Bible studies

Establishes the Building Approach itself. Mark 14:32–52 supplies the baseline; Matthew adds the exact prayer wording, the deepened second resignation, the address “Friend” to Judas, and the twelve legions of angels; Luke contributes the strengthening angel, the bloody sweat, and the healing of the servant’s ear; John reframes the arrest as an act of sovereign authority. The class leaves knowing how the method works for the remaining five weeks.

Sets the Sanhedrin proceeding against Peter’s simultaneous collapse in the courtyard. Matthew’s focus falls on messianic titles and oaths, Luke’s on the morning trial and the look Jesus gives Peter, John’s on the preliminary hearing before Annas and the silence of the Word. The synthesis holds together the condemnation of the Righteous for the unrighteous and the means by which Peter is restored.

Moves from religious condemnation to political interrogation. Mark supplies the morning transfer, the silence, and Pilate’s astonishment; Matthew adds the tragic interlude of Judas; Luke supplies the political charges and the hearing before Herod Antipas; John supplies the Praetorium dialogue on kingship and truth. The class sees the King of Kings stand before a worldly judge to secure an eternal citizenship.

The most theologically dense sequence in the narrative, taught by a deliberate hybrid method. The Barabbas exchange receives the full four-layer treatment, since every Evangelist contributes genuinely new material; the scourging and mocking are compressed into a single Synoptic unit to avoid redundancy; John’s Ecce Homo receives its own full treatment. The Great Exchange is made visible: the innocent is condemned and the guilty walks free.

The central event of all Scripture. The class traces the road to Golgotha, the words from the cross, the supernatural signs, and the moment of death, watching how each Evangelist’s theological emphasis governs what he records and what he omits. The session is framed around divine justice and divine mercy meeting in one place.

The Passion closes not in triumph but in a tomb. Mark supplies the official verification of death through the centurion; Matthew alone records the guard and the sealed stone; Luke emphasizes Joseph’s righteousness, the unused tomb, and the women’s Sabbath obedience; John introduces Nicodemus and the royal quantity of spices. The class carries the weight of the sealed stone into Holy Week.

Compares how each Gospel narrates the discovery: which women came, which messengers spoke, and how the responses ranged from terror to wonder. Mark’s abrupt close at “for they were afraid” is set against Matthew’s earthquake and collapsing guards, Luke’s divine “must” and the apostles’ dismissal of the women, and John’s footrace and undisturbed grave clothes. The divergences are treated as the texture of genuine testimony rather than as a problem to be smoothed.

Asks how the risen Christ is known: by His voice speaking a name, by His feet grasped in worship, by a miraculous catch, by a meal on the shore. Mary Magdalene, the women on the road, and the disciples at Tiberias each recognize Him differently. Song of Solomon 3:1–4 supplies the typological lens of the bride’s night search, and the bribery of the guards supplies the counter-narrative: while the faithful recognize, the unbelieving fabricate.

The most fully developed post-resurrection narrative in any Gospel, and the paradigm for how the Church meets her Lord after the Ascension. Two disciples walk away in despair with a tragically incomplete confession; Jesus opens the whole Old Testament, then is known in the breaking of the bread. The class sees the Divine Service in miniature: the Word proclaimed, the Sacrament given, the eyes opened, and the apostolic confession preceding private experience.

Luke 24:36–43 mounts the defense of the bodily resurrection through touch and broiled fish; John 20:19–29 adds the greeting of peace, the breathing of the Spirit, the institution of the Office of the Keys, and Thomas’s confession; 1 Corinthians 15:1–11 supplies the earliest written creedal formula. The class ends with the Resurrected Crucified who bears His scars, sends His Church, and sustains her through the external, preached Word.

Three commissioning scenes held together. Matthew’s risen Christ claims universal authority and commissions through Baptism and teaching; John’s threefold “Do you love me?” by the charcoal fire reverses Peter’s threefold denial and makes the denier a shepherd; Acts 1:1–8 reorients expectation from a restored kingdom to a promised Spirit. The personal and the cosmic are joined: the Lord who restores a broken fisherman sends His Church to the nations.

Gathers Mark 16:19–20 and Luke 24:50–53, the Acts 1 narrative of the cloud and the angelic promise, the prophetic foundation in Psalm 110 and Daniel 7, and the exaltation theology of Philippians 2 and Hebrews 1. The class concludes that the Ascension is not a departure into absence but a transition into a new mode of ruling and feeding the Church.

Christ the Light opens blind eyes. The One-Year lectionary never assigns John 9, one of the great Johannine sign narratives and central to the early Church’s instruction of baptismal candidates. Isaiah 42:14–21 is likewise absent, and Ephesians 5:8–14 ties the day together. Placed first as the most vivid and immediately gripping of the fourteen.

The promise to Abraham and the new birth. The One-Year stops John 3 at verse 15 and pairs it with the Athanasian Creed; Series A extends through verse 17 and pairs Nicodemus with the call of Abraham in Genesis 12 and with Romans 4 on justification apart from works. The day drives home sola fide through Abraham’s example.

Salt, light, and the Law fulfilled. The One-Year never assigns these verses, which contain the statement foundational to the Lutheran distinction of Law and Gospel: “I have not come to abolish the Law but to fulfill it.” Isaiah 58 on true fasting speaks to Christian vocation. A shorter session by design, changing pace after two long Johannine narratives.

