Sermon Tone Analysis

I praise our God that each one of you chose to be in His house this morning.

It is so good to see so many visitors with us today!

I pray that you will feel at home in our presence.

I have never seen a church that loves each other as much as this church does, and if you are visiting, I hope that you get a small taste of that love this morning.

As I have mentioned several times over the past weeks, Easter is my absolute most favorite day of the year, because it is on this day that we celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord and Savior.

And if this is the first Sunday you’ve been at our church in a while, we are near the end of a twelve-week series chronicling the life of Jesus of Nazareth.

We have seen how Jesus did miracles, how He taught parables, and even how He fed more than 5,000 people with some fish and a little bit of bread.

But last week, we looked at one of the darkest days in human history, when Jesus was brutally murdered on a cross for a crime that He did not commit.

But thankfully, that horrific day was not the end of the life of Christ.

This morning we are going to look at Matthew’s account of what happened two days after Jesus was killed on the cross.

So if you are not already there, I invite you to turn to Matthew chapter twenty-eight, and we are going to be reading verses one through fifteen.

So again, Matthew 28:1-15.

“In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.

And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it.

His countenance was like lightning and his raiment white as snow: And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men.

And the angel answered and said unto the women, ‘Fear ye not: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified.

He is not here: for He is risen, as He said.

Come, see the place where the Lord lay.

And go quickly, and tell His disciples that He is risen from the dead; and, behold, He goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see Him: lo, I have told you.’

And they departed quickly from the sepulchre with fear and great joy; and did run to bring His disciples word.

And as they went to tell His disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, ‘All hail.’

And they came and held Him by the feet, and worshipped Him.

Then said Jesus unto them, ‘Be not afraid: go tell My brethren that they go into Galilee, and there shall they see Me.’ Now when they were going, behold, some of the watch came into the city, and showed unto the chief priests all the things that were done.

And when they were assembled with the elders, and had taken counsel, they gave large money unto the soldiers, saying, ‘Say ye, His disciples came by night, and stole Him away while we slept.

And if this come to the governor’s ears, we will persuade him, and secure you.’

So they took the money, and did as they were taught: and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day.”

Let’s pray before we study God’s word.

The title of this morning’s Easter sermon is Jesus: The Risen King.

And is there anyone that did not get a copy of the sermon handout for this morning?

As we study this text, we are going to break it down into three main points.

And you will see these three points listed on your handout.

For the first point, we will look at the reality of the Resurrection.

The second point will be the right response to the Resurrection, and the third point will be the wrong response to the Resurrection.

So with that framework in mind, let’s begin studying God’s word.

Point #1: The Reality of the Resurrection

Let’s start by reading verse one of our text one more time.

“In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.”

This verse shows us that Mary Magdalene and another Mary went to the tomb very early on Sunday morning.

Specifically, they arrived at the tomb just as the sun was beginning to peak over the horizon.

If you are wondering who the other Mary in this verse is, the Gospel of Mark informs of that this is Mary the mother James, which are two of the same ladies that were there when Jesus was crucified two days earlier.

In a little bit we are going to take a better look at the faith of these two ladies, but I think it is significant to note that while all of the twelve disciples fled the scene when Jesus was arrested, it was these faithful women that stayed and watched Christ in His final hours.

And while the disciples are back at home early on Sunday morning, these faithful women are going to the tomb and attending to the body of Jesus.

I think it’s important to note that these two ladies were not planning on finding a resurrected Christ.

For whatever reason, the only group of people that had paid attention when Christ said He was going to come back from the dead were the priests, and that is why they had placed an armed guard at the entrance of the tomb.

So whenever we are looking at this text, we are not looking at some women that were expecting a big miracle.

No, we are looking at a few faithful women who simply wanted to honor the body of their dead friend.

But while they were walking toward the tomb, look what happens in verse two.

“And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it.”

When you look at the Greek text, and the account of the other three gospels, it is obvious that the earthquake happened before the women arrived at the tomb.

So it might be more understandable to say, “And behold, there had been a great earthquake.”

