Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction:

Do you know the difference between a trip and a journey?

I was watching a video of some people trying to teach how to speak “southern” and they had to explain a few phrases.

You can guess the number one phrase, I imagine.

It was “Hey y’all”, followed by “fixin’ to”, and then “bless your heart!”

But, one phrase that didn’t get into the lesson was, “I’m gone take a trip to town.”

Now, y’all know the difference between a trip and a journey, right?

We take a trip to town from my house because we live so far out.

A trip is uneventful, usually.

It is getting from point A to point B and back.

But a journey is a different story!

A journey involves many trips and takes place over a period of time.

It can involve unexpected twists and turns along the way.

It is also usually life changing.

I took a journey to Israel last year.

I’ve been on a journey with my family over the last nine years.

You have been on a journey to get you to where you are in life right now.

But we also are all on a journey in life when it comes to our spirituality.

We are all traveling down this road and we are confronted with different beliefs.

We all will respond to those beliefs in a different way.

All of us are confronted with the reality that their is a Creator.

We all also must respond to the message about Jesus.

Who is He?

What did He do?

Do I believe that?

It is this journey that we want to talk about this morning.

I want to ask you, “Where are you on your journey?”

Let’s take a look at some others who were on the same journey as we are and see if we can get any insights.

Read Text.

Pray.

The message today is going to be a series of questions.

The first question is...

1. Have you heard the news?

(vv.

13-18)

What’s so special about Easter?

Is it just another holiday?

We know it has something to do with Passover and Jesus.

The history shows on television and the magazine covers all have teaser headlines that promise to tell us the real story of Jesus.

Is there something we don’t know?

The truth is that for some people, the answer is yes!

Only, not what the history shows and magazines might have you believe.

Jesus is such an important figure that two major holidays are celebrated because of Him (Christmas and Easter).

We also know that time is divided by His coming.

They may try to disguise that now by using the BCE and CE designations (Before the Common Era/Common Era) instead of BC (Before Christ) and AD (Anno Domini or “In the Year of Our Lord”), but the events that divide time are still the same events related to the birth of Christ.

So what is the news?

The news is that Jesus came to this earth for you!

He didn’t just come a long time ago, but he came with a mission to fulfill.

He came to save you.

I won’t go into much more of this just yet, but the truth is that there was a man who lived approximately 2,000 years ago; and He turned the world upside down.

He claimed to be God’s Son sent to earth to redeem mankind because of our sin.

We had missed the mark of God’s holy standard for our lives.

In other words, we are born into this world in rebellion against God.

That is high treason and is punishable by death!

Jesus came to fix all of that.

He came to save us from our sin and death sentence.

He also came to restore this fallen world to its former glory, all for the glory of God.

He offers us an olive branch from the Creator of the universe.

All of this took place the first Easter.

It was sort of like a hijacked Passover, only Passover was intended to point to Jesus in the first place.

It was a foreshadowing of the fact that God would “pass over” our sin and spare us from death by allowing His firstborn Son, Jesus to stand in our place.

The act that allowed this to happen was the crucifixion of Jesus.

Jesus’ crucifixion was a citywide event.

Everyone, and I mean everyone, knew about it.

People were there in Jerusalem from all over the country of Israel and the Roman provinces to celebrate this high holy day, the Day of Atonement, when the sacrificial lamb was offered by the high priest for the sins of the nation.

This was the day that Jesus was crucified.

It was the same time the lamb was slaughtered for the community of Israel that the true Lamb was offered up on the cross.

Jesus was accused of treason against Rome because He claiming to be a king.

The Jews accused Him of blasphemy, because He claimed to be one with God Himself.

It is into this environment that our story takes place - three days after Jesus has been crucified.

To make things more interesting, there are rumors that the tomb is empty!

Everyone is hearing the news, and the chief priests are scrounging around for a cover story.

The guards are terrified, because they could get the death sentence.

These Roman soldiers ran away from their post because they claimed the ground shook and an angel appeared to them and rolled away the stone.

And then there are those who are skeptics who don’t believe all the hype.

Something has happened for sure because Jesus’ own disciples are now on the move!

Two of them are on the road heading to a town called Emmaus, about seven miles away.

Let’s see if we can catch up with them!

2. Who is Jesus....to you? (vv.

19-21)

After Jesus joins their party and pretends to be unaware of the events that have taken place, the travelers fill Him in on what’s going on.

The Bible says, their eyes were kept from seeing him for the moment.

But, what they say next is critical to understanding our own journey.

You could essentially ask the question, “Who is Jesus to you?”

They had misconceptions about who Jesus was supposed to be.

They said that some people saw Him as a prophet.

A prophet had a message from God.

Today people would call him a guru or a preacher.

He is a spiritual person that has some insights into life.

But the thing is, you can live without your guru or preacher.

In the Bible, prophets died and were killed all the time.

It was sad, but life went on.

Other people said he was a miracle worker.

Some people might call Him a charlatan, but he was the real deal.

Do you know how popular a person would be that could really work miracles?

Have you ever seen those big tent events that have some well-known “healer” come and speak to the people.

They claim that if you have enough faith you can be healed of whatever ales you.

For those of you that aren’t all that spiritual, you might consider him a really good doctor that can treat almost any disease known to man and come up with a cure.

Maybe you might see him as some kind of Doctor House with better manners.

But if Jesus is just a healer, what happens when eventually you die?

I mean no one can avoid death!

And Jesus is not here now in the flesh, so what’s going on?