turn to the book of Matthew this morning. We're going to begin reading in chapter 27 beginning at verse 62 and then read through that chapter and all of chapter 28 and focus our attention on verses 11 through 15 of chapter 28. Matthew 27, we read of Jesus' death on the cross and his burial the same day by Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus in the tomb of Joseph. That was Friday, the Passover. And now beginning chapter 27, verse 62, now the next day, that Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath, now the next day that followed the day of the preparation The chief priests and Pharisees came together unto Pilate, saying, Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, after three days I will rise again. Command, therefore, that the sepulcher be made sure unto the third day, lest his disciples come by night and steal him away. And say unto the people, he is risen from the dead, so the last error shall be worse than the first. Pilate said unto them, you have a watch, go your way, make it as sure as you can. So they went and made the sepulcher sure, sealing the stone and setting a watch. In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulcher. Behold, there was a great earthquake, for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came, and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it. His countenance was like lightning, and as raiment, white as snow, and for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men. And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye, for I know that ye seek Jesus which 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 behold, he goeth before you into Galilee. There shall you see him. So I have told you.' They departed quickly from the sepulcher with fear and great joy, and did run to bring his disciples word. As they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them saying, all hail. They came and held him by the feet and worshiped him. Then said Jesus unto them, be not afraid, go tell my brethren that they go into Galilee. There shall they see me. Now here are the verses we consider this morning. Now when they were going, behold, some of the watch came into the city. and showed unto the chief priests all the things that were done. And when they were assembled with the elders and had taken counsel, they gave large money unto the soldiers, saying, Say ye, his disciples came by night and stole him away while he slept. And if this comes to the governor's ears, we will persuade him and secure you. So they took the money and did as they were taught. This saying is commonly reported among the Jews unto this day. Now that's the end of the verses we consider, but let's read the rest of the chapter. Then the 11 disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. And when they saw him, they worshiped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe whatsoever things I have commanded you. Though I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen. So far we read God's holy, inspired word. The first Several verses of chapter 28 of the book of Matthew record the resurrection of Jesus. It was Sunday morning and several women who had witnessed Jesus' crucifixion on Friday, the Passover, left Jerusalem to see the sepulcher of Jesus. had in mind to anoint his body. As they proceeded out the gate of the city of Jerusalem to the tomb, two unusual things happened. First of all, there was an earthquake, probably an aftershock of the gigantic earthquake that took place at the same time Jesus died and literally tore apart the hills around Jerusalem. The women and all Jerusalem, of course, witnessed that. The second thing unusual that took place was not seen by the women, but it was seen by the Roman guards that guard the tomb of Jesus. angel reflecting the very glory of heaven came down and then rolled away the large stone that had been set to seal the tomb of Jesus. From the verses we considered this morning, we learned that as the women proceed to the sepulcher, and were told of Jesus' resurrection by the angel, the guards, some of them, returned to the Jewish leaders to tell them what they had witnessed. And after conferring among themselves, the Jewish leaders bribed the guards to say that, while we slept, the disciples came and stole His body away. And this story spread abroad. The disciples stole the body. The result was that, according to the verses we have before us, many of the Jews believed that, even at the time of the writing of the Gospel of Matthew, which was 30 years later. This was the accepted explanation. of the empty tomb. Disciples came, stole his body while the soldier slept. This incident is very significant. First of all, Jesus' resurrection proves beyond all doubt that he is the chief cornerstone of the church, chosen by God upon which God will build his church to be a fit habitation for him. That's, of course, the theme of our Lent series, isn't it? Also, we see in this passage how the leaders of the Jews who were called by God to be building the church as the house of God again rejected Jesus as the cornerstone. They did that in spite of obvious, undeniable proof of who Jesus is. They rejected him as the cornerstone when they tried to cover up the obvious fact of Jesus' resurrection. And so we call attention this morning to the bribing