Latest / HBCWestminster / 3.1.20 Luke 4:14-30 Pastor Danny Gardner

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3.1.20 Luke 4:14-30 Pastor Danny Gardner · HBCWestminster

• 0:00
  I'm going to be in Luke chapter 4, and our text is verses 14 to 30, and if you're able to stand in honor of God's Word, I would ask you to do that now as I read, beginning in verse 14, and it says, And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and a report about Him went out through all the surrounding country. And He taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all. And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as was His custom, He went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and He stood up to read.
• 0:32
  And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written. The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down.
• 0:57
  And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him, and he began to say to them, Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. And all spoke well of him and marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph's son? And he said to them, Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, Physician, heal yourself. What we have heard you did at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well. And he said, Truly I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown.
• 1:24
  But in truth, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens were shut up three and a half years, and a great famine came over all the land, and Elijah was sent to none of them, but only to Zarephath in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, that none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian. When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath.
• 1:52
  And they rose up and drove him out of the town and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built so that they could throw him down the cliff. But passing through their midst, he went away. Would you pray with me? Lord, we come this morning with humility as we open your word because we know it to be a sharp and double-edged sword. We know that it is living and active and we pray that it would be so in our own lives. God, use...
• 2:26
  the sword of your word to cut away anything in our hearts that is not of you. Use it to trim off any excess, we would pray. Use it to hack away even sinful and rebellious thoughts. God, be glorified in its hearing this morning, and it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen, church? Amen. Thank you. You can be seated. Well, many of you know I grew up at First Baptist Church in Lancaster, California, which eventually became Grace Chapel.
• 2:57
  I was dedicated there when I was only a matter of months old. I went to the church nursery. I graduated to Sunday school. I attended VBS. I went to youth group and then graduated from high school. I went to college and seminary in Los Angeles where I had moved away for a few years, but then I came home and was hired as the youth pastor at that same church. I spent five years as the youth pastor, spent another five years as the adult pastor, and then eventually became an associate pastor before moving here to Highland.
• 3:28
  And the point is, I spent most of my life at that same church. The ladies that I eventually pastored were the same ladies that taught me when I was just a kid. Ladies like Trudy Lewis, Rita Corbin, Geneva Stone, and Martha Barnes. Martha's husband, Carl Barnes, was a pilot in World War II where he was shot down over France. He hid for three days inside of a massive haystack.
• 3:57
  which was repeatedly machine gunned by enemy soldiers as they passed by. What I knew of Carl, I was only five, six years old. I didn't know that story. What I knew as a five-year-old was that Carl was an usher. And he always kept, you know those little Werther's original candies? You know what I'm talking about? He always kept a pocket full of them, which he gave to any kids whose parents would allow them to have one, including me. Well, Carl eventually passed away and Martha, his wife.
• 4:25
  became a greeter at the front door of the church. She was in her 80s at the time. She loved shaking people's hands with a smile, handing them bulletins, and then saying, you know, Pastor Danny, even to visitors, you know, Pastor Danny, isn't he wonderful? You know, I used to change his diapers in the church nursery.
• 4:49
  She said it. She giggled. She laughed. She thought it was the funniest thing. I used to change his diapers in the church nursery. I came to her one time and I said, Martha, you got to stop doing that. You got to stop, especially to the visitors, please stop. She would just laugh. I'm 80 years old, Danny. You can't tell me to stop doing anything. A prophet has no honor in his own hometown. Why? Because they remember when you were just a kid.
• 5:22
  They remember the times you messed up. They remember the times you failed. They remember the times you wish they would forget. They remember the time you brought a magnet to Sunday school hanging by a string and swung the magnet around but accidentally let go and it shot through and broke one of the Sunday school windows. They don't forget. And they don't let you forget either. You would think if Jesus was going to be received anywhere, it would be in his own hometown, right?
• 5:53
  I mean, if you're going to win the vote, it's your home state. If you can't carry your home state, you can't win. If Jesus is going to be received by anybody, it would be his own friends and family, you would think. Verse 16 says he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up. This was his hometown and homecomings are almost always sweet. But this one had a peculiar shadow cast over it, our adversary.
