Pre-Easter Sermon Series

1. 

   Lent: Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust

   This seven-part series is intended for use during Lent. Lent is a time for us to pause and consider a foundational tenet of the Christian faith: we are all sinners in need of Jesus. During this series, congregants are invited to find their grounding by contemplating their sinfulness and prepare themselves to see the significance of God’s loving sacrifice.

   7 Weeks
2. 

   Darkness

   This is a single sermon that would be ideal during a Good Friday service or its equivalent.

   1 Weeks
3. 

   Good Friday

   This bundle is designed to be used during your Good Friday service and related promotions. Each set comes with three stand-alone sermon options.

   1 Weeks
4. 

   Palm Sunday

   This standalone message is designed to be used on Palm Sunday—the day set aside to remember Jesus’ Triumphal Entry and the beginning of Holy Week. By telling the story of Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem, this message challenges listeners to wonder if their self-righteousness and pride is keeping them from recognizing and participating in God’s work.

   1 Weeks
5. 

   Empty & Filled: Discovering the Meaning and the Power of Lent

   This seven-week series explores the historic Christian season of Lent—from Ash Wednesday through Palm Sunday. This rich Christian tradition points us back to the reality of our sin and our desperate need for a Savior. During this season, we focus on the multifaceted aspects of repentance: recognition of our sin, hope in a Savior, and obedience as a response to his grace. Rather than engage in empty ceremony or purely internal spiritual growth, we learn that observance of this season produces in us a richer faith for the sake of the world.

   7 Weeks
6. 

   Ashes: The Glory of the Gospel

   This six-week Lent sermon series exposes the rebellious nature of sin and helps you teach your people about the beautiful resolution offered in the hope of the gospel through a researched series guide. In our world it is common to minimize our own actions and, thus, minimize our responsibility in the problem. But the season of Lent reminds us that confession is liberating for the soul and that true, Godly sorrow leads to salvation. Too often sin is seen as an external problem “out there” that needs to be dealt with, not as an internal problem within us; and while it is important not to indulge in self-pity, it is important to engage in true confession. This sermon series on Lent includes seven specific messages on the weight of sin, death and darkness in the world, and that ultimately through faith in Jesus Christ, we too can be given victory over death, and our hearts can be transformed by the beauty of the cross.

   6 Weeks
7. 

   The Great Betrayal

   This four-week series deals with those who betrayed, denied, and abandoned Jesus leading up to his crucifixion. Through examining Peter, Judas, and the other disciples’ unfaithfulness, we can ultimately see the faithfulness of Christ and his love and redemption in our brokenness.

   4 Weeks
8. 

   Backstabbers

   This four-week youth sermon series on choices and betrayal includes four messages that depict the faithfulness of Christ and his love and redemption in our brokenness. We all have denied Jesus in some way at some time, but Christ still shows us love and restoration. He does not condemn us for our moments of struggle and denial, but instead opens his arms to forgive and restore us. This youth sermon series takes a look at Peter and Judas’ betrayal of Jesus and includes four specific messages with real life application on rejection, the danger of a hardened heart, friendship and restoration. Compare to series The Great Betrayal.

   4 Weeks
9. 

   Holy Week

   This sermon series on Holy Week is designed to be used over the course of five weeks, or may be used individually through the last week of Lent. This sermon series provides five message outlines, teaching on the final week of Jesus’ life that ultimately led to his empty tomb. In addition to the series guide, the bundle includes themed graphics for: The Triumphal Entry Maundy Thursday Good Friday Holy Saturday Easter Sunday About the Holy Week Sermon Series Jesus redefined Israel’s expectations of what the Messiah would look like. Rather than being a military hero, he died on a cross. This world and our own hearts are filled with darkness and death, but we can have hope if we place our faith in the Light of the World, Jesus, who defeated death by entering into it. The resurrection of Jesus Christ enhances our faith and helps us to trust in Jesus more deeply. This sermon series on Holy Week includes five specific messages on Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday, reminding us that Jesus is who he claimed to be and giving us hope that is essential to living the Christian life.

   5 Weeks
10. 

    Flashback: Remembering the Work of the Cross

    This six-week series through Romans 12 and 13 examines Paul’s command for us to be a living sacrifice and to live our lives in light of what God has done for us through Christ. In each message we will “flash back” to the life of Jesus to see how we are to live in the present—no longer being conformed to the world but instead being transformed into the likeness of Jesus.

