Communion Message
(Fencing the table)
April 14-15, 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 oft 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.

On this beautiful Easter morn we've come to rejoice in the resurrection of our Savior. We feel it's so fitting that right in the middle of each service as we come for worship we remember the cross. Paul says, as oft as we do this, we do it in remembrance of Him. And we proclaim again the story of salvation through the cross. Some of you are new with us today and to have a communion service in the middle of an Easter service may be quite new to you, but let me share just from my heart something that has always, I have felt very, very deeply. We cherish the moments around the communion table as a family here at Church of the Highlands. It's a very, very meaningful experience to us. But on occasions I have said the greatest robbery that ever took place in time is when the church, organized religion, stole Jesus' table from Him.

You say, what do you mean by that Pastor? I mean organized religion down through times has somehow taken possession of the table. We built our theological fences around the table that we think are important, and we must abide by either the restrictions set up by religion or whatever the requirements are before we can come to the table. And associated with that is oft times a lot of fear and a lot of misunderstanding. This table belongs to Jesus not the church. And I don't believe that as religious people we have any right in the world to put requirements around this table.

I talked with someone recently who had visited down in the Southland to some church and when communion time came the man passing out the communion said, sorry, you're not a member here. You can't take. The church has no right to do that. This table belongs to Jesus, and it represents His love, and His mercy, and His grace to fallen man. It was never intended for saints. It was always intended for sinners. When I was a little boy the communion service was tacked onto the end of a service once a month, if the preacher remembered that it was the first Sunday of the month. He sent all the sinners home; a few saints stayed and had communion. It always bothered me. And isn't it true that many of us come from backgrounds where we understood the restrictions. You've got to do certain things before you qualify.

The thing that qualifies us is that we are sinners. I'm a sinner. You're a sinner. Saved by His grace, but not perfect. Every weekend that I come to these communion tables I need God's forgiveness just like you do, and this table represents His love and His desire to forgive us. So if you've come to church today and maybe in your religious background you understood that table was only for a select number of people who qualified, just remember when you come here this table is open. And as Jeff said in his opening remarks if you've come searching for God and your heart is here today, you qualify.

Something very beautiful happened on Friday after our first service. We had three services on Friday and at the 1:00 service afterwards a little lady stood out in the auditorium and everybody else had gone. And I walked up to her and she said, Pastor, she said, for 20 years I've been away from God and away from the church. I didn't want anything to do with religion. And she said, a few weeks ago somebody in your church invited me to come. She said, I want to tell you in the last two or three weeks Jesus is becoming very real to me, and I'm realizing what I've missed all of those years. She said, Pastor, today, for the first time in 20 years, I took communion. And she said, today, I'm a follower of Jesus Christ. That's what this table is all about. It's where we make our approach to God in prayer and say, God I need You. And that table says Jesus died to forgive me, and I need that forgiveness today.

So that's the reason why we always have communion, because it's open to whosoever will, just like the gospel, may come. Let's kneel together, shall we? Lord Jesus, this is a very precious moment for all of us as we identify with You today. We're honest. We are sinners. None of us are perfect. We come to this service today needing Your forgiveness. We're also honest to tell You that we don't understand all of the divine dimensions to this moment. We know that You said that this bread represents Your body and this cup Your precious blood. We understand that, but the depth of its meaning we'll only understand when we see You face to face. But in faith we believe that You died on that cross as our substitute and we believe that it was there that You shed Your precious blood for the cleansing of all of our sins. We believe this and we rejoice in it. Let's take the bread together, shall we? And then the cup. Jesus, we bow before You in worship, and in adoration, and in love, and with a joy that knows no bounds because You are our risen Christ. Thank you, and everybody said, amen. Let's stand and greet one another, shall we?