"Communion With Christ" Series

Pastor Allan Kircher

Shell Point Baptist Church

6 March 2011

I have PP's to go with sermon to bring out the visual, feel, hear, and see what the Holy Spirit does. For PP email me at shellpntbapt@embarqmail.com. 25-30 min sermon.

“Communion with Christ”

I will read you the text as it is given in the New International Version: 1 Cor. 10:16-17, “Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.”

It is a sad fact today that some have fancied that this simple ordinance of the Lord’s Supper has a certain magical, or at least physical power about it.

So much so, that the mere act of eating and drinking this bread and wine that men can be made partakers of the body and blood of Christ.

It is marvelous that so plain a symbol should have been so complicated by centuries of genuflections, adornments, and technical phrases.

Forgetting through the process of repetition the true value and meaning of the Lord’s Supper.

When we come in communion do we just see some silver plates with wafers and plastic cups with grape juice?

Are these just elements of superstitions, whereby the blessed ordinance of Christ is likely to be again overlooked and symbolized?

What does the supper mean?

It means communion: communion with Christ, and communion with one another.

What is communion? The word breaks up easily into union, and its prefix com, which means with, “union with.”

We must, therefore, first enjoy union with Christ, and with His Church, or else we cannot enjoy communion.

Union lies at the basis of communion.

We must be one with Christ in heart, and soul, and life;

Baptized into His death; quickened by His life, and so brought to the members of His body.

One with the whole Church of which He is the Head.

We cannot have communion with Christ till we are in union with Him;

And we cannot have communion with the Church till we are in vital union with it.

The teaching of the Lord’s supper is just this—

We have many ways of communion with Christ, yet the receiving of Christ into our souls as our Savior is the best way of communion with Him.

1. Communion is ours by personal fellowship with the Lord Jesus.

We speak with Him in prayer, and He speaks with us through the Word.

Some of us speak more often with Christ than we do with our wife or child,

and our communion with Jesus is deeper and more thorough than our fellowship with our nearest friend.

In meditation and thanksgiving we speak with our risen Lord, and by His Holy Spirit He answers us by creating fresh thoughts and emotions in our minds.

Often times in prayer, when I do not feel I can say anything, I just sit still, and I hear His voice in solemn silence of my mind.

When we have this fellowship with Jesus of a closer nature, our soul melts beneath the warmth of Jesus’ love.

Think not that I am dreaming or have lost my mind, but I do assert that the devout soul can converse with the Lord Jesus all day long.

And we have fellowship with Him as if He still dwelt bodily among men today.

I speak to you from my heart, not by the hearing of the ear, but by my own personal experience.

I know with certainty that Jesus manifests Himself unto His people as he does not unto the world.

Oh, what sweet communion often exists between the obedient Christian and the risen Lord when there is no bread and wine upon the table,

For the Spirit Himself will draw to the renewed heart.

Truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.

Do you enjoy this charming fellowship?

Well next, we have communion with Christ in:

2. His thoughts, views, and purposes.

His thoughts are our thoughts according to our capacity and sanctity.

Believers take the same view of matter as Jesus does,

That which pleases Him, pleases us, and that with grieves Him grieves us also.

Consider the greatest theme of our thoughts, and see whether our thoughts are not like those of Christ?

Jesus delights in His Father, He loves to glorify the Father, don’t we also?

Is not the Father the center of our soul’s delight?

Do we not rejoice at the very sound of His name?

Does not our spirit cry, “Abba, Father”?

When we feel as Jesus feels toward the Father, and so we have true communion with Him.