    6 Weeks
11. 

    Holy Week

    This five-week sermon series is designed to either be used over the course of five weeks, or through the last week of Lent—often referred to as Holy Week—on the church calendar. The church calendar invites us into a different sort of spirituality, one in which we sync our lives up with the rhythm of Jesus’s life. This is most true of Holy Week. From Palm Sunday on, we walk with Jesus into Jerusalem, to Golgotha, and finally to see his empty tomb.

    5 Weeks
12. 

    The Final Days of Jesus

    This four-week series, based on the book The Final Days of Jesus by Andreas J. Köstenberger and Justin Taylor (with Alexander Stewart), will enlighten and deepen our understanding of Jesus’s final four days on earth (Thursday–Sunday). On this journey, our faith will be strengthened as we see biblical events come alive as if we’re one of the disciples sitting at the feet of Jesus. Based on The Final Days of Jesus: The Most Important Week of the Most Important Person Who Ever Lived, © 2014 by Andreas J. Köstenberger and Justin Taylor. Published and used by permission of Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, Wheaton, IL 60187, www.crossway.org. Cover artwork is limited to use with the sermon series The Final Days Of Jesus and may not be edited without the expressed written permission of Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

    4 Weeks
13. 

    The Heart Matters: A Lent Series

    This six-week series for the Sundays during the season of Lent (plus Ash Wednesday) will encourage congregants to examine their hearts, their motivations, and their loves as they walk in repentance toward Resurrection Sunday. Lent reminds us that we are all broken and in need of a Savior who has overcome sin and death.

    6 Weeks
14. 

    Lent: Prophecy Fulfilled

    This six-week series for the Sundays during the season of Lent (plus Ash Wednesday) will encourage congregants to examine their hearts, their motivations, and their loves as they walk in repentance toward Resurrection Sunday. Lent reminds us that we are all broken and in need of a Savior who has overcome sin and death.

    6 Weeks
15. 

    Lent: A Season of Reflection

    This six-week series for the Sundays during the season of Lent (plus Ash Wednesday) will encourage congregants to examine their hearts, their motivations, and their loves as they walk in repentance toward Resurrection Sunday. Lent reminds us that we are all broken and in need of a Savior who has overcome sin and death.

    6 Weeks
16. 

    Lent: Remembrance, Repentance, Renewal

    This six-week series for the Sundays during the season of Lent (plus Ash Wednesday) takes congregations from a serious reflection on their mortality on Ash Wednesday toward a joyful vision of the New Heavens and the New Earth on the last Sunday of Lent. This pathway—from death to everlasting life—will bring the congregation to a place of expectant hope in preparation for Resurrection Sunday.

    6 Weeks
17. 

    It Is Finished: A Good Friday Message

    This stand-alone message for Good Friday proclaims the atoning work provided by Christ. Through several key New Testament passages, we see that Christ has defeated the dark powers of sin and death and has provided forgiveness and redemption.

    1 Weeks
18. 

    What Is Easter?

    This four-week series for youth considers what is happening in the resurrection of Jesus and why it matters for us today. Focusing on four encounters with Jesus after his resurrection, “What Is Easter?” will help students see the personal implications for resurrection life.

    4 Weeks
19. 

    Lent: The Power of the Gospel

    This six-week series for Ash Wednesday and the Sundays in Lent celebrates the power of the gospel by lifting up some of the key ways Jesus demonstrated his power during his lifetime. By healing, forgiving, raising a child from the dead, walking on water, and exorcising a demon, Jesus declares himself the Son of God and prepares us to witness with fresh eyes his greatest power on Easter morning: his power over life and death for all time and all people. Our own power to believe and thrive in faith grows as we tap into the power he repeatedly demonstrates.

    6 Weeks
20. 

    The Story of Easter

    Throughout his earthly life, Jesus told his disciples and others what he was doing. But divine hints of what was to come were not limited only to Christ’s years on earth. God had always been telling his people what Jesus was going to do, and even now, Jesus tells us what he is going to do in our lives. He tells us the what (continue to save sinners) and the how (using us and our work in the midst of this world).

    7 Weeks
21. 

    Just As He Promised

    This Lenten and Holy Week series focuses on the promises that God has made to us. In order to do that, we need to start with the situation that God promises himself into: our sin and brokenness. Even as we see the depth and width of our sin, we see the promises that God himself makes, in the person and work of Jesus Christ. It’s not going to be easy for us; in fact, it will probably be harder than we can ever know. Yet, God promises his hope and his new life, and we will see it in our lives.

