Communion Message
(John 3:16)
April 7-8, 2001
Pastor Leighton Sheley

John 3:16 has often been considered an encapsulated form of the gospel message. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life; John 3:16. Christ's coming -- John 3:16 -- reveals to us several aspects of God's provision for us. It reveals to us that God keeps God's promises in God's timing. It's not always our timing, but God keeps His promise in His time. For the many thousands of years transpired between God's promise for the Savior and the advent of Jesus Christ. Perhaps it's because of our perspective, which is constrained by the length of our existence, but to God a thousand years is but a day and God fulfills His promises in His time.

God's provision for a Savior also reveals to us that God loves us and values us. Jesus put the value of a single soul greater than all of the wealth this world has to offer. God loves us and He values us, and that includes us individually. He's not only the Savior of this world; He's the Savior of Leighton; He's the Savior of Ralph, of Leigh, of John, Alan, Laurie. You can put your name in there. And for salvation to become significant to us as individuals we have to understand that we must individually put our name there. God so loved Leighton, that He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Sometimes it's not so hard for us to believe that God so loved the world, but it's hard for us to believe that God so loved Leighton, because this voice of doubt comes up and whispers in our ear.

In my preparations for this week and next week I've been reading through several books, and one, as I was reading through it, made a profound impact on me and I thought to myself our congregation needs to hear this. It's a chapter out of Max Lucado's book "Six Hours One Friday". It's chapter five. I'd like to read it to you. If you'd like you can close your eyes and picture it because he has such a picturesque way of writing.

Doubt-he's a nosy neighbor. He's an unwanted visitor. He's an obnoxious guest. Just when you were all prepared for a weekend of relaxation; just when you pulled off your work clothes and climbed into your Bermuda shorts; just when you unfolded the lawn chair and sat down with a magazine and a glass of iced tea his voice interrupts your thoughts. Hey, Bob, got a minute? I've got a few questions. I don't mean to be obnoxious Bob, but how can you believe that a big God could ever give a hoot about you? Don't you're being a little presumptuous and thinking God wants you in heaven? Now you may think you're on pretty good terms with the Man upstairs, but haven't you forgotten that little business trip in Atlanta? Do you think He won't call your card on that one? How do you know God gives a flip about you anyway?

Have you got a neighbor like this? He'll pester you. He'll irritate you. He'll criticize your judgment. He'll kick the stool out from under you and refuse to help you. He'll tell you not to believe in the invisible and yet he offers no answer for the inadequacy of the visible. He's a mealy mouthed, two-faced liar who deals from the bottom of the deck. His aim is not to convince you but to confuse you. He doesn't offer solutions he only raises questions. Had any visits from this fellow lately?

If you find yourself going to church in order to be saved and not because you are saved, then you've been listening to him. If you find yourself doubting if God could forgive you again for that, whatever that is, you've been sold some snake oil. If you're more cynical about Christians than sincere about Christ, guess who came to dinner? I suggest you put a lock on your gate. I suggest you post a Do Not Enter sign on your door. I also suggest that you take a look at an encounter between a fitful doubter and a faithful God.

Abraham, or Abram as he was known at the time, was finding God's promises about as easy to swallow as a chicken bone. Have you ever had one of those get stuck in your throat? The promise -- that his descendents would be as numerous as the stars. The problem -- no son. No problem -- God's response. Abraham looked over at his wife Sarah as she shuffled by in her gown and slippers with the aid of a walker. The chicken bone stuck for a few minutes, but eventually slid down his throat. And just as he was turning away to invite Sarah to a candlelight dinner, he heard promise number two. Abraham? Yes Lord. All this land will be yours. Now imagine God telling you that your children will someday own Fifth Avenue, and you'll understand Abram's hesitation. On that one Father I need a little help, and a little help was given.

It was a curious scene, twilight, the sky is a soft blue ceiling with starry diamonds, the air cool, the animals in the pasture are quiet, the trees are silhouettes. Abram dozes under a tree. His sleep is fitful. It's as if God is allowing Abram's doubt to run its course. In his dreams Abram is forced to face the lunacy at all. The voices of doubt speak convincingly. How do I know God is with me? What if this is all a hoax? How do you know that it's God who is speaking? The thick and dreadful darkness of doubt. The same darkness you feel when you sit on a polished pew in a funeral chapel and you listen to the obituary of one you loved more than life. The same darkness that you feel when you hear the words, the tumor is malignant, we have to operate. The same darkness that falls upon you when you realize that you just lost your temper, again. The same darkness you feel when you realize that the divorce you never wanted is final. The same darkness into which Jesus screamed, My God, My God, Why have You forsaken Me? Appropriate words, for when we doubt, God does seem very far away, which is exactly why He chose to draw so near.

God told Abram to take three animals and cut them in half and arrange the haves facing each other. Now to us this command is mysterious, to Abram, it wasn't. He'd seen the ceremony before. He participated in it. He'd sealed many covenants by walking through the divided carcasses and stating, may what has happened to these animals happen also to me if I fail to uphold my word. That is why his heart must have skipped a beat when he saw the lights in the darkness passing between the carcasses, the soft golden glow from the coals in the fire pot and the courageous flames of the torch, what did they mean? They meant that the invisible God had drawn near to make His immovable promise -- To your descendents I give this land. And though God's people often forgot their God, God did not forget them. He kept His word. The land became theirs. God didn't give up. He never gives up.

