Instructions for Communion
Notes
Transcript
WELCOME:
Thank you so much for making it possible for us to take some time off! We enjoyed these last two weeks but we are glad to be back.
I hope you all have been blessed by Dakota. He is away preaching at another church this morning but will be back Wednesday.
SCRIPTURE READING:
The Lord sustains all who fall And raises up all who are bowed down. The eyes of all look to You, And You give them their food in due time. You open Your hand And satisfy the desire of every living thing. The Lord is righteous in all His ways And kind in all His deeds. The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, To all who call upon Him in truth. He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him; He will also hear their cry and will save them. The Lord keeps all who love Him, But all the wicked He will destroy. My mouth will speak the praise of the Lord, And all flesh will bless His holy name forever and ever.
LET US STAND AND WORSHIP!
“All I Have is Christ”
Words and Music by Hillsong
PRAYER OF PRAISE FOR WHO GOD IS
Lord, We thank you for saving us!
“Cornerstone”
Words and Music by Hillsong
“Thank You Jesus for the Blood”
Words and Music by Hillsong
PRAYER OF ILLUMINATION TO OPEN OUR HEARTS
Lord, Open our hearts to better understand this institution You began and commanded us to do. Help us to see the significance of this meal, and We ask that would would grow spiritually every time we take it.
SERMON
Introduction
Today we are going to observe the Lord’s Supper and instead of continuing on through John, I want to us to look in depth at “What taking Communion is all about”. It is more than eating a small hard cracker and washing it down with grape juice.
For example: Did you know that this ordinance that we observe a few times a year can have serious implications in our lives? Eating this little piece of bread and drinking this small cup of grape juice in an unworthy manner Paul tells us could bring God’s judgement in our lives and even tells the Corinthians that some are sick and even dead because of their conduct at the Lord’s Supper.
What does this bread and juice really mean? How do we do this biblically and in a way that pleases God? Thats what I want us to look at today.
So what we are going to do is ask two primary questions about Communion and then answer them from this text:
The first is “What is the Lord’s Supper?”
and the second, “How do we rightly participate in it?”
Turn with me to 1 Cor 11:23-25 “For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which 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.” In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”
What is the Lord’s Supper?
a) IT IS A VISUAL SYMBOL OF THE DEATH AND SACRIFICE OF JESUS
First, There is nothing mystical that happens to this piece of bread and to this cup of juice that we eat and drink
Jesus said, “this is My body which is for you”
“This is My body” means this symbolizes His body, not becomes His body physically.
Nor does the wine become His blood
If you don't believe me, when you sip this juice, tell me if it taste like blood or WELCHES GRAPE JUICE?
The same is true with the bread. It will taste like a hard stale unleavened piece of bread.
That is because communion is not designed to give us grace as those who believe it turns into the body and the blood, but to help us remember grace by being physically involved with it.
It is not designed to give us grace, but to help us remember grace
Jesus said, “this is My body which is for you” (on your behalf, for your benefit)
He is saying that He has given His body for our benefit. That is what this bread symbolizes. His sacrifice that set us free.
Listen to how Isaiah explains it:
Isaiah 53:5–6 (NASB95) But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him.
“Do this in remembrance of Me”
All of this looks back to the Passover in Exodus 12.
Here were the Israelites enslaved in Egypt under Pharoah. God comes to them to rescue them and He does so through the sacrificial Lamb.
He tells them to slaughter a Lamb and eat it in its entirety, and then take the blood of that lamb and smear it on the door posts of their houses.
And when the angel of death comes through the land, he will passover ever house who has the blood.
And it happened just as God said.
But then the Lord made an ordinance in Israel that each year they are to have a Passover meal and they are to do so, so that they will remember it was the Lord that brought them out of Egypt and freed them from slavery.
‘Now this day will be a memorial to you, and you shall celebrate it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations you are to celebrate it as a permanent ordinance.
So every year they would slaughter a lamb, and then they were to remember it was God that set them free.
And so it is with us, we remember that it was the Lamb of God who given over on our behalf so that we could be set free from sin and death.
And when we eat the bread, that is what we are to think about: He took me from bondage to freedom.
He set me free from the darkness of Egypt and gave me a permanent place in the Promise Land!
b) IT IS AN ORDINANCE THAT BEGAN WITH JESUS AND IS TO BE CONTINUED BY HIS CHURCH UNTIL HE RETURNS
Notice Jesus said “do this” twice in these verses
These are imperatives or commands
So this is a standing rule, a decree by the King that says my people will do this indefintely.
And this ordinance began 2,000 years ago, is still binding to us today. This is one of the marks of a Christian church.
