Welcome to our celebrations
Thank you for coming with others from regions both near and far to this worship sequence of hymns, songs, prayers, readings and messages for Easter Day. We hope that it holds special significance for all who join us.
✽ Opening HYMN
“Jesus Christ is risen today. Alleluia!”
✽ OPENING PRAYER
We call on God to accept our service, asking that, as we worship and express our love for Him, He will continue to teach, guide and bless us.
✽ 2nd HYMN
“Lord, the light of your love is shining”
✽ A TIME OF PRAYER
As we try to grasp the enormity of God’s amazing love for us on this special day, we are drawn to a prayer of praise. Jesus took the pain we deserve. This amazing act of sacrifice has won eternal life for each of us. So our prayers are full to the brim - and even overflowing - with thanks for what He has done. As the prayer comes to an end end, we join with our preacher in saying the LORD’S PRAYER.
✽ EASTER BIBLE READING
GOSPEL OF JOHN, CHAPTER 20, VERSES 1 TO !8
The text of this amazing passage is shown below the audio bar to enable you to follow it.
The empty tomb
1 Early, on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. 2 She came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, ‘They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!’ 3 Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 4 Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first.
5 He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7 as well as the cloth that had been wrapped round Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. 8 Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. 9 (although they did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead). 10 Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.
Jesus appears to Mary Magdalene
11 Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb 12 and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.
13 They asked her, ‘Woman, why are you crying?’
‘They have taken my Lord away,’ she said, ‘and I don’t know where they have put him.’ 14 At this, she turned round and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realise that it was Jesus.
15 He asked her, ‘Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?’
Thinking he was the gardener, she said, ‘Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.’
16 Jesus said to her, ‘Mary.’
She turned towards him and cried out in Aramaic, ‘Rabboni!’ (which means ‘Teacher’).
17 Jesus said, ‘Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.”’
18 Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: ‘I have seen the Lord!’ And she told them that he had said these things to her.
✽ 3rd HYMN
“My Jesus, I love Thee”
✽ ADDRESS
Our speaker offers some key insights into this astonishing and wonderful story and the unfolding events following the discovery of the empty tomb. As we heard in John’s account in our reading earlier, the characters play out many significant and revealing dramas. And, importantly, it was all as the prophets foretold.
✽ FINAL HYMN
“Thine is the glory”
✽ Benediction
Thank you for joining us in these Easter devotions.
Our speaker closes the service in prayer and concludes with a blessing.
Long Lane Independent Methodist Church
As we gradually come out of ‘lockdown’ in the UK, where Covid cases are diminishing rapidly, we continue to share in the sadness of people in all nations as this global pandemic takes more lives. We ask that you join with the church to pray for those in desperate situations where tragedies are unfolding daily and where people are having to distance from loved ones, care for the sick and vulnerable and experience the loneliness and tensions of enforced isolation.
WE PRAY for THE HOPE OF EASTER to be felt IN EVERY PART OF OUR WORLD, THAT SUFFERING MAY CEASE, THAT BURDENS WILL BE EASED AND THAT HEALING AND COMFORT WILL COME TO THOSE WHO ARE CRYING OUT FOR RELIEF.
LORD, IN YOUR MERCY, HEAR OUR PRAYER.
If you have concerns for the physical, spiritual or mental health of family and friends, name them in prayer to God. If you wish to share your concerns, you can still contact Long Lane Independent Methodist Church here.
