Lenten Schedule for 2025

Our Lenten theme is "The Hand of the Lord" from Concordia Publishing House
Whether tightening a bolt, crocheting, or typing on a computer, there is so much that we do with our hands. Our Creator has bestowed on us these amazing instruments, yet all things are the work of the hand of the Lord. Throughout our Lenten mid-week services we will explore the ways in which the hand of the Lord is both Law and Gospel, and how His hand has come to us in Jesus. 

We’ll be reminded that the hand of Jesus has accomplished all that we need. Amazingly, He takes our manipulative, distorted, self-serving hands and restores them into useful hands for His purposes, both to literally use them in service and to make our whole lives into His instruments of witness, service, and praise. 

Wednesday March 26
Lenten/Midweek services with communion at 2:00 p.m. & 7:00 p.m.

Wednesday April 2
Lenten/Midweek services with communion at 2:00 p.m. & 7:00 p.m.

Wednesday April 9
Lenten/Midweek services with communion at 2:00 p.m. & 7:00 p.m.

Thursday April 17 — Maundy Thursday
Services with communion at 2:00 p.m. & 7:00 p.m.

Friday April 18 — Good Friday
Tenebrae services at 2:00 p.m. & 7:00 p.m. (no communion)

Sunday April 20 — Easter Sunday
Services at 8:00 a.m. & 10:30 a.m. with Easter Breakfast at 9:15 a.m. - No Bible Study or Sunday School

Please note that the Wednesday Bible Study at 2:30 p.m. will be on hiatus during Lent.

VIDEO: Sunday March 23, 2025 - Complete Service

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AUDIO: Announcements, Readings, Sermon & Men’s Choir for Sunday March 23, 2025

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Old Testament Reading -- Ezekiel 33:7–20 
“So you, son of man, I have made a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. If I say to the wicked, O wicked one, you shall surely die, and you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from his way, that wicked person shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. But if you warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, that person shall die in his iniquity, but you will have delivered your soul. 

“And you, son of man, say to the house of Israel, Thus have you said: ‘Surely our transgressions and our sins are upon us, and we rot away because of them. How then can we live?’ Say to them, As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel? 

“And you, son of man, say to your people, The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him when he transgresses, and as for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not fall by it when he turns from his wickedness, and the righteous shall not be able to live by his righteousness when he sins. Though I say to the righteous that he shall surely live, yet if he trusts in his righteousness and does injustice, none of his righteous deeds shall be remembered, but in his injustice that he has done he shall die. Again, though I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ yet if he turns from his sin and does what is just and right, if the wicked restores the pledge, gives back what he has taken by robbery, and walks in the statutes of life, not doing injustice, he shall surely live; he shall not die. None of the sins that he has committed shall be remembered against him. He has done what is just and right; he shall surely live. 

“Yet your people say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just,’ when it is their own way that is not just. When the righteous turns from his righteousness and does injustice, he shall die for it. And when the wicked turns from his wickedness and does what is just and right, he shall live by them. Yet you say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ O house of Israel, I will judge each of you according to his ways.” 

Epistle Reading -- 1 Corinthians 10:1–13 
I want you to know, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. 

Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.” We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. 

The Holy Gospel according to St. Luke, the thirteenth chapter
There were some present at that very time who told [Jesus] about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” 

And he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. And he said to the vinedresser, ‘Look, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?’ And he answered him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure. Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’” 

Men’s Choir -- My Song is Love Unknown (8 am) 

What About … The Bible

What About …
The Bible

Greetings to you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible continues to be the best selling book of all time. Throughout the ages, the Bible has provided inspiration, comfort and guidance to those who have read it. But is the Bible merely an inspirational book? It is this, but so much more! Let’s spend a few moments reviewing some important truths about the Bible.

What is the Bible?
The word “Bible” is from a Greek word that means “book”. What is this “good book”? That question has a two-part answer.

First, the Bible is actually a collection of books –66 of them to be exact-from the first book, Genesis, to the last, Revelation. These books cover thousands of years and were written in either Hebrew, Aramaic or Greek. There are many different kinds of writings in the Bible: historical narrative, prophecy, poetry, speeches, letters and so on. From a merely human perspective, there is no question that the Bibles is a masterpiece of literature.

Second, the much more important answer to the question, “What is the Bible?” is this: The Bible is the Word of God. The Bible is the collection of the thoughts—even the very words –that God gave to the authors of the Biblical books. The Bible is a gift God has given to His church. It is not a collection of ancient fables and myths. The Bible is the sure and certain means that God the Holy Spirit uses to communicate God’s Word to us today.

How did we receive the Bible?
The Bible itself explains how we received it. “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness”(2 Tim.3:16). We read elsewhere that, “Prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Pet. 1:21)

Because people knew that the Bible was the actual Word of God, it was copied and re-copied with painstaking care and attention to detail, letter by letter, word by word. Though today we no longer possess the actual, original text of the Bible, we can be certain that the Holy Spirit has preserved the Word of God for us. Careful study of the many thousands of copies of the New Testament reveals that though there are minor differences between the various copies, there is no place where any key teaching of the Bible is contradicted.

