This Changes Everything: Finding the Real Life on the Other Side of the Empty Tomb

Pastor Mitch Jones opened his message by reading us Paul's own words from 1 Corinthians 15, and he asked us to actually sit with them instead of skimming past them.

"Our preaching is useless, and so is your faith. Your faith is futile. You are still in your sins. Those who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied."

Read that again. That is not some outside critic taking a shot at Christianity. That is the Apostle Paul, telling us exactly what our faith would be worth if the story we are about to walk through never actually happened. Every Sunday gathering, every worship song, every life group and restoration night, every hour spent studying the word, Paul says all of it is a total farce, unless one thing is true.

That one thing is the resurrection.

The World Says This Is How the Story Ends

To feel the weight of what happened that first resurrection morning, you have to sit in what happened the Friday before. Jesus, the one who was supposed to overthrow evil and save his people, was tortured, spat on, mocked, and killed. Roman soldiers, professional executioners who had crucified thousands before him and would crucify thousands after, made sure of it with a spear to his side. As he died, the world seemed to break apart. Darkness fell. The ground shook. The temple curtain tore. His followers scattered, and the people he came to save chose a criminal over him.

Pastor Mitch put it in terms we understand from our own stories. This would be like Luke boarding his ship to destroy the Death Star and getting shot out of the sky before he ever got there. Or Frodo getting stabbed on Weathertop and just dying. Or Indiana Jones grabbing the statue and getting crushed by the boulder. That is the bad ending. That is not how it was supposed to go, and by every measure the world uses to keep score, corruption and violence had just won.

Even the People Trying to Stop the Story Helped Prove It

Here is where it gets interesting. The Sadducees, who did not even believe in resurrection, were still nervous enough about what Jesus had said to request a guard for his tomb. Roman soldiers sealed it with a stone and stood watch. In trying to make sure nobody could fake a resurrection, they actually made it a great deal harder to fake one. It is one of the reasons we can trust that what happened next really happened.

Then the Stone Rolled Away

Matthew tells us that at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to the tomb and a violent earthquake hit. An angel came down, rolled back the stone, and sat on it, his appearance like lightning, his clothes white as snow. The guards were so afraid they shook and collapsed like dead men. The angel told the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified, but he is not here. He has risen just as he said." Then Jesus himself met them on the road. They fell at his feet and worshiped him.

Try to imagine what those women actually experienced. They went to grieve and prepare a body for burial, and instead they got an earthquake, a glowing angel, unconscious soldiers, and their friend alive again in front of them. The upside down world they had been living in got flipped right side up, right there.

The Defeat That Was Not

On that Sunday morning, everything changed. What looked like the enemy's total, clean victory turned out to be, as Pastor Mitch called it, a Trojan horse. This is not Frodo dying at Weathertop. This is Thanos snapping away half the universe, and then Iron Man standing back up and undoing it.

And this is where Jesus stands apart from every other religious leader who has ever lived. Muhammad died and stayed dead. Joseph Smith died and stayed dead. Buddha died and stayed dead. Jesus rose and never died again. Not resuscitated, not revived from a coma. Confirmed dead for three days by professional executioners, and then alive, permanently. If Jesus had stayed in that tomb, sin and death would still be reigning, and we would not have a shot. But because he passed through death into life, Paul says we have hope, because if Jesus could take on the sin of the whole world and still be raised, there is hope that he can bring life into your life and mine too.

Why It Had to Happen This Way

If this is all about life, why did Jesus have to die at all? Pastor Mitch pointed us to Isaiah 53, written centuries before the cross: "It was the Lord's will to crush him and to cause him to suffer. And though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days... By his knowledge, my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities." Hosea 6 says it another way: "He has torn us that he may heal us. He has struck us down and he will bind us up... On the third day, he will rise us up that we may live before him."

The plan was never a surprise to God. It was always to pass through death into life. The world takes the good things of God and twists them to cause suffering, but God turns around and takes suffering itself and uses it to bring new life. He can redeem anything, including the worst thing that has ever happened to you.

This Is Why It Changes Everything for You

Peter writes that through the resurrection we are given "a new birth into a living hope... into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade," and that even now, without having seen him, we can be "filled with inexpressible and glorious joy." Pastor Mitch was clear that this does not start when we die. It starts today, the moment you put your faith in Jesus.

He gave us two things he hoped we would walk away with. First, Jesus's death and resurrection have actually dealt with our sin and death problem. The brokenness that separates us from God has been dealt with, fully, so we can have real life with him starting now. Second, Jesus's reign changes everything about how we measure our own lives. God's kingdom does not run on the world's rules. Power looks like loving your neighbor. Strength looks like service and sacrifice. Faithfulness, not achievement or your bank account or your house, is the highest virtue. We find freedom in submission, joy in service and sacrifice, and purpose in how we care for the people around us. We can find contentment in any circumstance, because our whole understanding of what matters gets flipped upside down, the same way that tomb got flipped open.

Pastor Mitch shared how real this has been in his own life, how the way he spends his time and his money has changed, how giving generously now feels good instead of costly. He told the story of a couple who were terrified to lead a life group, certain they were not qualified, who stepped into it anyway because they felt God calling them to it. Two weeks later they found him in the lobby to say it was incredible, that God had brought exactly the right people into their group, that the conversations and the prayer had become some of the most life giving moments of their week. That is what happens when people actually experience the life God has for them. It is, in Pastor Mitch's words, the whole reason he does this job.

Taking It Into Tuesday

The resurrection is not just a historical claim to agree with. It is an invitation to actually live differently this week. Sit with these questions as you go:

Experience the Real Life This Sunday

Pastor Mitch described this new way of living as "the true life, the real life," a life of freedom in submission, joy in service, and purpose in loving others well. We would love for you to come experience that with us. Join us at 9:00 AM or 11:00 AM at the Eastside Marketplace in Moscow. Bring the kids; they will be well loved at Lifer Kids. We will share communion together, the same symbol Jesus gave us to remember that the battle has already been won and that life is here, for you, today.

Plan Your Visit today!