In That Day
Download MP3Good morning. We are continuing our study, the prophet Isaiah. We are going to be in Isaiah chapter ten, eleven and twelve. That's what happens when I'm left to my own devices. We put as much as we can in the worship guide, but if you've got a bible with you, if you wanna make your way to Isaiah ten, eleven, and 12 to to begin our time, to kind of root us and ground us as we begin, We're we're gonna be looking at Isaiah chapter 11 verses, beginning in verse one.
Jeffrey Heine:We'll begin there, in this time together. So Isaiah chapter 11 beginning in verse one, and let us listen carefully for this is God's word. There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him. The spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
Jeffrey Heine:And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what his eyes see or decide disputes by what his ears hear, But with righteousness, he shall judge the poor and decide with equity for the meek of the earth. And he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips, he shall kill the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist and faithfulness, the belt of his loins. This is the word of the Lord.
Jeffrey Heine:Let's pray together. Oh God, draw near to us by your spirit. Reveal to us the greatness and graciousness that is found in Christ our redeemer. Lord, you know us better than we know ourselves and you love us. And we can be sure of this.
Jeffrey Heine:We can be sure of your love, not because of our character, not because of our faith, not because of our circumstances, but because of Jesus. So as we open your word together, would you speak Lord, for your servants are listening. We pray these things in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. A few summers ago, my family and I took a vacation to Chicago.
Jeffrey Heine:We only had a few days in the city, but, one of the things on our list was the Art Institute of Chicago. It's hard to say which painting at the Art Institute is the most famous work that they have. There are a few big contenders. First up is American Gothic, the portrait of the old man and the woman standing side by side with the pitchfork, or the massive work Sunday afternoon on Le Grande Jete by Surratt, made famous by Ferris Bueller's Day Off. There's also Nighthawks by the iconic Edward Hopper, the diner painting.
Jeffrey Heine:Lastly, there's The Old Guitarist by Pablo Picasso. And the last one is probably my favorite. As a kid, my guitar teacher, miss Retta, she had a print of the old guitarist in her home studio, and I loved it. I stared at it every week while my sister had her piano lesson before me. And so on that visit to Chicago, I got to look at the real thing, the actual canvas with the real brushstrokes by the hand of Picasso.
Jeffrey Heine:And as I stared at the beautiful shades of blue and gray and the lone man sitting with his guitar, my eyes stopped on something unexpected. I saw a face. Not the face of the man playing the guitar, but another face veiled in the layers of paint. It was faint, but without a doubt, I could see two eyes looking back at me. I took some photos close-up as close as they would permit.
Jeffrey Heine:And when I got home, I I pulled them up on my computer in Photoshop, and I adjusted the colors and the contrast and the brightness until I could see even more clearly that there was, in fact, a woman's face hidden in the background of one of the most famous paintings in contemporary art. This painting that I had stared at for hours was familiar with for years, thinking that I had picked up on every detail, yet there was a person in the painting all along that I had never noticed. In fact, I never even realized that I was supposed to be looking for her, and yet there she was. Now I get zero credit for finding this. It turns out that thirty years earlier, an art conservator named Sandra Webster Cook, she saw those hidden eyes and scanned the image and found that there was a painting under the painting.
Jeffrey Heine:And more recent scans since the nineties have revealed that there's actually a third painting of a young woman and a child and a fourth painting of an animal. Four paintings in all layered on top of one another, unnoticed for nearly a century. The prophet Isaiah, like Picasso, worked in layers, Layers of images, layers of metaphors, layers of history, layers of prophecy. And today, we will examine the layers presented by Isaiah in chapters ten, eleven, and 12. We will look closely at what is easily visible to the eye and what is divinely veiled for us.
Jeffrey Heine:You see, the people of God who received these words from the prophet Isaiah, they were in that smaller portion of the divided kingdom known as Judah. We talked about this last week. And as we read last week, the king of Judah, Ahaz, he was a weak and a wicked leader. He did not trust that Yahweh would defend his people. So Ahaz chose to seek help not from the Lord, but from the enemies of God's people, namely the Assyrians.
