All right, 1 Corinthians chapter 10. As you can see, it is a communion message, and so we depart from our regular reading in order to bring about a message. And this one from 1 Corinthians 10, we are taking particularly from verse 16, and I want to read it again in the English Standard Version. It says, the cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? This is the word of the Lord, and he'll most certainly add his abundant, gracious, and magnified blessing to the reading of his holy truth, and let us pray. Our God and Father, in Jesus' name, we come before you and thank you for the precious sacrifice that he had made. As we partake of communion, we are to proclaim his death until he come, and by that death, that he had died, by the wrath that he had suffered, and by the blood that he had shed for the forgiveness of sins, we come before you. And thank you for your grace and your mercy through our Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you for your love that you have shown in display publicly for all the universe to see in this greatest act of love through your Son. May we take what You have from Your Word and may we embrace it. May we learn from it. May You be glorified by it. In these things we do ask in Jesus' name and for His sake. Amen. Now, as Often we preach from 1 Corinthians 11 for communion, or at least bring it into whatever passage, because as we've seen in the past several years in having a communion message, we've gone back and forth between Matthew and Genesis and seen how proclaiming his death till he come is all over, all over the scriptures. It's all through the scriptures. But here in 1 Corinthians 10, the Lord placed upon my heart even several weeks ago that this would be a message. I was wrestling with it because I wanted to actually read to you a Spurgeon sermon for communion and say, well Spurgeon preached this. Why don't I just read it? But since I don't have a very good voice anyway, not for reading or for preaching. Let me just bring you to a couple of passages of Scripture. And since 1 Corinthians 10 verse 16, right in the middle of this chapter, we have an interesting portion. Understanding the history of Corinth during Paul's second missionary journey. The church was planted, we read in Acts chapter 18, during his second missionary journey. And he was in on the Sabbath day on a Saturday in the synagogue. It was a large city, a very opulent city. And they had a predominant and a prominent synagogue there. And Paul preached the gospel, proclaiming Christ from the Old Testament scriptures. Because the New Testament was only a few letters by this time in his second missionary journey, James and possibly 1st and 2nd Thessalonians at this particular time. So in his second missionary journey, as he plants this church, he spends 18 months there. And in his third missionary journey, a few years later, as he writes this letter, we even get an indication from 1st Corinthians chapter 10, that if you remember in Acts chapter 18, as he's ministering there, he went on ahead. He went to Athens and then he went to Corinth. And then as he's preaching there or as he's in the synagogue reasoning with the Jews to say this is the Messiah, This, Zeh Mashiach, he is telling them to his Jewish brothers. He's saying, this is who you are waiting for. This is the hope of Israel. This is the fulfillment since the garden in Genesis chapter three, the Lord Jesus Messiah. And having gone ahead, Timothy and Silas appear a little later on. And the English Standard Version and actually most copies of the New Testament don't say how long it's been. Some will say three weeks, because I think the King James Version presents that. But we know from 1 Corinthians chapter 10 that he was there long enough that leaders that did arise, because the Jews that got jealous said, no, we don't want any of this. And he says, from now on, I'm going to the Gentiles. And it's a predominantly Gentile church. However, there is at least enough Jewish leadership in the church that they understood the illustrations in 1 Corinthians chapter 10. He takes them to their crossing of the Red Sea. He takes them to the rock that is gushed water. He takes them to the law and therefore brings out illustrations that the rock is Christ. And that as it was struck the first time as an illustration, just as Christ would be struck the second time, Moses was to speak to the rock so that the water which represents the Holy Spirit should come forth freely. by our asking, but since Moses struck the rock the second time, it broke the model of the gospel, and Moses wasn't allowed to go into the promised land as a result of that. So we have illustrations for the correction. Here is a church that the Apostle Paul spent 18 months in, and that as he's in Ephesus now for three years, ministering from Ephesus to missionaries throughout Asia Minor and also Macedonia and Greece. There is problems already arising in the Corinthian church. They're divisive and these issues that come up. And they even have an issue with the Lord's table, this communion table, what some commentators would call an agape feast. And with this feast, every time they gathered, they had this. They had participated in communion every time they gathered. And it became a problem because it wasn't for the Lord. This is what he was illustrating. We have in verses 9 through 15 of 1 Corinthians 10, he says, we must not put Christ to the test as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, verse 10, nor grumble as some of them did and were destroyed by the destroyer, verse 11. Now these things happened to them as an example. but they were written