Pastor Vlad’s Communion Message

We want to do communion in a worthy manner. The Bible says that it’s not just a ritual we do. In and of itself it doesn’t have any mystical powers, only when you combine it with the essence of the gospel and when you allow the gospel to permeate your mind and your heart while partaking it bring you any benefit. And so I want to invite you to open up Colossians chapter one with me and I will give a little introduction to what we will be doing because I really want to saturate your mind with the message of the gospel, with the joy of what Christ did for us in order that this will not just be a ritual, this will be a celebration. This will be a joyous celebration for our heart and so I want to remind you of what Christ did. It’s in Colossians chapter 1, verses 13-14, and then we will read verses 21 and 22. “For he, Christ, rescued us from the domain of darkness.” This is where we used to be, in the kingdom of darkness. “And he transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins,” and then look with me at verse 21. It says, “And although you who were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet he has now reconciled you in his fleshly body through death, in order to present you before him holy and blameless and beyond reproach.” Now this is very beautiful, what Paul sums up in these few verses. I want to give you just three observations in this text for us. It’s talking about reconciliation with God. You know who needs reconciliation, right? Somebody who is in enmity, somebody who is hostile towards another, and so in verse 13 look what he says. He’s talking about the need for reconciliation. Why did Christ come? Why do we assume that we need a savior without really understanding why we need a savior? Look what he says in verse 13, he says, “For he rescued us from the domain of darkness.” Now I don’t know how many of you ladies grew up in church, who have Christian parents or who came from the world. Maybe you are a first generation Christian, but not all people who are in church recognize that they are born into the domain of darkness. There are some people who think just because they are born into Christian homes that they somehow inherit salvation from their parents. Now notice how Paul says here, he doesn’t say, “you have been rescued from the domain of darkness, Colossians.” He doesn’t say that you are some special, extra sinners, extra guilty sinners for whom Christ had to die, he said no, “he rescued us.” Paul and his whole team of ministers, all Christians used to be in this domain of darkness. He refers to all people who were ever saved. Now there are many passages that teach us that man is born sinful, and who is not with God, he is against God. You don’t have to be an outright antagonistic atheist in order to qualify as an enemy of God. There are people who think, well, I haven’t done anything wrong to God. I don’t hate him. I don’t say anything against him, why do I need a savior? This passage says that you don’t need to be and antagonistic atheist in order to qualify as an enemy of God. All you have to do is have sin in you. And sin automatically makes you an enemy of God. You might not know it, but ignorance doesn’t make you innocent. You may be in some town that you’ve never been before, and you don’t know what the speed limit is, but if you try to drive 45 in a 25 and you didn’t even know that the speed limit was 25, it doesn’t make you innocent. This is what I want you to think about. There is something in God, in his nature, that demands obedience. And if you’re not bowing down before God, you automatically become his enemy. Now there are people in my life who I consider to be neutral with. I’m not their enemy, I don’t hate them, and I’m not best friends with them, and that’s ok. Why? Because people don’t demand my worship. They can’t; we’re all equal. But when we deal with God, we’re not equal. By default, by definition, God demands and deserves all worship. If you’re not a worshiper of God, you have become his enemy. And so this is where we were, friends, whether we realized it or not, whether we were aware of it or not. We were born in the kingdom of darkness and we had to be transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of Christ. Now second, I want you to notice the grounds or basis for reconciliation. Notice what he says in whom we have redemption in verse 14. “In whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” How were we able to be transferred from one kingdom of darkness into another kingdom of light? Only through redemption. Christ had to purchase the salvation on our behalf. Now there’s so much that can be said about redemption that is such a glorious concept about our salvation. Redemption pictures us as slaves who were owned by sin, by the devil. Christ paid the price in order to redeem us. God could not just simply forgive us, he had to pay the price to make us his property, to make us people of his own possession. Now I love what Thomas Watson, the great Puritan once