Seeing as God Sees: The Lord's Table

Summary

The service opens with prayer drawn from Psalm 86:11, asking the Lord to teach His way, and a reminder that God speaks to those who deliberately set aside time to listen. A worship song and a narrative poem about the thief crucified beside Jesus turn the church toward the coming remembrance of Christ's death at communion.

The preacher pauses to speak of the gift of the church - that believers belong to one another and are never truly alone - and asks the congregation to pray for his son serving at the front. Reading Isaiah 53, he shows that the crowd assumed the suffering Servant was punished for His own sin, when in fact He was wounded for ours. God sees differently than people do, and He has not hidden that truth - He has opened it in His Word.

The central teaching turns to 1 Corinthians 11. The Lord's Supper is not an ordinary meal but a holy act that proclaims Christ's death until He comes. Paul warns that careless, unworthy participation carries real consequences, and calls every believer first to examine and judge himself in repentance, so that he need not be judged by God.

Key Points

• God speaks to those who deliberately set aside time to listen to Him.
• Christ Himself is the way, and we see that path clearly in Scripture and in prayer.
• It is a great blessing to belong to a church - God made us for community, and no one carries the weight of life alone.
• God sees and judges differently than people do; Isaiah 53 shows the Servant was wounded for our sins, not His own.
• The quality of our Christian life rises and falls with how deeply we know God through His Word.
• The Lord's Supper is no ordinary meal - it proclaims Christ's death and His return and calls for reverence.
• Examine yourself honestly before communion; judging your own heart in repentance keeps you from being judged.