The Resurrection—Matthew 28:1-15

0:00Welcome to the podcast for St. John Evangelical Lutheran Church and School Sherman Center in Random Lake, Wisconsin, Shaboykin County. We welcome you to join us for divine service on Sundays and Wednesdays. We offer Bible class and Catechesis for youth and any interested adults. If this podcast is of benefit to you, please consider supporting the work of our congregation by going to SJRL.org, SJRL.org, and clicking the donate link. Join us to receive the Lord's Word and His gifts. Hello and good day, I'm Pastor Gillespie from St. John Evangelical Lutheran Church and School Sherman Center. Random Lake, Wisconsin, it's good to have you with us here for the Congregation of Prayer, the Guide for Day of the Meditation and Prayer, Ron God's Word. It's

1:02Monday, April 6th, Easter Monday, and it's good to have you with us here as always to pray and confess and sing to celebrate the Easter Festival with sincerity and truth or Christ our Passover Lamb has been sacrificed therefore. Right, let us celebrate the festival and sincerity and truth as we heard yesterday. I guess my voice is starting to go a little bit. Well, so goes and post post holiday hangover, although as I always remind you and it's worth doing that the holiday doesn't end. It rather begins with Easter Sunday and you heard that in the preaching too. It's not the end of a long season. It's the beginning of a new season, right? So Easter seven weeks, so we'll be confessing and singing and saying, all the Luya Christ is risen. He is risen indeed for many weeks to come. All right, don't let me stop or forget. I suppose the most unfortunate thing is that the flowers start to disappear and wither and fade and plus

2:04decorated throughout the season, which is probably a shame because we lose track of it then. We lose track that we're still in that that holy season. Those 40 days, the Christ proclaimed his resurrection either by way of Mary or James and John and Peter or whoever goes forth, the two disciples on the road, etc. All right, if you missed out on this weekend or if you aren't a part of our congregation but want to receive the gifts of the word, they are available on all the streaming platforms that you get the sermons posted so you can go and check those out. So all the way from Thursday Friday, both Friday, the Saturday and then both Sunday are available for you in all the various media platforms. All right, let's begin. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ is only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary,

3:09suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into hell. The third day he rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. From thence he will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Christian Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. Amen. We appointed Psalms team for the week on the congregation appear on the handout. But since we have feast days here for the next couple days, Monday, rather Sunday evening or Monday morning, depending on how you want to do it, Easter Tuesday, Easter Wednesday, Easter Thursday, Easter Friday. I don't know if we have Psalms appointed for those. Well, we'll use them here. All right. So Psalm 100 is the Psalm for today. Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth, serve the Lord with gladness, come into His presence with singing. Know that the Lord He is God, is He who made us, and we are His people

4:16and the sheep of His pasture. Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him, bless His name. For the Lord is good, His steadfast love endures forever and His faithfulness to all generations. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now and will be forever. Amen. All right, our wisdom for the week. We're going to catch up on that. Resume, I should say, is Proverbs 9, beginning of verse 7. He who corrects a scoffer gets shame for himself, and he who rebukes a wicked man only harms himself. Do not rebuk a scoffer, lest he hate you. Rebuke a wise man, and he will love you. Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser. Teach a just man, and he will increase in learning. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy

5:18One is understanding. For by me, your days will be multiplied, and years of life will be added to you. If you are wise, you are wise for yourself, and if you scoff, you will bear it alone. All right, so it probably will be helpful for me to reread for you the reading from our vigil, which was unique this year's. The first time I've used that is a from an apocryphal book that is a disputed book, not included in many Bibles, but included in German Lutheran Bibles, anyway, which was the book of Baruch, the book of Baruch, and Baruch 3. Echoes the same sort of language from wisdom that we've been hearing from Proverbs here, but maybe we'll do that later this week in the interest of time. Say our verse together, if then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things

6:18on the earth, where you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. Colossians 3, 1 through 3. And our catechism is the third article of the Creed, article in the Holy Spirit. We'll say the explanation together. What does this mean? I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him, but the Holy Spirit has called me by the gospel, enlightened me with his gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith. In the same way, he calls, gathers and lightens and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith. In this Christian church, he daily and richly forgives all my sins and the sins of all believers. On the last day, he will raise me and all the dead and give eternal life to me and all believers in Christ. This is most certainly true. Where we got a duplicate here, we can get rid of that. There we go. All right, so our first

7:24reading today, actually listed as the second, we'll read it first, is the song of Moses, the horse and his writer, he has cast into the sea. You know that from the vigil, like it is 15, then Moses and the children of Israel sang the song to the Lord and spoke, sang, I will sing to the Lord for he has triumphed gloriously, the horse and its writer, he has thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation. He is my God and I will praise him, my Father's God, and I will exalt him. The Lord is a man of war, the Lord is his name, Pharaoh's chariots and his army, he cast into the sea. His chosen captains also are drowned in the red sea. The depths have covered them, they sank to the bottom, like a stone. Your right hand, O Lord, has become glorious in power. Your right hand, O Lord, has dashed the enemy in pieces.

