Thru the Bible

Host: No matter how many times you read about it, the death of the Lord Jesus is the most compelling true story in all of history.

Welcome to Through the Bible where we sit a little longer at the foot of the cross, as we study God's Word with Dr. J. Vernon McGee. We're going to look at the events that happened immediately after Jesus died. So grab your Bible and turn to Matthew 27 where we're going to look at Jesus' great commission. His final words on Earth to his followers. It's an exciting call, and it's really the heart of Through the Bible's mission.

We take Jesus' commands to teach others seriously, and taking his word to every corner of the globe is our vision and passion too. You can join us in that step of obedience every time you pray and financially support this teaching ministry. Did you realize that? This work is definitely a partnership.

You know, every time we began a new five-year journey through the Bible, we always welcome new passengers aboard, even new generations we've been on for so long. I thought of that when I read this letter from Denise in Rochester, New Hampshire. Listen to this.

Host: (reading Denise's letter)

Having listened to you for the better part of my life, I turned 70 last year, and I felt it was time to express my deep gratitude for your ministry. I cannot begin to convey how blessed I am for the insights and understanding I have gained through your teachings. My most significant blessing came last year when my daughter, who homeschools her three children, asked me to teach her oldest, who is 14, about biblical history.

God led me to utilize your program and I'm thrilled to share that my grandson, who's high functioning autistic, has found encouragement in Dr. McGee's voice and simple explanations of the Bible. This has inspired him to seek Christ and listen on his own. I've been enjoying your teachings without contributing, but I feel compelled to change that. God has blessed me and I'm now able to give monthly and have ordered some Bible bus passes to share with others.

I also have a desire to start a small group study and I would appreciate your prayers as I seek to build his kingdom through this endeavor. Thank you for continuing Dr. McGee's ministry. It provides generational wisdom and blessings that resonate deeply with many, including myself. I pray for your ministry daily and look forward to seeing how God continues to work through you.

Host: Well, thank you, Denise. Thank you so much for your faithful listening and now supporting both through prayer and financial support of the ministry. We never tire of hearing about generations of families that listen together. Let's pray.

Father, thank you for the marching orders to take your Word to the ends of the Earth. And Lord, as we spread the seed of your Word, let it fall on good soil. We pray that those who hear will turn to you as savior. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Open to Matthew 27, as we go through the Bible with Dr. J. Vernon McGee.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Now, friends, as we come today to our study, we finished verse 50 last time and we're right in the midst of the first part of our gospel, which is the death of Christ. Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures.

And we find here in verse 50, Jesus, when he cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. They crucified him. Verse 35, and they crucified him. That's all that's told, no details at all. Just these things that surrounded the crucifixion. The Spirit of God put the blanket of silence upon that cross that you and I might not look upon it to satisfy our curiosity. But he died there for your sins and mine.

Now, we're told in verse 51, "Behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom, and the earth did quake and the rocks rent." At the death of Christ, several very notable things took place, and one was there was an earthquake. The other is that in the temple the veil was rent, not from the bottom to the top, man didn't do it, but from the top to the bottom.

And that veil speaks of his flesh, and when his flesh was rent upon the cross, and he paid the penalty for your sin and my sin in his own body on the tree, then the way to God was opened wide, so that you don't have to have a priest to go in for you. You don't have to have a preacher to go in for you. You don't have to have someone else to go in for you. You can go directly to the throne of God as a sinner through Christ.

And let's emphasize that. You only come to God through the Lord Jesus Christ. The only way to him is through Christ, and that was because he was rent, he died upon the cross when he gave up the ghost. Your sins and mine were paid. We come to God through him. There is one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.

Now verse 52, "And the graves were opened, many bodies of the saints which slept arose, came out of the graves after his resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared unto many." Now, this is the part that we wish that more had been told us. I can't go into a great deal of detail here at all, other than to say we believe that it happened this way and these were part of that great company that went to heaven when he led captivity captive at his ascension.

Now the important thing for us to note here is that this earthquake was an intelligent earthquake. It was not just haphazard. The graves were opened by it and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, just certain ones.

