God’s Presence – Exploring a Biblical Theology of God’s Presence with His People • 06.25.23
God’s Presence
Exploring a biblical theology of God’s presence with his people and the implications it bears on the gathered church today
Good morning church family!
Thank you to David and the team for leading us in worship so well. It’s a joy to pour out our praises to the One who puts the very breath in our lungs, amen?
Dismiss 4th + 5th graders (9a only)
For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Jordan Bray, and I am the Worship Pastor here at Harvest. Occasionally, I get the opportunity to preach and this morning I get to do something extra special! Pastor Nick allowed me to choose ANY subject to preach on, so I gave it some thought and prayer and chose something that I am passionate about, I believe God’s word provides so much clarity about it, & I am hoping that you will see a lot of connections between what we talk about today with what we learned in Hebrews, and even what we will learn in our overview of the NT next week!
The topic I am referring to is God’s presence. And more specifically, God’s presence with his people. And while we will look at what all of Scripture has to say about God’s presence with his people throughout redemptive history, we will end with considering what that means for when we are gathered for worship like we are right now.
This is a topic that, when misunderstood or misapplied, we can fall into some dangerous camps. One being the belief that we are in some way responsible, by our power, to conjure up the presence of God. As if he is not present with us until we do things just right or if something in the service doesn’t go as planned, he may just not show up at all. That can’t be right, because Scripture is clear that God is omnipresent, which means he is present in all places at all times. We see this in passages like Psalm 139:7–10.
Psalm 139:7–10
7 Where shall I go from your Spirit?
Or where shall I flee from your presence?
8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
9 If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
10 even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me.
God transcends both time and space. Unlike us, he is able to be everywhere all at once. So, in this moment, God is present with us, and it would not be accurate to think that he wasn’t before, or he won’t be afterwards, or that we are in control of any of that.
We also don’t want to undervalue God’s presence in the church and show up not expecting anything out of the ordinary! “Just another part of my list to check off.”
Or perhaps not even show up at all and think, “Well, I’ve got my Bible, a relationship with Jesus, and an endless stream of worship songs and sermons online, so why in the world would I need to get out of bed early and drive to the church at all?”
These are attitudes that I believe with a clearer understanding of God’s presence in the gathered church, we will never want to miss out on the moment we are experiencing right now. We will come eager, with expectancy, and like the Psalmist, say,
Psalm 84:1–2a
How lovely is your dwelling place,
O Lord of hosts!
2 My soul longs, yes, faints
for the courts of the Lord;
Before we jump in, I want to be clear about the method I am using to preach this morning. Normally, at Harvest, we practice expository preaching which involves picking a book of the Bible and preaching verse-by-verse through a specific text. What I would like to do today is a little different and that is preach through a theme in the Bible using a method called biblical theology. Now, you may hear that and think, “Well, duh, you better be teaching us theology that is biblical.” Yes, I can assure you of that. But “biblical theology” is something more specific than that. Biblical theology is about understanding how each part of the Bible contributes to the overarching story of the Bible. You’ve heard Pastor Nick talk about the story of the Bible being “God’s grand redemption plan.” That’s because from Genesis to Revelation, throughout all 66 books of our Bible, there is a consistent storyline about God and his redemption plan. Biblical theology helps us to understand how a particular theme relates to that plan, giving us a better understanding of its significance and application. So, this morning, we are going to go on a journey through our Bibles and develop a biblical theology of God’s presence with his people, and see how that impacts our corporate worship gatherings today.
Your bulletin is intentionally blank because we have a lot of material to cover and some of it I won’t be able to spend as much time on as I’d like, so I want to encourage you to take plenty of notes of the passages we’ll look at, and some of the main stages of redemptive history as they unfold (which will be on the screen for you to follow along).
So, if biblical theology explores a theme from beginning to end in the bible, can you guess where we will begin today? 😉 Genesis! Turn with me to your Bibles to Genesis 1.
Ushers + Bibles (page #1)
Genesis 1:26–31
26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
27 So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” 29 And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. 30 And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. 31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.
We begin to develop our biblical theology of God’s presence with his people by reading about the first time he was ever present with his people, and that’s when he created the first man and woman and placed them in the Garden of Eden.
