Communion Message
Appreciation of the Mystery
May 22, 2005
Pastor Donald Sheley

Paul gives to the Corinthian church instructions as to how the communion service is to be conducted, and this is what he writes: 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 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.

Paul recorded for us many of his prayers, and for the Ephesian Christians this was his prayer, and this is my prayer at communion: For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height-- to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

I'm going to ask you to remain standing today. We normally bow, but I would just like for us to stand reverently in God's presence for a moment before we take communion. Would you do that?

Lord Jesus we come to this very precious time in our Christian fellowship, for we're doing what You've asked us to do, and that's to proclaimed Your death as frequently as possible during our journey here on this earth. And each Sunday morning that we bring the communion elements to our lips, we're proclaiming again, we're telling by visual activity or action that we as an individual believe that You, Lord Jesus, 2000 years ago died on that cross to pay the penalty for our sins, and that penalty was death, for the wages of sin is death. And You paid that penalty for us so that we could have life eternal.

And thus as we share these communion elements today, we're professing and proclaiming that You are the Lord of our lives, You are our Savior, and You are our King. None of us have lived this week a perfect life. All of us, including myself, have failed You. We've sinned. We're human beings. We have our weaknesses. We sometimes deliberately and purposely walk off the pathway of obedience and righteousness, and for this we are asking You to forgive us dear Christ.

And the wonderful thing about this prayer, when we ask You to forgive us, we hold in our hands the promise that You've already heard our prayer. Because this bread represents Your body that was given in sacrifice as the substitute in death for us, and this cup bespeaks of Your precious blood even though we don't understand the depth of its mystery. But Your Bible tells us that without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness, there is no remission. So You shed Your precious blood, Lord Jesus, so that we could be forgiven and cleansed, and for this we are eternally grateful. And so we witness our allegiance to You. We're Your disciples and we love You, dear Christ, and we witness this by sharing communion now.

Let's take the bread together...and then the cup.

May, Lord Jesus, we never take the blessings and the benefits that come to us as Christians through our salvation, may it never be taken for granted. May it be always that we think of the fact that You've forgiven us and You've made us a citizen of heaven. You've cleansed us from all of our sin. We are Your children. You're our heavenly Father. May the thrill of that never leave us. I ask in Jesus' name, amen. Let's greet one another, shall we?