The Pleasures of Fellowship with God

Dear Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ,

Familiarity breeds contempt? What do you suppose that means in regard to the Lord’s Supper. Its a warning isn’t it. That the Lord’s Supper is not to become a mindless routine. There is a reason why historically few Reformed churches have celebrated the Lord’s Supper in every service. Even in Geneva where spiritual maturity - actually had services every day, with worship and preaching, and if the abuses of wrong view of the sacraments, an mindless participation could be overcome, Calvin associated the deformation of the Lord’s Supper and the “piling up” of abuses and innovations of which we have just spoken with the infrequency of its celebration: “Now to get rid of the great pile of ceremonies, the Supper could have been administered most becomingly if it were set before the church very often, and at least once a week.” There is no command one way or the other.

But its possible to go to other extreme, that we celebrate so infrequently because we fail to see its vital importance. Consider where else we see this principle at work: do we say food is so good only going to eat once a month or quarterly, or married couples once a decade we’ll consummate our intimacy. But nonetheless, certain foods, meals, banquets consider very special. And the quantity and frequency with which eat them - is chosen with care. Don't guzzle the best scotch like water, nor ought couple to consider intimacy like biological necessity to be satisfied like mere physical urges. IN the frequency and the quality and length of time - we make room for special heighten enjoyments. And certainly this ought to be the case every time we obey our Lord’s command for Him to meet with us in very special way in the Supper. This is the reason , why following Paul’s command, before the Supper usually a week before what do we do? Not only the act of remembering, participating and proclaiming while we partake, but before preparing: 1 Cor 11:28

1 Corinthians 11:28 ESV

Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

And looking at the tenses - first we examine ourselves. and during and after the supper look what we are to be doing: discerning. 1 Cor 11:29

1 Corinthians 11:29 ESV

For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.

I could show this means both the body of Christ, your place and duty, and fellowship with other believers, rich and poor , like you and unlike you - discern your participation with them, and that it also means discerning what Christ’s own body sacrificed for you means, what it brings. That it is His gift to you that brings you into a sharing fellowship with God. ie show & tell to JK And in that sharing fellowship part of this meal, I want to bring us back to a practice that we used to do after partaking that has fallen out of practice. We know the place of preparation, but how about of reflection, spiritual reflection on your fellowship with God after partaking. If negatively not doing this kind of discerning and reflecting, can bring judgment on ourselves, result in an abuse and misuse, and neglect of the LORD Supper. But what do you suppose positively doing this discerning and reflecting after the supper might do for us?

KEY TRUTH: Reflection is continually looking to the Lord and having fellowship with Him.

Now we will do this in the Supper - looking to the LORD and what He has done - we will remember in the richest sense of the word - re-present; and we will also take to ourselves Christ and all his benefits - that’s to partake in Christ to participate and share fellowship with Him. But leaving this table - we ought to re-commit anew to set the Lord before us, to look to Him always and and live in ongoing fellowship with Him. Part of this covenant meal, is to be renew the covenant. it is to do what one couple asked me to participate in with them - to renew their covenant vows!

A. Make a Re-Commitment to Continually Look to the LORD.

From our first text in Exodus 24:11b

Exodus 24:11b ESV

And he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel; they beheld God, and ate and drank.

- I don’t think Moses, Aaron, Nadab & Abihu and those 70 elders ever forgot there experience on Mt Sinai! But how sad is this? Not but a couple days later Aaron is listening to the people about how to seek blessing and protection from others gods, of the people making, And even more tragically Nadab and Abihu as we saw in book of Numbers - they seem to care nothing for God’s appointed sacrificial system and the ritual of atonement - willing to burn strange fire to push themselves forward. Just coming and partaking physically , even seeing the Lord in the covenant meal is not a guarantee of by faith taking the LORD and His benefits to yourself.