I'd like to make this point here. There is a very excellent treatment of this by Bishop Nicholson in his little book entitled, The Six Miracles of Calvary. Many times at Easter, our Good Friday, I should say, why we have had the seven last words. We had those for, I guess, 15 years straight, that we decided we'd switch and take the six miracles of Calvary, use Bishop Nicholson's little book. And it was proved a rich blessing to many.

I would say that if you're interested in that, go to your gospel bookstore. It's a rich little book, not only for this miracle, but there's six miracles of Calvary. You will notice they appeared unto many. There were witnesses to it.

Now, when the centurion and they that were with him watching Jesus, saw the earthquake and those things that were done, they feared greatly, saying, "Truly this was the Son of God." And Luke said he went and stood beneath that cross. That centurion maybe didn't know a great deal, but he did know enough to take his place beneath the cross of Christ.

And that's all that God ever asked any sinner to do, is just to take his place beneath the cross of Christ. He'd never read Hodge's theology or Strong's theology, and he had never read any of Augustine's City of God, and he hadn't even had any of my books, by the way. But he knew enough to take his place beneath the cross. I believe the centurion was a saved man. He witnessed these things.

And these are the things that confirmed to him that this was the Son of God, and he took his place there. Verse 58, "And many women were there, beholding afar off, which followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering unto him, among which was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of Zebedee's children."

"When the even was come, there came a rich man of Arimathea, named Joseph, who also himself was Jesus' disciple." And I'd never know he was a disciple until this event. But you see, when the very thing that caused the apostles to be scattered, seems to have drawn in others that up to this time had what you would call secret disciples.

But now he steps out in the open and he declares his faith. He was Jesus' disciple, and he went to Pilate on that basis and he begged the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body to be delivered. This man and also Nicodemus who came to him by night, and John will tell us about that, he came bringing a 100 pound weight of ointment to put on the body of Jesus.

And these two men, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, who apparently had been in the background, in what we'd probably call secret disciples, they now come out in the open. At least they were the undertakers that handled the body of Jesus, and we'll see later just exactly what they did, and these two men became believers.

Verse 59, "And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock, and he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulcher and departed." Now, near Golgotha, there is a tomb, and they point it out as being the one in which he was buried. They call it the Garden Tomb. I don't know whether he was there or not. I sometimes wonder, I frankly would have my doubts.

The important thing is not to be able to locate the tomb. I saw a woman go in there and get right into the place where bodies were placed and get right down on her all fours and kiss the floor of that tomb. I saw no value in that at all. That's no good. It may not even be the right tomb to begin with. There were many sepulchers in that area.

And it could have been any one of them. I'm sure it's in that area. This one's as good as any. But to try to pin these things down and make them holy and sacred spots is not his intention. It wasn't to make a sacred spot there, but it was to take that gospel from Jerusalem, the fact that he died for the sins of the world, and take it to the world. That is the important thing, not to be able to locate the sepulcher.

Now, verse 61, "There was Mary Magdalene and the other Mary sitting over against the sepulcher. Now the next day that followed the day of the preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees came together unto Pilate saying, 'Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, after three days I'll rise again. Command therefore, that the sepulcher be made sure until the third day, lest his disciples come by night and steal him away and say unto the people, "He's 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 sepulcher sure, sealing the stone and setting a watch. Now, the zeal of the enemy actually gives a confirmation of his resurrection. If they had gone off and left that tomb there, then the argument they gave that the disciples stole the body away might be plausible.

But, my friend, when you got a Roman guard around it, and when the tomb is sealed, and they're there watching it, you may just write it down that the thing that is happening is not going to take place that was stated later, that they stole his body away. They made this sepulcher sure. My, how the enemy went all this trouble, and yet it gave a confirmation of his resurrection.

Then another thing that's quite interesting is that apparently when he told his disciples he would rise again the third day, they had just told everybody about it. And apparently these rulers got word of it. Maybe at the last minute or at the time of the crucifixion. And as soon as they can get another audience with Pilate, they said, "Look, let's make sure because he made this statement and we want to make sure he doesn't come out of the grave."

