Celebration. Not reenactment.

This coming Sunday we will celebrate Communion, or the Lord’s Supper.  As I reflect on the sermon from last Sunday, I am reminded once again it is a celebration — not a reenactment – that we will have.  It is not a reenactment because our Savior and Lord was not mistaken or confused when He declared on the cross, “It is finished.”  The payment for sin was complete.  The plan of God for the redemption of man who would trust Him was complete.  The sacrificial system was not obsolete and no longer effective or needed.  The sinless, spotless Lamb of God had paid for the wages of our sin, taking upon Himself the wrath of God so that we might be saved.  I remember at a former church taking a group to see “The Passion of the Christ.”  We returned to the church after the viewing to debrief together.  One of our men asked me if I thought the beating and torture of Christ was really that bad.  My response, “I think the depiction in the movie pales in comparison to what happened.  Scripture tells us He was unrecognizable.  And my heart knows the sinful condition of my life for which Jesus suffered and died.”

Jesus died once for sins, and we will gather Sunday morning to celebrate our forgiveness made available on that horrible, dark — yet for us, Good — Friday long ago.  And not all that long ago.  We are reminded by what we have craved on the table holding the elements as well in Scripture: “Do this in remembrance of Me.”  And as we remember the cost, it should humble us to be loved so greatly; it should impel us to obey all that Christ commanded us to do, for there is nothing He commands that is greater than what He has done on our behalf.  And it should cause us to hold more loosely the things of this world as we eagerly look for and wait for His return.  Come, Lord Jesus, come. But until You do, we will celebrate and serve the risen Lamb of God. 

Pressing On…

Ron Tipton, Senior Pastor