Sermon Tone Analysis

INTRODUCTION

It has been about 6 weeks since we were in Luke together, but we left off at a pretty distinct stopping point.

Jesus was crucified, buried and placed in a rich man’s tomb.

We left off on Good Friday and Holy Saturday and now, two weeks after Christmas, it is Easter.

And I love this.

I love that we are talking about Easter right after Christmas because the two events are inseparable.

Christ was born in Bethlehem in order that He would die for our sins in Jerusalem.

And He resurrected, declaring eternal victory for the redeemed of God.

She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus—for he will save his people from their sins.

The resurrection of Christ is the walking proof that Mary’s child complete the task that His Father set before Him.

So it makes total sense for us to jump from Christmas to Easter.

All four of the Gospel writers have their say on the resurrection.

They all give their account.

And we will use a harmony of those accounts to piece the story together this morning.

But as we look at Luke’s text, you will see that as he narrates the event of the resurrection, he is particularly concerned with the resurrection and how it relates to the Word of God—to the teachings of Jesus.

To the promises of heaven.

And we will see how the The Resurrection proves:

God’s spoken words are true

God’s Incarnate Word is the Truth

Eternal hope to our hearts

Let’s read the passage:

GOD’S SPOKEN WORDS ARE TRUE (v.

1-9)

Our passage begins with the women from the end of Luke 23 returning with the spices they had prepared for Jesus’ body.

He was placed in the tomb, but then the Sabbath came and they had to wait until Sunday morning to finish the work of getting Jesus’ body ready for burial.

Luke says it is the first day of the week.

The Jewish people did not have names for the days of the week.

They just numbered them according to their relationship with the Sabbath.

That means Sunday would have been the first day of the week—the first day after the Sabbath.

This is why Sunday matters now by the way.

It is the Lord’s Day because Jesus rose again.

And every week, we gather together to celebrate that.

SIDE NOTE: This is the last time I will say something about it, but this is why I was so sad about many churches choosing to broadcast an at-home Christmas special instead of having church.

Many said it was too much to do Christmas Eve and that Sunday morning.

Then the biblical thing to do would have been to not have Christmas Eve service.

We don’t know when Jesus was born.

We are happy to celebrate it on December 25th each year, but biblically that date had no significance until 336 when Constantine decided that would be the case.

Nobody picked Sunday for the Lord’s Day except God Himself.

He set it apart when His Son walked out of that grave.

To forsake it in the name of convenience is a sad commentary on what we have come to believe church is for in America.

We are not consumers.

We are Christ-followers.

And we gather on the Lord’s Day because He is risen.

I am not saying a church should not have Christmas Eve service.

I am saying if you are bound and determined to pit the Lord’s Day and Christmas Eve against each other—the Lord’s Day should win every time.

Luke also tells us that they come at “early dawn.”

Matthew describes it as “toward the dawn of the first day of the week,” in Matthew 28:1...

Mark says that they “come very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen” (Mark 16:2)

And then John describes it this way in John 20:1

Some accuse the Bible of having a major discrepancy surrounding the events of the resurrection because Matthew, Mark and Luke all say that Mary Magdalene arrives with other women, but John describes her as arriving alone

This is no reason to panic

It is only a problem if you are looking for a problem.

And people would love to be able to point to a major fly in the ointment of the resurrection accounts because if you can find a mistake in the relaying of one of the most central events of the Christian faith, then maybe you could undermine the whole thing

What is important is to simply breathe and use the common sense God has given us to harmonize the four Gospel accounts and put together a reasonable order of events.

So before we go any further, let me summarize the events of that first Easter morning from the perspective of all four Gospels so you can see that there is no cause for concern in piecing the story together

Mary Magdalene and the other women travel from Bethany, about 2 miles away, to come back to Jesus’ tomb

Nearing the tomb, they see that the stone has been rolled away

Matthew’s account almost makes it seem like the women were there for this event, but that makes no sense considering how they react to the whole situation

Matthew was probably just reminding us of who was going to the tomb and then in verse 2 is reminding us of why they are going to find it empty.

John 20:1-2 tells us that at this point, Mary Magdalene leaves to go and tell Peter and John

The other women head back to Bethany to tell other followers of Christ

Mary Magdalene returns to the tomb with Peter and John

Peter and John go back to where they are staying after seeing the tomb

Mary Magdalene gets back to the tomb later or stays around after Peter and John leave and speaks to the resurrected Jesus there

Jesus also speaks with the women on their way back to Bethany, according to the disciples who speak with Jesus on the road to Emmaus

That is a basic outline.

We could spend about ten minutes really breaking it down beat by beat, but we don’t have the time

But even in this summary, I hope your mind is put at ease

There is nothing here that is not reconcilable

The women are perplexed when they see Jesus’ body is not there.

They surely assumed that grave robbers took the body.

This was a major issue in Judea, to the point that the Romans put strict laws in place to stop the the epidemic.

You can even see in Mary’s words to the angels when she gets back to the tomb in John 20...

“They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him.” (John 20:13)

But these two men in dazzling clothes are standing by them in verse 4, which causes them to bow their faces to the ground.

There is no reason to think these are not angels.

Luke does not identify them as angels outright, but angels are all over Matthew and John’s accounts.

It is reminiscent of the angels that appeared in human form in Abraham in Genesis 18…

The angels ask a simple, but profound question: Why do you see the living among the dead?

Jesus Christ is the way, the truth and THE LIFE.

The is the Resurrection and the THE LIFE.

He told the disciples these things.

He told His followers these things.

Why would they be looking for Him in a grave?

And then they recall to the women what Jesus had told them—that He would suffer and be crucified and then He would resurrect.

In this study of Luke, we read Jesus saying these things to His disciples

And the women remember His Words in verse 8, which prompts them to return to tell the other disciples and followers of Christ

Let’s stop here to make our first point this morning:

1.

The Resurrection proves God’s spoken words are true (v.

1-9).

I think it is easy to miss that important part of this passage.

There is so much happening here and it is all so important, that we can breeze past the fact that when these women are perplexed, the angels point to God’s words.

Don’t be perplexed—God in the flesh told you all this would happen.

It is happening just as He said.

We will see the same thing in the next scene on the Emmaus Road.

The disciples are talking with Jesus and they don’t realize it is Him.

They are telling Him all about how Jesus of Nazareth was crucified and they can’t find the body and angels told their friends He is still alive.

Jesus responds and says :

And then He taught them:

In both cases, the Word of God is confidently proclaimed—in one sense by the angels who say, “Remember how He told you,” in verse 6, and again by Jesus Himself in Luke 24:27...

And in both cases, the Word that is proclaimed has already been proven true because Jesus has resurrected

His resurrection serves as an exclamation point of confirmation that the Word of God is true