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I want to welcome you to week 30 of our look through the book of Matthew. That
means we're in Matthew chapter 28, the last chapter of the book of Matthew.
Congratulations for making it all the way through this study.

How can you not make it to Matthew chapter 28? Because this is the resurrection,
this is the end of the story. So as we begin this week, our last week together
in looking at Matthew, I want to begin with the question.

The question is, where do you need to see the resurrection power of Jesus at
work in your life right now? Where do you need to see it at work in your life
right now? The resurrection is certainly an historical event.

It's one of the most attested historical events in all of history. But that
means nothing if I don't recognize its power for personal change. The personal
power in my life is not just history, it's personal.

Listen to what happened. Matthew 28 verses 1 to 6. After the Sabbath, at dawn on
the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the
tomb.

There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven
and going to the tomb rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was
like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow, and the guards were so
afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men. The angel said to the
women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you're looking for Jesus, who is
crucified.

He is not here. He has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he
lay.

" When you hear this story of the resurrection, it never gets old. You know it's
coming. You know that Jesus is going to be raised from the dead at the end of
this story, but it never gets old because it's the life that we need.

It's the truth that we need. And this truth of the resurrection, you need to
experience personally the dramatic event of the resurrection, first in beginning
a relationship with Christ. And if you've studied this far through the book of
Matthew, or maybe you started with this study.

You're one of those people who likes to eat dessert first. You started with
Matthew 28 and you wanted to hear the story of the resurrection first, but
you've never personally accepted the truth of the life that he can give you. His
forgiveness, his life, a relationship with him, that's what the power of the
resurrection comes to do in your life.

Start there. Jesus, I accept that power into my life. I want to begin a
relationship with you today.

You begin a relationship with Christ based on the power of the resurrection, and
then you live the power of the resurrection in your daily life. You experience
it in your daily life. It's not just a one-time event.

It's a daily experience. I want you to look with me at what happened to these
women that day. Mary and the other Mary.

Mary Magdalene, not Mary the mother of Jesus, one of the other Marys, or many
Marys in the first resurrection experiences, look at what happened. They came
and they expected that Jesus was going to be dead. They came to embalm his body,
to put some spices on his body.

They didn't come expecting a resurrection. They came expecting what they'd
already seen, what they had always seen, and that is death. In a tomb, there was
always death, but they experienced a dramatic event.

There was an earthquake. There was an angel, and the angel told them he is
alive, and then they celebrated what is alive. They expected what was dead.

They experienced this dramatic event, and then they were able to celebrate what
is alive. As you look at your life, you may be expecting, you may have been
expecting what only this world can offer, and that is all that this world can
offer is death. In the end, this world, the Bible says, it is dying.

The things of this world are passing away. The material things of this world,
even the relationships that we gain in this world, one day those are going to
pass away. Now, for believers, they'll be restored again in heaven, but if all
you're counting on is this world, all this world has to offer you is death, and
you and I need more.

You need to experience today what only Christ can offer, and that is life, life
in this world. He wants to resurrect in you a sense of hope. So if you've been
walking through life lately, expecting only what this world can offer, nothing
much is going to happen, nothing more is going to happen, Jesus says you can
walk in a different way.

Now, this world, there is the truth of the fact that this world, there is no
hope to be found here, but you can find the hope of the resurrection even in
this world. You can find the hope of the resurrection in your daily life. You
and I, we need to live out this hope every day of our lives, and one of the ways
you live it out is by recognizing the significance of the resurrection for your
life.

Warren Wiersby, as he writes about the resurrection, writes about five specific
things that were significant, the significance of the resurrection, and each of
these five have to do with your life and my life, a new kind of trust, a new
kind of joy that can come into your life. The five things he wrote about were it
proved that Jesus is God's son, it verifies the truth of scripture, it assures
us of our future resurrection, it gives us power for Christian living, and it
assures our future inheritance. All of those have personal power for your life.

First, the resurrection proved that Jesus is the son of God. That means that you
today can trust that Jesus is who he says he is. He came and he said, "I'm the
son of God.

" He came, he said, "You destroy this body, I'm going to raise it again in three
days. " Everything that he said, the resurrection verifies every single thing
that he said. Everything we've studied in the book of Matthew, the resurrection
verifies everything that he says.

