Come and See. Easter 2026

Greeting

Good morning Lighthouse. Good morning friends and family who have joined us here today.

We are so glad that you are here today and it is our honor to host you this Sunday.

Before we get into the message I did want to make a couple things clear to everyone. We lean into what Easter is for so many people - we have an egg hunt after service, there’s bounce houses, and we hope that this is a fun time for you and your family.

But the main reason that we are here today is to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus.

The resurrection of Jesus is not a symbol or a Christian metaphor - but it was a real event. Jesus was a real man who lived, died, and was buried in a tomb, and on Sunday morning he rose from the dead proving once and for all that he is the Son of God, and that He is our Risen King.

So with that, we’re going to read some scriptures and reflect on them together this morning, while we also make an ask to every person in this room that is joining us. And that ask will be, will you make today the day that you invite Jesus into your heart, make him your Lord and Savior, and give your life to Him.

We all here in this room are Team Jesus, and we’d love for you to join that team as well.

Join me now as we turn to Matthew 28 and let’s read the first seven verses.

Reading

Matthew 28:1–7 NIV

After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb. There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men. The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you.”

Come and See

Introduction

Have you ever gone somewhere to see someone, but you didn’t want anyone to know that you were there for that someone, so you made up a story that you were there for another reason?

Let me explain how that looks…

Men… Do you remember when before you were married, and you were crushing on your wife, you’d show up at places knowing that she would be there just so that you could accidentally and unintentionally run into her?

Anybody been there before?

Just me?

That’s kind of the impression I get when I read about the women in our text today.

Looking at a Tomb

The Bible records that Mary and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.

That line by the author shows us what it is they expected to find when they arrived - a tomb.

Jesus in his final resting place.

I don’t know if you’ve ever gone to visit the burial of a loved one, but when you go, there is a certain expectation of what can happen.

You expect to remember that person.

You expect to reflect on them.

Perhaps you come to even speak some words out loud, and that is totally appropriate.

But what none of us expect to see when we arrive is for our loved one to be missing. Again, a totally natural expectation.

But these women, rather than come to a tomb to mourn on the outside they are greeted by a sight that they did not expect to see - the stone was rolled away and there’s an angel sitting on that big round rock.

Now, if this is you coming to the grave of your loved one, you’re OK to be totally frightened, confused and run in the opposite direction as fast and as far as you can.

But the Angel knowing exactly how they are feeling says to them, “Don’t be afraid. I know you came to see Jesus.”

We can read right past that dialogue, but we shouldn’t.

The women claimed to come to look at the tomb, but the angel in essence was saying, “You really didn’t come to see the tomb. You came to see Jesus.”

I believe in that moment the angel was looking beyond the superficial, and beyond the excuse, and was looking into their soul.

If you wanted to see a tomb, you walked past a dozen of them. But you came because you wanted to know if Jesus was actually going to get up on the third day like he said that he would.

That’s what is really going on here.

Come and See

The angel tells the women come and see where he lay.

That was an invitation for these two women to look a little deeper at where Jesus was.

And the reason I entitled my sermon today, “Come and See,” is because I am asking every single one of you on this Easter Sunday to look a little deeper at Jesus today.

It’s not lost on me that many of you are here because one of the members of our church invited you to come. It’s Easter Sunday, so you thought, why not. Let’s go check out this church.

And just like those women showed up to a tomb with expectations, you might have come to this church with expectations.

You expected to hear some music, you expected to hear some preacher get up and yap for a bit, and then your kids go grab some eggs, you take a picture and post it to the Gram and you call it a day.

And listen, we are here for it!

We did all of this, so that you could all of that.

But I want you to also know that for those of us who follow Jesus, today is about far more than nice outfits, Easter Eggs and bunnies. We are here because Jesus was a real person, who lived a real life, died a real death, and then got up from the real tomb he was buried in.

And here’s the best part of what we believe - Because the tomb is empty, then anything is possible.

How many of us can celebrate en empty tomb today?

If you ask, “how do you know it was empty?”

