<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Ceres SDA Church

Anil Kanda

Koinonia

The Bible says he will enlighten our darkness.

It tells us in 2nd Corinthians that Jesus is the light of the knowledge of the glory of the gospel of God.

And when I'm reminded about that, that gives me great hope.

Well, I want to start with a word of prayer for several reasons.

1 being, I actually have 2 sermons right now.

And I'm not quite sure which one's to preach or which 1 to preach I should say but I believe God's going to lead amen let's bow our heads for a word of prayer father we just thank you so much for this time and thank you for being a light in our darkness God we just praise you because you commanded the light to shine out of the darkness and Lord We just thank you that we are not left alone in this world, but that you are with us Jesus We pray and ask for the greatest of all teachers and preachers the Holy Spirit to present this message this special communion time Lord as we recommit ourselves To you.

We pray amen All right church family You guys know that today is communion day and that is a very special day.

Amen a Lot of people shake their heads or they sigh during communion times and that's because you don't really Recognize what communion is all about during communion time God wishes to draw our hearts closer to him through this very special Act of worship, so I really really challenge you to stay for the whole service let God bless you in tremendous ways because there are things he's been wanting to do in your life and Participating in the communion service will help that process.

I want to share a very interesting song with you.

Listen to what the Word of God says right here and let it speak to your heart.

Faints for the courts of the Lord my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God now watch what David says next It's very powerful Even the sparrow has found a home and the swallow a Nest for herself where she may lay her young even your altars.

Oh Lord of hosts My king and my God blessed are those who dwell in your what?

House for they shall still be praising you blessed is the man Now this is where it starts getting very deep blessed is the man whose strength is in what you as Whose heart is set on what?

Pilgrimage now, it's very interesting a pilgrimage was a spiritual journey Muslims Will take pilgrimages to Mecca Hindus will take pilgrimages to the Ganges and the Jews will take pilgrimages To Jerusalem where they could worship God and celebrate the feast days, but watch what he says right here.

It's very interesting Blessed is the man Whose strength is in you whose heart is set on what?

Pilgrimage or his journey now watch what he says next as they pass through the valley of what?

Baca Does anybody have footnotes that tell you what the word Baca means?

Weeping tears as they pass through the valley of what tears tears Let's continue They make it a spring The rain also covers it with pools they go from strength to what Strength each 1 appears before God in Zion David is saying that in his pilgrimage, in his journey with God, oftentimes he will encounter times where he is left weeping, times that will bring him to tears, trials in his life.

But as he continues to go forward he's growing from strength to what?

Strength to strength he's growing in character in knowledge and wisdom in grace Until he reaches that Destiny and that destiny is to see God in Zion.

Can you say amen to that is your heart set on pilgrimage today?

Are you set on going forward in your spiritual walk?

That's your desire I believe God wants to bless you in the most powerful ways.

And my prayer is that through this communion service that you will allow God to bless you in a very, very special way.

As I was doing some research for the sermon, I was reading about Jewish weddings.

The sermon just led in that direction of no intention of my own.

And so as I was led to this thing about Jewish weddings, it's very interesting.

There are a lot of modern Jewish weddings and there are a lot of traditional Jewish weddings.

In traditional Jewish weddings, it's very unique, the ceremony that takes place.

Oftentimes after the engagement takes place, a week or 2 or 3 weeks happens and they don't see each other But when they're Brought back together for the actual ceremony the woman is wearing this veil Now what is so unique about this veil is that it has?

Stars on it Now the reason why it has these stars is because It is supposed to be a reminder of the promise of Abraham.

Do you remember what the promise of Abraham was?

God says, in your seed, the world will be blessed.

And what happens is that woman is supposed to wear a veil with stars on it that represents the promise of Abraham But as the ceremony continues and they get married what happens is very unique Sermon or ceremony is that they take this Cup of wine and they will drink from it together underneath the veil very interesting, but they will both drink from the same cup and It's supposed to represent that these 2 creatures are now United and 1 and it's so interesting after that moment.

They'll take some of the plates throw them on the ground and start dancing like crazy And but what happens is that this very special ceremony was to bind 2 separate Individuals and unite them as 1 as they partook of the same cup." Very interesting, the Song of Solomon brings up very similar language.

The Song of Solomon was actually at some time considered 1 of the most holiest books by rabbis.

When you read that book, it's a book about romance, right?

But that book describes God's passion for his bride the church amen and what God is wanting to do in the communion service is partake of a very special cup with you.

Take your Bible, let's go to Matthew chapter 26.

Matthew chapter 26 And let's start with verse 26.

Let's see what the Bible says right here.

And as they were eating, Jesus took bread.

Blessed, broke it, gave it to the disciples, and said to them, take, eat, this is my what?

