Luke 20:27-47

Discussion Questions

• Who were the Sadducees, and what did they believe about the resurrection? How were they alike or different from the Pharisees?
• How does Jesus use the account of Moses and the burning bush to argue for the resurrection?
• Are we guilty of being pharisaical in certain ways? Do we have our versions of long robes, greetings, and seats of honor?
• What practical steps can believers take to guard against the hypocrisy Jesus warns about here?
• How does Psalm 110:1 support Jesus’ point about “David’s Lord”?

Transcript

We do study through books of the Bible by the power of the Spirit. If you want a paper copy slip up your hand; it’d be good to have a paper copy or a copy of some kind in front of you today as we open up God’s Word for us this morning. I want to welcome those who are worshiping with us online from Windsor, Ontario, Canada; from Quezon City, Philippines; Aurora, Colorado; Columbus, Ohio. I realized this week, Columbus, Ohio is where Jeni’s ice cream comes from. So, we are grateful for Columbus for many reasons. But we’re glad that those folks are worshiping with us today. I do love ice cream. May the Spirit of our Lord move among you.

If you’ve been with us in our study of The Gospel According to Luke over the past few weeks, you’ll remember that Jesus has recently entered into Jerusalem for the last time in His earthly ministry. In our text this morning, it is likely Tuesday of Holy Week, just three days away from when our Lord would lay down His life for the sins of the world, His body placed into a borrowed tomb. But we’re just five days away from that glorious Resurrection day when that tomb would no longer be needed. And so, we sing hallelujah. Our hope springs eternal because of that day. In the days leading up to what we call Good Friday, Friday of that week, the antagonism of the religious experts, the elites, is rising to its pinnacle. For a moment, I want to place us in this scene in first century Jerusalem, walking with Jesus as if we were in the crowds following Him and I’ll put this up on the screen.

So, Jesus enters Jerusalem, if you’ve been studying with us, He weeps as He nears Jerusalem, weeping because of the willful unbelief of so many, because of the judgment that is to come. And as soon as He gets into the city, He goes to the temple, and He cleanses the temple. They were making a mockery of this holy place of worship with corruption, with injustice towards the poor. The text says that after that point, they were seeking, the chief priests and the scribes, seeking to destroy Him. Then Jesus’ authority was challenged. How dare you come into this temple? Then they set a trap, questions about Caesar and taxes, and Jesus bested every single attempt and then the opponents were silenced. The word there literally could be translated “their energy had been sapped out of them.” They had no more words. The academics, the religious leaders, the scholars, no more words, can you believe that? They could not recognize the supreme mind of all created things was standing right before them.

And know that the Spirit of God would guard us from that today. Guard us from missing who He is in our midst, ignoring Him, turning away from Him. We should find it comforting in all those accounts there and what we’ll read today, that our Lord was and is so gracious, He’s patient, even long suffering, with those who have cold hearts who are uninterested in the treasure before them in Jesus. The mercy of our Lord is something to marvel at. Turn with me, if you would, to Luke, Chapter 20, verse 27. That’s where we’ll be today in our study. There’s yet one more group who comes to Jesus in a final attempt to discredit and to ridicule Him. And as is so often when we try to examine Jesus with our intellect, our worldly intellect, our worldly philosophy, He often responds by examining us spiritually. And we’ll see that here today. The grace of spiritual surgery, if you will, to reveal our greatest need. We have much to learn from Jesus together. If you would, allow me to pray a prayer of illumination as we open our Bibles.

Pray with me: Heavenly Father, we bow before Your presence this morning with our Bibles open. We ask that You would open Your Word to us and open us to Your Word. May Your Spirit convict us and comfort us and conform us, point us to Your Son, Jesus, in whose name we all said, amen. Luke, Chapter 20, verse 27: “There came to Him some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection, and they asked him a question saying, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, having a wife but no children, that man must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. Now, there were seven brothers; the first took a wife and died without children; and the second and the third took her, and likewise all seven left no children and died.” If I was the fourth or the fifth, I’d be skipping town, I don’t know about you. “Afterward the woman also died,” verse 32. Verse 33, here’s their question: “In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had her as wife.” So, let’s pause here just a moment and get some background.

