A life without Easter would provide the same sense of hopelessness.

But imagine a different ending. As the mother desperately seeks through the rubble, her little one in tow. She is crying loudly together with many others in the same situation when all of a sudden, there is another cry. The sound of an infant. Could it be? She runs to where the sound comes from and there in the rubble she finds her baby still alive. What incredible relief, mingled with joy. All the questions now do not need to be answered. All the what ifs no longer matter. Her baby is alive.

That's what Easter does. Easter changes the mood of the crucifixion into joyful rejoicing. Not just then, but now. It is the event that separates the Christian Faith from all other religion and gives to it it's power.

So Paul can write in 1 Cor 15:14,17 And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins."

But Christ has been raised and so we can rejoice and sing "Glorious Morning, the world has a Savior" On the morning of the Resurrection, the Angel of the Lord appeared to the women who came to the tomb and gave them a message. That message is recorded for us in Matthew 28:1-8. And that message, while it is nearly 2,000 years old, is still relevant to us today. This morning we focus on that message from the Angel.
Please turn with me to Matthew 28:1-10 Notice to whom this message is addressed.
1. Recipients of the Message
The Angel addresses himself to those who are seeking Jesus. He said: "I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified." The Message of the Empty Tomb is for those who are seeking Jesus. Those who have run out of answers from everywhere else. Those who desperately in need of a living hope. This is not a message that will have any significance at all to those who are merely interested in dead religiosity. This is a message for those who are seriously seeking the risen Lord Jesus! We must move beyond seeking the Christ of history and come to know Him as a living reality for our lives today. J. I. Brice says: "The church has halted somewhere between Calvary and Pentecost." We recognize the atonement. We glory in the Cross, but we have not experienced that daily risen power of Christ that became possible to each one of us through the event of Christ living in us by His Spirit. So the message that the angel gives is a message for those who are seeking Christ. Note also:
2. The Content of the Message
"He is not here, for He is risen!" He builds upon this premise by giving to us the benefits of this truth. What can we expect because Jesus is alive? What difference does it make that Jesus is alive? Herein is our focus for this glorious morning. So we see in the third place, and most important of all,
3. The Significance of the Message
This significance is established in the opening sentence of the chapter. "After the Sabbath, at dawn." In the King James - "Just before the dawn" This is a significant statement and we should halt here for a moment. It speaks of the promise of a new day. "Before the dawn. The last sentence of the last chapter ends so dismally with the words "So they posted a guard." It was the end of the story. All that remained was for the body to decay, and with it all of the memories of those three awesome years. But the next sentence. "Just before dawn." Those are the darkest hours, but with them come the promise of a new day. The brightest hope was to be born in a few hours. A new covenant would be made between God and man. And when the resurrection of Jesus Christ becomes a reality to us. When He rises in our hearts this is what happens. A new day breaks, and religion changes to relationship. The reasoning of man becomes secondary to the reality of the living Christ in us. We no longer get hung up on the art of worship, as Christ creates in us a heart for worship. A new day begins with the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

There are several truths about this new day contained in the angels message that are relevant to us today.

First, it is:
I. A Day In Which Fear is Neutralized.
"Fear not" v. 5 Those who have placed their faith in the resurrected Christ have nothing to fear! The resurrection takes away all fear. It's interesting that these women are greeted with the same words the shepherds were greeted with at Christ's birth. The birth of Christ and the resurrection of Christ are related! He was born so that He could die and rise again! The Message of Christmas finds its fulfillment in the Message of the Empty Tomb! Christmas is the promise, and Easter is the Proof!

One of the fears that the resurrection of Jesus removes is:
A. The fear of Death's Destruction
1 Cor 15: 42 Paul says, 1) "We are sown perishable. But because of the resurrection we are raised imperishable." We are born into this life as perishable beings. But because of the resurrection we have eternal life. From the moment you receive Jesus Christ into your life, you have victory over death. Your physical body might fail you or fade from you, but your soul will never die. You will be raised, forever to live with Christ in heaven. You become imperishable.

In the resurrection account in Luke's gospel the angel said to the women at the empty tomb, "Why do you seek the living among the dead?" They did not understand, but they soon would. When they realize what he meant they will no longer spend their lives fascinated with death. They will spend the rest of their lives fascinated with life.

A little girl who had to walk through a cemetery on her way home from school was asked if she was afraid. "No" she replied. "I simply cross it to get home." That is what the resurrection has done with death. It has turned it into a harmless pathway on our journey home. As Jesus was resurrected from death, so the resurrection awaits us all. Those who are in Christ will be raised from death to live with Him forever. The fear of death has gone.

The resurrection removes the fear of death because it removes death's power. Hebrews 2:14-15 Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death that is, the devil-- 15and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. "Someone suggested that when Jesus came to the door of the tomb, His first step on resurrection soil caused the silence of the first Easter morning to be broken by the muffled crunch of a serpent's skull." I like that. The devil no longer has power over death. He is a defeated foe. He may be alive but he is not well. He is mortally wounded. Paul says in the later verses, "Death, where is your sting? Grave, where is your victory." In Christ, the greatest and the lowliest have the assurance that death is no longer victor because of the resurrection of Christ.

