Worship Helps for Lent 1

Worship Theme: The season of Lent begins with Ash Wednesday.  Historically, Lent was a period of time during which the Christian would deny himself certain luxuries or behaviors in order to focus more clearly on the tremendous sacrifice that Christ made for us on the cross.  Technically, the Sundays during Lent are not considered part of the forty-day season, and, therefore, the passion history itself is not generally part of the Scripture lessons appointed for these days.  Today’s lessons remind us of the stark contrast between God’s perfection and our sin-stained imperfection, but also of the victory Christ has won on our behalf and has credited to us.

Old Testament: Genesis 3:1-15 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?" ² The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, ³ but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.'" ⁴ "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. ⁵ "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." ⁶ When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. ⁷ Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. ⁸ Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. ⁹ But the LORD God called to the man, "Where are you?" ¹⁰ He answered, "I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid." ¹¹ And he said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?" ¹² The man said, "The woman you put here with me-- she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it." ¹³ Then the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate." ¹⁴ So the LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, "Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. ¹⁵ And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel."

1. What was Satan’s goal in each step of his temptation? (verse 1, 4, 5)

2. Perfection was gone. It was replaced by shame and the desire to cover up and hide. How did Adam and Eve show that sin dominated their lives? (verses 7, 8, 10, 12, 13)

3. God did not leave Adam and Eve in their guilt. Verse 15 is the first gospel promise. In this one short verse is found a wealth of good news. Find the good news in the following phrases: “Cursed are you”; “you will eat dust”; “I will put enmity between you and the woman . . . between your offspring and hers”; “He will crush your head . . . you will strike his heel.”

Epistle: Romans 5:12-19 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned-- ¹³ for before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not taken into account when there is no law. ¹⁴ Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come. ¹⁵ But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God's grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! ¹⁶ Again, the gift of God is not like the result of the one man's sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. ¹⁷ For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. ¹⁸ Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men. ¹⁹ For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.

4. How was Adam a “pattern of the one to come” (Christ)?

5. How does the grace of God in Christ compare to the evil brought on by the sin of Adam?

Gospel: Matthew 4:1-11 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. ² After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. ³ The tempter came to him and said, "If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread." ⁴ Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'" ⁵ Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. ⁶ "If you are the Son of God," he said, "throw yourself down. For it is written: "'He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.'" ⁷ Jesus answered him, "It is also written: 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'" ⁸ Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. ⁹ "All this I will give you," he said, "if you will bow down and worship me." ¹⁰ Jesus said to him, "Away from me, Satan! For it is written: 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.'" ¹¹ Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.

6. What did Jesus use to defeat the temptations of Satan?

7. What parallels can be seen to God’s people as Jesus is tempted?  (compare Deuteronomy 8:1-5)

  

Answers:

1. • Verse 1 - Satan challenged God in a rather mild way. First, he made God out to be harsh: “Did God really say?” Then he exaggerated God’s command: “any tree”? Doubt about God’s love had been planted in Eve’s heart. Sin was already there. She responded correctly about God’s command, but she added to it and made it harsher than it was: “You must not touch it.”

• Verse 4 - Satan made a direct attack on God: “You will not surely die.” In a sense, he was right. Adam and Eve would not drop dead on the spot—not physically, at least.

• Verse 5 - Satan then tempted Eve with a true, but terribly twisted, statement. If they ate, he claimed, their eyes would be open and they would understand good and evil. Eve was enticed. She fell.

2. • Verse 7 - Adam and Eve saw their unclothed bodies in a new way, and because lust had entered their hearts, they hid their nakedness.

• Verse 8 - Adam and Eve had now become afraid of God. They hid when they heard him coming.

• Verse 10 - Adam foolishly said that he hid from God because he was naked. (God had created him that way!)

• Verse 12 - Adam passed the blame onto his wife (and to God, “the woman you put here”).

• Verse 13 - Eve also passed the blame.

3. • “Cursed are you”; “you will eat dust” (verse 14).

Satan, not Adam and Eve, would from this time on be cursed. Satan and all who do evil, not believers like Adam and Eve, will suffer for their sins.

• “I will put enmity between you and the woman . . . between your offspring and hers.”

