The "Ta-da" of Easter

Jacob Jackson

Sermon • Submitted a year ago • Presented a year ago

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Introduction

I heard a story about a Sunday school teacher who was trying to help his students visualize resurrection Sunday.

He told the story to them of Jesus being crucified. He told them how he was taken off the cross and wrapped in linen and laid in a tomb. He told them how a heavy stone was rolled in front of the entrance. And then he told them all about the exciting truth that we celebrate all year long as Christians—but stop and focus on especially on Easter Sunday.

He told the children how Jesus didn’t stay dead. He came back to life. His body was resurrected. Just as Jesus had done to Lazarus so he did to himself.

And wanting the students to place themselves in the story and feel the moment of it he asked the students. “What do you think was the first thing Jesus said as the stone was rolled away and he walked out of the tomb?”

A little girl shot her hand in the air, waving excitedly saying, “I know, I know!”

The Sunday school teacher, said, “Tell us then.”

The little girl stood up and said, “Jesus probably said, ‘Ta-da’!”

Our text this morning is Luke 24:1-10, you can go ahead and turn there in your Bible’s.

This Easter morning my goal is simple. I want us to hear the familiar story and place ourselves in it. And see that I. Easter Should Excite Us, II. Easter Should Astonish Us, III. Easter Should Motivate Us.

The Resurrection of Jesus is truly a “Ta-Da” moment. It is the most important thing that has ever happened and it is the clear and loud call of God’s love for us.

Let’s read the text and then we’ll jump in.

Luke 24:1-10 “But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.” And they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles,”

I. Easter Should Excite Us (1-4a)

Luke 24:1-4 “But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were perplexed about this...”

On the very first Easter Sunday the disciples expected Jesus to be dead—when these disciples find the tomb empty they are perplexed. They aren’t excited knowing what the empty tomb meant. Instead, they were confused.

Jesus had told them that this was going to happen.

Matthew 12:38-40 “Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”

Granted that reference is a bit obscure. It’s not direct. Confusion is understandable. But what about

Matthew 17:22-23 “As they were gathering in Galilee, Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day.” And they were greatly distressed.”

Jesus outright tells them that he is going to killed and that 3 days later he would rise again.

Maybe they were lost in all the excitement of the day. Maybe they were distraught from all the trauma of the cross. But for whatever reason they did not remember these things and so they come to the tomb expecting to find a dead body instead of a risen Lord.

If they had understood. If they had remembered and believed then there would have been a crowd at the tomb waiting for the resurrection.

Friends, let me take our focus off the disciples for a minute and direct your attention to yourself.

You and I have the whole story. We have the completed canon of Scripture. We have the Words of God over the course of thousands of years. What a treasure we have.

When we read Matthew 12 and 17 we are not perplexed. When Jesus talks about the sign of Jonah being given to the Pharisees we know that he is talking about his death and resurrection. We put a little star in our Bible’s and we make note. (That’s what I do.)

We aren’t perplexed, we aren’t confused about the resurrection. I think what is often our most felt emotion when we come to the empty tomb is not confusion, but familiar boredom.

We know this story—it’s familiar to us—and so we are bored with it. Like a movie we’ve watched a hundred times we know the plot twists and surprises. If we are not careful, we can let this glorious Easter truth play in the background of our lives while we look for other new things to captivate our attention.

Friends, let me encourage you and I this morning not be bored with the greatest news on Earth. You can go looking but you won’t find anything more exciting than the truths of Easter.

Jesus of Nazareth—the perfect lamb of God—is alive. He died. His body was destroyed and broken beyond recognition Isaiah prophesies and he was laid in a cold tomb as a cold dead body.

But that is no longer true! He Is alive. He is right now interceding for all those who belong to Him.

Hebrews 7:25 “Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.”

1 John 2:1 “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”

Romans 8:34 “Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.”

The glorious promise of the gospel was proven to be true on Easter. For everyone who will come to Jesus and repent of their sins and confess him as savior and Lord they will be saved. Because all of their sins were forgiven by God as Jesus took them and the punishment of them on the cross. Jesus paid the sin debt for sinners.

And on Easter Sunday that promise was proven to be true.

1 Corinthians 15:55-57 ““O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

They should not have arrived perplexed, but friends you and I with the full word of God have the greater error when we are bored and complacement in the face of the glorious news of Easter. Look at all that has been accomplished because Jesus is alive.

Let’s be appropriately rejoicing about this. Let this glorious news direct our steps and steer our hearts.

So we should be excited about Easter and...

II. Easter Should Astonish Us (4b-8)

Luke 24:4-8 “While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.” And they remembered his words,”

So the women are perplexed, not knowing what happened to Jesus and then something miraculous takes place.

When we are looking for the miraculous in this text our eyes are typically drawn to the angels. We know they are angels because they have dazzling clothing—the Greek means that their clothes shine like lightening.

And we know that these men are angels because of the women’s reaction to them. They were afraid—here before them were messengers of God—and they bowed their heads to the ground.

This angelic announcing was appropriate. Angels announced Jesus when he came into this world and angels announced Jesus when he came back to this world from death.

And this show of the miraculous is how God always verifies that what is happening is of him.

When Moses meets God for the first time it is in a miraculous way that proves something supernatural is taking place. A bush is burning and yet is not consumed.

When God tells Moses to go and talk to the Israelites in Egypt, Moses is worried that the people wo’t believe Him and so God gives him miracles to perform. His staff becomes a snake. His hand becomes leprous and is healed.

