Preached November 8, 2009
from
Matthew 28:11-15

Theme: This passage reminds us that our obedience to the Great Commission will be accompanied by the active challenges of disbelief.

We’re drawing near the end of our study of the Gospel of Matthew. Shortly, we’ll come to the Great Commission of the resurrected Lord to His church—that is that, in light of all we have been told about Him, we are now to obey His command to “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you . . .” (Matthew 28:19-20a).

But before telling us about that Great Commission, Matthew was led by the Holy Spirit to tell the story of this morning’s passage. It’s a story that doesn’t get preached from very often. But its importance to the Great Commission couldn’t be stressed enough.

It tells us about the Roman soldiers that had stood watch at the tomb of our Lord. An angel of the Lord had come down from heaven and rolled away the stone from the Lord’s tomb—leaving those guards shaking and fainting from fear. It tells us that the Lord then met the women who had come to the tomb with the greeting, “Rejoice!”; and commanding them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell My brethren to go to Galilee, and there they will see Me” (Matthew 28:9-10). Matthew goes on to say;

Now while they were going, behold, some of the guard came into the city and reported to the chief priests all the things that had happened. When they had assembled with the elders and consulted together, they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers, saying, “Tell them, ‘His disciples came at night and stole Him away while we slept.’ And if this comes to the governor’s ears, we will appease him and make you secure.” So they took the money and did as they were instructed; and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day (Matthew 28:11-15).

This passage is important because it teaches us that, in our obedience to the Great Commission—whether it be on the foreign mission field, or right here at home from our own friends, or neighbors, or relatives, or work colleagues, or teachers at school—we should expect the work of the gospel to encounter the active challenges of disbelief.

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Let me take just a moment to define what I mean by “disbelief”. A good way to explain it might be to contrast it with something else that is said just before the “Great Commission” passage. If you’ll look at verses 16-17, you’ll read these words:

Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them. When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some doubted (vv. 16-17).

Some people have been bothered by the Bible’s testimony that some of the disciples, who saw the resurrected Jesus, doubted what they saw. They think that it’s bad advertising. But I’m very grateful that the Holy Spirit led Matthew to record those words. Their presence demonstrates the Bible’s integrity. These disciples truly were astonished at what they were seeing! They were struggling with it! They couldn’t believe their eyes! And the fact that such doubting was found in our Lord’s own chosen disciples proves that it’s not something fatal to our relationship with Him. It’s not something inherently hostile to faith. It’s a normal, rational reaction to something miraculous—that someone who had been executed by crucifixion, and was dead and buried, could now present Himself to be alive. It’s something that, when humbly brought before God, will be resolved—and that will even be used by Him to strengthen our faith in Him.

When someone among us struggles with such doubts, we should be patient with them. Given the amazing things that the Bible testifies to us, it would almost irrational to expect someone not to experience doubts. But what we’re seeing in this morning’s passage, on the part of the chief priests and elders, wasn’t simply “doubting” or a matter of having a hard time believing. Rather, it was something hostile to faith. It was a willful decision not to believe. It was a willful choice, in the face of the facts, to reject what the facts were clearly demanding of them, and to refuse to bow to the Lord Jesus Christ.

I think it might be illustrated by what the Lord Jesus said to these very same leaders in Matthew 23:37. He told them,

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing” (Matthew 23:37).

“Disbelief”, as I’m using the word this morning, speaks not so much of a struggle of the mind to accept what the senses are telling it; but rather of a flat, sinful refusal of the will to bow to what the mind clearly recognizes—an unwillingness to believe in Him or come to Him in response to His call.

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Now; there were lots of practical reasons why these Jewish leaders would have wanted to disbelieve the evidence of the resurrection of Jesus. Jesus, for example, had completely upset their economy. He had entered into the temple and turned over the money-changer’s tables and drove out the animals that were being sold. And when they demanded that He give them a sign to show He had the authority to do such a thing, He said, “Destroy this temple [that is, His own body], and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2:19). They would not have wanted to believe the resurrection; because, if He truly was raised from the dead, then they would have to admit that they had defiled the temple, and that He truly did have authority cleanse His Father’s house against their will.

