Sermon Tone Analysis

Resurrection Hope

Luke 24:1-12

“He is not here; he has risen!

Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee.”

Luke 12:6

He is risen!

He is risen, indeed!

This was the cry of the early church and is still is our cry today.

He is risen!

He is risen, indeed!

The stone has been rolled away and the tomb is empty.

The resurrection of Jesus from the dead is the foundation of all hope!

Over the past seven weeks of Lent, we have been journeying to Jerusalem.

We have been waiting and watching in hope.

We have looked at theme of hope for seven weeks.

Hope is the confident expectation of something we are sure of!

Our passage for this Easter morning comes from the Gospel of Luke chapter 24.

The resurrection is recorded in all four Gospels.

I encourage you to take some time this week to read the resurrection accounts.

What is it that you believe?

What is it that you hope for?

What confident expectation are you sure of?

Before we come to our reading today, let us stop before the throne of glory and offer a prayer.

“God of resurrection hope, give us the same resurrection hope today that filled the hearts and homes of the early disciples.

The tomb was empty.

Jesus was alive—just like he said.

Fill us with this same hope; a hope that will never disappoint us, a hope that will sustain us in every situation and circumstance that we face.

Give us Resurrection Hope this morning as we study your word.

Amen

Luke 24:1-12

On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. 2 They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3 but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4 While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them.

5 In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?

6 He is not here; he has risen!

Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: 7 ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’”

8 Then they remembered his words.

9 When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others.

10 It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles.

11 But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense.

12 Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb.

Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.[i]

Have you heard of the movie “Unbroken”?

The title of the book is “Unbroken: A World War II story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption.”

It is the story of Louis (Louie) Zamperini, a former American Olympic distance runner and World War II prisoner.

Zamperini was shot down in his B-24 bomber; the Green Hornet.

Zamperini lived to tell about his 1943 airplane crash in the Pacific Ocean.

Zamperini survived the crash and then drifted in a life raft for forty-seven days.

He was then captured by the Japanese.

Zamperini spent twenty months in a Japanese prison camp where he endured physical and mental torture.

His courageous story and ultimate victory is told in the movie “Unbroken”.

The book reached the number one spot on the New York Times bestseller list and was acclaimed by Time Magazine as “The best non-fiction book of 2010.”

When Zamperini was finally rescued from the prison camp, he returned to California a hero, only to fall victim to another enemy which also imprisoned him --- alcohol.

Zamperini often told the story of his rescue from his second prison—of alcoholism because his story gave hope to other weary hearts who longed to be saved from the mental anguish, disastrous circumstances and physical defeat of addiction.

After Zamperini was set free from both the Japanese prison camp and from his addiction to alcohol, he returned to Japan after the war.

Listen to how Laura Hillenbrand records this story in her book after Louie Zamperini received Christ:

When [Louie] thought of his history, what resonated with him now was not all that he had suffered but of the divine love that he believed had intervened to save him.

He was not the worthless, broken, forsaken man that the Bird, the general of the prison camp, had striven to make him.

In a single, silent moment, Zamperini’s rage, his fear, his humiliation and his helplessness had fallen away.

On the morning Zamperini received Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior, he believed he was a new creation.

A year after trusting Christ, Zamperini returned to the Sugamo Prison in Japan where he met with his former captors, all except for the Bird.

When Zamperini was told that the Bird had committed suicide, “he felt something he had never felt for his captor before.

With a shiver of amazement, he realized it was compassion.

At that moment, something shifted sweetly inside him.

It was forgiveness, beautiful and effortless and complete.

For Louie Zamperini, the war was over.[ii]

The war was over!

Forgiveness!

Beautiful!

Effortless! Complete!

That is the promise of the resurrection!

This is the joy of the resurrection!

This is the hope of the resurrection!

The war between good and evil, heaven and hell is over!

Because the tomb is empty we have been offered forgiveness!

Beautiful!

Effortless! Complete!

Let’s look at our Scripture for today and enter into the story.

The women have returned from the empty tomb and have shared the good news: Jesus is not there!

He has risen just like he told us in Galilee!

Our good friend, Dr. Luke, tells us that the disciples did not believe the women “because their words seemed like nonsense.”

The Greek word for “nonsense” is “leros” and it is translated as “Nonsense, idle talk, chatter, mere trash, delirium and humbug.”

Hear it this way: “The disciples did not believe the women because their words seemed like nonsense, idle talk, chatter, mere trash, delirium and humbug!”

I would have loved to have been in that room.

This had been a terrible weekend.

It had been a horrible Passover.

Their best friend, Jesus, had been crucified and placed in a borrowed tomb by Joseph of Arimethea and Nicodemus.

The Sabbath was now over and the women had gotten up early on Sunday morning, before sunrise.

Together they carried over 100 pounds of spices.

They were going to anoint Jesus’ body for his proper burial.

If I were there, I’d be thinking, “Didn’t they just leave?

How come they’re back so soon?

What do you mean, ‘Jesus isn’t there’?

You saw two men that looked like lightning?”

I don’t know about you, but I’m thinking maybe the stress of the weekend has gotten to them.

I’m thinking they must be delirious after all that’s happened.

We are told in the next verse that Peter got up and ran to the tomb.

Remember Peter?

He had had quite a Passover, too.

Three times he denied ever knowing Jesus—and then the rooster crowed.

Peter went away from the crowd and wept bitterly.

In the second it took that rooster to start crowing, Peter knew.