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Matthew twenty seven and twenty eight. As I said, this is just a brief a brief kind of devotion really, a brief little kind of a tying up a loose end, if you want to say, when we’re from what we were talking about this morning with looking at the crucifixion from the perspective of each different character and this morning, of course, we’re talking about the Jewish people and so we saw the Jews in verse number verses one and two and then we saw them appear again in verse 12 and then we saw them down in roundabout verse 20 down to 25.
And then lastly, we saw them this morning from 39 down to verse number 43, and so they appear at different places. Of course, as I said, they’re the driving force behind what’s happening at the crucifixion. They’re ultimately responsible for, for what’s for what’s happening, and what is, you know, is... In other words, they’re living out the rejection of Christ which is what the lord said they that they would do and then we see them appear one more time in Matthew 27 and at the end of 27, the Jews disappear.
You you don’t see anything else more about them for the rest of the books, only one more chapter and really, you don’t see anything more about the Jews to speak of until you get into the book of Acts which from the end of chapter 28 until the book of acts is there there’s a period of time there. But, but as far as chapter 27 dealing directly with our Lord’s death, there’s one more, mention of the Jews that is that’s important. And starting in verse number 62, the Bible says this, the next day that followed the day of of the preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees came together unto Pilate saying, sirs, sir, we remember that this deceiver that we remember that, that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, after three days, I will rise again.
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Command therefore that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day, lest his disciples come by night and steal him away, and say unto the people, he is risen from the dead. So the last error shall be worse than the first. Pilate said unto them, ye have a watch, go your way, make it as sure as you can. So they went and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone and setting a watch. Let’s pray. Lord, we come to you now in your word. We just want to ask your help and grace and as we see these truths here, help us to grow, help us to learn from them, and bless our time in your word. We ask in Jesus name. Amen.
Now, you see the Jews here, they’re not satisfied only with the cry... With with Christ’s death on the cross. So they could have just left it alone, he’s dead and move on, but they do not do that. You can see in this, this really strong satanic, wicked drive in their attempt to stamp out the light, right? And so, they’ve already stamped out the light. They crisis and it’s not because they had power.
The lord gave himself for this purpose but they have they have successfully stamped out the light and now they want to dispose entirely of it and and not so it’s so so nothing can be said about it again. And, but but you’ll notice that in verse number 63, it says, sir, we remember that that that deceiver said while he was yet alive, after three days, I will rise again.
Now, if you go back to Matthew chapter 16 in your mind, you’ll remember that that’s really chapter 16 is when the Lord began to reveal to his disciples that he would be betrayed into the hands of sinners, he would be crucified and rise again the third day. Does everybody remember that? That was right around the time of the great confession of Peter. Thou art Peter, upon this rock I will build my church. Right around that time is immediately after that is when Jesus said, then began he to tell them about how he would he would be betrayed and and crucified and risen again.
But you’ll remember that from that time all the way up until basically the arrest, the disciples never got it. They never fully understood what would happen. They were always kind of in the dark.
And we covered each one of those as we went through it. But here you see in this verse that the enemies of the Lord Jesus knew and understand understood his claims perfectly. You see it? There was no ambiguity. You you remember also, not only that but you remember how many times as we’ve been reading Matthew, we’re kinda we’re kinda summarizing Matthew. We’re getting to the end of the book. So, we’re summarizing and kind of tying all this together.
Well, another thing you see in the book of Matthew and and we covered it to some degree is there were a few instances when when the people would come to him and say, well, who are you? Just say it, who are you? And and Jesus would say, my works bear witness, and he would, you know, he would say things that sounded to us a little bit like he was he was kinda dodging the question a little bit. And there were times like with the Samaritan woman in John four where he just said it plainly.
But a lot of times, he didn’t want to bear witness of himself. He wanted what he was doing to demonstrate that the fact of his identity. Here, here, just like the resurrection, during the crucifixion and during the trial and leading up to it, there was no ambiguity. They knew exactly what he was claiming. Now, the disciples may have been a little bit unsure about about, you know, Christ’s resurrection, his death, and all these things, but his enemies were not. They understood exactly what he was saying. Now, the reason that’s important is because that’s that claim.
Alright. Jesus claimed before he died that he would rise in three days. That claim is gonna be very important in about three days. That claim is gonna be very important. Because right now we’re in the midst of the three days. And at the end of chapter 27, we’re in the midst of the three days, and they’re saying, we know he said this. Now imagine being one of these people a month later, six months later, when Jesus has already risen, and now there’s these people who were from the beginning associated with the Lord Jesus, who now are saying that he had risen again and they were witnesses of his resurrection.
