[0:00] who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.
[0:15] As we know, the Apostle Paul had a special bond with Titus, just as he had with Timothy. It would appear that Titus was somebody who had come to faith through the labors of the Apostle and had become a fellow laborer also with the Apostle, because we read about that in 2 Corinthians chapter 8, that Titus was a fellow worker with Paul.
[0:42] So they shared a lot together. And it's true that when you go through experiences and deep experiences with people, very often a lifelong bond is forged.
[0:57] It's something that even although you might be separated and far away from particular people, if you've shared, if you've gone through things together, and particularly maybe difficult things, there will always be that particular bond.
[1:12] I remember my father, who had been in the destroyers through the war in the North Atlantic, and there was quite a lot of Lewis men. And right until each one of them died, they kept in touch, and they used to meet up regularly, because just of what they had gone through together.
[1:31] It had become a lifelong bond. And I'm sure that was true with a lot of people, but that's just an example of how people forge bonds, often through difficulties and through trials and hard times.
[1:47] So we find that the Apostle Paul had this great bond with Titus. And Paul is writing this letter, and it's an incredibly practical letter.
[1:59] Some of Paul's letters are very theological, but they're always practical as well. And as we know, the practice comes out from the theology. But this is a very, very practical letter.
[2:13] And Paul is showing us that we are saved not to live any old way we want, that we are to live in a particular way. And that the God of all grace, who works within our lives, works in such a way that it brings within us, or should bring within us, for example, that we should be self-controlled, we should be upright and godly in this present age.
[2:40] We should live lives that are moderate, that there's a control, a self-control. We should be fair in our dealings with one another, and that we should resemble the Lord Jesus Christ.
[2:54] And that, of course, is part of the great work that goes on within our lives, where the Holy Spirit is conforming us to the image of Jesus Christ. There will come a day when we will be fully conformed, because we're told that in glory, there's these great words, we shall be like him.
[3:13] And some of my, these are, stand us personally, some of my favorite words, well, a very small phrase, we shall, sentence, we shall be like him.
[3:25] But it's something, I think, that beats in the heart of every Christian, is that longing for the day when we shall be like him, when we will resemble Jesus. He says, here the work has begun, but there is still so much sin, there's so much that distorts, so much we're ashamed of, so much we regret, so often we look at ourselves and we seem to be so far removed from what we want to be.
[3:50] But the fact is, we are a work in progress. But one day, we shall be like him. So the apostle is saying to Titus, while you're here, the Lord has saved you in order that you will live in a different way.
[4:05] We mentioned this last night. We might be, we're saying that it's not easy being a Christian in the day that we're living in. But it wasn't easy in the day that the apostle Paul lived in.
[4:15] In fact, it was far harder to be a Christian when Paul was living, where he was living, under the fires of Roman persecution, than it is for us here in Britain today.
[4:27] And so we can never justify our lapses, or maybe we're not living the way we should by saying, ah, well, it's a kind of culture we live in.
[4:38] It's the spirit of the age. It's difficult. Yes, it's difficult. We recognize that, and we know that. And in some ways, it is harder to be a Christian than maybe it was 20, 30, 40 years ago here.
[4:51] But the fact remains that when the apostle wrote this, he wrote it in very, very difficult times. And he's saying, look, this is how we are to live.
[5:03] The Holy Spirit is working within us, transforming us, changing us. That doesn't mean we're always going to be like that. But we're striving for it. We're seeking that we will live in that way.
[5:15] Because elsewhere, the apostle tells us that we are living letters, living epistles that are read of all people. And it's quite a thought that people make their judgment of who Jesus Christ is by looking at his people.
[5:33] It's a very sobering and a challenging thought that often the world's assessment of who Christ is is what they see within his people.
[5:45] And as I say, that can be challenging. It can be humbling and sometimes even disconcerting, particularly when we feel that we're not witnessing, when we're not being the Christ-like people that we should be.
