Prophecies fulfilled, Easter Sunday

Sermon for Easter Sunday

1 Corinthians 5:6-8  +  Mark 16:1-8

Just as Good Friday was a unique day in the history of the world, so today is also unique. Easter Sunday marks the first permanent defeat of death, when a Man who died actually rose from the dead, not to live out the rest of His earthly life only to die again, but to live forever, with a glorified body, no longer subject to death, making Him truly the Lord of life and the Ruler over death.

And, as with Christ’s suffering, death, burial, and descent into hell, this day was also prophesied ahead of time in Holy Scripture, as we just said in the Nicene Creed, “He rose from the dead according to the Scriptures.” Spend a moment with me reviewing some of those prophecies and let your hearts burn within you as did the hearts of Jesus’ disciples as He led them to see the connection between prophecy and fulfillment.

The prophecy of Christ’s resurrection most cited by the apostles after His resurrection was from Psalm 16: I have set the LORD always before me; Because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved. Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices; My flesh also will rest in hope. For You will not leave my soul in hell, Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption. King David wasn’t writing about himself, as the apostles pointed out, because David’s tomb was still in Jerusalem, where his body still lay, thoroughly corrupted and decayed. No, he was writing about his greater Son, his Offspring, the Christ, whose body would not be left by God to rot in a tomb.

Another prophecy from Psalm 22: I will declare Your name to My brethren; In the midst of the assembly I will praise You. For He has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted One; Nor has He hidden His face from Him; But when He cried to Him, He heard. We saw on Good Friday how this Psalm painted the picture of Christ’s crucifixion and death. But even after His suffering and death, Christ, the afflicted One, would be heard and helped by His Father. Yes, the Father let His Son be afflicted and die for our sins, but there would still be help for Him, because He wouldn’t remain dead.

Isaiah 53: Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he has put him to grief. If he makes his soul an offering for sin, he will see his offspring, he will prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD will prosper in his hand. From the labor of his soul, he will see and be satisfied. By knowledge of him my righteous servant will justify many; for he will bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide him a portion with the great, and he will divide the spoil with the strong. Because he poured out his soul to death, and he was numbered with the transgressors, and he bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors. Yes, Christ was numbered with the transgressors. He was crucified right alongside two criminals. He made His soul an offering for the sins of the world. But then, after the Christ gives up His life, Isaiah says that He will see His offspring. God will prolong His days, and the pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand. After bearing their iniquities, after suffering and dying for the sins of mankind, the Christ would live again to continue to do the Lord’s will, to spread the Gospel. To build His Church, against which the gates of hell will not prevail. None of that could He do if He were to remain dead.

The simple prophecy about the Christ from Psalm 110 also proves that He had to rise from the dead. 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! How could the Son of David rule in the midst of His enemies if He remained dead, having been put to death by His enemies? How could He reign at the Father’s right hand? How could His enemies be made His footstool if their Good Friday victory hadn’t been erased by Christ’s resurrection on Easter Sunday?

Or there’s the prophecy from Isaiah 49:6:  Indeed He says, ‘It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant To raise up the tribes of Jacob, And to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also give You as a light to the Gentiles, That You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth.’ ” If God’s Servant had remained dead, if the light of life had been snuffed out for good, then the Christ couldn’t be a Light to the Gentiles, couldn’t be the Lord’s salvation to the ends of the earth. Only by rising from the dead could He continue to shine His light throughout the world in the preaching of the Gospel to bring both Jews and Gentiles into His Holy Christian Church.

But if we want to see that the Scriptures always foretold the resurrection of the Christ, there’s really no need to go any farther than the first book of the Bible. In Genesis 3:15, God says to the devil: I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel. The Seed of the woman, that special offspring of Eve and of Mary would have His heel bruised or stricken by the devil. He would suffer. He would even die. But the only way for the Christ to bruise or crush the serpent’s head—to destroy the devil’s power over the sinful human race—is by not remaining dead.

And so the Easter morning story unfolds, with the faithful, believing women, our dear sisters in the faith, making their way early in the morning to Jesus’ tomb, near the hill of Calvary, where He was crucified. They go, not expecting to find Him alive, but to find Him dead, because they don’t yet understand the prophecies. But they arrive to find the stone rolled away from the entrance, and an angel sitting where Jesus’ body had been. He’s the first to announce the good news: Do not be afraid. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He is risen; he is not here. See, here is the place where they laid him.

And then the angel reminds them of what may be the greatest prophecy of all: Go and tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, as he said to you. How many times had Jesus’ told His disciples that He would rise from the dead on the third day? But, they thought, surely no one, not even Jesus, could do such a thing, could raise Himself from the dead. He must be speaking in riddles. He must mean something else.

No, He said what He meant, and He did what He said. Christ, our Passover, has been slain. But He took up His life again.

Now, what does that mean for you?

For the unbeliever, it means you won’t get away with your sin forever. Because, just as the Scriptures prophesied the death and resurrection of the Christ, so they also prophesy a day of judgment on which Jesus Himself will judge those who despised His Word and His sacrifice. But the good news is, there is still time! There is still today to repent of your sins and put your hope in this divine Man who died and rose again. It’s the very reason He came, that sinners should have a Substitute who would pay for their sins with His death, so that they can now have their sins forgiven by God and live forever by trusting in Him.

For the believer, you know what Christ’s resurrection means. It means He is a mighty Savior, a worthy Redeemer, worthy of your trust, worthy of your obedience. Our Lord Jesus is called the firstborn from among the dead and the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. He was the first to conquer death, but He won’t be the last. For all who believe in Him will also rise again to eternal life. Sickness? Disease? Death? What are they? They have no power, not really, not anymore. Hardship? Persecution? Injustice? These are only temporary things. You have a living Savior who now reigns at the Father’s right hand on your behalf, for your benefit. He has made you part of His body through Holy Baptism and faith. He has marked you as His own. And He will come for each believer, when it is time, first to guard the soul as the body sleeps in the grave, and then to raise the body, too. And then the great prophecy of Job will be fulfilled, not only for him, but for every believer: For I know that my Redeemer lives, And He shall stand at last on the earth; And after my skin is destroyed, this I know, That in my flesh I shall see God, Whom I shall see for myself, And my eyes shall behold, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!

Christ is arisen! He is risen indeed! A blessed and happy Easter to all of you, in the name of the living Lord Jesus. Amen.