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1 Corinthians 11:23-26
We invite you to join us for worship each Sunday morning at 9:30. You can also download our service at Baptist-Christian at iTunes. The Lord’s Supper is never to be taken lightly. Being removed from Calvary by two millennia we accept the historical reality of the resurrection intellectually, but not so much emotionally! As fundamentalists we are sometimes nailed to a wall for our beliefs, but we never have to worry about being nailed to a Cross! There are many reasons we celebrate communion, but we will look at only two now.
- WE ARE TO REMEMBER. Read Luke 22:19. It is interesting to note that “do this in remembrance of Me” is all Jesus said at that last supper. So how do we remember something we have not experienced? Look at it this way, what do you think about during the time you are experiencing the “meal” during your worship service? It is lunch? Or the fact you know you are participating wrongly because you are harboring some sin that you think is hidden from others and an all-seeing God? From a strictly Biblical perspective, if that’s true, you shouldn’t have anything in your hands. However it you are remembering the Passover (life saved because of Another’s substitutionary, sacrificial death) then you are on the right track. Perhaps you are remembering Christ’s passion (His endurance as a submissive victim of afflictions imposed upon Him) where He took your lashes, your nails in His hands, your forsakenness, your spear, then you are remembering as you should. It might be you are remembering His present/gift of His body given for you. Remember, no one compelled Him to do what He did, He did it out of His own free will because He loves you. These are the things we are to remember. Also,
- WE ARE TO PROCLAIM! Read 1 Cor. 11:26. Paul wrote we are to “declare” the Lord’s death. That means as believers we are no longer living for ourselves, but in service to Him. The satanic fallacy of current thought is “there’s no problem or consequence for not giving God ALL of every part of my life. As long as I make other think I am walking with the Lord, it’s no big deal.” We should stop to remember that while all our sin/sins are forgiven in our salvation, God does not ignore any sin in a Christian’s life. All sin has both temporal and eternal consequences! We are also proclaiming Christ’s message in salvation. Paul again explains it very clearly in Phil. 1:21 = “for me to live is Christ. In Athens Paul said “in Him we live, move, and have our being.” (Acts 17:28). When we raise the bread and cup to our lips we are declaring publicly that all/every part of our life belongs to God. We also proclaim the mission or, the expected Messiah has come. For us as Christians it means that we clearly understand the meaning of life is service to God-not self. We remember and proclaim that we were once under condemnation and lived in hopelessness, but have been liberated at Christ’s expense. The Lord’s Supper is not just and observance in which we remember and proclaim, it is a high and holy privilege to eat at the Lord’s table. Why? Because it happens only by personal invitation written in the blood and body of The Lord Jesus Christ!
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