COMMUNION WITH CHRIST
LOOK BACK TO WHAT CHRIST HAS DONE FOR US…”DO THIS IN REMEMBRANCE OF ME”.
NUMBER ONE: CHRIST BECAME A HUMAN SO HE COULD BE OUR SUBSTITUTE
If God wanted to save the barracudas, and he wanted to use you, what would you need to become? A barracuda!
If God wanted to save the cockroaches, and he wanted to use you, what would you need to become? A cockroach!
We might talk real big, but not one of us would become a cockroach!
For Christ to leave the glories of heaven to put on the rags of humanity is a much bigger leap than for you to become a cockroach!
Matthew 1:23 ESV
"Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel" (which means, God with us).
Immanuel was a title used to describe who Christ was.
Jesus was God because he was sinless and only God could do what Christ did. He had to also be human to pay for the punishment of our sin.
NUMBER TWO: CHRIST LIVED A PERFECT LIFE SO THAT HE COULD GIVE US HIS PERFECT LIFE IN EXCHANGE FOR OUR IMPERFECT LIFE
2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV
“For our sake he made him [Jesus] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
Many people forget the Jesus lived a perfect life. How many of us have even lived a perfect life since this morning? We’ve all blown perfection!
Christ was tempted in all ways like us, but he never sinned. That was the case in his private and public life with his interactions with all people.
Hebrews 4:15 - ““This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin.”
A cow has multiple stomachs, so it chews the cud. When they get hungry, the regurgitate it back up and chew it until they get all the nutrients. Over and over. That’s what we are supposed to do with the Word of God. 2 Corinthians 5:21 is a great verse to do that with.
As sinners we deserve wrath and death. Jesus took that account balance and paid it with his blood on the cross, he died, he was buried… but he rose victorious!
Jesus took his righteousness and put it in our account. It belongs to us. It doesn’t require a yearly renewal. Even on your worst day, you are not far away from God. It’s not an account that has to be refilled. It’s full!
NUMBER THREE: CHRIST DIED FOR US TO SATISFY GOD’S PENALTY AND PUNISHMENT FOR SIN
Romans 5:8-9 ESV
but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. [9] Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.
Whenever we talk about “his blood” it is always in complete reference to his death on the cross, burial, and resurrection.
NUMBER FOUR: CHRIST ROSE FROM THE DEAD TO GIVE US AN INTIMATE ETERNAL LIFE WITH HIM
John 10:27-30 ESV
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. [28] I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. [29] My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. [30] I and the Father are one."
In order to hear his voice, we have to be his!
NUMBER FIVE: CHRIST GAVE US POWER TO DO WHATEVER HE ASKS US TO DO
Acts 1:8 ESV
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."
We’re witnesses because that way God gets all the glory!