Communion Message
(The heart of our faith)
September 8-9, 2001
Pastor Donald Sheley

For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered unto you: that the Lord Jesus on the 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.

I am sometimes asked why, Pastor, is the communion service so important to you and to the church? And my answer is simply this, it's because I believe that the cross is really the heart of our Christian faith. You know, when you go through the Scriptures Jesus never asked us to celebrate His birth, and yet, most of Christendom do much to give great emphasis to their Christmas programs and Christmas pageant. And, surprisingly, neither did Jesus asks us to celebrate His resurrection. And yet, Easter has become one of the high holy days of Christendom. What He did ask us to do is to remember His death until He comes. And I fear that one of the great weaknesses of the Evangelical Church is that there has been much negligence with regards to the cross, and the emphasis on realizing that we are sinners and it's only at the cross, and what Jesus did there at the cross, that remedies this whole problem of sin.

We're sinners. I sin just like you do. We're all human beings with all of our weaknesses, and with all of our failures and our frailties. But this moment, in every worship service on Sunday morning, gives us the opportunity to confront our own spirituality. Where do we stand before God? And I cannot think of a more confronting moment when the communion elements are passed down your aisle, and you immediately know this represents something very sacred that we do as Christians. And some of you come, you're strangers, you're new with us and you with gracious kindness let the cup and the plate pass before you, because you respect the fact that it is something very sacred for those who really understand it.

We have done something though here at Church of the Highlands that has surprised, I think, many, and that is we don't have a table with boundaries. And I often suggested one of the great tragedies, again of Christendom, is that the church has stolen the table from Jesus. The church, the organized religion, builds all kinds of requirement fences around the table. Now if you're a member or if you've been baptized in the church, if you -- whatever you've done -- you've now qualified to come. I think that's ecclesiastical arrogance. Why do we have to build a fence around the Lord's table. This table is open and that's why Pastor David, and Pastor Layton, and others who have conducted the service often say; if you're here and your heart is open, you may feel that you're 1000 or a million miles from God, but you're here because the Holy Spirit has drawn you, and you have a heart that's open to God. Come to the table. And while you kneel with us, you ask God to do something very wonderful in your life.

When I was a little boy, the Pastor gave great emphasis to that word unworthy, and he used it as an adjective, but in the original Greek text it is not an adjective it's an adverb. And thus, the emphasis was you've got to make sure that you're really worthy for this moment, so pray through and make sure you've covered all the bases and all the sins, and then when you think you're worthy, then reach out for the cup. That is not true. We'll never be worthy. That's an adverb, and the thought behind it is taking the communion with an unworthy or with an attitude that is just simply taking communion with everybody else not regarding its sacredness, just being a part of the crowd. That's not what we want. It's an attitude. That word unworthily represents an attitude not qualification. So if your heart is open, you're here because you want God to do something very special in your heart, you're welcome at communion with us today.

Why is communion important? Because it's here where we resolve the issue of sin and seek God's forgiveness. Let's do that now on our knees, shall we? Lord Jesus, I thank you that You left to the church the celebration of the supper, and Your word clearly declares its purpose. That is, that each time we participate we're telling again the story of the cross and our need for forgiveness. So we come to You on our knees today, Lord Jesus. We've failed You. We've sinned. We've transgressed Your commandments. We've stubbornly walked and our own way, and we've transgressed. We ask You to forgive us. We mean it with all of our heart.

Sometimes sin is the result of just thoughtlessness, and other times it's the result of purposed action. We are guilty of both. And these elements that we hold in our hands assure us that You died on that cross to forgive us, to be our Savior, and our Lord. So we take these elements in faith and trust thanking You for grace and mercy and pardon. Let's take the bread together, shall we? And then the cup. Something very wonderful, dear God, happens this moment when we come to You sincerely. You have forgiven us, and when we stand to our feet, we stand before You just as if we had never sinned. What a miracle. What a wonder, and what a joy. Thank you dear Jesus, and everybody said, amen. Let's stand and greet those that have come to worship with us.