Easter Sermon 2022

 

Alleluia! Christ is risen!

 

In the name of the New Noah, who rises above death and brings all of His family out of sin and judgment; in the name of the Moses of greater majesty that his of the Old Testament, who drowns Pharaoh and all unbelief and bondage to sin and brings those who thought they were dead into life; in the name of David’s Son who stands today on the empty tomb as His father stood on the head of Goliath; in the name of the Greater Solomon, who has rebuilt the Temple of His destroyed body in three days; in the name of the better Jonah, whom the grave swallowed up, but in three days could contain Him no longer; in the name of the Crucified who is risen, in the name of Jesus, the Lord who saves, in the name of Christ, the Son of God in whom the Father is well pleased, in the name of my Lord Jesus Christ who has sent me to preach repentance and remission of sins to you in His name, grace, mercy and peace be to you from God the Father, and from our living Savior and Lord Jesus.

 

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, and especially our sister and confirmand Mia, you come to Church this morning because you seek Jesus who was Crucified.  He is here because He is risen from the tomb and is alive and has promised that where two or three are gathered in His name, there He is in the midst of us.  I can hardly contain my joy this morning, because Jesus is here, alive from the dead with great and precious promises that make the dead alive, rescue sinners from bondage, and fill our hearts with the hope of eternal life that will not leave us ashamed.  And why shouldn’t I be overjoyed?  Why shouldn’t my heart wake up with gladness at what is done today?  Why should you or I apologize for our ecstatic emotions when God tell us in the Psalm,

“This is the day the Lord has made!  Let us rejoice and be glad in it!”  I know of no greater joy this side of the grave.  I know of no better reason to celebrate and make merry and be happy and laugh and sing and ignore all of the evil and sin and trouble of the world than that Jesus is risen from the dead with all sin and sadness and sorrow left behind Him and all joy and celebration beaming from His pure and living body? 

 

It was three days ago, and my heart was filled with sadness that God had given me, because His Son died, and His sufferings should have been my own, and His death was our fault, and His sorrow pierced my heart with the knowledge of my own sin that He took away from me to claim them as His own.  But now I have seen by faith Jesus descend into hell and plunder the devil’s kingdom, proclaim His victory over every lie of the devil and every claim of death and every victory of the grave.  I have remembered and believed the words which the angels spoke to the women in the Garden.  Matthew writes,

 

“Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. And go quickly and tell His disciples that He is risen from the dead, and indeed He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him. Behold, I have told you.”

 

Mark writes,

 

“Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He is risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid Him. But go, tell His disciples—and Peter—that He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him, as He said to you.”

 

And Luke writes,

 

“Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen! Remember how He spoke to you when He was still in Galilee, saying, ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.’”

 

These are the words of the angels, the messengers who bring good news to us as they brought it our mothers in the faith almost 2,000 years ago.  And these are the words of eternal life.  Jesus lives.  I could end my sermon right there. It is enough.  It is the news we need.  If Jesus is alive then everything is ok.  Everything is better.  Nothing is too hard, too bad, too sinful, too evil that a living Christ does not overwhelm and push out of our minds this morning, because Christ is risen indeed, and death has lost its sting and the grave has no victory and the sin of the world that Jesus bore is gone, and the Law has no accusation to make anymore. 

 

But we must look in the nooks and crannies of our hearts to make sure that there is no leaven, no yeast in our hearts, that will prevent us from celebrating this Easter feast with sincerity and truth.  And the evil leaven is malice and wickedness, which comes from unbelief.  Therefore let us cheerfully and bravely peer into our souls and with courage face what would sour our celebration today and all our lives.  To this end, let us pray,

 

Grant, we beseech Thee. Almighty God, that we who celebrate Thy Paschal Feast, kindled with heavenly desires, may ever thirst for the Fountain of Life, Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, who liveth, etc.  Amen.

 

 

The old and evil leaven is unbelief.  Unbelief is first malice.  This is the intention to do evil.  We should never approach God with the intention to do evil.  It is impossible to celebrate the feast that does away with evil while holding onto evil.  Do not intend to continue in what God has told you is wrong.  “The works of the flesh or manifest, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like…and those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”  These are the works that bring not just to the grave, but they continue unbelief in your life, so that it is impossible to trust in Christ who delivers from sin while we cling to sin as if He has not overcome it. 

 

Do not cling to what is evil, cling to the good that Jesus gives you.  What is the good that Jesus has given you?  He has destroyed sin.  He has borne its punishment.  He has suffered all of its consequences.  Why?  Because He only intends good for you.  He forgives you.  There is no sin to destroy you in Him.  If you feel sin’s bondage, if the works of the flesh have laid their claim on you, then turn to Him who this day destroyed the bondage of sin and the grave.  Jesus is the answer.  He is the answer to sin that you struggle with.  If He is the conqueror of evil, then only listen to Him, listen to the angels who tell you that He is risen, and the power of His resurrection will overcome your weakness.  Do not intend to do evil, and when you see this intention in your heart, cast it on Christ, who purged this sin from you in His own flesh when He was sacrificed as the Passover Lamb. 

 

Jesus knows that sin comes from your heart, and yet He still tells you to rejoice today with all your heart.  He knows how often you have failed and fallen, and yet He wants you to rejoice in Him today.  He knows how easily you go astray – that did not stop Him from dying for you, from sacrificing Himself for you.  Christ, our Passover Lamb, was sacrificed.  Therefore there is nothing for you to fear, not even the worst evil, not even the most habitual sin, not your weakness, no, there is only Jesus the Passover Lamb to look to.  The Angel of death cannot harm you when this Lamb’s blood marks your heart and conscience. 

