Communion Message
(Our time with Jesus)
July 28-29, 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 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.

One of the interesting insights in the study of the life of Christ is even though He moved among the throngs and His audiences were vast at times, yet He gave very particular attention to individuals. People, I believe, absorbed Christ in the sense of His concern for them. Some of the most beautiful conversations recorded in the Scriptures are conversations that Jesus had with individuals; Nicodemus, the woman of Samaria, Martha, and when you listen to His prayers you find that the individual was much upon His heart. In His high priestly prayer in John 17 He prayed for us, not for the world, but He prayed for us. When He was on the cross His concern for individuals did not diminish, because as one hung there with Him dying the other who was on the other side mocked him, but his friend turned and rebuked the mocker and turned to Jesus and said, when You come into You're kingdom will you remember me? And Jesus turned to him and said, today, you shall be with Me.

Even in His closing moments of death of the individual still was exceedingly important to Christ, and I want you to catch that today. We have the joy of worshiping together and hundreds of us lift our voice in praise, and if somehow we could have the capacity to back away from our universe and see the throngs of people in all the towns and villages and cities around the world going to church today in cathedrals and buildings and churches jammed as worshipers join in the great throng of worship, we would see the vastness of the body to which we belong -- the body of Christ. Of recent weeks as you know I had the joy of going to the island of Borneo and part of the island is the country of Malaysia, or a portion of Malaysia, and that part of Borneo has been greatly influenced by missionaries. And in a community of 2 or 300,000, I think it is, in the city of Kucing 30% or more are very much dedicated Christians. And so on Sunday it was amazing; in fact, on Sunday afternoon I watched as the police had to direct the traffic because literally thousands, and thousands, and thousands of people were streaming into the churches for worship. We're a part of a vast family.

And yet, the masses, as important as they are, what is important is the individual relationship that we have with Christ, and He is deeply concerned about that. And I look to the communion table as that moment amongst the masses and amongst the multitude - it's that moment that I have a personal time with Jesus, because I know He is exceedingly and eternally important to me and I know He loves me so much He died for me. And so, amidst all of the joy of worship, this is our time to spend a few moments individually with Jesus. Let's do that now, shall we?

Lord Jesus, we know that You died for the world. Your love is all-encompassing. Yet to know that love included me, included all of us here today as individuals. We are exceedingly important to You, Lord Jesus, and You are eternally important to us. In these moments on our knees today I want to tell You, dear Jesus, thank you, thank you very much for going to that cross for us 2000 years ago to pay the penalty for our sin; to give us the promise of life eternal forever in Your presence. What a glorious redemption we are a part of.

Now Lord Jesus during this week we know that we've not lived perfectly. There's not a one of us who would put a claim to that. We're human beings with frailties and weaknesses that sometimes get the best of us and we fail You, and for that we are sorry. And for our sins we ask forgiveness, we repent, we want to turn from them, we want to serve You with all of our heart dear Jesus. We ask You to forgive us, to cleanse us, and if we've allowed this entire week to go by and we forgot to tell You that we love You, we want to do that now. Jesus, I love You and I know You love me. Thank you -- let's take the bread together, shall we? And then the cup. And everybody said, amen. Let's stand and greet one another, shall we?