Communion Message
(One sacrifice for sins forever)
March 13-14, 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 or  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 very heart of our Christian faith is the concept of sacrifice. The sacrifice of Christ there on Calvary's cross 2000 years ago. But it's really the heartbeat of our Christian faith. Paul says that we are to present our bodies as a living sacrifice unto God, and the writer to the Hebrews tells us that we are to with our lips we are to, therefore to let him continually offer the sacrifice of praise, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name. Sacrifice. The writer to the Hebrews picks up this theme and he writes, For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? For the worshipers, once purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins. Therefore, when He came into the world, He said: "Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, But a body You have prepared for Me. In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You had no pleasure. Then I said, 'Behold, I have come- In the volume of the book it is written of Me- To do Your will, O God.' Previously saying, "Sacrifice and offering, burnt offerings, and offerings for sin You did not desire, nor had pleasure in them" (which are offered according to the law), then He said, "Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God." He takes away the first that He may establish the second. By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. And so the writer to the Hebrews goes back and he makes the comparison, and he says in the old covenant there was that constant sacrifice, day after day, year after year. Sacrifices which could never, could never take away sin. But Jesus Christ made one sacrifice forever and that sacrifice is sufficient to cover the sins of all the world; your sins and mine. I want you to kneel with me this morning as we thank the Lord Jesus for coming and being our sacrifice.

Lord Jesus, we did not live in those ancient days when continually the blood flowed from the altar as person after person and priest after priest made the sacrifice of an animal simply to cover, to be the substitute, for the man, the sinner. And yet Your word says that those sacrifices could never take away sin. They simply covered until the time of the sufficient sacrifice; Your sacrifice dear Jesus. And we kneel, Lord Jesus, in Your presence now, and with hearts filled with thanksgiving and praise we say thank you dear Jesus for going to that cross for us as our substitute. Because it's very clear that in Your divine plan that the wages of sin is death and we've sinned and we deserve death. But Lord Jesus You came and became the substitute. You took our death penalty for sin and You paid it's price, and thus, You have given to us the gift of eternal life. Thank you dear Jesus. Thank you for being our sacrifice, our wonderful Lord, our matchless Christ, our blessed Redeemer. We love You Lord Jesus. We love You. Let's take the bread together, shall we? And then the cup. Lord Jesus, we never have deserved Your love. We're sinners. Before Your precious spirit drew us we were at enmity against You, so all the grace and all the mercy, the joys of forgiveness and the knowledge of life eternal, are a gracious gift from You; simply because You love us and that amazes us and we are thrilled by it. Thank you Jesus and everybody said, amen. Let's stand and greet the folks that have come to worship with us.