“Easter Guarantees…” Psalm 16 Easter Day April ‘25

 

1.                Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. “This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it” (Ps 118:24). For Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! And because he lives, so shall we! The life-giving Word of the Lord for this, the day of Christ’s resurrection, is Psalm 16. The message is entitled, “Easter Guarantees…” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.

2.                As we read the psalms, we should recognize that they are Spirit-inspired prayers. In the psalms God gives us words we can use to talk to him. So Psalm 16 is a psalm of trust, a confession of faith, that helps us voice our faith and trust in the Lord. In this psalm, we hear faith expressing itself, declaring that in a world of trouble, uncertainty, and death, the resurrection of Jesus guarantees that He is our refuge in life, our hope in death, our joy in eternity.

3.                “Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge” (Psalm 16:1). Behind this psalm is some situation of danger. It’s not specifically stated what it is, although we do get a few hints as the psalm goes on. Whatever it is, David is in trouble and is crying out for help, for a place of safety that cannot be shaken. If anyone ever needed a safe place, it was David! He spent half his life on the run from people who wanted to kill him! First King Saul, then foreign kings and leaders, and then even his own son Absalom! David knew his vulnerability, but he also had his safe house—God. God was David’s refuge, his safe place.

4.                We need protection, security, assurance as troubling situations come into our own lives. People go to great efforts to have security. They build fallout shelters and safe rooms in their homes. They stockpile supplies and arm themselves. But there is nothing in this world with a reliable foundation. There is nothing in this world that will last. There is nothing in and of this world that will not be shaken and pass away.

5.                David knew that no one besides the Lord could be a real shelter from the storm. But he recognized that God was his safe place in this unpredictable world. In the same way, when we pray this psalm for God’s protection, we are guaranteed of his refuge, for today we know that even death could not disarm Christ. It’s a striking phrase that the Lord is our refuge, for a refuge is usually a place, a shelter from danger. For us as God’s people, our refuge is not primarily a place but a person, the risen Christ. He is the supreme good in life (Psalm 16:2).

6.                The Lord promises to be with us always. Obviously, it’s no help to have a refuge that isn’t nearby. A refuge is only helpful if it’s somewhere we can actually shelter. And this was the huge question Jesus’ followers faced as this Easter morning dawned. How could their Lord be with them now? But Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! And so, we join with King David and pray, “I bless the Lord who gives me counsel; in the night also my heart instructs me. I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken” (Psalm 16:7–8). This is familiar language. We usually speak of the Lord’s right hand and the hope that one day we will be there at his side. But here it’s about our right hand. Christ is risen to be here with us! The Lord is our refuge that cannot be shaken—he’s our right-hand man—and so we cannot be shaken, as King David confessed.

7.                We sense this especially in the community of God’s people. “As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight” (Psalm 16:3). During times of worship in the temple, David received instruction and strength from God. In his time of worship, he found refuge from his troubles. Today—above all days—we as God’s people gather together to receive his grace through his Word and Sacrament, and we are strengthened! We are rooted and built up in him and established in the faith!

8.                Especially on this day, we have the assurance of Jesus’ presence here with us. Through his resurrection and bodily appearances, Jesus proved that the word and promises of God are true. So, like King David, we, too, can pray in confidence that the risen and living Lord is at our right hand, ever present with us. For at one of those post-Easter appearances he promised, “Behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Mt 28:20). His presence is truly all that we need, because he surely lives to give us all we need, even for this life. Faith finds contentment in this and nothing else. In Jesus risen and living, we have all that’s necessary for life and living, even in this uncertain world.

9.                And so, David says, “The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot. The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance” (Psalm 16:5–6). David reminds us in our self-centered culture that life is not something we achieve but rather something we receive as a gracious gift from God. God himself is the greatest blessing in life, and thanks to Jesus’ resurrection, he lives to bless us! Faith looks to the Lord as the foundation for everything. And since the Lord is risen, living, we know with certainty that he is our refuge in life. He is our life!

