COME, SEE THE PLACE…

COME, SEE THE PLACE…

Matthew 28:1-7 (KJV)

In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.

And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it.

His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow:

And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men.

And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified.

He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.

And go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead; and, behold, he goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him: lo, I have told you.

It was early; not yet quite light.

According to the Word of God, Jesus was already resurrected from the grave before the sun rose on Sunday morning.

Very early, before the Sun was up – using perhaps only that dim light just before the first rays of the sun shower upon the earth.

A tiny handful of women made their way to the garden where Jesus body had been laid.

Just three days previous they had laid His body there, hastily wrapped it in grave clothes and hurried home before darkness fell and their Jewish traditions bound them to their home until the Sabbath was over.

I know you have felt that sense of anxiety that comes when all you can do it wait.

·   You are powerless

·   Things are out of your control

Your world feels like it hangs in the balance. But all you can do is wait.

Anita and I felt that recently when she broke her leg.

That happened on a Wednesday. It was Friday before a Dr could see her, but then all they did is schedule a CT scan – FOR TUESDAY!

I sat in unbelief when the Orthopedist told us that she had broken her knee, she was not to move it until – did we want the CT scan on Tuesday of the following week or Wednesday?

Tuesday – of course!

Do you want a morning appointment or afternoon?

Morning – we want this done as soon as possible!

In some small way, we must have felt like these women had felt.

·   Wednesday night

·   Thursday

·   Thursday night

·   Friday

·   Friday night

·   Saturday

The Sabbath would have ended at darkness Saturday night, but they couldn’t have gone to the grave then.

They would be forced by practicality to wait until light – first light.

I imagine it was a sleepless night for these women.

The hours rolled by. They didn’t have clocks as we do, but have you ever been there? When you watch the clock all night, awaiting that very first moment you can get out of bed and start your journey?

Midnight

·   1:00

·   2:00

·   3:00

·   4:00

Sunrise this morning was at 6:00 but it’s pretty light by 5 and there is a hint of light even by 4:00-4:30.

The women sprung from their beds, rushed to get dressed and to meet.

Maybe they had the things they needed already gathered and packed, so they only need to grab their bags and go.

Mark 16:3 tells us that, as the women made their way to the grave a problem occurred to them – Jesus’ tomb was sealed shut with a stone.

Who would roll it away for them at this early hour?

It turned out to be no problem.

Earlier, we don’t know how much earlier, there had been a great earthquake that had removed several problems for the ladies:

·   The stone was rolled away[1]and

·   The guards had become “as dead men.”[2]

This earthquake, it turned out, was a supernatural event involving the angel of the Lord, who had rolled the stone away and then sat there upon it, awaiting the women.

He had, for these ladies, the most exciting news the world has ever heard,

Matthew 28:5-6 (KJV)

And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified.

He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.

From his message I have three actions I wish to preach to you this Resurrection Sunday morning:

First,

I. SEE

Matthew 28:5-6 (KJV)

And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified.

He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.

It’s the most miraculous place in all of the world and in all of human history.

The place where the Lord lay.

A. Come, see the empty tomb

I’d like to remind you no other world leader, religious or otherwise has been able to reproduce an empty tomb.

I saw a representation the other day.

·   Buddha

·   Mohammed

·   Confucius

·   The Dalai Lamas

·   Marx

·   Stalin

·   Majarishi

·   Joseph Smith

·   Sun Myung Moon

·   Freud

·   Darwin

·   Lennon

They are all still in their graves.

Jesus’ grave is still empty.

More than 2000 years later, and His grave is still empty.

·   The Roman guards had every reason to want to find His body

·   The Jewish Sanhedrin had every reason to want to find His body

·   Archeologists have every reason to want to find His body[3]

There are places the Jews won’t let scholars dig.

But I promise they would let them search anywhere – if they had reason to believe the body of Jesus would be found there.

And so they have looked.

He is not [there]: for He is risen as He said, ….

…come see the place where the Lord lay.

B. This implies a personal relationship 

The angel wished these women to have more than His word for it.

He wanted them to see for themselves.

And may I say that no relationship with Jesus is sufficient unless you have seen Him for yourself.

I have never been to Jerusalem.

