Sermon Illustrations for the Fifth Sunday of Easter (2012)
Illustration
Acts 8:26-40
In the musical Rent the hit song "Seasons of Love" speaks of 526,600 minutes in a year. That is a lot of minutes. How do we use them? Are they just as series of monotonous moments, or they alive with surprise after surprise?
Philip responding to "the angel of the Lord" interrupted his journey and went to the side of the Ethiopian eunuch who was struggling to understand a passage in the Hebrew Bible, in particular words of the prophet Isaiah that centered on the suffering servant. Who was this suffering servant the man asked, and Philip proceeded to tell him the good news about Jesus. So positive was the man's response to hearing the good news that he asked to be baptized. They stopped the chariot, and Philip baptized the man, and then the Spirit snatched Philip away.
Many of us flitter our lives away, but others like Philip live in a moment of expectation and are sensitive to the leading of the Spirit into one adventure after another.
Richard H.
Acts 8:26-40
When the British monarch is coronated, the Moderator of the Church of Scotland gives the new king or queen a Bible, saying, "This Book [is] the most valuable thing that this world affords. Here is Wisdom; this is the royal Law; these are the lively Oracles of God." The Holy Bible is easily a perennial bestseller, although exact numbers are hard to nail down. It is a definite fact that several billion individual Bibles have already been published and sold worldwide.
The Bible is the road map for life, plain and simple. Through its wisdom and inspiration, the truth of Jesus Christ is revealed to generation after generation. Through the scriptures, millions are introduced to Jesus Christ, as seen here (v. 35).
Craig K.
1 John 4:7-21
When Melinda Gates returned from Bangladesh where she observed the humanitarian work being performed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, she allowed herself to be interviewed online.
When asked by Jeanie of New York City what an individual could do that had limited financial resources, Melinda replied, "I believe that each of us can do important and meaningful work to make the world a better place. It's not about the money. It's about using whatever resources you have at your fingertips to try to improve the world." It is interesting that she went on to write, "I think that real giving starts with caring about others and wanting to learn more. I encourage everyone to become a student of the causes they care about."
John tells us that we are to love one another. This means we learn what we can and help where we can.
Ron L.
John 15:1-8
Not all of us farm or tend gardens anymore, so for some, this illustration may not be quite as illuminating as it once was. Perhaps this would serve as a more up-to-date allusion, as incomplete and hokey as it may be: I am currently typing up these illustrations on my laptop. Currently, this laptop is unplugged and running on battery life. While I can perform this task for a while (even several hours, with some of these new batteries), eventually my laptop will cease functioning. Why? Because it is not connected to a power source. (I just had to plug it in, actually!) That is like us. Jesus is our source of strength and power. If we remain apart from him through a lack of prayer and study, we may function as a Christian for a time, but we will eventually run out of power. We will wither and die. "In him we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28).
Craig K.
John 15:1-8
New Testament Scholar N.T. Wright tells of learning to prune roses. He learned how when he was quite young. He came to realize that a rose bush on its own eventually would become straggly, tangled, and produce only mediocre roses. He became expert in pruning the roses so that they would grow in the right direction and to the right end. Pruning helped the rose bushes preserve their energy and become more productive. In other words, he learned to prune the roses to help them become their true selves.
Likewise, for the Christian disciple pruning was necessary so that he or she could bear more fruit. When Jesus spoke these words to his disciples on the last night of his life, the disciples probably had already had been pruned to some extent as they had had their goals and ambitions challenged, but now more pruning was expected as they were challenged to take up their crosses and follow him.
Richard H.
In the musical Rent the hit song "Seasons of Love" speaks of 526,600 minutes in a year. That is a lot of minutes. How do we use them? Are they just as series of monotonous moments, or they alive with surprise after surprise?
Philip responding to "the angel of the Lord" interrupted his journey and went to the side of the Ethiopian eunuch who was struggling to understand a passage in the Hebrew Bible, in particular words of the prophet Isaiah that centered on the suffering servant. Who was this suffering servant the man asked, and Philip proceeded to tell him the good news about Jesus. So positive was the man's response to hearing the good news that he asked to be baptized. They stopped the chariot, and Philip baptized the man, and then the Spirit snatched Philip away.
Many of us flitter our lives away, but others like Philip live in a moment of expectation and are sensitive to the leading of the Spirit into one adventure after another.
Richard H.
Acts 8:26-40
When the British monarch is coronated, the Moderator of the Church of Scotland gives the new king or queen a Bible, saying, "This Book [is] the most valuable thing that this world affords. Here is Wisdom; this is the royal Law; these are the lively Oracles of God." The Holy Bible is easily a perennial bestseller, although exact numbers are hard to nail down. It is a definite fact that several billion individual Bibles have already been published and sold worldwide.
The Bible is the road map for life, plain and simple. Through its wisdom and inspiration, the truth of Jesus Christ is revealed to generation after generation. Through the scriptures, millions are introduced to Jesus Christ, as seen here (v. 35).
Craig K.
1 John 4:7-21
When Melinda Gates returned from Bangladesh where she observed the humanitarian work being performed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, she allowed herself to be interviewed online.
When asked by Jeanie of New York City what an individual could do that had limited financial resources, Melinda replied, "I believe that each of us can do important and meaningful work to make the world a better place. It's not about the money. It's about using whatever resources you have at your fingertips to try to improve the world." It is interesting that she went on to write, "I think that real giving starts with caring about others and wanting to learn more. I encourage everyone to become a student of the causes they care about."
John tells us that we are to love one another. This means we learn what we can and help where we can.
Ron L.
John 15:1-8
Not all of us farm or tend gardens anymore, so for some, this illustration may not be quite as illuminating as it once was. Perhaps this would serve as a more up-to-date allusion, as incomplete and hokey as it may be: I am currently typing up these illustrations on my laptop. Currently, this laptop is unplugged and running on battery life. While I can perform this task for a while (even several hours, with some of these new batteries), eventually my laptop will cease functioning. Why? Because it is not connected to a power source. (I just had to plug it in, actually!) That is like us. Jesus is our source of strength and power. If we remain apart from him through a lack of prayer and study, we may function as a Christian for a time, but we will eventually run out of power. We will wither and die. "In him we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28).
Craig K.
John 15:1-8
New Testament Scholar N.T. Wright tells of learning to prune roses. He learned how when he was quite young. He came to realize that a rose bush on its own eventually would become straggly, tangled, and produce only mediocre roses. He became expert in pruning the roses so that they would grow in the right direction and to the right end. Pruning helped the rose bushes preserve their energy and become more productive. In other words, he learned to prune the roses to help them become their true selves.
Likewise, for the Christian disciple pruning was necessary so that he or she could bear more fruit. When Jesus spoke these words to his disciples on the last night of his life, the disciples probably had already had been pruned to some extent as they had had their goals and ambitions challenged, but now more pruning was expected as they were challenged to take up their crosses and follow him.
Richard H.
