Sermon for
Easter 2, April 12, 2026
Matthew 12:38-41 38Then
some of the experts in the law and Pharisees replied, “Teacher, we want to see
a sign from you.” 39But he
answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation wishes for a sign, but no
sign will be given it except the sign of Jonah the prophet. 40For just as Jonah was in the
belly of the huge fish for three days and three nights, so the Son of Man will
be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. 41The men of Nineveh will stand up
in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at
the preaching of Jonah. But one even
greater than Jonah is here. (EHV)
1 Corinthians 15:3-8 3For
I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ
died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4that he was
buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5and
that he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve.
6After that he appeared to over five hundred brothers at the
same time, most of whom are still alive, but some have fallen asleep. 7Then he appeared to James, and
then to all the apostles. 8Last
of all, he appeared also to me, the stillborn child, so to speak. (EHV)
The signs
confirm our resurrection.
Dear fellow redeemed,
In
the Apostle’s Creed, we confess our sure confidence that on the third day He [Christ] rose again from
the dead. The question for us this morning, I suppose,
is why does this matter? Why do we make
this bold confession? And what
difference does it make in our lives or our future lives? Why it matters is explained to us in this
combination from Matthew’s Gospel and Paul’s letter to the Corinthian
congregation. In these texts, we learn
that The signs confirm our resurrection.
Today,
our world is filled with people who demand proof, or one could say signs, for
what we believe. How do we know Jesus
lived? How can we be so certain about
the promises He made? Nearly every
aspect of the Christian faith is being challenged continually. Our children are under special attack which
gets more brutal the higher up in their educations they go. The more supposedly learned their teachers
are the more likely they are to challenge our beliefs. So, where will we stand?
The experts of Jesus’ day,
likewise, demanded signs from Him even after witnessing Him perform countless
miracles firsthand. The truth remains
constant that they didn’t need signs because Jesus had failed to show them the
reality. Rather, they demanded signs
solely because their preconceived notions blinded them to the obvious truth. Therefore, Jesus refused to do more miracles
just to impress a crowd of enemies. Instead,
Jesus promised a sign that would silence all objections.
Jesus told the scribes and
Pharisees, “An evil and adulterous generation wishes for a sign, but no sign
will be given it except the sign of Jonah the prophet. For just as Jonah was in the belly of the
huge fish for three days and three nights, so the Son of Man will be three days
and three nights in the heart of the earth.” This was neither the first nor the last
prophecy concerning Jesus’ death and resurrection. The first prophecy goes all the way back to
the Garden of Eden, then throughout the Old Testament scriptures, God gave
prophecy after prophecy concerning the Savior and Messiah He promised to
send. All of those ancient prophecies
were fulfilled in Jesus.
Now, modern scholars might
do their best to imagine that all of that was just coincidence. However, there is no way to dismiss the Son
of God prophesying His own death and resurrection, then following through with
the promised result. Again, many
modernists try to dismiss even the gospel accounts as just fine storytelling. However, Jesus provided many eyewitnesses to
testify to everything He did and said. More
than that, Paul points out that there were over five hundred people who
witnessed Jesus alive and well, all at one time, after His crucifixion, burial,
and resurrection. Consequently, our
faith is not set on wishful thinking, but on the firm evidence that Jesus did
rise from the dead just as He had promised.
Furthermore, when Paul
wrote this letter to the Corinthians perhaps fifteen years after Jesus’
resurrection, most of those people who had seen Jesus resurrected from the
grave were still alive and available to confirm what he was reporting. There also are numerous secular testimonies
to the eyewitness reports that spread throughout the land. In addition, those disciples, who had cowered
in fear after Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion, spent the rest of their lives
proclaiming the Good News of all Jesus has done for us, and they did so while
under constant pressure from their enemies and the authorities of the state who
tried to silence them. Many even
suffered horrible torture and death rather than change their report. If Jesus’ resurrection had been some
concocted story, no disciple would have withstood so much, yet to a person they
all did and more. Thus, all The signs
confirm our resurrection.
The Lord also provided
another testimony and sign so that you and I and the whole world would know of
the salvation Jesus won for us. The man,
Saul, grew up in the Pharisaical tradition and became a rabid persecutor of the
early Christians. Saul had devoted his
life to eradicating the Christian faith and Christians too. That’s why Paul described himself as one like
a stillborn child. Though dead in sin,
Saul was renewed to life when the risen Savior met him on the road to Damascus
and called for him to completely change his understanding and believe in Jesus. Though he had been a hater and persecutor of
Christ and Jesus’ followers, Saul was renamed, Paul, and sent to proclaim to
the nations what Jesus has done for us all.
