Resolutions or Remembrance?

[00:00:00] This has been a season of celebration. In Bozeman, a couple of weeks ago, the Bobcats beat the Grizz for the second time in one year. [00:00:19] And tomorrow they play for the national championship. [00:00:23] A week or so ago, it was Christmas. [00:00:26] We celebrated the birth of Christ with seven worship services here at Journey Church. [00:00:31] And it was a special time of worship as well. [00:00:34] And then a few days ago, we celebrated New Year's Day. [00:00:38] And part of the holiday traditions is making resolutions, which is why gym memberships go up, Bible reading plans start, and diets begin strong until someone brings donuts to work on Monday. [00:00:58] New Year's Day is known for a day of resolutions. [00:01:01] And making resolutions aren't bad, but they're fragile. [00:01:06] And so this morning, the focus of this message will not be on resolutions, but on remembrance. [00:01:15] Before looking ahead at what you plan to do this year, let's look back at what Christ has done for us. [00:01:23] And that's why today we will receive the Lord's Supper. [00:01:28] And for those of you who are watching online, if you want to push, pause and find some juice and some bread at the end of this sermon, you can take communion as well. [00:01:40] So this morning, here's the question, what is the purpose of the Lord's Supper? [00:01:46] And we're going to look at 1 Corinthians 11, 17, 28. And in it, he discusses the Lord's Supper by doing three things. [00:01:57] He describes the malpractice of the Lord's Supper, which the Corinthians were doing, the practice of the Lord's Supper, and then the purpose, malpractice, practice, purpose. [00:02:12] So the malpractice of the Lord's Supper is what the Corinthian church was doing, and this church was jacked up. [00:02:20] The whole purpose of the book of First Corinthians, when he wrote it to the church in Corinth, Paul wrote it in Corinth in Greece, is to address at least eight problems the church had. [00:02:34] Dysfunctional churches are nothing new because hopefully broken people come to churches to find healing. [00:02:44] And so it was a messed up church. And what he says is just shocking. Can you imagine what he just wrote? Here it is. He describes what's going on in the following directives, talking about the Lord's Supper, I have no praise for you for your meetings. Do more harm than good. [00:03:03] That crazy. He says to church, your service has caused more problems than good, and I don't have anything good to say about what you're doing. And he says, in the first place, I hear that when you come together as a Church, there are divisions among you, and to some extent, I believe it. And this letter opened with divisions. [00:03:22] So when Paul wrote this text, the church in Corinth would practice the Lord's Supper in two parts. [00:03:30] The first part would be an agape feast. There's even a reference to that in Jude 12. [00:03:37] Agape Feast is what we would call today a potluck. [00:03:41] So every Sunday or whenever they worship, they'd gather together, they'd have a potluck meal, and they would come together. But all of a sudden, one of the things that was going on is they started to segregate from each other. [00:03:53] And the wealthy people were taking their food and eating with their friends, and those who were poor were going hungry. [00:04:02] These were some of the divisions along the economic lines and the social lines in that church. And so they were not practicing the Lord's Table in the right way. [00:04:12] So verse 20 says. So then when you come together, it's not the Lord's Supper. You eat for what you are eating. Some of you go ahead with your own private suppers. [00:04:23] It's not the Lord's Supper, it's your supper. You're eating, and you're not participating in the greater body of Christ. [00:04:30] So after correcting what they were doing wrong, Paul reminds them of what actually Jesus gave them to do and why. And he describes the practice of the Lord's Supper. [00:04:41] Ironically, the first Lord's Supper was the last supper of Jesus. [00:04:48] Right before he was crucified, he broke bread with his disciples and took a cup of juice or wine and bread as well and broke it with them. And it's described by Paul in verse 23. For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you. The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when given thanks, he broke it and said, this is my body for you. [00:05:13] Do this in remembrance of me. [00:05:17] In the same way, after supper, he took the cup, saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this whenever you drink it in remembrance of me. [00:05:28] So back to the question, what's the purpose of the Lord's Supper? [00:05:32] Well, we're going to see six reasons why Jesus wants us to take the Lord's Supper. [00:05:40] Six reasons why we are to be involved in taking of the Lord's Supper. And the first reason is this is remembrance. [00:05:49] Remembrance. We look back, he says in verse 24, do this in remembrance