In the sermon 'Left to Grasp' by Jason Dohm, the focus is on the resurrection of Jesus Christ and its implications for believers and unbelievers. The sermon begins by recounting the story of women who went to honor Jesus' body, only to find an empty tomb and an angel declaring His resurrection. The chief priests and soldiers respond with fear and deception, using money to spread lies about Jesus' body being stolen. The sermon highlights the concept of 'grasping' as a characteristic of the natural man, who relies on worldly tools to navigate challenges, contrasting it with the spiritual man who humbles himself under God's authority. The 'great dividing line' is emphasized as the choice to acknowledge Jesus as Lord, which determines one's eternal path. The sermon calls believers to be 'decided Christians,' committed to growing in holiness and resisting the temptation to compromise, especially in financial matters. It concludes with a reflection on the power of God working outside the traditional power centers, using humble and despised places and people to accomplish His purposes.

Last week, Matthew gave us visibility to these acts of devotion that were planned. There were people going to honor the body, the dead body of Jesus Christ, but there's one problem. There's no dead body. And so, these women who go to demonstrate their love and devotion for Jesus Christ get something they didn't plan for. They get an empty tomb.

And they get an angel perched up on the rock that's been rolled away. And the angel terrifies and he declares and he instructs. He terrifies the soldiers. They become like dead men. They are paralyzed in their fear.

And he declares that Jesus is risen, just as he said. And he instructs the women to go tell the disciples that he's going before them into Galilee. And then as they're going, they meet Jesus. These women meet Jesus, Mary Magdalene and the others. And Jesus uses this precious phrase that we find, my brethren.

So, so far from having a rebuke for these followers who haven't exactly been by His side through the finality of His sufferings. He speaks to them tenderly as brethren. And that just took us right into Hebrews 2 where the author of Hebrews says that The one who sanctifies Jesus Christ and those who are being sanctified, that's us, are all of one and therefore he's not ashamed to call them brethren. He's not ashamed to call you brother, he's not ashamed to call you sister. So none of the gospel writers, not Matthew, not Mark, not Luke, not John, none of the gospel writers leave us with a crucified Jesus.

They leave us with a resurrected Jesus Christ And a live Jesus who is sitting at the right hand of the Father who has been given a kingdom that's a glorious kingdom, that's an everlasting kingdom. And there he sits at the right hand of his Father interceding for his people. So the Jesus of the crucifix is in our Jesus. The glorified, risen Jesus who is praying for us right now while we're meeting on the Lord's day is our Jesus. The empty grave is unbelievably good news for us, but it's not unbelievably good news to everyone.

And that brings us into our text today. There's a group who it's not good news for at all, it's really bad news. Now think about that. Think about that. The Redeemer has been raised from the dead.

The power of the resurrection displayed. Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of Israel, has been declared to be the Son of God with power. This is Paul in Romans 1. And that there could be people who that's bad news to is amazing, but so it is. And the title of the sermon is Left to Grasp.

And it's about these men who news of the resurrection is bad news. It's bad news for them. And they're left to grasp. And the big objective for the preacher today is to help us recognize that the chief priests are just natural men, that's all they are. They're not anything unusual in this earth.

They're just unregenerate men. Men who have not been changed by the mercy and grace of God. They're natural men. And they're not something that you could never be. And they're not something that I could never be.

But they're made of the same stuff. And they're just an example of where the unregenerate heart will take you. They're an example of where the unregenerate heart will always take you. Jeremiah 17 verse 9 says, The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it?

And the reason that we don't think that the heart is deceitful above all things is because the heart is deceitful above all things. It is its own evidence. And we don't think ourselves of that way, but God declares it to be true. And the fact that it's hard for us to believe this of ourselves just proves the theorem. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked and so you have to have a new one.

You have to have this heart of stone taken out and you have to be given a heart of flesh. And even when you've been given a heart of flesh, there's this old man that is at war with the spirit that's been resurrected. And so as we've seen so many times in the book of Matthew have I said this? Because the text takes us there that bowing the knee to King Jesus is the great dividing line in this life. There are many other dividing lines, race and age and education, and they're all superficial dividing lines.

So superficial. They're nothing compared to the one great dividing line. And that dividing line is this. Will you bow your knee in this life and acknowledge that Jesus is Lord and receive mercy from him? Or will you not?

