======================================================================== BREAKING OF BREAD： A CELEBRATION by Zac Poonen ======================================================================== Summary: This sermon emphasizes the importance of approaching the Lord's table with a spirit of celebration and joy, reflecting on the victory of Jesus' resurrection. It contrasts the disciples' gloom before the resurrection with the joy and gladness experienced after witnessing Jesus' triumph over death. The message encourages believers to live each day with a sense of celebration, trusting in God's promises and sovereignty, and to maintain a cheerful heart as a form of spiritual and physical health. Topics: "Celebration of Resurrection", "Trust in God's Promises" Scripture References: Acts 2:46, Philippians 4:4, Proverbs 17:22, Romans 8:28, 1 Corinthians 15:57 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ DESCRIPTION ------------------------------------------------------------------------ This sermon emphasizes the importance of approaching the Lord's table with a spirit of celebration and joy, reflecting on the victory of Jesus' resurrection. It contrasts the disciples' gloom before the resurrection with the joy and gladness experienced after witnessing Jesus' triumph over death. The message encourages believers to live each day with a sense of celebration, trusting in God's promises and sovereignty, and to maintain a cheerful heart as a form of spiritual and physical health. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CONTENT ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Let's turn to Acts of the Apostles in chapter 2 and verse 46. This speaks of the early Christians, people who were newly converted just after the day of Pentecost. It says, day by day they continued with one mind in the temple and breaking bread from house to house. They were taking their meals with gladness and sincerity of heart. See, there is one difference between the way the disciples broke bread with Jesus at the Last Supper and the way we do it today. One big difference is that they did not really have faith in the resurrection. Because even when they saw and heard about Jesus raised from the dead, they didn't believe it. Even after some people told Thomas, we saw him alive, he couldn't believe it. So imagine, before going to the cross, they were absolutely convinced that this was the end. That's why they were thinking who's going to be the next leader. They never thought after three days he'll come back alive. So there's one big difference. They thought this is the end. Now he's going to die. They didn't even understand everything about the breaking of bread. But they were all in one sense gloomy and sad. But it was very different after the resurrection. Because here it says with gladness. And in the Message Bible it says every meal was a celebration. That's a great way of looking at it. That we break bread and it's a celebration. It's not something to be gloomy about. You know, I've been to churches where people look so gloomy and sad on Sunday morning when they come to the meeting. That reminds me of the disciples before the resurrection. And we're not to be like that. I'm not saying that we should be always smiling. But there should be a spirit of celebration in our heart. Not only when we break bread, but when we come to the meetings. Because we are coming to meet with the risen Jesus who's conquered death. He's conquered the devil. He's put away all our sins. He's given us a hope for the future. He said everything that happens I'll make it work for your good. What is there that He has not promised to do? There should not be, as far as I can see in my heart, there should not be an atom of discontent or murmuring or unhappiness about anything. Even something I can't understand and I don't know what is the reason for it. Even if there's a mortal sickness, okay. Say somebody's got cancer. And the doctor says no hope. Fine. What do you mean no hope? I've got the greatest hope in the world. Because I don't live for this world. I want to say this, my brothers and sisters, that we must have that every day. That's how we're supposed to live. Because if we don't have it, it's a proof that we don't really believe in a loving Father. So I like this. Every day, every time they come, they have a celebration. Why? Because Jesus was risen from the dead. They could not celebrate in the first time they had that breaking of bread with Jesus. Because He was going to die and they didn't know what would happen. So are you coming like that? It may not be concerning Jesus. Okay, you believe He rose from the dead. But something in your life, you're looking forward to today. You say, oh, I don't know what's going to happen. Then it's the same spirit as those disciples. They say, no, Jesus is going to die. We don't know what's going to happen. Is there something in your life like that? I think you need to see that beyond every cross there's a resurrection. And there's nothing, there's absolutely nothing that God cannot solve. There's no problem that God cannot handle. There are many things we cannot explain. That I agree. A lot of things I can't explain. But I don't know why certain things happen in certain ways. Why God allows certain things, I don't know. Things happen in our families and I don't know the answer to all that. But I do know one thing, that God's a loving Father. And He said, I'll never leave you nor forsake you. And He's also said that He's the same yesterday, today and forever. Jesus Christ is exactly the same as He was, you know, read in the pages of Scripture. I believe that with all my heart. And in my case, I proved it for nearly 60 years. So I know it's true. A lot of things which looked bleak at one time are bright today. So, we must come to the Lord's table with a spirit of celebration. Not something just now, but a reminder that that's how we are supposed to live every single day. That we're not living, we're not having breaking of bread on, you know, I believe Jesus died on a Thursday. So three days and three nights it comes to Sunday. So we're not living on Wednesday or Thursday or Friday or Saturday. We're living on the Sunday, the day He rose from the dead. That's why the disciples celebrated at the Lord's table and came together on a Sunday. It was the day of the Lord's resurrection. It's finished with the old covenant Sabbath. On the Saturday Jesus was buried in the grave and He buried that entire Jewish system, including the Sabbath, on that day when He was buried along with Him. And the Sabbath was buried and the entire Jewish system was buried and all of that. And He rose on the first day of the week. And it's a celebration. It's something that's... I mean, think if you had met Jesus today and you saw Him dying and you thought that was it. And then you heard some people say that He's raised from the dead and your doubt and awe can't be shown. Then He appears in front of you like He did before those disciples. Can you picture that? Boy! Amazing! Came out of the grave. Never heard of anyone doing that. And He's alive. I've got a hope for the future. Death is man's greatest enemy. Man's conquered space but he can't conquer death. He'll never conquer death. He can