Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

This week is Passion week, the week where many Christians focus especially on Jesus’s death and resurrection. Though we celebrate the resurrection every Lord’s Day, this Lord’s Day gives us a wonderful opportunity to consider the resurrection of Jesus Christ afresh. We will give the same kind of focused attention to our Savior’s death on Good Friday evening at 6:30 PM service. I hope you’ll be able to join us for all our events this weekend, but there are several important changes to our normal schedule to note.

The cross and resurrection of Christ is the most important event in human history. It is the great hinge of ages. Everything begins and ends at the cross and resurrection. At the cross, the Lord Jesus Christ provided atonement for sinners. In rising again, Jesus gives us the ground of our eternal life. In his death and resurrection, Jesus Christ showed his preeminence, as Paul makes clear in Colossians 1:

And he is the head of the body, the church.
He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead,
that in everything he might be preeminent.
For in him all the fullness of God
was pleased to dwell,
and through him to reconcile
to himself all things,
whether on earth or in heaven,
making peace by the blood of his cross.
– Colossians 1:18–20

When God the Father raised his Son Jesus Christ from the dead, Christ became the firstfruits of the new life that will be consummated in the New Heavens and New Earth. Christ is the prototype of our own resurrected life, but he is also the power and wellspring of that resurrection, making the resurrection of our bodies possible through the life he has in himself (John 5:36).

The Good Friday service will be at 6:30 PM. The service will feature Mark’s account of our Lord’s crucifixion, interspersed with numerous congregational hymns and special prepared music by both the adult and youth choirs. My sermon is entitled, “Simon of Cyrene.”

On Resurrection Sunday morning, we will have, like we did last year, a special sunrise service. Contact me for the location. The service begins at 6:50 AM. We’ll sing hymns, read Scripture, and have a brief lesson from Scripture. Though Sunday looks to be warm and beautiful, the morning will likely have a chill, so dress accordingly. Bring chairs for you and your family. I’ll keep this service well under an hour.

Our main Sunday worship will begin an hour earlier than normal at 10 AM. This will be a very full service. We will observe Communion together. This service will have lots of congregational singing (as normal), as well as prepared music by our choirs.

Worship Service
Call to Worship: Colossians 1:18-20
Hymn 272 [Red] Now Let the Vault of Heaven Resound
Congregational Reading: Colossians 3:1-4
Doxology: Doxology, Red 437
Ministry of Music: Ah, Holy Jesus
Hymn 335 [Red]: What Wondrous Love is This? This beautiful American folk hymn captures (like many of the hymns we’ll be singing this Resurrection Sunday) both the glory of the cross and the glory of the resurrection. We’re familiar with how this hymn points us to the “wondrous love” of the “Lord of bliss” who bore “the dreadful curse” for us. It’s in the third stanza that our living hope in the resurrection of the body comes out: And when from death I’m free, I’ll sing on; I’ll sing and joyful be, and through eternity I’ll sing on!
The Lord’s Table
†Hymn 173 [Gray]: Jesus Lives and So Shall I
Ministry of Music: The Saviour Lives, No More to Die
Prayer of Intercession
Offering
Scripture Reading: Psalm 22:25-31; Luke 24:36-53
Ministry of Music: Jesus Christ is Ris’n Today
Hymn 224 [Gray]: Before the Throne of God Above
Sermon: Our Living Hope from 1 Peter 1:3-5
Hymn 259 [Red]: Jesus! What a Friend for Sinners
Closing Prayer
Benediction                                                                                         

This Sunday, there will be no Sunday School.