Sermon Tone Analysis
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Text:
Who are you looking for?
Text:
Theme: In Christ’s first post-resurrection appearance to Mary, we find the Gospel story in microcosm.
We learn here that faith rests in truth, comes by grace, and works through love.
Theme: In Christ’s first post-resurrection appearance to Mary, we find the Gospel story in microcosm.
We learn here that faith rests in truth, comes by grace, and works through love.
Last Sunday we celebrated what is rightly called the Festival of the Resurrection.
It commemorates what Christians believe is the most momentous event in the history of the world.
Jesus, who is God incarnate, rose from the dead after accomplishing God’s redemptive work by dying on the cross as a substitute for sinners condemned unclean.
Then, 3-days later, rising from the dead.
Last Sunday we celebrated what is rightly called the Festival of the Resurrection.
It commemorates what Christians believe is the most momentous event in the history of the world.
Jesus, who is God incarnate, rose from the dead after accomplishing God’s redemptive work by dying on the cross as a substitute for sinners condemned unclean.
Then, 3-days later, rising from the dead.
In my 40 years of ministry I have used the Lenten Season to preach on the great themes surrounding the crucifixion, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.
The “seven sayings from the cross” have frequently been center-stage in that preaching.
There is always much anticipation leading up to Good Friday, and Easter.
It arrives and we celebrate with a renewed spiritual intensity.
And rightly so.
Then, like most churches, we quickly move on to other themes after the celebration of Easter Sunday.
This year, as I re-read the story of Christ’s Passion, I came under the conviction that I needed to look at, and preach about, the post-resurrection sayings of Jesus.
In the first 40 days after the resurrection Jesus appeared to both individuals, and groups of individuals — large and small.
He spoke words that we need to hear, and to think about.
Then, those 40 days were followed by 10 days of waiting for the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples at Pentecost, an event which birthed the church.
It occurs to me, that as Christians, we spend lots of time looking at the week of our Lord’s Passion.
We are particularly familiar with the events surrounding his Triumphal Entry and crucifixion.
We know the seven sayings from the cross.
How many Christians, however, know the seven post-resurrection sayings of Christ?
How many Christians have studied that 50 day period after the resurrection?
With that in mind were going to take a short break from our trip through the book of Revelation to look at the post-resurrection sayings of our Christ.
We will disc ver that they can be mapped to one of five appearances.
The first two sayings correspond to Mary Magdalene, and most likely Mary, the mother of James, and are found here in chapter 20 of John’s Gospel.
Read the text: .
Read the text: .
I. THE RESURRECTION IS RATIONAL
I. THE RESURRECTION IS RATIONAL
ILLUS.
Suppose one day next week you go to your mail box and find an envelope from
some law firm.
It’s very official looking, and it tells you of a distant relative who has died, and left you a one million dollar inheritance.
You check the return address and note that the letter is not from Nigeria.
You’re probably going to have two feelings simultaneously.
The first is great joy at the possibility of your newfound fortune.
And, secondly, skepticism — is this real?
Let’s face it we live in a day of fraudulent schemes, and scammers are getting extremely sophisticated in the way they bilk money out of innocent people.
But my guess is that you would check it out.
You just wouldn’t throw that letter away.
Why?
Because the offer is just to astounding for you not to check it out.
1. the resurrection of Christ is just like that
a. you might be skeptical about it, but it behooves you to check out
b. because the offer — if it is true — is just too great to pass on
2. let’s face it — it’s a fantastic story ...
a. a man dies a horrible death, and is pronounced dead by competent authorities
b. he is embalmed, and laid in a sepulcher that is then sealed and guarded
c. a few days later he is reported by a number of eyewitnesses to be alive, whole, and
talking to friends
1) I’ve been to a fair number of funerals, and I’ve stood at many a grave side —
death seems pretty final
3. but in Christ we learn that, though death may have its “sting” that with death comes
victory for the believer
a. the resurrection does not offer believers some kind of vague afterlife experience
1) it offers you a new and perfected body
2) it offers you life in a renewed perfect world
3) it offers you the eternal presence of the living God
4) it offers you the fellowship of the saints — many of them loved ones and friends
4. like the letter promising you a $1 million inheritance from somebody you never have
met it sounds almost too good to be true
A. THE EMPTY TOMB IS AN ASTOUNDING STORY
1. early, on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene makes her
way to the tomb of Jesus only to find the stone removed from the entrance
a. she immediately hurries back to Jerusalem to find Peter, and “the other disciple”
(who is the apostle John) and breathlessly tells them “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”
2. stunned, Peter and John both go running toward the tomb, and John out runs him
a. getting their first, John peers into the tomb and sees the linens that wrapped the
Lord’s body lying on the slab
b.
Peter arrives, and quickly enters the tomb
1) he also sees the shroud and the face covering neatly folded to one side
3. when the Bible says in that Peter saw the strips of linen lying on the slab,
it’s not the normal word for seeing something
a. it’s a word from which we get our word theorize
1) it means to observe something intently, looking for an explanation
2) it’s the process of trying to find a rational explanation for an event
b. you’re looking at something, and you’re thinking, you’re rationalizing, you’re
investigating
1) Peter is thinking—“How do I explain this?”
2) He’s thinking to himself,
a) “We didn’t take the body.
And if we didn’t take the body who did?”
b) “If the Jewish leaders took the body, what did they do with it?
And why would
they take it?”
c) “If grave robbers took the body, why would they take time to neatly fold the
grave clothes?”
c. he is reasoning, and so to is John
4. why do I point this out?
a. there are many people today who think that, just because you’re Christian, you have
suspended your reasoning process
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