Sunday Worship Podcast

FOURTH SUNDAY OF EASTER

(21 April 2024)

Acts 4:1–12

1 John 3:16–24

John 10:11–18

Jesus, the Good Shepherd, Lays Down His Life for the Sheep

The Lord Jesus is “the good shepherd” who “lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11). His life is not taken from Him, but He lays it down willingly, of His own accord, because He knows and loves the sheep. As the One sent by the Father, He has the “authority to lay it down” and the “...

THIRD SUNDAY OF EASTER

(14 April 2024)

Acts 3:11–21

1 John 3:1–7

Luke 24:36–49

The Preaching of Repentance and Forgiveness of Sins Makes Us Pure

The risen Lord Jesus taught His disciples “that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead” and “that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations” (Luke 24:46–47). Therefore, St. Peter preaches repentance and forgivenes...

SECOND SUNDAY OF EASTER

(7 April 2024)

Acts 4:32–35

1 John 1:1—2:2

John 20:19–31

The Risen Christ Breathes His Peace in the Holy Absolution

The crucified and risen Lord Jesus appeared to His apostles on the first Easter Sunday. He “came and stood among them,” and with His Word and the wounds in “his hands and his side,” He granted them His peace (John 20:19–20). He sent them as ministers of the Gospel in His name to bestow th...

EASTER SUNDAY (31 March 2024)

Isaiah 25:6–9 1 Corinthians 15:1–11 Mark 16:1–8

The Risen Christ Has Swallowed Up Death Forever!

The entire fallen world is veiled in a funeral shroud “that is spread over all nations” and “cast over all peoples” (Is. 25:7). But the Lord of hosts, in the Person of the incarnate Son, Jesus Christ, has removed that terrible pall and swallowed up death forever. By submitting Himself to death, He burst it ...

PALM SUNDAY / SUNDAY OF THE PASSION

(24 March 2024)

John 12:12–19 (Palm Sunday Procession)

Zechariah 9:9–12

Philippians 2:5–11

Mark 14:1—15:47 or Mark 15:1–47 or John 12:20–43

The Son of David Ascends His Throne and Reigns in Love from His Cross

The Son of David comes in gentle humility, “sitting on a donkey’s colt,” yet as the King of Israel “in the name of the Lord” (John 12:13–15). He comes to be lifted up in glory on th...

FIFTH SUNDAY IN LENT

(17 March 2024)

Jeremiah 31:31–34

Hebrews 5:1–10

Mark 10:(32–34) 35–45

In the Holy Sacraments, We Share the Glory of the Cross of Christ

Jesus catechizes His disciples in the way of the cross, revealing that He will be condemned and put to death “and after three days he will rise” (Mark 10:33–34). But the Twelve do not understand. Instead, they argue among themselves about who will be the greatest, with J...

FOURTH SUNDAY IN LENT

(10 March 2024)

Numbers 21:4–9

Ephesians 2:1–10

John 3:14–21

Jesus Is Lifted Up on the Cross so that We May Look to Him and Live

The people sinned by speaking “against God and against Moses,” and the Lord called them to repentance by sending fiery serpents, which “bit the people, so that many people of Israel died” (Num. 21:4–6). When the people confessed their sin, the Lord provided a means of rescue fr...

THIRD SUNDAY IN LENT

(3 March 2024)

Exodus 20:1–17

1 Corinthians 1:18–31

John 2:13–22 (23–25)

The Crucified and Risen Body of Jesus Is the True Temple of the Lord

The Lord rescues His people, Israel, “out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery” (Ex. 20:2) and makes His gracious covenant with them, defined by the Ten Commandments. Since He has become their God by His grace, they shall be His people, having “no other...

SECOND SUNDAY IN LENT

(25 February 2024)

Genesis 17:1–7, 15–16

Romans 5:1–11

Mark 8:27–38

By the Cross of Our Lord Jesus, We Inherit Life Everlasting with God

In His covenant with Abraham, the Lord promised to be with him, to bless him and to make him “the father of a multitude of nations.” It is “an everlasting covenant” in Christ Jesus, the seed of Abraham who is blameless before God Almighty. All who believe in this Lord J...

