The Lord Grant Mercy (1)

So this morning, we're going to be returning to 2 Timothy chapter 1, and we're going to be studying the last couple of verses, verses 15 to 18. These verses come on the heel of Paul exhorting Timothy to guard the truth. This letter, really the whole first chapter, begins with an extended exhortation from Paul to Timothy to not refuse to suffer, but to endure the moment of Paul. That's really this whole chapter's aim and goal. And so these final verses contain a warning from Paul to Timothy as well as an encouragement. We're going to be reading 2 Timothy 1, verses 15 to 18. Would you please stand as we hear the word of the Lord? This is the word of the Lord, and it is eternally true. You are aware of the fact that all who are in Asia turned away from me, among whom are Phygelus and Hermogenes. The Lord bringeth mercy to the house of Manasseh for us, for he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains.

But when he was in Rome, he eagerly searched for me and found me. The Lord granted him to find mercy in the way from the Lord on that day. And you know very well what services he rendered at Ephesus. This is the word of the Lord. And thank you, God. You may be seated. I want to start out by pointing out to you that not every plant you plant in your garden will work. If you ever plant a garden, you know the speed it takes. You work, you labor, you toil, you spend money and time and energy only to have something keep your plant from growing. Maybe the rabbits come and eat it. Maybe the grubs get to it. Maybe the birds pick up the soil, pick up the seeds. Maybe the rain doesn't come. Maybe too much rain comes. Maybe the moles come. Who knows? You work and you toil and you do all of this in hope of that harvest. And yet not everything bears any fruit.

bring this up to the very beginning of our sermon? Well, because as it is with the ark, so it is with ministry and our lives. Not everything that we do bears the fruit of the fruit that we want it to bear. Paul starts out this section by warning Timothy with these words. You are aware of the fact that all who are in Asia turned away from me. During Paul's missionary journeys, he spent a good bit of time in Asia planting churches, discipling them. And by the time he had left, he had good hope that the word of God had taken root in this land. In Acts chapter 19, we read this. Speaking of Paul, it says, He entered the synagogue and continued speaking out boldly for three months, reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God. But when some were becoming hardened and disobedient, speaking evil of the way before the people, he withdrew from them and took away the disciples, reasoning daily in the school of Tyrannus. This took place for two years.

So that all who lived in Asia heard the word of the Lord. They were Jews. And so what we have here. If you could think of Paul as a gardener. You have a gardener working. Tilling. Planting. Cultivating. Weeding. Reasoning. For a number of years. And then in 2 Timothy. He writes in Timothy and he says. All of that work has turned away from me. I want you to see. From the very beginning of this passage. As you consider your life and the things you do in Jesus name. Not all of it. will bear good fruit. And if there's not good fruit born of it, it doesn't necessarily mean that what you did was wrong or bad. If you were to read, you know, for greater context, in Acts, before this passage, it says that Paul wanted to go to Asia, and wants to go to Asia, but kept being prevented by the Holy Spirit. Eventually he gets into Asia, and he ministers there. And now the discouragement, all who are in Asia turn away from him.

So you have to wonder, why would he tell Timothy this? Why would he say, all of this work that I've done was for nothing? I think there's two reasons. First, he didn't want Timothy to be surprised that he heard rumors and heard tell of opposition to Paul and to his teaching in Asia. More importantly, I think he told Timothy this to strengthen him for the work of ministry. Paul had labored with him. Now you might think, I don't know if we can make that equation, if we can equate the two, that if they reject, Paul, that they're rejecting Jesus. Couldn't they have rejected Paul and retained their faith in Jesus? Not likely. We reject God's messengers, those who brought us to faith, those who nurtured us and cared for our souls, without also turning away from the Lord who sent them to us. If we were to take this same idea and bring it into the home, we'd see children are to honor their parents. What role do parents play in the lives of their children when they're little? Who do they represent?

They represent God. Don't you as fathers and as mothers stand in your child's eyes, especially as they're young, don't you stand in the very place of God, teaching them his ways and his precepts. And so if your children were to reject you, they'd not also be rejecting God. If you taught them and you trained them up to love and to fear Jesus Christ and to put their faith in him, and at the end of all of it, they said, no, no, no, no, I won't have any of that. Mom and dad, you're wrong. That's not what Jesus is like for them to distinguish as you follow him. Of course, we have to make accommodations and adjustments for parents that fail, as we all do in our training and teaching of our children. But Paul says in another place, in Corinthians, he speaks of others coming along and speaking of Jesus Christ. He says, if anyone proclaims to you a gospel different than the one that I proclaim to you, he is to be accursed. They tell you something different than what I've told you. They're to be accursed.

