Don’t Forget
1 Cor 11:23-30
Intro: A friend of ours went to her Doctor in Jonesboro this past week. As she was leaving the Dr’s office she picked up a set of keys, got in her car, and drove home. After arriving home, she realized that she had picked up the doctor’s keys, and she had to take them all the way back to his office. Now that’s something that I haven’t done yet........notice I said yet ! But I do have a problem with keys.....actually it’s not the keys that I have a problem with........it’s my memory. I’m always forgetting where I put my keys. Our cordless phones have pagers so that you can push a button and locate the phones. I wish my keys.......along with some other items had pagers. Our memories have to be prompted sometimes.
Joke: Two elderly gentlemen are playing cards on Saturday evening as they have done for the past 35 years. Max, the older, had been having problems remembering what cards were what, and usually needed help from his wife. At the end of the card game Ed said to Max, "You did very good tonight. You didn’t need any help at all. Why is that?" Max replied, "Why ever since my wife sent me to that memory school, I haven’t had any problems at all." "Memory school? What memory school?" Max thought for a moment, "Oh, what’s that flower that’s red with thorns? A really pretty flower...?" "A rose?" "Yeah...that’s it!" Max turned to his wife and mumbled, "Hey, Rose! What’s the name of that memory school you sent me to?"
Ugh.....now that’s bad isn’t it ? Real bad !
This morning as we observe communion. I want you to know that the Lord is saying........"Don’t forget !" He said that to his disciples on the night in which he was betrayed as they observed their last meal together. As we observe the Lord’s supper, we are to remember.
I. We Should Remember His Punishment.
Jesus took bread, and he broke it, and said..."Take eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me."
Isa 53:3-5 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
As a little boy, I remember my brother getting in trouble. This was one of the few times it wasn’t me. I remember standing outside the room, and listening to him as he was punished. I felt sorry for him. But I didn’t feel sorry enough to take his whippin for him. God so loved you, and I that he sent his Son to take our punishment. Remember this morning.......the Lord Jesus bound to the whipping post, and the Roman Soldiers coming down upon his back with all the force that they had. The Son of God took our whipping. He was wounded for our transgressions ! The word "wounded" also means "broken". Take eat, this is my body which is broken for you ! He was bruised for our iniquities ! Imagine a bruise on God !
Have you ever been punished for something you didn’t do ? Have you ever willfully been punished for something you didn’t do ?
2 Cor 5:21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
Speaking of Christ, 1 Peter 2:21-24 reminds us that Christ "...... did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously: Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed."
This morning as we take of the bread.....Don’t forget his body that we broken for you ! Don’t forget.......he took our punishment !
II. We Should Remember His Payment. V25
1 Peter 1:18-19 Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot;
Heb 9:22 And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.
Heb 9:12-15 Neither by the blood of goats and calves but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God ?
III. We Should Remember His Promise. V26
........"till he come."
As we observe the Lord’s supper this morning, it is not just with commemoration, but with anticipation. One day Jesus will return. We are to observe the Lord’s supper until he comes. Each time we partake of the bread, and of the juice it should remind us of the punishment he received, the price he paid, and his promise.
John 14:1-6
Christ’s coming is imminent. We do not know the day nor hour, but we do know that he is coming. Are you prepared ? Have you trusted in the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ for your salvation. There is no other way, and there is no better time than today.
