Rejected in Samaria
Notes
Transcript
Opening Illustration
Opening Illustration
Before the slavery battle was fought in America, it was fought in England, where it was bloodless but it was also long and arduous.
In the thick of the fighting was a champion named William Wilberforce.
He was an unlikely battler, because at five feet tall he didn’t scare anyone.
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Probably because of his size Wilberforce enjoyed being the life of the party, the class clown, the quick wit, the happy-go-lucky guy.
When he was twenty-one he was elected to Parliament because he outspent his opponents, because he had no enemies yet, and because no one thought he would make any waves.
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About four years later, Wilberforce realized how empty that his life was, and after a friend introduced him to the Bible, he was converted.
But as a new Christian he did not know what to do with his life.
He thought maybe he should withdraw from the world, but he decided to ask a respected friend for advice.
He chose John Newton, the former slave trader and writer of the famous hymn “Amazing Grace.”
Newton by this time was a 60 year man and pastor in London.
Newton surprised the young politician by urging him to stay in the political arena.
“The Lord has raised you up for the good of His church and for the good of the nation.”
Newton also inspired him to fight the slave trade.
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Afterward, Wilberforce wrote in his journal:
“Almighty God has set before me two objectives:
The abolition of the slave trade and the reformation of manners.”
In 1787 he launched his crusade.
For two decades he proposed the abolition of the slave trade, but over and over again businessmen backed up their position with money and defeated the proposals.
Once an opponent argued,
“Abolition would instantly annihilate a trade which annually employs upwards of 5,500 sailors, upwards of 160 ships, and whose exports amount to 800,000 pounds sterling.”
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Wilberforce endured defeat after defeat, sometimes coming so close to victory that he could almost taste it.
Those repeated losses left Wilberforce feeling depressed, wondering if he could keep up the fight any longer.
At such a time he received a letter from the Methodist leader, John Wesley.
It was probably one of the last letters that John Wesley, then in his eighties, ever wrote.
“Unless God has raised you up for this very thing, you will be worn out by the opposition of men and devils,” Wesley wrote.
“But if God be for you who can be against you?
Are all of them together stronger than God?
Oh, be not weary of well-doing.
Go on in the name of God.”
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“Be not weary in well-doing.”
Those were the words that Wilberforce needed to hear.
And so he continued to make resolutions each year until finally, in 1807, the tide turned.
When the votes were counted, the House voted 283 to 16 in favor of abolishing the slave trade.
As biographer John Pollock tells it,
“The House rose almost to a man and turned towards Wilberforce in a burst of Parliamentary cheers.
Suddenly above the roar of ‘hear, hear’ . . . three hurrahs echoed and echoed while he sat, head bowed, tears streaming down his face.”
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Wilberforce stayed in Parliament until 1825, still pushing various reforms:
Relief for boy chimney sweeps, help for the poor, encouragement of education, and alleviation of prison conditions.
Even after he left Parliament, he was still the “conscience of England.”
A few days before he died, his prayers were fully answered when the House of Commons voted to emancipate all slaves in British territories.
“Thank God,” he said, “that I have come to witness the day.”
The man who was determined had won his final battle.
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Another man determined to win His final battle regarding His earthly ministry was the God-Man, Jesus Christ...
And His final battle on His earthly ministry would be at the cross...
And no obstacle would get in His way to obey His Father’s will.
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So, please turn your Bibles to the Gospel of Luke.
We will conduct our study in Chapter 9 and focus on verses 51 through 56.
Our message this morning is titled, “Rejected in Samaria”
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This message today will focus on the next chapter in Jesus’ earthly ministry...
And we will witness the attitude we should have for those who are lost.
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So, this morning we will cover three main points:
1) Evangelizing the Lost
2) Rejected by the Lost
And...
3) Continued Ministry to the Lost
Opening Prayer
Opening Prayer
Before we consider our text, please join me in prayer...
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Heavenly Father...
You are Adonai, my Master and Lord...
You are El Shaddai, the Almighty God...
And You are the Ancient of Days who has no beginning or end.
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Thank You for Your patience...
Thank You for Your mercy...