Living water for a thirsty world. The Samaritan woman is entirely absent from the One-Year. With Weeks One and Thirteen this completes the ancient baptismal triad of the Lenten catechumenate: Water, Light, Life. Exodus 17 appears in the One-Year, yet paired there with the vineyard workers, so the baptismal typology is lost.

The parable never appears in the One-Year, and it answers a question every congregation asks: why does God permit evil to persist alongside good? Jesus supplies His own interpretation, with sobering language about the harvest and the furnace. A mid-series change of texture after the Johannine narratives.

The opening of the Farewell Discourse, skipped entirely by the One-Year, holding together one of Scripture’s most comforting promises and its most exclusive claim. Paired with Stephen’s martyrdom in Acts and the royal priesthood of 1 Peter 2. First of three Farewell Discourse sessions, spaced from Weeks Ten and Fourteen.

Peter walking on the water, absent from the One-Year, yields both the sharpest illustration of faith and doubt and a full Christological confession. Job 38 supplies the majestic creation poetry, and Romans 10 supplies the chain from hearing to preaching. The day connects creation, Christology, and the preached Word.

Never assigned in the One-Year, though it is the foundational text for Christ’s presence in Word and Sacrament after the Ascension. The shape of the narrative is the shape of the Divine Service. Peter’s Pentecost sermon and 1 Peter 1 deepen the sacramental emphasis. The only Lukan Gospel in the series.

The twin parables of the treasure and the pearl teach the surpassing value of the Kingdom in a way no other text quite matches. Deuteronomy 7 supplies Old Testament election theology, and Romans 8:28–39 supplies enormous comfort. Short parables placed as a breather after Emmaus.

Paul on the Areopagus, one of the most important apologetic texts in the New Testament and completely absent from the One-Year. It is the biblical model for engaging a pagan culture. Paired with “I will not leave you as orphans” and with 1 Peter 3 on Christ preaching to the spirits in prison, confessed in the Creed yet rarely treated anywhere.

The Church chapter, never read in full in the One-Year, which skips to the Unforgiving Servant and omits the first twenty verses on the Office of the Keys, the little ones, and binding and loosing. Ezekiel’s watchman passage is likewise absent. The day teaches ecclesiology and the pastoral office in practical terms.

Series A pairs the parable with Isaiah 5, the Song of the Vineyard that Jesus is deliberately echoing and that the One-Year never reads. Setting the source text beside the parable lets the congregation watch Jesus claim the vineyard imagery for Himself and pronounce judgment. Prophetic weight building toward the close of the series.

The raising of Lazarus, never read in the One-Year, carrying arguably the most important “I Am” statement in John and triggering the plot to kill Jesus. Paired with the Valley of Dry Bones and Romans 8:1–11 for a threefold witness to bodily resurrection. The most emotionally powerful narrative in the series.

The High Priestly Prayer is entirely absent from the One-Year, though it is Christ’s own prayer for the Church on the night of His betrayal and the only extended prayer of Jesus recorded in Scripture. Paired with the election of Matthias and 1 Peter on suffering. The series closes with the congregation hearing their Lord interceding for them.

Asks why God requires blood, and what the offerings teach about the nature of sin and the cost of its remedy. Three offerings are examined for their distinct theological functions: the burnt offering, the sin offering for a common person, and the guilt offering, together with the principle of Leviticus 17:11. Hebrews 10 supplies the interpretation: the sacrifices were a shadow of the good things to come.

Leviticus 16 read alongside Hebrews 9 and 10. Once a year the high priest passed through the curtain into the presence of God, a terrifying responsibility framed by the deaths of Nadab and Abihu. The class works through the mercy seat, the scapegoat, and the question of access, arriving at the great High Priest who entered the holy places once for all by His own blood.

The holiness categories and the Church’s identity. No portion of the Torah is more alien to modern readers than the purity regulations, so the class works through Leviticus 11 and 19 and then follows the categories into Mark 7, Acts 10, and 1 Peter 1. The congregation arrives at its own identity: cleansed by the blood, made a royal priesthood and a holy nation.

What does the blood of the lamb accomplish, and how does the Passover night in Egypt illuminate Good Friday? Exodus 12 is read with John 19, 1 Corinthians 5, and John 1:29. The typological details are precise: the lamb without blemish, the four days of examination, the unbroken bones that John flags explicitly at the cross, and the blood as a sign to God rather than a signal to Israel.

What does it mean to pass through the waters, and how does the Red Sea crossing shape the New Testament understanding of Baptism? Exodus 14 is read with 1 Corinthians 10, Romans 6, and 1 Peter 3. The same event was simultaneously salvation and judgment: the waters that walled Israel in safety destroyed Egypt.

What is a covenant, and why does the new covenant require better blood than the old? Exodus 19 and 24 are read with Hebrews 9 and 12. The Exodus reaches its theological climax not at the sea but at Sinai: deliverance was the means by which God brought Israel to Himself, and the terror of the mountain reveals the grace of the Gospel.

Asks what God wants from our worship. The eighth-century prophets expose worship severed from justice and announce that the Day of the Lord will be darkness rather than light. Fulfillment is traced through Matthew 23, Acts 2, and Luke 1. The class closes on the summons to repentance and on the One who comes to accomplish in us the repentance He commands.

