The Way of Hope

Introduction

Have you ever had something happen that was so unbelievable that you couldn’t believe your eyes? Whatever it is you think you’re seeing, you just have to think you’re seeing it wrong. It can’t be right. A man was waiting with his daughter out by the road for the bus. And as he’s waiting there, his dog runs out to him, runs just past him into the road and gets hit by a truck passing by. He scoops the dog up, quickly takes it and buries it in the yard. They had to leave for the weekend. It was a Friday. Leave on the trip. The family’s devastated. A couple days later, as they’re driving back to the house, they approach the driveway, and there’s the dog sitting on the steps.

Apparently he had just been knocked cold out by the truck and dug himself out of the shallow grave and was there waiting for them when they got back. There’s all kinds of stories similar to this. There’s another one in Alabama where a dog ran away and couldn’t find him, and they look for weeks, they finally give up, and a couple months later, someone contacts them and says, you know, I think these are the remains of your dog. They bury the dog, and then two years later, a shelter calls. Microchip connects to these people, and they say, We’ve got your dog here. Unbelievable. I mean, how can something like this happen? These sorts of things are something similar, maybe not that extreme. It’s probably happened in your life, where you see something, and it’s just hard to imagine that what you’re seeing is real.

And I can only imagine what the disciples would have been thinking when they’re seeing Jesus stand before them. When they watched him, they watched him get beat to a pulp, drugged down a street with a cross on his back and nailed to it. He’s even told them, leading up to this, that all this is going to happen. He’s going to die and he’s going to be in the grave for three days, and then he’s going to come back to life. He’s told them this multiple times, and yet they’re not there at the grave waiting. Some women go to the grave. They go to see the tomb. The disciples are huddled up in fear, hiding. They don’t seem too hopeful about what Jesus has told them, or maybe they just don’t understand it.

They’re not putting two and two together. I’m not sure what all the reasons are, but the disciples don’t really seem to think that what Jesus is going to do is three days after he is brutally murdered, suddenly come out of the tomb and be the Lord of life. They’re not there for that. The women have to run and go and tell them that Jesus has risen. Very interesting. The Jesus story just seems impossible. And how could it be that someone who is nailed to a cross, died, and thrown into a tomb, could now be alive and walking the earth again.

We’ve come to the conclusion of the book of Matthew as we’ve been working through this book over quite a few weeks. That we ended in chapter 27 with saying this little concept of hope that death, part of the message here is that death is not the end. And there were kind of foreshadowings of that in the story in Matthew 27. And now we’re going to read it here in Matthew 28 when this really does come about. That the message here and the message of hope for us is that death is not the end. There’s something beyond this. And Jesus Himself, of course, is the pinnacle of this reality. We know in the story of John that he raised Lazarus from death. There were others throughout the ministry of Jesus who were raised from the dead.

1. A Story and a Counter Story

Signs of this greatest feat, this greatest power, where Jesus himself is resurrected from his own death and murder by evil and wicked people. But all of that gives the message to us that all the things that we’re experiencing here, what we’re going through now is not the end. There’s something more that we’re working toward. But I want us to take just a few minutes this morning to think about what story we will believe when it comes to Jesus, because that’s a main factor of what’s going on here in Matthew 28. I’m going to read some of this text here in just a minute. But I want you to understand there’s a story and a counter story going on in Matthew 28. You have the story of Jesus and his death and burial and resurrection, and then you have another story being told.

That Jesus is a liar, he’s a deceiver, he’s a fraud. And so you have two messages being spread to the world. What message, what story do you believe? The Pharisees and the Sadducees, the chief priests and the Pharisees were told in chapter 27, verse 62, come to Pilate at the end of 27. And they’re worried. You know, he said, after three days he’s going to come back to life. We want to make sure that doesn’t happen. Right, these are the kind of people they are. We’re going to seal the tomb. We want to guard. They go the extra mile to make sure everything that was a pun, by the way, but they go the extra mile to make sure everything is done, so Jesus and his ministry cannot continue.

And yet, here’s what we find in Matthew twenty-eight and verse one. Now on the after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb, and behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning and his clothing white as snow. And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men. But the angel said to the women, Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead, and behold, he is going before you to Galilee.

There you will see him. See, I have told you. So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples, and behold, Jesus met them and said, Greetings. And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshipped him. Then Jesus said to them, Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me. While they were going, behold, some of the guard went into the city and told the chief priests all that had taken place. And when they had assembled with the elders and taken counsel, they gave a sufficient sum of money to the soldiers and said, Tell people, his disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep.

