Jesus Died So We Can Live

Transcript

Mark 15, 33 to 41.

And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani, which means, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And some of the bystanders hearing it said, Behold, he is calling Elijah. And someone ran and filled a sponge with a sour wine, put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink, saying, Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down. And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. And when the centurion who stood facing him saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, Truly, this man was a son of God. There were also women looking on from a distance,

— Mark 15

(ESV)

among whom were Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of James, the younger, and of Joseph and Salome. When he was in Galilee, they followed him and ministered to him. And there were also many other women who came up with him to Jerusalem. This, brothers and sisters, is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Good morning, people of God. It is good to see you. It is good to be with you. It is good to open God’s word with you. It is good to sing to Jesus with you. And it is good to be the people of God together with you. If this is your first time with us, my name is Andrew. I’m one of the pastors and a member of the staff here at Trinity Church. We are in Mark 15 today. Please join with me in prayer. Jesus, You are our King.

And today, as we come to Your word and Your truth, we see that You are our crucified King. And we see yet at the same time when all seemed as lost, and all seemed dark, and all seemed broken, that You are triumphing over Satan and sin and death. So I pray against Satan, his servants, their works and effects. He hates when this truth is proclaimed. And I pray for those who are in You that we would know that You have conquered our sin. And those who don’t yet know You, that You would save them from their sin. And that Jesus, we as pilgrims on planet earth, would navigate this place knowing we have nothing to fear. We don’t even have death to fear. Because You are our God. And You’ve had victory. And so Holy Spirit, please be with me as we see both the darkness of the cross

and the light and the beauty of Jesus’ victory. Whatever is just of me may it be forgotten, but the things that are of You, may they shine in our hearts, Lord, today. And help us to serve You well and to love You well and to enjoy You well and to know You well and to love each other and this city well. Jesus, we love You and pray these things for Your glory and for our joy. And in Your name, Jesus Christ, Amen.

The Gospel of the Cross

In the words of perhaps the greatest theologian in Christian history and in Christian thinking, we hear this.

Now I would remind you, brothers and sisters, of the gospel I preached. Of first importance, what I received. That Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures. That He was buried and that He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. And that He appeared to Cephas and to the twelve.

— 1 Corinthians 15

(ESV)

At the heart of the words of the Apostle Paul, we see that the cross and the resurrection, as an event tied together, are at the center of the Christian gospel. And arguably, at the center of the Christian Scriptures. And arguably, at the center of human history. That ours, friends, is a gospel of the cross. Ours is not a gospel of, see Jesus, He was nice. Be nice. Be a good person.

Ours is a gospel of the cross that acknowledges and looks straight at the reality that you and I are sinners apart from His work. And that the God of the universe has entered into human history on that cross to do what we cannot do. Because when for a moment we understand that God, the Divine Being, our Triune Lord, is beautiful and glorious and gracious and without blemish and without spot and without darkness, and we look at our own lives, we realize we cannot get to that God. We can’t live a life that looks like that God on our own. But the grace of the gospel is that God came and does what I cannot do. And that’s that He settles the score between myself and Himself. He’s the score settler who comes and does this on the cross. And fundamentally, we’re going to see today

as we walk through these incredibly punchy verses, it’s like Mark is just turning up the rhythm and the speed and he’s already been moving fast. But we’re going to see that Jesus died so that we can live with one point of implication. So live. Live, Trinity Church. And so as we look at just this handful of verses, we’re going to see sort of a reverse bell curve trajectory. As things will get darker and darker and darker. And as it seems like there’s no recovery, as it seems as if it is dark as it can possibly be, there’s immediately a turn upward. That even in the darkness of Good Friday, there’s immediately hope. If you go with me to Mark 15, starting in verse 33. If you’re in a Pew Bible, it’s page number 801. If you don’t own a Bible, we would love for you to take that

or to give you a nicer one, but please, there’s nothing more important than the words held in your hands. If you don’t have a Bible, there’s one right in front of you. In the seat back in front of you. And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. That’s about noon, by the way. Noon to three. There’s darkness over the land. So fulfills Amos 8

where it says, On that day, declares the Lord God, I will make the sun go down at the sixth hour and darken the earth in broad daylight. I will turn your feasts.. Now remember, Jesus is being crucified during Passover. The great feast that is the great reminder that the good God of the universe saved His people who were the least in the world and redeemed them. And it’s a celebration.