And it’s important to note that he didn’t need to create them– Our whole Bible starts with, “In the beginning, GOD…” God existed before all things, and was content and delighted in himself. He didn’t make us because he was lonely or needed us. He is transcendent, meaning, he is exalted above his creation. BUT, he is also immanent, meaning, he chooses to be present to his creation, especially his people, in a personal and intimate way. So, God saw it as good to create mankind to glorify him by bearing his image. And what does he do after he created Adam and Eve? He begins to relate to them and speak with them. And as it says in verse 28, “And God blessed them.”
As I mentioned earlier, God is omnipresent (present in all places at all times), but he is not present in exactly the same way in every location. In other words, he manifests his presence in different ways for different purposes.
Sometimes, God is present to sustain. Which means he is present to keep the universe existing and functioning in the way he intended it to function.
Hebrews 1:3a
And He [Jesus] is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power.
Think about this – while I’ve been preaching, you have been constantly breathing in and out. At the same time, your heart has been pumping blood to keep you alive. And you haven’t had to think about that at all right? It just keeps happening and that’s because God’s sustaining presence is keeping it functioning the way he designed it to! Just like we sang a moment ago: “It’s your breath in our lungs, so we pour out our praise…”
God also chooses to manifest his presence in some places to judge.
Matthew 10:28
28 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
Jesus is not talking about the devil here. He is talking about the righteous judge, God himself who is present in hell but for one purpose only – to pour out his judgement on the wicked. This is a sobering thought. We often think about hell as eternal separation from God, which is true in some sense, but what we mean is that it is eternal separation from God’s presence to bless. Which is the manifestation of God’s presence we see highlighted in the Garden of Eden.
God created Adam and Eve and then he blessed them. God can be present to sustain, to judge, or to bless. And actually, most often, when the bible talks about God’s presence, it is referring to his presence to bless! And what is God’s blessed presence like?
Psalm 16:11
11 You make known to me the path of life;
in your presence there is fullness of joy;
at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
God’s blessed presence consists of his joy, goodness, purity, all of the excellent things about him that we delight in. And that is what we are seeing in the Garden of Eden between mankind and their Creator. He blessed them with his presence and dwelt with them in such an intimate way that we read that he:
…spoke directly to them (vs. 28b “And God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply…”)
…walked among them (vs. 3:8a “And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day.”)
…provided for their every need (vs. 2:16 “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden…)
Just imagine that for a moment. They were living in a paradise. They had every source of nourishment from the trees, probably better than any fruit we’ll ever have in our entire lives here on earth. There were beautiful streams of flowing water throughout the whole land. Chapter 2 talks about how there was gold and precious stones. They could be around majestic animals like lions and bears without any fear of being attacked. They could explore, rest, play, have fun, work – all in a perfect paradise garden– But the BEST part was that God was WITH them. They actually got to dwell intimately with their Creator. There was not a thing separating them from Him – not even an article of clothing! Because there was no shame, there was no fear, there was no sin in the blessed presence of God.
In the Garden of Eden, mankind enjoyed perfect fellowship with their Creator and experienced the blessedness of his presence.
But something happened, right? Flip forward to chapter 3 and we read that Adam and Eve disobeyed God’s one command, to refrain from eating of the tree of good and evil. This single act of defiance ushered into this world what separates all of mankind from God’s blessed presence, sin. And what was the result?
Genesis 3:23–24
23 therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. 24 He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.
God is holy and perfect. His blessed presence cannot dwell among sin. So, mankind was cast out of the garden, and God’s blessed presence was guarded at the east by these cherubim, which are winged beings (that’s going to come up again later).
So, as mentioned, the Bible is one big story, and with biblical theology, we are seeking to understand how this theme of God’s presence with his people is going to develop as we read on. And at this point, we should be kind of concerned because we are just 3 chapters in, and mankind has already messed it up! They have been cast away from God’s presence and we have no idea how or when that could ever be reconciled.
But as we keep reading, we begin to see little glimmers of hope. We read about God initiating interactions with people like Noah and Abraham whom he speaks to and makes covenantal promises to. And to Abraham, he promises to make a people for himself whom he will again bless with his presence, so that they can then be a blessing to other nations. And that people we discover are called the nation of Israel.
