In today’s sermon, Pastor Babij teaches how Jesus is the living embodiment of the Passover meal and how Jesus transformed the Passover into the Lord’s Supper. Pastor Babij then teaches how the Last Supper is a new Exodus brought about through Jesus’ death and resurrection. Pastor Babij ends by exhorting all believers to always approach the Lord’s Supper solemnly and joyfully, eagerly anticipating the day when believers will physically dine with the Lord.
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okay let’s take our bibles this morning and turn to the gospel of mark chapter 14.
and this morning we’ll be looking at verse 22.
probably to verse 26 even though i said verse 31.
mark chapter 14 verse 22.
as you’re turning there let me have a word prayer let’s pray lord this morning as we meet today and as we break open the word of god i pray lord that you would show us the things that you want us to see the things that are most important for our life and i pray lord that we would be able to um live them out and i thank you lord for the great sacrifice that you accomplished and completed on our behalf for all those who have called upon you as the lord and savior you truly are their savior and lord and i pray lord that you would just just show us this morning the things that are important on your heart so it would be important in our life and i pray in christ’s name amen so last again last time that i we were looking at this text we are in the passion week we’re looking very um we’re going to look very quickly at the sufferings of jesus christ where he eventually will go to the cross and of course at this time in jerusalem and as the surrounding areas of israel there’s many many different opinions about jesus uh there’s many responses to jesus some of unbelief some of hatred some of wonder some of confusion and many other things but as we think about that we have to realize that there are many different opinions separated from that time however in scripture jesus didn’t leave us with many options as to who he is he does not allow us to think that he was just a good teacher or a person who had a moral character and should be a moral model it was c.s lewis in his book if you haven’t read it you probably should it’s called mere christianity great book he was a cambridge cambridge university professor and he was a former atheist a staunch atheist he observed this unusual mindset that happens when people talk about jesus lewis wrote i am trying here to prevent anyone saying the real foolish thing that people often say about jesus and it’s this i’m ready to accept jesus as a great moral teacher but i don’t accept him his claim to god to be god and he writes louis this is the one thing we must not say a man who was merely a man said and said the sort of things jesus said would not be a moral teacher he would either be a lunatic or on the level with a man who says that he’s a poached egg or else he would be the devil of hell he says you must not make this mistake and you must make your choice either this man was and is the son of god or else a madman or something worse you can’t shut him up for fuel or you can shut him up for a f for being a fool you can spit at him you can even kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him lord and god but let us not come up with any patronizing nonsense about him being a great moral teacher he has not left us with this option he didn’t intend to in scripture and if anybody’s honest with reading scripture you actually have to honestly come away whether you believe it or not saying that there is something very special about jesus christ that he is not just a man he is more than a man he is god you must do that in the honest reading of scripture and especially when scriptures passages like when jesus said to i believe it was um when he said in scripture i’m the way i’m the truth and the life no one comes to the father but through me see that is a very uh specific narrow scripture that tells us what god intends for anyone to be saved or to go into the presence of the father all right so what day are we on in the passion week well we are into thursday of the passion week and in our text and from the text last week jesus unlocks the meaning of his death by connecting it to the feast of unleavened bread and the feast of passover where it says up in verse number 12 on the first day of unleavened bread when the passover lamb was being sacrificed the first of the seven day feast was thursday afternoon as i’ve been saying the 14th of either march or april when the lambs were slaughtered and a year old unblemished male lamb or goat was ritually sacrificed in the temple one lamb for each extended household actually the passover feast and the eating of the passover lamb were to be celebrated by the jews the meal the meals were to be eaten in family gatherings in private homes and families removed all the leaven or the yeast from their homes and the women would prepare herbs and wine and unleavened bread for the passover meal that evening uh on the twilight of the 14th of march or april and then of course in verse 22 it says while they were eating all right so they were already into the passover meal now this was this is referred to actually as between the fifth and the seventh stage of the passover ceremonial that means the disciples and jesus were well into it into the passover feast and they were nearing its conclusion it was late in the evening and so now certain things are going to take place jesus is going to do something really new with this passover celebration and so let me it’d be probably good for me just to give you a review of the script of the eight stages of the passover meal that was actually that takes place within a jewish family celebrating the passover even today these stages are actually kind of acted out and and yet they’re important to our context because we do know that this is at the end of the passover meal and so here are some of the stages now within the stages the eight stages there are four parts uh there are four cups of wine and there are four promises that are given