Mat 27-24

(181i) Works of the devil >> The origin of lawlessness >> Self deception >> Imaginary perception of self >> Pretending to be someone you’re not

Mat 27-25

(54c) Paradox >> Opposites >> Requesting blood be on their own hands – In Act 5,27-32 the high priest and members of his council were becoming increasingly concerned that Peter and the other apostles would hold them accountable for killing Jesus. Peter concurred that the members of the council would be made accountable for shedding the blood of Christ if they did not repent of their unbelief and embraced Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord, and receive the Holy Spirit whom God gives to those who obey Him. Some of those members were also members of the mock trial that sent Jesus to His death. The day they crucified Him the whole crowd unanimously cried, “His blood shall be on us and on our children!” How did they not know they were killing an innocent man? They were so arrogant, they even dared the powers of both the natural and spiritual realms to hold them accountable for shedding the blood of Christ. Now that Jesus had risen from the dead, He declared forgiveness of sins to all who believe in Him, and He commanded the gospel to be preached to all creation, starting in Jerusalem and surrounding districts “even to the remotest part of the earth” (Act 1-8). The apostles were in the process of doing this when the council apprehended them.

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27-45 Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole Roman cohort around Him. 28 They stripped Him and put a scarlet robe on Him. 29 And after twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on His head, and a reed in His right hand; and they knelt down before Him and mocked Him, saying, "Hail, King of the Jews!" 30 They spat on Him, and took the reed and began to beat Him on the head. 31 After they had mocked Him, they took the scarlet robe off Him and put His own garments back on Him, and led Him away to crucify Him. 32 As they were coming out, they found a man of Cyrene named Simon, whom they pressed into service to bear His cross. 33 And when they came to a place called Golgotha, which means Place of a Skull, 34 they gave Him wine to drink mixed with gall; and after tasting it, He was unwilling to drink. 35 And when they had crucified Him, they divided up His garments among themselves by casting lots. 36 And sitting down, they began to keep watch over Him there. 37 And above His head they put up the charge against Him which read, "THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS." 38 At that time two robbers were crucified with Him, one on the right and one on the left. 39 And those passing by were hurling abuse at Him, wagging their heads 40 and saying, "You who are going to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save Yourself! If You are the Son of God, come down from the cross." 41 In the same way the chief priests also, along with the scribes and elders, were mocking Him and saying, 42 "He saved others; He cannot save Himself. He is the King of Israel; let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe in Him. 43 "HE TRUSTS IN GOD; LET GOD RESCUE Him now, IF HE DELIGHTS IN HIM; for He said, 'I am the Son of God.' " 44 The robbers who had been crucified with Him were also insulting Him with the same words. 45 Now from the sixth hour darkness fell upon all the land until the ninth hour.

Mat 27,27-35

(192h) Die to self (Process of substitution) >> Result of putting off the old man >> Gain by losing >> Gain God’s kingdom to lose the domain of darkness >> Gain integrity to lose the world’s respect -- These verses go with verses 11-14

Mat 27,27-31

(184k) Works of the devil >> The origin of lawlessness >> Abusing the grace of God >> Dragging God’s Grace Through The Mud >> Dishonoring the grace of God

(243b) Kingdom of God >> Opposition toward the Kingdom of God >> Persecuting the kingdom >> Mocking Christ -- These verses go with verses 39-44

Mat 27,39-44

(17k) Sin >> Unrighteous judgment >> Ignorance >> Misinterpreting Jesus – The crowd hurling abuse at Him (spitting) was ignorant of God’s purpose for sending Christ and His eternal plan for redeeming man from their sin, just as they misinterpreted the statement He made about destroying the temple and rebuilding it in three days. He was talking about His body, not the actual temple. What is more, they lied when they said they would believe in Jesus if He climbed off the cross after they personally hung Him there. If Christ were to have walked off the cross and they repented, it would have indicated a shred of decency in them, but how could they after they nailed Jesus' body to a cross? God used them to represent the inner condition of all mankind, of which we are a part. We are better than they, only because we have trusted Jesus as our savior.

(199j) Denying Christ >> Man chooses his own destiny apart from God >> Unwilling to receive Christ >> Rejecting Christ as the Messiah -- These verses go with verses 24&25

(200k) Denying Christ >> Man chooses his own destiny apart from God >> Excuses for rejecting Christ >> Putting God in a no win situation -- They nailed Jesus to a cross from jealousy, partly because He performed many miracles and attracted a large audience, which emasculated all the religious leaders, then they told Him to come off the cross and they would believe in Him. It would have been a miracle had He climbed off the cross, so why would they believe in that miracle and not in the other miracles He performed? There was nothing Jesus could have done that would have persuaded them to believe in Him, which places their hatred squarely on the Father, which worsens their guilt, and proves whom they were targeting when they hurled abuse at Jesus!

(243b) Kingdom of God >> Opposition toward the Kingdom of God >> Persecuting the kingdom >> Mocking Christ -- These verses go with verses 27-31. How many times have we heard it said, ‘If He does this I will believe in Him’ or ‘If He does that I will believe in Him,’ yet if we produced list of reasons people should believe in Him, a very long bulleted list of all the Old Testament prophecies He fulfilled, people would tear up the list and throw it in the trash. They would say I don’t care about any of that, but if He comes off the cross, I will believe in Him. That is a lie! They create the parameters of their own faith and expect God to honor them, instead of assuming God’s design of faith in that Jesus did eventually come off the cross and He is now alive.

