Well, God sent us a text message and it’s a big one. And because of that, we can know that he he cares about us. He loves us. So, be sure to thank God for the Bible every day. Get into the word of God because nothing matters more than knowing and loving God.

That happens through reading the Bible. All right. And we are going to be in the Bible. 1 Corinthians chap 11. If you’re using one of the Bibles that belongs to the church, I think it’s around page 798.

1 Corinthians chapter 11. We have been studying what it means to be the body of Christ. What it means to be the hands and feet, the eye, the ear, all of that. And what it looks like to support one another. We’ve looked at the fact that God has called us out of sin and darkness.

He’s adopted us into the family. We’re now children of God through faith in Jesus Christ. We’re given a new identity, a new purpose to life. And we’ve also seen how he has sent us back into the world to be lights in the world, to to represent his grace, to share the message with others and to build one another up in love. And so it’s fitting that as we are here on communion Sunday taking the Lord’s supper together as a body, as the church, that we would get into a passage that talks about what does this mean?

Why do we do this? Why have churches for 2,000 years celebrated the Lord’s supper? What is it all about? 1 Corinthians 11 is going to teach us. You know, eating and drinking are are things that are very common to all of us.

It it’s not something anybody is unfamiliar with. Anybody you talk to knows about this. And so I think it makes sense that Jesus chose a meal as the practice that we would all do to represent our unity together as a church. Something everybody could participate in. You don’t have to have a certain degree of knowledge.

You don’t have to you know be an expert in any field. It’s eating and drinking. Eating bread, drinking a cup. That’s a symbol of unity in itself that God would do that. Paul says, “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”

In other words, even in the mundane things, the things that we might take for granted that we do every day, eating and drinking, do it all for the glory of God. It’s all for him. You exist for him. So the meal is a perfect context to symbolize that unity. Jesus gave us two what we call ordinances or sacred practices.

Some people call them sacraments. Baptism and the Lord’s supper. Now, baptism is the the initiation, right? Or it’s when you come to Christ, you give your life to Christ for the first time. You you get baptized.

You go into the waters because that symbolizes your unity with Christ by faith. And after that, you then are taking the Lord’s supper as an ongoing practice. This is a renewal commitment. It’s part of our new covenant standing. The covenant that God made with his people that we would be free of all sin and guilt.

And we needed that reminder. Jesus knew we would need that reminder that our guilt has been taken away. That’s why we celebrate the Lord’s supper. He said to do this in remembrance of me. So, we’re going to be taking the Lord’s supper in a bit here as believers in Jesus.

But here’s the big idea this morning. The Lord’s Supper is the meal where believers celebrate the Lord’s death and anticipate his coming kingdom. See, in the Lord’s supper, we’re not just looking back. We’re looking forward. We’re looking back at what Christ has already done for us at the cross.

His finished work is complete, but we’re looking forward to what he will bring about in his future kingdom. So, if you would please stand out of reverence for God’s word. 1 Corinthians chapter 11. Stand if you’re able. Verse 17 of chapter 11.

And this is what Paul the Apostle says to the Corinthian church and to all of us. 1 Corinthians 11:17. But in the following instructions, I do not commend you because when you come together, it is not for the better, but for the worse. For in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear there are divisions among you. And I believe it in part, for there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized.

When you come together, it is not the Lord’s supper that you eat. For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk. What do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing?

What shall I say to you? Shall I commend you in this? No, I will not. For I receive from the Lord what I also delivered to you that the Lord Jesus on the night when 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.” In the same way also he took the cup. After supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it 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.

Whoever therefore eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself then, [snorts] and so eat the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged.

But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world. So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. If anyone is hungry, let him eat at home. So that when you come together, it will not be for judgment. About the other things, I will give directions when I come.

Thank you. You may be seated. So the first question I want us to think about here is why the Lord’s supper? Why a meal? Why the supper?

I want you to try on a outsider perspective for a moment. Think of yourself as an outsider to the church. Okay? 2,000 years ago, Jesus of Nazareth, an itinerant preacher and and traveling Jewish rabbi, goes all over Galilee proclaiming the arrival of God’s kingdom on earth. Now, that was a very bold claim and me many people knew it because at that time there already was a kingdom on earth.

