Ephesians, beginning in chapter two, verse one. And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind. but God being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ, and by grace you have been saved. and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Well, this morning we're continuing our series of the Gospel of Luke, and we've come to a very well-known, maybe the most well-known parable of all the Gospels. And because of that, because it's so familiar, because it's so well-known, because no doubt many of us have heard several sermons and read Tim Keller's book, Let's pray and ask the Lord that we might behold wonderful things out of his law. Father, we thank you for your word, how it nourishes us and strengthens us, and even in its pages, you meet us, and you rescue us, and you sanctify us, and you conform us more and more into the image of Christ. Father, I pray that as we attend now to the words of Christ, that you would convince us and persuade us of the glory of Jesus and how he saved us, what he saved us from, and how now we have you, a father who rejoices and sings over and delights in children who were once lost but are now found, in children who were once dead but are now alive. Father, enlighten our minds, encourage us, comfort us, build us up, and help us, Lord, to take this word and to store it up in our hearts, and even to practice it in our lives. In the name of Jesus, we pray, amen. Several years ago, the New York Times op-ed columnist David Brooks wrote an article, something called The Road to Success. And in it, he discusses the various stages of how you go through adulthood. And he began by saying, in your 20s and your 30s, you're kind of convinced that no one is helping you, and it's all on your own, and you need that energy to make it into the world. the world of business that you're going into, you build your own companies, et cetera. By the time you're 40 and 50, you sort of have made it, you are bearing fruit on all the hard work that you've done. And then he said, by the time you get 60, 70, and you reflect back, you realize that you weren't actually the one who got you there. that all your success that you had, that all of the fruit that your work bore was actually had more to do with other people and what they poured into you and the mentorship and the discipleship that they offered. And once you realize that, David Brooks said, you hit the point 70s or 80s where that is just directed, your life is directed now to helping other people. Just as much as other people helped you, you now help other people. I think what's so interesting about that is this realization As we get older, as we mature, as we grow, as we look back over our lives, and our lives are not nearly what we thought they were, at least in the moment. Perhaps we look back and we see, and we think about how we've come to where we are, we see a helping hand that we didn't see before. We think about that word fitly spoken that the mentor gave us that at the time didn't seem to have much value. And yet now, 30 years later, 20 years later, 50 years later, still resonates with us. We learn of things that were happening behind the scenes that we had no knowledge of. of things that people said, of things that people did, that completely redefine, completely change the way that we perceive whatever may have happened in our lives up to that point. It's amazing. It can happen in a moment. Sometimes it happens over the long stretch of your lives. Kids, when you get older, you'll realize your parents weren't perfect. And that might change some things, but hopefully by God's grace, what it'll mean is it'll show you just how much your father loves you and how much he's cared to give you those parents. And even through sinful parents, he molds you and shapes you. But as a kid, you grow up and you realize your parents were in conflict and in challenges that you simply had no idea were going on. And just like that too, your childhood can change the way you interpret your childhood, the way you think about your childhood. That significant shift of restating, reframing everything so that the whole story and trajectory of your life is changed is what Jesus offers us here in this collection of three parables. These are three different stories that Jesus is telling to the people around him. And even though it's three stories, it's actually one story. They're all working together. They're all telling the same thing, making the same point with various emphases, various differences. Nevertheless, they're all trying to make the same point that even in the midst of, if you recall, the discussion of repentance that's been going on, that Jesus has been calling his people to repent and believe in him, in all of that, in the story of their sin, in the story of the Old Testament, all of that, Jesus is saying, I have come to tell you what's really been going on. God's mercy has been at work. In every aspect, in every stage, in every moment, God's mercy has been at work. And I'm the one now finally who's come to realize that, to manifest it, to affect it. But the mercy you've been waiting for, the mercy that God has promised, the mercy he's been working in your lives, is the mercy that I've come to make real, to make permanent. That's the key he's trying to give them, to look at the whole course of the history of Israel, the whole course of their own lives, and to see a God who loves them, whose steadfast love endures forever, and who loves them so much that he has sent his own son to save them and to rescue them when they were dead in their trespasses, when they were separated from him, when they were alienated from him, when they were lost, and yet now, Jesus is saying, now because of God's grace, because of God's work, because simply by the mercy of God, you're now found. Your deadness may have covered your entire life. In fact, for the history of Israel, it's covered about a thousand years. And for the history of