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Acts 8:26-40
26 Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Rise and go toward the south1 to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is a desert place. 27 And he rose and went. And there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship 28 and was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah. 29 And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and join this chariot.” 30 So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” 31 And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. 32 Now the passage of the Scripture that he was reading was this:
“Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter
and like a lamb before its shearer is silent,
so he opens not his mouth.
33 In his humiliation justice was denied him.
Who can describe his generation?
For his life is taken away from the earth.”
34 And the eunuch said to Philip, “About whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” 35 Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus. 36 And as they were going along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?”2 38 And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. 39 And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing. 40 But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he passed through he preached the gospel to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.
[1] 8:26
[2] 8:36
(ESV)
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
Scripture is from, the book of acts chapter 8. It's verses 26 to 40. It's here in the 3rd page of, worship bulletin, if you wanna find it. Alright. Beginning in verse 26.
Speaker 1:Now an angel of the lord said to Philip, rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. This is a desert place. And he rose and went. And there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning seated in his chariot and he was reading the prophet Isaiah.
Speaker 1:And the spirit said to Philip, go over and join this chariot. So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, do you understand what you are reading? And he said, how can I unless someone guides me? And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. Now the passage of the scripture that he was reading was this, like a sheep he was led to the slaughter and like a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he opens not his mouth.
Speaker 1:In his humiliation, justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth? And the eunuch said to Philip, about whom I ask you does the prophet say this, About himself or about someone else? Then Philip opened his mouth and beginning with this scripture he told him the good news about Jesus.
Speaker 1:And as they were going along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, see here's water. What prevents me from being baptized? And he commanded the chariot to stop and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. When they came up out of the water, the spirit of the lord carried Philip away and the eunuch saw him no more and went on his way rejoicing. But Philip found himself at Azotus and as he passed through, he preached the gospel to all the towns until they came to Caesarea.
Speaker 1:The word of the lord.
Jeffrey Heine:Thanks be to god. If you would, pray with me. Our father, we thank you for your word. We thank you that you use your word through the power of your spirit to transform lives, and that is what we hope for tonight. Lord, we want to hear from you.
Jeffrey Heine:We want to meet with you. We want to be changed to become more like you. So god, in this moment, I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. But lord, may your words remain, and may they change us. And we pray this in the strong name of Jesus.
Jeffrey Heine:Amen. When I began studying, this text a few weeks ago, and just reading through acts 8 a number of times. A couple of things surprised me, as I was reading through it. A couple of curve balls. At least they were curve balls to me, and in my culture, they might not have been curve balls here.
Jeffrey Heine:But the first curveball came in verse 14. We didn't read it. Look look at verse 14 of chapter 8. It says, Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent to them Peter and John. Now the reason I found this somewhat surprising or a curveball is because at least how we operate today, it's the church leaders.
Jeffrey Heine:It's the church pastors who are the ones who are supposed to set the vision, and then they're supposed to blaze out the new territory, and then they're supposed to get the church to come and follow them, to to convince them to come and to go in this direction. But here you see the opposite happening here when the church moves into Samaria. You have the lay people of the church that God raises up and enables them, empowers them through his spirit, sends them off into Samaria. They go first, proclaiming the word of God just as they went in their businesses, in their homes. And, and God, his pours his spirit out and you, you have mass conversions here.
Jeffrey Heine:And it's when the report of those conversions came back to the leaders, came back to the apostles, then they sent Peter and John to come and to lead. But the work itself was started by the lay people, not by the leadership. And I remember as I was reading this, I was like, this is so opposite of how we operate today. In which usually churches look to their pastors, look to their leaders to set the vision for the church to boldly go in these new territories and then try to convince the people to go with them. And here we see the opposite.
Jeffrey Heine:And the reality is if the the lay people in the church, if they had just sat around waiting for the leadership to somehow organize its first mission trip into Samaria, Samaria would have been unreached. But thankfully, God put his spirit in these people. These normal people just serving and coming in part of the church to go, And then when God saw this being blessed, and the people the Apostle saw this being blessed, saw God's spirit in this, they came and they provided that leadership. And that was just such it's such a paradigm shift, I think, for how we typically view ministry should go. That that that's the first kind of curveball.