10.             The Lord is also our hope in death. “For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol [that is, the grave or the place of the dead], or let your holy one see corruption” (Psalm 16:10). David’s situation as he wrote this psalm was deadly serious. It was clearly life threatening. But there is a tremendous confidence here that even death is no match for the Lord. That the Lord would not give him up to that place of the dead. Of course that doesn’t mean we’re not going to die at all, but it means that even in death God won’t give up on us. Death is not the end. Which is what makes Easter and the reason we celebrate Easter the most significant and life-changing event ever. This is the foundation of our faith. It’s one thing for the Lord to be our refuge in life, but we also die. Death is our common enemy that we all face. Even with all modern medicine, the mortality rate still sits at 100 percent. How can the psalmist David pray with this confidence that the Lord will not abandon his soul to the grave forever? How can we pray like that—with confidence that when we face death it’s not the end, or when our loved ones die it’s not the end?

11.             This psalm is quoted twice in the New Testament; both the apostle Peter and the apostle Paul tell us that this psalm is ultimately about Jesus Christ. That it is about his death and resurrection. That he is our hope in the face of death. Listen to these verses from Peter’s sermon on Pentecost: “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know—this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it. For David says concerning him, ‘I saw the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken’ ” (Acts 2:22–25). Did you catch Psalm 16 here? Peter says that David prayed this psalm speaking of Jesus.

12.             And then Peter goes on, “Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he [Christ] was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses” (Acts 2:29–32).

13.             Jesus died. As we read in the letter to the Hebrews, it was necessary for him to die as that once-for-all sacrifice for your sins and mine. Or, as Paul says in Romans, “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom 5:8). But death could not hold him. His Father did not abandon him in death but raised him to life. The resurrection of Jesus, as Peter and Paul declared, is the ultimate fulfillment of this psalm. Because we are baptized into Jesus, we are united into his death and resurrection, and we can live and die in confidence that God will not abandon us in death. Christ’s resurrection is the firstfruits, and we are the harvest that will follow. He is the Head, and we are his Body, and where the Head has gone, the Body will follow. Thus, he is our hope in death.

14.             And yet, there’s more. Because Jesus lives, he is our joy in eternity. Psalm 16:11 of our text: “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” Joy in this life can be elusive. Times of joy that we experience don’t last as long as we’d like. Your team wins a championship, and the joy fades as the next year brings one loss after another. Sports fans in the face of the agony of defeat look forward to next year and next year and . . .

15.             But our psalm speaks of a time and place where there is a fullness of joy, a joy that never ends, where there are pleasures forevermore. It’s not just that our Lord is our refuge in this life or our hope in death, but this is all leading somewhere. There is a goal, a destination for this Christian journey. We are pilgrims in this life traveling home. Throughout the journey the Lord is there with us, supplying all we need for our bodies and life. He’s our refuge and strength when we need him most, and when death comes, he is there with us; his rod and his staff, they comfort us. He is the Lord and Giver of life and the Conqueror of death, and he has prepared a place for us, that where he is there we shall be also. By Jesus’ resurrection, we have a guaranteed “inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you” (1 Pet 1:4).

16.             The sufferings of this life cannot be compared to the glory that awaits us in heaven with him. Because of Jesus’ death and resurrection, there is life beyond this life, and beyond death there is an eternal joy where there will be no more sin, no more sorrow, no more pain or sickness or death, only pleasures forevermore, unending joy in the Lord. Easter guarantees that the best is yet to come. Amen. Now the peace of God that passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus until life everlasting. Amen.

 

“Three Days!” John 20.1–18 Easter Sunrise, April ‘25

 

 

1.                Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! The message for this glorious Easter Day we celebrate our Lord’s resurrection from the dead is taken from John 20:1-18, it’s entitled, “Three Days,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.

2.                Three days. That’s how we observed our Lord’s death and prepared for his resurrection. We gathered for the Tri­duum. Three days. Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday. In these three days, we walk with Jesus from his Last Supper to his betrayal, his trial, his beating, his crucifixion, his death, and his rest in the tomb. These three days were the longest, toughest days Jesus’ disciples ever endured. Obviously! But regardless of how old or young you are—these three days are tough to make it through. They are tough because they lead us up Mount Calvary. In those three days we see the innocent, perfect, spotless Lamb of God, God’s own Son, take upon himself the sins of the whole world—our sins, the sins of which we’re guilty.

3.                But while the whole world may not realize what that means for them, we know what it means for us—the full and complete forgiveness of all of our sins. Because Christ died for you, you are saved from sin, from death, and from the devil. Because Christ died for you, they have no more power over you. Because Christ died for you, you have peace with God and with your fellow brothers and sisters in him. This is a peace that the world longs for. This is a peace that wars are fought for, and people die to achieve. This is the peace that binds troubled bodies, that soothes troubled hearts and minds. This peace is yours in Christ, a free gift, that has been won for you through his death. For when our Lord speaks his last word, “It is finished,” and breathes his last, it is finished, done, and complete.