Our English Bibles are translations from the original languages. When we use reliable translations, we can be sure that we have the true Word of God. Whatever the Word of God is in Hebrew, Aramaic or Greek, it is also the Word of God in English, or in any other language, as long as the translation is faithful to the original languages. Reliable translations include the King James Version, the New King James Version, the Old Revised Standard Version, the New International Version and the New American Standard Bible.

Why is the Bible so Important?
Someone may say, “The Bible is important to me because it tells me what to do” and another person might say , “The old stories remind me of my childhood.” or “The Bible is a guide-book for daily living.” These answers all have a grain of truth, but they miss the real reason why the Bible is so important; It is the sure and certain source for knowing who Jesus Christ is and what He has done for us.

Jesus said “The Scriptures testify about me” (John 5:39). The main message of the Bible is the good news of God’s work to reconcile the world to Himself through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Throughout Old and New Testaments, the central message of the Scripture is the account of how God was in the world preparing it to receive His Son and then what His Son did when He was here. It also tells how the church received this glorious message of salvation, and how it grew and spread throughout the known world. Luther once compared the Bible to the swaddling clothes the baby Jesus was wrapped in. Thus the Bible is Christ-centered.

Our Lord Jesus said, “If you remain in my Word, truly you are my disciples” (John 8:31). The divine authority and reliability of the Bible does not rest on the persons God used to write the Bible, nor on the endorsement of the Bible by the church, but rests entirely on the fact that it is the Word of the Lord. How do we know this? This confession of the Bible’s complete authority is part of the certainty of the faith God gives to us as a gift.

Real human beings were given real words from God to write down. As our Lord Jesus Christ was both true God and true man, so the Bible is truly the Word of God and also the writing of human beings. Even as our Lord Jesus took on human flesh free from sin and error, so God used human beings to provide a written revelation of Himself that is free from error. Thus, we believe that the Bible is both incapable of error (infallible) and free from error (inerrant).

The Bible has a very important distinction one needs to keep in mind in order to understand the Bible correctly; the difference between Law and Gospel. The Bible reveals God’s perfect holiness and righteousness, and His expectation of perfection. His Law, summarized best in the Ten Commandments, reveals our sinful rebellion and our inability to save ourselves. The Gospel is the joyful news that our Lord Jesus Christ has given us complete forgiveness from our sins through His life, death and resurrection for us. The proper distinction between Law and Gospel is the key to understanding the Bible correctly.

The most important message of the Bible is not the Law of God. The Bible is not merely a collection of principles for daily living. The Bible is not a textbook that answers every possible question we have. Nor for that matter is the Bible a book that predicts every last detail about the future. The central and most important teaching in the Bible is the Gospel, the good news of God’s gift of salvation through Jesus Christ. The Gospel is the mes-sage that predominates through out the Bible, from Old Testament to New Testament. Thus the Bible is Gospel-centered.

We know that the Bible was not given merely for the sake of itself. We are not saved because we own a Bible. We are saved by our Lord Jesus Christ, who is revealed in the Bible. We believe the Bible because it is the Lord’s Word. We believe in Him, thus we believe His Word to be true. We receive what He has given. He has given us the Scriptures. Thus, the Bible is the foundation and touchstone for everything that the church believes, teaches, confesses and practices. Why? Because the Bible is the inspired, Christ-centered Word of the Lord.

How Do We Use the Bible?
The Bible is foundational for the church’s ministry. The Bible was never intended to stand alone or apart from the community of faith we call the Christian church. It is sad when some peo-ple think that, if they just read the Bible, they can stay away from church. We receive our Lord’s gifts with joy and do not say, “We want this, but not that.” It would be misleading if our high respect for the scriptures was used to drive a wedge between the Bible and the church. The church is the gathering of God’s people around the Lord’s Word and Sacraments. The Scriptures are the sure and certain revelation of God’s Word and thus are to be read, studied and me meditated on by Christians at church and at home.

We Lutherans realize that Scripture must be interpreted according to the central truth of the Bible, the Gospel, not picked apart and made to teach things that actually conflict with the Gospel. Therefore, we pay close attention to the grammar and words of the Bible, seeking out the intended meaning, which is the plain sense of the text. We recognize that God the Holy Spirit works thought the Scriptures to create and sustain the church as it comes together around the preaching of the Word and the administration of the Sacraments.

Whenever the Word of God is preached, taught, studied, read, learned, or meditated on, the Holy Spirit is actively turning people from their sin and drawing them to Christ for their salvation. Thus, we will want to be in the Word daily. At home we read and mediate on the Word through our private and family devotion. At church, our hymns and liturgy are anchored in the Word of God. Our pastors preach to us on the basis of the Scripture lessons appointed for each Sunday in the church year. Our school teachers lead our children into deeper knowledge of the Word of God. In Sunday school, children learn the biblical accounts and thus have a foundation for their lives. In youth and adult Bible studies, the Scriptures are studied in a variety of ways so they can inform and enlighten us and help us understand how we live out our lives as God’s people.

