[Propertalk] Fwd: Easter Day Sermon Resources - Part 1

[Joe Parrish]

Sermon Resources


Easter Day Sermon Resources


Easter Sunday Sermons: 
          John 20:1-18 - “Why I Believe in the Resurrection” 
          Luke 24:1-12 - “We Serve a Risen Savior”          
 
John 20:1-18 the sermon titled "Why I Believe in the Resurrection" 
 
You probably do not remember the name Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin. During his day he was as powerful a man as there was on earth. A Russian Communist leader he took part in the Bolshevik Revolution 1917, was editor of the Soviet newspaper Pravda (which by the way means truth), and was a full member of the Politburo. His works on economics and political science are still read today. There is a story told about a journey he took from Moscow to Kiev in 1930 to address a huge assembly on the subject of atheism. Addressing the crowd he aimed his heavy artillery at Christianity hurling insult, argument, and proof against it.

An hour later he was finished. He looked out at what seemed to be the smoldering ashes of men's faith. "Are there any questions?" Bukharin demanded. Deafening silence filled the auditorium but then one man approached the platform and mounted the lectern standing near the communist leader. He surveyed the crowd first to the left then to the right. Finally he shouted the ancient greeting known well in the Russian Orthodox Church: "CHRIST IS RISEN!" En masse the crowd arose as one man and the response came crashing like the sound of thunder: "HE IS RISEN INDEED!"

I say to you this morning: CHRIST IS RISEN! (congregational response should be: HE IS RISEN INDEED!). I am convinced! I have faith that Christ was dead and he was buried. That I believe. But, this too I accept as true: He rose from the dead and will come again in glory.

This is Easter. And to stand here on this day in this pulpit and proclaim this word. . . I cannot begin to tell you how this defines all that I am.

But, you will say to me, how do you know that the resurrection is real? How do you know that it is really valid?
 
1. I believe in resurrection because somebody told me about it.
2. I believe in the resurrection because it has stood the test of time.
3. I believe in the resurrection, because I have experienced it.
 
The rest of this sermon following the outline above can be obtained by joining www.eSermons.com.
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Luke 24:1-12 the sermon titled "We Serve a Risen Savior" 
 
This year the International Air Guitar Championships were held in Denmark. Contestants “played” before huge crowds, screaming devoted fans, and enjoyed World Wide Web exposure. The Air Guitar games are dedicated to world peace. According to the ideology of the Air Guitar Championships, wars would end and all bad things in the world would disappear if all the people in the world played air guitar.
 
[At this point, you might consider arranging for one of your kids to come to the front and show the congregation what it means to “play” air guitar. Or you might show one of the many videos on YouTube of people playing air guitar.]
 
Here’s what I love about “playing” air guitar.
 
You can’t hit a wrong note.
You can’t sound bad.
You can’t even sound better.
You don’t even need a guitar to play air guitar.
 
The best thing about playing air guitar is that you can look good without ever practicing a single note.
 
The bad thing about playing a real guitar is that you have to practice very hard in order to sound good. Is there any more annoying but accurate platitude that every parent preaches than this one: “practice makes perfect.”
 
Practice isn’t much fun. If you are an athlete, practice is logging laps, running “lines,” stretches, crunches, weights. If you are a musician, practice is endless scales, chord repetitions, memorization, learning new ways to listen, to hear, to breathe, to feel. But without practice you can never get better, you can never get it right, you can not even get it going.
 
A few years ago Susan Page wrote a book called “How to Get Published and Make a Lot of Money!” She was fresh off another best-seller, “If I’m so Wonderful Why Am I Still Single?” The author outlined in 20 easy-to-follow steps the road to riches. Step 4, for example, was “Start Working on a Fabulous Title.” Step 9 was “Enlist the Services of a Fabulous Literary Agent.” Step 17 - “Celebrate your Publication Date” . . . Another step is to choose the photo you want of yourself on the back flap.
 
But #12 is the key: “Write Your Book.”
 
Before practice makes perfect, practice makes perfect possible.
 
On Easter Sunday we celebrate the most perfect event in the history of the world - the perfect enactment of divine love, the greatest expression of life ever gifted to the world — the resurrection of Jesus, Christ.
 
Today, “death is dead.” These words are spoken by Lazarus in a play written by Eugene O’Neill called “Lazarus Laughed.” Lazarus is facing Caligula, the Roman emperor. But instead of begging for mercy, Lazarus laughs. And the chorus shouts, “Laugh! Laugh! Fear is no more! Death is dead!”                     
 
Did you hear it? “Death is dead.” Whatever is killing you right now, whatever grave clothes have trapped and wrapped themselves around you like a python, whatever straightjackets you find yourself in, you can escape. You can walk into the light and experience the miracle of life. “Death is dead.” And because “death is dead,” there is a new world of new possibilities for all of humanity.
 
But there are two parts to the Jesus resurrection story, just as there were two parts to the earlier resurrection story of Jesus’ best friend Lazarus. There is God’s wondrous act of raising Jesus Christ from the bonds of death. But there is also a human contribution to the resurrection event…
 
The rest of this sermon following the outline above can be obtained by joining www.eSermons.com.
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It Opens on the Dawn
 
Mary Magdalene came to the tomb while it was still dark. But the darkness was soon overcome with light. Maybe that's the message you need to hear this day. Perhaps for whatever reason you are in darkness right now. Family concerns. Problems at work. Anxiety about your health and your future. The loss of someone you love. Easter promises us more than the stars in our darkness. Easter promises us that in the midst of our deepest darkness the Son rises to overwhelm the darkness forever. 

Victor Hugo once put it like this, "For half a century I have been writing my thoughts in prose and verse and history and philosophy . . . But I feel I have not said the thousandth part of what is in me. When I go down to the grave I can say, I have finished my day's work,' but I cannot say, I have finished my life.' My day's work will begin again the next morning. The tomb is not a blind alley; it is a thoroughfare. It closes on the twilight; it opens on the dawn." Mary Magdalene came to the tomb while it was still dark "but the darkness did not remain. The dawn broke. God's Son had risen.
 
King Duncan, www.Sermons.com, Victor Hugo quote from his Intellectual Autobiography
 
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How Does the Resurrection Affect Your Life?
 
Father Basil Pennington, a Roman Catholic monk, tells of an encounter he once had with a teacher of Zen. Pennington was at a retreat. As part of the retreat, each person met privately with this Zen teacher. Pennington says that at his meeting the Zen teacher sat there before him smiling from ear to ear and rocking gleefully back and forth. Finally the teacher said: “I like Christianity. But I would not like Christianity without the resurrection. I want to see your resurrection!”
 
Pennington notes that, “With his directness, the teacher was saying what everyone else implicitly says to Christians: You are a Christian. You are risen with Christ. Show me (what this means for you in your life) and I will believe.” That is how people know if the resurrection is true or not. Does it affect how we live?
 
The amazing thing is that every one of Jesus’ disciples passed this test. Their lives were dramatically turned upside down by their encounter with Christ. How would you ever make something like this up and stick to it when stones were piercing your flesh as did Stephen, the first Christian martyr? Or as you were being crucified upside down like Simon Peter? It is hard to dispute the testimony of someone who is so convinced of what they have experienced that they are willing to suffer and die to tell the story.
 
Adapted by Marilyn Omernick
 
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