Ex 12:17, 'You shall also observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this very day I brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt; therefore you shall observe this day throughout your generations as a permanent ordinance.
We are in the process of our deepening consideration of how important it is that we come to the remembrance of The Lord in communion table with reverence and with joy and with thanksgiving. It should be that we are absolutely amazed that we are allowed, by the gracious love of God, to so partake of the Lord’s Supper with Him and with each other in our state of earthly disorder and unworthiness. This is a commemoration of the fact that we are covered and invited to feast together in all the fullness of what Jesus Christ has done and not on the basis of what we should have done.
In this study, we are sharing scriptures and extended quotations that highlight what should be in our hearts and minds as we prepare to honor God with our united communion. There is so much that is part of this celebration of the love and the grace and the mercy evidenced in the sacrifice of God by His Beloved Son. We need to cherish every perspective as each quote details more and more of the lavished essence of why we so honor God in this action of sharing in the emblems as He so stipulated.
We will see that the obligation to do this in remembrance of Christ parallels that same requirement throughout the Old Testament in order to remember the powerful deliverance of God in the Passover. W. Hay Aitken, in the Biblical Illustrator expresses much of this concerning communion as follows. Quote,  
1. The word suggests --
(1) The idea of a sacred season, and thus the old distinction is no longer to be drawn in our lives between things secular and things sacred: all is to be sanctified.
Let me interrupt with an observation. How many of us do this? We separate our lives into those elements that are physical and those elements that are spiritual. As an example, we look at the week in terms of going to work to face all that is required to make a living. We establish a distinct separation between that and our times of Bible study and worship and opportunities to gather in the Lord’s name and give Him some recognition. We thus permit ourselves to behave in completely different manners according to the imagined partition of our life. We act one way at work and a completely different way in church. One of the key aspects that our communion should communicate is that our entire life is to be consecrated and dedicated and sanctified unto God, not just a few hours of our time. 
When we come before Him to eat at His Table, it is to be with the recognition that everything that we have comes from Him and through Him. He supplies our every need from eternal salvation to the very food that sustains our physical bodies. He is the One Who has given us life and the means of supporting that life. There is no separation in Him. Everything we do, at work, at home, at play, at worship, all is to be done unto Him in singleness of the heart that seeks earnestly to please and honor Him, including our weekly efforts to earn a living, as we so phrase it.  
Continuing with the quote then as this truth is to be manifested,  
…Enjoyment. Our life is to be a season of continuous festivity. In both these senses our lives are to be festal, and this holy ordinance has been appointed to keep ever before our minds the true idea of what our lives are to be.
2. Observe that --
(1) The Jewish passover was a continuous commemoration of a deliverance wrought out for Israel. So the Holy Communion is designed to be a perpetual remembrance of that wonderful deliverance wrought out for us on the Cross of Calvary. Human gratitude is apt to be short-lived, and only too many of us get out of the sight of the Cross. This feast was instituted by one who knew our human frailty, so that should we forget how much we owe to His dying love we may straightway be brought back again full in view of His Cross, and obtain deeper and clearer apprehensions of the benefits that redemption brings within our reach.
(2) The paschal feast was furnished by the very lamb whose blood secured the safety of the household. So Jesus, the victim, is Himself the feast.
(a) If the only object of the … Communion had been a commemoration, it would have been enough that the bread should be broken and the wine should be poured forth; for there was nothing in the fact of our Lord's crucifixion to answer to the eating and the drinking. The lesson, then, is that as our physical bodies are continuously dependent upon the material world, so the new life of the human spirit is constantly dependent upon a Divine Supply.
(b) But in order to receive real benefit something more is needed than the mere partaking of the … elements. The outward act is designed to bring your faith to bear upon the thought that God is then and there through Christ communicating the Divine life to you; and as you bring your faith to bear upon that act of God's love towards you, you will be indeed a communicant…
Aitken now outlines what partaking of this feast signifies in our redeemed lives as it parallels the Children of Israel in their yearly commemoration of the Passover.
