Latest / Teachings On This Day On FerventWord / On Jul 06, 2014: Luke 22:63-71 Who Jesus Is
Transcript
- You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2014. This morning is the first Sunday of July, and as such, we are going to be partaking of communion together. And as we prepare to do that at the end of the service, throughout our time together in this passage today, I really felt it was appropriate that God was wanting to stir up in us and remind us of who Jesus is. And as Jesus is on trial here before the Jewish religious leaders, we get to see clearly the revelation, the declaration of Jesus and who he is. And that has great implications then. It gives us insight then into what it is that he has done for us. And so the title of the message this morning is Who Is. Jesus is. And a lot of these things for you I know are familiar. That is, you know, you've heard of Jesus before and that's probably why you're here at service today. And yet we should not tire of hearing about Jesus. And there are things that we kind of just grow accustomed to and we kind of forget about. And the Lord wants to remind us this morning about who he is and that we can value him, that we can appreciate him and the work that he has done so that when we partake of communion, well, that we're absolutely prepared, that we're ready, having reflected on who he is and what that means regarding what he has done for us. Well, we're looking at the passage this morning where Jesus is on trial. A few minutes earlier, he was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane. And as he was arrested there, he was taken to the high priest and he was examined by both Annas and Caiaphas. They were the two high priests of the time. And so he was kind of like besieged. before the actual trial examined, you know, by these two high priests. And they brought forth many false witnesses and they were trying to bring accusation against Jesus so that they would be able to put him to death. But they were frustrated because the false witnesses wouldn't agree. And so he went through these couple trials, these preliminary trials, and now it's early in the morning. And the Sanhedrin, that is the official gathering of the Jewish elders, they gathered together and They would be considered like, you know, we might refer to them as the Supreme Court, you know, for the Jewish people. They were the gathering of these judges and leaders and elders, and they were going to decide the case, decide the fate of Jesus here. And they've been working throughout the night examining him, and they're trying to find reason to turn Jesus over to Rome that he might be executed. And And as they're doing this examination and discussion with Jesus here in our passage today, we get some clear insights about who Jesus is. Now as we go through this, I want to approach it a little bit differently than normal. We're going to start at the end of the passage and work our way back to the beginning. And so we have four points today. And the first one is found in verses 70 and 71. And that is that Jesus is the Son of God. Check out verse 70 again. It says, Then they all said, Are you then the Son of God? So he said to them, You rightly say that I am. Now, they come to this kind of conclusion at the trial where they ask Jesus if he is trying to say that he is the Son of God. And this is after many false witnesses have come forward and they've had a hard time getting their stories straight. And so they're kind of frustrated. They're desperate. They really don't have anything to accuse him of. And so now they're seeking to get Jesus to incriminate himself. for him to declare that he is the Son of God. And that will be what they need to then be able to turn him over to be put to death. And so they asked Jesus, are you the Son of God? Now, this is an important phrase, this idea of Jesus being the Son of God. And there's lots of misunderstanding about what that means. And so we want to take a moment here and consider what it means to be the Son of God. You know, there are some who say that Jesus never claimed to be God. But those who say that, say that because they do not understand this phrase, Son of God. Because when you understand the phrase, Son of God, then you understand that Jesus did claim to be God. There are many who think that this phrase proves that Jesus is not God because they think, well, he's the Son of God. That means he must have been created. That means he's a created being and not, you know, actually God. But again, it's a misunderstanding of this phrase. Here's what we need to understand about the phrase, the Son of God. It's a declaration of his nature, not his origin. The term son of God is a statement about his nature, his character, who he is, not about his origin. And this isn't just, you know, the way that we look at it today, but this is the way that the Jewish people understood this phrase. And you can see that as you look at the next verse that they decided, well, that's blasphemy. He's deserving of death because he claims to be the son of God. So when they ask Jesus, are you then the son of God? They're really saying, are you saying that you have the nature of God? Are you trying to tell us, Jesus, that you are equal to God? That's what they're asking Jesus. That's what they're asking him