We inherited a tradition at my congregation of having our Sunday School children participate in our middle of three Easter services. Many of the adults who attend this service are not regular attendees of the Divine Service. The following sermon was my attempt to reach them with the essence of the Gospel.
In Christ Jesus, Pr. Ron Rock "A MODERN STORY - AN ETERNAL TRUTH" The Resurrection of Our Lord Sermon Text - Matthew 28:1-6 Worship Service with Children's Choirs Sunday, April 4, 2010 Zion Lutheran Church, Beecher, IL Dear friends in Christ Jesus, The sermon for this morning is based on a portion of the Easter story told by the children a few minutes ago from St. Matthew's Gospel. I read the following again for us: After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb. 2There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the LORD came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. 3His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. 4The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men. 5The angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. 6He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. (Mt. 28:1-6, NIV) Today's sermon is in the form known as a "modern parable." This type of sermon is similar to how Jesus often taught His listeners. I'll tell a contemporary story and then attempt to relate it to God's Word and how it applies to us. By God's grace, when the sermon is over, we'll have a clearer understanding of what Easter means. The year was 1929 and the Roaring Twenties were still "roaring;" that is, there was still a huge economic boom going on all over America. In Oklahoma, a young man named John Griffith thought he had the world by the tail. He'd married his high school sweetheart the year before. Soon she became pregnant and God granted a handsome baby boy to them. John, Jr. became the apple of his father's eye. The man adored his family - there wasn't anything that he wouldn't do for them! His job provided an excellent living for their family. But then came the 1929 stock market crash. The economy was shattered... and along with it... was shattered the good life of the Griffith family. John lost his job, and with no income, they lost their dream house through foreclosure. John heard that there was some work to be had in Missouri. So he, his wife, and John, Jr. and headed for St. Louis. He bounced around from one job to another for several years. Finally, in 1937, John secured a good job. He was to be the keeper of one of the great railroad bridges that span the Mississippi River. His job was to sit in the control tower and when barges came along, he was to engage the levers to raise the bridge, thus allowing them to pass by. Along with that, he was to make sure that the bridge was down when the scheduled trains approached. That summer things began to look better once again for John Griffith. His pride and joy, his 8 year old son, was out of school for the summer and since John worked by himself, he took his son to work with him. The zest for life that he'd lost in Oklahoma had returned! I must also say that young John admired and loved his dad as much as his dad loved him. Like a lot of boys, he wanted to be with his dad wherever he went. John Jr. swelled with respect and pride as he watched his dad move the controls that engaged the giant gears, which, in turn caused the huge railroad bridge to raise and lower. All of this... controlled by his dad... who had to be, so he thought, the greatest man alive! It was lunch time one day and John raised the bridge to allow scheduled barges pass by. No trains were expected for an hour, so father and son took their lunches and inched their way across a narrow catwalk that went over top of the huge gears that controlled the bridge's movement. They went out to a platform that was 50 feet over top of the river. There, father and son sat and ate their lunches. John Jr. hung onto every word as his dad described the exotic places that the ships passing below them would soon visit. Dad got carried away with his stories and lost track of time. Suddenly, they heard a train whistle in the distance. John Sr. pulled out his pocketwatch and knew before he looked what time it was! It was 1:07 PM and time for the Memphis Express passenger liner to cross the bridge... the raised bridge... in just a few minutes! He'd have enough time if he'd hurry. But he'd have to leave his son out on the platform. You can imagine how it played out Not wanting to get his son needlessly alarmed, he told him in a calm voice to stay put. He then dashed onto the catwalk... crossed over top of the giant gears... and then seemingly flew up the ladder into the control tower. He prepared to lower the bridge. It appeared that he'd just make it! Out of habit, he looked to make sure there was no river traffic. There was none. And then as he grabbed hold of the controls... his eyes saw the unbelievable! John Jr. was lying entangled in the giant bridge gears! The gears that John Sr., himself... had to put into motion in the next few seconds... or the Memphis Express would run onto the raised bridge... and plunge into the Mississippi River taking hundreds of people to their death! Apparently, the boy had tried to follow his dad, and had slipped and fallen off the catwalk into the gears. What was the father to do? There, below him, his son... his beloved son was in agony caught in the gears of the bridge. And coming relentlessly down the track was the Memphis Express... with its 400 passengers! The lives of his son... and those 400 people... depended on what HE would do in the next few seconds. If he lowered the bridge, his son would be killed in a horrible way. And if he left the bridge where it was... and went to rescue