Seventh Sunday Of Easter
Preaching
Lectionary Preaching Workbook
Series VII, Cycle A
Object:
Seasonal Theme
Jesus out of the grave and alive and with us.
Theme For The Day
We are prayed for by Jesus that we might be unified with each other and with our God. A summary of the Season of Easter.
First Lesson
Acts 1:1-11
Return To The Upper Room
We have already commented on verses 6 to 11 in the previous treatment of Ascension lessons. So now we will concentrate on verses 12-14 only. After the Ascension on the Mount of Olives, the disciples walked to the upper room in Zion. They could travel only about one-half mile on the Sabbath day. In verses 13 and 14, we have a list of those there including Jesus' mother, Mary. It is a surprise that Jesus' brothers who opposed him during his lifetime (Mark 3:21) are there as well! Could it be that the death and resurrection of their brother now convinced them? Or are they there to honor the dead only? Mary always plays an important role in Luke's Gospel and James, the brother of Jesus, will play an equally important role in Acts. Right away there is prayer among the believers (v. 14). That's basic in the life of disciples of any age.
New Testament Lesson
1 Peter 4:12-15; 5:6-11
We Share Christ's Suffering
Now we get the reason for this letter. It is written to encourage the believers in times of suffering. And suffering and testing is certain for the Christian. Peter says in verse 13 that in our suffering, we share Christ's suffering. Persecution can often give us a deeper relationship with the Christ who also went through it. See Romans 8:17; Philippians 3:10; 2 Timothy 3:10. Verse 14b tells us that, according to Peter, when we take suffering it can bring glory to the Christian and to God. (I still don't like this idea!)
When we turn to the closing verses of this letter, Peter tells us some good advice. He encourages us to be humble which will give us a certain victory (v. 6) and that we can relieve ourselves of anxiety by giving it up to our God who loves us. Oh, how we as preachers and our hearers want to believe this and experience it in our own lives!
Then we have the forces of evil attacking all around us in verse 8b. And we know that the rest of God's family around the world also face the same temptations. (That has never been very comforting to me.) Then this grand thought in verse 10 -- in suffering our graceful God will strengthen us. And God is to be the power.
The Gospel
John 17:1-11
The High Priestly Prayer
This is often called the high priestly prayer. But it is more than just a prayer. It is a listing of the work of Jesus in John's new view of it. Jesus seems most concerned here with his giving himself for God's purpose on earth (vv. 1-5) and his concern for his disciples after his Ascension (vv. 6-11). The ending of today's reading with verse 11 cuts short the voicing of that concern. The passage begins with the glory of Jesus coming soon to the cross. That cross attracts people still more powerfully than his life will ever do. But even that was not the end.
Resurrection was soon to follow. The seemingly worst that humans could do to Jesus was wiped out by the glory of Easter. In verse 3, Jesus is speaking of eternal life. William Barclay in his Daily Study Bible in this passage defines eternal life in a clear and illuminating way. "To possess eternal life, to enter into eternal life, is to experience here and now something of the splendor, and the majesty, and the joy, and the peace and the holiness which are characteristic of the life of God." He adds on verse 3 what it means to know God. It "... is to know what God is like, and to be on the most intimate terms of friendship with God -- neither is possible without Jesus Christ."
Verses 6-8 tell us what Jesus did while on earth: enabled people to see what God is like. (See John 14:9.) And he brought a distant and far-off, awesome God close up and personal so we too can call God by name. There is a confidence in God and in the disciples here which ought to lift us up to do our best discipleship.
The second part of verse 11 is often quoted by those who would plead for unity in the church, especially among denominations. It is interpreted as Jesus' using the analogy that just as Jesus and God are one, he prays his disciples will also be one with each other. It is a plea for all Christians to be unified together. While I am in full agreement that we all should be "one" and have unity, I wonder if the actual prayer might have been that Jesus wanted his disciples to be one with God as he was. The Greek scholars will have to settle it. Either way or perhaps both ways of interpretation will preach!
Preaching Possibilities
A. We could put all three readings together and talk about "After Easter Discipleship" bringing out the following themes:
1. First Lesson: It meant coming together in worship and prayer and going out into all the world with power.
2. Second Lesson: It meant suffering to the Glory of God, giving up our own anxiety to him, and receiving his strengthening and grace.
3. Gospel: It meant being unified with God and God's disciples and having eternal life. After Easter the disciples were a unified, prayerful people who went into the world, accepting suffering, and being strengthened by their God.
