Communion: Are You Making a Mockery of It?

By Ethan Long

Communion. We're going to do that in a little bit. Christ doesn't give out the command to do communion mindlessly.

It's not a mindless thing we're supposed to do and he doesn't do it flippantly you think about all the bajillions of things the Israelites were supposed to do that were communion, like like commands of this is do this, this way, this way, a certain way, and stuff like that. And it pictures this and that and stuff. And they had Jillian, and we don't have nearly as many, we have communion here, but the picture pictures is so amazing and awesome and we need to take it seriously, much like Israel was supposed to take it seriously.

And we're going to look in two places today, in Amos four, but also in one Corinthians, more traditional communion passage. And you see with Paul, there are people that are not taking it seriously and there are consequences. And we see here in Amos, which will look at there are people that are not taking their commands serious either.

So join me, we'll pray, actually, and then we'll jump right into it. Lord, thank you for this example here in Amos and in Corinthians so that we can look at it and evaluate how people could respond to Your command of this picture, of keeping this picture of Communion, Lord, and help. US as we evaluate ourselves, that we would be thinking about how we treat communion, how we handle it, and how we handle ourselves as Christians, Lord, and help us to be honest with ourselves so that we can glorify you with this time today.

Your name, I pray. Amen. All right, Amos, chapter four.

In verse one, Amos lays out Israel's wickedness and God's judgment. Little context here. Amos is a prophet.

He's speaking to the northern half of Israel, are called Israel in Scripture. They split at this point. So there's Israel and there's Judah.

He's primarily talking to Israel right now, and he doesn't have good things to say about them here because that's what God told him to say. He's going to say it, he says, picking up in the middle here. Hear this word, you cows of Bashan, who are on the mountains of Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who say to your husbands, bring wine, let us drink the Lord God has sworn by his holiness.

Behold, the day shall come upon you when he will take you away with fish hooks and your posterity with fish hooks. You will go out through broken walls, each one straight ahead of her, and you will be cast into Harmon, says the Lord. Hear this, Israel your cows.

No, not the men, just the women, your cows. Hi. Well, what I would never call any woman ever a cow, I guess, unless God told me to, I guess, which is Amos here, he gets the privilege of being able to say you're a cow without sinning.

Quite the statement to say that of any woman. Yeah, I know. Like, this guy getting slapped.

Just saying. There's going to be a lot of very upset people calls them cows. And we know that because later he's talking about the women.

Why does he call them cows? Cows of Bashan? Well, Bashan is a specific region. Israel described in scripture as being bound to full and good harvest there and stuff like that. So he's saying, you're in this area and you're reaping all the benefits of it, and you're stuffing yourselves like cows.

And he says, they're on the mountain of Samaria, and there on this mountain, they are oppressing the poor, they're crushing the needy. They're thinking only about themselves, not to pick on women. The men are terrible in this situation, too, but he's mainly talking about the women here.

You're oppressing the poor, you're crushing the needy, you're thinking about themselves, taking for yourself. And you say to your husbands, so we know who's wearing the pants in this relationship. You're saying to your husbands, bring wine, let us drink.

Let's get drunk. We're pleasing ourselves with this food and the pleasures, and let's get drunk and not even think about it some more. Wow, these are great women, but I digress.

Where are the men? They're not there. They're not leading. They're not like, hey, actually we shouldn't do that.

Like, okay. Right away, Ma'am. They're carrying it out, too.

They're just as bad. And the fact that they're not mentioned much here or pointed out almost seems worse to me anyways. So he goes on and says, the Lord God has sworn by his holiness, behold, the day shall come upon you when he will take you away with fish hooks and your posterity.

With fish hooks. Fish hook today we think of a long stick. It's got a little hook on the end.

You hook onto something in case fish to pull. I don't think this really means fish hooks here. My own study.

There's difficulty here in translating it, but it seems more likely that they had, like the idea is like having like a ring implanted somewhere in your body and then looped and you're pulled by that ring is the idea. But either way, if it's that or maybe they did have fish hooks, like we would think of today, either way, they're being dragged off, not of their own will. They're going to be taken away.

