Amen.
All right, so we're in Luke chapter 22, and it says the festival of unleavened bread, which is also called Passover, was approaching.
The leading priests and teachers of religious law were plotting how to kill Jesus, but they were afraid of the people's reaction.
Then Satan entered into Judas Iscariot.
We're going to come back to that, but I'm going to read this passage first.
Then Satan entered into Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve disciples.
And he went to the leading priests and captains of the temple guard to discuss the best way to betray Jesus to them.
They were delighted and they promised to give him money.
So he agreed and began looking for an opportunity to betray Jesus so they could arrest him when the crowds weren't around.
Remember, Passover, it is packed out.
Like there's people from all over the place in Jerusalem at that time.
Verse 7, now the feast, excuse me, let's go.
Yeah, first seven.
Now the feast of unleavened bread arrived when the Passover lamb is sacrificed.
Verse 8, Jesus sent Peter and John ahead and said, Go and prepare the Passover meal so we can eat it together.
Where do you want us to prepare it?
They asked him.
He replied, As soon as you enter Jerusalem, a man carrying a pitcher of water will meet you.
Follow him at the house he enters.
Say to the owner, the teacher asks, Where is the guest room where I can eat the Passover meal with my disciples?
He will take you upstairs to a large room that is already set up, that is where you should prepare our meal.
This is like kind of a fun one for me.
Imagine you just walk up and there's a guy walking with a pitcher of water and you just start following him.
It's not creepy at all.
Right?
You and you and your friend, you're just following a guy with a pitcher of water all the way to the house.
Anyways, verse 13.
They went off to the city and found everything just as Jesus had said.
And they prepared the Passover meal there.
Verse 14, when the time came, Jesus and his apostles sat down together at the table, and Jesus said, I have been very eager to eat this Passover meal with you before my suffering begins.
For I tell you now that I won't eat this meal again until its meaning is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.
Then he took a cup of wine and gave thanks to God for it.
Then he said, Take this and share it among yourselves, for I will not drink wine again until the kingdom of God has come.
He took some bread and gave thanks to God for it.
Then he broke it in pieces and gave it to the disciples, saying, This is my body which is given for you.
Do this in remembrance of me.
Verse 20, after supper he took another cup of wine and said, This cup is the new covenant between God and his people, an agreement confirmed with my blood, which is poured out as a sacrifice for you.
But here at this table, sitting among us as a friend, is the man who will betray me.
For it has been determined that the Son of Man must die, but what sorrow awaits the one who betrays him?
The disciples begin to ask each other, which of them would ever do such a thing.
They begin arguing among themselves about who would be the greatest among them.
That's a shift in conversation.
Who would betray Jesus?
I don't really know, but let's talk about who's the best, right?
That's a that's a gear shift.
They begin arguing among themselves who would be the greatest among them.
And Jesus told them, In this world the kings and great men lord it over their people, yet are called friends of the people.
But among you it will be different.
Those who are the greatest among you should take the lowest rank.
I'll read that again.
Those who are the greatest among you should take the lowest rank, and the leader should be like a servant.
Who is more important than the one who sits at the table or the one who serves?
The one who sits at the table, of course, but not here.
For I am among you as one who serves.
You have stayed with me in my time of trial, and just as my father has granted me a kingdom, I now grant you the right to eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and you will sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
Okay, a lot going on, but I wanted to keep this in context.
So we start off with Judas.
We understand that Jesus is like, we're getting into hours now, not days, but hours before he's going to be crucified.
The end is drawing near before the sacrifice happens.
And the festival of unleavened bread, the Passover, remember, the Passover is what?
It's the remembrance of when the Exodus occurred.
It remembers the night where they had to take the children of Israel when they were enslaved in Egypt.
They took the blood of the Lamb and they marked their doorposts.
And the angel of the Lord passed over and left them alone.
But every firstborn that didn't have a doorpost marked with blood was killed.
And then the Pharaoh's heart said, I gotta get rid of these people.
And they were released, and it began their exodus, right, from captivity.
So this is what's being remembered.
The Passover meal is being remembered.
Verse 3 is a wild verse.
