Luke 8:40-56

The end of Luke 8 tells of two oddly familiar stories of healing that are meant to show us the purpose of Jesus' ministry and the people that he came for.

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We have been journeying through the book of Luke. We're about seven and a half chapters in. So if you're just joining us, welcome. We're glad you're here. Here's a question I want to ask that we ask a lot. At the very beginning, Luke clearly states why he wrote this book. He wrote it so that his reader, Theophilus, could have something. What is it? Certainty. Good. Certainty about who? Yeah. About Jesus. About the person, the work of Jesus. And we've seen chapter after chapter about the work of Jesus, things that he's doing, things that he's teaching. That Luke is telling us we can have certainty he actually did and actually taught. So, what are some of those things? Just say them out loud. What are some of the things that you've seen Jesus do so far throughout this book? Heal. Tons of healings. Yep. What else? Teaching? Yep. Parables, teaching, what else? Yep, forgiving. Something over here? Okay. What else? Gathering people together. Deliverance over demons. So we see power over demons. Remember last week we saw his power over creation as well? All of those things, Luke is including, so that we can have certainty that Jesus did indeed do all of those things. Why? Jesus himself answers this question. Do you remember this back in chapter 7? Some of John the Baptist's disciples hear the things that Jesus is doing. They come back to John the Baptist, and then John the Baptist sends some of his disciples back to Jesus with a question. Here is the question they ask him: Are you the one who's to come, or shall we look for another? Essentially they're asking, Jesus, are you the Messiah or not? This the Messiah, right? The one that has been waiting generations and generations for who's going to come again and bring the full reign of God, make everything right, mend the relationship between God and his people. Jesus, are you the one? This is how Jesus responds. In that hour he, Jesus, healed many people of diseases and plagues and evil spirits, and on many who are blind he bestowed sight. And he answered them, Go and tell John what you have seen and heard. The blind receive sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news, preach to them. A whole list of the things he's done, right? And blessed is the one who's not offended by me. Essentially, Jesus answers and says, This, look at all the things that I've been doing. These are all the things that were prophesied that the Messiah would do. This is the fruit. Look, here's the evidence. I am the Messiah, the long-awaited one. So think about what Luke's doing. Here's all the things that Jesus did we can have certainty about, and they are there so that we can have certainty that Jesus is the Messiah. Right? Okay, now so what? Okay. There's some truth, there's some knowledge. Jesus is the Messiah. Incredibly important. In fact, it was the point of Luke's book. And so here we are in chapter 8. And in chapter 8, it's really four total stories. You saw the first two last week. We see the Messiah's power over creation. He's the Messiah. We see the Messiah's power over the demons. Remember? This week we have two more stories. We're going to see his power over sickness and his power over death. This is the Messiah. And yet, most of this power we've already seen so far in this gospel. It's really nothing new. It's extraordinary, it's true, but it's not the new pieces here. See, Luke, I think, is not primarily trying to answer the question in our text this morning that Jesus is the Messiah. Incredibly important question, but I don't think it's his primary question he's answering in this text. Rather, I think it's this, and this is gonna guide our time together. Certainty that Jesus is the Messiah, which all his works are pointing to, is intended for what particular purpose and people? I think Luke is now asking the so what question. Okay, so Jesus is the Messiah. So what and for who? That I think is what our text is going to be answering for us this morning. So, have your Bibles, please open them up to Luke chapter 8. Luke the back third of the Bible, Matthew, Mark, and then Luke. If you didn't, I hear no pages rustling, so you must already be there. If you didn't bring a Bible, there's some on the table in front of the AV booth. There's also some more scripture journals back in the library. Um, one side's text, one side is blank green, take notes. You're welcome to those as well for the book of Luke. Our full text this morning is verses 40 through the rest of the chapter, so 40 through 56. We'll work our way through this section through this text in sections. And unlike when we usually ask this sort of question, we aren't going to be answering this question progressively as we go through the text. We're gonna