• 6:24
  had most certainly been at work, sowing seeds of discontent, seeds of ignorance, perhaps even seeds of false expectation, so that when Christ returned to His own people, they would not have ears to hear the truth. Now, by the time you get to verse 14 of chapter 4, you've officially finished the introduction of Jesus' life. The first three and a half chapters of Luke are the explanation of His preparation for His public ministry. It describes,
• 6:55
  The parents and birth and ministry of his herald, John the Baptist, describes Jesus' birth and his dedication in the temple. It describes his childhood, his baptism, his genealogy. And today we get to finally what he came to do. That is to preach the kingdom, to heal disease, and to invite his people into forgiveness and fellowship with their heavenly father. The first 30 years of his life, you know,
• 7:21
  were lived in relative obscurity. He was raised in Nazareth, which is kind of a sleepy little suburb of greater Galilee, a know-nothing, do-nothing town. And he would have learned, probably, we assume, his father's carpentry trade. He most certainly would have gone to Hebrew school, just like all of the other boys in his town. But he eventually left Nazareth and traveled down to the Jordan River to hear his cousin preach and to become...
• 7:48
  baptized. And that event marks a transition in his ministry from private to public. With that event, when he was baptized, he was thrust into public ministry. And when Jesus went public, he burst onto the scene. Verse 14 says, and Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee. And a report about him went...
• 8:12
  through all the surrounding country. And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all. And so now he has gone from Judea up to Galilee and is doing this preaching circuit and is being glorified in and around Galilee until he reaches his hometown of Nazareth. Now, what's interesting about verse 14 is the timing of it. What Luke's gospel does not include, and in fact, the only gospel that does include it is the gospel of John, is a one-year Judean.
• 8:42
  preaching ministry that Luke's gospel skips. And so between verses 13 and 14 of Luke chapter 4, consecutive verses, but between those two verses is a one-year gap in the life of Christ. It has been a year in Jesus's life since last year, and we talked about the resistance of Christ at his temptation. Does everybody follow that? In fact, if you like to underline or write in your Bibles, that would be a good thing to write. Between 13 and 14, one year gap.
• 9:10
  gap. And it's John 1 to 4. John 1 to 4, you could insert into that one-year gap. John 1 to 4 includes things like Jesus going to a wedding feast at Cana and turning water into wine. It shows him going to Jerusalem and cleansing the temple, declaring it to be his. John chapter 3, Nicodemus comes to Jesus by night and begins asking about salvation. Jesus explains to him what it means to be born again.
• 9:36
  In John 4, Jesus walks through Samaria and he encounters a woman at the well. He explains that it doesn't matter where you worship. It matters more how you worship in spirit and truth. And so there's this one-year ministry that Jesus has had since last week. Now, it would cause us to ask the question, I think, why would Luke...
• 9:59
  who was undoubtedly aware of that one year gap, why would he purposely leave that out? Why would he leave that out and go straight to Jesus going back to Nazareth? And I think it's because verse 13 sets the context for his rejection in his hometown. If you look back at verse 13, look at how it ends, right? This is on the heels of the temptation, the resistance of Christ. We talked about it last week. Verse 13 ends with this. He, that is the devil,
• 10:29
  The devil departed from Jesus until an opportune time. Jesus resists him in the wilderness. The devil leaves. Where'd the devil go, right? What was he doing for that year as Jesus is preaching and doing miracles, performing miracles? Where was the adversary? I think Luke's answer was, you know where he went? He went to Nazareth and began stirring up trouble for Jesus, knowing that eventually Jesus would have to come back.
• 10:58
  Knowing eventually he would present himself to his own family and in an effort to derail Jesus' ministry from the very beginning, he ensured that the people in his own hometown would have such a false expectation of who Jesus would be and what Jesus would do for them that they would reject him and hopefully make it so that Christ would become so discouraged that he would either quit or, you can imagine the thinking of the enemy, if I'm lucky enough,
• 11:27
  Maybe they'll declare him to be a false prophet and kill him, which is exactly, we read, what happened. Right? He leaves Jesus. He departs and waits for an opportune time. Enter verse 14. This is the opportune time. And beloved church, may we not provide the devil with opportune times.
