He is risen, indeed!
He arose so you can too!
Edited and adapted from a sermon given at Lakewood Church on April 5, 2026. Sermon link here
‘He is risen!’ Allow me to quote the pastor and poet, Shai Linne who frames it like this:
“Elvis is dead, Picasso is dead
Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin are dead
Biggie smalls and Pac are dead- however
Jesus is Alive.”
We contemplate the claims of Christianity, a claim that is like no other. Every person you’ve ever met will walk through the deep, dark, bridgeless river that represents death. In a culture that seeks to preserve youthfulness and run away from wrinkles and the thought of mortality, we are confronted by the historical account of the God man who willingly embraced death, walked through it, and arose to new life.
If you weren’t with us at our Good Friday service, we are right off the heels of celebrating the death of Jesus. The Savior who lived a perfect life, died on the cross to pay for sinners and suffer God’s wrath so they wouldn’t have to and he was buried. He literally and physically died, and the Scripture writers say, ‘no cap’, no lies detected, as they watched his body go into the grave.
Which brings us to our main idea this morning which is simply this: He arose so you can too. There are two critical things to know about the teachings of God found in the Scriptures. First, you must know the true Jesus. Not a savior of your choosing, not a blend of what you’d envision or prefer, but God desires you would know Jesus, his work on your behalf, and his character, and the fact that He is risen!
Second, we discover and will cover today, that knowing, trusting, and clinging to God in the gospel has a direct hope, impact, and delight for you. The fear, the reality, and the enemy of death do not need to control you, you too can arise, spiritually today and physically after this life. My friends, this is not your best life, the next one with Him in the new heavens and earth is where full joy can and will be known.
So, we will cover the historical account as it’s recorded in Luke 24, verses 1-9.
God says this to us:
24 But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. 2 And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3 but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4 While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. 5 And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? 6 He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, 7 that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.” 8 And they remembered his words, 9 and returning from the tomb they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest.
This is the reading of God’s Word; He arose so you can too. We’ll chew on this together in a few ways.
First, notice with me: The Missing Body, we read this and pull it directly from verse 3, ‘but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.’ Both common sense and even the writing of the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15 says, ‘if there is no resurrection, there is no Christianity’. Each of the gospel accounts document a gruesome death. As Western hearers we tend to hyper focus on the details surrounding crowds, whips, and nails, yet the biblical writers communicate something far worse. Jesus hung on a cross, suffering the wrath of the Triune God, he gave his perfect life for our sinful life and made an exchange. When Jesus hung and declared ‘It is finished’, it was a victory cry that secured the payment for sinners so they can be forgiven and made right with God.
Now as the historical record is documented in the gospels, Jesus’ body was taken off the cross, limp and dead. A man named Joseph secured a burial place, wrapped the body of Christ, and put him in a tomb with two women named Mary watching. Roman soldiers are set on guard to prevent grave robbers or eager followers of Jesus from stealing the body and spreading nasty rumors of a fake resurrection. Because of the needed preparation of the Jewish observation called ‘Sabbath’, the night ends and many in the moment are left to wonder if they wrongly put their trust in a Messiah who seemingly conquered nothing, not Rome, not the crowds, not sin, not death.
Yet as we read in our passage, the first day of the week comes around, the Earth still rotates, life goes on after a dark event. Both the Mary’s carrying spices to anoint Jesus’ body, they were going to try to get back into that tomb, likely contemplating how they’ll remove the large stone sitting at the entrance into the grave that was dug into the side of a hill. To their shock, and ours as first readers exposed to this historical moment, the huge stone is somehow moved, they go in and there is no body.
At this point we have no answers, only the question, maybe a few questions. Where is the body? And is Jesus still dead or is He somehow alive? Now you may be aware of this already, but even skeptics of Christianity, those who would deny the teachings of the Scriptures and deny God’s authority over their life, even they would agree that a man named Jesus lived in the first century and was killed by a Jewish mob and a Roman government. In that sense, non-Christians would agree with the Bible’s teaching of Jesus’ real life on this earth. The missing body and the implications of Jesus’ true identity are at the center of disagreement.
How do you personally understand the missing body of Jesus? For roughly 2,000 years people have sought to find his grave, excavate possible locations, find the bones, and disprove the claim of Christians. For a moment, let’s step outside the historical accounts in the Scripture go ancient sources that provide answers from an era outside our own.
If you’re looking for some good nighttime reading, a man named N.T. Wright has written an 800+ page textbook working through ancient texts and documents that seek to answer this question of the missing body.
Clement, Ignatius of Antioch, Polycarp, the letter of Barnabas, among others, all in the first century speak plainly about a resurrected Jesus Christ. Justin Martyr, Felix, Tertullian and Irenaeus (ear-nay-us) in the second century. He’s what the Egyptian writer Origen said in the 2nd and 3rd century in a dialogue with unbelieving cynical writer named Celsus who said Christians were lying about the missing body:
“A clear and unmistakable proof of the fact I hold to be the undertaking of his disciples (Jesus’ resurrection), they devoted themselves to the teaching of a doctrine that brought with it danger to their life, a doctrine which they would not have taught with such courage had they invented the resurrection of Jesus from the dead; and who also, at the same time, not only prepared others to despise death, but were themselves the first to manifest their disregard for its terrors.”
