Worship Helps for Saints Triumphant
Title: Saints Triumphant
Artist: Melanie Schuette,
Avignon Studios
Worship Theme: Lord, keep us
watchful for our triumph! Today the Church hears strains of the distant triumph
song and affirms, “Blessed are they who are called to the marriage feast of the
Lamb.” Jesus wants us to be the waiting Church— the Church that watches for her
Savior and cries, “Come, Lord Jesus!” As we journey through these latter days,
however, our vigilance slips, and our hearts grow drowsy because the bridegroom
seems to be taking so long. So while we wait, the Church prays, “Keep us ever
watchful for the coming of your Son that we may sit with him and all your holy
ones at the marriage feast in heaven.”
Prayer of the Day:
Almighty God and Savior, you have set the final day and
hour when we shall be delivered from this world sin and death. Keep us ever
watchful for the coming of your Son that we may sit with him and all your holy
ones at the marriage feast in heaven; through your Son, Jesus Christ, your Son,
our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and
forever.
Old Testament: Ezekiel 37:15-28
15The word of the Lord came to
me: 16“Now you, son of man, take one
writing board and write on it: ‘Belonging to Judah and belonging to the sons of
Israel associated with it.’ Then take another writing board and write on it:
‘Belonging to Joseph, Ephraim’s piece of wood, and the whole house of Israel
associated with it.’ 17Then hold one board close to the other to
make a single board for yourself, so that they are one in your hand.
18“When your countrymen say to you, ‘Won’t you tell us what these things mean
to you?’ 19then say to them, ‘This is what the Lord God says. I am going to take the
board of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel
associated with it, and I will attach them to the board of Judah. In this way I
will make them one board, so that they will be one in my hand.’ 20The
boards on which you will write should be in your hand for them to see. 21Then
say this to them. ‘This is what the Lord
God says. I am going to take the sons of Israel from among the nations where
they have gone, and I will gather them from all around, and I will bring them
to their own land. 22I will make them one nation in the land, on the
mountains of Israel, and one king will be king for all of them. Never again
will they be two nations, and never again will they be divided into two kingdoms.
23Never again will they defile themselves with their filthy idols,
with their disgusting practices, and with all their rebellious actions. I will
save them from all their apostasies by which
they have sinned, and I will cleanse them. They will be my people, and I will
be their God.
24“‘My servant David will be King over them, and they will all have one
Shepherd. They will follow my ordinances and be careful to keep my statutes. 25They
will live in the land I gave my servant Jacob, where your fathers lived. They
will live there—they, their children, and their grandchildren—forever, and
David my Servant will be their Prince forever. 26I will make a
covenant of peace with them. It will be an everlasting covenant with them. I
will establish them, and I will multiply them and set my sanctuary in their
midst forever. 27My dwelling place will be over them. I will be
their God, and they will be my people. 28Then the nations will know
that I, the Lord, sanctify Israel
when my sanctuary is in their midst forever.’”
1. What was the object lesson Ezekiel was told to give to
the people?
2. When would
this object lesson be fulfilled? Hint: Look carefully at verse 24.
Epistle: Revelation 19:1–9
After these things I heard what seemed to
be the loud sound of an immense crowd in heaven, saying: Alleluia! Salvation
and glory and power belong to our God, 2for his judgments are true
and just, because he has condemned the great prostitute who corrupted the earth
with her immorality, and he has avenged his servants’ blood that was shed by
her hand.
3A second time they said, “Alleluia! Her
smoke goes up forever and ever.” 4Then the twenty-four elders and
the four living creatures bowed down and worshipped God, who sits on the
throne, saying, “Amen! Alleluia!” 5And from the throne came a voice
that said, “Praise our God, all you his servants and
you who fear him, small and great.”
6And I heard what seemed to be the roar of
a large crowd or the roar of many waters or the sound of loud rumblings of
thunder, saying: Alleluia! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns. 7Let
us rejoice and be glad and give him glory, because the wedding of the Lamb has
come. His bride has made herself ready, 8and she was given bright,
clean, fine linen to wear. (In fact, the fine linen is the “not guilty”
verdicts pronounced on the saints.) 9The angel said to me, “Write:
Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb.” He also
said to me, “These are the true words of God.”
3.
Why does the great multitude of God’s people rejoice? (verses 1-3)
4.
What do the elders and the living creatures say in response?
5.
What does the multitude say in response?
Gospel: Matthew
25:1–13
“At that time the kingdom of heaven will
be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. 2Five
of them were foolish, and five were wise. 3When the foolish ones
took their lamps, they did not take any oil with them; 4but the wise
took oil in their containers with their lamps. 5While the bridegroom
was delayed, they all became drowsy and fell asleep. 6But at
midnight there was a shout, ‘Look, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’ 7Then
all those virgins got up and trimmed their lamps. 8The foolish ones
said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil because our lamps are going out.’ 9But
the wise answered, ‘No, there may not be enough for us and for you. Instead, go
to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’ 10But while they
were away buying oil, the bridegroom came. Those who were ready went in with
him to the wedding banquet, and the door was shut. 11Later, the
other virgins also came and said, ‘Lord, Lord, let us in.’ 12But he
answered, ‘Amen I tell you: I do not know you.’ 13Therefore, keep
watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.”
6. Who do the foolish virgins represent in Jesus’ parable?
Who do the wise virgins represent?
7. What is the significance of “midnight” (verse 6)?
8. Why did the bridegroom say he did not know the virgins?
Answers:
1. Ezekiel was to take two sticks and join them together.
This object lesson symbolized that in the future Israel and Judah would be
joined together again.
2. Judah was allowed to return to Canaan, but the northern
tribes of Israel were not. Also, David never physically rose from the dead to
be king over a united kingdom. Either we would have to look to some future time
when David would rise again and Israel would be united (which many do, pointing
to the modern state of Israel), or we can accept it as having already been
fulfilled in the kingdom of Jesus, the Son of David. The latter option is the
right choice. Other elements of this vision show that this is a kingdom built
on Christ, which the modern state of Israel is not.
This lesson immediately follows Ezekiel’s prophecy
about the dry bones. God had promised Israel that he would raise them up from
their graves and settle them in the land. He promised to restore captive Israel
to the land of Abraham. The rescue and return of the remnant provides a picture
of what the Church waits and watches for. In this lesson God extends that prophecy
beyond physical Israel to the Church and to the Messianic kingdom of his Son.
Earthly troubles like the captivity or our struggle with sin are temporary. The
triumph that’s coming won’t be. Notice that in the last four verses God
repeatedly talks about the unending nature of the kingdom waiting for us. It
will be a kingdom without divisions caused by sin, but exemplified by oneness
(one stick, one nation, one king, one shepherd—forever). How will this be? Look
at how many times God says that he will act for us! We are purely passive in
acquiring the triumph in store for us. God will act to save and to cleanse and
to renew his covenant: I will be their God, and they will be my people. As
Ezekiel held his bound sticks before the eyes of his countrymen, so the Church
holds God’s promises of pending triumph before us and continually cries, “Wait
for it! Watch for it!”
3.
The multitude rejoices over the destruction of the prostitute, who corrupted
the earth. It gives God glory for the justice of his judgments and for avenging
the blood of his servants.
4.
They say “Amen” to this. Amen expresses agreement: It shall be so! They
also sing “Hallelujah”—Praise the Lord!
5.
The multitude praises God, rejoicing in his reign and anticipating the wedding
feast of the Lamb that is about to begin. The destruction of the prostitute is
an event that will happen right before the end. The destruction of the beast
and the false prophet and the destruction of Satan himself all happen at the
same time, even though they are described one by one.
What kind of triumph are we watching and waiting for?
For the persecuted Church, Jesus gave the Apocalypse of St. John to let his
people know: Jesus will win. Revelation 18 foretold the Fall of Babylon and the
destruction of every enemy of the Church. “After this...” John heard the
reaction of the saints and angels and all creation—they cried, “Hallelujah!”
The word used so prevalently in the Old Testament was not heard in the New
Testament until its final vision of the saints triumphant. George Handel tried
to capture the glory of what John witnessed with his Hallelujah Chorus, but his work will certainly pale by
comparison to that distant triumph song. John lets us see behind the shut door
of the parable in our Gospel for the Sunday—he lets us see what we watch for:
the consummation of the marriage of Christ and the Church. Blessed are they who
are called to the marriage feast of the Lamb! Keep us watchful for our coming
triumph!