Jeffrey Heine:The Assyrians were well on their way to overthrowing the northern kingdom Israel and Ahaz, the king of Judah, like a kid handing over his lunch money to a grade school bully thinking that he could make friends with him, Ahaz looks to find favor with the enemies of God and not the Lord. And the people of God, they hear once again from the prophet Isaiah. A quick reminder of Isaiah's mission, his his job, his calling as a prophet. It was to declare the word of God to the people. That's the job of every prophet.
Jeffrey Heine:But what was unique to Isaiah is that from the start, God told him that his mission would not be an easy one. So here again these words from God to Isaiah concerning his calling. From Isaiah chapter six. And the Lord said to Isaiah, go and say to this people, keep on hearing but do not understand, keep on seeing but do not perceive. Make the hearts of this people dull and their ears heavy and blind their eyes, lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their hearts and turn and be healed.
Jeffrey Heine:And Isaiah says, how long, oh Lord? And the Lord responds to Isaiah saying, until cities lie waste without inhabitant and houses without people and land that's desolate and waste. And the Lord removes the people far away, and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land. And though a tenth remain in it, it will be burned again like a terebinth or an oak whose stump remains when it is felled. The holy seed is its stump.
Jeffrey Heine:Isaiah's mission was to preach to a people who would refuse and reject everything that he had to say. And when Isaiah inquired how long he would have to do this fruitless mission, the Lord says, until the cities are a wasteland, until I've gone through the land in judgment and cut everything down, leaving only stumps. But with this calling and mission of Isaiah to proclaim these hard truths of the Lord and the Lord's righteous wrath, there also came, as we have seen, these sporadic seemingly random flickers of light, light in this overwhelming darkness of sin and suffering and judgment. These flashes are of a day that this judgment would come to an end. Isaiah called it that day.
Jeffrey Heine:You might have noticed during our study of Isaiah, he speaks of that day repeatedly in his prophecies. By the time we get to chapter 10, Isaiah has already referenced that day 12 times. As Isaiah uses these words to paint a picture for us, A picture for us of that day. He describes a time when the oppression from the Assyrians and the Babylonians would come to an end. And in that day, the Lord will turn his righteousness and his judgment toward these evil superpowers who seek to ruin the people of God.
Jeffrey Heine:So let's look together at Isaiah's prophecy beginning in chapter 10 verse 20. It begins with these words, in that day, the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the house of Jacob will no more lean on him who struck them, the enemies, but will lean on the Lord, the holy one of Israel in truth. The remnant will return the remnant of Jacob to the mighty God. For though your people Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will return. Destruction is decreed overflowing with righteousness.
Jeffrey Heine:For the Lord God of hosts will make a full end as decreed in the midst of all the earth. Verse 24, therefore, thus says the Lord God of hosts, oh my people who dwell in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrians when they strike with the rod and lift up their staff against you as the Egyptians did. For in a little while, fury will come to an end and my anger will be directed to their destruction. And the Lord of hosts will wield against them a whip as when he struck Midian at the Rock Of Oreb, and his staff will be over the sea, and he will lift it as he did in Egypt. And in that day, his burden will depart from your shoulder and his yoke from your neck, and the yoke will be broken because of the fat.
Jeffrey Heine:Verse 33. Behold, the Lord God of hosts will lop the bowels with terrifying power. The great in height will be hewn down, and the lofty will be brought low. He will cut down the thickets of the forest with an axe, and Lebanon will fall by the majestic one. On that day, the power of the Lord will be on display for all the nations to see, and the tools that God has used to judge his people like Assyria will in turn be judged in the righteousness of God.
Jeffrey Heine:Isaiah paints this picture of God's vengeance against Israel's enemies with instruments of warfare. The Lord will wield a whip against them along with a staff and an axe, And the Lord will swing this mighty axe, and he will cut down the great forests of Lebanon. These, fields, these forests of cedar trees that surrounded the the Northern side of Israel, everything will be cut down. The judgment against the people of Judah, God's judgment against her oppressors, the Lord will accomplish all of it. And to convey this truth, Isaiah paints the picture of this great forest of mighty cedars being reduced to nothing but stumps.
Jeffrey Heine:It might reveal, my literary prowess, but I can't help but think of the Lorax. These hills and hills and hills of all the trees cut down to nothing but stumps. And in this wasteland, everything cut down. That's the day we're supposed to look forward to. Sure, the enemies of Judah are a wasteland of stumps, but so is Judah.