8:26And in the greatness of your excellence, you have overthrown those who rose against you. You sent forth your wrath that consumed them like stubble, and with the blast of your nostrils, the waters were gathered together. The floods stood upright, like a heap, the depths congealed in the heart of the sea. The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide this boil, my desire shall be satisfied on them, I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them. You blew with your wind, the sea covered them, they sank like lead in the mighty waters. Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods, who is like you, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders? You stretched out your right hand, the earth swallowed them. You and your mercy have led forth the people whom you have redeemed. You have guided them in your strength to your holy habitation. The people will hear and be afraid, sorrow will take hold of the inhabitants of

9:27Felistia. Then the chiefs of Edom will be dismayed, the mighty men of Moab, trembling will take hold of them, all the inhabitants of Canaan will melt away. Fear and dread will fall on them by the greatness of your arm. They will be as still as a stone till your people pass over O Lord, till the people pass over whom you have purchased. You will bring them in and plant them in the mountain of your inheritance, in the place O Lord for which you have made for your own dwelling. The sanctuary, O Lord, which your hands have established, the Lord shall reign forever and ever. What a powerful song, right? Can you imagine the people of Israel seeing that song for generation after generation as the Lord had given them to Miriam and Moses leading the song? Thus they forget. This is what we do with music, isn't it? We sing songs for memory sake, right? To remember, sometimes the less than pleasant things, sometimes the more pleasant

10:28things, I suppose. Then our reading for Catechesis today is the resurrection account according to Saint Matthew. It's appointed for the three-year series this year, but it's also one that we'll read here in Catechesis. We heard it read at the Easter vigil. Now after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb. And behold, there was a great earthquake for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone from the door and sat on it. His countenance was like lightning and his clothing is white as snow, and the guards took for fear of him because and became like dead men. But the angel answered and said to the women, do not be afraid for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here for he is risen. As he said, calm, see the place for the Lord lay and go quickly and tell us disciples that he is risen from the dead and indeed he is going before you into Galilee. There you will see him. Behold, I have told you. So they went out quickly

11:34from the tomb for with fear and great joy and ran to bring his disciples word. And as they went to tell us disciples behold, Jesus met them saying rejoice. So they came and held him by the feet and worshipped him. Then Jesus said to them, do not be afraid, go and tell my brethren to go to Galilee and there they will see me. Now while they were going, behold, some of the guard came into the city and reported to the chief priest all the things that had happened. When they had assembled all the elders and consulted together, they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers saying, tell them his disciples came at night and stole him away while he slept. And if this comes to the governor's ears, we will appease him and make you secure. So they took the money and dead as they were instructed. And the saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day. So quite a few unique elements here that we don't hear in Mark or John which we heard yesterday

12:35morning or even from St. Luke. All right, so let's try to break those down. Who do we have coming to the tomb here? Not just Mary Magdalene, but here Mary Magdalene and the other Mary. All right, and the time of day or time of the week, first day of the week at the beginning of dawn. So, interestingly here that Matthew has, what does he have happened right at dawn? A great earthquake, right? As the angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone from the door of the tomb. We've had an earthquake before in Matthew's gospel, too. This would have been just in the last chapter, the earthquake at the time of the death of Jesus. So corresponding earthquakes, how was the angel described? His face was like lightning and his clothes were as white as snow. Interesting. Who had appeared this way earlier back in Matthew 17? Oh, that was Jesus,

13:39wasn't it? He appeared this way at the transfiguration. So that's a curious coincidence, isn't it? What happened to the guards? As you do, you shake for fear and they become paralyzed for fear, right? Like dead men. What gospel message does this messenger speak to the women? It's a beautiful one, right? Do not be afraid. He is not here for he is risen, and as proof, visible proof, look at the place where they laid him. Also an important statement there who is crucified, he's not here. He is risen as he said, as he said, that's unique, but also I think critical, right? Faith clings to the word of Christ alone because he is always faithful to his word. And as a key here, the angel reminds them he is faithful. What did the angel then tell the woman to do? That seems consistent. Go tell his disciples that Jesus had risen, whether it's Mary

