Lesson 40

We will be, we will go ahead and turn to the New Testament. We will be in the Gospel of Matthew. Matthew chapter 27. As you're turning there, this will give time for more folks to tune in. Which verse? Well, if you have to know, it's verse 62. Matthew. This will be our last lesson in the Genesis to Jesus. And then after, because we will finish up the resurrection and the Great Commission today. And then after this, we'll start what I call building on Jesus. So you have Genesis to Jesus, and then you have building on Jesus. And that will take us to the next level of the study of God's Word. Into the next chapter, so to speak. And if everyone's good with that, we'll just start that next week. All right. Danny Deets. Good to have you with us, Brother Danny. All right, well I'm glad you're all for that, Miss Kelly. Again, in Matthew, if you're just tuning in, Matthew chapter 27, we'll begin in verse 62 this morning. You weren't planning. It is 62. It is 62, yeah, I wouldn't plan. I'm trying to give them time to make sure, because usually the Great Lakes are on here. I want to make sure that we don't start without them. All right, well if someone sees Pete and Michelle tune in, if y'all would let them know, comment on there where we are for them so they can catch up. We'll go ahead and get started. So last week we left off with Jesus being buried in the tomb. So here's what happens. When Jesus was born, His birth, everything's substitutionary. So when He was born, He was born as our substitute. So the manger, whoops, hang on here, you can tell Sherry's not, Sherry's at the hospital. Oh no, that's fine. That doesn't bother me a bit. Actually, there's sometimes I enjoy my previous writing up there because I get to point back. And I've had some complicated writings. I've come back to point back to them. They're all gone. So that's okay. You don't have to mess with it. Well, you can tell Sherry's not here. So no, that's fine. So the manger, when Jesus was born the manger, His birth was our substitute. We were born in Adam, in sin, in bondage to sin, Satan, and death. We were born with a fallen nature. Jesus' birth was our substitute. He was born from a virgin as the Son of God, not the Son of Adam as we were. So that took care of our birth. Then you have our life. All the things that you and I would ever do, everything we ever thought, said, did our entire life, my dad and I were talking Friday on my way home from work, and my dad was talking about how if he could, he would go back and change some things in his life and redo them. I would too. Perhaps you all would. Anyone in here like that? Yeah, that's pretty much everybody. Jonathan, even you? All right. You want to share that with us publicly? No, I'm kidding. So, you know, Jesus had no regrets. He didn't have the life that we have. He lived a perfect life in our place. So Jesus' earthly ministry, I did not purposely make that an M, but it sure came in handy. Jesus' perfect ministry, you know, that was his life, the perfect life, sinlessness. We'll put here perfection, that he lived that perfect life in our place. Well, then we still have the issue of the penalty of our sin. So when he goes to the cross, I don't have something with an M there, but he goes to the cross, and now what's he doing? He's overcome our birth in Adam. He's overcome our sinful life, and now he overcomes the penalty for our sin, and he dies in our place. That checks that off the box. But now, what is the big problem we have? That is, we're all dying. Our flesh in Adam, I mean, we inherited this flesh. That's what's real. And so by doing all of this, he overcomes the legal obstacles for us to be accepted by God. Because everything's perfect. Everything's sinless. Everything's holy. He did that in our name as if he were you, all right? And so that's the legal obstacles that blocked us from being accepted by God. But there's not just legal problems. There's also very practical issues, right? Because we're all going to die. And so Jesus didn't just take our place in conception and birth in our life, and not only did he stand before the judge in court for us, because when he was on the cross, I mean, God sentenced him, and he stood before God and was judged for our life that we would live. But then he goes to the grave. Oops. He goes to the grave because that's where we're going. And what he's going to do in the grave, he's got to overcome that grave. Years ago, my grandparents and my mother died when I was very young. I have fond memories of them, but they're, you know, few memories. And so years ago, as an adult, I knew where they were buried, but, you know, it had been so long. I thought, you know, I'm going to go look up their grave spot and go visit their grave. So I go, and they give me this big map, you know, look up where they're buried at, and I drive out there, and I go find the graveside, and there I see their names. And I'm standing literally over their bodies. They're just a few feet below me. The grandparents that used to play games with me picked me up from school when I wasn't