Lord of the Sabbath

Gospel of Luke  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented
0 ratings
· 3 views
Notes
Transcript

Opening Illustration

Until 1996 the Cleveland Browns football team had some of the most loyal fans in all of sports.
For them Sunday was the main event of the week.
Early on Sunday morning they came to Cleveland Stadium to enjoy tailgate parties and talk about their beloved Browns, and then in the afternoon they filed to the stadium to cheer and holler.
.......
But all that changed in 1996.
Owner Art Modell moved the team to Baltimore and changed its name to the Ravens, crushing the hearts of Cleveland fans.
.......
Surprisingly, that didn’t stop these fans from doing what they had done for years.
On opening day, September 1, 1996, some fans showed up at Cleveland Stadium just as they had done for the last forty-six years and held tailgate parties.
They wore Browns jerseys, waved Browns flags, and chanted, “Let’s go, Brownies.”
Then shortly before 1 P.M. they refilled their cups and marched to the stadium gates.
But the stadium was quiet and empty.
.......
Traditions die hard, especially religious ones.
An empty tradition is an end in itself, a habit without meaning.
It is cheering fans without a team or a game, for God is gone.
.......
So, please turn your Bibles to the Gospel of Luke.
We will conduct our study in Chapter 6 and focus on verses 1 through 5.
Our message this morning is titled, Lord of the Sabbath
.......
This message today...
We will again explore the differences between the traditions of man...
And the commands of God...
.......
Last week we saw those differences in regards to fasting...
This week we look at those differences in regard to the Sabbath.
.......
As you can tell this is a major theme in the New Testament...
And the this is the main reason for all the conflict between Jesus and the religious elite of His day.
.......
So, this morning we will cover three main points:
The Legalism of Men...
The Mercy of God...
And...
The Lordship of Christ.

Opening Prayer

Before we consider our text, please join me in prayer...
.......
Heavenly Father...
Sovereign and mighty are You!
Merciful and Just are You!
You are the Alpha and Omega!
.......
Help us to surrender to Your truth found in Your Scriptures...
Infinity is Your wisdom...
And perfect are Your commands...
So, help us to know them and keep them...
Help us to understand Your ways better...
Help us to serve You in all faithfulness.
.......
Equip Your saints for all the trails we must face in this world...
Saturate every fiber of our being with the Word of God that You blessed us with...
For Your truth leads to eternal life.
.......
Forgive us as we have forgiven others...
Forgive us for our past, present, and future foolishness...
We have earned Your wrath...
Yet You give us mercy and grace...
Great is Your faithfulness God!
.......
And it is in Jesus’s name we pray all these things...
Amen.
.......
Let’s turn to our text for today:

Reading of the Text​

Luke 6:1–5 ESV
1 On a Sabbath, while he was going through the grainfields, his disciples plucked and ate some heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands. 2 But some of the Pharisees said, “Why are you doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath?” 3 And Jesus answered them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him: 4 how he entered the house of God and took and ate the bread of the Presence, which is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those with him?” 5 And he said to them, “The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”
So, let’s look at our first point...

