Whose Son Is The Christ?

Scripture reading for today is Mark chapter twelve verses thirty-five to thirty-seven.

And as Jesus taught in the temple, he said, How can the scribes say that the Christ is the Son of David?

David himself, in the Holy Spirit, declared, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand until I put my enemies under your feet.

David himself calls him Lord.

So how is he his son?

And the great throng heard him gladly.

This is the word of the Lord.

Please be seated.

All right.

Good morning.

JP you can come up.

We have a guest speaker tonight.

This is JP.

JP's the pastor of Christ Presbyterian in Englewood.

And right now James is actually preaching there, and JP is preaching here.

So if we could give him a welcome and then uh and then JP's gonna take it.

Thanks, Zach.

Um it's it really is a delight uh to be here uh to be with you.

James and I were this past week we had like regional meetings that we call Presbytery.

Uh and so it was really helpful for both of us to be able to say, hey, um we're both going through the Gospel of Mark right now.

What would it look like for us to maybe swap, give each other a little bit of a break?

Um and also, too, I think that James would share this as well.

I just enjoy like experiencing practically being Presbyterian and like and that my people get to hear from James.

I'm excited about that.

Um, and to also be able to bring greetings to you from one of your sister churches.

Uh Christ Pres in Inglewood, we're about a year old, so we're pretty young.

Uh we uh launched worship a year ago last September, and uh I bring greetings to you from your brothers and sisters at Christ Pres uh in uh in Inglewood.

Um one of the things that we have been doing this year together at Christ Pres is going through the Gospel of Mark, much like you guys have.

And one of the things that um that Mark sort of sprinkles throughout his gospel, that you'll sort of notice is Mark makes a lot of connections with the Old Testament and Jesus and who Jesus is and what he is and what he is doing.

And our our passage this morning uh very much does that uh as Jesus sort of poses this question and he quotes a psalm, Psalm 110, that David uh actually wrote.

And so what Mark wants us to know throughout his gospel as he's making these connections between Jesus and the Old Testament, is that the God of the Old Testament is the God of Jesus and who Jesus is, so that we have one God, as we've already expressed together in the Shema, and that one God has one story of redemption in Jesus Christ.

So we're gonna think a little bit together about that this morning in Mark chapter 12.

Mark 12 · chapter mention

But before we do that, let's pray.

Let's ask God to help us understand his word.

Uh most gracious Heavenly Father, we pray that you would take your word and you would put it deep down into our hearts, that we would know more of who your Son, our Savior, Jesus is.

We would know more deeply our sin and more deeply your love for us to give us, Jesus.

And Jesus, we pray this morning that we would see how much you love us, that you would love us all the way to the very end, all the way to the cross for us.

And so, Holy Spirit, we pray this morning that you would have your way with us, that you would convict us in all of the places that we need to be convicted, that you would comfort us in the places that we need to be comforted, and above all else, you would make our Savior Jesus more believable and more beautiful to us this morning.

And we pray these things in Christ's name.

Amen.

I want to begin this morning by sort of giving you our big takeaway, the main point of this passage, of Mark chapter 12, verses 35 through 37, and then give you a little bit of an outline.

Mark 12:35–37

But the main takeaway for us this morning is that following Jesus is inherently supernatural.

Following Jesus is inherently supernatural.

The way we're going to tackle that big takeaway is we're going to take a look at this sort of seemingly unanswerable question that Jesus poses.

Then we're going to look at how Jesus is actually connecting some dots, and then we're going to look at the answer that Jesus gives, and then I've got a few takeaways for.

So if you're a note taker, then your main point is following Jesus is inherently supernatural.

We're going to look at an unanswerable question, connecting the dots, the answer, and the takeaways.

Now, something that we do at Christ Pres each week is we actually give kids words to listen out for in the sermon.

Now, I've looked at uh you guys have your own little page and paper that you get to write on and take sermon notes on, don't you?

So I've got a few words that I want you to listen out for, okay?

