Choose from three Children's Sermons:

1) New: Rise and Shine (see below)
2) God's Witness Protection Program, Acts 10:34-43   (please scroll down)
3) God of Happy Endings   (please scroll down)
4) Inside of an Egg      (please scroll down)
5) It's All in the Eggs (please scroll down)

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Rise and Shine
a children's sermon based on
by Rev. Frank Schaefer
 

Share the Easter story with the children. 

When God raised Jesus after he had died, not even Jesus' disciples wanted to believe it at first. But then they went to the grave themselves and saw that his body was not there, and later Jesus appeared among them and they could see him and talk to him and then they knew that what the women had said was true.

How can we understand Jesus' rise from death?  Perhaps it's a little like when we wake up in the morning.  You know, we go to sleep at night and kind of just lie in our beds.  There is not a lot of life to a person who is asleep--unless they snore or toss and turn a lot maybe.

And when we're asleep, we either don't know anything or we maybe in a dream world, we surely don't know what's going on around us.

 And then in the morning, someone may wake us from our sleep.  It may be an alarm clock or maybe our mom or dad, or brother and sister wakes us. And they may say to us:  Rise and Shine! 

And then we get up and here is a new day;  each day is like starting life all over again.  There are new possibilities.  We still remember what happened the day before and the time before that. But all that really counts is today.

And so, each new day when we get up we should thank God for a new day that he has given us.  And because God raised Jesus from the dead, we also have a great assurance--the hope that one day God will raise all of his children up even those who have died.  Us too after we die!  God has shown what he is planning to do with all of his children.  Jesus was just the first that was raised, all of his other children will be next.

One day we will see all of our loved ones again that have passed away, and we ourselves will receive God's wakeup call to eternal life in heaven.  Maybe God will even use the words: Rise and Shine. That's why we celebrate Easter today, because of the gift of Jesus and and the gift of eternal life in God. Amen.

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God's Witness Protection Plan
Acts 10:34-43
by Rev. Randy Quinn

Props: an emergency light stick (the kind that work with chemicals)

Do you know what this is?
It looks like a plastic tube with some colored water in
it, doesn't it? It's called a light stick. Inside
that 'colored water' you can almost see something
floating. There's another tube inside with a
different liquid in it.

If you bend the light stick, you'll break that little
tube inside and something happens - let's see what
happens . . .

(As the two liquids mix, it becomes phosphorescent and
begins to glow.)

Pretty cool, huh?

God lives in each of our hearts. But God doesn't want
to just live there, God wants to shine through us so
others can see and know that God lives there.

We do that by sharing God's joy. We do that by sharing
God's love.

It's like breaking open the little tube inside of us
when we share God's love with others. We begin to glow
in a way, like this light stick.

I have some small tubes for each of you to take home
today. Before I give them to you, you need to listen
carefully to the directions.

1. First, I want you to wait until it's dark outside
so you can see how bright they are.
2. Second, I want you to have your parents help you
break the tube.
3. Third, I want you to remember that God lives in
your heart and wants to shine through you, too.

Let's pray:
God we know that you live inside of us. And we know that you want us to share your love with other people.  Help us be witnesses to your love in the world as we share your love. Amen

 

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God of Happy Endings
An Easter Sunday kids talk by Rev. F. Schaefer
Props: none needed

Good morning young church. O.k. I can see by the way you're all dressed up that you know that we celebrate Easter Sunday today.

OK, but what exactly do we celebrate on Easter Sunday?

• Do we celebrate Easter Bunny's arrival on earth? (Shake your head slightly to encourage a no answer)
• Do we celebrate that the sun always rises in the East? (Shake your head)
• Do we celebrate national dress-up-and-go-to-church-day? (Shake your head)
• Or do we celebrate that Jesus died and then was made alive again by God? (Nod slightly)

I think that a part of the reason why Easter is so important to us is because the story of Jesus has a happy ending. Have you ever heard, or read a story, or watched a movie that had a sad ending?

If you feel comfortable, interact a little with the kids:

• If the answer is "yes": how did you feel after reading/watching it?
• If "No": there aren't too many stories or movies around that have a sad ending, are there?

Do you remember how most fairy tales end? And they lived.......(wait for response)...that's right: happily ever after.

Well, that's what we celebrate on Easter Sunday: a happy ending to a sad story.     The sad part is that our Lord Jesus was killed.  And that is especially sad, because he was a good man, he didn't deserve to be sentenced to death.   But they did it anyhow: they killed him.

But, God made Jesus alive again, and the bad guys started shaking in their boots.     Our Lord Jesus being raised from the dead is a story of  good winning over evil--the good guy--Jesus--wins in the end.  That's what we celebrate on Easter Sunday: good winning over evil!  A happy ending!

But there is more: because God helped Jesus in his fight against evil, we know that God will also help us in our fight against evil.  On Easter Sunday we also celebrate that our life will have a happy ending, too.  No matter how bad things may look at times.

What do you think, is this a good reason to celebrate?  That God will make sure there will be happy endings?

Let's say thank you to God: "Thank you God for being a God of happy endings. Thank you for making Jesus alive again on Easter Sunday.  And thank you that you will make a happy ending for our lives, too. Amen."

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Inside of an Egg
a children's sermon for Easter
by Rev. F. Schaefer
props: bring a decorated Easter egg and some candy eggs (to distribute among the children).

Bring out the decorated Easter egg, and ask the children if they know what's inside.

Challenge them to imagine that there could theoretically be an un-hatched chick inside.
Open the egg with a knife and show the inside to the children.

Explain how awesome this little egg is; that it is a wonder of life--all the ingredients of a chick are inside of this egg, including form, bones, feathers, skin, beak and all part--plus 3 days food supply after hatching is in that egg. (You may want to explain that the egg you hold, as well as the ones we buy in the store, are sterile and do not constitute chicks).

Life is an awesome mystery of God which we don't always understand.    Jesus' resurrection is another one of those mysteries that are hard to understand--maybe the biggest one ever. We cannot possibly explain how someone who was dead for three days can live again, but the important thing  is that we can celebrate this miracle of the resurrection.

Because, if God could raise Jesus from the dead, God can do that to me too.

Give the candy eggs to the children. Talk about Easter not just being a day, but a season that we are celebrating.  End with a prayer.

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It's All in the Eggs
an idea for an "instant" children's sermon

props:  at your local Christian bookstore get the "Easter Egg Carton"--an egg carton filled with a dozen colorful plastic eggs you can open up. Inside of each egg is a symbol of Christ's passion, death and resurrection (crown of thorns, cross, an empty egg shell for the empty tomb, etc.).

Have some children open the eggs and ask them if they know what the different symbols mean. It will make for great spontaneity and perhaps may give some parents an incentive to send their child to Sunday School more often =)