Mat 27-39,40

(177i) Works of the devil >> The religion of witchcraft >> Presumption (Hinduism) >> Misunderstanding the word of God

Mat 27,40-43

(253ea) Trinity >> Relationship between Father and Son >> Jesus is equal with the Father >> Jesus has all the internal qualities of the Father >> Jesus is the Son of God >> Contested the Son of God by sinners and demons

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46-49 About the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "ELI, ELI, LAMA SABACHTHANI?" that is, "MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?" 47 And some of those who were standing there, when they heard it, began saying, "This man is calling for Elijah." 48 Immediately one of them ran, and taking a sponge, he filled it with sour wine and put it on a reed, and gave Him a drink. 49 But the rest of them said, "Let us see whether Elijah will come to save Him."

Mat 27-46

(25j) Death (Key verse)

(26d) Sin >> Consequences of sin >> Death is separation from God’s life – This passage proves the innate property of sin, that it has the power to separate us from God. In fact, the word “death” according to the context of the Bible means separation. When somebody dies, they are separated from their bodies, and Paul said that death is the result of sin, so sin and death have the same result; they both separate us from God. Sin spiritually separates the unbeliever from God, so when he physically dies, he is eternally separated from God. Eternal separation is called death, and eternal death is called hell, which is final separation from God. Everything that is separated from God is dead, and there are various levels of separation, hence various levels of death, such as the body, though it is living, suffers the effects of spiritual separation from God by the sentence of physical death that hangs over it. So too, the earth itself has the sentence of death hanging over it, slated to be destroyed one day and then reborn. Currently the earth has the ability to sustain life, indicating its intermediate stage of death. Galaxies are entire systems of stars and planetary bodies that interact with each other through gravity, as though there were some kind of life in them, but they are completely devoid of life. Without God there is no life. Physical life is truly a miracle; earth is a place where God has curtailed the curse of His absence by being present in some mysterious way, so that life can exist, and yet that life is not fully alive, only physically. It is not spiritually alive, but the believer does enjoy this trait, only not in his body but in his soul, having been fully reunited with God. When God destroys this present universe and recreates a new heavens and a new earth, He will make it completely and totally alive with his presence, not only capable of sustaining life, but matter itself will be alive in His presence. An animal hit by a car alongside the road composed of organic matter, though dead, its atoms are arranged in molecules that were somehow once alive. In contrast, the future universe will be literally alive, in fact so alive that it will be incapable of sustaining death! The people of God will be alive in ways greater than that, connected to God in ways that are unfathomable. Peter said that God will create “a new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells” (2Pet 3-13). Most people interpret that is devoid of sin and sinners; while that holds true, still more God will inhabit the elements themselves in the new creation, infusing Himself into matter. He will be present everywhere in ways that we cannot even imagine, causing all things to be alive. In other words, He will do away with the inertness of matter and animate it with Himself.

(37b) Judgment >> The cross >> Father slays His son -- This verse goes with verse 50. Looking forward to the cross throughout eternity past did not make Jesus anxious, but it did give Him some anxiety in the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus enjoyed intimacy with God throughout all eternity, until He went to the cross and died in our sin. It made Him cry, 'My God, why have You forsaken Me!' saying it to fulfill Old Testament prophecy (Psalm 22-1). He suffered spiritual death; it was His greatest fear regarding the cross. The horrible, tortuous whipping, consisting of 39 lashes by a cat-o-nine-tails conducted by some of the most brutal men this world has ever known, literally pealed the skin off His body, pulling chunks of flesh from Him, leaving Him bleeding to death. Then He received the nails pounded into His hands and feet, the cross being hoisted into the air and plunged into its base, giving a terrible racking jolt. He took it all with His Father present with Him, but none of these things held a candle to the horror of Jesus being separated from His Father. He cried those words after His Father heaped all the sins of the world on Him and then abandoned Him after literally becoming sin. This was far more torturous and horrible than anything man could do to Him. Jesus knew exactly why His Father forsook Him, but He still just couldn’t believe it. The Father thinks exclusively in terms of infinity; He knows eternity past to eternity future as well as the present, having nothing escaped His notice, remembering all things simultaneously. He knew every sin that man would commit, and He heaved them all on His Son. He died like a sinner and went to hell. When He got there, suddenly all the sins loosened from Him, because none of them were His own, and it says that He preached the gospel to those in hell (1Pet 3,18-20) and told them that they should have believed in God, and then God raised Him from the dead after 3½ days.

(45f) Judgment >> Believer’s sin >> Through His Son >> Jesus absorbed the sin of the Church – This verse goes with verses 50&51. Jesus absorbed the sin of the world and as Paul said, “especially of believers” (1Tim 4-10). He took on the sins of the whole world, but only those who believe in Him benefited from it. The rest, instead of benefiting from the cross, they will be judged by it, though He went to the cross, not to judge the world but that the world might be saved through Him. Either way God intends to apply the blood of His Son to every person. Those who receive His forgiveness become members of His body, who suffered on the cross; therefore, we shouldn’t be surprised if we too suffer as Christians (1Pet 4,12-19).

(47i) Judgment >> God Judges the world >> Hell is the absence of God

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50-54 And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit. 51 And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth shook and the rocks were split. 52 The tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; 53 and coming out of the tombs after His resurrection they entered the holy city and appeared to many. 54 Now the centurion, and those who were with him keeping guard over Jesus, when they saw the earthquake and the things that were happening, became very frightened and said, "Truly this was the Son of God!" 

Mat 27,50-53

(254g) Trinity >> Holy Spirit’s relationship between Father and Son >> Jesus is the life of the Spirit >> Jesus is the substance of God’s life >> Jesus conquered death because He is life -- Note that it was at Jesus' death and not at His resurrection that the veil of the temple was torn in half and that many saints were raised from the dead in the surrounding tombs. It is safe to say that Jesus' victory over death was in His death, not in His resurrection. 1Cor 15-45 says, "So it is written: "The first man Adam became a living being;" the last Adam, a life-giving spirit." Jesus was full of life so much that it spilled over and raised the dead within the tombs of the surrounding area the moment He died. Jesus emptied Himself of His natural life, which interlaced with His Spiritual life as the son of man and the Son of God in one body. His resurrection was the capstone of His work on the cross and was the expected conclusion of His deity as God almighty clothed in human flesh. 

