The First Easter

THE GREATEST SUNDAY IN HISTORY

Introduction

Arguably, Easter Sunday is the most significant event on the church calendar. Easter, for preachers, is kind of like the Super Bowl to football fans or Daytona to NASCAR fans. It is a day when church attendance swells and people tend to wear their most impressive wardrobe.

But real reason for the significance of Easter, it that everything we know and teach as Christians is centered around that very first Easter Sunday.

Today I have five points for you:

The Miracle, The Message, The Manifestation, The Miss-information, and The Mandate.

So with that in mind, lets talk about the greatest Sunday in history, that would be the first Easter Sunday. Resurrection Sunday. We will be looking at Matthew, Chapter 28.

MIRACLE - V 1-4

1) 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.

This other Mary was probably Mary mother of James the lesser. Mary was an incredibly popular name in Palestine with about 25 percent of women in that day named Mary.

How is it that our account starts with daybreak on Sunday? To lay the foundation, we have to talk a little bit about the order of the occurrences and Jewish tradition. Jesus is crucified on Friday. Mark’s account says Jesus died at the 9th hour of the day. That would have been around 3:00 PM.

The Sabbath starts at sundown on Friday and lasts until sundown on Saturday. You see there is a time crunch. Jesus is hastily laid in a borrowed tomb, but there is not enough time to prepare the body properly for its entombment.

In those days in the Jewish burial practice there was no embalming process. They would prepare a special combination of oils and spices and linen wrapping to be put on the body. This preparation ritual would be considered to be work, and as such, could not be performed during the Sabbath. So, Friday evening the tomb in sealed and everyone returns home to observe the Sabbath.

The first opportunity to go to the tomb to make the proper preparations in on Sunday morning. The Sabbath ends at sundown on Saturday, but after sundown is not a good time to be working in a tomb, so first light on Sunday is the first conceivable time that the woman can return to the tomb to minister to the body of Jesus.

In Mark’s account in Chapter 16, it says that the women were discussing among each other about how they were going to roll the stone away to be able to get into the tomb. The tomb would have been sealed shut with a very large and heavy stone, but then, verse 2:

2) 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.

The text really doesn’t tell us if the earthquake was method the angel used to roll back the stone or it the earthquake was a consequence of the angel’s appearing, but it really doesn’t matter because the stone is rolled away, and the angel is seated upon it.

The important thing to note here is that the angel did not roll the stone away for Jesus to leave the tomb, He was already gone, the angel rolled the stone away so the women could come into the tomb and see for themselves that the body of Jesus was not there.

3) His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow.

4) And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men.

The angel appearance was like lightning. Imagine a robe so white that you can hardly look upon it, it’s so bright it’s like a lightening flash.

Imagine the effect of all of this if you happened to be one of the guards there at the tomb.

Chapter 27 tells us of how the guards happened to be there. The Pharisees went to Pilate and said you know this man Jesus has said that in three days he will rise from the dead. It would be just like those disciples of his to come and take his body just to make people think he has risen and that will cause us all kinds of grief.

So that’s why guards were posted there, but what happens with the guards. It says “they became like dead men,” they fainted dead away. They were overwhelmed by what they had just witnessed.

We have seen the Miracle, not lets look at:

MESSAGE - V 5-7

5) But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified.

It’s easy to imagine what a terrifying scene this must have been, but the angel seeks to comfort these women. He tells them not to be afraid. The King James states it as “Fear not ye.” which in the Greek is in the form of an imperative, which means “do not be afraid like these guards who have just passed out from fear.” Then the angel relates to them that he knows their purpose there, he knows that they are there seeking Jesus’ body. This is when the angel relays to them the message:

6) He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay.

The angel knows their purpose is to anoint the Lord’s body with the oils and spices that they have brought along with them, but the angel encourages them to come into the tomb, to look for themselves, to see the empty tomb where they had expected to see the body of Jesus.

I read a story that first appeared in Leadership magazine, about a little boy named Philip. Philip was born with Down's syndrome and attended a third-grade Sunday School class with several eight-year-old boys and girls. Typical of children of that age, they did not really accept Philip as one of their group because of his differences. Due to the efforts of a creative teacher, they began to care about Philip and accept him as part of the group, though not fully.

The Sunday after Easter the teacher brought L'eggs pantyhose containers, the kind that look like large eggs. Each child got one and were told to go outside on that lovely spring day, find some symbol for new life, and put it in the egg-like container. Back in the classroom, they would share their new-life symbols, opening the containers one by one in surprise fashion.

After running about the church property in wild confusion, the students returned to the classroom and placed the containers on the table. Surrounded by the children, the teacher began to open them one by one. After each one, whether a flower, butterfly, or leaf, the class would ooh and aah.

Then one was opened, revealing nothing inside. The children exclaimed, “That's stupid. That's not fair. Somebody didn't do their assignment."

Philip spoke up, "That's mine."

"Philip, you don't ever do things right!" the student retorted. "There's nothing there!"

"I did so do it," Philip insisted. "I did do it. It's empty. The tomb was empty!"

