Easter Sunday 2021: Easter is the Turning Point | Matthew 28:1-10

This is Pastor Jonathan, and thank you for downloading the FBC El Dorado sermon podcast.

Every person's life is composed of a series of turning points.

But human history, well, it all boils down to a single turning point.

A turning point that's summarized in three words.

He isn't here.

We hope you enjoy and are encouraged by this sermon based on Matthew 28, verses 1 through 10.

Matthew 28:1–10

Every life, uh, no matter a person's age, has turning points.

For the four-year-old, who's also the firstborn, um, the turning point occurs when mom or dad tells him that very soon he will become a big brother.

Uh no longer will he be the sole focus of mom and dad's attention.

Or for the 14-year-old, yeah, the turning point is going and taking that uh permit test so you can become a driver in training.

Uh soon enough, that 14-year-old become a 16-year-old and they will no longer need a chauffeur.

Instead, they will become the chauffeur.

I guess actually that's kind of a turning point for mom and dad, too, right?

An extra set of hands that can go behind the wheel.

Then there's the 24-year-old, and maybe that turning point is meeting that someone special.

Or the 44-year-old, it's um uh taking the next step of advancement in your career or possibly starting a new career.

For the 64-year-old, it's announcing to your friends and family that your retirement is uh drawing near.

And for the 84-year-old, it's well, it's saying that final goodbye to your loved one.

Life is filled with turning points.

A turning point, it's a specific moment that leads to a significant change.

Every life has them, including mine.

One of the most vivid turning points in my life occurred over Christmas break in 2002.

Um, it involves a conversation that Lauren and I had.

She'll remember this conversation.

During the fall semester, I had sat beside her in Greek class, a very romantic place to find a young lady, I have to tell you.

It's on par with Paris.

So I was um flirtatiously pestering her for the entire semester.

And somehow I convinced her that we should hang out some over Christmas break.

My mom and dad live in Benton, her parents live in Little Rock, it was like a 25-minute drive.

We should spend some time together.

And that we did.

And then one night after Christmas, we're on the phone with one another, and literally Lauren kind of asked me this question.

She's like, What's your deal?

Like, what's going on here?

And remember, I'm like a 21-year-old boy, right?

And what does that mean?

That means my brain has not fully developed, which hopefully explains the words that then came out of my mouth, which was something like, I don't see any reason we can't not date.

That, my friends, is a triple negative.

It wasn't suave or uh slick or Shakespearean, but it was a turning point.

What are the turning points in your life?

What are the specific moments in your life that brought about a significant change?

And maybe you begin to play a slideshow of those moments in your life, and you see friends and family, you know where you were, smells and sounds return to you.

And as that slideshow plays in your mind, hear this: your life has many turning points.

But here's what's more important history has a turning point.

The turning point of history, it's not some invention of man.

It's not the invention of the light bulb, it's not the invention of the combustion engine or the telephone or even the internet.

Yeah, the inventions of man, you see, um, they pale in comparison to the intervention of God.

History has a turning point.

And that turning point, it can be summarized with two phrases.

He isn't here, he is risen.

Easter is the turning point of history.

Easter is a specific historical moment that brings about the most significant change the world has ever experienced.

When Jesus took off those grave clothes and when he walked out of the tomb, that signaled to the world that sin and death have been defeated.

Listen, humans can invent some pretty amazing gadgets and gizmos, but none of our inventions can defeat sin and death.

Only the intervention of God can defeat the greatest enemy.

Second Timothy chapter 1, verse 10, it puts it this way: it says, and now he has made all this plain to us by the appearing of Christ Jesus, our Savior.

2 Timothy 1:10

He broke the power of death and illuminated the way to life and immortality through the good news.

The message of 2 Timothy 1, verse 10 is absolutely clear.

2 Timothy 1:10

Through the resurrection of Jesus, something has been accomplished in the world that none of us, no man, no group of men could accomplish on their own.

Through the resurrection of Jesus, God has claimed victory over sin and death.

Jesus has opened the door, a doorway that leads to abundant life in this world and offers the gift of eternal life in the world to come.

History has a turning point, my friends.

And that turning point is Easter.

And believing that, here's my prayerful desire for this morning.

That the power of that day, the power of that specific day, that specific moment in time when Jesus breathed again inside that tomb and came out of that tomb, that power from that day would come to this day.

That not in an empty tomb, but in this room where people are gathered, the power of the resurrection would erupt.

