Communion Message
(A life that's anchored securely)
January 1-2, 2000
Pastor Donald 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. 

All of us will agree that we live in a world that is turbulent and fast moving to its biblical destiny. It's very clear from the Scriptures as Peter states the day will come when this earth shall be dissolve with fervent heat, and all that we experience today as life on earth shall be no more because Peter says there will be a new heaven and a new earth. All things will pass away. In the Scriptures the writer to the Hebrews catches the same picture. He says, See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven, whose voice then shook the earth; but now He has promised, saying, "Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven." Now this, "Yet once more," indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. 

Now the writer to the Hebrews takes an Old Testament setting wherein you remember as Moses is on the mountain and he's being given the Ten Commandments, the mountains shook and great fear filled all of those around the mountain that day. And he said the God who spoke then said that we must obey what He says. That's why He gave us the Commandments. But he says the same voice will speak again, and when He speaks again, He'll not only shake the earth, but He'll shake heaven as well, so that all the transientness of this earth will be gone. That which can be shaken will be shaken. So that that which remains shall remain. The kingdom shall not be shaken. And he has reference here to the kingdom of God. I was thinking in recent days that's an interesting description of a kingdom, God's kingdom, the spiritual kingdom, of which you and I are a part. And it's described as that which can never be shaken, never changed. But what is it about the kingdom, God's kingdom, that will never change? Well, first of all His kingdom is founded upon His Word. And the Bible says that the heavens will pass away, but My Word shall stand forever. And thus, our relationship to God has been made clear through the Scriptures. And when our life is fastened steadfastly, anchored securely, in the great teachings and in this book the writer says that will stand when everything else has fallen. 

And old Isaiah says, he that keeps his mind stayed upon Me, I will keep him in perfect peace. So no matter what happens in this old world it doesn't make any difference. Our life and our confidence and our peace is anchored to God's Word. What else doesn't shake? The Bible says Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever; Hebrews 13:8. So the King of this kingdom never changes. In our world personalities change, Kings rise and fall, leaders come and go, and history marches on. But in our kingdom to which we belong as Christians Jesus Christ never changes. He's always been, always will be the King of kings and King of the ages. What else doesn't change? Well I'm reminded of a picture some years ago I read about, painted by a famous painter. And he takes his painting from the scene as the sailors standing on the decks of a ship that's being torn and twisted and bent by angry waves of the sea, and as they look across this raging sea in the far, far, far distance they see the seashore. And on the seashore there is a small mountain, and on that mountain is a chapel, and on top of the chapel is a cross. And in the flashing of the lights of the lightning that little chapel is lit up and the cross gleams with the lightning flashing behind it, and those sailors could see that cross as they made their way to the haven of rest. The cross never changes, the power of the cross to change lives. 

We come to the cross each Lord's Day. We come needing forgiveness because all of us have sinned. We've come short of the glory of God. We've always looked at this table not a table for Saints. Tragic, the churches made this a table for Saints, but it's a table for us sinners. But we come, and I along with you bow, and say Jesus, I've sinned. I've said things I shouldn't have said. I thought thoughts I should never have thought as a Christian. Jesus, I've said things to people that hurt them. I need Your forgiveness. I come to the cross just like you, and I know one thing, that that love that sent Jesus to the cross is a love that's never been diminished, never changed. The cross still has that magnetism that draws me there each Lord's day. It draws you, and as long as time exists God drove that cross on the horizons of human history, and it will stand amidst all the storms. The old songwriter said, on a hill far away stood an old rugged cross. The anguish, and suffering, and shame, and on that old cross Jesus paid the price for our redemption. And I guess that's what I like about coming to church here because every Lord's Day I'm reminded of the kingdom that never changes. The Word becomes the center focus of our Bible lesson. Jesus Christ becomes the one we seek to magnify, and worship, and honor. And we've done that today in the beautiful hymns and the choruses. 

He's been the very center. Jesus I love you. I love you, and our choruses helped us to say that. And then we can get on the our knees and the cross that never changes tells me He's ready to forgive me, and to cleanse me, and I can start tomorrow brand-new. I was watching television the other day. I saw something I thought to be very, very interesting. It was the documentary on how various people worship around the world, and the section that I was viewing was the worship patterns of Jewish people. Maybe you saw the documentary. One of the things they did I thought was very beautiful. They left their synagogue in New York and walked down a pathway to where there was a lake, and taken from an old Scripture verse out of Micah, I think it's chapter 5 verse 4. They do something very beautiful. They take along with them a handful of bread and that bread represents their sins. And somehow from this ancient prophecy out of Micah, what they do is the stand by the lake and they take off bits of that bread and throw it into the water as if they're throwing away their sin, and they make sure that all the bread is out of their hands, and when they walk way from the lake they're sin free. They feel that. That's their way of worship. It's so symbolic, isn't it? 

Really when we come to the cross we just say Jesus, here I am, and He takes and washes all of our sins from the us and we leave the sanctuary today just as if, just as if, we had never sinned. You see that's the meaning of the word justification, just as if we never sinned. So we walk away from the cross. You go out that door and say Jesus it's so good, and you can't remind Him of any of the sins because the Bible says that our sins are cast from us as far as the East is from the West, never to be remembered against us. Never to be remembered against us. So you say God, you know, I've sinned the other day. He says what sin? I mean that that's already; He doesn't even keep it in His memory. That's the fantastic thing about God's forgiveness. And if you're here today this is a table for all of us. You can just kneel with us and say Jesus, I'm a sinner, but the preacher said that if I'll put my trust in You and ask You to forgive me, You'll do just that and I can leave the church this morning sin free. You say a prayer like that and all heaven is listening, because the Bible says that there's joy in the presence of the Angels over one sinner that repents. I mean, your prayer starts a party in heaven because God wants to hear you. He wants to hear your voice.

Let's do that now, shall we? Let's kneel together. Lord Jesus, we come to this very beautiful moment and it's so good to know that in a world that moves so rapidly, almost it seems to nowhere, we're part as Christians of a kingdom built upon the Word, Your Word, that shall never pass away. And You, Lord Jesus, are our eternal King and the power of Your love and forgiveness represented in the cross never changes. But we kneel today and all of us are sinners. There's not a one of us that would be so arrogant as to think that we have the least amount of perfection. So would You please forgive us dear Jesus? These elements that we hold today tell us how anxious You are to do that. You loved us so much You came to die for us, to be the sacrifice for our sins. And the bread tells us that in Your body You took our sin and You died for us, and in the cup You provided the provision that allows us to be cleansed from all of our sin. That's wonderful. So we take the elements today with joy. Let's take the bread together, shall we? And then the cup. In a world that we've lived so rapidly in recent days, it's so good just to quietly on this beautiful Sunday to kneel in peace and confidence and joy before You dear Jesus, and know that the so everything else changes our faith will never change because it's fastened in You dear Jesus who is eternal. And everybody said, amen. Let's stand and greet one another, shall we?