Sermon Tone Analysis

OPENING SLIDE

May I extend the warmest of welcomes to you on this most special day of the year.

Today is Resurrection Sunday and we gathered this morning to overtly and loudly celebrate the Living Christ and His defeat of humanity’s greatest foes - sin and death.

On Resurrection Sunday, we celebrate the Risen Christ, who proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that He was who He claimed to be and that what He said was true - today is truly the most special day of the year and we are supremely glad you have decided to share it with us.

INTRODUCTION

The story of what Christ did and why we celebrate is called the Gospel which means “Good News.”

PAUSE

Now, when many people say “Good News” - they mean, “Oh I got a raise,” or, “I hit nothing but green lights on the way home from work...” But that’s not what we mean...

The Gospel or “Good News” is not like that at all - when the term is used, think - TONE “The war is over,” or, “We just found out that the cancer diagnosis was wrong - it was a mistake!”

The Gospel is the beating heart of Christianity and the most summarized form of the Gospel is found in 1st Corinthians 15.

Please turn there if you would… If you don’t have a Bible we have copies in the pew seat in front of you.... INTRODUCTION

1st Corinthians 15 is quite likely the most abbreviated form of the Gospel in all the Bible.

It is short, it is to the point it tells us that Christ was crucified and died for our sins but was raised from the dead and all who believe in Him have eternal life, now… if you are a Christian these are some of the sweetest words you will ever read.

I will pick it up in verse 1.

1st Corinthians 15:1-5 Now I make known to you, brothers, the gospel which I proclaimed as good news to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, 2 by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I proclaimed to you as good news, unless you believed for nothing.

VERSE SLIDE

3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.

The Gospel is the Good News of how people avoid eternal judgement and death and it revolves around the death, burial and resurrection of Christ Jesus.

If you are perishing, if you are convicted, condemned of sin - and we all are, the Gospel is very Good News!

Because the Gospel tells us how we can be saved from sin, how we can avoid eternal death in hell, how we can be united with the One that literally loved us to death!

Those that receive the good news, those that hold fast to it, those that believe it have eternal life through Christ, right now.

MAIN POINT

That is the main point of the message today and one which we are not meant to miss.

Do not walk away from this sermon without knowing, without understanding this point.

Because of Christ's life, death, burial and resurrection the believer can know, the believer can have supreme confidence that their sin is atoned for, death is conquered and that they are united with Christ forever

That is what today’s message is all about - if you get nothing else, get this because it truly is Good News.

BLANK SLIDE

Let’s pray

PRAYER

Oh Father God, what thanks can we render to You for sending Your beloved Son, Jesus, into the world.

To live perfectly without sin, to die in our place and to be raised by You from the dead.

How can we thank You adequately?

How can we ever give You enough praise?

We cannot, it's impossible and that is why we look forward to eternity with You where we will gather with all Your holy ones, praising You for our salvation from eternal death.

Father, Your generosity knows no boundaries and so we ask that Your Holy Spirit would be at work today.

May we worship You, Triune God with full hearts to bursting because of what Your Spirit does in us today.

We ask these things not because we are so good, but because Jesus is.

It is in His name and in the power of His shed blood we pray, amen.

PAUSE

SERMON

We opened the message with the summarized version of the Gospel out of 1st Corinthians - now we are going to read the detailed account from the Gospel of Matthew.

We will be reading through the narrative in chapter 27 and 28.

But first, here is the context,

CONTEXT

Christ has been betrayed by one of His disciples, Judas.

And Jesus has been abandoned by His disciples - every one of them has left Him.

He has stood alone before the Annas and then Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin who brought in false witnesses to testify against Him.

Caiaphas asked Jesus point blank if He was the Christ and Jesus said, “You yourself said it.”

To which the High Priest declared, “Blasphemy!” and condemned Him to death.

Since they had no power to carry out the death penalty they brought Jesus in before the Roman Governor - Pilate and he couldn’t find any guilt in Him.