Or think about the political power they would lose if they had admitted that Jesus truly had risen from the dead. Back when they had noted the miracle Jesus had performed in raising Lazarus from the dead, they met together to ask, “What shall we do? For this Man works many signs. If we let Him alone like this, everyone will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and nation” (John 11:47-48). That’s why they asked Pilate to post a guard at His tomb after He was crucified. “Sir,” they said to him, “We remember, while He was still alive, how that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise.’ Therefore command that the tomb be made secure until the third day, lest His disciples come by night and steal Him away, and say to the people, ‘He has risen from the dead.’ So the last deception will be worse than the first” (Matthew 27:63-64). They had reason for not admitting to the resurrection; because, if Jesus truly was truly alive from the dead, then He would have a right to the worship of the people—and they would completely lose their influence over their nation.

Perhaps one of the greatest reasons they would not wish to admit to the truth of the resurrection was because of the moral position that it would have put them in. At His trial, the high priest said to the Lord, “I put You under oath by the living God: Tell us if You are the Christ, the Son of God!” (Matthew 26:65). He answered, “It is as you said. Nevertheless, I say to you, hereafter you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven” (Matthew 27:64). Then, they responded to His words by tearing their clothes, accusing Him of blasphemy, and sentencing Him to death. And now, if they admitted that He had truly risen from the dead, that would mean that they had dared to crucify the Son of God, and that the wrath of a righteous God now rested upon them, and that they would one day see this same Jesus come to earth in power and great glory as their righteous Judge—unless they repented of their murderous deed.

And the same sorts of reasons inhibit the belief of people today. The crucified body of Jesus—dead and crumbling away in a tomb somewhere in the middle-east—would be a threat to no one’s false ‘religious’ or ‘philosophic’ systems; nor to any tyrant’s power over others; nor even to any individual’s personal liberty to live however they want to live and do whatever they want to do. But if He truly is risen from the dead, then He is a threat to all these things! If He is risen from the dead, then all men and women—whoever they may be, or wherever they may live—owe Him their worship and obedience. And so, lots of people today would have plenty of reason for refusing to believe that He is risen from the dead—just as those chief priests and elders would have had reason in their day.

And there’s one more reason for such hard-hearted, willful disbelief that we ought to consider. And that’s that the devil himself—the great enemy of the human soul—labors to harden people’s hearts against the Lord, and keep them from believing the good news about His resurrection. The resurrection is a threat to the devil as well as to hard-hearted people; and as the Bible tells us, “But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them” (2 Corinthians 4:3-4).

And that, dear brothers and sisters, is why this morning’s passage is so important. It illustrates to us that—when we rise up at the Lord’s call, and obey His call to make disciples—we should expect to be challenged by the forces of disbelief. Look closer at this passage, and you’ll see some of the ways that such willful disbelief impacts our work in fulfilling the Great Commission.

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Notice the first thing Matthew tells us. He had just told us about the women who had met the resurrected Lord Jesus. Our risen Savior had commanded them to go and tell His disciples the good news that He was alive; and that He would meet them at Galilee. Then, he writes, “Now while they were going, behold, some of the guard came into the city . . .” (v. 11a).

No sooner did the women obey the Lord’s command to go, then the Roman soldiers went also. And that may seem at first like a minor detail; but it actually illustrates to us the principle: that . . .

1. DISBELIEF WILL BE FOUND ALONG SIDE THE GOSPEL.

Whenever and wherever the gospel is faithfully proclaimed to lost people, we can expect that the devil will soon arrive to set the forces of opposition into motion; and will seek to harden the hearts of those who hear into willful disbelief.

Our Lord illustrated this in His parable of the soils. He said, “Behold, a sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them” (Matthew 13:3-4). Later on, when He was alone with His disciples, He explained; “When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is he who received the seed by the wayside” (v. 19).

And not only did the Lord teach that this would happen; but as we read on in the Scriptures, we see that it was illustrated in the life of the apostle Paul. He himself was a great opponent to the gospel, until the Lord met him, changed his heart, and made him into a great missionary for the very gospel he opposed! And do you remember how, in the Book of Acts, we’re told that he would often enter a Gentile city and begin preaching? Do you remember how, not long after he began, opposition to the gospel would almost always arise, and stir up the crowds against him? Sometimes such violence broke out that Paul and his co-workers would have to flee to another city! This is because whenever a faithful proclamation of the gospel occurs in obedience to the Great Commission, opposition is sure to follow.

