Pressing On!

Gallery March 17, 2004 David

Pressing On!
March 17, 2004	Sermon by DRW	Passage Philippians 3.10-4.1

I really like Boba. It is a milk tea with balls of tapioca in it. I remember giving Coach Brent, Coach Jackie, and Mr. McGee an opportunity to taste it a few years ago. They refused to take a drink. Most places that sell Boba don’t sell it before ten in the morning. I wanted one to drink, stopped in, and ask Joe if he could make me one. I told him that I really wanted one. He told me it would take ten to fifteen minutes. That seemed like quite a bit of time. So, I told Joe to forget about it and the wait wasn’t worth it.

Why did I change my mind? I really wanted one and then when I found out what it would cost, I didn’t think it was worth it. How often we say we want something. And then we find out how much it’ll cost – in terms of time, or trouble, or money or whatever. And suddenly it doesn’t seem worth it.

There is a verse in Philippians 3.10 that is wonderful. It presents us with a goal in life that is magnificent. Paul tells us the thing he most wanted in life: “I want to know Christ.”

And when you think how much he’d lost for knowing Christ, that is remarkable. Just think what it had cost Paul to be a Christian. Think what he was in Philippians 3.5: he’d been a respected Pharisee. He’d studied at the best Jewish theological college; he was a rising star; he was well-respected.

Then think of him now. He’s in prison because the Jews didn’t like what he said about Jesus. His old friends had disowned him. He’s on trial for his life. He’s no longer respected or liked or popular or comfortable. And all because he’s a Christian. And still he says, v10: “I want to know Christ.”

For most of us, I don’t know what it costs us to know Jesus as Lord. What it costs at home – trying to be a witness to parents or family and friends; trying to bring friends to know the Lord, with no guarantees that they’ll ultimately want to. I don’t know what it costs at school – what issues we’ve had to take a stand on, what isolation we’ve experienced, how we may have been disadvantaged or discriminated against. I don’t know what the public struggle with peer-pressure has cost you, or the private struggle with temptation. I don’t know what knowing Christ has cost you emotionally, mentally, physically, socially.

But I do know that if you’re a Christian, it has cost you. And that either you have faced, or sometime will face, the question: “s it worth it?”

And Paul must have known that that question would be in the minds of the Philippian Christians. In Philippians 1.27-30, Paul tells us:

Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then… I will know that you stand firm in one Spirit, contending as one man for the faith of the gospel, without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you… For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him, since you are going through the same struggle you saw I had, and now hear that I still have.

They knew what it was to be poorly received as Christians; to be argued against for what they said and how they lived; to be frightened by how negative the reaction could be. They knew what it was to wobble in their faith. To ask, “Is it really worth it?” And to help them, Paul lets them in on what kept him going.

Let’s return to Philippians 3.10:

“I want to know Christ,” he says, “And the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.” [ie, I want to keep going whatever the cost – even if it is death.]

Well, what gets someone to that point of Christian maturity where they can say, ‘I want to know Christ, whatever it costs’? The answer lies in this morning’s passage: the person who says, “I want to know Christ whatever it costs,” is a person whose eyes are fixed on heaven, and on the cross.

1. Press on all the way to heaven (v12-16)

To people who were wobbling in their faith, Paul says, in verse 12-16:

“The way I keep going is this: I press on with my eyes fixed on heaven. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect. But I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead, I press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenwards in Christ Jesus.”

He’s just been telling us what his goal in life is. Verse 10: to know Christ personally; to experience God’s power so that he can serve Christ as he should, and be the person Christ wants him to be; to be willing to go all the way in obedience – no half-measures or half-heartedness.

That was Paul’s goal. But he wasn’t claiming to have achieved it: “NOT that I have already attained all this, or have already been made perfect” (v12); “Brothers, I do NOT consider myself YET to have taken hold of it” (v13) Paul knew that that would be true only beyond the grave. So he says, “I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.” So we can know Christ personally. But we can only know him imperfectly this side of heaven. We are going to experience what it is to be raised from the dead in a new resurrection body when we’ll be sin-free. But not yet, not this side of heaven.

And because that’s the way things are, Paul says “I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me” (v12), and “I press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenwards in Christ Jesus” (v14). [And by the way he doesn’t mean he has to earn his place in heaven. He’s just using an illustration to make the point that his eyes are on the finishing line.]