1) The Legalism of Men

Verses 1-2: On a Sabbath, while he was going through the grainfields, his disciples plucked and ate some heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands. But some of the Pharisees said, “Why are you doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath?”
Beloved, in order to properly expound this passage...
We need to first come to a fully round out understanding of the Sabbath...
And we need to keep in mind the attitude of the Sabbath that was held by the Jews in the 1st century.
.......
The Sabbath was a command by God...
And Scripture records this in passages like Exodus 34:21 which says:
Exodus 34:21 ESV
21 “Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest. In plowing time and in harvest you shall rest.
Additionally Exodus 20:10 says:
Exodus 20:10 ESV
10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates.
This was God’s command...
Yet over time...
The Jews view of the Sabbath started to become more radicalized...
They took God’s command and added additional rules in a foolish hope that these additional rules would protect an individual from breaking the Sabbath in the first place...
In fact, those rules became laws and were held to the very same degree as the original command of God regarding the Sabbath.
.......
Consider this by the Pillar New Testament Commentary on Luke regarding the view of the Sabbath by the Jews in Jesus’ day:
“Unlike most religions, which venerate sacred places or sacred objects, Jews venerate sacred time—Sabbath.
Sabbath is not simply another article of faith in Judaism, on a par, for example, with distinctions between clean and unclean that dominate the disputations in Luke 5:12–32.
Sabbath was the defining characteristic of Judaism, the observance of which, even more than circumcision, determined one as an observant Jew.
Sabbath raised the stakes between Jesus and the Jewish religious leaders to their zenith.
The pronouncements that Jesus makes regarding Sabbath are prime examples of the new versus the old in the two preceding parables.
.......
The general indifference of Western Christians toward Sabbath observance puts them at a disadvantage in understanding the importance of Sabbath in Judaism.
Two observances above all defined Jews and set them apart from the nations:
Circumcision and Sabbath.
Both observances marked Jews perceptibly, the first in their flesh and the second in their use of time.
Sabbath extended from sunset Friday until sunset Saturday.
The Fourth Commandment, the longest of the Ten Commandments, enjoins Jews, in imitating the divine Sabbath rest, to abstain from virtually every form of Sabbath labor.
According to Jewish tradition, God chose Israel from all the peoples of the earth and instituted the Sabbath as an eternal sign and blessing of Israel’s unique status.
The Sabbath commandment is the only one of the Ten Commandments instituted by God at creation, and its purpose was to set Israel not only in a right relationship with God, but also in a right relationship with creation by observing proper duties to fellow Israelites, foreigners, slaves, animals, and even vegetation.
In Sabbath observance righteous Jews became partners with God in the creation of the world and aided in bringing salvation to the world.
The Dead Sea Scrolls preserve the most rigorous Sabbath regulations in Judaism, forbidding even the carrying of children, giving of help to birthing animals, or the retrieval of an animal fallen into a pit on the Sabbath.
Sabbath regulations set forth in tractate Shabbat in Mishnah and Talmud, which were observed in Pharisaic and rabbinic traditions, were only slightly less rigorous.
Amplifying on Exodus 35:1–3, Mishnah lists thirty-nine classes of work that profane the Sabbath, including those we might expect, such as plowing, hunting, butchering; and those we would not, such as tying or loosening knots, sewing more than one stitch, or writing more than one letter.
Rabbis endeavored to offer a rule, or at least a precedent, for every conceivable Sabbath question.
The metarule of Sabbath observance was not to begin a work that might extend into Sabbath, and not to do any work on the Sabbath that was not absolutely necessary to preserve life.”
.......
So, for the Jews...
The Sabbath was kind of a big deal...
Yet, the whole point of the Sabbath was lost...
The Sabbath became a burden...
Something God never intended...
And it is with this mindset that we see that Luke records what some of the Pharisees say. to Jesus and His disciples:
“Why are you doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath?”
First, I would like you to please note that Luke qualified the group by adding the word “some” in front of Pharisees.
He may have done this in order to avoid condemning all the Pharisees.
So, although this was the attitude of most...
Some Pharisees did not fully embrace this unbiblical idea that Jesus or His disciples were in the wrong in any way.
.......
In all actually there was no law that prohibited the plucking of grain in order to eat on the Sabbath...
In fact, gleaning handfuls of grain from a neighbor’s field to satisfy one’s immediate hunger was explicitly permitted...
We know this is true from Deuteronomy 23:25 which says:
Deuteronomy 23:25 ESV
25 If you go into your neighbor’s standing grain, you may pluck the ears with your hand, but you shall not put a sickle to your neighbor’s standing grain.
What was actually prohibited was labor for the sake of profit...
Thus a farmer could not harvest for profit on the Sabbath...
Yet there was no problem for an individual to glean enough grain to eat.
.......
However, the religious elite apparently viewed this activity as harvesting...
In the Mishnah...
Which is the first major written collection of the Jewish oral traditions that are known as the Oral Torah...
It considered the rubbing of the the heads of grain to be considered threshing and this was forbidden on the Sabbath...
Specifically, the disciples were guilty in the eyes of the Pharisees of reaping...
That is picking the grain...
And they were guilty of threshing...