of me. [00:05:56] And remembrance is one of the most familiar and powerful themes of the Lord's Supper. You might think that Christians would not need a reminder of the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ. [00:06:06] But that's the purpose of the suffer, is to remind us. Because we can easily develop a spiritual amnesia, we forget to remember Jesus. [00:06:18] I recently had an experience, and of all things, I thought of you. [00:06:26] And me at this exact moment, a lady in the church where I pastored here in town for 12 years, she passed away. [00:06:37] And so I went to her funeral. [00:06:40] And at the funeral, one of her former pastors, who knew her for 40 years and knew her very well, began to tell stories about her. [00:06:50] And he told one story about her husband, telling him that the reason that she was the way she was is because of significant childhood trauma. [00:07:07] And the husband said to this pastor, my wife always struggled with guilt and fear. [00:07:18] And when he said that, the pastor said that my mind went to this moment right now, me talking to you. And I prayed that no one would leave this room burdened with false guilt or held hostage to fear. [00:07:40] I do not want it said at your funeral. [00:07:45] They were bound by guilt and fear because the purpose of Christ is to free us from our guilt and to free us from our fears. [00:07:58] And that's what the table is to remind us of. [00:08:02] For example, you may be feeling false guilt over a sin previously committed and forgiven. [00:08:08] And you need to remember the purpose of the table. [00:08:12] Jeremiah 31:34 says, the Lord said, for I will forgive their wickedness and remember their sins no more. [00:08:22] And one way of training our Christian memory is to remember what God has forgotten. [00:08:32] Do you keep recalling and remembering what God has forgiven and forgotten? [00:08:39] And may you take the grace he's given you in Jesus Christ because he has paid the debt of our sins fully on the cross to receive forgiveness that we didn't deserve. [00:08:53] Romans 5:8 says, But God demonstrates his love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly. [00:09:05] The bread and the juice is not just a symbol of Jesus love for us, it's also a symbol of God the Father. [00:09:15] God the Father demonstrated his love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly. [00:09:25] We're to remember his sacrifice, and it's his demonstration of his love for us. [00:09:33] And First John 4:18 says, Perfect love, cast out fear. [00:09:38] Today I don't want you to leave this place burdened by forgiven sins that you've committed in the past and concerned about things that you've done in the past that God has forgiven. [00:09:51] Second purpose is proclamation. [00:09:54] We speak out for whenever you eat this cup and drink, whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim The Lord's death until he comes. [00:10:04] What you will do if you are a follower of Jesus Christ. [00:10:09] At the end of this service, there'll be an invitation for you to come forward. [00:10:14] And when you stand up and walk forward, you're making a proclamation. [00:10:21] By your physical movement, you're proclaiming, I am a follower of Jesus Christ. [00:10:28] I was walking away from him, I heard him call me and I repented of my sin and I turned. And now I'm a follower of Jesus Christ. [00:10:40] And one of the things we do when we walk forward, we take the cup and we take the bread, is we are proclaiming Christ's death and we're proclaiming that we are a follower of Jesus Christ. It is a confession of our faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ. [00:10:57] In the proclamation, we speak out with our movement as we come forward. [00:11:03] Third purpose of the Lord's Supper Fellowship. [00:11:08] We look around. [00:11:10] The Lord's Supper reminds us of community. [00:11:13] It says in verse 16 in 1st Corinthians 10:16. And is not the bread that we break a participation. [00:11:20] That word is koin, sharing things in common. A participation in the body of Christ. [00:11:28] In the Corinthian context, they didn't recognize their familial spiritual connection. [00:11:35] And they were not eating together in fellowship with one another along economic lines. [00:11:42] And so here they were, not looking around in fellowship. [00:11:47] And when we come together, we come together as a church family. [00:11:53] This is my church. [00:12:00] I show up. [00:12:03] I use the gifts that God has given us. Kim and I support this church financially. We pray for the leadership. [00:12:13] We are actively involved because we are participating in this fellowship and this local expression. [00:12:22] Here's a direct question. [00:12:25] Are you a participant or a spectator? [00:12:33] You have a set of gifts that you can use for the enrichment of this body and this local expression and its vision and mission. [00:12:44] Every one of you can have gifts that are better than the gifts that I have. [00:12:50] Mine