The Resurrection of Our Lord, Easter Day (2024)

1 Cor 15:51-57

Christ is Risen! He is Risen Indeed Alleluia! What a joyous day my brothers and sisters in Christ, as we celebrate the victory of Jesus over the power of death as He thrown open the gates of satan’s stronghold where he kept mankind held hostage and declares that we are no longer slaves to sin, and death, but that we share In his victory, and have been made not only citizens of the Kingdom of heaven, but also are adopted by God and are heirs in His Kingdom and enjoy all the treasures that he has secured by His sacrifice on the Cross and confirmed by His Resurrection.

We have known the power and the pain of death, how it reminds us that we all are mortal, that from the greatest of us to the least of us, we have not been able to stop it. It revealed that we are all sinners. It doesn’t matter if you are rich or poor, young or old, healthy or sick, if you are loved or despised, if you have performed the great and mightiest works of charity or lived only for yourself. Death comes for everyone, and it reminds us that despite our best efforts that we are still sinners.

Then death came for Jesus, it laid hold of Him on Good Friday, wrapped him in its adamantine bands, and declared its victory as it laid his lifeless clay in the tomb. The world rejoiced and celebrated that this man who promised to conquer death, who was the son of David, who called God His Father was finally shown to be just like the rest of us going down into the grave. For that would mean that Jesus was no different than you or I, and like many who had come before Him, his plans and promises were coming to nothing. He would return to dust like all the children of Adam.

Then what happened this morning, those chains that had bound so many, Jesus threw them off and threw open the tomb, and showed that not even death has the power to stop Him. That is why death is swallowed up in victory, O death where is your victory, O death where is your sting? For you could not hold on to Jesus, and Jesus has robbed death of its power, and given to us the promise of everlasting life.

Anyone who has gone through the pain of loss knows the comfort this brings. It is why Funerals are meant to bring hope and comfort to the bereaved. Quite often we have the opposite picture in our mind, and that is it to be place of sorrow, and weeping and people overcome by grief. If you don’t have the comfort of the resurrection that is all you’ve got in the end. People without the resurrection try to combat those bad feelings with good feelings hoping to overpower and overcome them. It doesn’t change the fact that the person is gone. The sting of death remains, but not so for Christians, for we have hope even in the face of death. That’s why we don’t preach the person at a funeral, we preach Christ who saved them.

This is even in the midst of sadness and grief, there is joy when a dear saint passes, and we don’t lose hope. For we know that even though they are gone from us, we shall see them again in the land of the living. For our God is not a God of the dead, but of the Living! Those who die in the faith are with Christ in paradise until that day when all the dead are raised. It means we will see them again healthy and whole not as we saw them bound by death, for Jesus will call them forth to everlasting life.

So we don’t have to fear the grave as our end, for Jesus has shown us that it is a temporary place to rest, where I will slumber for a little awhile but then be raised imperishable at the trumpet sound, and be clothed with immortality. For death shall have no claim on me. For those who die in the faith, we mourn them, but we mourn them with hope, knowing that we will see them again in the flesh.

This is what we need to share with the world. I say this because many in our time don’t realize that this is the heart of Christianity, Jesus’ empty tomb is the reason that we are Christians. We proclaim today that Christ is Risen! He Is Risen Indeed Alleluia, because that is the heart of why we are believers. It wasn’t about a feeling we got, it wasn’t about a personal experience that we had, for that would make us like all the other religions of the world, and then the world would be right to question what our faith is in.

Is it just in good feelings? Is it just how we were raised? Is it just about the friends, family, or connections we have at church? No! It’s about the resurrection and Jesus victory. Think about all the reasons that people give that they don’t like the church, or they don’t want to be involved with Christianity and its hypocrisy, how since the Bible teaches creation, they can’t believe it, etc. It is important that we be able to answer those questions, but these arguments are often used as a distraction to avoid the heart of the Christian faith. Because you can argue with people on these points till you are blue in the face, but you must bring them to the heart of the issue. Did Jesus rise from the dead on Easter morning?

That’s not an opinion, that’s not a personal feeling, that’s a historic event that can be measured, weighed, and verified. What that means is that Christianity, isn’t just my personal preference, or about the positive experiences you’ve had, or about the moral character of a bunch of sinners. It is about the empty tomb, God did not abandon us, but worked through History that we might know who the True God is, and what is the one True religion. Jesus is the messiah, the son of GOd, who shed his blood to save sinners and confirmed that He is the way the truth and the life, by His resurrection from the dead.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t have answers to the other questions, but quite often the world and people think they have won and discredited Christianity, because they spend more time on these topics, and then duck out of the converstaion claiming their tired fo talking about and avoid discussing the resurrection. This is precisely what we need to share with them.

I would encourage you speak with people about the resurrection of Jesus, and what it means. How God confirmed the Work of His Son by the Resurrection, and by the Resurrection that we know that in Jesus there is forgiveness and eternal life. That’s the tragedy, they believe they have rejected Christianity, when they haven’t even touched the primary teaching. The resurrection of Christ is the primary teaching of Christianity and the reason we believe all the other things we do. It’s good news not only for you and me, but for all the world.

It’s from this foundation that the rest of our faith is built, and without it we would have no hope, and death would still reign. Since Christ did rise from the dead, we can tell them, that this isn’t just a personal opinion, this wasn’t some vision that we had, His tomb was empty, and the people who saw him went to their graves confessing, Christ is Risen, He is risen indeed Alleluia. That is the message we want the world to know, that might have this same hope of salvation. For Jesus died for all the world, but many in their foolish pride toss aside this gift and perish. May we not neglect to share with them the resurrection of Jesus.

So my brothers and sisters in Christ, when death comes for each of us, we can hold the cross of Christ before our eyes and remember that Jesus has already gone ahead of us into the grave, and come out victorious. This takes away death’s power, and death’s sting, for though we die yet shall we live, and all of those dear saints who have gone ahead of us into the grave, we will see again in the flesh, for Christ is Risen, HE is Risen indeed Alleluia! Amen.