Sermon Illustrations for Easter Day (2022)
Illustration
Isaiah 65:17-25
The very fact that there has been a drop in infant mortality, we are living longer, and we live in the houses we built and eat the fruit of our labors, theseare all characteristics of the Messianic Age. This tells us clearly that these were not the experiences of many ordinary people in Isaiah’s time. Though we may consider these things ordinary – or even our right — they are blessings, not entitlements. So perhaps in some ways, we might see the improvement in the human condition at least a partial fulfillment of God’s vision for humanity and the world.
Don’t forget that against this backdrop of blessedness the prophet also speaks about all creatures living in harmony. In the current state of biological alarm, with many species of animals, birds, and insects disappearing because of changes in our climate and environment, it might appear we are further away from God’s intention than ever. Easter Day is a celebration of resurrection, primarily of Jesus, but also looking towards our own. This passage, like Revelation, speaks of a new heaven and a new earth. The former things will be remembered and be restored. This is not an excuse to let things fall to pieces, trusting that God will restore all we have neglected, abused, or harmed, but rather a warning to resume our calling as good stewards of God’s good earth until the return of the Savior.
Frank R.
* * *
Acts 10:34-43
Many have heard the story of John Newton. Newton was born in 1725 in London to a Puritan mother who died two weeks before his seventh birthday, and a stern sea-captain father who took him to sea at age 11. After many voyages and a reckless youth of drinking, Newton was impressed to join the British navy. After attempting to desert, he received eight dozen lashes and was reduced to the rank of common seaman. When he left the Navy, Newton began working on a slave-trading ship. It was during that time, when the ship he was on nearly sunk, that Newton became a Christian. He renounced his former ways, including the slave trade and became a preacher and hymnwriter. The words, “Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me” came from his heart and his pen.
Newton also wrote the epitaph for his tombstone. It reads, “John Newton, clerk, once an infidel and libertine, a servant of slaves in Africa, was by the rich mercy of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, preserved, restored, pardoned, and appointed to preach the faith he had long labored to destroy.” Newton’s story can be everyone’s story. “Everyone who believes in Jesus receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”
Bill T.
* * *
Acts 10:34-43
John Wesley noted how Easter brings all people together. He wrote, “[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) Martin Luther King, Jr. powerfully explained how Christ’s work brings people together:
But in Christ there is neither Jew nor Gentile. In Christ there is neither male nor female. In Christ there is neither communist or capitalist. In Christ, somehow there is neither bound nor free. We are all one in Christ Jesus. And when we truly believe in the sacredness of the 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)
No place for racism and exploiting the poor when we stand before the empty tomb of the risen Lord.
Mark E.
* * *
1 Corinthians 15:19-26
Famed Puritan preacher Jonathan Edwards extols what Easter means for us flawed human beings. He proclaimed:
In this also Christ appeared gloriously above the guilt of men. For he offered a sacrifice that was sufficient to do away all the guilt of the whole world. Though the guilt of man was like the great mountains, whose heads lifted up to the heavens; yet his dying love and his merits ... swallows up men’s greatest sins as little motes are swallowed up and hidden in the disk of the sun. (Works, Vol.2, p.215)
An Easter message from Pope Benedict XVI well portrays the future-oriented hope of resurrection:
To have Christian hope means to know about evil and yet to go to meet the future with confidence. The core of faith rests upon accepting being loved by God, and therefore to believe is to say yes, not only to him, but to creation, to creatures, above all, to men, to try to see the image of God in each person and thereby to become a lover.
Martin Luther also describes an inviting picture of what the resurrection does for our relationship to God in the future:
Behold, that is the consolation we derive from yonder life, that God himself will be ours and that he will be everything to us. For picture to yourself all that you would like to have and will find nothing better and dearer and worth wishing for than to have God himself, who is the life and inexhaustible depth of everything good and of eternal joy. (Luther’s Works, Vol.28, p.146)
Mark E.
