Preached at Markham Baptist Church, March 2, 2003

For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body that is for£ you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. (1 Corinthians 11:23-26) (NRSV)

In the movie "City Slickers" Billy Crystal plays a 39-year old who is experiencing all the doubts and questions that mid life brings. In order to find some answers he and his friends decide to escape reality and go on a fantasy vacation where they can play cowboy on a real life cattle drive.

The cattle drive is led by a strong and at times menacing character by the name of Curly. Strangely, it is this menacing character that has the key speech in the film. He says to Billy Crystal rather gruffly, "Do you know what the secret of life is?" Billy Crystal replies, "No, What?”, and Curly settles into his horse, holds up his finger and says, "one thing."

Crystal holds up his finger, he looks at it strangely, "one thing?" "Yup," says Curly - "just one thing - you stick to that and everything else doesn't mean anything." Just one thing.

While I don't' agree with the film's morality I do agree with its theology. One thing - you stick to that - and it is at this table that we are reminded what that one thing is.

"For as you eat this bread and drink this cup you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes." /That's why the celebration of the Lord's supper is so important. That's why Christians have practiced it for the past 2000 years. Because it proclaims the one thing, the central message of the Lord's death upon the cross.

And the immediate question is why? Why is it the one thing, why is the death of Christ the center of our faith, why is it the core of our proclamation? Why proclaim the death of Christ? Certainly it is not very attractive for most of the world. Indeed at the beginning of this letter to the Corinthians Paul admits that the cross of Christ is a stumbling block to the Jews and a laughing stock to the Gentiles. He writes, "Jews demand miraculous signs, and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles."

Why is the cross of Christ the center of our proclamation and faith? Why didn't Jesus give us a ceremony to commemorate His birth? The wonder and miracle of the incarnation - angels sang of it, wise men from the east came to witness it, and the very heavens rang with the sound of "glory to God in the highest." But we have no ceremony to celebrate the birth of Christ.

What about His life? Was there a more compassionate, joyful, blameless life lived? But we have no ceremony to celebrate the life of Christ. No, For as you eat this bread and drink this cup you proclaim the Lord's death." One thing.

Above all these there is one thing, one event that is central, at the heart of the Christian faith and proclamation. Paul said, "May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." (Galatians 6:14).

Let me suggest to you three reasons and may we all, with the help of the Holy Spirit celebrate the glory in that one thing.

Why is the cross the center of our faith and message? First because it is an awesome fact. Take note of our short text this morning; notice the words, "for as you eat this bread and drink this cup you proclaim the LORD'S death."

Let us take in the fact that Jesus is not some ordinary human being. Let's escape any kind of small thinking about Jesus Christ. In Revelation 19:16 He is called the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. In Colossians 1:16,17 we read that "by Him all thing were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together." He is the one who is supreme in all creation and eternity. The one who commands all the forces of heaven, the all-powerful one,

And in Philippians chapter 2 He is the one before whom every knee shall bow.

And He died. Our Lord Jesus Christ really did die upon a cross, the death of a criminal. He was literally put to death upon a tree.

But if this is not awesome enough, Scripture tells us that Jesus Christ is the exact representation of God Himself, the outshining of God, enabling us to see the light of God without being overwhelmed by the light (Hebrews 1:3). "God of God, light of light, very God of very God." As one of the ancient creeds goes.

So we must understand, as mysterious as it is, that it is God who died upon that cross. It is God who left all the beauties of heaven, all the glories of heaven, the very peace and joy of heaven to come to earth and die upon a criminal's cross.

It is the Lord who died to save men and women. My favorite hymn puts it in the from of question - "And can it be that thou my God should die for me?" An awesome fact.

One thing, you proclaim the Lord's death.

But not only is it an awesome fact, it is a marvelous truth. Do you know some truths aren't marvelous? Some truth is hard and difficult. It is a truth death will overtake us all one day. It is a truth that nothing can shield us from encountering difficult times in life. Those are not marvelous truths. Some truths about our world and about ourselves aren't all that marvelous.

But here is a marvelous truth. The truth about our Lord's death. It is that there was a purpose to our Lord's death. Jesus died for us. He died for us because we are in deep trouble. And God's word is always trying to warn us about the trouble we are in. It uses all sorts of words to describe our predicament - In Romans 5 verses 6,7 and 8 alone we discover there, we are described as powerless, ungodly, enemies of God and sinners. We are in deep trouble.

