Sermon Tone Analysis

Sermon Idea – We’re not generally excited about finding things are empty, but in the resurrection of Jesus Christ we will be excited about empty.

(Outline & some in sight from Pastor Scott Bayles https://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/easter-2015-empty-promises-of-easter-scott-bayles-sermon-on-easter-200836?page=1&wc=800)

Interrogative – Why should we be excited about empty?

Transition w/ key word – Today we’re going to find exciting encouragement from the empty promises of Easter.

1.

The empty cross provides the promise of forgiveness

Introduction – In this day and age, we don’t get excited about stuff being empty - especially our gas tanks!

It doesn’t happen to me any more now that all of our kids, especially our boys are grown men; but isn’t it discouraging to have a bowl of cereal ready to go and you open the fridge and find the milk is empty?

Because of supply chain issues, I’ve seen pictures of empty grocery shelves at our neighborhood HEB & Walmart.

Because of inflation, we find our checking accounts getting empty more quickly, & retirement accounts draining to empty.

Can I get a witness?

Did you know that empty houses take way longer to sell & get a much lower price than if they are staged or lived in?

People have a hard time getting excited about empty!

Pharmaceutical companies promise if we take this or that pill, it will cure what ails you.

Advertisers say if you buy this or that product it will make all your wildest dreams come true.

So we take the pill, buy the product and find our expectations dashed because of empty promises.

Politicians say elect me & I promise to do XYZ - and yet here we go again with dashed expectations because of empty promises.

People we know, love and trust promise us things we’re counting on and they fail to deliver so we’re disappointed yet again w/ empty promises.

Sadly, b/c we’re promised so much & disappointed so much, we get jaded & might struggle with faith in God; believing the lie of Satan that God’s promises are empty.

Transition - But today, I want to show you how we can actually be excited about empty from God’s Word on Easter Sunday b/c of the resurrection.

Read text 1st Cor.

15:12-19

Why am I so excited about empty?

I’m so glad you asked! 3 encouragements to be excited about empty!

1. Empty cross provides the promise of forgiveness

Explanation - Vs. 13-14, Paul says everything regarding our faith & preaching is tied to the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

If Jesus Christ didn’t rise again from the dead, my preaching & every pastor’s preaching is empty, it means nothing & is a big waste of time.

Faith in God is empty & means nothing!

In vs. 1-4, the Apostle Paul gives us a synopsis of the Gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ.

The Gospel message, “according to the Scriptures,” as Paul puts it here is that Christ died for our sins, that He was buried, and that He rose again all according to the Scriptures!

This is the foundation of everything we believe - A Holy & righteous God must judge sin, but a Holy gracious & merciful God paid our sin debt we owed Him by killing His own Son Jesus Christ as the sacrificial Lamb, buried Him in tomb and raised Him back to life the third day.

Everything we believe as Christians is dependent on the death, burial & resurrection of Jesus Christ!

Notice what Paul said in vs. 3: “Christ died for our sins…” - Plural

If we are honest, we could all say that we’ve done an awful lot or wrong things in our life times.

I’m old enough to remember going to the grocery store with my parents when they had old fashioned cash registers that would literally ring a bell as they totaled up the groceries.

It would go cha-ching, cha-ching, every time and then when they totaled it up, the cash drawer would pop open with another bell tone.

Now if you go to HEB or Wally world, it’s just beep beep beep.

Now picture a long conveyor belt of all the wrong things you’ve done in your life time and God is ringing all that up on a cash register:

Disobedience to parents - cha-ching

Covet your buddies bicycle - cha-ching

Lying that the dog ate your home work - cha-ching

As an adult you loose your temper, swear take God’s name in vain - cha-ching

Covet your buddies car, wife, boat, job whatever - cha-ching

Since it’s tax time - cheat on your taxes - cha-ching

Lustful thoughts - cha-ching, Angry thoughts against someone else, cha-ching.

Think about how much sin is just in our thought life?

Overwhelming!

Not to mention sins of omission, not doing stuff God told us to do - cha-ching.

Fall asleep during my sermon - cha-ching, cha-ching, cha-ching

Obviously I’m kidding on falling asleep!

Just checking to see if you’re awake.

I’ve slept through a lot of sermons when I worked graveyard shift.

How big a tab have you wrung up in just a short time?

Immense.

Too numerous to count.

Your sin debt is so astronomically large there is no way in the world to pay for it.

The Bible says the wages of sin is death (Rom.

6:23) so there’s only one thing it seems God can do, execute you for all that sin!

But Paul says Jesus died for your sins!

Why in the world would He do that?

Since God is holy, righteous & just, He must punish sin completely and He also knows you don’t have what it takes meet His just demands to satisfy this debt.

So He did something we could not imagine, He killed His perfect, sinless Son Jesus Christ instead of you.

He substituted His Son in your place!

Rom.

3:23 “All have sinned & fall short of the glory of God.

Rom.

5:8 “But God demonstrates His own love toward us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.”

I love how the New Living Translation puts it in Col. 2:13-14: “13 You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away.

Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins.

14 He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross.

The empty cross promises forgiveness.

After six hours of agony upon the cross, being mocked, spit on, God the Father even turned His back on His Son, the weight of the sin of the world on His shoulders, Jesus cried out “It is finished!”

(John 19:30).

What makes these words so meaningful is that the phrase translated “it is finished” is tetelestai, an accounting term that means “paid in full.”

When a debtor paid off a debt to a creditor, they would stamp one Greek word on the bill: “Tetelestai” - paid in full.

When Jesus uttered those words, He wiped out all the debt racked up by your sins and mine.

He paid the debt that we could never pay.

That’s why the empty cross promises forgiveness for all our sins.

Application - The empty cross promises the forgiveness of all our sins; but you have to ask for it!

Dying thief: “Lord remember me when you come into Your Kingdom” Luke 23:39-43.

Have you asked Jesus to forgive you and cleanse you of your sins?

Have you accepted His offer of forgiveness?

Admit, believe, confess.

But that’s not all.

Next, let’s examine the empty clothes.

2. The empty clothes provides the promise of faith

Explanation - Paul tells us in vs. 4 that Jesus was buried.

This fact is important because throughout history, there have been skeptics who say Jesus didn’t really die, he just appeared to be dead.

The so-called “swoon theory” is that Jesus fainted and when they laid Him in the tomb, the cold revived Him and He woke up.

I can tell you having served much of my ministry in cold climate, your body naturally wants to hibernate when cold so He wouldn’t have woken up!

Besides the Romans had perfected this kind of execution and they knew when people died!

The Apostle John was an eyewitness.

He was standing at the foot of the cross with Jesus’ own mother Mary.

The last thing Jesus did before crying out it is finished on the cross was place His mother in John’s care as her firstborn eldest son (John 19:25-27).

Listen to John’s eyewitness testimony: [Read John 19:34- 37]

The Jews requested Pilate would have the crucified criminals legs broken to make death occur more quickly so the bodies would not be on crosses on the Sabbath Day.

John 19:32-33 tells us the soldiers broke the legs of the first two, but when they got to Jesus they saw He was already dead so, they didn’t break Jesus’ legs.

Vs. 34 says one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear & immediately blood and water came out.

That soldier pierced the pericardial sack that protects the heart.

Since blood and water came out, we know he punctured Jesus’ heart.

I’m sorry but my Savior didn’t faint on that cross!

He was dead!