humanity, even longer. But now with the coming of Jesus, they've been made alive. That's the key. That's the turn that Jesus is trying to give them. This is such a poignant moment in the gospel of Luke, so important to the message that Luke has in his gospel. These three parables are unique to Luke, at least in these forms, certainly the parable of the prodigal son. They're so important, so vital to everything else Luke is doing. that this passage has been called the heart of the third gospel. So everything that we're reading about the great year of Jubilee, the great horn of salvation that God has brought up, the great Messiah who's come to deliver his people, all these threads come together in a story, three stories, about a sheep that wandered off, about a coin that was lost, and about a son who squandered everything only to be received with joy and gladness by his father. As we think back to how we've gotten here, to this particular portion of Luke, we'll recall that last chapter, Jesus spent a great deal of time, actually the last two chapters, in chapter 13 and chapter 14, talking about this great messianic banquet that's coming, and that has come in Jesus. When God in the kingdom of heaven will gather those to him that are his, and they're gonna have a party. He's eaten with tax collectors and sinners. He's sat with Pharisees and scribes and lawyers and he's been telling them about what God has come to do in the form of a meal. He's been telling them about specifically in this what Pastor Bo preached on last week, if you want to come into this, if you want to sit here, if you want to be with me in this Messianic banquet, you need to follow me. The great cost of discipleship, the great cost of coming into the kingdom is you die, but on the other side of that, you get life. And the great last instruction that he left his disciples before we come to this passage is this. He says this, he who has ears to hear, let him hear. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. If you can understand what I'm saying, if you get the message of what I'm trying to bring, hear it and respond. What's interesting, excuse me, is in our passage, the people who are hearing Jesus are the last people that Luke's audience would have expected to hear Jesus' message. If you look there in verse one, Luke tells us, now the tax collectors and the sinners were all drawing near to hear him. Jesus just said, if you hear my words, hear them and listen to them and obey them, what are the tax collectors and the sinners coming to do? They're coming to hear Jesus. They've heard this message of the banquet, they've heard the promise of Messiah, and they want to know more. And it's tax collectors and sinners. Now we all, I'm sure many of you dislike the IRS, but the antagonism that the people of Israel would have had, that the Jews of the day would have had for tax collectors is not like any sort of antagonism that you have for the IRS. Not only were they essentially traitors to the Jews, not only were they furthering unjust and oppressive schemes by the Roman Empire, they were also crooks. They would take way more than was owed. They lined their pockets. They became fat and wealthy by exploiting and manipulating people. They were complete outcasts. They were not wanted. They were rejected. They were the worst of the worst, and these are the people who are coming to hear Jesus. Same with sinners. The phrase is used for people like Mary, the prostitute. These people who would have been unclean, unwelcome, disdained, these are the people who hear Jesus, who realize what the cost is and are willing to pay it. And now they've come to learn more. They've come to hear more. They've come to find out what it means to follow Jesus. What's interesting, though, is also the way that Luke then contrasts this with the people who should have heard Jesus. We're told that the Pharisees and the scribes, they don't hear Jesus, they don't listen to him, they're not there to learn from him, they're there to grumble. And they grumble, they say, this man receives sinners and eats with them. We right there have two options. Luke is essentially placing us in these two groups of people. Are you gonna recognize yourself as a tax collector and a sinner and come and hear Jesus? Are you going to be the Pharisee and the scribe? Who's appalled that these are the kind of people that Jesus would bring. Appalled that Jesus would allow into his kingdom that sort of person. That's the options, okay? That's how Luke's framing this. or one of those two. And what he wants then, what Jesus goes on to do is he tells them three stories. Three stories to help them realize the reality of the situation. Three stories that are an attempt to redefine the way they're viewing themselves, the way they view God, the way they view what God has done. And I want us to see three things specifically about these stories. We don't have enough time to do a sermon to go detailed into each of them. There are many good sermons, many good books on that. I want us to look at the basic shape of each story. the basic point that this network of stories is trying to tell. I want us to see three things. I want us to see first what the real conflict is. He's talking to Pharisees and to tax collectors and sinners. The tax collectors and sinners are coming to hurt him. Pharisees are saying the problem here is that you're letting this riffraff in. The problem is we're not pure enough. The problem is we're not ceremonially clean enough. Jesus wants them to know what the real problem is, what the real conflict is. But then he also wants to tell them what the real solution is. What's the conflict and what's the solution? And then he shows them what the right response is. The real problem, the real solution, and the right response. Let's look first at the real problem. All three parables, if you noticed, if you're a careful reader, if you had your ears perked up, paying attention, all three of