Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Welcome to the Karma Chaj podcast.
[00:00:07] Thank you. Jo, would you just actually stay standing just for a minute? Our senior pastors, Steve and Juliet, are out in Columbia. They're at a church called Aviva Miento. They've been experiencing revival there for, like, 35 years. I think even more now. And do you know the Bible says that we're to pray for our leaders, and so they're not here today, so we're gonna pray for them. We're gonna pray that they get whacked in the best way by the Holy Spirit. You know, as a church, they really are on the front line. Right? We're going after some things. We're going after his kingdom come in this city as a church, and we're all part of that. But it's almost like they're on the front line. They're steering the ship. And so we're gonna pray for them. Is that okay?
[00:00:50] Yeah, all of us, we're gonna pray. I'm gonna pray. But you can pray your own prayers. You pray to Jesus. Let's go.
[00:00:56] Lord, we thank you so much for the barbers. We thank you for their yes to you. We thank you for their courage, for their boldness, for seeking revival in this land. And, Lord, we ask that you would pour out your Holy spirit like never before. That, Lord, they would have an encounter with you that sets their heart on fire once again. Lord, we ask for a refreshing. We ask for an equipping, an anointing. Lord, we ask that you would visit them in prophetic dreams and visions, and that, Lord, you would lift up their hand to be strengthened for this next season, fill them with a fresh fire. And the church said, amen. Amen. You can grab a seat. And we look forward to hearing some stories, I'm sure next week when they get back.
[00:01:42] But it is my privilege to speak this morning. And over the last few months, on a Sunday morning, we've been looking at the teachings of Jesus. And one of the things that he teaches us to do is Holy Communion. And I want to speak a little bit about that. This morning. We're going to be looking at a story in Matthew where Jesus shares the Last Supper with his disciples, and he invites them to take communion. Then he says that we can do this too, in remembrance of him. And I want to just share personally that these times of communion, we do it as a church, as a congregation. So roughly, on kind of the first Sunday of the month, we do that as a church.
[00:02:25] But there is an invitation for us to do this personally in our Walk with him. And for me, these have been real power encounters with the Lord.
[00:02:35] It's become a discipline in our lives, in our marriage, in our family. We teach our children to take communion because it's an opportunity for us to come before the Lord and remember the main thing, the cross of Jesus that saves us and sets us free. And oftentimes I've approached communion, maybe full of shame or there's been just this feeling of distance from the Lord. And as I've left communion, after communion, it's like there's a freedom that I can't explain sometimes. I've approached communion, just hopeless, you know, praying for a loved one, a sick person. And I've left with this new perspective, this heaven on earth, this hope that has been ignited in me. Something shifts when we take communion. It's a spiritual action that we get to participate in.
[00:03:24] Now sometimes I've just taken out of obedience because he's told me to. Oftentimes we've taken it actually out of gratitude for what the Lord has done. There'll be a breakthrough in our life, maybe in a job or our finances or whatever it might be. And Joel and I, often we will get down on our knees and we'll just thank God. It is only by your grace, Lord, that this breakthrough happened. And there's a gratitude that comes. And so the Lord really does give us this beautiful opportunity to participate in a holy meal with him in his presence.
[00:04:00] I want to say that communion is not just this religious tradition. It's not just this thing that we better do. I think I grew up like that, you know, better. Better take communion at church. It's the thing that Jesus told us to, so we better. But God actually intends life to be released through participating.
[00:04:20] This isn't just that we look back at a past event that happened. What we're doing is we're remembering the significance of the present day. Power that happens through, that we get to encounter through the cross of Jesus. Does that make sense?
[00:04:34] There's life that is released.
[00:04:37] Often physical obedience leads to spiritual release.
[00:04:42] There's things that we do physically in the flesh that the Lord loves and he blesses and he moves. It's like we see a baptism. We see even in worship, you know, lift up your hands, enter his gates with thanksgiving, and then he comes. Because we're doing something physical that releases a spiritual shift in the atmosphere, in our lives.
