About this sermon
James and John ask for the highest seats in Christ’s kingdom, still picturing an earthly throne in Jerusalem. Jesus answers that the Son of Man, the heavenly figure of Daniel 7, came to give his life a ransom for many. His death paid the price for sinners and actually secured the salvation of all the Father gave him. The age tells us to be captains of our own souls, and Christ calls his people to deny themselves and serve others as he served them.
Sermon transcript
to remain standing for the reading of God’s Word. This morning we consider, as we are continuing our study of the Gospel of Mark, my focus today will be in particular on Mark chapter 10, verse 45, but I’m going to read beginning at verse 32 through verse 45 to once again offer us the fuller context. Mark chapter 10, beginning at verse 32 and reading through verse 45. Friends, let us hear with reverence and awe the word of our God. They were on the road going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking on ahead of them, and they were amazed, and those who followed were fearful. And again, he took the 12 aside and began to tell them what was going to happen to him, saying, Behold, We are going up to Jerusalem and the son of man will be delivered to the chief priests and the scribes and they will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles.
They will mock him and spit on him and scourge him and kill him. And three days later, he will rise again. James and John, the two sons of Zebedee, came up to Jesus saying, Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you. And he said to them, What do you want me to do for you? They said to him, Grant that we may sit one on your right and one on your left in your glory. But Jesus said to them, You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized? They said to him, We are able. And Jesus said to them, The cup that I drink, you shall drink and you shall be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized.
But to sit on my right or on my left, this is not mine to give. but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.” Hearing this, the ten began to feel indignant with James and John. Calling them to himself, Jesus said to them, “‘You know that those who are recognized as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. But it is not this way among you. But whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be slave of all. for even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. Dear friends, the grass withers and the flower fades, but the Word of our God endures forever.
Let’s pray for God to bless the preaching of his Word. Our gracious Lord God, Heavenly Father, we pray that by your Holy Spirit once again You would open our minds and our hearts to behold wondrous things from your word, feed our souls from the word this day, build us up in our faith, strengthen us in our discipleship, and grant unto me, your unworthy servant, the grace to declare and speak forth your word with the power and assistance of your Holy Spirit for the edification of your people, the salvation of the lost, and the glory and praise of your holy name. We pray these things in Jesus’ name and all of God’s people said. Amen. You may be seated. The title of my sermon today is A Ransom for Many, again based on chapter 10, verse 45.
And you’ll notice if you’re following along in your sermon outline, there are a number of words you can be listening for that will help you follow along in the sermon today. And I just would highlight a couple of very important words. Messiah, Son of Man, Ransom, and Atonement are especially significant words to be listening for today. Well, dear friends, in our passage for this Lord’s Day morning, our Lord Jesus Christ makes his third and his most explicit prediction of his coming suffering and death and resurrection from the dead, as we read in verses 32 through 34. But true to form, The disciples still don’t get it, as we considered on the last Lord’s Day. This is demonstrated in verses thirty five to forty five, where we read of James and John, the sons of Zebedee and two of our Lord’s twelve disciples asking Jesus to grant them the privilege of sitting on his right hand and on his left hand in his glory and the glory of his kingdom.
Now, in ancient times, Sitting on the right hand and the left hand of a king symbolized the positions of highest authority and highest influence in the kingdom, second only to the authority and the influence of the king himself. So, in effect, what James and John were asking was basically, Jesus, give us the highest positions in your kingdom. And apparently, when they are thinking of the kingdom, apparently they’re not thinking of Jesus’s eschatological kingdom, the future glory of Jesus’s kingdom, which will come about when he returns at his second advent and ushers in the eternal kingdom, the new heavens and the new earth, wherein righteousness dwells. Now, consider the context here. Consider the picture that Mark paints here of this exchange between Jesus and James and John on this particular occasion. The picture we get is that Jesus and his disciples are heading to Jerusalem.