The Roman Empire, they were already ruling and so many people could have interpreted his language to say, you know, I’m going to start a revolution. I’m going to revolt. We’re gonna start a revolt against those Roman overseers. Jesus’s bold claim about himself in the kingdom led to his arrest and trial. He was found guilty of blasphemy before his fellow Jews.

And then in a Roman court, he was accused of treason because he claimed to be a king. And then the Roman soldiers, they they took Jesus and they spat on him. They beat him. They scourged him with a whip. They mocked him, fell down in mock adoration.

Oh, hail, King of the Jews, if that’s who you are. Then they pressed a crown of razor sharp thorns on his head. And then they put a wooden cross beam on his back, his wounded [snorts] back, and forced him to carry it all the way up to this place called Skull Hill. And then when he was there, they stripped him of all his clothing and they they laid him down on these cross beams that were now fastened together and they laid out his arms and his legs and they pounded iron nails into his hands and his feet. And then after he was pinned to the cross, they raised him up for all Jerusalem to see so they could laugh at him and mock him and accuse him of being a fool.

At that time, black clouds rolled in. It was midday when the sun should be brightest brightest and yet it was darkest at that time. A sign of God’s judgment being poured out. This was a sad day for his followers. They were crushed.

This was Jesus, our leader, our Messiah. He was supposed to save us. And now look at him dying. But what had Jesus done except show mercy to those who were sick and suffering and sinful? He had only shown love.

And yet here is what they did to him. He’s hanging from a Roman cross, bleeding and gasping for air. And then when the time finally came, he let out this cry of agony. And the the temple curtain tore in half from top to bottom. And then Jesus himself, his chin slumped to his chest and his body went limp.

And everybody watching knew for certain Jesus of Nazareth is dead. He’s dead. Now imagine this as an outsider looking in. How strange would it be to then see his closest followers and friends begin celebrating his death with a meal where they break his bread and they say, “This represents our Lord’s broken body.” And this cup here that we’re going to drink from together, this represents his blood.

Can you imagine how strange, how bizarre this would look to an outsider? When Abraham Lincoln died, none of his family or friends started a a meal to commemorate his death. When JFK was killed, none of his friends began a a ritual to to celebrate his d his death or his dying. Why? Well, because when you lose someone you love, you don’t focus so much on their death.

You focus on their life. Look, look at the life they live. That’s what we want to focus on, not the death. Unless unless there was something of immense importance that happened in that death and unless there was a recognition that Jesus though he really did die and he was buried and he was in that tomb he really did rise from the dead because as followers of Jesus we don’t follow a dead Jesus we follow a living Jesus but we remember his death in a special way and this is unique this isn’t something that other religions or other followers followers of other groups do. They don’t gather around and say, “Let’s celebrate our leader death.”

That’s not something they do. But we do as followers of Jesus. We understand that although he did conquer death by rising from the dead, Jesus’s death itself was a victory. He was winning even when it looked like he was losing. He was conquering even though it looked like he had been conquered.

He was winning his victory over sin, the devil, and hell. And Jesus took our sin and guilt upon himself. Not only did he suffer tremendous physical torture that would have been bad enough, what was far worse, infinitely worse, we can’t even imagine this, he suffered the judgment that our sins deserved in our place. I want to take the outsers’s perspective for a moment to see that nothing about the Lord’s supper makes sense unless Jesus accomplished salvation for us through his death. See, a lot of times people will want to focus more on the life of Jesus.

And I understand the importance of focusing on his life and his teachings. But notice notice that when Jesus said, “This is something I want you to practice over and over and over.” It was all about his death. See, Jesus himself was saying, “Get it in the crosshairs. Make this your focus.

Don’t ever forget what I did for you. I died.” And that is everything. You’re nothing. You don’t understand what it means to be my follower if you don’t understand my death.

He made it all about his death. Look with me at 1 Corinthians 11. And here we see that the reason why we we look to that awful bloody cross and we we celebrate it is because we also see God’s love is being poured out on sinners like us. 1 Corinthians 11, notice that phrase come together. See it in five places in this passage here.

Five times Paul is highlighting this is something you’re to do when you come together as a church. And so in your notes, a meal is the perfect context for God’s family to come together. We aren’t meant to do life alone. Christianity is not a lone ranger project. It’s not something where you practice it in isolation often away from everybody.

No, it’s something that Jesus himself wanted us to do together, to learn from another one another, to to sharpen each other, to grow together, pray for one another. And he wanted us to think of ourselves as a family. That’s why Paul and all the others in the New Testament say, “Brothers and sisters.” He’s saying, ‘You guys are my family. I’m writing to you because I’m your brother.

You know, I love seeing all the ladies come together on Wednesday mornings for Bible study. That’s such an awesome example of the church, people coming together to pray for one another, encourage one another. They study the Bible together. They sing together. And it’s all to help each other follow Jesus.

The focus isn’t just on one single person. It’s on the body as a whole. I love to see guys like Rick, Joe, and Dan make those tarpon pads, these weatherproof blankets that they have put together for folks who don’t have a shelter during this cold time. It’s an awesome thing to see people do that. It’s an awesome thing to see small groups in the church meet together to pray for one another and and learn from the word together.

And this is how Jesus presents the church. It’s a body working together because awesome things happen when Jesus loving people who are indwwellled by the same Holy Spirit come together. That’s what he wants. Now we can agree, I think that there is a lot of division and disagreement in the world today. True.

Yeah. A lot of it. And that’s the one thing we can all agree on is there’s a lot of disagreement out there. And yet I when I when I look at this, I see this is this is the antidote. This is the the remedy for all our problems of division, all the ranker that’s out there.

The answer really is found in Jesus. That’s not a cliche. It. It’s all found in Jesus because in Jesus people can find a source for unity and commonality that they cannot find in anything else. Everything else pales in comparison when people try to join together with other groups and and form a joint commission of some kind.

It it’s it’s meaningless without something deeper, without something spiritual. This is why the church matters. We come together as Christians and and that doesn’t mean that we all share the exact same perspectives or we all are exactly the same. We’re not we’re not carbon copies of one another, right? Yeah.

If everybody’s dressed the same and looks the exact same and has the exact same haircut, you might be dealing with a cult. Just fair warning there. No, in in Christ’s church, there’s this diversity, but but there’s this unity underneath all of it that we have in Christ. We all come in this way. We all have in common that we’re made in God’s image, beautifully made in God’s image, but radically broken by sin.

And so, we all come to Christ as broken sinners. There there’s no sense of pride. There’s no sense of exalting oursel. We come to Jesus on our knees and then he lifts us up. We’re united in Christ.

So, we [snorts] may have different backgrounds. We may have different skin colors. We may have different perspectives on different things, different incomes, but according to Christianity, none of that is as important as what we have in common in Jesus. And once you belong to Jesus, all those things that would normally divide people in the world no longer should. It doesn’t matter whether you’re man or woman.

The Bible says slave or free. We could say it doesn’t matter whether you know you have this great income or low income. It doesn’t matter Republican, Democrat. It doesn’t matter what your skin tone is. Red, brown, yellow, black, white, green, right?

Although, if it’s green, you may want to get that checked out. And this one is really going to offend. It does not matter if you are going to cheer for the Seahawks or the 49ers today because if you trust in Jesus, then we’re all part of one family. And you just have to deal with those differences because Jesus said, “Come together in me.” [snorts] Now, why a meal?

Well, there’s something about having a physical object that reminds us of Christ’s sacrifice that that makes his sacrifice more real to our minds. See, we’re not just engaging our thoughts when we take the Lord’s supper together. It it’s a physical object. We have to hold it in our hands. We put it in our mouths and and we engage our bodies, not just our minds, to remember what he’s done.

And for 1400 years, Jews celebrated a meal called the Passover. It commemorated their exodus from slavery in Egypt. And they did this every year. They would celebrate it without fail to remember God saved us. He redeemed us when we were hopeless.

We were slaves. But God rescued us. He sent Moses. And we we put that blood of the Passover lamb over the doorframe. And and that’s what saved us.

And we’re going to res we’re going to remember how God rescued us. Now, that was the meal that Jesus was having with his disciples. Jesus was a Jewish man. He celebrated all the Jewish feasts. He was a faithful Jew.

He kept the Torah and that’s what the Last Supper was. So, if you’ve seen the the picture, Leonardo da Vinci’s painting of the Last Supper, that’s actually Jesus celebrating the Passover. That’s what that’s depicting. But Jesus, this is important. Jesus gave a new purpose to the meal because for 1400 years the the children of Israel would celebrate the Passover feast together.

