Randall Caselman
Bella Vista Church of Christ
December 9, 2001 AM
This Do In Remembrance of Me
Reading - 1 Corinthians 11.17-30
Our Sunday morning studies in December are about God’s love... mercy ... and grace. We are examining and recalling what great things God has done for us through Jesus’ coming into our world... For God so loved the world that He gave His ONLY BEGOTTEN SON.
This morning we will be remembering God’s love as we gather around the Lord's Table. We will be doing things a little bit differently... The sermon will be first... Then the communion... The song service... The invitation... And our offering to the Lord.
Let’s pray together... Father... We thank you for all your blessings.. But this morning we are especially thankful for the spiritual blessing we have in Jesus. We thank you for His coming... His life... Death... Resurrection... And promised second coming. As we remember the sacrifice You and He made on our behalf... Please help us to be in the proper mind... Accept our worship and thanksgiving to You for loving us... In Jesus name... Amen.
He flew fighter planes in the Vietnam. Now he is a commercial pilot.. Has been for thirty years. I watched him as he walked around the plane... Checking the tires... The landing gear.. The wing flaps. He looked the whole plane over carefully... Inspecting places which I had no idea what he was looking for. Later... I saw him slip into the captain’s seat and pick up a book... Preflight check list. I looked at my watch... It was 45 minutes before I was scheduled to board. Why would a man who had flown so many planes for so many years need to go over such simple things? Because... Regardless of how many flight hours one may have... Regardless of how many different airplanes he has flown... Even the most experienced pilots forget. And... Once you are at 30,000 feet it is too late to think... Oh!!... I wish I had of checked the hydraulic pressure before we got off the ground.
Did you notice it... In our reading this morning... Paul is giving us a checklist for proper worship to God... Within the communion service. Look at verses 28 and 29... A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many among you are weak and sick... and some have fallen asleep.
You see.... It is possible to go through this service and... Yet not eat the Lord's Supper. That’s what the Corinthian church was doing... They had so changed... abused... and compromised... the Communion Service that it was unrecognizable... Paul says in verse 20 that... It is not the Lord's Supper that you are taking. They were going through the motions... Yet were not worshiping God by remembering His Son. They were filling their stomachs... But not their soul... And Paul says... This is wrong.
So... Paul gives them a checklist... A list of things they should do to be mindful of each week... As they gather around the Lord's table. I would like to call it... A pre-communion checklist. You see... It doesn’t matter if we have come to the Lord's Table for one year or fifty years... One time or a thousand times... Each of us is in equal need of proper preparation for this event. This check list is neither exclusive or extensive... But it is important.
Let’s examine this list as we prepare to worship God in this communion service.
First... We need to remember God’s forgiveness and deliverance.
The Lord's Supper had it beginning in the upper room... On the night of Jesus’ betrayal. Jesus and His Apostles were celebrating Passover. So... The Lord's Supper had it beginning with Jesus in the upper room... But its roots went much further than that... We must go back another 1800 years to a warm balmy night in Egypt when God demonstrated His love for Israel by passing over their houses... When death visited Egypt. And then delivering them from Egyptian bondage and slavery.
Listen as I read Matthew’s narrative... On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the disciples came to Jesus and asked, "Where do you want us to make preparations for you to eat the Passover? He replied, Go into the city to a certain man and tell him, The Teacher says: My appointed time is near. I am going to celebrate the Passover with my disciples at your house. So the disciples did as Jesus had directed them and prepared the Passover... While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, Take and eat; this is my body. Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it anew with you in my Father's kingdom.
You see... The Lord's Supper... This communion service is about Passover and deliverance... Our deliverance from sin through the blood of Jesus... The Lamb of God. The Lord's Supper is our personal sign... of forgiveness & DELIVERANCE... Made possible through the coming of Jesus... and His death on the cross for our sins.
So... As we partake of the Communion this morning... Let us remember God’s faithfulness. Let us remember that the same God who delivered the Israelites from death...bondage...and slavery... Has delivered us from sin and death. He has passed over our sin... In total forgiveness. And He has given us eternal life.
This communion service is a weekly memorial of this PASSING OVER & DELIVERANCE.
Praise God for His faithfulness!!... RIGHT?
Secondly... The Lord's Supper is about remembering Jesus’ suffering & death. This is My body broken for you... This is My blood... Do this in remembrance of Me. To remember is to recall... To remember is to return to the cross through the eye of faith.
You see... Our God has always been a memorial minded God. He knew we would have a tendency to forget... To become apathetic... and take things for granted... AND WE DO... don’t we? So... He gave us the rainbow as a reminder. He gave Israel Passover... Pentecost... and the Festival of Tabernacles as annual reminders of what He had done on their behalf. To us... He gives us a weekly reminder through this Communion Service
Remember... Remember... His BODY... His BLOOD... His SACRIFICE. Feel His pain... From the scourging... The crown of thorns... The nails... The cold creeping death.
