Sermon Tone Analysis

*Come and See.

Go and Tell*

Matthew 28:1-10

*Introduction*:

            The single most significant event in the history of the human race took place on the Sunday after Passover in about the year 30 A.D.  It's the day we're celebrating today –Easter - or as some call it Resurrection Sunday.

No matter what you call, it’s not easy to give a full description.

It’s hard to explain all the emotion, the impact, the eternal implication of that first Easter morning.

It hard to explain it to a 5 year old…trust me, I’ve tried that…but I’m not so sure that it’s not much easier to help a 50 year old grasp the reality.

The resurrection experience is just too big and too important.

And so, we grab hold of the parts the make the most sense to us.

We put these parts together and tell it as we know it to be true.

That’s where it makes the most sense.

Some say you have to “see it to believe it,” but we Christians say that once you’ve experienced it, you can’t deny it!

This past week I heard a great example of this.

A Sunday School teacher who had just finished telling her third graders about how Jesus was crucified and placed in a tomb with a great stone sealing off the only way in or out.

Then, wanting to share the excitement of the resurrection, and the surprise of Easter morning, she asked: “And what do you think were Jesus' first words when he came bursting out of that tomb alive.”

A hand shot up into the air from the rear of the classroom.

It belonged to a most excited little girl.

Leaping out of her chair she shouted out excitedly, “I know, I know, I know.”

“Good,” said the teacher, “Tell us.”

Extending her arms high in the air she sang out: “TA - DA!” 

            That’s the way it was for those who heard about it first.

They knew what had happened.

They were eye-witnesses.

They saw it all…the arrest, the trial, the torture, the murder.

And murder it surely was.

Jesus was dead.

If the crucifixion had not done him in, then the spear through his side had settled the issue.

After the horror was over, a friend named Joseph of Arimathea requested Jesus' body for burial.

Pilate granted the request and the remains were removed from the cross, wrapped in a white linen shroud, and laid in Joseph's own tomb.

A large stone was rolled in front of the entrance to prevent unwanted intrusion.

There were still issues though.

The religious leaders who had instigated the crucifixion came to Pilate and reminded the governor, “Sir, we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, 'After three days I will rise again.'

So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day.

Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead.

This last deception will be worse than the first.”

No problem.

Pilate assigned some soldiers to guard the tomb and seal that stone.

The body lay there from Friday evening until Sunday morning, three days, by Jewish reckoning.

And then suddenly, the tomb is empty, the body gone.

TA - DA!  Let’s read it together.

It comes from Matthew 28:1-10.

Read.

This is the story…simple, yet incredibly profound.

I have to admit that I don’t completely understand every detail, but I do believe it with all my heart.

I don’t know what I would preach if I didn’t believe in the Resurrection of Jesus.

There would nothing worth talking about.

That’s why I am amazed that there are people who don’t believe in the resurrection.

There are even “so-called” church people who don’t believe in a literal resurrection.

A woman once wrote J. Vernon McGee.

She said, “Our preacher said that on Easter Jesus just passed out on the cross and that the disciples nursed him back to health.

What do you think?”  McGee replied, “Dear Sister, beat your preacher with a leather whip for thirty-nine heavy strokes.

Nail him to a cross.

Hang him in the sun for six hours.

Run a spear through his heart.

Embalm him.

Put him in an airless tomb for three days.

Then see what happens.”

The interesting thing about all this is that no one actually witnessed the resurrection.

Nobody was on hand to see the event their own eyes.

What happened was that people met the resurrected Christ and then they were compelled to tell others.

In fact, the disciples themselves had to be convinced of this awesome and stupendous event.

One theologian says it this way, “The event of Christ’s resurrection from the dead, his life and his eternal reign, are things removed from historical scholarship.

History cannot ascertain and establish conclusively the facts about them as it can with other events of the past.

The greatest fact available to historians is the Easter faith of the first disciples.”

Their initial unbelief is actually evidence of the resurrection, because it reveals that they really didn’t expect it to be true.

That’s certainly what we see with Mary Magdalene and the other Mary.

They didn’t expect anything special.

After all, they had seen Jesus die on a Roman Cross.

But early in the morning, just as the light was coming up over the horizon, they made their way toward his tomb.

The only thing that they were expecting was the bleak, cold reality of death.

But, when they arrived at the tomb, they were surprised at what they discovered.

The tomb was open, the stone rolled away, and the body of Jesus gone.

The burial clothes were lying on the stone in the shape of a body, collapsed and slightly deflated, like a glove from which the hand has been removed.

According to the story, an angel of the Lord said to the women, “Fear not, for I know that you seek Jesus, who was crucified.

He is not here: for He is risen from the dead.”

The women then left the tomb and they encountered the risen Christ.

But that was hardly the end of their experience…it was more like just the beginning.

In fact, two times the women are told to go and tell the others.

The emotion, the impact, the eternal implication of that first Easter morning was too great to keep quiet.

The angel says it best, “He has risen, just as he said.”

And that is the Easter Event.

It is a true story, the narrative of an experience relayed in several ways by the Gospel writers.

Mary Magdalene and the disciples and all of the others were overwhelmed with the Easter Event.

They didn’t expect it and it was beyond their wildest imaginations; but it was a reality – He is Risen!

What we see in this story…what see time and time again in the Bible…what we know to be true through our personal experience…is a simple, but profound pattern.

*Come and See.

Go and Tell*.

It has been said that these four words actually encompass the whole of the Christian life and experience.

It all begins with the word *come*.

When the women are afraid…when they fear all hope is lost…when they see the guards that look like death warmed over…the angel invites them to “Come and see the place where he lay.”

That’s why we say with great theological truth, “The stone was rolled away not so that Jesus could out, but so that people could come in.”

The word /come /is a welcoming word.

It is an invitation word.

And this was the word that was spoken first by the angel.

My guess is that you understand this word.

Maybe at some point in time, someone has said to you, “Come see what the Lord can do.”

And you might have had reason, even as these women, to fear.

You might have said, "/I'm not worthy to stand before a holy God."/

And you would be correct.