Benediction

The Lord Jesus is risen from the dead. He is alive and shall never die. In Him is abundant life and He has granted You eternal life by the indwelling power of His Holy Spirit, whom He has sent to dwell with you always. Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Go out into the world in His life and in His peace. Amen.

With Us Alway

The sermon today is God With Us. Jesus is God With Us. If we have Jesus, we have God. If Jesus dwells with us, God dwells with us. But God with us is not God in the abstract with us. Or simply God, the One who dwells in unapproachable light. God made a point to come to us as a person, as a man, Jesus.

I hope you see the difference. We should have the utmost respect for Jesus. He is God in the flesh. However, this respect for Jesus should not reveal itself by thinking that He is so holy that we cannot approach Him. Jesus did not shun sinners. He was not afraid of being tainted by them. In fact, Jesus went out of His way to touch the unclean. He spit on blind men to heal them. Unclean bloody women touched Him and were healed. He touched dead bodies and they did not defile Him but were cleansed. Jesus is approachable and He approaches the blind, the lame and the sick. He did this when He walked the Earth and He does this in His Spirit today, even now at this Table. 

Do not shrink back from Jesus. Reach out and touch the hem of His garment and you shall be clean. Let Him touch your eyes, and you shall see. Let Him touch your limping walk and you shall jump and leap and praise God. This is Jesus, who is with us alway.

Prayer of Preparation

Father of the Lord Jesus, who raised Him from the dead by that same Spirit in which we have also been raised, we give You glory for raising Jesus and for calling us to Yourself in Him.

In this meal, we remember His death and also His resurrection. He delivered Himself to death to save us from our sins and You raised Him for our justification. We give You the glory for this and pray that just as You raised Jesus to resurrected life, You would grant us life, now on this Earth, and life eternal in the Resurrection of our bodies at the last day. Amen.

Thanks

Our Father, if the Lord Jesus is not raised from the dead, we are of all men, the most to be pitied. But He is raised and we are alive in Him. We give You thanks for this abundant life that You have graciously bestowed on us. May we use our gifts to Your glory, now and evermore. Amen.

Confession

Our Father, we confess that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. Forgive us our doubt. We believe. Help our unbelief. Raise us up and fill us with the power of Your Holy Spirit. Amen.

Praise

O Lord God, when your angel appeared like lightning and his clothing as white as snow, the guards of the tomb shook with fear and became like dead men. The angel told the women at the tomb not to fear for the dead Jesus they sought was not there. He was risen and alive. Like them, we rejoice in the empty tomb with godly fear and great joy. We exalt You for raising our Lord Jesus from the dead and raising us in Him. Glory be to God in the highest! Amen.

God With Us

As we look at the opening of Matthew today, we see that God has promised to be with us. He sent Jesus as Emmanuel, God with us. Jesus went to Heaven and sent the Spirit to be God with us.

God has not promised to take us out of the world, out of suffering, out of life. We live, we suffer. He told us it would be so. But He has promised to take away our sins and abide with us. He is with us. He is with us in trials. He is with us in suffering. He is with us in victories. In fact, God with us is the victory. If God is for us, who can be against us? Nothing and no one. This is God’s promise to you.