Acknowledge Christ Before Men
Notes
Transcript
Opening Illustration
Opening Illustration
A young man got up to give his testimony for Christ at a tent meeting.
He was not very accustomed to speaking in public, and he stumbled over his words quite a bit.
An atheist in the back of the crowd yelled,
“You should be ashamed of yourself, standing up there and talking like that!”
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The young man yelled back,
“I AM ASHAMED of MYSELF.
But I am NOT ashamed of Christ!”
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Beloved, that boldness...
That boldness declared with a trembling voice...
That boldness to proclaim Christ unashamed...
That unashamed proclamation of Christ...
That will be the where we start our message today...
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So, please turn your Bibles to the Gospel of Luke.
We will conduct our study in Chapter 12 and focus on verses 8 through 12.
Our message this morning is titled, “Acknowledge Christ Before Men”
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As you are turning to our passage...
Keep this in mind...
The message today will also focus on the source of our boldness...
The source of the power in the believer...
The Holy Spirit.
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So, this morning we will cover three main points:
1) The Confession of Christ
2) The Warning of Blasphemy
And...
3) The Promise of the Holy Spirit
Opening Prayer
Opening Prayer
Before we consider our text, please join me in prayer...
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Heavenly Father...
You are the One in whom we adore...
Oh Holy One...
Our words fail to give You the proper worship you deserve.
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Help us to better fallow Your statutes...
Hep us to better understand Your Word...
And help us to better love You.
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Thank You for including us in Your perfect plan for salvation...
Thank You for sending Your Son to save us...
And thank You for sending us our Helper the Holy Spirit...
He is constantly pointing us to the truth of Jesus Christ.
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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
8 “And I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man also will acknowledge before the angels of God,
9 but the one who denies me before men will be denied before the angels of God.
10 And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but the one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.
11 And when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious about how you should defend yourself or what you should say,
12 for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.”
So, let’s look at our first point...
1) The Confession of Christ
1) The Confession of Christ
Verses 8-9: “And I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man also will acknowledge before the angels of God, but the one who denies me before men will be denied before the angels of God.
In order to best understand our passage...
We need to go back and recall what we covered the last two times we were in our study on the Gospel of Luke.
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So, look with me at the beginning of Chapter 12...
Look with me at Luke 12:1-3 which says:
1 In the meantime, when so many thousands of the people had gathered together that they were trampling one another, he began to say to his disciples first, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.
2 Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known.
3 Therefore whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed on the housetops.
So, Jesus starts off by giving a warning of the Pharisees...
The same group that He delivered woes to earlier....
Jesus’ point was to show that what the religious elite believed and practiced was contrary to what Scripture said...
The Pharisees may have appeared to be righteous but they where truly hypocrites...
And inside they were rotten to the core.
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Next, we covered Luke 12:4-7 which says:
4 “I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do.
5 But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him!
6 Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God.
7 Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows.
The focus here is on the Heavenly Father...
And how we should not fear men or Satan...
But instead we should fear God...
And the fear of God is to be in awe of God...
For He truly loves us and cares for us.
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Now, after that brief review...
We find ourselves at our passage for today...
And the focus in our opening verses is on the Son of God, Jesus...
Specifically, on those who acknowledge Him...
And those who deny Him.
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As Jesus says, the ones “who acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man also will acknowledge before the angels of God.”
As the New American Commentary on Luke says:
“It involves a witness of both word and deed, i.e., this public confession is to be accompanied by a life of obedience to God’s commandments.
The Pharisees were criticized because their inner selves did not correspond to their outer profession.
In contrast believers are challenged to integrate their outer and inner selves.”
As Romans 10:9–10 says:
9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
True and genuine faith always comes in the form of an intellectual understanding of who Jesus is...
And a heart knowledge of Jesus seen in the act of total surrender of one’s will and desire to Christ.
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Jesus also says that the ones “who denies me before men will be denied before the angels of God.”
