Why Communion?

So a church had an unusual ritual every Sunday morning.

Before the church sang the doxology, they would all stand up,

and everyone would turn to their right and face a blank white wall,

and then they would sing the doxology.

Every Sunday, without fail, they did this. When it came time for the doxology,

after the offering was taken, they stood up, they turned to the right,

They faced a white blank wall, and they sang the doxology, praise God from whom all blessings flow.

So one Sunday, a newcomer was there, and he was confused by this,

and asked someone, why do you do this? No one knew.

The only answer they could come up with was, that's the way we've always done

it. You ever heard that before?

But that answer didn't satisfy the newcomer, other people were asked the same question.

Finally, one elderly man in the church who had gone to the church longer than

anyone else remembered the reason.

It seems that at one time they didn't have any hymnals, and so the words to

the doxology were painted in large letters on a large white wall at the right of the church.

Everyone would stand, turn to the right wall, facing the wall and sing the doxology

as they read it on the wall.

Over the years, the words faded and the wall was repainted numerous times,

yet no one remembered the significance of standing and turning toward the wall.

They didn't know why they had done it. It's just, that's the way they've always done it.

Many times we end up doing things for the wrong reasons because no one ever stopped to ask why.

We develop habits and traditions sometimes based on nothing more than false information.

We have a time of communion each month during which we partake of emblems that

remind us of Jesus's sacrifice for our sins. This morning, we're going to do the same thing.

And it's possible that we do these things so often and repetitively that we

forget why we're doing them.

That's the way we've always done it.

It's possible, or is it possible, that because we do it so often and repetitively,

that we take it for granted and we begin to complain about the taste or type

of bread instead of realizing the meaning of what Christ did for us.

I remember in one church, I had a gentleman that would come to me every time

we had communion, and he would say something about, this bread tastes stale,

or things like that. And I said, you're coming here for the wrong reason.

And we complain about the taste and the looks and the appearance and everything

else about our church services and our settings that we forget the meaning behind

what we are doing this all for.

We celebrate the Lord's Supper once per month, but the early Christians shared

communion every week in their homes.

They broke bread every week in their homes.

Acts 20 verse 7 says, On the first day of the week we come together to break bread.

Acts 20:7

Early historians document that the early church observed communion every week.

In fact, smaller groups possibly took communion together every day, maybe family members.

They remembered what Christ had done for them every day, but the church as a

whole took communion every Lord's Day, which was Sunday.

Still, one of the complaints I hear about taking communion every month is that

it becomes too common, and it can.

If you take communion every month as a ritual, it isn't as special.

With that in mind, I want us to look at why we take communion,

and I'm going to have Marty read from 1 Corinthians 11, verses 17 through 33,

1 Corinthians 11:17–33

if you would listen along and follow along in your scriptures.

In the following directions, I have no praise for you, for your meetings do more harm than good.

In the first place, I hear that when you come together as a church,

there are divisions among you, and to some extent I believe it.

No doubt there have to be differences among you to show which of you have God's approval.

So then when you come together, it is not the Lord's Supper you eat,

for when you are eating, some of you go ahead with your own private suppers. As a result.

One person remains hungry, and another gets drunk. Don't you have homes to eat and drink in?

Or do you despise the church of God by humiliating those who have nothing?

What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you?

Certainly not in this matter. For I see from the Lord what I also passed on to you.

The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, 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 a 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.

So then, whoever eats of the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy

manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord.

Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink

from the cup. For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ

eat and drink judgment on themselves.

That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep.

But if we were more discerning with regard to ourselves, we would not come under such judgment.

Nevertheless, when we are judged in this way by the Lord, we are being disciplined

so that we will not be finally condemned with the world.

So then, my brothers and sisters, when you gather to eat, you should all eat together.

So I want to look at this this morning. you've heard the chastisement from Paul.

The city of Corinth, the Christians in the city of Corinth were very divided

people. They were very competitive.

In fact, it was tradition in that days when you had dinners, the rich and wealthy,

the wealthy and the prominent would come and be seated first and would go through

the line first, so to speak, like if they had potlucks, they would go through

and they would get whatever they want, all the best of it,

and then the riffraff, like Free Methodists would—never mind,

I didn't say that out loud— would go toward the end.

So I want us to look at some things in this. First of all, we have communion

because Jesus started it.

I don't mean for that to sound like a little kid saying, he started it.

But the origins of communion come from Jesus.

