Sermon and Communion 24.05.26
Communion
1 Corinthians 10:21
You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the Lord’s table and of the table of demons.
You are either on the Lord’s side or Satan’s. Are you on the Lord’s side?
If so, our enemies are the World, the Flesh and the Devil.
Ephesians 2:1-3
And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.
When we come to the Lord’s Communion, we affirm our allegiance to him and we renounce/reject the Devil. We declare the Devil is our enemy.
Colossians 2:13-15
And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.
Christ has already defeated Satan and all his evil principalities and powers totally and forever, we need to get this fact straight in our minds. Because of Christ’s victory on the Cross we have peace with God. Satan’s weapon against us is guilt, he is the accuser of the brethren, but Jesus has already forgiven us all our sins! Guilt is the key to our defeat but Christ’s righteousness is the key to victory.
When the law was taken out of the way as the requirement for righteousness and replaced with faith as the requirement for righteousness, Satan could no longer use the law against us.
Communion is a time when we can have rest from the battle, lay aside our spiritual armour and come to Jesus knowing his forgiveness through the Cross makes a way for us to have friendship with God.
John 15:15
No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.
Jesus has reconciled us to God, he has made peace between God and us.
Taking Communion doesn’t save us. Luke’s Gospel records that even Judas took part in that 1st Communion but not fully. John records he left after he ate the bread when Satan entered him.
Satan is not welcome at the Lord’s table that is why. After Judas left, Jesus gave the disciples deeper teaching, prayed for them and not just them but us also as future believers and sang hymns with him on the Mount of Olives. Through Communion they had close friendship, which Judas did not experience.
So as you take Communion today, examine your own heart before the Lord.
1 Corinthians 11:27-32
Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world.
Lord have mercy on each one of us, forgive us our sins and grant us grace and deliver us from evil.
Spiritual Warfare - Girdle of Truth and Breastplate of Righteousness.
I’ve been spending a bit of time over the last while thinking about Spiritual Warfare and the need for us to be better equipped in these times especially as the battle intensifies leading up to Jesus’s return.
I’m seeing the Bible both Old and New Testament in a new light as a soldier’s manual and seeing the insight into the spiritual realm we are fighting against every one of us individually and as a Church. When God told Israel
Deuteronomy 20:16-18
“But of the cities of these peoples which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance, you shall let nothing that breathes remain alive, but you shall utterly destroy them: the Hittite and the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite, just as the Lord your God has commanded you, lest they teach you to do according to all their abominations which they have done for their gods, and you sin against the Lord your God.
Today, that is not an instruction against flesh and blood but against the evil spiritual principalities and powers that rule over flesh and blood.
We have to be ruthless against a ruthless enemy, you must be equipped and have a strategic plan to win. It is true that Jesus defeated Satan at the Cross once and for all but we still need to appropriate that in our own time because even though final victory is certain, there can still be many casualties if the enemy is able to gain or maintain strongholds as we can see in many places throughout the world and even here in New Zealand.
When we look at the things that open doorways to demons, we can easily see that in New Zealand, as in many countries that have abandoned their Christian foundations, we have allowed the Devil in and once again we are in the position of having to suffer to win back lost ground that our forefathers gained.
1 Peter 5:8-9
Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.
Why are we having to fight Satan if he is a defeated foe?
Yes, Jesus defeated Satan on his own behalf in the Wilderness.
Yes, Jesus defeated Satan on our behalf on the Cross.
However, it is our responsibility in our generation to demonstrate and administer the victory of Jesus (The Great Commission). This is what Paul instructed the Church so clearly.
Ephesians 6:10-12
Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
Because the forces we are up against are mighty, Paul goes on to say in
Ephesians 6:13
Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
Because of our struggle against the wicked spiritual forces, we must put on the full armour of God.
