Sermon Illustrations For Easter 6 (2023)
Illustration
Acts 17:22-31
Paul’s arguments to the Greeks for the existence of God may inspire sermons to make similar arguments in our contexts. We should take our guidance from Martin Luther in undertaking such a task:
There has never been a people so wicked that it did not establish and maintain some sort of worship. Everyone has set up a god of his own, to which he looked for blessings, help, and comfort. (Book of Concord [2000 ed.], p.388)
Quantum Physics and its Theory of Uncertainty is increasingly helping modern science and its practitioners to realize a sense of mystery in the universe, to appreciate that science cannot provide us with all the answers with specificity. We are finding that the atoms and matter could not hold together were there not an unseen field (the Higgs Field) which plays does get matter to hold together. Can God be thought to dwell in that mysterious reality? Famed British journalist G. K. Chesterton has pointed out what the secularists lose when they are not open to the unknown god in their midst:
The average pagan, like the average agnostic, would merely say he was content with himself, but not insolently self-satisfied, that there may be better and may be worse, that his deserts were limited... This proper pride does not lift the heart... On the other hand, this mild rationalist modesty does not cleanse the soul... it does not make man as a little child who can sit at the feet of the grass. It does not make him look up… Thus, it loses both the poetry of being proud and the poetry of being humble. (Orthodoxy, p.188)
Mark E.
* * *
Acts 1:1-11
Howard Hendricks, in his book Say It with Love, writes of Dr. Jack Cooper, a Dallas ophthalmologist. Dr. Cooper was a Christian who believed in treating the total person and caring for the soul as well as the eyes. He was a member of Parks Cities Baptist Church and did medical missions to Honduras, the Dominican Republic, Liberia, and Honduras.
In his medical office, instead of having the normal “Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country” on the flip chart, Dr. Cooper had the words, “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.” When patients would come in for a check-up, they would read those words and often ask about what they meant.
Being a witness is the challenge of all Christians. The disciples, as Luke records it in the passage of Acts, were told to be Jesus’ witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. They met that challenge. Will we be his witnesses today?
Bill T.
* * *
Acts 17:22-31
Paul walks through Athens, seeing the religious statuary. There is an altar to the unknown God. Paul uses this opportunity to preach and teach about the Creator God he knows — the parent God of Jesus. How many times do you encounter people who do not “know” God? How do you share about the God you have a relationship with? Do you proclaim as Paul does, “For ‘in him we live and move and have our being'; as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we too are his offspring.'” Is that how you see God — the divine in which we live and move and have our being? How would you share your relationship with God with others? Would you? So many of us are silent about our faith and our relationship with God, that those who do not know God are at a loss to understand and discover the God we know so well, the God revealed through Christ and empowered in us through the Holy Spirit. It may be time for each of us, as faithful followers of God, to begin our own sharing — our own preaching and teaching.
Bonnie B.
* * *
1 Peter 3:13-22
The image of Noah’s ark was a favorite of early Christians. It appears on Christian tombs in the pre-Constantinian church, that is, the persecuted church that existed before Constantine made Christianity legal. But you don’t see animals. You don’t see Noah’s sons and their spouses. (Or his grandkids — do you really think those families didn’t take their children on board? I think it’s one of those things like the feeding of the five thousand where they count the men, and not their families.) You see one man, with his arms raised in prayer, floating in a tight-fitting box in water. The waters represented chaos in Judaism, Christianity, and indeed the pagan religions as well. That’s because water seems so powerful, with storms wiping out coasts, sinking ships, breaking down protective walls. And we see the Spirit of God hovering over the face of the watery deeps and conquering, in Genesis. We see Jesus walking on water and stilling the storms as a sign of his triumphant power. And the waters of our baptism, our commitment to the gospel, are a sign that we too conquer against the chaos of the Roman Empire, the tyrannies that have followed, and the structures of sin that still enslave our world.
Frank R.
* * *
1 Peter 3:13-22
I came across this report about legendary sports announcer Pat Summerall who passed away in 2013. Once, in an interview, Summerall was asked about his overcoming alcoholism and became a follower of Jesus Christ in his late sixties. In the interview, he said this about his baptism: "I went down in the water, and when I came up it was like a 40-pound weight had been lifted from me. I have a happier life, a healthy life, and have a more positive feeling about life than ever before."
What Summerall experienced is what Jesus came to bring. Peter, writing about baptism, notes, “and baptism, which this prefigured, now saves you—not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ” (vs. 21). There is renewal, refreshing, and restoration in Jesus Christ. You can begin again. It is not too late. You can find salvation in Jesus and freedom in the waters of baptism.
Bill T.