Moves forward roughly a century. Samaria has fallen, Assyria is crumbling, and Babylon is rising. Class One settled whether God judges; this class asks what His judgment looks like on a cosmic scale and whether there is any hope on the other side of it. Structured in movements from the original gift of God’s presence through judgment to hope.

The remnant has returned under Cyrus’s decree, yet nothing matches the promise: the second temple is smaller, the elders weep, and Malachi says the priests despise God’s name. The question haunting the post-exilic community, and the class, is: where is the glory? The four hundred silent years are framed as the threshold of the Incarnation.

Placed closest to Christmas by design. Where Class One asked what God wants from His people’s worship, this class asks why God wants His people at all. The answer is not duty, obligation, or covenant stricture, but love, dramatized by Hosea in the most shocking terms in the Old Testament.

The most politically charged title in the New Testament, at once a royal claim and a messianic one. The royal-Davidic thread is traced from Nathan’s oracle in 2 Samuel 7 through Isaiah 11, Psalm 110, and Psalm 89, into Matthew’s genealogy and the question about David’s Lord, Romans 1, and finally Revelation 22:16.

The title Jesus used of Himself more than any other, over eighty times in the Synoptics, and the most puzzling. Its surface sense is simply “mortal,” yet Daniel 7:9–14 supplies the key: one like a son of man approaches the Ancient of Days and receives an everlasting dominion. Traced through Psalm 8, Ezekiel 2, Mark 14 and 10, the Johannine sayings, and Revelation 1 and 14.

The title that most directly links the Levitical system to the person and work of Christ. The class gathers the threads John the Baptist draws together: the ram that replaced Isaac, the Passover lamb, the Day of Atonement, and the silent lamb of Isaiah 53, carried forward through 1 Corinthians 5 and 1 Peter 1 to the Lamb on the throne in Revelation 5.

The title that explains what the others mean in practice. All four Servant Songs are read together with Matthew 12, the Philippians hymn, and the Ethiopian’s question in Acts 8. The class moves from studying titles to beholding the suffering, and sets up the Lenten series that will take the Servant Songs one at a time.

Ezekiel 16 and Genesis 15, with Psalm 103, Ephesians 2, and Romans 4. God finds Jerusalem as an abandoned newborn, takes her up, marries her, and clothes her in a splendor that is His own; she turns every gift against Him. The chapter ends with God remembering the covenant of her youth, and the class goes back to Genesis 15 to see that covenant cut, where the fire passes between the pieces alone while Abram sleeps. The Gospel of the day, the workers in the vineyard, asks the same question within a single working day: on what basis does God give?

Jeremiah 1, 20, 31, and 33, with Psalm 22, Hebrews 8, and 2 Corinthians 3. A priest’s son who never served at an altar is given God’s words and six verbs, four of them destructive. Twenty years later he accuses God of deceiving him and finds the Word a fire that he cannot contain. From the same mouth comes the only promise of a new covenant in the Old Testament, and an oath that binds the promise to David to the rising of the sun. The Gospel of the day is the Sower, and the session asks where the fruit of more than forty years of preaching finally landed.

Micah 6 and 7 with Genesis 22, Psalm 130, the Magnificat, and Romans 8:31–39. God stands as the defendant and asks what He has done wrong; the people answer with offers that rise from calves to a firstborn son. Micah closes his book by casting Israel’s sins into the sea that drowned Pharaoh’s army, in keeping with the oath sworn to the fathers. The class hears that oath sworn on Moriah, hears Paul turn Abraham’s verb around when he writes that God “did not spare his own Son,” and follows a blind beggar into Lent asking only for mercy.

Acts 2:1–41 with Joel 2, Psalm 16, and Psalm 110. The Spirit falls, the Scriptures open, and the Church begins. Peter preaches the resurrection and the enthronement out of the Psalms, and three thousand are baptized. Connected back to the risen Christ opening the Scriptures in Luke 24.

Acts 2:42–47 through 4:37. The community’s life, the healing at the gate, the arrest and trial before the same authorities who tried Jesus, the Church’s prayer out of Psalm 2, and the common life. The Church does what Christ did, and is met by what met Him.

Acts 5 through 7. Judgment inside the community with Ananias and Sapphira, growth under opposition, the appointment of the Seven, and Stephen’s speech recapitulating the whole of Israel’s history before his death. Holiness, service, and martyrdom are held together.

Acts 8. The persecution scatters the Church like seed, Philip preaches in Samaria, and the Ethiopian eunuch is reading Isaiah 53 when Philip finds him. The Servant Song opens the world, and Isaiah 56 answers the eunuch’s exclusion. Acts 1:8 is shown fulfilled: Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, the end of the earth.

Revelation 1:9–20 establishes the vision of the risen Christ among the lampstands. Ephesus holds orthodoxy without love, and Smyrna holds poverty that is wealth. Read with the Shema, the tree of life, and Daniel 1 on faithfulness under persecution.

The seduction of accommodation, named through two Old Testament figures the letters invoke directly: Balaam, who taught Israel to stumble, and Jezebel. Numbers 22–25 and the Elijah cycle supply the background, and Psalm 2 supplies the rod of iron.

Appearance against reality: the church with a name for being alive that is dead, and the church with little power that Christ commends without a single rebuke. The key of David is traced back to Eliakim in Isaiah 22, and the book of life to Exodus 32 and Daniel 12.

