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Sermon
Don M. Aycock
Only those who love can understand the resurrection. It is primarily love which makes any sense of this experience. Paul said that the three greatest virtues are faith, hope, and love. While everything else will pass away, love will remain constant. Here now we find a clue to our understanding the resurrection. But it's more than just understanding it. I understand the principles of basic finance,...
Sermon
Jerry L. Schmalemberger
In the Des Moines Register was a story titled, “Man, Believed Killed by Log, Sits on It.” “It happened in Hamburg, Wisconsin. William Bartelt, 71, of Hamburg, was recovering in a Wausau hospital Saturday after friends gave him up for dead after a log struck him on the head. Bartelt was hit by a limb cut down by his hired hand at his central Wisconsin farm, officials said. The limb knocked him out ...
Sermon
James W. Moore
Bill Bryson has written a fascinating book called… The Lost Continent: Travels in Small Town America. In the book, he tells of traveling to Hannibal, Missouri to visit the boyhood home of the noted author Mark Twain. He described the house as a “trim, white-washed house with green shutters… set incongruously in the middle of downtown.” It costs two dollars to visit Mark Twain’s home and to walk...
Sermon
James W. Moore
Do you remember the Legend of the Touchstone? It’s a great story to recall on Easter Sunday morning. According to that ancient legend, if you could find the touchstone on the coast of the Black Sea and hold it in your hand, everything you touched would turn to gold. You could recognize the touchstone by its warmth. The other stones would feel cold, but when you picked up the touchstone, it wou...
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
God goes ahead of us even to the point of death to roll away those stones that are blocking us from life. As kids we quickly learned that there were two basic types of situations we might find ourselves in at any time. There were the "me-first!" situations. If we had lots of brothers and sisters to contend with, of course, sibling rank usually determined which "me" actually got to be "first....
Sermon
Jon L. Joyce
"HE HAS RISEN" It was a solid, staid, old parish to which I was called just after the war, one that needed a bit of waking up here and there, and on our first Easter, we arranged to have the Sunrise Service begin with a fanfare by a quartet of trumpets sounding forth from the balcony. Well, the trumpeters were quite enthusiastic, and I must admit, quite loud; and, quite frankly, the innovation wa...
7. Does Easter Really Matter?
Mark 16:1-8, John 20:1-9
Sermon
King Duncan
James Moore tells a humorous story about a woman named Carol who was the organist at her church. She was an outstanding musician, but she did something no organist should ever do. She overslept on Easter morning and missed the sunrise service. Obviously, she was embarrassed. Of course, the minister and the church forgave her. They teased her about it a little, but it was done lovingly and in good ...
8. The Rock
Mark 16:1-20
Sermon
King Duncan
Very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, (the women) went to the tomb. They had been saying to one another, "Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?" When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back. Rocks are a hot commodity! I'm not talking pebbles and peagravel. I'm talking boulders. Refrigerator...
Sermon
I remember being on a trip in Tennessee and coming to a crossroads. One road went to Copperhill; the other went to Norris Dam. There at the crossroads was a little white frame church. The church stands at every crossroad. The Christian Church was no accident. It did not just happen. It was not merely a sociological phenomenon, a quirk of history. It was not founded upon a lie, an idea, a philosop...
10. The Marvelous Message of Easter
Mark 16:1-20, Matthew 28:1-10
Sermon
Eric Ritz
Some events in life are bigger than we are able to fully comprehend. We understand, but our understanding of the event continues to enlarge. No matter what we do, some of life''s events escape an adequate celebration. When I finished at Drew Theological Seminary, I thought that I should be able to find some way to celebrate that moment. Fifteen long years have now passed and I never could find a w...
Sermon
Call To Worship Adapted In Part From 1 Corinthians 15 and Colossians 3 L: Christ is risen! R: The Lord is risen indeed! L: Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. R: For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. L: If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above. R: When Christ who is our life appears, th...
Sermon
Eric Ritz
Were you as surprised or shocked as I was to read that Mark concludes his marvelous Gospel writing in chapter 16, verse 8 with the words, "and they said nothing to anyone--for they were afraid." We know from personal experience that fear is not always a negative response, but to end a portion of God''s word in this way almost seems out of place. However, it is not God''s response to the resurrecti...
Sermon
Maxie Dunnam
If I were not preaching through the Gospel of Mark these days, I would have probably chosen another Gospel from which to read the Easter story. All the other Gospels tell a fuller and more complete, even more dramatic, story of the Resurrection. Mark’s announcement of Easter is really understated. In Mark’s Gospel, the big day is Good Friday He builds up to that day for five chapters, beginning wi...