B. We might also just use the 1 Peter reading and concentrate on the life of a disciple since Easter!
1. We will be tested and suffer (v. 12).
2. We are blessed when people make fun of us (v. 14).
3. We are to be humble (v. 16).
4. We are to be worry free for God loves us (v. 7).
5. We are to be disciplined (v. 8).
6. Evil will attack us from all sides (v. 8b).
7. A graceful God will strengthen us (v. 10).
8. We give the glory to God (v. 11).
It's a picture we can paint of what it meant to be a Christian disciple back then in Jerusalem and what that means for us trying to do so now.
Possible Outline Of Sermon Moves
Since this is the seventh Sunday of Easter and after the Ascension of our Lord, consider making a summary of this seven weeks of Easter preaching. Since next Sunday will be Pentecost and a new season of the church year begins, we move on from "our Lord's half year" where we examine the life of Christ. During the coming "church's half year," we look at the ministry and teaching of Jesus, so it's the right time for a wrap-up. Mine will go like this:
1. Introduction: We finish today two seasons of the church year: that of the life of Jesus which began last Advent and the season of Easter which began on Easter day. These seven weeks we have read from the Bible and preached how it was after Easter when Jesus was out of the grave, alive, and with the disciples. Let me review for you so we get the big picture.
2. Easter Day -- Easter back then affecting a community hit with a disaster and how it can make a difference.
3. Easter 2 -- Jesus appeared to the disciples and then Thomas. He will be helpful with our doubts, too, if we are honest about them. It also pays to be with other believers when we hurt.
4. Easter 2 and 3 -- Jesus appears to two men on the Emmaus road. We learn from this story Jesus can make sense out of our confusion and we can also recognize him at the table. He wants to be invited into our homes as well. This we must go and tell.
5. Easter 4 -- Jesus promised to be our "Good Shepherd" and love and protect us. It is through him we enter the secure fold. God knows us by name and we ought follow Jesus like the sheep do the shepherd.
6. Easter 5 -- We learn of Jesus' assurances he will lead us home to safe harbor like the pilot boat does a large ship. And he will prepare a place for us in eternity.
7. Easter 6 -- Last week we learned Jesus not only returned to heaven, but he is our advocate (parakletos) there. We have God's own son rooting for us! We have help to cope with and conquer life.
8. Ascension -- Jesus returned to heaven and thus is available now to all people everywhere in the world. No longer physically limited to Palestine, now available here in our hometown as well.
9. Easter 7 -- He prays for us disciples and our discipleship that we might be one with each other and one with God.
In each of the above Sunday's summary I will recall one of the illustrations I have used in order to make it concrete and help us remember the sermon. For instance, the summary of Easter 6's sermon will conclude with mentioning Hartford Insurance and Chevy Blazer trucks television ads. Now that Jesus is out of the grave and alive, next week we turn our thoughts to the birthday of the Christian church and his aliveness in the world now.
Prayer Of The Day
We rejoice and give thanks today for Easter, its season and all its instruction and promises for us. Show us the way to be Easter people here at (church name) individually in our discipleship and together as a congregation of your people. Keep us one with you and each other in the meantime. In the name of Jesus the risen and ascended Christ. Amen.
Possible Stories
If you use the suggestion above to do a summary of the season of Easter mentioning the illustrations you used each week, it would be a mistake to add new ones now. But in case you deal with the Gospel by itself, here are some possibilities:
In Joe Wold's book, God's Impatience with Liberia (p. 104), Louis Bowers went across the Saint Paul River to the village of Parakwele. There, fourteen men were ready to be baptized by the local evangelists. The Zo stood up and said, "I forbid these men to be baptized. If they are, by this time tomorrow they will be dead." The men went outside for a palaver. They came back and said, "We will be baptized; if we die we will be with Jesus." When the service was over, the Zo came to Bowers secretly and said, "Tell me about this Jesus. His power is greater than mine." How does one describe the power of Jesus?
In order to install cable for television in a trench, the utility company has to come out and mark where electric, gas, and telephone wires are buried. They use little red flags; the trench for the cable can then be dug. As we mature as Christians we need to mark where the power for our lives is, as well as the dangers.
In the musical Evita, Eva Peron said of herself: "I am content to be the woman who brought the people to Juan Peron." I am content to be known as one who brought the people to Jesus.
The Indonesian national motto is "Binneka Tuggal Ika," which means "Unity in Diversity." This is for a country which is 86 percent Muslim! Is there not a unity of diversity in our practice of discipleship? And do we not derive a richness for our discipleship, including all sorts and kinds and colors of people? And isn't that what God intended all along for us Christians? The more diverse our fellowship, the more united God's spirit makes us.
