1.22.2008

Communion exhortation - 12/2/07

Text: Luke 1:5-25 - Gabriel coming to Zachariah

Suddenly, Gabriel stood there, in front of Zachariah. The priest was troubled and afraid. This happened to everyone in Scripture to whom an angel or Jesus himself came, and the question this morning is, has it come upon you? It is all right to be troubled or scared because you experience the presence of Christ. I would be disturbed if I had never been disturbed by Him. Who can stand when He appears? He comes to purify us.

But He purifies us because He favors us. It’s scary, and it hurts, but it happens because He favors us with His grace. He has taken away our reproach, and took it Himself on the cross. The guarantee of this is the Spirit dwelling with us. We are assured of His favor in the bread and wine, which the Spirit empowers to feed us with Christ. He has given us His own Son – broken body, shed blood – how couldn’t He give us all He has, after that?

No comments:

Post a Comment