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<div>Easter Sunday Sermons: </div>
<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"> John 20:1-18 - <STRONG>“Why I Believe in the Resurrection” </STRONG></div>
<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"> Luke 24:1-12 -<STRONG> “We Serve a Risen Savior” </STRONG></div>
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<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">John 20:1-18 the sermon titled "Why I Believe in the Resurrection" </div>
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<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">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.<br>
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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!"<br>
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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.<br>
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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.<br>
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But, you will say to me, how do you know that the resurrection is real? How do you know that it is really valid?</div>
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<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">1. I believe in resurrection because somebody told me about it.</div>
<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">2. I believe in the resurrection because it has stood the test of time.</div>
<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">3. I believe in the resurrection, because I have experienced it.</div>
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<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">The rest of this sermon following the outline above can be obtained by joining <A title=blocked::www.eSermons.com href="http://mail.churchmail.com/lists/admin/FCKeditor/editor/dialog/www.eSermons.com" target=_blank>www.eSermons.com</A>.</div>
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<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Luke 24:1-12 the sermon titled "We Serve a Risen Savior" </div>
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<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">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.</div>
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<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">[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.]</div>
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<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Here’s what I love about “playing” air guitar.</div>
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<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">You can’t hit a wrong note.</div>
<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">You can’t sound bad.</div>
<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">You can’t even sound better.</div>
<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">You don’t even need a guitar to play air guitar.</div>
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<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">The best thing about playing air guitar is that you can look good without ever practicing a single note.</div>
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<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">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.”</div>
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<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">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.</div>
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<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">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.</div>
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<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">But #12 is the key: “Write Your Book.”</div>
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<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Before practice makes perfect, practice makes perfect possible.</div>
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<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">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.</div>
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<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">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!” </div>
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<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">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.</div>
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<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">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…</div>
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<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">The rest of this sermon following the outline above can be obtained by joining <A title=blocked::www.eSermons.com href="http://mail.churchmail.com/lists/admin/FCKeditor/editor/dialog/www.eSermons.com" target=_blank>www.eSermons.com</A>.</div>
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<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">It Opens on the Dawn</div>
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<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">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. <br>
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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.</div>
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<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">King Duncan, <A href="http://www.sermons.com/" target=_blank><FONT color=#800080>www.Sermons.com</FONT></A>, Victor Hugo quote from his Intellectual Autobiography</div>
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<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">How Does the Resurrection Affect Your Life?</div>
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<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">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!”</div>
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<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">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?</div>
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<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">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.</div>
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<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Adapted by Marilyn Omernick</div>
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<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">We Believe You</div>
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<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">I ran across a beautiful story recently about a woman named Rosemary who works in the Alzheimer’s Unit of a nursing home. Rosemary and a colleague named Arlene brought the residents of the home together one Good Friday afternoon to view Franco Zeffirelli’s acclaimed production Jesus of Nazareth. They wondered whether these elderly Alzheimer’s patients would even know what was going on, but they thought it might be worth the effort.</div>
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<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">When they finally succeeded in getting everyone into position, they started the video. Rosemary was pleasantly surprised at the quiet attention being paid to the screen. At last came the scene where Mary Magdalene comes upon the empty tomb and sees Jesus’ body not there. An unknown man, in reality the risen Christ, asks Mary why she is looking for the living among the dead. Mary runs as fast as she can back to the disciples and tells Peter and the rest with breathless excitement, “He’s alive! I saw Him, I tell you! He’s alive.” The doubt in their eyes causes Mary to pull back. “You don’t believe me . . . You don’t believe me!”</div>