This is the great dividing line in life. And all of the other dividing lines will disappear, but this dividing line will remain for eternity. And so this dividing line puts you on a track. It puts you on a track either of a narrow way that leads to life. And starts out with you finding yourselves in so much in need of reform and being discipled, learning at the feet of Jesus and learning things through the years and making progress.

Slow progress. Sometimes you find yourself so discouraged at the pace of progress, but even when you look back over time you see, you know what, I am a disciple of Jesus, there really is progress there. Or it puts you on a track, a road, a broad way that leads to destruction. And you find yourself just appearing further and further and further to the point where you would find yourself where the resurrection of Jesus Christ is bad news and something that would cause you to take evasive action. That's really what we have on display in this text.

Men who have to take evasive action because Jesus Christ has been raised from the dead. In verse 11, we're moving into the text now. In verse 11, Mary Magdalene and the other women are going to tell the disciples. They've been given a charge by the angel, then they've been given a charge by Jesus Christ himself to go tell the disciples and that's what they're on their way to do. And at the same time, simultaneously, some of the guard, a subset of the guard, are going to the chief priests.

And the text says that they report everything, everything that happened. They go, the subset of the guard go, and tell the chief priests. That means that they tell the chief priests about the earthquake. And that means they tell the chief priests about an angel descending from heaven. And that means that they tell the chief priests about an angel descending from heaven.

And that means that they tell the chief priests about him rolling away the stone that had been sealed. This grave has been sealed to keep this very thing from happening. They're telling the chief priests that the sealed stone has been rolled away. And that means that they're telling the chief priests about a tomb that's empty. There's nothing but grave cloths in that tomb.

And they're talking to the chief priests about it, and it must have set off quite a panic. Wouldn't you love to be a fly on the wall when this subset of the guards, some of the guards, are telling this to the chief priests? And you have to understand how precarious this is for these soldiers. If you didn't know more, if you just looked at this text in isolation, you would say that this is a great opportunity for these soldiers to profit. And we're going to see in the text, they do profit handsomely from these circumstances.

But this is not just an opportunity for soldiers to make money on the side. This is a tremendously precarious, awkward, dangerous set of circumstances for these soldiers. In Acts 12, Herod has killed James, the brother of John. And So James has become the first martyr among the disciples. And then Peter is imprisoned over the feast of Passover and the church is praying like crazy because It's looking like Peter is going to be the next martyr in Jerusalem.

First Jesus, then James the brother of John, now Peter is in prison. Peter is supernaturally set free from prison. He's led out of prison by an angel. And when Herod finds out that Peter is an escapee, he examines the guards and then he commands that they be put to death. So this is the environment that Matthew 28 is happening in.

Where if you're a guard and there's dereliction of duty, there's not fulfilling your duty, that it might just cost you your life as it does when Herod finds out that Peter has escaped in Acts 12. He examines them and then he commands them to be put to death. Or in Acts 16, in Acts 16 it's midnight, and Paul and Silas are singing hymns at midnight. And there's an earthquake. There's a violent earthquake, and the prison door is opened up by this earthquake and the chains are loosed by this earthquake.

And the Philippian jailer, seeing that this prison door is open, draws his sword to kill himself because this is the environment of the day. Deroliction of duty could very well equal execution at the hands of your superiors. And Paul, seeing this, says, don't kill yourself, we're all here. And this man and his family are converted to Christ. So for these soldiers who have an empty tomb to deal with, the resurrection of Jesus Christ is very bad news.

It's very dangerous news that Jesus is raised from the dead and that his body is not accessible to the Jews. It may very well cost them their life. The chief priests assemble with the elders. Now this is the same crew we've been dealing with in week after week. It started out in crucifixion week, Passover week with them confronting Jesus as he's teaching in the temple and they want to know by what authority.

And then as events have unfolded, it's always been the chief priests and the elders, the chief priests and the elders, the chief priests and the elders. And now at the end of Matthew 28, We're back with the chief priests and the elders and they're meeting again and Jesus is still the problem and they're trying to decide what to do So they decide this is they're gonna get are gonna use their one great tool again Money And it was their one great tool that they used with Judas when Judas sought them out. And they're using their one great tool again. And The text says they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers. Now, New King James has rendered it a large sum, but the Greek word literally means sufficient.