Perhaps you have experienced some of this opposition yourself. I remember, back in Bible college, how I first noticed this when I was involved with other students in a street ministry in downtown Portland. We would begin to gather a crowd and start sharing the gospel; and suddenly—it seemed from out of nowhere—someone would step in front of us, face the crowd, and being mocking the things that we were saying. They would try making the crowd laugh at us by comically imitating a preacher; or they would start to openly questioning the things we were saying in some way to disrupt or distract the group. This would never happen with any other kind of meeting—only with a proclamation of the gospel! And I’ve seen this many times since; and in other ways. Sometimes, while the speaker is speaking, someone will  be found off to the side passing out literature that calls the Bible into question; or one of the cults will show up to start demanding the right to share their view.

The message of the resurrected Jesus Christ is a threat to the kingdom of darkness. And whenever it is proclaimed faithfully, some form of willful disbelief will arrive on the scene to oppose it. I believe we should always remember that we’re engaged in a spiritual battle for people’s souls; and recognize that such opposition to the gospel will always come. We should trust God in the face of such opposition, but keep right on faithfully proclaiming the gospel.

Don’t respond to such opposition as if it were something unusual. Take it for a fact that our faithfulness to the Lord’s commission will set the forces of disbelief into action. And recognize that the arrival of such opposition is a sign that we’re proclaiming the truth!

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Now; another thing this passage illustrates to us is how . . .

2. DISBELIEF WILL DULL THE MIND TO THE EVIDENCE (v. 11b).

We’re told that “some of the guard came into the city and reported to the chief priests all the things that had happened” (v. 11b). Apparently a few stayed behind at the tomb, while the others went into the city. And what would have been the things that they would have reported? They would have reported the things that we’re told in verses 2-4;

And behold, there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat on it. His countenance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow. And the guards shook for fear of him, and became like dead men (Matthew 28:2-40).

Now just think of these guards. They were clearly Roman soldiers; because if they were temple guards, they wouldn’t have had to be bribed. And as Roman soldiers, isn’t it interesting that they didn’t go to the Roman governor Pilate; who had commissioned them to guard the tomb? Instead, they went to the chief priests who had requested their services from Pilate in the first place. And the reason would have been obvious. They were commissioned with guarding the tomb, and the tomb was now empty! And what would they tell the governor? Could they go before Pilate and say, “We know you ordered us to seal the tomb and stand guard over the body. But we don’t know what happened to the body; because, you see, a mighty angel came down from the sky . . .!” They most likely wouldn’t have been allowed to stand before the governor long enough to finish such a report!

And the chief priests would have known that these were not men who would have fabricated a silly lie! They’d have known that these soldiers—who were coming to them instead of going to Pilate—were reporting what actually happened. The Roman seal around the tomb truly must have been broken! The stone that had covered the tomb truly must have been rolled away! The body that had been inside the tomb truly must have been gone! The very actions of these chief priests testify that they believed what the guards were telling them! And they also must have known that the disciples did not come and steal the body—otherwise they would have simply urged the soldiers to do their job, and go find the disciples, run them through, and bring the body back!

Clearly, the chief priests had the evidence set before them! And yet, they wouldn’t bow humbly to the implications. Instead, they went into ‘damage-control’ mode! Even though all the rules had now changed, they still sought to preserve the status-quo! This reminds us that hardened, willful disbelief will actually rob a man of his reason! He becomds so opposed to the implications, that he won’t do what the evidence logically demands of him!

I think here of Paul’s own testimony. He once admitted that he knew something of Jesus during his unbelieving days. He was formerly a blasphemer of the Savior. He even went from city to city and actively persecuted those who believed on Him. But Paul writes;

And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has enabled me, because He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry, although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man; but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief (1 Timothy 1:12-13).

He was blinded to the truth, and dulled to the evidence, by the ignorance that was in him through “unbelief”. Such willful disbelief dulls the mind to the truth. We’ve all experience that. But praise God that, on some of us, He has had mercy, has allowed us to truly hear the truth, and has given us the grace to believe!

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Notice a third thing we learn from this passage is that . . .

3. DISBELIEF WILL CONSPIRE TO OPPOSE TRUTH (vv. 12-14).

Even though they clearly had the evidence of what had happened set before them, these leaders nevertheless planned together to formulate a lie. We’re told, “When they had assembled with the elders and consulted together, they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers, saying, ‘Tell them [or, more accurately, 'Say'], “His disciples came at night and stole Him away while we slept.” And if this comes to the governor’s ears, we will appease him and make you secure’” (vv. 12-14).