It's one that I think we should take note of.
It says, Then Satan entered into Judas Iscariot, who was one of the 12 disciples.
Then Satan, that would be highlightable.
Then Satan entered into Judas Iscariot, who was one of the 12 disciples.
I think it's interesting that Luke notes that he's one of the 12, right?
This guy's been walking with Jesus.
He's in the 12.
He's in the group.
And yet he's at a point in life where things have gone on enough in his heart that he's become vulnerable and open the door that Satan enters in to make a mess.
Right?
And I get curious.
I'm like, well, how did this happen?
Can Satan just find somebody, anybody he wants, and enter in and begin possessing them?
No.
A door has to be open to give access into somebody's heart for the enemy to mess around in there.
We've talked about possession before in the church, and I don't know if you've heard about it or you've been here when we've talked about it.
But most people hear possession, they get really freaked out about all the horror movies and somebody's going to crawl the wall.
The possession means influence, right?
So if you leave the door to your house and a robber goes in, he has influence to mess things up or steal things or vandalize, but he doesn't own the house.
You own the house.
But you've given him influence.
And Judas had done something in his life that opened the door enough that now the influence of Satan, he had aligned himself.
Let's say it like this: he had aligned himself with the desires of hell.
Right?
How does this even happen?
This is not the main spot where I want to look at today, but we can't pass by it with just listening to this.
It's rare that people have a full collapse of faith suddenly.
You read in scripture, it's rare, almost never, do you see anybody just completely collapse in their faith?
It's generally a progression.
An offense is where it normally begins.
An offended heart is where it normally begins.
Matthew 11, 6, there's a point where uh John the Baptist, he's in prison, death is coming for him, and he had been proclaiming Jesus as the Messiah, and he's getting nervous because his life's about to be lost, and he's wanting to make sure that he didn't spend his life on something that was wrong.
And he sends his disciples, go ask Jesus, are you really the one?
And he knew that he was just a person like you and me.
And Jesus says to his disciples, Tell John what you're seeing, what you're hearing, that the blind see, that the lame walk, right?
Like all these signs it would say about the Messiah, they're being fulfilled in my life.
I'm doing them, I'm working out.
God is showing me to be the one who you prophesied would come.
And Jesus says something in Matthew 11, verse 6, and blessed is the one who isn't offended by me.
How would you be offended by Jesus?
I mean, it's Jesus.
You get offended when Jesus doesn't do what you want when you want the way you want.
Just me?
Right?
So like I get frustrated when I've been praying about something and it doesn't occur the way that I wanted it to occur.
When I want God to move in a very specific, like Burger King style, you feel me?
Like I want it, like I want pickles, but I don't want onions, and I want ketchup, but not a lot of it, right?
Like, and you just get real specific.
God, this is how you have to move in my life to show that you love me.
No, no, no, no.
I serve Jesus.
Jesus is king, he doesn't serve me, right?
But you'll get offended.
So Judas has now gotten offended because he wanted the Messiah to come and remove Israel from Rome's authority.
He wanted a king to come in to overthrow and topple the political system that was in place.
And Jesus is overthrowing and toppling the spiritual system that's in place.
He's changing things not just for that community in that day, but for the world for all times.
But Judas isn't happy about that because he can't see the big picture.
So what happens is offense will come, and if you let offense stay long enough, and if you don't deal with offense, what eventually happens is you find yourself in a place called bitterness.
Now, in my heart, I can't think about you without being mad at you.
I can't be around you without being irritated because I've let offense take root in my heart.
And bitterness will eventually end up into a place where you find yourself isolated because you don't want to be around that person.
Or you alienate that person.
And then it becomes betrayal.
I know I'm talking about a moment where Satan enters into Judas, but I just want you to know Satan really wants to enter into your life too, if you'll open the door and let him.
If you will not deal with the offenses in your life, bitterness will rise up.
Listen, I've been to a lot of churches, I've been to a lot of places, I've met bitter Christians, not better ones.
Bitter ones.
And they are crunchy and crusty, and like I don't want to be, it feels, it feels, it feels icky, it feels the opposite of the gospel.