4.                But those three days were only to walk us up the mountain to Jesus’ death and burial. They weren’t the final three days. No, death is not the last word for Jesus. No, life is. Those days were to lead us as a guide to a destination, up the mountain that is Easter. They led us and prepared us well for the glorious resurrection of our Lord. For without them, we see not what the full work of our Lord is and what the will of the Father is for him and for us.

5.                Without those days, we reduce Christ to a good teacher, a prophet, or a mighty man—or even a magician. Those three days prepared us as we walked along with our Good Shepherd, who fully and completely lays down his life for his sheep, for you. And in laying it down, he also takes it back up—for you too. So that you now have new life in him, and the promise and the hope of heaven when he calls you to himself. This is your Easter gift. Not bunnies and eggs or marshmallows and chocolate, but that you are an heir through Jesus of new life, a new creation, and the heavenly reward.

6.                Our celebration of Easter is the peak of the mountain. It’s the pinnacle of everything that we do and everything that we are as followers of Christ. Today, this Easter Day, we stand at the top of the mountain. We look out over the vast landscape that was once ruled by death with new and hope-filled eyes. Life that was thought to be swallowed up by death has now overtaken it in itself.

7.                But the women who went to Jesus’ tomb that morning did not know that. On that first day of the week, that Easter Sunday morning, they came to the tomb of Jesus hopeless and despairing. They came to do, to finish, the work that had been done by those who laid Jesus in the tomb in haste. They came expecting to find a cold, heavy stone and a cold, dead body. But what they found was a stone rolled away. This was not how it was meant to be, so they ran and got the disciples.

8.                In haste, both Peter and the disciple whom we can reason to be John sprinted to the tomb. For this is not what they expected either. Although told of it time and time again, this is not what they, having seen the events of Good Friday, expected would happen. And stooping down to enter the tomb, they both go in to find nothing but the cloth that had been over Jesus’ face and the linens, even neatly folded. Not knowing what this meant, they returned to their brother disciples to report to them all that they had seen. Mary they left there to weep and mourn for the Lord. For she knew not where he had gone, but only that his body was no longer where she had thought it would be—where she thought it should be—not understanding him either.

9.                Our Lord Jesus, though, is always one to give more than we deserve. He is always one to forgive our faithlessness. To enlighten our darkened eyes. To show us who he truly is when we cannot comprehend it. He speaks to Mary, to comfort her in her sorrow. “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” (John 20:15). Sorrowed and grieved, she doesn’t know with whom she’s talking, and she asks if he knows where Jesus’ body is. Now all Jesus has to do is speak one word, “Mary” (John 20:16), and she knows who this person is. He is her teacher, her “Rabboni” (John 20:16). He is her Lord. He is Jesus, risen from the dead, there in flesh and blood before her very eyes.

10.             But Jesus commands Mary not to hold on to him in this world. He is going to ascend to his Father’s right hand. While Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday serve to get us up the mountain, and while this Easter Day is the pinnacle of the mountain, Easter Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday and all the days beyond will walk us down the back side of the mountain—and that has purpose too. So in faith, Mary returns to the disciples to tell them the good news that “I have seen the Lord” (John 20:18). Her life, the disciples’ lives, and our lives, are all changed by this, that Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. Alleluia.

11.             In taking away your sins, he calls for you to live a new life in him, and through his Holy Spirit, he calls for you to live not in the way that the world lives but in the way that a redeemed person lives. You are living on the back side of the mountain that is Easter. But that doesn’t mean the best is over, that it’s all downhill from here. As the apostle Paul says, “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Col 3:2–3). You are justified. You are sanctified. You are called to live a life different from the world. As Christ has died for you and you are dead in him, so as he rises, you are raised too. Three days—that’s what it took for him to bring you up the mountain, to win for you all of your days. To free you from sin, from death, and from the devil. From here, we see what it was all for.

12.             As difficult as it was for the disciples to go through those three Days, those three days are nothing in comparison to the joys we will experience on this, the far side of the mountain, as those who believe in him. Every day is a new day in him. A day of forgiveness. A day of love. A day of grace. The day to reside in his mercy. Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! Now the peace of God that passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, until life everlasting. Amen.