Jeffrey Heine:Philip to to leave a very thriving ministry and to go into the desert. Look at the description of Philip's ministry found in verses 6 and 7. Says in the crowds with 1 accord paid attention to what was being said by Philip when they heard him And they saw the signs that he did. For unclean spirits crying out with a loud voice came out of many who had them, And so Philip, he has this thriving ministry. People love.
Jeffrey Heine:They're flocking to come hear him speak. He's performing mighty signs and miracles, paralyzed people are being healed, lame people are walking. And it's obvious that God's spirit is at work, and then God says, okay. I want you to leave all of that. Leave where where you so clearly feel be that you're being used.
Jeffrey Heine:Where I'm so clearly working, and I want you to go to the middle of nowhere. An angel the Lord tells Philip in verse 26 to to rise and go south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. Luke adds I love it. He adds for, I think our benefit, the little detail that this is a desert place. This place is in the wilderness.
Jeffrey Heine:This place is in the middle of nowhere. It's the exact opposite of where Philip is is being called from, where he's being called to. And I couldn't help but think I don't I don't know how many of you have ever seen this happen, but typically when a pastor feels God's call to leave their present ministry and present church and to go to someplace else, typically it's a promotion or what they would see as a promotion. They're going to a bigger and better ministry, and they say God has obviously called me there. I've never, I should say never, I've rarely met a pastor from a larger influential church feel called to go to some podunk church in the middle of the country and to serve there.
Jeffrey Heine:It's usually not even an option, not even a consideration. But here, this is what we see God calling them to do. And what we see here, I believe, is the heart of God. We see the heart of Jesus who would leave the 99, and he would go after the 1. And you would see this over and over again in Jesus's ministry where he might be going through a town or a village, and the multitudes would be pressed up against him.
Jeffrey Heine:And it was in those moments when when people are pressed up against him, they they wanna hear him speak. They just wanna be near him that he would stop, and he would maybe look up and see a little outcast man up in a tree, and say, hey, when you come down, I'm gonna leave all these people, and can I come to your house for dinner, Zaccheus? And Jesus would model this over and over of leaving the 99 to go after the 1. And what we see in this story is that God is relentless in his pursuit of people, even one. He's relentless.
Jeffrey Heine:And here, Jesus is going to use Philip to go after 1 person. Philip's instructions are very specific. They're they're unusual. You know, he's to go south to this road, that desert road that's in Jerusalem to Gaza. Now if Philip is up in Samaria and he's got to go, which is north of Jerusalem, and he's got to go down this way, To leave this, to go to the middle of nowhere in the the blazing heat of day.
Jeffrey Heine:And he might be thinking this, but, he acts anyway. He immediately goes. When God says go, he goes. It doesn't Luke doesn't tell us what he was doing at the time. We don't know if he was just sitting around praying, if he was preaching, or if he was working.
Jeffrey Heine:We don't know what he was doing because Luke is trying to tell us that's not important. It does not matter what he was doing. When God calls you, you go. You drop whatever you're doing, and you go. We try to teach our kids that delayed obedience is disobedience.
Jeffrey Heine:It doesn't always work. We try to teach them this. But here you see just at that first go, he drops everything and he leaves. It's I don't know if you operate the same way I do, but I like to schedule my times with God. So I get up early in the morning, you know, and I've got this little window.
Jeffrey Heine:Like, God, I'm gonna read my Bible. I'm gonna pray. This is your window. This is your opportunity to speak to me. And, and a number of times he does, but I have found more often than that, it's usually when I am most busy.
Jeffrey Heine:It's usually when I'm like running in between meeting to meeting, and that's usually when I feel the impulse of the Holy Spirit telling me something to do something. It's usually at that time, those times, are you sure the timing's right? No. I can't believe the God who made time. I'm asking if the timing is right.
Jeffrey Heine:You know, he just he operates on a different calendar, in a different planner than I do. But when he says go, we go. And it's hard. I I recognize that this is hard. You know, scenario I I just kinda picked in my mind is, you know, this Saturday, if you're out raking your leaves and hear a voice saying, I want you to get in your car, hop on 4 59, get off at exit 118, go to Hueytown.
Jeffrey Heine:That's all you hear. I mean, if you just heard that, first you would think you were crazy, and you might be. I'm not saying if you hear that, you're not crazy. But but if after continuing to, you know, to pray that you're like, well, that's really I I think it might be the Lord. I'm supposed to get my car, hop on 4:59, go exit 118, get off at Hueytown.