[00:05:05] And that's what we get to do when we take communion, this divine connection that we get to do something in the natural and experience his power. And so today we're going to look at the power of communion. And we can find this in our bibles. Matthew, chapter 26. If you have your Bibles, would you turn there with me and you can stand for the word of the Lord as we honor his word. In this house we stand. His word is above anything I'm going to say this morning. We're going to read this Matthew, chapter 26, verse 17.
[00:05:41] It says this.
[00:05:43] On the first day of the feast of unleavened bread, the disciples came to Jesus and asked, where do you want us to make preparations for you to eat the Passover? And he replied, go into the city to a certain man and tell him, the teacher says, my appointed time is near. I'm going to celebrate the Passover with my disciples at your house.
[00:06:03] So the disciples did as Jesus had directed them and prepared the Passover.
[00:06:08] When evening came, Jesus was reclining at the table with the 12. And while they were eating, he said, I tell you the truth, one of you will betray me. They were very sad and began to say to him, one after the other, surely not I, Lord. And Jesus replies, the one who has dipped his hand into the bowl with me will betray me. The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him. But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man. It would be better for him if he had not been born.
[00:06:37] Then Judas, the one who would betray him, said, surely not I, Rabbi. And Jesus answered, yes, it is you.
[00:06:44] While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, take and eat. This is my body.
[00:06:52] Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink anew with you in my Father's kingdom. When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.
[00:07:14] Amen.
[00:07:16] Grab a seat if you want to.
[00:07:19] The first thing that I notice about this scripture is that it states the date.
[00:07:25] It's telling you what date it is, right? It's Passover.
[00:07:29] We're now going to prepare for Passover. And this is incredibly significant because Jesus has chosen Passover to renew an old covenant to a new covenant. And I just want to. I want to take us back. So this. This Passover meal was a significant day in the Jewish calendar all the way from the time of Moses. And if we know the story, where did Passover come from? It came from the time where the Israelites, the people of God, had been kept in slavery in Egypt under Pharaoh. So they were living as slaves. And Moses is raised up. I can't tell you the whole, but basically Moses is raised up to go back to Egypt and tell Pharaoh that he is to let God's people go out of slavery. Remember the story, Prince of Egypt, anyone?
[00:08:20] Hopefully we know it from our Bibles, not just the film, but we see this man, Moses, go back to Pharaoh and say, let my people go. And Pharaoh says, no. And then the Lord sends a plague, remember that? And this happens nine times. So let my people go, no plague. So let my people go, no plague. And every time that there's this plague, it's actually kind of a mocking of a God that the Egyptians were worshiping. So every time it was like the Egyptians were worshiping these gods and the plague would directly defeat the God that they were worshiping on every plague. And then the tenth plague that comes, Pharaoh is stubborn. He is not letting the people of God go. And so the Lord says, well, the final plague is that the angel of death is going to come and he's going to kill the firstborn of your family, the firstborn boy.
[00:09:10] But he says to his people, hey, in order for you to be protected and covered, I want you to take an unblemished lamb and I want you. And this is going to be on the 10th day of the month. I want you to take an unblemished lamb and I want you to bring it home.
[00:09:26] It's really interesting, actually. I didn't know that the lamb lived in their house for, you know, three or four days, but it does. They choose an unblemished lamb and they look after it. And then on the 14th day of the month, they're told to sacrifice this lamb and to take the blood and to put it on the doorposts. Remember the story? They take the blood. Imagine having to do that. Don't know what, they used a cloth or something. They put the blood on the doorposts so that when the angel of death came, it passed by Passover, how significant is this?
[00:09:58] On the 10th day of the month at Passover, when Jesus is around, it's the same day that he is led into Jerusalem. The triumphal entry of Jesus, the unblemished lamb that was chosen back in Passover on the 10th day of the month. On the 10th day of this month, Jesus, our perfect lamb, was led into Jerusalem, ready to be sacrificed. And then on the 14th day of the month, we see this story happen that Jesus blood is passed round to his disciples.
[00:10:33] The final covenant of the Lord being established, that now when death comes upon you, it's going to pass you by as you trust in the blood of the Lamb, that as we receive the full outpouring of the cross, what he did on the cross, when we say, I receive what you did, I receive your blood that covers me, we get to stand totally free, totally forgiven. Death passes us by. We get to encounter eternal life through the perfect Lamb of God sacrificing himself on the cross. It's the gospel.