They give them sufficient money. Sufficient for what? Sufficient to keep them from telling the truth. It has to be enough money. And it is a large sum.

But the point isn't how much money it is. The point is that it's enough to get them to spread this lie, to keep them from telling the truth. This is what the natural man does. This is what a man who hasn't been shown mercy by Jesus Christ. This is what they do.

The men of the world use the tools of the world to get out of the jams that life brings their way. When you're fighting against God, life brings a lot of challenges your way. You think you have challenges as a Christian? The natural man has 100 times more because he doesn't have God helping him in the challenges of life. So the men of the world use the tools of the world and that's what money so often is.

It's a tool of the world. It's a lever to be pulled by the natural man to help them get out of the jams of life. So the natural man makes a plan with the best thoughts that are in his head, with the best ideas that he can come up with. The natural man makes a plan. And then he executes the plan.

This is exactly what they did with Judas. The best plan in our brain, and then we execute the plan. This is what they're doing again to cover up the resurrection. The best plan that pops to mind, and then execute the plan. So the natural man schemes, and he uses the tools of the world.

Then he executes the plan. Now look, yes, they give talking points. You think talking points is for our day and age. You think when Susan Rice was sent out by the current administration on those five consecutive talk shows on that one Sunday to tell a story that they knew all along was false. You think talking points originated with Susan Rice.

It goes all the way back to the time of Jesus and all the way back before that. In fact, I think lying might actually be the oldest profession in the world. There's always been talking points to perpetrate and spread a lie. And so a trade is made. A deal is struck.

And we're going to give you money that's sufficient for you to say this and boys don't deviate from the script. This is the script, here is your script And don't you dare deviate from the script. And here is your script. It was night. This is what you are going to tell people.

It was night. And we just couldn't stay awake. We were asleep. And his disciples came while we were sleeping, and they stole his body away. Now, this is really, really lame.

Really, really Lame. Here's five ways in which this is lame. Number one, if these soldiers had really fallen asleep on the job, these Jewish leaders would have been calling for their head on a platter. This is just what they're afraid of. The disciples of Jesus are going to be able to say, look, he's raised from the dead.

This is why the guard is there in the first place. If they had really not done their duty, the Jewish leaders would have been first in line to call for their heads on a platter. Reason number two, this is lame. If they were asleep, how did they know it was the disciples who came and stole his body away? How did they know that's what happened?

They were asleep. Reason number three, this is lame. If Jesus' disciples moved the stone, why didn't they wake up? The guard is right there. They're not 100 yards away looking at the tomb.

They're posted at the tomb. So if the large sealed stone is moved away, like none of the guards woke up, Reason number four, while this is lame, if they woke, if they did wake up, why didn't they stop them? So the disciples who wouldn't defend Jesus while he was alive came and were going to fight off to steal the dead body. They wouldn't defend him when he was alive, but now they're going to come and fight against soldiers to steal his dead body. Reason number five, that this is a really lame explanation.

If the disciples stole his body away, why no investigation? I mean go read the book of Acts. Within a couple of months period, these men are going to be teaching boldly in the temple. You have access to them, then find the dead body. Where's the investigation?

But it dies here with just a story. When you're determined to suppress the truth, you run with the best you got. Right? Isn't this how it works? In your houses, when there's deception going on in the house, some of the lamest stories come out.

Isn't that the truth? But it's the best they got. So that's what they tell. And this is what's happening in our text here. When you're determined, when you're committed to suppressing the truth, you go with the best that you got, and this is the best that they have.

And so they're left to grasp. They're left to do what the natural man does, which is just to grasp because really they're fighting against God. Listen to what Peter says in 1 Peter 4, verse 19. This is the last verse of 1 Peter 4. Peter says this, Therefore let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to Him in doing good as a faithful Creator.

Now Peter is talking about the other side of the coin. In Matthew 28 these are natural men, but Peter is talking about unnatural men. He is talking about people who have been made new. He's talking about people who have received the mercy of Jesus Christ. And he says, those people, even when they're suffering, commit their souls to God as a faithful creator.