are just different. [00:12:53] The only thing I can do is talk. [00:12:59] And you have gifts as well. [00:13:03] And I encourage you to say, this is my community of believers and I participate in this local belief body as we look around. [00:13:16] That's why I don't. I haven't mentioned this in a while, but one of. If you want to make my day and you see me out in public, just come up and say, hey, Jim, and I will be so happy to chat with you. [00:13:32] Because we're part of the family of God. [00:13:38] It brings joy to know that. That we are part in the same body. [00:13:43] And one of the reasons for the Lord's Supper is for Our fellowship as we look around and see that we're part of the greater body of Christ. [00:13:52] Fourth thing, self examination, we look within. [00:13:58] This passage has led many sincere believers to be fearful, to come forward and receive the Lord's Supper because of things in their life. [00:14:10] And in one sense I believe they're taking that out of context. [00:14:13] Because what he's saying is this church was taking the Lord's Supper in the wrong manner, with some of the wealthy eating the fine food and some of the poor going hungry. [00:14:23] And so this church was taking the Lord's Supper in an unworthy manner. [00:14:29] But there's truth to this, that anyone who takes it in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. [00:14:37] So we see that this was what was going on in the church. [00:14:41] There was a private suppers, drunkenness, gluttony, hunger, humiliation occurring. That was an improper manner, but also on an individual manner. This is a time for us to reflect on our lives, to look within in self examination. So this is what he says, verse 28. His solution, everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup. [00:15:11] And one of the holy moments before receiving the table is to ask the Lord to search me of any sins that need to be confessed. [00:15:20] Psalm 139, 23 and 24 says, Search me God, and know my heart, test me and know my anxious thoughts, see if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. [00:15:37] There was a pastor's wife that was a friend of mine. And I remember she told the story of when her daughter was quite young. They were at church and they were receiving the Lord's Supper. [00:15:50] And the way that they would take it is they would pass communion trays around with a small cup and the bread as well. [00:15:57] And so one Sunday she took the communion tray, she served her daughter, but didn't take it herself, and then passed it along. [00:16:08] Her daughter looked up and said, mom, why didn't you take the Lord's Supper? [00:16:15] And she said, I'm mad at your father. [00:16:25] And she knew that she had to go to her husband and confess that sin before coming to the table. [00:16:33] A very holy moment for me in my very first pastor when I was 30 something years old, as I was sitting on the front row and we received the Lord's table and a lady slipped up and says, I'm sorry for what I've done to you. [00:16:50] And then she went back. [00:16:52] Two people were liberated, her and me. [00:16:58] And this is a beautiful moment for you to be honest with God about your sins. [00:17:04] We all struggle with things and this is the time to bring those into the open and confess them to God. [00:17:13] For if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. [00:17:23] This self examination is important for your spiritual growth because there could be some sins that are holding you back. [00:17:33] And when we come to the table, we bring them before God and we say the same thing about that sin that God says about it and we deal with it. [00:17:43] So one of the purposes of the Lord Sable not only is that it's just a self examination, we look within and then the fifth one is this Thanksgiving we look up. [00:17:58] The Bible calls this meal the Lord's Supper, but Christians also call it Holy Communion or the Eucharist. [00:18:07] And each of those different titles highlight a different aspect of this gift that God has given us. [00:18:15] And this is what First Corinthians 11:24 reads. And when he'd given thanks, he broke it and said, this is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. [00:18:29] And in this part we see that when he had taken it, he gave thanks. [00:18:34] And the Eucharist is this idea that this is a moment for us to express gratitude to God in a group this large. There are many of you going through very hard times and I don't want to diminish them. [00:18:54] But even in the midst of those, God is still good. [00:19:01] Let's all just take a deep breath. Ready? [00:19:09] Gift of God. [00:19:12] And all of us have been doing that all day and none of us have thanked God for that breath until today. No, every breath we take is a gift from God. [00:19:25] And there's always something to thank God for, no matter what. [00:19:30] So when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, this is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. [00:19:39] So what's the