And look, the reason that we do this is because guess what?

You help us understand God's word.

We need you to help us understand God's word.

So I'm gonna give you four words, and then I want you, after the service, with your parents or other adults that are in here, ask them, how do these words connect together?

How do these words fit together?

And oh, by the way, adults, you can listen out for these too.

The first word is this, Bible.

Bible.

The second word is Trinity.

Okay, I know that's that's not one we use every day.

The third word, supernatural, you've probably already heard that one.

And then the fourth word is Jesus, okay?

So we've got Bible, Trinity, supernatural, and Jesus.

And if you want to like mark those, how many times I say it or draw a picture, whatever will help you uh engage God's word this morning.

But before we dig into this unanswerable question, in roughly 240,000 Major League Baseball games over the course of 150 years, on 24 occasions, there's been something that has happened that like completely like breaks ESPN when it does happen.

And on those 24 occasions, what has happened is a pitcher has pitched what's called a perfect game.

A perfect game is this.

There are nine innings of baseball, there are three outs in each inning, and so when a pitcher pitches a perfect game, that means that 27 batters come up and 27 batters sit down.

There are no hits against the pitcher, the pitcher doesn't walk anybody.

There are 27 batters that come up, and then there are 27 outs.

And in each and every one of these 24 cases, over 240,000 games, the pitcher is just in complete and utter control.

His stuff is spot on.

Fastball, curveball, cutter, whatever pitch, it is just absolutely, utterly spot on.

He is untouchable, he is unhittable, he is completely and utterly in command and in control of the game and what is going on.

That's the reason they call it a perfect game.

And here's what we got to know as we dive into our text this morning and take a look at this unanswerable question.

Jesus is tossing a perfect game.

Jesus is absolutely in command.

His stuff is spot on.

His fastball is completely untouchable.

Because up to this point, what's been happening is these religious leaders, they've been coming to Jesus and they've been trying to trap him with questions that they have for him.

And he has completely and utterly confounded them at every single turn.

So then what we have happened this morning is Jesus flips the script.

Jesus begins to ask the questions and he's tossing a perfect game.

And so let's take a look at this question that Jesus asked in our text this morning.

Jesus essentially comes to these religious leaders, these scribes, and the scribes' job basically was to know God's word inside and out.

So that was their job, that was what they committed their lives to.

And he comes to them and he says to the crowds that are there, he says, Hey, what do you guys make of what the scribes say?

That the Christ is the Son of David.

And in doing so, one thing that Jesus is conceding is that the scribes believe that the Old Testament is actually divinely inspired.

That the scribes believe that the Old Testament is actually God's word, God's communication to his people.

And Jesus is also implying that he believes that too.

That they actually share that sentiment, that they believe that the Old Testament is actually God's word, even though these scribes are people who want to destroy him.

They share that.

They share that view.

In verse 36, what Jesus does is he turns to David and something that David says in Psalm 110.

And notice Jesus says that David said, In the Holy Spirit, here's what David says.

How is this possible?

Scribes, they believe that the Old Testament is divinely inspired, and the Old Testament says that the Christ, the Messiah, is the son of David, and the scribes also believe that Psalm 110 that David wrote is about the Messiah.

So how is it possible that David's son is also David's Lord, his master, his king?

Up to this point, all the scribes have tried to do is give Jesus questions that are unanswerable and trap him.

And Jesus has confounded them at each turn.

He's throwing a perfect game.

He is dialed in and he's in complete command.

And he seemingly poses to the crowds and to the scribes there an unanswerable question to those who are experts in the word.

A scribe's job is to know God's word inside and out.

But if we look closely together, as Jesus is inviting these people hearing him right here in this passage to look closely, what we would hear is that Jesus is actually connecting some dots for us between the Old Testament and between Himself.

So let's move to connect some of these dots.

When I was a kid, one of the, one of my favorite things when I got a coloring book is every four or five pages, you would turn and you would run into one of those pictures that had dots and they had numbers on them, you know?

