John Pt. 8 | John 2:1-12

All right, if you please will join me in the Gospel of John. We will begin chapter 2 this morning.

The Gospel of John, chapter 2, verses 1 through 12. Join me as I pray.

O God, again we come to you this Lord's day, your day, the day that you have made.

We have come to that portion in our service where your word is proclaimed, explained.

Lord, please as I expound on your word, speak to your people through me.

Lord, I pray that I have done my due diligence and that today if there be any here in this small congregation that don't know you, we pray that you grant to them faith to believe.

In Jesus' name, amen. So in chapter 1, we saw the witness of Jesus Christ.

Verses 1 through 18, we saw the Apostle John, the disciple whom

Jesus loved, proclaim that Jesus is the word. And it gave us the

Greek word logos, that he was, speaking of the word, the logos,

Jesus, that he was from the beginning, meaning that he always was.

There was never a time when he was not. And that he was with God and that he was

God, that God was this word, this logos that John is trying to proclaim.

And we saw that he is the creator of all things and that he, being the creator of all things, enters into creation in verse 14.

And in verses 19 through 36, we see the witness of John the

Baptist. And his actual witness was from verse 29, seeing

Jesus and coming toward him. He said, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

It's repeated in verse 35. John sees Jesus and he knows the

Paschal Lamb, the Passover, this festival that they celebrate year after year.

They reenact this ceremony. He sees Jesus and he knows that the reenactment is over.

The one who was proclaimed from the beginning, his coming, and all these things that we rehearse is over.

And in verses 36 through 51, we have the witness of the disciples.

And their witness of him, Jesus, is that he is a teacher. Remember, they never heard him teach and they called him a rabbi, and that he was the

Messiah, the long -awaited Messiah, that he was the son of God, deity, and that he was the king of Israel.

Speaking of his Davidic lineage coming into the world, they knew that the true son of David is here.

And also in these verses, we have the witness of Jesus himself. He himself says of himself, his witness of himself is that he is the son of man.

This is a messianic title that he gives himself. You call me the Messiah by him saying that he's the son of man, he's agreeing.

Yes, I am the Messiah. We also saw the witness of Scripture concerning Jacob's dream from chapter 28 of Genesis.

I mentioned last week how this was a prophetic witness of Jacob's ladder.

Jacob has a dream as he's running from his brother. He's running from his brother, afraid of his brother because he has stolen his birthright.

He has taken the blessing from his father. In fear of his life, he runs.

He's going to a land that's not his land. He's tired. He finds a rock.

He sleeps, and he has a dream, and there's a dream of a ladder, and it's resting on the earth, but its tops reach heaven, and the angels are able to ascend and descend upon that ladder.

And Jesus, whenever he is speaking to Nathanael, who was witnessed to by Philip, Jesus tells

Nathanael that he saw him while he was under the fig tree. And Nathanael believed, and he called him,

Rabbi, teacher. He's never heard him teach. You are the son of God. You are the king of Israel. And Jesus answered him, because I said that I saw you under the fig tree, you believe.

Do you believe? You will see greater things than these. And he said to him, right here, my opinion, pointing back to this dream that Jacob had, truly, truly,

I say to you, you will see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the

Son of Man, meaning you haven't seen anything yet.

Nathanael would go on to follow Jesus, and he would see these wonderful things done by Jesus.

And so our theme for this Lord's Day is simply what we have come to. This is his first sign.

The book of John is about the signs that Jesus performs. It's not about every sign that Jesus performs, but it outlines signs that he's performed.

And this is the very first sign. And the sign is that Jesus is going to turn water into wine.

And my proposition is this. Listen, the first sign of Jesus's ministry correlates with the crucifixion.

So that's my proposition. The theme is the first sign. My proposition is that this first sign correlates with the final great sign.

John Calvin says, quote, wine was an important element of the

Israelites' Passover feast. But at the Lord's Supper, Jesus gave wine a new significance.

He made it a symbol of his life -giving blood. Thus, the redemption of Christ was foreshadowed in the very first miracle he performed.

Now, before entering this text, this has always been my thought process of this.

And I'm going to be honest with you, I was a little terrified that I wasn't going to be able to find someone in church history who agreed with me.

