Midweek Lenten Service - March 13, 2024

 

Bethany Lutheran Church

Pastor Gregory L. Jackson

This is the Zoom link

YouTube Link for This Service

The Hymn #649        Jesus Savior Pilot Me

The Order of Vespers                                             p. 41

The Psalmody                          Psalm 23                                           
The Lection                            The Passion History

                                               

The Sermon Hymn #436             The Lord's My Shepherd

The Sermon –    Psalm 23, Isaiah 40, and John 10

KJV Isaiah 40:11 He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young.

KJV Psalm 23 

1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.

3 He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

Nothing is quite as appealing as the the figure of Jesus as the Good Shepherd. The shepherd references are so numerous that we can overlook them. Jesus quoted the Old Testament saying from Zechariah - "Strike the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered."

I enjoy quoting the 23rd Psalm in Old Testament class. Many students say it is their favorite Psalm. It is the one my mother taught me, and I read it to her just before she passed into eternal life. Know that we connect ideas with images, God shows us in many different ways what this theme, the Shepherd, means.

• The Lord is my Shepherd, so I am lacking nothing.
• He provides the necessities of life, which are abundant in this great land.
• He builds us up again after difficult times, the paths of righteousness are faith in Jesus.
• Even when facing death I am secure, because He is always with me. He comforts and protects me.
• Opponents act fearsome, but the Shepherd protects me and His flock.
• Life is one series of blessings, and I will enjoy heaven in eternity.

King David was a great poet and hymn writer. Some students concentrate on his worst characteristics, which were almost unthinkable, but he eloquently repented and gave us his great songs of contrition. When one minister wanted to deliver warnings to a clergy group, he quoted David's psalms of sorrow for sin.

The Psalms are the background for our great hymns, and they are short passages that we can use for all the episodes of our life - about Creation, family, difficulties, and our life with the Good Shepherd, here and in eternal life.

The Good Shepherd watches the flock (John 10).

 
The Prayers

The Lord’s Prayer

The Collect for Grace                                            p. 45

The Hymn # 653  Now the Light Has Gone Away

Prayers and Announcements

• In our prayers - Randy Anderson now at home, Sarah Buck, Lorie Howell, Pastor Jim Shrader and Chris, Kermit Way. Alicia Meyer still has breathing problems. 
• The Zoom services will start 30 minutes early with music. Everyone should have a link with the Word version sent around. 
• When a service is over, Zoom converts it for YouTube. There is some delay, but it can be quickly loaded to the blog, spanking new.
• Services will be first on Ichabod, then copied as YouTubes on another blog, Reformation Seminary on yet another third blog. Everything starts on Ichabod, and it is neater to collect those videos on distinct sources. The Bethany Hymnal Blog has 65,000 views.
• The university has continued more Old Testament courses.

Mid-Week Lenten Service - March 6, 2024

 

Bethany Lutheran Church

Mid-Week Lenten Vespers, 

7 PM Central, 2024

Pastor Gregory L. Jackson

->Zoom Link Here<-

The YouTube Link Will Be Here, After the Service

The Hymn # 240             Father Most Holy     
The Order of Vespers                                             p. 41

The Psalmody            Psalm   14                           p. 124
The Lection             
  
The Sermon Hymn #179   On My Heart  

         

The Savior Teaches Us Faith

    We often speak about faith in Jesus Christ, and it is important to take His Word as the guide for faith in Him. One thing lacking comes from clinging to various studies, ideas, books, series of books, films, and lectures, sometimes even using the Scriptures. Lacking is taking His teaching seriously, for its entire meaning, not just a phrase or a slogan. As Dr. Nils A. Dahl said at Yale, "The text! The text! The only thing we know for sure is the text!" Everything else is speculation. If every seminarian and seminary teacher took this Dahl teaching to heart, there would be harmony and surges of faith in Him.

