Communion Sunday

Let’s spend a few minutes talking about communion.

Turn to John 16:7

John 16:7 KJV 1900

7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.

Later on today we will be taking part in communion, in the Lord’s Supper. That is where we take a bit of bread and a cup of wine in remembrance of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, but what I want to talk about, first, is your communion with God.

Communion is one of those ordinances of the church that Christ informed us to observe. In some churches it is done every Sunday, some once a month or once a quarter.

We generally take communion about once a year, but first I want to talk you not about this ordinance that we practice as a church, but instead about your communion with God on a daily basis.

First off, what do you think the word communion means?

If you ask the typical church going person, they are going to tell you about the sacrament practiced by the church, but on a more basic level, what is communion?

Most dictionary entries are going to give you the example of communion as the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, but you can find other definitions.

One dictionary describes it as “the sharing or exchanging of intimate thoughts and feelings, especially when the exchange is on a mental or spiritual level.”

The memory that came to mind for me was one from many years ago in North Carolina. I lived in base housing and my wife would often fly back to Oklahoma for an extended visit.

During those times, a friend of mine, who I worked with, and who was my roommate when I lived in the barracks before I got married, would come out and stay with me in my little duplex in base housing.

We would sit around the kitchen table in the evenings and discuss all the problems of the day, all the issues and ideas that came to mind. Nothing was off limits. And by the time the evening was over, we would have solved all the problems of the world.

That kind of a warm and intimate relationship is communion.

Now I wonder how many Christians actually have "communion" with the Lord. How many have that open and intimate relationship with the Lord.

God WANTS us to have that intimacy with Him, communion is the root word of communication, and that’s what we are called to do, to communicate with Him!

So, you ask, How Do I Do That?

Many have not understood being in the presence of the Holy Spirit by direct communion.

When Jesus came down and walked among men in His earthly body, the only requirement to be in His presence was to be in the same geographical location as Him.

If you were walking beside Him, there was no spiritual activity required to interact with Him, you simply turned to Him and asked whatever question might be on your heart. And He would have responded with His answer as we see is so often the case in the recorded Gospels.

Just as at one time God’s Son came down, so now has God’s Spirit come down to be among men. The difference is, He is not limited by geographical location.

He is with every child of God all the time. I want your mind to be such that you understand you walk with Him every day just as if you had been walking every day with Jesus on those dusty roads of Palestine while He was physically on the earth.

He is available to you at all times. You can turn to Him with your questions just as if you were turning to Jesus walking side by side with Him in the flesh. The Lord says the Holy Spirit is with you. This is the reason the Holy Spirit was sent. No great spiritual labor is required to enter into His presence. He was sent to be in your presence.

If you have put your trust in Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit is always in your presence, whether you realize it or not. Jesus explained all this on that night in the upper chamber. He explained that, through the Holy Spirit, He would always be available to you.

Communing with the Spirit should be the most natural of all things to those who have trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is walking with you, going with you ... He is WITH YOU all the time! It is just as if the Lord Jesus Christ Himself were walking with you and going with you in the flesh.

The problem is, we have not learned how to commune with Him in spirit. We have not trained the ear of our own spirit to hear Him responding to our questions.

The Holy Spirit is nearer to you than your next breath. He is with you. He will hearken to your voice. He will commune with you as a Friend, as a Teacher, as a Counselor, and as a Helper.

Some will find this hard to believe, but it is God’s purpose in sending the Holy Spirit that you receive "instant answers" for immediate problems! And it is His will that you receive answers ahead of time, before you even know of problems that shall come.

Many, because of their experience in the past, because of the difficulty they have had in discerning the voice of the Spirit in their spiritual ear, will reject this as not being possible.

I think many are deaf to the leading of the Holy Spirit because we are not so much looking for answers for our questions as we are looking for justification for the actions we have already decided on.

If you were walking with Jesus Christ, back in Palestine 2000 years ago, and you came upon a difficult situation, and you turned to Him and asked Him what to do, would there be long delay in His response? No, there would be no delay at all. Neither would He have to seek His mind for days to know how to answer you. You would ask, He would answer.

We have no problem seeing how that would be if we walking with Jesus, side by side, all day long, but don’t you see, it is for this same function and for the same purpose that He sent the Comforter.

That you might walk with Him and commune with Him. When you ask questions regarding any situation, it is His intention that you receive "instant answers."

Not only this, but as you commune with Him on a diligent basis, it is His will that you receive answers even before you are aware of the problems that are coming. He will lead you around many of them as you learn to just sit and hear His counsel.

It is God’s will that you ask Him questions. The higher call of God’s will is that you just sit and listen to His wisdom, listen to His teaching, and listen to His counsel so that you have the answers before the problems arise.

This is the Father’s plan, it is His purpose, it is the mind of Christ and it is attainable for all who will attend want to have communion with God’s Holy Spirit!

But understand this, your spiritual mind is not finite. We have the ability to comprehend these things in our spirit. The natural man cannot know them, but the spiritual man can.

Do you think it is harder or more difficult for the Spirit to give you the answer to a problem that shall occur ten years from today than it is to give you the answer to a problem that occurred ten minutes ago? Time is irrelevant when it comes to the operation of the Spirit. He is not bound by time.