wait till the very end. I think we need to see this whole text as a unit, and then we'll be able to look back and answer these two questions what's the purpose and what's the people for the certainty that Jesus is the Messiah. Alright. Let's start just by reading verse 40 to set the stage. Luke chapter 8, verse 40. Now, when Jesus returned, the crowd welcomed him, for they were all waiting for him. Okay, so do you remember where we're at? Last week, with Brock preaching, Jesus was on the west side of the Sea of Galilee in the land of the Garrisons. Remember? He encounters a man with demons, sends the demons into pigs, pigs fall off a cliff into the water, and they're destroyed. What is the people's reaction to Jesus there? They're fearful. Yep. And what do they ask Jesus to do? Leave. Like leave. They're afraid of him, maybe, maybe also because some of their livelihood is now destroyed, of the pigs being dead. God, Jesus, would you would you leave? And so Jesus does. He sails back now to the eastern side of the Sea of Galilee. This region where his adopted hometown is of Capernaum. Now, do you remember that Capernaum is a place where he's done a ton of miracles already? Lots of teaching, lots of healings. And so the people's reaction here is completely different. They're welcoming him. They're excited to have Jesus back. And I suspect it's because they want to see some more miracles. So let's read on. Verse 41 through the first half of verse 42. And there came a man named Jairus, who was a ruler of the synagogue. And falling at Jesus' feet, he implored him to come to his house. For he had an only daughter, about 12 years of age, and she was dying. Sure enough, right? The crowds would love to see some more miracles. A man named Jairus comes to Jesus. This is a man of some social influence. He implores Jesus to come back to his home with him to heal somebody at his home that he dearly loves. Does that sound like any other stories we've already read so far? Remember chapter 7, the Roman centurion? He too sends a delegation to implore Jesus to come to his home to save and to heal his beloved servant who's sick. We're going to see all sorts of callbacks in our text today back to stories we've already read. And a lot of them are in chapter 7. But there's also differences in every single one of them. So the Roman centurion was a Gentile and Jairus, he's a Jew. The Roman centurion said a delegation, but Jairus is going personally. Jairus has a daughter who's sick, it's not a servant. And Jairus also has a particular job, doesn't he? He's ruler of the synagogue, which most likely means he's not a Pharisee, he's not a Sadducee, he's not a priest, but likely just a lay member of the community whose job it was to figure out who's gonna pray and when when they gather, what songs they're going to sing. He's coordinating their gatherings in the synagogue. But he also has a daughter at home who's 12 years old. Any kids in here, 12 years old, raise your hand if you are. Oh, we've got a couple, 12 years old. Okay. Now can you imagine? If you lived in Jesus' day, you'd almost be ready to get married. Can you imagine that? That's crazy, right? That in many ways, like your life, you're just entering the prime of your life. So Jairus has a daughter who's about ready to be married, entering the prime of her life, and she is mortally sick. Her trajectory is not good if something doesn't happen with her illness. And so Jairus, he's heard about Jesus. He believes Jesus can heal, and so he comes and implores Jesus to come home with him with what I have to imagine is great urgency. Like, we don't have a lot of time. Hurry, come quickly to my home. I think that you can save my daughter. Let's read on. Second half of verse 42 through verse 44. And Jesus went. The people pressed around him. And there was a woman who had a discharge of blood for twelve years. And though she had spent all her living on physicians, she could not be healed by anyone. She came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment, and immediately her discharge of blood ceased. Okay, this is creating some tension. Can you imagine being gyrus? Come to my home quickly. And yet there's just crowds around Jesus bumping into him. This word for press can also be translated as suffocated or strangled or choked. And so Jesus is like barely making his way, is how I'm imagining this going. This is not quick already. And then he stops. Our attention turns to a woman who, for the entire lifetime of Jairus' daughter, has been dealing with this discharge, likely some sort of uterine bleeding. She's unnamed in the text. She's been unclean for 12 years ceremonially. She is not accepted socially because of her discharge. She's not specifically invited to be there. She's not allowed to touch anybody. Does this remind you of any other stories from chapter 7? Remember the woman who enters the Pharisees' home that Jesus is at? She's not