But look what happens to Moses as God called him further up with his assistant Joshua. And moses went higher still and the cloud covered the mountaintop And for six days in the glory God of God Moses was in the midst. - talks with God as friend with friend. And His face needs to be veiled - why ? 2 Cor 3:16-18

2 Corinthians 3:16–18 ESV

But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And 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. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

Moses comes down the mountain, as one in communion with God, as one reflecting His glory, and the people say, give him a veil And that is the picture f real fellowship with God, until Christ comes, but in Christ the veil taken away - and we are all to live with that staring into the light of God in Christ, and then changed by it glowing with that grace that glory, living in that continual dialogue with the LORD. We see this when down from the mountain into the valley of the real worlds problems and about and suffering, failures - Moses goes down form the mountain top - knowing gracious name of the Lord, as an intercede-er, just as in the NT Jesus and His disciples leave Mt of Transfiguration, met right away with disciples saying can't heal with is man - . Moses goes to the problems of Israel and because he lives in fellowship he intercedes, he is living in continual dialogue with the LORD.

What about you as you come form the mountain top of the Communion table - as you go into this broken world, with its temptations, sins, problem,s failures. You are to do so with a reflection of looking to the LORD as Moses did after eating that meal. OF not just reflecting by yourself, but a continual dialogue builds between God in you. A Brakel - in time of Reformed church dying in formalism, cold hearts, dry logic, - says you come to this table, ought to leave it: in a continual dialogue with the LORD:

“at one time pray, then ask for counsel, then express your dependence upon Him, then wait upon Him, then reverently worship Him, then rest in Him, then thank Him and then again offer yourself to His service. Acquaint yourself thus with Him.

This morning we saw that sacrament means a pledge to a commanding officer - this is the covenant I engage in trusting in you my captain. This is the battle I sign up for and engage in. Reflect looking to Lord in the world you return to now.

B. Make a Re-Commitment to Rely on Fellowship through Christ

But it is not only a looking continually to the Lord, it is also a re-commitment to be found having fellowship with the Lord. That happens at the he table in a heightened way often for us doesn’t it. But as you see the light, the glory, the purity in your Christ and experience that with Him at the Table, you are to do some reflecting, that as you go from the table into life, Christ alone is where you find righteousness, want to, not just celebrate that light glory and purity here, but participate in it always out there. That is fellowship with Christ.

We see this in Psalm Asaph was out in the world, whole first half of the Psalm in depression,soul was embittered, and his heart pricked. he was brutish and ignorant, a beast toward GOD! why do the wicked prosper and the righteous suffer? Psalm 73:16-17

Psalm 73:16–17 ESV

But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task, until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their end.

Listen as in the temples heart, at the place of atoning sacrifice, the pivot point of all the grinding wheels and gears of this life’s brokenness sin, purpose joy - all turns on the atoning sacrifice, the Christ - temporary pleasures of the wicked - Asaph realize God despises like phantoms - no real reality, But now listen to how he experiences God there - and how we must here at the table:

Psalm 73:23-24

Psalm 73:23–24 ESV

Nevertheless, I am continually with you; you hold my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory.

Asaph could only know that in shadowy/outline b/w sketch form, but not you as you come to the heart of God’s sanctuary at this table. This is the at-one-ment, the fellowship restored - the living with God that can happen with Christ! Reflect on it , claim those promises fulfilled in Him - live like that with God. And then listen as Asaph has reflected what he sums up about how he will live life outside of the temple in the nitty-gritty of daily life:

Psalm 73:25-26

Psalm 73:25–26 ESV

Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

Do you get that - Christ is my portion: my righteousness, all the holiness of God greatness of righteousness that I see at the Cross, there is no righteousness of God that will condemn me any more, That’s how the rest of the world has to approach the holiness of God - fear of punishment, fear of not being enough. But in the Surety of the New Covenant, in the Mediator on the Cross for me, He merited all that perfect righteousness and holiness for me - he says my righteousness it for your advantage!

And so you look upon the perfect Christ, all His goodness lived out perfectly loving and serving God, perfectly loving and serving our neighbour - And I say - that goodness that all-sufficiency of God - it is for me!

You know the story of Midas - everything touch turns to gold - you know the story of the Alchemist Stone - - well that is who Christ has become to you and me - all His goodness overflow from His life into mine .

