Grace and peace to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The Word of the Lord which engages us this morning comes from our First Epistle lesson (1 Corinthians 15: 19-28). ����������������

(Story told by Red Smith, famous sportswriter in 1920's, related the following incident) Novelist and film writer, Laurence Stallings was once asked to cover a football game between the Universities of Pennsylvania and Illinois. He had never written about sports, but took the assignment anyway. The year was 1925 and Halfback Red Grange was dazzling, the Michael Jordan of football at the time. On a muddy field, where everyone else was slipping and falling, Grange broke loose for three touchdowns and set up a fourth. Experienced sportswriters in the press box furiously pounded away at their typewriters. Not Stallings. In a tizzy, he paced up and down the press box, hands clasped to his head. "I can't," he wailed. "I can't write it! It's too big." That's the way many of us pastors feel on Easter Day. How can we preach about it? It's too big! Even the most gifted of preachers cannot do justice to this central earth-shattering event that has changed the course of all history, of all eternity. It's too big. I can't say everything that needs to be said. (From Rev. Dr. Robert J. Bryan, Sermon: The ABC's of the Resurrection). I've been a preacher for Easter now for three years and it has been a great privilege. For forty years I was in your position, listening to pastors preach about Christ's resurrection. Then it was a privilege to tell one or a small group that Christ is arisen. Now it is awe-inspiring and humbling to be able to stand before more than 200(?) of you and say "He is risen" and wait for the response (He is risen Indeed!).

A Greek Orthodox priest was on his way to early Easter service with his mind full of the Easter message when his car broke down. He ran for a pay phone and as he began his call he used the traditional Easter greeting with the operator: Christ is risen!" The operator was stunned, and not knowing what to say finally blurted out "Oh, did he really?" (from Donald Deffner, Seasonal Illustrations, 1992, p. 43).

Ever since the angel first said "He has risen -- He is not here" humans have been asking "Did he really?" The disciples asked it that first Easter morning. Thomas was asking it for the next week until Jesus Christ appeared to him and showed him his hands and feet. About 20 years later, members of the Corinthian church were asking "Did he really?" and Paul was responding with the words of our Epistle text "Christ has indeed been raised from the dead." Just a few verses earlier Paul had told the Corinthians, believers 100's of miles away from Jerusalem in Greece, that Christ had appeared to him, Paul, as well as to James and Peter and the other apostles as well as over 500 other people. Paul had written these words in the form of a legal brief, something that could have been submitted to a court of either Roman or Jewish Law (Erich Kiehl, Concordia Journal, 1988, p. 67). Paul was not just spouting off some esoteric philosophical proposition. He was taking a stand, a stand that could and would eventually cost Paul his own life. We know from church history that 1000's of Christians, including Peter and Paul, were persecuted and killed during that first generation of believers. They were not just believing in some nambi-pambi spiritual jello for their hope in life. They were holding onto the resurrection of Jesus Christ, knowing that he had conquered death now and for eternity. Christians have continued to hold onto that hope for 2000 years.

For example, Easter Day, 1973. Uganda groaned under the terror of the dictator Idi Amin. Still fresh in young Pastor Kefa Sempangi's memory were charred bodies burned beyond recognition, the sight of soldiers cruelly beating a man, and the horrible sound of boots crushing bones, all for the crime of being Christian. But that Easter of 1973 Sempangi bravely and openly preached on the risen Lord in his town's football stadium to over 7,000 people. After the service, five of Idi Amin's Secret Police followed Sempangi back to his little church and closed the door behind them. Five rifles pointed at Sempangi's face. "We are going to kill you for disobeying Amin's orders" said the captain. "If you have something to say, say it before you die." Sempangi, thinking of his beautiful wife and lovely little girl, began to shake. But the risen Lord living in his heart gave him the courage to speak. "Do what you must," he said. "The Word of God says that in Christ I am already dead, and that my real life is hidden with Him in God. It is not my life that is in danger, but yours. I am alive in the risen Lord but you are still dead in your sins. May He spare you from eternal destruction." The leader looked at Sempangi for a long time. Then he lowered his gun and said, "Will you pray for us?" Sempangi did, and from that day those five officers, now converted through the witness of Sempangi's bravery, protected the pastor with their very lives. (from Rev. Dr. Robert J. Bryan from "The ABC's of the Resurrection").

Sempagni did a brave and noble thing, standing up for Christ's resurrection just as Peter and Paul and so many other millions of Christians have done before. But his bravery was not from his own power, nor was it even as noble as what his Lord Jesus had done for him. ��

His Lord Jesus had taken on himself the sin and death of this world, and put all his enemies under his feet. In the final book of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, the Return of the King, the one that is not yet released as a movie, the forces of good and evil are in the midst of a terrific war. Gandalf the good white wizard is talking with one of the little "Hobbits" about another key character who they fear will betray their side at a crucial time. Gandalf tells him "Let us remember that a traitor may betray himself and do good that he does not intend." That is what Satan did to himself on Good Friday. Satan had the chance to kill Christ, the very Son of God, and Satan took the chance. But in doing so, he unwittingly did good that he did not intend. Satan betrayed himself. Satan thought he had won on Good Friday, but he misunderstood the depth of Christ's love and the power of that love. Through Christ's death he conquered sin and through his resurrection he conquered death.

I had more of a first hand experience witnessing that sacrificial love yesterday. Yesterday I and 8 others of us went up to see a live passion play put on by a small Lutheran church in Barnes, Ks. I've seen innumerable passion plays before, in movies or live in Arkansas. The sight of Jesus crucifixion, the willingness of the Son of God to give his life for my sin and your sin has always been awe-inspiring. But yesterday I saw it up close. We were only about 40 feet away when they pulled back the curtain to show the two thieves on either side hanging on their crosses. Then the actors lifted up the third cross in the middle with Jesus and for a moment I felt like I was right there. Granted, these were amateur actors and they were simply holding onto the spikes, they weren't pierced. Their blood was ketchup and their pain was faked, but for a moment I was caught up in the immensity of what Christ did for me and for you there on Calvary. For a moment I felt like I was as close as the witnesses who had seen him die would have been. For a moment I had a sense of how impossible it would have felt to believe that anyone could have come back to life from that type of hideous death. For a moment I had a stronger sense of his great love for me and for you and for the world. ����������������

I hope that for the moment my words and our songs and the Words of God in Scripture are spurring you on to have a stronger sense of his great love for you. Jesus' crucifixion, death and resurrection are the key moments in all of human history. Not just one of the key moments, but THE KEY MOMENTS, the three key days of all time. These were the three key days of your life, 2000 years before you were even born. Many other important things have happened in history. Important battles have been fought, important statesmen born and died. On no other day did anyone ever come back to life, never to die again. On no other day did someone give his life for you so that you can live eternally with Him. ����������������

But today we've come together, as our Lord has instructed us, to meet and encourage one another in this faith and trust we have in Jesus. Let us continue encouraging, warning and urging each other, frequently, all the more as we see the Day of our Lord's return approaching (Hebrews 10). His resurrection is big. It's bigger than any Red Grange football game. His resurrection is huge, too huge for me to communicate to you here in 15 minutes or an hour or month or a lifetime. That is why we come together here, time and again to continue to grow in our trust and love of this Risen Savior of the world who died and rose for us. He is risen! He is risen indeed. Alleluia.

We continue, confessing the faith we have in him in the words of the Nicene Creed.