Jesus has set his face like flint to go to Jerusalem. Verse 32 tells us that the disciples were amazed by this fact. And we’re also told that those pilgrims who followed along with Jesus and his 12 disciples, they are described in verse 32 as being fearful. Now, Mark doesn’t tell us explicitly why they were amazed, why the disciples were amazed and why the people were fearful, but perhaps the disciples were amazed because they believed that Jesus, whom they acknowledged to be King and Messiah, that Jesus was finally heading to Jerusalem for the purpose of military conquest, for the purpose of overthrowing the Romans and setting up an earthly political kingdom. like the one ruled by King David in Old Testament times. In other words, when James and John asked, let us sit on your right hand and your left hand in your glory, they are probably conceptualizing the glory of Christ’s kingdom to be the glory of an earthly political kingdom with Jesus sitting on a throne in the city of Jerusalem, reigning over a renewed Davidic theocracy.
That’s probably what they are picturing. And so the request of James and John to sit at our Lord’s right and left hand in his kingdom demonstrates the fact that Christ’s disciples still couldn’t seem to grasp the truth that the Messiah had to first suffer and die before he could rise and reign. Now, even though in verses 33 and 34, Jesus had been very clear and very plain spoken in telling them about what he was to suffer and that he was to die before rising again. His words didn’t seem to register with his disciples. In Luke’s, in the parallel account in Luke’s gospel, we are told that these words were hidden from them. They were blinded to the significance of what Jesus had told them in verses 33 and 34. Even at this late point in our Lord’s earthly ministry, His disciples still think of God’s kingdom in terms of this worldly, political, militaristic glory.
Now, Jesus informs James and John that he is not the one who decides positions in God’s kingdom. By implication, that authority belongs to God the Father and God the Father alone, who assigns these positions to whomever he chooses. As we read in verse 40, Jesus says, But to sit on my right or on my left, this is not mine to give, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared. The implication is those for whom it has been prepared by my father in heaven, by God, the father. Our Lord Jesus then proceeds to instruct James and John and the other disciples as well about the fact that in God’s kingdom, suffering and servanthood come before glory and exaltation. See, and this is the exact opposite to the way that the world thinks. In the world, so-called important people tend to oppress and lord it over those who are below them in rank.
But in God’s kingdom, in his kingdom of grace and salvation, it is the first who shall be last and the last who shall be first. And those who wish to be greatest in God’s kingdom are those who are the greatest servants. And, of course, what greater servant is there than Jesus Christ himself, the one whom the prophet Isaiah predicted would be the suffering servant? Christ’s kingdom is indeed an upside down kingdom. Now, it is in the midst of explaining the centrality of servanthood and humility in the life of the kingdom that our Lord Jesus sets himself forward as the greatest example of servanthood, as Jesus says in verse 45, for even the son of man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. This is the verse that I will especially be focusing upon today in my sermon.
Now, after these things, Mark will go on to record in verses 46 to 52, a miracle account where Christ’s redemptive servanthood is illustrated in our Lord’s healing of blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus. But we will cover that on a future Lord’s Day. So let’s dive into our passage for today. Mark 10, verse 45. And I want you to notice, and this is the first point on your sermon outline, if you’re following along. Notice, beloved, that even Jesus, the mighty Messiah King, came for the purpose of serving others. Even Jesus, Jesus, the eternal second person of the Holy Trinity, God of God, light of light, very God of very God, as we confess in the 19 creed, Jesus, the word made flesh, even Jesus, the mighty Messiah King came not for the purpose of being served, but for the purpose of serving others.
As Jesus says in verse 45, for even the son of man, did not come to be served, but to serve. Yeah, yeah, Pastor, I know that, you know, been there, done that. I’ve heard that so much so many times. We hear this so often that we become desensitized to just how radical of a statement this is. You need to we need to put ourselves in the shoes or rather in the sandals of our Lord’s first century disciples. We need to try to imagine what it was like to be a first century Jew and to have first century Jewish conceptions or misconceptions about the nature of God’s kingdom and the nature of the Messiah. And when we realize that, when we put ourselves in the shoes of the Lord’s disciples and put ourselves, try to understand the mindset of first century Jewish thinking on these subjects, we realize just what a radical statement this is.
Oh dear ones, do you realize Just what a radical, earth-shattering statement this must have been to our Lord’s disciples, especially when you think about popular Jewish expectations in those days of what the Messiah was going to be like. You see, the Jews of Jesus’s day were expecting a Messiah. The term Messiah or Christ means anointed one, God’s chosen and anointed King. They were expecting A Messiah who would rule with an iron fist, a Messiah who would destroy and crush the wicked, a Messiah who would come and demand absolute service and obedience and loyalty and would put his enemies under his feet, literally, physically, militarily. Now, of course, Jesus is indeed our Messiah and King, and He does indeed demand our absolute allegiance and loyalty. But the allegiance that our Lord demands of us is fundamentally of a spiritual, not a political or earthly nature.
