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Village SDA Church

Ron Kelly

A Communion Sermon

Lord, thank you for those that have brought us to the throne of grace already, and I just pray especially for these few moments we have in the Bible.

We've been in Sabbath school classes, they've been a blessing, and now Lord, as a body, young and old, we're here, so I'm praying make this live for all.

In me, I pray in these next moments, through me, and in my brothers and sisters, your people, our family, thank you for making us part of your family, and now lead us, we pray, and provide and teach and comfort in Jesus' name, amen.

This morning is a family Sabbath, and you may say, well, I don't attend church here.

And we are part of a larger family, and that family is named by the name of Jesus.

And this morning, I just wanna take a few minutes to celebrate being a family and to reflect on being a family and its tremendous power.

I have spent the last 10 or 11 days in Southern California and after about day number 7 or 8, I thought to myself, I wanna go home.

And so I started looking for airline tickets.

The problem was, is that every day I put my life in the hands of Christ to either adjust or establish my plans, and he was clearly saying, no, you're not going home.

I tried to find a way in which I could still get the benefit of what I was there for, but also get home a day early and be back with my wonderful wife and daughter and my church family." But God said no.

Now, I want to couch what I'm going to share today because I'm going to share a few stories with you.

I want to couch it against the backdrop of the early church.

So take your Bibles and open them up to our scripture reading in Acts chapter 2, and there are Bibles in the pew.

I want you to remember what a disadvantaged group of people they were in some ways.

And I want to remind you of what an advantaged group of people they were in others.

In Acts chapter 2, we have a church that has been on quite a roller coaster ride of discouragement and despair and then jubilation.

As God gave the Spirit to anoint the people, and there was a mighty harvest of human beings into the family of God, which is our great privilege, is becoming sons and daughters of God.

Now, how they continued this is how I want to focus because we weren't there on the day of Pentecost, but we're still following in the family, the spiritual ancestry of those who were.

And so I just want to make sure on this communion Sabbath, we don't miss the sweet, beautiful simplicity of what they had and not crave it and pray for it and ask for it ourselves, because it's for you, it's for me.

It says in verse 42, they were continually devoting themselves to the Apostles' teaching and to fellowship and to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

There was truth that was important to be reinforced or discovered.

There were things that were new to them and there was the revelation of the Spirit working through the disciples as even their knowledge of what it meant for Christ to come and die was growing, the resurrection.

Now we know in Acts 1 that they're still a little bit confused about the kingdom because they're saying, Lord, at this time, will you bring the kingdom?

And Jesus says, you're focusing on the wrong thing.

They were on a trajectory of better understanding.

And that's what he calls us to, a journey of continually growing in the Lord.

Attending to the teaching of the apostles, which is a large part of the Old Testament, but we certainly have a more comprehensive view of scripture than that, because in the New Testament, we're taught that all scripture is God-inspired.

That focus on the Bible is very, very important.

And so I want to encourage you, make sure you're not missing out on both the individual and the corporate journey of hearing the words of life, of focusing on the words of life.

They were also devoting themselves continually to fellowship.

Now I'm convinced that this is where the devil's trying to make a...

Instead of coming at us head on, he's coming at us from the side.

And so, he's trying to make the church a place where the fellowship factor is strained and stressed because he wants people to find fellowship at the stadium, at the bar, at the dance club, wherever it might be.

He's offering a false sense of togetherness that can't go very deep.

Not that it has no value and that there isn't a measure of bonding and blessedness in it, but the devil doesn't want us to know the joys of a very strong, sweet, beautiful family experience, which is where fellowship is the best, when the family's praying and making their journey to whatever God has in mind for them, when they're making an effort to grow, to be healthy.

You may have come out of a family that you don't think was very healthy.

The good news is, is that you don't have to focus on what was wrong.

You can just focus on what's right, and you can come into a family and be a part of 1 that's a blessing.

It's number 2 on the list, and the devil wants to make sure you don't enter into it.

So we have pseudo fellowship, we have a false sense of intimacy and connectedness, and sometimes it's through technology.

I'm not diminishing the power of technology to create a connection, use it for good, but I am saying, make sure you're not missing out on the richer form of fellowship, which is actual personal presence.

Now, I know for those of you that were here praying through the 10 nights, you bonded with the people you prayed with.

But God wants to take it to the richness and the fullness of fruitfulness for him.

They were also dedicating themselves to the breaking of bread, which is a metaphor of also fellowship and I believe at some level the dynamic of celebrating what Christ did for us.

When we share food together, in this case, we're gonna share food that is symbolic of the greatest gift ever given to mankind.

They were celebrating what Jesus gave them at the very end, which was the fact that the old Passover was gone.

It's not just about being saved from the destroying angel.

Now it's the celebration of, it's not just the story of grace in Egypt it's now the fellowship of what you're pointing to which is that marriage supper of the Lamb we're going to be together in heaven it's our togetherness in heaven that's going to be the glory it's not the fact that the streets are gold and you never die those are nice especially the never die part But what's really going to be wonderful in heaven is that we're going to get to be children of God without a fear for eternity, without an insecurity or an anxiety for eternity.

This breaking of bread was the way they were celebrating the life, the death, and the resurrection of Jesus.

Now all of these things have a power to bond us together.

But I want you to know something, when we lose everything else in society, if we still have the ability to study the Bible together, if we still have the ability to be encouraged by each other's presence, fellowship, if we still have the ability to come together and celebrate what God did for us.

And if we still have the ability to pray, we'll have everything you need because there were thousands being added to the church daily.

Now, I just want you to stop for a minute and make sure you understand the great privilege and responsibility of being in that kind of communion.

So we're gonna we practice an open communion here.

Everyone is invited to participate, but it could be just another Sabbath morning, it could be just another ceremony, but I don't want it to be.

I want you to understand that this morning.

We are celebrating the truth that brings us together There was a call that went out and in that call there were truths about who God is the Sabbath What happens when you die that you don't burn forever in hell, that we have a living high priest in heaven, that he sends prophets to his people.

You have come out of that into a fellowship of the wonderful giftedness of God through truth, and today we celebrate that.

We are, most of us here, maybe you're not, but most of us here are celebrating the fact that God has led us on a journey out of darkness into light.

It's 1 that doesn't end when you profess it, but it's 1 that bonds us deeply.

We're celebrating here today the fact that we are brothers and sisters in Christ.

And we're celebrating here today what Christ has done, and the privilege to go straight before God, we're celebrating that as a door that was opened by Jesus.

Now, I'm just appealing to you, as my brothers and sisters, as my friends and acquaintances, whatever the case may be.

Are there any of those attributes that you are neglecting in your life?

Because if you are, You're not only losing out yourself, you're actually robbing somebody else.

So many people think about church as something where they can get something.

But God has made us a family, and families don't work well when the individuals think that way.

But it's hard to think about each other if we don't know each other.

It's hard to think about each other if we don't understand each other's differences.

It's much easier for me, I mean, when I went through 10 nights of prayer a couple years ago, the people I prayed with, God just did an amazing work in my heart to bond me to those people.

Sharing those 10 nights on my knees with my brothers and sisters changed me, especially with the little circle I was praying with.

If Satan understands this deep human need for belonging, which is a basic human need wherever you go, and it's the glory of the Scriptures, what we have here works across cultures.

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A Communion Sermon

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