Jesus, Our Peace

How many of you know there’s no better place to be than in the house of the Lord? Amen.

All right. If you have your Bibles, turn with me to Leviticus chapter 3. And everybody’s like, “Ooh, Leviticus.” I had mentioned a couple weeks ago that we like to read our Bibles every day, and something that we do is we have a daily reading plan where we read a little bit of the Old Testament and a little bit of the New Testament every day. We’ve made our way — we’re now in Deuteronomy. But I had mentioned that we were in Leviticus, and there were some things that were really jumping out to me. I feel like this is kind of the next arc of this series that we’ve been in called the Names of God. I’m going to spend the next several weeks talking about the sacraments and the things that the Lord has given us, and how He fulfills them. Because how many of you know those are really gifts from God for us to remember and to partake of Him, to be one with Him?

My hope is that as we’re talking, this is more than just a study, more than just a teaching, but that you would hear the Lord and the heart of the Lord this morning. So can we do this? Let’s stand together real quick, and we’re just going to lift our hands to the Lord this morning. You can keep your Bibles open and just put those on the pews. Let’s lift our hands to the Lord and just begin to welcome Him.

Say: Lord Jesus, I welcome you, Lord. I prepare my heart, Lord, to receive from your Spirit. Lord, we ask that you would fill us. You are the one that teaches us. You are the one that fills us, Lord, with everything that we need. Lord, you and you alone are what satisfies. Lord, we don’t want just physical food. We want that bread from heaven, Lord — that fresh filling of your Spirit today. We ask that you would teach us, Lord, and speak to us by your Spirit. In Jesus’ name. Say amen.

Amen. You can be seated.

How do I approach God?

As we were going through our daily reading, we came into Leviticus. And when we think of Leviticus, we see all these ancient biblical rituals of how people would make sacrifice to the Lord for the covering of their sins and all these things. But really, what this is, is a heart and an invitation that we see from the Lord from the very beginning about how we as people can actually approach the Lord Himself.

I think sometimes we get overwhelmed. Maybe you’re here today because you’re like, “I need to receive from the Lord. I need a word. I need to sense His presence.” Or maybe you’re just spiritually weak or weary or confused or anxious. Or maybe you don’t know Him at all. But I think a question that most of us have wrestled with is, how do I actually approach Him? How do I actually be in relationship with God? How do I come into His presence?

And that means a lot of things. When we say, “How can I approach God?” we’re talking about things like: How can I pray? How can I enter into His presence? How can I hear God? How can I know that He’s with me and that I’m with Him? These are all things that God is addressing in this book called Leviticus. So I want us to take a look at these different types of sacrifices, these different types of offerings, but I really want to focus on the one, and that is the peace offering. And how many of you know — and I’m going to kind of skip ahead to the end here — Jesus is our peace offering? It’s who He is.

The Lord is peace

Before we get into Leviticus 3, the first reference in Scripture that we have of God as our peace is actually from the story of Gideon. If you’re not familiar with Gideon, the people of Israel were being taken advantage of by a group of people called the Midianites. The people would harvest and labor and toil and work, and these people called the Midianites would steal the harvest on the regular. And Gideon was trying to harvest in secret. He was hiding, and he was confused, and he was at a place in his life where he was like, clearly God has forgotten about His people.

Anybody ever feel like that? Where you’re going through life, and you know that God is powerful, you know that He is Creator, you know that He is the God of miracles and He can do amazing things, but it’s like, man, I haven’t seen Him move in my life recently. I haven’t felt His presence. I haven’t felt His touch, Him being near me. I know He’s God, but I feel so distant. This is where Gideon was. He felt like God had forgotten about the people, that the people were being taken advantage of, that they were afraid, that they were scared.

And the Lord speaks to Gideon. It says that the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, and we see in Judges 6:23: “Then the Lord said to him, ‘Peace’” — everybody say, “Peace.” Say it again: “Peace.” — “‘Peace be with you; do not fear, you shall not die.’ So Gideon built an altar there to the Lord, and called it The-Lord-Is-Peace.”

Now, right before this, the Lord speaks to Gideon and says, “I’m going to use you to defeat the adversary, to defeat the Midianites. And I’m not going to do it with an army. I’m going to do it through one man, and that is you.” That sounds like a death sentence. But notice what the Lord says to Gideon: “Do not fear. Peace be with you.”

