Christ Suffered Once For All

And amen. You can be seated. Good morning, everyone. At this time, we'll go ahead and dismiss our kids to little district. Um, I mean, I'm telling you, they just they they they so badly want to just be Pentecostals. Amen.

And run around, you know, during uh during worship. And uh, hey, I'm here for it. You know, one of those songs, I think there was a lyric like, let them walk in freedom. And I mean, that's exactly what they were trying to do. do. And so I I love it.

Actually, I think one of the one of I mean there's many signs of a healthy church. One of the signs of a healthy church is a parking lot that is filled with pickup trucks and minivans. I just think that is the sign of a healthy church. And so one of the signs of a healthy church. So I'm here for it. Let Let them walk around, run around, all the good stuff.

That's right. Subarus. All right. I I'll throw that in there. Subarus. I don't know.

That's kind of a controversial topic these days. Um, anyways, open up your Bibles. First Peter 3, continuing on in our series called Bold. Um, and, uh, we're going to be actually closing out chapter 3 today, verses 18 through 22. and uh a super fun passage for us this morning. One that has um certain verses within it, specifically verses 19 and 20 that have um baffled several pastors, theologians throughout the years.

And so it'll be a a fun one for us to look at and tackle this morning. But I just want to remind everyone again the mission of our church. We treasure Jesus by helping others follow him. We treasure Jesus and we help others follow him and and where the rubber really meets the road. The way that we do that is by again opening our Bibles to learn and opening our lives to love. Like that's kind of the bike pedals, if you will, that propel our mission forward is the way we treasure Jesus is centering our lives around the way he wants to ultimately be treasured.

And the way he reveals that is through the word of God. And so you cannot worship Jesus in your own ideology, your own way of thinking, your own. I think this is a good way to do it. The way we do it is the way he wants us to do it. And the way we figure that out is by opening the Bible and learning. Learning.

He's told us a specific way to do it. And so we want to do it that way. And at the same time as you are transformed and begin treasuring Jesus, it is not something that you keep to yourself. It is something that you want everyone else who's not treasuring Jesus to get in on because he is your greatest pleasure forever more as we will see today. And when he becomes your greatest pleasure and then he also tells you this is not just for you but it's for all then that begins to shift the way you live your life so that you are then taking your greatest treasure and sharing that treasure with everyone else. And so that's why we exist as a church is to treasure Jesus and help others follow him by opening the Bible to learn and opening our lives to love.

And so let's open the Bible this morning. 1 Peter 3:18-22 and see what the Lord would have for us this morning. And so I'm going to read it for us and then we'll uh go verse by verse and and unpack it. Starting in verse 18, for Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey when God's patience waited in the days of Noah while the ark was being prepared and which a few that is eight persons were brought safely through water. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.

Father, I want to lift this up one more time in prayer that as we unpack this message, I know there's a thousand different ways in which we could go with those five verses alone, but I hope that we can see the central theme that you are proclaiming that you are wanting us to have confidence in the work of Christ that regardless of what's going on around us and even The judgment that's going to be coming on all of the sin in the world for those who have faith in you will be brought safely through to salvation. May we see that truth and may we rest in that truth. And may that truth embolden us to be able to endure any suffering that we do face because we know we have a guarantee that we are secure in Christ and in him alone. It's in Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen.

The big idea I want you to see from this message is actually going to be every single point of the message. I'm just going to be honing in on different points of it. So, the big idea I want you to see here is that Christ suffered once for all. Christ suffered once for all. That's the big idea. And what you're going to see in the first point is that Christ suffered once for all.

And so I'm going to emphasize here the idea of him suffering because I think as we've been walking through you've been seeing the theme of suffering in the book of first Peter. Um but I don't want it to become background noise for us. I I think it is something that just as much as we focus on the resurrection of Christ. Yes and amen. We also need to realize that the resurrection didn't come if he didn't first suffer. We need to make sure that we understand and hold on to the reason for Christ's suffering.

It is central to the claim of Christianity. It is one of the central themes of Christianity and the Christian faith. And so we need to make sure that we don't ever forget it. Um it's a main theme in this entire epistle. Peter recorded every chapter keeps us tethered to the truth that Christ suffered. Just listen.