• 11:51
  Our false expectations of what Jesus would come and do can create a foothold, a beachhead, an opportune time for the devil to derail our faith. One man has said, God made man in His image, and man then returned the favor. We remake God in our image. We want Him to be a certain way to do certain things. One substance support group says, to serve the God of your choosing.
• 12:23
  And may we combat that heresy in our hearts. May we never create God in our image and to our liking, because to do so is to do the work of the adversary. His own people had heard about his miracles and his bold teaching, and they're thinking if that's how Jesus treated strangers, imagine the bag of tricks he's going to come home with. Imagine the truckload of goodies we'll get, because after all, we are his family and his friends.
• 12:55
  And so let's look at the text and this horrible hometown rejection. Look at verse 16. You'll notice first, the priority of the Lord, the priority the Lord put on the assembling of believers. In other words, Jesus prioritized people. Look at verse 16. And he came to Nazareth where he'd been brought up, and as was his custom. Now that is, I think, the key. If you'd like to underline, underline that phrase. This was not a first-time thing for him. Going to the synagogue on the Sabbath day was what he always did.
• 13:25
  As was his custom, he went to synagogue on the Sabbath day and he stood up to read. Can you imagine the schedule that the Lord Jesus kept? The healings, the teachings. How many times does Scripture say, and he healed every person who was afflicted in that town. Every disease, every demon. I mean, he would stay until the last person. You can imagine those guys down at Rocky Stadium, Coors Field, signing autographs.
• 13:58
  They never stay till the end, right? It's never ending. But Jesus did. Every person in that town who had a disease, every person who had a problem, I mean, he made sure everybody was taken care of. Can you imagine how many times it says he taught? How many times it says he healed? How many times it says he journeyed? Do you think Jesus ever got tired? Yeah, you can imagine him asleep on the boat. Scriptures say that he would often retreat to solitary places to rest and to pray.
• 14:30
  I think he probably got tired. Why? I mean, to say that Jesus was busy is probably to put it mildly. And yet, Jesus did not forsake the assembling of God's people. On the Sabbath day, where would you find Jesus? In the synagogue. If there was anybody who could have said, you know what? I'm tired of being with people. I'm with people all day. You know what? I'm off the clock. If there's anybody who could have said it, it was him. If there's anybody who could have said, you know what?
• 15:03
  I've heard all the sermons. I'm just not getting anything. You know, like, I'm just not getting anything out of the sermon. It was him. If there's anybody who could have said, you know, the music? You know, I've heard the heavenly choirs. They're pretty good. You know, like, the heavenly electric guitar. You know, that thing is wailing. Oh, come on. You know, we've got to endure. You know, if there's anybody who had to endure the synagogue service, it was certainly him, right? It was him, and yet...
• 15:36
  He not only attended, this says he participated. He participated. He stood up to read. Now, a typical synagogue service would have included singing by a special type of rabbi called a cantor, a soloist, whose job it is to offer prayer, thanksgiving, to sing the Psalms, to sing blessings over the people. Then typically when he was done, there was usually a reading of scripture and then an explanation of that passage by the rabbi. It was similar to a modern church service. Now, Jesus,
• 16:07
  fulfilled the reading and teaching portion of this synagogue service by reading one of the most messianic portions of Isaiah ever written and then explaining it with a nine-word sermon. Nine words. He reads it. He goes and sits down and then says, today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. Let's close in prayer. Right? I mean, this was an attention grabber, right? Like, that's all you need to know.
• 16:37
  What do we need to know about Isaiah 61? All you need to know is that's me, is what he says. Hallie and I have actually discussed what it will be like someday not to pastor a church. We are not under the false assumption that we will pastor churches forever, right? That I will die in the pulpit. I'm not under that assumption. I think that there will probably be a day, and I hope that it's many, many years off, when we will hand the reins over to a younger, probably smarter, probably more talented couple.
• 17:08
  We'll rejoice when that day comes. I remember hearing Chuck Swindoll one time preaching. He was 74 years old at the time. I remember him preaching and him saying, you know, I don't know when I'm going to go, but I hope that it's right in the middle of point two. That's pretty funny. You know, right after I just hit something home and then I just go kind of limp and drop and you hear my head hit the pulpit and I drop on the ground and that's it. Right in the middle of point two, I wake up in heaven. I hope that's how I go, but it probably isn't going to be that way.