When Joseph was dropped into a pit by his own brothers, God didn't give up. When Moses said, here I am, send Aaron, God didn't give up. When the delivered Israelites wanted Egyptian slavery rather than milk and honey, God didn't give up. When Aaron was making a false god at the very moment Moses was with the true God, God didn't give up. When only two of the spies thought that the Creator was powerful enough to deliver the created, God didn't give up. When Sampson whispered to Delilah, when Sal roared after David, when David schemed against Uriah, God didn't give up. When God's word lay forgotten and man's idols stood glistening, God didn't give up. When the children of Israel were taken into captivity, God didn't give up. He could have. He could have turned His back. He could have walked away from the wretched mess, but He didn't. He didn't give up. When He became flesh and was victim of an assassination attempt before he was two years old, He didn't give up. When the people from His own town tried to push Him over a cliff, He didn't give up. When His brothers ridiculed Him, He didn't give up. When He was accused of blaspheming God by people who didn't fear God, He didn't give up. When Peter worshiped Him at the supper and cursed Him at the fire, He didn't give up.

People spat in His face. He didn't spit back. When bystanders slapped Him, He didn't slap back. When the whip ripped His sides, He didn't turn and command the waiting angels to stuff that whip down the soldier's throat. And when the human hands fastened the divine hands to a cross with spikes, it wasn't the soldiers who held the hands of Jesus steady; it was God who held them steady. For those wounded hands were the same invisible hands that had carried the fire pot and the torch two thousand years earlier. They were the same hands that had brought light into Abraham's thick and dreadful darkness. They had come to do it again. And so next time that obnoxious neighbor, doubt, walks in, escort him out; out to the hill, out to Calvary, out to the cross where with holy blood the hand that carried the flame wrote the promise, God would give up His only Son before He'd give up on you.

Romans 8:31 and following text -- What then shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also along with him graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Jesus Christ who died, more than that, who was raised to life, is at the right hand of God, and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble, or hardship, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughter. No, in all of these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor demons, neither the present, nor the future, nor any powers, neither height, nor depth, nor anything else in all of creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen? Amen.

Jesus made this promise; I will never leave you nor forsake you. We find these words of encouragement in Philippians 1:6 -- being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to the completion until the day of Jesus Christ. What does that mean? He's not going to give up on you. You might say, well, pastor, you don't know what I've done. You know what, I might not, and it doesn't matter. Jesus does. In that Passion Week which we reflect upon, His disciples made promises. We're going to stand with You Lord. Even if it costs us our life we're going to stand with You. Yet when the opportunity came to fulfill that promise, where were they? They were fleeing into the darkness of the night leaving the Savior behind. They hid in a room after His crucifixion, a locked room, in fear. And when Jesus arrived, what did He say? Did He say things like I told you so? Did He say things like what a bunch of losers? Did He say something like oh you've done it this time? Is that what Jesus said? That's not what Jesus said. To those who had not kept their promises, to those who had run in His hour of need Jesus greeted them with these words; peace be with you.

So many of us are hiding behind locked doors in shame and desperation, afraid of what God is going to say to us. And God wants to enter those locked rooms of our heart. He's not going to say loser, you've done it again. He's going to say peace. We've come today seeking to have peace with God. I want to invite you if you're physically able to join with me know as we kneel in the presence of our precious and wonderful Lord and Savior. The scriptures tell us at this time that we should examine ourselves, and so we're going to do that. Let God's Holy Spirit speak to you in these moments.

Lord in these moments we have done what your scriptures guide us to do. Lord when we hold these elements we reflect upon them. We stand in awe of You for You are great beyond our wildest imaginations in every dimension, and we are so finite, so small. You are perfect holiness and we are so unholy, and yet Lord You have chosen to love us, to pay the price of our redemption, buy us back from eternal distraction at the costly price of Calvary's cross paying the wages of our sin, which is death. Lord we thank you for Your love for us and Your patience with us, for each and every one of us fail You in some fashion each and every day in thought, word, or deed. Thank you Lord for Your mercies that are new every morning. Thank you for Your word that says if we confess our sins You are faithful and just to forgive us are sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. This day Lord we ask Your forgiveness, and we ask Your cleansing, and we ask You not to give up on us, and we recognize that You promised not to. Thank you Lord. Let's partake of the bread and also the cup.

Thank you Lord. The elements that we have just partaken of Lord remind us that Your mercy to us is not a license to continue in sin, for paying the wages of our sin was done at a dreadful cost. Help us Lord to overcome. Purify our hearts we pray. May Your Holy Spirit transform us a little more each day into the image of Your Son. Thank you Lord for hearing this prayer. Thank you for the cross.

(Leighton singing)
Thank you for the cross, thank you for the cross, thank you for the cross my friend.
Thank you for the cross, thank you for the cross, thank you for the cross my friend.

Thank you Lord. Thank you Lord. Thank you Lord. In Jesus' name we pray, and together we say, amen.