The lukewarm church and the knocking Christ, followed by a synthesis gathering all seven overcomer promises across the two chapters. The series closes with the Lamb who conquered and with the seven letters read as a portrait of the Church in every age.

Opens where the Bible opens. The Protoevangelium is the seed of every later messianic promise and never appears as a Sunday reading. Mark supplies the counterpart: the offspring of the woman doing battle with the serpent’s kingdom, redefining the family of God around whoever does the will of God.

The Davidic Covenant and the Annunciation. David proposes to build God a house, and God promises instead to build David one. The promise and its fulfillment are read on the same morning.

The growing seed and the mustard seed, paired with Ezekiel’s tender sprig planted on the mountain height. The kingdom grows by a power the sower does not supply and cannot explain.

Jairus, the hemorrhaging woman, and the God who does not fail. Two interwoven healings set against the great confession of steadfast love spoken from the middle of ruin.

Election, adoption, and the sending of the Twelve. Amos protests that he is no prophet nor a prophet’s son, yet the Lord took him; Ephesians 1 grounds the sending in election before the foundation of the world.

Elijah under the juniper tree, fed for a journey too great for him, set beside the I Am saying that interprets the feeding. Ephesians 4 supplies the walk that follows.

The covenant Jeremiah promised and the priest who fulfills it. The law written on the heart, and the High Priest who learned obedience through what He suffered.

James, the Torah, and the heart that defiles. Nothing outside a man defiles him; the tradition of the elders is measured against the commandment of God.

Joshua’s charge at Shechem, the armor of God, and the hard saying that scatters the crowd in John 6. Three texts about the point at which following becomes a decision to stay or leave.

Peter’s confession and the cost of discipleship, paired with the Third Servant Song, the same text the congregation will have studied in Lent. Confession and cross are inseparable.

Marriage, children, and the kingdom received as a child receives it. Creation, hardness of heart, and the Son who was made like His brothers in every respect.

The Shema, the greatest commandment, and the question about David’s Lord, closed by Hebrews 7 on the priest who lives forever.

Wealth, self-salvation, and the God for whom all things are possible. The series closes on a session that bridges naturally into the Ecclesiastes study beginning in September.

The diagnosis and the gift of limits. Ecclesiastes 1, 2, 3, and 12 are read for the verdict, the experiment, the seasons, and the conclusion. Romans 8, 1 Corinthians 15, and Revelation 21 supply the response: creation subjected to futility in hope, and the promise to make all things new.

Mortality, wisdom, and the resurrection. The shared fate of man and beast, the injustice that death does not resolve, the house of mourning, and the dead who know nothing, answered by 1 Corinthians 15, the raising of Lazarus, and Hebrews 2 on deliverance from lifelong slavery to the fear of death.

Vocation, worship, and the life that does not end. Guarding your steps when you go to the house of God, eating your bread with joy, sowing in the morning without knowing which will prosper, and the final word to fear God and keep His commandments. Colossians 3, Matthew 6, Romans 12, and the river of life close the series.

Acts 2:42–47 as the anchor portrait, set beside the assembly at Sinai in Exodus 19–24, with Augsburg Confession VII and Luther’s seven marks. The class establishes what the Church is before asking how she is recognized.

The living Word that creates faith and sustains the Church. Isaiah 55 on the Word that does not return empty, Romans 10 on faith coming by hearing, and 2 Timothy 4 on the charge to preach, with Nehemiah 8 as the Old Testament portrait of a congregation under the read and explained Word.

The Sacraments as God’s provision for the journey. Baptism from Matthew 28 and Romans 6, the Supper from 1 Corinthians 10 and 11 and John 6, with Elijah fed under the juniper tree as the portrait of provision for a journey too great, and the relevant articles of the Augsburg Confession and Small Catechism.

The fellowship, the prayers, and the mutual consolation of the brethren. Matthew 18 on discipline and promise, James 5 on mutual care, Colossians 3 on life together, and the Church at prayer in Acts 4 and Hebrews 10, with Psalms 22 and 23 read as a pair.

The Word recovered, the Church renewed, the confession made. The lampstand and the knocking Christ from Revelation, the Church built on rock from Ephesians 2, 1 Peter 2, and Matthew 16, with Josiah finding the Book of the Law as the Old Testament portrait, and the Augsburg Confession read in full at Articles VII and VIII with its preface and conclusion.

1 Corinthians 15:35–58 anchored by Daniel 12 and supported by Job 19, Ezekiel 37, and Romans 8. What is sown in weakness is raised in power. The creedal phrase governs the session: I believe in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.

1 Thessalonians 4:13–5:11 read with both halves of Zephaniah: the terror of chapter 1 and the joy of chapter 3. Terror and joy from the same prophet, the same God, and the same day. 2 Peter 3 supplies the patience of God as the reason for the delay.

Isaiah 65 and Revelation 21 held together with Romans 8 and 2 Peter 3. The world is destined not for destruction but for transformation. The session closes the program year, from Eden to the New Jerusalem, and opens the door to Advent.

The King of glory enters His temple, His city, and His creation. Daniel 7:9–10 supplies the throne set in place, Revelation 4–5 supplies the heavenly court, and Matthew 21:1–9 supplies the entry the congregation sings every week in the Sanctus.

The martyrs under the altar, the multitude in white, and the God who wipes every tear. Daniel 12 supplies the time of trouble, the fifth seal and the great multitude supply the answer to “how long,” and Luke 21 supplies the shaking of the powers of heaven.