[00:11:11] It's so undeserved, and yet he establishes a new covenant with us. So that on your best day and your worst day, if you stand under the blood of Christ, he announces it is full, finished.
[00:11:26] Sin is no longer our story.
[00:11:28] Grace and mercy is.
[00:11:31] And we now get to go. Just as the Israelites went from slavery to freedom, they went from death to life. They went from hopelessness to the promised land. We get to do the same, not by what we have done, but by what he has done.
[00:11:46] It's the good news of the Gospel. And so Jesus is literally saying, as you take communion, you can remember that I have paid for your sin.
[00:11:55] And so if we're just waiting for the once a month as a church to do it, I'm saying we're missing out. We get to participate in this holy, significant, powerful meal with the Lord. We get to do it every day if we want, every week with our families. We get to stand before the Lord and say, I'm going to take this Ribena or this wine that represents your blood, and I'm going to stand under the finished work of the Cross that I am saved. And so the first declaration I want us to know this morning that we can say as we take communion, is, I am saved.
[00:12:29] I am saved by nothing I did, but by everything he did.
[00:12:36] Would you just put your hand on your heart?
[00:12:39] Would you just thank Jesus?
[00:12:41] Jesus, thank you.
[00:12:44] Thank you that you were stripped naked so that we could be clothed.
[00:12:48] Thank you that you were beaten beyond recognition so that we could be recognized by the Father.
[00:12:54] Thank you that you didn't defend yourself so that you could defend us on the Day of judgment.
[00:13:00] Thank you, Lord, that you were broken so we could be whole. Thank you that you took death so that we could take life. Thank you.
[00:13:07] Thank you that you paid it all and it is done.
[00:13:11] Thank you, Jesus. I'm saved and set free.
[00:13:17] It's good Right.
[00:13:18] It's good. And we get to remember it every single time we come to the Lord. I also want to say so that's the first point. I'm saved by his blood. In that we can bring those who aren't yet saved to the Lord. When you take communion, when you're praying for your friends and your family who don't yet know Jesus, you can plead the blood of Jesus over them. And there is power in your words and in your actions. I have a hit list at the front of my Bible.
[00:13:46] Hit list. Sounds funny, doesn't it? But hit list of people that I want the Lord to encounter. I want them to be saved. And so I bring them before the Lord in communion and say, and I plead the blood over this person. I plead the blood over this person. Soften their heart, save them, Lord.
[00:14:03] So we get to do that in communion.
[00:14:05] Okay? Secondly, we are healed. We've said it this morning. We are healed by his stripes.
[00:14:13] In Isaiah 53, this was written 700 years before Jesus. It says this. He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. And the punishment that brings us peace was on him. And by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray. Each one of us has turned our own way. But the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of our stories. All see now our sin has been paid for.
[00:14:42] We're free.
[00:14:44] And the curse of sin we are also free from.
[00:14:48] So the unraveling of sin in our lives. The wages of sin is death. The wages of sin that the unraveling of sin in, in our lives is sickness, it's brokenness, it's bitterness, it's anxiety, it's all the things that, that come as a result of sin. And we live in a sin filled world.
[00:15:11] But now we're no longer sinners, we're saints.
[00:15:16] We're saved and set free by his blood and his body.
[00:15:20] Broken body now heals us. Because we don't live under the unraveling of sin. We live under the unraveling of grace, which is peace, which is healing, which is life, eternal life. We now live under a new covenant. So broken bodies aren't our portion anymore because his body was broken so that we would be healed. And so the other thing we get to do with communion is we get to take the bread and we say, your body broken for me. And now I am healed. I am healed. We get to do it on behalf of sick people.
[00:15:55] So. And so is healed by your wounds. I'm healed. We had an incredible story in the church recently, and I believe so much of it was down to them taking communion in March. There was a lady who met me at the end of an evening service and she was just broken. She was desperate. She was at the end of herself. And I think she'd done like a 12 hour shift at the hospital and then she'd spent lots of money to get here to the evening service because she was desperate for her husband to get healed of cancer. And so she came to me and she said, can you pray with me? What can we do? And we prayed for him then and there. And I asked her, hey, is he willing to come to church? It would be great if he could come to church and receive his healing. And she said, oh, no, I don't think he's quite there yet. And you know, I just want to be really honest in my heart, I was like, well, he obviously doesn't want to be healed that much. Like, he's got to be hungry enough to come, right? We need faith in order for him to come.