Jeffrey Heine:Judah's cut down. Israel's cut down. Everything is a wasteland of destruction from sin and the judgment of sin. So how is this good, hopeful news? How is this a day worth longing for?
Jeffrey Heine:How is this a day worth hoping for? How is this a day to await? What day are you waiting for? Right now, what are you waiting for? We're all waiting for something.
Jeffrey Heine:We all can call to mind kind of the when that day comes, that's when things will be better. Maybe it's even just getting to the May. May maybe this is what you've been waiting for. Maybe it's been summer break. For those of you, on an academic calendar, you've just been waiting for summer.
Jeffrey Heine:That's when things were gonna get better. Or maybe it's when you finally graduate or finally get a job, finally get the promotion, when you finally meet someone and you can delete the apps, or when you're not dating long distance anymore, or when they finally propose, or when the wedding day comes, or or when you finally get a positive pregnancy test, or when the due date finally comes, or when the baby finally sleeps through the night for the first time, or when you finally buy that thing or have that thing or pay off that thing, when the when the kids finally graduate, when you can finally retire or when your health recovery, the day that you finally feel physically better or when the scans are clear, what day are you waiting for? Because we're all waiting for something. Whether we know it or not, we all have a that day that we are waiting for when we believe things will get better. I remember standing right down here years ago talking with a man who was an older dad in our congregation.
Jeffrey Heine:And I said, I just feel like if we can get to the end of the year, things are gonna get easier. And he said, sure. Now I don't know which year I was talking about. I don't think I've gotten to that year yet, but I'm sure it's just around the corner. In our minds, in our finite myopic minds, we can believe that everything will be better on the day when that one thing changes.
Jeffrey Heine:But as soon as that day comes or that thing happens, everything isn't perfectly better. And so we have to move on to wanting a new that day to come. The prophet Isaiah is holding out that day for the people of God, and it is the ultimate that day when everything truly actually will change. So what day is Isaiah calling the people of God to long for? Well, he tells us by describing what will happen when that day comes.
Jeffrey Heine:Let's look at chapter 11 verse one. There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit. Isaiah returns to this image that he is painting, this image of a great field of cut down trees, a forest felled by the axe, the mighty axe of the Lord. And Isaiah says one of those stumps, in all of those thousands of stumps, all the stumps that have been cut down by the acts of the Lord, one, one of those cut down trees. That's the family of Jesse.
Jeffrey Heine:You may recall that we met Jesse in the old testament book of first Samuel. He was a farmer in Bethlehem with eight sons. And we meet him when a prophet is sent by God to find the next king of Israel. And the Lord directs the prophet to Jesse's youngest son, David. It's interesting though that through Isaiah, God refers to this stump as Jesse's, not the more recognizable elevated royal name of David.
Jeffrey Heine:And perhaps it's to convey just how much this royal tree has been cut down. It's not even identifiable as the royal family of King David, it's cut all the way down to the rural farmer Jesse. That's how far it's fallen and cut down. And in the midst of all this judgment and ruin in the middle of this wasteland wrought by the righteous wrath of God, there's a stump that represents the family of Jesse in an unexpected, astonishing, startling, stunning, unbelievable branch will emerge from the wasteland, life in the midst of death, A branch from the busted, broken, formerly royal line of David. And the Lord foretold back in chapter six in Isaiah's commissioning as a prophet saying, and though a tenth remain in it, it will be burned again like a terebinth or an oak whose stump remains when it is cut down.
Jeffrey Heine:The holy offspring, the holy seed is its stump. That day, which Isaiah is painting for us to see, it's chiefly the promise of a person, a branch, a holy offspring bearing fruit from the previously dead stump of Jesse. And Isaiah goes on to describe what this branch that breaks through, what it will be like, and what he will accomplish. In verse two, and the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord, and he shall not judge by what he sees or decide disputes by what he hears, but with righteousness, he shall judge the poor and decide with equity for the meek of the earth.
Jeffrey Heine:And he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips, he shall slay the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist and faithfulness, the belt of his loins. The branch will be a man upon whom the spirit of God will rest not in part but in full. And the spirit in this promised one will bear God's wisdom, God's understanding, counsel, might, knowledge, and fear. This promise of a man from the stump of Jesse will have the fullness of God in power and in glory.
