Sermon Illustrations for the Fourth Sunday after Easter (2015)
Illustration
Object:
Acts 4:5-12
In our lesson Peter says that Jesus is the cornerstone. A cornerstone holds the whole building together. Christ holds our lives together.
Sigmund Freud said that “Love and work are the cornerstones of your humanness.” To have Christ as your cornerstone entails that we live with the awareness that all our loves, all our work are for Christ. And then we can say with the Shorter Catechism of the Presbyterian Church: “What is the chief end of man? Man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.”
Focusing on God, on Jesus, makes you happy. Cutting-edge neurobiology indicates that one who is scattered is not happy. You only experience that good brain chemical dopamine, which helps create happy feelings, when you are engaged in concentration (Stefan Klein, The Science of Happiness, pp. 218,224). When we stick with Christ our cornerstone, good things are more likely to happen.
Mark E.
1 John 3:16-24
What a stewardship verse! If we hear or see a great need and ignore it, then God’s love is not in us -- and that should frighten us!
I saw so many pictures of starving children in church publications that they no longer bothered me. I became immune to their needs. It was not until I was in a devotional meeting in Nepal and a poor little fellow named Ranget who was starving to death in his father’s lap sat so close I could reach out and touch him. Then it hit me so hard that I will never be the same.
I was walking down the street one day, and a fellow passed me whose pants had holes in them and whose toes were sticking out of his shoes. I looked the other way and tried to ignore him. It wasn’t until later that I realized God loved that poor fellow as much as he loved me. Once while I was a prison chaplain I was counseling a nice young man with the most depressed expression. It touched my heart. I wanted to do something for him to lift his spirits. My next words were the last words in our text, and I told him he should have confidence before God. He thought about it for a minute, then a slight smile touched his lips and he said, “My folks tried to get that through to me, but now when you read those words I felt that it must be God speaking.” That was God’s gift to him.
Also, when I was in Nepal and everyone I knew was at the poverty level -- including my seminary students whose folks disowned them when they became Christian so they had no financial support from them -- they still helped other Christians (and even non-Christians) in desperate need. We all helped each other, and I am still helping them with contributions from me and from church members in our country who are touched by their stories.
It is so easy to close our hearts to others’ needs when we are deluged with appeals in magazines and in the mail. We would go broke if we gave one dollar to each of them! I don’t think that is what the Lord had in mind. One thing we can do is give generously to our church offering for local and mission needs. Yes! Sometimes we might even discover a neighbor in need.
We need to express God’s love to others without a hidden agenda -- like trying to bring them into membership in our congregation.
There is such bitterness in some newspaper ads against someone of the other political party that we feel they are lacking the love that God commands, no matter how we try to convince ourselves that we are only concerned with the benefit of our fellow Americans.
Bob O.
1 John 3:16-24
The story is told of Sadhu Sundar Singh, who was walking with a companion through the mountains in the Himalayas. As they trudged through snow they stumbled over the body of a man lying in the road unconscious. Singh indicated to his traveling mate that they needed to stop and help the man, but his companion refused, thinking that to do so would burden them down and delay their return home.
But Sundar Singh refused to let the man die in the snow and ice there on the road. While his companion went on, Singh bandaged and helped the man the best he could. Then he leaned down and lifted the poor man on his back. Bearing the weight of the man, he began his forward movement. As they traveled on, the heat from Singh’s body gradually warmed up the half-frozen fellow and he began to revive. After a while he was able to move on his own, and together he and Sadhu walked side by side towards the town ahead. After a period of time they overtook Singh’s former traveling companion, who had died frozen by the cold.
Like Jesus, Sundar Singh was willing to lose his life on behalf of another. Because of his willingness to sacrifice his own life, both Singh and the other man found life. Unfortunately, his callous companion refused to sacrifice on another’s behalf and lost his life.
(This story is found in Illustrations Unlimited, edited by James Hewett, p. 445.)
Derl K.