[6:00] But the apostle is telling us that we are to live in this particular way with our eye upon something that's very important.
[6:10] Because he tells us in verse 13 that we are waiting for our blessed hope, the appearance of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.
[6:22] So that we are living in this particular way. Although we are living in the present in a particular way, we have half an eye, as it were, on something that's ahead.
[6:35] We're looking ahead to something that is going to happen. Because we're told here that the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.
[6:49] Jesus Christ is coming again. And that's part of what pulsates through our spiritual veins, is this hope that is within us.
[7:03] And that's why the Christian is able to live with a different attitude in this world. Because this world is not all that we have. It's not all that we're looking to.
[7:15] Because we're looking ahead. We're looking to what is yet to be. If all that a passion has is this world, and the older you get in this world, then the emptier, or the kind of, you begin to lose hope.
[7:33] What have you got to look forward to? If people don't believe in Jesus Christ, if people do not trust in the Lord, if people are not looking for new heavens and a new earth, if people are not expecting the return of Jesus and to be with Jesus, because that's the Christian's future, the Christian's great hope.
[7:56] But if a person doesn't have that, then life is really quite empty. Yes, your life can be fooled just now with lots of things, but take these things, change your circumstances, take these things out, and then life becomes very fragile.
[8:17] And that's why it says in Ephesians that those who are without Christ are without God and without hope in this world. And that's an awful condition, an awful situation to be, because a person without hope is in a very, very, very bleak situation, to be living where you don't have hope.
[8:38] And although people might not see it, or recognize it, or understand it, or know it at the time, that is exactly how it is. But for the Christian, the great thing is we know that the best is yet to come.
[8:53] And so the returning Jesus is a scene that we cannot really picture, but we know is going to happen.
[9:04] And it is something that we look forward to. And we have this assurance within us, this great hope. And we've got to remember, we've said it often before, that Christian hope is different to the hope of the world.
[9:17] The hope of the world is, I hope so. I'm hoping it will happen. Christian hope is a persuasion, it's a guarantee, it's an assurance that this is how it will be.
[9:30] And so the future coming is all tied up, Christ's future coming is all tied up in his previous coming. He has to come again.
[9:42] When he came as a great God and Savior, he was given a lot of work to do. The Father gave the Son a lot of work to do. And all that particular work that was given to him to do with regard to our redemption, to regard to our salvation, to purchasing us, all that was done.
[10:05] And that's why on the cross he was able to say, it is finished. However, there is still work that is to be done. And as a great God, he is going to come back.
[10:18] And it's going to be all so different to the last time when he came. When he came before, it was almost like he slipped in unnoticed. When he was born as a babe in Bethlehem, apart from the angels singing and the shepherds singing and being made known to the wise men, it was, he came in so quietly that nobody really took note.
[10:47] His return will be the very, very opposite. The very universe will reverberate. The graves will open. There will be the sound of the last trump.
[11:00] Every eye will see the returning Jesus. It's a spectacle that we cannot even begin to imagine. It's, as we say, so completely different to his coming in the first place.
[11:15] So, this is what we are waiting for, the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so, there is, within the Christian, there is always this looking back to what Christ has done and looking forward to his coming again.
[11:32] And that's all tied up in the table because when we come to the sacrament and when we read the warrant for the sacrament, one of the things that we read there is, for as often as you eat this bread and drink this wine or drink this cup, you proclaim or you show forth the Lord's death till he come.
[11:53] So, you see, there is a looking back to what Jesus did and there is a looking forward to what Jesus is yet going to do. These two things meet together in the Lord's Supper.
[12:06] And that's why it's so important that every Christian, if they're able to, should come and partake of the Lord's Supper.
[12:17] It is a big moment within our lives. It is a strengthening of our faith. It is a demonstration of our love for the Lord Jesus Christ.
[12:28] So, it tells us that our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, not two passions, that these are, it's just the one passion, but the Lord Jesus Christ is the great God who is our Savior.