And our mistake as Christians is to forget the not yet. We forget that most of the benefits of knowing Christ come beyond this life. So we get dissatisfied, and feel like giving up, and ask, “Is it worth it?” And that’s the mistake Paul is out to correct.

So, for instance, we say (rightly) that the Christian life is a personal relationship with Jesus. But it’s a “long-distance” relationship with someone we can’t see. It’s indirect, praying and reading the Bible and living by trust. And Paul says, “Yes, but we haven’t got it all yet. One day we will be with him. We will see him. We won’t struggle with doubt any more. But that’s future, not yet.

Or take the struggle of witnessing for the Lord. The lack of interest or negative reactions to invitations keep us from telling people about Jesus. When heaven comes, this struggle will end, as well. But that’s future, not yet.

Or take the struggle of personal holiness. The sinful nature doesn’t get any less sinful as the Christian life goes on. The strength and frequency of many temptations remains the same. They’re quite a bit like the Energizer Bunny. They just keep coming and coming and coming. But, says Paul, we haven’t got it all yet. But we will. We will have resurrection bodies in which we are perfectly sin-free. No more letting the Lord down. No more shame-faced confession, over and over again. No more despairing with ourselves and giving up. That struggle will also end. But that’s also future, not yet.

Paul is saying: don’t calculate the” worthwhile-ness” of the Christian life purely on the present. No-one in their right minds would be a Christian purely on the strength of the difference it makes in the present. Because the difference it makes in the present is that it makes it harder. It gives you struggles and problems you didn’t have as a non-Christian. It’s like that quote about marriage: “A wife is a great help to a man in all the problems he’d never have had as a bachelor.” Well likewise, knowing Christ creates new problems in the here and now. And no-one would be a Christian purely on the difference it makes to the here and now. At least, that’s what Paul says elsewhere in 1 Corinthians 15. Where he says: if Christ wasn’t really raised from the dead, nor will we be. And if that’s the case, there’s no life after death; the here-and-now is all there is. And then he says this. “If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men” (1 Cor 15.19). But there is a heaven. It’s real. And Paul says in verses 13 and 14:

Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: forgetting what is behind, I press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenwards in Christ Jesus.

So he forgets what’s behind. He doesn’t dwell on what he’s lost. Position, popularity, freedom, comfort. Why dwell on the state of your prison cell when Jesus has said, “In my Father’s house are any rooms…I am going there to prepare a place for you” (John 14.1-3)? He doesn’t dwell on the cost because it looks very small against the certainty of heaven. And nor should we. The Lord never trivializes the cost. Jesus knows from experience how real it is. But he calls us to get it into perspective.

Nor does Paul dwell on his regrets. Remember verse 6: he had more than most to regret. He persecuted Christians to death in his non-Christian existence. He had blood on his hands. But he’s a forgiven man. And Paul knows that if God has forgiven the past, he can put it behind himself, too. And so can we.

Maybe some of us need to hear that, particularly. I can’t remember how many times I have had people who became Christians later in life or who were Christians but squandered away their youth come up to me and tell me with tears in their eyes that they wished they had gotten right with God sooner. “I wish I hadn’t wasted so much time,” they tell me. People need to hear verse 13: from now on, “One thing: forgetting what is behind, and straining towards what is ahead, press on…heavenwards’

Or maybe there’s a particular thing in our past which dogs our footsteps. Something on our consciences for which we find it hard to accept forgiveness. Well, regrets are right and proper. But they can keep us from the other right and proper thing, which is to believe God’s forgiveness of our past – our pre-Christian past, and our past since coming to Christ. “Forgetting what is behind, and straining towards what is ahead, I press on…heavenwards,” said Paul. And so should we.

That’s what kept Paul going. Don’t calculate things as if the here and now was all there is, he says to us. The best is yet to come, so press on all the way to heaven.

Then verse 15:

All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you.

Doesn’t that overturn our natural ideas of what makes a mature Christian? We tend to think of ourselves as “nearly there” in the Christian life; almost “arrived’; bordering on first class holiness. We grow very easily satisfied with ourselves. We lose the urgency we had in our early Christian days for holiness and serving the Lord more. Perhaps we even look back and think we were a bit foolish when we first became Christians. But that isn’t maturity, according to Paul. That’s stagnation.

And I guess we tend to think that older Christians or Christian leaders are “nearly there’. They’ve pretty much arrived, we tell ourselves, putting them up on a pedestal. I remember thinking that leaders and pastors don’t struggle with pride or lust or envy or temper anymore because they have grown so much in Christ. I then became a pastor and realized what dangerous nonsense those pedestals are. And how dangerous it is as a leader of any sort to let people put you on a pedestal.

