Living in Christ's Resurrection

So that you can have what you can never deserve. Forgiveness. Forgiveness. No strings attached. Just a certain promise. This is for you. Friends, the tomb is empty. Christ is risen. Sin is defeated. Death is undone. Because of that, your story is not defined by your past. Your story is defined by his resurrection. Hallelujah. Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. Hallelujah. [00:12:15] (43 seconds)  #ForgivenByResurrection

Right now, this day, life may not look glorious. You may still struggle. You still suffer. You still face death. But Easter tells you the truth. What you see now is not yet the full story, nor is it the end of the story. Because Colossians three four continues and says, when Christ who is your life appears, then you you will also appear with him in glory. For those who have are in Christ, death is not final. It is a doorway. [00:07:03] (45 seconds)  #DeathIsADoorway

Now at first, that's that's kinda terrifying that Jesus is the judge of the living and the dead. I mean, Jesus is Jesus is perfect. He's never sinned. And now he's the one who's gonna judge the living and the dead, the one who knew no wrong. But then Luke continues and he tells us this. Verse 43. Everyone who believes in him receives the forgiveness of sins. That your judge, your judge of the living and the dead is the same one who died for you. [00:04:36] (37 seconds)  #JudgeWhoSaves

That same Jesus who walked out of the tomb, the same Jesus the disciples touched and ate with feeds you, not as a symbol, but as a promise that through bread and wine, his body and blood are forgiving your sins. You're tasting and seeing that the Lord is good. You're tasting and seeing a foretaste of the feast to come. You're tasting and you're seeing what those who have gone up before us, who are now in the presence of Jesus in the greatest Easter celebration that will never end, are partaking of. [00:10:44] (30 seconds)  #TasteAndSee

A resurrected Jesus eating with his disciples, breaking bread with them, joining together in a meal and a feast, which is why earlier today we had breakfast tacos because that's what you do on Easter. Real people eating real food, even our real lord and our savior, Jesus Christ, did that after his resurrection. Here's why it matters. Because our faith, Christianity, is not built on a philosophy. It's not built on ideas. It's built on historical events, and it matters. [00:03:47] (36 seconds)  #ResurrectionIsHistory

Where did you die and you were hidden in Christ with God? Where did that happen for you? Well, it happened in the water and the word of your baptism. Where in the name of the father and the son and the holy spirit, that water was poured over you and you were claimed as one beloved by God, a chosen son, a daughter in whom he delights, your beloved child, a beloved child of the most high God. [00:05:55] (25 seconds)  #BelovedInBaptism

The one who knew the punishment for your sins, the wages of your sin, which is it is death, says, I'll take it for you. I'll take the punishment. I'll bear the burden. And that risen Christ still carries the wounds of his cross because those wounds are your salvation and mine. Paul says this resurrection power that we have, it now changes. It changes how we see everything. Colossians three three says it this way, you you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. [00:05:13] (39 seconds)  #HeTookOurPunishment

His death became your death. His resurrection became your life. And that means something incredible is that when we stand at the grave and when we feel lost deeply, there is hope. Because Easter isn't just what happened to Jesus. It is, but it's more. It's about what happened to you. That through faith and through baptism, you've been united to him, and his death becomes your death to sin. His life becomes becomes your your new life. [00:06:20] (30 seconds)  #UnitedInResurrection

It began in the quietness of an early morning. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, they go to a tomb, not expecting hope, but carrying grief. They're not looking for a resurrection. They're looking for a body, a body that had been hastily buried in an unused tomb by Nicodemus and Josephus hastily on on Friday before the sun would set and no work would be allowed. So, of course, they came back as soon as they could to finish what they and men had started these dear ladies looking to honor the body of Jesus in his death. But then everything changes in an instant. [00:00:05] (48 seconds)  #FromGriefToResurrection

And so we grieve. Yes. We grieve, but not without hope. For our future is not uncertain. It has been anchored in a risen Christ. In our family this year, I think about that. Easter carries both joy and grief. My wife's mother Shirley passed away before Christmas, our first Easter, without her this year. Today, we feel it. An empty chair, the one who already always made strawberry pretzel salad for every family gathering. Memories of Easter passed. [00:07:47] (42 seconds)  #JoyAndGrief

All of us can look back at those whom we have lost to death. And the quiet ache doesn't just disappear because it's Easter. And yet, this is exactly where Easter meets us this morning. Because Jesus is risen, we have this confidence that our sins have been forgiven. Not because we feel it. No. No. Your forgiveness is bigger than your feelings. Your forgiveness is anchored in the death and the resurrection of Jesus. Your forgiveness is anchored not in feelings, but in the facts [00:08:39] (42 seconds)  #ForgivenessNotFeeling

Jesus is alive, and Jesus is for you. That risen Jesus is not a distant savior who needs to be found. He is the one doing the finding, and he has found you, and he comes to you today. In his word, he's already spoke words of forgiveness and life over you and the words of absolution spoken over you earlier in this service. We just came to his table where at holy communion with his very body and blood, he has fed us and strengthened us [00:10:03] (38 seconds)  #JesusFindsYou

The grave is no longer your end. Your life has meaning now, and it's not just surviving. You're living in Christ because your future is secure. Your resurrection. Your resurrection, friends. It's a promise. You know, when Jesus meets those women at the tomb, he says to them, just like the angel said, do not be afraid. At the core of it, that's Easter's message today. Not fix yourself, not get your life in order, not be better, not try harder, not earn it, but simply [00:09:22] (37 seconds)  #ResurrectionIsPromise

Come not because you had a good week and you tried real hard, but come because you're a poor miserable sinner. And he knows it better than you even know it yourself because he carried those sins upon himself on the cross, was willing to be not just your judge, but also your substitute. So that those sins that bear the wages of sin, that bear the the penalty of death might not be your death but his death in place for you. So that you can have [00:11:44] (33 seconds)  #ComeAsYouAre