Why Jesus Matters - 02

That was nice. Good response right there. Good morning. Hey, there we go. Good to see you guys. My name is Travis. It's uh good to be back with you. We're in our second week in a short little series, as you can see on the screen, um entitled Why Jesus Matters, which will lead us up to and through Easter. And it's uh my hope, it's my prayer, it's my expectation that as we fix our eyes on Christ, our heart affections would be drawn towards him, that we would um our lives would be better aligned with his life and his mission. And it is my expectation. The the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians chapter 3, he says, "As we behold the glory of the Lord, we're being transformed from one degree of glory to another." Which means as we continue to fix our eyes, fix our gaze on Christ, his spirit will work in us. As we continue to listen to his voice, as we seek to be obedient to his teaching, his spirit will work in us to transform us into his image, which will enable us to better represent him in our community. And so that's what we're doing for these seven weeks because again, we want our heart affections to stay focused on him. And everything in the culture mitigates against that. Everything in the culture continually seeks to pull our heart affections away from the person in the work of Jesus Christ to place it on things that are squarely in front of us on the TV. And we want to stay focused on him. So again, that our lives would better represent him. Now, as I mentioned, this is our second week in our series uh called Why Jesus Matters. And today we're going to be looking at By the way, Steve did a great job last week. Were you guys here for that? Did a fabulous job. I watched it and I thought, man, I should never preach again. Um,

but we're going to be looking at how Jesus fulfills Old Testament prophecy. Now, when I think when we talk about prophecy, um, I want to give a just a little definition to it. It's just a short nut nutshell definition because I don't want to use insider language and assume you know what I'm talking about. So, prophecy in the shortest definition is a message from God to people. Sometimes especially in the Old Testament there were prophets who were speaking forth. So forthtelling often times uh God's message it was uh God's word to a nation like Israel calling them out of their sinfulness. But at other times it was foretelling. There was a predictive element to God's message. God would tell his prophets what he's going to do in the future and these prophets would communicate this. But again, it was God's word uh not strictly man's word. In first Peter uh 1 21 Peter says, "For prophecy never had it never had its origin in the human will, but prophets though human spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit." And so this is how it would happen. God would give his word to a prophet and this prophet would speak forth sometimes for forthelling just here's what's going to happen right now because you've been disobedient to God. Other times uh foretelling what was going to happen in the future. And the Old Testament uh the Old Testament prophets they predict the coming of Jesus in a variety of ways and it should prepare his people. It should have prepared his people for the coming of Christ his person and his work. And Isaiah gives us a particularly striking summary of the saving uh life and work of Jesus Christ. So if you have your Bibles, go ahead and open them to the book of Isaiah. The book of Isaiah, the quickest way to get to it is to look at your Bible and open it up just about dead center because Isaiah is just about dead center of your Bible. Um Isaiah is after the Psalms. It's after Proverbs. Uh, it's after Ecclesiastes. It's after everybody's favorite book, The Song of Solomon. Um, it's right before I knew you would laugh at that, Dave Gibson. Gosh darn it. I shouldn't have looked at you. Um, it's right before the book of Jeremiah. And when Isaiah when I say Isaiah 53, I actually mean the last couple of verses in Isaiah 52. You'll look at it and you'll see it's all one section. Isaiah 52:13 all the way through Isaiah 53 because it's it's one section these 15 verses. I don't know if you know this but the the chapter divisions in the Bible didn't come in until about the 1200s. Guy by the name of Steven Langford had a little bit too much wine and uh he he divided up the chapter sometimes and he made a little bit some mistakes here and there and he did so with Isaiah and it's actually these 15 verses. Now here's what you need to know. Isaiah was written 700 years before Christ. And yet what you'll find is it as you read Isaiah 53 is that it speaks with stunning clarity about the life and the ministry of God's great servant. A couple of German scholars in 1866, they said it looks as if it had been written beneath the cross of Golgtha. And they went on and said, "Many an Israelite has had it melt the crust of his heart." And Augustine in fifth century dubbed Isaiah 53 the fifth gospel because again it so clearly points to Christ as God's chosen servant who will accomplish salvation through suffering. He will accomplish salvation, but it will mean immense suffering for him and then a victorious resurrection so that you and I might be restored to God. It's the reason why it's so powerful. It's the reason why Jewish synagogues in their reading from the prophets, they always omit Isaiah 53 while reading the portion right in front of it and reading the portion right after it