That is rubbing the husks together to separate them from the grain...
And they were guilty of winnowing...
That is throwing the husks away...
And thus that would also be preparing food.
.......
The charge was for multiple Sabbath violations...
So, with their flawed wisdom they believed the disciples violated the command of keeping the Sabbath day holy...
However, this is a tradition of the elders and not the commands of God that was broken!
.......
Pastor John MacArthur has this to say about this subject so you can understan the weight of this man-made burden:
“The Sabbath was originally given by God in the Mosaic law (not before) to be a day of rest (the Hebrew word translated “Sabbath” comes from a verb that means, “to cease,” “to desist,” or, “to rest,” refreshment, and worship for His people.
But by the first century, it had accumulated an enormous number of extrabiblical restrictions and regulations, so much so that it had become the most oppressive and burdensome day of the week.
.......
The Talmud devotes twenty-four chapters to Sabbath regulations, describing in painfully exhaustive detail what was and was not permitted to be done.
The result was a ridiculously complex system of external behavior restraints—so much so that one rabbi spent two and a half years studying just one of the twenty-four chapters.
.......
For example, traveling more than 3,000 feet from home was forbidden.
But if one had placed food at the 3,000 foot point before the Sabbath, that point would then be considered a home, since there was food there, and allow another 3,000 feet of travel.
Similarly, a piece of wood or a rope placed across the end of a narrow street or alley constituted a doorway.
That could then be considered the front door of one’s house, and permit the 3,000 feet of travel to begin there.
.......
There were also regulations about carrying items.
Something lifted up in a public place could only be set down in a private place, and vice versa.
An object tossed into the air could be caught with the same hand, but if it was caught with the other hand, it would be a Sabbath violation.
If a person had reached out to pick up food when the Sabbath began, the food had to be dropped; to bring the arm back while holding the food would be to carry a burden on the Sabbath.
It was forbidden to carry anything heavier than a dried fig (though something weighing half as much could be carried two times).
A tailor could not carry his needle, a scribe his pen, or a student his books.
Only enough ink to write two letters (of the alphabet) could be carried.
A letter could not be sent, not even with a non-Jew.
Clothes could not be examined or shaken out before being put on because an insect might be killed in the process, which would be work.
No fire could be lit, or put out.
Cold water could be poured into warm water, but not warm into cold.
An egg could not be cooked, not even by placing it in hot sand during the summer.
Nothing could be sold or bought.
Bathing was forbidden, lest water be spilled on the floor and wash it.
Moving a chair was not allowed, since it might make a rut in a dirt floor, which was too much like plowing.
Women were forbidden to look in a mirror, since if they saw a white hair, they might be tempted to pull it out.
.......
Other forbidden things included sowing, plowing, reaping, binding sheaves, threshing, winnowing, grinding, kneading, baking, shearing, washing, beating, dyeing, or spinning wool, tying or untying a knot, catching, killing, or skinning a deer, salting its meat, or preparing its skin.
.......
It was to people crushed by the unbearable burden of manmade, legalistic regulations that the Lord Jesus Christ said, ‘Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.
Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.’”
.......
So, what we are seeing is a group of men who blindly follow what God has never commanded...
And in the process the condemn others for not following their “clubhouse rules.”
.......
This is not a random case...
This is not an isolated insolent...
This is the consistent conflict we see with Jesus and the religious elite...
This is the consistent conflict we still face today with every other work-righteousness religion out there.
.......
Mark 7:5 is a great example of this conflict...
That passage says:
Mark 7:5 ESV
5 And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?”
Note the appeal to the tradition of the elders...
The tradition of the elders is the same as...
The tradition of the early church fathers...
And the tradition of Joseph Smith...
And the tradition of Muhammad...
Same appeal but different mask!
.......
Yet Jesus responded by saying in Mark 7:8-9:
Mark 7:8–9 ESV
8 You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.” 9 And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition!
The doctrines of God cannot stand side by side with the tradition of men!
.......
God is all perfect and infallible...
Men are imperfect and fallible.
.......
God is all wise and all knowing...
Men are foolish and clueless.
.......
God is all powerful and sovereign...
Men are weak and powerless.
.......
Who will you build your faith on!
Will you build on the foundation of non-provable oral tradition...
Or will you build on the foundation of the inerrant and infallible Word of God!
.......
By rejecting the commandments of God in favor of the traditions of man the Pharisees and all their modern day followers must understand that they embody what Mark 7:13 says...
By putting faith in the traditions of man Jesus says that you will be:
Mark 7:13 ESV
13 thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.”
.......
Although the Pharisees, Scribes, and Sadducees memorized Scripture...
They did not truly understand it...
That was the heart of the problem as Jesus said in Mark 12:24:
Mark 12:24 ESV
24 Jesus said to them, “Is this not the reason you are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God?
Memorizing Scripture without knowing it is the subject we must explore next...
And this takes us to our second point.