14:40Magdalene as we heard from Mark at the chief service yesterday or Mary again, but running back to get James and John, excuse me, Peter and John, yeah. And the disciples, where were they to meet Jesus in Galilee and Galilee? All right, how do the women react here? Again, there's some difference in reaction amongst the various accounts, but always fear and joy, fear and joy, mixed together. Of course, it's a fearful thing. How is it possible? Is this even possible that Christ could be risen, right? But joy that the angel has announced it so. And then who meets them on the way? Jesus does. Yeah. And they clasp his feet. We've talked a lot about feet haven't we over the last readings over the last years. Of course, the promise of the foot that would crush the serpent's head, the heel, I should say, but also how blessed are the feet of those who come preaching good news to the poor, Isaiah 52, right? And so that's what he's done. He's crushed the

15:41serpent's head. And now he has them, he brings to them the gospel message. Now, we didn't discuss this yesterday, but I think we have before though, it's worth revisiting. You know, why is it that the women are the ones who hear the message first? Whether it be Mary or Mary Magdalene or all the merbers, if you're in Luke, why women? Well, this gets us back to the original, the original garden, the original story, right? As Eve had been an instrument of temptation in the garden, now the garden, in this garden, the women will hear the good news and then deliver it to the sons of Adam. Again, Jesus says to the women, just like the angel, do not be afraid. Go and tell my disciples, my brother and hear my brother. You heard that in the sermon yesterday in the dawn, right? He calls you by name. He calls you brothers. This is not a man who's holding your sins against you. He's

16:42a man who's forgiving, God, God and man who's forgiving you, your sins. All right, then we have this little anecdote here. This is helpful, especially in Christian apologetics, but I think it's helpful here too, to see the kind of maliciousness that continues even to this day, trying to dispute the resurrection, right? The guards report to the chief priests, the guards say, tell the chief priests everything that happened, and then they're bribed with a large sum of money so that the soldiers would give a false report. All right, what are they supposed to say? The disciples stole the body at night while they slapped. Well, why were they sleeping? I thought they were guards. Well, anyway, kind of egg on your face, but I suppose if there's enough money involved, why not? Why not? And what did the chief priests and elders promise the soldiers? Also interesting here. If this, if it turns out that the false report is found out, which before the governor, they would do the same to the governor, they would appease him and keep the guards out of trouble.

17:42In other words, more bribery. And then as Matthew records here, and this is why we have the, I think the helpful apologetic dimension, the story is still circulated among the Jews. All right, so look at how it begins after the Sabbath. Just a series of simple words, and yet worthy of our meditation, was not the Sabbath the day on which God rested from all his labor in creating the world? Why was there no after the Sabbath in Genesis? Instead, Genesis 3 informs us that we have to toil and struggle because of the curse of sin. So our Lord needed to suffer and die on the sixth day, the day He created man before resting from all his labor. Indeed, Jesus rested in the tomb on the Sabbath that He might bring forth, and after the Sabbath, for all people. A new dawn has come with the light of the world, having broken forth from the tomb to give, to give all men rest from the curse of sin. The earthquake was a sign of the judgment

18:43of God that has been handed down in the death and resurrection of Jesus. Those who believe and are baptized into this Christ will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. Our Lord beckons us to cling to His feet in the preaching of the gospel that tells how His feet were bruised while crushing the head of the serpent. Lovely. Okay, we're going to sing the hymn. We sang this yesterday. One of the practices of the church, you see this in Lutheran service book on page 460, is to sing this hymn in interspersed with with the Paschale Victim, the Christians, to the Paschal victim chant. We didn't do it last year. It's a little bit harder to do without an organist, but we had an organist, so I know we could do it. Well, maybe we'll continue through the season. I know many appreciate it, but here's the background. We'll give you a little bit of background.

19:44Christ is a risen, is a medieval liza or a folk hymn. Some early sources ended the liza with the Curie lice, or Curio lice, others with hallelujah. The hymn, those most directly influenced by Luke Luther, the Clueg hymn, all of 1533, and the Baps hymn, all of 1545, used Curio lice to end each section of the hymn. More recently, American Lutherans and worship supplement 1969, Christian worship 1993, used Curie lice, or Lord have mercy, but Lutheran book of worship, Lutheran worship, Lutheran service book, and the evangelical Lutheran worship, all use hallelujah. An early manuscript containing the liza, the Libre ordinarius of the Salzburg Cathedral chapter from about 1190 describes how the song was used. At the end of the Good Friday liturgy, an image of the crucified one was placed into the quote-unquote holy grave and covered with a linen cloth while the choir sang the responsory. Eche, Cuomo, Cuomo, Moratura, Eustus,

