Before Covid as an usher I had the privilege of serving communion to our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. This was quite an honor, especially in regards to something so significant as sharing in the Lord's supper. I would liken the honor of serving you in communion to be right there with being asked to join someone in the water for their baptism. Both are symbolic and both declare the success of Jesus Christ on our behalf. To get to be present at such a celebration whether it's symbolizing what the Lord has done through baptism or symbolizing what the Lord has done through His sacrifice is a cause to celebrate indeed.
One of the heart breaking things for me when I'm serving though is seeing someone refrain from communion. They'd subtly pass the plate down the row but they themselves don't partake. They come to the celebration but refuse to celebrate. Can I say if that's you that I believe communion was specifically for you. For this is an act of remembering what Christ has done for you who have seemingly forgotten.
Before you're a Christian Satan will do everything he can to make you feel justified in your sin, after you're a Christian Satan will do everything he can to make you feel condemned in your sin. Now it is important to be taking communion for the right reasons and Paul instructs us that we are to take a self evaluation in order that we may not be found taking the Lord's supper in an unworthy manner (1 Cor. 11:27-32) and if you are here and haven't received Jesus then that for example is a justifiable reason for not taking communion. But I'm speaking to my brothers and sisters in Christ that maybe previously participated but now are not. When Paul writes an "unworthy manner" what they are hearing is an "unworthy person" and Satan and our self-condemning heart is capitalizing on that. The enemy who holds the law in one hand and a list of your failures in the other has gotten you to consider his argument and you, seeing he has a solid case for your unworthiness, you refrain from celebrating. But may I tell you that communion has nothing to do with your worthiness but has everything to do with Christ's worthiness? Between you and Jesus, you're the only one holding you in contempt! The law's purpose was to point you to Jesus (Gal. 3:24).
In every church I've participated in and in many I've visited are the words inscribed which Jesus spoke when giving instructions on communion which state "do this in remembrance of Me" (1 Cor. 11:24-25). You'll see those words on tables, podiums, pulpits, and yet often what is happening in this moment of refusing communion is we are choosing not to do this in remembrance of us. When we take communion it says we are to proclaim the Lord's death, but some of you are here proclaiming your own death, "I'm hopeless", "I'm useless", "I'm unlovable", "I'm not savable", and so on. Our eyes have parted from focusing on Jesus (Heb. 12:2) and have become fixed inwardly on ourselves, specifically our unworthiness, our shortcomings, and our failures even as a Christian. While I can appreciate a desire to refrain until you are worthy I would argue that the very act of taking communion equally declares you are not worthy. We are literally celebrating what Jesus did specifically because we failed to be found worthy.
When Paul spoke of an unworthy manner of taking communion he was speaking to how the church should conduct themselves when gathering for the Lord's supper as noted by the word "manner" here (1 Cor. 11:27). The church in Acts would observe the breaking of bread regularly and even from house to house (Acts 2:42-46) and would celebrate the Lord's supper with a feast or what we might call a potluck. Unfortunately at the church of Corinth those who were wealthy became favored at these events and those who came with nothing often left with nothing. What should have been a unified gathering became a place of divisions and factions (1 Cor. 11:18) where those who were approved became evident from those who were not. Paul rebuked those who did such, asking "do you despise the church of God and shame those who have nothing?" (1 Cor. 11:22) and argued these offenders should fill there stomachs and drink at home (1 Cor. 11:22) rather than sin this way against the body and the blood of the Lord (1 Cor. 11:27). It wasn't their eating and drinking that was the issue but rather their doing so under the guise of the celebration of the Lord's supper. They had taken something previously consecrated and used it as an opportunity for the flesh. Paul then goes on to to remind the Corinthians how to properly observe communion in a worthy manner, stressing that the central focus of the celebration is to remember Christ's sacrifice and proclaim His work of salvation (1 Cor. 11:23-26).
If you are here and concerned about partaking in an unworthy manner as Paul wrote about in 1 Corinthians 11 then let me assure you many of those temptations have largely been removed in the way we offer communion. You will not get drunk off of a teaspoon of grape juice and I have yet to see anyone forgo a meal at home with the anticipation of filling up on the small square wafers we offer. While a feast with our church body is grand, we have largely separated our potlucks from our partaking of the Lord's supper. If your reason for not partaking is because of a judgment against yourself that you have made then please consider this. There is nothing you have done that any of us in this room aren't capable of doing, there is nothing you have done that the blood of Christ is not sufficient to cover, and if we hold ourselves to the standards set forth by Jesus Himself who said we are to be perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect (Matt. 5:48) then there is none of us who measure up!