I personally doubt that any of the tombs the tour guides take people to is the one Jesus was in.

·   I have not seen His face with my eyes as Peter and James and John did

·   I have not heard His voice on the Damascus Road, as Paul did

But I can tell you this; I know for myself that Jesus Christ is alive.

·   I personally asked Him to forgive my sins

·   I personally feel the witness of His Spirit that I am a son of God

·   I personally sense the freedom to come boldly to God’s throne in prayer

·   I personally have known Him to illuminate the Word of God to me

·   I personally have had prayers answered that I know could only have been God

Just before I became a Christian I was visiting with my Aunt Shorty and Uncle Pete.

We were talking about whether Jesus Christ is real.

Uncle Pete said to me, “I am sure Jesus is real. I spoke with Him just this morning.”

I’m telling you; we can talk to you about Jesus Christ until we are blue in the face but the only thing that’s going to settle it for you is to come, see for yourself.

The second action I find in the passage is,

II. HEAR

Matthew 28:5-6 (KJV)

And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified.

He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.

I just have two remarks I want to make concerning what we hear when we come to worship Jesus. The women heard first,

A. The angel’s message 

The word angel is an interesting one.

From Strong’s Concordance the word means a messenger and by implication, a pastor.[4]

I am not saying that this angel was a pastor. He was obviously a supernatural being.

But he was not God.

He was commissioned by God to bring a message to these women.

Having said that,

Who would question this was, 

B. The message of God

I wonder if most Christians put as much stock in the preaching of the Word of God as they ought.

·   I do not say that preachers are perfect.

·   I do know that there are some who are heretical

·   I know that there are some so-called pastors who are disqualified

I am certain that every Christian is responsible to see that they have themselves and their families under sound preaching.

But if you are there- you ought to hear that message as the message from God.

You had better be careful about: 

·   Sleeping during the preaching

·   Talking to your buddy

·   Texting on your cell phone or

Just ignoring what the preacher has to say.

And you sure ought to be careful about quitting just because you don’t like what he said.

Notice with me a third and final action in our passage

III. SAY

Matthew 28:7-8 (KJV)

And go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead; and, behold, he goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him: lo, I have told you.

And they departed quickly from the sepulchre with fear and great joy; and did run to bring his disciples word.

A want to break this action down into two pieces:

A. Go

It’s pretty hard to get around the word “go” in the Word of God.

The word is found in 238 verses in the New Testament. Some of them do not relate to this subject, and I obviously can’t list all of them right now, but just to give some of the more obvious ones:

Matthew 28:19 (KJV)

Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:

Mark 16:15 (KJV)

And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.

Luke 14:23 (KJV)

And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.

There can be no doubt that Christians are to go to others and tell them about Jesus.

The angel told the women to, “go quickly.”

There is a whole lot of procrastination in the Christian world, isn’t there?

I imagine that most Christians[5]mean to tell someone about the Lord.

·   Most Christians mean to tell their family

·   Most Christians mean to tell their neighbors

·   Most Christians mean to tell the people they work with

God said to do it quickly.

·   Without delay

·   First thing

Make it a priority to go.

And

B. Tell

·   You don’t have to convince them

·   You don’t have to force them

All you need to do is tell them.

Matthew 28:6 (KJV)

He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.

Conclusion

The empty tomb is the most miraculous event in all of human history.

But there were plenty alive when it happened that walked away unmoved by it:

·   The guards were bribed to tell a lie about it

·   The Jews covered it up

·   The historian Josephus mentioned it and

·  The common people went about their business despite it

I’m going to ask you this morning to 

·  Come see for yourself.

·  Listen to and accept the message of God concerning salvation in Christ and then

·   Go and tell the people around you, Matthew 28:6 (KJV)

He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.

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[1]Mark 16:4

[2]Matthew 28:4

[3]Can you imagine the fame, prosperity, and notoriety an archeologist would have should he find the body of Jesus Christ?

[4]G32   (Strong)

ἄγγελος

aggelos

ang'-el-os

From ἀγγέλλω aggellō (probably derived from G71; compare G34; to bring tidings); a messenger; especially an “angel”; by implication a pastor: - angel, messenger.

[5]I’m being purposefully optimistic. It may not be most Christians.