Introduction

Welcome church and happy resurrection Sunday! Today, as much as any other day in the Christian calendar, we have so much to be grateful for. Today is a day we look back and remember, but it’s also a day we are reminded of the hope we presently have in Jesus as we look to an uncertain future.

Pastor Tim Keller says, “Our Christian hope is that we are going to live with Christ in a new earth, where there is not only no more death, but where life is what it was always meant to be.” As many of us know here today, life is difficult, suffering is all around us, and there is so much to be fearful of. This isn’t what life was meant to be…

However, the empty tomb and the resurrected Jesus are reminders that there is still more to the story. “Our hope,” as Keller says, is that we will one day live with Christ on a new earth. No more tears, no more suffering, no more death. God will make good on His promise, Jesus will complete what He started on the cross, and the Church will live on through eternity.

The empty tomb is FULL of hope for those who believe.

The empty tomb is FULL of hope for those who believe.

Main Teaching

Two thousand years ago, the very first disciples of Christ thought all was lost. They watched as their promised Messiah died a humiliating death on a Roman cross. Nailed there by a bloodthirsty mob of fellow Hebrews who screamed, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” Even after Pilate had found no fault, no guilt in Jesus deserving of death. It was, to say the least, a ghastly scene. Unimaginable in the minds of those who gave up everything to follow Christ as He traveled the countryside preaching, teaching, and healing.

Two thousand years later, it’s truly difficult, maybe impossible, for us to understand the depth of loss the original disciples felt. It’s against this backdrop that the story of Easter morning happens, and the first light of hope creeps back in.

Take a moment and imagine with me the astonishment of the women who went to the tomb that morning. The last thing they saw of Jesus was his lifeless body laying in the tomb, per Luke 23:55-56, and after seeing Him they returned to prepare spices and ointments.

Then, after resting on the Sabbath, which must’ve been the saddest most miserable day of rest they’d ever observed, they returned to the tomb with the spices and ointment they’d prepared for their lifeless savior.

But to their surprise, Jesus wasn’t there… Instead, they were met by two men in clothes like lightning who said, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? … He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while He was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.” (Luke 24:5-6 ESV)

Turn with me briefly back to the scene in Galilee:

Jesus already told them exactly what needed to happen, and yet it was only in looking back and remembering that they could begin to understand the significance of the empty tomb in front of them.

In retrospect, the truth became clear.

Looking Back

Easter Sunday is our annual reminder: Jesus is indeed alive and well ... View this full sermon with PRO Premium