If you haven't seen it before, oh that you would see it now and recognize the predicament we are in. You see we are powerless; that is we are powerless against the pull and strain of sin. It's not that we want to be mean or selfish or wicked. But we find we can't help it. We are powerless to do good, and we lack moral strength to fulfill what we intend.

We are ungodly - that is we oppose God and do not want Him to rule in our lives.

Not only are we powerless, and ungodly but we are enemies of God. That is we resent His desire to rule our lives, we don't want Him to sit in the control both of our hearts and we will do anything to rip Him off his place of authority and place ourselves there instead.

On top of all that, we are sinners that is, we have fallen short of the God's standards.

This is a bleak picture of you and me. But this is not the good news. This is simply the backdrop to the marvelous truth of our Lord's death. You see while we may be powerless, we may be ungodly, we may be enemies of God and sinners, we are loved by God. And He did not want to leave us powerless, or ungodly or sinners, but He wanted to change all that - So God demonstrates His own love for us in this: while we were still sinners Christ died for us.

There was a man who was walking along the road with his son and they stepped on an anthill. The man wanted to teach his son about Jesus so he said to him, "Son what do you think of that? Isn't it awful that we killed a lot of ants and wounded so many others? Look at them scurrying around trying the rebuild their homes."

The boy looked at his dad and said, "What do you think we should do?"

"I don't think there's anything that we can do. We're to big and they're too little. They wouldn't understand what we were trying to do.

And when you think about it that's exactly what God said when He looked down from heaven. He saw us on this little speck of earth, little ants crawling around, and sin had come in and destroyed them. And God wanted to come in and do something about it. But how could He - He is so great He fills the universe - how could He come and help us little ants?

Do you know what God did? He decided to become a man. And that's who Jesus Christ is - God become a man to share our problems. He was a sinless man and so when He went upon the cross He was the perfect sacrifice for our sins. He was nailed up on a cross between two thieves and in that moment God took your sins, your judgment, your death your hell and laid them on Christ.

He loved you and me so much that He went to the cross and stayed there until it was finished. And three days latter He rose from the dead and lives today to give you life.

You and I are complete absolved by the death of our Lord. This is worthy proclaiming we are guilt-free - completely justified before our Lord.

And that is a marvelous truth, one thing.

Not only is the Lord's death an awesome fact, not only is it a marvelous truth. It is thirdly a door of hope for our past, present and future

Now listen very closely - the Lord's death is the one thing that matters because it is the one thing that gives us peace with God. At one time we were enemies but now we are at peace with God. At one time we were at war with God but now a truce has been signed in the blood of Christ and we are now at peace with God through faith in Him. We do not fear the judgment day because the only person how could judge us is the one who died for us.

It is our door of hope - for our present life. When we say to God, I'm sorry for the way I have lived and I ask you to forgive me and to lead me for the rest of my life - we are given new life - He comes and lives within us and it is like being born all over again and we have a newness, a vitality within us that we never knew before.

It is difficult to express because it is like an inexhaustible banquet or a spring of water or an overflowing cup. A number of years a fan of Wimbledon tennis would watch the tennis greats on her black-and-white television set. And then one day when she was visiting London she said, "I really will go and see it for myself." And when she came back she said to her friends. "You know the thing I couldn't get over was that it was in colour!"

I think the Christian life is like that. It is the same life, but it moves from black-and-white to colour. It is a new dimension with the Lord. It transforms life.

And it is a door of hope for the future. The work of Christ has given us a glorious hope, for Jesus did not stay on the cross but on the third day rose again and now because sin is taken away, death is defeated for us. Every time I conduct a funeral of a believing Christian the triumph of the cross and resurrection overwhelms me. The sting of death is removed, we are saved forever, the Lord receives us to Himself. The life ahead will be in the presence of the Lord with all who love Him.

So the cross of Christ. It is the one thing an awesome fact, a marvelous truth, a door of hope.

There is only this left to ask and that is, "How will we respond?"

If you are responding for the first time may it be that you respond in giving your life to God, saying, "Lord I am sorry for my sin and I thank you for Jesus Christ's death on the cross. Come and be the Lord of my life." Then seek to live for Him.

If you are responding for the second time or more, may your response be one of awe, may it be a response of reverence, and thanksgiving.

But above all we respond with a renewed sense of dependency upon our Lord who has done everything necessary for us and renewed sense of commitment to proclaim the one thing, the one thing that matters. The Lord's death until He comes