![]() when I hold the bread up and invite you to eat it in remembrance of the Christ – it’s still bread.when I ask a deacon to bless the cup, when he’s done praying – it’s still juice.God does not divi out His grace piece-meal through various church ritess or religious ritual.when you were born again, you got all the grace you’ll ever need in this life or the life to come.the bread and the cup contain no mystical or saving properties.the Bible teaches us that we participate in the Lord’s Supper because we have received grace – not to get grace.THE LORD’S SUPPER CELEBRATES OUR UNION WITH CHRIST This morning, I’d like to take a few moments to talk to you about some of the spiritual elements of the Lord’s Supper. But it behooves us, from time-to-time, to examine what the Bible says about the Lord’s Supper. As you know, it’s a Sunday I do not preach a message because the Lord’s Supper is the message. ![]() Next Sunday our congregation will participate in the Lord’s Supper. Attendance at the Lord’s Supper is the Christian’s salute to the blood-stained banner of the Savior. When Jesus took the bread, and took the cup and said, “This is My body which is given for you do this in remembrance of Me,” (Luke22:19), he was establishing a memorial that the Church was to continue until He returns. It strikes me, that the Lord’s Supper is essentially our renewed oath of allegiance to the King of kings, and the Lord of lords. The soldiers-regardless of the nation they considered home-were to salute the Roman colors from time to time or be guilty of treason. ![]() And, if you haven’t already, may you accept him into your heart that you too may receive what he has freely given…the gift of eternal salvation.In the New Testament era, Roman soldiers were required, in as far as it was possible, to return to Rome once a year from wherever they were garrisoned to renew their oath of allegiance to the Emperor. Take the time to remember what our Lord Jesus Christ did in sacrificing his own life for each one of us. May you pause and remember the profoundness of what took place on this day so many years ago. As the disciples commemorated what Jesus did for all mankind in those early days of the Church, I have the beautiful memory of seeing in action, who and what Jesus was to Stephen…and Jesus is still all of that to me. They seem to echo an overwhelming sense of sacrificial love through to my soul as I eat the bread and drink the wine that is served at communion. “Do this in remembrance of me.” Those words of comfort and instruction, spoken by Jesus to his disciples, convey such power to me when I hear them now. Remembering how faithful our Lord had been to him in the past, so kindled the flame of hope, that my husband bathed in a serenity that carried him through to that very moment when he met Jesus face to face. Jesus, his Lord and Savior had never failed him, and it was evident to me that Stephen’s confidence in knowing that he never would, grew stronger each day. ![]() I believe that my husband knew too, that his suffering and discomfort was not in vain. He knew the sweetness that would overshadow so perfectly the bitterness that had to come first. Jesus knew what was to follow within the next several hours between the time he broke bread and savored the wine that he shared with his beloved followers and the suffering that he would endure before prevailing in his glorious triumph over death. Although for them that night was distressing, and my heart ached continuously during those final weeks, what followed for them and what is still being revealed to me, makes being able to look back and remember those times so remarkable. As with the weight of impending sorrow and loss looming over the disciples on that solemn night, I often felt a dark hollowness that threatened to swallow my hope and joy as I watched my dear one deteriorate before my eyes. ![]() Each day leading up to his physical death was filled with a certain bittersweetness that I’d never tasted before. The closest that I can come to even touching the surface of that kind of heaviness, is during the last few months before my late husband, Stephen, passed on to be with our Lord. “Do this in remembrance of me.” Whenever I participate in the rite of Holy Communion, I cannot help but to imagine the intensity of emotions that must have blanketed Jesus and his twelve disciples during their last Passover supper together on that unforgettable evening, so long ago. “In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.'” 1 Corinthians 11:25 Image from a page of the 2013 Desk Calendar, courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art Store Do This In Remembrance of Me…Those words of comfort and instruction convey such power to me when I hear them… ![]()
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