to answer to, whether or not he has the nature of God or is equal to God. Now, just to help us grasp this concept a little bit, I thought I would show you this photo. This is a family photo. And it's a little bit hard to see on the screen, so you have to use your imagination a tiny bit. But this is from the Simmons family reunion, May 2014. And so here, this is all my dad's siblings. On the far right, you have my Aunt Regina. She's the only girl. And she was the mom of the bunch, really. She, you know, had a big part in raising the rest. Then you have my Uncle Cliff, my Uncle Wayne, my Uncle Steve. I'm standing in for my Uncle Greg, who couldn't make it there with us. And then next to me, you have my dad. And then finally, my Uncle Bobby. Now, these are the Simmons brothers and sisters. Now, one of the things that we always notice and enjoy and joke about as we gather together as a family is there's very many features that are similar. So there's a red hair theme, you know, throughout the bunch. There is a baldness theme throughout the bunch. There's a lot of common things, you know, features and traits between the Simmons brothers and sisters. But it goes beyond that as well because there's also very common and similar personality and sense of humor. And so there's all these things where it's like, And it's pretty amazing too because they didn't all grow up together, but they have the same mannerisms and the same jokes and they laugh at the same things the same ways. And it's always amazing to consider and to recognize you must be a Simmons because look at the way that you look, look at the way that you act. We were laughing at one point because, well, my aunt walked up to pinch her husband's behind. Okay. And then she got close and realized, oh, that's not my husband. But from the back, they all look the same because they're Simmons. You see, they all share the same nature. They come from the same genes. They share that same nature. And so there's very similar things. There's a lot of things that they share together. Now, that's not exactly parallel, but it kind of gives us a little bit of a glimpse. When we talk about being the son of God, that's kind of what we're talking about, that Jesus shares the same nature as the father. That he has his nature, that he's on an equal plane. He is the same kind of being as the Father is. You could think about it another way if you would go back to Genesis chapter 1. And in verse 24, as God is creating the heavens and the earth, he's, you know, creating the trees and the plants and such. Then he gets to the point where he says, let the earth bring forth the living creatures according to its kind. Cattle, creeping thing, and beast of the earth. And he says, each according to its kind, and it was so. And there's this pattern that God set up. He created these creatures, and each of them would reproduce according to its kind. So what kind of offspring does a dog have? Well, a dog's offspring is more dogs. Well, what kind of offspring does a giraffe have? A giraffe gives birth to more giraffes. Well, what kind of offspring does a pigeon have? Well, a pigeon will give birth to not just birds, but specifically pigeons. And what kind of offspring does a simmons have? Well, a simmons will give birth to more simmons. It will carry on that nature. And so that's the understanding as we talk about the Son of God and Jesus being the Son of God. We understand that it's not talking about his origin. We're not saying that he was born or that he at some point began to exist. No, what the Bible is declaring is that he has the nature of God, that he is the same kind of being as the Father. It's a declaration of who he is or his nature, not his origin. And so when they ask him, are you then the son of God? That's what they're asking. Do you have the nature of God? Are you equal with our heavenly father? And Jesus responds there in verse 70. And he says, you rightly say that I am. And so Jesus very clearly here claims to be equal to the father. To be the son of God would mean that he had the nature of God and that he was equal with God. Now this kind of takes us into the territory of the triune nature of God. And it's a great mystery and yet it's what the Bible teaches clearly. That we have the Father, we have the Son, and we have the Holy Spirit. And they are all part of, well, what we refer to as God. There is one God, the Bible very clearly teaches that, and yet there's this distinctness. There's this triune nature of God where you have the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It's one God, but these members of the triune nature of God are distinct from one another. So that Jesus is not the Father, and Jesus is not the Holy Spirit. They are not the same and just, you know, changing the names and wherever it's appropriate. No, they're distinct and different from one another, and yet they are one God. It's a mystery how exactly all that works, but it's also clearly taught. And that's what we're seeing reflected here, that Jesus is the Son of God, that he has the nature of God, that he's equal with the Father. He's not the Father, but he has the same kind of nature as the Father has. And so they respond then in verse 71 and say, What further testimony do we need? For we have heard it ourselves from his own