Worship Helps for Lent 5
Worship Theme: Jesus
will raise us from death to life. The crown jewel of the coming kingdom is the
resurrection of the dead. One day, Jesus will defeat the last enemy (1
Corinthians 15:27 ) and life will
reign again in our new Eden with
God. On our Lenten walk to Calvary , the Church sees the
Savior come face to face with death and defeat it completely. During our Lenten
walk, we ask God to help us remember that Jesus, who is resurrection and life,
has made us heirs of eternal life.
Old Testament: 2 Kings 4:18-37 The child grew, and one day he went out to his father, who was with the
reapers. 19 "My head! My head!" he said to his father. His
father told a servant, "Carry him to his mother." 20 After
the servant had lifted him up and carried him to his mother, the boy sat on her
lap until noon , and then he
died. 21 She went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, then
shut the door and went out. 22 She called her husband and said,
"Please send me one of the servants and a donkey so I can go to the man of
God quickly and return." 23 "Why go to him today?" he
asked. "It's not the New Moon or the Sabbath." "It's all
right," she said. 24 She saddled the donkey and said to her
servant, "Lead on; don't slow down for me unless I tell you." 25
So she set out and came to the man of God at Mount Carmel . When he saw her in the distance, the man of God
said to his servant Gehazi, "Look! There's the Shunammite! 26
Run to meet her and ask her, 'Are you all right? Is your husband all right? Is
your child all right?'" "Everything is all right," she said.
27 When she reached the man of God at the mountain, she took hold of his
feet. Gehazi came over to push her away, but the man of God said, "Leave
her alone! She is in bitter distress, but the LORD has hidden it from me and
has not told me why." 28 "Did I ask you for a son, my
lord?" she said. "Didn't I tell you, 'Don't raise my hopes'?"
29 Elisha said to Gehazi, "Tuck your cloak into your belt, take my
staff in your hand and run. If you meet anyone, do not greet him, and if anyone
greets you, do not answer. Lay my staff on the boy's face." 30
But the child's mother said, "As surely as the LORD lives and as you live,
I will not leave you." So he got up and followed her. 31 Gehazi
went on ahead and laid the staff on the boy's face, but there was no sound or
response. So Gehazi went back to meet Elisha and told him, "The boy has not
awakened." 32 When Elisha reached the house, there was the boy
lying dead on his couch. 33 He went in, shut the door on the two of
them and prayed to the LORD. 34 Then he got on the bed and lay upon
the boy, mouth to mouth, eyes to eyes, hands to hands. As he stretched himself
out upon him, the boy's body grew warm. 35 Elisha turned away and
walked back and forth in the room and then got on the bed and stretched out
upon him once more. The boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes. 36
Elisha summoned Gehazi and said, "Call the Shunammite." And he did.
When she came, he said, "Take your son." 37 She came in,
fell at his feet and bowed to the ground. Then she took her son and went out.
1. How does this story give comfort to us when tragedy
strikes?
Epistle: Romans 8:11-19 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you,
he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies
through his Spirit, who lives in you. 12 Therefore, brothers, we
have an obligation-- but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to
it. 13 For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die;
but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live,
14 because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
15 For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear,
but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba,
Father." 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that
we are God's children. 17 Now if we are children, then we are
heirs-- heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his
sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. 18 I
consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory
that will be revealed in us. 19 The creation waits in eager
expectation for the sons of God to be revealed.
2. Through his Spirit, Paul says,
God has breathed new life into our mortal bodies (v 11). What changes does that
bring about?
3. Though
life in Christ Jesus means sharing his suffering, what other observation is
made?
Gospel: John 11:17-27,38-45 On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had
already been in the tomb for four days. 18 Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem , 19 and many Jews had come to Martha
and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. 20 When
Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed
at home. 21 "Lord," Martha said to Jesus, "if you had
been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But I know that even
now God will give you whatever you ask." 23 Jesus said to her,
"Your brother will rise again." 24 Martha answered,
"I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day."
25 Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who
believes in me will live, even though he dies; 26 and whoever lives
and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?" 27
"Yes, Lord," she told him, "I believe that you are the Christ,
the Son of God, who was to come into the world." … 38 Jesus,
once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid
across the entrance. 39 "Take away the stone," he said.