been invited. She's not named. She comes up behind Jesus, starts to wash his feet with her hair. She's ostracized because of her sinful lifestyle. Here, this woman is ostracized because of an illness that she has. And Jesus is her only hope here. She believes he can actually heal her. But does she dare touch him? Anybody she touches becomes unclean, and they must go through a whole process to be accepted back into society. She's not even supposed to be there. And yet Jesus is the only one who can heal her. She believes that. And maybe Jesus is a little bit different. Maybe she's heard the story of him cleansing the leper, who he wasn't supposed to touch. Nobody would touch a leper back in chapter 5. Or perhaps the widow's son who was dead. Nobody's supposed to touch him. He's unclean, and yet Jesus does. And he heals. And so what does she do? She musters whatever sort of courage she has, motivated by faith that Jesus can indeed heal, makes her way through the crowds and does the unthinkable. Touches him. And what no physician was able to do that. She went dirt poor trying to accomplish. Jesus does immediately. She's healed. What a gift for this unnamed woman. Can you imagine the sort of faith this took for her? And now maybe she can get away. Slink back. Maybe the crowd hasn't noticed. She won't be scolded, maybe. Maybe she can avoid some embarrassment and she can get back to her life, but now healed. Maybe she'll go unnoticed. Let's read on. Verses 45 through 46. And Jesus said, Who was it that touched me? When all denied it, Peter said, Master, the crowds surround you and are pressing in on you. But Jesus said, Someone touched me. For I perceived that power has gone out from me. Jesus noticed. Of course, Peter thinks his question is ridiculous. What do you mean, who touched you? People are all over, they're bumping into you. How about everybody touch you? And yet Jesus stays firm with the question. No, I felt power go out from me. That's kind of weird, right? Is this some sort of magic thing now where the clothes that Jesus wears have some sort of magical property? So if you just touch those clothes, whether Jesus knows it or not, whether he consents or not, you'll be healed, like a like discharging power from a battery. Is that what's going on? It's weird. So how about this question? Can you think of any other time in Jesus' ministry where power leaves him that he's unaware of or doesn't consent to? I can't think of. I can't think of any. So if you can, let me know. So let's assume that he knew full well that power had gone out, that he consented, that he was actually volitional in that. It was intentional. Let's assume that. And now ask this question: can you think of any other times throughout the gospels in which Jesus asks somebody a question that he already knows the answer to? All the time, right? All the time. And when Jesus asks that question, it's not for his benefit to get some new information, it's for the benefit of the person he's asking the question of, right? He's inviting them through some sort of process with a question he's asking them. So could it be that Jesus asking this very question, that's probably the last question this one wants to hear anybody say, could it be for somehow for her benefit to draw her? Could he be that good? Let's see how, and if the women will respond. Verse 47. And when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling, and falling down before him, declared in the presence of all the people why she had touched him, and how she had been immediately healed. So this woman responds, she sums up her courage and said it was me. She holds nothing back. This is a full confession publicly in front of all of these people. She's been drawn out of the shadows, so to speak, and she says, Yep, this was the illness I was suffering from. I did indeed touch Jesus, and he has completely healed me. She comes completely clean. So now how will Jesus respond back to her? She wasn't supposed to touch him, right? Not according to society. Condemnation will Jesus give her? Correction? Let's read. Verse 48. And he said to her, Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace. Jesus responds, not with correction, but with full acceptance of her. Why? It's the exact same reason that he gave for why he accepted the sinful woman who approached behind him and washed his feet with her hair. In fact, the language is exactly the same. He points to the faith in this woman, doesn't he? A faith that motivated her to do the unthinkable there. A faith that couldn't be suppressed by all the social stigmas that were present at that point. A faith that Jesus, get this, a faith that Jesus deemed important enough for him to stop his urgent journey to Jairus' house, to stop and to publicly accept and affirm in this woman. And not only that, but I suspect Jesus desired to give this woman more healing than just this physical ailment. Could it be that he