And I, man, it's make your skin crawl.
And because they've allowed an offense to come, never dealt with it, and become bitter, and now they're working in opposition to the gospel.
You can be a Christian, not deal with offense, and before you know it, you're aligned more with hell than you are heaven.
You show up in church, but cause division.
Or you go to a party, you go to you go to work, it doesn't matter where it is, listen, and you cause division.
Unity doesn't mean there's no problems.
Man, we got to get past this idea.
I wasn't gonna teach on this at all.
Unity doesn't mean that there are no problems, it means that we love each other enough to talk about the issue at hand.
And that we're gonna we're gonna lead with grace.
I'm gonna try to hear what you're saying.
You're gonna try to hear what I'm saying.
If we can't hear, we'll bring another person in to help us say, hey, what do you hear so-and-so saying?
Right?
We'll we'll come together in this, and on the other side of it, we'll persevere and be unified together.
Right?
Listen, like just just cool.
Okay, I'm not I'm not this is not what I'm supposed to be teaching about this morning, but just wanted to.
So I'll I'll I'll I'll put it this if you're offended by somebody, or if you're offended by God, first thing you need to do is identify that you are, the next thing you need to do is address that you are.
And sometimes your offense, you don't even have to go to that person.
Sometimes it's just between you and God.
You might be offended at somebody that's already died and they can't ask for your for uh for your forgiveness.
Or maybe even if they were alive, they still wouldn't.
And if you hold an offense to someone like that, you still need to deal with it.
God, I choose to forgive.
Forgiveness is not saying what they did is okay, it's valuing relationship with God over justice.
I value being close to you than being right in this situation.
I can be right in this situation or I can be close to you, but I can't have it both ways.
I can be judged or you can be judged.
But when I'm judged, I can't live in forgiveness.
Or let me say it like this: when I'm judged, I can't be forgiven.
Okay, cool.
All right.
So this happens to Satan, Satan, uh excuse me, this happens to Judas.
Judas wanders off, he finds the temple garden.
They discuss how are we gonna get Jesus?
And they're all like tapping their fingers like it's real mischievous.
Somebody's got a monocle, and it's like, how will we get him, right?
It's a guy in the corner smoking a pipe.
We I don't know, right?
Like it's there's a uh a big fluffy cat walking around because they're just the worst.
All right.
There had to be a cat there when they're planning.
Somebody eating dark chocolate, all the things.
A Cowboys fan.
I just got done talking about unity, it's wild.
That's crazy.
So that they're figuring it out.
Verse 7.
Now, I want you to remember that Luke has just written about this, and I feel like the the the order this happens and unfolds is very intentional.
So you read about this.
Now the festival of unleavened bread has arrived.
Jesus sends Peter and John, this is the whole thing.
They follow the God pitcher water, they get to the house.
Hey, my master wants to have a room here, and they're like, okay, boom, here's the room, and now it's dinner time.
Verse 14.
When the time came, Jesus said, Jesus and the apostles sat down together at the table.
This is verse 14.
Verse 15, Jesus said, I have been very eager to eat this Passover meal with you before my suffering begins.
When Jesus wanted to explain to his followers that his death was coming, he didn't give them some theory.
When he wanted to explain to his disciples what his death was coming and what it was going to be about, he didn't want to give them some random theory.
He gave them a meal.
He says, For I tell you now that I won't eat this meal again until its meaning is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.
We've talked about the kingdom of God a lot.
Luke focuses on it.
The kingdom of God has come and is coming.
It's fulfilled and being fulfilled.
It's both and, right?
Verse 17, then he took a cup of wine and he gave thanks to God for it.
And he said, Take this and share it among yourselves, for I will not drink wine again until the kingdom of God has come.
He took some bread and gave thanks to God for it.
Then he broke it in pieces and gave it to the disciples, saying, This is my body which is given for you.
Do this in remembrance of me.
Did they have full understanding of what was going on at this moment?
No, but they would.
After supper, he took another cup of wine and said, This cup is the new covenant.
That's highlighable, that's underlinable.
Whatever you need to do to mark that in your Bible, this cup is the new covenant between God and his people.
