2 Corinthians 9:15 NKJV Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!
We all have so many things to be thankful for. I want to challenge you to offer up thanks to God for His indescribable gifts. Most of us have many things to praise God for. Today, we want to give thanks to God for the indescribable gift of His Son and our Savior. When God gave His Son, Jesus was not received as the King of glory.
Isaiah 53:2-7 NKJV For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, And as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness; And when we see Him, There is no beauty that we should desire Him. He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth.
Today we are going to give thanks for God’s indescribable gift by remembering Christ’s sacrifice.
The Lord’s Supper is a form of worship that has been observed since the beginning of the Church. It was ordained by Jesus Christ when He celebrated His last Passover meal with His disciples in an upper room. During that meal, Jesus introduced believers to a deep fellowship that we have with Him and His sufferings. The Lord’s supper is a time of remembrance and renewed fellowship with the Lord. The Lord Jesus wanted believers to remember His indescribable gift. He specifically wants us to remember His sacrificial death. This was ordained to be a time when believers draw closer to Him in many ways. He wanted to remind us that He is coming back to gather us unto Himself.
The bread and the grape juice symbolize the Lord’s body and blood and remind us that we are partakers of His blessings.
Holy communion represents a deep life of fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Partaking of this bread and cup helps us refocus our faith and relationship with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. As we prepare to receive communion we should ask God to renew our worship and fellowship. We should ask God to give us a fresh awareness of His presence. We should ask Him to draw us closer to Him.
During the Lord’s last Passover meal with His disciples, Jesus took the bread and blessed it.
During the communion service we partake of the bread first. The bread represents to us Christ’s broken body. His body comprises everything that Jesus Christ is and does.
We should take time to give thanks for everything that Jesus has done.Think about the journey that Jesus Christ took.He left His home in glory and came to dwell with men. We like to look at the wonderful things that Jesus did.
It excites me to think about what the Messiah did when He walked through Judea and Jerusalem.
The blind man was healed when Jesus came by. He found a leper and he was cleansed. A helpless cripple was sitting by the roadside and Jesus healed him and caused him to walk. He came upon a grieving mother and her dead son, and gave new life and comfort. He found troubled souls and He gave peace and comfort. Over and over, Jesus reached out to the sick, hurting and dying and brought relief. He delivered the bound and set captives free. He called a dead man out a tomb and gave him new life.
When I look at His wonder-working power, I want to stop and just give Him thanks.
I want to visit the scene where lepers are cleansed. I want to be in the house where the man was let down through the roof. I want to think about all of His wonderful works.
There are many wonderful things to consider.
I love to think about Him coming to set sinners free. Think about His grace, mercy, and love. I want to hold on to the warm feeling of His tender touch and outstretched hand. I want to stand by the tomb and hear Jesus say: “Lazarus, come forth.”
Jesus’ body is proof of God’s love and commitment to us.
When Jesus took the bread, He broke it and gave the broken bread to them.
The broken bread demonstrates Christ’s suffering and sufficiency. He was fully given to satisfy all of our need. He is the Savior Who suffered for us. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. Surely, He bore our sorrows. By His stripes we are healed.
We give Jesus Christ thanks because He is sufficient to meet all of our need.
When you look at the bread, remember Christ’s suffering. This is a central message of the communion meal. The Lord Jesus offered His body for you. He held nothing back.
When we come to the Lord’s Table, we remember His death.
It was a painful death and His suffering reveals the gravity of sin. Sin is a very destructive thing. Sin is so terrible that only one sacrificecould be sufficient to provide cleansing and forgiveness. Only Jesus’ suffering and death could pay the penalty for our sins. Jesus had to die for your sins to be forgiven. Sin’s only cure is found in Christ’s suffering and death. Christ’s suffering strongly declares the gravity and seriousness of our sin.
Christ’s suffering reveals God’s great love.
John 3:16 declares: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son.”
The love of God brought Jesus into this world to suffer, bleed, and die on the Cross. Christ’s suffering and cross reveal how far God was willing to go to save sinners. Jesus came to seek and to save sinners. This is why He died.
Give Him thanks and praise for His indescribable gift.
We sing of amazing grace. We should also sing of God’s amazing love! When Jesus died on that cross, it was the greatest expression of God’s love that could ever be given. God loved so much that He gave His Son to die. His suffering reveals God’s provision for needy people. Christ’s death is sufficient for our every need.
Romans 8:32 NKJV He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?
The God who gave Jesus Christ His Son for us, is the same God Who supplies all our need. When Jesus allowed His body to be broken, He was doing it for our sake.
Isaiah 53:5 AMP But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our guilt and iniquities; the chastisement needful to obtain peace and well-being for us was upon Him, and with the stripes that wounded Him we are healed and made whole.
His broken body opened the riches of God’s provision. All our needs can be met through the Lord Jesus Christ.
Philippians 4:19 NKJV And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
This is God’s promise and provision through His Son. As we partake of this broken bread, understand that it represents Christ’s suffering and sufficiency. Nothing else can supply what Jesus can. Many times our need is greater than we can provide for ourselves! Jesus is what you need. He is “the Bread of Life.” He is the Savior of your soul.
The second component of communion demonstrates Christ’s spilled blood.
Leviticus 17:11 NKJV For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul.
The cup that is filled with grape juice represents Christ’s spilled blood.
Jesus said: “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”
Blood is symbolic of life. Jesus Christ gave His life and blood for our sins. His life was poured out as a payment for our sins.
In the Old Testament, the life of a sacrificed animal was given for a sin covering.
This covering was called the atonement. Atonement was impossible without the sacrifice of a life. A life had to be taken and blood had to be spilled to make a covering for sin. What was done in the Old Testament is fulfilled in the Lord Jesus’ death on the cross.
Hebrews 9:22 “Without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” A sacrifice for forgiveness of sins had to be made.
In the Old Testament, they sacrificed a lamb.
The best lamb they could find was sacrificed as a covering for sins. That sacrifice and blood was never enough. It never truly cleared the conscience or the guilt. It never fully put away sin.
Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God had to be offered up in death to cover man’s sin.
When John the Baptist saw Jesus, he said: “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” Jesus is the Lamb of God that takes away sin!
Give Him thanks!
Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, has been sacrificed. His body has been broken and His blood has been poured out for us. His spilled blood has provided forgiveness for your sins. By His blood, we can be fully and freely forgiven by God. The chains and bondage of our sin is broken.
1 Peter 1:18-19 says, “You were redeemed …with the precious blood of Christ, like that of an unblemished and spotless sacrificial lamb.”
We should give Him thanks for His work is finished. He did what we cannot do. He died so that we can live. He paid the penalty for our sins when His body was broken and His blood was spilled on Calvary’s Cross. When you partake of the cup today, understand that Christ Jesus purchased your salvation.
Communion
1 Corinthians 11:23 NKJV For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread;
1 Corinthians 11:24 NKJV and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”
1 Corinthians 11:25 NKJV In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”