Trinity Lutheran Church and School

06/07/2026

Jesus Calls Sinners to Repentance and Newness of Life in Accordance with His Mercy

In calling Matthew the tax collector to follow Him, Jesus demonstrates that He has come “not to call the righteous, but sinners” (Matt. 9:9, 13). As a good physician, He comes not to confirm them in their sins, but to heal them with His grace, calling them to repentance, faith and newness of life (Matt. 9:12). He puts them to death by the preaching of His Law, in order to raise them with His Gospel, to live before Him in the righteousness of His resurrection (Hos. 6:1–2, 5). It is in this way that God “gives life to the dead,” that is, through faith in Jesus, “who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification” (Rom. 4:17, 24–25). Thus, sinners from all nations are called to share the same faith as Abraham, the father of all who trust in Jesus (Rom. 4:16–18). And as our Lord in mercy thus welcomes us poor sinners to recline at the table in His house, so does He “desire steadfast love and not sacrifice” (Matt. 9:10, 13; Hos. 6:6), that we should have mercy on our neighbors and forgive their sins against us for Jesus’ sake.

Series: Pentecost
Preacher: Pastor Timothy Vaughan
Categories: Worship
Keywords: church, sunday, church service, pentecost, lutheran, sunday school, st. francis, saint francis, trinity lutheran
Location: Trinity Lutheran Church and School, 3812 229th Avenue NW, Saint Francis, Minnesota, 55070

05/31/2026

The Holy Triune God Recreates Us in the Image and Likeness of Christ Jesus
The holy Triune God “created the heavens and the earth,” and “behold, it was very good” (Genesis 1:1, 31). However, after Adam and Eve fell into sin and plunged God’s good creation into decay and death, the Son of God would be “delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God” to be “crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men” (Acts 2:23). As Jesus “received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:33), He also raises up all the baptized and pours out the Spirit upon them through the preaching of His Gospel. He sends out His apostles to “make disciples of all nations” by “baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” and “teaching them to observe all that [He has] commanded” (Matthew 28:19–20). Through such baptizing and teaching — Gospel and Sacraments — the holy Triune God recreates us in the image and likeness of His incarnate Son, Jesus, the Christ, and behold, it is “very good” (Genesis 1:31).

Series: Pentecost
Preacher: Pastor Timothy Vaughan
Categories: Worship
Keywords: church, christmas, jesus, sunday, god, holy spirit, lord, church service, pentecost, lutheran, sunday school, st. francis, saint francis, trinity lutheran
Location: Trinity Lutheran Church and School, 3812 229th Avenue NW, Saint Francis, Minnesota, 55070

05/24/2026

The Risen Lord Jesus Pours Out the Holy Spirit

The Lord took “some of the Spirit” that was on Moses “and put it on the seventy elders” of Israel (Num. 11:25), and they “prophesied in the camp” (Num. 11:26). In the same way, our risen Lord Jesus poured out His Holy Spirit at the Feast of Pentecost — the 50th day and the “Eighth Sunday” of Easter. When “a sound like a mighty rushing wind” and “tongues as of fire appeared” and rested on each of the 12 apostles, “they were all filled with the Holy Spirit” and proclaimed “the mighty works of God” (Acts 2:2–4, 11). The Lord Jesus grants this same Spirit to His Church on earth to proclaim Him glorified on the cross and risen victorious from the grave for us sinners. From His open heart, our crucified and risen Lord pours out His Holy Spirit in “rivers of living water” (John 7:38) and invites everyone who thirsts to come to Him and drink freely (John 7:37). Through this life-giving work of the Holy Spirit, we hear our pastors “telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God” (Acts 2:11), and “everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Acts 2:21).

