Sermon Tone Analysis

Welcome

Good morning again everyone!

He is Risen!

(He is risen indeed) This morning we remember the amazing truth that Jesus rose from the dead.

It reminds us that we are not lost in our sin and that if we believe in Christ death itself is defeated for us.

It really is a great day and a great thing to celebrate.

Today we are going to read the resurrection account from the Gospel of John and will see what details John includes about that miraculous first Easter.

As usual though, let’s take a moment and pray together.

Prayer

Engage

This morning, as we begin to look at the resurrection, I want us to think about the topic of change.

If you look back at different moments in your life when there has been change, do you typically have positive or negative feelings?

For me personally, I feel like they are split pretty even.

You have good changes that happen in life.

A good change might be when you get a new job, when you get married, have a kid, move to a new place, make new friends, there are a lot of good changes in life.

Changes that make you happy and you look back on them with fond memories.

But we also know that there are bad changes.

You can develop a gluten allergy at the age of 40 (A Pastor I worked with in the suburbs actually had that happen), you can lose your job or lose a loved one.

Relationships might change over time and you end up not staying in touch with old friends.

There are a lot of changes that we could probably classify in the bad category.

And because the bad changes often hit us so hard in life, we end up disliking change.

In the late 1800’s the Duke of Cambridge said, "Any change, at any time, for any reason, is to be deplored."

And I think when we experience enough bad change in life, we end up having similar thoughts as this Duke.

Even down to the small things in life.

We don’t want to change because that might make us uncomfortable, it is unfamiliar to us, and because of that we avoid it at all costs.

Tension

But Easter is all about change.

This last week we spent time thinking about everything that Jesus went through in his final days.

How he was betrayed, he was put on trial, and how he was eventually tortured, killed on the cross, and placed in a tomb.

That is where we left off with Jesus on Friday, that is where the disciples and his followers thought he would remain.

But then a change happened.

Things did not stay the same.

In fact, such a large change occurred that first Easter that the entire world is still dealing with it.

When Jesus rose from the dead it created a change for the entire world, but also for each and every person individually.

The change that happened at Easter is not just a cool story we read about, the change of the resurrection is a call to all of us to experience change through Jesus.

Let’s read the Easter account, and see how the change occurs in Jesus, his followers, and how we are also called to change.

The Empty Tomb

Change in the Power of Death

Mary got up early to go the tomb and when she saw that the stone had been moved she goes back at once to Peter and John.

Mary hadn’t gone inside the tomb, but she feared that someone had rolled the stone away and removed the body of Jesus.

Peter and John take off toward the tomb, (notice how John casually mentions that the “other disciple” who is likely him, outran Peter.

That’s called a humble brag).

Peter goes into the tomb followed by John and we read that John saw and believed.

He definitely didn’t understand exactly what this all meant, but he believed that Jesus rose from the dead.

And if I can, I want to go off on a brief tangent.

There are times in life when you need to completely understand something to believe it, but faith in Christ is not one of them.

Even Peter and John, disciples who followed Jesus around for years don’t understand at this moment everything that is happening, but yet they believe.

I could spend the whole sermon talking about the history of the resurrection and why you ought to believe it to be true, but I don’t think that is the best use of our time this morning.

If that is what you need though, there are absolutely resources out there that can help with that.

But right now, I want you to know that even if you don’t fully understand, you can believe in the resurrected Jesus.

The empty tomb though, is the change that continues to affect the world.

The empty tomb, the resurrected Jesus changes the world because out of all of the many things we can do in life, death is one of the few shared human experiences.

Death is unavoidable to us.

We can work out, eat healthy, do all of these good things (which they are good okay, don’t think I’m saying just ruin your body because death will get you no matter what) but at the end of the day it doesn’t matter if you excersice everyday, eat healthy, take medicine, death is a reality that we can not shake.

P

Psalm 39:5 reminds us that our life itself is short and that death is at the end waiting for us.

This is the same mindset that Mary initially has when she comes to the tomb.

It’s empty.

Jesus’ body was here because he had died.

As a result of his death, his life is over.

But the truth is that Jesus’ life was not over.

The change that Jesus brought is that he conquered death.

On our own, we cannot defeat death, but Jesus has defeated it for us.

He has disarmed death for us and calls for all of his sheep.

The author of Hebrews 2 words this beautifully for us.

Do you see how big of a change the resurrection of Jesus brings to us?

We were held as slaves to our fear of death, in fact, maybe that describes you even at this moment.

You’re terrified of death to the point that it keeps you awake at night.

Because of Jesus though, you don’t have to be.

Jesus is able to take all of us out of our slavery to fear of death.

Hebrews is big on pointing out that Jesus is better than everything else, but the point here is that Jesus is better than Moses.

Moses led the Israelites out of slavery of Egypt, but he couldn’t lead them out of death.

Jesus however, does just that.

Because of the death and resurrection of Jesus, we know that this life is not the end.

We are not just mere spectators of the resurrection, we are participants in it as well because of what Jesus has done.

What a great change!

We no longer have to fear death, instead we can live our lives knowing that we will be raised to new life with Jesus as well!

Death no longer has claim over us, and instead we are free to live for what lasts.

We’re free to live our lives showing love towards others because we are guranteed another, better life with Jesus.

That’s the big change, but the change that Jesus brings has a personal affect as well.

The Personal Change of Easter

Mary goes through a remarkable change in this passage as well.

At the beginning of John 20 Mary is concerned because she was going to go to the tomb to see Jesus’ body, and she becomes concerned when it is not there.

That first Easter Mary went looking for a body but she found more than just a body.

Instead of returning to the disciples and telling them she found the body, she tells them that she has seen the Lord.

One way of illustrating this change that came to my mind is about the Titanic.

I know this isn’t going to be a perfect illustration, but bear with me!

One year we went on a family vacation to Branson MO, I believe, the town with all the shows and what not.

But right across from our hotel was a Titanic musuem, experience, I don’t really know what you call it.

One aspect of it was that you could see pieces of the Titanic there.

Now imagine if you went to that, thinking you might see a window or some silverware that was actually one the Titanic, and instead when you walked in you saw the entire Titanic.

Not a replica, not a picture of it, the actual real, physical Titanic that made history.

You went to see a part of it, but instead saw the real deal.

This is the shock that Mary experiences.

She goes to find a lifeless body, but instead she actually finds Jesus.

Are you here this morning searching for something as well?

Did you come thinking that you would hear the same old story that you know already, or did you come with the expectation of meeting the risen Lord?

Like Mary and the disciples, we too can experience the risen Jesus.

It might not be in the same way that Mary and the other disciples experienced, but Jesus continues to call to all of us softly and tenderly.

Jesus desires for you to see him just as they saw him back then, resurrected, full of glory, and calling out in love.