The Death of Jesus

You know, it's sobering to talk about the death of Jesus. That's a heavy subject. Obviously, we reference it often when we are preaching the gospel, but we don't always pause in the places where we have a record of it in scripture. Sometimes, in fact, when scripture mentions it, it feels stark and matter of fact, and that's kind of how it is as we're gonna be looking in Mark's Gospel today in chapter 15, mostly, but we'll be in 14 and 15. But it's certainly how Mark's Gospel records it. Just listen to verse 25 of Mark 15 it says this. It was nine in the morning when they crucified him. Maybe at first glance that feels like just a cold reporting of facts. I mean, Mark almost notes it like it's a police report. It was nine in the morning when they crucified him. But that's not the only timestamp that Mark gives in his gospel. He actually includes multiple times that he mentions in his gospel and specifically in the time of crucifixion, you'll see Mark referencing 9:00 AM when they crucify him. You'll see him referencing noon when darkness came over the land, and you'll see him referencing 3:00 PM when Jesus gave up his spirit. But the more we understand about Mark's Gospel, the more we realize that Mark isn't just recording time as a data point. Mark is actually using it to remind us that God has set all of this in motion and that he is in control. See, what Mark does is he uses time to denote action, which is why his gospel is called by scholars, the action gospel. That's when we read Mark, we see that there's always action, words like immediately or right away. Keep showing up all throughout this gospel because what Mark is concerned with showing the reader is that the story of God is barreling forward by God's own timing and God's own design. That means that this event, the crucifixion and death of Jesus, it's not just a standalone event, it's part of a greater story. Now, I know for some I get it, the grand story of the Bible seems to be a little bit intimidating. It's why some people struggle to read the Bible because they're intimidated. There's just lots of words in the Bible, there's lots of stories in the Bible, there are lots of things to try and wrap our heads around in the Bible. There's so much content and you can occasionally wonder how does all of this fit together? But that's why we're actually doing a teaching series like we're doing right now. We're trying to help pull the big story together in this great drama of God. Now I realize that it can be a lot sometimes and hopefully we'll do our best to be able to orient us around all of this. And I'll even confess to you that maybe even there's a chance in this message that you could feel overwhelmed with information. Like I, I realize all of that, but I'm gonna try and guide you and orient you as best I can and help you to understand where all of this fits, how it fits. Because we've been walking through showing you this great drama of God and we've been doing it like it's a four act play, right? So we started out with Act 1, which was Creation and Fall, and then we went to Act 2, which was Promise and Covenant. Then Act 3, we are talking about Redemption. And then Act 4, we're talking about Restoration. Where we are right now in what we're doing is in this part of the drama of God, we're in the redemption phase. We've already preached a couple of messages that have to do with this, the word becoming flesh and making his dwelling among us. And then we talk about Jesus launching his ministry in Nazareth where he experienced rejection. And now today we're talking about the reality or the sobering reality of Jesus' crucifixion and death. And then next week, we'll finish out this idea on redemption and then we'll move into the idea of restoration. Now we can be tempted to look at this event with its cruelty and its violence and its injustice. And we can just see if we're not careful, a story about sinful people doing sinful things to one who did not deserve it. I get it. Much of the story of the Bible friends is about sinful people doing sinful things. We see it all over the place. We learned early in Genesis Chapter 1, 2, and 3, that God created everything and he created everything good and it was beautiful and it was wonderful. And then he created human beings in his image, human beings that were supposed to be in relationship with him and be representatives of him. But we also saw in Genesis Chapter 3, the serpent who was in their midst and enticed them to sin. And then they gave way to that. And this sin affected everything. You remember the story, right? I mean, sin affected creation itself. It estranged human beings from God. And truthfully, it estranged human beings from one another. Sin got into everything and messed with everything. And even now, by the way, we still see the effects of sin. We see rebellion and we see distance from God that is growing in our ever darkening world. Sins messed up everything for us, but I wanna remind you of something. As I said, then I'm gonna remind you of now. This great story is not primarily a story about sin, it's primarily a story about God. And that's what we have to keep ourselves oriented