He Lives!

Sermon Summary:

This Easter message takes us on a profound journey from the cross to the throne, exploring how Jesus embodies both the Good Shepherd and the Lamb of God. We discover that what appears to be a contradiction is actually the heart of the gospel: the Shepherd became the Lamb so that we could be saved. Through John’s Gospel and the Book of Revelation, we witness an incredible transformation. The Lamb who was slain is now seated on the throne, surrounded by countless angels and worshipers from every nation. This isn’t just ancient history—it changes everything about how we live today. Because He lives, we can overcome our past, face our uncertain future, and find freedom from our greatest enemies: sin and death. The message reminds us that prophetic words spoken centuries before Christ found their fulfillment in His sacrificial death, and that His resurrection inaugurated a new kingdom on earth—one marked not by military power but by eternal life, healing, forgiveness, and restoration. The most powerful truth we encounter is this: the same Jesus who died on that cross is alive today, and because He lives, nothing will ever be the same for us.

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Sermon Points:

Key Takeaways:

• Jesus is both the Good Shepherd and the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world
• Prophetic words about Jesus were spoken throughout history, often without full understanding of their meaning
• Jesus died as a substitutionary sacrifice, paying a debt we could not afford and He did not owe
• When Jesus died, the temple curtain tore from top to bottom, symbolizing the end of the sacrificial system
• The empty tomb discovered by Mary Magdalene, Peter, and John demonstrated that death could not hold Jesus
• The resurrected Jesus appeared first to Mary Magdalene, making her the first witness and preacher of the resurrection
• In Revelation, John saw the Lamb standing at the center of the throne with complete authority and power
• Because Jesus lives, believers can overcome sin, defeat death, face tomorrow without fear, and find healing and restoration
• The resurrection inaugurated the kingdom of God on earth, where the impossible becomes possible

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Scripture References:

• Psalm 23 (The Lord is My Shepherd)
• John 20:1-10 (The empty tomb discovery)
• John 1:29 (Behold the Lamb of God)
• John 11:49-52 (Caiaphas’s prophecy)
• Isaiah 53:4-7 (The suffering servant)
• Romans 5:8 (Christ died for us)
• Revelation 5:6, 11-12 (The Lamb on the throne)
• Revelation 7:9-10 (The great multitude before the Lamb)

Stories:

• Mary Magdalene discovering the empty tomb and running to tell Peter and John
• Peter and John racing to the tomb, with John arriving first but Peter entering first
• The burial linens lying in the tomb exactly as they had been placed, with the head covering separate
• Mary Magdalene encountering the resurrected Jesus in the garden, initially thinking He was the gardener
• Jesus revealing Himself to Mary by simply saying her name, making her the first witness of the resurrection
• The tearing of the temple curtain from top to bottom at the moment of Jesus’s death
• The pastor’s personal reflection about looking in the rearview mirror at cemeteries and thinking about resurrection
• The account of Easter sunrise services at a country cemetery in Mertens, Texas during the pastor’s early ministry

Sermon Transcript:

Well, all God’s people said Amen. Wow. Seriously? Are you kidding me? Was that not awesome?

Aren’t you glad you came to church already today? Aren’t you? Thank you so much, worship ministry, for leading us in worship today. And greetings on this Easter Sunday morning. We are grateful to be gathered here on this day of worship, joining hands with not just all of us, but with believers across the world as we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

Well, if you know anything about what’s been happening at our church, many of you here do. Some of you may be new today, but we are in the middle of a multi year journey together. We are learning about human flourishing and we’re on this journey that we’re calling Flourishing Together. And last year we introduced this to the church and we spent an entire year focused on what it means to be rooted in Christ. And now this second year, we are gathered around this concept of what it means in this truth, what it means to be transformed on the Jesus way, because we believe that is exactly what happens to us as we follow Jesus together.

And we have joined along with a number of other churches in the US and in Europe in a pilot study of a project known as Flourishing and the Church. And back in the fall, In October, almost 1300 adults here in our church took a survey regarding human flourishing. And it allowed you to share with us your understanding of where you are in your own journey with the Lord and how you feel our church is doing as well. And we finally have received those results back from the survey, as I’ve told you before. And we have now produced a summary of the survey results.

