(Text and Audio)
Title: A Three-Fold Command
Very similarly to how we broke down the angel’s command to the women in the tomb into a three fold command, we see the interaction with Jesus produce a similar pattern of instruction.
(Read/Pray)
- Rejoice
It’s as if Jesus is remind them to take a breath and realize:
“Listen, I know you are shocked, but you seeing me is reason for joy. I know you can’t comprehend exactly what this means, but I promise that soon you will. Know this: I have conquered death, death could not hold me, I am the son of God, I am the promised Messiah, and ladies, you know me, and I know you. This is reason to be full of joy.”
1a. And HOW do they rejoice?
By worshipping him immediately.
(You ever have those moments, sometimes they are not convenient, but you just HAVE to give all the praise to Jesus or your are going to burst. And we do this in very different ways.)
(Jodie’s friend at U2 concert)
(Me: I’m a cryer in praise, for some reason often when mowing, the spirit has come over me as I am reflecting on some truth and I just break down weeping.)
2. Do NOT be afraid.
We have discussed time and time again how fear is the paralyzer. Fear is what Satan preys on so that we do NOT act. I must remind myself weekly to NOT fear. Now the reason I know not to fear is because Jesus, the God I serve, and the God that knows me, that intimately chose ME before the foundations of the world, is the one true immortal God, having conquered death, and gives me the pathway to immortality as well.
(Proverbs 12:28 “In the way of righteousness there is life. Along that path is immortality.”)
Some have asked me where I get the quotes on the bulletin from. Sometimes the internet, sometimes from whatever material I am reading and studying at the time. But whenever I meet someone who feels especially dialed-in as a believer, someone who has a unique perspectives, different from my own, I always ask them what some of their favorite quotes are that center them back on truth.
I asked this question several months ago of another local pastor that I have lunch with regularly. He shared a quote from a science fiction writer that just resonates so much with Jesus’s reminder to “NOT be afraid” that I wanted to share it with you. Some of you with a keen eye might remember this quote, I put it on one of our bulletins several months ago.
“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”
― Frank Herbert, Dune
3. Go and tell
It would have been have been just as appropriate for Jesus to say, “Resume your task, go and tell…”
The women had the experience on the road with Jesus precisely because they were being obedient to what the angel in the tomb had told them to do. Now Jesus appears and reinforces that command, but gives more specific instructions to tell the brethren he go ahead of them and will meet them in Galilee.
So to sum up this three fold command another way: Jesus reminds them to rejoice, which gets rid of fear, which gets rid of the paralysis that fear can bring SO THAT they are then able to “go and tell.”
This leads me to a reflection question I want to leave with you this morning.
Let’s go backward through this for a moment with some self analysis.
Specifically in regards to evangelism, have you ever thought that you don’t tell because you are afraid, and that you are afraid because you have forgotten to rejoice, and you have forgotten to rejoice because you have forgotten what Jesus has done for you?
If this is you, I have a cure.
Share the gospel with yourself, verbally, out loud, every morning.
(Example)
Closing Thought:
“Go tell my brethren…”
“my brethren” is most likely not a term specific to the 11 remaining apostles. Other places that Jesus uses this term (or the term “my brothers and sister”) in Matthew’s gospel suggest that Jesus is talking about all his followers, not just the 11. (Matthew 12:49-50, 25:40)
Point:
For so long the destiny and identity of Jesus to die and rise again was to be kept a secret. Along the way, the apostles begin to figure this out, he instructs them to keep this close to their heart, that there will be a time to talk openly about who he is and what he did. Now that Jesus has come out of the tomb, that time has come.
Jesus’s appearances were not secrets. Some 20 years after these events when Paul is writing his first letter to the Corinthians he tells us “he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living” (1 Corinthians 15:6)
The time had come to make it known that Jesus had indeed conquered death. Now Jesus would start the process of making that claim, but then he will ascend to be with the father, and the helper, the Holy Spirit will come to guide us, and then it is on us. We are now the bearers of the great truth and responsibility to carry on the proclamation.