And churches have been doing this for 2,000 years.
The book of Acts which records the growth of the church took communion.
This letter to the Corinthian church is correcting communion done wrong.
This is necessary for us to be obedient to Jesus. We do this because Jesus said, “do this”.
Application: And that would apply to us all individually. We should make it a priority to be here all the time, but especially on the days that we are taking communion.
We should not ever look at this like it is optional. It really is a matter of obedience.
How often are we to do it?
Notice what Paul says in verse 26, “For as often as you do it” meaning the frequency is up to the church.
Some churches observe it every week
We used to observe it every month
Now we observe it once a quarter
We ddi that because it can get too repetitive and the significance of it be lost
But it is ultimately up the church. Each individual body decides.
c) IT IS TO BE OBSERVED AS A CHURH BODY, NOT INDIVIDUALLY
All the pronouns in these verses are plural.
“Do this, as often as (ya’ll) drink it, in remembrance of Me”
“For as often as (ya’ll) eat this bread and drink this cup”
“This is My body, which is for (ya’ll)”
This is also the example we see in Scripture.
Jesus instituted this in the Upper Room with His disciples.
In Scripture, it is always taken when the church came together, not on an individual basis.
WHY?
Because communion with Christ is part of our covenant together as one body in Christ.
Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? Is not the bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ? Since there is one bread, we who are many are one body; for we all partake of the one bread.
Application:
Christianity was NEVER designed to be lived out individually.
Anyone who thinks they can be a faithful Christian at home and not regularly gathering with the body of Christ is sure to be spiritually sick or dead
We are bound together by the blood, we all share in the blood and body of Christ. Do not try to do this on your own, you will fail.
d) IT IS ALSO TO REMEMBER OUR COVENANT WE HAVE THROUGH THE BLOOD OF CHRIST
Jesus said, “this cup is the new covenant in my blood”
Background:
In the OT, God made a Covennat with Israel and within this Covennat were the blessings and curses. If they obeyed God and did what He said, they would be blessed, but if they did not obey God and rebelled, they would be cursed.
They continuously broke God’s Covennat and eventually were expelled from the promise Land.
So God declared through Jeremiah:
Jeremiah 31:31 ““Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah,”
Jesus said, “this new covenant is in My blood”.
This is what we are thinking about when we drink of the cup. Not that we are under the old Jewish system of blessings and crises, but that we are under the new covenant where we are made right through the blood of Jesus.
Unlike the Covennat of the OT all that is required of us is faith
We cannot obey our way to God!
We cannot work our way to God.
We cannot do enough good things to be made right with God.
This is the covenant of grace and it is received through faith
And then we say hold on, so we do not need to obey God?
Obeying God is not possible until we have placed our faith in Jesus.
And so many are thing to obey but cannot, because they have not taken the first step of trusting Jesus completely.
The gospel does not require obedience, it produces it.
All the gospel requires is faith
e) IT IS A PROCLAMATION OF THE LIFE GIVING DEATH OF JESUS
(v 26) “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.”
Every time we observe the Lord’s Table, we proclaim the death of Jesus Christ TO THE WORLD and TO EACH OTHER
When we take the bread and take the cup, we are are saying, Jesus Christ died a vicarious death for our sins, and because of His death and resurrection, I can be forgiven, and you can be forgiven too!
We are saying together and reminding ourselves over and over that God Himself came to earth 2,000 years ago as the sinless Lamb of God who died on the cross for the sins of the world
We proclaim the gospel every time we come to the table of the Lord.
2) How do we rightly participate in the Lord’s Supper?
2) How do we rightly participate in the Lord’s Supper?
1 Cor 11:27 “Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup.”
a) WE MUST NOT PARTICIPATE IN AN UNWORTHY MANNER
The word “unworthy” means to participate in a CARELESS manner.
The Problem Paul is addressing at this church was division:
1 Cor 11:18-22 Therefore when you meet together, it is not to eat the Lord’s Supper, for in your eating each one takes his own supper first; and one is hungry and another is drunk. What! Do you not have houses in which to eat and drink? Or do 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 will not praise you.”
Those in Corinth has made a fiasco out of the Lord’s Supper
They were excluding the lower class from the meals and eating all they wanted until the food was completely gone, and some who were still hungry would eat the bread that was to be used for communion to fill their appetites!
They were also apparently drinking more than they should even to the point of getting drunk.
So instead of a meal of great unity and reverence fort the Lord who has forgiven their sins, they are are acting sinfully and selfishly at this very occasion!
Here is where we often get confused when it comes to this verse
We hear “unworthy” and we say well that is definitely me. Im out because I am unworthy. And in that sense, we all partake in an unworthy manner. But surely this is not what Paul means. He does not expect sinless perfection. If that were true, no one could ever participate.