And you can pick one of these up if you’d like to. Today they’re out in the, I think in the Hammel welcome center and other places, but it’ll give you a chance just to look at what did we learn about ourselves and also invite you to pray with us as we give consideration to how to address what we’ve learned about ourselves. And I’m really looking forward to walking down that journey and that path with you. So today, of course, we are going to bring the Lenten Easter season to a conclusion. And what takes place after Easter, what’s next on the church calendar?

On the liturgical calendar, a lot of times we just call this spring, but the liturgical calendar actually has a name for the season after Easter through Pentecost Sunday, and that typically has been referred to as Eastertide. And so our church is going to celebrate Eastertide together. And our theme is going to Be shaped by the Spirit. And let me tell you where that came from. It starts next Sunday morning in our time of worship.

When I was away this past summer on study leave, I was praying through how to make the flourishing journey even more impactful, more direct, if you will. And that led me to a question. And I began asking myself, as well as asking the Lord, what does every single human being need?

I want you to think about that with me and I’ll invite you to reflect on that. What does every single human being need, regardless of who they are, not just Americans, not just westerners, not just 21st century people. What does every human being need? And here’s how I have answered that question. First of all, every human being needs to know God.

God’s the one who created us. He designed us to know Him. And secondly, every human being needs to experience God. And finally, I would say every human being needs to serve God. And so we begin praying through what does it mean to know God, experience God, serve God.

Well, regarding experiencing God, which is incredibly important for you personally, it’s God’s desire for. For you to experience Him. And so we had some conversation about that. We’ve been praying about that. And there are at least two aspects to experiencing God.

One of those is we all need to be shepherded. We all need a shepherd. Because, you see, when you begin to know God, you bring a lot with you. You bring a lot of things from your past. And one of the things that needs to happen is we need to be shepherded past our past, and we need to be shepherded through the challenges of life.

The good news is we have a really good shepherd. He’s an expert at guiding us. But also regarding experiencing God, we need to be shaped into disciples to where we can actually be useful in the hands of God. And so that’s what Eastertide is going to be about. Learning about intentional discipleship, particularly focused on this aspect of it.

What does it mean to be shaped by the Spirit of God? So I want to invite you in that conversation. I hope you’ll be back next Sunday as we spend some time beginning that journey together and letting me explain to us how we’re going to address it. That will take us through Pentecost Sunday. Now, with that said, we need to go ahead and finish Easter Sunday though, right?

So our theme for this season has been the Good shepherd and what we’ve been doing in John’s Gospel. John has been our guide. We’ve been reading through the Gospel of John through the entire Lenten season. And I have been teaching the Gospel of John on Wednesdays in the pastor’s Bible study. We’ve read through the Gospel of John pretty quickly during the Easter season.

I’m going verse by verse on Wednesdays in my pastor’s Bible study. And so, in fact, just this last week, Katie Hodges, our associate pastor, she’s been teasing me about how long it’s taking on Wednesdays. And she asked me, where are we this Wednesday? I said, John 3. She said, man, we are moving.

It’s April and we’re on John 3. We’re doing so good. Well, there’s just a lot in John and it takes a little while, it’s rich, it’s deep, and we’re just walking through it. But eventually we’ll make our way to the end of it by the end of the year, I promise. But what we’ve been doing on Sunday mornings is we have been learning about how Jesus shepherds usually because we need to be shepherded.

And we have been focusing on some of the self revelatory statements Jesus himself made about himself. Those statements usually begin like this, I am. And then he tells us who he is. And so we’ve encountered several of those along the way. So with that said, today we’re going to reflect finally on who he is for us today.

Now, what we’ve been doing every Sunday morning during the Easter season is we have been reading the 23rd Psalm together. This is the Psalm, of course, that we normally think of when we think of the Good Shepherd. So we’re going to put the text on the screen for us all. And I want to invite you to read the 23rd Psalm out loud together as a congregation with me. So let’s do that.

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul. He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou. Thou anointest my head with oil.

My cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. As I’ve said to you every Sunday, it’s my hope that that is not just a passage of scripture that we read, but it’s your personal testimony I hope that you can say the Lord my shepherd. Now with that said, let’s turn our attention to today’s text and the message for today.

If you have your copy of the New Testament, it’s in the Gospel of John I’ve entitled the Message, He Lives. And the text is found on the next to last page of John’s gospel, John 20. So if you have your copy of the New Testament, let’s look at that. And we’re going to look at the first 10 verses. And so let me read that for us.

It’s our custom in our church to stand in honor the Lord Jesus when the Gospel is read. So if you’re able to stand, we invite you to for this gospel reading.