Jesus comes onto the scene and he performs miracles. The people know that he is from God.

And after this the disciples perform miracles so that the message they proclaim is known to be a message from God.

The appearing of these angels at the tomb fits the pattern.

And I think that we focus in on these angels as the mircaculous thing happening in these verses. What an amazing thing to witness holy messengers from God.

But friends the miraculous messengers are not the star here in our text, but the miraculous message is.

In all their splendor if they had announced a 2 for 1 sale at the local bread vendor it wouldn’t be all that important.

But their message is the most important news that is ever spoken any time in any language.

Why are you looking for Jesus to be among the dead? He told you that he was going to be delivered into the hands of sinful men…and be crucified…and on the third day…(I like to imagine they paused here) rise.”

The text says it’s at this moment that they remembered Jesus words.

I have to confess to you that I often have miracle envy when I read the Bible. I see that Moses spoke to God face to face. I see the miracles of Jesus and these angels at the tomb and I think— “man if only I could see—If only I could do these things too, how many people would be saved—how much faith woud I have—how powerful would my ministry be.”

But this is folly.

When you see, for instance, Peter performing miracles it doesn’t result in everyone who witnessed it being saved. Plenty of people saw the miracle and rejected God.

Belief in the message of the gospel is always a work of God in the heart of people. So why the miracles? Why the angels here at the tomb?

The miracles took place and were recorded so that for thousands of years all the way up to 2023 God’s people all over the world including here in Richmond Virginia would know that the message the miracles accompanied is the one that we must proclaim!

The miracles just point to the message like a neon sign and says, “Look here, listen to this,

And when it comes to Easter that is exactly what the empty tomb and the angelic messengers are doing. We tell people about the empty tomb and then we tell them what that means.

It means that there is forgiveness for sins. It means that there is freedom from slavery. It means that Jesus is alive and that all people should listen—because he has done away with the sting of death and the guilt of sin. Just as he said he would—Jesus is alive. And this means everything.

So this Easter let us not be most impressed with the delivery of the message but with the message itself.

The power of God comes with the message of God. And that is good news for you and I as we see that Easter should...

III. Easter Should Motivate Us (9-10)

Luke 24:9-10 “and returning from the tomb they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles,”

So what do we do with the glorious message of Easter?

As we hear the story of Easter it should motivate us to proclaim the story of Easter.

As soon as these women hear that Jesus is alive they drop the task of preparing a dead body and start to proclaim life to all who will listen.

And notice here that those who first heard the message were regular people. These women were not great rulers—or powerful people with influence.

The first gospel message was proclaimed to the female disciples, not to Peter, not to John, it would be a little while before it got to Paul—the first to hear it were the female disciples.

God does everything on purpose including deciding who will experience Him being risen first.

God reminds us here that the powerful message of the gospel is not dependent on powerful people.

People coming to faith is not driven by how impressive you are—or how eloquent you are—or how much knowledge you have.

In fact, this Easter message is powerful despite you—this gospel—this good news of Jesus Christ that God has come to forgive sinners by taking their sin and giving them his righteousness—is the power that allows normal people like you and to join the work of Christ’s kingdom and proclaim this message with boldness.

Not because we are the best thing to ever happen to gospel proclamation but because God is powerful and powerfully uses this good news to save people.

Easter should motivate us in the same way that it motivated these women. At this news, they dropped what they were doing and went and told those who were closest to them—the eleven. And then it says they went and told the rest. They didn’t stop there—they went and told the larger group of the disciples. And we see this pattern of taking this news to larger circles radiating from those closest to us outward.

I wonder this morning if Easter Sunday can be for you a launching off point. Maybe you don’t have a practice of personal evangelism. You would never deny that you are a follower of Jesus, but you are not actively looking to share the good news of the gospel with other people.

All of us who are witnnesses to the resurrection of Jesus Christ have the privilege and call to share what we have witnessed to others.

And we may have not been at the tomb, we may have not seen Christ ourselves, but we know that He is true because the gift of God to us has changed us. We are the forgiven children of God living in this world surrounded by others who desperately need to hear this message of salvation.

Our testimony is exactly how God plans to save others.

So will you let today be the day where you take this call personally and seriously. Will you start praying that God would burden you for lost people?

Will you start praying that God would give you opportunities to share the gospel with people?

Would you practice sharing the gospel so that you are ready? Friends, if you are saved it is because another Christian did these things and God used it to save you.

Whether it was a pastor, your parents, a friend, or a stranger. They took seriously this call to be witnesses to Easter themselves. Will you?

Maybe this morning you are hearing me on this point—you know that it’s right—but you just don’t think you can do it—you don’t want to do it—you want people to get saved but you are okay with not being part of the equation.

John 12:26 “If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.”

God is clear—your place is beside him—building the kingdom with Him.

So if you are in this place standing before your call and the fear and anxiety of it makes you not want to do it.

Pray one simple prayer to get started. Pray, “Help me take just one little step Lord.”

God will be pleased by your faithfulness to ask for one little step—and one little step after another for the rest of your life equals a great faithful walk in this Christian life. We are all just trying to take one more little step of faith.

Conclusion

Easter really is a “ta-da” moment. It’s the most important moment in history when Jesus defeated death.

Ta-da, look what God did! Look at what God is doing throughout the world with this astonishing truth.

My charge for us this morning is to keep the excitement and astonishment of Easter with us for the rest of our lives and be motivated to tell others of this great news—that Jesus is alive and that this truth makes all the difference. Let’s pray.

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