[12:43] However, verse 11 reminds us also that everything is of God's grace. For the grace of God has appeared bringing salvation for all people.
[12:56] Everything from start to finish is of God. the whole gospel that we have, you're being saved, my being saved, our gathering together in church, the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, inviting people to come, all that is involved in salvation, this is not our thinking.
[13:18] No brilliant minds or great men or women of great understanding sat down and said, right, how will we sort out ourselves to get right with God?
[13:29] It is impossible. It is God who from the very beginning to the end has set out the way of salvation for us. We didn't invent this, we didn't discover it, just in the way there have been amazing discoveries that have changed the whole course of life in this world.
[13:51] The day that penicillin was discovered, that changed life in this world. The day electricity was discovered, that radically changed this world for good in an amazing way.
[14:05] But this salvation wasn't discovered by some genius or some great minds or somebody delving down deep and all of a sudden, hey, I found something, you'll never guess, and then begins to tell the world what they've discovered.
[14:21] This salvation is discovered by God revealing it to us. Not the other way around. It's not us that went digging and found, but that God took the initiative at the very beginning.
[14:37] Everything is of grace. God purposed, God planned, God worked, God fulfilled, everything is of grace. And so we find that it tells us here that for the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people.
[15:00] And you and I are here today because God has revealed himself to you. Isn't that amazing? It's personal. You know, it's very easy to sit here and think about salvation in an abstract way and of God working in an abstract way.
[15:16] No, this is personal. He dealt with you. He revealed himself to you. And whatever way you came gradually and maybe or very suddenly in your own experience, in the outworking of that, the fact is this, that it was God who revealed himself to you.
[15:39] That's where it all began. When you, when maybe an interest began within your life, and you began to seek for God, to search for God, it's possible even that you weren't seeking or searching and all of a sudden you came to see, to understand, to know us, which has happened to people who have walked into a church with no interest, real interest in their heart or life.
[16:06] And people sometimes not even in a church. But it's always God. It's God who opens eyes. it's God who opens the heart. It's God who opens the ears. And we must always remember that.
[16:19] But that also means, that doesn't mean that we don't bother. Because we're told in the Bible that our responsibility is to seek, is to search, is to call, is to cry, is to plead, is to knock, to ask.
[16:38] That's our duty, our responsibility. We are called upon to do these things. But it's God who initiates. It's God who reveals.
[16:50] And we are here today for this very reason, that God revealed himself. But we also find that in verse 14, that this waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us.
[17:11] And that's one of the wonderful things about our Godhead, is that God is a giving God. It's all about giving. That's one of the amazing things when we delve into the whole way of salvation.
[17:28] It's all give, give, give, give. God so loved the world that he what? He gave his only begotten son. son. What did his only begotten son do?
[17:41] He gave his life. It's all giving. And that's one of the things that we often have to stop and think, and that's one of the things we should be doing today.
[17:54] As we sit under his word and come to his table, one of the things we should stop and reflect upon and say, Lord, thank you for your love that you gave your son into this world.
[18:11] And thank you that your son gave his life for me. For me. Isn't it quite extraordinary? When you look at Jesus, his whole life was about giving.
[18:26] Some people look at the poverty of Jesus and say, you know, here was a man who had nothing. And that is true. When he needed a coin, remember, he needed a coin to answer a question.
[18:37] He said, show me a coin. He wasn't carrying anything himself. But here is a man who in many ways seemed to have nothing. He said, the foxes have holes, the birds of the air have nests, the son of man has nowhere to lay his head.
[18:51] But here is a person who was richer than all the riches and the wealth of this world put together. And yet, through all the riches of who he was, he gave everything away.
[19:06] He became poor for us in order that we might become rich in him. He gave, he gave, he gave every single day.
[19:19] And sometimes we think it was easy for Jesus. No, it wasn't. His energy was sapped. There are examples of that. Remember when he healed the woman with the issue of blood.
