Lords Supper

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Welcome to the Lord’s Supper everyone. As Graham launched into this using Galations 1 last week I am going to model mine on Galations 2:19-20. There is no need to turn there. I have a number of scriptures that derive from this one.

Galatians 2:19–20 “For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

When we surrender to Christ, we are obligated to put Him first before all else. We ought to be the Lord’s vessel in all His glory. As Galations is very clear in that we need to crucify or do away of the law. When we go under in water baptism, we are buried in Christ’s death and are raised up in His resurrection life. Therefore we share in the cross and His suffering in that we are able to live a new life born again in the Kingdom of His love and glory. This is great news. No longer do we thrive for ourselves as Christ life has entered and we live for the cross as Christ occupies us and makes us His own.

Romans 8:2 “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.”

Breaking away from the law is liberating. Christ sets us free not only from the World but also from legalistic tendencies and false dogma in the Church. Church needs to be enjoyable and that is only available when we preach the Bible and Christ crucified. As soon as we get carried away with other tendencies we grieve The Holy Spirit. Such activities includes rock bands, social programmes, legalistic tithing, long distracting services, three point sermons mushed with philosophy, hype on how to live our best life now and anything false or worldly.

Romans 6:6 “knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.”

Some more good news is that we say good bye to the old self and through Christ we deal with the sin problem too. As we put on Christ we defeat sin and do away with things in our life that distract us from our journey with Christ. In a dark world we can develop sinful habits and compulsive tendencies that manifests in a world of slavery to the flesh, carnal man and the devil himself. In Christ, we are given freedom and liberty to live our life in victory, cutting off the sin nature in us so that we can walk righteously in the Lord. We are no longer slaves to sin but live for Christ in the new born again existence.

Galatians 5:24 “And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”

In the kingdom of darkness, there are many passions and desires that need to be crucified. However, Jesus requires us to be contrite before Him, giving Him our allegience, repentence and will to remove old habits and walk as children of God. This is our sanctification, becoming more like Christ in His perfection, a progressive act in working out our salvation with Him.

Galatians 6:14 “But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”

When looking at the Lords Supper we need to give God the glory for our salvation and sanctification. Jesus won the victory in order to reverse the constitution that Satan had over us to be free from his dark Kingdom. As we put on the New Adam, Christ overthones Satan and effectively chucks Him out. All of Satans plans for our life now become dead and void. When we do that, Christ now owns us and we become a slave to Christ and as we die to self, we gain eternal living. This is the wonderful new birth of the cross.

Romans 6:8–11 “Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

As we think of the Lord’s Supper, we celebrate the cross that verified Christ’s dominion, so that death no longer has a hold of us. Where is death’s sting. For the Christian, we escape the perils of this World and its destination as we pilgrims pass through to eternity with our maker - the one that died for us so we escape what we deserve in hell. In it only through the love of Christ that we are good. We should not boast anything except in Christ and Him crucified.

2 Corinthians 5:15 “and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.”

There comes a time when we need to put Christ first in every aspect of our lives. THe Lord’s Supper is an attempt to put Jesus in the picture before we move into the lesson. As we put our eyes on the gruesome treatment that Jesus undergoed for us, we reflect on a World that hates God. Even God’s people hated Him without a cause. The whole World was against Christ but the new dispensation began when Jesus rose again from the dead. As the veil was torn, we now are priests under God. Jesus always meant for us to worship Him only. He is our King we need no man or woman or medium to commune with Him. We have direct access to our God through Jesus Christ.

Before we take of the emblems, let us first reflect on our loving Saviours transgression as I read Isa 53:1-5.

Isaiah 53:1–5 “Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, And as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness; And when we see Him, There is no beauty that we should desire Him. He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.”

Thank you Father for permitting your Sin to die for our World that you love dearly. I pray for this in the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. We can now take the bread, commemorating your Body that was slain on the cross Jesus.

Pause ...

We now partake of your blood symbolised by the grape juice. As we drink of this cordial, we thank you for your perfect sacrifice that makes as well and atones for our blemishes and imperfections. I commend this to you Jesus in your loving name and sacrifice