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<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">From somewhere in the crowd of Alzheimer’s patients came the clear, resolute voice of Esther, one of the patients. “WE BELIEVE YOU,” she said, “WE BELIEVE YOU!”</div>
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<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Well, Esther, I believe it too. The evidence is overwhelming, and life makes no sense without it. Jesus Christ rose from the dead.</div>
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<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Rosemary Kadrmas in Jeff Cavins, et.al, Amazing Grace for the Catholic Heart (West Chester, PA: Ascension Press, LLC, 2003), pp. 211-212., adapted by King Duncan</div>
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<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">The Cape of Good Hope</div>
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<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">I can still recall a geography lesson from elementary school in which we learned that the southernmost point of Africa is a point which for centuries has experienced tremendous storms. For many years no one even knew what lay beyond that cape, for no ship attempting to round that point had ever returned to tell the tale. Among the ancients it was known as the "Cape of Storms," and for good reason. But then a Portuguese explorer in the sixteenth century, Vasco De Gama, successfully sailed around that very point and found beyond the wild raging storms, a great calm sea, and beyond that, the shores of India. The name of that cape was changed from the Cape of Storms to the Cape of Good Hope.</div>
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<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Until Jesus Christ rose from the dead, death had been the cape of storms on which all hopes of life beyond had been wrecked. No one knew what lay beyond that point until, on Easter morning, those ancient visions of Isaiah became the victory of Jesus over our last great enemy. Suddenly, like those ancient explorers, we can see beyond the storm to the hope of heaven and eternal life with the Father. More than that, we dare to believe that we shall experience in our own human lives exactly what the Son of God experienced in his, for the risen Christ says to us, "Because I live, you shall live also." This is the heart of the Easter faith.</div>
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<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Robert Beringer, Easter People, CSS Publishing Company</div>
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<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">It Will Not Be Dark</div>
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<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Charles Kingsley was a very gifted and renowned Anglican preacher. Some years ago both he and his wife lay terminally ill in different rooms of the same hospital. They communicated by writing notes. One day his wife had a message sent to him that read: “My darling, is it cowardly of me to tremble before the unseen reality of death.” He wrote back “Do not be afraid! It will not be dark, because God is light. There will be no loneliness for Christ will be there.” That is our resurrection hope.</div>
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<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Anticipation: What Is Going to Happen Today?</div>
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<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">In Winnie the Pooh, Pooh and Piglet take an evening walk. For a long time they walk in silence. Silence like only best friends can share.</div>
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<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Finally Piglet breaks the silence and asks, "When you wake up in the morning, Pooh, what's the first thing you say to yourself?"</div>
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<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">"What's for breakfast?" answers Pooh and then asks. "And what do you say, Piglet?"</div>
<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Piglet says, "I say, I wonder what exciting thing is going to happen today?"</div>
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<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">You and I can't really plan to meet the Risen Christ because we never really know when or where He's going to show up. But you can be sure of this, He will show up. If you believe, He will show up. And the attitude you need to meet him is the attitude of Piglet, "I wonder what exciting thing is going to happen today?"</div>
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<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Billy Strayhorn, Easter Heart Burn, <A href="http://www.sermons.com/" target=_blank>www.Sermons.com</A></div>
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No Grave Deep Enough</div>
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<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Several years ago, The Saturday Evening Post ran a cartoon showing a man about to be rescued after he had spent a long time ship-wrecked on a tiny deserted island. The sailor in charge of the rescue team stepped onto the beach and handed the man a stack of newspapers.</div>
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<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">"Compliments of the Captain," the sailor said. "He would like you to glance at the headlines to see if you'd still like to be rescued!" Sometimes the headlines do scare us. Sometimes we feel that evil is winning, but then along comes Easter, to remind us that there is no grave deep enough, no seal imposing enough, no stone heavy enough, no evil strong enough to keep Christ in the grave.</div>
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<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">James W. Moore, Some Things Are Too Good Not To Be True, Dimensions, 1994, p. 80.</div>
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<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Expecting Death</div>
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<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">In many ways, we are like those first disciples, so it seems to me. We are like the women coming to the grave that day. They had heard the promise of Jesus that on the third day, the Son of Man would be raised from the dead by the Powers of God. They had heard his promise to the thief on the cross, “Today you will be with me in paradise.” They had heard Jesus teach, “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me will never die.” Nevertheless, on that morning when they came to the grave, they came expecting death, did they not? When they came that morning to the grave, in spite of all of Jesus’ promises, they came expecting death. And I am suspicious that you and I are like those women. Even though we have heard the promises of God. Yes, we have heard the promises over and over again e.g. on the third day I will rise; today you will be with me in paradise ; I am the resurrection and the life. We have heard these promises but we come to our graves, and like the women on that first Sunday morning, we are expecting death…</div>
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<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">The conclusion to this illustration and for many additional illustrations and sermons for Easter and the Easter season can be accessed at <A title=http://www.sermons.com/ href="http://www.sermons.com/" target=_blank><FONT color=#800080>www.Sermons.com</FONT></A>.</div>
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