• 17:39
  I've wondered what it will be like not to stand at the pulpit. And honestly, at least a small part of me wonders if I won't just disappear. I've heard some say, and if I'm honest, I've even felt this way at times. I don't know that I've ever verbalized it because I don't think that that would be acceptable. But I've thought in my own heart. I've paid my dues. I work hard enough. I do enough. Somebody else can shoulder the burden for a while.
• 18:14
  And may the Lord spare us from that nonsense. Think about Jesus. With everything he did, with everything he knew, still going to church, still listening to the sermons. Can you imagine him sitting out there and listening to me preach? He literally didn't say a thing I didn't already know. And some of it was wrong. You know, like, what are you talking about? I just wasn't getting anything. I wasn't being fed. The sermon may be lacking, even the music a disaster, but you know where Christ was? He was there.
• 18:50
  And why? Because the people were his priority. When the people gathered, Christ showed up. Throughout the scriptures, Christ prioritizes people. What priority do we place on the assembling of believers? Listen to J.C. Ryle and how he words it. The Lord would have us know that we are not likely to forsake any assembly of believers, which professes the respect of his name, of his day, and his book.
• 19:20
  In other words, he says, if believers are gathering to sing praise to Jesus and to read from his book, then consider being a part of it. There have been many things in such an assembly which might be done better. There may be a want of fullness, clearness, distinctness in the doctrine preached. In other words, the guy preaching might not be that good. And he says, there might be a lack of unction in the devoutness in the manner in which the worship is conducted.
• 19:48
  You've probably never come to Highland. Man, so many times I leave Highland and think that worship was awesome. This morning was one of them. That was awesome. But sometimes you leave, you listen to the radio, and you're like, no, there is better music. There's better music, right? I mean, there are things we could improve. Yeah, you listen to them like, man, professional musicians. Yeah, all right. J.C. Ryle says, you know, you may find better teaching and you may find better music.
• 20:19
  But then he says this, so long as no positive error is taught, it becomes a Christian to think much before he stays away. If there be two or three in the congregation who meet in the name of Jesus, there is a special blessing promised. If there are two or three people who are just getting together to talk about Jesus, he says, there is a special blessing promised. But no such blessing is promised to him who tarries at home. He says, if you go, you'll be blessed. If you don't go, you won't. Why would we expect blessing if we're not?
• 20:51
  meeting together with the people of God. Christ prioritized people, but we also see throughout the New Testament that he did not over-prioritize the needs of others to the detriment of his own soul. Frequently, we read about him retreating to lonely places in order to spend time with his heavenly father, in order to rest and to recuperate. And some of us, probably church, need to prioritize others more. We need to consider the assembly of believers and say, you know what? That's where I need to be.
• 21:22
  But some of us, on the flip side, probably over-prioritize others to the detriment of our own souls. We run at such a fever pitch. We're running at such a high octane that we can't sustain it. We eventually burn out. We lose our joy. But Jesus gave us an example of the proper balance. That's first. He prioritized people. But notice second, the office he claimed.
• 21:50
  In verse 17, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. Notice that Isaiah was chosen by who? By them, right? They chose Isaiah, but you keep on going. It's handed to him. It says, but he unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written. So Isaiah chapter 61.
• 22:11
  was chosen by Jesus. They hand him Isaiah and he flips through and finds Isaiah 61, which says this, the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. And he has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. There it is. There is the ministry of the Messiah, the anointed one. That's what the Messiah would come to do. And then he rolled up the scroll.
• 22:37
  He gave it back to the attendant. He sits down and it says the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. They're waiting for the sermon, right? And he began to say to them, today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. Amen. Now the Old Testament described the office of Messiah by saying that the anointed one would be able to do a whole bunch of things, give sight to the blind, to heal, to free spiritual prisoners, to liberate the oppressed. And you may even recall,
• 23:11
  the imprisoned John the Baptist. And I think probably in a moment of discouragement and maybe desperation, sending his own disciples, his followers to Jesus, asking them, go and find out, are you the one we've been waiting for? Or should we expect somebody else? And in Luke chapter 7 and verse 22, Jesus replies to John the Baptist by saying, go and tell John what you have seen and heard. Do the blind receive their sight? Well, they all say, well, yeah. Do the lame walk?
