Sermon

April 15, 2001
Easter Sunday
1 Corinthians 15:17-20

What Does Easter Mean?

1. It Means that Your Faith is not Futile
2. It Means that Your Hope is Secure

Can I ask you, "What does Easter mean to you?" I mean, what kind of thoughts and images come to mind when you hear the word Easter?" Maybe for you, Easter means a sunrise service. Setting that alarm clock for what? 5-5:30 a.m.? Getting up while it's still dark outside. Hurrying to get yourself ready, kind of like those women must have done as they prepared to head out to the tomb on that first Easter morning. (Oh wait, this is the 8:00/10:00 a.m. service. Forget that talk about getting up before dawn.)

Maybe for you Easter means being able to grab breakfast at church. Maybe you could smell the coffee and eggs when you walked in the door. Or was it the fragrance of Easter lilies that filled your nostrils this morning. Maybe that's what Easter means to you. It means a pyramid of green and white flowers adorning the altar. Or maybe Easter means music-triumphant, glorious hymns like, "I Know that My Redeemer Lives" and "Jesus Christ is Risen Today." Hymns that put a lump in your throat and send a shiver down your spine. Hymns with brass and bells, voices joining together to give praise and glory to God. These are some of the things that we often associate with Easter, aren't they? Easter lilies, Easter music, Easter worship-I suppose I could add Easter dresses, Easter eggs and Easter baskets, as well. And yet, all these images are really peripheral. They all are secondary to the most important image the most important picture of Easter, and that is, the image of a tomb, a dark, foreboding tomb, a tomb that once contained the body of a dead man, a tomb which now stands empty. My friends, that's what Easter is really all about, isn't it? It is not simply about flowers and music. It's not simply a celebration of spring, with the tulips popping up out of the ground and the green grass coming back to life. No, Easter is about Jesus of Nazareth, Son of God and Son of Mary, crucified by the decree of Pontius Pilate, buried by his followers, Joseph and Nicodemus-Jesus of Nazareth, who on the third day came back to life and appeared to Mary and the disciples and a host of others. Easter is the celebration of the physical resurrection of Christ. That's what Easter is really about.

But now, maybe you're thinking to yourself, "So what?" So what if Jesus did come back from the dead on some Sunday morning a couple thousand years ago? What is that to me-besides ancient history? I mean is that all the Christian church does is look backwards? Am I just supposed to reliving the past? C'mon, I need something that's going to have an impact on my life today. I need to know whether Easter is relevant right now. I need to know what Easter means for my life today, and tomorrow and the next day. I want to know what Easter means for the rest of my life.

Hmmm. I'm glad to hear you say that-because that's exactly what the Apostle Paul writes about here in our text for today. Here for the benefit of people like you and me, people living in the year 2001, St. Paul takes up the question:

What Does Easter Mean?

And, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Paul offers two answers to that question:

1. It Means that Your Faith is not Futile
2. It Means that Your Hope is Secure 

First, Easter means that your faith is not futile. In other words, it means that what you believe is not a lost cause, it's not a waste of time, it's not some kind of misguided pipe dream on your part. Hasn't that thought ever crossed your mind? How do I know that my religion is the right religion? Maybe I've got it all wrong. Maybe Hinduism or Buddhism or the New Age Movement has it right. Maybe they have the truth and I'm believing a lie. How do I know that Christianity is any better, any more valid than all the other religions in the world?

My friends, the answer to that question is found in a tomb, an empty tomb. You can look in the graves of all the other religious leaders (Buddha, Mohammed, Confucius), and there are bodies in all those graves. But in Jesus' grave, there is no body. The angels announced the earth-shattering truth, "He is not here. He has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay." Jesus' post-resurrection appearances to different people in different places at different times-all help substantiate that your faith in Jesus as the risen Son of God is not based on wishful thinking. It's based on historical fact. On Easter Sunday morning Jesus' tomb was empty-and both Jesus' friends and his enemies testified to that fact. My friends, the events of that first Easter Sunday mean that your faith in Jesus' bodily resurrection from the dead is not in vain.

Not only that, but here in our text, St. Paul connects Christ's resurrection with something else you can believe in. Actually, Paul states it as a negative hypothesis. He says, "If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile, you are still in your sins." Of course, because of the corroborated eye-witness testimony of Jesus' resurrection, we can make that statement a positive one: "Since Christ has been raised, your faith is not futile; you are no longer in your sins."