Your things that you're enjoying and loving and stuff like that, they're going to be taken away in the same way against your will. And you're going to go out through broken walls, meaning the walls that are like their key defensive thing are going to be destroyed. Each one straight ahead of her.

The idea being the walls are completely down there's no, like, well, we put up a good fight and then we surrendered and they marched us out our gate. No, the walls are down. It was completely, utterly there was no surrender.

They captured you and they're dragging you out and you're going out over the walls. You're completely desolate and destroyed. And this last bit here, you will be cast into Harmon, says Lord Harmon.

Okay, when in the world is Harmon? I don't know, actually, and I don't know anyone that does on Earth today. Anyways, with confidence. Anyways, Harmon, the word for that is palace, and most translations think that and translate it this way, that's referring to a specific place, but there's all sorts of difficulty.

Exactly what specific place this is referring to? Is it referring to a specific place? The idea, though, is against their will, they're being cast into something, and most people think it's palace here, and harmony was a specific palace, but the idea being drug away from your home, thrown into somebody else's palace, and not in a positive way. So you're there for their pleasure or entertainment is the idea. Now, there's a lot of debate about that, but obviously the idea is it's not a positive thing.

We can definitely rest assured in that. So the consequences for how they're acting, which we haven't even I mean, we did a little bit, we touched on part of it. The consequences for how they're acting are very severe here, very severe.

We're going to continue on here to verse four where they're making a mockery with their false worship of God. This is why we're here today, actually, is this chunk of scripture. Not that we can't learn from the other.

We just needed some context. Verse four says, come to Bethel and transgress at Gilgal multiply transgression, bring your sacrifices every morning, your tithes every three days. Offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven proclaim and announce the free will of offerings.

For this you love children of Israel, says the Lord God. All right, so at face value, I remember hearing this when I was a kid and like, I don't know, it's out of context or if I wasn't paying attention, then I started paying attention. I don't know.

But these few verses and like, okay, they're offering sacrifices at thanksgiving. They're doing it every morning and they're bringing ties. Okay, so when all these terrible things are doing, they're doing good right here, but they're not actually everything here is like, you guys are doing it bad and doing wrong.

So let's break that down. Come to Bethel and transgress. Okay, context here.

Israelites are supposed to go and sacrifice in the temple, which is where? Honest question. Jerusalem. Yeah.

Okay, very well. Thank you, Sean. All right, so they're supposed to go to Jerusalem.

They're not doing that. They're going to Bethel. When they split apart, people in Israel realize, oh, if we're obeying God, they're going to go to Jerusalem, which is not in our country anymore.

So let's set up a new place, Bethel. Okay, so they're not going to Jerusalem. They're going to this other place, which God didn't set up for them to do.

They're multiplying their transgressions. They're doing all these wrong things and then they bring sacrifices every morning. Oh, that sounds good.

Oh, they're bringing sacrifices. Okay, but why are you doing these wrong things? Why not stop doing the wrong things and then bring sacrifices? What's going on here? Okay, they're bringing ties every three days. Wow.

Do offering once a week. They're doing every three days. I mean, that's pretty good.

They're giving their money. That sounds great, right? But why are they doing this? You offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving. Wow, sacrifice thanksgiving, that's awesome.

With leaven. Wait a second, our sacrifice aren't supposed to have leaven. Even if you're an Israelite.

Why? Why are they putting leaven in it? What does leaven do? Make it taste better. Make it yummier. Fluffier.

If you think about for Israel how they were commanded to the priests, they would get a lot of the bread afterward. It was set aside for them. Now if they have some priests here and it's the priests who are getting this bread and they really don't care, and your food comes and you're like, I would like it tastier.

Can you put leaven in that? Because they really don't care. Spoiler here. They really don't care.

Put some leaven in it. What about the picture? Put leaven in it'll, taste better. Maybe they're even eating their own sacrifices.

Proclaim and announce the free will offerings for this you love children of Israel. Free will. Hey, pal, I want to help you.

I see your need. I'm going to help you. Wow, that was so nice, guys.

I helped this poor guy on the street, I didn't even know him, and I gave him some money and helped him of my own free will. I'm so great. They're doing these free will offerings, which is like, oh, cool, they don't have to that's nice, that's great.

But they're telling everybody about it. The goal is to be seen, to be heard. Sounds like Pharisees a little bit here.