Mat 27-50,51

(45f) Judgment >> Believer’s sin >> Through His Son >> Jesus absorbed sin of the Church – These verses go with verse 46

(205h) Salvation >> Salvation is based on God’s promises >> New covenant >> The old one is obsolete

(221h) Kingdom of God >> The elusive Kingdom of Heaven >> Kingdom hidden behind the veil from the world >> God hides his divinity from man’s corruption >> He hides behind the veil – The veil was a simple drape to obscure the view into the Most Holy Place to keep an onlooker from spying on God, who was not a spectacle though deserved Israel's full attention. The Most Holy Place didn't have a locked door, suggesting that nobody could stop a person from glancing behind the veil, though access was disallowed, except once a year only by the high priest on the annual Passover celebration. The implication of the veil being ripped in half from top to bottom was that an angel of the Lord did it, not the earthquake.

Mat 27-50

(37b) Judgment >> The cross >> Father slays His son -- This verse goes with verse 46

Mat 27,51-53

(147c) Witness >> Validity of Jesus Christ >> Jesus’ works bear witness of Himself >> God exercises authority over His creation

Mat 27-52,53

(147g) Witness >> Validity of Jesus Christ >> Jesus’ works bear witness of Himself >> Raising the dead – Jesus is the first fruit of the First Resurrection; the others who were also raised eventually died again, and at the First Resurrection they will be raised this time to eternal life with all the other saints. This episode of neighboring saints rising from the dead gives an indication of the power of God’s life-force within Him. We can’t understand it much beyond that, but we know that it was done by His Spirit, as Paul said in Rom 8-11, “If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.” In that sense the Spirit does all things, and He also gives life to His word. In the same way that words are lifeless inkblots on a page and phonemes formed in the mouth that become vibrations in the air that enter people’s ears, God gives life to them, causing certain people to be born-again, whose names have been written in the Lamb's Book of Life, the book with entries that were filled before the foundation of the world.

Mat 27-54

(88i) Thy kingdom come >> Fearing the power of God is the beginning of wisdom – The centurion guarded over those who were being crucified, kept the peace and made sure nobody tampered with the events in violation of Roman law. He had probably been stationed there many times and seen many crucifixions. It was just another day for him; he was about to clock-out and go home when this occurred, and it made him realize that Jesus really was the Son of God. This indicates that everybody knew why he was being crucified, and the way He died made the centurion believe it was true. It must have been profound; an earthquake occurred and a dark cloud appeared; those things regularly happen, but it was just the way it happened that showed the connection with Jesus. It was undeniable, so much that even a jaded centurion standing guard on death row had to admit that the man hanging dead on the cross was in fact the Son of God. It would take a lot for someone like him to admit this, because he was partly responsible for his death; he was part of the system that him killed.

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55-66 Many women were there looking on from a distance, who had followed Jesus from Galilee while ministering to Him. 56 Among them was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee. 57 When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who himself had also become a disciple of Jesus. 58 This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate ordered it to be given to him. 59 And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, 60 and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock; and he rolled a large stone against the entrance of the tomb and went away. 61 And Mary Magdalene was there, and the other Mary, sitting opposite the grave. 62 Now on the next day, the day after the preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered together with Pilate, 63 and said, "Sir, we remember that when He was still alive that deceiver said, 'After three days I am to rise again.' 64 "Therefore, give orders for the grave to be made secure until the third day, otherwise His disciples may come and steal Him away and say to the people, 'He has risen from the dead,' and the last deception will be worse than the first." 65 Pilate said to them, "You have a guard; go, make it as secure as you know how." 66 And they went and made the grave secure, and along with the guard they set a seal on the stone.

Mat 27-55,56

(3i) Responsibility >> To the Family >> God addresses both genders >> Women leaders – Mary returned the next day with fragrances that she would use to decorate the gravesite of her Lord, and she showed the others where He was buried, so on the third day when they heard that he had risen from the dead, they knew where to look for Him. Jesus was very popular with women. Before this, women were hardly involved in anything, but Jesus treated women as viable members of the faith, and those who wanted to get involved in His mission would have a place equal to men. Socially, they were subservient to men in almost every way, but spiritually Jesus gave them equal status, and this was very attractive to women. Some have claimed that Jesus had illicit relationships with women, but they are only saying what they would have done had they been in Jesus’ position, though they wouldn’t have done anything Jesus did, including the way He treated women. Jesus was all about love and so are women in relation to their children; He spoke their language in many ways. Men are more into their occupations and careers, whereas women are more about raising their children and trying to maintain a mentally and emotionally healthy and safe home environment. Jesus spoke the language of women when He spoke about love, for a mother’s love is similar to the love of Christ. There are some men who understand Jesus too; His mission is relevant to them, because they see a lot of wrongs in the world, and the things that Jesus spoke addressed those wrongs and attempted to right them.

Mat 27,57-61

(14e) Servant >> Ministry of helps >> Being in charge of the details – These linen wrappings are now considered the Shroud of Turin. When we think of how important Joseph's job was in the scheme of God’s infinite plan, he gave Jesus a proper burial in the course of fulfilling His unchangeable purpose for man. It is important to fulfill our ministry in whatever capacity we are called to help. In most cases a ministry of helps is doing something for someone else’s ministry. This kind of work, helping someone else with his ministry, is extremely important, since God often assigns tasks to people that are too great for one person to accomplish without help, e.g. Jesus could not have buried Himself. It is also an opportunity to learn how to get along with others and build unity in the Church.