his son... then all on the train would surely die! He thought of his wife... who also loved their son so dearly. How how could he tell her that their son died by his action of putting those gears in motion? In a moment, HE KNEW what he had to do... He pinched his eyes shut and forced the controls into the "bridge down" position! The cries of his son... his only beloved son... echoed across the river in spite of the sound of the bridge movement and the on-coming train. With seconds to spare the bridge was in place and the Memphis Express roared past John Sr. in the control tower - its passengers oblivious to the horrible death from which John Sr. had just saved them. With tears streaming down his cheeks, the father looked through the windows of the train as it passed by. There was a businessman reading the morning paper... a conductor nonchalantly looking at his pocket watch... and there was a boy, about the age of his own son, licking an ice cream cone. Many of the passengers seemed to be engaged in useless activities. And no one... not one of them looked his way! In anguish, John Sr. pounded on the glass of the control room and shouted: "What's the matter with you people? "Don't you care? Don't you know that I've sacrificed my son for you? What's wrong with you?" But no one answered. No one heard John Griffith, Sr. The train disappeared down the track. That's kind of a "bummer" story for Easter, isn't it? But I'm here to tell you on this Easter Day that it doesn't have to be a bummer - at all! I told this "modern parable" of the father and his beloved son as a way to parallel what really happened when God, the Father in heaven sacrificed His beloved His one and only Son, Jesus on the cross. Every human who has ever lived is a sinner. Our actions of greed, lust, jealousy, selfishness... you name it... all of these things that we do that our conscience tells us not to do... well, these are sins; that is, actions that are opposite of what God would have us do. Furthermore, God tells us in the Scriptures, the only source of truth, that "The wages (or reward) of sin is death!" (Ro. 6:23, ESV) You see, it's like every person who has ever lived was on a train headed for eternal death in hell because of their sins of thought, speech, and action. But God the Father... out of His incredible love for us... had a plan to save us from eternal death. His plan, though wasn't like the modern parable we told earlier. The Memphis Express caught John Griffith Sr. by surprise. But God planned He planned to sacrifice His Son, Jesus, in our place. He loves us so much that He sent "His only begotten Son" (Jn. 3:16, KJV) to be our Savior! Scripture refers to Jesus as the "Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" (Jn. 1:29, ESV). The Father had His Son become our sin-bearer... the perfect Sacrifice on the cross of Mt. Calvary... and there God the Father allowed Jesus to be punished for the sins of everyone who has ever lived... including you! Now all who repent of their sins and in faith look at Jesus as their Savior have God's forgiveness - because the Father considers that their sins are fully punished in Jesus! All that happened on Good Friday, 2000 years ago. When Jesus said "It is finished" (Jn. 19:30, ESV) and then died He declared for time and eternity that He'd accomplished God's gracious plan to save sinful man. And now we get to Easter... what we're celebrating today. On that first Easter, Jesus rose from the grave three days after He'd died. Since then, God's people gather, as we're doing, to celebrate that fact. We celebrate because it proves that Jesus' sacrifice of His life in our place was acceptable to His Father. And now, as Jesus, Himself, tells us: "Because I live, you also will live." (John 14:19, ESV) In other words, Jesus' victory of sin, death, and hell is YOUR victory. His victory gives strength, purpose, and meaning to your life. For now, you don't live for yourself and for the "toys" of this world! No! You live for Christ - Who has made you His own in your Baptism. You see it, don't you ? Jesus, God's beloved Son takes you off the train headed for hell... and puts you on the path of righteousness walking in God's ways with eternal life in heaven your ultimate destiny! Let none of us be indifferent to this incredible story of God's love for us. Let none of us walk away and reject the faith... and with that... climb back aboard that train that will plunge... not into the Mississippi River... but straight into the pit of hell! Rather may each one of us... with God's gracious assistance... look upon the true life story of Jesus on the cross and Jesus rising from the dead, as our way... the only way... to eternal life in heaven! A blessed Easter to us all! Thanks be to God! [Amen.] . ____________________________________________________________ Scottrade® Online Trading $7 Online Stock Trades - No Share Limit. $500 Minimum To Start http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL3141/4bba33d49c81ad7eb7st03vuc ___________________________________________________________________ 'CAT 41 Sermons & Devotions' consists of works that are, unless otherwise noted, the copyrighted property of the various authors; posting of such gives members of this list implied consent for redistribution _with_attribution_ unless otherwise specified by the author (as long as no charge is made for the work and it is not made part of a compilation), as well as for quoting or use in a congregational setting _with_or_without_attribution_. Note: This list's default reply is to the *poster*, NOT the list. Do *not* reply to the list with your comments, but to the poster. Subscribe? Send ANY note to: [email protected] Unsubscribe? 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