Chapter 28

Verses 1-10, the resurrection is verified.

Verse 1 — “In the end of the Sabbath.” The Greek says, “After the Sabbath.” Note: Because Jewish “day” time was from sundown to sundown Christ could have arisen any time after sundown on Saturday. “After the Sabbath” is any time after sundown. Another problem arises however: Gentile time which comes from 1 Corinthians 15:4, “Christ rose on the third day.” From the standpoint of Gentile time it would mean that the third day has to be from midnight Friday to midnight Saturday. So Christ could have arisen any time after sundown, Jewish time, on Saturday. Sunday starts after sundown. But to rise on the third day Jesus Christ had to arise at least by midnight Saturday, which is actually Sunday Jewish time. To correlate two the best estimate as to His resurrection would be midnight Saturday night; “as it began to dawn.” Now this isn’t when Christ arose, it was when the angel came and opened up the grave so that people could come in and see. While Matthew will not describe it Peter and John ran a foot race which John won and got there first. But John, who got there first, looked in but did not go in. Peter went right inside. “As it began to dawn” is actually an idiom for just before the dawn. This would be quite a few hours after the resurrection; “toward the first day of the week.” Now why would you have to say “toward the first day in the week” when obviously dawn occurs in the morning? It does by our time but not by the Jews’ time; dawn was in the middle of the day. This verse is dealing with Jewish time, not Gentile time; “came” is aorist tense, indicating here decisiveness. The two Marys had decided the night before they would be there at the grave when the first rays of the sun appeared. They would be there to see it. Therefore they travelled in the darkest part of the morning which is just before dawn. This indicates something of their devotion. “Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.” These are the two women who appeared to know more doctrine than anyone else. The aorist of the verb to “come” indicates their decisiveness. If anyone is capable of making a good decision these two ladies are in that realm of capability. Obviously they were expecting resurrection and they wanted to be there when it was possible to see. They were the only two who did so; “to see the sepulchre.”

Verse 2 — the mechanics of the opening of the tomb. “And, behold, there was a great earthquake.” It is very interesting how many times in the scripture that there is some angelic movement and some earthquake involved in it. Verses 2 and 3 are very interesting because verse 3 is one of the few descriptions we have in the Word of God as to the general appearance of angels: “for the angel of the descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door.” He rolls back the stone in order to let people in. Christ has been absent for some time, He didn’t have to go through an opening, a resurrection body can go directly through the stone and that is exactly what He did.; “and sat upon it [imperfect linear aktionsart: he kept on sitting there].” He was waiting for the two ladies to come. He wasn’t waiting for any of the disciples. There were only two disciples who showed any interest in the tomb, and that after they were told by Mary Magdalene. It is interesting that the first of the appearances of our Lord was to Mary Magdalene. She was the top person in the three years of Bible teaching who understood doctrine; she was way ahead of everyone else.

Verse 3 — “His countenance was” is imperfect linear aktionsart, “kept on being exactly like lightning, and his raiment was as white as snow [white almost to the point of transparency].” So from this description we can assume certain things about the angelic body. The structure of it was light. This is understandable because it must be remembered that angels travel in space. Light travels in space, angels travel in space. Angels have in the structure of their bodies, light.

Verse 4 — “And for [from, literally] fear of him the keepers [guards] did shake, and they became as dead,” which would indicate they passed out, fainted.

Verse 5 — “And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye” — present middle imperative plus the negative, which indicates that they were frightened a bit. So the angels says literally, “Stop being frightened.” “ForI know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified.” Notice: “Jesus” is the title for the humanity of Christ and the angel is very accurate. “Crucified” would indicate the humanity of Christ was crucified; the Son of God cannot be crucified, deity cannot die.

Verse 6 — “He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.”

Verse 7 — “And go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead [a)po, from the ultimate source of the dead]; and, behold, he goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him: lo, I have told you.”

Verse 8 — they followed instructions. “And they departed quickly from the sepulchre with fear [worshipful awe referring to occupation with Christ, someone who is alive] and great joy [mental happiness]: and did run to bring his disciples word.”

Verse 9 — the first resurrection appearance was to Mary Magdalene — John 20:11-17. “And as they went to tell his disciples.” This phrase does not appear in the original. The verse begins: “Behold, Jesus met them,” and this is the second resurrection appearance, the first one is recorded in John 20:11-17, it was to Mary Magdalene alone; “saying, All hail [Greetings]. And they came and held him by the feet, and worshipped him,” their way of expressing their love for Him.