The royal wedding psalm read with the marriage supper of the Lamb and with John’s question from prison. Daniel 7:13–14 supplies the everlasting dominion, Revelation 19 the rider and the wedding, and Matthew 11 the question “are You the one who is to come?”

The new song, the new creation, and the Word made flesh. Daniel 2 supplies the stone that fills the earth, Revelation 21–22 supplies the city that needs no sun, and John 1:19–28 supplies the voice in the wilderness, closing the two-year arc where it began.

Luke 1:39–56. Mary's song follows the song of Hannah in 1 Samuel 2 almost line by line: a woman who had been barren and a virgin both sing of the God who brings down the mighty and exalts the lowly. The class traces the remaining lines to Habakkuk 3:18 and to Psalms 34, 98, 103, 107, and 111, and follows the closing verse to the promise sworn to Abraham in Genesis 12, 17, and 22. Luther's 1521 commentary on the Magnificat supplies the confessional voice.

Luke 1:57–80. Zechariah's long silence ends in a song that praises Mary's child before it mentions his own. The horn of salvation comes from Psalm 132 and 2 Samuel 7, the oath from Genesis 22:16–18, the forerunner from Malachi 3:1 and Isaiah 40:3, and the sunrise from Malachi 4:2 and Isaiah 9:2. The Magnificat and the Benedictus both end on the oath to Abraham, so the first two weeks reach one promise from two directions. That promise returns in Epiphany and again in October.

Luke 2:8–20. One verse of song, studied with its scene. The shepherds keep watch near David's town, where Micah 5 promised a ruler who "shall be their peace" and Ezekiel 34 promised one shepherd over the flock. The angels' words are read with the seraphim of Isaiah 6, the Prince of Peace of Isaiah 9, and the morning stars of Job 38:7. The class also weighs the translation question in the second line and sees how the Church expanded one verse into the hymn of praise sung in the Divine Service.

Luke 2:22–38. Four verses of song, set inside the Presentation. Leviticus 12 and Exodus 13 explain why the child is in the temple, and they connect the scene to The Blood of the Lamb. Simeon's words come from Isaiah 42, 49, and 52, chapters the class studied in The Fifth Gospel, and his release echoes Jacob in Genesis 46:30. The session closes on the sword that will pierce Mary's soul and on the reason the Church sings this song after receiving the Sacrament.

Genesis 18:1–15 and 22:1–19 with John 8:48–59. The Lord appears at Mamre as one of three visitors, eats at Abraham's table, and promises a son. On Moriah the Angel of the Lord stays Abraham's hand and swears by Himself, as only God can, according to Hebrews 6:13. The class picks up the promise that Mary and Zechariah sang at Christmas and hears Jesus claim it: "Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day."

Genesis 32:22–32 with Hosea 12:3–5, and Exodus 3:1–15. Jacob wrestles a man until daybreak and names the place Peniel, "for I have seen God face to face." Moses turns aside to a bush that burns without being consumed, where the Angel of the Lord speaks as the God of Abraham and gives the name I AM. Both men ask the visitor's name, and the two answers are set side by side.

Joshua 5:13–15 and Judges 13 with Matthew 17:1–9. The Commander of the Lord's army gives Joshua the command that Moses heard at the bush, and Manoah's visitor says that his name is "wonderful," the word Isaiah 9:6 gives to the Child. The session then turns to the Gospel of the day. Moses saw only the Lord's back in Exodus 33 and Elijah covered his face in 1 Kings 19; on the mountain both look at Him. Luke 9:31 adds that they spoke of His departure, in Greek His "exodus," a word that points the class toward the Upper Room. 2 Peter 1:16–18, from the Epistle of the day, supplies the eyewitness summary.

Mark 14:12–21 with Matthew 26:17–25 and Luke 22:7–16. The man with the water jar, the large upper room, and the announcement that one of the Twelve will betray Him. Matthew records the question Judas asks and the answer he receives; Luke records the Lord's own longing: "I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer." Exodus 12, taught in The Greater Exodus, supplies the meal they are eating.

Mark 14:22–25, Matthew 26:26–29, Luke 22:17–20, and 1 Corinthians 11:23–32. Four accounts of one testament, compared phrase by phrase. Matthew alone adds "for the forgiveness of sins," Luke and Paul record "new covenant" and the command to do this in remembrance, and Paul adds the warning about eating and drinking without discerning the body. Exodus 24:8, Jeremiah 31:31–34, and Isaiah 53:12 lie behind the words, which are read with the Small Catechism on the Sacrament of the Altar and with Formula of Concord VII.

Luke 22:24–38 with Mark 14:26–31 and Matthew 26:30–35. Luke records what was said at the table after the cup: a dispute about greatness, the Lord's answer that He is among them as the one who serves, the warning that Satan has demanded to sift them, and Isaiah 53:12 applied to Himself. Mark and Matthew record the hymn, the prophecy of Zechariah 13:7, and Peter's protest. The Synoptic accounts then leave for the Mount of Olives, where the Passion series began, and the class turns to what John heard in that room.

John 13:1–30. The Lord lays aside His garments, washes the disciples' feet, and takes His garments up again, an action that pictures the whole of His work. He quotes Psalm 41:9 of the betrayer and gives the morsel to Judas, who leaves at once. John closes the scene in four words: "And it was night." The session begins from the Supper studied in Pre-Lent, which John assumes and does not repeat.

