Hey, my friends. I wanted to share a special time of communion with you and just teach a little bit about the meaning of it and how you can practice it at home. So depending how you grew up, you may have come from a tradition where you need somebody who's wearing robes, who has a collar on to have the Lord's Supper like that. And while we can respect traditions, there's really nothing biblical about needing a third party for us to have direct communion with Jesus Christ.
You're a priest, as we've seen through this series. I'm a priest. All of us have direct access to the presence of God and the sharing in the body and blood of Jesus is one of the most precious ways to have communion with him. We call this communion. Biblical term could also be the Lord's Supper.
Communion simply means a fellowship with someone. In fact, when you read the New Testament, wherever you see the word communion or you see the word fellowship, you should know that it's the same Greek word in the original language, koinonia. And it simply means a partaking of or a sharing in.
So ideally, communion is best shared with a group of people, two or three gathered together. It can be a really powerful time of remembering the foundation of our connection and renewing our covenant with the Lord Jesus and all the benefits that come from that covenant with him. And that's what communion is really all about. We have a possibility here of not engaging in a religious tradition, but really having an encounter with a living God. Jesus didn't institute dead religion after he crucified dead religion on the cross. So when he introduced the Lord's Supper, which I'll read to you in just a moment, at the Last Supper, or what we call the Last Supper, he wasn't instituting a religious practice. He was saying, guys, here's a way to connect deeply with me, spiritually with me, and always remember the cross that brought us back into fellowship with one another. That's what communion is really all about. In fact, so powerful was the breaking of bread, which is part of the communion meal, that after Jesus rose from the dead, he came across two disciples that were walking toward Emmaus, away from Jerusalem. They'd kind of heard rumors about the resurrection from the dead, but weren't sure if they believed it or not. And they were walking very discouraged back to the town that they came from. Jesus sidles up alongside them on the road, and he walks with them for a little while, and he asked them what they're talking about along the way. And they both said, what are you new around here? Have you heard what happened? And we thought that this Jesus was the Christ. In other words, they were kind of doubting and losing their faith. They'd come to believe in Jesus as the Son of God, but something really their belief about. They saw the crucifixion, and they're doubting and wondering, could he actually have risen from the dead, was in play. Jesus didn't reveal his identity to them.
He never said, hey, it's me, guys, until they pulled him off on the side of the road. Jesus pretended like he was going to keep walking. These two disciples said, would you come and have supper with us? Because all day while he's talking to them, they later reported that their hearts were burning inside of them as Jesus talked, but they still couldn't see him. And sometimes walking with Jesus can feel like that. We know in our hearts what we believe. We have no doubt really in our inner core of our being that he's real, that he's the God that we came when we first fell on our face and gave our lives to him, that he's the same as that God. But then life comes at us, and disappointments come our way, like it was for these two disciples. So the story goes on that they were around the table, and it says that when Jesus broke the bread and blessed it, that their eyes were opened and they recognized him. And wouldn't you know it right at that moment, he vanished out of their sight. The point is that the breaking of bread, there was something about the power within that, that revelation that happened when Jesus broke bread with them, just like he did at the last supper, that their eyes were opened and they remembered, oh yeah, he is the Christ, the son of the living God. He's not a martyr that we'll never see again. He's raised from the dead, and their faith was revived. So it can be every time we share in the Lord's Supper. It's like a reset button for our faith. It's my favorite way of viewing it and celebrating it personally with my wife, with my family, with the church family. It's like a reset button to our covenant with God and a remembering of all of what we now have in Christ. It's all found within the body and the blood of Jesus. Now for the bread, I'm going to recommend now, if you want to pause this in a moment, go ahead and get some bread and juice so that we can actually do this together and not just learn about it. The bread does not have to be matzah bread, as you may have seen in some of your traditions. The church I grew up in had this wafer-y stuff. I don't even know if it was bread or not, but it stuck to the roof of your mouth, and it was just probably used because it was easier to serve hundreds of people that way. The bread can be any kind of bread. There's some religious folks that think, well, if it's not unleavened bread, if it has yeast in it, then it's no good because yeast represents sin in the Bible, and Jesus had no sin. That's fine. Jesus redeemed absolutely everything. We can now eat pork, we can eat shellfish, and we can eat leavened bread without it affecting us and making us sinful. In fact, Jesus took back leaven, yeast, when he said the kingdom of heaven is like a little bit of leaven that a woman put in a lump of dough. So any kind of bread will do, any kind of cracker will do, whatever will serve, however many people you're celebrating with. So please grab some of that. And then I prefer to use real grape juice or wine sometimes.
