Sermon Illustrations For Easter Sunday (2020)
Illustration
Acts 10:34-43
One of the most heartwarming moment of anyone’s life is to see a child teach another child what she or he has learned. I remember lounging on the beach one summer watching a dad teach his son how to build sandcastles. “The sand’s got to be wet,” he explained, packing sand into a mold.
I watched the little boy experiment filling different castle-shaped molds with his little bucket and shovel. At first, the sandcastles were lopsided, with too much dry sand in one place and too much runny wet sand in others. After a while, the boy had mastered the technique, and began unmolding firm turrets and spires. I left my spot on the beach to take a dip in the ocean.
When I returned, I found the boy, again with bucket and spade, approaching another family with their own children, and with an air that even the most distinguished professor cannot muster, explained that “the sand’s gotta be wet!” before demonstrating his packing and molding technique to the other children.
This passage about Peter always reminds me of that day on the beach. Can you believe it? That Peter, the one who’d denied Jesus three times before the cock crowed — that Peter is marching off to the Gentiles and declaring with pride that God rose Jesus from the dead. He’s no longer the boy with lopsided sandcastles. He’s gone out into the world to teach others how they too can create a world of their dreams.
M T.
* * *
Acts 10:34-43
Dr. Brad R. Fulton is the assistant professor at the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, which is an academic department of Indiana University. He published an article in the journal Sociology of Religion. In that article, he outlined why evangelicals downplay their religious rhetoric when working with secular organizations. On March 4, 2020, he published a summary of that extensive study for local news outlets. Even though evangelicals are known for their “ethno-religious nationalism” and for supporting “legislative agendas” that support their conservative causes, often when working with secular philanthropic organizations these topics are not discussed. They “downplay religious expression” and they also adopt “a self-imposed ‘no- proselytizing’ policy.” He concluded that there are two reasons for this. The first reason is to “avoid stigma.” They do not want to appear as being “intolerant” of others. The second reason is “just being pragmatic.” By avoiding topics of disagreement, they can share the common pursuit of helping others.
Ron L.
* * *
Acts 10:34-43
Our Daily Bread, on October 11, 1992, wrote about Clara Barton and Theodore Roosevelt. During the Spanish-American War, Clara Barton was overseeing the work of the Red Cross in Cuba. One day Colonel Theodore Roosevelt came to her, wanted to buy food for his sick and wounded Rough Riders, but she refused to sell him any. Roosevelt was perplexed. His men needed the help and he was prepared to pay out of his own funds. When he asked someone why he could not buy the supplies, he was told, "Colonel, just ask for it!" A smile broke over Roosevelt's face. Now he understood--the provisions were not for sale. All he had to do was simply ask and they would be given freely.
Simply ask and they are given freely. Those words ring out powerfully, especially today. Jesus offers salvation to all, Jew and Gentile. He died on the cross and rose again defeating death and opening the path to God. We celebrate that today. He did so, so that all who choose him can live forever. “All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name” (vs. 43). It really is as simple as asking. Will you?
Bill T.
* * *
Acts 10:34-43
This lesson is a reminder that if we are seeking the risen Lord, we are more likely to recognize Him when we eat a meal with Him, take communion. It is like St. Augustine once proclaimed in a sermon:
The Lord Jesus wanted those whose eyes were held lest they should recognize Him, to recognize Him in the breaking of the bread [Luke 24:16,30-35]. The faithful know what I am saying. They know Christ in the breaking of the bread. (Sermons 234:2)
A 2018 Pew Research Center poll indicates that 3 in 10 Americans have a distant God and nearly another 20% believe God only gets involved sometimes. We need a more intimate relation with our Lord, like The Lord’s Supper affords. In the sacrament, He is no longer distant, but right there with us, in the midst of our community!
Our lesson also reminds us that association with Jesus gets us out of our ethnic boxes to reach out to all. John Wesley nicely made this point:
[God] Is not partial in His love... He is loving to every man and wills that all men should be saved. (Commentary On the Bible, p.480)
And Martin Luther King, Jr. was even more profound in one of his comments in a 1967 letter:
But in Christ there is neither Jew not Gentile. In Christ there is neither male nor female. In Christ there is neither Communist nor capitalist. In Christ, somehow there is neither bound not free. We are all one in Christ Jesus. And when we truly believe in the sacredness of human personality, we won’t exploit people, we won’t trample over people with the iron feet of oppression, we won’t kill anybody. (A Testament of Hope, p.255)
More intimate contact with Jesus makes us more accepting of others.
