HE IS RISEN. HE IS RISEN INDEED. ALLELUIA! CHRIST IS ALIVE.

That is the message you expect to hear on Easter. That is the message I want to share with you today. But this means nothing to you if you don’t also know that Jesus was buried. To say that “Jesus is alive” provokes little reaction unless you realize that He was dead. To preach and proclaim the Easter message to people who have not heard what preceded the Resurrection is like telling the punch line of a joke without the previous set-up. A lot of people who go to church on Easter are like a theater-goer who arrives for the last five minutes of a movie, and then complains that the story doesn’t make sense. They don’t know and appreciate the whole story, so of course it doesn’t make sense. It is only by fully realizing the fact that Jesus was truly dead that we will ever experience the full joy of the statement CHRIST IS RISEN.

If you are going to be able to rejoice in the knowledge that CHRIST IS ALIVE, not only do you need to know that He was dead–You also need to understand why Jesus died.  The reason Jesus died has been proclaimed over and over again, but it will never be declared too often. 

Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God (1 Peter 3:18). 

Through His perfect obedience to the will of His heavenly Father, through His suffering at the hands of the ones He came to save, through His agony and death on the cross, He made complete payment for the sins of every single person–once for all. The Biblical record sums up our situation very clearly: All people have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. The wages of sin is death.  What could you do to make it up to God? Nothing! What has Jesus done to make it up to God for you? Everything! He did that by dying. His death paid your penalty. Jesus was dead. He was not alive. And then this happened.

Matthew 28:5–7 The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you.”

That is why we celebrate this day. Christ is Alive. Risen from the dead, assuring all who believe in Him of forgiveness and life everlasting with the Risen One.

Happy Easter!