Bill Johnson - The Reason Christ Came (A Time of Communion)
He became broken that we might become whole. He became empty that we might become full. He became despised so that we could be celebrated. He was rejected so we could be accepted. He became this so that we could live in this. This is what God intended for you and me. As a believer, I don’t come to this table of the Lord as a tradition where I need to just get another notch on my Bible, thinking I’ve accomplished something I’m supposed to do. For me, this is a living interaction between me and the Almighty God. It’s one of the most history-influencing activities of my life. It’s not done out of routine; it’s done with faith and obedience. I know as Protestants we’re not supposed to approach the body, the blood, and the bread this way, but when I hold the bread in my hand, I remind myself Jesus said, «This is my body.»
I don’t have to understand anything about it; all I need to do is acknowledge that I hold in my hand the broken body of Jesus. The broken body represents something to us that is extremely significant. Jesus was beaten with a whip. If you can imagine a whip with leather strands and with shards of glass and pieces of metal at the end, they beat Him with this whip until, history tells us, His internal organs were displayed. He was beyond recognition, and according to Isaiah 53, that payment He made was not so we would feel bad for Him looking back but so we would realize He purchased something in that moment. He actually bought your right to healing; He made a payment. «By His stripes, I was healed» is the Scripture. Two thousand years ago, a payment was made for our healing, and the only thing greater than divine healing is divine health.
I believe that the Lord is going to give us insight. I don’t have it right now; I just have the ache in my heart. I can tell when God’s doing something because my heart usually aches for it first. There’s this ache in my heart that tells me there’s a reality I’ve not yet tasted that He has made available, and I don’t know how to get there except to come before Him repeatedly in obedience and surrender, making my petitions known. And that issue is divine health. I believe that if Israel in the wilderness, in rebellion against God and not even born again, could experience divine health, then how much more should those who are under a superior covenant taste superior blessings! What I don’t want us to ever do is create a theology for a problem we face; we should only hold to the theology of the solution. We only hold to the theology that says this is what Jesus has accomplished, that this, which I’m facing, would yield and be broken for the glory of God.
You hold in your hands the testimony of a broken body. I want you to stand. There may be some in the back who don’t yet have the bread, but I want you to stand and hold your bread out in front of you. There are several things that I do which I’m going to ask you to do with me. Let’s put everything else aside, all other activities, for this one moment. I want us to come before the Lord with the broken body of Jesus. What I like to do—I did it this morning; I didn’t realize we were having communion today so I brought my own communion stuff to the office. I come down here early and just pray to get ready for the day, and I was walking through the sanctuary. I did this again; I held the bread, the body, before the Lord and began to pray and make confessions and declarations.
By the stripes of Jesus, Mary is healed; cancer is never to return to her body again. By the stripes of Jesus, Parkinson’s is gone from Kathy; Parkinson’s has been defeated in Allen. I just make these declarations. They’re not ritual or routine. Life and death are in the power of the tongue, and all I want is my tongue to agree with what God has accomplished and with what God is saying. So I’m going to ask you to do that. I’m going to ask you to take just a moment to hold the bread before the Lord and declare the healing grace of Jesus over your own body, over your family, over any family member or friend you know who’s battling a disease. Bring their name before the Lord and declare over them, «By His stripes, you were healed.»
Let’s do that. Take just a moment for that. Do that even at home, those of you who are watching. By the stripes of Jesus, I was made whole. By the stripes of Jesus, I was healed. By the stripes of Jesus, Mark Cooper was healed; cancer is never to return to that body. By the stripes of Jesus, even in this room, brain disorders are to be healed. This is spirit, soul, and body—every area of life healed. There’s not one thing He left out. We declare that healing grace now. Hold that bread in front of you again. When you’re on your own, obviously you can pray for everybody you can think of, but we do have a time limit this morning, so hold that bread in front of me. Here’s another thing that the broken body of Jesus did.
