Jesus is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. His authority transcends all other authority. Now there are other legitimate authorities as well and we’re instructed to recognize them. There is the authority of the state. There is the authority of parents. There is the authority of church officers. These are all legitimate authorities. But over all of these authorities is the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ, and it is on the basis of that authority over us as individuals within the church that He makes the Great Commission which follows.

Now as we look at this commission, we see three parts to it. First, there is an announcement of Christ’s authority, which we find in verse 18: “All authority is given unto me in heaven and in earth.” Second, we find a command: “Go ye therefore and teach [make disciples of] all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you” (vv. 19-20). And then third, we have a great promise: “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world” (v. 20).

In nearly every case where the Lord Jesus Christ appeared to someone after His resurrection, He gave them instructions to take the message to someone else. For instance, when He appeared to Mary Magdelene in the garden, Mary didn’t recognize Jesus at first. But when He spoke her name, she recognized His voice, responded to Him, and then He gave her this word of instruction: “I am going to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God. Now go quickly and tell my disciples.”

This leads me to the fourth and last point, which is the word “tell.” There’s a wonderful sequence to these four words. If we come, if we see that the tomb is empty, if we are commissioned to go, then it is inevitable that we must have a message to tell. Good news must be told. If we don’t tell it, we don’t really recognize how good it really is.

Now we’ve looked at two of the words of the angel’s message. We’ve looked at the invitation to come and the imperative to see. We’ve seen some of what that implies for us. The third word is “go” (v. 7). It’s a reminder that, blessed as it may be to stay near the tomb, nevertheless there is still work to do and we should not linger around the tomb.

The third reason we should come and see the tomb is that we might be reminded that we also will lie there. Unless the Lord Jesus Christ comes for His own before we die, we too must die. There is a time when we will be separated from all that we know now. We will leave friends and loved ones. We’ll leave all our material possessions; we’ll leave all that we know behind. So we look to the tomb and we say, “What does this have to teach us of our mortality?” It teaches us that we are mortals and that there is a life beyond for which we must prepare.

Or again, there was the edict of Rome. The tomb had been sealed by Pilate’s order. The soldiers were stationed at the tomb in order to guard it. Now, something had happened: the stone had been removed, and that meant that the seal had been broken, and Rome had been disobeyed. The women might have said, “Oh, but Rome forbids us, we can’t come closer. We can’t look in.” They might have failed to come for that reason.