Christ is arisen means you are acquitted.

 

Sermon for Easter, April 17, 2022

This is the day the LORD has made.  Let us rejoice and be glad in it.  Yes, his mercy endures forever.  Amen.

Romans 4:25  ²⁵He was handed over to death because of our trespasses and was raised to life because of our justification. (EHV)

Christ is arisen means you are acquitted.

Dear fellow redeemed,

            There are many in our day who don’t believe Jesus rose from the dead.  Every year around Easter, the deceived promote their hopeless myths  with lousy accusations that Christ’s resurrection is a fantasy.  You might even hear these doubts in some supposedly Christian circles where a teacher or pastor might say that it doesn’t matter whether Jesus really rose from the dead or if His followers merely claimed He did.  Yet, any doubt that Jesus rose to live again is pure foolishness and the implications are terrible. 

There are three possible scenarios if Jesus didn’t rise from the grave, each one as bad as the next: the first false accusation is that God doesn’t exist and the message of the Bible is pure fantasy; the second lie says Jesus isn’t the promised Messiah but merely a man who claimed to be God; finally, some will say that Jesus sinned which would mean He didn’t rise because the devil had defeated God’s Son.

Modern man really likes the first idea.  Most of science and much public education is built around the idea that there is no God.  Yet, they can never answer where everything in the universe came from, or how living things can be so infinitely complex, or especially, where life originated.  Worse yet, if God is not real, then there really is no basis for any morality and everyone should be able to do what he wants and take whatever he or she might desire.  Be warned though, this has been tried throughout history, and it always leads to disaster for the selfishness of sinful man always overrules any good intentions.

According to the second lie, the promises of the Old Testament still need to be fulfilled and Jesus was a fraud.  The interesting thing about this lie is that many supposed Christians buy into it as they try to placate those who reject Jesus.  However, St. Paul reminds us that “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.” (1 Corinthians 15:17)  If there was no resurrection in Jerusalem that long ago Sunday morning, then every religion is worthless, because if Jesus stayed dead there is no religion that offers anything but death in the hereafter.  Christianity without the resurrection is nothing but a paganistic attempt to control behavior, as are all other religions.

Finally, the third lie—that the devil defeated Jesus—would mean that Satan conquered God.  If Jesus wasn’t raised, then He was not holy when He took up our sins to pay their penalty on the cross.  If Jesus had ever once lusted, lied, doubted His Father, cheated, or harmed any person, the devil would have won.  God, as He reveals Himself and as we know Him, would not exist.  But, if God is not Almighty, then nothing can exist, because He is the source of all things.  And, if the devil defeated God’s Son, then chaos would rule the world.  As bad as it might seem now, it is beyond imagination how deep the depravity would run if the devil who seeks “only to steal and kill and destroy” (John 10:10) was actually in control.

Dear friends, let me lay your fears to rest.  None of those three scenarios is worth worrying about or even considering, because Jesus did indeed rise from the grave on Easter morning, fully alive with a body restored to a glory far above any we have ever known.  Christ’s resurrection from the dead is the most documented event in history.  The only way people doubt it is by denying the truth in order to believe a lie. 

Numerous eyewitnesses testify that Jesus rose from the grave and lived, walked, and ate with His friends.  Over five hundred people saw Jesus alive (1 Corinthians 15:6) as He met and taught His followers after He had risen from the grave.  Jesus even continued performing miracles afterward, (John 21:6) and finally a crowd of followers witnessed His ascension to heaven to live and reign over all things in heaven and earth at His Father’s side. (Acts 1:9)

All of this being said, the real point we need to take home this morning concerns what Jesus’ resurrection from the dead means for us who believe it, for Christ is arisen means you are acquitted.

Paul wrote, “He was handed over to death because of our trespasses and was raised to life because of our justification.”  Jesus was nailed to a cross until dead, not for any crime He had committed, not even for offending the jealous authorities who accused, condemned, and murdered Him.  No, Jesus was nailed to that tree, because all of us have sinned against God.  Our trespasses against the will and commands of our Creator required us to die for our disobedience.  From the moment He created man, God had warned, “The soul who sins is the one who will die.” (Ezekiel 18:20)  After Adam and Eve fell, no person except Jesus has been able to resist our nature’s inclination to disobey.  Thus, we all deserved death for our wicked thoughts, careless words, sins we committed, good we failed to do, and even some feelings.