"But, Lord," said Martha, the sister of the dead man, "by this
time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days." 40
Then Jesus said, "Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see
the glory of God?" 41 So they took away the stone. Then Jesus
looked up and said, "Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42
I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people
standing here, that they may believe that you sent me." 43 When
he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!"
44 The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of
linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, "Take off the
grave clothes and let him go." 45 Therefore many of the Jews
who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, put their faith in
him.
4. What does Jesus mean by saying
that he is life?
5. How
would Mary and Martha see the glory of God in the raising of Lazarus?
Answers:
1. The
story is heartbreaking: a barren woman gives birth to a promised child. All her
hopes and love wrapped themselves up in this little boy, until the day his head
hurt. He died in his mother’s lap while she rocked him. Can you imagine the
tears? Death is the bitter lot we inherited from Adam. But God wants us to know
that even in the face of a death as heartrending as this, he promises that
whoever believes in him will live, even though he dies. So he lets Elisha pay
an advance on the inheritance waiting for the coheirs of Christ, that we might
know and believe that Jesus one day will raise us from death to life.
2. Paul
previously had said that those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their
minds set on what the Spirit desires (verses 5-8). We now seek to put to death
the misdeeds of the body (verse 13) and willingly share in Christ’s suffering
with a view also to sharing in his glory (verse 17).
3. Paul
suggests a wise perspective: our present sufferings are “not worth comparing
with the glory that will be revealed in us.” As a runner endures the pain
of the exertion by keeping his eyes focused on the finish line, so the
Christian’s perspective will always be goal-oriented. What waits for us
at the end far outshines the clouds that we encounter along the way.
4. More
than saying that he is the source of life or the giver of life, Jesus for the
first time (see also 14:6) claims to be life itself. There is no life apart
from him. As life itself, final death is impossible for him. The events
surrounding the raising of Lazarus occur just days before the Passion events in
Jerusalem . What a comfort to know that Jesus was confidently
assured of the outcome of his upcoming battle with evil—he would be victorious!
5. Jesus
performed the greatest miracle of his ministry to prove to us the certainty of
his greatest promise. Death has hounded mankind since the garden and caused
misery that God never intended for his children. When Christ saw the effects of
death on his loved ones, he wept with them, but also promised them that one day
even this last enemy would be defeated. Martha, too often remembered for her
busyness, should be remembered for her confession of faith—so complete, so
noble—that encompassed everything Jesus had preached. It even encompassed
teachings the disciples struggled to comprehend! She believed in Jesus’ promise
of a future resurrection, and so Jesus gave proof to her and to us that his
promise is true. By that same faith, he will give to us the crown jewel of the
kingdom. The one who is resurrection and life will also give resurrection and
life to all who believe. Jesus’ victory in this battle with death was a forgone
conclusion: he thanked God for it in advance. But Lazarus’ response to the
command of Christ stirs the heart of every Christian who has stared at the ugly
face of death: the dead man came out.
Putting your faith
into action
True stewardship is not based on the question of “how
much”—how much time, how much money, etc. Rather it is based on the gospel
giving us life. Without the gospel our works are like dead bodies. Through the
gospel the Holy Spirit breathes life into us and enables us to please God with
our stewardship.
1] And since even in the
ancient Christian teachers of the Church, as well as in some among our
teachers, dissimilar explanations of the article concerning the descent of
Christ to hell are found, we abide in like manner by the simplicity of our
Christian faith [comprised in the Creed], to which Dr. Luther in his sermon,
which was delivered in the castle at Torgau in the year 1533, concerning the
descent of Christ to hell, has pointed us, where we confess: I believe in the
Lord Christ, God's Son, our Lord, dead, buried, and descended into hell. For in
this [Confession] the burial and descent of Christ to hell are distinguished as
different articles; 2] and we simply believe that
the entire person, God and man, after the burial descended into hell, conquered
the devil, destroyed the power of hell, and took from the devil all his
might. 3]We should not, however, trouble ourselves with
high and acute thoughts as to how this occurred; for with our reason and our
five senses this article can be comprehended as little as the preceding one,
how Christ is placed at the right hand of the almighty power and majesty of
God; but we are simply to believe it and adhere to the Word [in such mysteries
of faith]. Thus we retain the substance [sound doctrine] and [true] consolation
that neither hell nor the devil can take captive or injure us and all who
believe in Christ. – Solid Declaration of the Formula of Concord, Article IX, Christ's
Descent To Hell (paragraphs 1-3)
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