We've come to the final chapter of Matthew and we have been taught so much! Thank you to our Guide, creation, God...who lead us through the scripture, strengthened our faith through each verse and was patient with us as we worked to understand concepts. Thank you to Jesus who dedicated His life to teaching us -- I know we make Him so proud and so comforted when we spend time learning everything He brought to us. Our thanks is small and humble in comparison to the gift we have been given but our good and selfless actions toward others are substantial and reveal our true love and gratitude for God.
28:1 The two Marys do not leave Jesus' side. These were faithful, strong women. They put their complete trust in God and wanted to remain as close to Jesus as possible.
28:2 An amazing thing happened: an angel sent directly from God arrives. The Earth shakes. Heaven is so brilliant, so perfect that when anything from Heaven arrives here... the Earth almost can't withstand it. The whole Earth experiences the magnitude of God.
This angel comes and rolls the stone away. An angel is a worker and messenger of God in spiritual form.
28:3 We cannot truly understand what the spiritual form is like so we have descriptions such as these to get at least an idea. This angel is pure, strong and brilliant.
28:4 The guards cannot withstand the massive, magnificent presence of an angel of the lord. Their sins and their guilt eat them away... their darkness is muted by their light. They are drained of any strength they thought they had.
28:5 The angel comforts the two faithful Marys. Although an angel's presence is overwhelming to the human body, the angel comforts them. The angel recognizes them as true followers of Jesus; the angel knows of their love for Him.
28:6 The angel brings the news that Jesus has risen. Jesus passed through His body and directly into the spirit to take His rightful and deserved place as the spiritual Son of God.
28:7 The angel instructs the women to inform the disciples that Jesus will meet with them in Galilee (as Jesus informed them in Matthew 26:32.
28:8 They did not hesitate in delivering the message. They immediately believed and carried on the message. They went with joy and reverence of God. "Fear" translates as reverence.
28:9 Jesus appeared to the two women who love Him so and they all fell at His feet with love and gratitude. Jesus is immediate in carrying out His word and God's word. It happens exactly as He predicts and it happens exactly when He tells us.
28:10 After their time with Jesus in His true and wonderful form, they continue on their way to gather the disciples to meet Him. These women have proved themselves deserving of Jesus' love and attention. Why? Because they are kind and compassionate. Because they believe and are courageous.
28:11 Meanwhile, the guards are scrambling. They are in disbelief and great fear.
28:12-13 These people will not stop deceiving, lying and cheating. They try to create a lie of a story in which Jesus' followers took Him while they were sleeping. They do not want people knowing about Jesus' resurrection -- they fear the consequences of their lies.
28:14 They are promising to back up the fake story.
28:15 Therefore, because of their constant deception, they corrupted a beautiful truth.
28:16 The disciples went to Galilee to meet Jesus.
28:17 When they saw Him, some of them immediately worshiped Him (displayed their absolute love and gratitude for all that He has done and does for us). Others had a difficult time accepting the situation. This would be their first time seeing God or anything in spiritual form and they had trouble with the concept. This is beneficial to us because undoubtedly many of us today might have trouble with the concept as well. The disciples experienced a lot of lessons for us to learn from.
28:18 All authority and has been to Jesus in Heaven and on Earth. Beautiful, we are so blessed to be in Jesus' hands.
28:19 Jesus sets them (and us) on our mission. We are to spread His love throughout the world. With God's help and the gifts and opportunities He gives us... we help to gather children into His home. Let's get to this beautiful and rewarding work. Make disciples of the world! Help everyone become a student of Jesus. Your actions, your words... they are lessons for others. Never force it, Jesus never forced anyone into anything. Jesus was always there leading by example and teaching those who wanted to hear.
28:20 "I am with you always." Jesus is always with you, specifically,... to and through the end, through everything - every hardship, every pain, every joy and smile. Let that sink in. Let that make you brave.
Amen.
28:2 An amazing thing happened: an angel sent directly from God arrives. The Earth shakes. Heaven is so brilliant, so perfect that when anything from Heaven arrives here... the Earth almost can't withstand it. The whole Earth experiences the magnitude of God.
This angel comes and rolls the stone away. An angel is a worker and messenger of God in spiritual form.
28:3 We cannot truly understand what the spiritual form is like so we have descriptions such as these to get at least an idea. This angel is pure, strong and brilliant.
28:4 The guards cannot withstand the massive, magnificent presence of an angel of the lord. Their sins and their guilt eat them away... their darkness is muted by their light. They are drained of any strength they thought they had.
28:5 The angel comforts the two faithful Marys. Although an angel's presence is overwhelming to the human body, the angel comforts them. The angel recognizes them as true followers of Jesus; the angel knows of their love for Him.
28:6 The angel brings the news that Jesus has risen. Jesus passed through His body and directly into the spirit to take His rightful and deserved place as the spiritual Son of God.
28:7 The angel instructs the women to inform the disciples that Jesus will meet with them in Galilee (as Jesus informed them in Matthew 26:32.
28:8 They did not hesitate in delivering the message. They immediately believed and carried on the message. They went with joy and reverence of God. "Fear" translates as reverence.
28:9 Jesus appeared to the two women who love Him so and they all fell at His feet with love and gratitude. Jesus is immediate in carrying out His word and God's word. It happens exactly as He predicts and it happens exactly when He tells us.
28:10 After their time with Jesus in His true and wonderful form, they continue on their way to gather the disciples to meet Him. These women have proved themselves deserving of Jesus' love and attention. Why? Because they are kind and compassionate. Because they believe and are courageous.
28:11 Meanwhile, the guards are scrambling. They are in disbelief and great fear.
28:12-13 These people will not stop deceiving, lying and cheating. They try to create a lie of a story in which Jesus' followers took Him while they were sleeping. They do not want people knowing about Jesus' resurrection -- they fear the consequences of their lies.
28:14 They are promising to back up the fake story.
28:15 Therefore, because of their constant deception, they corrupted a beautiful truth.
28:16 The disciples went to Galilee to meet Jesus.
28:17 When they saw Him, some of them immediately worshiped Him (displayed their absolute love and gratitude for all that He has done and does for us). Others had a difficult time accepting the situation. This would be their first time seeing God or anything in spiritual form and they had trouble with the concept. This is beneficial to us because undoubtedly many of us today might have trouble with the concept as well. The disciples experienced a lot of lessons for us to learn from.
28:18 All authority and has been to Jesus in Heaven and on Earth. Beautiful, we are so blessed to be in Jesus' hands.
28:19 Jesus sets them (and us) on our mission. We are to spread His love throughout the world. With God's help and the gifts and opportunities He gives us... we help to gather children into His home. Let's get to this beautiful and rewarding work. Make disciples of the world! Help everyone become a student of Jesus. Your actions, your words... they are lessons for others. Never force it, Jesus never forced anyone into anything. Jesus was always there leading by example and teaching those who wanted to hear.
28:20 "I am with you always." Jesus is always with you, specifically,... to and through the end, through everything - every hardship, every pain, every joy and smile. Let that sink in. Let that make you brave.
Amen.
