A Children’s Sermon on Luke 20:27-38

Preface for Pastors and Parents

A Children’s sermon on Luke 20:27-38 has to make some odd or obscure things plain. It also has to avoid getting into background details that are complicated enough to make kids eyes glaze over.

Yes, the Sadducees didn’t believe in the resurrection. (That’s why they’re sad, you see?) But I don’t want to go too far down that road either. Besides, I think the pun would be lost on the kids.

I’ve tried to deal with what is necessary in these topics while focusing on the core — the stuff you would get from the story if you already knew all about these things. You can let me know if my children’s sermon on Like 20:27-38 hits the mark or not.

A Children’s Sermon on Luke 20:27-38

Good morning, kids! I’m so glad to see you. I think it’s just great that you are here in worship this morning, and especially that you came up to hear the children’s sermon.

There is a funny thing that happens a lot in the Gospels. Quite often, people come up and ask Jesus questions. And a lot of the time they don’t really want the answers to their questions. A lot of times they ask tricky questions to try to stump Jesus. They want Jesus to look silly because he can’t answer their questions. That happens in today’s story.

One Day in the Temple…

Jesus was teaching in the Temple one day. Lots of people came to hear him. And quite a lot had questions to ask.

Late in the afternoon, he looked across the room and saw a little group of people. They were talking in a little huddle. Every so often they would glance over at Jesus. Every so often they would all laugh about something.

Eventually the whole group came over.

“Hey Jesus!” said one of them. He seemed to be the leader. “We want to talk to you.”

“Yeah,” said another, “We want to ask you some questions.”

“Okay,” said Jesus. “What did you want to ask me?”

“Yeah, well, it’s like this,” said the first one. “We hear you believe in the resurrection. Like after we die you think God is gonna make us alive again.”

They all rolled their eyes.

One of them said “Yeah, right.”

A third one muttered something that sounded like “What a joke. Resurrection. Huh!”

“That’s right, I do,” said Jesus. “Don’t you guys believe in the resurrection?”

“No way!” said the leader.

“The resurrection is ridiculous,” said another.

“You gotta be kidding,” muttered that third guy.

“Well,” said Jesus, “I guess you’ll find out eventually.”

A Story

Then the first guy said “So we want to tell you a story.”

“It’s about the resurrection!” said another.

Then they all laughed a little bit, not very loudly.

“Okay,” said Jesus, “I love stories. lets hear it.”

So the leader told this story. “Once upon a time there was a woman. And there was a family with seven grown-up sons.”

“Tell him their names!” said one of the guys, laughing.

“Right,” said the leader. “They were called Abel, Bartholomew, Caleb, David, Ethan, Festus, and Gabriel.”

All the guys in the group laughed.

Jesus smiled. “Their parents named them in alphabetical order?”

“Yeah,’ said the man. “That’s right. Well the woman got married to Able, but he died. So she married Bartholomew, and he died. Then she married Caleb and he died too. She married David, but then he died. And she married Ethan, and, guess what? He died. And she married Festus, and he died. And finally she married Gabriel. And he died!”

All the guys were laughing. But Jesus wiped his eyes with his sleeve.

“What’s the matter?” asked the leader.

“It’s so sad,” said Jesus. “That poor woman! Her heart was broken so many times! It’s hard to even imagine how hard her life was.”

“Oh, come on, Jesus,” said the man. “It’s a made up story. It’s funny. Anyway, there’s more.”

“Go on,” said Jesus, blowing his nose on his handkerchief.

“So finally the woman died too,” he said.

Jesus wiped his eyes again.

“Well then,” said the man. “In the resurrection, when they all are alive again, who’s she gonna be married to? Right? What do you think?”

Jesus’ Turn

“I think you guys are trying to trick me.” Jesus said, finally smiling again. “That’s what I think.”

“Us?” asked one of the men, looking very innocent. “Trick you? No way.”

“Well okay,” said the leader, “we were kind of trying to trick you. But seriously. If that happened who’s she gonna be married to in heaven? What do you think? Really!”

“I think,” Jesus said, “that you guys don’t really know anything about heaven: In heaven that poor woman’s tears will be wiped away. Her broken heart will be healed at last. She’ll spend all her time rejoicing and praising God, just like the angels do. Heaven isn’t about being married any more.”

“Oh,” said the leader. “I never thought about that.”

“Yes, I know,” Jesus said. “But think about this: God is the Lord of life. He’s the God of the living. Remember, in the Bible, when God talked to Moses? By then Abraham Isaac, and Jacob had been dead for four hundred years. But God said to Moses, ‘I AM the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob!’ In God they were still alive. The resurrection has always been true.”

Wondering

I wonder if any of those guys changed their mind about the resurrection?

I wonder if you’ve ever wanted to ask Jesus a question?

I wonder what life will be like when we’re all resurrected?

Using this Children’s Sermon on Luke 20:27-38

You are, of course, free to use this children’s sermon, or adapt it as you find most useful. But, if you use it, please do one (or more!) of the following.

• You can let me know that you are using it, either in the comments below, or using the contact form above.
• You can put a little notice in your church bulletin that your children’s sermon is adapted from one published on GaryNealHansen.com.
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