Which are pretty bold words if you think about it. If Paul's willing to stand before angels and say, you're not angels but demons if you have anything to say that contradicts what I've taught. And so Paul didn't understand himself to just be a man who people could receive or reject with impunity. He understood himself to be an apostle set apart for this work in this gospel ministry. And if those who turn away from him, those who reject him and say, no, no, no, not Paul. He was unwilling for them to think that they could do that and retain Jesus Christ. We understand that children are to honor their parents. That is how they honor God. We understand in the church the same thing. That if we're to honor Jesus Christ and to love him, we have to accept him and receive those that he sends to us. To care for us. To love us. There will always be a reason to reject him. What are some of those reasons? Well, most prominently, that man sinned. I said a few weeks ago,

And I want to reiterate it to you again. At the very beginning of this chapter, Paul says to Timothy, I exhort you not to be ashamed of Jesus. And then he goes on and he says, or of me. And I said at that time, it's very easy for us to say, I love Jesus. But the men that he sends, they're sinful and they do things they ought not to do. And that's the grounds we use to say, no, no, no. He's not really the one. It's just me and Jesus. But Paul doesn't make any of those sorts of distinctions. He says to Timothy, Join with me. Don't be ashamed of Jesus. Don't be ashamed of me. And he says the same thing here as much. Those who are in Asia were ashamed of Paul. What sorts of things get said about him? I mean, we're never as straightforward as to say, I'm not going to listen to him and follow him because he's going to get me in trouble at work or at home or in my family. I'll lose friends and influence and respectability if I follow him. We don't speak that way. Instead, what we say is,

Things like his tone is harsh. He didn't ask enough questions. He didn't obey Matthew 18. Here he is out in public talking about the sins of this person instead of going to them privately. There are these things and many other reasons we take to distance ourselves from those that we're ashamed of. Well, I love him, but I don't agree with everything he says. I respect him and he's wise and he's got a lot of good things to say, but it always seems to be the thing that's at issue is the thing that the person with us, It doesn't improve us. The conflict between will reject Jesus or his ministers. We get offended before them. These men, they were ashamed of his chains and that they rejected Jesus. He was a priest in Israel. He said, we want a king like the nations to rule over us. That's what we want. We get all upset. He says, that's not right. That's not right. They ought not to do that. We want to be like the nations. You have the Lord your God as your king. He gets all upset and the Lord comes to him and he says, listen to the voice of the people.

In regard to all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me for being king. And so God in that context says, you and me, Samuel? You're standing in my place, but it's not you they're rejecting, it's me. And oftentimes, oftentimes, we cloak our rejection of Jesus Christ in rejection of his ministers. When in fact, the reason we're rejecting these men and Jesus Christ is because they call us an archer. Much of what passes today for Christianity is simply unwilling to suffer. We ought not to be so quick to turn away from suffering for Jesus' sake. If we suffer for our own sin's sake, Paul says, Peter says, what benefit is that to us? If we suffer as a thief or a murderer or a liar, well, what good is that? But if we suffer for the Lord's sake, then we ought to glory. From the very beginning, brothers and sisters, not to be like, Phygelus and Hermogenes and all those who were in Asia who were ashamed of Jesus and ashamed of his shame. Into Jerusalem when they thought he's come to establish his kingdom. He's come to throw the Romans out. That was not his agenda. The name of Jesus is to stand that he places in our lives to lead us into places we don't want to go. In this section, it's worth noting that Paul names names. Phygelus and Hermogenes are pointed out.

As leaders of those who have gone astray. Damaged to the cause. And therefore Paul names them. So that it's clear who should be avoided. Southern Baptists joke about it being the 11th commandment. That you have to be nice. That you can't offend. That if you have offended or if you're a part of conflict, somehow you have failed. I remember when I was in pastor's college. Being trained for ministry. One of our teachers told us, he said, the one thing they'll always teach you in seminary is this. If you have conflict in your church, conflict is always a sign that you have conflict. And he said, that's an awful thing. It's not true. To send a pastor out into ministry and tell him that his whole job is to never have conflict. Awful training. What was Jesus' life except a one long extended conflict between him and the Pharisees? The conflict of some coming to faith and following him and the conflict of others rejecting him and wanting to kill him. The same is true of the apostles.

