Sermon Tone Analysis

Christ has risen

The benefits for the elect

!!!  

!!! Announcements

!!! Bible presented

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Call to worship

Luke 24:6-7: Christ has risen!

Remember …: ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’

*;* Where, O death, is your victory?

Where, O death, is your sting?

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.

But thanks be to God!

He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

(1 Corinthians 15:55-57)

!!! Blessing

Grace and peace to you from Him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits before his throne, \\ and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the Ruler of the kings of the earth.

(Revelation 1:4-5)

!!! Doxology Hymn 222:1             /“Yours is the glory (1st verse only)”/

The congregation be seated.

!!! Prayer of Adoration, Invocation and Thanksgiving

Father of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,

Gathered in your Name, called together by your Holy Spirit, we now bow in adoration and praise.

Help us, O Spirit, to glorify our Father and our God.

The Lord is in his holy temple; the Lord is on his heavenly throne.

Hence you observe the sons of men; your eyes examine them.

Glorious and majestic are your deeds, and your righteousness endures forever.

You have caused your wonders to be remembered; the Lord is gracious and compassionate.

\\ You provide food for those who fear You; You remember your covenant forever.

You have shown your people the power of your works, giving them the lands of other nations.

The works of your hands are faithful and just; all your precepts are trustworthy.

You provided redemption for your people; You ordained your covenant forever— holy and awesome is your name.

To You belong eternal praise.

Lord Jesus Christ, as we consider the cross on which you died and the sacrifice which you made there, we see the utter sinfulness of sin.

We see our wrongdoing, which caused you to be made a curse.

We see our rebellion which deserves your Father's righteous anger.

We become conscious of our guilt by your crown of thorns, your pierced hands and feet, your bruised and broken body, your utter forsakenness.

Your blood is the blood of incarnate God, of infinite worth, beyond value.

How great must be the evil and guilt of sin that demands so high a price!

Sin is such a powerful enemy within.

It is present from birth and it darkens our mind, it hardens our heart, it corrupts our conscience and it tarnishes even our best efforts.

Sinners as we are, why should the sun continue to shine upon us, or the air give us breath, or the earth bear us up, or the fruits of the field nourish us?

Yet your compassion reaches out to us, your heart grieves for us, your love endured our curse, your mercy bore our punishment, your grace grants us forgiveness, pardon and peace.

Help us to walk anew in the light of your grace, broken and humble before you, washed continually in the blood of sacrifice, cleansed of a guilty conscience, raised to a whole new way of life, mighty and triumphant as heirs of salvation, in

With Martin Luther we confess and thank you:  Lord Jesus, you are my righteousness, I am your sin.

You have taken upon yourself what is mine, and given me what is yours.

You have made yourself what I was not, by taking to yourself what you were not.

!!!!!! Lord’s Prayer

!!! Hymn No 225:                            /“Jesus Christ is risen today” /

!!! /(sing in echo as indicated on the screen)/

!!! Prayer for others

!!! Scripture Reading                     /Psalm 16:8-11/

*                                                 */(/*;** */on verse 10)/

!!! Hymn (Screen):                          /“These are the facts” /

!!! /(Psalm Praise)/

!!! Children’s Address

Elder John Miller

!!! Hymn on the screen

!!! Tithes, offering and dedication

Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house.

Test me in this, says the Lord Almighty, and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.

(Malachi 3:10)

While the offering is taken up, all remaining seated sing:

!!! Hymn no 234:                              /“Christ the Lord is risen today”/

*Dedication prayer*

Eternal God, every good gift comes from above, a certain sign of our Father’s love, in appreciation of which we return thanks by presenting these your tithes and our offerings, the first fruits of our labour, from hearts full of love to you for your mercy and grace.

Be pleased to bless both these gifts and we who bring them, for the advancement of your Gospel and Kingdom, and the glory of your great name, through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

AMEN.

!!! Scripture Reading:                    /1Corinthians 15:12-28/

!!! Sermon                                          /Christ has risen:  /

!!! /The benefits for the elect/

My dear brothers and sisters in the Lord,

I proclaim the Word of God under the heading Christ has risen; the benefits for the elect.

The Word will teach us three things today:

;  Christ overcame death

He raises us up to a new life

His resurrection is a sure pledge or guarantee of own resurrection.

Today is the most glorious, the most beautiful, the most joyful and the most important day in the life of the Christian Church.

This is the Day of the Lord.

Every Sunday is a celebration of the victory of Jesus Christ over the forces of darkness, the power of sin, the authority of death and the tyranny of hell.

On this day, with jubilant and happy hearts the church of the Lord gathers in his Name to unite with the living creatures in heaven, the twenty four elders, the angels in heaven, and the souls of those already victorious in the Lord around his throne of glory, to worship, pray and sing the praises of our Lord and Saviour, the resurrected Lord.

This day sets apart the Christian faith from all other faiths and philosophies.

No other faith has a resurrected Saviour.

No other faith has a Saviour who bought the lost, still in rebellion towards their God, with his life, and then also rose again to overcome hell, and sin, and satan and death.

; In fact, all other religions leave it to its followers to work out some way to get to God, or rather a god.

There is no real security of everlasting life, because no one really knows if his attempts were good enough to satisfy his god.

Some even teach that you will be recycled back into life until you attain a righteousness acceptable to eternal life.

It is different with the Christian faith.

;  The Bible teaches us, and we know, that God is holy and that we cannot enter God’s kingdom by any other means than heavenly grace.

; The Bible teaches us that we are sinful and therefore God’s enemies on our way to eternal hell, unless God shows us his mercy and grace.

Where other religions would teach that humans are basically good and should strive to become better, the Bible is clear:  without grace we are forever doomed to eternal destruction.

Where other religions teach that by self-improvement, self-torture, asceticism, or whichever method man can attain a righteousness acceptable to God, the Bible is quite honest about Christians:  they are basically bad, unable to do anything for themselves to attain salvation before God.

My dear brother and sister, we find ourselves – in some sense – in bad company.

Here we identify with the lost; here we identify with sinners.

But that’s not the end of the story.

The theme of our sermon this morning is the Risen Christ - and the benefits of his resurrection for the elect.

; Between the holy God and sinful is our Lord and Saviour who paid the price to establish communion between God and us again.

!!!!!! ; Christ overcame death

We don’t have a grave or a memorial stone of Jesus Christ.

He is alive.

He has risen.

But what does it mean to make this statement 200 thousand years after the resurrection of a person who once died on a cross outside Jerusalem?