Greater Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church

Dr. Michael W. Wesley Sr.: What a blessing it is to be here on this Lord's day and to have this awesome privilege to come again on another Easter morning. I just couldn't hardly imagine what it would be like for me to stand up on Easter morning and not be in church and have something to say. All my life on Easter, there was something to say. Easter Lily bloomed today, at the cross where Jesus lay. Started off with a little boy as those speeches on Easter, new suits, Tappy Epstein, Easter egg hunts. All kinds of things that we traditionally have associated with Easter.

But this morning, we want to talk to you about the resurrection of Jesus. So let's pray and we're going to get right into the word. Father, we thank you today for blessing us with another glorious day, the celebration of Easter. Oh Father, we pray that you would bless every person under the sound of my voice. We thank you for each one that you've brought us safely through another week and you've blessed us to assemble ourselves here, tune in or join in in whatever ways we have. Pray now that you would open our hearts and minds that we would hear your word, and not hear your word but be doers of your word.

Lift now your human again out of self, fill us with the Holy Spirit. Speak to us and through us in this moment. Bless the words in our mouth, the meditations on our heart, that it may be acceptable in your sight. Oh Lord, our strength and our redeemer. We ask it now in the name of your son, the Lord Jesus Christ. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. Touch somebody and say "Happy resurrection." Sound like you mean it, say it one more time. All week long, I've been seeing those little memes and things people say, talked about Good Friday.

But what everybody was saying was "Sunday morning is coming." And that's good news, because after every Friday crucifixion comes Sunday morning resurrection. And that's what we want to talk to you about today. Matthew's gospel, chapter 28. You've read it responsively already. First ten verses set the context of what we want to talk about. And we'll just read it again in your hearing. "In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulcher."

"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. His countenance was like lightning and his raiment white as snow. And for fear of him, the keepers did shake and became as dead men. And the angel answered and said unto the women, 'Fear not ye, for I know ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here, for he is risen as he said. Come see the place where the Lord lay. And go quickly and tell his disciples he is risen from the dead and behold, he goeth before you into 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 hail.' And they came and held him by the feet and worshipped him. Then said Jesus unto them, 'Be not afraid, go tell my brethren that they go into Galilee and there shall they see me.'" This is the word of God for the people of God. We're talking today about the resurrection of Jesus. The resurrection of Jesus. What we all need to understand is the resurrection of Jesus is the single most important event in all of the world.

For the Christian, the resurrection of Jesus gives us the hope that we need. I didn't realize it for real, for real, until 2003 on December the 10th, December the 13th. I was standing at Elmwood Cemetery at the head of the grave of my mother. And I thought to myself that if the resurrection is not real, man, we are in trouble. But if the resurrection is real, then we all have hope. And I don't know about you, none of us are going to live on this earth forever. And you need to know that it's because he got up that one day we will get up.

Now you've got to understand the opposite of that. If we don't get up, then you ain't going nowhere but straight to hell. And so the resurrection of Jesus is the most important event in the history of the world. And you know what? People know that. People understand that. But not everybody understands or agrees with that. And there are different reactions to the resurrection. And it depends on the reaction to the resurrection as to how you feel and what you will do about it. First, there are those who reject the resurrection because of rationalism.

Rationalism says that it doesn't fit within my human understanding. I can't figure out how the dead can rise. Rational people say, "I've been to a lot of funerals and I've seen a lot of people put down, but I've not seen any of them come back." And because they cannot rationalize how God can override the power of death, hell, and the grave, they reject the resurrection as being a fact, because they can't rationalize it. There are some people who react to the resurrection and they react with unbelief. They don't believe it.

I've heard all my life there are many people who think that once you leave the earth and you die, you're just six feet under. And they outright reject any of the evidence that proves the resurrection is real. Well, you're a fool if you think that's all there is. And if you allow unbelief to set in, then you are a man or woman with no hope in your heart. There's a third reaction to the resurrection, and that's doubt. Now you know, doubt can be in two different forms. You can have a healthy form of doubt where you want to know if this is the truth or not.

