This resurrection service from Easter 2020 celebrates what the empty tomb means for believers today: Jesus laid down His life by His own authority, rose again, and now shares His victory and resurrection life with everyone who believes in Him. Dr. William P. Hohman teaches from Hebrews 12:2 that Jesus endured the cross “for the joy that was set before Him,” and that the same joy and resurrection power are meant for us now, not only in some future heaven.
The service includes worship, communion from 1 Corinthians 11, and a message filled with Scripture and a remarkable healing testimony from his early ministry. Below you will find the full video, a structured summary, every passage he uses (linked to the New King James Version on Bible Gateway), a timestamped outline and practical ways to live in resurrection life this week.
Sermon at a Glance
This Resurrection Sunday service was streamed live from the New Testament Church at NTC Ministries in April 2020, at a time when the congregation could not gather in person. It runs about 71 minutes. The worship team opens with “Christ is risen” and songs of praise, including a special of Living Hope by Phil Wickham, offered to members watching online and listening by radio. Communion follows, and then the senior pastor brings the word.
Dr. Hohman begins by praising the small crew running the service, only four people in the building. The church’s food program was still serving more than 900 families a month, with more coming as people lost jobs, even after freezers failed and the radio feed dropped.
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Speaker | Dr. William P. Hohman |
| Occasion | Resurrection Sunday (Easter) service, 2020 |
| Main text | Hebrews 12:2 and Hebrews 10:11–12 |
| Key theme | Sharing Christ’s victory and resurrection power today |
| Length | About 71 minutes, including worship and communion |
Communion and the New Covenant
Before the message, the worship leader leads communion from 1 Corinthians 11:23–26. In the Old Testament, he explains, God made covenants with Abraham, Noah, Moses and Israel. Then Jesus came with the new covenant. Paul writes that he received from the Lord what he delivered to the church: on the night He was betrayed, Jesus took bread, gave thanks, broke it and said, “Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you.”
In the same manner He took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood.” As often as we eat the bread and drink the cup, we proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes. The leader stresses Paul’s first words: I have received. The covenant is a gift of love God prepared for us, and our part is to receive it.
His prayer thanks God for His boundless grace, mercies that are new every morning, salvation, and health and healing through the covenant. Viewers at home take their own juice and bread together.
The Joy Set Before Him
Dr. Hohman opens with two great Christian celebrations. Christmas celebrates the eternal God humbling Himself to be born into a corrupted world in order to redeem us. The cross and resurrection celebrate a new creation’s birthday: not Christ’s birth into this world, but our birth from this world into eternity. Christ’s coming was heaven breaking into darkness, greed and selfishness to unveil God’s love.
Because God’s supply of His Spirit always brings newness of life, Paul could say that though the outward man is perishing, the inward man is renewed day by day (2 Corinthians 4:16). That, he says, is all because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
His anchor text is Hebrews 12:2: looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. What was that joy, he asks, that made Jesus willing to give His life so selflessly?
In John 10:17–18, Jesus says no one takes His life from Him; He lays it down Himself, with authority to lay it down and to take it again. He also said, destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up (John 2:19). When He rose, He took the keys of death, hell and the grave, which the god of this world had used to keep people in bondage (Revelation 1:18).
Jesus knew why He came, and He knew the cross would end in resurrection. Yet love, Dr. Hohman says, carried Him like a leaf floating down a stream to the place of fulfillment. He was pure love Himself, and the joy before Him was there as He allowed love to guide Him.
Philippians 2:8–11 shows the result. Jesus humbled Himself in obedience and died a criminal’s death on the cross; therefore God highly exalted Him and gave Him the name above every name, that every knee should bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
Seated With Christ in His Victory
The resurrection, Dr. Hohman teaches, privileges everyone who calls on Jesus to share His victory, and that is good news to live in today, not only “when I get to heaven.”
1 Peter 3:22 says Jesus has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, angels, authorities and powers having been made subject to Him. He holds not only the keys of death, hell and the grave but all authority. Colossians 2:15 adds that having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them. Because of His resurrection, we partake of that triumph and can rise up as new creations without feeling inferior, weak or contemptible.
Reading Ephesians 2:4–7 from the New English Bible, he shows that God, rich in mercy, made us alive together with Christ even when we were dead in trespasses, raised us up and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms. Why? So that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace and kindness toward us. Our new birth and resurrection life are a demonstration of His victory over death and hell.
He contrasts this with the Old Testament. Sin was covered when a lamb was slain and its blood placed on the mercy seat over the tablets of the law, and another goat carried Israel’s sins into the wilderness as the scapegoat (Leviticus 16:8–10). Yet even then people were not saved because they were great or kept the law. They overcame and stood by faith, as Hebrews 11 shows, including Abraham offering his son. And Psalm 103:12 says that as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.