fathers in the faith on down from that time. The church has always existed in the midst of conflict and tumult with names being named. Some for good, but also some for bad. And so Phygelus and Hermogenes are named as men, those who led the people astray. You say, well, it doesn't say all of that. It just says among whom were Phygelus and Hermogenes. And I say, yes. So how did all the people in Ephesia turn away? Were there not leaders? Were there not those who Who whispered in their ears. Being a Christian. And to be constrained. To not name the names of your oppressors. And those who give you grief. Is an awful burden. And I think. There does come a time. When those who are opposed to Jesus Christ. Ought to be pointed out as such. And said. That man is a wolf. And you ought not to listen or follow him anymore. You're opposed to the cause of Christ. It's important for us to name the names of those who are. Who are awful trouble in the church. Because much of the trouble is permanent.

From within the church. The trouble that was happening in the church, the root of it wasn't outside. It was from within. And much of the conflict that happens within the church today, yes, there's conflict between Christians and non-Christians. I'm not here to deny that or to minimize it or say that doesn't exist. It does. But the worst conflicts that Christians will endure and will face will be in the hands of other so-called Christians. That is where the brother really will need to grow. That's where the fights will get nasty. That's where it will get difficult. That's what's going on here until Paul names these men and calls them out. So there's no confusion, so there's no ambiguity, so there's no uncertainty about those men and whether Timothy should look up to them, follow them, or listen. In Acts 20, when Paul calls the Ephesian elders to himself to see them, to say goodbye to them for the very last time, he warns them of this very thing.

He says, I know that Dr. Michael Archer's savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. And you will hold from the outside and say, yes. And then he says, and from among your own selves, men will arise, speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after. Judas followed along with Jesus for three years and betrayed him. We should not be so foolish as to think that there are not men inside the church who will in time become enemies of Jesus Christ, seeking to lead away other men away from him. And so it's imperative that Timothy know that this is what ministry is like. Tell Timothy, I went to Asia, I ministered there for years, and none of it is born for me. Some of the leading men in that area have stood up in opposition to the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. If you're like me, you find that somewhere inside of you, you go, can we, does it have to be so intense? Does there have to be that kind of conflict? Isn't there a way to de-escalate these sorts of situations? Isn't there a nicer, isn't there a middle ground? Can't we just...

Talk reasonably and have it be respectful. Sometimes. And praise God that we're able to do that. It is not always that way. It is not always that way. We've been conditioned in our society that if you're opposing someone, saying no to them, you're the one in the wrong. But generally speaking, just because you say no to someone, you say that's not true. That's not what the Bible says. That's not what Jesus says. That isn't what he's like. You have not become an enemy of Jesus. His name is... And the church is filled in many places with blasphemy regarding what he teaches and who he is. And we ought not to be ashamed of him or the things he says or of his ministers who teach us these things, who are faithful to his word, especially when it has costs associated with it for them. You might see online, oh, I see a guy and he writes these things and they're provocative and it's good. And you go, but I'm not going to, I don't want to like it or associate with it or share it or comment on it because if I do,

then my other friends will see what I'm doing and they'll, they may not agree with me. I'm not advocating here for anybody being Facebook warriors or going on Twitter and trying to defend the faith as a calling. But simple little things like that where you see and you go, oh, if I say that, what will my other friend, you know, I might end up in, someone might private message me and tell me I'm wrong, that I'm not being Christ-like, or associating with men who love the truth at the points of conflict in our society. And so not all of the work that we do as Christians will bear good fruit. Asia was a waste place for Paul, due in large part to the disruption and the opposition of Phygelus and Hermogenes. Then he switches and gives us a comparison. This is the warning first. Don't be like those men. And then he gives us encouragement. He says, the Lord bring mercy to the house of Ines and Horus. For he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains. And him saying, he was not ashamed of my chains, is set in juxtaposition too.

The men who come before him. They worshiped him. They rejected Paul. Others flocked to him. They sought him out in the midst of his greatest conflict. They went and found him. This is the best for us. When he was in Rome, when Anasaphorus was in Rome, he eagerly searched for Paul and found him. Now, what was Paul doing when he was in Rome? He was in jail. He searched in the gallows and in the dungeons and in the waste places to find me. Where they'd swirled me away and he refreshed me. So the primary difference between Anasaphorus Horace, by Julius and Hermogenes, is that Mesa Horace was not ashamed of Paul. He went out of his way to associate with Paul. He saw Paul's suffering, and he came to his aid. This is exactly what faithfulness looks like. You remember, when Jesus was talking about, he's dividing the two of them, and he gives this description, and he says, you guys said you did all this stuff, but you never did it. You didn't visit me, you didn't give me a drink, you didn't clothe me.