[19:32] He knew when she came by faith and touched just the hem of his garment, he knew that virtue had gone out of him. So that in all the work that he was doing, in all the healing, in all the laying on of hands, in the opening of eyes, in all his teaching and his preaching, it was exhausting.
[19:55] Yes, he was being energized because he had the spirit without measure, but he was human and he knew all these things. We can see him sleeping in the storm, disciples beside themselves with fear and Jesus is stretched out asleep in the storm because he was giving, giving, giving, giving without a let up the whole time.
[20:19] himself. He gave himself for us. That's what it tells us. He loved the church and gave himself for it. We have a classic example of that in the garden when the soldiers came to arrest Jesus.
[20:38] And there we find him really giving himself. All the time he's been giving of himself, but now it comes to the time when he gives his whole self.
[20:53] Remember he said to them, who are you looking for? They said, Jesus of Nazareth. He said, I am he. Do you remember how there was all going on and Peter took out his sword to defend Jesus and Jesus told Peter to put the sword away.
[21:12] And when he said to the soldiers who came, I am he. Remember they fell to the ground. And there was this display just for a moment, just for a moment of his authority.
[21:25] The soldiers couldn't stand in the presence of Christ at that particular moment. They were hurled back to the ground. You see, you can imagine them getting up and shaking themselves and saying, what on earth happened there?
[21:40] But then it tells us that he gave himself. He makes these wonderful words where he says, here am I. Let these go.
[21:54] Here am I. It's you, it's me, you want. See these other ones, let them go. And that has been the theme of Jesus' work.
[22:06] That's what he has done because he has said to the Father, Father, on your behalf and my behalf. Here am I. Let them go.
[22:18] Father, do to me what you should be doing to them. Pour on them, pour on me, I should say, all the curse, all the wrath that is due for their sin.
[22:32] Here am I. Let him go. Let her go. That's what he did for you. You put your mind right back. These 2,000 years ago, he was standing in your room, in your stead, and he said to the Father, here am I.
[22:50] Let him go. Let her go. Have we taken that to heart? Are we appreciating just what it is that he has done? And so he gave everything he could.
[23:04] You know, a lot of people are incredibly generous, and they give, and they give, and they give. And you can't get over how much they give. But they've still got their life. But Jesus gave that as well.
[23:18] There wasn't anything else left to give. He gave his all. And then we see that who gave himself for us, to redeem us from all lawlessness, and to purify for himself a people for his own possession, who are zealous for good works.
[23:40] To redeem us from all lawlessness. And that's what has happened. One of the great themes that runs right through the Bible is the theme of redeeming, of redemption.
[23:55] And that's what Jesus has done. That's why he's turned, we read about it, say, in the Catechism, the redeemer of God's elect. He is the one who has redeemed God's people.
[24:06] To redeem is to buy back what once belonged to you. And we all, at the very beginning, belonged to God. Because as we stood in Adam, as Adam was created in knowledge, righteousness, and in holiness, we belonged completely to God.
[24:27] Of course, we fell in Adam. and when we fell, we were lost. Jesus came to buy back what the Godhead had lost, father, son, and spirit.
[24:40] He came to buy back what had been lost. And so this idea of redemption runs right through the Bible. We have, for instance, Jacob talking when he was blessing Joseph's sons.
[24:56] He says, the angel who has redeemed me from all evil. And the context makes it very clear that this is the angel of the covenant who, of course, was the Lord Jesus.
[25:08] Again, in Exodus, the Lord appears to Moses and he said, I've heard the groaning of my people. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and great acts of judgment.
[25:21] And right through the Bible, we have this idea of being redeemed. And we come to Revelation and we look into glory. And we find there that those in glory are those who have been redeemed by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
[25:40] And so we find then that Jesus is the one who redeems us to buy back. Now to buy back, if you're going to buy something, you have to pay. So Jesus is not only the one who is doing the purchasing, but he is also the price that has to be paid.
[26:00] In order to purchase something, you have to pay it. So Jesus is the one who has come to purchase, but he is paying it as well. And that is the amazing thing.