Now, that word “peace” is the word shalom. Pastor Larry had talked about this not too long ago, and we’re going to come at it from a little bit of a different perspective. But peace is not just the absence of fighting. It’s not just the absence of conflict. The word peace here, shalom, actually means wholeness or completeness. It’s when everything that is broken is put back together. And what God was saying is, “Listen, you will not die. But not only will I give you success, not only will I give you victory over your adversary — I’m going to make everything in your life complete. I’m going to make it whole again. You’ve been taken advantage of. You’ve been robbed. You’ve been stolen from. You’ve been oppressed. You’ve been in fear. And I am going to now step in, and I’m going to make you whole, and I’m going to make you complete.” Somebody say amen.

So when Gideon heard this news, he built an altar and he called that place The Lord Is Peace. This was not Gideon just saying, “He’s the God who calmed me down. He’s the God who has put me at ease, and now I’m just like, ahh.” No, He’s the one who makes broken things whole.

He Himself is our peace

Centuries later, Paul writes in the New Testament about peace to a church in Ephesus. In Ephesians 2:13, Paul writes this: “But now” — everybody say, “Now.” He is talking to believers. Jesus has come, and he’s saying “now” because of what Jesus has done. “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” How many of you say, thank you, Lord, that we have been brought near into the presence of God by the blood of Jesus?

It says this: “For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation.” This is referring to the tabernacle, right? When Jesus gave up His spirit and died on the cross, it says that the curtain that separated the inner parts of the sanctuary from the Holy of Holies, that place where the presence of God dwelt, was ripped. He has broken down that inner wall. And it says that He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near.

But I want us to notice: He Himself is our peace. Everybody say, “He is my peace.” He is not just the giver of peace. He is peace. Just like we’ve been discovering over this series as we’ve talked about the names of God, it is who He is. When we talk about how He is Jehovah Rapha, that He is provider, that He is our righteousness — it’s not just what He brings. It’s who He is.

And so I want to encourage you guys. I really want to ask: do we actually recognize, when we come together and begin to worship the Lord, what we’re actually inviting into the room? We’re not just inviting blessings. We’re not just worshiping so hopefully God does something. Scripture says that He comes into that atmosphere — that as we bless the Lord, as we lift our voice, as we sing praise to Him, we aren’t just saying, “Lord, bless me,” or “Lord, I remember, I declare that you’re faithful.” No, we are actually welcoming Him. And out of His goodness, mercy follows. Out of His goodness, grace comes — whatever it is that you are after in life.

So if you are saying, “I just don’t have peace,” or “I have lack in my life and I need the Lord to provide,” or maybe you’re here and you’re like, “I’m just not sure. I just feel such guilt and shame” — and you need to know that you are now the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus — the best thing that you can do is not just to pray and ask for those things, but to actually ask for more of Him. Come on, somebody say amen.

This is who He is. He Himself is our peace. He’s not the peace giver. He’s not the peace broker. He is peace. So not only does He restore and bring things back into wholeness and completeness, He Himself is what it means to have peace. If you have Him, you have everything you need. I’m going to say it again: if you have Him, you have everything you need.

Whatever you are facing — maybe you’re looking at your marriage and there are struggles there. Maybe you’re looking at your finances. Maybe you’re looking at your kids, and it’s like, man, it seems like they’re going astray in their hearts. Maybe you have concerns about your future and what the Lord has for you, and you’ve been praying so long, and maybe you’ve even stopped praying. I want to encourage you: the thing that you need more than anything, the answer to every problem that you could ever face, is Him. And when you have Him, you have peace, you have joy, you have everything you need.

The ways to draw near

So I want us to start in Leviticus 3. I had you open there — that’s in the Old Testament, so Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, if you’re not there already. There is a key in this chapter that I think unlocks what I believe we’re going to do: we’re going to receive from the Lord’s table this morning.

We come to Leviticus 3, and at this point God had just brought the people out of Egypt, and they’re camped at Mount Sinai. The tabernacle has been built. I just love that about the Lord. He delivers them out of Egypt and out of bondage, and God does not wait for them to get to the Promised Land to come into their presence. Don’t you just love the heart of God, where He’s saying, “I just want to be with you now”? “Build me a tabernacle. Build me a place where I can dwell and I can be with you.” That’s the heart of the Father.