Now Christ’s Lordship certainly has implications for every area of life and society. Jesus is Lord of all. But again, His Lordship is fundamentally of a spiritual nature. Spiritual, not in the sense of unreal. spiritual is very real, but in the sense of the Holy Spirit, eternal things are in view here. You see, at every point, our Lord Jesus was shaking up the false ideas and misconceptions that his disciples had. And the idea of the Messiah as a servant was an idea that was quite foreign to many Jews in our Lord’s day, including, sadly, Jesus’ own. although it should be said that this idea should not have been foreign to them. After all, passages like Isaiah chapter 53 predicted a Messiah who would indeed be a suffering servant, who would die as the sin bearer for his people.
Now, the fact that this was a radical statement is underscored by our Lord’s reference to himself as the Son of Man. Again, hone in on verse 45 and notice what Jesus says. He says, for even the son of man did not come to be served. And here’s where, you know, when we when we’re trying to understand the Bible, when you read the Bible and you’re trying to understand it, you need to learn how to ask good questions. And one of the questions that ought to jump out of the page and slap you and me in the face is the question, who is this son of man figure? Who is Jesus talking about when he talks about the Son of Man. He says, even the Son of Man did not come to be served. Is Jesus simply saying, you know, identifying his human nature?
Jesus indeed was and is truly man, as he is truly God, true God and true man, united in one divine person. He is the God-Man, the Word made flesh. Is that what Jesus is referring to when he refers to himself as the Son of Man? Well, let’s consider this title, Son of Man. See, in the first three Gospels, the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, this title, Son of Man, is our Lord’s favorite title for himself. It’s our Lord’s favorite self-designation. In fact, Jesus refers to himself as the Son of Man more often than he refers to himself as the Son of God. Although, obviously, Jesus is indeed both. He is true God and true man. Well, what does this title, Son of Man, mean? Is he simply referring to his human nature? Well, I believe that, along with many other scholars, not that I’m a great scholar, but along with many scholars, I agree with the scholarly view that Jesus is here referring to the Son of Man figure that is prophesied in Daniel 7, verses 13 and 14.
And I know that Reverend Lauer mentioned this in his sermon a number of weeks ago, but let’s go back to this passage. It’s a very significant prophecy about the Messiah in the Old Testament. Let’s go to The book of Daniel, Daniel is after Ezekiel, Daniel chapter 7, verses 13 and 14. Here in this vision that the Lord gave to the prophet Daniel, we read these words, Daniel 7, 13 and 14, I kept looking in the night visions And behold, with the clouds of heaven, one like a son of man was coming and he came up to the ancient of days. Notice, by the way, the son of man is going up, not coming down in this prophecy. This was a prophecy of the ascension of Christ and his reign at the father’s right hand. He came up to the ancient of days and was presented before him and to him was given dominion. glory and a kingdom that all the people’s nations and men of every language might serve him.
His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away. As an aside, let me say that this reference to his everlasting dominion points to his deity. This son of man figure is a divine messianic figure. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away, and his kingdom is one which will not be destroyed. So here we have this glorious vision of a reigning, sovereign, mighty messianic son of man, a son of man who exercises universal dominion, who is king over whose kingdom extends over all of the people’s nations and nations of men from every language that they might serve him. Notice that verse 14. To him was given dominion, glory and a kingdom that all people’s nations and men of every language might serve him. But then keep your finger there and go back to Mark 10, 45.
And thinking that and understanding that Jesus is here referring to himself by this messianic son of man figure of Daniel, Jesus says, for even the son of man did not come to be served, but to serve. It says here in Daniel 714, the son of man is to be given universal dominion that all might serve him. Well, yeah, all are to serve the risen, reigning Lord Jesus Christ. But in our passage for today, Mark 10, 45, Jesus says even the son of man did not come to be served, but to serve. You see how radical that is, how that turns The Jewish expectations on its head, the son of man figure in Daniel was to be a great king who would exercise universal dominion. And we believe as Christians that this is a prophecy speaking of King Jesus.
