Known and Loved

Jeremy Pleasant

Come to the Table • Sermon • Submitted 5 years ago

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Overview

Start new series today called “Come to the Table”

I want to invite you to dive in these next several weeks as we rediscover the power and passion of communion, the in depth experience with God and the impact it has on our daily lives.

Psalm 34:8 NIV

Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.

Experiencing God - Vineyard Value

At the Vineyard both here and around the world, one of our core values exists in the ability to experience God regularly. It’s a value of ours because walking with Christ is more than gaining knowledge. Knowledge is important, but without a real life experience that knowledge has a limited bandwidth. When I say experience that’s going to mean something different to different people and while it’s very important to not project our experiences and ideas of it onto others, it is important to walk together to find a new depth in something that is much bigger than ourselves.

James 4:8 NIV

Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

Come near to God and he will come near to you. - James 4.8

With that said, most people in our stream of church, in the non-denominational, evangelical, pentecostal streams of church find this experience consistently in musical worship. That’s definitely been my experience, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. My challenge to you is something that I’ve been challenged with. What if we narrowed our experience with God to a few preset definitions? What if there are more ways, and what if the fulfillment of life we’ve been looking for exists beyond our presets? That’s what this series is about, so let’s dive in.

Psalm 34:8 NIV

Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.

Getting Beyond Tradition

Communion has been a Christian practice since the beginning of Christianity. It was done first at the Last Supper (explain last supper).

It was a practice that was instituted by Christ to succeed the Jewish celebration of Passover. We’ll dive into that a little bit later. What’s important is that this idea of bread and wine goes beyond communion and beyond Passover. It actually exists throughout the narrative of the Bible. This is important because it helps us understand God’s purposes for us and why this is so important and how we meet God there.

Eucharist Experience

The Lord’s Supper as it’s also been called teaches us God’s love and the value of community. The shared act of receiving communion together begins to change us on the inside. It actually begins to transform our character. As we partake in it together we get to live out the redemptive nature of Jesus, experiencing redemption in our own lives and being apart of seeing redemption in the lives of others. Let us move toward experiencing God’s love and presence deeply in Communion.

Understanding, Application, Experience

In order to do that though we must be able engage in 3 ways. One of the greatest commands is to love God with all our mind, soul, and strength. As we step into this, I want us to get understanding, learn how to apply that knowledge, and in that we will experience the shift in our souls. Throughout today and the rest of the series, I’m going to take us through all 3 ways at various times and in various ways, and my ask of you, is that as you go home, in your small groups, throughout your week that you would do the same.

We Are Deeply Loved By God

We cannot understand communion at all, or have a transcendent experience through it, if we miss this first part. Everything that comes after this week is distorted or incomplete if we don’t grasp this. It is to understand and embrace the love of God in communion.The Psalm says taste and see. Could it be possible that through this act of communion we can come to know God’s goodness? The love of God is understood through his character, demonstrated through his action throughout scripture and can be experienced as we taste and see. The character of God is revealed in Jesus. He is the closest we can get to understanding the depth of God’s love. We see God’s love demonstrated both before and through Christ at different times and yet connected.

One of the key demonstrations is in the Exodus. As God freed what he calls his ‘son’ that is Israel from slavery, we get to see a glimpse into the vastness of his love. We’re so far removed from it that it can be at times difficult to absorb the depth of grace given in this story. For right now let’s see it for what it is at the surface, a show of love. Right before they were released, the final plague took place, and they were finally set free. Since then it was remembered (to this day) by Israel as the passover. It was called that because they were spared

Throughout Israel’s history that we can see in scripture, God freed them over and over again. He constantly broke the chains off their neck, feet, and hands to bring them to a place of safety and wholeness. As we read the stories in depth, every time it’s done, it’s because God loves his people. As we read the Psalms we see a reflection of the author as they continually experience the love of God. As Jesus proved, God didn’t just love his people but the entire world, and he wanted to demonstrate that love through the freeing of people.

Luke 4:18 NIV

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free,

Luke 4.6

Jesus said this as he was doing a reading in the synagogue of the book of Isaiah. When Isaiah said this hundreds of years before Jesus arrived it was a prophecy, it was what the people of Israel were waiting for. Jesus was declaring this about himself, showing what he was here to do. To continue the work of freeing people because of his great love and this time for the whole world.