In fact, communion is also called the Lord's Supper, or in some cases,

it's referred to as the Last Supper, which is what Jesus had with his disciples.

It's the fact that Jesus started it. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 11,

1 Corinthians 11:23–25

verse 23 through 25, which we read, The Lord Jesus in the night he was betrayed

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.

So God, who created us, knows that we do not have the greatest memories.

Throughout the entire Bible, we see that God was always setting up memorials for his people.

Whenever a significant event would happen, the patriarchs would build an altar

or a standing stone or something to remind them of.

When the people of Israel crossed the Jordan River, they set up 12 stones by

the riverbank to serve as a memorial to that event.

Whenever their children walked by and saw the stones, the parents could tell

them about God's miraculous entrance for them into the promised land,

a significant memorial for the Israel. which was Passover.

Passover was a meal celebrated in remembrance of their escape from Egypt.

During the meal, they would eat bitter herbs to remind them of their years of

slavery, 430 years of slavery in Egypt.

They would also eat sweet honey to remind them of how good the Lord is and what

he had promised to them in the promised land.

It was during the celebration that Jesus met with his disciples and started

the Lord's Supper with the Last Supper.

It was during Passover that Jesus had this meal with them, and he shared with them the ideas of it.

During the Passover meal, every family would set an additional place setting for the Messiah.

This was a reminder that they were looking for the one coming from God—the.

It is believed that it is from this place setting that scholars believe that

Jesus took the bread and the cup from that to represent the Messiah to come,

even though he was the Messiah.

It's also understood that during the Passover meal, the Seder meal,

as it's called, the bread, there were four loaves.

They were called loaves, only they were unleavened bread.

There were four of them during the meal, and it was during that last loaf,

the loaf that was signifying the Messiah to come, that Jesus broke the bread

and shared it to him and shared him that that was his body that was broken for them.

And it was that last cup. I think there's three cups during the meal.

I'd have to go back to my history lessons, but believe this.

But it's the final cup, which is the cup that we would drink in Messiah's presence in Jerusalem.

Everybody in Jerusalem would be doing this. So it's the significance of the

Messiah that's coming, and it was these that Jesus took.

The primary purpose of communion is that it is a symbolic reminder of Christ's death in our place.

Two times in 1 Corinthians 11, Jesus said to do this in remembrance of me.

And we say that every communion when we have this here, Do this in remembrance of me.

But how often do we really think about that phrase?

We have all been frustrated or embarrassed at times by forgetting something.

It's embarrassing when someone knows you by name, but you can't remember his or her name.

But it's probably a good thing that we don't remember everything in vivid detail.

If the memory of a bad accident stayed in our minds perfectly,

we would probably never get back in a car. In fact, my daughter's accident in 2006 was.

The Lord graciously blocked out the images leading up to the accident and after.

For some reason, those are just completely erased from her memory,

the horrific things that had gone on.

And God does that a lot sometimes. He allows those things to be erased from our memories.

If we did, we'd never get back in a car. If the memory of failure didn't fade,

we might not be willing to try again.

How terrible would it be if the memory of a loved one that died didn't fade a little bit with time?

Or get easier for us. We would remember the good things and the pleasure and

the attributes of that person.

But if some of the immediate pain did not leave us, the grief would be unbearable.

The Lord's Supper is the most meaningful memorial we've ever had established.

You can see the wisdom of God written all over it. It's so simple.

Any culture can participate.

It's vividly symbolic. Everything about it helps us to picture what Christ did on that.

The unleavened bread reminds us of Christ's sinless body that was broken and torn up for us.

The juice is blood-colored and easily remind us of the love shed for our sin. It's portable.

You don't have to travel to some special cathedral to participate.

It can be observed anywhere, and I've done it in people's homes when they have

not been able to attend services.

And we can do it in our own homes. It can be done anywhere we come together as people.

It's interactive. It's not just something we want. It's something we participate in.

Communion is so much more than a religious tradition. It's more than an end-of-the-service

break or kind of a commercial at the end before we go home to watch football.

It's that thing that drives us. In fact, it's a memorial. It's a picture of

remembrance. is a very part of our worship service.

It is what we do in observance of what Christ has done for us.

It focuses our hearts and minds on Jesus.

1 Corinthians 11, verse 26 says, For whenever we eat this bread and drink this

1 Corinthians 11:26

cup, we proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

Every time you and I eat the Lord's Supper, it is a sermon without words about the cross.

Jesus left us with a picture, so we would never forget. Jesus started it,

and he's going to end it all.

In fact, another reason we take communion is because of this.

It demonstrates the unity of the church. I do not know a lot about cars.

I can put gas in the tank. I can check my own oil. I can clean the windshield.

But if I need something more done, I have to take my car or my truck to TC Auto Works for repair.

Some mechanics will take advantage of a person's ignorance about their own car, but mine doesn't.

They treat me fairly. They will tell me if something needs to be done or doesn't need to be done.

In fact, they've said that several times that, you know, this is wearing out, but don't do it yet.

You've got plenty of time on that. I like that.

Where they're honest with me. But around a mechanic I don't know,

and I feel helpless and vulnerable.

Here at our church, none of us are experts at everything. We have people who

are experts in teaching and engineering, in banking and music and technology, etc.

We have people with mechanical, athletic, and artistic expertise,

and we're not experts in certain areas.

And if we're not experts in certain areas, we can feel inferior to others who are.

It's not always easy to be around someone who is better at something than you are.

And isn't it even worse when it seems like a person is better at being a Christian than you?

The Lord's Supper erases all of that. So if we go back to 1 Corinthians chapter

1 Corinthians 11 · chapter mention

11 again, we listen to what Paul said in starting in verse 20,

he says, when you come together, it is not the Lord's Supper you eat.

For as you eat, each of you goes ahead without waiting for anybody else.

One remains hungry, another gets drunk.

Don't you have homes to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God

and humiliate those who have nothing?

What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you for this? Certainly not.

In the Corinthian culture, it was common practice, as I said before,

to show favoritism at mealtimes.

Those who were higher on the social and economic ladder got to go first.

And the Christians at Corinth had allowed this practice to creep into the church.

The haves were jumping ahead of the have-nots.

So Paul encourages them in verse 33, So then, my brothers, when you come together

to eat, wait for each other.

He instructed them to wait. That's why we wait and do this together at the end.

He instructed them to wait for each other because when it comes to the Lord's

Supper, we're all on the same level. Social and economic distinctions disappear.

Our spiritual inferiority complexes disappear as well.

Jesus died for each one of us because we are all sinners who are hopelessly

lost except for the grace of God.

That's why we remember at the Lord's Supper, a brand new Christian and a believer

of 50 years are on the same level at the Lord's Supper as they say it's level

ground at the foot of the cross.

In fact, listen to verse 27. Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the

cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the

body and blood of the Lord.

A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup.

For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord,

eats and drinks judgment on himself.

Communion requires serious self-examination.

Communion focuses us to be real with God.

We don't have to worry about what others think about it. We need to worry about

what God thinks about us.

It is in this self-examination that we realize none of us are worthy to take communion.

And if we really understood this very well,

it would be very mind-boggling to us to think that the Lord of the universe

died purposely to give us life and how unworthy we are.

None of us are perfect. We're all sinners, but we're sinners saved by grace.

And because of that grace shown to us, we are now part of Christ's body,

this church, his church. In fact.

It says we're all sinners saved by grace, but on the other hand,

but now that we're saved by grace, we're saints.

We're saints with Christ. We're in his presence.

I'm of the opinion that when Paul talks about recognizing the body of the Lord,

he is referring to it in two ways.

First of all, remember the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. That's why we have

the emblems of the bread and the cup.

But secondly, we are to remember our fellow church members who are the body of Christ.

Remember what was going on in Corinth. They were not considering each other's needs.

There were divisions in the church. If you have a problem with someone in the

church or in the community who is a member of Christ, you need to work things

out with them before you take communion.

Otherwise, you're not recognizing the body of our Lord, which was sacrificed for you.

Jesus said in Matthew 5, Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar,

and there remember that your brother has something against you—in other words,

you have done something to harm your brother—leave your gift there in front of the altar.

First go and be reconciled to your brother, then come and offer your gift.

Let me summarize this by saying that, in my opinion, here are the times you

should not take communion.

First of all, don't take communion if you're not a Christian.

If you know you're not a believer and follower of Christ, don't take communion.

If you haven't made Jesus Lord and Savior life, this is a meaningless meal for you.

It is just a ritual that means nothing for you.

Secondly, don't take communion if there's someone in your life you haven't forgiven.