So that significant change would occur in the life of everyone who was in the sound of my voice this morning.

See, on Easter morning, you don't need another invention of man, you need an intervention of God.

You need, we all need this decisive change in our lives that only God can author through the resurrection, the power of Jesus' resurrection from the dead.

Listen to how Matthew tells this story in chapter 28.

He puts it this way: He says, Early on Sunday morning, as the new day was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went out to visit the tomb.

Suddenly there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven, rolled aside the stone, and sat on it.

His face shone like lightning, and his clothing was as white as snow.

The guards shook with fear when they saw him, and they fell into a dead faint.

Then the angel spoke to the women, Don't be afraid, he said.

I know you are looking for Jesus who was crucified.

He isn't here.

He is risen from the dead, just as he said would happen.

Come, see where his body was lying, and now go quickly.

Tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead, and he is going ahead of you into Galilee.

You will see him there.

Remember what I have told you.

The women ran quickly from the tomb.

They were very frightened, but also filled with great joy, and they rushed to give the disciples the angel's message.

As they went, Jesus met them and greeted them, and they ran to him, grasped his feet and worshipped him.

Then Jesus said to them, Don't be afraid, go tell my brothers to leave for Galilee, and they will see me there.

So Matthew's account of that first Easter morning.

It begins around dawn as night turns into morning.

With the sun beginning to peak over the horizon, two women, both of them named Mary, are making their way to the tomb of Jesus.

Those two women, both named Mary, they assume nothing has changed.

Nothing has changed since Good Friday, since they saw Jesus hanging from that cross and breathing his last.

They assume that nothing has changed since that Saturday when Jesus lay in that tomb.

Joseph of Arimathea, along with Nicodemus, had prepared Jesus' body for burial and they had put him in that empty tomb.

They assume nothing has changed.

Listen, because they are like reasonable, rational people.

Those two Marys, those two gals, they know how death works, guys.

Someone gets sick, someone struggles to get up, someone is confined to the bed, someone can no longer breathe, we mourn their loss, we put them in the grave, and what happens?

They stay in the grave.

Like, that's your assumption if you're with them on that morning.

You assume Jesus is there in that tomb.

I assume Jesus is in that tomb.

We are rational, reasonable people.

Everything says he should be in that tomb.

And that's why those two women were told by the other gospels they take with themselves spices and incense.

Like Jesus is dead.

They're gonna care for his body.

His body is decaying.

There's gonna be a bad smell.

We're gonna treat it so it smells better.

He is dead, and we're gonna honor our friend who just departed, who just died.

Early on that Sunday morning, those women assume that nothing has changed in the world.

That death gets the final word.

But then suddenly, Matthew says, suddenly, a drastic change.

Suddenly, a significant change that shakes the very foundation of the earth.

History has a turning point.

Those women, they begin to approach the tomb, they draw closer and closer, and then the ground beneath their feet, it begins to move.

That earthquake, it symbolizes the work of God in that place.

That God is moving the foundation of what we believe to be true and possible in the world.

That God is causing to tremble our presuppositions of what to expect as possible in the world.

Dead people stay dead.

But when God is work, when God shakes the very ground on which we stand, He wants us to know things are changing.

I'm doing something new.

And to tell those women about those new expectations, about what God is doing in this place and at this hour.

God sends an angel.

Throughout the Bible, angels are messengers of God.

And at this moment, uh, this uh angel has a simple message.

It's all about the intervention of God into the world.

Or maybe you want to call it the invasion of God into a world that is run by sin and death and the powers of this uh evil age.

God has come and he has come to take over.

God is invading, which means he is at work in an unexpected place.

He is at work in a cemetery, in a graveyard, within a tomb.

That's why the stone is rolled away.

This uh turning point is so sudden and significant with that earthquake and that angel and that stone rolling away.

That those Roman guards, what happens to them?

They get pale and pasty and fall to the ground.

Like they they are overwhelmed by this.

We're gonna lose our jobs.

We didn't sign up for this.

We signed up to kick back with a cup of coffee to sit outside this tomb and to make sure none of his friends showed up and thought they could pull a prank on us.

We weren't expecting angels, we weren't expecting earthquakes, we weren't expecting stones to unexpectedly be rolled away, and they just collapse in a pile.

It's like that southern woman with their hand back, like this.

They just fall to the ground.

But there's also those two women who are still at the tomb, right?

The angel sees them, and I think the angel's kind of worried about them.

