What Is Communion and Why Is It Important?
Dr. Tim Rivers | May 18th, 2025
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Somebody shout yes.
Yes.
I'm so glad that you're here. I really do pray that whatever you need from God today, you will receive, that you don't walk out of here empty-handed. The Bible says that where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty, freedom. Whatever you need released from, whatever is holding you down, can be released today in the presence of God. And someone shout amen.
Amen.
I'm excited because today we get to continue in our series called Apologetic, and this has been an apologetic series where we've gone through big topics in your Christian faith. And if you've been keeping up with it, we began with answering the question, is Christianity true? And we went from that to soteriology, what must I do to be saved, and what is baptism? Then we talked last week about the Holy Spirit. Anybody thankful that you've got the Holy Spirit in your life, the Holy Ghost? For some of you real serious folks. And today we're going to continue the conversation. But before we do, I wanna celebrate a few wins. We believe that God is doing amazing things here at Embassy, and we don't always hear about it.
So, I wanted to just take a moment to share what God's been doing since the beginning of the year, and just for a time for us to stop, recognize what God's doing, and celebrate. So, first thing I wanna do is I wanna celebrate our groups. Was anybody in a group this spring, this spring semester? Yes. We had 31 groups, over 749 people in attendance this spring. Come on, can we make some noise for that? Since the beginning of the year, today, we have 295 individuals that are on our serve team serving actively all across. Can we give all of our serve team a big hand? Come on now. This is everyone from parking lot, opening the door, ushering prayer teams, worship team, tech team, kids team, all there. It takes a lot of people to make a Sunday happen. And we are so grateful, so thankful that we have such a great team of volunteers who are contributing. Since the beginning of the year, we have given over $23,000 in just benevolence. And this is because of your generosity. We're able to bless people. And I love this one. Since the beginning of the year, we've baptized 156 people.
These are individuals that went public with their faith. And this is something that I love to celebrate because, as you know, we have now gone to three worship experiences instead of two. And the reason why we did that is because we kept having to put people up in overflow. We were running out of parking, running out of space in our kids, and so, we felt like the Lord was leading us to make more room, and that's exactly what we've done. And we're doing this in faith as we step forward and believe in God for a bigger building. Come on now. So, year to date, we have grown in attendance a little over 18%, and this kind of gives you the reason why we've had to expand. So, you're in the 10, and we've got one more service after this, the 11:45. God is doing amazing things. And let me just stop and say this. A lot of what's happening here, in fact, the lights, the air conditioner, all this is happening because of your generosity, because of your faithfulness in giving to the Lord, not out of compulsion or reluctantly, for God loves a cheerful giver, and it is your generosity that is funding the enterprise of the gospel being spread.
So, I just wanna say thank you. On behalf of everyone that is a benefactor of it, thank you so much for your faithful giving. One more thing that I've got to announce that I'm excited about. This coming Friday, May the 23rd, we are having a men's night. Come on, all the men, make some noise. Yeah! Why is it that when you announce something with men, all the guys wanna hit the lowest octave possible? But this is gonna be a great time. We're calling it Compete to Win, and this is kind of the summary. We have been having Bible studies here on Wednesday mornings at 7:00 o'clock. We did it for 12 weeks. Dozens of men showed up, and we had a great time. And this is an opportunity for you as a man to come be in fellowship with other men who are also seeking after Jesus. How many love men that love God? Some of you single ladies should be like, yes! I'm not saying you should come scope out on Friday night, but I'm gonna say there ain't gonna be in the building.
You can be in the parking lot. I'll be on golf cart duty. But it's gonna be a great time. If you love barbecue, show up. If you love competing, show up. If you love fellowship, show up. If you love talking smack, show up. It's gonna be a great time. We invite all the men to come. Bring a friend. Bring as many as you can. We're gonna have an awesome time. So, this Friday night, make sure you hit this QR code. We want as many men to register as possible to make sure we have enough for everyone to eat and all that kind of good stuff. Y'all ready to get in the word?
Yes.
Stand to your feet if you would. We're going to 1 Corinthians chapter 11. The book of 1 Corinthians chapter 11. We're gonna start reading at verse number 23. 1 Corinthians 11:23. Has this series been a blessing to anybody?
Yes.
