This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Welcome back to our second day of looking through Matthew chapter 28. I want to
begin by reading verses 7 to 10. Remember, the women have come into the area of
the tomb and they're going to anoint Jesus' body and they find that there's an
angel there who says that Jesus is not there.

He has risen. Go and tell His disciples. He's on the way to go and tell the
disciples.

And then something happens. Listen to what happens in verse 7. Then go quickly
and tell His disciples.

He has risen from the dead and He's going ahead of you into Galilee. There you
will see Him. Now I have told you.

So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to
tell His disciples. And suddenly Jesus met them. "Greetings," He said, "and they
came to Him and they clasped His feet and they worshiped Him.

And then Jesus said to them, 'Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to
Galilee and there they will see Me. '" You want to know about the resurrected
life, the kind of life we started talking about yesterday?

Ask a resurrected person. Jesus is the only one who has been resurrected. He is
the one who is the hope of all of us being resurrected one day.

Our bodies will be resurrected to eternal life. Now that doesn't mean that those
who have died are not with the Lord. Those who have died, their spirits go to be
with the Lord.

And then one day, you can look at this in our study of the book of 1
Thessalonians, one day their bodies will be resurrected to join with their
spirits with the Lord forever. So we're immediately with the Lord, but there is
one day when our bodies will be resurrected just like Jesus' body was
resurrected. And when you look at Jesus' resurrected body, He appeared in this
resurrected body.

Well we're told of 11 specific resurrection appearances in the Bible. 11 times
people had close encounters of the resurrection kind. They experienced Jesus
personally before He went to heaven.

One time He appeared to over 500 people in one of those appearances. And each
time He appears, the first time He appears to a group of people, He says the
same thing. You hear the same phrase.

In fact, the angels said it to these women also that day, that first day. The
three words, "Don't be afraid. " The angels said it to the women, Jesus says it
to the women.

He's going to say it to the disciples when He first sees them in the upper room.
Don't be afraid. The resurrection is such a powerful event.

It's easy to live in fear of this event rather than live in joy over what God
wants to do. In fact, as you quickly look through this passage, what we studied
yesterday, what we're looking at today, you learn some things about fear.
Yesterday the guards were so afraid they fell and they became like dead men.

Now that's terror. They were living in sheer terror over what had happened. In
verse 8, we're told that the women were afraid yet filled with joy.

They had both emotions going on at the same time. And then in verse 10, Jesus
says, "Don't be afraid. " Now if you're afraid and yet filled with joy and you
listen to Jesus and you decide to not be afraid, guess what?

All you got left, all you got left is the joy. And the question is, in which of
those three places are you? Are you like the guards who were so afraid they
became like dead men?

The truth of the resurrection caused them to live in total denial. Or are you
like the women at the beginning who you have fear and joy alongside of each
other at the same time? Or are you like what Jesus invited in the end?

Don't be afraid. Just live in total joy. One side of it says, of course they
were afraid.

This was entirely outside of their experience. And in the same way, you and I,
we can be afraid, spiritually afraid of the resurrection life that Jesus offers
us because it is entirely outside of your experience. There's a lot to be afraid
of in this world today.

I could go through the entire list and your fear would increase with each
statement. From the world situation to our concerns about our kids, to health
struggles, to the persecution of Christians. I'll just stop right there.

There was a lot to be afraid of in that graveyard that day. Roman soldiers
falling down dead, stones being rolled away, earthquakes, angels appearing like
a flash of lightning. And then Jesus shows up even though they'd seen him die.

It sounds like a recipe for a horror movie if you look at it from one angle. But
in the midst of this, Jesus stands and says, don't be afraid of this one. The
resurrection trumps every fear.

Because the resurrection life is what will last when all of these things that
bring fear will simply melt away one day. So how do you live this kind of life?
How do you live the resurrected no fear life?

One word, trust. Trust. That's what Jesus invited these women to do.

Trust me. Don't be afraid. Trust me.

Do what I'm asking you to do. Trust me. And that's what Jesus is inviting me to
do and inviting you to do today.

Don't be afraid. Let's just walk through it with the Lord for just a few moments
here. Don't be afraid.

He's saying to you, trust me with your circumstances. I know you're facing some
circumstances that could cause incredible stress and worry and fear. Jesus is
saying, don't be afraid.