John 13:31–14:31. The new commandment, the prediction of Peter's denial, and the questions of Thomas, Philip, and the other Judas. The Father's house and the way to it were studied in Summer 2026, so this session gives its time to what frames them: the departure that troubles the disciples and the promise of another Helper. It ends on the peace He leaves with them and on the words "Rise, let us go from here."

John 15:1–17. Israel was the vine that the Lord brought out of Egypt in Psalm 80, the vineyard that yielded wild grapes in Isaiah 5, and the useless wood of Ezekiel 15. Jesus now says that He is the true vine and that the branches live only in Him. The session treats abiding, fruit, and pruning, and then the change of name from servants to friends. The class met Isaiah's vineyard in Summer 2026.

John 15:18–16:15. The world's hatred, explained from Psalm 69:4: "They hated me without a cause." Jesus then says that His going away is to the disciples' advantage, since the Helper will come to convict the world concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment, and to guide the disciples into all the truth. The class reads the passage with the Third Article and its explanation in the Small Catechism.

John 16:16–33. Sorrow that will turn into joy, pictured as a woman in labor, an image the prophets used for Zion in Isaiah 26 and 66. The disciples at last say that they understand, and Jesus answers that they will scatter within the hour. The discourse ends on its plainest promise: "Take heart; I have overcome the world."

John 17. The whole prayer, of which Summer 2026 studied the opening. Jesus prays for Himself, for the disciples in the room, and for those who will believe through their word, the same order in which the high priest made atonement in Leviticus 16:17. The class hears what He asks for His Church: that she be kept in the Father's name, sanctified in the truth, and brought to see His glory. John 18:1 then takes Him across the Kidron to the garden, and Holy Week begins.

1 Peter 1:1–12. The Sunday takes its name from 1 Peter 2:2, "like newborn infants," so the letter opens on its own day. Peter addresses the baptized as exiles of the Dispersion, sprinkled with blood as Israel was at Sinai in Exodus 24, and born again to a living hope through the resurrection. The session closes on the prophets who searched and inquired, and on the angels who long to look.

1 Peter 1:13–2:3. "You shall be holy, for I am holy" comes from Leviticus 19, and the lamb without blemish from Exodus 12, both taught in the autumn of 2026. Peter then quotes Isaiah 40, the chapter that opened The Fifth Gospel: all flesh is grass, and the word of the Lord remains forever. The newborn of 2:2 are fed with that word, having tasted that the Lord is good.

1 Peter 2:4–12. Three stone texts in three verses: the cornerstone of Isaiah 28:16, the rejected stone of Psalm 118:22, and the stone of stumbling of Isaiah 8:14. Peter then gives the Church the titles God gave Israel at Sinai in Exodus 19 and reverses the names of Hosea's children. The session treats the priesthood of the baptized and the sacrifices it offers.

1 Peter 2:13–3:12. The fullest passage in the letter, so the hour is given to its center. In the middle of his instructions to citizens, servants, wives, and husbands, Peter preaches Isaiah 53: "By his wounds you have been healed." The Servant studied in The Fifth Gospel is given here as the ground of forgiveness and as the pattern of patient suffering. The household instructions are read through once and sent home on a handout with the Table of Duties, which quotes them.

1 Peter 3:13–4:11. Christ suffered once for sins, was made alive, and made proclamation to the spirits in prison, the article confessed in the Creed and explained in Formula of Concord IX. Peter moves from Noah's ark to the font in one sentence: "Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you." The session ends with Christ at the right hand of God and with the life of a congregation that knows the end of all things is at hand.

1 Peter 4:12–5:14. Peter tells those who suffer that the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon them, the word of this letter for Pentecost. Judgment begins at the household of God, a warning that Ezekiel 9 first gave and that September will revisit. Peter then charges the elders to shepherd the flock, repeating the charge he himself received by the charcoal fire, and promises the unfading crown when the Chief Shepherd appears. The letter is signed from "Babylon," and the class leaves with the word that carries into the autumn: the Church lives in exile and is kept there by her Lord.

Luke 4:16–30 with Nehemiah 8 and 1 Corinthians 12. Jesus reads Isaiah 61 in the synagogue at Nazareth, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me," and sits down to preach a sermon of one sentence. The One-Year never appoints this first sermon or the attempt on His life that follows. Nehemiah 8 shows a congregation in tears under the Word read aloud, and 1 Corinthians 12 shows what the Spirit makes of those who hear. Placed first, on the Sunday after Pentecost, for the sake of its opening line.

Luke 7:36–8:3 with 2 Samuel 11:26–12:14. A woman of the city weeps at the feet of Jesus in a Pharisee's house, and He answers His host with the parable of two debtors. The Old Testament reading is Nathan before David: a parable, a verdict, a confession, and an absolution spoken on the spot. The One-Year appoints neither text for a Sunday. The session treats Confession and Absolution from the Small Catechism and holds the Epistle, from Galatians 2 and 3, for October.

Luke 9:51–62 with 1 Kings 19:9–21 and Galatians 5. The journey to Jerusalem begins. A Samaritan village refuses Him, James and John want fire from heaven, and three would-be followers hear what following costs. Elisha, called from the plow in 1 Kings 19, is the background of the saying about the hand on the plow. Galatians 5 supplies freedom, the flesh, and the fruit of the Spirit, from the part of that letter that October will not reach.