[00:16:50] Little did I know that her faith was enough.
[00:16:54] We can have faith for others. We can stand in the gap. It's not just a nice Christian slogan. We actually, the Lord is looking for faith. He's searching the world for faith, and we can stand in the gap. Anyway, so she came and I said to her, well, the other thing you can do is take communion at home. Do you take communion? No, I don't. Okay, this is what I want you to say. And she texts, I've got it on my phone. She texts me the other the next day and said, what were the words that I was meant to say when I take communion? And I just writ out like a script for her. It was just about, you know, coming under the finished work of the blood, that his blood has the final word that so and so is healed by his wounds. And so she said to me, she came a couple of months later and she said to me, this is my husband and we've been taking communion every day. And because he's noticed a shift, he's actually come, he's come to church now. And so we prayed for him. And yeah, I mean, you can. That's a great story, but there's more.
[00:17:47] So he went back to his doctor. So basically he had tongue cancer. And they said to him, hey, this tongue cancer that we found on your tongue, we were going to amputate your tongue. Which was why he was so scared. Right? No one wants to lose their tongue. I definitely Wouldn't. Can you imagine not speaking, like, awful? And so he basically had been taking communion every day. He went back to the doctors and they said, we no longer need to take away your tongue. You are cancer free, completely gone.
[00:18:15] Amazing.
[00:18:17] They might even be here. I don't know if they're here today.
[00:18:21] And then he took off his shoe. This is real stuff. This is real church. He took off his shoe and he took off his sock. And I was like, I don't know where we're going with this. But then he showed me his foot and he had this growth on his toe. And he said, now I have been healed. Sorry, I have been healed of my tongue cancer. But I've got cancer now on my toe. They're telling me it's come back on my toe. Well, you know what to do.
[00:18:45] You've got the weapon. Go home, take communion. So they carried on taking communion. They carried on coming back, getting prayer. They went back to the doctors. The doctor said, look, it has been confirmed as cancer. We can either send the biopsy back again for another test or we can just amputate it, which is just, you know, we'll just get rid of it. And he chose for. He believed in his healing, and he chose for the biopsy to be sent off again for a second round of testing. It's come back completely clear. No cancer in his body at all.
[00:19:18] Praise Jesus.
[00:19:20] Praise Jesus.
[00:19:22] It's one thing to be healed of cancer once, but twice.
[00:19:27] This is a man who was on the edge, and yet he took communion believing, and his wife took it on his behalf. By your wounds, I am healed.
[00:19:40] Your miracle. The price for your miracle has already been paid.
[00:19:46] The price for your miracle has already been paid.
[00:19:49] And do I understand why some people get healed, some people don't. No. But I'm not going to change my theology for the experience that I'm in.
[00:19:58] The fact is, the Lord does heal us, whether it's today or later, in eternity, he does heal. And we're to stand in that promise.
[00:20:09] So it's not just a symbolic thing we do.
[00:20:12] There is power in communion. I'm saved by his blood. I'm healed by his body. And the third thing I want to say is that we are now reconciled to God and to man. We are reconciled.
[00:20:27] We're saved by his blood, we're healed by his body, and now we're reconciled to God. And you might say, isn't that the same thing as being saved by his blood? I don't think so.
[00:20:37] We can be saved. Many of us can be saved and just be walking around free as kind of a nominal Christian. But the power of communion is that we now get to enter the Holy of Holies. We get to walk in communion with him. We get to walk in step with his spirit every day, encountering him, relationship restored, back to how it was always meant to be in the Garden of Eden, partnering with our Lord, being a friend of God, seeing His kingdom come. We get to walk this life with him and be reconciled to Him.
[00:21:13] And we also are reconciled to each other. That's what communion enables us and empowers us to do.
