Communion Sunday

I think there's 120 224 articles to it, and it's written over a hundred years ago. So some of the language is a bit archaic, but it comes out of our history in the Cumberland Presbyterian church. And at times it is very helpful to focus us in on what is it we're doing. And so I just want to take a few snippets from the confession of faith about the Lord's supper to kind of focus us as we get ready to take it. Uh, article one 10 says this from the confession of faith.

The Lord's supper was instituted by the Lord Christ. Okay ? It's not an invention of man. This is not something a denomination cooked up or some worship team put together. It was instituted. It was given to us by the Lord Jesus. It was done. So at the close of his last Passover supper at the last supper that he celebrated with his disciples and he did so as a perpetual, and this really is the word that's in the confession of faith, remembrance, sir or remembrance.

It's a remembrance perpetually of his passion and death on the cross. Jesus has given this to us the Lord's supper as a remembrance, as a reminder, what is a reminder? Do it is a visual, vivid recalling to our minds, a fresh his, his suffering and his sacrifice that he did to accomplish our salvation, our peace with God. We we know it. We come every Sunday.

If we know Christ as savior and Lord and yeah , we know it in the back of our mind what he did, but this brings it to us and a fresh way because it is so visual and tangible, tangible and tactile. And that is his creation. It is his gift to us. Luke records in Luke 22 that at the last supper, Jesus told us that's exactly what it was going to be when he said, do this in remembrance of me.

So Jesus gives this to you and he gives this to me as something to recall this to mine as a way of enabling us to draw closer to him. Each time we take from the Lord supper , it is an opportunity to draw into closer intimacy with the Lord Jesus as we reflect upon his sacrifice for our sins.

It's not only a remembrance, but the apostle Paul, when when he unpacks what the Lord supper is all about and how we're to observe it, he says in first Corinthians 11 whenever we eat this bread or we drink this cup, we proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. It's not only a remembrance, it's a proclamation. What is a proclamation? A proclamation is not just a statement that we know. We've memorized it. We can say it. It's a fact that we all know.

No , it's something we assert that we say that we firmly believe in, that we stake our lives upon. And so as we take the Lord's supper, what are we doing? We are proclaiming, we are proclaiming first of all that what Jesus did dying in our place on the cross, that is the grounds for our salvation. We are proclaiming that we are not relying on whether we think we are a good person. We are proclaiming that we are not relying on bond.

Maybe the thought that we've grown up in a Christian family or we've grown up going to church or anything else other than what Jesus Christ accomplished on the cross. So we declare as we take the Lord's supper, we declare that we are trusting only in the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ and only in his perfect sacrifice in our place.

And that is why if you can't make that proclamation, if that is really not the declaration of your heart and your mind, you are just a humbly past the elements by and you're not partake of them. You're not ready to partake of this because this is such a serious thing requiring us not only to remember but to proclaim. Article 10 goes on to say that the Lord supper recalls to our minds that Christ by his sacrifice of himself was made the propitiation for the sins of the whole world.

That's not a word that we commonly use propitiation, but it is a good biblical word that the apostle John writes in first. John four in this is love. He says, you want to know what real love is? The world has lots of messages of what love is, but you want to know what real love is. John says, it's this. It's not anything from us. It's not that we have loved God, it's this that he loved us and he sent his son Jesus Christ to be the propitiation for our sins. To be a covering.

To be an atonement means the satisfaction of the righteous demands of God removing us from the wrath that we deserved. Here's our natural state before Christ. This is what we remember and we recall even as we come to the table, we were born rebels. We were born wanting to live life our own way from, from the moment of conception on that's in us, passed down to us from Adam and Eve. We are born enemies of God. Paul says to us in Ephesians, and so we are under God's wrath.

We are deserving of being judged for every way that we depart from his will. We are. We are deserving of his wrath , for all the ways that we rebel against him and we seek to live life our own way apart from him, but Christ dealt with God's Raph as we trust in what Christ is done at the cross, he living the perfectly righteous life and then sacrificing himself and our place.