intended to not only provide physical healing, but maybe something so much deeper as well? Could it be that him asking this question, drawing this woman out to publicly confess what had happened, he's actually maybe providing some social healing, some emotional healing, some relational healing. In fact, Jesus' words here are identical with what we saw back in chapter 7. They're as translated as your faith has saved you. It's the same wording here. The only way that you can tell about what kind of saving or healing is the word referring to is by the context. And in this context, I strongly suspect it means much more than just her physical healing. Your faith has saved you. Your faith has made you well in ways that you didn't even know to ask for. She leaves with way more peace than she even knew to ask for. And so, kids, I have a question for you. It's likely this woman was actually older than Jesus. Look at verse 48. What does he call this woman? What word? Say it out loud. Starts with a D. Daughter. Daughter. This woman's faith has now made her a daughter. Let that sink in. This is the Messiah. Whom all the Old Testament points to. Who's currently sustaining the universe? Who we've seen so far has power over everything. And yet he stops and he cares for this unnamed, unwell, socially unaccepted, poor woman. He accepts her as daughter. Her faith has brought her into now being a member of the royal family. See, the story is not primarily about Jesus' incredible power here, although that is incredible. This story is primarily about the Messiah accepting and affirming the faith of the outcast. An outcast made a daughter. And yet, the story doesn't finish here. Luke's inserted it within a broader story. There's another daughter whose life is on the line. I have to be wondering what is Dryrus thinking right now as Jesus stops. Let's read, verses 49 through 53. While he was still speaking, someone from the ruler's house came and said, Your daughter is dead. Do not trouble the teacher any more. But Jesus, on hearing this, answered him, Do not fear, only believe, and she will be well. And when he came to the house, he allowed no one to enter with him except Peter and John and James and the father and mother of the child. And all were weeping and mourning for her. But he said, Do not weep, for she is not dead but sleeping. And they laughed at him, knowing that she was dead. I can't imagine what Jairus is thinking. Like Jesus, if only you hadn't stopped. I was trying to bring you to my house quickly while there's still a chance. And now he's been informed that she's dead. Like that window of opportunity, so to speak, has closed. And instead of Jairus responding, Jesus now responds. And he gives two commands, which are odd, and a response, a result that's odd to you. It says, Do not fear, believe, and she will be well. Which are the very things Jairus just saw in the unnamed woman. She has a fearless sort of faith, and then she was healed. In fact, this word for believe, same root as faith. We could say, do not fear, have faith, and she'll be healed. And so I think what Jesus is doing, what he's communicating is, Jairus, be like this woman. And so Jesus still takes the initiative and he goes to Jairus' home. But unlike the healing with the unnamed woman, whatever's about to happen is going to be done in private. Just the three closest disciples, the mother and the father of the child, they enter into what I imagine. The room of the sick child. Now we're also told that when he first gets to the house, there's people wailing and mourning. Like grief in this culture was a communal event, and people would loudly express grief. In fact, you might even pay people to be mourning for you. So that's what he encounters. People are mourning. Word has gotten out. This child has died. And so Jesus gives them a really strange command, too. Same strange command we saw in chapter 7 with the widow who had lost her only son. He says, Do not weep. And then he says, She's not dead, but only sleeping. This word for sleeping is used throughout the New Testament to still indicate somebody who's actually died, but somebody who's going to be right raised again. But the people, they think Jesus is crazy. Like, what do you mean? Like, we know when somebody's sleeping. We know when somebody's passed away. We are here mourning. So they laugh at him. They are deriding him. And we aren't told this, but I wonder where Jairus is falling on that spectrum. Is he joining them? See, yep, the window of opportunity is now gone. She's now passed away, Jesus. You're crazy. I don't know why you still came to my house. Or maybe he's still silently hoping that Jesus can do something. Maybe he's starting to obey Jesus' command to have faith and not fear. Maybe something crazy is about to happen. Well, Jesus continues to take the initiative. Let's finish out the text, verses 40 54 through 56. But taking her by the hand, he