[26:12] Because we were lost, we were in bondage to sin, to slavery. Just as the great parallel of that is we found in Exodus. Exodus. You remember how there they were in slavery and bondage, and God says, I'm going to redeem you.
[26:28] And this, of course, was the great picture of what the Lord Jesus Christ did. They couldn't get out of it themselves. And then we have that picture of the slaying of the lamb, the Passover lamb, and the place of the firstborn, and of how God redeemed them with a mighty hand.
[26:51] So Jesus today is the redeemer. Jesus has paid the price for you. It's powerful, it's personal, it's perfect. The whole thing is amazing.
[27:03] It's amazing grace. Have you today grasped just what it is that Jesus has done? Can I say to any who are without Jesus, and I'm not just homing in and saying that everybody who's not at the table today doesn't know the Lord Jesus Christ as their own personal savior?
[27:21] I believe that some of you do. And I believe that some of you will have to dig deep into your own hearts and challenge yourselves and say, it's time I did something about this.
[27:35] In other words, it's time I made the public profession that I should be making. Because it's us actually, when you come to the table, we'll think about that. It's quite a serious thing.
[27:47] It's a solemn thing. when Jesus only asks us to do a very simple thing for him, and when you think what he has done for us, he says, you know, I just want you to do this in remembrance of me.
[28:00] It's not a big ask. It was a massive ask of him. But it's not a massive ask of us. And so, those of you who do know Jesus, I want you to really say to yourself, it's high time that I took my right place with God's people.
[28:24] But if you're here today and you still don't know Jesus, remember this. God is a giving God. And right throughout the length of your life, he is offering to you this Jesus who has paid the price.
[28:40] All the doing has been done. We can't add to it. Nothing we can bring and say, well, I'll bring, if I bring this or if I do this or if I do that, then God will accept me. We can only be accepted in and through Jesus and what he has done.
[28:58] There is nothing else. And so, we find that he has done all this in order to purify himself of people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.
[29:11] It's a wonderful thought that we are the possession of the Lord. You know, we've said it often enough before, out of this world, this world is going to melt with fervent heat.
[29:22] The earth is going to melt with fervent heat. There's only one thing God wants out of this world, as it is, and that's his people.
[29:34] It's his only possession in this world are his people. He says that. That his inheritance are his people. his possession are his people.
[29:46] You today belong to him. What an honor, what a privilege it is. Let us pray. Lord, our God, we pray that today we may take to heart more and more just the wonder of what it is that Jesus has done, how we have been redeemed from the curse of the law, how we have been bought back and brought back, and help us, Lord, to live for you and with you, and by your strength every single day.
[30:19] Guide us and keep us and bless us and do us good, and take away our sin in Jesus' name. Amen. We're going to sing now in Psalm 22, and again this is from Sing Psalm, Psalm 22, and we're going to sing from verse 26 to the end of the Psalm, Psalm 22.
[30:53] That's at page 27. The poor will eat and will be filled, and those who seek the Lord will give. A shout of joyful praise to him, O may your hearts forever live.
[31:06] The whole earth will remember him and turn towards the Lord their God. All peoples will bow down to him, the nations of the world abroad. Dominion to the Lord belongs, and over nations he is king.
[31:20] The rich of all the earth will feast and worship with an offering. All those whose destiny is dust will humbly kneel before his throne. They cannot keep themselves alive, for they depend on him alone, and so on.
[31:34] Psalm 22 from verse 26 to the end, the poor will eat and will be filled. Amen. Amen. praise to him, O may your hearts forever live.
[32:17] The whole head will remember him, and turn towards the Lord the Lord their God.
[32:35] All peoples will find time to him, the nations of the world abroad.
[32:53] Dominion to the Lord belongs, and over nations he is king, the rich of all the earth will feast and worship with an offering.
[33:25] All those whose destiny is just will hardly kneel before his throne.