When Paul says the evil day, that is not just the final tribulation in the future but today in our own lives. We will all face trials and tribulations, where life is turned on its head. We have to be prepared to go through it, our lives will be tested on which foundation they are built and Satan will always try and destroy us when he has us at our weakest where we have built on sand.
This is Spiritual Warfare 101 but we need to remember to put on all the parts of the armour of God before we find ourselves at the front line in hand to hand combat with the enemy. I’ve underlined them because you will notice that they are actually humble and loving in nature. They are harmless to flesh and blood but they stand in opposition to our true enemy who is the opposite in nature to all of them. Can you think of a word to describe the Devil that is the opposite of each of the underlined words?
Ephesians 6:14-18
Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; praying always with all and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints—
As you learned last week, the first part of the armour is the girdle or belt of truth. Truth is solid rock, a firm foundation to build your life on. If you build your life on worldly philosophy, pension plans, insurance, share markets, people, that is sand. Those things aren’t solid rock to build your life on, that is the Truth.
« On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand »
If a Roman soldier did not put on his girdle first, his clothing would flap around and hinder his movement. Imagine trying to put on other parts of the armour without having done that first. Trying to put your shoes on while your tunic gets in the way. Trying to put your girdle on while holding your shield.
The world says that is your truth, I’ve got mine. Jesus says « I am the Truth ». We have to make a choice on Jesus whether what he said is true or not. We need the truth to make right decisions. Sincerity, honesty, frankness, integrity, having a clear conscience, these are part of the girdle of truth. Letting our yes be yes and our no be no. Not spouting meaningless words but words that we’ve thought about, that we are committed to. Saying « I’ll pray for you » is just a cliché if we don’t do it, don’t expend any effort to help. This is a hard thing to do especially because the more reliable we are, the more people will come to us.
We need to be honest with ourselves and others about what we can do. People can see through us. If we don’t practice what we preach, the truth is not in us and people will find it hard to believe anything else we tell them.
The second part of the armour is vitally important also. The breastplate of righteousness protects the most vital organ in our body, our heart. What we have in our hearts ultimately determines the direction of our lives.
Proverbs 4:23
Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life.
We have to guard our affections and boy we have a job to do there because as the Bible says;
Jeremiah 17:9
“The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?
You can’t trust your own heart. So many people are fooled into sin by what they feel in their hearts.
Without the Word of God to hold us accountable, we are Lion’s dinner. How many lives have been ruined by sexual immorality? In these days of social media, Tinder and goodness knows what else is on the internet, it is a huge matter for the heart. We must make a sober assessment of our own character and guard our affections with the Breastplate of Righteousness. Anyone can fall in matters of the heart.
1 Thessalonians 5:8-10
But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation. For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him.
Note that it’s not a righteousness that comes from the law but from faith in and love for Christ.
If we try to fight the Christian life by being good, we’re going to be easy targets for the Devil because he will always find ways to condemn us in the law when we fail. Then we will become discouraged, because Satan hit us in our core, in our heart. Instead we look to Jesus who is the breastplate as he is the only righteous one. Satan cannot get at us then.
2 Corinthians 5:21
For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
All of our sin was placed on Jesus at the Cross but not only that, in exchange we receive the righteousness of Christ.
We are going to fail if we keep looking at the law because every day, in so many ways, we break the law, sometimes we know it, sometimes in ignorance we don’t even realise. But if we can only grab hold of the truth that we have been given the righteousness of Christ, we will stand when Satan accuses us.
This protection only comes from faith and love as Paul said. Faith is essential for our protection. Christ died for you and for me and has given us his righteousness, that is a liberating truth.
Galatians 5:6
For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love.
Song of Songs 8:6
Set me as a seal upon your heart, As a seal upon your arm; For love is as strong as death, Jealousy as cruel as the grave; Its flames are flames of fire, A most vehement flame.
Yes and I think you can say love is stronger than death. Death and Hades will be thrown into the Lake of Fire but there are 3 things that remain;
1 Corinthians 13:13
And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
