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This is our annual Communion service where we obey the commandment of the Lord to remember Him through the cup of the "fruit of the vine" and the unleavened bread. In years past I have taught extensively on the Communion ceremony because of the prevalent abuse and misuse of this institution of Christ by modern churches. This year I will probably point out some of these things, but I want to take a different tact and perhaps focus on one aspect of the Communion service that I feel would be the will of God for us this year. That is the aspect of remembrance.

To understand the Communion service, you must understand the Passover from Moses' time. There was no explanation of this needed on the night before Jesus' death because all of the people at the table with Jesus were Jewish and had celebrated the Passover annually every year of their life. To the disciples, their meal with Jesus was at first a normal Passover meal. But little did they know that they would be forever changed as a result of what was about to happen.

In the time of Moses, we find that the children of Israel were in Egypt under bondage to Pharaoh and God sent Moses and Aaron to lead them out and take them across the wilderness to a Promised Land that God would show them. Pharaoh was not about to let millions of free slave labor go just on a whim and so God began a series of plagues upon Egypt designed to soften Pharaoh's heart. The plagues were varied but consisted of such things as hail falling down from heaven and killing the Egyptian's cattle and frogs being everywhere and then dying in such large numbers that the Egyptians had to pile them up and burn them in huge, smelly fires. God turned the Nile river as red as blood and made it foul to drink for a couple of days. Locusts came and devoured the crops. Lice came and infested the Egyptians. There was darkness for three days and so on. But the tenth plague was the plague that would forever free the Israelis and finally get Pharaoh so exasperated that he would release the Jews. God was going to kill every first born child of every family and of every animal in Egypt and yet God provided a way of escape for the Israelis by following some specific guidelines that He gave Moses. If the Israelis did these things, then their first born children and animals would not be killed.

Most of you are familiar with the requirements of God that night, but let me quickly outline them for the sake of those who are not. On the tenth day of that month (Nisan) the children of Israel were to pick out a one year old, male lamb that was blemish less and spotless. He could not have a defect in any way. They were to keep him in a pen under close supervision, appointed as the one that they had chosen to die for four days, until the fourteenth of the month. In the mean time, they were to remove all leaven (yeast) from their house and they were to pack their bags. In the evening of the fourteenth day, they were to kill the Lamb and reserve the blood from the animal. They were then to roast the animal whole, without gutting him or breaking a bone or filleting him in any way. They were to prepare the lamb with bitter tasting herbs and fix bread without yeast so that it was flat and tasteless. In the mean time they were to take the blood of the Lamb and apply it to the doorposts of the house so that the blood was easily seen from the outside. And then, in their house whose outside door was soaked in blood, they were to eat their Lamb and unleavened bread supper and eat it fully clothed with their bags packed and with walking stick in their hand. They were about to leave Egypt. The lamb was to be totally consumed and what they could not eat was to be burnt with fire and nothing was to be left till the morning.

That night as the death angel passed through Egypt killing the firstborn children and animals, when it came to a house where the blood of the Lamb was applied to the outside of the house and where the lamb was being completely consumed on the inside, then it would "passover" that house and they would be spared the judgment of God and their firstborns would live. And it was this act that would cause Pharaoh to finally let the people of Israel go free and it was this first Passover that set them loose from the bondage of Egypt and it's sinful ways and got them headed to the Promised Land!

It was such a momentous time in Israel's history that God decreed that they would change their calendar from this point on and the Passover anniversary would the be first day of the new year. He did this because the Passover represented a new beginning, a fresh start, and a sure direction for the people of God. God was taking them to places that they had only dreamt about before! God had saved them from the slavery and death of Egypt!

