Eastertide Unhinged Resurrection Hope Series Message + Mass | Colossians 1:3-8: Gospel Hope

 

Resurrection by Magnus 3D

You're going to spend the rest of your life giving hope ... the Gospel incarnating in a community that desperately needs to hear the message of hope. ... We are hope dealers. + Myron Pierce, Mission Church, Omaha, NE

We open our eyes to see Jesus' glory.

We open our ears to hear Jesus' wisdom.

We open our hands to offer Jesus gifts.

We open our mouths to sing Jesus' praise.

We open our hearts to offer Jesus our love.

Story of God Liturgy Flow

Creation, Crisis, Covenant Community, Christ, Church, (New) Creation

(1) Creation

Call to Worship | Psalm 131:1-3, Message Paraphrase

God ... I don’t want to be king of the mountain. I haven’t meddled where I have no business or fantasized grandiose plans. I’ve kept my feet on the ground, I’ve cultivated a quiet heart. Like a baby content in its mother’s arms, my soul is a baby content.Wait, Israel, for God.Wait with hope. Hope now; hope always!

Jireh

Maverick City Music, 2021 A.D.

I’ll never be more loved than I am right now.

Wasn’t holding You up, so there’s nothing I can do to let You down.

Doesn’t take a trophy to make You proud,

I’ll never be more loved than I am right now.

Going through a storm, but I won’t go down.

I hear Your voice carried in the rhythm of the wind to call me out.

You would cross an ocean so I wouldn’t drown!

You’ve never been closer than You are right now.

Jireh, You are enough! Jireh, You are enough!

So I will be content in every circumstance, Jireh, You are enough!

Don’t want to forget how I feel right now.

On the mountaintop, I can see so clear what it’s all about.

Stay by my side when the sun goes down,

Don’t want to forget how I feel right now. (Chorus)

I’m already loved! I’m already chosen!

I know who I am, I know what You’ve spoken!

I’m already loved, more than I could imagine!

And that is enough, that is enough!

You are enough, so I am enough.

If He dresses the lilies with beauty and splendor,

How much more will He clothe you? 

How much more will He clothe you?!

If He watches over every sparrow,

How much more does He love you? 

How much more does He love you?!

More than you ask, think or imagine,

According to His power working in us!

It’s more than enough! (Chorus)

(2) Crisis

Prayer of Confession + Assurance | Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 1

Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on us sinners ...

One: What is our only comfort in life and in death?
All: That we are not our own, but belong—body and soul, in life and in death—to our faithful Savior, Jesus Christ.

One: He has fully paid for all our sins with His precious blood, and has set us free from the tyranny of the devil. He also watches over us in such a way that not a hair can fall from our heads without the will of our Father in heaven; in fact, all things must work together for our salvation.
All: Because we belong to Him, Christ, by His Holy Spirit, assures us of eternal life and makes us wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for Him.

(3) Covenant Community

Sermon Video | Unhinged Resurrection Hope: Gospel Hope

Sermon Scriptures | Colossians 1:3-8

(4) Christ

Eucharist | The Beauty and Power of Communion 

for All Who Come Hungry and Thirsty to Jesus

One: We eat this meal together to remember Jesus' death for us until He returns to fully bring His Kingdom of heaven to earth. 

All: Christ has died. Christ is risen! Christ will come again!

(5) Church

Spirit Break Out
Kim Walker Smith, 2015 A.D.

Our Father, all of Heaven roars Your name
Sing louder, let this place erupt with praise
Can you hear it?
The sound of Heaven touching earth,
The sound of Heaven touching earth!

Spirit break out, break our walls down!
Spirit break out, Heaven come down!

King Jesus, You're the name we're lifting high,
Your glory, shaking up the earth and sky.
Revival, we want to see Your Kingdom here;
We want to see Your Kingdom here!

(6) New Creation

Christ Our Hope in Life and Death
Keith Getty, Matt Boswell, Jordan Kauflin,
Matt Merker, Matt Papa, 2020 A.D.

