Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

In the history of the world there is no single event that is more significant or impactful than the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Taken in conjunction with the events that happened on the cross - because really you cannot separate the one from the other.

They are two acts if you will in the same drama and one means nothing without the other.

Without the resurrection, the cross would mean nothing.

And without the cross, the resurrection would mean nothing.

We’re going to see it all this morning - we’re going to be witnesses of the resurrection as we look at a beautiful morning.

We’re going to see the world’s attempts to hide the truth of the resurrection and then finally we’re going to ask the question “now what?” - what is required of us in light of all that we’ve observed.

Matthew has much to say to us in this chapter so let’s dig in and see what the implications are for us 2000 years later.

Before we do that though, it is important to get a quick overview of what Matthew’s motives were when he wrote his Gospel.

In order to understand what Matthew’s point is in this chapter we need to understand that first century historiography regularly valued both accuracy and ideology even if it did not insist on compartmentalizing the two the way modern historians do.

Matthew had an agenda as he penned these words and every story, parable and event supports his goals in the writing of his Gospel.

Matthew was a Jew writing to other Jews or newer Jewish-Christians.

Throughout his Gospel his purpose is clear: to demonstrate that Jesus is the Jewish nation’s long-awaited Messiah.

His extensive quoting of the OT is specifically designed to show the tie between the Messiah of promise and the Christ of history.

With this understanding lets now open the Word of God and see what Matthew wrote to his audience and how these three seemingly distinct events actually tie together to demonstrate for us how we should be living now.

Let’s pray and then we’ll unpack these stories together.

Oh What A Beautiful Morning

Matthew 28:1-10;

In the mid 1950’s Rogers and Hammerstein were the toast of Broadway musicals, but it was their first effort that set the tone and standard for everything they would produce afterward.

In the early 1940’s they produced the musical “Oklahoma” and included the song “O What a Beautiful Morning”.

The song is sung by Curly who it seems that everything is going in his favor as the show opens - even the corn is as high as an elephant’s eye.

As our story opens however, it would appear to be anything but a beautiful morning.

Christ has been crucified and laid in a grave.

All the hopes of His disciples were crushed.

In fact they were not even present for either His crucifixion or this story.

Instead it was the women who always seemed to be present and closest to Jesus throughout the Passion narrative following His arrest.

His disciples - despite their pledges of undying loyalty and to follow Him to the death - had scattered and were in hiding.

But here we find the women approaching the tomb in order to view.

In his parallel account Mark gives us more detail of what their intentions were.

In Mark 16:1 he writes that the women had brought spices so that they might anoint Him.

The women weren’t going to the tomb to embalm Christ or to preserve His body but to anoint it with spices that would keep the stench of the decaying body to a minimum.

This is a step that was skipped over by Joseph of Arimathea during the burial process most likely because shops had closed by the time of the burial and would have remained closed until the evening prior when the Sabbath would have ended around 6pm.

So now on the first morning following the Sabbath the women are on their way to correct this oversight.

The account that Matthew provides in Matthew 27:57-61 says that it was already evening when Joseph of Arimathea went to Pilate to request His body and that both women named in this account were present when Christ was buried.

As the women approach the tomb another earthquake takes place.

Whether they were actually witnesses to the angel’s arrival and removal of the stone or not is unclear.

But what is clear is that this second earthquake and the arrival of the angel serve as bookend events to the story of both Jesus’ life and death.

Luke tells of the announcements of the angels to Mary and more prominently the shepherds at Christ’s birth, but Matthew also has an angelic announcement as an angel speaks to Joseph to reassure him that he should marry Mary and that what has happened to her is a work of the Spirit.

Now here at the climactic event of Christ’s mission here on earth an angel is present to announce His resurrection.

The other event that provides and exclamation point for the crucifixion/resurrection event is the earthquake that takes place as the grave is opened.

While the earthquake coincides with the removal of the stone from the grave front it likely isn’t caused by that removal as the stone wouldn’t have been large enough to cause a local geological event.

The earthquake during the crucifixion tore the curtain that separated man from the Holy of Holies signifying the opening of access to God for the common man.

The second earthquake during the resurrection opens the way to eternal life.

The threat of death was conquered.

As the women arrive at the tomb they find the stone has been rolled away and an angel is sitting on the stone waiting for them.

The soldiers who were guarding the tomb were laying around like dead men - it must’ve been a shocking scene.

