Final Reminders About Christ Series

This morning we will celebrate Communion; taking a piece of bread and a drink? Why should we do Communion??

God tells us in the Bible that we should do Communion!

We are to remember what Jesus Christ did for us to save us from our sins!

How can Jesus Christ save us from our sins??

1 Corinthians 15:2-6…. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance : that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep.

If you believe this about Jesus Christ for you personally, that Jesus is God who became a human being suffered and died for people’s sin, was buried but rose from the dead, now back to heaven but will soon return to judge the living and the dead, you are to celebrate Communion today!

Let us learn how the Letter to the Hebrew Church 2000 years ago was reminded about Jesus Christ.

Open your Bible to Hebrews 13….. Read along with me starting with v8…..

What is v8 telling us?

v8: Jesus Christ is God, Holy, Eternal, and unchanging!

Verses 9-12 speaks of the Temple; telling us that those Hebrew Christians that this letter was addressed to were living with the Temple still there in Jerusalem (show picture)! What was done in this Temple?

The old Hebrew faith starting with Moses requiring Priests to sacrifice animals regularly for people’s sins were done in the Temple. Of course, that Temple was destroyed by the Romans around 70AD as told by God in prophecy!

And so, what were those Hebrew Christians reminded of?

v9a: be strengthen by God’s grace who is Jesus Christ (Hebrews 2) not by any other teachings or religion!

v9b: after Jesus Christ, ceremonial sacrifices at the Temple no longer had value!

v10: Priests in the Temple who do not believe in Jesus Christ as the ultimate sacrifice for sins are doing meaningless work and can not be spiritually fed by God!

v11-12: Jesus Christ suffered and died outside the Jerusalem gate to make people holy through His blood!

v13-15: Christians are to look forward to heaven with God forever, but while still living on earth, to continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise, confessing verbally the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

v20-21: Jesus Christ brings peace, rose from the dead, Great Shepherd to all who are lost, equipper of good work pleasing to God, and is glorious forever and ever!

What then does this all mean to us today?

1. Are you truly a Believer of Jesus Christ? If you are not a Believer of Jesus Christ anything that you do which you think is good is meaningless to God! Believe in Jesus Christ and be acceptable to a Holy God forever!

2. If Jesus Christ is truly our Only Savior and God, who is eternal and always holy…

How excited are we in seeing Jesus Christ soon? Are we living as if Jesus Christ can show up at anytime?

Look again at v9….

First of all, what are strange teachings for Christians today??

3. How much non-biblical teachings are we allowing in our lives today? Be alert!

And what’s another way phrasing God’s grace??

God’s grace is God’s love through Jesus Christ; and so another way of looking at the second part of v9 is what the Apostle Paul states in Ephesians 1:17… “I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.”

And so,

4. Keep learning more and more about Jesus Christ and His love! How do we do this??

Think about Jesus and His love for you daily! Pray to Him daily! Learn from the Bible daily!

5. Look forward to heaven but while waiting on earth constantly praise God and confess verbally that Jesus Christ is your only Lord and Savior! And this is what we are doing when we do Communion: we are saying “We can only go to heaven because of what Jesus Christ did for us!” And so, let us celebrate…..