Grace, mercy and peace through Jesus Christ whose victory over the grave we celebrate this day. Amen.

John 19:30 When he had received the drink, Jesus said, "It is finished." With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

Lord of life and death, at Your chosen time You sent Your only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to carry our sin to the tree of the cross, and then on the third day You raised Him from the dead. For this we give You thanks and praise saying, This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. Amen.

Did you ever notice how some things we say have to be punctuated with an exclamation point? For example, "It’s a girl!" "It’s a boy!" Or how about this? "I just saw my doctor. He doesn’t know how, but my cancer is gone! Completely gone!" Or even this? "I bought a lottery ticket and won a million dollars!" I don’t see how you could say any of those things in a cold, bored monotone. "It’s another girl." "Yeah, I won some money, but now I have to pay monster taxes." "My cancer is gone. Ho-hum."

On Good Friday, just before he died, Jesus said, "It is finished." By that, Jesus meant he had finished his work as Savior of the world. He had "paid in full" for your sins and mine. If ever there are words that deserve to be punctuated with an exclamation point, they are the words "It is finished." But that hardly seemed to be the case when Jesus first spoke them. With darkness covering the land like a death shroud from noon to three? On Golgotha, a place perhaps littered with the skulls and bones of past executions? Moments before our Savior bowed his head and gave up his spirit?

Yet the exclamation point did come! Three days later! With an earthquake! A rolled away stone! Angelic messengers! From the very place where Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus had laid the lifeless body of their master. The exclamation point for our Christian faith came on Easter morning. Can you hear it? Jesus’ empty tomb shouts, "It is finished!" It is finished – our sins have been paid in full. It is finished – our eternity in heaven is guaranteed.

Some years back, I remember watching a television movie about Jesus. I don’t remember its title. I don’t even remember its content. All I remember is the ending. Jesus on the cross. Darkness over the land. Our Savior in agony. And then the screen faded to black. The movie was over.

First I was shocked. Then I was angry. I screamed at the television set. I wanted to throw it out the window. I felt cheated, because I knew there was more to Christ’s story. There was Easter. There was the empty tomb.

But what if Jesus’ story had ended on Good Friday? What if there were no empty tomb? Wouldn’t you and I be plagued by a lot of nagging questions? Questions like "Did the Father really accept Jesus’ payment for my sins?" "Was Jesus really the Son of God?" "Do I really have a living Savior who will come back one day to take me home to heaven?"

Nagging questions? No, much worse. If there were no empty tomb, then you and I would have a God who doesn’t keep his promises. Like the promise in Job 19:25 where Job professes: "I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes-- I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!" But, if Christ has not been raised, then what did Job hope to see – a dead Savior?

Or what about Psalm 16? "I have set the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure, because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay." (v8-10) Another prophecy. This one we believe contains the confident prayer of our Savior Jesus. But, if Christ has not been raised, was this nothing more than a bit of prophetic whistling in the dark?

Jesus himself said, "Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days." (John 2:19) If Jesus has not been raised, was this nothing but a boast? Was he just a maniac with delusions of grandeur?

More than once, our Savior told his disciples, "The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days he will rise." (Mark 9:31) What’s up with that? If Christ has not been raised, was the master just trying to shield his students from the truth?

What if there were no empty tomb? The apostle Paul came to this inspired conclusion: "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." (1 Corinthians 15:14,17) In other words, without the exclamation point provided by Easter, our Christian faith falls like a house of cards. If Christ is dead, there is no forgiveness, no resurrection and certainly no salvation. Without the empty tomb, Jesus’ word, "It is finished" is nothing but a whisper. Maybe even a whimper. If there is no empty tomb, maybe all Jesus meant was, "My life is over. My hopes and dreams are finished. I have lost." Then we would have to be "pitied more than all men." (1 Corinthians 15:19) Because then we’d be living a lie.

But, thank God, Jesus’ story didn’t end on Good Friday! All the eyewitnesses agree. There was an earthquake. A rolled-away stone. Angels. There was an empty tomb that stamped an exclamation point on Jesus’ Good Friday words "It is finished!" On Easter morning, Jesus Christ, the carpenter’s son, was once and for all "declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead. (Romans 1:4)

On Good Friday, Jesus Christ said he had paid in full. On Easter morning, the Father issued us a receipt for the payment of his Son. That’s what Paul is getting at when he assures us, "He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification." (Romans 4:25) Jesus’ empty tomb shouts that our sins have been paid for in full! And it shouts, our eternity in heaven is guaranteed.

