Hope Church LV Sermons
The Lord's Supper :: 12.16.12
(rock music) Christmas is only nine days away, right? Now, I don't know what emotion that stirs in you when you hear it said like that, right? Christmas is nine days away. For some of you, panic just set in, right? And you thought, oh my goodness, nine days. Pastor Beth, I hope this is a short sermon 'cause I got to get to them all. There are presents that I have got to buy, there are gifts that I've got to purchase, nine days, are you kidding me? Some of you when I said there's only nine days till Christmas, you immediately begin to think about all the food that's got to be prepared, right? The meals that have got to be cooked, the cakes that have got to be baked, the cookies that have got to be made, all that kind of stuff. Some of you, when I said that Christmas is only nine days away, immediately you begin to think about all the parties that you got to go to this week, right? I mean, Christmas parties come and they come in a wave. They're all liking about a 10-day period of time and you got to try to hit as many as you can and drink as much eggnog as you can and do all that kind of good stuff, right? So some of you, when I said Christmas is only nine days away, you begin to panic because you're thinking about all the family that's about to arrive at your house and all the cleaning that's got to get done to get ready for that. And so for many today, just hearing the statement, Christmas is only nine days away, immediately the anxiety level in the room began to go up, right? Now, don't misunderstand me. I love the Christmas season. I love the Christmas season. I do, I love all, I got some of the Christmas fans in the room, right? I love the Christmas season. I love all the hustle and the bustle. I love the gifts and the buying gifts and exchanging gifts. I love all the decorations. I mean, if you came to our house, our house looks like we're ready for the Griswold family Christmas, right? I mean, we got all the lights up. You can land an airplane in our front yard. There's so much lights outside of our house. Now, I love all of that and it's a great season. I love every way that our culture celebrates Christmas, but if we're not careful in the midst of the Christmas season, if we're not careful, we can miss the very essence of what Christmas is really all about. So today begins the mad rush into the last week before Christmas. And we thought this weekend it would be very appropriate for us as a family of faith to calibrate, if you will, to fix our hearts and our minds on the real reason why we're celebrating so that we can be sure that we don't in the midst of all the other activities, miss the very reason for Christmas. I'm gonna go ahead and tell you up front, what we're gonna do today at the end of my message is a very unique expression of worship for us here. It's not something that the way that we're going to do it is not the way we normally would wrap a service. It's gonna be a little different for us. I'm gonna go ahead and prepare you up front so you can have about 30 minutes, 35 minutes to get ready for that, all right? So go ahead and start preparing yourself 'cause some of us don't do change well and we're gonna change things up a little bit at the end. So I'm going ahead and giving you a little notice so that I don't add to your anxiety today, all right? Now some of you are already thinking, oh my gosh, what are we doing at the end of the service? It's okay, do this, we can take a breath. Everybody all right? Take your Bible if you have it. Turn to first Peter, chapter two. First Peter, chapter two. I wanna read a verse of scripture and out of this one verse of scripture, I wanna look at some reasons why we celebrate Jesus at Christmas. First Peter, chapter two, verse 24. If you don't have a Bible with you this morning, these verses are gonna be on this verse, you're gonna be on the screen. Here's what it says. "And He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness for by His wounds you were healed." Since it's just one verse of scripture this morning, I wanna put that back up there and I want us to read it out loud together this morning. I want it to really sink in as we think about this verse today. So let's read it together, one, two, three. And He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross. So that we might die to sin and live to righteousness for by His wounds you were healed. I wanna give you three reasons or three reminders how Christmas celebrates Jesus. Number one, Christmas celebrates who He is. Christmas celebrates who He is. Simon Peter in this little letter that he's written for us in the Bible opens this verse with that little phrase, He Himself. It's just a simple usage of a pronoun, He, but the way that Simon Peter uses it here, it's used intensively or emphatically. He could have just said He bore our sins in His body on the cross, but He didn't do that. He said He Himself. It's an emphatic usage of that little pronoun and it means a few things to us. And when I thought about that this week and was kind of meditating on that phrase, He Himself, there were two words that kind of came to my mind and here's the first one, exclusivity, exclusivity. And by that, here's what that little phrase He Himself means. It means He or Him and nobody else but Him. He, Him, Self. What you're reading here is Peter's own