“In my Father’s house are many rooms... ”

John 14

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WELCOME

Good morning and welcome to worship at Faith Lutheran. Happy Easter!

The celebration of the resurrection in the Christian Church historically continues for a “week of weeks” or forty-nine days until the Festival of Pentecost. On this fifth Sunday of Easter we are confronted with the realities of Easter in a bit different way. Either Jesus Christ is the resurrected Lord or he is not the answer to our deepest needs. The creating, sustaining Word of Christ draws people into belief and into fellowship with the true God. Yet, in some it creates tension and the opposition of disbelief that God has involved himself in our world in such a remarkable way to save us. These options confront us today.

We consider it a privilege to worship with you this morning. We thank you for joining us. May our risen Lord bless your continuing Easter celebration with growing knowledge of him and growing confidence in his promises. Please join us for worship again very soon!

WORSHIP DURING THE COVID-19 CRISIS

All regularly scheduled worship services are being offered both streaming on-line and broadcast over our Faith radio station WFEL 99.9 FM. Streaming worship is only available during the hours that regularly scheduled worship would be happening. These services are not being archived. However, the sermons are being archived as they always have been on our website. Feel free to download any sermon or subscribe to a podcast that delivers the sermon content to you. If you wish to access streaming worship services outside of the Faith schedule, our WELS parent church body is providing wonderful streaming resources at: https://yearbook.wels.net/streaming.

Faith is committed to accommodating all recommendations and mandates of state and federal government regarding the pandemic currently challenging our world. Please be assured that in the numbers of people assembling at Faith for the presentation of these worship services on-line to you we are taking care to abide by the recommended numbers and the social distancing defined in government directive.

PREPARATION FOR WORSHIP

O God of peace, I turn aside from an unquiet world, seeking rest for my spirit and light for my thoughts. I bring my work to be sanctified, my wounds to be healed, my sins to be forgiven, my hopes to be renewed. In you there is perfect harmony. Draw me to yourself, and silence the discords of my wasteful life. Your greatness is beyond my highest praise. Take me out of the loneliness of self, and fill me with the fullness of your peace. Amen.

Faith Evangelical Lutheran Church & School

“Growing Together in the Eternal Gospel”

24300 West Grass Lake Rd Antioch, IL 60002

(847) 395-1660

www.faithantioch.org WFEL 99.9 FM facebook.com/faithantioch

Pastor Greg Hermanson – Personal Ministry (847) 293-6578 Pastor Ed Ungemach – Worship & Administration (847) 293-6101 Mr. Craig Breitkreutz – Director of Christian Education (847) 409-9593 Ms. Ellen Golvach – Parish Administrator (847) 293-2609

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Fifth Sunday of Easter May 9-10, 2020

REACTING TO EASTER:

ONLY TWO OPTIONS

OPENING HYMN “Like the Golden Sun Ascending”

Christian Worship (red hymnal) # 147

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INVOCATION, CONFESSION OF SINS & ABSOLUTION

Presiding Minister [M]: The Grace of our Lord Jesus (+) Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

Congregation [C]: And also with you.

M: Let us confess our sins in the presence of God and of one another.

M: Almighty God, our heavenly Father,

C: we have sinned against you in our thoughts, in our words, in our deeds, and in all that we have not done.

Forgive us in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Deliver and restore us,

that we may live today and rest tonight in peace.

M: By the mercy of God we are redeemed by Jesus Christ, and in him (+) we are forgiven.

Let us rest each night in his peace until the rising of the sun when we shall serve him another day in newness of life.

C: Amen.

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COME, OH, COME, LET US SING TO THE LORD Venite

L: Introduces refrain

C: Refrain

L: You are a great and a wondrous God, cupping in your hands all the depths of earth. You made the hills and the mountains high, you made the seas and the dry land.

C: Refrain

L: Come, let us worship and, bowing low, kneel before the One who has made us all. You are the God whom we call our own, we are the flock that you shepherd.

C: Refrain

THE WORD OF GOD

LESSON Acts 17:1-12

The Gospel is driven out of Thessalonica but is embraced and believed in Berea.

1When they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue. 2As his custom was, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 3explaining and proving that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead. “This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Christ,” he said. 4Some of the Jews were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a large number of God-fearing Greeks and not a few prominent women.

