A Reminder for the Forgetful...

This week, we are looking at the seventh statement that comprises our doctrinal statement as a church. This seventh statement addresses what we believe as a church about the church. This statement summarizes the answer to the question “What is the church? Who can be a part of the church? And what is the church supposed to be doing?" So let’s look at this seventh statement of our doctrinal statement together:

We believe that the true church comprises all who have been justified by God’s grace through faith alone in Christ alone. They are united by the Holy Spirit in the body of Christ, of which He is the Head. The true church is manifest in local churches, whose membership should be composed only of believers. The Lord Jesus mandated two ordinances, baptism and the Lord’s Supper, which visibly and tangibly express the gospel. Though they are not the means of salvation, when celebrated by the church in genuine faith, these ordinances confirm and nourish the believer.

Yesterday, we reviewed that earlier we had looked at the first part of this statement, where we discovered that what we believe about the church matters because the church is the vehicle that God uses to reveal His Son Jesus to the world and to advance His kingdom mission in the world.

We then began to look at the phrase “The Lord Jesus mandated two ordinances, baptism and the Lord’s Supper,” We looked on as Jesus gave this authoritative decree in a section of an account of Jesus life that is recorded for us in the Bible called the gospel of Luke, in Luke 22:14-20.

We talked about the reality that as Jesus and the disciples sat down to celebrate the traditional Passover meal, Jesus did not follow the script. Instead of celebrating the Passover like it has always been done, Jesus took the unleavened bread and said “this is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me”. Then Jesus took the wine and went off the script again. Jesus made an incredibly strange statement: "This cup is the new covenant in My blood." To which the disciples probably thought to themselves “what is Jesus doing?” What does all this mean?”

You see, unknown to the disciples at the time that they celebrated the Passover, Jesus was establishing what we know today as the Lord’s Supper or communion to reveal the reality that He was the ultimate Passover lamb whose sacrifice on the cross enables God to pass over the selfishness, sin, and rebellion of those who believe, trust and follow Him as Lord and Leader. Today, we are going to look at the next phrase of our statement, which states that communion “which visibly and tangibly express the gospel.”

And in a section of a letter that is recorded for us in the New Testament of the Bible called the book of 1 Corinthians, we see that Apostle Paul unpack this reality. So let’s look at this section together, beginning in 1 Corinthians 11:23:

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; ²⁴ 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." ²⁵ 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." ²⁶ For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes.

Here we see the Apostle Paul reveal for us the reality that when we celebrate communion in community with one another, we are doing two things. First, when we celebrate communion, we are publicly proclaiming the message of the gospel. The celebration of communion in community with one another brings us back to the cross, when Jesus allowed Himself to be treated as though He lived our selfish and sinful life so that God the Father could treat us as though we lived Jesus perfect life.

That is what the Apostle Paul is referring to in verse 26 when he states “for as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes”. Communion is a reminder that calls followers of Jesus to look back and remember all that Jesus did for us on the cross and to look forward to the reality that Jesus will return.

You see, when Jesus made the statement “this is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me”, he is revealing for us the reality that communion has been divinely designed to help us remember what Jesus did for us to rescue us from the selfishness and rebellion that separated us from God.  Jesus commanded His followers to celebrate communion because Jesus knew that, as His followers, we have a tendency to forget. Jesus commanded His followers to celebrate communion because Jesus knew, that as His followers, we would need a tangible reminder that expressed visually all that God had done to rescue us through Jesus.

That is why we celebrate communion in a reverent, reflective and regular fashion here at City Bible Church. We celebrate communion on the first Sunday morning of every month and the second Sunday evening of every month because when we celebrate communion in community with one another we are proclaiming in community that Jesus is God in a bod who came to earth to live the life that we were created to live but refused to live and die the death that we deserved to die so that we would have the opportunity to experience forgiveness and the relationship with God that we were created for.

Second, when we celebrate communion in community with one another, we experience the Lord’s presence in a more powerful way. Just as a worship song may cause us to experience the Lord’s presence in a more powerful way though our voices: just as listening to a sermon may cause us to experience the Lord’s presence in a more powerful way though our ears: when we take the bread and cup, we experience the Lord’s presence in a more powerful way visually as we proclaim the message of the gospel in community.

Communion is a visual portrayal and remembrance of what occurred some 2000 years ago at Calvary. It is communion that brings us back to the cross. It is the cross that unites us with Christ and it is the cross that unites us with one another in community as part of His body, the church. That is what the Apostle Paul is referring to in verse 25 when he uses the phrase, that “this is the cup of the new covenant in my blood”.

This new covenant is the covenant which brings us personal forgiveness of our sin and the personal indwelling of the Holy Spirit that the prophet Jeremiah foretold some six hundred years earlier in Jeremiah 31:31-34;

"Behold, days are coming," declares the LORD, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, ³² not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them," declares the LORD. ³³ "But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of  Israel after those days," declares the LORD, "I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. ³⁴ "They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them," declares the LORD, "for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more."

The cup of the new covenant shows God fulfilling His promises to all “from the least to the greatest”. Communion brings us to the place of seeing the fulfillment of God’s promise to bless all of the nations through Jesus, who was the fulfillment the promise that God made to Abraham in the book of Genesis. When we celebrate communion, we are remembering that the same price was paid for all of humanity to rescue humanity from our selfishness, sin and rebellion.

When we celebrate communion, we are remembering that as a result of what Jesus did for us on the cross that we can experience the reality of what the Apostle Paul wrote to early followers of Jesus in a letter in the New Testament of the Bible called the book of Galatians. Here is what Paul stated in Galatians 3:28:

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

And because we are all united as one in Christ Jesus, it is the centrality of Christ that draws us to community that we celebrate in communion. We are drawn not only to connection and communion with God; we are drawn to connection and community with one another. And communion serves as a reminder of the connection and community that we were created for.

And because communion was divinely designed to serve as a reminder of the connection and unity that we are to have in community with one another, anything that attempts to destroy or disrupt that unity brings consequences. We see Paul lay out this reality beginning in 1 Corinthians 11:27.

We will look at these verses Friday...