Jeffrey Heine:This is no regular king, no king that these people had seen before. And this promised one will honor God in all that he does, and the father will be the delight of his living. Not only will he be a man of righteousness in his conduct, but he will be righteous in his judgment. And if he judges, that means the branch will have authority, authority to judge the people more than any earthly king ever had. This will be a divine authority.
Jeffrey Heine:But this man will not use his authority for selfish gain like the kings of Judah and the kings of Israel, nor will he advocate his authority and run for the hills whenever the enemy approaches. He will not sell out his homeland or his people. That day, which Isaiah calls the people to behold and to look forward to, is the day when the living branch of the stump of Jesse is revealed, and he will reign in full. Isaiah goes on to describe what will happen on that day when this righteous and powerful one from the line of Jesse is revealed saying in verse six, the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fatted calf together, and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze.
Jeffrey Heine:Their young shall lie down together. The lion shall eat straw like an ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder's den. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain. For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.
Jeffrey Heine:In that day, the root of Jesse who shall stand as a signal for the people, of him shall the nations inquire and his resting place shall be glorious. In that day, the Lord will extend his hand yet a second time to recover the remnant that remains of his people from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Cush, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, from the coastlands of the sea. Not only will the righteous one bring judgment against the wicked and justice for the oppressed, but he will bring peace. Otherworldly, unfathomable, previously unknown peace. Peace where wolves dwell with lambs, lions with calves.
Jeffrey Heine:A peace where no one is hurt and no one does the hurting, where nothing is destroyed. A peace beyond what these people and our eyes have ever beheld before. It's a piece beyond our imaginations. That's why we need a prophet to paint us a picture, to expand our imaginations, to imagine the wildness of a lion eating straw, a little child playing over the den of the cobra. It's a picture of perfect eternal peace.
Jeffrey Heine:It's a picture of a ruler who comes in divine righteousness and power and authority to establish this peace. That is the day that Isaiah is calling the people of God to hope for and to await. They wait for the root of Jesse who will extend his hand and recover his people from all their oppressors wherever they have been scattered and bring them under the righteous king's rule. This restoration, this renewal from what was a wasteland of unrighteousness, that is the hope of that day. It's the day when all things are made new.
Jeffrey Heine:And it's hard to fathom when everything that we can see with our eyes is in ruins around us. It is hard to believe that there could ever be a day like the one that Isaiah is describing. It's hard to believe that there would be a time when the peace of God would dominate over all hurt, all pain, all destruction, where no one would hurt and no one would do the hurting, where there would be no destruction on the holy mountain of God. It was hard for the Israelites in Judah to see that, and it's hard for us to see it today. In 1965, the German theologian, Jurgen Moltmann, who was himself a POW, a prisoner of war for years as a teenager in World War two.
Jeffrey Heine:He gave himself up. He surrendered to the first soldier that he saw. Well, he wrote in his book, The Theology of Hope, these words. Hope's statements of promise must stand in contradiction to the reality that can at present be experienced. His name's Jurgen.
Jeffrey Heine:He's smart. He he it's a it's a very packed sentence. I'm gonna read it again for us. Okay? Hopes, statements of promise must stand in contradiction to the reality that can at present be experienced.
Jeffrey Heine:Hope demands we believe that there is more, more than we can see, more than we experience right now. The hope that Isaiah was calling the people to behold, the image of hope that he is painting in this prophecy is a hope in a day that stands in contradiction to the reality that we are presently experiencing. I started my morning in the hospital, holding the hand of a woman who was passing away. It did not look like hope. The question of death, where is your sting?
Jeffrey Heine:It was right there. Where is your victory? It seems like it's right here. Hope stands in a defiant contradiction to everything we can see and experience. That's the promise of hope.
Jeffrey Heine:This hope, this image of a wasteland of stumps, a force ravaged and cut down by the wrath of God, the fury of his wrath has cut down all of the life. And yet there's another layer, a layer where the fury of God's love means that all is not lost because God is not done with his work. Out of that barren wasteland, life will spring forth. And not just any life, the light of life, the true light of the world by which we have life and have it abundantly. Hope's statement of promise, the hope in the stump of Jesse stands in contradiction to what we see and what we experience.
Jeffrey Heine:The hope of the Messiah, the righteous judge whose delight is in the fear of the Lord. He stands in direct contradiction to the reality that we see and we experience today. In other words, that day stands in defiant contradiction of today. And when we behold the prophecy of Isaiah, when we see the image of that day, there are eyes staring back at us, unexpected, veiled, obscured by time. They are the very eyes of Jesus.