God desires your communion with Him! Do you remember that when man was first created, God did what? He walked and talked with Adam!

God’s physical presence, a presence that we can see with our eyes, is no longer available to us because sin was brought into this world. Did you ever think of how cool it would be to walk and talk with God? Well, you can...thru His Spirit! And though you might not physically see Him, I know you can feel Him when you are in His presence.

God desires our communion with Him....we desperately NEED our communion with Him. Yet we are too busy most of the time. Making decisions that we should be consulting the Spirit on that usually backfire because we didn’t use that most precious resource that Jesus left here on earth whenever He ascended to Heaven....His Holy Spirit!

Now that we have talked about the true nature of communion, let’s explore the nature of communion as we practice this ordinance in the church.

It Is Finished - Communion Service

Luke 22:14–20 KJV 1900

14 And when the hour was come, he sat down, and the twelve apostles with him. 15 And he said unto them, With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer: 16 For I say unto you, I will not any more eat thereof, until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God. 17 And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, Take this, and divide it among yourselves: 18 For I say unto you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine, until the kingdom of God shall come. 19 And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me. 20 Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you.

I want us to think for a few moments about the last meal Jesus had with His disciples.

We call it the Last Supper - Jesus and His disciples would have called it the Feast of the Passover.

Jesus picks up the cup of wine and in verse 20 “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.

Jesus is making an amazing statement here. He is illustrating what this new covenant is all about.

He says this cup of wine is like his blood being poured out. And His blood is part of a new covenant.

First off, what is a covenant. Well, a covenant is a legally binding contract between two parties.

But Jesus said a NEW covenant. So, what is this new covenant?

If there is a NEW covenant there must be an old covenant, right?

The Old or Mosaic Covenant was a covenant that God made with Israel on Mount Sinai.

Remember the Ten Commandments? Actually, in the Old Covenant there was more than just ten commandments, there were more like 610.

The old covenant was a system of laws, codes, rituals and observances and people were accountable to these laws. How hard do you suppose it would have been to follow all of those guidelines without a single slip up?

And every time the people failed to live by the standards of the Old Covenant, they had to offer a sacrifice to God.

The reality was that it was impossible to completely follow the rules of the Old Covenant.

It’s kind of like the military during an inspection. In the Marine Corps you stand a lot of inspections. Gear inspections, uniform inspections, weapon inspections, locker and rack inspections.

And it is virtually impossible to have your gear in such order that the commanding office cannot find something at fault. As a matter of fact I used to leave some kind of minor flaw in my presentation just so they could find something to criticize and then perhaps move on to someone else.

The old covenant law was like that , everyone was guilty under the Old law of something.

That is why the Old Testament is filled with sacrifices and so much of the text of the Old Testament has to do with sacrifices.

The purpose of the old covenant was not to enforce a massive set of rules and laws that no man could adhere to, it was to show the people of Israel that they were guilty before God and in need of a Savior!

This is actually what divides the Bible into two parts: The Old Testament, and the New Testament – the old covenant and the new covenant.

The Old Testament is filled with sacrifices, but the New Testament primarily speaks about one sacrifice. When John saw Jesus coming down the road, he said “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!”

Jesus became the only sacrifice that could pay the price for our sin! He became the sacrifice.

Jesus said only I can lay my life down and take it up! Jesus did it all!

That’s why when He was on the cross He said,

IT IS FINISHED! It is finished.

No other sacrifices were required,

no more animals, no more blood,

no dark cloud of guilt hanging over us because of our sin,

no more shame

no constant reminder that we are imperfect.

IT IS FINISHED!

You are made perfect through the finished work of Jesus at the cross! You pass inspection not because you are in perfect order but because Jesus has covered your imperfections.

You don’t have to be perfect, you just have to put your faith in the one who was perfect for you!

Everything we read in the Old Testament points to the cross. It is preparation for is to come.

The Cross that in a real sense, was meant was for you and me.

The Cross is where our forgiveness was purchased in the blood of Jesus.

The cross where Jesus was beaten, and bruised, and tortured.

And around that table at the Feast of the Passover, this is what Jesus was telling His disciples.

He said, “this cup of wine is like my blood in the New Covenant!”

“My blood will seal God’s new Covenant for humanity”

The New Covenant between God and you.

This is forgiveness for your sins because of the blood I will shed for you.

The Promise of eternal life because through this blood death is conquered.

You can have a place in Heaven because of what Jesus did for for you on that cruel cross.

IT IS FINISHED.

As we come to the Table together remember that God has already fulfilled His part of the covenant.

Jesus went to the cross and endured the shame and suffering so that we might be set free from that burden of sin that separates us from God.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention one other thing.

1 Corinthians 11:27–29 KJV 1900

27 Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. 28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. 29 For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.

What this means is that we have to prepare ourselves before we take this sacrament. We must not have any un-confessed sin in our life. We must not be harboring any ill will against our fellow man.

Now we must do our part.

What is our part of the covenant?

To believe and receive by faith What Jesus did for you! That’s it!