022821 Communion: Union

1:00 Hr

If you have not already done so, please remove the cellophane wrapper on top of the wafer so that the wrapper is not a distraction during communion.

As some of you are aware, today I am teaching through the book of Ruth. While I don’t want to give away the meat of the message too soon, I am also very conscientious that the book of Ruth documents an incredible love story which culminated in a marriage union between Ruth and Boaz. It is this idea of marriage union that I would like to focus on today.

God ordained marriage at the very beginning of human history in Genesis 2. Apparently, with two practical intentions. To give humanity a method of procreation, a way to have babies, so that we might increase and subdue the earth as its God-ordained masters....

The second practical reason was to put an illustration in our homes, in our lives, of the very union that God seeks with mankind. Why? The marriage union is intimate. The marriage union is close. There is relationship within this union. This joining of two different people into a new entity, a family, foretells the joining of Christ and the church. The English word, communion has a particular meaning - the prefix “com” denotes the sense of “in or with” while union is the joining of two different entities into a combined one.

“With union” It is through this “with union” that God joins us to Himself through the work of Christ. This union is quite similar to a marriage union. There is to be an intimate connection within marriage. There is to be an intimate connection between Christ and His bride - the church.

Please turn with me to Ephesians 5:25-32. This passage has caused no small amount of consternation in the modern church but it is my prayer that this passage would be heard for what it says in its simplest sense. Ephesians 5:25-32 speaks of the relationship, the communion, the union, that Christ has with His church.

25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, 26 so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless. 28 So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; 29 for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, 30 because we are members of His body. 31 For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. 32 This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church.

Christ has purchased us. Christ has redeemed us. Christ has brought us near to God, so that we would be holy and blameless. Let us come today in communion fellowship, enjoying a meal of unity. As we go to our time of prayer I would ask that if there is any discord in your relationship with God or His church you confess it. Repent of it. Turn from it and join Him and us in partaking of this meal. We are going to take a whole minute now for this process. Allow the Holy Spirit to spotlight sin and areas at issue.

WAIT FOR ONE WHOLE MINUTE

Close in prayer.

George_________ will you ask the blessing on the bread?

...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.” 1 Corinthians 11:23–24

Dan Brown_________ will you ask the blessing on the cup?

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.” 1 Corinthians 11:25

PAUSE 1 Corinthians 11:26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.

LETS PRAY