Dear Family at Christ Community,

       This Sunday we will have the privilege of hearing Chris Blackman preach from Mark 12:28-34. We will also partake of the Lord’s Supper together as the family of God. Mark 12:28-34 contains Jesus’ response to the Scribe who questions Him about which of the commandments is the greatest. Jesus’ answer—that we are to love God with all of our being and love our neighbors as ourselves—reminds us both of the totality of God’s loving authority as our Creator and Lord and of our need for true holiness that is only available in union with Christ.

       So it is a blessing that we will be invited to the Lord’s Table to see the reality of our righteousness in Christ in the broken bread and poured out cup. This means of grace will nourish our faith in Jesus, who bore for us the penalty of our sin and enables us to grow in true obedience in our new life in Him. Consider how Charles Simeon encourages us to take hold of Jesus’ teaching in Mark 12 as a spur to grow in love for God and neighbor:

“From the very moment that you turn to God, you must aspire after the attainment here enjoined, and be satisfied with nothing less. And, in order to this attainment, you must contemplate deeply and continually the excellencies of God’s character, and the innumerable obligations which he has conferred upon you. Above all, you must have impressed upon your mind the wonderful love He has manifested towards you in the gift of His only dear Son to die for you. This will have a constraining influence over your whole person, and will progressively transform you into His blessed image in righteousness and true holiness.”

       Prepare for the Table this Sunday by meditating on how it teaches us to humbly receive the unsearchable riches of Christ by grace alone through faith alone. Ask the Spirit to use this means of grace to grow in you a deeper hope and prayerful longing for those in your spheres of influence who do not know Christ. May the Lord instill in us an abiding confidence in His mighty power to save so that we will more and more love Him and not grow weary in doing good for the life of the world!

In Christ,
Robby