It says there, verse 27, “There came to him some Sadducees…” We don’t actually have a lot of information about the Sadducees. This is in fact the only time they’re mentioned by name in The Gospel of Luke. They were the aristocrats. They were the elites. They were largely politically aligned with Rome. They were Jewish, yes, but they were on polar opposite ends of the spectrum from the Pharisees. The Pharisees over here essentially added to the Scripture, this is a painting with a broad brush, they added to the Scripture and the Sadducees over here subtracted from it. They either emphasized or only believed or only read the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Old Testament. And so, the Sadducees actually come to them with their Bibles open as it were. They come to Jesus, and they say, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us…” So, Moses is from the book, the first five books of the Bible, the ones that they actually affirmed and looked to, they come to them with their Bibles open.

And it tells us there though in verse 27, some Sadducees, here was their bedrock belief, those who deny that there is a resurrection. They didn’t believe in an afterlife. It was actually quite a dark belief. This idea that after death, there is nothing else. Quite a dark belief. In fact, that’s why they were sad, you see? I’m sorry. But look at 33, would you? In the resurrection, the Sadducees come to them, this is a cynical Bible study. They come to Him, think about a smirk on their face. They didn’t believe in any resurrection. They didn’t even believe in angels. They didn’t believe in demons or spirits. And so, their question to Him is with a smirk, with air quotes. “So, Jesus, in the resurrection, do you see how absurd this is, Jesus? That there is something after death?” Because what they’re referring to is Deuteronomy 25, something called levirate marriage. And the idea here is actually quite merciful. Back in the day in this agrarian economy, if a woman marries a man or a man marries a woman and the man dies and there’s no children, that woman can’t just go out and get a job. So, it was merciful for the brother of that man to marry her for two reasons. One, to give her provision, but two, to carry on his name, to keep the inheritance within the family. They were pulling from something they all understood, something that they affirmed, but it was cynical. They were trying to trap Jesus.

So, in the resurrection 33, air quotes, “Therefore whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had her as a wife.” This wasn’t a question about levirate marriage. This was a question to trap Jesus. It was a question even to score some points, probably against the Pharisees who did believe in the resurrection. So how does Jesus respond, verse 34? “And Jesus said to them, “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage. But those who are considered worthy to attain to that age,” you might highlight that, “Those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead,” so he’s undercutting their argument from the beginning. In the resurrection, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, 36, For they cannot die anymore.” Highlight that, underline that, there is such comfort here. Think about how dark their belief system was, and Jesus says, “No, you’re wrong. Death does not have the final word. There is no more death in the resurrection to come in the next age. 36, They cannot die anymore because they are equal or they are like the angels and our sons of God, like the angels in as much as they don’t die.”

There’s no more need for procreation. That’s how they’re like angels. They won’t become angels. We don’t become angels, but we’re like them at least in those senses, being sons of the resurrection, verse 37. “But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed,” so Jesus is going to their turf now, even Moses showed in the passage about the bush where he calls the Lord, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. “Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to him.” Verse 39, “Then some of the scribes,” the scribes would have been aligned with the Pharisees, opposing parties, one of the scribes pops up and says, “Teacher, you have spoken well,” perhaps with another smirk on their face. So, you scored some points against our enemy, the Sadducees. Verse 40, “For they,” meaning all of the whole group, “they no longer dared to ask him any question.” So now Jesus has a question to ask, verse 41. “But he said to them, ‘How can they say that the Christ is David’s son? For David himself says in the book of Psalms, “The Lord said to my Lord, ‘Sit at my right hand, “until I make your enemies your footstool.'” David thus calls him Lord; so how is he his son?”