Have you gained some knowledge, some understanding? Have you gotten some revelation? Maybe some things you haven't considered before? Maybe a reminder of things that you've already been exposed to? But I pray that this is a blessing to you. 1 Corinthians 11:23. Paul writing to the church of Corinth, dealing with some issues in the church. This is what he says. For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night when 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, also, he took the cup after 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 this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Uh-oh. Let a person examine himself then, and so, eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 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.
Woo! That's potent. But if we judge 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. Today we're talking about communion. If you've been around embassy any length of time, you know that the first Sunday of every month we take communion together, and some of you probably have wondered why we didn't take it at the first Sunday of this month. It's because I really wanted to wait for this message because I wanna teach you about communion, and at the end of this message, we will participate in communion together. And I wanna do that because some of us know about what it is, and some of us don't know what it is. And some of us have taken communion but haven't considered what it actually means. And so, the topic for today in our series is this.
What is communion, and why is it important? What is communion, and why is it important? Let's pray. Dear Lord, we are so grateful, so thankful for the shedding of your blood. We're so grateful that you have given to us your body. I pray, Lord, that you would give us revelation from your word, that you would help us to see more clearly the purpose for communion. Give us ears to hear, a heart to receive, a mind to understand what you would say to us. We give your name the praise, the glory, and the honor because you're worthy of it. In Jesus' name, and everybody say amen.
Amen.
Amen. You may be seated. What is communion, and why is it important? No matter your background in church, most denominations, most traditions of church celebrate communion. They recognize communion as a sacrament. Really, there are two main sacraments that are a part of the church, and those two are baptism and communion. Everyone has a different experience with communion. For some, you've taken communion regularly since you were a kid, and maybe you were taught about it, maybe you haven't. For some church environments, communion is a very casual thing. There's no talk really about what it is. We all just take communion. For others, it's a lot more serious and a somber event. I know for me, growing up, when I was younger, we had communion once a year. And it was during watch night service. Now, some of y'all are like, what does that actually mean? And others of you know exactly what that means. Watch night service was a service at the very end of the year, December 31st.
It was a late service, and we would have communion, we would have foot washing. Some of y'all are like, I'm glad those days are over. And you're like, foot washing? Yes, actual washing of feet. People's feet would come out of the woodworks, I'm telling you. I mean, literal woodworks. And then you would celebrate. After 12, you would celebrate the new year coming in. And growing up, communion was always a very serious, somber event. In fact, the preacher would spend a lot of time warning you about communion. They would say stuff like, if you take this unworthily, you could get sick and even die. And I'm like, I don't wanna get sick or die. I'll skip. I'll wash the feet, but I ain't doing communion today. And we would have a moment of repentance. Make sure your life was right before you took communion. And while there is no... You shouldn't be afraid of taking communion, you should recognize it as a serious event. Because I think what has happened in the modern day church is, communion has become a very casual thing. Like people just sipping on it and chewing on it.
And it's not that big of a deal. In fact, that's what was happening in in Corinth. This is why Paul was even addressing them. In 1 Corinthians chapter 11, he said, we're supposed to be having communion, and yet some of y'all are coming in here and you're drinking so much communion. You're getting drunk. Oh, man. Imagine someone in the back, just, I want all the blood of Jesus. He said, y'all are eating all the bread until people are walking in and there's no bread left. There's nothing but crumbs. And we laugh about it. And yet there are many people today who are Christians who participate in communion but don't really understand it. It's very important that we understand what communion is. And I feel like my job as a teacher, I really am commanded by scripture to do several things. One, preeminently, is to teach the word of God correctly.
But two, is to teach the Word in such a way that it appeals to learners' three learning domains, the cognitive, the behavioral, and the affective domains of the person. In the area of theology, I wanna give you three words that are very important if you study theology. They will pop up often, and they are really concerning the three domains, the learning domains of an individual. The first is called orthodoxy. Orthodoxy is a compound word, ortho and doxy, literally means correct belief. It has to do with your understanding or your head. And it's very important that when you consider the Word of God, anything in the Word of God, that you have a correct understanding of what the Word of God is actually saying. Because your understanding of the Word of God affects the next, which is called orthopraxy, or the practice, the correct practice. So, if you don't have a correct belief, your practice will be incorrect as well. And then, the third word is called orthopathy. And this is your correct passions.
