10.03.2008

Communion Exhortation - 8/3/08

Text: Hebrews 8

At this table our Lord provides for the need of His people. You need to hear and see, often, what Jesus has done for you. He rules His house faithfully, through His representatives who stand among you now. He stands among the lampstands, among the churches, as he did in Revelation 1, bringing words of comfort, instruction, and correction to us. This is a lord who gets up from the table, and serves. What we elders are doing right now, is a picture of our Lord providing for His people. It is just a picture; the reality is that Jesus drank the cup of God’s wrath against our sin, so that the cup we drink is the joyous wine of union with Christ’s life and favor with God.
At this table our Lord provides for the need of His people.

At this table, each of us also renews our oath to serve our King and Lord. We do this with great solemnity, for He is the Lord of all creation. We do this with great joy, for He came to us that our joy might be full. This is a covenant, Jesus instituted. We are to live according to the design God sets up. And He speaks of a king’s son getting married. The groom’s friends don’t fast when the groom is with them. Your Maker is your husband. You are widowed no more; our redeemer gathers us with great compassion.

How are we to live in response? We should submit our lives to our Lord out of gratitude for His love. Do you seek redemption by Christ? Then drink down the cup. Do you seek to do away with the last remnants of darkness, from which you have been redeemed? Then drink of Christ. Do you seek strength to fight sin and love your Husband? Then drink. Renew the covenant relationship of love and redemption into which God has brought you.

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