April 20, 2025

IFL250419 sermon distribution
Matthew 28:1-6  
 
For 2000 years, in celebration of Easter, in celebration of the Resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, in celebration of Christ’s victory over death, Christians all over the world have greeted each other with the words He is risen!  He is risen! (He is risen indeed!) Alleluia.  Today we celebrate Easter Sunday.  Today we celebrate Christ’s victory over death,..  His victory over DEATH!!!! a victory which He shares with us.
 
Easter, the ultimate test of faith, a test which divides believers from unbelievers.  The Easter challenge is nothing more this… Do you believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead? Do you believe that Jesus rose from the dead? Affirmed by believers.  Rejected by “non.”  This is the one question which separates the men from the boys.  You can’t have it both ways: Either Jesus actually rose from the grave or he did not.  There is no middle ground.  For those who have received Him, Easter, the resurrection of Jesus, brings joy to broken hearts, and confidence to souls about their eternal destiny.  The physical resurrection of Jesus from death shatters the grip of fear that confronts every living human being, about death.  Every person on Earth, sooner or later has to face the question “What happens to me after I die? “Is there hope?”  “Is there nothing?”  “Is there “reincarnation?”  “What is waiting for me on the ‘other side’?” 
 
For many this is a fearful question.  For them the unknown brings fear.  You know “fear” has not always been the companion of the unknown.  “fear of death” had not always been the experience of Man.  “Fear of the unknown,” and the “fear of death” are consequences of sin.  You see, before the Fall of Adam and Eve, everything in creation was new… so everything was “the unknown.”  But we didn’t fear it.  We didn’t fear the unknown because we walked with God.  We feared nothing because it was God who led us.  But after the Fall, after our separation from God, Death entered this world.  Spiritual death, which is separation of the soul from God, who is the source of life, and later physical death, which is separation of the soul from the body.  When death entered the world, we became blind to God.  We became ignorant of God, and all we saw was ourselves.  We began to fear the unknown, because we saw our weakness, against the unknown.  Satan has used “the unknown” to hold mankind in slavery… a slavery of fear, especially regarding death.  Satan tries to hold people in this slavery, this “fear of death”.  Satan wants to keep you uncertain.  Satan wants to keep you trapped in the uncertainty of “have I done enough to achieve Heaven?”  Satan wants you to question whether God loves you or not.  Satan wants you to worry about the future.  Satan wants you focused on what YOU need to do in this world and not to focus on the next.  Satan wants you to be afraid. 
 
It is this fear which Easter Sunday removes.  It is “the resurrection of Jesus” that shatters Satan’s grip  It is the resurrection which frees “heart and mind” from worry about our eternal destiny.  The two great symbols of Christianity are the cross and the empty tomb.  They testify to the love of God.  Together they testify to the victory of Christ over death.  An empty tomb without a cross would miss the central message of the gospel…” As, a cross without the empty tomb would be a hollow promise.  The cross and the empty tomb are the Gospel. 
 
The gospel of Matthew tells us that in the very moment that Jesus died on the cross the curtain in the Jewish temple that separated people from the Holy Presence of God, was torn in two from top to bottom.  At the very moment of His death, the earth shook, the rocks split, tombs broke open.  The bodies of holy people were raised to life.  They came out of the tombs.  They went into the city of Jerusalem They appeared to many people testifying about Jesus.  Even a pagan Centurion testified “surely He was the son of God.”  His death on the cross was an event in History, an event which changed the history of mankind, an event which CHANGED mankind.  For at his death, ALL the sins of ALL Mankind, were paid for.  The sins which separated Mankind from God, were washed away, through the shed blood of Christ.  Because of his death on the cross nothing now separates us from God.  Because of His death, Death, spiritual death, separation from God, had been destroyed. 
 
Three days later, on the first Easter Sunday… the tomb of Jesus was empty.  The empty tomb is the other great symbol of Christianity.  The empty tomb is the proof that death had been destroyed.  Why is an empty tomb so important?  Other religions have their leaders and religious teachers.  But there is one big difference between them and Christianity.  The graves of their religious founders are still occupied.  Christianity has an empty grave.  The grave is empty because Jesus lives.  He is risen! And this too was a historical event. 
 