ASH WEDNESDAY

(14 February 2024)

Joel 2:12–19

2 Corinthians 5:20b—6:10

Matthew 6:1–6, 16–21

Return to the Lord Your God, for He Has Reconciled You to Himself

On Ash Wednesday, we come down from the mountain with Jesus and set our faces toward His cross and Passion in Jerusalem. We make our pilgrimage with Him by the way of repentance, and thus we return to the dying and rising of Holy Baptism. Christ Jesus, “who knew no sin,”...

FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER THE EPIPHANY

(4 February 2024)

Isaiah 40:21–31

1 Corinthians 9:16–27

Mark 1:29–39

The Son of God, Christ Jesus, Makes Us a New Creation

The Lord alone “is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth” (Is. 40:28). He “sits above the circle of the earth” and “stretches out the heavens like a curtain” (Is. 40:22). Yet, His almighty power is demonstrated chiefly by His mercy and compassion. “He gi...

THIRD SUNDAY AFTER THE EPIPHANY (21 January 2024)

Jonah 3:1–5, 10 1 Corinthians 7:29–31 (32–35) Mark 1:14–20

The Lord Calls Us to Himself by the Preaching of Repentance in His Name

When “the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time,” sending him to preach judgment against the great city of Nineveh, “Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD” (Jonah 3:1, 3). By this preaching, the people were brought t...

SECOND SUNDAY AFTER THE EPIPHANY (14 January 2024)

1 Samuel 3:1–10 (11–20) 1 Corinthians 6:12–20 John 1:43–51

The Lord God Is with You and Reveals Himself to You by the Preaching of His Word

The Lord Jesus calls Philip and Nathanael to “come and see” that He is “the Son of God” and “the King of Israel” (John 1:43–49). And they shall see even “greater things than these” (John 1:50). For His body is the temple of God on earth, and by...

THE BAPTISM OF OUR LORD  (7 January 2024)

Genesis 1:1–5 Romans 6:1–11 Mark 1:4–11

In Holy Baptism, the Triune God Reveals Himself and Recreates Us in His Image

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1). Then, as “the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters” (Gen. 1:2), God spoke His Word: “‘Let there be light,’ and there was light” (Gen. 1:3). In the same way, “the beginning of the gospel o...

THE EPIPHANY OF OUR LORD (6 January 2024)

Isaiah 60:1–6 Ephesians 3:1–12 Matthew 2:1–12

The Lord God Is Manifested in the Incarnate Son

The Feast of the Epiphany centers in the visit of the Magi from the East. In that respect, it is a “thirteenth day” of Christmas, and yet it also marks the beginning of a new liturgical season. Where Christmas has focused on the incarnation of our Lord, that is, on God becoming flesh, the season of...

SECOND SUNDAY IN ADVENT

(10 December 2023)

Isaiah 40:1–11

2 Peter 3:8–14

Mark 1:1–8

You Are Prepared through Repentance for the Coming of the Lord

“The gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God” (Mark 1:1) begins when John the Baptist appears and comes “proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” (Mark 1:4). As the prophet Isaiah had written, John is the messenger of the Lord, sent before His face to prepare...

FIRST SUNDAY IN ADVENT (3 December 2023)

Isaiah 64:1–9 1 Corinthians 1:3–9 Mark 11:1–10 or Mark 13:24–37

The Lord Jesus Comes in Meekness and Humility to Save Us

Although we pray that God “would rend the heavens and come down” (Is. 64:1), that He would take vengeance against our enemies, we ourselves “have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment” (Is. 64:6). We have continued in o...

LAST SUNDAY OF THE CHURCH YEAR Proper 29 (26 November 2023)

Ezekiel 34:11–16, 20–24 1 Corinthians 15:20–28 Matthew 25:31–46

By the Cross of Christ, We Enter the Kingdom of Our God and Father

When the crucified and risen Lord Jesus comes to judge the living and the dead, “he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats” (Matt. 25:32). “To those on his right,” who have been crucified and rais...

TWENTY-FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST Proper 28 (19 November 2023)

Zephaniah 1:7–16 1 Thessalonians 5:1–11 Matthew 25:14–30

God’s Gift of Forgiveness Engenders Our Forgiveness of Others

The Day of the Lord is “near and hastening fast,” and it will be “a day of distress and anguish, a day of ruin and devastation” (Zeph. 1:14, 15). The Lord will search out and punish “the men who are complacent” concerning His Word, “who fill their mas...