And Thank You for Your grace.
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Help us in every area of our lives...
Help us to be Your ambassadors...
And help us to be more like Your Son.
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And it is in Jesus’s name we pray all these things...
Amen.
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Let’s turn to our text for today:
Reading of the Text
Reading of the Text
51 When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.
52 And he sent messengers ahead of him, who went and entered a village of the Samaritans, to make preparations for him.
53 But the people did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem.
54 And when his disciples James and John saw it, they said, “Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?”
55 But he turned and rebuked them.
56 And they went on to another village.
So, let’s look at our first point...
1) Evangelizing the Lost
1) Evangelizing the Lost
Verses 51-52: When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. And he sent messengers ahead of him, who went and entered a village of the Samaritans, to make preparations for him.
Beloved, the first thing that I would like to point your attention to is the phrase “to be taken up”...
Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection lie ahead on the path to His ascension, but Luke also looks to that final destination, when the Messiah takes His seat at God’s right hand...
So, that is what is being referred to here...
And that is what we need to keep in mind as we unpack this passage.
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To go to Jerusalem was for Christ to go to His death...
But it would also lead to His resurrection and ascension!
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Another key fact from these first few verses we are examining is that the Jesus had sent messengers ahead of Him to a Samaritan village.
This is an indicator of the shift in Jesus earthly ministry for previously Samaritan towns were avoided...
Recall with me what was said in Matthew 10:5:
5 These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them, “Go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans,
As we previously talked about the instruction that was given to the disciples when they were first sent out...
The instructions were for that short mission trip only...
For now is the time that the Jesus earthly ministry will start to reach out to the Samaritans...
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In fact, this very passage begins a major section of Luke’s Gospel and Jesus’ ministry...
Starting from this passage and going all the way through Luke 19:27, we will see that Christ’s face is set toward Jerusalem and the long journey to the cross begins right here.
The long section that starts here is sometimes called Luke’s travel narrative.
So, Galilee will no longer be Jesus’ base of operation as it previously was...
Although, Luke 17:11–37 will describe a short return visit to Galilee...
Jerusalem is the goal.
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As the MacArthur New Testament Commentary on Luke says:
“But at this point, the whole tenor of Luke’s gospel changes.
The focus is no longer on Jesus’ coming, but on His going.
The Galilean ministry is over, and He is on His way for the final time to His passion in Jerusalem.
Although the Lord would, in the few intervening months of His Judean ministry, make brief return visits to Galilee, Galilee was no longer His base of operations.
Much of the material in this travelogue of Christ’s final journey to the cross is unique to Luke’s gospel.
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Although Jerusalem was only a couple of days’ walk from Galilee, Jesus did not go directly there.
But although He took months to traverse the region of Judea with a final stop in Perea, all the while He was inexorably focused on arriving in Jerusalem at Passover—the appointed time for the Lamb of God’s sacrificial death.
Along the way, Christ’s primary focus was not on the crowds, but on training the first generation of gospel preachers, the apostles whom He had chosen to carry on His ministry after He departed for heaven.”
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So, this journey to Jerusalem was for the purpose of Jesus dying there as a sacrifice for His sheep...
That is also why we see that Luke shows Christ’s determination to complete His mission of going to the cross regardless of the challenges encountered.
Consider the phrase in our passage that says, “He set His face to go to Jerusalem” which can be translated “He was determined to go to Jerusalem.”
Imagine someone with a singular focus on the task at had...
Imagine someone who was completing various tasks that were all pointing to one particular crucial goal...
Imagine an Olympic athlete that is training for years in various exercises to condition their bodies for that chance to win gold...
Imagine an Astronaut who had to master various skills and earn multiple degrees and accolades in order to have one of the rarest jobs in the world...
That is the image Luke is painting of Jesus and His determination to accomplish His mission.
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However, this was no easy task...
This was not a simple mission...
Being an Olympic gold medalist or Astronaut is child’s play compare to what Jesus had to accomplish...
And is troubled Jesus’ very soul..
But Jesus knew the purpose of His coming into this world...
As John 12:27 says:
27 “Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour.
