TD Jakes - Communion Service
On one end of the story, we see fear, we see anxiety, we see pressure, we see humanity, which is very important for you and I. Because we don't need a God who cannot be touched by the feeling of our infirmity, and we don't need a God who doesn't understand human feelings. We need a God who is kinsmen redeemer, who is kin to me. So Jesus is not the good man, he is the God man. What do you mean by the God man? He is all the way God of gods, but he is all the way man at the same time. In order to redeem us, in order to be our kinsman redeemer, in order to be the Lamb of God he does not come as the lion of the tribe of Judah, he comes as the Lamb of God to offer himself as a sacrifice.
That's what makes the sacrifice so profound, is that he doesn't do it in his divinity, he does it in his humanity. He does it in our stead, he becomes a substitute lamb, he becomes a substitute, he becomes the second man Adam, he comes as a man before us. The Bible says, "There's one mediator between God and man, and that is the man, Christ Jesus". So when we understand that, that's important, that he didn't go to the cross in the full vesture of his godliness, he did not go to the cross in his divinity, he went to the cross in his humanity; divinity cannot be nailed, divinity cannot be killed, divinity cannot die. He went to the cross as a man, went to the cross and died for us, and that makes the sacrifice so much more profound because he doesn't come to the cross in all of his glory.
In fact, he has prayed, "Father, glorify me with the glory that I had with you before the foundations of the world". So when we see Jesus on the cross, he is not just stripped of his clothing, he is stripped of that glory that he had with the Father before the foundations of the world. He has sacrificed that glory, he has sacrificed the advantages of being omnipresent, he has sacrificed the advantages of being omniscient. I will prove that to you. The Bible says, The disciples asked him, "When will be the sign of thy coming, and when will be the end of the age"? He said it is not given unto you to know that, nor the Son, but the Father which is in heaven. So he's given up his omniscience in order to come down to his lowest common denominator to be like us.
So when we could not be like him, then he comes down and becomes like us, that through him becoming like us we might become like him. Are you following what I'm saying? So when you look at the extremities between the Garden of Gethsemane and the atrocities of Calvary, you begin to understand the magnitude of the sacrifice that was made that we might be redeemed from the curse of the law, and from sin and death, and that we might have righteousness with God. When we come to the table to break bread, we come to the table recognizing that the bread epitomizes his humanity. That he gets his bread from his mother, his humanity from Mary; he gets his divinity from his Father, that no man had known the virgin, but the Bible said, that the Holy Spirit had came upon him. So he carries divine blood, not tainted blood, not sin-filled blood.
His blood is a derivative of his Father, his flesh from his mother, and at the table they both come together, the flesh through the bread and the divinity through the blood. They both come together at the table that we might have the full picture and spectrum. He could not redeem us with sin-filled blood, he had to be a holy, efficacious sacrifice for the sins of man. And so, as you and I live out our lives every day, we live out our lives in like manner. There's a part of us that is divine but there's a part of us that's very human, there's a part of us that has faith and there's a part of us that has fear.
Now there's a part of us that says, "Everything is gonna be all right," and there's a part of us that can't sleep at night. And there's a part of that says, "I know God's got me covered," and there's a part of us that's getting indigestion and has rashes and has anxiety and has pressure and snaps at people and flips out on people, because we are this collaborative influence of two things happening at the same time. All that comes to the table. And I want to read a passage of Scripture as we prepare to take communion, because I don't want to talk to who you pretend to be, I don't even want to talk to who you've been taught to be, I want to talk to who you are. And I want to talk to you in the stripes of understanding that communion connects us, it is through communion that we connect with God, that we connect with one another, that we connect humanity with divinity, that we become one with the body of Christ, that we become an expression of Christ in the earth.
And as it sets it up, I'm reading from the Gospel of Saint Luke, and I'm reading the 22nd chapter, and I'm going to jump in at about the 10th verse, and I want you to follow along with me. I'm reading out of King James version, but I want you to follow along with me as I point out a few things before we enjoy the Lord's supper. "And he said unto them, 'Behold, when ye are entered into the city, there shall be a man meet you, bearing a pitcher of water; follow him into the house where he enters in.'" Isn't it funny that the first, what is really called Passover, we later, in Corinthians, call communion, that it happens in the house, not in the synagogue, not in the church, not in the sanctuary?