You have to remember that now. So Amos being written hundreds of years ahead of time, prophesied not only that the land would be dark, but also would happen in the festival. And I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentation. I will bring sackcloth in every waist and baldness on every head. I will make it like mourning for an only son. Interesting. An only begotten son, perhaps. And the end of it, like a bitter day. So, as Jesus is crucified, darkness descends. God, in a sense, sets the stage. This is a dark moment. And as Thomas so eloquently did last week, I will follow his pattern. There is a horror here. But this isn’t where we lay out the horror of the gruesome nature of the cross. We need to be careful there. I think sometimes when we lay that out,

even preachers can be doing pulpiteering, where we can make you feel bad because this gruesome thing is happening. And perhaps it’s more accented in our time and place because many of us have never seen a baby born or a person die or a dead body. But the reality is that life and death are at the fingertips of these people. It’s not actually the cross. Well, it is actually the cross. Pardon me. Let me say that differently. The cross is a horrific and violent event. But the horror here is the sentiment we have when an innocent person is wrongly harmed. And the reality is that this is the only truly innocent person who is without sin who is harmed. We should be people who feel great injustice when innocent people are hurt. When innocent people are killed. And that much more is true of Jesus on the cross.

Forsaken Yet Victorious

The only person who never did anything wrong to anyone ever. But not only that, as we see in Jude, the One who led these people’s forebears out and rescued them. The very celebration they’re celebrating. The One who led these people out is the One they’re putting on the cross. The One who came to save. The One who came to reveal the Father to the people. They’ve put Him on the cross. This Jesus, the horror, is the only truly innocent person who ever lived dies on the cross. And this is a dark, dark reality. Verse 34. And at the ninth hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? Which means, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And some of the bystanders hearing said, behold, He’s calling Elijah. And someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine and put it on a reed

and gave it to Him to drink, saying, wait, let us see whether Elijah has come to take Him down. So what’s happening here? Why do we have these different words here? These are Aramaic words. And they’re transliterated for us by Mark. Meaning, Mark, instead of writing, why have you forsaken me? Because everyone’s speaking in Aramaic. He could have already done that. The Greek word doesn’t sound at all like Elijah. But of course, the word Eloi here does sound a lot like Elijah. You can hear it. You can read it. So he takes these Aramaic words and he actually writes the Aramaic words and then unpacks them for us. Or really, in a sense, for us Gentiles who don’t speak Aramaic. So we make sure here at Trinity Church of Portland in 2022, by God’s forbearance, we actually know what it says here. And we get, for lack of a better word,

we’re let in on what’s happening. Joke is the wrong word here. But we’re let in on what’s happening. Now, what’s interesting about this or important for us to understand about this or really even understand what’s happening here is there are seven statements from the cross and marked zeros in on one. This one right here. And this one right here, if you’re familiar with the Psalms, is a direct quote of Psalm 22, verse 1. Now, within Hebrew theological education, if you will, faith formation, it was very common, a common mnemonic device is to either have the first word of a section or the first line of a section of Scripture which is supposed to recall us back to that Scripture. Even the word Genesis. We call the book of Genesis, Genesis. But in Hebrew, it’s actually the first word of chapter 1, verse 1 in Genesis, Bereshit.

And so here’s our mnemonic device. We go to Psalm 22, which Thomas went to last week and we must revisit again because this is the Psalm by which Mark is framing out the death of Jesus. And here in Psalm 22, we have a very interesting phenomenon. And in Psalm 22, we’re going to see Jesus left or forsaken. And then we’re going to see Jesus pierced as Thomas pointed to in Psalm 22, 16 last week. But then there’s a turn. Even here as he dies and even as he calls us to think of this Psalm, there’s a turn. So here we are. 22, verse 1. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Have you left me? Why are you so far from saving me from the words of my groaning? Oh my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer. And by night, I find no rest.

Now listen to this. This is divine. This is not our natural wiring. Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel. In you our fathers trusted. They trusted and you delivered them. To you they cried and were rescued. There’s that Passover thing again. In you they trusted and were not put to shame. But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by the people. All who see me mock me. They make mouths at me. They wag their heads. He trusts the Lord. Let him deliver him. Let him rescue him. For he delights in him. You can almost hear. You can almost hear it in the crowd. The same sentiment that’s here written by King David hundreds of years before Jesus. As they mock him. Let Elijah come down. Let him get him. Let him save himself. He who saved others.