Jesus’ will was for the cup of judgment or the cup of God the Father’s wrath to be removed from Him...
For that was our punishment that we deserved that He was willing to take even though He did not deserve it...
And although He wanted this cup removed...
He wanted His Father’s will even more...
As Luke later records in his gospel in Luke 22:42:
42 saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.”
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Our Lord and Savior...
The Founder and Perfecter of our faith...
He looked beyond the tortures of the cross...
He looked beyond the shame of the cross...
And He looked to the reward of sitting at the right hand of the throne of God!
Or as Hebrews 12:1–2 puts it:
1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
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Surprisingly, the Lord chose to travel through Samaria for most Jews took great pains to avoid doing this...
In fact, Jews traveling from Galilee to Judea would cross to the east side of the Jordan River, travel south through Perea, and then recross the river at Jericho and go up into Judea...
All to avoid Samaria...
Additionally, those who did travel through Samaria carried their own food so as not to have to eat food defiled by the unclean and despised Samaritans.
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So, Jesus traveling through Samaria and being willing to eat and lodge in Samaria was shocking...
Jesus, as usual, was shacking up the man-made traditions and customs of society in order to show us how we are to treat others.
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So, the phrase in our passage that says, “to make preparations for him” is to arrange for lodging and prepare food as Jesus and His followers made up a large group and He was letting the people in Samaria now He was coming...
As the Reformation Study Bible says:
“Jesus and His disciples would strain the resources of a small village if they were to drop in unexpectedly.
Jesus gives due notice but is met with the traditional hostility of the Samaritans for the Jews, since Jerusalem, the destination of His pilgrimage, stands as a rebuke of the Samaritans’ rival worship center on Mount Gerizim.”
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However, the Samaritans would not receive or welcome them for not only were they Jews but they were heading to Jerusalem...
A very sensitive topic between Jews and Samaritans...
And this takes us to our second point.
2) Rejected by the Lost
2) Rejected by the Lost
Verses 53-54: But the people did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem. And when his disciples James and John saw it, they said, “Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?”
So, the Samaritans, who had their own place of worship on Mount Gerizim, were particularly hostile to Jews who were on their way to worship in the temple of Jerusalem.
This is what a bad attitude and bad theology leads to...
The Samaritans have just reject the very Son of God who wanted to journey through their country in order to give to them the opportunity of learning to know and honour Him as their Messiah...
Yet, they end up rejecting the Messiah they are waiting for due to misguidance.
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Now, this hostility between Jews and Samaritans in seen in John 4:9 which says:
9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)
Beloved, keep this in mind...
Samaritans were considered by many Jews to be in a continual state of uncleanness, thus they would have thought that drinking water from this woman’s water jar would make a person ceremonially unclean.
The verb in the phrase rendered “have no dealings” can also have a more specific meaning of “share use of [things].”
So, Jews and Samaritans were at such odds with each other that they could not even share use of objects together.
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Consider what the MacArthur Study Bible says regarding Samaritans:
“These people were descendants of Jewish mixed marriages from the days of captivity.
They were rivals of the Jewish nation and had devised their own worship, a hybrid of Judaism and paganism, with a temple of their own on Mount Gerizim.
They were considered unclean by the Jews and were so hated that most Jewish travelers from Galilee to Judah took the longer route East of the Jordan to avoid traveling through Samaria.”
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Likewise, the ESV Study Bible says:
“The Samaritans were a racially mixed group of partly Jewish and partly Gentile ancestry, who were disdained by both Jews and non-Jews (see 2 Kings 17:24–31 which describes how the king of Assyria brought foreign people to settle in Samaria in 722 B.C.;
Over time they had intermarried with some Jews who had remained in the area).
Many inhabitants of this region between Judea and Galilee were descendants of the Old Testament northern kingdom of Israel, although from the Jewish perspective these Samaritans had assimilated strongly into non-Jewish culture and had intermarried with Mesopotamian colonists.
The Samaritans had their own version of the Pentateuch, their own temple on Mount Gerizim, and their own rendering of Israelite history.
Copies of their Pentateuch in Hebrew (and in Targumic Aramaic) remain extant, as do their basic historical narratives.