God looked at what Christ did as a covering for all of our unrighteousness, all of God's wrath, all of God's justice, all of God's holiness is fully satisfied in what Jesus Christ did on the cross, going to the cross, having lived a perfectly righteous life, dying on the cross as a substitutionary sacrifice in our place, and so if we put our faith in what Christ has done, in other words, if we rely only in what he has done and not in anything about us or our merit or our past or our heritage,

God looks as our sins as covered, as forgotten, as put away from us as far as the East is from the West, and we recall all that as we come to the table. One more article and then we'll move on to the table. Article 112 in this sacrament that this is one of two sacraments that Jesus has given to the church, the sacrament of baptism and the sacrament of the Lord's supper. Again, they're not human inventions. They're not something that's been created by denominations or the church.

Jesus has intentionally given us these two sacraments and in this sacrament of the Lord's supper, we have visibly set before us symbols of Christ's passion. The the bread and the cup are our only symbols. If you've come from other church backgrounds, maybe a Roman Catholic background, you've been taught probably that the bread and the cup, the bread and the juice become Christ . Actual body. Know the , they are only symbols as part of helping us to recall and to remember.

What are they symbols of. Well, first of all, there is the symbol of the bread and Jesus at the last supper tells us about this, teaches us this. Luke 22 verse 19 Luke records that Jesus took the bread and when he had given thanks, he broke it and he gave it to his disciples saying, this is my body which has given for you the bread. Even as we take it at this morning.

Even as we reflect on it before we take it, the bread symbolizes, it recalls to our minds what he did in his body, what he did in his flesh, what he did in his humanity for awhile . He was fully God, fully divine. He took on full humanity and that meant that as he walked that long road to the cross, all those 30 some years of his earthly existence, he experienced everything that that we experienced. He experienced humiliation. He experienced physical suffering.

He experienced what we will never have to experience. He experienced the wrath of God poured out upon him for all my sin and your sin. He experienced God, the father turning his face away, separating himself from him. And we recall all that as we think of his body with that symbol of the bread , his body, which was given for us.

Secondly, there is the symbol of the cup and Jesus goes on and Luke 22 verse 20 to say in the same way he also took the cup after supper and he said, this cup is the new covenant established by my blood. It is shed for you. The blood, the cup, the juice reminds us that we are now living if we've trusted in Christ as savior and Lord under a new covenant. The old covenant is God saying, keep my laws and if you depart from my laws and any way you are, you will be judged.

But the new covenant, the new covenant is that realized old Testament promise that we hear over and over again in the prophets that promise that we can have a relationship with God that is not based on that law keeping.

We can have a relationship with God where he pours out his favor and his love upon us and he welcomes us into his eternal kingdom where we become as children, where we become his friend, friend of God, where we become citizens of his kingdom and the blood of Christ is signifying his sacrificial death seals that covenant. The fact that Jesus Christ died, signified by his blood seals the covenant meaning that God will never change that covenant.

God will never break that promise and that covenant that he has with us and the cup that we partake of today is the symbol of that seal. As we take that cup, we recall this new arrangement that we have with God through Christ. This, this now, this promise that that God will love us forever, that we will be under his grace forever, that we will know him in internety , that we are his children, that we are citizens of his kingdom. All of that symbolized by that cup bringing us back to Christ.

Blood. Article one 12 goes on to say, so in mine of all this, we should not approach the Holy communion without do self-examination and yes, it goes on to say reverence and humility and gratitude, but I , I want to focus for a moment on this idea of self examination that really is what we talked about. If you were here last Sunday, how is it that we prepare to even come to the Lord's table? How is it that we allow the Holy spirit to examine our lives?

Paul instructs us first Corinthians 1128 that is why you should examine yourself before eating the bread and drinking the cup. Some of you, if you were here last week, you've been doing that hopefully all through the week, but even if you weren't this morning, there's an opportunity for self-examination and here are some questions that you might wrestle through even as you examine yourself as the elements are being passed out this morning. Here's the first question.

Am I trusting only in Christ substitutionary sacrifice for my salvation? That is, that is the crucial point. If we're not trusting for trusting in something else, again, we should not partake of this, so that's ourself. An examination begins, but assuming you are and assuming you know that Christ and what he's done on the cross is the sole provision for your salvation. Here's another question of self-examination.

Are there areas of ongoing sin in my life that I'm not repenting from, that I'm not confessing, that I really am not surrendering to the Lord. It's not whether there's any sin in my life. The flesh still struggles with the spirit and in our lives and we wrestle with sin. It's, it's really a question of are we living a life of repentance and we're the Holy spirit convicts us of areas of sin in our life? Are we holding them back from, from the Lord? Are we are surrendering 'em ?

Are we confessing them? Are we seeking to walk and repentance even if we continue to stumble? And so maybe your time of self examination this morning is allowing the Holy spirit to put his finger on an area of your life that even this morning, you need to surrender. You need to give to the Lord. You need to repent from. There's an opportunity to do that even as you prepare to take the elements this morning.

And then the third question that you might ask yourself as you examine yourself this morning, this goes back to last week's message. Am I recognizing the body? That theme that that Paul speaks, that we together are the body of Christ, that that the Lord's supper is not something that we take individually. We're not lone Rangers as Christians, that God has brought us providential Lee together as brothers and sisters making up the body of Christ here at central church.

And so to recognize the body is to recognize that anything that divides me that divides you from other brothers and sisters in the body, it's something that we need to deal with is something that we need to take steps to address.

So even as you're preparing your heart this morning, if you've not already done so as the Holy spirit convicts you of a relationship or, or, or hard feelings that you have towards someone, or if an offense that you're holding on to this self-examination directs you to deal with that before you come to the Lord's table to make it right. Recognizing that we together are the body that we together take of the Lord's supper. So Jesus gives us the Lord's supper.

He gives it to us as an intimate time of communion. That's why we call it communion. We commune with him in a way that , that maybe we don't ordinarily do. So as we, as we fix on these vivid symbols, it is an intimate time of communion that he gives us to us to remember. I love the lines of the fairly modern him by Keith and Kristyn Getty known as the communion song. Behold the lamb who bears our sins away slain for us.

And we remember the promise made that all who come to faith come in faith, find forgiveness at the cross. So we share in this bread of life and we drink of his sacrifice as a sign of our bonds of peace around the table of the King. Let's come to the table now, man, would you come up and wait upon us and pass out the elements as the elements are being passed, use that time to examine yourself. Hold on to the elements. Once you receive them, we will partake of them together.

Recognizing the body menu may begin to distribute the elements.

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Reflect on the fact that the father turned his face away, that the father caused all his wrath for my sin and your sin to be poured out upon him at the cross. Reflect on that. Thank him for that just for a moment.

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We we in gratefulness and in worship, Lord, we take this as our proclamation, that this, this is what our faith, what our salvation is founded upon. Jesus said, this is my body which is given for you. Do this and remembrance of me. If you take the cup , and again, just a moment of reflection, a moment for you to personally feel intimately with the Lord. As you take this, you proclaim that you are part of a new covenant.

That when the Lord looks upon you, he does not see your law keeping or your law breaking. He sees what Christ has done for you and because of that, he has formed a new relationship with you. Our relationship or his love poured out upon you, his grace poured out out upon you can never be broken. This is a permanent, unbroken covenant, all because of what Jesus Christ did and pouring out his life for you and me at the cross, signifying by his blood.

Just take a moment and reflect on that and thank him for that and worship him for that.

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This is a symbol, Lord, that we now can know you not as as a God who is angry at us, a God who is raffle, a God who is ready to judge us, but we can know you as father. We know you as your children. We know you as friend. We are friends of God. We know you as citizens of your kingdom. We know you as ones who will live for you ever and enjoy you face to face in Aternity . Lord Jesus, thank you for making this possible. A Holy spirit.

Thank you for, for unfolding this and enlightening this in our hearts. We take this cup is our proclamation that we are new covenant people because of Jesus Christ. Jesus said, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. Let me close with just two other stances from that. Getty him the communion song.

So with thankfulness and faith, we rise to respond and to remember to remember our call to follow in the steps of Christ as his body here on earth. As we share in his suffering, we proclaim Christ will come again and will join in the feast of heaven around the table of the King. Amen.