An agreement confirmed with my blood, which is poured out as a sacrifice for you.
There can't be forgiveness of sins unless blood is spilt.
Yeah?
And up till that point, it was lambs that were sacrificed and offered up.
And they had to happen all the time, all the time, all the time, until Jesus comes and he makes the sacrifice as the final lamb.
Yeah?
But Jesus, now he's given them bread.
He's broken the bread and he said, This is my body given for you.
And some versions might read, This is my body broken for you.
I just want just a just a quick clarification.
Given is a better translation because we understand by Jewish law that a sacrifice could not be acceptable if it had a broken bone.
And Jesus never had a broken bone, even though he was brutally beaten.
Because there could be some confusion in that.
I don't know, just where my mind goes.
But but so is this my body given for you?
All right.
The Greek is strong.
It's stronger.
This phrase, my body is given for you.
The Greek it reads much stronger.
It says, My body is being offered up on your behalf.
Right?
You say, Oh, yeah, yeah, okay, you're given.
No, no, no.
My body's being offered up on your behalf.
And the language gives this kind of scenario is that it implies the sacrifice had already begun.
Is that it had already begun happening, right?
And Jesus wasn't on the cross yet, but the sacrifice had already begun.
But Isaiah 53, 5, I want you to remember this.
It says, but he was pierced for our rebellion.
He was crushed for our sins.
He was beaten so we could be whole.
He was whipped so we could be healed.
All right?
We look at all these things and we have to remember when we come to communion, this is not a symbolic time.
It's not just like a little thing you do because you're a Christian.
No, Jesus says, do this in remembrance of me.
You're not remembering just some old thing that happened long ago.
You're remembering a day, listen, just as they had gathered for Passover to remember when God set them free from Egypt, when their freedom had been bought from captivity and slavery.
We eat of this, remembering that our freedom has now been bought with a new covenant from sin and slavery, right?
We are no longer captive to hell.
We are no longer captive to sin.
We're no longer captive to shame.
When we receive this, it's a proclamation, a declaration.
This is a sermon.
When you receive, you are taking place, you're taking part in a sermon that says, This is what has happened, but this is what is happening right now.
Does it make sense?
This is not some old just just lifeless moment when we come to the Lord's table.
I love you guys.
You're awesome.
1 Corinthians, chapter 11, verse 26.
1 Corinthians is a wild chapter, by the way.
We'll get into a little bit more of it in a minute, but verse 26 of chapter 11, 1 Corinthians says, For every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are announcing the Lord's death until he comes again.
What are you announcing?
You are declaring to the powers and principalities of the world that Jesus died on the cross and was raised on the third day and is present and he is now at work.
When I receive communion, I'm announcing till he comes again.
I'm putting basically, listen, check this out.
What if you take it in this concept?
When you receive communion, you're putting hell on notice that Jesus has won.
The powers and principalities of this word, I you could be sick, receive the bread.
I believe that there is something in the receiving.
Catholics would believe that it becomes the literal body and blood of Jesus, transubstantiation.
I don't go that far.
I don't know that there's uh like a principle for that in scripture, but what I do believe is that as you receive, there is power in the receiving.
It's not some kind of magical pill you take, but there is something in the honoring of what He's asked you to do and the remembrance of what He's paid for, that as you receive it, there's a moment of a power encounter between God and you.
This is this is, man, it we we have to raise the standards of expectation when we come to the Lord's table.
As I was reading this and studying this, I was like, man, like, do this in remembrance.
The word remembrance doesn't mean you have a vague memory of a past event, but rather that a past event has become present.
And let the present event remind us of the future.
So, like, a past event has happened, but when you receive this, I want you to imagine that Jesus just went on the cross and was just raised from the dead.
I want you to imagine that you're receiving it with the disciples in real time.
The other thing I want you to recognize is this when you receive it, you're taking it communally.
There's a power in that.
When he gave this, he gave it to each one, but he took it together in community.
There's a declaring as family that our king has paid the price.
He was beaten for our transgression, he was wounded for our iniquity.
By his stripes we are healed.