called out, saying, Child, arise. And her spirit returned, and she got up at once. And he directed that something should be given her to eat. And her parents were amazed, but he charged them to tell no one what had happened. We've seen this before, haven't we? Jesus touches the deceased, he speaks, and death itself has to flee. We saw it in chapter 7. So this child's spirit returns, she has her health back, her life back. Jesus even says, get her something to eat. And her parents are amazed. Of course they're amazed, right? And then Jesus gives another odd command: don't tell anybody. Why do you think Jesus would say, Don't tell anybody? I don't know. I don't know. It could be because he didn't want people to still say so hyper-focused just on his miracles. So here's another miracle. Like, let's just keep this one quiet, maybe. Or maybe I suspect maybe this that gyres, remember, he's a part of the ruler, he's a ruler of the synagogues who has influence in Jewish circles. And it's not Jesus' time yet. He doesn't want his hand forced. And so maybe that's why. He said word to get out. But whatever the reason why, he says, let's keep this private. The unnamed woman, public. There's so many similarities in these two stories, and yet they seem to be heading in some different directions. Like with the unnamed woman, Jesus accepts and affirms her faith and heals her. With Jairus, I get the sense he's actually seeking after Jairus in this family who's in this private space and eliciting, directing him to have the faith of the unnamed woman. And he provides healing. But both of these stories don't pivot upon Jesus' power to heal. Well, that's amazing. That is a sign to point us to that, no, he actually is the Messiah. And that is to direct us to what the unnamed woman had, to have faith then in this woman. The woman had faith in Jesus, and Jairus, whose background is totally different. He's a man, not a woman. He has influence, he probably has money. It's his daughter's passed away. Things are very, very different. And yet he's directed to have the same faith. So I think we're at a place where we can answer our two questions for this morning. Certainty that Jesus is the Messiah, which is what we've seen over and over and over again throughout the book of Luke. That certainty, that head knowledge, all the things as miracles are pointing to, that certainty is intended for what particular purpose. The woman displayed it, and Jairus is directed to have it. What is it? It starts with F, and you can say it out loud. Faith. Right? This certainty that Jesus is the Messiah is intended to elicit us in us a faith in him. Which which really is a heart posture of trust in him to be who he says he is and can do what only he says that he can do. It's a certainty that is something we believe. But it doesn't stop there. It's the next step, right? It's intended for our hearts to then trust him, to be reoriented to the Messiah, to desire him, to love him, to enjoy him, to rest in him and his work. Which I think means two things for us as we read stories like this. Real quick, the first one, if this certainty in the Messiah is meant for us to put trust in him, then that means that this story is not about us trying to figure out how to have enough faith to get what we want out of the Messiah. Like we don't read this and say, okay, if I do the same thing that the unnamed woman does, and then I'll be able to manipulate God and get what I want out of him. Like, that's not what this is about. So, okay, we can put that aside. It's not about having enough faith. That's the first thing. The second one, I think, is this, and this one's a little bit more subtle. Um, because certainty that Jesus is the Messiah is intended for our hearts to have faith in him. This might sound too elementary, but it means that it's not primarily intended for our hopes for our hearts to focus back in upon ourselves. What I mean by this is um a certainty that Jesus is the Messiah is not primarily intended for us to see him as the Messiah, as the example that we're not supposed to conform our lives around, the moral standard we're supposed to follow, the authoritative teaching we're supposed to absorb. All those things focus back on what we do or don't do. Does that make sense? It's subtle. It sounds like heresy, I know, so hang with me. The certainty isn't fundamentally about an example or teaching or moral standard and all the things that we are now supposed to do. Give me my lists. I'm a legalist at heart. If you're like me, we eat this stuff up. Okay, Jesus, you're the Messiah, that's authoritative, got it. Now, what should I go do and control? Like, give me the black and white, the do's, the don'ts, the attitudes, all that, and I'm gonna spend all my time focusing on my life and getting it right. Does that make sense? That's not the primary focus here. That's not what certainty that Jesus is a Messiah is all about. It's not about