said. He said the following: “The redemption of mankind was the greatest act God has ever done because while the creation of mankind was great and glorious, God could achieve creation simply by speaking things into existence. Now God could not achieve our salvation by merely speaking it into existence. In order to achieve our redemption, He had to become human. He had to come to this earth, live a life, and die our death. He had to purchase our salvation by the means of his own life.” Now you might be asking, and you have to ask two questions here. If we were purchased, first of all, who used to be our master, number one? And two, who was the payment made out to? Well, it’s clear who we were owned by before Christ. It was Satan, the domain of darkness. Not all people realize it, but whether we are conscious of it or not, you were born dead in your sin. Until we are transferred, we have to be actually transferred, rescued from that domain of darkness and transferred into the kingdom of Christ. Until you do that, you remain in the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of Satan by default. Ephesians 2 says that if you’re dead in your sin you carry out his will. You’re not possessed by Satan, you’re not possessed by demons, but by default your will aligns with Satan’s will. Now that’s number one, we used to be under Satan’s jurisdiction. But then who did Christ have to buy us from? Some people think that the payment had to be made to Satan, and I want you to think about this. Did Christ pay the payment to Satan? Did he make out a check to Satan for the amount that says “the death of Christ” so that the devil, being satisfied with Christ’s payment for sin, gives him the sinners, saying, “Here, you can have them, you have redeemed them.” Is that what happened? No. Who was the payment paid to? Why did Christ have to die on the cross? Whose demand had he to justify? His own demand. His own demand of his righteousness, of his holiness. He is the one who could not be reconciled with sin because of his righteousness, and he had to satisfy his own demands in order to make us holy and righteous and blameless. In order to solve the problem of the relationship of God and man, you have to deal not with Satan. You have to deal with God’s holiness and the sin which contradicts that holiness. So what does that mean, sisters? What does that mean? That means that we’re not under Satan’s jurisdiction anymore. Once you pass the border from one country into another one, once you pass from one territory into another, you’re not under the jurisdiction of this government anymore. Now you belong to another master. You’re now in the kingdom of Jesus Christ; he is your new owner. You’re his possession, and he is your new master. Now there is a huge point of application that stems out of the doctrine of redemption. I want to read to you I Cor 6:19. “Do you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God and that you’re not your own. You have been bought with a price, and therefore glorify God in your body.” We’re all God’s property now. You who claim to believers, if we claim to be redeemed, if we claim to be saved, we have a new king, we have a new master. And we rejoice in the fact that we’re God’s property and we often think that “ok, well, I’m God’s property, He will now protect me, he will lead me, he will care for me.” Those are great benefits of being God’s property. But you know what the other side of it is? Being God’s property carries a lot of responsibility. Well, do I have a right to my own life now? No, I’m his property. I have to submit under his lordship. I have to live as if I’m his, not my own. And if I’m God’s possession, if I have truly been transferred into his kingdom and I continue to live for myself, I am contradicting myself, because then I’m living as if I belong to myself. So here’s what I want you to think about ladies, do you use your body, do you use your resources, do you use your life, your family, your marriage, your gifts, the time, whatever the Lord gives you, is that yours or have you submitted it to him, because he bought it. It belongs to him. Thirdly, lastly, I want to look at verse 22 with you, the result of reconciliation. Now that we’re reconciled, look at what we have received. He says, “Yet now he has now reconciled you in his fleshly body through death in order to present you before him holy, blameless, and beyond reproach.” That is three very beautiful words. Holy, blameless, and beyond reproach. First of all, Christ made you holy. I know that you might be sitting there and saying I feel anything but holy. I haven’t been holy today. I haven’t been holy this week. We often associate holiness withperfection, and that’s the distinction we have to make. But also the distinction we have to make is positional and practical holiness. There’s a status we receive as somebody who is holy. And we spend the rest of our lives trying to live up to that standard. Ephesians 4 says you have a calling, and now you have to learn how to walk in a manner worthy