#1329 Matthew 28 Part 2 Testimonies

 

11 While they were going, behold, some of the guard went into the city and told the chief priests all that had taken place. 12 And when they had assembled with the elders and taken counsel, they gave a sufficient sum of money to the soldiers 13 and said, “Tell people, ‘His disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep.’ 14 And if this comes to the governor's ears, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.” 15 So they took the money and did as they were directed. And this story has been spread among the Jews to this day. Matthew 28: 11-15 ESV

Matthew 28: 11-15 In The Telling

…19Your righteousness reaches to the heavens, O God, You who have done great things. Who, O God, is like You? 20Though You have shown me many troubles and misfortunes, You will revive me once again. Even from the depths of the earth You will bring me back up. 21You will increase my honor and comfort me once again.… Psalm 71: 19-21

Some of the guard - These are the Roman soldiers who were watching over the tomb. We don't know how many there were, but most likely at least 4, two on and two off for shifts. Since it says, "some", there was probably more. 

Told the chief priests all that had taken place - They were given to the priests to perform this duty, and it was a really short and easy job which would only need to go till Monday. After that it wouldn't matter if the tomb was disturbed, the seal broken, but here they are giving account of what had taken place. There was an earthquake, we were terrified by beings we did not know, frozen in fear. 

So the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking about the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken. – John 2:18-22

…3For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5and that He appeared to Cephas and then to the Twelve.… 1 Corinthians 15: 3-5

They gave a sufficient sum of money to the soldiers - This would be necessary to get them to tell this lie. Saying you slept through an earthquake, while some disciples, who previously abandoned Christ, came and rolled the stone away while you also slept through that was risky. It could lead to severe punishment as a soldier. They also promised to protect them from the governor. Sadly, there is a great claim to investigate here, but their minds are made up. They are fully rejecting the Messiah.

And this story has spread among the Jews to this day - This is still the most common version of the story to deal with Christ's resurrection, but people have offered more since then. The swoon theory is that Christ didn't really die, He just passed out, and so this is why He was able to get out of a sealed tomb. I'm not a doctor, but I think a weekend is probably not enough time to recover from something like crucifixion. He was nailed to a cross, hands and feet, yet He walked with those feet, out of the tomb, and also 7 miles to Galilee. He had been whipped, beaten before the cross and at the end also had a spear shoved into His side, towards His heart, which caused the blood and water to flow. The Romans were professionals, so they knew they had turned over a dead body. All of the gospel writers testify to the Resurrection, but I use to say, as someone not wanting to believe in God, "of course they did, they were His disciples." This is true, but they also testify to their own cowardice, abandoning the Savior, and Peter even denying Him three times. The Jewish leaders actually picked the most plausible story, and this story, Matthew is claiming, some estimate 30 years later when he writes this, was still the standard. It goes further still:

And they were successful at what they did. It was the common knowledge 30 years later when Matthew wrote. And you can even go further into say the year 114 to 165. In those years there was a man living by the name of Justin Martyr, one of the early church fathers. And he writes that this was still among the Jews the most common opinion. He writes this at that time, "You Jews selected men and sent them into all the world proclaiming that a certain atheistic and lawless sect has arisen from one Jesus, a Galilean deceiver whom we crucified, but His disciples stole Him by night from the tomb and deceived men by saying that He is risen from the dead and ascended into heaven." - J Mac 

"So what", you say, well, what did Jesus' followers attest to? Answer - an empty tomb. What did the Jewish leaders, the Roman guards and history attest to? Answer - an empty tomb. Jesus friends and enemies attest to the same thing, and this is not the first or only example of this. The enemies of Christ offer some of the best argument for other miracles as well. Remember, when Christ performed miracles the Jews accused Him of doing it by the power of Satan. They didn't say that He didn't perform miracles, that they witnessed, so they couldn't say that. Even in their own literature, extrabiblical writings, they try to write off the miracles and Who Jesus is.

They despised Him. They despised His origin. They despised His presence. And they despised Him at the end. He was “a man of sorrows.” Nobody gave Him honor and nobody gave Him respect. Nobody important. He had no one in His life that mattered. He hung around with a bunch of ragtag nobodies from Galilee who, seven of whom may well have been fisherman. The rest were uneducated Galileans. And the only non-Galilean in the group was Judas from the town of Carioth. He was the kind of person you just turn your face away from. That’s why we rejected Him.

You know, it got ugly from there. Do you know the Hebrew word for Jesus is Yeshua? Have you heard that? Yeshua. The Jews through history have changed it to Yeshu, Yeshu, which is an acrostic for “let his name be blotted out.” Let his name be blotted out. He is also called Tului, in Hebrew, “the hanged one.” And “cursed is anyone - ” Deuteronomy says “ - who is hanged on a tree.”

Maybe you’ve heard the story about Mary being a hairdresser. This is written in the Talmud, which is the codification of Jewish history. That His mother Mary was a hairdresser who committed adultery with a Roman mercenary named Joseph ben Pandera, produced Yeshu, who learned the magical arts in Egypt and led people astray. That’s a quote from the Jewish Talmud.

They developed early on a prayer, Jewish prayer. “May all Christians be suddenly destroyed without hope and blotted out of the book of life forever.” This is a deep-seated animosity. And it hasn’t been helped through history by what so-called fake Christians have done to the Jews. But they started out with contempt and it’s still there even today. And do you know every Jew knows the story of Jesus so he or she can reject it? I mean, you’re not really a Jew if you don’t know you can’t believe in Jesus. We didn’t esteem Him. That’s an important last line. “He was despised; we did not esteem Him.” That’s the ultimate scorn. You know what that means in Hebrew? He was non-existent. He didn’t even exist. To put it mildly as Paul said in Romans 9:32, “They stumbled over the stumbling stone.” John Macarthur from Behold The Lamb Sermon Sep 29, 2012

…25Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me will live, even though he dies. 26And everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?” 27“Yes, Lord,” she answered, “I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world.”… John 11: 25-27

…8But what does it say? “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: 9that if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10For with your heart you believe and are justified, and with your mouth you confess and are saved.… Romans 10: 8-10