Mark E.
* * *
Jeremiah 31:1-6
In both Isaiah 2 and Micah 4 there’s that familiar theme – about how all the nations would come to the mountain of the Lord, and they would beat their swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks, and so on. Well, in this passage, Jeremiah reminds us who’ve been born with the good news that we too, no matter how far we have strayed, also need to come to the mountain of the Lord. “For there shall be a day when sentinels will call in the hill country of Ephraim: “Come, let us go up to Zion, to the Lord our God.” (Jeremiah 31:6) Sometimes those furthest off from the Lord are most astounded and attracted to the light of the living word, while we for whom Easter Sunday is as much about putting the food in the oven before we leave for church and rushing back in time to pull it out before family comes over for dinner (all good things, mind you) that we are no longer in awe of this astounding good news!
Frank R.
* * *
Colossians 3:1-4
Just another Easter. Nice to have family and the meal and the packed church. But nothing too exciting or life changing. The words of Martin Luther in an Easter sermon hit home:
If we would truly recognize what a great treasure it is our hearts would rejoice and leap for joy. But because we look for joy elsewhere – in money, goods, fame, and pleasures – we’re like the pope and other unbelievers, namely, that when a specific sin surfaces and grabs us, it becomes greater in our eyes than twenty Christs. We are such fools and shameful people that through our miserable unbelief we vitiate this greatest gift. (Complete Sermons, Vol.6, p.16)
A recent 2019 poll by Pew Research suggested that the majority of Americans think religion can be good for society, can make a difference in strengthening morality and bringing people together. Too often we in the church do not feel that way. The Easter Message of Resurrection gives us a boost of confidence, that what Jesus has done does make a difference (even a difference in our own lives). Modern New Testament scholar and Anglican Bishop N. T. Wright provides the words of encouragement needed to live out Paul’s Easter Message:
Jesus's resurrection is the beginning of God's new project not to snatch people away from earth to heaven but to colonize earth with the life of heaven. (Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church)
We are to colonize the earth with the new life Jesus’ resurrection has brought us! With that mission in we are likely to embrace the hopeful works once uttered by Pope John Paul II:
Do not abandon yourselves to despair. We are the Easter people and hallelujah is our song.
Not excited about today? Probably it’s because you are too caught up in the calendar, in what the new week after the holiday will bring. What Paul meant when he tells us to put all that is earthly to death is nicely explained by what the 19th-century American Philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote concerning what the risen Jesus has done: “He [Jesus] takes men out of time. And makes them feel eternity.”
Mark E.
* * *
Colossians 3:1-4
Resurrection is hard to explain. How on earth did Jesus come back to life? The reality is this is not an earth experience, but a godly and heavenly one. I can remember when my oldest grandson was four, receiving a phone message from him. “Hi Grandma Bonnie. This is Kiel. I need to ask you something. How and why did Jesus die and how did he get to be alive again?” Nothing like the question of all ages being asked by the four-year-old. I’m not sure exactly what I said, but I have been asked the questions many times. Why did Jesus die? Maybe because he was speaking a truth people, especially the people in power, didn’t want to hear. Maybe because he was a danger to the status quo. Maybe because we are sinners, and someone had to open the gates of heaven and the heart of God to and for us. I do remember that I shared with Kiel what I believe is the reason Jesus got to be alive again. It was simply because God loved Jesus and us too much to let death have the last word. Cling to that and we reveal the glory of God through Christ to the world.
Bonnie B.
* * *
John 20:1-18 or Matthew 28:1-10
Josh MacDowell writes in Evidence that Demands a Verdict, “All but four of the major world religions are based on mere philosophical propositions. Of the four that are based on personalities rather than philosophies, only Christianity claims an empty tomb for its founder. In 1900 B.C. Judaism’s Father Abraham died. In 483 B.C., Buddhist writings say Buddha died “with that utter passing away in which nothing whatever remains behind.” June 6, 632 A.D., Mohammed died. In 33 A.D., Jesus died but came back to life appearing to 500 people over a period of 40 days.”
The resurrection of Jesus is the single most significant event in the course of human history. It’s what defines our faith and gives us hope. I read the account of a young D.L. Moody. He was, one day, called upon to preach a funeral sermon without much notice. He hunted all through the four gospels trying to find one of Christ’s funeral sermons but searched in vain. He found that Jesus broke up every funeral he ever attended. He never preached a funeral sermon because death could not exist where he was.