20:51behold, thus dies the righteous one. During the Easter vigil, the presider of the cathedral cloister went secretly, quote-unquote, with the seniors to the grave and raised the statue or painting of the crucified one. Then they gave each other the Easter kiss with the words the Lord has risen indeed. Then the clerics and the people were called to mountains, at the end of which occurred the Visitatio, Sepulchri, the visit to the empty grave by the three women together with the Apostles Peter and John, which was acted out as a play. So we have a passion play. When the actors played the Apostles, pointed to the linen cloths lying in the grave, the choir sang in Latin. He is risen, as he has said, and the congregation responded, Christ, Dostoeir, Standon, Vandeir, Martyr, Alla. The service then concluded with the Tadeum Lottomus. Later sources indicate that the hymn was sung in altercation or alternation with the full Easter sequence during the procession to the baptismal font during the Easter vigil. That would be interesting. During the Middle Ages, the Reformation era of the hymn was commonly sung in alternation with the sequence

21:57for Easter, Victime, Pescalus, Laudus, as it is set in Lutheran Service Book 460. So we're following the tradition from the Middle Ages and the Reformation era, not from the earlier times. Cool. All right. So let's do it. Let's sing. We're just going to sing the hymn parts, not the chant parts. You'll hear those again on Sunday. Christ is our risen, from the griefs dark risen. It's all at our joy. Christ,

22:59full and free. Christ, our comfort, who will be alleluia. Work, Christ, not our risen. Then death were still our prison. Now with him to life restored. We praise the Father of our Lord, halleluia, halleluia, halleluia, halleluia, halleluia, halleluia, halleluia. Now that's our joy, Christ, full and free. Christ, our comfort, who will be alleluia.

24:12All right. What do I have? So as we said, it's Easter Monday, Easter Monday, and it's worthy of our remembering this day with the specific prayer. O God, in the pastoral feast you restore all creation, continue to send your heavenly gifts upon your people, that they may walk in perfect freedom and receive eternal life. Through Jesus, Christ, your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit, one God now and forever. Amen. Well, Holy Spirit, we cannot by our own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ or Lord or come to Him. Call us to faith in Jesus by the gospel and lighten us every day with your gifts of baptism, absolution and the Lord's upper and sanctify and keep us in the whole Christian church on earth with Jesus Christ in the one true faith. Forgive us our sins every day and give us the blessed hope of the resurrection to eternal life through Jesus Christ or Lord. Amen. We pray this day for faith to live in the promises of holy baptism for all vocations and daily work

25:16for the salvation and well-being of our neighbors, oh, for the unemployed, also for our schools, our homeschools, our colleges and seminaries, finally for good government and peace. Pray for the households of our church this week with Jackie, Roger and Sherry, Jolene and Jay, Kyle, Jason, Doug and Betty. Pray for our Catecuments, Esther, Patrick, Alexander and Sovereign. Pray for those ill-receiving treatment or recovering, especially Dasha, Joe, Len, Ron, Sheila, Vicki, Todd, Scarlett, Jim, Debbie, Dan, Jim, Jim, Dick, Pauline, Norm and Jolene. Pray for our homebound, Dan, Sophie, Ruth, Joan, Paul, Dolores and Ruth. Pray for our missions in mercy work, especially that of Shabbong and County Hispanic outreach. For all this, let us pray to the Lord, Lord of mercy. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

26:22For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever, oh, man, I thank you, my Heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, your dear Son, that you have kept me this night from all harm and danger, and I pray that you would keep me this day also from sin and every evil that all my doings in life may please you. For into your hands, I commend myself, my body and soul and all things, let your holy angel be with me, that the evil foe may have no power over me. Amen. Let us bless the Lord. Thanks be to God. The grace of our Lord, Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, be with you all. Amen. That's our congregation of prayer for today, Monday, April 6, 2026. So good to have you with us here. Again, happy Easter. Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. Alleluia. And you're welcome. I'm glad your heart is glad, minus two. As I quoted on, I think it was Palm Sunday, wasn't it? Or was it during the week? I think it was

27:22during the week. Luther's remark that if we really could take in everything that Christ has done for us, our hearts would burst for joy. And I think he's right. I think he's right. So God be with you all. Keep you safe and secure, confident knowing that as Christ is risen, so too you will rise, and nothing can separate you from his love, not today. I'm not ever. All right. God be with you all. We'll see you soon. We welcome you to join us for divine service on Sundays and Wednesdays. We offer Bible class and catechesis for youth and any interested adults. If this podcast is of benefit to you, please consider supporting the work of our congregation by going to sjrl.org, sjrl.org, and clicking the donate link. Join us to receive the Lord's Word and His gifts.