In Ephesians 2, it says Jesus bore on His body the dividing wall. Now think about it: the greatest divide ever to exist, between Jew and Gentile, the blessed and the cursed. Jesus took on His own body the dividing wall. What does that mean? It means that this bread, this brokenness that you hold in your hand, He became broken that we might become whole. He became empty that we might become full. He became despised so that we could be celebrated. He was rejected so we could be accepted. He became this so that we could live in this. This is what God intended for you and me. Any situation where you know there’s division, it could be between you and a family member, or a racial conflict in your workplace or city or nation, doesn’t matter what it is.
I want you to hold this before the Lord, and I want you to make the confession: «This is more than enough to fix this divide. This is more than enough. The payment You made is more than adequate to make it possible for unity to exist between this church and that church, this race and that race, this family and that family.» Lord God, we give You thanks for the power of healing and the power of unity, all that was released through the broken body of Jesus. Receive that now. Let’s partake together. Now we give You thanks, Lord. We give You thanks.
Hold the cup before the Lord. When I bring the cup before the Lord, Jesus said that this is His blood. There are two confessions I like to make, proclamations I like to make when I partake of communion, of the blood. The first is, «The blood of Jesus sets me free.» Say that with me: «The blood of Jesus sets me free.» Say it again: «The blood of Jesus sets me free.» One more time: «The blood of Jesus sets me free.» The other thing I like to proclaim as I pray for every member of my family is: «As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.» Say it together: «As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.» Then I pray for members of my family. Do that now; take just maybe 60 seconds for that. Just declare, if you have loved ones who aren’t walking with the Lord, just call them in. We just say, «Every single one has a place in Christ. We call them home in Jesus' name.»
The blood of Jesus sets free. The blood of Jesus sets free every single family member. The blood of Jesus sets free. Thank You, thank You, thank You, God! I love praying for my family so much. I love what I do as I pray for my kids, my grandkids, as I’ve done for goodness knows how long—42 years. Eric is 42 years old, so I’ve been doing it for 42 years. In fact, I did it before he was born. I pray, «God, Jeremiah 24, God, give them a heart to know You. Let them hear Your voice. Woo them with Your voice. Let them know Your ways.» God, let them know Your ways! Pray that for your family: «God, give them a heart to know You. Let them know Your ways. God, draw them near to You.»
Next to praying for my family, probably my most favorite part is when I pray for those who, for whatever reason, have chosen to oppose me or criticize me. Their work in the gospel seems to take away from whatever God is doing here. The Bible makes it clear you never have the right to criticize a servant before their master, so I have no voice before the Lord. I don’t want to anyway. But I find joy in praying for God to abundantly bless them in every possible way. I love to pray that God would prosper them—spirit, soul, and body—that their health would be good, that they would never need anything financially, that God would surround them with favor, that every opportunity for their gift would be provided for them, that they would become all that God has meant for them to become. I love to pray that when I’m holding the cup of the blood; because the blood is what covers me and covers them. It’s the blood that wipes out the power of sin.
And I love to pray! My favorite thing, I guess, maybe, is that I pray God would give their children and grandchildren the joy of having children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren that serve God with a whole heart, absolute passion, absolute purity of heart—that they would know the joy of multiple generations serving Jesus. Some of you are in conflict right now; you may be doing well, but it’s just the pain of conflict. I want you to pray a blessing on that person. If the person you need to forgive is already dead, don’t pray for them; we don’t pray for the dead. But honestly, pray for their family members, their descendants. Pray that the Lord would so richly touch that household, that family that remains from that person who caused you such pain. Be a redemptive person, not just a reactor—be a redemptive person.
So let’s hold this cup before the Lord and pray this one thing: if you have anyone you need to forgive, just do it right now. I declare forgiveness for that person—mention their name and pray for the Lord to so prosper these people. I think the problem with the ones that I know of is they’re doing all that they know to do with what they have; I can’t judge them by my experience. So I bless them. I ask for the rich reward of God on their lives. I release them from my judgment, the file of information I’ve collected that proves me right and them wrong. I throw it on the fire right now and declare that the wonderful grace of Jesus covers us both. Amen to that! Let’s receive this together as a testimony of our own forgiveness. Thank You, Jesus! Thank You, thank You, Lord! Wow!