At least we don't measure up accordingly when we look at our performance. But herein likes the problem. Christ did not say we gather together and take communion in remembrance of ourselves but rather to do this in remembrance of Him. Furthermore He goes on to say that when we partake of the bread and cup we are actually proclaiming Him and His success on the cross! Your qualifications and merit are nowhere in that equation. The bread symbolized the body of Christ which was broken for you, the juice symbolizes the blood which was spilled out for you. If we were worthy, none of this would have needed to be done. Paul said if righteousness comes through the obeying of the rules of God, then Christ died needlessly! (Gal. 2:21).
The fact we come together to partake of the Lord's Supper as opposed to doing it individually is beautiful for a couple reasons. It reflects the love and unity in the body of Christ that we all share, and two, we are proclaiming to one another that Jesus was successful on the cross and His body and His blood were all sufficient for even our darkest and worst sins. When we take communion the message of the gospel becomes visible. We remember not ourselves, our unworthiness has long been established, but rather we remember Jesus who is worthy who took our place on the cross. This is a celebration, not a guilt fest. We are not doing this to bring to memory our failures but to be reminded of His success no matter how bad you have failed. Your salvation has nothing to do with your performance but it has everything to do with His. The question of "am I worthy" should be replaced in your mind with the question "was Christ worthy?". If you answer yes, then let's celebrate! For we are not justified by our performance but for all who have called upon the name of the Lord are now justified by His performance. This is why we celebrate! When you wonder how could God possibly accept you, be deliberate during this time to draw your eyes to the perfect lamb of God, unblemished, and His perfect righteous living and know that is what God is judging you by.
Paul stated "For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes" (1 Cor. 11:26). Do not forget this proclamation is declaring the success of Jesus on the cross, His body which He broke so that yours never would, His blood which was poured out was so that yours never would have to be. Jesus took all the penalty for sin, He satisfied all of the wrath of God, you don't need to appease that demand anymore. As the song states "Here in the death of Christ I live". Jesus meant it when He spoke His finals words on that cross "it is finished" (John 19:30). When scripture says we proclaim the Lord's death until He comes I believe it's saying we can hold to that being successful and reliable all the way up until He returns. "Until He comes" means we don't have to fret that it would come up short anytime before then.
Some of us forget that we don't have a relationship with God the Father directly, that is, apart from Christ. Hebrews 7:25 states "Therefore He is able to also save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them." We often picture ourselves before God by ourselves, alone, and sitting in our own robes of righteousness or lack thereof. On a good day we feel okay, but on bad days we feel unworthy. We are prone to this way of thinking! I believe this is why Jesus commanded us to specifically do this in remembrance of Him even saying "as often as you drink it" to do so in remembrance of Him (1 Cor. 11:25). You who have received Jesus are NEVER alone. Your good days God sees Jesus, and on your bad days, God sees Jesus. Jesus always lives to make intercession for you! Before God looks at you, He looks at Jesus who is at His right hand Who intercedes on your behalf. Then after Jesus has presented you Holy, blameless, and beyond reproach (Col. 1:22), the Father welcomes you inasmuch as He welcomes Jesus Himself. As the Hymn states "When He shall come with trumpet sound, oh may I then in Him be found, dressed in His righteousness alone, faultless to stand before the throne." Likewise, we can boldly approach the Father in prayer but we do so not through our own authority, but we pray, praise, and have our being in the name of Jesus (Acts 17:28), in His power, in His accomplishment. Our relationship with God and His relationship with us is always through Jesus!
Intercession is an interesting thing. Intercession is not needed for the righteous but only for sinners. When it says that Jesus "lives to make intercession" for us, it's stating it is a passion of His to justify us... us sinners. It's also interesting that it says Jesus "lives" to make intercession. This isn't merely something that He likes to do. If I were to say to you "I live to travel!" I'm actually saying that part of my existence, my being, finds it's life in traveling. I might also say to you that I'd rather die than not get to travel, or that if I couldn't travel "it would kill me". If Jesus lives to make intercession for us, then it would seem you could rightly say He would rather die if He couldn't.