[33:44] They cannot keep themselves alive, for they depend on him alone.
[34:01] Asterity will send the Lord a generation still to come from tell the people yet unborn, the righteous as the demon son.
[34:38] Now we come to what we term the fencing of the table, and before we do, just want to say how nice it is to see all the Sunday school children, the Sunday school children, and it's a great thing to watch the supper, the Lord's supper.
[34:53] I remember when I was your age, I always say I want to see inside the cup, I always want to see just how red the wine might be.
[35:05] And these were the sort of things that I was really, and we always want to see the red wine speaks to us of the red blood of Jesus that was poured out on the cross for our sin.
[35:19] But we come now to what we term the fancy, and just a word, and it's just really indicating an evidence or mark of those of the Lord's people. And as we read there, one of the marks is that in verse 13, that we are waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour.
[35:41] We are waiting. Now, I think we all know that one of the most frustrating things is waiting, particularly if we're waiting a long time. If we're waiting for people, we can sometimes get exasperated.
[35:56] But that's not the kind of waiting we have here. It's not waiting idly and just sort of saying, I wonder when. It's waiting with excitement.
[36:09] If there was somebody in your home who's been away for a long, long time, and that person was coming back, you'd be counting down the days, the hours, the minutes till they would come.
[36:22] There would be excitement. You'd be saying, oh, it's not long now till so and so will be coming back. That's the kind of waiting that we should have within our heart, that we are waiting with our longing, our waiting for Jesus.
[36:39] And we are to wait, as we are told, in a particular way. We're to wait living in our right way. Not to live any old way we want, because Jesus tells us elsewhere that sometimes, or some of his people will be ashamed when he comes back.
[36:56] Because they're going to be caught up doing all the wrong things. But he says, blessing is on those who are waiting for him in the right way. Looking for him, expecting him.
[37:10] I think it was, it might be wrong, the Boner brothers that used to ask or say, do you think today is the day the Lord will return?
[37:20] They were living with such a sense of his coming again. Do we have that? Because we're told it's, we're waiting for our blessed hope.
[37:34] So in the waiting, there is actual blessing. If we are waiting in the right way, we're actually being blessed by the Lord. So remember, Christian waiting is not something boring.
[37:48] It's not something, they were just saying, something. There's hope in our heart. We're kind of on fire waiting. And the second thing we see, just a word in that, there is zeal, zealous of good works.
[38:01] The Christian should be somebody who has zeal in their heart. You think of Elijah and zeal. Our Lord Jesus Christ and zeal. It tells us that the zeal of your house has eaten me up.
[38:16] That's what it says of Jesus. And we should have the zeal to live like him and for him, wherever we are in this world.
[38:29] We're going to come now to the table. And we're going to be singing Psalm 118. And as we do so, the elders will place the elements on the table.
[38:43] And again, an invitation is given. If there are any who are visiting here and you are a member within your own congregation, and you wish to take the bread and the wine, then if you could move forward into the area where there's the white tablecloth.
[38:59] And because it's not our table, it is the Lord's table. It's his church. So we're going to sing from Psalm 118 from verse 15.
[39:09] This is from the Scottish Psalter. Psalm 118 and verse 15 down. And we'll sing until the elements are on the table.
[39:26] In dwellings of the righteous is heard the melody of joy and health. The Lord's right hand doth ever valiantly. The right hand of the mighty Lord exalted is on high. The right hand of the mighty Lord doth ever valiantly.
[39:39] And so on. Psalm 118 and verse 15. 15 in dwellings of the righteous. Amen. Amen. In dwellings of the righteous Dissert the melody O joy and health, the Lord's right hand, The right hand of the mighty Lord, Exalted is on high.
[40:37] The right hand of the mighty Lord, Thou never valiantly.
[40:51] I shall not die, but live and shall.
[41:02] The words of God is covered. The Lord hath be just as its sword, But not to death in the world.
