Empty: When Death Doesn't Have the Final Say

An Easter Message for Skeptics and Seekers

I want to start by acknowledging something:

Many of you aren't sure why you're here today.

Maybe you came because a friend or family member invited you.

Perhaps you're here out of cultural tradition or curiosity.

Or maybe you're thinking, "I'm open to spiritual ideas, but I'm not sure about this whole Christianity thing."

Wherever you find yourself on that spectrum, I want to thank you for being here. Because today, we're addressing the most audacious claim in human history—one that, if true, changes everything about how we understand life, death, and what comes after.

Two Universal Problems:

First universal problem, we're all going to die.

I know that sounds blunt, but it's the one certainty we all face. And if we're honest, most of us find that deeply troubling.

The philosopher Blaise Pascal once observed that people will do almost anything to distract themselves from thinking about death. We fill our lives with:

entertainment,

achievement,

relationships—not because these things are bad, but because they help us avoid confronting our mortality.

As Tim Keller put it:

God’s grace does not come to people who morally outperform others, but to those who admit their failure to perform and who acknowledge their need for a Savior. Timothy Keller, The Reason for God

This isn't just a religious observation. The secular philosopher Thomas Nagel wrote that the thought that all our projects and loves will come to nothing "gives rise to a sense of absurdity." Even without religious belief, we intuitively feel that death shouldn't be the end of the story.

Second universal problem, we are all sinners.

There was a man named Adam and had a wife named Eve. They lived in a place of total peace and unbrokenness. Adam and Eve were commanded to eat anything of the garden except from one tree. But they didn’t listen. Adam and Eve made a choice to become like God and to be in control - they ate of the tree of good and evil. At that very moment sin entered the world and death (physically and spiritually) cursed humanity. The only way to break the power of sin and spiritual death was a perfect sacrifice to pay the price for our wrongdoing. To be the atonement / sacrifice for all people’s sin.

What?!? I am a sinner? Yes, everyone is sinful due to the fall of humanity.

What is sin? Sin is a rebellion against God’s authority and a breaking of relationship with Him. Sin separates us from God and this is why we need someone to reconcile humanity back to God.

So, God in his infinite wisdom sent a great rescuer. His one and only Son.

The Audacious Claim

Into this universal human dilemma comes the most outlandish claim: a man named Jesus, who lived in a fishing town known as Galilee about 2,000 years ago, died on a Roman cross and then, after being thoroughly, definitively dead for three days, came back to life.

Not as a ghost. Not in people's hearts and memories. But physically, bodily alive again.

Let’s read the text from a eyewitness - Matthew (someone who knew Jesus well)

Matthew 28:1–10 NLT

Early on Sunday morning, as the new day was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went out to visit the tomb. Suddenly there was a great earthquake! For an angel of the Lord came down from heaven, rolled aside the stone, and sat on it. His face shone like lightning, and his clothing was as white as snow. The guards shook with fear when they saw him, and they fell into a dead faint. Then the angel spoke to the women. “Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I know you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead, just as he said would happen. Come, see where his body was lying. 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.” The women ran quickly from the tomb. They were very frightened but also filled with great joy, and they rushed to give the disciples the angel’s message. And as they went, Jesus met them and greeted them. And they ran to him, grasped his feet, and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, “Don’t be afraid! Go tell my brothers to leave for Galilee, and they will see me there.”

Now, I understand why this sounds absurd to modern ears. People don't rise from the dead. We know this. The ancient world knew this too. Contrary to what some might think, people in the first century weren't naïve about death. They buried their dead regularly and understood biological reality perfectly well.

Which is why the claim that Jesus rose from the dead was just as shocking then as it is now.

The First Skeptics

The earliest accounts tell us that when Jesus's followers first heard reports of his resurrection, they dismissed them as "an idle tale."

Luke 24:11 NLT

But the story sounded like nonsense to the men, so they didn’t believe it.

Thomas (a part of the 12 disciples) famously refused to believe unless he could touch Jesus's wounds himself. These weren't gullible people eager to believe in miracles.

They were skeptics who changed their minds only when confronted with what they believed was irrefutable evidence.

The resurrection was not a belief that evolved gradually or appeared 2,000 years after the event. It was the central claim of the Christian movement from the very beginning.

And these early believers—many of whom claimed to be eyewitnesses—went on to face persecution, imprisonment, and death rather than recant their testimony. It is quoted often, "People do not die for things they know are not true."

What If It's True?

But let's engage in a thought experiment. What if the resurrection actually happened? What would it mean?

In our text from 1 Corinthians 15, argues that Jesus's resurrection is the "firstfruits" of a coming harvest. In ancient agriculture, the firstfruits were the initial crops that signaled the beginning of the harvest season. When farmers saw these first crops, they knew more was coming.

A New Testament writer and prominent teacher - Paul claims that Jesus's resurrection is like that—the first instance of what will eventually happen for all who trust in him. His resurrection isn't just a one-off miracle but the beginning of a cosmic renewal.

As Paul writes:

1 Corinthians 15:22–23 NLT

Just as everyone dies because we all belong to Adam, everyone who belongs to Christ will be given new life. But there is an order to this resurrection: Christ was raised as the first of the harvest; then all who belong to Christ will be raised when he comes back.

This is why Easter matters. If Jesus conquered death, then death doesn't have the final say for any of us. Our deepest intuition—that death shouldn't be the end—turns out to be correct.

