A Magnificent Display of Events

Introduction:

Why do we gather together this morning to worship? In fact, why do we gather together on Sunday to worship? There is nothing wrong with worshiping God on any day of the week. He created all of them! In fact, Paul even mentions in ,

Colossians 2:16 ESV

Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath.

So why Sunday? The answer is because of the resurrection! We worship on Sunday because Jesus rose on Sunday. The early church thought it was so significant that they changed their day of worship from Saturday to Sunday. For centuries, the church has followed their lead because of the incredible, extraordinary, magnificent display of events that took place that first Easter.

Let’s take a closer look.

Read Text. Pray.

Matthew 28:1–10 ESV

Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went 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 and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men. But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and behold, he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him. See, I have told you.” So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. And behold, Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.”

There are a few things that we want to take a closer look at in this passage this morning as we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

I was reading this past week an article written by Dr. Robert Plummer on the unusual events recorded in the Bible that happened around AD 30, which is the likely date of Jesus death. We call the Friday Jesus died Good Friday. Here’s what the Bible says happened.

The sky turned black for several hours, from noon to 3pm ()

The curtain in the temple was torn in two the moment Jesus died ()

The ground began to shake and rocks were split open (

Saints who were dead came back to life and went into the streets of the city ()

It was enough to make the very centurion who was overseeing the crucifixion confess that Jesus was indeed the Son of God ().

These are the events that the Bible records, but there are non-biblical sources that record strange events surrounding the temple as well. For example, the lot that was cast on the Day of Atonement started falling into the left hand instead of the right hand as it had previously done. Also the gate of the temple would be shut tight at night and the next morning they would find it open. There was scarlet thread that would turn white every year on the Day of Atonement after it was dipped in the blood of the sacrifice and it stopped turning white. There are also other things as well.

However, none of these events are as spectacular and magnificent as what happened to the ladies at the tomb that first Easter Sunday morning. Our text records the details, so let’s just look at a few of them and see what happened.

1. They went to the tomb at dawn (v.1)

This event is not that unusual except that they were going to finish up what they started. The reason we are gathered here this morning early at Sunrise is because we are repeating what the ladies did when they went to the tomb. The Passover was now over and they were free to resume their activities. The Passover actually had ended at sundown on Saturday, but it was impractical to go to the tomb at night to finish the burial preparations. That leads us to the second thing we see.

2. The women were going to embrace death (v.1)

These women were not happy that Sunday morning. They were quite sad. This had been the worst Passover of their lives. Their rabbi, their friend, their Lord, their Messiah had just been crucified by the Romans. The whole city had turned against Jesus. They were now outcasts and even worse they were in mourning over the death of Jesus. They were going to finish the burial. They were headed out to prepare for a funeral. They were going to embrace the reality of death. This is where the supernatural events began to happen!

3. Supernatural Events Began to Happen (vv. 2-4)

* There was an earthquake

The first strange event that happened was that the ground began to shake. The Bible describes this as a “great earthquake” that most likely occured as the stone was rolled away.

* There were angels present

You might ask, “Who rolled away the stone?” The most likely answer is the angel that appeared. The point of rolling away the stone was to allow the women to see that the resurrection had occured. The angels reflected the radiance of God’s glory. That glory was magnificent to behold!

It was such an occurrence that the Roman soldiers standing guard were so afraid they fled the scene, even under the threat of death!

4. The Promise of God was Fulfilled (v.5-6)

The most amazing of all of these magnificent events is that God powerfully kept his promises! Jesus made the promise that he would rise again. Even Jesus enemies remembered Jesus promising that he would rise again, thus the reason for the guard being present.

Jesus came through and the angels revealed that He wasn’t in the tomb. Jesus had defeated death!

5. They Shared the Incredible News (vv. 7-10)

The last thing that we see is that the angels told the women to spread the news to the other disciples. These events weren’t just kept within the group of followers. There was no way that they could contain it! The guards reported it, the disciples told of it, and soon the whole city new about it!

En route to tell the disciples, the women saw Jesus appear to them in the flesh. We know He wasn’t a spirit, because the women grabbed hold of his feet. Who can take hold of something that isn’t real?

Conclusion:

So what do we do this? Can we really stay the same? The answer should be no! This is such amazing news that we gather every year at sunrise to commemorate the events that happened that Easter morning. These magnificent events are the reason for our worship being on Sunday, but it should just stop with the day we worship. Instead it should change our lives in such a way that our whole city knows about what happened that morning and what is going on every week as we gather. Will you be the one to tell them the news?