Sermon Illustrations for Easter 2 (2022)
Illustration
Acts 5:27-32
On the importance of making the testimony of Justification by Grace, famed 17th-century French philosopher Blaise Pascal wrote:
Then Jesus Christ comes to tell men that they have no enemies but themselves, that it is their passions that cut them off from God, that he has come to destroy these passions, and to give men his grace. (Pensées, p.164)
Martin Luther added more about the benefits of this teaching:
This knowledge of and confidence in God’s grace makes men glad and bold and happy in dealing with God and with all creatures. And this is the work which the Holy Spirit performs in faith... it is impossible for it [faith] not to be doing good works incessantly. (Luther’s Works, Vol. 35, pp. 371, 370)
John Calvin spoke of the courage that comes from this awareness that God cares for us:
Hence the more anyone has found the kindness of God, the more courageously he ought to proceed in the discharge of his office, and confidently to commit to God his life and his safety, and resolutely to surmount all the perils of the world. (Calvin’s Commentaries, Vol. XIV/2, pp. 94-95)
Mark E.
* * *
Revelation 1:4b-8
This short passage is astounding, all encompassing, drawing in scripture, naming names, and also containing one of the most seditious statements in all of scripture. Jesus was crucified on the charge of sedition. In this passage, Jesus claims this title in no uncertain terms. It opens simply enough, using the standard formula of both Greek and Hebrew letters. The writer and the addressees of the letter are named – “John to the seven churches of Asia,” followed by Grace, charis, which is a deliberate echo of the standard Greek wish for health, charein, that opens ordinary as well as official letters throughout the Roman Empire, as well as peace, Eirene, the Greek translation of the Hebrew shalom. This dual opening draws in Jew and Gentile in one body. Jesus is named also as an author of the letter, which goes on to include his titles: Christos, the anointed one – kings are anointed, and both Christos and the Hebrew Messiah mean anointing – and after “faithful witness” (the word witness is the also the word martyr, reminding us Jesus sealed his witness with his blood), “first-born of the dead,” closing with the astoundingly seditious “ruler of the kings of the world.” That’s what the emperor is supposed to be. The ruler of all the client-kings and governors across the empire. Emperors live and die and are replaced, however, and this Jesus is the same as the one standing next to the throne in Daniel 7 who is coming on the clouds, which in its time was also an apocalyptic answer to the tyrant Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who had sought to eradicate Judaism from the face of the planet – and failed, despite having installed the abomination of desolation on the altar of the temple in Jerusalem. The man of sorrows, the suffering servant of the later chapters of Isaiah, the one who stood bloodied and bound with a crown of thorns next to Pontius Pilate who dared to ask, “What is truth?” when the living truth was standing unbowed next to him is revealed, as in the Transfiguration, as the alpha and omega, the eternal word met in the gospel of John’s first chapter, who was made flesh and tented among us.
The point is that this Revelation of Jesus Christ is not some bizarre puzzle that must be decoded, but the same good news of Jesus Christ told in the four gospels and really, throughout the Hebrew Scriptures.
Only we can’t help saying “Wow!” when the first century equivalent of a graphic novel unfolds before us.
Frank R.
* * *
Revelation 1:4b-8
Philip P. Bliss wrote a hymn in 1870 that recalls a Civil War battle. The hymn is called “Hold the Fort.” Bliss heard the story of Gen. William Sherman’s march through the south to Atlanta when Confederate General John Bell Hood gained control of the rear, cutting off supplies and blocking the routes. Many soldiers had fallen, and the continuation of the battle seemed lost and fatal. A Union officer caught sight of a white signal flag on top of Kennesaw Mountain. The signal was answered and spread saying “Hold the fort. I’m coming. W.T. Sherman.” Sherman’s men arrived three hours later, forcing Hood’s Confederate forces to retreat.
The words of the hymn take that message to a deeper, spiritual level. "Hold the fort, for I am coming," Jesus signals still; Wave the answer back to heaven, By thy grace we will." The apostle John captures the essence of this hymn in Revelation 1:7. “Look! He is coming with the clouds; every eye will see him.” Today we anticipate and look forward to the day of his second coming. Until then, we hold the fort.
Bill T.
* * *
John 20:19-31
For Martin Luther, the story of Thomas was “written for our sakes that we may learn how Christ loves us, and amiably, fatherly, gently and mildly he deals with us and deal with us.” (Complete Sermons, Vol. 6, pp. 58-59). Famed modern theologian Paul Tillich saw doubt as part of faith, claiming that, “Doubt isn't the opposite of faith; it is an element of faith.” In the same spirit, Martin Luther seemed to define faith as totally despairing of oneself. In a sermon on this text, he proclaimed:
If you desire to attain the true holiness which avails before God, you must utterly despair of yourself and rely on God alone; you must surrender yourself entirely to Christ and must accept him in such a way that everything he has is yours and that what you have is his... your inner being will then be entirely changed. (What Luther Says, p. 657)
Mark E.
On the importance of making the testimony of Justification by Grace, famed 17th-century French philosopher Blaise Pascal wrote:
Then Jesus Christ comes to tell men that they have no enemies but themselves, that it is their passions that cut them off from God, that he has come to destroy these passions, and to give men his grace. (Pensées, p.164)
Martin Luther added more about the benefits of this teaching:
This knowledge of and confidence in God’s grace makes men glad and bold and happy in dealing with God and with all creatures. And this is the work which the Holy Spirit performs in faith... it is impossible for it [faith] not to be doing good works incessantly. (Luther’s Works, Vol. 35, pp. 371, 370)
John Calvin spoke of the courage that comes from this awareness that God cares for us:
Hence the more anyone has found the kindness of God, the more courageously he ought to proceed in the discharge of his office, and confidently to commit to God his life and his safety, and resolutely to surmount all the perils of the world. (Calvin’s Commentaries, Vol. XIV/2, pp. 94-95)
Mark E.
* * *
Revelation 1:4b-8
This short passage is astounding, all encompassing, drawing in scripture, naming names, and also containing one of the most seditious statements in all of scripture. Jesus was crucified on the charge of sedition. In this passage, Jesus claims this title in no uncertain terms. It opens simply enough, using the standard formula of both Greek and Hebrew letters. The writer and the addressees of the letter are named – “John to the seven churches of Asia,” followed by Grace, charis, which is a deliberate echo of the standard Greek wish for health, charein, that opens ordinary as well as official letters throughout the Roman Empire, as well as peace, Eirene, the Greek translation of the Hebrew shalom. This dual opening draws in Jew and Gentile in one body. Jesus is named also as an author of the letter, which goes on to include his titles: Christos, the anointed one – kings are anointed, and both Christos and the Hebrew Messiah mean anointing – and after “faithful witness” (the word witness is the also the word martyr, reminding us Jesus sealed his witness with his blood), “first-born of the dead,” closing with the astoundingly seditious “ruler of the kings of the world.” That’s what the emperor is supposed to be. The ruler of all the client-kings and governors across the empire. Emperors live and die and are replaced, however, and this Jesus is the same as the one standing next to the throne in Daniel 7 who is coming on the clouds, which in its time was also an apocalyptic answer to the tyrant Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who had sought to eradicate Judaism from the face of the planet – and failed, despite having installed the abomination of desolation on the altar of the temple in Jerusalem. The man of sorrows, the suffering servant of the later chapters of Isaiah, the one who stood bloodied and bound with a crown of thorns next to Pontius Pilate who dared to ask, “What is truth?” when the living truth was standing unbowed next to him is revealed, as in the Transfiguration, as the alpha and omega, the eternal word met in the gospel of John’s first chapter, who was made flesh and tented among us.
The point is that this Revelation of Jesus Christ is not some bizarre puzzle that must be decoded, but the same good news of Jesus Christ told in the four gospels and really, throughout the Hebrew Scriptures.
Only we can’t help saying “Wow!” when the first century equivalent of a graphic novel unfolds before us.
Frank R.
* * *
Revelation 1:4b-8
Philip P. Bliss wrote a hymn in 1870 that recalls a Civil War battle. The hymn is called “Hold the Fort.” Bliss heard the story of Gen. William Sherman’s march through the south to Atlanta when Confederate General John Bell Hood gained control of the rear, cutting off supplies and blocking the routes. Many soldiers had fallen, and the continuation of the battle seemed lost and fatal. A Union officer caught sight of a white signal flag on top of Kennesaw Mountain. The signal was answered and spread saying “Hold the fort. I’m coming. W.T. Sherman.” Sherman’s men arrived three hours later, forcing Hood’s Confederate forces to retreat.
The words of the hymn take that message to a deeper, spiritual level. "Hold the fort, for I am coming," Jesus signals still; Wave the answer back to heaven, By thy grace we will." The apostle John captures the essence of this hymn in Revelation 1:7. “Look! He is coming with the clouds; every eye will see him.” Today we anticipate and look forward to the day of his second coming. Until then, we hold the fort.
Bill T.
* * *
John 20:19-31
For Martin Luther, the story of Thomas was “written for our sakes that we may learn how Christ loves us, and amiably, fatherly, gently and mildly he deals with us and deal with us.” (Complete Sermons, Vol. 6, pp. 58-59). Famed modern theologian Paul Tillich saw doubt as part of faith, claiming that, “Doubt isn't the opposite of faith; it is an element of faith.” In the same spirit, Martin Luther seemed to define faith as totally despairing of oneself. In a sermon on this text, he proclaimed:
If you desire to attain the true holiness which avails before God, you must utterly despair of yourself and rely on God alone; you must surrender yourself entirely to Christ and must accept him in such a way that everything he has is yours and that what you have is his... your inner being will then be entirely changed. (What Luther Says, p. 657)
Mark E.
