Deo Gloria
April 9, 2023
Easter Sermon
Pastor Martin Bentz
Text: Matthew 28:1-10
Theme: He Lives – The Most Significant Event Ever!
- Don’t be afraid, every promise was kept.
- Go and tell, our relationship with God is restored.
In 1883, on an August morning, the earth broke open and made the loudest sound ever heard. Ever! It happened on the island of Krakatoa in Indonesia. The sound of that event could be heard at incredibly great distances. People reported hearing it in the Nicobar Islands, some 1,300 miles away. It was heard in Western Australia, some 2,000 miles away. In the Indian Ocean on the island of Mauritius, they heard what sounded like the distant roar of heavy guns. Mauritius is 3,000 miles away from Krakatoa.
Just think about that for a second. If someone here in Belle Plaine said that something happened in Duluth yesterday and they could hear it from their house, I don’t think many people would believe them. Duluth is 200 miles from here. Yet what happened at Krakatoa was something so loud that it’s like being in Belle Plaine and hearing an explosion that took place in Los Angeles. That’s so far away that the sound would take two and a half hours to get here.
People all over the Pacific scratched their heads that day and asked, “What was that?” They heard thunder, but the sky was blue. They heard cannon fire, but there were no navy ships nearby. Sailors looked for signs of an impending storm but didn’t notice any. What was that? It had to be something big.
1,800 years earlier, people in Jerusalem were asking the same question. It was early Sunday morning and the events of the past few days had the city on edge. Jesus, the well-known prophet from Nazareth, had been crucified. His followers thought that he was the Messiah, the Son of God in the flesh. But then he died, and a dead messiah is no Messiah at all.
Two women were walking in the darkness that morning. They were on their way to the tomb where Jesus’ lifeless body had been laid. Their arms were full of spices and their hearts were full of disappointment. All they hoped to do that morning was anoint a dead body. And the only question on their minds was who would roll the stone away from the entrance to the tomb.
And then it happened. Everyone in Jerusalem felt it—an earthquake, a powerful quake. The ground shook and heaved under their feet. Everyone looked around and asked, “What was that? What caused the earth to shake like that?”
The explosion at Krakatoa was caused by an enormous volcanic eruption. A mountain literally blew itself to pieces. What had been an island mountain rising 2,600 feet above the waves of the ocean was reduced to nothing and resulted in what is called the most significant geological event ever.
But what shook Jerusalem was no volcano. Nor was it some other natural geological occurrence. No, the events in Jerusalem were about to get very extraordinary. God had sent an angel to earth with great power and glory, causing the earth to shake and performing a crucial task. He descended to the tomb where Jesus’ body had been laid, and he rolled the stone away from the entrance. The soldiers who were guarding the tomb saw the angel and were so terrified, that they shook and became like dead men.
And the women who were carrying their spices—when they arrived on the scene, they discovered the answer to everyone’s question, “What was that?” It was an angel from God who descended to show the world that the tomb of Jesus was empty.
The angel said to the women, “Don’t be afraid.” They had come to see a corpse in a grave. Instead, the angel invited them to see an empty tomb and told them that the most significant event in history had happened. He lives! Jesus Christ lives!
The women had come looking for a dead Jesus. A dead Jesus wouldn’t do anyone any good. But a resurrected Jesus? That would change everything. That would make Easter the most important event that has ever happened, because that would mean that everything Jesus had said was true.
In the most significant event ever, the Son of God died on a Friday for the sins of the world. But then on Sunday morning he tore death open at the seams, and out of the grave came the victory of life, unending life. Remember the words of the angel 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”(Matthew 28:5+6). Jesus had told them that this was going to happen, that this too was part of the plan, because this is what God had been promising ever since the garden.
