FAQ – Faithfully Asked Questions, a summer sermon series on questions asked by the children and adults of the church, week 7 of 7
Preached July 25, 2021 for the 9:30am Worship
Children
We get to hear one more question from you today. One of you asked, How did God “wake up” Jesus on Easter? Well, Jesus wasn’t asleep, so God didn’t wake him up. Jesus died. Some people saw what Jesus did and heard what Jesus said and didn’t like it. The preachers and the politicians and the police killed Jesus because they didn’t like the way he taught us to share with everybody and love our enemies and take care of the littles and the least. He died and was buried. But on the third day, God brought Jesus from death to new life.
Can I show you something? What are these? Do you know? Sure, seeds. Can you tell what kind of seed? Me either. Maybe a tree, or a watermelon, or a sunflower? What would you say… are these seeds alive? They don’t do anything. They just sit there. They don’t look very alive. Are they dead? If they’re dead, then how do they grow into something new?
Some grownups a long time ago asked the same question one of you asked. How did God bring Jesus from death to life? A guy name Paul talked to them about it. He said…
Scripture 1 Cor 15:35-38
35 Now some of you might ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come back?” 36 (Silly people)! A seed does not come to life unless it dies (and is buried). 37 And when you bury a seed, you don’t bury the plant it will become someday. You bury the plain seed, perhaps of wheat or some other plant. 38 And God gives it a new body as God chooses, and to every kind of seed, God gives each one its own new body.
Children’s Sermon
Paul is saying, God is able to grow new life from people too. If someone dies, when someone dies, we bury them, their body or their ashes… and someday, God raises them into a new body, just for them. It may take a while, but God WILL raise them. For Jesus, it took three days. For others, it might take lots longer. But in the end, all those God loves have a new body and are together again. That’s God’s promise, and we can believe it, because God has already done it in Jesus.
After worship, each of you will get a little planter, with some dirt, and some seeds. They’ll be in the Fellowship Hall at the Children's table for you. Will you take those home, and bury the seed into the dirt? And will you come back and tell us what happens? Great!
Let’s pray…