The Resurrection of Our Lord, Easter Day

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Christ is Risen, He is Risen Indeed Alleluia! What a blessed day to celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This is the foundation for our faith, the reason that we are Christians, for we know by the Resurrection of Jesus that not only is Jesus truly God in the flesh, and our God is the Triune God, but that salvation life and eternity are ours. Death will not be our end, for Christ is Risen, HE is Risen Indeed Alleluia!

Indeed all Christianity hinges on this morning, did you know that Christianity can be proven false, if Jesus did not rise from the grave, then our religion is false. Did you know that. That if Christ has not been raised then there is no reason for us to be here this morning. That would prove that Christianity is entirely untrue. St. Paul points this out in his first epistle to the Corinthians in the 15 chapter when he says, “ And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain” (1 Cor 15:14)

and again,

“And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.” (1 Cor 15:17) The resurrection is the foundation for our religion and our faith, it is the reason that we are here on a Sunday morning, and each Sunday morning for Christ is Risen He is risen Indeed Alleluia!

Let us learn the importance of this event and why Christianity is greater than all other religions of the world, and why it is that every person should be Christian, and share in this wonderful comfort that is found in the Resurrection of Christ for you.

I. Against the Various Religions of the World

When you consider the claims of Christianity they are quite bold. We believe teach and confess as Christians that there is only one God, known as the Holy Trinity, who is 3 distinct persons, one divine essence who is God over all things and the Triune God made not only mankind, the earth, the sun, but even the distant stars that we can barely glimpse through the strongest telescopes. Furthermore since our God is alone the maker of all things, there are no other gods only Him, and that means that every creature in heaven above, on earth, or under the earth owes him worship and praise, and that whoever praises anything else is wrong. That is what I am talking about at the end of communion when I say it is “the one true faith” that is Christianity is the only true religion and all others are false.

Now that’s a bold claim, to say that all of those religions out there are false. You can see how that claim would cause difficult in the ancient world, where you would have regional gods, like those of the greeks, the egyptians, norse, and the canaanites that they were tied to land or sea in one place or another. This allowed some peace in the old world, as people could worship various gods depending on where they lived or where they worked. Each occupation, or nation could have their own local gods and deities and you could conceivable setup shrines alongside each god without causing too much of a ruckus. A person from egypt would worship an egyptian god, and a person from greece worship a greek god, and so on. But Christianity claims there is only one true god and that is Father Son and Holy Spirit.

This applies still today, when we talk about other religions who deny the Trinity, and that Jesus is true God and True man that they are false. Religions like hinduism, buddhism, islam, Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses and the like. Now we live in a day and age where people are expected to just get along, and to live and let live and never criticize someone’s religion. They want everyone to have their own gods and their own religion. Now if people really believed that, they wouldn’t criticize us for our belief that we are the only true religion, for they would be criticizing our religion. And that according to them is wrong.

But if we are going to be so bold as to say that our Religion is the one true faith, then we have to know why Christianity can stand with such boldness and certainty and make that confession that all other religions are wrong. That happens here at the Resurrection, all of our belief hinges on the fact that the tomb was empty on Easter Sunday, and that the disciples saw Jesus risen from the dead. Now this is something that is verifiable, there were eye witnesses of the event and it can be attested to.

Most religions you cannot prove or disprove, they are built on various assumptions, or codes of ethics, or personal visions and revelations, but Christianity is rooted upon an actual verifiable event that is outside of us that happened not just in the minds of men, but in the physical world. People could go to the tomb and see for themselves that it was empty, and they shared that wonderful news with everyone. That is why we gladly say Christ is Risen, He is Risen Indeed Alleluia! We share this wonderful news with great joy.

Indeed they might be upset that we point out their religion is false, or built upon a premise that isn’t true, and we do it to not just upset them, because Jesus didn’t just rise for us, Jesus rose for all mankind.

That God created the heavens and the earth and all things therein, means that God isn’t just concerned about one group of people, who live in one part of the world, Jesus rose for all mankind. Jesus’ resurrection wasn’t a personal or private thing for God desired that all mankind might be saved, so that everyone might have hope and life IN christ our Lord.

It is for this reason that we want all people to know about what Christ has done and share in this wonderful gift. For Christ did this for you. We want everyone to knwo about this wonderful gift. For in his resurrection we find the hope that carries us through the storms of this world. We find out that God cares about us, all of us, and that He has given the answer to the most serious problem we face, death. For no matter how hard you work, or how wonderful people think you are, you will die, and that is true for people in the middle east, in Asia, Africa, Europe, the Americas. But Christ has overcome the power of death for all people, and we want everyone to know what He has done for their sake.

We share this wonderful news with them because if we don’t then when death comes they will try to find comfort in something that is not true. We have all experienced the death of someone that we care about and love, and when that happens it be overwhelming as though we are adrift at sea and the waves threaten to overwhelm us and drag us down into the depths. It matters when you are drowning what you cling to, what you trust to keep you afloat. Do we cling to idols made of lead that will drag us down, do we cling to money or work, or do we cling to the Son of God, who even though He went down into the depths rose again, and He rose again for you?

That is why we share with people the truth of Christ, and what he has done, not because we hate them or wish them ill, but because we know that one day we will all go down into death and we want them to live. We want them to have the hope that is found in Christ our Lord, a hope that we can know is true because the tomb was empty for Christ is Risen, He is risen indeed Alleluia.

Now it will offend some to hear this, that everything they thought was important in this life, everything that they had trusted in or put their faith in, or perhaps dedicated their life to, will not save them, but there are many can see the signs of the times, and they know they cannot escape death. They are looking for help something that can rely on that is certain, something that they can know is true. Let us point them to the empty tomb, and show them that our religion and our faith is not built upon feelings or personal decisions or private revelations, but is part of our history and is meant for everyone.

For in Jesus Resurrection they may finally find peace in the fact that this life is not all there is, and for all who die in Christ will live again. What that means is that all of our family, our friends, and our neighbors that have died in the faith, who trust this promise that Christ has given in his death and resurrection, we will see them again. That brings to us great joy even when we lay those we love into the grave, because we remember that Christ’s tomb was empty and one day theirs will be too.

So my brothers and sisters in Christ, Christ is Risen, He is Risen Indeed Alleluia, go forth and share with the world this wonderful news that our Lord and Savior have overcome death and the grave and He has done for every man, woman, and child in Jesus name. Amen.