conquer many diseases and conquer many, many things on earth but one thing he cannot conquer is death because that is God's verdict on Adam. Because of your sin you will die. You were made of dust. You will become dust. And that's the verdict on all humanity and no human being is ever going to conquer death. There's never going to be any discovery. There may be better medicines that will lengthen a man's life. People can live 70, 80, 90, 100, perhaps even 120 one day. Okay. But they'll never conquer death. They'll all die. And that's where we have a hope that that's not the end for us because Jesus is risen. So remember this, that when we come to the Lord's table today it's like a celebration. It's not like that first breaking of bread. Very different. And not only when we break bread. I believe every Sunday when we come together we should never be gloomy. You know, when I was first born again and I used to attend an assembly where they were always so long- faced and serious and it's as if Jesus was not risen. I always felt that they were meeting on Saturday after Jesus' death. We don't know. He was a good man. And they're celebrating the resurrection. That's not the way it should be. So when we come to the Lord's table, the only thing that should make you sad is that there's sin in your life. Then you deserve to be gloomy until you have confessed that sin and repented of it, forsaken it, got it cleansed in the blood of Christ. If that's not happened, then you deserve to be gloomy until it is cleansed. Sure. Or if something is not reconciled between you and another brother or sister, you got a grudge against somebody, you deserve to be gloomy. You must be gloomy. If you haven't forgiven someone, by all means, be gloomy. Keep on being gloomy till you've forgiven that person. Very important. Are you gloomy because somebody corrected you? Rebuked you? Then you deserve. Because you're not willing to humble yourself and accept that correction. You're just defending yourself. You deserve to be gloomy. You deserve to be gloomy until you humble yourself before God. Because God gives grace to the humble. I believe it's a bad testimony for any of us. To me it's like being a bad testimony of stealing or telling lies. To me, being gloomy as a Christian is exactly the same category. I don't think you folks would ever steal anything. Maybe in a tight spot you may tell a lie. It's also bad. And I hope you'll overcome that as well. But being gloomy should never be there. We may not always be able to smile. There should be joy in our heart all the time. I absolutely believe in the command of God through the Apostle Paul. Rejoice in the Lord always. Rejoice in my circumstances? No. Rejoice in the Lord. That's the most important part of that phrase. Rejoice in the Lord. In who He is and what He's done for me. And the hope He's given me for the future. So let's think about those things when we come to the Lord's table. And He's inviting us to break bread with Him. Because it's because of His death and that's what we remember in this table. That's the reason why there's no gloom in our life. In the Old Testament, nobody could have this. If they had it, they'd have it occasionally. When their barns got a good crop or their sheep multiplied or they suddenly became wealthy. Then they would be happy. I decided in my life quite some years ago that any increase of wealth will never make me happy. And any decrease of wealth or financial loss will never make me sad. I decided that. It's a choice of my will. If something came, it came. I may lose it tomorrow. It doesn't matter. It doesn't make the slightest difference to me. Because I decided I'm going to rejoice not in my circumstances I'm going to rejoice in the Lord. And I would recommend that to all of you. Don't be the slave of your circumstances. The devil would like to make you a slave of your circumstances a slave of what you heard people said about you or what you think people think about you. There are umpteen reasons like that that can make you gloomy. When you come to the Lord's table it's to be a celebration because I have nothing to be gloomy about. Not only my Lord has risen from the dead but He's given me a tremendous hope for the future and even if you look around at your own life there are multitudes of things that you can be thankful for. If you study the workings of the human body like I have studied, not as a doctor but I've just studied in terms of certain facts I'll tell you something, it's a miracle that you're healthy even for one day. There are thousands of things that can go wrong with your body. Some little chemical is lacking that's all. Some little thing is missing here in your diet or something and many things can go wrong. It hasn't. We're normal. Just to wake up every morning and be normal that is a miracle. And we should be thankful when we get up in the morning. Lord, I'm healthy today. I wake up in the morning. Why do I always have to think of all the things that are wrong and it's less than 1% compared to overall things in our life. And the devil is using that 1% to make us gloomy when I should be celebrating every day of my life. I want to live in a celebration perpetually. I want to encourage you my brothers and sisters I'm not trying to scold you I'm trying to encourage you to get out of this gloomy attitude. We must be cheerful. When we talk to one another and meet with one another we must be cheerful. And I believe that will make a big difference in our health also. You know the Bible says that a merry heart is like medicine for our body in the book of Proverbs. A cheerful heart is one of the best medicines for health in the body. I'll tell you that. The Bible says that. And a lot of sicknesses come through gloominess and unhappiness and criticism and gossip and all these things. Those things affect our body. So when we come to the Lord's table today let's remember we're not sitting like the disciples with Jesus before his death. We're sitting with Jesus after his resurrection. He's alive. He's conquered all our enemies. The devil's been defeated. Our sin's been blotted out. He's promised that every single thing that's happening to your life right now will work for your good. If you love God and you're called according to his purpose. As far as I'm concerned I don't want anything else other than his purpose. So please remember that my brothers. If you've forgiven everybody, very important. If you have not forgiven even one person you deserve to be gloomy, gloomy, gloomy. Definitely. You deserve it and that's the rightful reward that you should get for not forgiving somebody. But if you have forgiven everyone and you don't have anything against anybody in the world you have every right to rejoice and don't let the devil bring heaviness into your spirit concerning anything you're thinking will happen tomorrow or next week. It's fine. God is in control of everything. So let's pray for the bread. ======================================================================== Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/zaga9fkNNvA.mp4 Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/zac-poonen/breaking-of-bread-a-celebration/ ========================================================================