Jesus out of the grave and alive and with us.
Theme For The Day
We are prayed for by Jesus that we might be unified with each other and with our God. A summary of the Season of Easter.
First Lesson
Acts 1:1-11
Return To The Upper Room
We have already commented on verses 6 to 11 in the previous treatment of Ascension lessons. So now we will concentrate on verses 12-14 only. After the Ascension on the Mount of Olives, the disciples walked to the upper room in Zion. They could travel only about one-half mile on the Sabbath day. In verses 13 and 14, we have a list of those there including Jesus' mother, Mary. It is a surprise that Jesus' brothers who opposed him during his lifetime (Mark 3:21) are there as well! Could it be that the death and resurrection of their brother now convinced them? Or are they there to honor the dead only? Mary always plays an important role in Luke's Gospel and James, the brother of Jesus, will play an equally important role in Acts. Right away there is prayer among the believers (v. 14). That's basic in the life of disciples of any age.
New Testament Lesson
1 Peter 4:12-15; 5:6-11
We Share Christ's Suffering
Now we get the reason for this letter. It is written to encourage the believers in times of suffering. And suffering and testing is certain for the Christian. Peter says in verse 13 that in our suffering, we share Christ's suffering. Persecution can often give us a deeper relationship with the Christ who also went through it. See Romans 8:17; Philippians 3:10; 2 Timothy 3:10. Verse 14b tells us that, according to Peter, when we take suffering it can bring glory to the Christian and to God. (I still don't like this idea!)
When we turn to the closing verses of this letter, Peter tells us some good advice. He encourages us to be humble which will give us a certain victory (v. 6) and that we can relieve ourselves of anxiety by giving it up to our God who loves us. Oh, how we as preachers and our hearers want to believe this and experience it in our own lives!
Then we have the forces of evil attacking all around us in verse 8b. And we know that the rest of God's family around the world also face the same temptations. (That has never been very comforting to me.) Then this grand thought in verse 10 -- in suffering our graceful God will strengthen us. And God is to be the power.
The Gospel
John 17:1-11
The High Priestly Prayer
This is often called the high priestly prayer. But it is more than just a prayer. It is a listing of the work of Jesus in John's new view of it. Jesus seems most concerned here with his giving himself for God's purpose on earth (vv. 1-5) and his concern for his disciples after his Ascension (vv. 6-11). The ending of today's reading with verse 11 cuts short the voicing of that concern. The passage begins with the glory of Jesus coming soon to the cross. That cross attracts people still more powerfully than his life will ever do. But even that was not the end.
Resurrection was soon to follow. The seemingly worst that humans could do to Jesus was wiped out by the glory of Easter. In verse 3, Jesus is speaking of eternal life. William Barclay in his Daily Study Bible in this passage defines eternal life in a clear and illuminating way. "To possess eternal life, to enter into eternal life, is to experience here and now something of the splendor, and the majesty, and the joy, and the peace and the holiness which are characteristic of the life of God." He adds on verse 3 what it means to know God. It "... is to know what God is like, and to be on the most intimate terms of friendship with God -- neither is possible without Jesus Christ."
Verses 6-8 tell us what Jesus did while on earth: enabled people to see what God is like. (See John 14:9.) And he brought a distant and far-off, awesome God close up and personal so we too can call God by name. There is a confidence in God and in the disciples here which ought to lift us up to do our best discipleship.
The second part of verse 11 is often quoted by those who would plead for unity in the church, especially among denominations. It is interpreted as Jesus' using the analogy that just as Jesus and God are one, he prays his disciples will also be one with each other. It is a plea for all Christians to be unified together. While I am in full agreement that we all should be "one" and have unity, I wonder if the actual prayer might have been that Jesus wanted his disciples to be one with God as he was. The Greek scholars will have to settle it. Either way or perhaps both ways of interpretation will preach!
Preaching Possibilities
A. We could put all three readings together and talk about "After Easter Discipleship" bringing out the following themes:
1. First Lesson: It meant coming together in worship and prayer and going out into all the world with power.
2. Second Lesson: It meant suffering to the Glory of God, giving up our own anxiety to him, and receiving his strengthening and grace.
3. Gospel: It meant being unified with God and God's disciples and having eternal life. After Easter the disciples were a unified, prayerful people who went into the world, accepting suffering, and being strengthened by their God.
