Jesus’ Body Kept the Score

Author’s Note: The following sermon is based on John 20:19-23 and seeks to address trauma through the lens of Christ’s own wounds. The sermon ...

Heavenly Reality

Introduction

Happy Easter everyone! When you think about the future, how do you feel?

For most of us, when we think about the future, it brings all sorts ...

It’s Time for a Fresh Start

Introduction: The Story

(Read John 21:1-14)

It was an early morning on the North Shore of the Sea of Galilee. A light haze of fog hung over the water making ...

'Remember!'

Introduction

There were three sisters—ages 92, 94, and 96—who lived together. One night, the 96-year-old drew a bath. She put one ...

Unshakeable Hope

Introduction

Happy Easter! Welcome to the largest digital Easter the world has ever seen, as thousands of churches are online right now!

It’s been ...

Burning Hearts

Introduction

Several months ago, my wife and I had the privilege of going to the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte (If you are ever in Charlotte, NC you ...

An Upper Room Revelation

Overview of Sermon Series

Many years ago, my wife and I visited Alcatraz Prison in San Francisco, CA. Let me emphasize visited! We toured the prison via ...

A Tale of Two Trees

Introduction

This is the highest of holy days for the Christian church. This is the day where not only do we remember that Jesus died and he was buried, ...

Resurrection on Trial

Introduction

Have you heard of Snopes.com? If you want to check out a rumor or a legend that’s online—you get some email that says some guy ...

All About the Resurrection

Introduction

Are you really who you say you are?

We are doubted every day. Every time we log in. Every time we swipe. Every time we try to unlock our phones. ...

Jesus Shows Up in Mary Magdalene's Darkest Hour

Introduction

(Read John 20:1-18)

When we come to the resurrection, we first have to consider some questions that many of our friends have and why some believe ...

Crossed Over

Introduction

(Read John 5:24-25)

A few years ago I was talking to a friend at a coffee shop a couple days before Easter. "I know you aren't much of a churchgoer," ...

God Wins

Introduction

(Read John 20:19-29)

On election night in 1976, I sat in a little dark storage closet at the back of a campaign headquarters in Yonkers, New ...

The Goodness of Creation

Editor's Note: This article is being released with a partnership with the Center for Pastor Theologians Conference. The theme for their 2018 conference ...

Easter Hope

Introduction

This is part of my story with my dad.

September 18 of this past year was profoundly memorable for me. My dad, who was almost 84, passed away. ...

Surprise Ending

Introduction

We like our Bible stories to end with a bang: Israel escaping from Egypt through the watery walls of the Red Sea, the walls of Jericho tumbling ...

The Key to a Meaningful Life

Introduction

Maybe this is the first time you've ever stepped foot into a church. Or maybe you don't normally go to church unless it's Christmas ...

Not What We Expected

Introduction

(Illustration: Description of seeing the Mona Lisa for the first time.)

Have you ever had an experience where things didn't turn out as you ...

The Incognito Christ

Introduction

April 12, 2007: A 39-year-old man stationed himself next to a trash bin at the L'Enfant Plaza subway station in Washington, D.C. He had on ...

How Easter Turned the World

Introduction

When my dad was a young man in his thirties, he was working for an import/export trading company in Tokyo, Japan. One day he happened to be ...

Stories Converge at Easter

Introduction

Read (Mark 1:1)

I started to read Unbroken: A WWII Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption. On the front cover is the title, the subtitle, ...

I Am Ascending

Introduction

In September 2013, the headline on the cover of Time read: "Can Google Solve Death?" Google's CEO announced a new division of Google known ...

The Death of Death

Introduction

There are moments in time when all of a sudden something happens and everything changes. There are so many examples of this that it's almost ...

The Resurrection Matters—Really Matters!

Introduction

Like many of you, this Easter, I celebrate a radical truth—that Jesus died and rose to pay the price for our failures and affirm he ...

Two Graves, Two Gardens

Introduction

Read Genesis 3:8-22 and John 19:38-20:18

There were no streetlights, headlights, or even flashlights. There was just darkness, and some women ...

