OPEN: There’s an old saying: “An army marches on… (its stomach).”
What that means is: if an army doesn’t feed its men it’s not going anywhere. Without food the troops eventually can’t march, they can’t maneuver, and they can’t fight.
So one of the logistical problems for armies has always been - where do you get the food to feed your men?
Back in WWII, one of the ways the US tried solving this issue was called “K rations”. They were about 900 calorie meals packed into handy little boxes. (http://www.qmfound.com/Rations_K_Dinner.gif)
There was the Breakfast Unit where you might get canned chopped ham and eggs or veal loaf, biscuits, a dried fruit bar or cereal bar, water purification tablets, cigarettes, chewing gum, instant coffee, and sugar.
Then there was the Dinner Unit: which could have processed ham & cheese, biscuits, malted milk tablets or 5 caramels, sugar, a salt packet, cigarettes, chewing gum, and a powdered beverage
And the Supper Unit often would have canned meat (such as Spam), with an carrot & apple, biscuits; a 2-ounce chocolate bar, a packet of toilet paper tissues; cigarettes; chewing gum, and a bouillon soup cube.
One of our military men recently told me that he once ate one of the K rations… “and they were pretty good” he says (the meal had to be at least 50 years old).
APPLY: An army marches on its stomach.
Food is an indispensible need for soldiers in combat.
And (as you might imagine) God knows that.
One of the images the Bible uses of Christians is that of “soldiers”.
Paul refers to a man named Archippus as a “fellow soldier…” Philemon 1:2
And to another man named Epaphroditus as “… my brother, fellow worker and fellow soldier” Philippians 2:25
Then in 2 Timothy 2:3 he tells Christians to “Endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus.”
We are soldiers of Christ.
A Spiritual army deployed by God to contend with Evil.
Thus in Ephesians 6:11 we’re told to “Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.”
(pause…)
So… we are soldiers. And we are at war.
And we need to eat.
What are we going to eat?
Well Jesus has supplied a very special meal for us.
It’s called Communion, or the Lord’s Supper
The early church took this seriously.
Acts 2:42 tells us that one of the when the church first began
“They DEVOTED themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread (communion) and to prayer.”
And here in Acts 20:7 we’re told
“On the first day of the week we came together to break bread...”
Every scholar I read says the same thing: when early church spoke about “breaking bread” it was their way of saying they had communion.
And they did it every Sunday for worship.
In fact, a Christian leader from around 150 AD named Justin Martyr wrote that…
"On Sunday a meeting is held of all who live in the cities and villages… (and at the close of the meeting they focused on the) bread and wine and thanks for them according to his ability, and the congregation answers, "Amen." Then the consecrated elements are distributed to each one and partaken of, and are carried by the deacons to the houses of the absent."
Every Sunday, the church took communion.
In fact, here in Acts 20 we’re told that the reason they were at church was “break bread”
I mean – Paul was there. He was a very famous evangelist, and I’m sure everybody wanted to hear him… but Paul WAS NOT the reason they had gathered.
They had gathered together to take the Lord’s Supper
Paul was an after dinner treat, if you will, but the main event was communion!
But why was this meal so important?
Why would they make it the MAIN FOCUS for going to church?
Well, there are two reasons I can think of:
1st – when you take communion you’re sitting down with Jesus.
Every time you take Communion, Jesus is there.
This is HIS table.
And Jesus had promised: "… where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them." Matthew 18:20
He is here every time you take communion.
2ndly – the Communion table is where you and I are reminded of our mission.
In I Corinthians 11 Paul tells us “…on the night he was betrayed, (Jesus) 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, after supper he took the cup, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.’
For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”
When we take of the Lord’s Supper we remember WHY we’re here in the first place.
On any given Sunday morning, the songs may not suit you.
The person up here leading us in prayer may be long and hard to follow.
The sermon might be boring and put you to sleep so that if you were in a window on the third story, you might fall out and die.
But the bread and the cup will always declare the same message:
Jesus died for you. He died for me.
As 1 Timothy 1:15 declares:
“Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners— of whom I am the worst.”
Communion reminds us that we are sinners, and that we’re not here to be entertained and catered to.
We’re here because Jesus died to forgive our sins and change our lives.
And (because of that) our mission is to tell everyone we meet what Jesus means to us.
Communion is the one part of our worship on Sunday that we can always depend upon to remind us of why we’re here and what we’ve been commissioned to do.
In fact, do you know why the early Christians took communion on Sunday rather than worshipping on Saturday like the Jews did? What special thing had Jesus done on the first day of the week? (He rose from the dead)
In the OLD Testament, God commanded Israel to celebrate on Saturday because He wanted them to remember His power in creation.
But Christians in the NEW Testament celebrated on Sunday – the First day of the week - because God wanted His people to remember His power in the resurrection.
And Communion reinforces and reminds Christians of that power of Christ’s death, burial and resurrection every Sunday.
Now, why did the early church take communion so often?
I mean they did it EVERY WEEK. Couldn’t they have gotten by with once a month, or once a quarter, or once a year?
Oh, I suppose so.
But bear in mind – this was THE most important part of their worship.
This is why they gathered.
It’s almost as if they’d starve themselves spiritually if they missed a Sunday at the Table.
