Missio Communion Meditation (June 2024)

Communion

Brothers and sisters as we prepare our hearts to take communion this morning, let’s read together from Romans 12:1–2 — you can follow along in your Bibles or listen as I read

Romans 12:1–2 ESV

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

to summarize this passage:

Gospel mercies (produce)

Grateful men and women (with)

God-centered minds

1. Gospel Mercies

Paul has just spent the first 11 chapters of this letter to the Romans covering some of the deepest, most theologically rich content in the entire Bible. He has just finished unpacking and exploring the depths of the Gospel, and now he is ready to make a transition into how believers should respond.

But instead of simply telling them what to do, he reminds them why

… and this morning, brothers and sisters, we get to be reminded of the Gospel. The Gospel is why we’re here.

It’s because of the Gospel that we have a church and that we gather together. It’s because of the Gospel that we take communion. It’s the Gospel that causes us to love to be together and encourage one another — Remember brothers and sisters that

Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”

Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Romans 5:8 “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Romans 6:7 “For one who has died has been set free from sin.”

This is the Gospel message — we were on the path towards hell but God saved us with a free gift of mercy!

so “Therefore brothers and sisters” what is the therefore there for?

The Gospel is the reason, Jesus is the reason, His great mercy is the reason, and these great Gospel mercies produce

2. Grateful Men and Women

what does it say? “present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship”

brothers and sisters, if your heart has been caught by the love of the Gospel of Jesus, if you were saved from a life of death and destruction and were rescued from the fires of hell — if you believe that Jesus stood in your place and tasted the gruesome horrible death on a Roman cross that you and I both deserved, the natural response in our hearts is complete and total surrender… from now on we no longer live a life of pursuing our own kingdoms and “finding our own truths”, we no longer worship our own pleasure and try and find life on our own terms apart from God, we’ve FOUND that hidden treasure in a field and we can’t HELP but in our joy give all that we have to Him… our entire life must now be one of gratitude, cheerfully presenting all that we are — our bodies, our giftedness, our work, our relationships, our money, our time — to God… this is how we worship now, by dying to our former way of life and living a life of cheerful sacrifice

the Gospel mercies produce Grateful men and women who also don’t just ‘do things for God’ but who ARE a living sacrifice to God

notice where the transformation takes place in this verse — in our minds

We Christians are called to be grateful men and women with God-centered minds

3. God-centered Minds

Romans 12:2 “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

Notice how the first place he goes to is our minds — the mind is the battleground. God is telling us that the key to transformation is not merely an outward one but an inward one — be transformed in our minds.

The exhortation here is for us to not be squeezed into the mold that the world will shape us into, but to be changed by the renewing of our minds … and I’ve got to ask — what are we setting our minds on? There’s been a lot of opportunities to let our minds get distracted lately… where has your attention been this week? where do our minds lead us?

if you spend enough time on your phone, eventually you end up bored and lazy… if you spend so much time with the news, you inevitably end up filled with anger. If you are consumed by fantasy and escape, you end up feeling empty and alone… if you spend so much time thinking about the things you disagree with or everything that you are against, eventually you forget what you are for… brothers and sisters ‘do not be conformed to this world’ does not mean we are only characterized by what we stand against. Isn’t it possible that the amount of time you and I spend thinking about the world we don’t want to be conformed to is the very thing that can cause us to be conformed to it?

We need something better — we need transformation. The word for ‘transformed’ here in the Greek is where we get the word metamorphosis — it’s the same word we see in 2 Corinthians 3:18 when Paul says “....we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another...”

When we are beholding the glory of the Lord, that is what transforms us into grateful men and women who are able to please God.

Our encouragement, our privilege this morning is to set our minds on Jesus, think about God’s Word, meditate on His Gospel mercies, abide in Him, then your life will be a pleasing and acceptable, sanctified sacrifice to God.

now before we take communion together, Let’s remember the Gospel, let’s renew our minds this morning by remembering Jesus sacrifice on the cross.

let’s each of us go to the Lord in prayer, confessing our sins and then we will take communion together.

——

Communion is a time for Christians — those who have given their hearts to Christ — to remember His sacrifice on the cross — the bread symbolizes his body, the juice his blood. We eat and drink these symbols — they enter into us — as a symbol of the inward change that the Spirit is working within our hearts and minds.

If this seems strange to you or you’re not sure if you’re a Christian yet, it’s ok to not take communion — we’d love to talk with you after the service about what it means and how you can become a part of God’s family.

Let's now pause and remember and reflect on the cross of Christ, and then we will take communion together.

(silence)

Mark 14:22–25

[22] And as they were eating, he took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to them, and said, “Take; this is my body.”

[23] And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, and they all drank of it. [24] And he said to them, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. [25] Truly, I say to you, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.” (ESV)

Let’s pray