Sermon Tone Analysis
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It is called many things: Some call it the Eucharist; some call it “mass”; some call it “Holy Communion.”
The Bible called it the “Feast of Love.”
Others just call it the Lord’s table.
Whatever you call it, we would all admit that it may seem a little curious.
So as we, on this Palm Sunday, celebrate the heart of the Christian faith, I want to take some time to explain what all of this means.
You may say, “Great, Rusty, but I already know what it means,” and I am sure that may be true with many of you.
Or you might say, “I didn’t come here for an education, I came here to worship.”
Well, I understant that too, but I really encourage you to listen this morning.
NEED
You see, this whole experience is meant to be life changing.
Celebrating communion and really understanding what it means can do some wonderful things in your life.
Yes, it can!
It can open your eyes to who your really are.
It’s impossible to consider the great sacrifice of Christ without getting a glimpse of yourself.
Some of us really need that in our lives.
We’ve been lying to ourselves about what’s going on in our hearts, then wondering why we can’t get things together.
I’ll tell you why: It’s because you’re really not in touch with yourself the way God sees you.
Communion can be an eye-opening experience.
And it doesn’t just open your eyes.
Communion can open your heart to what Christ freely offers.
You may have arrived here today knowing that forgiveness is a major issue in your life.
Whether you need to forgive or be forgiven, connecting with Christ through communion becomes a catalyst to release forgiveness into your life.
And it doesn’t just open your eyes to who you really are and open your heart to what He freely offers, Communion can also open your will to where He powerfully leads.
These next few moments could really launch your life in a totally new direction if you are willing to grasp what’s about to happen here and what this signifies.
So this curious little ceremony with the bread and the juice can really be powerful.
How?
How can what we are about to do change your life?
Well, it can happen when you understand three things this teaches you about God.
In the first place, Communion teaches us that
DIV 1: THE HOLINESS OF GOD DEMANDS PERFECTION
EXPLANATION
When I was a child, my father was an all-consuming presence in my life.
For one thing, I knew he loved me completely.
I never had any doubt of that.
In fact, I understood that he loved me too much to let me get away with anything.
In fact, my dad didn’t even have to speak to me to correct me.
Anybody else have dads like that?
All you needed to straighten you out was . . .
“The look.”
Now, if things ever went beyond “the Look” I was about to get it.
If Dad had to actually speak to me, I was probably already in trouble.
To be honest, I never even remember him having to speak to me twice.
If he called me, and I didn’t come, O my goodness!
I don’t even know what would have happened because I never remember that even happening!
Now as strong as my Dad was and as much as I respect him, I must tell you that God is much stronger.
God is more just.
God is more loving.
God certainly has more authority.
I don’t know if God looks at us the way my Dad used to look at me and correct me, but I certainly know that He speaks.
When God says something once, that’s enough!
God never has to repeat Himself.
What He says, goes.
Yet, there are times when God does repeat Himself.
To get through to our thick brains and to jar our wills He might say something twice.
When Jesus was here on this earth, there were times when He would use a curious phrase.
In your KJV Bible it is “Verily, Verily.”
If you read it in an NIV, it reads “Truly, Truly, I say unto you.”
When Jesus said that, He was saying what I am about to tell you is very very important.
Write it down and underline it in red.
Type it into your blackberry.
Put it at the top of your to do list.
This is very important.
Saying it once is all God needs to do.
Saying it twice means that we had better always remember and never, ever forget it.
But there’s only one thing that gets said three times in regard to God.
There’s only one characteristic of God that gets so emphasized.
You find it in Isaiah 6. There, Isaiah is given a glimpse of the living God and the angels who announce Him do not say, “Holy is the Lord;” They do not say, “Holy, Holy is the Lord.”
They say that the Lord is “Holy, Holy, Holy.”
They raise it to the third degree and by that they tell us that of all the things God is, the one characteristic that towers above everything else is this one: God is Holy, Holy, Holy!
You see, Holiness is a Person.
God is holy.
But holiness is also a Place.
On the screen you see something you may or may not recognize.
It is a replica of the Jewish temple.
The temple contained three sections: There was the courtyard where the people would gather to worship.
There was the Holy Place where the priest went to carry on the duties of worship.
Then there was the Holy of Holies, or, as the book of Hebrews renders it, “the Holiest of All.”
In the Holy of Holies was the Ark of the Covenant and the mercy seat.
It was here where God, the Father, manifested Himself to the Jewish people.
It was the physical place of God’s dwelling on this earth.
So get this straight: The temple was God’s physical dwelling place on earth.
If you were to commune with God, you had to come here.
But there was something rather curious about this temple.
Hebrews 9:6-7 explains it.
“Now when these things had been thus prepared, the priests always went into the first part of the tabernacle, performing the services.
7 But into the second part the high priest went alone once a year . .
.”
That’s kind of weird, don’t you think.
Here you have the place where the physical presence of God on the earth was, but only one person, the High Priest, could ever go in there, and he could only go in once per year.
Why?
Well, it’s because not only is holiness a person and not only is holiness a place,
Holiness also presented a problem.
Separating the Most holy place from the rest of the temple was a veil or a curtain, if you will.
(Show pic) This curtain was huge.
Not only was it tall, but the bible teaches that it was woven together with several pieces of cloth until it was 3 inches thick.
Wow! Now God had given the instructions to Moses about how to make that curtain, so it was obvious that he was serious about separating Himself from man.
Why?
Well, it was because of His Holiness and it was because of our sin.
You remember the story: Adam and Eve were given the choice in the garden.
They could follow God and receive blessing.
They could follow God and have intimate communion with Him every day.
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