Jeffrey Heine:He is the one who is looking back at us, who stands in the great contradiction. Jesus is that hope that opposes the reality that we experience today in our broken world. And the day that our soul awaits is the day of his great revealing. That is that day. That is the day that you have longed for.
Jeffrey Heine:Whether you know it or not, whether you've cared or not, whether you call yourself a follower of Jesus or not, your soul has been longing for that day since your days began. And at his revelation, when that day finally comes, Isaiah says that God already knows how all of the children of the Lord are going to respond. When that day comes, God already knows how you are going to respond. And he says through Isaiah, you will sing. When you see the great revealing of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the branch from the stump of Jesse, when you see him in the fullness of the spirit ushering in the new heavens and the new earth, When you see him on that day, you will sing.
Jeffrey Heine:And the Lord not only knows that you will sing, he knows what you will sing. He knows the lyrics. And through the prophet Isaiah, God declares in chapter 12 at verse one, you will say in that day, I will give thanks to you, oh Lord, for though you were angry with me, your anger turned away that you might comfort me. Behold, God is my salvation. I will trust and will not be afraid for the Lord God is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation.
Jeffrey Heine:With joy, you will draw water from the wells of salvation. And you will say, in that day, give thanks to the Lord, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the peoples, proclaim his name is exalted, Sing praises to the Lord for he has done gloriously. Let this be made known in all the earth. Shout and sing for joy, oh inhabitant of Zion, for great in your midst is the holy one of Israel. God already knows the words of the song that you will sing from the depths of your being.
Jeffrey Heine:Head back, eyes closed, not searching for the lyrics, not guessing the melody, not worrying about who might see you worship with such passion and abandon, but singing with all that you are as you were made to be. You will sing with all joy, drawing water from the wells of salvation, drawing the living water which will never run dry. And surprisingly, the song begins with a shameless, brazen acknowledgment of guilt. For though you, God, were angry with me, your anger turned away that you might comfort me. The lyrics depict that the forgiven, those who are forgiven, have no fear in acknowledging their guilt or confessing their sin.
Jeffrey Heine:No fear because God's righteous anger at sin and his justice, he has put them away. They have turned away so that God would comfort you. His anger is turned away. But where? Where has God's wrath gone so that we might receive his comfort?
Jeffrey Heine:In the New Testament, the apostle Paul describes this turning away of God's wrath in his letter to the Thessalonians saying to them in chapter one, you, those believers in the Thessalonians, you turned to God from idols to serve the living and the true God and to wait for his son from heaven whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come. It's through Jesus, the promised Messiah, the branch from the stump of Jesse, that God turns his wrath away from us that we might receive his comfort. But he doesn't just put it away. Paul goes on to say to the church in Thessalonians, for God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died so that whether we awake or are asleep, we might live with him. That is how you will be able to sing because the wrath was turned away and turned onto Christ.
Jeffrey Heine:It is because of Jesus that Isaiah could foretell that one day we will sing these words of ultimate deliverance. We will say in that day, give thanks to the Lord and call upon his name. Make known his deeds among the peoples. Proclaim his name is exalted. God says through Isaiah, I know what you will sing.
Jeffrey Heine:I can already hear your voice. I can already see you rejoicing in that day that is to come, and you will declare with joy. You will sing praises to the Lord for he has done gloriously. That means that in this image of that day that that Isaiah is painting for us, not only is Jesus layered into that painting, but so are you. You are in this picture too.
Jeffrey Heine:You're there in that crowd of the redeemed. You are among the rescued people of God singing the praises of your deliverer. That is your voice echoing off the pages of Isaiah's prophecy because it is your voice, your praise that he is describing here. You are declaring that God has done gloriously, that he has turned his anger and his righteous judgment away from you and onto this Messiah so you might receive the comfort of God forever. That is the day that you long for, when the fullness of Christ and his kingdom comes to make all things new.
Jeffrey Heine:And we join in the song of the redeemed, making known God's deeds among the people and letting the praises of the Lord be made known throughout the earth. But as we long for that day and we await that day, what are we supposed to do today? One of the best books that I've read this year besides The Lorax is a book called A Quiet Mind to Suffer With. It's written by John Andrew Bryant. And if you've been around me much the past couple of months, you've probably heard me talk about it.