them concern something that was lost. It's a word that's repeated in each of the stories. The first parable, it's about a man who has a hundred sheep and he loses one, wanders off like sheep are wont to do. The second story is about a woman who has 10 silver coins and loses one, misplaced it somewhere that she can't find and is attempting to find it. And the last story is about a son. This time he's not wandered off. He's not either been lost either. In this story, what's amazing is that the picture of lostness is so complete, so thorough, that his estate, his status, would not be up for debate. It's about a son who, in maybe the height of offense, goes to his father and says, I want what's coming to me. Give me the portion of my inheritance. And the father gives it to him. In culture of the day, what that would have meant essentially was, You're dead to me. I want nothing to do with you. Just give me what I have coming to me so I can go and live my life. And then amazingly, but not unexpectedly perhaps, the son takes it and after that immense act of his father's kindness, he goes off and he squanders it. Every penny is gone. and he's destitute and all he's left is in the pig pen longing to eat the pods that the pigs are eating. It's about a sheep that wanders, a coin that's lost, and then this ungrateful, impudent, rebellious son who did everything he possibly could to warrant complete rejection. Complete ostracization. Now for Jesus, as he's telling these stories, as he's trying to communicate his point to his people, he's not telling these stories in a vacuum. What he's actually doing is he's trying to give them an illustration, a picture of the story that God has been telling through the people of Israel since David, at least. What has the story of Israel been? It's been the story of a son who was brought in, who was adopted, who was given everything he could possibly imagine, and time after time after time after time, This son, the son of God, rejected him for other gods. He went after other saviors. He went after other lovers, is the language that the prophets use. So much so, that around the year 586, excuse me, 586 BC, the Lord had said, I've had enough of this people. I've tried again and again and again and again, and these people continue to reject me, they continue to turn their backs on me, and so I'm done with them. And for almost 600 years, the people of Israel, although back in Israel, they have been separated from God's presence. That lostness, that exile that they've had continues to this day because God never came back. The people came back to the land, but God never came back to the temple. If you know your Old Testament history, when the temple in Jerusalem is destroyed, God's presence departs from it, never to return. Because of that, the people, although they were back in their land, they knew something was wrong still. They knew a problem was there that they couldn't fix, that God needed to come back and come back and rescue them. And of course, it's also, once we see that, once we see these pictures, these stories, excuse me, within the broader story of Israel, we also see that story as just the general story of humans. When Adam and Eve, what happened? They were created in the richest paradise. They had everything they could possibly want, and what do they do? They disobey. And because of that, they're cast out. The access and the communion they had with God was cut off, and ever since then, they have been lost. They have been outside the presence of God. They've been outside of his communion. It's what Paul is getting at in Romans chapter one when he says, every man, because of their sin, is under the wrath of God. Every man, because of their disobedience, because of their suppression of truth and unrighteousness, because of their ingratitude, because of their idolatry, they are separated from God. That's the problem. That's the problem. No matter what you think your problem might be, No matter what your circumstances might tell you, whether it's your marriage that isn't what you hoped it would be and you feel is holding you down, whether it's your job that just doesn't recognize your abilities, whether it's your misfortune or perhaps mistreatment that you've experienced at the lives of others, or excuse me, at the hands of others, that's not your basic problem. That's not your real problem. If you're outside of Christ, what these stories tell us, when you're outside of Christ, your basic problem is that you are lost from God. You are outside of his presence, you are outside of his care, you are alienated from him. And that's a reality of your own doing. It's a reality of your own doing, but unfortunately, it's not a situation that you can fix. You can do everything to mess up, and unfortunately, because of your own sin, you can't do anything to work your way back. In fact, based off what Paul tells us, you wouldn't want to anyways. There'd be nothing in you that would actually want to come back to God, because that would mean giving up yourself. That would mean walking in repentance. But if you are in Christ, what this also tells us is not necessarily that you are alienated from God. In fact, if you're in Christ, you've been reconciled. You've been brought back. But it does tell you this, that your basic problem then is that continuous and resident instinct to wander. It's that continual instinct that would rather choose your way than what God has given you. It's not your circumstances. It's not what other people say about you. It's not the fact that other people won't do what you say. Your problem, your conflict, the issue at work in your heart and in your life is that you, even if you are reconciled to God, even if you have the Spirit working within you, there's still a part of you that kicks against that, that wants to wander off, that wants to reject him, and by God's grace, that's going to be sanctified and renewed after the image of Christ, and more and