You didn't do any of that. And the Pharisees stand up and they say, when did we see you and not do these things? His response is, to the extent that you've done it to the least of these, you've done it unto me. Which is to say, you may have done it to me when I was watching, but my people, when they were suffering, when they were weak, and when they were in chains, and when they were in distress, you didn't help them. You didn't lift a finger for them. But then he turns to his people, to those who had been faithful, and he says, when I was weak, when I was hungry, you fed me. When I was sick, you visited me.

When I was in prison, this is where that's a force. When Paul was in prison, for the sake of the gospel, that's a force that went to him. Maybe it's not a fist fight, but you see a big fight and argument going on. And it's not, you know, maybe it's two strangers, but you see it happening and you go, okay, what am I going to do? As a Christian, is there ever a time when you should go to the conflict to help resolve it? There are times when there's conflict, when there's trouble, when you may get sucked into the fray. And what you should do is go toward it and say, I'm going to come to this, and I'm going to straighten this out, and I'm going to help. So when we see conflict and we see suffering, if it's someone we know and they're in the middle of trouble, we think, I hope that goes well for them. I hope that that's able to get resolved. And that's something that at any time should be done. Too often in my life, I've seen the conflict in my mom. It's too much trouble and hassle. It's going to be a lot of work. When he was in Rome, we knew that Paul was in prison. We went straight to him.

It's a refreshment of the mystery to him in his time of need. He was willing to be affiliated with Paul and to suffer whatever befell him. Was there a danger in going to see Paul when he was in prison? Oh, you're one of his disciples. I said in an earlier sermon that suffering is not something we process in our heads. We don't weigh out a cost-benefit analysis of whether we're going to be willing to suffer. Suffering is a function of our hearts and it's a function of what we love. The people that we love suffer. We go to them. We go to them. In God's kindness, I don't know that it was even difficult for Anesiphorus to go see Papa. I think he was probably captivated with the thought of going to his brother and encouraging him because he knew that he was in need. About this faithfulness of Anesiphorus by way of praying for him. He prays that Anesiphorus in his house would find mercy from God. Which is to say that the thing that Anesiphorus did by itself, Anesiphorus didn't do it to earn the fair favor of the merit of God.

And that's of course, even as he'd been faithful, even as he'd gone to visit Paul, mercy is still from God. So the highest recompense, the greatest thing Paul could do for and that's of course, for his household, is to pray that God would have mercy on him. In some places, this is called the prophet's reward. Jesus sent out the disciples into the surrounding cities in Matthew 10. He tells them, do not acquire gold or silver or copper for your money belts or a bag for your journey or even two coats or sandals or a staff. For the worker is worthy of his support. So what he does is he strips away all of their own ability to provide for themselves. And he says, you're going to go out as dependents, those who are weak and in need. He says, in whatever city or village you enter, inquire who is worthy in it and stay at this house until you leave that city. As you enter the house, give it your greeting. If the house is worthy, give it your blessing of peace. But if it's not worthy, take back your blessing of peace. And so the instruction here is,

As I sent you guys out to proclaim the gospel, to be prophets, to minister, go out and find a worthy household and stay there until you expect them to provide for you and to care for you, to feed you and clothe you and that sort of stuff. And if they are worthy, then give them your blessing of peace. It gives them a blessing of peace. Praise for him that there would be peace between him and God, that God would have mercy on him. There are many things that Paul could have given to Onesiphorus. But instead he prays that he would have what in the end is most valuable. Things we need from God. The most valuable of them all. To serve God. That don't seem to bear any good fruit. Do you think Paul was rewarded for his work in Asia at the judgment? But there was no good fruit of it. The people didn't believe. They all turned away. They all rejected him. We will not be regained for his mercy. If we expect recompense now, then the scripture warns us that we have a reward in full. And we have no treasure in heaven.

that God sees everything we do and that he will reward them for their deeds, whether good or bad. There's coming a day when there will be a settling of accounts with God. Not that we earn our salvation, not that he weighs out whether we've done enough to be saved. The things we've done have been righteous and good. We don't earn his gifts. We don't earn our salvation. He freely gives them to us. All of us will have places like Asia where we work and where we minister and where we pray. and where our desires are at, where we don't see. That doesn't mean that God's not Lord. It does mean that we shouldn't be practical and learn. What could Paul have learned if he was a cynic about Asia? He'll give years of my life and energy to do this sort of thing, and it's all going to turn out like Asia did. Have you ever thought that sort of thing? I did this thing. I started out and was trying to be faithful, and then it seems to produce no good fruit, so that doesn't work. Maybe it's with disciplining your children. Maybe it's with respecting your husband. Maybe it's with submitting to your boss.