But for the first time in all those years a Jew took the bread in his hand and the cup in his other and he said, “This meal represents my body broken for you and my blood being poured out for your forgiveness.” No one else had said that. That was a radical new take on the meal. His disciples must have been scratching their heads thinking, “How could this be? How this is the Passover?

This is this is about what God has done in the past, and now he’s saying it’s about him.” It was always about him. They couldn’t understand this until after Jesus rose from the dead. Then everything fell into place and it all made sense. He’s the lamb.

That’s what the Passover was about. It was all pointing to Jesus all along. So while there is this deeper meaning to the Lord’s table, it’s also important to see the simplicity, the beautiful simplicity in a meal. It it’s taking bread and a cup. See, it’s simple enough.

Anybody, a child who has believed in Jesus, put his faith in Jesus, her faith in Jesus, can participate. That’s the beauty of having a meal that you celebrate together. Who is it for? Well, throughout the last 2,000 years, just about every local church, there’s a couple groups of Christians that don’t celebrate the Lord’s Supper. But for some that has been every week, others it’s been every month.

That’s what we do here at Graceoint. Some it’s every year. But the point is it’s this regularly done practice along with baptism. It’s one of the the two distinguishing markers that separates the church, sets it apart from the world. The world doesn’t engage in these things.

The world doesn’t have the focus on Jesus and his death like we do. And so we practice these things regularly. Notice verse 18 says, “For in the first place when you come together as a church, I hear that there are some divisions among you.” Now Paul’s talking about the Lord’s supper as something Christians do. Again, in the context of the local church, they’re coming together.

In your notes, the Lord’s Supper is for the gathered local church. It’s not something designed to be done in isolation. It’s not something that you’re to do off on your own at home. First and foremost, it’s about coming together and doing this. And the reason is that division always threatens the church.

Every local church faces the darts of the enemy. The devil would love to divide believers. He would love to split churches apart. And so when we come together, we’re coming together on that common footing at at the base of the cross and we’re recognizing we’re here because of grace. We’re here because of Jesus.

And so it’s for the whole church and it serves to unite the body of baptized believers around a shared faith in our Lord’s death. So his sacrifice was for each of us. I don’t have a corner on Christ’s sacrifice. It was for me, but it wasn’t just for me. It was also for all my brothers and sisters.

And so it’s fitting that I would celebrate it with my brothers and sisters. That’s the idea. For those of you who don’t have a relationship with Jesus Christ yet, then our our best encouragement is to just let the plate pass by when it comes to you. Because the Lord’s supper is all about renewing that commitment, saying yes, acting out through taking the bread and the cup. You’re saying, “I believe in the Lord Jesus.

I believe this is what saves me from my sin. And so it’s for believers. Paul writes in verse 27, “Whoever therefore eats the bread and drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord.” And so there’s even this this threat of judgment that comes with participating wrongly in the Lord’s supper. It’s a sacred thing.

It’s an important thing because we’re we’re not just doing this willy-nilly because it’s it’s religious stuff and we’re supposed to do religious stuff. No, there’s a sacred meaning to this. And by taking the bread and the cup, we’re saying my life comes from Jesus. Eternal life, I believe, is found in Jesus. And so for unbelievers, it doesn’t carry that meaning yet.

It’s and while we we pray and hope for those of you who haven’t yet trusted in Jesus, we hope that that happens. We pray for that to happen. But until then, until you put your faith in Christ, it’s best to just let the plate pass by. So, what is the purpose? Why do we do the Lord’s supper anyway?

What’s the big idea? Well, one thing you see from this text is that while it is a meal, it’s not about nourishing our bodies. He makes the point, you can go home. You can eat your own meals. If you’re hungry, eat at home.

Eat somewhere else. This is not about nourishing your bodies. It’s about nourishing your soul as you’re reflecting on the Lord’s death and what it means for you. Paul writes in verse 20, “When you come together, it is not the Lord’s supper that you eat. For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal.

One goes hungry, another gets drunk.” What do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I commend you in this?

No, I will not. There’s a taste of Paul’s sarcasm there. He’s he’s saying, “This is unbelievable.” And they did have it coming, by the way. Just just think about this.