down for our instruction on whom the end of the ages has come. Verse 12, therefore, let anyone who thinks that he under, anyone thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. Verse 13, now temptation has overtaken you that it is not common to man. God is faithful and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability. But with the temptation, he will also provide you the way of escape and that you may be able to endure it. And then correcting them with first, he gives those examples from the Old Testament, how it proclaimed Christ. They needed to be corrected. And he said those examples are for us. And then he goes in verse 14. He comments now on the one thing that they shouldn't have trouble with. communing with the Lord. Now some people have taken this in the American church to say, you know what, it's so special that maybe we shouldn't have it so often because we'll treat it, we'll trample it underfoot. We'll treat it as if it's just, it's not as special as it should be. But it seems a strange thing from this chapter when it ends with this. Verse 31. So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all unto the glory of God. This is one of the proof texts for the first premise behind the Westminster Shorter Catechism, the Longer Catechism, as well as Spurgeon's Puritan Catechism. What is the chief end of man? What's man's ultimate goal? Man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. The other text is Psalm 73 verses 25 and 26. But whether therefore you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all under the glory of God. 1 Corinthians 10 verse 31. When are you allowed not to give glory to God? By that verse alone. And there are plenty of verses in scripture that say that we're to glorify him in everything that we do. Deuteronomy chapter six says, hear O Israel. The Lord our God, the Lord is one, and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and all your veriness, all your might, it says in their English translation. But even our young people know that that modecha in Hebrew means your veriness. There's not an area of our lives that shouldn't give glory to God, and we don't. That's why Jesus had to come. He lived the righteous life that you and I can't, and trusting in him, he kept that Old Testament law, and he kept the New Testament instruction, do all to the glory of God, eating and drinking. That's what Jesus did in everything that he did in thought, word, and deed, and we fail. Communion should be as common as breathing, because if you actually look biblically at the history of the church. They were gathering every day in Acts chapter 2. And it didn't take but three chapters for them to mess up with Ananias and Sapphira, right? Likewise, they were every time they gathered in Corinth. So it's not a matter of how often or how little you partake of communion. It has to do with this. fellowship, and that's what our message is about. Jesus instituted it as we see just a chapter later, 1 Corinthians 11, verse 23 to 26. Though the gospels do record it, here we don't have to turn very far. And we can see in verses 23 to 26, for I received, that's the apostle Paul saying, I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you. that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, verse 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. 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. Verse 26, for as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he come. That we don't take it every week, that's fine. That's all right. Because it doesn't give a stipulation, it just says as often. Somewhat general, how often is often? As often as it's going to be. It's like how long is long? How short is short? Lord Jesus doesn't give us a particular stipulation, but when we do receive it, we're shown that it's the cup of blessing, the cup that we partake of. It is a blessing unto God, which is also a reminder, the reason that we're here. Often in American Christianity, People come to church because they want to get something. Well, if you're saved, you already got it. And because you're saved, we come together because he's worthy to be worshiped and we come together with the people of God. And the communion is just a snapshot of that gathering. Because where two or three are gathered together, there he is also in the midst of us. And even though that's not the context of when he said it in Matthew 18, it is a spiritual principle from the Old Testament. So if two of us are at Three Bears or two of us are at Tesoro getting gas, there is Christ with us. And if we start applying that truth at the gas station to the truth at the communion table, we'll find that there's no difference. There should be no difference. He is the holy God, and we are the wretches who have received salvation. So it becomes that which we can bless Christ with because he has transformed us to love him when before we hated Christ, we hated God, we were rebels without a cause. With the bread that we break we see in our verse, 1 Corinthians 10 verse 16, the cup of blessing that we bless Is it not a participation in the blood of Christ and the bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? This bread, these are emblems and symbols. They must be because of what we'll see in the fellowship to follow. King James says communion. This word here, participation, in the English Standard Version, is it not participation? It's a good word, I like it. I also like communion. It comes from the Greek word koinonia, and many of you know that word, koinonia. We tend to just call it fellowship, but it means communion. It does mean participation, and it also