The readers’ digest version is this: All the early disciples were willing to die and they were killed, for proclaiming that the missing body of Jesus was the verifiable proof that He rose from the dead and was in fact alive today. Those in the first century observed the disciples’ proclamation and death, they spoke with hundreds who claimed to have eyewitness experience in seeing Jesus risen. The Scriptures and historical record have spoken plainly on this missing body. Our song proclaims a missing body, it continues:
Plato is dead, Socrates is dead
Aristotle and Immanuel Kant are dead
Neitzsche and Darwin are dead - however
Jesus is Alive
If his missing body answers some questions for you, it still doesn’t get to the heart of our celebration today, so now consider with me: The Call to Remember, look back at our passage in Luke 24. Both Mary’s find no body in the tomb, questions arose in their minds, mixed emotions, hope, fear, excitement, terror… Verse 4, two angels appear on the scene. Both in Matthew’s and Mark’s gospel writing, they emphasize one angel who looked like lightening. Here in Luke the pair is dazzling, it’s a frightening experience, verse 5, both women fall to the ground. And we find the words that Christian tradition has recited since that day, the messengers of God ask, ‘Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but here has risen.’
Tombs are for the dead, spices and anointed oils are for corpses who are decaying, burial plots are for those who will never walk again, why would you seek Jesus here? And we find the common words spread through the Old and New Testament, ‘remember?’, ‘do you remember?’. Verse 7, Jesus spoke through his earthly ministry that He would die, he would be crucified, and he would rise on the third day. What is the response of these sisters? Verse 8, and they remember his words. Having most recently gone through the gospel of Matthew as church, here are a few references that women may have reflected upon and remembered:
Matthew 16:21
“From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.”
Matthew 17:22-23
“Jesus said to them, ‘The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day.’ And they were greatly distressed.”
Matthew 20:17-20
“he said to them, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem. And the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day.”
Each of instances demonstrate that Jesus’ death and resurrection where not ‘Plan B’ in the economy of God. As many of you heard in our Good Friday service, at the right time, in the preplanning, in a demonstration of love, the Triune God before the foundation of the world, put into motion a plan for Him to be glorified and for you to be changed by the reality of Easter Sunday.
The missing body of Jesus is to be understood in light of His own words. The angels didn’t ask the women if they remembered their own words, but Christ’s. It’s no mistake that Jesus is described as THE Word of God. He is the physical, tangible communication of the Triune God. He is the God Man who speaks Divine decrees, He is the God who inspires, directs, and provides every word found in the Bible.
On that resurrection Sunday, the angels do not encourage those sisters, or you and I, to speculate on our own accord. Your personal take on the resurrection has no factor in the realm of actual reality. Sure, we can and should lean on the good and right gifts of empirical evidence, missing bodies, first and second century accounts, and all the rest. But here in the shocking moment, faced with angelic messengers with lightning in their eyes, humanity is pressed to remember, reflect, and reverently hear the words of God, to elevate the words of God, and understand the resurrection and all things in this world through God’s mind and not ours.
Here’s the challenge for us on Easter, ask yourself, am I putting my trust in my faulty perceptions on myself, this world, and even the resurrection or am I putting my trust in God’s declarative statements? Verse 6, ‘Remember how He told you’, it’s a call to read and actually know what God has said. Easter is an invitation for two ladies and for us as a crowd today, to elevate God’s thoughts and die to our own. On its face this is an impossible task. It can happen that the resurrection would excite us for a moment and then become dull and seemingly disconnected from our everyday lives, and we’ll chew on that more in a moment.
What we find in the accounts that follow, from Luke and from the other epistle writers, is that God’s people remembering, God’s people taking Him at his word, trusting His decrees, his takes, his direction above our own, it is only possible when God’s Spirit changes you, resides in you, and helps you remember. It was Jesus who told His disciples in John 14, ‘The Spirit will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.’
Our song reminds us and causes us to remember:
Buddha is dead, Mohammed is dead
Ghandi and Haile Selassie are dead
Elijah Mohammed is dead- however
Jesus is Alive
Caesar is dead, Herod is dead
Annas, Caiaphas and Judas are dead
Pontius Pilate is dead- however
Jesus is Alive
There is the missing Body, the call to remember, and lastly contemplate with me: The Implication of Life after Death. Back to our text, Luke 24:9 informs us that both Mary’s returned from the tomb and told all these things to the eleven disciples and all the rest who were with them. We know initially the disciples themselves were slow to believe such a dramatic tale, so Peter and John ran to the tomb to confirm, to see for themselves, if there was a missing Body and they themselves had to reorient the situation in front of them not by their own understandings but remembering the words and promises of Christ.
