This is Serious

This Lord's Day we will have a Communion Service at our church. This is a great way for us to remember the finished work of our Savior. He gave Himself; He shed His blood so that all who believe in Him would have all of their sins forgiven forever. Through Christ we are reconciled to God. In Christ we have eternal life. Certainly this is cause for great rejoicing and a Communion Service should be a time of profound thanksgiving.

The Communion Service is also a time of reflection. We should take some time for examination. Christ died to take away sin. It would be wrong for me to celebrate His saving work while at the same time harboring some sin in my life. The Corinthians were warned about this (1 Corinthians 11:17-34). They were taking Communion in an unworthy manner because the sins of division and selfishness existed in their church. Because of this (sin + taking communion) some of them were sick and some in their church had even died. This tells you and me that this is serious.

We live in a world that doesn't take sin seriously at all. Even the "Christian" community seems to have lost its sense of the seriousness of sin. A new movie is coming out that is aimed at the "Christian" community. This film is a comedy based upon the story of Noah and the ark. If you study the biblical account of Noah you will quickly realize that there is absolutely nothing comedic about this. Genesis 6 says that God destroyed all the people living on the earth at that time (possibly billions) because of the seriousness of their sin. Genesis 6:5 says, "Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." So God brought judgment in the form of a flood and in His grace He saved Noah and his family.

When we realize how serious sin is and what the Lord thinks about it we realize that this is nothing to joke about. It is serious stuff. At our Communion Service we will be reading some names of people who are either at step 3 or 4 of church discipline. These people have not taken their sin seriously and they have refused to repent. This should cause all of us to grieve and to examine our own hearts because we all all subject to the deceitfulness of sin.

The reality is that only as we comprehend the serious nature of sin can we profoundly worship our Lord who graciously paid the price for our forgiveness. Let's not allow the thinking of our world to affect us. Let's think biblically about sin. We have a wonderful Savior who paid a great price. He took the wrath that our sin deserved.

Thank You, Lord!