Avoiding the Resurrection

Matthew
Written By Steve Estes

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: Matthew 28:11-20
April 9, 2023

Matthew 28:11-20: While the women were on their way, some of the guards went into the city and reported to the chief priests everything that had happened. When the chief priests had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money, telling them, 'You are to say, 'His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.' If this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble." So the soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story has been widely circulated among the Jews to this very day.

Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

Sermon Outline

1. Background of this passage

  • The burial of Christ

  • The next day

  • The Resurrection

2. The actions of those for whom the Resurrection was something to avoid

  • The guards

  • The Jewish leaders

3. We learn things that tempt people to avoid Christ's Resurrection

  • Reputation and luxury

  • Fear of the supernatural

  • These things feel safe

4. Avoiding Christ's Resurrection is not safe

  • The Jewish leaders weren't safe

  • Pontius Pilate and Rome weren't safe

  • No unrepentant sinner is safe

5. Believing in Jesus Christ is the only true safe place

6. What Jesus told his disciples

  • "All authority on earth has been given to me."

  • "Therefore, go!"

Benediction

All honor to him who was delivered over to death for our sins, and was raised to life for our justification. Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord. — paraphrased from Romans 4:25

Steve Estes

Steve Estes has been senior pastor at Brick Lane Community Church in Elverson, Pennsylvania, for over thirty-five years. 

Steve’s books and other writings began with his longtime friendship with Joni Eareckson Tada. As teenagers, they grappled with why God allowed Joni’s paralysis in a swimming accident in the Chesapeake Bay. Steve left for college . . . they kept in touch . . . she liked the style of his letters. When her 1976 autobiography Joni spawned thousands of reader responses, she asked Steve to join her in crafting a follow-up. The result was A Step Further in 1978.

Later, Wycliffe Bible Translators commissioned Steve to write the biography of former college friend Chet Bitterman, a Wycliffe linguist who was kidnapped and murdered by political terrorists in Colombia in 1981. Other books and articles followed, including When God Weeps (with Joni) and A Better December (a giveaway book for non-Christian friends at Christmas.)

Steve was educated at Westminster Theological Seminary, Columbia Bible College and Jerusalem University College in Israel. He has taught homiletics at Westminster and is a board member of the Christian Counseling & Educational Foundation.

But Steve would say his most significant life achievement was persuading college classmate Verna Stoltzfus to marry him in 1974.  They now have eight children and more grandchildren than can fit in a van.

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