He Is Not Here, For He Has Risen

Date: 5 April 2026, 11 am

Speaker: Ps Daniel Tan Sermon Text: Matthew 28:1-20 

CLICK  HERE to join in our Livestream service on Youtube

5Apr26 Herald.pdf

Download PDF • 4.47MB

---

TRANSCRIPT

Introduction

Blessed Easter Sunday to everyone.

A warm welcome to all our siblings-in-Christ who are from Horeb and Gerizim.

If you are here for the first time, a warm welcome to you too. So glad that you are able to celebrate with us, the most significant event of the Christian faith.

Easter Sunday’s celebration comes about only because of Good Friday.

See at Good Friday, we stood at the foot of the cross in the Gospel of Matthew 27.

We saw the darkness from Noon to 3 pm.

We heard the cry ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me’

We realized that the curtain of the temple was torn into 2.

We witness that the body of Jesus was placed into a sealed tomb and had Roman guards posted outside.

Matthew 27, ends with a stone rolled over hope.

The chief priest thought they had secured the grave, the Romans thought they have secured order, the disciples thought they had lost everything.

But Matthew 28 begins not with despair, but with divine interruption.

Friends, the resurrection is not an appendix to the Gospel, it is the vindication of the person of Christ, the confirmation of the cross and the foundation of our faith.

If Christ is not risen, our faith is empty.

But since Christ is risen, everything changes.

The Reality of the Risen King (28:1-10)

Our passage begins with the description, ‘now after the Sabbath, towards the dawn of the first day of the week’.

This is historical narrative not mythology nor symbolic language.

Christianity is rooted in space-time history.

The resurrection happened on a real morning, witnessed by real people.

The first witnesses were 2 women – Mary Magdalene and the other Mary.

We may not appreciate the significance of women being the first witnesses in the 21^st Century, but it was very significant then.

See, in the first century, women were not considered primary legal witnesses.

So, if the story of the resurrection were to be fabricated, then male disciples would have been listed instead.

Instead, God guaranteed the credibility of the account of the resurrection by having women as the first witness.

What a wonderful way for God to honour faithful women and put a stamp of authenticity.

As the women stood in fear looking at the empty tomb, the angel declared, He is not here, for He has risen.

At Christmas, the birth of Jesus was announced by an angel in Matthew chapter 1.

There too, the angel said, do not be afraid, for Jesus is born to save His people from their sins.

These angelic announcements, bookends the Gospel of Matthew.  

Both announcements are a matter of fact. It has happened.

Jesus is born and Jesus has risen from the dead.

Because the resurrection news is credible, friends, our faith rests not on feelings, no it rests of fulfilled promises.

To the sight of the empty tomb and the pronouncement of the angel, the women’s response, v8 says, they departed with fear and great joy.

The fear they had was that of reverential awe and it was mixed with joy.

As they encountered the truth that Jesus has risen, they were witnessing the most impressive miracle as recorded for us in the bible.

The Christian faith depends on this one fact, that Jesus has risen. That Jesus has conquered death which is the penalty for sin.

And because Jesus has conquered death, when we are in Christ, the penalty for our sins have thus been paid.

Because Jesus has risen, it also guarantees our own resurrection in the future.

Experiencing this, the only response can be reverential awe and overwhelming joy.

To add to their already overwhelming experience, v9 records that Jesus physically met them.

As He stood before the women, they could touch him and hear his voice. Here was further proof of Jesus’ bodily resurrection.

Because their response was already reverential awe and joy, it was only natural that their posture was that of worship.  

Jesus then significantly says in v10, referring to the disciples who have all fled and abandoned Jesus at His crucifixion, tell my brothers to go to Galilee.

Jesus is loving and accepting of them even after the worst of betrayals.

Jesus is loving and accepting of them as His equals.  

Today, friends, if you feel your faith is weak, remember the resurrection is an objective fact.

You may feel your faith is weak because of your emotional state or because of the instability of your circumstances.  

Let the truth of the resurrection be your stable and solid foundation. The empty tomb is a fact.

You have placed your trust, your assurance on Jesus who will not change, who is sure and steadfast.

Today, if you are feeling distant from Christ, notice that Jesus met with His fearful disciples personally.

He is the one who always taking the initiative to draw us close to Himself. He calls us brothers and sisters.

Would you today, be open to His loving invitation to reconnect with Him?

The exposure of unbelief (28:11-15)

An indirect witness to the empty tomb is provided by the guards.

Some of the guards went to the chief priest and told what had happen. The body is nowhere to be found in the tomb.

Pagan soldiers of the Roman empire, bear witness that the tomb is indeed empty.

And so the words of Jesus, quoted by the Pharisees who put Him to death has proven true.

Mt 27:62 The next day, that is, after the day of Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate 63 and said, “Sir, we remember how that impostor said, while he was still alive, ‘After three days I will rise.’ 64 Therefore order the tomb to be made secure until the third day, lest his disciples go and steal him away and tell the people, ‘He has risen from the dead,’ and the last fraud will be worse than the first.”

To that truth, the religious leaders did not penalize the guards, they did not do further investigation, they continued to plot by giving bribes.

The same leaders who paid Judas to betray Jesus, now pays the guards to spread a false story.

These religious leaders who knew the promises of God in sending the Messiah to save His people, could not see the truth right in front of them.

It cannot be because they were blind physically nor blind intellectually.

No, they were blinded spiritually.

And by their actions, we see that sin, our rejection of God will keep hardening our hearts.

Not only did they kill Jesus, now they instigated the guards to spread lies.

It is ironic is it not, that the lie is exactly what they wanted to prevent in the first place.

Why did they have the tomb sealed and the guards posted outside? It is to precisely prevent the possibility that the disciples will steal the body away.