Well, a lot, actually. Praying on street corners. Look at me, I'm praying.

This is awesome. And they're doing the same. They're doing it to be seen.

They're making these sacrifices. They're not doing them the way God says. They're going out and sinning a bunch and they go give these ties and these sacrifices to be seen, to make themselves feel better in some way.

Maybe they're thinking, well, it'll cover my sin and it'll be okay, and I'll go out and do some more. I'll just look good to everyone else. Whatever their motivation, I can't know their hearts, their specific human hearts, but their hearts are not about doing what God says and doing it the way he says.

They don't care about the picture that God has given them to keep it. Their focus is on something else, and they're making a mockery with their false worship of God. And as we talked about, the consequences are severe.

And Amos continues to go on about how bad it is. I overthrew some of you as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you are like a firebrand plucked from burning, yet you have not returned to me, says the Lord. Therefore, thus will I do to you, O Israel, because I will do this to you.

Prepare to meet your God, O Israel. Sounds like a movie line. Awesome.

Prepare to meet your God. Sounds cool. But then you really think about like, oh, man, this is scary.

Prepare to meet your God. Guys, this is what's going to happen. He gives this example, this illustration.

You're like a firebrand in the fire. Now a firebrand, if it's in the fire, everything else is on fire. You don't want to be that stuff.

And that's you guys. And I pulled you out, I plucked you out. You're still going, but I'm throwing you back in, baby.

Like, this is it. Prepare to meet your God. The way you guys are behaving and acting and stuff like that.

Prepare to meet your God. They're on the verge of destruction. It's letter C.

They're on the verge of destruction. Now we can look at this and I do this. I look at Israel and like, yikes, they're wicked.

Wow, they're terrible. They're awful. Okay, yeah.

And sin is sin and is awful and is wicked. It's true. Statement.

But I say that and I'm thinking, they are a lot worse than me. And I could never do anything like that. And it's true, because I'm not an Israelite, I could never do this.

But I certainly can do some other things that are just as wicked and just as awful in a way of transgressing and ruining the picture that God has given us. And that's where Paul is going to jump in here number two. Paul paints a similar picture of twisted remembrance and worship here with the church.

He writes to the Corinthian Church. Again, here. This is one Corinthians, 1117 to 34.

And they have twisted the picture to please themselves. Much like the Israelites, they had this picture, they were supposed to keep it, and they have twisted and stored it and ruined it. And the Corinthians have done it in their own way.

Let's see how they've done it and then evaluate ourselves today as we do this. Verse 17. Sorry, I'm going to get a drink really quick so I don't die halfway through here.

All right. Now, in giving these instructions, I do not praise you since you come together not for the better, but for the worse. For first of all, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you.

And in part, I believe it, for there must also be factions among you that those who are approved may be recognized among you. Therefore, when you come together in one place is not to eat the Lord's supper for an eating. Each one takes his own supper ahead of others and one is hungry and another is drunk.

What, do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or you despise the church of God and shame those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I do not praise you. So Paul checking up on the church here in Corinth and I've heard that you guys are divided. There's divisions.

I believe it because I've heard about how you're doing communion. And what's going on here is that there is some group of people seems likely that it's the wealthier portion of the church, maybe the people that don't have to work as long or something like that. And they're here at a certain time and all the food is there and stuff and they're just gorging themselves on the food and to the point that they're even getting drunk here while this is happening.

There's a lot of wrong here with this. And if you manage to get stuffed on this today, I don't know how, I mean, you must have a really tiny stomach like, well, this will never happen to us, but we can commit this same sin. I guess we have a meal later.

So maybe you're focused on stuffing yourself downstairs and you're not going to think about this or over there. I don't know where we're eating. Actually.

I'm thinking back to when I was younger, but you could focus on that and commit the same sin. But typically we do communion. It's like, well, stuffing myself isn't really an option.

I probably get slapped or something like that. But here you got to think about the culture though and cooking is a whole lot harder. My wife cooking is hard now.

Back then was a whole lot harder, took a lot more time. And so if you're making food, we're having a meal and they would have these meals and people are coming from maybe quite a ways away and to go back home and then make food when you get home after a long walk. Let's just eat when we're there.