Eventually we get to the book of Exodus where the nation of Israel is delivered from captivity from the Egyptians, and the Lord begins to answer the question of how he can again dwell with his people. He does this by disclosing to Moses on Mount Sinai explicit instructions for the people to build him a sanctuary where he can again dwell in their midst. You are welcome to turn with me to Exodus 25, but we’ll be moving pretty quick from here on out so feel free to read from the screen if that’s easier.
Exodus 25:8–9
8 And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst. 9 Exactly as I show you concerning the pattern of the tabernacle, and of all its furniture, so you shall make it.
Tabernacle, or mishkan comes from the Hebrew root meaning “to dwell.” God initiated a system where he could again dwell among his people, and it was through the construction of a portable place of worship called the Tabernacle!
What’s fascinating is that when you read through the instructions for building the Tabernacle, you begin to see little details that symbolize the original dwelling place of God with man: the Garden of Eden! Parts of the Tabernacle were constructed with the same kind of precious stones and metals found in the garden of Eden. The golden lampstand was to look just like a tree with fruit dropping from its branches just as the garden of Eden was filled with trees and more specifically, the tree of life. And you remember what God placed at the east of the garden of Eden to guard his presence? Cherubim! The same kind of winged beings guarding the presence of God in the garden were woven onto the thick curtain that separated the outer rooms of the Tabernacle from the Holy of Holies, which housed the Ark of the Covenant, the actual place where God would manifest his presence among his people, and this mercy seat was overshadowed by, you guessed it, two cherubim as you can see here.
All of the imagery included in the Tabernacle was designed to remind them that God desires to dwell among his people. And while sin had separated them from him, and the proximity to him may be different, by his grace he gives them hope that this will make a way for them to be in his presence again.
Leviticus 26:11–12
11 I will make my dwelling among you, and my soul shall not abhor you. 12 And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people.
You can read more in Exodus 40 about how the glory of the Lord descended like a cloud, filling the Tabernacle, and from then on guided the Israelites through the wilderness as pillar of cloud by day and pillar of fire by night.
The Tabernacle was an amazing form of provision from God for his people to dwell with him again. However, as we know, this was not a long-term solution. Firstly, it wasn’t just anyone who could approach God in this dwelling place, right? Who was it that could enter the Tabernacle to meet with God on behalf of the people? The priests (or Levites)! Throughout the book of Leviticus, we read about the many rituals, cleansings, and sacrifices necessary for God to meet with the priests in the Tabernacle. The Tabernacle was also not a long-term solution because it was in nature a temporary dwelling place. And by the time the Israelites inherited the land they were promises and we get to 2 Samuel, we meet King David, a man after God’s own heart who wakes up one day, looks around his house, and says, “Why am I living in a palace, while my God is living in a tent?? Something’s not right here!” So David desired to build a house for the Lord, and eventually, it’s actually through the reign of David’s son, King Solomon, that this comes to fruition, just as God promised.
1 Chronicles 17:11–12
11 When your days are fulfilled to walk with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, one of your own sons, and I will establish his kingdom. 12 He shall build a house for me, and I will establish his throne forever.
This is alluding to King Solomon’s temple, a fixed location of God’s presence among his people. The next several chapters in 1 & 2 Chronicles are filled with anticipation as they round up the people, begin constructing the temple in the likeness of the Tabernacle, and carry the Ark of the Covenant to its new home. Then in 2 Chronicles 7, we read about the completion and the dedication of the temple to the Lord. As I read this, I want you to imagine being present in this moment. God’s people have worshipped him in a portable tent for years and now have built a fixed location where they can rely on his presence to dwell with them.
2 Chronicles 7:1–3
7 As soon as Solomon finished his prayer, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the temple. 2 And the priests could not enter the house of the Lord, because the glory of the Lord filled the Lord’s house. 3 When all the people of Israel saw the fire come down and the glory of the Lord on the temple, they bowed down with their faces to the ground on the pavement and worshiped and gave thanks to the Lord, saying, “For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.”
What an amazing and tangible display of God’s blessed presence among his people! You can imagine the security, the confidence, the joy of knowing that there is a place where you can go and know for sure that God’s presence is among you. You would think that this alone would fuel the Israelite’s desire to fulfill their end of the covenant. Unfortunately, that was not the case. Eventually, Israel’s moral decline led to a deep separation from God’s blessed presence. They suffered the consequences of their own idolatry and were overtaken by enemy nations. Their temple was destroyed, and they were taken into exile.
