Communion Message
(Offerings)
March 10-11, 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. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world. Therefore, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one another.

The writer to the letter to the Hebrews draws the contrast between Old Testament worship and New Testament worship. He describes in detail what took place in the ancient tabernacle and in the temple. He writes: And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away and sins. But this Man, speaking of Christ, 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. But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us; for after He had said before, "This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them," then the He adds, "Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more." Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin.

And what the writer does is he compares a day of worship under ancient law with that of Christian worship. And he describes all of the -- he says that the priest stands ministering daily offering repeatedly the same sacrifices. What were those sacrifices? Well every morning and every evening a male lamb of one-year-old without spot and blemish was offered as the burnt offering. Now along with it there was offered the meat offering, which consisted of a small portion of mixed with pure oil. And then in addition to that sacrifice there was what was called the drink offering, which consisted of a quarter of a hin, or a very small portion, of wine. Now in addition to those three sacrifices there was the offering of the daily meat offering of the high priest and it consisted of a small amount of flour mixed with oil and then baked in a flat pan. Half of that was offered to the Lord in the morning and the other half was offered in the evening sacrifice. Now in addition to that there was the offering of the incense before these offerings both in the morning and in the evening. So ever since the temple existed, and so long as the temple continued in its ministry, this routine of sacrifice went on day after day. That's what the writer is talking about. There was kind of a priestly treadmill of sacrifices.

Moffett, the great Bible scholar, speaks of it as the Levitical drudges, who day in and day out kept offering the sacrifices. There was no end to it. But the interesting thing, it still left man conscious of his sin, and even after he had been there to the place of sacrifice, he still felt alienated from God. Then the writer to the Hebrews, in making that contrast, says Jesus, just once, just once, made a sacrifice on the cross 2000 years ago, paid the penalty for man's sins, and that sacrifice has the continuing power; he uses the word, of perfecting forever, that's us, those who are being sanctified. Once -- just once, and the whole problem of history's sin was taking care of at the cross. He who knew no sin became sin for us. He took its penalty -- for the wages of sin is death. He died, that's why we call Him our Savior. He died so we could live forever. That's the gospel.

And if you're here today and you're in search, as pastor David has said, for the answer to the throbbing and the emptiness in your heart, it's found in Jesus. 2000 years ago He died so we could be forgiven. So when we kneel today you can just simply say, Jesus, thank you for that one sacrifice -- Your death at Calvary. Thank you and I receive You as my Savior. Let's kneel together, shall we?

Father in heaven, it's hard for us to imagine going through a day of worship in that ancient tabernacle or temple, sacrifice after sacrifice, and yet to walk away and never feel close to You. But we come to this moment very simple and yet very profound. We hold in our hands bread that bespeaks Your precious body and a cup that tells us that You poured out Your blood for our cleansing. Now we may not understand it all. We know this -- that because of Calvary we can come as sinners and know that You, dear Jesus, became the Savior of the world when You died on that cross for the sins of all mankind. My sins were included in that payment. All of us were included. That's amazing. That You took sins penalty which was death and You died on our behalf. You rose again triumphantly, but You died to pay sin's penalty. So we can come to You and open our hearts Lord Jesus and say, we put our trust and our faith in You as our Savior. We seek Your forgiveness for our sins and Your cleansing for our unrighteousness. And we know, because these very elements that we hold assure us, that that's exactly why You died so you could forgive us. Thank you Jesus.

Let's take the bread together, shall we? And then the cup. So simple, so wonderful, and we don't walk away from this moment dear God feeling 1000 miles from You. Somehow You came to fill this moment with Your wonderful presence, and we feel so close to You now. Our hearts are at peace in Your presence, and we're filled with joy knowing our sins are forgiven. Thank you very much dear Jesus, and everybody said, amen. Let's stand and greet one another, shall we?