Sermon Tone Analysis

2010-04-11 (am) (Easter) Luke 24:36-49 Stand Up!

 

            Before we dive into our text this morning, I want to highlight a few things that happened between Good Friday and Easter Sunday.

On Saturday, the chief priests and the Pharisees, break their Sabbath observance.

They go to visit Pilate.

Now, what in the world would make them break Sabbath, something they were loathe to do?

The day before, when they brought Jesus before Pilate, they scrambled to make sure that everything should be finished before the Sabbath started.

So why are they breaking Sabbath?

Matthew fills us in.

He says, the Pharisees and the Sadducees remembered what Jesus had said about rising from the dead after three days.

Now, the Pharisees believed in the resurrection, but the Sadducees did not.

But as neither wanted to lose their power over the people, the Sadducees went along with the Pharisees, under the pretext of stopping the disciples from stealing the body and trying to fake the resurrection—think /Weekend at Bernie’s/.

Both groups considered Jesus a fraud, but the Sadducees figured that if Jesus’ disciples could claim that Jesus was raised from the dead, there’d be no stopping them.

Now, it is interesting that they bring this up, the bit about the disciples; because we know that the disciples had no such plan.

They were devastated.

Though prepared by Jesus, warned that he would be given into the hands of men, be killed and after three days he would rise, they didn’t understand what he said.

The resurrection was the last thing on their minds.

They fled, they feared for their own lives, they didn’t go anywhere near the grave until Sunday.

But the Pharisees and the Sadducees remarkably took Jesus at his word, even though they considered him an imposter.

So, they asked Pilate to secure the tomb.

The Sadducees wanted to stop the disciples.

The Pharisees wanted to stop Jesus.

Pilate ordered a huge rock placed over the tomb; he had it sealed, so that no one could tamper with it.

He gave them a guard of soldiers.

A typical Roman guard was 60 soldiers.

This guard may have included as many as 60 soldiers.

Coming from the Sadducees, this was a good tactical move.

Such a strong, well-trained guard would have had no problem dealing with the disciples, if their plan had been to steal Jesus’ body.

Coming from the Pharisees, this plan was just plain dumb.

It was dumb because the disciples weren’t going near the place, and because they should have known that no force on earth that could prevent Christ from fulfilling his predictions.

There is no force on earth that can prevent Christ from fulfilling his predictions.

Jump now to Jesus’ words for his disciples, for us, in the passage I read.

There is no force on earth that can prevent Christ from fulfilling his predictions in us.

Listen:

          Jesus opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures.

Think of a pitched battle.

The General surveys the situation.

He gets reports from his sentries.

He understands the lay of the land; he anticipates the way the war will go.

He has to make the plan plain to his subordinate commanders, so that they can lead the soldiers in the fight.

Jesus opened the disciple’s minds to understand the scriptures.

This is the battle plan.

Stop fighting people.

People are victims.

The battle is “against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Eph.

6:12).

Congregation, the battle isn’t being fought here among us, or among the people of the world, whether they identify themselves as Atheists, Pagan, Muslim, or anything else.

The battle is against the forces of evil that blind people, that binds them and keeps them in darkness.

We are soldiers of the light.

We raise our weapons of truth, which shine bright light into the dark places, so that their minds can be opened to know the truth, to understand God’s revelation of how the world really is, as described in the Holy Bible.

From the beginning, the battle has been spiritual.

Satan tempted Adam and Eve.

The result was sin; the wages were death.

And that’s why Jesus had to die.

In order to win forgiveness of sins, Christ had to conquer death.

Jesus goes into battle.

On Good Friday, Satan throws the fatal blow.

Christ goes down, down into the grave.

On Sunday, today, Christ comes up from the grave, alive.

Jesus binds Satan.

Jesus destroys Satan’s greatest weapon, death.

Christ’s followers preach repentance and the forgiveness of sins—the removal of the death sentence.

And ever since then, this good news has been preached throughout the world.

Yes, it began in Jerusalem and quickly spread throughout the world.

Jesus’ disciples were witnesses of these things.

They witnessed the resurrection.

Jesus stood there before them in flesh and blood.

He was really, truly alive!

They all saw it.

It is fact.

The Pharisees got it right, and were powerless to stop it!

Jesus is alive!

Jesus was standing right there!

We don’t have to have Jesus stand right here in order for us to believe.

We have the disciple’s testimony.

But Jesus wasn’t just speaking to those disciples alone.

He was speaking to us as well.

There are two things for us to act upon, Stand up, and be clothed with power.

We are Christ’s disciples, are we not?

We are soldiers in the Lord’s army, are we not?

Didn’t the children sing, “Stand up!”  So, that’s the first thing Jesus calls us to do.

We stand up for him.

We bear witness to his resurrection.

We tell people that Jesus is alive, he is the messiah, and he is the Lord of our lives.

How do we do this?

Well, we could go door to door, and ask people if they know about Jesus.

We could hand out helpful tracts, and stories.

We could highlight good things that we do as a church and a denomination.

But really, that’s been done before, and, I don’t know about you, but it isn’t very effective when people come like that to my door.

What is another way, a better way?

Really, the best way is to take Jesus as your Lord, by giving your life to him.

Do you know what they used to do during the medieval period when knights would swear loyalty to a king?

They would approach the king who was sitting on the throne, with their drawn sword in hand.

They would lay the sword down at his feet, then lay face down on the ground with their hands extended like this.

Then the king would put his foot on their neck.

Then they would promise their service to their Lord.

We offer ourselves in the same way.

We humble ourselves, we lay down our tools, we let Jesus put his foot on our necks and we pledge our allegiance to him.

We willingly give our lives to serve him, in whatever way he demands.

Then we live our lives as Christ commands us to live them.

We do our very best to be faithful.

We work hard at our jobs.