And so it's not really odd to God. It might be odd to you but it's not really odd to God that we are having, partaking of the Lord's Supper in a house, that's what he did too. "And ye shall say unto the goodman of the house, 'The Master saith unto thee, "Where is the guest chamber, where I shall eat the Passover with my disciples"?' And he shall shew you a large upper room furnished: there make ready. And they went," up in the house, "And found as he had said unto them: and they make ready the Passover. And when the hour was come, he sat down, and the 12 apostles with him". "When the hour was come, he sat down, and the 12 apostles with him. And he said unto them, 'With desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer: For I say unto you, "I will not anymore eat thereof, until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God.'" And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, 'Take this, and divide it amongst yourselves.'"
And I just want to pause right there, "Take this," take this that I've handed you, "And divide it amongst yourselves". I want to point to just a little something there. I want to clear up something for you right now. None of us have everything but all of us have something; it is divided amongst ourselves. We represent the body of Christ when we come together, but it is divided amongst ourselves. Away with the notion that one person has the fullness of God, the full expression, the full revelation, the full vesture of his gift, the full vesture of his power and authority. No, he divided it among yourselves. "'For I say unto you, I should not drink of the fruit of the vine, until the kingdom of God shall come.' And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave it unto them, saying, 'This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me.'"
This is my body which is given for you. So you have the physical body of Christ handing them the bread, the memorial body of Christ, saying, "This is my body". Can you imagine being in the upper room and trying to understand that he's handing you bread, the normal elements that you use in the Passover, but he is changing the meaning? Because historically, the Passover referred to the lamb and the blood of the lamb that was applied to the doorpost. This is the first time that Jesus has changed the inference of what the elements mean, and they change at the power of his word.
Every Orthodox Jew, then and now, when they celebrate the Passover, is reminiscent of the Passover lamb who gave himself a sacrifice so that when the plague that was passing over, it would passover and not stop by the house because of the efficacious power of the blood that was applied to the exterior of the doorpost. It was a sign, not that they were exempted from judgment, but the blood on the doorpost meant that blood being out there means death had already been applied here, and the death angel leaped over that house because that blood was a sign that the price was paid. We are not here because we're perfect or because we're good or because we're righteous or because we're wonderful, or because we don't deserve to die. We are here because Christ died in our stead, and the blood being applied to the doorpost is a sign to the death angel that death has already been executed over this house, and there's no need to judge a man twice for the same crime.
He so freed you and so liberated you, that's why I don't understand why you can walk around in guilt. He so freed you, by paying the price for your sin, that you are exonerated, not because of innocence, not because he has broken his own law, but because the blood is applied as a sign to the death angel, "You need not come in here". The blood is a sign that death has already operated in this house.
I remember when I was down in New Orleans and we were going from house to house trying to find bodies of the remains of people after Katrina had come through. And the way that we marked the house was to put a sign on the house, and if a sign was on the outside of the house it meant that the house had already been searched, and so we didn't have to re-search that house because of the sign that was on the outside. That's what the blood represents to death, that, "This house has already been dealt with, this house has already been covered," and that's what we're about to celebrate tonight, that's shouting stuff to me. That's praising stuff to me, that's the kinda stuff that we ought to know as Christians. It is not enough that we do what Christians do if we don't understand what Christians understand. I'm getting happy myself. I hope you're getting something out of this.
We need to understand that we have a contract with God, and we're about to partake of that contract. It's not so much that we're getting ready to partake of grape juice or wine or bread, as it were, we're getting ready to drink the contract that we have with God, a contract in the midst of a plague. It started in a plague, it started in a fearful atmosphere, it started in chaos. In the life of Christ, it is happening at a time that Christ is about to be apprehended, betrayed by Judas, sold for 30 pieces of silver, beaten by the Roman soldiers, brought before the Sanhedrin court; that he's facing all this turmoil. And so for everyone that's watching me right now who's facing turmoil inwardly or outwardly, financially or emotionally, spiritually or domestically, this is a great time for you to take communion with me today, because we are fulfilling what the Apostle Paul said, "Oh, that I may know him, in the fellowship of his suffering... in the power of his resurrection".