Jeffrey Heine:You're gonna be thinking, well, what am I supposed to do when I get there? Who am I supposed to meet? Exactly, you know, what am I supposed to be doing? You're gonna want to know the answer to all of these questions, but God rarely ever gives those answers. He gives you those first steps.
Jeffrey Heine:Go. And I've heard, you know, many of us, many of including me, pray things like, God, I'm gonna follow you anywhere. Just tell me where, God. Tell me where I'm gonna go, and I will go. And tell me who I'm gonna work with, and tell me how I'm gonna make a living.
Jeffrey Heine:Tell me if I'm gonna find my spouse there. You know, you tell me all those things, and then I will go. I'm all in. God just says go. I think the, Christian life and life in the spirit can be summarized in the words used to describe Philip when it says he rose and went.
Jeffrey Heine:Verse 27. He rose and went. Galatians 516 says that since we live by the spirit of God, let us keep in step with the spirit. And that's what that's what the story is about, really. It's about keeping in step with the spirit of God is as he is moving, you are moving with him.
Jeffrey Heine:You're keeping in step with him. And you have to realize that not only is he walking with you, but god actually goes before you and prepares the way for when you get there. I think a lot of times Christians think they're bringing Jesus with them someplace. They're bringing the spirit with them someplace. You don't no.
Jeffrey Heine:God's already at work at where he's calling you to go and what he's calling you to do. You don't bring him. He's already working there preparing the way for when you go, and you see that so clearly in this story. As I was writing this, I was thinking about a number of years ago. I was shopping at some store.
Jeffrey Heine:Actually, I had to go pick up something. And, the guy over the counter, his name's Justin. And I never do this. I'm one of those people who I try to talk to as few people as possible when I go shopping. I don't like the chitchat with the people behind the counter.
Jeffrey Heine:I don't know what it is, but but I just I'm like, I just want to get in and out. And I'm there, and I'm waiting, and there's a guy on the other side of the counter, and I felt this little impulse saying, you know what? You should ask that guy out for lunch. See if he wants to get lunch with you. And I'm thinking, no, no.
Jeffrey Heine:I mean, I, I just, that is not me to just ask some total stranger if he wants to get lunch. And, and I really felt that impulse. And to to the point where I I thought this is gonna be disobedience if I don't. And then so I just kind of like, hey, I know it's I know it's late. You probably already had lunch.
Jeffrey Heine:You want to grab a bite? He's like, yes. That'd be fantastic. I was like, great. I mean, I was not at all that week, he came to the bible study that I was teaching.
Jeffrey Heine:2 weeks later, we prayed together for him to receive Christ. It was just one of those, oh my gosh. I would have never done that, but it was just that impulse, And I went and obeyed and I and I actually got to see the fruit of that. There was another time I was at the University of Georgia, and I felt pretty clearly that I was supposed to go downtown to the fountain. There's a fountain in Athens.
Jeffrey Heine:I was supposed to go downtown there and share my faith with somebody. And so, I went, and it was freezing cold. I can remember that, and I waited by the fountain. And I waited, and I kept waiting, and I'm trying to look if anybody's gonna come my way, and I waited for hours and nobody came. And this is what I learned from that.
Jeffrey Heine:I made a mistake. I was expecting some great huge story there. I was expecting, you know, man, this is this is what this is what God wanted me to do. This is where I was supposed to go. And and I was expecting something happen, and nothing happened.
Jeffrey Heine:And you know what? Looking back at that, I don't think I heard the Lord. And maybe it was indigestion, maybe it was, you know, just my my desire to want to do something great. I'm not sure what it was, but I still think it was a step of faith in me doing that and nothing happened. And and the point that I learned from the story is, who cares?
Jeffrey Heine:Who cares if occasionally you miss it? You absolutely miss it. Do you think God's up there going, what are you thinking? I mean, what I you missed it so clearly. Come on.
Jeffrey Heine:He's not doing that. You know, and at least by process of elimination, I've learned what God's voice does not sound like. And so later, when God tells me to ask a guy named Justin to lunch, I really felt, okay. This is a view. But I do think we need to be bold, and we need to we need to be open to making a fool of ourselves at times rather than risking nothing at all.
