What Should I Do During Communion?

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Let's pray together.

Lord, it is our understanding that that which brings you glory is good for us.

And so, Lord, tune our head and our heart what we think and what we feel around those unchanging realities, that your glory is our good.

Those two are not at odds with each other, that they're not in an adverse relationship.

They're not in an inverse relationship.

They're in an intimate relationship.

This is why the Bible says the gospel says, whatever you do, whether you eat or drink, do all for the glory of God.

So we come to join you today in doing what we do for your glory, not just for our pleasure or our satisfaction.

Don't let us be that short-sighted in light of such a huge accomplishment as the cross.

So, Holy Spirit, brood over us as we prepare to come to the table today, to reflect and to remember, to look in, to look around, to look out, and look forward.

Pray all of this in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Amen.

Amen.

You can have a seat.

And if you're our guest today, let me explain to you what you're seeing set up around the room.

Today we're observing communion.

And communion is not something that we tack on to the end of the service here at Grand Park.

It is the whole service.

And so just a couple things by way of uh practicality.

We practice uh open communion, which means if you're a Christian, you have a relationship with Christ, you're welcome to come and receive the elements today.

There's stations set up all across the front, on the sides, and in the back back there.

Uh, and then I'll just have a brief homily, uh, which I love.

A little kid said, What's a homily?

I said, Well, it's basically a short little talk.

So you're not going to talk as much as you normally do.

That's exactly right.

And the kid went, yes, and I was like, you're in trouble.

But anyway, uh, basically, I'm just here to kind of set up the table, and then we'll continue in the context of worship.

There'll be uh things to be read, cloud with Lita's uh against the backdrop of come and receive the elements.

Uh, there'll be uh readings, there'll be different things on the screen.

We'll continue in worship.

Uh, and so here's what I just encourage you off the top.

Number one, uh, after you don't you don't have to come immediately, you can sit in your seat and worship.

When you get ready, you can come to any of these stations.

Uh, but when you when you come and receive the elements and get back to your seat, you're not done.

Continue to engage in worship the written word, the spoken word, uh, the audio, the audio, and the visual.

Okay, does that make sense?

Say amen.

Uh now the Bible gives us uh uh some pretty clear directions about what it means to receive communion or the Eucharist or the Lord's Supper, depending on your tradition.

So I want to read those from 1 Corinthians chapter uh 11, starting in verse 23.

And I'll just kind of pause.

Uh I'll read a little section and just say, hey, here's what this right here means, okay?

Verse 23 says this.

It says, For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you.

But the Lord Jesus, on the night when he was betrayed, he 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 also he took the cup after the supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood.

Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.

For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

Uh so I I mentioned uh four little things about looking.

And here's the first one uh communion.

Uh a lot of times people say, you know, what should I do during communion?

What should I think about?

Here's what everyone should do.

This is not original with me.

Christians have taught other Christians this for centuries, so I want to teach it to you.

The first thing you and I should do during communion is to look back, to look back.

This is where we remember the death of Jesus by looking back on what happened and what was accomplishment, not in a sentimental way, but but in a very uh relational way.

Because when we look back, what we see is that what happened on the cross was not just forgiven, not just forgiveness, but we were set free from sin.

It's not just, oh, I get forgiveness for sin.

No, I get set free from sin.

Sin no longer has power over me.

So the first thing we do in communion is we look back.

We'll continue reading.

Verse 27 goes on to say this: Whoever therefore eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and the blood of the Lord.

Let a person examine himself.

Let a person examine herself then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

Now, the Bible pauses right here.

Now, first of all, look back and then secondly, look in.

Look in.

Examine yourself.

It's not this uh uh sit and hate yourself for two minutes and then come to the table.

No, but examine yourself when you look in, be honest about what you see and look at me.

Do something about what you see.

Don't just look in and shrug and go, well, that's just who I am.

No, because of the cross, you and I are capable of so much more.

The gospel gives us a capacity that we by nature do not have.

And with gospel capacity comes gospel responsibility.

So what do we do during communion?

We look back, we look in, continue reading to verse 29.

It says this for anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself.

That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.

But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged.

But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.

So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another.

If anyone is hungry, let him eat at home.

So that when you come together, it will not be for judgment.

About the other things, I will give direction when I come.

Now, what do you what do we do during communion?

We we look back, we look in.

Here's the third thing I want to say.

You look around.

You look around.

You see, a lot has been written about this one verse.

Uh and it comes basically down to two schools of thought.

He said, What do you mean this one verse?

Uh it's right there when he says in verse 20 uh 29, he says, if anyone eats and drinks without discerning the body, he eats and drinks judgment on himself.

If anyone eats and drinks without discerning the body, that's where all the controversy comes from in church history.

What do you mean by the body?

Uh and there's two schools of thought, okay?

The first school of thought is that when he says, hey, if if you don't discern the body, the first school of thought is this is a reference to the physical body of Jesus, which is represented in the bread and the cup, okay?

Uh now, now, now I don't have a problem with that.

I think what the Bible is saying is that when you come to the table, you should think about the body of Jesus that was offered for you and the blood of Jesus that was set shed for you, because it sobers you and I up when it comes to thinking about our sin.

Uh, however, don't think about it so much that you believe, oh, in what's called transubstantiation, where these elements become the literal body and the blood of Jesus.

We do not believe that.

We don't teach that.

And here's why.

We don't believe that's what the Bible teaches.

There are other religious traditions that teach that, and we don't want to get into a squabble with that.

We just don't see that anywhere in scripture.