That’s the message of today. That’s the message of new life!
Bill T.
* * *
Matthew 28:1-10
In this reading we meet two sets of witnesses. Following a great earthquake, the angel of the Lord rolls back the stone and sits on it. We read “For fear of him the guards shook and became like dead men.” (Matthew 28:4) Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, we are told, were there and saw the same thing. They were just as afraid, else the angel would not have said to them, “Do not be afraid….”
So, what happens? We learn later in this chapter that the guards, despite their experience of divine presence, are willing to be bribed and to lie about what they have seen, and Matthew suggests that some believed them.
Meanwhile, the women ran “with fear and great joy” to tell the disciples and came face to face with the living Jesus! Women in that era were not considered truth tellers and their testimony was not accepted in court. God doesn’t care about human misconceptions. The great truth of the resurrection is in their hands! And to their credit the disciples believe and follow the instructions they receive – to go to Galilee where they too will see Jesus.
God does not work through the ones we expect. We too will receive great truths from unlikely sources, and untruths from those we have been led to think of as believable. Who will we believe?
Frank R.
* * *
Matthew 28:1-10
Celine Dion was married to her husband, Rene Agnelli, for 21 years when he died on January 14, 2016. They met when she was a 12-year-old singer, and he became her manager. They later married, and he continued to manage her career. Despite their 25-year age difference, it was a very loving and committed relationship. Together they had three children. At the time of his death one son, Rene-Charles was 15, and the twins, Nelson and Eddy, were 5. Prior to the funeral in Montreal, which was attended by hundreds and televised, Dion wanted to share with her children the meaning of death. She did so by relating it to the Disney movie Up.
The movie Up centers on an elderly widower named Carl Fredricksen and an earnest young wilderness explorer named Russell. By tying thousands of balloons to his home, the 78-year-old Carl sets out to fulfill his lifelong dream to see the wilds of South America and to complete a promise made to his childhood sweetheart and beloved wife, Ellie.
Dion gathered her childen together and shared some of the meanings associated with the movie. She then gave Nelson and Eddy balloons covered in glitter. As the children released the balloons Mom said “Papa” had “gone up,” joyfully floating on balloons never to return.
Ron L.
One of the most heartwarming moment of anyone’s life is to see a child teach another child what she or he has learned. I remember lounging on the beach one summer watching a dad teach his son how to build sandcastles. “The sand’s got to be wet,” he explained, packing sand into a mold.
I watched the little boy experiment filling different castle-shaped molds with his little bucket and shovel. At first, the sandcastles were lopsided, with too much dry sand in one place and too much runny wet sand in others. After a while, the boy had mastered the technique, and began unmolding firm turrets and spires. I left my spot on the beach to take a dip in the ocean.
When I returned, I found the boy, again with bucket and spade, approaching another family with their own children, and with an air that even the most distinguished professor cannot muster, explained that “the sand’s gotta be wet!” before demonstrating his packing and molding technique to the other children.
This passage about Peter always reminds me of that day on the beach. Can you believe it? That Peter, the one who’d denied Jesus three times before the cock crowed — that Peter is marching off to the Gentiles and declaring with pride that God rose Jesus from the dead. He’s no longer the boy with lopsided sandcastles. He’s gone out into the world to teach others how they too can create a world of their dreams.
M T.
* * *
Acts 10:34-43
Dr. Brad R. Fulton is the assistant professor at the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, which is an academic department of Indiana University. He published an article in the journal Sociology of Religion. In that article, he outlined why evangelicals downplay their religious rhetoric when working with secular organizations. On March 4, 2020, he published a summary of that extensive study for local news outlets. Even though evangelicals are known for their “ethno-religious nationalism” and for supporting “legislative agendas” that support their conservative causes, often when working with secular philanthropic organizations these topics are not discussed. They “downplay religious expression” and they also adopt “a self-imposed ‘no- proselytizing’ policy.” He concluded that there are two reasons for this. The first reason is to “avoid stigma.” They do not want to appear as being “intolerant” of others. The second reason is “just being pragmatic.” By avoiding topics of disagreement, they can share the common pursuit of helping others.
Ron L.
