Communion Message
(Our choice)
March 31, 2002
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 on 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 day which we have come to the House of God to celebrate the resurrection of our Christ, it's a great day of hope, yet it is true that to be a resurrection there must be a death. In a couple of days past we came to the sanctuary and we thought through those moments where Christ made His way to Calvary's cross and there paid the supreme penalty with His life, a penalty for our sin, so we would have a savior.

We've often remarked that nowhere in the Scriptures does it suggest that we celebrate either His birth or His resurrection, but it does require of us to celebrate His death. That's what Jesus asked us to celebrate. So we ask the question then, why are these elements and why is the Lord's Table so exceedingly important in our Christian faith? Because they tell the glorious story of the gospel.

When we go back to the early pages of human history when God created man He created man with the capacity of choice. If it not been that way we would've been a bunch of robots, but God wanted us to serve Him because we chose to serve Him; something of our own choosing. And He wanted us to love Him because we chose to love Him. So He put in the garden that opportunity for man to exercise that ability of choice. And You and I know what happened. Adam and Eve chose to disregard God and listen to Satan, and thus the tragedy of the human race -- sin being a part of our human journey.

You remember that God had warned Adam and Eve that if they did partake they would die, and thus, He had all the eternal rights if He wished to, when He walked into that garden, to slay Adam and Eve for their disobedience. But He didn't do that. The God of mercy and the God of the grace went out into the garden, selected a substitute to die, which was an animal, slew the animal, cover to nakedness of man with the skin, and thus the innocent animal died as a substitute where man should have died. And God instituted in the Old Testament that continuous worship wherein man, when he sinned, would bring a substitute, an animal, from his flock, bring it to the priest and there he would offer that substitute. The animal would die and man walked away with his sins covered. That went on for centuries -- millions and millions of sacrifices.

Then Paul tells us in the fullness of time God sent His Son, Jesus, and the reason why Jesus came was to become the supreme substitute for all mankind. When Christ died on that cross He took the sins of all mankind, past, present, and future, and the penalty was paid because He had declared that the man that sinned -- sins will die and so death was the judgment for our sin. But Jesus took that judgment for us as our substitute, and He died for us. That's why we call Him Savior. That's why we want Him to be the Lord of our lives, and we want to serve Him.

And thus on this great day of hope and resurrection and joy it's all made possible because prior to that empty tomb was a cruel cross and on that cross the penalty was paid so we could live forever. That's why we choose on this beautiful Easter morn to bow before Christ and worship Him and thank Him for dying so we could live. Amen. Let's bow together, shall we?

Lord Jesus, on this glorious day of hope and joy we bow in Your presence knowing that You paid the penalty to provide this joy to us. Because if You had not died we'd be most miserable there would have been no hope; we'd have died in our sins. But You died, Lord Jesus, for us, and these elements that we hold they are mysterious to us and yet You gave very clear identification of them. You took the bread and You said this is My body, and by that statement You were saying that in Your body You took the penalty of death as our substitute, and thus this little piece of bread bespeaks of Your death as our substitute. You died so we could live. We could be forgiven. We could have our sins cleansed and know Your peace and Your joy. You did that for us.

And then the cup that we hold -- it's really hard for us to understand how it's so important, but we do know this, that You in the early moments of man's existence You said that without the shedding of blood there would be no forgiveness of sins. That little animal in the garden shed its blood so that Adam and Eve could have covering for their sins. We understand that. To understand how Your precious blood, Lord Jesus, spilled at Calvary is sufficient to cleanse the sins of all mankind, that's amazing, but it's true. And You included us when You died there on the cross. He took our sin for us. And we bow before You, Lord Jesus, and we worship You as our Savior, and our Lord, and our God. Let's take the bread together, shall we? And then the cup.

God Almighty, as we bow in this beautiful time of worship in the peace and the comfort and the safety of the sanctuary, we're all knowledgeable of a world that's being torn with strife where homes and families are being ripped apart by death and where hatred reigns supreme. It's hard for us to know how to pray, dear God, but this is one prayer we do pray with all of our hearts: somehow into this tragic historical setting bring Your peace, O Prince of Peace. Thank You for hearing our prayer dear God. And everybody said, amen. Let's stand and greet one another, shall we?