Let's all eat together. Let's be together as a church. It's a great picture actually.

Think about like it was a big investment to be there as part of the church, not just a check mark. I filled the pew on Sunday for an hour and a half or whatever and went home. It was a big deal.

And they're coming and these factions, this rich faction, it appears is gorging themselves. And then the other people, they show up later and there's nothing even left for them. They can't even do the picture in a sense.

And that's what you guys are calling church for Paul, this has got to be error, error, error, error. Like, okay, Jesus came and he talks about the poor and loving the poor and how it's easier for the poor man versus the rich man. And like you guys are all so backwards like, what are you doing? You completely ruined this.

I can't praise you for this. I mean, you're doing communion, but you're not doing communion, not the right way. You've completely twisted the picture and you're making yourself happy, much like the Israelites were that point in time, but you're not making God happy.

He continues on in verse 23 and he says, For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, take, eat. This is my body which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of Me.

And in the same manner, he also took the cup after supper, saying, this cup is a new covenant in My blood. This do as often as you drink it in remembrance of Me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you've proclaimed the Lord's death till he comes.

He recaps, okay, this is how communion is supposed to be. The bread is going to remind you of what Christ did. Going for really short summary here.

And the cup is going to remind you of what Christ did in the new covenant. So here is what you're supposed to be focused on. It's Christ.

And you guys are not focused on that at all. But it's not just Christ alone, it's what Christ has done. Christ, he died for the sins of the whole world.

The bread, Christ's body, helps us to remember our need of a Savior, and Christ gave his body to accomplish that, to pay for our sins. The cup reminds us of, yes, we think blood typically, but he does mention blood. But the thing we're supposed to pull away from that is the new covenant.

We're not under like Old Testament law and keeping all the laws of Israel and stuff like that. We're on something far greater. We're under mercy, we're under grace.

Christ has accomplished the thing he pictured for humanity, for Israel for so long. It's been accomplished. You can trust in Christ as your Savior today and you have the church and a new way of doing things.

And the cup helps us remember that. But as Paul says here in One Corinthians ten, it's not just about you and what Christ has done. There's a little more than that.

One Corinthians 1015 through 17, it says, I'll get there, maybe I won't. Did I pass it over? I did not. I'm behind.

There we go. All right, one Corinthians 1015 through 17 it says, I speak as to wise men, judge for yourselves what I say. The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ.

The bread which we break is not the communion of the body of Christ. For we, though many, are one bread and one body, for we all partake of that one bread here. He hammers home the point, like, yes, Christ, and we're all one body in this.

If you're a believer today, you're part of the body of Christ and we're supposed to be concerned with the body of Christ. Like if your hand goes rogue, which could happen with some sort of health problem or something like that, it's not helping. The rest of your body fighting against it doesn't help.

And in the same way we're supposed to be concerned about our church, in this case our local church, we're supposed to make that a priority. We're supposed to be believers are to be living together for Christ, not go to church, do communion, go home, go to church, do communion, think about the body of Christ. That's a big part of it.

God doesn't command you to do communion on your own. I know a lot of people as they talk, it sounds weird because I haven't encountered it much until recently, I guess. But I know a lot of people who probably because of COVID I guess they don't go to church, they live stream a service and watch something, which is neat, I guess.

I'm glad you live stream something, but it's not really going to church and being part of a church. And they do communion on their own. But you're supposed to come together to do communion.

You've completely lost a massive chunk. The church is completely absent there. And we're supposed to be doing communion together as a group because you're supposed to be caring about the Bible in the same way that Christ cares for you and for others, we're supposed to be caring about others as well.

Number three, the church should be taking communion and you need to keep the picture in focus. Verse 27 we see some consequences here for the Corinthian church, much like there are consequences for Israel. Paul says Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.

You're doing this and you're twisting this picture and doing all these things. That's sinful, that's wrong, that's bad. It's not just because you drank the cup and ate the bread.

If you got wrong things in relation to that, it's not good now, it's just not magically good. Verse 28 but let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.

For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world.

Therefore, my brethren, when you come together, eat, wait for one another. But if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, lest you come together for judgment and the rest. I will set an order when I come.

