Sermon Tone Analysis

In all the hubbub.

There we go.

It.

All right, good morning.

It is good to be with you this summer.

We are going through a series where we focus on the things that we do.

I when we gather as a congregation and why we do them and what we found as we look at scripture, is that what we do when we got her matters, because scripture tells us that God makes himself present in a special way when his people gather, it's what he's promised.

And then what we do in the presence of God, in the name of God matters, scripture is very clear about these connections.

That that there's power in what we do when we do, what in God's name in his presence.

And so, what we've been doing is going through our order of service, slightly out of order and looking at, why we do each of those seats.

We talked about why we worship, Why We Sing, why we confess, why we do the And today we were talking about communion, which has me, especially excited, because for two reasons, why?

I think the communion is probably the most important thing that we do, when we gather may be, the most essential thing that we do, when we gather and also, because as I've been preparing for the sermon, I've learned to view communion in a very different way in a way that is, it's so different from the way I've experienced communion most of the time and it's it's more joyful and fear.

And most importantly, it's what the way they approached the Union in the New Testament.

So that's one of the reasons why we're doing things differently today for those who are not here.

I took a picture this morning of what the Saints Ray looks like we have everyone set up at tables and we're going to be taking communion at our tables when the time comes because we'll talk about why we're taking it differently as we get there.

But as I've been studying about communion in the New Testament, I found that the, the atmosphere commute is very different from how we tend to do things today.

When I say we, I mean, just in general, in the western world for us communion tends to be solitary.

You even though we take it together, you kind of withdraw into yourself, you're very quiet, you don't look around, you don't talk, you know, we even have we have background music.

To make it less awkward that nobody's allowed to talk to each other.

So it's very somber.

It's very focused and quiet and it's vividly very guarded in a lot of different depending on the tradition that you're in.

Or the domination, there are all kinds of barriers that might be put up around the Lord's Supper.

Whether it means you have to be baptized into that particular denomination, or you have to be a member of that particular congregation, or you have to have attended that church the week before they actually had the communion tokens that they would give out the Sunday before community.

And you had to have one to prove that you didn't want just showing up on communion Sundays.

I'm all kinds of barriers that we put up to make sure that they just to protect Communion.

And in large part that is because in the western church, we 10th, we have overtime for a variety of reasons, we talked about communion as if it was the sacrifice of Jesus being re-enacted.

That's why this item is often called an altar.

I've heard altar calls because the idea is that we're seeing Jesus sacrifice for us again or we're reenacting it or, you know, we are typically remembering it depending on your tradition is that?

But this is where the sacrifice happened and so we take that very somber Lee.

As we're dwelling on your you might need some put some people have the impulse to try and itemize every possible thing they can think of some people feel like they're supposed to dwell on the full extent of Jesus is suffering and all the everything that he did on the cross and everything was done to him because we tend to focus on this as the sacrifice.

The early church, the New Testament Church did not view this as a sacrifice.

We talked about things that are sacrifices in the prayer, being a sacrifice to be the sacrifice, but they did not treat communion with a sacrifice mentality.

Let me read you the first time that we see the church taking communion together after Pentecost.

We looked at this passage before, it's basically the all the things that the first church of Jerusalem, after Pentecost the things they did together.

So they devoted themselves to the apostles, teaching and fellowship to the breaking of bread, and to the prayers.

now, the breaking of bread is a phrase that Luke uses in his the Gospel of Luke and in the book of Acts to refer to communion

But if you follow the passage farther down, this is how it describes that, practice of breaking the bread.

It says, every day, they continued to meet together in the temple courts, they broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere, heart, praising God and enjoying the favor of all people.

Notice that description.

It's it's doesn't sound like a somber sacrificial thing.

Like what happened in the temple.

It's actually a meal that happens in their homes and it's a joyful, and it's grateful.

Now, here's a really interesting thing that all Challenger categories in the history of the church for the first three hundred years, we actually have a lot of records of what they said in church services throughout the history of the church.

And it was for the first 300 years.

