The text for this week is John 11:45-53 in which Caiaphas prophetically announces that one man will have to die for the people. The worship theme is “By Men Rejected,” and the visual theme is council chambers and castle interiors, places where men make their self-interested decisions.
Here is the link to the YouTube playlist: 170402 Heart Prep
Prelude:
Your Wounds – Caroline Cobb
Worship:
And Can It Be?
Offertory
The Suffering Servant – Dustin Kensrue
Invitation to Communion:
Stricken Smitten and Afflicted
Benediction:
Via Dolorosa – Leeland
Bonus Video:
Death in His Grave = latest addition to our YouTube Channel
Scripture for Meditation
John 11:43-44 When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” 44The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”
John 11:45-53 Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what he did, believed in him, 46but some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. 47So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council and said, “What are we to do? For this man performs many signs. 48If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.”
49But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all. 50Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.” 51He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, 52and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad. 53So from that day on they made plans to put him to death.
John 10:14-16 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.
Isaiah 53:4-6 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 5But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. 6All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.