ILLUS: One of the things that the creators of the early K Rations didn’t realize was that their 900 calorie meals weren’t nearly enough to sustain fighting men in the midst of battle zone. It wasn’t bad for a stroll in the park or doing drills in camp, but for serious marching and fighting it wasn’t nearly enough. Soldiers in battle were literally burning off more calories than they consumed. That was going to hurt them over the long haul.
And that’s why our modern army has upped the calories in their MRE (“Meals Ready to Eat”) meals to 1200 per package.
The early church apparently felt that taking communion just “once in a while” wasn’t going to supply them with enough spiritual calories to help them in daily conflicts. In a world filled with evil, as soldiers of Christ, they needed this meal every Sunday.
Now occasionally someone will ask – should I let my kids/grandkids take communion?
It’s a reasonable question.
The plates pass right by them filled with tempting little wafers and cups filled with tasty grape juice. It’s only natural that they’d want to take a little for themselves.
But then there are others who become offended when they see little children eat what essentially is special meal designed by God for baptized believers.
At one point, the church worked very hard to make sure that no one took communion that shouldn’t. They called it closed communion, and every denomination handled the problem differently.
ILLUS: Back in 1807, an Irish Presbyterian minister named Thomas Campbell came to America.
For some time after he arrived, his denomination—the Anti-Burgher Seceder Presbyterians— had a process to make sure that no one outside their group would take communion. Like many protestant groups, they observed the Lord’s Supper once a quarter or so, and they would ask members to come in the night before, on Saturday, and answer a series of questions. If they got all the questions right – they got a coin. Then on Sunday morning they could drop the coin in a box and obtain communion.
Well, when Campbell got to America, he angered the denominational leaders because he served the Lord’s Supper to Presbyterians who were not part of his sect… and he was tried for heresy.
Two hundred years ago - in 1809 - he left the Seceder Presbyterians and helped form a unity society—called the Christian Association which became the basis for our brotherhood.
From that day until this, the Lord’s Table in our congregatoins has been open to anyone who wants to partake. We don’t stand guard along the aisle to make sure that only faithful members take the cup and bread. In fact we’ll sometimes clearly say “This is the Lord’s Table, not ours. You must decide between you and God if you should take part."
So CAN you give communion to little children?
Oh, I suppose you could. We’re not going to stop you…
And frankly, the Bible doesn’t say anything about it, so I kind of doubt God even gets angry about it.
But if it were my children, I wouldn’t let them take part.
This meal is for the troops – for Christians.
Little children don’t really understand its importance and it doesn’t mean anything to them.
It would probably be better to wait until they’ve made the decision to belong to Christ.
Now, there’s one more thing that caught my attention here.
It says they “CAME TOGETHER to break bread” Acts 20:7
There is a common misconception that people don’t need church to worship God. They view Christianity as something they can do “all by themselves”. A kind of a Lone Ranger religion that they can practice in the corner somewhere.
Well, that’s a lie.
And one of the things that exposes that lie is Communion.
The word “Communion” comes from the Greek word koinonia.
It means “a having in common (koinos), partnership, fellowship.”
Communion is meant to be a shared experience.
It’s the time when God’s army gets together to prepare for battle.
We gain strength from our numbers, power from our unity.
The Army used to have the motto: “An army of one”
But frankly, I’m pretty sure that very few soldiers like to be out on the battle front alone.
It’s not only lonely – it’s dangerous.
Communion declares: We need each other!
The Lord’s Table is designed to be a time when we “come together” to share koinonia.
Now, of course, just because all the troops gather under one roof to eat together doesn’t mean we don’t tend to fight among ourselves rather than fight with the enemy. There are more than enough horror stories of churches where Christians beat up on each other.
I’ve seen churches where believers hate one another but they’ll piously take of the bread and cup as if God is honored by that. I remember hearing about one congregation where the hatred had run so deep that the people literally sat on opposite sides of the church building and would have nothing to do with one another… but they all ate communion at the appropriate time.
Don’t be deceived, God is not mocked. He knows our hearts.
Jesus once said: “…if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.” Matthew 5:23-24
Essentially, Jesus was saying: If you’ve got a conflict going on between you and a brother, don’t bother bringing your gift to God until you at least try to get it settled. He doesn’t want the gift offered in that fashion, and He won’t accept it!
In the church at Corinth, people tried eating communion while mistreating other Christians.
And Paul told them “That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep (they’d died).” 1 Corinthians 11:30
God made them sick and even caused them to die because they took communion while hating their brothers/sisters in Christ.
God takes this seriously.
He hates it when His people hurt each other.
Communion should be a time when you close ranks.
A time when we should watch our brother’s back.
God demands that we fight the enemy – not each other.
Therefore Paul tells us that “A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. 1 Corinthians 11:28
So, if you’ve had a problem of hatred towards a brother/sister or have cheated them – don’t you dare take of communion till you’ve made it right. All you’ll end up doing is eating and drinking judgment upon yourself.
CLOSE: During WWII, some parts of the soldier’s K Rations were so valuable that the troops would sometimes use them as currency. They’d barter these items for other commodities that they needed. Their K Rations were a precious commodity.
What we need to remember here is that the Lord’s Table is a precious commodity to Jesus.
On the night He was betrayed, He took bread/ broke it and said “this is my body broken for you”
Then He took the cup and explained “this is My blood shed for you.”
Never take this table for granted.
Hold the bread and the cup as more valuable than gold because they represent the price Jesus paid for your salvation and mine.
Take it weekly.
Take it gratefully.
And take it as a time of sharing with your brothers and sisters in Christ.
