Communion proclaims the message of the gospel as we experience God’s presence in community with one another...

This week, we have been 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:

So far this week, we reminded ourselves 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 saw Jesus give an  authoritative decree regarding the celebration of the Lord’s Supper, or communion,  in a section of an account of Jesus life that is recorded for us in the Bible called the gospel of Luke.

We talked about the reality that, 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.

We then looked at how communion visibly and tangibly expresses the gospel in a section of a letter that is recorded for us in the New Testament of the Bible called the book of 1 Corinthians. Beginning in 1 Corinthians 11:23, we discovered 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.

Second, when we celebrate communion in community with one another, we experience the Lord’s presence in a more powerful way. Communion is a visual portrayal and remembrance of what occurred some 2000 years ago at Calvary. This morning 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.

We talked about the reality that 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. 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.

Today we will focus on the reality that 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 in 1 Corinthians 11:27:

Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy   manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. ²⁸ But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup. ²⁹ For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly.

In verse 27, Paul explains to the members of the church at Corinth that whoever participates in communion in an unworthy manner shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. Paul’s point here is that every person will be required to give an account to Jesus for the selfishness and rebellion that they have committed against Him by participating in communion in an unworthy manner. And because of this reality, Paul commands the members of the church to examine themselves before participating in communion.

Now a natural question that could arise here is “well Dave, how can we participate in communion in an unworthy manner? And what are we supposed to examine?” First off, we can participate in communion in an unworthy manner if we participate in communion without having a personal relationship with Jesus. As a church, we do not believe that the celebration of communion results in salvation. In other words, we do not celebrate communion in order to be saved and rescued from our selfishness and rebellion. We celebrate communion because we have been saved and rescued from our selfishness and rebellion.

And because of the nature of what communion is; because communion is a proclamation of the message of the gospel by followers of Jesus in community with one another, if someone was to participate in communion without having a personal relationship with Jesus, this is what they are saying: “I am with all these people who are followers of Jesus who think that Jesus is God in a bod who came to earth and lived a perfect life and died on the cross for their sins so that they could experience forgiveness and a relationship with God, but I personally don’t buy it”.

Second, we can participate in communion in an unworthy manner if we have areas of selfishness and rebellion against God and others that we have not addressed and confessed. This is what Paul is referring to in verse 29, when he states that “he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself is he does not judge the body rightly”.

If Paul was sending this message to us in a text message or email, this verse would sound something like this; whoever participates in communion condemns themselves to punishment if they do not evaluate and pay careful attention to their lives in communion with God and community with one another. You see, so often we read these verses and view the idea of examining ourselves as a time of taking inventory of any sin  that I may have vertically with God. 

And while we need to examine ourselves on a vertical level with God, we are also called to examine ourselves in terms of our relationships with one another on a horizontal level as well. When Paul uses the body in verse 29, he is referring to the body of Christ, the church. Paul’s point here is that when there is division and disunity in a church, as was evident in the church at Corinth, we risk taking communion in an unworthy manner. When we are involved relational sin and unresolved conflict that threatens the unity within the church and community with one another, we risk participating in communion in an unworthy manner.

That is how important unity and community is to the Lord. And that is why we celebrate communion the way we do here at City Bible Church. We desire to create the space and the environment where God can speak into our lives and reveal any areas where there is unresolved sin vertically with God or unresolved conflict and sin horizontally in community with one another. We desire to create the space and environment where people can ask forgiveness of God and one another in order to be able to take communion in a worthy manner.

We want to create the space where fathers can lead their families in prayer and where friends can pray together in small groups and experience loving community as they respond to what Jesus did to rescue us from our selfishness and sin. That is what is referred to in the final section of our statement, which states that though they are not the means of salvation, when celebrated by the church in genuine faith, these ordinances confirm and nourish the believer.

In other words, with this phrase, we are saying that while communion is not a means of additional grace or salvation, which is by faith in Christ alone, communion encourages followers of Jesus and promotes spiritual growth in followers of Jesus as we create the space to experience God’s presence and power in a profound way. Celebrating communion in community is also a way to celebrate God’s activity throughout history and in the lives of people today.

Now this leads us back to the question that will run throughout this series, which is “Dave does what we believe about communion really matter?” And the answer to that question leads us to a timeless truth about why it really matters. And that timeless truth is this: What we believe about communion really matters because communion proclaims the message of the gospel as we experience God’s presence in community with one another.

You see, what we believe about communion really matters 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. And what we believe about communion really matters because communion provides us the opportunity to experience God’s personal presence in a more powerful way as communion brings us back to the cross that unites us with Jesus and with one another in community as part of His body, the church.