Communion Message
(What it means to be a Christian)
July 20, 2003
Pastor Donald Sheley

For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to 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.

I'd like for you all to be seated because I'd like to talk to you just for a moment today. And I want to talk to you about the most important thing in the world and that's your personal relationship with Jesus Christ. We as Christians believe that when God says that He created this world and He created Adam and Eve we believe that that is true. We believe that God is the Divine Creator, and He created Adam and Eve. And you might ask the question, why? Because He wanted friendship, and thus He created man to be His friend. In fact, He so wanted that that He created man with the capacity to communicate with deity. And the Bible says that in the cool of the evening He would come down and He would talk with them. That friendship was beautiful. But friendship is only friendship when it's a decision made by a person to be a friend. You can't force somebody to be your friend. It's impossible.

God wanted friendship based upon a decision that man would make to be His friend, and then the friendship would be complete. And so God placed within the human breast a marvelous capacity that we have and that's the ability to make choices. It's a tremendous thing. And what He did, He wanted man to use that ability to choose, to choose to be His friend. So this is what He did. He went into the garden and He chose an object of choice, which was a tree, and He said to Adam and Eve, now our friendship, and I'll put these in my words, our friendship will remain forever as long as you don't touch that tree. But you partake of that tree and you do it in disobedience to our friendship and you'll die. That will end the friendship.

So man has that ability to choose because God wanted friendship by choice. You and I know what happened. Adam and Eve chose against that friendship, partook of the tree, and all of a sudden something happened. They realized they were naked. What was the difference between before the fall and after the act of the disobedience? And I can only conclude by Scripture that God had clothed man with His glory. There must have been an aura of glory around man so he was not aware of his humanness, because he had divine friendship.

And here's what happened, as soon as man sinned the glory is gone and there they stand in all their humanness; they are naked. What do they do? Run and hide. They want to get covering for their bodies. And the Bible says that when God came down He said, Adam, where are you? I'm out here hiding. Why are you hiding? Because I'm naked. Well who told you that you were naked. I ate of that tree, and because I ate of that tree now I know my humanness.

Now ladies and gentlemen, if God wanted to He could have struck Adam and Eve dead that moment, because He said if you do that you'll die. But He didn't do that. Here is where God commences to demonstrate His glory and His mercy and His love for His created ones. He goes into the garden and He finds a substitute that will die for Adam and Eve, and He gets that animal and slays that animal. That animal had done nothing. It was Adam and Eve that had sinned and transgressed God. And thus that animal becomes a substitute and dies, and God takes the skins from that animal and clothes Adam and Eve, and then He has a discussion with them. He said because you disobeyed to the women you'll bear children in pain. To the man He said you'll earn your living by the sweat of your brow, and then He said now you'll have to leave the garden.

He took them to the edge of the garden, the Bible says, and at the edge of the garden at the gate of Eden He placed two cherubim and flaming swords so that man would never get back in. But at that moment, ladies and gentlemen, I think He did something that we've all felt the pain of every since. He reached into man and whatever that divine capacity, which was His Spirit which made it possible for man to communicate with deity, He took His Spirit and took it out of man. And now you have this tremendous vacuum inside that all mankind lives with. It's that vacuum that says there's more to life than this. Is this all I was born for? And they live on with that sense of vacuum and they will try every area of life and every pathway of sin to try to fill up that vacuum, but after the night is over and the tears have been wiped, and the pain has been crushed, you wake up in the morning to realize the hole is still there.

And the great old Catholic theologian Augustine said it's a God-shaped vacuum that only God can fill. And mankind since the fall has lived with that sense of incompleteness because the very reason for our being, friendship with God, that capacity was taken from us. Now God knew that man would wrestle with sin and He set up a form of worship that you'll find throughout all of the Old Testament, the idea of a substitute. So when you sinned you went to your flock and you found the animal that was the most perfect in the flock. It had to be without blemish. You took that animal and you brought it to the priest and he laid it on the altar, and then you took your hand and you placed your hand on that animal as if to transfer your sin to your substitute, because now that animal is going to die instead of you because God had laid down at a divine law. The man that sins is going to die.

The wages of sin is death, but to transfer that sentence of death to a substitute took place throughout all the Old Testament. That's why page after page and chapter after chapter throughout the Old Testament there was constant giving a sacrifices, sacrifices. In fact about one occasion old Josephus the great historian tells us that on one occasion in Jerusalem they sacrificed 277,000 lambs for the sins of the people. Those lambs died as a substitute to cover man's transgression.