Luke 10:1–20 with Isaiah 66:10–14 and Galatians 6. The Lord sends seventy-two ahead of Him as lambs among wolves and receives them back with joy: "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven." He then turns their joy from the power they were given to the book in which their names are written, a book the class will meet again in Daniel 12. Paul closes Galatians by boasting in nothing except the cross.

Luke 10:38–42 with Genesis 18:1–14 and Colossians 1:21–29. Martha serves, and Mary sits at the Lord's feet to hear His word. Series C pairs the scene with Abraham's hospitality at Mamre, the appearance studied in Epiphany, where the Guest proves to be the Giver. Five verses of Gospel make a shorter session by design. Colossians 1 names the one thing: "Christ in you, the hope of glory."

Luke 11:1–13 with Genesis 18:20–33 and Colossians 2:6–15. Luke's shorter form of the Lord's Prayer, the friend at midnight, and the promise that the Father gives the Holy Spirit to those who ask. Abraham's intercession for Sodom, from fifty righteous down to ten, is the Old Testament's boldest example of the same persistence. The session reads the prayer with the Small Catechism, the first treatment of the Third Chief Part in this program.

Acts 9:1–22 with John 21:1–19 and Revelation 5. The Church Is Born ended with Philip in Acts 8, and this session opens the next chapter. The risen Lord stops the persecutor, sends Ananias to baptize him, and names him a chosen instrument to carry His name before the Gentiles. Series C sets Saul's call beside Peter's restoration on the shore, so the two apostles receive their commissions on one morning. A change of texture at the midpoint.

Hebrews 11:1–16 with Genesis 15:1–6 and Luke 12:22–34. The Epistle leads this session. The One-Year never reads the roll of the faithful, which presents Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, and Sarah as people who died without receiving what was promised and who greeted it from afar. "Fear not, Abram" in Genesis 15 and "Fear not, little flock" in Luke 12 are the same word from the same Lord. Genesis 15:6 returns in the first week of October.

Philemon with Luke 14:25–35 and Deuteronomy 30:15–20. A whole epistle read at one sitting: twenty-five verses in which Paul sends a runaway slave back to his master as a beloved brother and offers to pay whatever he owes. Luther saw the Gospel in the letter and wrote that we are all the Lord's Onesimi. The Gospel sets beside it the tower builder and the king going to war, two men who count the cost before they begin.

Luke 17:1–10 with Habakkuk 1:1–4 and 2:1–4, and 2 Timothy 1:1–14. The apostles ask for more faith and are told about a mustard seed and about servants who have only done their duty. Habakkuk waits on his watchtower for an answer to violence and receives the sentence that Paul quotes in Romans 1 and Galatians 3: "the righteous shall live by his faith." The class met Habakkuk in Advent 2026 and will meet this verse again on October 8.

Luke 18:1–8 with Genesis 32:22–30 and 2 Timothy 3:14–4:5. The widow who wears down an unjust judge, a parable told so that the disciples would always pray and not lose heart. Series C pairs her with Jacob at Peniel, who holds on until daybreak and limps away blessed, the second Epiphany appearance to return this summer. The parable ends with a question that the session leaves open: "when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?"

Luke 13:1–9 with Ezekiel 33:7–20 and 1 Corinthians 10:1–13. Asked about Galileans killed by Pilate, Jesus refuses to rank the victims and calls every hearer to repent; the parable of the barren fig tree then grants one more year. Ezekiel the watchman speaks the Lord's own oath: "I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked." The series closes on the prophet whom the class will study in September.

Ezekiel 1 and 10–11, with 43:1–5. The storm, the four living creatures, the wheels full of eyes, and above them a throne with "a likeness with a human appearance." The glory that appears to an exile in Babylon is next seen leaving the temple by stages, for reasons that chapters 8 and 9 give and the session only summarizes, and it stops on the mountain east of the city. Years later it returns from the east, and the hour ends on that return. The class follows the glory to John 1:14 and to the Mount of Olives.

Ezekiel 24. On the day the siege of Jerusalem begins, the Lord tells the prophet that He is about to take away the delight of his eyes at a stroke and that he is not to mourn or weep. Ezekiel preaches in the morning, and his wife dies that evening. His silence is the sign: the sanctuary, the delight of the people's eyes, will fall, and the exiles will be too stunned to grieve. The class met Jerusalem as the faithless bride of chapter 16 in Sworn to Our Fathers, and here her story reaches its end. The session follows the sign to the Father who did not spare His own Son in Romans 8:32, and to the day the prophet's mouth is opened and the book turns from judgment to promise.

Ezekiel 18 and 20:10–26, with 36:22–28. "The soul who sins shall die" appears to set aside inherited guilt, and "I gave them statutes that were not good" appears to accuse God's own Law. The session works through both with the distinction of Law and Gospel. Chapter 18 commands, "make yourselves a new heart," and chapter 36 promises, "I will give you a new heart": the same book demands and then bestows. Ezekiel 20 quotes Leviticus 18:5 three times, the verse Paul quotes in Galatians 3:12, and so the series hands its question to October.

