April 5 Easter Sunday Sermon Manuscript

He is not here.

Matthew 28:1–10 (Easter Sunday)

Introduction: The Morning of the Empty Tomb

1. Let us greet the person next to you: Jesus has risen. Dear beloved congregation, the Lord has risen!

2. Over this past week, as we gathered for early morning prayer during Holy Week, we deeply meditated on the suffering of Jesus. On Friday evening, we stood together before the cross. And yesterday morning, we spent time in the silence before the tomb. And today, at last, the morning of the resurrection has dawned.

3. The faith in Jesus’ resurrection can be said, without exaggeration, to be the heart of the Christian faith. In 1 Corinthians 15, the Apostle Paul confesses that if Christ had not been raised, our faith would be in vain. In that sense, the church, the body of Christ, is built upon the power of the resurrection of Jesus. Without the resurrection, the cross would have ended as a tragedy. But because there is resurrection, we are able to understand the cross as the beginning of victory.

4. Today, the passage we read together, Matthew 28:1–10, most vividly delivers the morning of the resurrection. The text we read today seems to be divided into three scenes.

5. The first scene, from verses 1 to 4, records and reports the event of the resurrection itself. Verses 5 to 7 contain the declaration of the resurrection—the confessional proclamation that Jesus has risen. And finally, verses 8 to 10 record the story of encountering the risen Jesus.

Part 1: The Event of the Resurrection (vv.1–4)

6. First, if we look at verses 1 to 4, it records what was happening after Jesus was crucified and died on the cross.

7. Verse 1:

   
   

   “After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.”

8. We must pay attention to this expression of time: “After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week.” Since the Jewish Sabbath refers to Saturday, this phrase means the first day of a new week—Sunday at dawn.

9. On the day a new week begins, Jesus rose. This means that the resurrection is not simply that a dead person came back to life, but that it carries the meaning of new creation, a new beginning.

10. “Mary Magdalene and the other Mary.” These are the very women we meditated on yesterday morning. They watched Jesus on the cross to the very end (27:55–56), confirmed that Joseph of Arimathea buried Him, and sat opposite the tomb (27:61). These women who did not leave Jesus to the end became the first witnesses of the resurrection.

11. According to the text, these two Marys went “to look at the tomb.” Of course, they did not go expecting the resurrection, but likely walked there to mourn more closely. But those steps of mourning were changed into running to testify to the risen Jesus.

12. In verses 2 and 3, it describes the situation they witnessed. Verse 2: “Suddenly there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven, went to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it.” Verse 3: “His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow.”

13. “Suddenly there was a great earthquake.” The resurrection did not happen quietly. The Bible records that when Jesus breathed His last on the cross, there was also an earthquake. And when He rose, the earth shook again.

14. Living in California, you may have felt a fairly large earthquake recently. Even though we have become accustomed to it, every time we experience it, it still feels new. No matter how familiar we are, it is still something our bodies remember with fear. In that same way, the resurrection was announced.

15. Then it says, “an angel of the Lord came down from heaven, rolled back the stone, and sat on it.” The rolling away of the stone was not to open the door so that Jesus could come out.

16. The stone that blocked the tomb was rolled away in order to show people the empty tomb as evidence of the resurrection. From the Scripture, it is clear that the resurrection had already happened, and the rolled-away stone shows that the tomb is empty. This can be understood as an act to present the evidence of the resurrection to people.

17. In Scripture, angels do not appear as beings who perform miracles or make things happen, but as those who come to deliver what has already happened or what will happen. They are thoroughly representatives of God, revealing what God has done and will do.

18. And it is recorded that the angel sat on the stone. The image of the angel sitting on the stone is an image of victory. On the stone of sealing, the symbol of death, the angel of God is sitting.

19. The appearance like lightning—although we cannot fully picture what it looked like, it seems to be an expression meant to shock and awaken. From the tone of the passage, it feels as though the angel is sitting there as if mocking all the devices and human efforts that tried to guard the tomb.

20. Verse 4 records the reaction of those who saw the angel: “The guards were so afraid of him that they trembled and became like dead men.”

21. The guards here are the Roman soldiers assigned by Pilate, whom we reflected on yesterday morning. The soldiers who sealed and guarded the tomb became “like dead men.” The living became like the dead, and the One who was dead came back to life.

22. This is the moment when all human power becomes powerless before God. The seal, the guards, and even the authority of Rome could not stop the resurrection. Those who guarded death fell, and life has won the victory.

Part 2: The Declaration of the Resurrection (vv.5–7)

23. In the following verses, from verse 5 to verse 7, the scene is recorded where the angel declares the resurrection of Jesus.

    
    

    Verse 5: “The angel said to the women, ‘Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified.’”

    
    

    “Do not be afraid!” The first message of the resurrection was the removal of fear.

24. In the Bible, whenever an angel appears, the very first thing they say is, “Do not be afraid.” When announcing the birth of Jesus, and also when announcing the resurrection, the same words were proclaimed. God’s work always begins by removing fear.

25. “I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified.” The angel knew exactly whom the women were seeking—Jesus who was crucified. The risen Jesus is not different from the Jesus of the cross.

26. The very One who died on the cross is the One who has risen. The resurrection does not erase the cross, but brings out and completes the meaning of the cross.

27. In verse 6, the angel continues and specifically declares the resurrection of Jesus.

    
    

    Verse 6: “He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.”

    
    

    “He is not here.” This is the most important declaration of the resurrection.

28. Jesus is no longer in the place of death. And the tomb where He was buried is empty. Normally, it is not easy to find the image of life in a tomb. But now, Jesus is no longer there.

29. The tomb, which symbolizes death and the disappearance of life, could no longer contain Jesus, the Lord of life. “Just as he said.” The angel reminds them that the resurrection was not an unexpected accident, but the fulfillment of what Jesus had already spoken.