So this is the flip side. This is that narrow way that leads to life, makes you a person who doesn't have to grasp and pull levers and use the tools of the world like money. But even when you're suffering, you're free, you're free to just commit yourself to God knowing that He's a faithful Creator. Now listen to Peter just a few verses later. This is 1 Peter 5 verse 6.

So we're going from the last verse in chapter 4 to just chapter 5 verse 6. Peter says, Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time. What you have in Matthew 28 is men who are self-exalted. And so they have to work and pull levers and use the tools of the world to keep their spot. Isn't this what's happening in Matthew 28?

If Jesus has indeed risen from the dead, then they did that. They are His murderers and He's risen from the dead and they can't have their spot anymore. So they are clamoring to hold on to their position. And this is the exact opposite of humbling yourself under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time. And so we have the people of God who entrust themselves, commit themselves to God as a faithful creator, who just humble themselves under his mighty hand, knowing that God is able to exalt a man or a woman, or a boy or a girl in his own time and are willing to just submit themselves to God knowing that he's good and that he's great, that he rules over all the universe, or the alternative to that is to always be grasping.

Always be grasping. This is exactly what we see in Matthew 28, men who were just grasping, trying to keep their hands on things and not humbled under the mighty hand of God in any way, shape, or form. So these men in Matthew 28 haven't humbled themselves under the mighty hand of God. And so they find themselves in what seems to them to be beyond the point of no return. Isn't that the sense you get from this text?

They don't have any other choice. It's too late to backtrack for them. Now it's never too late in life to repent, is the truth. But to these men it seems like the point of no return is way upstream. They're so far down this track that they can't possibly turn back.

And this is what sin does to you. This is what serving sin does to the natural man. I've heard Scott Brown, my co-elder, say this a hundred times. Sin will take you farther than you ever wanted to go, Keep you there longer than you ever wanted to stay. And cost you more than you ever wanted to pay.

This is the life of serving sin. Sin, let's say it again by request from the back row. Sin will take you farther than you ever wanted to go. Keep you there longer than you ever wanted to stay. And cost you more than you ever wanted to pay.

See, here's how sin works. You think one little sin, that's all. One little sin, and then I'm stopping. But that one will require 10 more to cover it up, to perpetuate it. The week began with them just asking Jesus in the temple courts by what authority and it ends up with them having to cover up the fact that the Redeemer of Israel has been raised from the dead.

Think of how far sin has taken them. Do you think they ever imagined that sin would take them here? Do you think that they ever thought they would stay here so long? Do you ever think they ever thought that this would be the price for it? The chief priests and the elders commit to the soldiers that If pilot catches wind of this, that they'll intervene and they'll appease him.

They'll make them secure. So pilot has demonstrated that he's going to serve his self-interest. Here's why these men can make that commitment, because Pilate has already shown what he's made of. Pilate has already shown that he can be manipulated as long as it serves his self-interest. So they know that if push comes to shove, then they can serve his self-interest to the extent that he will let these men free.

And so these are birds of a feather. You look at these different groups, you say, why are they collaborating against Jesus? What would Pilate have to do with the Jewish leaders? What would the Jewish leaders have to do with the soldiers? And as we've seen a hundred times in the book of Matthew, we have these marriages of convenience.

You say, why would the Pharisees work with the Sadducees? They hate each other all the rest of the time. Why pilot the Jewish leaders? Why the Jewish leaders and the soldiers? Here's why, Because there's only one dividing line that really means anything.

And the rest of the dividing lines are superficial. And they'll disappear when Jesus is the question on the table. Every other dividing line in this world will disappear when Jesus is the question on the table. And all those superficial dividing lines will disappear and it will be Jesus or no Jesus. How many times have we seen that in Matthew where you say, I can't believe these guys are working together.

It's to oppose Jesus. It's because Jesus is on the table. So we should never be surprised at strange bedfellows, at strange alliances between people that you never thought would work together. Could never appreciate each other about anything until what? Until when?

Until Jesus is on the table. Then it's like they're the best of friends and you can't believe it. This should not surprise us. The soldiers take the money and they hold up their end of the deal. They spread the lie.

Remember what Jesus said in Matthew 6 verse 24, no one can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. You can't serve God in wealth. You can't serve God in possessions.

