Luke #36: Lost and Found (Luke 15)
Notes
Transcript
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B: Luke 15:1-32
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Welcome
Welcome
Bye, kids!
Good morning! I’m Bill Connors, senior pastor here with Eastern Hills, and I’m blessed to be here this morning as the church gathers together to worship the Lord and to reflect on His Word. I pray that this time is a blessing to you as well, but more than anything, I pray that our joining together today brings honor and glory to God, and points us to Him. I wanted to take a moment this morning and say thanks to the adults that volunteer so faithful in our Student Ministry. As a former youth pastor, I know the importance of having godly, caring, consistent adults who serve with the students. Students: you should thank those adults when you get the chance.
If you’re visiting with us for the first time today, I hope that you’ve already discovered that Eastern Hills is loving, friendly, supportive, and encouraging church body. We invite you, if you are a guest with us today, to fill out a communication card, which you’ll find in the back of the pew in front of you. Then you can drop that in the offering boxes by the doors on your way out after service, or you can bring them down to me at the front following our benediction at the end, as I would love to meet you and give you a small gift to thank you for your visit with us today. If you’re online, and visiting with us today, feel free to head over to our website ehbc.org, and fill out the communication card on the “I’m New” page. Whether you’re here in the room or online, we just want to be able to send you a note thanking you for your visit today, and to see if we can pray for you or minister to you in some way.
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Opening
Opening
Last week, I mentioned at the beginning of my sermon that preaching through a book like the Gospel of Luke can be a struggle in knowing how much or how little to preach. For my message this morning, it was easy to know how much to preach: I’m preaching the whole 15th chapter, because it fits together so well. But also, an interesting struggle with preaching through a whole book is if you’ve done a mini-series from a section of that book before. I actually preached through this chapter a couple of years ago, and I broke it up into four messages, which I called “The Lost Parables of Jesus.” They are the oldest sermons that you can currently see on our website, because it was just before this series that we changed website and streaming providers. I went into much great depth with each than I’ll be doing today, so if you’d like to go check them out, please do. I’ll be taking a somewhat different approach this morning from what I did then, and I promise that each point today will not be a whole sermon in length!
So if you would please, open your Bibles or your Bible apps to the Gospel of Luke, chapter 15, and stand as you are able in honor of God’s Word as I read the 15th chapter. Feel free to sit down if you need to as I read.
1 All the tax collectors and sinners were approaching to listen to him. 2 And the Pharisees and scribes were complaining, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” 3 So he told them this parable: 4 “What man among you, who has a hundred sheep and loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open field and go after the lost one until he finds it? 5 When he has found it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders, 6 and coming home, he calls his friends and neighbors together, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, because I have found my lost sheep!’ 7 I tell you, in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who don’t need repentance. 8 “Or what woman who has ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? 9 When she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, because I have found the silver coin I lost!’ 10 I tell you, in the same way, there is joy in the presence of God’s angels over one sinner who repents.” 11 He also said, “A man had two sons. 12 The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the estate I have coming to me.’ So he distributed the assets to them. 13 Not many days later, the younger son gathered together all he had and traveled to a distant country, where he squandered his estate in foolish living. 14 After he had spent everything, a severe famine struck that country, and he had nothing. 15 Then he went to work for one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. 16 He longed to eat his fill from the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one would give him anything. 17 When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired workers have more than enough food, and here I am dying of hunger! 18 I’ll get up, go to my father, and say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. 19 I’m no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired workers.” ’ 20 So he got up and went to his father. But while the son was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion. He ran, threw his arms around his neck, and kissed him. 21 The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. I’m no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 22 “But the father told his servants, ‘Quick! Bring out the best robe and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Then bring the fattened calf and slaughter it, and let’s celebrate with a feast, 24 because this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!’ So they began to celebrate. 25 “Now his older son was in the field; as he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 So he summoned one of the servants, questioning what these things meant. 27 ‘Your brother is here,’ he told him, ‘and your father has slaughtered the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’ 28 “Then he became angry and didn’t want to go in. So his father came out and pleaded with him. 29 But he replied to his father, ‘Look, I have been slaving many years for you, and I have never disobeyed your orders, yet you never gave me a goat so that I could celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your assets with prostitutes, you slaughtered the fattened calf for him.’ 31 “ ‘Son,’ he said to him, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32 But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ ”
PRAYER
Did you ever play “hide and seek” when you were a kid? Probably those of us who are parents or grandparents have even played hide and seek as adults. It’s all in the name: one (or many) hide, and the other (or another) one seeks them. It was one of my favorites as a kid.
