Sermon Tone Analysis

Prayer

Title: Jesus Is Risen, Really!

Father, will you graciously by your Spirit open our minds that we may behold the wondrous mystery of the resurrection of your Son and our Saviour Jesus Christ.

I ask this for our joy and your glory.

Amen.

Christ is risen!

He is risen indeed!

Really?

But you know, according to the Bible, that’s not how the very first Easter was celebrated by God’s people.

If you say Christ is Risen, the reply will be “Fake News”!

This is what apostle Peter, the leader and spokesperson of Jesus’ disciples, will say to you if you told him that Jesus is Risen.

And all of the apostles will echo that the news of Jesus’ resurrection is pure nonsense!

The word nonsense in v.11 is translated in the ESV as idle talk.

This word appears only once in the entire New Testament and the Greek lexicon define this word as, “that which is totally devoid of anything worthwhile” (BDAD).

That definition certainly qualifies the news that “Jesus is risen” as fake.

Text:

The war against fake news is one that many countries are fighting against.

Our neighbour Indonesia, the third largest democracy in the world just had their presidential elections.

It was so important for them to fight fake news in order to have fair elections.

Now, that definition certainly qualifies

Singapore ourselves, before we were caught up in all the Jewel hype!

But it’s really quite an amazing transformation of a carpark to a Jewel.

I’ll just pass on the A&W, you’re might spend less time crossing the Causeway then queuing at Changi.

Now, before Jewel, many Singaporeans were concerned about the proposed law to fight fake news.

The Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Bill

In yesterday’s Straits Times,… To tackle the problem of fake news, student developed an algorithm that could determine whether a news is real or fake with a success rate of 90%.

Interesting.

I wonder what the result will be if we enter, Jesus Christ is risen?

Why is the world so focused on fighting fake news?

Well, so much is at stake isn’t it?

Fake news can seem to cause the rise and fall of.

kings and nations can seem to rise and fall.

Fake news can damage reputations.

Fake news raises public alarm.

Fake news causes tensions between races, religious groups, between government and public.

Like it or not, fighting fake news is real because the dangers are real.

Damage to reputationCausing public alarmCausing tension between racial and religious groupsCausing tension between public and government

Fake News

Indeed, we need much discernment living in a world of fake news.

No one wants to be fooled.

We don’t like to be cheated.

No one wants to be a victim of fake news.

But friends, there are many newsworthy headlines, but there is no headline more import to verify than this, “Christ is risen”.

There is no more important news to verify that this news, because if Christ is risen, than everything changes.

Nothing is more world-changing that the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Not only is the resurrection world changing.

It’s also life changing.

There’s nothing in your life that the resurrection of Jesus does not touch.

So what we will be doing this morning/afternoon is to test this headline: “Christ is risen”.

And if at the end of this talk, we conclude that Christ is not risen is actually fake news, then all we can do is to repeat what the apostle Paul says in

If Christ is not risen, that we who call ourselves Christians are still in our sins and we, of all the people in the world, just think of the poorest and the person most deserving of pity, you got a picture of him or her? Now, you can replace that picture with your own profile picture, because that person will be you.

You will be the most pitied person in the world if “Christ is Risen” really turns out to be fake.

You will be the poorest fool in the world for believing the fake news that Jesus rose from the dead.

1.

The Resurrection Is Real vv.

1-12

So is the resurrection fake or real?

Well, if you were alive during Jesus’ death, and you met these women early on the first Easter morning and asked them what they were doing, they would have said, “we’re prepared spices and we’re going to anoint Jesus’ body”.

The women were going to the tomb, expecting to find Jesus’ body.

They didn’t believe in his resurrection.

When the women found that Jesus’ body could not be found, they didn’t go, Jesus is risen!

No. Luke tells us in v. 4 that the women were wondering.

Ladies and Gentlemen, it’s wonder-women!

:P They were probably wondering, who rolled the stone away?

And more importantly, where is Jesus’ body?

Introduction: Fake News!

1.

The Resurrection Is Real vv.

1-12

As the women were wondering, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them.

First wonder women, now we have flash!

:P Ok jokes aside, because the women are frightened and they bowed their faces to the ground.

But the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?

He is not here; he has risen!”

What we have here in vv. 5 & 6 is the first news of the resurrection in Luke.

These two men are declaring that Jesus is risen from the dead!

Now the fearful women with faces still in the ground must be wondering even more about what they are seeing and most importantly what they are hearing!

Jesus is risen?

Is it true?

Can it be that the reason that Jesus’ body is not in the tomb is because he is risen?

What could possibly answer the women’s fears?

The men continue in v. 6, Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: ‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’

Then they remembered his words.

The men commands the women to remember.

The answer to the women’s questions and fears is Remember.

It is in remembering the words of Jesus that ends their quest for Jesus’ body in the tomb.

One Bible commentator suggests that the act of remembering may be the most important virtue in Judaism.

In the OT, esp Dueteromy, it’s filled with the command to remember.

Just a rough count, 13 times!

, , , , , , , , , , , ,

Now all these remembers just tells you one thing about human beings— We forget.

How often do we forget to remember God’s word.

So continuing from Moses to

But of course, sinful human beings, by the time we get to

Remembering God’s word is a virtue.

It is in remembering Jesus’ words that causes the women to stop fearing and start trusting.

The women remembered Jesus’ words.

Notice how the men did not say, ‘Look the tomb is empty, therefore believe that the resurrection is real’.

The men did not invite the women to come inspect the tomb carefully and to see for themselves the evidence of the resurrection, for there is none.

The men simply proclaimed that Jesus is risen and command the women to remember Jesus’ words.

Notice how the men did not say, look the tomb is empty, therefore believe that the resurrection is real.

The men did not invite the women to come inspect the tomb carefully and to see for themselves the evidence of the resurrection, for there is none.

The men simply proclaimed that Jesus is risen and command the women to remember Jesus’ words.

APPLICATION: The primary explanation for the resurrection of Jesus is not the empty tomb, but the words of Jesus.

The fact that the tomb is empty, is because Jesus said so!