The children fell into silence. From that day on, Philip was a full member of the class. Philip died not long after that from an infection most normal children would have hardly noticed. At the funeral this class of eight-year-olds marched up to the altar not with flowers, but with their Sunday school teacher, each to lay on the alter an empty pantyhose egg.

Those eight year old children knew the meaning of the resurrection.

As the women are standing there in the empty tomb, the one from which Jesus had been resurrected, the angel gives them an assignment:

7) 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.”

The angel tells them that they are soon to see the resurrected Christ. Which brings us to our next topic the:

MANIFESTATION - V 8-10

8) So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples.

The account in Mark says, “they fled.” Stop and think for a moment. These women got up before sunup, prepared the materials they would need, walked to a tomb to attend to a duty that they, no doubt, were not looking forward to.

They end up in the midst of an earthquake and find themselves in the presence of an other-worldly apparition who knows their thoughts and from whom they receive the news that the one they had prepared themselves to minister to had been raised from the dead.

Can you imagine the emotional tension those woman must been experiencing. And now, verse 9:

9) And behold, Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” (chairō, khah'-ee-ro G5463, usually translated as rejoice) And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped him.

Imagine the regard Jesus must have had for these women. At a time when most of the Apostles who Jesus had been teaching for the last three years were cowering in fear, these women were intent on ministering to to their martyred master. And Jesus returns that love by allowing them to be the first ones to learn of the resurrection, the ones appointed to carry the news to the disciples, and the first ones to see Jesus in His post resurrection form.

10) Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.”

In this verse I think we get a little insight into the grace and mercy of God. Notice Jesus calls them brothers, the brethren. He refers to His disciples as His brothers even though they have denied and abandoned Him.

It’s really kind of a mini lesson in the Gospel. That lesson is that when we have failed, when we have shown God that we are unworthy of his trust, He still reaches out to us. Through His grace and mercy, He still seeks a relationship with us.

In the meantime, we see the beginning of a campaign of:

MISINFORMATION - V 11-15

11) While they were going, behold, some of the guard went into the city and told the chief priests all that had taken place.

As the woman were running to seek out the disciples, some of the guards went in to report what had happened. We don’t know how many guards were there, but only some of them went in to make a report. I suspect that some of the guards were either hiding out or had left the country. For a Roman guard to fail in his appointed task, or to be found sleeping on guard, would be punished by execution.

When the guards give their account to the high priests you would think that the high priests would start to consider if maybe they were wrong about this itinerant preacher who had caused them so much grief. It appears that He had have been telling the truth, it appears that He did rise from the grave. No, they were only interested in protecting the high social and political position that they had acquired.

12) And when they had assembled with the elders and taken counsel, they gave a sufficient sum of money to the soldiers

The elders take in the story and now have to come up with a plan. They know what the reaction of the people will be if the word gets out that it looks like Jesus has risen from the dead as He said He would. Their plan is to bribe the guards to tell the people a story that denies the resurrection of Jesus.

13) and said, “Tell people, ‘His disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep.’

No doubt the guards were reluctant to follow this plan and tell this lie. That’s why they have to paid a large sum of money. There are a couple of problems with this story. One, if Pilate suspects the guards were asleep on duty it would probably be execution for them. Two, if the guards were asleep how would they know who stole the body away.

Then, to reassure e the guards, the chief priest says:

14) And if this comes to the governor’s ears, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.”

The high priests assure the guards that they will take care of them if the governor starts making inquiries about what happened.

15) So they took the money and did as they were directed. And this story has been spread among the Jews to this day.

MANDATE - V 16-20

16) Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee (Matthew 26, Mark 14), to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them.

17) And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted.

This account where the it says the disciples worshiped Him and earlier where the woman cast themselves at His feet are the first accounts of the disciples actually worshiping Christ. At this point their relationship with Christ has dramatically changed. Many of the things that Jesus told them that they did not understand are beginning to make scene to them.

18) And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

19) Go therefore and make disciples (mathēteuō G3000) (or Christians) of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

20) teaching (didaskō G1321) them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

You probably have a job, or have had a job, that had a job description tied to it. Verses 19 and 20 are basically the job description for a Christian, making disciples, baptizing, and teaching.

Conclusion

Sometimes the story of the resurrection suffers the same fate as the story of the cross that we looked at a few weeks ago. We know the story well. We know how it ends. It becomes so familiar to us that we scarcely pay attention to what it is teaching us.

Take a moment and think about the resurrection.

Without the resurrection:

Jesus was just a man

Jesus was a liar

The Gospel is meaningless

Forgiveness of sins is hopeless

Godly living is fruitless

Future life is worthless

Without the resurrection, Christianity is just another dead religion.

As dead as Mohamed and Buddha and Confucius.

The Way of The Cross

Annie Johnson Flint

Some of us stay at the cross, some of us wait at the tomb, Quickened and raised with Christ yet lingering still in the gloom. Some of us 'bide at the Passover feast with Pentecost all unknown, The triumphs of grace in the heavenly place that our Lord has made His own.

If the Christ who died had stopped at the cross, His work had been incomplete. If the Christ who was buried had stayed in the tomb, He had only known defeat, But the way of the cross never stops at the cross and the way of the tomb leads on To victorious grace in the heavenly place where the risen Lord has gone.