[00:21:22] In 2 Corinthians 5, Paul talks about how we are now in the ministry of reconciliation. If you've given your life to Jesus, you can't have a ministry of Cancel culture because we've been called now to have a ministry of reconciliation.
[00:21:38] We are called to extend a hand of grace and forgiveness so that people would be reconciled to God. I mean, that's what Paul's talking about, so that we can share the good news of the Gospel and people are reconciled to God, but also so that we would be reconciled, that we would forgive just as we've been forgiven. That's how he teaches us to pray.
[00:22:02] It's funny, the little subheadings of the Bible were put in at a much later date. And the subheading of the one that we just read is the Last Supper, which is quite a polite subheading, I think. I think it's more appropriate to subhead it as the one who betrayed me. You know, like, if it was an episode on tv, it would be like the one where he stabs you in the back, like your friend stabs you in the back. Judas. It's all like the whole. The whole first part of the story is actually about this guy, Judas, right, who still gets to sit at the table.
[00:22:35] We read that.
[00:22:38] We know that at the Passover, Jesus is the host. He's the one who set up Passover, right? He's planned and organized the room.
[00:22:46] And by the way, he invites you in. He invites you to sit at his table. But he has these 12 guys who come and who are his disciples. And it's really interesting what the theologians say about where people were sitting. So don't know if you remember, but sometimes when you read the story of the Last Supper and the disciples, they're kind of arguing about who's the greatest. Remember that conversation? And it's a little bit odd. Like, it's a bit out of place, except that it actually was probably more about where they Sat. Who's the greatest? And therefore, where should we sit at the Last Supper, where should we sit at the table. And so they're having this little argument and you see that Jesus is probably in the middle. He's the host. And the people to his left and his right are the honored guests.
[00:23:29] And so the person on his right is normally the. It's normally traditionally in Jewish culture, it would have been the oldest person in the room, the person you honor the most. Do you know who Jesus gets to sit next to him?
[00:23:41] John, who would have been the youngest disciple?
[00:23:45] John was the one who said, I'm the disciple that the Lord loved. Remember that I love that. I think it's so audacious, like, I'm the one he loved. But John, who was the youngest, he probably should have been sitting in the seat where he washed people's feet, actually ends up sitting next to Jesus. The last shall be first, and then the other side of Jesus to his left. Again, it would have been an honoured guest, someone who was close to him, intimate. The disciples probably would have argued that that might have been Peter.
[00:24:14] Do you know who sits to his left?
[00:24:17] Judas.
[00:24:19] Judas is invited to sit to the left of Jesus.
[00:24:24] I don't know about you, but I would not be. Jesus knew that Judas was going to betray him. I would not be having Judas next to me.
[00:24:33] I wouldn't even have him at the party. Probably. I'd probably text him beforehand, like, mate, like, you're uninvited.
[00:24:38] Like, don't judge me. But can you imagine, can you imagine Jesus seeing this man come in the door, knowing that he's about to betray you, and yet you say, hey, Judas, come sit next to me.
[00:24:55] And then it says that he passed the bread. And normally they would pass the meal, the bread, to someone who was the most intimate to you, your friend, and he passes it to Judas.
[00:25:11] It's an incredible extension of God's grace. And I believe in that moment that Judas still had an opportunity to receive forgiveness, to turn around.
[00:25:22] I don't know that that's just my understanding, because after it says he, he takes the bread and Satan enters him.
[00:25:32] We know that Judas betrayed Jesus and it's so easy for us to look at that. Like, sometimes I look at the disciples and I'm like, I think I would have been like John, Like, I would have been the one that he loved. I would have been like Peter, like the one that walked on water. Like, I would have been this. Like this person or like this person. Do you know who we really were?
[00:25:48] Judas we were like Judas. We were enemies of God.
[00:25:54] We were ones who had turned our back on Jesus and lived our own way, disregarding who he was, disregarding what he meant.
[00:26:04] We were like Judas. We were once enemies of God. And yet he extends his grace to us. And for those of us who receive his blood and receive his body, receive what he did on the cross, he now calls us friend.
[00:26:17] Friend.
[00:26:18] And how much so that we now get to extend that grace to others?
[00:26:23] You know, when we're in the face of communion, when I take communion at home, it's so.