Jeffrey Heine:And you know what? You actually see the apostle Paul doing this at times. I know we like to think of the apostles as perfect. You know, they've got the direct phone, they pick up and they're like, God hits me again, give me my instructions for the day. And Paul made mistakes.
Jeffrey Heine:There were times that Paul did not hear the Lord clearly, and I find a great comfort in that. Flip over 8 chapters to acts 16. Go to acts 16. Verse 6. Says, and they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia.
Jeffrey Heine:And when they had come to to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia Bithynia, but the spirit of Jesus did not allow them. So passing by Mysia, they went to Troas and a vision appeared to Paul in the night. And a man of Macedonia was standing there urging him saying, and come over to Macedonia and help us. To them. You think?
Jeffrey Heine:Okay. I love this story because Paul, he's he's thinking, all right, I know I need to share the gospel. I'm not sure where. I think it's gonna be somewhere in Asia. And guy goes, no.
Jeffrey Heine:I'm sorry. You're not supposed to go in Asia. It's like, oh, okay. Alright. Well, now I'm gonna try Bethenia.
Jeffrey Heine:And it says that, no, the spirit kept him from going to Bethenia. And so now he's he's going to Troas and and I mean, he's he's like trying here close, Trying here close, and then finally, God's like, what do I have to do? I send you a vision. Alright. Here's a vision of a man from Macedonia saying, come here.
Jeffrey Heine:Paul's like, oh, I'm supposed to go to Macedonia. And he goes. Now, at no point is God up there saying, hey you you got it wrong. Sin, you know, I'm gonna smite you. You know, you got it wrong.
Jeffrey Heine:There's sin. No. Not at all. God never punishes anybody in the Bible for a mistake. You know, for sin there's gonna be discipline.
Jeffrey Heine:But here is just, it was a mistake, and he just keeps steering Paul, and he keeps steering Paul till finally he gets to Macedonia. As long as Paul, out of faith, is moving and wanting to honor Jesus and his decisions, God is gonna get him where Paul needs to be. The the analogy I like to think of is, you know, you ever been in a car and the car is not moving and you try to turn the steering wheel? You know, it's really hard to turn the steering wheel. But the moment the car is moving, it's just so easy.
Jeffrey Heine:And the Christian life is a lot like that. And so the moment you take that step of faith and you begin going, God can clearly direct you. No, Paul. You don't go there. No, Paul.
Jeffrey Heine:You don't go there. Paul, you go right here. As long as he's moving, God can steer him. But when you're sitting, it's so hard to turn. Now in this story, we see Philip trusting God's sovereignty, trusting his spirit, and then we see that when he gets to his destination, God has already been there before him preparing the way.
Jeffrey Heine:I mean, he gets to see god move in a extraordinary way. He sees this Ethiopian eunuch in a chariot. And God tells him to get close to the chariot. And so literally, he's keeping step with the spirit at this point. I mean, literally.
Jeffrey Heine:I mean, he he is he's, like, briskly walking or lightly jogging as he is next to the chariot going, God, what do I do? What do I do? And he hears the man reading, from a scroll from Isaiah, and then it clicks. So it's like, hey, do you understand what you're reading? And this Ethiopian eunuch says, well, how can I unless the money teaches me?
Jeffrey Heine:Come up here. And so Philip gets to come up there and to share with him Jesus. Now we learn a number of things about this Ethiopian eunuch just from the few sentences that Luke uses to describe him. He's from Ethiopia. That's, that's not the Ethiopia from today.
Jeffrey Heine:That's kind of southwest of Egypt is this region here. He would have been most likely a black African man. He worked for the queen as treasurer. And so the best way to think of him is like he's the minister of finance. So he is a really important person, a man of great means.
Jeffrey Heine:This position, however, came at an enormous cost, because if one wanted to work in close quarters with the queen or with any royalty, it was required that you had to be castrated. You had to become a eunuch. It was the only way they would trust you. And so this was a huge price to pay for such an honor, but it's one that he went through. And so he has given up a whole lot to be in the position that he is in.