But if you know me well, Calvin's always my go -to guy, my first go -to guy. It turns out

Calvin was on board. Thank you, God. My go -to guy was with me.

His first sign foreshadows, I mean, the crucifixion of Christ was foreshadowed in the very first miracle he performed.

Our redemption, listen, our redemption is through the gospel. It is through the blood of Jesus Christ.

Now, look with me at our text, John 2, verses 1 through 12.

On the third day, there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.

Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples. And when the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him,

They have no wine. And Jesus said to her, Woman, what does that have to do with me?

My hour has not yet come. His mother said to his servants, do whatever he tells you.

Now, there was six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding 20 to 30 gallons.

Jesus said to the servants, fill the jars with water. And they filled them to the brim.

And he said to them, now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast. So they took it.

And when the master of the feast tasted the water, now became wine, become wine, and did not know where it came from, though the servants who drew the water knew.

The master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, Everyone serves the good wine first.

And when people have drank freely, then the poor wine, but you have kept the good wine until now.

This is the first sign Jesus did at Cana in Galilee and manifested his glory.

And his disciples believed in him. After this, he went down to Capernaum with his mother and his brothers and his disciples.

And they stayed there a few days. Now, in our outline, we will emphasize a wedding, a sign, and the significance.

Point number one, a wedding. Point number two, a sign. And point number three, the significance of these things.

And as we transition, when interpreting, listen, when interpreting the book of John, the gospel of John, John, unlike some of the letters, has a literal context, right?

John has a literal context, but it also has a spiritual meaning.

And we saw this in baptism. Whenever it was, was it last week or the week before, we saw, no, it was the week before, that baptism, when we looked in the book of Matthew, it explained it more, that baptism represented water, the

Holy Spirit, and then there was fire. The way of baptism was you were literally baptized into water, but then there was also a

Holy Spirit baptism and a spiritual baptism. I mean, and a fire baptism.

And all this was spiritual. It was more of a, of a figurative speaking. And I mentioned that as Reformed believers, we see baptism as the sign of the new covenant.

So there is a literal and there is a spiritual. And we will see this concern in the temple versus the body of Jesus next week.

Just to give you a quick preview, in John chapter 2, beginning in verse 19,

Jesus answered them, destroy this temple and in three days,

I will raise it up. The Jews then said, it has taken 46 years to build this temple and you will raise it up in three days?

21st 21, but he was not speaking about the temple, but he was speaking about the temple of his body.

And when therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he said this and they believe the scriptures and the word that Jesus has spoken to them.

So there was a literal temple at this time. Jesus was in the temple.

He's clear in the temple. And Jesus said, destroy this temple and I will raise it up in three days.

So there was a literal meaning and there was a figurative meaning, a spiritual meaning that it's speaking about the temple of Jesus Christ.

Jesus is the temple. He is the third temple, some would say. If you have the

Holy Spirit in you, you are a temple of God. We also see this in the new birth.

Jesus tells Nicodemus, unless a man is born again, he cannot see with cannot see the kingdom of God, nor can he enter the kingdom of God.

You have the first birth, a natural birth. You're born into the earth.

But Jesus says that's not good enough. This literal birth that you are part, you know, that happens to you.

That doesn't get you in the kingdom. Something else has to happen. A spiritual birth.

You must be born again. You must be born from above. And on and on, the gospel of John is going to do stuff like this.

You're going to see a literal context, but you're going to have a spiritual meaning from the literal context and so on and so forth.

So at our first point is a wedding. And it's from John chapter two, verses one through five.

But in order for a Jewish wedding to take place, certain things had to be in order.

The two parties, the bride and the groom, had to be betrothed to one another.

This is similar to our wedding vows of today. Without the consummation, right?

Without the consummation. In order to be unbetrothed, one would have to get a certificate of divorce.

So this is not like dating. People meet today, they date for a period of time.

In mine and my wife's case, not that much time. And then they get married. Today, you can date someone and then if it don't work out, then you just stop seeing one another.

Not so in biblical times. You were betrothed together.

And this was very similar to the wedding vows. You could be married without what we would think being married is.

You had to, in order to be unbetrothed, you had to have a certificate of divorce.

The consummation itself would take place, wouldn't take place until after the wedding celebration.

And after the two parties were betrothed together, the woman would remain with her family while the man would also return to his father's house.