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
Christ is Risen! [The people respond:] He is risen indeed! Happy Easter, everyone! “Because I live,” Jesus said in John 14:19, “you also will live.” I wonder: how many of you are sitting out there, festooned in your Easter Sunday best, but your fingers are slightly stained? How many of you colored Easter eggs this weekend? I do think I can see some pinks, blues, greens, and purples shining on ...
Sermon
Eric Ritz
Were you as surprised as I was to see that Mark concludes his marvelous Gospel with these words, "and they said nothing to anyone--for they were afraid?" We know from personal experience that fear is not always a negative response, but to end a Gospel in this way almost seems out of place. However, it is not God''s response to the Resurrection that Mark is being honest about; it is the human respo...
Sermon
Donald B. Strobe
I am indebted to my son-in-law, the Rev. Frank Lyman, pastor of Lake Harbor United Methodist Church in Muskegon for my opening story.  It seems that there was an unusual story on radio station WGN awhile back.  A fellow sat down and ate 874 Walleye minnows at one sitting.  That’s a lot of Walleye minnows!  Why did he do such a strange thing?  Because earlier in his life he had sat down and eaten 8...
Sermon
Mark Trotter
The mass suicide up in Rancho Santa Fe provides a grim backdrop for the celebration of Easter this year. The breaking of the story during Holy Week invited comparison with the Christian celebration of Easter and its message of resurrection. But in my understanding of the event, its occurrence during Holy Week was a coincidence. The real precipitating cause was not the celebration of Easter, but th...
Sermon
James McCormick
None of the four gospels tells the whole story of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. We have to read all four to get the full picture. The well known “seven last words from the cross” for example, are not found in any one gospel account. In order to hear all seven words, you’ve got to read all four of the gospels. And, accounts of the resurrected Jesus’ appearances to his followers are spr...
Sermon
J. Howard Olds
A friend and colleague of mine was declared dead by the IRS a few years ago, even though he was very much alive. Due to MS, Jim was confined to a wheel chair and depended on disability Social Security for survival. So you can imagine the shock of being informed you are dead and no longer eligible for benefits. Jim called the IRS. They asked him multiple questions, but could not by conversation dec...
Sermon
King Duncan
[While King Duncan is enjoying a well deserved retirement we are going back to his earliest sermons and renewing them. The newly modernized sermon is shown first and below, for reference sake, is the old sermon. We will continue this updating throughout the year bringing fresh takes on King's best sermons.] Original Title: Death Has Been Conquered New Title: Look Up, Not Down The Rev. Gary Paterso...
Sermon
Donald B. Strobe
Is there anything more frustrating than to be reading an interesting article in the newspaper, only to find that the article is “continued on page 7, section C”....  and then turn to page 7, Section C., only to find that someone has either torn off that page or cut an article from the other side and thereby wiped out the conclusion of the story?  That’s sort of the way it is with the Gospel of St....
Sermon
J. Howard Olds
A church organist made a horrible blunder on Easter Sunday. He failed to set his alarm and managed to sleep right through the first service. The congregation forgave him. His colleagues teased him. The senior pastor pondered it all in his heart and one year later phoned the organist at 4:00 a.m. When the organist answered the phone, the pastor said, “It's Easter! Christ is risen! You should do the...
Sermon
Jerry Eckert
Comment: I am a Sherlock Holmes* fan. In early 1983, I got to wondering what would happen if Sherlock Holmes investigated the Resurrection. On Good Friday evening, I decided to go to work on a short, short story to be used the Sunday after Easter during a congregational hymn sing. I already had a sermon started for Easter Sunday. As I began to write, I heard the voices and literally let the story...
Sermon
Anne-Rose Reeves
Pastor Jones, at St. Michaels Lutheran Church, wasn't quite sure just how to put his Easter sermon together. And believe me, it wasn't for lack of advice and study. At the last council meeting, the church president had jokingly told him he hoped that this year's Easter sermon would finally say something significant to all those "Christmas and Easter Christians" who show up only twice a year and o...
Sermon
James W. Moore
IMPORTANT NOTE: The illustration that opens this sermon about Mel Gibson is not true. It is an urban legend. It has no bases in fact. Some years ago, a hard-working man took his family from New York State to Australia so he could take advantage of a job opportunity there. One member of this man’s family was a handsome young son who dreamed of joining the circus. He wanted to become a trapeze arti...
Showing 1 to 25 of 123 results