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How Easter Begins on Good Friday

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April 5, 2026
Matthew 27:51-54
Steven Lee
Pastor for Preaching & Vision

The Death of Christ (The Cross)

The Resurrection of Christ

Justification

Transcript

0:15Well, praise God for those three baptisms. I feel like after their testimonies, we could just go home. We won't do that. Welcome to the North Church. My name is Stephen. I'm one of the pastors here, and we're so glad you've joined us for this Resurrection Sunday, where we celebrate that Christ indeed is risen. This morning, we're in Matthew's Gospel. We've jumped ahead a few chapters, and we're in chapter 27. Before we begin, let me pray for us.

0:48Father in heaven, we ask that you would come in the power of your Holy Spirit and give us eyes and hearts that will behold Christ in all of his transforming glory, so that every heart here in this room would leave changed, having seen Christ. We pray this in your name. Amen. Endings are often the beginning of something new. Endings are often the beginnings of something new. The end of high school marks the beginning, in our culture, of adulthood. Or the end of your singleness means the beginning of marriage. Or the ending of the pregnancy means the beginning of parenthood. The ending of work means the beginning of retirement. The ending of winter, at least in most places- ... means the beginning of spring, and it will eventually come, even here. The ending of one year begins another.

2:05While some endings are decisive, like death, many endings mark a new beginning, and that's what we see in our passage here in Matthew's Gospel. We tend to think of Easter beginning on the Sunday with an empty tomb, but what Matthew wants us to see this morning is that Easter actually begins on Good Friday at the death of Jesus. Before his body is even buried, the earth shakes, the veil tears, and the very grip of death begins to loosen. So what I want to do this morning is a little bit unorthodox, which is I want to preach an Easter sermon from a passage on the death of Christ, which you just heard read.

3:00This account comes right in the aftermath of Jesus' crucifixion and final breath, and it reveals the inbreaking of new beginnings and even the undoing of death itself. Jesus' death begins something new and amazing, and what we're going to see in our text is that death is undone in the very death of Christ. Let me say that again. Death is undone in the very death of Christ. And so at the death of Jesus, the grave loses its death grip on life. The cross breaks the curse, and hope rises from the tomb and marks this new beginning. And so the primary question I want to ask for us is this: How does Easter begin on Good Friday? How does Easter begin on Good Friday? How does resurrection hope already begin to break in before the resurrection itself?

4:09So we're going to see this in three movements in the text that you just heard read. We're going to see the way opened, the graves opened, and then the eyes opened. The way opened, the graves opened, and then the eyes opened. So turn with me in your Bibles to verse 51. I'd love for you to follow along as I read that once again. Matthew 27:51, and it says, "And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split." Now, at first glance, this doesn't seem like that big of a deal, does it? Some draperies get torn, okay. There's an earthquake.

4:53This is a naturally occurring phenomenon, and yet this is no mere coincidence. This is a divine statement from God himself. We're going to leave the earthquake for our second point, but first, let's just look at the curtain tearing. There were two major curtains in the temple in Jesus' day. There was this outer curtain, which hung on the front entrance of the sanctuary building, and so this outer veil functioned a little bit like a front door, and if you crossed that threshold and went behind that curtain, it was then we're entering into the temple proper. The Holy Place is what it was called.

5:33And this curtain was large and richly embroidered with blues and purples and scarlets and made of fine linen. Then inside the temple, there was a lampstand and the bread of presence and the altar of incense. But then there was this second curtain, this inner veil, and behind this inner veil was the Holy of Holies, or what we call the Most Holy Place, and this curtain separated GodAn infinitely holy God and sinners. And so only the high priest, once a year, on the Day of Atonement, with sacrifices and blood, could go behind this curtain because he was entering into the very presence of God himself.

6:24And this curtain stood about 90 feet high, 45 feet wide, taller than a five-story building. Just imagine how big this curtain is. Made of fine woven linen, embroidered with very much of the same designs. Some Jewish texts even say that it was a hand breadth thick. So as thick as my hand is this curtain. It took 300 priests to hoist it up and get it into place, and it's modeled after what God commands in Exodus 26. And we suspect that it's this inner curtain that was torn from the very top to the very bottom. This is not the natural wearing down of fabric, like when you've worn your pants too long and finally they just give way and they rip.

