Title: Communion: “There’s More to Prepare than a Meal” Script: I Cor. 11 (primary)
Type: Expos. Where: GNBC 9-7-14/1-6-19
Intro: What happened to Time: When as a child I laughed and wept, time crept. When as a youth I dreamed and talked, time walked. When I became a full grown man, time ran.
And later as I older grew, time flew. Soon I shall find while traveling on, time gone. How often have you talked with someone on the telephone who seemed to be in a hurry and wanted to get on with more important business? Or visited with someone on the street and received that same hurried feeling? You've undoubtedly experienced it...and didn't enjoy it. And, perhaps, you have also been guilty of this. If you have, why not decide to tithe time, save up chunks, bits and pieces of it, and give them away to people who interrupt your pre-established plans? Today, I want to do what I try to do at least once every other year and take time, an appropriate amount of time, to describe one of the most important ordinances in the church which we all partake, and maybe too often rush through. Let’s take time this morning to really understand the importance of communion.
Prop: What is communion and why do we practice it?
BG: 1. The Bible is largely silent on how we are to go about doing this ordinance of the church.
2. As a child was always something that seemed to be done without any explanation. I imagine that is the case with most individuals in churches. At Corinth was a meal. Jews and Greeks. Some were stuffing selves. Some were getting drunk. Awful behavior.
3. Some churches call communion a sacrament, some call it an ordinance. What do these things mean? Therefore, today, let’s take time to ask:
Prop: What is communion and why do we practice it?
I. The Foundations of Communion
A. What is the Meaning of “Communion”?
1. The word “communion” which is not found in the Bible, comes from the word “community” and it means a shared or mutual participation. Specifically, as Christians, it means a mutual or shared participation in the redeemed community, the church.
-Illust - When a puzzle is put together each piece is interconnected to the other pieces. Alone a piece is inadequate; a single piece cannot show you the whole picture. Likewise if one or more pieces of the puzzle are missing then it is defective; it’s lacking an essential part and is incomplete. Being IN CHRIST means we share a COMMON UNION bringing us into the COMMUNION OF THE SAINTS. Simply said; we need each other! Why? Where there is no union there can be no communion. Communion is a demonstration of our communion.
2. It is a present reality (1 Cor. 10:16-17): Paul calls the practice of communion a “participation”(present tense) in the body and blood of the Lord Jesus. We understand this to mean that Jesus is “spiritually” present in communion. The spiritual presence of Jesus in communion is as follows: Paul speaks of spiritual food and drink (1 Cor. 10:1-3) and warns believers to take communion in a worthy manner, so as not to sin against the body and blood of the Lord (1 Cor. 11:27-32). Elsewhere in 1 Corinthians, Paul argues that eating food sacrificed to idols is ”participation” with demons and issues strong warnings against that practice (10:18-21). Each of these points seems to indicate that the symbols used (whether the communion elements or food sacrificed to idols) do more than simply represent the reality they symbolize; they allow one to “participate” in the reality that the symbols themselves point towards.
B. What was communion originally designed for?
1. Communion, as practiced in the church, was designed to unify the body of Christ.
a. Communion should unify the individual congregation first of all. If you have an offense with a brother or sister in Christ you absolutely, positively cannot continue to carry that offense and take communion. You must first, as much as it is possible with you, attempt to clear up that offense. Listen Christian, the world holds grudges, the Christian does not. The world listens to the lies of the world, the Christian does not. Christian, if a non-Christian comes and visits the fellowship and makes derogatory statements about your brothers or sisters in Christ you need to take that with a grain of salt and ask your brother or sister first before you take up an offense and damage fellowship.
b. Illust: While many people hunger for family closeness, we often miss the opportunities that stand immediately before us. Tammy Harris of Roanoke, Virginia, began searching for her biological mother when she turned 21. A year of searching proved fruitless. Tammy did not realize, however, that her mother, Joyce Schultz, had been searching for her for 20 years--the same Joyce Schultz who worked alongside her at the same convenience store. When Joyce overheard Tammy speaking with another coworker about her search for her biological mother, Joyce's ears perked. The two compared stories and birth certificates. When the coworkers realized they were, indeed, mother and daughter, "We held on for the longest time," Tammy said. "It was the best day of my life." Christians often sit side by side in the church pews, week after week, and fail to realize the depth of relationship they share in Jesus Christ. Introduce yourself to someone you’ve never met before. Ask someone to coffee or lunch never have.
2. Sadly, in the Church at large, communion has seemingly lost its unifying nature.. Illust – Sadly, today, with all of the various denominational differences when it comes to this sacrament, communion is often times a means by which differences, not similarities are demonstrated: How we take it: Common cup, non common cup; The elements: real wine only, grape juice only, leaven or unleaven bread; The theological significance: transubtantiation, consubstantiation, real presence, spiritual presence, memorial; Who is the officiant priest or clergy or lay led; what’s it called Eucharist, Communion, The Lord’s Table…its enough to make your head spin!
C. Applic: Now that we’ve laid the foundations, let’s move on.
II. The Practice of Communion
A. What was the Precursor to Communion? – Mt. 26
1. Where did communion come from? For most Christians we don’t realize that communion had a historical and cultural context it came out of. (Not us.)
a. Mt. 26:26 – The background is the night before the crucifixion, Christ is celebrating the Passover Seder supper with His disciples (Read v.26ff) In Mk 14:22-25 we read almost the exact same wording for this event.
b. In the Synoptic Gospels, clearly Jesus is celebrating the Passover Seder with His disciples. He is commemorating God the Father’s faithfulness to redeem Israel from Egypt, and this event is to this very day still commemorated in even secular Jewish homes each Passover. And yet, Jesus was demonstrating something unique in this account, he was assigning new significance by way of comparison to this event.
2. What was the context of Christ’s instituting communion?
a. Illust –This coming Holy Week, 2015, we will once again have Eli Birnbaum of Jews for Jesus put on a demonstration of Christ in the Passover here at Good News. We will have a large, all-church, seder supper where we will be walked through the final supper of Christ and its spiritual significance. If you have never participated in a Seder Supper you have yet to realize the full significance of what Jesus did when he held up the bread and the cup and said what he said.
b. You see, in that portion of the Seder Supper, the OT Passover meal, Now it's time for the search for the aphikomen (the buried half- matzoh). There were three matzoh crackers taken in the beginning, the center one is broken and wrapped in a napkin and then hidden to be produced later. This is done by the children, who make a game of it. Adults call out clues, "You're getting close," etc. And yet, when Jesus took out the matzoh, the aphikomen, and unwrapped it, He said: “This is my body.” His disciples must have sat stunned. And then, the next point in that Seder Meal was to drink the 3rd cup of wine, as it is still called: “The Cup of Redemption” – Jesus said: This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” Jesus was instituting something new, a New Covenant, that would be accomplished in a few hours.
B. What was the Precursor to Communion? The OT Exodus Passover Meal – Exodus 12
1. As I said the precursor to communion is the OT Ex. Passover Meal.
a. The Passover was the final plague against the Egyptians. Every time Moses would ask Pharaoh to let his people go, he was refused or recanted. In this act, God decided to smite the 1st born of all Egypt, and yet there would be a way of escape, if you took a lamb, killed it, and put its blood on the lintels and mantels and door post of your home, the angel of the Lord, would “passover” that house and not smite the 1st born. It took faith and it took obedience. The Hebrews were redeemed by the blood of the lamb from Egyptian slavery.
b. In Mt. 26 Jesus attributes new significance to the tradition of the Passover supper. Just as Israel was redeemed from slavery through the blood of the lamb, so also, each of us who trusts in Christ’s sacrifice and applies the blood of the Lamb to his/her life, is redeemed from slavery to sin and death. He takes the old tradition and instills new meaning and says from now on do this “in remembrance of me” not the Passover, but the Messiah.
2. The Lord’s Supper Reminds us of John the Baptist’s saying in Jn. 1:29
a. Jn. 1:29 “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”
b. "Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of our church. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, communion without confession, absolution without personal confession."
C. Applic: Three times a month, Jermaine Washington and Michelle Stevens get together for what they call a "gratitude lunch." With good reason! Washington donated a kidney to Stevens, whom he described as "just a friend." They met at work where they used to have lunch together. One day Michelle wept as she spoke about waiting on a kidney donor list for 11 months. She was being sustained by kidney dialysis, but suffered chronic fatigue and blackouts and was plagued by joint pain. Because Washington couldn't stand the thought of watching his friend die, he gave her one of his kidneys. When you've got something great to be thankful for, having a "gratitude lunch" is a great way to celebrate. Today in the Word, November 14, 1993. Communion focuses on the Redemption we have in Christ.
