Sermons 2026

EASTER VIGIL SERMON OUTLINE
Introduction: A reading and the first alleluia acclamation of Easter.
I. Good Friday seems to bring the finality of death.
II. God loves a good comeback, and Jesus comes back from death itself.
III. Jesus’ death and resurrection lead to our justification.
IV. It isn’t cheating when you have paid the price.
Conclusion with alleluia acclamation

SERMON

Alleluia! Christ is Risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia.

Paul writes in Romans 4,
But the words “it was counted to Him” were not written for His sake alone, but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in Him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. (Romans 4:23–25)

Jesus was delivered up for our trespasses and died upon the cursed tree. He was then raised “for our justification,” as Paul teaches us. Today, we will hear how all the work Jesus does for us is now counted to us by faith.
On that first Good Friday, the whole creation focused itself upon Jesus’ death and mourned. The sky darkened, the ground itself shook like an earthquake, and the dead came out of their graves. Heaven and hell were at war, and the battleground was being waged on a cross outside the Jerusalem city gates.

For many, it appeared as though Satan had won. Judas betrayed Jesus. Jesus was handed over to death. Real agonizing death upon a cross. So much agony that the Son cried out with dying breath to His Father, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Mark 15:34).

When He died at three o’clock that afternoon, hope seemed to have died with Him. Dead is, well, dead. Without life means without hope. And without hope, we might as well be dead because we won’t be good for much more than that. You can’t defeat death and the grave if you’re dead, can you? You can’t be the Victor over Satan and the powers of this present darkness if your lifeless body is covered with a shroud and left in a tomb, can you?

Well, not if you stay dead. We know that God loves a good comeback. Many times, through Holy Scripture, God takes what seems impossible and makes it possible. God’s people are often on the brink of complete and utter destruction. They are beyond all hope of redemption or a new start. God takes what to us seems like a ridiculous, almost childlike ending and makes it into a reality. 

God makes the impossible a reality today. He does this by rising Jesus from the dead! Jesus is no longer dead but alive forever! The way Paul puts it is that He was “delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification” (Romans 4:25). Jesus was delivered to death because of our sins, but Jesus was raised up from the dead so that we might be justified by His name.

Justification is one of those big church words. What it means, quite simply, is that Jesus paid the price for our sins. In exchange, we receive His righteousness, His holiness by faith.
It is not that God didn’t care about our sins—they are great and serious. Rather, God has done away with our sins by crediting Jesus’ righteousness to our account.

By doing this, Jesus has completely destroyed the power of sin, death, and Satan. Satan thought he had it all locked up. It was a done deal. Jesus was dead. God’s Son was really dead. Spear in the side, blood and water gushing out, and everything. He was a goner. Did they put the stone over the grave? Yes. Set the guards? Yes. Sealed it to make sure that He was never ever getting out of that tomb? Yes.

Well, no.Because Jesus Christ died and rose again from the dead for us.

It may be night. It may seem as quiet as a tomb. But we know better. What appeared to be was not the reality. In the dark of night, in the dark of the tomb, Satan was undone. The fetters of death could not hold Jesus.
We know the angels in heaven sing for the Lamb who once was slain, “For us He rose from death again.” We know that Satan is defeated. We know that death is swallowed up forever by everlasting life. We know that Jesus did all of it, every bit of it, for us, His beloved, His children, His Bride, His church.

It may still be quiet, but we know what’s going on. The whole world is taking a deep breath so that it may cry out once again, Alleluia! Christ is Risen! He is Risen Indeed! Alleluia. Amen.