Lustre News
Lustre received a snowfall overnight and how refreshing to see it’s brightness and watch it melt through the 55 degree day. It’s the Easter Weekend!
Good Friday services were held for the combined churches at the EMB Church. The church was nearly full. Pastor Wayne Hathaway read Romans 5:1-12, emphasizing verse 8 “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us,” before singing “The Blood Will Never Lose its Power” with his wife, Jeanne, and daughter, Lisa.
Pastor Frank Lenihan of the MB church began his sermon saying he “strongly disagreed with the idea that ‘diversity is our strength.’ Rather it is our unity, our union. Being in unity and communion is our strength”. He said “When Jesus said ‘It is finished’ on the Cross, He used the legal Greek word for “Paid in Full”. Perfection is the requirement to get into heaven. Perfection is having absolute holiness and sinlessnes. Humanity is under the curse: ‘The soul that sinneth it shall die’. That’s why the gospel is Good News! It’s as the Gaither Vocal Band sings ‘He came down to my level because I couldn’t get up to His’.”
Reading Mark 15:22-47, pastor said there were 24 people or groups of folks in this passage. He picked out three “who were never the same because of what Jesus did for them.” “Simon of Cyrene (MK 15:21) was randomly pressed into service to carry the cross that Jesus was forced to carry and had lost so much blood from scourging that the soldier found someone else to carry the cross. Simon, from North Africa in Libya, was in Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover, as Jewish men were to do each year. Scripture tells us he was a Dad, the father of Alexander and Rufus.”
He explained that “Paul sent greetings to Rufas and his mother in Romans 16:13. She was a like a Mom to Paul.” Pastor Lenihan encouraged the many dads in the congregation to lead their families, especially to attend Bible Study and Sunday School, showing the statistics of how much “that matters to children.” “Simon means to ‘listen, to hear’. What Simon heard that day changed his life, because he passed on his faith to his children.”
“A Centurion is a rank of Roman soldier over a company of 100 men. It is very possible the Roman Centurion of Mark 15:39 had been the one at Jesus’ hearing before the Governor Pilate, and would have heard His statements that ‘My kingdom is not of this world’ and ‘Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.’ He would have heard Jesus tell one of the thieves ‘Today you will be with Me in Paradise.’ Verse 39 reads ‘And when the centurion, who was standing right in front of Him, saw the way He breathed His last, he said ‘Truly this man was God’s Son.” The word used means the Only Son. It refers only to Deity. The centurion was changed that day, encountering Jesus.”
The third person whose life was changed that day was Joseph of Arimathea. Up to then, he was a secret follower of Christ according to John, who tells us he feared the Jews. He was a ruler of the Jewish Council. Mark 15:43 says ‘Joseph of Arimathea came, a prominent Council member, who himself was waiting for the kingdom of God; and he gathered up courage and went in to Pilate, and asked for the body of Christ.”
Pastor Frank quoted II Timothy 1:7 and Acts 4:12. “God has not giving us a spirit of fear,, but of love and of a sound mind.” “And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.”
He concluded by asking three questions. 1. Have you, like Simon, told your family about Jesus? Jesus died and rose again. It’s important for your family to know why. 2. Have you, like the Roman centurion, recognized that ‘Surely He was the Son of God!’? No other religious leader was raised from the dead! 3. Are you willing to publically identify with Christ as Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodaemus, members of the ruling council did? If so, you are new creatures in Christ. Behold the old has gone. The new has come.”
Pastor Hathaway led the service in communion and reminded the congregation that “Jesus is coming soon. Look to the sky in expectancy. Anyone who has this hope in himself, purifies himself even as He is pure. Jesus is the One who takes the debt of sin away.”