more, you'll die to that, and you'll live unto God in righteousness, but that remains. That's your real problem. But Jesus also tells us what the solution to that problem is. What's interesting about this, these parables that Jesus tells us, is even though they're called the parables of the lost sheep, or the parable of the lost coin, or the parable of the prodigal son, they really should be called the parable of the joyful shepherd. or the parable of the eager woman, or the parable of the loving father, because really the main character in each of these is not the thing that's lost. The main character in each of these parables is the person who does everything to retrieve these things. That's really the action at play in each of these stories. For the first one, the sheep wandering off is actually just a setting so that he can tell a story about a shepherd that goes out and leaves the 99 and goes out to rescue the one sheep. The coin being lost is just a setup to tell about a woman who lights a lamp and turns her house over so that she can find this coin that's missing. And the parable of the prodigal son is just a story setting up the picture, the telling of a loving father who longs to see his child come home and even his other son as well come and enjoy the party. But in all of these, the emphasis is not on the one who's lost, the emphasis is on the one who goes to find that thing that's lost. Now we can't read too much into parables, but the thing that this does is, ironically, in a section completely concerned with repentance and following Jesus, what these parables do is actually shift the focus of attention off of the one doing the repenting, off of the one who's lost, and it puts the focus on God himself. The one who is continually seeking his people. The one who has made every attempt and now has done the unimaginable to come after and find his own people. I think the parable of the prodigal son is an amazing example of what this looks like. Because it does give us a much closer picture of this interaction. when the son, if you notice the process of the story, sometimes you can think that the son, because he repents, the father shows compassion on him. But if you read the story carefully, that's not what happens. He comes to himself, he realizes what's happening, And he decides to go home. He has this well-rehearsed speech. He knows everything he's going to say. He's going to prostrate himself. He's going to humble himself. He realizes what he's done. Certainly working in him, but that's not the thing that motivates his father. What does it say? So after he's rehearsed his repentance, here's what the text says. It says that he arose and he came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and waited for him to come back to see what he would say. His father saw him and was glad he finally learned his lesson. His father saw him and felt compassion. And he doesn't stay there, he runs and embraces him and he kisses him. He hasn't even been able to say a word. He's not been able to say anything for all the father knows he's coming back for more. And he does not take that as an opportunity to lecture him. In fact, it's almost an embarrassing display of affection. The father has, he's not waiting for anything. He sees him, he hikes up his clothes, which would have been an embarrassment for a man of his stature at that time, and he runs, completely debasing himself, and he falls upon the neck of his son, he weeps, and he kisses him. It's an embarrassing display of affection. Have you ever seen that? Have you ever seen something like that where it almost feels like you shouldn't be watching this? Like you're not either worthy or maybe it's not appropriate for that to be happening right now. Maybe at a wedding you see the mom of the bride or the father of the bride or of the bridegroom just melt and break apart. the display of emotion that just feels completely out of place, and yet that is what the father has here. Before the son can say anything, the father runs, embraces him, and kisses him, but it gets even better, because the son, in the course of this display, he's trying to get the words out, and he says, it's almost in your mind, he's trying to push the father away to get the words out, He says, Father, I've sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. But the father doesn't even let him finish. The father doesn't allow him to get all the words out. In fact, the text says, but, but the father. It doesn't matter what you're saying. He's already brought his posse with him. He's already brought his entourage. He already brought his servants with him to meet his son. He already knows what he's going to do. The story is about the father who has come to love his son in a disturbing even way. It's a level of affection, a level of devotion, a level of concern and of care and of love and of delight that for many of us makes us feel weird. And it's not inappropriate. to take that and to apply it to what God has done and is doing in the Lord Jesus. The whole focus and center of action is not on the sinner. It's not on the prodigal, the whole focus of action is on everything that the father's doing. Just as in the parable of the lost sheep, the focus is on the shepherd who goes out and puts him on his shoulder, the focus in the parable of the lost coin is on the woman who goes and scours and finds it, so here the focus is on the father who does everything he can and goes out and shows this marvelous display of love. Jesus saying this is what God has been doing. This is what God has done. This is the level of love that God has for sinners. To come out and to meet them, to have compassion on them, to kiss them, to embrace them. Like I said, this is coming right in the middle of a section devoted to repentance where Jesus has told people again and again and again, you need to repent or you're gonna perish, you need to repent, you're gonna perish, and that's completely true. What