And so then you would you would start with number one, then you would connect the two, and then and eventually what it would do is it would show forth the picture.

Well, Jesus is kind of doing that right here.

He's giving them a connect the dots picture.

So let's try to do this succinctly.

Because what Jesus is actually doing is he is packing in the history of God's redemption of his people in these three verses right here.

He's packing all of it in.

So I want to try to give us a few hooks.

The first hook is this the first dot that Jesus is connecting is this is that God, that the God of the Bible is one God in three persons.

That the God of the Bible is a Trinity.

One God, three persons, one true God manifest in three persons.

And Jesus acknowledges that the God of the Bible is fundamentally supernatural.

You and I cannot completely and utterly wrap our minds around this truth, this reality, this dot that Jesus is connecting.

So he says, David says, in the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, actually writes God's word and shows that what is actually happening to David as he is writing Psalm 110 is that he is peering into a conversation between God the Father and God the Son.

So by the power of the Holy Spirit, David is actually getting to hear a conversation between God the Father and God the Son.

And one of the ways that we know that is that the word that David uses for the first Lord in Psalm 110 is the same word that is used in Exodus chapter 3, where Moses comes upon this bush that is burning, but it's not being consumed, and God reveals his personal name to him.

Exodus 3 · chapter mention

This is my first name, essentially.

I am.

And so David uses that word for the first Lord, and for the second Lord that that Lord is speaking to, David uses another word, I don't I.

And so he's peering into this conversation between the Father and the Son.

And the Spirit opened David's eyes to see that the God of the Bible is a trinity, it's Trinitarian.

One God, three persons.

And that means the God of the Bible is fundamentally relational.

Another place where we see a conversation between this trinity is in Genesis 1 and 2, where the Spirit hovered over the face of the deep.

And they said, Let us make man in our image, male and female, collectively representing God in all of creation, representing their creator, bearing the image of their creator.

So it's out of the overflow of the relationship between the Trinity that humanity is made to bear God's image in his world and to be relational with that very God that made us, but also with each other.

That's how God has made us.

That we get to actually experience the beauty of relationship with our Maker and the beauty of relationship with one another.

That's amazing.

So that's the first dot that Jesus is connecting here.

The second is this that this Trinity God is also a God who personally reveals himself by name to his people.

David saw Yahweh, that's often the word that we use, that comes from Exodus chapter 3.

Exodus 3 · chapter mention

And that is where God personally revealed himself to Moses.

And Moses asked, as he was going to go back to Egypt, who, who am I supposed to tell your people who's sending me?

And God says, you tell them I am sent you.

And that I am right there is God's personal name.

And what's communicated in that statement is I was who I was, I am who I am, I will be who I will be.

I am the self-existing maker of heaven and earth.

And I am the one who is sending you back to my people to go and to rescue them and to bring them out of slavery and bondage and into life and worship with me.

So this Trinity God is also personal.

Personally reveals himself by name to his people.

The God of creation is also the God of redemption.

The God who hears the cries of his people when they're in distress and moves towards them, pursues them, rescues them from slavery and bondage, rescues them from their enemies.

And that rescue from slavery and bondage in Egypt was always meant to point his people to a reality that we live in a slavery and bondage that is called sin.

It was always meant to point us to this thing called sin that captures us and corrupts us and holds us down and chains us.

And that God is the only one who can free us.

God is the only one who can release us from that slavery and bondage.

So the first dot that Jesus is connecting is that the God of the Bible is one God and three persons, his Trinity.

The second dot is that that very God personally reveals himself.

And then the third dot that Jesus connects with these things together is David himself.

David himself, that the God of creation, the God of redemption, is also the God of David.

And that God promised to send a king to lead and to fight for his people, to reign in truth and in justice, with kindness and gentleness and mercy and grace.

In 2 Samuel chapter 7, God promised that there would be a son of David who would come and his kingdom would be eternal.

2 Samuel 7 · chapter mention

His house would be a forever house.