The Resurrection Changes Everything

If the resurrection is true, it means several radical things:

First, it means that the material world matters.

Christianity doesn't offer escape from the physical into some disembodied spiritual realm. It promises the redemption and renewal of our bodies and the physical world. As N.T. Wright puts it,

“God's plan is not to abandon this world, the world which he said was "very good." Rather, he intends to remake it. And when he does he will raise all his people to new bodily life to live in it. That is the promise of the Christian gospel.”

N.T. Wright, Simply Christian

Second, it means that justice is coming.

In our world, the powerful often get away with oppression. Victims die without vindication. But if the resurrection is true, then God will eventually set all things right. Every tear will be wiped away. Every injustice will be addressed. Pastor Monte quotes often - “Not everyone pays at the end of the day. But in the end, everyone pays.”

Third, it means that what we do in this life matters eternally.

Our acts of love, justice, and creativity aren't just temporary distractions in a meaningless universe but contributions to a kingdom that will last forever.

Evidence and Faith

Now, I understand that historical evidence alone can't create faith. The resurrection is ultimately a mystery that transcends our ability to fully comprehend or prove scientifically.

Lee Strobel points out:

"While believing in the resurrection requires faith, it's not blind faith. It's faith seeking understanding, faith built on historical evidence, and faith that makes sense of our deepest human longings."

Lee Strobel

If you're skeptical, that's completely understandable. I'd simply invite you to investigate the claims with an open mind. Read the historical accounts. Consider why the early Christian movement exploded across the ancient world despite severe persecution. Ask yourself why this particular claim—unlike so many religious innovations—has endured for millennia and transformed countless lives.

The Invitation

Paul continues in his writing in 1 Corinthians by describing God’s power over sin and death through Jesus.

1 Corinthians 15:54–57 MSG

Then the saying will come true: Death swallowed by triumphant Life! Who got the last word, oh, Death? Oh, Death, who’s afraid of you now? It was sin that made death so frightening and law-code guilt that gave sin its leverage, its destructive power. But now in a single victorious stroke of Life, all three—sin, guilt, death—are gone, the gift of our Master, Jesus Christ. Thank God!

When Paul wrote to the Corinthians, "Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?" (1 Corinthians 15:54-55), he was describing the greatest reversal in human history. What appeared to be defeat became triumph. What looked like an ending revealed itself as a beginning. What seemed empty was actually full of promise.

This profound reversal of expectations reminds me of a little-known story from American history that helps us understand the power of emptiness transformed...

In 1848, James Marshall discovered gold flakes while building a sawmill for John Sutter in Coloma, California. This discovery triggered the California Gold Rush, drawing some 300,000 people to California in just a few years. Among them was a young man named Ephraim Wales Bull.

Bull arrived with dreams of striking it rich. He staked a claim and dug tirelessly for months. While others around him found gold, Bull's mine yielded nothing. Eventually, his funds depleted and his spirit broken, he abandoned his empty mine and headed back east to Massachusetts.

There, facing what seemed like failure, Bull turned his attention to another pursuit: cultivating grapes. On his small farm in Concord, after years of patient experimentation with wild native grapes, he developed what became known as the Concord grape – the variety that would transform American agriculture and eventually be used in everything from jellies to juices.

What Bull couldn't see when standing in his empty, seemingly worthless mine was that his greatest contribution wouldn't come from what he extracted from the earth, but from what he would help to grow upon it. His apparent failure became the redirect that led to his lasting legacy.

This story echoes the profound emptiness of Easter morning. When Jesus's followers arrived at his tomb, they found it empty. Their initial reaction was despair – the emptiness represented loss, failure, and the end of their hopes. What they couldn't yet see was that this very emptiness was not the end of the story but its turning point.

The empty tomb, like Bull's abandoned mine, appeared at first to represent only loss. But it actually signaled the beginning of something far more valuable than what was sought. The emptiness that initially brought tears became the very evidence of resurrection – proof that death had been defeated and that new life had begun.

That's the heart of Easter. It's not primarily about religious traditions or moral teachings. It's about God entering our world, experiencing our pain and death, and then defeating death from the inside.

And the invitation of Easter isn't "become more religious" or "start following rules." It's much simpler and more profound:

Trust this Jesus who conquered death, and allow his resurrection life to begin transforming you now.

As we close, I want to acknowledge that wherever you are on your spiritual journey—

committed believer,

curious seeker, or

skeptical observer—the claim of Easter confronts us all with a choice:

Do you just believe that the resurrection is a beautiful myth that helps religious people cope with death?

Or do you believe that the resurrection was a pivotal event in human history, revealing that death doesn't have the final say?

The evidence of the gospels of the men and women and nearly 500 witnesses points to the latter.

I believe the claims of Jesus to be true.

John 11:25–26 NLT

Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this, Martha?”

What about you? Do you believe this?

If it's true—if Jesus really did rise from the dead as the firstfruits of a new creation—then we're invited into a story where love is stronger than death, where justice will ultimately prevail, and where, as the poet (John Donne) says, "death shall be no more."

The choice is yours. But know this: the invitation to discover this resurrection life stands open to all who seek it.

Closing with Response Card:

Indicate on your response card the following:

A. I have already accepted Jesus as my Savior.

B. Today I am becoming a follower of Jesus.

C. I am curious about Jesus and want to know more.

D. I don’t ever intend to trust in Jesus.

Prayer