Come and See. Go and Tell
Come and See. Go and Tell
Matthew 28:1-10
Introduction:
The single most significant event in the history of the human race took place on the Sunday after Passover in about the year 30 A.D. It's the day we're celebrating today –Easter - or as some call it Resurrection Sunday. No matter what you call, it’s not easy to give a full description. It’s hard to explain all the emotion, the impact, the eternal implication of that first Easter morning. It hard to explain it to a 5 year old…trust me, I’ve tried that…but I’m not so sure that it’s not much easier to help a 50 year old grasp the reality. The resurrection experience is just too big and too important. And so, we grab hold of the parts the make the most sense to us. We put these parts together and tell it as we know it to be true. That’s where it makes the most sense. Some say you have to “see it to believe it,” but we Christians say that once you’ve experienced it, you can’t deny it! This past week I heard a great example of this. A Sunday School teacher who had just finished telling her third graders about how Jesus was crucified and placed in a tomb with a great stone sealing off the only way in or out. Then, wanting to share the excitement of the resurrection, and the surprise of Easter morning, she asked: “And what do you think were Jesus' first words when he came bursting out of that tomb alive.” A hand shot up into the air from the rear of the classroom. It belonged to a most excited little girl. Leaping out of her chair she shouted out excitedly, “I know, I know, I know.” “Good,” said the teacher, “Tell us.” Extending her arms high in the air she sang out: “TA - DA!”
That’s the way it was for those who heard about it first. They knew what had happened. They were eye-witnesses. They saw it all…the arrest, the trial, the torture, the murder. And murder it surely was. Jesus was dead. If the crucifixion had not done him in, then the spear through his side had settled the issue. After the horror was over, a friend named Joseph of Arimathea requested Jesus' body for burial. Pilate granted the request and the remains were removed from the cross, wrapped in a white linen shroud, and laid in Joseph's own tomb. A large stone was rolled in front of the entrance to prevent unwanted intrusion. There were still issues though. The religious leaders who had instigated the crucifixion came to Pilate and reminded the governor, “Sir, we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, 'After three days I will rise again.' So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first.” No problem. Pilate assigned some soldiers to guard the tomb and seal that stone. The body lay there from Friday evening until Sunday morning, three days, by Jewish reckoning. And then suddenly, the tomb is empty, the body gone. TA - DA! Let’s read it together. It comes from Matthew 28:1-10. Read.
This is the story…simple, yet incredibly profound. I have to admit that I don’t completely understand every detail, but I do believe it with all my heart. I don’t know what I would preach if I didn’t believe in the Resurrection of Jesus. There would nothing worth talking about. That’s why I am amazed that there are people who don’t believe in the resurrection. There are even “so-called” church people who don’t believe in a literal resurrection. A woman once wrote J. Vernon McGee. She said, “Our preacher said that on Easter Jesus just passed out on the cross and that the disciples nursed him back to health. What do you think?” McGee replied, “Dear Sister, beat your preacher with a leather whip for thirty-nine heavy strokes. Nail him to a cross. Hang him in the sun for six hours. Run a spear through his heart. Embalm him. Put him in an airless tomb for three days. Then see what happens.” The interesting thing about all this is that no one actually witnessed the resurrection. Nobody was on hand to see the event their own eyes. What happened was that people met the resurrected Christ and then they were compelled to tell others. In fact, the disciples themselves had to be convinced of this awesome and stupendous event. One theologian says it this way, “The event of Christ’s resurrection from the dead, his life and his eternal reign, are things removed from historical scholarship. History cannot ascertain and establish conclusively the facts about them as it can with other events of the past. The greatest fact available to historians is the Easter faith of the first disciples.” Their initial unbelief is actually evidence of the resurrection, because it reveals that they really didn’t expect it to be true.