And that that king would be the king of kings, would be the Lord of Lords, would reign forever and ever and ever in justice and in truth.

Jesus is connecting the dots like a connect the dots picture for us.

And so Jesus lands with so how is it that this Christ, this Messiah, is the Son of David and also David's Lord?

Answer that for me, scribes.

A seemingly unanswerable question, but Jesus is actually giving the answer through the dots.

You see, because what happens when you connect those dots in that picture, eventually there's an image that shines forth.

In art and in design, this is known as negative space design.

I had a professor in seminary whose son was in art school, and one day his son came home to him and they were standing in the kitchen at a kitchen island, and his son said to him, Hey dad, I bet you that I can draw this kitchen island without drawing this kitchen island.

And his dad said, Well, I don't buy that.

I don't think you can do that.

You're gonna have to show me that.

So his son pulled out a piece of paper.

He said, Watch.

So he started drawing the cabinets and he drew the uh the refrigerator and he drew the oven and he drew the table over here and everything.

And sure as the world, as he's adding more and more and more and more and more, guess what stands out?

The island of which he never draws.

Jesus is doing the same thing here.

Through connecting these dots, he's giving us an image that we would see clearly if we have eyes to see, if we have ears to hear.

And it's the same thing for these people who are here who are listening to this.

The answer is it can only be true if the son of David is also at the same time greater than David.

And that can only be true if he existed before David and after David, and yet somehow came from David's line and entered into time and space.

That's the answer.

The one who is asking the question is the answer right in front of them.

Jesus is the Son of David and the Son of God.

He is the God man.

100% God, 100% man.

Following Jesus is inherently supernatural.

In the same supernatural way that God is one God in three persons, that very God takes on flesh and comes to you and to me in the incarnation of Jesus.

And in the same way that God is one God in three persons is true, that Jesus is a hundred percent God and a hundred percent man is true.

He is David's son and he is David's Lord, he is the King of kings.

Jesus is God's word made flesh, come to dwell with us here.

And God's word reveals that God is personal.

That Jesus actually came and lived in flesh and in blood, that he knows mine and yours struggles, he knows our temptations, he knows our suffering because he himself suffered as well.

And that he's also the God of the King of David.

And so the one who is asking the question is the one who is sitting at the right hand and who defeats God's enemies.

Both David's son and David's Lord, the God man, Jesus the Messiah, the King of Kings, and the Lord of Lords.

He's tossing a perfect game.

He is in complete and utter control and command.

Don't forget, at this point, Jesus has come into Jerusalem and he is set to the cross.

He knows exactly where he's going and nothing will get in his way.

Nothing will stop him from going to the cross because it's at that very place that the God man himself becomes our sin and takes every single bit of our sin and absorbs it in his body.

And in exchange, what we get is his life for us.

That you and I would have life in him and in him alone.

So that's the unanswerable question, connecting the dots.

And the answer himself is the one who's asking the question.

Let's think together about a couple of takeaways this morning.

And remember, following Jesus is inherently supernatural.

And we've all Already touched on that in so many ways this morning.

But in these takeaways, we also have to understand that following Jesus is inherently supernatural.

So that means that we're actually seeking to understand things that we can't completely and utterly comprehend and totally wrap our minds around.

Yet at the same time, if we reflect on our lives, these takeaways and these truths actually make the most sense of our life and the world that you and I live in.

So let's think together about a few takeaways this morning.

The first takeaway that I have for us is this the Bible is entirely true.

The Bible is entirely true.

Jesus believed that the Old Testament was inspired by God.

He believed the Old Testament to be God's communication to you and to me.

And this is seen in his highlight of the supernatural mystery of the Trinity, and that the Trinity is inherently relational.

The Bible is entirely true.

And that relationship that exists between the Father and the Son and the Spirit flows to you and me as those who bear God's image in his world.

This is why relationships are more important to us than anything else.

This is why when we get sideways with somebody that we're close to, it's why it lives rent-free in our head.