In Jesus' day, they didn't drink grape juice the way we did. They drank wine because it would preserve, you know, better than grape juice, which goes bad. You can do either one. Grapes are relevant because it is the fruit of the vine, is always what it's called in the scriptures. So just to stay with that, I think it's best to do that. But again, don't get religious about what elements you use.
The point is the faith that you put in this meal and in this partaking of the body of Jesus.
So let's dig into it. The Lord's Supper was instituted. All four Gospels record it.
Luke's gospel gives more detail than the others. So I like this one to teach about it. But in Luke chapter 22, at the Last Supper, it says, when the hour had come, he reclined at the table and his apostles with him. And what they were celebrating was the Passover meal, the very last Passover that would be celebrated by sacrificing actual lambs, because now the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world would become our Passover, sacrificed once and for all, for all time.
It goes on and he says, when he had taken bread and given thanks, he broke it and he gave it to them saying, this is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. So he took that bread and he broke it. And whenever we break this bread, it's a remembering that Jesus' actual body, he was a real physical man, human being, God incarnate, but in flesh and blood. As we looked at earlier in the series, he laid aside all of his God attributes, including immortality. And he was willing to say, I'm willing to let my body be broken so that my church, my people can come together again and be made whole. And so as we take a portion of this bread, here's what's happening in this act.
We've looked at early on how on that cross of Jesus, he crucified all the sins that we'd ever done and all the sins that we would ever do. They're all in that cross. He crucified dead religion. He crucified everything about who we used to be. In that moment, we became crucified with Christ.
So it's no longer we who live, but Christ who lives in us. That's the deep meaning of communion.
This is a practice to do this, do this in remembrance of what Jesus did with his body so that we could become his body, the church. And so as you take this bread, the first thing I want to encourage you to do is just go ahead and pour out your heart and confess all the ways you've fallen short. We all do.
Every one of us, somebody said the Christian life is a life of daily confession. There's a freedom in it.
There's a joy in it. There's a joy in no longer carrying the guilt and the shame and then the condemnation that we think we deserve because we blew it again. In this body is a remembrance that's already been crucified. Jesus called us not only forgiving what we had done before, but he called us sons. He called us daughters knowing that we were still going to break his heart again even afterward. In this communion, find a holy reset, whatever it is that you've done, that Jesus now is ready to say, I've washed you. It's forgotten. I've already paid for it on the cross. In this body, I like to apprehend then all of what Jesus got for us on that cross. When his body was broken, we're able now to partake of his eternal nature. That's what's in this bread, not the body that was already broken once for us, but now Jesus lives and he can't die. He lives forever and he lives forever in us. So I like to go through Isaiah 53 and let me just, I'll do it quickly for you. But when you break bread with whatever group you do it with, or if it's one-on-one with Jesus, that's fine too. I like Isaiah 53 because even though it was seven centuries before Jesus came on the scene, Isaiah, it was like he was watching a video play of what was going to happen and he spiritually saw through. Here's what's going on on that cross right now. He understood it better than the apostles who were with Jesus three and a half years, it seems, as he, as he looked ahead to the cross. So in Isaiah 53, you can read the whole chapter, but verses four and five really get into what happened and what this body represents.
Surely our griefs he himself bore, it says. And I have a handout that I'm looking at. This will be an attachment that you can download and where you can get it here at church at Hillside for whenever you celebrate communion so that you can remember all the benefits of the cross and grab hold of them.
Jesus didn't pay a price so that we can leave these benefits laying on the side of the road.
