I Know that My Redeemer Lives

A Sermon for The Resurrection of our Lord - Easter

April 5th, 2026

Alleluia! Christ is risen!

“I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. ²⁶And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, ²⁷whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!”

Job gives one of the most beautiful and comforting confessions of the resurrection in all of Scripture. Death is not the end; death does not have the final say. Our flesh may rot, our bones may lie buried in the dirt for ages, but Jesus lives. We will rise from cruel death to life immortal. All the dead who die in Jesus will hear His voice and will come out of the tombs and live.

We hate death. We should. Our hatred is justified. Death is the greatest and final enemy. Death is cold, it is lonely, it is unknown. You don’t get to come back and tell about the experience. Death is a door breached only once. Death is not natural. We weren’t created to die. God isn’t the author of death; He is the author of life.

We forced our way into death against God’s will. The serpent deceived Eve. Eve listened and took the fruit and ate. She gave to Adam; he took and ate. Sin entered. Creation fell. And with sin came death. Cursed, bloody death.

As that first Easter morning breaks the disciples and the women are only thinking of death. The women are weeping and confused. The men are scared and running and frantic. They are trying to make sense of the morning. They love Jesus. They expected to find His body, dead, but the tomb is empty.

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They should have listened to Jesus. Jesus told them that everything that was written about the Son of Man by the prophets would be accomplished. Jesus said He would be “delivered over to the Gentiles, mocked and shamefully treated, spit upon. And after flogging him, they would kill him, and on the third day He would rise.”

But they didn’t remember or they didn’t believe it. They should have listened to Jesus. They should have remembered Psalm 16: “For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol or let your holy one see corruption.” Our God is a living God. Death cannot contain Him. The Spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. Panic, fear, and doubt assault the mind in the face of death. The fruits of the flesh wage war against the Spirit.

We would have acted the same way. The flesh panics, it’s scared, it doesn’t believe. In the face of death it only sees death. But Jesus is patient. He knows how cruel and evil death is. He knows the fear, confusion and unbelief it brings. He knows the flesh cannot handle the truth. Only eyes of faith opened by the Words of Jesus and the Spirit can bring peace and belief in the midst of death. The women, the men, didn’t understand the Scripture, that Jesus must rise from the dead.

The angel sitting in the empty tomb that morning tells the women, “Do not be alarmed.” Jesus Christ crucified is not dead. He laid His life down, but He is risen. The women go and tell the disciples and Peter. But they don’t believe. Overcome with fear of the Jews who arrested Jesus, they go and hide that evening behind a locked door. This is not faith. This is the flesh. They must learn to live by faith and not trust in the experience of the flesh but only in the Word of God that says Jesus has risen. He lives.

Only faith that looks outside of the flesh, beyond cruel death, to Jesus the resurrected One as the Scriptures proclaim, will find peace. That is true faith. It is the faith of all Christians since the beginning of time. If Christ is not risen from the dead our faith in vain and we are still in our sins. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead. So do not be alarmed.

This is the faith of Adam and Eve. The faith of Job and Abraham. The faith of the women and the disciples. The faith of those we love who have fallen asleep in Jesus. Faith that believes that Jesus was crucified and died but Jesus lives.

The work is finished. Death is killed. God’s wrath is appeased. We have been reconciled through Jesus death on the Cross, the hostility killed. Through His blood we have peace. This is what faith believes. There is hope in nothing else. This is what Job believed. This is why he made the great confession even though he was tormented with horrific personal loss, afflicted physically and scoffed by his wife and friends. Yet he still cried out, “I know that my Redeemer lives!”

This is our confession every day we crawl out of bed and feel the weight of the world and our flesh bearing down upon us. Too heavy to bear. “I know that my Redeemer lives!” This Christian life is a short journey filled with unlimited trials and afflictions, but we believe it ends in paradise with Jesus. Despite what we experience along the way. This world isn’t our home.

But it’s hard because we always find ourselves living in the present moment. And we have to; there is no other option. And the present moment can be so powerful, emotionally, physically. In the moment we are tempted to trust our past experiences that are often not pleasant or helpful. Or we look to the future and only see gloom and darkness. Fear and anxiety create images and doubts that are hard to escape.

In the moment are first reaction is to listen to the inner voice that tells us God is a liar. He didn’t mean what He said. How could Jesus be alive? Run and hide. Listen to the scoffers. Fear the enemy. Only see cruel death. Where is Jesus?

Do not be afraid. Jesus is risen.

Some days we are like those women and disciples on the first Easter morning. We panic. We think the worst. We forget what Jesus has told us. All we want to do is find a dark spot and hide away from everything that afflicts us.

When those days come, and they will, remember Job. He wasn’t able to see Jesus Christ crucified and risen with clarity like we can. And yet Job believed what the flesh could not see or comprehend with faith. God allowed satan to afflict Job with unbelievable loss and heartache. Almost to the point of cursing God. But he didn’t.

God had a plan for Job. It was to strengthen his faith. It was through physical suffering and loss and persecution leading to extreme doubt and anger that God was working His loving will for Job. God didn’t abandon Job. When Job was at his lowest, his wealth was all gone, his children all dead, and his wife told him to curse God and die. Job had nothing in this mortal, broken life left to live for. All he could do was trust that God was good and His Word was true and He would deliver him in the end.¹

“I know that my Redeemer lives!” That’s all Job had left. And if that was true than nothing else mattered. Not the loss of his wealth, his health, his children, or his life. If Jesus actually lives today you have nothing to fear. Not your past, present or future sins. Not the fear of mental anguish, physical sickness, or sudden and evil death. Not the loss of all things.

We have Jesus. And Jesus lives. We have victory through our crucified and risen Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

This was the faith of Job and all the saints since Adam and Eve. This was the faith of the women and the disciples. God brought them through extreme suffering, doubt, fear and affliction. It wasn’t easy, but in the end He delivered them. In the end they all saw that Jesus was risen. God’s Word was true. The tomb was empty because the living are not among the dead. And He took all of them as He will us, through the door of death and into paradise with Jesus.

“I know that my Redeemer lives!” Jesus Christ is crucified and He is risen. This is our confession. It is the reason Good Friday is so good. It opens the door to Easter. So the world can fall apart. You can suffer the loss of all you cherish most, even those you love and even your own life. You have nothing to fear. Because Jesus is not in the tomb. Jesus is risen and we will see Him.

Our desire is to depart this veil of tears and be with Jesus, for that is far better. That is the goal; that is the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. And that day is coming. It is the reason we keep pressing forward always confessing

“I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. ²⁶And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, ²⁷whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!”

Alleluia! Christ is risen! In Jesus name. Amen.