It's why it occupies so much space and emotional energy because we're actually made for these intact relationships.

Why?

Because our God is a relational God.

This is why when we have experiences in our relationships that at times can be of such great joy that we don't even have the words for it.

You ever experienced that?

You ever been with somebody and experienced something together that you come back and you try to tell somebody about it and it just doesn't do it justice, does it?

And at the same time, when we're sideways with our spouse or our children or our friends, this is why it affects us so very deeply, because the Bible, which is entirely true, tells us that our God is a God of relationship, and we are made in that image of that very God and made for relationship with him and with each other.

The Bible also communicates this: that God is personal and he personally reveals himself in Jesus.

And that's seen in Jesus' quote of Psalm 110.

That David's son is also David's Lord, and he is the very son of David, and the very Lord of David, and he has personally come in flesh and in blood to reveal God and who he is to his people.

That he is a God who is merciful and gracious, a God who is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love towards his people, the kind of God that loves them so much that he would actually go and become their very sin so that we would have life in Christ.

God is personal and he personally reveals himself to us in Jesus.

All of that comes from believing that the Bible is entirely true, that it really actually is God's communication to you and to me.

And if you're if you're here this morning, if you're here this morning and what you've heard about the God of the Bible and who God is is actually someone who's just constantly disappointed in you, or someone who's just kind of like far off, way out there, but doesn't really care about you and your circumstances and your situation and everything, then I would invite you to consider that maybe you don't have, maybe you haven't received a very accurate view of the God of the Bible, because the God of the Bible is personal, and he refuses to allow us to relate to him in impersonal ways, and he refuses to relate to you and me in impersonal ways.

He is always moving towards us, always pursuing us, always doing that in love.

And that means there's gonna be times where the God of the Bible is gonna look at you and me and is gonna say, um, that ain't good over there.

He loves us enough to show us when we're doing something that is destructive.

In the same way, parents, that we love our own children, that when we see our children doing things that are destructive to themselves or to others, we point it out to them that they're doing something wrong.

Well, that can only come if you have a personal relationship.

And the God of the Bible is personal, and he personally reveals himself to you and to me in Jesus.

Our first takeaway is that the Bible is entirely true.

Second takeaway is this God has enemies and God defeats his enemies.

It's right there.

The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.

God has enemies and God defeats his enemies.

And this also dips into the supernatural nature of the Christian faith.

The Bible tells us that evil and wickedness are real.

They're real.

And that evil and wickedness manifests itself in a real being.

And that by the Bible calls that being Satan.

And the Bible calls Satan God's enemy and our enemy as well.

You see, what Satan does is Satan tempts us to believe that life on our own terms is best.

That life without reference to God is best.

That's exactly what happened in the garden with Adam and Eve.

Satan came to Adam and Eve and said, Yes, what?

That God who made you in his image, who you wouldn't even exist apart from that God, he's holding out on you.

He's holding back on you.

He doesn't really care about you.

He doesn't really relate to you personally, he doesn't really love you.

And so we fall to that temptation.

And Adam and Eve do, and we go right along with Adam and Eve.

And we do the same thing.

But guess what?

God has enemies, but God defeats his enemies too.

Satan tempts you and me to believe that life on our own terms is best, and he definitely tried to do that with Jesus.

Way back at the beginning of Mark's gospel, we see Jesus in the wilderness.

And Luke and Matthew, who are two other guys who wrote about Jesus' life, they account for this wilderness temptation that Jesus goes through, where Satan actually came to Jesus while he was in the wilderness for 40 days, and he tried to tempt Jesus to turn stones into bread to ease his hunger.

And what did Jesus say?

Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.

When Jesus was tempted, he never caved.

He pitched a perfect game.

He was always faithful.

He always faithfully believed that the Bible was entirely true, that God's word was what defined him and who he was.

Jesus defeats the enemy of Satan by being faithful all the way even to the cross.

