Sermon Tone Analysis

Easter Story

While driving to church on Easter Sunday a few years ago, I told my children the Easter story.

“This is the day we celebrate Jesus’ coming back to life,” I explained.

Right away, my son, Kevin, three, piped up from the backseat, “Will he be in church today?”

—Peggy Key, Portage, Michigan

The Cross is Empty; The Cave is Empty thus The Church should be Full

Full of What?

Let’s find out.

Make your way in your physical Bibles to the Gospel of Matthew.

If you are fairly new to reading the Bible, and not sure where to find it, the Bible is divided into 2 Testaments, Old and New making up 66 books.

Keep flipping from the middle backwards till you find the page with big bold letters saying New Testament - Matthew should be 2-3 pages after it.

If your a tech person and like the digital Bible you kinda already know what to do, so just type in Matthew 28:1-9.

As most of you already know, we moved here from Illinois, Southern Illinois in particular.

Much or most all of Illinois is flat land, 2nd flattest state behind Florida, but Southern Illinois is not.

It has the low deltas of the Mississippi, Ohio and Illinois rivers combined with its bluffs which include many Rock formations and Caves now part of the state park system - Garden of the Gods and Cave in Rock along the Ohio area; Giant City and Pine Bluff along the Mississippi.

Along the Illinois River a little north of where we lived is a place now known as Starved Rock.

Starved Rock is a place of many legends as to how it got its name, but the most prominent one comes from a Native American Legend.

In 1673, French explorers Louis Joliet and Father Jacques Marquette passed through an area along the bank of the Illinois River about 100 miles south of Chicago.

They built Fort St. Louis atop Starved Rock in the winter of 1682–83.

In the 1760s, Chief Pontiac of the Ottawa tribe, was in Southern Illinois attending a tribal council meeting the Illinois and the Pottawatomie (Allies of the Ottwa) tribes, an Illinois-Peoria brave stabbed Chief Pontiac.

Vengeance arose in Pontiac’s followers.

A great battle started.

The Illiniwek, or Illinois tribe, fearing death, took refuge on the 125 foot great bluff.

The Ottawa and Potawatomi surrounded the bluff and held their ground until the hapless Illiniwek died of starvation, giving rise to the name Starved Rock.

Starved Rock and all such monuments and cemeteries are testimonies to the corruptive effect of sin on the world—death.

I imagine over the years the telling of this legend often brought forth much sadness and mourning - especially to those who have a personal connection.

What a contrast we see in Matthew’s account of a cliff and a cave, used as the tomb of Jesus.

This account, however is not a legend.

This account of an empty tomb, the telling of Jesus’s resurrection is one of 5 different Holy Spirit inspired accounts we have in writing here in the NT.

Starved Rock is a monument of suffering and death.

The cross involved immense suffering and the ultimate sacrificial death of our Savior.

Yet, death was not the final chapter in his life.

Jesus conquered death!

The empty tomb where Jesus once lay is a celebration of life!

v.9 - Amplifies that truth.

Here Jesus uses the normal word of greeting for their time - but its literal meaning is “Rejoice” He tells them to be cheerful, to be calmly happy and unafraid after having receiving the news given them by the angel of the Lord.

This is the only concern Matthew has in sharing this encounter with Jesus, nothing about how he looks, only what he tells them to do.

Move forward 2000+ years

The Cross is Empty, The Cave is Empty thus The Church Should be Full of:

Rejoicing in Jesus

These women were the last at the cross and the first at the tomb.

They saw both were empty and were told to be filled with Rejoicing.

The One to tell them was Jesus - “behold” - an emphatic and vivid word telling us that Jesus was right there in front of them.

Rejoice in Jesus because He is a Risen Jesus

The other week I went with Silas 7th grade field trip to Chattanooga and got to walk all over town on a ghost tour hearing stories of dead people being seen again - but only in pics and midst of smoke and light

This was no early morning Jerusalem ghost tour - Jesus dead the night before was now alive and the grabbing of the feet provides incidental confirmation of the physical reality of the Risen Jesus.