by god so let me look at the first one i want you to take your bibles quickly and turn to exodus genesis the first book of the bible exodus being the second in our bible genesis chapter 6 and verse number five and it says in verse number five and of course this would be the first stage uh the first page would have a couple parts to it the first one would being that there would be the blessing of the red wine followed by the first cup of wine past and then it would be drunk by everybody all right so the first cup of wine would be the cup of remembrance and it says in verse number five furthermore i have heard the groanings of the sons of israel because of the egyptian because the egyptians are holding them in bondage and i have remembered my covenant so the first thing the lord promises is that i will remember my covenant and then in verse number six it says say therefore to the sons of israel i am the lord and i will bring you out from under the burdens of the egyptians so the first part of verse number six we see that the lord promised them promises that israel likes he’s going to rescue them all right so they would be in this first stage thinking about god rescuing them and god remembering knowing their condition and remembering them and then doing something about it so he promises that he’s going to deliver them all right the second stage would be that the bitter herbs uh called the hazaret and then the fruit would be called the harrow set and the roasted lamb would be brought in and of course the bitter herbs would be usually dipped in salt water to make them even more bitter all right and then of course the bitter herbs dipped in a fruit sauce also was eaten and then a question was asked about the meaning of this particular festival and of course one of the sons probably the oldest son uh would ask the question to his father and the question would simply be what does this right mean what does this feast mean and so that would lead to someone giving the meaning of the passover which would lead to phase or stage number three and if you turn to exodus 12 in verse verse number 26 it tells us in verse 26 and this of course the father would say in verse 26 and when your children say to you what did this what does this right mean to you verse 27 you shall say it is a passover sacrifice to the lord who passed over the houses of the sons of israel in egypt when he smote the egyptians but spared our homes and the people bowed low and worshipped so after the sun’s question it would be explained what was really going on and then of course in chapter 13 verse number 8 again it says you shall tell your son on that day saying it is because of what the lord did for me when i came out of egypt so the stress would be specifically on god remembering them and then of course the lord and the first promise saying i will bring you out from them and then of course the son would ask the question and the father would answer the question and then of course the first cup of wine would be passed around and they would sing part of a psalm psalm actually psalm 113 through psalm 18 it’s called the hillel psalms all right or the praise psalms and they would give praise in all kinds of different ways to the lord about what god had done for them and then it would move in now this is all on the evening remember this is on the evening of a thursday right before the crucifixion of jesus christ this was the lord taking the passover feast and connecting it to the lord’s table all right that’s what he’s doing here and that’s why he picked this occasion because they have similar meanings to it in connections to them all right so then in the fourth stage there would be a second cup of wine that is drunk and that’s back in exodus chapter six the second part of verse six uh it says there in verse six and uh all right so this second cup is also connected with the promise and the promises i will deliver you from bondage that’s freedom from slavery and that would be the slavery that they experienced under pharaoh in egypt all right so that would be the second promise and that would be the fourth stage and then there would be a third part and a fifth stage and this would be when the second cup was actually passed and the unleavened bread is now blessed and broken distributed and eaten eaten with the herbs and fruit at as the father explains the meaning of the bread and the bitter herbs and this and sweet the sweetness is mixed together to provoke a bittersweet remembrance from of slavery and also a freedom of uh and of course all under the hand of god and then at the sixth stage the fifth sixth and seventh stage we see the meal proper that’s when they actually took the roasted lamb and ate it and they were remembered to eat it as a family unit they were to eat it completely they were not to have leftovers and eat it the next day if anything was left over it was to be completely burned all right so the so the people uh had in in their mind that this is this is what god laid down in exodus chapter 12 about how it’s actually going to take place in fact if you’re still there in exodus notice in verse number chapter 12 verse number 3 where it gives the breakdown of this eating in verse 3 of chapter 12 says speak to all the congregation of israel saying on the 10th of this month there are each wolves a lamb for each household then verse 5 your lamb shall be an unblemished male a 1 year old you may you may take it from the sheep or from the goats you shall keep it until the 14th day of the month the same month then the whole assembly of the congregation of israel is to kill it at twilight and verse 7 moreover they shall take some of the blood and put it on the door the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses in which they eat it verse 8 it says they shall eat the flesh that same night roast it with fire and they shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs do not eat any of it raw or boiled at all with water but rather roast it with fire both its head and its legs along with its entrails and you shall not leave any of it over until morning but