* * *
John 20:1-18
Tombs have a significant role in our culture. The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington Cemetery is a constant reminder of the many men and women who have given their lives for the cause of freedom and whose remains have never been identified. I visited the National Cemetery at Gettysburg last summer and was struck by the solemnity of the hallowed ground. Men who’d given their lives nearly 160 years ago on the nearby battlefields were buried there. At Johnson University in Knoxville, Tennessee, where I did graduate work, there is a small garden where the first three presidents of the school and their wives are buried. It’s a place I visit each time I am on campus. Visiting tombs is important. It’s a time of remembering and thinking about the life of one who’s passed.
Today is about visiting a tomb, too, but is different than any other. Mary Magdalene, Peter, and John visited a tomb, but there was no mourning, remembering and thinking about one who’d died. Unlike all the other tombs I mentioned, this one was empty! No other tomb visit has been like it before or since. Because of that empty tomb, though, visits to the cemetery are not hopelessly sad.
Bill T.
* * *
Luke 24:1-12
It’s one thing to read this familiar passage, it’s another thing to put yourself deep enough in the scene that you share the emotions of the participants. We are told this happens in the “deep dawn,” a time when things are dark. And creepy. This is a tomb. Are they wondering if they are in the right tomb? Are they stumbling in the dark? Instead of noticing someone is approaching, by hearing their footsteps, catching sight of their lamp, and calling out, these two men, who will be revealed later in the chapter as angels, appear right next to them with “dazzling clothes.” They don’t approach. They are simply and suddenly there. That has to be a heart stopping moment. The women are vulnerable, defenseless, and startled to the point where they collapse to the ground.
Yet somehow they manage to hear what is said to them, and not only make sense of it, but also connect this message to what Jesus had been saying about himself. They also take a coherent report to the apostles. I wonder what they felt like when this message was dismissed as “an idle tale” that was unbelievable? And when later Jesus appears in the midst of the disciples, I hope they got an apology.
Frank R.
The very fact that there has been a drop in infant mortality, we are living longer, and we live in the houses we built and eat the fruit of our labors, theseare all characteristics of the Messianic Age. This tells us clearly that these were not the experiences of many ordinary people in Isaiah’s time. Though we may consider these things ordinary – or even our right — they are blessings, not entitlements. So perhaps in some ways, we might see the improvement in the human condition at least a partial fulfillment of God’s vision for humanity and the world.
Don’t forget that against this backdrop of blessedness the prophet also speaks about all creatures living in harmony. In the current state of biological alarm, with many species of animals, birds, and insects disappearing because of changes in our climate and environment, it might appear we are further away from God’s intention than ever. Easter Day is a celebration of resurrection, primarily of Jesus, but also looking towards our own. This passage, like Revelation, speaks of a new heaven and a new earth. The former things will be remembered and be restored. This is not an excuse to let things fall to pieces, trusting that God will restore all we have neglected, abused, or harmed, but rather a warning to resume our calling as good stewards of God’s good earth until the return of the Savior.
Frank R.
* * *
Acts 10:34-43
Many have heard the story of John Newton. Newton was born in 1725 in London to a Puritan mother who died two weeks before his seventh birthday, and a stern sea-captain father who took him to sea at age 11. After many voyages and a reckless youth of drinking, Newton was impressed to join the British navy. After attempting to desert, he received eight dozen lashes and was reduced to the rank of common seaman. When he left the Navy, Newton began working on a slave-trading ship. It was during that time, when the ship he was on nearly sunk, that Newton became a Christian. He renounced his former ways, including the slave trade and became a preacher and hymnwriter. The words, “Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me” came from his heart and his pen.
Newton also wrote the epitaph for his tombstone. It reads, “John Newton, clerk, once an infidel and libertine, a servant of slaves in Africa, was by the rich mercy of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, preserved, restored, pardoned, and appointed to preach the faith he had long labored to destroy.” Newton’s story can be everyone’s story. “Everyone who believes in Jesus receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”
Bill T.