Jeffrey Heine:And it would have all been worth it if he actually believed in the religion of his nation. You know, in the religion of his nation, they held the royalty. They they had held the royal family as gods and a way to serve and to worship the gods is by serving and worshiping the royal family. But he no longer believes this. He he is doubting his native religion, and we know this because And we know this because for starters, he owned a scroll, which was extremely rare and very expensive.
Jeffrey Heine:Not many people had scrolls, and he had somehow acquired his own scroll of Isaiah. And he is searching that. And second, he is taking an apparent leave of office to go on a 10 month spiritual journey because where he was at to Jerusalem is 5 months one way. So he's essentially taking a year off from his job to go on this pilgrimage. I mean, so he's spiritually bankrupt.
Jeffrey Heine:This guy is searching. And the text actually says that he is returning from Jerusalem, which means that he just got some devastating news. If he is returning from Jerusalem, he he has got to be devastated because when he would have arrived in Jerusalem and tried to go to the temple grounds, he would have found these Levitical guards guarding it. And the best thing that he could have hoped for was as a Gentile, he would have been allowed into the court of Gentiles. But because he was a eunuch, Deuteronomy 23 forbids any eunuch on the temple grounds.
Jeffrey Heine:And so he would have taken this 5 month pilgrimage there, spiritually searching. He would have gone up and they would have said, I'm sorry. You have to turn around and go home. I mean, he would have been devastated at this point. I mean, it's it's hard to imagine exactly how destroyed he must have feel, I felt.
Jeffrey Heine:I mean, he is thrown away 10 months of his life. He's been castrated all for a religion he didn't even believe in. I mean, he's given away everything. And by everything, I mean everything. Probably the most important thing in that culture was the ability to have children, and he's thrown that away.
Jeffrey Heine:We we've looked at this in the past as we've gone through Genesis, and we've gone through other other studies. But having children in this culture, it wasn't like we kind of approach it today. You know, married couples are like, do you wanna have kids? Do you not wanna have kids? That was not an option.
Jeffrey Heine:You had as many children as possible, because you needed children to help with your crops, you needed children to be part of the army, you needed to try to out populate all of the neighboring tribes and and countries. And you would need at least 8 to 10 children just in the hopes that 3 or 4 of them would survive in order to take care of you in your old age. You had to have children. And also without children, your name died with you. Your your name, you know, was was your reputation, and you worked so hard on that reputation and that name to be able to hand it down and to hand it down.
Jeffrey Heine:And without children, your name dies. And so we we see this here in this eunuch. We we see a man who's given up everything. Everything that people that they built their entire identity in their life on. He's given that up and for what?
Jeffrey Heine:For what? He no longer believes the religion of his country, and he's just been rejected in this pilgrimage that he's gone to. He he's he's having now this identity crisis, and he turns to Isaiah 53, which is how we know God is at work because God leads him right to this passage. There is there's there's no better passage for him than Isaiah 53, which is about the suffering servant. And he read let let me read.
Jeffrey Heine:I wanna go actually to Isaiah, and I'm gonna read it from there. Isaiah 53 verse 5 through 8, it says, but he was wounded for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. And we, like sheep, have gone astray.
Jeffrey Heine:We have turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth like a lamb that has led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that is before shears is silent. So he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away.
Jeffrey Heine:As for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people. And it's no coincidence. Like, that's that's just he he's he's reading Isaiah 53. If you read just the the next the next verse here, in verse 10, it says this. It says that, yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him.
Jeffrey Heine:He has put him to grief when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring. He shall prolong his days. And so here this Ethiopian eunuch, he's reading about this person who has had this horrible injustice. He is suffered unlike any other person. He's killed for it and yet, it says he shall see his offspring.
Jeffrey Heine:Yet he shall prolong his days. And so he's got to be really puzzled. What in the world is this talking about? That this man could be cut off from the living. So this how how is this man gonna see his children?
Jeffrey Heine:He's cut off from the living. He he he can't. And then he come to Isaiah 54, and there's an original scrolls. There's no breaks. There's no chapters.
Jeffrey Heine:And hear this from Isaiah 54 verse 1, which comes right after this. Sing, oh barren one who did not bear. Break forth into singing and cry aloud, you have not been in labor. For the children of the desolate one will be more than the children of her who is married, says the lord. And so he's gotta be reading this, and, like, what what do you mean?
Jeffrey Heine:How can a barren one sing? Barren people can't sing because you've got nothing. You have no name that lasts. You don't have any children to take care of you. Barren people don't sing.