testimony and what Peter is saying is there is nobody else like Jesus. He and nobody else but Him. There's nobody, here's Peter, after three and a half years of walking with Jesus. Three and a half years of being one of the 12 disciples that when everywhere Jesus went and heard everything that Jesus said and saw every miracle that Jesus performed. But beyond that, Peter wasn't just one of the 12. Peter was one of that inner circle of three that you read about so often in the gospels. So often you'll read up at the amount of transfiguration that Jesus selected Peter, James and John, out of the 12 and they went with Him in the Garden of Gethsemane when Jesus was crying out and intimate fellowship before the Father. Jesus invited Peter, James and John to go with Him into the inner section of that garden and be alone with the Father over and over again as you read the gospels. There was this little circle of three that Jesus would always take with you. They saw things nobody else saw. They heard things, nobody else heard. They witnessed events that nobody else had the opportunity to witness. And yet after all of that, three and a half years, Simon, Peter's writing this letter and here's his testimony. Him and nobody else but Him. He, Him, Self. There's nobody like Jesus. But it's not just Peter's testimony. John is another of those three that was invited into the inner circle following Jesus. And John opens his gospel with the same idea that Peter is writing about in first Peter chapter two. John, when he opens his gospel, he begins to introduce us to the uniqueness or the exclusivity of Jesus, teaching us that there's nobody else like him. Look at it on the screen in John chapter one and verse one. Listen what the Bible says. John opens and he says, "In the beginning was the word." That little phrase, the little word, the word there is a word that John borrowed out of Greek culture to communicate to us truth about the person of Jesus. He's using it to represent the person of Jesus. And listen to how he opens. He says, "In the beginning was the word." Here's what he's saying. When the beginning began, he Jesus already was. Wow. There's enough truth in that first statement that John gives us to keep us in awe for our entire lives. He's teaching us about Jesus and he says when the beginning began, he already was, but look what he says next. In the beginning was the word and the word was with God. He's speaking here to the marvelous doctrine of the triune God, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. The idea that Jesus is equal to, but separate from the Father. In the beginning, when the beginning began, he already was and the Bible says he was with God, meaning separate from, but equal to, but then look what it says. And the word was God. Speaking of the equality of the person of Jesus to God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. Now, if that's not exclusive and unique enough about the person of Jesus, then John goes on and he reminds us, hey, we're talking about the beginning, he was in the beginning with God. And then look what he says. All things came into being through him and apart from him, nothing came into being that has come into being. You hear what John is saying? John's saying, hey, I spent three and a half years walking with Jesus. I saw everything that Jesus did. I heard everywhere that Jesus spoke. I went with him when other people didn't go with him. I was the only one who was there when he died on the cross. All the other disciples had fled and John says, in the beginning, before the beginning began, Jesus already was speaking to his eternity. John says he was equal to and separate from God the Father speaking of the Trinity. And John says, you want to talk about the beginning. John says, Jesus is the one that created everything. You can see, taste, touch, feel, or smell. Nothing John says has been created. That was not created through Jesus. Now, for all that's not enough. Down in verse 14, listen to what John says next. And the word became flesh. Wow. I want you to think about what John is saying. The one who, when the beginning began already was, the one who is equal to, yet separate from God the Father and God the Holy Spirit, the one who created everything and nothing has been created that was not created by him. John says, this one became a man. King, a man. Wow. And John says, the word became flesh and dwelt. And dwelt among us. Now, we read that because we've read it so many times and we just read right there, but did you hear it? God, the one true living eternal transcendent, glorious God became an ordinary common man. And John said, he just lived among us, like one of us. But John says, we saw it. John says we, we walked with him. Listen, what we're reading is not our opinion about Jesus. What we're reading is an eyewitness testimony, somebody who for three and a half years walked with Jesus. And here's what he says about him after three and a half years. We saw it. Glory. Glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace. And true, you know what John says? We saw God with us. God. Now, God is here with us this morning. God dwells in each of us as believers in Jesus Christ, by His Spirit. But what John says is, God physically walked in and sat down. Wow. That'd be pretty awesome. Just sit down. No wonder, no wonder in Luke's gospel, when we read the story of