now looking at yourself and how you're living and the rules and decisions and all of those things. That's not the primary focus about what you do. It's not the primary focus. It's also not primarily about you gathering all the right information and what you know. It is information, right? Certainty that Jesus is the Messiah is information. But it isn't meant to just like scratch and itch so you see how the Old Testament fits with the new. Or now we understand the differences between Judaism and Christianity. Like it's not meant to stay there, right? Right? Certainty about who the Messiah is is not primarily to give us more work to do or information to master. We do this all the time. All the time. I like I said, I eat this stuff up. I need checked to be checked here all the time. Rather, certainty that Jesus is the Messiah is primarily a call to faith in Him. This head knowledge, this certainty is most fundamentally a call for our hearts then to trust. See how that's different? To trust that He alone can save us from our sin. We have the advantage of the rest of the New Testament. We now know more what that means. To trust that the Messiah can take upon himself the wrath that was due to us because of our sin, that he could die the death that we deserved on the cross, that he could be raised again. Only Messiah can do this, be raised again to crush the power of sin and death forever. That is what we are trusting only him to be able to do. That's the call to faith. He alone makes us children of God who were born enemies of God. He alone. He alone can make our hearts spiritually alive when we're born spiritually dead. He alone can give us a love for God when we're born loving anything and everything but God. Our works don't do this. Our head knowledge doesn't do that. Jesus alone does that. So if we take certainty that Jesus is the Messiah and then we run to our works and how our life is wrong or right and the things that we're supposed to do, we're missing the point. Or better, we're missing the person. And if we do that, we remain enemies of God and spiritually dead. We remain destined to separation from God forever, even though you know in your head all the right information. Even though maybe you're trying to clean up your life a little bit. It's the person of Jesus who reconciles us to God and gives us the Spirit. And it's the Spirit that makes our hearts alive. It's the Spirit that gives us a love for God that grows over the rest of our life. It's the spirit that then empowers us to live the Christian life. How you live matters. Yes. It's the spirit that empowers that. But if that's all we focus on, we're missing the point. Certainty that Jesus is the Messiah is primarily intended to call forth faith in him. So what about our second question? Who is this call for? We've got two very different people in our stories today. The unnamed woman and Jairus. They're very, very different. Who is this call for? Yeah. Everyone, right? This is a call for everyone. Doesn't matter like what family you've been raised in, what you've done or not done, education level, wealth that you have, all the clever things you know, how good of a person you are, this call is for you. So perhaps you identify with a woman a little bit. Maybe you feel a little bit like society views you on the outside, maybe a little unaccepted, but you have some confidence that God has given you genuine faith in the Messiah, a saving faith to trust him alone. And so maybe you sense him calling you to come public with that. Maybe you just share that with some people, what he's done for you. So maybe you identify with the woman a little bit. Or maybe you identify more with Jairus, right? On the outside, it looks like he's got it all together. He's thinking the right things, he's got things figured out, his life looks pretty good. And yet maybe God is giving you some gifts to show you more of who he really is and might be calling you to either have faith for the first time in him, or maybe to trust him with more of your life. Who do you identify with? Or maybe it's a mix of both of them. The primary call in this text is if you don't yet trust Jesus to save you, the call is for you, no matter who you are, to put your faith in Jesus alone. If you're here and you are already a believer, you've already put your trust in Jesus, I think there are three responses for you as well. Right out of this text. The first one is this it's gratitude. What's been done for you, Jesus only could do by the work of his spirit. It's grace. Made your heart alive, gave you love for him, made you a child. First response is gratitude. We get to revel in that. Second possible response is to do what this woman did, to do what Jesus directed the man who had all the demons to do. Do you remember this? After he was healed, he directed him to go back to his hometown and do what? Share what Jesus did for him. So maybe there's a name coming to