Victory And Resurrection

Questions This Sermon Answers:

1. What does Matthew 28 actually claim happened on the first day of the week?

Matthew records a real event in space and time: Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to the tomb, an angel rolled back the stone, and the body of Jesus was gone. The angel declared, “He is not here; for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay” (Matthew 28:6, NKJV). The Reformed faith treats the bodily resurrection not as a symbol or an inner experience, but as historical fact, attested by eyewitnesses and central to the gospel.

2. Why does the bodily resurrection matter for our justification?

Because Christ’s resurrection is God’s public verdict that the price of sin was fully paid. Paul writes that Jesus “was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification” (Romans 4:25, NKJV). Had He stayed in the grave, His death would prove no acceptable sacrifice. The empty tomb is the Father’s receipt, declaring the debt settled and the believer counted righteous in Christ alone, by grace alone, through faith alone.

3. How is the resurrection of Christ the ground of the believer’s own hope?

Christ rose not merely for Himself but as the pattern and pledge for His people. “But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1 Corinthians 15:20, NKJV). The firstfruits guarantee the full harvest. Because the grave could not hold the Head, it will not finally hold the members of His body. The Christian faces death as a defeated enemy and awaits a bodily resurrection like His.

4. What is the meaning of the angel’s phrase “as He said”?

It anchors the resurrection in the trustworthiness of Christ’s own word. Jesus had repeatedly foretold that He would be killed and rise the third day. The angel’s “He is risen, as He said” (Matthew 28:6, NKJV) shows that the empty tomb vindicates every promise He made. If Christ kept His word about rising, His people may rest every other promise on the same faithful character, including His pledge never to lose one whom the Father has given Him.

5. Why did the risen Christ appear first to the women?

Matthew records that as the women obeyed the angel, “Jesus met them, saying, ‘Rejoice!’ So they came and held Him by the feet and worshiped Him” (Matthew 28:9, NKJV). In a culture that discounted female testimony, the Lord honored these faithful women as the first witnesses. The detail also commends the account’s truthfulness, for no one inventing a legend would have chosen witnesses whose word carried little legal weight in that day.

6. What does “All authority has been given to Me” reveal about Christ?

It reveals the risen Christ as the enthroned King. He declares, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth” (Matthew 28:18, NKJV). The resurrection is also an exaltation; the crucified Servant is now the reigning Lord over every realm. The Westminster Confession (8.4) teaches that Christ, having finished His work, rose again and was exalted, so that the Great Commission rests on the actual, present authority of a living King.

7. Why does the Great Commission use a Trinitarian baptismal formula?

Because the one God who saves is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Christ commands baptizing “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19, NKJV). The singular “name” with three persons confesses one God in three persons. The Westminster Confession (2.3) affirms this very doctrine, and disciples are marked with the sign of the covenant in the name of the Triune God who claims them as His own.

8. How does “I am with you always” connect to the opening of Matthew?

It forms a deliberate bookend with the Gospel’s beginning. Matthew opened by naming the child “Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us” (Matthew 1:23, NKJV), and closes with the risen Lord’s promise, “I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20, NKJV). The God who came near in the incarnation now pledges abiding presence by His Spirit to the church on its mission until He returns.

9. Why were the guards bribed, and what does their lie expose?

The chief priests gave the soldiers money to say, “His disciples came at night and stole Him away while we slept” (Matthew 28:13, NKJV). The cover-up is self-defeating, for sleeping men could not testify to what happened while they slept. The episode exposes the difference between saving faith, which receives the risen Christ, and unbelief, which expends great effort to explain the resurrection away rather than bow to the One it cannot deny.

10. What does the opening of the tombs in Matthew 27 add to the resurrection account?

At Christ’s death the earth shook and “the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised” (Matthew 27:52, NKJV), coming out after His resurrection. This striking sign testifies that the death and rising of Jesus has power over the grave itself. It previews the great resurrection to come and confirms that the One who conquered death holds the keys, so that His people’s graves are not their final dwelling.