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The death of Jesus Christ perfectly fulfilled all of the Passover feast. As John the Baptist said when he saw Him, Jesus was "the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world" (John 1:29). The Bible says that He was spotless and blemishless and was "tempted in all manner like as we are and yet without sin" (Hebrews 4:15). It was on the tenth day of the month of Nisan that Judas Iscariot slipped out of a meal in Bethany and secretly met with the Pharisees and High Priests and agreed to sell out Jesus for thirty pieces of silver. It was on the tenth day that Jesus was "appointed to die" and for the next four days, His every move would be watched closely until the High Priests found the perfect opportunity to kill Him. They could find no wrong, so they arrested Him at night and put Him through several illegal trials before finally coercing Pilate into wrongly sending Him to His death. After being beaten and having His blood poured out on the ground, we find that Jesus Christ was hung on a cruel cross and finally died on the evening of the fourteenth day, at the exact time when all of the rest of Israel was killing their "Passover lambs." Because of the "holiday," the Jewish people didn't want to leave His body for days on end and have to wake up in the morning and see His flesh there so they hurried to bury him before sundown and thus the ultimate Passover Lamb was not left until morning. In their haste to bury Him, they did not embalm Him as was normally custom but left His inner organs intact. Neither did the Roman soldiers break any of His bones because He was already dead when they came to Him and He was place in that tomb after having perfectly fulfilled the Passover Lamb partly.

I say fulfilled "partly" because the Lamb can only do so much, but the other things are dependent upon the people involved. The Lamb has been killed and He was spotless, but you and I must celebrate the Passover by doing our part. And we fulfill the rest of the ceremony, the first time when we repent of our sins, are baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, and are filled with the Holy Ghost. Repentance is important because that is how we willfully choose to remove the leaven (which represents our sin) from the temple of our body. Jesus has done the Lamb part, but we -- the owners of the house in which the Lamb is to be consumed -- must do our part. We must also be careful to apply the blood of the Lamb to our house. We do this by being baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of our sins. The Lamb has been slain, but His blood does no good unless it has been properly applied to the house from which all the leaven has been removed. You need to be baptized in the name of Jesus, but don't stop there, because you must do all of this with your bags packed and your walking shoes on, ready to head for the Promised Place that God has prepared for you. That Promised Place is the Holy Ghost! Peter was showing us how to do our part of the celebration of the Passover when he said:

Repentance, water baptism in Jesus' name, and receiving the Holy Ghost would be how we "save ourselves" from this sinful world! Why did Peter say "save yourselves?" Because the Passover Lamb had done all that He could do and the rest is up to us to participate and obey and receive! Jesus partly fulfilled the Passover feast, but the other parts are things that you and I -- whose bodies is the house where the Lamb wants to dwell -- must do! And when you do remove the leaven, apply the blood and move toward the Promised Place of God, then the death of God's judgment for sin will Pass Over you and you will be spared! Don't believe the lie that some preachers preach about not needing to repent, be baptized, or filled with the Holy Ghost to be saved because if the Jews had neglected any of these parts of their responsibility -- if they would have not got the leaven out of their house, or not applied the blood, or not been packed up and ready to move out of Egypt into the Promised Place -- then they would not have been spared! These things were to teach us about the importance of the work of Calvary and Jesus has done His part, now He's waiting for you to do your part! Just believing that the Lamb has been killed is not enough, you'd better make sure that you have fulfilled the commandments of God!

God has provided a way for you to "get out of Egypt!" You don't have to be enslaved to sin and this world but He has done His part and is waiting for you to do your part! You can experience the mercy of God and get out of living your life bound by the things of this world! God has provided a way out! But you must repent and get the leaven out, apply the blood by being baptized in His name, and be filled with that precious promise, the Holy Ghost!

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They would only come out of Egypt one time, but God made this commandment, found in Exodus to celebrate the Passover ceremony yearly:

And so this day, this night before the first day of the year, became a special feast and ceremony to the Jewish people. Every year they would take a Lamb and set him aside and then kill him on the evening of the fourteenth day, and make the supper with bitter herbs and they would eat the Lord's Passover. They would remove all yeast from their house, but they would NOT apply the blood of the Lamb to the doorposts every year, nor would they eat it every year with their bags packed expecting to move somewhere else because they would already be in the Promised Land where God had taken them. The blood application and the packing up ready to head out was only for the first time coming out of Egypt. But the removing of the leaven was to be forever a continual ceremony. They would also eat the meal, but in remembrance of what God had done.