7:16This wasn't torn by an earthquake either. I don't know if you have ever lived through an earthquake. Your curtains don't get torn in the process. Matthew mentions that actually as a separate event. Based on the size and weight of this curtain, this was an act of God. It's like in your homeowner's insurance manual. There are certain things your homeowner's insurance will not cover because they say that these are acts of God. State Farm is not going to cover this torn curtain because it was beyond human ability and responsibility and control. Now, what does this mean for us? It means that the very barrier separating sinners, sinful mankind, and the infinitely holy presence of God has been torn down. This means that at the very death of Jesus, access to God has been opened up.

8:18You see, our primary problem is not that we don't love ourselves enough, and you heard it in the baptism testimonies. Our primary problem is that we are sinners and we're estranged from God. We cannot stand in his presence as sinners. And by sinners, I mean that every single one of us has thoughts and desires and words and actions that are not what they should be. We fall short of our own standards. We have failed others. We have failed to live up to our own standards, and the Bible says we have failed to live up to God's standards. Romans 3:23, "For all have sinned and fall short of the very glory of God." We're estranged and alienated because of this sinfulness so that we cannot enter into the Holy of Holies. We cannot stand in God's presence.

9:12We've offended an infinitely holy God by our selfishness, our impatience, our cruelty, our indifference, our dishonesty, our pride. And so what are we to do? As you heard in one of the testimonies, you can't clean yourself up enough. You can't fix yourself. And yet Jesus does that for us. He opens a new way by his death. The writer of the Book of Hebrews, Hebrews 10:20, says that we are now on the other side of the cross to have confidence to enter the holy places. He's talking about these Holy of Holies by the blood of Jesus, by this new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain that is his flesh. So the tearing of the curtain symbolizes the end of the sacrificial system and marks our new access to God. And now the question becomes, how does that actually work? Why do we have access?

10:12Well, in the death of Jesus, he functions as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And so he offers that perfect sacrifice in order to provide us cleansing. And when the curtain tears, this is an act of God. God Almighty is saying, "I see that perfect sacrifice for sins, and it is accepted. I receive it." And now then we have access. So the tearing of the curtain means now that we have access to God. How do we apply it this morning? What difference does this make? For those of us who are disciples of Jesus this morning, it means that we can draw near to God by faith. You don't need to stand far off. Your access is not restricted.

11:08You don't go to God once a year through a mediator. You don't bring blood sacrifices. You can waltz right up into his presence through the death of Christ that washes and cleanses us from our sins. So praise God for the death of Jesus. And yet for those who are not disciples of Christ, who are still maybe looking and examining, it means that you cannot clean yourself up enough before you come to him. I've talked to many people, unbelievers, and often they'll say, "Well, I want to get my life in order before I come to Jesus. Let me stop doing these bad things. Let me get rid of these bad habits. Let me get out of this bad situation.

11:55Let me stop this bad lifestyle, and then I'll come to Jesus." It's a little bit like cleaning your house before a house cleaner comes.I don't have a house cleaner, but I can imagine if I hired one, I don't want them to see how much of a slob I actually am, right? And my wife keeps a very clean home. Don't get the wrong idea. But I'm going to go around and pick up all my socks and dirty underwear and throw them in the hamper before the house cleaner comes. And the point here is Jesus can handle all of your dirty laundry. You cannot clean yourself enough. You cannot fix your sinful and wayward heart.

12:32You don't need any magic or incantations or beads or potions in order to come before God. All you must do is cry out, believing that Jesus himself is God, the perfect sacrifice for you, and confess your sins and ask for his cleansing. So the miracle of Easter that started on Good Friday is that this dividing wall, this dividing curtain, was torn down so that we could have access to God. We could have a relationship with Him, and that we could be saved. So how does Easter begin on Good Friday? The death of Christ means the death of our alienation and our new access to God. Second, the graves opened. Look with me at 52 and 53. I'm going to start reading at the end of 51.

13:30"And the earth shook, and the rocks were split, and the tombs also were opened, and many of the bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised. And coming out of the tombs after his resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many." If you're paying attention, this gets a little weird. Earthquake, okay, normal. Rare, but normal. The tombs opening, okay, that's a little bit unusual. We suspect that the earthquake dislodged these massive boulders that covered the entrances of these cave tombs that they used in those days. And then we see bodies raised. When it talks about those who had fallen asleep, they mean those who have died.