He was sent to King Herod, who asked Jesus many questions and Jesus was silent before Herod so Herod sent Jesus back to Pilate in a brightly colored robe.

Pilate declared Jesus to be innocent but the Chief Priest and Elders whipped the crowds in Jerusalem into a frenzy and demanded that Jesus be crucified… and Pilate agreed SLIDE

So Pilate handed Jesus over to be scourged and crucified.

The King of Israel - slain for our sin

We join the text in Matthew 27:33

I.

The King of Israel - Slain For Sin (27:33-56)

A. The Crucified Christ (Psalm 22)

33 And when they came to a place called Golgotha, which means Place of a Skull, 34 they gave Him wine to drink mixed with gall; and after tasting it, He did not want to drink.

(GALL IS EITHER A NARCOTIC TO DULL PAIN OR A POISON THAT KILLS - CHRIST REJECTED IT VERSE 35) 35 And when they had crucified Him, they divided up His garments among themselves by casting lots.

36 And sitting down, they began to keep watch over Him there.

37 And above His head they put up the charge against Him which read, “THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS.”

PAUSE

To be crucified is to have spikes driven through the wrists and feet into a wooden cross.

The one crucified was stripped naked and awkwardly positioned so that if they wanted to breath they would have to pull themselves up.

It was one of the most painful and humiliating means of execution ever devised.

PAUSE

David, 1000 years earlier had described the event it was experienced by Christ saying… VERSE SLIDE

I am poured out like water, my bones are out of joint, my heart is like melted wax, I can count all my bones and I am so thirsty my tongue cleaves to my jaws.

PAUSE

Think about this, Christ knew that He would experience all of this suffering and yet He went through with it pay for, to atone for, our sin.

SLIDE

The Cost of Sin… Verse 38

B. The Cost of Sin (Isaiah 53)

38 At that time two robbers were crucified with Him, one on the right and one on the left.

39 And those passing by were blaspheming Him, shaking their heads 40 and saying, “You who are going to destroy the sanctuary and rebuild it in three days, save Yourself!

If You are the Son of God, come down from the cross.”

41 In the same way the chief priests also, along with the scribes and elders, were mocking Him and saying, 42 “He saved others; He cannot save Himself.

He is the King of Israel; let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe in Him.

43 He trusts in God; let God rescue Him now, if He delights in Him; for He said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” 44 And the robbers who had been crucified with Him were also insulting Him with the same words.

PAUSE

How God did not simply destroy all of humanity at this moment is beyond me… The blasphemy of these people is astonishing… “He trusts in God, let God rescue Him now, if He delights in Him.”

Truly, God does love His Son… He said so audibly multiple times… There is no divine child abuse here - what we are witnessing here in Matthew 27, this is a coordinated and concerted effort between God the Father and God the Son to pay the cost for our sin.

PAUSE

Our sin is not small, it is not a little thing.

Our sin - this is the cost.

PAUSE

The Crucified Christ is who we need to confront every time we are convicted of sin - because this is the cost.

There are no little sins.

VERSE SLIDE

Isaiah 53 tells us that Yahweh was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief because through His sacrifice Christ would justify the many - He would bear their iniquities and this would satisfy the righteous requirement God has for humanity.

PAUSE

Is this not astonishing?

That the Triune God ruptured their eternal communion for my sin and yours!?!

How deep the Father’s love for us, how vast beyond all measure, that He should give His only Son to make a wretch, like you, like me, His treasure… SLIDE

That precious shed blood bought us atonement for sin - verse 45

C. The Atonement Christ's Blood Bought (1st Timothy 2)

45 Now from the sixth hour darkness fell upon all the land until the ninth hour.

46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” 47 And some of those who were standing there, when they heard it, began saying, “This man is calling for Elijah.”

48 And immediately one of them ran, and taking a sponge, he filled it with sour wine and put it on a reed, and gave Him a drink.