And I think every real person should have a level of doubt that causes you to want to explore whether or not the scriptures are true. And once you have decided that the scriptures are true, then you can make up your own mind and you can govern yourself accordingly. So there is a healthiness to doubt. But there is also a hypocritical area of doubt where some people, they're just not going to believe, I don't care what you say. And those are the folks who be trying to influence the world. It's amazing how people line up behind folks who don't have no real understanding. I ain't calling no names.

But there's another reaction to the resurrection and that is indifference. And there are a lot of people who are indifferent. Easter morning doesn't mean anything to people. Okay, so Jesus got up, so what? I don't care. It doesn't mean anything to me. So what everybody's going to church, I ain't going to church. I just don't care. There are people all over the world this morning who have an indifferent mindset about this great, glorious day of celebration. Indifference, just don't care. And then I've got to add a reaction of ignorance.

And ignorance is just simply not knowing. And there are folks that just don't know. And I submit unto you today, and I'm so glad all you young people are here today, because you are at least in the right place where you can at least hear the truth. So many young people today are ignorant concerning God because one, don't nobody at home talk about him. You don't hear about him at school. And if you don't ever come to church, then you won't know. And so consequently, we have a whole generation or three who are just in total darkness and ignorance concerning God.

Now I'm not calling you ignorant. Ignorance is simply not knowing. And consequently, that's why people give up hope. Do you understand that the number one rising problem among today's people is suicide? And you know why there has been such an increase in suicide? It is because of ignorance. What the resurrection and this day says is that no matter what the world throws my way, as ugly and as black and as mean and as hateful and as hellish as they could be, Sunday morning comes and I will overcome whatever. That's what the day is about.

It teaches us that you can have comeback power in this world. So the reaction then is not rationalism, it's not unbelief, it's not doubt, it is not ignorance, it is not just indifference. The reaction that we should have to the resurrection is faith. We should believe the testimony of God in his word. We should believe that. And that's what I came today to be a witness, to say it's true. But what I want to help you see, and I'll go ahead and get to some of the why for you, why do we believe?

Why is it important that we believe in the resurrection? Number one, because it's what Jesus said would happen. Jesus declared, he said, "Listen, in me is life." He says, "I am the resurrection and the life. He that believes in me, even though he dies, yet shall he live." And Jesus said, "And whosoever lives and believes in me shall never die." That's his word. The resurrection was preached when the church first opened the doors. Peter on the Day of Pentecost said, "This same Jesus that you men have taken and with wicked hands have crucified, God has raised him from the dead."

Peter preached again at Cornelius' house and he talked about the resurrection. Paul preached about the resurrection in multiple writings there. Let me go to Ephesians. Paul says in Ephesians chapter 2, "And you who were dead in your trespasses and sins has God quickened, made alive. And it's by grace that you are saved through faith, and that not of yourself, it is the gift of God." Okay, so I want you to understand that the resurrection is real and needs to be understood. Stephen preached about the resurrection. I could even go back to the Old Testament.

Job was the oldest man and the oldest patriarch. Job said, "I know that my redeemer lives and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth." Job even looked at the fact of death. He said, "And though worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold and not another." Job raised the question, "If a man die, shall he live again?" And he answered, "All of my days have I waited on my change to come," meaning that there's going to be some type of transition in life.

So resurrection is important. It is the cornerstone of what we believe as Christians. Take away the resurrection and you don't have any Christianity. Take away the resurrection and you don't have any hope. Take away the resurrection and you are still lost in your sins because the resurrection proved not only was God satisfied with Jesus, but that he paid the price, that he wasn't just dying in his own place because he had sins, but he died as the perfect sacrifice for you. And what God does is God does for us what we could not do for ourselves.