And when he returned to his father's house, he had to build on to his father's house.

He couldn't move in with his wife to his father's house, right? Like, how are you going to, as a husband, be the man of the house, the ruler of the house when you're in your father's house, who is the ruler of his house, right?

There can't be two rulers in one house. And so he would have to build a house on to his father's existing house.

The Jewish tradition says that this took about a year. Also, what would take place is not only at this time, but before this time and as preparation for the wedding, they would save up wine.

So the guy, the bridegroom and his family, his father, his mother, all of them, it was their responsibility to store wine for the celebration of the wedding.

And after these preparations were made, the house is built on to his father's existing house, the wine for the wedding celebration is saved up.

Then the bridegroom would go to receive his wife unto himself that where he is, she can also be.

Hence the wedding celebration. Now, beginning in verse one, we'll read to verse five.

On the third day, there was a wedding celebration at Cana in Galilee. And the mother of Jesus was there.

Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples. And when the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, they have no wine.

Jesus said to her, woman, what does this have to do with me?

My hour is not yet. His mother said to his servants, do whatever he tells you.

So right off the bat, it begins with saying on the third day, this would have been a Tuesday. Biblical times, there was no

Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. These are names given after the

Greek portion, and they're named after supposed Greek gods. At this time, it was just day one, day two, day three, day four, day five,

Sabbath. I mean, day six and Sabbath. So Sunday, which also would have been a

Sabbath. I mean, I'm sorry, Saturday was their Sabbath, but Sunday was day one, Monday was day two, and then

Tuesday was day three. So this was a Tuesday. Their wedding celebrations would last up to around seven days, three to seven days.

And so we have them at a wedding, and there wasn't enough wine. Again, granted, this celebration was probably around seven days.

So just imagine you're at a celebration, and you think you have enough wine. Hundreds of people show up from your clan, from the tribes that you're in, and the mindset of this culture at this time was if the bridegroom was unable to have enough wine at the wedding, how would he be able to provide for his wife?

Hence the importance of his whole family saving up, storing up wine for this one celebration that could last up to seven days.

And if they were to run out of wine, it would bring shame upon him and shame upon his family.

And the mother of Jesus may have found out about this, maybe she knew the bridegroom's family, but somehow she found out about this before maybe the word got around, before shame came upon him, before people started looking down at their nose at him.

Mary, the mother of Jesus, finds out about it. Hence the urgency that she has coming to her son.

By this time, her husband, Joseph, is believed to be dead.

So she goes to her oldest son, this being Jesus, knowing that somehow he could solve this problem.

But the scriptures tells us that this was his first miracle. So it's not like she's hanging out with Jesus daily, and he's just over there pulling rabbit out of hats, right?

He wasn't doing, performing magic tricks. But somehow she knew that Jesus could solve this problem.

And maybe she's went to him before with problems, and he was able to solve them just by figuring things out.

I know that I can sometimes be pretty good at this. I can fix stuff with tape, right?

Or, you know, like, you know, I got daily in a costume one year, last year, and something broke on it, like the whole costume just fell apart.

It was like an air cycle costume, where as long as the pump was going, then he was this big old dinosaur.

But the pump falls off of the dinosaur, and I'm just looking around, and with arm's distance, I'm able to grab something, wrap it up real good, and it's fixed, right?

I was able to solve this problem that was happening. Maybe Jesus was one of those kind of guys, right?

He was just able to, with his mindset and with things that were around him, I mean, he was a carpenter, he worked with his hands.

You know, I see this, you know, working with Robert. Robert, you know, he just, he has this way where he, you know, if something isn't right, he does something else, right?

He doesn't let not having something, the right something, interfere with the job that needs to be done.

Maybe Jesus was one of these guys, and his mother knew it. But Jesus' response to her, look at verse four.

He said to her, woman, what does this have to do with me?

My hour has not yet come. Jesus responds with woman.

Some people see this and interpret it that Jesus is being rude to his mother.

John MacArthur actually goes so far as to say that this was him departing from his mother in the way that he was no longer dealing with her as mother and child have relationship together.

This was him saying, I'm no longer your son. What does this have to do with me?

Though I do not hold that view. Quarterly at this time, calling a woman, woman, is not a bad thing.

As far as I can tell by digging into the history, it's actually a good thing. Because that meant that you are identifying them in their existence.