* * *
Acts 10:34-43
Our Daily Bread, on October 11, 1992, wrote about Clara Barton and Theodore Roosevelt. During the Spanish-American War, Clara Barton was overseeing the work of the Red Cross in Cuba. One day Colonel Theodore Roosevelt came to her, wanted to buy food for his sick and wounded Rough Riders, but she refused to sell him any. Roosevelt was perplexed. His men needed the help and he was prepared to pay out of his own funds. When he asked someone why he could not buy the supplies, he was told, "Colonel, just ask for it!" A smile broke over Roosevelt's face. Now he understood--the provisions were not for sale. All he had to do was simply ask and they would be given freely.
Simply ask and they are given freely. Those words ring out powerfully, especially today. Jesus offers salvation to all, Jew and Gentile. He died on the cross and rose again defeating death and opening the path to God. We celebrate that today. He did so, so that all who choose him can live forever. “All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name” (vs. 43). It really is as simple as asking. Will you?
Bill T.
* * *
Acts 10:34-43
This lesson is a reminder that if we are seeking the risen Lord, we are more likely to recognize Him when we eat a meal with Him, take communion. It is like St. Augustine once proclaimed in a sermon:
The Lord Jesus wanted those whose eyes were held lest they should recognize Him, to recognize Him in the breaking of the bread [Luke 24:16,30-35]. The faithful know what I am saying. They know Christ in the breaking of the bread. (Sermons 234:2)
A 2018 Pew Research Center poll indicates that 3 in 10 Americans have a distant God and nearly another 20% believe God only gets involved sometimes. We need a more intimate relation with our Lord, like The Lord’s Supper affords. In the sacrament, He is no longer distant, but right there with us, in the midst of our community!
Our lesson also reminds us that association with Jesus gets us out of our ethnic boxes to reach out to all. John Wesley nicely made this point:
[God] Is not partial in His love... He is loving to every man and wills that all men should be saved. (Commentary On the Bible, p.480)
And Martin Luther King, Jr. was even more profound in one of his comments in a 1967 letter:
But in Christ there is neither Jew not Gentile. In Christ there is neither male nor female. In Christ there is neither Communist nor capitalist. In Christ, somehow there is neither bound not free. We are all one in Christ Jesus. And when we truly believe in the sacredness of human personality, we won’t exploit people, we won’t trample over people with the iron feet of oppression, we won’t kill anybody. (A Testament of Hope, p.255)
More intimate contact with Jesus makes us more accepting of others.
Mark E.
* * *
Jeremiah 31:1-6
In both Isaiah 2 and Micah 4 there’s that familiar theme – about how all the nations would come to the mountain of the Lord, and they would beat their swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks, and so on. Well, in this passage, Jeremiah reminds us who’ve been born with the good news that we too, no matter how far we have strayed, also need to come to the mountain of the Lord. “For there shall be a day when sentinels will call in the hill country of Ephraim: “Come, let us go up to Zion, to the Lord our God.” (Jeremiah 31:6) Sometimes those furthest off from the Lord are most astounded and attracted to the light of the living word, while we for whom Easter Sunday is as much about putting the food in the oven before we leave for church and rushing back in time to pull it out before family comes over for dinner (all good things, mind you) that we are no longer in awe of this astounding good news!
Frank R.
* * *
Colossians 3:1-4
Just another Easter. Nice to have family and the meal and the packed church. But nothing too exciting or life changing. The words of Martin Luther in an Easter sermon hit home:
If we would truly recognize what a great treasure it is our hearts would rejoice and leap for joy. But because we look for joy elsewhere – in money, goods, fame, and pleasures – we’re like the pope and other unbelievers, namely, that when a specific sin surfaces and grabs us, it becomes greater in our eyes than twenty Christs. We are such fools and shameful people that through our miserable unbelief we vitiate this greatest gift. (Complete Sermons, Vol.6, p.16)
A recent 2019 poll by Pew Research suggested that the majority of Americans think religion can be good for society, can make a difference in strengthening morality and bringing people together. Too often we in the church do not feel that way. The Easter Message of Resurrection gives us a boost of confidence, that what Jesus has done does make a difference (even a difference in our own lives). Modern New Testament scholar and Anglican Bishop N. T. Wright provides the words of encouragement needed to live out Paul’s Easter Message:
Jesus's resurrection is the beginning of God's new project not to snatch people away from earth to heaven but to colonize earth with the life of heaven. (Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church)
We are to colonize the earth with the new life Jesus’ resurrection has brought us! With that mission in we are likely to embrace the hopeful works once uttered by Pope John Paul II:
Do not abandon yourselves to despair. We are the Easter people and hallelujah is our song.
