Tag: Communion

Most modern writing advice argues against using adverbs. I’m going to use some intentionally.

It is—actually, amazingly, astonishingly—good to think about the kind of people Jesus associates with. He eats and drinks with the likes of us. He communes with the “such were some of you”s (1 Corinthians 6:11).

Christ’s suffering informed His sympathy; He took on flesh, He knows our weaknesses, He was tempted as we are (Hebrews 4:15). His suffering leads to our sanctification, and our sanctification has the same source as Jesus’ sanctification. Jesus doesn’t just get us, He owns us.

For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers (Hebrews 2:10–11 ESV)

We are not to be ashamed of Jesus and His words (Luke 9:26). We are not to be ashamed of the gospel (Romans 1:16). But when we are tempted to hold it down about our relationship to Jesus, that’s our problem, not because Jesus has any problems.

And so, if anyone had quality justification for distance, it would be Jesus distancing Himself from us. We have problems. We have not recognized and represented the worth of His name. Instead, He remains faithful (2 Timothy 2:13), and He is unabashed in calling us His brothers.

“Did you hear what he said? Us Lions. That means him and me. Us Lions. That’s what I like about Aslan. No side, no stand-offishness. Us Lions. That meant him and me.” (The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe)

Jesus is the “Son of Man,” and He identified Himself as such (Luke 5:24). The title has quite a history. It is difficult to carry all the stones out of the quarry of its meaning.

Nearer to the end of His ministry Jesus did lift at least one heavy rock and show it to His disciples. He needed to confront their short-sighted vision of authority. In Matthew 20 He talked about the behavior of true greatness. He said that whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant (Matthew 20:26). Whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave (Matthew 20:27).

Then He connected that to His own authority and His own activity. In verse 28 He said, “Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give His life a ransom for many.”

Jesus’ service was not passive. He initiated. Jesus’s service was only responsive insofar as He saw the need, but not responsive as in He waited around to be asked. Jesus’ service was obviously not easy. The ransom required His blood. The life of spending oneself for others is a model that the master intended His disciples to follow. Also His ransom is our redemption, our reconciliation, our cause of rejoicing.

The bread and the wine are a call to remember that you have been served. They are a call to joy. And they are a call to follow the Son of Man.

Jesus, that He might sanctify the people through His own blood, suffered outside the gate.

So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. (Hebrews 13:12 ESV)

Jesus was treated as the unclean, Jesus was cast out, so that He could strengthen our hearts by grace.

We are with Him. He removed one mark of disgrace and has given us a new one.

Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. (Hebrews 13:13 ESV)

By His wounds we are healed, and then made stronger to shine as lights, even when the darkness . We’ve been reconciled to God through Christ, and now treated as strangers by those in the world. We’ve been forgiven of our sins, which to those still in their sins increases animosity. We’ve been given new life, and still we hope in a better and lasting city.

“Let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that confess His name” (Hebrews 13:15).

Peter’s impulse was right and his application was wrong. In Luke 5 when the catch of fish was breaking their nets his own pride was broken. Next to Jesus, the Holy One with more-than-human knowledge, Peter confessed his sinfulness. He wanted Jesus to go away from him. Practically, did Peter expect Jesus just to step out of the boat? More seriously, Peter did not grasp Jesus’ purpose.

Sinners should recognize their sinfulness. We are all sinners (Romans 3:23), and anyone who says he isn’t makes God a liar (1 John 1:10). And if God wanted nothing to do with sinners, He has the power, and the justification, to stay far away.

Jesus came to seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10). Jesus came like a physician for the sick: “I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:31-32).

We need this reminder because 1) we get the idea that our sin is beyond what Jesus can deal with. And/or 2) we get the idea that another’s sin is beyond what Jesus can deal with.

It’s like saying, “I know He’s a fisherman, but have you seen me? I’m a fish!” Right. Exactly. Jesus was a fisher of men, knowing full well what sort of stink He’d be dealing with.

So we rejoice that He’s caught us in His net of grace. We rejoice that He’s called us to catch others with good news. We rejoice that we do not need to be afraid. The joy of the Fisherman is our strength.

Jesus came to preach the good news of the kingdom of God (Luke 4:43). He is at the center of that kingdom, which is because He is the King. All authority has been given to Him, He commissioned us as His disciples to announce the good news to all nations, and we pray for His kingdom to come to earth, which includes His return, which He promised. Amen!

How do we proclaim? There is more than one way, but Paul wrote that “as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” (1 Corinthians 11:26).

We do declare the good news with words, we also demonstrate our taste of the good news when we join together at the Lord’s Supper.

The kingdom spreads not by skin color, but by the Spirit indwelling. The kingdom spreads not by earthly citizenship, but among the citizens who are believers, with effect on their citizenship. There are parts of Christ’s kingdom that are here, local churches are outposts, and when we say, “Maranatha, come, Lord Jesus,” we want the fulness of Christ’s light and glory and fellowship.

To eat and drink together at this table, resisting division and selfishness as plagued the church in Corinth, is part of our proclamation. The good news has come to us, the kingdom is spreading as yeast in the loaf, and we are proclaiming our salvation and blessings through Christ’s sacrifice as the defining feature of our lives. Amen!

We are the un-named woman in Zerephath. We are the diseased Naaman. When we think about who we are in the story of the Lord, among many needy widows we’ve received the oil of grace. Among many lepers we’ve received the cleansing of the Spirit.

