Sermon Central
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An Empty Tomb?- So What?! Series
Contributed by Ewen Huffman on Apr 9, 2004 (message contributor)
Summary: A one hour All Age Easter Day Celebration service looking at the empty tomb (and who might have ahd the body etc). Email me for Word Dct of this (that has formatting etc) and PowerPoint presentations.
Easter Day AAW 11 April 2004, WBC, 10am
SongPro background. Props: ropes, tent, parts to play, cue disciples, shroud, grow bags
“N” signifies next item in Songpro for projector (song or powerpoint)
PPT 1 – page 1 comes in automatically
“AN EMPTY TOMB?- SO WHAT?!”
10am
Introduction: -David
Welcome - inspiring reading from a Gospel account (prob John 20:10-18)
The Easter shout: “Christ is risen!” “He is risen indeed, hallelujah!” PPT 1- page 2
N- songpro JESUS CHRIST IS RISEN TODAY (3 verse version, pumping)
N- songpro YOU LED ME TO THE CROSS
N- PPT 2Offering (Instrumental reprise of YLMTTC)
10.12am
PPT 2 “we’re going to play detectives and investigate the alternatives to Jesus rising from the dead” – David
1 SWOON- Ewen PPT 2
Let’s imagine Jesus ‘swooned’. Fainted. Fell asleep on the cross. Then- woke up in tomb and came out. (automatically goes to ‘swoon?’)
Need a strong person! To represent Jesus. Volunteer: (Robin!)
- he was scourged (bone & metal. ‘halfway death’)- can’t do that to Robin (shame!)- so let’s tie his hands together as equivalent to that
- carried his cross and nailed to cross for 6 hours- so let’s tie his feet together
- laid in a cold tomb for 36 hours, no food or water- so let’s tie his hands to his feet for that
- they embalmed him- 75 lbs of smothering smells- so let’s tie a few bags of potatoes to him for that
…. And he ‘comes to’, wriggles out of the wrappings and pushes the stone away- from INSIDE
- put Robin in a tent (?) and he has to get out?
What is the verdict of the detectives?- could he have done that?
= impossible! The stone was “very large”
- then he walks 7 miles and appears “radiant”?! (“Lord of life”)
- No- he had to be dead. “Swooning is not a possibility” PPT 2
o Jews were experts in death
o Plus testimony from someone Jn 19:33 (not a doctor, so probably didn’t know he was giving clear evidence of death)
10.25 am
N- songpro IN THE TOMB SO COLD
N- songpro THANK YOU FOR THE CROSS
Very youngest kids go out?
Prayers – led, David
10.30am
N- PPT 3
2 STOLEN –Ewen
“Let’s look at whether someone could have stolen the body once dead, and then made out He had risen” (Swoon & Stolen appear automatically)
Romans? PPT 3
- Roman soldier/Alice : “Don’t tell anyone but I took the body!”
- Detective 1/ Lauren: “well, why did you do that, then? What’s your motive? (microphone plus camcorder?)
o Soldier/Alice: “well….uuumh…”
- det 1/Lauren: “was he a threat to you Romans?”
o Soldier/Alice: “well….uuumh…”
- det 1/Lauren: “would you make money if the body ‘got away’
o Soldier/Alice: “well, actually- I’d be in big trouble…”
- det 1/Lauren: maybe you just didn’t like the procurator- and so felt it was okay to take his seal off the tomb?”
o Soldier/Alice: “well, actually- that’d be treason and punishable by death….”
- det 1/Lauren: oh- so you’re gonna die for taking the body! You are in big trouble!!
o Soldier/Alice: “only joking! I don’t have the body”
What’s the verdict, detectives- would the Romans have taken the body?
Jews? PPT 3
- Jew- MARK COLE: “Don’t tell anyone, but I took the body”
- det 2- BEN COLE: “what did you do that for, then?”
- Jew/Mark: “So the disciples couldn’t say he rose from the dead… like He said He would”
- Disciples (Ewen/David/Neil): “he is risen, he is risen!”
- det 2/Ben: that didn’t work very well, then, did it?!”
- Jew/Mark; “nope. But I still took the body!”. “oooh! I do wish they’d STOP going on about Him being raised!”
- Det 2/Ben: “just show them the body!”
- Jew/Mark: “uuuuuuuuummmmh”
- Det 2/Ben “plus- you’re in big trouble with the Romans for nicking it”
o Jew/Mark: “only joking! I don’t have the body”
What’s the verdict, detectives- would the Jews have taken the body?
Disciples? PPT 3
- Disciple/ Neil Simpson: “Don’t tell anyone, but we took the body”
- Disciples + (Ewen/David/Neil): “he is risen, he is risen!”
- Jew/Mark Cole: “okay: Peter: you’re going to die upside down on a cross for your faith…. James…. Andrew…. (get the list)
o Disciple/ Neil Simpson: “only joking! we don’t have the body”
What’s the verdict, detectives- would the disciples have taken the body?
PPT 3“Nobody stole the body-If they had, they would have produced it !”
10.37am
N- songpro LED LIKE A LAMB TO THE SLAUGHTER - David
N- songpro HERE I AM AND I HAVE COME- David
10.45am
N- PPT 4
3 STRESS- David
“let’s have a look at whether the disciples could have been so stressed out the imagined Jesus had risen” (will automatically bring in Swoon, Stolen, stress)