feeling well, just different things, and they're just a few feet below me. And I'm standing there, and I'm so close to them, and I'm absolutely powerless to pull them out of that grave and talk to them and set them on their feet. Absolutely powerless. They're absolutely powerless to do the same. And then you -- that's just me, and that's just them. Then you look all over this acreage out there, and there's people with the same stories. My wife, we already own our grave plots. Perhaps you all do, too, because we know that's where we're going. You don't -- we'll set you out somewhere. That's all right. But, you know, we already own our grave plots because we know -- yeah, we know where we're going. And whether you're going to be stuck in the ground or whether you're going to be cremated and returned to dust, it's all the same. But we know where we're going. We're going back to the dirt, going back to the ground. And we're powerless to overcome it. Maybe you've got a loved one in a jar somewhere at the house, and they've been cremated. You can sit there and look. Man, you can reconstitute that dust all you want to. You can just add water, stir, fan it, and everything. It's not going to happen. Now I don't get it back. But you know what? In the Gospel, Jesus made a way for us to live again, for our bodies to be restored, for our loved ones to come out of the grave, for us to come out of the grave and overcome that death. He not only overcome the legal obstacles here, he went to the tomb in our place too. He was buried in our place too. His body was laid in the ground just like us. He did that so he could overcome the grave on our behalf, that great obstacle that every one of us face, so that when we go to the grave, we can go there and hope. So let's go ahead and look here now in Matthew 27, 62. Now the next day that followed the day of preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees came together into Pilate. Now remember, Pilate was the one that sentenced Jesus to death at the Jews' demand. The day of the preparation, it says the day that followed the preparation. The day of preparation meant the preparation for the Sabbath. So before the Sabbath day, you made certain preparations, so on the Sabbath you could rest. So the day that followed the Sabbath, what is that? Well, that's a Sunday, the first day of the week. That's why we're meeting here on Sunday today. It's the first day of the week. So, excuse me, the day after the Sabbath, there are actually two Sabbaths. So the next day that followed the day of the preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees came together into Pilate saying, "Sir, we remember that the deceiver said," they're calling Jesus a deceiver, "while he was yet alive, 'After three days I will rise again.'" Now they remember that, hey, now, he says after three days he's going to rise again. We've got to do something here. Verse 64, "Command therefore that the sepulchre or the grave be made sure until the third day, lest his disciples come by night and steal him away, and say unto the people, 'He has risen from the dead, so the last error shall be worse than the first.'" They're saying, look, set some guards out there. If the disciples come and steal his body away, man, it's going to be worse than if we would have left him alive. Now they're really going to believe that he was the Messiah. So, now, let's do that. So let's keep him in that grave. Verse 65, "Pilot said unto them, 'You have a watch. Go your way. Make it as sure as you can.'" A watch means a group of soldiers to keep watch. So, let's go ahead and go to Matthew, Chapter 28. "In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week," Sunday, I was telling you about, "came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre." They're going to go visit the grave like I wouldn't visit my grandparents' grave. "And behold, there was a great earthquake, for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone from the door and sat upon it." And in their lives they love that. Y'all ever seen those old movies where, and you can't see this online, but you can imagine with me, you see these old movies where maybe they slay a lion or they slay a man and then they fold their hands and put their foot up on that carcass like that. But when he rolls back this stone, then he just sits down on that stone. And here we go. What are you going to do about it now? The Savior just conquered death. The stone's been rolled back. The door's open. And it's been well said before that the angel didn't roll the stone back so Jesus could get out, so that man could get in to see that he was gone. And so there's this earthquake. "The angel of the Lord descends from heaven, rolls the stone back from the door and sits on it." Verse 3, "His countenance was like lightning and his raiment white as snow. And for fear of him the keepers did shake and became his dead men." Whew! So those, the people who are keeping a watch, watching that stone, that door to make sure no one takes the Savior out of that grave, they were helpless. They were shaking. Their