I receive the bread.
There's times I receive the bread for my healing, and there's times I've received the bread for somebody else's.
There's times when I receive the cup to remember you have paid the price for me.
But I do not want to forget that you have paid the price for this world.
And so let me be on mission to share that hope with this world.
You with me on that?
Communion declares the sacrifice Jesus made then.
His grace and forgiveness he is supplying right now, and it secures our future for us with him forever.
Let me say that one more time.
Communion declares the sacrifice Jesus made, then we're remembering the sacrifice that he made.
But that his grace and forgiveness is in supply right now.
And as we receive his grace, as we receive his mercy, there's a confidence in my heart, then my future.
Future is secure.
So my present, any worry has to be crushed because my future is secure.
This is a side note.
What you feed the most in your life will grow the most.
Social media has a desire to grow fear, not peace.
I would say there's small pockets of faith that are trying to turn the tide, but by and large, the algorithm promotes fear regardless of who you are.
It promotes worry, it promotes concern.
We talked about the end times last week.
Listen, end times are going to come.
The presence and power of God will pour out more and more over his sons and daughters.
We know that in the end, our king comes back on a white horse, victorious.
Amen?
If you allow yourself to be inundated with the stresses of this life, you will become focused on this life.
But if you remind yourself, even as you receive communion, that your king has overcome.
It will change the way that you live your daily life.
We need a community that sees a church changed by the grace of God.
My family needs to see a father that's changed by the grace of God.
My friends need to see a man that's changed by the grace of God.
That's why it concerns me when we come to Father's Day.
And listen, I know it's a few weeks away, but it concerns me when I find out statistically that it's always the lowest attended Sunday of the year.
It shows me this that in the men in this country, at least, it has not become a priority to them to say our family is going to the gathering together, the fellowship, which is what the Bible calls us to, by the way.
Our family's going to do this.
And this is the proclamation.
For me and my house, as I receive communion, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
I'm serving the Lord.
I'm not serving the extra day where I can rest or get to the golf course or get out fishing.
Nothing's wrong with any of those things until it becomes the idol and the priority in your life above your relationship with Jesus.
He gives us things that are recreation, but we have in our culture right now, currently, a habit of idolizing recreation.
In the same way that the Jews would have a Passover meal to celebrate the Exodus from Egypt, celebrating that night, the disciples were ushering in and they were celebrating, and they didn't even recognize to the fullness that this new covenant was being established, and it was celebrating their exodus from sin, death, hell, and the grave.
After supper, he took another cup of wines, verse 20.
This cup is the new covenant.
The old covenant pushes us to the new covenant.
We can't be good enough on our own.
My best efforts, scripture says, are as filthy rags.
I can't do it well enough on my own.
And listen, I want to say this to you.
When you come to the Lord's table, it's not because you are worthy enough to come and receive.
You come to the Lord's table because he makes you worthy as you receive.
This is not a merit-based moment of eating, of fellowship.
This is not a merit-based, like only the most elite can come to this table.
I remember going to a wedding one time and there was one side of the family that was was Catholic.
And the woman marrying into the family, she was not.
And we sat in this huge, beautiful church.
It was incredible.
I mean, it was just gorgeous.
And when the time of communion came, because she wasn't Catholic, her husband received communion, and everybody that was Catholic received as she stood there and watched.
I'm not berating them, but I recognize this.
When this becomes so liturgical that it becomes about what you've earned and not what God's done, you're flawed in your receiving of it.
Every time you eat this bread and you drink this cup, you're announcing the Lord's death.
Communion is a meal that is a message.
It's a sermon that reminds me the price that my sin has been paid in full.
Jesus the Messiah has brought my deliverance from sickness and death.
And now here's what gets me.
Verse 21 comes into the conversation.
But here, Jesus is talking, but here at this table, sitting among us as a friend, is the man who will betray me.
Judas is sitting at the table.
Judas got to receive communion.
Judas gets his feet washed by Jesus, and when you read in the other gospels, Judas receives communion.
Jesus says to him, He knows.
Listen, we already read in scripture, we know that Satan entered into Judas.
