Communion

This is Communion

Here it is!

It is the 1st Sunday of the month and it’s communion.

I am so thankful that we have made this a point each month to participate in communion.

However depending on your understanding of communion this could be just something we do.

I know for me that when I do something over and over again, no matter how important it is, sometimes the words or the actions can lose their value.

It is like watching the sun rise or the sun set.

It happens everyday and not everyday is a sunset that makes us go wow that is the prettiest sunset ever.

Or when we give those audio but obligatory I love you’s.

We means it but sometimes we say it just to say it as we get out of the car for school, or work.

As we drift off to sleep or leave for day.

It important to say it, and we mean it but is it heartfelt?

Do we say it with all the love we have in the world?

Maybe you do, but I know for me it can feel that way.

I think that we can get to this place with communion.

This morning, I want to call us to come to the Lord’s table differently.

I want us to understand that communion should never be something that we just do, but it is something that connect us with God and other believers, remember the cross, and look forward to the day with Christ comes again.

If you recall back in the OT Moses was trying to free the Israelites, the Jews, God’s people from Egypt.

And God sent in 9 plagues and the tenth was the angel of death.

God’s judgment had to fall on everyone.

In every home, in Egypt, Jew and Egyptian someone would die under the wrath of justice.

And God gave the Israelites provision on what they needed to do in order to survive the Angel of Death.

The only way for your family to escape was to put your faith in God’s sacrificial provision.

Meaning that you had to slay a lamb and put the blood on the door post as a sign of your faith in God.

When justice came it either fell on the family or you took shelter under that sacrifice, under the blood of the lamb.

If you accepted this shelter, you would be passed over and you were saved.

You were saved only on the basis of faith in a substitutionary sacrifice.

Fast forward to the night when Jesus would celebrate this same meal, the passover meal.

A night to remember the Israelites seeking shelter under innocent blood of the lamb.

And Justice passing over them as they put their faith in a substitutionary sacrifice.

It was then Jesus who stood up and at this meal with the cup of redemption in hand, and said— I am your lamb.

I will be the substitutionary sacrifice.

On the cross Jesus got what we deserved.

The sin, guilt and brokenness of the world fell on him.

He took on divine justice so that we could be passed over, forever.

Jesus became our savior, our lamb as we was led to the cross, dying for our sins.

All of this goes into the bread and the cup.

It is a call to remember as Luke 22:19 states

Luke 22:19 ESV

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.”

This is a call for all believers to be united at the Lord’s table.

For what brings all believers together?

It is that we have been saved by Jesus.

Folks when we all get to Christ kingdom, there is only going to be one table.

Communion unites all believers.

If this is your first time with us we have open communion.

As in if you are a believer in Christ, then come to the table and take the cup and the bread with us.

Because we are all one in Christ.

And I know we have children in this room with us, and if your child has not given their life to Jesus we ask that they do not take the cup or the bread this morning.

Communion calls us to connect with God.

But as Paul mentions in 1 Cor this is a big deal.

The church at Corinthian was taking the Lord’s supper and creating division.

They were getting drunk and some were going hungry.

And Paul wrote to them and said look— what you are doing is not communion.

STOP IT.

You are taking it in an unworthy manner.

Communion was not something that gets a checkmark,

It was a chance to meet with God and it united fellow believers.

All believers everywhere and Paul gives a warning.

Listen to this:

in 1 Cor 11:27-32

1 Corinthians 11:27–32 ESV

Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.

There is a warning that goes with communion— let one examine him or herself.

If you are here this morning and you have sin in your life— you are in the right place.

I do to.

Let me just invite you to the table this morning.

We have a chance to meet with God this morning.

You have a chance as you take this bread and cup to meet with God.

To be in his presence.

And when we get into his presence we confess sin, just like Isaiah did when we came face to God, he cried out WOE IS ME!

I Am Unclean.

I am Sinful.

So I ask this Come before God and lay down your sin as you meet with Him this morning.

Remember the sacrifice of Jesus.

As the worship team leads us in another song we invite you to the table this morning.

Here is how we are going to do this.

Elders let me invite you now to come on down.

Each row will go after the row in front of them.

You will want to exit to the middle of the isle and come up and receive the cup and the bread. then you will go back into your row through the opposite side you went out from.

As you sit back down, meet with God, remember the sacrifice.

Once everyone has gotten the cup and the bread, I’ll come back up and led us as we take it.

This is communion:

This cup and bread unites us to Him.

Let us take the bread

1 Corinthians 11:23–24 ESV

For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

Let us take the cup

1 Corinthians 11:25–26 ESV

In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.