of the guard. We notice first of all the fact then the reason, and then finally the outcome. We ought to say something about these guards. We read of them in the last few verses of chapter 27. On the Sabbath, the day after Jesus was crucified and buried in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, the chief priests with Pharisees came to Pilate, the Roman governor, and they asked for a detachment of Roman soldiers to guard the tomb of Jesus. They had remembered Jesus' words, that he would rise again on the third day. Jesus had spoken of that the first time he cleansed the temple. A few weeks ago, we considered the second cleansing of the temple, where Jesus drove out the buyers and sellers and money changers. Well, remember, he had done that at the beginning of his ministry. And when he was challenged, by what authority are you doing this? He said, you destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up again. referring, of course, to the temple of his body. It's rather striking, first of all, however, that even though these leaders had falsified Jesus' words throughout his ministry, portraying him to say, I'm going to destroy this great physical temple, and in three days I will raise it up again, they knew what he meant. Because now at the time of his death, their concern, he said, he would be raised again the third day. The second thing that's striking is that Jesus' own disciples did not understand this. Neither did they anticipate the resurrection. The women who left that morning didn't go out to sit on a rock and see Jesus rise from the dead. They and all the disciples concluded the cause of Jesus was lost. He was dead. Even in spite of the fact that Jesus had warned them and repeatedly told them, on the third day I will rise again. They had forgotten They had overlooked it. And so, again, we see an instance where the ungodly, who hate God and the Christ of God, sometimes understand God's Word better than even the church, which again only demonstrates that unbelief is not a matter of ignorance. It's a matter of sin. It's a matter of the heart that reject the obvious revelation of God. But these Jewish leaders were uneasy. They had claimed the crucifixion of Jesus to be a great victory. Finally, they had gotten rid of their enemy who was a threat to their leadership. but somehow that victory of Jesus' death was hollow. There was the three hours of terrible darkness that descended upon the cross. And then when Jesus died, this gigantic earthquake that tore apart the landscape and the veil of the temple was torn in two from the top to the bottom. Something was wrong. Their victory was hollow, and so they went to Pilate. They put Jesus in the worst possible light. This Jesus is a deceiver, and we're afraid that His disciples, following His deception, being like Him, will steal away the body and claim that He is risen. Deep down, of course, they feared a resurrection. They wanted a detachment of Roman soldiers to stand guard and prevent it. How foolish. How foolish. Pilate consented. He saw the futility of it all. He gave them their watch, and then he said, make it as sure as you can. Make it as sure as you can. And so the soldiers sealed the sepulcher and they would watch. Now, according to the verses that we have before us, these soldiers were bribed by the chief priest and elders. What a strange and terrifying tale they told the chief priest. We were standing guard as commanded. And suddenly there was this earthquake. It was felt, I'm sure, sure through the whole city. And then what you don't know is that an angel, right as the sun came down at the crack of dawn from heaven, and he rolled away the stone that we had sealed and opened the grave. And we were petrified and we became as dead men. And finally, when we got our witch together, we fled. We fled for our lives. And here we are, some of us, to tell you what happened. And the chief priests then immediately assembled together the elders of the city, or the elders of Israel. Remember, the chief priests together with the elders formed the Sanhedrin. the highest ruling body of the Jews. They conferred with each other and they concluded the best course of action would be to bribe these soldiers, which they did. They gave them large money, literally enough money to change their story. Don't tell people what you saw. Don't tell them about the angel. Don't tell them about the rock being rolled away. When word gets out that the grave is empty, tell them, while we were sleeping, the disciples stole away his body. And we promised to protect you, should this come to the ears of Pontius Pilate the governor, that you were sleeping. And so the soldiers took the money, and they did as they were told. And now why? Why did the Jewish leaders bribe the Gar? Because they did not want the truth of the resurrection to be known. First of all, the report of the soldiers made it very clear to these leaders that Jesus had risen from the dead. In a sense of panic, fear still in their eyes and on their face, they spoke of the earthquake and the angel and the rolling away of the sepulcher, which only confirmed the deepest fears that these leaders had. Jesus would rise from the dead. Notice The leaders did not question the truthfulness of what the guards told them. Had they had any inkling that the story was false, they