in. In fact, maybe you remember the promise that God made in Genesis Chapter Three. He made it actually to the serpent right in front of Eve. And this promise was that Eve was going to have offspring and that what would happen is the serpent would strike the heel of the woman's offspring. That's what we're seeing today in Mark chapter 15. We're seeing the outflowing of this offspring of the woman, the one who is the perfect one, the Messiah of God. We're seeing that, the word who was made flesh and made us dwelling among us, the very Messiah of God would be dealt a heel strike, a fatal blow at the cross. So as we look back at the long story of God in scripture itself, we see glimpses of what this Messiah would be through the pictures that the Old Testament paints for us. Now, I know you're kind of going, "Phew, we're covering, like you're talking in big picture here and you're kind of walking through and you're just giving us one little verse in Mark chapter 15 right now." Don't worry, you're about to get a lot of verses in Mark chapter 15, so you'll have to buckle up. But I wanna remind you of why I'm giving you this background because in the Old Testament, God actually with his people designated three primary offices in the Old Testament. Priests, prophets and what? Kings. Somebody said it, or at least I'm making it up like somebody said it, right? Priests, prophets, and kings, these were the primary three offices that God had established for his ancient people, Israel. And what's interesting about that is that we've got kind of, we've got pictures of people who are representative of those offices in the Old Testament as well. When we think of priests often in the scripture, we see it in Genesis and then we see it later on referenced in the Psalmist. There's a man named Melchizedek, who is kind of a pattern for this idea of priesthood. Now we certainly see the line of Aaron in the Old Testament as well, but we see Melchizedek, and then prophets. There's many of those prophets, but the one who is kind of the first one to be designated as such was Moses. And then we have the kings, and specifically there's a pattern of a king, and that was David, right? Not Saul, the first one, but David himself, he was kind of the, he was kind of like the OG of kings in Israel, so to speak, right? And what's even more interesting is that in the Psalms of David that are messianic and that are prophetic, we actually see a reference to all of these things. The idea of prophecy, the idea of priesthood and the idea of kingship all within one of David's Messianic psalms that he writes. It's in Psalm 110 and it says this. The Lord says to my Lord, wow, did you see that? This is David talking, the Lord, the God of Israel, Yahweh, says to my Lord, David's king, the Lord says to my Lord, "Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet." The Lord will extend your mighty scepter from Zion. This is king language saying, "Rule in the midst of your enemies," your troops will be willing on your day of battle. Arrayed in holy splendor, your young men will come to you like dew from the morning's womb. The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind. "You are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek." Right here in Psalm 110, we've got a prophetic picture. The Lord said to my Lord, he's referencing something, someone who is Messianic, one who is going to come. He says he's going to be a great king, he's going to rule with a scepter, and there are people who are going to be arrayed that'll follow him. And he says that he's going to be a priest in the order of Melchizedek. Why do I tell you that? Because here in Mark chapter 15, with this picture of Jesus on a cross, we see him as all of those offices at the same time. You see, this is why I'm trying to help us keep oriented to what we're talking about in this great drama of God because here we see them all at the same time. How do I know that? I know that because the way that they mocked him was about being prophet and a priest and a king. And here it's all tied up in Jesus, and he goes to his death for what purpose? This as prophet, priest, and king, Jesus died to give sinful people an opportunity to be reconciled to God. I'll read that one more time. As prophet, priest, and king, Jesus died to give sinful people an opportunity to be reconciled to God, you see, like we've seen in this great drama of God here at the cross, we also see on display the sinfulness of people doing sinful things. It's all over the place in the scripture. And even though the story is not primarily about sin, it's about God, we still see sin run rampant. And here in this passage in Mark chapter number 14 and 15, we see sinful people that are mocking Jesus as a prophet, as a priest, and as a king. In fact, let me show you these so that you can see them. Jesus was first mocked as a prophet and a priest. And I'm gonna back up a little bit from Mark 15 into chapter 14, prior to the time of his crucifixion, and you can see how this plays out, and I'm going to actually summarize some verses because we don't have time to read every verse in Mark 14. There's like 70 something verses in Mark 14, and then