Everything you need for April 4 online worship, Easter Sunday 2021.
Preparations for Worship:
- Do your best to eliminate distractions like the phone, TV, etc.
- Worship actively! Whether you are by yourself or with others, try reading the parts of the service aloud (responses, lessons, and prayers).
- This service is for children too. Help them participate. Ask those who have that ability to read a prayer or lesson aloud. Take a moment to describe what’s happening. Ask questions. Encourage little ones to draw what they are hearing while you all listen. Unlike our more typical Sunday worship at church, you can pause at any time for questions and discussion.
- Before you begin, load each of the videos below. (You might first have to get past a distracting ad.)
- Pause for a moment of quiet meditation. Then pray:
“Heavenly Father, I have come to worship you. Draw near to me in your gracious Word, and assure me of your loving kindness. Curb my wandering thoughts, that with undivided attention I may hear your voice and speak your praise. Through Jesus Christ. Amen.”
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Let us rejoice and give thanks to God for the victory our Lord Jesus Christ won by his death and resurrection. It is for us that he has triumphed. Christ died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. Thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! Thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
For God, who created light to shine out of darkness, made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. Thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. Thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. Thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting? Thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Almighty God, by the glorious resurrection of your Son Jesus Christ you conquered death and opened the gate to eternal life. Grant that we, who have been raised with him through baptism, may walk in newness of life and ever rejoice in the hope of sharing his glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit be dominion and praise now and forever. Amen.
LESSON – ISAIAH 25:6-9
6On this mountain the Lord of Armies will prepare for all peoples a banquet of rich food, a banquet of aged wines, with the best cuts of meat, and the finest wines. 7On this mountain he will destroy the shroud that covers all peoples, the burial cloth stretched over all nations. 8He has swallowed up death forever! The Lord God will wipe away the tears from every face. He will take away the shame of his people throughout the earth. For the Lord has spoken. 9On that day it will be said, “Look, here is our God! We waited for him, and he saved us! This is the Lord! We waited for him. Let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation!”
GOSPEL – MARK 16:1-8
When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so they could go and anoint Jesus. 2Very early on the first day of the week, at sunrise, they went to the tomb. 3They were saying to each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance to the tomb for us?” 4When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away.
5As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed. 6He said to them, “Do not be alarmed. You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. 7But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.’” 8They went out and hurried away from the tomb, trembling and perplexed. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.
DEVOTION – 1 CORINTHIANS 15:19-20
CONFESSION OF FAITH – The Apostles’ Creed
I believe in God, the Father almighty,
maker of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried.
He descended into hell. The third day he rose again from the dead.
He ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty.
From there he will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy Christian Church, the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen.
OFFERING
Offerings may be given on-line at tithe.ly/risensavior, mailed to the church, or dropped off at the church.
Our members have joined together in faith and love to do the Lord’s work in this community and around the world. Guests need not feel obligated to participate in this offering which supports our ministry.
PRAYER OF THE CHURCH
Lord God, on this glorious day, fill Your people with a holy fear at the resurrection of Your Son.
Cause us to tremble no longer before the grave but rejoice and live in the truth of Your power to save.
Let us hold fast to the Word preached to us, that receiving it with joy we may take our stand in it and be saved by it.
Hinder all who would sow doubt into our hearts, and grant us courage to confess its truth in our life and conversation.
Bless our president, and all who make and administer our laws. Frustrate the forces of evil, and do not let our leaders cooperate with them or further their goals.
Guard our armed forces as they stand watch for us at home and abroad. Let them serve with honor and integrity.
Lord, we praise you for all the opportunities you have provided throughout our national church body’s history to share the gospel of Jesus with people around the world. This year we are celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Central Africa Medical Mission. Through the compassion of our national church body’s medical volunteers in Africa, we have been able to build relationships that have led to the sharing of the Christian faith that compels this love.
We pray that you would guide us in how we can use this and other strategies to connect even more people throughout the world with the love of Christ.
Have mercy on the sick and those in any need. Let the dawning light of the new creation in Christ sustain them in faith.
In accord with Your will, grant them renewed health — a foretaste of their eternal healing in Him.
Comfort those who mourn with the truth of Christ’s empty tomb, that in the midst of their grief they may abide in the hope of His resurrection.
Uphold them in faith as they await the day when You will wipe every tear from all faces.
We join today in singing eternal alleluias with innumerable angels in festal gathering, with the assembly of the firstborn enrolled in heaven and with the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and we bring these petitions before You, dear Father, trusting in Your mercy; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who taught us to pray…
THE LORD’S PRAYER
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name,
thy kingdom come,
thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us;
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen.
THE BLESSING
Now may the glorious Father, who by his power raised our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead, give you the Spirit of wisdom to know the hope to which he has called you. And may he preserve you in body, soul, and spirit until our own resurrection on the day of Christ Jesus. Let all God’s people say, Amen! Amen!
CHRIST IS RISEN! HE IS RISEN INDEED!