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:: Download the 4.20.2014 Bulletin
:: Download the 4.20.2014 Parent Bulletin
:: Download the 4.20.2014 Sermon Audio
image :: Big Sur, Randy Scott Slavin (2012, American)
Preparation for Worship :: Resurrection
“It is the virgin birth, the Incarnation, the resurrection which are the true laws of the flesh and the physical. Death, decay, destruction are the suspension of these laws. I am always astonished at the emphasis the Church puts on the body. It is not the soul she says that will rise but the body, glorified.” (Flannery O’Connor)
“When Jesus Christ rose from the dead that first Easter Sunday, a new epoch in redemptive history dawned. The empty tomb was the first concrete sign that the new creation had begun.” (Kim Riddelbarger)
Psalms, Hymns & Spiritual Songs for April 20
:: Rejoice the Lord is King (Charles Wesley, 1744)
:: He Is Lord (American Folk Hymn; Philippians 2:11)
:: Up From The Grave He Arose (Robert Lowrey, 1874)
:: I Know That My Redeemer Lives (Samuel Medley, 1775)
:: Christ the Lord is Risen Today (Charles Wesley, 1739)
:: Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee (Henry Van Dyke, 1907)
Call to Worship :: The angel speaks to the women at the empty tomb, Matthew 28:5-6
“Do not be afraid, as you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; He has risen, just as He said.” Alleluia! Christ is risen. The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!
Old Testament Reading :: Isaiah 65:17-25
“For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy, and her people to be a gladness. I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in my people; no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping and the cry of distress. No more shall there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not fill out his days, for the young man shall die a hundred years old, and the sinner a hundred years old shall be accursed. They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat; for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be, and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labor in vain or bear children for calamity, for they shall be the offspring of the blessed of the Lord, and their descendants with them. Before they call I will answer; while they are yet speaking I will hear. The wolf and the lamb shall graze together; the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and dust shall be the serpent’s food. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain,” says the Lord.
Sermon :: Matthew 21:33-42
33 “Hear another parable. There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a winepress in it and built a tower and leased it to tenants, and went into another country. 34 When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servantsto the tenants to get his fruit. 35 And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. 36 Again he sent other servants, more than the first. And they did the same to them. 37 Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 38 But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’ 39 And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. 40 When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” 41 They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.”
42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:
“‘The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
this was the Lord’s doing,
and it is marvelous in our eyes’?
We Confess Our Sin Together
Our gracious Father, You sent Your Son to die and rise to new life in order that death might be destroyed and that we might live. We confess that we have often chosen death over life and lived as if Jesus has not been raised. In our thoughts, words, and deeds we have rebelled against You. We have fled from You, Whose love is better than life and Whom to know is Life itself. We have sinned against others, sometimes unintentionally and sometimes deliberately, and have diminished their lives. We have damaged ourselves who were created to reflect Your beauty. Father, forgive us our sin for Jesus’ sake. Give us grace to live as followers of our risen Lord, Jesus Christ. To the glory of Your holy name. Amen.
Words of Encouragement :: I Peter 1:3; II Corinthians 5:17
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!