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

View the bulletin for Sunday, April 21, 2024
Archive of AUDIO “Readings & Sermons”
Archive of VIDEO “Complete Service”
Archive of Bulletins

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.

Saving Souls: Christ's Work, not ours

Saving Souls: Christ's Work, not ours 
by Rev. Dr. Matthew C. Harrison, President of The Lutheran Church -- Missouri Synod 

The Synod does a lot of research to know what works. For instance, Concordia Publishing House just published a fantastic new book by the Rev. Dr. Mark Kiessling, LCMS Youth Ministry director, and DCE Julianna Shults, Youth Ministry program manager. The book is Seven Practices of Healthy Youth Ministry, and it’s the culmination of extensive research, surveys and interviews designed to find out what works in youth ministry and what has the highest likelihood of retaining youth in a faithful Lutheran congregation. Go to cph.org to buy your own copy! You’ll be surprised at what we’ve found. 

In other news, the Synod is embarking on a significant church-planting initiative. Here, as with Youth Ministry, we’ve spent years studying the data to know what practices (always under the Scriptures and our Lutheran Confessions) have yielded and continue to promise the best results in church planting. These are just two examples of the thoughtful, informed and long-term preparation behind the work your Synod is doing. There are many more I could offer from the LCMS Office of International Mission, Mission Advancement, Communications and the Office of Pastoral Education. 

We want to be good stewards of the resources you’ve entrusted to us to do the work you’ve asked us to do. It’s a matter of trying to be “wise as serpents and innocent as doves,” as Jesus says (Matt. 10:16). But for all our research, we must confess that nothing we do makes anyone a Christian. By God’s grace, we might clear out the junk in front of the door, but the work of saving souls is Christ’s. 

In fact, more often than not, the Lord does His work of converting sinners quite in spite of us. I recently heard LCMS Eastern District President Rev. John Pingel preach about how the times he spends, hour upon hour, with a person or family who needs Christ often seem to result in nothing, while a moment with a passing acquaintance or a chance incident happens to bring a person to church. 

Who of us could have imagined an LCMS church plant in Rome (LINK)? Your LCMS missionary in Rome, the Rev. Tyler McMiller, reports that people are hungry for the comforting, pure Gospel preserved in the Lutheran Confessions. Read about how a handful of young men stumbled across the LCMS via the internet, one thing led to another, and now we have a confessional Lutheran church plant just a couple of miles from the seat of Roman Catholicism. Even in Rome, when people find out what they can expect to receive from our Lutheran pulpits and Lutheran altars, they seek us out. 

It is like how Luther describes why we should go to confession: “If this were explained in detail and if the need that ought to move and lead us to make confession were pointed out, then one would need little urging or coercion. For everyone’s conscience would so drive and disturb him that he would be glad to do what a poor miserable beggar does when he hears that a rich gift of money or clothing is being handed out at a certain place. So as not to miss it, he would run there as fast as he can and would need no bailiff to beat and drive him on. For those who really desire to be true Christians, to be rid of their sins, and to have a cheerful conscience already possess the true hunger and thirst. They reach for the bread, just as Psalm 42:1 says of a hunted deer burning in the heat with thirst, ‘As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for You, O God.’ In other words, as a deer with anxious and trembling eagerness strains toward a fresh, flowing stream, so I yearn anxiously and tremblingly for God’s Word, Absolution, the Sacrament, and so forth” (Brief Exhortation to Confession, 23, 32–33). 

No amount of research or planning can save anyone. God will save all of His elect. This is the wonderful comfort of the Doctrine of Election. If a year from now we discovered that all our supposed best practices, based on the best research and statistics, were completely wrong, it would not change the number of God’s elect by a single one. All His elect will be saved. We simply cannot mess up His good and perfect work. 

“We know that out of pure grace, without any merit of our own, we have been elected in Christ to eternal life. No one can pluck us out of His hand [John 10:29]. He has not only promised this gracious election with mere words, but has also certified it with an oath and sealed it in the holy Sacraments. We can call these to mind in our most severe temptations and take comfort in them, and with them we can quench the fiery darts of the devil [Ephesians 6:16]” (FC Ep XI, 13). 

God’s elect will be saved, to be sure, but God wills to save His people through His blessed Word spoken through miserable sinners like us, and it is our deepest privilege to participate in His mysterious work of electing — of saving — sinners. People all over the world are seeking out The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod for our clear confession of the Word of God. They want what we have; the blessed Gospel of the free forgiveness of sins, without any work or merit on our part. There are more requests from sister churches and emerging church bodies all over the world than we can manage. We have requests for over 200 more missionaries worldwide. There is a worldwide hunger for the clarity of the Gospel. The harvest is ripe, indeed!

Special Presentation April 21, 2024 by the LHF

Join Us Sunday April 21st, between services, for a Special Presentation by the Lutheran Heritage Foundation

PARENTS & GRANDPARENTS … can you imagine teaching your young child about Jesus, without having any kind of Sunday school materials, or even a basic Bible storybook? This situation is a reality for many Lutherans around the world, but the Lutheran Heritage Foundation is helping to change that. Next Sunday, Rev. Robert Marshall, an LHF representative, will preach at our worship services. Plan to join us during Bible class at 9:15 when Rev. Marshall shares the exciting mission work LHF is doing worldwide.

Our Mission: The Lutheran Heritage Foundation
Imagine trying to understand Scripture in all its richness without the benefit of Luther’s Small Catechism, or trying to teach young children about basic Bible stories without books like A Child’s Garden of Bible Stories.

For Lutheran churches around the world, these situations are reality. They don’t have the basic books, so vital to understanding the Lutheran faith, because no one has translated them into their languages.

Through the mission gifts of people like you, LHF translates, publishes, distributes and introduces books that are Bible-based, Christ-centered and Reformation-driven.

In more than 90 countries and 145 languages, thousands of people have come to faith in Christ because they’ve been able to read books like The Good News About Jesus or Luther’s Small Catechism in their own languages.

LHF has published the catechism in more than 110 languages with dozens more requested. In the past decade, LHF has published and distributed over 1,300 titles and 3 million Lutheran books to pastors, seminary students, missionaries and churches – all at no cost to them.

Help guide unbelievers to Jesus Christ. Give to the LHF mission today.

The Lutheran Heritage Foundation is a Registered Service Organization of the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod (LCMS). Click here to read about the beliefs and practices of the LCMS.

Pick Your Free Copy of “Portals of Prayer”

Pick Your Free Copy of Portals of Prayer in the Narthex or in the Atrium
APRIL - JUNE 2024 ISSUE
Portals of Prayer is a favorite of readers looking for ways to stay in God's Word with easy, daily devotions.

A great way to start each day, readings feature a Bible passage, meditation, and prayer in an easy-to-read format. Portals of Prayer is great for personal devotions and can be used to open church meetings or Bible studies. Published in the convenient and popular pocket size, large-print, or digest editions. Published quarterly, authors change each month.

Portals of Prayer has been a source of strength and comfort since 1937.