This doesn't seem to bear any good fruit. I'm not going to do that again. God sees the good deeds that you offer up to him in faith. And do you think that there will be a reward for you for those good deeds at the judgment? Are you willing to wait? For us, he was willing to suffer with Paul. He was willing to be named among them. He was not ashamed of his shame. He was not ashamed to be thrown in prison along with him, though we don't have any record that that happened. And so the question before us is, are we willing to suffer along with Paul?

Jesus warned us not to be ashamed of his words. He said, if you're ashamed of me or my words, I'll be ashamed of you, if you're my Father in heaven. And on the day when we stand before his Father in heaven, we don't want Jesus being ashamed of us. We want his mercy. And so as we consider this text coming away from him, my question to you is, do you want God's mercy? And do you pursue it? Though it's freely given to us, if we're to have it, it will be given to us as a gift. Do you want that? And do you seek after it? Don't you think that Anesophorus, as he's searching through Rome, in the prisons, looking for Paul, don't you think he had some awareness that there might be some danger for him? But Anesophorus, he loved God. And neither should we. And it's my hope and my prayer that we aren't ashamed of Jesus Christ. That we're wise. And that when we face conflict in our lives, our natural reaction to get ourselves out of the conflict,

That we don't give in to it. But that we consider what faithfulness would look like in that moment. What should be said? What should be done? Truly, what Jesus wouldn't do. These are the things for us to consider as we go out this weekend. How to serve God better. Do you want his mercy? Are you thankful that he sent his son into this world? And if you are, don't be ashamed of him. Don't turn away from him like Phygelus and Hermogenes. Serve him and seek him out like a nest of forest sought out. That's great. Father in heaven, I do thank you for... giving us these examples of both good and bad that have served you and returned away from you, that we might follow after the one in loving you from the other. Father, we confess that there are many things that weigh on our hearts and that pull us away from our obedience and our love sometimes. And we confess that it doesn't take much cost at all for us to be put out all the way, thinking that it's too much for us. It would be too uncomfortable. It would be too difficult.

Give me too much work for too much hassle. Father, these are wicked thoughts and foolish ones that assail us. And we pray that you'd have mercy on us and that you would help us not to lose, but to love and to serve you. To not be ashamed of you and to follow after you. Wherever it is that you lead us, give us endurance that we might persevere to the end. And receive mercy when we stand before you. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Would the officers please come forward as we partake of the Lord's Supper. I want to read to you. Not just from 1 Corinthians chapter 11, but I want to read to you from John 6. Because we never read from, we've not read from this passage. This is where Jesus is talking about this meal. And I would say to you that this is probably one of the most, like, eek moments in all the scripture where Jesus speaks. The people cannot, literally cannot believe the words that are coming out of his mouth. About partaking of the Lord's Supper, about eating and drinking. So I want you to listen to these words and then consider them just a minute.

In John 6, starting in verse 52, it says, Then the Jews began to argue with one another, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat? And so they're sort of, they're just appalled again. How is this possible? Expecting Jesus to go, Well, that's not really what I meant. Like, you misunderstood. Let me rework this. Instead, Jesus says, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, You have no life in yourselves. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me, he also will live because of me. This is the bread which came down out of heaven.

Not as the fathers ate and died. He who eats this bread will live forever. And so what is Jesus speaking of? Well, he's speaking of this meal that we're about to partake in. And if you were a Roman Catholic or came up that way, they would point to this passage and as a support for transfiguration, saying this is literally his blood. He changes it to it. And this is literally his body changed into his flesh. And this is not what the passage teaches us. It doesn't teach us that these elements got changed into. Literal flesh and literal blood. I believe that part of the reason Jesus speaks this way regarding this meal is to impress upon us the necessity of us coming to him and seeing our need of him. We don't need a far off and a distant Jesus. We don't need simply, if we were thinking of a meal, we don't need simply to smell the aroma or to have knowledge of a good meal out there. We literally need to put it in our mouths, chew it up, and eat it. If we're to be satiated, if our bodies are to be fed,