You can't serve God in money. Because God will have no rivals. Now Money in this text and in life is a great indicator. Are you content? Have you humbled yourself under the mighty hand of God, or are you grasping?

Money is a great litmus test to tell you how you're doing. Am I content? Am I humbled under the mighty hand of God? Or am I grasping like these men? Now, the primary distinction in Matthew 28 is believer and unbeliever.

So I'm not denying that, and I want to preach that boldly, because that's mostly what's in the text today. And unbelievers are dominated, ruled, governed by grasping. And believers are dominated, ruled, growing, in humbling themselves under the mighty hand of God. But even within the heart of the believer, a person whose hard heart has been taken out, The heart of flesh has been put in even within the heart of the believer. You find that though your spirit has been raised, you're a new creation.

You've been born again that the resurrection of the body, the resurrection of the flesh doesn't happen until later, right? The bodily resurrection has not happened yet, it's happening later. And so your spirit, which has been raised from the dead, is married to a body that's not raised from the dead. And that's why we find these wars within us even though we're born again. And so it's not all humbling yourself under the mighty hand of God all the time for the Christian, is it?

Is that your experience? It is not mine. And so while the primary distinction is between believer and unbeliever, there is an application here for the believer. We can't just say, well those unbelieving people are always grasping. I'm glad there's nothing like that in my heart.

So what Jesus says, you can't serve two masters, applies to the believer as well. Now turn in your Bibles to 1 Timothy 6. In 1 Timothy 6 we see on display again with money on the table. These two lives, a life of grasping and a life of humbling yourself under the mighty hand of God that He may exalt you in due time. 1 Timothy 6, I'll begin reading in verse 6 and read through verse 10.

First Timothy 6 verse 6. Now godliness with Contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out of it. And having food and clothing with these we shall be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and despair, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition.

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows." If you want a litmus test on how you're doing, are you humbling yourself under the mighty hand of God? Are you committing yourself and trusting yourself to God as a faithful creator? Or are you grasping and trying to pull levers and using the tools of the world to create your best life now money is a great way to see how you're doing and the progress that has or has not been made in your heart. At some point it is going to cost you financially to follow Jesus. Maybe it already has.

Maybe it's already cost you greatly financially. But if it hasn't, it's going to. At some point, it's going to cost you financially, in your pocketbook, to follow Jesus Christ. Holding on to what you have is going to require compromise. And so it is in Matthew chapter 28 with these men.

Holding on to what they have is going to require more compromise. And they're completely willing to do it. Everybody is in Savior skin mode. The chief priests are, the elders are, the soldiers are. They have a common bond.

They have a common objective. I have a friend, a dear friend in Brevard, North Carolina. And he's a social worker. And he will not place foster children with homosexual couples. And it's going to cost him his job.

He's right in the throes of it right now. It's possible that it'll come out another way, but I just can't see it coming out another way. It's going to cost him financially, dearly, to follow Jesus Christ. And As the proverb, not from the book of Proverbs, but the modern day proverb goes, forewarned is forearmed, isn't it? Forewarning allows you to get ready in advance.

So forewarned is forearmed. So now we know based on this text and a hundred others that it is going to cost us financially. Faithfulness to Jesus Christ is going to cost us financially. And it might already and we might not be done. And so forewarned is forearmed and so make up your mind now that you will not make that deal.

This deal is offered to these men. They should never, ever, ever take this deal, but they take it. They were not forearmed. They had not made up their mind in advance that when the time came, they would not compromise. And those decisions, if you wait till that moment, If you wait till that moment to decide, you're 9 tenths dead.

You are 9 tenths dead. It's going to be a struggle, even if you make up your mind now, it'll be plenty of struggle reserved for that moment. So fortify yourself now. Because the pressures for you to compromise are coming. You know that from this text and a hundred others.

Maybe in the area of finances, maybe in one of the other areas of life, the pressures are coming for you to compromise and you know that now you have the authority of Scripture behind it arm yourself now fortify yourself now that you will not make that deal So it's widely reported that the disciples came and stole the body and it's widely believed. We know this because the resurrection is denied and scoffed at by most Jews up until this day. And that's still the song they sing. And I read that and I say what a shame, what a shame. So much damage done by this lie.