So He has them build this tabernacle, which was a tent in the middle of the camp, built to the exact specifications that were given to Moses by God. And it gives us this glimpse into the perfection and the holiness of God. Here they are. The tabernacle had been built. And God calls Moses and says, “Now I have a home. This is now how I want you to approach me. This is how I want you to come to me and be with me and hear from me and receive from me.” That is what Leviticus is about. It’s the different ways that we are to approach God.

And we see these different offerings. In Leviticus 1 it is the burnt offering. Everybody say, “The burnt offering.” I’m not going to spend too much time on these, but that was when the whole animal was sacrificed. They would sacrifice the animal and spill the blood, and the blood would be sprinkled on the altar, and the whole animal would be burnt up. It was a type of approach. It was a sacrifice of total surrender. How many of you know that in order for us to approach God, we must fully surrender? Say amen. Sometimes we come to church and we say, “God, you need to meet me on my terms.” That’s not the kind of God He is. He doesn’t change the rules for anyone. It requires total surrender to approach God. And so that is what the burnt offering is.

Then we see in Leviticus 2 there’s something called the grain offering. Everybody say, “The grain offering.” Picture this: there’s grain, and you would put oil on it, and it was almost like making a cereal — you put the cereal and you put the milk in there. Part of it would be burnt, but part of it went to the priest. That was a sacrifice of gratitude. How many of you know we approach God with our gratitude? Amen. Come on. All right, I don’t know — are you guys here? Are we here this morning? All right.

Then in Leviticus 4 and 5 we see the sin offering, or the trespass offering. That was a sacrifice to deal with our guilt and our shame. How many of you know that needed to be dealt with? We could not approach God as a sinful people. He’s a holy God. In Him is no darkness. So our sin has to be dealt with. But I’m so thankful that He did not wait. He said, “I want you to make sacrifice to me, and I’m going to give you a way where your sin is covered, and the blood is going to be spilt, and it’s going to be put on the altar.”

The peace offering

But Leviticus 3 is the offering that I want to talk about today, and this one is different, and I’m going to tell you why. This is the peace offering. This is the shalom sacrifice. This is the sacrifice that brings us to a place of wholeness, the sacrifice that brings us to a place of completeness, where God restores us.

So we come to Leviticus chapter 3, starting at verse 1: “When his offering is a sacrifice of a peace offering, if he offers it of the herd, whether male or female, he shall offer it without blemish before the Lord.”

I’m going to pause right here. How many of you know — and I’ve said this before — the best way to read Scripture is always looking for Jesus? How many of you know He is the spotless Lamb? Amen. He lived a perfect life, and He gave His life. He was the perfect, spotless Lamb, the perfect sacrifice that covers our sin once and for all. At this point, the Messiah had not come. They were looking for the Lamb. And in the meantime, you had to find a perfect, natural, spotless lamb.

And it says, “And he shall lay his hand” — so the one that is making the sacrifice, the one that is bringing the perfect lamb from their flock to be sacrificed — “he shall lay his hand on the head of his offering, and kill it at the door of the tabernacle of meeting; and Aaron’s sons, the priests, shall sprinkle the blood all around on the altar. Then he shall offer from the sacrifice of the peace offering an offering made by fire to the Lord.”

So let me break this down and give you a picture. The worshiper, the one making the peace offering, would bring a lamb from their herd — a lamb that they had raised, a lamb that they had cared for. It had to be spotless. It had to be the best. They would bring it to the tabernacle, where the presence of the Lord is, and they would kill the lamb at the entrance. The priest would then take the blood and sprinkle it on the altar to make atonement and to bring peace into that relationship.

But I want you to notice — and I’ve referred to this as well — when they would do this peace offering, the one making the sacrifice would lay their hands on the lamb, and they would transfer their sins to this sacrifice, because their sin had to be dealt with. Now, the Hebrew word for “lay their hands on” is the Hebrew word samak, and it was not a light touch. Let me give you the visual. When they would put their hands on the head of the lamb, they wouldn’t just touch it and do the transference. They would put their hands on the lamb and then begin to lean on it and press it. And there was a transferring of their sins into this animal that would then be slaughtered, and the blood would be applied on their behalf.

