Worship Notes for Easter 7, 2015

Monday after the Sixth Sunday of Easter

Monday before the Ascension of our Lord

Commemoration of Cyril and Methodius, Missionaries to the Slavs

May 11, 2015

He is Risen.

This coming Sunday is the Seventh Sunday of Easter, which makes it the last Sunday of Easter. This coming Thursday is the Ascension of Our Lord (Ascension is forty days after Easter and so always falls on a Thursday). For the past ten or so years we have participated in an Ascension Day worship service with the other LC-MS congregations in the upstate. However, this year, the Southeastern District’s district convention begins Thursday (Ascension Day). Needless to say, the pastors who would normally participate in the service will all be in Greenville, NC, at the convention. From a worship planning perspective, this leaves the pastor with several options. First, he could skip Easter 7 and transfer Ascension to Sunday. Second, he could skip Ascension and go with Easter 7. Third, he could try to represent both days. It is the third option we will be doing Sunday. Our opening hymn (“O Sons and Daughters of the King” LSB 470:1-4, 9) reflects the Easter season. Our closing hymn (“A Hymn of Glory Let Us Sing” LSB 493) reflects Ascension. We will use the readings for Easter 7 (Acts 1:12-26; 1 John 5:9-15; John 17:11b-19; Psalm 1 (6)), but the sermon will reflect the Ascension Day readings as well. The text will be John 17:18. The sermon is titled “Onward, Christian Soldiers.” The Sermon hymn will be “Onward, Christian Soldiers” (LSB 662).

Our liturgy for Sunday will be Matins (LSB 219). As you probably already noticed, we will use the Psalm for the Day instead of the Introit for the Day.

Below is a video of “Onward, Christian Soldiers” (LSB 662). It is performed by The Lutheran Warbler.

What follows is a synopsis of Sunday’s lessons, provided by the synod, then the lessons. As is the practice of these summaries, the Psalm is not considered.

Our Great High Priest Preserves Us in the Name of His Father

On the eve of His Passion, Christ Jesus intercedes for the disciples as their merciful and great High Priest.  He prays that His Father would protect them “from the evil one” and preserve them in His Name (John 17:11–12, 15).  Along with His prayer, Christ Himself comes to the Father by His self-sacrifice upon the Cross, thereby consecrating Himself for the sake of His disciples, “that they also may be sanctified in truth” (John 17:19).  To that same end, He speaks to them in the world and gives them His Father’s Word, that is, Himself.  His Apostles, in turn, have written these things “to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:13).  For “this life is in His Son,” whom He has given by His Word, and “whoever has the Son has life” (1 John 5:11–12).  By this apostolic testimony, disciples are gathered together “with one accord,” as one Body in Christ, “devoting themselves to prayer” and waiting upon the Lord in “the upper room” of His Church on earth (Acts 1:13–14).

Psalm 1 (6)

¹           Blessed is the man

                        who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,

            nor stands in the way of sinners,

                        nor sits in the seat of scoffers;

²           but his delight is in the law of the Lord,

                        and on his law he meditates day and night.

³           He is like a tree

                        planted by streams of water

            that yields its fruit in its season,

                        and its leaf does not wither.

            In all that he does, he prospers.

⁴           The wicked are not so,

                        but are like chaff that the wind drives away.

⁵           Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,

                        nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;

⁶           for the Lord knows the way of the righteous,

                        but the way of the wicked will perish.

Acts 1:12-26

¹²          Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey away. ¹³And when they had entered, they went up to the upper room, where they were staying, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot and Judas the son of James. ¹⁴All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.

¹⁵          In those days Peter stood up among the brothers (the company of persons was in all about 120) and said, ¹⁶“Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus. ¹⁷For he was numbered among us and was allotted his share in this ministry.” ¹⁸(Now this man acquired a field with the reward of his wickedness, and falling headlong he burst open in the middle and all his bowels gushed out. ¹⁹And it became known to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the field was called in their own language Akeldama, that is, Field of Blood.) ²⁰“For it is written in the Book of Psalms,

            “‘May his camp become desolate,

                        and let there be no one to dwell in it’;

            and

            “‘Let another take his office.’

²¹          So one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, ²²beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us—one of these men must become with us a witness to his resurrection.” ²³And they put forward two, Joseph called Barsabbas, who was also called Justus, and Matthias. ²⁴And they prayed and said, “You, Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which one of these two you have chosen ²⁵to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place.” ²⁶And they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven apostles.

1 John 5:9-15

⁹           If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater, for this is the testimony of God that he has borne concerning his Son. ¹⁰Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne concerning his Son. ¹¹And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. ¹²Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.

¹³          I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life. ¹⁴And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. ¹⁵And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.

John 17:11b-19

^11b… Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. ¹²While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. ¹³But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. ¹⁴I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. ¹⁵I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. ¹⁶They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. ¹⁷Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. ¹⁸As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. ¹⁹And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.

Some Additional Notes

• There will be a Voters’ Meeting following Sunday’s Worship service. Wayne Maab will deliver a report concerning the District Convention.  

• The Board of Evangelism meeting has been moved to Sunday, May 24. This is also Pentecost Sunday.   

• The District Convention will run from Thursday, May 14 through Saturday, May 16.  Pastor and Wayne will be attending. The office will be closed, but if you need to reach pastor you can call his cell phone. His phone will be off during convention business session, but he will check his messages. Please keep the convention, as well as Pastor and Wayne, in your prayers.

• Our Sunday morning Bible hour begins at 9:00 am. We continue our examination of the biblical teachings concerning Vocation.

• Walking our neighborhoods and meeting our neighbors is off and walking. Remember to record your miles each week on the bulletin board in the hallway. Our collective goal - 2,015 miles in 2015.

• Remember also that we have pledged ourselves to pray for our neighbors. You can get a list of your 100 closest neighbors from pray4everyhome.com. If you have no internet access, speak with Rachel Swain or Kitty Rickert and they will sign you up and get you a list.

Blessings in Christ,

Pastor Rickert