Remembrance. This Passover meal was to be in remembrance of what God had done for them by getting them out of Egypt. They were to remember that they had left Egypt and that they were separated unto God and so the supper became a rededication of their lives to God and God desired that they continually remember what they had come out of, lest they return to what they were delivered of. It was a remembering with a purpose. A remembering to have a house cleaning and to move forward even further in God. A remembering to remember that they were taken out of Egypt to be separated and holy unto God. A remembering that they must guard against sin coming back into their daily lives lest they find themselves enslaved again.

And so it was in this setting of the Passover celebration that Jesus ate with His disciples on the eve of His death. They didn't really understand but Jesus was about to fulfill the Passover Lamb the next day. It would then be up to the disciples to do their part to escape the judgment of sin. But this meal, termed the Last Supper was the yearly celebration, and Jesus was about to change it's meaning slightly toward Him. They had the lamb and they had the unleavened bread and as a drink they had grape juice before them. And all the disciples were expecting a normal routine Passover supper as they had always experienced every year of their life. They expected the first drink and the first taste of bread and then for someone -- probably Jesus -- to fulfill the tradition of retelling the story of the Exodus of Egypt and how that we should remember that we are Jewish and how that we have been called out of Egypt to serve Jehovah. I want you to understand that it was a tradition that had become mindless ritual. They were expecting the same old, same old, same old. It was Passover, surely nothing would change this year.

And so they were shocked when instead of telling the same story and performing the same rituals of remembering leaving Egypt, Jesus -- this year -- took the unleavened bread and looked around at them and said:

Jesus took the bread of remembrance and gave it new meaning and new direction! He said it would represent His body that was to be broken and given for them. Then Jesus took the cup:

The cup would represent His blood! As the disciples sat there stunned, they realized that everything had just changed. Not only were they not hearing the same old ritual that had been around since Moses' times but Jesus had just given new meanings to the symbols of the meal. And as they ate the bread and drank the juice, they heard Jesus say "this do in remembrance of me." Not of Moses. Not of the Exodus any longer. Not of coming out of Egypt, but to do in remembrance of the work of Calvary. Same basic ceremony but a much more potent meaning!

And so I want you to understand clearly this: Communion is NOT a salvational process. You are not saved by taking communion. I don't care what the Catholic Church says. People took communion after they joined the church not TO join the church. You are saved by fulfilling your part of the Passover. By repenting and getting the leaven out. By applying the blood of the Lamb to your life through baptism in Jesus' name. By entering into the Promised Place of God in receiving the Holy Ghost. That's how you are delivered from this sinful world. But Jesus instituted communion as a continual "remembrance" to remind you of the work of Calvary and that He delivered you from your sinful past and out of this world to be a separated people and holy unto Him. It is to be a reminder that you are different and it is to be a check up to remind yourself of the slavery of sin lest you go back into sin and become enslaved again. You do not need to be rebaptized every year in Jesus name because the blood of Jesus has to be applied only once. You do not need to receive the Holy Ghost again every year because if you have received it, then you have received the promise. But communion DOES consist of getting the leaven out of our temples! Repentance is still involved. It's to be a house cleaning. We need to remember where doing things our own way got us and we need to search ourselves lest we have allowed through this year some willful sin and weights to slip in. Lest we have allowed ourselves, who were delivered from Egypt to long for or with for the things of Egypt again. Paul wrote to the church of Corinth in chapter 10 and told them:

Paul was saying that you can't dine in communion with Lord at the same time you are dining at the table of sin. To do so is to provoke the Lord and anger Him. Communion is to be a remembrance of how God delivered you from sin and a time to search and make sure all the leaven is out of your life as you begin this new year.

Turn back with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 11 and read Paul's teachings on Communion that we read as our text. The church in Corinth had turned it into a dinner and a fellowship gathering and they had missed the true purpose of the Lord's Supper. After Paul corrected that misconception, he wrote:

The key here is "in remembrance of me." But then Paul showed how to properly remember Jesus' death:

If you take communion "unworthily" then you are just as guilty as those who crucified the Lord! The word here is NOT "unworthy." None of us are "worthy" to partake of salvation or anything else related to Calvary. The word is "unworthily" which means "in the proper manner." Paul was saying that it was very important to take communion "the right way and with the right mindset." He goes on to tell us of the right mind set in the next verse:

The proper manner to take communion is to do so having "examined yourself." What is Paul talking about? We must repent. We must get the leaven out. We must look into our lives and ask God to remove anything that may have crept in that shouldn't be there. We must get out bitterness and unforgiveness. Get out worldliness and the lusts of the flesh. We must cleanse this temple of our body and examine ourselves before we take communion. And notice if people do not do so, then there are serious consequences because to eateth and drinketh unworthily is to bring "damnation" to yourself. Instead of communion being a blessing that it was intended to be, if you don't search yourself first and take it, you bring a curse and damnation to yourself. And then Paul made a startling statement:

Many people in Corinth were weak, sickly, and even dead because of taking communion unworthily and not searching themselves first. I don't know if Paul meant literally or spiritually, but I wonder how many people in the world who take communion regularly as a ritual and never give the first thought to trying to get things right with God or repenting of sin or changing sinful habits first are weak spiritually or even dead spiritually because of it?

And so Communion is a type of judgment. You are commanded to do it by Jesus Christ who commanded "do this." But you are also warned of the dangers of doing it unworthily without examining yourself. There is only one course to take then, if we do not do it, we have disobeyed Jesus' command. If we do it without repenting of sins and examining ourselves then we are taking a curse on our spiritual walk. But what of those who will examine themselves and then take it? It will be a new beginning! It will be a cleansing. It will bring blessings on you spiritually this year. A fresh anointing. A new start. If doing it the wrong way brought weakness and sickness and death spiritually, then doing it the right way will bring power and health and life spiritually! But we must examine ourselves and get the leaven out! We must ask God to search us and forgive us and recommit ourselves to Him!

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The last part of our service is much neglected by most Christians but was also commanded of Jesus Christ the same night that He instituted the Lord's Supper. Let's turn to John chapter 13 to see what Jesus did immediately after the Last Supper:

After He instituted the communion service, Jesus then did the most extraordinary act! He rose from the table grabbed a towel like a common servant and began to wash the disciples' feet. In those days, almost everyone had servants and they were not even citizens but were more like slaves. The God of the universe, robed in flesh, was washing the feet of His creation!

Peter was the one to speak up and realize how crazy it was that Jesus was washing his feet. But when told that if Jesus did not wash him, he had no part with Jesus, Peter responded wash me all over! This is a beautiful type of water baptism, but there is more here. Look at verse 11:

Judas Iscariot was probably still there! Even though He knew that Judas had already arranged for His betrayal, Jesus Christ got down and washed Judas' feet! He was instilling a principle that whoever would be great in the kingdom of God must have the attitude of a servant!

If Jesus Christ was willing to have the attitude of a servant, then so should we! If He was willing to serve others, then so should we! If He was willing to wash His disciples feet, then we ought to be willing to do likewise: both in the spiritual sense and in the physical!

I want you to realize that Jesus Christ willingly laid down His life and washed His disciples' feet not knowing whether or not if anyone would follow Him and love Him. He had no promise that you and I would receive His commandments and serve Him, and yet He willingly gave His life. He was the great shepherd and He said:

He did not wait until it was clear whether or not the sheep would give their lives but gave His life without any promise that anyone would follow! In verse 15 of our text, Jesus said that He was playing the role of a servant and washing their feet "as an example, that ye should do as I have done to you." We cannot have the attitude that "I will serve and help someone if I see that they are going to help me." We cannot have the attitude that "I will not love that brother because I know they will reject me." What they do has nothing to do with it. God did not wait until He knew who would reject Him or accept His work, before He died. He lovingly went to the cross, and became a servant without thought of reprisal. That is true love, when we are willing to become a servant to each other without thought of what we will gain in return.

When you wash someone else's feet, pray for them, submit yourself to the role of a servant concerned about their welfare. Allow the Holy Ghost to use you to bless the person in the Spirit. And do not lose the attitude of the servant after this night, but resolve this year that you will love people regardless of whether or not you will benefit from it.

If you will not participate and wash someone else's feet, then you are -- to put it bluntly -- saying that you are greater than Jesus Christ. If the Master became a servant even humbling Himself to wash Judas Iscariot's feet, then we should as well! It is humbling but is a tremendous reminder of our role in the kingdom of God. We are first and foremost commanded to be a servant to each other!