But again, in verse 45, Jesus says, even he, even this great king, this glorious messianic son of man, did not come to be served, but to serve. And why did Jesus The son of man, the Messiah, why did he come to this earth? Well, the son of man came to this earth because God the Father sent him to this earth. Let’s compare scripture with scripture. Let me just have you turn to John, chapter six, and let’s look at John, chapter six, beginning at verse 37 through 40. This is one of many passages in the New Testament. that make it clear, that teach that Jesus came to this earth voluntarily, willingly, but he came because he was sent by God the Father. And by the way, you know, sometimes the liberals and modernists in the church like to twist and distort and misconstrue the biblical, historic gospel doctrine of substitutionary atonement by saying, well, you know, the substitutionary atonement, that’s the view that that Jesus had to die to make an angry God loving.
That is a blasphemous distortion and misconstrual of what the Bible teaches about the substitutionary atonement. Jesus did not have to come to this earth and die in order to make an angry God loving. It was a loving God who sent his son, Jesus, who willingly came to die that we might be reconciled to the Father. For God demonstrates his love for us. that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And the father in the eternal covenant of redemption sent his son, covenanted to send his son, Jesus. And Jesus came willingly to die in our place, in our stead. And many passages of the New Testament underscore this truth. For example, John 6, verses 37 through 40. Jesus says all that the father gives me will come to me and the one who comes to me I will certainly not cast out for I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of who of him who sent me.
The father sent his son out of love for sinners to redeem us. This is the will of him who sent me that of all that he has given me, I lose nothing but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in him will have eternal life. And I myself will raise him up on the last day. Hallelujah. Praise be to God. The Son of Man came to this earth because God the Father sent him. And Jesus came to this earth the first time in his first advent. He didn’t come to conquer in a militaristic sense. Although he conquers us, he conquers our sin, he conquers the devil, but he comes to serve. He came the first time to be the suffering servant.
Our Lord’s earthly ministry is proof of this claim. Now, what did Jesus do during his earthly ministry? What did he busy himself with? Did the Lord Jesus go around during his earthly ministry demanding that people bow before him and kiss his ring? and serve him. And, you know, Jesus went around serving others, preaching and teaching the good news of God’s kingdom, God’s reign of grace and salvation that has drawn near in his person and healing the sick, raising the dead, multiplying loaves and fishes, casting out demons, giving the signs of the kingdom, the signs of good news that the kingdom of God had drawn near. He came to serve. And he was so busy preaching, teaching, healing and casting out demons that we read in the Gospels that our Lord hardly had a moment to rest.
He had hardly had a moment to himself. And our Savior’s supreme act of servanthood, of course, was his setting his face like Flint to go to Jerusalem, that he might stretch out his arms upon the hardwood of the cross and die for our sins. His supreme act of servanthood was his laying down his life on the cross. for our sins. But the scriptures also teach that Jesus will come back a second time at his glorious second advent. We don’t know when that time will be. No man knows the day or the hour we are told, but Jesus is coming back. And every day that passes is a day closer to the day when Jesus will return and take us to be with him forever and will destroy wickedness and the wicked and will usher in the new heavens and the new earth.
So Jesus is coming back a second time, not as the suffering servant, but as the mighty King of Kings who will judge the world. But in the meantime, in this age between the ages, in this period of redemptive history, between the first advent of Christ and his future glorious second advent, what does Jesus call us to be busy doing as his people? In the meantime, he calls us to follow his example of servanthood, even to the point of being willing to lay down our lives for the benefit of others, should that become a necessity. Now that leads me to my next main point, beloved. Notice next that Christ’s servanthood was consummated by his giving up his life as a ransom for many. Christ’s servanthood was consummated by his giving up of his life as a ransom for many.
Again, as Jesus says in verse 45, for even the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to do what? To give his life a ransom for many. Now, let’s break that down. First of all, notice that Jesus gave. Jesus gave. The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give. He didn’t come to take Jesus did not follow the philosophy that is so common in our humanistic culture today, the philosophy that says you got to look out for number one. You can’t love others unless you first love yourself, right? Balderdash. That’s baloney. Nowhere does the Bible tell us to love ourselves. The Bible assumes that we will love ourselves. Now certainly, The Bible, you know, having a biblical view of humanity should lead us to a healthy view of ourselves.
