Easter - Risen to Reign

On June 6, 1944, Allied forces launched a massive surprise invasion on the beaches of Normandy. It was called D-Day—the largest seaborne invasion in history.

And while the Germans anticipated an attack somewhere, they were caught off guard by the scale and location of the invasion.

It was a secret mission, planned in silence and executed under the cover of darkness moving into dawn! A true shock and awe!

The fighting was brutal. Most of us have seen Saving Private Ryan. That movie doesn’t capture even half of the devastation experienced!

The beaches were littered with pain, carnage, and sacrifice. Victory did not come easy—it was hard-fought and costly.

But by the end of that day, the Allies had secured a beachhead. The tide had turned. Though the war didn’t end that day—in fact, it would rage on for another 11 months— D-Day was the decisive blow.

From that point on, the enemy’s defeat was guaranteed. The end was inevitable.

And in the same way, friends, the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the decisive D-Day moment in the love story of redemption! It is the turning point in the war that has raged since the Garden in Genesis—a war between good and evil, between light and darkness.

It’s the war we wake up in daily! No easy days right?

Life is hard! Our future’s feel uncertain. Hope is often hard to find.

Just like on Good Friday, from the disciples’ perspective, as Jesus, their leader, hung on the cross and died, to them, all felt lost.

But in the silence of the grave and the grief, under the cover of darkness, in the valley of the shadow of death, Sunday was always coming.

Even when they couldn’t see it, even when they didn’t feel it God was working! He was on the move, orchestrating a sneak-attack of shock and awe!

On Sunday, with the Resurrection of Christ, the tied forever turned!

Here’s the deal folks, we live in the a love story set in a world at war, but if we partner with King Jesus by faith, we win. Because He has risen to reign!

And this morning I’d like to unpack for you the significance of the resurrection from a military standpoint.

Where the victory was as shocking as it was decisive.

And it carried with it spoils of war to be lived from and empowered by!

So that if you make Jesus your King, not only will He give you eternal hope, but He’ll awaken you to a purpose so rich, so real, so rooted in Heaven’s glory—that anything this world offers will feel like shadows in comparison!

Look with me if you will at Matthew’s account of the resurrection from chapter 28.

In 4 points:

The Shock & Awe of Resurrection (vv. 1-10)

The Evil Conspiracy of the Powers of Darkness (vv. 11-15).

The Spoils of War

The Commissioning of the King (vv. 16-20)

Trans—> I. As we open on verse 1 of chapter 28, the scene is electric: an earthquake shakes the ground, an angel descends in blinding glory, and hardened Roman guards fall like dead men. This isn’t a quiet, gentle sunrise moment. It’s a cosmic invasion—the first visible blow in an invisible war that would end with death itself defeated.

And know this folks, the stone wasn’t rolled away so Jesus could get out! It was rolled away so we could see in.

Let’s look at it together:

1 Early on Sunday morning, as the new day was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went out to visit the tomb. 2 Suddenly there was a great earthquake!

The power of Christ shakes the earth, and He dispatches an angel like a general sending his fiercest warrior to the front lines.

There was a great earthquake—

For an angel of the Lord came down from heaven, rolled aside the stone, and sat on it.

Watch this now! Look at the beings Jesus commands.

This angel rolls that massive stone—probably weighing a few tons—aside like a toddler flicking a ping pong ball across a table. Then he hops up on this giant boulder, he hops upon what others would have to summit, he hops up upon this boulder, like a heavyweight boxer standing on the ropes, chest out, arms raised, declaring the fight is over before the bell even rings!

3 His face shone like lightning, and his clothing was as white as snow. 4 The guards shook with fear when they saw him, and they fell into a dead faint.

Church, these weren’t rent-a-cops or mall security—these were elite Roman soldiers. Battle-hardened warriors. And when they see this radiant, terrifying, Heaven-sent being, their knees give out and they drop like puppets with their strings cut.

I love how the NLT puts it—they fell into a dead faint. The life just drains out of them. One look and they go from warriors to wet noodles!

And then look… this is shocking… look at how the women fair against these beings! God’s sense of humor is awesome!

5 Then the angel spoke to the women.

and he says, what I’m sure he’s very accustomed to speaking when he shows up in front of humans…

“Don’t be afraid!” (2x) he said. “I know you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. 6 He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead, just as he said would happen. Come, see where his body was lying.(I rolled the stone away so you could see in!) 7 And now, go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and he is going ahead of you to Galilee. You will see him there. Remember what I have told you.”