Imagine that a guy arrives early for a Thanksgiving meal this November. And he raids the fridge and he starts eating all the food that’s been prepared ahead of time without anybody getting there yet. Now, some of you are thinking there might be someone in my family who’s going to do that. But then he goes to the wine cooler and all the wine that’s been saved for a special occasion, he just starts guzzling it. He’s he’s getting drunk on the wine and by the time the rest of the family shows up, he’s already drunk.

He’s eaten half of the food that’s prepared and most of the family is going to go hungry this holiday. Now, as ridiculous as that sounds, that is a bit like what was happening at the Corinthian church. The entitled wealthy people in the congregation were arriving early and they just started stuffing their faces with all the bread and they started getting drunk on the wine. And then the poor people when they showed up, there’s nothing left. They can’t participate in the Lord’s supper.

And Paul’s saying, “You guys should be ashamed of yourselves. This is about uniting the body.” And yet you’ve used this as an opportunity to edge others out and to satisfy yourselves. Paul was the one who had established the practice of the Lord’s supper in Corinth. He had been there and helped plant the church.

And now he’s saying basically, I need to take you guys back to the whole purpose of the Lord’s supper because apparently you’ve forgotten. Verse 23. For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you that the Lord Jesus on the night when 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.” Jesus said, “When you take the bread, see my body being given for you.

See me on that cross. Remember the suffering I went through. Remember my love for you that I was willing to go through that. Take the bread with that in mind. Now, some Roman Catholic traditions hold that in the eukarist, the bread literally becomes the substance of the body of Jesus and that the the cup literally becomes the substance of Christ’s blood.

Now, let me tell you why that cannot be. And with all respect to our Roman Catholic friends, Jesus is sitting there and he’s sitting in front of his disciples and he says, “This is my body broken for you.” So he can’t be talking about his own body. His own body is right there unbroken. His blood is not yet shed.

And so this is saying, what he’s saying is this bread and this cup represents my body and my blood. It’s so important to see that distinction because his death, his sacrifice, his shed blood was a once and final event 2,000 years ago. There is no more sacrifice needed. It’s already been given at the cross. The point is that the bread and cup represent his body and blood.

Verse 25. In the same way, he also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. So the new covenant was the promise God gave to the people of Israel in the days of Jeremiah. He said, “There’s this covenant coming.

You know about the covenant with Moses. I’m going to give you a new covenant, and through this covenant, you will be reconciled to me. You’ll be washed of all your guilty stains, and you’ll be in me. You’ll be in my family.” So Jesus now when he says the new covenant, what he’s saying is this new covenant that’s been promised all these years, it’s going to come about through my blood.

In other words, through my death, my death is what is going to seal your forgiveness. All the demands of the law are fully met in Christ’s death. Because every wrong we’ve ever committed, every sin, every sinful thought, every sinful desire, every sinful act, everything that was wrong, everything that could have condemned us and would have condemned us was put on Jesus. It was nailed to the cross when he died in our place. And now we don’t have to wallow in our guilt.

The whole point of the Lord’s supper isn’t to just sit there and wallow in our guilt. It’s to bask in the grace of Christ. It’s to celebrate the fact that we are now set free from our sin. We’re forgiven fully, finally, forever. And nothing can change that.

This is what the Lord’s Supper celebrates. Third, in your notes, the Lord’s Supper is about celebrating our Lord’s death and anticipating his coming kingdom. It’s a time to thank God for all that he’s done and all that he’s still going to do. We’re still looking forward to what he’s got in store for us in the future. Verse 26 says, “For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”

So, see, we live in an era between the cross and the crown. We live between the time of his suffering and the time of his recognized reign. He’s already reigning. There’s there’s there’s no question Jesus is already reigning. And yet one day every tongue will confess, every knee will bow, acknowledging his reign.

That’s still to come. And when Jesus returns, he’s going to reign visibly on this earth. He will be seen for who he really is. We look forward to that. When we take the Lord’s table together, we we take the Lord’s supper.

We’re recognizing Jesus conquered and he will conquer. He’s going to come back. He’s going to judge the living and the dead. And all who are not reconciled to him will be condemned. And so it’s a sobering reminder.

We need Jesus. We need his righteousness. We need to put our faith in Jesus so that unbelievers who are watching us take the supper together, they’re recognizing, you know what, these people really believe that they are saved entirely by Christ’s death. It’s all about what Jesus did. It’s not about what they did.