Those women are afraid.

That's what Matthew tells us, that they are filled with fear.

And I think the angel, he doesn't want those two women to end up like those soldiers, right?

He doesn't want them to be pale and pasty and fall to the ground.

He sees the fear, maybe he can sense them trembling.

He sees that cold sweat break out, he sees their breath quickening.

He's worried about them.

He doesn't want them to pass out, so he's like, hey, hey, gals, it's okay.

Let's just kind of chill out for a minute.

You're right.

You are absolutely right, the angel said.

You came looking for Jesus.

And listen, um, your eyes weren't playing tricks on you.

What you saw on Good Friday was true.

He was crucified.

Like, um, you didn't come to the wrong place.

Like, this is his tomb.

You're right.

We you put him here.

Your friends put him here.

You're at the right place, you saw the right things, you're not tricking yourself.

He should be here.

But he isn't here, he is risen.

For far too long in the world, um death and sin had always had that final word until that first Easter morning.

When God sends an angel, when God shakes the earth, when God rolls away the stone, and when God and the power of the Holy Spirit puts breath back into the lungs of Jesus and he goes out of that tomb.

History has a turning point, and that turning point is Easter.

I've used that word history a lot throughout this sermon.

And that word actually, I think it points to one of the unique aspects of Christianity when you compare it to other world religions.

Um, Christianity is the only one that traces itself back to a specific moment on a specific day within human history.

And that's the electrifying message of the gospel that the God who is outside of history brings his power into history to take back the creation that was his.

That's the power of God at work in the world, outside the world to inside the world to redeem the world.

And Jesus bore the weight of those sins to the cross in a very real way, so that all who put their faith in him might have their sins forgiven and receive the gift of eternal life.

And on the cross, listen, Jesus died a very real death.

He was treated like anyone else would treat their friend or family member after they died in the first century.

He was wrapped in those grave cloths, his body was treated with spices and incense, and he was laid in a tomb.

But then, unlike anyone else, Jesus rose again.

And when Jesus comes out of that grave, he brings the power of God's eternal kingdom into this world.

It's because the cross and resurrection of Jesus happened within history that history has experienced such a drastic change.

History has a turning point.

Everything changes in the world because of Easter.

The resurrection of Jesus, it actually happened.

But it's not a historical fact like any other.

Listen, whether or not you believe that Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492, like wherever, whether or not you believe that, it actually doesn't change your life.

But believing that Jesus was actually raised from the dead and having a personal encounter with that resurrected Jesus, that will change your life.

Later in the New Testament, we meet a man named Paul.

Paul, he's educated, he's brash, he's overconfident.

Paul knows that Jesus was crucified.

He's not going to argue with that.

But he thinks that the resurrection is a hoax, a conspiracy theory.

And he gets really mad with these uh Jews who now say that Jesus is alive.

He's a Jew himself, and so he gets permission to begin to round up all these Christ followers, all these people that are saying he's alive, he's not here, the tomb's empty.

He begins to round them up and arrest them.

Well, one day, Paul, he's out on this country road, he's looking for more followers of Jesus to round up and arrest when suddenly he has a personal encounter with the resurrected Lord.

And from that moment forward, Paul couldn't argue that history has a turning point.

Not only does history have a turning point in that moment, Paul has another turning point in his own life.

Because from that day forward, everything in Paul's life revolved around one thing.

He would live in response to the resurrection of Jesus.

The resurrected Jesus that he met on that Damascus road.

Everything he did, every word that he wrote, every act that he performed, every decision he made would be in response to the reality that Jesus is alive.

It controlled his entire life.

That's why in Philippians chapter 3 he says this.

Philippians 3 · chapter mention

He says, I want to know, Paul says, I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead.

I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead.

Paul meets the resurrected Jesus on the road, and then he says, What?

My life is united with him.

I'm gonna share in his suffering, but I'm also gonna share in his life.

That resurrection power is at work in me from this day forward.

That power of that past moment is at work in this present moment.

And the power of the resurrection, listen, it can be at work in this present moment if you have a personal encounter with Jesus.

Your life can have a turning point this morning.

If you have a personal encounter with Jesus, the trajectory of your life will be forever changed.

You can find healing, you can find hope and restoration.

You can find the peace that always seems so elusive in this world.

You can receive the gift of eternal life.

You can know the God who created you, the Father who is in heaven, who loves you.

All because of Jesus.

All those things are possible because the angel was right.