Women were often overlooked at this time. You didn't really pay too much attention to women.

You know, like we joke around today, right? There's sometimes like you see memes going around, you know, there's jokes about women and sandwiches.

You know, I got me a sandwich maker and you're hugging your wife, right? Like it's just jokes, but it wasn't a joke at this time, right?

They were serious. Women didn't count for much at this time. And when you identified the female sex as a woman, it was a way of acknowledging their existence because they were often overlooked.

And also in that day, using the word woman was used in the same way that we would use the word ma 'am today.

It was a way to respect them, not disrespect them. Jesus addressed the woman at the well in chapter four in the same way as woman.

If you turn to chapter four, verse 21, all throughout this story, it calls her the woman at the well.

It never gives her name. Jesus in verse 21 says this, Jesus said to her, woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the father.

He acknowledges her as a woman. As well as his own mother again at the cross,

Jesus is on the cross, his beloved disciple John is there. Jesus says to her, woman, behold your son, meaning that John was going to now be the one taking care of her, looking after her.

So why would Jesus depart relationship with his mother at that point? Like John MacArthur says, whenever at his crucifixion, he says, woman, behold your son.

He's given her someone who's going to look after her, to have a relationship with her that would take care of her like the older son is supposed to do.

His response to his mother also shows that the mother and himself were not kin to the bridegroom.

Again, look at verse four, and Jesus said to her, woman, what does this have to do with me?

My hour has not yet come. If they were family, if they were kin to the bridegroom, not only, remember, not only would shame fall upon him, but shame would fall upon his family.

Jesus is saying, listen, just because he's running out of wine doesn't mean shame is going to come upon us.

The actual Greek rendering here says this, what is this to you, to me?

So you can read this in several different translations, and it's kind of, it's really hard to translate this into an

English rendering that we understand. But Jesus is basically saying, what is this to you and to me?

We're not kin to these people. Shame is not going to come to us.

Their running out of wine is not our problem, but he also responds to my hour has not yet come.

The mother of Jesus is asking him to do something about wine, and Jesus responds about talking about his passion, his crucifixion.

Jesus knew that wine ultimately pointed to his death.

Turn to John chapter 7. Again, this week,

I did not mark my Bible if I don't know what I'm doing here. Verse 30,

John chapter 7, verse 30. So they were seeking to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him because his hour had not yet come.

Chapter 8, verse 20. These words he spoke,

I mean, these words he spoke in treasure and taught in the temple, but no one arrested him because his hour had not yet come.

Chapter 13, verse 1. Now, before the feast of the

Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had not yet come, he departed out of the world to the father, having loved his own who were in the world.

He loved them to the end. So Jesus's response to his mother, what is that to me?

What is that to you? My hour has not yet come. She's speaking to him about the literal wine that is out right then.

We're in a situation. They have ran out of wine. We need to help Jesus, and his response is speaking about his passion, his going to the cross to shed his blood when he says, my hour has not yet come.

She's speaking about one thing. Jesus answers by speaking about another thing.

They're not in touch. They're not having the same conversation. She's speaking of the right now.

He's speaking of a divine something that's going to take place where the forgiveness of sins is going to be poured out through his blood.

Verse five, his mother said to the servants, do whatever he tells you.

She wasn't hearing it right. My son Jesus fixes problems.

Do whatever he tells you. Point number two, the sign.

This is found in verses six through ten. Let's just read verse six first. Verse six, now there were six stone water jars there for the

Jewish rite of purification, holding 20 to 30 gallons. So I want to talk about real quick, clay jars versus stone jars.

Now, it was clay jars that stored wine, not stone jars. It was clay jars. I think we all understand if you ever digged into the biblical text that it was clay that was used for all their vessels, right?

Their plates, their cups, even the vessels that were stored under their bed to use the bathroom in.

It was all clay vessels, nothing. It was not stone. Stone jars, however, were used for purification, for cleaning themselves.

Again, just look at our verse. Verse six, Jesus said to his servants, fill the jars of water.

I mean, verse six. I'm sorry, I was reading verse seven. Verse six, now there were six stone water jars there for the

Jewish rite of purification. So these water jars, like if you saw wine coming in water jars, like you should know this is something different.

