Easter Sunday

Order of Service

• Musical Prelude — Choir
• Call to Worship — Psalm 118
• Hymn — Sing Choirs of New Jerusalem (Choir: verses 1–2; Congregation joins: verses 3–4)
• Prayer of Invocation
• Confession of Faith — Colossians 1:15–20
• Scripture Reading — Luke 24:1–12
• Hymn — Christ the Lord Is Risen Today
• Pastoral Prayer
• Offering
• Hymn — In Christ Alone
• Sermon
• Hymn — Up from the Grave He Arose
• Benediction
• Choral Anthem — Choir

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Sermon Title: The Reasonableness of Resurrection

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 15:3–8

I. The Reasonableness of Resurrection Found in Life as an Image-Bearer of God

Scripture: Genesis 2:5–7, 16–17

A. God formed man from dust, breathed life into him, and man became a living creature — created for life, not death

B. Death is a foreign enemy, not a natural reality

1. Man was not created to die; death entered only through sin
2. The image-bearer instinctively fights for life — death feels unnatural and unreasonable up close and personal

C. Jesus Christ, the sinless Last Adam, cannot remain in the tomb

1. Death had no claim on the sinless one; he laid down his life voluntarily
2. The Father looks on the lifeless body of his perfect Son and, as at the first creation, breathes the Spirit — Christ rises never to see the dust again
3. All united to Christ by faith share in his resurrection; Luther's confidence over his dying daughter illustrates this: "She will rise on the last day"

D. The empty tomb is the yes and amen to every image-bearer's longing for life — the cry of Christian in Pilgrim's Progress: "Life! Life! Eternal life!"

II. The Reasonableness of Resurrection Found in Life Under the Sun

Scripture: Ecclesiastes 1:12–14

A. Solomon, having experienced every pleasure and accomplishment, concludes: "All is vanity" — hebel (vapor, mist)

1. Russell Brand and Chris Evans illustrate the modern experience: reaching the top and finding nothing there
2. If this world is all there is, life is ultimately meaningless

B. Augustine: "Our hearts are restless until they find their rest in God" — without resurrection, we chase counterfeit gods that cannot satisfy

C. The New Testament speaks of resurrection in past and present tenses, not only future

1. "You have been raised with Christ into newness of life" — Romans 6
2. Resurrection does not merely promise future relief; it reorients life now

D. Contrast: life under the sun without resurrection vs. life under the sun with resurrection

1. Without resurrection: the ticking clock haunts every joy; death looms like a permanent goodbye
2. With resurrection: holding the things of this world loosely, one is freed to enjoy them fully, and faces death with Paul's confidence in Philippians 1: "It is far better to go and be with the Lord"

III. The Reasonableness of Resurrection Found in Life According to the Scriptures

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 15:3–8

A. Paul says Christ's death and resurrection occurred "in accordance with the Scriptures" — not one prophet but all of Scripture pants and longs for resurrection

B. On the Emmaus road (Luke 24), Jesus opens all the Old Testament Scriptures to show they point to his person and work

C. The whole life of Israel in the Old Testament is temporary, longing for the permanent

1. Blessings followed by curses, temples crumbling — all crying out for a temple raised in three days never to fall again
2. The Old Testament is an age of temporal realities; the New Testament is an age of eternal realities

D. Every Scripture passage is essentially saying: "We were made for resurrection, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in the resurrected Christ"

1. The temporal gives way to the eternal
2. The fleeting gives way to the permanent
3. Darkness gives way to light when the tomb is empty

E. Conclusion: without the resurrection, humanity is destined for dust; life is meaningless vapor; and Scripture itself becomes vapor — but Christ is risen, and by faith in him the believer receives permanent life, now and forevermore, as also evidenced by the eyewitness appearances listed in 1 Corinthians 15:5–8 — to Cephas, to the Twelve, to five hundred brothers, to James, to all the apostles, and to Paul himself