because they recognize although they won't admit it, it points directly to Christ. And as we look at the text here in a moment, you're going to recognize many of the words and phrases because Isaiah 53 is the most quoted passage in the old uh most quoted passage of the Old Testament in the New Testament because the New Testament authors, they clearly understood that it showed how Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament prophecy. So, what I want to do in the next 35 minutes is read this magnificent section of scripture very slowly, very thoughtfully, and then we're going to come back and we're going to ask five questions of this text. Five questions about this great servant of the Lord and his ministry. Okay? So, Isaiah 52, beginning in verse

uh 13, here's what God says through Isaiah. Behold, my servant shall act wisely. He shall be high and lifted up and shall be exalted. As many were astonished at you, his appearance was so marred beyond human semblance and his form beyond that of the children of mankind. So he shall sprinkle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths because of him. For that which has not been told them they see, and that which they have not heard, they understand. Who has believed what he's heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no form or majesty that we should look at him and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men. A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And as one from whom men hid their faces, he was despised and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we esteem him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace. And with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and he was afflicted. Yet he opened not his mouth. Like a lamb that is led to the slaughter and like a sheep before its shears is silent. So he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away. And as for his generation who considered that he was cut off from the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people. And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death. Although he had done no violence and there was no deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him. He has put him to grief. When his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring. He shall prolong his days. The will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul, he shall see and be satisfied. By his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous. and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he has poured out his soul to death, and was numbered with the transgressors. Yet he bore the sin of many and makes intercession for the transgressors. This is God's word. And we could close in prayer right there, could we not? Well, we're not going to, but we could. I mean, dream on. Uh, we're not going to stop right there. Uh, okay. So, here's what I want to do. I want to ask five questions of Isaiah 53 and see why Augustine called this the fifth gospel and why it's such good news for you and me. So, here's the first question. Who's this servant that Isaiah talks about? because there's some different uh different thoughts on this. So, who is this servant that Isaiah talks about? Well, the unit opens with God speaking and he says, "Behold, my servant shall act wisely. He shall be high and lifted up and shall be exalt shall be exalted." So, again, who's he talking about? Because in Isaiah, uh there's four four sections that are called the servant songs of Isaiah. and they tell what the great servant of the Lord is going to do. And when Isaiah first began writing, when he first began writing about him earlier in the book, the servant was the whole nation of Israel. So originally, initially it was Israel. God originally chose

