With 101 Easter themes for church, you have everything you need to lead a powerful, memorable Easter season — from Palm Sunday through Resurrection Sunday and beyond.
Easter is the most attended Sunday of the year for most churches. It’s your greatest opportunity to share the hope of the resurrection with first-time visitors, unchurched neighbors, and longtime members who need a fresh encounter with the risen Christ.
Inside, you’ll find:
- Fresh Easter sermon ideas with Scripture texts and sermon focuses
- Easter outreach ideas to reach your broader community
- Children’s ministry activities for every age group
- Easter worship visuals and countdown videos
- Social media strategies to promote your Easter services
Whether you lead a small congregation or a multi-campus church, these Easter themes and ideas are practical, proven, and ready to use.
Easter Sermon Ideas for Church (Themes 1–16)
1. Expecting God — Easter Sermon on Matthew 21
Text: Matthew 21
Focus: Often we want God to meet our expectations when God wants to go far beyond what we expect.
Function: Inspire listeners to let go of their expectations and to wait for God to exceed those expectations.
2. God Does New Things: Easter Is About Transformation, Not Just Forgiveness
Text: 1 Peter 1:3
Focus: Often we look to God to forgive us when actually God wants to make us completely new.
Function: Inspire listeners to look to God not only for forgiveness but also for transformation. Easter only forgives sin, but also gives us power over it.
3. Living in Separation: How Sin Leaves Us Powerless (And What God Does About It)
Text: Romans 5:6-8
Focus: While sin leaves us powerless, God loves us enough to give us power over sin by sending Jesus to die on the cross.
Function: Inspire listeners to offer themselves fully to God to experience the most hope, peace and joy.
4. Past vs. Present: Why Easter Is a Living, Active Event
Text: 1 Corinthians 15:4 (focusing on “rose” as a present verb)
Focus: Even though we remember Easter as a past event, we celebrate it as a present event as God continues to work in us.
Function: No matter what the past of the listener looks like, God wants to meet them in the present and transform their future.
RELATED: Easter Follow Up
5. From Death to Life: How God Calls Us to New Life Through Jesus
Text: Ephesians 2:5
Focus: While Jesus was dead in the grave, the Father raised Him to new life. God is calling listeners to new life through Jesus.
Function: Inspire listeners to experience real life change by trusting God with their entire life.
6. Don’t Put God First — Make Him the Center of Everything
Text: Romans 12:1
Focus: The resurrection is about the living Lord. His life should be the center of our lives.
Function: Don’t put Jesus first on the list; make Him the center of everything that you are and do.
7. A New Kind of Alive: What the Resurrection Means for Your Life
Text: 1 Peter 1:3-9
Focus: The resurrection provides a new kind of life for Jesus, a life where he will never die.
Function: Inspire listeners to experience new life that comes with trusting Jesus.
8. Long Story Short: From the Fall in Genesis to the Empty Tomb
Text: Genesis 3 vs. Gospel Resurrection
Focus: God is restoring creation from the Fall. In Adam there is death and in Jesus there is life.
Function: Inspire listeners to allow God to restore their broken lives.
9. I Did, So You Do: How the Resurrection Commissions the Church
Text: Matthew 28:16-20
Focus: Every scene of the resurrected Jesus, He is commissioning and sending. Jesus resurrection is linked to mission of the church.
Function: Inspire listeners to get on mission with resurrected Jesus.
10. Have Some Fun: Why Easter Is a Reason to Experience Pure Joy
Text: Philippians 4:4
Focus: God has already accomplished everything on the cross and the resurrection. There is nothing more for us to do but experience the joy of the Lord.
Function: Inspire listeners to stop trying to earn salvation and experience joy in this life.
11. Empty Promises of Easter: What an Empty Cross, Tomb, and Clothes Really Mean
Scripture: John 19:35-20:35
Summary: Let’s examine the promises of Easter. Each promise is marked by something empty—an empty cross, empty clothes, and an empty cave. It is the very fact that each of these is empty that assures us God’s promises are not.
12. The Easter Door: Three Doors of Forgiveness, Restoration, and Hope
Scripture: Matthew 28:1
Summary: The kick off message for our ’One Month To Live’ Campaign. In this message I talk about the 3 doors, the Door Of: Forgiveness, Restoration and Hope.
13. Easter at the Tomb: Putting Yourself in the Disciples’ Sandals
Scripture: Matthew 27:57-66
Summary: I want us to put ourselves in the sandals of the disciples. For some that will be easy because despair is not foreign to you. Bur for others, that may be more difficult because… Easter at the Tomb
14. Easter: Fear This — The First Words Jesus Said After the Resurrection
Scripture: Mark 15:42-16:42
Summary: Easter – What were the first word’s Jesus says after his rez? ta da! The women at the tomb are filled with fear for they now understand who Jesus really is. Easter: Fear This