Jeffrey Heine:And yet here it is, rejoice. So so how is it that a barren person can sing? Well, she can't sing unless, in this passage you see children. The children it's talking about is just being given something of such great value. Something as having more value than children.
Jeffrey Heine:A barren person can sing if they're given something that is even greater than children. What is that? What is that? The Ethiopian, he wants he he wants to know what is this? What makes this possible?
Jeffrey Heine:And so Philip gets up there and says, hey. Let me tell you, it's about Jesus. It's about Jesus. Jesus, he's a suffering servant here. He was the victim of incredible injustice.
Jeffrey Heine:He was the lamb led to the slaughter. He was the one taken before his accusers and did not open his mouth. He was the one wounded for our transgressions. He was the one who was crushed for our iniquities. And it was through his punishment that it has removed our shame.
Jeffrey Heine:Through his punishment, it has removed our hopelessness. And Christ is resurrected. And if we trust and if we believe in him, that is what we build our identity on. That hope. That resurrection, and then you will sing.
Jeffrey Heine:Can you imagine that that eunuch hearing this? Who's thrown away everything, and he thinks it's for nothing, and then he says, Wait, there's another person who had his very life taken for me. It looked like his life was thrown away, but you know what? God raised him from the dead. And if I believe in him, if I trust him as Lord, I will be raised from the dead and I will sing.
Jeffrey Heine:I will sing. That's something which you could build your life on, and it utterly transforms him. And he says, here's water. Can I be baptized? Can I be baptized?
Jeffrey Heine:And so we see from this story. It's just I I love it. Just the the sovereignty of God and and salvation here, and he just there's one. There is one hurting individual over here who needs to know me. Philip.
Jeffrey Heine:I know you've got a thriving ministry. It's not about you. It's about me. They can spare you. Go here.
Jeffrey Heine:Tell this one person, this this barren one, that I can make him sing. Pray with me. Lord Jesus, we, we so often build our identity on so many things, on our careers. We build them on our reputation, our wealth, our status. Lord, all those things can crumble and one day will crumble.
Jeffrey Heine:But if we build our lives on you, then nothing can shake us. Lord, I thank you that you went to the depths for us, that you suffered incredible violence and injustice on our behalf. There is no suffering that we experience that you did not experience to the depths. Lord, you came out of it victorious. And if we build our life on that, we will never ever be shaken,
Connor Coskery:and we will sing.
Jeffrey Heine:We thank you for this, and we pray this all in your name and for your glory. Amen. I wanna take time to remember this as we partake in communion. We do have words that we use to to remember Jesus. We sing songs, but Christ, on the night that he was betrayed, he set up a meal by which we will remember him.
Jeffrey Heine:Something tangible that we can have to to remember his life and his death, the salvation he gives. On the night that Jesus was betrayed, it says that he took bread and he broke it. And he said, this is my body broken for you. In the same way he took the cup and poured the wine. He said, this wine is the blood of the new covenant.
Jeffrey Heine:This is his blood spilled out for our forgiveness. He said, As often as you eat of this bread and you drink of this cup, you proclaim his death until he comes. And that is what we're gonna do in this moment. This table here is, it's not a denominational table. It's, you know, not a Methodist or a Baptist or Presbyterian table.
Jeffrey Heine:This is for all baptized believers who have placed their faith and their trust in Jesus as Lord. And this is how we're gonna take you to come as as you feel led. Don't sit there and think, okay. I've got to, you know, try to confess every sin. I've got to try to make my my life right somehow before I come because then you don't understand what this is about.
Jeffrey Heine:Because this is not about what you do, it is about what Christ has done. And it's that Christ has provided your forgiveness, and it's that Christ's righteousness has been transferred to you, and it's not about what you do. And we remember that as we come. And so we're gonna have 2 lines. We're gonna have a line down here and and a line there.
Jeffrey Heine:And if you would, just take off a piece of the bread and dip it and and take. And then you can return, to your seats this way. And we're gonna take some time to worship as we do this. And if you want to pray, if you wanna pray, we don't have any fancy kneeling benches or anything, but if you wanna come over here and kneel by the stage, if you wanna go into another room, whatever you wanna do, just take this time to worship and to pray to the Lord.