there's, you know, 40 some odd verses in Mark 15. We don't have time to read them all, so I'm gonna summarize them. So we're gonna kind of patch them together so that you can see them all right? This is Mark 14 beginning in verse 53. They took Jesus to the high priest and all the chief priests, the elders and the teachers of the law came together. The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for evidence against Jesus so that they could put him to death, but they did not find any. Many testified falsely against him, but their statements did not agree. Then the high priest stood up before them and asked Jesus, are you not going to answer? What is this testimony that these men are bringing against you? But Jesus remains silent and gave no answer. And again, the high priest asked him, "Are you the Messiah? The son of the blessed one?" "I am" said Jesus, and you will see the son of man sitting at the right hand of the mighty one and coming on the clouds of heaven. The high priest tore his clothes. "Why do we need any more witnesses?" he asked, "You have heard the blasphemy? What do you think?" And they all condemned him as worthy of death. Then some began to spit at him and they blindfolded him and they struck him with their fists and they said, "Prophesy!" And the guards took him and beat him. You see, here is a stark picture Jesus's face to face with the high priest of Israel, and he's asked directly if he is the Messiah. And Jesus unequivocally answers, "I am." So many times when we see that question asked, Jesus is very subtle about what he says and how he says it. Here he unequivocally says, "I am the Messiah. I am the son of the blessed one." And right after he says that, here's what Jesus does, he prophesies to them, he prophesies to them. He says, "You'll see the son of man sitting at the right hand of the mighty one and coming on the clouds of heaven." What Jesus did is he took Psalm 110 and Daniel chapter seven, and he fused them together and he prophesied to them. He was telling the high priest and the religious leaders that he would be vindicated and that they would be judged. That's what he was telling them. And some of them as a result of hearing that, they punched him and they began yell at him, prophesy. They were mocking him as a prophet. But the interesting thing is, is that what Mark does in his gospel is he doesn't, he doesn't just leave this story hanging in the air where we're wondering. They're mocking him as a prophet, is he really? So what Mark does is right after this, when he shows us these verses here right after it, he records a story of Peter who would deny even knowing Jesus, and he concludes that story by showing us something that Jesus prophesied. It's in verse number 72 of Mark chapter 14. This is after Peter denied knowing him. It says immediately the rooster crowed the second time, and then Peter remembered the word, Jesus had spoken to him. "Before the rooster crows twice, you'll disown me three times," and Peter broke down and wept. You see what Mark's doing is he wants the reader to understand that Jesus is a true prophet. He's being mocked as a prophet right here in front of the high priest, but he wants to make sure we understand he is a true prophet and that his voice should be listened to. Mark has a tendency to do some things sometimes in his gospel, and what he does is he actually shows us irony in his gospel many times over. One of those is interesting because it's an interesting picture that we just read about in Mark chapter 15. Jesus and the high priest are talking, and the question that that begs for us is this, who's speaking for God, the high priest who's supposed to be speaking for God or Jesus? And do you know what Mark shows us? He shows us that Jesus is God's mouthpiece and doesn't just speak for God, he speaks as God and even though he's being mocked as a prophet and a priest, Mark makes sure that we understand that he is indeed a true prophet even though they are mocking him and that he is the great high priest and it's his voice that we should listen to. But they also mocked him as a king, not just as a prophet and a priest, but they mock Jesus as a king. In fact, a few different people mocked him as a king. First was by Pilate. I want you to look with me in the very beginning of Mark chapter 15 and watch this statement that comes up. I'm summarizing some verses again, but watch this. Very early in the morning, there's Mark giving us timestamps again, right? Very early in the morning, the chief priest with the elders, the teachers of the law and the whole Sanhedrin made their plans so they bound Jesus, let him away and handed him over to Pilate. "Are you the king of the Jews?" asked Pilate. "You have said so," Jesus replied. Then a few verses later it says, Pilate says, "Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews?" asked Pilate knowing it was out of self-interest that the chief priest had handed Jesus over to him. And then a few verses later, Pilate says, "What shall I do then with the one you call the king of the Jews?" Pilate asked them, you hear that phrase over and over from Pilate, right? Calling Jesus the king of the Jews. Don't be