VIDEO: Sunday April 21, 2024 - Complete Service

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AUDIO: Announcements, Readings, Sermon & Men’s Choir for Sunday April 21, 2024

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First Reading -- Acts 4:1–12 
As they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them, greatly annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. And they arrested them and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening. But many of those who had heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to about five thousand. 

On the next day their rulers and elders and scribes gathered together in Jerusalem, with Annas the high priest and Caiaphas and John and Alexander, and all who were of the high-priestly family. And when they had set them in the midst, they inquired, “By what power or by what name did you do this?” Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders, if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by him this man is standing before you well. This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” 

Epistle Reading -- 1 John 3:16–24 
By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. 

By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. Whoever keeps his commandments abides in him, and he in them. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.

The Holy Gospel according to St. John, the tenth chapter
[Jesus said:] “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.” 

Zion Women’s Ministries Spring Rally

Zion Women’s Ministries Spring Rally

”Day by Day: Growing in the Lord”
Sunday May 5th — 12 Noon to 2:00 p.m. in Zion’s Fellowship Hall
Catered Lunch
Flower Bar
Bracelet Making

RSVP by Tuesday, April 30, 2024 to tharris@zlcb.org

If Christ had not been raised

At last year’s convention, we reaffirmed the simple, elegant truth at the heart of Lutheran doctrine: We preach Christ crucified. 

The focus on the cross as the beating heart of our theology and practice was tremendously well received, though — as you might expect — we did get the occasional complaint that we were putting Jesus back on the cross and ignoring the resurrection. Nothing could be further from the truth! To confess Christ crucified is not to ignore the resurrection. Even St. Paul (from whom we stole the convention theme; see 1 Cor. 1:23) concludes that same epistle with his great treatise on the resurrection in Chapter 15.  

In that chapter, Paul makes five big “If-then” arguments: “But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1 Cor. 15:13–20). 

Jesus’ resurrection is absolutely necessary. If He didn’t rise, the whole Christian church is a millennia-long con game and we are perpetrators of a demonic lie. But in fact, Christ rose. (How many post-Enlightenment theologians have I read who finally can’t assert faith in the bodily resurrection of Jesus? No wonder Christianity devolves among them into justice, ethics, gender ideology, environmentalism or whatever else is popular in the scholarly world at the time.) The Crucified One is the Risen One. Eternally crucified and eternally risen. His resurrection confirms the power of His death to liberate all who belong to Him from sin and death. 

That’s why Christians since the first century have greeted each other in Eastertide saying, “Christ is risen!”, expecting the reply, “He is risen indeed!”

The truth of the resurrection exposes the Gnostic lies that permeate our confused society. To summarize briefly, even before the New Testament, the Gnostics taught that spiritual realities were to be preferred over material ones. The material world was just a prison for the truer spiritual world. When Christianity arose, some Gnostic philosophers sought to integrate their teachings into the New Testament. Jesus came, they taught, to bestow the knowledge necessary for man to be liberated from his material, bodily existence. Against this false notion, the evangelist wrote, “The Word became flesh” (John 1:14). And we confess in the Nicene Creed, “Jesus Christ … very God of very God … was made man.” The material world is not a prison for some more real spiritual existence. The Creator called His world “very good” (Gen. 1:31).

The resurrection of Jesus from the grave drives the final nail in the coffin of Gnosticism. The God who became Man died a real death and rose from the dead, body and soul intact. He didn’t leave His body behind. And He promises not to leave your body behind. (Those post-Enlightenment scholars fumble at this too.)

The resurrection — both Jesus’ and ours on the Last Day — gives courage to our everyday realities. Toward the end of his earthly life, my dear friend and colleague Rev. Dr. Herb Mueller was working on a book on the resurrection. We’ve been privileged to bring his vision to print as The Resurrection Changes Everything, and it will be available from Concordia Publishing House toward the end of this year. Herb wrote:

“The bodily resurrection of Jesus from the dead is on-going assurance from God Himself that Jesus Christ is Lord and is worthy of our trust. In a world full of competing voices, our purpose here is to boost your confidence in this heart of our faith, the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. That’s because the resurrection changes everything. Anyone who is unsure of the fact that Jesus rose from the dead will also be less confident in other areas of apologetics and witness: creation vs. evolution, the exclusive claims of Christianity, etc. 