14:14So you didn't know that Easter entailed a zombie apocalypse, did you? We don't usually dress up as dead people at Easter and go door to door asking for chocolate eggs. So what's going on here? Let me zoom out and show us what's going on, and then I'm going to zoom in to a few of the details. Imagine that you are there at the foot of the cross, watching all of this happen. Jesus takes his very final breath and then he dies. And then a split second later, this massive earthquake rumbles and shakes the very ground that you're standing on. And then you hear these deafening cracks explode in the distance as you see boulders split and rocks shatter. And then you hear this commotion way off in the distance as the crowds and as the people who are gathered at the temple begin to discover that the curtain has torn in two from top to bottom.

15:14What do you conclude in that moment? This is no ordinary man, this is no ordinary death, and this is no ordinary moment. God is speaking right now. Now let me zoom in on some of the details. Earthquakes in the Bible very often signal God's power and his presence, and sometimes his judgment as well. Now let me read one verse from Joel 2 that I think is foreshadowing these realities. Joel 2:1-2. This is in the Old Testament, and says, "Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble" like at an earthquake, "for the day of the Lord is coming. It's near, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness."

16:02And if you remember, at the crucifixion, Matthew describes darkness over the land from the sixth hour to the ninth hour, I believe, in chapter 27, verse 45. So we get an earthquake, we get darkness, we get trembling. It's supposed to show us that the day of the Lord is here. Now, what do we make of the tombs opening and bodies raised? Chances are, if you're a kid, kids listen up, I have a homework assignment for you. Chances are, if you read your storybook Bibles at home, none of them have drawings of verse 52. And if you find one, I want you to come show it to me next week. There are no coloring sheets of resurrected bodies coming out of the tombs for Easter. And it raises all sorts of questions for us, doesn't it?

16:53When were these people raised? When did they appear? How many were there? Which people were they? Was this before or after Jesus' resurrection? So let me just tell you what I think happens, and then more importantly, what this means. At Jesus' death on Friday, the earthquake opens the tombs. And then on Sunday, these individuals are raised from the dead, and they come out of their tombs, where Matthew says, "After Jesus' resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many." And the Bible says that Jesus is the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. That is, Jesus' resurrection is what brings about the resurrection of others. And so the saints rising is a sign that Jesus' resurrection power has already begun to spill over into our world and to raise the dead, highlighting the potent power of the resurrection.

17:57Now, you might be saying, "This sounds unusual, Pastor. I've not heard this about the resurrection. I've been a Christian for a long time. People usually kind of skip over this. Are there any Old Testament passages that kind of point to something like this maybe happening?"Well, I'm glad you asked. There are two that I want to point your attention to. Two Old Testament stories. The first comes in Ezekiel 37. There, the prophet Ezekiel is told to prophesy over a valley of dry, dead bones, and he does so, and the people come alive. It's a very strange story. You can go read it later. But here's what it says in Ezekiel 37:13.

18:39This is the Lord speaking, and he says, "And you shall know that I am the Lord." Now, how will we know that he is the Lord? "When I open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people." In other words, you will know that God is present when graves are opened and the dead begin to walk. In other words, this is pointing forward to this moment, I believe, where Jesus is shown to be the Lord. The other Old Testament text, one of the pastors shared with me, is 2 Kings 13. It's a very obscure passage, and this is where the prophet Elisha dies. Not Elijah, Elisha. They're not husband and wife. I always thought that growing up.

19:28Elijah and Elisha. No, this is the prophet that came after Elijah. The prophet Elisha dies, and then he's buried. And as this band of invaders comes in, they enter the land, they're killing people, they throw a dead body into the grave of Elisha. This is 2 Kings 13:21, and this is what it says. "As soon as the man touched the bones of Elisha, he revived and stood on his feet." Very strange. But I think this strange miracle illustrates that the true prophet of God brings life even after death. Life flows through him, even in the grave. And so what we're supposed to see in the death of Jesus, that Jesus' death begins to undo death itself and bring about life as the very Son of God. This is the true prophet of God.