There are consequences for them. There's physical consequences for how they have done communion. Now, today, what could that look like for us today? Because yeah, we don't have to worry about gorging ourselves.

So I have a few questions. I don't think they're up on the screen, if I remember right. No.

All right, so my questions for you today as we're about to take communion, why are you doing it? Are you doing it to feel good? It's a bunch of people here. You know them pretty well. Yep.

I'm going to take communion and do it with them. It'll be kind of fun. You're like Israel somehow.

It'll cover my sins. Doing communion or something like that can go about my old business or is this just a check mark maybe making a mockery of it, if that's what you're doing it for. Are you praising God while doing communion? Is it? Wow, God, you've done this amazing and awesome thing for me.

Yes. Are you reminded of what Christ did and that's going to motivate you as you go out into the world, as you go outside of your box with the people here today and encourage them, admonish them. It's not just out in the world, it's here in the church as well.

Are you even thinking about it? I mean, I'm human. I went here for a long time. There are times where I was thinking about after Celtics game thing with friends and really wasn't thinking about communion yet.

As God gives us this, we're supposed to remember, which means you got to engage that brain, actually got to think about what's going on. So are you thinking about it? Are you letting other things distract you today? Are you thinking about those around you, the flock Jesus died for? So if you come, you eat but you don't care. You have ruined and twisted the picture.

Let's not let that be the case today, all right? As I pray, take a moment to consider these things. If you're a Christian believer today and you've been baptized, I encourage you you'd be part of a church, you'd be taking communion and keeping this picture that Christ has given and I would challenge you to do that. There's no command in Scripture that says don't take communion because you're living in sin.

No, there's turn from your sin and do communion much like any other sin. Well, I told a lie. I guess I'm stuck.

No, turn from your sin right then and be done with it. So I would challenge you today to consider yourself as we pray, think about why are we doing this, what is my motivation in doing this? And turn to God and think about and react in the way that he wants us to from this picture. So let's pray then.

We'll have the men come forward. Heavenly Father, lord, thank you for this picture of communion. And Lord, help me today to really grasp and think about what You've done for me and for everyone here, Lord.

And I would pray that if there's someone here today who maybe this is news to them about communion and what the gospel is and what it pictures, there would be a testimony to them of what you've done and that we're a church and we're a church and a body lord and the need to be unified in glorifying you and caring about one another. And Lord, help us to be considering ourselves today and how we should respond to Your word. In your name I pray Amen.

Right, the men would come forward, whoever those men may be. All right, as we get here, I'll talk in a little bit as we get it, but if Lynn, if you would pray for the bread and then break it and then pass it out for us along with others, lord, Father, we just thank you for this day, thank you for the remembrance, Lord, for the bread. Your body is broken for us, Lord.

Think about how we can share love shows to us, Lord, by send your Son coming across on this earth among us to die for us. Your Bible. Broken cross.

Lord, as I was sitting there thinking about this it's such a simple picture when you think about it. It could have been something so fancy and so awesome, so like your favorite food or something like that.

But it's a simple thing. But it's at that time a daily staple, if you will. And Christ is our daily staple.

We have to have Him if we want to have any relationship with Him of any real hope. It's because of what Christ did for us. And as we take the bread today, let's really think about how Christ gave of his body, of Himself for us, a wicked sinner, while we were still sinners.

Let's eat the bread. Jonathan, would you pray for the cup? Then the men can hand it out. Thank you again for what? We didn't deserve it, but SA SA sam ram SA as we take this cup, Christ gives this picture right before he's about to go die on the cross, be persecuted, be killed for having done no wrong.

He gives us this picture and he tells it to do it often, to remember Him. And with this, yes, we think of his blood and physically what he did as God poured his wrath on his son, but also as picture the new covenants and the reality of what that accomplished for us. Which is, yes, we can have a relationship with God.

We can look forward to eternity with God without sickness and strife and struggles. But also today we have a glimpse of that here with the Church and with other Christians around you. We are part of a body that Christ has done for us.

So as we. Take this cup. Let us think about that, all right? Thomas, would you close us in prayer for the sacrifice you made for us to bring us into your body together here? I pray we wouldn't forget that and that we would enjoy our time of fellowship this afternoon and just really appreciate all the gifts you give us in your name.