Jeffrey Heine:The book is a memoir about Bryant's journey through mental illness and his faith in Jesus. After an emergency stay in a psychiatric hospital and a diagnosis of obsessive compulsive disorder, Bryant describes his desire amid his current affliction and present suffering. He desires to grow in trust and his dependence upon Jesus. And he writes these words, quote, how could a simple trust in Christ be both deepened and expressed in a broken, ordinary world? If defending myself and figuring things out and making things right were how I depended on myself, then how was I supposed to depend on Christ for the rest of my life?
Jeffrey Heine:And how had Christians done this throughout the centuries? Well, it took a long time, and I did not learn it all at once, but I began to learn that an ordinary life of regular worship was what I could do with the trust I had in Christ. It was how Christians had depended on Christ for thousands of years, and more importantly, how Christ could be depended upon, end quote. An ordinary life of regular worship. It was in the midst of brokenness and suffering that Bryant learned that worship was the way to deepen trust and to depend on Christ.
Jeffrey Heine:Instead of defending himself, instead of figuring things out, instead of trying to make things right in his own strength, it was worship that fostered dependence and faith. What do we do while we are waiting on that day to come. We worship. We rehearse the hymn of that day. And in our rehearsing, we learn to trust and to not be afraid.
Jeffrey Heine:We give thanks to the Lord, and we call upon his name. We make known his deeds among the peoples, and we proclaim that his name is exalted, and we do it together. This is how we teach our hearts to expect that day and all that God calls for us to hope. And in our rehearsing of the hymn of that day, in our trusting without fear, in our thanksgiving, we are preparing for that day when Christ our king returns with the fullness of his kingdom because God has made life to spring up in the wasteland of our brokenness. He has given us the promised messiah and put a new song in our mouths so we may spend every day between this day and that great day rehearsing this song of praise to our great God.
Jeffrey Heine:So let's go to him now in prayer. Lord, by your spirit, help us to trust you more, to love you more, to adore you more, to set our affections and our attention on you, Jesus, that we might learn to worship. May these words found here in the prophecy of Isaiah, by your spirit, would you use them to teach us how to sing? We pray these things in the name of the father, the son, and the holy spirit. Amen.
Jeffrey Heine:Another way that we worship, another way that we rehearse, another way that we prepare and ready our hearts, another way that we live in this hope that stands in contradiction to everything that we see. The Lord is kind because he knows that we're a forgetful people. And so he's given us a table to remember, a way in which we can come back time and again and remember the hope of his promises. Just as we look forward to the second advent, that great day, we also remember the first advent of Christ, his first coming when he took on our sin that we might walk in the newness of life. Paul wrote to the Corinthian church these words, for I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you.
Jeffrey Heine:That the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed, he 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. In the same way, he also took the cup and saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often you drink it in remembrance of me. The apostle Paul told the Corinthians that as often as you do this, as often as you eat this bread and you drink of this cup, you proclaim Christ's death until he comes again, which tells us many things, but two to highlight.
Jeffrey Heine:One, we do this regularly to remember. It tells us that he's coming again, which means that this meal has a shelf life. It means that this meal has an ending. We come and we take of this bread and we take of this wine and we proclaim his death until he comes again, And this meal ends and the great wedding feast of the lamb begins. This is temporary.
Jeffrey Heine:And so we come to it. And it is my prayer that as you make your way from wherever you are seated, that every step as you come down this way and down these center aisles and you break off a piece of the bread and you dip it in the cup and you receive it, And every step as you walk back these outer aisles back to where you were seated, that every step would be a step of confession and a step of hope, a defiant, contradicting hope, That the hope that is set before you in Christ Jesus is greater than the reality that you can see and experience in front of you right now. So may we join in that defiant hope together, and may the Lord bless these common elements of bread and wine to nourish our souls. Let's ask Him that together. Oh, Lord, would you take this bread and would you take this cup?
Jeffrey Heine:And would you make for them a sustenance for our very souls to remind us to awaken in us, to stir in us a resilient hope in Jesus. Oh Lord, would you meet us by your spirit in these common things that we might know again that we are your children through the body and the blood of Jesus. We pray these things in his name. Amen.