As if they could ever forget!

8 The women ran quickly from the tomb. They were very frightened but also filled with great joy, (can you feel the electricity surrounding this text!) and they rushed to give the disciples the angel’s message. 9 And as they went, Jesus met them and greeted them. And they ran to him, grasped his feet, and worshiped him. 10 Then Jesus said to them, “Don’t be afraid! Go tell my brothers to leave for Galilee, and they will see me there.”

Again, this isn’t some quiet, gentle sunrise moment—Jesus’ resurrection was a shock-and-awe military strike against the powers of darkness!

Now, some of you may be wondering, why all this talk about demons and Satan, the powers of darkness?

Because we live in a love story set in a world at war. Our culture treats this world, what we can see and sense as all there is. We love science and logic. We trust what we can see, hear and explain, and we often treat other humans as if they are the problem, but they aren’t. Jesus knew this! He knew what He inspired Paul to later write in Ephesians 6: We don’t fight against flesh and blood!

(screen don’t read) 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

Have you ever wondered why is the world such a mess? Why bad things happen? Why there is cancer? War? Oppression? Heartbreak? Why people betray each other and give themselves over to evil?

Because we surrendered.

When Adam and Eve chose to believe the lie of the Serpent, they handed over the keys—bringing us under the authority of Satan, sin and death.

So to rescue us, Jesus didn’t need to fight us or condemn us. Instead, He needed to mounted a hostage rescue by going toe-to-toe with death and the Devil himself!

Which is exactly what He did!

When Jesus walked out of the tomb, it marked not just the defeat of death, but also declared the decisive victory of regime change!

The long-reigning prince of this world was dethroned!

The true King is alive and His reign has begun.

But don’t miss this: just like the Nazis didn’t surrender the moment the Allies landed on the beaches of Normandy, the kingdom of darkness didn’t just roll over on Easter Sunday.

As we see in our text. Darkness doesn’t just give up—it counterfeits, counterattacks and covers up.

Let’s look at it together:

Point 2: The Evil Conspiracy – Cover-Up and Counterattack (Matthew 28:11-15)

Matthew 28:11–15 NLT

11 As the women were on their way, some of the guards went into the city and told the leading priests what had happened. 12 A meeting with the elders was called, and they decided to give the soldiers a large bribe. 13 They told the soldiers, “You must say, ‘Jesus’ disciples came during the night while we were sleeping, and they stole his body.’ 14 If the governor hears about it, we’ll stand up for you so you won’t get in trouble.” 15 So the guards accepted the bribe and said what they were told to say. Their story spread widely among the Jews, and they still tell it today.

Even as the earth shook… even as the angel rolled back the stone… even as hardened soldiers collapsed in terror—hell regrouped.

You see, while the enemy may be defeated, until Jesus returns, he’s never inactive.

Just as Satan worked through Judas and stirred up the religious leaders to crucify the Son of God, now we see those same dark forces scrambling to suppress the truth of the resurrection with lies that continue to this day!

You see, the war didn't end at the empty tomb—it escalated.

The guards—eyewitnesses to divine power—are bribed into silence. The religious leaders—confronted with undeniable, supernatural truth—don’t repent. They conspire and cover up.

This is not just a political cover-up—it’s full-blown spiritual warfare.

A tactical counter-strike designed to bury the greatest victory in history.

And here’s the sobering truth: you and I face this same warfare today.

The demonic propaganda machine pumps out lies so cleaver they sound like truth and deep down, we kind of want their lies to be true! Why? Well because if Jesus really is risen—if He really is King—then we aren’t.

If Jesus reigns, then His Word becomes the standard… not our opinions, not our preferences, not our feelings.

And let’s be honest—that’s uncomfortable.

So we shouldn’t be too quick to point fingers at the priests or the guards and ask, “How could they lie in the face of an angel? How could they suppress the truth in the face of resurrection power and facts!?”

Because we do the same.

We’ve been given even more revelation—not just one morning at the tomb, but the full witness of Scripture, the testimony of the Church, and generation after generation of transformed lives by the power of this good news and Risen King. And yet, how easily do we silence the Word and the Spirit in our own lives?

For what?

For money. For power. For pleasure. For comfort. How often do we partner with the enemy—not by accident, but by choice?

