Sermon Tone Analysis

Zow shang how - Knee how ma…Good morning how are you doing?

Hola familia…como esta?

Hamjambo…Habari ya asubuhi…mhali gani - Hello, good morning…how are you?

Today we are going to look at the significance of the Resurrection of Jesus but from a little different angle.

Most people have heard or know that the reason Jesus had to die was to pay the punishment for our sins.

But there are some questions to answer this Easter:

Why do we need Christs resurrection and what evidence is there for it?

What evidence is there for the resurrection?

What is the significance?

What difference does it make for me today?

Why do we need the resurrection?

Creation, Corruption, Catastrophe, Confusion, Christ, Cross, Consummation

In short we need resurrection because without it death would not have been defeated.

Sin was defeated on the cross, but death was defeated at the resurrection.

The final, most significant effect of sin was rendered powerless for those who believe…through Jesus’ resurrection we may now have permanent residency with God if we receive His gift by through faith.

We are going to read a portion of the Easter story from each of the Gospel writers.

Gospel simply means Good News…it was written down by 4 different individuals over a 30-60 year period.

Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

All of whom were eye witnesses of what Jesus did while He was on Earth…they wrote down these events that literally took place for our benefit, but it was from their perspective.

We can trust their testimony because if they each had written down the exact same story we would think there was a conspiracy?

Chuck Colson said that he believed in the resurrection because 12 men held to the same story for 40 years while they faced persecution, rejection and death.

In watergate they could not keep silent for 3 weeks...Let’s listen to these stories and see if you can identify the differences.

I’ll point out the similarities but it is in the differences I plan on sharing some action points.

We are going to read a portion of the Easter story from each of the Gospel writers.

Gospel simply means Good News…it was written down by 4 different individuals over a 30 year period.

..Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

All of whom were first hand witnesses of what Jesus did while He was on Earth…they wrote down these events that literally took place for our benefit, but from their perspective.

Something to note here…if they each had written down the exact same story what would you think?

Let’s listen to these stories and keep in mind the similarities and differences.

3 things in common:

Women were first to the tomb

Angels were involved in the rolling away of the stone and

Jesus was resurrected!

See if you can identify what is distinct in each case...

The Lord is risen…He is Risen indeed.

Dan L reads

Matthew is the only Gospel writer who includes an earthquake at both the death and resurrection of Jesus.

It could be the earthquake at his death caused an aftershock on Sunday morning or the very possibility that the activity of the angel caused an earthquake either way the moving of the rock was an earth shaking event!The resurrection of Jesus is the single most important event in all of Christianity because if Jesus has not been risen from the dead our faith is futile and we remain in sin.

The Matthew passage: There were 2 events that changed all of history.

Jesus’ birth and Jesus’ death and resurrection.

The first event was God entering our realm to show what He was like and the second event was God demonstrating the depth of His love for us and removing the punishment for our sins.