1 Peter 1:1 references the sufferings of Christ. 1 Peter 2:21 says this, "For to this you have been called because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example so that you might follow in his steps." 1 Peter 3:18, our verse for today. For Christ suffered once for all. 1 Peter 4:1, since therefore Christ suffered. 1 Peter 4:13, rejoice in so far as you share in Christ's sufferings.

1 Peter 5:1, as a fellow elder and witness of the what? The sufferings of Christ. And so you can see throughout this entire text that Peter is drawing the Christians in and telling them don't forget the sufferings of Christ. Don't forget it. It's very important for us. John Sto in the cross of Christ once put it this way.

He laid aside his immunity to pain. He entered our world of flesh and blood. tears and death he suffered for us. And so it's so important, it's so central to the theme that I wanted it to be the first point for us today so that we don't forget the fact that Christ suffered. And I'm going to get a little bit into more of of how that works out for us as we get to it. But the thing that you need to remember is that he suffered and we never need to forget that.

Now he suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous. The second thing I want you to see here is that Christ suffered once for all. Christ suffered once for all. Once meaning final. Final meaning that there's no necessary there's there's no reason for him to suffer again. There's no reason for him to die on a cross again.

There's no reason for another sacrifice or continued sacrifices. There's no more sacrifices. Christ's suffering is sufficient. Period. It's sufficient. Hebrews 7:27 puts it this way.

He Christ has no need like the rest of the high priests to offer sacrifices daily. first for his own sins and then for those of the people since he again Christ did this once for all when he offered himself up. And so in other ways right now there's debates going on just because of what's going on in Israel and the Israel people and whether or not Judaism is a is a false religion or a legit religion or I mean again it's one of the three religions in the world as far as being the top. You've got Christianity, you got Islam, and you've got Judaism. But people are asking the question, is it a false religion? Well, no.

It's not a false religion, but what it is is a fulfilled religion. It's fulfilled, which means everything that it existed to point to when Christ died on the cross fulfilled all of it. So all the sacrifices, all of the festivals, all of the rituals, everything that the Old Testament was pointing to and illustrating for us to not miss in the person of Christ when Christ came, it fulfilled it. So he never abolishes it, but he fulfills it so that we don't follow it anymore. We follow Christ and now all of it points to Christ. And so it is just simply a fulfilled religion.

Fulfilled religion meaning we now turn our attention to Jesus because everything that it pointed to is now once and for all done. It is finished. It is finished. And that is good news for us because the requirements that we had in order to meet the standards of righteousness throughout the Old Testament, Christ has come and accomplished for us. So just as he has called us to be perfect, Christ comes and once for all earns for us perfection. And because we could not reach our perfect status before God and be able to come into his presence as righteousness earned, because we could not attain that and instead reveals our imperfection and our unrighteousness, Christ comes and takes our unrighteousness and goes to the cross and dies in our place and substitutes himself there.

And he does that so that it also earns that for us as well. It fulfills it for us. So that there is nothing for us to do. There's nothing for us to do but believe on the son of God in the work that he has accomplished for us. That's faith. We trust what he has done, not what we do.

To juxtapose this with the other third religion, Islam, there is no atonement for sin in Islam. None. Rather, salvation is dependent upon obedience. It's dependent upon submission. It's dependent upon good deeds outweighing bad deeds. The sinner ultimately stands before God hoping to be accepted.

In Islam, the question is, have I done enough? And in Christianity, the answer is Christ has done enough. Christ has done enough. Christ suffered once for all. Once for all. The righteous for the unrighteous.

Therefore, it was substitutionary. That's why we use that term substitutionary atonement. Substitutionary atonement. John Stodd again put it this way. The essence of sin is man substituting himself for God. That's the essence of sin.

While the essence of salvation is God substituting himself for man. That's beautiful. That's beautiful. That's what Peter is reminding the sojouring and suffering Christians that Christ first suffered being separated from his father in our place. So think about this for just a moment. Christ suffered and was separated from his father, the righteous for the unrighteous so that those who are separated from God might be brought in and come close to God and be in relationship with God.

So everything that Christ has been experiencing with the father for all eternity when God creates us and we are in his presence in re in relationship in communion with him. Our sin separates us. And so the only way for God to bring us back into relationship with him is for Christ to come and substitute himself in our place so that he might bring us to God which is what the text says. Why does Christ suffer once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous? So that Christ might bring us to God. I want you to think about that for a moment.