What a blessed gift the Holy Scriptures are to us and to all people! Everything God wants us to know about Himself is contained in His Word. Through the Scriptures, the Holy Spirit reveals the truth about our sinful condition and the joyful news of God’s saving work for us through his Son, Jesus Christ. Truly, God’s Word is a lamp to our feet and a light for our path (Ps. 119:105). For the reason we pray, “Lord, keep us steadfast in your Word.”

Dr. A. L. Barry
Past President (1992-2001)
The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod

Bulletin: Sunday March 23, 2025 + This Week at Zion

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THIS WEEK AT ZION

Saturday March 22
No Events Scheduled

Sunday March 23
8:00 a.m. — Worship Service with Communion
9:15 a.m. — Adult/Teen Bible Study & Sunday School
10:30 a.m. — Worship Service with Communion
(The 8:00 a.m. service streamed on our YouTube channel)

Monday March 24
6:00 p.m. - Confirmation
6:00 p.m. - Grace Bell Choir Practice
7:00 p.m. - Confirmation

Tuesday March 25
6:15 p.m. - Faith Bell Choir
7:15 p.m. - Adult Choir

Wednesday March 26
Midweek Lenten Services - Week 3
2:00 p.m. - Mid-Week Lenten Worship Service
7:00 p.m. - Mid-Week Lenten Worship Service
(Service streamed on our YouTube channel)

Thursday March 27
6:00 p.m. - Adult Confirmation/Member Class (Additional Details)

Friday March 28
5:00 p.m. - Preschool Ice Cream Social

Saturday March 29
10:00 a.m. - Pittsburgh Circuit Forum

Sunday March 30
8:00 a.m. — Worship Service with Communion
9:15 a.m. — Adult/Teen Bible Study & Sunday School
10:30 a.m. — Worship Service with Communion
(The 8:00 a.m. service streamed on our YouTube channel)

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AUDIO: Readings & Sermon for Wednesday March 19, 2025

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Worship Service: 2:00 p.m. with Communion
Worship Service: 7:00 p.m. with Communion
All are welcome, bring a friend, neighbor or relative

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First Reading -- Genesis 3:1-24 
Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.

He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” And he said, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” The man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” 

The Lord God said to the serpent, 
“Because you have done this,
cursed are you above all livestock
and above all beasts of the field;
on your belly you shall go,
and dust you shall eat
all the days of your life.
I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring;
He shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise His heel.” 

To the woman He said, 
“I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing;
in pain you shall bring forth children.
Your desire shall be for your husband,
and he shall rule over you.” 

And to Adam He said, 
“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife 
and have eaten of the tree
of which I commanded you,
‘You shall not eat of it,’
cursed is the ground because of you;
in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;
and you shall eat the plants of the field.
By the sweat of your face
you shall eat bread,
till you return to the ground,
for out of it you were taken;
for you are dust,
and to dust you shall return.” 

The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.

Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden He placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life. 

Second Reading -- 1 Peter 5:6–11 
Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time He may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on Him, because He cares for you. Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To Him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen. 

Third Reading -- Luke 9:37–43; 11:14–23 
On the next day, when they had come down from the mountain, a great crowd met Him. And behold, a man from the crowd cried out, “Teacher, I beg You to look at my son, for he is my only child. And behold, a spirit seizes him, and he suddenly cries out. It convulses him so that he foams at the mouth; and shatters him, and will hardly leave him. And I begged Your disciples to cast it out, but they could not.” Jesus answered, “O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you and bear with you? Bring your son here.” While he was coming, the demon threw him to the ground and convulsed him. But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit and healed the boy, and gave him back to his father. And all were astonished at the majesty of God. . . 

Now He was casting out a demon that was mute. When the demon had gone out, the mute man spoke, and the people marveled. But some of them said, “He casts out demons by Beelzebul, the prince of demons,” while others, to test Him, kept seeking from Him a sign from heaven. But He, knowing their thoughts, said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and a divided household falls. And if Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? For you say that I cast out demons by Beelzebul. And if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges. But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are safe; but when one stronger than he attacks him and overcomes him, he takes away his armor in which he trusted and divides his spoil. Whoever is not with Me is against Me, and whoever does not gather with Me scatters. 

In Memoriam: Dennis Finney

In Memoriam 
It has pleased the Lord to call unto Himself on February 21st our brother in Christ, Dennis Finney. In recent months Dennis had persevered with extended illness due to chronic health conditions. May the Lord comfort Dennis’ wife, Melanie; his mother, Esther; and the rest of his family with the assurance of eternal life in Him. 

Link to full obituary