Now, this describes denial being described here is a soul-damning denial of Christ...
So this is not to be confused with the sort of temporary wavering that Peter was guilty of...
The denial being described here is the one in which those who through fear, shame, neglect, delay, or love of the world reject all evidence and revelation...
And they foolishly decline to confess Christ as Savior and King, until it is too late...
This also pertains to those who only declare Jesus with their lips but don’t really believe in Jesus with their hearts...
As Matthew 7:21–23 says:
21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’
23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
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So, people have two options...
To accept Jesus or reject Him...
And there is no neutral position...
For to not accepts Jesus is to reject Him!
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Next, Jesus, after talking about the Father....
And after talking about Himself...
Now talks about the third person of the Trinity...
The Holy Spirit...
And this takes us to our second point.
2) The Warning of Blasphemy
2) The Warning of Blasphemy
Verse 10: And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but the one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.
Beloved, this statement of Jesus is one of the most shocking for it is talking about the unforgivable sin...
And for many this has caused them much stress and anxiety...
For they have this fear that they may have commited this sin and not even realized it...
In fact, many are confused about what is the unforgivable sin or the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.
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Well, let’s start by looking at the Gospel of Mark in which the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is also mentioned...
First, look with me at Mark 3:28-30 which says:
28 “Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the children of man, and whatever blasphemies they utter,
29 but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”—
30 for they were saying, “He has an unclean spirit.”
The word “for” is such an important word to pay attention to Beloved...
The reason for this is that the words following the “for” is the answer to the words stated before before the word “for.”
So, Jesus warning about the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit had to do with the religious elite saying that Jesus had a demon...
And that can be found recorded in Mark 3:22 which says:
22 And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “by the prince of demons he casts out the demons.”
So, the unforgivable sin that Jesus was confronting was the religious elite’s deliberate rejection of that which they knew to be of God.
They could not deny the reality of what the Holy Spirit had done through Him, so they attributed to Satan a work that they knew was of God.
The Pharisees and Scribes had a hardened attitude toward God...
They had an unrelenting opposition to what Jesus was doing through His Spirit in leading individuals to faith...
And the one’s who were guilty of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit where the ones who would be unrepentant until the end.
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You see Beloved, someone never exposed to Christ’s divine power and presence might reject Him in ignorance and be forgiven...
This is of course assuming the unbelief gives way to genuine repentance...
In fact, even a Pharisee such as Saul of Tarsus could be forgiven for speaking against Jesus or persecuting His followers...
The reason for this is that his unbelief stemmed from ignorance...
However, those who know that Jesus’ claims are true and reject Him anyway are guilty of the sin “against the Holy Spirit.”
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You see, the Holy Spirit is the one who testifies of Christ and makes His truth known to us...
That is the main role of the Holt Spirit.
But, no forgiveness was possible for these Pharisees who witnessed Jesus’ miracles firsthand for they knew the truth of His claims...
Yet, despite this, they still blasphemed the Holy Spirit...
That means they had rejected the fullest possible revelation they could have...
That is in line with Satan’s rebellion against God...
Satan knows God is good and who God is...
But he still rejects him.
So, this was not a sin of ignorance...
The unforgivable sin is a deliberate, willful, settled hostility toward Christ.
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I like how the ESV Study Bible puts it:
“But blasphemy against the Holy Spirit—that is, the persistent and unrepentant resistance against the work of the Holy Spirit and his message concerning Jesus—this, Jesus says, will not be forgiven.
The person who persists in hardening his heart against God, against the work of the Holy Spirit, and against the provision of Christ as Savior, is outside the reach of God’s provision for forgiveness and salvation.
Christians often worry that they have committed this sin, but such a concern is itself evidence of an openness to the work of the Spirit.”
So, let me put some of you at ease...
If you have fear that you commited the unforgivable sin then that fear is proof you did not...
For the one who commits the unforgivable sin is not open to the Holy Spirit at all.
You see, one may reject Christ and later, by God’s grace, accept him...
But there is no remedy for absolute and complete denial of the one holy God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Theologian Darrell L. Bock put it this way:
“The difference between blaspheming the Son of Man and blaspheming the Spirit is that blasphemy of the Son of Man is an instant rejection, while blasphemy of the Spirit is a permanent decision of rejection.”
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Beloved, consider what Hebrews 6:4–6 says:
4 For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit,
5 and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come,
6 and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.
For believers...
Before we were saved...
We were lost and did not know God...
Then in God’s timing, when He revealed Himself to us, we believed.
However, those who have been enlighten to know the truth and still refuse to surrender have no hope for there is no more revelation to give them...
And they will continue in their rebellion until the end.
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Again, Hebrews is helpful in our understanding of this...
Just take a look with me at Hebrews 10:26–31 which says:
26 For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,
27 but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.
28 Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses.
29 How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace?
30 For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.”
31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
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Now, after that warning...
Jesus ends this section with an encouraging word for those who follow the Lord...
And this takes us to our third and final point.
3) The Promise of the Holy Spirit
3) The Promise of the Holy Spirit
Verses 11-12: And when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious about how you should defend yourself or what you should say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.”
Beloved, this statement here is regarding the times believers find themselves under persecution...
Although the persecution they experience may be terrifying, Christians are not to be anxious in anticipation of those events.
Rather than being fearful as we discussed last week...
Believers are to remain calm and depend on the Holy Spirit in challenging times...
For He will give them the appropriate and effective words to say in defense of their faith in Christ.
Remember what Jesus said in John 16:13:
13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.
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In fact, Acts records fulfillments of this promise of the Holy Spirit giving believers the appropriate and effective words to say in defense of their faith in Christ...
Just take a look with me when Peter and John are “filled with the Holy Spirit” to testify about Jesus to the Sanhedrin as recorded in Acts 4:8 which says:
8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders,
Additionally, take a look at how the whole church, in response to the Sanhedrin’s threats, prays for boldness to speak God’s word as found in Acts 4:29–31 which says:
29 And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness,
30 while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”
31 And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.
Finally, look with me at what happened with Stephen, the first Christian Martyr...
Look with me at Acts 6:8–10 which says:
8 And Stephen, full of grace and power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people.
9 Then some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called), and of the Cyrenians, and of the Alexandrians, and of those from Cilicia and Asia, rose up and disputed with Stephen.
10 But they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking.
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Now I would like to add that the circumstance of the Holy Spirit’s speaking through believers is not regarding preaching or a teaching setting...
We are called to study and meditate on the Word of God and be prepared to share God’s truth with others with proper preparations...
However, what Jesus is talking about is a situation where due to persecution, preparation of an adequate defense is hardly possible...
But we are not to fret for the Holy Spirit will help us with what to say during those times.
Additionally, the Pillar New Testament Commentary on Luke says:
“The use of ‘synagogues’ combined with ‘rulers and authorities’ implies that Jesus is preparing disciples for both Jewish and Gentile opposition.
The testimony of the Holy Spirit is not something for which one can prepare, but something that comes upon those who bear witness in faith ‘at the very moment’ it is needed.”
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This brings to mind the truth found in Matthew 10:16-25 which says:
16 “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.
17 Beware of men, for they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in their synagogues,
18 and you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them and the Gentiles.
19 When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour.
20 For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.
21 Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death,
22 and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.
23 When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next, for truly, I say to you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.
24 “A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master.
25 It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household.
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So Beloved, in the face of growing persecution...
If you find yourselves confronted by those who would do harm to you due to your faith in Christ...
Know that the Holy Spirit will be with you guiding your words...
And He will give you comfort...
For He is the Comforter.
Closing Illustration
Closing Illustration
So, as this message comes to a close...
I would like you to consider this:
There was a teenager who didn’t want to be seen in public with her mother, because her mother’s arms were terribly disfigured.