[00:26:28] It's so much easier to forgive those who have hurt me because I remember how much I have been rescued.
[00:26:36] You know, when I take the bread and the wine and I thank him that he, in his grace, would forgive all of my sin, I'm overflowing with his mercy that as I pray for those who have let me down, I pray for those, you know, who have turned their back on me or who I disagree with politically or whatever else. I bring them before the Lord and I realize, oh, I am overflowing with mercy because I was so undeserving of Jesus. And so as we receive from him, we're able to forgive others. Is that making sense?
[00:27:08] Start praying for your enemies in communion and see how quickly your heart changes.
[00:27:12] It's crazy because we see his perspective.
[00:27:17] I'll just end with this.
[00:27:20] In our marriage, we've had amazing times, and we had some difficult times as well. And I know that some of you who get married, you're like the first year or the first three years are like honeymoon years. It's just amazing. Bless you. Love you for that. Ours was not like that.
[00:27:38] I've checked with Joel that I can share some of this. Not all of it, but share some of it.
[00:27:44] We were mean to each other. You know, we had a difficult run. We were both loud. We're both big personalities. We shouted at each other. You know, we would come at each other. We seemed to just have this uphill battle. It felt like in the first couple of years of marriage, and I remember so specifically, time and time again, the Lord would tell us to take communion. And one of the times we took communion, I.
[00:28:09] I don't say this lightly. I believe communion saved our marriage.
[00:28:13] The Lord said to me to sit and to take the wine and the bread before him and to thank him for his forgiveness. And as we did that, you would not believe how quickly pride falls in the face of our Savior.
[00:28:31] As we sat there and we started to say, thank you, Jesus, that you Forgive us. Thank you for your cross. Thank you that you would set me free and we would confess our sin and then we would turn and we started confessing our sin to each other.
[00:28:46] Hey, I'm sorry that I said this under my breath. I'm sorry that I shouted this. I'm sorry that I turned against you.
[00:28:54] Why? Because we had received such mercy from him that we were able to be flat on our faces before the Lord and then flat on our faces before each other and reconciled to each other just as we were reconciled to God.
[00:29:10] There was such a shift, and I want to say there was a power that happened. There was like a humbling and a power that happened in those moments that shifted everything in our marriage. And we were able to bring things into the light. Not this much light, not for the whole church to know, but we bought it into the light before each other, we brought it into the light before our leaders. And I would say communion changed and saved our marriage. And it has done all along.
[00:29:37] And you know, in a marriage we talk about in Ecclesiastes, it says, doesn't it, that marriage is like a three stranded cord.
[00:29:46] You have man, female, God, and you are tied together. And a three stranded cord is not easily broken.
[00:29:54] But that doesn't just happen on your day of marriage, doesn't happen on your wedding day. And then they just like flow. The whole point is that we are woven. It says a cord is woven. If you've ever done a plait, sorry, men, I'm not sure that you've ever done a plait, but maybe females have. You have to weave it. You have to go man, woman, God, man, woman, God, man, woman, God, woven together consistently every single day. Coming back to the cross, coming back to Jesus, coming back to that most important strand.
[00:30:25] It's a daily choice to come back before the Father, trusting that we need Him. We can't do this on our own. Does that make sense?
[00:30:34] And so communion for us, for me personally, for us in our marriage, for us in our family, has been the most incredibly powerful holy moment before the Lord where we have stood and said, I am saved by the blood of Jesus, only by his blood, My sin, I repent, I'm forgiven, I am healed by his wounds, I receive peace. I receive healing over my body by his wounds. And thirdly, I am reconciled to God and I'm in the ministry of reconciliation.
[00:31:08] He is making all things new and he is tying us together in the great redemptive story that he has always planned for humanity.
[00:31:18] Sound good?
[00:31:19] Makes sense.
[00:31:20] Why don't you stand. I'm done.
[00:31:23] We're going to pray.
[00:31:26] Thanks for listening to the Cromer Church Podcast. If you enjoyed this message, you can like and subscribe. You can also join us in person or online every Sunday at Cromer Church. For more information about us, including our ministries, events, worship and how to donate, visit our website at Crema Church.