We were created in the image of God. God has bestowed dignity and value upon us. And though we are fallen in Adam, if you are in Christ, if Christ is your Lord and Savior, not only are you an image bearer of God, you are a beloved, adopted, blood-bought child of God. So there certainly is a place for having Christ esteem. Our esteem is found in Christ. But we are so self-focused today. We live in a culture that constantly tells us that your job is to find your own identity, create your own identity, create your own life. You’re the master of your faith. You’re the captain of your soul. And you know what that is? That is the ultimate in idolatry. That is the idol of self-sovereignty. I got news for you. You and I are not ultimately sovereign.
God is sovereign. You and I do not ultimately decide our identity. God bestows and gifts us with our identity. We are his image bearers, male and female, created in his image. And if we are redeemed in Christ, if Christ is our Lord and Savior, we are his children, his beloved blood-bought children. But Christ does not call us to focus on ourselves, to be centered narcissistically on ourselves, to navel-gaze, we are called upon to be centered and focused on others. We are not to esteem ourselves, but to deny ourselves that we might serve others. And that is, by the way, that is the path to true happiness. Those who are constantly pursuing their own happiness by focusing on themselves and their own sense of self-esteem, those who do that are often the most miserable, unhappy people around.
But if you are focused on following your Savior, laying down your life to serve your brothers and sisters in Christ and others in need, that is what kingdom life is all about. Jesus came to give him of himself. Our Lord did not look out for number one. He didn’t come to earth in order to get in a sinfully selfish way, but to give himself for our Redemption. And what did Jesus give? Jesus gave his life. Even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life. He didn’t just give up some of the surplus of his time or of his energy or of his money or of his personal freedom. No, beloved, he left the throne of glory in heaven. clothed himself in our humanity and he came to this earth ultimately to set his faith like flint to go to Jerusalem that he might give the greatest gift of all to pour out his lifeblood on the cross to ransom us from our sins and that is another point I would make in this in this verse notice that Jesus gave his life as a ransom why does Jesus use this language of a ransom What is the significance of this language?
What’s the picture that the word ransom conjures up in your mind? Maybe you might think of someone who’s been kidnapped and has been taken for ransom. You know, you can only get this family member back if you pay a ransom price. Well, this language of ransom implies that we are enslaved. The Word of God teaches, beloved, that we in Adam, in our fallen state, We are slaves of sin, we are slaves of self, we are slaves of Satan. But praise be to God, Jesus’s atoning substitutionary death on the cross frees us from this slavery. The Greek word that is translated here in our passage as ransom is the word lutron. According to Bower’s Greek English lexicon, the basic meaning of this word is price of release, ransom. Now, again, why was it necessary for Jesus Christ to die on the cross as a ransom?
Because God’s word teaches that we are all sinners. And as sinners, we have offended against the holy God who created us to serve him. See, God is a God of infinite holiness, infinite righteousness. God is a loving God, a merciful God, a kind God, a gracious God, but he is also a holy and just God. And God’s holy and just and righteous nature requires him to punish sin. Sin will either be punished in the person of the sinner or in the person of a substitute who ransoms that sinner from his or her sin. God’s Word teaches that we have all fallen short. We have incurred the debt of God’s infinite wrath. The penalty for our sins must be paid if we would be redeemed and forgiven and reconciled to the father out of love for us sinners.
God, the father, sent his son into this world ultimately to pay that penalty on the cross as our sin bearer, our substitute. And that is the heart and center of the gospel, the atoning death and the glorious resurrection of Christ. Have you trusted Christ? as your sin bearer, as the one who ransoms your soul. If not, God in the gospel is calling you, dear listener, to turn to Christ in faith and repentance. Believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. Trust Christ to save you from your sins and he will save you. He will forgive you. He will cleanse you. He will deliver you from the guilt, the penalty, and the power, the dominating power of sin in your life. Rest in Jesus. Come to him and he will ransom you. You can be assured that he has ransomed you.