John 10:11-18
When Jesus says that he is the gate, I think he is suggesting that the reason the sheep trust him is that he thinks like sheep. Shouldn’t we think like sheep? Or rather, shouldn’t we think like the unchurched? Not because they’re some strange species who require special study, but because we’re so used to coming through our church doors that we don’t realize just how intimidating they can be to someone who knows they need the Lord but isn’t sure they need the Lord’s flock.
We may be so used to thinking in terms of sermons and hymns and prayers that we don’t realize we’ve developed a special jargon that makes perfect sense to us but makes no sense at all to those who are searching for Jesus.
In order to think like sheep, let’s not talk in terms of church. Let’s talk in terms of restaurants. How fearful did you feel the last time you tried a new restaurant? Did you want a friend to come with you to explain the menu? Did you want a little space to look things over without being surrounded by the staff, and at the same time didn’t you want someone to pay attention to you so that you wouldn’t think you’d turned invisible?
What kind of gate are you? Shut and locked? Or wide-open and welcoming?
Frank R.
John 10:11-18
More Americans are living alone. One in four households is made up of just one member, up 17% from 1940. A Duke University poll revealed that from 1985 to 2006 the number of people who say there no was no one with whom they discussed important matters tripled to 25% of the public. A more recent 2013 poll by the Barna Group found that 20% of Americans said they were lonely, up from 12% in 2001. We need Jesus, the Good Shepherd. There is an old Russian proverb that says why: “Without a shepherd, sheep are not a flock.” If Americans feel alone, not part of a flock, it may have to do with the fact that we have become more secular and do not rally around the Good Shepherd who makes us one. There is even anthropological and evolutionary evidence that common worship, especially if it involves music and motion, creates feelings of solidarity among participants (Nicholas Wade, The Faith Instinct, pp. 79-80). Martin Luther makes clear in another way how the leading of Christ the Good Shepherd overcomes our loneliness, for he will never abandon us: “It follows from this that we are not now, nor ever will be forsaken” (Complete Sermons, Vol. 6, p. 74).
Mark E.
In our lesson Peter says that Jesus is the cornerstone. A cornerstone holds the whole building together. Christ holds our lives together.
Sigmund Freud said that “Love and work are the cornerstones of your humanness.” To have Christ as your cornerstone entails that we live with the awareness that all our loves, all our work are for Christ. And then we can say with the Shorter Catechism of the Presbyterian Church: “What is the chief end of man? Man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.”
Focusing on God, on Jesus, makes you happy. Cutting-edge neurobiology indicates that one who is scattered is not happy. You only experience that good brain chemical dopamine, which helps create happy feelings, when you are engaged in concentration (Stefan Klein, The Science of Happiness, pp. 218,224). When we stick with Christ our cornerstone, good things are more likely to happen.
Mark E.
1 John 3:16-24
What a stewardship verse! If we hear or see a great need and ignore it, then God’s love is not in us -- and that should frighten us!
I saw so many pictures of starving children in church publications that they no longer bothered me. I became immune to their needs. It was not until I was in a devotional meeting in Nepal and a poor little fellow named Ranget who was starving to death in his father’s lap sat so close I could reach out and touch him. Then it hit me so hard that I will never be the same.
I was walking down the street one day, and a fellow passed me whose pants had holes in them and whose toes were sticking out of his shoes. I looked the other way and tried to ignore him. It wasn’t until later that I realized God loved that poor fellow as much as he loved me. Once while I was a prison chaplain I was counseling a nice young man with the most depressed expression. It touched my heart. I wanted to do something for him to lift his spirits. My next words were the last words in our text, and I told him he should have confidence before God. He thought about it for a minute, then a slight smile touched his lips and he said, “My folks tried to get that through to me, but now when you read those words I felt that it must be God speaking.” That was God’s gift to him.
Also, when I was in Nepal and everyone I knew was at the poverty level -- including my seminary students whose folks disowned them when they became Christian so they had no financial support from them -- they still helped other Christians (and even non-Christians) in desperate need. We all helped each other, and I am still helping them with contributions from me and from church members in our country who are touched by their stories.