You can almost hear this reality. And so what we see in the cross, though God could rescue Jesus, He leaves Him right there. He leaves Him right there on the cross. We must keep in mind, this was the plan of God to save sinners. And it was not the plan of God the Father alone, but Christ Himself who before the foundations of the earth chose us in Him that Jesus would die on the cross to save sinners like you and like me. Because here is the reality of the cross, friends. It is ourselves who put Him there. I mean, even Peter at Pentecost calls out to the people as he’s telling them basically the whole story of biblical history that lands at the cross and resurrection of Jesus. Jesus whom you crucified. Because you see that beauty of that beautiful and infinite God. He’s a good God, friends.

He’s not a God who sweeps things under the rug. He’s not a God who turns a blind eye to injustice. There is great injustice on planet earth. There are times where there are great injustices that we won’t see fixed in our lifetime. And that is hard to stomach sometimes. It’s hard to be a parent in that kind of world. It’s hard to be a person in that kind of world sometimes. But the amazing thing we see at the cross is that’s not going to be swept under the rug. Jesus will deal with it. Either Jesus has paid the price for our sins or we’re going to have to. And so Jesus is both left on the cross, literally, but He is also forsaken as the weight of the justice of God is poured out on Him, on the cross, on our behalf. He is being forsaken in this sense.

Skip with me to 16. I’d love to do the whole song, but we do not have time. As Thomas read last week, for dogs encompass me, a couple of evildoers encircles me. They have pierced my hands and my feet. I can count on my bones. They stare and gloat over me. They divide my garments among them. And for my clothing, they cast lots. The very thing we saw last week. Zechariah 12.10 says this, And I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace. Grace. And please for mercy, so that when they look on me, speaking of Jesus, on Him who they pierced, they shall mourn for Him as one mourns for an only child and weep bitterly over Him as one weeps over a firstborn. Again, hundreds of years before Jesus is born, we’re told in Zechariah

that the Messiah will be one who is pierced. But not only that, through that piercing, God is going to show grace and mercy to His people. Grace is where we get things that we don’t deserve. Mercy is where we don’t get what we do deserve. You see there’s a subtle difference there? Grace is a gift I get that I haven’t earned. And mercy is when I don’t get what I deserve. When I don’t get my just rewards. When I don’t get the karma that I have coming my way. That’s mercy. Now, what’s beautiful about this is that Zechariah is even prophesying there will be a time when they see this one they pierced and repent. And that’s coming. That’s coming at Pentecost. But we can own this and feel this. One of my favorite modern hymns. We sang it last week. Behold the man upon the 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. This is what it means to be a Christian. It means to associate with that cross of that God who died in our place to save us from ourselves and from death and from sin. But as we’ll see in a moment, to life. And to life in an abundance. Verse 21 says this. We’re still in Psalm 22. So we’ve seen Him left. We’ve seen Him forsaken. We’ve seen Him pierced. And then this. Starting in verse 20. Deliver my soul from the sword. My precious life from the power of the dog. Save me from the mouth of the lion. Verse 21b. You have rescued me. Or you have answered me. Wait, what? You have answered me from the horns of the wild oxen.

I will tell of your name to my brothers in the midst of the congregation. I will praise you. You who fear the Lord, praise Him. All you offspring of Jacob, glorify Him and stand in awe of Him. All of your offspring of Israel. For He is not despised or abhorred of the affliction of the afflicted. And He has not hidden His face from Him, but has heard when He cried to Him. So there’s these two realities happening at the same time. There’s a sense in which Jesus, crying out to God, is having the wrath of God, the justice of God for all of our sins, poured upon Him. And at the same time, because this is the plan of God before the foundations of the earth, God looks down and says, This is My Son. Behold, whom I love. This was the plan before the foundations

of the earth to rescue the wrath of God sufficient to cover all the sins of every human being who’s ever lived and applied to those who call upon the name of the Lord to be applied to those who are His, to His church. So even in Psalm 22, as it gets darker and darker, then light. Then light. Go back with me to Mark. Verse 37. And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed His last.

