Communion Message
(A Place of Bondage)
May 4, 2003
Pastor Leighton Sheley

Reading from the familiar passage of 1 Corinthians chapter 11: For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night He was betrayed, took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, "This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me." In the same way, after supper He took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of Me." For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes. Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself. This is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep. But if we judged ourselves, we would not come under judgment. When we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned with the world.

On the night He was betrayed. We refer to that night, that event, as the Last Supper. But the disciples that gathered together around Jesus that evening weren't thinking of it as the Last Supper. They were thinking of it as the Passover.

Passover is initiated and recorded for us in the book of Exodus. You see, God's chosen people had been in the land of slavery and death, the land of Egypt under the thumb and the heal of pharaoh. They had cried out to God for salvation. God was providing that salvation. That night people gathered together, they were prepared to travel, and they had their last supper in Egypt.

There are a lot of things that we can learn from the Old Testament. In fact, some of the scholars have observed that the Old Testament are really word pictures for us to understand the New.

In the Old Testament God's chosen people were slaves. Before our salvation we were slaves in bondage to sin and sin's desires on our mortal flesh. In the Old Testament God's chosen people were under the authority of a slave master who wanted to destroy them. Before our salvation we were under a slave master who sought our destruction as well.

God through miraculous means provided release from captivity for His chosen people. God through miraculous means of Jesus Christ has provided release from our captivity. That night as the people gathered together, I'm sure that much of the conversation was around this promised land, as they described it, full of milk and honey, which was probably the closest thing they could think of to describing something heavenly.

We also look forward to our promised land and we call it heaven, and it's a place that the beauty is so great it's impossible to describe in human words. There's also another similarity, and that is that there was a journey involved to get to that promised land. And often those chosen people where rebellious. We are also on a journey until God brings us to our eternal reward in heaven. And very often along our journey we also are rebellious.

Thanks be to God for His holy word which says, if we confess our sins He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. I invite you, if you are physically able, to join with me now as we kneel in the presence of our Lord and Savior. The Scriptures say at times like these we should examine our self.

Lord where would we be if it wasn't for what You have done? We would still be in a place of bondage and slavery to sin and its kingdom of death. But you have provided for us salvation through Jesus Christ, and you have spiritually made us alive so that we could see Your salvation and our sin, our need. And Lord we are so thankful for Your faithfulness and Your goodness and Your mercy and Your grace towards us. And we recognize, Lord, that we are wholly undeserving of this. And Lord You didn't stop with redeeming our lives, You adopted us into Your eternal family, made us joint heirs with Jesus. Truly Lord, You are awesome, and our words cannot begin to describe Your greatness and Your goodness.

We thank you Lord for the privilege of worshiping and praising You this day. We have done so with all of our hearts, Lord, desiring to bring You pleasure. Thank you Lord for inhabiting our praise. And Lord in these moments of reflection we have been reminded once again that we are a sinful people. That each and every day, each and every one of us think or say or do something that is displeasing to You. Lord we don't want to carry the shame or the guilt, and so we ask You to forgive us and cleanse us. Lord as we partake of these elements we do so in remembrance of You; the price that has been paid, the promise that has been kept. Let's partake of the bread and also the cup.

Thank you Lord for saving us out of the land of bondage.