- Participate in His sorrow...
- Hear the shouts of mockery...
- Experience the sickening ordeal of the crowd spitting on Him...
- Grieve over His loss of friendship and companionship...
- Feel His heart break over those he came to serve and save.
- Mourn His separation from God...
- Share in His humanity...
- Understand His Deity...
Indeed... He is God in the flesh dying a sacrificial death on the cross for each of us. Try... Just try to comprehend it.
Let’s allow Mark to help us from his narrative:
Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified. The soldiers led Jesus away into the palace (that is, the Praetorium) and called together the whole company of soldiers. They put a purple robe on him, then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on him. And they began to call out to him, "Hail, king of the Jews!" Again and again they struck him on the head with a staff and spat on him. Falling on their knees, they paid homage to him. And when they had mocked him, they took off the purple robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him out to crucify him... It was the third hour when they crucified him... Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, "So! You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, come down from the cross and save yourself!" In the same way the chief priests and the teachers of the law mocked him among themselves. "He saved others," they said, "but he can't save himself! Let this Christ, this King of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe." Those crucified with him also heaped insults on him. At the sixth hour darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" --Which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"... And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, heard his cry and saw how he died, he said, "Surely this man was the Son of God!"
May God help us to never forget... Be apathetic... Or take for granted...The suffering of our Savior... May we always remember His Body and His Blood.
Something else God wants us to do is Celebrate the New Covenant. This cup is the new covenant in My blood... This do in remembrance of Me. Jesus is announcing that He was entering into a new relationship with those who would respond to His coming. Church... We are no longer under the Law... But under grace. Jesus came to fulfill the Law... Nailing it to the cross. He came to save us by GRACE... NOT BY LAW KEEPING... AND GOOD WORKS.
Listen to the benefits of this New Covenant from Ephesians two... Romans six... and first John one...
Because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions--it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God... Not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.... Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's family... God’s household... What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning, so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life... For If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus purifies us from all sin. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins purifying us from all unrighteousness.
You see... It was with His blood that God signed a New Covenant with us... If we will respond to His death... burial... and resurrection. Church... Not only does His blood save us in the act of baptism... It keeps us saved as we walk in the light with Him. May God help us remember this each and every Lord's day as we partake of this Supper.
The Lord's Supper is also a fellowship event. It is a fellowship with Jesus... and a fellowship with one another. Consider these scriptures which affirm this fact...
Around the table that night Jesus said... I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now
on until that day when I drink it anew with you in my Father's kingdom.
From 1 Corinthians 10.16-17... Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks
a participation... (The Greek is Koinonia)... This is a fellowship in the blood of Christ? And
is not the bread that we break a participation... a Fellowship... In the body of Christ? Because
there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.
Our reading this morning speaks of this Supper being observed when the church comes together... It is a fellowship event. Acts 20.7 says... On the first day of the week we came together to break bread... And Paul spoke to the people until midnight.
Church... Is there any doubt that we are to examine ourselves...
- First to determine our relationship with our God...
- And secondly to assess our relationship with one another.
There are those who believe, and rightly so, that not discerning the Lord's body... May very well be talking... Not just about his physical body... But also his spiritual body... The church.
Folk... It is wrong... It is wrong... To come to this table with ugly feelings for a brother... and or sister in Christ. In fact... If we come to this service will ill feeling toward a brother... We are not worshipping God in this Supper... We, like the Corinthians, are just going through the motions. Look at the context of this eleventh chapter of First Corinthians... The subject under discussion is the right thoughts... The correct behavior toward one another as we partake of this supper. Let’s not try to rewrite the text... but simply... humbly submit to it.
No wonder Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount... If you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.
One more... The Lord's Supper is a proclamation. You do proclaim His death until He comes.
The Lord's Supper is...
- Not only a reminder of Him who died for us...
- Nor a COMMUNION with Him who lives forevermore...
But there is to be an anticipation of His return to take us home. We eat this Supper... Like Israel of long ago... Looking forward to... and longing for His coming.
You see this supper... Serves to...
- Assure us of our salvation...
- And give us a renewed hope of heaven.
It is not just His birth... death... and resurrection we celebrate... But His return.
We long for the day when First Thessalonians 4... and Revelation 19 will become a reality in a very literal way...
Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. According to the Lord's own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words... And I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and makes war. His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. Out of his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. "He will rule them with an iron scepter." He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.
The Lord's Supper serves as a weekly reminder that one day... Jesus will do what He said He would do in John 14... He will come get us... So that where he is there we may be also.
Good news... Good news indeed!!
Well... This is our spiritual check list...
Let’s use it right now as we participate in the Lord's Supper together.
