Communion Message
(Bringing man into the presence of God)
February 20-21, 1999
Pastor Don Sheley

For I have received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, "Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me. In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me." For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He comes. Therefore whoever eats this bread and drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

At the heart of our Christian faith is a cross. A cross stood on Calvary's hill 2000 years ago, and on that cross Jesus Christ our wonderful savior was nailed. There the blood flowed. It was there He paid the price for the penalty of our sins. So not only is the cross at the center, connected with the cross is the blood of Jesus Christ often referred to in the scriptures as the blood of the cross. The writer to the Hebrews explains the scene very, very well. He writes, But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. Now in that particular verse he is speaking of God coming and taking upon human form and he references it as a tabernacle. And, of course, that's the same characteristic that John says in John 1:14, And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us, or dwelt among us is the way the King James translates it. And so the writer to the Hebrews says the reason why Christ can accomplish that task, that eternal task of being our savior and forgiving our sins, is because of the uniqueness of His human tabernacle; His human body, because within that humanity was also perfect God. And then the writer goes on to say Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? One of my favorite commentators is Dr. Barclay known as one of the great Scottish divines and brilliant minds and world renowned. And when he takes that verse he says these words, he says when we try to understand the meaning of this passage we must begin by remembering three things which are basic and fundamental in the thought of the writer to the Hebrews. These three things are always in his mind and in his thoughts. And here are the three things; number one, religion is accesses to God. The whole function of all religion is to bring a man into the presence of God. We in preparing for this service, Pastor Leighton and Pastor Larry and the musicians, our first and most important priority is that in the music that we sing, and the hymns we select, and the choruses that we blend our voices together, may this bring us into the very presence of God. The whole function of all religion is to bring man into the presence of God. 

Number two, this world is a world of pale shadows and imperfect copies and beyond this world there is the world of realities, and thus, the function of all worship is to bring men into contact with eternal realities. Often in Pastor Leighton's prayers it's his desire and it's our desire that we somehow touch the eternal. Somehow sense a dimension of the world beyond. Somehow catch a fresh glimpse of the Christ who is our wonderful savior, and he said that was what the worship and ritual of the tabernacle was meant to do. But the earthly tabernacle is a pale copy of the real and the heavenly tabernacle. The earthly worship is a remote reflection of real worship. None of us, none of us can imagine what it's going to be like when in heaven and standing in the eternal presence of God, and we join our voice with the 10,000 times 10,000 times 10,000 angels, and all of heaven is filled with the music of eternity and worship and praise. Not a one of us can grasp the glory that awaits us for our first worship service in heaven. What we have done, even though sometimes we feel so close to God here, this will pale into insignificance in His eternal presence. 

And then Dr. Barclay says one more thing; there can be no religion without sacrifice. Purity is a costly thing. The access to God demands purity and man's sins must somehow be atoned for. Man's uncleanness must somehow be cleansed. And that, of course, takes us clear back into the garden when after man's sin God had already made the declaration that if you sin you're going to die. And God had every right to walk into that garden and slay Adam and Eve. They had disobeyed. They understood that they would die if they disobeyed. God didn't do that. He went into the garden selected an innocent animal as a substitute and that animal, which had done nothing, died; shed its blood and thus God took the skins of that animal and clothed the nakedness of Adam and Eve. And then God laid down an eternal principle that without the shedding of blood there is no covering for sin. One must die in order for sin to be atoned for. And that's why in the ancient Old Testament times every time you sinned you went to your flock, found an animal, and took that animal to the priest. And that animal shed its blood. It died to be the substitute for the one who brought it. And always at that altar when you brought your animal you placed your hand on the head of that animal as if to transfer your sin to that substitute. And that substitute then died so you could walk away free and your sins covered. And thus he says there can be no religion without sacrifice. That is why in every one of our services we drive the cross right in the middle in the service. Because without the shedding of blood, without the cross of Jesus Christ, without His sacrifice there on that cross we would not have access to God. We could not experience the dimensions of the eternal in this mortal frame and we would never know the joys of sins forgiven. And so we bow our knees this evening as a family of believers for one purpose to thank Jesus Christ for dying on that cross for us. Let's kneel together, shall we?

We will never understand all of Your ways because Your ways are beyond our ways and Your thoughts, oh God, are beyond our thoughts. But this one thing we can grasp, You had the right to slay Adam and Eve for sinning, but You set aside that right, selected a substitute in the animal so that Adam and Eve could live. We understand that. And we understand Lord Jesus that when You went to the cross You became that substitute for us. For all mankind. You took upon Yourself all of our sins. You became sin for us, You who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God. Marvelous. Absolutely marvelous. And we can come to You and ask You to cleanse us Lord Jesus and know that we are forgiven. All of our sins are behind us never to be remembered against us anymore. Thank you and these elements continue to remind us of this glorious truth. Let's take the bread together, shall we? And then the cup. Even though our words sound so trite yet we mean them from the very depths of our being. Jesus we love You. We love You very much for being our savior. And everybody said, amen. Let's stand and greet the folks that have come to worship with us today, shall we?