“However, when a person is fully convinced Jesus Christ did rise bodily from the dead and that He is alive today, ruling over all creation for the sake of His church, such conviction shows a confidence in the Christian message that is not easily shaken. Certainty about the death and resurrection of Jesus and the reason for it — the boundless love of God — profoundly changes how that person thinks of others and approaches them.”

He is risen indeed! Truly risen! Bodily risen! And so shall you.

By Matthew C. Harrison

Bulletin: Sunday April 21, 2024

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THIS WEEK AT ZION:

Friday April 19
No Event’s Scheduled

Saturday April 20
10:30 a.m. - Ladies Book Club in the Fellowship Hall
View Additional Details

Sunday April 21
LHF Sunday
8:00 a.m. — Worship Service with Communion
9:00 a.m. — LHF Presentation by Rev. Marshall & Children’s Sunday School
10:30 a.m. — Worship Service with Communion
(The 8:00 a.m. service streamed on our YouTube channel)

Monday April 22
6:00 p.m. - 1st Year Confirmation
6:30 p.m. - Faith Bell Choir Practice
7:00 p.m. - 2nd Year Confirmation

Tuesday April 23
6:15 p.m. - Grace Bell Choir Practice
7:15 p.m. - Adult Choir Practice

Wednesday April 24
2:00 p.m. Mid-Week Worship with Communion
2:30 p.m. - 30 min. Bible Study
(The 2:00 p.m. service is streamed Live on our YouTube channel)

Thursday April 25
No Event’s Scheduled

Friday April 26
No Event’s Scheduled

Saturday April 27
No Event’s Scheduled

Sunday April 28
Following the 10:30 service, a Voter’s Meeting will be held
during which the committee will recommend Deaconess Joanna Lee for approval by the congregation. 
Voter’s Meeting regarding Deaconess
8:00 a.m. — Worship Service with Communion
9:00 a.m. — Adult/Teen Bible Study & Children’s Sunday School
10:30 a.m. — Worship Service with Communion
Voter’s Meeting following second service — lunch served
(The 8:00 a.m. service streamed on our YouTube channel)

Stations of the Resurrection

Focus on the various appearances of jesus during the 40-day period between his resurrection and his ascension. All the stations are based on scripturally recorded incidents in the four gospels and the book of acts. 

Saturday, April 20 
Concordia At Ridgewood Place @ 2:00 p.m.
1460 Renton Road ~ Plum Boro 15239 

Sunday, April 21 
Concordia At Rebecca Residence Chapel @ 2:30 p.m. 
3746 Cedar Ridge Rd ~ Allison Park 15101

Highpointe At Rebecca Chapel @ 4:00 p.m. 
1871 Highpointe Lane ~ Allison Park 15101

Sunday, April 28 
Concordia Of Monroeville @ 2:30 p.m.
4346 Northern Pike ~ Monroeville 15146

Presented by The Pittsburgh Lutheran Chorus 

Register for Zion’s Vacation Bible School - July 22-26

Vacation Bible School Zion
Lutheran Church, Bridgeville, PA
July 22-26, 2024
9:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.
Ages -- 4 years old (prior to 9/1/24) through 4th grade
FREE!

In “Celebrate the Savior” Vacation Bible School, students will discover that our loving God has given us so much to celebrate—family, friends, food, and especially forgiveness through faith in Jesus, our Savior. As kids explore five key events in the life of Jesus from the Bible, they will discover how the love of Jesus fills us with joy!

Program Details

• VBS kids will be organized into either early childhood or elementary crews. Each crew will have 6-10 children per crew and two crew leaders.

• We'll enjoy Bible stories, crafts, games, snacks and lively music as we celebrate God’s gifts.

• Bring a plain white, cotton t-shirt for your child for a crafting project!

Registration Details (DEADLINE 6/22)

• Complete the online REGISTRATION FORM (one per each child in a family) no later than Saturday, June 22nd.

• VBS is FREE this year … no fees to attend!

• In order to ensure the best VBS experience for all children, the number of “crews” is limited, so be sure to register early to reserve your spot.

Visit Zion’s website at www.zlcb.org/VBS for important information.
Questions??? Contact Karen Kress, VBS Director, at 618-534-5718, or kkress5@gmail.com OR Susie Bishop, Registration Coordinator, at 412-221- 4776, ext. 203 or secretary@zlcb.org.