the birth of Jesus Christ and Bethlehem, no wonder that Luke tells us the story of the shepherds out in the field. And he tells us that these angels showed up. We can only imagine that the angels were in heaven going, we got to do something. And so God gives them permission to come to the recesses of the universe. And from the recesses of the universe, they just shout, "Glory to God!" In the highest and on earth, peace. The embodiment of peace among men. Christmas celebrates who is. That's why Peter says him and nobody else but him. That little phrase he himself also brought to my mind, not only the word exclusivity, but secondly the word voluntary. Here's what I mean by that. That little phrase he himself also means of his own choice, of his own will, of his own volition. He and nobody else but him, and he by his own choice. All that Christ came to accomplish, he did so by his own choosing. The cross of Jesus, the mission of Jesus, the redemption of Jesus, the death bell and the resurrection of Jesus was no ambulance sent to an accident. It was the sovereign plan of Almighty God carried out through the will of the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus said this about it in John chapter 10, verse 14, look at it on the screen. I am the good shepherd and I know my own and my own know me. Even as the Father knows me, I know the Father and I lay down my life for the sheep. Listen, verse 18, no one, no one has taken it from me. But I lay it down on my own initiative. I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it up again, this commandment I receive from my Father. Jesus, by his own choice, voluntarily laid down his life. First, it's what Paul wrote about, I don't have this on the screen, but in Philippians chapter 2, Paul wrote these words in the book of Philippians. He said, "Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who although he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God, a thing to be grasped." But he emptied himself. It means that Jesus voluntarily in humility, empty. It doesn't mean that he stopped being God, but he laid aside the privileges of being God and he became a man, 100% God, 100% man. It says he emptied himself, taking the form of a bondservant and being made in the likeness of men and being found in appearance as a man. He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Let me tell you what that tells us today. That speaks of the unbelievable love that Jesus has for you and for me. You know what Christmas celebrates? It celebrates the love of Jesus for us today. Thank you. It celebrates the love of Jesus for us. There's a verse in John chapter 13 that speaks about the love of Jesus, and it's a verse that's not often quoted, it's not used a lot, but it speaks to his love. I don't want you to look at what it says. John chapter 13 verse 1, it says, "Now before the feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that his hour had come that he would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end." He loved him to the end. That little word "end" is a word that literally means the uttermost or the extreme, and it's describing the radical expression of love that Jesus had for us in his coming to. Christmas celebrates who he is. Secondly, Christmas celebrates what he's done. Listen what Peter said, "He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross." Wow. He and nobody else but he. He by his own choice because he loved you and me bore all our sins in his body. On the cross. It tells us a couple of things. Number one, it tells us that the suffering Jesus endured was the penalty for sin. That little word "bor" he bore our sins. It's a word that literally means to carry up or to carry away. And it was commonly used in the day of Jesus to refer to the practice of a priest bringing an offering to the altar on behalf of the sins of the people. Sin, the Bible says in Romans chapter 6, the wages of sin is death. Sin brought death into the world. Death was not God's design. Sin brought death into the world because of sin. We die physically because of sin. We experience spiritual death. We come into this world dead to God and alive to sin. Because of sin, ultimately there's eternal death. If you die without Christ, you die and spend eternity separated from God. That was the consequence of sin. And in the Old Testament, God through the covenant he made with Abraham and then in Moses, established a sacrificial system where priests would daily bring offerings and sacrifices and they would all day every day be offering these sacrifices on an altar. But here's what we know from the New Testament. Those sacrifices never atoned for sin. They never took sin away, but here's what they were. They were a picture that one day God would send an ultimate Messiah who would take all of the sin of humanity on himself. And one day that Messiah would do what those sacrifices had pictured. Those sacrifices had symbolized. And one day through death a Messiah would shed his blood and pay the penalty for our sin. That is exactly what Jesus Christ did. Jesus came into this world as God in the flesh lived a sinless life and he took all of our sin on himself and the Bible says he bore it on our behalf. Listen to it in the book of Hebrews chapter 10. It says every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time, the same sacrifices which can never take