World Communion Sunday
Encounters with Jesus in the Gospel of John • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 19:38
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Today is World Communion Sunday. Today we will celebrate communion together. In the Church (big C) we celebrate communion often. Some churches celebrate communion weekly, some even daily.
The word “Communion” is Paul’s term used to describe the Lord’s Supper.
There are different terms that people use to describe it: Communion, The Lord’s Supper, The Eucharist,
Where does this celebration come from?
Why do we celebrate it?
What does it mean?
All of these are important questions to ask, and perhaps they are not given answers often enough.
On this day, as churches around the world and believers on every continent celebrate communion we will be reflecting on the answers to these questions.
Where does this celebration come from?
Where does this celebration come from?
It is important to remember that Jesus and the Gospels do not just appear without a history or a context.
The synoptic accounts - that is the accounts of the gospels that look similar (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) suggest that Jesus was celebrating the Passover meal with his disciples.
That would take the celebration of the meal all the way back to Exodus.
7 Then came the day of Unleavened Bread, on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. 8 So Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and prepare the Passover for us, that we may eat it.”
The Passover -
Where did the Passover meal come from?
Many of you will recall Moses seeking to free the Jews from slavery under Pharaoh in Egypt. Moses would approach Pharaoh and say, “Let my people go!” Each time Pharaoh would deny the request.
There were 10 plagues in all. In the final plague death would come to the first born of all of Egypt. Moses was told to tell the Jews for every household to sacrifice a male lamb without blemish and one year old. They were to take the blood of the lamb and mark their door posts with it.
13 The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.
God would pass over those that had made the sacrifice. The blood of the lamb would protect them from his judgment.
The next verse reads:
14 “This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations, as a statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast.
So from the time of Moses - to the time of Jesus - the practice remained, remembering the sacrifice that prevented certain death as judgment from God.
Why do we celebrate communion?
Why do we celebrate communion?
We celebrate communion for several reasons
Because Jesus celebrated the Passover - but he assigned a bit of a different meaning.
Jesus said to do so in remembrance of him.
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.”
3. The Apostle Paul also encouraged the Corinthians church to do so and through them he encourages us to do so:
23 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, 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 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.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
The phrase “In remembrance of me” is a key phrase in the way that we celebrate communion. I want to focus on this more as we get to the meaning of it all. It is not just remember Jesus, but it is remembering literally all of salvation history.
From the earliest of times - literally as early as the Garden of Eden we see that it was sacrifice and death that covered the people and their sin. In Chapter 3 of Genesis, Adam and Eve have just committed that first sin, and God approaches.
21 And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.
These skins had to come from somewhere - they were animal skins. All the animals that had been created had been seen as “Good” up until that point. So think of it, that which God only a few verses before had pronounced good is now killed to cover the sin of Adam and Eve. It’s a powerful image.
What does it all mean?
What does it all mean?
That image of the blood covering our sin is powerful not only in the Old Testament, but it carries its way all the way through the New Testament and beyond to our present day.
In the Old Testament there was a sacrifice required to counter sin. There was a sacrifice required to counter death. Remember Paul’s words to the Romans?
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
There has been nothing that has changed that requirement in history. Sin still requires a sacrifice. By the Law as stated through the Old Testament there must be blood shed for the forgiveness of sin. The author of Hebrews speaks to this.
22 Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.
Our celebrating of communion reminds us that we are all under the same Law and able to receive the same grace. Just as those early animals way back in Genesis suffered for our sins, Christ suffered for our sins. He paid the price so that we wouldn’t have to.
18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit,
As I finish here, I want to make one comment about the idea of covenant. Way back in Genesis when God made a covenant with Abram he passed between the two halves of a split sacrifice. When Jesus broke the bread - tearing it in half and then takes the cup he says “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.”
A covenant is an amazing thing. If I make a covenant with you it is a promise that I will hold up my side of the bargain despite what you might do. It’s not like a contract where when one side breaks it the contract is broken; the covenant remains.
25 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.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
Paul ends with this admonition:
27 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. 28 Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. 30 That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. 31 But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. 32 But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.