God originally chose Israel to be his servant to be faithful to him and to be a light to the nations. In Isaiah 42, we read these words, "I am the Lord. I have called you in righteousness. I will take you by the hand and keep you. I will give you as a covenant for the people and a light for the nations to yo to open the eyes that are blind. So the servant initially was Israel and they're called to be a light to the world and the and to open the eyes of the blind. But here's the thing. Um Israel failed. Israel rebelled against God and they refused to honor him. And instead of being a light to the nations, they themselves became blind. And so later when the prophet Isaiah writes again, when he writes about the servant, he says this later in Isaiah 42, he says, "Who is blind but my servant or deaf as my messenger whom I send? Who is blind as my dedicated one or blind as the servant of the Lord?" And then later writing in Isaiah 43, the Lord says of Israel this he says, "And yet you did not call upon me, oh Jacob," but you have been weary of me, oh Israel. You have burdened me with your sins. You have wearied me with your iniquities. And so instead of bringing uh the nations to God, Israel herself turned away from God. Instead of bringing God's salvation to others, Israel now needs someone to bring her back to God. But who will do that? Who would actually have the strength and the fortitude to be completely obedient to God and to be a light to the nations? Who will bring Israel back to God and then become God's light to the nations? Who will make this happen? The answer is that God will now look to one individual within Israel. an individual within Israel, one individual who will be faithful to God completely and will do God's work. And so God leads the prophet Isaiah to write again about this great servant, but this time it's about one individual within the nation, one individual who will bring God's salvation first to Israel and then to the nations of the earth. And so in Isaiah 49, another one of the servant songs of Isaiah, we read these words. And now the Lord says, "He who formed me in the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him, and that Israel might be gathered to him, for I am honored in the eyes of the Lord, and my God has become my strength." He says, "It's too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel." He says, 'Th that's not enough for you to do. That's too light of a thing for my great servant of the Lord. I will make you a light for the nations that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth. So this one individual will restore Israel to God and bring God's salvation to the ends of the earth. And uh Janine Brown in a great uh article in the uh evangelical journal uh evangelical the theological society journal she writes this. She says so it's an individual originating from within Israel who can stand apart from Israel in order to restore Israel. So he's the one who represents Israel has to act on behalf of Israel in order to restore Israel. This one will be completely faithful to God and to God's mission. And when he does, Isaiah says he will be exalted for all that he does. So we get the first glimpse here of why he's going to be exalted. But God wants to give us a fuller explanation. so we don't miss it. A clearer picture of all that this servant will do. And that leads Isaiah to write one last servant song. And that's the text that we just read in Isaiah 53. So this servant, it's not the nation of Israel as some people suppose, but rather it's an individual within Israel who will restore Israel and will bring salvation to both Israel and the surrounding nations. And we're told there in verse 12, he's going to act wisely and he shall be high and lifted up. He's going to be highly exalted. So this servant will act wisely. This servant will do exactly what's needed in order to fulfill God's purposes for him. And when he accomplishes all that God has has for him, he's going to be raised up from the grave. He's going to be lifted to the skies. He's going to be exalted above all of creation. And then the question becomes, well, what would cause that? What would cause him to be exalted? Well, here's what we're told. He's going to bring salvation for you and for me, but it's by means of his suffering. In verses 14 and 15, we're told of how this is going to take place. We're told the Lord suff the Lord's servant will suffer and he's going to suffer horribly. We're told he's going to be beaten beyond recognition. Everyone who sees him will be appalled and shocked at the extent of his suffering. His blood will be spilt. So much so in verse 15, you see that it says he shall sprinkle the nations. The picture there is of a priest sprinkling those who come to worship, pronouncing them clean and acceptable before God. Isaiah says somehow somehow doesn't give us the the fullest definition. We see that in the life of Christ. But Isaiah says somehow the servant suffering makes it possible for the nations, not just for the Jews, but for the nations, all the nations of the earth to be made acceptable to God. And when the nations come to understand all that he's done, when the gentile kings see the suffering and how it somehow opened up the way of salvation to them, open up somehow for them the way to know God, they will stand there speechless. You see in verse 15, it says, "The kings will shut their mouths because of him. They will be shocked, stunned, silence. They will stand there in awe that in some way because of the suffering of the servant, the Gentiles can be made clean. They can be made acceptable before God. That's amazing. So this great servant of the Lord is an individual who will bring forth salvation through his suffering. But then we're told in verse one, look at it. Look at it. He says, "Well, who's going to believe this message?" And the implication is not many will. Well, who's going to believe this message that the great servant of the Lord isn't going to be in human minds victorious? He's going to actually suffer. Who's going to believe that message? And again, not many will. That when the Lord shows up on the scene, he's actually going to be rejected. And the people who will receive him and the only people who will receive him will do so because they have the truth about him revealed to him by God. So let's ask this question. What caused them to be rejected? What caused him to be rejection? And it wasn't just a little bit. It was wholesale rejection by the people of Israel. It was wholesale rejection. What caused them to be rejected? Well, what does Isaiah tell us? Look at verses 2 and three. He says, "For he grew up before him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground. He had no form or majesty that we should look at him and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. and as one from whom men hid their faces. He was despised and we esteemed him not. Isaiah says Israel is going to reject the Messiah because he looks so completely ordinary. Completely ordinary. Unimpressive. Unimpressive beginnings. That's the root out of dry ground. Absolutely unimpressive beginnings. And you think about the beginning of Jesus on earth. Born in a manger to incredibly poor parents, unimpressive beginnings, unattractive in appearance. He had no form or majesty. And this would have shocked them because they envisioned the great Messiah to be the great servant of the Lord to come in power and strength. But Isaiah says, "No, that's not the way it's going to be. unattractive appearance in an unenviable life. A man of sorrows. He was despised and rejected, steeped in grief. He looked so gosh darn ordinary. And think about it. If you were God, that's a scary thought, is it not? But if you were God and you were going incarnate yourself into the creation to rescue it, how would you make yourself look? Wouldn't you give yourself majesty and beauty, strength, and power and form, an exalted position? Wouldn't you give yourself all of those things? If you were coming into the world in order to rescue humanity and redeem the creation, wouldn't you give yourself all of those things? Of course, you would. Do you guys remember um the scene in the film Lincoln? Have you guys seen Lincoln? Okay. Daniel D. Lewis is who's playing Abraham Lincoln and Lincoln's trying to secure the votes to abolish slavery and he's having a really hard time getting the votes. And one of his cabinet officials comes in and he says, "Well, how are we going to get these votes?" And Lincoln says, "I'm the president of the United States of America. I am clothed in immense power." I love that line because I think to myself, if I were God, that's exactly what I would do. If I was going to incarnate myself, I would give myself an exalted position and immense power. And that's exactly how Israel envisioned the great servant of the Lord to be. And therefore, when Christ came on the scene and he looked so ordinary, they quickly dismissed him. This is exactly in John chapter 1, which Steve preached last week. John chapter 1 says, "He was in the world and the world was made through him and yet the world did not know him. He came to his own and his own people did not receive him. They completely rejected him because he looked so ordinary and unimpressive." By the way, let me ask you a question. Do you feel ordinary and unimpressive? Do you ever look at yourself in the mirror and chuckle? If you don't yet, you must be under 40. Um, I have noticed at the age of 40, you just start looking in the mirror and you just start chuckling like, "What the heck happened here? When did my grandfather's eyebrows attach themselves to me?" Most distressing thing. And you light up when you get a nose hair trimmer for Christmas. It's like the worst. Do you feel ordinary and unimpressive? Do you feel useless because you're not extraordinary? You see, our culture tells you that you have to be extraordinary to do anything useful. You got to be superhuman. And I want you to note that when God wants to accomplish his greatest work, he does it through one who's completely ordinary and unimpressive in appearances. And more often than not, that's still how he works today. He does his best work through ordinary and unimpressive people who are relentlessly devoted to him. And Isaiah tells us that the great servant of the Lord though his through his life and ministry, he will suffer, but by his suffering, he's going to bring forth salvation. But for the most part, again, he's going to be completely rejected. But some some would receive him. some would receive him. Why?