knees were knocking together and they just become like dead men. They're petrified. And we've used that before when someone was so scared. They said, "Man, I was scared I was petrified. I just couldn't move." And that's the way they were. That's the way I would have been. And I've seen that I'm sure. "And the angel answered and said to the women, 'Fear not, ye, for I know that you seek Jesus which was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.'" In other words, come look for yourself. He's not here. Don't be afraid. I know you're seeking Jesus. He's not here. He's risen from the dead, just like he told you he would. Look, golden nerd, look, he's not in there. Now look what he says in verse 7. He says, "And go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead. And behold, he goeth before you in the Galilee. There shall ye see him." Lo, I have told you. "And they departed quickly from the sepulcher with fear and great joy and did run to bring his disciples word. And as they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, 'All hell.'" Or if E&E's Texas, how are you all doing this morning? "And they came and held him by the feet and worshipped him." What an experience. They'd just seen him, you know, a little while earlier, dying on a cross, being crucified. They saw the Spirit probably going to his side. They knew he was dead. And here three days later, they're holding his feet and worshipping him. He's alive and well. Verse 10, "Then said Jesus, and then be not afraid." I love how he says it over and over again. The angel told them, "Don't be afraid." Jesus told them, "Don't be afraid." You know what the gospel tells us? The gospel tells us, "Don't be afraid." There's so much to fear in life. There's the fear of being rejected by God. There's the fear of dying. There's the fear of being put into a grave. I remember hearing a story a while back about a little boy that was dying. He had a childhood disease, and he was so afraid of being put in the ground, in that dark, dark ground, and he begged his daddy to not let him be put in that dark ground. And they said his dad, when he was put in the ground, he made some kind of window up at the top so that light could get in there to where the casket was in that grave. You know, there's a lot to fear, but with the gospel, the Bible tells us, "Don't be afraid." Don't be afraid. The devil always tells us, "Be afraid." He's always doing that. Be afraid. Be very afraid. Be afraid of this. Be afraid of that. Be afraid of the other. Well, what's there to be afraid of? He's conquered our birth. He's conquered our sinless life. He's conquered our penalty. And look, he's conquered the grave. There's nothing to be afraid of anymore. Not with Jesus. God didn't send Jesus to make us afraid. He didn't give us the gospel to make it scary. Then I wrote a couple of Facebook posts in the past couple of days about Calvinism because I was dealing with someone who was struggling with it. And this man keeps writing me back, trying to defend it, not doing a good job of it, and saying that it was extremely complex matter. Well, that's exactly what the devil, he wants to make everything an extremely complex matter, so you'll never figure it out, so you'll never have peace. And you know what? The Bible makes it simple. He lived for you. He was born for you. He lived for you. He died for you. He overcome the grave for you. Don't be afraid. Thank God it's that simple. So we look here, and he tells them to not be afraid. And now let's look here in verse 10. "Then said Jesus, 'Then be not afraid. Go tell my brethren, that they go into Galilee, and there shall they see me.' You go tell them. I like how he calls them my brethren." This is the creator of the world, but he loves them. He calls them his brethren. He says, "You go tell them to go to Galilee. I'll meet them there." Verse 11, "Now when they were going, behold, some of the watch came into the city." Some of those soldiers that had been keeping watch of the tomb, they came into the city, "and showed them to the chief priests all the things that were done." They're like, "Man, we go tell them what happened. I mean, our necks are on the line now." Because back then, you know, they would kill you if you let something like that happen. So they went over and they said, "Hey, here's what happened." Now, when the soldiers come, and they say, "We were keeping the watch, an angel came, the earth trembled, an angel rolls a stone back, sits down on it, and there's nobody in that grave." You would think that the chief priests and all these people, you would think that they would say, "Oh dear God, what a mistake we've made." They probably didn't believe them. Huh? They probably didn't even believe them. Oh, they believed them. They knew what they were doing. They knew what they were doing. They didn't trust in Jesus, but they knew who Jesus was. The devil knows who God is, but he didn't believe in them. You know what I mean? In that sense. So you would think that they would repent and say, "Dear God, have mercy on us, you know, for