MTP Sermon Resources

  “Victorious” Sermon Study Guide for April 20, 2025 Downloadable Version Scripture: John 20:1-18 1. Mary in the Garden the graveclothes… Peter & John weeping “Rabboni!” 2. Resurrection means… a. _______________________________________ 1 Corinthians 15:20 b. _______________________________________ c. _______________________________________ John 16:33 Colossians 1:17 Questions to Discuss or Ponder: Why weren’t the disciples expecting a resurrection? What would have been your first assumption when seeing the empty tomb? If you were Mary, how would you approach Jesus after his resurrection? What would you call him? What is our culture’s attitude toward death? How has your family handled it? Why does the resurrection mean death is no longer a threat? In what way was the crucifixion the coronation of a king? Why do you think Jesus told Mary not to hold onto him? What might we use as a symbol of the empty tomb? Why would there be no Christian faith without t...

Revelation 5:6-14 April 18, 2025 (Good Friday) • Mount Pleasant UMC There is no other day on the calendar like this day. Oh, certainly there are holidays, even significant Christian holidays, sprinkled all throughout the year. Easter is just around the corner, when we remember the resurrection of Jesus. After that will come Pentecost, when we remember the arrival of the Holy Spirit. Christmas celebrates Jesus’ birth and All Saints Day celebrates the ones who have shaped our spiritual lives. All of those days make sense. They have at their center something really good, a real reason to celebrate. But there is no other day on the calendar like this one, a day when we remember the cruelest injustice in human history and we dare to call it “good.” No one looks at the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. and calls it “good.” No one talks about the stock market crash and calls it “good.” But today, the day we remember Jesus nailed to a Roman cross, is called “Good Friday.” We look ...

Isaiah 53:4-6 April 18, 2025 (Good Friday) • Terre Haute South Community Service Did you ever have a nickname? Maybe you have one now. Sometimes nicknames become so synonymous with a person that their real name is forgotten. I remember going to visit a man from my congregation in the hospital and when I walked up to the desk they asked me his name. Well, his name is Bud. Except his name wasn’t Bud. That was his nickname and hospitals don’t register you under your nickname. And I had no idea what his real name was so they did not let me in to visit him. By the way, I found out later his name was Raymond. But no one ever called him that—except maybe his doctors. To everyone else he was Bud. Jesus had many “nicknames,” though I don’t know that people called him by those names when he walked on the earth. But we read about them in the Bible. Emmanuel, which means “God with us.” Son of Man, his favorite name for himself. And John gives him several nicknames in Revelation: First and ...

Matthew 26:26-30 April 17, 2025 (Maundy Thursday) • Mount Pleasant UMC I’ve been thinking about the difference between Barney and Easton—I mean, differences other than the fact that one is a dog and one is my grandson. Stick with me here. Dogs are born knowing stuff, they have all kinds of instincts and they know how to do certain things right away. I mean, yes, there are definitely things they have to learn, but basically dogs and animals in general are in fairly good shape minutes after birth because of their instincts. For one thing, they walk pretty quickly after birth! Human beings, on the other hand, have very few instincts. What an animal knows to do right away it takes us quite a while to learn, something I’ve remembered again as I watch Easton grow. Researchers say really the most basic instinct we have is mimicry, imitation. We learn most of the things we learn by imitating others. We learn language and eating and walking and what things to assign value to by watching t...

John 18:33-38 April 13, 2025 (Palm Sunday) • Mount Pleasant UMC One of the main ways we learn is by asking questions, and that seems to start very early on in life. What is that? Why does that happen? Where are we going? Are we there yet? Why? Why? Why? Someone once said that parenthood is basically answering the question “Why” every day until you die—a little morbid but also a little true. As a pastor, I’m very familiar with questions. I get asked questions of one sort or another just about every day. A few weeks ago, I went to the last Bible Explorers class for the year to answer questions. What’s your favorite color? What’s your favorite thing to eat? What’s your password? Sometimes I will go to a youth small group and answer questions (which we then call “Stump the Pastor”). I get emailed questions, Facebooked questions, easy questions and impossible questions. And a lot of time people don’t like the answers I give, which I’m kind of used to. Even some of the sermons I...