Quote, AS AN EMBLEM OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. It was --
1. The feast of safety. The destroying angel was passing through the land, but the Israelites feasted in safety, because they knew that they were safe under the blood-stained lintel. They did not hope or think about it; they knew they were safe, because they had God's word for it. And if your life is to be a festal life you need a similar consciousness. Many religious people seem much more like keeping a funeral than a feast. They are always complaining of their doubts and fears. They are not quite clear as to whether they have sprinkled the blood, or, if they have done so, they do not take to themselves the full comfort which belongs to those who have; they don't rest upon the distinct declaration of eternal truth -- "I will pass over"; "He that believeth on the Son hath eternal life." We must thank ourselves for our miseries if we insist on doubting the Divine faithfulness.
Again, I interject with the deep sense of how, if we truly take to heart the fact that Jesus Christ is our covering and our safety, we should not only celebrate with complete and endless joy, but we would set aside all fear and doubt! We are saved, not in any measure by our weak and useless and futile efforts and abilities, but because He died and rose again. His is Our Salvation! He is Our Eternal Safety! He is the One by Whom we are covered and redeemed! 
Continuing our quote, A feast of deliverance. They were happy not only because they were safe, but because they were free. They were in the "house of bondage" still; but they felt the throbbings of national life, and their anticipations told them that, in spite of appearances, they were free. And it is even so with us. Rom 6 is just as true as Rom 5. The latter tells us about our justification; the former about our deliverance from the tyranny of sin. I don't say that you are to have no more temptation. The Israelites had not done with enemies when they crossed the sea. Indeed, they had hardly got out of Egypt before Amalek attacked them; and you will not have gone very far along your spiritual journey before temptation will attack you. But it is a very different thing to be attacked by Amalek and to be kept in the slavery of Pharaoh. From the hand of Amalek they had to be delivered by the same God that had delivered them out of the power of Pharaoh. And even so now you are free in Christ you will have to guard your liberties by employing the same Divine power that set you free to defend you.
3. The feast of separation. The Egyptians were not allowed to keep it. Up to that time the Egyptians and the Israelites had lived as neighbours, but now there was a line of separation between them. If you have not sprinkled the paschal blood you have no right at the table of the Lord. Nor can you participate in that feast of life which the Christian is privileged to keep; for you belong to the world, and the world has no part in the paschal feast. And Christians cannot properly enjoy it unless they are content to be separate from the world. I meet with not a few Christians from whose life all happiness seems to have departed just for this reason. They are not willing to be separated, and so they cannot keep the feast.
4. The feast of purification. "Not with the old leaven," &c. Careful search was to be made, and all that was leavened was to be excluded from their habitations. And here is a very important lesson. We may be delivered from the tyranny of sin, and yet how much of latent evil may still lurk within! But there is a Holy Spirit of burning who can and will consume the dross if we are only willing to be cleansed.
5. The feast of wayfaring men. They were to eat it in haste, with shoes on their feet, &c. And if you want to enjoy the passover you must realise that you are a wayfaring man, and shape your life accordingly. End Quote. (from The Biblical Illustrator Copyright © 2002, 2003, 2006 Ages Software, Inc. and Biblesoft, Inc.)
These are some aspects of communion which many of may never have even considered as we weekly eat of the bread and drink of the juice. Yes, we can make the very simple statement that we do this in remembrance of Christ, but what special and amazing things are to be remembered of Him and His work. 
In Him, we have safety, eternal safety. In Him, we have deliverance from our sin and from the fear of sin and death. In Him, we have deliverance from all those arrayed against us and from ourselves and our nature that was at enmity with God. In Him, we are separated, made a holy people unto God, set apart for the sake of His glory and His praise. In Him, we are purified, all the leaven is carefully and meticulously being removed from us by the working might and cleansing power of the Holy Spirit. In Him, we are no longer part of this realm, but citizens of Heaven. We are in the world, but no longer part of it. We should be, more and more, each day, losing our attachment to this world and yearning and longing for the sweet and glorious time when our work here is finished. Our lives should show that sojourning attitude and behavior, always prepared to go home when He calls us out of this world unto Himself.       