It definitely wasn’t what the women were expecting.

They were expecting to find a stone in place over the grave of their teacher and Lord, they were expecting to have to bargain with the soldiers or someone else to get the stone moved.

And yet here they are and the stone is moved - why?

Why was the stone rolled away?

The obvious answer is to let Christ out of the grave - everyone knows that.

But again why?

Isn’t this the same Christ who had the power to raise Himself from the dead - did He not have enough power then to move the stone Himself?

Isn’t this the same Christ who, just a few days from now, would violate the physical rules of the universe as He appears to His disciples in a room that was completely locked up to the outside world - how did He get in?

The stone wasn’t removed to let Christ out of the tomb - it was moved to let us in.

It was removed to allow us access to the very place where He had been laid, to give the disciples access so that they could testify that He truly had risen from the dead and that His body was no longer there.

Matthew also debunks one of the common objections to the resurrection.

One of the common objections to the account of the women’s testimony is that they were hallucinating or dreaming both the angel and Christ’s.

But these women get up at day break, grab spices and head to the tomb for what?

Does that demonstrate an attitude of expectancy or one of grief looking to anoint a dead body?

They were not physically, emotionally, mentally or spiritually prepared for what they came face to face with.

They approached that tomb that morning consumed by their own thoughts, fears and situation - and they were met by Christ.

They fell at His feet and worshipped Him.

They left the tombs changed women - and with a command “Go and tell”.

What started out as anything but a beautiful morning turned out to be exactly the beautiful morning the women needed.

But why just these two women?

And why Galilee?

Christ sends them with a strange command for His disciples - it’s not strange that He would say Go and tell them but why does He tell them to go to Galilee and they will see Him there.

Why not Jerusalem?

If we were to rewrite the story of the Crucifixion today it would be vastly different.

There would be no rolling away of a stone - it would explode into a million pieces and Christ would march triumphantly from the tomb.

He would walk straight into the Temple courts look the High Priest in the eye and say something cool like “Now what?” or he would carry the nails in His hand and He’d drop them like some sort of cosmic mic drop.

I mean these were the same men who had taunted on Friday that if He could come down off the cross while He was alive they would believe - how much more impactful would it be if He walked out of the grave?

Christianity has never been a faith that can be found through signs and wonders.

All those can do is bring us to a moral life.

The great reformer Martin Luther pledged to give his life to the monastery in the middle of a thunderstorm if only God would preserve him.

But he was so unconverted that he spent the next years of his life trying to earn his righteousness until he came across the words that the righteous will live by faith.

Are you waiting for God to prove Himself to you this morning?

Are you looking for a sign that will point you to belief?

If so, you’re looking in the wrong way and you will only ever achieve a moral life from that.

Christianity is not a faith that can be simply appropriated intellectually without ever having it impact the heart and faith of an individual.

And as we’re about to learn even a spectacle like Christ walking back into the Temple courts wouldn’t have been enough to convert the hard hearts of the Pharisees and the Jewish people.

That They Can’t Hide

Matthew 28:11-15;

There were some that morning who the morning was anything but beautiful.

Stationed outside tomb was a cohort of soldiers given by Pilate to the Chief Priests.

There is a great responsibility to standing guard.

When I was in the Navy we had a Third Class Gunners Mate who fell asleep in the galley on our ship while he was on watch.

Unfortunately for him, our First Class Gunners Mate found him asleep and took his weapon.

Things didn’t really go well for that sailor after that.

In the first century if the soldiers had fallen asleep and allowed the disciples of Christ to steal the body they were responsible for they would be subject to execution.

Yet the Chief Priests and Sanhedrin called some of them in and convinced them to admit to this.

It is amazing - almost shocking - the lengths that the world will go to to keep the truth of the Gospel from being spread.

In 2010 Psychology Today published an article entitled “Top Ten Secrets of Effective Liars” and these are instructive to us in understanding the motives behind the worlds incessant desire to suppress the truth.

The first is to “have a reason” the world’s reason is that they love their sin more than they do God and they will protect that sin at all costs.

They have to lay their groundwork and tell the truth, misleadingly.

False religions have been doing this for centuries.

Some of them have their lies so well refined that they nearly mirror to truths that we teach just with a subtle difference that muddies the water enough to be believable.

They know their target and they strive to keep their facts straight.