Now this is very important, especially when we're talking about communion. It's important that we have correct orthodoxy, that we have a correct understanding of what communion represents so that we have correct orthopraxy, the practice of communion, so that our passion or our feelings about communion are also in alignment. And so, when we consider communion, I wanna answer two questions today. The first is, what is communion? And then the second is, why is it important? So, let's begin with answering the question, what is communion? First of all, communion, and this is also known as the Lord's Supper, or the Eucharist, or the breaking of bread. There are many different terms that you could use, but we'll use communion. Communion, first of all, was instituted as an ordinance by Jesus Christ. The word ordinance simply means as a rite or a religious routine. Now, let me just stop and say this. There's a lot of talk right now about relationship over religion. Let me just say this. Relationship is premier, but you have to have religion as well. What is religion? Religion is a routine, it's orthodoxy. It means that if you have a relationship but no boundaries, that can be a detriment to you.
You still have to have an order of how you do certain things. So, Jesus says, hey, I am ordaining this practice as an ordinance for the church to be practiced until he comes again. So, the Synoptic Gospels all record this. Matthew does in Matthew chapter 26. Mark does in Mark 14. Luke does in Luke 22. And then John mentions it. He doesn't give as much detail, but he mentions it in John chapter 6. I wanna look at Mark's version of it, in Mark 14:12. So, if you have Bibles, you can turn there. Mark 14:12. It says, "On the first day of unleavened bread, when they sacrificed the Passover lamb, his disciples said to him, where will you have us go and prepare for you to eat the Passover? And he sent two of his disciples and said to them, go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him. And wherever he enters, say to the master of the house, the teacher says, where is my guest room? Where I may eat the Passover with my disciples. And he will show you a large upper room furnished and ready. There, prepare for us."
And the disciples set out and went to the city, and found it just as he had told them. And they prepared the Passover. And when it was evening, he came with the 12. And as they were reclining at table and eating, Jesus said, truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me, one who is eating with me now. We have the benefit of context. We know the beginning to the end of the story. When you read the Bible, you have to put yourself in the position as the writer is writing it. So, imagine you're a disciple of Jesus. Jesus said, first of all, here's the setup. They're like, Hey, where are we gonna eat the Passover meal? We do this every year. And Jesus said, Hey, go into the city, and when you do, you'll find a guy who was carrying a jar of water, follow him to a house and that house is gonna be an end. And you tell the master of the end, the master has need of it. He's gonna tell you he has an upper room. When you get to the upper room, everything's gonna be prepared. Number one, that's miraculous, right? But they've known Jesus enough to know whatever Jesus says, do, just do it 'cause it's probably gonna work out.
So, they do it. Now they're sitting there having this Passover meal. They're reclined, which means to lean back. Enjoying themselves. They just had a really busy week. Remember, you had the Palm Sunday. They've had a really busy week. Now, they're having the Passover meal. They're enjoying lamb chops and unleavened bread and herbs and all this cool stuff. And Jesus is reclined, chilling with his disciples. And he's like, man, I'm so glad y'all are here. We too, Jesus, we love hanging out with you. He's like, yeah, but one of y'll gonna betray me? And everyone's like this, what? And the Bible says they all start asking one another, is it I? Are you telling me something that I don't know? Remember, they've been running with Jesus for the last three years. And they're probably wondering, Jesus, if you knew this, why didn't you tell us before? And now I'm wondering, who is it? Is there something that I'm gonna do that I'm not even aware I'm gonna do?
So, Jesus says to them, it is one of the 12. One who is dipping bread into the dish with me. For the Son of Man goes as it is written of him. But woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. It would have been better for that man if he had not been born. Woo! Now remember, right before this, Judas has already gone and made a deal to betray Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. And now he's sitting there acting like everything's cool. You can't always trust everybody. And as they were eating, he took bread, and after blessing it, broke it and gave it to them and said, take, this is my body. And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank of it. And he said to them, this is my blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for many. Truly I say to you, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God. So, a lot of things are happening in this moment, right?
First of all, Jesus is dropping some major news on them. Number one, one of y'all is gonna be betraying me. And the scripture says, John actually records this, that at that moment, Judas actually leaves, right? He leaves before the institution of communion. This is gonna be very important here in just a moment. I'll explain it. But Judas leaves, and the rest of the disciples suppose that he was gonna go get more bread. So now, Jesus is sitting there, and he takes bread, and he breaks it, and that's a normal customary thing to do in Jewish feasts, is breaking of bread and giving the wine. And yet Jesus says to them, hey, listen, this time when you eat the bread, it's my body. Now again, you're a disciple, and you're wondering, has Jesus started to lose his mind? How is bread his body? And then to make matters even more strange, Jesus is like, yeah, the wine, that's my blood. What a blood? I wanna look at several parallels here, but the one thing I wanna look at, is the significant detail of it happening on the Passover meal. Because remember, Jesus could have instituted communion at any other day of the year, and yet Jesus decides that it is on Passover day, on the day that they're eating the Passover meal, to institute communion.