They didn't expect him to come out, and very frankly, the apostles never expected him to come out of that grave. All four Gospels, when you look at them, you've discovered that. And I think we'll get a little confirmation of it here.

Now, we come to chapter 28, and chapter 28 is the resurrection of Jesus, and the giving of the Great Commission. These are the two great incidents recorded here. Now we've had the death of Christ. Now we have the other pillar on which the gospel rests. The arch of the gospel rests upon two great pillars. First, the death of Christ, and then the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.

And the gospel rests upon it. Listen to Paul as he states the gospel in First Corinthians 15:3. "For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures." Now we've had the death and burial, and in chapter 28, we have the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Both facts are essential to saving faith. He was delivered for our offenses. He was raised for our justification. He was made sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. The unique fact of the gospel, of course, is the resurrection. All other religious leaders have died. None of them died for their followers, but he did.

And the other religious leaders, none of them have even made a claim they came back from the dead. The one thing that makes Christianity unique today, well, take the founders. Where are the founders of the other religions? They're dead. And where is the Lord Jesus? Well, he's alive at God's right hand at this very moment.

I do not think any gospel writer gives all the details concerning the resurrection anymore than they do of the crucifixion of Christ. They merely state the fact. And you have here these different records, and I know that there's been attempts made to try to say there's a contradiction in them. Actually, there's not. The Scofield Reference Bible has a very fine note on this.

The Old Scofield Bible, it was on page 1043. And if you don't have a Scofield Bible, you ought to have one and you ought to look up that note. It's a very important one, by the way, to read and see the order of resurrection. I do not intend to go into that here at all. But I'll take up the record of each gospel when we come to them.

Now, will you notice chapter 28, verse 1? "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." You see, they brought out ointment also to anoint his body.

"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." Now, why was it necessary to roll back the stone? To let him out? No, he was gone when the stone was rolled back. He was out of there. The stone was rolled, not to let him out, but to let them in.

"His countenance was like lightning and his raiment white as snow, and for fear of him the keepers did shake, became as dead men." That guard there, they were very happy to leave after this. Verse 5, "And the angel answered and said unto the women, 'Fear not ye, for I know that ye seek Jesus which was crucified. He is not here, for he is risen as he said.'"

And these are steps that every individual should take before he witnesses. First, he is not here, he's risen as he said. There must be a conviction of that. "Come, see the place where the Lord lay." Have it settled in your own mind that Jesus died and rose again from the dead. And then we're to go and we're to tell. Verse 7, "And go quickly and tell."

"His disciples that he's risen from the dead and behold he goeth before you into Galilee, there shall ye see him, lo, I've told you." Now, they departed quickly from the sepulcher with fear and great joy, 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 worshiped him."

Now, we'll find out later that Mary was forbidden to touch his feet. Why the difference here? We'll see that when we get to it, and I'll have to hold it until then. "Then said Jesus unto them, 'Be not afraid, go tell my brethren that they go into Galilee and there shall they see me.'"

"Now when they were going, behold, some of the watch came into the city and showed unto the chief priests all the things that were done." These men, these soldiers that were on guard duty, they went in and reported. They didn't know when he left. All they knew was that the stone was rolled away, it frightened them to death, and that this angel had appeared to the women. I don't think the soldiers saw it at all.

But the soldiers took a look in and they said he wasn't there. He was gone. Now, what are they going to say? "And when they were assembled with the eldest, and had taken counsel, they gave large money unto the soldiers saying, 'Say ye his disciples came by night and stole him away while we slept.'" That, may I say, is not a very plausible thing.

Can you imagine a soldier today, for that matter, or a soldier in that day, especially a Roman soldier? He's told that he's to guard a certain place, and he's to be sure nothing happens there. No one comes. Now, suppose that what he's supposed to guard, that someone does come and takes away the thing that he was to guard. And suppose his explanation is, "I went to sleep." What do you think would happen to him?