I want you to dwell on this. I want you to meditate on this. Christ who experienced full pleasure with the father for all eternity substituted himself to experience full suffering. full suffering, the punishment for sinning against a a an allholy, perfect, and righteous God, so that we might get to experience full pleasure with God. The great exchange, as Martin Luther used to call it, what Christ did for us is almost too good to be true. It feels that way.

It's almost too good to be true. Spurgeon once said, "If there be anything in the world that can melt the heart, it's the cross of Christ." It's the cross of Christ. And I totally agree. It reminds me of the lyrics from How Deep the Father's Love for Us. I mean, just listen to this.

How deep. I'm not going to sing it for you. How deep the Father's love for us. How vast beyond all measure that he should give his only son to make a wretch his treasure. How great the pain of searing loss. The father turns his face away.

As wounds which mar the chosen one bring many sons to glory. Behold the man upon a cross, my sin upon his shoulders. Ashamed, I hear my mocking voice call out among the scoffers. It was my sin that held him there until it was accomplished. His dying breath has brought me life. I know that it is finished.

I will not boast in anything. No gifts, no power, no wisdom, but I will boast in Jesus Christ, his death and resurrection. Why should I gain from his reward? I cannot give an answer. But this I know with all my heart. His wounds have paid my ransom.

Christ experienced the worst pain so that we might experience the greatest pleasure. That's the gospel. That's the truth of the gospel. I don't know if you know this or not, but the opposite of suffering is pleasure. pleasures forever more. It's why in the opening I led with that passage in Psalm 16:9-11 because Christ suffered so that we might not suffer the wrath and judgment of God.

So instead instead of us receiving what we are owed, what we what we what we owe him, Christ comes and experiences the worst so that we might be able to receive the best. That's why again Psalm 16 9-11, therefore my heart is glad and my whole being rejoices. says, "My flesh also dwells secure. For you will not abandon my soul to shield or let your holy one see corruption." I mean, this is what he's talking about for us. But instead, what we get to receive is verse 11.

You make known to me the path of life, and in your presence there is fullness of joy. So in order for us to receive fullness of joy, someone has to be abandoned to shield. Someone has to see corruption. Because in order for God to remain just, the penalty has to be paid. In other words, God doesn't just sweep it under the rug and say, "Just don't worry about it." His wrath has to be satisfied.

Sin has to be paid for. And the great substitution takes place. Christ leaves his place in heaven and he comes and humbles himself to the form of a servant, a bondervant to the point of death on a cross, experiencing the absolute worst in order for us to be able to experience the absolute best. Hold on to that verse. at your right hand are pleasures forever more. We'll come back to it.

But look back at our first verse, verse 18. For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, bring being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit. If you're ever looking for a verse that just sums up the gospel, that's it. That's Peter's definition of the gospel of Jesus Christ right there. That verse alone is enough Bible to save someone. So memorize it and share it with people.

Now, the next two verses are where I mentioned there's a bit of a mystery going on here. Peter continues the thought from verse 18, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit. He continues as kind of a run-on sentence here in with that thought in which he that being Christ went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison because they formerly did not obey when God's patience waited in the days of Noah while the ark was being prepared in which a few that is eight persons were brought safely through water. The third thing I want you to see here is that Christ suffered once for all. Christ suffered once for all. And I'll show you why I emphasize all in a moment.

But we can agree that those verses are a bit mysterious, right? Those verses are a bit unique. Like why all of the sudden does it almost feel like he takes a hard right turn to illustrate a story in the Old Testament dealing with Noah and the flood when drawing our attention to Christ ultimately suffering in our place in order for us to be brought near to God. And so as I started searching and and diving deeper into answering that question, coming to some of my trusted and true theologians like Martin Luther for example, here's what Martin Luther has to say in regards to these two verses. A wonderful text is this and a and a more obscure passage perhaps than any other in the New Testament. So that I do not know for a certainty just what Peter means.

All right, Martin, that that's helpful. So then I turn over to more modern day, maybe we've caught up over the last 500 years and figured it out. John Piper says, "When I read this passage, I am simply perplexed." All right, Piper, that's helpful as well. Thank you so much. But what Piper does is he says what we need to do is instead of just honing in on those two verses.