Now remember, Passover, or the Feast of Unleavened Bread, is the most significant and most important meal and festival for Jewish people. So, if we're gonna understand communion, we really have to understand the Passover, which you will find in Exodus chapter 12 and chapter 13. Now I encourage you to go look at the details found in Exodus 12 and 13, but I wanna give you kind of a summary. The Israelites are now under the bondage of the Egyptians. They're living in Egypt. God has already spoken to Moses. Moses has gone in to Pharaoh to negotiate a release for Israel to come out. Pharaoh is not adhering to the request, and so God begins to send these plagues. And yet, still even with the plagues, Pharaoh is not not releasing the Israelites. So finally, God says, I'm gonna send one more and this is gonna be the straw that breaks the camels back. God says, I'm going to send the death angel into the camp of Egypt, and I'm gonna kill the firstborn of everything. So, the Israelites are like, whoa, wait a minute, even ours. And God says, no, this is what I'm gonna do for you, on the day that their angel is supposed to come, God says to Israel, I want you to have a feast, and I'm gonna call it the Feast of Passover.
And this is what God instructs them to do. God says, I want every head of household to grab a lamb and I want you to bring it as an offering or a sacrifice. Then after you bring the sacrifice, after you slay the animal, I want you to take the blood of the animal and I want you to paint the doorposts of the house with the blood of the animal. After you do that, I want you to eat the animal. And they're like, what does this have to do with anything? And God instructs them. Here's what's happening. Judgment is coming into the camp. The judgments of God are about to come, which is death to come upon the rebellion of Pharaoh for not obeying what God has requested of him. Yet God says, I'm gonna extend mercy to those who will sacrifice the lamb as a substitution for their firstborn. So, the lamb was the penal substitutionary atonement for the firstborn. And what God says is, as long as you have the blood applied to the doorpost of your house, when the death angel comes into the camp, when he sees the blood, he's going to have to pass over.
So, God literally says, everything that does not have the blood applied, will have to suffer the consequence of death upon the house, but anything that has the blood applied, has to be passed over and you will survive. This is the first real example that we have of God saying that the animal is gonna be the substitution for you, and as long as you have the blood applied, nothing that's meant to destroy can destroy you. After this happens, God says, I don't just want this to be a one-time event, I actually want you to institute it as a feast that you observe every year. And so, God says, after, 'cause remember, after this happens, the death angel comes and destroys all the firstborn, Pharaoh's like, I've had enough, you're released. So, now Israel comes out of bondage and they're on their way to the promised land. Then God gives them instructions. God says, from now on, I want you to have the Passover or the feast of unleavened bread every year to commemorate what I did for you. He instituted as a reminder for the Israelites to recognize their release out of bondage, their protection from death, and their journey into the promised land.
So, from Exodus until the last supper, Jews have been recognizing the Passover feast as a symbol of their past deliverance from Egypt and their future final deliverance when the Messiah would come. So, it's no coincidence at all that Jesus, on the very day of Passover, says to the disciples, this time you're not gonna slay a lamb because I'm actually the lamb that's gonna be slain. The disciples don't even know this yet, because Jesus hasn't been betrayed yet. And yet, Jesus instituted in that moment what he calls the breaking of bread or the Passover meal, which is now not the symbol of the old covenant but a symbol of the new covenant. Now think about this. Through the last supper, Jesus revealed that he was the Passover lamb about to be sacrificed to be the penal substitutionary atonement for anyone who is covered by the blood. So, used to, you would kill the lamb and physically apply the blood to the doorpost. Jesus says, now you will spiritually apply my blood to the doorpost of your house, of your heart. Meaning that anything that is meant to destroy can't destroy anyone that has the blood applied.