It Is Finished

Mark doesn’t give us the context of that cry, but John 19, verse 30 does. Where it says, It is finished. Now, it’s amazing about the grammar of this particular language and of this particular moment. There’s something special in the language in which John’s writing, which we don’t have in English, which indicates that this is a past event with ongoing results. So what’s amazing is that Jesus says it in Aramaic, but John writes it in Greek, and he writes it in Greek with a grammar there to have a theological message about the reality that’s happening in history. That even as Jesus breathes His last and cries, it is finished. What the world would have seen there is the potential uprising of this fake Messiah. It’s finished. It’s over. He’s right. It’s done. But the actual reality is His death, when it all seems over, is just the beginning

of the ongoing results of the cross of Jesus Christ, of the gospel of Jesus Christ, just as when we are saved in Christ and we become Christians and the Spirit illumines our minds and our hearts and saves us from ourselves, that is a past result, but that was never intended to sit right there, vacuum-sealed somewhere, put away, but to have continuous and ongoing results for the rest of our lives until we go home to be with Him. It is finished means everything has happened for you to be saved, church. That everything Jesus needed to do to redeem His people has happened, and at the same time, like ongoing waves, our reality continues to crash and move in cosmic history, as sinners are saved from death to life. As Andy quoted from Luther, that all life is repentance, and every time we turn from our sin

and we turn to Jesus, this is part of the ongoing result of the cross of Jesus Christ. And so it should have been the darkest moment, or really in many ways it is the darkest moment in human history. We have this beautiful bottom of the bell curve. It seems like this is where it all ends. And in a sense, as He breathes His last, it’s where it all begins. Verse 38, And the curtain in the temple was torn in two, from top, bottom. Okay, so what is this curtain they’re talking about? This is the curtain that surrounds what’s called the holiest of holies. The holiest of holies is at the center of the temple, which is modeled even after the tabernacle. The temple was originally built by Solomon, but prior to that, in the time of Moses, God’s Shekinah glory comes as He redeems the people.

Pillar of smoke by day, fire by night, God’s manifest presence is with His people, which in and of itself is a restorative act. See, Adam and Eve, our first parents, lived in the presence of God, but as they sinned against God, they were exiled from the garden and away from the presence of God. And in His grace and His mercy, God manifests His presence to His people once more in the time of Moses, as He led them out into the desert, as He redeemed them from Egypt, and there was the manifest presence of God. And sadly, God’s people disobey and disobey and disobey, and eventually, during one of the great exiles, the Ark of the Covenant, which held the Ten Commandments that the Shekinah glory sat upon, disappeared quite literally, never to be seen again, at least on earth. This is so impactful. This isn’t just like a fire.

This isn’t just a fire that’s being made by people. This is God’s thing that He is doing, His manifest presence amongst His people. This is why in Ezra, when we see that they rebuild what will be the beginning of the temple that we’re talking about right now, they lay the foundation, and those who had not been there to see this beautiful and amazing thing that was Solomon’s temple, but really the manifest presence of God with His people, they all celebrate. We’re doing it. We’re laying the foundation. But the old folks, the old folks who’d seen it, even as the foundation is laid, they knew this thing will not be like Solomon’s temple. And most importantly, because the glory will not be here. And they weep. But people are celebrating so loud they can’t hear their weeping. This is the temple Jesus goes into. This is the temple here

where the Holy of Holies is still represented. And in the Holy of Holies, the high priest goes one time a year on behalf of the people. They took this so seriously, that they would tie a rope around his ankle with bells on it in case he drops down dead as he’s in there because he didn’t deal with his sin well enough and they weren’t going to go in to get him. They were going to pull him out in case God dropped him dead. That’s how serious this thing is. And so all of a sudden, they’re there as Jesus dies and the curtain tears, not from the bottom or from earth to heaven, but from heaven to earth as a representation that everything has just changed. We are now in the new covenant. In the new covenant, we don’t go to Jerusalem, to the temple, to be in the presence of God

or to be atoned. We have been made right by Jesus as our perfect sacrifice on the cross and now as the church, the Holy Spirit indwells us. And everything is different. You and I have access to God in a way that we no longer need an earthly high priest, though we have a good high priest named Jesus, the one mediator between God and humans. God Himself, of course. But now Paul will say in 1 Corinthians that the church is the temple. It is the people of God. Now we live indwelt on the other side of Pentecost, which is of course in the coming days here as the story goes, that we are indwelt by the Spirit. And that thing that they were longing for is actually happening inside us in space and time right now. And that even as Matthew 18 tells us, when two or more are gathered in My name,