Jesus here is quoting from Psalm 110. It’s a Messianic Psalm. They all would have known that Psalm was a Messianic Psalm and pointed forward to the Messiah. And Jesus here is setting a holy trap, if you will. How do they answer this question? David, in essence, is saying that Jesus is the one that he’s talking about. Jesus comes from the line of David, he is David’s son, but he’s also the son of God. That’s how David can call him Lord. What Jesus is saying to all of them in that space wherever they might find themselves there is, “Who do you say that I am?” It’s another opportunity for them to turn to him. Verse 45. “And in the hearing of all the people he said to his disciples, ‘Beware of the scribes who like to walk about in long robes, and love salutations in the marketplaces and the best seats and the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts, who devour widows’ houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.”

Jesus is giving us a warning here. Think about this. These scribes were exalting themselves in every sphere of life, in public spaces, in marketplaces, in church, the synagogues, at feasts, at parties, in homes, devouring homes. This insufficient view of the Word of God, which pointed forward to Jesus, both on the Pharisees’ side as well as the Sadducees, led to this kind of belief. Now, J.I. Packer said, “A bad theology hurts people.” And here we see the scribes devouring widows’ homes, the fruit of a life ignoring God and His Word. Jesus says, “I am the one that David is speaking of.” There’s a lot of hope here. This is the word of the Lord from The Gospel of Luke, and we all said, “Thanks be to God.” So, what do we see here? In The Gospel of Luke, this is the last line of questioning that we read from the religious leaders. Luke tells us there plainly, we read it earlier, for “they no longer dared to ask him any questions,” and that literally is the end of their questions. Their boldness had been sapped out of them. They were silenced. For Luke, this signals the end of public debate, and from now on, it’ll simply be public confrontation culminating in their demand for His crucifixion in just a few days. Don’t miss the mercy, the patience, the long suffering of our Lord under the most intense of public pressure.

The gospels of Matthew and Mark offer parallel accounts of this story in Matthew 22 and Mark 12, and we’ll put those up on the screen so you can read them later. But the account from Mark actually, it gives us a window, I think, into the heart of Jesus, the patience, that long suffering. Mark tells us that after the end of all this, Jesus calls out to one of the scribes, and he actually commends them, and he says, “You’re not far from the kingdom of God.” See, we have a deficient view of the Gospel of Jesus. If we don’t see His heart, to seek and save those like the prodigal son who live a public life of rebellion, but also those who think they have no need, the self-righteous, no need of grace and mercy, He comes to seek and save all of them, any who would turn to him. Jesus is not opposed to giving a straight answer. We can see that obviously here, or even to rebuke them, we see in verse 45, the rebuke of these scribes, but He doesn’t turn away. For a time, He engages in their cynical ruse. He offers them opportunity after opportunity to turn from their willful unbelief, that they might find in Him the Messiah, the life that they had been longing for, had been waiting for. So, I’ll put the question on the table for us today. Where are you? Do you hear Jesus saying to you, you’re not far from the kingdom? Turn to Me. Can you see who I am? I think what Jesus is doing here in breaking open the Scriptures of Psalm 110 is saying you don’t have to look any further. The son of David, the Messiah they had been waiting for, was standing before them and many refused to see. May the Spirit guard us from that same mistake today.

In this account from Luke, I think we’re given a front row seat to two first-century Bible studies. That’s what I’m going to do today. Talk about two Bible studies. The first was initiated by the Sadducees, inviting Jesus to engage with them in their cynical question, trying to trap Him. And after all the gotcha questions had been exhausted, Jesus initiates another Bible study, going back to Exodus in the Psalm 110. And I wish we could have been there that day. Hear Jesus preaching from the Word. So, I’d love for us to consider these two Bible studies. One from the Sadducees, what I’m going to call a deadly approach to the Scriptures. And two, Jesus initiates a Bible study, which I think is an invitation to resurrection life. So, the Sadducees, we’ll start there, came to Jesus with their Bibles open. Their expertise was the Pentateuch, books of Moses. They likely memorized much of it. And it was their stock and trade; it was their thing. It was also the Sadducees who held the power in the Sanhedrin, the supreme counsel of the Jewish people. The chief priests that we’ve been hearing about all throughout the gospel, Luke, were mostly Sadducees, including Caiaphas and Annas. We’ll read about later. The Sadducees were the religious aristocracy.