Image what it was like.  Early in the morning, the Sunday after the crucifixion, in the dim first light of dawn, there is the sound of trudging feet, the drooping shoulders of sadness and tear filled eyes.  Several women are walking to the garden where the body of Jesus had been placed in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea.  All the tombs were in the shadows.  From a distance, Mary sees that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance of Jesus’ tomb.  Oh NO.  Someone had tampered with the tomb.  Has someone robbed the tomb?  And as the women look into the tomb, a sudden fear fills them.  The body of Jesus was gone!  Mary runs off to tell the disciples and get help.  Soon Peter and John raced to the tomb to see for themselves.  The women had told the truth.  Jesus’ body was gone! Only later would they understand the awesome meaning of the empty tomb. 
 
Several years ago, Newsweek of all places had a lead story focusing on Easter.  Incredibly, it gave an outstanding witness to the empty tomb and its significance, that the empty tomb proved the historical resurrection of Jesus.  The Newsweek article begins with "This is the week that Christians around the world gather to remember the passion and the death of Jesus on a criminal's cross.  Once again, the familiar story will be relived in liturgy, sermon, and song.  The soberness of Good Friday, the tomb-like solemnity of Holy Saturday, will be followed by the radiance of Easter Sunday – a proclamation of Christ's resurrection: New life by the power of God.”  Newsweek then continues to say, "[It is indeed] as the apostle Paul insisted, the RISEN Christ is the center of the Christian faith, the mystery without which there would be no church, no hope of eternal life,  no living Christ to encounter in Eucharistic bread and wine.”  "By any measure," Newsweek states, "the resurrection of Jesus is the most radical of Christian doctrines.  Christ's teachings, His compassion for others, and even His death will find parallels in other stories and other religious traditions.  However, for no other historical figure has the claim been made consistently that God raised Jesus from the dead.”  Newsweek continues "It was the appearances of Christ after His resurrection that lit the flame that fired a motley band of fearful disciples to proclaim the risen Christ, throughout the Greco-Roman empire.”  they quote a theologian saying “It wasn't the morality of Christ's Sermon on the Mount which enabled Christianity to conquer Roman paganism.  Rather, the impetus that drove the early Christians was the belief that Jesus had indeed been raised from death back to life!'" Bammo! Hole-in-one.!!! Home Run An article in Newsweek clearly speaking the Gospel of the cross and the empty tomb.  Sadly the Newsweek article has a lame ending, by saying  it is up to the reader if they want to believe the events are historical or not. 
 
For Christians, however, the story of the cross and the empty tomb, the story of divine sacrifice and a victory over death ARE historical.  My favorite part of the story are the words of the angels speaking to Mary.  The angels asked: “Woman, why are you weeping.”  Why sorrow on such a joyful, miraculous day?  Yes, Jesus was absent, but not because some thief stole his body….  “Jesus is not here, because He has risen from the dead.”  Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is risen!  
 
For the Christian, as Jesus rose from the dead we are also assured that one day we too share rise.  This is what Easter is all about.  In this way, the cross and the empty tomb, break the power of uncertainty, break the power of fear, break the power of Satan.  Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life and he who believes in me shall never die.”  St.  Paul writes: I do not want you to be ignorant about those who have fallen asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope.  We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we know that when Jesus returns  God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep.”  Do not grieve over the dead like the people of the world, who see death as only loss, who have nothing to look forward to, who act as if the grave were the last word.  It is not!  Since Jesus died and shattered the chains of the grave and death, God will most certainly bring back to life those who died in Jesus.” 
 
Why do I know this?  Because He tells me in the bible.  You don’t have to understand it.  Just have to accept it.  On Good Friday, the victory was won.  On Easter Sunday we got the proof, Jesus’ victory over death.  On Easter Sunday we got proof of OUR victory over death given to us through Jesus and Victory it was, indeed.  Easter Sunday marks the greatest battle in human history.  The battle between Satan, who sought to stop the God’s plan of salvation of mankind and the God the Son who willingly submitted to the wrath of God in our place that WE might receive forgiveness and eternal life.  The last enemy of humanity, Death, has been defeated in the resurrection of Jesus.  Jesus is the victor.  That is what we celebrate today!  Our message to the world.  Do not look for the living among the dead.  He is risen! Hallelujah