Preparing for Worship - April 23, 2023

In Psalm 116, an unidentified psalmist “loves the Lord” and “will call on Him always,“ because the Lord has heard him and delivered his soul from “distress and anguish” and danger of “death” itself. He “believes” the Lord, for the Lord is “gracious and merciful” and will help “simple” people like him, who are open to learning God’s Word and His will, instead of the “lies“ of so much of mankind. The psalmist then sings a great song of praise to the Lord. We use these words in an offertory, an offering hymn, singing God’s Word to each other in Divine Service, Setting One, in the Lutheran Service Book. The psalmist also knows that the death of God’s saints, His believers, is “precious” to the Lord and this is in prophecy of the coming saving work and death and resurrection of our Savior Jesus (There is more detail about this psalm in this week's podcast Bible study, too.)

The Gospel lesson, Luke 24:13-35, continues the story of the resurrection of Jesus and His appearance alive to two ordinary followers of Jesus, not part of the original 12 disciples. They are very sad, because their hopes that Jesus was the “the one to redeem Israel” had now been dashed by His death. Jesus appears to them, but hides who He really was, until He taught them from Scripture and became their Host in His meal with them and “the breaking of the bread” with them. Then Jesus vanished, and these two followers hurried back to Jerusalem to tell the disciples that Jesus was alive!

The first lesson, Acts 2:14a, 36-41, concludes the preaching of Peter on Pentecost, as He proclaimed that Jesus is both Lord and Christ. 3,000 people were cut to the heart and received the Word of God and were brought to faith by the Holy Spirit, and baptized. The promised blessings in baptism are the forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit, and these promises are for all, including children, and people who are far off. Repentance, too, is through God’s working in people and not by our efforts and decisions. See Acts 5:30-31 and Acts 11:15-18

The Epistle lesson is from 1 Peter 1:17-25. Peter is writing to Christians scattered in many places and reminding them of what Christ Jesus had done for them. They were ransomed from their futile ways through the precious blood of Christ. They and we are believers in God through Him. God raised Jesus from the dead and gave Him glory, and we are “born again” through “the living and abiding Word of God” - the Good News preached to us (as well as through baptism). (See John 3:1-6, also.) In response to our salvation, we are called to fear, love and trust in God and seek to serve Him and live in “brotherly love” with one another.