Very Early In The Morning, Hope Woke Up With The Sun

### **Introduction:**

Good morning! Look around. We are standing in a place of graves. A place of sorrow. A place of mourning… And yet, here we are this morning, greeting the dawn. We are in a place of endings, but watching a beginning.

Scripture tells us that very early in the morning, much like this morning, hope broke through even in a place of death.

Nearly 2,000 years ago, the women, who had been with Jesus through His ministry, went to a tomb.

They expected grief.

They found life.

On this Easter Sunday morning, in this cemetery, among these stones and monuments, names and memories… we come to celebrate that death did not have the final word. As our bulletin cover says,

“Death no longer has dominion over Him.” (Romans 6:9b, NKJV)

(*Pause momentarily. Let people feel the weight and beauty of it.*)

Luke records for us the events of that first day of the week in Luke 24:

1 Now on the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they, and certain other women with them, came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared. 2 But they found the stone rolled away from the tomb. 3 Then they went in and did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4 And it happened, as they were greatly perplexed about this, that behold, two men stood by them in shining garments. 5 Then, as they were afraid and bowed their faces to the earth, they said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? 6 He is not here, but is risen! Remember how He spoke to you when He was still in Galilee, 7 saying, ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.’ ” (Luke 24, NKJV)

This morning, I want to take just a few moments and share with you the hope that woke up with the sun on that first Easter Sunday morning.

1. The first thing I see is that Hope Begins in the Dark.

Luke said that it was very early in the morning. John’s gospel (John 20:1) even said that the women went to the tomb while it was still dark.

What were they doing? They were going there to complete the final steps of love for the dead by embalming Jesus body, something they were not permitted to do until after the Sabbath had passed.

Even though it was still dark, though it was before sunrise, though it was dawn, the Sabbath was over. They wanted to complete what they had been unable to complete as soon as they could.

You can imagine the emotions as they made their way to the tomb.

Sorrow. After all they had suffered a great loss in their lives.

Confusion. How could Jesus have left them? How was this possible that He had been crucified?

I’m sure there was even a sense of fear, knowing that Jesus’ tomb would be guarded.

They were experiencing all of the emotions that we would feel.

These are things we all feel in our lives today.

And it is with these same feelings that we too approach God.

But faith moves us, even when things are unclear. We know that we can come to God, no matter the lows through which we are going.

We can know that He will be there.

You know, just an hour ago, this cemetery was blanked with darkness.

But light came.

The world turned.

The light reminds us of hope.

The shadows did not last.

And neither will our sorrow, our confusion, our pain, our fear, our loss, or even death itself.

2. The second thing of note is that The Stone Was Already Rolled Away.

https://thinkingtobelieve.com/2011/03/24/the-size-of-the-stone-covering-jesus’-tomb-2/

In Mark’s account (Mark 16:3), the women express concern about the stone. How in the world were three women going to roll the stone back so they could get into the tomb? Some have estimated that the stone would have weighed anywhere from 1 to 2 tons, depending on the type of stone used! And typically, the grove that kept the stone in place was sloped down hill to make it easier to roll the stone in place. The women were possibly going to have to push a 1 to 2 ton stone uphill, then put something in front of it to keep it from rolling back down in front of the opening to the tomb.

I can understand why they would have worried about how they were going to roll that stone out of the way.

But when they get there, God had already taken care of the stone.

Are we surprised? We should not be.

After all, listen to just two of these promises:

To Joshua in Deuteronomy 31:7 and 8: