Communion 2022/03/05

English:

I was very happy to see your faces at the Celebration last month, even though it was through the screen. Thank you very much for your prayers for my stay in Japan. I was able to show a lot of Jesus' love to my family, I was able to even give my dad a bath three times.

It was a great joy for me and he also seemed to be encouraged.

Best of all, God gave me the opportunity to personally share Jesus with my dad, my mom, and my nephew. I was truly most grateful for that. We are praying that the seeds that were sown will sprout and lead to the fruit of their salvation.

Thank you very much.

Normally I make this communion message once a month for Waseda Tsurumakicho Small Church, but this time I thought that maybe all churches could use, if they would like, since we are all working on the same material as a network.

This evening you studied about biblical metaphor #3 about the church, the "branches in the Vine".

One of the most important implications of this metaphor was that the fruitfulness of the branches entirely depends on its connection to the Vine and receiving the fruit-bearing life that flows from it.

By staying connected to Jesus, life flows from Him to us.

We may say that that we are being able to live by taking what is in Jesus.

What might this look like from the perspective of the giver of this life?

Jesus is shedding His own life for us, the branches.

It is not only that we, as the Lord's church, are kept alive and made fruitful by being connected to Jesus. To me, this also reminds us that Jesus shed His precious life, His blood, for us, so that we could connect with God in the first place.

John 15, where this metaphor of the vine and branches is found, was part of Jesus' teaching at the so-called "Last Supper," the night before He went to the cross.

Shortly after this, Jesus would be arrested and go to his crucifixion the next day.

Every morning before I send the kids off to school, we listen to the Bible together, and this Tuesday it was Leviticus 17, where we were told that the blood of the sacrificial animal, which was offered for the forgiveness of sins in those days, was the very life of the animal.

For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life. (Leviticus 17:11).

** Note: The Japanese Bible translates the Hebrew word כפר (ESV: atonement) as ”nadame (propitiation)

Propitiation is act where a sacrifice vicariously takes the wrath of God toward sin and thereby averts it from the person who committed that sin. It removes the dividing wall between God caused by our sin, and reconnects us to God’s love.

This, of course, was a foreshadowing of the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, whom God Himself would later send for us.

Jesus came into the world to be the Lamb of God who shed His unblemished blood on the cross to save us from God's wrath against sin.

The horrible place where, in place of all of us who believe, Jesus would be forsaken by His loving Heavenly Father, shed His precious blood, His life, and thereby absorb the holy wrath of God against sin: the Cross.

When I think of how he spoke of this vine and branch on the night just before he went there, I could almost see the look in Jesus' eyes as he told it to his disciples - that loving, yet truly serious look.

Jesus loved us with true love and connected us to God with the price of his very own life.

Let me ask: Do you love this Jesus? Do you believe in him?

As we partake of Holy Communion this evening, there is something I would like you to ask yourself.

It is a question that was at the end of the study guide.

In your life right now, is there anything other than the true Vine in which you, as a branch, are trying to abide for a fulfilling, fruitful life?

Is there anything other than Jesus on which you have put your greatest hope?

There is no other Vine than Jesus.

Before we partake of the communion, I would like to read again the words of John 15:5. Afterwards, we will take a little time to be still before God and let the Holy Spirit search our hearts. If there is anything that the Spirit shows you in your heart, I would encourage you to quietly confess it to the Lord.

I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

John 15:5

Please prepare bread and juice.

Today I would like to read Luke 22:19- 20 and take communion.

And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

Let us eat the bread in faith and gratitude.

And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.

May we, the church, continue to abide in Jesus the Vine by faith, and bear fruit for the glory of God.

Amen.