20:31Now, if the dead are not raised until after Jesus' resurrection, why does Matthew include it here? I think what Matthew is doing is he's bringing the death and resurrection together as this singular event that begins to undo the power and grip of death itself. Resurrection is already beginning to break in with these tombs opening at the very death of Jesus. And I know there's more questions. Which dead rise? Do they go on living or do they ascend? Why don't any of the other Gospels record this? I'm not going to answer all those questions, but what we are told is more important than what we don't know, and it doesn't undermine what we can truly appreciate in this text.

21:23So what does this mean? It means that death is undone in the death of Christ. Death is undone in the very death of Christ. The grip of death is being loosened, and Jesus' death establishes new life, new hope, and this new era of creation is breaking into our present world. The graves open to reveal the failing grip of death itself. And so we often think of the resurrection as the reason or the grounds for our resurrection. It's often how Paul speaks. If we've died with Christ, we will also be raised with him. If Christ is raised from the dead, we will also be raised with him. But the way Matthew, he's stressing that the very death of Christ begins this defeat of death and guarantees the hope of the resurrection, so that in Hebrews 2:14, it says, "Through death, Jesus might destroy the one who has the power of death."

22:26So death is put to death in the death of Christ. This is the death blow, if you will, against what the Bible calls our last enemy. If you play video games like Super Mario, your goal in almost all the games is to rescue Princess Peach, and the person you play last, the final enemy, is always your arch nemesis, Bowser. You defeat some smaller bosses along the way, like an evil mushroom or a bird. I know, it doesn't sound that threatening now, huh? But then the last enemy is Bowser, the final boss. And up to this point, the Bible has said the last enemy is death itself. And in the Bible, death is nearly undefeated.

23:22How many people avoided death? I count two. Enoch and Elijah. They don't die. Everyone else, they die. And even those who get raised by Jesus, they live only to die again. And so death has a 99.9999999, and I can go on, percent success rate. Death has always been the final word. But here, at the death of Christ, we see death beginning to fail. Death's grip on life begins to loosen. The saints are raised, and the undoing of death has decisively begun in the death of Christ.So why does this matter to us? It means that the death of Christ, because of Jesus' death, we now have the hope of the resurrection. And in a world plagued by anxiety, and fear, and grief, and loss, and illness, Jesus defeats our greatest enemy.

24:32The Bible says that death has lost its sting. The victory of death has been taken away. And even when our beloved ones die, there is still deep and profound grief. And yet, death is being undone. But there's more than that. Resurrection power is now at work in all believers. This is Romans chapter eight, verse 11. It says, "If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who dwells in you." It means that the very power that raised Jesus from the dead is at work in believers, which means that we can have meaning in our suffering.

25:22We can have joy in our sorrow. We can have hope in the hard things. That we can see his fingerprints, his sovereign fingerprints, in all of the difficulties of life. And that we can live lives of service, and love, and holiness, knowing that our labors in the Lord are not in vain. Because death no longer has the final word, we don't live in constant fear of what happens when I die. That massive question is put to the side because we know the answer if you're in Christ. So we've seen the way opened, the graves opened, and now we come to the eyes opened. Look with me at verse 54. "When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, 'Truly this was the Son of God!'" First, I want you to notice, if you were here with us on Good Friday, you remember that we talked about three groups of scoffers or mockers that were at Jesus' crucifixion. There was the crowds or those who passed by, then there was the leaders, the Sanhedrin, and then there were the robbers, that all mocked him. And now what we see in this text is we get three sets of witnesses of Jesus' death.

26:41The first was the tearing of the temple, the earthquake, and the opening of the tombs. That is heaven's witness or God's witness. Now we see the centurion and those with him as our second witness. And if you scan down to 55 and 56, you see the group of women who were also there. So we get three witnesses that Jesus' death was unlike any other. Now, this centurion had this front-row seat to Jesus' death and final moments. He was there to guard the cross, to make sure no one helped Jesus, no one took him down prematurely. And so he heard Jesus say, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."

27:22And then he heard Jesus' final words, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit." And Matthew tells us that he saw the earthquake and what took place. He saw all of the things leading up to Jesus' death, and he concludes, "Truly this was the Son of God." The phrase that they were all filled with awe could be translated, they were all filled with terror, which is the exact same phrase that came at the Transfiguration that described how the disciples responded. And the Transfiguration was this preview of Jesus' death and resurrection, and glory. So the centurion's confession could be saying, Jesus certainly was an innocent man, and that's certainly what Luke's Gospel records.