Not excited about today? Probably it’s because you are too caught up in the calendar, in what the new week after the holiday will bring. What Paul meant when he tells us to put all that is earthly to death is nicely explained by what the 19th-century American Philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote concerning what the risen Jesus has done: “He [Jesus] takes men out of time. And makes them feel eternity.”
Mark E.
* * *
Colossians 3:1-4
Resurrection is hard to explain. How on earth did Jesus come back to life? The reality is this is not an earth experience, but a godly and heavenly one. I can remember when my oldest grandson was four, receiving a phone message from him. “Hi Grandma Bonnie. This is Kiel. I need to ask you something. How and why did Jesus die and how did he get to be alive again?” Nothing like the question of all ages being asked by the four-year-old. I’m not sure exactly what I said, but I have been asked the questions many times. Why did Jesus die? Maybe because he was speaking a truth people, especially the people in power, didn’t want to hear. Maybe because he was a danger to the status quo. Maybe because we are sinners, and someone had to open the gates of heaven and the heart of God to and for us. I do remember that I shared with Kiel what I believe is the reason Jesus got to be alive again. It was simply because God loved Jesus and us too much to let death have the last word. Cling to that and we reveal the glory of God through Christ to the world.
Bonnie B.
* * *
John 20:1-18 or Matthew 28:1-10
Josh MacDowell writes in Evidence that Demands a Verdict, “All but four of the major world religions are based on mere philosophical propositions. Of the four that are based on personalities rather than philosophies, only Christianity claims an empty tomb for its founder. In 1900 B.C. Judaism’s Father Abraham died. In 483 B.C., Buddhist writings say Buddha died “with that utter passing away in which nothing whatever remains behind.” June 6, 632 A.D., Mohammed died. In 33 A.D., Jesus died but came back to life appearing to 500 people over a period of 40 days.”
The resurrection of Jesus is the single most significant event in the course of human history. It’s what defines our faith and gives us hope. I read the account of a young D.L. Moody. He was, one day, called upon to preach a funeral sermon without much notice. He hunted all through the four gospels trying to find one of Christ’s funeral sermons but searched in vain. He found that Jesus broke up every funeral he ever attended. He never preached a funeral sermon because death could not exist where he was.
That’s the message of today. That’s the message of new life!
Bill T.
* * *
Matthew 28:1-10
In this reading we meet two sets of witnesses. Following a great earthquake, the angel of the Lord rolls back the stone and sits on it. We read “For fear of him the guards shook and became like dead men.” (Matthew 28:4) Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, we are told, were there and saw the same thing. They were just as afraid, else the angel would not have said to them, “Do not be afraid….”
So, what happens? We learn later in this chapter that the guards, despite their experience of divine presence, are willing to be bribed and to lie about what they have seen, and Matthew suggests that some believed them.
Meanwhile, the women ran “with fear and great joy” to tell the disciples and came face to face with the living Jesus! Women in that era were not considered truth tellers and their testimony was not accepted in court. God doesn’t care about human misconceptions. The great truth of the resurrection is in their hands! And to their credit the disciples believe and follow the instructions they receive – to go to Galilee where they too will see Jesus.
God does not work through the ones we expect. We too will receive great truths from unlikely sources, and untruths from those we have been led to think of as believable. Who will we believe?
Frank R.
* * *
Matthew 28:1-10
Celine Dion was married to her husband, Rene Agnelli, for 21 years when he died on January 14, 2016. They met when she was a 12-year-old singer, and he became her manager. They later married, and he continued to manage her career. Despite their 25-year age difference, it was a very loving and committed relationship. Together they had three children. At the time of his death one son, Rene-Charles was 15, and the twins, Nelson and Eddy, were 5. Prior to the funeral in Montreal, which was attended by hundreds and televised, Dion wanted to share with her children the meaning of death. She did so by relating it to the Disney movie Up.
The movie Up centers on an elderly widower named Carl Fredricksen and an earnest young wilderness explorer named Russell. By tying thousands of balloons to his home, the 78-year-old Carl sets out to fulfill his lifelong dream to see the wilds of South America and to complete a promise made to his childhood sweetheart and beloved wife, Ellie.
Dion gathered her childen together and shared some of the meanings associated with the movie. She then gave Nelson and Eddy balloons covered in glitter. As the children released the balloons Mom said “Papa” had “gone up,” joyfully floating on balloons never to return.
Ron L.