Truly the Son of God

there am I also. Arguably, that means that not only is there something special happening as you and I go from here, but as we gather as the church of God, something transcendent and real is happening as the God of the universe dwells inside of us. By the power of the Holy Spirit. Though the cross is dark, that is about as light as it gets, friends. There’s an immediate reversal. Verse 39. And when the centurion who stood facing Him.. So, centurion, Roman soldier. Okay? Roman soldiers. Not known as nice people. Right? This is not what would typically be considered a good man. If you are a Roman soldier all the way out in Judea, you are far from home, you’re a career soldier, and you make your living oppressing other people. That is what you do with your life. And you think you’re better than everybody else

who’s not a Roman soldier and certainly a Roman citizen. And when the centurion who stood facing Him, that’s Jesus, and listen to this. This little detail is critical. Saw that in this way He breathed His last. Okay? In the manner in which He died. Not just that He died. This is a Roman soldier. He’s seen plenty of crucifixions. This isn’t his first trip to the rodeo. This is not new to him. But in the way that something about something about how what just happened. The darkened sky. Jesus from the cross. And all the other details we could even pull in from the other Gospels. Having seen all of these things, he says this. Truly, this man was the Son of God. One of two things is happening here. One, he is saying this as a Roman. This is not a title that he would be unfamiliar with.

This is the kind of title that would have been applied to someone like Caesar. Okay? It’s coming out of his vocabulary. This isn’t something he’s just making up. It’s something that he would have been familiar with and would have had. And so, he is either stating, as a Roman, this is a lowercase s, lowercase g, Son of God. Like Caesar is the Son of God for Rome. Maybe this is the Son of God for the Jewish people. But certainly, Mark is doing something on purpose. Because the other option there, of course, is that he’s actually seeing that, oh shoot, that was that Messiah person the Jewish people were talking about. And then he’s got a reckoning to do. Now, this is how he is remembered, by the way, in church history. He is canonized by the Catholic Church as a saint, meaning they’ve recognized him as a saint.

And in church history, the understanding is that he has become a follower of Jesus. This we don’t know. But I would say that’s not actually what Mark’s after. Because what is Mark doing? If you remember Mark, chapter 1, verse 1, from like three years ago,

it reads, the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. We just got the ultimate Markan sandwich. He’s framed it out for us. And certainly it is appropriate, and what Mark is doing with his historic and real words. So, Mark is taking real history, real words, but he’s treating them doctrinally. There’s teaching in here. And whether this soldier means it or not, Mark certainly does. Truly, this Jesus, who is crucified, is the Son of God.

Verse 40. There are also women looking on, from a distance, among whom, again, historical, real names are being mentioned here, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, the younger, and Joses, and Salome. When he was in Galilee, that’s Jesus, when he was in Galilee, they followed him and ministered to him. And there are also many other women who came up with him to Jerusalem. Now, is Mark saying there are no men here? No, I don’t actually think that’s what Mark is after. Mark is being intentional, however, with the group he is singling out. He’s saying these people, who you expect, yes, in their time, women were treated as less than human. These people who you would have expected to have been fainthearted, and to run, and really people who didn’t deserve, in their mind, to be disciples of Jesus, are the faithful few who stayed

at his crucifixion to the end. I think there are two things he’s doing here. One, this is by implication a message to us all, that anyone can be a disciple of Jesus. That there’s nothing you have done in your life that prevents you from being a follower of God, if you would turn to your sin and turn to Jesus, the Son of God, who’s died on the cross to rescue you from your sin. Today is the day, I urge you, we’re acknowledging, we’re the people who put Jesus on the cross and have been redeemed by Jesus, and therefore, if you’re in here today and you’re not a Christian, I’m not telling you, be like me so God will love you. Follow the rules so God will love you. I’m telling you that we have engineered for ourselves a bad way. That apart from Christ,