away sins. You see it? They're going through the motions of the sacrificial system, but those sacrifices never take away sin, but then look what it says. But he, Jesus, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God. The suffering that Jesus endured was the penalty for sin. The theologians call it substitutionary atonement that he died for our sin. And that's the second thing that this little phrase teaches us that the suffering Jesus endured was not for his sin, it was for our sin. He bore our sins in his body, our sins, his body on the cross. You see, Jesus has God in the flesh, was uniquely qualified as our sinless substitute, the motless lamb, to take all of our sin on himself, and on the cross Jesus died for our sin. Christmas celebrates who he is, he himself. But it also celebrates what he's done. You see, the reason he came as a baby in a manger is so that he could go to a cross and redeem us from our sin. Number three, Christmas celebrates who I am in him. Christmas celebrates who he is, Christmas celebrates what he's done. But Christmas also celebrates who I am in him. The first again, he, himself, him and only him, him by his own choice, bore our sins, not his sin, our sin, in his body on the cross. And then the next two words in the verse are extremely important. You know what the next two words are? So that. Let me tell you why it's important. Here's what it means. Here's why. So that we might die to sin. Let me tell you what that speaks about. It speaks about the reality that I am forgiven. How many of you today are grateful that you are forgiven in Christ? Amen? I'm forgiven. Listen, the word die that's used here in 1 Peter chapter 2, it's interesting because this is the only time in the entire Greek New Testament this word is used. It's not used anywhere else in the Bible. Now, the word die or death or dying is mentioned many times in the Bible, but every other time we see the word die, death or dying, it is a different Greek word than the one that is used here in 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 24. This is the only place in the Bible this particular Greek word is used. And it's an interesting word to translate die. Here's why. Because what it really means, what this word carries with the idea is something that has departed. And it's the picture when you and I would say of somebody who's died, we'd say, well, they've departed. They're no longer with us, right? We use it in that way in our culture and in our context. That's the picture here of this word die. He's saying that it is no longer with us. Here's the beautiful statement that the Bible is making for us here. Because of what Jesus did, our sins have departed from us. They are no longer counted against us. Here's the way FB Meyer says it. I love his statement. Listen what he says. But as for the eternal governmental and judicial consequences of our sins, these have been born for us and have been exhausted in the sufferings of our blessed Lord. In the person of Jesus, the great God took them home to himself and put them away forever. Because he has suffered them, we need not suffer them. Because he has borne them, we need not bear them. Because the stripes fell thick and heavy on him, they need never fall on us. Because of Jesus and his death, burial and resurrection, my sins have been forgiven. My sins have departed. They have been removed from me. There's a great picture of this in the Old Testament, Psalm 103 verse 12. In Psalm 103 verse 12, the Psalmist describes it this way. Listen to what he says, "As far as the east is from the west, so far as he removed our transgressions from us." What a great picture of God removing our transgressions from us. As far as the, what does he say? East is from the west, right? Now that's significant. Why did he not say as far as the north is from the south? You know why? Because if you leave here today heading north and you travel north, you can travel by boat, plane, automobile, however you want. Eventually, if you travel north long enough, you're going to hit the north pole and you're going to be headed what? South, right? You're going to hit north and you're going to be headed south. You know what that means? The distance between north and south is measurable. We know how far that is. If you leave here today traveling east, did you know that you can travel east forever until you decide to stop and turn around and head the other direction and start traveling west? You can go east forever and forever and forever and I find it interesting that when the Psalmist wrote this, he wrote it in a period of history when most people still believe the earth was flat. So under the sovereign influence of Almighty God and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the Psalmist understood east and west is an immeasurable distance. Here's what the point is. The point is God has so removed our sins from us because of what Jesus did, you cannot even measure the distance. It is infinity. Our sins will never be back on our account. We are forgiven and as we celebrate Christmas, we are celebrating the reality that we're forgiven. I love what Albert Barnes said. Listen, what he said, he was treated as if he had been a sinner in order that we might be treated as if we had not sin forgiven. He himself, him and only him, him by his own choosing bore our sins, not his, our sins in his body. The