ran to report it to His disciples. (28:8)

Obediently responding to the angel’s command, the women departed quickly from the tomb. And although they had the angel’s comforting assurance, the women understandably had a remnant of fear. But their fear was now tempered by great joy at learning the good news of Jesus’ resurrection.

Mary Magdalene had left the tomb before the angels appeared and on her own initiative reported her findings to Peter and John, saying, “They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him” (John 20:2). She then followed those two disciples back to the tomb, where they, too, found only the linen wrappings. The other women and the angels had left the garden, and, disappointed and confused, the two men “went away again to their own homes” (vv. 5-10). While Mary remained outside the tomb weeping, the two angels appeared to her and then the Lord Himself. It was not until Jesus called her by name, however, that she recognized Him and shouted, “Rabboni!” (vv. 11-16). She then reported her wonderful experience to the disciples in Jerusalem (v. 18).

When she told the other apostles about her encounter with the resurrected Christ, they did not believe her (Mark 16:11). Their disbelief (see also Mark 16:13; Luke 24:10-11) clearly proves that they had no intention of stealing Jesus’ body in order to propagate a counterfeit resurrection, as the chief priests and Pharisees feared they would do (Matt. 27:62-64; 28:13).

WORSHIP

And behold, Jesus met them and greeted them. And they came up and took hold of His feet and worshiped Him. (28:9)

Meanwhile, as the other women were on their way to report the angel’s message to the disciples, Jesus met them and greeted them. Greeted translates chairete, a common greeting that loosely rendered means something like “hello” or “good morning.” It was the ordinary salutation of the marketplace and of travelers who passed each other on the road. In other words the greeting was casual and ordinary, seemingly too mundane to be appropriate for such a momentous occasion. Yet the glorified Christ, who had just finished conquering sin and death, deigned to greet those faithful women with warm, informal tenderness. As the writer of Hebrews assures us, “We do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses” (Heb. 4:15).

Immediately recognizing their Lord, the women came up and took hold of His feet and worshiped Him. They now knew with certainty that He was the risen Messiah, the divine Son of God, and that adoration and praise were the only proper responses to His presence. They did what every person, unbeliever as well as believer, will do one day. When He comes again, “every knee [will] bow . . . and . . . every tongue [will] confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil. 2:10-11).

At last the full reality of the resurrection was solidifying in the minds and hearts of those women. They had heard the angel’s proclamation of the resurrection, had seen the empty tomb, had beheld the risen Lord, and had even touched His glorified body. They could now do nothing but adore and worship Him.

Sir Edward Clarke wrote:

As a lawyer I have made a prolonged study of the evidences for the events of the first Easter Day. To me the evidence is conclusive, and over and over again in the High Court I have secured the verdict on evidence not nearly so compelling. Inference follows on evidence, and a truthful witness is always artless and disdains effect. The Gospel evidence for the resurrection is of this class, and as a lawyer I accept it unreservedly as the testimony of truthful men to facts they were able to substantiate. (Cited in J. R. W. Stott, Basic Christianity [Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1971], p. 47)

In a similar statement, the noted historian and Oxford professor Thomas Arnold wrote:

The evidence for our Lord’s life and death and resurrection may be, and often has been, shown to be satisfactory; it is good according to the common rules for distinguishing good evidence from bad. Thousands and tens of thousands of persons have gone through it piece by piece as carefully as every judge summing upon a most important case. I have myself done it many times over, not to persuade others but to satisfy myself. I have been used for many years to study the histories of other times and to examine and weigh the evidence of those who have written about them, and I know of no one fact in the history of mankind which is proved by better and fuller evidence of every sort, to the understanding of a fair inquirer, than the great sign which God hath given us that Christ died and rose again from the dead. (Wilbur M. Smith, Therefore Stand: Christian Apologetics [Grand Rapids: Baker, 1965], pp 425-26)

HOPE

Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and take word to My brethren to leave for Galilee, and there they shall see Me.” (28:10)

Jesus repeated the angel’s message, saying, “Do not be afraid; go take word to My brethren to leave for Galilee.” Despite the disciples’ lack of faith, their cowardice, and their defection, the Lord graciously spoke of them as His brethren. When they arrived in Galilee, they would see Him again, and there they would experience a great convocation and commissioning by the Lord.

Matthew’s brief glimpse of the resurrection is artless and unadorned, completely lacking pretense or exaggeration. He does not argue or beg the issues but simply places the truths before the reader to be accepted for what they are.

The basic truth of the resurrection undergirds a number of other truths. First, it gives evidence that the Word of God is totally true and reliable. Jesus rose from the dead precisely when and in the way He had predicted (see Matt. 12:40; 16:21; 17:9, 23).

Second, the resurrection means that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, as He claimed to be, and that He has power over life and death. Third, the resurrection proves that salvation is complete, that on the cross Christ conquered sin, death, and hell and rose victorious. Fourth, the resurrection proves that the church has been established. Jesus had declared, “I will build My church; and the gates of Hades shall not overpower it” (Matt. 16:18). “The gates of Hades” was a Jewish colloquialism that represented death. His resurrection proved that death itself could not prevent Christ from establishing His church.

Fifth, the resurrection proves that judgment is coming. Jesus declared that the heavenly Father “has given all judgment to the Son” (John 5:22), and since the Son was now risen and alive, His judgment is certain. Sixth, the resurrection of Christ proves that heaven is waiting. Jesus promised, “In My house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you” (John 14:2). Because Christ is alive by the resurrection, believers have the assurance that He is now preparing a heavenly dwelling for them.