What is our hope in life and death?
Christ alone, Christ alone.
What is our only confidence?
That our souls to Him belong.
Who holds our days within His hand?
What comes, apart from His command?
And what will keep us to the end?
The love of Christ, in which we stand.

O sing hallelujah! Our hope springs eternal;
O sing hallelujah! Now and ever we confess,
"Christ our hope in life and death!"

What truth can calm the troubled soul?
God is good, God is good.
Where is his grace and goodness known?
In our great Redeemer’s blood.
Who holds our faith when fears arise?
Who stands above the stormy trial?
Who sends the waves that bring us nigh
Unto the shore, the rock of Christ?! (Chorus)

Unto the grave, what shall we sing?
“Christ, He lives; Christ, He lives!”
And what reward will heaven bring?
Everlasting life with Him.
There we will rise to meet the Lord,
Then sin and death will be destroyed,
And we will feast in endless joy,
When Christ is ours forevermore! (Chorus)

Benediction

May the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you
until He returns to make all things new.

Lectionary Readings

 

Acts 1:15-17, 22-26; Psalm 131:1-3; 1 John 5:9-13; John 15:26-27, 16:4b-15

Next post: Special Gospel Message | John 3:34-35, 7:37-39: Do We Want the Spirit Jesus Gives Without Measure

To connect with us, please contact info@emmauscitychurch.com

Christ is all,

Rev. Mike "Sully" Sullivan

Email Pastor Mike | Website | Visit Us | Support Us | Facebook Us

Sophie Scholl Centennial | Knock a Chip Out of the Wall

Sophie Scholl of the White Rose, her trial and execution featured in "Sophie Scholl: The Final Days"

"Such a glorious, sunny day and I must go. But what will my death matter if, because of our actions, thousands of people are wakened and stirred to action?!" + Sophie Scholl on the day she was executed

Sophie Scholl would have turned 100 years old today. To see a potent version of her story with the White Rose resistance on film, I encourage you to watch the Academy Award-nominated film for best foreign film Sophie Scholl: The Final Days. To get a preview of her life from Vintage Saints and Sinners, check out the excerpt below.

"Sophie Scholl: Knock a Chip Out of the Wall" excerpt adapted from Karen Marsh's Vintage Saints and Sinners: 25 Christians Who Transformed My Faith

As in many heroic tales, Sophie's story begins quietly. She was born in Germany in 1921, a time of national scarcity, political violence, and unemployment. Nurtured by their free-thinking Christian parents, the five Scholl children grew up on Socrates, Augustine, and Pascal. They read the texts of Buddhism, Confucius, and the Qur'an. And, of course, they learned the Bible. Verses like James 1:22, "But be ye doers of the Word, and not hearers only." The kids learned early on words must be made real in actions. As the lone pacifist in their tiny conservative hamlet, their father, Robert, admonished them, "What I want for you is to live in uprightness and freedom of spirit, no matter how difficult that proves to be." In fact, this would ultimately cost them everything.

Sophie was only twelve years old when Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933. One by one, the Scholl children joined the Hitler Youth, proud to help Germany achieve prosperity. Sophie relished camping, hiking, and scouting with the Young Girls' League. Her older brother Hans was chosen to cary the flag of his six-hundred-member regiment at the 1936 Nuremberg Nazi Party Convention. 

From the very start, Robert opposed the new fuhrer, for he perceived malignant intentions behind Hitler's brash promises. Father and son argued constantly about the Hans's nationalistic enthusiasms. Robert dreaded what lay ahead, declaring, "If those bastards harm my children in any way, I'll go to Berlin and shoot Hitler." Soon the children caught on. Even little Sophie saw that something was very wrong when two of her Jewish girlfriends were barred from her local Girls' League. As a teenager, Sophie became quite open about her hatred of the aggression of the Third Reich. "I will never understand it; I think it is horrible. Do not say it is for the fatherland," she wrote to her boyfriend, Fritz, an officer in the German army.

The Scholls began to resist the status quo. Sophie was reprimanded for reading banned books. Hans was imprisoned for removing the Nazi emblem from his youth troop's flag. Robert was arrested for calling Hitler names.

