Deliverance

Ceremony can mean little more than habit. You likely have a ceremony about where you but your keys, phone, wallet or purse. The value is that the ceremony helps you know where things belong and where to find them. It means you don’t have to think about where these valuables are - they are where they belong.

There value here, but there’s very little meaning in it.

Ceremonies high in value and low in meaning are utilitarian. Others are high in meaning and low in value. We tend to create these when we know the importance of God, or of religious belief, but don’t have a direct connection or relationship with God.

Think of all the chants and candles and shelves lined with idols. They mean a lot to the people depending on them, but they are empty. They are like maps of an imaginary land. When followed carefully, they only get you lost.

The Lord’s supper is not these. It has tremendous meaning. More than we tend to think about. But it has great value as well. It is a ceremony designed and directed by God to put us in contact with His greatest purpose with humanity.

Our prayer as we spend these 7 weeks focusing on the Lord’s Supper is that not only it’s meaning will increase for each of you, but that it’s value will increase as well.

Pray

The Lord’s Supper - Deliverance

Deliverance? Get out while you still can! It’s dire, it’s urgent, and you’ll need help!

Deliverance is NOT a timely warning message. Deliverance is more like the scene from The Princes Bride.

Buttercup had been rescued from murderers by a mystery man who turned out to be her long thought dead True Love - Wesley. Freed from the murderers, they are now perused by the prince who she is being forced to marry. In the escape Wesley and Buttercup flee to the Fire Swamp. One of the three mortal dangers of the Fire Swamp are the lightning sands - well hidden and extremely fast quicksand.

Inevitably, Buttercup steps into one of these and disappears below the sand.

Deliverance is A) Wesley shouts “Watch out for the lightning sand! If you swim to the surface you might be able to survive! I’m rooting for you!”

B) Wesley cuts a nearby vine, dives into the deadly lighting sand himself, finds Buttercup, and pulls them both back to the surface.

When we see the Lord’s Supper as meaningful but low in value, we celebrate a ceremony that announces deliverance, but doesn’t lead us to taking hold of it.

Deliverance is one of the messages of this ceremony. It is a message, ceremony, and reality that is repeated throughout the Bible. The Lord’s supper is the final meal Jesus had with His disciples.

It’s a ceremony that pictures Jesus’ death and deliverance for us. It was originally given to God’s people when they were slaves in Egypt - A picture of deliverance God was working at the very moment they were eating it.

It is repeated again when all God’s people are gathered together in His presence and we share a celebration meal. What was once promise, then performed, is finally recieved in full.

Deliverance celebrated in the Lord’s Supper has meaning. And it has real, tangible value every day.

The Passover - A Sign of Deliverance

When we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, we do so because Jesus commanded it. We celebrate what Jesus did with His disciples the night before He was crucified. But that’s not the whole picture. What they were there doing was celebrating what’s called the Passover meal - an annual celebration for the Jewish people.

This is the meal God gave through Moses to the enslaved Jewish people in Egypt.

God had commanded Pharaoh, through Moses, to let the people of Israel go free. But Pharaoh refused to obey God. God had sent 9 plagues on the land, on the Egyptians, and agains the gods the Egyptians worshiped. But they still refused to obey God.

Then God promised a tenth plague - the death of the first-born male among men and animals. This plague would affect every house, with one exception. God gave directions for avoiding this judgement. Kill a lamb at sundown.

Exodus 12:7–13 ESV

7 “Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. 8 They shall eat the flesh that night, roasted on the fire; with unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it. 9 Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted, its head with its legs and its inner parts. 10 And you shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. 11 In this manner you shall eat it: with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord’s Passover. 12 For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord. 13 The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.

Deliverance is always tied to tragic circumstances. You can’t be delivered form a wonderful evening with friends, that would be called an interruptance. But when an execution is interrupted, a person is delivered, at least for a little while.

Deliverance From Disaster

The people of Israel were delivered from the death of their first-born. They were delivered from Slavery.

Jesus offered Himself as the ultimate passover lamb. He delivers us from the results of sin - death. That happens as soon as we trust Him

And He delivers us from the results of sin. That’s an ongoing process.

