Third Sunday of Easter Worship Service
St. Peter’s Evangelical Lutheran Church
3RD SUNDAY OF EASTER – Coronavirus
04-18-2021 10:00AM Zoom Worship
OPENING SONG: “They Crucified My Savior” Brown #90
OPENING RITE FOR EASTER 3 AND THE EASTER PEACE:
L Jesus is risen!
C Death could not hold him!
L Be not afraid, trust that he is alive, receive his peace!
C This is only the beginning!
L Be a witness, tell the story, declare his victory!
C This is only the beginning!
L Oh, may Jesus be your good news, your joy, and your salvation!
Let weeping turn to laughing,
let sorrow turn to joy,
let death turn to life,
let uncertainty turn to assurance,
let hesitation turn to proclamation,
let there be hope when hope is gone!
C CHRIST IS RISEN, CHRIST IS ALIVE, ALLELUIA!
L Hallelujah, glory to God, death, despair, and the devil don’t have the last word! We are – only by God’s grace – EASTER people, always rising! Now let us bless one another, let us offer a sign and say the words, of what God has done for us through Jesus Christ, how God’s life-giving miracle continues in the hearts and lives of all who believe. I invite you to turn to a neighbor or turn to yourself… to make the sign of the cross on the forehead… and to share these words of peace, power, and promise:
“Receive [+] the sign of the cross. Because HE died, YOU are alive!”
SONG OF PRAISE: “Lord, I lift your name on high, Lord, I love to sing your praises.
I’m so glad you’re in my life, I’m so glad you came to save us.
You came from heaven to earth to show the way;
from the earth to the cross, my debt to pay;
from the cross to the grave, from the grave to the sky; Lord, I lift your name on high!”
THE PRAYER OF THE DAY:
O God, what will it take to convince us that Jesus, who suffered and died, is resurrected and victorious?
Continue to stir our hearts with your love and to change our bewilderment into trusting faith.
Then send us out to speak the Word of life and to share the Risen Christ with others in ordinary and bold ways.
Lord, I want to be more loving in my heart. Amen.
FIRST READING: ACTS 3:12-19 [You killed him, God raised him. The GOOD NEWS of God’s forgiveness and restoration.]
3:12 When Peter saw it, he addressed the people, “You Israelites, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we had made him walk?
3:13 The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our ancestors has glorified his servant Jesus, whom you handed over and rejected in the presence of Pilate, though he had decided to release him.
3:14 But you rejected the Holy and Righteous One and asked to have a murderer given to you,
3:15 and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses.
3:16 And by faith in his name, his name itself has made this man strong, whom you see and know; and the faith that is through Jesus has given him this perfect health in the presence of all of you.
3:17 “And now, friends, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers.
3:18 In this way God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, that his Messiah would suffer.
3:19 Repent therefore, and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out,
SECOND READING: 1 JOHN 3:1-7 [By Jesus we are God’s children. The GOOD NEWS of God’s present + future love.]
3:1 See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
3:2 Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is.
3:3 And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.
3:4 Everyone who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.
3:5 You know that he was revealed to take away sins, and in him there is no sin.
3:6 No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him.
3:7 Little children, let no one deceive you. Everyone who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous.
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: LUKE 24:36b-48 [No longer dead! The GOOD NEWS of the Crucified Messiah.]
24:36b While they were talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
24:37 They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost.
24:38 He said to them, “Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts?
24:39 Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.”
24:40 And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet.
24:41 While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?”
24:42 They gave him a piece of broiled fish,
24:43 and he took it and ate in their presence.
24:44 Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you–that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.”
24:45 Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures,
24:46 and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day,
24:47 and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
24:48 You are witnesses of these things.
SERMON: Pastor Neil
SONG SELECTION: “Because He Lives” Brown #93
AN AFFIRMATION OF OUR FAITH:
We believe that God graciously revealed himself in Jesus Christ,
the Light of the world,
the Word of life made flesh
God’s own Son living among us,
and yet a human just like us.
We believe that Jesus Christ willingly
shared our life, its joys and sorrows;
taught us how to love God and each other;
allowed himself to be broken at the hands of humanity;
and met his death on a cross.
We believe, even beyond our understanding, that Jesus
was resurrected from the dead;
disarmed and conquered death;
cancelled out the power of sin;
and wiped the smile forever off of Satan’s face.
We believe that Jesus Christ is alive and well
in the Church that proclaims him;
in our lives that serve him;
in our world that needs him;
and everywhere that God’s love reaches now and forever. Amen.
OFFERING [Jesus opened the disciples’ minds to understand the scriptures, and he opened their hearts, their voices, and their hands to be witnesses of God’s amazing love. Let us continue that mission with all that we are and all that we have been given.]
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:
O God, it is only by your amazing grace that we are Easter-alive today! 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, more life, eternal life in 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: “Joyful, Joyful, We Adore You”
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!