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“God Isn’t Dead – Death Is!”
St. John’s – East Moline
Mk. 16:1-8
04/08/12
Intro.: What a thrilling experience to again join the whole Christian Church in heaven and on earth to
celebrate Christ’s resurrection victory! Everything, the music, the singing, the atmosphere, is so upbeat! It is
so wonderful to proclaim that Easter greeting: “Christ is rise! He is risen indeed, Alleluia!” Yet, apart from
this day our lives often reflect the spirit of those women who went to the tomb early that first Easter morning.
They went thinking that Jesus was dead – that their Lord, their Savior, their God was dead.
The story is told of something that Martin Luther’s wife, Katherine, did when he was moping around
because of a problem he was facing. She came into his study wearing a black mourning cloth. When Luther
asked who had died she replied, “The way you have been acting I thought God had.” The joyful message of
this day is that “God Isn’t Dead – Death Is!”
I. Our “God Is Dead” Attitude Leads To Death.
A. Unfortunately there are many who have never heard this message and still more who have heard it and
forgotten it and what it means for their lives now and in eternity. Most people, and to some degree many of
you who are here this morning, think of and deal with God as if He were dead.
1. Many years ago humanists, convinced of the unconquerable spirit of modernity, launched a full scale
attack against faith with the “God is dead” movement. Perhaps we don’t see it in the headlines these days
because the vast majority has already accepted its conclusions.
People look at the mess in the world around them - things like wars, natural disasters, and human atrocities
that kill and meme, things like crime, environmental destruction, and hatred and discord in human
relationships at every level, and they conclude that God must not be around.
People observe that the churches are emptying, traditional faith and religion are not a big part of people’s
lives, God is forgotten and no longer plays a central role in our society and yet we continue to be progressing
just fine without Him. He just does not seem to matter and so God is dead to them.
2. This is nothing new. Even Adam and Eve treated God as a non-factor in their lives when they chose to eat
of the forbidden fruit and brought sin and death into the world and upon themselves and all of us. That is
what happens when we think of and deal with God as if He were dead – sin and death come upon us.
3. Church people are not immune to this “God is Dead” way of thinking and living. In fact it may be the
predominant philosophy that governs most of our days. Why? Well, someone once summarized: “We’re too
busy to care about God.” Think about that for a moment. Doesn’t it ring true? We are so busy using or
seeking material gains and temporal pleasures. We are consumed by worries over our marriages, our children,
our jobs, our bills, the economy, and so many other things. Our minds are occupied with saving for the future
and planning for our dream retirement. With so much going on we are too busy to care about God and so
most of the time He is dead to us.
B. Sadly, when we allow such “God Is Dead” thinking to overshadow Easter and Christ’s resurrection it leaves
us, well...dead.
1. In our Gospel the women went to the tomb thinking that Jesus, their Lord and God was dead, but after
learning about Christ’s resurrection their lives were changed. They had a mission – go and tell others about
His resurrection. They had a glorious hope – you will see Him just as He told you. And so they fled from the
empty tomb, trembling, astonished and exhilarated. The Good News that Jesus was alive and that God was
alive to them made them alive again!
2. Why, after celebrating so many Easters do our lives seem to lack such change? Why have we not taken up
that mission of telling others about Christ’s resurrection and directing them to our Living God? Why do we
continue to live as if we are in mourning over the problems and disappointments of daily life instead of setting
our eyes on things above and living in the joyous hope of seeing Christ? It is because unlike the women who
left the empty tomb that first Easter, we have walked out these doors and gone back to living our lives as if
God were dead to us. Our lives lack meaning and hope. We do not cling to God’s promises in times of trouble,
but plow through life following our own ways and standards. In short, when it comes down to daily life, we
think like the unbelieving world: “God is dead!”
3. Living and thinking this way, as if God were dead, leaves us as all people once were - spiritually dead.
Scripture teaches us that the wage of sin is death and that apart from the risen Christ we are all dead in our
trespasses and sins. If we allow ourselves to live as if God is dead and Christ is not raised and working in us by
the Holy Spirit then we have no hope. All that lies ahead for us is the inevitability of physical death and a
fearful judgment at the hands of the One we considered dead to us.