    6 Weeks
22. 

    Grounding: A Lent Series

    This seven-part series is intended for use during Lent. Lent is a time for us to pause and consider a foundational tenet of the Christian faith: we are all sinners in need of Jesus. During this series, congregants are invited to find their grounding by contemplating their sinfulness and prepare themselves to see the significance of God’s loving sacrifice.

    7 Weeks
23. 

    Ashes to Ashes: A Lent Series

    This seven-part series is intended for use during Lent. Lent is a time for us to pause and consider a foundational tenet of the Christian faith: we are all sinners in need of Jesus. During this series, congregants are invited to find their grounding by contemplating their sinfulness and prepare themselves to see the significance of God’s loving sacrifice.

    7 Weeks
24. 

    Scandal: The Scandal of the Cross

    Scandal is a stand-alone sermon that would work well for a Good Friday service. In this sermon, we’ll look at the scandal of the cross and the paradoxical blessings that come from it.

    1 Weeks
25. 

    Broken: Preparing For Easter

    The season of Lent is designed to challenge believers to consider the implications of Jesus’s death. We cannot speak of the life we have in Jesus until we grapple with how it came to us: through his death and resurrection. This series will focus on four times that Jesus pointed his disciples to the necessity of his death on the cross.

    4 Weeks
26. 

    The Road To Easter

    The story of Jesus’s path to the cross is important for all people to consider—especially followers of Christ. This series, for use leading up to Easter, is framed around roads Jesus took en route to Calvary. Each road points to the essential purpose of Jesus’s journey and what we must learn from it in order to fully appreciate the significance of the cross and the resurrection.

    4 Weeks
27. 

    Poured Out: A Lent Series

    During Lent, we pour out our grief and sin, pain and regret, holding nothing back. In response, God too holds nothing back, pouring himself out for our redemption. This Lent series begins with Ash Wednesday and ends on Good Friday. It explores our need to confess our sins and fully trust God’s faithfulness to forgive.

    6 Weeks
28. 

    Unstoppable Kingdom: An Easter Series

    Followers of Jesus will encounter problems of all kinds, but God’s presence and redemptive plan cannot be stopped. Easter is the time in the liturgical year when we recognize that the heavens and earth will be restored to glory, death will be reversed, and evil will be defeated forever.

    7 Weeks
29. 

    Signs

    In this eight-week series, we examine the seven signs John describes in his gospel, along with the resurrection, which is the ultimate sign of Christ’s victory and divinity. These signs give us a window into how God is at work in the world through Jesus, and what it means for our faith and salvation.

    8 Weeks
30. 

    Lent: Lament, Repent, Anticipate

    This series explores the season of Lent, beginning with Ash Wednesday and continuing through six Sundays. Through analyzing the biblical practices of lament, repentance, and anticipation, we can experience sorrow for sin and receive God’s sanctifying grace, both personally and corporately.

    6 Weeks
31. 

    Lent

    This Lenten series calls us all to turn our eyes upon Jesus as we follow him from his triumphal entry into Jerusalem to the crucifixion. Each week reveals an aspect of Christ’s heart and sacrifice and invites us to renewed devotion to our Servant King in surprising ways. Over and over, Christ challenges us to put aside our selfish desires and misguided understandings and conform to his heart.

    6 Weeks
32. 

    Turn Your Eyes

    This Lenten series calls us all to turn our eyes upon Jesus as we follow him from his triumphal entry into Jerusalem to the crucifixion. Each week reveals an aspect of Christ’s heart and sacrifice and invites us to renewed devotion to our Servant King in surprising ways. Over and over, Christ challenges us to put aside our selfish desires and misguided understandings and conform to his heart.

    6 Weeks
33. 

    The Way to Victory

    This four-week series follows Jesus’s suffering, death, and resurrection. His journey seems tragic, especially to his disciples who expected him to defeat Israel’s political enemies and rule victoriously like King David. But Jesus teaches them, and us, that the way to victory is through the cross. What does it mean for us to take up our cross and follow him?

    4 Weeks
34. 

    True Repentance

    This four-week Lenten series deals the with the call for repentance. But what is true repentance? Through understanding the severity of sin, the way unrepentant sin affects the Christian walk, and the strength and power that comes through repentance, we can understand the need for true repentance and its integral part in Christian growth.