The Bible says that Satan is God's enemy, but God defeats his enemy by giving Jesus to us to fully and faithfully and truly live a perfect life.

The Bible also shows us that we, in our state of sin, are enemies of God too.

Because what sin does is sin cuts us off from God.

It brings disorder into our hearts, into our lives, and even into all of creation.

And anything that seeks to thwart life and flourishing is an imminent enemy of God.

And that's us in our sin.

As a matter of fact, another guy who would come after Jesus and would write some letters to some churches named Paul wrote to a church in Rome, and in Romans 5, he actually says that we were enemies of God.

But God also defeats his enemies.

So how does he do that?

How does he defeat you and me in our sin?

Well, Paul goes on to say, yep, while we were enemies, we were actually reconciled to God by the death of Jesus.

And even more, now that we're reconciled, we are actually saved by Christ's life.

God defeats you and me, his enemies, by dying for us.

That's supernatural.

That's an upside down kind of kingdom.

That's not the kind of kingdom that makes sense in this here and in this now.

That's the kind of kingdom that goes beyond the here and the now and goes all the way into eternity.

That Jesus would actually defeat us, his enemies, in our sin.

How?

By becoming our sin.

By becoming every single sin of yours and mine on the cross, even though he knew no sin.

And by doing that, what he did is he absorbed the judgment that was due for mine and your sin.

And in exchange, what we get is we get the perfect game.

We get his perfect, righteous life.

It's placed upon us.

And it all comes to us by this thing called grace.

It's an utter gift.

You and I do nothing for it.

Jesus does everything.

We do nothing, and we get all of Jesus and everything that comes with that.

That's how Jesus defeats his enemy of you and me and our sin.

Is he dies for us and he gives us his life.

That's good news, y'all.

We need to hear that every single day.

I need to hear that every single day because that means that when I walk out this door this afternoon, and inevitably I'm going to do something or say something out of the pride and the judgmental nature in my heart.

That means that I can look to Jesus on the cross and know that he died for that.

And I can live by the power of the Holy Spirit, the same Holy Spirit that spoke through David into Psalm 110, and I can say, guess what?

You don't get that from me this time.

You don't define me pride.

You don't define me greed.

You don't define me lust.

Jesus defines me.

And I can run to Jesus again and again and again and again.

And that is exactly what the God of the Bible, who is relational, invites you and me to do every single time.

We never get past needing Jesus.

He is the A to Z of Christianity.

We always, always, always need Jesus.

And it is a supernatural thing that he defeats you and me, his enemies, by dying for us.

And guess what he does when he defeats us as his enemies?

He makes us his sons and his daughters.

He makes us even his friends.

That means that Jesus doesn't just love you, he likes you.

He wants to hang out with you.

He wants to be with you and me.

And that we get to be called sons and daughters of the one who made all of this, of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

And we get to know that in the same way parents as we look at our own children and we would do anything for them.

That's what the God of the Bible did for you and me.

Nothing would stop Jesus from going to the cross for you and for me.

That's how much he loves you and me.

God defeats his enemies by dying for them.

What a scandal.

What a scandal.

We are enemies for whom Jesus lays down his life for, and he brings us into his family, into his forever home that was promised all the way back in 2 Samuel 7.

And that we would be united to him.

And this is supernatural because it's something that has to come from outside of us to get into us and to change us.

And that's exactly what God does.

The Bible is entirely true and says that the way that Jesus defeats us, his enemies, is by dying for us.

That only the supernatural God man could do that for you and for me.

Where at one and the same, knowing no sin would actually become our sin, that we would be made right with him and brought into his eternal kingdom.

The last enemy that the Bible talks about that God has is the enemy of death.

The enemy of death.

And again, following Jesus is inherently supernatural.

This is an upside-down sort of kingdom.

Jesus defeats death by dying.

And the way we know that Jesus defeated death by dying is because he rose from the dead.

Peter in Acts chapter 2 said that death actually couldn't hold Jesus down.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

That it wasn't possible.