I’ve said this before, but when Jesus was being beaten by the Roman soldiers, that’s exactly what was happening. The Roman soldiers were beating Him, and they were leaning into Him, and the sin of humanity was being transferred and laid upon the Lord Jesus Himself. So this is that visual: they would lay their weight into the lamb, and their sins would be transferred, and it was slaughtered, and the blood would be sprinkled on the altar.

A meal shared with God

Now, this is where the peace offering looked different than the other offerings. The fat and the organs from this would be burned. It would go up in smoke. In other words, it was offered up to God. It was a good fragrance to God. It was His portion. It would be burnt and go into the air, into the heavens, and it was God’s portion. The breast and the thigh would go to the priest, and that was the priest’s portion. And the rest of the meat actually went back to the person who brought it, and that person would carry it back home, and they would eat it as a meal with their families.

This was how this offering was entirely different than the other offerings. The peace offering wasn’t just about paying for sins. We have other offerings that do that. This was a shared meal — a meal that was shared between God, the priest who was making the atonement, and the ones who were making the sacrifice. How many of you know the peace offering isn’t like any other sacrifice? It was about the meal. It was about having fellowship with God Himself. Amen.

Everybody was eating from the same animal. Everyone is seated at the same table. This was a sign of covenant. How many of you know in biblical times they didn’t do paperwork? The way that they would make promises and agreements with other nations and other people, or even neighbors, was they would actually have a meal together. That was the remembrance: “No, we have made a promise.” And when things get a little tense, we remember the meal. We remember that covenant. We remember the promise. We remember the terms of the agreement. So this was a covenant meal. This was a belonging meal. This was a family meal.

Now, two words I want to quickly look at. The general word for offering in Leviticus is the Hebrew korban, and it means to draw near. In other words, a korban, an offering of a sacrifice, literally means a nearness gift. It’s what you bring to the Lord when you want to be close.

So people would actually make this peace offering when they were going about their days and they’re like, “Man, I feel so far from God. I feel like I haven’t been with Him. I feel like I haven’t heard from Him. I haven’t sensed His touch on my life.” And so what they would do is say, “You know what I’m going to do? I’m going to go to the tabernacle. I’m going to bring the best of my flock, and I’m going to make sacrifice to the Lord.” And a part of that sacrifice is going to go up to Him, and a part of that is going to go to the priest — and how many of you know Jesus is our great High Priest? I love that Jesus not only is the one who gives us the meal; He is the meal. It’s astounding. But then a part of it would go back with them, and they would share in that meal with God.

In every other religion, with every other god, when people would make sacrifices, they would bring their food offering to the altar of their god, leave it there, and walk away hoping that their god was happy. This is the only God that said, “No. When you make an offering, I want you to take the meal. I want you to take it, and I want you to come to the table and feast with me.” Amen.

Leviticus 7 tells us when the peace offering was brought. There were three times when the peace offering would be brought. It would be brought as a thanksgiving sacrifice: when God came through for you and you wanted to give thanks to the Lord, you would bring a peace offering. It was brought when you made a vow to God: when you made a promise and He kept His word, you would bring a peace offering. Or if you just wanted to make a freewill sacrifice, you would make a peace offering.

I want you to notice every single one of those occasions is relational. The peace offering was about being in relationship with God. In every single one, the person making the sacrifice is calling out, saying, “God, I want to be near you. God, I just want to love you — not because I did something, just because I want to be with you, because you are my God.”

“With fervent desire”

Okay. Now, this is where I wanted to get to. I’m kind of building this case here. We skip ahead now to Jesus, who is in Jerusalem. It’s the week of Passover. It’s the night before He’s about to die. The disciples are in the upper room, and the table is set. They’re having their Passover meal — if you joined us for our Seder, you experienced this. There was the lamb. There was the unleavened bread. There was the wine. There were the bitter herbs. Every piece of the meal was telling the Exodus story, when God delivered His people out of Egypt.

We come to Luke 22:14, and it says this: “When the hour had come, He sat down, and the twelve apostles with Him. Then He said to them, ‘With fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.’”

Notice what Jesus says. He’s with His disciples. They’re celebrating the Passover meal, which was the remembering of His deliverance, and He was about to deliver them once and for all. And He says, “With fervent desire I have desired to share this meal with you.” I want you to notice the double statement that the Lord is making there. He’s saying, “Listen, I want nothing more than to share this meal with you. I want to open up the table, and I want you to be with me. I want you to come and receive this with me.”

