Easter Sunday 2026

Confidence

The Easter long weekend is often a time where people come up with plans. The road trip up the coast to a caravan park… or for the more adventurous, some remote camp ground in the bush or national park.

We do all the preparation in the weeks leading up to it. We make sure we have all the equipment we need and that it is all in good working order. We make sure everything is taken care of at work and at home so there will be no surprise things to take your attention away. Nothing is going to stop the great plans to get away and enjoy some time with the family.

Of course, rain is always a possibility and you’ve been caught out with that before, but you’re good at planning, and so you’ve allowed for this possibility with a contigency plan. Nothing is going to stop the good times.

But… war starts on the other side of the world. You wouldn’t think that would have such a dramatic effect. Until thee price of fuel goes over $3 per litre and Petrol stations keep running out of fuel.

You probably didn’t pick that one when you started your Easter Holiday plans.

What it highlights is how even the best plans we make can be ruined by things we’d never think about. Just think back to all the plans we all made at the start of 2020, not realising that everything was about to be turned upside down.

It makes us wonder, can we ever be confident about anything in the future?

On one level, the answer has to be, no, we can’t be confident about anything in the future, because who knows what you’re going to see when you turn the news on tonight.

But yet, on Easter Sunday, we come here, and I’m going to declare, you can be confident about the future!

The empty tomb

Now, I realise I say that, and yet as we look at the story of the resurrection, it is filled with unexpected things happening.

But stay with me, because we’re going to see what confidence looks like for the one who is with Jesus.

On Friday, we reflected on Jesus being on the cross. The place where he took the penalty that we deserved.

The end of Luke 23 describes Jesus being taken from the cross. It was a man named Joseph. He was a member of the Council, and Luke is quick to point out that he had not consented to the decision to have Jesus crucified, in fact, he’d been waiting on the Kingdom of God coming.

And so he asks for the body and lays it in a tomb cut in the rock.

Now, just for some context, some tombs, particularly those from wealthy people, would involve elaborate design with a number of chambers, where multiple dead bodies could be placed.

The tomb chosen for Jesus, however, had no other bodies. When Jesus’ body was placed in their on Friday afternoon, it was just him.

Now, we’ve also got to remember that for Jewish people, Sabbath starts at sun down on Friday evening, so by the time the body is in the tomb and the rock is in front of the entrance, the Sabbath is pretty much started, so all of the usual preparation that they would normally do would need to wait until after the Sabbath.

But now, as we move into Luke 24, we come to the first day of the week, which of course is Sunday.

Now that the Sabbath is done, it’s time to do the preparation which is going to involve a bunch of spices that are going to be placed on the body. Luke’s gospel names three women who went for this purpose, namely Mary Magdalene, Joanna and Mary the mother of James. And just to be clear, even though Jesus does have a brother named James, this last Mary I mentioned is almost certainly not the mother of Jesus, but another Mary again.

Well, verse 10 implies there are more than just these three, but they’re the only ones named.

Of course, we’re very familiar with the story, but imagine the surprise when arrived at the tomb, and the stone had been rolled away!

They rush in and look for him, but he’s no where to be found.

So much for making plans.

But then, suddenly two men in bright shining clothes stood beside them saying: “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee.

The earlier predictions

Now let me just backup a little here.

Actually, let me take you all the way back to Luke 9.

Peter has just had a bit of an ‘ah-ha’ moment. He’s starting to figure out who Jesus, recognising him as God’s Messiah.

But that moment is sharply contrasted in the next few verses when he tells his disciples that he is going to be killed but that he will be raised to life on the third day.

Then again in Luke 18 he says: “… everything that is written by the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled.” And he continues describing what will happen: “He will be handed over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, insult him and spit on him; they will flog him and kill him. On the third day he will rise again”.

Now, this is important for us to recognise because this is going to get to the point about being able to have confidence in what Jesus says.

The appearances

Now, if it was just an empty tomb, you could perhaps argue that someone stole the body of Jesus. But this is unlikely for a few reasons. For starters, if we were to look at Matthew’s gospel, we’re told that they were worried someone might steal the body, so they had some guards on the tomb to make sure that didn’t happen. But the greater reason is actually the testimony of all the people who actually saw him alive.

John’s gospel describes Mary Magadelene’s encounter with Jesus just outside the tomb.

In Luke’s gospel, we have two disciples walking along the road to Emmaus when Jesus appears to them.

A week later, Jesus appears to all of the disciple with the exception of Thomas who has to wait another week.

And according to the Apostle Paul when he was writing to the church of Corinth, he also appeared to 500 people all at the same time.

That’s quite a lot of people that would need to be in on the scam if the resurection didn’t happen.