What Happens When We Die?

Introduction

A few months ago, Google made this announcement:

Not many of us like thinking about death—especially our own. But making plans for what ...

Hope Is a Who

Introduction

Life has a way of killing dreams, doesn't it? You set out with high hopes—for your schooling, your career, your family, and your ...

The Best Is Yet To Come

Introduction

It all began with Mary and Martha—that cool Easter morning—coming to a lonely Palestinian tomb. I don't think they had any idea ...

Jesus Vindicated

Introduction

Luke 24, verses 1 to 53—this stuff is too wonderful for words. It's very easy to outline this chapter:

• Lk 24:1-12, The empty tomb;

God's Power in Unexpected Places

Introduction

Good Friday and Easter lie at the very heart and center of the Christian message. But there seems to be a lot of confusion in our culture ...

Resurrection Hope Every Day

Introduction

I have a friend in Minnesota who is a landscape architect. A few years ago, shortly after she had moved to a new place, she led me around ...

Good News When You're Confronted by Death

Introduction

Luke 7:11-17 says this:

Soon afterward, Jesus went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went along with him. As ...

What's Your Story?

Introduction

Have you heard of Storycorps? Storycorps is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to celebrate the lives of everyday Americans by inviting ...

Jesus Alone Is Lord

True North Backstory

One reason I enjoyed preaching the sermons in this series was the contrast between a "head" message and a "heart" message.

The message ...

Encounter on Golgotha Road

From the editor:

We recently posted an Easter message by John Ortberg, because the themes like atonement, the Cross, resurrection, etc. are never out of ...

Satan Strikes Out

From the editor:

In the second half of Mark's sermon, he shares that C. S. Lewis once wrote that we often fall prey to two equal yet opposite errors concerning ...

Doubters Anyonymous

Introduction

"He is risen": it's the heartbeat of the message of the Christian church. These three English words are translated from one Greek word, egeirō, ...

The Good News Is the Bad News Is Wrong

Introduction

I'd like you to use your imagination this morning and picture our world, your world, as a terrarium. You know what a terrarium is. My version ...

Easter Means Hope

Introduction

There is a way in which Easter holds attraction for everyone—I think it is because Easter translates into hope. There's a sense of hopelessness ...

The World's Greatest Step

The story behind the sermon (from John Ortberg):

For Easter I wanted to present some of N. T. Wright's material on the Resurrection. I love his work on ...

Death Is Life

From the editor:

Easter draws closer and closer (April 4), and we're here to help out with sermon ideas to inspire you in your own preaching. This week ...

Worth Your Attention

From the editor

More helpful resources for Easter! This week we're featuring a message from Mike Woodruff, pastor of Christ Church Lake Forest in Lake ...

The Last Enemy

From the editor:

This week we continue to roll out great Easter resources to help inspire ideas for your own preaching. Below is a sermon by Donald Sunukjian ...

Easter: The Benefits Package

From the editor:

This week we are featuring Leith Anderson's Easter sermon from 2009 to help inspire ideas for your own sermon for Easter 2010. As you ...

If God Is Great, Where Is He in World of Suffering?

Introduction

Of all the reasons for rejecting the claims of Christianity, the one most frequently offered comes in the form of a question: "If God is so ...

If God Is Great, Where Is He in a World of Suffering?

Text: Matthew 27:27-46
Topic: Dealing with the reality of suffering

From the editor

Easter really isn't that far away—April 4, 2010—so we'll ...

Life Line

Introduction

The great American writer, John Updike, died recently. All his life he vacillated between Christian faith and doubt. However, quite early ...

Living with Jesus

From the editor:

Just below, you'll find a few introductory remarks from Francis Chan about his sermon. We want to encourage you to go ahead and watch ...

Doubters Anonymous

Text: John 20:19–29
Topic: Dealing with doubt

Introduction

"He is risen": it's the heartbeat of the message of the Christian church. These three English ...

Facing Off Without Falling Apart

Introduction

In Acts 4 we witness an epic battle between a David-like underdog and a behemoth giant. In one corner you have two unschooled, unimpressive ...