has an implication of partaking as well. But it's not simply partaking. And it is not participation in a perverse kind of way as if Jesus needed help on the cross. We have to understand what that is. And Koinonia provides that in the Greek word. But I'm going to provide for you some scriptures so that you'll understand it a bit. And so we have these two elements that are symbolic here, the blood of Christ and the body of Christ, because Christ need not be crucified again. We are not turning this mystically into the body and blood of Christ as if he needs to be crucified again. We are taking this, which he has instituted as emblems, so that when we partake, there is a supernatural thing that happens. It changes us even more. We've already been changed if we're believers. And this is the truth of what we'll look at now. Four things in fellowship. We have a fellowship by Christ because the Lord Jesus instituted the communion for us to partake in. We have a fellowship in Christ because we have the living God as a permanent indwelling through the Holy Spirit, as well as the person of Jesus Christ, who's Almighty God, because he promised in Hebrews 13 in verse five, I will never leave you nor forsake you. We have a fellowship with Christ, which is actually, it seems like it might be reversed. We're in Christ, but now we are also with Christ. He invites us to partner together with him in the work that he is doing upon the earth. And then finally, the fellowship of Christ, that sums it up. Now, there'll be times where certain portions of these will be experienced by us, but sometimes it's a progression. And it must start with this one first, the fellowship that's by Christ. Turn a few pages away from 1 Corinthians 10 to 1 Corinthians 15. and Paul lays out the gospel again. In 1 Corinthians 2, he summed up the gospel with a singular sentence. He says, for I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and him crucified. That verse right there is the sum and substance of the gospel, of the good news. but then he repeats it near the end of this letter in 1 Corinthians 15. Some will call it the resurrection chapter, but without the cross, the resurrection, what good is it? So he starts it off again with a simple rendition in verse one of the gospel. Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preach to you. which you received and which you stand. Verse two, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. Well, that makes sense that as you are being saved, aren't they saved? Yes. But Paul says of you that are being saved, this is a letter of correction. And so because of the corruption that still remains in our mortal flesh, we don't, live perfect lives. We stumble. We fall. We need the correction from the Holy Spirit. We need the encouragement from Christ. And so he says in verse 3, for I delivered to you as of first importance, it says first of all in the King James Version, would I also receive that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures. Verse 4, that he was buried and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures. There in those four verses, he again, he expands it a little bit more, but it's based on that, that we are sinners and Christ died according to the scriptures for us. That's our participation in the body of Christ, because you might ask, well, how do we participate in that? If it's all of Christ's work alone, brother John, as you've been preaching for years, If it's all of his work alone, how did we participate? What do we do in our participation? Well, we've already participated just by being that we are sinners. And that's our only qualification for our participation in the salvation of God. that we are sinners, which means everyone since and including Adam qualifies. There's only one who did not sin and it's the Lord Jesus Christ, God who became man. And so there's our participation. And so as far as for our partaking of the symbols, it becomes that which we read in 1 Corinthians 11 verses 23 through 25. These symbols, are a remembrance. 1 Corinthians 11 verse 23 says, again, as I've read it earlier, 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, 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. Verse 25, in the same way, he also took the cup after the supper saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. Does that mean that we don't have to think about Jesus when we're not partaking of communion? No, however, when we do, it's specifically for remembering what Christ has done. This is a starting point that becomes progressive. This is where everyone must be. And for some, this is as far as they may typically go. I've run into Christians, North and South and East and West, as far as the Philippines and Indonesia and Japan to New York. South Carolina, North Carolina, Florida, that this is as far as they go. I'm saved and that's it. And the only time that they'll remember the Lord, and they may be more than likely, I'll just take it at face value, they may be saved. But that's, it seems pretty sad that that's as far as where the relationship should go. Now, ladies, bear me out on this. If I looked at my wife, whom I've been blessed to be with for 35 years ago, I asked her to marry me. And 34 years, she said yes. And then 34 years, she's had to endure me for these last 34 years. But if I told her, look, I told you that I loved you and never said anything to her again for the next 34 years, it hasn't changed. I don't think that she would appreciate that kind of love. Ladies, I don't think you'd appreciate that kind of love from your man either. You want to be with them. They should want to be with you. To remember Christ only every once in a while when we come together, how sad that is. We should remember him always. And that's the starting point. They might remember Him every day. It's not just, hey, it's not just when I partake of this, it's when I think of Him in the morning and I think of Him in the evening. When are you allowed not to think of Christ? Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one, and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your everything. The next thing that we see, is the fellowship in Christ. 2 Corinthians chapter 13, since we're in 1 Corinthians, go to Paul's second letter. He still wrote it on his third missionary journey. They did some things, but not everything. And at the very end of this, he gives this wonderful benediction. Young people, benediction means a blessing. And he gives this wonderful benediction in verse 14 of 2 Corinthians chapter 13. Because you'll wonder, well, what does this say about our participation? How do we participate in this? It says in verse 14, I'll wait for you if you're turning there. If you're there, say amen. If you're not, say amen. All right. It says, here's this benediction he gives at the end of this letter. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Now fellowship is the same word. It's that word koinonia. Same word is participation, which ties it in. How do we participate? I didn't get up on the cross with the Lord Jesus. My sacrifice, your sacrifice would have meant nothing because you're sinners. I'm a sinner, but Christ's sacrifice meant everything. So how do we participate? In Christ, as it says in Galatians 2 verse 20, I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live. but the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Does that mean that somehow, mystically, I was attached to the Lord Jesus when he was crucified? No, not as far as for a sacrifice, but how do you participate? How do I participate? This verse tells us by two things through the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. We are participants because we are recipients of God's grace. And we are recipients of God's love. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God the Father. Which is, according to Jeremiah, it's an everlasting love. That's how we participate. Being recipients of God's grace. Turn with me from 2 Corinthians. I didn't put it as a note. If you're a note taker, you wanna write 2 Corinthians 5 verse 21. But since we'll be turning back to, backwards to the New Testament to see this fellowship in Christ, just, this would be a good place to see this again. 2 Corinthians 5 verse 21. In the English Standard Version it says, for our sake, he takes a pause dramatically so that everyone can catch up. For our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. We don't actually become righteous, but Christ's righteousness is applied to us just as this verse tells us that our sin was applied to Christ. Christ didn't actually become a sinner, neither did he become sin. But it was done for our sake that the righteous sacrifice of Christ and the righteous life lived by Christ, when he laid down his life, that righteousness, God says, if we believe in him, it's applied to our account. So it is for our sake, that's love and grace. That's God's love and grace. And that's how we participate in it. We nailed Christ to the cross by our sins. We didn't physically do it, but your sin put Christ upon the cross. That was the only way that we could be saved. So how does partaking now move us from just remembering Christ to something better, something deeper, something that strengthens our faith to continue to believe? Well, I'm glad you asked. Turn with me to John chapter six. That Jesus, on the day before, we see in the earlier portion of John chapter six, that the Lord Jesus broke bread and fed the multitudes, probably 30 to 50,000 people. It was 15,000 men, not counting women and children on the shores of Galilee. And he breaks it with, breaks, you know, two bait fish and a, you know, pieces of pilot bread. What I call sometimes wonder bread because, oh, wonder how all this came. Jesus gave thanks. He fed the multitudes. And the next day they were looking for Jesus again after he walks on water. And verse 20, Eight, they said to the Lord Jesus, because He says, you know, you came because you're hungry. You want to be filled. You were glutted yesterday. Now you want to eat that miracle fish and wonder bread again. Verse 28, they said to Him, what must we do to do the works of God? Verse 29, Jesus answered them, this is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent. That's the work of God. And notice it says the work of God. If it was your work, you'd believe today and wouldn't believe tomorrow. But since it's the work of God that changes us to believe this truth and cling to this truth, there's the work of God, but it also becomes a work. I continue to believe, and this is part of when we partake of communion, we're partakers in that participation that I not only believe, Then, but I continue to believe now with a strength. When you partake and recognize that this is a symbol that represents what Christ has done, a miracle takes place in your life that makes you stronger in faith. That each time we participate in this, your faith gets stronger. More than that, Jesus even taught concerning this, because they started going on about manna and so forth. But Jesus said this in verse 35, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall not thirst. He's not talking about physical hunger there. because otherwise he wouldn't tell us in the Sermon on the Mount that when you