One, they were politically intertwined with Rome, and they were theologically, like I said, at the opposite ends of the Pharisees, the two groups despised one another. And the Sadducees came to Jesus for this debate, and they asked this absurd question about levirate law, but really it was just an attempt to discredit the reality of Jesus, the reality of the resurrection, and I’ll actually say the reality of a final judgment, and simply to silence Jesus. They were setting the law of God, which they affirmed, against the resurrection life that Jesus was preaching. And I think we noticed there the brilliance of Jesus’ response. He doesn’t even grant their premise, and immersively undoes their little riddle. Look with me at 37, if you would. “But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed, in the passage about the bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” He goes right to their area of expertise to expose their error and to expose their hearts. Now the gospel of Matthew actually shines a little bit more light on this encounter. In Matthew 22, this is the way that Jesus began His answer… Luke doesn’t record this for us, but Matthew does. He starts it this way, “…you are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures, nor the power of God.” Now my gut says, I’m speculating here, that as soon as Jesus said those words, you could hear a pin drop. You’re wrong. The Gospel of Mark says “You’re quite wrong.”

Remember several hours before, Jesus had turned over their tables in the temple, and it was the Sadducees who ruled over the temple. And now here Jesus is turning over their credentials as Bible experts. They tried to examine Jesus, but Jesus examines them. And I think exposes a whole way of being, not just a theological error, that’s included, but I actually think it’s a whole way of being that it’s so hardened their hearts, that their approach to the Scriptures had blinded them to the spiritual realities revealed in the Word of God. One of their bedrock beliefs was that death had the last word. Death was the end of existence. That was a belief of theirs. And Jesus says to them, no, you are wrong. You don’t know the Scriptures. You don’t know the power of God. This was a stinging rebuke. This ought to convict some of us today. Wake us up. I was convicted this week. In what ways do I approach the Scripture like the Sadducees? Probably not with this exact kind of a theology but standing above the Word of God with my preconditions, my assumptions, rather than humbly sitting under the Word of God, listening, delighting in it, and being shaped by it.

There’s nothing new about this, all the way back in Genesis, from the first lie: “Did God actually say?” Standing above the law, the Word of God, to the Sadducees denial of the resurrection here, we are so vulnerable to place anything or ourselves above the truth of God’s revealed word to us. And just think about some simple ways that we even do it now. It could be our family heritage. My folks believed this or that. And so that’s what I believe. An unexamined worldview, you might call it. Or the things that we give our minds to, unthinkingly, like books or podcasts, follow this brand of philosophy, stoicism or mindfulness, adhere to this set of rules, conform to these five daily habits, and you’ll discover the good life. And many of those can be good things, but they’re insufficient. When we have anything, when we give anything, more authority or influence in our lives than the Word of God, we’re building our lives on sand. So, Jesus taught us in the Sermon On the Mount, we’re building our lives on something insufficient, something sub-Christian, if you will. Paul would call this kind of approach something that has the appearance of godliness but denies its power.

John Stott says this, “We must allow the Word of God to confront us, to disturb our security, to undermine our complacency, and to overthrow our patterns of thought and behavior.” Do we do that? See, the Sadducees approached the Scripture through a largely anti-supernatural lens, a presupposition that there was no resurrection. When the Messiah comes, Jerusalem will be restored, but things will pretty much go on just as they are now, no new Heaven and new Earth. They denied the power of God in the resurrection, denying the reality of angels and even demons. It was a dark view that gave death the final word. That’s why in verse 36, I had you underline that, “For in that age to come,” verse 36 says, Jesus gives comfort, they cannot die anymore. That’s why we sing, “Hallelujah, our hope springs eternal.” Because of that affirmation right there, death does not have the final word. Death is not the end of one’s existence. If you are in Christ, we can rejoice that death does not separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. “Unto the grave, what shall we sing? Christ, He lives,” say it, “Christ He lives. And what reward will Heaven bring? Everlasting life with Him.” So that was the Sadducees.

