Sunday Meditation, May 24

The Son Who Raises the Dead

I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish things that people often say about Him: “I am ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.” That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher.

— C. S. Lewis

Scripture for Meditation: John 5:25-29

“Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.”

Hymn of Resurrection: The Apostles’ Creed

Prayer of Blessing

Responsive Reading: I Thessalonians 4:13-18

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. 

For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. 

For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 

Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. 

Therefore encourage one another with these words.

Hymn of Anticipation: From the Squalor of a Borrowed Stable

From the squalor of a borrowed stable,
By the Spirit and a virgin’s faith;
To the anguish and the shame of scandal
Came the Saviour of the human race!

But the skies were filled with the praise of heav’n,
Shepherds listen as the angels tell
Of the Gift of God, come down to man
At the dawning of Immanuel.

King of heaven now the Friend of sinners,
Humble servant in the Father’s hands,
Filled with power and the Holy Spirit,
Filled with mercy for the broken man.

Yes, He walked my road and He felt my pain,
Joys and sorrows that I know so well;
Yet His righteous steps give me hope again––
I will follow my Immanuel!

Through the kisses of a friend’s betrayal,
He was lifted on a cruel cross;
He was punished for a world’s transgressions,
He was suffering to save the lost.

He fights for breath, He fights for me,
Loosing sinners from the claims of hell;
And with a shout our souls are free­­–-
Death defeated by Immanuel!

Now He’s standing in the place of honour,
Crowned with glory on the highest throne,
Interceding for His own beloved
Till His Father calls to bring them home!

Then the skies will part as the trumpet sounds
Hope of heaven or the fear of hell;
But the Bride will run to her Lover’s arms,
Giving glory to Immanuel!

Stuart Townend Copyright © 1999 Thankyou Music/Adm. By worshiptogether.com songs excl. UK & Europe, adm. by Kingsway Music. tym@kingsway.co.uk. Used by permission. CCL #2783020

Prayer of Corporate Confession

Silence for Personal Confession

Assurance of Pardon: Romans 6:5

For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.

Response: Thanks be to God.

Hymn of Reunion: The Church’s One Foundation

The Church’s one foundation is Jesus Christ, her Lord;
She is His new creation by water and the Word:
From heav’n He came and sought her to be His holy bride;
With His own blood He bought her, and for her life He died.

Elect from ev’ry nation, yet one o’er all the earth,
Her charter of salvation: one Lord, one faith, one birth;
One holy name she blesses, partakes one holy food;
And to one hope she presses, with ev’ry grace endued.

’Mid toil and tribulation, and tumult of her war,
She waits the consummation of peace forevermore;
Till with the vision glorious her longing eyes are blest,
And the great church victorious shall be the church at rest.

Yet she on earth hath union with God, the Three in One,
And mystic sweet communion with those whose rest is won:
O happy ones and holy! Lord, give us grace that we
Like them, the meek and lowly, on high may dwell with Thee.

Words: Samuel J. Stone, 1839-1900
Music: Brian Moss. ©1996 Parson John Publishing (ASCAP). CCLI #2783020

Ministry of the Word

*All Scripture, English Standard Version. © 2001 by Crossway Bibles. Used by permission.