And if this comes to the governor’s ears, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble. So they took the money and did as they were directed. And this story has been spread among the Jews to this day. Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him, they worshipped him. But some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you, and behold, I am with you always to the end of the age.

The one story is he died, he came back to life, and now he’s appearing to people.

And you shouldn’t believe any of this fraud that’s being perpetrated by Jesus before he died, and now his disciples after.

2. The Truth Can Withstand Questioning

A little bit deeper foundation to what most of us likely already believe. But maybe there’s some here who don’t. Maybe you question this, maybe you have doubts about whether this actually happened. And I want to present a few things. It’s certainly not going to be completely comprehensive, but thinking about the stories as they’re being told, what can we trust? What can we actually believe? And the foundational principle of this is that the truth can withstand questioning. It’s way easier to tell the truth than it is to tell a lie. And I believe that’s one of the biggest testimonies to the reality of Jesus and the resurrection, that this is the truth, that this story can withstand scrutiny. It can withstand criticisms and questioning. How did this actually happen and what’s going on here?

And the counter story actually really can’t. There are a lot of problems with the story as it’s being made up, that the spin that’s happening that the rulers and leaders are trying to do to really kind of save face. They have rejected Jesus and his teaching, and they’ve said none of this is going to happen. You shouldn’t believe this guy. And when all of this takes place, we have the story as it’s being told here by Matthew, of course, that they’re bribing people and they’re lying and deceiving. But there’s details even beyond that we could get into that show there are some serious problems with the story as it is told and spread throughout the ancient world. As I mentioned earlier at the end of chapter 27, they go to Pilate and they say, we want to make sure this doesn’t happen.

This is not a situation where Jesus is murdered and he’s thrown in a tomb and nobody pays attention, and then a few days later, the tomb’s open and this guy’s not there anymore. I mean, that would be amazing in and of itself. But they have doubled down on this now where they have sealed the tomb. The rock is rolled over the front face of this, and they put something on that, so nobody can tamper with it. That’s the concept. And if you do tamper with it, there are serious punishments that come with that. It’s kind of like a king that sends out an edict or something like that, and he takes his signet ring and he seals it. And let’s just assume you’re the messenger, and if you bring that, and that seal is broken before you get it to whom it’s supposed to be to, you’re in big trouble.

The whole point is you don’t break the seal. He sealed it for a purpose because it’s supposed to go to a certain person and you’re not supposed to mess with it. And that’s the idea of what’s going on here with the tomb. That’s why they want it sealed. You seal the tomb, it’s not tampered with. Not only that, they put a guard around the tomb just to make extra sure his disciples can’t do the very thing they later say that they did. Begin to start seeing the problem here. If the guards are asleep, as they claim, how could they give any kind of testimony to what actually happened? Remember, this is their story. This is the counter story, this is the spin. I mean, it’s a complete fraud in terms of what they’re saying anyway.

Guards were not going to go to sleep on duty, especially a group of them. that was seriously punishable, which is why they say, hey, if this comes to the governor’s ears, we’ll take care of you. Don’t worry about it. This is not any anybody that has any kind of job like this, you understand the seriousness of what it would mean if you fell asleep and didn’t actually do your job. But even beyond that, to then claim that while you were asleep, you know what happened. I mean, it’s not like they have surveillance video back then and are monitoring the things that are going on. Even then, we don’t know what happens sometimes in today’s world, at least people claim. But here’s the thing they don’t know.

They’re asleep, supposedly. So how can they tell you the disciples came and stole the body? But that’s the spin. That’s the lie. Why don’t they just come up with some counter evidence? If he’s really still dead, where’s the body? Why not arrest the disciples? If the disciples stole the body, let’s go arrest them and question them. None of that happens. Because it’s all a spin, it’s all a lie. There’s no truth to what’s being told. There’s no counter messages that go against the gospels. There’s nothing existing that counters the first century descriptions of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And then maybe from a psychological standpoint, what do the disciples gain from this? They’re going to go out and start lying. They know they’ve stolen the body of Jesus, but then they’re going to go out on the world and start telling this message that gets them brutally murdered and thrown in prison and punished everywhere they go.

What are they gaining from this? You would think as they begin to see what’s going to happen, you know, as Nero and others down the line start doing things like throwing them in the arena and they’re being torn apart by dogs. We’ll say more about that maybe here in just a few minutes. That they would say, hey, just kidding. That this didn’t actually happen. It’s a joke. We’re going to move on now. We don’t really actually believe any of this. Why would you die for something you know is a lie?