Series: Pentecost
Preacher: Pastor Timothy Vaughan
Categories: Worship
Keywords: church, christmas, jesus, sunday, god, holy spirit, lord, church service, pentecost, lutheran, sunday school, st. francis, saint francis, trinity lutheran

05/20/2026

Trinity Lutheran School graduation, St. Francis

Series: School
Preacher: Pastor Timothy Vaughan
Categories: Worship
Keywords: trinity, holy spirit, school, pentecost, lcms, lutheran, st. francis, trinity lutheran church, trinity lutheran church and school
Location: Trinity Lutheran Church and School, 3812 229th Avenue NW, Saint Francis, Minnesota, 55070

05/17/2026

Our Lord Jesus Is with Us in the Upper Room of His Church on Earth

On the night when He was betrayed, our Lord Jesus prayed for His apostles and His Church on earth. “The hour” had come when the Father would glorify His Son by the cross (John 17:1). Through the shedding of His blood, He would bring forgiveness for the sins of the world, and in His resurrection and ascension He would unite all Christians with the Father “that they may be one” with God (John 17:11). He manifested His name to the apostles and gave them the words of the Father to speak in His name. The apostolic witness of His cross and resurrection (Acts 1:21–22) gathers disciples together “with one accord” into the one Body of Christ (Acts 1:14). “Devoting themselves to prayer,” they wait upon the Lord in “the upper room” (Acts 1:13–14), the place of His Holy Supper. Strengthened by the Gospel, Christians bear the cross of Christ in patience and peace, rejoicing to share in His suffering, in order that they “may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed” (1 Peter 4:13).

Series: Easter
Preacher: Pastor Timothy Vaughan
Categories: Worship
Keywords: church, christmas, jesus, easter, sunday, god, holy spirit, lord, church service, epiphany, lutheran, sunday school, st. francis, saint francis, trinity lutheran
Location: Trinity Lutheran Church and School, 3812 229th Avenue NW, Saint Francis, Minnesota, 55070

05/16/2026

May is full of field days and this one was a blast! Thanks to St. John’s Lutheran school, Corcoran for hosting! 🏅

05/15/2026

05/14/2026

The Ascended Lord Jesus Is with Us Always in His Church on Earth
After He rose from the dead, the Lord Jesus presented Himself alive to the apostles, “appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God” (Acts 1:3). When He ascended to the right hand of the Father, He did not orphan His Church, but He fills all things in heaven and on earth and gives gifts to His disciples. Even now, through His Church, He continues “to do and teach” (Acts 1:1), preaching “repentance for the forgiveness of sins” (Luke 24:47) even “to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8). Though the cloud hid Jesus from the sight of His disciples then, and He remains hidden from sight even now, He remains with His people through His Gospel and Sacraments. He comes to us by the Word of His apostles, by the promise of His Father and by the power of the Holy Spirit, whom He pours out upon “the church, which is his body” (Eph. 1:22–23). In this holy Christian Church, we bless God and worship Christ with joy, for in His Church He blesses us with forgiveness, lifts us up in His hands and seats us with Himself “in the heavenly places” (Eph. 1:20).

Series: Easter
Preacher: Pastor Timothy Vaughan
Categories: Worship
Location: Trinity Lutheran Church and School, 3812 229th Avenue NW, Saint Francis, Minnesota, 55070

05/10/2026

The Lord Jesus Comforts Us with the Preaching of His Resurrection

“The God who … gives to all mankind life and breath and everything” (Acts 17:24–25) wants all people to seek Him that they might “feel their way toward him and find him” (Acts 17:27). But in our sinful ignorance, we humans turn instead to idols “formed by the art and imagination of man” (Acts 17:29). Therefore, God appointed the Man of Righteousness, Jesus Christ, and “has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead” (Acts 17:31). Because He lives, we also live (John 14:19) in His forgiveness, and thus we love Him and keep His commandments (John 14:15). While the risen Lord prepares us for His ascension, He will not leave us “as orphans” (John 14:18), but He gives “another Helper,” the Holy Spirit, to be with us forever (John 14:16) through the preaching of “Jesus and the resurrection” (Acts 17:18). Because He “suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous” (1 Peter 3:18), we “honor Christ the Lord as holy” and are always “prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks” for the reason for our hope (1 Peter 3:15). Our Baptism “now saves” us “as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 3:21).

Series: Easter
Preacher: Pastor Timothy Vaughan
Categories: Worship
Keywords: church, christmas, jesus, easter, sunday, god, mothers, holy spirit, lord, church service, lutheran, mothers day, sunday school, st. francis, saint francis, trinity lutheran
Location: Trinity Lutheran Church and School, 3812 229th Avenue NW, Saint Francis, Minnesota, 55070