John 20, verse 1. Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, they’ve taken the Lord out of the tomb. We don’t know where they’ve put him. So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb.

Both were running. But the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there. But he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb.

He saw the strips of linen lying there as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus head. The cloth was still lying in its place separate from the linen. Finally the other disciple who had reached the tomb first also went inside and he saw and believed they still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead. Then the disciples went back to where they were staying. Thank you, you may be seated.

So the last time we were in this room as a congregation was Friday evening for our Good Friday service. And in that service we learned that Jesus is not only the good shepherd, but he’s also the Lamb of God. And when we gathered on Friday evening, this cross here to my left, to your right, was draped in red symbolizing the blood stained cross. And we spent some time reflecting upon who Jesus was portrayed to be in the Gospel of John, the Lamb of God. In fact, we spent a little bit of time focused on a prophecy that was spoken by John the Baptist, recorded in John’s Gospel, the Lamb of God.

It was in a moment of prophetic clarity beyond his own full understanding, which is so often the case for prophecy. John the Baptist boldly said this of Jesus. Look. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Now, did John the Baptist have a full understanding of what that meant?

I would say that would be questionable. It was very early in the ministry of Jesus. He had just begun his public ministry. As far as we know, John the Baptist had never heard Jesus teach about his death and burial and resurrection. So John was speaking in a moment of prophetic clarity without fully understanding everything that that meant.

As I said, that’s so often the case with prophets. It’s not the only time. You find that in the Gospel of John. There are several other instances of it. For example, in John 11, Jesus had made his way to Bethany, to the home of Mary and Martha and Lazarus.

And Lazarus had died. They lived in Bethany, just a few miles from Jerusalem. Jesus stopped to be with them, joined them in their grief, which he did. The Bible says that he stood at the tomb of Lazarus and he wept. But you remember, he raised Lazarus from the dead.

And there was a great deal of controversy about it. Celebration. People just had never seen anything like this. And so people came to be with Mary and Martha, and they saw this, and some of them rejoiced, some of them believed. But there were some of them who went back to Jerusalem and they found some of the religious leaders and they said, y’ all aren’t going to believe what this guy Jesus is doing.

He’s raising people from the dead. Y’ all need to know. So the religious leaders did what religious leaders do. They called a committee meeting. Obviously, you didn’t realize how Baptist these Jewish leaders were, but they called a meeting and they began to discuss it and basically said, somebody needs to do something this Jesus, if we’re not careful.

See, we have a place here with the Romans. They’re allowing us to exist with a certain convenience and position in place. And if this Jesus keeps doing this and people start following him, we’re going to lose our place. And then here’s what happened in that meeting we shared this Friday night. John 11, verse 49.

One of them named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up. He said, you know nothing at all. You do not realize. It’s better for you that one man die for the people than the whole nation perish. Caiaphas said, we need to kill him.

That way we’ll keep our place and the Romans will leave us alone. Here’s John the Apostle’s commentary on that. He did not say this on his own, but as high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation and not Only for that nation, but also for the scattered children of God to bring them together and make them one. The apostle John said Caiaphas had no idea what he really meant when he said that he was actually prophesying about the sacrificial death of Jesus without knowing it. Once again, it’s somewhat common for prophetic words to be given without a full understanding of their import.

In fact, that’s really what the prophecies are about when you read your Old Testament. In fact, if you’ll go all the way back 700 years before Christ, Isaiah was a prophet. He wrote the longest prophecy we have in our Bibles. And as he comes to the end of his prophetic utterances, he had a vision. God showed him the future, and he showed him truths about this servant of God who would come one day that we believe finds fulfillment in Jesus.

Let me remind you of what Isaiah wrote some 700 years before Jesus. So we’ve got to go back 2,700 years and hear this word from the prophet. He says this about that servant. Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering. Yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him and afflicted.

But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was on him. And by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray.

Each of us has turned our own way. The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth. He was led like a lamb to slaughter. And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.

Isaiah 53. As Christians, we believe that finds fulfillment in the very person of Jesus when he died on the cross that day outside of Jerusalem. Now let me offer you one other prophetic word by someone who understood full well what they were saying. That’s the apostle Paul. Because you see, Paul lives on this side of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus.

So Paul was able to look back at it. And here’s what Paul says. How did this good shepherd become the Lamb of God? How did that happen? How can you be shepherd and lamb at the same time?

Well, here’s what Paul says. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Now, that phrase for us is rich in theological meaning. What that means is that Jesus died in our place.

