Communion

Introduction:

Close to 2,000 years ago Jesus sat with His closest friends and followers as He celebrated the Passover meal before He would hours later be arrested, nailed to a cross, die, and 3 days later raise from the dead.

During that Passover meal Jesus instituted the first communion and instructed everyone there and us today to continue to do that until He returns again.

Today we will do communion together like we do on a monthly basis, but it is important to know why we are doing it and the significance of it.

When we partake in communion we:

Remembering the past.

Understanding the present.

Looking forward to the future.

Open your Bibles to Matthew 26:26-30

Point 1: When we partake in communion we remember the past of what Jesus did.

When we take communion, one thing that we are doing is remembering what Jesus has done for us.

Communion is a reminder to us that Jesus, the Son of God, willingly gave up His life for us so that we can live.

Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

We are all guilty of sin and deserve death, but Jesus died for us so that we can live.

God commanded the Israelites to celebrate certain feasts in the Bible which were reminders to them of God’s faithfulness.

I need to constantly remind myself of God’s faithfulness in my life—how God has been so faithful before in certain situations so He will be faithful to us now.

One of those feasts that they were required to celebrate yearly was Passover.

Turn your Bibles with me to Exodus 12:21-28

God told the Israelites to sacrifice a lamb and put the blood on the doorposts of the house where they were staying so that when the Lord passed by He would not bring harm to that house and a distinction would be made from the Israelites and everyone else.

They were protected by the blood and death passed over them.

Jesus died for us all as our Passover Lamb.

Can you put yourself in this story for just a minute?

Can you imagine being in this situation and already seeing the other 9 plagues God sent?

I would be completely certain that this was going to happen.

I guarantee you I would be doing exactly what God commanded—the blood would be on the doorposts of our house.

John the Baptist referred to Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

Church, when we accept Jesus into our hearts and ask Him to forgive our sins and make us clean, we are then covered by the blood of the Lamb of God.

. We can be sure that if we are covered by the blood of Jesus eternal death will pass by us.

Paul says, in 1 Corinthians 15:55, “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting? It has been swallowed up in victory.”

When we have the blood of Jesus covering us Spiritually we are marked and a distinction is made between us and the rest of the world that we belong to God.

A thousand may fall at our side; ten thousand at our right hand, but it will not come near our dwelling.

The blood of Jesus over our family, house, marriage, kids, grandchildren, separates us from the world and keeps the enemy away.

The Israelites back then had a choice—listen to the Lord’s instructions or not.

What do you think would have happened to a house of Israelites if they did not apply the blood on the doorposts of their house?

They would have experienced death in their family.

We have the choice to apply the blood of Jesus over our lives.

The precious blood of Jesus.

In Matthew 26:27-29, the Bible says, “Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you, I will not drink from this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.”

The blood of Jesus also represents the New Covenant that we are under.

We no longer need to bring animals as a sacrifice to the temple for the forgiveness of our sins.

Hebrews 9:22 says, “Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”

We are forgiven of our sins and made right before the Father because of the blood that Jesus shed for us as our Passover lamb.

The Bible also teaches that it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away our sins.

So, those who sacrificed animals under the Old Covenant did so believing that the blood of those animals would cover up their sins, but under the New covenant the blood of Jesus takes our sins away and we can have a clear conscience of this.

We can live a life free from guilt and shame.

If God has forgiven you, then you can forgive yourself and others.

Communion reminds us that we are marked by the blood of Jesus, completely washed clean of all of our sins, having them removed from us.

Taking communion says, “May I die so He can live. Its not about me but You Jesus. I humble myself realizing that You are the reason I will live.”

Point 2: Understanding the present that communion is a picture of fellowship.

When we take communion together it is a great picture of just as Jesus broke the bread and said that that bread represents His body, we are all taking part in this together as the body of Christ.

Jesus celebrated the Passover Meal, which we refer to as the Last supper, at the table with His closest friends and followers.

God desires us to sit at the table He has prepared for us to have fellowship with Him.

Fellowship in the Greek is the word ‘koin/o/nia” which is a word that means much more than normal fellowship.

It is a deep, spiritual connection to one another.

When we are in “koinonia” with God, we have a connection with Him on such a deep level that nothing can separate us.

We don’t just have fellowship with Him like you would a high school friend, but the “koinonia” fellowship says that I’m am willing to lay down my life for you.

We can have this type of intimate fellowship with God because we have His spirit living inside of us.

Not only do we have this “koinonia” fellowship with God, but we have it with our brothers and sisters in the Lord.

In Acts 2:42 the Bible says,“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, the “koinonia”, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.”

We can have this relationship with one another because we all have God’s Spirit living in us and binds us all together.

When we all participate in communion together it is also a picture that we are all bound together by the Holy Spirit that was only sent to us because of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.

Point 3: Looking forward to the future.

Communion also reminds us that as we live as ambassadors of Jesus on this earth we should be doing everything that He commanded us to do.

Communion is saying yes to the life of Jesus and no to our earthly desires.

When we all take communion in a few minutes we should all understand that this is also a prophetic statement that we are saying, “More of You Lord and less of me.”

Not only should we look at our lives in the past and repent of any sins that we may have before we do communion, but we should also look forward and know that by us taking communion we are saying that we will do our very best to live in obedience to the Lord.

Jesus said, in Mark 14:25 ““Truly I tell you, I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”

Most scholars agree that Jesus is referring to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb where all the saints gather together in Heaven for a great feast.

This is where the Bride of Christ which is the Church will be forever united with the Groom which is the Lord and we will experience the greatest feast ever.

This is what we all get to look forward to.

Conclusion:

Communion is so much more than eating a wafer and drinking some juice.

Even though we do not believe that it turns into the actual body and blood of Jesus, we do believe that Jesus commanded us to take part in communion until He returns again.

Communion is a reminder to us of:

The past in what Jesus has done for us.

The present in the fellowship that we have God and each other.

The future i how we should live and what we get to look forward to.