purpose of the Lord's Supper? Up to this point we've seen 1. [00:19:45] Remembrance, we look back. [00:19:48] 2. Proclamation. [00:19:50] We speak out and proclaim that we are followers of Jesus Christ. [00:19:55] 3. Fellowship. We look around and understand that we are part of the greater body of Christ. [00:20:02] In self examination, we look inward and we confess what's wrong and receive the forgiveness that Christ offers to us. And in thanksgiving we look up in gratitude for what God has has done for us. And the last one is this expectation, we look forward. [00:20:24] Expectation, we look forward. This is what he says in First Corinthians 11:26. For whenever you eat this bread and drink this Cup. You proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. [00:20:36] See, when we do this, we proclaim his death, but we also proclaim his return, that Jesus is coming back. [00:20:48] And every communion meal offers a preview of heaven, reminding us of the promise of a future banquet where we will feast as the perfected body of Christ forever and ever without end. [00:21:07] The Lord's Supper is both simple and profound. [00:21:11] A little piece of bread, a small cup. [00:21:16] Yet behind this simple meal lies a reality that stretches from the Passover in Egypt to the cross at Calvary, to the marriage supper of the Lamb in glory, when we will all be gathered together. [00:21:32] And that will be a glorious day. [00:21:36] No more cancer. No more anxiety. No more depression. No more divorce. No more loneliness. No more tears. No more pain. [00:21:48] Oh, I long for that day. [00:21:52] I heard a parable of a little girl. [00:21:54] She was praying to God, and she said, God, is it true to you that a million years is like one second? [00:22:07] And God said, yes, dear, it is. [00:22:10] And then she prayed, God, is it true to you that a million dollars is like one penny? [00:22:20] And God said, yes, dear, it is. [00:22:24] And then the girl smiled and said, could I have a penny? [00:22:32] And God said, in a second. [00:22:41] If you take your present sufferings and put them in light of eternity, we're going to be home in a second. [00:22:51] We really are so close, and I'm closer than most of you. [00:23:00] And we hold out gospel hope for that day when we will be in his presence forever and ever without end. And we will be sinless and in his presence for all glory. [00:23:13] So this is a sample of the day that we will feast with Jesus at the table. [00:23:21] We will feast in remembrance. This is what Jesus promised in Matthew, chapter 26:29. [00:23:30] I tell you, I will not drink from this fruit of the vine from now on until the day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom. [00:23:40] Jesus said, someday I'm going to drink it anew. [00:23:45] You know, the cool thing is about Jesus. [00:23:48] He's on a juice fast. [00:23:52] He said, I will not drink this until we drink it anew in the Father's kingdom. [00:24:00] And listen, children of God, this is what we're going to see. [00:24:03] We're going to watch Jesus pick up the cup for the very first time, hold it up and take a sip in remembrance. [00:24:12] Oh, I look forward forward to that day. [00:24:16] So the conclusion, what's the purpose of the Lord's Supper? [00:24:20] It's a visible and tangible expression of the gospel that confirms and nourishes the believer. [00:24:28] So in the moment, I'm going to give you an invitation and I'll pray. [00:24:31] Then afterwards, you'll be invited to come forward as the worship team plays. [00:24:37] And if you'll come forward, down on the right hand side, you will take the bread and dip it into the cup in remembrance of what Christ has done. [00:24:47] Some like to take it immediately. Some of you prefer to take it back to your seat and hold it for a moment and pray. [00:24:55] But there's no rush at this moment for you to come forward and receive what Christ has done for us and what he's given us in the purpose of Jesus Christ. [00:25:07] So here's your invitation as we come to the Lord's table. [00:25:13] This meal is not about resolutions we hope to keep, but about remembering what Christ has already done. [00:25:21] We look back to the cross where Jesus gave his body and shed his blood for us. [00:25:27] We look around and remember we come as one body, equally in need of grace. [00:25:32] We look within not to crush ourselves, but to come honestly and trust Christ's forgiveness. [00:25:41] If you belong to Jesus, this table is for you. [00:25:45] You do not come because you are worthy, but because Christ invites you. [00:25:51] So come to the table. Remember and give thanks. [00:25:56] Let us pray. [00:25:58] Father God, we thank you for the reality behind the symbols. [00:26:04] They point to the fact that your son Jesus died in our stead and that because of that we can experience full and everlasting salvation with you. [00:26:15] Father, may we always remember to not forget the grace you've lavished on us. [00:26:25] And we pray this in the powerful Son of your name, Jesus. Amen.