Like other German teenagers, Sophie was drafted into Nazi service. She endured her term as nameless "labor maid" at the unheated, decrepit Krauchenweis castle. After a day of mandatory field work, as the other girls gossiped and laughed on their bunks, Sophie pulled the blanket over her head and read Saint Augustine by flashlight.

Sophie Scholl Saint Augustine Prayer in "Sophie Scholl: The Final Days"

As she pulled weeds out in the blooming poppy fields, Sophie had plenty of time to reflect. "Isn't it a tremendous enigma and ... almost frightening, that everything is so beautiful? In spite of the terrible things that are going on," Sophie wrote to a friend that night. Convinced nonetheless that God will always have the last word against violence, Sophie vowed, "I will try to take the victor's side."

On her twenty-first birthday, Sophie was on a train at last, off to begin her college studies alongside her brother at the university in Munich. Hans welcomed Sophie into his band of buddies — Christoph, Willi, and Alexander. The close confidantes shared a love of art, literature, classical music, hiking philosophical debate — and a fierce opposition to Hitler. But Munich's Maximilian University was no shelter for dissent. It was an intellectual stronghold of National Socialism governed by a high-ranking SS officer and a site of Nazi book burning.

As grim news came that members of the Resistance had been captured, Hans felt convicted by the old Scholl family principle: you've got to stand up for what's right, no matter the cost. Hans saw that the Communists were taking a stand. Why not the followers of Jesus? "It's high time that Christians made up their minds to do something!" he said to his friends. "What are we going to show in the way of resistance when all this terror is over?" he asked them. "We will be standing empty-handed. We will have no answer when we are asked: What did you do about it?" Hans, Sophie, Christoph, Willi, and Alexander, along with Professor Kurt Huber, formed a secret group they name the White Rose. They imagined the Third Reich as an enormous stone wall of impossibility. As the White Rose, they would discover ways, however small, to knock chips out of the wall.

They believed, with the optimism of youth, that if only their fellow citizens knew the truth about Hitler, things would change; their tangible acts of non-violent resistance would spark an uprising and end the war. At night they painted the walls of university and public buildings, declaring in large black block letters, "DOWN WITH HITLER!" and "LONG LIVE FREEDOM!" The members of the White Rose came from Protestant, Catholic, and Russian Orthodox backgrounds, and they shared the convictions of the Christian faith. As it happened, the inspiration for their boldest action came from a Roman Catholic minister, Bishop Clemens August von Galen. From the pulpit, Galen condemned Nazi eugenics, the program ordering the murder of the mentally ill, physically deformed, and incurably sick. Galen's subversive sermons were transcribed, copied, and circulated secretly by hand — and roused widespread opposition. "Finally someone has the courage to speak," Hans exclaimed, "and all you need is a duplicating machine!"

The White Rose covertly wrote, printed, and distributed thousands of illegal flyers, messages of protest and warning: "We must bring this monster of a state to an end soon." "The war is approaching its certain end." "Hitler cannot win the war — he can only prolong it." They left leaflets in public phone booths, university hallways, and mailboxes. At great risk, they traveled by train to mail anonymous letters from other German cities so that the flyers would bear postmarks from across the country. With a cunning that today's social media gurus would admire, the tiny group created the illusion of a large-scale movement.

Leaders of the Third Reich were desperate to know who was behind the notorious White Rose campaign. The truth came out by chance. On February 18, 1943, Hans and Sophie Scholl stood at the top of a staircase high above the university courtyard just as classes were about to let out. Sophie opened a suitcase of leaflets and emptied it over the balustrade. As hundreds of flyers fluttered down in a blizzard of paper, a janitor stepped out into the hall and saw the brother and sister. He grabbed the pair in a citizen's arrest and consigned them to the Gestapo to be imprisoned and interrogated. Within four short days, Hans, Sophie, and their friend Christoph Probst would be on trial for their lives.