what we've done." But no, that's not what they do. Look here in verse 12, "And when they were assembled with the elders and had taken counsel, they gave large money into the soldiers here." "We'll pay you off." Here's what you do. "Saying," in verse 13, "Say ye, his disciples came by night and stole him away while we slept." Yeah, that's what happened. So we got professional soldiers out here guarding a tomb. The disciples came by night. We slept through a group of men rolling back a large stone and taking a body out of the grave, and none of us woke up. And how are you going to know this is what happened if you were sleeping? How are you going to know it's the disciples that did it? But you go tell them that, verse 14, "And if this come to the governor's ears, we will persuade him and secure you." In other words, we will say, "No, no, it's not their fault, you know. Don't hurt them. Don't hurt them. Let them keep their jobs." And they were tired or whatever. Verse 15, "So they took the money and did as they were taught, and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day." So back then, there was an explanation needed because people knew where Jesus' body was put in, and people knew that he said he'd be raised from the dead, and people knew that they had put soldiers out there, and now suddenly the grave's empty. And so there had to be some story come up to explain why the tomb's empty, and the body's no longer there. Since this is what happened, well, the soldiers fell asleep as the disciples came and slipped them out of that tomb while they were sleeping. That's what happened. Remember, this was the greatest military on earth, you know. It'd be all the same as putting the green berets or something out there to watch that tomb. But at any time, at any time, to stop Christianity, to stop the spread of Christianity, all they would have to do is just produce the body of Christ, but it wasn't there to produce. Let's go ahead and look here now. In verse 16, "Then the eleven disciples," remember there's only eleven now, because one of them betrayed Jesus, and he went out and hung himself, the Bible tells us in another place. And it says, "And the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. And when they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted." Like, "Oh, I may not see him, but I just, I don't know, we saw him dead, and now we're looking at him." It was Harvard, the human mind, to comprehend. "And Jesus came and spoke unto them, saying, 'All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.' All power, that is, all authority, is given unto me in heaven and in earth." See, what he did, he conquered the dominion of man. We'll look at that, well, actually, that we won't. I'm writing a book about it. But he conquered the dominion that was originally given to man, and now he's got power back for man. And all power is given to be in heaven and in earth, so he says, "Go ye therefore," in verse 19, "and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." And so he's saying, "Look, all authority has been given to me now, and now I'm going to pass that authority down to you. You go in my name, and you teach this good news to everybody, all nations, not just the nation of the Jews, not just the nation of the Africans are in, or the Chinese are in, or the white people are in, or the Mexicans are in. You go teach everybody, because remember, God told Abraham that through you all nations will be blessed. Isn't that good?" So he says, "You go tell this good news to everybody. I've died on the cross. I've conquered sin. I've conquered death. Go spread the good news to everybody. Do it in my name, under my authority that God has given me. You go tell this good news. By saying all power is given to me in heaven and earth, if you'll remember, when I was a kid, there was these two powerful words that I would use, and I may have given this illustration before, so if I did, just enjoy it again. Act like you never heard of it. There was these two powerful words that I would use, especially if I wanted to be a pest to my brother or sister. So if I'm in the kitchen, and my mother says, "Richard, go tell your brother or go tell your sister to go do A, B, C, and D. Go tell them to, I don't know, take the groceries out of the car. Go tell them to do whatever." Well, what I would do, I'd walk into their bedroom at the house, and I'd say, "Sonja, get in there and help Mama put those groceries up, like I was a boss." Well, what do you think she's going to do when I say that? She can't go away. And I knew that, and that's the reaction I wanted. And she'd say, "I don't have to mind you. Get out of here." And then I'd look at her and I'd say, "Mama said." Well, when I said that, then she had to go in there, "Mama, did you say A, B, C, and D?" I sure did. Oh, I felt like, powerful. I'd do it to my brother too. I'd tell him that, and when he rebelled, I'd say, "Mama said." Well, what's happening here is this. The authority, I like the authority to order them to do anything. And the disciples, I mean, we have no authority