All Age Easter Talk in 3 Parts
Part 1 - Easter Crossword (from "Easter Cracked", Scripture Union)
Clue 1. Place of a Skull, 8 letters, (Matthew 27.33)
Clue 2. These were gambled for by those who crucified Jesus, 7 letters, (Matthew 27.35)
Clue 3. Jesus the _ _ _ _ of the Jews, 4 letters, (Matthew 27.37)
Clue 4. Jesus was nailed to this, 5 letters, (Matthew 27.31)
Clue 5. This covered the land for three hours, 8 letters, (Matthew 27.45)
Clue 6. The men who watched Jesus die, 8 letters, (Matthew 27.54)
Clue 7. The type of material wrapped around Jesus’ body, 5 letters, (Matthew 27.59)
Clue 8. The time of day when Jesus’ body was buried, 7 letters, (Matthew 27.57)
Clue 9. A messenger with good news, 5 letters, (Matthew 28.5)
And hidden in the crossword is what the good news is. Can anyone spot it?
Part 2 – Bridges and Gaps
A couple of years ago, I drove over this bridge near Millau, in southern France. Can anyone tell me why it is special?
- It’s the tallest bridge in the world. It’s nearly 350m high. This bridge is so high up, it’s often above the clouds as you can see.
What about this bridge? It’s the Danyang–Kunshan Grand Bridge in China which opened six years ago. Why this one is special?
- It’s 102 kilometres long making it the longest bridge in the world.
What about this one? It’s on the road from Tiryns to Epidauros in Greece and it’s called the Arkadiko Bridge. It’s only 4m high so it’s not the tallest. It’s only 22m long so it’s not the longest. Can anyone guess why this one is special?
- It is the oldest bridge in the world that is still used today.
This is probably the ugliest bridge in the world.
And this is possibly the scariest bridge in the world. It looks a bit ropy doesn't it?
When I was a boy, I used to jump across a 2 metre muddy ditch. ButI needed to run up to it very fast or I’d land in the mud.
According to the Guinness Book of Records, the longest jump ever was by Mike Powell in 1991. People have tried for 26 years to jump longer than him and no one has managed to do it yet. The distance is from the glass door there to the edge of the stage here. (8.95m or 29ft, 4¼in).
That’s without the hop and the skip. That’s a different event. This is just the jump! Only once ever in all human history has someone jumped this far.
How easy would it be for anyone here this morning to break that record? Would anyone like to have a go? The prize is a golden egg. Kathie will pay for it (her money is safe, because no one can jump that far).
If we were to pick the fittest, most athletic, person here this morning (I know you’re thinking that must be me!) and even if we were to give me intense training and put me on a special diet, and design a super streamlined kit, and make some new high tech shoes, I could never jump that far.
None of us could. Even for the very best athletes alive today the gap is too big.
Ever since people first saw rivers or valleys or gaps that they couldn’t jump over, they have wanted to build bridges.
We need bridges because we want to be able to get to the other side of things.
Without bridges, how would we ever get to Ingleby Barwick? Life would be awful!
How far do you think it is between how good you are and how good God is? And what could you possibly ever do to close the gap?
Well that’s what Easter is all about – as we’re about to see in this two-minute film clip…
Part 3 – The Bridge to God
How far do you think it is between how good you are and how good God is? And what could you possibly ever do to close the gap?
This is a question that God is interested in. The Bible says that all of us have sinned and fallen short of God. That’s everybody.
Even Gillian - everyone has sinned and, like in the long jump, the gap is too big for us to jump across.
We saw pictures of the tallest, longest and oldest bridges in the world. But this is the tallest, the widest and the oldest chasm of all – it’s the gap between people and God.
Do you ever ask, “Why does God feel far away?” It’s because of this gap.
Even atheists know about this gap. The journalist Julian Barnes said recently, “I don’t believe in God, but I miss him.” This is what he’s talking about, this gap.
And so people try all kinds of things that they hope will bridge the gap from their side of the chasm. This is what all religions do.
And so people try all kinds of things that they hope will bridge the gap from their side of the chasm. This is what all religions do.
You have to bathe in a particular river. You have to go on a pilgrimage to a particular place. You mustn’t eat certain food. Or you must wear special clothes. Or whatever.
The thing is, you never know when you’ve done enough.
In other words, all religions say you’ve got to DO something. That makes sense to us. We caused the gap. So we should fix it.
But Jesus is different to every religion on earth because at Easter he bridged the gap from God’s side.
He knew that we would never be able to do it, so he did. By dying on the cross and rising again, he built a bridge that spans the chasm forever. He made a way.
Because of Easter, it’s not DO, it’s DONE. It’s about what Jesus has done. He loved us so much, he took all of our wrongdoing on his shoulders, and he paid for it, so that we can be right with God.
All the leaders of the world’s religions had some good ideas. You can learn a lot of good things by reading what they say. But all of them are dead. You can visit their tombs and see where they’re buried.
Not Jesus though. He is alive today. That’s why, with respect, only Jesus can give you eternal life.
So how are you going to get right with God? Is it through all the things that you do? Or is it by believing and accepting what Jesus has done?
But there’s one more thing. The Bible says “God reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.”
What does that mean? It means that Jesus has built a bridge between us and God. But not only that, it means that he gave us the job of building bridges between people.
· People who hate each other can become friends – because of Jesus.
· Broken marriages and families can be mended again – because of Jesus.
· Enemies can start to live in peace again – because of Jesus.
What we’re going to do now is sing about the first Easter and how good it is that Jesus is alive.
And as we are singing, I’m going to invite you to walk over this bridge:
No one else can do this for you. This is a decision for you. Why should you walk on this bridge?
- if you believe for the very first time that Jesus died for you and is alive
- or if you have been away from God a bit and want to come back today
- or if God has spoken to you today and you want to say sorry to a particular person and make up with them, build a bridge
- or if you’re a Christian but you've been trying to bridge the gap with all that religious stuff that doesn’t work and today that stops
- or finally because you need to hold on to a promise from God. Jesus said “I will be with you always.” You can trust the promise of a man who came back from the dead. Walk over that bridge today to say you are taking that promise to the bank.
Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 16 April 2017 gratefully borrowing a few ideas from Bill Hybels
No comments:
Post a Comment