Communion Message
(No more barriers)
January 5, 2003
Pastor Donald Sheley

For I 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 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.

Paul writes something very interesting to the Christians at Ephesus, he says: Now in Christ Jesus you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father.

There's an interesting story that's found in the writings of Rita Snowden in her stories of war. She says that in France some soldiers with their sergeant brought the body of a dead comrade to a French cemetery to have him buried. The priest told them gently that he was bound to ask if their comrade had been baptized as a Catholic believer. And they said, we don't know. The priest said that he was very sorry, but in that case he could not permit burial in his churchyard. So the soldiers took their comrade sadly and buried him just outside the fence as close to the church as possible.

The next day they came back to see the grave, if all was right, and to their astonishment they couldn't find the grave. Search has the might they could find no trace of the freshly dug soil. And as they were about to leave in bewilderment, quietly the priest walked up. He told them that his heart had been troubled all night and he couldn't sleep because of his refusal to allow their dead comrade to be buried in the churchyard. So after a restless night, early in the morning he had risen from his bed and with his own hands had moved the fence now to include the grave of the soldier buried who had died for France.

That's what love can do. The rules and the regulations put up the fence, but loved moved it. Jesus removed the fences between man and man because He abolished all religion founded on rules and regulations, and He brought to men a religion whose foundation is love.

We had a guest last Sunday he came up to me after one of the services and he introduced himself. He was a pastor from Pennsylvania. And he said, Pastor, I just wanted to come and comment. He said, prior to me being a minister, for many of my younger years, I was part of a church where there were tremendous restrictions on the communion table, and he said, that always bothered me. When I came today I felt, he said, that there were no fences there were no restrictions, that even when you pass the communion you said if you're here searching for Jesus this table is open to you. And he said, I wanted to tell you thank you for surrounding your table with love and acceptance.

Many of us come from religious backgrounds where many restrictions have been placed upon the communion. We had one of our members traveling throughout the Southland, what is known as the Bible Belt, during last summer and they attended a church and when the communion was passed out the question was asked, are you members of our church? They said, no, we're not. Then they said you can't have communion.

The table has always down through time suffered from restrictions, fences, theological fences that have been built around it. We chose many, many years ago to say, no, the table is representative of the love of Christ; what He did for us at Calvary, and we're not going to build any barriers whatever. When you come to this church you may not have all the religious answers, you may be still searching, but you're here because your heart is open. The table is open to you, because as you partake may on your knees you find a relationship with Jesus Christ that brings great peace and joy to your heart. That's what our prayer is.

I've often been asked, and was asked even recently by way of the registration form, do you ever have altar services in your church? That is, do you ever have times for decision at the end of a service? Sometimes. I wrote back and said, yes, we have an altar service at every service, because when these communion elements are passed down the aisles you have to make a decision where you stand with God. It's decision time. You can let them go by, you can reject them, and we'll respect you for that.

And many of you who come, because you come from a background of restrictions, you have a sense of guilt that if you do you'll be doing wrong. No, when you come here the cross is wide open, the fences are down, the barriers have been abolished, Christ came to bring peace, peace in our heart. Amen?

Let's all kneel together, shall we, as we partake today. Lord Jesus, what a beautiful morning, this first Sunday of this new year, to be in Your house and to be on our knees. We have worshiped You in the singing of some of the very beautiful choruses and hymns of our faith. And now Lord Jesus, with reverence, with love, with adoration, we bow before You and we thank you for going to that cross to die for us, to die for me.

And I hold these elements with deep respect today because Jesus You gave them great significance; You said the bread bespeaks of Your body. And we understand that Your body became the instrument of sacrifice. You who knew no sin became sin for us, so that we might be made the righteousness of God. And thus, being our substitute and paying the penalty for our transgressions, in Your body You took our sin, my sin, and forever solved the dilemma of sin.

The cup, mysterious at best for all of us, but we do understand the implications, because early in the Bible You said that without the shedding of blood there would be no remission or covering for sin. Now to understand why You chose that procedure, we'll not really know till we understand all in eternity, but we do understand that throughout the Scriptures sacrifice has been a part of man's search for sin's covering. And thus Lord Jesus, this cup bespeaks of that event 2000 years ago where You went to that cross and You shed Your precious blood so that the sins of all mankind could be cleansed, including mine.

So these two simple, but yet profoundly beautiful elements, the bread and the cup, bespeak the very heart of our Christian faith. We are sinners; we need a savior; You came Lord Jesus to save us, and to do so, You went to that cross to pay the penalty for our transgressions, our sins. And because You paid it, we now have the privilege of enjoying eternal life now and forever more. Thank you Jesus. Let's take the bread together, shall we? And then the cup.

To say thank you dear Jesus seems so trite, but I don't know how else to express my love. And we as a congregation feel a diminished capacity when our hearts try to tell You how much we appreciate You, but we say it with all of our hearts: we love You Jesus. Now we sometimes don't act like it, and for that we ask You to forgive us, but we really do love You. Thank you for being patient and for loving us. In Jesus' name, amen. Stand and greet your friends and neighbors, would you do that?