would have investigated. They would have brought the matter to Pilate. They would have pursued it. But they knew, perhaps from the fear on the face of these men, because of what they were afraid was going to happen, It happened. They took the word of the soldiers as truth. And then what's interesting is they never, never bothered to go and check the grave. And for sure the soldiers hadn't peeked in either. The angel was there. They were petrified of him. Before they fled, they didn't take a moment to see that the grave was empty. They simply fled for their lives, but The leaders of the people, hearing the report of the soldiers, simply assumed the grave is empty, because of course he's risen, as he said. They knew what happened. And secondly, then, without some credible cover-up, the fact that Jesus was raised would become known. The grave was empty. This would soon be discovered. And then these soldiers who had been posted there at the sepulcher would be called into question. What explains the empty grave? You were posted here to secure it and surely The soldiers would word out what happened, what they saw. And the fact of the resurrection would become known. And so to conceal that fact, they paid the guards to tell this lie, to cover it up. Obviously, the leaders did not want the fact of Jesus' resurrection to be known and accepted by the people. That would only verify the claims that Jesus made to be the Christ, the Son of God, the Son of David who would establish the great kingdom of God. Why, of course, His resurrection establishes that. And it would only condemn them as leaders who orchestrated the crucifixion of Jesus. And then what would become of them as the people reacted? No, this whole thing must be covered up. This only serves to point to the great significance of the resurrection. What the Jewish leaders sensed at this point concerning the importance of Jesus' resurrection is verified by the rest of Scripture and even more. The Jewish leaders understood the resurrection of Jesus would only confirm Jesus' claim about Himself to be the Christ, the Son of God. 50 days later, at Pentecost, after the Holy Spirit had been poured out, remember, there was a sound as of a mighty rushing wind, gloving tongues as of fire appeared on the heads of each of the 120 believers. And then, through the multitude that was gathered around there, These disciples began to speak the Word of God in many different languages. Peter then, now receiving the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, suddenly understands, and the church understands, why the death of Christ, why His resurrection. And Peter, in chapter 2 of the book of Acts, preaches a beautiful sermon. These men are not drunk, as you think, as you charge. What the prophet Joel has said about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit has now come to pass. Through Jesus, you crucified Him. God raised Him up. He pours out the Spirit in fulfillment of the prophets. You've only seen what the prophets spoke of. And then, to summarize the whole thing, And the conclusion, verse 36, Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. Having emphasized the resurrection, Peter says, Don't you see? That demonstrates He's Lord over all. He's the Christ. But there's even more that even the Jewish leaders did not understand. According to the scriptures, Jesus' resurrection is the seal of God's approval upon Jesus' death. Why did Jesus die on the cross? Because of you and me, because of our sins, God placed the guilt of our sins upon Him, and now He had to pay the penalty, which is death and all of its horrors. And there on the cross, He endured the death of hell. He endured physical death and all of its agony to atone for our sins and obtain and secure our salvation. But now the fact that God raised Jesus from the dead, means that Jesus actually accomplished something through his death. If Jesus were still dead in the grave, then all his suffering would have been at naught. All the sins that God placed upon him had not been paid. He's dead. Death conquered him, and death will conquer us. But he's risen. because he paid for sin. He must be raised. He has a right to life, and God raised him. And therefore, our sins are covered, and we will be raised too. That's the importance of the resurrection. And then secondly, the importance is this, we have a living Savior. A dead Savior is no good to us. We have a Savior who lives. and lives forever. And as the living Lord will bestow upon us all the blessings of salvation he's earned for us at the cross, beginning in this life and receiving them fully in the day of his coming. All the resurrection is important. And that makes Jesus Christ the chief cornerstone of the church. Remember, the church is the house of God. And it is the house of God because that's where God dwells, through the Spirit. And dwelling in the church, he has friendship and fellowship and lives in perfect joy with all her true members. And Jesus is the chief cornerstone of the church because the church is founded and built ultimately upon His person and His work. And in light of what we've just said about the significance of Jesus' resurrection, well, He definitely is the chief cornerstone of the church. God takes up His dwelling in us and among us only through the work of Jesus' death