Galatians 3:1–9. The first session supplies the crisis of chapters 1 and 2 and then takes up Paul's opening question: did you receive the Spirit by works of the Law or by hearing with faith? His evidence is Genesis 15:6, "Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness," and Genesis 12:3, in which the Scripture preached the Gospel beforehand to Abraham. Those who are of faith are his sons. Read with Augsburg Confession IV.

Galatians 3:10–14. Five verses and four Old Testament citations. Deuteronomy 27:26 curses everyone who does not keep all the Law, Habakkuk 2:4 gives life to the righteous by faith, and Leviticus 18:5 gives it to the one who does the commandments. The texts oppose one another until Deuteronomy 21:23 resolves them: Christ became a curse for us by hanging on a tree. The class has met two of these verses already, Habakkuk's in August and Leviticus 18:5 through Ezekiel in September.

Galatians 3:15–29. Paul argues as a lawyer. A ratified will cannot be annulled or amended by a later document, and the Law arrived four hundred thirty years after the promise to Abraham and to his Offspring, who is Christ. Why then the Law? It was added because of transgressions and kept Israel under guard until faith came. The session ends at the font: as many as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ and are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise.

Galatians 4:1–20. The heir who is a child differs in nothing from a slave until the date his father set. "When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law," the verse that carries the Christmas canticles into Paul's argument. The Spirit of the Son cries "Abba! Father!" in the hearts of the adopted. Paul then drops the argument and pleads as a pastor, in the anguish of childbirth for people who are turning back.

Galatians 4:21–5:1. Hagar and Sarah, two sons, two covenants, Mount Sinai and the Jerusalem above, read with Genesis 16 and 21 and with Isaiah 54. In John 8:31–36, a Gospel appointed for Reformation, the hearers answer Jesus, "We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone." Paul and John meet the same claim: the son remains in the house forever, and the children of the free woman are those whom the Son sets free. The series ends on its last verse, "For freedom Christ has set us free."

Daniel 7. Four beasts rise from the sea, the Ancient of Days takes His seat, the court sits, and the books are opened. One like a son of man comes with the clouds and is given dominion, and three times the chapter says that the saints of the Most High receive the kingdom. Revelation 13:1–8 is the stop in John, whose single beast has the features of all four. Placed on All Saints' for the sake of that threefold promise.

Daniel 8 and 9. The ram and the goat are named in the text as Media and Persia and as Greece, and the little horn who stops the sacrifice is the pattern of every later persecutor. Daniel then confesses the sins of his people, and Gabriel answers with seventy weeks: an Anointed One cut off, and an end made of sin. The session reads the numbers for what the angel says they accomplish and declines to build a calendar from them. Jesus cites this prophecy in Matthew 24:15, and Revelation 11 and 12 turn its half-week into forty-two months and 1,260 days.

Daniel 10 and 11:36–45. Daniel sees a man whose face is like lightning and whose voice is like the sound of a multitude, loses all strength, and is touched and told not to fear. John sees the same figure in Revelation 1:12–18, another of the appearances that the class began to study in Epiphany. The angel then reveals a war behind the wars of kings. The long history of 11:2–35 is assigned as reading beforehand, and the hour goes to the ruler who exalts himself above every god, read with 2 Thessalonians 2 and with the Apology's use of this chapter against the Antichrist.

Daniel 12. Michael arises, a time of trouble comes, and everyone whose name is found written in the book is delivered. Many who sleep in the dust awake, and the wise shine like the stars; the Gospel of the day, Matthew 25:1–13, shows the wise with their lamps lit. Revelation 20:11–15 opens the books a final time. Daniel is told to seal his book until the end, and John is told the opposite in Revelation 22:10, "for the time is near." The church year closes on the difference between those two commands, and Advent begins the next Sunday.

Isaiah 6. In the year that King Uzziah died the prophet sees the King on His throne, hears the seraphim, and is cleansed by a coal from the altar. John 12:41 says that Isaiah saw the glory of Christ and spoke of Him, so the vision belongs with the appearances studied in Epiphany. The song of the seraphim and the cry from the Gospel of the day, Matthew 21:9, together form the Sanctus. The chapter ends with a felled tree and one sentence of hope: "The holy seed is its stump."

Isaiah 7:1–8:10. Two kings march on Jerusalem, and the heart of Ahaz shakes as the trees of the forest shake before the wind. Isaiah offers him any sign he will name and warns him, "If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all." Ahaz declines, and the Lord gives the sign Himself: the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and call His name Immanuel. The class reads the sign with Matthew 1:18–25, the Gospel for Christmas Eve, and follows the name through chapter 8.

Isaiah 8:11–9:7. The Lord of hosts is a sanctuary to those who fear Him and a stone of stumbling to both houses of Israel, the verse Peter quoted in the Easter series. The people then walk into the darkness they chose, and the light rises first in Galilee of the nations, where Matthew 4 finds Jesus beginning to preach. The Child born to us carries four names. One of them, Wonderful, is the name Manoah's visitor would not explain.

Isaiah 10:33–12:6. The Lord fells the lofty forest, and from the stump of Jesse a shoot comes forth, on whom the Spirit rests. The wolf dwells with the lamb, the root of Jesse is raised as a signal for the peoples, and the Lord gathers His exiles a second time, a promise for a class that has spent the autumn in Babylon with Ezekiel and Daniel. Chapter 12 is the song for that day: "With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation." The class reads it on the morning of Christmas Eve, and the congregation hears Isaiah 7 and Isaiah 9 that night.