Smithville Christian Reformed Church, Smithville, ON
You’re Invited!
GEMS and CADETS introduction to the Lord’s Supper
2013

Gather the GEMS/Cadets around the Lord’s Supper table in the sanctuary.

Family often get together to celebrate events like birthday, weddings and graduations. We also get together to remember important events such Christmas, anniversaries and holidays. Each time we gather we often celebrate by sharing food. We have cake for birthdays, turkey for Thanksgiving and mints for graduation. Are there other celebrations with a certain food that you celebrate?

In the Old Testament God’s people, the Israelites also gathered and celebrated events with meals.  Every year the Israelites remember when they were slaved in Egypt. God told them to place the blood of a lamb on their door posts. That night the angel of death passed over the homes with the lamb’s blood but at the homes of the Pharaoh and other Egyptians without the blood, the first born boys were killed. The Israelites called this celebration the Passover

The Lord’s Supper is a time when God’s family gets together to celebrate and remember what God has done for us. So what has God done for us? God gave us his son Jesus as a gift to us. Jesus sacrificed his life by dying on the cross. Jesus sacrificed his life to take away the sin of the world and save us from the slavery to sin and death. When we eat the bread and drink the juice, we remember that we are set free from sin to be children of God.

We sin every day. We hurt other people and ourselves and God’s creation. We should feel sad about our sin and the way we disobey God. But we also have a reason to feel very glad. God has given us a way for our sins to be completely forgiven! Jesus died in our place so our sins could be forgiven. Then Jesus arose from the dead. That is something too important to ever forget.

In Matthew 26:26-28 we read:

26 While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is my body.”

27 Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. 28 This is my blood of the[a] covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

When we hear these words and when we see, smell, touch and taste the bread and juice, we remember these stories and know how much God loves us. God uses his Word to tell us how much he loves us. God says again and again,

“I love you.”

“I loved you before you were born.”

“I love you as you grow up, and I give you all the good gifts of my creation.”

“I even love you when you make mistakes. Then my love is forgiveness.”

God’s wants us to know with more than just our brains and our hearts that God’s forgiveness is real and true. So God gave us the Lord’s Supper as a way to see, smell, taste, touch, and hear God’s forgiveness – to know with our whole bodies that we are loved by God through his Son, Jesus Christ.

So who is invited to join in Jesus’ special meal? Everyone in God’s family! Jesus wants us to know and remember how much he loves us!! That is why Jesus invites all people who love and believe in Jesus and who are sorry for the wrong things they do to celebrate the Lord’s Supper.

If you love Jesus and if you are sorry for the wrong things you do, and if you try very hard to live the way Jesus wants you to, you are invited to talk to your parents about joining them next time we have Lord’s Supper. Talk to your parents and let them know that you love Jesus and that you know that you are sinful but Jesus died for your sins. Ask them what they think about you joining them next time our congregation partakes in the Lord’s Supper.

(Many of these ideas are taken from You’re Invited by John Bouwers, Karen DeBoer, S.R. Larin, and Leonard VanderZee)