Then he took the cup and gave thanks gave it to them saying drink from what?

From it all of you so remarkable because he says this was shed for many for the remissions of sins Very interesting here Jesus is having this very special last supper with his disciples and as he drinks of that cup He passes it to them and they were to drink from the exact same cup now imagine this 12 other men drinking from the same cup.

Here they are, they're drinking from the exact same cup.

And as they're partaking of this cup, I can just imagine the last guy thinking to himself, oh my goodness, I'm in the wrong seat.

But 12 different men partook of the same juice their lips touched the same cup that Jesus drank from first in Fact what's very interesting in Hebrew culture today when they're having the Passover.

They actually have 4 cups and it represents 4 different blessings And it represents the process of the Exodus So today when you take a good look at Jewish Passover's 4 different cups and they drink from it What is very interesting?

There is a tradition that a child is supposed to ask something on Passover day and that is this the child is supposed to ask this question What makes this day?

Different from any other day It's a Jewish tradition.

There's somebody in the family, usually it was the youngest child, he was to ask this question, what makes this day different than any other day?

And as he asked that question, the father usually would then begin this sort of speech where he would lead the children of Israel Through their journey, excuse me described their story out of Egypt and the deliverance that was given to them So when you have Passover with your children, excuse me when you have Last Supper with your children, ladies and gentlemen, this is the time that God is calling you to explain things to your children.

So here they are, they're having this very special ceremony, Jesus takes this cup, he passes it over to them, they all drink from it, and each 1 is partaking of this very intimate occasion a ceremony that is generally reserved for weddings And I can just imagine my own mind after partaking Of this there's probably this look of just like what are we actually doing?

Jesus realizes he needs to communicate a very special message to his disciples and that message ladies and gentlemen is the Message get this the message of community The message of what?

Community it wasn't like there was a lack of cups or somebody didn't bring out enough cups Is that Jesus was trying to communicate something and that was his people are to be 1 to drink from the exact Same cup, but the children of Israel the 12 disciples were big troublemakers even right before this scene they were fighting there was jealousy in their heart there was resent bitterness some of them even had revenge others 1 specifically betrayal and Jesus wanting to bring this all together He says I'm going to pass out this cup and ask this cup is being passed out here These bitter men are they're drinking from the exact same cup.

I don't know about you but when I drink from somebody from something and I put that down like it's a water bottle if I have a Suspicion that somebody else drank from it.

I don't want to touch it In fact, what is So strange is that if I attempt to drink it even after I had that suspicion it doesn't taste like my water bottle anymore You know what I'm talking about right so here Jesus has this very unique ceremony He's bringing these 12 disciples together and they're Partaking of the exact same cup the exact same dish as they're eating it.

God is seeking this very special community These 12 disciples have been with Jesus for 3 and a half years and through these 3 and a half years They still were not completely united, but they began to recognize some things and that was God was calling them to be 1 unified it unified to have this special union In fact, you want to know what the word community means in Latin.

It simply means this in common community means in Common and after the resurrection of Jesus these 12 disciples begin to come together and they begin to pray they begin to lay aside Their pride and their unbelief And the resentment that was there and they begin to seek unity very interesting 1 of my good friends is a counselor and she talks about how there are 2 root sins in this world She says number 1 is pride Number 2 is unbelief in fact When you look at all sins these 2 tend to be the root of all sin that there is in this world, either pride or unbelief.

In fact, pride and unbelief is so strong it actually fractured the Jewish leadership, where you had the Sparisees, who were very prideful, and then you had the Sadducees that were what?

Here in even the leadership of Israel these 2 great sins were manifested in their leadership.

But pride and unbelief is what God was trying to root out of the disciples before He could pour upon them the Holy Spirit.

Take your Bible and let's go to the book of Acts.

I'm going to show you something very remarkable.

And when they had entered, they went up into the upper room when they were staying.

Peter, James, John, Andrew, Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew, and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James.

1 accord in prayer and what supplication with a who Women and Mary the mother of Jesus and with his what?

Back to Menu

Koinonia

Transcript

Sponsor

Recorded

Related

Medical Missionary Work

50m

The Fulness of Time

23m

Morning Devotional: It's War Time

It’s Wartime - Part 6: The Perfect Battle

54m

The Holy Spirit and You

55m

IMPACT: Greater Than What Jesus Did?

1h

Path to the Heart

1-Jesus Only

26m

The School of Christ

58m

Unlocking the Mysteries of the Sanctuary

18 When the Day of Atonement Ends

50m

Apologetics

The State of the Dead

58m

Acts

Acts: Priesthood of All Believers

33m

Living in the Day of Atonement

1h 1m

Sound Doctrine