We need to pull back a little bit and look at the greater context of what's going on here so that it makes sense for us. So that it makes sense for us. But before I do that, I do want to unpack for you a little bit of the three primary interpretations of 19 and 20 so that it gives you a little bit of food to chew on in your own personal studies to figure out which one maybe you think he means here. One of the first one is that some believe Christ descended to the realm of the dead and proclaimed his victory there. They get that from passages like Ephesians 4 8-10 as well as 1 Peter 4:6 even in our next chapter which we'll have to attack next week. The second one is that others believe he announced his triumph to fallen angels since it has to do with Genesis 6 and the days of Noah.

Again, 1 Peter 3:22 even alludes to that in our specific context since he says that the angels and the authorities and the principalities are now subjected to him. So maybe he's going back in Noah's day to those who died in the judgment of the flood and he is proclaiming to them basically told you. The third one is that others following Augustine and many of the reformers believe Christ preached through Noah to Noah's generation by the spirit. And we see that alluded to in 1 Peter 1:10-12 where he says the prophets of old were inquiring in the spirit of Christ when the day would come that he would actually suffer and ultimately redeem the world. Again, faithful believers have disagreed on the precise meaning. All three views agree on one thing though, Peter's central point.

God judges sinners and all who by faith submit to God, they will receive salvation. In other words, they will be brought through the judgment and come out on the other side saved and safe and secure. saved, safe and secure. In other words, God will judge sin by way of suffering and also God will provide salvation by way of substitution. And I believe Peter clarifies that specific truth by teaching about the Christian view of baptism, which is what he goes to next. Look at the text verse 21.

Baptism, which corresponds to this. So when he says which corresponds to this means that he's talking about verses 18- 20. So baptism which corresponds to that basically he's taking the teaching of baptism and overlaying it to that text now saves you. Now if you were to stop there and just say baptism saves you. Well, that will get a lot of interpretations in some hot water because we don't believe that the physical I'm pointing over here because usually we put the horse trough over here but over here the hot tub that when we dunk someone in water that physical act we believe does not save someone. But what it signifies and what it illustrates and what it represents 100% absolutely saves you.

And I believe Peter knows that there are going to be some who assume that just dunking somebody is going to do the work. And that's why he makes a little point here, not as a removal of dirt from the body. So just going around and giving people baths isn't going to be ultimately what saves them. but as an appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Now, man, there's so much I I want us to see the picture that Peter is painting here. And so, lean into this.

Hear this. Picture the practice of baptism. What we do in that moment where we take someone and we illustrate these words that we are buried with Christ in baptism where the waters are ultimately covering you and in a sense drowning you but then you are raised to walk in the newness of life. So we are buried with Christ in baptism and raised to walk in the newness of life. Not only are you seeing an imagery there of what is going on in the days of Noah where a flood comes and judges and puts to death sin and sinners. But there is also a family, eight persons who are brought safely through the baptism waters and ultimately saved through it.

And so when we think about and we look at the story of Noah really it's a cosmic baptism happening. There are two types of people involved. sinners, aka the world, and then the righteous, which were eight persons, which is also, let that just kind of build your faith a little bit right now, that there are going to be times where we feel like there's no one else. Like, why does it feel like the church is so small? Why does it feel like we have such a big job ahead of us outside of the church walls? You got to remember I mean there were moments in history where there are eight people who saying there's no one else like us.

Actually hear this from my oldest because right now our kids are in a public school system. My oldest says there's no Christians like me and it's hard for me to like find friends or to you know to figure that out. You got to imagine that they were saying the same thing. There's no one else like us. And it's not saying that we're better than them, but there's no one else who's submitting to God. There's no one else who's following and trusting in him.

There's also judgment of God involved in the story of Noah. Water, the flood that comes to kill them. And there is salvation involved. The ark, of course, sinners receive the judgment of God and water comes and swallows them up. The righteous receive the salvation of God and the ark preserves them and saves them from judgment. That's the story.

Now in our baptism, let me ask a question. Which people are we? Which people are we? Trick question. Both. We're both.

We are the sinner in which the judgment of God, the water comes to bury us. so that we might die to our sin and then we are raised to walk in the newness of life. That is salvation. But where's the ark in our baptism? I want you to hear this. The eight were saved through a wooden boat, but all are saved through a wooden cross.

