Series: “Traveling Light” (GALATIANS)

 Freedom’s Beginning

(A Communion Meditation)

Galatians 1:3-5

October 06, 2002

 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory for ever and ever.   

-Galatians 1:3-5

  “Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to rescue us…” In his letter to the Galatians, as we know well by know, Paul speaks about the free life in Christ that comes from believing in the gospel (cross and Spirit).  Paul wastes no time establishing the context, not only of his letter, but also, of the entire Christian life: Jesus gave himself for our sins to rescue us…according to God’s plan.  Jesus gave himself for our sins, to rescue us.  This is the cross, the first half of the gospel. This is freedom’s beginning.

 Freedom Costs: Jesus

   I recently saw a story on the CBC about a group of Canadian WW2 veterans who were part of the push to liberate Holland from the Nazis.  It was the 55^th anniversary of the battle that secured freedom for Holland . 

 One old vet was describing a particularly fierce day of fighting during which several hundred Canadians died.  The old vet said, “There was never any thought of retreat because the cause was too great.  Freedom was our goal, and freedom, we knew, was going to cost dearly…” His voice tailed off, tears rolled down his face.  Freedom costs.  Securing freedom involves sacrifice, loss, and often death.

 Fyodor Dostoevsky once wrote, “A new way of living is not given for nothing.  It has to be paid dearly for.” 

 There is no greater, startling, poignant example of freedom costing than what Jesus did on the cross.  Galatians 1:3-5 says, “Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age…”(Emphasis added) 

 We’ve been talking about freedom in Christ, true freedom.  We’ve been talking about the gospel, cross and Spirit.  The first part of the gospel is cross, that historical event where Jesus bought our freedom by sacrificing his own life in place of ours.

 Remembering Freedom’s Beginning: The Cross

 Illustration: Young Dutch people Acknowledging Vets

 “We never want to forget what these people did for us; we would be less alive if we allowed younger generations to forget.”  They were remembering where their freedom began.

 Jesus instituted Communion as an essential element of the life of faith.  The night before he died he gathered his closest friends, his disciples, together for one last meal.  We’ve come to know it as the last supper.  What he was doing, however, was setting up a practical method of remembering the cross.

 He said, “Whenever you eat this bread, remember that I sacrificed my body on the cross for you.  Remember that with my body I bought your freedom.  And whenever you drink the wine remember that I allowed my blood to be spilled for you to secure your freedom.  With my blood I bought your freedom.”  And ever since, Christians have observed communion—the Eucharist, or ‘The Lord’s Supper—as a remembrance of where their freedom began.  The cross. 

 Freedom Demands a Response: Step of Faith

 Illustration: People Cowering in Bombed out Town

 Allied soldiers liberated a French town then wandered the streets looking for survivors.  They threw open cellars to find locals cowering in fear.  For days these people had hid from the Germans unaware that freedom was being won.  It took some convincing for the people to believe that they could come out of their shelters.  They could have stayed there, unwilling to believe, too afraid to venture out.  In other words, they had to respond to freedom.

 Freedom demands a response.  The gospel demands a response. 

 Illustration: Remembering Titus

 Titus was a Greek.  When he was introduced to the gospel, he had to make a choice: believe or not.  Titus believed.  Titus understood the truth that one could not just give mental ascent to the message of the gospel. He understood that the gospel changed the very way life was lived.  The gospel was not just a spiritual reality, but also a physical one. 

 Remember what Titus did in Galatians?  Remember how he went with Paul and Barnabas to Jerusalem to fight for the gospel?  Later, Titus went on to work as a missionary and a pastor.  The Gospel had shaped his physical reality.

 The physical reality of the gospel is further emphasized here at the communion table—bread, wine, and the meal.  If the gospel was ever just to remain a mental, spiritual reality, I think Jesus would have taught his disciples, instead of the meal, to just think of me once in a while. 

 As it is, though, the gospel demands a physical response, and a physical reminder; hence, the communion meal.   

 Conditions of Communion: Forgiveness and Discipleship

 The communion meal, like the gospel, is open to all.  But there are a couple of conditions that need to be met before one can come. 

 The first condition is that you have no unconfessed sin, and are not currently harboring bitterness toward another person.  The Bible urges Christians to be forgiving and forgiven.  If you are in a position where you have something against a brother or sister, do not come to the table until it has been made right.  Go to that person and seek reconciliation, seek unity.  You may think, “They won’t accept, they’ll reject my offer of reconciliation.”  That may be true, but you need to do it anyway.  If you have done all you can to make right with someone, regardless of the outcome, and you have no outstanding bitterness towards another person, then come to the table.

 The second condition that that you have, like Titus, made the decision to follow Jesus.  You must have made a step of faith, like Titus, and believed in the gospel.

 At some point, Titus had to have prayed something like:

  “Jesus I don’t understand everything that you did for me, and I can’t get my head around the magnitude of the gospel.  I don’t have all of the answers, it’s not all sorted in my mind.  But I do know and believe a couple of things: I believe what I’ve been told about you—your dying on the cross for my sins, and how you want me to come to you and seek your forgiveness.  I know that I am a sinner and could really use your forgiveness.  I believe that you want to change me, change my life and change the way I live.  I believe that you want to set me free, so please accept me as your child.  Forgive me.  Would you be my savior?  Amen.” 

 That is how someone becomes a Christian.  That is how someone comes to be saved by Jesus.  That is how someone gains access to the communion meal.  If you have prayed that prayer, or something like that prayer, in your lifetime, you are invited to come to the table.

 Why these Conditions?

 a.  Purity and Unity

 The reason for these conditions is clear.  First of all, if you harbor bitterness and come to the table it’s like you dump garbage on the table.  This table is meant to be a place of purity and unity.  It is for God’s people to come together to remember where their freedom began, to remember the cross of Jesus, his sacrifice.  That is why Paul writes, in 1 Corinthians, “Whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord.  A (person) ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup”(1 Corinthians 11:27 -28, parenthesis added).

 b.  Not a Meaningless Exercise

 Secondly, if you haven’t made the decision to follow Jesus for your life, then this will be meaningless to you.  This table is to be anything but meaningless!  If you’ve never made the decision to follow Jesus and you come to this table, all this will be to you is a religious exercise, a robotic thing they do in church.  So please, for your sake and the sake of the church, don’t come to this table today unless you are a Christian, unless you have asked Jesus for forgiveness and accepted it.

 This is not a hollow, religious practice.  Remember how it began?  It began in a cramped room atop a house in Jerusalem .  It began with a group of friends facing the death of one of their own.  It began with Jesus aching because of what was to come, and being so passionate to ensure that he wouldn’t be forgotten.  It began with Jesus desire that his followers, then and now, always remember where their freedom was secured, and what he gave for that freedom.  At the table this morning, we find symbols of that freedom: bread for Jesus’ body, juice for his blood that bought our freedom.

 Now is your opportunity to make things right (confess, forgive, and seek forgiveness); now is your opportunity to Become a Follower of Jesus.

 Come, all who are forgiving and forgiven.  Come, all who are His.  Come to the table together, for here we recall the cross, the place where freedom began.  Amen.