And yet, from the very beginning, we see James being murdered. We see Stephen giving his life as he gives testimony to the resurrection of Jesus. Why is it that these disciples, one after another, are willing to go to prison and to go to death? Because of this story. It doesn’t line up. And interestingly, even the counter story, even the lie simply admits the tomb was found empty. It’s kind of amazing. They don’t even try to deny it. The reality was there was nobody in the tomb. The stone was rolled away. They don’t even deny that. They just come up with some reason why it didn’t actually involve Jesus coming back to life, which they have no evidence for. Jesus was a real person. And the reality is there’s no reasonable way to explain away the story of his resurrection.

3. The Ancient World Does Not Deny Jesus Existed

There’s a lot more detailed versions of going into all the different theories about Jesus’ death and how he could have come back to life, even though maybe he didn’t actually die. And there’s there’s books out there that go in depth about all the problems of those theories. And so I’m not going to go into all of that. But I want to point out that it is completely obvious in the ancient world that Jesus, first of all, is a real person, and the events surrounding what happened to him are all very real. He was condemned and executed by Pontius Pilate. Pagans in the ancient world know this. They know he was someone who gathered a huge following. A following that he still has even today. So why is that?

This is something that people in the ancient world are very aware of, whether they are Jews or pagans. Of course, Christians would obviously believe this. Tacitus in his annals, he mentions, I just gave you a brief clip of this here from his writing. He’s an ancient historian. He mentions Christ, and he had undergone the death penalty by the sentence of Pontius Pilate. But he also mentions all sorts of things surrounding. If you go read this yourself, and you go to Book 15 and chapter 44, and you can read surrounding content, he talks about basically this is the idea of Nero and how Nero’s blaming Christians for things. He’s subjecting them to all sorts of terrible deaths, even hanging them on crosses, then burning their bodies at night, putting them in the arena, and dogs are tearing them apart, all sorts of horrible things to try to shift the blame from him and the burning of Rome to people that the Romans didn’t really like so much.

And by the end of it, Tacitus mentions that the people themselves actually have pity for the Christians because they know Nero’s guilty.

And the way he’s treating them is so horrible that the people in the city are beginning to feel bad for the Christians. But what I what I want to gather from here is not even necessarily all those details. It’s just the reality that Tacitus is admitting that there was this Christ that everybody followed. He was executed, he was killed, and he has this following in Rome that continues to the time of Nero, and now they’re becoming the scapegoats. See, it’s not necessarily that you need someone in history saying all of these things are real or Jesus was resurrected or whatever. It’s kind of the ancillary details that show you this is reality. This guy actually existed. And the things being claimed in Scripture are things that actually happened.

Because even pagans of the day are mentioning them. They know these stories. Justin Martyr in his dialogue with Trifo verifies what is the continuing spin. This is the story. The counter story to the resurrection of Jesus remains even in AD 155 to be that the disciples stole the body by night. This is the message of Jews like Tripho. Now, whether Trifo is an actual person or kind of a foil for Justin to use, it remains the reality that this is the dominant belief of those who don’t believe in Jesus. He says, You have sent chosen and ordained men throughout all the world to proclaim that a godless and lawless heresy had sprung from one Jesus, a Galilean deceiver, whom we crucified. He was crucified. They know this.

This is reality. But his disciples stole him by night from the tomb. This is their explanation. Now we can just go back a slide, if I’m not going to do that, just to remind you of how fallacious that idea is. How do they know the disciples stole the body? Why would the disciples steal the body and then subject themselves to torture and death for a story they know is false? It really makes absolutely no sense. But this is the story as it’s being told in the ancient world. Plenty of the younger verifies the reality of Christ and his followers. Sends letters talking about how real Christians would never deny the Christ and would suffer greatly for their views. Why would they do that if it’s all a hoax?

If it’s all false. The Babylonian Talmud, this is around A.D. 200, speaks of Jesus the Nazarene. And essentially what they’re doing in the Talmud is talking about, I guess what you would say how it should have ended, you know, what should have happened to Jesus and the way his execution should have taken place, according to the law. But of course, in the process of talking about how it should have happened, what they’re admitting is that it did happen. That Jesus of Nazareth was a real person. And he really did die. Now they don’t want to talk about the resurrection or any of those kinds of things because they don’t believe in him. This is a hostile testimony to the reality of Jesus’ existence. But what I want us to see here is that the ancient world does not deny Jesus existed.