This is why I love it, because the resurrection rids me of my guilt and it relieves me of my fear of death. Did I say that too fast? Because everybody in here has some level of fear of death. Now don't you think you don't have no fear of death? Let a car come at you and you be going. Let somebody tell you I'm going to get you, and every time you see them, you be looking. Because we all have to respect the fact that death is real. But when you know that you're going to conquer death, that just as Jesus got up and became the firstfruit of them that slept, one day you're going to get up.

And that's at the cornerstone of everything that we believe as Christians. And if you don't do that, you don't believe that, if you don't understand that, maybe something's wrong. So let me help you a little further. As we look at this account today, we're going to look at it through the eyes of faith. But you've got to know that each one of the gospel writers write from a particular standpoint, based on what the Holy Spirit inspired them to write about, to get across their message to the people. And so Matthew here is writing this narrative in faith.

All of them believed it. Matthew believed it, Mark believed it, Luke believed it, John believed it. They all write about the resurrection. But Matthew writes it from the standpoint of the emotions of a group of women. And that's what I want us to do today. We want to feel the resurrection based on the emotions that Matthew points out that these women felt when they encountered what they experienced on resurrection morning. First, he places a timestamp on this time frame. He said, "At the end of the Sabbath." Now the interpretation there is long after the Sabbath had ended, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week.

See, the Jewish community didn't name days of the week Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. Every day was a day after the Sabbath. Day one after the Sabbath. Day two after the Sabbath. Day three after the Sabbath. Saturday was the Sabbath, but the Sabbath in the Jewish mind ended at sundown. So from sundown on Saturday, which ended the Sabbath, now it physically ended that time, but institutionally it ended as well because the scripture is saying at the end of the Sabbath, which means we no longer worship on Saturday, but we worship on Sunday because this is the day that the Lord came forth from the grave and we celebrate his victory over life and death by worshiping on the Sabbath.

So the timestamp here is placed at the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn. At least 12 hours, 10 or 12 hours into the Sabbath, Jesus was still in the grave before he came up. So he was in the grave Friday, he was in the grave Saturday, and he was in the grave at least 10 hours on Sunday. Are you understanding? See, now it's at the end of all of that as it began to dawn. And the Jews counted any part of that day was the day. So Jesus said he'd be in the grave three days, and the third day he rises.

So I want you to see that. Have I got time? All right. And so came Mary Magdalene, came this group of women. See, this is what I'm talking about. Now, each one of the gospel writers name the women. Of course, Matthew here focuses on Mary Magdalene, but there were other women that was in the group that Mark talks about and Luke talks about and John talks about. And when you harmonize the gospels, when you bring all of the gospel accounts together, you find out that here was not only Mary Magdalene, but there was Salome, there was the mother of James and John, Mrs. Zebedee.

There was another woman there. These three groups of women came. They had decided that they were going to go to the grave because they had been there. They had been there at the cross and they watched him drop his head in the locks of his shoulders and he died. And they saw Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus take him down and they put the spices on him. What you've got to understand is the Jews did not send people to the funeral home, so there was no embalming. And they knew that they had a four-day window.

You do remember when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, that the sisters Mary and Martha protested. They said, "Look, you can't go to the grave now because this is four days and by now he stinketh." So Mary Magdalene and the group of women wanted to go to the tomb of Jesus so that they could demonstrate their love and sympathy for him. It was one last opportunity to lay on Jesus their love and their sympathetic concern. They cried when they were at the cross. Their hearts were broken when they stood around and they saw.

You know, I know that your heart doesn't break when you look at the cross, but it ought to, because the reason he was there wasn't because the Romans put him there, but because of what I did and what you did and what we continue to do. And so there ought to be a level of sympathy that rises in our hearts for the concern. But the ladies wanted to show, man, ain't nothing like the love of a woman. When a woman wants to love and when a woman wants to show sympathy and concern, she knows how to be compassionate.