One day when her mother took her shopping and reached out her hand, a clerk looked horrified.
Later, crying, the girl told her how embarrassed she was.
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Understandably hurt, the mother waited an hour before going to her daughter’s room to tell her, for the first time, what happened.
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“When you were a baby, I woke up to a burning house.
Your room was an inferno. Flames were everywhere.
I could have gotten out the front door, but I decided I’d rather die with you than leave you to die alone.
I ran through the fire and wrapped my arms around you.
Then I went back through the flames, my arms on fire.
When I got outside on the lawn, the pain was agonizing but when I looked at you, all I could do was rejoice that the flames hadn’t touched you.”
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Stunned, the girl looked at her mother through new eyes.
Weeping in shame and gratitude, she kissed her mother’s marred hands and arms.
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Some in our day are ashamed of Christ...
They are uncomfortable due to His teaching and His commands...
They are uncomfortable because they conflict with our societies “new” standards...
But when one really believes and understand the cost that Jesus paid for us on the cross on Calvary...
Then they will be unashamed of Christ and the Gospel message...
And they will appreciate Christ’s completed work when He was hung in a tree like a wicked criminal...
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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 1 Corinthians 10:16–17:
16 The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?
17 Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.
As Pastor Dave Zuleger said in an article on the Desiring God website:
“We often talk about our ‘walks’ with the Lord, but when was the last time we sat down and ate a meal with him?
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In the ancient Jewish Passover meal, the third cup was called the ‘cup of blessing.’
That was the part of the meal that Jesus radically transformed into what we call ‘the Lord’s Supper.’
Instead of remembering the time God had spared all the firstborn of Israel with blood on their doorposts to escape from Egypt, now Jesus’s disciples would celebrate the body of Jesus broken for them, and the blood of Jesus spilled for them, to escape the wrath of God.
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The apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10:16 that when we partake of the bread and of the cup, we ‘fellowship’ with our Savior (the word for ‘participation’ in verses 16 and 17 is the word for ‘fellowship’ elsewhere).
In other words, we participate with Jesus spiritually at his Table.
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This is key:
We are not merely remembering Jesus when we come to his Table; we are eating with him.
Though remembering him remains significant, more is happening than that.
Jesus himself is present by the Spirit.
As we eat and drink, we eat and drink with him, and renew ourselves spiritually through him.
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At his Table, we do not eat and drink the physical body of Christ, but we do eat and drink of him spiritually.
By this we mean that the gospel — which has been completed once for all as a saving grace — is applied in fresh ways as we gather at the Table.
Jesus himself meets with us as his blood-bought body of believers to help us fix our eyes on him and fight sin and treasure him, by the power of his Spirit.
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God invites us to this meal.
In 1 Corinthians 1:9, we see this same word for participation used for the first time in this letter:
9 God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
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Our intimacy with Christ comes from our calling by God.
One of the ways we fellowship with Christ in spectacular intimacy happens at the Lord’s Table.
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Jesus meets with us, and among us, as we come to this ‘fellowship in the blood of Christ.’
Communion is a holy moment for the church when we not only acknowledge our sin and unworthiness, but then also fellowship with Jesus as we ask him to help us live for the glory of the Father.
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In this holy meal, we recognize that there is one bread, and that we who are many are one body as we all partake from this one bread.
This is a family meal.
Christ has taken us all in — in all our diversity, in all our stories, in all our sinfulness, in all of our sufferings.
Because there is only one true bread from heaven, all who believe in him are one body, eating and drinking spiritually from one great shared hope.”
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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...
Then please open them up to Your saving message which is exclusively found in the Word of God.
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I appeal to Your Name’s sake!
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For those hearing this message who already know You...
Help us to always remember that we have the Holy Spirit living in us and who is always helping us.
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Again, I appeal to Your Name’s sake!
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It is in Jesus’s name we pray all these things...
To God be all the glory.
Amen.