That resurrection was actually the only option.

There was no other option other than resurrection because Christ actually pitched the perfect game, actually lived the perfect life.

He never caved to the temptation of sin.

He always faithfully believed that the Bible was entirely true and he leaned into life in that way.

And he didn't do it for himself.

And he imparted his life to us.

He went through a death that you and I deserved, and through that, resurrection is what happened.

And we get that too.

Jesus' resurrection is a foretaste of the resurrection that is to come.

This is the final and full fulfillment of 2 Samuel chapter 7, where God promised David way back when that there was going to be someone who was going to come from your line, but also will be greater than you and will be your Lord.

2 Samuel 7 · chapter mention

And that person, the God man himself, Jesus Christ, will be King of kings, will be Lord of Lords, and He will bring us into His resurrection with Him.

And we will be there with Him forever.

Sin eradicated, brokenness gone, every tear wiped away from mine and yours eyes.

And we will live with Him and dwell with Him forever.

And guess what else Jesus is going to do?

He's going to make a big old meal for you and for me.

That we get to come to His table and eat at His table.

And we actually get to do that together this morning as we come to His table.

And this is a taste of what's to come.

Because on the night in which Jesus was betrayed, He took bread and after giving thanks, he broke it.

And he said, This is my body which is given for you.

Take and eat and remember.

And in the same way, he took the cup and he said, This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is shed for the forgiveness of your sins.

Take and drink of it, all of you.

And Jesus tells us that as often as we come to this table, we are proclaiming his death until he comes again and he makes all things new.

What we have at this table is a picture of the gospel.

We have a picture of what Jesus has done for you and for me in coming and exchanging his life for our life, and what we get instead of what our life deserves is we get his perfect, righteous life.

What the Bible actually calls justification.

And basically what justification means is that you and I are guilty, but we're declared not guilty because of what Christ has done.

And it's also, when we come to this table, it's a promise.

It's a promise that Jesus isn't done with us yet.

He will continue to grow us.

His grace doesn't just get us in the door, it brings us all the way into the new heavens and the new earth.

And it's at work in each and every one of us right now.

And that means that what we should expect as Jesus' people is that increasingly what will happen in our lives is we will see more and more and more how deep our sin is, and more and more and more how much deeper his grace and his love for us is.

That's what it looks like.

That's the promise that we get that the cross doesn't get smaller to us, it gets bigger and bigger and bigger.

And so that means this week we should expect Jesus is going to uncover some things in our hearts and move us to confess those things and move us to see that it's his body that purchases forgiveness for those things and we get to live in light of that.

So if you're here this morning and you belong to the Lord Jesus, then this table's for you.

If you're here and you have joined yourself to his church, then this table is for you.

But if you're here this morning and you're still processing through who this Jesus is, what does it mean that he's the son of David and David's Lord?

What does all of this stuff mean?

Then I know that there are numerous people here who would love to talk to you about that.

And what we would invite you to do is instead of coming and receiving these elements here this morning, we would invite you to receive Jesus this morning.

And we certainly wouldn't want you to come and to partake of something that's not true of what you actually believe.

I, you know, I know James and I know some of your elders here.

I know this much.

They value honesty enough to not want you to do something that wouldn't be honest of what you believe.

And so we would ask you to let these elements pass you by instead to receive Jesus.

But whatever will help you reflect on Jesus, you can come up and let it pass you by.

You can stay in your seat.

However, it will be most helpful for you to see Jesus and who He is.

I'm going to pray for us, and then I'll invite us to come and receive the body and blood of our Savior.

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we thank you for this meal, a taste of the one that is to come, Jesus.

When you bring heaven to earth and we dwell here with you ever, and you wipe every tear from our eyes, and sin will be no more.

We long for that day.

We look forward for that day.

We pray that even as we come to this table this morning, that we would taste that day.

You would meet with us really, truly, spiritually, right here.

And we pray these things, Christ, in your name.

Amen.