confused here, friends, listen carefully. Don't be confused here. Pilate is not overly conflicted. Pilate is not a good guy who's on the precipice of going, "Oh, I think I love Jesus as the king of the Jews." Pilate is playing a game at Jesus' expense. He doesn't like the Jewish leaders. He feels like he's being manipulated for an outcome. So he plays a game by talking up Jesus as king in front of them because he knew it angered them when he said it. He had no thought that Jesus was indeed the king. And we know from history that Pilate was a ruthless and a harsh man. This is well recorded in history. So this isn't a scenario where it's like, "Oh, he's got a, he's got pretty good character I think." No, no, no. He is not so subtly mocking Jesus' king, but so did the chief priests as we see in this picture. They also mocked Jesus' king. Listen again in Mark chapter 15, beginning in verse three, the chief priest accused him of many things. So again, Pilate asked him, aren't you going to answer and see how many things they're accusing you of? But Jesus still made no reply and Pilate was amazed. Now, it was the custom at the festival to release a prisoner whom the people requested. A man called Barabbas was in prison with the insurrectionists, who had committed murder in the uprising, and the crowd came up and asked Pilate to do for them what he usually did. But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have Pilate release Barabbas instead of Jesus. So the chief priest actually and the religious leaders stirred up the people, watch this, to choose a murdering insurrectionist for release instead of Jesus. And they were incensed that Pilate kept referring to him as the king of the Jews. You know why? They didn't want that kind of king. That's why. They didn't want that kind of king. So instead they chose a murderous insurrectionist named Barabbas. Also irony here, I'll tell you why. Barabbas was probably a designation, not his formal name, much like the man we refer to as Barnabas. That was a designation, not his formal name. You see the word bar in the Hebrew language means son, son of, and then the root word, abas, abba, do you hear it? Father. So the designation of Bar-Abas was son of the Father. How ironic that sinful chief priests chose the wrong son of the father to release. You know why? 'cause sin blinds you and messes you up to everything. So the chief priests mocked him and they released the wrong son of the father in this instance, but they weren't the only ones that were mocking him as king, the Roman soldiers did as well. This entire narrative kind of shows us that. Look in Mark chapter 15 beginning in verse 16, it says, the soldiers led Jesus away into the palace that is the Praetorium, and called together the whole company of soldiers. They put a purple robe on him, then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on him, and they began to call out to him, "Hail king of the Jews," again and again. They struck him on the head with a staff and spit on him falling on their knees, they paid homage to him and when they had mocked him, they took off the purple robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him out to crucify him. You see, this is so painfully obvious what they're doing and the mocking of him as king, they put a purple robe. Purple was the color of royalty. It was the color of majesty. So they put a purple robe on Jesus to mock him as the king of the Jews. They gave him a crown, but they didn't give him a regular crown. They made a crown out of thorns and they jammed it upon his head. They gave him a scepter because kings had scepters by which they ruled right, stabs or scepters. But instead of allowing Jesus to hold it for long, they took it and they beat him with it. They mockingly called out, "Hail king of the Jews," and they feigned allegiance by falling on their knees and to top it all off, they spit on him. They were mocking him as king, but like the earlier mocking of Jesus as prophet and priest, Mark wants to remind us that Jesus is truly a king and he doesn't just leave it here and watch their mocking, but Mark actually shows us some things right after, and you have to be looking carefully, but when you do, you can start to pull it together and you can see it. In fact, right after this event, when they took Jesus out to crucify him, listen to what it says picking up in verse 21. A certain man from Cyrene, Simon, watch this, the father of Alexander and Rufus, was passing by on his way in from the country and they forced him to carry the cross. You're saying, how does this show us anything about Jesus kingship? Well notice who was included here. We certainly see Simon who was forced to carry a cross, but Mark wants to make sure that we know that Simon is the father of Alexander and Rufus. Why do I mention that? Well, because Mark's Gospel was primarily written to a Roman audience. The reason we know that is because the early church Father Papist actually told us that Mark got his information from Peter when he was in Rome. That's how we know that. And so it appears that his Roman readers would've known Rufus because Mark wrote his gospel many years after the events that