Songs for Sunday, May 12, 2024 @ Christ Community Church

Tomorrow is Sunday, and I am excited to gather with my faith family and worship our resurrected King, Jesus Christ!

Our pastor, John Goldwater, has been leading us through the book of Matthew for about two years now, and we are moving quickly toward the culmination of that study.

Two weeks ago, we were in Matthew 27:32-50 and saw Jesus die for our sin on the cross. It really gives context and gravitas to “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son” (John 3:16). It is one thing to say it; it is something else to grasp the reality of our need for Jesus to die in our place. The cross should have been ours — should have been mine. I am the sinner not Jesus. The wages of sin is death for each of us (Romans 6:23), but Jesus was innocent and worthy of worship not public execution and shame. He bore the wrath we deserve in order that we may receive the favor He deserves as well as adoption into His family and His Life (2 Corinthians 5:21, Galatians 4:4-5, John 3:16).

Last week, we were in Matthew 27:51-66 and saw the aftermath of His death. The veil that separated mankind from the Holy of Holies in the temple was torn from top to bottom in a feat that no man could accomplish. God made a way for us to be with Him through the death of His Son. The earth quaked and split. Dead walked out of their tombs alive. Centurions who presided over Jesus’s execution praised and exulted Him when they realized Who He was and what He had done.

It looked as if darkness had won that Friday afternoon. Jesus’s body was taken down from the cross and buried in Joseph of Arimathea’s tomb. A heavy stone covered the door because the powers-that-were found themselves worried that someone might try to make Jesus’s claims that He would raise from the dead on the third day a reality. It seems silly from a human perspective to think that people would be afraid of a dead man, but it is clear that those who presided over Jesus’s death knew He was more than they made out.

Thankfully, we know that there was hope that Friday — enough so that we now call it Good Friday. Why good when such terrible (and terrifying) things occurred? SUNDAY was coming!

You see, that FIRST first day of the week when Jesus rose from the dead set the standard for our worship. Sunday is not a religious memento or memorial. No, Jesus was alive that first Sunday and every one since and all that there will ever be and after — forevermore! Sunday is when His Church gathers to worship Him, celebrate all He has done/is doing, and look forward to His return.

Essentially, Sunday is coming — JESUS is coming again!

So, tomorrow, we are going to make much of Jesus. All that we do — as fickle and fallible an offering as it will be — is intended to point people to Jesus. We will not have it all together. We will not be polished, professional, or performing. We want people to see that Jesus is alive and well and coming again!

Won’t you join us?

Here are our Scriptures and songs:

Scripture | John 3:14-19 —

¹⁴And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, ¹⁵that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life.
¹⁶“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. ¹⁸Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because He has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. ¹⁹And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.

Song | God So Loved —
Scripture Inspiration: Matthew 11:28-30, John 7:37-38, John 4:7-15, Matthew 9:10-13, Psalm 28:6, Luke 13:29, John 6:35-40, Isaiah 58:11, Psalm 34:8-9, Proverbs 8:17, Jeremiah 29:13, John 3:16, 1 Corinthians 10:11-14, 1 Peter 2:24, 1 John 1:9, Psalm 55:22, Colossians 1:19-20, Colossians 2:13-14, Isaiah 40:11, Luke 15:20, John 14:3, Matthew 25:23, Revelation 20:14, 1 Corinthians 15:54-57, 3 John 2, Galatians 5:13-16, 1 John 4:9-10, Luke 2:14, Psalm 150, Psalm 17:7

Song | Rescuer —
Scripture Inspiration: Titus 3:4-5, Jude 25, Romans 6:17-19, Romans 6:1, Psalm 52:9, Isaiah 61:1, Romans 5:6-8, Luke 15:10, Ephesians 2:4-5, John 15:13-15, Psalm 5:11, Psalm 34:22, John 14:6, Romans 6:6-7, Psalm 56:11, Luke 18:13, Galatians 1:3-4, Ephesians 1:7, Titus 2:14

Scripture | Romans 6:4-9 —

⁴We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
⁵For if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His. ⁶We know that our old self was crucified with Him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. ⁷For one who has died has been set free from sin. ⁸Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him. ⁹We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over Him.