whatever is left until morning it shall be burned with fire and verse 11 now you shall eat it in this manner with your loins gerd gird it your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand and you shall eat it in haste it is the lord’s passover so from this passage we can’t see the meal was to be eaten until nothing was left and the meal was to be eaten in a hurry with clothes on shoes on staff in hand that means they’re waiting for god’s deliverance to take them out of egypt now it’s amazing after 70 a.d in the destruction of the temple there is no more lambs being slaughtered and eaten but they still do the passover or even the sabbath meals and then the passover they still celebrate this but it there’s no celebration with any roasted lamb at least if someone’s following uh most of the orthodox jews and how they do things today so after the father blesses the third cup the family sings part of again a hymn from psalm 115 to 118 and then of course a third cup of wine is past and that is the cup of redemption and of course back in exodus chapter 6 verse 6 there’s another promise connected to that and the promise is this i will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments so the lord promises them redemption by god’s design god’s going to redeem them by his own power and by his promises as i will redeem so the third cup is really the cup of redemption the cup of salvation the cup of deliverance all right and this was done very near midnight so it’s very late in the evening and it’s midnight all right so there was a fourth part and an eighth stage to this festival to this passover meal and there would be one final fourth cup of wine that was to be passed around and drunk and of course then they were again to sing a final hymn and from psalm 6 116 to 118 and they were to then depart after that and so this fourth cup would be called the cup of acceptance uh in exodus chapter 6 verse 7 it says then i will take you for my people and i will be your god and you shall know that i am the lord your god who brought you out from under the burdens of the egyptians and so the fourth promise would be i will take you for my people and i will be your god so this uh this new renewed relationship with god is promised in that fourth cup and that would be the end of the festival now let’s turn back to mark now why do i say all that because jesus in his preparing the lord’s table does something very very unusual in the gospel of mark chapter 14 verse 22.
it is at this point it is at stage between stage five and seven that jesus in this uh passover ceremonial that jesus did something and it says in verse 22 while they were eating this is what he did in verse 22 he took some bread and after a blessing he broke it and gave it to them so of course this is very unusual this has never happened before and then so jesus actually transformed this last this is called the last supper because it was the last old testament passover that actually had a lamb eaten at it all right this last passover supper was translated into the new lord’s supper also referred to in scripture as the lord’s table communion the cup of blessing the cup of the breaking of the bread all these things are different places in scripture it’s used in different ways they’re set in different ways so this last supper becomes a new exodus for the people of god and that’s what we find here in this passage of scripture verse number 22 so jesus interprets the elements to show his coming death as the new exodus so jesus himself was presiding over the passover feast and it was jesus himself who gave out the elements to his disciples the first element he passed out was while they were eating he took some bread so jesus does something that again is entirely unusual and new and this new act is also eating and drinking but the meal elements were only bread and wine there was no lamb in jesus formula and of course the reason why there is no roasted lamb of an animal is because in jesus main course the reason why there’s no lamb on the table before him is because jesus is the lamb of god in a sense he was on the table and he was presenting his body in that way so the first element that he presents is the unleavened bread remember unleavened or leavened indicates the spreading of evil and corruption and symbolizing the the evil influence of sin now when referring to jesus christ the lamb of god unleavened bread was represented of jesus sinless pure spotless life and body in other words jesus as the scripture says was without sin he was the unblemished lamb of the passover but now he was a man not an animal of course there’s no animals being offered anymore so the bread that we partake of in the lord’s table once represented exodus and the people being delivered out of the slavery of exodus now represents the body of jesus christ the messiah so the the new exodus is through his death he brings deliverance from sins condemnation its curse its bondage and redemption provides for us a standing before god that is without sin or unleavened when we are standing before god in christ god does no no longer sees our sin and the condemnation that sin is that should be upon us but he sees that jesus christ took the condemnation so jesus christ being the perfect unblemished lamb of god is our substitute in place so god sees us as unleavened as clean as without sin with no condemnation so by taking the bread and adding in verse number 22 take it this is my body jesus completely departs from the script of the regular passover meal and jesus says this is the bread of my affliction we got everything together and we were righteous he died to us while we were yet sinning and in our sinful condition the sin that was passed on to us from adam and the sins that we committed on our own jesus died for the unholy and the ungodly that’s what he died for and that’s you and i so the disciples were to take take it jesus said this is my body and that means they as well as us today are to take in the death of christ for ourselves and to appropriate it personally to in other words to feed on him in your hearts