Service Themes for Easter Season
“Why so downcast? Why so despondent?”
“What?! Surely you know what has happened these past days in Jerusalem. The one we thought was Messiah was taken from us, they nailed him to a cross, and now he is dead.”
And with that opening, Jesus spoke to them from the scriptures, expressing and explaining all that had come to pass, how it had been necessary, how it fulfilled all that had been planned and purposed by God. How through all this, even the powers of death were overcome.
Breaking their journey for the night, they invited him to join them for the evening meal. He was revealed to them in the breaking of the bread, at which they exclaimed,
“did not our hearts burn within us as he opened the word to us along the way!”
The six remaining Sundays of the Easter season speak to us of the truth of this one love, and echo some of the questions the weary travelers might have had for their mysterious companion. We draw upon scripture passages from the Gospel and the first letter of John.
1 John 3:1-7, Luke 24:13-35 “Eureka!”
See how great a love the Father has given us, that we would be called children of God; and in fact, we are. For this reason, the world does not know us: because it did not know Him.
They stood still, their faces downcast. One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, “Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?”
April 7
What does it mean?
April 14
Can I believe this?
1 John 1:1-3, John 20:19-25 “The man from Missouri”
“What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life…”
But Thomas said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.”
April 21
How will I know this is it?
1 John 3:16-24, John 10:14 “A picture worth a thousand words”
We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers and sisters.
I am the good shepherd, and I know My own, and My own know Me, just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.
April 28
What good is it?
1 John 4:7-21, John 15:5 “By the fruit you know the root”
No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God remains in us, and His love is perfected in us. By this we know that we remain in Him and He in us, because He has given to us of His Spirit.
I am the vine, you are the branches; the one who remains in Me, and I in him bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.
May 5
How do I keep hold of it?
1 John 5:1-6, John 15:16 “Faith like a mason jar”
For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome.
You did not choose Me, but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.
May 12
How long will it last? Endure in it.
1 John 5:9-13, John 17:11 “You gotta be in it to win it”
These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.
I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one.
