Why Do We Take Communion?

Introduction

Illustration: To be honest, now that I’m an adult probably my favorite part of most holidays is the food. I can say that without guilty conscience because we celebrate many holidays that aren’t about Jesus like Canada Day, Fathers Day, Mothers Day, et cetera.

I believe that God honors that desire in us to a degree, because a lot of the holidays that He mandated for the Israelites in the Old Testament are about food. In fact one thing I wish we took from the Old Testament is the fact that a few of those holidays were celebrated with an entire week of feasting. Of course Katie and I once ate turkey dinner for months, but that was because we bought a whole turkey for just the two of us for thanksgiving during the Covid lockdowns.

In any case, one of those festivals where the Israelites would feast for a week was Passover. It was a celebration of God delivering the Israelites from Egypt, and served as a way to act out history and enshrine it in the memory of the nation forever. Jesus gave new meaning to Passover when He shared it with His disciples during His time physically on earth. This became what we now call communion, which we share together every single Sunday that we gather.

This is Sermon 5 in our Summer series simply called “why?” where we take a look at the things that we do as a church and explore the reasons behind them so that we can do them better and with the right attitude and heart so that we can be better disciples of Jesus. So besides the fact that Jesus asked us to, why do we do communion? To answer that question today we’re going to take a look at 1 Corinthians 11:20-29. For context Paul is writing to the Corinthian church to correct the way that they have been wrongly sharing communion. Hence why this passage starts out so negatively.

1 Corinthians 11:20–29 CSB

When you come together, then, it is not to eat the Lord’s Supper. For at the meal, each one eats his own supper. So one person is hungry while another gets drunk! Don’t you have homes in which to eat and drink? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What should I say to you? Should I praise you? I do not praise you in this matter! For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, and said, “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. So, then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sin against the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself; in this way let him eat the bread and drink from the cup. For whoever eats and drinks without recognizing the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself.

So if you recall, in our first sermon on why we come to church we saw that the early church as our example devoted themselves to four things, as we read in Acts 2:42

Acts 2:42 CSB

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer.

The breaking of bread here probably means communion. For this reason in the Christian Church it is our conviction that we should share in communion together every week as the early church was in the practice of doing in order to fulfill Jesus’ command to his disciples. So we dedicate time every single sunday to communion, but it is not enough just to go through the motions, especially not for the sake of this sermon series. The Bible gives us the reasons behind why Jesus asked us to do this, and I think the reason God inspired those words, which we believe as a church about all Scripture, is because He knows us so well. He knows that we are prone to grow bored with the things that repeat in our lives. He knew that if we did communion every week without explanation that it would become a boring ritual. This is why He tells through Paul these three key reasons why we eat the bread and drink the cup every week.

We take communion in the words of Jesus in order to remember Him and what He has done on our behalf. We take communion together so that we can by this act proclaim Jesus death to one another and to the world. We take communion in order to share deeply in fellowship as a united body of believers in Jesus. Let’s take a look at these three reasons together today.

To Remember

Illustration: Why do we celebrate holidays? Usually to remember something significant in the past that was deemed extra important to remember.

Although every year we have a special Weekend to remember what Jesus did on the cross, Easter weekend, in a way every Sunday is “Resurrection Sunday.” In the time of Jesus the Jewish people worshipped together every Saturday on the Sabbath. It wasn’t until after the resurrection that the disciples of Jesus began to meet together every Sunday instead of Saturday, because this was the day of the week that Jesus was raised from the dead.

And every one of those Sundays they would participate in a meal together that commemorated what Jesus did. So in a way Sunday is a holiday that happens every single week to remember the immensely important moment where Jesus died for our sins and then rose from the dead. This is why Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11:23-25

1 Corinthians 11:23–25 CSB

For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”

Paul is of course repeating the command of Jesus Himself to the twelve disciples when He instituted communion, as recorded in Luke 22:19-20

Luke 22:19–20 CSB

And he took bread, gave thanks, broke it, gave it to them, and said, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way he also took the cup after supper and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.

So what reason is Jesus giving to the disciples with this command to eat the bread and drink the cup? He asks them to do so “in rememberance of me.” It is a physical act that serves as a reminder of Jesus’ body which was broken on our behalf, and His blood which was poured out on our behalf. So why do we need so many reminders? While other churches may take communion less often it is our conviction that we ought to take communion as often as we gather for worship, based on the practice of the early church in Scripture.