Mat 27,57-60

(189d) Die to self (Process of substitution) >> Separation from the old man >> Holy sacrifice >> Costly sacrifice

(249e) Priorities >> God’ s preeminence >> Wealth >> True perception of wealth >> Do not trust the carnal perception of wealth >> Do not depend on wealth – Joseph was an example of a wealthy man who was a believer in Jesus. Wealth does not necessarily prohibit a person from being a Christian. The difference between Joseph and the rich young ruler, whom Jesus advised to sell all his possessions and give to the poor, is that he derived his self-worth from his money, whereas Joseph did not. Most people who are committed to a cause tend to hit up wealthy people for a contribution, but Jesus never asked money from anybody, and so Joseph donated his tomb, an expensive tomb hewn from solid rock, where they laid the body of Jesus. As a result of his faith in Jesus, the tomb where they laid Joseph’s body will be vacated one day at the First Resurrection.

Mat 27,62-66

(182d) Works of the devil >> The origin of lawlessness >> Self deception >> Trying to hide from God

(196f) Denying Christ >> Man exercises his will against God >> Immaturity >> Not mature enough to seek God >> Unable to know the mind of Christ – Neither the enemies of Christ nor His own disciples understood Him. The chief priests and Pharisees had heard that He said He would rise from the dead after three days; He must have said it loud enough and often enough that even His enemies knew about it, essentially becoming common knowledge to all except His closest disciples. They didn’t want to believe their Master would be killed, plus they had other notions about Jesus’ plan that they preferred over the truth. The disciples lived in denial of His impending crucifixion and therefore would not have been talking about it, so Jesus must have mentioned it many times to many people for this information to leak to the chief priests and Pharisees. Had the disciples believed it, they would have gathered around the tomb waiting for Him to emerge, but they were in the upper room, not so much praying as crouching in fear, trying to hatch a plan what to do next, and they were at a complete loss. They were probably considering their old life as fishermen, Matthew as a tax collector; in their minds they were probably reconsidering their old jobs, or else thinking where they could run and hide, or even sojourn to another country and lose their identity as Jews.

(201c) Denying Christ >> Whoever is not with Jesus is against him >> You are against Christ when your unbelief materializes >> If your heart is not with Him your deeds are against Him – At this point, Jesus’ enemies believed in the resurrection of Jesus Christ more than His disciples. They were converting their belief that Jesus would rise from the dead into actions by stationing a guard and sealing the tomb, putting their faith into practice more than the disciples. However, after Jesus had risen from the dead and met their Lord alive and were able to touch Him, see Him and talk with Him, then they carried the gospel to every creature in the known world. After Pentecost His timid disciples became His mighty apostles, and then we see them believing in Jesus and converting their beliefs into actions and performing exploits for God in ways the world hasn’t seen again.

Scripture quotations taken from the New American Standard Bible ® (NASB), Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation Used by permission. www.Lockman.org 

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1-4 Now after the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to look at the grave. 2 And behold, a severe earthquake had occurred, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled away the stone and sat upon it. 3 And his appearance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow. 4 The guards shook for fear of him and became like dead men.

Mat 28-1 -- No Entries

Mat 28,2-7

(23l) Sin >> Poverty (Oppression) >> Fear of the unknown >> Fear of miracles – The angle said to the women who believed in Jesus, “Do not be afraid,” not addressing the soldiers at all, meaning they should be afraid. They were close in proximity to the guards, but were distant in their unbelief. People who do not believe in Jesus are afraid of Him, and they should be, until they repent of their unbelief and commit their lives to Him, and then God will speak to them with kind words without cause of fear.  

(147g) Witness >> Validity of Jesus Christ >> Jesus’ works bear witness of Himself >> Raising the dead

Mat 28,2-4

(15i) Servant >> Angels execute Judgment >> For the sake of the Church – The angel never executed judgment against the guards, yet rolling away the stone was a type of judgment in that being far superior to them in wisdom and might, they represented the God of heaven and advocated for Christ that crucifying Him was the height of wickedness. The angel’s very appearance in the sight of the guards was a type of judgment against their conscience, demonstrating that they did not possess a shred of truth that remotely corresponded with the angel. His presence denoted their utterly lost condition, lost in ways they could not imagine. Essentially, the angel destroyed their lives that day; they would either become Christians or they would have to trample their own conscience, a type of spiritual suicide, their lives afterward becoming worthless to them. They could not continue the way they were going; a massive paradigm shift like an earthquake occurred in their hearts, and they were required to accommodate the experience. They lied to themselves and denied the whole thing with the consequence of developing a reprobate mind, which hardened their hearts to the point of forfeiting any hope of being saved.

(38g) Judgment >> Jesus defeated death >> Resurrection of freedom – Note that when the angel rolled away the stone Jesus didn’t come walking out of the tomb; He was already gone. Therefore, the angel’s purpose was not to free his Master, but to bring the message that He was never a prisoner. Jesus was able to pass through physical objects; He entered a house without opening the door and suddenly appeared to His disciples, so He was able to step from the tomb without assistance. Some say this was because He had a resurrected body, but He walked on water prior to His death, and He performed many other miraculous signs before His resurrection. Jesus was not restrained in any way to this physical realm.

(44a) Judgment >> Satan destroyed >> Complete >> It is finished >> Fulfill God’s will – The angel didn’t do anything except roll away the stone and then sat on it. The act of sitting was symbolic of being finished with his works, meaning this was all he came to do, and his appearance expressed that it was all he needed to do to effectively conveying the message to the guards that Jesus had all power and authority in heaven and on earth. In the same way, when Jesus finished His work on the cross, He sat down at the right hand of God (Heb 1-3).

