Communion Message
(For they know not what they do)
July 7-8, 2001
Pastor Donald Sheley

For I have received from the Lord that which I also delivered to 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 ye drink it, in remembrance of Me." For as often as ye 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.

When you read the various accounts of the crucifixion, Luke in his record includes the prayer of Christ as He looked upon those who were a part of that scene of the cross. Jesus said, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. For they know not what they do. There is Pilate. He's in charge of Palestine. He's been placed there by the Roman government in Rome and he's not liked; in fact, eventually he will be removed and banished in exile. But he's a part of the scene. He doesn't think it's fair and he expresses his opinion that one should be brought such as Christ. For in Him, he said, I find no fault in Him. And he felt that the accusations were not justified. And yet, bending to the pressure of the crowd, not knowing what he did, he had the King of kings, the Savior of the world, put to death. He knew not what he did.

Then there's the centurion. He'd been a part of this experience; time and time again, he had listened to the nails, the hammering of the nails and the weeping and the cursings of the victims. It was quite a common thing to him. But, this crucifixion was different, because when the rocks began to quake and the Earth began to move, he knew that this had to be someone very special, even though he knew not the total story as we know it after 2000 years. He made a proclamation that is fascinating. He said, truly this man was the Son of God. Now that was a statement in defiance of all that had proceeded. It would be much like the man who was in charge of Mr. McVeigh's death to have stood there by that electric chair at the last minute and said, this is not fair. I don't believe there was any justice in this. All the world would have disagreed.

And this Roman centurion...Matthew includes something that I had never known before or at least had never noticed, but it was not only the centurion who said it. All of his accomplices and they that were with him, Matthew says, they joined in this denouncing of such poor handling of the case. But there is one part to the story that has always bothered me. What about the believers? Pilate didn't know what he was doing. The centurion didn't know. He knew something was very special, but he didn't really know. But the believers? Luke tells us they stood afar off. He those that should have been loyal, those that should have been there, right beside Jesus; those who believed in Him stood afar off in the shadows watching what everybody else did.

And I fear, I fear that too many times believers stand or stay too far away from the cross. Somehow there is not the passionate desire to be identified with the Christ of the cross. Keith Hill wrote a book some years ago, and it's entitled, and that's what fascinated me, the title was 'On A Hill Too Far Away'. And his thesis simply was this; most Christians live too far from the cross. You can now understand why I have such a passion to bring our congregation every weekend back to the cross, because to me it's the heart. It's the center of history. It's there you and I find forgiveness. It's at the cross where we first saw the light and the burden of our heart rolled away. It was there by faith we received our sight and now we're happy all the day. Let's come to the cross, shall we? Let's kneel.

We're not like those, Lord Jesus, who stood afar off. We have chosen to come today and to kneel at the cross. We know what we're doing. They didn't. We know that we have come because of Your grace and Your mercy, Lord Jesus, to that place where in repentance and confession You cleanse us. You make us whiter than snow. You wash away all of our sins and our transgressions, and You look upon us just as if we had never sinned. It's at the cross where our spiritual blindness was healed and we've been made to behold Your glory and Your majesty and Your greatness. May we never be too far from Your cross. Thank you for these emblems that reminds us over and over again, week after week, of time and eternity's greatest event -- Calvary. Thank you Jesus. Let's take the bread together, shall we? And then the cup.

Jesus, we join in the great hymn writer of the past who said: Jesus, keep me near the cross; there's the blessed fountain which flows freely to all, including me. Thank you Jesus, and everybody said, amen. Let's stand and greet one another, shall we?