fast, wash your face, don't screw up your looks so that people will think that you're fasting. So obviously we can fast. So therefore he's not talking about physical hunger, but he's talking about what your soul truly needs, what my soul truly needs. We need a spiritual nourishment. Our soul hungers and thirsts after the righteousness of Christ. So we're strengthened in faith when we partake. And it's also, it nourishes our souls when we do so. It's not just a simple remembrance, but it's a deeper fellowship. It's a fellowship that actually empowers. So much so that it confounded the entire Roman Empire by this next fellowship, the fellowship with Christ. Remember that in the Roman Empire, they thought they're cannibals because they're calling this little matzo bread, they're calling it the body of Christ. And they're calling this, what's in that cup, the blood of Christ. They must, they're cannibals. Romans had a lot of things strange about their outlook because they were polytheistic. Remember, the Christians were persecuted because they were atheists. We believe in many gods. It was the Roman Empire. You could believe in the Greek gods. You could believe in the Egyptian gods. Or you could believe in the Roman gods. We have plenty of gods and gods for everything. But we believed in one god. They must be atheists. The next thing comes from the text right after ours. In 1 Corinthians 10, it's verse 17. What do we say about the fellowship with Christ? Now let's go deeper. Christ wants us to have a greater fellowship with him. And as verse 16 said, the cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Then verse 17 of 1 Corinthians 10 says, because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of one bread. Though it's broken, it represents Christ, his broken body, not his broken bones, because he didn't have any broken bones upon the cross. Not one bone would be broken, but his body was broken. You remember that time and again, I tell you that when Jesus hung upon the cross, that Isaiah 52 verse 14 says that he was disfigured, he was marred more than any man, and his visage more than the sons of man. Why? Because when he was beaten brutally, his beard was plucked out of his face completely. That he was struck with fists and rods, they spat upon him, they mocked him, they covered his head and they beat him again and said, prophesy. So that when he was at his weakest point physically, after they scourged him and he had blood loss, he was dehydrated. And when he hung upon the cross, that he was at his weakest point physically when he suffered God's infinite and eternal wrath for sins he did not commit. How horrifying was that wrath of God? You and I will never know. Not even in eternity we'll ever know. Because he who walked most intimately with the father more than any man, now was forsaken of God the Father by his wrath poured out upon him. And so therefore the depth of his sufferings go beyond the depth of not only any man's sufferings, but every man's sufferings put together can never even come close to what Jesus suffered. That's how satisfying is the justice of God in Jesus Christ. But because we are being conformed to Christ's image, according to Romans 8 verses 28 and 29, and that we are one body, when the bread is broken and we partake, we see the brokenness of our lives for sure. But that's a sermon for another time. We also see that we, as many members, are one. as Christ gave his sacrifice once and for all. And as we're being conformed to his image, that's God's plan that all that would be saved would become more and more like the Lord Jesus Christ. And by becoming more like him, we are instilled with his heart for the brethren. Remember that in Luke chapter 17 and verse 10, when Jesus tells of a servant who did what he was supposed to do, he says, we did what was our duty to do. We are unworthy servants, but it says we are unprofitable servants in the King James Version, which I do like too. In fact, I like it even better. Because when Jesus came, it profited him nothing to come. He didn't become better God. He's eternal God. He's infinite God. It didn't make him a more perfect human. He was perfect man by his birth, his virgin birth. But what does that tell us? That when he came to save your soul and mine, that should mean something for you and me. That when we approach the brothers and sisters in Christ, when we approach the brethren, Now, when you were unprofitable, now you're profitable. You bring blessing to God through His seeing another Jesus. His seeing more Jesuses when He looks at us. The complete righteousness of Christ placed on your account, the Father looks at us with joy unspeakable. And so how do we partake with such a thing? How are we having fellowship with Christ? We start having Christ's heart and so Christ's compassion on others and his love for others now becomes ours. Turn with me again to John chapter 13. John chapter 13, verse 34. Jesus says, a new commandment I give to you, that you love one another just as I have loved you. You also are to love one another. Verse 35. By this, all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. Now that always cracks me up that there are churches in the United States of America and actually all around the world that want to emphasize the miracles that Jesus did and that we're supposed to do them too. It doesn't say that in my Bible. That by this, all men will know that you're my disciples, that you, Raise the dead that you cast out demons in my name. Oh, if God has you doing that, then so be it. But this is the one marker. This is what confounded the Roman Empire. This is what brought about the fall