Jesus knew what tomorrow was about to hold. He knew He was going to give His life. He knew He was going to be beaten. He knew He was going to be nailed to the cross. He knew what He was about to suffer and endure. But He’s saying, “Before I go through all of that, I want to give you something. I want to put something in your hands that will carry you for the rest of your lives.”

And in the middle of this Passover meal — a meal that the twelve disciples had eaten every year of their lives — Jesus does something that’s not on the script. He goes out of order. He stops the meal. He pauses. And in verse 19 it says this: “And He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.’ Likewise He also took the cup after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you.’”

So Jesus is here, sharing a meal that remembers the old covenant. It remembers Moses. It remembers Sinai. It remembers the blood that was on the doorposts. But in the middle of it, Jesus stops and says, “This is a new covenant. This is a new promise. And I’m about to seal it with my blood, and I’m going to give you a meal to remember it by.”

Remember, everyone at the table knew what it meant to make a covenant. It was a shared meal. Covenants were sealed with a peace offering — with blood on the altar and a meal with your covenant partner. But notice what Jesus said: “Do this in remembrance of Me.” That wording is not a one-time deal. It is a present, ongoing tense. It is something that we are to keep doing. In other words, it is Jesus saying, “I want you to have this meal, and I want you to have it often. And when you do it, I want you to remember what I did. I want you to remember the offering and the sacrifice that I’ve made. I want you to remember why I’m giving this.”

This was not another feast that the Lord was instituting. This was not just something that was meant to be done on Easter or Christmas. This was something that was to be done often, to remember, because the Lord knew that in our hearts we forget. We kind of lose sight of what the Lord’s actually done for us. Have you ever come into church and you’re like, “I don’t even know if I’ve given thanks to the Lord this week. I’ve just been going about my day. I’ve been worried about my own concerns, my own cares, my own worries”? How many of you know we need to come to the Lord Jesus often and receive from Him?

I want to encourage you: receiving from the Lord’s table is not even something you should only do at church. You should do it at your homes. That is something you can do with a spouse or a family member or even a friend. Invite them over and just say, “Hey, would you come — can we just pray and receive communion together? Let’s receive the Lord. I’m just going through some things, and I need to remember what the Lord’s done for me. I need to remember that He is faithful. I need to remember that it is done, that it is finished — that everything that I’m facing, He’s already taken care of it.” Amen.

So Jesus said, “Do this in remembrance of Me.” And He gave us something that we could taste. He gave us something that we could touch. I believe it’s such a beautiful thing, because it makes the gospel not just theology. It takes it beyond something that is abstract. It goes beyond something that is just historical. He gave us a meal because He wants to eat with us, and for us to partake. Amen.

Receiving the Lord’s table

So what I would like for us to do this morning is receive our communion. I’m going to invite the ushers to come forward, and they’re going to pass out the elements.

I was reminded, as I was praying over the message and over these notes, that maybe some of you came in today carrying some things. Maybe you are working through things, and there are things that you’ve been praying for, and the worship songs and the things that we sing just couldn’t quite touch or address some of those issues that you’re facing. Maybe you stopped asking God because you’re tired of not getting answers.

But I want to remind us of what the peace offering is for. Shalom is wholeness. It is completeness, where every broken thing is put back where it belongs. And how many of you know Jesus is our peace offering? Which means Jesus isn’t just the one who stops the war between you and God. Though how many of you know He dealt with that? We could not approach God. Because of our sin, we were enemies of God. And did Jesus resolve that issue? Yes, He did. But He did much more than that. How many of you know Jesus is the one who puts us back together? Amen. He came as Jehovah Shalom. He took on flesh. He walked to a cross. He made Himself a meal that restores you.

I want us to recognize that this is more than just a religious act. This is more than something to be done as a ritual, “because I’m a Christian.” This is actually something that He is inviting us into, to be in relationship with Him.

When Jesus took the bread, He did one thing first, and this is how I want us to receive the Lord’s table today. When Jesus took the bread, we just read, it says that He gave thanks and broke it. How many of you know the appropriate way for us to receive the bread, His body that was broken, is to give thanks for what He’s done? Amen.