Why would there be a smattering of people who would receive him when for the most part there would be wholesale rejection? Because the truth was revealed to him. It's a revelation of God. Um Jesus in Matthew chapter 11, he says these these words. He says at that time he says, "Thank you, Father. I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned, and you've revealed them to little children." Revealed. It's a revelation. And when Jesus asks in Matthew chapter 16, "Who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter answered, "You're the Messiah, the son of the living God." And Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my father in heaven." Now, I want you to think about what that means. Because what it means is if you're a Christ follower, it's not because you're oh so wise.

Some Christians have an attitude sometimes of I'm smarter than everybody else in the room. And that flat out is not the case. If you're a Christian, it's not because you're also wise. It's not because your religious discipline exceeds others. It's only because the Father in his incredible mercy has chosen to reveal the truth of Christ to you so that you can be reconciled and restored to God the Father. And if you're a Christian, you know what that ought to do to you? That ought to do two things. It ought to make you incredibly humble and hungry. humble because salvation is a gift that you didn't earn. It's God's grace given to you and then hungry so that other people could experience it and you might be the means by which the truth of the gospel could be revealed to other people that you can be an ambassador for Christ and share that message as far and as wide as possible. So we've seen now who the servant is. It's an indiv individual who will be completely faithful to God the father who will accomplish his mission. He'll bring forth salvation but it's going to be through suffering. We saw why he's going to be rejected. He looks so ordinary. Uh he didn't fit fit their expectations and the only people who did receive him did so because the father revealed the truth about who he is to them. But another question needs to be asked and answered. Why did he suffer in the first place? Why did he have to suffer? And really, this is the heart of the gospel. Why did the great servant of the Lord, Christ Jesus, why did he suffer? And the short answer is for you. That's the short answer. He did it for you. But we're told, he willingly takes your place, our place, and pays our penalty. Isaiah says it like this. Look at verses 4-6. I'll put it on the screen. He says, "Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.