But here’s something to consider: who is the main “character” in hide and seek? It’s the seeker. The seeker does all the work in the game: the seeker counts, the seeker has to say, “ready or not, here I come.” The seeker has to do the actual, you know… seeking. And the seeker has to call out those who are found. In fact, now that I think about it, in the game of hide and seek, who is “it?” The seeker. Hiders just pick a place away from the seeker and stay there.
I know this isn’t a perfect illustration of what I’m about to say, but few illustrations of spiritual things are perfect. Remember that, generally speaking, a parable is an earthly story with a heavenly or spiritual meaning. In the three parables in Luke 15, we tend to focus on the “lost” stuff: the lost sheep, the lost coin, the lost son. However, through Jesus’s explanations of the parables of the sheep and the coin, we can see that each parable is pointing to the same thing: God’s response to those who are lost, and those who are found. The King who seeks, who celebrates, who restores, and who pursues is who we’re focusing on today.
Verses 1 and 2 connect us to last week’s message. In it, Jesus challenged us to count both the possible cost of our rejection of Him, as well as to count the cost of following Him. Jesus’s message about the large banquet, with the call of the homeowner to bring in those in the “streets and alleys,” along with those in the “highways and hedges,” certainly resonated with those who were rejected by religious Hebrew society. We can see this because of who was “flocking” to Jesus: the tax collectors and sinners:
1 All the tax collectors and sinners were approaching to listen to him. 2 And the Pharisees and scribes were complaining, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
The religious leaders were none too happy about this, because they saw it as something that made Jesus guilty by association—they were the righteous ones, and if Jesus hung out with those who were not as good as they were, then they were going to condemn Jesus right along with them. But these “sinful” people were desperate to hear more of what Jesus was saying. And Jesus’s four illustrations here were meant to show the Pharisees and scribes just how far they were from being like God, even though they supposedly kept all the rules.
In order to save a little time this morning, we won’t re-read each parable in its entirety. First, Jesus said that God seeks the lost sheep:
1: Seeking the Lost Sheep
1: Seeking the Lost Sheep
In an agricultural society such as ancient Israel, your crops and your livestock were critical to your survival. These were the things that you trade in order to have what you needed. Everyone listening, whether they were farmers or shepherds or religious leaders, understood the imagery of the sheep and the shepherd: A sheep wanders away from a flock of 100, and the shepherd leaves them to seek out the missing animal. Upon finding it, he picks up this sheep that was likely tired and scared, and he carries it back home, calling for a celebration because he has found it.
As I’ve said before, I don’t like to allegorize parables all that much because of how quickly we can go wrong in our thinking when we do. But we don’t have to guess about how to interpret the parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin. In the first parable, found in verses 3-7, Jesus compares the lost to a wandering sheep that was separated from the shepherd. Since Jesus is God incarnate, you could say that Jesus is comparing Himself to the shepherd who goes to find and rescue the sheep.
This is not an odd comparison for Jesus to make. God had often been compared to a shepherd in the Old Testament. Psalm 23 is a great example:
1 The Lord is my shepherd; I have what I need. 2 He lets me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside quiet waters. 3 He renews my life; he leads me along the right paths for his name’s sake. 4 Even when I go through the darkest valley, I fear no danger, for you are with me; your rod and your staff—they comfort me.