She knows how to take it over the top. And these women wanted to take it over the top. They had been with Jesus in Galilee. They had followed him from Galilee all the way down into Jerusalem. They had been with him in the ticker-tape parade when people threw their garments on the street and cried out "Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord." Mary Magdalene had been healed. She had been a woman who had had seven demons in her and Jesus had cleansed her life, had changed the whole course of her life.

Yes, they had love in their heart. Yes, they had sympathy for him. And yes, they wanted to show one last time before his body began to go to the place of no return. And so they come to the tomb with the emotion of sympathy and love for Jesus. But as they were on their way, they were trying to figure out what are we going to do? We saw that when they put him there, that they put a stone there. And we need some men. We need somebody to roll that stone away. We, there's some things we can't do, and we can't roll that big old stone.

See, what they didn't know is that the Pharisees and Sadducees and religious leaders had gone to Pilate and said, "Pilate, Jesus' disciples might come and try to steal his body. So we want you to put a guard, a Roman guard, and put a seal on that tomb so that anybody mess with it, they would be in violation of Roman law." And so the women are going and they're wondering how in the world they're going to move that stone. But as they were on their way with love in their heart, filled with sympathy, that emotion turned to tremendous terror and fear.

Because as they neared the tomb, they felt the ground rumbling. The scripture said there was a great earthquake. And even though they were walking to the tomb, they could feel the vibration. I don't know if you've ever been in one of them things. If you've ever lived in California, if you've ever been somewhere where the ground shake. Your ground can shake even though there is no physical earthquake. Things can happen so fast. And before you know it, the ground you're standing on is shaking. Anybody ever been in a shaky situation where you felt that everything underneath your foot, nothing was stable anymore because everything was feeling like it was about to cave in?

How many of you have ever said, if one more thing happens to me, I just don't know what I'll be able to do. So as these women were going, they all of a sudden felt the fear, not only because the ground was shaking, but because as they rounded the corner, and I've been in that garden tomb, I've been in that garden and I've seen that tomb, and you can see it from a distance as you come. And they saw that the stone had already been moved. Now somebody might be asking well, how did the stone get moved?

Well, the scripture tell us that the angel descended. And that's what caused the earthquake. When the angel came down and his feet touched the ground. When heaven comes down, baby, something's going to happen. The earth can't stand when heaven come down. You do remember when Jesus was born in Bethlehem and the angel showed up to tell the shepherd boys? "Unto you is born this day in the city of David." Before they knew it, the whole sky was filled with angels and they were singing and praising God.

The whole earth was on fire. When Jesus died on the cross, the Bible said there was another earthquake. So this is the second earthquake in three days. And it was because the angel came down. And the angel came down to roll the stone away. Oh, Paul, pastor. He came to roll the stone away, not to let Jesus out, but to let the women come in. Jesus didn't need the stone to be moved to get out. It wasn't like he was saying, "I'm going to sit back here, I'm already raised from the dead. I just need somebody to move the stone so I can get out."

No. He had the same resurrection power that he had later that night when he walked through the walls and nobody opened the door. He had the same power that he had eight days later when he walked through the walls again, because his resurrected body was not subject to the same molecular structure that the physical human body is subject to. And so the angel rolled the stone away, not to let Jesus out, but to let the women and the world in to see that he's not here. Man, they came and they were afraid. They wanted to show love, but their hearts have turned into terror.

But when they looked around and they got there, let me pause right here because that's when the narrative shifts. Even though Matthew stays right here, John says that Mary Magdalene, when she got to the garden and she saw, she was to the women what Peter was to the disciples. She was impetuous. She spun on her heels and she ran to go tell the disciples. You know what her message was? "They have stolen the Lord's body, and we don't know where they was, what has happened." She didn't get all the way to the tomb.