The Lord’s Supper reminds us of the reality of the disaster, and of our ongoing need for deliverance from the grip os sin.

Deliverance In Faith

Another element of deliverance is Faith. The people of Israel were in a spot they could not escape on their own. They had suffered. They were bound. And with this final plague, they were doomed.

Deliverance requires one who is doomed, and one who can save.

Deliverance By Obedience

The last observation about deliverance is this. Deliverance requires something from the one delivered. The Israelites had to kill the lamb, and mark their houses with blood to have that deliverance given to them. Let me give you another example of their deliverance. After they had left Egypt, Pharaoh changed his mind and chased them with his army. The Israelites were pinned between a sea of water on one side and a brigade of the most powerful army in the world on the other.

Exodus 14:13–14 ESV

13 And Moses said to the people, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. 14 The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.”

They added nothing to their salvation. But when God cleared the water for them, they had to walk through it!

Salvation is trusting in God’s forgiveness through Jesus. God doesn’t offer salvation without deliverance, redemption, and a new life.

Romans 8:1–2 ESV

1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.

If we keep looking toward what we were delivered from instead of who delivered us, what hope is there in the deliverance?

If our concept of God’s deliverance is following the rules of dos and don’t in ‘the big book’ rather that finding a new life through trust and relationship with the God who made us, then died to saves us, we are no better of than Buttercup trying to swim to the surface of the lightning sand on her own.

Deliverance - Application

[Closing Illustration]

Kimberly and I are listening to book ‘Fun…’ about how to relearn how to have real fun. The biggest impediment is fake fun, you know, all the things that tell you they are fun.

It’s like when someone has to tell you to trust them, there’s a reasonable chance they are trying to deceive you. When something tells you it’s fun, there’s a better than reasonable chance it’s not really enjoyable, but manipulating your brain into becoming addicted to it.

Sin works the same. It sells itself as enjoyable but always leaves you needing more. Like the sign at the bar “free beer tomorrow” but we keep coming back expecting the payoff.

Sin promises fulfillment but leaves us empty.

It promises reward but takes everything.

Jesus brought deliverance through his death and resurrection. But he ties that ultimate sacrifice to a final meal. That meal wasn’t for his comfort, but for our instruction.

We are instructed to remember the meal together so that we remember His deliverance for us.

We take the Lord’s Supper to remind us the cost of sinning against God.

We take the Lord’s Supper to remind us of those areas in our life that are stubbornly standing on the shores of a divided sea - the Lord calling us out of selfishness, lust, pride, and anger.

In the Lord’s Supper is an image of God’s unfathomable love for us. It is a mirror to see what parts of our lives are like Christ, and what needs transforming.

Deliverance is a profound moment of mercy when God speaks to your heart and grabs you out of death. If there has not been a time in your life when you have acknowledged in your own mind and heart that you are separated form God, that you trust Jesus’ death and resurrection as payment for your sins, and asked God to save you or forgive you, will you consider that now? It’s the only way to receive the deliverance that every one of us needs.

If God is speaking to you today, and you have not put your trust in him today, will you respond? You can do it right where you are. In your thoughts, tell God

“I acknowledge my guilt before you. I trust Jesus as payment for that guilt. Lord, help me to live for you.”

If you have asked for God’s deliverance today, the Bible says you have it right now! And we rejoice with you!

As we prepare to take the Lord’s Supper, I want to give some directions. We believe that God asks only those who follow Him to take the Lord’s Supper. Even if you just asked for God’s deliverance today, we couldn’t be more glad than for you to follow our lead and participate.

We also believe that He asks those who are followers of Jesus but know they are rebelling from him in their heart to not participate. There might be other reasons someone chooses to not participate.

In every case, our prayer is that you would seek God’s love and authority in your life. In every case, we do not know the reason someone might not choose to participate. We will not judge; we will not assume.

Over the next seven weeks, we will end the live stream at the prayer after the sermon. If you are watching online, we invite you to join us, or a local church on a regular basis. God’s purpose in church is not hearing a service, but in participating in the community of Christ-followers. And an important part of that is partaking in the Lord’s Supper together.