Sermon Tone Analysis

Don’t Waste Easter

Me: I love holidays and events.

Some holidays and events are traditional and some are transformational.

Halloween is a tradition.

In the fall families and friends gather and do traditional things.

A wedding is transformational… The birth of your first child is transformational.

Easter is not traditional it is transformational.

When I approach Easter like Halloween I waste Easter.

When I approach Easter like a wedding I have the right perspective.

So as a Christ follower I’m I wasting my time and life by claiming that God sent his Son on a rescue mission to earth and that mission included a virgin birth, bloody cross and empty tomb?

Bible College mission class… somebody is wasting their time.

There are over 50,000 religions… Let’s look at 5 major world religions -

Hinduism

New Age

Buddhism

Islam

Christianity

Hinduism (Graphic) gives a person freedom to choose how to work toward spiritual perfection.

There are three possible ways to end this cycle of karma: 1. Be lovingly devoted to any of the Hindu gods or goddesses; 2. Grow in knowledge through meditation of Brahman (oneness)...to realize that circumstances in life are not real, that selfhood is an illusion and only Brahman is real; 3. Be dedicated to various religious ceremonies and rites.

New Age (Graphic) teaches a wide array of eastern mysticism and spiritual, metaphysical and psychic techniques, such as breathing exercises, chanting, drumming, meditating...to develop an altered consciousness and one's own divinity.

Anything negative a person experiences (failures, sadness, anger, selfishness, hurt) is considered an illusion.

Believing themselves to be completely sovereign over their life, nothing about their life is wrong, negative or painful.

Eventually a person develops spiritually to the degree that there is no objective, external reality.

A person, becoming a god, creates their own reality.

Buddhists (Graphic) follow a list of religious principles and very dedicated meditation.

When a Buddhist meditates it is not the same as praying or focusing on a god, it is more of a self-discipline.

Through practiced meditation a person may reach Nirvana -- "the blowing out" of the flame of desire.

Buddhism provides something that is true of most major religions: disciplines, values and directives that a person may want to live by.

For many people, Islam (Graphic) matches their expectations about religion and deity.

Islam teaches that there is one supreme God, who is worshiped through good deeds and disciplined religious rituals.

After death a person is rewarded or punished according to their religious devotion.

Muslims believe that giving up one’s life for Allah is a sure way of entering Paradise.

Christians (Graphic) regard the Bible as God's written message to humankind.

In addition to being an historical record of Jesus' life and miracles, the Bible reveals God's personality, his love and truth, and how one can have a relationship with him.

Whatever circumstances a Christian is dealing with in their life, the Bible teaches that they can confidently turn to a wise and powerful God who genuinely loves them.

They believe that God answers prayer and that life takes on meaning as they live to honor him.

Argument: All religions are the same....

—

no god, not type

Hinduism - impersonal god - approached thru deities/statues/idols

Most religions have good points and beauty but that are not the same.

final exist, countless rebirth,

Illustration: COEXIST (Graphic)

Islam - worship Allah - personal god -no secondary gods, total ban on idols.

Your standing depends on religious devotion and works.

end cycle.

Christianity - personal God - send Jesus - show us love - forgiveness

Some beauty and truth in all world religions - but they are not the same,

I want to focus on Jesus today.

Not BCC, not the religion of Christianity or even other Christians.

I don’t want you to focus on my life.

I’ll let you down.

We: Everybody is living for something.

The question is, are we wasting our life?

Does the resurrection really matter?

Yes it matters… without the resurrection our life is wasted.

"If I were an enemy of Christianity, I would aim right at the Resurrection, because that is the heart of Christianity."

- Dr. Billy Graham

Transitions: To avoid wasting Easter we need to grasp the reality and the results of the resurrection.

- As a disciple of Jesus you need to understand the results of the bodily resurrection of Jesus.

- As a doubter you need to research the claims of the resurrection and draw a conclusion based on the realities.

God: Not a new issue.

Paul is dealing with uncertainty in when he writes these verses right in the middle of this chapter…

1 Corinthians

Paul’s desire is for the doubters to understand the significance of the bodily resurrection debate and the disciples to understand their dependence on the bodily resurrection.

In setting up this passage I want to point out several observations…

1.) Paul Communicated Facts Not Fabrications

The Easter message did not catch people of guard and just came out of nowhere.

It was foretold in the OT, illustrated in the Psalms and actually came out of Jesus mouth several times.

1 Corinthains 15:3

Arg: The resurrection is just something family and followers believe!

You don’t know much about Paul do you?

Paul was an enemy of the Christians, his job was to round them up and kill them.

He was one of the most feared icons in the early Christian church.

Until, he met Jesus!

He didn’t switch jobs, start a new career.

He was confronted with a risen Savior and his life was changed by a real event.

Paul didn’t carry on a family tradition or join a club.

He wasn’t sitting on a log somewhere by himself and received a vision.

He didn’t go on a spiritual quest to find himself and came back teaching the bodily resurrection.

He wasn’t enlightened with a higher learning he saw the light.

2.) Paul Never Separated The Resurrection From The Gospel

The gospel is the “Good News” it is what changes lives.

This news has three headlines that cannot be separated.

The cross, the tomb and the empty tomb.

Jesus died a physical death, He was placed in a cold stone tomb and physically rose again on the third day.

Paul never spent one moment compromising the Gospel by disconnecting the components of the greatest story ever told.

He didn’t say well Jesus died on the cross and he was placed in a tomb, but…

But it really doesn’t matter if it wasn’t a bodily resurrection.

But it’s not that important that Jesus is alive today the work was done on the cross.

But the significance is in the spiritual and if a body is recovered it would not affect the faith.

A faith without the resurrection is a wasted neutered faith, a let’s help God across the street like an old woman faith.

Paul never separated the resurrection from the Gospel.

Transitions: To avoid wasting Easter we need to grasp the reality and the results of the resurrection.

1 Corinthians

But in fact… So you do not want to waste your life.

Transitions: To avoid wasting Easter we need to grasp the reality and the results of the resurrection.

I want us to take hold of Easter like never before.

It’s time to be re grip by Grasping The Realities Of The Resurrection

Reality is real!

Did the bodily resurrection of Jesus really happen?