    People feel uncomfortable about describing Jesus because so-called leaders have planted doubt in their minds, inventing contradictions that never existed, problems expressed in dissertations, "movements" picking up one notion or another. 

    Set that aside, unless you want to be buried in pile of books, as I was when my shelves came down around me. 

    If the Biblical text is about Jesus, that is the truth. Every Word spoken by Him is the truth. More than the truth, His Word is effective and works on us, whether it strengthens our faith or hardens us against that Word.

    Why do the book-makers shy away from John's Gospel? Jesus explains His work and His power in the plainest possible words. There are so many tricks used to make Jesus only a human or somewhat a god. But He says repeatedly - I AM - which is the Name of God. When He said that to the Pharisees, they were furious. But they could not reject His miracles from all over, from all types of events. The ultimate proof of His divinity - He raised the dead. That took place in the Scriptures 3 times, climaxing in the Palm Sunday entry. A woman in another congregation said, "Where do you get all this? I've been in church for decades!" I said - "The Gospel of John. Lazarus was targeted because he came along, so Jesus' raising Lazarus was not a rumor, but a fact.

    I could say, John's Gospel fills in the gaps about what could trouble us. But those "gaps" from Matthew-Mark-Luke are addressed and fill us with awe and faith in the Savior. Silly people say that angels rolled the stone away, but the Lord of Creation did not need angels to move the stone. He might have moved it Himself, because He quieted the storm, walked on water, and multiplied the food beyond anyone's imagination. The flattened stone showed people that Jesus Himself rose from the dead.

    We all need these stories and sermons from the Son of God, because they shape our thinking and expand our view of the Son of God. People cripple their own emotions and thinking by disregarding what is revealed by the Holy Spirit, Who teaches us the truth about God the Father and God the Son.

    Jesus teaches us that when we are troubled or in anguish, He is listening and will answer in His time and in His way. I have said many times before, I have witnessed people recovering from the healing of the Savior, beyond all hope, truly miraculous. Doubtless believers receive many special blessings from God, without always knowing it. But other times, they can say, "That was a miracle!" The Canaanite woman never faltered, even when the disciples said, "Send her away and give us some peace!" (Lenski)

    The Gospels show us many examples of the disciples errors and weaknesses, so we can understand that we too fall into those mistakes but know the Good Shepherd does not crush us but helps us in every possible way.

The Prayers and Lord’s Prayer                         p. 44

The Collect for Peace                                           p. 45

The Benediction                                                   p. 45

The Hymn #554  Now Rest Beneath Night's Shadows

In Our Prayers

Pastor Jim Shrader, Chris Shrader, Lorie Howell, Sarah Buck, Kermit Way. Norma A. Boeckler is visiting a specialist.

Midweek Advent Service, 7 PM.

 

Tonight's Zoom Link Will Be Here

Midweek Lenten Service, 

7 PM Central Standard Time

Pastor Gregory L. Jackson

The Hymn #479          Zion Rise                                 
The Order of Vespers                                             p. 41

The Psalmody                   
The Lection                            The Passion History

The Sermon Hymn # 657            Beautiful Savior                      

What Does Beautiful Savior Mean?

 
The Prayers

The Lord’s Prayer

The Collect for Grace                                            p. 45

The Hymn #49        Almighty God Thy Word Is Cast

What Does Beautiful Savior Mean?

A trio finished My Good Shepherd, which is already on Kindle - Norma Boeckler, Janie Sullivan, and I. The titles of Jesus are many, and so I took one list from someone wise enough to use the KJV. Norma put her graphics to work on each and every one, and Janie (long-time helper in completing books) worked on the delicate act of pleasing MS Word. One could list 50 or even 100, because there are so  many references and descriptions of divinity throughout the Bible. When the book comes out, it will sent to everyone, with extra copies for those who need them.

     Beautiful Savior is a wonderful, all-inclusive description of Jesus, because He went through the worst turmoil, torture, and death to give us the knowledge and the path of forgiveness of sin. Out of His torment came our salvation. 

