Sermon Tone Analysis

I love to study history.

My family hates it, but one of my favorite channels is the History channel and I love to watch shows about WWII, the Civil War, American History, etc. It’s kind of hard when the popular show at my house is Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.

But…one of the things I’ve often thought about - maybe I’m just weird - but, how would our world be different if certain historical events never took place?

I mean, what if the Civil War never occured, and, do you think the men who fought and died realized the magnitude of what they were wrapped up in?

What about going even further back?

What about the Gothic war of the 6th century?

I mean, come on!

Who DOESN’T know about the war between the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantine Empire) and the Ostrogothic Kingdom of Italy?

Who doesn’t wake up every morning and say, “Man, I’m glad the Byzantines won that war!”? Huh? NOBODY!!!

This morning, we’re gathered - just like we do every year - to celebrate an event that took place 2,000 years ago.

We believe that 2,000 years ago, a man named Jesus who, by the way, wasn’t just a man but was God, too, was raised from the dead.

That’s cool, right?

That’s something to celebrate.

For many people - and, let’s be honest - some of us in this room this morning, the resurrection of Jesus is something really cool that God did a long time ago and we come to church specifically at Easter to celebrate it…but we have no idea what impact that has on us.

OR, maybe we do know there’s an impact but it has something to do with us going to heaven one day.

Set up - we’re going to look briefly, this morning, at the three appearances of the resurrected Jesus on the first Easter...

The resurrection of Jesus is a past event with a present impact.

BEFORE READING, EXPLAIN THERE WERE 3 WOMEN...

Set up - we’re going to look briefly, this morning, at the three appearances of the resurrected Jesus on the first Easter...

The Resurrection of Jesus Gives:

LIFE TO THE SEEKING HEART

CLARITY TO THE SEEKING HEART

These women had been with Jesus for three years.

They had heard all that he had said & taught.

They heard his own statements of how he would fulfill the Old Testament prophecies and would die and rise again three days later.

This was their leader.

This is a man that had revolutionized and begun to change the world.

In fact, he gave these women meaning and significance that no one else in their culture would give them.

Mary Magdalene - 7 demons!!!

Can you imagine their shock when they arrived at the tomb that morning?

I mean, just 72 hours before, they had watched Jesus’s lifeless body be taken off the cross, they had helped Joseph of Arimathea bury the body, and watched as the Romans rolled the stone across the entrance of the tomb and seal it!

And now, ALL of that is undone!

And, the most unexplainable thing - there’s no body!

Can you imagine how confusing life had to be? NONE of this made sense!

I LOVE the words of the angel...”Why do you seek the living among the dead?”

The problem of the human heart is that we look for life in dead places.

The problem of the human heart is that we look for life in dead places.

The problem of the human heart is that we look for life in dead places.

Augustine - our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you.

You keep filling your life with relationships - one right after the other - maybe even one hookup after the next…You keep filling your life with addiction - whether that be substance abuse, drinking too much, maybe it’s food, maybe it’s spending…You keep trying to climb the ladder of success and money and social importance…Students - finding your identity and purpose in a good education - a rat race of grades and achievements...WHY?

You keep filling your life with relationships - one right after the other - maybe even one hookup after the next…You keep filling your life with addiction - whether that be substance abuse, drinking too much, maybe it’s food, maybe it’s spending…You keep trying to climb the ladder of success and money and social importance…Students - finding your identity and purpose in a good education - a rat race of grades and achievements...WHY?

Maybe you’re seeking life in religion…dead religion.

In John chapter 4, we read about Jesus’s encounter with a woman at a well.

This woman, we find out, is full of shame.

Why?

She had been married five times and was currently living with a new boyfriend.

In other words, the teller of this story, John, is insinuating that she was a seeker.

She was seeking love, happiness and was looking for it in sex…men.

Jesus - never one to really hem-haw around or beat around the bush - speaks right to her heart.

John 4:13-

Explain briefly - the temporariness of happiness.

Only the resurrecting King of Life can give us unending love and joy and peace and forgiveness and LIFE!

The Resurrection of Jesus Gives:

HOPE TO THE HURTING HEART

Luke 24:13-

Luke 24:24-

We don’t know know much about these two disciples.

We don’t know if they were two of the 12 or if they were part of the larger group of “devoted followers” or “disciples.”

That’s not the point.

What I want you to see is how these two men were reacting to the death of Jesus.

Verse 17 says that “they stood still, looking sad.”

And, verse 21 - “But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.”

For these disciples, hope had died on Friday.

They had put all of their hope, all of their dreams, all of their life expectations into this man from Nazareth - as they say, “a man who was a prophet might in deed and word before God and all the people.”

And now, all of those dreams and hopes were - as far as they knew - sealed behind a stone guarded by a Roman soldier.

It was all over.

End of story.

They were hurting.

Crushed hopes.

Crushed Dreams.

Crushed Expectations.

The wages of sin is DEATH…we are under the curse of death…10 out of every 10 people die.

By dying and rising again, Jesus has defeated death.

Jesus has ended death.

He he crushed sin on the cross and defeated death on Easter morning.

Death is not powerful over him and he sets those who are in him free from the curse of death.

1 Corinthians 15:54-

There was a man whose wife died and as he was driving his children home from the funeral, one of them said, “Daddy, I don’t understand, where did Mommy go?

I don’t understand what it means that she died.”

The man was trying to figure out how to explain death to his kids when, just then, a truck passed by and cast a shadow over the car.

He looked back at the kids and said, “Kids, would you have rather been hit by the truck or hit by the shadow?”

Well, of course, they would have rather been hit by the shadow because the shadow doesn’t hurt things.

It just darkens things for a moment.

Then, in his own wisdom, the man said these words, “Kids, when you die without Christ, you are hit by the truck.

When you die with Christ, you are only hit by the shadow.

The shadow is all you get.”

The hope that Jesus’s resurrection offers us is the fulfillment of the words of - death is just a valley of shadows.

Death is not the end for the believer.

In fact, the entire hope of the early church was that - “You can kill us but we will rise again.”

1 Corinthians 15:51-

You know, too, our God specializes in resurrections…maybe you - crushed…hopeless - marriage, etc.

He raises the dead.

The Resurrection of Jesus Gives

ASSURANCE TO THE DOUBTING HEART

Resurrection - History’s greatest hoax???

You might be here as a doubter - doubting if this is all real.

Doubting if God can love you.

Doubting if God can work in your life/situation.

Jesus’ Resurrection was a Physical Resurrection

There are some skeptics/unbelievers who say that if Jesus did rise from the dead it was purely a spiritual resurrection.