Transition: How different is life, now and for eternity, when we embrace and share in the resurrection victory
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! What a blessing it is to know that we have a Living God and to be able to
proclaim “Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed. Alleluia!” Rather than a hopeless life of weeping, mourning and
death...
II. A Christ Is Risen Attitude Destroys Death.
A. By His resurrection Christ has, even now – already, given us victory over the spiritual death that sin brings
to everyone.
1. To accomplish this for us God, through His Son, died and WAS truly dead. Over the many weeks of our
Lenten preparation, culminating in the events of Holy Week, we remembered and proclaimed our LORD’s
death for us. It was not just the death of a poor, unfortunate man. It was God, in Christ, who was betrayed,
condemned, suffered, was crucified, died and was buried for us. God was on that cross! God died! God was
dumped into that tomb! He did this as scripture teaches, so that “through death he might destroy the one
who has the power of death, that is, the devil” (Heb. 2:14)
2. Christ’s resurrection is our assurance that even though He died for us, God is not dead, but alive and living
and life giving! The empty tomb and the announcement that Christ has risen, just as he said, is God’s seal of
approval on the sacrifice that He offered. As the apostle wrote, “..[He] raised from the dead Jesus our Lord,
who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. (Rom. 5:24b-25) That empty tomb
confirms that death and the power of the devil to accuse and control us has been destroyed.
3. Our faith in Christ’s sacrifice and resurrection give us a new spiritual life, right now. Even before He died
and rose again Jesus said, “as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to
whom he will. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal
life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is
coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.
(Jn. 5:21,24-25)
You have heard Christ’s word. You believe that Christ died and rose again for your forgiveness. That means
that you will not face judgment, but have an eternal spiritual life now. Once you were spiritually dead in
trespasses and sins, but now you have heard the voice of God’s Son and live, as the apostle writes “because of
the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, [God] made us alive
together with Christ – by grace you have been saved.” (Eph. 2:5)
For most of us our new, spiritual life, with the Living God began at our baptism. In his letter to the Romans
Paul wrote: We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was
raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. (Rom 6:4) Sharing in
Christ’s death and resurrection we are empowered to live our lives on a different level and in a new way.
Made spiritually alive with Christ we confess that God is not dead. Christ lives in us and the lives we live we
now live by the Spirit and for Him. We live in the joy of our salvation with the same mission and the same
hope as those women who left the empty tomb that first Easter morning, because...
B. Christ’s resurrection not only gives us a new, spiritual life now, but it assures us of our own resurrection to
glory when we see Him again.
1. Jesus promised that through faith we would all share in His resurrection and glory. After telling his disciples
about the eternal spiritual life He give to those who hear Him, Jesus said, “an hour is coming when all who
are in the tombs will hear [the voice of the Son of Man] and come out (Jn 5:28b-29a) On the night He was
betrayed, He also told his disciples, “Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me.
Because I live, you also will live. (Jn. 14:19) Because I live, you will live also! What a glorious promise. We do
not live like the “God is dead” people, without hope and with nothing but the fear of death and impending
judgment hanging over us.
2. We are Christ is risen people who say with Peter: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!
According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of
Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven
for you... (1 Pet. 1:3-4) We know that Christ has fulfilled the words of the prophet. He has swallowed up
death and wiped away our tears. We are certain that Christ has destroyed that horrible enemy, death, for us.
So we have a new and living hope through His resurrection. And in this hope we live in joyful expectation of a
resurrection to glory and of sharing in Christ’s heavenly inheritance.
3. We can all leave here this morning with the same excitement of those women who were looking forward
to seeing Jesus. Filled with joy and hope we know that the fulfillment of Christ’s promise and of our
resurrection to glory is just waiting to be fulfilled. We are looking forward to the day of our resurrection:
“When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality” and “Death is
swallowed up in victory.” Then we will taunt our defeated enemy, saying, "O death, where is your victory? O
death, where is your sting?" The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God,
who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Cor. 15:54-57) This is the new life and new hope we
have been given.
Concl: Today, is your day of victory! God is not dead – death is, because Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed!
Alleluia!