Now why is this significant? It's significant because communion then becomes the replacement of the old covenant Passover. Meaning that communion is really the Christian Passover where Jesus is demonstrating to his disciples that he has become the lamb that was offered and sacrificed so that by his blood we would be saved from death and destruction. So, every time we take communion, it's a reminder that Jesus gave his life for us to deliver us from the sting of death, to protect us, to pull us out of bondage, and to lead us into the promised land. So, what is communion? Communion is the Christian Passover, a way for us to remember the sacrifice of Jesus and communally share in that remembrance with others. Look at how Paul puts it in 1 Corinthians 5:7. Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. This leads me to point number two. Why is it important? Because we're about to take communion, but it's very important that you understand the significance of communion.
Number one, communion remembers Christ's sacrifice. Look at Luke 22:19. And he took bread and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them saying, this is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. Now I want you to see the parallels here, because just as Israel remembered the lamb's blood that saved them, we remember Jesus, the lamb of God, who shed his blood to save us from sin and death. In both, a life was given to save a life. So, when you take communion, it's very important that you recognize that if it was not for the blood of Jesus, you wouldn't be here today. I know we don't talk a lot about the blood of Jesus, but it's time for us to resurrect this notion that if it wasn't for the blood of Jesus, it would have been my blood on the cross. If it wasn't for the sacrifice of Jesus, I would have been the sacrifice one. If it wasn't for the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, it would have been myself nailed on the cross.
So, when we take communion, it is a reminder that we were destined for destruction if it wasn't for the hand of God. Number two, communion proclaims the gospel. Look at 1 Corinthians 11:26, "For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes." Passover was a proclamation of God's power and faithfulness to deliver his people. The same way communion proclaims the greater deliverance through Jesus, not just from Egypt, but from sin and death. Both are declarations of God's saving act. Communion is a reminder of the miracles that God has worked in your life. So, when you take communion, it's not just a reminder of the sacrifice of Jesus, but every time you take communion, it's also a reminder of all the things that God has done in your life that are supernatural miracles. I'm talking about a healing in your body. I'm talking about getting a job that you weren't qualified for. I'm talking about God saving your marriage. I'm talking about God bringing your child home. I'm talking about God supplying your needs according to his riches and glory. When you didn't have the education, God still gave you the opportunity.
When you couldn't get through the door, God still opened the door. When I take communion, it's a reminder to me of the goodness of God working in my life. When I can't do it, God is doing it for me. Number three, communion fosters unity in the body of Christ. 1 Corinthians 10:17 says, "Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread." In the Passover celebration, it was done in families and communities, drawing people together around one table, one lamb. In communion, we are one body united, not by heritage, but by Christ. Now, this is very important, because a lot of people take communion and they have a misunderstanding that communion doesn't just join you to Christ, but it also joins you to one another. Meaning that if you have malice towards your brother and sister, you should not take communion. Because communion is a sign that you are attaching yourself to the body of Christ, which means other believers. This is why Jesus dismissed Judas prior to instituting communion. Why? Because Jesus would not allow contamination to be part of his body. If you are contaminated by sin, willful sin, rebellion against God, you should not take communion.
Why? Because the Bible teaches us if there is anyone who is in willful, deliberate, rebellious sin, when they attach themselves to the body of Christ, they are entering into the body of cancer. And the Bible says that it will destroy the body. This is why you can even read Scripture. Paul even says there are some people who are forbidden to eat from the table. Why? Because they haven't dealt with their sin issue. People don't like this kind of teaching. Because there are a lot of people that be sipping and dipping, living any old way and thinking that communion is what's cleansing you. Communion doesn't cleanse you. Communion is actually a sign that you're walking in cleansing. Just as baptism is a sign of an internal decision that you made to follow Jesus, communion is also a sign that you are in alignment with Christ and with the body of Christ. Even Jesus said, I ain't gonna let Judas eat of this bread, 'cause I don't want no contamination in it. Point number four, communion encourages self-examination and renewal. Let's look at 1 Corinthians 11:28. Let a person examine himself then and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup for anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.
Before Passover, the Israelites were commanded to remove all leaven in their house. Leaven is a symbol for sin. They were instructed by God, remove all the leaven out of your house and purify themselves before the Passover meal. Communion calls for us to examine our hearts, repent of any unrepentant sin and be made spiritually clean so that we don't contaminate the body of Christ with rebellious sin. This is where it gets a little more serious because communion isn't just something we do for kicks and giggles. Communion is actually a sacrament instituted by Christ himself. Jesus thought of communion so seriously that he is the one that ordained it. And what he is saying is, you've got to examine yourself. Here's what the scripture teaches us. If you're not serious about being a disciple of Jesus, don't take communion. If you're not serious about following Christ, don't take communion. And here's why. Because if you take communion, remember the word unworthy, unworthily? Sometimes we think, oh, well, I'm not worthy. No one's worthy. That's not what the scripture is saying.
Unworthy literally means without recognition of what communion is. So, Paul is saying, if you take it in a way where it's just casual and you don't recognize how important it is, then you will actually bring on yourself judgment. Instead of it being a feast of communion, it's actually a feast of excommunion. We actually see this demonstrated in the scripture, where there were some individuals who would not repent of their sins and they were forbidden to partake in communion. Excommunication actually in scripture, excommunication of a person from the body, from the local assembly was actually done at the table of communion. Where everyone would come and partake, it would be the job of the person who has stewardship over the church, who has oversight of the church. If they knew of someone who was in unrepentant sin, when everyone came gathered to take communion, they would say, you cannot take it. And thereby, they would be excommunicated from the assembly until they self-examined themselves and repented. And then, they would be brought back in the fellowship at the table. Am I still in the book?
Yes, sir.
So, communion is a time where we have to do some self-examination. And if there's anything in your life, I'm not saying that we all have sin issues, but we should all be striving for sanctification. More of Christ sincerely. If there is something that you're doing that you know is opposed to right standing with God, communion is the point at which you self-examine yourself and you make a turn. Repentance is simply saying, God, I am turning away from this and I'm following after you. Point number five, last point. Communion encourages generosity. I want you to look at this, and I want you to consider that in the preparation for the Passover meal, God instructs the people to bring a lamb. Isn't it interesting that God doesn't say, hey, y'all come, I'm gonna supply all the lambs for you. There is no communion without an offering. God says, he instructs the people, you got to bring the lamb, which represents you going all in with Jesus. Jesus says, I will do the work through it and then it will be shared in the community of the people. At the Last Supper, Jesus instructs his disciples to go prepare the meal. Isn't it interesting? Have you ever thought about this?
When Jesus was sitting there having the meal... Have you ever thought about, who brought the bread and wine? Who brought the meal? Somebody had to prepare it. This is why the Synoptic Gospels are actually very intentional about telling us that the meal was prepared before Jesus arrived. Why? Because Jesus found someone who was willing to present an offering that would then be shared in community. In Corinth, Paul is dealing with a church. The reason why 1 Corinthians chapter 11 is happening is Paul is actually rebuking the church because he says, listen, there are some of you who have, who are rich and some of you that are poor. And what I've noticed happening, what's come to me, is that there are people who are wealthy, who are buying all the supplies for the communion, but they're also consuming all the supplies. He says, y'all are actually coming in early because the wealthy at that point had a flexible schedule. So, what was happening is the wealthy were bringing the bread and the wine, and they would get to church early and they're like, hey, let's not wait on the poor folks who are out there farming and who may be in a domestic environment where they don't get off until five.
They said, let's go ahead and start drinking wine and eating bread. And they started eating and drinking so much that there was nothing left when the poor folks were coming in from the farms and who were servants, there was no communion for them. And Paul rebukes them. And he says, if you have to give, you should be giving so that those who don't have can still share in the community feast. Isn't this exactly what God tells them in Exodus chapter 12? He goes, There are some people that can't afford a lamb. Those of you who can't afford it, share it with them. But if you have a lamb, you should be bringing it. Communion reminds us of God's generosity towards us and it should convict us to mimic his generosity to others. This is communion. Now I wanna do something a little different today. I felt kind of prompted just in prayer for today to do our communion spot a little different. So, I wanna invite everyone to stand if you would. The first thing I want us to do, is I want us to examine ourselves. So, I want us to just take a moment, close our eyes, bow our heads.
And I want you to examine yourself right now. The Bible says to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. I want you to examine your life. If there's anything in your life that you need to repent of, go ahead and repent right now. Repentance is simply a posture of the heart that says, Lord, I feel sorrowful for the sin that I'm committing, and I pray that you would help me as I turn away from it. That's what repentance is. So, let's just take a moment and examine ourselves. Lord, as we prepare for communion, I pray that we would examine ourselves. If there's anything that is offensive to you, I pray that we would deal with it swiftly. Lord, if there's any malice in our heart, any kind of contention toward any person, I pray that you would help us to forgive, help us to entreat them as a brother and sister in Christ. If there's any ought in our heart against anyone, I pray that you would root it out of us. And help us, God, to have the same posture that you did, which is to forgive. I pray, Lord, if there's any kind of habits or addictions or sins that we're caught up in, that we would release those right now, and that we would allow the Holy Spirit to be in control of our lives and our passions. In Jesus' name, everybody say amen.
Amen.
The second thing that I'd like to do, and I wanna do this in a real way because the early church practiced it this way, and I would like for us to practice it this way as well. I would like for ushers to come, and I wanna have a moment of offering. And the reason why I'm doing this is because I want us to display in real time what the early church practiced, which is that they would bring an offering, and then they would participate in the communal feast or the breaking of bread. Now, I know some of y'all are digital folks, you give online. And some of y'all have it set up regularly. Our family, we have it set up regularly where we give consistently. The Lord gives to us consistently, so we give back to him consistently. But some of you, you may wanna give physically right now in these baskets as a sign, Lord, I'm bringing my lamb. I'm bringing my resources as a real live example of contributing to the body so that the body can all be in community together. This right here, we never really think about this, but this has been supplied literally because of the offering of God's people.
Your dollar, your $5, your ten thousand, your million dollars. I'm still waiting for that one. Whatever you give has supplied in literal form the bread and the wine that we're about to participate in. So, I want us to have a time of worship, and I'm inviting you to participate in an offering. If you wanna do it physically, you can. If you wanna do it digitally, you can. But let's have a time of offering right now.
♪♪That gives me strength from day to day. It will never lose its power♪ Let's sing it all together, say. ♪♪It reaches to the highest mountain, and it flows to the lowest valley. The blood that gives me strength from day to day. It will never lose its power♪ Can we double clap, y'all? Come on, let's clap together. Say, ♪♪It reaches to the highest mountain, and the good news is it doesn't just go up, but it goes down. And it flows to the lowest valley. The blood that gives me strength from day to day. It will never lose its power. It will never lose its power♪♪
Lord, we just pray right now, God, over the offering. Lord, whether it be given digitally or physically, Lord, this is our way of participating in generosity. I pray that you would take what we've given and that you would bless it, and that you would meet every need in the gospel enterprise, in your kingdom, God. I thank you, Lord, for those who have given. I pray that they are blessed for their giving. I thank you, Lord God, that they have felt compelled to be a giver who is cheerful, not out of coercion, not reluctantly, for God, you love a cheerful giver. I pray that you would take the resources that we've brought, that you would bless it, and I pray that it would be a blessing to the community. I thank you so much, God, for your goodness, for your kindness, through your people. In Jesus' name, and everybody say amen.
Amen.
You've been given an element. If not, just raise your hand, and they'll come down and give you one. But now I'd like for us to take communion together, now that you know what it is, and you've examined yourselves, and you've got scriptural reference for what it represents. It represents the Passover meal. I want you just to open up this top part and reveal the bread, and this is a type of unleavened bread. I wanna read from 1 Corinthians 11:23. Paul, writing, he says, "For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night when 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." Remembering Christ, let's take the bread. Thank you, Jesus, for your body. In the same way, also he took the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me." I'll just peel back the other side, and let's take.
Can we just give Jesus some thanks right now? Whatever you wanna do, however you wanna do it. Thank you, Jesus, for your body, for your blood. I pray, Lord Jesus, that as a church, as individuals, we would never take communion lightly, that we would always recognize it for what it is. It is a reminder of your sacrifice. It is a reminder of your protection over us. It's a reminder that you've delivered us out of bondage. It's a reminder that you're taking us into the promised land. And for that, we are thankful. In Jesus' name, and everybody say amen.
Amen.
Can you put your hands together and give God some praise in this place? Thank you, Jesus. Anybody thankful for the blood of Jesus? I'm so thankful. Hey, I'd like for our prayer team to go ahead and come up. As they're coming, let me just encourage you. If you need prayer for anything in your life, whether you are heading to a job interview or you need prayer for sickness in your body or you're dealing with some kind of situation, I want you to come up here and get prayer. Remember, you don't have to leave out of here without prayer. You always have someone that will pray with you. So, if you need prayer, come on down. If not, God bless you. Show the love of Jesus to somebody. Invite someone to the house of God. We'll see you here next week.