That’s certainly what we see with Mary Magdalene and the other Mary. They didn’t expect anything special. After all, they had seen Jesus die on a Roman Cross. But early in the morning, just as the light was coming up over the horizon, they made their way toward his tomb. The only thing that they were expecting was the bleak, cold reality of death. But, when they arrived at the tomb, they were surprised at what they discovered. The tomb was open, the stone rolled away, and the body of Jesus gone. The burial clothes were lying on the stone in the shape of a body, collapsed and slightly deflated, like a glove from which the hand has been removed. According to the story, an angel of the Lord said to the women, “Fear not, for I know that you seek Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here: for He is risen from the dead.” The women then left the tomb and they encountered the risen Christ. But that was hardly the end of their experience…it was more like just the beginning. In fact, two times the women are told to go and tell the others. The emotion, the impact, the eternal implication of that first Easter morning was too great to keep quiet. The angel says it best, “He has risen, just as he said.” And that is the Easter Event. It is a true story, the narrative of an experience relayed in several ways by the Gospel writers. Mary Magdalene and the disciples and all of the others were overwhelmed with the Easter Event. They didn’t expect it and it was beyond their wildest imaginations; but it was a reality – He is Risen!
What we see in this story…what see time and time again in the Bible…what we know to be true through our personal experience…is a simple, but profound pattern. Come and See. Go and Tell. It has been said that these four words actually encompass the whole of the Christian life and experience. It all begins with the word come. When the women are afraid…when they fear all hope is lost…when they see the guards that look like death warmed over…the angel invites them to “Come and see the place where he lay.” That’s why we say with great theological truth, “The stone was rolled away not so that Jesus could out, but so that people could come in.” The word come is a welcoming word. It is an invitation word. And this was the word that was spoken first by the angel. My guess is that you understand this word. Maybe at some point in time, someone has said to you, “Come see what the Lord can do.” And you might have had reason, even as these women, to fear. You might have said, "I'm not worthy to stand before a holy God." And you would be correct. You might have said, "I'm not good enough to come." And that would be right. But somehow the invitation gave hope to your heart and you came. That's the way it is with the Christian life.
Jesus was passionate about inviting people. “Come, follow me,” Jesus says, “and I will make you fishers of men.” Shortly after that Jesus says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” Throughout the gospels Jesus continues to say, come. That doesn’t always mean that it’s an easy decision. In fact, sometime it may cost you something. That’s why Jesus says, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” Christianity is more than a system of beliefs; it is an active faith, a faith that will be willing to get up out of its chair and on its feet, a faith that will be responsive to the prompting of the Holy Spirit and will to walk wherever he wants us to walk.
The angel said “Come and see the place where Jesus lay.” The next important word is to see. The seeing reveals a personal experience. There are a lot of people who have no personal experience with God. They know something about him, they may gain an impression from the media, they may even have a grandmother who claims to be a Christian…but it’s not an experience. The only way to really know about faith in Christ is to have an experience with Christ. Do you remember the story of the woman at the well in the gospel of John? Jesus strikes up a conversation with her and eventually asks her about her husband. She politely says, “I have no husband.” “You are right,” Jesus says, “The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband.” He tells her in so many words that he knows it all…every secret. And what does she do? She runs back to town and says, “Come, see a man who told me all that ever I did. Can this be the Christ?” You see, something's happened to her and she goes back and she tells the people. I don’t know about you, but if I met a man who told me all that ever I did, that the last thing I would want to do is invite people to come too….unless that man was Jesus. Because something happens to people when they meet Jesus.
Some of you may be familiar with the experience of Christian author and teacher Lee Strobel. Lee, who at the time was a reporter for Chicago Tribune, began to attend Willow Creek in an attempt to appease his wife. His was newly converted and was really bothered that Lee was avowed atheist. Lee writes: “When I walked into church as a skeptical unbeliever, my ‘hypocrisy antenna’ was scanning the place for signs that people were just playing church. In fact, I was aggressively on the lookout for phoniness, opportunism, or deception, because I felt that if I could find an excuse for rejecting the church on grounds of hypocrisy, I could feel free to reject Christianity as well.” He goes on to share that who couldn’t find what was looking for. Instead, he found the experience to be very authentic. The place was filled with real people worshipping what seemed to be a real God. Lee admits that he saw, for perhaps the first, a glimpse of God’s work and it changed him. Since that time Lee has become a committed Christian. It points to the truth that when you experience the risen Christ, you cannot remain the same person. This is core piece of the Christian faith and it is something that every Christian shares. Jesus died on that cross so that people could life. He suffered and died in order to be the hope of the world. His death and resurrection is your path to salvation. When you come to grips with that…when you this story as your story…when you pick up your cross and follow him, you will never be the same. Maybe it’s a moment of conviction that leads to repentance. Maybe it’s a moment of truth puts away disbelief. Maybe it’s a moment of hope followed by restoration. When you experience the risen Christ, you cannot remain the same person.