But it did happen, and this is why we can have confidence.

Our confidence

You see, the confidence we have is not the confidence in our own plans. The truth is, there are way too many factors in this world to know whether your own plans are going to succeed or not. Rather, our confidence is in what Jesus has said.

The resurrection proves that Jesus both has the ability and the willingness to do what he says he will do.

Because he rose again, it means we are no longer following a dead God. While it might have been nice he paid the penalty for us, but if he’s dead, then that means we would be on our own right now.

So the key to all of this is knowing that our confidence is the confidence in what Jesus has said, so it is important to know what Jesus has said.

It’s perhaps worth noting at this point that Jesus actually has promised that you will face tribulations in this life. So it’s not a promise that everything us just going to go super smooth.

But what he has promised us is that he will send the Holy Spirit who will be there helping us through every situation.

He has promised his love to us, a love that can never break or be torn from us.

So while there will be tribulation, you can know that you will not face it alone.

The resurrection of Jesus gives us confidence in facing our next battle because he will be there with us.

Confidence in the age to come

But the confidence we gain from the resurrection goes even further than that.

Let’s hit rewind in Luke’s gospel again, this time only going a few chapters back.

Actually I want to take you to something that happened only a few days before his crucifixion - something recroded for us in Luke 21.

You see, in this final week Jesus had with his disciples, he takes them aside and starts talking about what will happen when this age comes to an end.

He talks about a time when he will return. It will be a time when everything changes.

We don’t know when this time will be, but we do know that it still hasn’t happened yet.

Because when it happens, everything will change. Jesus himself will come again, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel, the dead in Christ will rise, and then those who are still alive will be gathered together.

There will be a new creation and all those who are in Christ will receive their resurrected body.

How do I have confidence in this?

Because of the resurrection.

The resurrection is the deposit guaranteeing this.

Jesus was the first to receive his resurrected body, which is what all the witnesses who saw the risen Jesus saw.

It is the resurrection that break through the bonds of death which reassure us, that death no longer has to have any power over us.

You know, I suspect many of us at one point or another have thought - 2000 years really is a long time - what if Jesus doesn’t come back. But it is when we think about his resurrection that I’m reminded - no, he has the power, he’s shown that he is trustworthy. He will return.

There are so many things in this world that I have no idea what will happen. I don’t know what’s going to happen with the current situation with Iran. I don’t know how long ourr petrol prices will remain inflated, or for that matter, if they will ever come down again.

I don’t know when the next terrorist is going to strike or how it will affect us.

But what I do know and the reason I have confidence, is that God is still in control, and our future is secure. We may lose our earthly life, in fact, saving for the fact that Jesus might come back before we die, we will all certainly die… but that is not the end.

Invitation

You can be sure of that.

But let me just add to that. While I say you can be sure of that, I am assuming that you have committed your life to Christ.

The confidence that I am talking about, is actually the confidence that is given to those who believe.

But in a sense, it is actually more than just mere intellectual belief.

This morning I want to encourage you to put your faith in Jesus so you too can have the confidence I’ve been talking about.

To do that, we first need to recognise our need for Jesus. We need to recgonise that even though we might have been basically good people, the truth is, in trying to do thing on our own without Jesus, we’ve actually turned our back on him. We’ve disrespected him and this has torn a rift between us and him.

But yet, Jesus is merciful, and when we repent of our waywardness, he will forgive us. That forgiveness can occur because of what Jesus did on the cross.

Once we’ve repented of our sins, we then just ask Jesus to transform us… to live within us… to guide and to protect us.

And when we call on the name of the Lord, we can have confidence that he will.

For any here who hasn’t done this, I’d really encourage you to do this. Don’t even wait to leave this building. You can do it now.

Conclusion

For all who have accepted Jesus as their Lord and Saviour, we can now live a life full of confidence.

Not the arrogant type of confidence - arrogance happens when our confidence is based on ourselves - but a Christ-focussed confidence.

This life might throw you a whole bunch of curve balls. It is going to involve a lot of heart-ache along the way. But yet, throughout it all, in the good and the bad times, you will be called blessed, because the risen Lord Jesus lives with you.

And ultimately, this will all end with you receiving your resurrected body on the last day. When Jesus returns - something we can have confidence about, you will begin the new age in the new creation, and it will be the most amazing thing ever.

You know, sometimes when faiy tales end with “and they all lived happily ever after”, the skeptic in us all says - I don’t think so. There is no “happily ever after”.

But yet there is. And it’s all because Jesus defeated death, rose again, and promised us a resurrected body as well.

This Easter, may all of you share in the confidence that comes from knowing that Jesus rose again.

Let me pray...