Communion Message
A Sense of Emptiness
March 28, 2004
Pastor Donald Sheley

The passage of scripture that we turn to so frequently at our communion service is found in 1 Corinthians 11:23. For I have 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 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. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep.

I'm aware that in a congregation our size and throughout the multiple services there are people who come and search for God. They're looking for truth. They want something to fill that vacancy that's deep with inside them that they cannot identify, so they come to the house God. I would like to take just the next few moments and explain the way of salvation in a very clear way so that anyone here who has been searching for that peace within the heart, that knowledge of Jesus Christ, and that moment when His truth and His life becomes a part of us. I'm praying that will happen today in you life.

When God created us, Adam and Eve in the garden, He created us for a purpose and that purpose was to have fellowship with Him. He created us for friendship. But friends are friends by choice and not by demand or coercion. And in order for us to choose to be God's friend He placed within us the capacity to choose, and that choice would then determined as we chose either to love Him, except Him, or reject Him. How He brought that moment of choice about is He placed in the garden a tree. He said to Adam and Eve now if you partake of that tree you are then in disobedience to Me and you'll die, but if you do not partake of that tree you shall live.

The result was, as you know, man used his ability to choose to choose against God's instructions, and the result was he sinned and in disobedience he played a tremendous price for it. You remember when the Bible tells us that God would come down in the cool of the evening and He would talk with them? And because God is a spirit it must have been that God had placed within man His spirit so that as God came into the garden there could be that divine communion that would go on and God could talk to His creatures and they could have fellowship.

But when man had sinned, when God came for His evening visit: Adam, where are you? I'm out here hiding. Why are you hiding? I partook of the tree. And as a result, he admits that he's naked and he must hide. God at that moment could have, if He wanted to, He could have wiped out His creation because those that sin shall die. So God had the right because man had disobeyed, God could have acted immediately.

But He did something very beautifully; something we'll never understand until we see Him face to face. He went out in the garden, He slew an animal, and He took the skins of that animal to cover the nakedness of man. That animal had done nothing, but the animal became the substitute to die in the place of man who had sinned. Then He took Adam and Eve and took them to the edge of the garden, and it was a solemn moment I think in human history because He told them they must leave. They could never return. He had angels there to guard with swords. But I've often felt, and I believe this with all my heart, He did something even more profound than that. I believe that He reached into man and He took out that divine spirit which man had before that gave him the capacity to communion and fellowship with his Creator. God took His spirit out as Adam and Eve were commanded to leave the garden. And that has left within the human being that sense of emptiness, a voidness.

We search down every avenue of life to find something that fills, and for a moment it may, but when the night is long and deep in dark we come to the realization that whatever we found was only temporary. We still have that gnawing emptiness inside of us.

God did something else. Remember, He instituted a form of worship whereby man would offer a sacrifice, and in the offering of that sacrifice, that substitute, man would be reinstated with God. So throughout all of the Old Testament you have that continual sacrificial system going on, and it was portraying that truth that sin brings death, but substitute will take the place. So the animal became the substitute for man's sin, and he died for man.

And you remember then in the Old Testament times when they brought their sacrifice to the altar they stood there and placed their hand on that sacrifice as if to transmit their sins to the substitute, and the substitute died, and man walked away from the altar forgiven. That was God's way of instituting forgiveness and a reestablishment of fellowship with Him in the Old Testament.

The Bible tells us that in the fullness of time God sent His Son, born of a woman, under the law, and Jesus is born into this world and He comes as our Savior, as our substitute. Now the reason why we sing these great hymns about redemption is because there on that cross Christ became the final sacrifice for man. He paid the penalty for the sins of all mankind; that's why we call Him Savior of the world.

We can no longer bring animals as sacrifice for sins because there's one sacrifice that has been made, and that's the sacrifice of Jesus Christ 2000 years ago. And the way that we now have fellowship with God is we put our trust and our faith, and we accept what Jesus Christ did for us 2000 years ago on that cross, and we open our hearts and we say: Jesus, I believe that on that cross 2000 years ago You became the substitute for my sins. You died so that I might have life. Now when we do that, that's called the moment of new birth and something very wonderful happens. When we open our hearts and say, Jesus, I put my trust and my faith in You, what He does, in a divine act, He places again His spirit within us that was taken in the fall. And now that His spirit lives within us we've been born anew; we've been born again.

His spiritual life within us then causes us to understand the Scriptures, we sense His presence, and through prayer and through the reading of Scriptures there is that fellowship and communion that we enjoy as Christians. And the reason we have communion service every Lord's Day is to tell again the story of the cross so that we never forget that it was there on that cross 2000 years ago the price was paid for our redemption. And all I must do is put my trust in Jesus Christ, and when I do, His Holy Spirit comes to live within us, to live within me, and when He does there's new life because now I have been reinstated to that position for which God really created me -- and that's to be His friend and to have fellowship with Him. And that's what Christianity is all about.

Now I'd like for you to bow your heads. You say, Pastor, today I believe now I understand what I've been searching for. I've been coming to church and I've had this sense of emptiness and I didn't know how to fill it. I've tried many ways, but this morning I want to open my heart to Jesus, and I want to receive by faith Jesus Christ as my Savior. And I want this to be the morning where I begin that wonderful fellowship with my Creator God through faith in Christ.

You pray along with me -- Dear Jesus, I open my heart today to You. I want You to be my Savior and I want You to be my Lord. I come to You a sinner and I ask for Your forgiveness, and I ask for Your cleansing, and I pray that by Your Holy Spirit You will come live within my heart today. Today I received You as my Savior. I pray, Lord Jesus, that at this moment Your wonderful salvation becomes very real to those who opened their hearts. May this be the day of a new life as You make them a new creation in You and You come to live within their hearts. May this be a glorious day I pray, in Jesus' name.

I'm going to ask you now to kneel with me as we take communion together. Lord Jesus we bow in Your presence today. We understand that You became the substitute, the divine substitute, the sacrifice that takes away the sins of the world, and You've completed and ended all the sacrifices of the past. You are the supreme sacrifice for all mankind. Today Lord Jesus, these beautiful emblems that we hold in our hands remind us very clearly that the bread bespeaks of Your body, and the cup bespeaks of Your precious blood that was spilt a Calvary. And in that glorious act of love the price was paid, redemption granted, and forgiveness made possible. Thank you dear Jesus. Let's take the bread together, and then the cup.

May to all of us, Lord Jesus, the glorious fact of our salvation never lose its wonder. May we never take our salvation for granted, but may we always love You, serve You, and worship You as our Savior and our God. We pray this in Jesus' name...Amen.