of faith see this is the real food indeed and it’s this that christ’s unconditional commitment is toward all who believe he is committed to what he has done no one can reverse salvation salvation is eternal and so in mark in verse number 23 the next element that comes up of course is the fruit of the vine all right it says in verse 23 and when he had taken a cup and given thanks he gave it to them and they all drank from it so jesus of course passes the third cup of wine in this seventh stage the sixth and seventh stage and so remember this cup of wine that we drink at the lord’s table is the third cup it is the of course the this third cup has become the lord’s cup and that is the one we drink at the lord’s table and the third cup has become the cup of communion or the cup again of redemption that jesus saves us it’s a reminder of of jesus saving us that his his body and of course his blood are the things that become our the man becomes our substitute and saves us so jesus took the cup and blessed it and instead of this cup representing the blood of an unblemished lamb it now represents his blood the blood of the lamb of god and so mark writes in verse number 24 and he said to them this is my blood of the covenant which is poured out for many in fact luke says it like this in the same way he took the cup after they had eaten saying this cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood so at the passover meal when the jews celebrated it this cup of this third cup of redemption was drunk and the only way for a family to escape was to put their faith in god’s sacrificial provision that was the animal the lamb the goat you had to slay the animal and put the blood on the door as a sign of faith in god and when justice came down either it fell on your family or you took shelter under the substitute under the blood of the lamb if you did accept this shelter then then death passed over you you were saved only on the basis of faith in the substitutionary sacrifice so now the cup at the lord’s table that have represented the lamb’s blood smeared on the doorpost and the lentils now came to represent the blood of the lamb of god shed for the salvation of lost sinners that his blood not just providing a covering but a total washing away a wiping away of all sin forever on our account the father sees the righteousness of christ on our account he sees the blood of christ over our hearts and so that no condemnation could come upon that person because of that and so and so then again it’s only christianity true christianity that follows the bible that will provide real salvation for people there’s no other place to find it except in christ jesus because there’s no other sacrifice for sin except christ jesus right so if you don’t come through him it doesn’t matter how good you are in your lifestyle it doesn’t matter how moral you are or anyone else is doesn’t matter what you’ve done by way of good works if you have not believed in jesus christ then you your his blood is not covering you and he’s not your substitute therefore you have to pay for your own sin and you have to pay for that sin eternally in a place called hell all right that’s that’s the gospel uh in scripture and there’s no way to escape that and so we see how special jesus is that the bread and the wine which is eaten reminds us that our salvation is achieved through christ’s death alone and then of course his resurrection secures our salvation for all eternity because in in the resurrection the father accepts jesus sacrifice on the cross if he didn’t accept it we we couldn’t be saved even even though he died but he did accept it because it was done according to scripture and according to the will of god so therefore that the passover was transformed into the lord’s supper or the lord’s table so it is a meal in a sense now what is interesting is that jesus does not in the eight stages that i mention he does not drink the fourth cup and this is what he says look in our text in verse number 24.
he said and this is and he said to them this is the blood my blood of the covenant which is poured out for many in verse 26 and verse 20 excuse me what did i say verse 24 in verse 25 he says truly i say to you i will never again drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when i drink it new in the kingdom of god so the lord promised that he would accept people and he does but there’s an already not yet theological concept here that the context of the passover was all important because it would be here in this event that jesus reveals himself as the passover lamb that is sacrificed which through his death he will inaugurate a new covenant in his own blood and that’s what he does and as a result jesus substitutionary sacrifice because he has done this there is now a new covenant between god and us and the new covenant makes us fit to approach god and to come into his presence and to live with him eternally jesus refers to the cup of wine this cup of the new covenant in my blood and so doing he alludes to the blood of the old covenant found in exodus 24 when the sinai covenant had been agreed upon by the people and moses then took the blood of the burnt offerings and the peace offerings and threw it on the people he threw the blood on the people so we come to a book like hebrews which has a an incredible connection and explanation of the old testament and we find passages of scripture like in hebrews chapter 9 verse 18 through 20 where it says of the old covenant therefore even the first covenant that’s the old covenant is not inaugurated without blood so even in the old covenant when it was given through moses it had to be ratified that covenant or made uh complete by the shedding of blood for it says this in hebrews for when every commandment had been spoken by moses to all the people according to the law he took the blood of the calves and the goats with water and scarlet wool and hyssop and sprinkled both the book itself of the law and all the people saying this this is the blood of the covenant which god commanded you so the sprinkling of the blood was a ratification of the covenant in which israel entered with jehovah at sinai the was true and it was binding so the the blood of calves and goats made people fit to approach god in the old testament but the blood of slain beasts in a very real way is valueless it only has value because it re represented the blood of christ it represented what would come in the future that means if jesus did not die on the cross all those old testament types and pictures of all those sacrifices would mean nothing they would mean nothing see so jesus brings it all together and like it says in the book of hebrews again chapter 10 verse 4 for it is impossible but it is not impossible for sin to be taken away if the lamb of god takes away that sin and dies in the place of sinners so god makes a a new covenant with us and of course that covenant is found in the book of jeremiah it is a promise by god that uh he would replace the old with the new and if just by you know just listen to what it says in the covenant it says behold in jeremiah 31 behold days are coming declares the lord when i will make a new covenant with the house of israel with the house of judah not like the covenant which i made with their fathers in the day i took them from by the hannah to bring them out of the land of egypt my covenant which they broke although i was a husband to them declares the lord but this is the covenant which i will make with the house of israel after those days declares the lord i will put my law within them and on their heart i will write it and i will be their god and they shall be my people and they shall not teach again each man his neighbor and each man his brother saying know the lord for they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest of them declares the lord for i will forgive their iniquity and their sin i will remember no more so the lord again in that new covenant says something very uh he gives a promise he says this is what he’s going to do and he really brings it to the place where he he’s heading towards this understanding of the fourth cup that you will be my people and i will be your god see that’s the connection to that last particular cubs so something was missing though in jeremiah’s account of the new covenant and what was missing there was the ratifying blood when jeremiah wrote six long centuries later jesus in an upper room foretells his own death and he hands his disciples the cup of remembrance or redemption the third cup and says in mark chapter 14 verse 24 for this is my blood of the covenant which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sin so this is what was missing jesus blood confirmed the new covenant promise that it is true and binding to all who believe so this really led to forgiveness for the cancellation of sin and the acceptance of the sinner before god and again hebrews tells us in chapter 9 verse 22 and according to the law one may almost say all things are cleansed with blood and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness no one can come into the presence of god without a blood sacrifice no one without being consumed and destroyed without being sent away from him no one could do that there’s no man living ever who could ever do that and of course hebrews 10 chapter 10 verse 9 and 10 says and he said behold i have come to do thy will he takes away the first that’s the first covenant and he establishes the second and then it says this by this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of jesus christ once for all so in other words the old covenant based on the mosaic law brought condemnation it could not save us it could only tell us what god requires for a person to approach god so they weren’t wouldn’t be destroyed and judged and of course the new covenant based on jesus blood frees from all condemnation in other words the new exodus we are delivered out from under the condemnation and the bondage and the slavery of sin and set free in christ jesus so never again could could we brought be brought under that bondage so jesus again departs from the script in our gospel of mark on in the passover feast by making an oath an oath meant you were making a covenant and notice the oath is how the oath is communicated again in verse number 25 truly i say to you i will never again drink the fruit of the vine until that day i drink it new in the kingdom of god so an oath remember was taken in the in the old testament in especially in these contexts very seriously um and it was literally these oats that people took were literally marked by blood in fact this covenant was established uh and sealed by killing an animal when somebody made an oath in the old testament by killing an animal cutting it in half and then you would lay the animal parts side by side but enough to walk through them and they would cut the animal in half of course the blood would be coming out and of course they would walk through the animals that were cut in half while they are actually stating their oath of promise so this action communicated a solemn relationship we uh of of obligation between the person making the promise and the other party it was binding if you didn’t fulfill the promise then of course it would be like saying cut me in half like these animals and kill me because i did not keep the promise so in in the a very real sense jesus is make when he makes a covenant it is a binding covenant this covenant is what his is with his blood if he does not if he does not deliver on his covenant then in a sense jesus saying then i should be cut in half and removed because i didn’t keep my promise but we know that didn’t happen and that won’t happen because he’s god right so he keeps his promise so see the picture should be very uh vivid in our mind that when god says something that that he’s going to do something he definitely will keep his promise and so what i’ve been saying here about this fourth cup is that as followers of christ we are awaiting a day when we will be in the very presence of our lord jesus christ in the father’s kingdom drinking the fourth cup and that is the full cup of full assurance and