Easter Children's Sermon

I asked the kids a few questions to begin with. "IF you put something down somewhere, do you expect it to be there when you come back? IF you have a donut and ask someone to watch it til you get back, (you usually ask a trustworthy person) do you expect it to be there? (The answers are suppose to be yes) Well that is exactly what the people who crucified Jesus thought too. They put a dead person in a tomb, rolled the stone in front, and guarded it with soldiers, so wouldn't you expect Jesus to still be in the tomb several days later? Of course you would, but let's read Matthew 28:1-7 (this tells of the earthquake and the angel rolling the stone away) I then shared a song with the kids called "The Angel Rolled The Stone Away." But the important part is what the angel said "He is not here, He has risen as he said" So to help the kids remember that "He is risen" (I had made ahead of time tombs, from paper plates folded in half and painted brown on the outside and black on the inside. I cut circles in 1 side of the plate and put the circle in place with a brass fastener. This way the stone could be rolled away)I told them that they would get to be the part of the angel and roll the stone away and then proclaim "He is Risen!" I held up the tomb and had the children practice as I rolled the stone away they said "He is risen" this was very quiet so I asked the congregation to show the children how to proclaim something and as I rolled the stone away they proclaimed "He is risen!" So I challenged the kids to see if they could be louder than the congregation - which they did a really good job. I had a tomb for each child to take with them and fun foam flowers to put around the tomb since it was in a garden (which worked to keep them quiet for a little while since on Easter Sunday we did not have Jr. Church)

On the way home I know that some of the kids got the point because in my back seat I heard Garrett, rolling the stone away and yelling "He is Risen"

If you don't want to make your own tombs, check Oriental Trading as I took their idea from the picture in their Easter Catalog and figured it out myself. They have kits that can be purchased to make the tombs from fun foam.