The Pharisees approached the Scripture through a hyper-legalistic lens, adding to the Scripture, as Jesus told us, laying on heavy burdens to the people, teaching a kind of self-salvation. Both approaches, though, did not allow the Word of God to speak on its own terms. Both approaches blinded them to the identity of Jesus, His power, His beauty, His majesty as the eternal Messiah. But let’s get to the level of the heart here for a minute. At the level of the heart, when we stand above God’s Word, rather than sit humbly under it, our hearts grow cold to God and His people and our calling in His mission. When you and I stop delighting in the Word of God, we stop delighting in God Himself. Look with me at verse 46. We see a little bit of this fruit in this warning from Jesus. 46 says, “Beware of the scribes.” And if you skip down to 47, there are those “who devour widows’ houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.” We can see the motive there is pride, it’s corruption. There is an unbiblical way to study the Bible. And we see its fruits here. When we approach the Scriptures within anything other than humility and a heart ready to hear from God, the resulting fruit can be devastating not only for our own souls, but for those around us as well, those who are called to serve. Bad theology hurts people. Jesus gives us this warning.

Look, the scribes were elites in Bible study. Yet pride and corruption and injustice against the vulnerable, wolves in shepherd’s clothing, that’s what they were. Even Satan knows the Scriptures. When our study of God’s Word doesn’t lead to more Christ likeness over time, more humility, more joy, more hope in His coming kingdom, that should give us pause. Let’s go back to our confession of faith this morning: the Spirit of God must do the work of illuminating the Scriptures for us. We cannot do it on our own. We also can’t do this thing solo. That’s why we come here, and we study through books of the Bible at The Village Chapel together. Eugene Peterson says, “Exegesis,” which just is a fancy word for studying the Bible, “is loving God enough to stop and listen carefully to what He says.” And I might add, “together,” we pay attention together to the Word of God. The Sadducees had come to Jesus with their Bibles open, hoping to trick Him, but Jesus goes right back to the Scriptures. He’s a preacher to show the life that the Scriptures point to, truth and goodness and beauty that they simply didn’t have eyes to see. And number two, we’ll get to Jesus’ Bible study and invitation to resurrection life. I think it’s worth reading one more time at verse 34. So, this is Jesus’ response. He said to them, “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage, but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage, for they cannot die anymore because they are equal [or they’re like the angels] and are sons of God being sons of the resurrection. But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed.”

Jesus speaks here of two different ages. This age and that age. How things are today in this groaning world affected by sin and the age to come when sin will be fully done away with and its wages, death will be no more. Shalom will be the norm in that age. Isaiah tells us in Chapter 25, “He, God, will swallow up death forever and the Lord will wipe away tears from all faces.” Sadducees skipped over that part. In verse 35, Jesus speaks of those who are considered worthy to attain to that age. And that begs the question, who are those who are considered worthy? Perhaps, I don’t know, I’m speculating here, but perhaps as He was saying that, for those who are considered worthy to the age to come, maybe as He was saying that, He locked eyes with the Sadducees. One, maybe a rebuke, but two, an invitation. You could be considered worthy because of Me. You and I, friends, here today, have no hope in our own righteousness. It’s by His grace alone through faith in Jesus that any of us can be counted worthy. He alone is worthy. And He offers Himself to any who would turn to Him. The Savior, who in just a few days would lay down His life, was standing before them. Giving them opportunity after opportunity. The one who said of Himself, if you remember in The Gospel of John, Jesus said of Himself, “I am the resurrection and the life. “Everyone who believes in me will never die.”