mouth. What more do we need, they ask? Jesus clearly says, Yes, I am the Son of God. And it tells us in Matthew 26 that at this point the high priest tore his clothes and says he has spoken blasphemy because he claims to be God. He declares to be the son of God. That's blasphemy. And so we must put him to death. Now it would be blasphemy if it was not true. Jesus is the Son of God, and so it's not blasphemy for him to claim to be the Son of God or for him to claim to be equal with God. But the issue here was that they rejected Jesus' testimony. And because they rejected Jesus' testimony, they considered it blasphemy. You say that you're the Son of God. We reject that. And so instead, we're accusing you of blasphemy. You're claiming to be God, and you are not. They did not know who Jesus is. Even though he told them, they did not know. We need to be reminded this morning of who Jesus is. He is the Son of God. Do you know that Jesus is the Son of God? Just like them, you've heard it from his own mouth. As we've had recorded for us these words, the eyewitness testimony of those who were there that Jesus declared that he is the Son of God. He claimed to be equal with God. Do you receive his testimony? Do you accept that Jesus is in fact God? That he is equal with the Father? That he is the nature of God? Well, going on now into the next point, we get to see a little bit more about who Jesus is. And that is that Jesus is the Son of Man. This is found in verse 69. It says, Hereafter... The Son of Man will sit on the right hand of the power of God. And so here we are in the midst of this trial where Jesus is being examined and he refers to himself as the Son of Man. Now, this is another important phrase. Just like Son of God was important and has specific meaning, Son of Man has some important things for us to consider as well. In fact, two things are going on here as Jesus calls himself the Son of Man. Number one, he's referring to his humanity. To the fact that although, yes, he is God, he is the Son of God, but he also became man. And that's alluded to here in this phrase or his title, the son of man. But there's also an aspect of this where Jesus is referring to his deity and once again declaring that he is God. And so you have this combination that Jesus is God and Jesus is man. And it's an amazing combination that, well, it should be just, we should be awestruck. At this reality, at this combination of Jesus being the Son of God as well as the Son of Man. The humanity of Jesus is amazing because, of course, you and I as humans began to exist at a certain point. There was a point in history where you were not. And then three seconds later, you were. You began. There was a point... On the timeline where you could say, I began here, but Jesus doesn't have that point because he is God. And yet, supernaturally, he became man. He entered into the womb of Mary and was born. He is God. He has the nature of God. And yet, he became man. It's called the incarnation. It's a great wonder and a great mystery. The Apostle John puts it this way. He says, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Earlier in John chapter 1 verse 1, he says, the Word was with God, the Word was God. And then later on, verse 14, then the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. There was this transformation, this incarnation where Jesus being God, became man. And Jesus experienced humanity. He experienced what it is to be human. He was born. He grew up. He felt pain. He felt joy. Hebrews 4.15 tells us that he was tempted in all points, just as we are, except for without sin. And so he was perfect. He was sinless. And But he experienced what it was to be human. So much so that he even, well, he died. And that is a big part of what it means to be human, that we will die. And Jesus experienced that. Because... Although he is God, he added humanity to his deity and he experienced humanity. And so Jesus is the son of God, but he also is the son of man. He became man for a specific purpose and we'll get to that in the next couple points. And so it says here in verse 69 that the son of man will sit on the right hand of the power of God. And by using this phrase, the son of man, Jesus is taking these religious leaders to a passage they're familiar with in Daniel chapter 7. And I'll put it on the screen here for you. In Daniel chapter 7, verse 13 and 14, Daniel is describing this vision. He says, I was watching in the night visions, and behold, one like the son of man coming with the clouds of heaven. Here, the prophet Daniel introduces this phrase, the Son of Man. And so he's seeing this heavenly vision there in Daniel chapter 7, and he sees one like the Son of Man. That is one who is in the likeness of man, one who looks like a human. He's referring to Jesus. And so he sees Jesus, and Jesus approaches the Ancient of Days, he says. That is a reference to the Father. And so Jesus and the Father are here in this heavenly scene. And then the Father gives to Jesus dominion and glory and a kingdom. So that it says all peoples, nations and languages will serve Jesus. And so when Jesus refers to himself as the Son of Man, by the way, he does this throughout his ministry. This isn't the first time that he uses this phrase for himself. But as he uses this phrase before