Tensions often ran high between Jews and Samaritans;
Thus Josephus recounts fighting between Jews and Samaritans during Claudius’s reign in the first century A.D. being so intense that Roman soldiers were called in to pacify (and to crucify) many of the rebels.”
So, this was a bitter rivalry.
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After being rejected, James and John had an idea...
The “Sons of Thunder” said, “Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?”
Wow...
Beloved, their request went far beyond what Jesus taught them in Luke 9:5 which says:
5 And wherever they do not receive you, when you leave that town shake off the dust from your feet as a testimony against them.”
Instead of listening to the instruction that Jesus had previously given them...
They instead where recalling the fire from heaven that had consumed troops sent from Samaria, capital of the northern kingdom, to arrest the prophet Elijah...
James and John had judged that the insult done to God’s Messiah deserves the same immediate destruction that Elijah called down.
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We find that Old Testament account in 2 Kings 1:9-16 which says:
9 Then the king sent to him a captain of fifty men with his fifty. He went up to Elijah, who was sitting on the top of a hill, and said to him, “O man of God, the king says, ‘Come down.’ ”
10 But Elijah answered the captain of fifty, “If I am a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty.” Then fire came down from heaven and consumed him and his fifty.
11 Again the king sent to him another captain of fifty men with his fifty. And he answered and said to him, “O man of God, this is the king’s order, ‘Come down quickly!’ ”
12 But Elijah answered them, “If I am a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty.” Then the fire of God came down from heaven and consumed him and his fifty.
13 Again the king sent the captain of a third fifty with his fifty. And the third captain of fifty went up and came and fell on his knees before Elijah and entreated him, “O man of God, please let my life, and the life of these fifty servants of yours, be precious in your sight.
14 Behold, fire came down from heaven and consumed the two former captains of fifty men with their fifties, but now let my life be precious in your sight.”
15 Then the angel of the Lord said to Elijah, “Go down with him; do not be afraid of him.” So he arose and went down with him to the king
16 and said to him, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Because you have sent messengers to inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron—is it because there is no God in Israel to inquire of his word?—therefore you shall not come down from the bed to which you have gone up, but you shall surely die.’ ”
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As theologian James R. Edwards says:
“In white-hot passion the Zebedee brothers want to incinerate the Samaritans, as surely as Elijah called down fire on Ahaziah’s soldiers!
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[However,] the Zebedees are wrong about Jesus:
The Son of Man will not accomplish God’s will through force and violence, but through weakness, even suffering, rejection, death, and resurrection.
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They are also wrong about the Samaritans:
Despite this particular rejection, and despite the widespread proscriptions of Samaritans by Jews, Samaritans are distinguished in Luke-Acts as early and important recipients of the gospel.
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Finally, the Zebedees are wrong about discipleship:
Disciples are not commissioned to commandeer God’s role as judge, but to serve the Son of Man, whose face is set to Jerusalem.”
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Beloved, it is interesting to note that several years later, John the Beloved journeyed through Samaria once again with fellow disciple Peter...
However, this time, filled with the Holy Spirit, they preached the Gospel in the same Samaritan villages he once wanted to call down fire upon...
We know this from Acts 8:25 which says:
25 Now when they had testified and spoken the word of the Lord, they returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel to many villages of the Samaritans.
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So, the followers of Jesus must never desire anything like revenge or violence against their enemies...
We should be ministering to our enemies with love and mercy.
As the New International Commentary on the New Testament on Luke says:
“In our loyalty to Christ, however zealous it may be, we must be constantly on our guard that we do not act with a spirit out of harmony with His, or follow methods of which He would not approve.”
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So, what did Jesus do when He heard this idea of James and John to rain fire down on the Samaritans...
Well, He rebuked them...
And that takes us to our third and final point.
3) Continued Ministry to the Lost
3) Continued Ministry to the Lost
Verses 55-56: But he turned and rebuked them. And they went on to another village.
Now, some of you following with a KJV or NASB will notice the additional words between verse 55 and 56 that say, “and said, ‘You do not know what kind of spirit you are of; for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them’”...