only qualified sacrifice for our sins because he was God in the flesh on the cross so that we might die to sin. Our sins removed from us and that we might live to righteousness. What does that speak to? It speaks to the issue that not only am I forgiven, listen, I am free. I am free in Christ to live a life that pleases God. You see, before Christ, I was dead to God and alive to sin because of Jesus. I'm now dead to sin and alive to God. I've been made alive in Christ and now Christ in me can live through me and manifest the very righteousness of God in such a way that my life pleases the Father. I love what Miles Stanford said. He said it this way. We have been born into Christ that he might be our life and not just our Savior, our life. You say, well, how do we, how does this happen? How do we go from death to life on a daily basis? How do we live dead to sin and alive to God? Because pastor, I've got to be honest with you. I still struggle in my life. I know that the consequences of my sin from a spiritual and eternal standpoint have been removed from me. But pastor, I still have struggles. I still have temptations. I'm still battling. How do I deal with that? Well, let me show you. Turn over to Romans chapter 6. Romans chapter 6, and I want to read you some verses. Romans chapter 6, beginning in verse 11, Paul gives us a very practical example of how we're to deal with this on a daily basis. Look what he says. Even so, consider yourselves. Now, the word considers a word that means to reckon or to think into mind, to make a choice. And it's an imperative here. He's not giving us a suggestion. He's giving us a command. He says, even so, consider yourselves. Look what it says. Even so, consider yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Here's what that means. On a daily basis, I'm to say, Lord, God, that's not who I am anymore. Lord, I know that because of Jesus, my sins have been removed from me. Lord, I know that because of Jesus, I am dead to sin. I know that sin is dead to me. God, because of Jesus, I'm alive to you, Lord. Today, by faith, I acknowledge, and I lay hold of everything that Jesus accomplished on the cross. But then, look what he says in verse 12, "Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body, so that you obey its lust, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of righteous." Here's what he's saying. Don't keep living like that. That's not who you are anymore. Don't keep giving the members of your body over to the things of this world. That's not you. You're dead to that. But then, look what he says, "But go on presenting yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God for sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace." What he's saying? Every day of my life. Every day of my life, I'm to go back to that altar, and I'm to lay myself on the altar before God. Oh, God, I know that Jesus has died for me, Lord. I know that because of Jesus, I'm dead to sin, and I'm alive to you. And, Lord, today, today, I acknowledge by faith that biblical reality in my life. And so, Lord, today, I give you my hands. God, I give you my feet. God, I give you my mind. Lord, I give you my eyes. God, I give you my ears. Lord, I present to you the members of my body today. Lord, would you use them as instruments for your righteousness? God, not for sin. I'm dead to that. That's not who I am anymore. Lord, use me for your glory. You see the picture? That's what he's inviting us into, and listen, that's why we celebrate. We're not celebrating just to get a fruitcake. We're celebrating because of who he is. We're celebrating because of what he's done, and we're celebrating because of who we are now in him, forgiven and free. Now, as I bring this to a close, Paul, in 1 Corinthians, Paul in 1 Corinthians chapter 12, or excuse me, chapter 11, gave to the church a practice. Actually, it was given to us by Jesus, Paul explained it in 1 Corinthians 11. We call it the Lord's Supper, or Communion. And it's a practice that Jesus gave to us to do exactly what we're doing this morning, to remember all that Jesus accomplished for us through the cross, to celebrate all that he is, to honor him, to worship him. As soon as the way Paul wrote it in 1 Corinthians chapter 11 verse 23, he says, "For I receive from the Lord, that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, and the night in which he was betrayed took bread. And when he'd 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 he took the cup, also 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. Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord." But a man must examine himself, and in so doing, he is to eat the bread and drink of the cup. The Scripture here explains for us a practice called communion that is designed to help us do what we're doing today. Remember, remember all that Jesus did. That's why the Bible calls it a memorial. That's the word Jesus uses here. Do this in remembrance of me. It's not these elements that we're going to take this morning don't literally become the body and the blood of Christ. The Bible says it's a memorial, it's a symbol, it's a picture where we are remembering an event in the past. This practice was given to us to celebrate all that Jesus is and all that he's done. It's also given to us to help us proclaim the gospel to people that don't know Jesus. [BLANK_AUDIO]