Sermon Tone Analysis

1. Numerous eyewitnesses.

not just a couple dudes.

It is a lot of people who see Jesus.

2. Early movement not an evolving fable over centuries Not an evolving fable over centuries.

A movement of people begin following Jesus and worshipping him as God very soon after his death.

Thousands and thousands of Jews switch mindsets and see Jesus as God and worship him.

It was blasphemy to worship a human.

They believed Jesus was God.

Why? Resurrection.

3. Empty tomb Major religious leaders have huge tombs where people go and worship and take pilgrimage.

Abraham, Mohammed, Buddha - all have tombs.

Jesus has no tomb.

4. Empty tomb (((PPT)))))))) Major religious leaders have huge tombs where people go and worship and take pilgrimage.

Abraham, Mohammed, Buddha - all have tombs.

Jesus has no tomb.

4. Why die for a lie?

Most of Jesus’ closest disciples were killed for following Jesus.

They were killed.

I encourage us to doubt and question but for lots of us, it isn’t about logic or evidence, it is about control.

The implications of Jesus being God and us believing means we aren’t our own authority.

It is about transferring faith not creating it.

We have faith in ourselves, faith in success, faith in family… but if Jesus rose and is God then we need to transfer our faith to him.

We have to trust him instead of trusting that we can be our own master of our own fate.

I want to encourage you to allow yourself to doubt your doubts.

Consider Jesus.

But today, we are going to look at the Bible and I believe that Jesus’ story leads all of us to say “I want to believe its true!”

Oh, it is so good that you are here today.

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(NLT)

9 And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11 being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.

13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.

16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.

17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

18 And he is the head of the body, the church.

He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.

19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

21 And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, 22 he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, 23 if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.

8 Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ.

9 For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body.

10 So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority.

11 When you came to Christ, you were “circumcised,” but not by a physical procedure.

Christ performed a spiritual circumcision—the cutting away of your sinful nature.

12 For you were buried with Christ when you were baptized.

And with him you were raised to new life because you trusted the mighty power of God, who raised Christ from the dead.

13 You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away.

Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins.

14 He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross.

15 In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities.

He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross.

12 always thanking the Father.

He has enabled you to share in the inheritance that belongs to his people, who live in the light.

13 For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, 14 who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins.

15 Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.

He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation, 16 for through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth.

He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see— such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world.

Everything was created through him and for him.

17 He existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together.

18 Christ is also the head of the church, which is his body.

He is the beginning, supreme over all who rise from the dead.

So he is first in everything.

19 For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, 20 and through him God reconciled everything to himself.

He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross.

21 This includes you who were once far away from God.

You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions.

22 Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body.

As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.

23 But you must continue to believe this truth and stand firmly in it.

Don’t drift away from the assurance you received when you heard the Good News.

The Good News has been preached all over the world, and I, Paul, have been appointed as God’s servant to proclaim it.

(ESV)

11 In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.

13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands.

This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.

15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.

(NLT)

13 You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away.

Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins.

14 He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross.

15 In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities.

He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross.

Listen to one paraphrase of the text of Colossians:

13 When you were stuck in your old sin-dead life, you were incapable of responding to God.

God brought you alive—right along with Christ!

Think of it!

All sins forgiven, 14 the slate wiped clean, that old arrest warrant canceled and nailed to Christ’s cross.

15 He stripped all the spiritual tyrants in the universe of their sham authority at the Cross and marched them naked through the streets.