An American on vacation in Mexico was strolling outside his hotel in Acapulco, enjoying the sunny, warm Mexican weather. Suddenly, his attention was seized by the screams of a woman kneeling frantically in front of a child, and by the now gathering crowd of natives and tourists. The man knew enough Spanish to determine that the child had swallowed a coin. Rushing into the circle of people, the man without thinking grabbed the child by the heels, held him upside down and shook him violently. After about a minute, an American quarter dropped from the child’s mouth and rolled down the sidewalk.

The woman who had been screaming, obviously the boy’s mother, was overcome with gratitude. In the best English she could muster she said, "Oh, muchas gracias, senor!" "You seemed to know just how to get it out of him. Are you a doctora?" "No, senora," the man replied sheepishly, staring down at the pavement, "actually, I work for the Internal Revenue Service."

According to the old saying, the only two constants in this life are death and taxes. But we would be well advised to question the truth of that statement. You see, two thousand years ago a Jewish carpenter from Nazareth was crucified by the Romans for treason. His body was wrapped in a linen shroud and placed in the borrowed tomb of a friend. The tomb was sealed, and soldiers of the emperor were placed to guard the entrance to prevent his corpse from being stolen. And three days later, this Jewish carpenter from Nazareth, Jesus, son of Mary, and Son of God, was resurrected from the dead. If that story is true, and I am telling you it is, then maybe death isn’t what it used to be. If this man came back from the dead, maybe He has the power to bring others back from the dead. Maybe, since one man wrestled with death and defeated it, death has been de-clawed and de-fanged. Maybe, death is dead. Maybe the only constant left in life is taxes. Imagine that.

This is what the empty tomb shouts to us: "Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive." (1 Corinthians 15:20-22)

This is what the empty tomb shouts to us: "Because I live, you also will live." (John 14:19) Jesus’ promise is guaranteed.

This is what the empty tomb shouts to us: "I know that my Redeemer lives; What comfort this sweet sentence gives! He lives, he lives, who was once was dead; He lives, my ever-living Head!" The victory chant of Job can be our own. We can shout it! We can sing it!

This is what the empty tomb shouts to us: "It is finished!" Hold that confidence in your head and heart the next time you sit in a funeral home, shoulders slumped, handkerchief in hand, staring at the open casket of your loved one. If Satan uses that casket to whisper his lies, "Your loved one is gone. You’ll never see him again," send the devil packing with the confident confession of St. Paul: "We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. … We will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words." (1 Thessalonians 4:14,17,18) If at the graveside doubt and fear well up when the pastor sprinkles sand on the casket and says, "Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust," roll the doubt and fear away from your heart. Let them lie next to the stone rolled away from Jesus’ tomb.

"It is finished!" It wasn’t just the empty tomb that shouted this message that first Easter morning! Angels shouted it, when they told the women who came to pay their last respects, "Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen!" (Luke 24:5,6) The gospel writer Matthew tells us there were believers raised on Good Friday who came into the city after Jesus’ resurrection. They "appeared to many people." (Matthew 27:53). I’m guessing their appearance alone added quite an exclamation point to Jesus’ work.

Jesus himself added an exclamation point to his work when he appeared to Mary, to the women, to Peter, to the Emmaus disciples, to the Twelve, to the five hundred, to James, and later to Paul. Every time our Lord shared the greeting "Peace be with you," his words from the cross shouted once more. With strong faith in Christ’s resurrection, Christ’s countless followers through the centuries were ridiculed, persecuted, put in prison, beheaded, set on fire, stoned and shot to death. The pain was immediate. The eternal glory was everlasting! All exclamation points to Jesus’ work.

Now it’s our turn. We can sing and shout, "It is finished!" Now it’s our turn. We can believe and proclaim, "It is finished!" Now it’s our turn. We can live lives that exclaim, "It is finished!" Amen.

Paul gives us this resurrection exclamation: Thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ! Amen. (1 Corinthians 15:57)