Yet we esteemed him stricken,

smitten by God." When they watched it, they said, "He's getting exactly what he deserved." And you think about the thieves on the cross. You think about the uh the soldiers who mocked him. He's getting exactly what he deserved. Smitten by God and afflicted, but

he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. You see what he's saying? He's saying he came to take upon himself all the results of our sin. Our sin for what? Well, having gone astray. Each and every one of us. Each and every one of us has turned to his own way and has not lived out the will of God. Each and every one of us. And he comes to take all that upon himself. All the guilt, all the shame, all the condemnation, and all the death. He completely identified with us permanently. Jesus at the cross on Good Friday thoroughly experienced our guilt, grief, shame, punishment, all of it, death, personally, every bit of it. He totally takes our place and he bears our burden. This is um theological language is vicarious substitution where he really takes the blame and he really bears the burden for what you've done. Which means if you're in Christ, there's no more guilt or blame left for you to bear. And I need you to know that there's no more guilt um for you to bear. There's no more blame for you to bear. And nowhere else will you hear hear that God will come to humanity and will be punished on their behalf in order to rescue them. Only in the gospel do you hear that. By the way, sometimes um sometimes you will hear people will say that the substitutionary atonement is not that big of a deal. That idea is increasing in our culture. You will hear them say the substitutionary atonement is not that big of a deal or it's divine child abuse. If you hear that, you have my permission to go utter hogwash. Um that's absolute nonsense. He loved the very people who were rejecting them enough to die for them. That's remarkable. So, the truly innocent one suffers unjustly, which leads to this question. Why didn't he fight it? Um, why didn't he fight it? We're told, if you look at verses 7 and N real quickly, we're told that God's servant would suffer the ultimate injustice. The ultimate injustice, unjust trials. and connected to the life of Christ. You think of the six trials before Annus and Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin and Pilate and Herod, the three religious trials, the three uh Roman civic trials. And in in each one, Jesus didn't defend himself. Unjust trials. They were all sham trials. Unfair judgment. He was condemned. An unfair judgment was pronounced on him. an undeserved death. If you read Luke 23, you'll see seven times we're told that Jesus is innocent and he yet still goes to the cross. And you see in verse 9 where it says, "And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death." He died with the wicked alongside the two thieves on the cross. And they intended him to bury him in a common grave. But Joseph of Arya, rich man, provided a tomb. But again, why didn't he fight it? Here's the reason why. He knew his purpose was to serve. He knew his purpose was to save. It's exactly what Jesus says in in Mark 10:45. He says, "The Son of Manu uh came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many." He knew in order for you to gain life, he had to lay down his life. And he did. He did. Again, remarkable. Well, what did he accomplish? Last question. What did he accomplish? He was a willing victim to the greatest human injustice. Why? Here's why. To bring forth divi divine justice. He suffers at the hands of men the greatest human injustice. In order to bring forth divine justice, we're told in verse 10, it was the will of the Lord to crush him. So God was making his life the sacrificial offering that would satisfy all the wrongs ever done. And this servant, what he's doing is he's accomplishing the redemptive plan of God. Jesus is accomplishing the redemptive plan of God. And by the way, this is exactly how the apostles saw um Peter on the day of Pentecost in in Acts chapter 2, he says these words. He says, "This Jesus was handed over to you by God's deliberate plan." Which means it's not an accident. This Jesus was handed over to you by God's deliberate plan and fornowledge. And you So there's divine sovereignty and you with the help of wicked men put him to death and human responsibility. Divine sovereignty, human responsibility working together. This Jesus was handed over to you by God's deliberate plan and fornowledge and you with the help of wicked men put him to death by nailing him to the cross.