2) The Mercy of God

Verses 3-4: And Jesus answered them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him: how he entered the house of God and took and ate the bread of the Presence, which is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those with him?”
So, here, Jesus is referring to 1 Samuel 21:1-6 which says:
1 Samuel 21:1–6 ESV
1 Then David came to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest. And Ahimelech came to meet David, trembling, and said to him, “Why are you alone, and no one with you?” 2 And David said to Ahimelech the priest, “The king has charged me with a matter and said to me, ‘Let no one know anything of the matter about which I send you, and with which I have charged you.’ I have made an appointment with the young men for such and such a place. 3 Now then, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever is here.” 4 And the priest answered David, “I have no common bread on hand, but there is holy bread—if the young men have kept themselves from women.” 5 And David answered the priest, “Truly women have been kept from us as always when I go on an expedition. The vessels of the young men are holy even when it is an ordinary journey. How much more today will their vessels be holy?” 6 So the priest gave him the holy bread, for there was no bread there but the bread of the Presence, which is removed from before the Lord, to be replaced by hot bread on the day it is taken away.
It should be noted that Ahimelech sought the Lord and received approval to give the bread of the presence to David...
This truth can be concluded from 1 Samuel 22:10 which says:
1 Samuel 22:10 ESV
10 and he inquired of the Lord for him and gave him provisions and gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine.”
So, Ahimelech recognized from God that his spiritual obligation was to preserve David’s life...
This even superseded the ceremonial regulation concerning who could eat the consecrated bread.
.......
The regulation concerning who could eat the bread of the Presence is found in Leviticus 24:5-9 which says:
Leviticus 24:5–9 ESV
5 “You shall take fine flour and bake twelve loaves from it; two tenths of an ephah shall be in each loaf. 6 And you shall set them in two piles, six in a pile, on the table of pure gold before the Lord. 7 And you shall put pure frankincense on each pile, that it may go with the bread as a memorial portion as a food offering to the Lord. 8 Every Sabbath day Aaron shall arrange it before the Lord regularly; it is from the people of Israel as a covenant forever. 9 And it shall be for Aaron and his sons, and they shall eat it in a holy place, since it is for him a most holy portion out of the Lord’s food offerings, a perpetual due.”
So, the consecrated Bread of the Presence consisted of 12 loaves that were baked fresh each Sabbath...
The 12 loaves represented God’s covenant with the 12 tribes of Israel.
The bread was prepared in a special way for use in temple service...
And usually this was eaten by the priests only but as we saw in the example with David...
If one was in need of food that need was of greater priority.
.......
So, Jesus is bringing this all up to show that the Sabbath was not ment to be a legalistic burden on others...
Just like God’s commands on who can eat the bread of the Presence was not meant to supersede the command to love one’s neighbor...
David and his men needed food...
To blindly follow the regulations of the bread of the Presence would be to harm David and his men...
And the priest even consulted with God who approved his giving of the bread.
.......
The Pharisees were so blind they missed the who point of God’s laws and commands.
They did not realize that what God ultimately desires is mercy and not blind rule following.
.......
In Matthew’s parallel account of the same incident we have this additional dialogue recorded in Matthew 12:5-8 that echo’s this truth:
Matthew 12:5–8 ESV
5 Or have you not read in the Law how on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless? 6 I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. 7 And if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. 8 For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”
So, if a human priest could permit David to violate part of God’s ceremonial law...
How much more could the Son of God allow His disciples to violate unbiblical human traditions?
.......
The religious elite were so concerned with the temple and the ceremonial laws of God...
They missed the moral laws of God and the one who is greater than the temple itself...
Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!
.......
In Mark’s parallel account...
Also of the same incident...
We have this additional dialogue recorded in Mark 2:27-28:
Mark 2:27–28 ESV
27 And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. 28 So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”
So, the law of keeping the Sabbath was intended to serve God’s people...
It was not meant for God’s people to serve the law!
.......
God intended to Sabbath to bless mankind...
Not for the Sabbath day to be despised due to the unrealistic expectations the Pharisees burdened the people with.
.......
As Jesus boldly says in Matthew 23:23:
Matthew 23:23 ESV
23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.
.......
Next, we will focus on why Jesus’s interpretation of the Sabbath is far more authoritative the that of the religious elite...
And this has to due with the fact that it is Jesus who is Lord...
And if He is Lord then is is also Lord of the Sabbath...
And this takes us to our next point.