these religious leaders, he's pointing them back here to Daniel chapter 7. And he says, guys, I am that son of man. I am here now in my humanity, Jesus is telling them. But I'm going to be with the ancient of days very soon. I'm going to be with my father again. And I will be seated at his right hand. And that also indicates equality with God. To be seated at the right hand of God means that he is equal with God. And so he says, I'll be seated at the right hand of the power of God here in verse 69. Again, he's combining these two ideas. He is God and he also is man. He became a man. And he's telling them, although I'm here in my humanity and that's what you see, although you reject my testimony, I'm going to be with the Father and I will be given dominion. You have authority now. You're standing now in authority. You're standing to judge. But I will be given all authority and all people will serve me. That's who Jesus is. That's his rightful place at the right hand of the Father with all glory, all honor, all dominion, with all people serving him. That's who Jesus is. Is that who you recognize Jesus to be? That Jesus... Having always existed, being in the beginning with God, having the very nature of God, he stepped into history. He became a man. He became part of his own creation. And then afterwards, he will receive his former glory to be at the right hand of God, to have all dominion, and to have all people serving him. That's who Jesus is. Well, going on now in verses 66 through 68, the third point today is, is that Jesus is the promised Savior. Here we're going to the beginning of the trial. In verse 66 it says, "...as soon as it was day, the elders of the people, both chief priests and scribes, came together and led him into their council, saying, "'If you are the Christ, tell us.'" They arrested Jesus late at night." They questioned him twice and now it's early in the morning when it was, well, the time for the Sanhedrin, the Jewish Supreme Court, to gather together. There was a lot of things about this trial that were illegal. I'm not going to get into that, but they were violating their own customs and laws and trying to quickly get rid of Jesus. And so they gathered together and they say, if you are the Christ, tell us. But Jesus responds in verse 67. He says, if I tell you, you will by no means believe me. And if I ask you, you will by no means answer me or let me go. Jesus is basically explaining, look guys, we're kind of at an impasse. Because, well, I've told you that I'm the Christ and you haven't believed me. And so if I tell you now, you're not going to believe me. And if I ask you, if you think I'm the Christ, you're not going to answer me. And you're not going to let me go. We're kind of stuck in this position because you won't believe my testimony. Jesus was consistent in his testimony. He declared throughout his ministry that he was the Christ, the Messiah. But they rejected his testimony. Remember before in his ministry, they said, look, if you're the Christ, show us a sign. Now this is after Jesus had already been working some amazing miracles. And he's saying, look, I've already done the signs. You don't need another sign. That's not what you're lacking. That's not what you're looking for. You're rejecting my testimony. So they say, if you are the Christ, tell us. This word Christ, it's a Greek word which means anointed one. This was the Greek way to refer to what they would call the Messiah in Hebrew. And so Messiah means anointed one in Hebrew. Christos or Christ means anointed one. It's the Greek version of it. And so either way it means anointed one. Jesus... is that anointed one. Now, when they talked about Jesus being the anointed one, they're referring to an abundance of scriptures that were in the Old Testament that were promising the Savior to come. And so if they say, or when they say, if you are the Christ, tell us, they're saying, if you are that Savior that has been promised since the very beginning, well, let us know. Tell us if you are that Savior. And Jesus is that promised Savior. He is the fulfillment of all of these prophecies in the Old Testament about who he would be or what he would do, that the Messiah would come on the scene, and Jesus fulfilled that. Many of those prophecies, some of them are not fulfilled because some of them are yet to be fulfilled. When Jesus returns and establishes his kingdom, then the fullness of all the prophecies about this Messiah, this Savior, they will be fulfilled. But I'd like to give you a little bit of a sample of some of these prophecies. And we start back in the beginning in Genesis chapter 3. Now, these are just a quick sample of five prophecies in the Old Testament about this Savior that would come. They kind of start out vague, and they become more and more clear as God reveals his plan throughout history. And so in Genesis chapter 3, this is when Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden. And so they fell from the glory that they had. Now God is dealing with their sin, And he addresses the serpent, who is also involved in their fall. And he says in Genesis 3.15, he talks about the enmity between the serpent's seed and Eve's seed. And he goes on from there to say, Eve's seed will crush the serpent's head. That he's going to be victorious over