He is risen!!
On Easter Sunday at Gateway Church in Austin, we conclude our series on “The In-Between” looking at the Saturday between Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday!
Digging Deeper:
Message Video from Gateway South Austin:
Message Audio at Gateway South Austin:
Message Notes by Carlos Ortiz, Jr.:
This last week we had an Easter reading plan, then we gathered on Good Friday to sit and ponder the work of Jesus on the cross for all of humanity, and we gather today to commemorate and celebrate his powerful resurrection. Let’s read an account from the book of Luke on what took place:
Luke 24:1-8 – On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. 2 They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3 but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4 While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. 5 In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? 6 He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: 7 ‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ ” 8 Then they remembered his words.
And for the last 2000 years people from around the world have proclaimed “He is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!”
But…there is a space we rarely talk about, one that we all know intimately.
It is the space between what we hoped would happen and what actually did.
Between diagnosis and healing.
Between prayer and answer.
Between loss and restoration.
Most of Life is Lived in the In-Between
It is the space of waiting. The in-between. And if we are honest, most of life is lived there.
You may have come in this morning with joy—family, celebration, tradition. Or you may have come carrying something heavier. A question that hasn’t been answered. A grief that hasn’t lifted. A longing that hasn’t been fulfilled.
And here is what Easter says to you:
God does some of His deepest work in the in-between.
On most Easter weekends we often move quickly from Good Friday to Easter Sunday. From the cross… to the empty tomb. From suffering… to celebration. But there is a day in between. A quiet day. A confusing day. A day where nothing seems to happen.
Saturday.
The disciples had watched their hope die. Their Messiah had been crucified.
Their future was uncertain. Their faith was shaken. Saturday is the day where heaven seems silent. And many of us live there.
You prayed, but nothing changed.
You trusted, but things still fell apart.
You believed, but you’re still waiting.
Saturday feels like an absence, a day to lament. But the gospel tells us it was much more than that.
In one of the most mysterious passages in Scripture, we read:
“For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God… He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit. After being made alive, he went and made proclamation to the imprisoned spirits…” (1 Peter 3:18–19)
What does this mean?
At the very least, it means this:
While the world thought Jesus was defeated, He was not passive, but instead he was active. While it looked like darkness had won, Christ was stepping into that very darkness. In the Old Testament, when you died everyone went to Sheol (Hades in the greek). There was a righteous part and an unrighteous part. Jesus declares the Good News to the righteous dead, and leads a victory march on Saturday. All of the evil forces of death and hell are furious realizing their defeat. The enemy no longer has claim over death. Ephesians 4 says this:
8 Therefore it says,
“When he ascended on high he led a host of captives,
and he gave gifts to men.”
9 (In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth?
The ancient church understood this as Christ descending, not as a victim, but as a victor. He was not being conquered. He was conquering. He was announcing to every force of evil, every power of sin, every demonic rebellion:
“You did not win.”
Victory Was Already Unfolding
We tend to think of victory as something that happens at the end.
But the way of following Jesus tells us something far more surprising:
Victory was already happening in the middle.
Paul says in Colossians 2:15:
“And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.”
Notice that. Not the resurrection alone—but the cross itself was already a victory.
The cross looked like defeat. It looked like weakness. It looked like loss, and who wouldn’t think that under the Roman rule and seeing people humiliated by the torture of the cross. Who wouldn’t think that with Jesus receiving whipped lashes all over his body, a crown of thorns driven and twisted into his head. He was forced to carry his own cross down the via dolorosa, and with the help of Simon of Cyrene, all the way up Galgotha’s hill.
Mark 15:
16 The soldiers led Jesus away into the palace and called together the whole company of soldiers. 17 They put a purple robe on him, then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on him. 18 And they began to call out to him, “Hail, king of the Jews!” 19 Again and again they struck him on the head with a staff and spit on him. Falling on their knees, they paid homage to him. 20 And when they had mocked him, they took off the purple robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him out to crucify him.
This kind of mocking and devious behavior is set aside for those who will lose their life.
But in reality, it was the unraveling of evil itself.
From the very beginning, in Genesis 3, there was a promise, a whisper of hope that one day, a descendant would come who would crush the serpent’s head.
And at the cross, that crushing began.
Sin exhausted its power.
Death overplayed its hand.
Evil revealed its own emptiness.
And Jesus, absorbing it all, broke it from the inside.
I found this as I was preparing for Easter, and it has no source but wanted to share it anyway.
The Paradox of the Cross
What looked like the worst thing that could happen
was actually the best thing that could happen.
The cross was not God losing control.
It was God exercising it.
Not God abandoning His plan.
But fulfilling it.
Not God being defeated by evil.
But defeating evil by being defeated.
This is Christus Victor—Christ the Victor.
Not merely forgiving sin, but overthrowing the very powers that enslave us.
Not just offering comfort, but securing victory.
Only in God’s sovereign and all knowing way can a loss look like a victory, and only in God’s power and might can what seems to separate us be the very thing that draws us near.
Now let’s bring this closer. Because many of us may not be asking, “Did Jesus rise from the dead?” We may be asking, “Why is God silent in my life right now?”
Saturday speaks to that. Because Saturday tells us:
God’s silence does not mean God’s absence.
And God’s hiddenness does not mean God’s inactivity.
On Saturday, nothing appeared to be happening. But everything that mattered was happening. And the same may be true in your life. It may be that God is at work in ways you cannot yet see…that something is stirring in-between heaven and earth…on your behalf. The silent day…the dark day of mourning…the day we cannot see what Jesus is doing can feel like the longest day.