whatsoever to go promise someone that if they will do A, B, C, and D, then all their sins will be forgiven, and they'll come up out of their grave, and God will accept them, and they'll live forever and ever and ever. Well, we don't have any authority to make any promises like that. We don't have the power to back those promises up. That's why Jesus said, "All power is given to me in heaven and in the earth." I've got the authority. So when I go, and I'm telling someone the gospel, and I'm saying, "This is what Jesus did, and if you'll believe this good news and put your trust in what he says he's done for you, you'll have everlasting life. You'll pop up out of the grave like he will. You'll live forever." I get to say, "Jesus said." And Jesus said it because he said, "All power is given unto me." Jesus said it because God the Father said it. Therefore we can say it. The book of Hebrews puts it this way, "He hath said, 'Therefore we may boldly say.'" Isn't that good? "He hath said, 'Therefore we may boldly say.'" Thank God I can tell you by the authority of God himself that your sin has been paid for on the cross. You've had a perfect substitute take your place. If you'll allow God, and I've used this illustration before. Let's say that you've got two books here. One book is the book of your life. The first page is your birth. The last page is your death. And everything in between is everything you ever thought, everything you ever said, everything you ever did your entire life. God is about to judge you. He's going to take his word. He's going to take your life and he's going to see if you fully and perfectly obey his word. And if you didn't, you're going to come short, that's sin. You're going to be rejected by God and you'll be set aside and punished forever for having come short of his standard. On the other hand, God gives us another option. He gives us the book of Jesus' life. Remember Jesus lived, died, overcame the grave as our substitute. So if we choose, we can allow Jesus' life to become a substitute for ours. We can throw our life away. And then when we are judged by God, hand him the book of what Jesus has done. And God can judge us compared not to how we lived and died, but how Jesus lived and died in our place. Now if God judged you based on how Jesus lived and died rather than on how you lived and died, man, he'd find no fault in you. Remember what Pilate said? Pilate told the Jews, "I find no fault in this man." God told the Jews, he said, "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." So if I accept what Jesus did for me and God judges me on the basis of what Jesus did for me, God looks at me and says, "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." That's the gospel. That's the offer that God is making every one of us. And I can tell you in the name and on the authority of Jesus Christ that if you will accept Him as your Savior, you shall not perish but have everlasting life. I love the Great Commission. This is what this is called. He says, "All power is given to me in heaven and earth. Go ye therefore," verse 19 again, "and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost." That's the first thing He tells them to do. You go tell the good news in those who believe it, then you baptize them just like John the Baptist was baptizing. You baptize them in water in the name that is in the authority of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Now, remember that crippled man they brought to Jesus. And when they brought that crippled man to Jesus, they broke the roof up, they put Him in there. He's on His bed. And before Jesus told him, "Get up, take up your bed, and walk, and go home," He first told him, "Your sins are forgiven." And then they started saying, "Well, who has power to forgive sins but God?" Jesus is saying here, "All power is given unto me in heaven and earth. You then go therefore and teach all nations. You speak in my authority." And so when we tell somebody that this is what Jesus has done, and then they tell us, "I believe that good news. I accept Him as my substitute," then we, on that authority, on the authority that Jesus gave us, then baptize them in water proclaiming because here's what happened. Here's what, this is why we baptize. In the Old, man, I'm getting excited about this. In the Old Testament, when someone had leprosy, if certain conditions took place, then they were to, like if you could tell that the wound was healing, that lepros wound was healing, and God described what it would look like in the Old Testament if it was healing up, then they were to take that person to the priest. The priest would then examine it, and upon examining that person, the priest would pronounce that person clean. The person had previously been pronounced unclean, but now upon looking at this person now and seeing the change, the priest now declares that person clean, and now officially, legally, that person has been pronounced clean by an authority that God established. When I share the gospel with someone, and that person says, "I believe on Christ as