the serpent. And so back here in Genesis chapter 3, God was not surprised by Adam's sin. And right from the get-go, when Adam fell, God already began to talk about his plan of salvation. He doesn't lay it out. You know, it's not all clear. Again, this is a little bit vague. But he gives a promise. He gives a little bit of a hint. He says, look, there's going to be her seed that crushes his head. There's going to be this Savior who's going to have victory over this enemy that crushes but was involved in this fall of humanity from glory. And so from the beginning, God promised a savior. Well, then jumping forward a little bit to Genesis chapter 12, we're jumping into the life of Abraham. And God spoke to Abraham. He chose Abraham out of all the people on the earth. He chose Abraham and he said, Abraham, your descendants are going to be my chosen people. And so I'm going to choose you. Your descendants are going to be my nation. And I'm going to give you an inheritance in the promised land. But he also spoke to Abraham in Genesis 12.3. He says, in you, all of the families of the earth shall be blessed. And so he gives Abraham this promise that in him, or that is from him, one of his descendants will be a blessing for all the families of the earth. Here, again, it's not a clear declaration of the gospel message, but here God is preparing the way. He's making it a little bit more clear. There is a Savior who will come, who will crush the head of the enemy, and He's going to come through the line of Abraham. That is, He's going to be an Israelite. This promise, this promise of a Savior that God gave to Abraham was then passed on to His son Isaac, which was then passed on to His son Jacob, who's also known as Israel. And Jacob's 12 sons, or Israel's 12 sons, became the 12 tribes of the nation of Israel. And, you know, the whole population of Israel was from Jacob and his 12 sons. And so God is saying here, this promised Messiah is going to come from Abraham. He's going to be Jewish. He's going to be of Hebrew descent. Well then, in 2 Samuel chapter 7, God narrows it down further. In verse 16, we see that God tells David, your throne will be established forever. And so he tells David that his throne... is going to be the one that lasts for the rest of eternity. It's a way to say that the Messiah, the promised Savior, is going to then be a descendant of David. And so of all the families of Israel, God's narrowed it down further and said, David's family. In that line, in David's line, is going to be the one that I've been promising will come and save and crush the head of of the serpent. And so God gives these clear indications about the families and the particular, you know, way that the Messiah would be brought forth. Now, these are just a few examples. There's tons and tons of these prophecies in the Old Testament. In Isaiah chapter 53 verse 8, we get an indication here that the Messiah will be cut off for our transgressions. So not only would he be of this family and this, you know, born here and so on and so forth, but he will suffer and die for the sins of the people. And that's taught clearly there in Isaiah chapter 53. This was an aspect of the promised Savior that the Jewish people did not focus on very much. They focused more on the next one. In Jeremiah 23, 5, God declares that a king shall reign and prosper. As he's talking about this promised Savior, he says, he will reign over all and he will prosper. His kingdom will be blessed. Throughout history, God had been promising a Savior from the very beginning when man fell all the way up to the time of Christ. God was promising a Savior's coming. The one I've been talking about, he's going to be here. He's going to come. And that's what they're talking about when they say, if you are the Christ, tell us. If you're the guy who fulfills all these things, then let us know. If you're that one, tell us. And of course, Jesus did because he is that promised Savior, but they would not receive it. This is who Jesus is. Jesus is the one that God has been promising from the very beginning. He's a descendant of Abraham. He's a descendant of David. He suffered and died for our sins and he will reign over all in his kingdom. He is the son of God. He is the son of man. He is the promised savior. And as you consider all those things, well, now we kind of get to the final part of the message, the final point, verses 63 through 65. And here we get to see that Jesus is the willing sacrifice. And the three points up to this, now as we get into this one, this should impact us pretty hard. Because now that we understand and now that we're reminded of who Jesus is, well, these verses pack a little bit more punch. Let's look at verse 63 again. It says, Now the men who held Jesus mocked him and beat him. And having blindfolded him, they struck him on the face and asked him, saying, Prophesy, who is the one who struck you? And many other things they blasphemously spoke against him. We worked our way backwards through the passage so that we would understand who Jesus is to get to this point and ask, Well, if Jesus is the Son of God... equal to God, having always existed with God, he belongs in glory with the Father, and he's the son of man, that is, he became man, but he also belongs at the right hand of God, and all