3) The Lordship of Christ

Verse 5: And he said to them, “The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”
Beloved, Jesus is making a bold statement here...
Jesus is claiming divine authority to interpret the Law of God in regards to the Sabbath.
.......
So, He argues that it is the Son of Man...
And not the Pharisees through their regulations...
Who ultimately rules over and interprets the Sabbath!
.......
As Genesis 2:2-3 records God rules over the Sabbath...
That passage says:
Genesis 2:2–3 ESV
2 And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. 3 So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.
So, God instituted the Sabbath back in Genesis...
And Jesus expressly claims God’s authority in presuming preeminence over Sabbath!
So, again, Church, this is no small claim!
.......
This is the claim of the divinity of Jesus Christ!
By claiming authority over a divinely instituted ordinance...
Jesus was claiming full equality with God!
For He is the Lord of Lords and King of Kings as it says in Revelation 19:16:
Revelation 19:16 ESV
16 On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.
.......
The claims Jesus made here would be proven by His sacrifice on the cross and God the Father’s acceptance of that sacrifice which was made evident by the resurrection...
Any lunatic and blasphemer could call himself the Lord of the Sabbath...
But Jesus backed up His claims!
As Romans 1:4 says:
Romans 1:4 ESV
4 and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord,
.......
So, Beloved, the purpose of the Sabbath, as it was originally intended by God cannot be understood by the rabbinic tradition of the Pharisees or any other religious group...
Only Jesus, who is Lord of the Sabbath, can properly interpret and declare the true meaning of the doctrine of the Sabbath.
Only Jesus is worthy to be called Lord of Lords and the Lord of the Sabbath...
Only His opinion and decrees matter!
........
I implore you...
Do not put your faith in the doctrine of men...
For all men...
The righteous and the wicked...
Will bow down to the Lordship of Christ!
Every tongue will one day declare Jesus as Lord whether they like it or not!
Some in dread for they will realize they were wrong and it will be too late for them...
And other who will kneel and confess in pure joy for they have placed there trust and hope in Jesus.
As Philippians 2:9–11 says:
Philippians 2:9–11 ESV
9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
.......
Jesus is Lord...
That is a fact.
.......
In the end there will be no debate about that fact...
So, the question today...
Is have you surrendered to Jesus as the Lord He is?
Is He truly the Lord of your life?