mind. That the Spirit would direct you to share what God has done for you already. That's the second. And here's the third. We see that Jesus gave two gifts of healing to these people to point to who he is and to elicit faith in them and who he really is. But that doesn't stop when you're converted. So if you've been a Christian for a long time or a short amount of time, God is still giving you gifts over and over and over, and their point is still to point you more to him and who he is. And so maybe there's a prayer, like, Spirit, open up my eyes to the gifts that you're giving. Would you connect the dots from the gift to the giver so I can see more of who you are? My love for you could grow. Those would be beautiful prayers. And if, and maybe you're here this morning and you don't yet trust Jesus to save you. Maybe you're actually gonna say, Yeah, I can see where he's the Messiah. But if it just stays there, let me remind you, you're missing the point of the text. The point is not just to mentally assent to it, but to actually give your heart to trust him alone. Not yourself, not anybody or anything else. And and maybe you sense God doing that for the first time. Maybe you can honestly say, you know what, I I actually do trust Jesus alone. He is the Messiah, but it's not just saying in my head, I don't understand it all. I got a lot of questions, but I actually do trust him. If that's you, like welcome to the family. God saved you. There's not some magic dance you have to do. This is God's grace to you. If that's you, would you share it with somebody? This is a communal effort, the Christian life. We want to walk with you, want to celebrate with you. Or maybe maybe you're here and you just got a lot of questions. This is boiling up stuff in your head and your heart, and you're not sure how to sort through all of it. I'd love to talk. I'd love to hear your story, love to explore those things. We're gonna have people in the back here in a little bit who are there to pray with you, and they would also love to hear your story. At the end of the gathering, there'll be people up people up front. They would love to hear your story and to pray with you. Would you please let somebody know so we can journey with you? In fact, we're gonna create some space right now to reflect and to quietly listen to what the spirit might be showing you. Whether you're you wouldn't say you're a Christian or you're just not real sure, or you say, Yep, I've been a Christian for a really, really long time. The Spirit is present and he's active, and this is a chance for us to listen. What is he showing you? What's he communicating to you? There'd be some music playing. And that time is a time of reflection. It's also a time to prepare to celebrate the Lord's Supper together. So if you are a Christian, if you trust Jesus alone, this is for you. We get to like tangibly rehearse the work of the Messiah that only he could do that brings us back into relationship with God. So, some time of reflection and then some time of preparation. Maybe the Spirit's bringing to mind some sin that you need to confess. Great, it's a perfect chance to do that. Confess your sin. Make sure you're able to reflect on your life a little bit. Like, am I living in such a way? Right, this is the secondary part. Am I living now in such a way that exhibits my faith in Jesus that he is the Messiah? That's what that time is for. And then when you're ready, you'll be able to come and celebrate the Lord's Supper. There'll be some music, there'll be an assurance read over us. The servers will come and get the elements ready. Logistically, it's gluten-free on both sides. There's wine and juice on both sides. They'll prepare the elements, and then you're welcome to celebrate anytime you'd like. Just follow the line. There'll be a line down these two aisles, take the elements, and go back to your seat or celebrate with your family or yourself or those that are around you. You get to taste it. You get a feel it. It's a reminder of the gospel, of the goodness of our Messiah. Let me pray for us. God, you um. You are you're so good. All that you do, you do in order to point us back to you. Either for the first time or to enjoy you and or to enjoy you to a greater extent. All of it points back to you. I pray that by your grace, you might help us to not miss that point. And when we do over and over and over again, would you call us back, direct us back? I pray even now as we prepare to listen to your spirit, that we might hear your spirit. Open our ears to what he's communicating, how he's showing us more of yourself. We want to hear that. And for those of us who already trust you, I pray that you help prepare our hearts to celebrate the Lord's Supper, the finished work that only Jesus could do for us. Help us to revel in it, to actually celebrate that. We need help there too, we pray. Pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen.