Communion Message
(Saving Others)
February 3-4, 2001
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.

Matthew records for us one of the scenes at Calvary, he says, Then two robbers were crucified with Him, one on the right and another on the left. And those who passed by blasphemed Him, wagging their heads and saying, "You who destroy the temple and build it in three days, save Yourself! If You are the Son of God, come down from the cross." Likewise the chief priests also, mocking with the scribes and the elders, said, "He saved others; Himself He cannot save. If He is the King of Israel, let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe Him. "He trusted in God; let Him deliver Him now if He will have Him; for He said, 'I am the Son of God.'" Even the robbers who were crucified with Him reviled Him with the same thing. Interesting phrase: He saved others; Himself He cannot save. They said it in derision and yet it's a basic truth of life, to save others you cannot save yourself.

Some of you, many years ago, joined with your family or others around the television as you watched the evening news. Do you remember the story of the plane taking off from the downtown airport in Washington D.C.? It was a cold, cold, bitter day and ice was everywhere. That plane could not get its altitude, and as a result, it just went over a bridge where pedestrians and cars were traveling and into the Potomac River. A man was walking on the sidewalk crossing that bridge and he saw these struggling souls hanging on to pieces of that aircraft trying to live, and he plunged into the water. Do you remember? And he started helping those folks as the helicopters lowered the baskets, and he'd help one in and the basket would takeoff, and soon again the basket back and another in, and finally when everyone else is gone, they've been taken away, he remains, but when the helicopter gets back he's not there. You see he froze to death. To save others he did not save himself.

From the ignorant reviling of the passersby who have caught up the charges against Jesus at the trial to the reverent exclamation of the centurion, and the adoring appeal of the malefactor that we talked about of recent days, we have the full range of the thoughts of men concerning the cross of Jesus. This word of the chief priests and the scribes and the elders though has a bad preeminence. It surpasses all others in the keenness of its mockery and in the intensity of its virulence. We are shown these men in their hour of glutted revenge, and they are pacing up-and-down before the cross. They do not look up at Jesus but speak among themselves so that He may hear, and the words which their consuming envy fashions expresses both their argument and their triumph. He saved others; Himself He cannot save. Now this taunt set now in the light of the cross holds a truth these blind persecutors could not see. We wonder that with the lamb already prepared for sacrifice some glimmer of what they were so unconsciously stating did not don upon them. He saved others; Himself He cannot save. It asserts in the concisest terms the necessity of sacrifice and salvation.

If a man will save others, in any salvation whatsoever, the law must be obeyed the stern condition must fulfill and the law he must accept is that he cannot save himself. When Jesus would consummate this great salvation there was no other way but to lay down His life on the cross, and thus, it behooved Christ to suffer the Scriptures say. And again, the Scriptures say, once in the end of the world hath He appeared to put away the sin by the sacrifice of Himself. He saved others; Himself He cannot save.

When you go back in the annals of medical history in the city hospital in London, years and years and years and years ago before the triumph of modern medicine, a Dr. Samuel Rabbeth, r-a-b-b-e-t-h. A young, brilliant, surgeon doctor had under his care a little boy suffering from diphtheria. And in that little boy's throat choking away the life was this pocket of poisonous pus. And old Dr. Sam did not have the modern equipment that we have. He knew that if he could get in there with an instrument, a tube, he could suck up that poison from that boy and possibly save his life. And old Dr. Sam put that tube down that little boy's throat and he didn't have suction machines like we have today, and he put his lips to that tube and into his body he sucked that poison. The medical report is that in one hour Sam, Dr. Sam, is desperately ill, and in one day he died, but the little boy lived.

It's true, to save others it's costly, even so much as life itself at times. To save us -- we were the ones clinging to that fuselage of life that only had one destiny, to go down. We were the ones and our wonderful Christ stepped onto the scene to save us He died on our behalf. They said it in mockery, but it's a truth in life -- to bless others is often very costly. One of the things that has always fascinated me as a person is to study the hands of aged people. They tell so much. You see those hands gnarled and twisted and scared and feeble and shaking. Hands that over life's span have touched and helped little children and blessed lives. When you pour out your life for others it's costly. It's not without a price.

Friday evening I joined my wife for their 50th alumni gathering from our college days, and I don't like to go to those meetings. They're wrenchingly emotional. I sat there and to look upon students who you sat with 50 years ago behind a school desk, and then to see what life does over a span of 50 years; there's Jerry. Jerry came to our class. He had already fought in war and so he was a little older. We were the young ones of the class. Jerry and his lovely wife, godly, loved Jesus with all of his heart, and for 50 years Jerry and his lovely wife have just poured out their souls. You could write books on what they've accomplished in life. And I watched Jerry come into the event on Friday night and his little wife she could hardly walk, and I sat there and cried inside. But I was thinking of this term; to save others, you don't save yourself. There are times we risk, if you really love, you throw everything at the object or the task that needs to be done, and life takes its toll.

To save others, you can save yourself. Isn't that at the heart of Christian living? Serving others for Jesus' sake. So when you come to this table today I want you to realize it's a table of sacrifice, and if He hadn't died we couldn't live. If He had not paid the penalty, we'd be all sinners most miserable. But He died; He did not save Himself. He says He could have called 10,000 angels to destroy the world and set Him free. He didn't do it. He died so I could live, and that's what this table is all about. Would you kneel with me please?

We kneel here today, dear God, with a sense of our unworthiness marveling at Your awesome love, Your amazing grace, and Your wonderful salvation. And to realize that if You haven't of done that on Calvary where You gave Your life 2000 years ago we wouldn't have a meeting like this nor a moment so precious. Thank you dear Jesus for dying for us so we could live. Let's take the bread together, shall we? And then the cup. Dear Jesus we adore You, we worship You, and we love You. And everybody said, amen. Let's stand and greet one another, shall we?