Communion Message
(The table of testimony)
December 25-26, 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 or tell again 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. 

Over the year we have in our homily we have taken time to consider various aspects of the communion table, and the story of redemption, and the glories of our salvation. We have referenced the communion table as the table of love, the table of reconciliation, the table of forgiveness. We've studied it from many aspects, but I'd like for you this morning to think of it as the table of testimony. And I'd like to tell you a beautiful story that took place just last night. We've had a wonderful, wonderful Christmas season. We had two services on Friday, two services on Saturday, and five services today. So we're in our eighth service. We still have one more service today. So we've had wonderful, wonderful congregations. In preparing for last evening, knowing that was Christmas Day, I thought; well, not very many people will be here because you've already had a massive group of people already. And I was singing along the hymns as you were singing, but when I came to do the communion I realized last night God had provided us another wonderful congregation of people, a lot of new people. And at the end of the service, this lovely lady and her brother came up and I had said something in the sermon, I said if you really want to get to know God read the Gospels and become acquainted with Jesus Christ, and when you know Jesus you know God. So the first question they asked me when we started the conversation, they said, Pastor, would you tell us what the Gospels are? Who is the Gospels? And I said, well, that's Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and John. It's the first four books of your New Testament, and then I went on to explain Matthew written by a Jew to explain Christianity in terms of Jewish thought. And Mark and Luke, I explained it to them. And then I said, are you new in your faith? They said oh we're just brand-new Christians. And I said, would you tell me how it all happened? She said Pastor, I have four boys. If I remember their ages I think she said they were twelve, ten, eight, and four, if I remember correctly. She said I have four boys, and a few months ago I was looking at my children and I thought to myself they don't know much about God. Where we go we don't, the church we attend seldom she said, they're not taught. And she said I felt all of a sudden a sense of responsibility to those four boys, and so she said I went and got a Bible storybook. And she said I started reading these Bible stories to my boys then after they'd go to bed, I'd continue to read she said. And I became absorbed in all of these wonderful stories of the Bible, and she said there was just something growing inside me, a hunger for God. She said I had been given a Bible, and she said I laid it on my bedroom drawers, and she said but I just kept it dusted. I was afraid to read it because she said I didn't understand it. She said I'd read those words and it just didn't make sense to me she said. So I didn't want to read it.

And she said a few weeks ago she said I came home, and she said the house was quiet. Now she said when you've got four boys it's a phenomenon to have a quiet house. But she said they were just so quiet and she said we had a quiet supper, and she said they went off to their rooms to do their homework and she said I decided, well, I'll go to the bedroom and prepare for my shower to get ready for retirement. And she said when I walked into my bedroom she said there was a voice inside me which said, if I remember exactly the words, she said the voice said, you're now ready. And she said I indistinctly went to that Bible, and she said opened it, and she said Pastor, I understood everything I read. She said it was amazing. And I said, you know what? I said It's just like Paul said, I said, to the Corinthians. He said, eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for those who love Him. But God has revealed them to us by His Spirit. She said that's what was happening. She said and God began to make these truths, she said, I've just fallen in love with the Word. She said look at my new Bible my husband gave me this beautiful new Bible for Christmas, and she said things have been happening. I just can't tell you. And I met the fellow who verified this story in the third service today, and he said Pastor, you know that's just exactly. So, she decided well I'm going to go back to church were used to go she said, but she said as soon as I got there my children were restless, and fidgety, and they didn't understand what was going on. And she said that voice that I heard in my bedroom, she said, said to me you're doing to your kids just like what was done to you by your parents. Then I thought, she said, that's right. I remember when I was a little girl, she said, I went to church. I didn't understand it. It was boring, and she said I learned to hate church. So when I became a young adult I quit church because I thought that's a dull place to go. And she said, I'm instilling in these children a disrespect, and she said I'm not going to do this. So she said I made the decision then I'm going to find a place where my boys will grow up to know God and to love Him. The conversation was about an hour long. When she turned and walked away I thought to myself here is the wonder of a new believer, just in the last few weeks divine truth has become so real to her, and Jesus has become so precious. 

And I talked to my heart and said, may I never forget the wonder of the moment that God met me. That was 50 years ago. I was a teenager, 18 years old, 50 years ago. And I remember it very clearly when God dealt with me personally and I come to know His love and His forgiveness and His grace. And my prayer is, dear God, may I never lose the wonder of that moment You came to me. Just like this lovely lady and she's absolutely bathing in the sunshine of God's grace. Maybe you're here today and you've been on your journey, your spiritual journey, for a long time. Maybe the wonder and the luster and the awesomeness of that moment when God met you has kind of faded. Don't let it to that. Never lose that awesome joy that filled your heart when you came to know Jesus as your personal Savior. You say Pastor, I haven't had that experience. Well God doesn't work with all of us the same way. That little lady she didn't even need a preacher. I think that's wonderful. God dealt with her personally, and that's so awesome to think that the Creator of the universe would choose that little mother of four and so display His love to her. God doesn't deal with us all that way, but you know today in this service you could just, when we bow our knees, we're all going to be bowing in just a moment. You could just say Jesus, I don't know how You want to reveal Yourself to me, but I'm wide open. My heart is wide-open and however You want to come to me, come now. And it will be amazing because all heaven is waiting to hear you say that prayer. They're waiting to have a party. You say, what do you mean? The Bible says that when one sinner repents heaven is filled with praise and joy, so heaven is waiting for you to just open your heart and say; here I am Jesus, however You want to do it, You can do it now. And the divine miracle can take place this morning.

Let's all kneel together, shall we? Lord Jesus, I bow with my family and my friends today at this beautiful communion service, and we all rejoice together for what You're doing in that little mother's life, and we pray that those children will all come to love You and serve You with all their heart. Some of us have been Christians for many years. Some of us have forgotten the pit from whence we were dug. Some of us have allowed the wonder and the joy of our first meeting with You to dissipate into all the pressures of life and life's changes. On this beautiful Christmas Sunday we want to tell You once again dear Jesus, we love You. There are some today who kneel with us who are just opening their heart to You for the first time. Would You, Lord Jesus, by Your precious Spirit minister to them now? We tell You that we love You dear Jesus, but these emblems that we hold in our hands tell us constantly every Sunday that we take them how much You love us. Because You said this bread was like Your body, and Your body became the sacrifice for my sin, our sins. You took my guilt and my shame, and You took death, the penalty of sin which is death. You took that and You paid its penalty for me. He died Jesus, for me, for all of us. And every time I hold this bread I cannot forget the dimension of that love that would cause You to leave heaven's glory and come to this world that rejected You and finally nailed You to a cross. And You did it for me. Awesome wonder. So this bread today and this cup, as mysterious as it is, tells me that by the shedding of Your precious blood You provided covering and cleansing for all my sin. I love You today dear Jesus. Let's take the bread together, shall we? And then the cup. Glorious Jesus, matchless Redeemer, wonderful Christ, blessed Savior, Prince of peace, King of kings, almighty God, our wonderful Lord. We love You, and everybody said, amen. Let's stand and greet one another, shall we?