An Empty Tomb?- So What?! Series

Easter Day AAW 11 April 2004, WBC, 10am

SongPro background. Props: ropes, tent, parts to play, cue disciples, shroud, grow bags

“N” signifies next item in Songpro for projector (song or powerpoint)

PPT 1 – page 1 comes in automatically

“AN EMPTY TOMB?- SO WHAT?!”

10am

Introduction: -David

Welcome - inspiring reading from a Gospel account (prob John 20:10-18)

The Easter shout: “Christ is risen!” “He is risen indeed, hallelujah!” PPT 1- page 2

N- songpro JESUS CHRIST IS RISEN TODAY (3 verse version, pumping)

N- songpro YOU LED ME TO THE CROSS

N- PPT 2Offering (Instrumental reprise of YLMTTC)

10.12am

PPT 2 “we’re going to play detectives and investigate the alternatives to Jesus rising from the dead” – David

1 SWOON- Ewen PPT 2

Let’s imagine Jesus ‘swooned’. Fainted. Fell asleep on the cross. Then- woke up in tomb and came out. (automatically goes to ‘swoon?’)

Need a strong person! To represent Jesus. Volunteer: (Robin!)

- he was scourged (bone & metal. ‘halfway death’)- can’t do that to Robin (shame!)- so let’s tie his hands together as equivalent to that

- carried his cross and nailed to cross for 6 hours- so let’s tie his feet together

- laid in a cold tomb for 36 hours, no food or water- so let’s tie his hands to his feet for that

- they embalmed him- 75 lbs of smothering smells- so let’s tie a few bags of potatoes to him for that

…. And he ‘comes to’, wriggles out of the wrappings and pushes the stone away- from INSIDE

- put Robin in a tent (?) and he has to get out?

What is the verdict of the detectives?- could he have done that?

= impossible! The stone was “very large”

- then he walks 7 miles and appears “radiant”?! (“Lord of life”)

- No- he had to be dead. “Swooning is not a possibility” PPT 2

o Jews were experts in death

o Plus testimony from someone Jn 19:33 (not a doctor, so probably didn’t know he was giving clear evidence of death)

10.25 am

N- songpro IN THE TOMB SO COLD

N- songpro THANK YOU FOR THE CROSS

Very youngest kids go out?

Prayers – led, David

10.30am

N- PPT 3

2 STOLEN –Ewen

“Let’s look at whether someone could have stolen the body once dead, and then made out He had risen” (Swoon & Stolen appear automatically)

Romans? PPT 3

- Roman soldier/Alice : “Don’t tell anyone but I took the body!”

- Detective 1/ Lauren: “well, why did you do that, then? What’s your motive? (microphone plus camcorder?)

o Soldier/Alice: “well….uuumh…”

- det 1/Lauren: “was he a threat to you Romans?”

o Soldier/Alice: “well….uuumh…”

- det 1/Lauren: “would you make money if the body ‘got away’

o Soldier/Alice: “well, actually- I’d be in big trouble…”

- det 1/Lauren: maybe you just didn’t like the procurator- and so felt it was okay to take his seal off the tomb?”

o Soldier/Alice: “well, actually- that’d be treason and punishable by death….”

- det 1/Lauren: oh- so you’re gonna die for taking the body! You are in big trouble!!

o Soldier/Alice: “only joking! I don’t have the body”

What’s the verdict, detectives- would the Romans have taken the body?

Jews? PPT 3

- Jew- MARK COLE: “Don’t tell anyone, but I took the body”

- det 2- BEN COLE: “what did you do that for, then?”

- Jew/Mark: “So the disciples couldn’t say he rose from the dead… like He said He would”

- Disciples (Ewen/David/Neil): “he is risen, he is risen!”

- det 2/Ben: that didn’t work very well, then, did it?!”

- Jew/Mark; “nope. But I still took the body!”. “oooh! I do wish they’d STOP going on about Him being raised!”

- Det 2/Ben: “just show them the body!”

- Jew/Mark: “uuuuuuuuummmmh”

- Det 2/Ben “plus- you’re in big trouble with the Romans for nicking it”

o Jew/Mark: “only joking! I don’t have the body”

What’s the verdict, detectives- would the Jews have taken the body?

Disciples? PPT 3

- Disciple/ Neil Simpson: “Don’t tell anyone, but we took the body”

- Disciples + (Ewen/David/Neil): “he is risen, he is risen!”

- Jew/Mark Cole: “okay: Peter: you’re going to die upside down on a cross for your faith…. James…. Andrew…. (get the list)

o Disciple/ Neil Simpson: “only joking! we don’t have the body”

What’s the verdict, detectives- would the disciples have taken the body?

PPT 3“Nobody stole the body-If they had, they would have produced it !”

10.37am

N- songpro LED LIKE A LAMB TO THE SLAUGHTER - David

N- songpro HERE I AM AND I HAVE COME- David

10.45am

N- PPT 4

3 STRESS- David

“let’s have a look at whether the disciples could have been so stressed out the imagined Jesus had risen” (will automatically bring in Swoon, Stolen, stress)