Jesus is doing here does not negate that. What Jesus is doing is he's showing what makes that repentance possible. It's not that repentance is unnecessary, but what repentance does is it follows and responds to the love and the initiative that God has. It's what enables that response. If you remember, if you know your Old Testament, think back to what the prophets said in Jeremiah 31 and Ezekiel 36. The people were so sinful, they were so rebellious, they were so hard-hearted, that the only thing that was going to save them, the only thing that was going to bring them back, the only thing that was going to woo them back, was if God actually gave them new hearts. If God actually took his knife and carved his law into their hearts so that was written inside of them. That's what Paul is getting at in Ephesians. You're dead in your trespasses. You were dead, but God being rich in mercy saved you. This is what we've been saying time and time again about the gospel of Luke is about the king who has come to set his people free. Set his people free from all manner of bonds. From the slavery to sin, from the slavery to their enemies. The reason they can repent, the reason that they can respond with contrition and with conviction is because God has first come and shown them mercy. And mercy is one of the most definitive characteristics of God. In fact, so much so that in 2 Corinthians chapter one, Paul calls God the father of mercies. He doesn't just show it every now and then. It's not incidental to who he is. It is a defining characteristic of him. What does God say to Moses? The Lord, the Lord, a God slow to anger, compassionate, full of steadfast love. Paul, in his letter to Titus, says this, we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and the loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, not because we proved ourselves worthy, not because We were ready, not because we did anything on our own, but Paul says, according to his own mercy. And the mercy that Paul's talking about here is the mercy that Jesus in these three stories is trying to illustrate for us. The story of the God who goes after the thing that he loves and saves it and brings it home. So the solution to our problem is not in ourselves, the solution to our problem is God himself. Saving us, redeeming us, sanctifying us. Not because of our own works, not because of our own merit, but simply according to his mercy. Now I just want to see briefly what the right response is. In light of this, in light of this amazing fact, What's the right response? How should we as a people behave? What should be our characteristic? What should be our disposition? As we think about this, as we realize this, as we look at our lives and the lives of others, and we see this level of divine mercy in our lives. We've looked at two themes so far. The theme of being lost. The theme of being found, language that's repeated throughout all three parables. But there's one more theme, one more thing that just continues and it reverberates throughout these three stories. And you probably heard it, but it's the fact that in each of these situations, after the thing that is lost is found, the response is joy. not just a little thanksgiving, not just a little gratitude, it's a party, it's a celebration. When the shepherd finds his sheep, he comes back rejoicing, and then he invites all his neighbors, and he says, rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost. When the woman finds her coin, she invites her friends and says, rejoice with me. for I have found the coin that I had lost. And then when the son comes back, what does he do? He puts a robe on him, he puts a ring on his hand, he puts shoes on his feet, and then they kill a fattened calf and they celebrate. And the celebration is such that the music and dancing can be heard from all around. And what Jesus is saying is this is the response This is an analogy, this is a picture of what it's like in heaven when a sinner repents. When a sinner is brought back into relationship with God, when the reconciliation through Christ occurs, the thing that happens is the most raucous party that you can imagine. And this isn't just a party that is thrown sort of in because of, it's just what you do. No, this is actually a party that happens as a response to what the shepherd and what the woman and what the father feel. This is a joy that actually comes out from them, overflows, and characterizes those people with her, with him and with her. It's the joy that is felt simply because that thing that was loved has been found. It starts with the shepherd, and it flows out to his friends, and they throw a party. It starts with the woman, and it flows out to her friends, and they throw a party. It starts with the father, who delights to see his son, and he invites everyone all around to celebrate with him. With him. The joy that exists in heaven is not a joy that only the angels feel. It's a joy that God the Father actually, it originates from God. The rejoicing starts with God, the perfect, all-powerful creator of all heaven and earth rejoices when a sinner who was dead in his sin is brought back. and heaven responds. You think about that, it's pretty amazing, because heaven, it is the land of joy. It's perfect, God's will is done there completely. In heaven, the angels behold the glory of God. They have the most magnificent, most blessed sight available, and when a sinner is brought back in, that's the thing that leads them to joy. That's the thing that leads them to a party. They get to behold the thrice-holy God in all of his beauty, and they have a party when a sinner is brought back. That's contrasted, though, with the response of the older brother. When the younger brother comes back, the older brother's upset. because the celebration and the joy means that he's missing out. All the good things are being lavished on this son with the things that he thought was owed to him. This son, who has squandered