Communion - Jesus dying for us is more than what we could imagine

 
By Hayley Boud

^“14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, ¹⁵ from whom ^[every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, ¹⁶ that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, ¹⁷ so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, ¹⁸ may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, ¹⁹ and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.  ²⁰ Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, ²¹ to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.” Ephesians 3:14-21

We are now about to take communion to remember all the Jesus has done for us.

(v14) “For this reason, I bow my knees”.  We are about to enter into the Holy of Holies, bow before the Father.  Let’s remember this morning, as we bow before Him, that we are only able to enter into that place and meet with God because Jesus died on the cross and tore the veil that separated us.

(v15) We will remember that we have been given God’s name.  We have been adopted into His family and we are God’s children.  All because of what Jesus did for us.

(v16-17) We have been given the inheritance of Christ and given all the strength and power and the Holy Spirit, we have Christ dwelling in our hearts, we have been given faith and we have been grounded in Christ’s love

(v18) so that we might have understanding with all the saints.  We can really praise God this morning because of this inheritance, because of the strength and power He has given us.  We will thank God this morning for His Holy Spirit dwelling in us, for Jesus Himself living in us and the faith and love He has provided us.  And we will praise Him because all of this enables us to have an understanding that others don’t have.  We are so blessed to know Jesus…

(v19) and to know His love.

(v20) “Now to Him who is able to do abundantly more than what we can ask or think or imagine”.  We could not have thought or imagined that God would leave heaven to come to earth as a man to die for us.  Only God can think of such a thing.  With our human minds, we could never have thought of that.  Even if we did think of it, we would never have asked God to die for us.

Imagine asking the Queen of England to die for me.  “Elizabeth, I’ve been sentenced to death.  Will you pay the price for me?  Will you please die instead of me?”  We wouldn’t ask the Queen of England such a favour.  A queen would never die for her people.  In fact, it is our duty to die for our queen.  Yet, God died for us.  It’s abundantly more than what we could ask for or think of. 

(v21) “to Him be the glory in the church”…in Little Bethlehem… “and in Christ Jesus to all generations”…in my generation, in mum’s generation, in Leah’s generation and in her children’s generation and in her grandchildren’s generation… “forever and ever, Amen”.

Let’s pray for the bread and juice.