Looking back at that scripture, it says to “take refuge.” This is defined as a safe place, a retreat, a space for healing and renewal in (Yahweh) the one who makes everything whole. What’s your refuge? For some that’s their home. It’s where you feel safest and the most loved. For others it can be the church, and still others that refuge of safety, wholeness, and love can come from something unexpected. The question is, how do we do that? How do we enter into this refuge? How do we make God a refuge in our lives? That is the journey, that’s where we want to go and stay and come back to. Perhaps the journey starts in asking the question, where do I need to be free?

Behold

In ancient Judaism until this day they celebrate the passover. It’s one of the major celebrations of the Jewish people. It’s a celebration and a remembrance of God freeing them, protecting them. During the tabernacle, this was the earlier days of this celebration, the priest would grab the bread and say ‘behold God’s love for you.’ This was so powerful to me as I read that. Jesus succeeded the passover celebration with communion, and now when I take the bread and I hope when we take the bread we can say ‘behold, God’s love for me.’ And we can behold it as we remember the places he’s brought us freedom, and we can behold it again as we journey toward more freedom in our lives.

We Are Known By God

To be loved is to be known. As we can be known by God we will be able to experience that love.

1 Corinthians 8:3 NIV

But whoever loves God is known by God.

Luke 12:7 NIV

Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

[Sound library and sound designers recognizing their work. In the same way, as the object of God’s affection he knows us]

To be fully known though is the pathway to experience love in the midst of brokenness. We have to move to a place in our relationships with others and with God where we can be fully known. In this place, we open up what’s known about us, it’s the good, bad, and ugly. When we can go there and still be loved that’s where it takes effect, that where it becomes real.

[Used to say i didn’t trust people. Reality. Both with humans and God, when unmasked everything, and I experienced love, it actually changed me.

With God, I was afraid to unmask even though he knew everything, I was afraid to show that in my interactions in prayer, scripture, worship communion, in the day to day. When I did do that with much resistance and much to my surprise he was there waiting, smiling, with open arms.

When I did that with those closest to me with resistance and much to my surprise they did not turn from me but still accepted me

This is why I talk about radical acceptance, because to be accepted fully as who you are, good bad and ugly is the only way to experience the gift of the cross and the freedom of the Gospel]

Where do you least want to go to be vulnerable? What experience or wound is too raw to even touch? What do you hide about yourself from everyone? These are the places to go, this is where you set your heart before God, and I encourage you to go to these places as we take bread and wine, because as we see his face in the bread and take refuge there, that’s where we find healing, acceptance, and hope.

We Can Know God

There are times where it seems God is this unknowable, untouchable, entity far away. Times when it seems as if we can only know him through what we’ve heard.

[Someone says do you know Marcus. I know of him, but don’t actually know him].

And for those that say they do know him, there are times when we want to know more know deeper but it seems we have hit a wall. We can break through the wall, we can close the distance and know God through Christ and communion. In the tabernacle when they would remember through the passover, that celebration that is succeeded with communion, the bread would actually represent the face of God, and where that bread was stored most of the time was in this place called the Holy of Holies. That place, was where God’s presence existed in that time. So, as Jesus connects that to communion he is saying that we can see God’s face, that we can know him.

What we need to do is seek to know him. Seek out the heart of God. As we are loved and known we can know Yahweh and love him and it’s this back and forth. We seek by asking.

Luke 11:11–13 NIV

“Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

[Explain the Holy Spirit in this context]

Closing

[Setup scene of Jesus in Garden]

John 20:13–16 NIV

They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?” “They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?” Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.” Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).

John 20.

[Intimacy]

Practical Tips

Identify one area of your life you want to be free. This will be the one thing you pursue throughout this series and Easter. Don’t ignore it or shove it away, bring it to the forefront as you engage with God in communion every week.

Where do you feel or believe (whether or not it’s logically true) that God’s love is conditional? Start asking God each day to know him more and for his presence to bring light and truth to that area. [For example, God will love me more when I get over this addiction. I know it’s not true, but I believe it is, to go from knowledge to experience requires knowing him more. (Nina and I e-enacting Fresh Prince. Barely knew each other, then we knew each other.)

Nina and I e-enacting Fresh Prince. Barely knew each other, then we knew each other.

[Communion. If you have or haven’t, If you want to, you can, anyone compelled to ßcan]