occurred and the Roman readers would've known Rufus. Do you know why? Because Paul referenced Rufus. In Romans chapter number 16, here's what he says, "Greet Rufus chosen in the Lord and his mother, who has been a mother to me too." You know what Mark is trying to do right here? Mark is showing us that though in this narrative they mocked Jesus as king, this king did in fact conquer and he has witnesses to his power even now like Rufus and like his mom, Mark's showing the audience. But you have to be a careful reader to be able to see it. But Mark also shows us that Jesus is king in another portion when Jesus is crucified. Look in Mark 15 verse 33. I told you we were not going to, I told you we were gonna read a lot of verses in Mark 15, right? Some of you didn't believe me. Now you do. At noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon and at three in the afternoon, Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?: which means "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Here, how does this show us about Jesus kingship? Because Jesus on the cross is calling out the words of the beginning of Psalm 22. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? He is pointing everybody there to a messianic prophecy from David the king and Jesus as the one in the line of David who would be king forever now cries out while on the cross, the very first words of Psalm 22 that would be prophetic about what would happen to the Messiah. Listen carefully, those words in Psalm 22 were written 1000 years before the events of the cross and listen to them, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me? So far from my cries of anguish? But I'm a worm and not a man scorned by everyone, despised by the people, all who see me mock me. They hurl insults shaking their heads, he trusts in the Lord they say. Let the Lord rescue him, let him deliver him since he delights in him. I am poured out like water and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax. It has melted within me. My mouth is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. You lay me in the dust of death. Dogs surround me, a pack of villains in circles me. They pierce my hands and my feet." This was written a thousand years before the events and the king on the cross is calling out to remind everybody, but it ends in victory. In verse 27, all the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord and all the families of the nations will bow down before him. For dominion belongs to the Lord and he rules over the nations. All the rich of the earth will feast and worship. All who go down to the dust will kneel before him. Those who cannot keep themselves alive, posterity will serve him. Future generations will be told about the Lord. They will proclaim his righteousness declaring to a people yet unborn. He has done it. This is Mark helping us to see that though Jesus is getting mocked as a prophet, he's a true prophet and you better listen to him. And even though he's getting mocked as a priest, he's the one who speaks for God and speaks as God. And even though you mock him as a king, trust me, Jesus is the king who transforms lives and who every knee will bow before. Mark shows us that Jesus is the prophet, priest, and king who died. So sinful people could be reconciled to God. It's what God's heart has always been. People restored to him. This is what God's always wanted, people restored to him. It's what the story has been pointing to, that the Messiah, Jesus would die to save sinners. I mean you remember right in the promise to Adam, God said the enemy would strike his heel. But the second part of that promise was that the one to come would crush his head. And in Jesus overcoming death for sin, the head of the serpent is crushed. Death kills death. Maybe you remember the promise to Noah. God preserved a few people in wood and an ark as he judged the remainder of the world by flood. I wanna remind you of this. Noah built an ark of wood. Jesus is the ark on the wood, the cross. You see like God, like God preserved Noah and his family in an ark from the raging tempest of the flood, we can now find safe refuge in Jesus from the wrath of God against sin. This is what the story's been pointing us to friends. You might remember in the promise to Abraham, God said, Abraham's seed would be the blessing and the rescue of humanity. And Paul reminds us of that in Galatians 3:16, the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. Scripture does not say, and to seeds meaning many people but and to your seed, meaning one person, who is Christ. But Jesus knew, listen to this, Jesus knew that the seed of his life needed to be offered in death, so that there could be more abundant seeds that come from it. Listen to what Jesus said in John 12. Jesus said, "The hour has come for the son of man to be glorified. Very truly, I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds." In the promise that God made to Moses, I'm just walking through the covenants now. In the promise that God made to Moses that he made to Israel, God established blessing and curse. Do you remember that? God established blessing and curse and the curse of sin could