We already know that he's in the process of betraying Jesus, and Jesus knows it.
That's why Luke, the way it's laid out, is amazing to me because it lets us all in on the story of what Judas is doing.
And then Judas still gets to come in the room, and then Jesus still explains to Judas and all the other disciples that I have come to die for all the sins of the world.
Judas, you're sitting at the table and you're about to do something that nobody could imagine.
All the other disciples are like, who would betray you?
That's insane.
We can't continue.
It's such a crazy idea.
We're just going to talk about who's the better.
We're not even going to waste time on that because that doesn't even make sense.
That doesn't even compute.
How can somebody betray you, Jesus?
And Judas is sitting there in real time thinking, What can I do to get this man killed?
And Jesus, with that man sitting at the table, says, Here is my body given for you.
This is my body offered up for you, Judas.
Receive this cup of a new covenant.
The old covenant is killing you, Judas.
Receive this cup of a new covenant.
That my blood is poured out for your sins.
Listen, you have to understand this.
If you don't believe that the cross was big enough to cover Judas's sin, it's not big enough to cover any sin.
So you have to, you have to, in your head, you recognize, and I believe I look at this, and we know that Judas ends his life.
He's grief-stricken after Jesus is arrested, after he's murdered, after he's crucified.
He throws the money that he's been given back on the on the floor of the temple.
He goes off, kills himself.
And I look at that, I'm like, yeah, but there was a plan of redemption for that man.
Many people will read it and say, nah, man, that was it would have what a terrible burden to have been Judas.
Remember this, Jesus says.
Do this often in remembrance of me.
I wonder what would have happened if Judas would have just in his grief and his pain.
Remember that Jesus didn't talk to me about a theory, he gave me a meal.
That I can remember.
That I was never worthy to receive this in the first place, but his blood makes me worthy.
I've been in ministry 24 years.
You're like, Joey, you look so young.
It's incredible.
It's because of my shirt.
I know you're thinking, where can I get a shirt like that, Joey?
This was the last one.
You can't get it.
And those of you that know me, when when the pastor shows up with ferns on his shirt and crimson, he means business.
If he's wearing a shirt that's got wooden buttons, watch out.
I used to, I used to preach in a and I would be in service.
And uh when it would time come for communion, I'd say, hey, listen, for for all those that are are followers of Jesus, that have received him as your Lord and Savior, this is a time to come to remember what he's done for you.
And I would say, if you if you've not made him Lord and Savior, there's not anything yet to remember.
And so there was a time in my ministry very early on where I did not invite those who did not know Jesus.
I did not invite them to the table.
Some of you might be, well, Julian, that makes sense.
Except for that Judas was at the table.
There's a man that uh there's a man that really ministered to me when I was young pastor, and um I got to spend time with him.
His name's Jack Hayford, he's he's gone on to be with the Lord years ago.
And one day he was talking about communion and who can receive it.
Um he compared keeping an unbeliever from communion is like withholding food from a starving person until they get over their malnutrition.
Who more needs to know the grace of Jesus?
Than somebody who more needs to experience his love, than somebody that doesn't know it, who more needs to come to the table, than somebody who's not yet aware that their shame has been paid for, that their guilt has been paid for, their sins have been removed.
Listen, upon their confession of faith that heaven is waiting to say, come in.
We get the image of Jesus when he tells about the prodigal son, the father waiting and looking on the horizon for the son that has sinned to come home so he can run and embrace him and restore him.
Who more needs to come to the table and receive than a person like that?
So in this church and this house, when you say, Joey, who's welcome to come to the table?
All are welcome to come to the table.
If you've walked with Jesus for years, know that when you come, it is not a funeral, but it's a celebration of the price he paid.
It's a declaration of what he has done for you, he's done for me, he's done for us communally.
And if you are an unbeliever and you come to receive, come with an expectation of saying, I am going to open myself up to this, this one they call Jesus.
I'm gonna dare to step into this moment.
I really had to battle through with this because 1 Corinthians chapter 11 talks about us coming to the table with clean hands.
1 Corinthians chapter 11, verse 27 says, So anyone, anyone who eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord unworthily is guilty of sinning against the body and the blood of the Lord.