Now if you are Midas’s family member - make a visit to Him, imagine if said I want to live with You. Rejected, spurn neglect Him. If you had that stone, would you bury it in the ground, would you just take it out for a kind of ceremony once every 3 months - or would you say this is better than anything else in my life - all other creature and creaturely goods, pales in comparison. Really I desire nothing else in heaven , and I desire nothing else right now and here on earth - that the All-Sufficiency and Goodness of Christ to be with and for and in Me. You can have all this world, give me Jesus - He is the pearl of greatest worth, rather forfeit all my treasures - than lose living life daily with Him! I will be no fool and gain the world but forfeit my soul!

Can you say it like Asaph in Psalm 73:28

Psalm 73:28 ESV

But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord God my refuge, that I may tell of all your works.

Abraham Kuiper’s most beautiful book - devotional for newspaper gathered together - To be Near unto God. Apart from God there is nothing I desire, my soul find everything in God.

Like CS Lewis said, Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither.

No real enjoyment of the stuff we are clutching after in this world, - but when you get God in Christ, then enjoying it all in Him.

Will you leave this table seeking all your good in fellowship with this Christ? Will you recognize that even the troubles that Jesus said would be in your life until he comes again, the ones that troubled Aspah , that designed for you live all the more closely with the Lord, bringing them to Him, to use and to give grace to you as you rely on Him .

But there is one more way we must come to this table and then leave it with a renewed commitment, and that is with an eye to the future. We examine don’t we our faith , discerning the body of Christ, we examine and experience real love from God in Christ and love for the body of Christ - commit ourselves so that. But what is the third element of a Christian life we examine and ought have strengthened at the table and leaving the table? It is our hope.

C. Make a Re-Commitment to Live Forever WITH the LORD.

What is the Christian's hope revived and strengthen and renewed commitment to live in this world with that hope: 1 Thessalonians 4:17

1 Thessalonians 4:17 ESV

Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.

Listen to the end of that verse again: And so we will always be with the LORD!

You know life without God, you can imagine world as we know it without Emmanuel God with us. But the Christian hope is God with us, not just at Christmas, but now by the Spirit - I won’t leave you orphans - never will I leave you or forsake, so you can say with confidence the Lord is My Helper I will not be afraid, Emmanuel is not only with me, but by His Spirit He is in me! And those who have died in the Lord, and when my time comes - not life after some long period of shadowy purgatory like death. Go to Christ my head immediately in heaven, We believe in life full life in God’s presence, with the people perfect already who have gone before us - Heb 12 assembly of the righteous made perefect and myriads of angels in joyful assembly! That’s life after life.

And then Resurrection of the body on the last day and the new heavens and the new earth - then the dwelling of God fully with you and me. Do you get that do you reflect on it at this table - as perhaps you think of the communion of saints gone before you and me. They are with the Lord above, and right now we have a sort of heaven in part already, we live in fellowship with the same God in Christ. We with them are with the LORD forever.

How does that change how you leave this table., if the troubles and struggles even death itself, and separation between heaven now and heaven in the new heavens and earth - if not even that can stop the fact that we will be forever with the LORD, even now already .

It means we will become people with a thoughtful and steadfast spiritual frame. Not frantic when things go against us, in perspective and with the LORD at my side. There will be a quiet submission in all circumstance so I desire God’s will not just my own. There will be fearless courage and boldness is the duties, which God puts before each one of us - there will be a delight in the particular tasks God calls each of us too - I can leave the outcomes to the Lord, but what I do I do hopefully and joyfully unto Him.

You know what? That’s the kind of life like Moses coming down from the mountain to serve in this wild world. SO humble, a life of joy a life that holiness wholeness me goodness issue forth from

As we go to the table and then leave it - having in a more concentrated way fellowship with Christ, we are depart with new resolve walk with him every day of my life until He returns or calls me home - I will walk with Him. He came to be my Emmanuel, so I will live in that reality! Listen to how David describes living in his presence not just in heaven but today and On Monday until Christ comes again: Psalm 16:11

Psalm 16:11 ESV

You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

Come let us delight in our fellowship with our God through His Son and by the powerful working of the Holy Spirit. Come let us resolve to walk in this fellowship always! Amen !