Worship Service
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Lectionary Theme: Hosanna - Theological Seminary Day The cry for salvation: The coming of the Messiah
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Zechariah 9:9-17 First Lesson
9. Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
10. He will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war-horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall command peace to the nations; his dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth.
11. As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit.
12. Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope; today I declare that I will restore to you double.
13. For I have bent Judah as my bow; I have made Ephraim its arrow. I will arouse your sons, O Zion, against your sons, O Greece, and wield you like a warrior’s sword.
14. Then the Lord will appear over them, and his arrow go forth like lightning; the Lord God will sound the trumpet and march forth in the whirlwinds of the south.
15. The Lord of hosts will protect them, and they shall devour and tread down the slingers; they shall drink their blood like wine, and be full like a bowl, drenched like the corners of the altar.
16. On that day the Lord their God will save them for they are the flock of his people; for like the jewels of a crown they shall shine on his land.
17. For what goodness and beauty are his! Grain shall make the young men flourish, and new wine the young women.
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Romans 11:16-24 Second Lesson
16. If the part of the dough offered as first fruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy; and if the root is holy, then the branches also are holy.
17. But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, a wild olive shoot, were grafted in their place to share the rich root of the olive tree,
18. do not boast over the branches. If you do boast, remember that it is not you that support the root, but the root that supports you.
19. You will say, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.”
20. That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand only through faith. So do not become proud, but stand in awe.
21. For if God did not spare the natural branches, perhaps he will not spare you.
22. Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness toward you, provided you continue in his kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off.
23. And even those of Israel, if they do not persist in unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again.
24. For if you have been cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these natural branches be grafted back into their own olive tree. All Israel Will Be Saved
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Colossians 1:10-14 Epistle
10. so that you may lead lives worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, as you bear fruit in every good work and as you grow in the knowledge of God.
11. May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience, while joyfully
12. giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light.
13. He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son,
14. in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. The Supremacy of Christ
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Matthew 21:1-17 Gospel
1. When they had come near Jerusalem and had reached Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples,
2. saying to them, “Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to me.
3. If anyone says anything to you, just say this, ‘The Lord needs them.’ And he will send them immediately.”
4. This took place to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet:
5. “Tell the daughter of Zion, Look, your king is coming to you, humble and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”
6. The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them;
7. they brought the donkey and the colt and put their cloaks on them, and he sat on them.
8. A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road.
9. The crowds that went ahead of him and that followed were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!”
10. When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil, asking, “Who is this?”
11. The crowds were saying, “This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.”
12. Then Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who were selling and buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves.
13. He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it a den of robbers.”
14. The blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he cured them.
15. But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the amazing things that he did and heard the children crying out in the temple and saying, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they became angry
16. and said to him, “Do you hear what these are saying?” Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read, ‘Out of the mouths of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise for yourself’?”
17. He left them, went out of the city to Bethany, and spent the night there.