friends, frankly, we are damned. That we are headed to the road to hell. And that Jesus has come to save sinners from the road to hell. And my encouragement, my plead with you, is not you get right with me and be like me so there can be more people like me. My plead with you is the road is dangerous. It leads to death. And there is a way out. And I love you too much not to tell you that truth. Be saved. Anyone can be a disciple of Jesus. Anyone can bear their cross and turn from their sin and turn to Him and obey Him and love Him and enjoy Him and live for Him. And also what I think is happening here is we see the kindling that God’s about to light on fire at Pentecost. We see the beginning of a ramshackle bunch of people who the world looks at and thinks,

yeah, not those folks. But the Holy Spirit is about to douse with fire and with power and be the people who tell people who tell people who tell people who tell people who tell us that Jesus saved sinners from death to life. This is the kindling from which Trinity Church of Portland is part of the fire. And it’s beautiful. Here we see displayed where Mark’s been going the whole time. Mark 10.45 The Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and give His life as a ransom for many. This is what in some circles we would call penal substitutary atonement and it is the center of the Gospel. That Jesus on the cross is punished for our sins and all of our wrongdoing as a substitute in our place. Either He pays the price for our sins or we have to. As a substitute in our place

So Live

so that we could be made right with God and that being made right with God is not simply having our sins forgiven, but being given life in Christ that we get to live. And if you don’t know Him today, this is all we want for you. Myself, our staff, our pastors, we’ll clear our schedule to spend time with you and tell you about this Jesus and have your questions answered. Turn from your sin and turn to Him and be saved. But as Paul said, this is at the heart of the Gospel. The death and the resurrection of Jesus. Jesus died, church, so that we can live. As I said, there’s one point of application here. So live. What does that look like? Hebrews 13. Verse 12 says this. So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify, that’s to set apart and to make holy

the people through His own blood. We are no longer sinners if we are in Christ. We are blood-bought sinner saints. We’re children of the King. Therefore, because we’re children of the King, let us go to Him outside the camp and bear the reproach He endured. Let us bear the name of Jesus well in Portland. No matter where you sit on planet Earth, you are behind enemy lines. No matter where you sit, you are an ambassador in a foreign land. Bear the name of Jesus well. He saved you. He’s made you alive. He’s given you a life. And the fuel for this, for here on planet Earth, we have no lasting city. Portland’s a bit of a mess right now. Reality is, we can fix Portland. We can hire the people we need to hire. We can deal with what we need to deal with. And sin, and death, Satan,

they’re still here. In fact, sometimes I’m more concerned when you’re in a more idyllic situation because sometimes it’s easy just to cruise. Keep an eye on your 401K, clock in and out of work, buy a bass boat, and cruise. The beautiful thing about Portland, or perhaps the ugly thing about Portland, it’s really obvious how much Portland needs Jesus. Trinity Church, you’re here in Portland because Jesus has sent us as ambassadors to a city that needs Jesus. Our aim is not to make Portland, per se, the best it can be, but to love and serve people and point them to Jesus. Now, that doesn’t mean we don’t have a responsibility here, but even if we get every piece of litter taken care of, Portland still needs Jesus. Why? Because for here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. For the dwelling place of God

is with humanity in the person of Jesus where Jesus wipes the tears from all of our eyes and we live with Him and with each other forever and ever. So what do we do? Through Him then let us continually offer a sacrifice to praise to God. We come together to sing and to preach and to pray, and you leave here and you get to in the morning or in the evening when you do your devotional time, sing and preach the truth to yourself and read the Word and praise His name and as you do life, praise His name because God has built you for joy and to enjoy Him and through that bloody cross has made a way for you to know Him, love Him, and enjoy Him all the days of your life. And through Him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God

that is the fruit of the lips that acknowledge His name. Not only that, but to not neglect to do good and to share what you have because in Christ you have everything so you can be generous and free with every earthly possession you have because in the Spirit of God you have everything through Christ. For such sacrifices are pleasing to God. Friends, even though we’re the sinners who put Jesus on the cross, we can live lives pleasing to God. How do we do that? By the power of the Spirit lived in faith, loving Jesus, loving each other, and loving Portland. Let’s pray. Lord God, we love You. You have died so that we can live and we want to live. You have moved in history to save a people for Yourself. We come to You with empty hands as sinners to be clothed as children.

We need You, Lord. We love You, Lord. We thank You, Lord. Send us Your Spirit. Light us up for this truth and sink it deep in our hearts. Jesus, we love You and we pray these things for Your glory and for our joy in Your name. Jesus Christ, amen.