If His body were stolen, it was stolen by either friends or enemies.

If by enemies, they would have produced it and silenced the disciples.

If by friends, they would not have willingly given their lives for a lie, and His friends did not even believe that He would rise from the dead![1]

[1] Wiersbe, W. W. (1992).

Wiersbe’s expository outlines on the New Testament (p.

99).

Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.

Science says that if an experiment repeats itself over and over again it becomes infallible proof:

There are 9-10 Recorded post appearances in the NT:

Mary Magdalene (maybe alone then here with the other Mary)

2 disciples on road to Emmaus

Peter

To 10 and other w/o Thomas

To the disciples with Thomas

To the 7 disciples @ Sea of Galilee

To His brother James

To 500 in Galilee

Those in Jerusalem before the ascension

It is undeniable from scripture that many believed their master and Messiah was alive after being crucified and buried dead.

Easter is about the Resurrection.

Rejoice in Jesus because He lives but don’t just rejoice today only.

Rejoicing in Jesus is for every Sunday.

As one pastor posted on Twitter, “If I only preach about the resurrection on Easter, then I am doing it wrong.”

Look back with me at v.1 - This was dawn on Sunday morning.

Some people have difficulty with the timing of Jesus prediction of being in the tomb 3 days and nights.

The Jewish people during this time had a different way of describing time frames.

They weren’t as literal as we want to understand what Jesus.

To them even 1 hour was considered and described as day and night

Their calendar and days were different - Sunset meant the change to the next day

Jesus dies on Good/Black Friday around 3 PM, sunset around 6 PM meant it changed from Friday to Saturday (their Sabbath) but also could be described as one day and night

Saturday the Sabbath was one literal day and night

The time between Sunset Saturday evening and the Dawn of Sunday morning could be considered day and night

God sure is at work here in Pleasant Ridge.

I told some pastors the other day I am blessed; whatever I have felt God wants me to put out to you in the way of ministry, missions and purpose - you guys have picked it up and ran.

I really noticed that with those 3 words I felt compelled to share, which are the pillars or peaks of our purpose as a church.

Rejoicing, Rooted and Reaching

Our purpose, our reason for existing begins with Rejoicing in Jesus and Rejoicing in Jesus begins with the Resurrection.

Rejoicing in Jesus is what we do during our Weekly Worship Gathering because Rejoicing in Jesus is about worship.

It is worship.

v.9 - tells us - when they heard Him say “Rejoice” they came and fell at his feet, held them and worshiped him.

To take hold of the feet is at one and the same time intimate and profoundly self-subordinating - which is itself an act of worship.

This is a picture here in this verse of speechless wonder mixed with overwhelming adoration - adoration is worship.

There at His feet these women were in a great moment of faith and cheer.

Rejoicing is the combination of faith and cheer (the absence of fear) - Rejoicing is worship.

Rejoicing in Jesus is not just for Sundays.

Rejoicing in Jesus is for every day.

If you are a Christian, then Rejoicing in Jesus should be part of your righteous DNA that he replaced for your sinful nature.

Rejoice in Jesus because He is a Redeeming Jesus

The empty tomb proves we serve a Risen Savior and the resurrection is the completion of the Redeeming work on the cross.

These events here are the reverse of the curse.

These women, the gender used to introduce sin into the world that day at the beginning of time and humanity, are the first to see Jesus, the first to receive the good news/gospel that the ransom paid by the Redeemer had been accepted by Holy God the Father.

By His victory over death every person who believes is given the Hope/Assurance of Eternal life.

Following an Easter service in 2003, a woman approached a pastor and asked, “So what happened with Jesus after the resurrection?”

“Well, he ascended into heaven and he’s still alive,” the pastor said.

“I know he was resurrected, but is he really alive?” she asked.