Bible Verse for Sunday Service March 24, 2024
John 12:12-13
The next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!”
Announcements:
Join us for Easter Breakfast on March 31st and we will celebrate the resurrection. Please invite your family and friends. If you decide to come, please sign up and let us know how many are coming, and what food you can bring.
We welcome your donations of lilies to decorate the sanctuary during the Easter season.
We thanks all of you who helped to do all that you did to make the Awana Grand Prix such a great success. A fun day of seeing the cars that the kids and adults made, and watching them race down the track. It was our first adult race too. Benny Hofer won by a mile.
Awana Awards night is April 3 at 6:30PM, which completes our Awana year. We recognize and award the children who have been participating. We also want to express our appreciation and thanks to the leaders who have given of their time. All believe in this important means of ministry to our children and youth.
Special:
In honor of Palm Sunday, and thinking ahead to Easter and the crucifixion along with the resurrection, Jimmy Sutton sang When He Was On the Cross (I was on His Mind) accompanied by the Weschenfelder family. This wonderful song was written in 1983 by Mike Payne and his friend Ronny Hinson. Originally sung by the the Mike Payne Trio, it was made famous by the Florida Boys who kept it at number one on the charts in 1985 and 1986. I am sure you’ll agree Jimmy and the Weschenfelders did a good job with it. You can watch the performance below, or find it here, on Rumble.
Sermon:
Today, Pastor Jim spoke to us on Hebrews 11:28 in a sermon titled “Keeping the Passover.” In this sermon, he explored Moses’ giving the Passover, and more importantly how it is a picture of Christ’s work on the cross. He is truly our Passover lamb. For his sermon he had two points.
In the first point, Pastor looked at the application of the lambs blood originally called for in the first Passover. Pastor discussed God’s requirements for the Passover, including the lamb, all found in Exodus 12. Then Pastor reviewed those requirements against Jesus and His work on the cross by comparison to language in the New Testament. One can only conclude that Jesus was God’s lamb offered as a sacrifice so that we would be saved. For one example, God required the lamb to be without a blemish, and Jesus fulfilled this by being sinless in everything.
Now besides considering the requirements, Pastor asked to look at the results. We also see an equivalence here between the results at the first Passover and today, after Jesus’ work on the cross. Jews instructed by Moses put the blood of the lamb on their doorposts, and the Death Angel passed over them, killing all the first born of Egypt who did not receive the instructions and who had no lambs. Pharaoh did let the Jews go to the promised land after this. Likewise today, we enjoy the safety and freedom in Christ that the Jews did in their obedience. We rely only on the perfect work of Christ as a sacrifice on the cross for our sins.
Next Pastor asked us to look at the Passover after that first time in providing release for God’s people. It was instituted by God as a perpetual remembrance, a celebration of God’s deliverance. The Jews can celebrate that they are alive and free, not held hostage like their ancestors in Egypt. We can celebrate what we have in Christ, his work, his sacrifice that is the Passover worked out for us today. We can also celebrate at Passover, now Easter. We can celebrate the Lamb given for us, Jesus. Paul reminds us of this in 1st Corinthians. Lastly, we see the reference by John in Revelation to a Lamb slain in Heaven, Jesus for us.
What a wonderful reminder God created in the Passover, meaningful to the first Jews, and their offspring over time. And, meaningful to us when the full beauty and fullness of the Passover is understood in Jesus at Easter. Have we placed our confidence in Him. Let’s live a life of service to Him in the Kingdom of God here and now.
Accessing the Service, Bulletin and Sermon Outline:
Here are the pages from the bulletin, click on the images below to see them full size:
If you would like to have the sermon outline, you can download it here, a pdf file.
If you would like a link to this service you can find it here. Perhaps you would like to share it with your friends. You could also share that link on social media, if you use any of the providers. We use Rumble, a safe alternative to Google’s YouTube.