Easter Sunrise: The Early Bird Catches the Worm

I. The early women
A. In Matthew 28:19 and the other gospel accounts of the day of Christ’s resurrection, we learn that a small group of women came to Jesus’ tomb in the early morning.
1. Interestingly, all four gospels make the point that the women set out very early in the morning to go to the tomb.
a. Mat.28:1 toward the dawn
b. Mk.16:2 very early
c. Lk.24:1 at early dawn
d. Jn.20:1 early, while it was still dark
B. The repetition of this not only tells us something about what time of day Jesus was resurrected, it also tells us something about these women.
C. Why did these women come so early?
1. You remember why they stopped their work in the first place. On Friday, in the late afternoon, after Jesus’ body had been removed from the cross, they began preparing Jesus’ body for burial. But they didn’t have time to finish the job before the Sabbath began at dusk. So, they suspended their work and returned home for the Sabbath.
2. The Sabbath ended on Saturday at dusk, and so it would have been permissible for them to leave then, but you don’t walk to a burial ground in the dark of night to finish preparing a body.
3. But the next day they got up very early in the morning, while it was still dark, and left just before dawn, so that, by the time they got there, there would be enough light to complete the job.
II. So what motivated these women to come so early to the tomb?
A. Was it an overflow of human virtue?
B. Were they trying to earn brownie points with God?
C. I don’t think it was virtue, I don’t think it was a desire to please God. I think it was eagerness to be with Jesus. They had found the fountain of life and even though the well had now gone dry, they still wanted to hang around the dry fountain.
1. It’s like a person hugging his loved one’s dead body, even while knowing the loved one is gone.
2. It’s like a person going to visit a cemetery where a loved one is buried, even though it’s just a tombstone.
3. And as they hung around that dry fountain, suddenly there was a gurgling sound, and lo and behold, water sprang up.
III. What’s the point?
A. The issue is not whether you are good enough to do good things for God. The issue is how you view life without Jesus. The issue is whether you have something to live for if you don’t have Jesus.
1. The issue is whether you really want Jesus, or is everything else enough for you?
2. I would suggest that these women didn’t care about sleep, if they couldn’t have Jesus. Their beds were not warm and comfortable if their life was without Jesus.
3. Say you could have everything in the world you would ever want: things, opportunities, fame, power, money, but have a Christ-less life, would you accept that?
4. Or would you give it all up and have nothing — except Jesus.
B. This is the question Jesus presents to us: “What use is it if a man gains the world but forfeits his own soul?” (Luke 9:25)
1. Finding Jesus is finding your own soul.
2. Going without Jesus is losing your own soul.
C. The issue is not how good you are. The issue is what you believe. The issue is where do believe real life is found? Where do you believe real pleasure is found?
D. Jesus doesn’t call us to turn our back on pleasure. He calls us to turn our back on that which advertizes itself as pleasure but is actually the enemy of true pleasure.
1. The worm on a hook may be — for a fish — a flash of pleasure but leads to permanent death.
2. Or think about heroin. They say that the first time you take heroin the pleasure is absolutely spectacular. But then after it wears off, you feel a little worse than you did before you took it.
a. And then the next time you take it, the pleasure is less and after it wears off, it’s worse.
b. And so it goes, until you take heroin just to feel normal, because when you’re not on it, you feel absolutely miserable.
c. Why do you avoid drugs like heroin? Is it because you’re a good person? Have you ever seen what drugs like heroin do to a person? Have you ever seen an addict? It’s slavery. It’s death. You don’t have to be virtuous to avoid heroin, you just have to care about yourself and your future.
d. Heroin gives you a little pleasure now in exchange for the pleasure of the rest of your life.
3. Satan the deceiver makes destructive things look like they will bring us pleasure.
4. Jesus wants to give us pleasure. But He knows what true pleasure is. Jesus calls us away from that which destroys us, that which robs us of real pleasure. He knows our true pleasure is in Him. He knows that knowing Him is mankind’s true pleasure.
E. Think about the parable of the treasure in the field (Matt.13:44).
1. It’s not about a man so good & virtuous that he sold everything he had to buy a treasure.
2. It’s about a man who realized what a treasure was there.
3. And once he knew, it would have been foolish to not sell everything.
F. Or think about the parable of the pearl of great price (Matt.13:45-46).
1. Again, this is not about a man who is so virtuous that he sells everything to buy a valuable pearl.
2. It’s about a person who recognizes the value of a pearl and then makes the sound financial decision to sell everything he possesses in order to obtain it.
G. The rich young ruler was a good man who had kept God’s laws, but didn’t come to Christ because he didn’t recognize how vastly superior the treasure of Christ was to the treasure he possessed.
1. What was the difference between the rich young ruler and the guys in the parables who sold everything to obtain the pearl and the treasure?
2. The rich young ruler didn’t believe that Jesus was the true treasure, and that everything else he had — or could have — was ultimately empty.
H. You see in all of this that coming to Jesus is not a result of an upright, virtuous heart. It’s a result of seeing your need for Him. It’s a result of believing He is who you need.
I. Ephesians 5:18 says, “Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit.”
1. The reason to be full of the Spirit instead of wine is not because one is the right thing to do and the other is the wrong thing to do. It’s because one brings joy and the other ultimately brings you misery.
2. It’s true that sometimes being drunk with wine makes people feel temporarily happy. But in the end it robs your happiness.
3. But being filled with the Spirit makes you feel happy both now and long-term.
J. When a person resists temptation, it is ultimately not because he is so good, but because he recognizes that the thing which tempts him is not true pleasure, but actually destructive of true pleasure.
1. God doesn’t require us to avoid pleasure! On the contrary, He calls us to enjoy true pleasure!
K. “Christianity is not an invitation to become a moral person.”– Journey of Desire by John Eldredge
1. It’s an invitation to have the greatest pleasure of all — the pleasure of knowing Jesus.
IV. The cost
A. How many of us like getting up really, really early in the morning to go wrap up a dead body?
B. Sure, there’s sacrifice. There’s a price to be paid. Luke 9:23 “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”
C. But it’s a fantastic deal! So the question is not, Are you willing to get up early? The question is, Do you want the worm?
1. If you really want the worm, you’re gonna get up early, because the early bird catches the worm.
V. Early in the morning
A. Jesus also got up early in the morning — to be with His Father. “Rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed.” -Mk.1:35
1. Why? It wasn’t obligation, I think, it was desire.
B. What about us getting up early in the morning to spend time reading the Bible and praying?
1. It’s not about doing something you know you should do.
2. It’s about desire. It’s about getting something you want and need.
C. Why early in the morning?
1. Well, it doesn’t have to be in the early morning, but in some ways it’s easier: fewer distractions, less clutter, easier to focus.
2. Not only this, but the first thing you do is the one you’re most likely to get done. We never know what’s going to happen to our day and what might crash into our lives and take up our day.
3. If you want to make sure you get something done, you get up early and do it first thing.
4. What do you do first thing each morning? Usually it says something about what you most desire, and what you most think you need.