She didn't get there to hear the angel speak. She just saw the tomb open and assumed that they had already been in there and had taken the body. But the other women, Matthew says, they stayed in the garden. And consequently, when they got to the tomb, they looked in and the angel was there. And the angel had some comfort words for their trembling, broken hearts. "I know you're seeking Jesus, who was crucified. But he's not here. He has risen as he said." Oh, what comfort. What massaging of the terror and the fear that had overcome them to hear the comfort words that he's not here, he has risen as he said.

Come see the place where the Lord lay. Let me show you where he was. And look, there was the evidence that he didn't leave in a hurry, that nobody stole his body. The grave clothes were wrapped, the napkin was laid in a different place. Everything was just like it needed to have been, as if somebody took off their garments, folded up their clothes, packed their suitcase because they wouldn't be coming back there no more and headed for another direction. So Jesus had already made the necessary preparation for his exit.

And the women heard the word. And when they heard the word that he's not here, it did their hearts good. Now, meanwhile, Mary Magdalene has ran and she has found Peter and she has found John. They're probably in two separate headquarters. And she said, "They took the Lord's body and we don't know where they've laid him." So these two fellows come running back to the tomb. And John outran Peter because he was the younger man. But when he got to the tomb, he didn't go in. But Peter, when he got in, Peter bold like he is, bust right into the tomb.

Meanwhile, they leave, Peter and John leave. Mary stays around. When Mary stands around, she sees the angel, but doesn't even know it's the angel. She assumes that he's a gardener. "Sir, where have you laid him? Tell me and I'll take him away." Now, that was superficious on her part. 150-pound woman going to take a 180-pound man who's wrapped in 100 pounds of myrrh and aloes somewhere by herself? But she was so willing because her heart was so filled with that compassion and love and sympathy.

And so the angel said, "No, Mary." And Jesus called her name, "Mary." And she turned around, "Rabboni." And she was the first witness of the resurrection. She saw him. You know why? Because she stayed. If you're going to see a miracle, sometimes you've got to stay in place. You can't be so quick to run. You can't be so quick to leave the place where the Lord has been, because he's been there, he'll show up again. Anybody know he'll do it again? If he blessed you one time, how many know he'll bless you again?

And he'll bless you again, and he'll bless you again. And each time his mercies are new. And so this emotion moves from sympathy to fear, now to joy. And see, you've got a strange situation. So you've got Mary at the tomb now, she's seen the Lord and her heart is filled with joy. All right, she decides to leave and go on back to find the rest of the disciples to tell them he's alive. All right, now Jesus leaves the garden and he juxtaposes his position and he puts himself in front of the other six women who have already left the tomb.

And he shows up and meets them on the road. Now this is what I just found incredibly amazing to me. That when Jesus shows up in front of the other six women who have left the tomb, here's the resurrected Lord. Here's the Savior of the world. Here's the one who has just come forth from the grave. And he meets these women on the road. You would have thought he'd have said something profound. But you know what he said? He said, "All hail." In other words, he said, "Good morning. Oh, how y'all doing?"

Listen, that is so incredible to me. Why is it so incredible? Because he's never so divine that he loses his human touch. No matter what you go through, no matter how many times your heart has been broken and the tears have filled your eyes, he still knows how to approach you with the human touch. He knows how to be natural. He knows how to calm you down. He knows how to say just what you need. "Good morning." After a restless night, after walking the floor all night, after pulling the hair out of your head, after having beat your breast, after having not known what to do, and he wakes you up and says, "Good morning. Don't you worry about it. No matter how bad it was last night, no matter how hard it seemed, I'm still the same Jesus and I'm still able to have that same human touch. Good morning, hail, how you doing? I'm all right, you all right."

And what he did for those women was the same thing that he did for Mary. He turned their fear into joy because now they have discovered that he's alive. Oh y'all, that's what Easter morning is about. Where we come in and we discover that he's alive. And no matter what I went through on Friday, no matter what I went through on Saturday, I know I'm going to be all right because he's alive. And he turns my sorrow into joy. He turns my midnight into morning. He turns my fear into thanksgiving.

