Communion
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It is possible that the central aspect of first century services was the Lord’s Supper, it is a central part of our services every week, but it is also important that we occasionally turn our complete attention to this table.
You guys have been troopers as you have been consuming the Styrofoam version of the body of Christ and who knows how old grape juice due to COVID for 3 years now, we are finally moving back to the better way, today in fact Nathan Wight has made himself the unleavened bread for us.
My sermon this morning will serve as the communion devotional, we will then take communion together, and then we will finish as normal.
I want to focus on this table from the two angles that the Bible emphasizes most clearly
COMMUNION IS COMMUNAL
Rene that is so obvious, yeah it should be, but for some reason it seems we have moved away from this being a moment of community and into this being a moment of individuality.
TEXT – 1 CORINTHIANS 11:17-34
The Corinthians came together to eat the Lord’s Supper, which shows that the Lord’s Supper was a communal event, not a private meal eaten at home.
5 Times in 1 Corinthians 11 Paul says in reference to taking the Lord’s supper, “WHEN YOU COME TOGETHER.”
Why not just, do this on Sunday when you get a chance. . .
The Lord’s Supper can not really be done as it is meant on your own, it must be done with each other. (SICK – joined by someone from the church) Each week we come together and together, as one body, as one bride of Christ, take the body and the cup and drink.
In the upper room, Christ doesn’t take communion with each of them individually, he could have done that, he could have taken each of them aside . . .
Communion isn’t just an I thing, it’s a WE thing.
Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.
and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ.
Paul has already forged a close connection between the broken body of Christ and the one body which is the church.
Christ, by his death, has made all believers ONE, adopted us all into one family as siblings, and unified us.
THE PROBLEM that Paul is dealing with here in Corinth is that they aren’t acting unified, they aren’t acting like the ONE that they are, the family and body that they are.
He shocks them and says, you claim you are taking Lord’s Supper
When you come together, it is not the Lord’s supper that you eat.
but what you’re doing isn’t HIS, This isn’t the Lord’s Supper! Why? Because they were divided
For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk.
and thus proclaiming the opposite of what the supper is meant to proclaim.
Some scholars think that the wealthier and higher status people would eat first and then whatever was left would go to the poorer lower status people, some think that each was bringing their own meal and so the rich had a lot and the poor had nothing. The result is the same either way, what Christ intended as a unifying family supper remembering and celebrating the unifying blood of Christ they had used as another opportunity for division and status.
Their actions contradict what Christ accomplished in his death since they are splitting apart the church that Christ has united. The problem was that they weren’t eating as one, and the wealthier were not loving the poorer.
So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another—
– wait for one another or share with one another
This should also help us better understand the words that we often quote from this chapter
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.
What is the CONTEXT? – BEFORE AND AFTER these words, HE IS TALKING ABOUT UNITY, and them being DIVIDED while taking COMMUNION, he doesn’t change subjects in the middle!
His main point when he says that one should not eat unworthily or without examining oneself isn’t primarily about looking at your sins over the past week, but eating it unworthily is eating it divided/while being unloving to those you eat alongside!
When he says for whoever eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself, he doesn’t mean without considering your body, but the body of Christ!
If you had to determine if you were worthy before you took the Lord’s supper, the ones who decided they were worthy are actually the ones who aren’t. Christians know deeply that we are not worthy of this table!
But if we aren’t loving each other, expressing unity, then we are bringing discipline on ourselves from God.
The problem with the view we traditionally take with this passage of inner piety, INSTEAD of viewing this supper as God’s saving action toward us and our fellowship with each other in Christ and in the Gospel, we end up just using it as another opportunity to be threatened with the law. Instead of celebrating the foretaste of the marriage supper of the Lamb on Mount Zion, we are still trembling at the foot of Mount Sinai. It is no wonder then, that there is a diminished interest in frequent communion.
You are welcome at this table if you have bowed to Christ, NOT because you are worthy, but because you dear poor and helpless beggar have been invited here by the King, you are welcome here because of what we come to remember.
COMMUNION IS MEMORIAL
This do In remembrance of me
The Lord’s Supper is a stark reminder, time after time, that Christianity is not new-age spirituality. It is not getting in touch with your inner being. It is not mysticism. It is rooted in historical facts. Jesus lived. He had a body and a heart that pumped blood and skin that bled. He died publicly on a Roman cross in the place of sinners so that anyone who believes on him might be rescued from the wrath of God. That happened once and for all in history. The Gospel is not life advice – it is news about what happened in history 2,000 years ago and what it can mean for you.
Therefore, the mental action of the Lord’s Supper is foundationally remembering. Not passive or mystic . . . Move your brain to remember, aim it at remembering
Remembering what? That the Lamb of God has taken away your sin and OUR sin and made us a way to know God both now and forevermore.