* * *
John 14:15-21
The word for advocate that Jesus uses in this passage has several delicate shadings, but in this context I think it is calling to mind the person we call for to stand up for us in court, to verify we are who we are, someone who has standing in court, who will impress the judge, steer us through a difficult process in a realm where we don’t know the rules and our own reflexes will play us false.
Frank R.
* * *
John 14:15-21
Have you ever had an experience of the risen Christ, either seeing or hearing the voice of Jesus? I have. Once during a guided meditation when I was being guided into the dark cellar where my sin lived, I was fearful or facing my own sinfulness. I hesitated at each step. How could I see myself as a sinner? As I visioned, bright light began to shine at the base of the stairs. In that light was the person of Jesus. Not only was Jesus standing before me, but Jesus opened his arms to hold me and spoke “come” to me. I ran down the rest of the steps into the arms of Jesus. I knew, at that moment and in every moment since, the love and mercy, the forgiveness and reconciliation of God. I don’t know if you will have a vision of Jesus, but I hope you believe, in your very bones, that Jesus loves you, that God forgives you, that you are beloved. That is my prayer for you.
Bonnie B.
* * *
John 14:15-21
We are reminded of the Holy Spirit and the Spirit’s relation to Christ in this text, so appropriate with Pentecost on the horizon. Regarding that subject, Martin Luther wrote in a sermon for this lesson:
Thereby he [Christ] shows us that in the future nothing else shall be taught through the Holy Spirit in all Christendom than what the apostles had heard from Christ, but which they did not yet understand until the Holy Spirit had taught them. So, the teaching may always be transmitted from one mouth to another, and yet always remain in the Word of Christ. The Holy Spirit is thus the schoolmaster who teaches these things and brings them to remembrance. (Complete Sermons, Vol.2/1, p.329)
Elsewhere Luther claims that the Holy Spirit brings us Christ who, with the Father, has become our daily guest, a true member of the households of all the faithful (Luther’s Works, Vol.24, p.158). And the great preacher of the early church, Ambrose, compared the Holy Spirit to a river which is the only source of water for the New Jerusalem (the saints) (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol.10, pp.113-114). And an even earlier African Christian thinker, the ancient monk Macarius the Egyptian (a profound influence on John Wesley) further elaborates on what the Holy Spirit does to/for us. He proclaimed:
For the Spirit infuses... [in the faithful] a burning love of the Lord and he burns with desire, never finding weariness in prayer, but always being enflamed with a love of God, he is refreshed with alacrity... (Pseudo-Macarius, p.266)
Mark E.
Paul’s arguments to the Greeks for the existence of God may inspire sermons to make similar arguments in our contexts. We should take our guidance from Martin Luther in undertaking such a task:
There has never been a people so wicked that it did not establish and maintain some sort of worship. Everyone has set up a god of his own, to which he looked for blessings, help, and comfort. (Book of Concord [2000 ed.], p.388)
Quantum Physics and its Theory of Uncertainty is increasingly helping modern science and its practitioners to realize a sense of mystery in the universe, to appreciate that science cannot provide us with all the answers with specificity. We are finding that the atoms and matter could not hold together were there not an unseen field (the Higgs Field) which plays does get matter to hold together. Can God be thought to dwell in that mysterious reality? Famed British journalist G. K. Chesterton has pointed out what the secularists lose when they are not open to the unknown god in their midst:
The average pagan, like the average agnostic, would merely say he was content with himself, but not insolently self-satisfied, that there may be better and may be worse, that his deserts were limited... This proper pride does not lift the heart... On the other hand, this mild rationalist modesty does not cleanse the soul... it does not make man as a little child who can sit at the feet of the grass. It does not make him look up… Thus, it loses both the poetry of being proud and the poetry of being humble. (Orthodoxy, p.188)
Mark E.
* * *
Acts 1:1-11
Howard Hendricks, in his book Say It with Love, writes of Dr. Jack Cooper, a Dallas ophthalmologist. Dr. Cooper was a Christian who believed in treating the total person and caring for the soul as well as the eyes. He was a member of Parks Cities Baptist Church and did medical missions to Honduras, the Dominican Republic, Liberia, and Honduras.
In his medical office, instead of having the normal “Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country” on the flip chart, Dr. Cooper had the words, “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.” When patients would come in for a check-up, they would read those words and often ask about what they meant.
Being a witness is the challenge of all Christians. The disciples, as Luke records it in the passage of Acts, were told to be Jesus’ witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. They met that challenge. Will we be his witnesses today?
Bill T.