 

Therefore put all the works of the flesh away again.  Confess your sin knowing that you have a feast to celebrate and you don’t have time for the old yeast, the ancient leaven of the devil, who intended evil against you when he lied and told you that you would not die.  That liar tricked the woman and made her eat the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But Christ, our Passover was sacrificed, and He tricked the trickster.  The devil took a big bite from Christ on the tree and bruised His heal, but that bite was the deceiver’s undoing and your salvation.  All that Eve ruined and the sin that Adam continued is ended in the Passover Lamb’s sacrifice for you.  Therefore when you have this Lamb of God you have grace that abounds more than you have seen your sin increase.  When you believe in Him who died for you and lives for you, then the old leaven of malice and wickedness has no hold on you. 

 

The word of grace has purged away the old and evil leaven, as we just sang.  Luther’s original words read, “The old yeast shall not be with the word of grace.”  Grace removes this sin from your life.  You may still see it, even feel it, but it does not rule.  Jesus rules because Jesus lives from the dead.  Jesus is your Lord, His sacrifice has removed sin from your life.  Only believe it.  Only taste and see that the Lord is good even when you are bad.  Therefore celebrate today.  Rejoice today, not matter what bad and evil is in you or the world. That does not matter in the face of Jesus Christ the Crucified and Risen Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. 

 

It is a sin to despise preaching and God’s Word.  Purge this sin away.  Resolve not to skip going to Church because you have family or friends visiting or you have an entertaining activity or you have work to do.  That is the old leaven of malice.  Intending not to hear God speak to you is malice and wickedness.  You may claim you are going to do good by ignoring God, but what good can you do that is greater than what God’s Word gives you?  God’s Word gives you Jesus’ work.  God’s Word gives you the sacrifice He gave and which you need. 

 

I have heard people tell me, “I already know the Gospel.  How about you teach me how to live.”  Fine.  This is how you live - you hear God’s Word, you hear the Gospel. The source of your sin is yourself, but the only antidote to your sin is the Easter feast that we celebrate every Sunday when we hear the Word of God that gives us the risen Christ, the conqueror of our sin.  Soon will come the days when we must meet at night and in secret as Christians used to meet by the graves of their departed in the night on Easter.  Then the true Christians will be known.

 

Isn’t every one of our problems due to the fact that we turn away from God’s Word?  But let us turn to God’s Word this morning, and our hearts will forget that we have ever forgotten God’s Word.  Do not worry about the past – Christ was sacrificed for you and now gives Himself to you forever.   All the winter of our sins, long and dark is flying from the light of Jesus’ living body.  He knew what He was doing and He knows what He is doing when He speaks to you today.  He wants you to rejoice in Him, and that happens when you believe that He has taken your sin away, that He has destroyed death, that He has won for you and gives to you a life that the grave can’t claim. 

 

Bring your sorrows to Him and He will turn them into joy.  The dead in the Lord will rise to life eternal.  Nick Lewallen I, whom we saw dead in this church weeks ago is alive.  If you see that you are dead in your sins and trespasses because you have followed your heart countless times only to find yourself lost and without comfort and without hope, then you don’t need to spend a long time grieving before you can celebrate this feast.  Claim the joy now, that your sins are truly sent away from you, and God does not see them and Christ is alive and you are alive in Him when you believe that Pharaoh really is drowned, Goliath really is dead, Jonah lives, and the Temple that was destroyed has been raised in three days.  Claim this comfort which is for all sinners.  Turn from the old leaven and taste this unleavened bread of life that Jesus sincerely and truly gives to you.  Come to Him with a heart that needs Him and He will not only give you comfort today, but He will feed you as long as you hear His voice.  He will give you an Easter feast every day of your life, even when you stare at the coffin of your loved one, even when you must face your own death, even when the world mocks you, when you see your shame, when you feel your sin – it is then that Jesus comes and purges out the old leaven and says, “I have better bread.  It is my flesh that I give for the life of the world.  It is the body that was sacrificed for you and the blood that cleanses you from all sin.  It is the crucified body and the risen body, the living body who rules over all things for you and is intent only that you rejoice in Him who conquered sin and death for you. 

 

We must be as Hezekiah, who kept the Passover of God after it had been forgotten, and with great joy they slaughtered the lambs, and at with joy because the promise of the Gospel was theirs, in their hearts, and on their lips.  They had only the type; we have the fulfillment.  We have the true Passover Lamb, so let us offer our bodies as living sacrifices to the Sacrifice that was made for us, which we eat and are cleansed, which we drink from and are forgiven, which we praise, because God has done great things for us, which no one on earth could do for us, but only this Man who is our Lord and our God.  To Him belong escapes from death; To Him belongs power over sin and world and devil and hell and grave and sadness.  And to Him we belong who have been baptized into His dead and raised with Him from the death of sin by faith in the powerful work of God. 

 

And that is why we are happy today and we don’t apologize for it.  The reason it is so hard to believe is not because the evidence isn’t there.  It’s all there.  Jesus rose from the dead.  The reason it is hard to believe is because, like His disciples, we have so often fled from Him in His suffering.  But He sends His angels to show us an empty tomb and tell us not to be afraid, and He enters the locked room to say, “Peace to you,” and He enters our hearts to say, “I forgive you, I love you, and because I live, you also will live.”  As the prophet Isaiah says,

 

Your dead shall live;

Together with My dead body they shall arise.

Awake and sing, you who dwell in dust;

For your dew is like the dew of herbs,

And the earth shall cast out the dead.

 

The fragrance is beautiful.  It is the scent of life, new life, spring that will never end, life that cannot be stained by sin or death, unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, because Jesus sincerely wishes you to rejoice today in the face of all evil, to laugh at death, to mock the grave, to eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we live forever.  Amen.