God said I'm going to put an end to this. I'm going to end all the sacrifices forever. I'm going to send My Son and He will become the full and the final sacrifice and His altar will be a cross, and there on that cross My Son will bear the sins as the substitute for all mankind. And when Jesus died on that cross 2000 years ago He took my sin, your sin, past, present, and future, the sins of all mankind, and they were piled on Christ. All sins. The sins of the worst men in history of Hitler and Stalin, you name them, of me, and of you. And on that cross Christ became the divine substitute that died for our sins. That's why we call Him the Savior of the world. That's why we call Him our Redeemer.

Now here's what happens. When you open your heart you come to that place where you realize you don't want to live in sin any longer. You don't want its shame, you don't want its pain, you don't want its guilt, you don't want its destiny. You want to be forgiven. What you do is we say a prayer, Jesus, I'm a sinner and You died on that cross 2000 years ago for me and for all the world. I can't save myself. I have no ability to forgive my sins, but You died to forgive me. And You died in my stead so I could live eternally. I put my trust in You dear Jesus as my Savior and as my God, and I thank you for being my eternal substitute.

Now here's what happens folks. This is the amazing thing about conversion. When we open our hearts like that and invite Jesus to come in, His divine Spirit that left man at the fall He now puts back within us, and the Bible says that now we become the dwelling place of God, the temple of the Holy Spirit. And when His Spirit comes we call it the new birth. When it lives within us all of a sudden the purpose for which we were created once again is made whole, because His divine Spirit within us gives us the capacity and the joy of having fellowship with God. And spiritual things become realities. The act of worshiping, as we did today, becomes something so very precious because His Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are His children and we're worshiping our wonderful God.

And I'll tell you when that moment happens and His Spirit returns, that's the moment we become new creations in Christ Jesus. Old things pass away, and all things become new. And that's what it means to become a Christian. And God gives us the ability to choose. You can choose to live for Jesus, or you can choose to reject Him. That's your choice. You can live without Him and you can die without Him. And that's hell. Or you can live for Him, and by His Spirit living within you you'll enjoy life to its fullest, life abundant here, and life eternal forever.

And so today I'd like for you to know that here's your opportunity to make a choice. You understand now what happens, that Christ died in your stead, and He wants to be your Savior, but He'll only be your Savior by your invitation. And if this is the moment you'd like to give your life to Christ I want to give you that opportunity. With every head bowed and every eye closed, no one looking, this is a very sacred moment. In your heart and in your mind you're saying, Pastor, now I understand a little bit more of what it means to be as believer in Christ and to be a Christian. And I want to open my heart, as best I know how, and I want to invite Jesus today by His holy Spirit to come and live within my being. I want this day to be the day when I commence my Christian faith in a relationship with Christ, and I want to enjoy that fellowship with Him as His follower. Now every eye is closed and I want you to raise your hand as if you're raising it to Jesus and you're saying, Jesus, my heart's open and I invite You to come now and live by Your Spirit within me. I want this moment to be the moment of salvation. So many, so many.

Now we're all going to say a prayer and you that raised your hand, all the congregation is going to say it together, we're going to join with you. Let's begin: Jesus, I'm a sinner. And You're the Savior. I can't save myself, but You can. I can't forgive myself, and my sin, but You're the one who forgives. You died to be my Savior. As best as I know how Jesus, I open my heart and by life and I invite You by Your precious Spirit to come live inside me. I want to be a Christian. I want to believe in You Lord Jesus with all of my heart, and I want You to fill my heart with Your presence. I'm sorry for my sin, and I repent, and I want to turn from my sin. I want to live for You dear Jesus. So please help me. Here's my life. It's Yours. Thank you Jesus.

Let's kneel together now in communion. Lord Jesus, today has been a very precious moment because we've tried to understand in the simplest way what it means to trust in You as our Savior and to be a Christian. And many today, Lord Jesus, have opened their hearts and their lives to You, and I pray that through the work of Your Holy Spirit make Yourself very real to these folks today. Do something eternally wonderful in their hearts now.

These elements that we partake of at each communion remind us in the bread of You being the substitute because You said this bread represents Your body, and it was in Your body that You went to that cross and died for us. And even though we don't understand the profound implications, yet we hold in our hands this cup that represents Your precious blood. And Your word tells us that without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness, so Jesus You shed Your blood for us so that we could have forgiveness. That's what these elements tell us today. So it's with worship and adoration and appreciation we partake. Let's take the bread, and then the cup. May this moment never be forgotten as many today, Lord Jesus, are welcomed into Your kingdom. It's in Your name we pray, and everybody said, amen. Let's stand and greet one another.