Jamie and I run our own business, and if she makes a mistake, I prefer to take credit for it, and when I make a mistake, I prefer to take credit for it even though she is willing to. She recently offered to take credit for one of my mistakes citing that I had done that for her plenty of times but my heart hurts for her to do that. My heart hurts for her to have to face the crowds for any of her own mistakes, actually to me that's an unbearable thought, so I adamantly demand credit for any slip ups of mine or hers. I believe God feels the same toward us. Ephesians 5:25 says of husbands "to love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her". Love bears all things (1 Cor. 13:7), it's a crazy notion that upon my every screw-up Jesus Christ takes ownership of it as if it were His (2 Cor. 5:21), and He does so delightfully for to Him it's unbearable that anything be held against us (Isa. 53:10). It's like when Jesus held His arms out on the cross it was like He was saying to all the courts of heaven "these are My sins, this is My guilt". Even in His utter moments of agony on the cross, over the insults being thrown at Him, among the humiliation of the crowd, and His crown of thorns, with the agony of the piercings, and shortness of breath, yet when the thief on the cross, who was previously hurling insults at him asked that Jesus remember him when He enters His kingdom; here you see Jesus desire to save and intercede reign supreme when He turned to Him and and spoke the tender words to him "today you will join Me in paradise". Jesus could have said nothing and still saved Him. While Jesus in these last moments remained silent before His accusers, He spoke wonderful words of encouragement into the life of the thief in their last moments.
If you are here and don't partake because of your struggle with sin, may I say to you that you and I are in the same boat. There are 613 Mosaic laws, and Jesus said out of all of them the greatest of these is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind (Luke 10:27) and the second most commandment was like it which was to love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:39). Forget the remaining 611 laws, I'm failing at the two most important ones and James said he who stumbles with even one of these commandments is as bad as being guilty of all the commandments (James. 2:10). The Apostle Paul in Romans, a letter written some 23 years after he became a Christian wrote that there was nothing good in his flesh (Rom. 7:18). I think it's safe to assume the same is true about us. If you came here feeling wretched then I implore you to look around the room and know that we are too!
When I was out to lunch with our senior pastor and invited to join the elder board I told him I was both excited and nervous at such a prospect. He then proceeded to ask me why on both? I told him I was excited to serve, and what an honor to serve the bride of Christ, but I was nervous because of sin. The pastor in his wisdom said nothing, so I blurted out to him a sin I was ashamed of that transpired on my drive home a couple months ago and how I gave into anger. He seemed unaffected, actually he was quite understanding. He said to me that if that disqualified me, well then we're all disqualified. I was encouraged but I still had another sin that I felt wasn't so acceptable and I didn't have the nerve yet to disclose it there. We parted, and I went home, yet I felt compelled if they were going to invite me on the elder board, if this was indeed God's calling, that I wanted to trust God with giving them full disclosure. So after working up some courage I called the pastor the next morning on the way to work. Very vulnerably I put it out there to him half expecting a gasp on the other end of the phone. Yet without missing a beat, he related with me, shared some of his own previous relatable shortcomings, was encouraged how I was handling it, and overall he was unfazed. Our new associate pastor earlier this month said it's unlikely he's not sinned each day even before breakfast. How you like that church family, your leadership here is a bunch of sinners...Last time the pastor lets me lead while he's on sabbatical.
So brothers and sisters, can I share my pastor's encouraging words to me with you now, that if you are disqualified because of sin then look around for all of us are disqualified together with you. The fact we are all here to celebrate Another's dying horrifically on the cross in our place is full confession of our dastardly state--if you're feeling wretched and a sinner in our church you are in good company! Fortunately for us our salvation has nothing to do with our performance but has everything to do with Christ's performance and communion is proclaiming that very thing! When we take communion we are testifying of His success and proclaiming His death. Communion has nothing to do with remembering our merit and it has everything to do with remembering His so let's take our eyes off ourselves and our performance and start looking at Jesus and His performance (Heb. 12:2). Your entry into heaven is completely contingent on Jesus Christ therefore meditate no longer on if you're worthy, but dwell on just how worthy He is to enter because by His doing we are not judged by our performance, we're judged entirely by His performance, a substitution that was a delight for Him to do for you! (Isa. 53:10, Heb. 12:2).