people serve him. If he's that promised savior that God has been declaring would come from the very beginning, why would he allow for them to treat him this way? Why would he allow for them to behave this way and to abuse him in this manner? If Jesus, if he's the son of God, he could stop this. If he's the son of man, he could put an end to it. Because, well, they're his servants. He has the right to rule, to reign. If he's the promised savior, he has that right. But why would he allow this to take place? A few weeks back, as we were studying earlier in Luke chapter 22, I shared that the victory of the cross was accomplished in the garden of Gethsemane. Where there Jesus prayed with the Father. And as he talked with the Lord, he said, if it's your will, take this cup away from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. And there we gain some important insight. That Jesus was willing to submit to the will of the Father. And he chose in the garden... to endure the suffering that he was about to go through. Now, this is just the beginning. What we're reading here, this is just the beginning. He's going to be turned over to the Romans. He's going to be beaten again. He's going to be beaten a couple times with the Romans. And then he's going to be scourged. And then he's going to be crucified. And the things that he goes through in crucifixion are not just physical, but spiritual. And they're far worse than what we're talking about here. And yet, as we look at these things, Again, it should impact us quite a bit as we consider and reflect on who Jesus is and think that he allowed these guys that he created. He's their God. He's their creator. And yet he allowed them to mock him, to beat him. He allowed this abuse. He chose to suffer. Why? Well, again, as he was wrestling in the prayer in the garden with the father, it And we see the conclusion, there is no other way for people to be saved. If there was another way, he said, then let's do that. Let this cup pass from me. But if not, not my will, but your will be done. And Jesus recognized there is no other way of salvation. This is the only means by which we can be saved. It's the only means by which we can have the hope of eternity. And so Jesus chose willingly to suffer in this way. He purposely, willingly held himself back. He could have ended it at any moment. I remember when they were there in the garden and Peter pulls out his sword. When he sees the soldiers, he's like, no way, this isn't happening. My name is Obi-Wan Kenobi. You know, he's thinking, we're going to defend Jesus. We're going to get these guys out of here. And Jesus says, no. In Matthew 26, Jesus tells Peter, don't you think that I can pray to my father and he will provide me with more than 12 legions of angels? Peter, if I was going to try to fight this, I wouldn't be using you. I have some heavenly reinforcements that they far outweigh you and they can go to battle and they can handle this. And if I asked the father, 12 legions of angels would be here to defend me. But Jesus didn't call on those legions of angels. He didn't use his power or his authority to put an end to this. Instead, he was a willing sacrifice. He could have stopped it, but he endured it. Verse 63 tells us that the men who held Jesus, these are the Jewish guards, they mocked Jesus and they beat him. They mocked him. It's the idea of playing with. But in a A sinister way. They're mocking him, playing with him. And you see there in verse 64, they blindfolded him. Here's how they're playing with him. Here's how they're mocking him. They say, oh, you're a prophet. You say that you are the son of God. You say that you are the Christ, the Messiah. So let's see what you can do. And they blindfold him and then begin to strike him. Now, The word here to strike him, it could be with the hand, it could be with some type of rod or some other instrument. But either way, it's the idea of repeated blows. And so they're roughing him up. They're striking him and saying, why don't you prophesy? You prophet? Prophesy. Who's hitting you? Sinister, cruel, wicked. And that's how they're treating Jesus. Mark chapter 14 tells us they're also spitting on him at this time. And so there's this great hatred and disrespect brought against Jesus. And he endures it. He allows it. He could have stopped it, but he doesn't. David Guzik says, The idea of Jesus taking this mocking without reply is painful to us. We wonder why he who had the right and all the power to put an end to it immediately... Why he endured it without a word. Why did he endure this without a word? Why did he put up with this? Why did he allow this? They didn't respect Jesus at all, but he deserved all respect. He hadn't committed any crime, but they treated him as if he was a vicious criminal. Why did he allow this? Because he was a willing sacrifice. I would ask you to consider Ephesians chapter 5 verse 2. Where Paul tells us to walk in love as Christ has loved us and given himself for us. An offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling aroma. Paul says Christ loved you and he gave himself for you. He gave himself. It was a willing choice that he made to endure this suffering, to endure this shame, to endure this pain. Because he loved you. They beat him. They mocked him. And he allowed