The Lord's Supper Proclaims....

When you hear the word communication or communicate,

what primary form of communication comes to your mind?

As a preacher, when I think about communicating,

I think first communicating with words.

But symbols are a major form of communication in today's world,

everywhere we go.

There's some kind of symbol that we immediately recognize.

It communicates something to us.

For an example, you see that sign?

When you especially have to go,

that's one of the most important signs you'll ever see when you're out in public.

I thought about when we were on vacation this week,

I used to never think about things like this,

but I thought for some reason, what if Lisa or I got sick?

Look at this next symbol.

I actually looked for that symbol because I had no idea where a hospital was at Myrtle Beach.

I guess that's a sign of getting older, to even think like that.

But you know what that sign means.

Here's a very powerful symbol coming up next.

That's the symbol of champions.

The symbol of winning.

And we're not going to put any other symbols up there.

Tim Mullis better not have messed up this slideshow.

We're very familiar with symbols.

When you walked in this morning, as I mentioned earlier,

and you saw this table set up,

you knew what that meant.

We're going to observe the Lord's Supper.

But this table set up the way it is,

is not really the biblical symbol of the Lord's Supper.

This is how we in our church,

and a lot of Baptist churches set it up,

but every church doesn't.

The real symbols of the Lord's Supper

are the bread and the wine,

or the bread and the cup, as you see there.

But to be more precise,

Paul says that it's when we eat this bread

and drink the cup

that we are proclaiming the heart of the gospel,

the Lord's death.

Look at it.

For as often as you eat this bread

and drink the cup,

you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes.

Let's look at that first.

As we observe the Lord's Supper this morning,

we, we're proclaiming the gospel.

We are symbolically proclaiming the message

that Jesus died for our sins.

The Lord's Supper proclaims the Lord's death.

Look at it.

We're in 1 Corinthians 11

for just about all the scripture

we're going to look at today.

Beginning in verse 23,

Paul writes,

For I received from the Lord

what I also delivered to you,

that the Lord Jesus,

on the night when He was betrayed,

took bread,

and when He had given thanks,

He broke it and said,

This is my body, which is for you.

Do this in remembrance of me.

In the same way also,

He took the cup after supper,

saying,

This cup is the new covenant in my blood.

Do this as often as you drink it

in remembrance of me.

For as often as you eat this bread

and drink the cup,

you proclaim the Lord's death

until He comes.

The Lord's Supper proclaims

the Lord's death

with two symbols.

The bread symbolizes His body,

which was nailed to the cross.

The cup symbolizes the Lord's blood

that was shed from the cross.

Jesus intends

that whenever His people gather together

to observe this meal,

He intends for us to think deeply

about how His death on the cross

benefits us personally,

individually,

if we're Christians.

In a few moments,

we're going to pass out the bread

and the little cups.

When you take that piece of bread

in your hand,

I want you to think about

what it symbolizes,

what Jesus said,

This is my body,

which is for you.

Do this in remembrance of me.

Jesus wants us to think of the bread

as a symbol,

not literally His body,

but as a symbol

of His body

that was nailed to the cross.

When you take that bread,

when you put it in your mouth,

Jesus said,

You do this in remembrance of me.

And then,

when we take the cup,

think about what Jesus says

it symbolizes.

This cup is the new covenant

in my blood.

Do this as often as you drink it

in remembrance of me.

I know that most people in this room,

you have observed the Lord's Supper

many times in your life.

Don't let it be routine today.

Don't just go through the motions

and think about what you're going to do

this afternoon or next week

or what you forgot to do

before you came to church this morning

or anything like that.

Think about

Jesus' death on the cross

was to pay the penalty

for my sins.

Let that sink in.

Think,

when Jesus was hanging on the cross,

He suffered the pain of hell.

He suffered the pain of hell

which is being separated from God

more than anything else.

He suffered the pain of hell

so that we would not have to.

Make it personal.

He hung on the cross

being separated from God,

suffering spiritually,

emotionally,

as well as physically.

He died so that I would not have to experience

eternal separation from God.

We know this is true

because this is one of the things

Jesus said from the cross.

Look at it.

My God, my God,

why have you forsaken me?

When you read,

most of the time,

Jesus referring to God,

He refers to God as His Father.

Jesus enjoyed close fellowship

with the Father at all times

except there on the cross.

As He became our sin bearer,

God unleashed His wrath on Jesus.

Jesus did not experience

close fellowship with the Father

as He hung on the cross.

He experienced hell,

being cut off from the Father,

which is why He cried out

referring to Psalm 22,

My God, my God,

why have you forsaken me?

Jesus suffered

so that we would not have to.

And after He had suffered

the penalty for sin in full,

it was over.

And one of the last things He said was,

It is finished.

It was a cry of triumph.

He had paid the penalty

for our sins in full.

It is finished.

If you are not a Christian,

you need to hear this and understand,

salvation is available to you right now

if you'll admit your need,

turn from your sin,

and trust Jesus as your Savior.

Commit your life to Him

as your Lord now.

When we observe the Lord's Supper,

we are first and foremost

proclaiming the Lord's death

on the cross for our sins.