Mankind’s brokenness could not be fixed or forgotten. It needed to be atoned. That’s what Jesus came to earth to do: to suffer in our place, to die in our place as our substitute, to give his life to atone for our sins, so that we might have forgiveness for our sins and freedom from our guilt. Jesus had said:
The Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will turn him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. On the third day he will be raised to life! (Matthew 20:18+19)
Do not be afraid. Jesus lives, just as he said.
Sinners should be afraid of God. Sinners ought to die for their disobedience and their wickedness. The grave should be the place of ultimate defeat for all of us. Yet on this day, the second Adam did all that the first Adam had left undone. Bearing our guilt and suffering our punishment, the Son of Man died, but three days later he rose in glory. As a result, fear is gone. Mankind is redeemed. And that means every one of God’s promises to you are kept.
The women ran from the tomb, afraid, yet fill with joy. The most significant event in history had happened, and they had to tell someone. But God was going to make sure they knew exactly what to say. So, they ran right into him—into Jesus, back-from-the-dead Jesus, not a vision, not a dream, the living Jesus. They clung to his feet and held on to his person. He had won, and now everyone needed to hear about it. “Go,” Jesus told them. “Go and tell my brothers”(v. 10).
“Go and tell my brothers.” Those words of Jesus remind us that his resurrection fundamentally changes our relationship with God forever. Remember, these are the same disciples who had abandoned him in the garden. At the very time when he needed them the most, they turned and ran and left him to face arrest and trial and death by himself. And let’s not forget, one of them, their leader no less, had even denied ever knowing him.
Jesus had good reason to remind those men of their failures. He had good reason to remind them that they deserved to be called nothing but servants, worthless, faithless servants at that. Instead, he took this moment to call them “my brothers” for the very first time. The living Son of God had given his life on the cross and made full payment for their sins and our sins, so that he could call us brothers. Mankind is redeemed; death is defeated; fear is conquered. Christ looks on us forgiven sinners and calls us his brothers. This is the news Jesus sent those women to share with the disciples. This is the news Jesus sends us, his church, to share with the world. Go and tell them, “He lives! Jesus Christ lives!”
If you had lived in America in 1883, you would not have heard the explosion of Krakatoa. Someone would have had to tell you about the loudest sound ever heard. But your not hearing it, didn’t make it any less real. Even if you weren’t able to hear it, you could measure its effects.
On the day of the explosion, in countries around the world, barometers—instruments that measure atmospheric pressure—showed invisible, inaudible pressure waves emanating from Krakatoa and beginning to circle the globe. Six hours after the explosion a spike was detected in Calcutta. Twelve hours later the pulse reached St. Petersburg, followed by Berlin and Rome and Paris. In 18 hours the pulse reached New York City. For five days after the explosion, weather stations around the world observed this unprecedented spike re-occurring like clockwork every 34 hours, the time it takes sound to travel around the entire planet. The whole earth was ringing like a bell. Tides rose thousands of miles away. Sunsets in the evening sky all over the world burned with a lurid fire.
If you lived in America, you wouldn’t have heard the loudest sound ever. But that didn’t make it any less real or its effects any less dramatic. Likewise, you may not have seen Jesus resurrected from the dead. You may not have held his feet. You may not have heard him speak. But that doesn’t make the resurrection of Jesus Christ any less real or the effects it has on your life any less dramatic.
The apostle Paul testifies to the reality of Jesus’ resurrection. When he recorded these words in his first letter to the Christians in Corinth, you could actually still go and talk to many of the eyewitnesses:
For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me. (1 Corinthians 15:3-8)
You may have never seen the resurrection of Jesus, but I am here to tell you that doesn’t make it any less real. The effects of that event have been circling the globe ever since.
Jesus victory over death made nature ring like a bell the day that he rose, because his resurrection was the dawning of a new era, an era where sin no longer convicts us, an era where Satan no longer controls us; an era where death no longer contains us.
That is the heart and core of our Christian hope. That is the message of victory that is ringing this world like a bell. That is what takes away our fear and empowers our mission to tell others the news of the most significant event in history. He lives! Jesus our Savior lives! Amen.