Sermon Tone Analysis

Welcome / Prayer

Intro (Resurrecting the Resurrection - Only touching portions, but look at entirety of 1 Cor 15)

Quote from KCCI article:

Here’s the thing about Easter; No, its not Christmas.

It may not even have the panache of Halloween.

But Easter is a solid holiday, and, in our opinion, people just sleep through it.

But really - what’s not to like?

The weather is nicer, you get baskets of candy, you wear cute floral outfits, there’s a built-in activity for little ones with the Easter egg hunt, and seriously, did we mention the candy??

There is no shortage of articles like this.

But, I think we can all agree there is something missing from that news article quote… The empty tomb - the Resurrection!

They completely missed the Resurrection!

Why is that?

Well, one reason is, just like Christmas, there is a long secular history, with secular traditions, that have co-opted much of the attention surrounding Easter.

Part of that is… well, that’s just the world, candy, bunnies and all.

And, a certain amount is driven by business - the desire to make a profit.

But, maybe some of the blame lies with us, the Church, because maybe we don’t fully appreciate, or fully celebrate, the miracle of the Resurrection.

Why is that?

Let me start my answer by saying, as a whole, the Church doesn’t have a problem understanding we are all sinners - we are guilty - and just like if we were guilty of stealing a car, judgment is due for our actions;

And we don’t have a problem understanding that, as much as we may want to own up to our own failings - to make right that which is wrong because of us - we can’t.

We cannot go back in time to undo our sin - it’s permanent, its eternal - what’s done is done.

And if the problem is eternal, the solution must be eternal - and eternal is something we are not.

Hence the need for Jesus, the eternal God, to die on the cross, to take our place, to pay the eternal penalty you and I cannot pay - to save us from our sins.

We get that, we express that, but how often do we fail to follow that “dying for my sins” with “Jesus rose from the dead to give us new life?”

We give a passing nod to the resurrection at Easter, and then it seems to stop being a focal point the rest of the year.

This wasn’t the case for early Christians.

Contrary to contemporary Christianity, the focus of the early church was on the resurrection much more than the cross.

Why?

Well, I cannot explain it better than Paul:

Vain = Empty

Futile = useless (remember - Why does Paul make this connection with sin?)

(pitied also translates miserable = of all people most miserable)

The resurrection is the central key to our faith - without it we have nothing.

So, going back to my earlier question - why isn’t the resurrection more central to modern Christianity?

In short, the Enlightenment (otherwise known as Age of Reason).

From the Enlightenment, our culture has inherited the idea that if you cannot sense it, it is not real - if you cannot see, hear, touch, taste or smell something, it isn’t real, that if it cannot be reduced to a scientific equation, it isn’t real.

So, how does that affect the issue of the resurrection?

Because you and I are influenced by the culture we live in.

And, our culture says if science cannot prove something, it is not real - the idea of “seeing is believing.”

If we cannot sense or scientifically test the miraculous or supernatural, then, it is not real, it is a fairy tale.

And, resurrections definitely fall into the category of the miraculous or supernatural.

(Call me Captain Obvious!)

We all understand death; that when people die, they do not come back to life - except maybe in some zombie horror flick.

No matter how much we may wish, or hope, or pray it so - physical death is permanent.

This is what makes Jesus’ resurrection so special, and for many, so hard to believe...

So, maybe you are sitting here tonight, a bit like Doubting Thomas, thinking, “Unless I can touch His nail-scarred hands, and place my hand into the spear hole in His side, I will never believe.”

Maybe that is you?

(modern culture does not have a monopoly on skepticism).

Or, maybe you believe, kinda, but speaking of it makes you uncomfortable because it is something so odd, so unreal, that you don’t know what to do with it?

Or, maybe you are not like either of those two examples, but still have a hard time talking about it?

Whatever situation you find yourself in, I hope this sermon will help you Resurrect the Resurrection in your faith - or at least help you think more clearly about it.

As most of you may know, my day job - my tent making job - is being an attorney.

So, I view the evidence of the resurrection through the lens of an attorney.

In litigation, cases are proved by evidence - both direct and circumstantial evidence.

A good example of direct evidence is eyewitness testimony - John saw Bob point a gun at a man and take his wallet.

John is an eyewitness - he personally saw the robbery - that is direct evidence.

An example of circumstantial evidence would be that John saw Bob running with a wallet in his hand two blocks from the location of the robbery three minutes after it occured.

John did not see Bob commit the robbery, but the circumstances lead one to infer that Bob was involved in the robbery.

Circumstantial evidence is about inference - what is likely and what is not.

So, what evidence do we have of the resurrection?

First things first, in order to have a resurrection from the dead, you must have a death.

(call me Captain Obvious) And, despite what Dan Brown says in his fiction, or the Muslims in their teachings, or what some fringe, whacked-out scholars say, Jesus was a real, living, breathing human being who was crucified by the Roman government.

Any Princess Bride fans here?

(If you’re not, you should be!)

After being tortured “to death” in the “Pit of Despair,” Westley’s friends, Fezzik and Inigo Montoya, bring his body to Miracle Max as they need Wesley alive to storm the castle… and on and on.

There is a discussion about Westley - whether he is completely dead, or just “mostly dead.”

I mention this because Muslims will say either Jesus wasn’t crucified, or, if he was, he didn’t fully die on the cross - He was just “mostly dead.”

There are also some “scholars” who will do the same thing.

The fact is, there is no reasonable, historical or scientific argument against the reality of Jesus dying by crucifixion.

No legitimate scholars - even atheistic scholars - will deny that Jesus lived and that he died by Roman crucifixion.

Jesus wasn’t just “mostly dead” like Wesley after the Pit of Despair! (Princess Bride) Jesus was fully dead.

With that as a foundation, now things get a bit more interesting...

How about eyewitness evidence?

The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke & John all record eyewitness accounts of meeting the resurrected Jesus.

The Gospels are either personal eyewitness accounts like John, or a recording of eyewitness accounts like Luke.

The Road to Emmaus, appearing to the disciples behind locked doors, appearing to the women, appearing at the beach and eating breakfast, and last, but not least, to bring our earlier quote about Thomas full-circle, Jesus appeared to Thomas and had him touch his hands and had Thomas put his hand in Jesus’ side.

Then Jesus said, “Do not disbelieve, but believe.”

Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me?

Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

We also have the Book of Acts recording first-hand accounts (including Paul’s), Polycarp’s letter to the Philippians (Polycarp was appointed by John), Clement’s letter to Corinth (Clement was appointed by Peter), and 1 Corinthians 15.

JRR Tolkien, in his Lord of the Rings series wrote: “Some things that should not have been forgotten were lost.

History became legend.

Legend became myth.”

Critics today would have you think the resurrection is a myth.

The problem with that theory is 1 Cor 15.

This letter from Paul contains one of the earliest Christian creeds, and it reads:

(set up timeline)(Damascus - 3 years - Jerusalem) (received in Damascus?

or Jerusalem?)

So, we have an abundance of direct and circumstantial evidence of the resurrection.

But, there’s more...

We know Jesus died, we know eyewitnesses claim to have seen him alive afterward, so, how about an empty tomb?

We have Jesus dead, we have Jesus alive, but what about this place where He was buried?

Enter Mary Magdaline, Mary the mother of James and other women.

All 4 Gospels record that the women, going to the tomb to anoint Jesus’ body with burial spices, found the tomb empty.

This is an important piece of direct AND circumstantial evidence.

(Tell why this is important)

Also have enemies confirming this - Matthew records the Guard (singular plural), panicked after this - and rightfully so.

Instead of going to their commander, they ran to the chief Jewish priests.

(finish story)

Enemy attestation, declaration against self interest - have to admit tomb empty, the question is how to explain it.

And, if that were not enough, what about James? (then he met the resurrected Jesus)