everything, who has ruined everything, you're rolling out the red carpet for him. I never get anything. There's no joy, there's only self-interest, there's self-righteousness. And what the Father invites him to is to realize, you're always with me, but your brother was dead and now he's alive. He was lost but now he's found. C.S. Lewis said that joy is the serious business of heaven. The fact that you're here, the fact that you come to church regularly, the fact that you call on Christ as your savior and God as your father, do you understand that that fact produces in heaven real joy? Do you realize that when you see a sinner come off the streets and come to Christ, It's not just an everyday occurrence. There is a resounding party happening in heaven. If you knew that, if you understood that, if you could comprehend the joy and the delight that your Father has for you and for any other sinner who would come, what would that mean? What would that change about your life? all the petty squabbles, all the personal animosities, all the little offenses that frustrate you and tick you off and distract you from what God has given you to do. If you knew that in heaven, there is more joy than you can possibly imagine because you were brought back. What would that mean? What would that do? And yet it's the case. Not because of anything you've done. Not because of anything you deserve. In fact, you deserve just the opposite, but simply because God showed you mercy. So if we know this, If we claim to be people who have been brought in to the kingdom of heaven, if we claim to be people who are in with the Father, joy needs to be the thing that characterizes us. Joy because God's kingdom is expanding evermore. Because sinners are being brought in. because we ourselves have been included in this thing that the Lord is doing. And as that joy bubbles up and pours out and spills out into the world, we see more and more and more and the party gets bigger and bigger and bigger. And we're celebrating with God himself. We're rejoicing with our creator because of his grace, because of his mercy, and because he continues to make all things new, to make lost people found people, and to make dead people living people. If you're in the kingdom of heaven, that's what happened to you, and that's what's happening today, and the only response that we can have, the only emotional disposition that we can have in the face of that is pure, unadulterated joy. Because God, in his grace and in his mercy, saves people. Let's pray. Father, we thank you that in these stories you tell us so plainly of your grace and of your love. Pray, Father, that as we think about the God who has saved us simply by his own mercy, the God, Lord, who has brought us out of bondage into freedom, out of darkness and into light, out of death and into life, that our hearts will be filled with joy, joy and gladness at what you've done and what you're doing. Father, meet us and sustain us and strengthen us, that we might not leave you, but that we might be bound to you by Christ our Savior. And it's in his name that we pray. Amen. Our communion offering this morning is from John chapter 10, verses 14 through 16. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me. Just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I will bring them also, and they will listen to my voice, so there will be one flock and one shepherd. Amen. In the song that we just sang, Amazing Grace. We sing in the fourth line, excuse me, when this flesh and heart shall fail and mortal life shall cease, I shall possess within the veil a life of joy and peace. And that's absolutely true. And we do await on the other side of life to be present with the Lord, to be full of the blessedness that he's prepared for us. But it would be wrong to think that that's the only time that we have joy and peace in the Christian life. And this table right here, the one we're about to partake of, is the sign and the gift and the party that the Lord is throwing for those whom he has saved. The invitation to joy and to peace now in this life, though imperfect, is real. And the sign of that is that we get to sit with God around a table and eat a meal. and we get to celebrate with him. We get to celebrate that our shepherd went out and he brought us home rejoicing, but the manner of taking us home was through a cross and through death, and he did that gladly and he did it joyfully so that we can sit with him, we can eat with him, and we can call him our savior. This is the table that he's prepared for you. If you were in the Lord Christ, if you know that Christ has come and he has died and in his resurrection you've been brought back, this is the table that the Lord has for you. If you don't know that, if you are not yet in his fold, if you're not yet a member of Christ's kingdom, this table is not for you. We want you to have joy, we want you to have life, we want you to have peace, and the peace that this table offers, but it's not for you yet. Come first to Christ, come first through Christ, taste and see that he's good, and then come and know the joy and the peace that God gives to the people that he loves. Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore, let us keep the peace. For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread. Let us give thanks for the bread. O merciful Father, who saved us for no other reason than to share with us your goodness, your love, and your life, we thank you for the life that we have in Christ and the gifts that we enjoy in him. We ask that you would now set apart this bread, which we are about to enjoy together, and with you, rejoicing in your salvation towards us and towards all who might hear the gospel and believe. Bless us as we eat and drink with Christ, and prepare us to enjoy this with you. Amen. When he had given thanks, he broke it and said, take, eat, this is my body, which is broken, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.