It’s all about grace, not works. So, how should we eat and drink at the Lord’s table? Well, the Lord’s supper is the time to remember and proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. And so, this is a good time to be honest before the Lord, to to come before him, to to seek that intimacy with him. If there’s anything that is in the way of that relationship, anything like a grudge being held against someone, anything that you need to confess, this is the time to do that.

Paul says, “Judge yourself so that you won’t be judged.” Verse 28 says, “Let a person examine himself and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.” This is why many of you are weak and ill and some have died. But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged.

But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world. So this is the time to reflect on your Lord’s death, to see it for all it is, to all all that it accomplished for you and then to confess any hidden sin, anything that might be in the way of that relationship. Some who were approaching the table in an unworthy manner were actually getting sick, it says. And some even died. And so this reminds us of the significance and and how sacred this is because some people were self-indulgently thinking only of themselves.

They weren’t bothering with the meaning or they weren’t confessing any sin or they weren’t looking to Christ as their substitute. And so because of that, Paul says, you need to get your heads on straight when you do this. This is important. This matters. And we do need to be careful here because when Paul says you need to examine yourself, here’s what he’s not saying.

He’s not saying you need to frantically search every nook and cranny of your soul for any possible unconfessed sin that you may not be thinking of. That’s not the point. Because again, the Lord’s supper is about a celebration of what Christ accomplished for us. It’s about grace. It’s not about wallowing in guilt.

And people could read that and think, you know, examine myself. I don’t know if I’ve made myself worthy enough. If I haven’t examined myself enough. That’s not the point. The point is if there’s anything that the Lord has put on your heart and you recognize, you know, I need to give this to him.

You know, maybe I’m going through some suffering right now and I need to just surrender that to him. Maybe there’s something where I’m holding on to unforgiveness and God is tapping me on the shoulder and he’s saying, “You need to forgive that person.” This is the time to do that. If there’s a something where you’re you’re struggling with doubts and you’re you’re thinking, “I don’t know. Oh, I don’t know if there’s a God who loves me.

If this is a real if this is a real faith that I’ve become a part of. Confess that to the Lord. There is nothing that surprises God. Take it to him. That’s what the Lord’s supper is all about.

So, what Paul’s referring to here is not fidiously searching every nook and cranny. He’s talking about this is the time to be repentant. And those who were being unrepentant and brazenly indulging in sin and treating the Lord’s supper in this flippant manner, they’re the ones that he’s reprimanding. Our final point, we should take the Lord’s supper with both joy and reverence. The Lord’s supper is all about realigning our focus on the big things, the most important things in life, the things that will matter for all eternity.

Because it’s very easy as we go in day in and day out throughout the week. It’s very easy for the the center of our consciousness to be all about what’s going on today, what’s going on in the news, what’s going on around the world, and to forget what is most important. That Jesus has come, that he’s died on the cross for your sins. He loves you. He rose from the dead.

And he invites you into a relationship with him. That is what life is all about. And we’ll never know the full purpose, the true purpose of life if we don’t know Jesus. And so this Lord’s supper gets us back to the purpose of what life is all about. And as we take this meal together, we’re also looking forward to that meal we’re going to share with Jesus one day when he comes back and we celebrate the wedding supper of the lamb.

That will be a tremendous moment. All the things that we’ve put our faith in, the things that we haven’t yet seen, they will become sight. The things that we’ve hoped in will be realized and we’ll be with him forever. So, in one sense, the joy and reverence is there because it should mark every time the local church comes together. But it’s a special thing when we’re celebrating the Lord’s supper because here we’re recognizing that while salvation is freely offered to us by grace in Christ, it wasn’t free to Jesus.

It was a tremendous sacrifice to him. And because of that, it’s a free gift for us. I’ll leave you with this question here. Are you living in guilt or grace today? And the whole point of the Lord’s supper is that you would walk away reminded to live in grace.

Leave your guilt. Leave your guilt in his hands. Don’t take that burden that you weren’t meant me meant to take. Jesus said that he will take every burden. He will bear our sin.

And he did bear our sin on the cross. [snorts] Let’s pray together. Father God, I thank you once more for the sacrifice. Thank you for giving your own beloved son to die on our behalf. Thank you that his sacrifice means the world to us.

That when we we look at all the things in life that could hold our attention, may we be reminded that this above all is what should be t

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