Trust me with your circumstances. The resurrected life is greater than those
circumstances. Even the worst of circumstances that you're facing right now.

I'm not minimizing your circumstances in saying that. Not at all. Some of the
circumstances we face in life are horrific.

Even my heart goes out to you that you're facing those things right now. In a
perfect world, in a world where sin had not entered, you would not have to face
those. And I'm not talking about your sin, I'm just talking about the nature of
sin in this world and Satan being allowed to be in this world and to do these
kinds of things in our lives.

And you're facing it. So don't be afraid, Jesus says. Because you can trust me
even with that circumstance.

Not because you're minimizing the circumstance and pretending it's not a
terrible thing. It is a terrible thing. But because you're recognizing the
resurrection and understanding that it's a glorious, powerful thing.

The power of the resurrection is greater than the power of that circumstance
you're facing. So Jesus says, don't be afraid. Don't be afraid.

Trust me with your circumstances. Don't be afraid, Jesus says. Trust me with the
world's circumstances.

You pick up the newspaper, you read what's going on in the world and you think,
where are things headed? What's going to happen with me? What's going to happen
with my children?

What's going to happen with my grandchildren? Jesus says, don't be afraid. You
can't control those circumstances.

Sometimes we get more afraid of world circumstances than our circumstances
because we have no control over what's happening in other places in the world.
We have no control whether there's going to be an earthquake that's going to
come or a tsunami that's going to hit us. Jesus says you can trust me even with
that.

Because his resurrected life is greater than the world's circumstances. And
Jesus says, don't be afraid. And it's a command that you hear again and again
and again in scripture.

It includes every circumstance of life. Don't be afraid. Trust me with your
circumstances.

Don't be afraid. Trust me with the world's circumstances. Don't be afraid, Jesus
says.

He says it to you right now. Trust me with your relationships. You have a
relationship that isn't working, that's falling apart, maybe with your kids,
maybe with a spouse, maybe with a friend, a fellow believer, maybe a church
that's just not able to connect with each other and it feels like the church is
falling apart.

Don't be afraid, Jesus says. You can trust me even with this. Jesus doesn't
promise that he's going to control the other people in the relationship or
control you to an extent where he's going to make things work out the way you
hoped that they would work out.

He does promise that however they work out, his resurrected life, his hope, his
power, his love are still going to be there. He's going to keep working in your
life no matter what. There is no human relationship that can steal away from you
the joy of heaven.

There's no human relationship that can steal away from you the joy of the
presence of Christ. There's no human relationship that can steal away from you
the joy of eternity. So Jesus says don't be afraid.

You can trust me with your relationships. Don't be afraid. Trust me with your
finances.

Our finances are one of the greatest sources of fear in our lives because when
things aren't working we can't make them work and we don't know how it's going
to work. Jesus says you can trust me there. You can trust that however your
finances work out, I'm going to still be working in your life.

There's no financial situation in which Jesus isn't working. Paul said I know
how to be hungry and be in want. I know how to have an abundance and in both
circumstances I've found I can do all things for Christ who strengthens me.

He's going to be there in either circumstance. Now I pray that he shows you a
way out of this financial circumstance and I believe that he for many, many of
us will. But whether he does or not, the way to not be afraid is not to pretend
that it's all going to work out great.

That's a fantasy world. The way to not be afraid is to realize that however it
works out, Jesus Christ is going to be working in my life. He's going to be
using me.

That's a faith world. So live in that world. Don't be afraid.

You can trust him with your finances. Don't be afraid. Trust Christ with your
life.

Trust him with your life. So where am I going to live? Am I going to live on the
side of life that thinks that resurrected life, that's a scary thing.

I need to have more control of my life. Or am I going to let it go to him? Am I
going to trust him?

Because when I trust him, that's the only place that I find out that I cannot be
afraid. Jesus as we pray today, we pray that you strengthen us to trust you with
our circumstances, with our relationships, with our finances, with our life. We
ask in our hearts to trust in you because you have something different to offer
us.

Not what this world is offering us. That which is passing away, but the
resurrection, the life that's going to go on forever. Focus my mind, focus our
minds on that life right now, we pray.

Right now we say we trust you. We trust you. In Jesus name, in your name, we
pray, amen.

Join us tomorrow. Jesus, tell us what to do with this life that he's given to
us.