You can't just always know him in the power of his resurrection and not know him and the fellowship of his suffering. It can't always be cake and ice cream, it can't always be that we teach about a God who's Santa Claus. The emblem of the cross is a clear indication that faith also leads you into suffering. It leads you into the wilderness to be tempted, it leads you into barrenness and loneliness and rejection and pain, but it won't get you into anything that it won't get you out of. Glory to God. He's Alpha and Omega, he's the first and the last, he's the beginning and the end. God don't start a fight he can't finish. And when we speak to this, this is the first time in our generation, our generation, whether you're a boomer or a millennial or a Gen-X or whatever you call yourself, Gen-Y, this is the first time in all of our generations that we have lived through a plague that has landed on our shores and done the kind of damage that it's done. America is in shock.
Some of the other parts of the world are not quite as shock because they have had plagues before, but this is the first time that we have seen this type of virus do this kind of damage. And thousands and thousands of people are dead, morgues are overfilled, funeral homes are crying out for help, bodies are shut up in 18-wheelers, in freezers hung up like meat because we're running out of room for the dead. That's something to notice, that's something to shake people, that's something to stir people up, but I believe that God is trying to get our attention. I believe that God is calling us to repentance. I believe that God is trying to make us understand, to come out of our silos, and our arguments, and our fights, and our Democrats and Republicans, and blacks and whites and browns, and all the fighting that we normally do, and recognize that we have a common enemy to fight.
If we have a common enemy to fight, we have a common God to protect us. If we have a common question, we have a common answer. There's one answer, and the answer is Jesus. And as we prepare to partake of the Lord's Supper tonight, I want you to feel faith stand up in your soul, I want you to feel faith quicken in your spirit, I want you to feel faith rising up out of your belly. I want the weak to say, "I'm strong," I want the poor say, "I'm rich". I want the one who's been spineless to grow a backbone right at this moment, as the power of God arrests that fear in your life, arrests that anxiety, arrests that uncertainty. I speak to you in the name of Jesus. I have a contract, I'm covered by the blood, I'm good for this. While they're looking for a cure, I'm going to wave the blood in the face of the devil and say, "Not my house, the blood is covering my house tonight".
I want my wife to come. We're getting ready to partake of the Lord's Supper as a family, from our family to your family. I didn't want her to have to stand all while I was teaching. But we're getting ready to take advantage of this opportunity and getting ready to be a partaker of the Lord's Supper. Thank you, Honey. We're coming into an agreement. Jesus said, "Go until you see a boy carrying a pitcher of water," and when I pour this water, I pour this water, I pour it because I understand that I am not worthy. "In my flesh dwelleth no good thing," I mean, nothing. Nothing, it's just filth. It's just made out of dirt, it came up out of the ground so I'm not worthy to administer the Lord's Supper or to touch his body.
And like Pilate, I stick my hands in water, as my wife joins me, and we wash our hands with water, cleansing away and acknowledging that we are cleansed by the washing of the water by the Word, that my life is covered through the Word of God. That through the Word of God, I have no other righteousness to profess. I confess my sins by the washing my hands. You know, as we deal with COVID-19, the one thing that everybody keeps telling you is keep washing your hands. Glory to God. They're talking about keeping away the virus but we've been washing our hands for a long time, through the virus of sin that has touched all of humanity. Wherever you're watching me from, there is no corner of the world there is no island, there is no tribe, there is no language, there's no culture of people that doesn't have the virus of sin on their hands.
What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of the lamb. Tonight, as we are gathered in our homes, this might be the most sacred and the most holy, and perhaps, the most biblical communion that we've ever had. Tonight is not just my wife and myself standing here, but our pastors are joining us in their homes because they want their homes to be covered by the blood. They want their union to be covered by the blood, they want their spouses to be covered by the blood, they want their children to be covered by the blood. And we are partakers together of these elements because we know how desperately this is needed. I wanna acknowledge Pastor Valerie, because she got on the phone and called me. She had such a passion about us serving this communion that we had to work and work until we got it done. And I believe that God is gonna do something tonight that's going to be life-changing. Are you ready for this?
The freedom that we have is not just given to us because we live on the right side of the tracks or we have the right color skin or we had the right parents or we grew up in the right neighborhood. No, there was a price that was paid for you to have spiritual freedom. And so the Bible says, Isaiah teaches us the price that was paid. Isaiah teaches us that he was wounded for our transgressions, and then he was bruised for our iniquities, that the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. We're going to pray as we break this bread together.