Do you see the second thing Christ's resurrection from the death means you can believe in? You can believe, yes, you can know that you are no longer in your sins. In other words, your sins are forgiven. Oh, sure there are plenty of people who will say, "I believe that God will forgive me. I expect he'll overlook my mistakes." But they have nothing solid upon which to base their wishful thinking. But you and I, dear Christians, have something solid to base our conviction on. We have the cross. We have God's very word telling us that he sent his son to live a perfect life in our place, to suffer the penalty which our sins deserved and then give his life as a ransom for all mankind. On Good Friday, Jesus did just that, didn't he? He cried out, "It is finished" and then breathed his last.

At that moment, it looked like Jesus had paid the price for the sins of the world. It looked like he had set us free from the guilt and punishment of our sins. But looks can deceive. There was only one person who was in a position to accurately judge whether Jesus of Nazareth had truly accomplished what he had come to do. There was only one person who could place the ultimate stamp of approval on Jesus' life and death on our behalf, only one person who could announce for all the world to hear, "Jesus' payment for sin is acceptable in my eyes! Your sins are forgiven!" That one person is, of course, God Almighty. And he made that same dramatic announcement when he raised Jesus from the dead on Easter Sunday morning. That empty tomb is God's way of telling the world, "Jesus' payment for sins is accepted. The mission is accomplished. Your sins are completely erased."

My friends, isn't that the point that Paul makes in Romans 4:25? Paul writes, "(Jesus) was delivered over to death for our sins and raised to life for our justification." What does Easter mean? It means that you have been justified, that is, God has declared you to be not guilty in his eyes. That empty tomb is not only the Father's stamp of approval on Jesus. It is the Father's stamp of approval on you. When the Devil says that you are not good enough. When the world says that you are not popular enough, not rich enough, not cute enough, then you can look at that empty tomb and say, "Yeah, but God says I'm all right with him. God says that I'm as good as Jesus. And that's all I need to know. Because God said it and Easter proved it, I know my faith is not in vain."

And yet, it must be said that that's not all that Easter means. Here in our text, St. Paul says that Easter not only means that our faith is not futile. It also means that our hope is secure. I don't know about you, but I think the one time that Easter means more to me than any other time, is not when I'm sitting in Church singing Easter hymns or smelling Easter lilies. No, the time that Easter means more to me than any other is when I'm standing in front of a casket, or a grave, or a hospital bed of a loved one who has just passed on. You know as well as I do, those are difficult times, times of sorrow, times of pain. And yet, because of Easter, those are also times of hope.

When a person dies, all the people left behind hope that that person will go to heaven. They hope that person will be in a better place. But often that hope is no more than wishful thinking, a vain desire for a better life. But as Christians, you and I have something much more certain to base our hope upon. We have the unbreakable promises of God. Jesus himself said, "I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me will live even though he dies." And again, "My Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the Last Day."

And what reason do we have to believe that God will keep his promise to raise his children back to life? The answer again is: an empty tomb. My friends, Scripture always draws a connection between the resurrection of Jesus and the resurrection of his believers. If Jesus were still in the grave today, then we'd all be in the grave forever. But since Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, then you can be sure that you will not be in the grave forever. St. Paul says that Jesus is the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. In other words, he's the first of many to follow. Kind of reminds me of dipping for smelt up in Upper Peninsula of Michigan. You're standing there in that icy cold water, dipping your net in, hoping to get that first silvery little fish. Because you know if you just get that first one, then you'd better get ready. Because chances are, there are thousands and thousands of smelt following it.

Well, so it is with Jesus' resurrection. Jesus is the first one of many. His resurrection from the dead has, in effect, paved the way for our resurrection from the dead as well. No, it has done more than paved the way. His resurrection has guaranteed our resurrection. And not just our resurrection, but the resurrection of all those, as Paul says, "who have fallen asleep in Christ." What greater comfort could there ever be as you stand at the grave of a Christian friend or family member? Because Jesus lives, so will all those who put their hope in him. In Christ, our hope for our future and theirs is secure.

So what does Easter mean? Does it mean more than a special atmosphere one day of the year? You bet it does. Easter, I mean, the real meaning, the real impact of Easter goes far beyond what happens on this one particular day of the year. Easter is the Christian's life. It gives us the assurance of our forgiveness. It gives us a foundation for our faith. It gives us the certain hope for a bodily resurrection and an eternity with God in heaven. In fact, if you think about it, Easter means so much that we just can't limit our celebration of Easter to just one day of the year. And so we don't. Instead, we'll gather here again next Sunday, and the next Sunday and the Sunday after that to continue our celebration of the glorious good news, "He is not here. He has risen!" May God bless your Easter and what it truly means for your life today, tomorrow and forever. Amen.