And that is true, it is a shame And a lot of damage was done by that lie. But when I was reading Calvin, I find him coming from a completely different angle. Calvin, when he looks at this lie that was so widely spread and so widely believed, Calvin looks through the lens of the sovereignty of God. What a surprise, huh? Calvin looking through the lens of the sovereignty of God.

How could Calvin be any other way? That is his trademark. And so he brings that to this text, and he says this. It was the finishing stroke of the vengeance of God to blind the Jews, that the resurrection of Christ was buried by the perjury of the soldiers, and that so gross a falsehood was believed. Because almost all have struck on the stone of stumbling.

Remember Jesus is the stone of stumbling. It was proper that their eyes should be darkened. So I look at this and I say, what a shame, what a destructive lie. Calvin looks at this and says, God did that. God judged those people who would not receive their Redeemer but put Him to death.

And God orchestrated every bit of that to judge these ones who would not receive their Redeemer. And according to the scriptures, Calvin's got it right. Remember what Jesus taught in Matthew 13. Remember Matthew 13? Parable after parable after parable after parable.

Just in rapid succession all these parables. His disciples ask him, why are you teaching in parables? Here's what Jesus says in Matthew 13 verses 14 and 15. And in them, and in these Jews, the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled which says, Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, and seeing you will see and not perceive. For the hearts of this people have grown dull.

Their ears are hard of hearing and their eyes they have closed. Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn so that I should heal them." God is judging these people. Not judging all Jews. Pentecost is coming. In less than two months there's going to be a great outpouring of the Spirit and 3, 000 Jews are going to be added to the church in that day.

So it's not a judgment of all Jews, but it is a judgment of the unbelieving Jews who have rejected their Messiah. And this is the blindness of those who will not repent. It is a willful blindness. Did you hear what Jesus quoted from Isaiah? It's hearts that have grown dull.

They've grown dull. It's eyes that they have closed. It's a willful blindness. Yes, you're blind when you've closed your eyes. That's what Isaiah is saying is the nature of the blindness.

I can't see. I can't see. Well, open your eyes. Open your eyes. Soldiers are at your doorstep saying there was an earthquake.

An angel descended from heaven. He rolled away the stone. We found grave cloths folded neatly in the corner. We can't see. We can't see it.

In our Bible reading plan last night, we were reading in Psalms. This is Psalm 9 verse 15. The nations have sunk down in the pit which they have made. In the net which they hid, their own foot is caught. This is exactly What's happening to these chief priests and these elders in Matthew 28?

They've laid a net. They've laid a net. They've perpetrated a lie and they've spread a lie and their own feet have been caught in it. They're caught in the pit that they've dug with their own hands. They're caught.

The joke isn't on Jesus. The joke isn't on God. The joke is on those who told the joke. In verse 16, the 11, go into Galilee, the text says, to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them. So they leave Jerusalem.

They go to Galilee. It's 70 miles away or something like that. And they go to the mountain that Jesus had appointed for them right after the Lord's Supper in Matthew 26. After the Lord's Supper before Gethsemane, Jesus says this in Matthew 26, 31 and 32. Then Jesus said to them, All of you will be made to stumble because of me this night, for it is written, I will strike the shepherd and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.

But after I have been raised, I will go before you to Galilee." And then the women go to the tomb and the angel says, tell them to go to Galilee. And then the women are on their way to the disciples and Jesus meets them and he says, tell them to go to Galilee. And now we see them going to Galilee. And there's a mountain that's been appointed for them. So there are things that weren't told to us in the other accounts.

There's been more detail given to them. He's told them exactly where to go in Galilee, And they go there. Verse 17 says, when they saw him, they worshiped him, but some doubted. The word doubted here is distazzo. Distazzo.

And it means to waver. So they worshiped him. They see. They go to the mountain that's been appointed in Galilee and they worship him but some wavered. So it's not a stubborn unbelief.

It's not a final unbelief, but it is a wavering. It's a hesitation about is this really happening? Is this real? Can we trust what our eyes are seeing here? So the word, the Greek word doesn't mean stubborn final unbelief, it means wavering.

There was some wavering when they go to Galilee. Now this could be one of three things, maybe more, but I've thought of three. And I think it could legitimately be any of these three things. So I'm going to tell you the three things that it could be, at least that I think it could be, and then I'll land lightly on one of them. Number one, it could be Matthew compressing.