What a contrast with verse 15. The mature people are the ones who know they haven’t arrived; who are dissatisfied with themselves; who are still pressing on in holiness; who are more concerned, not less, to find time to read the Bible and pray; who as they get to know the Lord better detect more within themselves, not less, that’s imperfect and needs God to change it. And Paul says, literally, “If somehow you think differently, God will reveal this to you.” In other words, if you think differently about maturity, you need God to change your mind. Because the really mature are the ones who know how far they still have to go.

Then verse 16:

Only, let us live up to what we’ve already attained.

We’re all at different stages in the Christian life. Some know God better than others. Some know better what to aim for than others. That’s not the point. I’m to live up to how well I know the Lord, and you’re to live up to how well you know him. What matters is not so much where we’ve got to, or what we know, but whether we’re moving forwards.

Press on all the way to heaven.

The second point I see in this passage:

2. Beware here-and-now religion (v17-19)

Paul knew that there were other religious voices in Philippi apart from his own. And he knew they’d be attractive to hard-pressed Christians for one simple reason: the religion they offered was much easier. So he has to say, verse 17:

Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you.

I take it that the pattern Paul gave is in Philippians 2.6-11. That passage is really the centrepiece of the letter – the jewel at the heart of Philippians. It’s the pattern of Jesus death and resurrection: costly obedience NOW, and glory LATER. That’s the pattern that Paul lived by. So he could rejoice in a prison cell facing death – because he knew the deal was: suffering now, glory later. Back in chapter 2, Timothy could happily work his socks off for the gospel (2.19-24) and Epaphroditus risk his life for it (2.25-30) – because they knew the deal was: suffering now, glory later. If the Lord Jesus had been obedient to the point of death, what right did they have to a more comfortable ride in the Christian life? “No servant is above his Master,” after all. (John 13.16, 15.20)

And Paul says (v17): follow those who live by that pattern: costly obedience now, because they’re sure of heaven to come. And he has to warn them against following others in verses 18 and 19:

For, as I have often told you before, and now say again with tears, there are many who live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction. Their “god” is their stomach and their “glory” is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things.

In other words, beware: there are plenty of religious people who live according to a different pattern – a pattern that makes for an easy life, here and now. He’s talking about people who had a religion, but a religion without the cross of Christ.

You see, the trouble with the cross is twofold. For one thing, it’s humbling. It tells us we’re not good enough for God, however good we think we are. It says our sin is so serious it deserves the judgment Jesus faced when he died for us. It says we need saving from judgment and can’t save ourselves. Very humbling. Which is why the message doesn’t go down well. The other thing is that the cross is demanding. If Jesus did that for me, how can I say to him, “I’ll follow you, but only up to this point’? If I follow a Lord who suffered for me, it will mean suffering for him.

So, if you want an easier religion, an easier message and an easier ride, just forget the cross.

And basically, these people in verses 18-19 did exactly that. They had a message about a God with whom you’d be OK if you did the right things. Nothing very humbling there. Nothing that ruffles human pride and says things like, “You’re a sinner and you need to be saved.”

We’re all natural suffering-avoiders. We’d love a more acceptable message that went down better. I remember being with a group of people and I was introduced as a pastor. Everything was great. People were having a great time. People were talking with me about Jesus. Everything was easy-going and jovial – until one guy said, “But you’re not saying that the Jews and Buddhists and Muslims are all wrong, are you?” That’s the crunch, isn’t it? Either I opt for a continuing easy, jovial time. Or I tell the truth. So I said, “Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying. According to the Christian message, they’re all wrong.” And the joviality disappeared. That wasn’t what he wanted to hear. The cross goes down like a lead balloon.

Isn’t that a choice we all have to make on a day-by-day basis. We are having a great time. Then someone says something that goes against what we believe. Our choice is to continue as if nothing happened or to stop and stand up for Jesus. Tough choices.

We’re all natural suffering-avoiders. So we’re all attracted to easy religion: religion that amounts to just a few “add-on’s, but doesn’t actually demand anything of us. I can recall junior high students coming to Christ at camp, all excited, went home and told their parents. And the parents told them, “That’s lovely, dear. I just hope you’re not going to go religious on us.” In other words, don’t take it too seriously. A little bit of Bible reading, yes. But no more. Nothing demanding. Nothing life-involving.