But we do understand when it says, hey, you have to discern the body, but you should think about, oh my gosh, it's a humbling thing to be died for.

There's the other school of thought.

When the Bible says, you know, when you if you eat and drink without discerning the body, you eat and drink judgment on yourself.

Uh, the other school of thought is it refers to the body of Christ, the church.

Uh uh, and now you may be thinking, well, where are you?

I think both things are true.

I think the gospel does call you and I to say, hey, when you come to the table, you should think Christ offered his body, the Son of God, sinlessness was offered up for my sin.

You should think about that.

That should be sobering, okay?

But also you should, this is why I say look around, because you should look around and kind of go, hey, my sin affects my faith community.

Uh you say, I don't know what you mean.

Uh, if you look around, I don't know if she's in this service, I think she's in the second service.

There's a lady at our church, Peggy Sanders.

She'll come in on a slide in on a walker, comes down the aisle, sits about halfway back in the same seat.

Don't sit in her seat because she'll let you know.

Hey, that's my seat.

Could you move, please?

Uh, her husband will just kind of get real close to you and like scoot you over.

Uh, Peggy Sanders has been walking with the Lord forever.

You also see Johnny Williams.

When you look around, you see Johnny Williams, who some Sundays wears a mask.

Johnny is uh an older African-American man in our church.

He's battling cancer.

He volunteers in our kids' ministry.

He's there every Sunday.

He's at the softball field every Saturday, going from field to field.

I'm like, Johnny, what are you doing here?

Well, some of my kids are playing.

I'm like, so I look around.

I don't just look back and look in.

When I look around, I'm humbled, but I'm also encouraged.

Uh, we were coming back.

My daughter's going to grad school in Waco in the fall.

We went to look at apartments on Friday.

We're coming back, and you, when you come back, you go through a little town called Hearn, Texas.

And we're at the red light in Hearn, and I just see movement, and I look over, and some old man is on a John Deere riding tractor, and he's got a bungee cord, and he's bungee cord his walker to the side of his John Deere.

And I just nudged my wife and I said, There's somebody that is kid said, Dad, you're too old to drive.

And he said, Maybe a car.

And the cat was going right down Main Street.

He looked left at the light and was headed to, I don't know where he was going, but I was a little bit.

And from the backseat, my daughter said, I've seen your future.

Yeah, you can take my car keys away, but to quote that great theologian Vince Gill, you forgot about my old John Deere.

This cat was living a country song.

You said, Why is that?

Because when you look around, you see people who are further down the road, but you also see people who aren't as far down the road as you are.

And you, I want you to feel today your responsibility towards them.

I did a wedding last night, and then I was sitting down with some old married people eating afterwards, and they were like, Do people have any idea what they're in for?

Of course not.

No, no, but I did tell them, enjoy today.

It's the easiest day of your marriage.

Everybody under 25 was like, oh man, don't be so negative.

Everybody above 26 was like, Whoo-hoo, get ready.

Yeah.

You look around, look back, look in, look around.

Here's one that's not in the text but in the gospel.

Look forward.

Look forward.

What do you mean?

The last time when Jesus instituted the Lord's Supper, when it went from being Passover, and he fulfilled, he didn't, Jesus didn't come on that moment to tell a new story.

He came to fulfill an old story.

And one thing he said to us was look forward.

It's in Mark chapter 14, verse 25, which says this, Jesus says, Truly, truly I say to you, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it anew in the kingdom of God.

Mark 14:25

So when I say look forward, look forward to, because it's not just all here on this earth, the best is yet to come.

This is good, but what is to come is even better.

And when you and I lose sight of that, we fall in love with this world and forget the next.

And so you can't just, it's not enough to look back and look in and look around without having looked forward at what is to come.

Now the Bible is very clear and it tells us, hey, spend some time and examine yourself.

Think about what you're fixing to do.

So I'll voice a prayer and we'll just spend maybe just a minute just kind of getting our head and our heart ready for what we're about to do.

Think about the body of Christ, the little body and blood of Jesus, okay?

Think about the body of Christ, the church that you're a part of.

Your behavior matters, your obedience matters.

Let's think about these things.

Let me pray.

Father, we want to do just what the Bible says.

When the Bible says, do not do this without discerning the body.

And so we're mindful today, this morning, of the body of Christ that we're a part of, and the body and the blood of Jesus that was offered up and shed because of our sin.

Anybody that thinks that humanity is inherently good cannot explain the crucifixion.

Because if man is inherently good, then why would God require the sacrifice of his son?

And so, Lord, we look around this world and we realize we cannot make sense of the world without a doctrine of sin.

We can't make sense of ourselves without a doctrine of the atonement.

We're grateful for both today.

And so, Lord, just brood over us as we get our head and our heart ready to come to the table.

Father, we've come to do just that, to feast and to sing, to feast and to sing, to look back, to look in, to look around, and look forward.

All of that is possible because of what was accomplished on the cross.

Humbled by that.

We're grateful.

So we say thank you in Jesus' name.

And all of God's people said Amen.

Just take a moment before we dismiss.

Just kind of marinate in the greatness of God.

Communion is a sacred and celebratory experience here at Grand Parkway.

And here's why.

Because on the cross, God upholds the nature of God and he meets the need of humanity.

I say that too if you're an adult, you think about that.

Like I said to one of my 10-year-old friends that came to our station, hey, we do this to remind ourselves that Jesus wants to be our friend.

So Jesus said to his followers, I don't his disciples, I don't call you followers, I call you friends.

Don't make it harder than it has to be.

I mean,