    This is essential in knowing and revering Jesus the Son of God. Those who reject this simple statement of truth are busy hardening themselves against the greatest gift to mankind. The basics are clear - He was born of a Virgin, as predicted in Isaiah 7. He healed many different people and raised the dead. He did nothing wrong at all, but that made the works peddlers angry and the Romans afraid. In fact, one of the key passages in John is about the Jewish clergy afraid of losing everything if the Romans chose to march in and end what was left of Judaism. Their fear became a reality only 40 years after the death and resurrection of Christ,

    I think many of the self-appointed intellectuals are very much like the establishment 2,000 years ago - afraid and trying to cover their fears with arrogance and abuse. We can expect that to grow, because the Christian denominations are far away from the most basic tenets of our Faith. They want to be broad-minded, open to all ideas and all religions, free of any declarations of truth in the Bible, and that after study their unfocused, edited down, paraphrases. 

    So it is very important to maintain the sovereign nature of Jesus Christ, His miracles, His teaching, and His suffering for us. That is central to the Faith. Explaining away what makes them uncomfortable is a repudiation, not a wise and understanding position.

    This is very important - to recognize that Jesus is all-forgiveness, all-love, all-understanding. The Middle Ages loved to portray Jesus as the angry judge and Mary as the comforting, gentle intermediary. But that is a horrible distortion of the Scriptures and the source of many donations and gifts to honor the mother while neglecting the Son.

    Forgiveness of sin is central. My sales partner said that when he got in fights with pals at his Catholic school, the nuns told him to slug the brick wall of the school. "Harder, harder!" they said. He told me, "Those nuns were really mean." I am sure it greatly affected his life, because when people think they can do nothing good, they tend to go the wrong way in life. That is a message of never-good-enough, not one of compassion and forgiveness, love and grace.

    By now, the readers of the blog know the central message of the Scriptures - faith in Jesus Christ as the source of all things good, blessed, and fruitful. Luther's Sermons never vary from this and always present the truth in the best way. Someone recently said, "Calvin never laughed, and Luther's humor always comes out in his writing." That is difference between Law dominance and Gospel foundations.

    There is no law that will every satisfy  or appease wrong-doing. Lawyers will even say, "The Law is a jackass." What some wise men put down as the rules for everyone will always fall short, because wise men (solons) fail, even with the best of intentions. 

    We have access to the grace of Jesus Christ through faith in Him. No faith means no access, no grace, no matter how often they sing Amazing Grace. God gives us in the Holy Scriptures a thousand examples of faith, grace, forgiveness, and bearing spiritual fruit.

    Jesus even promised His disciples that He would send the Spirit to guide them in giving us the truth about all He did and said. And it is all in harmony, not only within the New Testament but the Old Testament as well. 

    We have many sorrows and tragedies, but the Beautiful Savior shows us how it all works and where we are going in faith. My neighbor saw me in the grocery store, and showed me her youngest baby, full of smiles and even laughing. The baby already knew she was the beloved, with two sisters, a mom and dad. 

    Everything in our world is Law, but everything about the Savior is grace, love, comfort, and forgiveness. 

    

1. Beautiful Savior, King of Creation,
Son of God and Son of Man!
Truly I'd love Thee,
Truly I'd serve Thee,
Light of my soul, my Joy, my Crown.

2. Fair are the meadows,
Fair are the woodlands,
Robed in flowers of blooming spring;
Jesus is fairer,
Jesus is purer;
He makes our sorrowing spirit sing.

3. Fair is the sunshine,

Fair is the moonlight,
Bright the sparkling stars on high;
Jesus shines brighter,
Jesus shines purer,
Than all the angels in the sky.

4. Beautiful Savior,
Lord of the nations,
Son of God and Son of Man!
Glory and honor,
Praise, adoration,
Now and forevermore be Thine!