30. Jesus foretold His death and resurrection three times (16:21; 17:23; 20:19). The resurrection is not something that just happened by chance—it is the fulfillment of a declared promise.

31. “Come and see the place where he lay.” The angel does not simply speak, but invites them to see the empty tomb for themselves. Through the mouth of the angel, the Gospel of Matthew testifies that the resurrection is not merely an idea communicated by words, but a historical event evidenced by the physical reality of the empty tomb.

32. In verse 7, the angel tells these two women who witnessed the resurrection what they must do next.

    
    

    Verse 7: “Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you.”

33. “Go quickly and tell his disciples.” The message of the resurrection is not something to keep, but something to proclaim. Those who have experienced the resurrection must become those who proclaim it. The word “quickly” carries a sense of urgency. The message of the resurrection is not something to be delivered slowly, but something urgent and dynamic.

34. “He is going ahead of you into Galilee.” Galilee is the place where Jesus and His disciples lived and ministered together. The risen Lord is not going to the magnificent temple in Jerusalem, but to the ordinary daily life of Galilee.

35. The resurrection means meeting the Lord in our everyday lives. Not in a special place, but in the ordinary places of our lives right now, we encounter the risen Lord.

Part 3: The Encounter with the Risen Lord (vv.8–10)

36. The following verses, 8 to 10, tell the story of those who encounter the risen Jesus. Verse 8: “So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with great joy, and ran to tell his disciples.” “Afraid yet filled with great joy.” This expression most honestly shows the emotions of those who encounter the resurrection.

37. The resurrection was not simply joy. There was awe, trembling, and overwhelming joy all at once. Perhaps this is why the angel first said, “Do not be afraid,” because they may have witnessed the resurrection with great fear. Today, we must also reflect on whether we are treating the resurrection merely as something we “know.”

38. Some may not even know how they came to church, but only remember eating eggs on Easter, thinking of it simply as a day with good food and a big event, without truly reflecting on the meaning of the resurrection.

39. The resurrection must shake us. The mixture of amazement and joy, or even doubt—“Can this really be true?”—and the struggle within us, all of these experiences and thoughts must honestly be acknowledged in our lives. Only then can we experience the resurrection more closely.

40. “They hurried away… and ran.” The women left. The tomb is no longer a place to stay. Those who hear the message of the resurrection do not sit in front of the tomb. They run. They proclaim. The joy of the resurrection moves us.

41. In verse 9, it records that these women encounter the risen Jesus. Verse 9: “Suddenly Jesus met them. ‘Greetings,’ he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him.”

42. “Suddenly Jesus met them.” As the women were running after hearing the angel’s message, they encountered the risen Jesus directly. Hearing the message of the angel was already amazing, but meeting Jesus Himself is an entirely different level of experience.

43. “Greetings.” The first words of the risen Lord were an ordinary greeting. The Greek word chairete (χαίρετε) means “Rejoice” or “Greetings.” The One who overcame death did not begin with a thunderous declaration, but with a warm and familiar everyday greeting.

44. The risen Lord enters into our everyday lives. He is not someone who is encountered only in a special place or through a confession that requires unquestioning belief, but someone who is met in the ordinary experiences of everyday life.

45. “They came to him, clasped his feet, and worshiped him.” The risen Jesus was not a vision or illusion. He had a physical body that could be touched.

46. The resurrection is not merely a spiritual concept, but the resurrection of the body. And the women respond with worship. One of the reasons we worship every week is as our response to the risen Lord.

47. In verse 10, Jesus tells the women again not to be afraid. Verse 10: “Then Jesus said to them, ‘Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.’”

48. “Do not be afraid.” Just as the angel said in verse 5, Jesus Himself now says it directly. This shows that even in the midst of joy and awe, fear can still come first in the experience of resurrection.

49. The risen Lord desires to remove this fear. Fear of death, fear of failure, fear of the future. The resurrection is the answer to all of these fears, and it is an invitation into a new life beyond them.

50. “My brothers.” This is the most moving part of the entire passage we read today. When Jesus was arrested, all the disciples ran away (26:56). Peter denied Him three times. Yet the risen Jesus does not call them “disciples” or “servants,” but “my brothers.” To call those who betrayed Him “brothers”—this is the grace of the resurrection. The resurrection is not a declaration of judgment, but of forgiveness and restoration.

51. “There they will see me.” The promise of the resurrection is an encounter. Jesus promises to meet us. Wherever we go, in our daily lives, in our own Galilee, we will meet Him. The resurrection is not only an event of the past, but an ongoing promise of encounter.

Conclusion: The Morning the Stone Was Rolled Away—Our Lives

52. Beloved congregation, over this past week, we have walked a long journey together. On Friday evening, we stood before the cross. Yesterday morning, we waited in silence before the tomb. And today, we stand together on the morning of the resurrection.

53. Today’s passage tells us three truths.

    First, the stone has been rolled away (vv.1–4). The seal of death has been broken, and the empty tomb proves the resurrection. The stones sealed in our lives will also be rolled away.

54. Second, He has risen (vv.5–7). “He is not here. He has risen, just as he said.” The One who promised is faithful.

55. Third, the risen Lord meets us (vv.8–10). He calls us brothers and comes into our everyday lives.

56. The risen Lord still speaks today: “Do not be afraid. Go and tell. And there you will meet me.”

57. Do not think of the resurrection as merely a sentence, an event, or just a seasonal moment like a point in springtime. Rather, may you and I live on this earth always by the power of the risen Lord.

58. Moving beyond a passive, habitual understanding of the resurrection, receive it as an active confession of life, so that your lives, and Yeolin Church, may be filled with the new life that God has prepared.