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.