• 23:43
  Well, yeah. Are lepers cleansed? Yeah. Do the deaf hear? Yeah. Are the dead raised up? Yes. Do the poor have good news preached to them? Yeah. Then I'm him. Like, what are you talking about? Look for another. I'm him. Don't look any farther.
• 24:09
  This is the guy. That's what he says. Isaiah 61, he opens it up. I'm the guy, what you've been waiting for, what you've been searching for, whatever journey you've been on. I'm the destination. Stop looking. It's me. We live on a globe and we live in a country and we live in a state and we live in a city and we even live on the north side of the city where everybody in town claims to be on a spiritual journey. Right? That's how they even word it. We're on a spiritual journey.
• 24:41
  Jesus would say, stop, stop. You found me. Stop journeying. You see all those bumper stickers, man, they are everywhere in Colorado. Not all who wander are lost. Yes, they are. Honestly, right? If you're still wandering, then you haven't found it, which means you're lost. Stop wandering.
• 25:07
  This is the guy. Don't look any farther. I'm the guy. That's the office claimed by the Lord. I'm the Messiah. I'm the one all of those verses talk about. Not just Isaiah 61, but all of them. Don't look any further. This is the guy. And listen, if you're on a spiritual journey, if that's where you are in your life, you don't need to look any farther. You found him. He is the Savior of our souls. He is the way, the truth, and the life. That's it. You found him. Stop looking.
• 25:41
  Rejoice in the Savior. Notice third and last, the reactions for and then against Jesus. Look at verse 22. And all spoke well of him. They marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth. And then they realized, wait a minute, isn't this Joseph's son? Remember the illegitimate one? And he said to them, doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, physician, heal yourself. What we have heard you did at Capernaum, do here in your hometown.
• 26:07
  as well. Now, no Sabbath, I think, ever began so wonderfully and ended so horribly as this one. Why did the people's reactions change so quickly and so violently? I think there are a lot of reasons, but for sake of time, we'll just focus on one. I think the reason their attitude toward him changed is that he intentionally ended his reading in the middle of the verse. Let me say that again. Jesus intentionally ended his reading in the middle of the verse.
• 26:36
  If you compare Luke chapter 4 with Isaiah 61, 1 and 2, which is what he's quoting, he didn't finish verse 2. He left off a phrase, and it was a phrase that they were very familiar with. The last phrase of verse 2 says, and he will bring the day of the Lord, the day of vengeance to God's enemies.
• 27:00
  That's how verse two ends, but he didn't end there. He ended a verse early, a phrase early. He left that part off. You gotta ask, why? Why would he do that? He knew something. Jesus knew something that no one else at the time had figured out. No one did. We know it now because of living so much later, right? We have hindsight, but they didn't know it. He knew something that nobody else knew. Anybody have a guess at what it was? That he would come again.
• 27:34
  that he would come again. Did Jesus come? I expected a more emphatic, positive response. Right? Did Jesus come? Yes. If he didn't, what are we all doing here? I mean, we could go to donuts. You know, like I don't... Yeah, he came. Will Jesus come again? Yes. Guys, they didn't know that. They didn't know that. When Isaiah wrote his scroll, he didn't know that.
• 28:04
  He's like, you know, there's a whole list of things that the Messiah will do. He'll give sight to the blind and he'll heal the lame and he'll raise people from the dead and he'll set captives free and he'll bring vengeance on our enemies.
• 28:14
  That's what the Messiah would do. He had no idea that there would be this gap between those two. Now consider the first coming of Christ. When Christ came the first time, he was born meek and humble and lowly to impoverished parents that nobody had heard of. He was born in a manger, in a stable, to the fanfare of shepherds. Right? He lived for 30 years in obscurity. He died in obscurity and in the dark.
• 28:46
  crucified, a criminal's death, and then he was buried in some hole in the ground that honestly probably would have been hard to find, except for the Roman soldiers guarding it, right? I mean, it's obscure. It's nothing. Think about when he comes back, when he comes again. Is that how he's going to come? No. You read Revelation 19, a rider on a white horse coming down from heaven with the armies of heaven, the hosts of heaven behind him.
• 29:17
  When he was killed the first time, when he came the first time, the Bible says, like a lamb before his shearers is silent, Jesus kept silent. When Jesus comes again, will he stay silent? No. In fact, it says the sword that issues forth from the mouth of God will vanquish his enemies. He will destroy his enemies with the word of his mouth. His enemies will be torn down, destroyed. When the people read Isaiah 61,
• 29:50
  And this makes sense now. When the people read Isaiah 61, they didn't know that there would be two comings of Christ. A humble and meek one, which ushered in a spiritual kingdom. And then a second one where he is declared as king. The problem is, what the people of Nazareth wanted was the second coming of Christ. That's what they wanted.
• 30:12
  Listen, keep the healings. Keep the deaf people. Keep the blind people. We don't care about any of that. Destroy Rome. Saddle up, king. Let's go. Destroy our enemies. They wanted the second coming of Christ. What they were offered was the first. And they hated him for it. They hated him for it.
• 30:34
  In fact, they become so angry at him. If you look at the bottom there, verse 28, when they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath and they rose up and they drove him out of the town and brought him to the brow of the hill in which their town was built so that they could throw him off to kill him. But he passed through their midst. You can imagine their rejection, their retribution is swift as he's being dragged out the door.
• 30:59
  right, to be killed as the murmuring of the crowds becomes this violent mob. Jesus just says, you know, speaking of prophets who were rejected, do you remember Elijah? Elijah could have helped any of the widows in Israel. There were all kinds of widows during the drought, during the famine that ensued. There were all kinds of widows, but that's not where he went. He went to Zarephath, in Sidon, Phoenicia. He went to a Gentile widow. That's where Elijah went. You remember Elisha?
• 31:31
  A whole bunch of lepers in town in Israel. But he didn't heal any of them. Who did he heal? Naaman. The Syrian? The Syrian? You know, those people still don't like the Jews. They're on CNN every night. They still don't like them. He goes to the Syrian, he heals that guy? What in the world? You know what Jesus is saying? I knew you wouldn't want this. I knew you wouldn't. The Gentiles will hear it.
• 32:08
  And so to the Gentiles, I will go. They'll receive the message. And so I'm going to open the door of salvation, the power of salvation to all who will believe. Yes, the Jew first, but to the Gentiles as well. We're going to move straight into a time of communion. And I'm actually going to ask the ushers to come down, the worship team to come back up.
• 32:35
  And the reason I just wanted to go straight into communion rather than having kind of a formal ending and all of that to the sermon is because I wanted us to take this with this message in mind. If Jesus had changed his message, if he had changed his mission, if he had allowed the second coming and the first coming to blend together the way that they wanted it, guess what never would have happened? This.
• 33:04
  What we celebrate every time we take communion, this would not have happened if he had become their king the way that they wanted it. At one point, it even says they tried to force him to become king. If he had done that, if he had given the people what they wanted, this never would have happened. Kings don't get crucified. Criminals do. Jesus became a criminal for us so that our sin could be forgiven. Without that, without the separation of these comings, this never happens.
• 33:35
  The Bible says that communion is a remembrance, a reminder of what Christ did for us on the cross. And we're in just a minute going to take both of those elements, the bread and the cup, and they're meant to remind us of the body, the life of Christ, and then the blood, the death of Christ, given for our sake so that we can be forgiven of our sin. And we look forward. We look forward to the second coming of Christ. Amen? Where he puts all things right. This world is messed up. Lord Jesus, come.
• 34:03
  But until then, we lean on the first coming of Christ. This is why we can be saved. Let me pray. God, thank you. God, thank you for the coming of Jesus. And thank you, Lord, that he did not vanquish his enemies with a word. And thank you that he did not become king so that he would be crucified for our sake. Lord, if he had given us what we wanted, if you had done what we even asked for, God, we couldn't be saved. And so thank you for knowing better than us. Thank you for doing better than us.
• 34:34
  God, I pray that as we take these elements, that we would consider even our own sin and take a moment to confess that sin to you. God, that you would be glorified, glorified as we receive the bread and the cup. And it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.