But that's not all we're doing this morning.

That's not all the Lord's Supper proclaims.

Look next.

The Lord's Supper proclaims

the necessity of Christian commitment.

I want you to listen to that.

The Lord's Supper,

what we're doing this morning,

it also sends forth this message.

It's not enough just to believe intellectually in Jesus.

We've got to be committed to Him.

Look at how it goes on.

Paul in 1 Corinthians 11.

For whoever, therefore,

eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord

in an unworthy manner

will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord.

Let a person examine himself then

and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

Paul wants us to understand

the importance of having a right relationship with the Lord

when we take the Lord's Supper.

Look at it again.

He first issues a warning.

This is a warning to Christians,

a warning to people in the church.

Whoever, therefore,

eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord

in an unworthy manner

will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord.

As Paul was writing to the Corinthians

here in this section,

Paul is very upset

because of the lack of unity in this church.

They're divided.

They're at one another's throats.

And it's because of personal selfishness,

personal pride.

And so he's telling them,

do not come to the Lord's table

with such attitudes.

Don't come to the Lord's table

full of sinfulness,

selfishness,

self-centeredness,

arrogance.

Don't come to the Lord's table

looking down your nose

at one of your brothers and sisters in Christ.

Don't come to the Lord's table

in these such unworthy manners

because if you do,

you are abusing,

failing to honor the Lord's death.

That's his warning.

Then he makes a plea.

Verse 28,

let a person examine himself then

and so eat of the bread

and drink of the cup.

We come to this.

It's a time of self-examination.

Our observance of the Lord's Supper

is always a serious matter.

I want you to understand

by taking the bread and the cup,

you are making a public statement

of your ongoing faith in

and commitment to Jesus

as your Savior and Lord.

I want you to understand that.

When you take that bread

and you take that cup,

you are saying

that you are not only a believer in Jesus,

but you are committed to him

to live in life his way,

not your way.

You're saying by being here

and participating in this meal

that Jesus Christ makes a difference

in your life today.

Wayne Grudem describes

what taking the Lord's Supper means

in a very good way.

Look at it.

He says,

As I take the bread and cup for myself,

by my actions,

I am proclaiming,

I need you and trust you,

Lord Jesus,

to forgive my sins

and give life and health

to my soul.

The only way we can say that

or something like that

and mean it

is if we truly know

and love Jesus

and are committed to living a life

that pleases him.

So I want to ask you,

do you know and love

Jesus Christ?

Are you counting on him?

His death on the cross

paid the penalty for your sin.

Do you understand

that's why,

how you are accepted by God?

None of us are in and of ourselves

in what we do or don't do.

It's Christ who makes us right with God.

He's the one who makes us worthy

of being called children of God.

If you don't know him,

call upon him now to save you.

Scripture says,

whoever calls on the name of the Lord

will be saved.

That applies to you.

But are you also committed to Christ right now?

Most people in this room

are professing Christians.

Is he the Lord of your life?

Is he the number one person

that you want to please?

And we talked about this

several weeks ago.

If we're normal people,

we want to please several

other people in our life.

I mean, hopefully,

if you're any kind of man or woman,

you want to please your spouse.

Most parents,

not in every way,

but in a lot of ways,

want to please their children.

Believe it or not,

a Christian young person

does want to please their parents.

In fact,

a lot of children

want to please their parents

or meaningful,

significant adults in their life,

whether they're Christians or not.

But as you think about

the person in your life

that you want to please,

that you put forth the effort to please,

is the Lord at the top of the list?

Is he truly what that word means?

Is he your Lord?

If you've drifted away,

you know you're a Christian,

you know that you love him,

but maybe your commitment's

not where it used to be.

Or maybe it's not that you drifted,

you've just rebelled about something.

If God's convicting you about that,

come back to him.

Humble yourself.

Confess your sin.

Renew your commitment to Christ

as your Lord now.

I know there's a lot of people

in this room.

You walked in this morning

and you saw we're going

to observe the Lord's Supper

and it excited you

because you truly love the Lord.

You are committed to him.

None of us,

no one person is perfect.

But there's people

in this room right now,

there's nothing you're refusing

to be faithful to God about.

You love him,

you're wanting to please him,

you want him to show you

how more and more

you can please him.

If that's true for you,

let this be a time

of true fellowship

with your Lord.

Thank him for what he's done

for you.

Express your love,

your commitment to him

as we go through this

symbolic

presentation

of the gospel.

After I pray,

I want us all

just to spend a few minutes

preparing personally

to observe the Lord's Supper.

After I pray,

the musician's going to play

through a couple of verses

of the song

just sort of to give us

some little time

to not be distracted

but prepare ourselves

personally.

Let's pray together.

Father,

help all of us

right now

to understand

how we should,

how we need

to respond to you

in order to be prepared

to observe

the Lord's Supper

in a way

that will please you

and not show

dishonor

to the Lord.

So we're just

in an attitude of prayer.

Let's just all

prepare ourselves

for the Lord's Supper.

for the Lord's Supper.