So this is what I would like for us to do, and I’m going to ask that we try to focus in. I know the ushers are passing out the elements and people are moving. But if you’ve already received the bread, I would like for us to take the bread and just hold that up, and bow our heads, and close our eyes. And this is what I would like for every person to do: just in your own words, begin to give thanks to the Lord. Begin to give thanks for His love. Begin to give thanks that He did not stay far off, that He’s the one who came near to you. Begin to thank Him for His blood that still washes, that still cleanses, that brings us back to Him. Begin to give thanks that you’re not a stranger at this table, that you are a part of this family, that you are heirs of righteousness in Christ Jesus.

Come on, let’s just begin to give thanks, just in a whisper. You don’t need to shout it. Just begin to speak with your mouth and say, “Lord, I thank you. Thank you for what you’ve done. Thank you, Lord, that you were broken so that I could be made whole.” Lord, we receive you today. Every piece of you that was broken so that we could be made whole — we give you thanks.

Now, this is what I also want you to do before we eat of this. I want you to just begin to tell Him where you need peace in your life — where you need to be made whole, where you need to be made complete. If there’s been fear in your heart, just say, “Lord, I need you to take this fear. Lord, I need you to put me back together, and Lord, I need you to give me peace in my heart.” If you need peace in your home, and there’s just brokenness and things that are off and out of alignment in your home, just begin to say, “Lord, would you bring healing and peace to my home?” Wherever you need peace, just begin to say, “Lord, you are my peace, and I receive of you today.” And then let’s eat that together. Go ahead and eat that bread.

And now, everybody take the cup. Do we have those out yet? All right, we’ll get that passed out.

As we’re passing out the cup, we remember the scripture — you’ve probably heard it if you’ve been here before — where Paul talks about receiving communion in the proper way, that there were people that were actually dying and growing sick because they did not receive the bread and the wine with the proper heart. I used to only consider that as though they were not identifying Jesus as the bread and were just taking it religiously. But I believe it’s actually much more than that. Because what was happening was, people would come — the ones that were well off would come — and they would eat from the table of the Lord, and there would be none left for those who did not get there on time, or perhaps were working. And so there was this enmity in the body of Christ.

But how many of you know that we are all one body in Christ Jesus? Amen. And when we receive communion from the Lord’s table, it’s always meant to be done as a body. It’s meant to be done together. This is not a private moment. This is a time where we’re identifying, no, the person next to me is in Christ Jesus. I am in Christ Jesus. And because we’re partaking of the same flesh, we are one. Amen. There is a togetherness in receiving from the Lord.

All right, does everybody have it? Let’s take the cup and hold that up, and let’s bow our heads.

Lord Jesus, we thank you for the cup, for the blood that was shed. Lord, we thank you that your blood has purchased us. Your blood has won us. This is the covenant cup. It is the cup that says that I am yours and you are mine, and nothing will ever come between us again.

So I just want you to repeat after me. Say: Lord Jesus, I receive the blood of Jesus over my life. I receive this covenant meal — that I am not my own, that I am not abandoned, that you have sworn an oath in your own blood, that you are my God and I am yours. In Jesus’ name.

Let’s receive that cup together. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord.

Now let’s stand and just begin to thank the Lord. Lord Jesus, we worship you. Lord, we thank you for this precious meal — that you are our peace offering, Lord, that you are the one that we can receive from, that we can partake of this meal to receive you, to receive your life, to receive your peace. Everything that you are, Lord, is available to us because of what you’ve done on the cross. We don’t need to be far off, Lord, because you have brought us near, and you have given us this peace offering, this open table, to do in remembrance of the great work that you have accomplished in us. You made Him who knew no sin, the perfect Lamb of God, to become sin for us. Our sin was transferred upon Jesus, and when you died on the cross, Lord, you nailed that sin to the cross, and it died with you. And now, Lord, in you we have life. In you we have peace. In you we have access. And so we receive it, and we give thanks, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Amen. Can we thank the Lord this morning? Thank you, Lord. I just feel like for too long — and it’s too easy for us — we go into autopilot when it comes to receiving communion and receiving the elements. And I want us to just be reminded that He is our peace. He is the peace offering. Not only does He provide and feed us; He is the food. Amen. And so when we receive this, we’re receiving Him. Amen.

Transcribed from the message recording and lightly edited for reading.