* * *
Acts 17:22-31
Paul walks through Athens, seeing the religious statuary. There is an altar to the unknown God. Paul uses this opportunity to preach and teach about the Creator God he knows — the parent God of Jesus. How many times do you encounter people who do not “know” God? How do you share about the God you have a relationship with? Do you proclaim as Paul does, “For ‘in him we live and move and have our being'; as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we too are his offspring.'” Is that how you see God — the divine in which we live and move and have our being? How would you share your relationship with God with others? Would you? So many of us are silent about our faith and our relationship with God, that those who do not know God are at a loss to understand and discover the God we know so well, the God revealed through Christ and empowered in us through the Holy Spirit. It may be time for each of us, as faithful followers of God, to begin our own sharing — our own preaching and teaching.
Bonnie B.
* * *
1 Peter 3:13-22
The image of Noah’s ark was a favorite of early Christians. It appears on Christian tombs in the pre-Constantinian church, that is, the persecuted church that existed before Constantine made Christianity legal. But you don’t see animals. You don’t see Noah’s sons and their spouses. (Or his grandkids — do you really think those families didn’t take their children on board? I think it’s one of those things like the feeding of the five thousand where they count the men, and not their families.) You see one man, with his arms raised in prayer, floating in a tight-fitting box in water. The waters represented chaos in Judaism, Christianity, and indeed the pagan religions as well. That’s because water seems so powerful, with storms wiping out coasts, sinking ships, breaking down protective walls. And we see the Spirit of God hovering over the face of the watery deeps and conquering, in Genesis. We see Jesus walking on water and stilling the storms as a sign of his triumphant power. And the waters of our baptism, our commitment to the gospel, are a sign that we too conquer against the chaos of the Roman Empire, the tyrannies that have followed, and the structures of sin that still enslave our world.
Frank R.
* * *
1 Peter 3:13-22
I came across this report about legendary sports announcer Pat Summerall who passed away in 2013. Once, in an interview, Summerall was asked about his overcoming alcoholism and became a follower of Jesus Christ in his late sixties. In the interview, he said this about his baptism: "I went down in the water, and when I came up it was like a 40-pound weight had been lifted from me. I have a happier life, a healthy life, and have a more positive feeling about life than ever before."
What Summerall experienced is what Jesus came to bring. Peter, writing about baptism, notes, “and baptism, which this prefigured, now saves you—not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ” (vs. 21). There is renewal, refreshing, and restoration in Jesus Christ. You can begin again. It is not too late. You can find salvation in Jesus and freedom in the waters of baptism.
Bill T.
* * *
John 14:15-21
The word for advocate that Jesus uses in this passage has several delicate shadings, but in this context I think it is calling to mind the person we call for to stand up for us in court, to verify we are who we are, someone who has standing in court, who will impress the judge, steer us through a difficult process in a realm where we don’t know the rules and our own reflexes will play us false.
Frank R.
* * *
John 14:15-21
Have you ever had an experience of the risen Christ, either seeing or hearing the voice of Jesus? I have. Once during a guided meditation when I was being guided into the dark cellar where my sin lived, I was fearful or facing my own sinfulness. I hesitated at each step. How could I see myself as a sinner? As I visioned, bright light began to shine at the base of the stairs. In that light was the person of Jesus. Not only was Jesus standing before me, but Jesus opened his arms to hold me and spoke “come” to me. I ran down the rest of the steps into the arms of Jesus. I knew, at that moment and in every moment since, the love and mercy, the forgiveness and reconciliation of God. I don’t know if you will have a vision of Jesus, but I hope you believe, in your very bones, that Jesus loves you, that God forgives you, that you are beloved. That is my prayer for you.
Bonnie B.
* * *
John 14:15-21
We are reminded of the Holy Spirit and the Spirit’s relation to Christ in this text, so appropriate with Pentecost on the horizon. Regarding that subject, Martin Luther wrote in a sermon for this lesson:
Thereby he [Christ] shows us that in the future nothing else shall be taught through the Holy Spirit in all Christendom than what the apostles had heard from Christ, but which they did not yet understand until the Holy Spirit had taught them. So, the teaching may always be transmitted from one mouth to another, and yet always remain in the Word of Christ. The Holy Spirit is thus the schoolmaster who teaches these things and brings them to remembrance. (Complete Sermons, Vol.2/1, p.329)
Elsewhere Luther claims that the Holy Spirit brings us Christ who, with the Father, has become our daily guest, a true member of the households of all the faithful (Luther’s Works, Vol.24, p.158). And the great preacher of the early church, Ambrose, compared the Holy Spirit to a river which is the only source of water for the New Jerusalem (the saints) (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol.10, pp.113-114). And an even earlier African Christian thinker, the ancient monk Macarius the Egyptian (a profound influence on John Wesley) further elaborates on what the Holy Spirit does to/for us. He proclaimed:
For the Spirit infuses... [in the faithful] a burning love of the Lord and he burns with desire, never finding weariness in prayer, but always being enflamed with a love of God, he is refreshed with alacrity... (Pseudo-Macarius, p.266)
Mark E.