Mika, would you come up for me, sis?
That is why, verse 28 says, that is why you should examine yourself before eating the bread and drinking the cup.
And Jesus is talking to believers here.
He's talking to church folk.
For if you eat the bread and drink the cup without honoring the body of Christ, without honoring what this moment is, you you didn't earn it, you didn't deserve it, he paid the price.
There were people that would come together, they would celebrate and they would take communion, and they listen, the poor wouldn't get to have a seat at the table to receive communion.
They would just come and drink all the wine and get drunk, and they would gorge themselves on food.
This is the early church, this is what's happening.
And they're missing the mark on what communion's about.
Check this out.
It says in verse 29 if you eat the bread and drink the cup without honoring the body of Christ, you're eating and drinking God's judgment upon yourself.
That is why many of you are weak and sick.
Check this out, and some have even died.
It's not games that we're playing here.
This is significant.
This is, this is this is powerful.
This is this is a deep holy moment when we come to the Lord's table.
It's not something on the box that I check off that it was, it was this time this month, now I got communion done, and I'm a good Christian for the month.
Recognize you can take communion as often as you would want.
You can take it in your home, you can take it with your family, but we love to do it often that we can have it as a family in community.
But if we would, verse 31 says, but if we would examine ourselves, we would not be judged by God in this way.
I uh I think a lot about how do we come to the table the right way.
When I examine myself, I remember my worth is not what makes this meal possible.
Jesus makes me worthy.
I don't defile the meal by receiving it casually or without expectation.
I don't receive it pridefully as though I earned it or am owed it.
I didn't earn this meal and I'm not owed this meal.
It's by God's grace that this table is set for you and for me.
You with me on that?
I receive it in celebration and in humility.
That's why I'm not stressed out.
Listen, when a child would come up and they don't maybe get the words right or they drink the juice before they eat the bread.
Are you gonna die?
It's crazy.
But I celebrate because it's opportunity to sit with our children and say, you know why we do this?
You know why we receive this?
You're so valued by God he wanted to have a relationship with you.
So he sent Jesus.
And this body, this bread you're receiving represents his body that was given up for you.
So that your body wouldn't be the one beaten, that your body wouldn't be the one sacrificed.
And as you receive that, if there's sickness in your body, believe that as he healed then, he still heals now.
I've seen people receive communion and get healing.
I've seen people receive communion and not, and I don't have a solution or an answer for why that happens, other than when I come to the table, I'm gonna come with the expectation that he is the God who heals, and I'm gonna receive it with expectation.
When I come to the table, if I've had a terrible week and I feel like I've done so much wrong, or I've just been angry and over the top, just not honoring God in whatever ways.
Like, if I come to the table, I'm like, man, I grade myself as failing this week.
I still come with a confidence that it's because of this blood and not my past week that I am redeemed.
And so I come and say, God, I have dirty hands, and I ask you to cleanse me, and I thank you that you did, and that your blood poured out for me on the cross took care of all my sin for all time.
And so I come in the confidence of your blood set before me, and I just receive it and I just, God, thank you.
Thank you that the price has been paid, that you saw me and wanted to have a relationship with me.
And I celebrate as the Jews celebrated the Passover and the Exodus out of slavery.
I celebrate an Exodus out of the slavery of sin.
It doesn't mean that I'll always get it right or always be perfect, but I know that He is working in me.
And this time next year, I'm gonna look more like Jesus and less like Joey.
I would encourage you today, this is not a funeral, it's a celebration.
As communion is not isolated, but it's communical.
I want to ask you right now, how is your relationship with others?
I think it's an appropriate time as you come to remember that you've been forgiven, to take an opportunity to forgive.
Just sit, close your eyes for a minute, and just even if you need to come, get the bread and the juice, and you need to sit down for a minute.
Is there somebody?
Am I living an offense somewhere in my life?
Am I living offended somewhere in my heart?
Let's man, let's do that right now.
Let's do that right now.
Just close your eyes really quick.
Is there somebody that you need to say, God, I need to forgive them?