We’re all attracted to easy religion: either other religions, or false versions of Christianity. Versions of Christianity that say you don’t have to speak for Christ, because everyone’s way to God will get them there in the end. That “P.C.” version makes for a quiet life. Or versions of Christianity that say God affirms us as we are, so we don’t actually use words like sin or call on people to repent of sin. Or versions of Christianity that say that God is out to fulfil us completely in the here and now, or to bless us materially or physically without fail in the here and now.

All very easy. All totally false. And if -end of v19 – our minds are on earthly things, if we have no eternal perspective, if in practice we too only really believe in the here and now, we will buy in to them. We will miss out the cross, because that’s what makes for trouble in the here and now.

Which brings us to the last point:

3. Only firm conviction about heaven will make us stand firm in the present (3:20-4:1)

In a way, this just brings us back where we began, pressing on to heaven: Verse 20:

But our citizenship is in heaven [ie, that’s where we belong, we’re just temporary residents down here]. And we eagerly await a Saviour from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies to be like his glorious body.

Therefore, my brothers, you whom I love and long for, my joy and my crown, that is how you should stand firm in the Lord dear friends!” (3.20-4.1)

Back in 1:27, Paul’s main command to them was: stand firm. And after another two chapters he sums up, 4:1 “There you have it. That is how you should stand firm. That’s the secret to standing firm.’

And the secret is to be convinced about heaven. That’s what this whole passage has been about – from verse 12 down to 4:1. We’ll only be able to accept costly obedience now if we’re convinced about heaven. We’ll only press on in personal holiness if we’re convinced about heaven. We’ll only witness to Christ in a way that could lose us friends if we’re convinced about heaven. We’ll only stand up for what is right when all others opt for what is wrong if we’re convinced about heaven. We simply can’t and won’t live the Christian life on “here and now” reasons and incentives. It just doesn’t work.

What gets you through the costliness of knowing Christ? What keeps you going as a Christian? Paul says: the prospect of heaven. The Christian life isn’t just life here and now. This is just the waiting room, there is heaven to follow.

Martin Luther was once asked how he lived the Christian life the way he did. He said this: “I live as if Jesus died for me yesterday, rose today, and is coming to take me to heaven tomorrow.” And I said Paul would have said “Amen” to that. Do you?

Permissions: You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that you do not alter the wording in any way and do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction. For web posting, a link to this document on our website is preferred. Any exceptions to the above must be approved by Teach for God Ministries.

1 Corinthians, John, New Testament, Sermons

Communion-The Lord’s Table

Gallery March 7, 2004 David

Communion-The Lord’s Table
March 07, 2004	Sermon by DRW	Passage 1 Corinthians 11.23-26 and John 13

For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which 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.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes. (1 Corinthians 11:23-26)

If you were to attend all of the Good Friday and Easter Sunday services in all of the churches in this area and witness the celebration of our Savior’s sacrifice, you would probably be surprised at the variety of practices, beliefs, and names associated with the service.

You may attend one church where people gather in an informal meeting and practice an earnest exhortation and self-examination before they ate of the bread and drank of the cup. They may use a single loaf and single cup, or they may use small pieces of bread and small individual cups. The people may come forward to an altar where they receive the bread and the cup, or they may have it brought to them in the seats.

You may attend another church where you would witness a priest with attendants dressed in colorful vestments. The priest alone would drink from the chalice of wine and the people would receive only the little white wafers. After the priest utters the words of consecration, “This is My body” — hoc est corpus meum in Latin, the elements are believed to actually become the flesh and blood of Jesus.

No doubt you would find many other practices as well. And you would also find many names by which these services are designated. Some, from a Greek tradition would refer to it as a “mystery,” from the Greek word mysterion. Other Christians with a Latin background may call it the “mass.” This is taken from the words of dismissal (missa = mass) which are used by the priest. You may also hear it referred to as a “sacrament,” which comes from sacramentum, a Latin word meaning “pledge of allegiance” which itself is a translation of the Greek word mysterion. Congregations influenced by the Protestant Reformation of the 16th Century usually call the service the Lord’s Supper, or Lord’s Table. Some refer to it as the Eucharist, from the Greek eucharistia which means thanksgiving. Others refer to it as Communion, from the Greek koinonia which means fellowship or communion. As you can see, practices and beliefs vary.