not be outrun. And after prophesying that one would come like Moses, in fact, Moses prophesied one is going to come like me, a prophet like me greater than him. We also read this in the law in Deuteronomy chapter 21, in that promise that mosaic covenant, you must not leave the body hanging on the pole overnight. Be sure to bury it that same day because anyone who is hung on a pole is under God's curse. You must not desecrate the land, the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance. But Paul reminds us of how Jesus in his death fulfilled this for us. In Galatians 3:13, he says, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written "Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole." Jesus went to a cross and died in our place and became a curse for us through his death, so that we could be freed from sin. We've already talked about the promise to David. We also see Jesus' death fulfilling the new covenant that Jeremiah and Ezekiel actually talked about. In fact, in Mark 14 when Jesus was talking about the Passover meal and instituting something new in the Passover meal, listen to what he said. This is my blood of the many translations say of the new covenant, which is poured out for many He said to them. His blood would be representative of what would enact a new covenant. Jesus' death friends was not just a one-off event, it was the centerpiece of the story of God. It was to redeem and reconcile sinful people back to God. You see, here's what Jesus' death means. It means satisfaction of the justice and the wrath of God against sin. It means forgiveness for the guilt of sin. It means, watch this, it means freedom from the penalty of sin. It means power over the rule of sin, and it means we are no longer under condemnation when we have put our trust in what Jesus has done through his death and resurrection. We're not all, we're not anymore under condemnation, on a trajectory toward an eternity separated from God in a place the Bible labels as hell. What a glorious truth. What a glorious story. What a glorious savior. But can I lovingly remind us of something? Sinners still mess it up. You are like, "Hey man, I didn't come here Jerry today to be called names." I'm not calling you names. I'm telling you the truth. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. That all in the Greek language means everybody, all. You see sinners can still mess it up. Like when Jesus was standing before the high priest friends, we've gotta answer the same question in our own heart. Who speaks for God in our lives? Who speaks for God in our lives. Too often, friends listen, too often we let other voices speak louder and more authoritatively than Jesus, who doesn't just speak for God, he speaks as God. So let me ask you what other voices speak in your life maybe loudly, maybe so loudly, that they are drowning out the voice of Jesus or maybe so loudly that they speak much louder than the voice of Jesus. How about politicians? Their job is to blow hard. They're trying to keep everyone's attention. They're trying to keep you outraged about this, that or the other. There's certainly things to be upset about in the world that we live in when injustice and unrighteousness and all certainly, but they're literally trying to just keep you outraged all the time. And here's what happens is we let their voices be louder than Jesus' voice in our life or maybe talking heads and podcast hosts that we, listen, that we listen to far longer and far more attentively than the word of God, 'cause we've let those voices get louder and louder. Maybe it's friends or family or connections that we have who don't follow Jesus, but their voices are really loud in our lives and we let them just get louder and louder. Listen to me, friends. Jesus is God's final word to the world. I exhort you to listen to him. So we have to answer that question. Who speaks for God in our lives? But we also have to answer the second question. When Jesus was being mocked by Pilate and the chief priest and the Roman soldiers who's our true king? We have to answer that question too. See, the problem was is that the Jewish leaders, when Jesus was presented to them as the king of the Jews, they rejected him because they didn't want a king like him. Too often people still don't want a king like Jesus because he calls us to surrender all of who we are to all of who he is so that we can receive life. He wants our total allegiance, he's worth living for and he's worth dying for. He's our true king. He's the one that we fall on our face and we worship. He's the one that we bend the need to. He's the one that when he commissions, we say yes, whatever the cost associated with that. He'll call us to surrender and to sacrifice and to holiness and to humility and to love and justice and grace and hope. He'll call us to all of those things and he'll empower us to it, but if we're honest. The king we want already has a name, me. That's the name of the king we want most of the time. Me. We wanna be our own authorities. We wanna be our own sovereigns. We don't want to yield the right for king Jesus to do whatever he wants to do, to say whatever he wants to say, to act