Wake up, Church. The Devil is not a cartoon—he’s real. And he’s still prowling like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. Sin crouches at the door, and it wants to master us.

That’s why Paul writes in Ephesians 6:10–11

Ephesians 6:10–11 NLT

10 A final word: Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil.

This same spirit that Paul describes in Ephesians 2:2

(screen don’t read) 2 You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil—the commander of the powers in the unseen world. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God.

this same spirit was active in Matthew 28 and is still working today.

But take heart: because of the resurrection, he’s been disarmed and defamed. The cross crushed his authority. The empty tomb exposed his lies. And now, though the enemy may scream and scheme, he cannot stop the risen King.

As Paul reminds us in 2 Corinthians 10:3–5

2 Corinthians 10:3–5 NLT

3 We are human, but we don’t wage war as humans do. 4 We use God’s mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments. 5 We destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God. We capture their rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey Christ.

And Church, because Jesus is alive—we can do this! We can tear down entrenched patterns of negative thinking. We can be freed from addiction! We can destroy anxious strongholds and silence the voice of depression. We can demolish false narratives that say salvation comes through education, politics, self-improvement, or sexual freedom and gender ideologies! We can dismantle every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God—because Jesus disarmed the spiritual forces of darkness and raised us up in authority with Him!

III. These, Church, are the spoils of war.

You see, on the cross, Jesus stripped the enemy of his only weapons: accusation, condemnation, and the fear of death—and He crushed them all.

But He didn’t stop at the cross.

While the world stared at a sealed tomb—heaven was in motion.

Just like in the story of Joseph, where men meant evil, God was orchestrating redemption.

While Jesus’ friends were grieving and they felt despair, Jesus was storming the gates of the grave.

Ephesians 4:9 tells us Jesus descended into the lower parts of the earth. Revelation 1:18 says Jesus holds the keys of Death and the Grave.

He walked into Sheol, the land of the forgotten—the realm of the dead (Psalm 88)—and declared, “You’ve got something that belongs to Me.”

Christ did what no spirit had predicted. He came down the stairs, power personified, “Lift up your heads, oh you gates!” he roared, and the spirits shook.

These words, possibly this scene is prophesied and typified in Psalm 24.

Jesus reached the brass gates of Hades. “Open!” he commanded, “That the king of glory can come in!”

One touch from his hand, and they burst asunder.

Jesus stormed the gates of Hades like a Navy SEAL rescuing hostages, and as He ran to His righteous ones who had been held there.

He spoke again the words of Psalm 24: “The earth is mine!” he shouted, “and everything in it!”

The spirits fell back. The nothingness that could not bear a name retreated into a crack in the ground. On one side were the great bars beyond where old spirits had been imprisoned since ancient times. Jesus pointed at them with a straight arm of judgment. “Doom,” he said, and the spirits shook.

Truly, beyond comprehension, Yahweh was in the realm of the dead.

Friends, see Jesus here!

This wasn’t meek and mild Jesus— This was Jesus the Conquering King, Jesus the Warlord of Heaven, Jesus making a public spectacle of the forces of darkness!

Here we see what Jesus Himself spoke in Mark 3:27 when He was accused of being Satan and operating by Satan’s power. Jesus said, A kingdom divided will not stand! I’m am not Satan or from his Kingdom. I’m something all together different. I am! I am the one who is

Mark 3:27 NLT

powerful enough to enter the house of a strong man and plunder his goods? I am someone stronger—someone who could tie him up and plunder his house.

Which is precisely what He did!

What the enemy meant for evil—God meant for good.

On that dark Saturday, when His body lay in the tomb and His followers sat in silence and despair, Jesus was declaring to every realm—seen and unseen:

There is no place in heaven or on earth or under the earth untouched by My sacrifice. There is no power, no demon, no hellish scheme that can stand against the blood of the Lamb. Every power must bow. Every gate must open. Every accusation against the children of God must fall silent before the throne because the Judge had become the Advocate!

And folks this is not a metaphor! This happened. It still happens! Look back with me just a few verses back, in Matthew 27:52-53. When Jesus proclaimed from the Cross, “It is Finished.” Not only was the sun blackened. Not only did the earth shake. Not only did the curtain separating humanity from the presence of God in the temple tear, but tombs opened. Tombs!

