:: Download the 3.27.2016 Worship Study Guide and Sermon Notes
:: Download the 3.27.2016 Bulletin
:: Download the 3.27.2016 Sermon Audio
image :: Soldiers Guarding Christ’s Tomb at the Resurrection (detail from the Isenheim Altarpiece), Matthias Grünewald (c.1516, German)
Preparation for Worship :: Risen
“We are dead and our lives are hid with Christ in God. Dead. Out of the causal nexus for good. Dead. Not on trial. Dead. Out of the judicial process altogether. Not indicted, not prosecuted, not bound over, not found guilty. Just dead. And the lovely thing of it is that we were dead even before they came to get us. We have beaten the system. In Christ, we have cheated the cosmos and slipped the bonds of every necessity the Old Party will ever wave in front of us. There is therefore now no condemnation… Jesus, Jesus, Jesus; and Jesus now is all your life. You are, therefore, free. If we are now in Christ, we are now in that new creation. For if we are now dead with him, we are also now risen with him; and if we are now judged by him, we are also reconciled in him…We are as good as home now.” (Robert Farrar Capon)
“Rise up and come forth and sing praise to Him who has raised you from destruction.” (from the ancient Syrian Orthodox liturgy)
Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs for Easter Sunday March 27 include ::
:: Doxology (Thomas Ken, 1709) CHART [bandcamp track=2257784892 bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=4285BB size=short]:: Magnificat (Luke 1:46-49) CHART [bandcamp track=3475501751 bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=4285BB size=short]:: In Christ Alone (Getty & Townend, 2002) CHART [bandcamp track=676321818 bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=4285BB size=short]:: Christ the Lord is Risen Today (Charles Wesley, 1739) CHART [bandcamp track=3406429762 bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=4285BB size=short]:: He is Risen (Caroline Cobb, 2013) CHART [bandcamp track=2265250518 bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=4285BB size=short]
:: Thine is the Glory, Risen, Conquering Son (Edmond Budry, 1904) CHART >>> AUDIO
:: Alleluia! Alleluia! Hearts and Voice Heavenward Raise (Christopher Wordsworth, 1862) CHART
Call to Worship :: from I Corinthians 15:51-57
“Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. Death has been swallowed up in victory. ‘Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?’ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” 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.
Prayer of Confession
Almighty God, by the power of Your Spirit You have raised Jesus from the grave and crowned Him Lord of all. We confess that we have not bowed before Him or acknowledged His rule in our lives. We have often persisted in ways that lead to death, and failed to give Him glory. Forgive us and raise us from sin, that we may be Your faithful people, obeying the commands of our Lord Jesus Christ, who rules the world and is Head of the Church, His Body. 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!
Sermon :: Mark 10:45
45 For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many