    4 Weeks
35. 

    The Cross

    A visit to a church supplies store or website presents us with a choice of crosses: with corpus or without corpus. For Jesus, there was no choice. His cross was by necessity, with corpus—his own body. Jesus’s body was the means of our salvation, so we’ll explore the meaning of the wounds his body received on the cross. The wounds on his head, hands and feet, and side each bear significance. This Easter series helps believers understand the significance of the crucifixion and what was accomplished through Christ’s death.

    3 Weeks
36. 

    The Final Words

    This Easter sermon series looks at Jesus’s final prayers, his final words on the cross, his final words to his disciples, and the final word of the resurrection over death, hell, and the grave. These final words exhort believers to make disciples, seek unity in Christian community, and to live as people of forgiveness, joy, and life.

    4 Weeks
37. 

    Thirty Pieces Of Silver

    This four-week adult series is well suited for preaching leading up to Easter. We’d all like to think we’re nothing like Judas the betrayer, who traded Jesus for thirty pieces of silver. An honest look at our hearts reveals, however, that we all have things we trade for Christ every day. Whether it’s comfort, power, control, or some other idol, we all make our exchanges. As we approach Easter, this series invites us to repent and treasure Christ above every idol and temptation.

    4 Weeks
38. 

    Holy Saturday

    This Holy Saturday message is part of a Holy Week series that walks a congregation through each of the days of Holy Week. Each message introduces the importance of the event leading up to the resurrection of Christ on Easter Sunday. Holy Week reminds us that even when God doesn’t act in the way we expect, his plans always take our present circumstances and our future needs into account.

    1 Weeks
39. 

    Good Friday

    This Good Friday message is part of a Holy Week series that walks a congregation through each of the days of Holy Week. Each message introduces the importance of the event leading up to the resurrection of Christ on Easter Sunday. Holy Week reminds us that even when God doesn’t act in the way we expect, his plans always take our present circumstances and our future needs into account.

    1 Weeks
40. 

    Maundy Thursday

    This Maundy Thursday message is part of a Holy Week series that walks a congregation through each of the days of Holy Week. Each message introduces the importance of the event leading up to the resurrection of Christ on Easter Sunday. Holy Week reminds us that even when God doesn’t act in the way we expect, his plans always take our present circumstances and our future needs into account.

    1 Weeks
41. 

    Palm Sunday

    This Palm Sunday message is part of a Holy Week series that walks a congregation through each of the days of Holy Week. Each message introduces the importance of the event leading up to the resurrection of Christ on Easter Sunday. Holy Week reminds us that even when God doesn’t act in the way we expect, his plans always take our present circumstances and our future needs into account.

    1 Weeks
42. 

    Holy Week

    This Holy Week series walks a congregation through each of the days of Holy Week: Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter Sunday. Each message introduces the importance of the event leading up to the resurrection of Christ on Easter Sunday. Holy Week reminds us that even when God doesn’t act in the way we expect, his plans always take our present circumstances and our future needs into account.

    5 Weeks
43. 

    Forsaken: Good Friday

    This Good Friday message focuses on Jesus’s lament and his quote from Psalm 22. We will discover the beauty in his words and linger on the gift he gave us; he became forsaken so we don’t have to.

    1 Weeks
44. 

    40 Days

    This six-week series explores significant time periods marked by the number forty in the Bible and what God did with and for his people during those times. As we work our way toward Easter, we will see how God moves in and through his people during times set aside for us to draw near to him.

    6 Weeks
45. 

    Prepare The Way: Celebrating Christ’s Victory

    Easter is a holiday of celebration and recognizing the victory of Jesus over death! This seven-message series goes from Ash Wednesday through Palm Sunday, helping us prepare our hearts for the victory of Easter.

    7 Weeks
46. 

    Dust To Dust

    This six-week series examines the season of Lent and the reality of being human and needing God. Through repentance, fasting, and lament, we can realize our mortality, finitude, and need for God’s strength. We can humble ourselves, receiving God’s grace and knowing that God is changing us to be more like his Son.

    6 Weeks
47. 

    The Darkest Hour

    Jesus marks the time of his betrayal by Judas and arrest by his accusers as the “hour…[of] the power of darkness” (Luke 22:53). This Good Friday message soberingly tells the story of Christ’s passion through the lens of this hour when evil appeared to reign.

    1 Weeks