Communion (2-12-13)

1 Corinthians 11:26 - "For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes."

On the night that Christ was betrayed He set up an ordinance for the church, and Paul is referring back to that ordinance in 1 Corinthians chapter 11. In Verses 23-26 he says - "For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which 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 He took the cup also 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 the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes." In talking about the Lords supper the apostle Paul references Christ’s return. He talks about when Christ set up this ordinance, and he goes on to lay out some guidelines concerning the proper and improper ways to partake of it, but right in the middle he makes this seemingly insignificant comment about the Lords return. Again, verse 26 says - "For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes." Christ is coming again. Back in the gospels the Lord Jesus told us to "do this in remembrance of Me." And we have the opportunity to be obedient to our Lords command by meeting together and breaking bread in remembrance of Him. But we will only have this opportunity to obey Him in this way until He comes. Once Christ comes in the air and calls us up to Himself we will never again for all eternity partake of the Lords supper. We won't have to, the reminders of His body being broken and His blood being spilled on our behalf will be constantly before us. We will see Him and we'll be with Him for eternity. It's been said that the only man made things in heaven are going to be the piercings in Christ’s hands and feet and the hole in His side. We'll have that reminder forever.
But for now, for the time of our stay upon earth, the Lord Jesus wants us to partake of the Lords supper in remembrance of Him. He wants us to constantly be looking back to that, remembering Him because as we do so our hearts and minds will be in the right place. When we remember all that He is and all that He has done, He will motivate us to walk worthy of the Lord fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of Him. We will have our minds set on things above, not on things on the earth.

This is such a simple thing as everything in the early church was. In Acts chapter 2 and verse 42 we're told of four things that the early church devoted themselves to - "They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer." The church wasn't meant to be something complicated, but something very simple. One of the things that the early church devoted themselves to was the breaking of bread. They saw the importance of looking back and remembering Christ. And this is a reminder that we cannot have to often. The person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ are the foundation of our faith. It's all about Him. If we lose focus of Him, we might be going through the motions of church but it's useless if we forget the Foundation that we're based upon. In Christ’s letter to the church at Ephesus in Revelation chapter 2, He says this to them in verses 2-4 - "I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false; and you have perseverance and have endured for My name’s sake, and have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have left your first love." The Ephesian church was very active. They had doctrinal purity, they stuck without compromise to the Word of God, they didn't tolerate false teachers and they endured persecution, but Christ said that He had one thing against them, they had left their first love. The church, whether international, local or the individual member, is to be centered around Christ Himself. There are many things in the church today, even good things, that will get in the way and take our focus away from Christ. The church at Ephesus was doing a lot of good stuff, but they forgot Christ, they forgot their Foundation and that intimate love relationship with Him. They left their first love. We should have doctrinal purity, we should have good works and perseverance, but these things are not our primary focus. These things, as well as others, stem from our relationship with Christ. They flow out of that one needful thing. There is no such thing as too much focus on Christ.

The last night that Jesus spent with His disciples before His death He instituted the Lords supper. He wanted to emphasize to them the importance of remembering Him in the breaking of bread, but it's surprising how little emphasis is put on this in the church today. It seems that we see a need for all kinds of programs and meetings in the church except for this one. But this is what Christ commanded us to do. And we only have a limited time to obey. In Partaking of the Lords supper we are proclaiming His death, but we will only have this opportunity until He comes.

Luke 22:19-20 - "And when He had taken some bread and 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.” And in the same way He took the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood.""