If the disciples had truly stolen the body, during those times, it would have been execution for the guards.

But instead, since it can never be proven that the disciples stole the body, the Roman authorities can never punish their soldiers.

The living testimony of these guards testifies to the falsehood of the story that the religious leaders were trying to spread.

Friends, for all of us who are in Christ today, we have to be careful that we do not follow the path of the religious leaders.

They had Scripture, the temple and the faith tradition, yet they totally missed the Messiah.

Today, we too have our weekly Sunday Services, we have the complete revelation of God in the Holy Bible and we have Christmas and Easter.

Yet, do we have a living and vibrant relationship with Jesus?

Let’s not go through the motions of religion, but instead this Easter Sunday morning, be committed to having a growing relationship with Christ.

If you feel you don’t know how to begin to have a relationship with Christ, may I invite you to consider joining us for 7 sessions of Just for Starters.

If today you are not in Christ yet, I pray that you do not close your heart to the evidence presented.

The truth is that constant rejection hardens our unbelief.

Would you avail yourself instead to Christianity Explored? Here we go through the Gospel of Mark over 7 sessions.

The authority and mission of the Risen Lord (28:16-20)

In these final verses of Matthew’s Gospel, we reach the climax of the good news of Jesus Christ.

This is a few weeks after the resurrection of Jesus.

In the intervening period between v15 to v16, many have witnessed the resurrected Jesus.

Remember Jesus had told the 2 Marys to inform the disciples to meet Jesus at Galilee.

Galilee is significant not just because it was home for Jesus and his disciples, but Galilee is known as Galilee of the Gentiles (Mt 4:14)

Mt 4:14 so that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: 15  “The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles— 16 the people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light, and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them a light has dawned.”

Matthew is quoting Isaiah 9 written 700 years before Matthew’s Gospel.

The good news of Jesus’ resurrection is for not just for the Jews but for the Gentiles as well. Gentiles like you and me.

In these final verses, both the place and the verbal command work in sync to deliver the message God has for all believers – the Great Commission.

Taking that the audience with Jesus as v16 says are restricted to the 11 disciples, we read a comforting description of their response to Jesus in v17.

Matthew records that they worshipped him but some doubted.

In the original text the word translated doubted has the ideal of hesitation not of unbelief.

It is a comforting description because it shows that even Jesus closest disciples who had firsthand experience hesitated. They were still unsure.

Yet, in spite that some doubted, yet despite that they were imperfect disciples still struggling, Jesus commissioned them to be His ambassadors.

Jesus who is already the Risen Saviour, now also is the Risen Lord who has cosmic authority.

The Risen crucified Saviour is now enthroned and has all authority in heaven and on earth.

Christ resurrection is his coronation. He is King Jesus.

And at Easter Sunday, as we remember Jesus’ resurrection, we also remember His commission – go and make disciples of all nations.

Matthew is telling us, the resurrection creates a missional group of people.

And as missional people, we have this wonderful assurance of the presence of Jesus right with us till the end of the ages.

Earlier, we noted that the angelic announcement bookends Matthew.

May I elaborate on the significance of these announcement bookends – Immanuel is the significance – God with us.

We tend to link Immanuel to Christmas, but here at the end of Matthew we see the re-emphasis of Immanuel.

The Gospel of Matthew ends with abiding presence. The risen Christ is not absent, He reigns and He remains.

For all believers, may we take comfort that nothing disqualifies us from being Christ’s ambassadors.

The disciples worshipped and doubted, yet they were sent.

So if we feel spiritual weak or inadequate, Christ says you still can be sent.

The call is then to renewed obedience – observe everything that Jesus has commanded.

Matthew 28 records for us that because of the truth of the resurrection, it led to both the women and the disciples worshipping Jesus with joy.

May this be the same for us today as well.

And I submit that when we are worshipping Jesus with joy, the great commission will not be something we have to be push and pulled to do, it will become our passion and privilege to fulfil.

Conclusion

On Good Friday, Matthew 27 records that Jesus was mocked as the King of the Jews. He wore a crown of thorns, He was crucified in weakness, He was sealed in a tomb.  

It looked like defeat.  

On Easter Sunday, Matthew 28 announces the stone is rolled away, the guards trembled, the women rejoiced and the risen Christ declares, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

The resurrection of Jesus is God’s public declaration that the cross worked. 

Because Jesus lives, our sins are truly paid, our guilt has been removed, death is defeated and our future is secure.

For those of us who may have backslided, the empty tomb means your failure is not final.

The risen Christ still says ‘do not be afraid’.

For those of us who feel lukewarm, the resurrection means Christianity is not routine religion, it is a living relationship with a living Lord.

For all of us, because He lives, we have hope beyond Singapore’s pressures, beyond illness, beyond ageing, beyond the grave.

Because Christ is risen, therefore return, therefore obey, therefore hope.

As we sing our closing hymn – Christ the Lord is Risen Today, we will be echoing the words of the angel – He is not here, for He has risen.

When we sing – made like Him, like Him we rise, we will be confessing our union with the risen Christ.

When we sing – where thy victory O grave? We will be proclaiming the victory secured at the cross and revealed at the empty tomb.

Let’s not just mouth the words later, let’s sing with conviction that His resurrection power lives in us.

Christ is risen, Christ is reigning and Christ is always with us.

Amen.

Reflection Questions

1. In your current spiritual condition, do you relate more to fear, indifference, or joy—and what is one practical step you can take this week to renew your personal response to the risen Christ?

   
   

2. Are there areas in your life where you may be “going through the motions” of Christianity without a living relationship with Christ—and how can you intentionally pursue spiritual renewal?

   
   

3. What is one specific way you can obey the Great Commission this week (e.g., sharing your faith, discipling someone, serving in church), trusting that Christ is with you even in your weakness?