Some attach an almost magical significance to the Lord’s Table. There are those who believe it is in itself a grace imparting act. Some churches teach that partaking in this meal is a literal receiving of Christ’s body and blood and guarantees salvation. To them, it is essential.

On the other hand, there are others who ascribe almost no significance to this memorial meal. While they rightly reject the mistaken positions of those churches which make the meal more than it is, they, in doing so to such an extreme, make it less than it is. To some, this memorial meal is not as significant as it should be.

From the Bible, we understand that the Lord’s Table is not a magical rite which itself imparts grace, but neither is it simply a nice ceremony filled with nostalgic memories. Rather, it is an ordinance of the church, which, if properly understood can bring us into the presence of God, help us deal with our sin, restore fellowship with God and one another, give testimony of the significance of Christ’s sacrificial death, and point to the Second Coming of our Lord.

I would like for us to look at Easter by looking at the Lord’s Table today. By way of reminder, the last meal that Jesus had with His disciples in the Upper Room had as part of it this ordinance we are looking at today. We will examine the meaning of communion through an understanding of the two elements we partake, the bread and the cup.

1. Christ’s Body Broken

In this memorial meal, we partake first of the bread. The bread is symbolic of Christ’s body broken for us.

When we behold the bread, we see a dual truth. The bread speaks to us both of Christ’s suffering and His sufficiency. He is both the Savior who suffered for us and who Himself is sufficient to meet our every need.

When you think of and hold the bread, see Christ’s suffering. This, of course, is a central message of this memorial meal. The Lord’s Table speaks to us of the death of Christ. It was a painful death. It was a death full of the suffering which paid for our sins.

[show clip of Passion?]

What does that suffering reveal?

a. For one thing, it reveals the gravity of sin.

God must consider sin to be so serious if Jesus had to die for God to forgive sin? The fact that Jesus had to die for our sins to be forgiven indicates that God hates sin. The psalmist says as much. In Psalm 5:5 we read, “Thou dost hate all who do iniquity.” The prophet Habakkuk says of God in Habakkuk 1:13, “Thine eyes are too pure to approve evil, and Thou canst not look on wickedness with favor.” Our God is a holy God. He is too pure to condone sin. Indeed, He hates sin because sin destroys His work. But more than that, sin is a moral plight which nothing less than the suffering of Christ could cure. The sacrifice of Christ speaks loudly of the gravity of our sin.

Have you thanked Him? Let’s take time to do that right now.

Father, thank you for Jesus. Thank You for forgiveness. Thank You for making us stand pure before You through Jesus. Bring to our minds, Father, those areas of our lives that we are consistently sinning in. We pray Your Holy Spirit show us these things. In Jesus name, Amen.

b. But the suffering of Christ also reveals the love of God.

We are all familiar with the passage in John 3:16 which reads, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” It was because of the love of God that Jesus suffered and died on the Cross. This is why He came. This is why He died. Charles Wesley expressed it this way:

Amazing love! How can it be

That Thou, my God shouldst die for me?

We sing of amazing grace — we should also sing of amazing love! When Jesus died on that Cross, it was the greatest expression of God’s love that could ever be given.

[see if the music set has a song that would fit here; if so, have them play it here instead of in the order given]

c. Finally, His suffering reveals the provision of God. It reveals that Christ’s death is sufficient for our every need.

Romans 8:32 says,

“He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?”

The God who gave Jesus for us will not withhold anything that we need.

When Jesus allowed His body to be broken, He was doing so for our sake. We are told in Isaiah 53:5,

“But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed.”

Because Christ’s body was broken for us, we can now experience the provision of God. Our needs can be met through the Lord Jesus. Paul tells us in Philippians 4.13:

I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.

So, today as you partake of this broken bread, understand that it symbolizes both the suffering and the sufficiency of Christ. Do you need His sufficiency? Do you need more than you can provide for yourself? Jesus is what you need. He called Himself “the Bread of Life.” He is the Living Bread which meets the deepest needs of our spiritual hunger. Feed upon Him. Feast upon His sufficiency. Don’t partake today if you do not need His sufficiency. But if you do, then in sweet surrender to Him, partake of this bread, and by faith receive the Living Bread.

If you have been baptized, we ask you to please come forward, take a portion of the bread, return to your seat. Before we partake of the bread, consider the areas of your life where you have sinned, failed God. Confess those before we partake. I am going to lead us in a prayer. When I am finished, I ask Ben to pray over the bread.