In the book of Isaiah, the prophet spoke about God as a protecting, delivering, nurturing shepherd who cared personally for His people:
10 See, the Lord God comes with strength, and his power establishes his rule. His wages are with him, and his reward accompanies him. 11 He protects his flock like a shepherd; he gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them in the fold of his garment. He gently leads those that are nursing.
And in Ezekiel, we read that God promised His Messiah will be a shepherd over people the way that David had been a shepherd over sheep. Messiah would rescue His sheep from trouble without and trouble within:
22 I will save my flock. They will no longer be prey, and I will judge between one sheep and another. 23 I will establish over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he will shepherd them. He will tend them himself and will be their shepherd. 24 I, the Lord, will be their God, and my servant David will be a prince among them. I, the Lord, have spoken.
And finally, Peter directly refers to Jesus as “the Shepherd and Overseer” of the souls of those who belong to Him by faith:
24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree; so that, having died to sins, we might live for righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. 25 For you were like sheep going astray, but you have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
Peter says that those who belong to Christ “were like sheep going astray” in our sins, but our great Shepherd took our sins on Himself on the cross, dying so that we might live. And while Jesus’s death was sufficient for the sins of the whole world, in some ways we might think too nebulously about what He’s done. Yes, He died for everyone. But we could also say that yes, He died for every. one.
God is not passively waiting while we go our own ways, sitting around hoping that we return to Him. No, He is actively seeking those who are lost, that they would surrender to His loving arms so that He can pick them up and carry them home Himself. And what we can see clearly in the picture that Jesus painted in this parable is that God values the one.
You might be here today and you’ve looked at what’s going on around us in the world—wars, assassinations, conflict, division, hatred—and you might feel really small in the overall scheme of things. You might be tired, struggling to go on, and you might not know where to turn, or who to trust, because you’re walking in the dark. The great Shepherd is seeking you right now, right here.
We may be small, but not too small for His notice and care. We may be tired, but He has a limitless reservoir of strength with which to carry us through this life. We might not know the way, but He is the way, and the truth, and the life, and He is the light of the world.
Surrender your life into the loving hands of Jesus, believing that He died for your sins and rose again to eternal life.
And the Bible says that when one—just one—sinner comes to repentance and faith, then all of heaven celebrates. This was how Jesus ended the parable of the seeking shepherd, and it’s actually the most important aspect of the second parable: the parable of the lost coin. But since the focus for us is on the celebration, I’m calling it the “found” coin:
2: Celebrating the Found Coin
2: Celebrating the Found Coin
This parable is the shortest of the three: just three verses. Jesus tells us that it is essentially the same as the first one through His use of the word, “Or...” at the beginning. A woman loses one silver coin out of a set of ten, likely misplacing a whole day’s wages. In her dark and dusty house with probably almost no natural light, she sets to work searching for this coin by igniting a lamp and sweeping the earthen floor. When she finds the coin, she exuberantly calls for her friends and neighbors to rejoice with her because the coin had been found.
Again, the coin and the sheep are parallel. The woman and the shepherd compare to the same Person as well. And like verse 7, verse 10 tells us of the celebration that takes place in heaven when a sinner repents:
10 I tell you, in the same way, there is joy in the presence of God’s angels over one sinner who repents.”
When Jesus says that there is joy “in the presence of God’s angels,” this is a way of saying that all of heaven joins in with the celebration, not just the angels themselves. So God calls for and leads in the celebration as the One who has recovered the precious lost one, just as the woman in the parable does with her friends and neighbors.
Brother or sister, have you ever thought about the fact that this is what happened when you believed the Gospel? Heaven rejoiced over you. The Lord of glory was glad, even singing over you according to Zephaniah 3:17:
17 The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.
So if that is what happens in heaven, and we become citizens of heaven when we come to faith in Jesus, then shouldn’t we be a part of joining in with this celebration? Every time someone comes to faith in Jesus, we should rejoice! And if we have the blessing of being a part of that person coming to faith in Jesus, what an experience that is!