He died on our behalf. He died as our substitute. And when he died he paid a debt that none of us could afford and he himself did not owe. He paid that debt for us. And when he did, our sins were all covered and all forgiven.

Can we just say hallelujah? Thank you, Jesus. You know, Mark, when he tells the story of Jesus, he says the most amazing thing happened. Mark says when Jesus died on the cross in the heart of Jerusalem, on the Temple Mount was this huge temple that King Herod had almost completed before he died. It was the second temple for the Jews.

And inside the inner sanctum of that temple was what was known as the Holy of Holies. It was the. It’s the most sacred place on planet earth to the Jews. And there was a huge curtain that hid the Holy of Holies from all the rest of Israel. There was only one person who could actually make their way through that curtain, and that was the high priest.

And he could only go in there one day a year. On the Day of Atonement. It hid the altar. It hid the very presence of God, if you will, shielded from God’s people. That’s where the final sacrifice for atonement was to be offered to God.

Mark says when Jesus died on the cross, the curtain that hid the Holy of Holies was torn from top to bottom, exposing the Holy of Holies, symbolizing when Jesus died, he put the temple out of business. There’s no longer a need for sacrifice to be made for anybody because he has just offered up his life as a sacrifice for everyone. And what an incredible, theologically profound event. The Lamb of God died as a sacrificial offering to God himself for us. So let’s think about that.

Do you ever think about the Lamb of God? What happened, whatever happened to the Lamb of God, how’s he doing today? I mean, we were here on Friday night and we were grieving, standing at the foot of a cross, draped in red because the Lamb of God had died. The Apostle John was an eyewitness. Well, what about the Lamb of God today?

You see, we’re not in first century Israel anymore. During the week of Pentecost. That’s not where we live. That was then. We’re some 2000 years this side of all of those events when the Lamb of God was sacrificed.

Have you ever thought about the Lamb of God right now? What’s he doing now? How is the Lamb of God? Think about it. Here’s the good news.

We don’t even have to guess. We actually know this same guy, the Apostle John. The same guy. He’s an eyewitness to the crucifixion he’s an eyewitness to these events. I love how he tells the story.

He says that on that first day of that new week, Mary Magdalene goes to the tomb, presumably with some spices in her mind to properly care for the body of her Lord. She gets there, and the stone in front of the tomb has been removed. The tomb is empty. She doesn’t know what to do. She turns and runs.

She goes back. And here’s what John says. John is the disciple whom Jesus loved. That’s what he calls himself. So here’s what John says.

He says, mary Magdalene came back and got me and Peter, the two leaders of the disciples, he said. And we took off running. And don’t you love what he says? And I outran Peter. Yeah, I know y’ all think he’s something, but I’m here to tell you, on this day, I was faster than him.

I got to the tomb before he did. Thank you very much. And not only that, I’m a holy person. I sense the sacredness of it. I got to that open tomb.

I didn’t go in. But let me tell you about Peter. He just went straight in. That’s just Simon Peter. That’s what he does.

That’s who he is. And then I went in after him. John says. And John says, when we got in there, in that burial chamber, there’s a burial table where you prepare a body, you wrap it in linen, you cover its face, its head, you anoint it with spices, and you wait until it’s actually placed into the side of the wall. John says, we got in there, and there’s the burial table, and there’s no body.

Not only is there no body, he said, we saw him. We saw him wrap him up. All the linen is there. His face covering his head was placed right on the side of the table where it was before they put it on him. And then John says this.

I believed. Now, he didn’t know fully well just yet what he was believing, but he said, right then and there, my life changed. I believed because, you see, John was an eyewitness of the crucifixion. Remember, he saw the Lamb of God. He tells us he was standing there at the foot of the cross.

Jesus looked at him and said to him, basically, in my words, take care of my mother. And John says, he took her in. He took in the mother of Jesus. And so he saw the Lamb of God die. Do you think that this guy will ever recognize the Lamb of God if he ever sees him again?

You think he Ever forgot that? Come on, y’. All.

So guess what? Years passed. John wrote this gospel. A few more years passed, he wrote another book. It’s called the Book of Revelation.

Do y’ all mind if I read you what he saw regarding the Lamb of God? Listen to this. Revelation 5, verse 6. John the apostle, the eyewitness of the Lamb of God. He said, then I saw a lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing at the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders.

