Evidence of Eternal Life

This sermon was preached for Easter Sunday by Pastor Ted Carnahan on April 5, 2026.

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Grace, mercy, and peace be with all of you, from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

I really love St. John's telling of the Easter story, especially because of the small details.

Now, St. John and St. Peter are not actually siblings, but they've spent a lot of time together over the past three years of Jesus' earthly ministry. So they're not siblings, but their relationship to each other is sort of like a sibling rivalry.

Now, I don't have siblings myself. (Don't look at me like that.) But I'm told that such competition can be quite intense. Not that my own four children ever have any sibling rivalry. No, they are perfect angels who never compete or disagree, and they never do anything wrong!

The Foot Race

But when John is writing down his gospel toward the end of his life, he makes sure to include a couple of details that are extremely important to him and probably nobody else.

Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first.

This is funny to me for a lot of reasons. First of all, because it was not actually a foot race. Second of all, because John at this point may be as old as 90 years old. And in his very old age, he still wants to boast just a little bit. I was there first! I outran St. Peter. I was the first of the men to get to the tomb.

And lest you missed the point that he's making, he's really hung up on this thing because he makes sure that you see it again just a little bit later. A couple of verses later, he writes:

Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed

John is in the habit of referring to himself in his gospel as the "other disciple" or "the disciple whom Jesus loved." And what he's doing here is actually intended to be a sign of humility. He's trying not to build himself up. He doesn't want this to be about him at all. And so he doesn't mention his own name, but rather instead he mentions only stories about Christ.

But at the same time, he won that race! And Peter knows he won that race. And by the way, neener, neener, neener! It was important to him that he was one of the first men to reach the tomb because what happened in that tomb was incredibly important to him.

The Infinite Importance

It wasn't just incredibly important to him. Actually, what happened in that tomb on Easter is the most important thing that has ever happened.

In fact, C.S. Lewis, the famous author of the Chronicles of Narnia, but also of so many other Christian books about Christian life, once wrote this:

"Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important."

The claim made by the church about Jesus, what Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and John (especially here today) is that Jesus Christ was dead and now he is alive. He was buried in a tomb, but he has come back to life and lives and reigns, not just then, but even now today at this very moment.

And that claim is shocking and important. And not only is it shocking and important, but it's either true or it's false. It's either correct or it's incorrect. It either happened or it didn't.

Evidence of Christ's Death and Resurrection

The scriptures are filled with evidence for the reality of Christ's death.

• The accurate portrayal of the brutality of the torture of Jesus before he was sent to his cross.
• The blood and water that poured from his pierced side after his death.
• And many more that I don't have time to recount for you this morning.

But you can look through the Bible and the stories that Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John tell based on eyewitness accounts or in some cases as actual eyewitnesses that were there to see these things happen. There is no doubt that Jesus Christ was a real person and he really did die on a Roman cross.

But for the evidence of the raising of Christ, we have to think elsewhere. Because I guess it could be some idle story. It could be some tale to manipulate or to control.

But out of all the original disciples — except for St. John, who wrote down this gospel for us today — who chose to go and share the good news about Jesus for the entire known world, they set out from that place and they put themselves in harm's way under extremely difficult circumstances, sometimes preaching to hostile crowds, oftentimes whipped and beaten and arrested. And all of the eleven other disciples of Jesus died brutal deaths.

Who would die for a lie? Who would be willing to travel the world, suffer, and be killed for something they knew wasn't true? No one would!

But then we look for other evidence, like the difference that God has made in the lives of those who both believe that this is true and then live according to that truth. And we find many millions, many hundreds of millions of people who, trusting in the promise that God has given in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, have been transformed and have lived lives of sacrifice and grace and truth and love.

And we start to find that there is something deep and abiding and real about all of this.

Personal Faith and Transformation

It's either true or it's not. But I choose to believe. I choose to have faith that actually it is true. That Jesus Christ really did walk upon this earth, the Son of God made in human flesh.

I choose to believe that He went to a Roman cross, sacrificing all of the glory that He had inside Himself and dying for my sins. And I choose to believe that God, by His power, raised Jesus Christ from the dead.

And if that's true, then so much else changes in the world that we live in. Jesus really was the Son of God? Then if so, His teachings are God's very own word to me.

And if it's true that Jesus really was the Son of God, then I need to read those teachings and then I need to change how I live. I need to become the kind of person that Jesus has called me to be. Somebody like Him. A person of love and sacrifice for the people around me.

And if in fact the Scriptures are true and I have died and been raised with Christ, like St. Paul writes today in Colossians, then my whole life is going to be different. In fact, I want to honor God now and into the future.

And how do we honor our God? We who have been raised with Jesus Christ would do well to follow St. Paul's words. He says:

So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.

So now, those who are saved by the grace of God in Jesus Christ, who truly choose to believe that this amazing story is true and real and that we want to let Jesus Christ change our lives — may you all who have been saved by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, saved from sin, death, and hell, now, rejoice with me and all of His believers.

Rejoice with me and say confidently and boldly: "Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!"

Amen.