So, the fact that they understood the claim of the lord Jesus that he would rise is actually going to be used later as a as a testimony to the truth of his resurrection to the enemies of Christ. So, it was important they understood it. Now, what’s funny is the disciples did not seem to understand it until after the resurrection and then it finally made sense. But the enemies of Christ kind of by contrast or in contradiction, seemed to get it.
And in fact, they took action for fear, they assumed that the disciples knew. The disciples didn’t even know. Remember, when we get to chapter 28, the disciples are going to the tomb on the third day thinking he’s dead. So, even after he’s he’s been dead for three days, the the ladies go there, they do not go to to see if the tomb is empty. Why are they going?
To anoint his body. What does that mean? That means they think he’s he’s dead. So, the only people who seem to understand what was happening was the enemies of of Christ. Go figure, right? The second thing I want you to see here is what their intention was. So, they they asked, they go to they go to Pilate and they ask for a watch. That is a group of soldiers who could stay up at night over that that third day when he supposedly supposed to rise and they can ensure that the tomb remains undisturbed, right?
So, that’s their intention. Their intention is to, as as you can see here in verse number, verse 64 says, command therefore that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day, lest his disciples come by night and steal him away. So the reason that they wanted to watch is to is to keep keep the disciples from, from fabricating a resurrection. So that nobody can come, nobody can go, and it actually says they sealed the stone. Now in my reading, I I... What I read is exactly how that’s done is not really known. You know, of course you have a seal like a wax seal, but this is this is a a rock, but probably what what you know, the idea behind a seal... Sealing the stone means that it’s it’s locked in place and so and so there’s no way to get access unless that seal is broken. And so if it was broken for whatever reason, you know that someone has broken through. The doesn’t stop you from rolling the stone away. The seal tells you if it has been rolled away. You get, you understand what I’m saying? So that’s the important thing about the seal. So they did that so that there would be extra verification that disciples had not fabricated the resurrection. So that’s their intention.
But, what their whole purpose is to stop a lie from spreading that Jesus has risen. You follow me? That’s their whole purpose. That’s why they want the watch. That’s why they want to seal the stone. To prevent the rumor that Jesus had risen because his disciples had still... Has stolen his body. But ironically, it cut... It cuts both ways. Because because they had these soldiers and because they had sealed the stone, now they have a witness.
Whereas if the soldiers had not been posted there to to stand watch, we would call it in the Marine Corps, we would call it fire watch. If the soldiers had not been there posted, there would have been no witness when the angel came and rolled the stone away like there ends up being in chapter 28. The reason why there is a witness of the angels rolling the stone away is because of the of their posting the soldiers to begin with. You understand? So, what is actually intended to prevent a rumor actually creates the circumstance for the truth of the resurrection to be proclaimed.
The second thing on that point though is this, the fact that they got the watch and sealed the stone actually undermines their story later. Here’s what I mean by that. Look at chapter 28. Verse 11. Now when they were going, behold, some of the watch, these are the soldiers that they posted, came into the city and showed unto the chief priests all the things that were done. Now imagine being one of their chief priests.
Okay? Imagine being one of their chief priests. The soldiers come back and say that they have seen angels, they fell as dead men. Why didn’t they believe at that point?
See, what I’m trying to show you is that the wicked heart of man that’s set against the light will sacrifice everything. No amount of evidence, no amount of testimony, no amount of truth will convince someone who does not want to be convinced, like these enemies of the Lord. Here they have soldiers that they chose, right, to go and stand watch, and those same people are coming to them saying they saw an angel and they fell as dead men.
Okay? So, let’s keep reading verse 12. And when they were assembled with the elders and had taken counsel, they gave, so now it’s not only the chief priest. Now, all of the elders know what’s happened. They gave large money unto the soldiers saying, say ye, his disciples came by night and stole him away while we slept, and if this come to the governor’s ears, we will persuade him and secure you. So they took the money and and did as they were taught and this saying, the saying that the disciples came and stole his body away. This saying is commonly reported among the Jews under this day. So, the the narrative that had been accepted after the resurrection was that the disciples came and stole the body.
But remember, number one, there were witnesses that the enemies of Christ had put in place. Right? And number two, those witnesses, that watch was actually the evidence to the contrary of the narrative that the disciples had stole his body away. So again, if the watch had not been there, then that would have been a viable explanation for what had happened. If they had not sealed the stone, that would have been a believable and viable explanation of what had happened.
But now, since they post the witnesses, now you have layer upon layer of actual, historical, and if I can say, local evidence that indeed it was impossible that his body could have been stolen. So you have, I don’t know how many soldiers there were in the watch, but you would have had armed soldiers with weapons, swords. Right? You ever seen the the Roman sword? It’s not a big long medieval sword. It’s a it’s a it’s a short stubby sword. It’s like that long, very easy to handle, and these are these are trained, probably experienced soldiers guarding this tomb. His disciples are not stealing the body away.
And the irony irony of this, the interesting thing is that the fact that they put the post, they put the soldiers there actually undermined the very story that they were going to promote later. Now, notice what it says back in ‘27.
Command verse 24, 64. Command therefore that the sepulchre be made sure unto the third day, lest his disciples come by night and steal him away and say unto the people, he is risen from the dead. Notice notice their words, prophetic words.
Ye, it says, so the last error shall be worse than the first. Now take that and flip it around in its reverse. They mean it negatively, look at it positively. They said they crucified Jesus because He said He was the Son of God, but He was the Son of God. They crucified Jesus because He said He... They said He was a deceiver, but He was sinless. Here, they say, well the last error is gonna be worse than the first.
What are they talking about? They’re talking about, if it gets out, the idea, the narrative that Jesus has risen, that will be worse than if he... Than than everything that has happened up to this point. And the interesting thing is that it was. It was. You see, it wasn’t the crucifixion of Christ that sparked the evangelistic fervor that sparked the spread of Christianity and faith in Christ. No, no, no.
It was his resurrection. The resurrection did what the crucifixion never never could have. The the Bible describes as the crucifixion is is Christ was crucified through weakness, but he liveth by the the power of God. And so the resurrection, they are actually exactly right. They don’t know they’re right, but they’re actually exactly right. That the resurrection will be the catalyst that causes the gospel to absolutely explode.
And as it turns out, the last error, the end of the story, is actually far more powerful than everything we’ve seen up to this point. And so, like many other times we’ve seen, in John, you know, you see the chief priest, you see the council saying, it is expedient for one man to die for the people, and he said that. Caiaphas, the high priest said that, not knowing what he said, but the Lord speaking through him without his knowledge. Here you have the same sort of, thing happening.
Now, the last thing I want you to see is this. When we read the end of chapter 27 and we read chapter 28, you’ll notice that this whole story about about the the the narrative of Jesus’ disciples stealing his body, and the the Roman guards, and and the fact that what happened after the guards saw the angels and how they reported it back to the chief priests and then the fabricated story to make up for that, that they invented and all of, you know what that is?
That is highly specific, local, historical information. That’s information that you would only ever get if you were you were there, you had heard these things. How many times do you think these disciples in the days, the months after this, living, preaching in Jerusalem had heard people say, yeah, I heard about Jesus of Nazareth. Yeah, they said just his disciples stole stole the stole his body. And Peter’s like, I am one.
We did it. We saw him. And there were soldiers there too. Here’s what want you to see. Do you believe that Christ was raised from the dead? Do you believe that Jesus is alive? Do you believe that’s a fact? Yeah. That is... It’s not just historical fact. It’s to us it is a present fact, right? And our faith rests upon that truth. But here’s what I want you to see, this is one example of how that your faith and my faith in the scripture in what we would call spiritual truth, our faith as Christians rests not in stories that have just been passed down through the ages, but rests in the firm, rigid, testified, recorded facts of history.
And this kind of small local example shows that fact. This is only a story that you would ever hear if you were in kind of in that little circle that in that moment, but it’s recorded in Scripture to demonstrate as historical evidence that Christ did indeed rise from the dead. See, our faith rests in the historical truths about the Lord Jesus, the truths of which are the foundation for what we believe to this day, right?
And so, we have a sure foundation of of our faith. I can just imagine that as these disciples began to minister after the resurrection of Christ, that they probably appealed to a lot of these things. And say, no, oh no, this actually happened. No, this is happening as they say. Is happening right now. Christ is risen, and this is how we know. This is how we know this took place and that took place.
And so it gives our faith not only obviously in the scripture, but the record of it also supports it as well. Alright. Well, that’s all I wanted to share with you. We will have one more, Lord willing, we will have one more Sunday in Matthew 27. We have one more figure to cover in that chapter. Does anybody, we actually have two, one major, one minor, in order to wrap it up. The major figure is the one person we haven’t examined is Jesus.
Because we get to talk about Jesus in Matthew 27. And then the last figure is Joseph of Arimathea. And then we’ll be in chapter 28. And you know what chapter 20 eight’s about. Alright, let’s pray.