To be “unworthy” is to approach the Lord’s table with unrepentant sin in our hearts, without any real regard to the sacrifice and death of Jesus, to come before the Lord without any real commitment to Jesus.
It is to trivialize what all this is, make light of all this stands for and means to us as people who belong to the Lord Jesus.
Though we are proclaiming, “The Lord’s death until he comes”, this is not a funeral, but a celebration!
We are not to be weeping and mourning the death of Jesus, because Jesus is no longer in the grave!
His death is our victory! All that this stands for should fill our hearts with great joy and thankfulness and worship as we physically participate in what saves us from death
But the point of this examination is not to recognize things that should not be in our hearts, but to turn away from them, get right with God, and then partake
1 Cor 11:28-32 “But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup.
Here is the point, if we rightly examine ourselves, and truly turn from those sins, then it is perfectly acceptable to partake in Communion
This is why we take a moment before we do this to search our hearts and examine ourselves to seriously look at our lives and see if we have unrepentant sin
And if we do, confess it to Jesus, turn from it seriously and permanently and then eat the bread and drink the cup
This is a celebration for the redeemed people of God
People who are not truly living for Jesus should not partake of it
Why? Because how can someone not take this in an unworthy manner if it has had no nearing on their life?
Or remember the sacrifice of Jesus for their sins if they are still living in them?
And that goes for children who have not yet been converted. It is our duty to be sure they do not come forward and partake if they do not yet belong to the Lord.
Is it really that serious?
(v 30-32) For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep. But if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord so that we will not be condemned along with the world.”
This is a very serious warning!
Paul says because these Corinthians were not rightly judging themselves there were many who were sick and dead because they took this in an unworthy manner
This is not a spiritual kind of sickness but physical sickness and physical death.
Notice Paul says, “But if we judged ourselves rightly”
That doesn’t mean to make judgements about yourself according to what you want to believe about yourself.
It means to judge yourself accurately according to what God says and declares
That is what we hold up to our lives.
(v 30) “But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord so that we will not be condemned along with the world.”
The point is this: we are much better off to judge ourselves so that we will NOT be judged by the Lord. We are better off to examine ourselves and if we find ourselves unworthy, stay seated and avoid God’s judgement.
It is much better for someone who does not have the right attitude, or unrepentant sin in their lives, or hatred of another person to stay seated when people get up to take communion, bear that little bit of embarrassment, than to come to this holy Table filled with pride and risk being judged by God.
And it is best for someone after examining themselves and finding an unworthy heart to repent and get it right with Jesus, and then come forward and partake.
Let me finish with this as we close and before we take Communion together
Judgement is certain for the world, but this entire ceremony is about Jesus Christ dying for sinners such as we are are.
This is not a celebration for good people. This is a celebration for people who have been recipients of God’s grace.
Forgiveness is available to anyone in here today who will understand their need of Jesus, who will repent of their sin and put their faith in Jesus
I think what keeps some people from forgiveness is nothing more than being too embarrassed to publically acknowledge their sin and need of forgiveness
I think sometimes (and this was true of me) we are so worried what other people might think if we come up and acknowledge our need of a Savior.
DON’T LET THAT BE YOU!
THERE IS NOT ONE PERSON IN HERE WHO IS IN MORE NEED THAN ANYONE ELSE.
~PRAYER~
RESPONSE
PUBLIC INVITATION
“Love Came for Me”
Words and Music by Shannon Wexelberg
COMMUNION
Moment of Silence to confess sin
Father, we ask at this time that you would reveal any sin that may be hidden in our hearts or attitudes that we may have in our hearts that we need to turn from. We confess that we are all sinners and are in desperate need of your grace and are so thankful for the promise, “that we if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness”
1 Corinthians 11:24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “This is My body, which is for you;
The bread represents His body Which was broken for our benefit
He bore our sins
He took our punishment
He took what we deserved, so that we may live
Pray a blessing over the bread
Jesus said: “do this in remembrance of Me.”
Eat the bread
1 Corinthians 11:25 “In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood”
The juice represents His shed blood which brought us into a new covenant with God
Only because of the blood can we be forgiven
Only because of the blood can we live in the assurance that we will be in heaven
Only because of Christ can we be called Christians
Pray and bless the cup
“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.
Drink the cup
OFFERING
We will now worship the Lord through our tithes and offering.
BENEDICTION
Numbers 6:24-26 “The Lord bless you, and keep you; The Lord cause His face to shine on you, And be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His face to you, And give you peace.’”