If you are not truly trying to forgive someone who has wronged you,

there might not even be somebody in this room, if you're not truly trying to

forgive someone who has wronged you, then maybe you need to take care of that first.

Third, don't take communion if you're totally distracted or irritated.

If you're thinking more about the taste of the communion elements or the dust

bunnies in the upper corner of the church, don't look now.

Or about what's going to be served for refreshments or about what you're going

to have for snacks during the Super Bowl or about the volume of the music or

about what you have to do this afternoon or if you're worried about beating

the crowd to the Chinese restaurant,

then simply walk by in reverence and don't partake.

I won't be offended and no one else will know.

We need to focus on the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ during communion.

If we are distracted, then it's probably time to just pass it by and take it later.

Communion is also a time when we rededicate ourselves to Christ.

Communion should remind us that he's God and we're not.

There's an attitude about God among people today. The overall thought among

people is that God's my good buddy.

There was a t-shirt fad not too long ago where the shirts read, Jesus is my homeboy.

Don't get me wrong, there's a friendship aspect of our relationship with Jesus. He's our friend.

In fact, Jesus told us that he called us his friends, and we are.

But first and foremost, he's God.

It's great to spend time in vibrant worship, but we also need those times when

we are still, and in the stillness of those moments to simply know that he is God.

There was a man named Robert Tinsky. He was raised in Judaism.

Dissatisfied spiritually, he visited

a Christian church for the first time seeking some religious truth.

He was amazed by the observance of the Lord's Supper. He didn't understand it.

He asked some young people seated near him what it meant.

They faithfully told him the gospel story about Jesus and what he had done for

us and how it was portrayed in the bread and the juice, the body and blood.

He was amazed that there was a God who loved humankind and him so much that

he gave up his son to die for him, and at the wisdom that originated such a living memorial,

he became a follower of Jesus and then became a faithful preacher of the gospel of Christ.

So when we share in communion, we are celebrating a relationship with the risen Lord Jesus Christ,

by taking seriously his own words on the night when he said,

before he died, when he said, this is my body, which is broken for you.

Do this in remembrance of me. And then this is the cup of the new covenant in my blood.

Do this whenever you drink it in remembrance of me.

Most of you You probably have never heard of Kyle McDonald, but after this story,

you'll probably never forget him.

Kyle McDonald was a young man, and he was on a mission.

He set his mission to trade one red paper clip for an entire house.

Before you say that guy was nuts, you should probably know that he succeeded.

He started in July. eye, he found someone who would trade in a fish-shaped ink

pen for his red paper clip. From there, he was off and running.

Next, he traded the ink pen for a hand-sculpted doorknob.

And he just kept on trading, each time trading up for something bigger.

Some of the trades included a Honda generator, which he received from a U.S.

Marine, a snowmobile, a large truck, an afternoon with Alice Cooper.

I don't know if that's a big thing or not, but anyway, a movie roll,

and until finally after 43 trades, Kyle traded for a two-story farmhouse.

It took Kyle McDonald almost a year exactly to turn one red paperclip into a house.

I think every one of us would say that this was a pretty impressive trade,

but there's an even more incredible trade that is available to each one of us,

and each month we're reminded of that trade through the Lord's Supper.

The Lord's Supper is representative of a horrible death that Jesus died on the cross.

He died for your sins and for mine.

His body was broken, his blood was shed, not because of his sin, but because of ours.

He traded himself for us. In the cross, Jesus took all of our mistakes,

shortcomings, and sins.

He takes the blackest and darkest things we've ever done, and in return,

he clothes us with perfection and holiness, and we don't deserve it.

And this offer is available to everyone. We simply need to choose to accept

it if you've never accepted this trade that God has offered to you.

I would invite you to do so today.

The Lord's Supper, we don't have as a closed communion. We have as open communion.

We allow anybody who comes, don't even have to be a member of this church.

You just need to come and know Jesus as your Lord and Savior.

And if you haven't done so, do it today.

And then when you partake of the Lord's Supper, you will know that you can lay

your sin and yourself at the foot of the cross.

And Jesus will trade up for you for eternal life. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, as we close this time and move into the time of remembrance,

we ask that you would make it more than just a mindless ritual,

that you would make it a remembrance for us of what you've done.

May we be absolutely humble in knowing that you traded your life for us.

You took our sin upon you so that we don't have to bear them anymore.

And it was your body that was broken and your blood that was spilled that gives

us this remembrance but even more so gives us eternal life in Jesus' name, amen.