Sermon Tone Analysis

The Symbol of the Cross

Long before the cross was a symbol of Christianity it was a symbol for another group: the almighty power of Rome!

Rome was the superpower of the day in the time of Jesus.

And the cross was their favourite form of law enforcement for foreigners.

It said to all who would challenge Rome’s power and authority - you mess with us, this is what will happen to you.

You will be destroyed… and in the most painful way we can devise.

No one successfully challenges the power of Rome!

And of course Israel was under Roman occupation.

Despite having a wonderful three year ministry the Lord Jesus had just a few people who followed him.

Those people thought that he was amazing.

Teaching, healing, miracle-working… their hopes were sky high.

As His ministry progressed the evidence mounted… they became increasingly convinced that Jesus is God’s Messiah who will set up his kingdom in Jerusalem, throw out the hated Roman overlords and restore Israel to the former glory she enjoyed under Kings David and Solomon.

But by Friday afternoon the reality was obvious for all to see.

The followers of this so-called Messiah had backed the wrong horse!

Jesus was dying on the cross.

By Friday night he was dead and buried!

Rome had won once again!

The two disciples on the road to Emmaus summed it up pretty well on Monday afternoon.

As they walk back home from Jerusalem to Emmaus, this traveller on the road joins them and asks what they are discussing.

Jesus of Nazareth was a prophet powerful in word and deed before God and the people.

We had hoped he was the one who was going to redeem Israel, but the chief priests handed him over to the Romans and they crucified him.

We had hoped… but… they crucified him.

That’s the end… isn’t it?

O BOY! Was their world about to change.

Transformed completely and (it is no exaggeration to say)… forever!

Jesus explained to them from the OT all that was said about him… and suddenly it all clicked together for them.

But it seems to me that there are still plenty of people in churches that, like the disciples after the crucifixion... are Good Friday Christians.

At some stage in their lives they hoped that Jesus might be the Messiah.

But over the years they’ve become jaded.

Go to church… don’t go to church.

Be good or don’t be good.

What’s it matter?

Everyone lives for a while.

Everyone enjoys some pleasures.

Everyone endures pain and suffering to a large… or less large degree.

Everyone dies and… well, who knows?

That’s a Good Friday Christian.

Are you still stuck as a Good Friday person… or have you become an Easter Christian?

What do you believe about the resurrection of Jesus?

Now I grant you that it is a matter of belief.

Science deals with repeatable evidence… and where science cannot deal with repeatable evidence it merges into a faith.

Water boils at 100 deg C at sea level.

Science.

Testable, repeatable, provable.

Evolution is the (science… or belief) that single cell organisms evolved to the wonderful world in which we live today.

That’s not true science.

That’s a belief.

So what about human death?

Science… or belief?

Well, at one level that would be as repeatable science as you would find.

People die every single day, hour, minute!

And the evidence and our experience says they stay dead.

One week after they are buried, 1000 years after they are buried… they stay dead.

ALWAYS!

EVERY SINGLE TIME!

Dig up graves as often as you like.

Dead people stay dead.

Yet something happened on that Easter Sunday morning?

Something pretty amazing happened!

Here we are 2000 years later and on the other side of the planet… in a church built on the belief of the resurrection and is discussing it again.

Something significant happened on Easter Sunday!

Anyone who takes any history seriously says something significant happened after the death of Jesus?

Some say he didn’t really die, he swooned… and in the tomb he revived and came to life and broke out of the tomb, overcame the guards and showed himself to be the resurrected Lord of life.

REALLY?

That takes more belief in unlikely things than I can muster.

Some say the apostles overcame the guards and stole the body?

Really?

The same apostles who deny him to a servant girl on Thursday night and hid behind locked doors a week later overcame a Roman guard?

Don’t think so.

Perhaps the Roman guard took the body and hid it elsewhere.

No Way!

If that had happened what would the Roman guard have done when rumours started flying about a resurrection?

Produce the body… and everyone go back home.

They didn’t because they couldn’t!

Tom Wright, an Anglican clergyman, scholar from England writes how we often miss the evidence in the gospel records.

The four gospel writers all have written fairly independent records of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

They are four different portraits, obviously of the same person but equally obviously painted by four different artists.

Tom points out that the gospel records don’t give the sophisticated, thought through, search the OT Scriptures to reach new understanding of the resurrection of Jesus that we see in the rest of the NT.

They just report, each in their own way, the events of Sunday morning.

They didn’t try and corroborate… were there one or two angels at the empty tomb?

(Mk says 1. Jn says 2)

These four records look like an early record of the events that happened.

They don’t quote the OT to back up their stories.

In fact John says,

Whatever objections we may have to such a thought, in the days of Jesus a woman was an unreliable witness that could not give evidence in a trial.

Yet it is the women who go to the tomb, see it empty, report back to the apostles AND are the first to meet Jesus.

Don’t see that in Paul… but clear in the gospels.

No first century writer would make that up!

They reported it for one reason: That’s what happened!

Notice also: Nobody said, O well, at least he’s in a better place now.

Nobody said, O well, at least he’s now with God.

Nor did anyone even consider saying, O well, we’ll see.

He said he would be crucified and gone for a few days, let’s have a couple of days rest and we’ll go and see if we can find him on Monday!

Didn’t happen?

Jesus was dead and buried.

Don’t you get it?

He’s dead!

Gone.

Not coming back!

Why?