Home Worship - 4/5/20

Happy Palm Sunday! I'm not happy we cannot meet together yet, but hopefully our thoughts can begin to focus on the hope of the Holy Week and Easter.

Here's this Sunday's Worship Supplement to go along with our message in Romans 9:30-10:21.

Sermon

This week's message can be accessed on our FB page here: https://www.facebook.com/Milford-First-Brethren-Church-106750154192984/
Or through our website here: https://www.milfordfirstbrethren.org/live.html

Study Guide Questions

After - or even as - you listen to the sermon, try digging deeper into the text by working through these questions:

1. Who was the "stumbling stone" that tripped up Israel? Why did they trip up? What were they focused on instead? (9:30-33)
2. What is the reason Israel lost its way according to 10:3-4?
3. How can people find salvation according to Romans 10:9-10?
4. Who bears responsibility for Israel's rejection? (10:21)
5. What are some ways we as Christians can be obstinate and reject God's clear Word like Israel did (be specific)?

Worship Songs

It is well

Hosanna (Praise is Rising)

Mighty to Save

King of Kings

Daily Devotional Guide

Here are some related passages to our Romans 10 and this Easter Week to study in your daily devotional time.

• Monday - Deuteronomy 30:1-14
• Tuesday - Isaiah 28
• Wednesday - Mark 12
• Thursday- Mark 14
• Friday - Mark 15
• Saturday - Mark 16

Music Mondays

I highly suspect that subconsciously the existence of this running "Music Monday" theme goes back to my childhood when my parents were invested in a traveling music ministry. Both of them were very talented and would travel to various churches and cities to present special concerts and I got to tag along as a pre-school aged kid.

Many memories still rattle around in my brain, like the time our van started rolling away in a church parking lot as dad and some volunteers were unloading equipment. 

Likewise, many of the songs have stuck in my head too. This week's selection was one of those songs. An early eighties single from the group Truth, it is a mini-time capsule taking us back to those early days of contemporary Christian music. 

Why feature it? Well, it popped into my head last week as I was preparing my sermon on Isaiah 36-39. 
Those chapters recount some tension-filled days in the reign of King Hezekiah. For the most part, the King trusted the Lord - relying on him completely despite great odds. But alas, in chapter 39 he makes a foolish blunder. I believe the whole story, taken in the context of Isaiah's book, is meant to leave us wanting more. 

Isaiah had promised a coming King who would set things right and faithfully lead God's people. King Hezekiah (and others) did so to a point - but they were just place holders until God's true Messiah-King would arrive. To a great extent, Palm Sunday celebrates Jesus' life and ministry as a fulfillment of God's promises in Isaiah. The crowds of Matthew 21 were celebrating Jesus' kingly arrival even though they didn't fully understand God's plan or the nature of Jesus' kingship. 

So, in a round-about way, Isaiah 36-39 connects with Palm Sunday - reminding us that there is one faithful king who succeeded where human kings failed.  The beauty of Palm Sunday and Easter can indeed be summed up in the concise phrase - "Jesus Never Fails".

Music Mondays

Yesterday was Palm Sunday, where Christians world-wide celebrate the 'Triumphal Entry' of Jesus into Jerusalem the week before he died (see Matt. 21:1-11, Mark 11:1-11 etc). 

As he entered the city on a donkey and made his way towards the temple, the crowds responded with singing and laying palm branches and their cloaks on the ground. They held messianic hopes for Jesus and joyously sang Psalm 118 proclaiming their hopes of God's salvation. "Hosanna" literally means "Lord save us!" In it's original context, Ps. 118:26 is actually a call for deliverance, though used in these later days, it seems to have morphed into an expression of praise. 

Interestingly enough, before his death, Jesus would lament his rejection and predict his future coming that will be accompanied by the same proclamation that was made that first Palm Sunday (Matt.23:38-39). It's fascinating to me how Psalm 118 had specific relevance to ancient Hebrew worshipers, worshipers of Jesus' day, and it still holds relevance for the future. 

I didn't completely understand all of this until the very end of our service yesterday when I made the spur-of-the-moment decision to read Revelation 7:9-10:

⁹ After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. ¹⁰ And they cried out in a loud voice:

“Salvation belongs to our God,
who sits on the throne,
and to the Lamb.”

While this vision doesn't directly allude to Psalm 118 or what Jesus described in Matthew 23, I hadn't noticed the palm branches reference the many times I'd read this before. No doubt this is an allusion to the celebrations that first Palm Sunday as the final victory of God is realized on that day.
Hosanna in the Highest!