He told you Easter was coming

Sermon for the Feast of the Resurrection of Our Lord

1 Corinthians 5:6-8  +  Mark 16:1-8

Today we celebrate Easter, the Paschal Feast, the Christian Passover. Not as a day on the calendar, but as an event in history. An event that has shaped the last 2,000 years of world history. An event with eternal consequences for all people. An event that God has not only informed us about, but an event that God is using even now to call you to repentance and faith in the Crucified One who is no longer dead, and to preserve you in fellowship with Him, and to assure you that, in the end, after you’ve suffered for a while here, you who believe in the risen Lord Jesus will most certainly be given eternal life with Him. He’s told you about it ahead of time, and God cannot lie.

You want proof of it? He told you Easter was coming, didn’t He?

First, He told you the cross was coming; Jesus predicted all His sufferings. What’s more, the Old Testament predicted all His sufferings. God told the world that Good Friday was coming. But more than that, He told the world about the resurrection of the Christ. He told us Easter was coming!

Consider with me some of the Scriptures that spoke of Christ’s resurrection beforehand, so that our hearts may burn within us as did the hearts of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus on the afternoon of Easter Sunday as Jesus opened the Scriptures to them.

In the very beginning, God promised that the Christ, the Seed of the woman was supposed to bruise the devil’s head, while the devil would bruise His heel. But if the Christ remained dead, how was only His heel bruised?

God promised Abraham that all the families of the earth would be blessed through his Seed, the Christ. But how could He be a blessing to all nations if He’s dead?

God promised David that his Son—his descendant—the Christ would reign over an eternal kingdom. But how does He reign forever if He’s dead?

The prophet Daniel, too, foresaw the eternal kingdom of the Son of Man: Behold, one like the Son of Man, coming with the clouds of heaven! He came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought Him near before Him. Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom the one which shall not be destroyed. But how is His dominion everlasting if He’s dead?

Then we have the Psalms, where the Christ speaks so often about His final victory over His enemies, or where He prays confidently to His Father for deliverance from His enemies. Psalm 27: When the wicked came against me to eat up my flesh, My enemies and foes, they stumbled and fell. Psalm 43: Vindicate me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation; oh, deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man! For You are the God of my strength. Psalm 86: Preserve my life, for I am holy; You are my God; save Your servant who trusts in You! How was Christ victorious over His enemies if they were able to destroy Him for good? How did God preserve His life, if His life ended in the grave?

Or there are the Psalms where the Father promises to exalt His Son: Psalm 2: Why do the nations rage, And the people plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, And the rulers take counsel together, Against the LORD and against His Anointed. But they didn’t plot in vain, if Christ remained dead. Or Psalm 110, where David speaks of his Son, the Christ: The LORD said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool.” The LORD shall send the rod of Your strength out of Zion. Rule in the midst of Your enemies! But the LORD didn’t make Christ’s enemies His footstool, if His enemies were still triumphant on the third day.

Or there are the Psalms that specifically refer to Christ’s resurrection from the dead. Psalm 22, that great Psalm of David that details Christ’s crucifixion, goes on to proclaim His resurrection: But You, O LORD, do not be far from Me; O My Strength, hasten to help Me! Deliver…My precious life…You have answered Me. I will declare Your name to My brethren; In the midst of the assembly I will praise You. You who fear the LORD, praise Him!…For He has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; Nor has He hidden His face from Him; But when He cried to Him, He heard. Or Psalm 16: Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices; My flesh also will rest in hope. For You will not leave my soul in Sheol, Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption. You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

And who can forget Isaiah 53, where the suffering of Christ is foretold, but also His resurrection? When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, And the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand. He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, For He shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, And He shall divide the spoil with the strong.

As if that weren’t enough, Jesus Himself foretold His resurrection many times. Destroy this temple, and in three days I will build it again, referring to His body. When the Jews asked for a sign, He gave them the sign of Jonah: As Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. He also said, I am the Good Shepherd. I lay down My life, and I take it up again. And in the months before Holy Week, Jesus told His disciples that He would die and rise again on the third day.

That was also part of the angels’ message on Easter Sunday morning.

Mary Magdalene and the other faithful women got up early on that Sunday morning and hurried to the tomb, wanting to honor their Lord with a better burial, but not knowing how they would roll that big stone out of the way that blocked the entrance to the grave. They got there and found it already removed. An angel had done it. Jesus was already gone. And the angel preached the good news: He is risen, “as He said.” You will see Him in Galilee, as He said to you. 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.’ ” He told you Easter was coming!

What else has He told you is coming? A Day of judgment; a Day of reckoning for all men. Difficult days on earth, even for His beloved Christian Church. But remember what else He’s told you is coming: Because I live, you also shall live. I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. If Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins!…But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?… For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed—in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?” The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

All this is coming, because Christ has risen from the dead. See, He has told you ahead of time! And if He kept His promises to die and rise again from the dead, then trust in Him to keep these promises, too. For God cannot lie. In the name of the risen Christ. Amen.