Empty Promises of Easter

For the past few months we have been intertwining a lot of focus on the promises of God into our sermon and study time. We have studied God’s promises to Abraham and Sarah, and Moses, and Joshua, even if not in the primary focus of every Bible Study or Sermon, the certainty of God’s promises have been in the peripherals of almost everything we have done in 2025 so far.

2 Corinthians 1:20 “For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory.”

But, what if I told you that today, Easter Sunday, we celebrate the three most important promises of God- and those three promises are empty promises? Now I know that might shock some at first, because empty promises as the world sees them have no value and are pretty well useless because the promise maker has no intention of keeping them.

But as we will see today, the empty promises of God are the best, the foundational, and the most important promises that we can hold onto as the people of God.

The Promise of an Empty Cross

The story of Easter begins in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve step outside God’s commands and sin enters the world through their disobedience. From this moment on sin has to be dealt with. And as Hebrews 9:22 “Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.”

Up to this point sin was dealt with by sacrifices and the shedding of the blood of animals; but in Jesus all that changes.

2 Corinthians 5:21 “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

Friends, without a cross there is no Christianity, for there is no eternal forgiveness of sin. Oswald Chambers once said that “All of Heaven is interested in the cross, and all of Hell is terribly afraid of it”

The promise of the empty cross reminds us that God loved us too much to leave us in the brokenness of our sin; He cared too much to leave us to pay for our own sin and he enters our world to buy us back.

The Promise of an Empty Tomb

But today we celebrate because there is not just an empty cross, there is an empty tomb- after all dying makes Jesus just like us; the miracle comes on the third day when he rises again.

1 Corinthians 15:3–8 “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.”

You see, friends, the empty tomb is the ultimate promise of victory over sin. Because it is in the empty tomb that we see Jesus has beaten death.

Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Because of sin you and I were destined to die; not just physically but Spiritually. We had been separated from Christ because of our sin.

You see, sin’s grip had to be defeated; the debt had to be payed- if not now, in eternity.

Now, I bet some of our young people will not believe this, but music did not always come out of your phone automatically= throughout time there have been different mediums to get music to the consumer- the radio, the record, the 8-track; the cassette tape; and king in my teen and early 20s- the CD. And I loved my CDs- I literally had thousands of CDs I had those huge cases that would hold hundreds of CDs; ask Jess, it was quite terrifying. Most of the time when payday came my first stop was Crossroads music to buy more CDs- until one day I saw the advertisement for the Columbia House CD club- with news that was too good to be true- 10 CDs for $!1?!?!?! Sign me up!

I got my 10 CDs for $1 and all I had to do was let them know if I didn’t want more- easy enough! But the problem was I didn;t let them know-= and the bill came for the 10 CDs and the next 10 they sent me- you see it was too good to be true- it was nothing more than delayed payment; which is a lot like sin.

You see, friends Jesus’ empty tomb is promise that we do not owe that debt anymore.

1 Corinthians 15:54–58 “When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.”

The promise of the empty tomb nullifies Satan’s greatest fear tactic against us- the fear of death.

The Promise of Empty Grave Clothes

And this might be the best part of this promise- the empty Grave Clothes. Imagine the scene that Easter morning; as those closest to Jesus went into the tomb and found nothing but grave clothes- folded neatly waiting for them to find.

For some of us this Easter perhaps this is exactly the promise we need. Jesus leaves behind the very clothes used to bury him and walks out from the tomb unhindered. All evidence of the grave is left behind.

Or as John 8:36 “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”

Step away from the grave clothes, my friends; it is Easter and the sin that Christ has forgiven you for and the debt that has has already paid; and the death he has already defeated define you.

Friends, the promise of empty grave clothes invites us to live a new life; not merely reinventing the old one.