Verse 10 — “Then said Jesus unto them, Be not afraid.” This is an interesting phrase because it doesn’t really mean to be frightened, it means don’t get so excited, relax. What a tremendous honour was accorded to them, and it is a recognition of their understanding of Bible doctrine; “go tell my brethren that they go into Galilee, and there they shall see me.” He isn’t going to even see them in Jerusalem, He is going to make them walk! And the point is that if they believe that He is risen now they will walk all the way to see Him. Some of them didn’t believe and they weren’t there. Thomas never did get around to doing much walking and Thomas had a special appearance to straighten him out. But most of that is recorded in John and not in Matthew.

Verses 11-15, the perjury of the guard.

Up to this point in recording the resurrection all Matthew has mentioned is the second appearance to the two Marys. God honours those whose dependence upon Him is total, not partial.

Verse 11 — “Now when they were going,” referring to the guards, and it means they were running. We have two different groups in this passage getting the same information and they use it differently. The women have information regarding the resurrection and they will use it properly; the guards have information and they will distort it and use it improperly. The guards distort the message; the women communicate the message — “behold some of the watch [the guard detail] came into the city [which means that the sepulchre was outside of the city], and shewed unto chief priests all the things that were done.” They gave the chief priests a detailed account of what had occurred. And this is the only accurate account that they ever gave because now they are about to be bribed by the Sanhedrin.

Verse 12 — “And when they were assembled with the elders, and had taken counsel, they gave large money,” the temple at this time had many millions of dollars, “unto the soldiers.”

Verse 13 — “Saying, Say ye, His disciples came by night and stole him away while we slept.” That is their story and they are going to stick to it. Note: These are Roman guards and Roman guards never go to sleep. But if they were asleep as they said they wouldn’t know what happened. How can you be asleep and know what happened? They said the disciples came while they were asleep and stole the body of Jesus away! Obviously that is a stupid, contradictory statement. But because the people to whom this statement was given were all prejudiced they all accepted it without any thought as to the contradiction. The bribe money must have been on a large scale to make Roman soldiers adhere to a story like this.

Verse 14 — “And if this comes to the governor’s ears, we will persuade him, and secure you.” In other words they would take responsibility for it and protect the soldiers.

Verse 15 — “So they took the money, and did as they were taught.” Notice that this story required being drilled in it. They went over and over it; “and this saying [report] is commonly reported among the Jews until this day.” The Jews bought it. Why? Negative volition. They wanted to believe it.

Verses 16-20, the great commission.

Verse 16 — “Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee.” Notice how they are making the great trek! — “into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them.” This is the tenth resurrection appearance where Jesus gives the great commission.

Verse 17 — “And when they saw him, they worshipped him: but some doubted.” This doesn’t mean the eleven doubted, it just means that as a result of what the guards said there were back in Jerusalem some who doubted. The reason they doubted is because of the guards’ distorted story. “Some” here refers to others who did not see the resurrected Christ but rather believed the reports of the guard who had been bribed.

Verse 18 — the authority of the resurrected Christ. “And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power [authority] is given unto me in heaven and in earth.” This authority has to do with the mind of Christ and that is why the canon of scripture will now be completed. The authority is given to Christ, therefore the rest of the Bible can be written. Part of the Bible was written before all authority was given to the humanity of Christ. The Old Testament anticipates it but in the resurrection and in the ascension all authority is given to Christ and therefore the New Testament is written, which completes the canon of scripture — 1 Corinthians 2:16, the Bible is the mind of Christ, and now that all authority is given to Him and now that He is glorified in His humanity all authority belongs to Him. And that authority is in heaven and on earth, and the authority on earth is the completed canon of scripture. This is not power, this is the Greek word for authority — e)cousia. It is more than power.

Verses 19,20 — responsibility.

Verse 19 — “Go ye [you all] therefore, and teach all nations [world wide, all Gentiles], baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost [Spirit].” There are two different Greek words for teaching in verses 19 and 20. In verse 19 the word is maqeutw, and it means to instruct, to make a disciple, to clarify the issue until you have made a disciple. The word in verse 20 is didaskw. Teaching is to communicate the gospel so that they respond; baptism is the way of expressing their response.

Verse 20 — “Teaching them” is didaskw, which means to teach in a teaching situation, like a classroom, just a group of people listening to teaching. It is used for teaching doctrine, phase two truth, to the believer; “to observe [to guard that which belongs to one’s self — doctrine] all things [doctrine is good for all things] whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you [keep on being with you] always, even unto the end of the world [age]. Amen.”

Jesus was speaking in the Jewish Age. “Even to the end of the age” means that Jesus will be with the Jews and believers in the Tribulation which is the end of the Age. Jesus Christ was with the Old Testament saints; Jesus Christ is in the New Testament saints. In the Tribulation the situation reverts to the Old Testament because the Tribulation is the end of the Jewish Age, the last seven years of it. Therefore the ministry of the Holy Spirit and the ministry of Christ will revert to Old Testament times. Christ will be with them as per Isaiah 41:10. He is not with us in the Church Age, He is in us — “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”