* * *
Acts 10:34-43
John Wesley noted how Easter brings all people together. He wrote, “[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) Martin Luther King, Jr. powerfully explained how Christ’s work brings people together:
But in Christ there is neither Jew nor Gentile. In Christ there is neither male nor female. In Christ there is neither communist or capitalist. In Christ, somehow there is neither bound nor free. We are all one in Christ Jesus. And when we truly believe in the sacredness of the 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)
No place for racism and exploiting the poor when we stand before the empty tomb of the risen Lord.
Mark E.
* * *
1 Corinthians 15:19-26
Famed Puritan preacher Jonathan Edwards extols what Easter means for us flawed human beings. He proclaimed:
In this also Christ appeared gloriously above the guilt of men. For he offered a sacrifice that was sufficient to do away all the guilt of the whole world. Though the guilt of man was like the great mountains, whose heads lifted up to the heavens; yet his dying love and his merits ... swallows up men’s greatest sins as little motes are swallowed up and hidden in the disk of the sun. (Works, Vol.2, p.215)
An Easter message from Pope Benedict XVI well portrays the future-oriented hope of resurrection:
To have Christian hope means to know about evil and yet to go to meet the future with confidence. The core of faith rests upon accepting being loved by God, and therefore to believe is to say yes, not only to him, but to creation, to creatures, above all, to men, to try to see the image of God in each person and thereby to become a lover.
Martin Luther also describes an inviting picture of what the resurrection does for our relationship to God in the future:
Behold, that is the consolation we derive from yonder life, that God himself will be ours and that he will be everything to us. For picture to yourself all that you would like to have and will find nothing better and dearer and worth wishing for than to have God himself, who is the life and inexhaustible depth of everything good and of eternal joy. (Luther’s Works, Vol.28, p.146)
Mark E.
* * *
John 20:1-18
Tombs have a significant role in our culture. The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington Cemetery is a constant reminder of the many men and women who have given their lives for the cause of freedom and whose remains have never been identified. I visited the National Cemetery at Gettysburg last summer and was struck by the solemnity of the hallowed ground. Men who’d given their lives nearly 160 years ago on the nearby battlefields were buried there. At Johnson University in Knoxville, Tennessee, where I did graduate work, there is a small garden where the first three presidents of the school and their wives are buried. It’s a place I visit each time I am on campus. Visiting tombs is important. It’s a time of remembering and thinking about the life of one who’s passed.
Today is about visiting a tomb, too, but is different than any other. Mary Magdalene, Peter, and John visited a tomb, but there was no mourning, remembering and thinking about one who’d died. Unlike all the other tombs I mentioned, this one was empty! No other tomb visit has been like it before or since. Because of that empty tomb, though, visits to the cemetery are not hopelessly sad.
Bill T.
* * *
Luke 24:1-12
It’s one thing to read this familiar passage, it’s another thing to put yourself deep enough in the scene that you share the emotions of the participants. We are told this happens in the “deep dawn,” a time when things are dark. And creepy. This is a tomb. Are they wondering if they are in the right tomb? Are they stumbling in the dark? Instead of noticing someone is approaching, by hearing their footsteps, catching sight of their lamp, and calling out, these two men, who will be revealed later in the chapter as angels, appear right next to them with “dazzling clothes.” They don’t approach. They are simply and suddenly there. That has to be a heart stopping moment. The women are vulnerable, defenseless, and startled to the point where they collapse to the ground.
Yet somehow they manage to hear what is said to them, and not only make sense of it, but also connect this message to what Jesus had been saying about himself. They also take a coherent report to the apostles. I wonder what they felt like when this message was dismissed as “an idle tale” that was unbelievable? And when later Jesus appears in the midst of the disciples, I hope they got an apology.
Frank R.