Sophie Scholl Prayer in "Sophie Scholl: The Final Days"

How terrified Sophie must have been. In a private moment, she wrote, "I shall cling to the rope God has thrown me in Jesus Christ, even if my numb hands can no longer feel it." But in the courtroom, without a single witness called in their defense, people say that Sophie, Hans, and Christoph remained calm, composed, clear, unflinching as they were condemned to die. The infamous Nazi judge raged and screamed at the young defendants, roaring until his voice cracked, jumping up again and again in a red-hot frenzy. Standing before him, the twenty-one-year-old Sophie broke in calmly and boldly declared, "Somebody after all, had to make a start. What we wrote and said is also believed by many others. They just don't dare to express themselves."

The court's guilty verdict was swift and merciless. Spoken after a night of inexplicably calm sleep, Sophie's parting words to her cell mate were: "Such a glorious, sunny day, and I must go. But how many must die on the battlefields, how many promising young men. ... What will my death matter if, because of our actions, thousands of people will be awakened and stirred to action!"

As they faced their execution by guillotine on that very same day, Sophie and Hans had only moments to say goodbye to their parents. Holding their hands through the prison bars, Hans reassured them, "I have no hatred. I have put everything, everything behind me." 

Grasping at something, anything, to comfort her daughter in this heartrending farewell, their mother, Magdalene, said, "Remember, Sophie: Jesus." Sophie paused, and then firmly, almost imperiously, her eyes locked on her mother's, replied. "Yes," she said, "but you must remember, too." She was the daughter of Robert and Magdalene, the parents who raised their children to follow uprightness and freedom of spirit. It is horrible how many Christians risk their lives in the war for an outright senseless cause, Sophie lamented, yet "hardly a single person is willing to risk his life to fight Evil. Someone must do it." As she contended before the Gestapo judge: "Somebody had to make a start." 

A prayer of blessing is offered by Sophie and another is offered to Sophie in the film, "Sophie Scholl: The Final Days" by the prison minister, Alt. Here are the words of the prayers:

Sophie: My God, glorious Father, transform this ground into fertile earth so your seeds may not fall in vain. Let the longing grow for You, the Creator, that they so often do not want to see. Amen.

Alt: May God the Father bless you who created you in His image. May God the Son bless you whose suffering and death redeems you. May God the Holy Spirit bless you who leads you to His temple and hallows you. May the Trinity judge you with mercy and grant you eternal life. Amen.

The prison warden, awed by their courage, made an exception to allow Hans, Sophie, and Christoph to have one last cigarette together. He heard Christoph say, "I didn't know that dying could be so easy. In a few minutes we meet again in eternity?" As he put his head on the block, it is said that Hans cried out in a loud voice, "Long live freedom!" 

Thanks to Helmut von Moltke, the sixth leaflet of the White Rose was taken to England via Scandinavia. In mid-1943, millions of copies were dropped by Allied planes over Germany. They now bore the title: "A German Leaflet Manifesto of the Students of Munich."

Next post: Vintage Saints + Sinners: Dorothy Day: Start Some Trouble

Soli Jesu gloria.

Christ is all,

Rev. Mike “Sully” Sullivan

Email Pastor Mike | Website | Visit Us | Support Us | Facebook Us

Eastertide Unhinged Resurrection Hope Series Message + Mass | 1 Thessalonians 1:3-5: Enduring Hope

 

Resurrection by Magnus 3D

Up until 1900, there had never been a fast-growing revival in a non-Western pre-Christian country. Then there was the Korean Presbyterian revival in 1907 and the East African Anglican revival in the 1930s. There was never a renewal movement of monasticism until there was. There was never a Reformation until there was. There was never anything like a Great Awakening until there was. There has never been a fast-growing revival in a post-Christian, secular society. But every great new thing is unprecedented - until it happens. Jesus said, "I will build My Church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it" (Matthew 16:18). There's no reason to believe this promise (or this enduring hope) has an expiration date. + Timothy Keller

We open our eyes to see Jesus' glory.

We open our ears to hear Jesus' wisdom.

We open our hands to offer Jesus gifts.

