Resurrection Sunday
April 5th 2026

Romans 10:9–13
… if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Resurrection Sunday presents us with two claims, two promises and two conditions.

Claim One - “Jesus is Lord”

The Roman Empire required its citizens to worship the goddess Roma and Kyrios Caesar “Lord Caesar.”

Romans 10:9
if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord…

1 Corinthians 8:6
for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ …

To declare “there is one Lord and his name is Jesus” was to say, “Caesar is not the supreme authority.”

Jews were proudly monotheistic. To call Jesus of Nazareth “Lord” was making him equal with God, considered blasphemy, leading to public condemnation and being cut off from family and social networks.

William Barclay
“If a man called Jesus ‘kyrios’ he was ranking him with the Emperor and with God; he was giving him the supreme place in his life; he was pledging him implicit obedience and reverent worship.”

Claim Two - “God raised Jesus from the dead”

This is the central claim of Christianity - that having been crucified on Friday, early on Sunday Jesus rose bodily from death and walked out of the grave.

It’s the second claim “God raised Jesus from the dead” that explains the first claim, “Jesus is Lord”.

Romans 1:3-4
concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord

Four established facts are agreed upon by the majority of critics and scholars:

1. Jesus death by crucifixion under the sentence of Pontius Pilate.

2. The discovery of Jesus’ empty tomb by a group of his female followers on the Sunday morning after his crucifixion.

3. Various individuals and groups experiencing appearances of Jesus alive after his death.


4. The origin of the earliest disciples’ belief that God had raised Jesus from the dead.

How are the facts best explained?

1. The conspiracy explanation

The disciples stole Jesus’ body out of the tomb and then lied to people about his appearances, so Jesus’ resurrection was a hoax.

But if it’s a hoax, why make up story about women discovering the body? And how come the disciples were willing to die for the claim Jesus rose from the grave? And what triggered the transformation in the disciples, from fearful and hiding to boldly preaching Jesus raised from death?

2. The apparent death explanation

When Jesus was taken down from the cross, he wasn’t really dead, but merely unconscious. Then, he revived in the tomb and managed to convince the disciples he had risen from the dead, despite the fact he’d been scourged, crucified and received no medical attention.

3. The hallucination explanation

The resurrection appearances were mere hallucinations on the disciples part. Sometimes people have visions of recently departed loved ones, and perhaps that’s what happened to the disciples.

But if you were to have a vision of someone recently deceased, that’s not evidence that the person is alive, it’s evidence that they’re dead!

Further, the Bible outlines several post-resurrection appearances, not one time, but multiple times, and not just one location, but a variety of locations, and not just to individuals, but to groups.

4. The eyewitnesses explanation

1 Corinthians 15 contains an early Christian hymn believed to be written within five years of the event.

1 Corinthians 15:3–7
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.

It contains the core details of the Easter account. Even names eyewitnesses, who were still alive at the time Paul wrote. In other words, “If you don’t believe me, go ask them for yourself!”

Even sceptics, James the brother of Jesus and Saul of Tarsus were converted after encounters with the risen Christ.

William Lane Craig
The Christian faith is predicated upon the remarkable claim that a historical person, Jesus of Nazareth, rose from the dead and therefore was, as claimed, God’s Son in a unique sense.

Promise One - We are saved

Because “saved” implies that someone was in peril but has now been rescued. The Bible promises that through faith in Jesus, we’re saved. Of course that implies, apart from Jesus, we’re in peril.

In our prosperity, we’ve forgotten we are spiritual beings. In our materialism, we’ve forgotten about eternal things.

Apart from Jesus, we are spiritually lost, blind and dead. We are sinners on a pathway to wrath, destruction and death. The good news is Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection are a rescue mission by which we can be saved.

Acts 4:12
“And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

John 14:6
“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Promise Two - We are justified

Romans 10:10
For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

Meaning, declared not guilty, righteous, set right with God.

Romans 4:25
He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.

The resurrection is the receipt that proves the price of sin was fully paid on Good Friday.

Romans 10:11-13
For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Condition One - Confess with your mouth ‘Jesus is Lord’

Jesus isn’t looking for hidden fans or secret admirers. When we confess it with our mouth, we’re no longer neutral, and that’s when God’s power is released in our hearts.

Matthew 10:32-33
Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.

Condition Two - Believe in your heart God raised him from the dead.

All God looks for is a heart that believes “God raised him from the dead” because in that confession is everything else that matters.

If he was raised, he must have died. If he died, he must have been a man. If he was a man, he must have been born. When we trust God raised Him from the dead, we trust the entirety of God’s redeeming work.