We finish this morning’s time with a quote from J. Vaughan, concerning the fact that the communion table celebrates the resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ and must never be anything less than the joyous declaration that Jesus Christ is alive, now and forevermore! 
Quote, The feast of joy: -- What is "joy"? The firstborn of love and the parent of peace -- "love, joy, peace." And what was the far end of all our Redeemer's work on earth? "That your joy may be full." And how can the Church reach to its deep things of privilege unless it takes the right vessel to the cistern and "draw water with joy out of the wells of salvation"? Let us ask, Why ought we to be happy in the resurrection of Christ? Because --
I. OUR LORD IS HAPPY. From the moment of His rising neither His body nor His mind appear to have been subject to, or even capable of, pain. When He said, "It is finished!" His sufferings were over. Now in proportion as our sympathy is with Him, our heart will always make the tone of our mind. Be glad, then, because your Lord is glad. Jesus is not "a Man of sorrows" now. He is a Man of joys.
II. TRUTH HAS BEEN VINDICATED. To a well-ordered mind it is a great satisfaction to see any truth thoroughly established. The resurrection of Christ must stand or fall on revelation. In the Old Testament it is involved in the types and prophecies. Our Lord's own teaching showed it, and it was the mainspring of His whole life. And the apostles are emphatic -- "If Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain," &c. So that it is the end of all Divine truth; and the evidence is most exact and clear. The Bible is verified and the truth of Christianity placed beyond doubt.
III. THE FATHER HAS ACCEPTED THE SACRIFICE OF HIS SON. Christ was "justified in the Spirit," which "quickened" Him. And in that He was justified, His atoning work is justified, and in that His atoning work is justified I am justified, and God Himself is justified to forgive me.
IV. HONOUR IS PUT ON THE BODY. Some Christians, wishing to avoid the extreme into which they once ran, now disparage the body too much. But what is this body? The broken mirror of God, to be recast presently into a counterpart of the form of Jesus as He is now in glory -- the temple walls of the Holy Ghost. This reflection is full of comfort. If the next world were to be peopled only with spirits, we might be called upon in vain to believe in the communion of saints. It would be almost impossible to realise anything so abstract; but now "in our flesh we shall see God."
V. A WARRANT IS GIVEN OF A GLORIOUS RESURRECTION. Where the Head is, there must the members be. The tomb is not dark now, for Jesus left a light; not degrading, for it has been dignified by fellowship with Him; not final, for it is open the other end. End Quote. (from The Biblical Illustrator Copyright © 2002, 2003, 2006 Ages Software, Inc. and Biblesoft, Inc.)
When we partake of the communion, we do remember Christ’s death, but we also declare and stand firm in the fact that He arose. He is alive! He has done the perfect work required by paying the ultimate price for the sake of those He came to save, you and me. When we sup together, let it be with hearts that are filled with the joy of our salvation, rejoicing in the truth that the tomb is empty, now and forever! We now live on the resurrection side of the cross, completely freed from all the bondage and the penalty and the consequences of sin and death. We are alive because He is alive! That is the core reality that the table of communion sets before us. If we are redeemed, we should be earnestly and cheerfully and ecstatically thankful that in our united service, we are proclaiming that the resurrection power of Jesus Christ is the very life that we now live! So be it!
'You shall also observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this very day I brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt; therefore you shall observe this day throughout your generations as a permanent ordinance. Amen.

	This morning’s benediction is Num 6:24-26. The Lord bless you, and keep you; The Lord make His face shine on you, And be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His countenance on you, And give you peace.' Amen.