6. It seems best to consider all the virgins as being
Christians. The foolish virgins are those Christians who fall away and do not
remain spiritually awake. The wise virgins are those remain awake and aware of
the Bridegroom’s return on the Last Day. The parable is applied to the Church,
to you and me. Jesus is warning believers not to be like the foolish virgins.
Jesus pictures the time before his return as virgins
waiting for a bridegroom and the start of a wedding feast. The parable divides
all people (ten virgins) into two groups: foolish and wise. They weren’t
described that way because of what they did in the parable, but their actions
showed what they were. The foolish virgins acted utterly foolish, bearing empty
lamps. The other virgins’ actions showed that they indeed were wise. The wise
went into the joys of wedding banquet, but the foolish lost both invitation and
even recognition. Jesus’ central instruction in this parable calls for the
waiting Church to be the watchful Church. Keep watch for you do not know the
day or the hour!
7. It was late. Perhaps the foolish virgins had given up
any hope of meeting the bridegroom that evening. We must never think it is too
late for Jesus to return.
8. Note Matthew 7:22,23, where the same expression is
used. They seemed to profess Christ, but their hearts were far from him.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage
Version® (EHV®) copyright © 2017 The Wartburg Project.
All rights reserved.
www.wartburgproject.org
Putting your faith
into action
Now we have the Ten Commandments, a summary of divine
teaching about what we are to do in order that our whole life may be pleasing
to God. Everything that is to be a good
work must arise and flow from and in this true fountain. So apart from the Ten Commandments no work or
thing can be good or pleasing to God, no matter how great it is in the world’s
eyes. Let us see now what our great
saints can boast of their spiritual orders and their great and mighty works. They have invented and set these things up,
while they let these commandments go, as though they were far too insignificant
or had long ago been perfectly fulfilled.
I am of the opinion that one will find his hands full ‹and
will have enough› to do to keep these commandments: love, meekness, patience, towards
enemies, chastity, kindness, and other such virtues. But such works are not of value in the
world’s eyes. Therefore, they are not
highly regarded.
But the other works cause people to open their eyes and
ears wide. Men waft incense, they sing
and ring bells, they light tapers and candles.
For when a priest stands there in a surplice garment embroidered with
gold thread, or a layman stays all day upon his knees in Church, that is
regarded as a most precious work, which no one can praise enough. But when a poor girl tends a little child and
faithfully does what she is told, that is considered nothing. For what else should monks and nuns seek in
their cloisters? – Large Catechism, The Ten Commandments (paragraphs 311-314)
1 Behold a host, arrayed in white,
Like
thousand snowclad mountains bright;
With
palms they stand. Who is this band
Before
the throne of light?
These
are the saints of glorious fame,
Who
from the great affliction came
And
in the flood Of Jesus’ blood
Are
cleansed from guilt and blame.
Now
gathered in the holy place,
Their
voices they in worship raise.
Their
anthems swell Where God does dwell
Mid
angels’ songs of praise.
2 Despised and scorned, they sojourned here;
But
now, how glorious they appear!
Those
martyrs stand, A priestly band,
God’s
throne forever near.
So
oft in troubled days gone by,
In
anguish they would weep and sigh;
At
home above The God of love
Fore’er
their tears shall dry.
They
now enjoy the Sabbath rest,
The
heav’nly banquet of the blest;
The
Lamb, their Lord, At festive board
Himself
is host and guest.
3 O blessed saints, now take your rest;
A
thousand times you will be blessed
For
keeping faith Firm unto death
And
scorning worldly trust.
For
now you live at home with God;
You
toiled and sowed the Word abroad.
Rejoice
and bring Your fruits and sing
Before
the throne of God.
The
myriad angels raise the song;
O
saints, sing with that happy throng!
Lift
up one voice; Let heav’n rejoice
In
our Redeemer’s song.
Text: Hans A. Brorson,
1694–1764; tr. composite. St. 3 © 1978 Lutheran Book of Worship.
All rights reserved.
Reprinted by permission of Augsburg Fortress.
Comments
Post a Comment