and resurrection. Only by His death and resurrection are we made a holy habitation of the Lord. And by rejecting Jesus' resurrection, the Jewish leaders were again rejecting Jesus. as the chief cornerstone of God's church. The outcome of the bribing of the guards was that many believed the message that the guards were paid to tell. That's evident from the passage So the soldiers took the money and did as they were taught, and this saying, that is the saying, the disciple stole his body while we slept, is commonly reported among the Jews until this day, 30 years later. This was the commonly held view in the Jewish nation. That's quite remarkable in light of especially two facts. First of all, there was the fact that the story of the guards was really absurd. One thing a Roman soldier never did was to fall asleep at his post. If he did, There was death. And now it wasn't just one soldier, it was a whole company of soldiers. They all fell asleep at their post? Really? And then the disciples came and stole away the body and not one of the soldiers awakened? Really? And then there's the obvious question, well, if you were fast asleep and someone came and stole the body, how do you know it was the disciple? You were asleep, weren't you? The whole thing was absurd. In the second place, it's very remarkable that this was commonly accepted because there was very clear evidence of Jesus' resurrection, even apart from the truth of what had happened before the soldiers. Jesus did appear on 10 different occasions to his disciples over a 40-day period. And then 50 days after all this, there was the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. Undeniable, something was astir. Jesus' followers being able to speak in different languages. And then there were the miracles that some of Jesus' followers did for a few decades. and the apostles even raised the dead back to life and did many miracles of healing in the name of Jesus and then the disciples who supposedly were perpetuating a lie were willing to suffer for this lie they were persecuted They were martyred, they were scattered, all for something they knew to be nothing but a lie? Come now. Why then the widespread acceptance of the preposterous story of the guards? What explains this? One word. Unbelief. Unbelief leads one to reject all that is of God. Unbelief, which has taken hold of the whole human race at the beginning, leads mankind to reject the truth about God, about the Savior of God, the salvation of God. That's true even though God has clearly revealed Himself as the God of heaven and earth and nature and revealed Himself in Jesus Christ in Scripture. We're talking about revelation, not some deep, dark mystery. God has given clear evidence of who He is and what He is and His salvation. Unbelief leads a person foolishly to deny obvious reality and therefore it leaves the believer, the unbeliever, to embrace the most absurdly contrived stories and theories that explain away the reality of God. Shall I give you one obvious example? Evolution. evolution god has given clear testimony in the creation around us that this world was made by some higher god some higher being who is to be served then he reveals himself more clearly in scripture about how he made the heavens and the earth and preserves them. But in the face of clear evidence, obvious reality, the unbeliever says, no, no, we'll explain it differently. This whole vast, vast universe with all of its complexity simply evolved out of nothing? Out of nothing? How absurd. The same power of unbelief was operating among the Jews, the unbelieving Jews with respect to Jesus' resurrection. Due to the unbelief that controlled their heart, they didn't want the true Jesus. Oh, He came as a miracle worker. They wanted His miracles. And then they wanted him as king because they envisioned earthly success, earthly prosperity, earthly kingdoms. But when Jesus made it clear, that's not what I'm about. I've come to bring a heavenly kingdom and a heavenly salvation, an eternal life with God. He was rejected. first in Galilee, then before Pontius Pilate. And so in unbelief, they blinded themselves to obvious reality when they demanded his crucifixion. And then when the guards came with this lame story, the disciples stole his body while we were asleep. They were willing to believe it because they didn't want him. And they didn't want to accept the resurrection. And the same thing is happening today. There are several absurd theories to explain away the record of scripture about the resurrection of Jesus. To this day it's widely accepted among many who are critics of the Bible that yes indeed the disciples did steal away the body and claimed a resurrection. That's called the falsehood theory. Then there's the swoon theory that says Jesus never really died at the cross. He simply went into a swoon or a deep faint. They thought he was dead, and so they put him in the grave. And then he came to, and while the soldiers weren't paying attention, he sneaked out and claimed he was risen. Someone that close to death? Within 48 hours? Strong enough to roll away that big stone? which the women themselves came to conclude they couldn't do that jointly? How ridiculous. Then there's the hallucination theory to explain away Jesus' appearances to his disciples. The disciples so wanted to see