Resurrection of the King

April 17, 2022 Background Scripture: Matthew 27; 28:1 -10 Lesson Passage: Matthew 28: 1 - 10 "Sir, we remember, while He was still alive, how that deceiver said, 'After three days I will rise. ' therefore command that the tomb be made secure until the third day, lest His disciples come by night and steal Him away, and say to the people, 'He has risen from the dead.' So the last deception will be worse than the first." This is the statement made by the chief priests and Pharisees to Pilate the day after Jesus' crucifixion. This is the clearest evidence that the Jewish leaders understood exactly what Jesus had prophesied. They were also aware that Jesus had raised several people from the dead during his three-year ministry. They previously stated that Jesus could not do what He did except God was with Him. They understood doctrinally what Jesus was teaching and His miracles better than Jesus' disciples understood them. How could someone understand so much of what was witnessed and heard for three years and yet refuse to accept the reality of what it all meant? Simply put, their flesh rebelled against the things of God. They knew what they wanted, and Jesus' teachings were against what they wanted. They were shown favor and given certain privileges by the Roman government. Those temporary accommodations were preferred to the delayed blessings that were promised by God for eternity. They believed they could have both. They communicated with the local Roman officials to maintain their status, and they practiced piety and religious rituals to benefit them later. Jesus taught that their religious works could never earn them eternal life. God would only give them eternal life if they would put their trust and faith in the One that God sent to them. This was something they could not control or influence, and their flesh rebelled against it. They refused to submit to the word of God even in the face of overwhelming evidence that they understood. Jesus constantly reminded them that everything He did was according to the word of God that they already knew and taught the people. Jesus pleaded with them to come to Him and be saved. They steadfastly rejected it as being beneath them to submit to Jesus. Rather than submit to Jesus, they demonstrated their political influence by arresting Him and having the Roman government administer capital punishment for them. If they were right, that would have been the end of all of that. However, they remembered what Jesus had said about His death and resurrection. Their extra step of precaution was to have Roman soldiers stationed at the tomb to ensure that no one could go in and remove Jesus' corpse. What they could not do was have someone stationed inside the tomb to ensure that Jesus could not come out. If Jesus rises from the dead and comes out of the tomb, then all that He taught them was true. They knew that God was with Jesus because of the miracles. That meant that God had sent Him. But could God become a man? Could a man be the Son of God? If so, then He would be Israel's King as He had said. The Jews expected Israel's King to lead them to fight against their Gentile oppressors, Israel's King should have delivered them from the Romans. But He did not come to deliver Israel from the Romans. He came to deliver all nations from sin. To deliver Israel would require Jesus to pick up arms and lead them into battle. To deliver the world required Jesus to lay down His life as a ransom for many. Because Israel rejected Him, the nations of the world could now be saved. And God gave His divine approval through the resurrection of the King. Robert C. Hudson April 4, 2022