28:10Certainly, this man was innocent. But Matthew is emphasizing that this centurion gives the full Christian confession of faith in saying that Jesus is the Son of God. Because what are the other instances where Jesus is affirmed as the Son of God in Matthew's Gospel? Happens at the baptism. The Father says, "This is my beloved Son." And then when Jesus calms the storm, the disciples just fall down on their face and they say, "You are the Son of God." And then there's the conversation between Jesus and Peter, "Who do you say that I am?" "You are the Christ, the Son of God." And then the very next time Jesus' Sonship is affirmed is by God himself at the Transfiguration. "This again is my beloved Son." And now we get the centurion confessing that Jesus is the Son of God. And what we're to see is not only that the centurion and those around him, his eyes are opened, but this begins the inclusion of the Gentiles in the people of God. Not only is Jesus shown to be the King of the Jews, but he's King over all. The centurion becomes the first fruits of the Gentiles who are going to come to faith in Jesus. So what does this mean for us?

29:29The manner in which Jesus dies reveals he is the Messiah. The manner in which Jesus dies reveals that he's the Messiah. You don't have to wait till Sunday to see him rise from the grave to conclude this indeed is God. This Roman centurion probably worked in that same area, and he saw hundreds of executions. This is a pagan outsider with no sympathies for the nation of Israel, and yet he concludes that this is God's Son. And so the way that we apply this is that the death of Jesus then demands a response. Some passed by unchanged, but this centurion's life was never the same. And this EasterOur invitation to you is that you would behold the wonder and the majesty and the truth of Jesus Christ, died for us so that we would have access to Him, who pays for our sins, who reconciles us to the Father, who tears the curtain so that we could come into His presence, and all you must do is repent and confess and to receive Him as Lord.

30:48So how does Easter begin on Good Friday? In the death of Christ, the brokenness of our world has begun to be made right once again. The alienation of sin, the power of death, the dullness of our own hearts has begun to be undone. Yet I recognize that for some here this morning, the resurrection is about as real as the Easter Bunny. And talking about saints rising sounds like a myth, a fairy tale, and they just added details to make Jesus' death seem dramatic. And yet what Matthew does is he records this as historical narrative. Jesus' resurrected body appeared to over 500 people, and many were alive when those very words were written by Paul in 1 Corinthians 15. There were multiple first-hand eyewitnesses to this event, and it's all to show that Christ's death is the undoing of death itself.

31:51And we often assume that death only takes, it never gives, and nothing good comes from it. It's always loss, and it's always this decisive final end. It's the period at the end of the book. And yet, as we said at the start, some endings mark new and glorious beginnings, don't they? And that is what we see here in this text. Jesus himself taught this. John chapter 12, verse 24. He says, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit." This is the plan of God from the very beginning of time, that it had to unfold precisely this way.

32:44Some of you gardeners are eagerly waiting to start up your gardens again. How many of... Is that as you? And some of you have even begun to sprout your seeds indoors, right? Kind of get them to germinate and begin. And those seeds and bulbs must be buried, and in a sense, they must die in order to sprout. And we see this throughout life. We must die to childish ways to mature into young adults. In the Christian life, we must die to ourselves to embrace this new life in Christ. And this pattern is woven into the very fabric of our world, and Easter is the most deep and profound expression of this truth. The death of Christ gives birth to our resurrection life this morning.

33:28And so I desperately want everyone who can hear my voice, we don't want you to miss out on the resurrection. We want you to take hold of the life and the hope that is found in Jesus and Jesus alone. And so how does Easter begin on Good Friday? The death of Jesus becomes the death of death and the beginning of new life. And so we celebrate the glorious inbreaking of Jesus at His death and at His resurrection to give life to our mortal bodies, both now and for all eternity. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the death of Christ. We thank you that He took His life up again and that you raised Him from the dead to vindicate Him and to say, "This is indeed my beloved Son.

34:29Listen to Him." And so may we heed the words of King Jesus this morning. We thank you for raising Him from the dead and that we might have life in His name. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

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Matthew 27:51-54

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