(190da) Die to self (Process of substitution) >> Separation from the old man >> Masochism (Self-made martyr) >> Spiritual suicide

5-10 The angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid; for I know that you are looking for Jesus who has been crucified. 6 "He is not here, for He has risen, just as He said. Come, see the place where He was lying. 7 "Go quickly and tell His disciples that He has risen from the dead; and behold, He is going ahead of you into Galilee, there you will see Him; behold, I have told you." 8 And they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy and ran to report it to His disciples. 9 And behold, Jesus met them and greeted them. And they came up and took hold of His feet and worshiped Him. 10 Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid; go and take word to My brethren to leave for Galilee, and there they will see Me."

Mat 28,5-10

(39d) Judgment >> Jesus defeated death >> Witnesses of Jesus’ resurrection -- These verses go with verses 16-20

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Mat 28,5-9

(228b) Kingdom of God >> God’s kingdom is a living organism >> God working in you >> God comforts you in times of adversity >> He comforts you in your grief

Mat 28,5-7

(15f) Servant >> Angels are messengers from God >> They are sent to change our perspective -- The women who went to look after Jesus' grave believed what the angel told them after they saw that the large stone had been moved and that the guards were absent. So, when the angel spoke to them, it was an official confirmation that Jesus Himself had risen. Usually, it is the Holy Spirit who speaks to us about the things of God, but angels appear to people to strengthen their faith. One example is during Jesus' distress in the garden of Gethsemane when the angel came alongside and strengthened Him prior to His crucifixion. Angels also appear during times of transition between ages, angels come alongside to help successfully make the turn.

(210a) Salvation >> The salvation of God >> Jesus is our sacrifice >> Jesus paid the price for us >> Jesus saved from death by submitting to the cross -- Jesus had no choice but to go to the cross since it was the only way back to the Father, and it was the only way to avoid variance with Him. In going to the cross He maintained integrity that existed eternally with the trinity and avoided permanent separation through disobedience. Although it is theoretically impossible to interrupt the trinity since it is God, yet from a practical standpoint that was the risk He took and Satan's reward if he succeeded. Satan risked everything but lost it all for the chance of destroying God. 

Mat 28-5

(23m) Sin >> Poverty (Oppression) >> Fear of the unknown >> Fear the appearance of angels – These women had gone to decorate Jesus' grave with flowers and fragrances when they met the angel, who told them to go and report to His disciples that He had risen from the dead. It says they left in fear and great joy, fear that they had seen an angel, and joy that Jesus had risen from the dead. Fear is always associated with seeing an angel. This suggests that they may appear human, but there is something about them that is alien; they are from as it were another race of man. God will create yet another race of man in the future, and each time He does, He tweaks the formula by the authority He gives them. With angels God gave them the universe as their possession, withholding only His throne to them. Then God created Adam and Eve, and He gave them the earth only, which was nothing compared to what He had given the angels, but then man sinned like Lucifer and God ejected the man and his wife from the garden and made them live in Satan's curse, where they would eat by the sweat of their brow, and they died in hardship and sorrow, but when Jesus died and broke the curse of sin, we received an inheritance. Now those who believe in Jesus will partake of the First Resurrection that is devoid of the curse. Then God will create a new heavens and a new earth and give it to a new race of man, and we will reign over them. He will even invite man to sit on the throne of His Father next to Christ at His right-hand, something He never offered the angels.

Mat 28-8

(88i) Thy kingdom come >> Fearing the power of God is the beginning of wisdom

(125e) Thy kingdom come >> Manifestations of faith >> Joy is the result of partaking of the Holy Spirit >> Joy of the revelation of Jesus Christ

Mat 28-9

(252e) Trinity >> You shall put no other gods before Me >> Worship Jesus (Because He is equal with God) >> Worship the Father through Christ -- This verse goes with verse 17. The women worshipped Jesus and Jesus did not stop them, contrary to John’s experience in the book of Revelation when He tried to worship an angel but stopped John saying, “Do not do that; I am a fellow servant of yours and your brethren who hold the testimony of Jesus; worship God” (Rev 19-10). Remember the first commandment: “You shall have no other gods before Me… You shall not worship them or serve them” (Exodus 20,3-5). For Jesus to allow the women to worship Him was breaking the first commandment, unless Jesus is God. Jesus represents the Father as the only representation of God we have, for any other representation is idolatry. For example, if we set up a statue and worship it, or paint an image on canvas and worship God through the painting, that is idolatry, because we are using it to represent God, and any representation of God is idolatry. Jesus Christ is the only exception to this, because He is God. Worshipping Jesus is like a child obeying His Father through his mother. We believe in the Father through Christ, though we should remember what Jesus also said, “In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I will request of the Father on your behalf; for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me and have believed that I came forth from the Father” (Jn 16-26,27). We can directly relate to the Father because we believe that He sent His Son to save us from our sins.

Mat 28-10

(23n) Sin >> Poverty (Oppression) >> Fear of the unknown >> Fear the appearance of Jesus – “Do not be afraid,” is the first thing spoken in an angelic visitation, or in this case Jesus who had risen from the dead. It accomplishes nothing for the disciples to be afraid of Jesus, but that is not true with demonic visitations; they want us to be afraid of them; fear is their environment of preference. It is interesting that this simple statement, “Do not be afraid,” actually disarmed their fears. It seems we have certain instincts about angelic visitations that when an angel tells us not to be afraid, we stop fearing them. Therefore, if we are greeted with an angelic visitation, and he does not attempt to abate our fears, that angel is not from God, for it is a sign that the angle wants us to remain afraid. No angel of God would want us to be afraid of him or of anything. God does not want us living and walking in fear.