These words are not in the oldest manuscripts we have...
Therefore it indicates that somewhere in later history a scribe wanted to clarify the rebuke and borrowed from other texts ans made this addition to Scripture...
Since we are aware of this, most modern translations either brackets this text like the NASB or they just don’t include it in the like in the ESV as in is not God-breathed text.
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This is also why it is wise to ignore “memes” that claim modern translations of the Bible “remove” verses from the Bible...
That is absolutely false...
Modern translations like the ESV have not removed verses from the Bible...
It is older translations, that due to the lack of earlier manuscripts that were available at the time, accidentally added a few verses to the Bible that never should have been there from the beginning.
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Now, let us consider what the Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament on Luke says about Jesus’ response:
“Jesus’ response is succinct and graphic.
As he turns (he is at the front of the group), he refuses the request of James and John with a rebuke.
The request to judge immediately is out of character with Jesus’ current ministry.
There are warnings of judgment in Jesus’ ministry, but the judgment itself will come later.
The decision made about him is all-important, but judgment is not for now.
The Twelve realize from their earlier mission and the shaking of the dust from their feet that refusal has eschatological consequences, but God graciously gives people time to reflect on their decision.
Luke does not tell what Jesus says, only that he rebukes the disciples.
They still need to learn about Jesus’ ministry.
They can preach and warn like Elijah, but the act of judging will be left to God for another time and place.”
Beloved, we have an absolute responsibility to warn people of Hell!
There is no doubt about that...
In fact, without warning others of Hell, it is impossible to hare the Gospel...
You need to know the Bad News in order to accept the Good News.
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Yet, we are not to act as judge, jury, and executioner and act like we can throw people into Hell!
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Furthermore, as the New American Commentary on Luke says:
“James and John went far beyond Jesus’ directions on how to treat the unreceptive.
There will be a ‘day of vengeance of our God,’ but that day lies in the future and in any case is God’s prerogative.
If a village did not receive Jesus, the disciples were to go elsewhere.
For Theophilus and the other readers the message was clear.
Their attitude was to be one of ‘Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.’”
That needs to be our attitude too...
Remember, each and everyone of us was a sinner before we were born-again...
Remember what it says in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10:
9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality,
10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
But the passage does not end there, Beloved...
Continue on to the next verse ans look with me at 1 Corinthians 6:11 which says:
11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
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The disciples, when they were not setting their minds to the things of God, they acted recklessly...
Even if they thought they had “good intentions”...
Just look at what is says in Matthew 16:21-23:
21 From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.
22 And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.”
23 But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”
As Jesus was being arrested Peter again had “good intentions”...
Just look at what is says in John 18:10–11:
10 Then Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s servant and cut off his right ear. (The servant’s name was Malchus.)
11 So Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword into its sheath; shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me?”
Beloved, we have to stop using our emotions...
We have to stop leaning on our own understanding...
and we need to follow Christ’s words and example!
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Again the MacArthur New Testament Commentary on Luke has a wonderful note for us to consider:
“Although it must never compromise the truth or tolerate sin, the church must show the same mercy to the lost as Jesus did.
Whenever those claiming to represent Jesus Christ have wielded the right to pronounce temporal judgment, the results have been disastrous.
The Inquisition, the Crusades, the execution of those thought to be witches, and the persecution of the Anabaptists by Reformed Protestants and Catholics alike have been a blight on the name of Jesus Christ.
The church must confront sin and call for repentance, but leave the final judgment to God (that is the point of the parable of the wheat and the tares and the indictment of Jesus on the Jewish leaders).
Mercy is at the heart of redemptive ministry, and is to be extended to all without regard to race, gender, age, or cultural background.
The God who delights in mercy delights in merciful Christians.”
Closing Illustration
Closing Illustration
So, as this message comes to a close...
I would like you to consider this:
Johnny Fulton was run over by a car at the age of three.
He suffered crushed hips, broken ribs, a fractured skull, and compound fractures in his legs.
It did not look as if he would live.
But he would not give up.
In fact, he later ran the half-mile in less than two minutes.