it. Because he loves you. Because he wants you to have life. Because he wants to give you great blessings in eternity. He loves you. And so he gave himself for you as an offering, as a sacrifice to God. He willingly offered himself and said, yes, it's going to be painful. Yes, it's going to be hard. But they're worth it. I love them. And I will withhold my power. I will withhold my rights. I will hold back when I want to fight back. I will not call on the legions of angels. I will accept this. I will receive this. I will let them mock me and taunt me and beat me because they're worth it. You're worth it because I love them. This is who Jesus is. Jesus is the all-powerful God who became man and willingly endured suffering and mocking and beating and death so that you could have life. And this morning we get to remember that in partaking of communion together. And the Lord's designed this perfectly. I mean, He's put this together. He put us in this passage with, you know, us today in celebrating communion so that we could remember Jesus Who Jesus is, that we could better understand what it is that we're doing when we partake of communion. Jesus took the Passover dinner and he gave it new meaning. He told his disciples as he was holding the bread, he said, this is my body which is broken for you. I'm God, I became man so that my body could be broken for you, Jesus says. And then he says, do this in remembrance of me. And so we have this instruction to partake of the bread that we would remember that Jesus became man, allowed his body to be broken because he loves us. Then he took the cup at the end of the supper and he said, this is the new covenant in my blood. Do this in remembrance of me. letting us know that he being God became man so that his blood would be shed so that we could have redemption, that we could be forgiven by his blood. And he said, do this in remembrance of me. You need to remember. Now, as I started out at the beginning, these are things that we've known. We've heard about Jesus. We've known Jesus. We've walked with Jesus. And so as a result, sometimes we can kind of get numb to these things, but But we need to be reminded about who Jesus is so that we can remember the value of what he did for us. The amazing cost that he paid. Salvation is free to us, but it was not free overall. It was at great cost. It was paid because Jesus willingly offered himself that his body would be broken, that his blood would be shed. Jesus is the Son of God. He has the nature of God. He has always existed because he is God. And yet he became man. He entered into history. Put on humanity. Experienced life as a human. So that he would be able to suffer and die. His death has infinite value because he is God. He's not just a good man or a great prophet. But being God, having lived a sinless life, his death matters. has infinite value to pay the price for my sin and for your sin. Because he is that promised Savior. He chose to be a willing sacrifice that we could have hope and life in him. That's who Jesus is. And that's what we need to remember this morning. And so the ushers are going to come forward and the worship team is going to come forward. The ushers are going to pass out the bread and the cup. And we would invite you to partake at any time during this song. So as they lead us in worship, you just spend some time remembering who Jesus is. And as you have considered Him, as you've allowed yourself to just accept who He is, as you recognize the meaning and the value of it, then I would encourage you to partake on your own, just between you and the Lord at any time during this song. Listen, this morning, if you have not accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord, if you've not recognized really who Jesus is and accepted this for yourself, that you would be born again, you can do that this morning, and I would encourage you to partake with us. But as you partake, let it be your prayer to God, Lord, I receive that you are the Son of God, that you are the promised Savior, and I receive that you died on the cross in my place. I receive your forgiveness, your offer of life. And let's let that be our heart. No matter if you've walked with the Lord for many years or you just want to start today. This is a time to remember who Jesus is and receive the amazing gift that he gives to us that is salvation by his broken body and his blood that was shed. Let's pray. Lord, as we reflect and consider Jesus, on what you did for us remembering just as you told us to I pray Lord that you would help us to grasp hold of Lord the depth of this truth the reality of who you are the amazing work that you've done in offering yourself in our place and Lord it's so amazing because of who you are you're not just some good person but you are God You've always existed. You are our creator. You're the king of kings and lord of lords. And yet you humbled yourself to be a sacrifice for us. Lord, help us to grasp hold of this truth, to appreciate it, to receive it. Because you offered to us, not by our works, not because we've earned it, but by your grace and your goodness. You offer to it freely. You offer it to us freely. And so Lord, help us to receive all that you've done for us as we partake this morning. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.