So Paul prays in Ephesians 3:17–19 that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith, that rooted and grounded in love we may comprehend the width, length, depth and height of the love of Christ and be filled with all the fullness of God. Christ’s work is complete. “It is finished,” Dr. Hohman says; nothing needs to take place again.
Then he returns to joy, the joy of resurrection. In John 15:11, Jesus says He has spoken these things so that His joy may remain in us and our joy may be full. What we go through is nothing compared to what Jesus went through, and there is a joy set before us too. It is the joy of His love that compels us to live selflessly and radically in love with God.
A Farmhouse Healing Testimony
Before continuing, Dr. Hohman says the Lord prompted him to tell a story. After two years of Bible college, his pastor was asked to teach a home Bible study and pray for a woman with cancer who had been told she had only days to live. The pastor could not go, so he sent the young Dr. Hohman to the town about 70 miles away. He prepared a teaching on healing.
An elderly man met him at an old farmhouse. Before he even reached the living room there was a stench, which he says was the worst thing he had ever smelled. Inside sat about 20 people, a woman in a wheelchair, and in a hospital bed the man’s wife, with a nurse beside her. After a woman sang a simple praise song, he taught on biblical healing for about half an hour and began giving words of knowledge.
The Lord directed him to pray for the woman in the wheelchair. She said she did not think it would do any good after more than 20 years in the chair. He told her that might be hindering her thinking about what God can do, but it was not hindering God. He prayed and asked her to get up and walk, but she refused and pointed him to the woman in the bed.
That woman had large black sores where her flesh had been eaten away and looked lifeless. Finding a place that looked normal, he laid his hand on her and declared healing Scriptures over her, commanded the cancer to die, commanded every cell to be a life-giving cell and her immune system to function perfectly, and cursed the disease in Jesus’ name. Suddenly the room erupted in shouting.
Opening his eyes, he saw the woman in the bed still lying there. But behind him, he recounts, the woman from the wheelchair had stood up and was feebly walking. Before leaving he declared over the woman in the bed that she would live and not die, because the resurrection life of Jesus Christ was in her.
The next morning her husband called, shouting and praising God. About two hours after Dr. Hohman left, she opened her eyes and began talking for the first time in a couple of months. In the morning she was standing and walking, and he said the sores, including one in her side large enough to put a fist into, were gone and her skin was normal. Dr. Hohman presents it as his testimony of resurrection power: Jesus wants to demonstrate it, and it is there for everyone who gives their life to Him.
He applies resurrection power broadly. Your need may not be health; it may be finances or a job, or a worry that has made you afraid. Do not live in that fear, he says. Follow God in resurrection life, because in Him we are seated together in heavenly places.
Do Not Be Afraid, Only Believe
Dr. Hohman points to the three occasions recorded in the Gospels when Jesus raised someone from the dead, and draws a lesson from each. The table below follows his reading:
| Who was raised | What happened | The lesson he draws |
|---|---|---|
| The daughter of Jairus | A servant said she had died, but Jesus told Jairus not to be afraid, only believe | Stop listening to bad reports; listen to the good news |
| The widow’s son at Nain | Jesus touched the funeral procession and the young man rose | Get out of a “funeral procession” life of sorrow |
| Lazarus of Bethany | Jesus called him from the grave and told them to loose him | Be loosed from the grave clothes of doom and gloom |
In Mark 5:35–42, Jairus, a ruler of the synagogue, fell at Jesus’ feet for his dying daughter, and the woman with the issue of blood interrupted on the way. When word came that the girl had died, Jesus said, “Do not be afraid; only believe,” and raised her. Dr. Hohman tells listeners the same: there are enough bad reports to kill everybody, and you do not need them. You need the good news of resurrection life.
At Nain (Luke 7:11–15), Jesus and His joyful followers met a funeral for a widow’s only son. He touched the coffin and the young man sat up. At Bethany (John 11:43–44), Jesus cried, “Lazarus, come forth!” and then said, “Loose him, and let him go.”
That is what Jesus says to us, he teaches: be loosed from the grave clothes of doom and gloom. The woman in the wheelchair went from 20 years of “I can’t” to walking and praising God, a picture of resurrection. Wonderful as each of these miracles was, none comes close to what God has done for us in the resurrection of Jesus.
The Resurrection Service Promise: One Sacrifice Forever
The closing teaching comes from Hebrews 10:11–12: every priest stands ministering daily, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God. Dr. Hohman draws out the contrasts. The priests stood; Jesus sat down. They ministered daily; He acted once for all. They offered repeatedly, which shows it was not working; He offered one sacrifice for sins forever.
Everything rests on the resurrection; without the resurrection there is no gospel. “If Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins” (1 Corinthians 15:17).
He recalls Paul casting a spirit of divination out of a slave girl whose owners profited from her (Acts 16:16–24), and how religious opposition followed Paul until he stood before King Agrippa. In Acts 26:4–8, Paul says he is judged for the hope of the promise made to the fathers, and asks, “Why should it be thought incredible by you that God raises the dead?” Dr. Hohman says the accusers wanted religion, not real, effective resurrection life. He adds that he has seen three people raised from the dead in his ministry.