You can trust that Jesus is who he says he is, but that trust is more than an
intellectual trust about something he said 2,000 years ago. Are you trusting
that he is who he says he is in your life today, that he's the shepherd who will
guide you, that he is the God who will empower you, that he is the savior who
will give you life? Are you trusting that today?

That's the significance of the resurrection power for your life. The
resurrection also verifies the truth of scripture. All through the Old
Testament, this event had been prophesied, and here we see it happening right in
front of our eyes.

It's verified. Jesus had said, and we see it written in scripture, that he is
going to be resurrected, and here we see it verified. So personally, that means
that you can trust God's word.

You can trust God's word. How do you know when you read something whether you
can trust it? Well, if the person who said it and had it written down about him
and who verified all that was said before about him, if that person was raised
from the dead, you can trust that one.

There's a lot of writers who write a lot of things today, and they may say
things with a lot of confidence, but none of them have been resurrected from the
dead. You can trust God's word like you can trust nothing else that's written.
It also assures us the resurrection of our future resurrection.

You can be sure today of the hope of the resurrection. The fact that Jesus was
raised from the dead is why you're going to be raised from the dead. Not your
good works, not how many good things you did in church, not the good thoughts
that you had today, but your trust in Christ, your only hope, your only hope is
through Jesus Christ.

And the resurrection assures us because he was raised from the dead, you're
going to be raised from the dead. You're going to have life. The resurrection,
fourth thing, gives us power for Christian living.

That means you can trust him for power to live the Christian life today. You can
trust him for that power. You look at yourself, and I look at myself, and I
think I don't have enough emotional power, I don't have enough intellectual
power, I don't have enough spiritual power to live the kind of life that God's
asking me to live, and the truth of the matter is you don't.

But instead of living in discouragement over that truth, look at the
resurrection and realize there is a different power than your emotional,
intellectual, spiritual power. There is the power of the resurrection available
to you today. It's the picture of us holding the plug to the lamp in our hands,
somehow thinking we're going to give it enough power to light up that lamp.

We need a power outside of ourselves to bring light, and just like you need to
take that simple plug and put it into that simple socket, and all of a sudden
you've got electrical power to that lamp, you and I need to plug into the power
of Jesus Christ today, every day. Without His power, we're going to live in
discouragement. In His power, we can live in resurrected life.

We can live His kind of life. It gives you power for Christian living. By the
way, when you're living that power for Christian living, you may still feel
discouraged.

You will still feel discouraged at times. Paul certainly did. You can read about
it again and again in Scripture.

You may still feel like you're not powerful enough to do this. Plugging into
Jesus' power doesn't all of a sudden make you feel powerful. No.

It helps you to realize that the power is in Him. Sometimes we think if I plug
into His power, I'll feel more powerful. I'll feel like I can never fail.

No. You plug into His power, you realize you can still fail, but He can't fail.
That's where the power is.

And then finally, it assures us of our future inheritance. You can be sure of
your future inheritance. You can be sure that all that Jesus promises, by the
fact that He is alive, He is going to accomplish those promises.

So whatever you have or don't have on this earth, that can be a measure of
discouragement or a measure of pride. Don't take pride in what you have and
don't be discouraged by what you don't have because the truth of the matter is
one day we're all going to celebrate forever what He has and what He's going to
give to us in all of eternity. That's the hope of the resurrection.

So as you pray today, I want to just pray for a few minutes together in this
sense of hope, in this sense of life that only the resurrection can bring. Would
you pray with me? And Jesus, as we talk to you, we want to thank you that we can
trust you.

We can trust that you are who you say you are. Help us to trust you today. We
can trust your word.

Help us to follow your word today. We can trust the hope of the resurrection.
Help us to live in hope today.

We can trust that you give us power to live the Christian life today, Lord,
right now. Help us not to depend on our power, but your power. We can trust in
our future inheritance.

So we're not having to be caught up in the things that are here. We can look
forward to the things that are to come. Jesus, today, we pray that we would live
in the power of the resurrection.

And we pray it in your name. Amen. Well, tomorrow, we're going to see these
women personally meeting the resurrected Jesus.