Knowledge of a meal is not good enough. The scent of a meal is not good enough. Other people being able to partake of a meal is not good enough. We ourselves, if we're to have our hunger satisfied, we need to eat and we need to drink. So the same is true of this meal, though not for our physical bodies, for our souls. We have before us spiritual food, bread, and we need these things. We don't need a little piece of bread and a little wafer of... To satisfy our hunger. What we have here is a reminder to us of our need to have our sins washed away. This bread represents Jesus' body that was hung on the cross, beaten and thawed and whipped and broken. Because that's what our sins deserve. That's what you and I, that's what we deserve. You and I deserve to stand before the judgment seat of God and have our bodies broken and our blood poured out for the sins that we've committed.

It's only right that God, who's holy and just, would deal with sinners who failed Him in so many ways by pouring out His wrath against them. That's what this meal represents to us, is that Jesus came and stood in our place, having His body broken, having His flesh be torn, having all of the wrath of God, His Father, and now ours, poured out on Him so that we might be able to have life in His name. And so when Jesus says, He who eats this bread and drinks this cup will have eternal life, those who don't, who haven't put their faith in Jesus Christ, will not and cannot have intercession. This meal is only for Christians. Those who are not Christians and who have not put their faith in Jesus Christ and haven't come to Him through the waters of baptism and submitted themselves to His rule and His reign in every area of their lives are still God's enemies. And will stand before God one day and face Him in judgment, having their own bodies torn for their own sake. And so when we as Christians work on this meal, we consider it.

What's going on here? We ought not to think of it as a small, little thing that's gone on into this world to save sinners, to take the wrath that was ours upon himself. And so you and I, if you're a Christian, ought to look on this meal and think, what mercy and what kindness that the Son of God will come into this world and take our sins away. That's what this meal represents to us. And so if you're a Christian and you go, I know my sins. I love Jesus Christ, but not perfectly. then this meal is for you, provided that you don't continue to say, and I will not repent. Now, none of us say out loud very often, I will not repent of that sin. You can't make me. But the scripture calls us, and I'm going to read it in just a second, the scripture calls us to examine ourselves and to see if we are loving Jesus Christ and living in obedience to his word. And so as we examine ourselves and consider our ways and the things that we've said and the things that we've done, it ought to be you.

commonplace that we see our sins and that we see our need of Jesus Christ. We haven't done what we ought to have done. And so the question that we must answer is, are we sorry for our sins? Are you sorry for your sins? Do you want to be free from them? Jesus will free you from your sins and give you the bounty that you owe to God for. Do you want to be free from them? Or do you just want the guilt of them to go away? Do you just want the unrest in your conscience to subside? I'm asking, he's asking, do you want to be free from your sins? This meal is for those who have sinned and want to be free of them. If you're a Christian and you sin, if you want to be free of them, then partake of this meal and believe what Jesus said, that he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood will have eternal life. And that's what this meal is for, and that's what this meal is about. We don't often get to talk about it at length, and even today we're not getting to.

the way we ought to. But in this meal, in just this short time, we see we need cleansing, and we need healing, and we need to be made. And that is precisely what God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to the world to do through us. And as we partake of this meal together, we proclaim His death, the penalty for our sins being paid and satisfied through His death on the cross. He's been raised from the dead. He's ascended into heaven, and he sits at the right hand of his Father, interceding for us and pleading for us as he prepares a place for us. Come back to one day as a welcome guest. And so as you partake of this meal, I want you to consider the ways you sinned and the great mercy of God that comes to you represented in this meal, that your sins might be forgiven, and that you might have life through the blood of Jesus Christ. Let's read now from 1 Corinthians chapter 11, where Paul speaks of this meal.

He says, For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you. And the Lord Jesus, in the night in which he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. In the same way, he took the cup also after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread. For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself, if he does not judge the body rightly. For this reason, many among you are weak and sick and in unworthiness. Let us pray. Father, none of us have a claim or a right to stand before you and to lift our eyes up.

Father, we've sinned against you in this past week, even today. We've had wicked thoughts, spoken wicked words, committed evil acts, all of which deserve your wrath and all of which you've promised to forgive for your sons and your daughters. Father, we pray that you would forgive us of our sins. That you would use this meal to nourish and strengthen our souls. We pray that you would confirm in our hearts and in our minds. Our need of Jesus Christ. And our love for him. As you send him into this world to save us. Please give us strength to make us holy. Please protect us from going astray. And please forgive us for the many ways that we fail. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.