Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Opening Illustration - Picture of a coffin...

At the heart of Christianity is the The claim of Christianity is that a dead man rose back to life.

I mean, this is absolutely ridiculous!

I have been to many funerals over the course of my life and I have approached many corpses during those funerals and to date, none of them woke up!

In fact, I might have died myself if they had woken up!

The claim of Christianity is that a dead man rose back to life.

I mean, this is absolutely ridiculous!

I have been to many funerals over the course of my life and I have approached many corpses during those funerals and to date, none of them woke up!

In fact, I might have died myself if they had woken up!

The thought of a man being raised from the dead is foolishness to the highest order…or is it?

What if it were true?

What if there was a man who actually beat death?

What if there was a man who beat death and that same man made it possible for you to beat death, eternal death as well?

What if you could know today that because of this man’s death and resurrection you could be assured of eternal life?

This is the main idea of the sermon this morning...

Main Idea - Jesus Was Raised From the Dead, Just As He Said! - Do You Believe?

Transition -

Transition - There are three actions I want you to see that the disciples take in , and the first is...

1.

A Walk of Unbelief (vs.

1-5)

It was early Sunday morning, the first day of the week (no Monday isn’t the first day of the week, resurrection day is!), and they, the ladies mentioned in , namely, Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James and the other women...

...walked to the tomb and their walk was one of unbelief.

You may ask, “How do you know they were walking there in unbelief”

Luke

Well, we can tell because they were going to finish the embalming process they were not able to finish on Friday because the Sabbath was upon them...

walked to the tomb and there walk was one of unbelief.

You may ask, “How do you know they were walking there in unbelief” Well, you can tell because they were going to finish the embalming process they were not able to finish on Friday because the Sabbath was upon them...

What does their action of walking with the embalming spices show us?

What did the ladies believe?

They believed that Jesus was DEAD!

They Believed He was still in the tomb.

They were walking there in unbelief!

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Explain -

Verse 1 - "The first day of the week" = Sunday.

"they went to the tomb" = The women mentioned in verse 23:55 and 24:10.

"the tomb" = the borrowed tomb where Jesus had been laid.

Spices?

But when the arrived at the borrowed tomb where Jesus was laid to rest, what did they find?

The stone was moved!

How big was the stone.

No wounded/crucified man had the wherewithal to move such a weight.

Show Picture of tomb...

The entrance of a Jewish tomb was quite small, so the stone needed to cover the opening would only be 4-6’ in diameter, and approximately 1’ thick.

How much would such a stone weigh?

Depending on the type of stone used, it could weigh between 1-2 tons (2000-4000 pounds).[1]

This is quite heavy, but two men could move it into place (; ).

The more difficult task was removing the stone.

Generally speaking, the rolling stone was set inside a groove in front of the entrance, and secured from falling over by a stone wall that stood in front of tomb opening (the rolling stone was sandwiched between the tomb entrance and stone wall as the pictures below illustrate).

Often, the groove was not level, but slightly sloped.

To close the tomb, the stone would be rolled down the groove at a decline and come to rest in front of the entrance.

To open the tomb, the stone would have to be rolled up the groove at an incline.

- https://theosophical.wordpress.com/2011/03/24/the-size-of-the-stone-covering-jesus’-tomb-2/

Verse 2 - The Stone was moved.

How big was the stone.

No wounded/crucified man had the wherewithal to move such a weight.

Verse 3 - The body that was laid there was now gone (just as He said).

The stone was rolled away from the tomb.

There was no logical reason from their perspective why this should be the case.

I don’t know about you, but if I were with these ladies and we came up to a tomb that was supposed to be closed and it, in fact was open, I would go in to investigate.

Come on, you know you would too!

I don’t know about you, but if I were with these ladies and we came up to a tomb that was to be closed and it, in fact was open, I would go in to investigate.

That’s what they did.

They climbed into the tomb only to find it empty!

How could this be?

Did someone steal His body?

That is a logical explanation for one with a heart of unbelief, but there is a better explanation.

An explanation that is given in verse 4 and 5...

That’s what they did.

They climbed into the tomb only to find it empty!

How could this be?

Did someone steal His body?

That makes no sense...

Rev. Gary W. Jensen - Neither the Jewish nor the Roman leaders, who guarded the tomb () would have taken the body.

Rather, both had every motive to produce the body publicly in order to humiliate the disciples and nip their movement in the bud.

And since the scene in question was right at Jerusalem, it was completely within their power to locate the corpse should it still have existed.

Yet to their dismay, no such body was ever produced.

If the Jews had the body, they would have wheeled it in at the day of Pentecost when all Jerusalem was in an uproar because of Peter's sermon on the Resurrection of Christ.

- https://christiananswers.net/q-eden/edn-t012.html

Neither the Jewish nor the Roman leaders, who guarded the tomb () would have taken the body.

Rather, both had every motive to produce the body publicly in order to humiliate the disciples and nip their movement in the bud.

And since the scene in question was right at Jerusalem, it was completely within their power to locate the corpse should it still have existed.

Yet to their dismay, no such body was ever produced.

If the Jews had the body, they would have wheeled it in at the day of Pentecost when all Jerusalem was in an uproar because of Peter's sermon on the Resurrection of Christ.

- https://christiananswers.net/q-eden/edn-t012.html

Neither the Jewish nor the Roman leaders, who guarded the tomb () would have taken the body.

Rather, both had every motive to produce the body publicly in order to humiliate the disciples and nip their movement in the bud.

And since the scene in question was right at Jerusalem, it was completely within their power to locate the corpse should it still have existed.

Yet to their dismay, no such body was ever produced.

If the Jews had the body, they would have wheeled it in at the day of Pentecost when all Jerusalem was in an uproar because of Peter's sermon on the Resurrection of Christ.

- https://christiananswers.net/q-eden/edn-t012.html

That is a logical explanation for one with a heart of unbelief, but there is a better explanation.

An explanation that is given in verse 4 and 5...

That is a seemingly logical explanation for one with a heart of unbelief, but there is a better explanation.

An explanation that is given in verse 4 and 5...

Verse 4 - This was a puzzling/confusing event for the ladies to experience.

Why?

Even though He told them on multiple occasions exactly what would happen, they were still slow to believe.

The two men in "dazzling apparel" were angels of God.

An Angel announced the birth of Jesus and two were there to announce the resurrection of Jesus.

See .