I heard a theologian once say, "when I look at myself I wonder how could God possibly save me, but when I look at Jesus I wonder how could God possibly not?" When I consider the status of myself, my character, my nature, I may wonder how hard is it for me to be saved. But when I behold the status of Jesus seated at the right hand of God, and I dwell on His Character, His works, and His nature, I realize saving me, even me, comes naturally for Him and I wonder how hard it is for Him when we don't accept and even celebrate His body being broken, and His blood being poured out. Some of you worry how you will ever get to God, but don't miss all that God did to get to you! While you are indeed not worthy in the eyes of the law (or even your own made up Christianese laws), you are immeasurably valuable in the eyes of God (Zeph. 3:17, Isa. 43:4, Matt. 6:26, 10:31, Eph. 1:18, 2:4, Psa. 8:4-5, 116:15, Rom. 5:8, Exo. 19:5). The veil was not torn from bottom to top as if it's a work of man, but it was torn from top to bottom (Matt. 27:51) as saving is entirely God's business, done entirely by God's grace and reaches down even to the most wretched of people (1 Tim. 1:15) in their most wretched state (Rom. 5:8, 10).
For Christians, often enters the idea that while grace was for them once and it was unmerited, that now the body and the blood only apply if they somehow maintain it. We read the New Testament and as we learn we create a new law from it for ourselves; I call this Christianese. Maybe we don't recite the law of Moses, but we have our own laws, rules, and traditions that we've come to expect and even impose on ourselves (and often others) and then somehow condemn or vindicate ourselves based on those Christianese expectations. It's interesting because we started off having absolutely nothing to offer God to contribute to our salvation yet somewhere in our walk sneaks in this idea that now we do. Or worse, that somehow the breaking of Jesus body, or the pouring out of His blood on our behalf is somehow negated by our performance. We intellectually know this not to be, but our hearts have been duped into believing that the grace of God needs propping up. You have not out sinned the grace of God! (Rom. 5:20).
When Christ cried out "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" (Matt. 27:46) it is because God couldn't in that moment look at Him in His sin-ridden state. In that moment Christ felt the reality and displeasure of a sin-hating God. In that moment Christ arms we're open wide to the Father's holiness saying "treat me like you would treat them" and God did. Christ screamed out those words of forsakenness so that you and I would never have to. Communion is a call to remember this exchange! This exchange is why the most perverse, arrogant, wicked, and unrighteous person is, like the thief on the cross, is merely a prayer away from salvation. The moment they turn toward Christ they are justified, having inherit His record immediately.
There is nobody in this room that God wants to condemn (John 3:17, Eze. 18:23, 33:11, 2 Pet. 3:9, 1 John 2:2, 1 Tim. 4:10). If you are here and feel the weight of what is required of you, then know Christ's invitation to come to Him was specifically for you (Matt. 11:28-30), that you might come to Him and find rest and lay your burdens down having recognized He picked them up. Justice that is satisfied doesn't once again demand satisfaction for that which has been fulfilled. The demands of the law have been fulfilled (Matt. 5:17, Acts 10:15). You have exchanged your court record with Christ's and just as God justly punished Jesus for your sins, God, in His great love, is delighted to justly reward you for His righteousness because of Jesus, for God looks at you through Jesus and sees you exactly as Jesus presents you, clothed in His righteousness, without blemish, without fault, blameless, and beyond reproach. We are perfect in God's eyes. Why can I be confident in this? Because I'm confident in Him and His work on our behalf.
Charles Colson wrote an article in Christianity Today back in 1993 regarding a prison now named Humaita in Brazil whose government, 20 years prior, turned over that prison over to two Christians who's plan was to run that prison on Christian principles. With the exception of two fulltime staff, all the work is done by inmates. Families outside the prison adopt an inmate to work with during and after his term. Charles Colson visited the prison and made this report:
"When I visited Humaita I found the inmates smiling—particularly the murderer who held the keys, opened the gates and let me in. Wherever I walked I saw men at peace. I saw clean living areas, people working industriously. The walls were decorated with Biblical sayings from Psalms and Proverbs. . . . My guide escorted me to the notorious prison cell once used for torture. Today, he told me, that block houses only a single inmate. As we reached the end of a long concrete corridor and he put the key in the lock, he paused and asked, “Are you sure you want to go in?” “Of course,” I replied impatiently, “I’ve been in isolation cells all over the world.” Slowly he swung open the massive door, and I saw the prisoner in that punishment cell: a crucifix, beautifully carved by the Humaita inmates—the prisoner Jesus, hanging on a cross."
The inmates carved this reminder themselves. They were deliberate to remember Jesus, we should be too.