And then Sunday came!
Luke 24 tells us:
“On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb… They found the stone rolled away… ‘Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen!’”
Do you see the gentle irony in that question?
“Why do you look for the living among the dead?”
They came expecting a body, but they encountered a living Savior. They came prepared to mourn, but they were invited to hope. Because resurrection does not simply reverse death.
It redefines, it reshapes, it re-envisions reality.
The Resurrection Reshapes Reality
The resurrection is not merely a happy ending to a sad story. I know it’s easier for us to remember the child-like versions of the resurrection, but as we mature, as we grow in Christ we should also grow our understanding, and the power of the resurrection.
We don’t merely say “He is risen! He is risen indeed!” We have eyes to see, ears to hear, that the work of Jesus is the beginning of a whole new world…a new reality!
It means that death is not ultimate. Sin is not final. Evil is not victorious.
It means that what was accomplished in the darkness is now revealed in the light.
The resurrection is God’s declaration:
Hope is not naive. It is justified. Jesus is the light of the world, He has come to not only take on the human condition, but abolish every evil work that intends to separate you and I from the love of God.
This Is A Hope That Cannot Be Taken
Every other kind of hope is fragile.
Hope in your career can be lost.
Hope in relationships can break.
Hope in health can fade.
But the resurrection offers a hope that cannot be taken from you.
Why? Because it is not based on your circumstances. It is based on a historical reality. Jesus Christ walked out of a tomb. And if that is true, then the worst thing is never the last thing.
I know it sounds amazing in theory, but the reality is that the world does not look fully redeemed. There is still suffering. Still injustice. Still grief.
So how do we make sense of that?
The Already/Not Yet
The Bible gives us a framework:
We live in the tension of the already and the not yet.
The kingdom of God has already begun but it has not yet been fully realized. The victory has been won but its fullness is still unfolding.
Which means this:
We are not waiting for victory. We are living from it.
And here is where Easter becomes deeply personal.
Romans 8:10-11 says:
…if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. 11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.
That means the same power that brought life out of death is now at work in you. Not just around you. Not just for you. But in you.
So you are not alone in your waiting. You are not abandoned in your questions. You are not powerless in your struggle. The Spirit of resurrection is present.
Most of us live with a “not yet” mindset.
“I’ll have peace when…”
“I’ll have hope if…”
“I’ll have joy once…”
But Easter invites a shift. From “not yet” to “already.”
Already forgiven. Already loved. Already held. Already filled with resurrection power.
Even if the circumstances haven’t changed, your position, your posture has.
We are called to bring heaven to earth!
And this changes how we live.
If the resurrection is true, then we are not simply waiting for heaven.
We are called to bring glimpses of heaven to earth.
Because the future has already broken into the present, and when we walk in the Spirit’s power of resurrection, we get to be an extension of that work. We are now expected to bring that same hope, that same resurrection power to those around us.
Every act of forgiveness pushes back against sin.
Every act of justice pushes back against evil.
Every act of love pushes back against death.
So what does this mean for you and I today?
It means that whatever in-between you are in is not empty. It is not meaningless. It is not hopeless. Because Jesus has already stepped into the darkest places and come out victorious.
And now He invites you not just to admire that victory but to share in it. Not just to believe in it abstractly but to trust Him personally.
There’s one more in-between that I’d like to address as we close today. An inbetween that every believer in Jesus has had to walk through, that place from believing that Jesus is the son of God and us confessing He is who he says he was, and surrendering our life to His Way.
Romans 10:8-10: “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the message concerning faith that we proclaim: 9 If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.
That word saved literally means “the state of not being in grave danger” when it comes to your heart and soul. We believe that music, teaching and relationships are important, but they are not the way to Christ. We believe that God’s spirit draws you and I, compels us to know Him more, and we then get to decide to accept or reject that pull on our heart. What if today was the day you stopped rejecting it, fighting it, pushing it off to another day? What if today was the day you believed in your heart AND confessed with your mouth that Jesus is Lord? And in that surrender you, along with so many others here will go from death to life!
As we close out this Easter Sunday we want to sing one more song to celebrate the goodness of God, but before we do, let’s pray together with what is called a call and response. I will lead the first part, and you will pray outloud the part that is highlighted for us all to read together. And if today was the first time you said “yes” to Jesus, pray along with us with full confidence.
Pastor:
Risen Jesus, we come before You today
Some of us full of joy,
Some of us carrying sorrow,
All of us standing in the in-between.People:
Lord, meet us here between heaven and earth.Pastor:
On the cross, what looked like defeat
Was the beginning of victory.People:
You have overcome sin and death.Pastor:
In the silence of Saturday,
When hope seemed lost and heaven was quietPeople:
You were still at work.Pastor:
When we cannot see You,
When we do not hear You,
When we are still waitingPeople:
Remind us that You are not absent.Pastor:
On that important Sunday morning,
The stone was rolled away,
And the grave was empty.People:
He is risen! He is risen indeed!Leader:
Because You live,
Death is not the end,
Sin is not final,
And darkness will not win.People:
Our hope is alive in You.Leader:
Teach us to live not for victory—
But from it.People:
Fill us with resurrection power.Leader:
In our waiting, give us faith.
In our sorrow, give us hope.
In our lives, make us signs of Your kingdom.People:
Use us to bring heaven to earth.Leader:
Jesus, You are alive
And because You are alivePeople:
Hope is alive in us.All Together:
Risen King, we trust You in the in-between.
We follow You in faith.
We live in Your victory.
Now and forever.
Amen.
