Communion Message
(Seventeen dollars)
November 4-5, 2000
Pastor Donald Sheley

For I have received from the Lord that which I also delivered unto 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 the blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

Each Lord's Day that I read this particular passage I find the very first verse exceedingly interesting because it draws a tremendous contrast. It says on the same night in which He was betrayed He took bread. You have betrayal in all of its ugliness, and you have a supper scene in all of its preciousness; side-by-side. The night on which He was betrayed He took bread. Matthew records the betrayal with these words, he says, Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, "What are you willing to give me if I deliver Him to you?" And they counted out to Him thirty pieces of silver. So from that time he sought opportunity to betray Him. And now on the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying to Him, "Where do You want us to prepare for You to eat the Passover?" And He said, "Go into the city to a certain man, and say to Him, ‘The Teachers says, "My time is at hand; and I will keep the Passover at your house with My disciples."’" So the disciples did as Jesus had directed them; and they prepared the Passover. When evening had come, He sat down with the twelve. And as they were eating, He said, "Assuredly, I say to you, one of you will betray Me." And they were exceedingly sorrowful, and each of them began to say to Him, "Lord, is it I?" He answered and said, "He who dipped his hand with Me in the dish will betray Me. The Son of Man indeed goes just as it was written of Him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been born." Then Judas, who was betraying Him, answered and said, "Rabbi, is it I?" He said to Him, "You have said it."

A beautiful supper scene and a tragic act of betrayal. It's one of the dark characters of history. I tried to preach once on Judas and I failed. The subject is too dark, but I do find that I am inquisitive as to what caused him to do what he did. And so has been the search by Bible scholars and theologians down through time, and the conclusion is reached that there are at least possibly three--there are more variations--but you can sum it all up in about three suggestions why he did what he did. First of all, it may have been because of avarice. According to Matthew and Mark it was immediately after the anointing at Bethany that Judas struck his dreadful bargain. And when John tells the story of that event he says that Judas made his protest against the anointing because he was a thief, and he pilfered from the money that was in the box. Now if that's so, Judas struck one of the most dreadful bargains in human history. The sum which he agreed to betray Jesus was thirty pieces of silver. Count it up in today's market and it would add up to $17. Now if avarice was the cause of his act of treachery, it's the most terrible example in history of the depths which love of money will go. It could be. Surely he could have bargained for more if it was avarice.

Secondly, it may have been because of bitter hatred based on complete disillusionment. The Jews always had their dream of power, therefore, they had their extreme nationalists who were prepared to go to any lengths of murder and violence to drive the Romans from Palestine. These nationalists were called dagger bearers because they followed a deliberate policy of assassination. It may be that Judas was influenced by them and that as he looked on Jesus he recognize Him as the divine sent leader who may, because of His marvelous powers, be the one who would help them, the nationalists, drive the Romans from the countryside. But as he watched the ministry of Christ, as he perceived it heading for a cross, that disillusionment now turns to hatred, and in that act of hatred he did what he did.

It may be that Judas really never intended for Jesus to die at all. It may be that as we have seen he saw in Jesus the divine leader, and it may be that he thought Jesus was proceeding far too slowly. It may be that he wished for nothing else but to force His hand. That's what many Bible scholars say. We'll never know. You can't reach back 2000 years and search a man's mind to find his motives, but it does bring us back to that solemn thought: Something beautiful had a touch of ugliness.

I've always looked at our communion time as a very beautiful time for all of us here as a family. There’s something very precious about it, but also along with it, it does really become a table of contrast. You see in ancient times when you had your supper you placed your friend next to you, and was the custom, the first piece of bread that you dipped into the dish that was in the center of the table you gave it to your friend. That's exactly what Jesus did. Judas was next to Him. He dipped the bread into the dish and gave it to Judas. And old Dr. Barclay in his beautiful little commentary says, that was love's last appeal. He's got the shekels in his pocket and Jesus has designated Him as the honored guest of the evening. That's amazing, and yet the tenderness of that moment did not change Him. He was bent on doing the sin.

And you know, my prayer is that at this dinnertime we handle the motives of our heart. We ask God to reveal to us those things that bring dishonor to Him, and with every sincere effort and every genuine intention of repentance say, Lord Jesus I want to turn from this sin. I don't want to continue it any more. And I pray that, different than Judas, suppertime becomes a time for us when there are some life changing moments, and life-changing decisions that deal with deep spiritual problems within us. This is that moment. I've often said we're suggested by some who visit with us, they say, Pastor, don't you ever have altar services? Yes we do, every Sunday at the communion time. If you've backslidden, now is the time to come home. If you're living in sin, now is the time to confess and repent, and ask God to give you the courage to change. If you're searching for God, now is the time on your knees to say, Jesus, I'm ready.

Let's kneel together, shall we? Lord Jesus, it's true in life that things that sometimes in their preciousness are marred by ugliness. We don't want to do that at this supper table. We're here sincerely seeking for Your grace and Your forgiveness, and the courage and the strength to change from ways that do not bring You honor. So we kneel here today sincerely. We have no desire to deny You, to run from You, or even to betray You. Our desire is to love You with all of our hearts, to serve You. So please help us dear Jesus, forgive us, and cleanse us. Let's take the bread together, shall we? And then the cup. I thank you dear Jesus for the promise of forgiveness, because You've told us that if we confess our sins You're going to be faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So when we stand to our feet in a moment of time we can glory in the truth that we stand before You as if we had never sinned because You forgive us. You take our sins and You cast them from us as far as the east is from the west. Thank you Jesus.

Lord Jesus, I'd like to talk to You about something else that's very heavy on my heart today. I want to lift our nation to You. Again, we're at the crossroads when decisions will be made that will affect the future of this nation. Our hearts cry out for godly and righteous leadership. You are the God of history. You allow kingdoms to rise and You allow them to fall. You are the God of history. We're asking You as Christians today to intervene at this moment and bless our nation with a godly man who will lead us in the pathways of righteousness. We sincerely ask for that from the very depths of our being. Hear our prayer, O awesome God. Thank you, and everybody said, amen. God bless you. Let's stand and greet one another, shall we?