And then Matthew goes on to describe that the source of the earthquake was the angel coming down from heaven and rolling back the huge stone from the entrance of the tomb.

And as I think about the priests that day, don’t you imagine that they were feeling pretty smug about the “Jesus” situation?

They had finally killed the man who had caused them so much trouble, and just to make sure that His disciples didn’t cause any trouble, they rolled a gigantic stone in front of the door, and placed an armed group of guards at the entrance.

Even if the twelve disciples got together and decided to steal Jesus’ body to fake a resurrection, they wouldn’t stand a chance against this group of soldiers.

But church, nothing was going to keep Jesus in the tomb that day.

In one cataclysmic event, an earthquake rolled away the stone that was blocking the tomb.

And while the Bible does not say, it seems that this is when Jesus would have walked triumphantly out of the tomb.

And the Bible says that after the angel came down and the stone was rolled away, the angel sat down on top of that rock.

And the Bible describes these angels in verses three through five, which is where I ask you to turn your attention.

“His countenance was like lightning and his raiment white as snow: And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men.

And the angel answered and said unto the women, ‘Fear ye not: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified.”

While I do not want to dwell on the appearance of this angel, suffice it to say that seeing him would have been quite an extraordinary sight.

In fact, notice that the guards fell down as if they were dead when the angels came down.

The reason I say angels is because another one of the gospels records that it was actually two angels at the scene.

Many skeptics over the years have used this seeming “contradiction” to show that the Bible isn’t true, but it is quite obvious that there were actually two angels, but it was just one angel that did the talking.

And then in verse five, the angel tells the women to not be afraid.

Notice the angel did not tell the petrified guards to not be afraid.

The angels were quite okay with these guards being terrified.

You know that old saying, “They need the fear of God put into them?”

I think that that’s kind of the idea that these angels had that day.

And while I am partly being silly, it is obvious throughout the Bible that a non-Christians proper response to the presence of God is fear.

But the Christian’s response, while it may initially be fear, should quickly turn into peace and comfort.

And that is why the angels told these two women to not be afraid.

The angel then told the women that he knew that they were seeking Jesus, who had been crucified.

But then notice what the angel says next in verse six.

“He is not here: for He is risen, as He said.

Come, see the place where the Lord lay.”

Boy, doesn’t this verse get you excited?

The angel tells these women that Jesus Christ had risen from the grave!

And because they didn’t want the women to take their word for it, the angel invited them to go into the tomb and look for themselves.

And when those two women went into that tomb, they found the spot where Jesus’ body had been, and yet there was no body.

And fast forward almost 2,000 years, and guess what, there is still no body!

This morning the first lesson that we must learn as a church is that the Resurrection of Jesus Christ is a real, historical fact.

There are many liberal theologians over the years who said that Christ “ethically” rose from the grave, but not bodily.

In other words, Jesus rising from the dead did not mean that His actual body came back to life, it just meant that His teachings would live on and change the world.

That’s actually the kind of view that Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin had about the Resurrection.

But church, we know where Muhammad was buried.

His body is currently decomposing in the city of Medina.

And Buddha, well Buddha was cremated, and his ashes were divvied out to several different Buddhist holy sites.

But to this day, no one has ever found Jesus’ body; because our Savior did not stay dead.

And He did not simply live on through His teachings, as so many have said.

Because when those women went into that tomb, they found that it was entirely empty.

And it’s a good thing, too, because Paul said that if the Resurrection did not happen, then we are of all people the most miserable.

Church, there is no Christianity without the Resurrection.

Because if you think about it, if Jesus died and stayed dead, then that means that He was not truly the Messiah.

And if He was not the Messiah, then that means that He did not pay for our sins.

And if He did not pay for our sins, then we are still dead in our sins, and on our way to spending an eternity in hell.

But even worse than other lost people, we are duped into living our lives for a Savior who isn’t even alive to care!

All of that to say that this one day in history is the most pivotal day in all of history.

On this day, Jesus Christ came back from the dead, showing once and for all that He was the Son of God, and showing once and for all that sin and death had been defeated, and that He had made possible for all the hope of eternal life.