That's our ark. That's the thing that when we are buried, we don't stay buried because Christ was buried because he paid the penalty for us because he took our sin and became it so that the wrath of God would then be poured out on him and him alone once for all. Again, that's why it says not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience. Some translations actually say as a response to God from a good conscience. So physical baptism does not save you. But what it signifies and represents in the suffering of Christ, him taking our judgment of God on our behalf and through his cross, we are brought safely through judgment to our salvation.

That's why he says again, we make this appeal to God. So baptism then is a public proclamation that we are sinners. No different than those who were reviling and rejecting Noah and saying, "You're crazy. There's never even been rain before. What do you mean the world the world's going to be covered with a flood? We were those people."

And by the grace and mercy of God, he reveals it to us that we are those people. And we begin making appeals to God, crying out to God to save us, let us on the ark. And the fact that Jesus comes and pays that penalty for us in our place allows us to get on the boat and come safely through the judgment waters. You can even dive deeper into other illustrations that that paint this picture. Passover is all about this. Passover is all about this.

the lamb slain and taking his blood and painting it on the doorpost so that when the angel of death judgment comes, it'll pass over your home and you will be safely brought to the other side. Again, this is why Romans Paul says this to the Roman in Romans 6:4. We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the father, we too might walk in the newness of life. That's where we get that language from when we dump people. We were buried with Christ in baptism into death, namely his death. his death so that we might die to our sins and be raised to walk in the newness of life.

And because Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the father, he was then seated at the right hand of God. And this is why I want to stop with the fourth point. Christ suffered once for all. Keep it centered on Jesus. Keep it centered on Jesus. It's it's the gospel should humble us and never cause us to boast in ourselves.

It should always cause us to boast in Christ. Because even though even though we receive an inheritance and get to become co-airs with Christ, ruling and reigning the new heavens and the new earth, we need to make sure that we understand that that throne and that seat at the right hand of God is Christ's first and foremost and forever more is Christ. And that's why verse 22, I think he closes it out with this. Christ who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him. Now, remember I asked you to hold on to Psalm 16:11. I want to bring that back up.

In your presence, there is fullness of joy. There is fullness of joy. Can you just imagine putting yourself in the place of those eight people, Noah's family, that they witnessed the judgment of God wipe out an entire world. And there's always going to be a bit of probably doubt that we experience like when they're on that boat and the rain's coming and the waters are thrashing and people are dying that there's got to be a moment at some point in there and this is total conjecture that they're wondering are we going to make it? Are we going to make it? And then to see, you know, as you see the story illustrated that the bird comes and the olive branch and and and then it kind of the joy starts to fill.

The waters are receding. We're going to make it. We're going to make it. And the whole time they're they're not in control of anything. They're not in control of anything. But once they get there, what's the first thing that they do?

They set up an altar and they worship. Joy produces worship when we see God's faithfulness. When we see God's promises come to fruition. When God tells us that, "I've taken your sin and I've placed it on Jesus. And though your sin, the wages of it is death. And that's what you deserve.

There's a bit of us that's always wondering, maybe doubting as Thomas did, even doubting, are we going to make it? Are we going to make it or are we going to receive death? He is reassuring us with stories and passages like this that those who believe in the work of Christ and what he has accomplished are brought safely through. Take heart in that. You don't have to worry about whether or not you're rowing in the right direction. You don't have to worry whether or not the boat's going to hold up.

I mean, think about that. How many stories do you see in the New Testament with the storms with every every time they get on the waters, something crazy happens every single time? And I think there's two things that God does to show us that at the end of the day, we're not in control of anything. Either he calms the storm and says you're safely going to get to the other side, or he calms the person in the storm and still gets you to the safely to the other side, even if that means you shipwreck once you get there. Either way, he's producing in us confidence that he is the one that we trust in, not ourselves, not ourselves. And so, what that does for us is it begins to fill us with joy that we get to have confidence in Christ and not ourselves.

Confidence that when we trust in his work and what he has accomplished for us that it will get us to the other side. And what is at the other side? At his right hand are pleasures forever more. Here's the absolute beauty of the gospel. Peter tells us that the righteous, that is Christ, dies for the unrighteous, which is us. That's what Peter's telling us.

Christ, who is in perfect communion with the father, temporarily separates himself from the father and receives the father's wrath. He experiences the absolute worst. The worst that you could possibly experience. None of us want to experience that suffering. But Christ suffered for us so that we who are imperfect and separated from the father might receive the father's grace and mercy and be reconciled to him. Because Christ who was righteous became our unrighteousness and then gave us his righteousness which is necessary in order for us to be in the presence of the father.