III. The Purpose of Communion (Com. looks in 3 different directions simultaneously)
A. Communion Looks Backward – As a memorial to Christ’s Finished Work
1. What is a memorial and how is the Lord’s Supper like a memorial?
- Illust – When I was a child my father and brother and I took a trip to Gettysburg, PA and Washington, DC. Saw the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, the Iwo Jima Memorial, scores of statutes, monuments and memorials to those who had done something in the past. They are means by which later generations remember something done early at a great and heavy sacrifice.
2. Jesus said: “Do this in remembrance of me.” Communion is not as the Catholic Church teaches a sacrament that is a necessary step toward salvation. You don’t receive the Eucharist as part of necessary to be saved. The Bible teaches you are saved completely apart from the communion service, the Eucharist, or the Mass. When we partake of the elements we reflect upon His body and His blood which purchased our redemption, that’s why communion is a memorial.
B. Communion Looks Around – As a demonstration of our Fellowship
1. Christian Fellowship is Essential to the Proper Observation of Communion.
a. I Cor. 10:16-17 (READ) IN this passage Paul highlights the unity of the body of Christ, the Church, during the communion celebration. We know from Acts 20:7 that the church met on Sundays (not Saturdays) because they wanted to distinguish selves from Jewish assemblies, and during part of worship broke bread together. (Now, the NT also never says that “Thou shalt have communion every time thou gets together on every Sunday.”
b. Let’s see how they did communion in the early church. READ I Cor. 11:17-20. Notice in v.20 the celebration of communion is called “The Lord’s Supper”. The Bible never names the service “communion” or “Eucharist”, but rather, “The Lord’s Supper”. Yet notice what was happening. People are often idealistic of the NT Church. Let me tell you, the NT Church had troubles as well. We find divisions, gluttony, drunkenness, factions in fellowship and taking communion in such a way actually demonstrated that they despised the church (v.22).
c. If you or I am doing things that are not in keeping with our Christian witness we should not partake of the Lord’s Supper because makes mockery of our fellowship. Illust - Warren Wiersbe wrote “Paul did not say that we had to be worthy to partake of the Supper, but only that we should partake in a worthy manner. At a Communion service in Scotland, the pastor noted that a woman in the congregation did not accept the bread and cup from the elder, but instead sat weeping. The pastor left the table and went to her side and said, “Take it, my dear, it’s for sinners!” And, indeed, it is; but sinners saved by God’s grace must not treat the Supper in a sinful manner.”
2. Communion is a coming together, not a setting apart of the body of Christ.
a. As a response to Paul’s writing here in I Cor. 11, the 2nd century church did away, by and large with the “meal”, encouraging people to eat at their homes first and then come together as a fellowship and use only those elements Jesus used, bits of bread and cup of wine in order to eliminate the disparity between the haves and have nots. Fellowship is essential to communion!
b. Illust - Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German pastor and theologian who was an enemy of the Nazis because he refused to go along with their state idea of a church that practiced the anti-semitism of the Nazis. In fact, he was a hunted man who upheld authentic Christian principles. As a part of the German underground he was not safe to worship openly. Bonhoeffer knew there was no other community and fellowship like that experienced within the Body of Christ. He said: "Baptism incorporates us into the unity of the Body of Christ, and the Lord’s supper fosters and sustains our fellowship and communion … in that Body". During the Nazi reign, Bonhoeffer was cut off from other believers, and it took a toll on him. Donald LaSuer says "Bonhoeffer’s painful discovery is instructive for us. Cut off from the nurturing fellowship of other Christians, he felt a deeper hunger for the fellowship that was no longer available to him. Like a hungry man who knows the taste of bread though he can no longer reach and break from the loaf, he knew the power of fellowship when it was painfully absent".
C. Communion Looks Forward – To the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. v. 26
1. How long are we to partake of the Lord’s Supper or Communion?
a. Paul clearly teaches that we are to partake of communion until the Lord comes again. He hasn’t come, so we are still partaking.
b. Illust: Some timber producers have to wait up to 180 years to produce a harvest! That means the planter will never know the great grandchild who reaps the harvest, and the harvester will never know the forefather who planted the seed. The future depends on the foresight and patience of each generation. The Believer should live like that. We don’t know when the Lord will return, but it’s a sure thing and we can live like it. When we focus on the certainty of Christ’s return, and the hope that brings, we can wait for the Lord and endure hostility.