Father, we have asked Your Holy Spirit to show us those areas where we have sinned. We ask that You now forgive us of those sins and strengthen us not to do them again. Confess your sin before God today. Tell Him, that you have [tell Him your sin] and that you need Him to strengthen you to overcome it. Thank Him for forgiveness and restoration. Thank You for the work You have done in our lives and the work You are doing now. In Jesus name, Amen.

Ben prays

Let us partake in remembrance of Him.

2. Christ’s Blood Poured Out

The second element of the Lord’s Table of which we partake is the cup. The cup is filled with the fruit of the vine which symbolizes the blood of Christ. The blood itself is symbolic of life. So when we speak of Christ’s blood poured out, we are speaking of His life being poured out. And when His life was poured out, it was poured out as a payment for our sins.

We see the truth of this in Leviticus 17:11,

“For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood by reason of the life that makes atonement.”

A life had to be given, blood had to be shed for there to be forgiveness.

What we see in the Old Testament, we also see in the New. In Hebrews 9:22 we read,

“And according the Law, one may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”

This is why a sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins had to be made. In the Old Testament it was the sacrifice of an animal. But this was not sufficient. What was needed was not the sacrifice of a lamb, but the sacrifice of the Lamb of God.

Jesus is the Lamb of God! It was at the celebration of the feast of Passover when Jesus instituted this Lord’s Table. The Passover feast commemorated the time when God spared Israel from the Angel of Death during their captivity in Egypt. A lamb was slain and the blood was placed on the doorposts and lintel of each house. When the Angel of Death saw the blood, he passed over each house.

Jesus is called “Our Passover” in 1 Corinthians 5:7. Christ, the Lamb of God, has been sacrificed as our Passover. His blood was shed for us.

a. Christ’s blood poured out speaks of the forgiveness for sins.

Because of His shed blood, we can now be fully and freely forgiven by God. 1 Peter 1:18-19 says,

“. . . you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.”

b. Christ’s blood poured out speaks also of a New Covenant of grace.

The Old Covenant was not sufficient for salvation. To be saved under the Old Covenant, we had to keep the Law perfectly. We could not err in any one point. Our righteousness had to be absolutely flawless. But that was our problem, we could not keep the Law.

Now, under this New Covenant of grace, our salvation does not depend upon our works. Our salvation depends upon Another’s work. It depends upon the finished work of Jesus Christ. He did what we could not do. He died so that we would not have to die. He paid the penalty for our sins by His blood poured out on Calvary’s Cross. Now we can enter into a New Covenant with God, based not upon our own works, but based upon His grace offered to us because of the sacrifice of Jesus.

In this New Covenant, we now live for Christ by letting Christ live in us. It is what some have called “the exchanged life.” When we receive Jesus, He gives us His life in exchange for ours. Now we live on the basis of His life being lived in and through us. This is what salvation is all about.

We are saved through Christ’s blood poured out. We are forgiven through Christ’s blood poured out. We are kept through Christ’s blood poured out. So, when you partake of the cup today, understand that Christ’s blood poured out has purchased your salvation. If you do not need His salvation today, do not partake. Unless you are willing to trust Christ alone for your salvation, do not partake. But if you are, then receive the cup with gladness! When you receive the cup, by faith drink deeply of His Spirit as well. By an act of surrender, commit yourself fully to Christ. Confess your sins to Him. Receive His grace.

If you have been baptized, we ask you to please come forward, take a cup, return to your seat. Before we partake of the cup, thank Him for paying a debt He did not owe because we owed a debt we could not pay.

Tell Jesus out loud, “Thank You, Jesus!” Let’s say that together. “Thank You, Jesus!”

I ask Mike to pray over the cup.

Let’s tell Him again: “Thank You, Jesus!”

Let’s us partake of the cup.

The Lord’s Table is rich in meaning. It pictures for us the sacrificial death of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We are told to do it in remembrance of Christ. As we partake, we “proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.” The Lord’s Table is not only a look back, it is a look ahead. The same Lord who died to save us is coming again to receive us to Himself. Until He comes, let’s commit ourselves to live for Him.

Father, thank You for commanding us to set aside time to remember what Your Son, Jesus Christ, did for us on the cross. Thank You for freeing us from the power of sin, thank You for changing our lives, and thank You for what You have promised to those who love You. Amen.

Sermons

Monthly Archives: March 2004

Pressing On!

Communion-The Lord’s Table

Scriptural Truths for Today's World