This is not typical. Stone was used for water. Clay was used for wine.

Clay was used for everything outside of that purpose. So the bride and the groom would have had to purify themselves before the wedding, right?

Now, I would say that their purification would be different. They would have had to bathe themselves completely, as well as all the guests.

Not bathe themselves, but the guests would have had to wash their hands and their feet.

Jesus and his disciples were probably just getting to the wedding, being that they were so near to the purification area.

So as you would come in, before you would go into the wedding, there would be this huge area of water and these jars that you were able to wash yourself with, wash your feet with, wash your hands with.

Now, verses seven through ten, Jesus said to his servants, fill the jars with water.

They filled them up to the brim, and Jesus said to them, now draw some and take it to the master of the feast.

So they took it. And when the master of the feast tasted the water, now become wine.

And did not know where it came from, though his servants who drew the water knew it, knew the master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, everyone serves the good wine first.

And when people have drank freely, then the poor wine, but you have kept the good wine until last.

First thing to notice, Jesus here is creating something from nothing.

He's not just turning water into wine, but there is a great process in order to have wine.

First, you need seeds to sprout to vines, and then the vines have to be planted in the earth.

And then you would water the vines, which would produce the grapes. And the grapes would go through this great process before it was fermented and turned into wine.

And ladies and gentlemen, this was wine. This was wine.

This was not grape juice. With the climate in Israel, it is almost impossible, if not impossible, to make grape juice.

Some people say that water at this time was not good for drinking. So you had to take a little bit of wine and mix it with the water in order to purify the water.

So they believe that this wine, I mean, that these water pots were just, had a little bit of wine in them, but it was mostly water.

Just to purify the water in order to drink it. But ladies and gentlemen, this is not true.

Water at this time was drinkable. It was good. It was purifying your body.

People say this because they try to get away from the idea of it being truly wine. And at this wedding, they were drinking wine.

Jesus passes by the natural producing of wine.

No seeds, no vine, no earth, no grapes, no process. And He turns water into wine out of nothing.

Ex nihilo. Ladies and gentlemen, only God can create something out of nothing, out of speaking it into existence.

And we see this in John 1, verse 3. All things were made through Him.

And without Him, Jesus was not anything made that was made.

Jesus turning water into wine, bypassing the seed, bypassing the vines, bypassing the earth, the grapes, and in the process, turning it into wine was

Him saying, I am God. He spoke it into existence.

Ladies and gentlemen, this was the best wine. The master of the feast here would have been a modern day wedding planner.

Right? If you had a wedding, you had someone that was in charge, making sure everything went right, went correct.

We did. That's what the master of the feast was.

He was a modern day wedding planner. And look at verse 10 again. He said to him, so this is the master of the feast speaking to the bridegroom.

Everyone serves the good wine first. And when the people have drunk freely, then the poorer wine.

But you have kept the good wine until now. So Friday, me and Tony went and hung out.

We went to a one day conference. And on the way back was kind of discussing this. We were discussing this and he mentioned it with coffee.

Right? Oh, Tony and his coffee. He has the breakfast blend coffee first thing in the morning, the good stuff.

And then throughout the day, he'll take in the stuff that's not so good. Right? But first he wants his breakfast blend.

He wants the good stuff. Now, I'm not Tony, right? I was relating this to actually drinking, right?

You know, growing up, you know, partying. And I can remember having the, you know, the expensive beer or the expensive liquor.

And then after we drunk some, then we'd break out the nasty Boone's Farm, right? Or the

Mad Dog 2020 or the Red Dog Beer that just, or Bush, whatever.

That was just nasty. Right? But after, you know, you was already, you already, you was already buzzing.

So the bad stuff tasted pretty good, but you drank the good stuff first. And the master of the feast was like, man, you have saved the best for last.

You kept the good stuff until the rest of the other stuff, the bad stuff was gone.

I see what you're doing here. Right? He thought that he was just being played. I thought we ran out of wine.

Here you go, breaking out the good stuff. Now, I think there's something here concerning the best wine for last.

Now, I know the master of the feast was speaking about water being turned into wine. The literal thing that took place, but actually

I believe him to be prophesying in a way concerning the great sign that the wine represents.

And that takes us to our third point, the significance. We'll get this one verses 11 and 12, mostly in verse 11.

