MinistryHealth
Sermon Starters

Support and Resources For Pastors and
Christian Ministry Professionals

Thomas F. Fischer, M.Div., M.S.A., Editor


Fifth Sunday Of Easter
Series C

Option #1: "Your Heavenly Hope"
Revelation 21:1-5
Rev. Wayne Dobratz, B.A., M.Div.

1) The sin-corrupted world is gone--v1, Isa 65:17-19; 2 Pet 3:13

2) Danger is past--"no longer any sea"--v1b, Isa 57:20; Dan 7:3

3) You’re invited to the Holy City for the Wedding Celebration--v2, Heb 11:10, 13:14; re: Wedding--Rev 17:7-9; Isa 54:5, 61:10

4) You will live with God and tears will be no more--vv3-4,  Psa 42:3-6, 116:8-9, 126:5-6; Isa 25:7-9; John 1:14, 14:23; 1 Cor 6:19

5) You have Christ’s Word on this--v5, Rev. 5:1-5, 19:9

Barnes Notes on the New Testament:

And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes: This will be one of the characteristics of that blessed state, that not a tear shall ever be shed there.

And there shall be no more death: In all that future world of glory, not one shall ever die; not a grave shall ever be dug! How different from earth, where death is so common; where it spares no one; where our best friends die; where the wise, the good, the useful, the lovely die; where fathers, mothers, wives, husbands, sons, daughters, all die; where we habitually feel that we must die. In all their endless and glorious career, the redeemed will never see death again; they will never themselves die. They will never follow a friend to the tomb, nor fear that an absent friend is dead. The slow funeral procession will never be witnessed there; nor will the soil ever open its bosom to furnish a grave.

Neither sorrow--The word "sorrow" here--penthos--denotes sorrow or grief of any kind; sorrow for the loss of property or friends; sorrow for disappointment, persecution, or care; sorrow over our sins, or sorrow that we love God so little, and serve him so unfaithfully; sorrow that we are sick, or that we must die. How innumerable are the sources of sorrow here; how constant is it on the earth! Since the fall of man there has not been a day, an hour, a moment, in which this has not been a sorrowful world; there has not been a nation, a tribe--a city or a village--nay, not a family, where there has not been grief. Nor crying--krauge--a cry of sorrow, or wailing. This is evidently its meaning here, and it refers to all the outbursts of grief arising from affliction, from oppression, from violence. The sense is that as none of these causes of wailing will be known in the future state, all such wailing will cease.

Neither shall there be any more pain. How many lie on beds of languishing; how many are suffering under incurable diseases; how many are undergoing severe surgical operations; how many are pained by the loss of property or friends, or subjected to acuter anguish by the misconduct of those who are loved!

For the former things are passed away--the world as it was before the judgment.

+   +   +

Children's Message

He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. (Revelation 21:4)

I want you to think about something this morning that you’d rather forget. Think back to the time when you fell off of your bike and skinned your knee. Or maybe you fell from a tree and hurt your elbow. You probably cried because of the pain and ran into the house looking for your mom.

And what did she do? She took you up in her arms and kissed you and told you she would make it better. Then she cleaned the dirt out of your skinned knee and put some medication on it. That didn’t feel too good either, but you knew that she was trying to help you. And she was right. The pain did go away and you got better.

The Bible tells us that the time is coming when there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.

It is because of sin that we have death, and crying, and pain in our world. Jesus died for all of our sins. When he comes back, he will put an end to this very painful world, so full of tears, and he will make everything new.

We will never have to have mom kiss our hurts away because Jesus has taken us home to his Father’s house where there will be no sorrow, or crying, or tears or pain. There will be doctors in heaven, but there won’t be anyone to heal.

Now that’s something wonderful to look forward to! Don’t miss it for the world!

+   +   +

Option #2: "Command Performance"
John 13:31-35
Rev. Kelly Bedard, B.A., M.Div.

 
The Point: Jesus' love characterizes and glorifies the Christian community
 
The Problem: we're too busy to love--dying to make a living--unaware and afraid of the (spiritual) dark(ness), looking for and not seeing Jesus
 
The Promise: Jesus loves us in spite of our lovelessness and, through the Spirit, loves in, through and for us for God
 
Notes:
 
1. mikron {mik-ron'}, v33: when translated "a little while," the Greek emphasizes the shortness of the time interval: "Oh, how little." This phrase is used often in the NT of the return of Christ. (Blue Letter Bible)
 
2. kainos {kahee-nos'}, v34: new as respects form; recently made, fresh, recent, unused, unworn; as respects substance; of a new kind, unprecedented, novel, uncommon, unheard of. (BLB)
 
3. entole {en-tol-ay'}, v34: an order, command, charge, precept, injunction; that which is prescribed to one by reason of his office; a commandment; a prescribed rule in accordance with which a thing is done; a precept relating to lineage, of the Mosaic precept concerning the priesthood; ethically used of the commandments in the Mosaic law or Jewish tradition. (BLB)
 
4. agapao {ag-ap-ah'-o}, v34: of persons, to welcome, to entertain, to be fond of, to love dearly; of things, to be well pleased, to be contented at or with a thing. (BLB)
 
5. The command to love wasn't new; but the extent of love just displayed by Jesus was new, as would be the display of the cross. Love was newly defined from His example. (David Guzik)
 
© 2004 Ministry Health, LLC; All Rights Reserved

 

Go to Main Page

Main Site:   http://ministryhealth.net/


Copyright © 1997-2005 Ministry Health, LLC  All Rights Reserved.

Microsoft FrontPage and Microsoft Internet Explorer are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation
Adobe Acrobat and PDF are registered trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated


Contact Support for any technical issues with this website!

This page was revised on: Friday, January 20, 2006 12:10:34 PM