Week of March 31 (Matthew 28:1-20)
Matthew 28:1-20
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EASTER SUNDAY
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Matthew 28:1-20 〰️ EASTER SUNDAY 〰️
This week, we're taking a quick break from Mark Vol. 1 and will be going through the Easter story together! In the coming weeks, new folks will visit and join our church to worship, with many likely to join a group. With this in mind, we'll keep it simple as we go through the Resurrection story. This week, we'll read through Matthew 28:1-20.
It can be easy for us to read the resurrection and move on, especially those of us who have spent a good portion of our lives in church and around Scripture. But we should take pause and consider just how crazy the resurrection actually is. Sometimes, it feels so far removed from our lives that it's almost fiction; to many people (and maybe some in our living rooms), it is fiction. So we'll spend a little time looking at the facts, hoping they'll inform our faith in Christ and our wonder at the resurrection. Among historians and scholars, there are quite a few facts that are quite undisputed and built off of historical accounts. For the sake of time, we'll list them here:
We encourage you to read this list out for your group, as there's a question or two that might spark interesting conversation based on these questions!
Jesus was a real man, and he was executed on a Roman cross.
Jesus was buried in a tomb not far geographically from the site of His crucifixion.
Jesus' death caused chaos and fear among His followers.
Shortly after being buried, Jesus' tomb was found empty.
The disciples experienced "something" that caused them to believe that Jesus had risen from the dead.
The disciples' experiences radically transformed their beliefs, leading to death because of their faith.
The message of Jesus' death was at the heart of His gospel.
This gospel was preached in Jerusalem before His crucifixion.
The good news of Jesus' death and resurrection was and is the foundation for the early Christian church.
Sunday then became the day of worship for the church in celebration of the Lord's resurrection.
James, Jesus' half-brother and an unbeliever, was converted following the appearance of his resurrected brother.
Saul, a religious zealot and known persecutor of Christians, was converted to Christianity after an encounter with the risen Christ.¹
All of these facts are documented in the Bible and corroborated in historical documents and found manuscripts. While no one was there to witness Jesus' physical resurrection, the account and proclamation of the disciples and the early church are founded on the fact that Jesus was publically known and publically humiliated (as well as the disciples because of their association with Him), publically executed, and buried. Jesus' death and burial were not a secret event but something known by those who followed and opposed Him. As we talked about early on in our Mark Vol. 1 series, we're presented with two options when looking at Jesus:
He was either who He said He was, the Son of God
or
A crazy man who claimed to be God incarnate
Now, however, we're presented with another layer to this fork in the road:
Jesus truly rose from the dead
or
It's all a hoax, and Jesus' disciples continued this religion in His memory, claiming that He rose from the dead. They faked it all. They experienced social, financial, physical, and legal hardship on behalf of this belief, convincing others to care for and love one another, gaining, essentially, nothing.
Honor and shame had such strong influences in the 1st Century that it was almost unthinkable for a whole group of people to continue believing and following a teacher who was publically shamed and killed as a criminal. The only logical solution we can come to is to believe that the twelve disciples of Jesus encountered and experienced something radically unusual: they saw their Rabbi, Jesus of Nazareth, alive and walking just days after His confirmed death.
As we jump into discussion, we'll hone in on faith, what it means for us, and how we "rationalize" following Jesus, even after the reality of His death and resurrection. We hope that this week of Easter, you and your group can grow in your conviction that Jesus is who He says He is and that our affections for the Son of Suffering grow.
Discussion Questions
What stood out to you from the passage?
Do you have any questions?
Does anything in this passage remind you of another part of Scripture?
How do Jesus' death and resurrection impact His commissioning in v16-20?
Read Matthew 21:1-10. Based on this passage, what did the disciples and the Jewish people expect of Jesus? What were they probably thinking at Jesus' crucifixion?
What would you be thinking if you were following Jesus and then witnessed His crucifixion?
Scripture and historical accounts tell us that ten of the original twelve apostles were killed because they preached the Gospel (John 21:18-19, Acts 12:1-3). What does this tell us about what they saw and believed about Jesus after His "resurrection"?
What would radical faith like this look like for you in your circles and life?
1. Daniel L. Akin, Christ-Centered Exposition: Exalting Jesus in Mark (Brentwood, TN: B&H Publishing Group, 2014), 364.