of the calling that is consistent with the calling. Here Paul talks about our positional holiness. Christ has claimed us to be holy in his sight, perfect. Hebrews 10 says “by this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” Once and for all. “But he having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time sat down at the right hand of God.” And then in verse 14 he says, “by one offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.” We stumble, yes, practically we fall short, yes practically we are in the process of sanctification. But the reason why we are 100% sure that we will be in heaven with Christ is because we have been already called holy in God’s sight because his holiness, his perfection was credited to us. Now the second word here, we haven’t just been made holy in his eyes, we’ve been made blameless. Think about what blameless means, it means without blame. Again you’re probably thinking about how your day went and how you snapped at your children this morning. You’re thinking, “I have a lot to be blamed for today.” And again we’re talking about positionally blameless, positionally blameless. You’re probably thinking God will judge me for this or God will judge me for that. But Paul is saying that Christ has removed all the blame; there’s nothing to blame you for. There’s no blame left in you anymore. If you have at least one bit of blame left on you, you’re still in enmity with God because nothing short of perfection will be reconciled with God. So you have to understand the difference between who Christ made you to be positionally and who you practically are trying to be every day. Those are two different things. You have a status and then you have a practical life. One of the biggest things in a Christian’s life that you can struggle with is guilt. Guilt and while we must hate our sin, it’s true that our sin is to be breaking us and there’s a healthy dose of remorse. You know guilt can be something that will stick with you for months and years; it will destroy your walk with Christ. It will destroy your effectiveness to be a useful vessel for God. It will paralyze your spiritual growth. It will paralyze your life in Christ. You have to believe what I John 1:9 says: For if we confess our sins, he is faithful and he is righteous to forgive you and remove that blame from you. In God’s eyes, you are pure. The third word he says here, you’ve been made holy, you’ve been made blameless, and the third thing is you’re beyond reproach. Beyond reproach means that nobody can bring a charge against you. All your debt has been wiped out, and all the charges have been dropped. And we know that there is one out there who always tries to accuse you. He is Satan. Now listen to what Romans chapter 8, verse 33 says, “Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies them. Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is he who died, rather hewho was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.” Now ladies, what does it mean that he intercedes for us? Every time you sin, every time you fall short, Satan accuses you and says “look, he is my property, he is doing something that pleases me.” He is trying to find fault in you before the Father. But Christ is there to present his sacrifice and say, “I’ve died for that sin. I’ve already paid the price. That sin cannot be imputed to him anymore because it’s paid for.” So sisters, it is a great joy and tremendous blessing to be reconciled with God. And with that thought, with that reminder of the essence of the gospel, I want you to partake in communion today. In order to lead you in prayer, we will have time in prayer. I want to give you just six quick prayer ideas that you can pray for as you sit there today and you prepare your heart for partaking in communion.

1. Remind yourself that you were an enemy of God, and you would remain his enemy if the Holy Spirit had not illuminated your heart.

2. Think about this during communion, remind yourself that you’ve been transferred from one domain of darkness into another domain, God’s kingdom of light.

3. Remind yourself that Christ’s substitutionary death on the cross is the only reason why you ended up in this kingdom. Very often I sit there and just marvel, asking how did I end up here? I look at people, I look at unbelievers, I look at tons of people I talk to every day who don’t get it, who don’t see it. And I keep asking this question, how come I get it? And the answer is because Christ chose to open up to you. That in him you were made holy and blameless and beyond reproach.

4. Preach to yourself that you are now God’s own possession, that you are precious in his sight, that he loves you just as much as he loves his beloved son, Jesus Christ.

5. Confess the sin of not acting out your new identity in Christ. Confess the sin of doubting God’s goodness, his grace, his wisdom, his power.

6. Praise God and celebrate his promise that he will keep you safe. He will never forsake you and will work all together for your good and for his glory.