04/05/2026
Here is Pastor Joel’s sermon for today. For an unknown reason, the video cut out during the sermon.
Easter Sermon 2026 “Do Not Be Afraid – He Goes Ahead of You”
This week, once again, we come to the tomb and see the Lord.
We also have an historic moment this week: for the first time in my lifetime — and in the lifetime of many of you — we are sending a group of people to orbit around the moon.
Yesterday, while I was finishing up this sermon and putting everything together, I opened social media and saw these beautiful pictures of the earth from afar. Some were a little faded, others stunningly clear — showing the oceans, the curvature of the planet, the majesty of our home as others have seen it with their own eyes and captured through digital photography far more advanced than anything we had fifty years ago.
As I looked at those photos, I was reminded of a sermon I preached a few weeks ago about seeing the world right-side up — how the way we orient ourselves affects everything we see. Viewing the earth from afar awakens in me both awe and wonder, and a deep realization of my own smallness. It’s so easy to get caught up in the fear and trembling of this world.
The women were going to the tomb that first Easter morning not in awe and wonder — they were going frightened, not knowing what was next. And there, they had an encounter with the risen Lord.
Let me say that again: they had an encounter with the risen Lord.
As they approached the tomb in their grief, the earth shook. The foundations of the world were changing. There was a rumbling — an eruption of something new breaking free from the tomb. The ground shook, a fault line shifted, and the guards fell as though they were dead. The stone was rolled away.
This isn’t something people were joking about. They were already terrified, and then they saw what God is able to do. My God — I probably would have been running or lying on the ground trying to figure out what in the world had just happened.
That is the power of the resurrection. It shakes everything at its core. It makes us see the world anew. In that moment, it breaks us open into awe and wonder.
Coming from afar, the tomb is the place we historically go to remember. We decorate graves. We honor the dead. We remember deaths that seemed to have the final say.
But that is not the truth.
I remember the truth: Christ has been crucified. The text is very clear on that. Christ has been crucified —present perfect tense. That is important because it means the crucifixion started in the past and it has not stopped. If you want to understand where Christ is being crucified today, go look at the pain, the suffering, and the difficulties in the world. They are there — and Christ is there with them.
And in that presence, there is the glimmer — the beginning — of hope. The grave most definitely does not have the final say.
The resurrection brings this reality into our lives because Christ has been crucified — and yet the text also says He is not here, for He was raised. The resurrection is complete. That is a powerful message to hear.
In this pain and suffering that is still happening, Christ is there with them — in His completed resurrection — demonstrating love and offering us ways to hear the call to help those who are struggling in fear and trembling.
We have seen the joy of the risen Lord. Christ is here. Let that joy arise in us.
Here at the tomb we see how the cross changes everything. The tomb is open. Christ is called forth from the grave. He is not there — because He has already gone on ahead.
Even with that sealed tomb, Jesus found a way out. Nothing was going to shut Him in. And God didn’t just quietly adjust this reality — the earth shook. What seemed sealed was broken open. He is not there.
The resurrection reorders reality. Rather than just comforting us, it changes who we are. We are called to follow in the way of the cross, out into the world, knowing that Christ is still going there — to the crucified places of the world — now in His resurrected form.
The tomb isn’t a prison. It was just a place of darkness.
As I think of darkness, I’m reminded of being in caves — deep inside, where you can turn off all the lights and experience pitch-black. It’s a very interesting place to be. And yet, the Light of the World emerges from a cave.
Jesus, who has been crucified — He is not here, for He was raised.
The good news is: the light shines into the darkness. When the tomb opens and it is empty — where we would think in our lives to go look for Christ — sometimes Christ is not there in the places we expect.
But we do know this: when we see people who are being crucified — suffering terror and pain in the world — Christ is there. And the body of Christ which we are is called out into the world to meet Him in those places — to be Him in those places.
The finality of death is broken. It is not the end. Life is given anew.
Christ appears in His body, in a new form. And the hard truth is, even with the joy of the resurrection which gives us so much hope, we can still see the same pain and suffering around us. We can still be left with fear and wondering — wondering where Christ is going, where Christ is going to meet us, like He met the disciples.
We realize that forgiveness is complete on the cross. We remember those words: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they are doing.” They didn’t know not to go to the tomb. They didn’t know that Christ was going ahead of them.
This is what they always do when someone dies — you go to the tomb. But something new is happening.
It’s like seeing the world from afar again — but yet it’s like the first time. The grief is met with joy. Lament turns into a transformative experience of being with the Lord.
In this story, Jesus meets them in their fear, their wondering, their terror — all of it. And this is the beginning of revealing the way of the resurrected life.
It starts with some words that Jesus says so many times, and the angels say so many times. When we hear them, I want you to hear them like you’re hearing them for the first time:
“Do not be afraid. Go and tell my siblings to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.”
Fear isn’t eliminated. Yet we see a new option. When people are afraid, two things usually happen: fight or flight. You want to fight — like we saw in the garden. You want to flee — like we saw on Good Friday.
But Jesus offers another way. It’s called presence.
Christ’s presence is given when He says He will go ahead of you. What doesn’t happen here is that Christ doesn’t walk with them on the road. They’re told to go to Galilee, and He goes ahead of them. Trust that Christ is guiding them on the way.
That is such a powerful message. He doesn’t say, “Why were you not there?” He doesn’t shame them. The forgiveness is real. And now He’s still offering them a chance to be in His presence.
So when we have our fears — the things we are afraid of and terrified by right now — we are told that Christ’s presence is going ahead of us.
Think of a pitch-black cave with no direction to get out, knowing that Christ will help us out and shine the light on us.
How do we respond in faith to this presence today?
The resurrection is complete. The world still bears a cross. And Christ has come out of the darkness — meeting us where we are, guiding us with His love and forgiveness.
See, this story is not just theirs alone. It’s ours.
Christ is still wanting to meet us in places today as we go out from here — as He goes ahead of us, as He finds the place where we are going.
We live in this “already but not yet” state, knowing that death and darkness are not the end. We can embrace the forgiveness offered to us on the cross.
That moment began the shaking of the foundations of the earth — and it continues with the resurrection. As Christ goes before us, His love and forgiveness, His presence in our lives, shakes the foundations of the earth and moves us out of fear toward joy — even though fear may still be present.
So I leave you with this:
We typically say, “He is risen! He is risen indeed! Hallelujah!” — and those are beautiful words.
But today I say this, as Jesus said to those women:
“Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers and sisters: Go to Galilee. I am going ahead of you. And there they will see me.”
Where will Christ meet you in your life? Where has Christ already gone ahead of you to call you there?
That is the way.
