A Sermon Summary on 2 Cor 5:1-17
By Pastor Dave Hentschel
This Easter, churches around the globe echoed the same great truth: Christ is risen! But for some, that celebration feels distant. Maybe you’re carrying grief, facing uncertainty, or dealing with circumstances that feel like death. If that’s you, Easter isn’t irrelevant—it’s exactly for you.
Our Easter message this year was part of our series, The Resilient Life, and we focused on the resilience that comes through resurrection. The central question I posed was this:
“Is there a grave in your life that only God can turn into a garden?”
That’s not just poetic—it’s deeply biblical. In 2 Corinthians 5, the Apostle Paul gives us a roadmap for how the resurrection reshapes our pain, our purpose, and our identity.
- Face Your Mortality (2 Cor. 5:1–8)
Paul begins by reminding us that our bodies are like tents—temporary, fragile, easily torn. Anyone who’s ever gone camping in bad weather knows that longing for something more permanent.
That’s the Christian view of our life on earth. It’s a tent, not a mansion. But Paul tells us there’s good news: we have a building from God, eternal in the heavens.
This Easter, I shared a personal story from five years ago when my father-in-law, Adam, was hospitalized with COVID and nearly died. We were told—on Good Friday—that there was no hope. But three days later, on Easter Sunday, he came off the ventilator. A true miracle.
Today, he’s healthy and thriving. In fact, he used his old oxygen tube—once a symbol of near-death—to build a watering system for his garden. My daughter Felicity saw it and said, “That tube used to be a grave, and now it waters a garden.”
Isn’t that what God does?
- Examine Your Morality (2 Cor. 5:9–11)
After facing the reality of death, Paul shifts gears: “We make it our aim to please Him.”
The resurrection not only offers hope for the future—it reshapes how we live today. We don’t live for ourselves anymore. We live to honor Christ.
Paul reminds us that we will all appear before the judgment seat of Christ—not to earn salvation, but to give an account of how we lived. That doesn’t create fear; it creates purpose. If we really believe in the resurrection, we’ll live with eternity in view.
So here’s the question: Who are you living to please?
- Change Your Mentality (2 Cor. 5:12–15)
Paul challenges the Corinthians—and us—not to judge by outward appearance but to live from the heart. He says something radical: “The love of Christ controls us.”
This is what drives the Christian life: not guilt, not pressure, but love—Christ’s love for us. Paul had been seized by that love, and it reoriented everything.
He explains it this way: Christ died for all, so that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for Him. That’s what Easter does—it invites us to die to ourselves and rise to a new purpose.
- Embrace Your New Reality (2 Cor. 5:16–17)
And then we reach one of the most powerful verses in all of Scripture:
“If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has gone, the new has come.”
Easter isn’t just about the future—it’s about right now. Resurrection life begins today.
To help our kids grasp this, we gave them Easter eggs with butterflies inside—a picture of transformation. The squirmy caterpillar becomes something entirely new: beautiful, light, free. That’s what Jesus does with our lives.
He doesn’t just clean us up—He makes us new.
Real Lives. Real Graves. Real Gardens.
And it’s not just biblical characters or kids with Easter eggs. This resurrection reality is happening today:
- Kat Von D, a former witch, is now a new creation in Christ.
- Josh Timonen, once Richard Dawkins’ right-hand man, now follows Jesus.
- Mohamad Faridi, once a jihadist, now preaches the gospel.
- Mike Burden, a former KKK member, is now a follower of Christ.
These stories—and so many others—are proof that no one is too far gone. Jesus really does turn graves into gardens.
And that includes ordinary people like me and you. My own life has been marked by brokenness and failure—but God, in His mercy, didn’t just improve me. He made me new.
What About You?
Maybe you’ve been around church your whole life, but you’ve never really trusted Jesus. Maybe your life is full of religious activity, but your heart is still heavy with shame, addiction, or fear. Or maybe you’re just tired—trying harder but still feeling stuck.
The good news of Easter is this:
Jesus died in your place, rose again, and now invites you to be made new.
You don’t need to patch up your old life—He offers you a new one.
You may think you’re too far gone. You’re not.
You may feel spiritually dead. That’s okay—He specializes in resurrection.
Today can be your new beginning.
Let the Resurrection Change You
Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 5 remind us that resurrection isn’t just an event—it’s a lifestyle. A mentality. A transformation.
So what grave in your life do you need God to turn into a garden?
- Is it your fear of death?
- A fractured relationship?
- A lifelong pattern of shame?
- A spiritual dryness that feels like a desert?
Whatever it is, Christ has already walked out of the grave. He invites you to do the same.
Let this Easter be more than a celebration. Let it be your resurrection.
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Pastor Bob Erbig and Pastor Dave Hentschel