He isn't here.

He is risen.

But the power of Easter, listen, it not only wants to erupt in the lives of individuals, it wants to erupt in the life of this church.

We have to be a church that lives in response to the resurrection of Jesus.

A church that is a resurrection people.

You know, after the angel um shows the women the empty tomb, he's like, here you go.

Nice, not very spacious, needs some updating, kind of out of date.

He's not here.

And you know what the angel, he doesn't like say, okay, well, let's just like sit down and talk with each other for a little while.

Bottle of water, text mix, maybe like a protein bar?

Like, I came all the way from heaven.

I need something to eat.

No, the angel, he he like shows them around and then he tells those ladies, go quickly.

Go quickly.

In other words, he isn't here, so why are you here?

He isn't in the tomb anymore, so why are you standing in the tomb?

Don't stand here too long.

You've got a job to do.

You've got people to tell.

And we're told that those women, they run out of the tomb.

Now their heart, as they leave, as they respond to that command to go quickly, it's filled with two different emotions, two emotions we often don't pair with one another.

We're told that um their heart is filled with one part fear and one part joy.

Why are they afraid?

You ever thought about that?

Why are those women afraid?

I wonder if the reason they're afraid is this.

On that Easter morning, what they realized, and what became crystal clear, was that Jesus was right about his fate.

That on that Easter morning, they realized that Jesus had described the events of the previous days in stunning detail.

He was right about their fate.

And so I wonder if, as they run, fear comes into their heart because now they're wondering if Jesus is going to be right about our fate too.

You see, Jesus not only talked about his own fate, he talked about the fate of his own disciples.

And maybe those women experience fear because going through their mind, they remember when Jesus said something like, um, you will suffer tribulations of many kinds on account of my name.

Like they're having this natural reaction to realize he wasn't just talking about something he didn't know about.

He was talking about something he was well acquainted with.

They realize that they're stepping out into an unknown future where their life is no longer their own, where God lays claim to it because they are a witness to the resurrection.

And in this life it may be taken from them.

Their physical life may be taken from them.

But there's a reason they can hold on to joy.

Even if someone takes their physical life, what?

Jesus is alive.

Even if someone takes their business, they can still hold on to joy because why?

Jesus is alive.

They will not be controlled by sin and death.

They will not be overcome and overwhelmed by fear.

That will not be a wall that they cannot break through.

Instead, they will charge through that wall.

They will have an appropriate amount of fear and understanding about what lies ahead, but they are filled with joy because they had gone in that tomb and they know he isn't here.

He is risen.

You see, for the power of Easter to erupt in the life of this church, it means we have to take seriously that command of the angel.

We too have to be people who do what?

Go quickly.

We have to be people through word who say, He isn't here.

He's alive.

Jesus is alive.

We have to be people who go quickly, and through our actions, we um we are so loving and so kind and so forgiving and so generous and so always looking for opportunities to serve and to never expect anything ever in return in this world because we do all those things because the resurrection is real.

And people will look at us like we're crazy.

You see, because they view all those things from the perspective of the women walking to the tomb, right?

They don't think anything in the world has ever changed.

That's not how you act if you want to get ahead.

That's not how you act if you want to save your own skin.

But we live not as people who are walking to the tomb, we live as people who have walked into and out of the tomb.

Who have realized he isn't here.

He is risen.

Go tell somebody.

Why do you stand in here?

He's not here.

Why are you here?

History has a turning point, and that turning point is Easter.

Everything changes because Jesus walked out of that tomb.

Will you let that Easter power erupt in your life this morning?

Will you put your faith in Jesus for the first time?

Will you go quickly so that you can tell somebody?

Let's pray.

Almighty God and everlasting Father to reflect upon the power that raised Jesus from the dead.

That is a power we have never seen nor experienced in this world.

And we ask that that same power of that first Easter morning would erupt in this place, on this day, in individual lives, Lord.

That the power of resurrection would lead to someone putting their faith in Jesus Christ.

That the power of the resurrection would free someone from those destructive, long-held habits.

That the power of that day would be known on this day.

And that person, the turning point of Easter, would be a turning point in their life.

And Lord, I pray for this church that the power of the resurrection would erupt in this place.

And that we would answer the command to go quickly.

We would have an urgency and a purposefulness about the way that we live our lives.

So that every man, woman, boy, and girl in this world knows Jesus is alive.

We pray this in his name.

Amen.

Let's stand and sing.