But the joy isn’t just for heaven, and it’s not just for the one who shares the Gospel… It’s also for the receiver of the Gospel—the one who has gone from lost to found, just like the coin! There is no greater joy than having the assurance that your relationship with God has been made right because of what Jesus has done—that your sin has been forgiven, that you are no longer guilty, that you have eternal life, that you are loved and known and cared for by your Creator!
Look at how Peter said it:
8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; though not seeing him now, you believe in him, and you rejoice with inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 because you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
Inexpressible and glorious joy! These are terms of celebration!
We celebrate because of the restoration that God has wrought in the life of the follower of Christ, and that He will continue to work. Both celebration and restoration are a major part of the last parable. We’re going to look at it from the perspective of the father today: the father who restores his repentant son.
3: Restoring the Repentant Son
3: Restoring the Repentant Son
We generally call the last parable of the trio in Luke 15 the parable of the “prodigal” son. And since this title is so commonly known, there’s no point in trying to change the title we’ve collectively given it. In fact, we’ve redefined the word prodigal from its original meaning because of this very parable. We often think of it now as a noun meaning a wayward person who returns after an absence. But really it’s an adjective, and it doesn’t necessarily mean something bad. It means extravagant, lavish, profuse, even to the point of being excessive or wasteful.
We refer to the son as “prodigal” because he asks for and takes his inheritance from his father while his father is still alive, and runs off to another country, where he wastes it completely having what he thought was a “good time.” But when his money ran out, so did his good time, and he found himself alone and penniless in a foreign (Gentile) country, starving and wishing he could eat the slop he fed to his master’s pigs… the only job he could find.
But when he finally hits rock bottom in his meager, unclean existence, he “comes to his senses” (v17), he remembers how good his father’s servants have it, and decides that he will repent to the Lord and to his father and ask to be made a hired servant in what used to be his home. Beginning in verse 20:
20 So he got up and went to his father. But while the son was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion. He ran, threw his arms around his neck, and kissed him. 21 The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. I’m no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 22 “But the father told his servants, ‘Quick! Bring out the best robe and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Then bring the fattened calf and slaughter it, and let’s celebrate with a feast, 24 because this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!’ So they began to celebrate.
What we miss here is that the father is every bit as “prodigal” as his wayward son. He pours out his love extravagantly, lavishly, profusely on this young man who has squandered his inheritance. In the character of the father, we see that his greatest desire was the restoration of his child. He was watching and waiting, because he saw the son while he was still a long way off. He was filled with compassion for his son, and ran to him, hugging and kissing him. He called for the best robe, a ring of family authority, and the symbol of being a son: sandals. Servants went barefoot. Sons wore sandals. And he called for a feast fit for a holy day in order to celebrate the return of this child to the family.
In this case, Jesus doesn’t supply us with the explanation of the parable. However, it’s not necessary for Him to do so, because He’s already shown us the explanation: As we are the sheep and the coin, so we (at least most of us), are the wayward son. And as the Lord was represented by the shepherd and the woman, so He is reflected in the loving father in this parable. As this father restored his son, so in Christ, we are restored.
However, our restoration is even better than the younger son’s was. We have certainly rejected our Lord the way the son rejected his father. We have absolutely gone our own way and wasted the blessings of God through our sinful choices, just as the son had with his father’s blessings. But though this son had received the trappings of sonship once again, his inheritance was gone as we will see in a moment. But our inheritance in Christ will never be gone, and is forever safe, according to Peter. We have been changed from the spiritually dead enemies of God to the abundantly living heirs of God through the resurrection of Jesus:
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead 4 and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you. 5 You are being guarded by God’s power through faith for a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.
Our God is every bit as prodigal as the father! Look at what He has given to those who belong to Him through faith in Christ: new birth; living hope; an imperishable, undefiled, unfading inheritance in heaven; He guards our salvation by His unlimited power—assuring us that it can never be lost. And as He is prodigal in His blessings, He desires that all of us come to repentance and faith in Him. And just like the father in the parable, He waits, He watches:
9 The Lord does not delay his promise, as some understand delay, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance.