But who did Jesus give his life a ransom for? We learn here that Jesus gives his life as a ransom for many. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. The contrast here is between Jesus, the one and the many for whom he lays down his life as a ransom. Jesus didn’t lay down his life to ransom himself, by the way. After all, Jesus was the spotless, sinless Lamb of God. He was without sin, and therefore he didn’t need to be ransomed. Nor did he lay down his life for just a tiny remnant of the Jews, such as his disciples, for example. No, my friends, when we compare scripture with scripture to gain insight on the implications of what this is teaching, Jesus says that he came to give his life a ransom for many.
That is to say, for a great multitude of people from every tribe and tongue and language and nation. This is implied, for example, when we compare our passage for today. with what the Apostle John records in the book of Revelation. Turn briefly to Revelation chapter 5 verses 9 and 10. Revelation chapter 5 verses 9 and 10. And here we get a vision of heavenly worship, the worship of the saints and angels in heaven. And it says this. In chapter five, Revelation five verses nine and ten, and they sang a new song, saying, and they’re praising Jesus, the Lamb of God, saying, Worthy are you to take the book and to break its seals for you were slain and purchased for God with your blood. Hear it. Hear what he’s saying. Purchased for God with your blood, men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.
You have made them to be a kingdom and priest to our God, and they will reign on the earth. Now, friends, while our passage for today does not directly address or settle the theological issue of universal atonement versus definite or limited atonement, as it is sometimes called, it’s important to notice that our Lord Jesus did not say here that he came to give his life to ransom all or everyone without exception. He certainly could have said that if he had wanted to make that clear. Instead, Jesus says that he came to give his life for many. And while he does not define who those many are, whether the many be everyone without exception or a more limited or might maybe has a more limited scope. Nevertheless, this is a statement which is certainly consistent with the doctrine of definite atonement.
When we compare scripture with scripture on this topic, and especially when we consider the worship scene that I just read for you from the book of Revelation, it seems clear that Christ laid down his life to ransom a definite number of people, not everyone without exception. As it says in Revelation, you’ve purchased for God men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. This is what biblical universalism is, that God has redeemed and elect people, a great multitude from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. While our Lord’s atoning sacrifice is indeed of infinite value, and is certainly sufficient for the redemption of all humanity. At the same time, it is designed and intended to actually redeem an actual number of people, a limited number of people. And by the way, this is even implied in that famous passage of scripture, which is the favorite passage of many Christians.
Can you guess what I’m talking about? John 3, 16. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that what? that everyone without exception might be saved and guaranteed eternal life? No, God so loved the world. God’s love for a fallen, sin-cursed world was expressed in the giving of his son, so that what? So that whoever believes in him might not perish, but have everlasting life. In the words of the canons of Dort, Christ’s atoning sacrifice is certainly sufficient for all, sufficient to redeem all humanity, but efficient or effective for the elect. And who are the elect? How do we know who the elect are? They are those who come by sovereign grace to believe upon Christ and Christ alone as their Lord and Savior. Our Lord’s atonement was effective, definite, and efficacious.
Jesus didn’t just die to make everyone savable. The good news is that Jesus actually died to actually save sinners. And if you are trusting him as your savior from sin, he died to not just make your salvation a possibility, but to actually save you, to guarantee your salvation. Praise be to God. Dear listener, do you believe that the Lord’s ransom is sufficient for you? Do you trust him as your savior? Jesus welcomes you. That verse that I read earlier and I’ll close our time in the word in just a moment. But that verse that I read from John chapter six earlier. Remember, Jesus said in that passage, he said that whoever comes to me, I will not cast out all that the father gives me will come to me. That’s the elect and whoever comes to me, I will not cast out.
Do you desire to come to Christ? He welcomes you. Come believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ. and you shall be saved. And then, by his grace, come alongside your brothers and sisters to serve the Lord in his kingdom. For the Lord has served you with his grace. Let us pray. Our Lord and Father in Heaven, we praise you, O God, for the good news of Jesus, our Savior. We thank you, O God, that Christ gave his life a ransom for many. We thank you, dear Father in Heaven, that Christ, our sin bearer, our substitute, our Savior, has ransomed us. Fill us with joy and gratitude for our Lord’s ransom, and give us the grace, O Lord, to faithfully confess Jesus as the Savior to a lost and needy and dying world. In Jesus’ name we pray, and all of God’s people said, Amen.
The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.