Dear Covenant Family:
Attached is the Covenant church bulletin for today’s Easter service. You can print it if you wish to see the order of service. Below are the details for the program for you to follow. A special Easter Thanks to Tina for providing the bulletin and inspiring music – just click on the music links below and it should take you right to the selected music. If that does not work for any reason, please cut and paste the link into your browser to access the special Easter music. Also, thanks to Carl for his inspiring Holy Saturday/Good Friday message and today’s Easter message. We are so blessed to have Carl as our spiritual leader always, and especially at this time of year – so a special Easter Thanks to Carl – may God continue to bless his service to God through Covenant Church, and to our community through his ministry to providing funeral services for those in need.
In spite of the difficult times we all face right now, we are all blessed to have God with us, and Covenant Church to support us through this time. As we see from the fresh renewal we all get at Easter through His Resurrection, we will all see a fresh renewal in our daily lives as well, all according to His time!!!
May God continue to bless each of you, Covenant Church, our country, and our world.
Ron
Easter Sunday
April 12, 2020
Christ the Lord Has Risen Today
Invocation
Reverend Ron Marks
Dear Heavenly Father:
Thank you for this blessing today. He is risen!! He is risen!! He is risen!! What comforting news this is!! Our Redeemer is in the heavens and in our hearts!! What a blessed sound are those words!! What a comfort it is to have this assurance that he took on all our sins, and took them with Him to the cross!! But he lives today and for eternity….. for us.
Today, we lift our voices to You. We celebrate this most holy day, when Jesus rose from death, defeated the darkness of the fallen world and bathed the world in the stunning light of His Resurrection. May we always share in the Light of His Word, and may we find permanent peace, joy, hope, comfort and rest by knowing Him.
We thank you Dear God for the eternal blessing we receive today from this news and may we remember it every day of the year and for our entire lives. May You continue to bless our walk with You until we can be together for ever in our Eternal Home. Amen
Worship in Song
He Arose!
Scripture
John 20:1-18
Sermon
Pastor Carl Romey
The Empty Tomb
Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. 2 So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!” 3 So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 4 Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7 as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around
Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. 8 Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. 9 (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) 10 Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.
Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene
11 Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb 12 and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. 13 They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?” “They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” 14 At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there,
but she did not realize that it was Jesus. 15 He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?” Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.” 16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”). 17 Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” 18 Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.
*Mark 16:1
“When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ body.”
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The four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke & John) all record the Easter story but I have printed the event according to John. The book is ascribed to St. John but not considered a Synoptic Gospel. Each writer includes different views and John’s words draw me in because of Jesus describing his personal encounter with Mary Magdalene. The book of John is the story of Jesus Christ told with deep love.
This is the focus today. “Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome…” as Mark told us went carrying spices to anoint the body of Jesus. In reality they carried the strong spices to assist with the stench of decaying flesh. They worried because of the sealed tomb wondering how would they get to the corpse of Jesus.
Today my thoughts about the resurrection are aimed at a simple but special question. Do we really accept and live for the risen Lord?
We have lived through many Easters and have dyed eggs and eaten more chocolate than we should have. Eggs, bunnies and butterflies represent new beginnings. The Christ is our New Beginning.
The risen Lord is a necessary part of our own spiritual transformation. In my writing that I shared yesterday, I did not write about the weight Jesus carried. As he prayed in the garden he was concerned about his human suffering but broken about the weight of all human sin, past, present and future of all mankind.
Through his suffering and death Jesus Christ became the sacrifice, the scapegoat for SIN.
Jesus took on every sin we ever committed. All the tenses of life; past, present and future, yet to be committed. His blood poured over my sins and the sins of people living in the most remote places both now and in all time periods. Jesus told his disciples to go into all parts of the world crossing all segments of time. Some will go in person and others will go by supporting and praying for those commanded to uproot their life and relocate. But before doing that, we must come face to face with our own need of forgiveness becoming one with God. To seek forgiveness and admit that we are sinners isn’t just a suggestion but rather a mandate. We must allow God to take control of our lives and then live according to God’s will, not just ours. We will be back more than once to seek God’s forgiveness because no one is perfect. We fail and fall but the Holy Spirit keeps us tender to the things of God, he beckons and we confess our sin, seeking God’s forgiveness and healing.
The three women bringing spices were alarmed because the sepulcher was empty. Jesus was not there! His body was gone!
Having heard the narrative many times, we know that Mary’s mind was so impacted by the death of Jesus that she did not expect to meet him that morning. After all he was DEAD! She had watched him die, removed from the cross and carried to a borrowed tomb. Jesus was transformed but he was still very much aware of Mary’s need. In verse 14 Mary thought she saw a gardener. Distraught because of an empty tomb, Jesus drew close to Mary and attended to her suffering asking a most simple question, “Why are you crying?” In her frustration and loss she wanted to know where they had taken the body of Jesus, this was all she had left! In tenderness Jesus responded to her calling her by name, “Mary.” Then she recognized and acknowledged him crying out “Rabboni!
We must always be ready to humble ourselves before God and allow him to heal us in whatever critical area that needs attending. The journey of Christ to the cross, then to enter hell and return and to come walking from his grave having prepared the way for the Holy Spirit is beyond amazing. The understanding of God’s saving and keeping love is new. Resurrection’s redeeming power was unleashed.
Bask in the presence and be prepared to enjoy the reality that we ARE God’s children. We are at peace with him and the world he created. We are part of the home team, because his team from around the world will one day be called home. But before that happens we will be like Mary Magdalene and willingly respond to Jesus’ words; “….Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my
Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”
In our own tongue, in our own way, in our land, village and neighborhood GO TELL, ANNOUNCE the sin healing factor that Jesus paid the price and has made it possible to live eternally with God and his people! With all of the Easter music written, let this Christmas tune filter through, for it is part of his command; “Go tell it everywhere that Jesus Christ is Lord.- That Jesus Christ is Lord!”
No More Night
Benediction
Now the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, even Jesus our Lord, equip you in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen Hebrews 13:20-21