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11-15 Now while they were on their way, some of the guard came into the city and reported to the chief priests all that had happened. 12 And when they had assembled with the elders and consulted together, they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers, 13 and said, "You are to say, 'His disciples came by night and stole Him away while we were asleep.' 14 "And if this should come to the governor's ears, we will win him over and keep you out of trouble." 15 And they took the money and did as they had been instructed; and this story was widely spread among the Jews, and is to this day.

(16k) Sin >> Continuing in sin to avoid the light >> Suppressing the truth they cannot deny – Had it become common knowledge that Jesus rose from the dead, the religious leaders of Israel would have lost their place, because they never supported Christ; in fact, they were most responsible for His death. We could say that spreading this rumor was a terrible injustice to the gospel, but many people would have sought Jesus with ulterior motives if the truth of His resurrection had prevailed, even as they seek Him in the flesh today with ulterior motives (Jn 6-26). The ones who get saved are the ones who would have gotten saved regardless of false messages swirling in the air. To lie about the resurrection really didn’t hurt the gospel, for God works in the hearts of people to convince them of His truth, regardless of what the world is saying. This is basically how the gospel has always worked throughout the centuries to save people.

(18g) Twisted Thinking (Key verse) – Disobedience and unbelief are opposites of faith and love, and are like gold and paper currency; we can exchange them for one another. We can take our paper currency to the dealers and exchange it for gold. Later, we can take the gold back to the dealers and exchange for paper currency; so one literally equals the other. Unbelief is the spiritual equivalent of disobedience, and disobedience is the tangible equivalent of unbelief.

(19i) Sin >> Hardened heart will twist your mind – The fabricated story was not very convincing after they allowed the soldiers to remain alive, but the general population believed it anyway, apparently because this is what they wanted to believe. It was to their advantage to believe that Jesus rose from the dead, because that meant they had hope, yet they traded hope for an unconvincing lie. If the people of Israel were so depraved as to believe a poorly contrived lie, then how hardened were the chief priests who knew the truth about Jesus’ resurrection after the soldiers reported to them what happened? They gave their account to the religious authorities, and instead of being amazed at the works of God, they didn’t even bat an eye, but began immediately spinning an alternate account of the events. The people of Israel, their religious leaders and the soldiers were all corrupt, so that the only people who were being saved were those whom God had prepared beforehand for eternal life, who worshipped God with a clear conscience. God was willing to do anything for them, including send His Son to die on a cross to release them from their sins.

(21h) Sin >> Premeditated sin >> Having no intensions of doing the will of God

(76c) Thy kingdom come >> Motives >> Seeking authority for security >> Motives based on greed

(162b) Works of the devil >> Essential characteristics >> Satan’s attitude determines our direction >> Carried Away >> Carried away bodily – When the chief priests told the guards about the rumor they fashioned, that Jesus’ disciples carried away the body of Jesus, they became the culprits in carrying away and disposing the truth. It turns out they were guilty of the very sin that they accused the disciples. This rumor was so commonly believed that it became a fact to the people living in the area, believed to this day among those who are motivated to believe a lie. Believability is all it takes to create an effective lie, and a willingness to believe it. When the guards reached Pilate, they told the same story to him, confirming the guards’ account. Pilate didn’t have the motives of the religious priests or the guards to believe that the disciples stole the body of Jesus; he wanted proof, so he went to the place where they buried Him and found conflicting evidence, yet because the rumor was so popular, he believed it over the evidence. This is the way of the world, which is run by money and lies, people believing rumors over evidence, while the truth takes a backseat to bribery and fabrication. Had the people honestly believed the disciples stole the body, they would have hunted them to the ends of the earth; instead, less than two months later they were found publicly preaching the gospel of a resurrected savior and no authorities apprehended them, except the religious dignitaries from the same group that made up the story of a stolen body.

(163g) Works of the devil >> Being a slave to the devil (Addictions) >> Used by Satan to destroy the word of God >> Used to Suppress the truth – The religious establishment knew that Jesus’ resurrection was a fact. They knew everything that happened; they were not in the dark about anything, yet they denied everything. They heard from eye-witnesses that Jesus had risen from the dead, and saw the evidence for themselves; many of them went to the site and examined the sepulcher for themselves. Coupled with all the miracles that Jesus performed prior to His death, being one of the reasons they had Him crucified, His resurrection was totally believable, yet they invented a story and told the soldiers to tell everyone that His disciples came and stole the body, which is unbelievable, since the grave site was heavily guarded. The soldiers told the highest religious authorities that Jesus was not in His grave and that they had seen a bright light and an angel filled them with dread, and they became like dead men. Nevertheless, the chief priests told the soldiers to spread the false story about the disciples stealing the body right under their noses. The religious establishment believed their own lies over the facts presented to them.

(166g) Works of the devil >> Manifestations of the devil >> Wisdom of the world >> Man’s wisdom contradicts itself -- There is no way anybody came and took Jesus' body in the presence of armed guards. The Romans in Jesus' day had a hard and fast rule that any guard caught sleeping or otherwise neglecting his duties would be killed. In this case, however, they gave the guards a large sum of money to start a rumor. Why were the Roman guards still alive, and why didn't they pursue the disciples to make them return the body? The whole reason for placing guards at the tomb was to ensure that no one took the body, for the chief priests wanted the body as proof that He did not rise from the dead. Finally, how did the disciples roll away the stone? They were physically incapable of such a feat, especially without waking the guards? On the contrary, the chief priests had every reason to believe Jesus rose from the dead, since these guards' lives were on the line. The chief priests' sin was multiplied against them through yet another opportunity to believe in Jesus but hardened their hearts instead and buried the truth. 