Can I encourage you?
This is not something you have to feel to do.
You don't have to feel like forgiving to do it.
Just ask yourself, man, man, is there somebody I need to I need to declare right now, God, I I want relationship with you more than being right.
I choose to forgive them.
Your flesh, even as you say it with your will, your flesh might be like, No, I don't.
Man, I've had that so many times.
God, I choose to forgive that person.
My flesh is like, mm-mm, no, I'm gonna hang on to that longer.
But I don't let my emotions get the rule of my life.
God's given me a will.
So I engage my will and say, No, no, no.
I choose with my will to forgive them.
I don't have to feel like it's happened, I don't have to feel any different, but I'm choosing.
I'm feeling uh I'm forgiving that person who lied about me, I'm forgiving that person who abused me, I'm forgiving that person that cheated on me, I'm forgiving that person right now that took advantage, uh, that lied, whatever it is.
I'm forgiving the person that betrayed me.
And you might need to come and say, and Lord, I as I come to receive from your table, I come to remember that you've forgiven me.
And there might be something that you're dealing with right now, Lord.
I just thank you that you would you would you would help me walk in freedom in this area of my life.
If there's an addiction you're dealing with, if there's a struggle you're battling, to come and say, Lord, I just I confess right now, this is anger has gotten me, or or or porn addiction has gotten me, or drugs have gotten me, or or lying has gotten me, or whatever it is, and just confess it to the Lord.
Don't let it hide in the dark in your life.
Let the Lord bring healing and wholeness.
Rob, would you go get a jest for me?
Because I I wanna I want to close with some singing as we respond in this.
As you make your way up, as you make your way up, Sheila's got the the bread.
Nora's got the juice.
And I want you to remember Jesus looking at his disciples.
Gosh, and please remember Judas at the table.
He took some bread and gave thanks to God for it.
He broke it into pieces and gave it to the disciples, saying, This is my body which is given for you.
Do this in remembrance of me.
You're gonna grab the cup of juice as well.
And remember that Jesus said, after supper, he took another cup of wine and said, This cup is the new covenant, praise God, between God and his people.
An agreement confirmed with my blood, which is poured out as a sacrifice for you.
Thank you, Jesus, for the sacrifice you made for us.
If you're coming to the table today and you need healing in your body, come with an expectation that he's gonna heal.
If you need forgiveness in your life, come knowing that he forgives you.
But I want you to, as you make your way, know that you're stepping into a sermon, you're stepping into a message.
This is not one I'm preaching, this is one you're preaching, because you're gonna pick up the bread, you're gonna pick up the juice, and that's you physically declaring, Jesus, you have the victory over it all.
You're putting hell on notice.
Every power, every principality, every line that says you are not good enough to be loved, you're not good enough to be forgiven.
You're like, you know what?
I am not, but Jesus was on my behalf, and I am forgiven under him.
His blood covers me and makes me right.
Not my works, not my effort.
And because I'm loved, now I operate from that love to show the world his goodness, his grace, and his mercy.
So, can we come with an intentionality today to know that this is holy ground?
And if you don't know Jesus, I want to ask you, come and receive.
If you don't think, if you don't have things right with Jesus, you knew him back when you were a kid, and maybe it was your parents' faith or your grandma's faith.
Jesus doesn't want to have a surrogate relationship with you through somebody else, he wants to have a relationship with you.
Come.
Receive.
For some of you this morning, this is a returning to that covenant.
A returning to King Jesus.
Can we just close our eyes one more time?
And I just want you, as you feel ready, I'm just gonna give a moment.
We're not gonna rush this.
But I want you just to come and just begin to receive.
If you want to take it back to your seat and wait for a moment and just just savor the flavor and just sit in this, you're welcome to do that.
As you pick up the bread out of out of out of the out of the plate, you can go ahead and receive it right then if you want to.
And receive the juice right then if you want to.
Either way is fine.
But come with the boldness and a heart of celebration and a declaration, knowing Jesus died for us, yes, in the past, but his grace is work in our present.
And it is securing and giving us a hope for the future.
I encourage you, as you're ready, come now and receive.