EASTER, A – April 24, 2011

SCRIPTURES – Ex. 15:1-18; Acts 10:34-43; Col. 3:1-4; Matt. 28:1-10

Well, after being sick early in the week, losing my voice and not being able to preach or lead the Services on Holy Thursday and Good Friday, how wonderful it is to have a voice and be able to greet you today with, “Christ is risen! He is risen indeed. Alleluia!” There are no more wonderful words to proclaim and hear.

I wonder: who do you think was the first one to hear and see the risen Christ? Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, who met Jesus as they were running back from the tomb? How about the men who were guarding the tomb: do you think they saw Jesus walk out? Maybe it was the angel who rolled back the stone that covered the entrance to the tomb.

It was none of these. Jesus specifically chose who would see Him first after His soul reentered His body and He became living man again. He made a specific visit to show Himself alive and proclaim His victory over sin and death. Who did He visit? To whom did Jesus first show Himself on Easter? You know. You say it every time you confess the Apostles’ Creed. “He was crucified, died and was buried. He descended into hell. The third day He rose again from the dead.” The descent into hell happened first. The first to see and hear the risen Jesus were Satan and his demonic host!

He descended into hell – those are Easter words! For, Jesus did not descend into hell to suffer. He suffered on the cross, and endured far worse than just the pain of the nails. On the cross He bore the burden of our sins and felt in His very soul the anger of God at them, God’s hatred of our every disobedience and His righteous punishment of them. You cannot begin to understand or know such pain of body, mind, and spirit; thanks be to God! Only in hell is such pain endured, and may God keep us from that horrid place!

That is why Jesus descended there, as the first act of His resurrection – to condemn our greatest enemy and keep us from sharing in his eternal punishment. After He became alive again, but before the tomb was opened and He walked out, in some mysterious but very real way Jesus descended and appeared, in the flesh, to Satan.

He entered as a brilliant, blazing light into a dark, roach infested dungeon. At His entrance the roaches, Satan and his fellow demons, quailed in fear and tried to scatter, but they had nowhere to hide.

They saw Jesus’ living body and knew that the death which Satan had brought upon us, the punishment for our sins, had been crushed and ended. He heard Christ’s voice, the powerful voice which brought forth life into this world, announce his defeat. We don’t know what Jesus said. The simple statement, “You lose!” would have been sufficient. His voice pierced Satan’s heart, emptied him of strength, and left him and his hosts paralyzed and helpless. Jesus was victorious, and His people with Him! As Moses sang at the Red Sea, “Your right hand, O Lord, glorious in power, Your right hand, O Lord, shatters the enemy!” (Ex. 15)

Does this make any difference to you? You bet it does; if you embrace Christ’s victory and see it as your victory.

Satan and his hosts have no power over Christ. They never have. They have always quailed before Him, like roaches from the light, and have sought to run from God. But, he has no fear of you. No, he runs to you and to all who listen to the voice of Jesus. With his voice of doubt and deceit he seeks to turn you away from Christ. He has had much success, even with the closest of Christ’s followers.

It was Satan who entered the heart of Judas – an apostle of Jesus, one who had seen His great miracles and had probably performed them himself as he went forth and told people about Him! Still, Satan somehow raised doubts in his mind and led him to betray Jesus. After Judas realized his sin, he then led him to doubt that he could ever be forgiven, so that he committed suicide.

Doubt; denial; shame because of sin and the uncertainty of forgiveness; do not such things afflict us, too? How weak we are, and how easily Satan is able to influence us! Look around and see the guilt and despair that burden people and the lives wasted by drug and alcohol abuse, sexual perversion, suicide and murder. So many people today fall into despair and commit suicide. How many times do we hear of people killing many others before they kill themselves? Such things are the work of Satan. Death is Satan’s message, and it speaks loudly.

But, in Jesus Christ we have another message. “Christ suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God.” If you are unrighteous and sinful… then you have One who died for you. Your sins have been taken away and paid for by the Son of God Himself! We do not have to burdened and oppressed by their guilt and shame. Our sins are forgiven! We also have the message that in Him we have the victory! “He was put to death in flesh but made alive in spirit, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison.” He told Satan, “You lose! Sin and death are not the end, for I have defeated them and brought forth life for all. Sinners are not yours, not mine! Peter put it this way (Acts 10): “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.” He is still doing that healing. How? “Jesus commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that He is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead… everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins through His name.” Jesus is the judge, not Satan. And, He has set aside our sins. In Him we triumph!

I pray that this makes a great difference for you. Set your hearts and minds on this message, on this Savior, on the forgiveness of your sins and your victory over sin, death, and hell through Jesus, who was crucified and on the third day rose again for you! Then, though he may, and will, tempt you and harass you in this life, Satan will have no power over you. “For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.” (Col. 3)