Good evening and welcome to our passion service.

We want to take some time tonight to still our hearts, to calm our minds, to stop thinking about whatever we just left at work

or whatever is after this, and maybe most importantly to not let our cell phone pull our

attention for the next few minutes, we want to go back to the old city of Jerusalem,

back to that night before Jesus was crucified,

back to those hours just before the author of life was put to death.

That night Jesus gathered with his disciples, with his friends friends in a room that had been prepared for them.

And he instituted the sacrament of communion.

He gathered his friends around that Passover meal.

And he began to walk them through what was going to take place through that meal, which is exactly how we're going to start tonight.

The Apostle Paul wrote to his friends in the book of 1 Corinthians in chapter 11.

And he says, for I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread.

And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, this is my body, which is for you.

Do this in remembrance of me. Take a minute to open up your communion to pull the bread out.

And hold it in your hand.

And I want you to think about what the prophet Isaiah said.

As Jesus says, this is my body broken for you.

The prophet Isaiah said that he was marred beyond recognition.

And let's just take a moment, hold that bread in your hand, and let's think about what Christ did in his body for us.

Okay. He said, this is my body broken for you.

Let's take the bread and remember the body of Jesus broken for us. The Apostle Paul continues.

In the same way, also he took the cup after supper saying, this cup is the new

...