Sixth Sunday after Easter
SERMON TEXT: Acts 9:36-42
In Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha, which in Greek is Dorcas. She was always doing good deeds and acts of charity. At that time she became sick and died. After they had washed her, they laid her in an upstairs room. Since Lydda is near Joppa, when the disciples heard that Peter was there, they sent two men to him, who urged him, “Come to us without delay!” Peter got up and went with them. When he arrived, they led him to the room upstairs. All the widows stood beside him, weeping and showing him the robes and clothing that Dorcas made while she was still with them. After Peter sent them all outside, he got down on his knees and prayed. Then he turned toward the body and said, “Tabitha, get up!” She opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter, she sat up. He gave her his hand and helped her stand up. After he called the saints and the widows, he presented her to them alive. This became known all over Joppa, and many believed in the Lord.
Bible Readings
FIRST LESSON: Acts 9:36-42
See Sermon Text
SECOND LESSON: 1 John 4:1-11
Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see if they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit who confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit who does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard is coming and is already in the world. You are from God, dear children, and you have overcome the false prophets, because the one in you is greater than the one in the world. They are from the world. That is why they speak from a worldly perspective and the world listens to them. We are from God. The one who knows God listens to us, but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. That is how we can distinguish between the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. Dear friends, let us love one another, because love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. The one who does not love has not known God, because God is love. This is how God’s love for us was revealed: God has sent his only-begotten Son into the world so that we may live through him. This is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, if God loved us so much, we also should love one another.
VERSE OF THE DAY: John 14:23
If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.
GOSPEL: John 15:9-17
“As the Father has loved me, so also I have loved you. Remain in my love. If you hold on to my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have held on to my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you these things so that my joy would continue to be in you and that your joy would be complete. “This is my command: Love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this: that someone lays down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you continue to do the things I instruct you. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know what his master is doing. But I have called you friends, because everything that I heard from my Father, I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will endure, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. These things I am instructing you, so that you love one another.”
Is to make disciples for Jesus Christ by sharing the gospel in God’s Word and Sacraments. Following God’s direction and seeking His help, we will fulfill this mission by conducting the following activities: