Lets Pray…
My brothers and I love to get together and whether it is for holidays, or birthdays, or just regular visits.
My wife usually spends those hours rolling her eyes or sharing knowing sympathetic glances with others in the room (this is especially true for Monica and my older brother’s wife).
They roll there eyes and they impart mutual sympathy because when my brothers and I get together, we become fairly juvenile, we are silly, we throw dumb jokes and awful, silly, puns.
We have a lot of fun, and regardless of how old we get, we still seem to gravitate to a distinct level of silliness whenever we get together.
One other common phenomenon, between my older brother and I is an amazing ability, some might call it a gift, in that we can have entire conversations based on references.
We reference old movies, old songs, old experiences; we even reference old conversations that we had decades (that’s right) decades ago.
And each time, we laugh. And this isn’t the laugh that you give to be nice.
It is genuine laughter, sometimes laughing to the point that beverages spray out of our noses.
We’re nerds.
This weekend Easter will be celebrated, and with that, many families will be getting together.
If your family is reuniting keep track of your conversations.
I’m not saying to bring a white board and put a notch for every reference, or familiar joke, or reminisce of times gone by.
But, just keep track of the times that the “good old times” come up as a springboard into conversation.
And keep a mental tally of how many “do you remember when’s” are brought up as fillers.
I think you’ll see that my brothers and I aren’t the only ones that like to relive the past.
You probably do it too.
God knew we were this way. He built us this way.
He knew that we were people who like to look back and remember our past.
We find comfort in it. We find strength in it.
It’s true, even if we have a troubled past.
When we have been through that trouble with someone, we can both look back with a sense of solidarity, a bond of similar struggles.
That’s a reason why the Lord always had the Israelites building altars.
Please turn in your Bibles tonight to Joshua 4: 1-9 for an example:
If you are not familiar with the Old Testament, Joshua was the new leader of the people.
Moses had been used as God’s man to lead the Israelites out of slavery, out of Egypt and into the Promised Land.
And, long story short, the people made bad choice after bad choice once they were free.
They stopped trusting God, they fell away from Him and into their sin and He allowed them to deal with the consequences of those choices.
It went badly.
So, except for a couple of people, that first generation were dead and buried before they actually got to the Promised Land.
So Joshua’s got this crew and God tells them to cross the Jordan.
He is demonstrating His might and strength similar to the way he helped the slaves, the older generation, cross the Red sea, some forty years earlier.
But, knowing that the people had a way of forgetting who their Lord was, He gave this command to Joshua to help the people retain their focus.
Here we go…
1 When the whole nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the LORD said to Joshua, 2 "Choose twelve men from among the people, one from each tribe, 3 and tell them to take up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan from right where the priests stood and to carry them (the stones) over with you and put them down at the place where you stay tonight."
4 So Joshua called together the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe, 5 and said to them, "Go over before the ark of the LORD your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, 6 to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, 'What do these stones mean?' 7 tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever."
8 So the Israelites did as Joshua commanded them. They took twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, as the LORD had told Joshua; and they carried them over with them to their camp, where they put them down. 9 Joshua set up the twelve stones that had been in the middle of the Jordan at the spot where the priests who carried the ark of the covenant had stood. And they are there to this day.
In other words when the brothers got together back then, instead of quoting lines from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off for the 700th time like my brothers and I do,
Instead of harkening back to the days of misspent youth like we do,
God wanted His people to reminisce about the day He stopped a mighty river so they could cross over into their promised future.
That’s the Old Testament. You might be asking what’s that got to do with me. I’m not an Israelite, says you. I’m a Christian.
Well we have another great example and this one is from our Savior, Jesus Christ.
Let’s turn to Luke 22: 14-20
At this point Jesus is making it clear that His time in this particular phase of His ministry is nearly over.
All the old prophesies about His suffering are about to come true. He is going to be taken captive, beaten, mocked, spit on and then killed on the cross.
With that in mind He tells them, after all of that after I am gone, don’t forget about who I am, what I’ve taught, and what I’ve done.
Let’s read…
14 When the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table. 15 And he said to them, "I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. 16 For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God."
17 After taking the cup, he gave thanks and said, "Take this and divide it among you. 18 For I tell you I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes."
19 And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me."
20In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.
In other words, Jesus just gave them a reference point to look back on.
For the rest of their lives
— When things were going well, they could break the bread TOGETHER and drink from the cup TOGETHER and they could do it as a reminder of God’s grace and blessings.
— When things got tough, and they DID GET TOUGH, they could break the bread TOGETHER and drink from the cup TOGETHER and remember that God has provided a way to ultimate healing, to salvation in Jesus. A reminder that in every struggle, in every trial, Jesus is sufficient to get us through.
But here’s the problem.
A problem that was true for the early church, it’s also a true problem for my brothers and I and it’s probably true for you to some extent in family and maybe at church.
Let’s go back to my brothers and I.
We don’t even usually have to discuss all of what happened back in the day.
Sometimes — Most times — we just jump right to the punch line of an old joke because we’ve all heard that joke so many times that it’s funny without all of the set-up.
And even when a painful subject comes up, we don’t discuss what’s on our minds, what’s in our hearts, we don’t share that sort of intimacy.
No, we gloss over it. We share that knowing glance as if it is enough and we move on to better things, back to the fun right. We keep everything surface and manageable.
A lot of the times that is the same thing we do, I do, with God.
He calls us to remember Him when we take communion.
To remember the sacrifice that He made for us.
To come to Him with hearts open, honest, ready and prepared to meet with the Holy God of the Universe that came down to save us from ourselves, from our sin.
And what do we do?
We turn it into a shorthand ritual, and take away the intimacy He would have with us.
Is it just me? Have you ever caught yourself just going through the motions?
We turn this beautiful reminder into religious meaninglessness,
We go through the motions and we think it is the action that makes the relationship and not the heart.
So this is how it looks in our families:
Another thanksgiving goes by and we don’t share any of our struggles with our family, just platitudes.
So the phone call ends and we hang up after having the same silly conversation we’ve had for half our lifetimes.
And in church we just follow the choreography that we’ve always followed.
What’s say we stop all of that tonight.
And don’t blame the church you went to if you’ve shared this same problem with me.
At the end of the day, the church does what it can to create a true fellowship of followship, a true and straight path to the Father,
But we have to prepare ourselves to sit at the table.
That’s not to say we have to prepare our outward appearance.
Where we dress up nice and we plaster a smile on our face regardless of the very real struggles we might be having.
No. We prepare our hearts by coming to the table honest and humble and thirsting for the righteousness of Christ. And then we will be filled.
Tonight we will share communion, we will break the bread in remembrance of Christ’s body — given for us. Given for me and for you.
We will take from the cup and we will drink it in remembrance of His blood spilled out to cover us to cleanse us of all our unrighteousness.
This sacrament that we share is for believers.
Jesus shared it with His disciples.
And if you have decided to follow Him, no matter if you come from a Baptist background, Methodist, Catholic, or even no denominational affiliation, you are welcome if you trust Jesus as your Lord and your Savior.
If you don’t know where you stand, let me make the relationship as clear as I can for you while still being complete.
We come to acknowledge our sin, that is, that we have wronged God, turned away from God.
We come to a realization that our sin cuts us off from God and we earned death and Hell for that sin.
We come to believe that we are unable to make up for our sin, we cannot do enough “good things’ to clean ourselves up.
Then the good news, the Gospel.
We come to believe that Jesus did not just come to teach, but to save us from our sins.
We come to trust in the death of Jesus as being the point in history when Jesus took all of the sins before and after that point in History and He absorbed God’s wrath for those sins, our sins, so that we would not have to face the wrath.
That includes my sins, and your sins,
Your brother’s sins and your sister’s sins,
The sins of your co-workers, the sins of your boss; they were all placed upon Jesus and hung on Him as He hung on the cross.
We have come to believe those sins, our sins, where conquered in His death. They don’t own us anymore.
We believe that that Father God resurrected Jesus and by that Jesus also conquered death for us. We need not fear anything ever again.
We believe that God loved us so much that He gave His only son to save us, and it is our Faith alone in Jesus Christ alone that has brought us to the table; that has brought us into a right relationship — an intimate relationship with our Creator God.
He has done the work, we must only trust in it and walk in that trust. And you can start right now.
For those of you who are not sure and you are not to the point where you can trust him yet, we are glad you are here. We welcome you to this church and pray that you will keep coming back and we pray that you would some day very soon be saved through faith by the Grace of God.
If you are not a follower of Jesus, this bread and the juice in the cup — this celebration is not for you.
We aren’t trying to embarrass you. And we’re not trying to manipulate you; we are just following the commands given to us in Scriptures.
1 Corinthians 11:27-29 tells us:
27 Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. 28 A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. 29 For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself.
We believe the Bible and we love you and we don’t want to lead you into any more guilt in your life.
But again, we welcome you here, always.
We would encourage you to keep coming back and hearing God’s word proclaimed.
It is His word that will change your life and direct you to salvation.
If you are a Christ follower, we invite you to join us now for the Lord’s Supper.
We will have each of you come up once I tell you. Then break off a piece of the bread and take a cup and take them to your seat.
Don’t eat or drink until I give that instruction, we will all partake together at one time.
(Distribute the sacraments)
Remember brothers and sisters, we are told in 1 Corinthians 11: 28
A man ought to examine himself (herself) before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup.
As we pray, do that — examine your heart.
Examine it for malice or unforgiveness.
Examine it for pride or self-pity.
Whatever might be hindering you from walking in the fullness of the Spirit of God; whatever is keeping you from holding your focus on Jesus as ultimate in your life; turn it over to Jesus, put it at the cross before you take of the bread and the cup.
Let’s pray…
Let’s partake with thanksgiving.
You are dismissed.
