Fifth Sunday of Easter Worship Order of Service

St. Peter’s Evangelical Lutheran Church

5TH SUNDAY OF EASTER  –  Coronavirus

05-02-2021      10:00AM Zoom Worship

OPENING SONG:        “Oh, How I Love Jesus”                                       Brown #250

OPENING RITE FOR EASTER 5 AND THE EASTER PEACE:          

L   Alleluia! Christ is risen!

C    Christ is risen indeed! Alleluia!

L   Death, despair, and the devil don’t have the last word.

C    We are EASTER people, always rising!

L   If Jesus is the True Vine,

C    then let us be the branches.

L   If we are the branches,

C    then let us abide in him!

L   If we abide in him,

C    then let us bear much fruit!

L   And if we do not abide in him,

C    then let us tremble in fear!

L   And if the signature of the cross on our forehead this morning is a sign of his love and of our joy and salvation,

C    then let us accept and offer that same sign of salvation and these words –

“Receive [+] the sign of the cross. Because HE died, YOU are alive!”

SONG OF PRAISE:    “Thank you, Lord, for saving me.       

               Thank you, Lord, for keeping me.

  I love you, Lord of all, you hear my call.

  We praise you, we bless you, Lord!” 

THE PRAYER OF THE DAY:                                 

     Lord Jesus Christ, you are the Vine and we are the branches.

     Without YOU, we cannot keep on living! Without YOU, we cannot keep on loving!

     So we pray that we stay firmly connected… please nourish us with your life and your spirit.

     We also pray that we might bear fruit… show us how to share your love by giving our lives for others.   Amen. 

FIRST READING:  ACTS 8:26-40   [God’s mercy and love are intentionally branched out to a person who is an “outsider”.]

8:26 Then an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Get up and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This is a wilderness road.)

8:27 So he got up and went. Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury. He had come to Jerusalem to worship

8:28 and was returning home; seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah.

8:29 Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over to this chariot and join it.”

8:30 So Philip ran up to it and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?”

8:31 He replied, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to get in and sit beside him.

8:32 Now the passage of the scripture that he was reading was this: “Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter, and like a lamb silent before its shearer, so he does not open his mouth.

8:33 In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth.”

8:34 The eunuch asked Philip, “About whom, may I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?”

8:35 Then Philip began to speak, and starting with this scripture, he proclaimed to him the good news about Jesus.

8:36 As they were going along the road, they came to some water; and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?”

8:38 He commanded the chariot to stop, and both of them, Philip and the eunuch, went down into the water, and Philip baptized him.

8:39 When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing.

8:40 But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he was passing through the region, he proclaimed the good news to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.

SECOND READING:  1 JOHN 4:7-21   [God is love… and so must God’s people always be and become love.]

4:7 Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.

4:8 Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.

4:9 God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him.

4:10 In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.

4:11 Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another.

4:12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.

4:13 By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.

4:14 And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world.

4:15 God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God.

4:16 So we have known and believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.

4:17 Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world.

4:18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love.

4:19 We love because he first loved us.

4:20 Those who say, “I love God,” and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen.

4:21 The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.

GOSPEL VERSE:  “Oh, how He loves you and me. Oh, how He loves you and me.       

                        He gave His life, what more can He give?

                  OH, HOW HE LOVES YOU; OH, HOW HE LOVES ME;        

                                     OH, HOW HE LOVES YOU AND ME!

      Jesus to Calv’ry did go, His love for this world to show.

                                What He did there brought hope from despair…”

GOSPEL READING:  JOHN 15:1-8   [The branches need the True Vine to live and to bear fruit.]

15:1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower.

15:2 He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit.

15:3 You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you.

15:4 Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.

15:5 I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.

15:6 Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.

15:7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

15:8 My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.

THE SERMON:         Pastor Gwen or Pastor Neil

SONG RESPONSE:                 

                                       

 

AN AFFIRMATION OF OUR FAITH:        

         We confess our FAITH in the God who has given us love and new life…

I trust in God who has made me his own. I know that God loves me. To God I am as precious as his own

          Son, Jesus Christ, who lived and died in obedience to his Father’s will. Jesus suffered our pain, and 

    through his suffering and death has brought us into fellowship with God.

     I believe that God through his Spirit will give me strength when I am oppressed and weary… will give me love

     when I am afraid and lonely… and will guide his Church to make people free at last.

     I believe that God lives in the fellowship of those who trust him, and that God wants all people to be brought

into that fellowship.

     I believe that nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

     Living in hope and trust, I will deny myself, take up my cross, and walk the Jesus walk of faithful servant love.

       Amen.

OFFERING   [We love because God first loved us. Those who say they love God and hate their brothers or sisters are liars. So let

us abide in Christ and bear much fruit in our world by compassionate caring and grateful giving as we encounter both ordinary

opportunities and fresh possibilities.] 

THE OFFERTORY SONG:    “Get all excited, go tell ev’rybody that Jesus Christ is King!    [sing this line 3 times]

  Jesus Christ is still the King of kings, the King of kings!”               

OFFERING PRAYER:                 

We praise you and thank you, O God,for giving us amazing joy, grace, and hope in the resurrection of

Jesus our Lord! Now give us the bold confidence and the passionate love to dry tears, to lift up broken hearts, and to testify with our gifts and our lives that there is NEW LIFE in Jesus Christ.   Amen.       

MUSIC SELECTION:    Dennis Fortune

THE PRAYERS… We pray that all people might be transformed by the GOOD NEWS of Easter!      

THE LORD’S PRAYER

CLOSING SONG:               

THE BENEDICTION:

L   Alleluia! Christ is risen!

C    He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

L   Leave with a message upon your heart… on your lips… revealed through your daily living: I have seen the Lord! 

Go in the faith-filled power of the Risen Christ (+) to love God and to serve your neighbor in all that you do!  AMEN!

 

4 important questions during Easter:

• Do you believe that God loves you?

• Do you believe that you are a sinner?

• Do you believe that Jesus died for your sins?

• Will you now trust Jesus as your Savior and Lord?

 

We invite you to join in our new life together as we hear God’s fresh word to us, grow in grace, and offer our God-given gifts in service to others. A heart that is open to Jesus Christ is a heart that is open to change. May we each live fully in the time and the place where God has called us.