Why Do You Seek the Living Among the Dead

In one paragraph

This Easter message walked through the resurrection narrative in Luke 24 and the opening of Acts, tracing the story from the empty tomb through the ascension. The pastor tied the morning's baptism directly into the text, showing how Fox's decision to be baptized on Easter echoed Paul's words in Romans 6 about burial and resurrection. The whole sermon kept returning to one word: witnesses. The...

Read together

1. Romans 8:11 The spirit of God who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, quoted to the congregation as good news
2. Romans 6:4-5 Baptism as a model of Christ's burial and resurrection, cited to explain why Fox's baptism on Easter was fitting
3. Luke 23 Identified the women who had come with Jesus from Galilee and followed after the crucifixion
4. Luke 24:13 Beginning of the road to Emmaus narrative, two disciples walking to Emmaus that same Sunday
5. Matthew 28:19-20 The great commission, cited because Fox named verse 20 as her favorite verse at her baptism
6. Matthew 16:21 Jesus began to tell his disciples it was necessary for him to go to Jerusalem, suffer, be killed and raised
7. Deuteronomy 18 Moses said to look for a prophet like him, cited as one of the scriptures Jesus would have pointed to on the road to Emmaus
8. 1 Corinthians 15 Recommended to the congregation as a passage about resurrection, noted as something he would have preached if not preaching Luke 24
9. Acts 1:1-11 Luke's second volume to Theophilus covering the ascension, the promise of the Holy Spirit, and the command to be witnesses

Talk about it

1. Pastor Carl mentioned that the women prepared spices and returned to the tomb even while grieving, doing what they knew to do. When have you kept on with faithful obedience during a season when your hope felt crushed, and what did that look like?
2. The messengers at the tomb asked, 'Why do you seek the living among the dead?' Where in your own life might you be looking for hope or answers in a place that cannot hold them?
3. On the road to Emmaus, the two disciples were walking and talking together when Jesus drew near to them. What does that tell you about what it looks like to be in a place where Jesus shows up?
4. The disciples on the road said, 'We had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel,' and then described how that hope had collapsed. Have you ever had a hope in God that did not look the way you expected it to? How did you work through that?
5. The pastor described being a witness as sharing what you have seen and experienced, not going beyond that. What is one thing you have actually seen or experienced of Jesus that you could share with someone who asked?