St Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church
313 4th St, Manistee, MI 49660-2901
website: stpaulsmanistee.com
facebook.com/SPLCManistee
Telephone: 231-299-1022
May 14, 2023 Easter 6 - Giving Answers
Prayer Before Worship - Lord Jesus, thank You for giving me answers, especially about my life with You now & forever. Help me to take my responsibility seriously to give answers to people who ask me questions about You.
Hymn 146
Morning Praise, front of hymnal, page 45
Lesson: Acts 17:22-31
Paul shows that giving answers may take on creative, thought provoking forms. He informs the Greeks about a God, unknown to them who made the world & calls all to repentance & faith in the One whom He raised from the dead.
22 Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you. 24 “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. 26 From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. 27 God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. 28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’ 29 “Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill. 30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”
Hymn 751:3
Epistle: 1 Peter 3:15-22 Peter encourages us to be ready to confess the hope we have in Christ Jesus even amidst hardship & persecution. In doing so we show we have been connected to Christ & His resurrection.
15 But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, 16 keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. 17 For it is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. 18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the spirit, 19 in which also, he went and made proclamation to the imprisoned spirits— 20 to those who were disobedient long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, 21 and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand—with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him.
Hymn 148
Sermon Text: Gospel: John 14:15-21
Jesus promised the Holy Spirit to His us. He also promised not to leave us alone & to return to us. He encourages us to lovingly obey His commands.
15 “If you love me, you will obey what I command. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 21 Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.”
Sermon Theme: Why do we obey Jesus’ commands
1. We realize who Jesus is
(John 10:30) “I and the Father are one,”
the crowds (31) “picked up stones to stone him........(33) for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.”
(John 6:66) many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.”
(John 14:5) “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
“I believe that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, is my LORD.”
2. We get help from the Holy Spirit
“not despise preaching and His Word but regard it as holy and gladly hear and learn it”
“Use My Word.”
3. We love Jesus
"Among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality.” (Eph 5:3)
Prayer: LORD JESUS, thank You for Your promise:/ “You will do what I command.” Through Your Word please keep reminding us who You are,/ and sending the Holy Spirit so we keep loving You and doing what You command.
Hymn 158
Thankoffering & Guest Register
The members of St. Paul's have joined together to do the Lord’s work in this area & around the world. Visitors need not feel obligated to participate in this offering which supports our church’s ministry. However, we do ask that everyone take sign the guest register
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Prayer: Father of lights, every good & perfect gift comes from You./ Inspire us to think those things that are true/ & long for those things that are good,/ that we may always make our petitions according to Your gracious will; through Your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord,/ who lives & reigns with You & the Holy Spirit, one God, now & forever.
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