Therefore, while Paul was
not an eyewitness to Jesus’ life in the traditional sense, Paul told the
Corinthians, “I delivered to you as of first importance what I also
received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that
he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the
Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve.” Why was this of first importance? Because this Good News had changed Paul’s
life completely. Of course, in the eyes
of the world, this led to great suffering and hardship for Paul. In fact, the Lord said, “Indeed, I will
show him how much he must suffer for my name.” (Acts 9:16) Still, this Good News gave Paul the peace
with God he had desired.
The former persecutor
certainly did suffer in this world because of Jesus’ name. Still, Paul became one of the greatest
proclaimers of the Gospel. His letters
to the various congregations still instruct us today. At the same time, Paul endured all those
torments willingly, because he knew that Christian believers will always be
under attack in this world. Then,
because of the love Jesus had showed him in delivering Paul from the
everlasting condemnation he deserved for his former ways into life that never
ends, Paul would spend his days telling others about the love Jesus lived for
the whole world, a love that put God’s Son on a cross and into a grave—a love
that took away the sins of the world and made believers righteous in God’s
eyes.
So, why does this all
matter and what difference does it make in our lives? The fulfillment of those prophecies makes us
confident that God had a plan to save sinners just as the Scriptures testify. The fact that Jesus was arrested, tried,
crucified, buried, then raised from the dead just as He had prophesied, is
proof certain that Jesus really is God’s Son and the promised Redeemer and
Savior.
Anyone who denies this
truth is not doing so because he lacks evidence, but because he refuses to see
the signs. Anyone who argues against
Jesus being raised from the dead to live again is denying what hundreds of
eyewitnesses clearly saw over a period of forty days. Those eyewitnesses staked their lives on what
they had seen and heard, and those early believers were willing to endure even
extreme torture and death rather than recant their testimony. Thus, The signs confirm our resurrection.
Therefore, we can stand
firmly on what the Bible teaches knowing that with Jesus at our side, we have
the victory over death and the devil. We
can trust the promise of forgiveness and salvation through faith in Christ
Jesus, even if forced to stand in that truth all alone. Right along with those early Christians, with
Paul and the other apostles who gave their lives holding to their faith in
Jesus, we can stand with even more confidence than believers of old such as the
three men in the fiery furnace who declared boldly to their king, “Since our God, whom we serve, does exist, he
is able to save us from the blazing fiery furnace. So, he may save us from your hand, Your
Majesty. But if he does not, you should know,
Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods.” (Daniel 3:17-18)
Since we have such
boldness in this life, what does it mean for our future? It means that Christ’s resurrection from the
grave, on the exact day He promised to rise, confirms for us that all His
promises are true. All the words of the
Bible are confirmed in Jesus’ resurrection.
Thus, we can go to our graves knowing that this life is not the
end. We too will rise just as the
Scriptures say. Therefore, hear what
Jesus promised His friends, “In my Father’s house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told
you. 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)
When Martha was grieving
the loss of her brother, Jesus comforted her, saying, “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) Jesus then raised her brother, Lazarus, from
the dead as another sign that we too will be raised to live forever with Him in
heaven.
Likewise, thousands of
years ago, Job testified concerning His faith in God’s promises, “I know
that my Redeemer lives, and that at the end of time he will stand over the
dust. Then, even after my skin has been
destroyed, nevertheless, in my own flesh I will see God. I myself will see him. My own eyes will see him, and not as a
stranger.” (Job 19:25-27)
St. Paul also, under the
inspiration of the Holy Spirit, gives us many assurances of what Jesus’
resurrection has in store for us. He
wrote, “The Lord himself
will come down from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of an archangel,
and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.” (1 Thessalonians 4:16) And to the Philippians he wrote, “Our
citizenship is in heaven. We are eagerly
waiting for a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ. By the power that enables him to subject all
things to himself, he will transform our humble bodies to be like his glorious
body.” (Philippians 3:20-21)
In the Revelation of our
Lord Jesus to St. John, the apostle testifies that he heard a voice from the
throne of heaven proclaiming with joy, “Look! God’s dwelling is with people. He will dwell with them, and they will be his
people. 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)
Thus, dear friends, what
does Jesus’ resurrection mean for our future?
It means that we can go forth in this world with boldness and confidence
in His loving care, because with His resurrection, Jesus confirmed His eternal
victory over sin, death, and the devil. Because,
The signs confirm our resurrection, we can be sure that even our death is
not the end, for we will live forever with the Lord in heaven. Amen.
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