He isn’t looking for the perfect to come to faith. He’s looking for anyone who will to come to faith. Jesus will say later in the Gospel of Luke:
10 For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost.”
and He said earlier in this same Gospel:
32 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
Repentance is simply to turn around and go the other direction. We might already be Christians, but that doesn’t mean that we’re done repenting. We need to turn from our sins and follow Jesus. It’s that simple. God, like the father in the parable, does the work of restoring us when we come to Him in repentance. This is what the Lord’s Supper is about, at least in part: remembering the work that Jesus has done and our trust in that work, reminding us that we have turned from death to the Author of Life.
Jesus doesn’t save perfect people, because if people were perfect, they wouldn’t need saving. The only perfect One of us is Jesus Himself. He came to save people who need saving—people who will turn from their sins and will trust Christ for their forevers—these are the ones that are saved, because they surrender to His work on the cross and not their own for their glorification.
Those who think they are perfect, who think that they have it all together, the arrogant, the proud… these are the objects of the last part of Jesus’s trio of parables in this chapter as He brings us full circle to His pursuit of those who need to hope of the Gospel:
4: Pursuing the Proud Son
4: Pursuing the Proud Son
In the final few verses of these parables, we stay with the character of the father as he goes out to deal with his other, older son. This son heard the celebration going on, and in his pride and arrogance decided that it didn’t matter that his wayward brother had returned—he didn’t deserve a party, and so this older brother decides that he’s not going to go in and join the fun. The father goes to address his older son to get him to see how wonderful it is that his brother is alive and restored to the family, and in so doing, he pursues his older son in spite of his pride. But the older son wants nothing to do with it:
29 But he replied to his father, ‘Look, I have been slaving many years for you, and I have never disobeyed your orders, yet you never gave me a goat so that I could celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your assets with prostitutes, you slaughtered the fattened calf for him.’
He saw that he deserved his position. He deserved his inheritance. He deserved the party, not to celebrate his return, but to celebrate how awesome his is.
The Pharisees and scribes were the intended primary audience of these three stories, remember? But up to this point, we haven’t really seen them characterized… or have we? Back in verse 7, following the rescue of the lost sheep, we read this explanation:
7 I tell you, in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who don’t need repentance.
I believe that this was Jesus’s condemnation of the self-righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. Though they may all think they are righteous and that everyone else needs to repent, Jesus knows better. I think that He’s saying that these self-righteous people didn’t think they needed to repent, and thus, won’t. And lost people who will not repent do not bring joy to God. They are older son.
I quoted this in my earlier sermon on this passage, but it bears quoting again:
“If we think we have something to boast about before God, then we won’t see our need for turning to God in repentance. This man thinks his obedience justifies him before his father just as the Pharisees thought their self-righteousness made them right before God.”
— Thabiti Anyabwile, Exalting Jesus in Luke
In one of the poems written by J.R.R. Tolkien for The Fellowship of the Ring, he penned the line, “Not all those who wander are lost,” and this has been picked up by culture to kind of mean that just because someone doesn’t fit the mold doesn’t mean that they are wayward. And this isn’t wrong. I doubt any rabbi of the age “wandered” more than Jesus did, both physically and from traditional thinking. This is exactly why they hated Him!
But this is also true: Not all those who are lost wander. There are those who look the part, who play the role, who appear to live the life, but who are just like the Pharisees and the scribes: sitting there angry that God would want anything to do with all those other sinful people.
Like the father pursued his proud son, so God is pursuing us, even if we are too proud to see it. There is no one that God doesn’t want to come to repentance and faith… no one that God doesn’t want that relationship with. Including me. Including you. Jesus gave Himself up so we could have our sins forgiven, as John said in his first epistle:
2 He himself is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours, but also for those of the whole world.
Closing
Closing
But since the self-righteous were His primary audience, Jesus leaves this last part of the parable unresolved. The sheep was rescued and rejoiced over. The coin was found and celebrated about. The repentant son was restored and relaxed in his father’s house. What would the proud son do? How would the self-righteous respond?
