Communion Message
Placing the Table
May 2, 2004
Pastor Donald Sheley

The passage that we turn to so frequently for this moment are the instructions that Paul gave to the Corinthian church when he writes: 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 us here at Church of the Highlands the communion is a very, very precious...it's a very personal time. It's the time when we as individuals deal with our own spiritual standing with God. We've had our journey this week. Some of us have enjoyed some success, others of us have sensed failure and maybe some of us have cried some tears of regret. But here we are in God's presence and He invites us to come and resolve those spiritual matters that are between us and our God.

I say a communion time for us is very, very important, very sacred. My heart was grieved last night when one within our congregation said that they had visited another church some distance from ours, and the communion table had been removed. They took the communion table and put it off to the side, and right in the center where the communion table was they had a pile of drums. But that wasn't all -- on the communion table they had placed an old Delco battery. I think if I would've been there I would have felt like Jesus taking the whip and I would have removed that Delco battery and I would put the communion table back where it belongs.

When you study the history of the Christian Church, the communion table was always in the middle of the chancel because it was the heart in the center of worship. And when we remove the cross and its sacredness and its meaning, and we set aside the importance of the cross, we've done a terrible, terrible thing to our Christian faith. And I find this to be a very precious moment with you. And I want you just to bow your heads while our pastor plays a hymn on the organ, and I want you to deal with your sin in seeking God's forgiveness before we partake of the communion, will you do that now?

Lord Jesus, we stand in Your presence. We've sinned. There's not a one of us here today who would claim any degree of perfection. Our human weaknesses, our frailties, our failures, our proneness to stubbornness and even rebellion against Your divine commandments; that's us dear God. We've wandered. Right now we seek Your forgiveness Lord Jesus. These emblems that we hold tell us that that is available to us because they speak of the cross, the bread Your our precious body which was the sacrifice, and the cup which represents Your precious blood which is the cleansing.

And You told us that if we would come, if we would confess our sins, You would be faithful and just to forgive us our sins that You would cleanse us from all unrighteousness. For that cleansing we ask, and for that promise we claim, in Jesus' name. Let's take the bread...and then the cup. And with all of our heart, Lord Jesus, we say thank you for being our Savior, and everybody said, amen.