I've heard many call Christianity a crutch. That leaning on Jesus as we navigate and walk through this life is a cop-out, an excuse for not doing what we should be doing. I completely disagree with the notion of Christianity being a crutch. Christianity isn't a crutch, it's a full-on stretcher. If you think I have a leg to stand on before God, I don't, we don't. To say Christianity is a crutch is to say this Body and Blood are merely a coupon into heaven. That, like a coupon, this body and blood offer a significant discount in purchasing our redemption but I say to you that is grossly mistaken. This body and this blood are not a coupon but rather they are the full ticket of admission with no strings attached; that's why we call it a free gift (Rom. 6:23) and this is what we are here to celebrate! You are holding the tangible representation of a spiritual reality. This body broken for us, and His blood spilled instead of ours is the propitiation for our sins. Let's proclaim His death, for in clinging to that, we'll never need to proclaim our own! (John 11:25-26).
(Take the bread and then the cup together with all here)
Someone may object saying "are you telling me--do you mean to tell me as long as I believe in Jesus, that I can do anything?! That as long as I cling to His work on the cross I can get in and it doesn't matter what I do?!" Yes. That is called grace. That is exactly what I'm saying. "But Ryan, we should be careful not to abuse God's grace". May I argue with you, that there is no other way to apply God's grace that's not abuse. For if grace is only given to those that earn it, then it's no longer grace but becomes a wage (Rom. 11:6). If grace can only be applied when you've done your best, can I ask when have you done your best? For we could always be doing better. If you wait until you've done better to receive grace, you may never receive grace at all. You must let Jesus wash your feet now, not when you've first managed to clean them yourself, for that is the only way we will ever be truly clean, and that is the only way we will ever have any place with Him (John 13:8). "But Ryan, you're selling the cross as a cop-out, a free ride into God's good graces" whereas I might reply "That's exactly what I'm saying! Hallelujah, you're finally getting it!"
Hypothetically if you got to heaven's gate and Satan was there, and they asked you what right did you have to enter. If you pointed to Jesus and cited His body and His blood, and proclaimed His death, Satan would have no argument. If anyone wanted to disqualify you on that basis, they would have to disqualify Jesus, they would have to contend no longer with your performance, but with His performance, and we know Christ was without sin and Satan had nothing on Him (John 1:29, 14:30, 2 Cor. 5:21, 1 John 1:5)!
When you put your trust in Jesus and cling to Him, you transfer responsibility of your well-being onto Him (Isa. 53:5) and Amazingly He is not only willing to take on the responsibility, He wants to because of His great love (Eph. 2:4). It's like if I were 10 feet tall and bullet proof, standing on the edge of the Nile River during raining season and a 3 year old having an asthma attack came up to me who desperately needed to get to his parents on the other side of the river because they have his inhaler. There's no time to build a bridge, the parents aren't capable of crossing the raging waters like I am, there's not enough time for me to get go get the inhaler and come back, the only solution is to carry the kid through the raging waters to their parents. What do I need from the kid, I need them to trust me, to cling to me, to let me carry them through the raging waters. And the moment they lift their arms to me, signaling permission for me to start this journey with them, in that moment their well-being to make it safely across this river becomes entirely my responsibility. The kid could try and paddle... that would only splash water and make it harder for me. The kid could demand I put them down and let them do it which is absurd given how raging and deep the waters are. Halfway across the kid could out of fear demand I take them back, but I know better. They need their inhaler. You see, at this point nothing is going to separate this kid from me. Not the waters, not the bystanders, nor any other created thing, not even the kid themselves (Rom. 8:38-39). Why? Because this kid's well-being is in my hands (Isa. 53:5) and even though the kid may foolishly want down, foolishly want me to take them back, and even foolishly be punching me in the face, the fact is, I've taken ownership of this kid's well-being and because I care for this kid, even more than myself, I'm willing to endure a black eye or two, even the heart break of the screams of the kid against me, in order to get that kid safely to the other side that they may live!
Some of us worry on bad days that God will drop us, we somehow forgot that God's faithfulness to us is not contingent on our faithfulness to Him. In my analogy with the 3 year old and the Nile River, if I had an ounce of love, would there be anything that kid could say or do that would cause me to drop him? No, and we would rail on anyone that would as being grossly inhumane. God likewise won't go against His Nature.
If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself. - 2 Timothy 2:13
For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. - Romans 8:38-39
For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. - Philippians 1:6
Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass. - 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24
My desire in sharing this with you is that you will respond in worship for worship is all that's left. If you want to sing, dance, clap, or raise your hands to the Lord know that you are free to because there's nothing else that's left.