The sermon closes a year-and-a-half-long series through the Gospel of Matthew by expounding Matthew 27:57 through the end of chapter 28 — the burial, resurrection, and Great Commission of Jesus. The preacher frames the whole passage around Matthew's final claim: Jesus has received "all authority in heaven and on earth," and that authority is the ground for the church's mission to make disciples of all nations.

The sermon begins with Jesus's burial. Joseph of Arimathea, a rich member of the Sanhedrin — the very council that condemned Jesus — requests the body from Pilate and, together with Nicodemus the Pharisee, wraps it in roughly thirty-five kilograms of spices and lays it in Joseph's own new tomb, a costly, elaborately cut rock chamber sealed with a disc-shaped stone. The sermon argues that Matthew records this burial for three reasons. First, it fulfills Isaiah's prophecy that the suffering servant would be assigned a grave "with the wicked" and "with a rich man in his death," marking the completion of Jesus's substitutionary suffering. Second, Joseph and Nicodemus stand as examples of the faithful remnant of Israel — enemies of Jesus who become his followers, a pattern later echoed in Acts 6:7, where "a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith," fulfilling Jesus's prayer from the cross, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." Third, the burial matters because the tomb will soon be found empty; the chief priests, fearing a stolen-body hoax, persuade Pilate to post a guard and seal the stone.

The sermon then turns to the resurrection itself. An angel descends amid an earthquake, rolls back the stone — not to let Jesus out, but to let the women and later readers see that the tomb is already empty — and the guards collapse "like dead men." The preacher argues at length for the historical credibility of this account: too many hostile witnesses are involved (Pilate, the chief priests, the Pharisees, the Roman guards) for a fabricated story to survive contradiction, and the narrative's very strangeness — an angel, an earthquake, lightning-like appearance — is not what a group inventing a con would choose, since a simple secret removal of the body would have served just as well. The clinching evidence, the sermon argues, is that some of the guards' own priestly caste later come to faith, which would be inexplicable if they knew the resurrection was staged.

The sermon then dwells on Jesus's greeting to the frightened Marys and, later, to the doubting disciples in Galilee. Their doubt, the preacher explains, is not doubt about Jesus's identity or resurrection — he stands physically before them — but doubt about the kind of kingdom he now inaugurates; they had expected a nationalist, military restoration of Israel and see no such glory. Jesus's tenderness in calling the disciples "my brothers" despite their desertion and Peter's denial is highlighted as evidence that he never stopped loving his own, in the manner of the good shepherd who seeks the one lost sheep.

The sermon's theological center is Jesus's declaration, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me." Turning to Philippians 2:6–11, the preacher explains that Jesus receives this authority not through worldly strength — the sermon contrasts this with the "might makes right" logic of international politics, illustrated by a contemporary reference to Israel's strike on Iran — but through obedience to the Father even to death on a cross. Because his authority was won through obedient suffering rather than conquest, it is an authority to forgive sin and defeat death and hell, not an authority over nations by the sword. On this basis Jesus commissions the eleven: go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey all that he has commanded. The sermon connects baptism to the flood and the Red Sea crossing — water that once symbolized destruction now safely carries God's people, because Jesus has borne their judgment. The Old Testament promise that the nations would stream to Jerusalem to worship, the preacher notes, is fulfilled not by conquest but by the proclamation of the gospel going out to the nations, so that Gentile believers today are living proof of the promise's fulfillment. The sermon closes on Jesus's final words, "I am with you always, to the end of the age," presenting the church's twenty-centuries-long survival and growth as ongoing evidence of the risen and reigning Christ's abiding presence.

Bible Verses Used

• Matthew 27:57–66: Jesus's burial by Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, and the sealing and guarding of the tomb, framing the burial as both fulfillment of prophecy and setup for the resurrection.

• Matthew 28:1–20: The empty tomb, the angel's announcement, the appearance to the Marys and the eleven disciples, and the Great Commission grounded in Jesus's received authority.

• Isaiah 53:9: Cited to show that the suffering servant's burial "with a rich man" was prophesied, fulfilled in Joseph of Arimathea's tomb.

• Acts 6:7: Used to show that many priests later believed, evidence that the resurrection testimony was credible even to former opponents.

• Philippians 2:6–11: Quoted to explain that Jesus received all authority precisely because he humbled himself in obedience to the point of death on a cross.