But many churches who are less strict about emulating the early church argue that taking communion every single week leads to the act becoming stale and repetitive. It makes it more likely that we would participate in an unthinking unreflective manner that lessens the meaning of communion. I would argue that this can happen just as easily when you do it just once a month. The key is not less frequent observation but more intentional observation. That’s why I’m preaching this sermon right now, part of the reason I’m doing this whole series. Because if we want these symbols and acts that we do to retain their meaning than we need to remind ourselves of the depth of that meaning from time to time.

I believe that we ought to take communion together every week as a declaration of its centrality to who we are as a church. Think about it, without what Jesus did on the cross everything we do as a church would be meaningless. If Jesus didn’t really die and rise than we are still in our sins and doomed. So then shouldn’t we make the act which reminds us of Jesus’ death the most central thing that we do as a church? Shouldn’t we show with our actions how high a priority it is for us as the body of Christ to remember what made us that body?

So then the challenge to us from these words is to make sure that when we prepare ourselves to “eat the bread and drink the cup” that we are actively engaged in remembering what Jesus did for us on the cross. Not just passively participating because that’s what we do.

To Proclaim

Illustration: Events like “Coldest Night of the Year” or “Terry Fox Run” and how (while also fundraising) they build awareness for some cause or issue.

In a similar way, while the Lord’s Supper serves other purposes like reminding ourselves about the significance of Jesus’ death on our behalf, it also serves to “raise awareness.” Paul in a few places in his letters expresses a concern not just for those who are believers in the church but for the possibility of others seeing what the church is doing. This results in a lengthy discussion about speaking in tongues during their gatherings elsewhere, but I believe this also informs 1 Corinthians 11:26

1 Corinthians 11:26 CSB

For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

Remembrance is an inwardly directed practice. Jesus commanded us to remember Him when we do communion for our sakes. Proclamation on the other hand is an outwardly directed practice. It is announcing something to others. The Greek word in fact refers specifically to public announcements. It’s the same word the Bible often uses when it refers to how we are to share the gospel with others.

Why is this important? Why must we have a visual and participatory way to proclaim the Lord’s death every week in our service? Well as a church we are suppossed to, ideally, teach each other and others what the Bible says. The Bible speaks to a lot of different subjects and has a lot to say about those individual subjects. It has a lot to say about the gospel, but also about family relationships, right and wrong living, use of our finances, and on and on. So then while I try to intentionally include the gospel in all of my sermons, naturally churches throughout history could be excused if sometimes our church services centre on other subjects. By participating every week in communion, however, we ensure that every single week we have at least one element of our church service that is always about the death of Jesus on our behalf.

So then if a visitor who doesn’t know anything about Jesus happens to show up on a Father’s Day and my sermon is primarily about being a good dad and the songs are about God the Father, we can rest assured that through the Lord’s Supper we are still “proclaim[ing] the Lord’s death until he comes.”

There is however some danger that we might unintentionally go through Communion without making much of the death of Jesus. That we might unintentionally miss the opportunity to proclaim the gospel through it. This is why we need to take moments like these as we examine the reasons behind what we do to rededicate ourselves to the purpose of Communion. May we always make the sharing of the bread and the cup a proclamation of Jesus’ death on the cross. That He died although He was the only innocent man so that He could pay the penalty for our sins and make a way for us to be in loving relationship with Himself and The Father and the Holy Spirit and purchase for us eternal life.

To Share

Illustration: Sharing is hard. My instinct is to talk about my kids here, but I’m not immune to not wanting to share. I would rather pay for my friend to have their own bag of popcorn at the movie theatre than share mine. Maybe that’s unreasonable.

As a church the term we most often use for Communion is… well… communion. There’s other names for it (like the Lord’s Supper or the Eucharist) but Communion stresses that it is a common meal that we are all sharing together. In the days of the early church this meant a full meal that everyone sat down to eat together, during which bread would be symbolically broken and a cup shared to remember the death of Christ. Paul in this letter to the Corinthian church is responding to what he has heard about some of the things that the Corinthian church has been doing during communion which are, to put it lightly, dissappointing to the apostle.