Yet, “The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in mercy.” (Psalms 103:8)  Not wanting any of us to be lost before His righteous judgment, God took the punishment we deserved upon Himself as the Son of God entered our world expressly to live the righteousness we could not, and to be the atoning sacrifice that settled the score of God’s just wrath. 

Jesus was handed over to death, not just because Judas betrayed Him, not just because the Jewish leaders were jealous of His success in drawing a crowd of followers, and not even because of Pilate’s sniveling weakness as a judge and governor.  No, Jesus died and was buried, because He loved us enough to take to Himself the everlasting punishment we deserved. 

We heard on Friday about all the anguish and pain Jesus endured to prepare a place for us in heaven.  We heard how the Father had forsaken His Son—we could rightly call that God exiling His own dear Son to hell in our place—because God didn’t want us to face destruction.

Having said all of this, our whole religion, forgiveness, salvation, and home in heaven rests on that morning we celebrate this morning.  If Jesus wouldn’t have risen from the grave, He would have been nothing more than hundreds of false teachers who have come before and after Him.  However, God’s Word, hundreds of eyewitnesses, and even the reports and actions of Jesus’ enemies testify that Jesus rose from the dead.  His dearest friends and the women who came to the tomb to anoint His body on the third day reported it to their fellow believers as soon as they heard the news and saw the open tomb.

What Jesus rising from the grave, alive, confirms is that His mission was accomplished.  Jesus had told His disciples, “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:45)  In the days before His arrest, Jesus warned His disciples that He would soon suffer and die, but He told them why, “I am going to prepare a place for you.  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to be with me, so that you may also be where I am.” (John 14:2-3)

All the guilt for every sin you have ever committed was charged by God to Jesus.  Every obstinate, reckless, and cruel thing you have ever said or done that the devil could have used to accuse you was removed from your ledger and credited to God’s Son, Jesus.  “God made him, who did not know sin, to become sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)  That’s why Jesus was nailed to the cross.  That’s why Jesus was laid dead in the tomb on that first Good Friday late afternoon.  And that’s why you are declared righteous, (that is acquitted) by God.  By raising Jesus from the dead, God has declared you sinless, holy, innocent, and welcome in His kingdom of grace once again.  Christ is arisen means you are acquitted. 

The implications of this are amazing.  No longer can the devil accuse us of any sin.  No longer are we condemned to eternal separation from our God.  The perfect obedience Jesus lived on your behalf is now counted by God as how you have lived.  By the faith in Jesus that the Holy Spirit has worked in you through the power of the gospel and baptism, God has included you in the love He has for His only begotten Son.

Now, because Jesus rose from the dead, just as He promised He would, the truth of His message is confirmed for all the world to see, and we have God’s assurance that because Jesus lives, we also will be raised from the grave to live in glory forever.  Our Savior, the Son of God, now our Brother by faith in Him, promises, “I am the resurrection and the life.  Whoever believes in me will live, even if he dies.  And whoever lives and believes in me will never perish.” (John 11:25-26)  Furthermore, through the writers inspired by the Holy Spirit, we are assured that “Our citizenship is in heaven.…By the power that enables him [Jesus] to subject all things to himself, he will transform our humble bodies to be like his glorious body.” (Philippians 3:20-21)  Then, amazed by the vision he saw, St. John rejoiced, “Look!…God himself will be with them, and he will be their God.  He will wipe away every tear from their eyes.  There will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain, because the former things have passed away.” (Revelation 21:3-4)

Dear friends, while those who reject Jesus try to make up all kinds of myths about what the Bible really means, we have Jesus’ resurrection from the grave as sure and certain proof that everything the Bible says is God’s Word and therefore true, giving us our ticket to heaven.  For Jesus’ sake, you are forgiven, redeemed from the power of the devil and the grave.  In Jesus, you who believe in Him will live forever in heaven.  Christ is arisen!   You are acquitted!  All glory to the Triune God.  Amen.

Now may the God of peace—who brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, in connection with his blood, which established the eternal testament—may he equip you with every good thing to do his will, as he works in us what is pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ.  To him be glory forever and ever.  Amen.