We open our mouths to sing Jesus' praise.

We open our hearts to offer Jesus our love.

Story of God Liturgy Flow

Creation, Crisis, Covenant Community, Christ, Church, (New) Creation

(1) Creation

Call to Worship | Psalm 98:1-3

Sing a new song to the LORD, for He has performed wonders ... The LORD has made His victory known; He has revealed His righteousness in the sight of the nations. He has remembered His love and faithfulness to the house of Israel; all the ends of the earth have seen our God’s victory. 

Graves into Gardens

Elevation Worship, 2020 A.D.

I searched the world, but it couldn't fill me.
Man's empty praise, and treasures that fade are never enough. 

Then You came along and put me back together
And every desire is now satisfied here in Your love.

Oh, there's nothing better than You,
There's nothing better than You,
Lord, there's nothing, nothing is better than You!

I'm not afraid to show You my weakness
My failures and flaws, Lord, You've seen 'em all
And You still call me friend.
'Cause the God of the mountain 

Is the God of the valley,
There's not a place Your mercy and grace won't find me again. (Chorus)

You turn mourning to dancing, You give beauty for ashes, 

You turn shame into glory , You're the only one who can!

You turn graves into garden, You turn bones into armies, 

You turn seas into highways, You're the only one who can!

(2) Crisis

Prayer of Confession + Assurance | Our World Belongs to God (58) 

Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on us sinners ...

One: With the whole creation we join the song:
All: “Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!” He has made us a Kingdom of priests to serve our God, and we will reign on earth.

One: God will be all in all, righteousness and peace will flourish, everything will be made new, and every eye will see at last that our world belongs to God. 

All: Hallelujah! Come, Lord Jesus!

(3) Covenant Community

Sermon Video | Unhinged Resurrection Hope: Enduring Hope

Sermon Scriptures | 1 Thessalonians 1:3-5

(4) Christ

Eucharist | The Beauty and Power of Communion 

for All Who Come Hungry and Thirsty to Jesus

One: We eat this meal together to remember Jesus' death for us until He returns to fully bring His Kingdom of heaven to earth. 

All: Christ has died. Christ is risen! Christ will come again!

(5) Church

Your Spirit

Tasha Cobbs Leonard, 2017 A.D. 

Not by might, not by power,
By Your Spirit, God, send Your Spirit, God. 

(Repeat)

You are the fire, we are the temple.
Your are the voice, we are Your song.
You are our God, we are Your people.
You are the light, we stand in awe ...
We stand in awe of You, we stand in awe of You! 

(Chorus)

You called us out, out of the darkness 

Into Your love, into Your light.
Grace upon grace, beauty for ashes, 

You come to us, we come alive.
We stand in awe of You, we stand in awe of You! 

(Chorus 2x)

Breathe, come and breathe on us! 

Spirit breathe, come and breathe on us!

(6) New Creation

Blessed Assurance

Fanny J. Crosby, 1873 A.D.

Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine.
Oh what a foretaste of glory divine! 

Heir of salvation, purchase of God, 

Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood.

This is my story, this is my song!
Praising my Savior all the day long! (Repeat)

Perfect submission, perfect delight,
Visions of rapture now burst on my sight. 

Angels descending bring from above 

Echoes of mercy, whispers of love. 

(Chorus)

Perfect submission, all is at rest.
I in my Savior am happy and blessed.
Watching and waiting, looking above,
Filled with His goodness, lost in His love. 

(Chorus)

This is our story, this is our song,
Praising our Savior all the day long! (Repeat)

Benediction

May the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you
until He returns to make all things new.

Lectionary Readings

 

Acts 10:44-48; Psalm 98; 1 John 5:1-6; John 15:9-17

Next post: Eastertide Unhinged Resurrection Hope Series Message + Mass | Colossians 1:3-8: Gospel Hope

To connect with us, please contact info@emmauscitychurch.com

Christ is all,

Rev. Mike "Sully" Sullivan

Email Pastor Mike | Website | Visit Us | Support Us | Facebook Us