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ATTENTION
We are looking this morning at the second sign of the cross.
Last week we spoke of Baptism.
This week, we will talk about Communion.
At least that’s what we Baptists call it.
If you were from another denomination, you might call it “The Lord’s Table,” or “The Eucharist.”
Regardless of the title, I bet when you think of communion, you don’t think of this.
Most of us are familiar with astronaut Neil Armstrong's historic statement as he stepped onto the moon's surface: "That's one small step for man; one giant leap for mankind."
I bet you didn’t know however about the first meal Buzz Aldrin ate there.When Apollo 11 landed on the surface of the moon on Sunday, July 20, 1969.
Buzz Aldrin had brought aboard the spacecraft a tiny Communion kit provided by his church.
Aldrin sent a radio broadcast to Earth asking listeners to contemplate the events of that day and give thanks.Then, in radio blackout for privacy … [Aldrin] read, "I am the vine, you are the branches.
He who abides in me, and I in him, bears much fruit."
Then, he gave thanks, and took communion.
No matter what you call it, or how you see it, communion describes an incident that happened in the life of Christ during the last few hours before his death on the cross.
Paul describes it like this:
For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; 24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” 25 In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood.
This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”
26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.
I want to show you communion from three angles this morning.
I want to draw, if you want to say it this way, three pictures of what Communion is all about.
Seeing these pictures will focus your attenion and explain what this curious little ceremony is all about.
In the first place, Communion is a picture of our sin.
DIV 1: COMMUNION IS A PICTURE OF SIN
EXPLANATION
We begin with this picture because, without it, the cross would have been unnecessary.
But, through the disobedience of Adam and all of us, his children, we are sinners.
We might admit that, but we sometimes don’t really see its hideousness.
Ephesians really fleshes out the picture of sin for us.
In Ephesians 2:1-3, you see it plainly.
It says
And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, 2 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, 3 among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.
You find, here, that sin has a culture.
It’s culture is the “course of this world” mentioned in v. 2. That simply means that every commercial on television, every billboard on the highway, every human approach to problems, every psychological excuse for failure comes from a mindset that follows the “course of this world.”
Sin has a culture.
And sin has a master.
V2 also says that we walked “according to the prince of the power of the air.”
The master of sin is the master of this world’s course.
It’s the master contender for God’s glory and the master schemer against God’s plan.
It’s the enemy of holiness and the enemy of our souls.
Its Satan.
Sin has a master; Sin has a culture.
And then sin has a following.
V 2 says we walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, notice, “the spiritu who now works in the sons of disobedience.”
We are slaves to the culture and the master of sin, but we are willing slaves.
We have followed the course of sin and it has captured us in its unyielding grasp.
Like lemmings we walk blindly towards the cliff of disaster enslaved by the spirit “that now works in the children of disobedience.”
Sin has a following.
And sin also has an addiction.
V3 says, “among whom we also conducted ourselves (watch) “in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind.”
A “lust” is simply a strong, controlling desire.
Can anyone say “co-dependence”?
Can anyone say “addiction?” Hey, its not just crack and its not just cocaine.
This addiction extends to almost every act of sin.
We become sitting ducks for the slavery of addiction through the appeal of sin to our sinful nature.
Sin has an addiction.
And all of this just leads to this last one: Sin has a destiny.
V 3 says that “we were by nature children of wrath.”
Politically correct churches might want to ignore this one.
The truth is, God’s mad about our sin.
Apart from the communion we are talking about today and what it means, we will fall under the wrath and the judgment of God.
Sin has a destiny and that destiny is eternal separation and torment under the wrath and judgment of God.
Sin has a culture.
Sin has a master.
Sin has a following.
Sin has an addiction and sin has a destiny.
Not a pretty picture, is it.
ILLUSTRATION
Dallas Willard writes about a 2-and-a-half-year-old girl in her backyard who one day discovered the secret to making mud (which she called "warm chocolate").
Her grandmother had been reading and was facing away from the action, but after cleaning up what was to her a mess, she told little Larissa not to make any more chocolate and turned her chair around so as to be facing her granddaughter.
The little girl soon resumed her "warm chocolate" routine, with one request posed as sweetly as a 2-and-a-half-year-old can make it: "Don't look at me, Nana.
Okay?" Nana (being a little co-dependent) of course agreed.
Larissa continued to manufacture warm chocolate.
Three times she said, as she continued her work, "Don't look at me, Nana.
Okay?"
Then Willard writes: "Thus the tender soul of a little child shows us how necessary it is to us that we be unobserved in our wrong."
Any time we choose to do wrong or to withhold doing right, we choose hiddenness as well.
It may be that out of all the prayers that are ever spoken, the most common one—the quietest one; the one that we least acknowledge making—is simply this: Don't look at me, God.
It was the very first prayer spoken after the Fall.
God came to walk in the garden, to be with the man and the woman, and called, "Where are you?"
"I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid," Adam answered, "so I hid."
Don't look at me, God.
APPLICATION:
If the cross tells us anything, it tells us that God desperately wants to be in communion with us.
He wants to look on us and for us to look on Him . . . to have a relationship with Him.
The only way for that to happen to a sinful man is for that man to experience the reality that lies behind communion.
To experience the reality of the cross.
It is this ceremony of the cross, this communion that shows us the picture of our sin, and just how far God will go to deal with it.
Communion is a picture of sin, but it is also a
DIV 2: PICTURE OF SACRIFICE
EXPLANATION
In our text, 1 Corinthians 11, we read about the body of Christ.
V 23, 24 says “ . . .
that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; 24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you.
His body, represented by this bread, speaks of the sacrifice Jesus made for us on that cross.
V. 24 says “This is My Body. .
.”
We tend to read right over that phrase, but don’t miss the importance of it.
Jesus’ body was the only body that could have been offered like this.
Put me on a cross, and my death might be noble, but I could not save you.
Christ alone was able to save us because He was God and He was sinless.
His sacrifice was sufficient.
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