And there’s several things to notice about this plan. First of all, it seems that their opposition to our Lord was getting more and more expensive! First, they paid thirty pieces of silver to our Lord’s betrayer. And then, when Judas regretted his act and threw the money back at them, they felt they couldn’t keep it because it was blood money. And now, they’re having to raise “a large sum of money”—literally, “sufficient pieces of silver” to bribe the guards. And because the lives of these guards were on the line, it would have taken a lot of pieces of silver to be “sufficient”!

Second, their opposition to the Lord was getting a bit complicated. Do you remember what the reason was that they gave to Pilate for asking that the tomb be guarded? It was “lest His disciples come by night and steal Him away, and say to the people, ‘He has risen from the dead’” (Matthew 27:64). And now that He had risen from the dead, we’re told that they bribed the solders to say “His disciples came at night and stole Him away while we slept”! A conspiracy to lie can become very difficult to keep straight after a while!

And third, their opposition to the Lord was making them absurd. They were bribing the soldiers to tell a story that was patently false; and that would never stand up in court. Just think of it. There may have been as many as sixteen soldiers guarding the tomb. Would they all have been asleep at once? Could the disciples actually have broken the Roman seal, slipped past all of the sleeping guards, silently rolled a one-and-a-half to two-ton stone uphill in the trench in which it sat, slip into the tomb, remove the body of the Lord while leaving all the wrappings inside, and sneak away with it without waking a single guard? And there’s one more thing. If the testimony of the guards would be that the Lord’s disciples stole the body while they slept, then how—if they were asleep—could they have known that it was the disciples who had done it?

But this wasn’t about being logical or rational. It was about joining together in a common bond of agreed and active disbelief. When I think of this, I think of the prayer that the early Christians prayed; after these very same chief priests and elders later told them to stop preaching about the resurrected Jesus:

“Lord, You are God, who made heaven and earth and the sea, and all that is in them, who by the mouth of Your servant David have said:

‘Why did the nations rage,
And the people plot vain things
The kings of the earth took their stand,
And the rulers were gathered together
Against the LORD and against His Christ.’

For truly against Your holy Servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose determined before to be done. Now, Lord, look on their threats, and grant to Your servants that with all boldness they may speak Your word, by stretching out Your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of Your holy Servant Jesus” (Acts 4:24-30).

That was a prayer that God honored. And it should be our prayer too, when faced with the plots and conspiracies of disbelief, as we obey the Lord’s Great Commission.

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Now; there’s one more thing illustrated to us in this morning’s passage; that . . .

4. DISBELIEF WILL SPREAD DESTRUCTIVE LEGENDS (v. 15).

The story that the chief priests and elders concocted back then was ridiculous. And even today, as you know, some of the most ridiculous arguments are put forth in an effort to give a “natural explanation” for the things that the Bible tells us—not because of sincere doubts, but rather because of an unwillingness to believe. When it comes to the resurrection of Jesus—as with all the things the Bible teaches us—it truly takes more faith to be an unbeliever than it does to simply believe!

But nevertheless, the story was concocted; and the soldiers declared it; and it spread like a bad email hoax. As Matthew writes; “So they took the money and did as they were instructed; and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day” (v. 15). This particular “saying” was still being spread into the second century; when the early church father Justin Martyr had to write to defend the faith against it. It’s still being readily accepted by some today; and it—along with many other “legends” and “false gospels” continue to harden the hearts of some against the gospel.

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The point, dear brothers and sisters, is that we’re to understand that when we obey the Great Commission, we’re to expect to experience such challenges of active disbelief—but we are to keep on being faithful to the call.

Look at that Great Commission once more. Note how, in verse 19, our Lord begins it by asserting, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.” That’s certainly something that affirms His own authority over our own lives. If He calls us to go, we must go! But it also teaches us that we must keep on going even when the people of this world order us to stop! When men who oppose the gospel in disbelief tell us not to proclaim the message that the Son of God has given us to deliver, we must obey Him rather then men; because all authority in heaven and earth has been given to Him.

And what’s more, look at how He ends the Great Commission. He gives us the encouraging promise, “. . . [A]nd lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” That’s meant to be an encouragement to us not only through knowing that He’s there to support us in the work, but also in that His presence upholds us during the times when we will be opposed in the doing of it.

So let’s be faithful to our Lord’s call to proclaim Him to this world—and let’s be confident that the same mighty Savior who is with us is also wonderfully able to transform the hard hearts of those who disbelieve.