acceptance by god both in promise and then while we’re there in reality god has promised it to us but someday it will be a reality that’s why that’s why it’s already given to us we are accepted in the blood beloved but we have father’s kingdom uh and sits there sit there at peace with god accepted by god and that’s where god says i will be your god and you will be my people and no one would would be able to change that or destroy that that will be a reality so that’s the promise that we have we have the promise that the the lord’s table is really this uh commemoration and proclamation of his death until he comes and until we someday drink the fruit of the vine at the meal at a piecemeal with jesus and the father in the kingdom of god that’s the promise that we have and god has to keep that promise of course until that time we are to have us uh really as we look at ourselves we are to proceed to the lord’s table with a solemn self-examination of ourself about what’s going on in our life as we are living for the lord and then it also should be a celebration because it is a picture again of sitting down having a meal with our lord in whom we remain in peaceful fellowship now and forever nothing nothing can separate us from the love of god in christ jesus nothing can separate us god has completely protected us and he has done it by his death and his shed blood no one could get at us no one that shows the love of god towards us and i was reading that um there was one time a forest fire in the yellowstone national park and the forest rangers after the fire have to go up and make a evaluation of what took place some of the rangers began to trek up the mountain and survey the damage and one ranger found a bird of which nothing was left but a carbonized petrified shell covered with ash huddled at the base of a tree somewhat somewhat thickened by the eerie sight that angel ranger knocked the bird over with a stick and three little chicks scurried out of the hole from under the dead mother’s wings you know when the blaze instead of running and because she had been willing to die those under the cover of her wings actually lived so all real life-changing love is costly especially the love of the sacra of the substitutionary sacrifice of the lamb of god jesus christ so because jesus the lamb of god has sacr has been sacrificed in our place and has taken our condemnation and has covered us with his blood in his death so that we can be set free so that we can live so we can be protected forever is a i think a fitting illustration of what he’s done you know and just recently my son joshua just relayed a situation where he recently had to be in the dmv of the motor vehicles in virginia he says where the waiting times are notoriously long and this one man after sitting for quite a long period of time finally got up jumped to his feet and said finally can anyone give me an amen because he was waiting for such a long time now i thought well if that man can call for an amen with in such a trivial situation how much more should we call for an amen from or i should call for an amen from all god’s people so can i call to you for an amen for these great truths that’s been given to us and that we celebrate every first week of the month and set that time aside i don’t ever want the lord’s table to become just something you do and don’t think about i don’t want that to happen i really don’t and it can it happen has it happened yes it has but don’t let it happen all right because when we come together it is a very serious thing remember the lord only left us two ordinances baptism which you do once right all right if you get it right and then secondly uh the lord’s table that’s it so if he left us those two things that we must teach them take them very seriously and treat them with the utmost respect and holiness because that’s what the lord intended because that’s what he left us to never forget the essential elements that saved your soul for eternity and that someday we have a promise that the lord is still going to fellowship with us and be our god and we’re going to be his people and we’re not going to have all this trouble that we have in these bodies and in this world all that will be gone and we’ll be there praising god worshiping god and doing everything else the lord wants us to do and it’s going to be without sin without distraction without weaknesses without you know failing health without death no none of those things will be there and so that’s going to be a time that we all look forward to as believers and all god’s people did say what what all right let’s pray lord thank you for your kindness to us lord your the word of god is is just so uh incredible as we break it apart and see it’s how it relates to us and and lord how how compassionate your heart is towards us how long suffering and patient you are with us and lord to the extent that you went for us so we can be saved i pray lord that we never take that lightly that it would be such a serious and sober matter in our minds that when we do prepare ourselves for the lord’s table that we actually would prepare before we got here and make ourselves ready and not be absent from it for some trivial worldly thing or fleshly but lord make sure we’re there present examined ready not only to as a solemn ceremony but as a celebration that we have something to look forward to that no one else has except the children of god and i pray lord others would see that someday who don’t know you yet i pray family members that we’re praying for neighbors that we’re talking to co-workers i pray lord that they too may come to see what you allowed us to see and know and that they too may come worship you the way they ought to that they would believe in jesus so they can have the blood applied to their hearts and consciences and be purified and clean and have entry way into your kingdom i pray that for them and for lord for us let us always be in the state of of saying amen in a very uh sobering way thank you lord we we praise your name this morning and we want to live for you and i ask it in christ’s name amen