SIXTH SUNDAY OF EASTER

SIXTH SUNDAY OF EASTER

(14 May 2023)

Acts 17:16–31

1 Peter 3:13–22

John 14:15–21

Collect of the Day

O God, the giver of all that is good, by Your holy inspiration grant that we may think those things that are right and by Your merciful guiding accomplish them; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

The Lord Jesus Comforts Us with the Preaching of His Resurrection

“The God who … gives to all mankind life and breath and everything” (Acts 17:24–25) wants all people to seek Him that they might “feel their way toward him and find him” (Acts 17:27). But in our sinful ignorance, we humans turn instead to idols “formed by the art and imagination of man” (Acts 17:29). Therefore, God appointed the Man of Righteousness, Jesus Christ, and “has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead” (Acts 17:31). Because He lives, we also live (John 14:19) in His forgiveness, and thus we love Him and keep His commandments (John 14:15). While the risen Lord prepares us for His ascension, He will not leave us “as orphans” (John 14:18), but He gives “another Helper,” the Holy Spirit, to be with us forever (John 14:16) through the preaching of “Jesus and the resurrection” (Acts 17:18). Because He “suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous” (1 Peter 3:18), we “honor Christ the Lord as holy” and are always “prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks” for the reason for our hope (1 Peter 3:15). Our Baptism “now saves” us “as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 3:21).

 

Acknowledgments:

The Lutheran Service Book. CPH Creative Worship

Scripture quotations are from ESV Bible

All Liturgy Audio Files are from LCMS Worship Ministry - Lutheran Service Book Audio (https://lcms.app.box.com/v/lutheran-service-book) 

Please note that the Hymnals are taken from online Auto-generated by YouTube or from thehymnalproject.org, Lutheran Warbler, Koiné, Downtown Music Publishing, CPH, Hope of the World" - Foundry Virtual Choir; Lectionary Summary from: https://www.lcms.org/worship/lectionary-summaries