The Victory Has Been Won!
Part 1
Sermon Notes: Easter
Saturday, March 22,
2008 & Sunday, March 23, 2008
Rev. Jim O’Neal,
Senior Pastor
Matthew 28:1-10 NRSV
1After the Sabbath, as the
first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to
see the tomb. 2And suddenly
there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord, descending from heaven,
came and rolled back the stone and sat on it.
3His appearance was like lightning,
and his clothing white as snow. 4For
fear of him the guards shook and became like dead men.
5But the angel said to the
women, “Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was
crucified. 6He is not here;
for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. 7Then go quickly and tell his
disciples, ‘He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of
you to
8So they left the tomb
quickly with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. 9Suddenly Jesus met them and said,
“Greetings!” And they came to him, took hold of his feet,
and worshiped him. 10Then
Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my
brothers to go to
A.
Introduction
1. Store Window Crucifixion
a. In
a large city, a man walked down the side walk peeking into the store windows,
doing a little window shopping. He
stopped at one window and stared for the longest time. It was during the Church Season of Lent and a
Christian store owner had placed a scene of the crucifixion of Jesus in one of
his windows. A little boy walked up next
to the man. Since the man did not seem
to have a clue the boy thought he would help.
The lad said to the man, “Them’s Roman
soldiers.” The man still said
nothing. The boy pointed to the Lord and
informed, “That’s Jesus.” Still no response. The boy went on, “They killed him, you
know.” The man, having satisfied his
curiosity, started to walk away.
Suddenly he heard the patter of small feet, and felt a tug on his
sleeve. It was the boy. “Mister,” he said, “I forgot to tell you the
most important part. Jesus is alive
again!”
b.
That indeed is the most important part!
2. Today’s Scripture: Matthew 28:1-10
a.
Matthew’s Gospel is quite clear about this truth: “The angel said to
the women, ‘Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who
was crucified. He is not here; he has
risen, just as he said.’” “Suddenly
Jesus met them. ‘Greetings,’ he said. They came to
him, clasped his feet and worshiped him.” (Matthew
28:5, 6a & 9 NIV)
b.
Jesus, who had been dead, came back to life! So what does that mean to us? It, of course, means wonderful and glorious
things that the Son of God was raised from the dead! This wonderful Easter morning I will discuss
two of these great truths, and next Sunday two more.
B.
We no longer have to fear death!
1. Rocket to Heaven!
a.
We live in a culture with some strange attitudes about
death. Our society wants to deny it and
hide from the reality that everyone is going to die. This is because we fear death. There is a company now based in
b.
Of course, you and I know that outer space is not the same as
God’s Heaven. The physical heavens above
are not the same as the spiritual Heaven of the Bible.
2. Family Circus Comic Strip
a.
We humans fear death. Bil Keane who draws the Family Circus Comic Strip has dealt
with death in a moving and loving way.
In one of his strips the family is coming home from a funeral. One of the older children asks, “Will we see
Granddad again?” Mother says, “Well
yes. We’ll see Granddad someday when we
go to heaven.” Little P.J. pipes
in: “Could I just wait in the car?” P.J. doesn’t know if he’s ready to make a
trip to heaven. Like many people he is
afraid of death.
b.
In the beginning, when God created us, we were not made for
death. We were made for life! Death came about as a consequence of human
sin. Our sin makes us unworthy to be
with God. Even one sin is an abomination
to the Almighty. On our own merits we
deserve spiritual death for disobeying God.
However, God loves us too much to let death have the last say. So, God sent His Son Jesus, and Jesus has
conquered death! Because Christ lives,
we can live too! All we have to do is
trust in Him. We no longer have to fear
death.
c. In
another Family Circus Comic Strip, Grandma through prayer is talking to
Granddad. Billy has been listening. She invites him into her room, and she tells
Billy that she believes Granddad is alive in Heaven. She tells her Grandson to close his eyes in
prayer and imagine what Granddad might be doing in Heaven. Billy closes his eyes and sees his
Grandfather chatting with friends, singing in the angel choir, and talking to
Billy’s guardian angel, who needs help watching over Billy! Grandma has no fear of death. She has heard the angel speak of Jesus: “He has risen from
the dead!” (Matthew 28:7 NIV)
The resurrection of Jesus says that neither should you or I fear death.
C.
We no longer have to fear life!