Years later, when they returned from exile, they set their hopes on rebuilding their lives, including rebuilding the temple itself. But when they rebuilt it, Ezra 3 records that the reaction was a little anti-climactic.
Some of God’s people were excited and rejoicing, but others who had seen the first temple were less impressed and saddened. Some scholars suggest that the mixture of joy and sadness in this response is meant again to point to the fact that while this temple is an amazing act of God’s grace in making a way for him to dwell with his people, there is still more to come.
And we should hope so, because from this point the story gets darker. The Israelites that repopulated Jerusalem when they returned from exile, were not faithful to God. Their worship system and treatment of the temple were corrupt! God’s promise was that if they would obey he would dwell among them with his blessed presence, but instead they rebelled and accused God of the one being distant. The OT ends in the book of Malachi which contains a promise of a messenger who will prepare the way, and after doing so, the Lord would again come to the temple.
Throughout all of the OT, we have seen that God desires to dwell with his people, and by his grace he continues to provide the means to do that. And we are left, on the edge of our seats, wondering “what’s next”? How will the Lord again dwell with his people? Will it always require cleansing and sacrifices? Will it ever be like it was in the Garden? Or has sin completely shattered the chance that God’s people could again walk, and talk, and be close to him in the same way? To find out, we enter the NT to discover the next stage of God’s presence with his people. Turn to John 1:14 with me 😊
John 1:14
14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Jesus Christ, the Son of God and God himself came down from heaven to dwell among men! In this passage, the Greek word to describe his dwelling among us is skēnoō which, translated more literally, means he “tabernacled” among men. The author is carrying this theme of tabernacle and temple to demonstrate that this Jesus, he is the very presence of God manifested in the flesh. The incarnation of Jesus Christ as God in the flesh was the most intimate manifestation of God’s blessed presence among his people since the Garden of Eden! Think about the disciples – they walked with Jesus, they talked with Jesus, they watched him perform miracles, they worshipped and sang with him. They even ate at the same table as him!
But, as we read on, Jesus alludes to a time when he will not be with them in the same way. He came for a specific purpose. Soon, through Jesus’s death, resurrection, and ascension, he would enact a new covenant that made way for the new stage of God’s presence with his people. In John 16, as he senses the sorrow in the disciples as they begin to try and comprehend what’s coming, Jesus says this:
John 16:5–7
5 But now I am going to him who sent me, and none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ 6 But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. 7 Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.
By the time of Jesus’s life on earth, Solomon’s second temple had undergone some major reconstruction under Herod’s reign, but within that temple remained the curtain with cherubim that guarded God’s presence in the Holy of Holies from the rest of the temple. And listen to what happens in Matthew 27:
Matthew 27:50–51
50 And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.
51 And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split.
The curtain, separating sinful man from God’s blessed presence has been torn! Jesus clothed himself in our sin and shame so that he could absorb the wrath of God for our sin AND so that we could be clothed in HIS righteousness, making it acceptable for us to embrace God’s presence. And his presence with his people is no longer confined to one location! The Helper has come! On the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2, the apostles were filled with the Holy Spirit, marking the beginning of the current stage of redemption history where we live – where the presence of God, the Holy Spirit, dwells within us! In the believer/the church.
No longer is God’s manifest presence found contained in a building, but instead, believers ourselves are considered “temples” of the living God.
1 Corinthians 3:16
16 Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?
Paul not only addresses individual believers as God’s temple, but explains that the church, the gathering of believers make up the temple of God. This is clear through the plurality of his exhortation in 2 Corinthians 6:16–17 “For we [the people of God] are the temple of the living God.”
It is the gathering together of believers that makes up the “house” of the Lord.
How amazing is that? At this point in redemptive history, God has chosen to manifest his blessed presence within his people. And as we begin to experience the blessings of his presence in this life, we acknowledge that there is still more to come! One day, Jesus will come again, make all things new, and God will dwell with us again as intimately as he did in the Garden of Eden.
Revelation 21:1–4
21 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
God had planned from the beginning of time to dwell among his people. Sin entered the world and separated mankind from God, but that was never a surprise to him, and it never tainted his plan to again be present with his people. One day, Christ will return, make all things new, and God will dwell among us in the New Heavens and New Earth more intimately than ever before. What started in a garden paradise where God’s people walked and talked with him in an intimate way, will end in a garden-like paradise where God’s people will again walk and talk with him in an intimate way, and as some have commented, it will be even better than what Adam and Eve experienced! And it will never end!