He sums up our greatest need this way: if it had been education, God would have sent an educator; if technology, an engineer; if discovery, a scientist; if money, an economist. But since our greatest need was forgiveness of sins, God sent a Savior. Through that forgiveness we can come boldly to the throne of grace for mercy and help (Hebrews 4:16).
Knowing about Jesus is not enough. Romans 10:9–13 says that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. You must believe in resurrection life, he says, not merely that it happened 2,000 years ago. He leads listeners in a prayer to receive Christ, then prays for healing on the basis of Romans 8:11: the Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in us and gives life to our mortal bodies.
He closes by encouraging “radical faith” for financial breakthroughs, noting that the church stepped into streaming without knowing how and is now reaching thousands more, with its online radio audience up by ten thousand listeners. What the devil meant for harm, he says, God is turning for good. He declares open doors no one can shut and blesses viewers in Jesus’ name.
Living in Resurrection Life
These practical steps come straight from the message:
- Receive the covenant. Take communion as a gift you receive, remembering His body and blood given for you.
- Look unto Jesus. When life is hard, fix your eyes on the joy set before you, as Jesus did at the cross.
- Turn down the bad reports. Limit the news and negative voices, and fill your mind with the good news of resurrection life.
- Take off the grave clothes. Name one “I can’t” you have carried for years and bring it to the God who raises the dead.
- Confess and believe. Say out loud that Jesus is Lord and that God raised Him from the dead, following Romans 10:9.
- Step out in radical faith. Ask God for one idea and act on it, even if you do not yet know how it will work.
Timestamped Outline
- 0:00 Christ is risen: welcome and opening prayer
- 0:50 Worship begins
- 15:51 Greeting to members and the Easter special
- 18:42 Communion: the new covenant
- 23:04 1 Corinthians 11: do this in remembrance
- 25:20 Dr. Hohman is introduced
- 29:10 A small crew and a food program for 900 families
- 31:45 Christmas and a new creation’s birthday
- 33:09 Hebrews 12:2: the joy set before Him
- 34:26 John 10: authority to lay down His life
- 36:57 We share His victory: 1 Peter 3:22
- 38:13 Colossians 2:15 and Ephesians 2
- 40:57 The scapegoat and Psalm 103
- 42:14 Ephesians 3:17–19 and John 15:11
- 44:42 The farmhouse healing testimony
- 51:54 The phone call the next morning
- 54:18 Do not be afraid, only believe
- 55:29 Lazarus and the grave clothes
- 56:35 Hebrews 10: one sacrifice forever
- 59:23 Paul before King Agrippa
- 1:01:56 Our greatest need was a Savior
- 1:03:24 Romans 10:9 and the prayer of salvation
- 1:06:12 Prayer for healing and breakthrough
- 1:09:20 Doors opened and closing blessing
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does Dr. Hohman call Easter a birthday?
He compares two celebrations. Christmas marks Jesus being born into this world, the eternal God humbling Himself to redeem a corrupted world. The cross and resurrection mark a new creation’s birthday: the birth of believers out of this world into eternity. Because of the resurrection, he says, God’s Spirit continually brings newness of life, so that even as the outward person perishes, the inward person is renewed day by day.
What did the church do while members could not meet together?
The service was streamed online and carried by radio, run by a crew of only four people. Dr. Hohman reports that the church’s food program kept serving more than 900 families a month, with more coming as people lost jobs, even after freezers failed. He adds that the online audience for the church’s radio station had grown by ten thousand listeners, and he sees God turning what was meant for harm into good.
How should someone respond to this message?
Dr. Hohman invites anyone who has not received Christ to pray with him: asking God’s forgiveness, believing Jesus died and rose to sit at the Father’s right hand, and asking Him to give a new heart and put His Spirit within. He encourages those who pray to contact the church through its website or office and share a testimony of what God has done.
Scripture References
All passages open in the New King James Version on Bible Gateway:
- Hebrews 12:2 — the joy set before Him
- John 10:17–18 — authority to lay down His life
- Philippians 2:8–11 — the name above every name
- Ephesians 2:4–7 — raised and seated with Christ
- Colossians 2:15 — triumph over principalities
- Hebrews 10:11–12 — one sacrifice forever
- 1 Corinthians 15:17 — if Christ is not risen
- Acts 26:4–8 — why is it incredible that God raises the dead
- Romans 10:9–13 — confess and believe
How this summary was made: written with AI assistance from the sermon’s own transcript and checked against the Scriptures listed above.
Watch More Messages
If this Easter message stirred your faith, there are hundreds more teachings from NTC Ministries ready for you. Browse the full sermon archive and keep growing in the resurrection life of Jesus Christ.