(182h) Works of the devil >> The origin of lawlessness >> Deception >> Being deceptive with people >> Lying to others – This financial transaction is a perfect example of the way the world works; it was a win-win situation for everybody. The soldiers wanted to stay out of trouble, and the chief priests wanted to spread the lie about what happened to Jesus’ body, and of course between the priests and the soldiers was money, being always at the center of every form of corruption. It was interesting that the soldiers first reported to the chief priests instead of Pilate, who was their commanding officer. They must have surmised that the chief priests had an interest in keeping word of the resurrection quiet, but that Pilate had no interest in covering up the facts. Pilate would have wanted the unadulterated account of what happened, so before the guards reported to him, they visited the religious authority, who pressed a fat wad of sweaty money into their hands and told them to start a rumor that the disciples stole the body of Jesus. The chief priests’ motive was to keep people from believing the truth about Jesus so they could maintain their place in society, whereas the guard’s motive was to avoid the punishment of execution. The chief priests had more at stake than the guards; they had their pride.

(186c) Works of the devil >> The result of lawlessness >> Blasphemy >> Cursing the Holy Spirit >> Lying to the Holy Spirit – Demons know their ultimate destiny is hell, and there is nothing they can do to change that, whereas man can repent, most of us anyway. There are some who have crossed the line and become like the demons, who have a reprobate mind and are incapable of repentance. What does a person have to do to develop a reprobate mind? What kind of sin must he commit? Lying to the Holy Spirit is like lying to our own conscience, but there is a level of denying the truth that is so offensive to God that the person is no longer capable of salvation. Denying the truth after God Himself has revealed it to you is the way to a reprobate mind. The chief priests and many of the Pharisees were guilty of this; they would not repent of their unbelief no matter what miracles Jesus performed. They were spiritual leaders of Israel and never even gave believing in God a thought, so when Jesus came along, they never gave a thought to believing in Him. The concept of truth didn’t exist for them. They were businessmen; they came across as religious and spiritual as though they had something going with God, but none of it was real. They were spiritual liars; they lied to themselves; they lied to the people; they lied to God; it was all the same to them. Their whole lives consisted of lies and deception. What would have really happened had the disciples actually come and stolen the body of Jesus from the tomb? The authorities would have killed the soldiers (Act 12-18,19). They didn’t spend days working on their story; rather, these people were so trained in greed and deception that knowing what to do came to them by instinct, or maybe they fabricated the story over the three days that Jesus was in the tomb, knowing He would rise from the dead. The Pharisees and chief priests were in fact religious psychopaths. People such as these develop a personalized code of ethics to give themselves a semblance of normalcy to help them blend into society, and at the same time design society to allow them to live among the people undetected in the fact that they are monsters.

(202f) Denying Christ >> Man chooses his own destiny apart from God >> Running from the word of God >> Running from the truth

(251c) Priorities >> God’s prerequisites >> Making evil plans

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16-20 But the eleven disciples proceeded to Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had designated. 17 When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some were doubtful. 18 And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."

Mat 28,16-20

(39d) Judgment >> Jesus defeated death >> Witnesses of Jesus’ resurrection -- These verses go with verses 5-10

Mat 28-16,17

(237h) Kingdom of God >> Pursuing the kingdom >> The Church is transferred to the kingdom >> Jesus’ ascension – The eleven disciples proceeded to Galilee to the designated mountain; it didn’t say any others were went with them, and it says that some were doubtful. What was it the disciples doubted? They didn’t doubt that Jesus was standing in front of them. They recognized His voice, His face, His demeanor; everything about Him was the person they knew before He was crucified. They probably doubted that Jesus was raised in the same body, doubted that Jesus was still human. They must have thought He was a manifested spirit, or that instead of God raising Jesus from the dead He must have given Him a new body that looked like the original. They couldn't believe it, but Jesus didn’t have a reputation of fooling His disciples or playing mind games with them, and that is what this would have been had the circumstances been anything other than the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ. Anything less would have been deception. Moreover, it doesn’t say anywhere in Scripture that His disciples doubted after Pentecost. They were all in the upper room waiting for the promise of the Spirit, and they were curious about their future as they continued following Jesus. The Spirit came and there was never another word of doubt among them again. The Holy Spirit persuaded them about the circumstances that occurred, convincing them that Jesus bodily rose from the dead, and now they have their faith supercharged by an anointing from heaven, all doubts removed.

Mat 28-17 

(20i) Sin >> Doubting miracles

(252e) Trinity >> You shall put no other gods before Me >> Worship Jesus (Because He is equal with God) >> Worship the Father through Christ -- This verse goes with verse 9

Mat 28,18-20

(44k) Judgment >> Transformation process >> Fulfill your ministry in evangelism >> Complete your mission – Jesus said, “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” This is a tremendous comfort to the evangelist preaching Jesus in a world that hates God. While God’s evangelists are being tortured in prison cells, it is good to know that Jesus is not only with them but has even led them to there, who promises grace to endure their hardships, and just as importantly to the evangelist, He promises fruit in the form of human souls won to Christ through their faith. He told us to observe all His commandments, integrating the gospel of Christ into our lives.

(66g) Authority >> Jesus’ authority >> He owns everything from the father 

(67n) Authority >> Doing God’s work under His authority >> Ministry of helps >> Help God – Jesus said, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.” Then He said, “Go therefore…,” associating His authority with evangelism. Evangelism is the one ministry of the five (listed in Eph 4-11,12) that God is most willing to demonstrate His power and authority, which is the seal on the Gospel. Telling somebody to believe in Jesus for the forgiveness of sin isn’t very appealing to most people; often they were not even aware they were sinners, but when miracles are associated with the gospel, it tells people that this is not just another message, but one they had better heed, and gives them reason to commit their lives to it. Even the hardened sinner is willing to give his heart to Jesus because he sees there is something real about the gospel. Without miracles, the gospel of Christ is just set of doctrines people have chosen to believe among a sea of ideas about God. We have the Bible and the nation of Israel as proof of God, but when signs and wonders are present in the proclamation of the gospel, it turns people’s heads and convinces many who would not have otherwise believed in Jesus. Ironically, witnessing miracles has no lasting impact; twenty years later it becomes a distant memory that has no real bearing on anyone, except that it gave them reason to believe in Jesus at the time, and now their faith twenty years later is still vibrant and powerful. Those who witness miracles see it as an external proof of God, but those who are born of the Spirit have the witness in themselves, which is far more convincing than any miracle.