That’s what we have to look forward to, but until that day, let’s go back to where we are currently in redemptive history. The church, the people of God are the temple of the indwelling Spirit of God, so what makes our gatherings so special?
As believers in Christ, we should expect to recognize the indwelling Spirit and experience his nearness to us in our private, day-to-day worship, but how much more aware should we be of his presence when we gather with other believers who have the indwelling Spirit as well! When we gather, our eyes are opened to the glory of God that was already present. Our emotions are stirred by the Spirit which was already in us!
Theologian Wayne Grudem says it like this:
“During genuine worship we will often experience an intensification of the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit, who is at work continually changing us into the likeness of Christ “from one degree of glory to another” (2 Cor 3:18).”
We intentionally illustrated this in our graphic for this sermon. As you can see, all of the individual lights are no less dim on their own, but as they cluster together towards the bottom side of the image, you see their glow coming together to shine brighter.
If each of us is the “temple” of the indwelling presence of God, and all throughout the week we are scattered and reflecting God’s glory through our daily worship of him, then we should expect that when we gather these “mini temples,” we’re going to experience God’s presence in a unique way that stirs our hearts and spurs us on!
That’s exactly what we are commanded to do in Hebrews 10.
Hebrews 10:24–25
24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
In other words, when we gather for corporate worship, we witness God’s glory on display in and through each other in ways that we cannot experience on our own. “And what ways might that be?” you may ask. It may surprise you, but it’s primarily through ordinary habits of grace. Things like communion, baptisms, the preaching of God’s word, singing, and serving.
David Mathis, author of Habits of Grace, explains:
“It is corporate worship, with its preaching and sacraments and collective praises, confessions, petitions, and thanksgivings, which most acutely bring together the gifts of God’s voice, his ear, and his body.”
When we gather, we partake in communion to remember his death and to recognize that those who partake are demonstrating their continued devotion to him, and his sanctifying work in them day by day.
We witness baptisms where a new believer rises from the water, demonstrating that God has worked in their life to bring them to repentance and faith.
We hear the preaching of God’s word prepared by our shepherds, our pastors – not the ones on the screen at home or the podcasts, not the lifeless AI generated scripts, but preaching from the men who will actually give an account for what we say to you from this pulpit in the presence of God. And, hopefully, as we hear the word, the Spirit moves in our hearts to grow and change us.
We sing and make melody to the Lord with thankfulness in our hearts, addressing one another in our singing so that the word of Christ will dwell in us richly.
We pray corporately, speaking to God on behalf of each other, unifying our minds to align with his will for us.
We seek to faithfully engage in the messiness of church discipline – the process of seeking to restore a brother or sister in Christ who is caught in sin– THIS is the context in which Jesus says in Matthew 18:20, “For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.” It is as if Jesus is saying that when a local gathering of believers is unified in practicing church discipline biblically, his “stamp of approval” is placed on the process and the church can be confident that he is present to bless it.
We serve one another, using the unique gifts of the Spirit we have been given. Do you realize that when you serve Christ by greeting people at the door, brewing the coffee, teaching the Word to the children, caring for the babies in the nursery, leading people in musical worship, counting the offering, changing out the toilet paper in the bathrooms or any other act of service to edify the body… you are powerfully demonstrating the presence of the Holy Spirit within you?! Because you can’t do those things, in the name of Christ, by your own strength!
Consequently, what does that mean if you do not use your gifts to serve? What if, rather than coming to serve, you are coming to be served? Friends, we are not above our Savior. He said himself,
Mark 10:45
45 For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
And just as he modeled selfless service, we should follow his example and use the gifts he has given us to build up the body. To display the presence of God at work in us!
