Ghost Stories
Sermon
The Glory Of Our Weakness
Sermons With Children's Lessons For Lent And Easter
How many of you have ever seen a ghost? (Let them answer.) Have you ever seen ghosts in the movies? What do they look like in the movies? Do you think ghosts are real?
How many of you have ever heard or read a ghost story? (Let them answer.) Boy, I remember one I heard as a child -- it was an old story called 'The Telltale Heart,' and it was told to a group of us at night in an old dark barn with just a single lantern in the barn. The man who told it to us could really tell a story. I mean, he could do the scary voices and the sound effects and everything! How do you think I felt? That's right, I was scared silly! I was sitting really close to the children next to me. That's how we feel when we read ghost stories, or see movies with ghosts in them, isn't it? Ghosts are supposed to make us scared.
Well, I don't think ghosts are real, and I have never seen one, except in the movies, and we KNOW movies aren't real, right? But the Bible tells us that a group of Jesus' friends thought they saw a ghost, and it scared them, too! It happened on Easter Sunday.
Sometimes we forget that the first Easter was scary. Today we make Easter full of fresh flowers and brand-new clothes and beautiful music and happy people, but remember: Jesus' friends on that first Easter were scared. In fact, the Bible says they were terrified. Some had seen Jesus die -- they had seen Him die with their own eyes! And now that they thought they were seeing Him alive again, they thought they were really seeing a ghost.
Of course, the reason we celebrate Easter as such a happy day is that it wasn't a ghost they saw. It was really Jesus, alive again after being dead and buried for three days. His friends saw Him and spoke with Him and touched Him and ate with Him. They saw, not a ghost at all, but the Risen Son of God.
They saw the Man who had died for all of our sins, and the Man who then showed that after we die, we rise up and live again. He proved it to us, and so the thing we fear the most is now nothing to be feared. That's why Easter is so glorious and happy and wondrous and beautiful. That is why all of you look so beautiful today.
It's odd, isn't it? We go to a movie to see make-believe ghosts pretending to be real ghosts, and we get scared. But on Easter, Jesus' friends thought they saw a real ghost which turned out not to be a ghost, and suddenly they had no reason to be frightened any more. Amen.
How many of you have ever heard or read a ghost story? (Let them answer.) Boy, I remember one I heard as a child -- it was an old story called 'The Telltale Heart,' and it was told to a group of us at night in an old dark barn with just a single lantern in the barn. The man who told it to us could really tell a story. I mean, he could do the scary voices and the sound effects and everything! How do you think I felt? That's right, I was scared silly! I was sitting really close to the children next to me. That's how we feel when we read ghost stories, or see movies with ghosts in them, isn't it? Ghosts are supposed to make us scared.
Well, I don't think ghosts are real, and I have never seen one, except in the movies, and we KNOW movies aren't real, right? But the Bible tells us that a group of Jesus' friends thought they saw a ghost, and it scared them, too! It happened on Easter Sunday.
Sometimes we forget that the first Easter was scary. Today we make Easter full of fresh flowers and brand-new clothes and beautiful music and happy people, but remember: Jesus' friends on that first Easter were scared. In fact, the Bible says they were terrified. Some had seen Jesus die -- they had seen Him die with their own eyes! And now that they thought they were seeing Him alive again, they thought they were really seeing a ghost.
Of course, the reason we celebrate Easter as such a happy day is that it wasn't a ghost they saw. It was really Jesus, alive again after being dead and buried for three days. His friends saw Him and spoke with Him and touched Him and ate with Him. They saw, not a ghost at all, but the Risen Son of God.
They saw the Man who had died for all of our sins, and the Man who then showed that after we die, we rise up and live again. He proved it to us, and so the thing we fear the most is now nothing to be feared. That's why Easter is so glorious and happy and wondrous and beautiful. That is why all of you look so beautiful today.
It's odd, isn't it? We go to a movie to see make-believe ghosts pretending to be real ghosts, and we get scared. But on Easter, Jesus' friends thought they saw a real ghost which turned out not to be a ghost, and suddenly they had no reason to be frightened any more. Amen.