1 Corinthians 11:17–22 CSB

Now in giving this instruction I do not praise you, since you come together not for the better but for the worse. For to begin with, I hear that when you come together as a church there are divisions among you, and in part I believe it. Indeed, it is necessary that there be factions among you, so that those who are approved may be recognized among you. When you come together, then, it is not to eat the Lord’s Supper. For at the meal, each one eats his own supper. So one person is hungry while another gets drunk! Don’t you have homes in which to eat and drink? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What should I say to you? Should I praise you? I do not praise you in this matter!

Now this took me a bit of study to fully wrap my head around, so I’ll quickly summarize what I discovered about what seems to have been going on. It seems like in the church in Corinth they were doing a sort of not-sharing version of potluck. Families were bringing their own food to the gathering, but just to eat amongst their own circles. This meant that some were feasting while the poor among them went without food. This disgusted Paul. This is why Paul said “don’t you have homes in which to eat and drink?” Because if the point of them gathering was just to eat a meal than there was no point of them gathering. Everyone could have done the same at home. Then he reminds them of the two reasons we talked about for sharing in the Lord’s Supper by reminding them of Jesus’ words.

He carries on in 1 Corinthians 11:27-29

1 Corinthians 11:27–29 CSB

So, then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sin against the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself; in this way let him eat the bread and drink from the cup. For whoever eats and drinks without recognizing the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself.

Now you may have heard someone preach on or share these passages out of context with the basic application that we need to search our hearts before we take communion to make sure we aren’t taking it lightly or else God will judge us. From my study there are some who say that because of context, what Paul really means when he talks about not “recognizing the body” he means the body of Christ as in the church, not as in the bread we eat that represents the physical body of Jesus. This makes more sense if we briefly jump back to 1 Corinthians 10:16-17

1 Corinthians 10:16–17 CSB

The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a sharing in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a sharing in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, since all of us share the one bread.

So Paul establishes the picture of the body of Christ in communion representing the body of Christ in the church. Yet I think we sometimes fall into a trap of feeling like we need to choose between two possible interpretations of what an author is saying. Sometimes it’s impossible to hold both at once, but in some cases I think authors intend their readers to see both meanings at once. We saw this a few times in John’s letters. I think here Paul wants them to see both things as important. Examine yourself and be certain that you are taking communion as a sacred act and not just a meaningless rehearsal. And at the same time and more to his point in this passage he wants to warn them against taking communion in a way that hurts someone else in the congregation. It’s supposed to be a sharing together, a moment of being one as the body of Christ.

Isn’t that a beautiful thing? It’s a difficult thing though. It’s a lot easier to be divided than it is to be unified. We can think of a thousand petty reasons to divide. A thousand disagreements to get in the way of being one body of Christ. I can think of only one reason to be what God wants us to be. Because Jesus died on that cross. He made a way not just for us to be united with Him and with the Father, but for us to be united with one another. This was Jesus’ earnest prayer in John 17:20-23

John 17:20–23 CSB

“I pray not only for these, but also for those who believe in me through their word. May they all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us, so that the world may believe you sent me. I have given them the glory you have given me, so that they may be one as we are one. I am in them and you are in me, so that they may be made completely one, that the world may know you have sent me and have loved them as you have loved me.

He wants us to be one with each other in the same way that He is one with the Father. I should remind you they are really close. So then when we take the bread and the cup maybe instead of closing our eyes and looking inward we should be looking around at all the people sitting in the church with us and praying silently that God would make us one. That we wouldn’t be a group of people who happen to go to Fredericton Christian Church but that the Holy Spirit would transform us into One Body called Fredericton Christian Church that is truly unified in one Spirit, one Baptism and one Holy Communion together.

Conclusion

Send someone to get the kids if applicable.

So to tie this all together let’s remember our question for the day. We’re asking “Why do we do communion?” It’s easy to do it every single week and have it become just a meaningless part of the routine, but God gave us communion for a reason. We have seen from 1 Corinthians today that we do communion as a way of concretely remembering what Jesus did on the cross with His broken body and His shed blood for our sakes. We do communion so that every time we gather we proclaim the gospel that Jesus died for the sins of all people so that any who believe in Him might be saved and have eternal life. And we do communion so that we might share together in the ultimate common experience of one body sharing in the body and blood of Jesus.

It is my hope that these words have served to remind all of us of the importance of the bread and the cup, so that when we take them together today and every Sunday we might do so in a way that is worthy of what Christ did, and that glorifies God. So let us read a part of our passage again as we partake in communion together.

1 Corinthians 11:23–26 CSB

For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, and said, “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.

Let us pray.