Do you believe this? Perhaps you aren’t far from the kingdom today. Hear His word for you this morning. So, in describing life in eternity, Jesus speaks about marriage as somehow different in the age to come. And this could raise questions for many of us in this room, it should. What if I’ve been married more than once, divorced, remarried, or a spouse has passed away? Will I be married in Heaven and to whom? What if I’m single, what does it mean for me? When we consider the context of this response from Jesus, His purpose is not to give a comprehensive answer to every question about life in eternity. We couldn’t comprehend it even if He told us. Remember He was correcting the error of the Sadducees which primarily was that death would have the final word. That life on Earth will simply remain as it is. And Jesus brings truth, and I think a more beautiful vision of that age to come. Sadducees, you are wrong. Death will be done away with in the age to come. The nature of many good things will change, including the institution of marriage. In other words, there will be some discontinuity in the world to come but also continuity. I’ll recognize you. You’ll recognize me. We’ll recognize our loved ones. And how do we know that? We look at Jesus in His resurrected body. After His resurrection, the disciples saw who He was. They ate breakfast. I’m glad there’s going to be breakfast in Heaven. Thomas touched the nail scarred hands of Jesus. He touched His side. We’ll have bodies in Heaven but bodies that are glorified that are renewed, restored. We’ll have renewed relationships, renewed intimacy.

Marriage will be different, yes, but the joy and delight of any of our relationships will not be less than but more than. Those good things that are precious to us in this life won’t be done away with but will be redeemed and transformed. But this is good news. The age to come won’t simply fix what is broken today. It’ll be a transformation of even the best of what we enjoy in Christ, restoring it to its fullness. The Bible doesn’t always give us explanations. It certainly doesn’t do that here, but it does give us the promises of God. “Behold, I am making all things new.” That’s a promise from our Lord. Jackie Hill Perry, she says it this way, “Christ has simply come to make us right with God. And in making us right with God, He is satisfying us in God. Our sexuality is not our soul, marriage is not heaven, and singleness is not hell… So may we all preach the news that is good for a reason. For it proclaims to the world that Jesus has come so that all sinners… can be forgiven of their sins to love God and enjoy Him forever.” We will know and we will be known perfectly in Heaven as we all stand together before the throne of God delighting in Christ, being conformed in all because of Christ.

But we’re nearing the end here of Jesus’ Bible study. The opposition had been silenced, and Jesus breaks open the Scriptures to the psalm, Psalm 110. How can the Messiah be David’s son and Lord? They would have gotten it immediately. It was a ridiculous notion in that day for a father to call a son “Lord.” It would have been ridiculous unless, of course, David was pointing forward to an altogether different kind of son. It’s Jesus’ turn to ask a question and from Psalm 110, He essentially is putting it out on the table. Who do you say that I am? Turn to Me. Jesus who comes from the line of David is also the divine son of God. That’s how David can also call Him Lord. All the ancient Scriptures point to Jesus. They’re about Him. Jesus is the one whom David bends the knee to. The one who David is worshiping even now. The only one, Jesus is the only one who could come on a rescue mission to seek and to save the lost, to lay down His life for rebels like me and to burst forth from an empty tomb. Mike Williams says, “In the resurrection, life puts death to death.” Church, we said, amen. It is good. Christ is our only hope in life and death. That’s why we sing hallelujah. Because God is the God of Abraham, of Isaac, of Jacob, and I’ll even say David, that’s how we can grieve with hope at a funeral for our loved ones who have gone before us in Christ. We know that they are alive in Christ more than they ever have been before, along with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and David.

The Sadducees thought that a covenant relationship with God could be broken by death. And many of us live the same way today, maybe not with a sophisticated theology built around it, but we can functionally live as if this life is all that there is. We don’t have to live without hope. I think that’s what Jesus is saying here. We don’t have to live without hope. He is the God of the living, not of the dead. And maybe this morning you’re fearful, maybe your hope is waning, maybe your body is failing, maybe you’re seeing a loved one suffering. And it is right to lament those things. The world is not the way that it should be. But for Christians, the promise of Christ is a guarantee. His own resurrected body is a guarantee. It’s the ground of our hope and the source of our joy. Paul says, “Neither death nor life, nor angels, nor demons can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus.” He is a life nor death. If you’re in the covenant love of Jesus, you’re held secure, He holds you fast. “Unto the grave, what shall we sing?” Let’s say it. “Christ, He lives.” Say it again. “Christ, He lives.”