And we who deserve the suffering wrath of God for our sins instead now get to receive the pleasurable joy of the Lord at the right hand of God by faith in the person and work of Jesus. So connect the dots here. What's at the right hand of God? Joy and pleasures forever more. But let me also ask you a question. Who is at the right hand of God?

Christ. Christ. And I think sometimes the the the where we get mixed up in life is when we seek the pleasures forever more at the right hand of God without seeking Christ. In all honesty, that's the definition of sin. We want the pleasures forever more. We want the creation that came from the hand of God without Christ.

Without Christ. And what Peter is drawing them back into is that Christ is the one who is seated at the right hand of God and has been exalted to that position because he came and did what we could not do for ourselves. And now creates the opportunity as the way, the truth, and the life. as John 14:6 tells us and that no one gets to the father unless it is through him. So how do we get to the right hand of God? It's got to come through Christ who is at the right hand of God.

In other words, Jesus took the thing from you that kept you from him. That's why Christ suffered once for all. He took the thing from you that kept you from him. So that he can give the thing to you that will please you forever more. Himself. Himself.

If that don't melt your heart, I don't know what will. This is the message that Christ has been proclaiming from the Garden of Eden to the ends of the globe. From the beginning of time to the day he returns. And it's such a hopefilled and joyfilled message that I believe Peter's telling this small community of faith. Remember how the world was against Noah and God brought those eight people who had faith in him safely through. Even now, Peter as he's teaching and telling this community of faith that is scattered throughout their region and the Roman Empire and they're looking at this great pagan empire that is torturing Christians and killing Christians.

I mean, Emperor Nero during this time is just I mean, even Romans looked at him and said, "He's crazy. He's out of his mind." But Neero was gathering up Christians, impaling them with spears, dunking them in tar, and then setting them up in his gardens and lighting them on fire so that they would be torches in the night for people to walk through the gardens. So you got to imagine the same thing that the eight were experiencing in their day. Peter is drawing on that story to this church that is small in comparison to the expansive Roman Empire that is pressuring them and torturing them. And he's basically telling them take heart.

Take heart. No matter what happens, you will be brought safely through. Trust in Christ. And if they put you on a spear, be filled with joy that all they are doing is fasttracking your inheritance to where you get to go be seated with Christ on high. Man, let that fill you with joy this morning, church. Let's pray together.

Father, we thank you so much for this message. We thank you so much for your word. But right now, Lord, I simply just want to draw attention to Christ, the Christ, the chosen one, the Messiah. The one who lived the perfect life that we could not live. The one who died the death that we deserve because of our imperfection and our unrighteousness. the one who rose three days later because your wrath towards our sin was satisfied and Christ's sacrifice was sufficient once for all.

May we bow to him and may we worship him and may we be filled with joy and pleasures forever more because of all that Christ has accomplished to bring us back to God. To bring us back to God. Jesus we love you. God, we thank you. It's in Christ's name that we pray. Amen.

Would you go and stand with me, church, as we come to our time of communion, Jesus took the thing from you that kept you from him. He took your sin and he laid it on himself. He carried it on his shoulders. Even more than that, he he became sin who knew no sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. The great exchange. And so just as baptism physically does not save you, but it signifies and it represents the great baptism in which God spiritually buries us with Christ in his death and then raises us in his resurrection so that we too might have new life and be dead to our sin and have pleasures forever more for eternity on the same thing as with this.

It It signifies a truth. It represents a story, a message that Christ suffered once for all. Once for all. Where we say baptism unites one to many in the sense that it brings one sinner into the community of faith, the church. What this does is it takes the many and it unites them to the one. It takes the church, the community of faith, and unites them to the sacrifice of Christ, to his breaking of his body and shedding of his blood.

And so we remember that. But I hope more that it's not just a remembrance, but it is an act of worship in which when we partake, we thank we are filled with joy. We are filled with gratitude that we don't break our bodies and shed our blood, but he did it for us. He suffered it so that we don't have to. He suffered so that we might instead receive pleasure. And so let's worship Christ as we partake today.

If you believe Jesus died on the cross for you, that he broke his body and shed his blood for the forgiveness of your sins, then I invite you to come down, grab the elements, bring them back to your seats. We will partake together at the end of the song.