The Easter Angels

Pastor Mike will be speaking on The Easter Angels. He will be reading out of Matthew 28:1-10.

This is the message that the angels have for us, that Christ is risen. He is no longer in that tomb. Yes, He was crucified, but on that third day He rose again. And the message that we are sharing is that Jesus Christ is alive.

Happy Easter. I want to welcome you to Hopeworth Having Radio program. This is Pastor Mike Sanders from the Open Door Church. And we hope that this Easter Sunday is already something special for you.

And today we’re going to be in Matthew 28 learning about the resurrection of our Savior, Jesus Christ. And so I hope that you’ll grab your Bible and that you’ll begin to study with us as we celebrate the resurrection that our Savior is alive.

Join me in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 28 is going to be the focus of our attention this morning on this Easter Sunday. And just as the birth of Christ was accompanied by angels, so was His resurrection.

Amazingly, angels were an important part of the life of our Lord and Savior as He walked upon this earth. The angels attended Christ while He was in the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights. The angels ministered to Christ and they served Him as He walked upon this earth.

The word angel literally means messenger. Angels are supernatural creatures who worship God in heaven and they serve Him on this earth. They deliver His message. The Bible says in Hebrews chapter 1 and verse 6 and 7 that when He again brings the firstborn into the world referring to Christ, He says, let all the angels be in heaven.

angels of God worship Him. And regarding the angels, he says, make His angels winds and His ministers a flame of fire. When the Bible refers to Jesus being the firstborn, it’s not talking about chronologically that He was the first to be born, but rather He’s talking about quality in that He is the first of His kind.

And so when this great Savior Jesus comes into the world the second time, the Bible is teaching us that the angels will worship Him. They will worship Him. We are not called to worship angels, but we are called just like the angels to worship God, to worship Jesus Christ.

And these angels will be ministering angels, like the wind they will flow through the earth accomplishing His great work. Like flames of fire, they will deliver his great message of new life in Christ.

I’m sure the happiest assignment ever given to an angel was the joyful task of announcing the resurrection of Jesus Christ. In Matthew chapter 28, we see that very assignment. The Bible says in verse 1, now after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began, to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb.

And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone from the door and sat on it. His countenance was like lightning and his clothing as white as snow, and the guards shook for fear of him and became like dead men.

But the angel answered and said to the woman, do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he is risen. As he said, come see the place where the Lord lay and go quickly and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead and indeed he is going before you into Galilee.

There you will see him. Behold, I have told you. So they went out quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy and ran to bring his disciples word. As they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, rejoice.

So they came and held him by the feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, do not be afraid, go and tell my brethren to go to Galilee and there they will see me on this Easter. Sunday morning, we uphold the reality of the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ from Jerusalem.

We believe in all of our hearts that Christ is truly risen, and this week has been a significant week for us as we reflect and meditate upon what it means to us on the Christian calendar. As our Savior came into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, and He ministered in the temple, and He taught the people, and the Bible says that He healed every person that came to Him seeking strength, hope, and help.

The Bible teaches us that Jesus Christ was crucified, that on that cross He was suspended between heaven and earth, and the sins of mankind was placed upon Him. And on that cross, Jesus Christ declared that it was finished, that the great work of salvation was completed, all that was necessary for you and me to have new life and to have eternal life was completed in that Christ paid for our sins.

The Bible tells us that the climactic moment of the resurrection of Christ took place on a Sunday morning. Sometimes people have said that the church meets on Sunday out of tradition, but the church meets on Sunday because it is the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

We gather here this morning again to say, just as Christians are all around the world to say that our Lord is risen and we worship Him again. Now as we look at our text this morning, we are noted that the angel’s mission in verses one through six, the body of Jesus Christ had come to life and now here Christ had risen and miraculously he had passed through this stone that was upon the tomb.

Now we have been to Israel and we have seen what some consider to be the tomb of Jesus Christ and we see how they seal the tomb and we see how they roll these large stones in front. It is amazing that our Savior Jesus Christ just walked right through all that and he is truly alive.

As the women approached the tomb, the angel descended and the Bible teaches us that there was an earthquake and the angel rolled the stone away. This was the the mission of the angel. The angel had the task of rolling the stone away, not so Christ could get out of the tomb, but so that people could get into the tomb, so that they could see truly that Jesus is alive.

The disciples would go to the tomb, the women would go to the tomb, and all of the world can now go to the tomb and see that unlike any other religious leader, our Savior is alive and the tomb and the grave is empty.

How wonderful it is to know that our Savior is alive. The Bible tells us that if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty. And your faith is also empty. How important is the resurrection to each of our faith?

It’s at the heart of it. The resurrection of Christ is the climax of the Gospel story. It is very important to us because it validates not only that Christ’s sacrificing his life for our sins was accepted by God, but it reminds us that it’s not just that God wanted to deliver us from sin, but he wants to deliver us from the hopelessness of this world.

And he wants us to know that we have a future and that we have a hope that is found in him. The resurrection of Christ is not some mystical story that has been made up through the traditions of time.

It’s not a group of stories of something that was made up by men and women who decided that this was a neat little myth, but rather it is something that can be backed up with evidence. In 1st Timothy 3 .16, the apostle Paul taught the church that without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness.

God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, and he believed, believed on in the world, and received up into glory. The summation of the life of Christ, the death of Christ, the resurrection of Christ, and the ascension of Christ captured right there in that verse.

But what it is teaching us is that the resurrection is the foundation of our Christian faith. Without the resurrection, we would be hopeless. Without the resurrection, we would struggle with our future.

But Jesus Christ has come. And the Scripture says that after he was seen by over 500 brethren at once, of whom the greater part remained to the present, but some have fallen asleep. And the point simply is this, that not only has Christ risen and not only was he seen of the angels, but he has been seen of the angels.

angels, but He was seen of everyday people like you and me. That after the resurrection, it wasn’t just one witness, it wasn’t just two witnesses, in which the Scripture says, let every word be established by two or three witnesses, that even today in our court system, we continue to use that principle that we bring in witnesses to validate or verify what is true and what is false.

But Jesus always going above and beyond expectation and what is normal, the Bible says over 500 people saw Him after His resurrection. For over 40 days, Jesus walked on this earth and He met with His disciples and He met with the believers and He met them at Galilee.

And He taught them about the kingdom of God and He talked to them about the establishment of the church and He talked to them about the gospel of Jesus Christ and how it was their mission. to go unto the ends of the earth and to tell everyone this wonderful news, how Jesus Christ died on a cross and He has risen again and He died for our sins and He’s come out of that grave so that we can have a future in Him.

Praise God. Now metaphorically, when we think about that stone rolling away, I want you to see three things. First, that our sin is rolled away. Before Christ’s death and resurrection, the condition of sinful people was deplorable or it was miserable.

Time and time again, the Jewish people would come with their sacrifices and they would offer up their sacrifices, but their sins were just rolled to a future payment, but never fully pay. During COVID -19, many financial institutions helping people within our communities said, you can just roll your payment down the road.

We’ll just add it to the end. And that’s exactly what was taking place for people with their sins. Their iniquities were still weighing them down. The shame and the guilt of their sin was only plunging them deeper into their selfishness and sinfulness.

The guilt of their sin was continuing to be a burden upon them and hindering them from starting fresh and new in Jesus Christ. But on that day, metaphorically, we can see that as the stone is rolled away, God has rolled away each and every one of our sins.

And that when we come to the Lord Jesus Christ and our hearts are honest with Him and we simply cry out to Him and say, Lord, I am a sinner in need of a Savior. I want you to know that the Bible teaches us that God will wipe away all of our sins in the past, the present, and the future, and we are a new creation in Jesus Christ.

the Lord Jesus Christ. There’s not only the newness of Easter that brings about the newness of life, but it also helps us to understand that what is dead has passed away, and God has birthed within us a new spirit, and a new faith, and a new hope that continues to mobilize us for His glory.

We think about this stone rolling away, and we see that the fear of death is rolled away in the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. There was the fear that captures so many people and holds them in bondage.

Many are afraid of death. They don’t want to deal with death. They think somehow that they might encounter death, and this fear has controlled their life. They have questioned what is beyond death. It’s the unknown that sometimes causes people to be afraid.

But the Bible teaches us that Jesus has conquered death. He has not only conquered sin, but He has conquered death. And because He has conquered death, you and I don’t have to be afraid. We can live in faith and we can continue to move forward.

And we can know that when God calls us home, or He calls our loved ones home, that we have the promise that we will have eternal life with Jesus Christ. Every one of us needs to note that our time on this earth is determined by God, not by anybody else.

You cannot add to your life. You cannot take away. God knows how long we will live. We determine the quality of our life, but not the quantity. The Bible teaches us that our days are numbered. But what we can have as we live in this life, even though our days are numbered, we can know the number of days that we have in that we can surely have a day that is full of joy, peace, and focused on the Lord Jesus Christ.

We don’t have to be afraid. We don’t have to be scared. We can live in full faith and knowing that Christ has a plan, that He has a purpose for our life. Not only do we see that our sin is rolled away in the resurrection of Christ and the fear of death is rolled away, but I want you to know the misery of separation from our loved ones is rolled away.

Is there anything worse than to be separated from our loved ones? This year we’ve seen many of our precious members of our church family promoted to heaven for different reasons. Our nation has experienced a virus that has come across and called many people home to be with Jesus Christ.

Christ. But I want you to know that for the believer, we have an incredible hope that one day we’re going to be reunited, that this is not the end for us. This is not the final stop. Death is not it for us.

We don’t see it as finality, but rather we see it as a transition into a new life with Jesus Christ. This is what our hope is built upon. That’s why in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, there were many believers who were discouraged about what had happened to their loved ones.

But the Bible says in verse 14, if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with him those who sleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those.

who are asleep, for the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout and with the voice of an archangel and with the trump of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first. And then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.

And thus we shall always be, we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words. The promise of being reunited with our loved ones who are in heaven is rooted in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The reason the resurrection means so much to you is that it is God verifying to you that He will raise up your loved ones, He will raise us up and His resurrection is a guarantee of our resurrection and we will one day be back together and the circle will not be unbroken.

And that is a powerful truth to hold on to. Now as we look at our text this morning in Matthew chapter 28, we not only see that the angels had a mission, but the angels have a message. We see in verse 5 that the angel answered and said to the woman, don’t be afraid, for I know you seek Jesus who was crucified.

He is not here, for He is risen. As He said, come see the place where the Lord lay. Again, friends, I want you to know that the resurrection of Christ is not something that’s emotional, but it’s something that has facts and truth.

Come see, come see the evidence that He is not here. Come see that He no longer is in the tomb. The angels shared with the women to not be afraid. And because of Easter, you and I don’t have to live in fear and we can have the peace of God and the joy of Christ in our life and we can continue to march forward for the glory of Christ and for the glory of Christ.

cause of Jesus Christ. The Bible tells us again, look at verse 7 of chapter 28, go quickly and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead. This is the message that the angels have for us, that Christ is risen, that he is no longer in that tomb.

Yes, he was crucified. Yes, he gave his life for us, but on that third day, he rose again. And the message that we are sharing to the world and the message that we need to tell our friends and the message that we need to tell our family members, it is the good news that Jesus Christ is alive.

Yes, it’s a wonderful message. It’s a message to demand sharing. It’s a message that requires us the responsibility to let others know we cannot just huddle in our churches and huddle in our Bible study groups.

We cannot just huddle together in our small groups Just say, that’s so wonderful that Jesus has risen. We must also go out and let other peoples know. The world is going through so much. And what I want you to know that as people are looking for help and as they’re looking for hope, we as the church, as the people of God, we have the message.

We have the hope that they need. And we need to make sure that we’re doing everything that we can to share that wonderful message of Jesus Christ being alive. And he is the answer to all the ills of this world.

If you’re looking to politics for your answers, it’s a dead end road. If you’re looking to gaining a lot of wealth as your answers, it’s a dead end road. If you’re looking to education as your answer, it’s a dead end road.

If you’re looking to the things of this world, materialism, whatever it might be, these things all end up being a dead end road. But Jesus Christ is the true answer. And Jesus Christ is the one that we are to promote and we are to share with others.

And it is our job to do all that we can to be a part of what God is doing in this world to get His message to every heart. The third thing that I want you to note is the angels master. In verses eight through 10, the Bible says that they went out quickly from the tomb with fear, meaning that they had great reverence and great joy in their heart.

And they ran to bring His disciples word. They were excited. They were stunned. They were amazed. These women were just deeply touched. I want you to note how quickly from hearing the message from the angel that they in turn went out and told the message that they did not just sit on their laurels and say, well, I need to take so many classes.

I need to do so many things. Or I need to make sure that I check so many boxes. No, my friends, as soon as I get there, they heard the message, they went out and they told the disciples that Jesus Christ was alive.

The risen reigning Christ is who we want to see. He is the one that we want to focus our heart on. The human heart has a natural hunger within it for something more. There is created within us what is often referred to by philosophers as the God vacuum, that we know that there’s something more significant, that there is something more meaningful in this world.

We desire for that to be true in our life, for that vacuum to be fulfilled. It is only filled in Jesus Christ. As you and I have a relationship with Him, Jesus said to the women and to the disciples to go meet Him in Galilee.

And there you will see me. When Jesus showed up to Lazarus’ funeral, the Bible says that he told the family, I am the resurrection and the life and he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.

What are you looking for this morning? What are you hungry for? Are you trying to fill your heart with so many things of this world only to find that it’s empty and vain? Only to find that it’s not what you had hoped for or what you thought it would be.

I want you to know that Jesus Christ is what you’re truly looking for. And the reason that he came out of that grave is so that you could have a life of purpose and meaning and hope and experience the true salvation that he offers to everyone who believes in him.

Now, the resurrection of Christ is our victory. God does not want us to be a defeated people. God does not want us to be a people with head down and just kind of dredging through life. God does not want us to be a people who are just trying to hold on and struggle through.

But he wants us to understand that we are more than conquerors and that we have the victory that is found in Jesus Christ. And the joy that we can have each day, even though there are times of tears and there are times of trouble and there are times that we do wrestle with the flesh and we have problems in the circumstances of life, God is saying to us that through the resurrection, you can have victory, through the resurrection, you can move forward, through the resurrection, you can have the strength to be what God wants you to be.

In the book of Job, Job said, as for me, I know that my redeeming and at the last day, he will take his stand on the earth.” Now, you may say that’s very nice, pastor. That’s a nice statement that Job made.

But I want you to understand that Job had already been through the struggle of losing his children. He’d already been through the struggle of losing all of his wealth. He’d already been through the struggle of tremendous health problems.

And yet, what was it that brought Job hope in the midst of those problems? It was the master that he served. It was the Savior that he followed. It was the Lord Jesus Christ that he believed in in his heart.

And he said, I know that my Redeemer lives. And at the last, he will take his stand on the earth. Friends, we’re on the winning side. We know how it all ends. We understand that as believers, what is unfolding because it’s all a part of prophecy.

And what we can do, friends, is be those points of light within our communities and within our families. And we can continue to point people to Jesus Christ because He is the true answer that everyone needs in this time of struggle and heartache.

Jesus Christ is the one who is offering to us a true relationship. It’s not a religion. It’s not rituals. It’s not a tradition that He is offering to us but a real relationship with Him. This is what God wants, is that we would believe in Him and that we would know Him as our Lord and Savior.

The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 15 -22 that in Christ shall all be made alive. Because you see, my friends, before our faith in Christ, we are dead in our sins. But what does God do when we believe on Christ?

He resurrects us. He quickens us, the Bible says. That is, He makes us alive in Him. If you want to experience true vitality and energy and strength and power, it is only in Christ that you will experience that.

And as your faith is growing and as you are developing your walk with God, He continues to energize you every day and He continues to infuse in your heart the hope and the strength of a relationship with Him.

So this is the Master. This is the Savior that we long to see. Do you want to see Jesus? I wonder if there are any hungry hearts today. I wonder if there are any who want to experience the newness that is found in Jesus.

If you’re one of those people, the answer is simply acknowledging your sins and believing in God. Christ for your salvation. The resurrection of Christ is the affirmation that His sacrifice was accepted by God the Father.

It is also a foreshadowing of all believers of what it’s going to be like one day, that God will raise us all from the dead and we will be granted new bodies and our bodies will be immortal and we will live for Christ and with Christ forever and ever and it’s going to be beautiful.

So I hope that this message has been an inspiration to you and that you have been moved and motivated to live for Christ and I just want to remind you that in Christ there is hope worth it. having.