1. Aurora and Tithonus
a.
Easter, also, tells us that we no longer have to fear life. There are worse things than dying. In Greek mythology, Aurora the goddess of the
dawn falls in love with Tithonus a mortal youth. Zeus offers her the gift of anything she
wishes for her mortal lover.
b.
However, she forgot to ask that he remain young forever, so Tithonus just grew older and older, but could not die. His body decayed and wasted away. He was filled with great pain, and the gift
of immortality became a curse. Dignity
and quality of life mean a lot to most people.
2. Bird in a cage
a.
There are things more precious to us than our lives. A young boy, who liked to cage wild
creatures, was finally cured of his behavior.
Not content to hear the mockingbirds sing from the trees, he caged a
young bird to have a “singer” all his own.
He hung the cage on the porch.
The second day in the cage the baby bird’s mother flew over with some
food. This was fine with the boy. She could feed him and he’d keep him. The next day the young bird was dead. Perhaps there were too many distractions for
her to feed her baby properly. Perhaps
as some believe, she poisoned her own baby bird rather than leave him in
captivity.
b.
There are many things worse than death. Tune into a talk show and listen to the
anguish of a family whose loved one has been murdered. Listen to the pain of a woman who has been
verbally abused, physically assaulted, or raped. Watch the news and see the suffering of
innocents at the hands of a pedophile or a dastardly dictator. Life is filled with heartaches,
disappointments, frustrations, hurts, and sometimes even unspeakable pain. Indeed, at times life can be more painful
than death. And at times people fear
more than anything this thing called living.
3. Christ Jesus is with us!
a.
One of the great messages of the earthly life of Jesus is
this: Jesus is always there for us! Indeed, the life of Jesus from birth to death
to resurrection illustrates this truth.
Matthew in the beginning of his Gospel, speaking of the birth of Jesus,
said it well: “Now all
this happened in order to make come true what the Lord had said through the
prophet. ‘A virgin will become pregnant
and have a son and he will be called Immanuel.’ (which
means, ‘God is with us.’)” (Matthew 1:22-23 TEV)
b.
Easter has for us a great message of hope. It tells us that, in Jesus, God is with us. That was one of the great reasons why Jesus
came to this earth. Living among us,
teaching us, loving us, dying for us, and coming back to give us eternal life,
was God’s powerful way of saying, “In Jesus, I am with you always. You are not alone. I care about you. I have not and will not forget you. I will never forsake you. Do not be afraid. I will get you through, over, past, and
around all the difficulties of life!” (See Hebrews 13:5)
C.
We no longer have to fear life… continued
4. Drama:
THE TRIAL OF JESUS
a. In
John Masefield’s drama THE TRIAL OF JESUS, Procula
the wife of Pontius Pilate receives a report that certain people are saying
Jesus rose from the grave. She excitedly
asks Longinus, her Roman soldier body guard:
“Do you think he is dead?” Longinus
replies, “No, I don’t.” Procula wonders, “Where then is he?” The soldier states, “Loose in the world, lady. Loose in the world, where
neither Jew or Roman or anyone else can stop him!”
b.
My friends, the spirit of Jesus is loose in the world. He is there to help you get through this
thing called life. And he who defeated
death and evil is able to help you no matter what it is that you face in this
life. His grace is sufficient, capable,
powerful, and available. All you have to
do is ask. And our Lord is there to give
you the victory!
D.
Conclusion
1. Recap: Today, we look at two great
truths of Easter. Because Jesus rose
from the grave:
a. We no longer have
to fear death!
b. We no longer have
to fear life!
2. Next Sunday: Next Sunday we
will share two more Easter joys:
a. Easter is about
victory!
b. Easter tells us
that people matter!
(4)
The
Victory Has Been Won!
The joyous message of Easter:
1. We no longer have to fear death!
2. We no longer have to fear life!
3. Easter is about victory!
4.
Easter tells us that people matter!
Matthew 28:1-10 NRSV
1After the Sabbath, as the first day of
the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other
Mary went to see the tomb. 2And
suddenly there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord, descending
from heaven, came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. 3His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. 4For fear of him the guards shook
and became like dead men. 5But
the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid; I know
that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. 6He is not here; for he has been
raised, as he said. Come,
see the place where he lay. 7Then
go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from the dead, and
indeed he is going ahead of you to