Because two women went right down to the tomb to go and check on him and when they got there, there was an angel who said, “Come and see,” and that’s exactly what they did. And when they did, the only thing that they found there was the cloth that they used to bury Jesus and he was no longer there.

But not just that, Jesus was seen by over 500 people in his resurrected body.

These people then carried his message and his teachings to all of the then known world.

When they were told to stop telling people about the resurrected Jesus, they said “we cannot deny what we have seen with our very own eyes.”

And as a result many of them died brutal deaths, recorded in every credible history book that you can read.

Why would they do that?

Because people don’t live for lies, but they will die for the truth.

And so my friends that are here, I want to encourage you - Come and See this Jesus. Don’t just settle for coming to church like so many people do.

And don’t confuse going to church as actually knowing and following Jesus. Sitting in a church on Sunday doesn’t make you a follower of Jesus any more than sitting in a garage makes you a car.

Come and See.

Get to know Jesus.

Get to know his life.

Get to know his teachings.

I invite you to truly come and discover who He was, the life he lived, the message he carried, and how he invites us into his plans for humanity today.

Go and Tell

After the angel told the women to come and see, his next instruction for them was to Go and Tell.

What you need to know about Jesus is that when you determine to know Him, you are going to begin a journey to know who you really are.

You see every single one of you in this room has been created by God, for God.

When you purpose in your heart to know Jesus, he begins to show you who you are, the gifts that he has given you, and the plans that he has for you.

Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

I want to speak this verse over your life today.

God has plans for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future.

If you are here today and you feel like your life is without a plan, come to Jesus. The author of your plans. He knows you. He has plans for you. He is not confused about who you are or why you are here on this earth. He knows you. He sees you.

If you are here and life feels hopeless, then you’ve come to the one who wants to give you hope. That’s exactly what the verse says - God plans to give you hope and a future. You don’t have to live another day without hope. Hope is here. Hope has an author, and his name is Jesus.

This is exactly why Jesus said to the women, go and tell the disciples that Jesus is alive. And this is why we proclaim on this Easter Sunday that Jesus is alive.

A dead person has no plan to offer.

A dead person has no hope to give.

A dead person has no future to offer.

But Jesus is alive!

So that means your future is alive, and your hope is alive, and God has a plan for your life.

There You Will See Him (Conclusion)

The last thing the angel tells the women is “there you will see Him.”

It’s such a fitting statement that he makes to these women, and the order in which he delivers his message is a template for us.

Come and see where Jesus was…

God and tell the disciples…

Then, you’ll see Him there.

Seeing Jesus is most often on the other side of our obedience. It’s on the other side of our action.

If you were to look at all of the miraculous moments recorded in the gospels, there is always an element of human participation before the power of God is revealed, and therefore we get a revelation of who God is.

I can’t go through all of the miracles but think about them.

Jesus turns the water to wine, but first he says, go fill up the pots with water.

Go and tell.

Jesus heals the lepers, but first he says go and dip yourselves in the Jordan

Go and tell

Jesus heals the woman with the issue of blood, but she first reaches out to touch his garment.

Go and tell

That’s essentially how the dialogue with the angel and the woman went down. You came to see Jesus, but He’s not here. If you want to see Him, then go and tell the disciples. When you do that, then Jesus will appear.

And that’s exactly what happened.

Jesus appeared. Then he appeared again. Then he appeared again…

And that is why today we gather to celebrate our risen Lord and risen king. Because Jesus really rose from the grave.

Call

Today, as we celebrate Jesus’ resurrection, we are also unapologetically asking some of you to come and see.

We don’t want for this to be a box you check, or an obligation you fulfill. We invite you to come and discover who Jesus is.

We invite you to come and discover the hope that we have in Jesus.

We invite you to step into a new future, one in which Jesus is not only in it, but at the center of it.

But let me ask you, can you see yourself in this story?

Maybe like the women puling up to the tomb on Sunday, you didn’t have an expectation to encounter the Risen King. But here we are making the same invitation that the angel made… come and see.