He paid a price, did what he did so that we could be made whole. And he wants us to apprehend all of what he purchased. So it would be well worth it for him to have done what he did. Our griefs, another word for that Hebrew word is sicknesses he himself bore. So in this, he carried all of our sicknesses, mental sickness, heart sickness, and yes, physical body sickness. Physical healing is part of the atonement of Jesus. It's in the cross. And Isaiah saw it and described it right here. And it says, and our sorrows he carried. So what grief are you carrying? Whenever you share this supper, what grief are you carrying right now? What's something that you loved and then lost that leaves such an ache in your heart that if you're not careful, it can turn to bitterness, that over the course of time, it could turn into unbelief. It could turn into even being angry with God. Whatever you're carrying, pour out your heart before him and consider it in this body of Jesus on the cross. He carried our sorrows on that cross. Then it says he was pierced through for our transgressions. A transgression is every time we broke the law of God and thereby broke the heart of God. That's what transgressions are.
So go ahead and name them. Don't hide from God. You know you can't do it. You'll never win hide and seek against the omniscient, all-knowing, all-seeing God. And there's no point in it. Now that we know that he's a loving father, eager for us to come running back to him instead of hiding from him, go ahead and confess your transgressions. Where have you fallen short? Where have you done that thing that Romans 7 describes where the thing that I don't want to do, I find myself doing? Go ahead and confess it to the Lord and remember in this bread and in remembering what Jesus did, it's already been crucified with Christ. Then it goes on. It says he was crushed for our iniquities. Now iniquity is the same idea as sin, but it speaks to the nature within us, the desires within us, the appetites for sin that we've had. Iniquity means there's a drive toward doing something that in our mind and in our heart, we know better. But there's this thing that compels us into it again. Sometimes it's the old habits of our old nature and way before we were really born again and brought into Christ. Sometimes it's just the simple, I'm a flawed man, I'm a flawed woman, and I fall short. That's what iniquity is all about.
If you feel ashamed about those temptations, you feel ashamed about the fact that you struggle with that. It's right here. It's already been crucified in Christ. Then it says the chastisement for our peace was put upon him. So Jesus was punished. The cross was a really deep, harsh punishment.
And we've looked at how we punish ourselves when we do things to make sure that we pay a price for what we've done. So we send ourselves to our room and avoid God and avoid the people of God.
We do all kinds of things to punish ourselves. This is where the old practice of penance comes from, which is not a biblical concept at all. It's right here in Isaiah. The chastisement that brought us peace was laid upon Jesus. There's no punishment on this side of the cross. There's no need to punish yourself and no need to wish punishment on someone else who sinned against you. This is the time to say it was on the cross. It's been crucified in Christ and I no longer need to carry it and I certainly won't practice it. I won't make my own salvation, you can say, by punishing myself when Jesus already punished himself and said it is finished. It's complete, paid for, bought, signed, sealed, and delivered. Finally, it says, and by his scourging, we are healed. That word for healed means complete wholeness brought back to us again. Our body, our mind, our heart, our soul, we're made whole again. We're restored as this series has been looking into. We're completely made whole again.
By faith, you can grab hold of that. That's what's in this bread. This is not just some ritual. There's power in this if we do it by faith. Just like in water baptism, you could treat it as a ritual, go in the water and get wet and come out, or you can believe I'm burying who I used to be in Christ and it's no longer going to be I who lives when I come outside. So you can do with this body. So Jesus, let's pray this bread. Jesus, we thank you for paying this price, for being willing to go this extra, extra distance so that there wouldn't be anything left for us to have to strive for. We put it all on you in that cross and we consider ourselves crucified with Christ as we partake of your bread. Thank you for making us partakers of the divine nature itself that you now live inside of us and we live by your faith. May this bread right now renew me in the covenant that you made and your broken body serve to make me whole. Let's take the bread together. And then it says, in the same way, after supper, he took the cup and when he had given thanks, he said, this cup is poured out for you and it's the new covenant in my blood. This whole series so far, we've looked at what it means to live in a new covenant. And in summary, the new covenant is simply put like this. The old covenant was based on external laws that shaped our behavior, but they could never change our heart.
So we could try to live up to a certain standard and we discovered nobody ever could, nobody ever did until Jesus. And so old covenant, external rules to comply, to force me to comply with a certain standard of behavior. The new covenant comes along and Jesus says, I'm going to put my life inside of you. I'm going to give you a new heart. That's going to be a soft heart, not a hard heart. And you're going to learn how to love like I love. And little by little, day by day, what started on the inside now works our way to the outside. Dead religion, old covenant makes us whitewashed tombs. We may look good on the outside. We may behave well on the outside most of the time, but on the inside, we're rotting and dying. The new covenant flips that right around. That's what Jesus offers in this blood.