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Walt Davis was totally paralyzed by polio when he was nine years old, but he did not give up.
He became the Olympic high jump champion in 1952.
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Shelly Mann was paralyzed by polio when she was five years old, but she would not give up.
She eventually claimed eight different swimming records for the U.S. and won a gold medal at the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne, Australia.
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In 1938, Karoly Takacs, a member of Hungary's world-champion pistol shooting team and sergeant in the army, lost his right hand when a grenade he was holding exploded.
But Takacs did not give up.
He learned to shoot left-handed and won gold medals in the 1948 and 1952 Olympics.
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Lou Gehrig was such a clumsy ball player that the boys in his neighborhood would not let him play on their team.
But he was committed.
He did not give up.
Eventually, his name was entered into baseball's Hall of Fame.
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Woodrow Wilson could not read until he was ten years old.
But he was a committed person.
He became the twenty-eighth President of the United States.
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Jesus Christ, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords voluntary came down from Heaven...
And He was born in manger...
His earthly family was poor and His siblings thought He was crazy...
He grew up in a forgettable ancient ghetto called Nazareth...
He was accused of having a demon and was considered a Man of Sorrows...
But He had a mission He was determined to complete...
To lay down His life for His sheep...
To take the place of wicked sinners on the cross at Calvary...
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And it is now about Christ’s sacrifice that we bring our attention to.
Communion
Communion
As we begin our communion service, I want to invite every genuinely born-again believer in the room to partake in this act together.
If you do not yet know the Lord and do not have a relationship with Him...
Or if you are under church discipline from this church or another church...
Then I will ask that you wait until you have resolved your issue before participating.
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As you came in you should have picked up a communion packet if you are joining us.
This has both the bread and juice in a convenient package.
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If you have not received one of these, please raise your hand and someone will get you one.
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Before we join in communion together, I would like us to consider John 19:30:
30 When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
Regarding this verse, Charles H. Spurgeon says:
“In the original Greek of John’s Gospel, there is only one word for this utterance of our Lord.
To translate it into English, we have to use three words;
But when it was spoken, it was only one,— an ocean of meaning in a drop of language, a mere drop, for that is all that we can call one word.
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‘It is finished.’
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Yet it would need all the other words that ever were spoken, or ever can be spoken, to explain this one word.
It is altogether immeasurable.
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It is high;
I cannot attain to it.
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It is deep;
I cannot fathom it.
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‘Finished.’
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I can half imagine the tone in which our Lord uttered this word, with a holy glorying, a sense of relief, the bursting out of a heart that had long been shut up within walls of anguish.
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‘Finished.’
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It was a Conqueror’s cry;
It was uttered with a loud voice.
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There is nothing of anguish about it, there is no wailing in it.
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It is the cry of One who has completed a tremendous labour, and is about to die;
And ere he utters his death-prayer,
‘Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit,’ He shouts His life’s last hymn in that one word,
‘Finished.’”
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So, Beloved...
Let’s all take a moment right now in silent prayer to thank the Lord for all He did for us...
(MOMENT OF SILENCE)
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Tom will you pray before we partake in the bread:
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The Word of God says in Luke 22:19:
19 And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”
(TAKE THE BREAD)
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Adrian will you pray before we partake in the cup:
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The Word of God says in Luke 22:20:
20 And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.
(TAKE THE CUP)
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With that we conclude the communion portion of our service.
Closing Prayer
Closing Prayer
Let’s pray...
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Heavenly Father...
If anyone hearing this message right now does not know You in a saving way...
Give them the gift of the Damascus Road experience...
Open their eyes and ears to Your truth...
Help them to understand the Good News message in a saving way!
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I appeal to Your Name’s sake!
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For those hearing this message who already know You...
Have mercy on us when we fail to follow Your commands...
Help us with our misplaced zeal and time when we act harmful with our “good intentions”
And mold us into the image of Your Son so we can grow in our process of sanctification!
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Again, I appeal to Your Name’s sake!
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And it is in Jesus’s name we pray all these things...
And to God be all the glory.
Amen.
.......
Please join us for one more song from the Praise Band.