What did he accomplish? This the redemptive plan of God. Only a truly innocent sufferer could atone for the guilty. A perfect lamb to take to take away the sin of the world. This was God's plan from the beginning. God is making his servant a guilt offering. God's justice requires payment of the penalty and God's love provides that payment in and through his son Christ Jesus. So Jesus, the truly innocent one was was a willing victim to a miscarriage of human injustice, a miscarriage of human justice in order to bring forth divine justice so that you and I, the truly guilty ones, could actually receive perfect righteousness. You see in verse 11 there, it says he made many accounted righteous. That's you and me. that when we put our faith in Christ, we're counted as righteous. So, he's crushed. He's killed. And yet, he shall see his offspring. He shall prolong his days. Isaiah says, "This servant by dying is actually going to deal a death blow to death itself. He will defeat death. He will experience it. He's going to uh take he takes death all the way to the core of itself and he turns it inside out and it brings forth never- ending life. That's what he's doing. Remember in the Lion, the witch in the wardrobe when uh Aelon is sacrificed upon the the stone table, killed upon the stone table and Lucy and Susan, they're they're walking away just grieving. And then the stone table, it cracks in two and a raised to life. And the girls come up to Aelen. They say, "Wait, we saw you. We saw the witch killed you. And Alon responded by saying, "If the witch would have looked a little further back into the stillness in the darkness of time before time dawned, she would have read their indifferent incantation. She would have known that when a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor'sstead, the table would crack and even death itself would start working backwards." And that's exactly what Jesus does. This servant will turn death inside out. And all that's will all that's left for people who belong to him will be life. So this servant, he wins life by losing his. And he willingly gives to you everything that he's earned. He gives to you everything he's earned because we're told in verse 12, look at it. He'll divide the spoil with the meaning because he's victorious because he's victorious over death and he's earned eternal life. He'll give that to you. He'll give it all to you so that when you trust Jesus, you'll pass from death to life. What Isaiah says here is this servant through his suffering

will usher in salvation to both Jews and Gentiles. Which means for you right now, right this moment, the forgiveness of sins, all of them. All of your sins. New life in Jesus's name. New and everlasting eternal life in Jesus's name is available to anyone and everyone. Regardless of what they've done, regardless of who they are, it's available to you right this moment based on what Jesus has done. a great servant of the Lord. What he has done. This is why Augustine called this the fifth gospel because this is really good news. You guys don't look that excited about it. Y'all, are you awake? This is really good news. And the question then becomes, have you accepted it? Have you accepted it? Have you trusted Jesus as your savior and lord? If not, then make today the day of your salvation. Come to Jesus in repentant faith. Have your sins forgiven. Receive his grace today. Receive new life in Jesus's name. If you have received Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you too need to respond to him this morning. And you do so through communion. As you can see, it's communion Sunday. And everything we just talked about in this passage is pictured in the Lord's table. The bread representing the broken body of the Lord Jesus Christ, who took your place, willingly took your place, who suffered under God's wrath, who died the death that you deserve to die. And the cup representing the shed blood of Jesus to forgive us of our sins, to cleanse us, and to give us new life in his name. And if you're here with us and you're a Christian, regardless if you belong to this church or if you belong to another church, if you're a Christian, then we invite you to come and partake of the Lord's table. But if you're here this morning and you know that you're not a Christian, then first off, let me say that we're grateful that you you're here. uh really grateful that you're here and we respect your honesty and we simply ask that you would respect us by not partaking in the Lord's table as this is a covenant meal for believers and after I pray here in a second the table will be open and we ask that what we do here is we ask that you would exit from the left side of your aisle you make your way grab the uh elements and then go back to your uh aisle on the right side kind of helps with the flow and then when everybody's has their elements. I I'll pray again and then we'll partake together. Okay? So, let me pray. Father, we thank you for this passage. But more than that, we thank you that Christ Jesus has fulfilled this brought salvation through your suffering. Through the laying down of your life,

you have opened up eternal life to anyone and everyone who would respond in simple faith. Simple but genuine faith in the person and the work of Jesus Christ. And father, we do pray uh that within this room or within the sound of my voice, that those who have not yet trusted you would make today the day of their salvation, that they would repent of their sins. They would trust you as their savior and as their Lord, and they would begin walking with you that very moment. For those of us who have been Christians for a long time, you call us to regularly come before the table to partake and to celebrate that our salvation is not based on our works. It's not based on anything we have done. It's not based on our intellect.

But as we sang this morning, it is only in Christ alone that you have done this and we rejoice for all that you have done. and we come to the table rejoicing in these realities. So we love you Lord. We thank you in Jesus name. Amen.