[41:25] The Lord set thee open unto me The gates of righteousness Then will I enter into them And I, the Lord, will bless This is the gate of God my name The verse and thy Inchor soul, and bless
[42:33] That stone is created cornerstone, which the earth did despise.
[42:48] This is the glory of the Lord, and wonders in our eyes.
[43:18] We'll read our warrant, which we have in 1 Corinthians 11. Verse 23, For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.
[43:42] In the same way also he took the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.
[43:53] For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. Whoever therefore eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord.
[44:09] Let a person examine himself, then so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself, and so on.
[44:24] Now we read there that on that night when the Lord, when he was betrayed, that he took bread and he gave thanks. So we will seek to do likewise.
[44:37] O Lord, our God, we give thanks for this moment, a moment that you have set aside for us because you knew that the journey home would be tough.
[44:50] And we give thanks for every resting place and every refreshing place that we get along the way. And that's what this is. It is both a resting place and a refreshing place.
[45:03] And we ask, O Lord, that we might see you and that we might have a fresh appreciation of what it is that you have done for us, the Jesus who gave himself for us.
[45:16] And we ask, O Lord, that as we take by faith the bread and the wine, everyday ordinary things which have been set aside just now for holy use, we ask, O Lord, that you will bless what we do, that you will take ourselves out of it, and that you will put yourself into it so that we will see nothing but Jesus.
[45:42] Watch over us then, we pray. Bless us and forgive us our sin in Jesus' name. Amen. Before we actually take the bread and the wine, just to say one or two things.
[45:55] This table that we're at, there are certain things that we do and everything is tied in with Jesus because it is Jesus' supper, the Lord's supper.
[46:10] So, the first thing we're doing is we're remembering Jesus. You always remember somebody who has done something really good for you. And that's what we're doing today.
[46:23] we are remembering what Jesus has done for us. And often, in order to remember somebody, you have to know that passion.
[46:34] You can remember, we can remember characters in history because we've been told something about them. But to actually remember a passion, you really have to, you really have had to know that passion.
[46:48] And that's what it is with Jesus. We are remembering someone that we know. And it's so important for us to bring Jesus back, back, back into the forefront of our thinking.
[47:02] So, when we take the bread and the wine, that's what we're doing. We're remembering Jesus. We're also obeying Jesus because Jesus has said to us, I want you to do something for me.
[47:18] We talked about what Jesus was doing for us in service. And Jesus did everything. There wasn't one more thing he could do because he gave us life.
[47:31] He emptied himself of all his blood. He gave everything he could for you and for me. He couldn't do more. And he says, I want you to do one thing for me.
[47:42] It's a very important thing because doing this, it's good for you, but it's also good for me. Because doing this, you glorify me, you honor me, you proclaim me.
[47:57] And so, we are obeying. We're obeying Jesus because there was a command given to us and obedience comes from love.
[48:09] If you love me, Jesus said, obey my commandments. So, it's remembering Jesus. It's obeying Jesus. It's also thanking Jesus.
[48:23] We're thanking Jesus for what he gave. He gave us, we said he gave us life. And he couldn't give more than that. So, when we take the bread and we take the wine, let us remember that.
[48:39] That we're doing these things. That we're remembering Jesus and we're obeying Jesus and we're thanking Jesus and we're sharing with Jesus because this is communion.
[48:54] This is what we're doing. We're sharing, having fellowship with Jesus and also with one another. We're passing plates. We're passing the cup. We're sharing the cup.
[49:05] We're sharing all this. This is what the family does. That's what families do. They share. Jesus wants us to share with one another, to share himself with us.
[49:20] So, as we read in Corinthians that on that night in which he was betrayed, when he had given thanks, that he took bread and when he took the bread and given thanks, he broke it and said, this is my body which is given for you.
[49:42] Do this in remembrance of me. In the same manner, in the same way also, he took the cup after supper saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood.
[49:55] Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.
[50:08] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
[50:21] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
[50:36] Amen. Amen. Thank you.