They don’t deny that he had a following.

4. Doubts and Fears Don't Mean All Hope Is Lost

And then by the power of God, he was resurrected to newness of life, demonstrating his power and his glory. That should give all of us hope. That whatever we’re going through here and the things that we face now, it’s not the end. There’s something greater, there’s something better. What story are you going to believe? What story makes the most sense to you? No, that being said, I want to point out the realities within the story itself that Matthew records for us. Just because this, I think, has the best evidence or makes the most sense, doesn’t mean you’re never going to have any doubts. Or that you won’t have fears surrounding the message of Jesus. And we see right in the text that his own disciples do.

I mean, like I said from the very beginning, there’s things that happen that we look at them and we just say, I can’t even understand how that took place. It doesn’t make sense. I’m not even processing it in my brain. You bury the dog and you come back two days later, it’s sitting on the porch. How can that make any sense? But there he was. You can understand how in life where people die and they don’t come back to life, you would wonder am I actually seeing this for real? And the gospels don’t try to hide that. They willingly point out that some of the disciples struggle with this. They’re shocked by this reality, even though Jesus told them it was going to happen multiple times.

They’re still shocked when they come into the presence of this person they know was killed, and now here he is again.

The truth can withstand scrutiny and questioning. And just because I have some doubts and fears about it doesn’t mean it’s not true. What it means is I need to lean into those fears and doubts, investigate them more if they really are troubling to me, and seek answers and seek truth to the best of my ability. At the very end, before the statement that we’re all very familiar with of Jesus about having all authority in heaven and on earth, it’s, I guess, surprising to me that the very previous phrase is they saw and they worshiped him, but some doubted.

Just because you have doubts or you have some fears doesn’t mean all hope is lost, and that there are no answers. And that the things that maybe you’ve thought are true just aren’t true. As humans, we just we have doubts at times. We question and we wonder. We’re not sure if the things that we’ve even seen with our own eyes are true. And what the gospels are helping us to see is that’s human. That’s normal. If you didn’t have any doubts about someone who died coming back to life, that’d be a little surprising. Because that doesn’t really happen. That’s sort of the whole point. That is the gospel message. That Jesus came and he lived like a human and he was killed, he died, and then he wasn’t dead anymore.

That’s what’s miraculous and amazing about it. It makes a lot of sense that we as humans would struggle with this idea of some of these things being true. The angel and Jesus himself, when he appears to people in the text, says, Don’t be afraid. I mean, let me ask you this. If someone that you knew and loved and you knew they died, tomorrow you walked out and they were standing at your doorstep, how would you feel? We’d probably be a little bit afraid. These are not the things that happen in life. This is not normal. And so it makes a lot of sense in the story when they come and the tomb is open and there’s this angel sitting on top of the stone. That’s odd.

For them to say, hey, don’t be afraid. I think they’d be afraid. This is not normal. And then as they’re walking out, I mean, they’ve just seen an angel, and he tells them to go and tell the disciples the things that they’re seeing here, how Jesus isn’t in the tomb anymore. And as they’re going out, Jesus walks up and says, Greetings. If we’re honest, we would be terrified. This is not the way life typically goes. They’re all very aware of what happened to Jesus, and now he’s standing before them talking to them.

5. Go and Tell

He says, Don’t be afraid. But go and tell the truth. One of the things I noticed as I was reading through this a number of times over the last few weeks was this combination of statements. That’s all through Matthew 28. It’s a very short chapter. It’s one of the shortest ones we’ve we’ve looked at as we’ve gone through the Gospel of Matthew. But everybody’s saying to go and tell stuff. All the way to the end, actually. And it’s true of the story, the actual story, and the counter story. Go and tell. And so we have a couple questions here. What story are you going to believe? Are you going to believe the story of Jesus, or are you going to believe the counter story? And then what are you going to do with it?

That’s part of what’s happening here as we work through the end of Matthew 28. What are you going to do with the story you believe? Because these are the options. Either Jesus is a complete hoax, he’s a liar, you shouldn’t trust him. He’s a fraudster, and he has perpetrated the greatest deception in human history. I mean, just think about it. We are a couple thousand years after his crucifixion. And if this is all fake and false. Millions and millions of people have been believing this for thousands of years. I mean, his deception alone is almost miraculous, if that’s the case. That people would still believe a guy who was a total liar. So that’s option one. The other option is that this is the truth. He was a real person.