It is so easy to close our hearts to others’ needs when we are deluged with appeals in magazines and in the mail. We would go broke if we gave one dollar to each of them! I don’t think that is what the Lord had in mind. One thing we can do is give generously to our church offering for local and mission needs. Yes! Sometimes we might even discover a neighbor in need.
We need to express God’s love to others without a hidden agenda -- like trying to bring them into membership in our congregation.
There is such bitterness in some newspaper ads against someone of the other political party that we feel they are lacking the love that God commands, no matter how we try to convince ourselves that we are only concerned with the benefit of our fellow Americans.
Bob O.
1 John 3:16-24
The story is told of Sadhu Sundar Singh, who was walking with a companion through the mountains in the Himalayas. As they trudged through snow they stumbled over the body of a man lying in the road unconscious. Singh indicated to his traveling mate that they needed to stop and help the man, but his companion refused, thinking that to do so would burden them down and delay their return home.
But Sundar Singh refused to let the man die in the snow and ice there on the road. While his companion went on, Singh bandaged and helped the man the best he could. Then he leaned down and lifted the poor man on his back. Bearing the weight of the man, he began his forward movement. As they traveled on, the heat from Singh’s body gradually warmed up the half-frozen fellow and he began to revive. After a while he was able to move on his own, and together he and Sadhu walked side by side towards the town ahead. After a period of time they overtook Singh’s former traveling companion, who had died frozen by the cold.
Like Jesus, Sundar Singh was willing to lose his life on behalf of another. Because of his willingness to sacrifice his own life, both Singh and the other man found life. Unfortunately, his callous companion refused to sacrifice on another’s behalf and lost his life.
(This story is found in Illustrations Unlimited, edited by James Hewett, p. 445.)
Derl K.
John 10:11-18
When Jesus says that he is the gate, I think he is suggesting that the reason the sheep trust him is that he thinks like sheep. Shouldn’t we think like sheep? Or rather, shouldn’t we think like the unchurched? Not because they’re some strange species who require special study, but because we’re so used to coming through our church doors that we don’t realize just how intimidating they can be to someone who knows they need the Lord but isn’t sure they need the Lord’s flock.
We may be so used to thinking in terms of sermons and hymns and prayers that we don’t realize we’ve developed a special jargon that makes perfect sense to us but makes no sense at all to those who are searching for Jesus.
In order to think like sheep, let’s not talk in terms of church. Let’s talk in terms of restaurants. How fearful did you feel the last time you tried a new restaurant? Did you want a friend to come with you to explain the menu? Did you want a little space to look things over without being surrounded by the staff, and at the same time didn’t you want someone to pay attention to you so that you wouldn’t think you’d turned invisible?
What kind of gate are you? Shut and locked? Or wide-open and welcoming?
Frank R.
John 10:11-18
More Americans are living alone. One in four households is made up of just one member, up 17% from 1940. A Duke University poll revealed that from 1985 to 2006 the number of people who say there no was no one with whom they discussed important matters tripled to 25% of the public. A more recent 2013 poll by the Barna Group found that 20% of Americans said they were lonely, up from 12% in 2001. We need Jesus, the Good Shepherd. There is an old Russian proverb that says why: “Without a shepherd, sheep are not a flock.” If Americans feel alone, not part of a flock, it may have to do with the fact that we have become more secular and do not rally around the Good Shepherd who makes us one. There is even anthropological and evolutionary evidence that common worship, especially if it involves music and motion, creates feelings of solidarity among participants (Nicholas Wade, The Faith Instinct, pp. 79-80). Martin Luther makes clear in another way how the leading of Christ the Good Shepherd overcomes our loneliness, for he will never abandon us: “It follows from this that we are not now, nor ever will be forsaken” (Complete Sermons, Vol. 6, p. 74).
Mark E.
