Understanding the Depth of Communion: A Sacred Invitation

1) "The night before Jesus would be and eventually crucified he gathered together for a last meal with the 12 men that he had spent the last three years pouring his life into. Jesus chose some men that you and I probably would not have chosen. They were not men that were highly religious. They were not men that were polished around the edges. They were not men that had it all together. Some of them were real pieces of work but he hand selected them on purpose with a purpose and for a purpose and they were grown together in the last three years exponentially. He has loved them through their doubts because they had some. He has loved them through their fears. He has encouraged them through their faults and their frailty and they have grown together like family." [09:08] (48 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


2) "What if you knew that you had an opportunity to have just one last meal with the closest people to you on this earth? What if you knew this was it right before your death or before your departure? This was the last meal that you were ever going to have. This was the last meal that you cared about and the people that you deeply loved. What would you do? What would you say? I'll bet whatever you said. I'll bet whatever you did it would be well thought out and meaningful. I bet it would not be casual or cavalier. Those thoughts and actions would be full of great meaning and great significance and so it was with Christ and so when you think of communion in this way it takes on a really different complexion because it's not just some religious activity." [10:49] (44 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


3) "He took a cup of wine. He held it up and he said this is my blood and through the shedding of it tonight I am making a new covenant with God on your behalf. It is going to be spilled out to pay the penalty for your sins. Jesus is saying there's nothing you're going to be able to do as a sinful human being to be able to rectify what has went wrong between you and God and so I am going to stand vicariously and in proxy for you and my innocent blood will be shed to make a new covenant between you and your heavenly father so that you will be forever reunited with him. I'll do this for you. The old covenant has gone. A new covenant will be instituted on this night." [12:33] (40 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


4) "Shared experiences are powerful and they tie us together like nothing else. This is the power of communion, y'all. This is the power of communion. Through this act, we connect with Jesus Christ in a shared experience. We share in his death, we share in his burial, and praise be to God, we share in his resurrection. Paul said it like this, the cup we use in the Lord's Supper, when we drink from it, we are sharing in the blood of Jesus. We are bound to him. We have a common union that he did it for us and we have received that blood and it covers the multitude of our sins and the bread that we break. Whenever we eat it, we are sharing in the body of the Lord Jesus Christ." [16:17] (38 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


5) "Communion provides us a time to get honest with ourselves and honest with God, like an x-ray put over our heart where we can look at all the stuff that sometimes we put up and pick up and try to cover what's really going on on the inside. And listen, this happens to all of us, including me. All of us, including me. I read a book years ago that was published by a pastor from Oklahoma called Confessions of a Pastor. He really got raw. He really got transparent and honest. And there was this section of the book that just wrecked me because he was talking about some things in his life that had hindered his ministry, some of the lies that he had told himself about how he was involved early in his life." [19:09] (39 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


6) "This is why communion is so critical and vital for the church of Jesus Christ. This is why communion is so important today, because it is a pilgrimage back to the foot of the cross. And it offers us a moment to remember what he did, to look at the cross again, in all of its unfiltered horror and brutality and agony, and remember that he didn't have to do it, but he did. I've said this to people for years. tried to make the cross something more bearable. We've made the cross something more beautiful. And so what we've done over the years is we've overlaid it in gold, and we fashioned it out of silver, and we paint these beautiful paintings, and we put them on the walls of our homes or businesses." [24:07] (43 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


7) "The real cross would make you throw up the real cross would would you would never ever be able to get it out of your mind the real cross would give you nightmares that was what Jesus went through and and this pilgrimage is important so that we just don't look at this image of what was but we see what he actually did and remember that he did it for me it's been said for years that it wasn't nails that held him to the tree it was love bro it was love because the bible says that at any moment he could have called 12 legions of angels at any moment he could have just said to his father I tried I went as far as I could I'm not able to do this and God would have rescued him and you and I would have just been out but he stayed and he finished the course and he did what he had to do because he loved you so much even in your broken sinful state and that while we were yet sinners Romans 5 he died for us" [25:09] (59 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


8) "Communion is an opportunity to hit the refresh button in our spiritual lives but not to look at new information but to be able to look at the old information but in a new way and say I remember Lord I remember where I should be and I remember where I am today and I remember that it's not because of anything I have done but I remember the price you paid for me and today I honor you again we look inward at ourselves we look backward at his death but then we celebrate a risen savior and the day that he promised to return and make all things new" [27:27] (41 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


9) "I know it sounds so unbelievable I know but the Bible says there's going to come a day that the world we live in now that we mourn over and we should that we look and we shake our heads and we pray for and we should that's full of sin and pain and debauchery and horrific things he's going to set it all right he's going to make everything new and it's going to never be that way again he's going to purge it by fire and he's going to set up a new kingdom one that's reigning with righteousness and peace and joy and all of the pain that we've known will pass away I know it's sometimes hard to imagine but again Paul said when we take communion it should serve as a reminder that one day on this side we will take our last communion there will come a day we will take our last communion and what we have known only to remember we will take our last communion and we will take our last communion we will have in the reality of his presence" [30:29] (56 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)