however he wants to act. Friends, there is no one like Jesus. He is the great prophet who has brought the word of God to us in the flesh. He's the word made flesh. He's the great priest who not only makes the offering, he is the offering, and he's the great king. And at his name, one day every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father, because he is the king over every king and he is the Lord over every Lord. Even those that mock him or mocked him will bow down. So maybe, maybe we should live like that. Maybe we should give our heart and our allegiance to him. Maybe we should freshly surrender to him. Part of what I'm reminded of when we talk about the death and the crucifixion of Jesus is the meal that he opened up to us through the Passover meal and infused with new meaning. And I want you at every single one of our campuses to take out the elements that you were given when you came in of the blood and the body of Jesus. The supper is for those who've put their faith in Jesus Christ. If that's not you, that's fine. This is not some religious ritual that we are asking you to do that somehow does something special for you. We're talking to those who have put their faith and trust in Jesus and been born from above. That's who this meal is for. And it asks you if you are a believer in Jesus, that you would take out the bread. And Paul actually writes, he says, "I receive from the Lord what I also passed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night he was betrayed, took bread. And when he had given thanks, he broke it." And he said, "This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me." So Father, I pray that during this time, you would give us thankful hearts for what the Lord Jesus has done on our behalf. And that together as your body, we would be reminded that your body was broken so that we could be whole. We give thanks to you now. Take and eat together. In the same way after the supper, he took the cup saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this whenever you drink it in remembrance of me for wherever and whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till he comes." Father, as we are going to receive this drink, as a reminder of the blood that is poured out, may we be reminded that your blood gives us the remission or forgiveness of our sins, gives us hope for an eternal future, gives us life in the now and forever. Thank you for your sacrifice. Thank you for this gift. We drink with gratitude and love. In Jesus' name drink together. Now, at this time at all of our campuses, your campus pastor is going to take a moment and lead you through the remainder of our time. And here at this campus, what I want us to do is I want us to take an opportunity to be able to worship together as we close our time. Our band's coming out and as they do, here's what I want to ask of you. In a moment, we're gonna stand and we're gonna sing. We're gonna sing about the about the beauty of who king Jesus actually is. But here's what I wanna say to you before we do that, listen carefully. As we're standing and singing, you may need to respond. There'll be some men and women that'll be standing down front. And if you need to receive Jesus, like turn from your sin and put your faith and trust in him, and know forgiveness and know new life, God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him would not perish but would have everlasting life. This is what's on offer to you today, that the great priest, prophet, and king died so that you would have an opportunity to be reconciled to God. You can only come to God through Jesus. That's it. So if that's your need, I want you to come when we're singing together and standing, I want you to slip out of where you are in your seat and come and take one of these men and women who are gonna make their way down here even now. Just take them by the hand and say, I wanna receive Jesus, or listen or, maybe you just need to pray. You need to get some things square in your life with God. Maybe you've let other voices be louder. Maybe you realize there's people in your life who you've let other voices be louder. I don't know what it may be for you and you just may want to take some opportunity to pray. Could I encourage you? Because what we do in the posture that we take does matter. But maybe if that's your need, why don't you just come and kneel down here and take some time to do business with the Lord, even as we're singing over you about the kingship of who Jesus is. Maybe it's a requirement of surrender in your own heart and in your own life. I wanna ask you to do as God leads by His spirit. Could we stand together? Father, as we take time to worship you, I pray that we would do so in spirit. In truth, I pray you would draw people to yourself that you desire to come to yourself. And I pray you would do your good work in this body, that we would be responsive to your word by your spirit, shape us more and more into the image of the one who gave his life for us. Because the world needs to see us more like Jesus instead of less so. We acknowledge you, Jesus, as great king, and we pray that you would move in our midst now, in Jesus' name, amen.