Sermon Tone Analysis

\\ Sermon for April 12, 2009

Text: Luke 24:1-12

Title: Visiting An Empty Tomb

 

I.)

What does an empty tomb mean to us?

A.) Charles Swindoll tells of playing when he was a boy at sandlot football on a lot next door to a Methodist church at the end of our block in Houston.

There was always a marshy puddle and lots of mud around it because of an outside leaky faucet.

It was a place where locusts would come to find water.

And once a year they would shed their skin.

If you’ve ever seen this sight, it’s incredible.

It looks exactly like a locust about an inch and a half long, but it’s empty.

You pick it up and it’s light as a feather.

It has its legs and it has its carcass, at least the shell about it, but if you squeeze it, there’s nothing but air on the inside.

Somehow, in the amazing way God has made insects, they have the ability to slip out of the shell.

B.) In the same amazing way God made it possible for Jesus to slip out of the empty shell of the tomb.

1.)

For God it was a simple statement of His amazing power.

2.) For those early disciples who encountered the empty tomb it was a mixture of emotions.

3.)

II.) Almost two thousand years later, encountering the empty tomb of Jesus Christ is a mixture of emotions.

1.)

There are those who stand in pure disbelief of the empty tomb

a.) Two thousand years ago those standing in the most obvious disbelief were the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Roman authorities

b.) Their roles and their authority rested on Jesus remaining in the grave.

c.)

They had not believed in Jesus while He walked on earth why should they start now.

d.)

But they were not the only ones filled with disbelief

e.) Interestingly, some of the disciples harbored disbelief

f.)

When the women came and told their story many of the male disciples dismissed the stories because they came from women

g.) Before we condemn those disciples we must remember their mindset

h.)

They had just watched their rabbi, their mentor, their savior die on a cross

i.)

They were probably angry, disillusioned, and felt large heartaches.

j.) Yet while we must have sympathy on the disciples at this point, we cannot ignore the danger of their disbelief

k.) Disbelief can be disastrous, just ask the following New Yorker

a number of years ago there appeared in the /New Yorker/ magazine an account of a Long Island resident who ordered an extremely sensitive barometer from a respected company, Abercrombie and Fitch.

When the instrument arrived at his home he was disappointed to discover that the indicating needle appeared to be stuck pointing to the sector marked “Hurricane.”

After shaking the barometer vigorously several times—never a good idea with a sensitive mechanism—and never getting the point to move, the new owner wrote a scathing letter to the store, and, on the following morning, on the way to his office in New York City, mailed it.

That evening he returned to Long Island to find not only the barometer missing but his house as well!

The needle of the instrument had been pointed correctly.

The month was September, the year was 1938, the day of the terrible hurricane that almost leveled Long Island.

2.) Of course the crowd that actually entertains disbelief is usually rather small.

A much larger crowd is the skeptics.

a.) Before the women encountered the angels their hearts were filled with skepticism.

b.) Notice the question the angels ask the women, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?”

c.)

That same question is asked of us repeatedly

d.)

Why because we all have a touch of skepticism in us

e.) Like those women we look for life in things that only filled with death

f.) Out of fear and grief we think we can find our answers

g.) Once again though, we must remember the power of skepticism

Pyrrho of Elis, Greece, was a young man who, joining the forces of Alexander of Macedon, journeyed through places like Egypt, Babylon, Persia, and India.

During his travels his ponderings led him to conclusions that produced the Greek philosophical school of Skepticism.

Pyrrho maintained that no knowledge could be known for certain, whether scientific, moral, religious or metaphysical.

On all questions of truth, we must suspend judgment, which will lead us, according to Pyrrho, to a state of mind known as Ataraxia—a complete calmness of the soul.

This philosopher is remembered as the ultimate anxious doubter who was not sure of anything, who did not know anything, and was not sure he did not know—who even doubted whether the world itself were not an illusion, and whose friends accompanied him in his walks lest he should doubt the reality of a precipice and walk over its edge to his own ruin.

h.) Skepticism often leads us to only gloomy states.

i.)

Sooner or later we have to decide what we will do about the empty grave

C.) Of course the largest crowd is those who stand by in amazement.

1.)

Most of us like to be amazed.

2.)

Let me illustrate with an incident from my life

a.)

The other day I became fascinated with a card trick on the internet.

b.)

It seemed so simple yet the answer to the trick eluded me.

c.)

I did web searches and most people talked about how juvenile the trick was but I still did not understand how it was done

d.)

I asked Anne and she said, “I don’t fool around with that stuff.”

e.) I probably spent a good thirty minutes trying to understand this trick.

f.)

After long examination I finally figured it out.

g.) Once I figured it out, the trick lost its appeal.

h.)

Since that day, I have not looked at those cards.

3.) Many of us stand at the empty tomb looking in with a mixture of confusion and amazement in our spirit

4.) We desire to believe

5.) We have heard the power of the empty tomb

6.)

So many things in our lives could be changed by the empty tomb.

7.) So we ask, “Is it true?”

8.) But as we ask we also know that the empty tomb leaves little unchanged in our lives so we also ask, “How will it affect my life?”

D.) Maybe it is at that point that we need to remember.

We need to remember what the Easter is all about.

1.) Phillip a mentally handicapped child may provide us with the greatest answer.

Philip was born with Downs Syndrome.

He was a pleasant child—happy, it seemed—but increasingly aware of the difference between himself and other children.

Philip went to Sunday school at the Methodist church.

His teacher, also a friend of mine, taught the third-grade class with Philip and nine other eight-year-old boys and girls.

You know eight-year-olds.

And Philip, because of his differences, was not readily accepted.

But my teacher friend was creative, and he helped the group of eight-year-olds.

They learned, they laughed, they played together.

And they really cared about one another, even though eight-year-olds don’t say they care about each other out loud.

My teacher friend could see it.

He knew it.

He also knew that Philip was not really a part of that group.

Philip did not choose nor did he want to be different.

He just was.