of the Roman Empire. Because they lived for self, but the Christian lives for Christ. Denying self, taking up our cross, making Christ's cross our particular possession and following Christ. This love. These people love one another. And the Romans could not wrap their minds around that. that they actually love one another. They wait upon one another. Though with some misgivings, as we see in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 and 11, they didn't wait upon one another. They were selfish. They were gluttonous. They got drunk. Which is an amazing thing, because they weren't waiting on one another. How did they have fermented wine? Were they letting it sit? Because the sugar in the wine, in the grape juice, was already causing it to become, start to become alcoholic. They got to a point where they, Paul scolds them in 1 Corinthians 11. You're getting drunk, some of you. You're glutting over the food that you have. But the fellowship with Christ doesn't, it empowers us to love the brethren. I don't have it in me to love you, brothers and sisters, in myself. I am so selfish that if it were not for Christ saving me, I wouldn't live for others. I know that because I knew what I was before the Lord saved me. And it was full of self, as full as it could be. But now, I see a change and I want that change to be more and more. See, how am I empowered to do this? Sticking with Christ. Abiding with Him. We sang a hymn concerning that. Turn with me to John chapter 15. Just a page away or so. This is how we partake of those symbols. We were empowered to love, and now we are empowered to labor, to labor in love. All the work of our salvation was done by Christ, but now in response to his love for us, now we love him and then love whom he loves. That's how it works. And then in John chapter 15, verse five, he says, I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, He it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. Well, right there, apart from me you can do nothing. And sometimes it stops right there. That makes sense, that if there's a branch that's coming off from the vine, there's fruit on it while it's still attached to the vine, but you take that branch off, there's not going to be any fruit there. It's going to dry up and all, and that's not going to produce any more fruit. But again, another interesting truth about that is, if the vine does not any longer have the branch, that branch is good for nothing. It's not abiding in the vine. And therefore, apart from the Lord Jesus Christ, you are nothing. It's not that you can just do nothing. You are nothing. I am nothing apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. And that When we partake of the communion now in fellowship with Christ and we recognize that will empower you and me by just this simple act of obedience, because this is what Christ has ordained, it causes us to love the brethren. I can't wait now to get to church, to all those people that wouldn't love me otherwise, except it be for Jesus Christ and that Jesus gets the glory for you loving me. Even better, even better. That's the fellowship with Christ. But wait a minute, Brother John, when you read that we are to love the brothers in verses 34 to 35, Jesus had not yet gone to the cross, but Jesus qualifies it right here in John 15. Look at this in verse 12. He says, this is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you. Well, see, he had not yet gone to the cross, Brother John. Look at verse 13. Greater love has no one than this, that someone laid down his life for his friends. Verse 14. You are my friends if you do what I command you. We're unprofitable servants and someone used, had the audacity to use verse 14 on a brother of mine to say, don't put yourself down. Don't say you're unworthy or unprofitable. Jesus called you a friend. Don't you realize what this verse is saying? And my brother in Scammon Bay had it right. The God of the universe who became a man and now walking as a man, fully man and fully God, going to the cross and dying a death, suffering God's wrath and shedding his blood for the forgiveness of sins, rising from the dead, ascending into heaven with the promise of coming again, that God, having saved you when there was nothing in you savable or retrievable, nothing in me redeemable, that God now calls you a friend. He condescended to make sinners his friend. Oh, hallelujah. What a Savior. What a Savior indeed. Which brings us to the last point. 1 Corinthians 11, verse 26, the fellowship of Christ. It shouldn't just stop there with the brothers. Now we have a potential for seeing Christ to come back as King of Kings. Now I start seeing the potential of Christ as I partake in this communion that's not just at the table, but it's every day in my life. Communing with Christ in prayer because of this, it's empowered me, empowered you. And so as we look at those that do not know Christ, we see the potential of one more person giving glory to God. for salvation because he is worthy of being praised and honored. And then so in 1 Corinthians 11 verse 26, where it says, for as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he come. This is the fellowship of Christ until he come. He's coming again. And so though we go through this and desire to have increased fellowship with Christ until he come, our participation now is in the truth that we proclaim it by partaking every time we partake. And when we do partake, when we're not partaking, we still have that communion with him throughout the week, throughout the weeks until we come and meet again for communion. And in our partaking of those symbols, we find an