We all need Jesus. None of us are good enough to make it to heaven. Only Jesus made the way, and it’s only in Him that we will be saved.
If you think you’re earning your way to heaven by being “good,” you are deceived. The Bible tells us that apart from Christ, “There is no one righteous, not even one… There is no one who does what is good, not even one.” (Rom 3:10, 12) Repent of your reliance on yourself for your salvation and believe that Jesus died so you could be forgiven, and rose so you could live forever with Him. And if you’re someone who knows you’re lost, your response should be exactly the same: turn from your sin and trust in Jesus to save you. That might look like a simple prayer of faith, like “God, I admit that I have sinned and turned away from You. I don’t want to go my own way any more. I believe that Jesus died to pay for my sins and that He rose again, and that He is Savior and Lord. I surrender completely to You, turning from my old life and trusting in what Jesus has done for my salvation. Please save me.” It’s not the words, it’s the heart of surrender that matters. Stop resisting God and be saved. And come tell us.
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PRAYER
Observance of the Lord’s Supper
Observance of the Lord’s Supper
I’d like to invite our deacons to come down and prepare to serve the Lord’s Supper to our church family.
As they come, I’d like to give both a welcome and a warning. The welcome is that we’re here together, and it’s always a joy to be able to take the Supper as a family. If you’re a follower of Jesus, even if you aren’t a member of Eastern Hills, you’re welcome to join in the Supper because you are family as well. So look around you for just a moment and welcome each other to our family table.
The warning is that if you do not belong to God through believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, please do not take the Supper. Since this is a time of memorial of and identification with the Gospel, if you do not believe, you should not participate. This is to safeguard the sanctity of the ordinance and for your protection as well, according to Scripture. We love you, and we’re glad that you’re here. We pray that witnessing this ordinance will be a blessing to you and open your heart to ask questions or to want to find out more about following Christ.
Ask Bryan and Jeff to come and distribute the bread to the deacons.
Mark 14 records that Jesus took the bread, blessed it, broke, it, and gave it to His disciples.
This morning, we are going to prepare our hearts for each of the elements through joining in a time of directed prayer. Families or groups sitting near each other, feel free to share this prayer time with those near you, if you’d like.
Directed prayer for the bread:
Take a moment to praise the Father for His love for each of us, proven through the cross.
Thank Jesus for giving His body so that we can be forgiven.
Ask the Holy Spirit to convict you of any sins that you might be cherishing before we take the Supper.
Confess those sins to God, asking for His forgiveness.
Lord, we ask you to bless this bread and help us to eat it in a worthy manner this morning. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Deacons distribute the bread.
Mark 14:22 says that Jesus told His disciples, “Take it; this is my body.”
Have Bryan and Jeff come and distribute the cup to the deacons.
Mark also recorded that Jesus gave thanks and gave the cup to His disciples.
Directed prayer for the cup.
Praise the Father for His pursuing grace—that He has made a way for us to be saved when there was no way, through giving His Son on our behalf.
Thank Jesus for overcoming death in our place so we can live forever with Him.
Ask the Holy Spirit to help you remember your need and surrender to Jesus through this taking of the Supper.
Lord, we ask you to bless this cup and let us bring you glory as we take it together. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Deacons distribute the cup.
Mark 14:24 says that Jesus said, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.”
Thank you, deacons, for serving our church family this morning. We all appreciate your faithfulness. And thank you, Donna, for playing during the Supper.
As the deacons return to their seats, I have just a couple of closing words:
Closing Remarks
Closing Remarks
Bible reading plan (2 Cor 4:7-5:10, Ps 71)
No Pastor’s Study - business meeting tonight and Wendy’s afterwards
Prayer Meeting Wednesday 5:45 after dinner
Instructions for guests
Benediction
Benediction
4 But when the kindness of God our Savior and his love for mankind appeared, 5 he saved us—not by works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy—through the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit. 6 He poured out his Spirit on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior 7 so that, having been justified by his grace, we may become heirs with the hope of eternal life.