He blesses me, he picks me up, he brushes me off. He turns their sorrow into joy. And that's what the Lord can do. And watch what happened. Then they drop down and they grab him by the feet and they worship him. What's wrong with us? What do we come in here to do? Did we come to the fashion show? Did we come to just be in the Easter parade? We should have come to worship him. The very one who has turned our sorrows into joy. The very one that has turned our midnight into possibilities.

We ought to want to fall down and worship him. I don't know how it makes you feel, but he got me up. Listen, I've been down. I've been sick. My heart has been broken. This year I've had to go through two levels of bereavement right in my own family. My oldest brother and my oldest sister. God took them out of the earth and my heart was broken. But the Lord has dried my tears. The Lord has healed my heart. And so I come into his holy presence to say, "Enter into his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise. Be thankful unto him and bless his name. For the Lord is good and his mercy endures forever."

I don't know what you came to do, but I came to worship him. I came to tell him thank you. I came to tell him bless your holy name. I came to tell him I love you, Jesus. You heard my cry, you pitied my every groan. And long as I live and trouble rise, I'll hasten to your throne. I don't know how it makes you feel, but I came to worship him. I know I've got to go, but I want you to see Matthew's perspective from these women. They came with sympathy in their hearts.

They came to show love one last time. But their sympathy turned into terror and fear because they felt the ground shake underneath them and they couldn't explain why this tomb was open. And their emotion when they recognized who Jesus was went from fear to joy. And then it moved from joy to worship. And Jesus says to them, "Now look, you can't hang around the grave. You can't hang around the place of sorrow. I've got a work for you. I want you to go tell my disciples to meet me in Galilee. For there they'll see me."

Oh, there'll be a few appearances made in Jerusalem. Yeah, I've shown up already with Mary and now I see y'all. And I'll meet with some of the boys tonight later. But that's not where the commissioning is going to come. The commissioning is going to come when they get to Galilee, when I tell them for the final time before I take the escalator back to glory to go into all of the world and preach the gospel. What I want you to understand is that you can't come into the service station and get full and stay parked at the pump.

When you leave here, you've got work to do. You've got to go out and you've got to tell somebody. What are you saying, pastor? That their joy turned into hope. I want you to see the getaway that was in them. I want you to look now as they come to the tomb. They're coming marching slow. They're coming with their heads down. They're coming with their hearts broken. They're coming with sorrow in their heart. And it turns into fright. But then they meet Jesus and a little pick-me-up begins to happen.

A little worship begins to happen. But now he is giving them a task. And these girls leave. I believe they took off their stilettos. I believe they took off their high heels. They put their shoes in their hand and they began to run, because they had to go and tell somebody oh that he's alive. Anybody here this morning feel like you've got to go tell somebody? Some of y'all left your folk at home, they were still in the bed. But hurry back home and tell them that he's alive.

Somebody left a job on Friday and people were murmuring and fussing. But hurry back in the morning and tell them that he's alive. Somebody need to go to Washington and tell them that he's alive. Somebody need to go to the Supreme Court and tell them that he's alive. Somebody need to tell the church today that he's alive. All I'm trying to say is I serve a risen Savior. He's in the world today. I know that he is living whatever men may say. I see his hand of mercy, I hear his voice of cheer, and just the time I need him, he's always here.

I just came to tell you he lives, he lives, he lives. Salvation to impart. You ask me how I know he lives? He lives within my heart. Oh, I know I've got to leave you now, but he lives. He lives. The resurrection of Jesus. The resurrection of Jesus. He lives. Doors open, doors of the church are open. Somebody might be here. Somebody might need to know. Somebody might want to give God a chance. Somebody might want to worship him for real.

You don't have to look around, you don't have to worry about people. Give your heart to Jesus. Let this be your moment. God never loses his power to save and the resurrection never loses its power to give us hope. We're going to close this part of our service and we're going to enter very quickly into the service of the Lord's Supper. Asking our deacons to go forward.