This is the first sign, excuse me, this, the first of his signs,

Jesus did in Cana of Galilee and manifested his glory and his disciples believed him.

And after this, he went to Capernaum with his mother and his brothers and his disciples. And they stayed there a few days.

So Jesus turning water into wine, the first of his signs, and it did two things according to the text.

So him turning water into wine does two things. It manifests as his glory.

First thing it does. First thing it does is it manifests as his glory. The second thing that it does, it causes his disciples to believe.

This is one of those things where when John was speaking to Nathaniel, you're going to see greater things than this.

You thought me seeing you under the fig tree was great. Just wait, just wait, just wait what you're about to see, what's about to be revealed to you.

It manifested his glory pointing to him being God because only God can create out of nothing, ex nihilo.

A lot of times when you're witnessing, when I'm witnessing and someone doesn't believe in a creator, you simply just ask them, well, can you, you know, like Ray Comfort, which

I've gotten this from him and used it plenty of times. I'd say, well, can you create a rose? Like, can you give me a rose out of nothing?

You being something, can you give me a rose? Of course they can't. As human beings, we cannot create something from nothing, but God did.

God created something from nothing. And if you're able to create something from nothing, ladies and gentlemen, you are showing that you are

God and that's what Jesus is doing here. His disciples believed because they were eyewitnesses of the sign of Jesus himself.

They have already made professions. They said, oh, teacher, Messiah, son of God, king of Israel.

Jesus makes something out of nothing, proving that he is God. The significance of this first sign points to his crucifixion.

Again, I'm going to read John Calvin. Quote, wine is an important element to the

Israelite Passover feast. Remember the Passover feast? But at the

Lord's Supper, Jesus gave the wine a new significance. He made it a symbol of his life -giving blood.

Thus, the redemption of Christ was foreshadowed in the very first miracle he performed.

What is he saying? That the Passover, John sees Jesus and he says, behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

How does he do this? By the shedding of his blood. Our sins are forgiven because of the blood that was shed for us.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, that blood can only do so much if it's not backed by the life that Jesus Christ lived.

He lived the perfect sinless life. The lamb had to be perfect. It had to be spotless.

They had to be no blemishes on it. Jesus is spotless. He's perfect. He had no sin blemish on him.

And John is pointed to the Passover. He's pointed to this first sign and he's foreshadowing it saying that this is speaking about the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

He is saying that the first sign points to the greater sign of Christ dying for our sins, being buried and rising again from the dead, which points us to the sacrament that we celebrate each and every week.

And you can be sure of this, that this wine that we partake in and that we celebrate

Christ with what Christ has done for us will never, listen, it will never be empty of its blessing as we partake in the supper, this supper that we will partake in as long as we're still waiting for Jesus to come.

It says, do this in remembrance of me as long as we're still doing this and remembering waiting for him to come.

It will never be empty of its blessing because Christ has saved the best wine for last.

And that was his life giving blood. So in the same way that the bridegroom would leave his bride, go to his father's house and add on to his house before coming again and receiving his bride unto himself, we see

Jesus doing the very same thing. John chapter 14, beginning in verse one, let not your hearts be troubled.

Believe in God, believe also in me, in my father's house are many rooms.

If it were not so, I would have told you that I go to prepare a place for you. He's building on to his father's existing house.

This is Jewish wedding language 101. And if I go to prepare a place for you,

I will come again and where I take you, I will come again and will take you to myself that where I am, you will be also.

The church is the bride of Christ and the wine that he stored up.

We celebrate every week during the Lord's Supper. We're not going to run out.

He has saved the best wine for last, and I'm available to anyone who wants to talk.

Pastor Cal and Josh. But just know this, that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried and on the third day he rose again.

And it's through what he has done, we have redemption. Let's pray. Father, Lord, in Jesus name.

I come to you and I thank you for what we are about to partake in the blood that was shed for us, the body that was broken for us and the blood that was shed for us.

What I thank you and what I just pray your blessings on this church that you will use us in this community and we can be a beacon, not only of light radiant from us, but people will know that this church will tell us the truth, even if it hurts.

And what I pray right now for those that are under the sound of my voice, that as they prepare themselves to partake in this wonderful, wonderful meal that you have given to us, that points us to what you have done, that you use it supernaturally to grow us in holiness.