Would that surprise anyone? Have I ever said before, Matthew is compressing here. We see this every week. I think I've said this almost every week for the last two years and three months. Matthew is always compressing.

So he could be compressing here. In the accounts in Mark and Luke and John, there's doubt. Every one of the other gospel writers talks about doubt, and Matthew hasn't talked about doubt yet. So maybe this is just Matthew folding in the doubt that's in the other details that Matthew isn't including, and maybe he's just compressing. In Mark, there's just some general statements that say the women came to the disciples they didn't believe.

In Luke, it says that the women came to the disciples they didn't believe. But it also gives us the road to Emmaus where two of these followers of Jesus are walking down the road, they're joined by Jesus, they don't recognize him. Jesus said, oh, what's been happening? They said, are you the only one that doesn't know about these things? Jesus says, tell me.

And so they start to relate that Jesus has died. They were hoping he was the Messiah. And they say, and Some of the women amazed us today. They brought us this story and Jesus actually in Luke rebukes them at this point for not believing. They haven't even recognized that it's Jesus yet but Jesus rebukes them for not believing.

Maybe Matthew is just compressing the unbelief that happens in these other accounts. Or in John, in the book of John chapter 20, we get the account of Thomas. The disciples are there, but Thomas isn't there. Jesus appears to them. They relate it to Thomas.

Thomas says, unless I feel the print of the nails in his hands, unless I put my finger in the spear hole in his side, I'm not believing. And then Jesus shows up and says, OK, Thomas, I'm open for inspection. And then he's not interested in that. And he says, my Lord and my God. Maybe it's the doubt that is displayed in the life of Thomas that is being compressed.

If you had to take Mark and Luke and John and summarize the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus and compress them down to just a sentence you would say or a phrase you would say worship and doubt and that's exactly what we have in Matthew. So it can very well just be Matthew doing what he's done a lot and compressing, worship and doubt. Number two, it could be that there are more present than the 11. Now, this text reads like the 11 go into Galilee, and there's no mention of other people so it reads like just the eleven are there but in first Corinthians 15 verse 6 Paul said that there's a post-resurrection appearance of Jesus Christ where more than 500 people were present. And John MacArthur and Matthew Henry says it's here.

And a bunch of the other commentators say the same thing. The Great Commission wasn't just given to the 11, but they, many commentators believe it was given to more than 500 people at one time. And it could very well be. Most of the other post-resurrection appearances of Jesus are in confined spaces. Jesus appears to two on the road.

He appears to people in a room. This room's not going to hold 500 people. So it could very well be on the side of that mountain. There are 500 there. And the doubting is not by the 11, but some of these other followers of Jesus who waver because they haven't seen Jesus already.

It could very well be that. Number three, it could be that there's still mixture in these men. This is what I think it is. I think it's number three. I think that there's still mixture in these disciples.

There's worship and as Michael was saying at the preface to our prayer time, the resurrection of Jesus Christ just demands worship. It demands it. What else can we do with the resurrection of Jesus Christ than to worship Him? There is worship, but there's not just worship. Even after the resurrection there's not just worship.

The word distazo, this is the Greek word, some doubted, some distazoed. This word is only used one other time in the New Testament. Guess where? Ah, you'll never guess. It's Matthew 14 verse 31.

In Matthew 14 verse 31, they've been rowing against the wind, making no progress. Jesus comes walking by on the water. They think it's a ghost. They're frightened. Jesus says, it's me.

Peter says, if it's you, tell me to come out on the water. Jesus says, come on. Peter climbs out of the boat. He's walking on water. He looks at the wind and the waves.

He distazos. He doubts. He wavers. He hesitates. And he starts to sink.

And what does Jesus say? Jesus says, oh, you of little faith, why did you doubt? Why did you destatzo? I think that what we see in Matthew 28, even if it is among the eleven, I think it's among the eleven. I think we see men who are mixed men, who do worship Christ, but who are still filled with wavering.

They still have some wavering. They still have some hesitation. And it shouldn't surprise us. If it doesn't surprise us that there could be doubt and wavering when Jesus is standing on water in the middle of the lake, it shouldn't surprise us after the resurrection when he's appearing to his disciples. Okay.