That soldier would be executed, as you well know. I can't imagine this story even ever becoming plausible, and yet it's used by the enemy, of course. Verse 14, "And if this come to the governor's ears, we will persuade him and secure you." If this word would get out that that's what you did, well, the governor would have you for a firing squad. But we'll take care of that now.

"So they took the money and did as they were taught, and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day." That is the story that was told, of course, by the enemy. Notice verse 16. We have now the Great Commission that is given. We have actually two extreme viewpoints of this so-called Great Commission.

And very frankly, I think both of them are rather extreme. The Great Commission in Matthew, it's a source of controversy. One extreme group, they feel that the so-called Great Commission contains the only command for the church. This is it. And they just hang on to it. Others feel that it has no meaning for this day and it should be excluded from the church program.

Now, both of these are extreme views, and both, to me, seem to be in error. We've endeavored to show that Matthew has direct application for us. And I think the Great Commission has an application for us today. And this doesn't mean that it'll not find a final and fuller meaning in the future. I think it will. But it's obvious that Matthew did not give the total record of the resurrection.

And neither did he give us the total commission. Now, the commission in Matthew should be considered with the other Gospels and especially with Acts 1:8, as well as with the other three Gospels. All of these give a full orb command for the present day as well as the future. And I think that it all should be put together, given as a composite.

"You shall be witnesses unto me, beginning in Jerusalem, and Judea, and Samaria, and then unto the very ends of the Earth. You shall be witnesses unto me, and you're to be endued with power from on high." Now, with that in mind, this is part of it. "Then the 11 disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them."

"And when they saw him, they worshiped him, but some doubted." That is the way it's been for 1900 years, some believe, some doubt. And right now, I'm sure there are people listening to me in both categories, but I rejoice that I believe most of them are in the category of those who believe.

"Now, and Jesus came and spoke unto them saying, 'All power is given unto me in heaven and in Earth.'" He's speaking as the king. "Go ye therefore and teach all nations." I think this will have a real application in the great tribulation period. I'm sure it will even in the millennium. But, friends, it has an application for us today.

"Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." This is triune baptism, you see. "Teaching them to observe all things, whatsoever I've commanded you, and lo, I'm with you always, even unto the end of the age," not the world. He says, "I'll be with you."

Now I can't see anything that's wrong with this for today. Now, the Great Commission is not really, to me, the important thing right here. It's the great omission. There is an omission here. What is it that we don't have here? Well, I could almost wish and say, "Well, you read it over again, we'll talk about it next time."

But we're going back to Exodus next time. So let me just say this. What is it that is omitted here? There's no ascension here. Do you know why? Because the kingdom is here upon the Earth. And Matthew leaves the king upon the Earth because this is where the king is to be. Now, he takes his own out of the world to be with himself, and the ascension is essential for that.

Now, will you notice in closing? He was born a king, he lived as a king, he died a king, he rose again a king. And, friends, he's coming again to this Earth as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. I hope you bow to him today. May God richly bless you, my beloved.

Host: Well, I certainly appreciate the reminder that the Lord promises to be with us right on through the end of the age. And it's only in his power that the Great Commission can be carried out. He commands us all to take his Word to the ends of the Earth. And that's what you can do in partnership with Through the Bible. We all know that ministry begins, continues, and succeeds only through prayer.

So to unite us in prayer, well, we formed a powerful world prayer team. Sign up for it today in our app or at TTB.org. And if you'd like to provide a tank of gas or a new set of tires to keep the old Bible bus running in your neighborhood and around the world, well, just call us. 1-800-65 Bible is the number, or write to box 7100, Pasadena, California, 91109.

In Canada, box 25325, London, Ontario, N6C6B1. And remember, you can also donate in our app, super easy there or at TTB.org. Well, we're on the move as we travel back to the Old Testament to a book Dr. McGee nicknamed, The Great Redemption Story. I'm Steve Schwetz, and I'll save a seat just for you.

Our story on the Bible bus today is just one step in a five-year journey through the entire Word of God. Come along for the ride and you'll study both the Old Testament and New Testament, discovering God's great redemption story. Is this your story too?