And so we can first give thanks that this blood was shed for us. There wasn't a drop left in Jesus' body by the time he finished what he did on the cross. His last words, it is finished.
It is finished means in part, I have no more blood left to live, left to give. I've given all of what I have so that we could have all of what heaven has. And in the book of Hebrews, there's a really powerful description of what happened. And this is one of many scriptures that you can read as you celebrate the Lord's supper and share in this cup of covenant. But here's, here's how the book of Hebrews, the scripture describes this new covenant. It says, therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place, meaning heaven, the place where God dwells by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way. The old way was make a sacrifice, pay a price every time you blow it.
The new and living way is there's already been a sacrifice made. There's nothing further to pay.
Just come into this new covenant by faith and believe that what Jesus did was enough to make us just like heaven created us to be in the first place. By a new and living way, which he inaugurated for us through the veil, that is his flesh. Since we have a great priest over the house of God, here's an exhortation for us. Let us draw near with a sincere heart, with a full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience, and our bodies even washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope. Do you remember that confession? What's our hope? Our hope is that what Jesus did on the cross is sufficient. We're born again. We have life in us that will make it through the other side of the grave. That's our hope. Let's hold that hope without wavering for he who promised is faithful. Don't forget that. Even when we go through seasons where we're not faithful, he is always faithful. His end of the covenant is a one-way street of love toward us, and there's nothing we can do to break his end of the covenant. So let's draw near and know that he who promises faithful. Let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and to good works.
Remember, communion is not just about me and Jesus. Communion is about me with the whole family of God connected together to one Father in heaven. That's what this body is all about. That's what this blood is all about. We all sit around the same table, and nobody deserves to be there more than anybody else.
Only Jesus earned his way to that table. Not forsaking the assembling together of ourselves as the habit of son, but encouraging one another in so much more as we see the day drawing near. Let's draw near with full assurance of faith, knowing that this cup of covenant, which we'll renew right now together with the Lord. His covenant's eternal. He's as faithful as the sunshine, always, every day, no matter what, shining down toward us. Our end of the covenant now, let's renew it with the Lord, and remember what it was. This is the moment to go back to the moment you were first born again. The moment you first said, Jesus, I want you to be my Lord and my God. Let's go back to that moment with this cup, and every time you share communion, I encourage you to do this. And just pray, Jesus, thank you for giving me a covenant that wasn't dependent on my righteousness, wasn't dependent on my faithfulness, but a covenant that was only based on the fact that you paid a price so that we could have a new and living way to enter into the presence of God, to live in paradise, to live in heavenly places now and for the rest of eternity. I right now recommit my life to you. I leave nothing behind, but I lay it all on the altar.
I consider myself crucified with Christ, so it's no longer I who lives, but Christ who lives in me.
Jesus, would you come right now and remind my inner man about the glory of this new covenant.
I thank you for every benefit of it, especially the one where I get to live forever with the family of God in paradise. I take this blood right now. May it renew me in my inner man and in my spirit.
Help me to walk in faithfulness to this covenant. Help me to walk on my end as faithfully as you walk on your end. Renew me now, Jesus, and thank you for the opportunity to draw near to the very throne of God, find mercy, and find grace to help even in my time of need. Amen. Let's take this cup together.
Amen. So sweet to just trust in that. And I pray that you'll practice this often. I pray that you'll have times alone with the presence of the Lord. If this was your first time practicing communion on your own, I hope it was powerful and meaningful to you. And I pray that you'll find sweet, sweet fellowship with Jesus as you do this through your years. I encourage you to make this a regular practice. In some seasons, even a daily practice of drawing together. Do it with your spouse.
Do it with your children. Do it with the one who's walking with you through this discipleship series. Do it often with the family of God. If you're part of a life group, do it often with them and renew that covenant and grab hold of everything that Jesus purchased for us. God bless you as you enjoy ongoing sweet communion with the Lord Jesus Christ and his body, the church.