I have a few concluding remarks. Don't distatso. No, that's not one of them. I'm not using up one of my own that. But I can say that Greek word, so I want to use it.

Really just two concluding points. The first one is something I haven't talked about at all, but it appears in this text if you're looking for it. And it's profound. And it's to contemplate Jerusalem and Galilee. The text begins in Jerusalem with men who are riddled with unbelief.

But they're at the top of the religious pyramid. And it ends in Galilee, despised Galilee. Can anything good come out of Nazareth? Can anything good come out of Nazareth? You remember the courtyard of the high priest.

Aren't you a Galilean? Your accent gives you a way. Every religion has power centers. Where the leaders are. Where the most appreciated hang out.

And there's nothing wrong with Jerusalem being that. God actually made Jerusalem the power center for the faith. So God did that. I'm not denying that. I'm not despising that.

But there's a stark contrast. The belief isn't in the power center. Where God is working in His people isn't in the power center. It's in Galilee. It's in little Galilee, despised Galilee, Not where the leaders are.

It's been that way Jesus' whole life. He grows up in Nazareth. Almost all of His ministry is in and around where? Jerusalem? No, Galilee.

Away from the top of the pyramid. The power center of the faith. And he's teaching fishermen and tax collectors and raising them up to lead his people. So this is true of every religion and it's true of Judaism and it's true of Christianity in the modern day. There are power centers, there are celebrity pastors here, there and everywhere who are appreciated and applauded.

And we tend to think that's where God is working. Not if it's like in Matthew. He might be at work there. I'm not despising anyone by name. But I'm just saying, God is so often pleased to do so much of his work over in a corner here, away from the power center where the leaders are, just working in his people among fishermen and tax collectors.

God does that. And you know why? Because he wants to bring glory to himself. And sometimes there are men over here who have gotten there by grasping And the men over here have humbled themselves under the mighty hand of God. You know, I don't think in our churches we're going to have 10, 000 people churches.

I don't. And you know what? I couldn't be less disturbed about that. Couldn't be less. Whatever God does among us, Let us be despised.

Let us be fishermen and tax collectors Let us humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God God can do very disproportionate things through us, just like he did. Let Jerusalem be the power center. Let God do mighty things in Galilee. Secondly, lastly, We'll end where we began, which is this, the resurrected Jesus is the great dividing line of all humanity. It is the great dividing line.

And all of the other dividing lines, race and education, where you grew up, who you know, all those other dividing lines, one day will evaporate. It will be nowhere. But the one great dividing line of humanity extends into eternity. From eternity past to eternity future, Jesus Christ's faith is the great dividing line. Will you humble yourself under the mighty hand of God that He might exalt you in due time?

Will you commit yourself to God as a faithful creator? Will you grasp? I want to declare with as much confidence and authority from the scripture as I can today that those are the Only two tracks that you can put your train on. That's it. There's one great dividing line in all of humanity.

You'll humble yourself under the mighty hand of God, and you'll apply to Him for mercy because He's shown you what a sinner you are. Or you'll find yourself veering off to a point where the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is bad news. There are only two roads. One is narrow, but it leads to life. One is broad.

Many there are on that broad road, but it leads to destruction. So unbelievers know that there are only two paths. One is narrow, and Jesus Christ is the gate to it. He's the door. And you must go through it to put your feet on a narrow path to life.

He is the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but by Him. Period. Amen. And believers, this has application for us too because our spirits that have been raised from the dead are still married to bodies, the old flesh that is always clawing at you, hanging on.

And so, I'll bring you an exhortation from J.C. Reilly, he uses this phrase all the time, be a decided Christian. Be a decided Christian. Stop wavering between two opinions. Stop hesitating.

Don't worship but some doubt it. Worship. He is worthy. Let's pray. Father, I thank you for our text.

I thank you for our text. Where would we be if we didn't have your word, but you have given us a mighty deposit to make us wise unto salvation? May it be so among us. Oh God, I pray for those who are in the faith that you would make us decided Christians. Those who day after day after day are growing in holiness, not self-righteousness, but being set apart for your own purposes and for your own glory.

Make us decided Christians oh God we pray in Jesus name. Amen.