The Lamb had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. Come on, y’. All. The Lamb is very much alive. He’s not just alive, he is enthroned in eternity.

But forever and ever, turns out he’s doing pretty well.

John said, when I saw the Lamb, this time you’re not hanging on a cross. No. Here’s what he said. Did you hear it? Yeah.

Seven horns. You know, when I first started preaching, y’, all, this is my 43rd Easter Sunday sermon. Been doing this a long time. When I first started doing this, I pastored two country churches, one after the other. I don’t know anything about country, y’.

All. I don’t. I don’t know when to plant. I don’t know when to harvest. I don’t know how to run a reaper, a thresher.

I don’t know how to run a combine. I don’t know if you should irrigate, not irrigate. I don’t know when anything happens. I don’t know anything. But here’s what I do know.

Lambs don’t have horns. I do know that. But the Lamb of God, seven horns? Well, you know, in Biblical imagery, horns are a symbol of authority. You read the Book of Revelation.

It’s full of symbolism. He didn’t have one horn, not two. You see, seven is the divine, holy, complete number. He is completely authoritative. He has seven eyes.

He sees everything. And he was filled with the spirit of God seven times over. It turns out that the Lamb of God is doing quite well, in case you’re wondering.

Not only that, y’, all, he not done. Here’s what John said. Listen to this. Then I looked Revelation 5:11, and I heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands and 10,000 times 10,000. Come on, y’.

All. They encircled the throne, living creatures and the elders. In a loud voice, they were saying, worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise. Then I heard Every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea and all that is in them, saying to him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb, be praise, honor, glory and power forever ever. Hallelujah.

Wow. John says, I remember I saw the Lamb of God hanging on a cross, and now he’s seated on a throne, and he says, y’, all, I looked around, there were thousands, 10,000 times thousands of angels. You know, when Jesus died on the cross that day in Jerusalem, right outside of Jerusalem, on a hill they call the Skull. I don’t know how many people you think were there watching? I don’t know.

You know, scholars tell us that Jews came from all over in the ancient world to Jerusalem during the Passover. Thousands. We don’t really know. I wonder how many of them interrupted their ritual life, actually went outside of Jerusalem to the hill and saw Jesus hanging on a cross. I don’t know.

Maybe a thousand, two thousand. I’m not sure how many saw him hanging on the cross. But I’m going to tell you, John saw something else. Listen to this. Revelation 7.

After this, I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count from every nation, tribe, people, and language standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes, holding palm branches in their hands, and they cried out in a loud voice, salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb. I don’t know how many saw him hanging on the cross, but I’m going to tell you right now, everybody’s going to see him seated on the throne.

Everybody. Well, let me just ask y’ all a question. What happened? How did we get from a cross to a throne in eternity?

What happened? People like John saw him die. Well, you know, John tells us Jesus was betrayed by one of his own. He was bound by the temple guards. He was berated by the religious leaders of his day at his mock trials, he was beaten by pagan Roman soldiers.

He bled and he died on a sinner’s cross. And a borrowed tomb was the final resting place of the body of our Lord. It was horrific. He was harassed. He was humiliated.

But in all of that, he honored God and he humbled himself. And then in this strange, ironic twist, his body, according to John, was placed in a garden tomb. Interesting. This whole thing began in a garden. It was called Eden.

And then an incredible spiritual battle took place in another garden called Gethsemane. And now a garden becomes home to the dead body of Jesus. What a fascinating turn of events. So what Happened? Well, let me tell you what happened.

It was early on the first day of the week, y’. All. You know what happened? It was early on the first day of the week. You know what we call that day?

Easter Sunday. That’s what happened. Let me tell you what happened. Mary Magdalene. Wow.

You talking about unlikely. Mary Magdalene goes to the tomb and it’s been disturbed. She runs and gets Peter and John. They come back with her. You know what John says?

They went back to the rest of the disciples. Mary lingered. She remained. Mary Magdalene, of all people.

She goes back in and looks, and all of a sudden she meets these very interesting creatures, these angels. And they said, why are you crying? And she said, what? What have they done with the body? She turns around and she sees somebody, and she thinks it’s the gardener.

And it turns out that’s exactly who it is. He’s the real gardener.

He started this whole thing in a garden. He’s comfortable in the garden. He’s prayed in the garden. And just right then, a little while before, the greatest miracle that’s ever happened in the history of the world happened in a garden. He wasn’t just a gardener.