Closing Illustration

So, as this message comes to a close...
I would like to share this that I came across in my study this week:
A poem written from the point of view of God for those who call Him Lord only as an act of lip service...
.......
You call Me Master...
And obey me not,
.......
You call Me Light...
And see me not,
.......
You call Me way...
And follow me not,
.......
You call Me Life...
And desire me not,
.......
You call Me wise...
And acknowledge me not,
.......
You call Me fair...
And love me not,
.......
You call Me rich...
And ask me not,
.......
You call Me eternal,,,
And seek me not,
.......
You call Me gracious...
And trust me not,
.......
You call Me Noble...
And serve me not,
.......
You call Me mighty...
And honor me not,
.......
You call Me just...
And fear me not,
.......
If I condemn you...
Blame me not.
.......
We have no one else to blame but ourselves if we do not heed the warnings found in Scripture...
Our faith needs to be built on the Word of God and not the folly of men...
Our faith needs to be built on the sacrifice of Christ on the cross at Calvary...
Were Jesus took the place of us...
Wicked sinners...
For it was through the sacrifice of Christ that we could exchange our garments of filth and decay...
For a brand new royal robe.
.......
And it is now about Christ’s sacrifice that we bring our attention to.

Communion

As we begin our communion service, I want to invite every genuinely born-again believer in the room to partake in this act together.
If you do not yet know the Lord and do not have a relationship with Him...
Or if you are under church discipline from this church or another church...
Then I will ask that you wait until you have resolved your issue before participating.
.......
As you came in you should have picked up a communion packet if you are joining us.
This has both the bread and juice in a convenient package.
.......
If you have not received one of these please raise your hand and someone will get you one.
.......
Before we join in communion together, I would like us to consider Hebrews 9:11-14...
Hebrews 9:11–14 ESV
11 But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) 12 he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. 13 For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, 14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
This brings to mind a tale that Alister Begg once shared in a sermon he gave...
He said:
“In the 1970s, when the late David Watson was working very successfully and effectively with university students in evangelism in the United Kingdom, he described how on one occasion, speaking at an English university, he had talked at the end of one of his sessions to a young girl who had the reputation of being ‘the toughest girl in our university.’
She had quite openly slept around, she’d taken every drug that was available on the campus, outwardly she didn’t care about a single thing, and she flat out had zero interest in the notion of Jesus Christ and Christianity.
.......
And he tells how, after speaking one evening at this English university, as he was greeting people at the conclusion of it all, this girl came up to him, smoking a cigarette.
And she walked up to him, and she said, ‘Reverend Watson, I just came up to let you know that I just received Jesus Christ as my personal Savior’—took a drag on the cigarette, turned around, and walked right out.
And Watson says, ‘And I looked at her go, and I said to myself, ‘Time will tell.’’
.......
At the conclusion of the following evening’s meetings, he was again greeting people.
And in the course of greeting people, he encountered a young girl whom he did not immediately recognize.
It was the girl from the previous evening.
She actually looked radically different.
And she explained to him, ‘Since last evening, I have spent most of my time crying.
Because in spite of all my toughness and all my hardness, for all my life I’ve felt as guilty as hell.’
.......
And some are here this morning, and behind the nice suits and the smiles and the cars and the stuff, two people know—God and you—that’s exactly how you feel.
And for this girl, what brought it all out was this amazing story of Jesus.
She couldn’t fathom that a God who was absolutely pristine in his holiness could love her.
She couldn’t imagine that a Christ who had lived a perfect life and died a death upon the cross had died to forgive her sins.
And the whole notion of Hebrews 8:12, ‘I will forgive their wickedness and [I] will remember their sins no more,’ was an absolutely mind-blowing concept to her—that God not only forgives sin, but he forgets sin and he cleanses the guilty conscience.”
.......
So, Beloved...
Let’s all take a moment right now in silent prayer to thank the Lord for all He did for us...
(MOMENT OF SILENCE)
.......
Tom will you pray before we partake in the bread:
.......
The Word of God says in Luke 22:19:
Luke 22:19 ESV
19 And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”
(TAKE THE BREAD)
.......
Adrian will you pray before we partake in the cup:
.......
The Word of God says in Luke 22:20:
Luke 22:20 ESV
20 And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.
(TAKE THE CUP)
.......
With that we conclude the communion portion of our service.
.......
To God be all the glory.
Amen.
.......
Please join us for one more song from the Praise Band.
Related Media
See more
Related Sermons
See more