2. Communion is then a Promise that Jesus will one day return. – It looks forward.
*Illust – As a school boy I always hated late Jan/Feb time of year. It seemed as though the fall had all of the holidays and then in December we would get two weeks for Christmas break. But then, those long, dark, cold days of winter set in, and barring the occasional snow delay there was nothing to look forward to, nothing to keep our hopes up, that was, until March or April came along and we got the respite of Easter break. I know that in this life, as believers, the world can get us down, we can become discouraged and lose heart, drudging through the winters of life. Yet look up friend, communion, the Lord’s Supper, is a promise He’s coming again, there’s coming a Spring time and its not far off.
C. Applic: Communion’s Purpose is to cause the recipient to look backwards (Xst’s work) around – (fellowship) and forward (Christ’s 2nd coming).
IV. The Participants in Communion
A. Who is Allowed to Participate in Communion?
1. The key question that must be asked is: What “body” is being spoken of in v.27?
- Scholars will look at passage and say it is the “body of Christ”. Yet, I ask you, what is that body? Is that the elements of communion or is it the brothers and sisters who are seated around you? Clearly the Bible teaches that Christians are to participate in communion.
B. Who is not Allowed to Participate in Communion?
1. Communion is for Christians, so you had better treat your brothers and sisters right!
a. Illust – In a family w/ five kids we sometimes have the tendency to pick on one another and get on one another’s nerves. Sometimes it goes too far. However, there is one place that picking on or teasing one another is not tolerated and will probably more instantaneously merit a violent reaction from me – the dinner table. Why? The meal is the highlight of the day, not simply the food, but the family fellowship time and I get very cranky when someone begins to disturb that time or choose to tear down “the family”.
b. Paul warns that you and I had better have proper regard for our brothers and sisters when we come to partake together. He tells us in vv. 30-32 that God judges those with weakness, sickness, and even death. This discipline of believers happens because, even though we are acting like non-Christians, we will not be condemned with and judged like non-Christians (v.32) because of faith in Christ. You see its not so much that we examine ourselves so that we are “worthy” of partaking. We aren’t. (Xstians can sin and die from that sin, still be saved.)
2. Communion is for Christians, but we better remember to treat it with respect.
a. Disregard for the Holy in our world today. "Secularism is to live as though God does not exist. We believe in Him, but thats as far as it goes Our home life, business life, social life are conducted along lines which leave God out. But the ultimate course of secularism leads to spiritual bankruptcy expediency rather than principle."
b. We must be alert to the dangers of repeating a ritual without experiencing its reality. God gave the Israelites many symbolic celebrations to observe. Their purpose was to commemorate God’s great acts in the past and to remember His covenant(s) with them. The prophets frequently rebuked the Israelites for repeating the rituals, while forsaking or forgetting the realities behind them. The solution to religious ritualism is not to forsake the ritual, or to do it less frequently, but to seek always to perform the rituals in a way consistent with the reality they symbolize.
Conclusion/Applic: A few years ago, on "Good Morning, America," Joan Lunden featured some extraordinary gifts you might want to include on your Christmas gift list.One of them was a Jaguar automobile, the Jaguar 220. If you care to order one of these, go to your Jaguar dealer and put down your $80,000 deposit. Then when the automobile is delivered, you are expected to pay the balance of $507,000. The Jaguar 220 is a $587,000 automobile, and they only make 250 of them a year. Joan Lunden mentioned that if you were to purchase such an automobile, you might also be interested in a new car wax that promises to give it the ultimate shine. It retails for $3,400 for an 8 ounce can. I guess if you can afford a $587,000 automobile, why not spend $3,400 for car wax?A third item she mentioned was a $300,000 gold and silver toilet seat inlaid with precious stones. Of course, there were cheaper gifts for those who have everything: an $18,000 frisbee, a $10,000 yoyo, a $12,000 mousetrap, and even a $27,000 pair of sunglasses. And for the proud grandparent who is wondering what to buy the new grandbaby, how about a $28,000 pacifier? Such gifts stagger our imagination, don’t they? But they are not indescribable. Only God can give gifts beyond description, and priceless besides. His greatest was the gift of Christ Jesus. At communion, we remember our most precious gift-- the forgiveness that came through the sacrifice of Jesus. "Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!" (SOURCE: Melvin Newland, edited by SermonCentral Staff. Citation: 2 Corinthians 9:15.)