(71ab) Authority >> Believer’s authority >> We have authority from God to evangelize the world >> We have authority to propel the gospel into all the world

(84cb) Thy kingdom come >> Be on the alert >> Be faithful until Jesus comes >> Prepare others for His return – Jesus charged His disciples with the responsibility of preaching the gospel, who were Jewish. He told them to make disciples of all nations. The Jews were originally charged with carrying the gospel to the world; it was Jesus’ original plan for the Jews to manage His gospel and not the gentiles. Instead, they rejected God’s purpose for themselves, and so God circumvented them and gave the gospel to the gentiles, according to Act 13-46, “Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly and said, ‘It was necessary that the word of God be spoken to you first; since you repudiate it and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles.’” Paul did this to make the Jews jealous, and so it made them furious. Jesus said to the evangelist, “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age;” the wording of this is significant, the fact that He mentioned “the end of the age,” suggests there will be a Great Endtime Revival conducted by the Jews, and this will be a time when possibly more people will find faith in Jesus than all of Christianity throughout the age of grace.

(191b) Die to self (Process of substitution) >> Separation from the old man >> Baptism >> Baptism symbolizes death, burial and resurrection >> Baptism is a sign of obedience – Some say we must baptize people in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, others say we must baptize in Jesus name only, otherwise it doesn’t work. If we baptize somebody in the name of Jesus Christ or in the name of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, it just doesn’t matter. What matters is that we baptize believers for the sake of faith in Jesus, and if we also want to name the Father and the Holy Spirit over them, that is fine. If a person is spoken-over while he is being baptized in the name of Jesus-only, it doesn’t mean he must be re-baptized if he later makes friends with a crowd that believes differently. Baptism is a public display of our faith in Jesus Christ, which is all that really matters. Essentially, baptism represents a wedding ceremony to God at or near the day of our salvation.

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Mat 28-18 

(67b) Authority >> Jesus is at the right hand of the father >> He is above all other authorities – We all belong to a certain family. Nobody else is part of our family. When we think of someone born into a wealthy family, this can mean a lot. That is the case with those of us who are born into the family of God; our heavenly Father is extremely rich, and we are now under His authority and are also in authority. God the Father has given Jesus all His authority, and Jesus has in turn given the True Church all His authority. No person in the Church has all authority, but collectively we represent the authority of Christ. For this reason Paul called us the body of Christ, the physical embodiment of our Lord on earth. The second coming of Christ will mark the beginning of His eternal kingdom, who will rule the earth with a rod of iron. Once Christ had defeated His enemies, He will relinquish His authority to the Father, who will gently rule His people (1Cor 15,25-28).

(214a) Sovereignty >> God is infinite >> Jesus owns you >> God owns everything – Jesus has received all the authority of the Father; that is a lot of authority. God is infinite and He owns everything; Jesus is God; He owns us, and we belong to Him. The Father didn’t give His Son a portion of His authority; He gave it all to Him. That doesn’t mean the Father no longer has authority; rather, it means the Father has authority over all things through Christ. The difference between the military and the business world is how they view authority. When the military delegates authority, the one who delegates maintains his authority through the person who received it, whereas the business world tends to view authority as giving it away, and is therefore they are stingy with it. The person who understood faith was the centurion, who said in Mat 8,5-10, “I also am a man under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to this one, 'Go!' and he goes, and to another, 'Come!' and he comes, and to my slave, 'Do this!' and he does it.” The centurion understood that when he delegated authority, he didn’t lose it but invested it in the person, who will accomplish his task and further establish his authority. Jesus said that this is the way faith works too, equating faith with authority, suggesting that faith is the authority of God.

Mat 28-20

(83e) Thy kingdom come >> Intercession >> Jesus stands in the gap >> He prays for us

(224f) Kingdom of God >> Illustrating the kingdom >> Description of heaven >> The joyful kingdom >> We shall always be with the Lord

(238g) Kingdom of God >> Pursuing the kingdom >> Transferring the kingdom >> The kingdom is transferred to the Church >> Jesus will never leave us – Jesus will never leave us; therefore, we will never be apart from Him. ‘Where He is, there we will be also’ (Jn 12-26). The fact that Jesus is the essence of God’s Kingdom means that to be with Him is to be citizens of His Kingdom, and to dwell in His Kingdom is for Him to dwell in us. For Jesus to say that He is with us always is to confess that He and the Holy Spirit are one. Jesus ascended to heaven 2000 years ago and sent the Holy Spirit in His place, which was to send Himself, for He is not similar but equivalent to Jesus coming to us in person.

(254i) Trinity >> Holy Spirit’s relationship between Father and Son >> Jesus is equal with the Holy Spirit >> Holy Spirit is life >> Spirit of Jesus – The Holy Spirit is the exact representation of Christ, even as Christ is the exact representation of the Father. For Jesus to say, “I am with you always,” is to say that Jesus and the Holy Spirit are identical. We serve a God who exists in three phases: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and all the members are equal within Godhead. Although the Father has the most authority, Jesus is a greater servant, and the least is greatest in the Kingdom of God, and the net result is equality. The same is true with the Holy Spirit, who also has less authority but is a greater servant, making Him equal with Father and Son. Jesus and the Holy Spirit are in perfect agreement, as Jesus and the Father are in perfect agreement. It is always the Father’s plan, the Son obeys Him and the Spirit fulfills the vision.