Sermon of the Month - April 2008
Parade Service 13 April 2008
Three Resurrections
This service had not one sermon, but a series of short talks taking place at different stages in the service, here entitled “Opener”, “Conversation”, “Talk” and Comment”.
Opener
Have you ever been surprised?
[Have a discussion with the children (especially) in which they tell me their examples. Various amusing examples from adults and children alike followed.]
My examples: going up New Walk in Leicester, seeing an official limousine sweep by with the Mayor’s number plates ABC 1, out of which stepped Edward Heath, then Prime Minister, just a dozen yards away from me. That evening, the TV News reported a “surprise visit by the Prime Minister to Leicester...”
More recently (ten years ago), when I had a phone call from Kingsway about an article that they’d seen of mine (but I hadn’t seen yet) about science fiction, and then they said they would now write to ask me whether I would write a book for them on science fiction. I replied and then put the phone down before the significance of this really hit me.
Who was surprised by Jesus’ resurrection?
(A discussion followed in which the following were mentioned: Mary Magdalene – thought it was a gardener; Peter – thought the body was missing; Cleopas – thought Jesus was dead; soldiers – thought they were in danger; the priests and Jesus’ other enemies – expected the dead man to stay dead!)
Conversation
In the Bible, who was raised from the dead?
(The obvious answer came: Jesus)
Who else?
(With some answers and some comments made by me, we established the following: In the Old Testament: in the ministry of Elijah – the son of a widow at Zarephath [1 Kings 18]; in the ministry of Elijah’s successor, Elisha – the Shunamite’s son [2 Kings 4];in the New Testament – by Jesus: Jairus’ daughter, the Nain widow’s son, and Lazarus; by others – in the ministry of Peter: Tabitha [Acts 9] and in the ministry of Paul: Eutychus [Acts 20.)
We’re going to look at what it means that not only was Jesus raised from the dead, he also raised the dead.
First, let’s hear the stories from the gospel of Luke. (Readings of Luke 7:11-17, and Luke 8:40-56)
Talk
How did Jesus raise the dead? Not by magic, but by the power of God. But how often? Only three times in the gospels. Even with Jesus, this is a rare miracle.
Why? Why raise this person and not that?
Raising the dead is part of Jesus’ healing ministry. The most spectacular part, perhaps, but part. Why did Jesus heal here and not there? One reason was faith – our human response is part of the picture. Perhaps that’s why he had the professional mourners with their wailing go away from the dead girl, Jairus’ daughter.
But it’s only part of it. Another part is Jesus’ compassion. We can see this so cleasrly with the woman at Nain. (It’s also clear in the account in John’s gospel of Lazarus.) Time and again we see Jesus was moved with compassion, and his miracles of healing, and other miracles, like the feeding of the 5,000, were a result of his compassion. In the life of Jesus, and in healing prayers of Christians, this is so very important: to have the love of God, the compassion of Christ.
But even with Jesus very few are raised from the dead. That reminds us that miracles are real, but they are not automatic. If they were magic they would be automatic. You would say the magic words or whatever. But it’s not like that. It’s based on God, his love, his power.
Jesus raised the dead, literally. He also raised the dead, spiritually. In the same way he gave sight to the blind, and also helped the spiritually blind to see the truth.
Jesus raised the spiritually dead. Sometimes we say “we feel like death warmed up”. And then we might perk up. But what Jesus does is far more than that. We are spiritually dead. In the Bible, Paul put it this way: Sin pays its wage – death. But God’s free gift is eternal life in union with Christ Jesus our Lord. Without God, our lives are too selfish for us to break free and be right with God. But Jesus died and rose again so that we could become truly free, and know God’s help for ever.
Comment
We’ve heard about Jesus and the way he changed people’s expectations for ever. Jesus called people to follow him, to go the way of life he shows and he helps us with. He did it 2,000 years ago, and he’s still doing it today. Many people have decided to follow Jesus. Maybe you want to be a follower of Jesus. Maybe you have got a lot of questions, and you want to see if you can answer them.
Every so often we run groups to look at some of these questions. As far as the way we’re going to do this with our teens and pre-teens, we’re going to spend some time within ERIC which is a group for those in school year 8 and older (aged 12+) looking at what it means to know God, become a Christian, and follow Jesus, and perhaps with ERIC+ (for the 18-25s). I will also start a group for any adults who want to explore together what it means to be a Christian. There may be some who want to take it further and see what it means to be baptised and to become a member of the church. Either way, if you interested in any of this, please see me, or else see the leaders of ERIC (Matt or Lindy Binder) or ERIC+ (Paul & Joy Gilliver).
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