1. Christ is Risen, He’s risen, indeed! Alleluia! The message from God’s Word as we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead on this wonderful Easter Sunrise service is taken from 1 Cor. 15:19-26, it’s entitled, “Christ is Risen! So, What?” Dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2. If you’ve seen one, you’ve seen gobs of them. Infomercials. Paid advertisements trying to sell you this thing and that other thing and those new things over there that are bigger and better and faster and cheaper and easier than that other stuff we sold you last year. Who’s to say if they’re right, really? Maybe it really is bigger and better and faster and more equipped to make your life a step above where it is right now! The problem is, of course, usually, it’s not. They’re just trying to sell you something. But you don’t know it’s no better than the last one you had but didn’t need until you’ve already bought it and it’s too late to send it back. If something really doesn’t work, and if it in the end has no factual basis to its claim, it’s just junk.
3. Well, the same goes for the Church. Did you know that? If this guy named Jesus of Nazareth didn’t actually die on a Roman cross two thousand years ago and come back to life three days later, we might as well pack it all up and go home. Everything the Church believes and teaches means absolutely nothing unless it has a basis in a historical event. Justification by grace through faith, the declaration that God has paid the price to repair the gap between us and him, depends completely on the fact that Jesus’ tomb was empty that Sunday morning. Our Christian Faith Depends Entirely on the Fact of the Empty Tomb.
4. The resurrection of Christ is a fact. If Christ did not rise from the dead, you are still in your sins. Historians are certain of one thing. Whether they believe Jesus rose or not, it’s considered a historical fact that Jesus of Nazareth did die by crucifixion on a Roman cross. What if Christ did not actually rise from the dead? Let’s suppose for a moment that he did not—that he died and maybe his disciples stole his body as the Jews claimed.
5. If Christ did not rise from the dead, then you and I are in a lot of trouble. Because we’re all sinners, we all deserve death. We need Christ’s death to pay for our sins, and his death doesn’t mean anything unless he defeated death by rising again to life. If Christ did not rise from the dead, it’s even worse. Not only do we have no forgiveness of sins and promise of new life, but neither do our loved ones who have already died. If Christ did not rise from the dead, then of all people we are truly most miserable (1 Cor. 15:19). We have no present, no future. We have only this life, a life full of death, pain, suffering, hardship. We have staked our lives on a fantasy. “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1 Cor. 15:20).
6. Dear friends in Christ, Christ has been raised from the dead. That, too, is a fact. Yes, there are many theories about what really happened in that tomb. Maybe you’ve seen some on the History Channel: the stolen-body theory, the wrong-tomb theory, the theory where Jesus only appeared to die, the theory where the women were hallucinating, or the lettuce theory where the gardener was so upset at his lettuce being trampled by curious onlookers that he moved the body.
7. All of these theories fall short because they all raise more questions than answers. For instance, not one accounts for why the Roman soldiers guarding the tomb went along with the alleged plot. If the body was not discovered, those guards were probably killed. All they had to do was come up with the body of Jesus, but they couldn’t do it. In fact, none of these theories ever produced the body of Jesus. How could they? Jesus was alive!
8. The disciples were so convinced of the fact of the resurrection that they staked their lives on proclaiming it. Only one, John, is known to have lived to old age, and he managed that only because he was exiled. The rest died bloody, premature deaths because of the faith. Andrew was crucified; Peter, Philip, and Bartholomew were crucified upside down; James was beheaded. You get the idea. They would never have done this if they were making it up—die for a lie. If they knew where Jesus’ body was, somebody would have spoken up. So Christ rose from the dead. That is established by the Scriptures and by clear historical testimony. So what? The “so what” is that From this fact grows all the blessings of our faith.
9. It means we have life. “For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead” (1 Cor. 15:21). The fact that Christ rose from the dead means you and I and all believers in Christ will also rise from the dead. It means that death is not forever, but that death is forever dead. It means that if death couldn’t hold on to Christ, it also can’t hold on to anyone who is in Christ. And that includes you and me. For us who are baptized into Christ, it means that the death we all face is not the important one. The death that we all will endure unless Christ returns first is not the one that actually matters. The death that actually matters is already in our past!
10. That real death, the death to sin, the one that counted because it lasts forever, we already died in Baptism. It’s in our past. Christ died our death for us that day on the cross. His death and his resurrection are given to us now on that day when we were baptized and God’s triune name was placed on us. That’s what Christ’s resurrection from the dead means for us. It means the last enemy will be destroyed.
11. On the Last Day, you and I and all believers in Christ will be gathered joyfully around the throne. After our very flesh is given new life just as the flesh of Jesus received new life, we will rise with new bodies and gather around Jesus Christ, the true Lamb of God. Victorious over sin, death, and the power of the devil, you and I will reign with Christ forever. Death will no longer be a menace to us who are in Christ. That wicked weapon of the devil will have been completely removed, once and for all. Death’s sting will no longer have any power or sway over us whatsoever, for Christ has destroyed death with his own death.
12. Even though for now we sin and repent, rise and fall, are born and die, we look forward with all hope and confidence to the resurrection of the dead. Just as Christ rose from the dead, in the same way we, too, will be brought to new life. And there is nothing that the devil or his minions of death-wielding demons can do about it, for the battle has been won.
13. What happened in Jesus’ tomb that Easter Sunday morning so long ago is real, as unbelievable as it seems. It is an event that took place in the real world, witnessed by hundreds. Just as Christ Jesus himself rose to new life after being put to death on that Roman cross, God will not abandon us to the grave after our own flesh loses its life. We can be glad, secure in the reality of the empty tomb. We can rejoice with our whole being in the certainty of our resurrection. We confess a doctrine based on a historic reality. Therefore, we can shout, “I believe in the resurrection of the flesh!” Now the peace of God that passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, until life everlasting. Amen.
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