Matthew 27:50–53 NLT

50 Then Jesus shouted out again, and he released his spirit. 51 At that moment the curtain in the sanctuary of the Temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. The earth shook, rocks split apart, 52 and tombs opened. The bodies of many godly men and women who had died were raised from the dead. 53 They left the cemetery after Jesus’ resurrection, went into the holy city of Jerusalem, and appeared to many people.

The truth is clear Church: Jesus’ death on the cross achieved victory over sin, Satan, and hell.

Colossians 2:15 highlights this triumph:

Colossians 2:15 NLT

he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross.

Through His death, Jesus destroyed the power of death over humanity. In doing so, He fulfilled His purpose to

Hebrews 2:14 NIV

break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—

And now, risen in power, He brings peace and a new way to be human for those who choose to rise with Him by faith!

Which is precisely what Ephesians 2:6 says happened:

Ephesians 2:6 NLT

6 For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus.

This is more than a nice verse. It’s a declaration of your identity.

If you're in Christ, His victory is your victory.

You’re not just forgiven—you’ve been raised as a new creation and a child of the King, adopted, seated, and empowered a sheriff in the heavenlies with delegated authority!

Which means you don’t fight for victory—you fight from it.

You see, the King doesn’t just rescue His beloved—He enthrones her.

If you belong to Jesus:

you’re not a victim of your past.

You’re not a prisoner to your passions.

You are not what the world labels you as.

You are a co-heir with Christ, seated in heavenly places, armed with authority, and called to reign with the King! This is who you are! These are the spoils of war and catch this: all of this truth and beauty and goodness—every ounce of it—was already in motion while the disciples grieved, while they felt that all was lost!

Listen: In our culture, emotions often take the driver’s seat. We put feelings on a pedestal and treat them like truth. But feelings are not the engine of your life—they’re the caboose. You can feel deeply—but to truly live, you must live by what God says in His Word, not just by what you feel.

Like Phillip Anthony Mitchell says in a reel from Atlanta:

Clip

You feel God does not love you, BUT the WORD says, "That while you were yet still a sinner, Christ demonstrated His love by dying for you!"

You tell me what you feel and I’ll tell you what the WORD says! Here’s what it says!

Jesus died because He loves you! Jesus died to disarm the evil forces of darkness that destroy and deceive the disobedient in our world! And Jesus rose so that you and I might rise with Him!

This isn’t just theology. This is our identity in Christ by faith!

If you are in Jesus, you need to remember this:

When Christ rose, He wasn’t the only one to rise. He brought us with Him. He delegated His authority. He gave us His Spirit. He seated us beside Him.

Which means we no longer have to fear death or the Enemy! What can he do to us. And you don’t have to live under your circumstances either! You are seated above them—with Jesus.

Which is why Jesus can say what He says next to us!

IV. After King Jesus rises, he doesn't just retire to Heaven, no He reigns from there!

And from His place of all authority, He issues a commission, a military directive from the throne:

Matthew 28:16–20 NLT

16 Then the eleven disciples left for Galilee, going to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him—but some of them doubted! 18 Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. 19 Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. 20 Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Folks, I don't’ know what you’re living for, but if it’s not for this mission, the purpose of your life is missing it!

Don’t settle! Don’t settle for bigger houses, don’t settle for some political agenda or power play. Don’t settle for making money or acquiring more stuff or more experiences! Don’t settle for some identity rooted in anything less than child of the King! All of that is too small and not a mission or purpose fit for the royalty you are if you’re in Jesus!

Remember, We live in a love story set in a world at war.

While the war may continue in skirmishes, the outcome is never in question. In Jesus, we win!

But we have to be in Jesus Church. We do this through faith. By trusting, by believing, by depending upon Him daily. We win!

By living not by our emotions or our feelings, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God through His Word and through His whisper! We win!

And in spite of what you may feel from time to time, you never walk or wage this war alone!

For Jesus says as He rises: "And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

Through faith in King Jesus, we win—because He has risen to reign!

Pray.

References:

Bauckham, Richard. 1992. “Descent to the Underworld.” In The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary, edited by David Noel Freedman, 2:157. New York: Doubleday.

Eldredge, Blaine. "Great Sabbath." Blaine Eldredge (Substack). Accessed April 18, 2025. https://blaineeldredge.substack.com/p/great-sabbath.

Stuckey, Levi. “Matthew Y. Emerson and the Doctrine of Christ’s Descent.” Paper submitted to Dr. Chung, TH643 X1 SP20: Contemporary Theologies, Denver Seminary, Spring 2020.