Sam Albury, I’ll end with this: “Death is no longer a threat in the way it was. It has been defeated in Christ. The signs of aging are no longer a threat, but a promise… Gray hair and deepening lines on my face don’t need to speak to me of a past I can’t recover but of a future I can barely conceive. The real glory days are not behind but ahead.” We said, “Hallelujah.” Let’s pray church: Father, this morning we give You thanks. We indeed say, “Hallelujah, praise the Lord, because You are our eternal hope. May your Spirit continue to open Your Word to us this week as we reflect on the glory of Your Son and hope we have in a renewed Heaven and Earth. For those among us this morning who do not know You, I pray Your Word would bear fruit, would pry open hearts, bring dead hearts to life. Strengthen the weary in this place today, encourage those who don’t have hope. May Your glory be our aim as we go back into this world, sturdied by all we have in Christ, because of Christ, and for the glory of Christ. We all said, amen.

Songs, Readings & Prayer

Songs

“Come, Christians Join to Sing“ by Christian H. Bateman, arr. Traditional Spanish Melody arr by Zach White
“Christ Our Hope In Life and Death“ by Keith Getty, Matt Boswell, Jordan Kauflin, Matt Merker & Matt Papa
“Speak, O Lord“ by Keith Getty and Stuart Townend
“Come Behold The Wondrous Mystery“ by Matt Boswell, Matt Papa, and Michael Bleecker
“Doxology” by Thomas Ken and Louis Bourgeois
All songs are used by Permission. CCLI License #2003690

Call To Worship: We Bless You, God of All Mercies

ALL: We bless You, God of all mercies, for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life;

WOMEN: We praise You for Your boundless love revealed to us in Your son, our Lord, Jesus Christ; for the means of grace and for the hope of glory.

MEN: Give us such an awareness of Your mercies, that with truly thankful hearts we may show forth Your praise,

WOMEN: Not only with our lips but in our lives, by giving up ourselves to Your service, and by walking before You in holiness and righteousness all our days;

ALL: Through Jesus Christ our Redeemer, to whom, with You and the Holy Spirit, be all honor and glory now and forever. Amen! Amen! Amen!

Classic Prayer: Ephraim the Syrian, ca. 306-373

If the earth gives life many times over to a grain of wheat, so will your grace enrich my prayers, even more. As you hear the voices of your people-their sighs and groans— open the doors of your mercy. For you were once a child, and you know what it was like. Listen to the prayers of your children! When sheep see the wolves, they flee to the shepherd for shelter under his staff. Your flock has seen the wolves, and they cry out in terror! Let your cross be a staff to drive away whatever would swallow them up. Hear the cry of your little ones. Save them by your grace. They cry out from the midst of this flock of sheep to the shepherd of all. Deliver us!

Confession of Faith: The Apostles’ Creed, “I Believe in the Holy Spirit”

LEADER: Who is the Holy Spirit?
PEOPLE: God the Holy Spirit is the third Person in the one Being of the Holy Trinity, coequal and coeternal with God the Father and God the Son, and equally worthy of our honor and worship.

LEADER: What principal names does the New Testament give to the Holy Spirit?
PEOPLE: Jesus names the Holy Spirit “Paraclete” (“the one alongside”), which signifies Comforter, Guide, Counselor, Advocate, and Helper. Other descriptions for the Holy Spirit are “Spirit of God,” “Spirit of your Father,” “Spirit of Christ,” and “Spirit of truth.”

LEADER: What are the particular ministries of the Holy Spirit?

PEOPLE: The Holy Spirit imparts life to every living thing in creation, reveals God’s Word to his people, and calls sinners to a new life of faith in the saving and life-giving work of Jesus. The Holy Spirit unites Christians to Jesus, indwelling them, convicting them of sin, giving them spiritual gifts, and bearing spiritual fruit in their lives.

Source: ACNA, Q.84, 85, 86; The Apostles’ Creed – I Believe in the Holy Spirit, part 1 Article III.

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