endurance that is not only special, but supernatural. Turn with me to the right to Philippians chapter three. These last ones will be in order, so they'll be quicker, hopefully, Lord willing to turn to. Philippians chapter three. When you partake, Christ doesn't just give you something to do so that you could show yourself obedient. Christ gives this to you and me as a blessing and a gift. We bless God with it, but in our blessing God with it, the partaking also comes with this, a blessing, but every blessing brings about a responsibility. Heavy is the crown of life that is upon our heads. Philippians chapter 3 verse 10, that I may know him, Paul says, while he's in prison in his fourth missionary journey from Rome. He writes to the Philippians and says that I may know him and the power of his resurrection. In other words, I don't know him as fully as I'd like to know him. I'll never know him as fully as can be known. Why? Because he's infinite God. and the power of his resurrection, that I may know more about this salvation that I have. He has risen from the dead and he has raised me unto newness of life, raised you unto newness of life. It's not just that I know about the cross. There are depths of the cross that you and I should plummet, that we should sound to see the depths of what Christ has suffered. There are heights of Christ from the cross in which we should scale. But our flesh wants to say, oh, you know enough. Our flesh is terrible that way. The distractions of the world want to keep us from climbing higher, from diving deeper, from expanding our perspective broader of Christ, who is all in all. And so verse 10 says, after the power of his resurrection and may share his sufferings, or in the King James Version, it says the fellowship of his sufferings, becoming like him in his death. How are we participants in that? We are participants in that, that we die to self. Now that he has died for us, we just, we died a self and it allows us to endure. It empowers us to endure when we partake because the fellowship of Christ, the closeness to him, the blessing of him, the knowledge that flows now from the scriptures into my heart, into my soul, into my mind for the renewal thereof. becomes that truth that drives you and me closer to the one who has saved us, to have a more intimate fellowship with him. Not completely like he had with the Father, but approaching more to Christ as he had unbroken, intimate fellowship with the Father, that we might have that. It's heavenly. Therefore it's eternal. Turn with me just a page or so away to Colossians chapter 3. When we partake with this kind of communion, we start in verse 1 and 2. Verse 2 mostly, but we get a head start with this in verse 1. It says, if then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Verse two, set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. We start getting an eternal perspective when we partake of the elements, these symbols of what Christ has done. And then finally, there's joy unspeakable. Turn with me to 1 Peter 1, verse eight. Endurance, eternal, and elation. And this is where we close up the message. The fellowship. We don't have to be satisfied with just remembering Christ and it being a little inconvenience because it makes the service a little bit longer, causes the deacons to have to break up a matzo cracker and pour in those tiny little cups some grape juice. It's not that. Endurance of the things that we suffer because we want to be with Christ. We find that we become more heavenly minded. And that old saying that says, he's so heavenly minded, he's no earthly good is a lie from the Satan. It's a lie from the devil. Because the only way you could be any earthly good at all is to be heavenly minded. is to have your eyes upon Jesus, and then you'll see when he comes. You don't have to be looking at all those signs like a lot of people want to start to prognosticate, like Punxsutawney Phil or something. You don't have to be like that. Just keep your eyes on Jesus, focus on him, and you'll see him when he comes. And if that's the case, then you'll see this in 1 Peter 1, verse 8. You'll live according to this, though you have not seen him. with our physical eyes. Though you have not seen Him, you love Him. And though you do not now see Him, you believe in Him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory. This unspeakable joy, this inexpressible joy is yours. And as we partake, may that joy be yours. Certainly you're to examine yourself And this is that misgiving I said, why, well, we don't want to do it unworthily. And you know what that's actually saying? You're examining others. It's told, we're told to examine self when we do this. And we should, we should. This is the, the, the riddle, the conundrum, the mystery and the, and the, the kind of thing that these two things that oppose, we should look at it soberly because this is what Christ has done, but we should also look at it joyfully because Christ has done it and you're saved. So may love abound. And let me close it in prayer so that we can partake. Our most blessed and gracious God and Father, We thank you for the fellowship of Christ, fellowship with Christ, fellowship in Christ, and the fellowship by Christ. That means that it's not, it cannot be kept from any true believer. And so we ask that you'll minister unto us that we may examine ourselves, that we may partake, and that we may rejoice in these things. Draw us nearer to you, Lord Jesus, through this. May you be pleased and be blessed as you have so pleased and blessed your people with this that you have instituted. In Jesus' name and for his sake, we do pray. Amen.