We have no mention in the communion service of the death of Jesus.

They don't talk about the death of Jesus for the first 300 years in communion what they do is, they focus on Thanksgiving and gratitude.

Because they know they definitely talked about the sacrifice of Jesus in worship.

But communion is not a sacrifice, communion is a feast.

In the early church, approaching is a fees.

You can bet they didn't have little crackers and little juice cups.

They had a meal and they always most meals would involve Bread and Wine.

So it was just part of a normal meal that they would use.

Now, I must say you were wrong to do that.

I'm not criticizing anything that we do is a communion, but that's that's the starting point is it's a feast and it actually is multiple times in the, in the New Testament.

They connect communion with feasts in the Old Testament.

So what I want to do now, as we look at what communion is, I want us to look at how the help all next communion with things happen in the Old Testament.

And what that tells us about the nature of communion because the same God, who set out the the feasts in the Old Testament, is the one who set up comedian in the New Testament.

Do good place to start.

Is it a verse that you may hear a different church services when they take communion and 1st Corinthians 5 Paul writes Christ.

Our Passover Lamb has been sacrificed.

Therefore, let us keep the festival or let us keep the feast.

I hear Paul connect Jesus, with the Passover Lamb, which makes a lot of sense to us, because that's the meal.

They were eating at the Last Supper was a Passover meal.

And when we think of the last supper, again, we think of somber and serious, and dark and foreboding, which is why it's some of the conversations that have their feel a little bit out of place.

Like, when they start arguing about, who's the greatest out of place with how we think about the Last Supper.

But that's how we think of Passover.

And so, it fits with the way we expect.

An easy thing is, that's not how Passover work or somberg or serious, Passover is a party if I can, let me just let me read you one description of a Passover celebration in the Old Testament.

The Israelites who were present in Jerusalem celebrated the Festival of unleavened bread for 7 days with great rejoicing, while the Levites and Priests.

Praise the Lord everyday with resounding instruments dedicated to God.

It was a party, which makes sense.

Because why do you celebrate Passover?

Is to recognize the fact that God freed them from slavery.

I challenge you to get freed from slavery and then celebrate that fact on a holiday and do it seriously and sombrely and individually.

That's not how we celebrate our birthdays.

Let alone, how we celebrate being freed from slavery.

And Paul says, that the Lord's table is the same Find a celebration because after all, haven't we also been free.

Don't, we also have something to celebrate what, what happened?

Because of the sacrifice of Jesus is a good and joyous thing, right?

And so are many places in the old and the New Testament where our experience is connected with Passover.

And what Jesus has done for us provides us with freedom.

The first thing that we see the first connection that's made is that communion is a celebration feast.

Because God has saved his people.

Just as he saved the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, he has saved the church From Slavery to sin and death.

We celebrate that.

Now, another connection that Paul points out is actually a connection to Jesus made during the Last Supper.

When Paul retells, the story of The Last Supper and 1st Corinthians.

He says, in the same way after supper, Jesus Took the cup say this blood is the New Covenant.

This cup is the New Covenant in my blood.

Do this whenever you drink it in remembrance of me.

Now, in Jesus talks about the blood of the Covenant is making a reference to a very specific thing that happened in the Old Testament.

So Godfrey the Israelites from slavery in Egypt and he brought them to Mount Sinai cuz he didn't just freeze them just to free them.

You freed them because he wanted to make a covenant with them and do something special with that people and so at Mount Sinai they made a covenant and here is how that process is described as a sacrifice to animal and then Moses took half of the blood and put it in bold and the other happy flashing at the altar, then he took the book of the Covenant and read it to the people.

They responded, we will do everything.

The Lord has said we will obey Moses, they took the blood sprinkled on the people and said this is the blood of the Covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.

Now what knife first became aware of this connection?

I assume that this is communion.

This is the connection to communion is this moment when it's sprinkling blood on them that the connection with us, drinking the top, right?

But that's not actually the parallel.

If I were you, I would say that this moment is more your moment of baptism or when you become a Christian.