"Celebrating the Empty Tomb"

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! A joyous, blessed Easter day to each and every one of you! What a glorious message we have today! We’re here this morning to hear the Word and to proclaim to each other the Good News that the dawn of resurrection and new life has broken and that the night of death has been overcome! Isn’t that the reason we’re here today? We’re here – gathered together to celebrate an empty tomb and celebrate the fact that death no longer has any power over us!

Now, we all know that that contradicts all logic and reason! I mean, anyone can see that the earth is just one huge cemetery. Just look around! Trees die – sometimes after living for hundreds of years. Animals die, although some live much longer than others. Insects die here by the millions – some only a few days or hours after they’ve come into being. People die here too! We’re born into this world for a short time and most of us are gone before a century is done. We mark each others graves – try to preserve the memories, but eventually the graves and memories disappear.

On this coming April 15th we’re going to be reminded that nothing is as certain as death or taxes. Someone commented on that and said that "the taxes aren’t so bad when you consider the alternative!" The Bible says, "The wages of sin is death..." That’s the real reason why people die. Whatever people may think and say about death, they know death doesn’t end it all. Maybe that’s why some people seem to fear it so much.

Today we celebrate the end of that fear! We celebrate an empty tomb! God sent His Son, Jesus, to share our flesh and blood. He came to take our place and to keep the commandments perfectly in our place. His death on the cross would break the power of Satan. And by His resurrection, deliver those who have lived all their lives as slaves to the fear of dying.

There’s only One whom death couldn’t hold. He’s the One who said, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die." We, this morning, have an empty tomb, a broken seal, a stone rolled away from the door of the grave. You won’t find the bones of the Son of God anywhere! He lives and He reigns to all eternity!

The empty tomb proves to us beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jesus Christ really is who He says He is — that He "...was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead." It shows us that His words are true! He said, "Destroy this body and in three days I’ll raise it up again."

What’s more, the empty tomb tells us that God the Father accepted the sacrifice of His Son for you and for me. Paul said, "And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins." But Christ has risen! "He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification." He did that in order to put us right with God, whom we can now call, Father.

And as a result of being forgiven for the sake of Christ, He says, "Because I live, you also will live." He hands to us the sure gift and promise of eternal life! "God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life." Jesus Christ broke through death! He broke down death! There is now no death for those who are in Christ Jesus! Because of the empty tomb, you and I, by faith in Him, have life today and life forever!

Okay, we talked about what the empty tomb means, but what does the empty tomb mean for you today? What’s does it mean for your life right here and now? You no longer have to live your life "as if...." You know, if we’re going to be really honest with ourselves, each other, and with God, then we’ll have to

There’s a story about a family that tragically lost three of their four children within just two weeks to a deadly disease. One child was left – a four year old boy. The family had buried the third child just two weeks before Easter. On Easter morning the parents and the remaining child went to church. The mother taught her Sunday school class about the resurrection of Jesus and the father read the Easter story as he led the opening Sunday school devotion. People who knew about their great loss wondered how they could do it. One family of the church was on their way home after church when their 16 year old said to his father, "Dad, that couple must believe everything about the Easter Story." "Of course they believe it," said the father, "all Christians do!" The young man then said, "Maybe so, but not like they do!"

The empty tomb made the difference. It turns night into day, despair into hope, and death into life. "He is not here; for He has risen, as He said." He wants you to let Him live at the center of your life right now – giving you purpose and meaning, hope and healing, peace, pardon, and power in the face of everything else. He wants to be the risen Lord of your life!

Is He in your daily plans and schedules? Have you been trying to salvage a crumbling relationship with another person by just your own human means, or have you depended on Christ the Healer to restore you to each other? Have you agonized in loneliness and despair and wondered why God isn’t speaking to you, and yet your Bible stays closed and your worship life is neglected and ignored as the living source of God’s power by which He wants to feed you, uplift you, and comfort you?

But even though we might ignore Him, God doesn’t ignore us. That’s the kind of God we have and Jesus Christ is living proof of that! He says to you as you wander through life..."Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you."

That’s what Easter is all about! In that lies our joy and hope. We’re redeemed and forgiven people! And now in that joy and hope our risen Lord calls upon us to believe it then empowered by the Holy Spirit to act upon it!

In our text for this morning, the angel told the women to "Come see the place where He lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples that He has risen from the dead, and behold, he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him." Celebrating the empty tomb this morning isn’t just an intellectual assent to some facts about Christ’s resurrection. Those who were the witnesses that day said, "...we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard."

The love of Christ compels us to share with joy this Good News with those who surround us in our every day lives – the news that God has reconciled us to Himself through the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of His Son. That’s the commission He’s given us: To go and tell. To ring people hope, healing, and new life through Jesus Christ!

And notice that the angel told them to go quickly. And they went quickly! So you and I need to go – with joy in our hearts – as the women did! As evangelical Lutherans it’s not just "Here We Stand", but here we go! – With the Good News of the empty tomb!

And so fear no more, my friends. The angel said, "Do not be afraid. He is not here. For He has risen, as He said." Amen.

Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen