Jesus rose from the dead, and defeated the power of death forever. He did not do this in one moment of time, with all the effects of His work immediately evident, but the central thing was done at that one moment of time. His resurrection was the first fruits of what will be a glorious and cosmic harvest. Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, what God has prepared for us. Imagine as much glory as you are capable of imagining, and then multiply that by a thousand. And then after that, confess your inadequate grasp of His goodness toward us who believe.
We may get an inkling of what God is preparing for us in the nature of the resurrection of Jesus. His body cannot die again. Death is the enemy that has been defeated. His body is glorious. No longer will we have to struggle with the ignoble contrasts of mundane and eternal. No sickness, no trouble, no turmoil, and every tear will be wiped away.
In Christ Jesus, there is no loss of loved ones. Those who have gone before you in Christ are waiting for you there. Those who will come after you will be longing to see you again. In Christ the dead are raised. But this is only true because Christ Himself was raised. If He was not raised from the dead, then we of all men are most to be pitied.
This day, and our weekly commemoration of this same event—the reversal and humiliation of death—declare the gospel to the unbelieving world. Our unbelieving neighbors are walking in death, living in death, and they are without God and without hope in the world. But this is not because hope is absent—hope has invaded human history, and forced it to turn around. We are given the glorious task of pointing out what has happened. In preaching the gospel the way we do, we are not making it happen. Rather, we are explaining what has happened, and what cannot be undone. In order to undo what has happened Christ would have to die, but death no longer has mastery over Him.