B. We might also just use the 1 Peter reading and concentrate on the life of a disciple since Easter!
1. We will be tested and suffer (v. 12).
2. We are blessed when people make fun of us (v. 14).
3. We are to be humble (v. 16).
4. We are to be worry free for God loves us (v. 7).
5. We are to be disciplined (v. 8).
6. Evil will attack us from all sides (v. 8b).
7. A graceful God will strengthen us (v. 10).
8. We give the glory to God (v. 11).
It's a picture we can paint of what it meant to be a Christian disciple back then in Jerusalem and what that means for us trying to do so now.
Possible Outline Of Sermon Moves
Since this is the seventh Sunday of Easter and after the Ascension of our Lord, consider making a summary of this seven weeks of Easter preaching. Since next Sunday will be Pentecost and a new season of the church year begins, we move on from "our Lord's half year" where we examine the life of Christ. During the coming "church's half year," we look at the ministry and teaching of Jesus, so it's the right time for a wrap-up. Mine will go like this:
1. Introduction: We finish today two seasons of the church year: that of the life of Jesus which began last Advent and the season of Easter which began on Easter day. These seven weeks we have read from the Bible and preached how it was after Easter when Jesus was out of the grave, alive, and with the disciples. Let me review for you so we get the big picture.
2. Easter Day -- Easter back then affecting a community hit with a disaster and how it can make a difference.
3. Easter 2 -- Jesus appeared to the disciples and then Thomas. He will be helpful with our doubts, too, if we are honest about them. It also pays to be with other believers when we hurt.
4. Easter 2 and 3 -- Jesus appears to two men on the Emmaus road. We learn from this story Jesus can make sense out of our confusion and we can also recognize him at the table. He wants to be invited into our homes as well. This we must go and tell.
5. Easter 4 -- Jesus promised to be our "Good Shepherd" and love and protect us. It is through him we enter the secure fold. God knows us by name and we ought follow Jesus like the sheep do the shepherd.
6. Easter 5 -- We learn of Jesus' assurances he will lead us home to safe harbor like the pilot boat does a large ship. And he will prepare a place for us in eternity.
7. Easter 6 -- Last week we learned Jesus not only returned to heaven, but he is our advocate (parakletos) there. We have God's own son rooting for us! We have help to cope with and conquer life.
8. Ascension -- Jesus returned to heaven and thus is available now to all people everywhere in the world. No longer physically limited to Palestine, now available here in our hometown as well.
9. Easter 7 -- He prays for us disciples and our discipleship that we might be one with each other and one with God.
In each of the above Sunday's summary I will recall one of the illustrations I have used in order to make it concrete and help us remember the sermon. For instance, the summary of Easter 6's sermon will conclude with mentioning Hartford Insurance and Chevy Blazer trucks television ads. Now that Jesus is out of the grave and alive, next week we turn our thoughts to the birthday of the Christian church and his aliveness in the world now.
Prayer Of The Day
We rejoice and give thanks today for Easter, its season and all its instruction and promises for us. Show us the way to be Easter people here at (church name) individually in our discipleship and together as a congregation of your people. Keep us one with you and each other in the meantime. In the name of Jesus the risen and ascended Christ. Amen.
Possible Stories
If you use the suggestion above to do a summary of the season of Easter mentioning the illustrations you used each week, it would be a mistake to add new ones now. But in case you deal with the Gospel by itself, here are some possibilities:
In Joe Wold's book, God's Impatience with Liberia (p. 104), Louis Bowers went across the Saint Paul River to the village of Parakwele. There, fourteen men were ready to be baptized by the local evangelists. The Zo stood up and said, "I forbid these men to be baptized. If they are, by this time tomorrow they will be dead." The men went outside for a palaver. They came back and said, "We will be baptized; if we die we will be with Jesus." When the service was over, the Zo came to Bowers secretly and said, "Tell me about this Jesus. His power is greater than mine." How does one describe the power of Jesus?
In order to install cable for television in a trench, the utility company has to come out and mark where electric, gas, and telephone wires are buried. They use little red flags; the trench for the cable can then be dug. As we mature as Christians we need to mark where the power for our lives is, as well as the dangers.
In the musical Evita, Eva Peron said of herself: "I am content to be the woman who brought the people to Juan Peron." I am content to be known as one who brought the people to Jesus.
The Indonesian national motto is "Binneka Tuggal Ika," which means "Unity in Diversity." This is for a country which is 86 percent Muslim! Is there not a unity of diversity in our practice of discipleship? And do we not derive a richness for our discipleship, including all sorts and kinds and colors of people? And isn't that what God intended all along for us Christians? The more diverse our fellowship, the more united God's spirit makes us.