my Savior," I can then say, based upon your faith in Christ, in the name of Jesus Christ, I pronounce you clean, then you wash them off in that water as a symbol that their faith in Jesus and what he's done from the cross has washed their sins away. That's all baptism is. A lot of young people, they'll see someone getting baptized in church and say, "I want to get baptized like that." Look at all the attention they're getting. People are clapping for them. People are praising God, and they're getting wet. That looks fun to get down in there, and they're getting attention from the preacher. A lot of people say, "I want that right there. Maybe that's what I need." What we need is the cleansing, the true cleansing. That's just the proclamation that they've been made clean. It doesn't make them clean. The leper was already healed before they were pronounced clean. They had to inspect it. I know that I've spoken with Chris in the middle of the class way back. He was talking about joining the church and everything. I said, "Let's get through the Genesis to Jesus. Make sure that you understand and believe." I plan on talking to him probably today sometime, because the lesson's over with. I'm going to keep my word. If his faith is in Christ, guess what we're going to do? We're going to get up here in that baptistery and pronounce him clean. In the name of Jesus, by his authority, say, "You believe on Christ? Christ Jesus has made you clean." That's the authority that God has given the church, and it's done in the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Ghost. Some people say, "Well, you've got to say the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost whenever you baptize them." That's not what it's about. I do say that, but that's not what it's about. It means, "In the authority of." The Father says, "You're clean." The Savior says, "You're clean." The Holy Spirit of God says, "He's clean." You're doing it in their name, meaning in that authority. Just like in the old movies, a policeman would have someone running, and they would say, "Stop in the name of the law." What he meant was, "Don't stop because I'm telling you to. Stop because of the authority that has been given to me to tell you stop." When you baptize someone in water, you don't have to say, "I'm doing this in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." You're doing it in that authority. You don't have to say any of those things. You're just doing it by that authority. Now, let's see what else he said, verse 20, and then we'll stop. So you go, you teach all nations, you baptize those who believe, verse 20, then you teach them to observe all things whatsoever I've commanded you. So as Jesus taught them, they then go teach what they've been taught. And so when we look here in the Bible and we see the epistles like—here we go. Nope. Where's the epistles? Right, there we go. I finally got to them. Small print. When you get to the epistles like Romans, Ephesians, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Colossians, James, 1 and 2 Peter, what they're doing when we read these epistles in the back of the New Testament, that's them teaching us to observe what God's taught them. That's what they're doing. And so we keep passing that along. And after me one day, I'm going to die. I'm going to go to heaven. My body's going to go to the grave. And some pastor will come after me. And then what he'll do is take that same book and continue to teach what they taught us. It just continues to pass that wonderful story and those wonderful teachings along. And then he says this, "Lo, I'm with you always, always, even until the end of the world." In other words, I'll never leave you. I'll never forsake you. I'll always be with my church, even to the end of the world, meaning the end of the present age that we live in, because he's going to make a new heaven and a new earth when he comes again. And so with that, we'll stop here today. And if there's anyone in here that has not understood this before and would like to let me know privately later that I have come to understand the gospel through this teaching and I accept Christ as my Savior, then we can talk about baptizing you as well in the name of Christ and pronouncing you clean. And again, it doesn't make you clean. It just shares that good news with others so they can rejoice with you. We'll go ahead and stop there. And if you go straight next door, Brother Shepherd may still be teaching. Sometimes he rides it right up to 1045. So if you do, please go to the front door so you won't disturb. Don't go to the side. Father, we thank you so much for the 40 weeks of lessons that we've had. Thank you, Father, for the faithful attendance of all these people who are here. What a blessing they've been to me to continue to come to hear your word. I pray, Father, you'll bless them and let that truth sink deep into their hearts in great joy. And I pray, dear Father, God, you'll bless us as we continue in the next class, Lord, next week as we build upon what we've learned. In Jesus' precious name. Amen.