Proclaim the resurrection. It’s what we’re here for.

A call to worship.

The church does not exist by its own strength or cleverness. It is called into being by the risen Jesus himself. The Holy Spirit gives the church power to step out in public witness, not because we are religious experts, but because of the undeniable reality of the resurrection. God the Father has vindicated the very one who was crucified, shamed, and cast aside. And the Spirit brings the living Christ into the very heart of the church, shaping everything—our words, our identity, our mission.

The resurrection is not a detail tucked away in the story. It is the turning point of all things. In the resurrection, God exposes the emptiness of every false power, every false claim to greatness, every false reading of reality. Here, God creates a new humanity, a people whose lives are patterned after Jesus, marked by suffering, yes, but also by glory.

Think of the apostles, standing before rulers and authorities, again and again proclaiming the resurrection. The Spirit filled them with courage and sent them out. The early church did not see itself as a group of religious achievers. It knew itself as a community formed by the living Christ, sent into the world to show what resurrection really means.

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Themes

The Resurrection • Witness • Transformation • Discipleship • Power • Suffering • Rejection • Glory • Exaltation

God’s power — the power that was visible in Jesus’ ministry and on full display in His resurrection — that power — has been folded into each of our daily lives.

Not on our abilities. Not on our talent or eloquence or intelligence.

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Scripture reading

Acts 1:3–8, 21–22
Acts 2:31–32
Acts 4:1–2
Acts 5:30–32
Acts 17:18

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This call to worship¹ helps us see that the resurrection of Jesus is not just a belief, but a living reality that shapes who we are and why we come together. It reminds us that God meets ordinary, weak, and often overlooked people with His Spirit and sends them out as bold witnesses to the risen Christ.

In the opening verses of the Book of Acts we read: 

After Jesus’ suffering, 
He presented Himself to them 
and He gave many convincing proofs 
that He was alive. 
He appeared to them 
over a period of forty days 
and spoke about 
the kingdom of God. 
On one occasion, 
while He was eating with them 
(because He was alive and embodied), 
He told them this:
“You will receive power 
when the Holy Spirit comes on you; 
and you will be My witnesses.”


Shortly after Jesus’ ascension, Peter reminded the early believers about Judas, who had betrayed Jesus, and Peter said:

It is necessary 
to choose one of the men 
who have been with us the whole time 
the Lord Jesus was living among us. 
For one of these 
must become 
a witness 
with us 
of His resurrection.


In the very next chapter, a crowd gathered, and Peter stood and proclaimed:

Seeing what was to come, 
Jesus spoke 
of the resurrection 
of the Messiah. 
He was not abandoned 
to the realm 
of the dead, 
nor did His body see decay. 
God has raised 
this Jesus 
to life, 
and we are all witnesses of it.


And then, in Acts Chapter 3 and 4, Peter preached to the onlookers after healing the lame man. He proclaimed:

You killed the Author of Life, 
but God 
raised Him 
from the dead. 
We are witnesses of this.

The priests 
and the captain of the temple guard 
and the Sadducees 
came up to Peter and John 
while they were speaking to the people. 
They were greatly disturbed 
because the apostles 
were teaching the people, 
proclaiming in Jesus 
the resurrection 
of the dead. 


And then, again, in the very next chapter, before the full assembly of the elders of Israel, Peter and the apostles told the Sanhedrin:

The God of our ancestors 
raised Jesus from the dead — 
whom you killed 
by hanging Him 
on a cross. 
God exalted Him 
to his own right hand 
as Prince and Savior. 
We are witnesses 
of these things, 
and so is the Holy Spirit, 
whom God has given 
to those 
who obey Him.


And finally, later on in Acts, Paul is in Athens, Greece, and this happened:

A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers 
began to debate with Paul. 
Some of them asked, 
“What is this babbler trying to say?” 
Others remarked, 
“He seems to be advocating foreign gods.” 
They said this 
because Paul was preaching 
the good news 
about Jesus and the resurrection. 

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Prayer

Father, 
you have made us witnesses 
to the resurrection — 
to the reality 
that Jesus is alive 
and has an embodied existence 
beyond the grave — 
that He was not simply 
a resuscitated corpse, 
that He was not simply 
an immortal soul 
finally freed 
from bodily existence. 
You have made us witnesses 
to the reality 
that between the humiliated, crucified Jesus of Nazareth 
and the resurrected exalted Messiah and Lord, 
there is 
a radical 
consistency.  

And it is because 
you have given to us 
your Holy Spirit, 
and He 
is a witness 
to this resurrection. 

You raised to life the One 
who was utterly rejected 
by Jewish leaders — 
the very leaders 
whose status 
and power 
and prestige 
and legitimacy 
came from the fact 
that they were the ones 
who knew the scripture 
and could interpret Your will.

You raised to life the One 
who was utterly rejected 
by Roman leaders — 
leaders whose social and political positions 
were maintained 
by their careful attention 
to status, 
and to title, 
and to honor. 
And Jesus — 
the one You exalted 
and to whom You gave the highest place — 
He was the very One 
Who suffered in a way 
that, to the Romans, 
would have been 
the ultimate humiliation — 
publicly executed 
naked 
on a cross. 

What a profound irony. 
It calls into question 
every power, 
every authority, 
every world order 
practiced by the elite. 
It did then. 
And it still does now. 

Your Spirit transformed the first believers — 
the incapable, 
the inept, 
the untrained, 
the disgraced, 
the low-status first believers — 
transformed into bold, 
unbridled, 
fearless witnesses 
who stood before kings, 
rulers, 
leaders, 
scholars, 
philosophers, 
and gave testimony 
to the resurrection. 
This same Spirit 
is in us — 
the same spirit 
that is witness 
to the same resurrection. 

Father, 
help us to understand 
that our own discipleship — 
and our mission as assembled people — 
is based on 
and determined by 
the resurrection of Jesus Christ. 
Not on our abilities. 
Not on our talent 
or eloquence 
or intelligence. 

Your power — 
the power 
that was visible 
in Jesus’ ministry 
and on full display 
in His resurrection — 
that power — 
has been folded into 
each one of our daily lives 
and into the daily life 
of this church community. 

And now 
our existence 
is to be an existence that matches the story of Jesus — 
a story of suffering 
and resurrection, 
a story of rejection 
and glory. 

So, 
establish each one of us, 
Father, 
wherever we are, 
in whatever place we spend most of our time — 
our homes, 
our places of employment, 
our schools — 
establish us as witnesses 
of the resurrection. 
Let it be known 
that we derive our identity 
from the ongoing life and reality 
of the One who lived 
and died 
and was raised. 
Make that same power 
glaringly evident 
in our lives. 
Make that same power 
unambiguously palpable 
through the mission 
of this little church. 

Enable us 
to give testimony 
to the resurrection 
of Jesus Christ. 

In the name of Jesus Christ, 
Whom You raised from the dead, 
Whom You exalted to Your own right hand as Prince and Savior, 
through Whom we have received the promise of our own resurrection,
Amen

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1. A call to worship given to the small assembly of Christians that gather in Pathway Church, Beaverdam, Michigan, on Sunday, May 21, 2023