Passover was the most important festival on their calendar, it was the central meal, the preeminent memorial, the holiday of holidays, bigger than Christmas today to us, millions of Jews every year…
Exodus 12:3-13
Brief History
Plagues both to show Egypt his power and Israel his power
To get Israel out of Egypt and Egypt out of Israel . . .
Last plague was the plague of plagues, this is the one where God tells Israel to get ready
The connection to what Christ does for us is unmistakable, this Passover is a foreshadowing…
READ
Specific Instructions
Kill the Lamb
There is no salvation without killing the lamb, he doesn’t say go in your house and pray hard enough, place your trust in your good deeds.
There is a substitute that must be offered, a death that will take place everywhere, in their house it will be the firstborn, in your house it will be the lamb, who is the substitute – Kill the Lamb
If there is no death of the lamb, there will not be deliverance
2. Apply the Blood
It is the blood of the lamb that will keep the angel of death away.
Lev 17:11
There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Immanuels veins, and sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains
3. Stay Inside
Don’t go out.
Keile and Dailish in their commentary – “The reason for the command not to go out of the door of the house was that in this night of judgment, there would be no safety anywhere except behind the blood stained door.”
To leave your house would be to say “I am afraid, and I believe I can find salvation somewhere out there.” That’s the only reason youd leave, or unspeakable pride!
The moment you walk out you are not trusting by faith, you leave and you die. There is salvation in nowhere else than the blood. If you leave the blood stained door, where will you run, where will you hide, Saints stay inside!
You are often tempted to look elsewhere, stay inside
Things get difficult and you get scared, stay inside
Things arent going according to plan and you want to go back to what is familiar, what used to work for you, stay inside
There is nowhere else!
Moses and the Israelites had no idea of what they were foreshadowing, all they were thinking about was temporal salvation from Egypt, what they would have given Saints to have the fuller picture…
Year after year they celebrated the Passover and year after year a lamb was slain and year after year there was the reminder of the blood, year after year reminded that God deals with sin through the death of a lamb, and all of a sudden, Jesus shows up, and John says, “Behold, the Lamb of God . . .” (John 1:29, 36) that is how he is introduced!
And in the midst of this ceremony, at the VERY TIME of sacrifice, Christ dies
They know what this means, this is what God has been saying, year after year, day after day
And the apostles see it clearly, and know the weight of this imagery!
And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.
Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.
In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,
But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.
for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
Then in Revelation it is made clear - Jesus is the Lion of Judah who is also the Slain Lamb that the angels cry out to
Revelation 5:12 (ESV)
saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!”
Then I looked, and behold, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads.
We come now joining in that millenia long procession, in that ceremonial remembering of the blood of the Lamb.
Not declaring that we are worthy of this table, but sitting beneath the blood on the doorpost and on our foreheads knowing that IT is our only hope, and knowing that IT is enough for all of our sins. – John 6:54-56
Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.
Lord’s Supper –
We come to the new Passover meal, remembering the ultimate lamb that was shed as our substitute, whose blood we have applied to our whole selves, and in whom we are abiding and staying, we have come to remember that he will pass over us when he comes again because of Christ.
We come to this table today to remember that God has adopted you into a greater family, that here you meet with brothers and sisters, and you are called to love them well as you are ONE with them.
We come again and again to renew our vows to our covenant not JUST to God but ALSO to each other, as we look around and see all of our brothers and sisters taking the same vow with us. So we renew our own vows to God, to each other and more important than both of those is we come again and again to hear God renew his vows to us! We come again and again to hear God say don’t forget I bought you and I’d buy you again today, don’t forget I wanted you and I want you today, Don’t forget that I chose to give my body and blood for you and I would do it again today, don’t forget how expensive you were and how overwhelmingly willing I was to pay the price and I would pay it again today! We come every week to hear God again say I AM COMMITTED TO YOU!
I’m going to ask the first group of guys that are passing communion to go ahead and come up here (Tranthams
As we gather around this table now:
I want you to realize that you are one with every other person in this room who takes this bread and cup.
I want you to consider yourself and if you are loving these people well and acting as the One that God has made you.
I want you to recognize that by doing this, you again announce your vows to God and the world that you are His forever.
I want you not to use this as another opportunity to be cast down by the law, but as another opportunity to be lifted up by the Gospel
I want you to remember that Jesus is the True Lamb of God that all those other lambs for thousands of years were just a shadow, and his blood has taken all of your sin away once and for all.
I want you to recognize around this table that God is again announcing his vows to you, reminding you that He wanted you and still does.
If you are not submitted to Christ, this table is not for you, though the invitation to you has been permanently offered . . . if you ARE bowed to his Lordship, whether you are a member of this church or not, we want you to join us.
Take this bread and this cup now, Calling on the name of the Lord.
Believing Participants – By gathered family, not for unbelievers, but we are proclaiming to each other and unbeliever
NEED A SERVANT, OR 2