5But the Jews were jealous; so they rounded up some bad characters from the marketplace, formed a mob and started a riot in the city. They rushed to Jason’s house in search of Paul and Silas in order to bring them out to the crowd 6But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some other brothers before the city officials, shouting: “These men who have caused trouble all over the world have now come here, 7and Jason has welcomed them into his house. They are all defying Caesar’s decrees, saying that there is another king, one called Jesus.” 8When they heard this, the crowd and the city officials were thrown into

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turmoil. 9Then they made Jason and the others post bond and let them go. 10As soon as it was night, the brothers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. On arriving there, they went to

the Jewish synagogue. 11Now the Bereans were of more noble character than Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. 12Many of the Jews believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men.

PSALM OF THE DAY Psalm 63

The congregation sings the refrain…

O God, you are my God: for you I long; for you my soul is thirsting. My body pines for you like a dry weary land without water.

So I gaze on you in the sanctuary to see your strength and your glory. Refrain

For your love is better than life, my lips will speak your praise. So I will bless you all my life, in your name I will lift up my hands.

My soul shall be filled as with a banquet, my mouth will praise you with joy. Refrain

On my bed I remember you. On you I muse through the night, For you have been my help, in the shadow of your wings I rejoice.

My soul clings to you; your right hand holds me fast. Refrain

LESSON 1 Peter 2:4-10

Christ is trusted and believed in by some, flatly rejected by others.

4As you come to him, the living Stone - rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him - 5you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6For in Scripture it says:

“See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.”

7Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe,

“The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone,” 8and,

“A stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall.” They stumble because they disobey the message—which is also what they were destined for. 9But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you

may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

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VERSE OF THE DAY John 14:6

C: Refrain

M: I am the way, the truth, and the life, says the Lord.

C: Refrain

GOSPEL John 14:1-12

Jesus presents himself as the way, the truth and the life – leaving only two obvious choices: embracing trust or rejection.

1“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. 2In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3And, if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4You know the way to the place where I am going.”

5Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” 6Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through

me. 7If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”

8Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” 9Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time?

Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. 11Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves. 12I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.

C: The Lord is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! Death has been swallowed up in victory. Alleluia!

HYMN OF THE DAY “At the Lamb’s High Feast We Sing”

Christian Worship # 141 Printed in entirety on the next page for ease of use

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SERMON based upon the lesson from the Acts of the Apostles

Pastor Ed Ungemach

Perhaps This Is a Good Time to Become a Berean!

YOU ARE GOD, WE PRAISE YOU Te Deum

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OFFERTORY (a musical piece played during the gathering of the offering)

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C: Help us that we your saving Word In faithful hearts may treasure; Let e’er that bread of life afford New grace in richest measure. Make us to die to ev’ry sin; Each day create us new within That fruits of faith may flourish. Amen.

LORD HAVE MERCY, PRAYERS & LORD’S PRAYER Kyrie

Intercessory prayers (as requested) will be inserted here

LORD’S PRAYER

C: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours now and forever. Amen.

THE PRAYER OF THE DAY & PRAYER FOR GRACE

M: O God, you form the minds of your faithful people into a single will. Make us love what you command and desire what you promise, that among the many changes of this world, our hearts may ever yearn for the lasting joys of heaven; through your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

C: Amen.

M: O Lord, our heavenly Father, almighty and everlasting God, you have brought us safely to this new day. Defend us with your mighty power, and grant that this day we neither fall into sin nor run into any kind of danger; and in all we do, direct us to what is right in your sight, through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord.

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BLESSING

CLOSING HYMN “Lord, Dismiss Us with Your Blessing” Christian Worship # 329

Printed in entirety on the next page for ease of use

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Texts and music covered under OneLicense.net License #A-704382

Morning Praise Service “In the Morning I Will Sing” music by Marty Haugen © 1996 GIA Publications, Inc. All rights reserved.

Opening Sentences from Christian Worship: New Service Settings - Morning Praise © 2002 Northwestern Publishing House. All rights reserved.

Verse of the Day by Fintan O’Carroll © GIA Publications, Inc. All rights reserved.

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica. Used by permission. All rights reserved