He really died. He was crucified and he was buried and he’s resurrected on the third day, and he appeared to all kinds of people, and there’s no denying what they saw. That’s option two. What story are you going to believe? Either way, whether you believe option one or you believe option two, you should go and tell it to the world. If he is a fraudster who has made all of this up, and he is a deceiver, he’s not a good person. And if it’s not the truth, I should be telling the world it’s not the truth. They should be looking for something else because this guy ain’t it. And I should be telling people this is not the reality. But if it is true, there is no story that’s more amazing than a guy who came to the world, who is God in the flesh, who gives himself up for all humanity to free us from the slavery of sin, is brutally murdered, and then comes back to life.

Go and tell it.

That the rulers are liars and deceivers. They’re greedy and they bribe and they do all sorts of underhanded things to get their story to spread. Now, clearly that’s Matthew’s depiction. That’s what he wants us to see here. But that’s what I believe is true. And they have their own skin in the game and they want to save face. They want to do things for their own good, as we’ve seen all throughout the story, and so they desperately want them to go and tell the counter story, the spin, that Jesus didn’t actually resurrect from death, and that he’s not actually still alive, and that you shouldn’t believe this, you should believe them and follow them. But Jesus ends the story with his disciples when he appears to them with the other side of that.

If you believe this, which he’s standing right in front of them, it would be hard not to, even though they have some doubts. You believe that he has all authority in heaven and on earth. And you should want to go out and tell everyone about this. This is what Jesus is telling his disciples. Go find other people who also want to follow me, who believe that this story is real. And here’s what you do. You baptize them and you teach them. This is the way you go about this. You make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son of the Holy Spirit. That’s by the authority of deity. And you’re teaching them to observe all that I’ve commanded you.

Conclusion

Because this is a real story, you need to believe Jesus is the Son of God and that He’s the Lord of life. The things that He say, we need to know those things, and we need to follow them with every ounce of our being. And then He promises them that He will be with them always. So what story do you believe? Jesus died. He was beaten just short of death. His body was a mangled mess. His side was pierced, and blood and water ran out. Professional killers knew he was dead. He was buried. His body was wrapped and put in a tomb with a massive stone rolled in front of it. There’s no way out from the inside. He was there for three days. The grave was sealed and guarded for the precise purpose to make sure his disciples could not take the body.

God raised him up. The authorities conspired to bribe people to spread a known lie to cover their tracks. But the reality is this story changed the world forever. And that’s why we’re still talking about it. So will it change you? That’s the answer. That’s the question we have to ask and answer in our life. From the beginning of Matthew, Jesus has showed us the way. It’s a way of mercy and humility, clarity, faithfulness. It’s a way that leads through suffering to peace, to rest for our souls. And at the cross, obedience looked like defeat. Silence looked like loss, but Matthew showed us this was never the end of the road. The story was not going to end there. The empty tomb declares the truth. The way of Jesus is the way that leads from death to life.

It’s the reversal of the death that came through the sin of Adam and Eve. He is the answer to that problem. He changes everything. It’s a way grounded in reality, sustained by hope. And Jesus’ way is then carried forward generation after generation by those who live the resurrected life in the present. So as we conclude the book of Matthew, I just want to ask you to think about this. Are you part of the way? Are you following Jesus, following in the footsteps of Jesus, doing things his way? And if not, Jesus invites you to follow him. To be shaped by his teaching, to declare allegiance to him through baptism, dying to yourself, buried with him, to walk a new life, united with him in his resurrection.

He is the way, the truth, and the life. And he is the only way to the Father. He is the only way of hope.

Talking about how the first disciples carried forward the way of Jesus.

But I want to end this morning asking you, do you believe? And if you do, how have you acted on that belief? If you believe he’s the answer and you’ve not been baptized into Jesus Christ with your sins taken away, you need to do that this morning. That’s the beginning. It’s not the end, it’s the beginning. It’s where this life starts. And there’s tons of people in this room this morning that’d be glad to help you with that and want you to help them with their walk and their journey of faith and following Jesus Christ. And if you began that walk and you have gotten off the path, if you haven’t been living according to the way, the way you know you should, now is a time to make that known.

You can do it publicly. You can talk privately to our elders or to a confidant that you have here and begin living anew the right way, the way of Jesus, the way of hope. Can we help you this morning? Come now as we stand and we sing.