After Adam and Eve sinned, there was peace between them and Satan, and there was enmity (hostility) between them and God. God would turn the tables. Peace between him and Adam and Eve would be restored. But Adam and Eve and their offspring would have to suffer at Satan’s hand and at the hand of his followers as these forces of evil sought to undermine and destroy God’s plan of salvation in Christ.

• “He will crush your head . . . you will strike his heel.”

The Savior would kill Satan and undo his work. This points ahead to the great battle the Savior would wage against Satan.

4. As by Adam’s sin, death entered the world and affected all people, so by the sacrifice of the one God-man Christ, all people have been redeemed.

5. Several times Paul uses the phrase “how much more.”  God’s grace is infinitely more effective for good than is Adam’s sin for evil.

6. Always the Word of God, a tool God graciously places also at our disposal!

7. As the Israelites were led into the desert to be tested, so Jesus was tested.  But our Savior passed each test perfectly, depending on the power of God found in the Word.

Putting your faith into action

When atomic bombs were dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima in 1945 to end World War II in the Pacific, the world changed. Within the first two to four months of the bombings, the acute effects killed 90,000–166,000 people in Hiroshima and 60,000–80,000 in Nagasaki, with roughly half of the deaths in each city occurring on the first day. On Christmas of 2004 an earthquake rocked the world off the coast of Indonesia that set off a tsunami that killed over 160,000 people and displaced another 500,000 people in Southeast Asia. Yet no disaster was as great as what took place in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve rebelled against God. Death came to all men. The nature of man was no longer in God’s image but in the sinful image of Adam. In stark contrast to all that tragedy stands the gift we are given in Christ. He changed the world even more. He forgave the world. He justifies, that is, declares humankind forgiven and righteous, which the formerly condemned receive through faith. He changed us to live as changed people.  He changed us to live for him.

A reading from the Book of Concord for the Transfiguration of Our Lord

1] Here we must confess, as Paul says in Rom. 5:12, that sin originated [and entered the world] from one man Adam, by whose disobedience all men were made sinners, [and] subject to death and the devil. This is called original or capital sin.

2] The fruits of this sin are afterwards the evil deeds which are forbidden in the Ten Commandments, such as [distrust] unbelief, false faith, idolatry, to be without the fear of God, presumption [recklessness], despair, blindness [or completeloss of sight], and, in short not to know or regard God; furthermore to lie, to swear by [to abuse] God's name [to swear falsely], not to pray, not to call upon God, not to regard [to despise or neglect] God's Word, to be disobedient to parents, to murder, to be unchaste, to steal, to deceive, etc.

3] This hereditary sin is so deep [and horrible] a corruption of nature that no reason can understand it, but it must be [learned and] believed from the revelation of Scriptures, Ps. 51:5; Rom. 6:12ff; Ex. 33:3; Gen. 3:7ff. Hence, it is nothing but error and blindness in regard to this article what the scholastic doctors have taught, namely:

4] That since the fall of Adam the natural powers of man have remained entire and incorrupt, and that man by nature has a right reason and a good will; which things the philosophers teach.

5] Again, that man has a free will to do good and omit evil, and, conversely, to omit good and do evil.

6] Again, that man by his natural powers can observe and keep [do] all the commands of God.

7] Again, that, by his natural powers, man can love God above all things and his neighbor as himself.

8] Again, if a man does as much as is in him, God certainly grants him His grace.

9] Again, if he wishes to go to the Sacrament, there is no need of a good intention to do good, but it is sufficient if he has not a wicked purpose to commit sin; so entirely good is his nature and so efficacious the Sacrament.

10] [Again,] that it is not founded upon Scripture that for a good work the Holy Ghost with His grace is necessary.

11] Such and many similar things have arisen from want of understanding and ignorance as regards both this sin and Christ, our Savior, and they are truly heathen dogmas, which we cannot endure. For if this teaching were right [approved], then Christ has died in vain, since there is in man no defect nor sin for which he should have died; or He would have died only for the body, not for the soul, inasmuch as the soul is [entirely] sound, and the body only is subject to death. – Smalcald Articles, Part III, Article I, Of Sin (paragraphs 1-11)