Jesus is... — 4.21.19 Sermon

This Easter message begins with emptiness, the felt kind, the weight of stress and a life running on empty, before turning to a different emptiness: a tomb that contained nothing. The core argument runs through 1 Corinthians 15: if the tomb is not empty, preaching is useless and faith is futile, and we are still in our sins. From there the teaching presses three claims, that Jesus is who he said, has the power he claimed, and fulfilled his promises, contrasting his empty tomb with the occupied graves of other founders. The application works through John 20's varied responses, Mary's confusion, John's belief, Thomas's doubt, and points to the changed lives of the disciples as the strongest evidence. The closing question is personal: what will our response to the empty tomb be?