There had been a multi-year famine in the land, many were suffering, and the Lord sent help to a woman who no one expected to find at the top of the deliverance list. She was an outsider to the covenant, she was a single-mom drain on society. And yet her heart was humble before the prophet. She received his word, and she received grace.

In another case, a man was proud but desperate. Based on the word of a slave girl he traveled to another country in hope that his nervous system could be healed, his limbs and skin made whole. Though he initially resisted the prophet’s prescription, he did humble himself and obey and dip in the Jordan River, and the Lord gave him new life.

We can see the spiritual hunger around us. We can see the spiritual insensitivity and the ruin of men’s lives around us. But we’ve received grace in Jesus. We’ve been given the Spirit of Jesus. We have bread and wine in abundance, we have the light of truth. We, who did not deserve anything from the Lord, are being renewed day by day.

We’ve received grace upon grace, the Spirit has been poured out within our hearts. So we commune together in great joy in Christ Jesus our Lord.

It is worth repeating that the devil is shrewd, cunning, and a master manipulator. It’s also worth remembering that he is just as irrational, short-sighted, and a great fool.

If you’re going to go after someone, you better be sure you can win. The devil was going after his own Creator. What was he thinking?

After the three great temptations from the devil as Jesus was about to begin His ministry, the devil “departed from him until an opportune time” (Luke 4:13). We don’t hear about the devil directly again until Jesus was about to finish His earthly ministry.

Jesus and His disciples were gathered together for the passover supper. Jesus was about to wash their feet, then repurpose the bread and wine as a new meal in remembrance of Him. “And during supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot…to betray him” (John 13:2).

Later that same evening Jesus told Peter that Satan had desired to sift Peter like wheat (Luke 22:31). The devil continued his pursuit to destroy Jesus and His men. But he was too small-minded and foolish to see his own defeat in Jesus’ death.

Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. (Hebrews 2:14b-15)

Now all of us who believe in Jesus have life! Now we have a high priest who has been tempted but who remained faithful, who gives us confidence to draw near to the throne of grace.

In answering the devil’s temptation to get glory by serving the devil, Jesus quoted Deuteronomy 6:13 about serving the Lord. And right after that, Moses reminded the people that the Lord is a jealous God, who will be angry with those who go after other gods.

This is all true. Worship and serve God alone or there will be trouble.

But the context of the reminder includes more truth. The exhortation to fear and serve and swear by the Lord’s name follows after a list of a bunch of good things that the Lord would give His people.

They were headed into the promised land. They were about to inherit cities they hadn’t built, houses full of things they did not fill, cisterns they did not dig, vineyards they did not plant. And they would eat and drink and be full (Deuteronomy 6:10-11). And in this context of abounding good they would be tempted to forget the LORD (Deuteronomy 6:12). He had delivered them from slavery, He was providing them with good.

The Lord gives good things, and we are tempted to forget. The point at this Table is to remember and give thanks and worship and serve our God.

When your kids ask, Why do we need to obey? Because Jesus died and rose again. Why do we have the Lord’s Supper every Sunday? Because the Lord has set us apart in order to feed us and to unite us together in Christ. Why do we sing? Because no other gods have eternal life.

I don’t have a verse for it, but because we can see patterns in the devil’s work, this is not mere speculation. The devil hates our worship, and we shouldn’t be surprised at how he twists and tempts Christians to get it wrong at the Lord’s Table.

In previous generations the devil caused such conflict that professing Christians killed each other over the nature of the elements in “communion.” Having strong convictions about what is true is good, executing others for whom Christ died is quite the opposite of communion.

In recent generations the devil has caused Christians to come so casually to the Table that they will use almost anything for the elements, Pop Tarts and Sunny Delight. The bread and wine don’t need to be expensive, but a devil-may-care attitude isn’t the right way either.

Jesus became bread for us. He said, “I am the bread of life that came down from heaven” (John 6:35). The devil doesn’t want us to have that bread. We receive it and we rejoice in thanks. The devil tempted Jesus to meet His own needs apart from the Father, to turn a stone into bread. We need to receive Jesus for sake of coming to the Father, and feed on Him as true food (John 6:54). That faith is a loss for the devil.

One time after I preached about becoming complete in Christ from Colossians 1:28, an older lady gave me some feedback. She didn’t quite say that what I had said was completely wrong, but that’s what she meant. She said that all the work, the struggling and laboring mentioned at the end of chapter 1 wasn’t necessary since Colossians 2:10 states that it’s already finished.

She was actually working from the NASB which translates it Colossians 2:10, “in Him you have been made complete.” So which is it? Is complete done, or is complete incomplete (1:28)?

They are actually different ideas.

• Colossians 1:28 is the telos, the final form (τέλειον ἐν Χριστῷ).
• Colossians 2:10 is the presence, the filling (ἐστὲ ἐν αὐτῷ πεπληρωμένοι).

It is more accurately translated: “you have been filled in Him, who is the head of all rule and authority.”

We are united with Christ, and we will be perfected in Christ, Christlikeness. You do not have only part of Christ, you have all of Him. All the material, so to speak, is now there, even as you are forged in time into Christ’s form.

I bring it up now for sake of your faith. Christ does not need to die again, it is finished, your sins are covered. The Spirit does not need to overcome your spiritual death again, He has caused you to be born again and He indwells you as a seal of your eternal inheritance.

In such confidence we eat and drink as His table. In such confidence we worship with thanks and praise and joy. In such confidence we share together in this salvation, in the glory of Jesus whose name is above every other name, and we await His return and our glorification.