Description
Matthew 28:1-10
The Gospel of Matthew tells of Easter morning. The women go to the tomb of Jesus, only to find it empty. The stone is rolled away, the guards are in shock and an angel greets them with the first Easter message. He is risen. Go tell the disciples. And then on their way, they meet the risen Savior himself.
We Lift Our Hearts in Worship
[Preservice options include video countdowns, worship song videos, welcomes), CDs, or live music.]
Welcome & Time of Greeting
Time of Praise and Worship
King of Kings
Brooke Ligertwood, Jason Ingram & Scott Ligertwood, ©2019 Hillsong Music Publishing Australia (Admin. by Capitol CMG Publishing) Fellow Ships Music (Admin. by Essential Music Publishing LLC) So Essential Tunes (Admin. by Essential Music Publishing LLC)
God So Loved
Marty Sampson | Matt Crocker © 2017 Hillsong Music Publishing Australia (Admin. by Capitol CMG Publishing) Small City Music (Admin. by Music Services, Inc.)
Happy Day
Ben Cantelon & Tim Hughes, ©2006 Thankyou Music (Admin by EMI Christian Music Publishing)
[Traditional Options]
Jesus Christ Is Risen Today
BH 75 115; CH 360; EH 207; ELW 365; HFG 297; LBW 151; LSB 457; LW 127; NCH 240; PH 123; RS 593; WC 250; WAR 295
Crown Him With Many Crowns
BH 75 52; BH 91 161; CH 45; CHH 234; EH 494; ELW 855; HWC 234; HFG 345; HLC 85; HGP 24; HSP 83; LBW 170; LSB 525; LW 278; NCH 301; PH 151; RH 192; RS 626; STTL 272; WC 92; UMH 327; WAR 317; WHM 51; WIS 162
Christ the Lord is Risen Today
CH 367; ELW 373; HFG 289; LBW 130; LSB 469; LW 142; NCH 233; UMH 302; WC 234
Invocation
Pastor / Worship Leader
Lord God of heaven and earth, Creator of our world, and everything in it, yet as close to us as our own breath—holy is Your name.
Worshipers
In You we live and move and have our being; we are Your own children, the work of Your hands.
Pastor / Worship Leader
We pray that Your Holy Spirit would move among us as we worship, opening our eyes to Your presence, opening our ears to Your Word.
Worshipers
Receive the worship of our hearts and minds, and bodies; may it be a pleasing offering to You.
Pastor / Worship Leader
Blessed are You, O God, full of faithfulness and steadfast love. How awesome are Your deeds! How glorious is Your name in all the earth!
Worshipers
To You be all glory, Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer, One God forever and ever.
Pastor / Worship Leader
Hallelujah!
Worshipers
Amen!
Opening Prayer / Theme Introduction
Pastor / Worship Leader
Hallelujah! Jesus is risen! He is risen indeed! May this declaration resound not only in these walls but touch the lives of all we meet and forever be the truth of which we speak. Your love, once sown within a garden, tended for your own people, neglected and rejected, now spreads its sweet perfume in this place
and wherever it is shown. We thank you that Easter is not about a people, but all people, that your love and your Salvation are for all who confess with voices, hearts and lives that the tomb is empty because Jesus is risen, that we might know forgiveness, that lives might be reborn, and your name glorified now and for eternity. Amen.
Worshipers
Amen!
Time of Confession and Forgiveness
[Alternate location: following Message]
Pastor / Worship Leader
Lord we confess. Out of the depths, we cry to you, Lord; Lord, hear our voice. Let your ears be attentive to our cries for mercy.
Worshipers
Living in frailty and weakness with adversity in our path, we too often buckle in despair. We doubt your goodness. We seek crutches of our own design aimed at comfort and relief, but which do nothing to heal or restore.
Pastor / Worship Leader
In our pain, we deny the greater story that has been told and is being told by the resurrection of our Lord.
Worshipers
Though our bodies waste away, we will live with the power of the Spirit at work within us. Forgive us for our faltering faith in these momentary and fleeting troubles and forgetting the greater story of your resurrection life.
Pastor / Worship Leader
Living God, we confess the weakness of our faith. While we have heard the news that, “He is risen,” we have kept it to ourselves. In church, in the presence of the Believing, we have professed Christ’s victory over the grave three-fold, but in our daily lives, we have lived as if it had no real effect.
Worshipers
Raise in our hearts and minds this day the knowledge of the crucified, dead, and resurrected One who overcame sin and its sting so that we might live today, tomorrow, and forever with him.
Pastor / Worship Leader
In your mercy, Lord, we pray.
Worshipers
Amen!
We Hear God’s Word
[Read aloud both the introduction and Scripture]
First Reading Acts 10:34-43
In the book of Acts, a Divine appointment has been arranged between Peter and the Roman Centurion Cornelius. Peter went to Cornelius’s house; it was against Jewish law to visit or associate with Gentiles. But God had told Peter in a vision not to call anyone impure. And Cornelius had heard from an angel to listen to what Peter tells him. Peter speaks the Gospel to Cornelius and the large gathering of people in his house. And the Gentiles believed.
Then Peter began to speak: “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism 35 but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right. 36 You know the message God sent to the people of Israel, announcing the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all. 37 You know what has happened throughout the province of Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached— 38 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him. 39 “We are witnesses of everything he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a cross, 40 but God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen. 41 He was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had already chosen—by us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. 42 He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead. 43 All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”