Goethe, the great philosopher and writer whispered his famous last words, "Mehr Licht, Mehr Licht" "More light, more light." As he slipped into eternal darkness. Jesus Christ in His resurrection became the light that shines in the darkness of death. The resurrection removes the fear of death's destruction.

It also removes:

B. The Fear of Sin's Dominion.
Christ's resurrection takes away the STING of death and it takes away the SOURCE of death: James 1:14-15 "but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. 15Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death." Rom 6:23a.

Why does man die? Because of SIN. Sin is the source of death but because of Christ's victory at Calvary, my sin has been removed: 1 Peter 2:24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree. 2 Cor. 5:21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, 1 John 2:2 He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world. Romans 8:3 God sent his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man" In order to have eternal life, I must place my faith in the finished work of Jesus! The resurrection of Jesus Christ removes the fear of sin's dominion. Through the new nature that I have through Jesus Christ, sin loses it's power. Temptation no longer ends in death because He has provided a way of escape according to 1 Cor. 10:13 No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.

So we see that it removes the fear of Deaths destruction. It removes the fear of Sin's dominion: Notice again that the resurrection of Jesus Christ removes:
C. The fear of Life's Dilemmas
1 Cor. 15:43 Paul says that apart from the resurrection power of Jesus Christ, we are sown in weakness. But through the resurrection we are raised in power. We are born weak with no power to overcome the many obstacles that we face in life. But the Bible says that all power is given unto those who believe. Though we were dead, yet shall we live.

Many people today are afraid of life. They are afraid of what tomorrow holds for them. They are so wrapped up in the things of this world, so dependent on material things, that they have no joy in living. Because Jesus is alive, those who are genuinely seeking Him can face each day with calm assurance. The Bible says these women went away from the tomb with "great joy", a great calm and assurance that everything is going to be all right. For those who know Jesus, life is not dependent on the stock market, employment or economics. Life is worth living because Jesus is our Life! You see, the message of Easter is not that there is no death. It is not that God won't let you or your loved ones die. The message of Easter is not that faith is easy. The message of Easter is this. That above the greatest storms of your soul, one word is forever etched in the heavens. The word "Nevertheless" Nevertheless says that when it's all gone wrong, that is not the final word. Listen. The most important thing we can learn today is this. Easter is not great for us because it makes us feel good, with all it's pageants and singing and beautiful new dresses and new bonnets, and the music and the sunshine and the birds and the flowers and the baskets full of chocolate eggs. Easter is great because it is God's great nevertheless in a life full of uncertainty. And we need that hope this morning and every morning. Easter gives us the promise of a new day. A day in which Fear is neutralized. It is also the promise of a day in which:
II. A Day in Which Faith is Personalized
"come, see" v. 6 The Resurrection of Jesus Christ Must be personally experienced. The Angel invited these women to see for themselves that Jesus was alive.
You must experience the Resurrection for yourself. It cannot be experienced for you. The faith of the women in the resurrection was not enough for the disciples; the disciples had to see for themselves that Jesus was alive. The experience, if valid, will change your life 2 Cor. 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!

There is much talk today of experiential faith. The faith that must be experienced through all kinds of outward manifestations. There are those who say that for one to truly have experienced the resurrection power of the Spirit in our lives we must speak in tongues. There are others that say you have to feel good and laugh your head off. The most important experience we need is the experience of truth. You don't have to speak in tongues. You don't have to seek any outward manifestation to prove your experience. Don't let anybody put that bondage on you. But you must experience the reality of the resurrected Christ! The Resurrection is a truth that can be experienced. It is not some dry point of ancient theology. It is a relevant truth that will change your life. It must move from a head knowledge and travel that 18" down to your heart. There are some in this congregation who desperately need to experience that reality today.

Jesus says, "Come unto me all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. He did not say come unto me so that I can give you some more bondage. So that I can give you a new load of rules that you must live by. He calls us to come to Him and experience His life empowered by His resurrected strength in us. This is a new day. A day in which death is neutralized, Faith is personalized and lastly, notice that it is a day in which:

III. Followers Are Mobilized.
v. 7, 10 "go quickly, and tell" This is the responsibility of every person who has met the resurrected Christ. Those of us who claim to be followers of the Resurrected Christ ought to be excited, just as these women were, about telling what we know! He's alive! And He lives within my heart! And He wants to live in the heart of every person who will by faith receive Him! Too often, I believe, our experiences with Christ are just empty ritual. They have no real impact on how we behave or how we live. The resurrection of Jesus changed the lives of those early followers of Jesus. It gave them boldness; it removed their fear. They were not afraid or ashamed to tell others that "He's alive"! Are we doing the same?

May it be different this Easter. My it be different this month. May we leave this place so moved by the reality of the resurrection of Christ that we will be compelled to go and tell. May our response to what Christ has dome for us be as that of Paul's 2 Cor. 5:14-15 For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. 20 We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 6:1As God's fellow workers we urge you not to receive God's grace in vain. 2For he says, "In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you."

I tell you, now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation.