Easter Sunday Sermon
Luke 24:1-12
"God’s Yes, to the World’s No"
24:1* ¶ But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices which they had prepared.
2 And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb,
3 but when they went in they did not find the body.
4* While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel;
5* and as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead?
6* Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee,
7 that the Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and on the third day rise.”
8 And they remembered his words,
9 and returning from the tomb they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest.
10* Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them who told this to the apostles;
11* but these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them.
Grace and Peace to you from our Lord and Saviour, Jesus who is the Christ. Amen
The following is a true Easter story by Roger Hawthorne
One of the first Easters of my ministerial career began with a blizzard. I was still a student pastor, and we had arranged to have an ordained pastor come to serve communion. There was a question if he would be able to make it through the storm. To add to the misery, shortly after breakfast, we received word of the death of a woman, one of the 12 brothers and sisters who were members of the congregation. Between the storm, the probable absence of the minister, and the death, I began to anticipate my wife and me having a worship service by ourselves. I stumbled from the parsonage to the church to be sure it would be warm in case anyone should come, then fought my way back for another cup of coffee. This was a blizzard--I could not see the road from the parsonage.
At church-time, I entered the back room, and there were all the teenagers who composed the choir. Eventually the ordained minister stumbled in and I marveled at his dedication to have fought that storm for more than fifty miles...The organist slipped out to begin her prelude while the choir, the minister and I consoled ourselves that perhaps at least a few people had come to the service. Then the organ volume lifted and we began to march in. there in the front row sat the husband and children of the deceased woman; they had driven 30 miles. Around them were aunts, uncles and cousins and they were so packed in the nave that some of them had to stand. Never before had there been so many people in a worship service there.
The organist moved into the first hymn,"Jesus Christ is risen today, alleluia!" In the front row, singing as loudly as any, with tears streaming down their faces,were the husband and children of the deceased woman.
The custom was they were used to coming forward to receive communion at the rail. We bent the rules so that I could help serve. The last man I reached with the wine was the new widower, whose children ranged from elementary to high school in age. My eyes must have been asking a question, for as he replaced the communion glass, he quietly took hold of my arm and whispered, "She has gone home, and we thought we should come home today too, especially today."
Outside the storm raged on, but no one minded for inside the resurrection was being celebrated. And for a certain divinity it was the first time he ever really understood the resurrection.
"If a man die shall he live again?" Yes, for eternity."
Yes, Easter is God’s answer to the world’s no.
In the quiet of that first Easter:r’ morning, God’s ’hand reached down into the tomb where his son lay, his hand picked him up, breathed life into that body and knocked the stone; away.
From that moment, God’s yes was heard in our world of nos. God’s triumphant yes, to all the nos of hatred, sin, oppression, anger and injustice rose above the dust and ruin that mankind made of tis world.
God’s yes, God’s victory, God’s rule on that Easter morning rose above the smell, the cruelty of that Good Friday. God’s yes rose above the cruelty of he cross, the selfishness of mankind.
In the Easter event God’s place of glory, honor, power, might, and’ majesty were once again secured. He won, through his son God defeated the forces of sin, death and the power of the devil. God won on Easter. God triumphant mightily.
God came out with the victory. Mankind on the cross tried to defeat God. Mankind tried to be in control of salvation and even God himself. And to all when Jesus died on the cross, when they took his lifeless body down and laid it in that borrowed tomb, to all it looked indeed that God had lost.
Surely, thought the religious leaders, people will see and believe that this man Jesus of Nazareth was a fake. If God were truly on his side he would not have let him die on the cross, he would have sent his angels to release him from so cruel fate. Yes, thought the rulers, now you will believe
that we have the true religion, we have the market on God. Now don’t you see we were right all along.
But on Easter morning, God won. On Easter morning God proved to everyone that he was in charge. On Easter morning God’s yes, God’s cry of victory could be heard over the faint cries of the world’s nos. God had triumphant. He won.
Christianity is the only religion in the world that can point to an empty tomb. Every other world religion has a dead leader. But Christ is alive. He arose! He arose!
Blot the resurrection out of the story of Christ and you may as well blot tour Christ himself. Blot out Christ, and you may as well blot our God. For all our true conception of God, and all our true affections toward God grow out of a love relationship to Him, which Christ gave to us through the cross and the resurrection.
Heaven is not empty but the tomb is. God has won and the victory is ours.
As the text says: While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel;
5* and as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead?
"Why do you see the living among the dead?" We do not seek the living among the dead no longer as God said yes to life.
We who live in this imperfect world can marvel at the resurrection. We who have known brokenness, illness, death, grief, loss can appreciate the resurrection even more. For the resurrection says yes to all the world’s nos. The resurrection says yes to us who live now with the unfinished creation. The resurrection says yes to us as we deal daily with the unfairness of live.
"The Baptist preacher Carlyle Marney visited a college campus. A student asked, ’Dr. Marney, would you say a word or two about the resurrection of the dead?’
Marney answered, ’I will not discuss that with people like you.’
When the student wanted to know why, Marney said, ’Look at you, in the prime of the life, potent -- never have you known honest-to-God failure, heart-burn, impotency, solid defeat, brick walls, mortality. So what can you know of a dark world which only makes sense if Christ is raised?’" 1
In this dark world, the resurrection says yes to us. Yes, Christ lives, Yes there is something more beyond the grave. Yes, there is a Saviour who now walks with you in this world of brokenness. You are not alone, but Christ is our guide and comfort on the path of life.
A closing story reminds us of the power of the resurrection in our lives:
Well known preacher Tony Campolo belongs to the Mt Carmel Baptist Church in Philadelphia, USA. He tells of an extraordinary sermon preached one Good Friday by the church’s pastor. It went for one and a half hours - enough you might think to turn anybody off. But it had the opposite effect. It was electric, with one line repeated again and again: "It’s Friday but Sunday’s comin’!".
The pastor started softly: "It was Friday; it was Friday and my Jesus was dead on the tree. But that’s Friday, and Sunday’s comin’!"
Then his voice grew louder. "It was Friday and Mary was cryin’ her eyes out. The disciples were runnin’ in every direction, like sheep without a shepherd, but that was Friday, and Sunday’s comin!’"
The congregation started picking up on the mood. They were calling out encouragement. The pastor kept preaching, increasing the volume until he was shouting. "It was Friday. The cynics were lookin’ at the world and sayin’, ’As things have been so they shall be. You can’t change anything in this world; you can’t change anything.’ But those cynics didn’t know that it was only Friday. Sunday’s comin’!"
"It was Friday! And on Friday those forces that oppress the poor and make the poor to suffer were in control. But that was Friday! Sunday’s comin’!"
"It was Friday, and on Friday Pilate thought he had washed his hands of a lot of trouble. The Pharisees were struttin’ around, laughin’ and pokin’ each other in the ribs. They thought they were back in charge of things, but they didn’t know it was only Friday! Sunday’s comin’!"
For an hour and a half the pastor worked that one phrase: "It’s Friday, but Sunday’s comin’!, "It’s Friday, but Sunday’s comin!’". By the end the congregation were at fever pitch. The pastor finished by screaming at the top of his lungs "It’s Friday" and the 500 plus congregation yelled back "But Sunday’s comin’!"2
Sunday is here praise the Lord.
Amen
Written by Pastor Tim Zingale April 2, 2007
1 from PreachingNow
2 Source: Reported in Tony Campolo, It’s Friday, But Sunday’s Comin’ (Word, 1985)