At the church my wife and I attended in Indiana, there was a gentleman named Jeff who attended with his wife, Roseanne. Jeff had cancer and sadly he’s no longer with us. But I want to show you a picture of him here. Jeff is the one with a big smile on his face and that’s his wife, Roseanne, standing next to him. This was taken at our Christmas program just a little over a month before Jeff passed and so he’s the only one sitting down in this photo because he was in a very frail state at that point. But Jeff did not want his fragile state to keep him from serving the Lord and encouraging others along the way. In fact, the building we were serving in had apartments upstairs for student housing, and some of the college students who lived upstairs actually prepared a cot for Jeff to rest his body in between services…
Let me tell you, no one made him do that. If anything, people assured him that he did not need to push it. But, Jeff INSISTED on taking part in this service because he wanted to let God’s glory shine through him as he used his gifts to build up his church. “They HAVE to see me sing!” he said. Jeff was a shining example of the joy that comes from giving rather than receiving, and to everyone in the room that day, it was so evident that God was present, working through Jeff to stir our hearts and spur us on.
Friends, these ordinary habits of grace can produce extraordinary hope as we await the day when we will be in God’s presence for eternity. And those were just some of the formal habits of grace we experience when we gather. Think about the informal ways that we can stir one another up as well!
When we arrive to the gathering on time, or stick around after service, we open ourselves up to conversations where we can speak the truth in love, counsel + disciple each other, pray for one another (not just say we’ll pray for you but to actually go before God together in that moment), or even just seek to encourage one another. We may not always see it outwardly, but not everyone shows up ready to worship. Many feel burdened, distracted, and overwhelmed. Maybe you can be the means of encouraging them!
Proverbs 12:25
25 Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs him down,
but a good word makes him glad.
Let’s not miss out on the significance of God’s presence in us and what that means when we gather. Let’s come ready, prepared to stir one another up. Whatever your struggle may be – whether it’s 1) not coming to church at all (in which case, I’m really glad that you’re here right now), or it’s 2) coming to church but remaining uninvolved, uninterested, unengaged, or 3) being involved but missing out on the significance of your involvement – feeling weighed down as if this is a burden or an inconvenience that you just have to endure. Instead, let’s make the most of this time! What we have here is a taste of eternity, and while there is more to come, until that day, let’s be a church that is eager to gather, quick to stir each other up, and bless one another with the power of God’s presence within us.
Communion
And we have the have the opportunity to do that now through a celebration of the Lord’s Table. This is an opportunity for Christians to remember all that the Lord has done for us through his death, burial, and resurrection. This is an opportunity to recognize the presence of Jesus in each other as we confess our sins and strive to keep living for him.
We will celebrate by partaking of both the bread and the cup as a symbol and reminder of Jesus’ body broken in our place and his blood shed for the forgiveness of our sins. Communion is an opportunity to remember how great a price was paid so that we could be saved from our sin. It is a sobering, yet joyful celebration for Christians. Sobering that the Son of God would give himself for us as a ransom. Joyful that he did, and the result was a living hope that cannot be taken from us! Jesus is victorious; therefore, we have the hope of heaven with Him!
At this time, I’d like to invite the ushers forward with the elements.
Before we pass them, I want to share the biblical requirements for joining in this celebration.
This celebration was given by Jesus to his followers. It is an opportunity to remember all that he has done for us. We invite anyone who has trusted in Jesus Christ alone for salvation to join us in this celebration today. If your faith is not in Jesus Christ alone, then we would encourage you to let the elements pass by you and simply consider what you’ve heard so far during the service this morning and reflect on what is keeping you from trusting him.
The second requirement we see in Scripture is a call to examine ourselves. This is the idea of making sure that you’ve confessed any known sins and sought to turn away from it. It would not be wise to partake of the table if you have sin in your life for which you are not repentant. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 11 that taking the table while living in sin is eating and drinking judgment on yourself. I would ask you not to do that, for your sake and the sake of God’s glory. Instead, I would encourage you to use this time to confess that sin and make a plan to address it right away. If you know you need to be reconciled to someone else in this church, please take care of that during this time. The table is time to protect the unity of the church.
The ushers are going to pass the elements now as we have a time of silent reflection and prayer to prepare for the table. Please use this time to reflect on all that we’ve talked about today and to prepare yourself to take communion by confessing and repenting of any known sin. After the elements have been passed, I’ll lead us in prayer and taking communion together.
Ushers pass elements
Silent prayer. Corporate prayer.
1 Corinthians 11:23–26 (ESV)
23 For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”
Take bread.
25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
Take cup
Hallelujah, thank you, Jesus!
Sing
Closing Announcements
- Ask for Prayer + Meet the Pastor
- Visitors + Welcome Gift
- You Are Loved