The Easter message is this…Come into the presence of God. See what God has done. And then go into the world and tell others. It’s a peculiar movement of coming and going, always coming and going. The temptation has always been for God's people to come, but then just to sit at the feet of Jesus. You remember Peter wanted to build three tabernacles on the Mount of Transfiguration. It was a such a great experience. He said, "I never want to leave here. Let’s just stay up here." But Jesus said, "I don't want you to stay up here on the mountaintop. I want you to go down in the valley. That's where the people live.” That's the place where the Christian life is to be lived…out in the world, in the work place, in the classroom, in the home…but not in the church. It’s no coincidence that the Great Commission is in this same chapter of Matthew. Jesus himself says, “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” You come and see. Then you go and tell. We’ve been talking about making those Walks Across the Room the past few weeks. We can’t stop talking about it…because that’s we are called to do. Come and See. Go and Tell.
This is what is so exciting about the Easter message. You know what it’s like when you have good news to share. You can hardly hold it in. I have to tell you one of my highlights this week. The Holy Week, as we call it, is always special to me. It is a great week because of all the special services…all of the special things that we do to help us focus on the most important thing about life, which is the resurrection of Christ. I was working in my office this week and struggling with some computer issues. I am sure you’ve been there before. You work on it until you eventually have to throw in the towel and have to call the support line. That’s what I did and was connected to nice man by the name of Shawn. Shawn’s first question to me after I very carefully spelled out my email address – pastorjon@covenantbaptistchurch.org was “How’s business?” Well, I can only assume that it was the work of the Holy Spirit that prompted him to ask a Baptist pastor, “How’s business?” in the midst of the Holy Week, right before Easter. Because I said, “Business is great! There is nothing I enjoy more than focusing on the resurrection of Jesus.” He said to me, “That’s nice, but of course, I don’t personally buy into to all of that.” And so we began to talk. We talked about why people who call themselves “Christian” seem to be close minded. We talked about people who selectively apply only portions of God’s Word to their life. We talked about the life of Jesus. And we talked about the outrageously audacious claim Christians make to the world…that He is risen from the dead. At the end of our conversation, I thanked him for his honesty. I also thanked him for giving me a nice sermon illustration and told him that he could listen to it online, if he liked. But at the end of it all, it was a great experience. It was great because he was just responding to the prompting of the Holy Spirit and I was just doing what I was made to do…to tell the story. The conversation brought joy to my day and hope in my week because Jesus is still alive and God is still at work.
Once you experience the life changing power of Jesus, you just can’t keep quiet. You are either holding it in with all your might or you really haven’t seen what He’s done. The Easter message is a message that tells us to Come and See…what God is doing…what God wants to do in your life. And then Go and Tell…that’s what you were made to do…that’s what walking across the room is all about…and it will bring you unspeakable joy. It’s a little like the women from our scripture passage this morning. Matthew tells us that they left “afraid yet filled with joy.” The Greek word translated “afraid” actually means to be shaken in a deep way…like an awe-inspiring experience. The New Jerusalem Bible says that that they were “filled with awe and great joy.” It’s the joy Jesus wants you to know. Jesus says, come and see. If you feel as though you've been walking away from the Lord God, he will take you back. Come and see. If you feel that you are unworthy, he will give you a new beginning. Come and see. But don’t try to hold on to it. Go and tell. When you leave this place, it’s not just a warm felling in your heart you carry away. You carry a personal experience of the Risen Christ. With it comes the great opportunity and privilege to the world around you. Come and See, but Go and tell.