He’s a resurrected gardener. That’s who he is. And Mary looked at him and said, what have they done? And he looked at her and he said, mary. Boom.

She just collapsed on him.

The very first human to lay eyes on the resurrected Lord. Not Simon Peter, not John James, not Nicodemus. Mary Magdalene. She’s the last one I would have picked.

How did she get in on this? I mean, she’s a very interesting character. We don’t know much about her. Why in the world would Jesus appear first to Mary Magdalene? Why would Jesus in John 4 directly tell another human being the most he ever said about himself being the Messiah to a Samaritan woman at a.

Well, I don’t know. Says something about Jesus. And you know what? Mary Magdalene, this person who had some questionable background, according to some, she became the first preacher. Now, wait a minute.

Y’ all don’t think women can preach? Well, I’m going to tell you what. If one of them runs into the resurrected Lord, why don’t you let her preach? That’s what I’d say. That’d be my take.

She preached. She did, and it worked. Those disciples, man, they heard the good news from Mary Magdalene. Just tells me something about Jesus. Are y’ all still with me?

So what happened? How did the Lamb of God become enthroned forever? Easter Sunday. So let me just say this as I try to close this thing out. What does it all mean, Easter?

I mean, how much time do you have? I mean, how can I. How can I even begin to tell us? What does it mean?

Everything is what it means. Everything. Pick anything. It’s all been touched by this. It’s changed everything.

Of course it has. You know, I. When I was pastoring a country church there down in Mertens, we had an Easter sunrise service. Let’s don’t bring those back. Y’.

All, seriously, it’s all good. I already told y’, all. I’ve been doing this a long time. But we had them in those days at the cemetery, Little cemetery outside of town. Easter sunrise.

Isn’t that interesting? You know, I do a lot of funerals. Can you imagine how many funerals I’ve done in 43 years as a pastor? Every time I leave a cemetery, every time, no matter what, every time, always look in my rear view mirror and I have this thought. You think you’ve won?

You just don’t know.

You just don’t know. Because it turns out you can have Easter sunrise service in a cemetery in Mertens, Texas. But when Lord Jesus comes back, that’s going to be quite a busy place that cemetery will be. Because guess what? Everybody’s going to be resurrected from the dead.

What does it mean, man? Okay, let me just put it like this, and I’ll try to be done. The death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ signals the fact that the age to come has been victoriously inaugurated on earth. Although sin defiles, it’s been defeated. Although death remains, it no longer reigns.

Wow. You see, Jesus Christ established the kingdom of God on this earth. And this kingdom is different. You can’t point to it on a map. It has no geographical boundaries.

It represents and embodies something brand new, something different. This kingdom that Jesus planted on this earth is not Marked by human conquest. And it is not protected by military superiority. This kingdom is about real power, eternal power that belongs to God himself. This kingdom that Jesus brought, this age to come is about new life.

In this kingdom, the impossible becomes possible. The blind can see. The deaf can hear. Captives can be set free. Marginalized people like Mary Magdalene are valued.

Demons flee from this kingdom because in this kingdom, there’s forgiveness and grace and healing and victory. Hallelujah. You know why? You know why? How is it possible that the Lamb of God, the good shepherd, is now the Lord of Lords?

You know why? Because he lives. That’s why. He lives.

Wow. He lives. Say it with me. He lives. He lives.

That’s our testimony to this world.

You know what he did for us, y’? All. He defeated our greatest enemies. Sin, death.

And because of that, everything changes for you, you know? Because he lives, nothing will ever be the same. You can overcome your past. You can be set free. Because he lives, you can find a way out of your messy life.

Because he lives, you can have your hope restored. Because He. He lives, you can be rescued from the depths of your despair. Because he lives, you can be healed from your greatest pain. Because he lives, you can recover from your worst failure.

Because he lives, you can face an uncertain future.

Because he lives, you can be used by him as an instrument of peace and reconciliation and love. Because he lives, you can be redeemed, rescued and restored. Because he lives. This is my prayer for you today on Easter Sunday, that this right here will be your testimony. Because he lives, I can face tomorrow.

Because he lives, all fear is gone. Because he lives, I know he holds a future. My life is worth the living. Just because he lives. May that be so for you.

Let’s pray together.

Well, Lord, we bow before you and we’re grateful. How can we not be when we pause and reflect upon what you’ve done for us?

Through your son, our Savior, our shepherd, your Lamb, and the Lord of Lords, we praise his name today, the Lord Jesus. Amen.