Father, in the name of Jesus, join me in prayer, Honey. As we join together in prayer, and we lay hands and we break this bread, we understand that freedom always costs something, freedom always has a bill to it. Freedom always has a price to be paid, a life to be given, somebody who goes first, somebody who's misunderstood, somebody who's willing to be called a radical and a misfit, and break the normality of society. And we thank you for the price that you paid, oh, hallelujah, we thank you for the things that you suffered. Our minds are too finite to understand what you really suffered. Our vocabulary is too limited, our mouths are too small to recognize what all you went through, not just in your flesh, but in your Spirit, in order to take our place on the cross.
And as I break this bread, I know it should've been me hanging on the tree, hallelujah. I understand that I'm guilty enough to have been the one hanging from the tree, but you took my place, and I gotta be thankful. Hallelujah, you took my place, and I got to praise you. It has nothing to do with my personality, my culture, my background. My praise has nothing to do with anything I do, I gotta praise you because if you hadn't hung there, I would have had to hang there. You took my place, you are my inoculation, you are my cure, you are my redemption, and I bless this bread tonight in the name of Jesus.
And as I break this bread, I know it should've been me hanging on the tree, hallelujah. I understand that I'm guilty enough to have been the one hanging from the tree, but you took my place, and I gotta be thankful. Hallelujah, you took my place, and I got to praise you. It has nothing to do with my personality, my culture, my background. My praise has nothing to do with anything I do, I gotta praise you because if you hadn't hung there, I would have had to hang there. You took my place, you are my inoculation, you are my cure, you are my redemption, and I bless this bread tonight in the name of Jesus.
Now, listen, whatever bread you've got, whatever element you're getting ready to partake of, whatever you set aside for this moment, we're going to do this together and we're going to partake of the bread together. And I'm going to serve you because marriage is about serving one another, it's not about abusing one another, it's not about mistreating one another, it's not about fixing one another, it's not about straightening one another out. Marriage itself is about serving one another, and so we're going to break this bread and we're going to eat it together, and we're gonna understand that suffering is not foreign to our faith. Our faith was built for suffering, we shall survive suffering. We may cry, we may get emotional, we may have dark days, we may feel low some days. But in spite of all of that, that does not take away from the fact that he was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities, and we're gonna break this bread together, and I want to invite you to join us, and we all shall eat together.
Thank you pastors, let's all eat together. My God, my God, I love you. My God. And the Bible said, "After the same manner". After the same manner he took the cup and when he lifted it up, he gave thanks. We have this cup here, and I don't know that I've ever heard, or served, rather, a more meaningful communion than this. When Jesus did it, he called it the Passover, I've never served a greater Passover moment than this. And I say that because I have never served communion in the middle of a plague.
Think about that. In the middle of dead bodies everywhere, in the middle of people on respirators in hospitals all around this country, in the middle of people walking up and down the street with masks on. Everywhere, in the middle of people being shut in their houses for weeks and weeks. In all of my life, in all of my ministry, in all of the 40-some years that I've been preaching the Gospel. I've taught about it, I've read about it, I've studied about it, this is the first time I've ever lived through it. So when I take this cup and we prepare to lift it up, when we lift this cup up and we pray over it, let me pray over it first. Honey, why don't you pray over it.
Father, we're so grateful tonight, we stand in awe of your amazing grace, and we thank you, God, for mercy tonight. Thank you for your shed blood, thank you for it being applied to our lives. All around the world, God, you plead the blood, the blood, the blood. Wash us with your blood, keep us by your blood, and we worship you for your blood, Jesus. Thank you, Lord.
Thank you, Lord. In Jesus's name. It is my custom that before we drink of the cup that we lift it up, and we lift it up as a sign to the enemy that the death angel has already passed over this house. We lift it above how we think, we lift it above our head, we lift it above our emotions, we lift it above what we read, we lift it above what we saw on TV, we lift it above our deepest and darkest fears. The blood is against you, Satan. Hallelujah. The blood is against you, Satan. The blood is against you. Back up devil, the blood is against you. The blood is against you, the blood is against you touching my child, the blood is against you touching my sons, the blood is against you touching my daughters, the blood is against you touching my grandchildren. I lift up the blood against you right now, in the name of Jesus.
Over every hospital, over every respirator, over every grieving family, I still lift the blood, the blood, the blood, in the name of Jesus. What you're about to drink is the New Testament, it's in the blood, the new covenant is in the blood, the new promise is in the blood. Let's show the devil we've got a covenant with God. Let us all drink together. Jesus said, "As often as you do this you do show forth the Lord's death; you do this in remembrance of me".