him raised that they simply imagined they saw him. Really? The whole account shows that the disciples were taken by surprise. They didn't expect his resurrection. And yes, it's possible for someone to hallucinate and want something so bad that he thinks he sees it, but 500 at once? As he appeared to them in Galilee? Really? Then of course, there's the one that trumps them all. That's the mythical theory. The church simply concocted this report to make it obvious that even though Jesus was dead, he still lives in the memory of the church. What a low view of scripture that is. You know, God did not leave himself without witness. And he gave clear and fallible proofs of the resurrection. He gave proof of the resurrection to the people at that time. There was the empty grave. There were the grave clothes that were undisturbed and the body was missing. There was the message of the angel to the women. He's not here, he's risen as he said. There were the appearances of Jesus. Infallible proofs. to all of Israel at that time. He's risen. And what do we have here? We have the infallible record of that here in Holy Scripture. Now, we don't, by faith, receive Scripture as the inspired, accurate, infallible Word of God. Let's consider only the human document. Are you aware of the fact that historians have set certain standards to judge whether ancient writings have any essence of truth or not, or whether they're just great big legends and myths that have no fact, no basis in fact. They do. And although they won't realize it or they won't recognize it or admit it, the biblical account of Jesus' resurrection far exceeds the standards that historians have to accept a document as being an accurate description of what took place. One standard is, was this account written by witnesses? Or was it written much later by those who had received stories generation after generation? This was written by eyewitnesses. Another standard is this. If it's true, then weaknesses will be admitted, and mistakes, and failure. Much that's written in ancient times, especially in the chronicles of the kings and emperors, won't expose the failures, the weaknesses. The whole account of Jesus' death and resurrection speaks of the mistaken notions of the disciples, their failures, their moral failures, their fears, all their foibles. Any other account of historical value examined by historians would accept this as being an accurate historical account. Now, we don't receive it because of that. We receive it by faith. But God has not left himself without witness. But today, the resurrection is widely rejected, not just by the world, but even by those of the church and those who are called to be builders of the church, making it into a sanctified habitation and dwelling place of the Lord. And by denying the resurrection, they deny the atonement of Christ and they deny and reject Jesus as the cornerstone of God's church. And they go about building the magnificent thing on the basis of platitudes and human achievement and human hopes. They're the fools that build on quicksand. Nevertheless, there were those that did not believe the guard in Jesus' day. but believed the resurrection. That was true of many Jews and then more so of Gentiles brought out of paganism to faith by the irresistible work of God's grace. It was accomplished by the preaching. Go to the book of Acts. Read the great sermons of the apostles. they focused on the resurrection yes Jesus died but look he's raised look what he does as the risen Lord Jesus used that gospel to bring many unto faith in him as many as were ordained to eternal life we read Acts chapter 13 and so the church The days of the apostles was being built by the apostles and the disciples on the true foundation, the gospel of Jesus Christ. And of that, Jesus Christ was the chief cornerstone, his death and resurrection. And that's still happening today. The true church Not everybody, every organization that calls themselves church is true. And you're false. The true church proclaims the gospel of the resurrection of Jesus Christ in all of its fullness. And as she does so, she's building on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ being the chief cornerstone. And God blesses that work. He builds up his church. He brings unto himself his people, connects them to Christ by faith so that they become living stones in his house. They become part of his habitation. He lives with them, dwells with them in Christ in blessed friendship and fellowship. We are included in that by the grace of God. We must stay faithful to that by the grace of God, never rejecting the chief cornerstone who died and is raised that we might be the habitation of God. Let us embrace that cornerstone. Let us embrace its gospel. Let us teach it to our children. Let us teach it to the world. Let us be building on the cornerstone that God has laid. Amen. Dear God and Father, we thank Thee for Thy Word. We thank Thee for Jesus, who is the chief cornerstone through His death and resurrection and the work of salvation that comes to us through and the power of those great works. Lead us, O God and Christ, to be a holy church, a holy people who turn from sin and turn to Thee to live in righteousness and holiness, that we may be a fit habitation of Thee and enjoy Thee now and forever. For Jesus' sake, amen.