Worship Notes for Lent I - 2014

Thursday after Ash Wednesday

March 6, 2014

The Lord be with you

WARNING … WARNING … WARNING

“DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME” begins Sunday. Set your clocks forward one hour before you go to bed Saturday. You lose an hour of sleep when you “save” an hour of daylight.

WARNING … WARNING … WARNING

This coming Sunday is the First Sunday in Lent. During the Lenten season certain elements are removed from our service, to return on Easter. This includes the Gloria in Excelsis and all Alleluias. Removing these festive elements of the service conforms the worship service, to some degree, to the more somber note of the season.

We will share in the Lord’s Supper Sunday. We will use Divine Service, third setting (page 184), for our liturgy. As always, reviewing the catechism on the subject of the Lord’s Supper is an excellent way to prepare. Our opening hymn will be “My Song Is Love Unknown” (LSB 430). Our sermon hymn will be “O Lord, throughout These Forty Days” (LSB 418). Our closing hymn will be “I Walk in Danger All the Way” (LSB 716). Our distribution hymns will be “On My Heart Imprint Your Image” (LSB 422), “Draw Near and Take the Body of the Lord” (LSB 637) and “Eat This Bread” (LSB 638).

The assigned lections for Sunday are Genesis 3:1–21, Romans 5:12–19 and Matthew 4:1–11. The text for the sermon is Matthew 4:3. The sermon is titled “The Main Point.”

Below is a video of the Lutheran Warbler playing and singing “My Sont Is Love Unknown.”  

Our Sunday morning Bible hour begins at 9:00 am. We continue with Colossians.

Below is the summary of the lessons provided by the LCMS.

The Lord Jesus Christ Is Our Champion against Satan

Following His Baptism, Jesus is “led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil” (Matt. 4:1). As He takes upon Himself the curse of our sin and sets Himself against our enemy, He trusts His Father’s voice and waits upon His Father’s hand for all things. The devil questions His sonship, but the beloved and well-pleasing Son remains faithful and lives “by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4). Jesus patiently suffers hunger in His mortal flesh and returns to the dust whence man was taken, and by His pain He brings forth food for all the children of men (Gen. 3:18–19). By the sweat of His brow, we eat the fruit of His cross, even as our nakedness is covered by His righteousness. Although all people live in bondage to death through the trespass of the first man, Adam, all the more “have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many” (Rom. 5:15). His righteous obedience “leads to justification and life for all men” (Rom. 5:18).

Sunday’s Lessons

Genesis 3:1-21

^3:1       Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.

          He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” ²And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, ³but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” ⁴But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. ⁵For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” ⁶So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. ⁷Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

⁸         And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. ⁹But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” ¹⁰And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” ¹¹He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” ¹²The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” ¹³Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

¹⁴        The Lord God said to the serpent,

          “Because you have done this,

                   cursed are you above all livestock

                   and above all beasts of the field;

          on your belly you shall go,

                   and dust you shall eat

                   all the days of your life.

¹⁵        I will put enmity between you and the woman,

                   and between your offspring and her offspring;

          he shall bruise your head,

                   and you shall bruise his heel.”

¹⁶        To the woman he said,

          “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing;

                   in pain you shall bring forth children.

          Your desire shall be for your husband,

                   and he shall rule over you.”

¹⁷        And to Adam he said,

          “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife

                   and have eaten of the tree

          of which I commanded you,

                   ‘You shall not eat of it,’

          cursed is the ground because of you;

                   in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;

¹⁸        thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;

                   and you shall eat the plants of the field.

¹⁹        By the sweat of your face

                   you shall eat bread,

          till you return to the ground,

                   for out of it you were taken;

          for you are dust,

                   and to dust you shall return.”

²⁰        The man called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. ²¹And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.

         

Romans 5:12-19

¹²        Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—¹³for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. ¹⁴Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.

¹⁵        But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. ¹⁶And the free gift is not like the result of that one man's sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. ¹⁷For if, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.

¹⁸        Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. ¹⁹For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous.

Matthew 4:1-11

^4:1       Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. ²And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. ³And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” ⁴But he answered, “It is written,

          “‘Man shall not live by bread alone,

                   but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

⁵         Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple ⁶and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written,

          “‘He will command his angels concerning you,’

          and

          “‘On their hands they will bear you up,

                   lest you strike your foot against a stone.’”

⁷         Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” ⁸Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. ⁹And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” ¹⁰Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written,

          “‘You shall worship the Lord your God

                   and him only shall you serve.’”

¹¹        Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.

Well, I pray we will see you Sunday morning.

Blessings in Christ,

Pastor John Rickert