Two women are the first ones to communicate ‘He is Risen!’. The natural question that everyone should ask, whether you are religious or not is this, ‘why does that matter?’. And that is a fair question, if every person in human history, and we’ve listed a few this morning, if they face the natural reality of death and go into a grave to never come out, if Jesus is alive and unique, what difference does this make on my life, how should it shape my life, or should it at all? Why did these women feel compelled to go tell others?
We’ve already referenced in part, the implications on those first believers. Most of them were killed and martyred for their faith and proclamation that Jesus rose from the grave. Now if you think about this carefully, it’s not the historical event that got them killed, rather it was their unashamed communication of the implications of that historical event.
There are many things to consider, but for our time we’ll focus on 3.
He is God
In John’s writing we find Thomas making the declaration that Jesus is Lord and God. The disciple, like the others, had serious doubts about the missing body of Jesus, even upon remembering His words they needed confirmation. When Jesus stood before them the implication of his rising again was their understanding and affirmation, Jesus is God. Paul, in Romans 1, the same, Jesus is the second person of the Triune God, He is the unique Son of God in power and in holiness who lives today.
He has authority
The second implication of Jesus’ resurrection is that He is not simply God, but God with authority. He sits on the throne as King, He has the right as Creator, Sustainer, and Judge to speak with conviction and has the kind of authority that we only pretend to have. Jesus from his own lips in Matthew 28, ‘all authority in Heaven and on Earth is mine’. You cannot find a space that humanity can run to, whether to the moon and the deep galaxies or the heights of heaven or any crevice deep in the sea, under a rock, or in the secret thoughts of your own mind. Jesus claims to have authority everywhere, over all things. We read the same from John in Revelation 1, He is the God man who lives, who died and rose again, and He alone holds the keys, holds the authority, holds the final word on Death and even Hell.
He must be obeyed
The third core implication is this, if Jesus has risen, if He is God, if He has authority, then logically and unapologetically stated in the Scriptures, He is to be obeyed. Matthew 28 again, Jesus says, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Jesus informs those first disciples and us, just days after His resurrection, that we are not our own people. It’s not up for question, those who profess the name of Jesus are to be baptized as believers, as people who are declaring the symbol of going under the water and rising again signifying what has happened in their heart and soul, they have died to an old way of life and have risen to a new one.
From his own lips, we are to observe and obey all that He commands. My friend, if you are here this morning contemplating these things, ask yourself, do you know the commands of Jesus? Are you obeying the commands of Jesus? Do you recognize that if Jesus truly is God as He says, if He truly has authority and we will be accountable to Him for our response to His ways… do you recognize that we are to follow Him? Jesus says, ‘if you love me, you will follow my commandments’. If you truly love Him, if you truly are a faithful follower of Christ, you will follow not yourself, not this world, but Him.
Looking back at our passage in verse 9, the women return from the tomb and they told all the details of Jesus’ missing body, remembering His own predictions of his death and resurrection, and with their brothers in the faith, and anyone else around them, the implications of this moment changed everything.
It means that God is God and I am not. The resurrection of Jesus means that our cultural tendencies to pick and choose what to believe, what to follow, what to accept, it’s all done away with. If Jesus is alive, is God, has spoken, and will judge and hold us accountable we are brought to a fork in the road. Whether you are here considering Christianity or are like many of us on the spectrum of a struggling Christian, no matter, we are all faced with the same dilemma. I have two ways to go, and only two. I will believe the resurrection has implication on me and I will follow God’s ways, or I don’t believe the resurrection has implication on me, and I’ll create my own ways. The road lays open for each of us, what will we choose today and all our days?
Allow me to finish with the life changing benefit and implication of your response to Jesus this morning.
Romans 6:5-6
“For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.”
God tells us in the Scriptures that if you would place your faith, your trust, and your hope in Jesus’ death and resurrection, then you will die and rise again just as He did. That certainly points to a someday reality of our current lives coming to a conclusion and us being raised to a new life in the New Heavens and the New Earth. And it also points us in an already, but not yet way, to our current situation.
Paul tells us in Romans that the implication of Jesus’ rising is that you too can rise physically and spiritually. You can receive the implications and the benefits of being adopted as God’s child, changed from the inside out, given new desires, forgiven of your sins, the Spirit of God living in you in an intimate way as He walks with you, and talks with you until you meet Him face to face.
I have wonderful news for you. No matter who you are, no matter what you’ve done, there is grace for you in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He arose so you can too. Today can be the moment in which your life can be forever recalibrated and changed. Today can be the day in which you experience the full joy of a missing Body, the remembrance and elevation of God’s Words, and the implications of Jesus’ good work on your behalf. These are all ours by faith and faith alone in Christ alone. He is risen!
Or to put it another way:
Through faith in Christ, we’ve been saved from hell
Because He’s risen, it means we’ll be raised as well
In glorified bodies fit for the new earth
For now, we participate in the new birth
The universal reality of the true church
With resurrection power, watch the Spirit do work!
Jesus is alive. Cling to Him today, watch Him do a good work in you, in our families, in our church, in this community, and in our world. Pray with me.